Voting was not quite the experience I expected that it would be. It’s one of those “I just flexed my constitutional rights muscle for the first time, and all I got was this sticker.” Which, I might add, is not a lame sticker, but a little less gratifying than I thought it would be. I was expecting fireworks, a dancing Uncle Sam, and debates over chads. Instead, I clicked a bunch of buttons (I went mostly straight-ticket, which is easy because about twenty of the candidates running for office were Democrats and had no competition) and ate a burrito. All in all, very uneventful. I was very tempted to write in Michael Palin, but there will be a day for the Silly Party in the near future. An addendum: by very tempted, I mean that the thought crossed my mind and I giggled, and then I voted responsibly.
I may have giggled twice.
Halloween
I think someone should have told all of the people who dressed up like Heath Ledger’s Joker today that every other male in Austin would try to pull off the exact same costume. I saw at least ten variations of the Joker tonight, with varying degrees of dishevelment or shabbily painted Glasgow smiles. Then, I saw someone dressed up as Captain Hammer, and suddenly, wandering aimlessly down 6th Street became a lot less bewildering and a bit more like an episode of Project Runway. There were also about thirty skeletons, the same number of fake-dead people, and ten Batmans (Batmen?). And about one-hundred-and-fifty variations of “I’m going my underwear in public (or not at all! There was a giant walking … um … thing).” This isn’t necessarily out of the norm because Austin is a strange, strange place (hemp oil, really? That sounds absolutely disgusting), but part of the larger idea that Austin is very strange (frozen hemp? JUST AS GROSS).
NaNoWriMo
I think I’m chickening out again. This time, it’s less because I’m afraid that I’m going to write a crappy rest-of-my-story and just throw it away afterwards, and more because I don’t want to cheat. You see, there’s this little rule I forgot about when I forced myself to sign up for NaNoWriMo, that says that you have to start a novel from scratch. Like hell I am! I want to finish this project first, while I still have the pages and pages of contextual notes and Calculus-fueled pencil sketches of random characters. “Fueled” here means more or less provoked or forced by the absolute insanity of Calculus, and the fact that I will have to pull off some crazy superhuman shenanigans to be able to say, “Screw you, real math!” Then, I will proceed to take Plan II Math, which I expect will be abstract, Liberal Artsy, and less about lines and functions, and more about, I don’t know, things I can actually visualize. Ducks. Petit Vanilla Scones from Starbucks. Something of that variety. At least Algebra is a puzzle. Calculus is an enigma. Calculus is an enigma that a particularly vicious monkey has chewed on several times and sticks in your shoes while you aren’t looking. Why you would have your shoes off around monkeys, I do not know. I wouldn’t recommend it. You might get Calculus on your socks.
Read 2 comments (Leave a comment?)
Aaron T. said:
Too many pics of The Joker showed up on my Facebook the day after. :)
Didn’t see as many walking around as I would have thought.
BTW, I have a new blog address & name. I won’t be using the old address or blog name any more.
Posted on November 7, 2008 1:34 PM; Permalink
Ranjani said:
I will definitely keep that in mind! WHEN I AM UPDATING THE BLOGROLL ON MY NEW DESIGN :O
Posted on November 8, 2008 12:03 AM; Permalink