Talk About Something Else Tuesday

[mrissa]

I am not saying this to denigrate the importance of voting--far from it. I believe that people who are eligible should do their research and vote whenever it comes up, and for a lot of people who read this, that's tomorrow. Hurrah for the free exercise of the franchise. Important stuff going on. Participation key to participatory democracy.

But. It is not a horse race. And I really feel that the horse race style coverage in the media is bad for many/most people's anxiety levels without providing any genuine value. If Kandiyohi County swings one way and then Blue Earth County swings another way--they are still going to need to count both. And then they're going to need to count the other counties. And for some things, the other states. The results will still be there on Wednesday. Some of the results will only be there on Wednesday. So unless you're one of those rare souls who can actually relax and find enjoyment in the horse race model--or unless you're out actually helping with the count or the polling places--I urge you to go and vote and then come home and talk about something else for awhile.

Some ideas, if you're feeling fidgety and don't know what else to blog about:
--the time that you and a friend or family member could not stop giggling and nearly disgraced yourself/woke somebody/etc.
--something small that improved your life recently in unexpectedly large ways
--your favorite charity/volunteer opportunity at the moment
--suggestions for how mrissa can get her local entertainments back improvements to the lockout situations for hockey and classical music; any brief treatises related to same welcome, especially if humorous and/or informative
--an amusing anecdote about voting or elections of the past, your first memory of being around adults voting or of your first voting experience--how you feel about it now--etc.
--all the usual things--food blogging, book/music/movie/TV reviews, cute pet/kid stories, awful pet/kid stories, current projects, whatever
--whatever ideas people put in the comments

Seriously. Take care of yourselves and those around you. Gonna be a very long day if we don't.

Comments

[zalena.livejournal.com]

I think that's why I'm thinking about suffragettes. Instead of who wins/loses and I keep thinking, "I get to participate. Awesome!"

[diatryma.livejournal.com]

Last big election, I saw that not-mine had won something or other and I realized that if I was sent into such despair by that tiny bit of news, I could not expect myself to function for the rest of the evening if I paid any attention to it at all. So I retreated to the kitchen and baked an apple pie, blueberry muffins, and cornbread. I washed up. I peeled and cut apples, which calms me down (hard to be agitated when you're holding a knife), I had excellent food to bring to the office the next day, and when I was done, there was no more horse race to be watched.

This year, I am going to a restaurant with friends and we will distract each other as much as possible. I have requested a table facing away from any televisions and reserve the right to hide in the bathroom with a drink.

My suggestion: baking or cooking. Something complex yet comforting, or at least requiring a fair amount of soothing, repetitive work. Things that can be made in times of stress.

[mechaieh.livejournal.com]

Some weeks ago, I purchased a used copy of The Anatomy Coloring Book. At first glance, it looked entirely unused; it was only today that I discovered a single page - page 25 - with the bones of the skull carefully colored in and the labels not so carefully colored over. I am bemused.

Also a source of bemusement: the dog's lack of stink. She was alternately chomping on and rolling over something in the yard a couple of days ago, with great enthusiasm and joy (all four fluffy legs in the air). She should therefore stink of it. I do not think there is the equivalent of dognip growing under the walnut tree, but I shall have to investigate further.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Perhaps she just really likes walnuts? One can hope?

[alecaustin.livejournal.com]

As previously discussed, I will probably be playing Halo 4 tomorrow evening, in lieu of letting twitter or my political blogs stress me out.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

New books out today! Sherwood Smith's Revenant Eve is released today, and the *other* half of Charlotte MacLeod's books are now available on Kindle (and I presume in other e-formats as well.)

When I say "today", I mean Nov. 6, which it currently is for me.

A nice thing my library is doing

[redbird]

I went to the New York Public Library website yesterday, to renew a book that I hadn't returned. (They kindly let us renew books even after the library is closed, and in fact even after they're overdue.) It said the book is due on the 13th. A little while later, I got email, saying that they had extended the due dates on 390,000 library items because of the storm. The email also said that lots of people have been using the libraries to read books, use library computers, and charge their cell phones, which is good.

[violsva]

Working as a poll clerk was an excellent way of not worrying about elections for me. One poll station is far too small to predict the results from, and counting the votes kept us until about 10:30, so by the time I got home there was nothing left except the swearing (this was last year's Canadian election). And I got paid.

[howl-at-the-sun.livejournal.com]

My horse's niece is a bold little red dun filly; she is kind of like Con in Pamela Dean's books. When she was just a baby, she saw a mother turkey with a line of chicks walking through her pasture, and she went trotting up to them, tail flagged, ears pricked, to show them who was queen of the pasture.

The mother turkey, determined to defend her chicks, launched herself at the filly -- The filly spun around in understandable terror as the enormous bird flapped toward her -- and so the mother turkey landed on her hindquarters.

With a turkey now attached to her rump, the filly bolted down the hill, and the turkey, flapping its wings, stayed on for a good half the length of the pasture. She was running, according to her owner, as fast as she had ever seen a horse run.