It's November 7. So, um.. go vote. Yeah. Woo. Vote. Yeehaw.
I have berated people in the past for not voting. I'll admit that up front. So I'm clearly a hypocrite because I don't see myself voting this year. Why? I have no idea who the candidates are, and I'd feel like a shill if I walked in and voted for every candidate with an (R) after their name. I've said in the past that if you don't vote, you don't have a right to complain about who gets elected. I'm ok with that. I couldn't name a single person in any Washington state office right now anyway.
Thankfully I have been able to avoid most of the stupid campaign commercials (fast forwarding on TV, and listening to my iPod in the car.) They're a bad way to get your info anyway. Do you vote for the guy who beat up a kid at school lunch with an empty pudding container or the woman who voted for public hangings of monkeys who fling poo at the zoo? It's a tough choice.
So let's say that I can find an unbiased piece of paper that says exactly what each candidate stands for. Even given that info, how do you vote? Net neutrality is really important to me, but that's likely to cut a wide swath across party lines. Do I vote just on that issue or do I take into account others that are important too? What about the war? What about taxes? If I look at too many issues, then all my votes are going to end up canceling themselves out because the candidates won't agree on all of them.
Maybe I should just vote based on the number of signs I see on the street. Is there a more useless way to advertise your candidate? "Vote for Joe!" Oh thanks for the insight into your political platform. Me like sign. Me vote for you. My favorite are the signs around here for 933. "Vote No On 933!" "Vote Yes On 933!" Clever. Do you assume we're so dumb that we won't look up what 933 is before we vote? (Actually that's probably a good assumption.)
So there we have it. I'm a hypocrite. I used to be way too political, and now I'm not political enough. I imagine this will all even out in the future and I'll find some sort of happy medium. The presidential campaigns will be enough for me to hit the flaky electronic voting machines so that my vote can be hacked too.
I've been trying to avoid posts about skiing and Xbox, but this is too big to pass up. Microsoft has announced that you will now be able to download HD movies and television shows to your 360! I think this is going to be a huge success. It's just as good as iTunes, except that users will be able to play it straight to their TVs with no extra work. I'm sure it will take a while for them to get their catalog up to speed, but the launch lineup looks fairly impressive. Combine this with the recent update that allowed people to stream video from any XP machine, and I have hours of content each week that I can watch through my 360. This is just one more thing that I have to squeeze in time for along with the HDDVD drive, Gears of War, Rainbow Six, Call of Duty 3, and Tony Hawk 8.
One year ago today, I signed up for an email time capsule on Forbes.com. I had forgotten all about it, but today I got an email... it looks like the one goal I set for myself has already been accomplished!
Hello Future Ben,
I hope that you are doing well, because you are me, or rather you will be me. If you're not, then something has gone drastically wrong.
I was going to bury money for you to find, but I tailgated at Penn State last weekend and killed the brain cells that were holding the location of the money. It was only $5 so you're not missing much.
I guess the thing to do in time capsules is to talk about current prices for common purchases. So here we go:
- Gas just slipped back under $2 after the $3+ prices from Hurricane Katrina.
- Milk is $3/gallon
- A typical lunch costs me $7
- My computer is a P4 2.4 GHz with 512MB RAM and it cost me $1200 in 2002.
And one more thing, Mr. Future Ben, if you're still living in Jersey... well then something has gone terribly wrong. Get up from your computer now and run as fast as you can. Don't stop until you're in another state (preferrably not Delaware, it's just as bad.)
I wonder if I'll even remember writing this...
Ben
via the Forbes.com Email Time Capsule
11/7/2005
Written when I should have been working.
It's amazing how many times I can figure problems out just by walking away from them. Can't figure out why my code doesn't compile? Go fill the water bottle. Can't get that automated test to pass? Take a bathroom break. In fact, you'll often see me wandering around campus in the afternoons with a blank stare on my face trying to figure something out. A change of scenery and a step back from the problem helps to unblock me. In college, it seemed that I would figure out a lot of homework problems in the shower. I've even been known to wake up in the middle of the night with an answer to a math problem. I'd scribble it down and fall back to sleep to deal with it in the morning. Whatever you do to step back from the problem, make sure you have something to take notes with. There's nothing more frustrating than solving a problem and forgetting the solution by the time you get back to your desk.
Next time you're stuck, go for a walk. You might be surprised at what pops into your mind when you least expect it.