breaking the silence
I've been fairly hectic and crazy the past two weeks, trying to get as much done as possible, as I leave Wednesday for a conference in San Francisco. As it happens, I'll be moderating a panel on blogging and a great deal of the discussion will be about best practices. So perhaps I can use myself as an example of what not to do. As in:
!. Don't abandon your blog for a week
2. Don't return with a bunch of tedious excuses about dentists and plumbing as why you haven't been blogging.
3. Don't use the post to then talk about what you ate for dinner.
So the boy and I just had a rather mediocre Asian fusion meal. We had our hearts set on hot curry, as the boy is sick from sick people coughing on him at the hospital, and I have a massive headache from doing nothing but writing political coverage for our caucus package this week. Unfortunately, our restaurant of choice, which we habituate on Sundays, has decided to no longer be open on Sundays. The boy thinks there's a fairly good chance we should take this personally, as we are usually the only people there on Sundays. I got my curry elsewhere, but it wasn't as good and my head still hurts.
The weird thing about watching so much political coverage, even reading so much political coverage, is that there reaches this saturation point where instead of feeling like you know a lot, you feel like you suddenly don't know much at all. For example, one would think that reading through policy points and 35 point plans would leave one with lots of info. But instead I feel like all I know is that everyone has very elaborate plans and they all seem vaguely the same. I think I can be as much of a policy wonk/geek as the next, um, policy wonk/geek, but I need to focus on one issue at a time. When I start trying to absorb the policies and plans for 50 different social ills, I start to just blank out after a while. I also really don't believe people vote based solely on issues, at least not in the Dem race. For the most part, the candidates really do have pretty similar platforms. My prediction, which is an easy one, is that Hillary Clinton will win New Mexico; it's such a traditional Democratic base here and they do love their Clintons and Kennedys. But perhaps I will be proven wrong. I don't usually like being proven wrong, but there's nothing as fun as a political upset. Speaking of upset, I've been very psyched because allegedly Obama will be in Santa Fe on Feb. 1 and I was looking forward to seeing him, until I realized that I will be in San Francisco on Feb. 1. Why do these conferences always happen the one time there is something I want to do here? I mean, not the one time, but the times when there is something i REALLY want to do here. I missed MuzikFest in August due to a conference, the one I'm going to in Philly in June is during a friend's wedding here. Blah blah blah!
On the bright side, I've finally gotten it through my head how New Mexico's apportionment of delegates works here for our caucus, which was looking like it was never going to happen about 24 hours ago. I don't know why it seemed so confusing; I had it explained to me in 04 but I guess it didn't stick. I'm looking forward to voting. In 04 they had run out of ballots and all I got to do was write a name down on a scrap of paper, which was sort of anti-climactic. My vote tends to be the kiss of death anyway; no one I vote for ever seems to win (at least in presidential elections). Here's hoping '08 changes my losing streak!
!. Don't abandon your blog for a week
2. Don't return with a bunch of tedious excuses about dentists and plumbing as why you haven't been blogging.
3. Don't use the post to then talk about what you ate for dinner.
So the boy and I just had a rather mediocre Asian fusion meal. We had our hearts set on hot curry, as the boy is sick from sick people coughing on him at the hospital, and I have a massive headache from doing nothing but writing political coverage for our caucus package this week. Unfortunately, our restaurant of choice, which we habituate on Sundays, has decided to no longer be open on Sundays. The boy thinks there's a fairly good chance we should take this personally, as we are usually the only people there on Sundays. I got my curry elsewhere, but it wasn't as good and my head still hurts.
The weird thing about watching so much political coverage, even reading so much political coverage, is that there reaches this saturation point where instead of feeling like you know a lot, you feel like you suddenly don't know much at all. For example, one would think that reading through policy points and 35 point plans would leave one with lots of info. But instead I feel like all I know is that everyone has very elaborate plans and they all seem vaguely the same. I think I can be as much of a policy wonk/geek as the next, um, policy wonk/geek, but I need to focus on one issue at a time. When I start trying to absorb the policies and plans for 50 different social ills, I start to just blank out after a while. I also really don't believe people vote based solely on issues, at least not in the Dem race. For the most part, the candidates really do have pretty similar platforms. My prediction, which is an easy one, is that Hillary Clinton will win New Mexico; it's such a traditional Democratic base here and they do love their Clintons and Kennedys. But perhaps I will be proven wrong. I don't usually like being proven wrong, but there's nothing as fun as a political upset. Speaking of upset, I've been very psyched because allegedly Obama will be in Santa Fe on Feb. 1 and I was looking forward to seeing him, until I realized that I will be in San Francisco on Feb. 1. Why do these conferences always happen the one time there is something I want to do here? I mean, not the one time, but the times when there is something i REALLY want to do here. I missed MuzikFest in August due to a conference, the one I'm going to in Philly in June is during a friend's wedding here. Blah blah blah!
On the bright side, I've finally gotten it through my head how New Mexico's apportionment of delegates works here for our caucus, which was looking like it was never going to happen about 24 hours ago. I don't know why it seemed so confusing; I had it explained to me in 04 but I guess it didn't stick. I'm looking forward to voting. In 04 they had run out of ballots and all I got to do was write a name down on a scrap of paper, which was sort of anti-climactic. My vote tends to be the kiss of death anyway; no one I vote for ever seems to win (at least in presidential elections). Here's hoping '08 changes my losing streak!
posted by Julia at 7:53 PM
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