If you're feeling uninspired at the ballot box, might I offer an alternative?



And of course, for the day after:



Brought to you courtesy of Bishie Hotline. Shinra: More Value per Square Foot!

If you live in the United States, tomorrow is Election Day. If you've been at all alive and awake in the last six months year, you've been bombarded by phrases like "historic election," "very close," "extremely important," and "once-in-a-lifetime," and you don't need me to repeat them. (Right?)

I do want you to vote for Barack Obama. (But I guess we can still be friends if you vote for John McCain.) And I want you to vote on the down-ticket races, too: in Washington state, the governor's race will probably be decided by two- or three-hundred votes. We also have congressmen (and women), state legislators, sheriffs and etc. to elect.

And I don't want to hear any bullshit excuses, either!

• "I don't have time." It takes ten minutes, people! You connect some arrows on a piece of paper, and you can even skip the ones you don't know! It's not a test, for God's sake.


• "My vote won't count." AAARRRRGGGHHHH. If everyone who said that voted, good God, do you realize what an overwhelming force you would be? Single votes do count - remember Florida in 2000? Washington state legislators regularly win by margins of less than 50 votes. Don't tell me your vote doesn't count. Because I will break your knees with a baseball bat.


• "I don't care." Ok...but I care. Will you vote on my behalf? I'll bake you brownies.


• "I'm not registered to vote." ...Fine. Go register now while you're thinking about it. Yes, now. Go!

I'm writing myself into a funk here, so it's time to get some cookies and calm down. But please do vote tomorrow, if you haven't already!



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And now a side note:

When you write a pro-voting piece, you're supposed to say, "I don't care who you vote for, just go do it." I don't say this anymore, because almost everyone who says this phrase is lying. We do care who you vote for - we want you to vote for our guy - and we're gambling that if we can get you to vote you might vote with us out of some sense of obligation* or just name recognition. Voting is not particularly exciting, so anyone who encourages it has a stake in the outcome. People who don't care about elections don't remind each other to vote, right? Encouraging people to vote is (nearly always) a sign of investment in the political process, and that investment is attached to candidates and issues, not the electoral process itself. Get it?

(Okay, there are probably some people who swoon with delight over ranked-choice voting and etc., but still. It's definitely not the usual approach to politics. )

*"Gee, turtle's been badgering me to vote for three weeks. I guess I'd better vote for her candidate." That's the hope. It could be, "Jesus, turtle won't shut up about this goddamn election. I'm voting against her candidate to spite her." But I hope not!

Disclaimer: I come late to anime and manga fandom. So things that most people watched/read years ago (you know, when they came out) I am just now discovering. On the plus side, I always have something new to read! The downside: while I'm squeeing over cute little rat drawings (a strange phrase), the rest of teh internets says "been there, done that." So bear with me, please.

( No real spoilers, but cut just in case. )

Fruits Basket still feels like a guilty pleasure - relationships! feelings! eeek! - but the aawww has captured me and I can't put it down.

Edit: spell-check does not recognize 'kryptonite' but offers 'krypton' and 'krypton's' as a replacement. wtf spell-check?

Signed up for NaNoWriMo and NaBloPoMo today - which is ironic, really, considering how I FAILED to complete any of my four prompts for AreYouGame? during October. FAIL!

But! I shall persevere. And I will get those prompts done...just maybe not in the fashion I'd hoped.

(It's the Get Backers, you see. I blame them. Still.)

30 days in November:

• 4 (late) AYG prompts
• 2 GB ideas that are rolling around in my head
• 50,000 words (of no specific quality) for NaNoWriMo
• 30 posts (one a day) - of anything at all! - for NaBloPoMo

*Looks at list*

AHAHAHAHAHA! I'm not sure my health or my sanity will survive this + school + work. Ah well. It'll be interesting to see what actually gets done. (If anything!)

I have a claim for areyougame due in three hours...but my brain seems to have been stolen by the GetBackers. Picked up Season 2 today! Must resist watching it immediately!

*hums theme song*

It's not that I don't want to write! This prompt pinged me right away, and I know (almost) exactly where I want it to go, but the breaking-it-down-into-words-and-sentences part is giving me trouble.

*hums GB theme some more*

Damn. This one may be a little late.