• I just watched Hackers again for the first time in many years. It’s becoming more tolerable to watch as time goes on - back then, it was ridiculous. Now, it’s cute.
• Video games are fun. I haven’t played Driv3r in quite some time, and it’s fun to just tool around and rack up wanted points.
• I am reading Barack Obama’s Dreams of My Father for English class and I think I will end up voting for the guy in the primaries.

First, I never heard from Wil Wheaton, which makes me kind of sad. Everyone was so encouraging that I wrote to him with hope, but so far no joy - oh well. What I really wanted to write about, though, is stickers.

• First: political bumper stickers. I participated in my friend Ryan’s Political Bumpers project around the time of the 2004 presidential election, so I got very interested in political-sticker-spotting. What I’ve been noticing recently, though, is that people still have those stickers on their cars. I’ve always thought political stickers, like tattoo’s of your current squeeze’s name, are a bad idea because they will grow out of date. But it seems that around here, at least, political stickers have turned into declarations of the car owner’s ideology. I have found that I now equate “Bush/Cheney” stickers with “I’m the NRA - And I Vote” stickers, Jesus fish, and so forth. Likewise, any “Kerry/Edwards” stickers are equivalent to Darwin fish and other left-wing ideas. The Bush/Cheney stickers have the added air of “nyah nyah” while the Kerry/Edwards stickers have an added air of…disappointment, I guess, or maybe “you suck!”
• Second: cell phone stickers, or “skins.” When I had a clunky old Nokia 3390, I had removable faceplates. I ditched the original gold one early on and used Hello Kitty faceplates for the rest of the phone’s life. But now that I have a Sidekick, I no longer get removable faceplates, so my device is very bland and gray. It’s possible to buy colored rubber “bumpers” to replace some of the buttons of the Sidekick II, and it’s possible to spend hundreds of dollars to have tiny crystals put all over your phone, but I wasn’t really interested in either one. Instead I designed a skin at My Tego. The back is going to have a picture of A all over it, and the front is going to have abstract rainbow stuff. (I also tried out Starry Night, The Scream, and Hello Kitty fronts, but I decided to go with the abstract one. It’s going to be slightly tricky to get the skin on properly, but I’m looking forward to having a fancier phone!

A friend of mine who is a resident of DC sent an e-mail to all of his non-resident local friends asking us to write to our senators on his behalf. I want to bring his request to a wider audience. Those of you outside the DC area may not realize this, but DC residents have no representation in Congress. Their only voice is Eleanor Holmes Norton, who is a “Delegate” in the House - she has no vote, meaning DC is subject to the whims of the federal government.

The latest bright idea to come up in Congress is from Kansas senator Sam Brownback, who wants to institute a flat tax for DC. As the chair of the Senate’s Appropriations Subcommitee for DC, he gets to use the city as his personal testing ground for tax reform. Both Eleanor Holmes Norton and DC’s mayor Anthony Williams are opposed to the idea, but without a vote it can go ahead anyway.

Statehood for DC may be a long time away; even getting a vote in Congress may be a long time off. This means that DC residents need our help! If you live in the United States but not in DC, you have a voice in Congress. To help those without a voice, find your Senator’s contact information and send an e-mail asking him or her to oppose Brownback’s plans for a flat tax for DC.

Why does the conservative media insist on referring to her as Terri Schindler-Schiavo? Did she ever use that name herself? I’m aware that the Terri’sFight.org website was run by the Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation, but obviously they had a special agenda to present. The media are supposed to be independent of such an agenda, and yet the conservative outlets used Schindler-Schiavo as her last name. I already know why, though - it’s called spin. By saying Schindler, they were taking away some association with Michael Schiavo and focusing more attention on her birth family. They wanted us to feel that tie to her family, and to toss out a slur against Michael Schiavo in the process. But if Terri herself never used that name, then it’s pure bullshit for the media to use it.

Not, of course, that I expected anything different. But I do notice these things.

I was catching up on some old reading and read the Washington Post magazine article The Red Sea. A lot of it was disturbing to me, because of things like two of the most prominent high-rises in Oklahoma City lighting their windows at night in the shape of a cross. But this quote amused me:

“I’m proud to say we’re against the Lion’s Den [an adult store in Abilene], and that we don’t like that kind of pornography.” He shouldn’t have to wonder how to explain to his granddaughters what goes on next door.

So, Mr. Bruce Owen, what kind of pornography do you like?

I received the “Devolites Dispatch” in the mail from Jeannemarie Devolites, the Virginia state senator for District 34, where I reside. I did not vote for her - to summarize why, I’ll just mention that she’s a Republican. But included with this dispatch was the 2005 General Assembly Questionnaire, which I was invited to fill out and return by mail, fax, or e-mail. I sent my responses by e-mail, but I figured I’d share them here, too. Questions are in bold, the responses I chose are in italics.
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When I was growing up, my mother taught me that the phrase mentally retarded was inappropriate and developmentally delayed was preferable. To this day I still use the latter phrase when I’m around her, because I know it’s her preference - even though, in many cases, the person is not delayed…they’re not going to develop additional cognitive skills, ever. Today, however, I learned that the federal government’s official term is mental retardation, and that’s what is used by equal employment offices. I found this out when someone wanted to use the phrase intelligence-challenged, which to me sounds more offensive than any of the other terms! (He may have meant intellectually challenged, but that’s not much better.)

Being politically correct isn’t always a good thing. Many people use the phrase hearing-impaired, but most of the people who say that are hearing people. In fact, the term is considered offensive within the Deaf community, whose members don’t view themselves as impaired! There are all kinds of examples of PC-ness taken to the extreme. Shouldn’t we just say what we mean? “Short” is not a derisive term, it means “having little height; not tall.” You don’t have to say “height-challenged” for somebody who is short, you can call them short. But perhaps PC terminology is just an effort to make everybody feel special. “It’s okay to be height-challenged, because now you can overcome that challenge!” Excuse me? How, exactly, is a short adult supposed to grow taller? Isn’t that what’s implied by the phrase “height-challenged?”

I will be so glad when this day is over. I’m tired of being told to go vote. I’m tired of hearing stories on the radio about challengers in Ohio. I’m tired of seeing stickers for Bush and Kerry and yard signs and people waiting for me as I emerge from the grocery store. I’m tired of television stories hashing and rehashing this election. I’m tired of hearing last-minute frantic speeches from the candidates. I’m so fucking tired of this election.

And I just know I’m not going to get my wish: knowing who won by tomorrow morning. I just know this is going to drag on for weeks, like it did last time.