I was in the parking lot at Home Depot the other day and had a flash of self-satisfaction at the things I had in my car -- to whit:

• ancient iPod Nano -- not worth stealing (I hope)
• persimmon (from my mom's tree, for the fresh scent, 'natch)
• back scratcher -- especially for those long drives (I use it a LOT!)
• Whoopie cushion -- you know, for hitchhikers
• iPhone adapter (in case the Nano runs out of batteries)
• inspirational Tarot card
• rubber beetle
• ecdysiast button -- this just appeared in my car one day -- I think it might have been left there by a hitchhiker.

I received my ballot today and will be going off in tomorrow morning's mail -- I'd like to wait for a ballot party, but I know that this is the best way to avoid wasting the time of volunteers calling me to remind me to vote (while I was typing this I got a call).

On Saturday Betsy and I walked around the neighborhood for about an hour and distributed sample ballots from the Multnomah County Democrats -- there's a lot of things to be excited/worried about on this election, not just the president and their endorsements are pretty solid -- you can also check out Just Out's endorsements, or Defend Oregon. It kind of broke my liberal, criminal-lovin' heart to vote "yes" on 57 (the less insane of the two "get tough on crime" measures) -- but after much soul-searching about the meaning of my vote I decided it was, in the end, an act of politics more than of conscience, and it does seem like the alternative is bad.

The Dems don't weigh in on non-partisan races, so I'll share one that I'm particularly excited about: the race for City Council. I enthusiastically support Amanda Fritz -- I enjoyed walking my neighborhood with her during the primary, and here are some of the reasons why I support her now:

1) She's been working with City politics for years as a citizen activist. If we have to testify about land use issues in our neighborhood, or police accountability, or what have you, she's been on our side of the podium and knows what it's like:

A long time ago, when I was new to citizen involvement, I buckled up my three small children into their car seats and drove to Salem for a hearing on school funding. We had to wait more than three hours for my turn to testify; it was perhaps one of greatest achievements of my mothering career that with the aid of industrial quantities of crayons, books, and grapes, my offspring contributed to the cause by behaving themselves impeccably in the packed hearing room. But after I had given my three minutes of input, driven home exhausted, and read that the committee had voted contrary to the urging of all those testifying, I realized it had, in fact, been a Fake Public Hearing. The votes had been lined up ahead of time, and ten times the testimony would still not have made any difference. "Why don't they just post 'Token Public Hearing' on the announcement, so working people don't waste their time going?", I muttered to my friends." (Amanda Fritz 2007: amandafritz.com/blog/3?page=37)

I believe she WILL increase accountability and transparency in City government and I don't think testifying before her will be an exercise in bullshit.

2) She's been a health worker and union member for years. She's Jobs with Justice pledger, and understands the needs of working people. When asked what can be done for unemployment among communities of color at a recent forum, Lewis suggested increased support for small businesses and Fritz suggested the large number of unfilled union apprenticeships. I think Fritz's suggestion makes a lot more sense if you're actually going to create a large number of living-wage jobs, and Lewis's borders on naive -- you just can't have an economy where everyone owns their own business.

3) She's an open and thoughtful communicator - you can see this on her blog, amandafritz.com, which she's maintained since late 2006. It's a great source of information on what's going on in city politics, and she doesn't hesitate to give her opinions. And unlike a lot of people who blog about politics, she doesn't seem motivated by crankiness - she actually seems to believe in the potential for change, and that makes me hopeful.

4) She's a woman and I frankly think that matters. We haven't had a woman on City council since 1998 (Gretchen Kafoury - I'm not counting mayors, but even if you do, we've only had 6 in total) - and I believe that a woman's perspective is important. You can have terrible woman politicians -- I don't need to remind anyone of that -- but Fritz's isn't one of them - she's an experienced, progressive political activist who is also a woman who understands first-hand the particular challenges women face. Charles Lewis is surely a fine person, and he agrees with Amanda Fritz on a lot of the issues -- but even if it were not for the vast amount of experience she brings to the table, I would, all else being equal, vote for the underrepresented person -- and right now we've got an all-male lineup.

5) She has a demonstrated passion and ability for things that a many people find dull, but are incredibly important, like financing and procedure. Amanda's attention to detail and financial nit-picking will be a another reason why she will be an important addition to our upcoming City council slate, especially with Sam Adams (whom I like) as mayor.

For more information, see:

amandafritzforcitycouncil.com
amandafritz.com

I also found this debate
recap helpful.

Anyway, huzzah! hurrah! yay! woot! change is coming!

("Yay" collage from Cute Overload).

The audio from this would make a very nice sleep podcast.

Missing from this video is my favorite part, though, when a bunch of the crowd took a pyramid group photo with the Obamas at the end -- I'm wondering when/if any of the pictures the audience took will find their way onto the internet? I wasn't watching closely enough to see whose camera (or how many) took the group photo.

I found the whole thing very compelling -- much more so than the actual debate.

Other great ideas: TiVoing C-Span instead of CNN or PBS. So much more peaceful without all that chatter.

What we did to make our lawn signs was take a bunch of cardboard (which was handily available because Betsy just got a new dining set from Ikea), cut it into pieces (we should have made them smaller), trim them with masking tape (to make them more water-resistant), and paint them with primer (for water resistance and general beauty).

Then we made some letters to stencil.

My favorite stencil (which I made): "Democatic." It was a mistake that I only noticed after painstakingly cutting out the whole thing.

We used interior house paint to do the painting. There were some experiments with sparkles and stuff, but they didn't catch on. I ended up using giant Sharpies on a lot of them after the paint had dried -- outlining letters and such, and that tightened things up a bit. Then we used a heavy duty stapler to staple the signs to posts. A local lumber yard made the posts for me by cutting some longer piece of wood in half and then sharpening the edges. Cost effective ($.50 per post) but sticky! (pine sap). I had a problem with the staples going all the way through some card board, and fixed that by putting packing tape on top. If I did it again, I might put masking tape down the center before painting them to give the staple something to stick to.

Here are the results -- I made a couple voter registration ones, too:

They look pretty good, if I do say so. One problem I had with the bigger signs is if it's windy, they can sort of flop in half. The smaller signs (like the "Go Bama" one) work better, and if I was going to do it again and had a longer message I'd make a series of them, a la Burma Shave signs.

Like a lot of people, we've been having trouble getting our hands on Obama lawn signs around here. All my friends have had the same problem (I don't know of one that has a lawn sign) and I met a guy at a party the other day who said he and his wife had donated about $600 worth of computer equipment and as they were dropping the stuff off at the Obama headquarters they asked of they could get a lawn sign. Nope. All sold out. I don't really mind this -- it's a good omen, really. Nor do I completely resent the $8 a sign they are charging -- although I hated like heck to ask for that money when I was door belling for whatisface -- Kerry. But still, even if we're in the bag for Obama, I want to be part of the movement -- or more accurately, I want my landscaping to be part of the movement.

Someone suggested I go to the Obama store for lawn signs, but I don't see any. I am kind of tempted by some of the goods in Runway for Change (although I was a little disappointed it doesn't have anything to do with Project Runway).

Others are making their own, too.

So, this Sunday, from 10 am until around 3, we're having a lawn-sign making thing at my house. I'm still not exactly sure of the materials -- I don't know if I can spring for enough plywood for everyone, and that seems like a bad use of resources for one season -- I'm going to try for a more recycled-materials approach. (On the other hand, I think I will have some plywood on hand for a few more-or-less timeless signs like, "Vote Democratic for peace and prosperity" -- like Dave's famous, "Lies, lies, lies" protest sign -- or is it, "They Lie"? I can't remember -- it's in his garage ready for anything, and it's very well made.)

I'm making it a gentle fund-raiser -- if people want to donate to Obama in exchange for making a sign, I'll have the means (a laptop) available.

We're offering to make some for friends who can't come, too, and I'll suggest a donation to the Obama campaign for that but of course will make ones for people either way. I have a request for "Mavericks for Obama" ("take that mccain - we're all mavericks") and I'm looking forward to that one.

I'll post some pictures after we're done and if you're in Portland (and still reading this blank space) and want to come, or want a lawn sign, let me know!

PS. Many thanks to Chris for upgrading my Moveable Type. Busyness, as well as a certain lack of faith in the interest / relevance of my own ideas was the reason I haven't blogged for so long, but it looks like I have some time on my hands and I'm really looking forward to it.

PPS. I don't know the guy in the video, but it's a pretty sweet sign!

Hurrah! Now I can enjoy my mom's honey, as well as her eggs.

More here. (By way of Dan Cohen's Digital Humanities Blog.)

In other news, I'm kind of tired of my own schtick. I'm not saying I'm giving up -- just that the "idea blog" seemed fun five years ago, and now I'm a little over myself. Maybe it has something to do with being depressed the last couple of years. Maybe I'm working too much. Or maybe it was the ideas that just got boring. ANYWAY -- if I don't do ideas, what DO I do? What do you do with the url, "Mary's Great Ideas" after the ideas are gone? No wonder I'm depressed! Maybe twitter will help.

GIRLS ROCK!" OPENS NATIONWIDE MARCH 7
NY, LA, San Francisco, Berkeley, Chicago, Portland and Seattle on
Opening Weekend.

THE MOVIE (rated PG)
At Rock 'n' Roll Camp, girls ranging in age from eight to 18 are
taught that it's OK to sweat like a pig, scream like a banshee,
wail on their instruments with complete and utter abandon, and
that "it is 100% okay to be exactly who you are." They are taught
by indie rock chicks such as Carrie Brownstein from Sleater-Kinney
various lessons of empowerment from self-defense to anger
management. At the end of just one week, all the bands perform
songs they've written with their new bandmates for over 700
people. "Girls Rock!" follows several campers: Laura, a Korean
adoptee obsessed by death metal; Misty, who is emerging from a
life of meth addiction and gang activity; Palace, whose heavy
metal sneer belies her seven years, and Amelia, an eight-year-old
who writes experimental rock songs about her dog Pipi. What
happens to the girls as they are given a temporary reprieve from
being sexualized, analyzed and pressured to conform is truly
revolutionary.

THE FILMMAKERS
"Girls Rock!" is truly a labor of love. During the three and a
half years of production Shane King [aka COUSIN SHANE] and Arne Johnson [aka the man who should have had my BABY!] have
mortgaged houses and cashed out retirements to finish their first
film, while hundreds of others have come out of the woodwork to
help make this film a reality."

Needless to say, I am extremely, very much excited for this event.

So, it's next Friday at Cinema 21 (where we all went to movies when we were kids!) and I'll want to go to the 7 PM showing -- if you want to go with me, let me know in the next couple of days and we can order tickets en masse here (or you can just get some for yourself).

My dissatisfaction with iTunes as a podcast manager makes me wonder how Panic's Audion would have handled them -- which I never used, but enjoyed reading about, and now wish I could use.

Since sleep is the new water, I better get busy! and have I mentioned to you that audio is the new video? (Also: wool is the new cotton - but that's another post).

Here are some things that look interesting -- although not necessarily sleep related (I say "look" instead of "sound" because I haven't actually listened to them yet).

(BTW, I'm getting more and more dissatisfied with how iTunes handles podcasts -- including, among other things, the fact that it's hard to link to them. I think they are due for an upgrade or some competition.)

The Smithsonian has several podcasts that look promising, especially the American Folkways collection podcast, co-produced with CKUA radio. Each episode is longish (an hour or so). Two bad it's only 24 episodes long!

You know, I like that old time stuff, so maybe I'll like the Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour Podcast? eh ... after a 20 seconds listen, not so much. It's not old timey enough.

I'm not really what I consider a "Hawaii" person, but I still think I could get into this beachwalk podcast. And she agrees -- sleep is the new water (I also like the dog-action -- I could happily watch a video podcast of dog walks on the beach.)

I'm now getting tired, if not actually sleepy. I'm sad because all I've found are dopey new age relaxation music podcasts. I want more atmospheric stuff, not flutes. More field recordings like the framework field recording thing, but without any jarring metallic grinding sounds in the middle.

I'm going to give "Guided Relaxation (Garden)" a go of it -- I'm psyched about the "5 mins of cricket sounds at the end." Plus, it was "created as a New Year's gift during the oil crisis of 1973-4."

Good night!

I've been enjoying my subscription to Wholphin -- so much so that I started to get sad that I hadn't started it earlier. So I was happy to see a bunch of movies there on the site to view -- it's worth some clicking around.

Then I could recommend things like the maple-rosemary trout (it sounds gross but it was incredibly tasty) -- and while they're at it, they could make it so you could rate food and have a machine recommend foods for you. I think what's happening is, with all the choices in the world, we need technical help to develop and keep track of our own tastes. At least, I do. Too many choices means creating technologies to help us sort them all out.