*humph!*

How has my life been lately? Mostly decent, but also rather busy, and it's going to get more so . I'm going to be taking 4 classes next quarter, Monday through Wednesday, and I'm still not entirely positive what shift I'll be working. Aside from that, we had a pipe explode last week that kept the labs out of commission, and so I'm not where I planned to be in my classes right now, which is highly annoying as it means I need to come down tomorrow to work in the lab again before work.

More "Meh" stuff in that Seamus is gone until Saturday helping one of our friends move. That he's helping is fine, but I do still miss him. I'm going to be keeping myself busy as much as possible - today I went and bought all the stuff I've wanting to get for a while, and cleaned up the kitchen a bit more, so when he gets home, he may not recognize it :-) Tomorrow will be busy with more cleaning and with classwork, so Friday after class is going to be the real drag - I have no idea what I'm going to do yet. I may end up cleaning up some more, sewing, watching midsommer murders, or going out to get shots for my final projects. At least the shots I took this past week turned out rather well, which I'm happy about, esp. with the night shots. I took a guess on the times needed and just kept the shutter open, counting seconds. It's the first time I've bracketed in terms of seconds :P I hope to get at least another roll developed tomorrow, 2 contact sheets made, and two prints down - in 3 hrs that's pushing it rather a lot, so we'll see.

In other news, I think I'll need a digital camera for the winter quarter, so may have to start looking into that soon. other than the camera and whatever else I'll need for class, I think the house is all set now, which is nice. And, the news that I've been waiting for for a while may hopefully be coming in our weekly meeting tomorrow; we'll see. My manager says we have lots of stuff to go over, both good and bad, so I'm hoping she got approval for all of the positions she wanted, but somehow I doubt it . If she didn't, I'm going to be very unhappy! If she didn't get the positions, and I don't get the red eye, I'm going to start looking elsewhere - I like my job, but I want and deserve a title at this point! So, wish me luck tomorrow!

remove electoral college

Today is just a quickie post, maybe more later. One of my friend's LJ reminded me of this, and while researching a bit more, I found this site: http://www.petitiononline.com/21ecr/petition.html.

For those who don't know, I hate the electoral college. It's an idea who's time was past a long time ago. Just for a quick reminder of why the electoral college needs to go away, here's a few thought:

The members are actually chosen by each political party at their conventions, so we know therefore how completely open minded they will be to the other party's candidate, or to independent parties.

The college was put in place in part to keep the vote in the hands of the educated elite rather than the uneducated majority.

the college doesn't have to vote that way the people in the state voted. In fact, according to this site: http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/faq.html#meaningful, the following states have no laws at all to determine how the college's vote is in comparison to the popular vote:

No Legal Requirement
Electors in these States are not bound by State Law to cast their vote for a specific candidate:

ARIZONA - 10 Electoral Votes ARKANSAS - 6 Electoral Votes DELAWARE - 3 Electoral Votes GEORGIA - 15 Electoral Votes IDAHO - 4 Electoral Votes ILLINOIS - 21 Electoral Votes INDIANA - 11 Electoral Votes IOWA - 7 Electoral Votes KANSAS - 6 Electoral Votes KENTUCKY - 8 Electoral Votes LOUISIANA - 9 Electoral Votes MINNESOTA - 10 Electoral Votes

MISSOURI - 11 Electoral Votes NEW HAMPSHIRE - 4 Electoral Votes NEW JERSEY - 15 Electoral Votes NEW YORK - 31 Electoral Votes NORTH DAKOTA - 3 Electoral Votes PENNSYLVANIA - 21 Electoral Votes RHODE ISLAND - 4 Electoral Votes SOUTH DAKOTA - 3 Electoral Votes TENNESSEE - 11 Electoral Votes TEXAS - 34 Electoral Votes UTAH - 5 Electoral Votes WEST VIRGINIA - 5 Electoral Votes

24 states, that's almost 1/2 of our country where the popular vote really doesn't count for anything. In other words, to that age old question of does your individual vote count; in these states, the answer is no.....

This is just one of the things I find wrong with our current political structure, however it really does point out how horribly wrong things could happen very easily. Without laws in place to force the college to vote the way the popular vote goes, a president can literally buy his way into office. There are laws in place in some states to punish those that break their pledge of good faith, but if a candidate can afford to pay more than the fine is worth, or you're in a state more the fines does exist, how much of a deterrent will a fine really be, eh? I recommend visiting this site for more information: http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/faq.html#meaningful

If you feel the same way that I feel, please let all your friends and family know the sites and information above! Feel free as well to copy any of the above into emails, LJ's blogs, etc.