He’s conceeding right now. Very classy, encouraging his supporters to clap for Bob Casey.

(I’m still glad he’s out, even if I’m not a citizen of Pennsylvannia).

My homework for Impact of Computers on Society:

Read Chap. 5 “freedom of speech in cyberspace”

Blogs developed after the text was published. This assignment explores blogs from the perspective of some of the issues discussed in chap. 5. (Copyright issues, from chap. 6, can also be included).

Argue that blogs are a good thing. Describe their main social benefits and accomplishments.

Prof just asked if any of us blog. My hand is staying down, and I’m not sorry about that, since he doesn’t seem to know what they are. One dude asked: “I belong to a medical forum discussion group … is that similar?” Prof’s reply: “Yeah, sorta.”

Q: Why don’t Republican Congressmen like bookmarks?

A: They prefer to bend over the page.

HT: DogFaceBoy, who GChatted it to me at the start of class.

… that my laptop voted.

I was very disappointed by the number of people I spoke to today who said they hadn’t voted and had no plans to vote. Some of them get better grades than I do, but I don’t worry about that — I know I’m smarter than they are. After all, I participate in the democractic process.

So, in addition to the big Maryland races — for the Senate and the Governor’s Mansion — the only other races I’m really interested in are the Senatorial ones in Virginia and Pennsylvannia. Here’s how I think its all going to go down when all is over and done:

Virginia’s going to kick George Allen to the curb in favor of Webb. Virginia’s a red-state, but it doesn’t have a problem electing moderate Democrats. My friend L. worked on the successful campaign to elect a Democrat, Mark Warner, governor. True, he wasn’t re-elected, but also true, that’s because Virginia has a one term limit for those in Richmond.

Pennsylvannia’s going to boot Rick Santorum. PA’s a blue state that doesn’t have a problem electing moderate Republicans. Except Santorum isn’t very moderate from any perspective, and I think a majority of Pennsylvannia voters are tired of him.

In Maryland, I strongly suspect that current Gov. Bob Ehrlich will win relection. It is hard to ignore that Ehrlich is a moderate Republican, who will probably continue to carry the “Ehrlich Democrats” who voted for him four years ago. This isn’t bad news for those in the city — wouldn’t you rather not have Sheila Dixon as mayor?

While Ehrlich’s a moderate, Steele ain’t. He’s hard core conservative. He may draw a larger percentage of the black vote than a white Republican candidate would, but I don’t think he’s going to win.

Revolvers are so much awesomer than semi-automatics.

End of story. Nothing to discuss.

I knew I should’ve paid more attention to the letter I recieved at the end of the summer from Towson University’s graduation office reminding me to update my graduation date. They had me down for graduation in the fall. But I didn’t pay it more attention, as a matter of fact, I put it right the fuck out of my head until just the other day ago.

Registration for undergraduates began on Monday. I spent a chunk of time Sunday night figuring out what classes I was going to take and making sure I had no time conflicts. It was actually a lot of fun — I don’t have any requirements but two: History of the English Language (scheduled!) and nine additional credits. I do need to make an appointment at the Advising Center in the Lecture Hall to verify that all my gen-eds are taken care of, and I’ll get that set up today.

Anyway, bright and early Monday morning I tried to register for classes and found that I had a “hold” on adding classes until I’d met with my English Department advisor, Professor Jack Carneal. If you’re ever taking a class and you see his name as the teacher, take it. He’s a great professor. I had him for two classes my first time through at Towson, and I’d forgotten he was my advisor. Anyway, long story short, all my ducks were in a row, and he lifted the hold.

Great, I thought. Now I can register!

Except, I couldn’t.

I tried to contact the Office of the Registrar, but they’d closed for the day. I sent them off an e-mail last night, not expecting one until today (which is, in fact, when I recieved it).

About this time is when I remembered the letter. About changing my graduation date?

Because, see, this is how my thought process clued me in: Dude, like, if you’re supposed to graduate in December, why would they let you register for the spring? Gaaah! Of course, by this point, the graduation office was already closed.

(See, yesterday, I e-mailed Jack in the AM, then went to work, got on campus around a quarter of four, and started typing my Arabian Nights paper. Then I took a break and tried to register and couldn’t.)

Anyway, typed up the paper, saved it to my laptop, e-mailed a copy to Messy Hair Girl for her to proof — thank you, MHG, you are the best — met up with Epiphany for drinks, sobered up at Cook Library before driving home, editing the paper and writing a bare-bones conclusion (three pages max and let me tell you, I was right at it).

Got up this morning bright and early and went to vote. By the time I got on campus I had to hurry to class and didn’t have time to call the graduation office. After my second class of the day, I was able to call, spoke to a very pleasant woman — who’d actually returned my voice-mail from the night before at exactly 9:30 which was a minute after I’d turned my phone off before class — and changed my graduation date to next spring. “You haven’t bought your cap and gown, have you?” she inquired. Hah. Like I plan on walking!

Went to Chaucer. Tried to register. Still couldn’t! At this point, I’m like, “WTF.” I remembered the e-mail I’d recieved from the OotR: “If you have trouble registering, give us a call.” So, after Chaucer got out, I did. Seems there’d been a snag when the graduation office had changed my graduation date. After verifying some information to confirm that I was who I said I was, and listening to me tell her the whole story from the beginning, the wonderfully patient woman on the other end of the phone took a few minutes to clak away at her keyboard, at which point she told me, “You can register now” and, indeed, logging into Online Services five minutes later, I could!

I’m sure you’re horrible bored. For those interested, here’s my schedule next spring:

Introduction to Classic Myth LI-100 TR 11-12:15
History of the English Language LI-206 TR 12:30-1:45
The American West LI-112 TR 2-3:15

And my Tuesday night class:

Tradition & Form in W. Fiction LI-210 3:30-6:10p

And my Thursday night class:

Film & Literature LI-212 4-6:40p

(I’m pretty sure “American West” is going to get dropped).

I got the photo bug last night waiting for Epiphany in Baltimore to get out of class so we could booze at Bateman’s. Smith Hall (or a portion of it), photographed from the side of Hawkin’s.

(No excuse for the photo quality — I wasn’t yet drunk).

I’ve only got a few minutes before class, so I need to make this lickity-quick.

I voted at Dulaney High. I stopped there on my way to class — 8:15ish. It took thirty-five minutes to wait in line, get checked in, wait in line again, and vote. (I usually vote in the afternoon when there are less people waiting to vote).

They had about three-quarters of the machines working. On battery power. Because they had no electrical cords. Not their fault — the stuff came packaged in bags they weren’t allowed to open until last night. When they did, “Where are the power cords?” Thankfully, I was able to vote before the machine died.

One election judge did tell me that a rep from Diebold had been at Dulaney for about two hours trying to get power cords. Why these machines can’t just take standard laptop power cords I don’t know, but if they could, it seems like you could just run down to CompUSA, buy a bunch, and charge it to Diebold.

Anyway. So I waited in line and checked out the ass of this cute recently-relocated-from-Jersey chick for fifteen minutes. Then, after checking in electronically (much faster than the older way of going through a book, but I did have a pair of the more un-age-challenged checker-iners), I checked out the ass of this geriatric dude with a cane (I much prefered Jersey and her flower print dress, but alas) who refused to sit down when an election judge offered him a seat: “I will not sit down!” he said, she responded with a laugh: “You’ll stand up and be counted!” and he said “Damn tootin’.”

I got this neat little “I Voted” sticker which I put on my shirt, and just transfered to my laptop. Class is almost ready to start and I wonder how many people forgot their papers … ? NOT ME.

I dashed off a quick e-mail to TVShowsonDVD about the delay behind Hill Street Blue’s third season, and recieved a quick e-mail back: “There aren’t any plans - sales were poor.” Fuck.

I’m also sad because I wrote a twenty-paragraph post then closed the web-page. Whooops.