'The bubbles collapse, and generate heat, light, and sound. The shell shatters with a flash too-fast-to-see, and a bang. Watch the flash (called shrimpoluminescence for another species) in the video, slowed by a factor of 900.'
This is a rather tight cover. These guys found or got together the non-guitar parts and ripped out the rest. But there’s something peculiar about it.
Go ahead and listen. I won’t spoil it for you.
The data team’s work is dying down. We work mostly to spot targets for the field team based on information received from them. There’s some other sources involved, but the call and walk packets that canvassers turn seem to be the main one. Each week’s canvassing feedback is added to the voter file and is used to generate the next week’s targets. This is the last four days of the campaign, so there’s no more targets to generate. The data team is mostly in contingency mode.
And thus, last night, I didn’t do anything for that team. I was lent out to other parts of the campaign. I drove a rental van back from the airport. (And initially parked it in the wrong lot. Some guy informed me, telling me that it was parking for a Republican business.) I also answered some emails, made some calls, and did a lot of data entry. It sucked, but not quite as much as I expected. (The trick is to watch YouTube and Hulu while you do it.)
So at around 10, the guy that had me doing the data entry asked me and the other data enterer to stop. He said he’d finish the rest at home. Weird. Maybe he just wanted us out so he could talk to his permanent staff.
I was all too happy to stop entering data, but I was in the middle of an episode of The Office, and I wanted to see how Dwight’s Cornell interview went. I reluctantly packed up my MacBook and walked out into my car. I was considering using the office’s wifi and finishing the episode in the car. But that’s weird! What if someone saw me?
There are some kinds of weirdness that I engage in without hesitation. “Known” weirdness I’m completely comfortable with. However, I have a tendency (a weird tendency, in fact) to avoid unfamiliar weirdness.
So, I drove back to headquarters, which is where I usually work. I was going to go in. However, going back inside, greeting the dudes, setting up, and then sitting down just to watch five minutes of TV also seemed weird to me at the moment. I thought again of using the office wifi to watch the rest of the show from the parking lot, but then I saw someone in the window and thought I might be spotted. So, I left.
I ended up parking next to the public library, connecting to its wifi, and watching the rest of the episode in my car, figuring it’d be pretty unlikely anyone I knew would pass by.
In the end, it was still pretty damned weird. I have no idea if any other choice was better, but I would have been better off knowing that there’s just some situations in which you can’t avoid being totally weird.
I went canvassing in Iowa this Saturday, and although I’m encouraged by the results, it was a hellish time.
I’m hesitant to report a negative canvassing experience because I already know that there’s a lot of irrational fear about it. But hey, if you want to hear about a smooth and positive canvassing experience, you can check out Dan’s account of his trip. What I’m going to describe here is pretty close to a worst case scenario.
Before I do that, though, let me sum up the results. Our team hit about fifty houses (well, that we could account for), partly because of the rain delaying our arrival. In those houses, which were thought by the campaign to contain undecideds and sproadic Democratic voters (SVDs), there were six (I think) people that were definitely going to vote for Obama, four that were for McCain, several that were undecided, and even more several that weren’t home.
That’s far from being statistically significant. Nonetheless, it was encouraging to see in a neighborhood with so many McCain signs. And I needed to be encouraged. That McCain’s outright lying seems to have made this a close election disgusts me.
So, here’s the cast:
Bill: He graciously drove us in the worst driving weather I’ve seen in a long time. I was planning to drive, but the turnout was large enough (around 70 people, according to the thank you email they sent) that the organizers said that they had enough drivers, to my relief.
He’s an active member of AFSCME (he’s a municipal worker), a (liberal) Catholic, and a widower. He’s probably in his sixties and is incredibly well-read when it comes to history, politics, religion, and probably other stuff, too.
Mary Jane: A single mother with kids in college, she immigrated to the US in the ’80s from Canada. Like Sarah Palin, she grew up playing hockey and has a quaint accent. Unlike Sarah Palin, she’s a secular Jew. One of her kids was pretty sickly while growing up, so she had to deal with a lot of healthcare system bullshit. She almost had to move her kids to Canada when her daughter contracted a life-threatening illness that she couldn’t pay the treatment costs for. Fortunately, a friend knew a charitable doctor who was willing to do the work for free.
Me: You know. 31-year-old elitist, currently unemployed by choice. Asian, no kids, no wife. Enjoys board games, metal, Apple products, reading about Pokémon, martial arts, and shrimp. Does not enjoy working or lattes. Is OK with but not crazy about arugula.
Senor Cardgage: Well, that’s who this tale is all about.