Five Acres with a View

Google is dressed for Halloween.

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Full Size 1200×798

When I got to the rally at the Colorado Springs Civic Auditorium yesterday, the line already wrapped around the block. I waited anyway, even though I didn’t have much hope of getting a seat in the auditorium. As the woman next to me explained to her little girl: we were there to show support, even if we couldn’t get inside. They cut off the line a little in front of us, but I didn’t mind making the attempt.

Yesterday afternoon, Jack’s brother-in-law called and said that he was at the downtown early voting station, and there were no lines. The downtown center is just three blocks away from where I work, so I walked over and waited less than five minutes to vote. Most painless voting ever, even the time I was organized enough to get an absentee ballot. As always, I was a bit bemused to have to vote to retain judges. (Colorado requires a vote to retain judges in office, even though they are not originally elected by voters.) All the voting stations were full, and the worker who shepherded me through the process said they had been staying busy.

The Fantasy Pumpkin, from Ursi’s Blog, is a charming alternative to the traditional jack-o-lanter.

For quick messages, it can be nice to just put the message on the subject line of the email.  Now, according to the Official Gmail Blog: Tip: Sending empty messages

you can add “EOM” or “(EOM)” at the end of the subject line (short for End Of Message), and Gmail will silently send the message without the unnecessary prompt.

via Calculated Risk: Top 10 credit crunch jokes

How do you define optimism?

A banker who irons five shirts on a Sunday

According to the CS Independent, early voting in Colorado Springs starts Monday, October 20. Centennial Hall is two blocks from where I work.  The 2008 State Ballot Information Booklet, also known as the Blue Book, is available online. The Blue Book gives a fairly objective overview of issues on the ballot, and is guaranteed to be better than hot milk for curing insomnia.

…used to be so much classier.

Thirty years ago, when I was a D&D playing college student, I would have loved this Roleplaying City Map Generator.