Just a few things on my mind that I was curious about others' opinions on:


1) A lot of people I know have complained about voter apathy. This made me curious as to what people think of the concept of legislation making voting mandatory, as I get the impression some countries have.

Would that make things better or worse? Is the real complaint that people don't vote, or that people choose not to vote? What percentage of non-voters do you think actually support the candidate that you want in power, i.e. is the number of [people who don't vote but dislike the current government] enough to actually change the government if they voted strategically, or would they just have voted for the powers-that-be anyway if they had voted?


2) Would people be less apathetic about voting if there were proportional representation, i.e. who gets what seats is directly related to what % votes for what party?

Would proportional representation be an improvement over our current system? What are the drawbacks of it, and do you think those drawbacks would be outweighed by the benefits? Or is it one of those ideas that seems appealing in principle but actually would lead to worse things?


3) If you don't vote, would either of the above two things make it more likely that you would?

Is not voting just because you don't care, or is it an active principle that you would get up and support even in defiance of the law for some reason of your own?

Do you feel your vote doesn't count and that hence proportional representation might be a more motivating scenario for you?

Or is it for some other reason, e.g. no party reflects your interests? (I increasingly think that last one isn't a very good reason for not voting, because even if no party is perfect, some are bound to be better than others. And if not voting contributes to the one most contrary to your interests getting in, whereas via strategic voting you could have at least supported the second-worst candidate, it seems more rational to me to do the latter than the former. That's my opinion though.)


As for me:

1) I don't have a strong view on this either way myself, but I increasingly think legislation does seem like a rational solution to the "most people in this country didn't actually vote for this government" beef that so often goes around.

2) While I vote anyway, I would definitely feel it was a more worthwhile gesture if proportional representation were in place.

3) I already vote, so this question is N/A for me personally.


Thoughts?

I've got a minor problem brewing with the Halloween Chimera:

Between my own schedule being rather full of late and phone tag issues with people I was hoping to have as sponsors, I've only been able to send out the advertising and tickets order late last night.

Due to the long weekend, this means there is a possibility it won't get done early enough on Tuesday for me to go postering before I have to fly out to Pittsburgh for a conference on Wednesday. I won't be back from that until Sunday.

This means that under that scenario, by the time I get back and get everything done there are only 10 days until the event.

If this situation comes about - hopefully it won't, but we'll see - is there anyone who might be willing to help get stuff out earlier, e.g. if I can give you the posters could you put some up, say on the 15th or 16th?

I don't do street postering because I think it's labor intensive for its return, so these are in-store posters, i.e. one goes to the store and says "Hi, I'm a promoter for an event, would you be willing to put up a poster for me?". There are basically three postering clusters:

1) Kensington (Hot Wax, Mischiff's Closet, New Age Books and Crystals, etc.) + DICIB (9th Ave & 9th St SW, just south of Kensington)
2) West end of 17th Ave (Megatunes, Blame Betty)
3) 4th St S (The Witchery, Sloth Records, possibly the Ship & Anchor)

Other random stores I may also approach include Don's Hobby Shop and various ones in the region of 17th that I'm not sure of the exact location of these days. (e.g. Barbies Shop, and I think there is some occult store of some sort down there too though perhaps it is just a printer, I'm not sure)

Cluster #3 is the most important one in this case because most of all and if nothing else, I would need someone to bring posters and tickets to the Witchery, who are going to be the ticket-seller for the event. Its new location is 1112 4th St SW, and most of the people I know who live closest to there either hate me and/or I wouldn't trust with this kind of thing.

At worst I can just do it when I come back, it's not the end of the world, but sooner would be preferable. Please get in touch with me if you're willing to help. I'll buy you drinks or some such thing.

The best of sad floor traders, with captions - i.e. people making funny faces because their money is evaporating.

Or, if this display of funny primate faces isn't to your taste, here are some more cheerful ones.

Perhaps it's because of my exaggerated startle reflex while I'm experiencing my cyclical moodiness, but the following has been repeatedly pissing me off for the last few days:

1) People who, the second the elevator door opens, start walking into it with the apparent assumption that there couldn't possibly be anyone inside who wants to get out first.

2) People who whip out of the parking lot and nearly cause accidents because of the apparent assumption that there couldn't possibly be someone else turning into it right then.

Yeah, because obviously the only person in the world is you. Idiots.

As I see it, in order to exercise proper Satanic self-interest, you have to first recognize that everything in the world is not about you, or you will never succeed in scheming to turn things your way.

This is not to be confused with self-absorption, which is when someone is apparently too dense for it to cross their mind there are things not related to themselves that exist in the world at all.

i.e. Yes, nobody lives in this apartment but you.

Yes, if you aren't first on so-and-so's friend list it is obviously because they hate you and not because of any other social-or-otherwise factor in their lives, including say, not caring about something as petty as friend-list-ordering.

Yes, the only possible reason why X did Y must be to piss you off, it couldn't possibly be because of unrelated coincidental factors of some other kind... you know, what with X in actual fact probably not giving a fuck that you exist.

Yes, such-and-such cryptic journal entry can only be about you because there are no other people in the world but you. (There, see - you're doing it right now! I know you are!!! You'd better go unfriend me then since 'obviously' I hate 'you.' )

/end sarcasm

Fuck these people.

To be fair, I grasp that in the right sort of emotional black cloud, such thinking might be understandable in moments of weakness.

But in light of that disclaimer then, fuck 'em in proportion to the most consistent extent of it in combination with the least self-awareness and willingness to overcome it.

I've been sleeping crappy this whole week. I think it's a combination of too much video gaming + wheels in the brain always spinning because I spend so much time working on the class I'm teaching. It's a general intro course to religious studies, and thus tends to demand lecturing outside of my primary areas for the sake of comprehensiveness - granted I do this to myself, but then I'm just making the point that it is a lot of work, not complaining that it's a lot of work.

The group I have for this class is totally awesome. Several students are apparently comfortable enough with me to have told me that they have really personal reasons for being in a religious studies class. That makes be glad that they're in my class, as it seems I'm more interested in hearing about peoples' personal spiritual histories than many people I've known in religious studies who seem to get impatient or uncomfortable with it. I think that reaction is a matter of wanting to preserve academic neutrality or something, but it still kind of annoys me because I know so many people who have personal reasons for being in religious studies - myself included - that to me, being approachable if students want to talk about it seems kind of basic.

Had some pretty funny stuff happen in class too these last couple weeks. For example, I did a group activity in which I distributed some short Taoist stories for discussion.

One group got one that could be summarized this way:

Oh yeah, I forgot until I saw someone else post it recently that I was going to do this quiz:

1. penumbral_waif
2. ami_b
3. Fuck that, my life is awesome.
4. mskitten
5. Got a few of those in my class.
6. mr_six (returning the compliment, heh )
7. I actually can't think of anyone I know well of whom this is likely to be true.
8. scary_miss_k, since that was actually the case so long as we were at the same school
9. dave
10. canticle
11. hopeless_romantic
12. e.V.
13. perpetual_lent, since he has that recurrent 'represent the scene in the media' thing going.
14. skyllah for the former, wrappedinmetal for the latter.
15. Tilpacer, just to see what happens
16. What, in this scene?
17. Jordan
18. I don't feel like having someone take this the wrong way, so I'm skipping it.
19. Electric Maenad
20. lordkalion
21. WTF?
22. I googled this and the only hit I understood was astronomy-related, so I guess optimus_stoo.
23. Fuck that.
24. Elf
25. I could see arden_drake having a creative technique or two...
26. I'm confident enough to be able to imagine a wide variety of answers to this, but I really have no time or interest to spare for such things lately.
27. "All" is such a strong word that I'd be surprised if many people had an answer here that wasn't either family or wishful thinking.
28. Kabuki would probably be awesome at this.
29. 'Seriously,' I would rather be playing Disgaea.
30. "The unexamined life is not worth living," but I suspect most of you know that.

Since one of my friends has already just posted the questions on their journal, I'll be lazy and do the same:

Lots of both new and old faces at Chimera last night. A bit slow early on, but I think up to our usual standard of dancing and enthusiasm later in the evening.

Thanks to:

• arden_drake, DarkGentleman and manda for helping out on the door, as well as anyone else who may have periodically assisted them - hard for me to see everything from the booth so I wasn't sure if there was anyone else.
• hindmost and DarkGentleman for the CDs. Especially since I think hindmost has a much better radar for detecting club-sensible Skinny Puppy tracks than I have.
• The awesome staff at Soda.
• Everyone who made it out to show their support for the night.

And here is the playlist:

There was an American $20 in the money box at the end of the night after Chimera.

I suppose I should get it converted to Canadian funds promptly, while it's still worth anything at all, eh?

Something I saw in a myspace bulletin:

The latest 419 scam email

Subject: REQUEST FOR URGENT CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP

Dear American:

I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude.

I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America. My country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 800 billion dollars US. If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you.

I am working with Mr. Phil Gram, lobbyist for UBS, who will be my replacement as Ministry of the Treasury in January. As a Senator, you may know him as the leader of the American banking deregulation movement in the 1990s. This transaction is 100% safe.

This is a matter of great urgency. We need a blank check. We need the funds as quickly as possible. We cannot directly transfer these funds in the names of our close friends because we are constantly under surveillance. My family lawyer advised me that I should look for a reliable and trustworthy person who will act as a next of kin so the funds can be transferred.

Please reply with all of your bank account, IRA and college fund account numbers and those of your children and grandchildren to wallstreetbailout@treasury.gov so that we may transfer your commission for this transaction. After I receive that information, I will respond with detailed information about safeguards that will be used to protect the funds.

Yours Faithfully
Minister of Treasury Paulson

The next Chimera will occur this Thursday, September 25.

For those wondering: the Halloween one will just be on the usual Chimera date, since that works out to be the 30th, i.e. it is the day right before Halloween anyway. I'm also under the impression that Soda has a specific charity they support on the Halloween weekend, and since I am fairly sure it is a Christian group, I would rather not put the proceeds of atheistic rivetheads' bar earnings toward that as opposed to some other charity. So all the more reason then to just stick with the usual. I am still figuring out sponsors, so I may or may not have that organized before this Thursday depending on when they get back to me.

A more immediate concern, however:

Of my usual three door people, one is experiencing school schedule conflicts with Chimera for this semester, and another won't be able to make it this week until midnight. That leaves the remaining one alone for the better portion of the night, which I'd rather not do. Is there anyone willing to help us out for this month? I'm not necessarily expecting the extra person to be on the same amount of time as the other door people, but I would at least prefer to have someone specific who can watch the money if the one needs to go to the washroom or etc.

Please e-mail me ASAP if you or someone you know can help out with this.

Update: DarkGentleman has offered to help, as have several others. Thanks as always to everyone who responded so quickly.