9 November 2008 - I failed the hundredpushups.com workout on Week 3 Day 3. I knew just looking at the schedule that I would. I have restarted the program on Week 3 Day 1, but in Column 2 (an easier set of workouts) instead of Column 3. I haven't decided if I'm going to try Week 3 again in Column 3 at the end... or just keep going with Column 2. My log is up to date.
I am very happy with the results of the election. It feels so good to finally get our country back on track. Always proud to be an American and proud of what America stands for... now also can be proud of the current administration. I hope the next 4 years prove me right.
Most things here in Oregon also went well. We had 81%+ turnout of registered voters. All statewide measures I voted on went my way, except for Measure 65, the "open primary" measure. I was really hoping to get a true runoff voting system in place, but it scared too many people because it was different. Even many of my highly educated coworkers voted against it, so it was not a slam dunk.
Even more locally, it seems that there was a split on spending money. People voted for money for the zoo, agreed to increase the one-time tax on land developers for road infrastructure improvements, continued an extra tax for the fire department and gave money for local parks and greenspaces to be improved/maintained. But the Washington County fairgrounds were not granted money to build a better facility... and Portland Community College did not get the money they wanted to improve the school. I'm OK with that (though I voted for all of them).
no-shave-november.com is coming along nicely. There are about 8-10 people doing it at work. We're looking pretty burly. I've been taking daily pictures of my beard growth so that I can do a time-lapse photo at the end of the month. Because my beard is light in color, no one is really taking notice of it compared to other guys who have really dark hair on light skin. But that's OK... I have a "sleeper" beard. At the end of the month, I predict I'll have a full beard and a lot of the other guys are going to have a patchy mess. We shall see. Note: some of the women have put up "stubble free zone" signs on their cubes. :-)
It's been a year and a half since I posted pictures. Today I give you Rose Festival pictures from June 2007. More to come shortly...
28 October 2008 - Do people know voting doesn't have to be this hard? I'm reading about all these early voting complications in some areas... people standing in line for 6 hours... it's completely unnecessary. Have someone in your state ask Oregon for help implementing vote by mail. I put a stamp on an envelope and drop it in the mail. Wouldn't you like to do the same?
27 October 2008 - We went to Fir Point Farms over the weekend. Fun as usual. Got pumpkins, apple cider donuts, hot dogs and sausage. We rode the tractor pulled hay ride for the first time this year. It was cute. It was nearly 70F and sunny though. Definitely a change of pace from prior years. We were all hot and I got a bit too much sun.
Also voted today. In Oregon it's as simple as sending a letter. Love it. We voted for Senator Obama to become President of the United States. No big surprise there. Oregon also has several measures. Below is the list and my votes. I also opted for $175 in new yearly property taxes for an expo center, Portland Community College, the zoo and local parks and recreation areas. Also re-extended property taxes for fire department benefit (amounting to $51 per year).
| Measure 54 - AMENDS CONSTITUTION: STANDARDIZES VOTING ELIGIBILITY FOR SCHOOL BOARD ELECTIONS WITH OTHER STATE AND LOCAL ELECTIONS. | |
|
YES |
Currently requires you to be 21 and literate, which violates the US Constitution. Merely housecleaning. |
| Measure 55 - AMENDS CONSTITUTION: CHANGES OPERATIVE DATE OF REDISTRICTING PLANS; ALLOWS AFFECTED LEGISLATORS TO FINISH TERM IN ORIGINAL DISTRICT | |
|
YES |
Another housecleaning exercise. After census every 10 years, districts get remapped, sometimes causing people to get repopulated under representatives they didn't elect (and sometimes drastically). This just syncs up timing. |
| Measure 56 - AMENDS CONSTITUTION: PROVIDES THAT MAY AND NOVEMBER PROPERTY TAX ELECTIONS ARE DECIDED BY MAJORITY OF VOTERS VOTING | |
|
YES |
Eliminates the double majority vote requirement. This is long overdue. If you're not going to vote, you shouldn't hold the rest of us back from making changes. Voting in Oregon is so easy, there's no excuse not to. |
| Measure 57 - INCREASES SENTENCES FOR DRUG TRAFFICKING, THEFT AGAINST ELDERLY AND SPECIFIED REPEAT PROPERTY AND IDENTITY THEFT CRIMES; REQUIRES ADDICTION TREATMENT FOR CERTAIN OFFENDERS. | |
|
NO |
Measure 57 and 61 are in battle against each other. If they both pass, the one with the most votes will be enacted. Both are primarily concerned with "mandatory minimum" sentences for non-violent crimes. I'm generally not in favor of mandatory minimums, preferring to leave it to a judge's discretion on a case-by-case basis. |
| Measure 58 - PROHIBITS TEACHING PUBLIC SCHOOL STUDENT IN LANGUAGE OTHER THAN ENGLISH FOR MORE THAN TWO YEARS | |
|
NO |
Seems to me that decisions like this shouldn't be legislated, but rather left to the teachers and school administrators. Plus, you can't legislate a kid to learn faster. But in general, I support the idea that everyone getting an education in the US (presumably to make a life here) should be working towards English proficiency. But I don't feel the need to set their pace by law. |
| Measure 59 - CREATES AN UNLIMITED DEDUCTION FOR FEDERAL INCOME TAXES ON INDIVIDUAL TAXPAYERS' OREGON INCOME-TAX RETURNS | |
|
NO |
I don't like the idea of double taxation. But ultimately this is tax revenue that a) primarily benefits education and b) primarily comes from wealthier Oregonians. I don't want to cut education funding right now. If this passes, it would save me an average of $150 in OR taxes per year (based on my last 7 returns). I'm OK continuing to pay that tax. |
| Measure 60 - TEACHER "CLASSROOM PERFORMANCE," NOT SENIORITY, DETERMINES PAY RAISES; "MOST QUALIFIED" TEACHERS RETAINED, REGARDLESS OF SENIORITY | |
|
NO |
This measure doesn't define its terms, how it will measure them, who will do the measuring, etc. Furthermore, teachers are currently evaluated based on many criteria, including performance, qualifications and seniority. I don't know why you'd hamstring your evaluation to just one criteria. Best left to the school administrators to decide who stays, who goes, who gets raises, who doesn't. Don't need to legislate it. |
| Measure 61 - CREATES MANDATORY MINIMUM PRISON SENTENCES FOR CERTAIN THEFT, IDENTITY THEFT, FORGERY, DRUG AND BURGLARY CRIMES | |
|
NO |
See Measure 57. |
| Measure 62 - AMENDS CONSTITUTION: ALLOCATES 15% OF LOTTERY PROCEEDS TO PUBLIC SAFETY FUND FOR CRIME PREVENTION, INVESTIGATION, PROSECUTION | |
|
NO |
Reallocate this money away from schools and education towards District Attorneys and a CSI-like crime lab? Nope. Not the call I'd make. |
| Measure 63 - EXEMPTS SPECIFIED PROPERTY OWNERS FROM BUILDING PERMIT REQUIREMENTS FOR IMPROVEMENTS VALUED AT/UNDER $35,000 | |
|
NO |
This one was tough. I immediately like the idea of you not having to get government's permission to do work on your own home. And the measure still requires you to meet certain code restrictions and actually get electrical work evaluated by a professional. But the $35K limit seems a tad high to me. I wouldn't mind buying a house if someone laid down their own flooring, but if they build an additional room on the house, I'd like to know it went through some vetting. At the same time, I'm not sure how useful the permit process really is. Does it really provide a safety check? In the end, the tasks of tracking all non-permit improvements you do, disclosing them at sale time, and potentially dealing with banks/insurers not wanting you to do non-permit work seemed like more hassle than it was worth, especially given the loss in permit revenue. |
| Measure 64 - PENALIZES PERSON, ENTITY FOR USING FUNDS COLLECTED WITH "PUBLIC RESOURCE" (DEFINED) FOR "POLITICAL PURPOSE" (DEFINED) | |
|
ABSTAIN |
Not worth explaining in detail. If a public service employee is getting paid, that's their money at that point, and I don't mind the government handling voluntarily shunting some of it off to a charity or union on the employee's behalf. But I don't really care either way, so I didn't weigh in. |
| Measure 65 - CHANGES GENERAL ELECTION NOMINATION PROCESSES FOR MAJOR/MINOR PARTY, INDEPENDENT CANDIDATES FOR MOST PARTISAN OFFICES | |
|
YES |
I love this one. Finally a more advanced voting system put in place: a runoff vote. Not the best, but better than what we had. All candidates go into a SINGLE primary open to all voters. Could be 5 Republicans, 7 Democrats, a couple of Libertarians and all the rest. Top two vote getters get on the general election ballot. Should increase comfort level of voting who you really prefer at first... then picking the best of who remains in the general. Can result in strangeness... like having two Democrats in the general and no one else, but that is unlikely to happen anytime soon. But we might get to see what everyone's really thinking on some alternative candidates. In the end, we also don't have "wasted" votes on candidates who have no chance of winning. (You can abstain if you like neither.) Ultimately I'd prefer Instant Runoff (IRV) or Preferential voting, but this is a step in the right direction and I want to take it. |
