Feeling Hypocritical

Oh man. I feel like such a hypocrite having to write this, but NaNoWriMo is all shot to hell. After all of my harassing people to do it with me, I've had to cut and run. I feel sort of lame about that, but I promise I have a good excuse. First, I've been sick all weekend, which killed the majority of my writing time. I'm so miserably far behind that I despair of catching up. And second, well, there's a boy. But that's all I'm going to say about that. Posting personal stuff on a blog is always odd, so if you want to know more, you'll just have to ask. Plus, he'll probably read this. :P

In a way, I'm sort of relieved about this. As I started writing a novel, I just didn't get the same sort of spark that I've been getting lately from essay writing. I kept looking wistfully at my blog, wanting to write some essays even though I'd sworn it off for NaNoWriMo. I guess it's my fate to be a non-fiction writer.

So to those of you still going on in NaNoWriMo, do good for me. Er, well. Do well. Darn usage class. I can't even use good as an adverb anymore.

On to a second reason I'm feeling hypocritical. I didn't vote today. Spare me the rotten tomatoes. It feels terribly hypocritical after my rant about voting in the primaries. The problem is that I'm still registered to vote at home in SLC. I was busy all day until 5 pm, and given current amounts of homework, there was no way I could justify spending two hours and a quarter tank of gas to get up there.

I guess I really should just register to vote down in Utah County, but that's my Salt Lake County pride showing through. Registering down here would be too much of an affront to my identity. I am not a Happy Valley person; I'm just not.

Well, now that I feel thoroughly despicable, I guess I can get on with writing those essays.

The Real Independence Day: Primary Thoughts

So I voted today in the primaries . . . did you? Probably not, considering only about 10% of Utahns actually vote in the primary. I find it fascinating that the same people that couldn't be bothered to vote today will next week be celebrating the ideals of our nation. It's fairly ridiculous that such a small percentage of the people actually care what happens in the primaries. In a politically lop-sided state like Utah, it seems that most elections would be pretty much decided in the primaries, since most Republican candidates are shoe-ins in November (with notable exceptions). You missed out on the real ceremony if you were waiting for the 4th to celebrate your American-ness.

And granted, some primary elections seem trivial: I don't understand the big hoopla over the Cannon/Jacobs race. The race is not over issues, since the candidates agree on almost everything. I mean really, the only argument in this race is whether experience is more productive than change. Why are people wasting all this campaign money to replace one representative with another who will do exactly the same things? Seems like a big waste of time to me. (Luckily for those of you who care, I am registered at home, not in the Bubble, so I didn't vote on this race anyway.)

Also, I was quite suprised at the ignorance shown by the candidates in the Jordan School District Prescint #3 race: two of the candidates didn't even bother to create websites, or ones that I could find anyway. You would think that in this tech-saavy world that would be a given. I did all my voting research online, and their lack of online information pretty much cost them my vote.

Oh, and if anyone out there was worried that electronic voting would be confusing, it's not. It is the most absolutely wonderful thing ever! Okay I exaggerate, but it definitely outranks punch cards--which even I found confusing--by a mile. And I say this not just from my tech-saavy perspective: my tech-backwards mother (sorry Mum!) was able to easily figure out the system. I enjoyed the large print option. Even though I didn't particularly need it, it was nice not to have to put my nose next to the ballot in order to read it. The only step that might be confusing is the double-confirmation of the ballot, since some people might forget the last step and just walk away. But the machine won't give you back your little ID card thing unless you do, so it should be fairly easy to spot and take care of.

From One Puppet Government to Another

I wasn't planning on doing another BYU political rant so soon, but I just finished having an argument with my roomie over the importance of voting in BYUSA elections. Here are some of my not-unbiased thoughts about BYUSA elections:

BYUSA has no power to do anything on campus: they can't publish teacher evaluation results, add eating areas to the library, "partner" with anyone (that implies they have something to contribute), or even change hours at the weight room. Remember, it's not a student union, it's a student service association. They can't effect any change on campus, so why should we even bother voting for them? One puppet student government is the same as another.

As for what BYUSA actually does (get volunteers, advertise, and run on-campus events): Much as I would like to some of these events change or be consolidated, none of the candidates gives out their specific plans for these events ahead of time. So, really, my voting is a shot in the dark at who plans the coolest parties.

My roomie contends that it's better to vote than not because you are at least trying to do something about it. I believe exactly the opposite. The differences between the candidates are miniscule, so the only choice is whether I vote or don't vote. If I vote, it says that I am fine with the way BYUSA currently represents the students. Voting will accomplish nothing in the long run, simply perpetuate an ineffective system of popularity contests and broken promises.

Instead, I choose not to vote, in the hopes that by not voting I will help increase the administration's awareness of BYUSA's unimportance to students. If I were not-voting out of apathy, I would see my roommate's point that I have no right to complain if I don't at least try. However, I am actually making a choice here.

Oh, and I just decided to mail this rant to both campaigns. How's that for taking action?