PhoneBoy Says

The windstorm came and caused all kinds of havoc, but my family is safe. I'm going to be offline for a while. Check my Twitter timeline for updates (twitter.com/PhoneBoy) since SMS is easier now.

This is as much about a cool invention as it is a human interest story. I tell you, I wish I had a couple of these pots handy right about now, given how close we are to losing power.

We managed to keep the lights on long enough to get the kids to bed. But I can hear the wind and the rain picking up outside. At dusk, a tree blew into our driveway, obstructing our ability to drive out. Not that I particularly want to be anywhere but inside in these conditions. It will be something we have to deal with before leaving the homestead for sure.

Given that I'm seeing reports of 60+ mph winds in many inland areas in Western Washington already, I have no doubt that power will be out when we wake up in the morning.PSE is saying they've got crews ready and able to go fix things, but they're to wait for the storm to pass before going out and assessing damage and fixing things. The storm should finish doing its damage to this area by tomorrow morning.

How long it will take before we get the power back on is another matter entirely. Washington State Governor Christine Gregoire says we should expect the power to be out for several days, as does PSE. Hopefully we're not in the areas that will take "several days" to restore. :)

As I alluded to in my previous post, the weather is about to take a turn for the worse here. The nasty weather: high winds. It's the same kind of winds that knocked the power out yesterday, but these winds will be a bit stronger. This graphic I found on The Weather Channel website pretty much sums it up (note I live West of Seattle on the other side of the Puget Sound):

The "calm," if you can call it that, is on and off rain. The winds aren't too bad right now, but I expect that will change later in the day. I fully expect the power to go out sometime after the kids go to bed tonight, given that pretty much every time there's a serious windstorm here, we lose power. I fully expect chaos to ensue Friday morning. Good thing I've already got a day off scheduled for Friday already as well as the following Monday. It's going to be an interesting weekend…

This is only a test. It's a system I may have to use very soon if the weather forecasts are right, though.

A well known person in the VoIP by the name of Jeff Pulver started a game of blog tag as a sort of "virtual cocktail party." This made it's way around my blog circle and eventually hit me. I responded to this game on my other blog, but I figured it might be a fun game to start on Vox as well.

The basic idea is to post five things that other people online might not know about you and then "tag" five other people to do the same. Seems silly, I know, but hey, why not. I will start things off by reposting my list from my other blog:

1. Right out of college, I did IT for a now-defunct company thatemployed recruiters who sold both internal and external candidates intovarious IT jobs. I myself was "whored out," as I lovingly called it,into a company that I ultimately ended up working for doing a job Inever thought I'd do--phone support.
2. My hyphenated last name was the result of me losing a best3-out-of-5 coin toss with my wife. No, her name isn't hyphenated andthe kids have her last name.
3. I am originally from Santa Cruz, California. Aside from the fouryears I moved to Hawaii and went to high school, I lived in the BayArea until 1998. After that, I moved to Washington state where I havelived in both Spokane and the Greater Seattle area--rather opposite interms of geography and politics. Despite having lived outside of theBay Area for nearly a decade now, I have managed to remain employed bycompanies with a Bay Area office and been able to work from home allthat time. I consider myself lucky.
4. My online history goes back 2 decades. I first got online in 1986using a 300 baud acoustic coupler modem hooked up to an old Apple ][+.In fact, that acoustic coupler used to respond in kind when I playedHardball! and a few other games. The handle I had back then: KC,sometimes KC Smith if I needed more characters or a last name. 10 yearsago, PhoneBoy became the handle of choice.
5. I earned my first dollar singing on stage with my fatherwhen I was three. I did try and experiment with a guitar and piano whenI was a little older, but unlike my father and many other geeks, Ididn't seem to have the musical aptitude and/or didn't feel likeworking at it enough to get anywhere with it. Although, to this day,when presented with a piano, I try and play a few songs that I haven'tseen sheet music for, yet manage to work out the melody for. Maybethere is something there…

Now the question is: who to tag. Let's just pick from my neighborhood: Jamie, ilias, tndaisy1960, Leo Laporte, TechZilla. Consider yourselves tagged. Spread the word. I'd love to see how far this goes on Vox.

Gerbil tubes for kids.

You'll be missed.

A little farther from here…

While Mr. Blog says the two-party system is dead, I think it's a bit more simplistic than that. We simply voted the in-party power out of office.

The fact is, the only parties 95% of the people know about or care about in the US are the two "major" parties: Republicans and Democrats. If they are lucky enough to see someone from a different party in a particular race, most don't even consider there might be a viable alternative. And, really, the two major parties look more and more similar as they polarize in opposite directions. Extremity either way just looks extreme.

When I actually try and read the voters pamphlet and understand what each candidate in each race stands for, my head spins. Almost all the candidates, with some exceptions, say at least one thing I agree with. And it's not just one race, it's lots of races. How can the average person be expected to sort through this quagmire to try and intelligently pick a candidate?

To try and simplify things, people pick or two issues to help put thecandidates in buckets. It's a label kind of like Republican andDemocrat. My voting strategy doesn't follow this methodology, but is still fairly simple:

1. Vote for a third party candidate, if available. Libertarians get priority mainly because my ideology fits theirs best.
2. Vote against the incumbent, regardless of party.
3. If no incumbent and no third-party candidate, read voters pamphlet and make one.

My strategy means I don't have to spend a lot of time thinking about voting. My main motivation: keep the door revolving so we get new people and fresh ideas infused into the process.

And really, that's what this past election was about. Not about killing the two-party process, though if it ultimately does kill the two-party process, I'm all for it.