Mike's Blog

Picture time!

Mike — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 23:38:22 GMT

Photos from Paris - featuring: all the major sites, Chateau Brennan, pictures of crepes, and all sorts of fun things

Photos from Italy - drool over tasty food pictures, marvel at how close a Jewish guy like me can get to the Pope, gaze at ancient ruins, and witness the general awesomeness that is Italy

Bing and Decide

Mike — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 00:37:06 GMT

Bing.com is why I never call and why I never write :)

Give it a try. Tell me what you think.

Rumors are no fun

Mike — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 00:03:18 GMT

BTW - I support Dr. Cox for Surgeon General

Love it

Mike — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 22:54:02 GMT

I break blog hiatus for this brief message...

Mike — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 01:17:02 GMT

Nice

Mike — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 23:51:36 GMT

Presidential Picks

Mike — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 18:21:10 GMT

Here is the detailed history of the presidential candidates I have voted for:

2000:
Bill Bradley (primary)
Al Gore (general)

2004:
Howard Dean (primary)
John Kerry (general)

2008:
Hillary Clinton (primary)

So, should I vote McCain to ensure his loss?

Also, if you missed it on my Facebook status, I failed to secure a delegate seat for the national convention in Denver. My gray hair jokes could not stand up to folks with 30 years of political experience. Go figure :)

I remain a delegate for the state convention in Spokane, which should be fun. Perhaps I will blog about it.

One Step Closer to Denver

Mike — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 13:09:58 GMT

I won the deleate seat at my precinct caucus, and now won at the legislative district caucus as well! And to clear up any confusion, I am in the HilDog camp. My room is booked for the state convention in Spokane. I finally have a reason to go there. One more victory, and I'm off to the national convention in Denver (note: based on the fact that several delegates had posters, flyers, and possibly even campaign managers, even at this level, I expect the next win to be much harder).

Attendees to the 2008 5th Legislative District Caucus,

It was a long day, but we got the job done! Thank you for your patience and
perseverance.

The Results are as follows:

Clinton Delegates
1407 Hatcher-Mays, Gloria NAILA
2546 Irons, Di SAM 05-3384
1205 Kennedy-Dugan, Susan ISS 05-2806
1175 Gorrin, Karen ISS 05-0550
1621 Arch, Amanda SAM 05-3385
1640 Ni, Hua SAM 05-3412
1538 Schechter, Michael SAM 05-2575
1653 Potter, Richardson SAM 05-3507
1714 Witt, Brian SNQ 05-3511
1199 Branch, Anthony ISS 05-2602
1202 Lombard, Jared ISS 05-2602
1688 Laird, Gregory SNO-VALLEY

Clinton Alternates
1258 Hirst, Roxann LAKE ALICE
1434 Richer, Jane N-B 05-3407
1652 Nudelman, Laura SAM 05-3507
1084 Cassias, John ELLIOTT
1411 Dellinger, Robert N-B 05-0858
1497 Schwartz, Carl SAM 05-0536

Snow!

Mike — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 00:18:26 GMT

It's now March 30th, and it's already been warm enough for me to have mowed the lawn. We left for dinner and the Bruce Springsteen concert (awesome) about 6 hours ago, in a light rain. Driving home, we start noticing - 1. There's a lot of snow on the side of the road and 2. There's an awful lot of abandoned cars... wow, where did this all come from? 30% chance of snow showers, eh? Unofficial ruler measurement at Casa de Schechter is 4 inches.

My car was a champ, and didn't get stuck until the bottom of our driveway.

Crazy!

Caucus!

Mike — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 16:57:35 GMT

WA has a primary election. It is, however, completely meaningless, with all the action actually taking place via caucus. Caucus, as you probably know, is derived from the latin word meaning "complete chaos where nobody knows what's going on and the few people who do would prefer not to help you." After taking my fifth lap around the middle school lunch room, fighting my way through crowds in order to attempt to find my precinct's poorly marked table, I was about ready to go home. Luckily, we found the right place to stand just in time. After that, it was actually pretty fun.

First off, the crowd was huge. He're a picture of the road leading to the school. We had to walk at least half a mile after parking along the side of the road.

Once inside, it was chaos, but only until we found our table.

We then had to sign in, and pick our candidate of choice. No confidentiality here.

After signing in, the guy who was in charge (not sure of his position), lead everyone in reciting the pledge, and then gave this speech:

Video: Caucus

The precinct then huddled to count the votes. The mayor was part of our group, but he didn't seem to want to be too involved. 54-13 Obama, with 1 undecided. We had 8 delegates to give, which would make it 6-2. Folks were given a chance to change their votes... the undecided guy switched to Obama, but that still didn't alter the delegate count. Nobody offered to make a statement for their candidate, though the opportunity was given.

Finally, it was time to pick the delegates for the District Caucus and the County Convention. My passionate "I guess I can do it" speech rallied the precinct around me, and I was elected. So I get to do it all over again in April.

Overall, not a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Especially because I still like both candidates.