Are you ready to vote?

I'm not opening this up for a free for all to express your political opinions. I'm not up for moderating that discussion. I'm just asking if you feel prepared to vote.

Like it or not, in Illinois, we elect our judges. The first couple of times I voted, I felt bad because I just had to guess if I should vote to retain someone. I could have unknowingly voted for someone inept. Knowingly is one thing, unknowingly is a psychological burden.

But the Illinois State Bar Association conducts a poll of attorneys. They require a 65% approval rating from the respondents before the judge is "recommended" for retention. They also have questionnaires, which the Bar evaluates, and gives a subjective qualified/not qualified rating. Is it perfect? No. But it's the best I could find.

Click here and select your county to see the ratings.

While we're at it, I'd recommend these folks as well. They send you an email detailing how your Congressional delegation voted over the previous week, as well as letting you know what's coming up to bat.

So it's been about a year...

Exactly a year ago, I was wandering around China in a state of confusion. So here are some words on my current state of confusion...

It doesn't seem like such a long time ago. But I guess it's been long enough that I've developed the rose colored glasses about the trip. The monkey, the night of four rooms, the bathrooms; a small grin comes to me as I recall them all.

This past weekend, I was looking at some of the China photos. I was struck by how bad the air was, and how bad my pictures were. About 3,000 images later, and I'm ready for an SLR camera. This had been one of my life goals, to own and operate effectively, an SLR camera. My Uncle Ed, long time reader, occasional poster, taught me how to change my oil this past weekend. Imagine, I've had my car 10 years, and I'd never done this. Life is about gaining experiences; I thank you all for reading about mine while you were out living yours.

I'm sometimes struck by how much more meaning the world has. I read The Spy who Came in from the Cold by John LeCarre. It's a typical Cold War spy book. But part of it takes place in Berlin. Street names and sites were rattled off, and I had this feeling of meaning, in that I had navigated those very places with some success. (At least enough success to make it home.)

It's a bit like watching a travel show about Chicago. Travel is supposed to be about exploring the great unknown. The irony is that this perk can quickly become the problem. You quickly arrive at sensory overload when each input must be evaluated as good, bad, or critical to your survival. When watching a travel show about someplace you know, there's an odd appreciation finer than that of an out-of-towner. It comes from having a base of the familiar, mixed with a splash of the new.

With so many places at least vaguely familiar, I can only surmise that my wanderings will be better the next time I go...

What happened?

I was in the grocery store Friday, and I noticed the absence of banana milk. Banana flavored milk was a great treat for me. Apparently, when I left the country, it tipped the scales. Not enough people were into it to keep it in the stores.

I do have to admit that it's taken me several months to note the disappearance, so I shouldn't be shocked. But now that I can't have it, I want it all the more.

Adult Art Project

This isn't going to be about photos of naked people. That would be "Adult-Art Project."

Anyway. This is about stuffing envelopes. That's my adult art project. There are stickers, and glue, and markers. It's not just any envelope stuffing. This is going to famous people. It's nice to know that someone still thinks of Cindy Lauper.

The idea is that famous people doodle, and then the pics are auctioned off in April to raise money for one of their programs.

I've been working on K's and L's. I almost slipped a note in Lisa Kudrow's envelope letting her know that I enjoyed the "Smelly Cat" song on Friends. I admit that I often sing it to Buster, with proper substitutions. But there's no "outside the box" creativity in adult art projects.

Offering opinions...

U of I sent me an alumni survey. It was once said that I am passionate about any survey I take. This, I can't deny. I've always given thought to the questions, and even how I answered them.

I noticed two things:

1. I really liked the boxes at the end of each page. They basically asked that I share any other thoughts I had about the topic at hand. It was open season for me to discuss what I really value about my undergraduate degree. I do think this is a "blog residual" - my ability to spout off about anything.

2. For the last week, I have been entering survey results into a computer as part of the current job assignment (I'm in vet-med, and it rules). As I was checking the boxes, I was taking stock of the questions to guess which they will check for correlation.

But I have found that the only really meaningful data comes from the boxes at the end...