If Lisa and I were driving to Seattle for SMOFCon 41, we would have left already - probably yesterday. However, as Lisa is staying home and I'm flying (9 AM flight from Reno on Alaska Airlines Thursday morning, returning mid-day Monday), I put of some prep until this evening, and the rest won't happen until tomorrow morning, as I'm just going to ( Read more... )

At the moment, the prospects for LGBTQ+ people look a bit grim in the USA. (Also in the UK and other countries, but I'm concentrating on the USA at the moment.) It's probably worst for trans people, as there are those who, while nominally "progressives," seem to think that if we could just get rid of those scary trans people, all of those right- ( Read more... )

Yesterday afternoon, Lisa and I went to Walgreens and got our flu shots and COVID boosters. That's our seventh COVID shot, by my count. As I'm going to SMOFCon at the start of December, I wanted to have time for the immunizations to settle in before then ( Read more... )

I had expected better from my fellow citizens. Now we have to figure out if the winners will do what they said they wanted to do: replace American democracy with a totalitarian Christo-fascist dictatorship. And what the relatively sane parts of the USA will do if ordered to treat the Constitution like toilet paper and simply Follow Orders from ( Read more... )

Lisa and I cast our 2024 General Election votes on Saturday. We typically vote by mail, but the recent ruling from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals that declares that ballots cast by mail and postmarked before election day but received after that date are invalid, regardless of state law on the matter, are invalid makes us nervous, even though it ( Read more... )

No, I didn't watch the presidential debate tonight. Lisa and I got pizza and we watched an episode of Time Team. I think that was a much better use of my evening, and my blood pressure is lower because of it.

The Nevada Secretary of State's office advised me that my vote-by-mail ballot was received for the state's primary election. It was not a very long ballot: the statewide race for US senator and two nominally non-partisan election boards whose candidates appeared to be all Republicans, at least one of whom also appears to be an anti-vaxxer. At least ( Read more... )

As I mentioned a few days ago, I voted (by mail) in Nevada's Democratic Presidential Preference Primary.

Because at least one person was confused by this, here's a clarification:

( Primary Neepery )

In the last two Presidential cycles, Nevada has been a caucus state, with the "First in the West" claim. I participated in both caucuses, most recently volunteering as the precinct chair for Lyon County Precinct 40, where I did my best to make a complex process work and to reflect the wishes of the people from my precinct. The caucus process does ( Read more... )

Lisa and I are now effectively immune from any further political advertising for this season.

( No Turning Back )