Skirv's Journal

Yesterday I worked as an Election Judge for the 2020 Primary Elections in DuPage County. This was my third turn as a judge, all of them at the same polling place in West Chicago.

This election was significantly different than my previous rounds simply because it happened during the Covid-19 pandemic. We're a few days into the push for "social distancing", where essentially everybody is strongly encouraged/required to stay home and not go out in public. This is not very conducive to running a proper election; not only is the electorate much less willing to go out and vote, but the Judges that run the whole thing are generally the people most vulnerable to the disease. We might technically have postponed the election, at the cost of doing some damage to our democracy as a whole (and will there be a better time any time soon?), but the state chose to go forward. And so, even though I was particularly comfortable with it, I went forward and did my job.

The mess started for me the night before. I got a call from one of my judges, begging me in so many words to tell him that it was okay to not make it because he had no insurance and had pre-existing conditions that put him at significant risk. I wasn't enough of a good manager to tell him to stay home, but I told him that it was up to him to make the decision for him and his family; that's all I felt I could do. Another student called off at the last minute, and another worker texted off. It wasn't great, but I still ended up having a total of seven judges - three long-term veterans, three students, and myself. It was enough, but it was a little bit tight.

We got as much cleaning equipment as the Election Division was able to get a hold of at the last minute, and honestly they did a pretty good job. It was delivered by the Department of Transportation first thing in the morning, indicating that they had successfully coordinated a multi-department field operation in just a few days - not bad! They had mixed the hand sanitizer and the cleaning fluid on their own, and put them in dollar-store squirt bottles and IKEA soap dispensers. It absolutely felt like the best that could be done with limited time and stretched supply lines. We did not get enough rubber gloves, and I strongly suspect that they scrambled to get the ones we did get. We had enough the night before to have one pair per judge, and that was it. I managed to find a few gloves around the house for myself, and so did most of the other judges. But that's what we had. We had to improvise on how to lay out the voting booths, because the plan had been written before the six-foot-distance guideline had been set; we at least managed to get ~4-5 feet between the booths.

We had two new technologies this time, because the previous technologies had aged out and the County Board had been forced to give the Clerk the money to buy replacements. The first was simply a new cell phone; the old ones simply didn't function anymore, and the new ones were solid USB-C flip phones, nothing to write home about but amusing. Second were the PollPads: iPads with appropriate software for running a polling place. The software was slick and fairly effective, with the significant change being that the voters signed directly on the iPad instead of on a sticker. It reduced paper usage, it let us eliminate another old piece of tech (the thing that printed up the voter cards for use with the touchscreen), and it really did speed things up. The major difficulty is that the signatures on the iPads were, well, signatures on iPads - not as high res as paper and more difficult to do signature comparisons.

We spent a lot of the day wiping down the booths and the shared equipment (booths, pens, styluses). It wasn't great that we were all touching the same iPads over and over again - this was the possible disease vector, and we didn't really have better solution. We also didn't really have enough manpower to keep everything stationed and cleaned, so we only hooked up 3/4 PollPads and had to keep our breaks short. The rest of the building was more "off-limits" than usual, with the school outright closed and even non-essential staff limited. I saw two teachers, two custodians, and a few cleaners.

The election day was never particularly slow. We had 422 voters over the day; it was never empty for more than a few minutes at a time, and we never had a line of more than ~3 people queued up at our three check-in stations. Only once did anybody have to wait for a voting booth, and then for only a few minutes.

There were only a few really-cranky voters. Some of these were of the "how dare you make me take a partisan ballot!!11!" style, where they were upset to be participating in a partisan primary. The others were upset about their voter registration having issues, which was a bit of a problem, but we were able to work it out consistently. We never had to turn anybody away except because a) they were in the wrong polling place or b) they came late.

We did have two, err, interesting cases where a voter came and found that they had already voted. In both cases we had the same problem: the voter's spouse had voted for them accidentally. The address matched, the name close-enough-to-matched (and in one case the recorded name was just initials), the signatures at least partially matched on the iPad, and the voter didn't notice the confusion when they signed. So, yeah. Not good. In both cases both voters did get to vote and it all worked out okay, but tech support was quite helpful to make sure it happened.

At the end of the day, we managed to get out of there in about an hour. The Clerk had changed the responsibilities around a bit, so that the work was a bit better divvied up; I think that this worked pretty well. The biggest time cost was for the ballot scanner machine to print off four copies of the results; that thing is a tank, but it's slow, and it had to be done serially and only after the last voter had dropped in his ballot. But we got everything packed up, I drove over with another judge to the courthouse, dropped everything off, and got the other judge back to the polling place and his car so he could go home. I was back by 8:45 or so, just, err, around 16 hours after I left.

So. Good day. I'm still tired.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night: this is pretty much Castlevania: Symphony of the Night with the serial numbers filed off and some small-but-annoying amounts of jiggle physics. It's the first Metroidvania game I've played all the way through for years now, and that pretty much because it's available for Switch, which is a good system upon which to play a Metroidvania.  Your character (I'm sure she had a name) runs through a castle exploring and killing demons, stealing their powers to make herself more powerful.  Sometimes there are bosses, more of the time you're lost and just wandering around.  There's a plot in there, I'm sure, but I ignored it (and I think that was a good call).  I got caught up in the 100%-ing the game for a while, and I'm not sure yet if I'll fully succumb.

Okay, various == 2.

I adopted Jesse Custer Skirvin and his sister Tulip O'Hare on 20 Jun 2005. He chose me when I visited the shelter, ignoring the attacks of his fellow cats in order to sit on my lap in the communal room; this was new to me, and utterly compelling. When I brought them home and let the pair out of their carriers, he and Tulip explored the house together until they found my recliner; they then jumped in and started cleaning each other immediately. And that set the stage for the next eleven years.

Jesse was a black long-haired house cat, average size and weight, with a kinked tail, a loud and easily-provoked purr, and a chirpy little voice that he used regularly. He was even-tempered, and loved people - he would generally end up on the lap of every visitor to the house, and was known to climb on the shoulders of our house cleaners. He liked staring at the outside, but had no interest in escaping; that's not where the people were! He was not horribly adventurous or warlike but managed to remain Alpha for most of his life, and trusted me utterly and completely. He was omnipresent, following me everywhere and sitting next to me if my lap was for some reason unavailable; he would follow me to the kitchen or the bathroom, he would sit with me through a whole game of Civilization, he would talk to me in the shower, he would be at my feet when I went to sleep and still there when I woke in the morning. Jesse was by no means my first cat, but he was the first cat that was truly and completely mine, and I was his. We were kitty-human soul mates.

In return, I dedicated as much of my life to Jesse as I reasonably could. I left pedestals near any place that I might sit, so that he would be comfortably off the floor. I learned that I could call him and he would come, and so I did so regularly; he figured out his own cries that would call me. I was by far his favorite toy, and while he otherwise never hurt a human, he felt no compunctions towards scratching and biting me in mock battles. I gave him my attention, my time, and my love, and yet I only gave a fraction of what I was given.

The greatest time of Jesse's life was just when I left Champaign to live in Mountain View. I flew with him back to California a couple of weeks before my then-wife was able to join me with Tulip; and so for those couple of weeks it was just the two of us. He never left my lap or my side during that time; he purred and rubbed against me and, most interestingly, refused to fight with me for any reason; claws or teeth would have been an insult against Paradise. It was only a couple of weeks, but for the duration he was in Kitty Heaven, standing next to his master and nobody else. We both loved every minute of it.

I may not know for sure how old Jesse was when he died, but it was somewhere in the range of 16 or so - old, but not ancient. I know that he slowed down over the last couple of years, as old age and arthritis overtook him. But he never stopped loving me or trusting me, and even as Tulip took over as Alpha, he held firm to his control of my bed and my lap. He tolerated my son, for which I am eternally grateful. And even in his final days, he was always there when I went to sleep and when I woke up in the morning. And in return, Rebecca and I were there for him when he went to sleep as well.

Now, when I look around the house, I expect to see him nearby, or perhaps already on my lap like a ninja kitty. I listen to hear his "I'm lonely!" roar, or his "hmmph" of air let out as he jumped to the floor, or his whine asking for his (mostly-full) food dish to be refilled. In the evenings and mornings I expect to wake up to his sneezes, or the rustling of him climbing under the covers to lie next to me, or the feeling of claws lightly poking my beard, begging for attention. And when none of that comes, my heart breaks again. I want to give him my love, and he is not there to take it.

Jesse, it was an honor to take care of you for these years, and I will never forget you. You will not be my final cat, but you always be the one against which other cats will be judged. I will tell your story to those that ask, and your memory will not be forgotten. And when I see you again, in the place where no shadows fall, I promise you my lap and my love.

Ave atque vale, my beast.

Lincoln: 8 (out of 10)

Lincoln tells the story of the passage of the 13th Amendment through the House of Representatives during the lame-duck Congress following President Lincoln's re-election in 1864. The Civil War is wrapping up, and Lincoln feels that he has to push through the amendment before the war ends, before the national political sentiment changes. And so he fights to consolidate his party, flip voters of the opposition to his side, and otherwise use all of his political capital to accomplish his goal: end slavery in the United States of America.

At its core, Lincoln is a movie about national politics. To be sure, this isn't really modern politics we're talking about; this is the politics of the 1860s, where the politicians have beards, wigs, and large hats; communication works by telegraph, travel by horse or riverboat; and of course the bloodiest American war is still raging. But none of this fundament!
ally chan
ges the core of Washington: politics are hard, politics can be incredibly dirty, and politics matter. (It also turns out that politics can make for fascinating viewing.)

But that's not really that all that Lincoln is about - indeed, it's in large part about Lincoln himself. He is shown as a sad man, with a painful and complicated family life and a deep need to accomplish what he thinks is right, even at the cost of doing things that he knows are wrong (or, at least, that he isn't convinced are right).

More than that, we see that Lincoln is a storyteller. Lincoln tells stories to illustrate his moral points; he tells stories to inspire those around him; and he tells stories to silence the yelling around him. He laughs at himself, he goes on tangents, and he inspires the more frustrated around him to stomp out. He controls the room with his quietly-told stories, dirty jokes, and inspirational speeches. And I came out of every o!
ne of the
m thinking "I would vote for this man." It was extremely effective, and one of the most fascinating parts of the movie.

Still, what I found most fascinating was the politics itself. The strong-arm politics, whipping for votes, the barely-concealed bribery and corruption, the speeches for the press, the careful selection of words, the powers and limitations of party politics, and the dangers of virtue - these were all presented as clearly as a season of the West Wing. The difference, of course, is that this is at least related to what actually happened, and the fight was one that mattered. That touches me much more effectively than a simple fire fight.

The casting and acting ware spectacular. Daniel Day-Lewis should win the Best Actor Oscar for this work; I wouldn't be surprised to see Tommy Lee Jones be nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his work as Thaddeus Stevens. It seemed that the entire Congress was made up of first- and se!
cond-rung
actors, and most of them had a chance to shine. I was perhaps unduly moved by S Epatha Merkerson's role (which I won't spoil).

As for Spielberg's role - well, besides the clear skill at dramatizing the politics (something that I would have been happy with, but most audiences perhaps less so!), his role seemed pleasantly muted, compared to his normal directorial work. This was a good thing; this was neither a war movie nor a rollicking/whimsical tale, and the story needed to be told differently. But it was still clearly Spielberg, and I was happy with his part.

There were flaws, certainly. I would have preferred that the movie ended a bit earlier. I'm not sure that dragging things out until Lincoln was actually shot and killed added anything that couldn't have been more effectively handled with a text box; and, indeed, more context could have been added at that point. I think that the relationship between Lincoln and his family could have either been b!
eefed up
a bit, or pulled down; either way, it didn't seem to be quite right. The soundtrack seemed a bit muted. And I'm still a bit disappointed that the movie didn't come out before the elections (even as I understand why it couldn't).

But all in all, this movie was excellent.

Rating: 8 (out of 10)

I read The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks the other day. I don't really want to review it overtly, but I do have one comment worthy of note: I did not enjoy the gaming, and I'm still not entirely sure why. Perhaps writing something down will help?

The game in question - Azad - was used in the book as a tool upon which an entire interstellar empire was based; the best player was set up as the Emperor, and other top players ended up with top government/military jobs. The game itself theoretically "modelled the society", and therefore had to be both near-infinitely complex and nevertheless understandable. There were gambling elements, cards, and group play elements; but fundamentally, it appeared to be modelled on Go, albeit significantly scaled up.

Somehow, this hurt my ability to suspend disbelief.

Much of the book also discussed the idea of game theory and societies that value high-level game players and theoreticians. The top gamers in (another) society write essentially peer-reviewed articles on the games they play. Well, okay, I'm fine with that - but part of this seems to indicate that the games that are considered "real" fit into a few categories. And those categories were quite narrow. Specifically, they were so narrow that they would eliminate virtually every game that I play today. And I think that there's something a bit strange about that.

A few mechanics that seemed to be left on the floor:

• Worker Placement
• Auctions (except in relation to gambling)
• Rock-paper-scissors (for units - they seemed to be one-size-fits-all)
• Any kind of economic system
• Simultaneous actions of any form (or maybe there were? I got a very strong sense of asynchronous actions
• Network building (this could have been abstracted away, I guess)
• Doing anything interesting with the cards, other than using them as a "battle card" system, including laying them as "mines". There wasn't much in the way of hand management, for instance.
• More abstractly, close back-and-forth interaction between the various "sub"-games.

Sure, several of these didn't exist at the time of writing. Still, given that effort was put into dismissing other styles of games, it just felt odd.

Maybe the real lesson here is that this felt weak because it pre-dated the recent board game "revolution". It focused on Go and war games because that's what the author was knowledgeable about, or could do research on. But I'm still a little bit irritated to see whole genres of game just ignored, including genres that did exist when the book was written (1988), including my current favorite, 18xx, which dates back to 1974 (or 1986 in my preferred incarnation).

Aah, well. I'm still going to read the next one.

I am no longer a newsgroup moderator. Wow.

I just got back from a combination dual-honeymoon/Dad-Retirement vacation with Rebecca, my parents, and my brother and his wife. I'm not sure what to say about it, at least in between "it was good"/"I am so tired" and a several section treatise.

The trip:

Flying

I want to make less 12-hour flights in my life.

Rome

We spent two days and nights in Rome, including one day and one night with a private tour guide seeing the city and major locations. There was no possible way to see enough, but we did go to the Colosseum, one of the catacombs, and St Peter's Basilica, and all were gorgeous. I could have spent a week here. I really need to get through these pictures!

Our tour guide was especially professional.

We also went to the Vatican Museum, with a separate tour guide. Rebecca could have used with less explanations; I found him useful.

Week-Long Cruise

The cruise was from Rome to Rome:

1. Firenze
2. Cannes (for the film festival, whee!)
3. Marseille
4. Barcelona
5. (Day at Sea)
6. Napoli/Pompeii
7. Rome (and then home)

I could talk about each individual day in great detail if I felt like it, but I don't want to do so right now. Maybe later?

As for the ship: the Norwegian Epic is a monstrously ugly ship, with a capacity of ~4000 people. The ship experience was flawed, mostly because of the sheer scale of things; there were just too many people! The food was good as long as you paid extra for the specialty restaurants, or ate the Indian food at the buffet. The rooms were fine, but so much effort was spent on the balcony rooms that the place was just ugly from the outside. We got acts like the Blue Man Group and Cirque du Soleil instead of (just) standard ship fare, but the shows had technical problems. And I think I'd rather have gratuities not be included.

Returning Home

I wish that killfile.org hadn't died on Day 3. Grr. It's back now, but now I really have to re-double my efforts to move things to the cloud...

The cats were mad at us for only a few minutes.

Overall Thoughts

It really was great having a vacation with my family. It had been a long time, after all; and we do all get along, even the wives. Our great fear was that the Core Skirvin Clan would overwhelm Rebecca and Celeste, but it went pretty well, and nobody killed anybody else.

I'm not sure if this will the Final Honeymoon for Rebecca and myself.

I am happy, and so, so tired.