Posted by Ivan | Posted in obama, tech | Posted on 09-11-2008
Nine years ago during the big dotcom boom and around the same time I was putting up the original futurejunkie site, I kidded around with a friend and co-worker about hickeys on websites. For those not in the design and printing industry, a “hickey” occurs when a piece of dust or other debris sticks to the printing plate while it is rotating in the press. This will result in a small knocked-out dot or smudge, about the size of a flea, on your image or color box or whatever it is you’re printing. Usually hickeys will work themselves out once the press gets up to speed, but it’s still something to watch out for. It happens; it’s unavoidable.
So we joked about seeing them on websites and I actually put one on futurejunkie 1.0. We had a good laugh. Har-har, graphic design humor.
But now I think I’ve actually found the hickey equivalent. It is on Barack Obama’s President-Elect site, that I referred to in the previous post. Go the site here and see. See that little blip above the change.gov seal and logotype, in between the H and the A in CHANGE? I initially though this was some yuk on my screen, but move the browser window around and it follows. A screenshot verified that it is in the image file. This is probably the result of a bad scan but someone needs to clean this up ASAP. I’ll update this post once it’s been noticed and corrected.
President-Elect Barack Obama brings his campaign site into the real, incorporating messaging from his campaign site and his iPhone app. This is a first for a Prez-Elect, but I doubt W had the savvy to do this eight years ago so we’ll probably be seeing everyone do this from here on out. The new site contains all his stance on the issues of his campaign as well as new press releases. You can leave your story of how this historic election has affected you. There’s info about Michelle on there, too.
Topic of the next 72 days: are you making preparations for the Inauguration? If you live here, are you taking the day off? If you don’t live here, are you planning to travel in?
Up until about 72 hours ago, I was planning on sleeping in this morning, going into work late and telling everybody that I voted. Where’s my sticker you ask? I’m much too cool for that.
I wasn’t going to not vote because I was apathetic, or I didn’t favor one candidate over another, it’s just that my candidate is going to carry DC. DC always votes Democratic, and with our city’s population being 70% African-American, the majority of them Democrats, it’s pretty much a done deal. My vote isn’t necessary to put my favored candidate into office. Although I do like voting for Eleanor, even though she always runs unopposed and is a great supporter for DC rights and interests.
Another reason I thought sleeping in would be better (besides just getting the sleep) was that after moving last year and changing my address and driver’s license, I discovered that I was still “registered” to vote in my previous precinct, using my previous address. I had an old bill with my old address and I didn’t have my voter card so I was thinking I might be in for a precarious situation in the voting room. I was prepared to cast a provisional ballot though.
Then I started thinking that I had to vote in this election. If it came about being a big pain in the ass procedure then so be it.
I took the bus to the medical center where my “old” polling place is, instead of just down the street where the “new” polling place is, and was surprised to find a line around the building and down three blocks. Luckily I had loaded up three movies on my iPhone in case this was going to be an all-morning event. Luckily though, halfway through my standing in line they called out for voters with last names that begin D-L to bypass everyone and come on through. This cut my wait line in half and I had already been in line for 50 minutes.
So I proudly voted for Barack Obama and pretty much the entire Democratic ticket, including Eleanor. And I wore my sticker proudly all day long.
While everybody knows that you can get free coffee from Starbucks or ice cream from Ben & Jerry’s on election day, here are some two local establishments getting in on the act.
Chef Spike’s Good Stuff Eatery is offering a free Good Stuff Cookie or Brownie if you show your “I voted” sticker. You must present the emailed certificate when ordering so print it out now. The certificate, really html, is here so just print this and trim it out. This offer is good only on election day.
The 9:30 Club is having an even better offer. For one hour on Wednesday (it’s an “election hangover special”) from 10–11am it’s buy-one-get-one-free for all concert tickets. Great deal, but unforch there’s not really any shows coming up that I’d want to see. Too bad The Charlatans aren’t coming until 2009.
