century

i squint up at the weatherpocked red sandstone of my city bricks
and want to touch it crumble under my fingertips

the signs say STOP (in the parks not to touch
the red rocks) preserving their sandy structure but

not the bricks, no one stops them from weathering away beneath my fingertips

Buy Local Week, Nov. 28 – Dec. 5

if you can buy something in a local store and a national or international chain and you feel lured by the cost savings of the chain think about long term money.

if you buy a cd at best buy at the super dooper big sticker sale price of $19.99 instead of the regular price of $24 at local denver store, for example twist & shout, how much are you saving? $4? or is it more like $3 after factoring in gas to the suburbs. Maybe more like $2 after you consider the local tax revenue impacts. or perhaps $0 when twist & shout’s doors close like their neighbor just did (neighborhood flix, independent movie theater), your ability to choose where you shop is gone and the chain store raises prices.

if you love your city, vote for it with your dollars. there’s only room for one winner in an election. make sure you put your money where you want it to be.

more info: http://milehighbusinessalliance.org/node/372

Moose Sightings in Colorado are Restricted to Tacky Gift Shop Windows

So what is it about ceramic moose that really get people going? They don’t even have to be ceramic. They can be printed on t-shirts, crafted into copper candleholders, or plush and furry stuffed versions. They can even be smiling unabashed on a paper bag full of licorice flavored “moose dropping” candy. A sure winner.

There is no questioning that moose souvenirs sell. I am personally guilty of purchasing a brushed stainless steel moose key chain with swinging legs and gold-colored antlers on a trip to Minnesota in my youth. Sadly though, when I began driving and actually used the key chain for more than a decoration on my corkboard, the legs promptly fell off.

There is, however, a need of explanation as to why the moose souvenirs sell. In Colorado today the moose population can boast a mere 2,000 members. Putting this into perspective, there are over 305,000 elk in Colorado and even they are rare to see. So what’s with the obsession? How on earth does a set of moose coasters remind you of a trip to Colorado when snow encrusted peaks and aspen trees are far more prevalent?

So why does this even come to mind? Yesterday I was on a photo recon mission, snapping stock shots of the souvenir capitol of Colorado, the 16th Street Mall. This is an easy task. With interesting art and architecture everywhere, the photo ops are far more prevalent than members of the state’s live moose population (and far less than that of its ceramic moose population). This photography task was not so easy in the other neighborhood I visited prior to the 16th Street Mall photo buffet.

The Highlands neighborhood in Denver is divided into 2 parts: Highland Square, which is fancy and boutique-rich; and Tennyson, which is rougher, more artful, and a little scary in places. Naturally, this recon project was in the Tennyson side of the neighborhood.

It really felt like putting lipstick on a pig (sorry prickly GOP, this is an actual expression that existed and was used far before your sexist use of Sara Palin as a vote catcher was put into place. Furthermore, you can’t claim that every time the word “pig” is used, it is in reference to Palin. oh wait, I mean “lipstick,” either way, I suppose.) Which is to say, I was trying to sell the neighborhood as opposed to simply showcasing it in its own fabulousness. I struggled with this a little bit. Do I personally want to send people to a neighborhood that is less than the lipstick I am promising? Perhaps I can craft a look and set of information that is more lip-gloss or lip-balm in its approach. But seriously, the food options are weak, the residential areas between retail districts are crumbling, and it took me two hours to find what might be the cover shot for the project. T’was a bit frustrating. Which is why, in contrast, the energy of the 16th Street Mall on a Saturday afternoon in early September was all the more enticing.

There was the skinny girl walking her skinny dog, the homeless guy shouting insults from atop his worn, red milk crate, that robot guy with the huge afro that was making conversation with confused passers-by, an excellent argument between strangers about the integrity of the two presidential candidates, and much much more.

Of course, if only I had stopped to buy a moose lamp, I could remember the day in its full glory. Alas, I did not and this memory is destined to be dashed into the abyss of forgotten days as the years pass. And that, folks, is why we buy moose souvenirs.

counting ballots makes me cooler than most people

part I

so today i counted early ballots for the primary election in colorado tomorrow. tomorrow will be crazy, they say.

the experience was odd. we were a motley crew of people who loved politics, or are retired and bored, or just really needed money. though, rarely were two of these qualities found in the same person. there was one common thread that seemed to cross categories and that was most people had bad knees or some other disability in common that meant they couldn’t stand all day. funny how the job description didn’t mention it was a “stand around all day” kind of gig.

in our group of about 30, there were 2 republicans and 1 undeclared. the democrats had the place by force. rarely would you find a room full of democrats and have them say, wow there are too many democrats here. but it happens. it will probably happen again here shortly when the Democratic National Convention-goers start to trickle in to town.

so this whole counting process involves wearing a red vest and shuffling loads of ballots from one box, into a big machine, then into another box. this requires little skill, little drive, and little general competency. apparently, it also requires little planning on the part of the government staff. it wasn’t until my red vest was bequeathed unto me that i felt like a walmart worker. until then, it was a pretty solid factory worker experience.

well, today i started as a puller. this job was pulling counted ballots from the machine and putting them in a box. my helper was a zen master from india. now if that doesn’t put a different perspective on politics, what does?

THEN my big excitement came when i was categorized as “a computer person” (don’t you love that? yes, i’ve built databases and websites and have written some formulas that i consider to be kickass in excel, but this term has nothing to do with that.

i am “a computer person” simply because i don’t shriek and pull up my petticoats at the idea of using a mouse. can you believe there are still people who do this? so yes, i can click “ok” and “cancel” on this big machine.). so how do you like me now? i’m “a computer person.” my training on clicking the “ok” and “cancel” buttons followed shortly thereafter.

now this was quite interesting. the machine spits out the ballots that people fill out incorrectly. to fill out a ballot properly, you blacken in a line. so, when people circle, X or check an option, the machine rejects the ballot. then a team of judges decides the voter’s intent of the mark and sends the ballot off to be reproduced on a new card so that it can be run through the machine correctly.

the funny part is that this job requires nearly no computer skill, but rather a hearty understanding of the ballot flow process. it is amazing to me that this system works at all, given the amount of training/competency of the workers.

after several hours of this, they sent us home.

part II

today i start at 3:00 pm and count ballots until they’re gone. any takers on how long i’ll be there?

part III – the dramatic conclusion

i know you’ve all been wringing your hands in sweaty anticipation of how long ballot counting took yesterday. certainly, none of you actually care who won the primaries in colorado. certainly. good thing too, because i’m not privy to that info yet. i haven’t bothered to look it up just yet…

so anyway, i left the counting facility at 1:30 am.

oh we were cranky by 10pm. you betcha. it was funny to watch it happen. you see, nobody told us things throughout the day. you know, pertinent information about being permitted to talk to certain people or not talk to certain people, how to mark boxes that don’t have the appropriate info on them, who you can help when their ballots are shooting all over the floor and who you can’t. so, instead of knowing what to do, we were yelled at for doing things wrong when we couldn’t find someone to give us answers. the beauty of this was that we were also told that we had to be independent. hmmmmm. this is part of why we were cranky by 10pm.

we were also cranky because we could see the inefficiency from miles away. (i mean, really–the trucks forgot to pick up a huge portion of the mid-day ballots? setting us back by at least 4 hours? isn’t this what the trucks do?) so, to some degree, we can say “hey, we’re paid hourly so who cares. the longer it takes, the better.” but really, watching people do stuff wrong and knowing we have to redo things because of it, then wait around doing nothing, then have management snip at us, doesn’t really balance out for me. apparently i wasn’t the only one.

the election commission is an unhappy place. these people are so threatened by media given the complications of the last few elections, that they’re so busy guarding themselves and there have effectively made themselves ineffective at what they do. yes folks, this is your tax dollars at work. but, if media weren’t driven by ratings and rating weren’t driven by people like us, we could sit back and criticize. as it is, if we stopped bitching about what we saw on tv, our tax money would be spent much more efficiently. and we know that won’t happen. it’s an amazing dynamic.

i suppose i’ll see if i can find out who my new state rep candidates are now…

oh yeah, i am soooo all up on ch7 news. that camera was up in my face all afternoon. great. can’t wait to see that footage.

Confluence Park in Downtown Denver

There is a bike/ped trail 2 blocks from our house that goes 4 miles west to Downtown and a long way east out to a reservoir and beyond.

We’re not in “east and beyond” shape yet, so we’ve been going west–to the action.

Mike found this park one evening and said it was a must-see on a hot day. He was right. The bridge you see is Speer blvd., a major road that cuts through the city, and I-25 is just out of sight in this photo. Downtown is to Mike’s right.

What you don’t see in this picture is the loads of kids in inner tubes and rafts and all of the kayakers. Considering the par was packed, how did we manage to take a picture without them? Go figure.

On the South Platte River side (seen above), there is a small set of rapids and some pool areas. On the Cherry Creek side (around the corner to Mike’s right), the water is smooth and this is where the dogs play.

It’s smaller than Point State Park, and certainly the rivers here are TINY too, but it is a fantastically accessible amenity to have within biking distance to our home.

We found it in good timing too–we were just starting to miss going to Flat Rock at Linn Run state park.

We also discovered locks along Cherry Creek that are used by people taking rides on those little boats that make Venice famous. Very cool.