Rockin the Suburbs

November 4th, 2008 is Election Day in the United States of America.

In addition to picking the 44th President of the United States, voters will select the 435 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, 33 Senators, and 11 Governors. They also will decide countless local elections and ballot initiatives.

http://www.rockthevote.com/electioncenter
http://maps.google.com/vote
http://canivote.org
http://www.cnn.com/theforum

And most importantly, Don’t Forget to Vote!

Of course, I register to vote at my new address when I got my new license. And I find out now (too late to do anything about it) that the DMV never filed my registration – great. Just great. Illinois has never embraced the Motor Voter Act from 1993. Compliance has always been at the minimum, making more work and more paperwork and more steps for everyone. Now I can’t vote in our local elections, I can only vote in the Federal Election (thank god). But seriously, WTF?

Registration deadline is approaching – I think people who don’t vote are INSANE

Video PSA with tons of celebrities

An easy way to find the right “operating system” for you…

Ok, so it’s a little after 4, I’ve been at work since 8:30 and I’m supposed to stay till 5:30 (summer hours, we get half a day off on Friday). But my brain is fried and I can’t seem to find what’s wrong with the code I’m working on. I have a feeling this has to do with the fact I’ve been sitting in a chair since 8:30 staring at this fancy device that was going to turn the worlds labor force on its ear. Which brings me to my point, the 8-hour workday. The 8-hour day has been law since 1938 when it was brought in with The New Deal but it was heavily disputed and protested for a long time before that. Back then people were fighting not to work 12 and 16 hour days. The theory was the 8-8-8 rule. 8 of work 8 of play and 8 of sleep. Well if you think about it, when was the last time you got 8 hours of sleep or spent 8 hours with your family? And when was the last time you spent 8 hours at work? Well I know I leave every morning at 7:30 and I won’t get home till 6:30 if I skin out early or 7pm if I leave when I’m supposed to… Hmmm that counts up to almost 12 hours! WTF? Since computers are so good and supposedly we can all do the work of 4 people now, I say we back off the 8-hour day even more and have a 30-hour work week. That would give everyone 2 hours a day for that dreaded chore of commuting. And since we’re all assisted by these wonderful machines, isn’t it about time that we put the larger focus on family? Maybe more kids could get what they need from their parents if Mom got off work around the same time they get out of school. Maybe fewer children wouldn’t be unsupervised for those 3 hours between when you get home from school and your Mom gets home from work (Although I myself never, ever caused any trouble during this time). It’s just my thought that in the last 100 years this country has come a long way, but it seems that technological advances are more important than lifestyle advances. And I think we as Americans need to live more for each other and our families instead of living to punch a clock. It looks like Europe is taking that approach, I found this interesting graph that shows the change in total hours worked between the USA and the European countries.