Spontaneous Musings

It was a lovely day to vote. Clear blue sky, no clouds, plenty of sunshine, mild temperatures. If it weren't for my headache, I'd have taken a walk to Greenwood Cemetary afterwards. Voting itself was rather uneventful. Due to the district that I was in or my last name, there was no line for ballots and a relatively short line for scanning. The way it works is you go to your district's table, they find your name, you sign next to it, and get a ballot. The ballot is a legal size piece of white paper with the candidate's names and little bubbles next to each name to fill in. Easy to read, and the directions are in five different languages. If you mark more than one box in the selected category -- your ballot will be invalid. If you attempt to vote for a candidate twice, your ballot will be invalidated. And you will get a chance to try again. They will provide you with a new ballot.

Each person gets to go to a privacy booth, which is basically a table with a white privacy shield in front and to the sides of it. They fill out their ballot, then stand in line for a scanner. Once you get to the scanner, you slide your ballot into the machine. It takes the ballot and states your vote has been counted. And the volunteer gives you a nifty little sticker stating that you have voted. [It's important to note this is how voting is done in New York State, each State does it a little differently, but the rules are generally the same. Everyone who is registered must be permitted to vote. No one can vote twice, your vote is only counted once. And no electioneering, loitering, or promoting of a specific candidate can happen near or at the polls. You can't wear Hillary or Trump t-shirts at the polling station.]

This is the first time that I've voted for a female candidate for the position of President of the United States. While other countries around the globe have had female presidents and prime ministers, the US is woefully behind the curve. While this is a wonderful moment in history, some of that is tainted by the fact that most people did it to ensure the world class idiot doesn't get elected and destroys our country and the world.

Anyhow..pictures:

While I'm cooking root vegetable soup, a television poll or rather meme - where everyone who stumbles upon this checks off their current favorite television series, which they've been obsessing over. (I really should be working on my taxes...but, alas, the last time I did my taxes on Valentine's Day, someone broke in my apartment and stole my laptop while I was sleeping with all my tax information on it. So, I'm slightly superstitious, granted that was a different apartment, and it's close to impossible to do it here...but still.)

Anyhow, back to the poll/meme. Once you check off your favorite television series (the one you are obsessive about at the moment), assuming of course I managed to list it (if I didn't mark other and list in comments), go to the comments and make your case for the show - list any links to meta, fanfic, fanart, fan communities, boards, vids, etc - the links not the actual work. If someone else listed it first, reply to their response and list yours...who knows you might have made a new connection. Oh and here's the important part -- MAKE SURE YOU TELL PEOPLE, ie me, WHERE THEY CAN WATCH OR SEE YOUR FAVORITE TV SHOW! (otherwise, how will it get new viewers?? If people can't find it, they can't watch it. Keep in mind we live in a world with over 1000 different channels and distribution venues.)

For people like myself that watch television but aren't obsessed with any tv shows or in any fandoms at the moment - I have "Nothing at the Moment" listed, because I'm not obsessive about any television series at the moment -- but I'm curious to see where everyone else is leaning. And if there is anything interesting out there that I'm overlooking.

[As an aside, once you insert the poll - you can't edit it -- which makes doing polls a dicey enterprise.]

[Poll #2036851]

I like to do this every once and a while - find out what tv series that people reading or lurking on my livejournal are reading. Assuming of course anyone is outside of the handful of folks that occasionally comment. It's really impossible to tell who reads your journal and who doesn't, even if you lock all the entries - isn't it? Sort of true about most things that we write or say - actually. You don't know if people read it or heard it - unless they respond. Whether they grokked it - is a whole other issue. (Grokked is now a word - which Robert Heinlein created - and it means understood, but really totally understood it, as opposed to just got it.)

A couple of caveats regarding this poll - it is unfortunately slanted toward American Standard and Basic Cable Television, because that is what I have access to. Also, only tv shows that are on this season, nothing that is cancelled or in hiatus. (ie. only available on DVD or netflix streaming). Also if your favorite series is not referenced, because seriously there are over 125 tv series on at the moment and I can only remember or possibly watch 28 of them, please just list it in the comments. And it's more than possible I'll forget one of the one's I'm watching. (Lack of sleep may be killing short term memory cells.) Apologies for mistakes in advance. I'm doing a poll because they are easier to get responses to than memes.


( So What TV Shows Are You Watching - because I'm curious )

Oh I only listed the new shows that have premiered to date. If it hasn't premiered yet, I didn't list it. And with the exception of Walking Dead (which is rerunned on numerous channels, and Arrow, I left tv shows that haven't aired yet this week off the list. Or tried to. Trying to keep it current.

I think this poll basically just proves how out of the fandom loop I currently am. But what the heck. With any luck more than five people will play. I decided to be radical and not pit Buffy/Angel vs. Buffy/Spike or Damon/Elena vs. Stefan/Elena. Because that's been done to death. I did however pit Katniss/Peeta vs. Katniss/Gale, but also pitted them against Crichton/Aeryn - who I think fits in the Friends to Romance category, not the bantering our way to tru love category. One of the phrases I used in the poll is from a Florence and the Machine Song - guess which one?


[Poll #1879078]

This time I decided to add other Whedonverse characters to the mix to spice things up a bit. If you don't them or didn't like the other shows, makes the poll rather easy.
Rules are the same - pick the one you enjoyed watching on the show the best or thought was the most fun, interesting, whatever. Don't over think. Just go with your gut. Quick responses.

I wanted to include a question regarding Mark Watches - do people care what the guy says about your favorite character? Does what Mark says affect whether you read his reviews of Buffy? Perhaps a better question is - will you read a blog or review or discussion board that bashes your favorite character? Or give up on it? Will you read people who do it? I ask, because, I'm not sure if the answer is as simple and obvious as I think it is. ( my two cents )How do you feel about it? Do you feel the same way? Differently?

[ETA: This poll had harder choices than I thought. First one that I really struggled picking between characters on. Good luck! Again...hope more than 10 people do this or I will look silly.]

[Poll #1852210]

I got curious about this while reading a post on the internet...don't ask which one.
Weird things inspire me. Anyhoo...I left out the obvious ones, because let's face it we already know who prefers Xander to Spike, Buffy to Spike, and Spike to Angel - we've argued those to death. Really. Who cares?? But these are harder choices because in a lot of these cases, people dearly love both characters. I'm making you pick one. Roll the dice. Which one at this particular point in time do you prefer? [ETA: DO NOT OVERTHINK THIS PEOPLE. BY PREFER - I mean which character you liked or enjoyed watching on the show better as a fictional character in the series. Not who you think is the better human being, more morally upstanding, or prefer as a role model for the kiddies or to hang with or be your best bud. This is a fictional character fandom poll not who I want to be friends with or marry poll.]

Don't worry, you're not being held to it. You can change your mind next week or tomorrow as the case may be. I certainly will. Polls are anything but definitive.

I do hope more than 10 people respond or I'll look like an idiot. ;-)

[Poll #1850464]

This was the result of post about Spiral...a lot of people said they loved Spiral, when I remember a lot of people hating it. So here's a poll of Buffy episodes you liked or hated.
You tell me. No fighting folks. This is all highly subjective. Plus, I'm under stress. If you annoy me, I have claws. But friendly banter and discussion is encouraged.

[Poll #1846742]

PS: IF your answer isn't there, just hit ambivalent or comment. It's impossible to figure out all the possible answers when you do polls. Thanks for taking it!

I can't remember what Whedon tv shows my readership favors. So perhaps you can help? My current guess is that you rank them as follows:

1. Buffy
2. Angel (with about 25-45% preferring Angel to Buffy for various reasons)
3. Firefly
4. Dollhouse (with 65% squicked by the series and finding it unwatchable)

( assumptions or presumptions regarding the majority of my reader's preferances on lj. )
That said, for a bit of fun, take the poll and see if you can prove me wrong? Feel free to link, since a lot of readers seem to be through links at times.

[Poll #1831422]

[Note: Won't be able to respond until late on Thursday or Friday, since I can no longer access personal blogs via my workplace. So can only access at home. PS: I reposted this poll fifteen minutes after first posting, because I screwed up on the last question and had to fix it. Now it should be fine. If you responded to the deleted post, please respond again. Thanks.]

[ETA: Read the comments. Fascinating.]

The poll below is well what it looks like - a poll to stave off general boredom. I have no idea what to call the thing - Culture Poll with Weather and a few other quirky non-related poll questions??

Since it is a poll and I suck at editing these things and never pre-plan them, there are no doubt tons of errors. My apologies, but can't change them. It is what it is. Tried to leave an "other option" for all categories...because I reached my limit (lj cuts you off at a certain point, not sure what DW would do since I can't figure out how to do it in DW). Thought about asking what your favorite relationship was, but there are more relationship possibilities that you could adore than there are radio buttons, even if I excluded Buffy entirely, I'd still have problems limiting the # choices. So, if you want you can answer that in comments?

This is all radio buttons - because I want a more definite result. If you can't make up your mind or it doesn't apply, just skip those questions that don't work for you - god knows I will.

Thanks for taking my poll. Hope it's more than ten people - one can never tell with these things. Be depressing if it's less. Will state, that's the risk I always take with polls. It's the risk we all take, I guess.

So here it goes:

( Cultural Poll with Quirky Weather, Color and Drink Options )

A quick poll, keeping in mind lj will be down at 4pm Pacific Time and 7pm EST.
I bought Angel issue 38, Spike issue #2, and Illyria issue #1 and am curious if it makes sense to review them. In other words - let me know which opinions you want me to fling upon you all this weekend, under a cut-tag of course.

[Poll #1643732]