One week

Officially survived my first week of work at the new job. Important lesson of the week:
When creating documents that require the Secretary's signature, you must get authorization for said signature. This is in direct contrast with my previous job, where not only was authorization not necessary, but forgery was accepted and encouraged. This may require some adjustment of my moral standards.

I've started answering the phone, which is always an adventure. Generally, it is legislators calling about their whiny constituents' education problems. I swear, the things people call their representatives for these days. But I, like George Bush, am a problem solver. I solve problems - like how to get a copy of your GED transcript or school nurse certification, or determining the best course of action for a teacher being fired for self-defensing a student, or figuring out what the hell PLGIT stands for.

Weirdo constituent of the week award goes to Abigail (name has been changed to protect the identity of the stupid), who sent a letter urging the Secretary to "cosponsor and support" a global warming bill being proposed in the U.S. Senate. Is she confused, or just insane? We kindly advised her that her concerns might be better addressed if she told them to either her senators or the Dept. of Environmental Protection... because as much as we care about global warming, well... they don't call us the Dept. of Education for nothing.

I'm home this weekend for Stephanie's baby shower, and my birthday. Seriously, if people don't stop getting married and having babies, I'm gonna... well, I'll probably start to panic that I haven't made enough progress in procuring the significant other required to do those things. I have four weddings this year - FOUR. And that's not even counting the one I'm not invited to. This is seriously getting out of control.

Speaking of out of control, how about the Presidential primaries? They're talking about moving almost ALL of them up to Super Tuesday, which would be utterly insane. It'll be a total shit show. I really like the idea of the rotating system, where each region gets a turn to go first. It's really the fairest way to do it. Of course, on the other hand, the campaigns are starting so damn early that there's really no reason to draw out primary season... the main reason for not having them all on the same day (like the general election) is so people get a chance to see the candidates tested over a period of time, while catering to a number of different demographics, depending on the state. Having them all on one day is considered unfair because it doesn't allow candidates to build momentum by winning one state at a time, and favors the candidates with the most money. But we've got candidates announcing a year before the primaries even start - that's plenty of time to build momentum and test candidates. And ANY system you set up will favor the candidates with the most money. But it'll still be a shit show.

I really like this article about the role of the Presidency - it's the kinds of questions I'd like to see answered in a campaign, but which will never happen. Instead we will focus on the stuff that doesn't really matter, and that has no impact on how a person will run the country. *sigh* I long for the return of really good debate in a Presidential election. Oh hell, I just long for new episodes of The West Wing.

Since it is the 10th anniversary of Buffy, I would be remiss if I didn't celebrate by posting this EW review from 1997 and an interview with Joss and co. from before the show even aired.

This made me think of Kelly - a NY Times article about the "TV equivalent of chick lit."

And this is quite possibly the most awesome thing ever.