Friday, July 4, 2008

"Why no posts?", you ask.

I've gone from 3-4 posts/day to 3-4 posts/week.

The reason?
I've been contributing to the political process in a more direct way, volunteering for Martin Heinrich's campaign for NM1.

What this means in practice is that I've been spending many hours on the computer updating a donor database.

Initially I worked in the campaign office - on a very old machine with none-too-reliable wireless connection to internet. After one particularly frustrating afternoon on this primitive system I asked if I could take the work home. Since then I've been working on home system - which is a brand new Dell desktop with broadband connection.
Even with this best-of-all-possible worlds, database updating is still extremely tedious and time-consuming. [Latest task: updating area-codes to reflect recent bifurcation of New Mexico into two area codes - most of the state ("most" by area) is now area code 575. The database interface allows no simple "find/replace" option: it's a matter of search by zipcode & updating records based on phone prefix. There's also basic housekeeping involved: checking that mail address includes title ("Mr.", "Mrs.", "Ms.", "Dr.", etc.), and that, e.g., "Ln" is spelled out "Lane".

On the bright side:
1. I believe my efforts contribute more directly to success in November than Al Qaeda in ABQ could ever hope for.
2. (personal): the campaign work provides a welcome transition to retirement... I am, in fact, working more hours and more diligently for the campaign than I ever managed at work!

On the down side:
My enthusiasm for Al Qaeda in ABQ is less intense than it was.
It'd help if more folks posted comments!
(many thanks to p.m. prescott for his thought-provoking responses!)

Have a nice day.

2 comments:

P M Prescott said...

Thanks for coming a leaving a post, I've had quite a drought lately. Keep up the good work, when this is over maybe your blog will have happier posts because the madness has stopped.

One Fly said...

You write good stuff Russ. Start a link list of bloggers like yourself. Post comments on other sites you link to. Let them know that you have linked to them and and link to posts you have written when appropriate in online papers ect. The comments will come as it did for me. tb