1. Traditional websites (such as the one you currently have) only allow one-way communication. If you value the concerns and opinions of the people whom you represent, then have an ongoing conversation WITH us through a blog rather than talk AT us through occasional press releases.
2. The people whom you represent don't know you. We should. Who is the REAL Charlie Bass? How does he FEEL about the issues? What does he do in his spare time? What does he listen to on his iPod? These sorts of things don't make sense in a press release. But they do make sense if you want to be seen as a person rather than a politician -- and they make sense in a blog.
3. You don't know the people whom you represent. We are more than the summaries you receive from your staff. Let us talk to you directly, through your blog and through ours, so that you know where we are coming from and can, as a result, truly represent us.
4. Presumably each and every vote is important, but not necessarily worthy of a press release and/or a letter to interested constituents. On a blog, you could tell us about those votes and why you took the position that you did.
5. You'll have a new and effective way to monitor what your constituents have to say about your activities and decisions -- at least the activities and decisions which you blog about. Through tools such as Technorati, you can quickly find out our response, even if we don't comment to you directly.
6. You will increase interest in, and decrease disillusionment with, politics. Your average constituent has no idea what goes on in Washington. And many of us have come to the conclusion that there's no point in even bothering to contact our representatives because it will make no difference. Is it really all that surprising that voter turnout is so poor? Wouldn't it be great to infuse the public with a new energy and enthusiasm for the democratic process? A blog would certainly help in that regard.
7. People will be more likely to get in touch. Sending you a traditional letter takes time: Time to phrase it "just right," time to mail it, time to wait for a response. Calling your office isn't much better: One still feels the need to get the message "just right" and is often left with the impression that the conversation will get condensed into a single sentence which will in turn result in a generic response from you (or, more likely, your staff). Therefore, why should we bother investing our time and energy? On the other hand, the informal nature of blogging makes it acceptable to jot down a quick note without having to worry about dotting every "i" and crossing every "t." It's more comfortable. And if we know that you'll read and respond to our comments, we will want to write you.
8. It is environmentally sound. Think of all the paper you will be saving by writing to us on your blog.
9. You should be able to get some good PR out of it: A press release announcing it, some coverage on WMUR, perhaps an entire show on NHPR's "The Exchange" dedicated to your new efforts to really stay in touch with your constituents.
10. All the cool representatives are doing it.

Janice of Cow Hampshire and New Hampshire Blogging has designed a new banner for me. What do you think? I LOVE it! Thanks Janice!!!

I think what I will ultimately do is what Google does and switch banners based on seasons/holidays. I could NOT have asked for a more perfect Halloween banner. Janice, could you be persuaded to design a seasonal collection for me? We could probably work something out via PayPal.

UPDATE: If you're looking at my current banner with its pretty flowers and butterfly and wondering "What attitude?", then you missed the first banner Janice created for me. Wait until Halloween, 'cause it's a good one!

TJ and I have decided that we need an NH Blogger Meet-Up. Who's in and who's organizing it? Janice??

I just installed the Release Candidate for Kubuntu 6.06 LTS. It's fast, it's pretty, and -- best of all -- aside from having to spend a few minutes getting WPA set up, everything worked as expected right away. I also like their philosophy:

"Ubuntu" is an ancient African word, meaning "humanity to others". Ubuntu also means "I am what I am because of who we all are". The Ubuntu Linux distribution brings the spirit of Ubuntu to the software world...

The Ubuntu community is built on the ideas enshrined in the Ubuntu Philosophy: that software should be available free of charge, that software tools should be usable by people in their local language and despite any disabilities, and that people should have the freedom to customise and alter their software in whatever way they see fit.

This is the sort of distro that will cause Linux to be more widely adopted. Give Ubuntu or (if you prefer KDE like I do) Kubuntu a try!

Voyant Chai. If you like the flavor of chai and are looking for a new liqueur to try, this one is a winner. Plus it comes in a really cool-looking bottle!

I was watching ABC News this evening and learned that Jack Kingston's office live blogged the Capitol lockdown today. I had to check it out for myself. Not only is there a Kingston blog, but there's also a Kingston podcast and an iTunes iMix with some fairly decent music in it.

I suddenly feel very let down. Why can't New Hampshire have cool representatives? Charlie Bass is SO Congressman 1.0....

I feel that my blog description carries with it an obligation to keep my readers up-to-date on weird potato news. Given the origin of the description, I could not have asked for a more fitting tater tale: One that involves the happy combination of potatoes and weapons, takes place in the UK, and happens two days in a row!

YORK (Reuters) - Workers at a factory making chips were evacuated two days running last week after bomb parts turned up in potatoes imported from France and Belgium, the site of battles in World War One and Two.

The Scarborough plant, owned by Canada's McCain Foods, the world's largest producer of frozen chips, was emptied on Friday after a worker spotted a shell tip among the potatoes as they were being cleaned for slicing. [...]

On Saturday, an entire hand grenade was discovered in the potatoes and the Yorkshire plant was evacuated again.

Being nearsighted, I wear glasses in unfamiliar places and when driving. I don't mind my glasses; in fact, I rather like them. I consider glasses to be just another article of clothing or an accessory. Besides, I don't like foreign objects going anywhere near my eyes. The puff-of-air glaucoma test which you get as part of a routine eye exam fills me (and the nurse administering it) with significant anxiety and dread. And no doctor has ever successfully managed to perform that blue light test on me; they always give up because I cannot stop blinking (and flinching). Thus I couldn't have contact lenses or laser surgery even if I wanted to, which I don't. So I can totally understand the person who wrote the FAQ that contained these questions:

Q: Why don't you stop wasting people's time and just wear contacts or get LASIK surgery?
A: I don't like contacts or surgery. Imagine that.

Q: Don't you think that's a bit extreme?
A: Paying two thousand dollars to have someone cut your eyes and shoot a laser in them (just so you don't have to wear glasses) seems extreme to me... but I don't have a problem with that either. And we'll give you your dose of X-treme Eye Action for a twentieth of the price! X-TREME!!!

What I don't get, however, is his "X-treme Eye Action" solution: pierced glasses. And, yes, "pierced glasses" means exactly what you think it means.

Via Strange New Products.

TJ took a personality test to find out what world leader he is. Turns out he's JFK. I took it and got Albert Einstein.

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

So, any bets on whether I will save the world or destroy it? On second thought, don't answer that.

This morning I wandered into my home office and was greeted by a window indicating that there was a new version of Skype and that I should have it. Fine. During the install, the typical license agreement window appeared, but this time I decided to actually read it. I got as far as section 5.2:

5.2 Your Confidential Information and Your Privacy. Skype is committed to respecting Your privacy and the confidentiality of Your personal data. The "Privacy Policy" that is published on the Skype Website applies to the use of Your personal data, the traffic data as well as the content contained in Your communication(s). [...]

"The content contained in (my) communication(s)"? Hmmmmm.... Does that mean my actual conversation? I figured I should take a look at that privacy policy. In section 4, "To whom does Skype transfer Your personal information?", I found this tidbit:

Except as provided below, Skype shall not sell, rent, trade or otherwise transfer any Personal and/or Traffic Data or Communications Content to any third party without Your explicit permission, unless it is obliged to do so under applicable laws or by order of the competent authorities.

[...] Please be informed that, notwithstanding the abovementioned, in the event of a designated competent authority requesting Skype or Skype's local partner responsible towards such authority, to retain and provide Personal and/or Traffic Data, or to install wiretapping equipment in order to intercept communications, Skype and/or its local partner will provide all necessary assistance and information to fulfill this request. [...]

Now I'm not a lawyer, and my brain tends to find something else with which to pass the time when presented with legalese. But doesn't the above boil down to "We will let the NSA have all of the information it wants"?

Like the two-thirds of the American public who reportedly don't mind being spied on, I have nothing to hide. However, I DO mind being spied on. I feel that it is a violation of my rights, and it's just plain creepy. And I especially mind it if it is carried out without first obtaining a warrant based on probable cause. I don't see anything in Skype's privacy policy that indicates they'll advocate for the rights of their consumers and insist upon due process. In fact, qualifying "unless it is obliged to do so under applicable laws" with "or by order of the competent authorities" strikes me as a welcome mat for the NSA.

Am I missing something?

Trader Joe's Cave Aged Gorgonzola. It's rBST-free, uses microbial rennet (i.e. safe for vegetarians), and it was aged in a cave. A cave! For 90 days!! Plus it's tasty.

When you get up in the morning, do you remember the dreams that you had the night before? Or even that you had a dream? I don't. When I fall asleep, it's as if someone switched off the power to my brain; when I awake the next morning, it's like the switch has been flipped back on. It has always been this way for me. Apparently, as a toddler, I regularly got upset at any adult who wished me "sweet dreams" as I headed off to bed. An insistent "I don't dream" was reportedly my response.

So why am I telling you this? In part, because TJ of Better Living through Chemistry left me a comment suggesting that I needed to blog about something else this week, like my feet. But the main reason is that this morning when I awoke, I did remember my dream. And I didn't just remember dreaming, or a few vague details about my dream; I remembered specifics. They're still in my head now.

The little I have read about dreams is that they are often symbolic; that they give us insight into our past, our present, and our desires for the future; that they can be a way for us to cope with and/or figure out problems we are experiencing. Okay. I'm willing to buy that. But I do not have any clue about what this dream is supposed to mean. So I'm tossing it out to you, and to any dream interpreters who stumble across my site.

Vong Vang left his cell phone in room 248 of some hotel. I don't know what hotel or where it happens to be. For that matter, I don't know who Vong Vang is. Never heard of the guy. All I know is that I've just checked in to this hotel, and my room is 248. When I open the door, I find two hotel staff members in there. One is vacuuming. I look at them like I didn't feel like coming back later so they left. As I settle in, I notice that there's a giant rectangular ashtray attached to the wall. It contains a ball point pen and a black cell phone. The cell phone is a flip phone, thicker than a RAZR and with a pretty sizable screen on the outside. I was curious, so I start going through the menu items on the phone. The name of the owner is listed as Vong Vang. His address is also provided, but I can't remember it now. I do remember that he lives in Michigan, however. There's an entry in his address book labeled "Mom and Dad." And there are pictures in the phone. Mr. Vang has taken 6 or 7 nearly identical pictures of some large, white, translucent rocks with green flecks that adorn the edge of a well-lit, bright blue indoor pond (the sort you'd see in the lobby of a fancy hotel or perhaps in a mall). There's also a picture of his girlfriend taken at a distance. She looks to be about 20, Asian, with long hair. She's standing in this enormous hallway that appears to be part of a train station or airport. She is resting her arm on the extended handle of her single, wheeled suitcase and is standing next to some guy whose appearance I cannot make out. I close the phone, figuring I should turn it in to the front desk. That's when I woke up.

So, any brilliant -- or at least entertaining -- interpretations? TJ, since you are the one who demanded a new entry, I hope you will grace Grain of Salt and its readers with your wisdom.

More specifically, he doesn't want to be linked to directly. The image is getting hundreds upon hundreds of hits each day from profile pages on MySpace and various and sundry forums. I'm pleased that you all like Wanna Die Elmo as much as I do, and appreciate your consideration of my IP rights. But please download him for use on your site and/or forum rather than linking to him directly. If you don't, I'll have to remove him -- or periodically change him into something else without warning.

Thanks much for your understanding!

UPDATE: I'm afraid that a few people have ruined things for everyone. Until I can figure out how to get htaccess and mod_rewrite working properly -- to prevent what has become some pretty significant image and bandwidth theft over the past few days -- I'm pulling Elmo completely off the site.

There's a meme going 'round. I got it from Better Living through Chemistry. Unlike other memes where you get tagged and then feel obliged to participate, this one is voluntary. If you want to join in, comment and I'll give you a letter. Then write ten words beginning with that letter in your blog along with an explanation of why you chose them, and pass out letters to others. TJ gave me the letter "C".

1. Camera: I have a nifty new one. A Kodak EasyShare V570. It's my latest and coolest toy. I'm still figuring out all of the features and am looking forward to capturing all sorts of interesting things.
2. Clouds: It's been raining here a lot. Rivers are overflowing. Roads have been washed out. Schools are closed. It's pretty bad.
3. Credit Cards: My goal is to get them paid off this year. It's part of my "I'm 35, time to act like a grown-up" phase. I'm making good progress -- paying them off; not acting like a grown-up.
4. Computers: I have four of them, plus my hand held. I guess I'm a geek. A while back on the Discovery Channel there was a series of shows on really bad weather disasters -- you know, super storms, enormous volcanic eruptions, solar flares gone wild -- and how they would impact life on Earth. I think it was the solar flare one where the comment was made that the more dependent upon technology something was, the worse it would fare. I'm doomed....
5. Candy: Of the maple sugar variety. There are a number of things I had not experienced until I moved to New England, like snow and the most gorgeous autumns you've ever seen. Maple sugar candy is one of those novelties, and it has yet to wear off.
6. CAT Scans: Long-time readers of Grain of Salt know that I've had a few of those. I have two more to go on June 2nd. With any luck, I'll be given a clean bill of health. That's what I suspect will happen, but it will be nice to know officially.
7. Cats: This one popped into my head because of the previous one. I used to have two cats, Aristophanes and Natasha. Ari was a sickly cat, but he lived for 15 years -- a couple of years longer than I thought he would. As Ari got older and sicker, Tasha decided to take advantage of having the upper hand and regularly walloped him. So I gave her away, and Ari's health improved. I miss having cats, but between my allergies and litter box maintenance, I probably won't be adopting any more.
8. Caffeine: What would I do without it?
9. Classics: I have a B.A. in Latin, but originally I was a Classics major. Herodotus kicked my butt and it seemed wise to stop taking Ancient Greek.
10. Catharsis: For some reason I like the sound of that word. I don't know why. Catharsis is healthy and all, but it's the sound of the word that appeals to me. And it's not even onomatopoeic. Go figure.

Yet apparently there is. And according to the Daily Kos it should prove to be amusing (note "amusing" is a euphemism for words I try not to use on my family-friendly blog).

A former intelligence officer for the National Security Agency said Thursday he plans to tell Senate staffers next week that unlawful activity occurred at the agency under the supervision of Gen. Michael Hayden beyond what has been publicly reported, while hinting that it might have involved the illegal use of space-based satellites and systems to spy on U.S. citizens. [...]

[...]"I think the people I talk to next week are going to be shocked when I tell them what I have to tell them. It's pretty hard to believe," Tice said. [...]

Tice said his information is different from the Terrorist Surveillance Program that Bush acknowledged in December and from news accounts this week that the NSA has been secretly collecting phone call records of millions of Americans. "It's an angle that you haven't heard about yet," he said.

In a lame attempt to view the proverbial cup as being half-full: Maybe whatever Tice reveals will indeed be shocking -- so shocking that the American people will actually stand up to Bush and the NSA and the Republicans who support this nonsense and say, "Enough is enough." Maybe the two thirds of Americans who don't mind surrendering their right to privacy will wake up and realize that things have gone too far, even in the name of safety.

My EFF membership isn't up for renewal yet, but I think it's time to send them a donation.

According to BlogPulse, the latest NSA spying revelation is getting a lot more buzz than the first one did.

They're working on Stilton perfume. While I like Stilton, I sure wouldn't want to smell like it. Yikes!

Is anyone really surprised by the revelation that the NSA is spying on us all? Did you actually believe The Decider back in January???

"In the meantime, this program is conscious of people's civil liberties, as am I. This is a limited program designed to prevent attacks on the United States of America -- and I repeat: limited."

Bush said the calls monitored are limited to those between known al Qaeda members or their affiliates outside the United States and people inside the United States.

I sure didn't. Not for one minute. I just assumed that he was lying and that we were all being spied upon....

I'm also not surprised that my phone company, Verizon, is among the telecoms that didn't see fit to protect the rights of its customers. But I was pleasantly surprised to learn that there is at least one company out there with a backbone: Qwest.

According to sources familiar with the events, Qwest's CEO at the time, Joe Nacchio, was deeply troubled by the NSA's assertion that Qwest didn't need a court order -- or approval under FISA -- to proceed. Adding to the tension, Qwest was unclear about who, exactly, would have access to its customers' information and how that information might be used.

[...]

Unable to get comfortable with what NSA was proposing, Qwest's lawyers asked NSA to take its proposal to the FISA court. According to the sources, the agency refused.

The NSA's explanation did little to satisfy Qwest's lawyers. "They told (Qwest) they didn't want to do that because FISA might not agree with them," one person recalled. For similar reasons, this person said, NSA rejected Qwest's suggestion of getting a letter of authorization from the U.S. attorney general's office. A second person confirmed this version of events.

[...]

Unable to reach agreement, Nacchio's successor, Richard Notebaert, finally pulled the plug on the NSA talks in late 2004, the sources said.

Now that is a company which deserves our support. So I just dumped Verizon as my long-distance carrier and signed up with Qwest. If you don't like being spied upon, you should switch too. Now I just have to figure out what my options are for local phone service....

Archie McPhee has tackled an important problem in today's society: Super Balls are boring. Well, I mean they bounce a lot and all, but they're just not much to look at. Until now. Behold the Cow Super Bouncer. Also available in other flavors like Ninja and Baby. That's right you can literally get a bouncing baby boy.

The first thing to go is the ability to eat like a pig without looking like a cow as a result. I wish I could trade my work ethic in and get eating like a pig and pulling all-nighters back. Although, without my work ethic, I wouldn't need to pull an all-nighter to meet a deadline -- and I probably would lose the ability to pay for all of the food that I'd like to pig out on. You just can't win, can you?

Well, it's 2:10 AM. Back to work while the body is still willing able not dead.

It's now 5:30 AM. Methinks I'm going to see if coffee qualifies as a business expense

... is one who responds to "Oh my gawd, please take a picture of that guy for my blog" by pulling over and taking a picture of that guy for your blog.

We happened upon this gentleman sitting on the sea wall at Hampton Beach. What a cool idea -- and the very sort of thing I bought my camera to capture. However, since I didn't know how my camera worked, and since my friend is an excellent photographer, it seemed like he had the best chance of being inconspicuous and getting a decent shot.

Now that he has a flickr account, I hope that he'll add the rest of his collection (hint hint ) as he's taken some fabulous photos over the years.

Yesterday my friend and I headed off to the beach for an afternoon of exploring and an evening of picnicking and hanging out. I brought my brand new camera and did my best to figure out how to use it. Most of the pictures came out poorly -- especially the ones taken in the evening that required a steady hand for the extended exposure time. However, I lucked out with this one. And I have a (slightly) better idea of what I'm doing now....

I also had fried dough for the first -- and the last -- time. It seems to be a very popular thing to get up here in the summertime, and I've been meaning to give it a try because I simply could not conceive of it. Fried dough, I was told, is dough that is fried and covered with cinamon and sugar. Having grown up in Texas, I kept imagining churros. "Is it like churros?" I've asked on several occasions. "No" was always the response. "Well then, how is it not like churros?" I'd counter. The "fried dough is dough that is fried" response was never specific enough for me. After all, technically, a churro is also a form of fried dough....

Having had fried dough, I must now apologize to my friend. The best way to describe fried dough is indeed "dough that is fried." So what is the difference? Fried dough seems to be a lot like pizza dough: round, flat, and rises when exposed to heat. A churro is more like a fried, stick-shaped donut. Fried dough is not especially tasty; a churro is. To each his/her own I suppose....

Yesterday afternoon I was driving on Amherst Street in Nashua. Waiting at the stop light, I happened to notice the license plate of the car in front of me. This personalized New Hampshire plate sported the letters WESPAC. For those of you not familiar with WesPAC, it happens to be a political group formed by Wes Clark. The car looked political-campaigny enough: It was a silver Crown Victoria. And New Hampshire IS the "first in the nation" state -- at least for now.

Sure, there are a couple of other WesPacs, WesPac Pipelines and the WESPAC Foundation, but neither of those seem to be connected in any way to New Hampshire. I suppose the license plate could have some other meaning....

Disclosure: I voted for Clark during the 2004 presidential primaries and will vote for him again if he runs in 2008, so there is admittedly some wishful thinking going on here. But just the other day on the Daily Kos, I read that Wes Clark may be looking beyond 2006 to a 2008 presidential bid. So perhaps I did spot the wheels of the "New Hampshire for Clark 2008 campaign." Around here, ya never know....

An employee of the Concord Wal-Mart finds a cardboard box outside the store.

Remember the good ol' days when a box was just a box? Alas, as the old saying goes, you can never go home again.

Getting bored with your Old Spice or Jean Naté? Fear not! There is now KISS Fragrance for Men and Play-Doh scented cologne, the latter of which is sold by the same folks that bring us Cannabis Flower and Laundromat.

Remember years and years ago when John and Jane Q. Public first had internet access? It was "netiquette this" and "netiquette that." Nowadays, you don't hear about "netiquette" any more. Is that because we all know what netiquette is and do our best to adhere to it, thus eliminating the need to mention it? Or is it because netiquette has long since been forgotten?

If you like comedy/satire, add Thank You for Smoking to your list of movies to go see.

Tonight I had a revelation: There is personal space and then there is line space, and these two are NOT the same thing.

I've lived in New England for 10 years now, and I love it. I especially love New Hampshire. But having spent most of my "formative" years in Texas, I am sometimes still struck by cultural differences. For instance, I learned early on that if you're passing someone on the sidewalk in New England you should not, as a general rule, acknowledge the existence of the passerby let alone greet him or her. A cheerful "Hey, how's it going?" or "Great weather we're having!" or -- as I learned just last week -- "What a cute dog!" can only serve to disturb your fellow pedestrian. Coming from a place where it is rude NOT to acknowledge perfect strangers and their pets, this took (and apparently is still taking) some adjustment.

As best as I can tell, New Englanders place significant value on their personal space, and talking to a passerby is viewed as a violation of that space -- regardless of the generous amount of room you've placed between said individual and yourself. Okay, I can respect that. I've even grown used to it. But why, then, is it that people in New England stand so bloody close to one another when waiting in line? There's all this space to be had, and yet folks seem to feel the need to edge forever closer to the person in front of them. My personal space is frequently under attack: at the grocery store, and the book store, and the coffee shop, and the theater. Wherever there is a line for me to stand in, there is a New Englander on my heels. Yet that very same New Englander would be irked if I passed him/her with five or more feet of space between us and said "hello."

Tonight I had the pleasure of waiting in the two slowest lines on the planet: the lines in Starbucks and Barnes and Noble. And no matter what I did, I just could not get away from the people behind me. (On the bright side, I apparently have acceptable personal hygiene.) Physically moving closer and closer to the register is not going to cause the person behind the counter to suddenly work faster, yet my fellow customers sure seemed to think it would. That's when it hit me: Line space is not the same thing as personal space. Not even close. Instead, line space is a cousin of driving space. In Texas most people don't tailgate, and they don't stand on your heels in line. Up here most people constantly tailgate, and they constantly stand on your heels in line. People in New England seem to be in a hurry, and that is what motivates them to press forward, both on the road and in the store. And because there is no eye contact or conversation involved, the individual behind you doesn't feel that personal space is being violated. You're simply another piece of furniture, another automobile, another inanimate object.

From this revelation, however, comes the solution: The next time I'm in line and can feel the breath of the person behind me, I'm going to warm up my best Southern drawl, turn around, make eye contact, and say "Hey, how's it goin'?" That'll learn 'em.