I would believe if I was able

This is mainly just following up the previous post with things I meant to mention at the time, but forgot.
One thing about the election stuff that I often notice is how carefully put together all the materials and procedures are. Which is not surprising, given what's at stake and how relatively untrained most of the workers are; the Registrar of Voters has clearly put a lot of research and effort into making each step of this complex system simple and intuitively clear. Aside from the regular instruction booklet, one is also given posters saying what the steps are and what documents should be in which pouches at the beginning and end of the day, everything's labeled, cross-referenced and color-coded in easy-to-remember ways, and so on. It's like every part of the environment was engineered so that we as pollworkers will be automatically led through the right steps by the natural flow of our minds, rolling into place like happy little marbles. Or possibly dominoes. Look, I don't know, pick your favorite simile.

This relates to a point I've harped on in the past, but will never cease to be surprised at: the extent to which seemingly minor changes in one's environment affect how one acts and even thinks. Which brings me, unexpectedly, back to the topic of my dining room table. I've found that when, instead of eating and reading and computing and all at my desk, I have designated places for each of these things, I do them more effectively and find more time to work on them. Given my sometimes obsessive preoccupation with improving my lifestyle, I feel like it's essential to have a solid understanding of all the ways that one can change it without trying or even thinking about it, but instead just by, say, putting a new piece of furniture in the living room.
And I promise that by my next post I'll totally shut up about the bold strides I'm making towards becoming a furniture-owning adult, but one more thing: is it just me, or are the majority of dining room chairs unattractive, and the overwhelming majority uncomfortable? (I love my chairs.)

Okay, here are two pictures of it too.

I'm done now, honest.

Don't know much about a science book

Hey look! I'm back to pretending I have a weekly update schedule

I pollworked again yesterday. I actually wasn't planning to, but they were really in need of people this time around, no doubt because there are three elections this year, and this was the one that nobody cares about. One thing I forgot from last time is how nice it is. People are unusually pleasant, and we're happy to see the voters turn out, and they're happy to see us working there, and the whole experience creates an (increasingly uncommon, nowadays) feeling of party-transcending civic involvement. For the most part.
Oh and hey, it turns out that state employees get the time off for free. Also I got a lot of reading done (mainly a book about the MJT. It's pretty good.)

Speaking of books, another nice thing that happened was when I was picking up my glasses (it turns out that the frames were not as durable as advertised, but they were under warranty), I discovered a little Goodwill Bookstore practically next door. Given its size and provenance, I was definitely impressed with the selection; I went in expecting to find just a handful of thrift store books, and while they were definitely well-represented--

(An aside: who the heck is Janet Evanovich anyways, and why are the covers of her books printed in such retina-punishing colors? Indeed, judging from one of the shelves, I think that "books whose title and author are printed using that one huge block-letter font and neon colors that should never be used in combination with one another" must be a genre in itself.)

--there were also plenty of fun things there too. I ended up getting Titus Groan and the first two Lemony Snicket books, and narrowly passed up Quicksilver and The Great Gatsby.
Also it's too bad I already own all the Harry Potter books, because dang.

Oh! and I almost forgot, I got a dining room set this weekend. More about that later, but for now I strongly suspect that it is the best thing anyone has ever dined at.