Monday, July 17, 2006
Oh, I just remembered. I had a dream this morning in which I voted in the US election. My dream was based around the idea that many non-Americans are just as interested in (and just as much at the mercy of) the US political system as American citizens, yet they have no say in it. So there was an internet service by which Americans who knew they weren't interested in voting could sign up, and foreigners could get their details and arrange to vote in their place.
So I rocked up at some primary school hall, fake ID in my hand. The voter I was impersonating had a Jewish surname that was completely implausible, but it didn't seem to matter as the counter was staffed by five toddlers playing with old Mac Classic computers. I got excited and said (remembering to put on an American accent), "Oh! I did all my school assignments on one of those!" One child looked contemptuously at me and said, "Shut up, grandma."
Suitably chastened, I got my ballot paper (and accompanying propaganda that I'd collected from various spruikers out the front) and found a spot on the floor. There were no voting booths; you just found a spot on the floor and covered your half-filled-out ballot paper with your arm in finest year 8 fashion to prevent anyone looking at it. But once I looked at the paper I realised that perhaps I oughtn't vote in another country's election after all, because I had no idea who any of the candidates were.
There were seventeen of them. Thoroughly confused, I tried to work out who they were. Each name had no party affiliation but, helpfully, a short paragraph explaining what they did. Some were television journalists, others retired sports stars, others obviously political hacks there thanks to behind-the-scenes brawling. So I ended up filling in my ballot paper based on my cultural preconceptions of who would be the most 'liberal'. Surely the journalist will be a Demmycrat, I thought to myself...
Recently my dreams have been very stressful and procedural. They all involve me having to solve a banal real-world problem. A while ago I had a dream about how I had to upload an image to my blog but the format didn't work so I had to reformat it. I also had a dream about who I was going to interview for the ill-fated EG story if Evet said no. I wake from these dreams feeling anxious.
I wish I could have awesome adventure quest dreams again.
So I rocked up at some primary school hall, fake ID in my hand. The voter I was impersonating had a Jewish surname that was completely implausible, but it didn't seem to matter as the counter was staffed by five toddlers playing with old Mac Classic computers. I got excited and said (remembering to put on an American accent), "Oh! I did all my school assignments on one of those!" One child looked contemptuously at me and said, "Shut up, grandma."
Suitably chastened, I got my ballot paper (and accompanying propaganda that I'd collected from various spruikers out the front) and found a spot on the floor. There were no voting booths; you just found a spot on the floor and covered your half-filled-out ballot paper with your arm in finest year 8 fashion to prevent anyone looking at it. But once I looked at the paper I realised that perhaps I oughtn't vote in another country's election after all, because I had no idea who any of the candidates were.
There were seventeen of them. Thoroughly confused, I tried to work out who they were. Each name had no party affiliation but, helpfully, a short paragraph explaining what they did. Some were television journalists, others retired sports stars, others obviously political hacks there thanks to behind-the-scenes brawling. So I ended up filling in my ballot paper based on my cultural preconceptions of who would be the most 'liberal'. Surely the journalist will be a Demmycrat, I thought to myself...
Recently my dreams have been very stressful and procedural. They all involve me having to solve a banal real-world problem. A while ago I had a dream about how I had to upload an image to my blog but the format didn't work so I had to reformat it. I also had a dream about who I was going to interview for the ill-fated EG story if Evet said no. I wake from these dreams feeling anxious.
I wish I could have awesome adventure quest dreams again.
