Pink

This week, the monotony of mowing the lawn was interrupted by an enjoyable little surprise. A few delicate little flowers sprouted up amid the grass. Please comment if you can identify this flower.

Revised Prayer List Page

I finally decided to revise the Prayer List page. When I originally posted it, I rushed through the explanation. It was sloppy, but is now much more clear.

Comments are disabled on this post. If you have something to say, do so on the Prayer List page.

Identicons as Default Avatars

Don’t freak out when you see some weird graphic beside your name and comment. WordPress recently added a new feature which provides avatars for users who don’t have one. I have chosen to enable this feature, here, on my insignificant, seldom-read weblog.

Default Avatar Options - Identicons

I would highly recommend trying out Identicons, which are a cool math-based image idea created by Don Park that’s unique to the commenter, so even if someone doesn’t have an avatar yet they have a consistent (and handsome) image next to their name when they comment.

This post has plenty of comments for you to get an idea of what Identicons are like. I’m not sure I agree with them being “handsome,” but they are certainly more pleasing to the eye than the gray mystery man. If, by chance, you don’t like having a generated avatar for yourself, you can always use a Gravatar.

Suspicious Voter Registration Call

I received a suspicious automated phone call recently concerning voter registration. I emailed the North Carolina State Board of Elections. Here is the exchange.

Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2008 07:59:43 -0700 (PDT)
From: “J.S.Brown”
Subject: Phone call about voter registration
To: elections.sboe

I just received a phone call. It was a recorded message that said something like this:

“Hello. This is Lamont Williams. In a few days you should be getting a voter registration form in the mail. Please fill it out and return promptly and you will be able to vote. Thank you.”

Is this legitimate? I thought I was already registered to vote. Should I ignore whatever arrives in my mailbox concerning voter registration? And who is Lamont Williams?

Subject: FW: Phone call about voter registration
Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2008 12:42:53 -0400
From: “Don Wright”
To: “J.S.Brown”

The State Board of Elections knows nothing of this. If you get anything from this man or group, fax to my attention at [FAX NUMBER REMOVED] and we will investigate.

Don Wright
General Counsel

The automated phone call seems, to me, like an attempt to trick new, unregistered, and unsure voters into submitting sensitive personal information. So far, I haven’t yet received any mail about voter registration. For now, it’s no more than a suspicious phone call. I advise everyone to be cautious.

I apologize for not posting this sooner.

NC Democratic Primary: Unaffiliated Voters

I’ve been hearing that unaffiliated voters won’t be allowed to vote in the upcoming North Carolina Democratic primary election. Since I have been planning to vote in said primary, I was unhappy to hear this.

Good news! According to the North Carolina Democratic Party’s website:

In North Carolina, unaffiliated voters are permitted to vote in the Democratic primary.

However, if an unaffiliated voter chooses to vote in the Democratic primary, he or she cannot vote in a Republican runoff (or second primary). Similarly, an unaffiliated voter who votes in a Republican primary cannot vote in a Democratic runoff.

To Pray or to Reason

Astoundingly, today is National Day of Prayer in the USA. Fortunately, there are some smart people in this country who have countered it by starting a National Day of Reason, which falls on the same day.

This day offers a choice: will you pray, or will you reason? It’s an easy choice for me. I’ve tried both. Only one has ever been useful to me.

I wrote about this last year, though my blog was on Yahoo! 360° at the time. I brought that post with me to WordPress. You can read it here, if interested.

PZ has a good post on this today: Happy National Day of Prayer!