So I'm working on a publicity campaign...

...which will kickoff with an email to everybody on the Wavelength Clothing email list. I've got a few new designs in the works, and I want to get some opinions on them before I decided which deserve to go to press. I also want to show off a new funny Bush pics section of the site, and I want to gently remind people that, hey hey, Wavelength shirts make great holiday gifts!

On another front, I'm going to mail a small care package, including a press release I whipped up, to people whose blogs and columns I enjoy. I want to let these folks know I appreciate their work - and let them know about Wavelength - so I'll send them the press release, my catalog of designs, and a sticker or two.

Maybe if I really get a kick out of reading them, I'll throw in a free shirt, too. Anyway, if you know of anyone who might be interested in the Wavelength story, feel free to pass along the press release, or let me know and I'll follow up. !Gracias!

Found an interesting old entry...

...in a recently unearthed journal I kept during my junior year of high school. Like so many scraps of writing from the past, this one is obnoxious and embarassing and ironic and amusing, all at once. Check me out on November 8, 1993:

"If I owned my own business, I'd locate in a skyscraper in the 'downtown' of a big city. My corporation's employees would wear $1,000 suits daily and cater to the demands of our clients, whatever those demands might be. The company would enter the NYSE with much acclaim, with controlling interest (51%) lying in my hands."

My English teacher had a simple comment on this entry: "Good luck." She was being kind.

Not to pick on Governor Schwarzenegger...

...who was very visibly bitch-slapped by California voters last week, but I got a few good laughs out of this two-minute animated parody, so I thought I'd pass it along.

Might Arnold be changing his ways? Here's what he said at a press conference at the Capitol up in Sac-town: "The message we got from this special election was very clear...The people want us to take care of the job right here in this building, and not to go to them if things don't work out." Hmmm. Let's see if he's a little more open to compromise in the days ahead.

Election results are in...

...and they are mostly good, in my opinion. All of the statewide propositions were defeated, and the loss that hit our Governor hard: he had hoped the voters would take his side on issues that he couldn't work out with the state legislature, but no dice.

On a down note, Donna Frye - the unconventional surfshop owner/ environmentalist/city councilwoman pictured at right - lost the San Diego mayoral race. I liked Donna's "for the people" platform, and I had done a little last-minute volunteering for her campaign, so I was sorry to see the election go to her opponent, Jerry Sanders. Sanders is part of the same crowd that brought us our city's last two mayors, who presided over the city's descent into financial crisis...I hope he can turn things around.

I'm still very happy I got out there and volunteered for Frye's campaign. I now have a feel for what "getting out the vote" is all about, and I look forward to helping other campaigns in the future. And on election day, when I checked in at Donna's volunteer headquarters as part of my poll-checking work, Donna herself came in, gave a great pep talk, and even sat down at my table and said hello. That was definitely cool.

It's an election day here in Cali today...

...statewide, we're voting on a bunch of propositions, several the darlings of Arnold Schwarzenegger. In San Diego, we've also got a mayoral race up for grabs. I had pretty strong feelings about both the props and the mayor's race, so I did a little campaign volunteering for the first time in my life.

On Saturday, I walked a 4-square-block area in San Diego's North Park neighborhood, knocking on doors of registered Democrats and asking them to vote for mayoral candidate Donna Frye. I followed that up on election day today by "poll-checking," where I periodically checked to see who in the 'hood had yet to vote (polls post an updated list every hour) and then knocked on those peoples' doors, encouraging them to get out and vote for Donna. Though I was initially nervous and unsure of what to expect, both outings turned out to be enjoyable: I got some exercise, talked about the mayor's race to a lot of people, and felt like I made a small contribution to Donna's campaign.

In between my two stints for Donna Frye, I also spent a few hours at a teacher's union, calling registered Democrats and asking them to vote no on propositions 74 through 77, which Arnold had put on the ballot. In 3 hours I made about 100 phone calls, reaching roughly 40 people and leaving messages with about 40 others (with the remaining calls going unanswered or going to disconnected numbers). Most people I talked to said they were going to vote no. One woman spent a full 15 minutes reviewing each proposition with me after initially complaining - rightfully, in my opinion - that the explanations in the voter's guidebook were hard to decipher. At the end of the call, it sounded like I had convinced her to nix the props, so that was cool.

Today I met Cindy and Fernando...

...Cindy Sheehan and Fernando Suarez del Solar, that is. Two of the most recognizable leaders of today's anti-war movement...two regular people who, after losing sons in Bush's war, have drawn international attention by rallying against the president and against the war. Cindy and Fernando were featured guests at a rally put on by AM1360, San Diego's Air America station, this morning.

There's something about seeing this kind of event, these kinds of people in person that is just not captured by seeing it on TV (or reading it on the Internet...). As I stood 30 feet from Cindy and Fernando - and then as I just looked at them, absorbing the real them with my eyes - I felt an unmistakable deepening of sympathy for their pain. I also felt a new appreciation for their work.

I got a chance to thank Fernando, and to shake his hand. I got a chance to say hello to Cindy, who gave me a hug - a strong hug. Today, Bush's war got a little more real.

Al Franken's got a new book out...

...it's called The Truth - With Jokes, and today his promotion tour stopped in San Diego, where he broadcasted live from the new House of Blues in the Gaslamp Quarter. My folks had picked up an extra ticket for me, and with a full house of a few hundred other like-minded people, we laughed a lot during Franken's 3-hour show. (One choice line: after joking about how Harriet Miers had said Bush "is the most intelligent person I've ever met," Franken dryly added that, strangely, Samuel Alito has not yet made the same observation.)

From a business standpoint, the event placed me in a bit of a predicament. I knew Franken would attract a bunch of fiesty liberals, who would certainly seem to be potential purchasers of Wavelength shirts. But I had no idea if the event's layout would accomodate any shirt sales, and I doubted that the House of Blues would some let me sell shirts at their venue anyway, so I decided to just attend and enjoy. When we got there and I saw a huge line of people waiting to get in, and I realized I probably missed an opportunity. I had a few Wavelength stickers on hand, which my mom helped me distribute. I noted that at the next event like this I would bring dozens of stickers and be ready to work the crowd.

Here's some history on 2nd term approval ratings...

...for recent presidents who had 2nd terms. Note that Bush's plunge into the low 30s puts him in interesting company.