Thanks.

I heard a little of the memorial service at Ft. Hood yesterday while in the car. It was hard to listen while driving, and blinking back tears.

For all sorts of reasons, I was reminded of Dave Barry's essay Hallowed Ground. It's not the Dave Barry you expect- it's not funny, not even a little- but it does show why he's a good writer. It's about veterans of very different wars than the ones we're involved in now. And about respect. And remembrance.

Happy Veterans Day. Thanks.

2009 Election Results for New Jersey

Governor's race

Local races by County:

Atlantic (look all the way to the right, in the box on top)
Bergen
Burlington
Camden
Cape May County
Cumberland
Essex
Gloucester
Hudson
Hunterdon
Mercer
Middlesex
Monmouth
Morris
Ocean
Passaic
Salem
Somerset
Sussex
Union
Warren


NOT EVERY ONE WILL UPDATE TONIGHT. The polls close at 8 PM, so some counties may start updating soon after that. (UPDATE 8:30 PM: several have started updating, and the NJ.com link for the Gov race is active.)

Keep your fingers crossed!

Did you vote?

I voted about 4PM. Was #200 at my poling place.

Voting booths are open until 8 tonight. Go vote!

You must vote.

Go vote. Go first thing in the morning. Go early, before there are lines. Take your neighbor with you.

Go vote.

H1N1 vaccine

My kids' pediatrician has it.

I keep hearing about shortages, friends in other states with the virus rampant in their kids' schools (and sometimes in their kids!), delays in production- so I was surprized to find out that they had it. I called to see when they expected to get their shipment of seasonal flu vaccine, and while they didn't have that, they did have the FluMist H1N1 vaccine.

So maybe call your doctor, or your pediatrician.

(I get a lot of searches which lead people to this blog looking for flu shots in NJ or flu vaccine clinics- maybe this information will help.)

Vote now!

Vote by mail is simple. You don't need to provide a reason to vote by mail in Our Fair State, so why wait? You have no excuses this year. Vote now!

Vote by mail application

Register to vote TODAY

Today is the LAST DAY to register if you want to vote in Our Fair State's election next month. And you can even vote by mail! What fun!

You'll need to visit your county registrar's office to file the paperwork. If you need information about the upcoming election, check out NJVoterInfo.org.

Remember, if you don't vote, you can't complain about the election or the governor at all. So get registered!

Just because I like him doesn't matter

I'm not voting for Chris Daggett.

The Star-Ledger loves this guy. His performance at the debate was pretty impressive. I agree with much of his position. Yet, why am I not voting for him?

This morning, the Times of Trenton ran George Amick's column (which they have unhelpfully not put up on NJ.com yet) titled "Daggett says N.J. is ready for independent gov." Two pages away, they ran a story by Linda Stein (also, unhelpfully not online) titled "Study finds every vote does count" citing Hightstown's recent Democratic primary (tie, 88-88; challenger Dimitri Musing will be on the ballot) and Southampton's school budget, defeated by 10 votes. The article is about mail-in voting, but the juxtaposition is what interests me.

I can't vote for Daggett. I can't risk Christie winning.

Daggett knows I feel this way. I'm sure he hears it from both sides. He has a nice page about how voting for him is not a wasted vote. His supporters know many feel this way; I can tell you who will respond to this post first, and what he'll say. But I still can't do it.

Al Gore came to endorse Gov. Corzine a while back. Do y'all remember the 2000 elections? If 550 people in Florida had voted for Al Gore instead of independent Ralph Nader, the world would be a different place. I'm not exaggerating: the world would be a different place now. That's the difference an independent vote makes. It can change the world.

And there are changes I can't risk.

George Amick has another recent column, helpfully online here, about how the time for instant runoff voting in Our Fair State is NOW. I wish we had it, I do.

Flu shot locator

The American Lung Association provides one here. Type in your zip code and dates when you could go, and there you are! (Specifically for seasonal flu, not H1N1.)

A Most Excellent Resource

Q and A NJ: http://www.qandanj.com/

It's a chat service where you can chat live with a librarian. It's staffed by a cooperative effort of Our Fair State's libraries. Per their web site:

"QandANJ is a service for New Jersey residents and students.QandANJ.org is designed to provide fast answers to your questions, using information found on the Internet and in proprietary databases funded by libraries. In most cases, QandANJ.org Librarians will provide an answer online in 15 minutes or less! If your question involves lengthy research, we'll get you started and/or provide a referral for you or your question. "

This is a most AWESOME tool, which I think libraries don't advertise enough. Librarians love to be asked questions, really they do, and this is a great way to get help writing your paper in the middle of the night, or getting the information in your blog post verified before you hit "publish" and make a fool of yourself, or myriad other uses.

I get searches- recycling edition

Recycling information in Mercer County: The Mercer County Improvement Authority has links to curbside recycling schedules and hazardous waste recycling, including electronics equipment. The next electronics recycling day is scheduled for Nov. 14, 2009 9AM-2PM. More info on that here, with a link to a PDF about the plan.

Don't forget about freecycling- the program of letting folks take your usable but unneeded items off your hands, while perusing the stuff of others. Mercer County Freecycle maintains a Yahoo group, where you can subscribe to their listserv and peruse their rules for use.

I've gotten a lot of serches about recycling lately. You ask, and here at CoNJL we eventually get around to attempting to deliver!