Poll my finger

I'm a registered Democrat. Lord knows I don't agree with everything they do and say, but if you want to vote at all in this country, you have to register. And when you register, you have to choose a party affiliation, even if that's "independent." One of the benefits of registering with a party (actually, the only benefit) is that you get to vote for that party's presidential candidate in the Presidential Primary Election. This is happening next week on the 5th, on what is hilariously known as "Super Tuesday."

California is considered "Clinton country," and Obama's not really doing much campaigning here. I'd probably have gone for John Edwards, but he dropped out yesterday. I must admit to sharing the belief of many people, which is that electing a Bush, then a Clinton, then a Bush, then a Clinton seems unhealthy for the country. A change of air might be good, but people are concerned about Obama's lack of experience. On the other hand, "experience in Washington" often means that you're a hack beltway insider. Anyway, I'm open to bribes if any of you want to sway me.

In other news, I believe a certain girl turned 17 today ...

Hello, family.

This is my (possibly hairbrained) attempt to bring us all closer together. Of course, you already are closer together, being on the same continent and all, so this is possibly just for my own benefit. But anyway, I really am interested in what you're all doing, I'm just a bit rubbish in the email department sometimes, and I feel that emails are pretty unrewarding and ineffective when it comes to keeping in touch.

But I have some blogging experience, and I've found that it's a great way for people to interact because there are varying levels of interactivity. You can post stuff if you want. Or you can just comment on other people's posts. Or you can simply bookmark the site and silently lurk in the background, like some sort of Gollum. Then of course, there's ignoring it altogether, which you're free to do. But what the hell, let's give it a shot. I'll get the ball rolling by saying ...

Jon bought me Jools Holland's autobiography for my birthday! It arrived just after New Year's, and he says that my Christmas gift will arrive around May. Thanks, fella! It'll have to wait to be read though, since I'm still reading the excellent Alan Bennett book dad and Pete bought me for Christmas last year (yes, I am a pretty slow reader, but it's really thick, and I've also read a Kerouac and a Nabokov in between. So it's not like I'm slacking off.)

There you are. The inaugural post. If you need help posting, there's some handy links on the left, or you can just send me the information and/or pictures, and I'll post it for you. And if you have any links you want included in the "Family Links" section (or, indeed, removed from it) feel free to let me know by email. Hope to hear from you soon!