An Eclectic Mind

Last month’s results, this month’s poll.

Last month, I put up a poll to get your opinions on the U.S. presidential candidates. Here are the results:

I watched the results change from day to day as people voted. Clinton started out in the lead, then Obama took a strong lead. That lead melted somewhat to get to the March 6 results. Similarly, McCain and Huckabee took turns leading the Republican race (although neither had more votes than the top Democrat at any time). I admit the Huckabee results surprised me. I really didn’t think he had such a following, especially with the kinds of people who might read this blog.

Earlier this week, the deck was shuffled slightly when Huckabee dropped out and McCain cinched the Republican nomination — well, with delegate votes, anyway. I decided to refresh the poll accordingly. Here it is, for your voting pleasure.

Please don’t get POed because I took Ron Paul and Mike Gravel off the poll. I did it for practical reasons. Neither of them will get the Republican nomination, so neither of them are seriously in the running.

As for Ralph Nader — get real. This guy runs every four years and the only thing he manages to do is take votes away from the Democrats. He didn’t even get 1% of the popular vote the last time around. GlassBooth.org doesn’t list him; I can’t see why I should. If you feel that strongly for him, choose Someone Else in the poll.

Many people have been asking me who I prefer. It’s a tossup between Clinton and Obama. (I can’t, in good conscience, vote to put a 70+ year-old-republican in the White House; we really do need a change.) If you’d like to debate this, I created a post just for commentary: 2008 Presidential Election: State Your Case.

Meanwhile, cast your simple vote here. And if you do choose Someone Else, take a moment to let us know who (and possibly why) in the Comments for this post.

And yes, you can expect this poll to be revised when the Democrats finally choose a final candidate.

February 12, 2008 Poll.

May as well conduct our own poll here. There are currently 6 official candidates. Tell us which one you’d vote for if the election were held today.

I’ll release a new poll each time a candidate drops out or is added, so if you vote on this poll and then see that you can vote again one day in the future, it’s likely that I’ve released a new poll on this topic.

As usual, you can use the Comments link or form for this post to share your comments with other readers. No bashing anyone, please! Let’s keep it civil.

Share your thoughts on this poll.

It’s that time of year again: time to think about the things you can do next year to make your life a little better. In other words: time to make a New Year’s resolution.

Have you made one? Please take this poll.

I put “Lose weight” as the top item on the poll because that’s the resolution made my most people in the U.S. Personally, I’ve made it every year for the past three years. But my weight continues to climb. The way I see it, I still “owe” that resolution to myself.

This year, I’ve also decided to stop using the word fuck as an adjective. While it might seem surprising to you that a “lady” would use a word like that in conversation, you need to understand that where I’m originally from — the New York metropolitan area — it isn’t that unusual. That doesn’t mean it’s “ladylike.” It’s not. And that’s why I’m going to stop using it. Not only is it unladylike (which really doesn’t bother me in the least), but it’s crude and makes the speaker sound uneducated.

I’m also thinking about going off all alcohol for a year. Wow. That would be a tall order indeed. I really enjoy a nice glass of wine with dinner. But since I don’t like to put an unfinished bottle away, that usually means a half a bottle at dinner. Since I don’t drink cheap wine, this can get expensive. The martinis, which I enjoy a few times a week, would have to go, too. This would seriously impact my olive consumption. But I’m interested in seeing if getting off alcohol completely would (1) make me feel better mentally and physically and (2) help me lose weight. So it would be an experiment. I think I’ll try it for at least a month. That should be enough to show me if there are tangible benefits other than to my bank account.

What about you? What can you add about New Year’s resolutions? Use the Comments link or form below to share your thoughts.

A poll for the holiday season.

As the holidays draw near, I thought I’d add a new poll to the site.

If you have any comments, don’t hesitate to use the Comments link or form below to add them.

I’m pleasantly surprised to find WiFi in unusual places.

I’m just finishing up a 6-day trip in northern Arizona. As usual, I brought my old 12″ PowerBook along to keep me connected. It has a built-in AirPort wireless card and can also connect to the Internet via Bluetooth with my Treo where Internet service is available on my wireless network.

I’m pleased to report that I had access to the Internet on every stop of this trip:

• Sedona. We stayed at the Sky Ranch Lodge on Airport Mesa. I had a Garden View room. I’m not sure if the WiFi connection was available throughout the property or if I just got it because I was relatively close to the main office. I don’t recall seeing it advertised anywhere. So I was very surprised to get a nice strong signal from my room.
• Grand Canyon. I stayed at Bright Angel Lodge. While there wasn’t WiFi available there, my cellphone service was able to get Internet access, which I could then share with my PowerBook. So although the connection wasn’t fast and it required pinging to keep alive, it was available.
• Lake Powell. We stayed at the Lake Powell Resort northwest of Page. Although there was WiFi in the lodge lobby, it didn’t extend out to my room, which was two buildings away. Again, the Treo came to the rescue and I was able to get online.
• Monument Valley. We stayed at Gouldings Lodge. While I know my Treo can’t connect to the Internet there, my room was sufficiently close enough to the main lobby to connect to one of the lodge’s two WiFi hotspots. (I’m not sure, but I think the folks at Red Bull may have added the second hotspot when they were there in May for the air races. They were responsible for getting the cell tower put up nearby.)
• Flagstaff. I stayed at the Radisson on the west side of town. WiFi is a standard feature in its rooms.

In each case where the hotel provided WiFi access, access was free. I didn’t even have to log on to a service and agree to usage terms. I just opened my PowerBook and waited a moment. A dialog told me that none of my trusted networks were available and offered to connect me with another network.

Paying Extra for WiFi?

I am surprised, however, at the number of high-priced hotels that are charging a fee for WiFi access. It’s interesting to me that lower budget hotels give away WiFi access but you can expect to pay $5 to $10 per day for the same access in a Hyatt or Marriott or Hilton — each of which tend to be more costly than an average hotel chain.

I’ve also come to the point where the availability of free WiFi in a hotel’s rooms weighs into my booking decision. For example, if faced with two hotels that have the same rate, I’ll go with the one that has free Wi-Fi, even if it doesn’t have popular amenities such as in-room coffee, free breakfast, or a fitness room. A fast, reliable Internet connection is more important to me than many other hotel features.

What Do You Think?

What do you think about WiFi access when you travel? Here’s a quick poll. Don’t be afraid to use the Comments link or form at the bottom of this post to share your thoughts.

Tell us which iPod you’d buy.

On Wednesday, Steve Jobs announced four new iPod models, available in plenty of time for the holidays. They range from a restyling of the very basic iPod Shuffle to an improved iPod Nano to a renamed, increased capacity iPod Classic to a wifi-enabled, browser equipped iPod Touch.

Not to miss out on an opportunity to gather opinions, I’ve set up the following poll:

Keep in mind that this poll does not ask which iPod you will buy. It asks which one you would buy.

And I hope you’ll take the time to use the Comments link or form below to let us know why you’ve made your choice.