Today was election day. Pennsylvania makes it really hard to vote. I'm convinced that they were actually trying to prevent me from voting, and they did a good job. I registered to vote in PA back at the end of August. I wanted to vote here because it is a swing state as opposed to voting in Massachusetts. I filled out the registration for with one of those people on campus. I don't know how but my registration was lost. I never received a registration card like they said I would. I don't know if this was the fault of the person I filled it out with or the state. Maybe I should have taken care of it while there was still time, but I didn't.

I decided I should at least try to find where my polling place ought to be so that I could at least cast a provisional ballot so that I could say I tried. All the websites that try to tell you where your polling place is just pointed me to Pennslyvania's page that doesn't let you look it up online. All it gives you in the phone number for one guy for the whole Alleghenny County. At night his phone doesn't have an answering machine and during the day it is always busy. I'm convinced that he must just take is phone off the hook because I used *66 and I didn't get through even after waiting an hour and a half.

After I'd given up I just happened to be stopping in Wean Hall to pick up a key on my way to work. I saw a poster for yet another find your polling place site. This one was run by CMU students. I went to the cluster to give it a try and actually found the place. I went there and it turned out that my next door neighbor was the judge of elections. I suppose I should have asked him where to vote. Anyway, I guess that meant there could be no question of my residency, i.e. registration eligibility. Of course since I wasn't actually registered I was only able to fill out a provisional ballot. I guess it won't really count but at least I can say that I tried and I did vote, sort of.

Four years ago, before the last presidential election, Al Gore came and spoke on campus at CMU. I remember it well, because as a member of ABTech, I got to be a volunteer to help out with the event. Gore brought his own equipment and union crew, but we were still able to help setup up banners and other miscellaneous things. I got to go on the roof of Wean 7500, where few people ever get to go. Cooler was when the secret service told us to leave.

Today John Kerry came to campus for a speech. This time tech was not involved in any capacity. I still ended up going to the speech with some tech members. The line was ridiculous. We waited for hours and it wasn't fun. When we finally got in it was very hard to see. It was also hard to hear because the speakers they brought were too few and two small for the venue. ABTech could have honestly done better.

Bon Jovi was there to play a few songs. It really wasn't that great. I did enjoy hearing Kerry speak. Much more than Gore because I'm actually politically aware this time, and concerned about the election. Speaking of concerns, I supposedly registered to vote in PA, but I haven't received any confirmation or info about it yet. Anyways, I know that these types of speeches are really for undecideds watching on TV and not for those of us in attendance but I still enjoyed.

Man, the weather was nice today. Today, of course, being Sunday the 16, I really have to teach my journal, just because I'm writing this at 6am it is still yesterday. Anyways, It was beautiful out. Very sunny and really warm. I'm not exactly sure the tempature, but I wore shorts and sunglasses for the first time this year, and I was still hot. Two main exciting things happened too.

First we got started on booth. I'm SOOOOOOO excited for booth, I love it. Today we went to the newly clean storage (I did that last week) and set up the platform that is the floor. It was a great day for being outside and doing that kind of work, and just hanging out outside with my brothers just made it very fun.

The other thing that happened was an anti-war protest. We were working on the porch, and being that we have the best location on campus we were in just the right place to see hundreds of people protesting war block traffic crossing Forbes in front of our house. It seems it started at CMU and I did know a few of the people. I'm pretty against that sort of thing. First and foremost I'm against protests. I don't see that they accomplish except to strengthen the resolve of those involved, but I don't think it gets them any more support or credibility. Media coverage of protests usually make the protestors look like quacks, or at least to me. Maybe I can't be convinced since I always come up with a strong position on an issue even if I don't actually care that much. In this case, I'm not going to say that I think we should

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