You may not know this about me, but I would like to have a PC laptop running IE 7 to have kicking around the office. This is a long shot, I know, but if anyone is trying to unload one, or has a parent or coworker who recently fell in love with Macintosh, let me know!

Nothing interesting happened today at my polling place, mostly because we still have the same voting machines that we’ve had since New York became a state. (Fuck HAVA!) So instead I’ll share with you my experience from voting in the 2004 primary. (Sharpton ‘04, totally not kidding.) This is a quote from an email I wrote at the time:

Needless to say, I was beaming when I went up to the table to sign in, because I love voting, and I love the weather. A lady sitting next to the registrars exclaimed “What a nice smile! You have a smile like Kennedy. He was always smiling.”
“It’s an incredible day out!” I said. “Everyone’s smiling!”
“Kennedy had red hair too, he was always smiling.”
“Which Kennedy?”
“The Kennedy that got killed.”
“The president?”
“Yes, John Kennedy.”
“Really!?”
“You have a beautiful smile, just like Kennedy. You know, Kennedy came to my country, and I met him there.”
“Where was that?”
“Costa Rica. Then I moved to America the same week he was shot.”
“Really?!”
“Yes, it was very sad. I met him, and he shook my hand. He was a very nice man. You keep that beautiful smile, ok?”
“OK! Thanks!”

Before I joined the 801a flock, someone made a dreamcatcher. It’s beautiful and inspiring, especially on a dark and cold day like this one.

What I neglected to mention is that a while ago I found a program that grants me this isolated writing space, free from the tyranny of the visual interface: WriteRoom, from Hog Bay Software. I use it to compose emails, keep notes, write assessments of projects, etc. It goes without saying that it’s the word processor in which I composed this blog entry. It has become a very comfortable friend.

WR occupies your entire screenspace, giving you nothing but an empty zone for words to occupy. It does not format. It does not make tables. It will not output to HTML. It sticks to a very strict idea of what a word processor is. There is no visual interface to speak of, save a blinking cursor block. A word count will fade into view if the mouse is placed in the corner of the screen. A scrollbar is also invisible, off to the side, until called into use.

And that’s it. Nothing but possibility. All your other programs are hidden from view; nothing gets through its inky black space (or royal blue or lush green – the background color is adjustable).

Actually, according to the marketing material and public testemonials, the main selling point of Write Room is that it takes up your entire screen, thus freeing you from distractions. No bouncing IMs, no iTunes, no e-mail notifications. As one review puts it, “This is an awesome app! Without distractions, I was able to pump out a few blog posts in about half the time it normally takes.” Whether this is a desired state of affairs is a question left unanswered.