Monday, November 22, 2010

Back on the campaign trail!

As previously stated: successful Congressional campaigns don't end - they morph immediately into re-election campaigns.
For the past few hours I've been laboriously transferring precinct-level election numbers from a NM Sec'y of State website to a campaign spreadsheet - approximately 300 records (others had worked on this before I got it).

notes:
1. The NM Sec'y of State website is a nicely designed GUI, which unfortunately allows access to results only one precinct at a time. After the 2008 elections the campaign provided me a CD with MS ACCESS database containing results. I'm certain a similar MS ACCESS DB underlies the nice GUI - I just wish the NM Sec'y of State would make this database accessible directly on the website!
(In 2008 they charged a fair amount of $$$ for the CD - this money-making arrangement likely discourages 'em from providing the database via web.)

2. Observation regarding short-term memory: transferring numbers from NM Sec'y of State website to campaign spreadsheet was not easy COPY/PASTE, but required typing numbers into cells. To remember the numbers, I recited them aloud. I'm pretty much convinced that reciting the numbers aloud is what enabled me to complete the task: an audial cue needed to enhance memory.

3. I'd promised the campaign task-completion by Thanksgiving. After looking at the NM Sec'y of State website for the first time this evening I guessed this would be MUCH more time-consuming than I'd imagined, and that I'd be unlikely to meet the Thanksgiving deadline. As it turned out, the task - though extremely tedious - didn't consume more than three hours.
The joys of political activism!!!
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2 comments:

  1. P M PrescottNovember 23, 2010 at 9:20 AM

    Keep up the good work.

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  2. NanceNovember 23, 2010 at 10:08 AM

    I am proud of you and inspired, too. It ain't no glamor job, tho', as I've previously discovered. I have a tendency, when I look at an unpleasant job, to blow it a bit out of proportion, predict that the sky is falling, and avoid, avoid, avoid. You'd think I'd have learned by now to distrust my crap-o-meter and just plow in.

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