Wherein I Try to Convince People That They Should Vote

While I imagine the "regular" readership of The Freak Report could be counted on one hand, I wanted to take a moment to talk about the 2015 Canadian Federal election that just kicked off this past weekend.

The short version is this:  if you are an eligible voter, you should make a point of voting in the election.  Seriously.  Do it.  Take a few moments this October and go vote.  Don't make excuses, just go do it.

If that short plea from a random stranger on the internet didn't convince you to go vote, well, consider the following.   (Be sure to read past the next paragraph!)

I can't address all the reasons why someone might choose not to vote, but a common one that I do want to address is that "my vote won't matter."  To this I say... yes and no.  In some sense, it's true that an individual's vote doesn't really matter.  Populations these days are just too large for any one single vote to materially change the outcome.  Without harping on things too much, a single vote is less than 1% of eligible voters - much less than 1%, really - so no, it doesn't really make a whole lot of difference whether any single individual votes or who they vote for.

"But wait", you might say, "aren't you trying to convince people to vote?  Because all this talk of votes not mattering isn't really all that encouraging."  Well, no, not if one looks at things individually.  But when you look at the aggregate, when large segments of the population are underrepresented at the polls, well, that does matter.  And can matter quite a bit. 

There was an article on CBC a while after the 2011 Federal Election which reported on a study that examined the effect of underrepresentation of young voters (defined as being under 30) during that election.  (The article is here for those interested.)  While the election had an overall voter turnout of a little over 60%, the youth turnout was under 40%.  The study found that had the youth turnout been the same as the overall turnout, the results of the election would likely have been much different - notably, the Conservatives would likely not have won a majority.

That article suggests to me that when large swathes of eligible voters choose not to vote, the outcome of the election can change significantly.  So in this sense, whether or not someone votes very much does matter, not as an idividual, but as part of a group.  And this is why I say everyone should make sure to vote.  Because it matters that all segments of the population are represented.  Because groups do have the ability to make a difference for the better.  So go vote.  Don't say it doesn't matter, because it does.  Just go vote.

Lastly, on a personal note, I feel that if someone who is eligible elects not to vote, then they have no right to complain about the outcome.  So if nothing else, vote so you can proudly complain about the results of the election for the next four years or so.

And with that, I shall get down off the soap box and will hopefully return with something more light hearted in my next post, whenever that happens to be.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Isn't it Ironic?

After a much longer delay than intended (I have no excuse) the latest episode of The Word Smith makes its internet debut at the usual venue.  I hope to get the next page up much quicker than this one, but as this weekend is looking to be somewhat busy it's probably not going to be up next week.

And now a discussion about irony.

One tricky thing about writing a comic about a grammar conscious super hero who fights to protect the English language (or thus he would claim) is that I really ought to at least make the effort to be as correct as possible with my grammar in the comic, and I am not a grammar nut.  Granted, there's definitely some leeway with writing dialogue since real people don't always talk perfectly grammatically and they usually manage to understand each other just fine even so.  But still, it's the principle of the matter, and, while I think I'm reasonably competent when it comes to writing and stuff (technical term, that, "stuff"), I don't really have any personal pet peeves and I don't really nitpick about the finer points of grammar or things like that.  This can make coming up with topics a bit tricky.

Sorry, that was a bit long winded there.  Moving onto the actual topic of the moment:  irony.

As part of writing this episode of the comic, I did some reading up on definitions of irony to try to make sure I was using the term at least passingly correctly.  It seems to me that irony is one of those things which is a bit nebulous:  oh, there's definitions and examples and that's all well and good, but it's not something as well defined as, say, 2+2=4, and there seems to be some leeway as to what is or is not considered to be irony.

An example.  Some people seem to think that sarcasm is (or can be) a form of verbal irony, but this is by no means universal and not all sarcasm is ironic.

The situation that I have set up in this episode has attempted to employ situational irony -- The Pen has gone to some lengths (to the point of turning off her phone) so that her boss cannot contact her and drag her into some language related escapades but, as today's page shows, language related escapades appear to be happening anyway.  Is this ironic?  I'm still undecided on the matter, which is why I have the Waitress (real name as yet undetermined) babble a bit about the subject in the final panel.

TLDR version:  go look at this other comic which seems to match up with my thoughts on the matter fairly well.  Also go read my comic.

Until next time
Freak Out,
-TFitC

Marking Still Sucks (Mostly)

First, this week has been, shall I say.. annoying. Gyah. First, Monday night, I had to proctor for the first year course I'm TAing this term. As my readers know (and which they will no doubt be reminded multiple times over the course of my degree) I hate proctoring. Two hours of watching people write exams is worse than watching paint dry because at least with paint watching, you can leave and do something else when you get bored.

Proctoring is also usually accompanied by marking. Yesterday I spent all day marking. ALL DAY! From 9:00 AM to about 4:30 PM, with a short break for lunch. This is horrible! When I mark assignments, I usually only mark for about and hour or so in one go, not nearly eight. Brain... leaking... out of... ear... Gyah...

Ranting out of the way, about two weeks ago we marked assignment 3 for the undergrad graphics course, which I am also TAing this term. This is much more fun than marking stupid first year courses. Assignment 3 is the "puppet" assignment in which students have the opportunity to make interesting character models. This terms models have been posted up on the course website which can be located here. Go take a look! There's some nice puppets this term (most recent are at the top of the page).

Anyway, that is all for the present. Until next time.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Calling Card

Yay! It's my 50th post, or so Blogger tells me. And to celebrate this momentous occassion, I'm going on a bit of a rant. Enjoy!

I hate buying greeting cards. It seems to get harder and harder each time societal conventions obligate me to do so. The reason for this is that the vast majority of cards out there are, in a word, lame. They either try to be funny and simply aren't (or, at least, fail to appeal to my sense of humour) or they try to be sentimental and are so over the top that it triggers a sort of gag reflex. There's not much of a happy medium. Occassionally it's possible to find the rare gem in a sea of crap - one of the best I've come across involved a dead elephant carcass - but it seems to be harder and harder to sift through all the junk, though it could just be me getting more and more impatient. And, of course, buying cards for people who don't share my sense of humour makes the ordeal harder.

The worst part is, though, that I suspect that the vast majority of cards are read once and are then never looked at again. I know that I seldom bother to look at old cards. I probably don't even remember anything about most of them. In fact, the only card that I can think of, off the top of my head, that I've looked at more than once was a home made one. I mean, I know I've gotten some amusing and bizarre cards at times, but they just seldom stick with me, so I tend to think that the whole greeting card industry is rather superfluous, at best.

And the whole industry is propped up on guilt, really. Because you'd feel guilty, or be made to feel guilty, if you didn't get someone a card. In the end, it's just a big ruse to part people from their money.

So what's my point? I'm not really sure. Maybe I'm just getting cynical. Maybe I should start giving out home made cards, or at least use the blank ones and write my own bad jokes or whatever strikes my fancy.

In the end, I hate buying cards and just wanted to complain about it.

Freak Out,
-TFitC