Life changes pretty fast and unfortunately this here blog was a casualty of that. Although I may now have a bit more time on my hands than I’d really like, reading, taking caring of myself and my future have once again become priorities.

All in due time.

Yep, unicorns, sea monkeys and FARC

At approximately 230 pm, I will be boarding an airplane headed first for Houston, Texas. From, after several hours of waiting, I will board another plane and take off for Bogota, Colombia where I will land at 456am.

Packing for this trip was no easy task. What do you bring to a country you know very little about. In the end I decided not to bring much at all. After all, the cowboy boots and leather jacket I plan on getting there should get me through the trip right? I’m pretty sure I’ll look sexy as hell wearing only the boots and jacket, kind of porn star esque, no?

The packing actually wasn’t so hard. What was hard for me though was deciding what books to carry with me. In the end, what I decided to do was bring the three longest books I have on my shelves right now. I figured, why lug 8 smaller books around with me when I can just take 3 that equal in length (or are most likely longer) than the alternative of dealing with many titles. The books I’ve chosen to bring with me are David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest, Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance and George R. R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones.

To give you a sneak peak I will provide you with completely unbiased and completely bullshit remarks about each book before I even open the first page. I will tell you that I know absolutely nothing about these books (ok, very very little) so this should be entertaining.

Infinite Jest – You may or may not recall that I reviewed another title by David Foster Wallace ages ago, Broom of the System. You may also recall that when I reviewed Skylight Books in Los Angeles last August I referenced Jest because at the time it was their top selling book. Seeing as the book was written in 1996 it seemed a little bizarre to me. But, as I did a bit of research, I learned that this was the book of all books for hipsters last Summer and that’s why it was selling so well. I’m kind of curious how many of those hipsters actually even opened the book or know how to read for that matter. Anyways, I put off reading Jest for ages cause I didn’t want to be mistaken for one of these people and also because it’s 1088 pages. I am though looking forward to reading it. From what I understand the story revolves around a film and how it affects it’s viewers, or something like that. I guess you’ll have to wait until my review to really find out what it’s all about and why so many hipsters thought it was cool. After all, a book like this can’t have staying power with hipsters, their attention span is about as short as the construction workers shorts from the village people.

A Fine Balance – A former co-worker of mine recommended this book to me about 6 months ago and I, again, have been meaning to read it for ages. Compared to Jest, it’s just a baby, coming in at 624 pages. I don’t really know anything about it other than that it takes place in India in the 70′s. For some reason I always thought this book would somehow or in someway be like Shantaram but secretly I’m hoping it won’t be. It is though an Oprah book so that certainly doesn’t do great things to elevate it in my mind. I guess time will tell how good it is. I just have to keep telling myself that just because Oprah liked it and got millions of housewives all over the country to read it doesn’t implicitly imply that I will not enjoy it.

Game of Thrones – This is the book which I know the least about. A friend of mine, who is subsequently launching Carstache soon, recommended this one to me. I think it’s a fantasy book or sci-fi book or an epic book type thing. Who know’s, but should I get through it or actually when I get through it you will be sure to hear more about it. I’m just hoping that there are unicorns that fight narwhales that fight squirrels that battle roosters in it. Cause those are my favorite type of fantasy books. Oh yeah, and each of the animals has to have a favorite type of candy they eat while battling like. The unicorn will eat licorice, the narwhales, sour patch kids, the squirrels, hot tamales and the roosters, peeps (just for the irony).

The Original Suspects

Ahhh crap. Two late entries. I was at the book store yesterday and ended up buying two more titles. Luckily they were used so I saved a bit of money but I will regardless be bringing them with me. This brings the total number of books being brought to 5. The two late entries are Stiff by Mary Roach and The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester. Although both are significantly thinner than the others I will still need to make room for them. (My below synopsis are short cause I must finish packing!)

Stiff – Ever since I’ve told people I’m reading this one they’ve told me how much they’ve enjoyed it. That’s a good sign. I’m also extremely interested to be reading this while traveling with a recently graduated med school student. That way I can ask him all the questions I want about gross anatomy and cadavers. Oh yeah, I think that’s what this book is all about. Should be incredibly interesting.

The Professor and the Madman – My aunt suggested I read this one, don’t remember the conversation that lead to it but that doesn’t matter. It looks pretty cool too! It’s all about the making of the Oxford Dictionary, hooray. Something which I frequently need seeing as my spelling abilities have dwindled as I’ve grown older. Womp.

The Late Entries

And now… let’s move on to the section of this rogue post I will title “The Things I Will Carry” (I don’t want to bite off of Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried too much).

I will now divulge to you my packing list, physically, mentally and emotionally for this trip.

Physically:
A bunch of crap that I don’t really care if I don’t bring back. Except for my camera and some of my dignity.

Mentally:
Preparedness for anything and everything. Like the capacity to say “no” to drugs. Yes, that was only inserted for my mothers benefit. Dad, I know you don’t really care. Hell, you only live once right? My willingness to pay bribes when in dire situations. My preparedness to run, run really f’ing fast when some one tries to throw me into a van. My ability to play James Bond and drive a car really fast in a get away situation, fire a gun at close range and jump from a crane to a tall building in a pinch.

Emotionally:
Yep, this is the toughest one. I will regrettably be bringing far too many emotions with me on this trip. With any luck I will be able to purge all of them, in other words expel all the bullshit from my life. Sure it may mean I come home and throw people out of my life but, in all honesty, some are just using and abusing me so screw it right (don’t worry, if you’re reading this you’re not one of them)? Man o man, that is so much easier said than done. Maybe the most I can hope for is to just try my best to forget about certain things while I’m gone. Hope that while I am “off the grid” the people who I am close to and or want to be closer to still will actually miss me and realize that maybe they need to re-evaluate some things. And if not, well, it will be my loss but there’s too. Here’s to happy endings! Oh, not those kind of happy endings.

Hope everyone has a great three weeks!

Located in the Japantown neighborhood of San Francisco (Fillmore and Post) this bookstore is two levels of awesome. Awesome in a non-traditional American book store kind of way. Why non-traditional? Well, for starters most of the books on the shelves in the store are written in Japanese. Therefore making it impossible for me to pick up a book and just start reading but also precluding me from making any purchases. Despite this though, I still love wandering around this store.

Another view of the entrance, pretty regal huh?

2nd Floor entrance to Kinokuniya

It had been sometime since I visited the store when I went there to do my research for this post and I must have spent over an hour in there browsing and having fun.

By far my favorite part of this particular store is their magazine section. Considering the fact that, as a kid growing up in the suburbs, on those nights when I had nothing to do I would go to the local bookstore and read magazines for a couple of hours this really is not much of a surprise. Again though, what makes this magazine section so incredible is that all the magazines are genuinely Japanese. And, for the record, Japanese magazines beat the hell out of American magazines. If you want car, cycling, snowboarding, skateboarding, wedding, arts, movie, teen, fingernail art, tattoos, men’s fashion, women’s fashion and boyband magazines this is the place for you. I’m not kidding.

Japanese Tennis Magazines

Fast and the Furious Japenese Magazines

Learn Japanese books

Martial Arts/Samurai section (try as I might I couldn't find any books on where one can buy Sumo diapers).

Lastly, and I would certainly be the fool for not mentioning this, the lower floor of the store is dedicated to Manga. I don’t really have a clue what “Manga” is but I think they are just comics written in Japanese. Am I right?? Anyways, they have a ton of the stuff downstairs so if that’s your thing it’s not to be missed. I’ve heard its the best selection in the city and I have no reason to believe otherwise.

Manga, Manga, Manga!

Lastly lastly, I urge you to visit this store on the weekends. Why? Because that is when you are most likely to encounter children, teens or even adults dressed in costumes. Costumes ranging from pokemon characters and rice farmers to perhaps a bizarre girl dressed like some sort of Japanese business woman (can anyone tell me what that was about?).

More and more books (in Japanese)

My favorite magazine cover

The Bay Area Free Book Exchange

What a gem, what a gem. I suppose calling this a “book store” may be a bit of a misnomer seeing as this place isn’t exactly a “store.” It’s more akin to a library but you just don’t have to return the books. You see, what this place does is giveaway books, a lot of books. To be a little more precise as of 12/20/09 they have given away a total of 31,461 books. And yes, they were all given away for free, to be kept for eternity and ever after. Unless of course once your done with them you choose to re-donate them (I highly recommend this).

The Bay Are Free Book Exchange works like this: Run by a cooperative of book store owners / lovers o books, books are collected from stores and people and then put on shelves. Those books which are donated that the store believes may be worth some money are then listed on e-bay. The others, well they go on the shelves and are given away.

While I was there I must have seen at least 15 boxes of books yet to be sorted. Get this, in order to take home books, you don’t even have to donate any. Just stroll on in, browse, pick out books, take to counter, have them stamped and leave. But wait, there is a limit of the number you can take , you can’t be selfish, you gotta leave some books for the next people. Then again if you reach that number, I’d be mighty impressed. Per visit, you are entitled to take home 50 books, yes that’s a 5 – 0 as in fifty. Yeah, I didn’t come close.

Bowhunting Dear (love at first sight)

Let’s not get carried away and start thinking that all the books on the shelves are worthy of being on your bookshelf.  Some are outright ridiculous and may very well sit on the shelves forever like James Clavell’s Gai-Jin and Dan Brown’s Deception Point. While others I’m sure will be gobbled up quite quickly, such as Bowhunting Deer, Edward’s Auto-Pedia (1984) and Cowboy Feng’s Space Bar and Grille which are of course now on my bookshelf. I saw quite a few Ann Rice, Nelson DeMille, Dan Brown and Neal Stephenson novels to give a small sampling. This only scratches the surface of authors but these few are widely known so I thought I would throw their names around. Overall the books seemed eerily reminiscent of those I found at the Big Book Sale back in late September, only fewer in number.

The store is even broken down into categories/genre to make searching a wee bit easier. I’m not going to lie, I think some of their volunteers were a little unfamiliar with some of the books while shelving. Regardless, it’s nice to have a general idea of where to look and come on the books are free so how much can a person complain.

Of course the only issue I have with this store is it’s location. I can easily understand why it is where it is. I can only imagine how inexpensive it must be to be located in El Cerrito. That’s not to say it’s cheap, but I’m sure it’s less expensive than SF. The odds of me making frequent trips are slim, but if I’m ever looking for free and incredibly interesting books I may just shoot on over.

Ooooh books!

Ooooooh, more books!

"Frontpage 98" umm, rad, I could use that.

Amazing variety. "America's Top Japanese Restaurants," "Reveal the Real You" (a self help book for teens), "Patriot Games," Baby & Child...," "South Beach Diet," and "The Celestine Prophecy"

The "Romance" section, yes, seriously all those books are romance novels.

Oh, and I thought I’d share with you all the books I picked up:
Gai-Jin by James Clavell
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
Cowboy Feng’s Space Bar and Grille by Steven Brust
Edward’s Auto-Pedia (1984)
Bowhunting Deer courtesy of the National Field Archery Assn.
Verbatim by Erin Mckean (interestingly enough there is a sticker on this one that says “From the library of…” wonder if I should give the nice lady a call?)
Biz Dev 3.0 by Brad Keywell
Deception Point by Dan Brown

I’m talking about the one place where I can go, grab a book and walk out the door so long as my mother or father are not currently reading said book. Yes, I’m talking about my parents book collection in their house in San Diego. I’m willing to bet that some of you out there have bigger libraries or will claim to have “better” libraries at your homes, but I could care less. I’m not bragging here, I’m just letting you know where much of what I read comes from.

One thing that will make this library stand out though is the plethora of childrens books. Considering I am the youngest adult in my family and my parents have no grandchildren to date (at least that I am aware of) it would seem bizarre to have so many childrens books. But, if you had read my previous post, Post Mortem Book Store Review, you would understand. Now a days most of these books aren’t even out on the shelves they actually live in an underground storage room in the house in boxes and crates (pictures below).

Every time I go home, which isn’t all that often, I end up returning to SF with a bag that is considerably heavier than it was when I arrived in San Diego. You see, many times new books pop up that have been returned from other loanees or my siblings. I’ve found some real gems in there and occasionally books that I kind of hope to never see again. The really cool thing is that whenever I’m there and I don’t know what to “borrow” I can ask anyone that’s home to suggest something and more often than not they know exactly what book I should take and where the book is. Of course, nowadays my parents have pretty much stopped adding books to their library. Both my mother and father are privy to the library these days and of course mom has gone all high tech and also has the kindle. It’s all good though, that actually helps keep me in check and encourages me to create my own mini library. Did I mention this is my favorite “book store?” Cause it is.

Here’s a peek into my parents house (sorry guy’s I know I didn’t ask before doing this, but it’s pretty much too late now).

The Living room collection, yes those are some family pictures. Not pictured is the ancient dictionary on a dictionary stand which sits to the right.

One of the 2 book cases in my "sisters" room. She always claims it when we're home, I prefer the other room anyways.

Ah yes, just a few of the childrens books in my mothers office. There's cleary some other junk on those shelves too.

Couple more...

Plastic thingies o children books...

Um, boxes of assorted books (I doubt anyone really knows what books are in those).

Ok, so there are more books scattered all throughout the house but I was kind of tired of snapping pictures and really didn’t feel like climbing around the garage to take pictures of boxes. I hope you can understand. So, there you have it, my favorite book store.

Having grown up in San Diego I’ve pretty much blanked on what and where the independent booksellers are in San Diego. I mean as a kid I remember always going to Barnes & Noble to look at the magazines but I really can’t remember going to any independents, besides my mothers store of course. And frankly, back then, going to a bookstore to look at books was pretty much the last thing I had on my mind. Unless I knew there was a cute girl working there or something. When I got home (SD) on this mini-vacation I asked my mom and the only one she came up with was Warwicks. My dad mentioned a mystery book store and maybe one of these days I’ll get around to reviewing that shop as well.

Warwicks, aside from being a fairly large bookseller is also a stationary, gift and office supply shop. It’s more or less broken in half, with half the shop being books and the other half being the other stuff. Honestly, I spent about 4.37965 seconds on the stationary side, frankly I wasn’t interested. It looked a bit kitschy, with glass cases protecting expensive chotskies and who knows whats. I did however spend a good amount of time on the book side. Personally, I think they should abandon the other stuff and just enlarge the book store, just my two cents.

I must say the store actually felt fairly cramped. They had so many damn books in such a tight area. I mean the store is big, but not nearly big enough. I would be worried if they didn’t have that space crammed though, it would kind of imply that they were a crummy store, which they are not. One of the things I liked most about the way they have the store laid out is the visibility of books. I really appreciate it when bookstores display books on tables with their front facing out as opposed to sideways in a bookshelf. It really does make finding what you’re looking for easier as well as helps you make impulse purchases (clearly why most stores do it).

As it turns out my mother is actually friends with someone who works at Warwicks and as a result she and I were fortunate enough to be taken to the back of the bookstore and allowed to peruse some of the ARCs (Advanced Reading Copies). Unfortunately I didn’t find any there that interested me but my mom picked up three I think, which was a good little pull for her. Oh, and the fact that a friend of my mothers works there clearly denotes that they hire very intelligent/bookish people.

I wouldn’t want you to think I walked out without buying a couple books now would I? For awhile I walked around the store carrying about 5 but then whittled it down to two and walked out with A Voyage Long and Strange by Tony Horwitz and El Monstruo by John Ross. Be on the lookout for those reviews in the near future.

So, here’s what you’ve been kind of waiting for, the pictures:

Front of Warwicks, and yes there are two gentlemen playing chess in front.

Interior of the store as you enter through the stationary side.

The lovely and easily discernible displays I mentioned (you'd know what I'm talking about if you read the post).

Books (kind of obvious isn't it)

A small selection of the stores ARCs (advanced reading copies). Yeah, we're cool like that.

A lot has happened since I last put up my list. Let’s see I’ve read 17 books since then which equals nearly 3 books a week. Would you believe that I actually have a social life too? Amazing, I know. Between my books, I had a high school reunion, we all had Halloween, the company I work for was sold, I figured out where I want to work next, I spent time with many friends, made new friends, possibly lost some friends, was told by some that they no longer want to be my friend, drank a lot of coffee, was burned, scorned and let down, rode a tricycle, crashed a tricycle, rode a bike, crashed a bike, ate eel, developed a plan to take over the world, watered my plants (numerous times), replaced the alternator in my car, lost a few days and nights, grew a beard, shaved said beard so I could have a kick ass stache, ate some cheese, drank some wine, possibly (ok, I did) engage in a few illegal activities and drum roll please… bet you’re expecting something really big now right… well… here goes… ate three bowls of cereal in a single day! Now that’s astonishing.

If only you knew what some of that cryptic stuff actually meant, muahahahaha (that’s an evil laugh for those of you unfamiliar). But back to the list, you’ll actually see that some of the books that are currently on the list have been there since I first started this blog. I guess I have to concede that some of these books may never actually be read. Some are kind of hard to find while others just don’t seem as interesting as some of the newer ones that pop up. That said, it actually seems like every time I go into a book store I end up buying one book from the list and three that weren’t on it. The newest additions to the list aren’t exactly new books, most of them are in fact books that have been recommended to me by random people on the street, in bars (yes, I do talk shop in bars, yep “that guy”) or wherever I may be.

(I’ve also decided not to go the “poll” route this time. It just wasn’t really working out, maybe one of these days I’ll try again)

The List:

Maps and Legends – Michael Chabon
Cities in Civilization – Sir Peter Hall
Yi Fu Tuan
The Man Who Loved China – Simon Winchester
Best American Travel Writing – Simon Winchester
State by State
The Concrete Dragon – Thomas H. Campanella
The Geography of Nowhere – James Howard Kunstler
A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
Six Suspects – Vikas Swarup
Ghost Soldiers – Hampton Sides
Nobody Move – Denis Johnson
Who’s Your City – Richard Florida
Wrestling With Moses – Anthony Flint
Uglies – Scott Westerfield
American Hotel Stories – Franisca Matteolla
Enders Shadow – Orson Scott Card
The Sower – Kemble Scott
Voss – Patrick White
You Can’t Win – Jack Black (not the actor guy)
Naked Airport – Alastair Gordon
Planet of Slum – Mike Davis
Game of Thrones – George R.R. Martin
Tortilla Flats – John Steinbeck
Tipping Point – Malcom Gladwell
San Francisco Confidential – Raymond Mungo
Common Sense – Glenn Beck
Big Machine – Victor LaValle
Mind of the Raven – Bernd Heinrich
Beg Borrow Steal – Michael Greenberg
The Wild Things – Dave Eggers
A Glass of Water – Jimmy Santiago Baca
The Skating Rink – Roberto Bolano
The Poet and the Murderer – Simon Worrall
Fugitives and Refugees – Chuck Palahniuk
A Voyage Long and Strange – Tony Horwitz
The Milagro Beanfield War – Ruben Blades
The Boy Who Harvested the Wind – William Kamkwamba
Brighton Rock – Graham Greene
Gone – Michael Grant
A Day in the Life of Ancient Rome – Alberto Angela

So, as you can probably discern there is no rhyme or reason to the list and they are of course in no particular order. I’ve got something from just about every genre in there. I have no idea how long it will take me to get through that list and odds are it will probably never happen. It grows much faster than I can read but hey, that’s the beauty of books, there are always more.

If you’ve got any other books you think I should add to the list, throw em at me, please.

80's logo, can you tell?

So, the Yellow Book Road isn’t actually dead. There is still a children’s book store that goes by this name but I can tell you it is most definitely not the Yellow Book Road that I have fond memories of.

Yes, it is bizarre that I’m reviewing a store that in my mind no longer exists but there is a perfectly good reason for my doing so. Mostly for the memories and secondly for my mother and Susie. You see, my mother and one of her best friends, Susie, first opened the store in La Mesa, California in 1986. The first location was above a pediatricians office (obviously ideal for a children’s bookstore), next door to a Mexican restaurant and very close to Aquarius Roller Rink (that place was rad). I have fond memories of that upstairs location but the bulk of my memories are of the store when it moved to it’s much much larger location on La Mesa Blvd. in downtown La Mesa.

Being owned by my mom, and still being rather young, you can probably imagine the amount of time I spent there. Looking back on it now I would like to remember it as being similar to a giant playground full of the written word. Unfortunately, at the time, I wasn’t so interested in that. Regardless, it was always cool to be there (although my mom will probably tell you I wasn’t always so pleased).

The store was constantly having authors in the store, whole classes of students and who knows what else. I mean there was always something going on. Back in the day I can remember a 10, possibly more, page newsletter, I mean seriously, this was for a children’s book store. My mom and Susie worked with school districts all over the country helping to make sure that schools got just the books they needed and wanted. It’s really quite amazing to look back and reflect on that. They worked incredibly hard and ran a very successful, well known and very well respected business.

There were two other aspects of the store on La Mesa Blvd. that always captivated me. The first being the display windows out front, these windows were huge and were constantly changing. Some were designed by schools and students and others by the staff. I think those windows helped draw a lot of people into the store, they were definitely always eye catching. I remember quite frequently asking my mom if the windows had changed and what had gone in. The second, and probably my favorite thing about the store, was ”the wall.” I know, a wall, whats wrong me? Oh, this was no ordinary wall. On a spectacular visit by one of my favorite authors of the time, Brian Jacques, he audaciously made the decision that to commemorate his experience at the store he would autograph the wall. Hmm, interesting right? Well as time went on and authors stopped in they too decided to sign the wall. Eventually there were illustrations, signatures, quotes and all kinds of other fun and inspiring inscriptions on that wall. Once the wall got too crowded the signatures spread. They were on the doors to the office, they were on the molding, the cashiers island, they were everywhere. Unfortunately though those autographs are no longer there, as my mom and Susie sold the store sometime ago and the store has moved. But, they did hang on to the doors of the office as a little memento and keep sake. It’s pretty cool, ya know.

Of course there are other memories of the store. Like hanging around in the back of the store where there was a large loading dock door (you know the big heavy metals ones on rollers). I remember always coming into the store through that entrance as opposed to the front door, I was too cool for the front door. I also recall working for the store at various points, and I’m pretty sure both my siblings and all three of Susie’s children also worked for the store at one point or another . Whether I was helping with inventory or making deliveries, it was always redeeming knowing that I was helping my mom out. Oh, and of course all the staff there. Throughout the years they of course changed but there were also staffers who were there for ages. Whenever I came home from college or back from somewhere whether or not I knew or remembered them, they remembered me which was always endearing.

Most recently the store was actually bought a second time from the people who originally bought it from my mom and Susie. I’ve been to the new location once and… well, it’s certainly not the same. My mom and Susie still have a deep love for that store and are always willingly generous with their time to consult with the new owners and help them out in whatever way they can.

As a small token of all the memories, Susie’s children and my siblings and I (I can’t really take any credit for it) compiled a photo album for both Susie and my mom of the book store through the ages. It’s really quite neat and I always notice it on the bookshelf in the living room when I’m in San Diego.

Although the bookstore I remember is now gone, I will of course always remember it.

Although finding pictures of the stores wasn’t exactly easy I did want to show you all what it looked like on the inside. Enjoy…

Patricia Polacco (author & illustrator) at the original store location

Front of the La Mesa Blvd. store. What is this, the only day it's ever rained in San Diego and you decide to take a picture then?

"Eye Woz First" Brian Jacques (author) first to sign the wall, 4/10/93

Wall Illustrations

Umm, there is a pig on the wall wearing a tutu...

Molding Illustrations

Yes, that is a door... they were running out of space.

I got into work this morning and as usual the first thing I do is go through my google reader and look at the posts from the blogs I follow, seriously i’m addicted to reader. The most exciting of which was my brother’s post on his blog J-Tris , he wrote a book review! Looks like he really just wants to give me a run for my money, but he’s family. He’s a big fitness fanatic and loves running, cycling, swimming and all that jazz. So, after recently finishing Born to Run by Christopher McDougall and then having the chance to see him in Los Angeles he took it upon himself to write a review. Check out his review here!

I’m always willing to share the limelight (yes I know, there is no limelight, but don’t tell him that).

It is time once again for me to ask for your help. Of course I could just choose a book but it’s more fun to see what you all think I should be reading or what you’d like to see me review. I’ve limited my reading list/poll to 20 titles, which is actually quite a lot, and have also eliminated from it some of the longer behemoth books such as Infinite Jest cause I’m kind of tired of lugging around 5 pound books (The Power Broker and The Fountainhead). I’ve also made it easy for you to vote, no more clicking on a link, instead the poll is right here on the post! Pretty exciting huh? I think so, cause it took me awhile to figure out how to do it. Anyways, check out the poll below and help me decide what to read. The poll will run for one week, from Friday to Friday (ending at 8am PST) and I’ll be sure to announce the winning book that day. Vote away!