As I was just perusing Amazon.com, I noticed something new. Yep, that is the ability to search only for items that are Prime eligible. I don’t know when this appeared but it had to be recently as I’m a frequent Amazon shopper (thank you Prime).

There are numerous sites out there that have tried to allow people to search for Prime items on Amazon but most of them were clunky and and returned poor results. Amazon was clearly listening to its users with this addition.

Looking at URL’s, I found that the variable that controls the Prime search is “%2Cp_76%3A1″. I can’t form my own URLs with it (yet) as it has to be formatted just so. However, I have come up with my favorite Prime Search links to get you started:

• All Prime Eligible Toys & Games
• All Prime Eligible Toys and Games under $10 (I call this the Auntie Special since I can rack up gifts for cheap!)
• DVD Collection Builder (All Prime Eligible DVD’s rated 4 stars and up)
• The Motherlode (All Prime Eligible Items on Amazon.com)
• Nerdvana (All Prime Eligible Books in the Computers & Internet category)

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some shopping to do. Thank you Amazon, for your contribution to the  stimulation of the economy.

1. He is the only candidate who has an actual plan for how to handle technology. With net neutrality, copyright, and all sorts of other tech battles to fight, having someone in office who actually recognizes the importance of good policy right now is key. Not only does he have a plan, he’s already gotten the best of the best in the field to help shape policies. Which leads me to the second reason.
2. He recognizes and acknowledges that he doesn’t know everything. When there is a subject he’s not familiar on he defers to the experts. This is a huge deal as policy making tends to fall to committees. Appointments to committees typically go to good ol’ boy buddies and lobbyists. The significance of this? Imagine how differently the Hurricane Katrina aftermath would have gone if someone knowledgeable would have headed up FEMA instead of Michael Brown.
3. Last but most certainly not least. Obama can move people. He is inspiring. He is eloquent. He has poise. He has sparked record-setting voter turnouts. He has everything it takes to be a leader. After the debacle of George Bush, the people of our country need someone who can magnetize rather than polarize.

Moving on. Today I heard women say they were voting for Hillary because she’s a woman. It should come as no surprise that I was disgusted by this. Voting with one’s genitalia is just stupid and forgive me for saying it, but a waste of a vote.

I want to believe that women are smarter than that. I want to believe that the droves of women voting for Hillary have good reasons for doing so. So I ask you women, why did you vote for Hillary? What were your top 3 reasons for voting for Hillary?

Right, so 2007? Good, bad, ugly? I think none of those apply to my year and I can sum it up with a resounding “meh.” Nothing extremely noteworthy happened but I’ll give the brief synopsis anyhow. In 2007 I:

• Had one employer for the entire year. The last time that happened was in 2003.
• Moved into my current apartment in Brooklyn.
• Had one boyfriend and 3 crushes.
• Traveled to Milan (for a month), Florida, South Carolina, Chicago, Atlanta, and California.
• Made three >$300 purchases for myself. I could explain why this is worth mentioning but it would take a while so I won’t.
• Became addicted to twitter.
• Got involved with the OSS stuff, thanks to the lovely and talented LH.
• Met some of the coolest people you could ever know in life. Damn shame they all live in different states.

Okay so maybe the year wasn’t so much “meh” as it was good-ish. What’s on deck for 2008? I’m no fortune teller but I can say what I’d like to do.

• Pay off 2 of my smaller student loans.
• Move away from New York (visiting is nice, living here isn’t).
• Learn to do advanced things in Python and perhaps pick up some PHP.
• Lose weight. The Google 15 (and then some) is no joke.

Mind you those are not New Year’s resolutions. I don’t resolve to do any of them because you never know what kind of craziness life is going to throw at you. Those are just things I’d like to do and will try to do and if they happen, more power to me. I hope you all have a great New Year. Don’t drink and drive.

I implore you all not to fall into the emotional voting trap (Oh he’s got charisma, he gets my vote), the racial voting trap (Well he’s black so…), the popularity voting trap (Everybody is voting for her so I probably should too), the party lines voting crap (I’m not voting for anyone who isn’t a Democrat), or any other preconceived, non-researched position on who you are voting for.

Don’t listen to only what they say, go out and find out their history, how they’ve voted, who their key contributors are, etc.

Just please, PLEASE make informed decisions in 2008.

Here are some tools to get you started:

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/compare-candidates/index.html
http://www.opensecrets.org/presidential/candcomp.asp?cycle=2008
http://www.candidatescomparison.com/
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=candidates%40Google

/me steps off soapbox