After reading all the (mostly) enthusiastic reviews of Windows 7, I’m tempted to make the upgrade from XP. Yet I think I’ll wait until I have a long weekend to give myself sufficient time for reformatting and reinstalling all my applications. I’m enough of a geek that I actually look forward to spending a couple days making my system all shiny with that new OS smell. That said, XP continues to work like a champ. Since I rebuilt my computer a couple years ago, it’s been a paragon of stability and reliability. But I’ll be able to resist the siren call of the new new thing for only so long, so XP and I will do our best to enjoy whatever time we have left.

And yes, I’ve also been eyeing the new iMacs. But a new iMac, along with the necessary accessibility software, would cost me close to two grand. I’d have a hard time justifying that expense, especially now that Windows 7 and OS X approaching parity in terms of features and ease of use.

Senate Democrats seem poised to include a public option that includes an opt-out provision for states n the floor version of the health care bill. OMG!

The White House may be trying kill the Senate’s progressive tendencies in favor of the weaker public option “trigger” in order to secure Republican Senator Olympia Snowe’s vote. WTF?

This is like watching a particularly wonky episode of West Wing, only without getting to watch the urgent hallway conversations. Six weeks ago, all the smart money seemed to be on a final bill that didn’t include any sort of public option. But the political process is unpredictable and chaotic. All it took was a butterfly fluttering its wings to change the climate (in this case, a Washington Post headline re-discovering that the public option is popular with voters). There’s still plenty of opportunities for Democrats to get spooked and run screaming back to the political center, but for the moment, I’m cautiously optimistic.

Even if a public option with an opt-out provision passes, more battles lie ahead. Governor Pawlenty is already indicating that he would opt Minnesota out of the public option. Of course, Pawlenty knows that he’ll be out of office by the time Minnesota needs to make that decision, which gives him the freedom to pander to Republican primary voters. But I hope other state Republicans take the bait. Our state already has a public option (MinnesotaCare) and it’s proven to be pretty popular.

I used to check my blog statistics every day, but that started to feel like I was feeding my inner narcissist, so I let a whole year go by before looking at them again. I finally allowed myself a peek at Sitemeter stats a couple days ago and discovered that, over the last twelve months, traffic to the Floor actually peaked last October with approximately 2,500 hits that month. Since then, I seem to have settled into the 1,500-1,700 range of hits per month. Not bad, but I’m still getting less hits than some grandmother in Ohio who posts the many hijinks of her cats.

So my question for all of you is this: how can I attract enough hits to pull me out of the blogosphere’s basement? I’ve been kicking around a few ideas.

• Fishnets of the Day (readers submit alluring photos of themselves in fishnets and I publish my favorites)
• Bon Appetit (a weekly feature in which I post video of me sticking assorted disgusting fare–insects, roadkill, Velveeta–into the blender and down my g-tube with a big smile on my face)
• Moonlighting (I take up a second job and blog about my experiences. Possible careers could include medical test subject, strip club D.J., or private investigator)
• Since You Asked (a regular advice column in which readers send me questions and I do my best to pretend I have a clue)

Thoughts? Suggestions?

I like to think of life in narrative terms: it has a beginning, middle, and end. But let’s take the analogy a little further. What if your life was measured according to the length of a popular movie? How far along would you be in the movie? Using Star Wars as my yardstick (natch) and assuming an average lifespan, I’m almost halfway through the movie. The Death Star is about to blast Alderaan into tiny pieces. But if I assume a shorter lifespan (let’s say sixty years, which still seems generous), then I’m at the part where Han, Luke, and Chewie are about to rescue Princess Leia.

It’s an interesting way of putting mortality into perspective. I take some consolation in the fact that I haven’t missed the Rebels’ assault on the Death Star. That part rules. 

I cut my landline a few months ago in favor of a shiny new iPhone. I still love my phone (nothing passes the time on a three-hour flight better than being able to watch a bunch of Firefly episodes), but I’m becoming familiar with the annoyances that come from having only a cell phone. One is rather trivial: remembering to silence the ringer before going into a meeting. I’ve been in at least one big staff meeting where I’ve forgotten to do that and everyone was treated to my undeniably dorky sci-fi ringtone.

The other annoyance is more serious. In the last week or so, people have tried calling me only to be kicked into voicemail. This is particularly irksome because I live in a secure building that requires people to call me to get buzzed in. I updated the phone’s operating system and things seem to be functioning normally now, but our cellular infrastructure still has a long way to go before it can match the reliability of good old copper wiring.