Blue state, red state, green state

I think I'm running low on clever titles for this one, so I'll cut to the chase: Starbucks is giving a free tall cup of brewed coffee if you walk in on November 4 and say you voted. Don't let the coffee vote suppressors trick you into thinking it's November 5! [Update (November 4, 2008): The offer was an illegal enticement to get people to vote, so Starbucks is offering free coffee to everyone!]

[Quick update: there are other deals to be had, as well. This Orange County Register article mentions voting promotions at Ben & Jerry's (from 5 pm to 8 pm only), Pizza Hut, Krispy Kreme, and some local OC places. Since tomorrow is a state holiday (to encourage voting), I should find all these deals and — quite literally — go to town. Come to think of it, that might not work. The nearest Krispy Kreme is only 95 miles away, but it's on another island. The only Ben & Jerry's on O'ahu is over in Kaneohe, a bit of a drive toward the northeast shore; before I bought the Garmin I once ended up there after getting lost coming home from Aloha Stadium.]

I know a lot of people don't go in for big corporate promotions of things that people should be doing anyway, but human nature is sometimes such that we need a little push (or pull) to do the right thing. 

Mind you, this is not the fancy coffees. This is the basic one, but it's still good and it's still free, and you can still add sugar and half-and-half to it. This is the same coffee that's a little under $2, and it's the one I get when I want to pay the minimum to rent one of their chairs. 

So tomorrow I'll probably be heading in to the local Starbucks, which is in a cute little one-story building from the year 1930 that used to be a fruit stand. Yeah, I know, Starbucks are everywhere and they seem to lack a soul. Indeed, the interior of ours looks a bit like most any other Starbucks, but they also include vintage black-and-white pictures of the building itself and the surrounding area. 

It's a neat little place where loads of students and local residents go and just hang out and study or talk. You end up meeting many of the same people over and over again, which is mostly a good thing. Mostly.

When I'm not using my Italian coffee syphon to make a low-tech European-style café in the dorm, I divide my coffee/tea time between Starbucks and Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, which is across the street and has much the same atmosphere, though it is right next to a 1960s-era Safeway building in what is best described as a strip mall. 

I prefer Coffee Bean's vanilla latte, which also comes in decaf, but I also like Starbucks' caramel macchiato and their chai tea latte. "The Bean" here in Hawaii offers one-hour WiFi for free, and the one hour usually lasts for about two or three hours (yeah, bra, even da WiFi be on Hawaii time, yeah). I go to Starbucks when I need to read or I have computer work to do and don't want the distraction brought on by the Internet. For those few things I need to check right then and there, I've got the Internet on my iPhone. 

And by now I've probably gone on a bit longer than you wanted to read. The End.