Protension: the online journal of Tom Elgin

So nobody ever told you, baby how it was going to be So what’ll happen to you, baby guess we’ll have to wait and see…

I was amused when my roommate, friend, and co-worker Ben Dilts decided upon being [...]

Who says life after college ain’t the same? It’s the second week of May and it feels like finals week:

12:30am-7:00am, 12:45am-6:30am, 5:00am-8:45am, …?

OK, it’s not quite the same as finals week: I don’t get to sleep til noon the next day, and I have to shave.

My alma mater of civic engagement, the Bus Project, has registered 12,000 (young) voters in Oregon this year through it’s Building Votes program. That’s about double the margin between Bush-Gore in Oregon in 2000 (i.e. enough to make a difference)!

If you are in Oregon or know anyone who is — get involved and help [...]

Yes, it’s 10pm on Saturday.

But it’s been an exciting day at work.

Can’t really post details of our business to the blog, but let me put it this way.

I’m learning a ton and meeting some cool people (not least my coworkers in the office who are more and more impressive as I get to know them).

Launching [...]

When new students arrive at Pomona in the fall, they always sit through the requisite slideshows and welcome speeches. They are told these will be the most exciting years of their lives. They are told to make the most of it. They are assured that everyone else is as nervous as they [...]

Actually, health insurance isn’t sexy. But it’s important enough that it ought to be.

So now I’m selling health insurance as a student rep for Zane Benefits, LLC. Their marketing materials look pretty run-of-the-mill, and you’d be tempted to write them off as some kind of MLM or fake scam. But I met [...]

I haven’t updated in a while.

If you’re interested in public education drop me a line. Between three and eight years from now I’m going to call you back. Promise.

This weekend I rediscovered the Bureau of Labor Statistics website. Large bureaucracies may not always be the most efficient or practical organizations in the world, but you can’t beat them for massive amounts of data (see also BEA or BLM or, my favorite for voting research, the USCB). Oooh! Look at all [...]