Somewhere In The 21st Century

I got my city census form in the mail today.

I've actually been looking forward to getting it because this year's city census is taking a little dip into the cyberspace pool.

If the information they already have printed on the census form doesn't require any changes, then you can just click on over to the City Of Worcester website and click on the box with the yellow mailbox in it.

I wonder how they came up with that particular color? Lot's of things are the color yellow... such as daffodils, lemons, baby ducklings, caution signs, school buses, and the taxicab that I drive.

But a yellow mailbox? Yup, it's sure to stand out...

In a pumped up state of virtual excitement, I eagerly clicked on the box with the yellow mailbox and nothing happened...

This type of online non-event isn't all that rare, though. That's why I run a little net monitor program that plants a tray icon showing any ethernet activity in or out of my computer.

I waited a few seconds, then clicked on it again. That's when I noticed my netmonitor tray icon showed a broken connection.

This happens every once in a while, too. I haven't figured it out yet because I don't know how to make it happen. I only know that it usually resets after a minute.

Finally, I got it...

You can click on the down arrow next to the street name dialog box and get a drop-down list of every street in the city.

Oddly enough, no matter where you click on that dialog box, you get the drop-down menu. You can actually type the street name in, but the way this dialog box is programmed, you're expected to scroll and choose one from the list. So if you have absent-mindedly typed in and mis-spelled your street name in the dialog box before you realize what's going on, it gets a little fussy. But just use the scroll bar to select the street name.

I tried, but I couldn't get it to lock up. (It's my old programmer GUI testing habits, I guess...) Just in case, though, they've got a "reset" button.

Once you've entered your street name, and then entered the serial number from the top of the census form, you have the "submit" button to contend with.

Personally, I find a "submit" button on a government website to be offensive. I'd prefer "done" or "finish" or maybe "send". But submit makes me feel like I'm dealing with Nazis or S&M freaks.

I almost decided to quit and mail the thing in.

After a moment of formulating the last five sentences in my head, though, I submitted. Clicking on that button brings you to the acknowledgement / receipt page, where you can print out a hard copy of acknowledgement that the city's computer supposedly captured this whole thing correctly, and that you've done your civic duty by responding to the census.

I never got a receipt for answering the city census before.

In fact, it's always been one of those nagging little things... that if my mailed city census form somehow got lost in the mail, I'd probably never know it until I went to vote in an election.

But now I have my receipt. I'm sure that if I turn up at my neighborhood polling place this September for the state primary elections and my name isn't on the list, that all I have to do is show them my census receipt...