Senator keeps in touch

State Sen. Lisa Brown, a Democrat from Spokane, is the majority leader in the Washington State Senate. She was elected to the Senate in 1996 after having served two terms in the State House of Representatives.

My Internet

My life is somewhat fragmented during the legislative session, as I spend each week in Olympia and most weekends in Spokane. My son and I use Google calendar to keep track of each other’s schedules, and I have programmed my Google page with SeaTac and Spokane weather info.

Thankfully, I have excellent legislative assistants who help me field more than 100 e-mails a day, giving me time to keep up with current events. I have most of the state’s major media organizations bookmarked and have started to become a fan of news blogs.

My favorites:

Rich Roesler: http://www.spokesman review.com/blogs/olympia/

David Postman: http://blog.seattletimes. nwsource.com/davidpostman

The Stranger: http://www.thestranger.com/blog/

The Washington state portal http://access.wa.gov/ is a one-stop shop where I can renew car tabs, order a fishing license, check election results, or even see if anyone owes me money!

Politics

I admit to checking out my own Web site frequently http://sdc.leg.wa.gov/brown.htm, as well as keeping up with local Democrats at http://www.spokanedemocrats.org/, and local young Democrats at http://www.spokaneyoungdems.org/. I have to keep an eye on my Senate Republican colleagues, too: http://www.src.wa.gov/.

If I miss an important legislative hearing or press conference, I check www.tvw.org to see when the show will air on Channel 25 in Spokane or to watch it online.

When I’ve had too much of mainstream politics, I keep up with my activist roots by listening to Air America at http://www.airamerica.com/, or I go to http://www.nwprogressive.org/ portal/. I could spend hours there — if I had hours to spare!

Fun

Music is a passion for me: Sometimes I listen to one of my favorite Seattle stations, The Mountain, at http://www.kmtt.com/home.asp. Nostalgically, I visit Joni Mitchell’s homepage from time to time at www.jonimitchell.com, or go to the Seattle Weekly’s concert schedule at http://www.seattleweekly.com/music/ 0703/notable-shows.php.

I try to ration my time at the iTunes store. I also watch YouTube videos recommended by my son and friends. I download free sudoku puzzles at www.freesudoku.com and I dream of my future, traveling and conversing in foreign languages at http://www.bbc.co.uk/ languages/.