So, starting Friday evening, my house has been infected with the plague; everybody but me got some sort of bacterial gut infection, causing all kinds of awfulness all around.

Seriously, my house kind of looked like a combination of these two clips. Apologies in advance to the weak of constitution:

I suspect I was spared thanks to the “raze it to the ground and salt the earth” course of antibiotics I’m currently in the middle of (thank science for small favors), though I’ve been dealing with everyone else and the wonderfully nauseating smells being created, so it’s, you know, kind of a wash.

Otherwise, the weekend went okay-ish. My annual “Dinner and Dungeons and Dragons” event went swimmingly; the group had a good time, the food and company were great, and the party itself really got into their character concepts, and we spent more time improvising roleplay scenarios where all sorts of white collar crime was committed and waffles were consumed (especially the newbies, which really impressed me) than we did crawling dungeons. It was kind of brilliant.

But yeah, most of the weekend beyond Saturday afternoon involved lots of cleaning up bio-spills and running messes. I’ll be honest, I’m kind of relieveed to be working Monday.

Saturday was also the South Carolina Democratic primary. I called the winner (which wasn’t hard), though my spread was off by….a lot.

Tomorrow is “Super Tuesday”, which includes me voting (and if you’re in one of the dozen or so states and territories listed there, you should be voting too). Given the situation, I’m not going to call individual states – there’s too much going on for me to really do so with my amatuer-level time commitment.

My general trends – on the Republican side, I think Trump is going to solidify his dominance here, much to the chagrin of the GOP establishment. The party’s really starting to get nervous – Trump is a phenomenon (for good or ill), but he’s not *their* phenomenon, and a wildcard. Rubio (who oddly, has become the establishment guy) has started the attack, but it’s too little, too late. I see the party swallowing their pride, and going all in for Trump coming up (and framing it as he was their guy all along, because that’s how they play), and hoping they can shape him, but making plans to quietly deal with a Clinton presidency (which is unlikely to change the financial status quo much).

The outside possibility is that Trump finally realizes what the hell he’s gotten himself into, and up and quits this week after sweeping Super Tuesday, claiming that showing he could do it is just as good, if not better, than actually doing it – he calls himself a “winner”, then throws the election into chaos by freeing up all the delagates he’s won thus far. I think that would be some pretty amazing performance art, if nothing else.

On the Democratic side, I think it’s going to probably be a pretty good day for Clinton, though I expect a couple of surprise results, keeping Sanders in the game (and, probably most importantly, keeping his message relevant) for a bit longer. (Okay…guesses – Sanders is going to take Oklahoma, and do surprisingly well in Georgia – the Atlanta youth is going come out. Also, personally, I think Virginia’s gonna be close – within 5%). Mathematically, there’s no way either Clinton or Sanders can end it this week, so the game will continue a while.

I’m trying to be realistic here – I’m kind of in the tank for Sanders. I like his message, I like the insurgency, and I’m really kind of lukewarm to Clinton; I’m not a fan of “third way” politics or excessive triangulation (which is different than compromise), and I’m not a fan of the possibility that except for Obama, my entire adult life so far could be nothing but a parade of Clintons and Bushes. That, my friends, isn’t democracy; that’s a damned dynasty.

That said, in the likely scenario that Clinton ends up the nominee in the end of this, that’s where my vote’s going, because…let’s be honest, am *I* gonna vote for the Republican? Plus, I live in a swing state – my vote counts on the national stage, so in the end, I have to be pragmatic (if i lived in California with a Clinton candidacy, I’d probably end up voting for Jill Stein, because then I could afford idealism).

But, this is primary season. It’s the time to vote with your idealistic choice; to drive the narrative. It’s not the time to vote pragmatically. It’s the time to vote for the candidate who most accurately matches your views and ideals; the one you want to see on the ballot in November, not who the conventional wisdom thus far says is going to be there.

Make some new conventional wisdom during the primaries, that’s my advice to everyone right now.