Yet again, in another demonstration of my tendency to save work until the last minute, I find myself staring blankly at my computer screen, somehow hoping that my 10-page paper, due this afternoon (in less than 12 hours), will write itself. Fueled only by caffeine and sugar, I wonder what drives me to put myself in positions like this.

Maybe it's because I excel under high-pressure situations. Do I deliberately challenge myself to see if I can succeed? Perhaps it's just a subconscious masochistic desire.

Whatever the reason, I can recall very few (if any) papers I've written during the past four years that I've actually started ahead of time. Perhaps I should work on changing my habits before I write my thesis next semester. My guess is that it'll take more than a night to finish.

(Sleep? What's that?)

Last week at my school's blood drive I donated a pint for the fourth time since my freshman year. In the past, I've experienced cases of light-headedness, but have never come as close to passing out as I did on Wednesday.

With legs elevated, I felt fine during the entire "draining" process. Only after walking to the "recovery table" and sitting down there did the room and people around me become blurry. As a nurse escorted me to lie down, all the sounds in the room began to fade out. On the verge of blacking out, I managed to make it to my back. My blood began to circulate again and I recovered after several minutes.

I always tell myself that I'm never going to give blood again, but I know I'll be right back on that table again next semester.

Maybe it's my masochistic side talking. But more likely, it's knowing I've helped save lives.

Thanks for reading, and have a great week. Feel free to share your stories with me also. (I'd love to hear about the real people behind my list of e-mail addresses too!)

-Gabe

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Even in California, where multimillion-dollar ballot initiative campaigns are the rule rather than the exception, the fight over Proposition 5, the Indian gambling initiative, is raising eyebrows.

The initiative represents a classic turf fight between well-heeled special interests. On one side are the wealthy, casino-loving tribes that wrote the initiative and spent $8 million to qualify it for the ballot. One tribe alone, the San Manuel tribe of Highland, has accounted for more than half of all the proponents' spending.

On the other side is an unusual coalition of a handful of tribes that hope to block the expansionist dreams of the proponents, some anti-gambling forces and the gambling interests of Nevada, who don't want to see California gamblers spending their money in the Golden State.

The polls show the proposition is ahead roughly 3-to-2, but a fifth of the electorate is undecided; the initiative is still up for grabs.

Through the end of September, the warring parties spent about $54 million on the campaign -- that's right, $54 million -- and by the time Election Day rolls around in the first week of November, that figure probably will hit $65 or $70 million.

The Indian gambling issue is complex indeed, and this year's fight in California has really been simmering since 1988, when Congress approved and then-President Bush signed the federal Indian gaming act. That law said, in effect, that tribes could conduct gambling on their reservations if the games were legal elsewhere in the state and if the tribes negotiated agreements, called "compacts," with the governor to authorize the gambling.

Proposition 5 would make legal some forms of gambling that Gov. Pete Wilson has found to be illegal. It would require any governor to approve compacts according to the tribes' own terms. Backers of the initiative, who have outspent the opponents 2-to-1 and who include most of California's indian tribes, say it would assure the tribes of a stable source of revenue and save the state hundreds of millions of dollars because many tribal members would no longer need to be on the welfare rolls.

The opponents, who include a few tribes, law enforcement, organized labor and the Nevada interests, contend the initiative would spark a major expansion of gambling in California, and that the games would be inadequately regulated and taxed.

Most fiscal experts believe that the passage of the initiative would hurt the Nevada gambling industry, although just how much is hard to nail down. One estimate said southern Nevada casinos would lose about 7 percent of their revenues during the first two years, and the percentage would be higher in the Reno-Tahoe area, a popular destination for Northern California gamblers.

As October began, proponents had a hefty $6.5 million reserve; the opponents were in the red about $1.5 million.

Behind the spending and the slick television advertising, however, is a fundamental question for California voters: Do they want more gambling in California? Clearly, many Californians enjoy gambling and they resent having to go to Nevada to play their favorite games. But equally clearly, many people in California regard gambling as a social ill and they are uncomfortable with any wholesale expansion of a social activity they believe is detrimental to the social welfare.

Ironically, the professional odds-makers appear to favor the initiative. But much can happen during the next three weeks.

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