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Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009
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1:47 pm - Shakes Head at Silly People
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So maybe you've heard about this, maybe not:
The idea is ordinary citizens can suggest ideas, and other ordinary citizens can vote yay or nay on them, with a live update of the tally. It's pretty slick, and the only requirement is an e-mail address they can confirm (the usual "click this link" stuff).
Apparently the "legalize marijuana" topic is a repeat top vote getter. Single Payer Health Care, the one option that insurers are desperate to prevent, is another.
But the reason I would like y'all to go over there is to put to rest the freeper campaign demanding that Obama show his "long form" birth certificate, cause he's really an usurper from KENYA, you betcha! Also.
Fortunately the "SHOW US THE DOCS!" crowd don't understand that the site policy states that duplicative posts are to be avoided -- in other words, there should be one item that says "prove you're really a US citizen, cause, like, we're still sore losers who don't want to think too hard about McCain being born in Panama, but at least he was WHITE!" a good 8 months after they lost. Of course, when the moderators started to enforce the site policy the cries of "oppression!" and "tyranny!" was heard throughout the land.
I would love to see all the remaining "long form" birth certificate (you know, the one they would claim as a forgery even if it was plastered in full page ads in every publication in America) go to negative digits -- I only went back about 10 pages myself. While you're at it, don't neglect the other items you deem worthy of giving a thumbs up or down to.
current mood:  amused
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(1 Pearl | Grace me with your wisdom, O learned ones!)
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| Friday, April 10th, 2009
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3:42 pm - Aaaaaaand We're Back!
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So AT&T finally got things back online at some point over night. It's a very weird feeling not having access to vast quantities of ever growing spam messages at a moments notice.
Have you noticed that as well? Spam used to be up to 70KB in size. Annoying, true, but not atypical of a good sized e-mail.
However, in an apparent attempt to take advantage of the growing availability of broadband, I've noticed spam is more often 250-300KB in size. So much so I've gotten more "Your mailbox is over quota" messages in the last two months than I received in the previous 10 years. I'm hoping that going from 30MB to 5GB mailbox size wise will reduce that pain somewhat.
On a more amusing note -- have you heard about Faux News attempt at televising a revolution, "Teabag Parties", on the 15th of April? As is typical of the cluelessly backward, they've managed to stumble into the phrase "tea bagging" as a verb to describe the fun of a few dozen shell shocked mental midgets who can't grasp that they're not just in the minority, but a REGIONAL one at that:
<object width="448" height="368"><param name="movie" value="http://www.dailykostv.com/flv/player.swf"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="flashvars" value="config=http://www.dailykostv.com/w/001140/vxml.php?448"></param><embed src="http://www.dailykostv.com/flv/player.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="448" height="368" flashvars="config=http://www.dailykostv.com/w/001140/vxml.php?448"></embed></object>
"I got my teabags right here..."
Snort.
Now if I can just find a way to exclude the AP and any publication owned by Robert Murdoch from my google news page...
current mood: amused
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(Grace me with your wisdom, O learned ones!)
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| Thursday, April 9th, 2009
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2:12 pm - Yes, I KNOW The Web and E-mail For Rotunda Are Down....
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Here's the scoop -- apparently at some point in the dark morning hours, a fiber-optic line south of San Jose was cut. It's so bad that not only are vast swaths of Santa Clara are without phone service of ANY kind (including cell!!), but that several points west (Santa Cruz, etc) are virtually unreachable by any means.
Edited to Add: Okay, now it's looking like this was a deliberate act of sabotage. I'll try not to think of the reasons why something like this was done. They're assholes in any case -- they can only hope that the emergency call that could save a dear one's life wasn't prevented by this idiocy. If anyone were to die because of this, I hope that they're hit with a voluntary manslaughter charge, at least.
My mail and web host is Cruzio -- which the sharper tacks out there will realize is a problem.
Oddly enough, I can reach the main cruzio site -- it's just attempting to access my web and e-mail (which I suspect are buried on another host in some data-center, perhaps even located in San Jose) that is timing out.
Of course, I would love to confirm this -- except I can't reach them by phone either. Both the 800 number and the 831 (Santa Cruz area code) come back as "all circuits are busy..." if an error is returned at all.
Why yes, I've sent them an e-mail. I suspect they'll receive it once everything is back up.
This is the worst net outage I've had a site* caught up in since moving out of Boulder Creek. Even then, it was moving to Cruzio (which is chronicled somewhere in the bowels of this journal) that eliminated most of THOSE issues -- only my mailing list server was at risk during blackouts.
It's weird, not having access to my main e-mail address. This could make me re-think the idea of running my own mail server.
* Non-sequitur -- Kim and I were watching the season 1 finale of Smallville, when I spotted a major flub. The headline of a local newspaper is flashed regarding a major plot point: "Smallville LexxCorp Plant to Close: Management failures sited." Okay, so the error was in the sub-headline above the story, but we're still talking 48 point type. Can you imagine the pain if a newspaper already ran with a story so badly mangled from the get go...
...oh wait, I forgot that Newspapers have been doing that for the last 8 years, so we already know the answer.
current mood:  annoyed
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(Grace me with your wisdom, O learned ones!)
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| Tuesday, March 31st, 2009
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11:23 am - BRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCE!!!
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I'm so freaking excited I can't stand it.
Due to an unfortunate illness, a co-worker at work is unable to attend a certain concert tomorrow night. No worries, nothing life threatening -- the spouse is just under the weather enough that attending a Bruce Springsteen concert is not happening. As a fellow fan, I feel her pain, even as I gain.
Because I haven't seen the man since I saw him with (gag) Robin all those years ago. While even her presence in the memory can't sully it (I had better seats than Sean Penn, and got "Thunder Road" as an encore), I wanted another chance to see him. I tried to get tickets for this show when they went on sale, but they were, as usual, almost impossible to get.
Roni hasn't seen him live before, and is psyched -- ironically, she usually has therapy on Wednesday's, but she's participating in a class that's being filmed for a website, so she canceled tonight's session. Who am I to ignore such a blatant alignment of the universe?
current mood:  bouncy
current music: Do you have to ask?
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(3 Pearls | Grace me with your wisdom, O learned ones!)
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| Sunday, March 15th, 2009
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12:43 pm
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So, MIchele sent me this link to a new book containing some of the secret art of one of the creator's of Superman's creators, "Secret Identity".
If you've ever seen some of the "fetish art" of the comics variety from the 40's and 50's, you know it's pretty freaking tame for the most part. Some of the responses have been the usual. illiterate "How dare you!" mouthings of the anti-sexuals. You know, the one's that aren't happy just not having sex themselves, but must do all in their power to prevent anyone from having any erotic fun whatsoever, whether in your head or on it. Take this lovely example:
This book is the worst kind of filth. Superman represents an ideal to young and old alike and to drag out this material is a horrible insult to Siegel and Shuster, the creators of Superman, and degrades their work for which they should ever be known. I bet the author wouldn’t like his name tarnished like he is doing to Joe Shuster. ...I will not buy this book either and all true fans of Superman should boycott it!
Folks, this is the "filth" he refers to:
As was rightly pointed our by other comments, there was worse imagery than this in the actual COMIC books of the day. My own response goes a bit further, of course:
Wow, interesting knee-jerk reaction from some people. I wonder why? Let's put this into perspective people -- these are "DRAWINGS". Drawing is easily one the oldest art forms, dating back well over 30 thousand years. For about 29,990 of these years people have been drawing naughty bits, and I have no doubt there was someone complaining about it and trying to cover the bits up ever since. Look at the word being used: "Filth". Right. And in the decades since these images were created the so-called "Comics Code" protected all of us from anything even as remotely "filthy" as the images we see here. Oh wait, that isn't what happened. What DID happen was that, by the mid to late sixties, the backlash to the code had begun in the form of the underground comics. These went so far in the other direction that the images in this book are TAME in comparison. No, really. Compare even the most vanilla Robert Crumb, S. Clay Wilson, Robert Williams... By the seventies the Code was already a joke, and by the eighties the independent comics scene was laughing at it openly. The Watchmen was the lamestream's attempt to join in on the joke, and they accidentally succeeded in large part due to Alan Moore, as cranky as he is. The web revolution that has pushed drawing online also removed the last set of "automatic" censorship -- that tendency for artists to pull back for fear of offending advertisers, publishers, or even the freaking PRINTER (it matters not that you have a legal right to publish what you want printed, if the guy who owns the press has a special-ed fish on his shingle he's not likely to fire-up the offset press to produce halftone nudes). But now, ANYONE can be published. I could draw a half-assed (heh) picture of George W. Bush in bed with Octomom and all sixteen of her children doing indecent things with chickens and the stuffed, preserved body of Nixon's long dead dog, Checkers, as the prophet Mohammed rims him making snorting noises, and have the same access to everyone online that DC, Marvel, or King Features does right now. [Why yes, I split some infinitives here. Enjoy all of the permutations of imagery that engenders!] The great masters of the Renaissance often were commissioned for erotic pieces, some of which are now on open display. We can choose to, as George D and NumOneSuprmanFan (is the fact the he's numb at the root of his resentment of all things erotic?) does, to close our eyes and cover our ears, chanting "LALALALA! I don't see or hear EEEE-vil!", or we can stop being ashamed about what is really quite silly sexual expression. BTW, I don't include Marsha Mellow to the list because she's obviously encouraging people to buy multiple copies of the comic. I know I would rather have the dwindling mass of right-wing extremists spend their money to use this book as heating fuel then to spend it on the advertisers of Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly. ;-)
Marsha Mellow wanted everyone she knew to buy "6 or 7" copies of the book for a "good, old fashioned book burning". I giving her the benefit of a sense of irony.
current mood: amused
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(2 Pearls | Grace me with your wisdom, O learned ones!)
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| Thursday, March 5th, 2009
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10:41 pm - The Myth of the Home as Wealth Builder/Protection
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It was really hard listening to the crap that used house salespeople spewed at us during the housing bubble run-up -- hearing so-called "professionals" insist, with a straight face, that "real estate only goes up" when it went DOWN during the early 90's (so it's not like they didn't have a modern era example to draw on) was enough to make me physically ill.
( A Handy Cut For Those of you For Whom Math is a Triggering Event )Unless you're buying with cash, you're renting money from the bank at such a high cost that you would HAVE to foment a little frothy bubbly goodness to get house prices high enough to make it all back. The only way to prevent another bubble from happening is to reduce prices to a point where you can purchase the house outright. If the 240K bottom comes up too quickly... say, early 2012 or (god help us) 2011, then the new bottom looks to be the bottom of the last nadir, 1994, about 189K. Why, yes, I just said that housing prices, in terms of actual 2009 dollars, will hit 20 year old levels by 2014.
I can't overstate this: The very industry that caused this crisis has also signed it's own death warrant (as a viable business option, he hastens to add!). While Obama notes that "stabilizing real estate prices" is vital to the economic health of this nation, in reality the only thing it would be healthy for is the bankers. From the beginning mortgages put constant upward pressure on prices -- the sub-prime mortgage debacle blew the intricate semi-legitimatized ponzi party wide open, accelerating the process. Stimulus or no, the end result, an economic reset of almost apocalyptic proportions, is a matter of blind, dumb luck. Oh, it will hit that 240K, for sure -- any further and I get a "reply hazy, try again later" from the crystal ball that are my little spread sheets and odd math.
And I'll need to account for deflation in my crunching.
current mood:  contemplative
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(Grace me with your wisdom, O learned ones!)
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| Friday, February 20th, 2009
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4:53 pm - Why Home Sales Are Still Screwed
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A funny thing is happening around the whole "let's try to stop the housing price free-fall" attempts on the part of the Powers That Be.
They aren't working. They will continue to not work. And the answer can be found in that area that has taken the biggest hit on the part of the credit crisis -- the 20% down payment.
Back in the day when my Mom bought the place in Brentwood (Long Island, not California), a 20% down payment was about 7K. Steep, sure, but not impossible. That was the whole point of the down payment concept.
Fast forward to the days at the height of the real estate boom, where the TYPICAL house price in the bay area was well past 500,000 dollars. Suddenly a down payment was 100,000 dollars.
Quick quiz -- how many people even KNOW anyone with that much cash in the bank, much less have that much savings themselves?
Back in 1998 my income was finally getting to a more comfortable level, and Michele was pulling in some good money as well. We were interested in a house around the 200K range, which would have required an already hefty 40K in down payment. I took out an unsecured loan for that amount in order to snag the house in Boulder Creek. Sure I still needed to pay mortgage insurance, but after a year I refinanced to eliminate that need.
In '98 it was still a fairly edgy idea, borrowing the down payment. I was only slightly ahead of the curve -- by 2004 it was accepted practice in California to borrow the down payment, an almost impossible to save 100K (or more!). Folks, if you could save that much money, you might start to wonder why you would buy a house for that much money -- after all, you could move to, say, Phoenix, buy a house OUTRIGHT, and still have money to live on for awhile.
Yes, I'm being facetious -- I want to live and work in California. As do the 30 odd (some would say VERY odd) million people who live and work here now.
But to purchase a home here now? Even these of us with the best of credit (a group that includes, much to my own surprise, myself) still have to come up with that 20%.
The house we're renting now just dropped another 10K in the last week (31K in 30 days!), to 590,000.00. That's already down 170K from the peak 4 years ago.
If, in a fit of insanity (or perhaps the understandable desire to avoid Yet Another Move), I decided I wanted to purchase this place, I would need 118,000 dollars JUST for the down payment. Add all of the other taxes and fees, and it's likely I would have to stash 150K.
Right.
The current median price for the entire US of A (according to Zillow, which tends to "Zestimate™" high), 200K. Still over 50K to start out, but that's almost reasonable. Based on any measures of REAL value I can find (especially the 100x rent rule) the place we're in now is worth, at most, 250K.
Why yes, I AM suggesting that MEDIAN house prices in California will need to drop back to the 200's (and lower) to induce a sustainable recovery (currently it's about 363,000). And it'll happen, because there's no mechanism in any of the housing recovery schemes to break that "20%" barrier. That's why you'll see so much push on the side of Real Estate groups to reinstate programs that assisted "first time homeowners" with that down payment. Bush, in his infinite stupidity, tarred ALL 20% assistance programs with the same brush as the high-risk piggyback loans, and they were ended last October.
The winter months are typically the slow months, so it's no surprise that the real free fall in housing prices started in February -- normally people are anticipating the spring months with glee. Now, there's a real chance that all the forestalled foreclosures will start flooding the market, and the "ghost inventory" of already foreclosed homes that are stuck on the bank's books will finally hit the sale listings.
You ain't seen nothing yet. That wasn't a bottom we just hit... that was a ledge bounce. You know, you fell off a cliff, and hit an outcropping, you'll rise up a foot or two before you continue your rapid decline. Think of it as a "dead cat bounce" -- with style.
That 20% barrier will be instrumental to making the bottom obvious. Prices WILL flatten out, and be kept low because of it.
Now the fun part: Waiting to see if I'm right.
current mood:  numb
current music: Yo La Tengo - Blue Line Swinger
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(Grace me with your wisdom, O learned ones!)
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1:41 pm - Hello, All You CitiBank and Bank of America Depositors....
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Just a quick post to send up a red flag to anyone with a BofA or Citibank account -- if you really would like access to, you know, your MONEY, you may want to pull it out and move it to the mattress now:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/2/20/142628/784/866/699841
Sure, it's FDIC insured. However, with the beginning of the month only a week away, how many people will be able to pay the rent or, you know, EAT if they can't access their money for a few months?
current mood:  worried
current music: Grandaddy - Lost On Yer Merry Way
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(1 Pearl | Grace me with your wisdom, O learned ones!)
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| Thursday, February 19th, 2009
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3:51 pm - That's NOT What I Meant By "Pussy Whipped!"
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Wow, three posts in one day?
Well, there are times when my faith in humanity is restored. After ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) elfs noted that there has been an upsurge in sex negative groups attacking those of us who think it's none of their goddamn business, I was feeling a bit bummed. But then I heard about this in eleri's LJ about a cat named Dusty.
The shocking thing is that one of the most disgusting sites on the internet, 4chan, is at the root of the protect against horrific animal cruelty. Freaks and immature types all.
But there was still a line you just don't cross, no matter how freaky and weird you are. The image gallery of images condemning the freaks is heart warming. One of the great lines on the site:
Then phone calls start being made. First to the Mother, who confirmed that she had a son named Kenny and that he had a cat named Dusty. The Anonymous calling the mother explained what happened and the mother replied with that she would take away his dirtbike.
His DIRTBIKE? Really??
I disagree that they should be tried as adults (that's applying an unequal standard, in my opinion -- if they don't have adult rights, then saddling them with adult penalties seems capricious, at best), but they do need some serious fucking help. These are the kind of kids that graduate to the Oh, So Hilarious "M-80 up a cat's ass and lit" stunts.*
This is why regulating the internet is a waste of time -- we know what's really important here.
Remember kids -- pussies are for LOLS, not for whipping!
* To make this 100% clear -- anyone guilty of doing that to an animal should be force fed beans, made to wait an hour, and THEN have the same thing done to them. I'm hoping for a synergystic effect from methane production, but would settle for them shitting themselves as their ass explodes.
current mood:  infuriated
current music: Weezer - Surf Wax America
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(1 Pearl | Grace me with your wisdom, O learned ones!)
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3:12 pm - Percussive Poly Pagan Pantheacon Prodigal
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So, last Saturday Kim, Roni, Michele and I went to Pantheacon in San Jose.
We planned it as a day trip on my (mumble)th birthday. We actually got a decent early start so we were at the Double Tree (the last year the con will be held there... the end of an error!) before noon. Someone had finally realized that having the drum circle EARLIER meant more drummers and fewer noise complaints, so we could even work in a long overdue drumming session for me at the end of the day.
Being there with Michele was a lot of fun -- it was like walking with someone who had returned from being held hostage in some terrorist enclave. Double-takes, squawks, and squeals were common.
Oddly enough, it was also very educational in terms of my personal identity:
- Apparently, after doing the first three Pantheacon programming guides, I had been "pushed out" by a cabal of con-volunteers affiliated with Joi Wolfwomyn. Considering that I had foolishly thought I had stepped aside voluntarily, this was a bit of a surprise. After three years of dealing with Ancient Ways at Harbin and P'Con programming wherein people did nothing but complain that the programs were done at the "last minute" somehow because that's how I CHOSE to do things (ignoring my pleas for getting their bio and program info in early enough so that it WASN'T a case of Glenn and myself working 18 hours straight the night before the Con), I was simply burnt out.
I note, with no small degree of smugness, that those early programs still look better than the one's that were there this year. Makes me consider volunteering my services again, if only to watch people's heads explode.
- Several people whom I thought disliked or were actively avoiding me were thinking the same about me towards them. Or something like that. Another case where my self assessment was far harsher than anything y'all could provide. Gestures were made and accepted, though now the tune of "John Jacob Jinglemyer Schmidt" is stuck in my head with the words "Bi Pagan Poly Gamer Geek".
- That long black coat I scored at last year's Con? Still incredibly cool. Still turns heads in the right ways.
- I do not drum enough. Nearly two hours of drumming was a mere percussion appetite suppressant.
- I really MISS ancient ways. There's nothing like being singled out as one of the "Old School" that people want to come back. The fact that there WILL be fire pits and drumming until our hands bleed makes me want to go even more. The fact that Roni is an incredibly hot dancer whilst wearing one of those coin encrusted bras (a purchase that took her *5 years* to make!) and a cloak only helps. Going with a "tribe" also makes it easier to contemplate. My days of solo festival attendance are long gone. Stone City is in the East Bay, and has all the amenities, but non of the shush nazies. Just based on the discussion during the Ancient Ways "Meet and Greet" it sounds a lot like DragonFest in Colorado (or at least as it had been in '92. Damn, when did that become a generation ago??).
Kim got to pet another snake (an albino boa. HUGE snake), Roni scored an athame, and I realized I really, REALLY miss rituals. A lot. I'm thinking of checking out the "Come As You Are" (CAYA) coven/rituals that are in the East Bay.
The only bummer about the day was completely and utterly failing to find Esther, who was working the Con. Paka was in hospitality at least one of the times I dropped in, and thought she was sleeping int he room. FOr some reason I failed to get the room number, so I wasn't able to check in with her before leaving.
Normally I score a steak dinner at Outback on my birthday. Say what you want -- I love their steaks. And their salads, strangely enough. Of course, normally I celebrate the birthday on the weekend before or after. Except V-Day was on a Saturday.
We called ahead to Milpitas and Campbell, the closest locations, to see what the wait times were like. Campbell was 90 minutes, and Milpitas (the Great Mall location) was quoting 2 and a half hours.
I was thinking that we would hit Pasta Pomadoro in Union City as a fallback when I was inspired to try the Outback in Fremont. While they were quoting 45-55 minute waits (already a LOT better!) we vultured a booth by the bar within 5 minutes. As it turned out, I was paying the bill and over-tipping our fabulous waitress before the people who walked in behind us were being seated.
It t'were a VERY good day. I'm hoping for more of those.
current music: Everclear - One Hit Wonder
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(Grace me with your wisdom, O learned ones!)
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10:55 am - ...And so on, and on, and...
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No, the Comcast thing hasn't been 100% straightened out. We still have channels pixelating, missing channels, and so forth. We're working around it as much as we can.
I've also had the cable box crash at least 3 times in the last week. The CABLE box.
Roni's beyond mad now and has traveled that emotional curve all the way to disgusted. The one good thing about the switch (the ostensibly higher upload and download speeds) have given way to the harsh reality of a shared neighborhood connection (begging the question: Why wasn't this a problem under AP&T?).
Worse, the new streaming sites, like Hulu, or even the "old favorite" YouTube, are now stuttering during playback. Michele noticed it first, and I was able to confirm it myself. Actually, I noticed it, bitched to Michele about it, and she was relieved to discover it wasn't just her.
My speed testing has been lack luster, to say the least, so suddenly I've become a relative to the "Slowsky's", Comcasts "look, aren't these DSL user's CUTE in their old fashioned ways!" mascots, a married pair of tortoises who complain about things being too fast.* In other words, since I'm already stuck with AT&T for the iPhone, why not just snag some hard core DSL from them? At least the connection to the 'Net will allow me to stream video, unlike the oddly timed stuttering that allows you to view video, but feel somewhat twitchy by the end of 40 minutes.
And after crunching the number, even if all I do is drop the landline and Craptastic Cabal internet, I come out about 30 bucks a month ahead. Along with dropping the stupid cable DVR's and assorted other bizarreness, I could see over 1200 dollars a YEAR.
This is why custoemr service is so important kids. Why is Dell worth only a fifth of what Apple is now? They outsourced their customer service, it was crappy. Comcast is a dominant player, and yet has the weakest offerings (particularly in HD) and the WORST customer service (although I will sing the praises of the techs in the street always -- they're at least TRYING to get things working for us!).
All it takes is a thousand former AP&T customers doing this, and Comcrap is out 1.2 million.
While I seriously doubt that I, personally, will be able to convince 1000 people to do this, I've already gotten into talks with about 5 people, all of whom are Alameda residents formerly of AP&T forced into cable and internet from Comcast. A little education about the better over the air image quality (side by side OTA high-def beats the painfully over-compressed cable signal of the same station) and the fact that any standard analog TV antenna will pick up HD signals (that tends to be a surprise to people) tends to make them ponder. Since we're line of sight to Sutro Tower across the bay, they can experiment with freaking rabbit ears to start, and still get a lot more than they would expect.
I know, I've been ranting about this a lot lately, but considering all of the other stuff going on in my life, I really don't need the aggravation anymore. I'm also seeing it as a sign that I watch too much TV, something that I chatted with Roni about last night. I want to get back to wood working more. Reading. Hell, even playing the Wii with Roni would be a better thing to do with our nights.
Another reason for GOOD customer service: It distracts a customer from coming to the inevitable conclusion that they really don't NEED you when the pain exceeds the value of the service. I've gone out on that limb and stated that I don't believe that the current cable TV business model is sustainable beyond the next few years. This horribly botched switchover, on top of the less than stellar economic picture and the emergence of competing entertainment streams is a perfect store that will destroy the cable monopoly.
* Crap. I think I just stumbled into a "Rule 34" moment -- Slowsky Slash. I'm so sorry...
No, wait -- I'm not.
current mood: cranky
current music: The Beatles - Good Morning Good Morning
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(Grace me with your wisdom, O learned ones!)
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| Sunday, February 15th, 2009
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2:06 am - Sometimes You Can See It Coming For You
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There are writers out there. People who know what it's like.
The characters are starting to get really fucking loud. Annoying little fucks, determined to poke at your inner ear, whining about their little bouts of existential angst. I mean, that's so been DONE.
And the fucking stories... the histories. I've found myself walking the streets of my still forming universe in my dreams, fascinated by the things that have grown since my last delirious visit.
There are those who would flutter and fret about my chronic insomnia, that strangest of wars with my self. The truth bends my mind even as I bend your ear.
I'm a coward.
No, really.
Writing scares me. With a little push I could lose myself in the streets of New Vegas, on the run from renegade auditors with FS Jones, in a quantatech duplicate of a 1969 GTO.
But it's lonely there. I don't want to be alone. It scares me.
But Richard Bach, damn his eyes, spoke the simple truth when he described a tale yet written as something that grows into a great beast that lays it's great paws upon you and gently, but firmly, demands to be told.
I don't know why. That scares me. What the fuck IS My motivation to write these days? If I have no concrete, easily explained reason, then what is that rapidly approaching light bearing down on me with a frightening cacophony?
Feh. I refuse to have meat tossed in every alternate Thursday, with monthly hose-downs on order of the local board of health.
And there it is -- I adore writing sentences like that. I can't help it. When I stop worrying about what people think of my writing style, it actually emerges. I suspect it's another one of those annoying zen things. Like touch typing that first time, when the words just starting flowing from your fingers. Thought made solid, a physical manifestation (and yes, smart ass, even these electronic ghosts are as real as ink on paper) of my will. Goddess, have you ever really considered the awesome power of a writer? Fuck wealth, fame can go live forever with it's self absorbed head up it's metaphorical ass -- this is the power to create whole universes.
Asimov was found of noting that "writers hate to write, but love having written." That confused me for a very long time. I think I've decided that it's both true... and false.
I'm terrified of what writing will do to me. I hate... I hate change.
Like I said, I'm a coward.
There are writers out there. People who know what it's like. Inspiration never happens when it's fucking convenient. To them, I humbly ask:
Pray for me.
[Music helps. I think I always knew that. It gets me to where I need to be. Forces open doors that I don't want help opening. I strongly suspect I will need to buy the members of "...And you will know us by the trail of dead" a drink or two when all of this is done.
Maybe even before.
What's next?]
current mood:  enthralled
current music: Will You Smile Again - ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead
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(2 Pearls | Grace me with your wisdom, O learned ones!)
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| Friday, February 13th, 2009
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5:04 pm - Still Raining, Still Dreaming...
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Originally I had planned on posting parts 3, 4 and (likely) 5 of the CrapTastic Cable Co. drama. I only WISH I were kidding.
However, the rain has FINALLY come to California, which (hopefully) will avoid the water rationing idiocy that they've been muttering at us.
I don't have a problem with encouraging conservation and dealing with water shortages. My issue is with the bizarre idea that people who were already conserving get dinged, while water hogs aren't. I look at these freaking manicured and professionally cultivated landscapes on Grand Avenue (complete with actual lawns of GRASS), watered every night, pools, power washed houses... and that's just what we see on the outside.
Instead of everyone being handed the same REAL goals (basing usage on an average per household), everyone gets handed the same criteria. In this case the water company wants everyone to reduce their water usage a fixed percentage over last year's usage. For these massive water users they can meet that goal by not watering the lawn twice a week, or skipping the regular power washing.
For these of us stupid enough to actually give a shit in advance of a water emergency...
I had this same problem with electricity -- PG & E constantly tries to offer incentives to cut power. As someone who switched to compact florescent bulbs in 1998, keeps his thermostat at 66 during the day and 61 at night, and dropped the water heater temperature as much as I dare, it's enough to lose your mind when (again) the usage cut is based on YOUR usage, and not a real baseline based on everyone's usage.
Take my hot tub: Thanks to careful testing and chemical usage, I've managed to keep the water clean and healthy for 18 months. Seriously. Since normally you're expected to replace the water once every *3* months, and that's about 350 gallons a pop, call it a 2000 gallon savings (I took about 100 gallons off for the occasional topping off when the water level gets too low).
If I had simply re-filled the hot tub every three months (whether I needed to or not), that's 1400 gallons I could have "conserved" in 2009. Where else to cut? The back yard is 95% paved (a few fruit trees and a couple of bushes, no lawn), and the front yard is already a drought resistant setup (during the summer it needs to be watered once a week, during this time of year not at all). The washer is only a year and a half old (and only used with full loads), we only had the dish washer working for the last few months (and it's been used maybe a dozen times), and only take showers.
Again, where the hell am I supposed to cut?
Yes, it's a rhetorical question. I'm not going to find enough to cut to satisfy East Bay MUDD (the water people). I'm not feeling particularly inclined to care.
So pray for the rain to stay for awhile people... even if it does mean there's a small lake in front of the new wing at work (oops! pesky drainage issues).
current mood: cynical
current music: Grateful Dead - Brown-Eyed Women
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(2 Pearls | Grace me with your wisdom, O learned ones!)
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| Friday, February 6th, 2009
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12:41 pm - The Cable Chronicles (Part the Second)
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When I first floated the heresy to Roni that maybe, just maybe, we could live without cable TV, she was skeptical. I can understand that -- over the last 35 years cable has become an essential in many minds.
That's why I was willing to consider the idea of making peace with ComCast. The events of Wednesday put that idea to the test.
Thursday may have killed it completely.
I was already late on Thursday when I got home. I had plans to hang out with Michele for a few hours, but a customer call I picked up at 3:50 PM didn't end until after 6:30. Michele was wonderfully understanding -- it's the gig, after all. I wrapped up all the things I had planned on doing that last hour, and rushed home, nearly two hours later than expected.
To find Roni ready to strangle ComCast.
There was nothing on. Literally.
With a sinking feeling I told Roni to call ComCast. Why sinking? Because I could already tell what had happened.
Remember, a little over 24 hours earlier I was trying to determine why I hadn't been transitioned yet. The reason I called then was the fear that they would cut us off from AP&T before the switch. I said this every time I connected with someone -- Is there something I needed to do? Something ComCast needed to do? Other??
After a very annoying exchange with someone who was defensive and rude enough to talk over me while I was talking (gah, I *hate* that!!), that was exactly what had happened. Despite mutiple calls the day before, and the fact that my record indicated that I hadn't switched because of a work order Saturday, they had shut down AP&T cable for my block. Because of the way the cacble box is configured, we couldn't even watch the HD video we had recorded there previously in the week.
I had to leave, which was frustrating -- Roni was demanding to talk to a supervisor who, it turns out, could do nothing. It seems even though the number is staffed 24/7, it couldn't deal with the "hard" errors such as this one until between 1 and 5 PM Friday.
Kim, bless her, readily agreed to be our cable sitter. I suggested she come early to straighten things up, make sure that nothing embarassing or untoward was in plain sight, and so on.
Good thing she was there -- she had barely enough time to stash the sex toys and take care of the recycling when ComCast Came a Knockin', at 10:30 AM. That's right, they appeared 2 and a half hours BEFORE the already absurd appointment window. Which would have been less aggravating had they called before arriving, as promised.
At least they completed the transisiton -- we're now on the new line-up, and my cable modem speed tests quadripled for download speeds, and were almost 10 times faster for uploads. Thank goodness for small favors!
Something that came up when I was lamenting this to Roni Wednesday night was a tad terrifying to contemplate.
Think about the times you're on your best behavior -- first dates, meeting the parents, starting a new job, starting a new school... It's a first impressions thing, usually. In many ways, the shotgun marriage that is the AP&T buyout was a chance for ComCast to "dress for success" in a customer service sense.
Instead, they pretty much showed up at the door in closed they've slept in for a week, a haircut that looks like it was perpetrated by an epileptic FlowBee™ "suck cutter" off of it's medication, and a boquet of dead flowers stolen from a local gravesite.
Now, even Roni's digging the "cut the cable" concept. Initially I'm thinking of keeping the net connection, and if they piss me off sufficiently (which won't take too much at this point!!), I'll take a look at my DSL options. Slowsky, my ass -- having faster connections is useless if you cap them.
current mood: angry
current music: Spoon - All The Pretty Girls Go To The City
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(1 Pearl | Grace me with your wisdom, O learned ones!)
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| Wednesday, February 4th, 2009
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4:29 pm - Profiles in Craptastic Comcastic Service
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[Edited to add:
I was so ticked I completely forgot to spell check the post. I just updated it before I give you part two. Yes, of COURSE there's a part two...
-jh]
So Alameda Power and Telecomm decided to drop their "failing" cable business (essentially the "Telecomm" portion of their name) into ComCast's lap for pennies on the dollar, infrastructure cost-wise. As one of the pluses of Alameda was the chance to AVOID aforementioned cable co., I, and many others, were less than enthused.
However, it is, as they say, what it is. Regardless of my future plans regarding the cable side of things (I'm considering switching to over-the-air HD and buying the shows I want from iTunes or obtaining them through "other means"), faster internet 4 times faster than AP&T's fastest rate. That'll do, pig.
So part of the process is receiving a letter warning that a transition was coming -- "Good News! You're transition is scheduled to occur between 1/27 and 1/31". A follow-up in the form a a door hung brochure assured me that last week was indeed the week.
While I was in Arizona, I received a call from a blocked line. Since I love torturing boiler room callers and other examples of human smegma, I answered it. To my surprise, it was some guy at ComCast insisting that, despite the fact that every piece of mail from ComCast indicated that I did not need to do anything for the services to transition, I would need to fill out a new service agreement and sign off on terms.
He noted that if I wanted to avoid "an interruption of service" that I should do so as quickly as possible. Since this also directly contradicted all previous assurances otherwise, I had some questions.
For the very first time I heard, directly from a ComCast sales drone, that the residential internet service would be capped at 250Gb per month. To be honest, I'm not positive that I can download that much in the way of video and software without making it the basis of my life. However, I am opposed to the idea of paying for bandwidth with "catches" like that -- it always bites you on the ass. I also have issues when people don't really listen to themselves talk:
Me: So, there's a cap on the unlimited residential service.
Drone: Yes, sir.
Me: But there is no such cap whatsoever on your business offering?*
Drone: No sir.
Me: So, you're saying the definition of "unlimited" is different between residential and business?
Drone: Yes -- there's the 250GB cap on the residential...
* The only difference between business and residential is a static IP "option" for 5 bucks, the lack of a cap, and 45 bucks.
...I think you get the idea. I was stunned at the complete lack of awareness of the sarcasm and irony of what they were saying.
So, I get home from AZ on Sunday, and between the Super Bowl, flying from Phoenix to Oakland, had to call in to see if I was on jury duty in Hayward (woo-hoo! Another year free from service!)... you can see that dealing with the apparent lack of transition was not foremost on my mind.
While I might not notice the change in internet speeds, I knew that the channel line-up was dramatically different, which would screw up the TiVo and RePlay DVR's. They were still working last night, which finally prompted me to put it on the "to-do" list today.
I had one real question: "So, what's up with the transition? Your mail says it should be done by now -- was there something I was supposed to do?"
1st Call was at work:
Waited on hold less than a minute. The service rep was less than sharp, but seemed competent enough. He noted that my part of Alameda should have been switched. He said he would ping both of my cable boxes and that I should check them. I noted that I was at work. He told me to check both my modem speed and channel 120 -- apparently a station that wasn't in AP&T's lineup would be there, and that I could call the main 800 number should there be an issue.
Really no big deal -- I was about to head home to have lunch with Kim anyway. The funny thing about the channel he asked me to tune to is that it's Lilly's favorite (actually, ONLY) television station, Noggin. Anyone with a pre-schooler knows every show on that station intimately. Wow Wow Wubsy and Yo Gabba Gabba MEAN something to y'all. I share that pain.
Well, the DSLReport's speedtest came back the same as it was previously, and the reverse lookup of my IP was still alamedanet.net (yes, really). Channel 120 didn't even exist on the box -- Kim suggested 35, which is now the Food Network. However, it's ESPN Classic (in the process of showing the Bulls/Celtics '91 championship game. Even I recognized Larry Bird and Michael Jordon), so that blows.
So the 2nd call was from my cell at home:
Hold time was slightly longer. Got someone who sounded fairly experienced, but suddenly was cut off.
Well, THAT was useful Let's see if third time is a charm:
( Woo, that third one's so long I'm putting it under a cut! )Isn't this FUN?
But wait! The punch-line is the FOURTH attempt. For one, I wasn't going to let Brandon get away clean -- for another, I still had no freaking idea what was going on:
This time I was greeted by name -- I guess that part of their system was working now. And then -- and it's important to note this was the SAME local number that Alameda residents all call, the same one used 3 times previous -- he tells me that there's apparently a work order in the system to re-run cable from the street to the house. This Saturday.
Once that was straightened out, I explained my aggravation with Brandon, in great detail. He promised to make a note of it and to bring it to his supervisor's attention. I thanked him, wished him a good day, and ended the call.
Obviously, that LAST call (sans Brandon's little peccadillo) should have been the first. It would have saved my nearly an hour of my time, and was really all I needed to know. "Oh, the cables screwed up and it needs replacing? I can live with that." Sure, maybe a little door tag explaining the delay would have been nice, but no biggie.
Of course, most of the people that Brandon (if that's your real name!) deals with are relative noobs, so I'm sure the high and mighty "I AM A TECH GOD, THOU SHALT NOT TALK BACK!" attitude serves him well. Yet in the countless times I've dealt with tech support I've generally been able to convey to the tech that he can dispense with the script for the most part and talk to me as a peer, usually by just USING a phrase like "reverse lookup". I help them help me, we figure it out, and I thank them profusely.
That my very first support call went this far south, even using the less crowded local transition number, does not bode well. Yes, I've considered DSL, but guess who deals with that in Alameda? AT&T. Even if FiOS eventually makes it here, it's through yet another crappy telecommunication company, Verizon.
*sighs heavily*
What did I say... it is what it is? Well, the good news is that it won't always be this way. *cough*wi-max*cough*
current mood: annoyed
current music: Trembling Blue Stars - To Keep Your Heart Whole
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(2 Pearls | Grace me with your wisdom, O learned ones!)
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| Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009
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12:59 pm - What Writer's Need
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Well, that's gratifying -- the flood of comments, online and off, regarding my meek return to blogging is reassuring. Writer's are an insecure and fractious bunch, terrified of the one thing:
Not being read.
Sure, people agreeing with you is all fine and great, "hurray!" for our side, and let the choir sing out "AMEN!". Yet it's conflict and debate and emotional reaction that we really like. Of course, writers HATE being mis-interpreted, but it comes with the territory -- as long as YOU know what you said (or meant to say), then screw the critics so desperate to protect their own little fragile world view that they'll spin your truth into oblivion.
An unwillingness to compromise enough to CONSIDER arguments against a piece I've written would be another issue entirely. If someone is willing to debate points honestly, I will be happy to go toe to toe. It's the tendency on some schools thought to pretend to debate, when the real goal is to disregard and belittle the possibility that there's a place in the middle where we can meet.
Like the recent end to the criminal reign of King George the Shrub. People were somehow trying to make black and white things gray (it's NOT a "controversial technique", it's torture. And it's illegal. Period. No, really.) and shades of gray into a black and white polarity where they were always on the "right" side.
No pun intended.
The problem with rigid thinking is that it precludes epiphany. The ability to comprehend something beyond one's grasp. Or perhaps to accept... REALLY accept... that understanding must stop where understanding ends.
Hell, even grasping that understanding is not equivalent to acceptance nor agreement; I can understand your argument without agreeing with it. Really. The assumption that my lack of agreement means you just haven't explained it the right way is insulting. Like people who assume that I've never read the bible because I'm Pagan, when I've probably gotten a far better biblical education than some theologians.
Even if I preclude "law and order" as a pillar (somewhat easy to do thanks to the impossibly arcane and overwhelming realm of the law), there are things that Just Aren't Right. Like torturing people. Spying on journalists using illegal wire-taps. Influence peddling.
Even if you discount the law, there's that pesky oath of office. If getting your wall-street buddies cash for 20 billion dollars US in bonuses even as they claim not getting the money will result in financial apocalypse is, in your honest opinion, NOT a violation of their oath in office, then you're voting for the wrong people.
If you think this is reserved for Republicans, fear not: Corrupt democrats (and not just Lieberman, that non-entity from Connecticut) deserve to be accused and ejected from public office as well. Like that prime fool Blaegovich. Bagovish. The gov of ill.
Hey, it's not my fault his name isn't in my spelling dictionary.
Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, being read.
There was a point to that digression -- that the worst thing you can do to any writer is to either not read them at all, or read them... and dismiss them entirely.
You know -- like Faux News. Somehow their bizarre headlines trying to reduce the Obama administration to failure within the first two weeks. Google still present these headlines as "News" (Entertainment is a more appropriate heading, as long as you get the joke).
Or the Ass. Press (AP), although I think they're more prone to protective coloration -- they'll side with whomever has the power. Opportunistic and shallow, and in all respects irrelevent in an age where newspapers are online, but at least not the the solid right-wing propaganda machine that is Faux. Fare for the unabalanced!
By the way, I would like to shout out to Michael Phelps: Don't fucking apologize for having the NERVE to actually PARTY for a change. For one thing, we're still talking about someone who has one of the strongest work ethics on the planet, at the age of *23*, daring to take some BONG hits.
"But he's a role model!" I hear the wails. What of the CHILDREN??"
Bullshit. He's an athelete and a person. I dare anyone to call pot a performance enhancing drug. The real fear is that kids will realize that smoking pot does NOT turn you into an automatic slacker. Well, maybe if you stopped lying to kids and painting broad strokes that makes Tommy Chong the poster boy for stoner life, you might be able to reach them.
And Michael has ADHD -- trust me, he NEEDS to smoke on occaision.
Anyhow, glad to be back.
* As opposed to something I DID. Like inadvertently expose a confidence.
(Note on the detected song -- Kim and I once got very toasty before listening to the Black Angels "Passover" for the first time, sub-woofer cranked to levels that caused fillings to ache in that sub-sonic itchy way as distant as Walnut Creek. I got all poetic in that slightly-stoned pseudo intellectual way: "I get it! The sniper is god, drawing a line in the clouds, intoning 'THOU SHALL NOT PASS'!!" Hey, if you heard the bass line in this song you'd agree, even when sober.)
current mood:  refreshed
current music: The Black Angels - The Sniper at the Gates of Heaven
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(1 Pearl | Grace me with your wisdom, O learned ones!)
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| Monday, February 2nd, 2009
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4:30 pm - With A Loud Clatter
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When we last saw our anti-hero, Yohannon, he was fretting about the 2008 US election.
I guess we know how all of that worked out.
Things you didn't know about that contributed to my absence:
- I discovered everything I thought I knew about my marriage breaking up was wrong -- in my favor.
- I proposed to Roni (New Year's Eve, and she said "yes".). The processing and lead-in hysteria to that was, to say the least, intense.
- Michele and I remembered we actually like one another.
- Catt lost her job at American Express because she was sick too long. Yes, that's a horrid oversimplification, but it covers the basic gist.
The bummer here is that these three items are actually whole epics unto themselves -- This doesn't even include all of the political and newsworthy insanity has gone down just in the last three months.
There's tons of stuff I want to say about the personal and external events of my life. However, I've developed a strong sense of boundaries around a lot of these topics over the years, and have made a decision: If you feel comfortable talking about it, and are directly involved, do so in the comments here.
As for everyone, I miss you all. I miss a lot of the camaraderie and fun, the sense of community that online groups used to have for me. I'm not certain how, but I'd love to start that again.
One of the many distractions is that Alameda Power and Telecomm, which provided my net access, sold us out to Comcast for pennies on the dollar for the infrastructure costs. They've been tempting me with an uncapped business line at 16Mb down, 2Mbs up, WITH a static IP. Make me wonder how hard it would be to start my own personal portal server without all of the ads or content restrictions of the big boys.
Of course, the struggle there is no longer the cost (ironic, considering the days when I spent 25% of my takehome pay on creating and maintaining internet servers), but TIME. There's so much I want to do these days, especially as we emerge from my typically quiescent winter period, pratically bursting with optimism, hope, energy and a sense of purpose. Yet I haven't updated my website in years, my "real life" is packed with distractions, and my focus has changed decidedly inward.
While sitting on the porch this past weekend in Phoenix (Lilly looks almost 6 to 7 years old, but is 3 1/2 -- she's getting so much smarter and more articulate it was almost a relief when she threw a more typical toddler's temper tantrum Saturday night) with Catt I suddenly had a memory of that stupid near miss nearly... 4 years ago now?
Blind spots are weird. I remember when I was first taught about the blind spot, and I was fascinated by the idea of seeing something but not knowing what it was. In college, when I took a personal defense class in Tae Kwon Do, I first heard the idea of "teaching" your brain how to process the data from a blind spot better (or at least the theory -- the practice required a level of dedication rare amongst 18 year old freaks such as myself). Later I would marvel at the details of mental functions as detailed by Oliver Sacks, as he explained WHY we have a blind spot, and backed up the Eastern idea that you could change it through practice.
Mental blind spots are like glamours we cast on ourselves. Look right at something you don't want to see, and it's just not there. You simply look elsewhere, not registering the thing, the monster under the bed or leering from the closeted darkness. We complain about the proximity of the local airport even as it screams, pretending thier voice is a jet's turbine wail.
The tales of the dangers of waking a sleepwalker, apochryphal and disproven as they are, seem the best anology to the feeling one gets when that hole in your reality suddenly closes, and the thing that coaleces in your sight is so large, so scary, that your intial impluse is to run in abject terror. I my case, I remembered everything that happened from right before to right after.
To be honest, a lot of what I describe about that night was based on a few flashes that I could remember... that I would LET myself remember. They were about to hit that van. They hit. Sparks, smoke, more than I thought could be possible. I saw two cars coming together right in front of me, the idiots in the SUV and a red car that turned out to contain the nuclear family with the young girl. I was past it.
The missing piece was the part between "I'm cut off" and "I made it!".
Because the math didn't work. I keep seeing the lines in my head of each vehicle, watching a tire as it came toward my windshield, and they all intersect in ways that have me wrapped in twisted metal and dusted with broken safety glass, airbags popping and deflating, at best. In several of my nightmares, that tire's trajectory takes it straight through the windshield of the Saturn, and...
Well, that's the point, isn't it? There wasn't any "and".
The rational response to all of this is to say "but it didn't. I'm here, didn't even damage the car beyond that chip in the windshield, long since replaced. Yet, if this was about being "rational", why suppress it?
Because my mind can't leave it alone. Because, desipte being a techno pagan, my tendency is to view the rules of the universe as magical as breaking them. Because when they do seem to break, right before my eyes, my first impulse is to doubt myself and my own ability to see what's in front of me.
My mind shouldn't be a trick of the light. Reality isn't a picture of stairs that keeps resolving to different perspectives (under the stairs or over?). The lines are all the same length, and those intersections of the white bars on a black background DON'T have shadows. That's what I was carefully taught.
Magic is everywhere. Prayer works. You can move moutains with an idea, change the outcome just by wanting it enough. What you do comes back to you. The cat is alive AND dead. That's what I was carefully taught as well.
And yes, I know there's a collision there, an offset head-on of science and magic, that perhaps the act of observation on the quantuum level is scalable under just the right conditions. Maybe that's where the reconciliation can happen one day, where religion and science can look at one another with the shock of recognition, a mutual epiphany that CHOICE could play as big a role in the world as cause and effect.
Considering the circumstances (the pressure from Audra, working retail and being miserable, the long commutes, fretting about Lilly's upcoming birth), do I take comfort from the idea that, when given the barest fraction of a second, I chose life?
Or do I completely and utterly freak right the fuck out at the idea that it was a choice?
So the blind spot resolved, and now I see something I wasn't ready to before. What does that mean? Do I really see, or did I trade one mental distraction for another?
So yeah, I dropped out of sight for awhile -- remember, this post covered only one minor aspect (minor in the sense that it covered my feeling over an event almost 4 years past now) of my life. More immediate ocurrences have actually shifted whole assumptions into the trash bin, which means -- MORE PROCESSING.
Live, process, write. Used to be a nice, tight little circle.
If I'm not here, you can trust that it's the first two overwhelming the third.
current mood:  indescribable
current music: Film School - He's a Deep, Deep Lake
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(10 Pearls | Grace me with your wisdom, O learned ones!)
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| Monday, November 3rd, 2008
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4:00 pm - Twenty - Twenty - Twenty Four Hours to Go...
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...Why yes, I DO want to be sedated.
I have used a phrase in the past that has either confused or illuminated people -- "Poetry demands it." The latter group instinctively groks what the former shall have explained: There are just some circumstances in life where everything plays out in a certain way, a way that just plots out with a rhythm and reason that sings out "destiny!", that the next moves are almost pre-ordained in their progression.
I recall watching the Mets play in the world series in 1986. They were a strike away from losing it all in game six -- when they perpretrated one of the best comebacks in sports history. I knew my down-trodden team would win against the Red Sox, curse of the Bambino or no. I didn't have the phrase in mind yet, but it was that sense of poetic affirmation that made game 7 moot in my mind -- and they went on to win the series.
When Apple bought NeXT, and brought Steve Jobs back to Apple. Within moments of hearing the surprise announcement (many have since forgotten that the hot rumor was that Apple was looking to acquire BeOS instead) I declared "Well, that's that. Within a year, Steve will be in complete control of Apple again... Poetry demands it." In my mind Steve had spent his forty days in the desert by creating and building up NeXT, and thus his return was of the prodigal hero, ejected ignobly from his homeland only to return triumphant. 10 years later people are still amazed at how right I was. To be blunt, so was I.
I've watched in horror, often posted here, as this country was taken over and run by children. In many ways it's something I've been witnessing my entire like, starting with Nixon's betrayal of the Constitution and growing worse through Reagan's increasing senility. Carter was barely a blip, Bush senior was an extension of Reagan, and the only bright spot, Clinton's two terms, was marred by a deluge of neo-con republican's hell bent on proving Nixon in the right -- never mind the cost to this country. It should be no surprise to us in hindsight that the democrats lost both houses and the presidency: They had channeled their opposition to playing a form of political "keep away" with all offices, only the republicans actually USED the office they obtained, while the dems tried to not offend anyone while they had it.
Tomorrow we could witness the first time the democratic in the white house was elected as a DEMOCRAT -- and not as an alternative to the republicans. Sure, there are some, especially registered republicans, who are voting for the first black president as the only winning alternative to their own party, but even I have come to view the bulk of Obama's stance to at least not be one that would completely reject my own.
There is that sense of overwhelming inevitability: That there are elements of fate to Obama's amazing progress. I've almost felt sorry for the competition that was McSame/Failin' -- it seems like every move that McCain could concoct was countered, not just by already established facts (which rarely stopped the republican attack machine over the last 30 years), but by chance events. A prime example was Obama's descision to suspend his campaign to visit his dying grandmother, the woman who raised him.
McCain made derisive comments about how the office of president demanded someone who wouldn't just drop everything to run off to a sick family member. I was shocked and disgusted by such a cynical attempt to paint Obama as irresponsible for the mere act of taking about 24 hours to fly to Hawaii, spend some time with this person who rescued Obama when his mother died of cancer (while battling insurance companies!) when Obama was 8 years old. I turned to Roni and exclaimed, "God help him if she dies never seeing her grandson elected as the first black president of the United States".
If that wasn't bad enough, McCain sought to distract this country's populace from his own financial shortcomings (including several cases where he knowingly broke campaign finance law) by attacking Obama for taking his campaign jet to Hawaii to pay his last respects to his grandmother. He didn't have the balls to do it himself he had the California Republican Party play the sock puppet for him:
Obama for America violated federal law by converting its campaign funds to Senator Obama's personal use. Senator Obama recently traveled to Hawaii to visit his sick grandmother...Therefore, the Obama Campaign violated the FEC's ban on "personal use" of campaign funds when it paid over $100,000 for the Campaign's charter to fly to Hawaii without obtaining reimbursement from Senator Obama.
This would be the same law that McCain himself has flouted using his wife's company jet FREE OF CHARGE -- for his entire campaign. And, because poetry demands it, Obama's grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, died this morning around 2AM PST. In other words, she was already gone as this states increasingly desperate and sloppy party of the Neonuts filed an objection to Obama having the TEMERITY to use the campaign jet to get to her in time... just over a week ago.
I just saw a comment on the linked Washington Post article that struck me -- how Obama would sometimes let McCain slide during the debates, even when McCain was lying, bald faced. The commentators point was that sometimes you can do far more damage by keeping your mouth shut (much in the way Chris Matthews let Michelle Bachmann hang herself with her "anti-america" diatribe on Hardball.
I'm with many of the more bloodthirsty pundits who don't just want to see the republican's beaten tomorrow, they want them demolished -- so shredded and demoralized that they simply cease to exist as a major political party. That, in the closing weeks, the biggest argument to vote for ANY member of their party is to avoid the risks of "one party rule" is an open acknowledgment of that probability, as was McShames abdication in light of tomorrow's denouement on Saturday Night Live last weekend. Even as he insists that he's going to prove the pundits wrong tomorrow, he allowed himself on stage with Tina Fey as she hawked "Palin 2012" on a fictional QVC political broadcast and sale.*
A lively talk with a Canadian** at work produced a variation on a journal post I made here over 5 years ago -- that the real problem with the Republican party is they've drunk their own kool-ade, and may actually BELIEVE that things are closer than they really are. Remember Karl Rove's "Math" comment just before the 2006 election? I think turd-blossom really believed that, just by saying it was so and clapping really, REALLY hard, that his "permanent republican majority" (what happened to the risk of one party rule, guy?) would be a shining bright reality.
Wednesday, November5, 2008, I want to look around and see a lot of republicans with bloodshot eyes wringing their bloody raw hands in sheer, unadulterated misery. My biggest regret is that blood is not their own.
* I loved the 10 blank dishes McLame was pushing as "commemorative town meeting" plates -- completely ignoring the idea that he might have been WORSE off if he had gotten his wish. 7 more chances for Obama to show you up as a doddering old man screaming "hey you kids, get off my lawn!"? That's almost as bad as Senator "Intertubes" Stevens insisting on a speedy trial on corruption charges -- only to be declared guilty on all seven counts less than a week from the election. From all accounts, if he'd just let the wheels of justice grind, he could have won the election for the republican's and had Governor Palin appoint a replacement.
** I only mention his nationality because he makes a perfect discussion partner for these topics -- since he works here, he's aware of the issues, but doesn't have quite the same vested interest in party affiliations or platforms.
current mood:  hopeful
current music: The Black Angels - The Sniper at the Gates of Heaven
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(1 Pearl | Grace me with your wisdom, O learned ones!)
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| Friday, October 17th, 2008
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4:10 pm - Learning When to STFU (or not...)
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Minnesota. Kim hails from there. Two of her friends are vacationing here in California, so the timing for this is perfect.
It's also home to this neo-fascist bitch who needs to be schooled as to what country she lives in.
The second clip has the whole sordid interview as it happened in 1957 today.
Note that she pulls a Palin -- she never actually answers the specific question, posed in about 4 different ways, of what she MEANS by anti-American. Hint: it's usually "they won't do, say or think what I tell them to!", which can be boiled down even further to "they won't agree with me, damn them!", but those just illustrate what a over-used douche bag she is, and thus does not inspire the kind of fear that would drive people to her man McShame.
What's fun about this is that I'm tempted to drop her opponent (oh, didn't I make it clear that she's running for deselection?) a few bucks, something I wouldn't have done prior to this point, simply because I didn't know he existed. He does have a funny name (Elwyn "El" Tinklenberg), but that never stopped someone for running for congress (and winning) before. Visit his site and, as they've been saying this cycle, toss his opponent an anchor.
current mood: angry
current music: Chopin - Prelude in C minor
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(Grace me with your wisdom, O learned ones!)
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| Thursday, October 16th, 2008
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4:13 pm - The Last Debate (and other forms of mental masturbation)
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Seriously: What the FUCK is wrong with McCain?
The blogs and pundits (at least the ones that haven't completely lost touch with this thing most of us like to call "reality") noted pretty much the same things -- McCain Started strong. He was more assured. He...
Well, then he began to do what he did in the last two debates -- he didn't know when the hell to shut up.
Time and again the CNN reaction lines would occasionally move above flat-line, and McCain would screw it up by adding one more disjointed thought. He was disrespectful and downright rude at times when Obama had the floor. There were moments when I would SWEAT McCain was going to implode. Considering the results of the snap polls wherein Obama won 2 to 1 over McCain, maybe imploding would be a GOOD thing.
I made a joke before this last debate that the only way McCain would "win" is if he pulled out a gun and shot Obama dead. I didn't realize there was a "worse than losing" possibility -- that McCain could so clearly show himself completely disconnected is unreal.
If you missed it, there's a full transcript available. One key moment that I'm honestly surprised that it hasn't gotten more play. In response to the question about health care reform [emphasis mine]:
That's big government at its best. Now, 95 percent of the people in America will receive more money under my plan because they will receive not only their present benefits, which may be taxed, which will be taxed, but then you add $5,000 onto it, except for those people who have the gold-plated Cadillac insurance policies that have to do with cosmetic surgery and transplants and all of those kinds of things.
When I first heard that I had to turn to Roni and go "did he REALLY just say that??" Did John McCain imply that, for example, a kidney transplant for your 8 year old would fall under the "gold-plated Cadillac insurance" plan?!
That's right up there with his dismissive comments about protecting the mother's health in terms of abortion bans:
Just again, the example of the eloquence of Senator Obama. He's health for the mother. You know, that's been stretched by the pro-abortion movement in America to mean almost anything.
That's the extreme pro-abortion position, quote, "health."
Roni about imploded on that, and (not surprisingly) the women in the CNN live tracking had the women pushing McCain into his most negative territory yet. You know, the demographic that Palin was supposed to lock?
Which leads me to my last shift on this campaign. To be honest, I was really hoping Ron Paul would kick up this political season, but he's flashed and burned a bit to quickly -- and has lost focus -- since his initial splash. I was pretty pissed at Obama for his contribution to the FISA abortion that was passed earlier this year, but my stance has become downright petulant in appearance when viewed in the current context.
For one, I was hoping Paul would shed light on the financial crisis to come that... well, came. Almost 11 months to the day since I first considered him a possibly maybe has a shot in hell candidate, the very disaster I was hoping could be forstalled came to pass.
Secondly, when Goldwater republicans and the son of William F, Buckley can look at the situation staight on and say "Vote Obama", who the hell am I to hold the position I did?
So, by the time you read this I will have added an "Obama Pride" icon -- that will do until I can do up a proper "Libertarian Queer Pagan Bisexuals for Obama" icon.
Speaking of "Pride" -- do people actually BELIEVE the crap that the morons mormons Yes on 8 crew is spewing?
While on an emergency mission to Ukiah for Peter's birthday (but mostly to get them over the horror of the mauling of Meatball, their pet chicken, by a pair of dobermans -- LONG story), I saw a "yes on 8" lawn sign that didn't mention anything about marriage or "special" rights -- just that it protected parental rights.
It wasn't until I got home and did some digging that light was shed: They're trying to argue that, if the current state of affairs stands, that they will teach that gay marriage is okay in the schools and parents have no right to object.
Let's not argue the point that there should be nothing wrong with teaching tolerance for the moment. Those kinds of discussions would take place in a sex ed setting -- you know, the class that parents can opt their children out of? And still will be able to, even if Prop 8 doesn't pass? The same parents who are supporting this backwards thinking waste of time?
Personally, I think Prop 8 IS a waste a time, for OR against. That's due to the small detail that the "Yes on 8" types would rather not think about -- that the state's constitution can only be modified according to it's own criteria. Yes, there is a mechanism providing for revision by proposition -- the CA Supreme Court is very likely to consider the results of the proposition to be an AMENDMENT, and sections I and II of the same article make it clear that would require a 2/3 vote of the legislator's to open a constitutional convention.
Say they decide that it DOES fall within this process -- the right wing may have wished they had never opened that can o' worms (now with 50% more wigglyness!). After all, it could be argued that the term MARRIAGE itself is a religious issue, and thus adding the term to the state constitution might run afoul of the federal, particularly the first amendment. You could see a drive to remove the "special rights" set aside for people of a particular religious institution, in this case, marriage.
Of course, all of that is moot if you spread the word and spare some change for the "No on 8" campaign in those crucial closing weeks:
Okay, that's about all I can stand right now. I hope y'all think about what I have to say. And remember: A vote for a republican is a vote for bigotry, hate, and religious extremism. And you kill a puppy. Think of the puppies, for the love of goddess!
current mood:  determined
current music: Ella Fitzgerald - Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man
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(3 Pearls | Grace me with your wisdom, O learned ones!)
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