Whistling in the Dark

• 11:21 Brother-in-law wants me to take back his movies. What that means to me: I get to see the Clooney Solaris that I'd wanted to see. Awesome! #
• 15:21 My w580i is full of podcasts, now time to mow the lawn. #
• 16:11 Lawn = done. Time for shower and shave before the nursing pinning ceremony. #

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A little while ago I received my first ARC, a copy if Cory Doctrow's Little Brother which I talked about here:
http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/250949.html
and here:
http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/251222.html

Turns out that ARCs are addictive, and now I very very much want one of the ARCs of John Scalzi's Zoe's Tale (and the next Promethean Age book by Elizabeth Bear. I love the story construction in that series of books. My dad had a hard time following what was going on, but personally? I though that she did it just right. She captures the non-linearity that is part of what the fae are supposed to be about without it becoming boring like some stories that try to show the difference in the worlds.)

My daily digest of texts, tweets and status updates.

• 15:59 is trying to use the mouse before plugging it in... #

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Microblogging using LoudTwitter and Twitter. matgb_twitter is there if you're mad enough.

• 11:00 Recent self-discovery: The squeeky sound of an almost dried out highlighter drug across the page makes my skin crawl. In other news: WTF?! #
• 15:45 It really bugs me when NPR calls Burma "Myanmar". #
• 15:57 It bugs me partly because we shouldn't let thugs rename a country like that. But mostly because "Myanmar" sounds like a marshmallow cookie. #

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( Here are the things I am willing to confess to having done today )

( Tweet tweet )

Reposted from an earlier comment thread.

Conflict and Dissent != Divisiveness. Ask any of the women who left feminism during the 2nd wave's height because of folks like Dworkin. Tamora Pierce, probably the best feminist YA author out there for longer than either of us have been alive, was chased out of the movement by these folks. There is a strong strain of exclusionary tactics in the feminist movement, and while it isn't solely or even originally a second wave thing, that is where they were honed and polished. Hell, it is even built into some of the common terms used by 3rd wave feminists, and to a large degree, at the center of the current problems that women of color are having with the "leaders" of mainstream (read white) feminism. (See: any time that "ally" is used to describe feminist men. Ally is a great term in certain contexts, but in general discussions of feminism, it falls short, it excludes men from the category of "feminist." I can be an ally of the LGBTQetc community, I can be an ally of black rights movements, I can be an ally of women's rights movements, I can be an ally of of folks seeking to avoid religious persecution, I can be an ally of any group that I am not, myself a member of. But I can not be an ally of feminism via feminists, because I am a feminist.

Does anyone else ever wonder if the Dalek's have propaganda? Posters they put up demonizing the genocidal monster known as the Doctor. And showing the heroic efforts of the Daleks to survive against the unprovoked and evil aggression of the Time Lords and their human minions. Just me?

Quoting jadegirl in her entirety:

I know quite a few people on my friendslist who know children, have children, or who are self-professed "geeks" themselves - lovelies, have I got a goldmine for you!

Spectrum Scientifics is a science supply store for all ages, owned and operated by my oldest friend, Matt Kriebel. For those of you in the Philadelphia area, the shop is at 4403 Main Street in Manayunk, surrounded by lots of other neat shopping, an excellent coffeeshop, and in general, Manayunk is a really pretty area. For those of you not in the area, the webshop is just now up and running.

Matt has been in the science education field for as long as I've known him, some 15 years now, starting with doing a traveling science show for the Franklin Institute, and moving on to working with various science supply/telescope vendors. This shop is his baby, and I really, really want to see it do well. He has high standards for the products he sells, and really cares about providing the best, both in terms of affordability and quality. Besides, he carries a working catapult building kit. I want one. Also stuffed brain cells. The perfect gift! : )

Seriously, he's an excellent fellow, with an excellent shop. Look around, and spread the word. Thank you!

There are things that the Aldoni have words for that appear in no other known race's languages. Concepts that naturally evolved species never develop words for, not because they don't experience them, but because they are such a basal part of their experience that they have no need for the words.
One example is uveason. Thorwald's translation of the Charlthose Universal Aldoni Dictionary equates uveason with altruism, one of half a dozen words in the Aldoni language that can be thusly translated. Uveason is not altruism. Uveason is to altruism what a metastatic tumor is to a wart. Roughly it is the tendency of a sentient species to expend lives and materials in an effort to protect or save an individual or small group of individuals completely out of proportion with the value of that individual to the group as a whole. The fact that humans will put a hundred people out in the mountains in the middle of winter searching for a single lost hiker, that losing six searchers to the hazards of the search doesn't stop the survivors from deploying the next time a lone hiker gets lost in hostile terrain, that us uveason. It is the complete negation of the survival value of altruism. Every naturally sentient race, even the Malar, does this. Among every culture bearing species in the Aldoni Archives, only the created races lack this tendency. The Aldoni have a word for it because they see it in others though they lack it themselves.

Does anyone have much current experience with leasing a car over buying a car?

The car dealership I visited today offered me what looks like a good lease deal. I'm just not sure it's what I should do. On one hand, it puts the payment at something easily affordable, and I wouldn't have to worry about the car ever being out of warranty.

On the other hand, the car would technically not be mine and I'm not sure what constitutes normal wear and tear in regards to the lease deal.

I'm really torn on this one.

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( Dinged it up, making new bedcover details. )

bye bye bowl
Originally uploaded by eyemage

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Man, Jim Phelps was a heckuva strategist! And Barney, wow, what an electronics whiz! And how about Rollin Hand, man of a million disguises! And Willy ... um ... sure could lift heavy things.

...Just kidding, Willy. :) You were awesome too. And so were you, Cinnamon.

It was a great, great show. :)

-The Gneech

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fenmere posted the following...and he's been very good to us and deserves good things. Go, take out an ad, do it! It's a worthy cause.

(And please repost this or forward it to anyone you think might be interested.)

Moggy

Keep the Indy Alive

Listen. Go out and tell every business you know that they should be advertising in the Whatcom Independent. If they already are, they need to increase their advertising.*

The Indy is two pages worth of advertising away from being solvent. It's that simple. If we went solidly solvent in the next three weeks, a merger would either not be necessary or it would be more possible.


Why should every business in Whatcom and the surrounding counties consider advertising in the Indy?

Three simple facts

1. Their ads would get in front of 20,000+ loyal readers from all around the county. And it would stay in front of most of those readers for the whole week (T.V. Guide, Events, Who's Playin'? and the other ads are all important directories for what's going on locally).

2. The Indy is the only county wide paper with the high journalistic standards it maintains. The other papers have all been documented as having pandered to their sources of income and beneficiaries. The Indy does not. It has no sugar daddies, no public shareholders, and no membership in any exclusive clubs or political groups. If the Indy goes, you lose that incredible news service. Period. There is no one else that can offer it.

3. The Indy's rates are not only fair, they are less expensive than any of the competitions. Especially the Bellingham Herald's, which holds the lion's share of the market. For every dollar a company places in the Herald, they could take a quarter and buy a larger ad in the Indy with better exposure and placement and a longer shelf life.


NOT ADVERTISING IN THE INDY IS A BAD BUSINESS DECISION.

Not advertising in the Indy is a disservice to the county, especially if you believe in your own business.


And to further sweeten the pot on new ad sales. The next three issues of the Indy are probably going to be hotter than ever. Particularly the last one.

Contact sales at
676-9411
sales@whatcomindy.com
http://whatcomindy.com/advertise.php

Thank you.

Substitute teacher fired for being a wizard, among other things...

Teacher Jim Piculas does a magic trick where a toothpick disappears and then reappears.Piculas recently did the 30-second trick in front of a classroom at Rushe Middle School in Land 'O Lakes.Piculas said he then got a call from the supervisor of teachers, saying he'd been accused of wizardry."I get a call the middle of the day from head of supervisor of substitute teachers. He says, 'Jim, we have a huge issue, you can't take any more assignments you need to come in right away,'" he said.

http://www.local6.com/news/16169506/detail.html
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7010883227
http://www.txcn.com/sharedcontent/dws/txcn/houston/stories/khou080505_tj_wizard.d20e02aa.html

Here we go—

• 19:46 @MagnoliaPearl: Seriously. "Ooh, I've medium-length hair and crinkles 'round the eyes, swoon girls!" To normal a face to be pretty. #
• 20:02 Action—our new paper shredder will foil the methheads downstairs who rummage through the complex's garbage. That and bathroom trash. #
• 21:25 @MagnoliaPearl: That is the best description of Sean Penn EVER. #
• 05:29 A fantastic interlude for Freakangels, and it's a bit that I'm obsessed about (English disaster fiction) twurl.nl/qci31i #
• 08:33 The endearing Steve Novick was at the Powell/Milwaukie intersection island this morning, getting honks and waves. #

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WASHINGTON – Secret Service supervisors engaged in crude sexual jokes and racially derogatory banter about blacks, and passed around an anecdote about a possible assassination of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, according to internal e-mails disclosed in a federal court filing on Friday by lawyers for black Secret Service agents.

The filing includes 10 e-mails that were among documents the agency recently turned over to lawyers for the black agents as part of an increasingly bitter discrimination case. The messages were written mainly between 2003 and 2005, and were sent to and from e-mail accounts of at least 20 Secret Service supervisors.

The e-mails offer a glimpse into the darker recesses of a secretive agency that is known for protecting presidents and other dignitaries but whose culture is regarded as one of the most insular in federal law enforcement.

The disclosure of the e-mails follows an incident last month in which a noose was found in a room used by a black instructor at a Secret Service training center in Maryland. Agency officials said the episode is the subject of an internal investigation.

A spokesman at the Secret Service headquarters in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In some of the documents, the senders of the e-mails are identified by the jobs they now occupy as well as the rank they held when the messages were sent. For example, an Oct. 9, 2003, e-mail referring to a “Harlem Spelling Bee,” ridiculing black slang, was sent by Thomas Grupski, then assistant director in charge of protective operations who, according to the filing, now heads the office of government liaison and public affairs.

A March 3, 2003, e-mail describing Mr. Jackson as the “Righteous Reverend” was passed among several e-mail accounts of Secret Service supervisors. The message is a purported joke about a missile striking an airplane in which Mr. Jackson and his wife were traveling, one that says such an incident “certainly wouldn’t be a great loss and it probably wouldn’t be an accident either.”

Another e-mail contains what one official said was a joke referring to interracial sex and is accompanied by a photograph of a black man and white woman, both of whom are nude. E-mails with the joke circulated in February and March 2003. It was sent, according to the lawsuit, from Donald White, who currently heads the presidential protective detail, to Kurt Douglass, agent in charge of the Secret Service office in Cincinnati.

The legal skirmishing in the discrimination suit has heated up in recent months, with federal Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson rebuking the Secret Service for failing to produce documents, and for destroying relevant records and e-mails that she said the agency should have turned over nearly two years ago.

Judge Robinson had ordered the agency to turn over the documents by late March, but the e-mails disclosed in the court filing on Friday were not turned over to lawyers for the agents until late April.

E. Desmond Hogan, a lawyer for the black agents, said the agents were “shocked but not surprised by the late production of significant evidence of racism at high levels in the Secret Service. The government’s delay follows a pattern of the Secret Service stonewalling plaintiffs and ignoring court orders, depriving African-American agents of the fundamental evidence of race discrimination that is key to their claims.”

The discrimination lawsuit was initially filed in 2000, but has dragged on without resolution through years of litigation. The suit was filed by 10 black agents who charged they were unfairly denied promotions to management jobs. The agency employs about 3,200 agents, of whom about 10 percent are black.

Secret Service agents who work in what are regarded as glamorous protective details work long and irregular shifts while others staff a network of 150 field offices in the United States and overseas. Black agents have complained that promotions seem to be awarded on the basis of connections to an old boy network as well as merit.

Today I got paid and got off work an hour early, so I went shopping. (Of COURSE.)

I now have three new shirts, two camis, a 'grown-up' spring purse (i.e. a purse that looks like a purse and not a messenger bag), and a dress.

It's a white dress. Off-white, I guess, with itty bitty polka dots. Shirt-dress cut to it, kindof old-fashioned. I thought about it long and hard, and tried on different colors and sizes, and this is what I went with. I felt confident about it. I rarely, if ever, feel confident about a dress.

Came home and my mother had nothing but bad things to say about it (it went from 'it's okay' to 'when you lose 10 or 20 pounds' to 'no, take it back, I've been dressing you since you were born, I know better').

So. It's my spite dress. Hell, I'm not even sure when I'll get a chance to wear it, but I'm keeping it.

Poll #1185465 The Man in the Iron Mask
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

Have you seen Iron Man?

If you have not seen Iron Man yet, do you plan to?

If you have seen Iron Man, did you like it?

Tickybox?

France plans for possible Lebanon evacuation

5 hours ago

PARIS (AP) — France is creating a plan to evacuate its citizens from Lebanon in case the country's sectarian violence spreads, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Friday.

Kouchner, speaking on France-Info radio, also said that France, along with Spain and Italy, are working on an initiative to bring calm to Beirut. He did not provide details of the initiative.

Kouchner said that France, Lebanon's former colonial ruler, has not yet decided to evacuate its citizens. But, he added, "that does not mean we shouldn't prepare something, just in case."

Italy, too, "is preparing to envisage the worst, that is, an evacuation" of Italians, Kouchner said. Italy is current commander of UNIFIL, the U.N. force in southern Lebanon.

Kouchner reiterated his support for the Lebanese government, called on all parties in the conflict to lay down their arms and denounced Hezbollah's takeover of the Muslim sector of Beirut.

Security officials say at least 14 people have been killed in three days of street battles in the Lebanese capital between the Shiite gunmen and Sunnis loyal to the U.S.-backed government, the worst sectarian clashes since Lebanon's 15-year civil war.

So, one of my traditional end of semester stress dreams was the one where it's finals week, and I realize there's a class I signed up for that I didn't know I was signed up for or have forgotten about and haven't gone to all semester.  So I have to pass the final to pass the class without having any idea what the class was about, etc, etc. 

Now that I've been out of school for a while, I figured maybe my subconscious had gotten the message.  It turns out it has... and so has found a new and exciting end of the semester stress dream to give me instead!  This time I had a dream that one of the students I see in the study center frequently was complaining because the summer course he'd registered for had gotten canceled.  It turns out it was a course that I was supposed to have been teaching, but I didn't realize it had already started so I'd missed the first few days of class, and since I hadn't shown up to "claim" the class within 24 hours of the scheduled first class period, they'd canceled it.  So I was going to the office to try to talk them in to letting me pick up the course again, but they couldn't, so I was trying to figure out if there was anything else I could do to get paid over the summer. 

Interesting reversal of the familiar old nightmare.  :-) 

On another note, I found out Netflix has Xena available on their "watch instantly list", so I can watch it when I'm bored without having to waste one of my DVD slots on it.  I watched the first episode of the series this evening.  I'd forgotten how delightfully cheesy that series was.  :) 

From montecook: Gin, Television, and Social Surplus

So that's the answer to the question, "Where do they find the time?" Or, rather, that's the numerical answer. But beneath that question was another thought, this one not a question but an observation. In this same conversation with the TV producer I was talking about World of Warcraft guilds, and as I was talking, I could sort of see what she was thinking: "Losers. Grown men sitting in their basement pretending to be elves."

At least they're doing something.

Did you ever see that episode of Gilligan's Island where they almost get off the island and then Gilligan messes up and then they don't? I saw that one. I saw that one a lot when I was growing up. And every half-hour that I watched that was a half an hour I wasn't posting at my blog or editing Wikipedia or contributing to a mailing list. Now I had an ironclad excuse for not doing those things, which is none of those things existed then. I was forced into the channel of media the way it was because it was the only option. Now it's not, and that's the big surprise. However lousy it is to sit in your basement and pretend to be an elf, I can tell you from personal experience it's worse to sit in your basement and try to figure if Ginger or Mary Ann is cuter.

And I'm willing to raise that to a general principle. It's better to do something than to do nothing. Even lolcats, even cute pictures of kittens made even cuter with the addition of cute captions, hold out an invitation to participation. When you see a lolcat, one of the things it says to the viewer is, "If you have some sans-serif fonts on your computer, you can play this game, too." And that's message--I can do that, too--is a big change.

This is something that people in the media world don't understand. Media in the 20th century was run as a single race--consumption. How much can we produce? How much can you consume? Can we produce more and you'll consume more? And the answer to that question has generally been yes. But media is actually a triathlon, it's three different events. People like to consume, but they also like to produce, and they like to share.

Yes, this.

-The Gneech

Listen to this track.



(If the embed fails, you can find the track here.)

Now, consider the question: if you didn't see the video or know the referents of the words, if it were a straight audio recording called "Fuval Unccl Crbcyr" and sung in a language you couldn't understand, how would you evaluate the emotional content of the track? (Yes, please, listen to it again. I'll wait.)

Would it be, perhaps, wistful? Or hopeful? Or even ... unhappy, in parts, however cheery in others?

Hm.

Well, I think I've updated the Goes Bump chapter of DFRPG (the one that talks generally about the various critters in the Dresden Files books). I seem to have added +1343 words, in light of Small Favor.

And now, I take the weekend off before tackling Who's Who (the chapter that talks specifically about all of the "named" characters in the books).

(woof.)

GameVideos.com has a new video of Wrath of the Lich King footage.  Here's my impressions on the latest round of info:

Death Knight changes: Oh noes!  Now any nuub with a level 55 character gets a death knight without having to complete a quest or anything!  How dare you Blizzard!  How dare you!  This is obviously an insideous plot by Blizzard to lighten the load on launch day.  Instead of having everyone racing into Morthrend hoping to be the first to get a death knight, (and possibly making the quest a bitch to complete for the first month) players are just handed a death knight, thus keeping them out of Outland for two weeks.  Hurray!

Death Knight races: I heard the special golden death knight can be unlocked through the breeding mini-game.  Seriously, though, stay away from the forums.  This will be another instance of idiots shrieking about shit they don't understand.  Name me one player race that would look odd selling out to the Scourge.  Don't forget that the first trailer released explained that the new death knights are adventurers who gave in to dispair while hunting the Scourge.  Dranei?  They already have insane necromancers.  Tauren?  Dude, the Grimtotem are trying to unleash a plague.  Night elves? ......... Well, I can't really think of any instances of a night elf selling their soul for power.  None whatsoever.  But that won't stop Blizzard.  As one person on the forums pointed out in a long-ago thread, night elves were an all-female species back in Warcraft III.  So it's obvious that Blizzard doesn't know their own lore.  Also, all human kingdoms were wiped out in Warcraft III and Stormwind was made up for World of Warcraft.

Raiding:  Every raid dungeon will have a 10-man version?  Hurray!  Now give us five man, you jerks.  Some of us in seven-man guilds would like to see the content too, you know.

The fifth world tree sapling: It got knocked down.  The furbies live there now.

Combat Vehicles: Hey, it only took them 4 years to make a damned parachute animation!  Also, if the NPCs can get vehicles up and running long enough to have dogfights, then why can't I have Jorus the Cobalt Netherdrake (AKA Buttercup) give me short lifts?  He's a frickin' netherdrake for god's sake!  He can't get cold!  (And besides, my gryphon can fly unprotected through the nether, so I doubt some ice is going to hurt our mounts)

Return of the King: Come on.  We all know that Varian is going to turn up in Northrend.  How else will they prevent him from interfering with the old-world content?  Of course, he's probably going to slay Onyxia in the comics, so that has even more complications.


In closing, Servants of the Betrayer was a seriously underwhelming expansion for the card game.  Well, priests got some love anyways.  And Fordragon had a fun ability.  (Everyone has to attack Fordragon!  Everyone!!!  That includes you, Lady Prestor!)

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Surely I am not the only one who looked at the slideshow of the polar bear playing with the husky, and when seeing the shot of the bear hugging the dog close, thought "Tell me about the rabbits, George"?

Envoys rush to contain crisis in Lebanon

By Andrew England and Roula Khalaf

Published: May 9 2008 21:42 | Last updated: May 9 2008 23:08

As Hizbollah on Friday seized control of western parts of Beirut, the Lebanese capital, Arab and western officials embarked on a flurry of activity amid fears that the conflict could grow into a wider regional crisis.

A US official said the pro-western government was being undermined by the “criminal acts of an illegitimate armed gang”, in reference to Hizbollah, while the weak Lebanese administration accused the Shia militant group of conducting a coup d’état.

Washington has been a key backer of the government of Fouad Siniora, the prime minister, while Hizbollah is supported by Iran and Syria. The stand-off between the opposing factions has become part of a wider struggle for influence in the Middle East between the US, its Sunni allies and Tehran.

An adviser to Saudi Arabia’s government, which has been a staunch backer of Mr Siniora’s administration, said the events in Beirut had been met “with complete and utter dismay”.

“This is something we will not tolerate and the red line has clearly been crossed,” the adviser told the Financial Times, although it was not clear what measures Saudi Arabia would take. The kingdom and Egypt, the region’s two diplomatic heavyweights, have called for an emergency meeting of Arab League ministers.

At least 18 people have been killed in Beirut clashes over the past three days, which have involved gun battles and rocket-propelled grenade fire. Hizbollah on Friday shut down a pro-government newspaper and television station and tightened its grip on the capital in a powerful display of force. There were also reports of clashes in the north and parts of the Bekaa valley.

Syria described the crisis as an internal affair and Iran blamed “the adventurist interferences” of the US and Israel for the violence. The US and Israel regard Hizbollah as a terrorist group, but it is viewed in the Arab world as a legitimate resistance movement fighting the Jewish state.

My friend vrax just put up a very silly poll in which he asked, What are the Cannibalism equivalents of "Pitcher" and "Catcher". You know in the stereotypical male gay sex sense, that is.

I thought about it for a minute, and came up with the perfect answer for this, the era of cat macros:

"Nom" and "nominee"