Donnawritings

I'm starting a group to oppose tornados

2010-05-14T12:25:00.004-05:00

There's a Facebook group to support Sarah Palin's Discovery series. I've also seen an ad on my page about a group organized to protest Palin's Discovery series.

Here's a thought. It's a TV series. Discovery signed Palin to do the series because they figured she was popular with segments of the population. And at the least she is recognized by the majority of Americans who haven't been in a coma the past two years.

Now, if the series airs and a lot of people watch it, ratings will be high and Discovery will please its advertisers. Probably they would ask her to film more of them.

If the series airs and few people watch it, Discovery will probably air the number of episodes they contracted with her to air, or perhaps if the ratings are bad enough, they will exercise an option not to air them, or air them in the dead hours of early morning.

Notice the key word here: ratings. It's all tied up to the number of people who watch (and of course key demographic groups). Palin doesn't need groups supporting Discovery's decision to offer her a series. Groups opposed to her series will not affect anyone, least of all Discovery.

If you like her, watch her. If you don't, don't. The ratings will decide the fate of the series. Or Palin, if she decides a limited run series fits into her life better.

Ratings usually decide these things. Unless you're MSNBC.

I am an American.

2010-03-09T16:17:00.001-05:00

Pass this on. I got something from the census department the other day and it turned out to be a notice that in one week I'd be getting the census form. Your tax money at work.

From the Department of Wah Wah Wah

2009-08-12T18:10:00.001-05:00

Code Pink is complaining about the protests against health care at the town meetings:

The right-wing, always so scornful of CODEPINK, has taken a page from our playbook and distorted it by disrupting congressional town hall meetings on health care. While we wholeheartedly support the practice of peaceful dissent, we can't stomach it when that dissent is based on ignorance or when the dissenters are actually thinly disguised lobbyists for the corporate health care industry.

Where to begin. Their "dissent for me but not for thee" attitude? Their smug self-assurance that while their causes are "just," ours our just foolish? Or that anyone who protests nationalized health care is a tool of an "industry" (ie; that old devil big business).

What I find most annoying of all, it's their assumption that most or all of the protests are planned and not outraged citizens waking up and realizing for the first time how close this country is teetering on the brink of socialism and ruin. And in an effort to play by the rules of Democracy, try to approach their representatives with their fears and questions only to get rebuffed and talked down to.

Most protesters are just ordinary people thinking the official who was voted in to represent them should listen to the will of the majority, while many of these officials seem to think they were elected because they are superior and know what's best for their constituency, who should appreciate their inferiority, shut up and allow themselves to be herded.

It's Rational to Ration

2009-07-19T10:14:00.001-05:00

It's happened in England. It's happened in Canada. It's happened in every country which nationalized their health care.

But of course it won't happen HERE!

On this 4th, trying to define the problems (and suggest possible solutions)

2009-07-04T08:39:00.011-05:00

If the founding fathers could see the American people today, they'd be angered and disappointed. We've squandered our birthright for breads and circuses.

It's not everyone. But enough. Too many for certain. And for far too long.

People who see the way the country is going -- government run health care, government takeover of the auto industry, bailouts, stimulus and running up trillions of dollars of debt -- shake their heads and wonder if the country will be able to turn itself around after four years of Obama.

But this began long before Obama. Even before FDR decided that the "pursuit of happiness" should be supplanted by the "right to happiness" and believed the Federal government had a duty to level the playing field at the expense of our liberties and right to self-determination.

I don't want to make this blog overly long by going into the books and blogs I've read and the incidences others have cited as first steps away from the Republic envisioned by the Founding Fathers.

But I realized, thinking about the state of the country this Fourth of July, I shouldn't be blaming Obama, or Pelosi or Rahm Emanuel or any of the Kennedys great and small.

If I do that, I'm doing the same thing I accuse the liberals, the socialists, the statists of doing. I'm taking too much blame away from those on whose shoulders it should sit.

I'm talking about us. You and me. We the People. This is our mess. It's our apathy, our ignorance, our willingness to give up our autonomy for security. Our willingness to give up maturity for perpetual childhood. Not all of us, and not all to the same degree. There are voices crying out warnings. There are a few actively trying to steer us back on course.

And a percentage of US citizens aren't operating through ignorance or apathy: those liberals, statists, socialists who are actively working to "fix" the Constitution and alter our system of government.

So I am blaming Obama, et al too. But as citizens, not as the leaders who have bullied their way into power. Obama's presidency is a symptom, not the disease. Barney Frank's reelection term after term after term is a symptom.

What's the disease? Diseases.

Voter apathy. The 43.2% who couldn't be bothered to vote last November. Are they right? Is it futile because their candidate didn't make it to the final two, or they didn't like any of the candidates from the beginning? Or because all politicians are crooks so what does it matter?

Or those voters who did turn out and voted for McCain because he was the lesser of two evils? If their candidate was forced to drop out before they got a chance to vote for him or her in their primary, I can understand their frustration. I've felt it myself.

Perhaps the way primaries are conducted need to be changed? Maybe people need to come up with ideas on how to make it fairer, petition their Representatives and the changes could be formally written up, voted upon, implemented.

Or not. Yeah, whatever.

Let's skip over those voters who voted for Obama because they understood and agreed with his plans for this country. They're a problem, but they'd be a much smaller problem if so many of the rest of us weren't apathetic.

Or ignorant.

And those are the other diseases: ignorance and stupidity.

Ignorant people who didn't know Obama's platform and didn't care. We were making history and many of us didn't want to know what he stood for if that meant we wouldn't want to vote for him. Who heard the pretty words and let themselves be lulled into thinking "how bad could it be?"

Stupidity. People who did know what Obama stood for, didn't agree with it, still wanted to make history. Or thought this was the opportunity to right the wrongs of slavery and oppression. Who thought we needed to prove to the world that we have overcome our crass and prejudiced past.

This is the same world, by the way, which still contains numerous dictatorships, autocracies, fascist and communist regimes, socialist experiments which strangle their own people's autonomy in the name of fair distribution of resources. This is a world where most of the countries condoned or participated in slavery in their past also. And where slavery still continues in parts of Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

So what's the answer? Are more of us finally noticing our ship of state is sailing into an iceberg? This is a big ship; it can't pivot on a dime. If we're to avoid disaster, we have to start turning now.

How do we turn?

They say recognizing there's a problem is the first step.

The second step? Get involved. Not on the national level. Most of us don't have the clout to affect change at that level.

How about getting involved with local politics? Find out what your city candidates stand for so you're not just filling out the little ovals next to a stranger with a cute name. Or voting for someone who's been the incumbent for so long you shrug and figure he must know what he's doing.

Your state's been blue for so long the populace has passed out and been passed over long ago? You figure what use is it to vote Republican? Or Libertarian? Or Independent?

Try it anyway. If enough habitual non-voters got out and used their votes to register their displeasure, even if the status stayed quo this time, it would send a message.

And speaking of Independent, why not change your affiliation? Since, let's face it, too many in the Republican Party don't stand for the ideals they claim to, a massive number of voters leaving the party would alarm them. Even the Democrats, their contempt for the public notwithstanding, they know who pays their salaries. Or rather, they know whose apathy and blind following gives them a license to steal everything that isn't nailed down.

What would it say to the politicians of both parties if, starting this Monday, people started registered as Independents? If the rolls of registered Democrats and Republicans began dropping? And continued to drop till next November?

Most politicians are pragmatists. Most of the true socialist fanatics don't run; they work behind the scenes, influencing politicians, picking candidates who both believe as they do and have the charisma and best combination of qualities to put themselves over with the electorate.

So, if we can panic the politicians, it may be a beginning.

That, and taking more action, increasing our knowledge of local and state candidates. Even presidential candidates were local politicians once.

We have to begin somewhere. We get the government we deserve. It's up to you. And me.

From the White House blog

2009-05-31T13:05:00.005-05:00

Guess it's not just for lobbyists any more. I'll post the whole blog below in case the link inconveniently 'disappears' or the blog is later altered. I'm sure plenty of people know enough to take screen captures when dealing with the gov*.

Update on Recovery Act Lobbying Rules: New Limits on Special Interest Influence
Another update from Norm Eisen, special counsel to the president for ethics and government reform, in the spirit of transparency as always:

I am writing with an update on the President’s March 20, 2009 Memorandum on Ensuring Responsible Spending of Recovery Act Funds. Section 3 of the Memorandum required all oral communications between federally registered lobbyists and government officials concerning Recovery Act policy to be disclosed on the Internet; barred registered lobbyists from having oral communications with government officials about specific Recovery Act projects or applications and instead required those communications to be in writing; and also required those written communications to be posted on the Internet. That Memorandum instructed the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to review the initial 60 days of implementation of the stimulus lobbying restrictions, to evaluate the data, and to recommend modifications.

Following OMB’s review, the Administration has decided to make a number of changes to the rules that we think make them even tougher on special interests and more focused on merits-based decision making.

First, we will expand the restriction on oral communications to cover all persons, not just federally registered lobbyists. For the first time, we will reach contacts not only by registered lobbyists but also by unregistered ones, as well as anyone else exerting influence on the process. We concluded this was necessary under the unique circumstances of the stimulus program.

Second, we will focus the restriction on oral communications to target the scenario where concerns about merit-based decision-making are greatest –after competitive grant applications are submitted and before awards are made. Once such applications are on file, the competition should be strictly on the merits. To that end, comments (unless initiated by an agency official) must be in writing and will be posted on the Internet for every American to see.

Third, we will continue to require immediate internet disclosure of all other communications with registered lobbyists. If registered lobbyists have conversations or meetings before an application is filed, a form must be completed and posted to each agency’s website documenting the contact.

OMB will be consulting with agencies, outside experts and others about these principles and will publish detailed guidance, but we wanted to update interested parties on the outcome of the initial review. We consulted very broadly both within and outside of government (including as reflected in previous posts on the White House blog) and we are grateful to all those who participated in the process.

*Gov as in our federal government. Any resemblance to this gov is completely coincidental:

Some short questions, observations, etc.

2009-03-29T10:45:00.003-05:00

China has been buying up our debt and the government wants them to continue to keep buying up our debt. So if they buy up enough of our debt, do they own us? Does the United States become a wholly owned subsidiary of China, Inc.?

*****

The new DVD of Pinocchio has an interactive bonus that takes children to Pleasure Island. I heard the commercials enthusing about the fun of playing on Pleasure Island.

Spoiler alert.

Pleasure Island was the place that bad, lazy little boys who didn't want to go to school were lured to. Once there, they became stupider and lazier until they turned into donkeys and were sold as beasts of burden. I find it disturbing that the new DVD has a game which seems to have reworked the whole concept into a Disneyesque fun-time theme park with no bad consequences. It was supposed to be a lesson, Mickey!

*****

A couple of years ago, Matthew Pearl came out with a fiction book (The Poe Shadow) in which Edgar Allen Poe was a main character.

Right around the same time, Louis Bayard's The Pale Blue Eye was published. Also a fiction with EAP as a main character.

Now Matthew Pearl's novel The Last Dickens has just been issued, a fictional mystery about Dickens' final, incomplete novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

It follows upon the publication last month of Drood: A Novel by Dan Simmons.

It's just a coincidence, but Pearl must be getting pretty annoyed by now.

*****

Speaking of Louis Bayard, I ought to give the man credit publically. I read and enjoyed his novel The Black Tower, in spite of the fact that it was written in present tense.

Usually anything written in present tense affects me like fingernails down a blackboard. It's not so much the choose-your-own-adventure-ness of it. I've never been able to work out in my mind exactly why it irks me, so I can't articulate it here.

But anyway, Black Tower was a terrific book. The way he wrote present tense wasn't as intrusive somehow.

*****

Google's smartened up on their phony, idiot stunt from last year's Earth Hour.

We won’t be turning out the lights on our homepage again this year. Our users come first, and while we received lots of enthusiastic feedback last year, some found an all-black Google.com to be a little confusing. (Also, darkened screens don’t actually save energy — modern displays use the same amount of power regardless of what they display.)

They haven't smartened up that the thing's an idiot stunt to make people feel that they're making an impact about something that isn't the problem Gore et al have inflated it to be. But yesterday they celebrated it in a less stupid way.

National Anthem Day (United States)

2009-03-03T09:42:00.001-05:00

In honor of the day, the full lyrics to the Star Spangled Banner:

O! say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming.
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming.
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: 'In God is our trust.'
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Website

2009-02-15T11:03:00.002-05:00

I was going to title this "Website of the Week" but I doubt I'd have the discipline -- or find a recommendable website every single week -- so plain old Website it is.

Before you click on the link, language alert. Which, if you hovered over the link to see the name of the website pop up, you already can figure out.

But, if you enjoy unhinged rants about pictures of cute little animals that are trying to steal our souls and kill us with cuteness, this is the site for you. For me, it actually became funnier as I continued looking at previous posts. But that may just be me.

Ah, well. Enjoy. Or not. It's up to you.

Amazon Mailings

2009-01-28T09:57:00.003-05:00

I realize when you shop for stuff on Amazon, you get sent emails based on your past purchases. "As someone who has bought the collected works of Rufus T. Firefly, you might enjoy these other books by crooked lawyers..."

They also appear to send email based on stuff you've just looked at, casually. "As someone who has shown an interest in Bavarian flugal horns..."

But I can't understand the one I got this morning: "As someone who has shown an interest in woodworking tools..." I swear I have never looked at a woodworking tool on Amazon or anywhere else. Oh, well, maybe I looked at some music which featured a song about awls.

Happy New Years

2008-12-31T21:01:00.000-05:00

Have a happy and safe New Years everyone.

According to Chinese soothsayers, 2009 will be calm and peaceful.

I believe we make our own luck, good fortune, whatever you want to call it. 2009 can be a good year if we make up our minds to it.

And, in the interest of fairness, here's a clip of a soothsayer I can believe in:

Merry Feast of the Pig

2008-12-21T15:19:00.003-05:00

Destroyer fans will understand this.

And I heard him exclaim, as heads parted from necks,
"Merry Feast Day to all, and remember: no checks!"

Merry Feast of the Pig day to my fellow Destroyer fans. More pork for the villagers of Sinanju; less pork in the US government.

My Destroyer wish for 2009 is a new book contract for the series.

My Christmas wish: a happy and healthy New Year for all my friends, online and off.

What Bush should have said to the reporter:

2008-12-15T01:23:00.001-05:00

At least Bush ducked better.

Look at the joke I played on Chamberlain!

2008-12-11T20:46:00.002-05:00

They've used this one clip in so many ways.

And, since I can't embed it, a link to Leave it to Barry.

A Day Which Will Live in Infamy

2008-12-07T11:55:00.001-05:00

Mr. Vice President, Mr. Speaker, Members of the Senate, and of the House of Representatives:

Yesterday, December 7th, 1941 -- a date which will live in infamy -- the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

The United States was at peace with that nation and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its government and its emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific.

Indeed, one hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in the American island of Oahu, the Japanese ambassador to the United States and his colleague delivered to our Secretary of State a formal reply to a recent American message. And while this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue the existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war or of armed attack.

It will be recorded that the distance of Hawaii from Japan makes it obvious that the attack was deliberately planned many days or even weeks ago. During the intervening time, the Japanese government has deliberately sought to deceive the United States by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace.

The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian islands has caused severe damage to American naval and military forces. I regret to tell you that very many American lives have been lost. In addition, American ships have been reported torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu.

Yesterday, the Japanese government also launched an attack against Malaya.

Last night, Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong.

Last night, Japanese forces attacked Guam.

Last night, Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands.

Last night, the Japanese attacked Wake Island.

And this morning, the Japanese attacked Midway Island.

Japan has, therefore, undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area. The facts of yesterday and today speak for themselves. The people of the United States have already formed their opinions and well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our nation.

As commander in chief of the Army and Navy, I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense. But always will our whole nation remember the character of the onslaught against us.

No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.

I believe that I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost, but will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us.

Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory, and our interests are in grave danger.

With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph -- so help us God.

I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7th, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese empire.

Herbie the dirty elf (and Santa's not too clean either)

2008-12-03T19:14:00.005-05:00

As you get set to watch Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in a bit (those of you with children or have remained children in your hearts -- or emotionally immature, depending on your view of things), did you ever notice the characters' hands?

All the characters' hands (those who have hands) are very dirty.

Trust my super clean freak friend to point this out to me a couple of years ago. I've watched this show every Christmas since it first aired in 1964, so that's about forty years until Deb mentioned it and up till then I never noticed.

There's a simple explanation of course. The artists had to move the figurines many, many times to get the stop-motion animation effect. Long days of minute movements, of course the clay was going to get soiled. And even if they noticed it, they weren't going to stop and refashion new appendages, or stop to clean the hands, if that was possible.

No big insights or musing on dirty clay characters symbolizing the commercialization of Christmas. I just thought it was interesting and interesting that I'd never noticed the dirt.

If you're not watching, a few songs courtesy of You Tube. I think I've heard Holly Jolly Christmas 1000 times already on the radio, and of course the title song, but these two never get any play. In fact, the second one was cut out for years so they could cram more commercials in. It only was put back a few years ago. I'd have said there were complaints, but the song doesn't seem very popular even on You Tube; this was the only straight version I could find.

Get into Debt in a Big Way

2008-12-02T20:56:00.003-05:00

Throw money hither. Throw money yon. Spend, spend, spend until pauperdom.

Chiun, Destroyer #6 Death Therapy

They are darkness. We are light.

2008-11-30T10:56:00.002-05:00

Unless you've been in a coma, you know about the massacre at Mumbai and of the Rabbi, his wife and the others who were killed at Mumbai's Chabad House.

The Rabbi at chabad.org is speaking of the Jews, but I think it fits all who takes a stand against evil, everyone who lives to create rather than destroy.

We knew beforehand that we are at war with an enemy. We knew that the world needs to be healed, that it oozes with a venomous darkness, and that darkness will not sit passively as we steal away its dominion. We knew that the more we fight this darkness, the harder it will fight back. We didn't fool ourselves. We decided we will fight and we will win. That is why Gavriel and Rivky went where they went. They went not as tourists, but as fearless soldiers.

Once you are at war, you don't stop to ponder all over again—can we win? Is this worth it? Maybe they're worse than we thought? That's deadly. If you would rather stay home and enjoy comfort while the rest of the world sits out in the cold, you should have decided that a long time ago. Now you are out there on the field of battle, you have already awakened the bear from its den, now there is no turning back.

They are darkness. We are light. They storm the shores with death in their eyes. We come to teach compassion and acts of beauty. They carry assault rifles and grenades. We carry candles for Friday night, a Torah of wisdom, joy and beauty.

Are we to surrender before them? Are we to stop and cry and ask, "maybe we're fighting the wrong battle"?

We will fill the world with light and wisdom and the spirit of darkness in men's hearts shall forever perish. They come with their guns and their might, with a god of destruction and terror, but we come in the name of the Eternal, the source of all life and healing. They and all memory of them will vanish from the face of the earth and our lamp will burn forever.

May the Almighty G‑d hear the cry of their blood from the earth and put an end to all sorrow. May it be very soon, sooner than we can imagine.

The New York Times has a Cow

2008-11-22T20:09:00.002-05:00

So, in honor of them, and with Thanksgiving right around the corner, may I present...

GOBBLES!

I couldn't get a clip of just Gobbles adventure at the turkey processing plant, so enjoy some of Helen Keller: The Musical.

Lyrics Site

2008-11-19T00:09:00.003-05:00

Found this site which allows you to embed scrolling lyrics from movies, TV shows, musicals, and cartoons.

In honor of the efforts of the auto industry to gorge at the government trough, and because I like this song:

Lyrics | Unknown - Canyonero lyrics

Liberal Fascism

2008-11-16T19:12:00.002-05:00

Part Five of Glen Beck's six part interview with Jonah Goldberg. You can follow the link to see the other parts, but I thought this one was the most interesting. It talks about the Progressive movement in the 20th century and it's connection to fascism and evolution into modern liberalism.

The Tenth Day of NaNo

2008-11-10T22:23:00.002-05:00

And I have exhibited each of the behaviors illustrated here:

It seems to be going in rotation. Right now I'm in the Charlie Brown phase. I'm going back to work, where I expect to segue into Lucy.

Perspective

2008-11-10T17:42:00.002-05:00

This is interesting. And telling. I found this little tidbit in the middle of a blog in Power Line about the possibility we may be asked to bail out the auto industry too.

As early as the early thirties, Herbert Hoover was promising "a chicken in every pot, and two cars in every garage." Later that decade the Moscow commissars screened "The Grapes of Wrath" in movie theaters to prove how bad the Depression was in America, and to show the failure of capitalism. It backfired, to cite an auto phrase. In the movie, the poor Okies are shown migrating to California...in automobiles. Few in the USSR had cars. The Russian audiences thought the Okies had it okay.

Isn't it a shame we seem to be moving away from Capitalism.

Crappy Birthday

2008-11-05T20:39:00.002-05:00

In a moment of intense self-pity, I wonder why my birthdays are so-so at best but usually suck big time.

And getting Obama for my birthday wasn't the worst part of the day.

Predictions

2008-11-05T12:32:00.002-05:00

My prediction of the first consequence of the new regime:

Gas prices are going to begin to rise, now that OPEC knows the off-shore drilling ban will be reinstated, the coal companies will be taxed into bankruptcy, and new nuclear power plants aren't going to happen.

Welcome to the glorious new era of change. Guess we'll have to hope we don't freeze to death next winter. Time to investigate wood stoves.

Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, It's off to vote I go

2008-11-04T09:22:00.005-05:00

I have the day off, so I'm heading over to my local precinct to take part in this glorious experiment in Democracy.

From what I've heard, there's been quite a bit of experimentation this year. ACORN deserves a special nod. It has shown a great deal of enthusiasm, not to say imagination, in its quest to find the underrepresented voters of this country and give them a voice.

Senator Obama has been refining the process of gathering donations. Though his experiment with the honor system has led to one embarrassing incident where he had to give the money back.

But isn't it nice to know that someone who is a hair's breadth away from the Oval Office is so willing to trust? So willing to reinterpret our stuffy old ideas about this Republic?

So I'm off to do my part. I found a list of the candidates and questions which will be on my ballot.

Let's see. President. Wow, SIX different choices. I only knew about three of them.

Senator. Three choices, Democrat, Republican and Libertarian. Do I vote my conscience or vote someone who has even a slightly realistic chance of unseating the incumbent?

Moving on. Representative in Congress. My district. One. Democrat. Running unopposed. Not much of a vote there. Hmmm.... Out of ten districts, there are six running unopposed. All Democrats. Oh well, at least a lot of people will get practice filling in the little ovals thoroughly. Don't do that much after SATs.

Councillor(that's the way it's spelled on the site. My spell check says it's wrong, but I'll leave it). My district. One. Democrat. Running unopposed. There are eight districts here (why less than the Reps? It's a mystery, like why hot dogs come in packs of ten and buns in eight. Same numbers? Coincidence?).

I check. Out of eight districts, seven are running unopposed. All Democrats running for reelection. At least my state's saved a lot in campaign financing. Hope they didn't run up too many bills for posters and print ads.

Senator in General Court. My county. One. Democrat running for reelection.

A quick glance at the other counties reveals some races between two candidates. Nice to see the Socialist Workers Party has a candidate running in one of our capitol's districts. They are so underrepresented here.

Representative in General Court. This is more interesting. There are three different county districts for my city. Two of them are Democrats running unopposed, but one has a race. It's between the Democrat incumbent, and the other guy's listed as unenrolled and I've never heard of him. I've also forgotten which of the three I'm in. But that's okay. There's a place to check it. I did. I'm not in the district with the two candidates. Darn.

There are a few more minor categories, but you get the picture. I won't have to make too many tough decisions, aside from the most important one of all.

Then there are the ballot questions. The first one is a proposed law to eliminate the state income tax. The other two questions say they are, respectively, an "act" and an "initiative." So are any of them binding? I read online, and can't find the article, where someone in the state government said if Question One passed, it wasn't going to be implemented.

So does that mean it's not binding? Or it should be, but they've left themselves a loophole?

At least I'll have done my patriotic duty. It's a great day for Democracy in Danny-on-the-Wold.

THE FROGS WHO WISHED FOR A KING

2008-11-02T11:07:00.002-05:00

Or: PEOPLE GET THE GOVERNMENT THEY DESERVE.

THE FROGS were tired of governing themselves. They had so much freedom that it had spoiled them, and they did nothing but sit around croaking in a bored manner and wishing for a government that could entertain them with the pomp and display of royalty, and rule them in a way to make them know they were being ruled. No milk and water government for them, they declared. So they sent a petition to Jupiter asking for a king.

Jupiter saw what simple and foolish creatures they were, but to keep them quiet and make them think they had a king he threw down a huge log, which fell into the water with a great splash. The Frogs hid themselves among the reeds and grasses, thinking the new king to be some fearful giant. But they soon discovered how tame and peaceable King Log was. In a short time the younger Frogs were using him for a diving platform, while the older Frogs made him a meeting place, where they complained loudly to Jupiter about the government.

To teach the Frogs a lesson the ruler of the gods now sent a Crane to be king of Frogland. The Crane proved to be a very different sort of king from old King Log. He gobbled up the poor Frogs right and left and they soon saw what fools they had been. I n mournful croaks they begged Jupiter to take away the cruel tyrant before they should all be destroyed.

"How now!" cried Jupiter "Are you not yet content? You have what you asked for and so you have only yourselves to blame for your misfortunes."

Be sure you can better your condition before you seek to change.

Gloom, despair, and agony on me

2008-10-30T17:54:00.000-05:00

I was going to stay out of politics, but it's only a week until we find out if we're continuing under a middle-of-the-road Republican lite or a left-wing radical socialist.

And don't talk to me about running a negative campaign. McCain should have hit a lot harder a lot sooner. Thanks to his wishy-washy campaigning, we're dangerously close to a president who believes the Constitution is a negative document which doesn't give us enough "rights." Like the right to a welfare state, government ownership of banks and government run health care.

Most of the framers of the Constitution thought a weak, decentralized government was the safest way to prevent tyranny.

And yes, there were disagreements from the get-go. The Federalists favored a stronger central government. Though I doubt most of them could have imagined the programs FDR instituted, much less what Obama intends.

The Constitution outline the powers and limitations of the branches of government. And it was flexible enough to allow for the inclusion of amendments. Amendments which allowed for some clarification of the rights outlined by the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.

"All men are created equal." Amendment 13 -- black people are men too. not property. Voting rights? One citizen, one vote. Amendment 19 -- women are citizens too.

And when Jefferson wrote about "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," he was speaking of basic broad human rights. It wasn't necessary or even smart to get too specific. The Founding Fathers trusted adults to behave like adults. Given these basic rights, they could work and plan the best life possible for them based on their intelligence, determination and guts.

None of them ever envisioned government as Big Daddy, handing people everything on a silver platter.

Which brings us back to Big Daddy Obama. But what's the use. People don't seem to care. They don't research, they don't think for themselves. Even though their ignorance is aided and abetted by our Fourth Estate, in the era of the Internet, there's no excuse not to seek out as much info as your mind can hold.

Of course, if you use your new found knowledge to ask a politician a question which puts him on the spot, you risk scrutiny and investigation geared to discourage any other average Joe from speaking up.

What else. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. A long time coming, and shouldn't be laid at the feet of the Bush administration. It was mainly Democrats who forced the banks to loosen lending rules so mortgages would be more accessible to low income people. And mainly Democrats who benefited from political contributions by Freddie and Fannie officials.

But there were some Republicans who accepted contributions too. And even though Republicans in Congress and Bush in the White House say they repeatedly to reform the agencies, they maybe didn't try hard enough. The Democrats have only had the majority the last two years.

But Bush has been wimpy on domestic issues and McCain's been wimpy going after Obama, and now we're very close to paying a steep price in lost liberties and self-determination.

And Palin? The only bit of fresh air and hope in an otherwise depressing election.

Inexperienced? Sure. But the vice presidency would be a great tutorial. Much better than learning as you go in the presidency, like Obama would be doing.

Politically, she's more a classic Republican than centrist McCain. And she's not afraid to come out swinging. And that's in the face of some of the most vicious mud-slinging any candidate has had to endure. And having to endure mishandling by McCain's campaign.

Fundamentalist Christian? I've run across more than a few liberal bloggers who say her religion "scares" them. Gosh golly, don't people scare easy?

Unless you think Vice President Palin would make her Evangelical sect the State religion, with squads breaking into private homes to forceably baptize you, exactly what's to be scared of?

And so what if she believes in a literal interpretation of the Bible. Dinosaurs walked the Earth along with man 5000 years ago? If she's willing to drill for oil offshore and in Alaska, I don't care when she thinks the oil got underground.

That's all my pre-election sermon for today. Stay tuned in a year or two for my "I told you so" sermon. Believe me, I'm from a blue state. I know first hand.

We have a question on our ballot to abolish the state income tax.

Those in favor say our property taxes won't go up (and we'll all see pigs start to fly). Those against it say they will.

But it doesn't really matter, since I've already read (I wish I saved the link) that either the state government or the state Supreme Court says if it passes it's not going through anyway. So much for the will of the people.

Palin's Outmoded Hairdo

2008-09-04T18:31:00.003-05:00

I've resisted posting anything about Sarah Palin. I don't have too many readers, and they're more than able to make up their own minds without any prompting from me. But I saw this in The Boston Herald this morning, and can't resist making one small observation.

From the Herald:

But must her hair suffer? With her long, straight, often pinned-up locks, Palin looks one humid day away from fronting a Kiss cover band.

“It’s about 20 years out of date,” said Boston stylist Mario Russo of the Alaska governor’s ’do. “Which goes to show how off she might be on current events.”
Small potatoes, since they've picked on everything they could conceivably pick on.

However, for all the Democrats and news pundits and feminist icons questioning her fitness as a mom for daring to run for high political office, this provides an answer.

She's been too busy as a mom and a mayor and a governor to give a rat's ass that her 'do is out of date. All that time she could have spent primping and getting facials and massages were earmarked for more important things. She was probably busy enough reading stuff for her jobs and checking her kids' homework to keep abreast of the fashion mags and Madonna's new look.

I love how some Democrats and lunatic fringes are shooting themselves in the foot with all the idiocy and misogyny they're spewing. I've heard from a number of people who are very angry, including some lifelong libs and Democrats.

Funny email from Dr. Sanity's Blog

2008-09-04T11:31:00.001-05:00

Pat Santy posted this email from her brother on her blog yesterday:

I was talking to a friend of mine's little girl, and she said she
wanted to be President some day.

Both of her parents, liberal Democrats, were standing there, so I
asked her, 'If you were President what would be the first thing you
would do?'

She replied, 'I'd give food and houses to all the homeless people.'

'Wow - what a worthy goal.' I told her, 'You don't have to wait until
you're President to do that. You can come over to my house and mow,
pull weeds, and sweep my yard, and I'll pay you $50. Then I'll take
you over to the grocery store where the homeless guy hangs out, and
you can give him the $50 to use toward food or a new house.'

She thought that over for a few seconds 'cause she's only six. And
while her Mom glared at me, she looked me straight in the eye and
asked, 'Why doesn't the homeless guy come over and do the work, and
you can just pay him the $50?'

And I said, 'Welcome to the Republican Party.'

Her folks still aren't talking to me.

Great speech from Fred Thompson

2008-09-03T07:30:00.001-05:00

Better Watch your back in the Bayou

2008-08-31T13:39:00.004-05:00

Next time he heads down New Orleans way for some jambalaya, he better have a taster.

The short version (if you only want to hear his pleasure at Hurricane Gustav striking when it does):

The long version of his MSNBC spot with Olberman so you can hear him say more stupid things:

Isn't it sweet he hopes no one will be hurt? I guess that's because our health care system is so far behind Cuba's.

And about how women won't want to vote for Palin because she's "against the very things that women are for and women need."

Because we all know that all women want and need the exact same things. We all have the same desires and opinions and political, social, and religious views, so we naturally will all vote for the same candidate.

What a schmuck. You wouldn't know what women are for and what women need, Mr. Moore, if you had a map, a diagram and an instructional video.

Thank God for Governor Jindal. He started them evacuating early and made it mandatory. And they've provided shelters for the pets too.

Go see An American Carol when it comes out in October! The Michael Malone character seems to be slapped hard and slapped often.

Book Review: The New Destroyer: Killer Ratings

2008-06-10T09:56:00.001-05:00

Remo and Chiun are back, as a cable news cycle finds itself in a season of disaster reruns!

read more | digg story

I'm starting a war for peace

2008-04-21T22:20:00.000-05:00

I've found two items dealing with childrens' books that I want to blog about. I should go with the annoying one, but the "so idiotic it's funny" one is a better Earth Day post, so I'll go with that.

From USA Today: The Lorax is Back!

And he's going to help save the rainforest this time, instead of the Truffula trees! How is he going to do this? I hear you ask. I picture you straining forward in your seats, holding your collective breaths in anticipation.

Why, by putting out a new edition of his book, naturally.

Now, Dr. Seuss Enterprises is teaming with Conservation International and Random House to use The Lorax to help save the forests.

The book is being reprinted with a special environmental message that describes "The Lorax Project," which is being launched today in honor of Earth Day. Ten percent to 15% of profits from the book and from Earth-friendly consumer products featuring the Lorax's image will be used to stop deforestation in Madagascar, Brazil and China.

The book's depiction of how environmental destruction is bad for everyone is especially relevant to today's world, says Leeanne Alonso, director of Conservation International's rapid assessment program.

She says the disappearing forests are our Truffula Trees. The Lorax "was the harbinger of what's happening now. He's saying, 'Stop cutting the forest now, or you're going to regret it later.' We're protecting the forests that are left, like The Lorax is saying."

Maybe this new edition will have the Lorax cutting down some of the remaining Truffula trees so he can print up handbills and pamphlets decrying their destruction?

Parents Fight Over Which Gang Toddler Should Join

2008-04-13T11:14:00.001-05:00

Yes, gang. Not playgroup; not preschool. Not Church. Remember the days when having parents of different faiths would cause problems with the child's upbringing? And the tensions caused by interracial unions? Welcome to the new millennium:

COMMERCE CITY, Colo. -- A couple fighting about which gang their 4-year-old toddler should join caused a public disturbance that resulted in the father's arrest, Commerce City police said Thursday.

On Saturday, Joseph Manzanares stormed into the Hollywood Video store where his girlfriend worked, threatened to kill her and knocked over several video displays and even a computer, Commerce City police Sgt. Joe Sandoval said.

After he ran out of the store, police were called and the 19-year-old was arrested at his home.

His girlfriend told police that they had been arguing about the upbringing of their son and which gang he should belong to. The teen mother, who is black, is a member of the Crips. Manzanares is Hispanic and belongs to the Westside Ballers gang, the woman said.

"They have different ideas on how the baby should be raised. Basically, she said they cannot agree on which gang the baby would 'claim,'" Sandoval said

Manzanares was charged with disorderly conduct, harassment, and domestic violence. He was transported to the Adams County Detention Facility.

On Tuesday, he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and was sentenced to a year of probation. The misdemeanor harassment charge was dropped.

Everyone knows how bad it is for the child when parents don't present a united front. Whichever gang this toddler joins, he's sure to alienate himself from one of his parents. Very psychologically devastating.

There's no mention of Child Protective Services. Or parental counseling. Hopefully that will be addressed later, but who knows?

Fitna

2008-03-28T11:34:00.001-05:00

It's only about fifteen minutes long, and isn't that remarkable. If it weren't for the calls for death against Geert Wilders and the server on his web site not permitting him to show the video, no one would have noticed it.

Warning for graphic images of violence.

There are articles about the Dutch government breathing a sigh of release that there has been no outbreaks of violence since the movie went up yesterday.

The Dutch government worked for months before the film appeared to defuse Muslim anger over its theme. In a statement broadcast live on television on Thursday in both Dutch and English, Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said he rejected Wilders’ views.

But if Wilders views are wrong, why would the Dutch government need to work so hard to appease the Muslims?

If you've watched the movie, Wilders lets Islamic extremists speak for themselves. Unless you can argue that he took them out of context? The man who said, "[The Jews] are the ones who must be butchered and killed." Maybe he followed that up with a "Just kidding, folks. I love the Jews!" but Wilders cut that out so he could incite anti-Islamic violence?

Are there moderate Muslims? Sure, but there's no way of knowing how many, as they are mostly too frightened to speak out.

Are we at war? Yes, and there are no civilians. When the war is against terrorists -- who target civilians specifically -- there are no civilians.

It’s for our own good

2008-03-11T10:13:00.002-05:00

There was an explosion last Thursday at a Times Square military recruitment center.

An explosive device caused minor damage to an empty military recruiting station in Times Square early Thursday, shaking guests in hotel rooms high above.

The recruiting station, located on a traffic island surrounded by Broadway theaters and chain restaurants, has occasionally been the site of anti-war demonstrations, ranging from silent vigils to loud rallies.

The Department of Homeland Security is looking into it. If it was terrorists, it was probably the home-grown kind.

Anti-war protestors have been targeting recruitment centers, usually with picketing and vandalism. Berkeley has received its share of bad press for telling the Marines their recruitment center wasn't welcome there and seeking to pass legislation that would make recruitment centers harder to open within their city limits than porn shops. The mayor of Toledo, Ohio got a lot of flack for denying the Marines permission to conduct military exercises within the city.

I could write about the immorality of using terrorism to advance any cause. I could mention that the ends do not justify the means. I could opine that violence and destruction are never the answer. But most people know that.

What really gets me, what annoys me to the point I feel compelled to blog about it, is the arrogance and condescension of these leftist, anti-war radicals.

Recruitment centers aren't doing the hard sell. They are there, in major cities, for young people who want to explore the option of a military career. ROTC and military recruiters have already been banned from plenty of college campuses and high schools.

Recruitment centers put posters and info in their windows. Maybe some of the officers linger outside the center. I don't know. We have one downtown in my city, but I haven't really paid attention. I do see men in uniform walking along the street from time to time.

These military personnel are not roaming the street, pulling unwary men and women into their center. Marines and sailors aren't roaming Norfolk, VA and San Francisco, press-ganging people onto ships and bases like the British Royal Navy of the 17th and 18th century.

But Code Pink, the council in Berkely, and other protest groups don't see it that way. They feel they have the right to intimidate both the military and prevent young people from making up their own minds. And therin lies the arrogance.

I've said it here: people are stupid. Not so much low IQ. It's just that most people don't think and most people don't want to think.

But I would never suggest that anyone -- aside from the truly mentally disabled -- be prevented from exercising their free will and free choice.

But a lot of these groups think anyone who doesn't think like them are, to put it crudely, retarded.

They obviously can't think for themselves, they reason. If they could, they wouldn't set foot in a recruitment center. Therefore, we have to prevent them from coming into contact with anything that is evil (evil being anything they disagree with). We have to protect them from themselves.

Arrogance. Pure, unmitigated condescension. And a totalitarian mindset that scares the hell out of me. I hope these people never get into postitions of real power, not more than they have already.

They Don't Like Us

2008-01-17T19:11:00.000-05:00

On Destroyerclub, on a debate thread about the state of the U.S., one of the posters mentioned he didn't think there is a foreign country that likes us any more.

Oh dear. Other nations don't like the United States. Jealousy's a *****. If there's any topic that gets my indignation up, it's the plaintive cry that we're not 'liked.'

The other countries don't like us? Boo freakin' hoo. The important question is why they don't like us.

Europe doesn't like us? Europe ought to be more concerned about their own situation. European countries have a higher unemployment rate. Their birthrates are lower while their social and health care programs take a larger chunk of their income. The result: an aging population whose younger members won't be able to support the bloated social welfare cradle-to-grave nanny states they've created. It's worse than our own serious Social Security problems. Instead of solving their own problems -- sucking it up and doing without the six weeks paid vacation and paying more out of pocket for health care -- they'd rather harangue the USA to follow their example.

The fastest growing population in France, Holland, and others is Muslim immigrants, who have a higher birth rate than the native populations. This has lead to inner city enclaves of Muslim youths who are rabidly radicalized. They do not recognize the laws of their adopted countries. Non-Muslim women have taken to wearing head scarves when going through some sections of their cities because it's easier than being followed, harassed, and threatened with physical violence.

The Islamic populations around the world don't like us because we promote the basic freedoms of speech, religion, peaceful assembly, etc. which are the antithesis of their sharia law.

And I can see their point. Our freedom of speech and expression leads to an 'anything goes' society where vulgarity, crudeness, and impiety are not only tolerated, but now are trumpeted by our intellectual elites (and Hollywood, where anything approaching intelligence seldom rears its ugly, sane head).

Works of 'art' like Piss Christ are an unfortunate byproduct of the rights that allow me to post this without worrying that I'll be dragged before the authorities and fined or forced to publicly recant my opinions.

(And speaking of art, isn't it funny that among all the feces smeared Madonnas and bondage-themed Last Suppers you don't see any Piss Mohameds? Ask the editor of Danish newspaper The Jutland Post why. Ask Salman Rushdie (if you can get him on the phone). Ask Theo Van Gogh. Oh, no, you can't ask him.)

The Arab countries also hate us because we support Israel. Israel -- aside from being full of dirty, filthy, lazy, pig Jews -- has also committed the unforgivable offense of building a modern market economy and a high tech society despite having few natural resources and some monumentally rude neighbors.

This is very embarrassing to the Arabs, who, if they didn't have oil, would have sand and camels as their main exports. And even with their thriving oil fields, only the ruling families own the wealth. The rest of the population depends on their largesses. And even if their standard of living is high, their medical, technological and scientific advances stalled out sometime in the middle ages. Islam has not been conducive to free thought and experimentation these last thousand years. It's risky promoting new ideas or methods when any Imam among thousands can decide it's blasphemy and declare a fatwa.

Who else doesn't like us. Russia? And all the other countries who used to be part of the USSR? They've had economic and social problems since before the fall of the Tzar. The collapse of communism and the move to a more free market economy helped for awhile, but now with Time's Man of the Year skulking in the Kremlin, they've regressed.

China's still trying to make communism work with a limited free economy. But they want to be the next super power, so of course they don't like us. All those lead painted toys and poisoned tooth paste were real clues.

And Canada. Some Canadians still like us, but they're too busy following Europe's example and oppressing free speech. Ask Mark Steyn. Or Ezra Levant.

Mexico hates us, but they're all too busy trying to sneak in here to complain about anything except how prejudiced we are when we object to them sneaking in here illegally.

I don't think Australia hates us, which is good, because I'd like to have Australia's good will. Any nation descended from convicts and forced emigration is a country I want to have on my side. Seriously. I think Australians kick butt and I hope any carping coming out of there is from their version of the lunatic fringe who spawned Michael Moore and Cindy Sheehan up here.

The strong are always hated by the weak. The rich are always hated by the poor. We need to suck it up, not descend to their level or make their mistakes.

If we ruin our economy, who will go to the tsunamis and other natural disasters with aid and money? If we stifle our creativity, where will the little Saudi princes get future versions of Wiis or iPhones? Where will the rest of the world go when they need new medical procedures that aren't available anywhere else? Or routine but crucial operations that have a two-year waiting list in their countries?

RMD*

2007-12-09T17:36:00.000-05:00

*Rams of Mass Destruction

According to an article in NewScientist, rams may have been the world's first biological weapon.

Ancient written texts from the Middle East may reveal that the use of biological weapons dates back more than 3300 years, according to a new review.

The historical documents hint that the Hittites – whose empire stretched from modern-day Turkey to northern Syria – sent diseased rams to their enemies to weaken them with tularemia, a devastating bacterial infection that remains a potential bioterror threat even today, says the review.

Experts caution that more evidence is needed to firmly establish that the Hittites intended to spread disease using the animals. But they add that if this proves true, it might represent the earliest known use of biological warfare.

Tularemia, also known as rabbit fever, can pass from animals such as rabbits and sheep to humans through various routes, most commonly through insects such as ticks that hop between species. The bacterium responsible for tularemia, Francisella tularensis, causes symptoms ranging from skin ulcers to respiratory failure.

Modern medication can stop the tularemia from becoming fatal. But without proper antibiotic treatment, about 15% of infected individuals die, says Siro Trevisanato, a former microbiologist who has delved into the ancient texts.
Hittite plague

Tularemia is rare in many countries today, but remains a problem in some countries including Bulgaria, says Trevisanato, now based in Oakville, Ontario, Canada.

He believes tularemia is to blame for a deadly epidemic dubbed the "Hittite plague" which raged through the Middle East in the 14th century BC. Around 1335 BC, letters to the Egyptian king Akhenaten reported a pestilence in Simyra, a Phoenician city near what is now the border between Lebanon and Syria.

The texts describe a terrible illness causing disabilities and death. Most tellingly, they mention that, because of the plague, donkeys were banned from being used in caravans.

According to Trevisanato, this indicates that the people living in the city were hit by tularemia. The disease can infect donkeys and the insects that they carry, so preventing the use of donkeys for transport may have been an attempt to quell its spread.
Roaming rams

A decade later, the Hittites to the north attacked the weakened area around Simyra. "The Hittites were able to steal booty, including animals, and brought the animals home," along with the tularemia the livestock harboured, Trevisanato explains. Not too long after, the Hittites themselves apparently began to suffer from an epidemic of tularemia.

History seems to have repeated itself a few years afterwards when another ancient people, the Arzawans from western Anatolia, saw the weakened Hittites to their east and decided to strike. "They thought, if we attack now, we can push the border back to where we want," Trevisanato says.

But strangely, during this period of warfare between 1320 and 1318 BC, records indicate that rams mysteriously began appearing on roads in Arzawa.

The Arzawans took the sheep to their villages and used them for livestock breeding. Soon after, though, they began to suspect a link between the appearance of the animals and the terrible disease ravaging their communities.

"They started wondering 'Why do these rams start showing up on the road?'" says Trevisanato. He believes that among the Hittites, "somebody must have had the bright idea" to send diseased rams over to their Arzawan enemies.

Ultimately, the Arzawans were so weakened that their attempt to conquer the Hittites failed.
Modern threat

Trevisanato's theory is intriguing, says Jonathan Tucker, at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Washington, DC, US who studies the use of chemical and biological weapons.

He points out that there is no vaccine for tularemia and that experts consider it a "possible or likely biological warfare agent" in the present day.

Still, in order to consider the rams as a true biological weapon, evidence is needed to clearly prove that the Hittites understood the full ramifications of these animals towards their enemies, says Mark Wheelis, at the University of California, Davis.

"The intent would have to be not to just freak the enemy out, but to actually transmit disease," he explains. Until such intent to spread disease is proven beyond a doubt, Wheelis says any theory is speculative.

Journal reference: Journal of Medical Hypotheses (DOI: 10.1016/j.mehy.2007.03.02)

I love Wheelis' equivocating. Why would the site of sheep "freak the enemy out"? Unlike today, sheep and horses and other animals were rather common sights. No special trip to the farm or petting zoo were needed for little Hittite boys and girls to get back to nature.

I'm pretty convinced that the Hittites got the baaasic ramifications.

Another reason I like My Name is Earl

2007-11-08T20:27:00.000-05:00

So, NBC decides to have a "green week." All week long NBC programs are supposed to have an ecological theme. I think the culmination is supposed to be 30 Rock, where Al Gore himself makes an appearance. At least in the clips they showed during Earl, the Goracle seems able to poking fun at himself (well, he let the writers do it).

On Earl tonight, the warden (Craig T. Nelson) puts Earl in charge of doing a "Scared Straight" show and picking three other convicts to take with him to the school.

Seems they'd tried busing in a class once, but it ended rather badly as a little person threw a kid in a washing machine and tried to board the bus wearing his uniform. So now they're gonna take the show to the schools.

Half-way through the program, the warden suddenly, and irrationally commands Earl to give the Scared Straight show an environmental theme -- make it green.

So Earl says something like: won't that seem a little out of place, kind of shoe-horning something in that has nothing to do with the show is about?

But of course the warden overrides him.

So later, as they're getting ready to go out, one of the prisoners says he's going to mention that while he's sorry his footprints lead the cops to him, he feels even sorrier about the large carbon footprint he was responsible for. And another prisoner says he's going to tell the children that he the thing he regrets the most about dumping the body is the littering.

Funny show.

Food, Glorious Food

2007-11-07T21:18:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I run across something and don't have the time to put it in a blog here, so I save it.

Then I forget about it. Then something reminds me and I find it again.

Today, I ran across a blog called The Pioneer Woman. She's a Los Angeles native who married a rancher, loves the life and loves to chronicle her life in words and pictures.

More to the point of this blog, she also has a blog called The Pioneer Woman Cooks, plenty of recipes with step by step pictures of the food being prepared. If you aren't hungry after scrolling through a page or two, you aren't human!

This blog reminded me of a book review from USA Today online. It's about a book called America's Best Lost Recipes: 121 Kitchen-Tested Heirloom Recipes Too Good to Forget. And since they put several of the recipes in the review, I guess I can include a few of them here:

GRANDMA SYLVIA'S SALT BUTTER COOKIES
Cookies

•2 large egg yolks

•1 teaspoon vanilla extract

•1 teaspoon whiskey

•16 tablespoons (2 sticks) salted butter, softened

•2/3 cup granulated sugar

•21/4 cups all-purpose flour

1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Whisk the yolks, vanilla and whiskey together in a measuring cup.

2. With an electric mixer at medium-high speed, beat the butter and granulated sugar together until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Reduce the speed to medium, add the yolk mixture and beat until combined. Add the flour and beat until incorporated. Shape the dough into 3/4-inch balls and space half the balls 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheet. Bake until lightly browned around the edges, 10 to 12 minutes. Cool the cookies on the baking sheet for 2 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely, about 30 minutes. Repeat with the remaining dough balls.

Filling

•1 ounce unsweetened chocolate, chopped

•1/4 cup water

•2 cups confectioners' sugar

1. Combine the chocolate and water in a small saucepan and stir over low heat until smooth, about 5 minutes. Off the heat, whisk in the confectioners' sugar until smooth.

2. Turn half of the cookies over (flat-side up) and spread with about 1 teaspoon of the filling. Top with another cookie. Let the filling set until hardened, about 20 minutes. (The cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.)

Makes 36 cookies

Notes from the Test Kitchen:

These cookies have a wonderful sandy texture and rich butter flavor. The chocolate filling is a sweet complement to the simple cookie. Be sure to use a fresh or cooled baking sheet for each batch.

CORN OYSTERS

Serves 6

4 medium ears corn, husks and silk removed

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup cornstarch

4 large eggs

1/2 teaspoon salt, plus extra for sprinkling

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

2 quarts vegetable oil

1. Grate the kernels from the corn into a medium bowl using the large holes of a box grater. Using the back of a knife, scrape any pulp remaining on the cobs into the bowl with the grated corn. Stir in the flour, cornstarch, eggs, salt, and baking powder until well blended.

2. Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat until it registers 350 degrees. Carefully drop 13 to 15 heaping tablespoons of batter into the hot oil and fry, turning once, until the corn oysters puff and are golden brown on both sides, about 2 minutes. Transfer to a paper-towel-lined plate. Add more oil to the pot if necessary and heat to 350 degrees. Repeat with the remaining batter. Sprinkle the corn oysters with salt. Serve immediately.

Notes from the Test Kitchen: Use only fresh corn for this recipe — frozen corn is too dry to produce a creamy batter. The key to this recipe is getting the oil temperature just right. Above 360 degrees and the exterior of the "oysters" will darken quickly before the interior is cooked through. Too low a temperature (starting under 340 degrees) and they will be sodden with oil. Avoid guesswork by using a deep-fat thermometer. These corn oysters are great with fried fish or any barbecue — serve with tartar sauce, hot sauce, or maple syrup.

Oh, heck. One more:
VIDALIA ONION PIE

Serves 6 to 8

6 slices bacon, chopped

2 medium Vidalia onions, sliced thin (about 3 cups)

3 large eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup heavy cream

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

2 teaspoons chopped fresh chives

Use favorite pie crust, the single crust one listed here, fully baked and cooled, or as a shortcut option, use Pillsbury Just Unroll Pie Crust. If using Pillsbury dough, follow package instructions to prebake pie shell at 450 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes, making sure to prick dough with a fork before it goes into the oven.

1. Adjust an oven rack to the lowest position and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Cook the bacon in a large skillet over medium heat until crisp, about 8 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the bacon to a paper-towel-lined plate and set aside. Cook the onions in the bacon fat until browned, about 12 minutes. Transfer to a medium bowl. Whisk the eggs, sour cream, heavy cream, salt, pepper, and 1 teaspoon chives in a large bowl, then add the reserved bacon and onions.

2. Pour into the prepared pie shell and bake until the filling is puffed and cracked around the edges and the center barely jiggles when the pie is shaken, 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes and sprinkle with the remaining teaspoon chives. Serve. (The pie can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.)

Single-Crust Pie Dough

Makes enough for one 9-inch pie

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling out the dough

1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons vegetable shortening, cut into 1/2-inch pieces and chilled

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch pieces and chilled

4 to 6 tablespoons ice water

1. Process the flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor until combined. Scatter the shortening over the top and continue to process until the mixture has the texture of coarse sand, about 10 seconds. Scatter the butter pieces over the top and, using short pulses, process the mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs, about 10 pulses. Transfer to a bowl.

2. Sprinkle 4 tablespoons of the ice water over the mixture. Stir and press the dough together, using a stiff rubber spatula, until the dough sticks together. If the dough does not come together, stir in the remaining water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until it does. Form the dough into a 4-inch disk, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate at least 1 hour.

3. Let the chilled dough soften slightly at room temperature before rolling it into a 12-inch circle and fitting it into a pie plate. Trim, fold, and crimp the edges and freeze the unbaked pie crust until firm, about 30 minutes, before filling or baking.

4. Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 375 degrees. Line the chilled crust with aluminum foil and fill with pie weights or pennies. Bake until the pie dough looks dry and is light in color, 25 to 30 minutes. For a partially baked crust, transfer the crust to a wire rack and remove the weights and foil. For a fully baked crust, remove the pie weights and foil and continue to bake until the crust is a deep golden brown, about 12 minutes longer. The pie crust may be cooled completely or used warm, according to the particular pie recipe.

To Make Ahead: The dough can be refrigerated, wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, for up to 2 days or frozen for up to 2 months. Let the frozen dough thaw on the countertop until malleable before rolling. A fully baked pie crust can be stored at room temperature, wrapped tightly in foil, for up to 2 days.

Happy reading!

The Death of the Grown-up

2007-11-02T09:18:00.000-05:00

An excellent book which traces the blurring of distinctions between childhood and adulthood in contemporary society.

It starts out with an overview of childhood. leading to a discussion of how the concept of the teenager is a relatively recent development.

Booth Tarkington's novel Seventeen was the first that dealt with teenagers specifically, but even then teenage years weren't seen as a separate period but more as a transition period where the aspiration was to become an adult. The main character's goal in the book was to borrow his dad's tuxedo -- a symbol of adulthood -- to impress a girl.

West pinpoints the beginning of the concept of "teen years" as a state distinct and separate from childhood and adulthood to the period just after WWII. Eventually, this emphasis leads to the elevation of the teenager years to a desired status, where before becoming an adult was the goal. By the fifties, being and acting like a teenager is a goal unto itself.

Which then leads to the wish to live in the teen period as long as possible, leading to a blurring of the lines between childhood/teen/adult behavior. That is, children who are encouraged by their peers (and advertising) to behave as teens at younger and younger ages. The slutty dress, acting out of sexual behavior, knowledge beyond their years.

What the book doesn't mention that I think is a factor also, is all the hormones that have been pumped into meat. It is common now for girls as young as 9 to begin developing prematurely. I'm not sure if something similar is happening with boys. The media don't seem inclined to report on it and everybody seems pretty unconcerned. I guess since they're already being pushed to sophistication, that their bodies are being pushed also by chemicals doesn't seem to matter.

To get back to the book, this same elevation of the teen years leads to the wish to remain in it for as long as possible. We're seeing "adults" in their twenties and even thirties who wish to avoid responsibility, to play and have fun over settling down, working on a career and, most important, parenting.

Since many people start their childbearing years in their late teens and twenties, we're getting parents who don't want to parent. That, coupled with the children who are expected to be preternaturally sophisticated, means we're getting people of all ages who engage in adult pastimes without the judgement or common sense to handle it.

The book goes on to trace how our lack of responsibility leads to a breakdown of boundaries, continual lowering of standards of decency and behavior. No sense of shame or knowledge of what is inappropriate. "Who are we to say X is bad" or immoral or wrong. With relativism, no type of behavior is better or worse than any other type of behavior.

This has lead naturally to cultural leveling (IE, no culture is better than any other culture) has lead to a loss of cultural identity. It's our biggest handicap when dealing with the Islamic threat. Since they know what they believe and we don't, we're at a disadvantage when it comes to fighting them.

To quote from the book:

There is a hollowness to the whole enterprise that is embodied by the captain's relativism, a barren chamber where the empty slogan "war on terror" echoes on without meaning. That is, terror is a tactic. You don't make war on a tactic, you make war on the people that use it. Imagine if FDR had declared "the war on sneak attack" or the "war on blitzkrieg." It doesn't make sense and neither does "war on terror." And not only does it not make sense, it also uncovers our biggest handicap going in: that perilous lack of cultural confidence, that empty core at our heart. Where an empty core has nothing with which to refute the absurdity of Bush=Hitler, an empty core has nothing with which to define "a war on terror." Who are we to say . . . who we are fighting . . . and why? p.143

Unfortunately, the book doesn't give much in the way of solutions. There are still plenty of people, I think, who become adults, even if it is later in life. But are there enough of them? And if adulthood is postponed until after 30, will they be too late to make a significant difference? Will there be enough people willing to to turn things around?

Carnival of the Insanities

2007-09-30T16:01:00.000-05:00

My submission for this week's Carnival was picked up! It's the second link on #16 -- a little news item from Massachusetts.

Iran fined $2.65 billion for terrorism

2007-09-08T00:17:00.000-05:00

From the AP:

Iran must pay $2.65 billion to the families of the 241 U.S. service members killed in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, a federal judge declared Friday

I know I shouldn't be flip, but my first thought was, "I wonder if they'll pay it all in pennies."

Of course Iran isn't going to pay anyway. They've never taken responsibility for the bombing and they've ignored the trial.

The ruling allows nearly 1,000 family members and a handful of survivors to try to collect Iranian assets from various sources around the world. Finding and seizing that money will be difficult, however, and the families are backing a law in Congress that would make it easier for terrorism victims and their families to do so.

And as much as I think countries should be held responsible for acts of terrorism, the idea of monetary restitution doesn't hold much appeal.

It seems very primitive, harkening back to the days when a criminal could pay a "blood price" for murder or maiming and avoid punishment. And it reduces human life and suffering to a dollar figure.

I do see the need for restitution to help families recover from the loss of income caused by the murder or injury of providers. But it's not punishment and shouldn't take the place of punishment. Especially when it's on the grand scale of terrorism.

I suppose it's something. And in cases of terrorism, it's hard to pin down the true perpetrators.

Courts can pass sentence, but they can't force introspection or regret on the part of the perpetrator. Court mandated "apologies" make me grind my teeth. Without true repentance, it's just empty words. I'd sooner the judge sentence someone who's wronged me to wear a diaper and sing "I'm a Little Teapot" in a very public place. At least that would give me a good laugh.

You Gotta Laugh

2007-09-06T10:09:00.000-05:00

Spammers are a constant problem at one of the websites I monitor. There are usually five to ten spammers a day who try to register, but we have it set that they need admin approval to activate the account.

Usually I delete them with emotions varying from resignation to exasperation. What's the point of registering for a site which doesn't permit you to post your links and pics unless you're approved? And when you add it all up, I'm spending a chunk of time on these jerks that would be better spent contemplating my navel or picking my teeth.

But today, as I took a look at the registration info, scanning the info the 'bot has submitted, which consisted mostly of sites promising to enhance an important piece of male anatomy, I did a double check of the spammer's "name":

"weepricle"

Look at all those idiots

2007-08-25T20:39:00.000-05:00

The best song on The Simpsons Sing the Blues CD.

It's a minor thing, but speaking of longing to release the hounds...

I was browsing through the DVDs that are going on sale this Tuesday. There's an obscure D. W. Griffith/Lilian Gish silent film being issued, which had a one-star review because the reviewer was angry at Amazon. According to this reviewer (who shall remain nameless here):

Amazon is at it again! They are selling a DVD that won't be release for sometime soon. Also, Amazon has pirated the complete Criterion Collection--Buyer Beware!Don't buy from Amazon! Boycott Amazon!

This review was posted on August 24th. A bit overwrought about a four day wait, though of course I doubt this reviewer intends to buy the DVD. "Reviewing" it is just his way of registering his complaint against Amazon.

The director and star are long dead and beyond caring about a one star review. But it's still inappropriate and -- dare I say it? -- stoopid. And it isn't just products from deceased authors and film makers that get this treatment.

The New Destroyer: Guardian Angel got a one-star because the reviewer was angry that Amazon hadn't delivered it yet. Never mind that the book was three months from its release date. The idgit didn't bother to check that out.

Of course I complained to Amazon, as did several others, and it was taken down. But who knows how many people see a one-star and don't bother to check out the review, assuming that the reviewer got an advance reader copy or demo track or something?

Since I was feeling snarky, besides reporting this review to Amazon, I also composed a comment which will remain up until the review comes down:

First: Amazon lists products as soon as the info becomes available, which can be months before the product is actually out. Many people (myself included) see this as a good way to discover that something (a book, DVD, whatever) is going to offered for sale someday. I don't really care that it can't be shipped to me the second I see it.

Second: by putting one star here, you're unfairly giving a poor rating to this DVD, not to Amazon. If it is Amazon you're having the problem with, why bring down someone else's work?

"Surrounded by idiots, outnumbered by boobs. An office full of morons, a planet full of fools. Is it any wonder I'm singing, singing the blues."

Hello, Deathly Hallows

2007-07-20T19:57:00.000-05:00

I can't call this entry "Goodbye, Harry," since it's more like "Hello, Last Book." But it's the beginning of the end. I won't say goodbye to Harry, Hogwarts, the wizarding world and all the other memorable characters J.K. Rowling has created until I've reached the last page. And I can't even put it off. There are too many people out there who will trumpet the news of how the series ends. Some way too soon. There have already been possible spoilers, even the whole text, supposedly, laboriously photoed and uploaded to the web.

But eventually people will feel free to talk about the book, assuming (correctly) that everyone who cares will get and read the book as quickly as possible. Since there's no escaping the end, I may as well read on. At my own pace though; not too fast, not too slow.

As I'm sitting here typing, the parties are about to get underway at bookstores. I'll be heading out in about an hour. I don't want to get there too early, since I'm too old to join in the games and trivia. I'll give myself time to shop around a bit. They start lining people up at 11:30.

Since I was in the area earlier today, I picked up my "place in line" bracelet. They go by colors. I'm silver -- the second group which will assemble. But I don't know how many constitute a group.

They're also having a couple of prizes: the chance to be first in line and a chance to win a poster of Deathly Hallows book cover, signed by the artist. I'd rather have the latter; I'll get the book soon enough being there at midnight.

This is probably the last time I'll head out at this time of night to get my copy of a book as close past midnight as I can. There's one other series I would do this for: The Destroyer. But a book series has to be phenomenal for the demand to be so great that book stores stay open for a midnight release. And The Destroyer, as good as it is, will never appeal to such a large cross section of people.

Big Brother Hits Our Taste Buds

2007-07-05T12:33:00.000-05:00

They're on the march again. The PC police. The "we know what's best for you" brigade. The "government must legislate for your own good" crowd.

First it was the anti-smoking laws which grew from mandatory non-smoking sections in restaurants to outright banning of smoking. Then new laws extended the no smoking areas to in and around schools and finally in all public buildings.

Then some states decided fireworks should not be sold to private citizens. They were too dangerous, they reasoned. Some people were blowing their hands off or burning themselves and others.

Then some state Supreme Courts decreed it was okay for the local government to snatch private property "for the good of the majority."

But now, they've finally gone too far. Though New York is a liberal state, residents of NYC are a diverse, opinionated freedom-loving group. NYC is filled with gourmets (or maybe gourmands would be more precise?).

The link is from Power Line, since the full Wall Street Journal article is subscribers only.

It seems the enlightened beaurocracy of NYC has passed a law banning artificial trans fats in restaurants and other food venues. What's the outcome? Isn't the alternative more healthy? I can hear you asking.

Yes, but at what price? According to the WSJ article, one restaurant owner remarks:

"The French fries look like they've been standing on a steam table for an hour when they have not," says Mr. Gounaris, who ditched his partially hydrogenated vegetable shortening for a trans-fat-free soybean shortening five months ago in preparation for the ban, which took effect Sunday. Fried chicken doesn't get as crispy in the new oil, Mr. Gounaris complains, and the fries are pale and limp....

Non-crispy fried chicken. Pale and limp fries.

Don't laugh. It could be your city/state next, if this abomination is allowed to go unchallenged. The health food Nazis are dancing with joy and waiting for the public to show its apathy and resignation to what it feels is the inevitable encroachment of the Nanny state. They're waiting for NYC citizens to give up without a fight. Then, they will begin to work on other city and state governments.

It'll never pass in the South. They fry everything, they own guns and they don't take kindly to Yankees pushing their ways on them.

But I can see the people in my blue, blue state rolling over and taking it. My only hope is that NH holds strong, though with so many MA residents moving up there for the beneficial tax breaks, the pussification of NH may not be long coming.

Perhaps if detractors equated the sheep like acceptance of the limp fries with a permanent flaccidity in a certain organ?

New Interview with Warren Murphy and Jim Mullaney

2007-03-27T23:59:00.000-05:00

The Trades has followed up their review of The New Destroyer: Guardian Angel with an interview of the authors.

An excerpt:

The-Trades: We're starting with a renumbering of the books, so let's fill in the new readers: Who is Remo Williams -- or, more to the point, why is Remo Williams?

WARREN MURPHY: Dick Sapir and I decided we wanted to do an adventure series starring an American hero. But we were just getting our feet wet for the first time -- neither of us had tried a book before -- and, believe it or not, Remo started out as a guy named Bernie, who was a crime-fighting psychiatrist in New York City. It didn't take us long to figure out that that this was just el stinko, so we splashed around and finally decided to do blue collar and cop, and the pieces came together and it turned out to be Remo.

Check out The Trades for much more about the past and, more important, the future of The Destroyer.

The New Destroyer: Guardian Angel Review

2007-03-26T22:44:00.000-05:00

We're getting down to the one month mark to Guardian Angel publication. This first review, by The Trades website, should be joined by others soon.

Lee Goldberg has also linked there. The more sites and exposure, the better.

Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn

2007-02-27T15:14:00.000-05:00

In 1886, Lady Julia Grey's husband dies suddenly of heart disease which runs in his family. His cousin, Simon, is similarly afflicted and not expected to live much longer either. Lady Julia quickly settles into the life of a widow, but then she receives a visit from Nicholas Brisbane, a private detective who tells her that her husband Edward had been getting threatening notes and had hired him shortly before his death to look into the matter. He hints that her husband's death may not have been natural, prompting Julia to begin an investigation that uncovers things about her husband and her life that make her realize she never really knew him -- and herself -- at all.

When I picked it up, I was a little leery of beginning a 500+ page book by a first time author, but Ms. Raybourn's writing style is clear and flows well. Her main characters are interesting and well fleshed-out and she fills her story with secondary characters who are strong enough to be main characters in their own books. I loved how Julia moves from wanting a conventional life, in contrast to her wildly eccentric family, to becoming a little more her own person. And I like how Ms. Raybourn does it without making Julia a true eccentric -- just a mite more unconventional than she envisioned herself wanting to be at the beginning of the book. I'll be interested in how her budding romance with the moody, secretive Mr. Brisbane develops.

It's a great start to a great series, and I'm looking forward to the next one.

Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz

2007-02-15T01:29:00.000-05:00

Odd Thomas is 20 years old. He lives in a small California town where he's content to work as a fry cook and lives very simply. He has to live an uncomplicated life with the things he can control -- job, car, money, ambition -- because the gift that he can't control would otherwise drive him crazy. Odd sees dead people and believes that with his gift comes the responsibility to use it to help them. He can also see creatures he's dubbed bodachs -- malevolent spirits who feed off violent death.

The book gets off to a quick start with Odd running down a rapist/murderer but that's only the beginning of a really bad day. While at his diner job he spots an odd-looking stranger who's being followed by more bodachs than Odd has ever seen together in one place. He realizes that something very bad is about to happen in the town and that only he, helped by a few people he's told about his gifts, can prevent disaster.

My favorite so far of the books I've read this year. I don't care much for horror. H. P. Lovecraft's stories give me the creeps and I've enjoyed several of Stephen King's books although they don't scare me. Supernatural beings don't frighten me because I know I'll never really be threatened by vampires, zombies or ghosts and ghouls. A few mystery books have scared me. Psychotic killers and mass murderers do exist and it's mostly a matter of luck whether you'll cross one's path. But horror and mystery stories that have human murderers tend toward the bloody with gross descriptions that depress more than frighten me.

Dean Koontz's books are all in the horror section. I guess that's the only way to classify them and it's probably better for Mr. Koontz; if all his books are together it makes them easier for people to pick up. But I don't consider this book horror any more than I do Stephen King's The Green Mile. Supernatural fantasy? Not exactly a mystery though Odd has to find out who the killer(s) are and the location of the violence in time to prevent it. Suspense definitely.

But why try to categorize it. Odd Thomas is a wonderful story -- suspenseful, sad, funny -- set in a small town full of eccentrics whom I came to care about and hoped wouldn't die (except Elvis, who is already dead as the story begins). And of course Odd himself, with his simple narration, determination to do right and sad backstory.

The Haunted Rectory by Katherine Valentine

2007-02-06T02:18:00.000-05:00

The St. Francis Xavier Hookers (they're a rug hooking group -- get your minds out of the gutter) begin work on their new rug for the church's spring raffle, not realizing that with the death of the old pastor, the evil he contained in the rectory has now broken free. It will be up to the new priest, Father Richard Mello, and Jane Edwell, who is hiding her psychic gift, to exorcise the demon once and for all. But they can count on the help of the Hookers, who unite against the threat.

I enjoyed this, though it was a bit odd, kind of a combination of Jessica Fletcher from Murder, She Wrote meets the Exorcist. Ms. Valentine has a tendency to tell to much instead of show. For example, Jane acts nervous about the ladies working at the rectory, but instead of revealing Jane's gift gradually through her actions as the plot goes along, the whole thing is explained up front. One of the women becomes possessed, but it's wrapped up quickly at the end and she suffers no lingering trauma, although a young girl who is mentioned in Father Mello's back story, who has also suffered possession, had to be committed to an institution even though the exorcism was successful.

In spite of this, I'd recommend it. The camaraderie amongst the ladies rings true and the bits of humor ("Now Vera, don't tease the demon") make it worthwhile.

Script Frenzy

2007-01-30T03:02:00.000-05:00

The same people who run NaNoWriMo have planned something called Script Frenzy. The first in what should turn into an annual event launches next June. I decided to participate since I first heard about it, but it didn't occur to me until the last few days why I ought to do it. Visuals and descriptives are a problem for me.

In my first novel, most of the time you couldn't tell what season it was (kind of important to know when your novel is set in New England) or anything that made one city distinct from any other city or setting.

I tried to do better in my last NaNo novel, and I did improve. But I think by working on a script, it will force me to think more visually and -- hopefully -- cross over to my novel writing.

My contemplations on imagery began with a book I read recently, a book with great visuals, but one that has elements difficult to convey in a screenplay. I began thinking of all the books I'd read and how some of them had been turned into movies and how sometimes I wished they hadn't cut certain parts, or shot scenes differently. And I began thinking about ways I would shoot the opening of this book, how I could condense the beginning into a sight-dependant form that, while different from the novel's, still have the same impact.

Script Frenzy has to be totally original. We're not even allowed to use anything we've written as a novel or short story. But I'm considering writing an adaptation of that book for practice, even if I don't do a complete script.

Of course, I have to find time between finishing my 2006 NaNo novel, collaborating on a novel which is in the plotting stages right now, and working on my blogs and web site. If only I didn't need so much time for my procrastination...

The Black Sun by James Twining

2007-01-21T17:46:00.000-05:00

Tom Kirk an ex-CIA agent and art thief who, in this sequel to The Double Eagle, has gone into the legitimate antique business. When a series of bizarre robberies and murders that point to the Kristall Blade, a group of neo-Nazi extremists, the British Secret Service (MI6) tries to recruit him. But he isn't interested until he learns his old enemy, Harry Renwick, is involved.

I'm so-so about this book. On the one hand, it is an interesting topic: the search for a treasure that was hidden by a group of Nazis at the close of WWII. But the main characters really didn't hold my interest. Tom spent too much time agonizing over the past; his business partner wasn't that well-fleshed out; and Dominique, Tom's possible love interest (if he ever allows himself to get close to her) even less so. She's beautiful, poised, and intelligent, but there's nothing that makes her memorable.

There's one character who comes in toward the end: Viktor -- the Russian crime boss -- who makes the last third of the story come to life. She (yes, Viktor's a she) has an interesting background and made me care about her. Which made it harder when Twining used her for cliche fodder.

The book kept the action moving briskly, but not so briskly that I didn't wonder how they seemed to solve mysteries that people had been looking into for sixty years so quickly. Also, about halfway through Tom realizes that Renwick's following him, letting Tom solve the riddles for him. And yet, Tom doesn't take any more precautions once he knows this, just keeps trying to pinpoint the location of the treasure.

Not a bad book, but I don't recommend it.

A Christmas Secret by Anne Perry

2007-01-15T03:28:00.000-05:00

Dominic Corde and his wife Clarice are elated when he becomes the temporary vicar of the small village of Cottisham while Reverend Wynter is away on vacation. Everything seems perfect at first. It's a beautiful rural area with warm and welcoming villagers. The couple even entertain hopes that the situation might become permanent. But then Clarice discovers that Reverend Wynter isn't on holiday; something more sinister has transpired.

This is the fourth in Anne Perry's Christmas-themed mysteries, which feature minor characters from her other series. My only problem was, with this one, remembering who Dominic Corde was (he's Charlotte Pitt's former brother-in-law, widowed when her eldest sister is murdered in The Cater Street Hangman -- the first Pitt mystery). He did turn up in another of the series, but it's been almost ten years and it took me awhile to get enough info from this book to remember him.

Not an overly complicated plot, since these Christmas mysteries are more novelettes, but not overly thin either. She manages to give readers several strong suspects and a plausible reason for the murder. Anne Perry has a way with characters. Even her minor ones are fully realized, interesting, and sympathetic people.

Perhaps this won't be as enjoyable to those who have not read the main series first. On the other hand, it serves as a good introduction to her style and, at 208 pages, is a quick and entertaining read.

Death Match by Lincoln Child

2007-01-13T11:13:00.000-05:00

The computer dating system at Eden, Inc. guarantees the perfect match. They've never failed to find the ideal life mate for anyone they accept for their service. Although all the couples match high on compatibility, there are the rare "super couples" -- those who match 100%. When one of those couples commits double suicide, the company calls in Christopher Lash, an ex-FBI forensic psychologist, to determine what caused their aberrant behavior. But when a second super couple dies, Lash begins to suspect murder.

Interesting thriller with a strong main character. I found the explanation of the psychological tests interesting, the computer tech less so. Spoiled by a rather predictable ending, though not so implausible given the advances in computer intelligence. Worth reading.

Critique of Criminal Reason, by Michael Gregorio

2007-01-05T23:35:00.000-05:00

An historical mystery set in 1804 Prussia. The main character, Magistrate Hanno Stiffeniis, is called from his small town to Konigsburg to investigate four seemingly random murders. The only connection is that the victims are all found kneeling with no visible injury. The public, already nervous about the possible invasion of Napoleon, is thrown into a panic, attributing demonic powers to the killer.

Hanno discovers he has been recommended by his mentor, the philosopher Immanuel Kant, who had encouraged him to study law as a way to atone for the guilt he feels over his brother's death. He must unmask a serial killer before anyone knew that such a criminal existed.

He is helped by Kant, who in this book uses his philosophical tenets to invent what would become forensic analysis of crime scenes and the psychology of the killer. Elderly and frail, he gives Hanno nudges in the right direction, though Hanno is inclined to trust the usual methods of brutality and torture at first.

Gregorio does a good job of invoking the atmosphere of early 19th century Prussia, from the damp cold to the casual cruelty -- from the filthy table and blood encrusted knives of a bewitching abortionist to the filthy beds and blood encrusted apron of the barrack surgeon. Hanno wavers from believing the killings to be the work of pro-Bonapartists trying to foment chaos and fear to wondering if it might be witchcraft. He gradually begins to see the merit in Kant's methods.

The book is worth reading, for the atmosphere first, and for the mystery which kept me guessing until close to the end of the book. There are a few surprising revelations which I won't hint about here.

Happy Hooker Crap-o'meter

2006-12-18T02:46:00.000-05:00

Miss Snark, the literary agent's blog, is hosting the results of one of her infrequent crap-o'meters. This one invited aspiring authors to send in a 250 word (or less) hook for their unpublished novel.

The idea is to give her the query that you would send to an agent -- a brief statement of what your book is about. As she writes in one of her critiques, you have about 8 seconds to get the agent's interest, then your letter gets thrown on the crap pile.

Very informative for any prospective author. Fun reading for those of you who aren't. After you read enough of these -- and the responses they engender -- you may just find yourself writing for clarity, even in your notes to the paper boy or baby sitter.

Oh, and my reading material? I'm starting it tomorrow. With very low expectations. The scariest monsters keep lurking in dark places. Not trotted out as children with all their psychoses plopped on the page.

NaNo haters

2006-12-16T01:35:00.000-05:00

Not much new. I seem to have little time for keeping up with my blog. That should change after Christmas. Right now I'm working on my NaNo novel: The Andrews Bride -- trying to get it finished by Jan. 1st. I want to have time to edit it a little. Lulu, a print on demand service, offers a free copy of every NaNo winner's book, but you have to submit it by Jan. 16th. It's always a thrill to see your book actually looking like a book. And Lulu makes a profit since most people probably buy one or two for family and friends.

Of course, some authors can be pretty snobbish about it. I've seen blogs where NaNo is called a waste of time. That it deludes people into believing they're authors. That it encourages people to write crap.

I realize that writing doesn't make you an "author." Or good. But I do think that writing x amounts of words a day to get to a monthly word count encourages discipline. And while it's not possible to learn rules of spelling or grammar just by writing, the sheer amount of writing may lead to better fluency and flow. Maybe even an interest in improving one's grammar.

One of the objections seems to be that most of the NaNo participants will never become published. I can't understand why anyone would care about that. I've been on the forums enough to know that a lot of them have no interest in writing for a living. They're doing it as a one time or yearly thing, just for fun. Or they do write year round, but it's a hobby.

When is the last time you read a blog from a pro golfer bitching about all the people who play golf who have no chance of ever going pro? Or a chef making fun of people who take a culinary course at their local community college? Don't authors understand that writing can be a hobby?

And if someone does have a story that they dream of having published one day? And if they want to begin in November using NaNo to push themselves? Telling yourself that you're going to be writing crap isn't giving yourself permission to be bad. It's just a way of getting started and not being too disappointed when that first draft turns out not to be a finished, polished manuscript.

I think most of us picture our favorite authors sitting down and turning out a perfect book in one draft. Deciding "if what I write doesn't come out perfectly in the first draft I might as well quit" may be one of the biggest delusions that causes people to quit prematurely. If NaNo does nothing else, it frees you from worrying about perfection. Get the words down first. If you have the talent and the discipline and are willing to work hard, you may just turn it into a decent manuscript some day.

If I thought that authors were, as a rule, jealous or fearful of competition, I could understand NaNo put downs. But from what I've seen through blogs and web sites and my limited contact with writers, the majority are very supportive and encouraging with each other and with aspiring authors.

Authors recognize that their profession doesn't have the same sort of cut throat competition of many other careers. Each author is competing more against himself than anyone else. They're competing for readers, but one author's success doesn't signal failure for the others. It's not as if The DaVinci Code killed off that type of book. On the contrary, its success has lead to a run on religious conspiracy action adventure thrillers. Similarly, the success of the Left Behind series showed publishers that there was a market for Christian fiction and opened up greater opportunities for writers who wished to work in that genre.

If I have to guess, I'd say their objections may be because NaNo doesn't fall within their parameters of the Right Way to become an author. An aspiring author should determine if he has the talent for it, and if so, keep writing and rewriting until he learns his craft. Most writers also advise enrolling in a reputable class and joining a writing group for critique and feedback.

Since participating in NaNo doesn't preclude doing any of that, I still don't see the problem some writers have with it.

Cheated

2006-11-19T01:10:00.000-05:00

Tonight, for the first time, I cheated on NaNo. I didn't last year. Last year I wrote no matter what. Even when my cat was hospitalized and they told me he was very weak from loss of blood and would probably die. I wrote my quota the three nights he was in, and I wrote my quota when I'd brought him home and had to give him pills several times a day and try to get him to eat.

I even made my quota the day I picked him up and got a look at the bill.

But I received some bad news tonight, at about my 1400th word, and I was too upset for awhile to think about my story. If I hadn't put off writing until evening, and writing at a slow pace in between doing other things, I would already have made my total when I found out.

Part of the trouble was that I didn't find anything out. I found out there was something bad, but that I couldn't be told what it was because it had been told in confidence to the person who told me. Who didn't tell me. He just told me that there was something to tell and it wasn't good.

Jesus. You cannot tell me something like that and expect me to take it well.

So I cried a little, imagining horrible things. Then I saw the clock ticking away and looked at the half-filled page and had no desire to write anything about my story.

So I hit "enter" a few times and started venting about what had just happened. It was in my story's document, and it is writing. It's certainly colorful and expressive. Technically, maybe it isn't cheating and if it is, I'm only cheating myself.

But I don't want to cheat myself. I'm going back to the story, even if it is late, and try to write a little more that will count towards yesterday's total.

Halfway Mark

2006-11-14T23:49:00.000-05:00

Halfway point and all is well. Almost 25,000 words (I’m 100 short). Close enough to halfway to say I’m halfway. Of course, I’m padding a bit, but my pre-NaNo efforts to work out the plot and structure seem to be paying off. I’m trying to show instead of tell and set up situations that move from simple to complex and reach a crisis and resolution. Since it’s a romance, not a thriller, I don’t know if there’s going to be a huge crisis at the end, or rather that the crisis will seem big enough. There’s tragedy, but I don’t know if that’s a crisis.

My mood goes up and down. Sometimes it’s a struggle and I don’t make my daily quota. I had a good night tonight. I went into it a few hundred shy of 22,000 and didn’t figure I’d make it halfway. But I thought up this good scene, kind of humorous, not rolling in the aisles funny. But it does help reveal the characters and shows them moving closer together, in spite of the difficulties I’ve given the poor guy.

I’ve been dealing with a funny sort of guilt and sorrow. I knew going into the story that a major character was going to die near the end of the book, and I feel like a murderer, especially as I’m getting to know him better and better. I feel like an executioner, to be more precise.

To get back to the scene I wrote tonight, it illustrates the best part of NaNo. When you can really get into the flow it’s like running downhill with a stiff wind at your back and daily word quotas are a breeze. I didn’t even have an inkling earlier that it was going to spring inside my head, fully formed, like I was watching a movie.

Some days you have to force it. The best way to describe it is that it’s like running away from a mob. You have to keep moving, . You can’t stop to tie your shoe and if you drop something it’s gone. But when you’re running like that, you find reserves of creativity you didn’t know you possessed. It’s like automatic writing, and probably parts are coming from your own life experiences, mixed with the plot you’d already devised for that chapter or scene.

Nearly Nano

2006-10-31T22:02:00.000-05:00

That's National Novel Writing Month (November 1st to 30th) to the uninitiated. Starting at midnight, I’m writing 1700 words a day for thirty days and will finish the month with slightly over 50,000 words.

Last year I made my goal. The least I wrote per day was about 1300 words, the most was 3500 (to make that final push and go over the target a few days early). As long as you average out to 1667 at least. You can’t have too many 1300 word days and expect to win.

Last year I won. I know it’s doable. If you go into this with the right mindset, you need to write quickly and freely, not worrying about how well you’re writing or if everything is grammatically perfect. You can’t go back and agonize that your plotting or characterizations aren’t perfect. You can’t edit. Not until December first. You don’t have to finish your novel.

The best achievement with NaNo is showing you proof that you can write a good amount of words in one month. Maybe you couldn’t keep it up every month, but if you want to be a writer – to write at least one novel – you wouldn’t need to. Even if you took three or four months to write 100,000 words and another month or two to edit and a few more months for it to make the rounds of your more literate friends for grammar polishing and plot first aid, that’s still a finished book a less than a year. One that’s in pretty good shape, hopefully, by the end of the process. Maybe even a book that’s close to publishable.

This year I’m nervous. I’m afraid of freezing. Afraid of the dreaded sophomore slump. Afraid that I’ll care too much about how this work turns out and not be able to tell myself each day, as I sit down to write, “well I’m going to work on my crappy novel now.”

It worked last year. If I set out deciding that what I wrote would be garbage, it helped keep me going.

Last year I my aim was to prove to myself that I could write the amount. My 50,000 words needed quite a bit of editing and rewriting to fix plot holes, but for the most part it flowed much better than I thought I would.

This year I’m trying to exceed last year’s goal. I’ve worked harder beforehand on plotting and structure. I’ve tried to think of plot points that would drive the story onward instead of just meandering about (a flaw in last year’s work). I’m not expecting the writing to be any better or worse than last year, but I do hope, at the end of this, the story will hang together more tightly.

Hmmm… that’s 509 words (for the whole blog; I didn’t do a word count until I finished this). About three times more than that, and I’ll have a day’s word count. It’s not a matter of luck; it’s determination. Here’s hoping I have some of both though.

An open letter to the people (and government) of Kazakhstan

2006-10-22T16:24:00.000-05:00

Dear folks:

Don't worry about that Borat movie. Most of the civilized world understands vicious satire. And, like Oscar Wilde once stated: "It is better to be talked about than not to be talked about." Someone else said, "There's no such thing as bad publicity," though, since I can't remember who, he obviously didn't get enough of it. If any of you are familiar with the name Paris Hilton, you know the truth of the above statements.

Nobody in the United States believes anything seen on screen, including the news. We take everything with a grain of salt. We are the nation of stand-up comedians, spin doctors, and lawyers. We have no standards. None of the Americans the Borat guy fooled in the filming of the movie seem to care unless they go to see it and find their screen time got cut. Then you'll hear screaming.

Look at McDonalds. Are they upset about Fast Food Nation? Not a corporate lawyer in sight. Since the fast food joint in the movie is called 'Mickeys' you can't get much more obvious. But McDonalds understands that they are untouchable. As long as they make tasty fried mass produced food-like products at a reasonable price, the world will be pouring money into their coffers.

If one enterprising Kazakhstani follows the same path, there could be a Koumis and horse sausage kiosk on every street corner on Earth by 2025. Though take my advice and study McDonalds' methods: up the sugar content of the former and deep fry the latter. McNuggets were an acquired taste in China and Qatar.

Don't worry about any of us here thinking worse of Kazakhstan. Until this brouhaha over the Borat movie, 98% of us didn't know there was a Kazakhstan. That two percent did is thanks for the most part to an American movie: Air Force One. And that was largely because Gary Oldman played the lead terrorist. Who wasn't a wimp or a clown. He was kickin.

Since the controversy broke, the number of people here who know about Kazakhstan is at least five percent and rising. Which is spectacular since the guy who plays Borat is no Gary Oldman.

Don't take the ignorance of Americans as a slur against Kazakhstan. We're famous for our lack of geographic knowledge and our disinterest in any cultures other than our own. According to a CNN article last May, two-thirds of Americans aged 18 to 24 can't find Iraq or Iran on a map. Heck, 33% of them can't even find Louisiana. The shameful part is that of the 33%, 5% live in Louisiana. Okay, I made the last one up. I hope.

Movie stars are even worse, not just the American ones (the Borat guy is English, by the way). Eighty-seven percent of them can't find their butts with a map and a guide.*

So, in conclusion, the Borat movie can only be beneficial for Kazakhstan. None of the bad stuff will be remembered (or believed) for an instant. If you're still worried, hire an official spokesperson. Preferably a movie star. Gary Oldman might be free. Pose him next to an oil well with a big glass of Koumis. Did I mention we also love countries with big oil wells who don't hate us? That Borat guy is English, by the way. Colonial oppression, looking down on the natives, what, what. Not one of us.

*Just a little joke on my part, which movie stars would be the first to laugh at. All movie stars know where their a$$ is. They spend most of their time with their heads up there, removing them only when a photo op presents itself. When a photographer or movie camera appears at a Hollywood party, it sounds like dozens of champagne bottles uncorking at once. Very festive.

Comedy Tomorrow! Tragedy Tonight!

2006-08-22T20:20:00.000-05:00

I was watching the news while working on my computer. Or rather, I was listening to the news; TV is mostly used for background noise. My full attention is on the computer monitor -- whatever I'm reading or typing there.

Because I don't pay attention, a lot of times the program I was mildly interested in (or at least didn't mind as background noise) ends and I don't notice until something annoying comes on. Tonight, it was Insider, which is listed in the program description as: "Celebrity interviews and Hollywood dish drive this entertainment-news magazine."

Their lead-off story tonight was the arraignment of John Mark Karr. JonBenet Ramsey's alleged killer. This is supposed to qualify as entertainment news? Why? Because JonBenet had been in child beauty pageants? Because her parents became reluctant media celebrities thanks to the sensational nature of the case? Or because we don't even pretend anymore that murder trials are anything but entertainment except for the people who are directly involved?

Am I the only one who finds it jarring? "Coming up on Insider, we go to John Mark Karr's arraignment! We interview Paris Hilton and Clay Aiken about their new albums! The first public interview with John Mark Carr's first wife -- did she think he was capable of murder? We talk with Sarah, who's 29 and has a problem -- she's still a virgin! Watch as we try to help her find that special someone! Listen to our exclusive preview of the phone tapes. Is it Karr's voice?"

And on and on. And plenty of plugs for ET, which is coming up next and has pictures of the "Colorado slammer" where he'll be interred. Oh, and Jennifer Annistan's directorial debut and plastic surgery gone wrong, wrong, wrong!

It's the global scale making it worse. It's done now with such calculation. "Entertainment" shows are packaging human misery with greater and greater zest and polish. Humanity acts pretty much the same as it always has. In the days before movies and radio, people used to go to public executions. Pileups or accidents have always brought gawkers -- from the age of the chariot to the automobile age. Or if you were part of a scandal, all your neighbors and townspeople would point and gossip and speculate.

But at least when it was small scale, you might know the people involved. You felt shock or horror or sympathy. You were close enough to smell the blood and see the anguish. I guess it's just another way that we're all becoming more desensitized.

I wonder how long it'll be until we regress to fights to the death and competitive maiming? It used to be a cliche in speculative shows (like Star Trek) and books. Now it seems less of a platitude and more of a prediction.

Roughing It

2006-08-15T20:17:00.000-05:00

Taken from a web site:

LIFE IN THE 1500'S

The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn't just how you like it, think about how things used to be.

Here are some interesting...facts about the 1500s:

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying, Don't throw the baby out with the Bath water..

Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Hence the saying . It's raining cats and dogs.

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying, Dirt poor.

The wealthy had slate floors That would get slippery in the winter when wet , so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entranceway. Hence the saying a ...thresh hold..

In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme, Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old..

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could, bring home the bacon.. They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and chew the fat..

Those with money had plates made of pewter [a silver and lead alloy]. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the upper crust.

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whiskey. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a wake.

England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the "graveyard shift") to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be saved by bell, or was considered a dead ringer..

Now me:

And this is why I'm glad I live in the twenty-first century. And why I never understood roughing it in the wilderness.

Mankind spent who knows how many millennia crouching around a fire eating charred meat and retiring to caves or huts with no electricity, running water or toilet facilities. Then getting up the next morning to chase game all day and a missed kill meant no charred meat that night. Generation after generation lived in exactly the same way, with no more hope for changes or improvements than their great-great grandparents had.

But mankind did made progress, very slowly at first: one invention leading to small improvements in the quality of living; one idea leading to more and better ideas. Slowly, very slowly at first, inventions and ideas building upon each other. Then during the Renaissance picking up speed -- faster and faster, leading to better and better quality of life. The explosion of ideas in the last century and a half has resulted in such massive lifestyle changes and improvements in comfort and technology that someone who lived only four generations ago would be amazed at the difference in lifestyle.

I won't be camping out anytime soon! Not even the thirty foot trailers with the running water, TV and air conditioners. If you want that, why not stay at home? And if you want the real cave man experience, go flick your light on and off a few times or get a cold drink out of the refrigerator and think about all the people who've lived before you who would have thought themselves in paradise!

Hacking up a phlegmball

2006-08-04T14:44:00.000-05:00

I posted a comment today in a My Space blog. The blogger had been frustrated, not only by the poor service of a waitress, but also her derogatory comment at the slim tip she'd been left. Instead of confronting the waitress, in a calm and rational manner, she did what a lot of us do: left and felt irritated enough by the experience to blow off steam writing a blog about it.

It's easy to preach and harder to practice, and I admit I've done it much less in the past than I should have. It's hard to find the confidence to stand up and draw attention to yourself. Hard, too, when you're afraid your temper will get the better of you, and you'll descend to a level of screaming and swearing which will cheapen your stand and make you look bad. But I like to think I'm standing up for myself a bit more than I used to and I'll continue to worry less and less about what others think of me until I'm a crabby old lady who says whatever she thinks.

Unfortunately the Internet, with all the great services it provides and friendships between people who never would have met otherwise, opens the door to idiots and creeps also. Stalkers and Pedophiles and Hackers (oh my!).

The Internet allows cowardly, insecure people a degree of anonymity that gives them false courage. They don't use their internet savvy to create, only to tear down what others have created. I've heard graffiti praised as an art form. There are some people with artistic talent who have drawn beautiful pictures on ugly, tenement buildings or rotting fences with crumbling paint or concrete blocks. But that's not graffiti, guys, those are called murals. That is "art." "Rick + Lisa 4ever," "Jets Rule!!!!" and the F word -- no matter what colors you spray paint it in or how many curlicues you use or how psychedelic it looks -- is not art. It is garbage.

Hackers are graffiti garbage spewers. They enter sites, take out content, and replace it with garbage. They do it because it brings a feeling of power to an otherwise sad and unremarkable life. Sometimes they do it because they have a grudge against someone and they figure it's revenge. I suppose they consider themselves like Robin Hood or freedom fighters. They're striking a blow against their enemies, in the time honored tradition of might makes right. Are they any different, morally, than people who break into houses? Are they any different from any other form of bully?

Anyone who thinks it's a joke or no big deal would no doubt be outraged if they began finding things out of place in their house every night when they come home. Little bits of evidence that someone was there -- that someone has the power to get in and out of their house with impunity. Someone who didn't do any vandalism this time, but may later, if they so choose. Hacking doesn't have the danger of someone actually, physically threatening you, but that doesn't justify the bullying, that doesn't justify the small minds trying to make other people feel smaller than they.

These are people who are mentally ill. If they were only taking it out by hacking, maybe that would be a release valve and I could at least think that by hacking they were sparing those around them. But I have a feeling these are people who make life miserable both for those within the Internet and those around them. These are the people who probably trip nerds, feel up women and run, or use their cell phones to take pictures up women's skirts. These are women (and I'm sure that women are hacking in larger numbers as we learn more about the Internet) who make their parents, husbands, boyfriends, children miserable. These are people who spread malicious lies and gossip at work, who litter, who pee in communal pools, who pick their noses in public, who steal candy from babies. In other words (to end with a quote from Blazing Saddles)... assholes.

Interview with Warren Murphy and Jim Mullaney

2006-07-12T01:33:00.000-05:00

It's finally here! The members of DestroyerClub had sent the two Destroyer authors questions. I think they held off until they could announce the name of the new publisher. It was put up on the site at midnight. You can read the interview here

I'm also going to copy Brian Murphy's announcement about the new publisher here. Some of that info (except for the name) had been known by Dclub members prior to the interview, but will be news to anyone who hasn't been checking the site.

Brian's announcement:

Warren Murphy announced today the signing of a multi-book contract with Tor Books, part of the St. Martin's publishing group, for the publication beginning in 2007 of the long-running Destroyer series.

The books will be written and bylined by Murphy and by James Mullaney who has written some twenty books in the series.

Murphy said the new contract is a departure from the past Destroyer contracts which generally called for four new paperbacks each year. "This contract," Murphy said, "calls for paperback and hardcover books and also plans on the release in trade paperback form of some of the earlier Destroyer novels."

"As such," Murphy added, "it's something new for us and for the Destroyer series. But it's a far different publishing world out there than the one we started out with and you either grow or go away. We've decided to grow. That'll no doubt entail startup pains and getting used to a whole new set of systems and procedures but Jim Mullaney are I are looking forward to the challenge."

The Destroyer series was begun by Richard Sapir and Murphy back in 1971. Its first publisher was Pinnacle Books, followed by N.A.L. Signet and then, for the last ten years, by Harlequin Gold Eagle of Canada. During that period, Destroyer sales reached 45 million copies worldwide and at its height, the series was published in fifteen different countries. In addition, the books are now under option in Hollywood for a new feature film.

Gold Eagle sought a book contract renewal from Murphy but he declined because, he said, "I didn't like the direction the books were taking."

The final Gold Eagle Destroyer, #145, is due out in October. The first Tor book is scheduled for release in April 2007. "We're still working on scheduling and other details but the goal is to maintain our publishing frequency as much as possible."

Murphy called himself "highly delighted" over the new contract with Tor which he called "one of the serious big-time publishers. We've been doing the Destroyers for thirty-five years and who knows? Now, as part of the Tor family, we might be doing them for another thirty-five years."

For questions or to comment on the state of the series, please utilize our forums @ www.warrenmurphy.com and www.DestroyerClub.com.

Happy Fourth

2006-07-03T23:37:00.000-05:00

A happy Fourth of July to everyone in the U.S. A happy summer to those in the Northern hemisphere. And for anyone down below the equator? Well, warm weather's coming.

This should be an eventful week. I finally ordered DSL, after complaining about dial up and my ISP for over a year. Though I've been having trouble with the phone lines, hopefully DSL will be speedy enough even if the line crackles now and again. The installation package came today, but I'm going to hold off connecting until after the holiday. It should be easy and uncomplicated, but you never know. My friend got the same thing last month and their older computer didn't have the ethernet card to support it. They didn't have Internet access until her nephew could buy and install it. My computer is less than a year old, and I remember when I got it the booklet said it was DSL ready. I'm just hoping they meant the card as well as the connection port.

This isn't the week to lose the Internet for an extended period. The web master at DestroyerClub mailed our questions to Warren Murphy and Jim Mullaney on the 13th and I'm hoping this will be the week we get the answers. I'm guessing that maybe they've taken this long to return them for one (or both) of two reasons.

They may be writing the first new Destroyer book for the new publisher. Second, since there have been delays with the contract signing, maybe they are waiting until that's settled to return them. Some of the questions did have answers that depend on Warren being able to divulge the name of the publisher; he's already stated he doesn't want to do that until the signatures are on the dotted line.

It's a difficult wait. The next-to-last Gold Eagle Destroyer is coming out this month. I'm not looking forward to it, but I'll still buy and and try to get a little enjoyment. Even though it's like seeing old friends through a warped mirror.

Dreams and nonsense

2006-07-01T00:46:00.000-05:00

It's July already. And I was just getting used to June. The lengthening days (now on the wane again, though not noticeably yet), the cold, the copious rain. Summer in New England! Now we'll probably get searing heat and sunny days. A good thing, but it's such an abrupt turnaround.

Another silly thing:

I am The Hierophant

The Hierophant often represents learning with experts or knowledgeable teachers. This card also stands for institutions and their values. The Hierophant is a symbol of the need to conform to rules or fixed situations. His appearance in a reading can show that you are struggling with a force that is not innovative, free-spirited or individual. Groups can be enriching or stifling, depending on circumstances. Sometimes we need to follow a program or embrace tradition, other times, we need to trust ourselves.

Because everyone born on my birthday and year has exactly the same personality, intellect and struggles with the same issues.

I did have a dream the other night. I know I dream more than I can recall when I wake up. This one must have happened right on waking, which is why I remember it.

My mother and I were going to see a movie. It probably had a title, but I can only remember that Angelina Jolie was in it. Must have heard the name recently. We were in this big, modern movie megaplex, full of glass and chrome and escalators (it was seven stories). There were no signs outside the theaters to tell us what was playing, and I guess there was nobody around to ask, because we kept going into them to check. Inside, they had the name of the movie on the wall, but it was down in front on the side and was small enough that you had to go almost down to the screen to see it.

I remember in one of the theaters I left my mom at the back while I walked up front to check out the name. When I returned, she had started talking with another older women who was saying she was trying to find her movie too, and wasn't it a shame how confusing this place was. Next thing, we were on the escalator leading down to the lobby. Not sure who we asked or how we found out, but the movie we wanted to see was on the floor we had been on, but we had to go back down to the lobby to get there. Seems the megaplex was bisected down the middle, with theaters on both sides, but you could only get to the other side through the lobby. I was thinking how the architect was a sadist for making the design so awkward. Then I woke up.

Meaning? I don't know. At least it's better than my grandmother's dreams. She's always cleaning a big house.

Patience is...

2006-05-01T23:00:00.000-05:00

for the birds!

Word came from Warren Murphy last week that he is very close to signing with a publisher. In his note to the Destroyer Club, while he couldn't tell us the name of the publisher, he did tell us that he would have total control over the content. There would be no more ghosts. Jim Mullaney would be back as author under his own byline. And, best of all, Warren's going to get back into writing them!

I'm happy for us -- the fans. We're going to get characters who are back to normal. We're going to get rid of the strange plots and one unfortunately realized secondary character.

I'm happy for Jim Mullaney. He deserves to get his name on the books. He's a great writer, not just for the Destroyer -- its characters and humor -- but for his way of writing. His style is clear and flowing and always fun to read.

And I'm especially happy for Warren Murphy. Richard Sapir, his immensely talented partner (and Chiun channeler extraordinaire), was taken away from us much too young twenty years ago. I always had the feeling the fun went out of the series for Warren. He kept the books going with ghost writers, but he never wrote much Destroyer material after that. I think writing them again will be good for him. It'll get him back writing the no-hold-barred satire of pompous asses of all political stripes, goofy social engineers, and airhead celebrities.

Until now, I’ve always considered myself a patient person. I never minded waiting for Christmas. Even now, when the first Destroyer from the new publisher is anywhere from eight to twelve months away, that doesn’t bother me. I’ll be glad when I see the first one, but it’s fun anticipating.

No, what’s bothering me is waiting for the contracts to be signed. It’s very close, but until Warren signs on the dotted line, it can never be 100%. And that’s got me frayed! Once everything is set, I’ll be set too.

The DaVInci Blog

2006-04-19T19:29:00.000-05:00

The DaVinci Code is out in paperback and the hardcover is still hanging around the bestseller lists while better and more worthy books have come and gone. The movie is coming up next month, spreading its gospel of rumors and distortions and fictional accounts of conspiracy. The Templar Legacy is on the best seller lists with its take on hidden Gnostic gospels that would demolish traditional Christian dogma. The Holy Blood, Holy Grail guys have another "nonfiction" book out beating the same dead horse that Jesus survived and married Mary Magdalene. A recent study reports Jesus may have walked on ice, not water.

And then there's Judas' gospel, "lost" for a millennium or more, that is finally seeing the light of day. It's supposed to be written in the second century, so can't be direct from the fink himself.

"God made me do it!" he whines in this gospel. "I was vital to His fulfilling the prophecy!"

Which, if true, would call into question the nature of Christ's sacrifice, making his crucifixion God playing with loaded dice instead of letting free will fulfill prophecy, demolishing (you guessed it) traditional Christian dogma.

Gnostic gospels exist. What is it in our nature that makes us eager to believe that they are concealing deep dark secrets? Why do so many want to believe they're truthful but are willing to doubt the official gospels? Doesn't that tell us more about ourselves?

It seems to make no difference that these gospels are in print, available in many book stores and over the internet. Even available in Catholic bookstores, which have no obligation to carry them.

The Council of Nicea in the fourth century put together the New Testament that we know today. They had to go through a lot of manuscripts and texts that purported to be the word of God, true accounts of Jesus' life, the Apostles' lives and works, letters and sayings, etc.

Critics and conspiracy theorists assert that they destroyed the texts that emphasized Jesus' humanity, while keeping the texts that emphasized Jesus' divinity. While that may be, if they were truly trying to determine the will of God, perhaps that was God's will. But people are much more inclined to cry coverup; some, depending on their agendas, see the jettisoned material as proof that the Church Fathers were hiding all kinds of alternate viewpoints.

Couldn't it be that a lot of the rejected material was repetitive, poorly written, obviously fraudulent, or clearly pushing someone's personal agenda? It happens in books and articles that are written about current events or figures in the news. There have been numerous books about John F. Kennedy and Winston Churchill. Does anyone accept everything each book asserts as, you'll pardon the expression, gospel? Maybe some, but many seek out various sources -- news items, eyewitness accounts, rebuttals from friends and enemies.

To get back to Mr. DaVinci. Why did he put himself in The Last Supper facing away from Christ? Did he see in the apostles cowards who turned away from Jesus in fear for their lives that night? And did he put himself in like that as a wry comment on his own weaknesses and imperfections? Or, if he was an atheist, maybe he just did it for laughs. Heck, if he was just a joker, we're lucky we didn't get Peter making rabbit ears behind Christ's back.

Did he paint them without halos to emphasize their humanity? Was this because he was giving a hidden sign that he had sympathy for the Gnostic viewpoint, who saw Jesus as human, not divine? Or was it his own personal viewpoint that Jesus, while God, still had a mortal body? Or that the apostles, about to run away in the Garden of Gethsemane, hadn't earned their halos yet?

DaVinci was a man of genius living in times dominated by Popes and kings and dukes and what have you. Was he a Gnostic? Was he an atheist? Does any of this matter today when we look at his paintings?

I think I'm going to write my own Gnostic conspiracy book. It will deal with an obscure sect of Rosicrucian’s who are the guardians of a holy relic that was suppressed by the Church in the 5th century. Yes, it's the Holy Spice Rack of Galilee -- made by our Savior himself, in his carpentry shop. It was an item of such poor quality, showing total ignorance of basic carpentry principles, that many at the Council of Nicea felt it was a fraud put forward to prove that Mary was, in fact, a single mother. Joseph was obviously not around to teach Jesus his trade, which meant he took a powder when he found out that Mary was with child, which would cast doubts about Jesus' divinity. I feel I will have a ready audience.

Destroyer Movie news from Warren Murphy

2006-04-03T22:21:00.000-05:00

Brian Murphy released this item this afternoon on Warren Murphy's Forum

Warren Murphy announced today that he had signed a Destroyer film production deal with Robert Evans independent production company in Hollywood. The deal covers film and television, as well as computer
games and merchandising, and the old man says "after quite a few years in the Destroyer doldrums, we've got a chance here of seeing something good happen."

For those who don't know, Robert Evans is a one-time actor who took over the running of Paramount Studios when the company was down the drain and on the verge of bankruptcy. In just a handful of years,
Evans produced The Odd Couple, Rosemary's Baby, Chinatown, Love Story and The Godfather, and turned Paramount into the hottest studio in town.

This is great news, though I realize it may take awhile for a movie to begin production and there are many things which can go wrong.

I'm really hoping this stirs interest for the Destroyer books with a publishing company, and that this comes sooner rather than later. The contract with Gold Eagle is up as of this year and I'd like to see the books continue on with a minimum of interruption. Even if a publisher can be found, there would be more of a gap than the usual three months Destroyer readers have become used to.

A new publisher might choose to issue only two books a year instead of four. Or they might issue two Destroyers and two spinoffs (good too!). Or four Destroyers and two spinoffs (I'm getting greedy here).

Windows XP

2006-04-02T22:47:00.000-05:00

Warren Murphy has started a blog in the forums of his website. A few weeks ago, amid many other things, he mentioned his hatred of and frustration with Windows XP. Most of his frustration was not being able to find things, which are spread out in odd ways. And always being asked what to open a program with when he clicks on it.

I don't have too many problems opening things, since I mostly work with Open Office documents. When you save a new OO document, if you type .odt after the title you choose, it opens up in OO automatically when you need to view it again. I do have a problem choosing media stuff, but I generally know what to go with. The new Harry Potter movie had me downloading something called InterActual, which isn't a very good DVD player. I gave up trying to view anything on it and opened it in Windows Media center, which worked fine.

Last night, for some reason, I decided to go beyond what usually comes up when I click on Programs (Windows XP usually only shows you the programs you use most frequently). I got into "Windows Digital Media Enhancements," which looked interesting. Though, like Warren has pointed out, why it's so far away from "Media Center" which is under Accessories? It's all media, isn't it?
Anyway, under WDME (I'm not going to keep typing that whole thing out!), they've put a program that allows you to convert audio files to the Windows format (.wma), and a program that prints a label for your CD and CD case.

Thirdly, it has a "Party Mode" which is basically a full screen skin for your Windows Media Player. That was a little frightening. I turned it on and couldn't find a way to get out of it, so I had to click on control/alt/delete. When I went back to the Settings screen, there's supposed to be a little X somewhere that removes you from the party, but I don't recall seeing it the first time and I'm not going back to check. The big window with the randomization setting in my player is enough for me.

Now, for the last and creepiest thing. WDME has something called Windows Dancer. When you click on it a little dancing woman appears in the bottom left hand corner of your screen. The general operating question here is: why? Who thought this up? Is this so lonely people won't have to dance by themselves? Or in case you feel like having a party and everyone's busy?

When I see these things, I feel just like one of the Beverly Hillbillies, trying to figure out the billyard room and the cement pond.

"Granny! Uncle Jed! There's a little woman dancin' on the screen!"

"Weee-el doggie!"

"Jed! Jed!! Get that 'lil goomer off the screen!"

I felt bad for her dancing away to nothing, so I opened my WMP and opened a song. I'm Alright isn't exactly the hip hop she seems to be bopping to, but it'll have to do. It's more suitable than The Donkey Serenade or O Holy Night.

It's good to know that Microsoft is gearing it's Windows for parties. When you're dancing, programs don't need to make sense. Items don't have to be near similar items.

Pathetic Losers

2006-03-28T00:59:00.000-05:00

A few friends and I have been having a little problem recently with hackers. Saturday when I went to my website all the news items on my home page, which I have been using as a blog, were gone. No one took credit, though.

Shortly before that, my friend Jerry had a small hacking problem also, though they left something in place of what they'd hacked, and most of his home page and everything else was left intact.

Now tonight, when I go to my site, everything looks normal, except when I go to my forum, the only other place on the site where I have any content, and not only is it missing, but there's something left in place. Bragging by the pathetic losers who have too much time on their hands and whose mommies should be monitoring their Internet access more closely. Unfortunately, Jerry's site has been hit by the same people and I can't access it at all. And Jim's is the same. So I don't know how much they're going to end up losing.

The really pathetic part of this is, we're all such small, untrafficked web sites. Jerry says a mutual friend wrote to him saying it looks like someone's targeting us personally. And that Dclub, a web site we all belong to and administer, might be a future target.

Jerry says he's going to take precautions before that happens. Dclub just finished being restored and doesn't need to take another hit, though thanks to the recent problem, everything's backed up and certain sections are also being saved off site for greater protection.

I'm not sad for my site. The forum contained some fan fiction I've written, and I've got them all saved to disc anyway. And the blogs they hit, thanks to my tendency to cross-post, and write them up in Open Office before posting, can be restored fairly easily too. The worst that could be lost on Jim's site is his thoughts on the Destroyer books he wrote, but Jerry says that's saved off site too. Jerry has more on his site, though, and hopefully that won't be lost.

If it should turn out to be a disgruntled Dclub member, he/she probably isn't a regular. I'm certainly not going to let this make me paranoid. Most of the regulars are frequent posters, or long time members and I don't see any one of them having this level of childishness and viciousness.

This and That

2006-03-13T00:42:00.000-05:00

Slow week. Was sick during much of it. Not real sick; just enough to be uncomfortable and sleepy because I kept waking up coughing and choking.

Good week in that it started with a pleasant surprise: Brian Murphy finally got Warren Murphy's forum back up. You could read the old posts, but couldn't post anything new since the day after Christmas. He changed to PHP BB, which is better than what they had, and created separate forums for each of Warren's books and series.

Then he created a forum for Warren to write blogs in, along with a forum for our comments. No blogs as yet, but I'm hopeful. Warren did write in saying he might have some news on the Destroyer front. I hope it's got a new publisher.

The DestroyerClub's forum came back on line too. It's only been down for three weeks, but that's still too long. There was a time when it looked like all the posts would be lost, which would be annoying. There was also a possibility that we'd lose the member's list, which would have been a real inconvenience. Anyone who wanted to post or get into some sections would have had to register again.

But none of that happened. The admins decided to start anew by locking the old forum and opening up a new one, with the same topics pretty much as the old one. It's been going good so far. A few of the regulars aren't back, but I know one is off line and the other's pretty busy in his off line life, so they should be back too someday.
***********
Read a pretty good book, unusual type for me, but I try to read something in a genre I wouldn't usually pick up. That's the good thing about a large and well stocked library. You can take chances when you're just borrowing.

Prayers for the Assassin is set in the near future. In 2015 nuclear bombs that destroyed NYC, Washington, DC, and Mecca are blamed on Israel. Civil war breaks out in the United States.

Twenty five years later, the nation is divided into the Islamic controlled North and the Bible Belt South. Most of the population of the Islamic Republic are moderate or modern Islamics, but the hard line fundamentalists have power beyond their numbers, and the Christian minority are discriminated against.

Then a historian uncovers evidence that Israel might not have been responsible, which would destabilize the nation and the world. When she goes missing, her uncle calls his former ward, Rakkim -- who is also her lover -- to find her. Other people are looking for her too, including a psychotic assassin who was in the same elite unit as Rakkim. Will Rakkim find her first? Together, will they survive reveal the secret?

Good paced thriller, not too violent (I'm squeamish). The hero and heroine here are Muslims, as are most of the major characters, including the villains. It's not a Muslim bashing book; though a fundamentalists is a bad guy, another one is not, and the psycho assassin only recognizes one god -- himself.
**************
I also found out that starting next Friday the Scifi channel is finally bringing Dr. Who to US audiences. I used to watch the parts of the old series when they played on PBS many years ago. They only played the Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker episodes. Fun cheesy special effects and simple plots (it was a children's series after all). Fun to watch.

There was a movie several years ago that updated the series and went nowhere. It was ok, as far as I can remember.

Scifi is showing the first year of the new series. If it's any good, I hope they go on to show the next year's episodes. There's a new Doctor the second year. I've heard good things about it; will enjoy checking it out.

Workshop with Tom Coughlin

2006-02-24T02:25:00.000-05:00

Tom Coughlin, a native of my city who writes books set locally, was at my city library tonight giving a talk on successful self publishing.

My book is only on its first edit, and I don't know what I'll do with it -- try to get an agent to look at it, try to self publish, shelve it and write a second, better book. But I have a theory that it's better to know as much as possible about as many things as possible. Since I've started writing seriously, I've been reading all the books on writing and publishing I can get hold of, visiting author's web sites, writing web sites, picking up stray bits of info wherever I can find them.

If what I've learned never benefits me, it might help someone else, so I'll pass along a little of tonight's talk here.

First, the three things that prompt a reader to buy: a cover that is bright and catches the eye, a good title, and a reasonable cover price.

Three things that a store owner looks for: cover and price also. But also if it is set locally, the bookseller figures it'll pique the interest of natives and tourists (if it's a place that has a bit of a tourist trade).

If you're shopping your book around locally, don't just hit bookstores. Try gift shops, restaurants. If your book is the only one in the shop, it stands out. Big chains don't buy self published books as a rule, but a few of them have managers who are willing to give your book a chance. Be prepared to do a bit of traveling and promotion to get your books in as many outlets as you can within the area where your book is set.

Autograph as many of your books as you can before you bring them around to stores. Invest in a roll of stickers that say they're autographed and get those on the front of the book. Make up promotional posters featuring the book's cover and ask around in shops if you can put them up in the window.

If 6x9 paperbacks sell for $14.95 generally, try to sell yours for a little less. Don't sell for more; you're trying to get people to buy an unknown author.

Of course, you still won't make a profit unless you work hard and write the best book you can. And let people you trust and who are in the know about these things read the book and tell you honestly whether your book is good enough to make an investment of time and money worth while.

And it does take a bit of money. Print on Demand isn't as good if you're going to put them in local bookstores and shops locally. You don't get a discount for bulk. However, if you're going through a printer, you have to buy a minimum -- usually about 3300 books. Even with a discount, it adds up.

For example, my Nano book would cost me $8 a copy if I'd wanted more than the free one. Multiply that by the number you'd have to purchase if you wanted to get maybe five or six copies in several dozen local outlets. Say 48. That would be $384. But with a printer who offers a discount for bulk, that same book might cost me $2.95 apiece for 3300 copies. That's $9735.

Say you sell your book for $13.95. You'd have to sell at least 698 books to break even. You would only have to sell 27 of your POD printed book. But firstly, that's a much higher percentage of sales -- over half your POD stock as opposed to less than 1/3 of your bulk stock. Second, you'd be selling in much fewer places, making it harder to sell even that many.

And that won't happen unless you're out hustling. People aren't going to be beating down your door unless by some miracle Oprah gets hold of a copy. Even if she hates it, the curiosity factor alone would make it a success! Well, we can dream.

I haven't even touched on cover art and the cost to hire a good artist or photographer. Unless you're an artist, or know someone willing to work for a credit in the book, that's probably a few thousand dollars.

Print on Demand is probably best if you sell just through the POD's online site. At least initially, it might let you know if the book gets a good reception, if you hear back from a buyer who doesn't know you personally, just bought the book because it sounded good.

To wrap up, a very good talk, many points raised to think about. I thought Mr. Coughlin should have brought some of his books for us to purchase, but he said he just wanted to give the talk with no strings attached. I think I'll buy at least one of his books though. He was a teenager in the sixties while I was under ten. He probably has a much clearer memory of the stores and restaurants from then than I do.

Let's see... Bon Marche, Sparks. The Dutch Tearoom. I remember the murals there... MacQuades. I think I've got that spelling right.

Currant Events (or problems with spell check)

2006-01-29T17:39:00.000-05:00

First, I must apologize to the currant growers, who may have come across this title when searching the web, and came here eager for news of the current state of the currant industry.

One of the problems if you're a bad speller, is relying on programs within Works, Word, Open Office, Gmail, Email, etc. that are supposed to check your spelling, making you look erudite, thus giving your opinions and rants greater weight and respect. Usually, they're pretty good, not up on the latest netspeak and shortcuts, but that's a small problem.

The bigger problem is homophones (rain/reign/rein, break/brake). Most of them I don't have trouble with. Occasionally, I'll have to stop and think: they're = they are, their = belonging to them, there = a location. I generally find if I'm typing fast that last one will get by me sometimes. And spellcheck can't tell you you're using it incorrectly.

My biggest homophone problem, as you might have guessed, is the word which means contemporary. I was using it frequently in something I was writing, and I'd have to check the dictionary every time it came up.

At least in this case, a mnemonic device has proved very effective. If I need to write about current events, or an electric current, or river current, a picture of an animated, wrinkled fruit pops into my head. It is jumping up and down, waving its little stick arms, its eyes angry and mouth going a mile a minute. The currant is ranting (get it -- nudge, nudge)! It is therefore not the ~~write~~ right (damn homophones!) spelling for any of the meanings I want to convey.

I'll never get that wrong again. Now, if only some spellchecks could be made to admit when they don't know what a word is. Recently, my Open Office spellcheck didn't highlight the word "dieing," which I had twice in a manuscript. Since it couldn't figure out what I was trying to say, it just ignored the whole business.

Deliveries

2006-01-25T01:46:00.000-05:00

Today I got the two things I had ordered. First, UPS delivered the second Destroyer adaptation from Cutting Audio. They really ship promptly; I only placed the order the 19th. I'm looking forward to listening to this one -- Infernal Revenue -- more than the last one. It's one of my favorite Destroyers. I'm glad that Cutting Audio got the contract to do the adaptations, but I wish they weren't doing them in the order the books were published. I don't remember if the other company did that too. I didn't buy them all, just the ones I liked best. Cutting Audio may only have the contract for this year; I don't know if Gold Eagle will bother once they no longer have the contract to publish the books. However, they do retain the rights to all the Destroyers they've published, for how many years I don't know. So they'd still be making money on the books if they let Cutting Audio continue. And this way, maybe eventually we'd get to an audio adaptation of The End of the Beginning!

Second, the mailman delivered my book from Lulu.

I knew I'd be thrilled to see my book as a book, not just a computer file, but I had no idea how it would affect me. I actually teared up a little as I was looking through it. And not because of grammar and punctuation errors (though they are certainly there)!

It really is gratifying to see something you've created in your head and on the computer in solid form. It's a book, darn it, a real honest-to-God book. Not with the polish or sophistication of a commercially published book, but still... At least maybe, if I'm reading it through all the way for the first time really since finishing it, if it still holds my interest, maybe that means it's not hopeless.

Horror at the Movies

2006-01-12T01:27:00.000-05:00

I'm not a horror movie aficionado. My taste in scary movies runs to the old Universal monsters -- Frankenstein, Dracula, the Wolf Man -- or the poorly done ones of the fifties and sixties. You know: the Blob, the Creeping Terror. Monsters that had to be helped by their victims, who stick their hands in unknown goo or run around in circles or really, r e a l l y slowly until the guys under the shag rug catch up with and devour them.

I've completely ignored horror's evolution into the bloody and gory, the psychotic madmen with chainsaws and the supernatural villains who kill without discrimination or motivation. You can get enough of that reading the news. Callous sadistic people are a minority, but they make themselves known. In short, I don't like these movies, so I don't see them.

My friend's husband, son and sister in law go to every horror movie. It's a thrill -- like riding a roller coaster or bungee jumping. And a test: they can face the grossest of the gross-out stuff and take it. That's fine with me. I don't like the bloody, explicit horror movies that started with Day of the Dead, but to each his own. I don't think it's the end of civilization, or that people will see these things and become desensitized or psychotic killers. There are some traits, like callousness, that are inborn, and emerge to a greater or lesser degree depending on a person's upbringing.

However, the latest excuse for a horror movie disappointed them. I'm not naming it; it doesn't deserve any publicity. It wasn't a question of gore, even though this was excessive, according to them. It's the spirit of the movie.

Even in the worst of these things, there are a few conventions. There's usually a hero who outfoxes the killers, a few people who have been made sympathetic and the audience roots for them to survive. Generally at least some of them do. The evil force -- whatever it is -- is defeated. At least until the sequel.

This movie, it seems, is extraordinarily mean spirited, even for the genre. According to my friend her son described it thus: The first half hour is soft porn -- beautiful young people continuously having sex -- boobs and penises out bouncing around. Then the remainder of the movie is unrelieved bloody violence. Brutal torture and bloody killings. Everybody dies. One girl who survives being blow torched in the face and having her eye pulled out throws herself under a train, gore and body parts flying about. No reason is ever given for what's happened; there is no plot.

I wonder about the motivations of the writer, director, and anyone instrumental in foisting this off on an unsuspecting public. I've read conservatives who say that Hollywood's liberal screenwriters and directors are more interested in pushing their own leftist agendas than in making good films. Is this some sort of propaganda effort by necrophiliacs? Do the people behind this film get off on gore? Is that why they have the soft core at the beginning -- to get everyone excited, then abruptly replace the images of sex with those of violence? And they hope that people are going to stay stimulated and begin to associate violence with feelings of sexual pleasure?

Not that I believe it's going to work. As I said earlier, that level of callousness and psychosis is inborn. All they're going to get from this effort, if anything, is people demanding their money back. My friend's son was disturbed and disappointed. This movie will, I predict, sink into obscurity; even the DVD version will end up in the bargain bins and go largely ignored. Unless it's publicized by people objecting to it. It is objectionable. But, much like a two year old gleeful shouting naughty words, if there's too much of a fuss made over it, thrilled by the reaction he will continue with it longer.

Recent Rowling Article

2006-01-11T00:33:00.000-05:00

Very good J K Rowling article in the Tatler. The only version I could find was from The Leaky Cauldron's files. It went into how her mother's death while Rowling was still writing the first book has been felt in the series as a whole. Death is never far away in the Harry Potter books; Rowling doesn't pull any punches. Good characters die, bad characters die. Facing death becomes inevitable when the only alternative is to sit by and let evil spread unopposed. Yet even with that, Rowling's deaths aren't noble sacrifices as a whole. Characters are killed suddenly and senselessly. Diggery doesn't get a chance to fight back. He isn't killed throwing himself in front of Harry and taking a Killing Curse meant for him. Black's is quick -- the result of a lapse of concentration during a fight. Minor characters are killed off-page, brutally and arbitrarily. They're targeted because they oppose Voldemort, but it seems to be more a matter of luck than of skill who escapes and who dies.

The one jarring sentence in the article is, unfortunately the first one. That sentence, "A tear slowly trickles down JK Rowling's cheek," sounds uncomfortably Rita Skeeterish to me. It reminds me forcibly of the one of the sentences Harry spies being written down during his first interview with her. "Tears fill those startlingly green eyes as our conversation turns to the parents he can barely remember." (GOF, U.S. paperback ed. p.306) It doesn't spoil the article, but it kind of tripped me up until I got into the rhythm of the rest of the piece.

Rowling hadn't wanted to let her mother she was writing a book, probably because she hadn't much hope of getting it published. I think that was the biggest regret -- not that her mother missed all the fame and fortune and adulation. That's a big regret of mine, too. My mother always thought I could write for publication, but while she was alive I hadn't tried. I haven't published a book or an article, but I was published in the New Blood anthology, and that would have thrilled her. I think she would have liked that I was expressing myself here and in blogs too.

But you can't change the past; you just have to go forward and try not to regret what you can't change. And hope there's a way that somehow, somewhere, our mothers are aware of what 's going on and are happy for us.

Functional family? Don't make me laugh!

2005-12-25T02:10:00.000-05:00

I've been reading a lot in blogs lately about dysfunctional families. It's Christmas season that sets these things off -- a time when our expectations most exceed reality and disappointment in non perfection is most acute. Calling any family dysfunctional is being unnecessarily redundant. Find me a family that's functional -- go on, I dare ya. Movies and TV don't count; neither does any family you haven't been a part of. Too easy to be fooled by a good facade when a stranger is present. If you're looking for perfection anywhere, you're doomed to failure.

I'm watching one of my favorite movies -- Meet Me in St. Louis. It has just about the most goldenly perfect depiction of family life ever seen on the silver screen with none of the grating mawkishness of the Brady Bunch. Most times I watch it in a happy glow of nostalgia for an era and family which never existed, an idealistic glimpse of what everyone wishes their family were like. There were a few times I watched it tearfully, sad that my family could never measure up to the Smiths.

But, you know, even the Smiths had their moments of discord and familial failings.

Agnes runs off on Halloween leaving her sister Tootie behind because she's too little. And talk about juvenile delinquency! What those children are allowed to get up to -- bonfires, for heaven's sake.

Mr. Smith doesn't consult anyone in his family before deciding to accept a new position which means moving his family to New York. Everyone is pretty upset. Most of them stalk out in a huff (although the parents' singing draws everyone back, determined to make the best of it).

Rose and Esther are mortified when their dates fall through, and they face the disgrace of having to be escorted to the Christmas ball by their brother. They narrowly miss being scarred for life.

Yet at the end of the film they're a united and happy family.

I know there are a lot of families out there with some very serious problems -- drug/alcohol abuse, physical and emotional abuse, neglect, mental illness. I'm not taking that lightly. But now everyone has decided, via mega viewings of Dr. Phil and Montel, that they're expert analysts. They study their family, find it lacking, and blame their problems on negative and non supportive kin.

Most people have been damaged by their family. The main exceptions are the alphas -- the golden children who grow up to rule the pride. Or those few who are exceptionally resilient and thick skinned.

I'm no exception. My main problem, from always being the odd one, the belittled one, is a lack of self-confidence. When it seems like someone is snubbing me, when someone who has been friendly suddenly turns cold, my first thought is usually that I've done something wrong. It worries me. I feel hurt. I wonder if I should approach them about it, or just cut and run. It's compounded by my difficulty picking up subtle hints. I don't: I need a brick to hit me (or someone to come right out and say things clearly and distinctly).

Then I try to look at it from another perspective. Maybe it's the other fellow's fault. Maybe he has his own problems, his own inadequacies. Maybe she hasn't had much practice relating to people.

I'm far from shrugging off situations like this, but I'll continue to work at it. And I won't bemoan my dysfunctional family. When I go to Christmas dinner, I'll remind myself that they are insecure people who have to put me down to feel good about themselves. Not My Problem unless I choose to make it so.

Snow Day?

2005-12-09T01:34:00.000-05:00

I'm really hoping they cancel school tomorrow. Not that I'm a student -- haven't been for over twenty years, but I work at a school, and if the city cancels, I don't have to go in.

Normally I don't mind so much. I don't like to drive in snow, and this year I'm not familiar with my new (used) car and how it behaves in slippery or snowy conditions. But I can get to work on the bus, with one transfer. Which is also handy if my car's out of service.

However, I woke up this morning with a scratchy throat, achy, feeling blah, and it hasn't improved any over the day. Being able to sleep in tomorrow would be such a great thing! And if there is school, with the snow seeming to be a definite thing, it's going to be wild tomorrow.

For some reason, as long as it's not snowing too badly by seven a.m or so, they don't seem to want to cancel. Even if by dismissal time they know that there's going to be three or more inches on the ground, the roads treacherous, and the school buses having to make their way through a city of people who've left work early to beat the rush hour storm traffic.

This has happened before, and what it usually means is that, starting around 10 a.m. and continuing until school gets out, there will be a steady stream of parents through the front door getting their kids dismissed early. A few times there were dozens of dismissals out of a school population of about 330, not counting the ones who started showing up at the side door from a half hour before school ended and were taken care of by the day care workers.

Then I'll have to slog through the snow to the bus stop, wheezing and sneezing, and stand ankle-deep in freezing slush to wait for a bus which will probably be late because of the weather, to catch a bus to take me to wait for another bus which will also be late.

One time the traffic congestion and driving conditions were so bad, none of the buses could do their routes after about four p.m. They had one final bus for each route at about 6:30 to get all of us who had been trapped downtown home. That day I got home after seven, after leaving work at 3:30. And my house, under non inclement driving conditions, is about fifteen minutes away from work.

If you're coming snow, come early!

News from Brian Murphy about Gold Eagle

2005-11-27T00:51:00.000-05:00

For those who are familiar with the Destroyer Series, by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy, there has been a new development in their relationship with Gold Eagle. Warren Murphy did not renew their contract when it was up for negotiation last summer, though he did let them exercise their option to publish the Destroyer through 2006.

One of the problems with the negotiations was that Gold Eagle did little to promote the series. They even refused an offer by the owner of Destroyer Club to buy an advertisement for the club in the back of the books. For some reason, now that they've lost the series, Gold Eagle is willing to offer a dedication/acknowledgement of Warren's site. You can view the picture below.

Nano and Web Site

2005-11-13T01:53:00.000-05:00

Getting toward the halfway point in Nano! I was hoping to be at 25,000 words tomorrow, but I slacked off a bit today. Only got to 22,195, which means almost 3000 tomorrow if I want to make it. But I will sit down and try. Funny thing is, I've been flying by the seat of my pants lately. I didn't really plan out anything too much. Things just seem to work themselves out as I go along. For instance, originally, I had my heroine's brother telling her too much too soon, but I put up some roadblocks to that as I was writing it. Now, she's searching for answers somewhere else. I only thought of that plot point yesterday, but it gave me something I was sure about to write today. But I didn't feel as inspired to write it, though I got some speed up around eleven.

They had four My Name is Earls on tonight, and I got distracted watching them. Funny show, and sweet.

I still have ideas for tomorrow. The situation I have my heroine in is going to be playing out for a few chapters. No hurry. I still have half my word count to go.

There's an excerpt posted on my viewer profile over at Nanowrimo. It's crude and I haven't edited at all, so if you want to go check it out, I'm dmcourt there.

I'm getting tempted, too, by my new web site. Jerry finally persuaded me to register my name online, so I got a web site too, while I was at it. I worked on that a little, but there's still much to do, and I don't have a really clear idea of what I can put on it. I could have a book review section. And set up links and advertise the Destroyer and New Blood on there too, if anyone ever finds the site! For now, I'm just cross posting a few of my blogs there.

As soon as I finish my book (for now), I'll turn to the website. They have different themes besides the ones you can choose from. I'd like to decorate it for Christmas for now, then after Christmas, either go with a winter theme or -- probably better -- a tropical theme. I'm sure to be sick of snow by January.

Grateful

2005-11-06T01:11:00.000-05:00

Got this over at Live Journal . I really need to do this. Too often I only think of things that go wrong or that I'm not happy about.

Gratitude Meme: List ten small things you're grateful for, then tag five other people to do the same.

1. Chocolate
2. Good old movies
3. Bad old movies that are so bad, they're good
4. Sundays
5. Typing instead of writing by hand
6. Warm days in November
7. Cool days in July
8. St. Francis of Assisi
9. My comfortable old bathrobe
10. live journal/blogs

Nano went well today. I couldn't write much Friday, but I had written over on other days, so I wasn't behind. But I mean to get far enough ahead this weekend so if something comes up during the week, I won't go too far behind then. I'm up to 9185, and if I can get in at least 2000 (hopefully 3000) tomorrow...

I was really proud of myself today. I couldn't start writing until after six, and I was starting on the third chapter. I had planned the first seven chapters, but decided, as I was starting tonight, to move what I'd had planned for the third chapter into the fourth chapter, and substitute one written in third person dealing with the villain. When I sat down, I had no real idea what was going to come out, but come out stuff did. While it's not great literature, I really wasn't expecting to pull ideas and words out of thin air like that. I hadn't really thought my villain through until I began tonight.

My cat seems much better today. I'm crossing my fingers. He was able to walk around much better. Yesterday, when he came home, the first thing he wanted was the litter box. He had to rest halfway to the bathroom, then, after doing his business, he lay down in the box until he could get up the strength to get out. He wasn't eating the special food they'd given me and he felt cold when I picked him up.

Today he's walking longer before he has to rest. I gave him his regular food tonight, and he's gone to the dish three times so far and ate a little bit each time. He feels warmer and his nose is pinker. I'll just have to keep giving him his medicine and hope for the best.

All in all, a much better birthday than I was picturing a few days ago.

Rights and Wrongs

2005-10-26T21:17:00.000-05:00

I'm one of the administrators over at Destroyer Club, a site dedicated to the series created by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir. There have been over 140 books in the series since 1972, many of which have been written by ghost writers. Some background material before my rant.

When I first found the series, it had just gone over to Signet, and Murphy & Sapir were still writing it (for the most part). Then Will Murray took over as the main writer, with an occasional book by Murphy, Sapir, or both. I didn't realize back then about ghost writers. M&S's names were still on the books, and if they were a little different, they were still entertaining and featured the characters I had grown to love.

Signet gave way to Gold Eagle, and a few years later Murray gave way to Jim Mullaney, and still the series went on. But Gold Eagle didn't advertise it very well and didn't seem to care about selling as many of the books as they could. Jim Mullaney was made an offer he needed to refuse during his last contract negotiation, and a new writer took over. Sales plummeted, and as it stands now, Warren Murphy has refused a new contract with Gold Eagle and is shopping for a new publisher for the series. Since then the books have taken a nosedive in quality with the new writer, and GE has never promoted it, it's going to be a bit of a task.

Jim Mullaney, who continues to love the series, has been trying to help get the series back in the public eye a bit. Last week, National Review Online (the web branch of a conservative magazine) published an article by Jim. It posited that one of the reasons for the series' sliding popularity was that the conservative slant that had been in place since Murphy and Sapir's books had been sliding toward the left. He also happened to mention that the ghost writer before him, Will Murray, had also in his opinion not stayed true to the series' conservative roots.

Now, agree or disagree, it did get the series a bit of publicity, much more than it's had since Murphy and Sapir's Destroyers were mentioned in the New York Times Book Review. Sales (on Amazon.com) of the Assassin's Handbook 2, a privately published reader's guide to the thirty years of the series, even went up a little in the days after the article appeared.

However, Will Murray took it rather badly. Which is his right. However, he used this as the occasion to join the Destroyer club and make his first post there -- not to answer fans' eager questions, or give them a chance to say how much they loved his books, but to rant against Jim Mullaney. As one of the administrators, I can't take sides on the forums, but my blog is my own.

What an honor! After over a year of the club's existence, another one of the ghost writers finally shows up and it's to do nothing but spew venom against a fellow writer. Makes me wonder, if he cares so much about the Destroyer, why it took him so long to find us. It was pretty quickly rectified once he'd got a bug up his butt.

Contrast his behavior to that of Warren and Jim's, who have been posting on the Destroyer Club since the beginning. And while both of them have expressed their opinion about Gold Eagle, they haven't attacked the latest ghost writer or dissed other writers of the series. Even with Gold Eagle, they've never named names.

The Destroyer club is supposed to be a site for the fans to talk about Remo and Chiun and Smith and CURE, ask Warren and the ghostwriters questions, and just get together to talk. It is not supposed to be a site for one of the writers to slam another of the writers, no matter how justified he might think he is. The other admins aren't happy about his little temper tantrum either.

It really bothers me how he's gotten people's hopes up. Finally, another of the ghosts is on the forum! Several members responded eagerly to his post. They didn't give him the angry reactions he wanted, but were excited to see him there. The more cautious ones didn't weigh in; they probably read the message and found it disturbing. But I would bet everyone's hoping he'll be dropping in on us regularly now he's found us. I feel that since he's done his spewing and didn't get the indignation and support he craves, he won't be back. Which stinks for the fans. It's sure to occur to them that he could have found this site easily a year ago and didn't bother. And the site is for the fans, not for him to spit venom at Jim or engage in vendettas.

Twelve days to...

2005-10-18T23:33:00.000-05:00

nanowrimo. Now I have the song from You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown running through my head. The one about The Book Report on Peter Rabbit... Twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five... I'm glad Microsoft Works and Open Office come with automatic word counting. And I also wonder if contractions count as one or two words. Maybe ~~I'll~~ I will not use any, just as a little bit of a word count booster.

Rather ordinary day. Good news on the Destroyer front. Jim Mullaney wrote an article about the decline of the series that was on The National Review Online. Anything that will get the series in the public eye now that Warren Murphy's shopping it around to publishers. Caused a bit of a controversy on the Destroyerclub (but what doesn't).

Yesterday was the twelfth anniversary of my mother's death. Got through it better than last year. Don't know what happened last year that made it so hard. Maybe a convergence of that, hormones, and God knows what else. Though it may not have hit me on the exact day. Last year I had a bad two days, then for some reason my mood broke suddenly. The only reason I can pinpoint the day is that I suddenly felt better about halfway through the seventh game of the world series. Not because the Red Sox had a chance of winning that for the first time in 87 years (or so). I remember sitting there, feeling miserable and wishing I could enjoy something I probably wouldn't see again, and suddenly I felt better. Hormones. Go figure. But I think the last game of the world series had to be later than the 18th.

To get back to nanowrimo, I'm wondering about the hyphens. Do hyphenated words count as one or two? Vital questions for a very important issue...

NaNoWriMo

2005-10-16T21:53:00.000-05:00

I've signed up for the national novel writing month. I'd heard about it last year, but couldn't think of anything to write. This time I have an idea; whether the novel will turn out well isn't the point. In fact, since it's probable there will be no time for editing, I should make up my mind before I start that it'll be total crap. Although I still hope that somehow there will be something worthwhile somewhere within it -- enough that I can work on it and maybe have something better than I thought.

While I'm waiting to start, I'm plotting out characters and what's going to happen and breaking that into chapters. I won't have time for planning when I start writing. There may be a lot of: he was a very, very, very, very, very tall man. Hmmm... note to self, don't use italics too much, takes too long to italicize words. I could probably type five of six words in the time it takes me to highlight and hit the little "i" button on top of the box here.

I'll also try to write something every day, sort of as a warmup. Can't go from no words to 1700 a day. I'll continue my entries about The Witching Hour on my Live Journal and My Space, try to post more on Destroyerclub (though I'll have to keep on topic there). Too bad these places don't give you a word count.

One good thing has come from signing up for nanowrimo, but I can't say what it is yet. I don't want to write that something is going to happen and then it doesn't pan out.

Everything is Beautiful (in its own way)

2005-08-13T00:28:00.000-05:00

Had a little misunderstanding on Jim Butcher's mailing list earlier. There was a thread which had gone from word meanings to dress. One poster had written about seeing a five year old girl dressed in a skin tight mini skirt, hot pink tight top and knee length boots with two inch heels. Oh, and fish net stockings(what else).

There were a few posts in which the words decent/indecent came up regarding the issue of dressing a five year old (or allowing her to dress) this way. I wrote in mentioning that, emotionally charged words aside, it was a very constrictive, uncomfortable, and unhealthy (two inch heels are a bitch on adult feet, what they'll cost to a five year old years down the line is a matter for chiropodists to speculate).

As an aside, I happened to mention that I thought it was totally inappropriate unless you were between the ages of 18 and 29 and had a perfect, bulgeless body. I should know better than to speak lightly.

So, naturally, someone posted to the list that they weren't criticizing my opinion, then went on to suggest that I'm also revolted by the idea of elderly people having sex, that our society (and I by association) am superficial and only think perfect bodies should be seen. I have a sneaking suspicion she thinks I am between 18 and 29, with a fab bod who spends my time snickering at ugly people.

I'm feeling a little irritated right now that I'm feeling defensive about my opinion. After all, one of my favorite Twilight Zone episodes is "Number 22 Looks Just Like You" about a future where people were forced to have surgery so that everyone would be beautiful (and lobotomized). Rod Serling was a good writer who managed to say a lot in a half hour playlet about the nature of beauty and the importance of individuality and diversity. It was ahead of its time, in this age of plastic surgery and extreme makeovers. It worries me sometimes. It's shown so much on TV and the movies; we're getting Hollywood's view on the importance of looks shoved down our throats. I've written before that I'm an optimist, so I still believe that the majority of people outside Hollywood and NYC don't buy into that.

I'm 44 and not ashamed to say it (or put it on this blog). I'm also short and stout (being kind here) and if I ever go outside in a midriff baring outfit, it would be because my cold, stiff body is being taken out by ambulance.

Am I ashamed of my body? No. Neither do I think it's a work of art. Because I say that, some people might try to tell me I have "poor self esteem." My reply would be that it's a fair and honest assessment and I'm comfortable with it. Isn't it more a sign of poor self esteem if you're afraid to be honest with yourself?

Maybe it's my age, maybe it's just the way I was raised, but I don't believe that flaunting my body, wearing revealing outfits, shows pride in myself. It has nothing to do with sexuality. I was taught to dress to complement my body, minimize the flaws, accentuate the positive. Even if I were gorgeous, the same rules would apply. I've seen pictures of beautiful movie stars wearing outfits that didn't flatter them. Did they know that when they looked in the mirror and didn't care? If they did, I say go for it, girl! Just don't anybody insist that I say that they're looking their best.

Why CompuServe 7.0 sucks

2005-08-05T22:07:00.000-05:00

When I hooked up my new computer, I was glad I'd saved the CD my ISP had sent me several months ago, when I'd had to reload it. It had been fouled up then, too, I forget the details. My old computer couldn't support the latest version, so I continued with Compuserve 4.0, which suited me anyway, as I was used to it.

Now here I was with Compuserve 7.0, and the problems started almost immediately. Suddenly, I couldn't log in to My Space. Every attempt took me back to the sign up page, and when I tried to sign up again I'd get an error message. I contacted My Space three times and received no reply. Guess you get what you pay for.

Then I noticed when I went to My Preferences and tried to change anything, CS would freeze, forcing me to log off. And my computer would freeze if I tried to log back on too soon.

Now to Blogger. My dashboard looked strange. I saw the problem: the blogger news that they post under the dashboard was now superimposed over my dashboard. And none of my dashboard controls would work. Wrote to Blogger. Three times. See the last sentence two paragraphs back.

By this time I was increasingly irritated and worried and decided to bring some of the problems to the attention of Compuserve. I wrote to them about My Space and Blogger (hadn't realized the "Preferences" problem yet) and received a disinterested reply that I should really get in touch with the web sites in question, as how could this be Compuserve's fault.

I had installed Firefox, on the recommendations of a few friends, when I set up the new computer. Jerry had sent me a DVD-rom with some of his favorite freeware programs he'd found over the years.

A few nights ago, at a loss for any solutions, I had activated Firefox. For the hell of it, I decided to try connecting to Blogger through it. Since you're reading this, you can guess the outcome. And My Space. Success there also. JKRowling.com, which I had just discovered I couldn't access, except through the text only version on good old CS? You probably can guess that too.

I'm only paying $14.95 a month for CS, though I'm thinking of adjusting my budget enough to spring for DSL. But we have Comcast cable at work, and it has it's down moments. I could add, once more, that you get what you pay for. But Firefox is free.

Hypothetical Situation

2005-07-13T22:41:00.000-05:00

Urban Sasquatch posed this time travel question on his blog a few days ago. At first, I meant to answer in the comments for that blog, but decided it would take up too much space.

The situation and rules are:

You have a year in which to prepare for this trip in any fashion you dub appropriate.

More still -- you can take approximately two hundred pounds of cargo with you, be it another person, equipment/books, money -- the list is infinite!

Now, the important part: It's a one-way trip!

Wherever you go, whenever you go, you will live out your life there until the day you die in whatever fashion Nature dictates.

1. Where/when do you go, and why?
2. How do you spend your year preparing for the trip?
3. What do you take with you?
4. What is your purpose?

I needed a few days to think it over and shush my practical side.

My practical side said, "When you start going back in time, each era will have increasingly inferior medical care." It glared fiercely at me, adding: "Don't mention diseases like AIDS and SARS. Without vaccines and antibiotics, you've got polio -- and tuberculosis. What about bubonic plague, huh? Huh? And if they know enough to operate, before the mid-nineteenth century, you won't get anesthesia. Think about it."

This is only an exercise in imagination, you know. We're supposed to have fun with this.

"Fun? You won't have much fun as a woman. Let's face it; in this time and place you have more rights and protection than any time in history. Go back far enough, even here or in Europe, and you won't be able to vote or own property."

Shut up.

"Oh, and speaking of going to other countries, have you even thought of the language problems? Remember all those years of French in high school? Can you speak it, really? You don't really have an ear for languages. And remember, go back more than three or four hundred years, and even English becomes a little tricky."

OK, so I never could shut my practical side up. But I did manage to compromise. It's still not happy. Anyway:

1. Where/when do you go, and why?

England, Regency period, c.1800-1830. Not too bad for women. Language not a problem; good literature (Austen, the Brontes), with Dickens to look forward to. Napoleonic wars, but England is peaceful. No big famines or plagues. Women have ditched the big powdered wigs and the fashions are comfortable. Interesting people and conversation. London's got a fairly small population and anyone worth knowing is pretty much there.

2. How do you spend your year preparing for the trip?

Learning as much about the times as possible, with an emphasis on investments and shipping. When I get there, I'll need to make as much money as quickly as possible. No point living in the past if you're not rich. The conditions below middle class were wretched in the city, and work from sunup to sundown on the farms.

Also, take a few nursing courses, learn as much as possible about herbs and natural medicine. Investigate if I'd be able to make a few simple antibiotics. Learn to bake from scratch, how they do laundry, etc. (I'm planning on getting rich enough for servants to do all that, but it's better not to be ignorant of household things).

3. What do you take with you?

A medicine case (I know, any pills would lose strength eventually, but it would give me a start). A few precious gems to sell for a start up stake, since you can't get gold. A few favorite books.

4. What is your purpose?

Do I have to have a purpose? To live well, to enjoy the company of the great thinkers and writers of the age. To stay one step ahead of the times.

New Blood On Sale

2005-07-11T23:24:00.000-05:00

A few years ago, on warrenmurphy.com, Warren wrote to his fans that he wanted to thank us for being such loyal readers of the Destroyer series. He'd decided to publish a book of short stories, entirely fan written, with a forward written by him.

I'd never written any fiction, aside from some small attempts as a child, but I decided to try. There had been a character mentioned a few times, but never seen. I'd always wondered what she'd have to say. I had already imagined things about her life as I'd come across references to her in the books. Since something of her life was known, I thought it might be easier for a beginner. The story already was structured; I just had to fill in things from her perspective.
It was both easier, and much harder, than I'd imagined. I got stuck about two thirds through, and spent months fiddling with it, changing a word here, a phrase there. Finally, about a year later, after I learned how to format it, I e-mailed the file. It wasn't bravery, it was ignorance (or innocence). That, and I figured he lived too far away for me to hear him laughing.

Then, hearing back from him. Finding out that he thinks it's well-written. Finding out he likes it. Imagine that, something I'd set in someone else's world, a world that I love, and hearing back from the author that he liked what I did!

Now, the book's been printed. My copy is already on the way. The book went on sale yesterday. Just through warrenmurphy.com, and destroyerworld.com; later Amazon will get some in. Ballybunnion is a small publishing house so it can only do so much.

My biggest hope is that Mr. Murphy will at least break even on the printing costs, or maybe do a little better. I know I have a few stories ready to choose from if a second book becomes a possibility. I know some of the other authors have some too. Then there are the others, the ones who didn't know about the short story submissions until it was too late. Some of them have written fan fiction at the DestroyerClub that's really well done. It would be a shame if none of them got their chance. For now, I'll have to wait and see and try to think of ways to sell New Blood.

And, if nothing else ever comes from it, thank you, Mr. Murphy, for giving me the incentive to try something I'd always wanted to try.

Optimism

2005-06-30T21:30:00.000-05:00

I was replying to a post on the Destroyer Club earlier, and realized, after reading it through for errors, what an optimist I sounded. Which isn't a bad thing. I didn't realize when I started how upbeat I felt about the future. Not my personal future, necessarily, but humanity in general.

How did I get to be an optimist? It certainly wasn't from my father's side, at least not the ones I've met. My father and his mother were the gloomiest people I know. Bad times were always ahead, anything good was in the past (and wasn't that good looking back on it).

I remember one time when they were reminiscing about when my father and his sister were small. They lived in government housing, attached houses which were tidy brick buildings that are still standing in my city. Kitchen and parlor downstairs, two bedrooms upstairs. My grandfather was a cook who would have had trouble making ends meet in a nonsubsidized apartment.

Back in the forties, it was a close knit community, mostly French-Canadian and Greek. The women kept everything scrupulously clean and there was little crime. Families would walk downtown to one of the movie theaters, stay for the double feature, and think nothing of walking home through the dark streets and the North Common close to midnight. My grandmother and aunt used to travel to Church for novenas; it ended earlier than the movies, but in winter it was after night fall.

To get back to the memory, my father and grandmother were talking about hot summer days. Some of the residents in the housing would hire buses and organize trips to the beach. Everyone chipped in for transport, and everyone brought along big hampers of food and sang songs on the bus.

I was enjoying the story. It was fine up until then. But then...the sun was too hot, everyone was too noisy, sand got in the food and the bathing suits, it was a pain cleaning up the kids after they got back. The fumes from the bus made my father sick, and he didn't enjoy the beach anyway.

Sigh.

Now, my mother.

My mother's father was kicked off the police force on trumped up charges just before the Great Depression hit. He worked driving a cab, among other things. He started up more than one newspaper, trying to expose the corruption and take down some of the people who had framed him. He kept his lawsuit up in the court system throughout the decade, until he was finally exonerated and reinstated with full back pay owed and promotions granted.

They never went hungry, but money was tight. Days went by when all they had to eat was oatmeal and molasses. A few times they had to vacate their apartment very quietly, in the middle of the night, wearing several layers of clothes and taking only what they could carry. My aunt Jane was a severe diabetic who needed to keep to a strict diet. Most of the food budget went for hers. Sometimes it wasn't enough. Once, when things were particularly hard, my grandfather went to a priest to ask for money. He got it, but the priest asked him not to come back. He was in with the city's politicians who had had my grandfather kicked off, and said he didn't want trouble.

My mother loved to tell me about her childhood. For her, it was a mostly happy time. She didn't romanticize the poverty, but she said she liked molasses anyway. Christmas presents during the Depression were usually what could fit in one stocking; maybe a little toy and one orange. She'd talk of her friends and the games they'd play, the barrel slats they'd use to sled downhill in the winter, the potatoes they used to swipe and roast in holes in the ground. She remembered moving into a large, run-down Victorian house that a friend of her father's had let them move into rent free because he couldn't find anyone who could afford to rent or buy it. She called it the haunted house and talked of going to sleep in a room with a skylight, and how she'd watch the bats swooping overhead. And the fireplaces children could walk into without bumping their heads.

It isn't a puzzle really, where I got my optimism. It isn't surprising I can feel pessimistic about some things; most people are a mixture of both anyway, I think. I'm just amazed, growing up with my father carrying his little black rain cloud with him wherever he went and spreading the gloom, that I didn't get the optimism sucked out of me.

Writing

2005-06-24T23:19:00.000-05:00

I wrote a little bit today, just the beginning of a story that I had the idea for months ago. At least I'm beginning again. For some reason I've been lethargic about it. Just never seemed to be the right time, or I couldn't seem to write anything that wasn't awful. I like what I've put down so far, and I should finish it this weekend. I might show it to Jerry first, before it goes up on the Fan Fiction Forum, if he's not too busy. Just a general look-over, see if it makes sense and what I'm writing is coherant.

It should be an exciting time coming up in July. New Blood will be coming out very soon. Contract negotiations for The Destroyer should be settled, and we'll know if there will be more books beyond 2005. Hopefully, we'll learn that better books will be coming out, with rewriting done where it's needed to get the characterization back on track. The next Destroyer book will be out about the middle of July. Not as looked forward to since the problems started, but I've decided to enjoy what elements of the story I can, and ignore the bad parts.

And The Half-Blood Prince, of course. There's so much anticipation, it's almost a let down when I've read it. Then it will be at least a year until book seven. And no more new Harry Potters after that, at least so J.K. Rowling has said.

Memorial Day

2005-05-29T00:11:00.000-05:00

It's not quite Memorial Day yet, but I'm heading for the graves today with my grandmother and aunt. Glad to get it over with a day early, and can spend Monday in peace.

I can stand the visit. I don't get depressed or start thinking about my mortality. I do that anyway on occasion, but going there doesn't bring it on. And I certainly don't want to forget those who've passed on, but for the ones I've known, I would rather remember their lives than where the bones rest. I don't know about an afterlife, but wherever they are, they're not there.

Which, considering how my mom felt about geraniums, it's just as well if she doesn't look in on her resting place. For some reason, geraniums appear to be the flower of choice. I see some pansies, too, and a few other things. Well, you have to go with what's blooming in New England at this time. And my nana likes geraniums best because they're hardy and practical and can be taken and planted in your yard after the deceased (and their visitors) are through admiring them.

When I remember my mother, I remember her reading. I remember how she taught me love of reading. Not just by reading to me, but by making time in her day to read her own books. I had to amuse myself while she was doing something she clearly enjoyed. When I was older, I was busy with my own reading. We had different tastes. She liked Regency romance, I like mysteries. When I was a child, I read the classics -- Little Women, Treasure Island -- which she had read a long time before. And contemporary children's books-- The Phantom Toll Booth, A Wrinkle in Time, etc, which didn't interest a middle-aged woman.

But we both liked humor. Sometimes, in romances and mysteries, there are funny parts. One of us was always finding the other one, finger holding the place, to read a passage. Like in a Charlotte MacLeod mystery where the main character's cousin, who's looking after an eccentric(and rich) elderly relation, tells her about the old man's plans to clean up Boston Common. By providing diapers for the pigeons. The cousin rants that it's the old man who thinks up these things, but it will be him out on the Common holding talcum powder and chasing after pigeons. My mother ended up reading a few of MacLeod's mysteries.

We took turns reading some humorous books out loud even when I was well into my teens: Erma Bombeck, Jean Kerr, Phyllis Diller, Sam Levinson, P. G. Wodehouse. There where more, but these were our favorites.

So, when I go out to the cemetery tomorrow, I'll be thinking about how to place the flowers so they don't tip over. I'll think about the dead when I'm doing or seeing something that they would have enjoyed.

Weekend

2005-05-27T18:55:00.000-05:00

Three day weekend and feeling better than I have in over two weeks. I should be able to get eight hours of unbroken sleep instead of waking up coughing several times. The sun came out today for the first time since last weekend, and may be out a little bit every day even though there's a chance of showers each day also.

I signed and sent out the release form to Brian. The book should be out by summer, and hopefully there will be good news about the Destroyer series shortly after.

Better

2005-05-21T20:11:00.000-05:00

One week later. My cold is still here, though it's improving. My senses of smell and taste are still almost non-existent. It's been almost a week; I've never had that go on for so long. Still coughing.

I have a new car: a 2001 Nissan Altima. Picked it up yesterday. So far, it seems to be a pretty good car. It's been well-maintained. I just have to get used to a four cylinder engine. My Tempo was six cylinders; even though it was running poorly, it still had more power than the Nissan. When I got up to speed, it stayed there longer without me having to put my foot back down on the gas. On the other hand, when I was on the highway, I was going over seventy without realizing it. The Tempo always used to start to shake over 65, sort of like the Enterprise in the original series when it would go past a certain warp speed and Scotty would call up from Engineering. "Captain, she canna take anymore!"

New Blood is almost ready to go. I'm afraid I'm holding it back now. Brian emailed a release form to print and return via snail mail. With everything going on last week, I never printed it out. It'll have to wait for Monday now. I don't have a printer at home, so I'll have to do it at work. But I'll have an envelope ready and mail it out the same day.

Sick

2005-05-15T14:05:00.000-05:00

Just goes to show, when you get lazy writing and think you can get back to it in a few days, then you get sick and can't do anything much at all.

Felt bad since Tues, but didn't come out to be a head cold until Fri. I've spent a miserable weekend sneezing, with my eyes running, and a sore throat too.

To make things worse, the car developed problems yesterday, and is at the garage waiting to get looked at tomorrow. The only good thing is I've got enough food in the house to get by for now. It was running fine until I spent $22 on gas yesterday, then leaving the gas station it couldn't accelerate and was making a ghastly noise. Sears was close by, but they don't handle engines, so I was off to my city, taking the back roads at 25mph, and managed to ge to my usual garage. Probably the transmission. When I put it in park and revved the engine it sounded fine (at first I thought putting gas sent some dirt into the fuel line, but then it would have affected the car even in park).

So, I'll be on the bus tomorrow, and I doubt I'll have a car when it's time to go home. If it's too expensive to fix it would be better to buy a new (used) car. I hate change, but I hate not having a car more.

Breather

2005-05-09T18:26:00.000-05:00

Haven't been writing for about a week now. Not just here; I haven't been posting on my Live Journal or finishing my chapter or writing a new story. I don't even have a reason. I don't feel depressed or blocked. Maybe it's just my general goofing off and fooling around.

One place I have posted is at Destroyerclub, but that's more like talking. We're not posting profound posts about the Destroyer and there isn't any news. I think we all needed a breather after the discussions about the latest book got a little too intense. New Blood should be coming out within the next month or two. That will be exciting! Also, I'm hoping to get a regular chat session going, if we can decide on a day and time.

This is a good beginning, but I really have to get back to the fiction!