DVD

So it was a long day today at work, one of those first in the office in the morning, last out at night kinda days. The long hours have been a rarity so far, but appplied in this case primarily because I wanted to nail a rules set to the ground by tomorrow morning so that five other important tasks based on that rules set could go forward. The entire proceedings left me a little drained, so I sat down to surf and came across the reunion special for the old Dick Van Dyke show.

The show itself was all memory, threaded together with a ghost of a plot (Alan Brady pulls the surviving cast members together to write him a eulogy). You're aware that Rose Marie isn't moving around so good, and Mary Tyler Moore has tight wrinkles about the eyes. And the good lines were given to the minor players - Alan and Millie Helper. And there is a heaping helping of clips. But looking at it I was struck by how much this show influenced my own upbringing and my view of the world.

I mean, Rob Petrie has a job as a corporate creative, works with other creatives who both respect and like him, has a nice house, and a beautiful, supportive wife. A lot of how I deal with others comes out of watching the Dick Van Dyke show (mostly in syndication, now that memory kicks in, so I never really saw the cigarette comercials in the original). And the fact that I have a strong, mutually supportive relationship with Kate comes as no surprise to me, because that's what Rob and Laura had (Though I am much more likely than Kate to open a rubber raft in the living room).

And the show had no real "bad guys". Even Alan and Mel Cooley, the management foils, had their redemptive moments and their little victories. The plots were driven by basic weirdness of everyday life and things being a little out of kilter. I mentioned the show to Kate and she immediately mentioned the rock in the basement, the banjo-playing brother, and the Rosebud story. Forty years on, and this stuff still sticks in the mind.

Often I ask friends who are going through identity crisis "What TV Show are you in?" Its often a good shorthand for how they view the world. I know people who work in a very "M*A*S*H"-like environment. I've had my months and years as Bob Newhart, and there was a period when I bought into the idea that our game design department was the creative version of "The Right Stuff" (OK, that's a movie, but you get the point). Media does provide role models for our behavior, and an operating system for modern-day survival. One of the reasons that I am likely comfortable with what I'm doing is that it fits into a mode that I recognize. On my good days I can be Rob Petrie. On my bad days I can be Buddy Sorrel. On my worst days, which I want to be few and far between, I can be Alan Brady.

That's it. More later,

DOW Breaks 10000!

Woohoo! I knew that the economy would recover! Yep, all that hard work is paying off, because, after long months, we're finally seeing Wall Street recover its stride! Onward and Upward! Huzzah!

What's that?

Oh.

Never mind

More later,

Wisteria Hysteria

I've mentioned a couple times about the wisteria being in bloom. Wisteria is an relative of the pea, with drooping flowers that look at a distance like bundles of light-purple grapes. There are a number of species and varieties, including two American species, but most of the ones that are used as ornamental plants are Japanese or Chinese, and are invader species.

The wisteria in particular is currently taking over the front of the house, along the front porch overhang, around the side, and now across the two-story front. Far from fighting this invader species, my lovely wife, in the thrall of the Alien (see below) planted it next to the water barrel and has been aiding and abetting its takeover by trailing it up the porch posts and providing plastic trellis-work for it to grow along. Its a fragrant, pretty blossom, though now that summer approaches it is shedding its petals, leaving a colorful litter on the front porch.

When Kate first put in the wisteria, I was doubtful, pointing out that it hangs low right in front of the door. Kate states that this the whole point. The Irish made extensive use of wisteria, so that when British soldiers came to search the premises (no Constitutional protections there), they were at least forced to bow or remove their hats before coming in. I don't know if this is true or not, but its a good story.

What I find interesting is that I connect ornamental wisteria with England and France (when we were there, Kate would often say "Look, Honey, Wisteria!" and force me to admire a huge, gnarled collection of purple blossoms that threatened to crush the building it was attached to). Instead, this was itself was an invader species, likely brought back when the sun never set on the various empires, and now makes its way to the furthest shore in the hands of other admirers.

More later,

Pictures from an Inquisition

Despite occasional appearances to the contrary, I don’t currently have the capacity to post pictures on this journal. This is because I’ve never gotten around to claiming website space from Earthlink (and now Comcast) to store the stuff. When you do see a photo, it is from somewhere else on the web, and may or may not be there tomorrow. So bear with me as I move through this, because I’m NOT posting the pictures, but rather describing them. Most of them you’ve probably seen, but not the last.

Let’s start out with one from about two weeks back – flag-covered containers lined up in the cargo bay of a transport. War dead. It’s a somber, serious picture, taken by one of the cargo handlers. It’s sent to a friend, and run in the Seattle Times. Then the cargo handler who took it and her husband are both fired because the picture got out, and the picture is repeated EVERYWHERE. The conservapundits bluster about how this is a horrible thing at the time, but I’m not sure – we need to know that yes, this war has consequences, and we aren’t doing ourselves any favors by being in denial.

Then about a week back Nightline ran the photos and names of those that had died in the past year. Again, it was serious and somber. The pictures came from a variety of sources, from grainy shots blown up too far to family pictures to what looked like high school mugshots to military uniform pictures. I was struck by the fact that no one looks good in Marine Corps full dress. I was also struck by the diversity of the men and women we have lost, and that all but a handful were younger than I. And again, the pro-war forces huffed about how horrible it was, and one media chain in particular refused to run the show. I think of standing in military cemetary above the Normandy beaches, and thanking those that sacrificed then, and thanking those that sacrifice now.

And now there is this week and the horrific photos that come out of Abu Gharib prison. Odd twisted photos of threats and humiliation. Stuff that evoked Maplethorpe’s photo works, made more obscene by the fact these were not models, but prisoners. When I first saw them, I passed through that denial stage of the thinking process – was this staged? Who would be stupid enough to commit these acts, when we were trying to show the world that we were here to make things better? Who would be stupid enough to take pictures? And in the one case I expect a government denial, instead I get “Yep, they’re real. It happened. There’s more. And it’s much, much worse.”

And the naked human pyramids and hooded prisoners went out into the media, and this time there was less talk about protecting the American people, which made me wince again. In fact, the right-wing, which was previously harsh on anyone admitting that bad things happen in wars, seems to be positively enthusiastic about this. Drudge oozes There are videos with the breathless excitement of a pornographer. Rush compares the shots to a Britney Spears video (I think he’s being sarcastic) and saying that humiliating foreigners is an OK way for Americans to blow off steam (OK, I’m taking him off the list for the next garden party). This really creeps me out.

The perpetrators of these took the pictures. They got into the press because those involved didn’t want to be holding left holding the bag (or the hood, or the leash) alone, to show that this was condoned and encouraged by higher-ups. In fact, these shots were SHOPPED AROUND the media and government before CBS picked them up, and CBS waited to show them at the request of the military. These shots are from abuses in January, which begs a slew of new questions – How extensive was this? Who knew and when? Is this typical for other US Military Prisons? And most important, IS THIS STILL HAPPENING?

Answers are wrapped up in a fog of war (note here – the first court martial has been ordered regarding this particular case yesterday). It leaves me shaken in a way that the bunted coffins and somber call of names did not. It is the sad realization that we have blown it, have we have shown that we are not the paladins we claim to be, that we are as vulnerable to human abuse as anyone else. What kind of people do you think we are, we asked the world. That’s been decided, replies the world, now we’re just haggling about the price.

One last picture. This is one you haven’t seen, unless my friend sent it to you. It shows a gangly, short-haired young woman in desert fatigues, cutting a cake. Behind her are a number of other soldiers, also in fatigues. Some are clapping, she’s smiling and looking at how she slices the cake. Her name is Allison, and it is her 22nd birthday. She’s on the far side of the world, in Qatar, doing her boots on the ground.

This last photo is a reminder. All of the craziness is not done, and it is up to all of us to help resolve it. I’d like Allison’s 23rd birthday photo to be with her family, back in Wisconsin. I’d like to see an end of abuse of other people by Americans acting in my name. I’d like to see the loss of American military to go back to be news, not status quo. I’d like us to bring the democracy we claim for Iraq to Iraq, even if that means that they may not agree with us. And I’d like to know why we’re there, but in that I’m like a lot of other people.

I’d like a lot of things. Now I just have to figure out how to get them.

More later,

Real Headline

"Push for Productivity finally adds hiring back into the mix

"Companies rediscover that to get more work done, they need workers."

Well, Duh.

More later,

Footnote:

I must confess that my attempts to get "bondage" mentioned in the ad copy failed horribly, but that Heroclix succeeded. Tells you where the ad dollars are coming from.

Heh.

More later,

Bad Quiz (no donut)

So here's a quiz result:


You are most like Raven. Quiet and usually soft
spoken, you don't like crowds and can be
slightly gothic. You try to repress your
emotions for one reason or another but one of
your most powerful emotions is your anger. Your
temper sometimes gets the best of you and when
that happens those in your way would wish they
weren't. You seem somewhat creepy to others and
you earn a few odd stares but who cares? You
aren't an outdoors person and avoid venturing
outside when you can. You are generally the
smart one and maybe not by trying to, the most
cynical and sarcastic of the bunch which can be
good or bad. You don't like anyone invading
your privacy and you don't seem to be all that
social. But for what it's worth you can be
quite handy in a tough situation. You are drawn
to the darkness or night most of the time. You
appear mysterious and/or potentially dangerous
at times and not everyone trusts you right
away.

Which Teen Titans Character Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

OK, but I don't really recommend it since this is a Bad Quiz. Its a bad quiz because as you take it, you know which answer automatically links up with which Teen Titan (if you have any familiarity with the Teen Titans, and if you don't, why take the quiz). A better quiz asks general questions and calculates which figures would answer the same way. This quiz? Its effectively asking off the start "What Titan are you" and just counting the number of times you vote for a particular titan.

Meh.

More later,

Heroclix

So I was going to write up something about the Fifth of May and how much most people don't know about Mexican History, under the title "Cinqo, hold the Mayo". Instead, Brainstormfront sent me this link, which sends my thoughts in a different direction.

Marv Wolfman is a great comics creators, and from my time at WizKids, I know he's also a fan of the Heroclix game. Which makes me very, very happy to see that he likes what we did with both Cyborg and Raven, part of the Unleashed set for DC Heroclix. The Unleashed set is probably the best thing I did in my near-year at the 'Kids, and I am particularly happy with the fact that its gotten a very positive fan response (why yes, I DO lurk on the boards over at HCRealms.com).

I did a lot of things, great and small, at the 'Kids, and had a great time working with the people there. I am particularly happy with Unleashed, and with the non-player Galactus rules (the player-Galactus was added after my departure), as they both represented a great deal of personal sweat and toil. But glory is fleeting and time marches on. Now the next set in the offing is for Marvel, called Ultimates, and while I had a lot to do with the figure choice, beyond that, my main contribution was on the first drafts on the more common figures (the layoffs occured when when I was half-way through the unique figures). A lot of development, revision, and playtesting occurs over the course of the design project, and I have faith that the gang has taken the ball and put together a really good product. I'm looking forward to seeing what they did with it, and I don't doubt I'll be pleased with it, but Unleashed was the personal high-water mark for my tenure there.

I was thinking about the 'Kids for another reason, since I just hit the six-month mark at the Wizards of the Coast offices, first as a temp, then as an employee/consultant with True North Media and Arts, our kinda-freelance web design team. I know its the six-month mark because Outlook refused my password, and I had to get a new one. For security reasons, everyone gets new passwords every three months, but because I use a Macintosh at work, I have to drop in on Technical Services down the hall and feed a new one in as opposed to making it up at my desk. Its no real trouble (though I was on a tight deadline when it conked out on me, the process is relatively painless and the TS folk are cool), but since this reminder hits every three months, its an interesting clock to keep track of my time and accomplishments there as well.

But more about those accomplishments later,

Memo

To: All Employees
Fr: The Mgt.
Re: New Building Security

All,

In an effort to increase our corporate security, we have installed new electronic locks throughout the campus. The previous key-cards will no longer function with these new locks - however, since the key-cards also double as ID Badges, employees will still be required to wear them on neck lanyards and/or produce them if called upon by building security.

The new security system functions off a DNA Identification/Activation system. Saliva inserted into the locking mechanism is analyzed and access granted if it matches the database. Temperature is also monitored to prevent fraudulent entry, so it is highly recommended that employees place their tongues directly into the identification slot as opposed to merely licking their finger and inserting it. The latter method has resulted in a number of false alarms for building security and will be discouraged.

The new sensors are mounted next to each external and internal door, in the same location as the previous locks, at belt-level. Kneeling pads have been ordered and will arrive in 4-8 weeks, and we ask for everyone to be understanding in the meantime.

Remember, building security is up to the employees, and good security is worth a little personal discomfort.

The Mgt.

Party of the First Part

So Saturday morning was the caucus for the 47th legislative district Democrats. Back in February, I reported on my earlier adventure in the caucus process, which resulted in me becoming a reluctant Edwards supporter. This get-together was to choose real delegates that go up to the STATE level which then chooses the hardest of the hard-core to go up to National level at Boston. Yeah, it sounds like a reality-show on FOX. By this summer, three people from the 47th will get the shot at paying their own way to get the convention. I will not be one of them.

First off, the caucus was held at Kentlake Senior High which is (of course) nowhere near Kent, but rather far to the Southeast, towards the geographic heart of the 47th, in Lake Sawyer (halfway between Covington and Black Diamond). We convened in the high school basketball court, home of the Kentlake Falcons. This is an area which has not yet felt the heavy tread of the developers, so its a nice area with a lot of woods (we were near the Elk Migration area). Driving the roads, though, I can see why transportation is such a major issue further to the south and east - every road is a small two-lane, and traffic backs up at the slightest provocation.

The Caucus itself was a zoo. The old-timers I talked to told me about when they would have 10 people for a delegation some years. We had 313 registered delegates total for the caucus, plus a host of other supporters and alternates. Registration stated at 9 and went well past the 10 AM deadline. All four of the delegates from Rush district made it down (Kristine and Geraldine for Kerry, me and Richard for Edwards), which made me happy for our group. Though we were not required to vote for who we said we were going to vote for, both Richard and I carried through with first-ballot votes for Edwards. Much of the rest of the Edwards supporters drifted, so Richard and I were two of the only three official Edwards votes. Without sufficient support, we were cut loose - Richard went to the Kerry camp, and I went back to Dean (I was originally a Dean supporter at the start).

For our Congressional district, the only candidates with sufficient support to more forward were Kerry and Dean. It worked out to 19 state delegates for Kerry, 9 state delegates for Dean. At this stage, we had to choose delgates themselves. Each person interested had a numbered card (shades of A Chorus Line), and spoke out to why they should represent Dean. These ranged from shoo-ins (the local Dean organizer, the woman who was the first local Dean contributor in the area) to college students, to Union folk, to a mother-son team and a firebrand Anti-Bush preacher (who was the walking definition of "preaching to the choir"). We had 19 people running for the 9 slots. Kerry's team (the "larger half" at the other end of the bleachers) had about twice that many. We got off lucky - Phil, who was a local Dean delegate up in the city, said his caucus had 135 delegate candidates. Figure a minute tops per speech and the math becomes horrible.

We got off easy on delegate speeches. Where it truly bogged down on us was vote counting, first for the initial preferences, and then for the delegates themselves. Tyler, who organized our original caucus, had other speakers available, but we exhausted the bag of tricks during the initial counts, so we started to see some real voter erosion as the caucus moved on. I got to hear for the first time 8th Congressional district candidate Heidi Behrens-Benedict (a smart, thoughtful woman) and Geoff Simpson (passionate, loud, and brought the crowd to its feet). Also speaking were Pat Sullivan (enthused and very, very young) and Mike Gregoire, husband of Gubernatorial Candidate Christine Gregoire (older, choppy delivery). There was a local blogger, who concentrates on academia, and a granger speaking out on the return of the blanket primary (which didn't go over well with this crowd - after all, it the organized polical parties that wanted to ditch the blanket primary in the first place).

Anyway, I had gotten there about 9:30, and with the huge lines for registration, speakers did not start until 10:15 or so. Computer screwup and double-checking inital ballots took another hour, hour and half. Then came the choosing of the delegates. By that time it was 12:30, and I had to go. I have no idea if the firebrand preacher made it, or the college students, or the mother-son team. I had to leave before the choosing of the alternates and the passage of resolutions calling for the creation of the Department of Peace, revealed what we gave away exactly to Boeing, and the impeaching the current president. That's because I had the Other party to worry about. Which leads me to . . .

Party of the Second Part

I'll be frank - I dread hosting parties. I particularly dread hosting garden parties, since Kate and I have had the worst luck with them. Last time we did a garden party out here we got cold, hard rain on May 1. Last time we did a May Day party in Lake Geneva, it SNOWED. So a Garden Party here also meant cleaning the house and preparing WAY too much food - Brats soaked in beer, burgers, and Kate spend way too long plank-cooking a salmon on the grill (it was very good, but she had to finish it the broiler - it was too thick for the bed of coals we had).

We had about thirty people who were from a wide variety of our parts of our lives. I've done parties were everyone was from my place of business, but this was a sprawl with people from former jobs, poker games, current positions, long-time friends and others. The end result was a very interesting melange of people. We thankfully have some friends who are fearless social interactors and will talk to anyonel. In particular, we had three couples with infants, and the kids were incredibly well-behaved. Our household is baby-tolerant but I worry about it being baby-friendly and completely baby-safe, but there were no problems (though we did hear from one couple afterwards - their daughter had blown through two nap periods over the course of the party and was now loudly resisting going to bed ever again).

So the food was good and the company was excellent (so I hear - the other problem with being a host is you don't get to smooze nearly as much as you do as a guest). The weather was great and the garden was as good as it has ever looked. Timing worked out great, the rhodies in the front and back were in full flower, and the wisteria was rampant over the front door (I really have to do a bit on the wisteria for this journal). The dandelions were defeated and the moles had yet to invade. Let me say to everyone - THIS YARD WILL NEVER LOOK THIS GOOD AGAIN.

There was one casualty (splinter from the pole). One total brain melt-down (I mangled the names of a friend's wife and child (both of whom I know) immediately upon trying to introduce them to others). No one set themselves on fire. No police were called. Furniture and lawn ornaments were given back-stories. Good food was consumed. Croquet variants involving use of multiple mallets were created by five-year-olds. Bocce was played in the mole-modified backyard. Lawnrolling was recommended. A good time was had by all.

And now I'm taking the day off.

More later,

Less Generic Than Originally Intended

Great weather for party prep: The rhodies are in bloom, as is the wisteria, and buttercups have taken over for dandelions in the yard. Speaking of taking over, "The Alien" has taken over Kate at the 11th hour, and she has suddenly replanted all the rose bushes that were not doing well in front of the house for the past four years. Two roses are in huge green planters at the driveway entrance and the others have been moved to safe locations. They have been replaced in the front garden by ferns.

What is the "The Alien"? The Alien is an extraterrestrial force that takes command of my wife and makes her buy plants, usually perennials but often a wide variety of foliage. I have known about The Alien for years, and can only assume that a member of the Lovecraftian Great Race takes command and makes her engage in botany, since she is usually much more sane.

For my part, it was housecleaning and lawn (they are moving my department to another building at work today). Pumped up some volleyballs, but I'm not 100% sure we'll put up the net. We'll see what its like tomorrow.

Kate has a H&R Block meeting tomorrow morning, and I am going to the Fighting 47th Legislative District Democratic Caucus. I deeply suspect this it going to be a rubberstamp rah-rah for the front-runner, but we shall see.

And tonight Nightline is reading a list of the fallen in Iraq, which echoes the old Life magazines, though the mags showed a week's casualties as opposed to year. Apparently a chain that owns eight ABC stations, Sinclair, has decided to protect its viewers from the idea that Freedom has a price by not running the program. Other arrangements have been made in places like Columbus and St. Louis, and a lot of dirt on the station owners that would otherwise be ignored is now bubbling to the surface. Among such flotsam shaking loose is the recent arrest of Sinclair's CEO in a prostitution sting operation, which involves him picking up hookers in a company car.

Yaknow, if my company is getting a lot of attention for its ethical decisions, the one thing I don't want to do is suddenly get myself busted for some ethical violation. But that would be me.

Sinclair does not have any stations in the Seattle area, but owns both Fox and WB stations in Pittsburgh. So the readership there will likely be protected from similar things there (like they were protected by Clear Channel from Howard Stern).

And speaking of media, I am regularly amused by the little box at the top of the blog. Blogger is paid for by commercials, so references to the recent Senatorial campaign in PA (which still looks weird with the sudden appearance of a candidate of far right "Constitutional Party" giving hope to disenfranchised Toomey-ites) brings up Repub messages. And before that the quip about Jesus gets me Christian commercials. So its a pretty dumb process, as processes go.

So it occurs to me that if I put the word "bondage" in the text, I might get kinky sex spam at the top of the page. Not that I would use the word "bondage" in this blog, other than to talk about "Of Human Bondage" or puns like "James Bondage" or "Stocks and Bondage". But I'm wondering if I say "Bondage" often enough it will balance out the rest of the commercial clues. Hmmmmm.

(looks both ways before stepping out into traffic)

Bondage, bondage, bondage! Bondage!

More later,

Generic Update

Fighting a cold and preparing for a party, so I don't have much to say.

In PA, Mr. Specter defeated Mr. Toomey, creating a hopefully more-sane general election for Pennsylvania's senate seat. Let others spin mightily about what it means - I have to sneeze.

And here is today's secret message - let all those who read this and know they must Rsvp, let them Rsvp - we've already bought the salmon.

More later,

Killer Quote

"When you sleep with Jesus, you sleep with everyone that has slept with Jesus."
---Me

PA Politics

So tomorrow is the Republican primary in PA for Senator, and according to the lib blogs, a victory for right-winger Pat Toomey is a victory for Kerry, since the moderate Repubs, concerned about Toomey's far-right support that the moderates will sit out the election and Kerry will beat Bush in PA.

No, no, wait a minute. If Specter wins it its a victory for Kerry because the Conservatives will be offended by pro-choice moderate Specter and boycott the elections and Kerry will beat Bush in PA.

No, no, hang on. Bush, who is more like Toomey than Spector, endorsed Spector so a Toomey victory will be a slap in the face to Bush. No, wait, Toomey is more like Bush, so a Spector victory shows that Bush is just another political flip-flopper and will sell out his political soul mates. Or his political allies. Or the terrorists win.

No, Toomey will . . . no, wait, Spector. . . no, hang on, if Bush, I mean, should Kerry . . . .

Look guys, just vote.

More later,

Play: Blues, Brothers

It Ain't Nothin' But The Blues By Charles Bevel, Lita Gaithers, Randal Myler, Ron Taylor and Dan Wheetman, directed by Randal Myler, Seattle Rep until 8 May.

Its Saturday afternoon and my ears are still ringing from a righteous blues program. The Rep closes its season with a celebration of the blues that shines like a steel guitar. An incredibly talented ensemble that delivers a history of the music, forged of African rhythms and American slavery. Blues streaks across the firmament, throwing off sparks for gospel, country, and jazz from its rural roots. That's Act I. Act II is when the Blues hits uptown, makes it to Chicago and the Grand Old Opry and torch songs. It takes a strong nod to bitter reality beneath the music with "Strange Fruit" (a banned song about lynching), then closes on a upswing with "Let the Good Times Roll" which brought the crowd to its feet for an ovation.

For me, the urban Act II engaged me more and (heaven forbid) made me miss the windy city. And in Act I, "My Home's Across the Blue Ridge Mountains" a traditional Appalachian song showing the connection between the early Blue and the rural white music, caught me in the throat, and it was warbled beautifully by Tamra Hayden.

Top to bottom, the ensemble was fantastic, and in addition to Ms. Hayden, consisted of "Mississippi" Charles Bevel, Dan Wheetman (both Bevel and Wheetman wrote the original) Kingsley Leggs, Chic Street Man, the formidable Jewel Tomkins, and the sensuous Debra Laws. Each had a chance to dazzle, and dazzle they did - both men and women were smooth and sultry. Most of their bios show that they've been involved with earlier versions of the show, and it feels like you've been invited into their home - they are comfortable with the material, and have no problem with showing it off.

Indeed, the singers upstage the set. When I first walked into the theatre, I saw two huge projection screens over the back, and gritted my teeth for slide show presentations. Yeah, they are there, but are completely overwhelmed by the power and talent of the ensemble. The photos underscore, but do not dominate, the music.

In particular, this earthy, human, solid visit with the American blues is amazing, especially compared with the cyber-borged access to music at the EMP across the Seattle Center (Look in the old files for "I Experience Music"). Museum peices and music excerpts are good enough for a research level, food for the eyes and brain. This is live and thriving and feeds the ears and the heart instead. If you get a chance, go see it.

More later,

Political Shooters

So, you think the current guy in the White House is a real American action hero, capable of dealing with terrorists like Harrison Ford? If you do, you should check out this game.

On the other hand, if you think the current guy in the White House is a trigger-happy cowboy that would shoot at anything that moves, then check out THIS game.

(Keep an eye out for Dr. Rice and her twin machine pistols. Woo!)

More later,

Life and Times

A short one, this time, as I am adapting to new technology. Kate had Comcast cable modem service installed this morning, which was relatively painless, though I got a couple phone calls about passwords that made me wonder what they were doing with my computer. One thing I notice right off the bat is that download speed zips right along, which creates an interesting problem: I am used to keeping a book at the desk to read while the larger pages download. Can I tolerate raw information? (I already screwed up this entry once (though it may not be connected directly to this and am re-entering it.)

Eric the food-poisoned over at Mystical Forest notes that the Pepys diaries are available online here. It pretty much underscores the day-to-day nature of Pepys' entries and the daily life of working and living in London. The Monkey King lists this site as one of his LiveJournal "friends" so you can get a semi-daily dose of Mr. Pepys.

Also, the winner of the Factoria robot-wars was "Ripple", a wedge-bot with a lifting arm. Just in case you were curious.

More later,

Rockem-Sockem Robots

So as I was doing other errands today, including research for a book, I stopped in at the Factoria Mall to watch combat robots. One of the guys at my old office, Adam, (who is in the minority in that he is still employed there) was running his 'bots there. A married couple from my poker group also often battles, but their 'bots, "IT" and "THEM" are currently out of action, and they gave this one a pass.

The robots in question are "antweights" - these are battlebots that weigh about a pound and are about the size of a radio-controlled vehicle (they're operated in much the same way). Antweights are pretty handy for live displays in public areas, like malls, because they don't require a lot of protection. The "battle-box" is a five-foot plexiglass cube that rests comfortably on top of a set folding tables, and there was no time that the crowd felt it was in danger.

I stayed for the opening rounds where my Adam's "Defiance", a wedge bot (hard to flip), triumphed over "Mission Control", a lifter bot (that relies on flipping), on points. Then two spinner bots, "Spinner's Rule" and the Klingon-decaled "Bork-TAS" went at it. Spinners are normally high-damage bots, since they are mini-sawblades on wheels. They are also fragile, in that both got their spinners out of action (Bork-TAS won that one). Then a new kid's homebuilt wedge - "Fajita Man" got nailed by Adam's "Mister Twister", another sawblade, on a TKO (Adam had three of his 'bots in the competition, which is permitted, as long as he can keep them running). I had to book out before the semi-final rounds, and they were talking about a round-robin fight for the "Beetleweights" (5 lb combat robots).

The competition attracted a good-size crowd of geeks, other competitors, and mall walkers for an otherwise sparsely attended mall. Watching the robot builders reminded me of model railroaders, as they talked about scale and wiring and patches and fixes. Of course, this is more competitive, but all the builders struck me as being pretty easy-going about their hobby, even though their hobby was building machines of destruction (though again, the destruction is pretty limited for a self-powered device).

Its interesting and fun, their website is here, and I should add that Adam did the thunderbird design for their group.

More later,

Book on Tape: Props to my Pepys

Pepys' Diary; Samual Pepys, Read by Kenneth Branagh. 1995 HighBridge Company, 9 hours on 6 cassettes.

So when I was working for Wizkids, I had a half-hour commute up and back from Bellevue, and listened to books on tape over the drive. Now I drive down the hill to work, and rarely turn on the radio, much less the tape player, unless there is traffic. As a result, it taken me six months to finish listening to this collection, which I started before leaving Wizkids.

Samual Pepys (pronounced "peeps" - hence the pun in the title) kept a diary for ten years, from 1659 to 1669. He was lower middle class, but over the course of events rose to upper middle classdom as a bureaucrat for the Navy. During the period he kept this journal he records the Plague, the Great Fire of London, and two wars with the Dutch. He also records a huge amount of personal life of the era - dining, visiting, housekeeping, theatre, and scandal, which is what makes his diary such a boon to people wanting to know of the period. Of particular interest to our current sensibilities is the rah-rah run-up to a war with the Dutch (combined with plans for making good money off it), followed by the ashen realization that the British were not going to win (the Dutch actually landed troops on England at one point), and the political assigning of the blame thereafter.

Pepys himself is, to be polite, a bit of a bounder. He drinks, wenches, and attends the theatre, and bemoans his fleshy weakness throughout. He is not above trading sexual favors for political advancement as a matter of doing business, but flies into a righteous fury when he believes his wife is having an affair with the dance instructor. And his final year of recording is taken up with the fallout of him being caught feeling up his wife's maid. His wife puts him through hell for this, and he is such a victim within his diary that you feel sympathy for him, until you realize - oh yeah, his wife caught him feeling up the maid.

Sam Pepys is also deeply, deeply concerned with his money. His diary is filled with transactions, both legitamate and less-so (though he takes pride in giving good service for his bribes, and expecting likewise). During the Great Fire his worry was less for the citizens of London but for the fact that he had to get his lockbox of plate and gold out of the city. He sends it out with his wife, father, and some servants, and then flies into a fury when he finds out they buried in their country garden, in full view of the neighboring houses. The coins that passed through Pepys' fingers were well-squeezed, and his honesty about his greed (and other sins) makes the diary good entertainment.

The book on tape format is a good one for the diary, which is, at heart, a diary. A solid read-through of the book (and this is abridged, as the original diary is 9 volumes) would be plodding. The only other gripe is that whenever Sam descends into his wenching ways, he shifts to a patois of French and Latin to provide some linguistic cover for his acitons (or perhaps there were no decent English words at the time). At those points reader Branagh also drops his voice and softly mutters the words, which makes it difficult to hear above the road noise.

The diary ends on a cliffhanger - Pepys declares that his eyes (which he always complaining of) have become too weak, such that he must trust others to keep his diaries, and cannot be as honest. Plus the fact that he is going to the Netherlands as an observer/spy. Plus he needs to get out of town because he is still moonsick about the maid. It seems like a collection of pat answers, but there it ends (if others did keep up the diaries, they did not survive, as far as I know). Most likely, much like these on-line journals, Pepys tired of keeping it, and, aware that they could be read by others years afterwards, went his own way without them. We know that three years after ending the diaries, he was elected to Parliament, and that in the mid-eighties he was responsible for reforms in the British Navy which helped strenghthen it for the next century. But never did we see the continuance of honesty, gossip, and personal failings that made up Sam Pepys in his journal of this decade.

More later,

PA Politics

So my home state, Pennsylvania (Motto - "We're a Commonwealth, and Don't You Forget It!") is having a primary in the next few weeks on the Republican side. The Dems already have a guy, state rep Joe Hoeffel, who, from his photograph on his site, looks like he should be stealing artifacts from Indiana Jones, but that's not the worry right now. The Repubs have long-standing warhorse incumbent Arlen Specter against pressed-against-the-right-wing-wall Pat Toomey. It looks close, moreso than usual in such cases.

So there was a debate, and the Hoeffel campaign did a remix for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy.

More later,

Another View of the Press Conference

This one is from Brian in New York, who is barely coming to terms with the idea of an Internet, must less on-line journals. Presented here with his permission:

"Its like having a press conference with Teddy Ruxpin or a Magic Eight-Ball. With the Eightball you get a random response. With Teddy Ruxpin you get a pre-programmed response. Regardless, after about 15 answers, you realize that its just repeating itself."

For the record, the Press Conference was 16 questions long.

More later,

Kijmonkey Reads

Kij Johnson is a wonderful fantasy author and friend, and when I first came out here, she invited me to join her writer's group. The group was the Thousand Monkeys, and Kij and her husband Chris (both noted in the links to the right) were the heart of the group - since their departure to Kansas, the Monkeys have slumbered. In any event, Kij's first fantasy novel was The Fox Woman, and her second, Fudoki has recently come out. Kij and Chris are in Seattle this week attending both Norwescon last weekend and the upcoming Nebula awards.

The upshot of all this is that Kij did a reading for Fudoki at Elliot Bay bookstore this evening, and put out a call in her own journal for friendly faces in the audience. About a dozen people showed up, and the bulk of attendees were such friendly faces. Kate and I had Tai Chi that evening in the nearby International District, so, still sweaty from 42-form sword class, we came down to listen as well.

Elliot Bay is probably Seattle's best indy bookstore. Though Third Place books and University are very good as well, Elliot Bay definitely has them beat on atmosphere. Elliot Bay is situated a block from Pioneer Square, snaking along several sprawling storefronts that it has taken over over time. As a result, its interior is a mixture of old exposed brickwork, home-made shelves, and lots of nooks, crannies, and lofts. Downstairs is a bakery/coffee shop and used books (in no particular order) and it is there that the reading was held. This is the working definition of "Seattle Bookstore".

Kij was resplendent as the Author (dressing in black, her hair short red locks), seated in a comfortable chair before a microphone for the reading. I fear our seats were less than comfortable, and my own back is still complaining. Kij read the opening chapter of her book, known to our writer's group as "The Cat Story". It is the japanese tale of a cat made into a human by a kami (spirit/god) and who suffers because of it. The title refers to the heritage and the storyline of cat families.

Kij's writing is lyrical and appealing and descriptive and engaging. Her reading it just underscores these strengths, and (despite the hard chairs) she was a joy to listen to. Despite a little nervousness, she did very, very well. So well that when we got back to the house, Kate made me dig out my copy of The Fox Woman so she could read both novels. I enjoyed Fox Woman and look forward to enjoying this one as well (as soon as my back stops twinging).

I've done the Author-Reading thing myself, and it has varied between OK and petrifying, so I am more than willing to support other writers who are faced with the daunting task of turning their print into sound. I'm glad I got a chance to see Kij (and Chris, and Mike, a third writer I had not seen since the monkeys faded into slumber), but I am particularly glad to have heard her read.

More later,

Shorter Unmistakable Press Conference

"I stake my presidency on our policy in Iraq"

Snarkier Press Conference

"Look at my tie! Look at my day-glo, rainbow tie! You're all getting tired and more suggestable!"

More later

Allez, Cuisine!

It has been established in this journal that I'm a foodie - I watch cooking shows. I experiment with recipes from the newspaper. I even read recipe books. And as a foodie, I'm getting pretty excited about the upcoming Iron Chef America specials that are coming up on Food TV the weekend of the 23rd.

For those of you who have not encountered it, the original Iron Chef is a Japanese import: two parts cooking show, two parts sports match. The host (Chairman Kaga, looking like a mad scientist in sequins) has supposedly recruited the best chefs in Japan, his Iron Chefs, and challengers come in every show to cook-off against them in a 1-hour time limit with a mystery ingredient (Crab! Summer Squash! Sea Cucumber!). A panel of celebrity experts (ranging from singers and actors to a fortune teller and a member of the Lower House) judge the meals. The Iron Chefs win two times out of three, and the cooking is given a play-by-play by a baseball announcer and a color commentator. The show has its own ritual pattern, and has a wide audience. It can currently be found on Food Network at about 11 PM every weeknight now.

So this show was incredibly popular in Japan, and a cult hit (with dubbing and subtitles) in America. So they decided to do an American version, and UPN hosted two Iron Chef America specials.

And they were horrible. Pretty much the definition of someone taking an idea and just not understanding what it was that made it popular in the first place. They filmed it in Vegas. They had a loud studio audience with pre-made signs. They had it hosted by Bill Shatner. No one had heard of the chefs. It was a badly-congealed mess. After the first one, they shifted the second special to a time slot where it would do minimal damage (hey, its UPN), and everyone figured the Iron Chef was done.

But Food Network, who has done very well off the original Iron Chef shows, has resurrected the idea with its own specials, and it looks like they get "it". First off, the American Iron Chefs are recognizable names to Foodies - these are guys with their own shows on the Food Network and on PBS - Bobby Flay, Mario Batali, and Wolfgang Puck. Then they invite as the first challengers two of the Japanese Iron Chefs - Hiroyuki Sakai and Masaharu Morimoto (Mormimoto has a resturant in Philly, and Sakai is opening one in Hawaii, so they've got their own investment in hitting the American audience). Instant name recognition.

And I heard the kicker today - the color commentary for the show will be Alton Brown, who (of course) has his OWN show on Food TV, the cerebral and entertaining Good Eats. Alton would have been my choice for color commentator that knows his stuff. Still don't know who the "chairman/host" will be of the show.

This, for all intents and purposes, is a good matchup, and I have high hopes for this. I mean, better than the hopes I had for the first Star Trek movie. This is really appealing to my food geekiness. Cool!

More later,

Oh, Yes! Wyoming!

So about a week or two back I mentioned the website with the Superman/Seinfeld teamup. One of the properties of a good website is that it keeps adding stuff, which means viewers will come back repeatedly.

In this case, the site has added the Good Morning, America interview with Superman and Jerry to promote the website, a photo album of the two together (watching a baseball game from the stadium light supports), and, most importantly, a sing-along from the Broadway musical "Oh, Yes, Wyoming!" which is featured in the movie-mercial.

I think the song has the potential to be the next "Badger, Badger, Badger". Its here.

More later,

Shorter Bush Ad Reload

We've blown 50 million and dropped seven points. Let's try this again, with flashier graphics.

[Note: This journal will provide Shorter Kerry Ads as soon as we see a Kerry ad]

More later,

Quote of the Day

Only God would create something smart enough to doubt His existence. He's that good.
-- Me

On the Road Again: Dialogue

So I'm on the West Valley Freeway, looking at the northbound ends of two southbound trucks. The truck on the left is an SUV with a bumper sticker imploring questioning about the owner's honor student. The truck on the right is pickup that honestly looks like its been used to pick something up in the past few days.

The left-hand-SUV has a bumpersticker a headshot of John Kerry, with the thought balloon "I hope to someday make this country as great as France."

The right-hand pickup has a bumpersticker that looks like it says "BUSH" but you almost-immediately notice that they've added an "IT" to the end and a couple "L"s after the U in another color to spell out an effective curse.

Oh yeah, we're a swing state.

More later,

The Five is Back

Its been down for the past few weeks, so I haven't been keeping up with it, but now its back again.

1. What do you do for a living? My day job is a copy writer of True Media Arts and Design (that looks like the final name), a division of True North Consulting. That sounds cooler than it is - we're about a dozen people do web design for Hasbro and other clients.

2. What do you like most about your job? I get to express my gaming goobness out to a larger number of products, and figure out cool things to say about Super Soakers and EASY-BAKE ovens. I also get to watch the craziness at my old job (at WotC/Hasbro) without being in the direct line of fire.

3. What do you like least about your job? We're a young company, and we're still working out the bugs. We have medical, but we're still working out the kinks of direct deposit.

4. When you have a bad day at work it's usually because _____... Of a surprise that we didn't expect. Of a dead deadline that sudden reactivated. Of feedback from the client that we need to respond to.

5. What other career(s) are you interested in? In my other life, I write - novels, short stories, comic books, games. Though at the moment, most of the time I spend just digging weeds in the lawn (it remains beautiful out here - almost creepily so).

More later,

Quote of the Day

"Let us rid ourselves of the fiction that low oil prices are somehow good for the United States,"
Wyoming Congressman Dick Cheney, 1986, upon sponsoring legislation to increase import taxes on foreign oil.

Iraq

Its been a year. We need to talk. This is a little more disjointed than usual, but there is a lot of ground to cover.

A year ago a group of Iraqis toppled the statue of Saddam. It was a big, iconic moment in the war. This morning the local paper has a picture of a US Soldier in the same square, pulling off pictures of a popular Shiite cleric opposing the US occupation. Between those two points has been a year of frustration and loss for everyone involved.

From a personal level, the war is going better. This means nothing more than the people that I know are further away from the bad parts of the conflict. The daughter of a good friend has been moved from Kuwait to Qatar (where she has quarters with real walls and a TFIFridays in close proximity). An old college D&D friend, now a Lt. Col, has been relocated from Qatar to North Dakota. One of my poker buddies, who was assigned in "the part of Baghdad the President DOESN'T visit" (his quote), is back, and it looks like for keeps (we celebrated by taking a lot of his money last Friday in pot-matching games). And Kate's fellow Star Wars player, the one with solid preventive medical knowledge? They waited so long to deploy his unit that they fell to the bottom of the rotation.

Yet we've lost over 600 good people over there, and things are getting worse. Having won the war, we're being challenged to win the peace. And suddenly news is getting spotty and hard to confirm - Who controls what? How are we doing? Where are our people? Do we have a plan? Even the pundocracy seems a little confused - no one wants to say something that immediately blows up in their faces.

The boss is on the ranch in Texas (again), but I understand he's made a few phone calls.

And the whole June 30th turnover date is a mirage - not because it won't happen, but because everyone is playing it like that will be the end of our involvement. We're putting up permanent bases in Iraq, and will have a large military presence there for some time to come. And if the present government is threatened, we will be targets.

Daniel Ellsberg, in the memoirs, talks about his own research into Vietnam, which eventually became the Pentagon Papers. He points out that we got in deeper not when we were convinced we would win the conflict, but rather when it became clear we would lose. Faced with that hard truth, we committed more troops, even though with those additional troops, we would still lose. Similarly, faced with a number of popular uprisings, instead of asking why we're here, we are moving to push more resources (US Military Forces) into play. While a lot of the popular press is waving the "Vietnam Quagmire" flag, this is one area where we should be paying attention. Those who choose to forget the past and all that.

In the wake of the Fallujah attacks, a number of our chickenhawk pundits have fired back with "They don't deserve democracy - let's leave". I don't think they are wrong - not about the Iraqis not deserving democracy, but about us leaving. And I'm more than willing to leave for a bad reason, because we still can't explain why we're there in the first place.

The polite, shorter version of the Iraqi mood is "Thank you for getting rid of a tyrant. Please don't let the door hit you on the way out." I think we need to listen.

More later,

Emily Cat

Tuesday night our remaining cat, Emily, took a turn for the worse. Emily is 16 years old and starting to move into "old cat" mode - a little less spry, a little more willing to spend the day napping on the waterbed. On Tuesday she suddenly folded in on herself, curling up and refusing to eat, move, or respond at all. She was never a big cat, but by the time we took her to the vet on Wednesday, she had lost a pound from her last check-up, and she was becoming less able to move around (up to that Tuesday she had been her normal self - demanding lap-space from anyone watching TV and begging for scraps at the dining room table).

We took her to the vet, and the worst night of it was Wednesday. She has a high white cell count, and we're giving her antibiotics, in addition, they rehydrated her, injecting water into her system.

She has recovered somewhat, in that she is now alert and grooming herself, but she still is frail and not eating nearly enough to recover (We are tempting her with turkey baby food and roast beef). She is not out of the woods yet, but we have hope now.

So that's what I've been doing for the past few days (Well, that and a sudden emergency project that just exploded and which I had to deal with because everyone else on the team was out of the office). So I'm a bit worn with it all.

More later,

Back In Action

Back again after a brief interuption. Actually, on Saturday, when I discovered that Kate had loosened the phone wiring when raking the patio, I called Qwest and waded through their electronic message system (they had closed fifteen minutes before I called, Mountain Time), and scheduled a house call, and after ten minutes was told that a repair-entity would be dispatched to my house by 8 PM the following day (Sunday). I thought to myself "yeah, right", and hung up.

And the repair-entity showed up before noon Sunday, determined that yeah, it was a loose hookup, and repaired it then and there. No problem. Kudos to my phone company!

After that I stayed offline for a day because it was such a good day after all, and worked in the lawn with my weed hound. Like Shelly spouse to the Monkey King, I have one of these little weed-catching devices, which looks like a green cane with retractable prongs at the end. Sort of the gardening equivalent of Wolverine. I've been pulling bucket after bucket of yellow-headed dandilions out of the yard, leaving it green each evening, and coming home from work to find more sprouted.

Hey, its a hobby.

In other news, I'm adding two new sites and a blog to the checks at the right.

My Dovehaven is Shaun and Miranda's web page complete with message boards. Shaun and Miranda are former WotC, now in the heart of the heart of the country.

Stevemillersband belongs to Steve Miller (no, the other one), and is always under construction, so don't let that stop you. Steve's message board is cool, but be warned - he listens to a lot of Art Bell. The lovely and talented Steve is also former WotC, and is Kate's Star Wars GM.

Brainstormfront is one more old friend from WotC, Steven Schend. The talented and lovely Steven now has to post more often, since I've hooked him up to my chunk of the blogiverse.

In other blog-related news, the Sloganator is back, though as a private site. Here's your chance to make up your own sign ("Don't Change Horses in Mid-Apocalypse" is always a fave). Hurry, before the Bush/Cheney campaign catches up with them.

And in OTHER other news, while I was writing this, I was push-polled! Apparently I made it through the opening gates of their polling (Votes, mostly Democrat, local, yadda yadda). Then a lot of questions about an upcoming initiative on the ballot to alleviate property taxes by allowing non-tribal casinos to have slot machines. Lot of questions along the lines of if I think its fair that Indians get to have slots and other gambling establishments (we have card rooms here in Washington State) don't. You can imagine my response ("Hey, let's give the Native Americans back their land, THEN we can whine about fairness"). I was amused by the clumsiness of it all and the poor young man was very pleasant, but I don't think I was going in the direction he wanted me to. So obviously, there is now going to be more on this journal about this issue as we go along. (They asked if I was a newsperson - they didn't ask if I was a blogger).

AND in other, other, other news, have another quiz result:


You are Bob Herbert! You're not the most sparkling
writer, but one of the most solid and selfless
on the Op-Ed staff. You focus on New York
politics, the poor, race issues, and civil
liberties. You like to quote others, and rarely
place yourself in your columns. You keep it
real. Seriously.

Which New York  Times Op-Ed Columnist Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

I can honestly say I have no idea who this guy is. I guess he doesn't hold the proper credentials to be a pundit.

More later,

A Pause

The greatest detriment to blogging is good weather, and its been beautiful out here for a week now, and I notice that my fellows have similarly been taking advantage of the warmth and sunlight.

As a secondary effect, there is a reduction to blogging because Kate has cleaned out the leaves around the phone box, knocking the computer line into the house out again. Running this on the house line right now, but want to keep it as free as possible.

More later, after repairs.

Another Unsurprising Quiz

Too nice a day, today - going out to the mow the lawn. In the meantime, this should hold you:

Take the quiz: "Which American City Are You?"

Seattle
Your dark exterior masks a caffeine driven activism.  You'll take up a cause and you'll get ugly to advance it.

More later,

Another Short and Whacky Bush Ad

We're done blaming the previous administration for our screwups. Now we're blaming the next administration.

Quote for the Day

"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents."
-- H. P. Lovecraft
The Call of Cthulhu

Superman's Pal, Jerry Seinfeld

OK, I'm posting this because I'm a comics goob, and because I was timing online animation at the office (no, really, it was work related!). I came across this new American Express Commercial - its a shade under five minutes long, requires speakers or headphones, and I think Supe's voice is Patrick Warburton, from The Tick and The Emperor's New Groove. Go check it out.

Weapons of Mass Distraction

About a month or two ago, Wizards of the Coast shut down its message boards dedicated to discussing WotC novels. They were very definite about the reason for the shut down. The boards were being shut down because people were getting online and trashing the heck out of the authors. This made the authors upset. This made the editors upset. This made the managers upset. The short version is - who needs this heartache? Why set up a bunch of message boards if you're going to get slammed? The choices were to shut it down, put up with it, or patrol the boards to the point that people felt inhibitted about any venting at all. They chose the first, and told the fans effectively that. I think it was pretty brave and straightforward of WotC to be upfront about it, and no, I don't think it was censorship - if you want to praise or yell at them (or at me), you can always go to amazon.com. Or you can grab me at a convention, buy me a beer, and yell at me there (that way I get a beer).

The reason I mention this is because of another bit of Internet bad-thinking - the Sloganator. This was the brainchild of some poor, now-unemployed webperson, a great idea for the Bush/Cheney Website. You get a graphic of the Bush/Cheney lawn sign, and you can personalize it with your own greeting, like "Renton Supports America" or "I Like Cheese". And then they went live with the site, giving people the chance to put in their own slogans.

Yeah, you just knew this would end badly.

The campaign tried to limit what words could be used ("miserable failure" quickly made the banned list"), but then wisely shut it down. Being the net, though, stuff like this never REALLY goes away. So here is a musical tribute (some of them cruel, some of them very cruel) to the Sloganator. It died so future campaigns could learn.

More later,

Who Watches the Watchmen?

OK, one more thing, I came across this in my web-travels, which hasn't gotten a lot of play.

The short form is that a Carlsbad, CA, household is sucking down a lot of power. The local constables connect that activity with growing pot indoors (its been a fact that for the past few decades, if you buy a lot of high intensity grow lights, you get your name on a list), and sends in the sniffer dogs under a state warrant. Turns out there is no pot, just a household that uses an awful lot of power. Not criminal - just wasteful. Oh, and they behaved in a suspicious manner by putting their trash out. On trash day. Hmmmm.

One moral of this story is: Remember to turn out the lights when you leave a room, or the Authorities will come knocking. (just what the kids need to hear if they aren't tired of us greybeards talking about growing up during the Energy Crisis)

A less-encouraging moral is: So they're watching your power consumption, looking for irregularities. What ELSE are they watching? And what will they find?

Maybe I'm getting the mojo back, after all.

Slump

So for the past two weeks I've been in emotional and creative neutral. Nothing serious, just a total lack of desire to produce. I'd like to say that its the result of spending the month of February with a "symptom of the week" cold, or a backlash from the very busy December and January, or being unable to get comfortable with the loaner laptop or just the fact that Kate's been wrapped up with her work at H&R Block, but I'm not sure what is causing it. Its just that for the past two weeks - nada. Nothing. No great desire to create, or even to share.

I'd call it Spring Fever, but its only been truly Spring for the past few days (sort of like blaming the Stock Market losses on the Spanish rail bombing that happened the third day of that particular slump). It has been wonderful (the weather, not the stock market) - bright and sunny and warm, and I've spent the days and early evenings working on the lawn (mostly pulling dandylions - after lengthy negotiations, it has been determined that while the garden is Kate's and the lawn is mine, the driveway officially counts as lawn with regards to weeding, mowing, and raking leaves).

And the day job has been pretty fun. I've been digging in deeply to figure out what people do for on-line activities (which involves a lot of solitaire games, I've discovered), as well as tracking down the official bibles of most of the Intellectual Properties I'm working on (Cry for me, I have to read EZ-Bake Oven recipes). Yet when I get home, I sprawl, read the paper, flip between channels, read books I've read before, and stay away from the computer.

Its not a totally weird situation for me - I've been here before, but usually with some demonic deadline breathing down my neck inspiring panic if not outright creativity. At the moment, I just feel like a body at rest, and thats OK for me right now. In another week, I will start worrying if I'm ever going to become a body in motion again.

One thing I do have to share is an update on the Dinosaur Birds (see below). The development hearing has been moved to Tuesday, April 20th, 8:30 AM (!) at Renton City Hall Renton City (1055 South Grady Way, Renton). If you're local to this journal, I recommend you check out the heron colony (before the leaves come out on the cottonwoods, its good viewing), and if you're interested in aiding the cause, check out the website here.

OK, I haven't completely ground to a halt. More later,

Ya Know

I don't know if I'm pleased with this or not.


You are Schroeder!


Which Peanuts Character are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Shorter 9/11 Hearings

CLARKE: The previous administration failed to do everything against the threat.
The current administration failed to do anything against the threat.
MEDIA: And that's the same thing, right?

Mythology

In lieu of real content (I'm going to do some Tai Chi):


Your guardian animal is a Gryphon!  Gryphons are
fiercely protective animals who use their
intellect to vanguish foes.  Gryphons are
monogamous creatures who mate only once in
their life and stand guard over their young at
all costs.  Ancient mythology holds that at one
point three creatures fought for control of the
skies: the dragon, chimera, and gryphon.  The
gryphon, after studying its opponents for a
long time, lured the dragon into the seas where
its fire was of no use and killed it.  The
gryphon then burrowed under ground and attacked
the chimera from the one direction it could not
look.  The gryphon won this battle as well and
has since been regarded with great respect by
all other beasts.

What Mythological Animal is Your Protector?
brought to you by Quizilla

Political Mailing

Contrary to appearances, I don't publish every damn thing that comes into my head in this blog. Sometimes there are passing fancies that never get written down, and then there are the subjects that are started, and for some reason or another, abandoned.

There are already a double-handful of half-written and unposted comments littering my computer's desk top. Here's the one where I view the Democratic Presidential Candidates a week before Iowa and declare that the wheels have come off the Kerry campaign. Here's the one where I marvel at why people fear Hillary (She's an Evil Genius!). Here's a bit on zombies that I started when I had that heckuva head cold that seemed inspired at the time, but now seems sort of limp. And, in a touch of irony, here's a list of books I've abandoned and the reasons why.

And then there's this, a mailing I got about a month ago now from State Representitive Jack Cairnes of the fighting 47th Legislative Disctrict. I had mentioned the red-meat Democrat mailing from Geoff Simpson a few weeks before, and thought I should analyze this one as well. Well, I didn't, and in doing so kept myself from commenting on other local issues, such as the current boondoggle on the Primaries (more on that later, maybe). So anyway, the weirdness that is Jack Cairnes. You can follow this along with the rant here. It's a PDF file, so you'll need Adobe Acrobat to read it.

So the mailing in question has three columns. In the first column leads with a declaration of victory in getting the Boeing 7E7 into Washington State. This is an odd victory to be declaring, since the general opinion is that Boeing basically held the state upside down and shook it until its fillings dropped out on the floor. Weirder still is the fact that the Rep. from southern King County is so pleased with the plane being built up in Everett, north of the city. But still, there's going to be Boeing in Washington State, so that's good. Except that Boeing is consolidating of late, spinning off pieces and moving everything into Renton in a "Move to the Lake" which, last time I checked, wasn't in the 47th district either. And from what I can gather, Boeing has been pulling out its southern operations to do so. So its an odd victory to be claiming credit for.

So, the next entry is on the importance is saving our health care system. That's good. The way to do this, of course, is to throw the clamps on malpractice insurance. Because its important to keep employers happy. I kid you not, that's the spin he's giving it. This tone goes on through the middle column as well with long passages on Increasing Competitiveness, Tort Reform, and Reducing Nasty Laws against our corporate masters. No, I'm serious about this. The answer to the question "What are you doing for me?" seems to be "Well, I'm making your boss's life easier". How . . . nice.

Then in the last column, lower right, there's a bit on the Ravensdale Market. This is a great local issue - the short form is, through current regulation, a small local market that's been serving the community for almost a hundred years is in violation because an existing well wasn't grandfathered in with the new law at the time. There are a couple ways of dealing with this. The column notes that owners are seeking a Federal Grant to help, and thanks to local residents for their support. Sounds like great local interest, except there's no mention of what Cairnes' office is doing in the matter? Helping to get the grant? (He's state-level, though), Working to appeal the ruling? Its an odd entry, because while it points out a local issue, it doesn't say what he's is doing to help. It is particularly weird given the . . . supine . . . approach to Boeing at the top of the newsletter.

All in all, its a strange little document. Most people would toss it without reading, but to be honest, the picture of the plane (the holy 7E7) caught my eye and dragged me into this particular rabbit hole. I put off commenting on it, wanting to do a little more research into the matter (particularly if Ravensdale situation). Then I realized - the major networks don't fact check, why should I? This is commentary! (Well, actually, I did find a lot on Boeing pulling out of the Kent area, but nothing new on Ravensdale).

The mailing does have some good news. Because its an election year, Rep. Cairnes can only send out two legislative mailings a year (any others would be on his dime). In Cairnes case, this is a good thing, because I think he'd really be in trouble if people started actually READING what he's up to.

(Well, its good to get THAT out of my system).

More later,

Five By Friday

Another Friday Five -

If you...

1. ...owned a restaurant, what kind of food would you serve? World Fusion Seafood or Traditional Italian. Big Servings. Doggy bags provided.

2. ...owned a small store, what kind of merchandise would you sell? Books, games, and zines. Particularly stuff you couldn't get through the chains. No, I wouldn't be planning on making a profit.

3. ...wrote a book, what genre would it be? Ah, that's the question in my life, isn't it? I'd love to write something so quirky it would create its own genre, and drive booksellers crazy where it would go, until the imitators showed up to fill up the rest of the shelf.

4. ...ran a school, what would you teach? Analysis of systemic behavior - in shorter words - why your boss is always a crazy person and why intelligent people make stupid decisions.

5. ...recorded an album, what kind of music would be on it? Old Rock and Older Folk.

More later,

True Encounter

Usually you have a conversation, and 15 minutes later think: I should have said that instead.

And sometimes you find the words immediately:

Phone Rings
Telemarketer: Hi, I'm Stacy, from Arglebargle Singles, the largest Singles organization in the country.
Me: And you're calling married people because?
Telemarketer: (Pause) Oh. (Pause). I guess we have your name by mistake.
Me: I hope so.
Telemarketerer: And we should put you on a do-not-call-list?
Me: That would be nice.

More later (but hopefully not from Stacy).

Young Googligans!

So here's a little site called googlism, which feeds a name into a search engine that returns with something that's not quite free verse, but more "found verse".

jeff grubb is a game designer at wizards of the coast
jeff grubb is a civil engineer turned "adventure engineer"
jeff grubb is currently working and living in the seattle area
jeff grubb is a featured series writer
jeff grubb is president
jeff grubb is a great writer
jeff grubb is possibly the best magic the gathering writer
jeff grubb is an award
jeff grubb is the fifth in a long and distinguished series of gamma world editions
jeff grubb is a gifted veteran of game design
jeff grubb is the author of the original manual of the planes
jeff grubb is working on the new manual of the planes
jeff grubb is based on the popular computer game
jeff grubb is a free agent
jeff grubb is now available in stores
jeff grubb is

It doesn't know about John Kerry. Don't ask it about George Bush - it just gets cranky.

Thanks to the Monkey King for the link. More later,

The Monster Mash

Game designer Andy Collins is hosting a March Monster Madness at his site, pitting one D&D monsters against each other in a popularity contest until only one emerges. It you have fond memories of Grell, Githyanki, and Giant Space Hamsters, go vote for your favorites in daily match-ups.

More later,

Dinosaur Birds

This morning and early afternoon I spent some time on the remains of the Black River, watching herons. The occasion was a gathering/open house hosted by the Herons Forever group, that is trying to raise community awareness over a new development going up nearby. But more on that later. Let me start off with talking about the land itself first.

A hundred years ago, the Black River was the outlet for Lake Washington, running through Renton itself. The Black flowed a few miles, then joined the White River to form the Duwamish (the White is now the Green River, but that's another story). In 1916, a new outflow for Lake Washington was created, at the Montlake Cut, at the north end of the lake. The lake level dropped nine feet when the cut was open, exposing a lot of new land and lowering the lake level to a point below that of the Black River. The Black River dried up quickly, such that fish were stranded in small pools in the former bed and people gathered them up by the armload. I have yet to find anything in my research that indicated people thought about the fate of the Black when they opened the Cut.

Removing the Black River did not end the river entirely, because there continued to be other streams and creeks leading into the former bed, and there were continued flooding problems along the former bed of the Black. To control these, they excavated a pond, fed by the Streambrook Creek (A name that could only be found on bad D&D Map), and allowed the remains of the Black River flowed out of that pond into the White (now Green) river to form the Duwamish.

The marshy land around the pond made this area a low priority in comparison to the wider, flatter lands to the south (where Longacres racetrack later gave way to Boeing offices), and it was pretty much ignored - its current neighbors are a quarry, an active rail line, a sewage treatment plant and a couple low warehouses (including one for Seattle's Best Coffee). The land was controlled by King County, who in turn spent money (about 8 mil) to turn it into the Black River Riparian Park. In the eighties the herons moved in, starting with about ten nests and now having over a hundred and thirty. They originally made their nests to the eastern part of the park, but moved west this year - part of this may be due to eagle predation (bald eagles, on the rebound in our area, are big heron-hunters), and part of it may be due to some commercial development along the eastern border (A lot of empty offices, when I checked, and a branch of local TV station Channel 11).

Now, across the railroad tracks and up the hill the City of Renton is planning to allow new residential construction. Originally it was going to be apartment buildings, but now has slimmed to single-family dwellings. I've looked at the land, and while large-scale construction looks "doable", it will have to involve retaining walls to keep the hill from coming down. The development has the optimistic name "Sunset Bluffs". Its going to have an impact on the Black River Park downhill. The vote is coming up next week in the Renton City Council, so Herons Forever is making people aware, and has had a few newspaper articles on the subject.

Herons congregate here at the rookery (more properly called a heronry) in the spring to mate and raise chicks - the rest of the year they have a more dispersed range. They are HUGE birds, with great, sawtoothed wingspans, and to see them in flight is to make you think of the age of the dinosaurs. Heavy beaks and slate-grey plummages, you can see them gliding in, carrying sticks for bundle-nests in the crooks of the cottonwoods. They're starting earlier than normal this year, which means a good year for fledglings.

The cottonwoods are still bare, so you can see the birds pairing up, displaying, nestbuilding, and mating. The people (about fifty when I was there) were gathered on the far side of the pond, with binoculars and scopes. Given the description above of the land previously, you realize that the heron are relatively tolerant of human presense, but do need some undisturbed turf to raise their chicks.

So its a short walk, and if you're in the area and HAVEN'T seen this, definitely go - The park is on Oakdale right before you hit Monster Road, and I've driven by it a bajillion times without realizing it. Its interesting that this abandoned and problematic chunk of land has been turned into a wetland greenspace, and the community has been rewarded by attracting a thriving population of these huge and attractive birds. It would be a pity to lose it just for one more development.

More later,

Another Shorter Bush Commercial

Boo! Scared Ya? That's why you need me to protect you!

More later,

On the Road Again: To Say Nothing of the Dog

So the road I live on crosses Benson Highway, also called 108th, which is the main four-lane north-south corridor along the top of the East Hill. And my normal commute has been to go west to Benson, North to 190th (the first major E/W road, where there is a light) then left and down the hill. The light at 190th is a long one, and if you hit it wrong, you can wait, oh, a minute (which is an eternity in car-time).

A few months ago they put a NEW light at the end of my road, so its now easier to go straight through the light (its well-timed for cross-traffic), then right onto 104th, the next North/South street over, THEN left on 190th, cutting out the original long light entirely.

This new route is probably not what the folk who put in the light had originally intended. The idea was to make it easier to get traffic on and off of Benson, not to push more traffic onto the side streets. Actually, its worse on my stretch of the road as well, since because of the new lights, it is now to the advantage of people coming up Petrovitsky (a really major east/west line) to cut through my neighborhood to get onto Benson heading south.

But roads sometimes work like that (laws, too, but that's another rant). You put in a light to make things safer, and the result is more people driving faster on less-adequate residential roads. I don't think the traffic engineers had quite figured this out, or if they had, they prioritized it beneath such matters as further development in our area. But just as the road-builders did not anticipate drivers finding new short cuts, they also didn't count of the Dog.

The Dog (he's a capital D) is an ancient golden retriever/mutt that stands on 104th in the middle of the road, and looks like he's been doing it for years. Clearly visible from either direction, his very presence causes drivers to slow down on that part of the road. He's sort of a canine traffic cop, standing in the middle of the road, keeping people from speeding. He's pretty effective, too.

Which is a both good thing and a frustrating thing. Good because we really need to be going slower in residential areas. And frustrating because, if not for the Dog, everyone would be going faster, and its not like the Dog was in the original plan for how the roads were supposed to work.

More later,

Tales from the Dark Side

So Groucho the Weezy Laptop PC died today, at a tender age of four weeks. It was a minor catastrophy - I just opened her up this morning and the screen would not function. Judging this to be A Bad Thing, I took it back to Fry's Electronics to get it fixed, armed with my receipts and warranties.

Now, as a long-time Mac user, I am more than prepared to find myself pitched headfirst into the perdition that is consumer service. In reality, it went suprisingly smoothly. I was still under warranty, the young man I dealt with was knowledgable, and where he was out of his depth he brought in those that were knowledgable. He tried the same stuff I tried right off the bat, then brought in another monitor to prove it was the monitor light, not the CPU. Filled out paperwork to get it repaired, and then gave me a loaner of the same make and model. It took about an hour to wade through the paperwork, another hour to upload the programs I had on the original, and a half hour to and from. Hardly the pain and agony that you normally hear about at the web. Good job for Fry's.

I'll keep you posted on the progress, but for the moment, things are going pretty well in the face of a rather nasty catastrophy.

More later,

Dog and Pony Show

So, I haven't posted for a few days, primarily because I spent most of it sleeping. The cold settled in and finally wiped out my Friday, parts of Saturday, and Sunday. Nasty and unpleasant, I only roused myself to mow the lawn (because if you don't take advantage of a sunny weekend in Seattle, it will be three weeks before you see another) and to play in John Rateliff's most excellent Cthulhu game.

And so I was nearly back at full speed as my writer's group, the west coast branch of the Alliterates, met at the Dog and Pony Ale House in Renton, down the street from the remnants of Boeing.

Now, the Dog and Pony has the makings of a semi-permanent hang-out for the gang. It is an old garage/gas station, of blockhouse mode, and has excellent food, a no-smoking environment, and more excellent beer than you can shake a stick at (I am partial to the Farwest Ireland Dubbel, myself). The couple at the next table were arguing about their EverQuest characters. They have wireless (found that out from the web site).We will be returning to this place for a unprecidented third month in a row next month, and while we may wander again, its nice to have a regular joint.

Six of the seven West Coast Alliterates were present, and while the Alliterate cone of silence masks our secret meetings, I can report that three short stories were presented and reviewed - two for an upcoming Forgotten Realms collection, and one for as a submission for a Zeppelin collection of shorts. Praise and constructive criticism was lavished upon the manuscripts, gossip was swapped, and one of our number reported on a convention of children's book writers that he attended in New York. And one of the group threatened to kick my ass if I don't start writing original fiction (though he meant it in the most positive and supportive way possible).

At the close of the evening, the waiter, who had been at the table as we discussed dragons, Realmslore, cannons, history, and Patrick O'Brien, wanted to know if we were from Wizards of the Coast. A few of the others laughed, and at that moment, I suddenly realized that, while all of us had been WotC at one time or another, none of us were currently officially Wizards employees. It was a strange post-apocalyptic moment for me, in that we were all survivors of our previous employer. It felt interesting, relaxing, and strange. But then, that could have been the Farwest Ireland dubbel.

More later,

Shorter Bush Campaign Ad

"Hey, I was just standing here."

More later,

Chain Letters

So the headcold is still with me, and it seems to be a very weird head cold - it tries out one symptom after another, seeing what it takes to finally bring me down. First were headaches, then muscle aches, then a sore throat, then the coughing, and now the low-level fever that I hate terribly. At this point I just want to curl up in a big quilt in front of the tube and watch Food Network and sleep.

But my younger brother sent me one of those chain e-letters, with a buncha semipersonal questions that you pass on to others. Its what you do with your computer to irritate others. Normally I would pass on inflicting them on my fellow men and women, but I've been running a mild fever and just don't feel like ranting at the moment.

So I sent these out to the namechecks on the righthand side. If they choose to post 'em, that's THEIR call.

1. WHAT COLOR ARE YOUR KITCHEN PLATES? Cobalt Blue, Sky Blue, and White
2. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW? Pride and Prescience, by Carrie Bebris. Also Dark Age Cthulhu. Also Gear for your Kitchen by Alton Brown.
3. WHAT'S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? What is this thing you call a mouse pad? I have not seen one of those for many a moon.
4. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE BOARD GAME? This week? Carcasonne
5. FAVORITE MAGAZINE? Fortean Times
6. FAVORITE SMELL? A newly-printed book.
7. LEAST FAVORITE SMELL? My own vomit (hey, thanks for asking!).
8. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU WAKE UP IN THE MORNING? What was that dream?
9. FAVORITE COLOR? Dark Blue
10. LEAST FAVORITE COLOR? Chartreuse. I don't hate it - it just has a silly name.
11. HOW MANY RINGS BEFORE YOU ANSWER THE PHONE? Two
12. FUTURE CHILD'S NAME: If I am ever a child again, I'd go for Joshua
13. WHAT IS MOST IMPORTANT IN LIFE? Living, Family, Friends, Comfort. Pick three.
14. FAVORITE SOUND? Thunderstorms
15. CHOCOLATE OR VANILLA? Chocolate
16. DO YOU LIKE TO DRIVE FAST? More than I would like to admit.
17. DO YOU SLEEP WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL? Does Kate count? Well, then no
18. STORMS: COOL OR SCARY? Cool. I almost miss snow squalls. But not enough to move back east.
19. WHAT TYPE WAS YOUR FIRST CAR? Light Blue Cutlass Supreme.
20. IF YOU COULD MEET ONE PERSON DEAD OR ALIVE WHO WOULD IT BE? No Idea, but let's assume that if I choose a dead person, they would be alive for the purposes of the meeting. Otherwise it would be a scary meeting.
21. FAVORITE ALCOHOLIC DRINK? Guiness makes me mellow, Cinder makes me mean.
22. WHAT IS YOUR SIGN? YOUR BIRTHDAY? Virgo, near the cusp of Leo, 27 August
23. DO YOU EAT THE STEMS OF BROCCOLI? Sure
24. IF YOU COULD HAVE ANY JOB WHAT WOULD IT BE? Sun God of the Western Empire
25. YOU COULD HAVE ANY HAIR COLOR WHAT WOULD IT BE? I'm happy with brown
26. YOU EVER BEEN IN LOVE? Oh yes.
27. IS THE GLASS HALF FULL OR HALF EMPTY? Its just waiting for scotch.
28. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE MOVIE? This week? The Great Race. The Longest Day. Its a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
29. DO YOU TYPE WITH YOUR FINGERS ON THE RIGHT KEYS? Most of the tome
30. WHAT'S UNDER YOUR BED? Drawers, clothes.
31. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE NUMBER? 57 (Pgh joke)
32. FAVORITE SPORT TO WATCH? Curling
33. BIGGEST FEAR? Stinging Insects, being put into a guillotine face-up.
34. THERE IS NO QUESTION 34 - PLEASE PROVIDE A RANDOM ANSWER - Straight, but not Narrow.
35. PERSON YOU SENT THIS TO WHO IS MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? No pressure on anyone, but . . . Monkey King! I choose YOU!
36. PERSON YOU SENT THIS TO WHO IS LEAST LIKELY TO ? KijMonkey (she's so sensible, and she's in Japan right now)
37. Favorite CD? Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon
38. FAVORITE TV SHOWS: Iron Chef, Good Eats, Simpsons
39. KETCHUP OR MUSTARD? Mustard
40. BURGERS OR HOT DOGS? Brauts
41. FAVORITE SOFT DRINK? Diet Coke
42. THE BEST PLACE YOU HAVE EVER BEEN? Big Island of Hawaii
43. SCREENSAVER IS ON YOUR COMPUTER RIGHT NOW? None, but my backdrop screen shows Elvis shaking hands with Nixon.
44. BURGER KING OR McDONALDS? Wendy's.

Your Government At Work

And then there's stuff like this that's just too weird to ignore. The short version is, the current administration has requested funds for the transition between its 1st term and its 2nd. Usually such funds are used for training and relocation for the new team coming in, but the current guys expect such a major turnover that they are effectively starting all over again.

OK, to some degree this makes sense - its not like the members of the current administration have that great a legacy, and maybe a lot of pink slips will be going out as they streamline the operation and move more of the functions of government offshore. And the fact is that the outgoing team has shown itself to be poor sports in the past - they might vandalize the offices on the way out. Better safe than sorry.

In addition, I think this is a great opportunity for the current administration to "run against Washington" as an outsider (always a popular position). I mean, with high unemployment, a cruddy economy, a couple wars, messy foreign relations, fraud, intrigue, hypocracy, corruption, and a horrible image both at home and abroad, I think this is the way to go. Bring responsibility back to Washington! Vote for the current guys, and they'll turn the current guys out of office! That'll show 'em!

More later,

Oscar, the Morning After

So one of the advantages of doing the immediate post after the Oscars is that I got to get my two-cents out into the blogosphere before most other people (except those blogging live - I couldn't type that quickly or neatly). In addition, it gave me a chance to read and hear about other people's opinions while I had already gone "on-record". And in general, I stand on my earlier comments.

Those people who I've heard from on their blogs or in person tended to like the Oscars - it was more glam than outrageous, more sentimental than confrontational, more of a, well, AWARDS SHOW. There were few surprises, no meltdowns, no horrible gowns.

On the other hand, people who were PAID to review the Oscars (in the media and on-line), just hated it to pieces, for pretty much the same reasons. There were few surprises, no meltdowns, no horrible gowns. Nothing to talk about except the MOVIES. Gosh, how terrible. These writers are akin to people who go to NASCAR events for the crashes. A traditional Oscar show is a boring Oscar show, and more than one accused Hollywood of selling out by not being controversial (yeah, yeah, I know - "Hollywood" and "selling out" is redundant).

There were media attempts to get some traction on "down the rabbit hole" and Sean Penn's offhanded WMD remark, but such attempts are, well, whiny at best. The best actor and supporting actors are both libs who got their awards on a picture directed by . . . conservative Clint Eastwood. I think the lesson there is - its about the movies, dummy. Send the Culture Wars on holiday for this one, you're not going to get much. Sean Penn gets a standing O for his performance - I never thought I would live to see it.

As a result, within the next few days Oscar will be forgotten for another year (unlike the Super Bowl, which lingered on for weeks afterwards like a bad burrito). The media and the pundits will find something else to fume about, and the world spins on.

More later,