If you really loved me...

You'd buy me one of these for Christmas. Or my birthday.

Dubya: the Movie

Aaron pointed me to this, and it is a thing of beauty.

There is only one man who can play W. That man's name is Don Knotts.

The Eternal Annoyance of the Facilities Guy's Grinder Outside My Window

That's the song that's playing at work right now.

Yet despite all this, I managed to care differently about work just now. Another chapter in the never-ending saga that is Project: Clusterfuck. I ignored it.

Must be the residual good mood and relaxation from my long weekened with friends. I can live with that.

Currently reading JLA: Classified, The Pulse, and Terra Obscura. Ratchet and Clank 3 is in the PS2 and Orbital's playing on iTunes. It's like a cry for survival.

Coming down from caffeine

I had a bunch of coffee with breakfast this morning, and I think I'm coming down from it. Our guests who came for the holiday are on their way home, and I find myself missing them tremendously. A wonderful time was had by all and our house is remarkably quiet now that they've gone.

Their visit was action-packed. We watched really bad horror movies on the Sci-Fi Channel, went to a club I'd never been to before, had excellent meals, played a ton of video games, saw some other movies and TV, visited a cheese factory, did a bunch of shopping, and talked our heads off. Oh, and drinking. Musn't forget the drinking.

One of the things I picked up this weekend was the Cat Owner's Manual. One of the best-designed books I've seen in a long time, treating felis catus like a high-end piece of electronics. Multiple chapters on hardware, software, interfacing, maintenance, and the like.

Found a new-to-us beach when we went to the coast yesterday. There's a small park right near Pacific City that has a fabulous view of Haystack Rock from the south. Usually I'm used to seeing it from the north at Cannon Beach, but this was also impressive. We didn't spend a heck of a lot of time on the beach. Just long enough for the constant 20-35 mph winds to threaten windburn and cut through every article of clothing we had. I'll have to remember it for warmer times.

Speaking of warmer times, there's this article by Matthew Gross about politics and abuse.

Watch Dan Rather apologize for not getting his facts straight, humiliated before the eyes of America, voluntarily undermining his credibility and career of over thirty years. Observe Donna Brazille squirm as she is ridiculed by Bay Buchanan, and pronounced irrelevant and nearly non-existent. Listen as Donna and Nancy Pelosi and Senator Charles Schumer take to the airwaves saying that they have to go back to the drawing board and learn from their mistakes and try to be better, more likable, more appealing, have a stronger message, speak to morality. Watch them awkwardly quote the bible, trying to speak the new language of America. Surf the blogs, and read the comments of dismayed, discombobulated, confused individuals trying to figure out what they did wrong. Hear the cacophony of voices, crying out, “Why did they beat me?”

And then ask anyone who has ever worked in a domestic violence shelter if they have heard this before.

They will tell you, every single day.

The answer is quite simple. They beat us because they are abusers. We can call it hate. We can call it fear. We can say it is unfair. But we are looped into the cycle of violence, and we need to start calling the dominating side what they are: abusive. And we need to recognize that we are the victims of verbal, mental, and even, in the case of Iraq, physical violence.

This is why I am sick and tired of Democrats bringing knives to gunfights, rhetorically. Liberal is not a dirty word. Having an opposing view is not grounds for the kind of invective and filthy tricks the GOP is fond of. Fuck them and the horse that they rode in on. (Santorum can have a dog if he wishes. He seems a little too fond of mentioning man-on-canine sex. What are you trying to tell us?)

Anyway, off to play more Ratchet and Clank 3. It's a bit shorter than the other two, and I think the middle chapter is by far the best. Not sure if there will be a fourth in the series--I imagine Insomniac is a little tired of Ratchet, too. Of course, I could go off and read comics that I got today, too. I might be a nerdy robot. Don't tell anybody.

Buy something day?

AdBusters will tell you today is Buy Nothing Day, but they are neglecting to mention that if you refuse, you will miss out on the 160GB hard drive I bought at Staples today for $40.

Those were the last two in the store. If I'd been earlier, I could have built a terabyte server for maybe $300. Not that I need a TB of space. Well, not right now.

I've got some friends up from SF this weekend. So far we've watched really bad movies on the Sci-Fi Channel, ate, played video games (The level-up effect on the Lord of the Rings game is totally over-the-top but it has fantastic sound. Think of it as Final Fantasy X crossed with Tolkein.), ate, and drank. I finally opened the jeraboam of Fred I've had for two years. Damn that was good.

We made a ton of food, including brining a turkey the Alton Brown way, garlic mashed potatoes, lentils, stuffing, honey-mustard carrots, and gravy that I whipped up in a minute (to my surprise).

Today we've been out to get deals on hard drives, we'll probably go to Powell's, and then at some point to the airport. Perhaps Hannah Bea's is also in our future (home of the best banana pudding on earth). Oh, and more drinking.

It's been a pretty good vacation so far.

Turkey Day Prelude

Spending the evening watching them blow shit up on Mythbusters. There's something about watching two guys in SF blow cans up or fire chickens out of a cannon. Hilarious. Frozen chickens will, in fact, go through 12 panes of glass pretty easily. Thawed chickens, not so much.

As promised the other day...

1) What's your favorite game of 2004?
Decisions, decisions. Probably Katamari Damacy. Namco decides to release this simple game for $20 in the States, with one of the best soundtracks I've ever heard. Fun game, the final level is why I like video games in one half-hour experience.

Runner-up will probably be World of Warcraft. But I haven't even purchased it, so I dunno for sure.

2) What's your favorite game-related moment of 2004?
Finally getting Gamefly. Rent games. If you don't like it, send it back. If you like it, buy it. NetFlix should have that. They do not. Winner: GameFly.

3) What's the worst thing to happen in gaming in 2004?
The continuation of the end-of-year blitz on titles that all publishers do starting in September. Something like 300 games are coming out during this time period. There are probably some great games in there that nobody will see because of the juggernauts like WoW or Halo 2 or Metal Gear Solid 3 or whatever. Who has $2000 to spend on gaming? Not me.

I hate it and they do it every year. Nintendo is going to have the DS take a hit since they're releasing it now for Christmas instead of waiting until they actually have some launch titles to go with the hardware.

Barring that, I would have to say the Lowest Common Denominator shit like The Guy Game or resurrecting Leisure Suit Larry only with zero gameplay, just T&A. This is why Acclaim went bankrupt, folks. They rode BMX XXX into Chapter 13.

4) What's your most fervent hope for gaming in 2005?
Fewer sequels. More original titles. That I don't spend all of my waking time thinking or play World of WarCraft.

5) What aspect of games in 2005 are you most looking forward to?
Better connectivity for me, as we're getting DSL real soon now. They just hooked up the phone line today. For the industry, I'd like to see people follow the example of Katamari Damacy. Publish original stuff, instead of cookie-cutter sequels.

6) What's your worst fear for gaming in 2005?
Idiots who confuse gaming with real life and start calling for censorship in stuff like GTA: San Andreas. We are moving towards a nanny society and I am already sick and tired of conservative religious nuts pushing their points of view on me.

I am also afraid of the Hello Kitty MMORPG. Unless it's the Warhammer 40K version of Hello Kitty, where in the grim future of Hello Kitty, there is only war.

I leave you with the only Thanksgiving song worth singing.

We gather together
To watch cheesy movies
At Comedy Central
On Thanksgiving Day

We're Mystery Science
Theater 3000
It's thirty straight hours
And it's called Turkey Day...

Oh, and these words from Crow T. Robot:

Turkey has enough l-tryptophan in it to knock you on your sorry Thanksgiving ass.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Because I can

As seen on Kevin's blog...

1) What's your favorite comic of 2004?
Part of me wants to say Fables, though I don't think it started in 2004. I started reading it then, if that counts. Other than that, I'd say either We3 or Identity Crisis. Holding out to see how that ends, though.

2) What's your favorite comics-related moment or 2004?
I think the leaked trailer for the Fantastic Four movie, or the first images I've seen of the new Batman film. I went from being fairly skeptical about it to a big fan in the space of about half a minute.

Well, that and almost every aspect of Justice League: Unlimited. The whole thing is a fanboy contest, but I love it anyway. Aztek was in the last episode I saw. AZTEK. My favorite comic of... 1996. Or whatever.

3) What's the worst thing to happen in comics in 2004?
I could go the easy route and say the Avengers clusterfuck, but I only read the one issue. The continued existence of shitty X-Men titles. Yet more gimmicky shit. Variant covers, variant art, pursuit of the ever-dwindling direct sales market instead of trades.

4) What's your most fervid hope for comics in 2005?
Keeping the old stuff that's good in print. For example, it's a damn shame that you cannot find Young Heroes in Love in a trade anywhere. You can buy single issues, if you can find them.

5) What aspect of comics in 2005 are you most looking forward to?
The second Love Fights trade. Either that or the collected Escapist. No way I was going to pay that much an issue.

6) What's your worst fear for comics in 2005?
An Authority/Young Avengers/Lara Croft/Spawn crossover. Co-written by Chuck Dixon, Augie DeBlieck, and Michael Turner.

I'll probably do this for video games again later this week. Only not right now, as we're interviewing people at work and I've been so goddamn busy this month.

Plus, World of WarCraft is starting to peck away at my brain. Which race? Which class? What profession? Decisions, decisions.

Sweet.

I've spent the day pricing DSL.

In the end, I decided to go with SpeakEasy. I think we'll save about $200/year by going with DSL and dropping our land line. We never use it much anyway. Seriously, I think now that the election is over I get maybe two calls a week. Maybe.

Ludlow!

Spent a lot of the weekend doing stuff, so I've been a little quiet.

Well, doing stuff and being in a great amount of pain. Friday night my neck had malfunctioned enough that I couldn't move it at all. It was better by Saturday morning, but that was just weird.

Saturday I spent helping a friend set up part of his new typecasting press. He bought a Ludlow from a guy who was getting out of the business. A great little setup which included:

• The Ludlow type caster
• A rack of about 20 Ludlow fonts
• The saw to cut up old type
• Bunches of paper, ink, solvents, cleaning solutions, furniture, leading, etc.

We moved an entire truck and car full of stuff, and we didn't even get to the big parts: the press, type caster, and paper cutter. All of those weigh about 1300 pounds each. More than the four of us could reasonably carry up a flight of stairs, not to mention the truck. So we'll back for those later.

The Ludlow press itself is fascinating. Type is made by laying out the mold for the type, heating lead up to about 600 degrees, and pouring it into the mold. Then you lead the lines (hence the term leading in most page layout programs) for spacing. A drawer full of leading is freaking heavy, let me tell you.

Then once you've assembled enough lines of type, spaced it properly, and laid it out, you ink up the press and press it. Then cut to order depending on the desired end size. Once the press has finished its work, you can cut up the old type and re-smelt it. (The heaviest thing we moved, barring the type saw, was the bucket of lead.)

It was fun. I would need a much bigger house and a better-paying job to pursue this as a hobby, but it's interesting. Hopefully we'll be moving more later next month and then maybe start printing something.

Assuming World of WarCraft doesn't eat up my life first. Or the Stumptown MST3K Society. Following a day of moving type equipment, we went out to dinner, then sat down with friends to watch Manos, Mitchell, and Pod People. Good times, man.

Where do you want to go today?

Currently trying to reduce the size of a PowerPoint file for a coworker. It is giving me yet another reason to hate PowerPoint--it seems that they convert everything to .bmp format on the fly, so saved documents with 8 images balloon up to 19 MB in size.

Not getting it done.

There are ways around this, in theory, but it looks like I'm going to have to re-edit every image in Photoshop and try it again. Fucking hell.

I am reminded, of course, of a job I did years ago where we created a ton of images in Harvard Graphics, only to find that the only output options it gave were not going to work for publication. So we had to have them all redone at great expense.

In other news the world is still fucked up and the dollar is sinking fast. Good thing it's a weekend coming up. I'm not gonna even go into all the other shit going down at the moment.

Time to brush up on my German...

There are two stories catching my eye this morning:

• The dollar is falling fast
• A thread on DKos about the new culture war (Europe vs. the US, and Europe is winning)

The latter is particularly interesting:

The European Union is now, arguably, the world's largest superpower. Militarily, the US is the undisputed champ. But in eceonomic terms, and in notions of freedom, the welfare of its citizens, and in human rights, we've been lapped.
Much of American "productivity," Rifkin suggests, is accounted for by economic activity that might be better described as wasteful: military spending; the endlessly expanding police and prison bureaucracies; the spiraling cost of healthcare; suburban sprawl; the fast-food industry and its inevitable corollary, the weight-loss craze. Meaningful comparisons of living standards, he says, consistently favor the Europeans. In France, for instance, the work week is 35 hours and most employees take 10 to 12 weeks off every year, factors that clearly depress GDP. Yet it takes a John Locke heart of stone to say that France is worse off as a nation for all that time people spend in the countryside downing du vin rouge et du Camembert with friends and family [...]

European children are consistently better educated; the United States would rank ninth in the EU in reading, ninth in scientific literacy, and 13th in math. Twenty-two percent of American children grow up in poverty, which means that our country ranks 22nd out of the 23 industrialized nations, ahead of only Mexico and behind all 15 of the pre-2004 EU countries. What's more horrifying: the statistic itself or the fact that no American politician to the right of Dennis Kucinich would ever address it?

It looks like T.R. Reid has a new book out about Europe. I am a tremendous fan of his book Confucious Lives Next Door, an account of living in Tokyo as bureau chief for the Washington Post. In that book, he explains some of the cultural reasons Japan emerged from the ashes of the second World War to become an economic and entertainment powerhouse. The reviews of The United States of Europe are promising--it may go into the pile after Don't Think of an Elephant.

First, I have to finish the Baroque Cycle. And then maybe study some vocabulary. We were in a store yesterday, and two guys next to us were discussing German. While my grammar hasn't degraded totally, my vocabulary certainly has. I think I got maybe one word in three. Ugh.

Thanks for listening. Now turn your radio off!

This story in the Guardian is about the only funny thing I've seen today. It seems that somebody on a ship off the coast of Scotland was enjoying a program on the BBC. Which is fine. What was not fine was that by doing so, they were jamming a VHF emergency broadcast frequency.

Today presenter Jim Naughtie was given the unusual task of interrupting the programme just before 7am to ask the guilty sailor to clear the airwaves.

"Someone on a vessel near Inverness is listening to this programme," Mr Naughtie said. "The coastguard can hear you listening to the programme, but your VHF transmitter is blocking a channel used for emergency calls.

"So if you are on a ship somewhere around Inverness and listening to the Today programme, will you check you are not the one that's blocking the emergency channel?"

I also received some Nigerian scam e-mail, and "urgent" messages from both Victoria H. Blankenship and Young animatedly. Plus I was cranky in a meeting, but that is not new.

New friends!

I just got spam from Exonerating A. Pointillists!

Just when you think you can't get any better with spam senders, they always surprise me.

Most of the Bush administration cabinet has resigned. I'm not totally sure who's left, other than Cheney. But really, replacing Powell with Condoleeza Rice will just erode whatever credibility we have even faster. Who do you replace her with as security adviser? I know, Joseph Hazelwood, as he's got a great record protecting the oceans of Alaska! Imagine what he could do for the country!

We managed to find a pretty good bed for the upstairs yesterday. They will deliver it next week, just in time for our guests. Spent part of the day playing Ratchet and Clank 3, which gets better the more I play it. The second version of the Agents of Doom features little guns. Not only do they explode, they shoot everything that moves on their way to the target.

Since we don't have broadband, it's hard to find anybody to play multiplayer with. Maybe I should look into DSL. Any suggestions?

Making noodles

Spent part of the day raking leaves. The front yard resulted in five 30-gallon bags full of leaves, and I'm pretty sure I'm not done there yet. The backyard has a bunch of leaves still to go, so I am waiting on that a bit.

After a day of gender-role-affirming yardwork, I went out to play a game of HeroQuest. We're currently playing a borderlands campaign, which I like a bit better than playing just a bunch of Heortlings. I mean, the Orlanthi pantheon is OK, but it gets a bit dull after a while. So right now I'm playing an old master from Kralorela, which is entertaining because they're the only people in the HeroQuest universe who actually like dragons. So nobody trusts him or wants to eat his noodle dishes.

If the above paragraph doesn't make sense to you, don't worry. Instead, think about this clock!

We'll always have MacWorld...

Cabel Sasser's story of Audion is a thing of beauty. I especially like knowing this tidbit.

Back when I was working in Tigard, all of us had tons and tons of MP3 files. A friend of mine introduced me to Audion so that I could listen to his copy of "Satan Gave Me A Taco" by Beck. It was love at first sight--a Mac app that totally beat the pants off of any Windows app before or since. I think I registered a copy about two days after using it.

I'm sad to hear the program is no longer in development, but they still make the best FTP client known to man--Transmit. I'm also a big fan of their newsreader, Unison.

At war with modernity

There's this story at MyDD about an editorial by Brad Carson (you may remember him as the guy who lost to Tom "Teenage lesbians are so prevalent that they only send girls to the bathroom one at a time" Coburn, who's fucking insane). In it he writes that it's not that the Democrats have a problem getting their message out, it's that some voters want to bring us back to the 18th century itself.

I'm reminded of a piece at uggabugga about Bush being an 19th century President.

Meanwhile, I happen to like progress and modernity. I'm a little confused at a worldview that at one moment rails against the oppression of women under Islam and on the other hand works towards a homegrown version of purdah. It's not a mystery why they're gutting education--if you never learn about rights or ideas, why would you want to have or follow them? But I'm just a giant fighting robot--I have no knowledge of this invisible cloud being that instills more fear of human bodies or gay people than crushing poverty, unaffordable health care, or the misguided invasion of Iraq trumping any true efforts to combat terrorism.

This robot runs on coffee. I will go procure some.

The Vorlons will not save us

By the time the avalanche has started, it is too late for the pebbles to vote.
- Vorlon Ambassador Kosh Naranek, Babylon 5

I used one of my other favorite Kosh sayings earlier this month, so I thought it was time to bring this one out. (And hey, looks like the Lurker's Guide is back.)

Steve Gillard writes about what we can do now that Bush is going to be with us a while longer, and it does not involve moving to Canada.

It's like Teddy Roosevelt, Jr. said on Utah Beach "well, we might as start the war from right here, the supplies will have to catch up to us no matter where we are."

We need to start the fight close to home. In our lives and in our local politics. We can't just focus on federal offices. State and local matter more, right now. Every race we win, the more we learn, the better we get. And we need to start now. Today. Who is that school board candidate who needs your help. Where is that councilman who has progressive ideas? We need to start from where ever we are and work from there. Idealism is our enemy, reality and practicality are our friends. No race is too small to learn from, no office too unimportant to win. We need to use what we learned this year and take it home, then take those lessons and use them in 2006.

This will be neither easy nor quick. It will take work and effort and some disappointment. But every time we act, we learn and we help make the America we want. And that is the goal we're striving for. Not just winning one election for one man.

For now, the best thing we can do is take care of ourselves. Being pissed off about the red states or the South or the Pharisees for four years will kill you. I know. It's already taking a toll on me. My NaNo novel is barely started and I have zero motivation to get started to finish it.

Tomorrow is Veteran's Day, when on the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the guns fell silent, with the theory that the War to End All Wars was over. They were wrong. The wars are never over, they just change players and costumes a bit. It just took a while to get some new players, as they'd done a pretty good job at wiping out most of a generation. (For an example of how fucking horrible WW I was, I'd recommend John Keegan's The Face of Battle, which I had to read twice in college. It was more depressing the second time.)

I will have the day off. I think I may take some time after I try and winterize the house and see if I can find something fun to do. We should put the libertine back in liberal. The conservatives hate fun. So besides having fun and refocusing, take care of yourself.

I am reminded that the best advice I heard after 9/11 was, "Wear your seatbelt. You're much more likely to be in a car accident than a terrorist attack." So brush your teeth, wear a seatbelt, wear a condom, get plenty of rest, and learn a new skill or first aid. Just don't do all those things at once.

Knife to a gunfight

The Marines brought tanks an anti-war protest in LA yesterday.

MyDD has the details, including video footage.

When did LA become Tiananmen Square, exactly? Is this part of that mandate I hear so much about? I mean, I know people with caricature puppets are annoying, but COME ON.

Morale? What morale?

As if you ever needed confirmation that most managers cannot find their ass with both hands, a map, and a compass, there's this article about IT worker morale turning to shit. Duh.

IT workers also are feeling quite cynical toward top management, which they regard as having its head stuck in the sand on key issues ranging from communication to outsourcing.

"Outsourcing is euphemistically called 'global sourcing,' " says an IT worker at a large insurer. "Memos [about outsourcing] are self-congratulatory about how it will benefit employees, totally ignoring how many fewer domestic employees we have year to year."

He is particularly resentful about layoffs, which his employer officially refers to as "position migrations."

"High-minded phrases and motivational meetings do not conceal the venality and incredible lack of long-term planning that offshoring represents," he says.

Once upon a time (back in the long, national nightmare of peace and prosperity that was the Clinton administration), I argued to no avail that IT workers needed to unionize. "Nonsense," I was told. "I will never need to look for a job and I will always be in demand." I hate it when I'm right about crap like this.

They're claiming we're in control of 70% of Falluja today. For how long? Everyone who we're probably really interested in (the car bomb manufacturers, the leadership of the insurgents, etc.) are out of the city, so we're left losing lives to retake a city we'll have to retake again.

Brain surgery

I am applying liberal amounts of coffee to my brain to get it to remember something it hid away years ago. Once upon a time, I used Access a lot. Now I barely remember how it works. Bleh.

Today appears to be the release of Firefox 1.0. Good luck getting to the site, as it appears everybody wants to escape the tyrrany of IE 6 and its shitty, shitty browsing. Seriously, how do you live without tabbed browsing? Or real font rendering? Or sane CSS rendering? Or any of the vast number of improvements in Firefox. Pop-up window blockers, etc...

It appears that my friend Kevin's debit card was stolen. I hope they bought something nice with it, rather than the time Mrs. GFR's card was stolen. That thief went and bought a bunch of groceries at Plaid Pantry. Then there was the time another friend's card was stolen and the person went to a Christian supply store. Probably to buy a copy of the Ten Commandments or whatever. Oy.

Arafat appears to be beyond pining for the fjords now. Or not. I just checked, and he's still alive. For some sick, horrible, lingering value of alive. Which is more than one can say for the people battling in Falluja. Or some of them. And for what? I'm reminded of the poems of Wilfred Owen.

The Parable of the Old Man and the Young

So Abram rose, and clave the wood, and went,
And took the fire with him, and a knife.
And as they sojourned both of them together,
Isaac the first-born spake and said, My Father,
Behold the preparations, fire and iron,
But where the lamb, for this burnt-offering?
Then Abram bound the youth with belts and straps,
And builded parapets and trenches there,
And stretchèd forth the knife to slay his son.
When lo! an Angel called him out of heaven,
Saying, Lay not they hand upon the lad,
Neither do anything to him, thy son.
Behold! Caught in a thicket by its horns,
A Ram. Offer the Ram of Pride instead.

But the old man would not so, but slew his son,
And half the seed of Europe, one by one.

Crackerjack timing

So now that the election is sinking into the collective subconscious, we're bombing the fuck out of Falluja again. Only this time it's at the orders of our puppet Allawi.

Remember, one of the many reasons people voted against Kerry was he was going to subject us to foreign whims through a global test or the UN or whatever the twisted dumbshit reasoning went. So letting military decisions being made by Allawi OK for these same people?

I was thinking about an episode of The West Wing the other day where CJ and Josh are sent to a cartographer's conference, and what they learn there blows their minds. For example, you might think that W had a huge mandate if you looked at the standard Mercator projection that's been bandied about incessantly for a week.

But look at this page.

Big difference, huh? Heartland values, my hinder. I'm repeating myself, but two percentage points is not a mandate. 54 million people voted against the fucker in office right now. That's not even counting the disenfranchised or the 30% of the population that didn't even bother to vote. It's like the Moral Majority all over again--a very loud minority. They just own all the media.

Would you watch a film with George Wendt?

There's an episode of Animaniacs where the Warner siblings are beseiged by survey takers. Taking a survey now, which is why I'm reminded of it. And hey, that website I just linked dates from about the last time I even saw an episode of the show...

The kitten (who did not get a name from us as it would have made it even harder to give him up) found a new home yesterday. We took him to the vet on Friday, got the first round of shots, some de-wormer stuff, a round of Advantage, and some tests to see if he was healthy. If you could see the hamburger that is my hand, you would know he's healthy. That is the best litmus test for kittens--are they mauling you? Good. They're fine.



Somebody was sleepy at the vet's office.

So I'm a little misty now that he's gone. The other three cats are a lot happier, though.

Nico, Ico 2, whatever you want to call it...

Wanda and the Colossus looks like a beautiful game.

Playing a lot of Katamari Damacy and Up Your Arsenal these days. I'm certainly not doing much on my NaNo novel this year. I may not actually finish this time, which would be a first for me. Fairly depressed about that, though there is a lot to be unhappy about right now.

Political capital

Bush is already saying that he has a clear mandate.

Hello? Two percent is not a mandate. And that's just people who voted. Turnout was indeed high this year, but not everybody who could vote did, nor did all the citizens vote. I know he's not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but Laura should put down the Valium, take him aside, and explain percentages again.

We also have political capital. Write your congressional representatives and put them on notice that they have to work harder to represent our interests.

Patton Oswalt pointed me to G.K. Chesterton's "Ballade of an Anti-Puritan." Well worth considering.

I know where Men can still be found,
Anger and clamorous accord,
And virtues growing from the ground,
And fellowship of beer and board,
And song, that is a sturdy cord,
And hope, that is a hardy shrub,
And goodness, that is God's last word--
Will someone take me to a pub?

I'll be heading to the small town of Verboort to drink beer and eat sausages. The kitten that followed us home is doing well, and I think that is a sign of hope. In these dark times, beer is not a bad thing to have.

He followed us home!

So we were walking home from the store and this kitten followed us home.



Crap. We have three cats already, do we need a fourth? No, we do not. Dammit.

A note to readers abroad

I know you are as confused as we are about Bush being reelected. Perhaps more so.

But please understand, we are a sick country. Our culture is not well. Steve Gilliard describes what Americans are like. I will add this:

Please be patient with us.

A majority of us didn't vote for the guy. We need an intervention of some sort. Working on just what that is. If you have any ideas how we can innoculate ourselves into not becoming the United States of Jesusland, please send them.

Values hangover

Some of the anecdotal evidence of the election is that people voted for Bush based on their perceived values of him, rather than the facts. Bush has now claimed his 3-point victory as a clear mandate to push the further neocon/Pharisee agenda.

But here's the thing: half of us voted for Kerry. We do not follow these deluded beliefs nor do we share this vision for our country that echoes the worst visions of Orwell, Kafka, and Atwood. We are not going away.

Bob Harris has a cheery thought for this morning:

The election of Bush is a very, very bad choice. It is a major setback for humanity, for a long list of reasons each of us either fully understand already or will very soon. (More on this in the next few days. But for starters, America just announced to the entire planet that we're OK with Abu Ghraib, we're OK with Guantanamo, and we're OK with illegal wars. This was an important announcement.)

I am wondering if this is what it felt like it Rome before the Visigoths came over that seventh hill.

The long, national nightmare continues.

I was evidently unclear in what kind of change I was seeing.

One of my driving habits is to intuit what the idiot in front of me is going to do, and then plan around that. This usually works out by figuring out, "What is the dumbest thing that person could do?" and then anticipating my reaction.

So, without further ado, here are my predictions for the dumbest things to look forward to for the next couple of years:

• Invading Iran
• Return of the draft
• Increase in gap between rich and poor through more targeted tax cuts
• Appointing openly racist, evangelical fanatics to the Supreme Court
• Passports to move between states for "security purposes"
• PATRIOT Acts III, IV, and V
• Invading North Korea
• Ignoring intelligence resulting in more terrorist attacks at home and abroad
• Open revolt in Iraq
• A Cold War between Europe and the US
• Invasion of Cuba
• Privatization of Social Security
• Increased health care costs and the fucking up of Medicare
• More rape of the environment

I clearly need to drink a lot to become dumber. That way I can anticipate other stupid things we can look forward to. Clearly the people have spoken and they are afraid. Afraid of things they shouldn't be afraid of, ignorant of what's important.

But I am reminded of Tim Allen's character in Galaxy Quest. Never give up. Never surrender. Moving to Canada means they win. They want to turn this country into what the Puritans fled, they'll have to do it with a tremendous fight. I think the ACLU is going to get a Christmas present from me. They're going to need it in the fights ahead.

Deja vu all over again

Jesus Fucking Christ, people.

Another election another fucking mess.

To pull a Spider Jerusalem:

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck

Understanding is a three-edged sword

Media Matters has a listing of who's calling what state, and when.

Go there for the latest results.

So far I see record turnouts, Zogby has called it for Kerry, and I really do feel what with the gale force winds and the flooding in our library basement that change is at hand.

People do not get up and go to the polls at 3:00 am if they want more of the same.

But it's still going to be a long night. I remain cautiously optimistic.

Some of us have waited 47 months to cast this ballot

And at long last the day is finally here.

VOTE.

I'm not thrilled that Ohio's vote "challengers" got reinstated and the Supreme Court was too chicken-shit to hear it.

Rising Hegemon borrows from the Bard for today.

They that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will on the eve thereof feast with his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is when we threw Bush out:'
Then will they open their wallet and show their cards.
And say 'This I used to vote upon Election day.'

The Daily Show is calling their coverage tonight Prelude to the Recount, but I am thinking that the margin of victory will be so large that we won't need one. Bush is going down. People do not wait overnight to vote in the same fucker that's in office right now. People wait overnight to vote the bastards out. There's a gale-force wind on the coast today, and it's blowing in a new change.

And I hope you don't need this, but:

Election Protection Hotline:
1-866-MYVOTE1 to report problems
1-866-OUR-VOTE (1-866-687-8683) for immediate legal assistance

Oh, and before I forget...

Get out there and vote!

I've already voted, since Oregon is all vote-by-mail. Last I heard, about 60-70% of the state's ballots had already turned in. But every, and I mean every vote counts. That means you in the "safe" states and you in the "battleground" states.

I know you're sick of hearing it. I know the calls are annoying. But do not let anyone dissuade you or intimidate you from doing your civic duty. As Michael Moore said, this is the longest-running experiment in democracy on the planet.

Democracy is not a spectator sport. It only works when we all come off the bench and participate.

Some folks are in for a rude surprise tomorrow. We can win this and get back to reality-based government.

Running level one diagnostic...

There's this horrible pain in the diodes all along my right side. And my left side. And my head. And my torso, my precious torso.

(OK, there are at least two references in there. Can you spot them? Three if you count the title. Winner gets... something.)

Anyway, spent yesterday hiking through the streets of Gresham doing Trick or Vote, which was OK. Had a lot of fun, though it got fairly cold towards the end. In some ways, I wish I'd gone to the party afterwards, but I was also very glad to be at home.

The front page of McPaper says that it's a photo finish. When they look back on this tomorrow night, will it be seen as prophetic or hedging one's bets? I am guessing the latter.

Great. Now they are pounding in the renovation area. I may need to go home early and sleep. I should be writing my NaNo novel, but to be honest, I'm not sure I'm even going to get started today. I feel pretty crappy.