The Mirrored Road into the Interior

Blueberry Colada

2009-05-31T15:30:00.000-07:00

Well, my new food and drink blog has launched. I'll be posting a recipe on Mondays, a cocktail on Wednesdays, and a restaurant review on Fridays. In between, I'll have any posts on other (usually supporting) subjects. It is at http://blueberrycolada.wordpress.com/ .

new blog a commin'

2009-05-27T05:42:00.000-07:00

Well, in the tradition of spreading my resources thinner, I'm a starting a new blog. (This would be the one I mentioned a while back) there were two yeas and one nay, and really, unless the nay sayers are unanimous, it is probably best to just ignore them. More on this when I've made my first post over there.

meta blog

2009-05-20T05:41:00.000-07:00

Those of you who have friended me on facebook may know that I've been posting assorted drink recipes there. I've been playing with the idea of doing writer's reviews of various restaurants around bloomington as well.(As in, how good of a place are they to go and write.

I'm trying to decide if I should fold all of that into this blog or to start a focused blog for assorted food based subjects.

2009-05-16T22:06:00.000-07:00

I bought ~~The da Vinci Code~~ Foucault's Pendulum and Kill Dr. Lucky today!

Been playing with mixing drinks again, here's the best of the current set.

1 part 4X Berry Blast Koolaid mix (1 packet of mix in 2 cups of water.
2 parts simple syrup
2 parts pulpy orange juice
2 parts coconut rum.
Ice

Put the Ice in a class.
Add rum
Pour Orange juice over the ice (or a spoon) so it floats on the rum.
Mix the koolaid and the simple syrup and pour that over the ice cubes or a spoon.
Swirl to taste.

Pantree Owl Concert 3

2009-05-15T18:29:00.001-07:00

`Pantree Owl only started 2/3rds an hour late this time. An improvement... (I'm writing this after the concert. I transcribed from my notes my post about the one a couple of weeks ago during the concert.
Setup started 20 minutes late again, though they were quite early this time, at least compared to the revised starting time. Of course I rushed across town to get here for the original time, so I was even more quite early. (I'll probably post my second review later tonight, some time after I finish my third review. (so when I twit them about lateness, grain of salt, though I don't announce the times of my reviews, nor do I, as a reviewer, actually have an audience. This would be the Eric Burns difference between a hobby and something more. Keep in mind, regardless of this one major flaw, they kick ass.)

Okay, 2 members are gone at the moment, the two strings players, so it is just drums, keyboard, and Papania's voice. I still want to hire them to play my front room in my mansion some day. (Plus strings would be better,but not necessary.)

Started very late again. (A friend of mine defended them because of how young they are, but really, no. My little brother's band was made up of kids in highschool, and was always there on time at the very least.)

That said.
Almost as awesome as last time. Still worth my while to have rushed across town to wait extra long for them to play.

There is this piece where they record some sounds created with items they collect in the venue (a pair of beer bottles and some other stuff) that is beautiful. (i'll find a name for it eventually.)

pantree owl 2nd concert.

2009-05-15T18:12:00.000-07:00

Pantree Owl Take 2
Last time I wrote about them, the band was unencumbered by such accutriements as a name. Some day I want to hear them in a (mostly) accoustic setting, but then, that is one of my particular oddities. Their sound was just right last time in Rhinos (where I was in the very back as far from the speakers as it was possible to be)

That said, their music was awesome. There were some electronic effects included that are why I don't want an entirely accoustic...

Oh my gods, Star Trek Trailer on o e of the TVs...
er sorry.
first one I've seen...

show from them.

So the music was incredible. I want a CD...
The professionalism...
problematic...

Start time was 9:00

The Band? Didn't show until 9:20.

Setup and sound check? About 30 minutes, a little more.
First, and least concequential, they need to trim at least 20 minutes from their setup and their soundcheck or have a member engage the audience during that portion of the "show".
On a related matter, since you have to know how long the setup portion takes, you should always take that into account when planning a gig. If it takes 30 minutes to start playing, you need to show up a little more than thirty minutes early.

Now to the important part.
Always.
Show up.
On Time.

Even if only memeber of a band can do so, get someone there when the band is supposed to be there. It is much more likely to convince a venue's owner to risk a second show by you in the future. It also keeps your fans and almost fans from becoming disgruntled were fans and were almost fans.

Given what I said about setup time, you really want your band to be at least 5-10 minutes early (not early to your play time, early to how much setup time you need to make your start time.) Not everyone needs to be there 10 minutes before hand, but your manager and or your sound tech? Definately should be there early.

So.
Music?
A+.
Band overall? C or so.

Just to be clear. They played a 45 minute set that started at least 50 minutes late. It is their second show, so hopefully they will take the lessons learned from this one to heart. They shoule be providing an event experience that does their incredible music justice. Technical proficiency and aesthetic excellence are important or even essential. But. For an artist to ever be any better than okay, they must be reliable. The flighty unreliable artist myth is jsut that, a way to ensure that you never have to be more than second string. (Both of my parents are to one degree or another, professional artists. I have little patience for artists who don't produce. It is hwy I make no claims to art.)

things

2009-04-27T22:01:00.000-07:00

So, I bought a lawn mower. And mowed the lawn. I also got my compost heap transfered from the bucket of doom to an actual outdoor pile. It smells pretty bad (thanks bucket of doom...) but hopefully a couple of days in the outdoors not made half of organic matter and half of water will take care of that. I do need to get some sort of metal fencing to surround it and keep it constrained. Also did laundry. Matt was doing his, so I tagged along and ran everything that I own that needed any cleaning.

We have a hose. Need another. I'm trying to decide on how much I am willing to pay for a grill. Also need some lawn furniture and indoor shelving.

I'm going to read Mouse Guard soonish. I want to recommend it (or not) as a comic and or game for a friend who needs such things. As it stands currently it looks like the Redwall books but less morally objectionable and stupid. (The game is supposed to be an incredible introduction to role playing and such for littleish kids.)

I'm obsessing over a gazebo. I have the cash for it, but then I wouldn't be able to do anything else. It would be awesome to have some summer gazebo parties, but I can buy lawn furnature or a gazebo, not both. And probably I shouldn't buy either.

I read Dresden 11 the day it came out. Now I want Dresden 12... I have some mutters about this book, but none that aren't spoilers and none that matter. Mostly things I wanted to have happen not things that he did wrong. Morgan and Molly are incredible together. Harry might be getting over one of his cases of the stupids. Thomas!

As much as this is false, I want another Mab book. (I don't want a mab book, but I want a mab book.

Work still sucks. I want to work where I can wear decent clothing. I need something that pays enough that I don't have to anguish over the gazebo.

FMLA is going smashingly. But without any actual smashing.

psa

2009-04-16T05:21:00.001-07:00

Remember. If someone invites you to a teabagging party, there are two groups of people who will be there. Tea baggers and tea baggees. If you go to one of Glen Beck's parties, check your income statements. If you made more than 250,000 dollars, you are a tea bagger, if you made less than that, then you are a tea baggee. While neither position really appeals to me, keep that in mind before you put yoursellf in a situation where tea bagging is an expected activity.

ZJD!

2009-04-12T05:28:00.001-07:00

Happy Zombie Jesus Day, wherein Jesus was crucified, died, and was buried, and on the third day, he arose again in fulfillment of the scriptures, to overshadow local rites, pass out chocolate bunnies, and eat your tasty tasty brains. Gir Arrgh An acquaintance of mine was complaining about the zjd jokes, how those who perpetuate ZJD wouldn't ever do that sort of thing to other locally smaller faiths. I'm not horribly fond of being painted with the liberal touchy feely wuss brush. Right here, right now, I'll tell you, did I know enough to draw similar parallells about key figures and stories in faiths that aren't the overwhelming majority in my country, I'd do it in an instant. Actually, in the name of holy irreverence, let's do that (for if there is anything holy in this world, it is not taking things too seriously) Post a key event or person from the religion of your choice along with a more modern cliche/concept that they match up with.

fmla

2009-04-02T23:48:00.001-07:00

Hi, my name's Michael and I'm a feminist.
Yes, that is a y chromosome there on my sleeve.
No, I don't mean ally. Ally is a term for someone who supports a group but can't be a member of the group.
Nope. Not that either.
Yes, I'm straight, genderwise I'm cis, and no, I'm not here to get laid.

I'm not sure that I'm the newest member to write one of these things, but if I'm not then it is just by a matter of weeks. To be honest, I started coming here as something social to do on a regular basis right after take back the night, and in large part because the meeting time worked with my work schedule while WSA's meetings were completely unworkable for me. That's probably pretty good, since I doubt I would have attended a third WSA meeting. I'm much more comfortable with the informal collaborative atmosphere we tend to have hereabouts. I don't deal nearly as well with highly structured meeting styles where one person (or small group of persons) absolutely drives the agenda and the tone. Well, honestly with our recent meeting sizes, maybe I'm comfortable with the small group of persons thing when I'm part of the group. Who knows?
The FMLA, as I see it, and we have had some spirited disagreements on this matter, works best as a support structure for individual members' personal activism. We get together, we discuss what the FMLA is going to be doing, but at the same time we talk about the particular issues and events on the horizon that particularly interest us. A personal example. I came here a little before Christmas break and sort of went off on a tangent about needing to call our assorted congress critters in support of the Freedom of Choice Act because I had some friends who were already beginning to mobilize in opposition to it. I figured that everyone present would possibly call their congress folk and thus act as a force multiplier. So you know, one voice becomes five. A couple of weeks later we had a huge stack of post cards for assorted congress folks (and I'm sorry, I can't remember who organized that feat. I know it wasn't me.) So instead of getting a few new voices, the FMLA increased my voice by an order of magnitude, possibly two.
As I see it, our basic mission here is memetic or informational. We talk. We talk to and thus provide support for each other, which is pretty important if you want to be an activist who doesn't either lose track of how other people thing or burn out early. We also talk to other people. We help organize awareness marches, we help host the Vagina Monologues, we create a newsletter, we support other groups and people who are also talking. We make people aware of feminisim as a matter of justice and way of life instead of a caricature of shrill, sexless/slutty, and angry women and downtrodden men that the movement has allowed its opposition to create in the minds of society as a whole. Feminism is, as I see it, essentially an issue of cultural memes, and if we want a feminist society, then we need to talk. We need to speak with not one voice, but with five, with ten, with thousands.
Hum this isn't really a paragraph so much as it has paragraphs... I fail once again at brevity. So in brief, welcome to the FMLA. My name is Michael Phillips, I'm your webmonkey until you find someone better. Enjoy the pie.

As always
Michael Phillips
roninkakuhito@gmail.com
thebellfeminist.wordpress.com
roninkakuhito.wordpress.com

question

2009-04-02T06:22:00.000-07:00

I am looking for a word. I am not sure what it means. I think it means a pause in conflict, but I could have it exactly backwards. It is spelled something like but not exactly "dente."
Unfortunately both google and my online dictionaries correct dente to al dente without suggesting the word I want.

D&D Podcast

2009-03-28T08:19:00.000-07:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/305847.html
So I listened to all of the PA/PvP/WW/D&D podcasts that are up yesterday.
A. It would be awesome to game with any combination of those people.
B. The first adventure was run sort of lacklusterly. I wasn't sure if it was Perkins and Wyatt being just okay dms, the adventure being just an ok adventure or what, but it lacked a lot of the cool that 4th edition is supposed to have. The active battle fields and such. But, and this is important, even with an average performance by the DM (and I've played for 20 years. Neither of them were bad in the first episode, I've played with DMs who would make them look like paragons of the art.) the game was incredibly awesome. Part of that was the guys around the table (In this case, Tycho, Gabe, Scott, and Chris or James) being the sort of people who, when you are in a room with them, you are having a great time, but part of it was the strongest part of a relatively rules light tactical rpg. It is a social game, not a world simulator, so you dn't need an awesome DM to make for a great game.
C. Episode 2, the third adventure brought back Tycho, Gabe, Scott, and Chris, and introduced us to Wil Wheaton. Wil had done his homework, had learned a fair amount about the system and was that treasure amongst players, the rules guy who isn't an ass about it and who likes to role play. He is also one of those fun to be near people. If that had been all, it would have been a good game. But. Chris Perkins brought his A game to the table and ran as well as i've seen a person run a game. Wil helped out by being an actor who has spent serious amount of time learning about presenting things via non-static media. 4.0 is a minis heavy game, very visual and tactile, and the presentation was helped immensely by his table descriptions.

2009-03-28T05:49:00.000-07:00

gmail, facebook, d&d podcasts, ok cupid, live journal, wikipedia on ephiphytes

so I had a good day

2009-03-26T18:59:00.001-07:00

Well I had a good day.
Actually the first 10 hours were pretty meh.
I woke up, too tired, went to work, too few employees too many customers. Did get to polish my "I am Homo sapiens sapiens, descendant of..." speech so that was ok.

But.

(oh I forgot, almost all of my crocuses, crocusai? croci? are up and blooming! That was a cool part of my morning.)

After work I stopped at the good will to see if there were any vintage electronics (read "Atari 2600 or Intellivision or any of a few dozen games I'm looking for) or old board games in. There weren't. But I was checking out the tee shirts. I almost never do that. I found a don't panic shirt in my size (with the little green guy on it) Now, I am less of a HHGTtG fan than almost every other HHGTtG fan on the planet, being less than enthralled by a lot of the supposedly clever bits, but I do still like it and it is, overall, rather funny in that "please for the love of god stop quoting the same 10 dammed lines" sort of way that a lot of Monty Python is funny. Well for all of that, I am still a fan, and the little green guy was on the cover of one of the games that I played as I learned to read and type (Specifically the Infocom Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Fucking Brits and their analgesics instead of pain killers or asprin) so way cool.
Then as I was riding down town I forgot that I can't ride my bike without my hands on the handle bars and wham I was peddling along and I took my hands off the handle bars and I so didn't crash or anything. And I'm not talking about riding down a hill without your hands on the handlebars, I'm talking about pumping the peddles handsless. Okay okay I know, but brain damage as a wee one and crappy small motor skills and every victory is a victory. So yeah, good day. And no work tomorrow, so sleeping or the equivalent will be caught up with by YT.

2009-03-26T05:06:00.000-07:00

er... elm...

march flowers....

2009-03-26T05:01:00.000-07:00

My crocuses are blooming and my Ash is about to undergo bud burst.

dinosaurs

2009-03-24T05:32:00.001-07:00

I'm looking for a good Dinosaur book, something with pretty pictures that is a decent snapshot of the state of modern paleontology via dinosaurs. I had a few of those as a child, but they were getting dated before I shifted interests to other fields.

Blogging and me

2009-03-15T15:46:00.000-07:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/304084.html

So, I've got three new blogs up and around.

The first, The Bell Feminist Bi-Monthly is not actually my writing. It is, instead, the online branch of the IUB FMLA's newsletter. My only content on it so far is the pathfinding posts. I'm potentially interested in running a similar blog in the not too distant future that isn't tied into an outside organization.

The second .roiretni eht ot doar worran eht morf snoitcelfer is another mirror of Reflections From the Narrow Road to the Interior. Same content, slightly different interface.

The third is my roninlabs.org blog which has not, at this time, been particularly active. I'm working on it.

advice

2009-03-15T09:10:00.000-07:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/302269.html
A reminder to those of you who might think that listening to me is a good idea.

If you step on your sword online, please don't just delete the offending text.

If you have to edit something, use the strike tag or something similar to mark the disavowed text. If you add things to something, make sure that the additions are marked as such (preferably with the date and time of modification clearly denotated.)

This keeps you honest and means that you can not be accused of changing your text in order to undercut an opponent's argument. (I think that if you were to spend a lot of time going through this very journal, you'd find examples of exactly that process.)

*edit The same night* Of me crossing out things that I no longer agreed with and flagging edits as edits, not me undercutting arguments by editing and or deleting the things that they are in response to)

reading 2009

2009-03-14T15:45:00.000-07:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/303689.html
1. The Stepsister Scheme Jim C. Hines The first of Hines's fairy tale kingdom books. Action, espionage, and fairytale princesses. Here's hoping that the next two are as good.
2. Strength and Honor R.M. Meluch. Rome is on the offensive after the fall of the hive with the mad Emperor planning to take Earth once again. Farragut and the last emperor's patterner stand between him and victory. The ending gives me hope that there will be at least one more book in the series.
3. Storm From The Shadows David Weber A mostly non Honor book set in the Honorverse. The first shots in the Solarian War that has been seeming more and more inevitable have been fired. Hopefully the next Honor Book will allow for peace with Haven, especially since the confrontation between Elizabeth and Honor happened in this book and it didn't end with a break between them.
4. The Queen of Stone Keith Baker I've yet to dislike one of Baker's Eberron books. This one introduces us to the politics of Droaam via a Brelish Dark Lantern. Since the King's Citadel in general and the Dark Lanterns in particular are among my favorite parts of the setting, I'm predisposed toward this one.

Anyone read anything cool yet this year?

Post Valenti Post

2009-03-13T22:00:00.000-07:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/303559.html
I meant to be posting this earlier, like the night that it happened, but well that didn't happen. Instead, here I am 11 days later...

I caught the Jessica Valenti: Feminism Still Matters lecture last Monday.
I didn't get a chance (was left off the RSVP list even though my name was definitely on the list of interested parties from the FMLA) for one reason or another to go to the dinner before hand. I'm going to assume snafu instead of malice, though knowing the personalities involved, it could easily go either way. More of why I dislike strongly hierarchal activism.

I actually arrived to an event early. I know, I'm shocked. At the last minute I moved up to the front rows. There were lap desks in the first few rows, though no access to an outlet (or this would have been posted that evening.) Well, there was the power strip that the projector was plugged into, but um, no. Not going to be the one to Fu that particular bar.

It turns out that Jessica is not 2.5 meters tall in real life. Nor does she bend steel plating with her teeth. Alas for the shattering of illusions. She still has the moral stature to support them though.

Ugh. The desks are right handed. Frack.

The WSA provides her with bottled water. There is a rant here about the essential connection between environmental causes and feminist causes and the tendency for the proponents of the second to ignore the first, but it isn't actually here .

She is 30 years old. I hate that the heroes of the current memespace are my age now. Completely underlines my lack of doing-thingsness.

She brings up one of my major issues: Most women are feminists, even if they don't know it, or deny it. A Lot of women are still too freaked out by the word to embrace it. (Frex, if you are reading this via my friends list, you are most likely a feminist. No matter how much you dislike labels. LLAD,QLAD,PAD)

From the viewpoint of the anti-feminists, telling women that feminists are all shrill man hating sexless sluts who are all super activisty bitches is both smart and tactical. If you can control the conversation, you can convince otherwise core feminists that feminism isn't for them at all since they aren't activists or they aren't man haters, or they aren't sexless, or they aren't sluts. Control the terms of the conversation and you can get people who should be your opponents' strongest supporters to do your work for you.

A discussion of the cyclical media claims that "Feminism is dead." If that were so, there would be a lot fewer people with a vested interest of maintaining the current social structure as it is trying to kill feminism.

Jessica is hella funny. "Yeah, I guess if I don't like rape tee shirts, I'm a bitch."

One thing that feminists need to do is start shaping the conversation. The blackhats have managed to define the terms so far, but if we can manage to tell the truth about feminism often enough, we can get young women to embrace the identifier.

About the current political culture.
Now that we have a supportive administration, one that isn't actively trying to regress women's rights and self determination, it is time. to address the underlying belief systems and cultural baggage that reinforce anti-feminist sentiment.

We need to combat moral panic over women's sexuality. She mentioned a FDA memo that sounded like it came out of a Dark Dungeons style tract, warning of the potential for plan b based sex cults.

Jessica's next book is called The Purity Myth. It is about the cultural construct of virginity, the fact that "It is time to teach our daughters that their ability to be good people is dependent on being good people, not on their sexuality." She reminds us that when women are taught about morality, they aren't taught that the important issues are things like courage or compassion, but the state of their hymens, that their ability to be ethical actors is primarily an aspect of their bodies instead of their actions. "Our daughters deserve a model of morality based on ethics, not their bodies."

When we got to the Q&A, we had some of the best questions. She got the mudflap girl/bare midriff picture question. I knew that she recieved that question, but I didn't really expect to hear it in real life, even at the lecture.

There was an awesomely long academic activist loaded wording question about women wearing things that cover their tits (while avoiding actually saying anything about what is being covered.) It was all dominant masculine paradigms and shit, with full out prefered answers coded into the question. Buddy boy had to read it off of a sheet of paper.

Should we pick a new word for feminism? "No!"
(I will eventually write my "No!" post.)

Abstinence and etcetra are fine but not moreally superior positions. Well handled, though the answer deserved more time than the format allowed.

She made another majorly important point. Opposition to women's reproductive rights is not structured around protecting life, it is structured around punishing women for their self determination/sexuality.

All in all the lecture was awesome, and I left with a signed copy of Full Frontal Feminism, my absolutely favorite primer on feminism, even if it happens to be aimed at women instead of a general audience (meaning specifically men and women.) (The kid who asked about that steped on his cod hard in his question. When I was his age, I would have too.)

psa

2009-03-13T08:59:00.000-07:00

so don't forget to celebrate 3:14 tomorrow.

meta to racefail '09

2009-03-12T13:00:00.000-07:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/302929.html
If you want to say "You are doing it wrong" that is okay. Even useful. In fact, at least in my case, I appreciate the input. But, if after doing so, you get hostile when asked "How do I not do it wrong?" then I really don't think that you have any claim to being taken seriously in your implied desire for me not to be doing it wrong.

Essentially, you are not obliged to educate, but if you are unwilling to educate than I am not obliged to give a rat's ass about your criticisms. Reducing hostility in a given medium is a two way street.

less catchy maybe

2009-03-12T09:04:00.000-07:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/302790.html
War what is it good for?
The shaping of the political environment via the application of force!

defining the memespace

2009-03-06T09:00:00.000-08:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/302027.html

Feminisim: the belief that while personhood and the right to self determination are universal among sophonts, experience is not.

don't comment here please

2009-03-02T09:13:00.000-08:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/301731.html
i carred my phone, then, because i have a very crappy provider, i was unable to use my current sim chip in the replacement. so i have lost my contacts list. if i should have your number on said list, go ahead and leave it here (comments are screened lj only)

Solla Salwe or bust?

2009-02-21T09:19:00.000-08:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/301348.html
Hum... Troubles?
Some creative account juggling to pay this month's gas bill (nothing awful, and if it hadn't worked, I would have just had a 3-4 dollar late fee.)
Job is completely unmotivating.
Haven't figured out what I want to be doing in 5 years or 18 months or what have you.
Bike troubles. (Nothing major, I'll be able to fix them quickly I think. If I'm wrong, I can throw some money at them next month and solve them outright.)
Tried to slice off my fingertip with a shard of glass, and while I have more bandaids than I thought I did, the stuff I want for this wound, gauze and medical tape? Absent.
I dropped my phone and it got carred to death. It will take about a week to sort out the replacement.
I've really done a poor job at keeping up my reading list this year so far

words words words

2009-02-16T17:17:00.000-08:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/300937.html
So, recall that, a while ago, I wrote that boink was a great word for discussing sex because it adds some levity. Well got another one (from the most problematic story in the vagina monologues) This one is more limited than "boink" as it isn't a word for sex, but for vagina.

Coochi Snorcher

Seriously, try to say that one outloud either alone or in the presence of other people.

I'll wait.

Did you keep a straight face?
No?
Me neither.
I had a great day at work today because every time I started to get disgruntled/unhappy, I just repeated to myself "coochi snorcher." Not once did it fail to at least make me grin.

nts

2009-02-16T09:21:00.000-08:00

note to self: buy real actual physical crusaidin' boots.

kinda liveblogging the vagina monologues

2009-02-14T13:52:00.000-08:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/300639.html This year's proceeds benefit the women of the democratic republic of Congo and the Middleway house (a 10/90 split.)

The war in the DRC has been has been going on since 1996.
"SFemacide is the Global Warming of women."

DRC/Bosnia/etc always makes me consider the merits of the Pax Americana.

The personal ones make me at turns sad and enraged. I understand the urge to panopticon.

RE: DRC
Was it because they were men?
Was it because they never learned to become a man?

no vibrators but guns!

I'm glad that I decided not to read this ahead of time (and I already expected more of these than I am happy with.)

"Warm up the duck lips"

I think I'm going to skip spoiling things though.

If you haven't yet seen them, there is always next year (and watch it instead of reading it. As text on paper, it loses impact, it loses much of its inherent value without the people involved, both the cast and the audience. Part of the impact is the community and the flesh and blood reality of the show.)

Oh and Taylor, if you catch this, it went damned well. Told you these things come together at the last minute.

In retrospect, these posts work better when I have a narrative to hang them on. Oh well.

vagmon

2009-02-12T09:22:00.001-08:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/300416.html
If you are in Bloomington Indiana, you should seriously consider going to the Vagina Monologues on the 12th, the 13th, or the 14th. It is an incredible play and the proceeds are going tob be split between the campaign to end the use of rape as a weapon of war in the Congo and the support of the middleway house here in bloomington (a shelter for women and children who are victims of domestic violence... yeah I know, men are victims of DV too and are massively underrepresented by services like this, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't help this side of the cause. I didn't do my research. Middleway does offer their services for male victims of Domestic Violence. Thanks Gabrielle for setting me straight on that one.)

Vagina Monologues Info Site

vagmon

2009-02-12T09:22:00.000-08:00

why a day devoted to recognition of violence?

2009-02-10T23:55:00.000-08:00

http://reannon.livejournal.com/1611297.html

vagmon concert

2009-02-10T23:00:00.000-08:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/300013.html
I'm writing this during the Ladyquakes' set. That way I can stay for it and still have time to write my event post.
The first band is a group of students from the Jacobs School of Music. They are incredible and I want to be able to hire them to play my living room on alternating thursdays. Initially there was too much distortion on one of the lines, but the sound guy got that fixed up and they were great.

The crowd has a preponderance of short and zaftig women. I am definitely not complaining. (I'm not specifically into short, but pretty much anything and zaftig works for me.) That and rollergirls. The Bleeding Heartland Rollergirls are taking part in most of the V-Week events. Athletic and active builds and not stupid skinny. *grins* Now the fact that these women are probably a decade younger than yt gives me pause, I'm not writing a heinlein novel after all, but they are still hawsome. And activisty. Activisty is even better than zaftieg. And hum, way off point now. Oh well. I bet we'll revisit this ground later. As digressions go, this one is fecund.

First band is The PaPanias.
This group is further evidence that every band needs a violin or three in its makeup. And maybe a couple of music majors. Very very cool.
The rollergirls are going about with the donation baskets. They really should have seeded them with a handful of bills each.

Also, who goes somewhere to dance in heels? Girls are weird. And masochistic. The marginal improvement in calf definition you get from heels isn't worth it ladies.

The Next Band is The Brownouts. A guitar, a bass, 2 sax, a trombone, a keyboard, a drummer, and a vocalist. Funktastic in the musicness. They are good and, suprisingly, not too loud, that said, I'm definately too old. Not counting the old guy and the owner of the place, I've probably got four years on anyone on the dance floor, and the average is much much younger. That said, these guys give me a renewed faith in the musical taste of the damned kids these days. On the other hand, I would like to have a heart to heart with them about their continued proximity to my yard...

The Emcee, whose name I failed to catch is hot and moves like a geek. Oops, apparently taken and possibly gay too. Oh well. Still the hotness even if not even potentially for me. Oh hey, she plays for the LadyQuakes, Internet powers activate... survey says Anna Saraceno.

Turnout isn't spectacular. I wish that I had a broader social network around these parts (or a job that would let me simulate one by buying a large number of tickets.)

Oh sweet, the rollergirls are doing that snake thing. The potential for the awesome demonstration of the conservation of rotational momentum is way high. (Think the whip game with roller skates. If you never played the whip game, get a half dozen of your friends, line up and hold hands. Then one end starts running in small circles. If you do it right, you can chuck the last person in line a goodly distance when they finally can't hold on anymore. Rollerskates make that much much better.

The Lady quakes are as awesome as always. "I wanna lick a vulva lollypop is their warmup song." I'm now caught up to real time in the show and they are awesome. They did start after 11pm so the already smaller than optimal (it is a tuesday night, so I hope expectations were low to begin with) crowd is sparse.

I want to be able to hire them to play my LR on the Thursday nights not claimed by the Papanias.

Oh, the vulva lollipops? They were chocolate instead of hard candy. I really wanted a candy cherry lollypop when it was announced that there were lollypops. So instead. A VDay patch. All in all, it went relatively well for the middle of a recession, a show that ends lateish on a tuesday with rain forecast for the weather. V-week has been disapointing for the people putting it on this year, but they are doing everything right. Sometimes stochastic events happen. :/

concert!

2009-02-10T18:00:00.000-08:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/299739.html

There is a V week benefit show at Rhino's in bloomington tonight at 8:30 pm! doors open at 8:15 and it only costs $5. All proceeds benefit Middle Way house and the campaign to end violence against women and girls.

I've only heard one of the bands but the Ladyquakes are quite good

Dance your phd

2009-02-10T09:40:00.000-08:00

Go to youtube. Search for "Dance your PhD" I had forgotten. I've fallen away from my tribe, but they are still out there.

2009-02-09T09:41:00.000-08:00

Overheard at the boxcar books party last night:
"Just because your dad is this dorky contrarian prick doesn't mean you have to follow in his footsteps."

From the extended context, the kid she was talking about was being a dorky contrarian prick, even though I mostly agree with his underlying assumptions. I don't usually go to Bible studies so that I don't end up being that guy. (Though I know my stuff better than most of the atheist at the bible study types I've ever listened to

listy

2009-02-09T00:04:00.000-08:00

My 10 newest toys
* = for fuzzy heroes, & = board game, % = non-fuzzy heroes war game, $ = rpg, # = computer/console game
1 Okko
2 dosbox/gapper #
3 4 inch Strawberry Shortcake Doll *
4 AT-ST Walker *
5 Strange potato shaped doll *
6 Dinosaur shaped basket *
7 Warcraft 3 expansion #
8 Shadowlord &
9 Sukioden Tactics #
10 Firefighter dog with water cannon *

newest books
1 The Ancestor's Tale Richard Dawkins
2 The Vagina Monologues Eve Ensler
3 Free Culture Lawrence Lessig
4 Knitting in Plain English Maggie Righetti
5 I, Asimov Issac Asimov
6 Friday Robert Heinlein
7 Dead Witch Walking Kim Harrison
8 The Good, the Bad, and the Undead Kim Harrison
9 Dune Frank Herbert
10 Rhapsody

in the name of the king

2009-02-05T21:24:00.000-08:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/298646.html
In the name of the king.
Setting Breland
The pcs meet on their way to the Capital, Wroat, each intending to join the King's Citadel, the elite guards who act as King Boranel's hand in Breland. The campaign is split between political machinations and swashbuckling with some pulp exploration scattered through it (Brealand has Sharn in it, the gateway to Xendrick.)

owwiee

2009-02-02T09:55:00.000-08:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/298370.html

So yesterday had some good and some bad.
I went and bought a new used bike. The young woman at the bike project was very nice and welcoming even though it was women's night, and she totally did some work on the bike that the person who put it out on the floor as on sale failed to do. She invited me to stay around, but I work with more than a few groups who take creating protected spaces very seriously, so I headed out after she finished fixing my new bike. I'll go back down later when I'm not working contrawise to the concept.

I went to baked and had some cookies. Cookies are good. I stayed mostly out of a conversation that ranged into a few areas that I know relatively well. No harm was going to come of misperceptions in these areas, and I think the guy was trying to flirt with the woman, so quiet me did online things and analyzed a couple days worth of conversations with one of my best friends. Not for content or anything. For length. (Turns out that I use about 136 words for every 100 she does in the limited sample I used. This ratio is about as unskewed as it gets for my conversations.)

I rode home on my new bike, guiding the old one by the handle bars. That was both difficult and dangerous. A couple of times I just picked the old bike up to keep it from ending up under my wheels. I think I surrealed up a couple of people's evenings too, so victory. I got home and put the bikes up in the front room. It was about 11:30 when I realized that the recycling needed to go out. Yesterday was about 45 degrees. Much of the snow in my yard melted during the day. It flowed out into the yard. As it cooled off, it froze in the street. I brought the recycling out and found this sheet ice the hard way. I went down onto my knee. The fall was an exercise in rotational momentum and semi-rigid structures. The trash can flew all the way across the street. My back bone tried desperately to avoid the movements that my collapse was forcing on it, doing fun things to my back muscles in the process (it turned one way the other attachment points turned other ways, my back muscles are all tight an unhappy to this hour.) and my knee explored a new closer acquaintance with the road. I may have exclaimed an expletive of the sexual subset, either while falling or after impact.

I hobbled back in and went to bed.
Woke up this morning still sore and having missed an im from a new friend.

2009-01-01T20:13:00.000-08:00

So I've been spending time on OKCupid recently. I occasionally get the urge to offer to take better pictures of people, then I remember:
"Hi you needz better pictures. I can haz camera. I can take pictures of you." = creepy

2009 book list

2009-01-01T11:17:00.000-08:00

1. Ex Mechana 3 Er, it’s been 3 months since I read this. I recall it was fairly enjoyable, though maybe not as good as book one and two.
2. Rogue Angel Destiny Alex Archer Interesting adventure story. Main character seems to have a bit much of the super human thing going on even before she gets the sword. Second, possibly third time in a short while that La Bete has featured in a book I’ve read.
3. Terrier Tamora Pierce Well, this is another book by Tamora Pierce. I’m hoping for another story with this character. *edit March 17* Whoo there is another one on the way!
4. Peeps Scott Westerfeld Wonderful. I ran into Westerfeld’s work in his adult stuff. Nice solid SF. His YA is brilliant. Parasite driven vampirism. Beautiful essays on parasites every other chapter. Happyness.
5. The Eternals Neil Gaiman Writing is strong, don’t care about the characters. I’m not really a Marvel or DC person. I’ve got characters I like to read, but they weren’t here.
6. Undertow Elizabeth Bear Not my favorite Elizabeth Bear, but Elizabeth Bear, so better than my favorite books by any number of other artists.
7. Eve Proto Mecha Lusen, Lichtner, and Garza Decent graphic novel/comic book. I hope to hunt down the rest of the story eventually. The title character ~~is massively malformed~~ has a pretty standard comic book female’s proportions. She’s a robot, so the fact that this doesn’t mean that she is inherently non-functional like biological versions of the body type would be is cancelled out by the fact that there is no good reason for the old guy who built her to make her that way. Like the story, other than my gripe about EVE herself, I like the artwork. Oh gods, I just went to check on the other female characters (reasonable physiques) and noticed that in several pictures, EVE’s breasts appear to have been stuck on as an afterthought. Not Youngbloods or Gen 13 bad, but bad.
8. Eternal War A series of space marine themed warhammer 40k comics. *Shrugs* They get the feel of the setting at least.
9. The Last Days Scott Westerfeld I return to my burgeoning love of Mr. Westerfeld’s YA work. It doesn’t use the parasitology lecture framing device I liked so much in Peeps, but it is a fine addition to his body of work in the Peeps world, even if it does
10. The Book of Night With Moon Diane Duane This is an auxiliary book in the Young Wizards series. It has brief appearances by the main series protagonists, but it focuses on the cats who maintain the world gates. An interesting look at some of the non-human wizards and the shape of the Choice of some of the other creatures. (Not my favorite of the Choices, but still neat.)
11. Jennifer Government Max Barry I’ve been meaning to read this one for a while, and almost decided that it wasn’t worth the hype when Mr. Barry brought my main gripe to the front and center. Part way through the book, he has one of the characters reading The Space Merchants and commenting on it. If he hadn’t done that, I think I would have had a hard time breaking away from the parallels between the two books. All in all it is a competent to good near future story in the low chrome cyberpunk tradition.
12. Sing the Four Quarters Tanya Huff. First of the Quarters novels, with a realistic teen to young adult protagonist. (Meaning I wanted to strangle her more than occasionally.) Next book in the set is set elsewhere with different people, which isn’t best in life, but what are you going to do? Not every day can be pillaging and such.
13. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Comics Pale Reflections, Crash Test Demons, and Bad Blood Sort of in the middle of a story here, but it is set before the parts of Buffy I’ve watched at this point.
14. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Comics Willow and Tara Amber Benson et al. I liked this set better than the more standard Buffy comics, but then I’m pretty sure that Willow and Tara are my favorite characters in the setting.
15 Megatokyo Volume 5 Fred Gallagher I’ve been reading Megatokyo since the middle of college. No surprises here. I think I’ve said this before, but MT works much better as a manga than as a web comic. (Which makes sense, as Fred wanted to make a manga.)
16. Forge of the Mindslayers Tim Waggoner Second book of the Blade of the Flame series, quite possibly my favorite Eberron material. This one delved further into Diran and Ghagi’s pasts and demonstrated the sort of special project that got spun and abandoned during the Last War.
17. The Sea of Death Tim Waggoner 3rd book of the blade of the Flame series. Vol’s running a Xanatos Gambit edging into Xanatos Roulette here. I’m really hoping for more Dirian and Ghagi books.
18. The Sagittarius Command R.M. Meluch This is the third Merrimack book. I’m pretty sure I assumed that Meluch was a guy in my first writeup of her work. Why? Not because she writes space combat, but because I internalized Asimov’s rant about women hiding their names as initials and assumed that everyone else did too, and because the ending used a plot device that annoys me a lot, one that I associate with male writers because it was developed and made badly stale by male writers at least 40 years before I was born. Oh yeah, I like this book a lot (I liked the first book except for the last 20 pages or less.)
19. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight 1-12 Assorted authors. I’m enjoying this series. So far it has been hit or miss for the tone of the best of Buffy. Book 12 has the most perfect reveal scene in the series so far, though the early scene with Buffy monologuing at Dawn is close, and Willow’s first appearance is awesome. (I so want to quote it, but that would spoil one of the better scenes in the early series.) Even if I’m not sure that she or Buffy deserves all of her lines later on. There is some big time healing that needs to happen to make their relationship make sense. Same as the end of Season 7.)
20. Midnighters: The Secret Hour Scott Westerfeld I’m not as enthralled with this one as with the Peeps universe. Still, good solid YA writing. I’ll give the whole series a chance.
21. Reader and Raelynx Sharon Shinn Another 12 houses book with the requsite fated romance story. This one focuses on the last core member of the party, and the Princess he just spent a year escorting across the country. The war that the series has been building toward happens, the bad guys die, and Sennith once again hijacks the end of the book. *sigh* I like her character. I just wish that when it isn’t her book, the last chapter wouldn’t be all about her.
22. Queen of the Slayers Nancy Holder Ugh. A few major slips in characterization. Major annoying style issues. Whenever she refers to Buffy outside of dialogue it is “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” Seriously? Ugh. If she had called her Buffy? We would have known just who it was. Including a main character’s title in every reference doesn’t work. It is a distancing tool you use for secondary characters and even then you drop it if they are emotionally close to the protagonist, unless it is a major issue for the protags. (See the Honor Harrington books. Honor uses titles with her closest friends until she starts growing up Very few exceptions. The narrator? Only when they are on their own, and even then only if they are briefly in view. The titles game is played fairly well to show how Honor (and often we) are supposed to feel about a character. Watch the narrator’s naming of White Haven and Hemphill through the series. (Also? Wikipedia totally screws Hemphill. She’s an important antagonist for the first 3/4ths of the series, and an important ally in the rest.) Also? Nothing happened before Xander’s eyes. He doesn’t have eyes. He has eye. Find a different non-incongruous turn of phrase.)
23. Seven Seasons of Buffy Glenn Yeffeth (ed) A series of essays by SF and F writers on Buffy the Vampire slayer. Fairly enjoyable literary analysis, even if occasionally an author would ignore all of the points that contradicted their thesis.
24. To Visit the Queen Diane Duane As much as I like the young wizards books, there is something particularly neat about reading Rhiow’s viewpoint. Even though she isn’t human, she has a more adult worldview, and seeing how she deals with the Lone Power’s more subtle attacks throughout this book is nice. I’d like to have had a little more resolution of what went on with her human, though I suspect that the next book (which I’m not sure got published. I know back before I was reading her material, there was a push to get it funded without going through her publisher, but it was sort of peripheral to my awareness at the time, with not recognizing the name (even though I’d read her work before.) The two youngest cats could have had another five thousand words to work through their issues as well. That probably would have strengthened that plot for me. All in all, a good book though.
25 Comic Party Book 2 Sekihiko Inui I bought the first book in this series on deep discount several years ago. I’d not bad, but if the library hadn’t had book two I’d probably not have bothered with it.
26. Chobits Book 1 Clamp Hurm... Pretty goy gets female android servant manga so far. Reasonably nice artwork, nothing particularly special. Both this and Comic party use a visual vocabulary that doesn’t quite click with me.
27. Class Dis-Mythed Robert Asprin and Jody Lynn Nye These new Myth books are, in my opinion, not as strong as the best of the earlier books. That said, I am enjoying the Skeeve books in the new set. Skeeve as teacher is neat, and I’m really looking forward to the upcoming book that brings the characters back together. I do wish that these books did the traditional checking back in that the earlier books did whenever we were following only one portion of the cast. Also? The Bunny/Skeeve thing needs to be resolved between them (it has been resolved between all of the other characters, she needs to sit the boy down and give him a good talking to.)
28. Myth-Gotten Gains Robert Asprin and Jody Lynn Nye An Aahz book. I think that Aahz has grown more as a character since the lead up to the dissolution of Myth-inc. I’m not as fond of his stories, even though they do a lot more character building than the Skeeve stories do. This book felt very much like it was there solely to demonstrate Aahz’s new personality.
29. Night Life Catlin Kettredge Supernatural Urban Fantasy. (Not necessarily in the genre romance category by the same name. Not sure yet.) Werewolf Cop in a world where Werewolves are known, if somewhat of an underclass. I like the main character, the setting, and the story. I wasn’t particularly convinced by the love interest, or at least he’s not the sort of guy I understand girls being into. Not a Harry Dresden book, but a very solid first novel. Ketteredge is definitely an author to be watching out for. (I’m pretty sure I heard about this one on Scalzi’s Big Idea posts.)
30. Small Favors Jim Butcher Newest Harry Dresden. Harry’s definitely come into his own as of this book. I hate how long it is going to be before the next one.
31. Shalom Japan Shifra Horn This book was a great experience. Essentially every book on Japanese culture and society that I’ve ever read was written by an American or a Brit. This book was written by an Israeli woman. The cultural divide between the US and Britain is something I’m familiar with. It was neat getting the occasional sense of “oh that’s something odd to notice” response from the book. I enjoyed the hell out of the book.
32. Rogue Angel: Solomon’s Jar Alex Archer First book in the series. Pretty good. Basic action adventure, holy sword. Written by a group, no real character development allowed. This is no problem in book one. The fact that no events carry over to the other books got me to stop reading the series several books later.
33. Good as Lily Derek Kirk Kim and Jesse Hamm Well, this is from DC’s Minx imprint, part of the attempt to bring more girls to comics by writing things that aren’t primarily male warrior fantasies and deformed women in very small amounts of spandex. A revitalization of the non-superhero comic world. I happened to like Grace’s attempts to deal with her younger and older selves, but the copy I read had a serious misprint. Pages 97-128 were missing, replaced with 65-96. Unfortunately, this covered a lot of the character growth that lead to the story’s resolutions.
34. Rogue Angel: The Chosen Alex Archer
35. Rogue Angel: The Spider Stone Alex Archer
36. Rogue Angel: Forbidden City Alex Archer
37. Going Postal Terry Pratchett One of the Industrial revolution books in the Diskworld series. Pretty much by definition, awesome.
38. Hogfather Terry Pratchett
39. Night Watch Terry Pratchett
40. Little Brother Cory Doctrow Hum. It is one AM and I am up reading the review copy of Little Brother that came with the UPS truck today. This isn't particularly non-standard behavior for me, what with the 1:30 AM average bed time. I'm going to post sometime soon about my thoughts about accepting a book that I want in exchange for agreeing to read the book (oh no, not the briar patch!) and talking about it either online or in the physical world. Unfortunately, I'm still figuring out my thoughts on the subject. I think they'll mostly be shaped like "I'm fine with it, but I do wonder if how much my perceptions are being shifted by the fact that I was given a shiny object that I wanted very much right before I started reading the book. And by the standard "wanting to do things that please the people doing the study/promotion/what have you" response that almost every human gets when they are asked questions or given things.

Now I'm going to play with metaphor.

So far (138 pages in) this book is reading like very good Neil Stephenson. (Cory Doctrow writes like the better parts of Stephenson's work in general. So I could have said "this reads like Cory Doctorow" but since this is a Cory Doctrow book, that would be less than useful.) Take Cryptonomicon. Make it more accessable. Double the amount of Civil Liberties stuff in the book. Make the character a particularly un-annoying 17 year old. He's brash and arrogant, he's a smart 17 year old after all, but he's a lot less annoying than most of the smart 17 year olds I've met recently. Update the pop culture references to today. Update the tech to today. Make it a shorter book, one short enough not to suffer wrist damage while reading it. (Cryptonomicon is one of the strongest arguments for e-paper. Gah that is a monster.) Up the fun by a bit. You have Little Brother.

I keep seeing reviews from people who use words on paper as a professional medium that say this is one of the most important books they've read. Usually folks who aren't neophobes. I think they might be right. The message is definitely incredibly important. There are some other books in the genre, including some that were published before the inception of the DHS, that say the same things this book is saying (as of 1/3rd of the way through.) This book is saying them though, in a manner that may well get them read. Concrete example. I think that Crypnomicon had the message and the information, but it lacked the accessibility to bring this to the people who need it. I was pretty much exactly the right audience for Stephenson's Book. Anyone who had a little more trouble following the plots, was a little less interested in any one of the stories, found the explanations a little harder to follow, thought the book needed to be a little shorter, or had less tolerence for a multiple page discussion of how to eat a perfect bowl of Captain Crunch probably didn't finish the book. That limits the audience, especially the young audience, to a particular set of subsets of nerdy geeks. Crypto geeks, WW2 Espionage Geeks, Geek Culture Geeks, and Hardware Geeks are all likely to finish Cryptonimicon with smiles on their faces. Broadway Musical Geeks with short fingers? They'll probably hurl the book against the wall out of sheer boredom and hand cramps after 50 pages. On the other hand, I have it on good authority that they readily and rapidly devour Little Brother. Additional Jokes Temporarily Suspended

Ooh! I'm a big fan of how the world and how the tech works exposition if done well. Stephenson, Lynch, and Heinlein come up as my first thoughts of examples of people who can do it right. Doctorow does it almost flawlessly throughout the book. All other lesser writers? I want to point out something that these people almost never do that you do and need to stop doing. Some asshole writing teacher sometime in the past told people never to put exposition in the text. Make it part of dialog. That can work. Except when you are explaining basic pieces of the setting by having two people talk. The "As you know" monster will come and beat you in the night with a rock if you do that. If you have to choose between An as you know style passage and just having the narrator have a half page or page segue, well the segue is much better. I am now typing with my eyes shut. I am done. Good Night.
I finished reading the book yesterday, and I've been rereading particular passages since then.
I compared it to Cryptonomicon the other day, and it turns out that Cryptonomicon is in the acknowledgments. I think that little brother was more tightly written, possibly a better book, but since the comparison came up while reading it, I ended up missing the more nonsensical asides from Stephenson's work. (There were big old exposition dumps in Little Brother, but they all had to do with explaining important parts of the world. Cryptonomicon had a multiple page digression about the perfect bowl of captain crunch cereal.

One thing that I wish the book had had was a 10 years later section. I wanted to see what happened to the characters. Of course, that would have changed the book from a story about a 17 year old protagonist to a story about the protagonist when he was 17, and while that would have been great for me, it probably isn't quite what the target audience wants.

Ooh, also? Shortly after publication, this book should be available on www.craphound.com for download under one of the CC licenses. (The rest of Cory's work is there already.)

All in all? A good book. I'm going to have to buy a hard copy of it eventually.

41. Clubbing Andi Watson, Josh Howard Sadly, I read this one quite a while ago and have mostly forgotten what it is about. Something about a wealthy city goth kid being exiled to a countryside golf course. And maybe demons.

42. Dragonmarked Keith Baker Michelle Lyons, C.A. Suleiman Well, I do have a bit of a thing for most things Eberron, but this book was quite useful for looking at what one of the major shaping powers in the setting (the 13 houses) were like. Also, the house Orien prestiege class? Very awesome.
43. The Artemis Fowl Files Eoin Colfer An Artemis Fowl Short story of some virtue is included here.
44. Fun Home Alison Bechdel I’ve not read Dykes to Watch Out For, but I did like this autoiographical comic. (I don’t actually like autobiography, but I’m a sucker for it when I do actually read it.)
45. Victory Conditions Elizabeth Moon I’m certain I liked it. It’s part of the Trading in Danger series. I just don’t recall much about it. I think this was the “and now the payoff for our setup” book in the series.
46. Captain’s Fury Jim Butcher Pokemon Meets the Roman Legion, concieved on a dare if I recall. I would have preferred another Dresden book, but lacking that, I’ll read thiese. Not bad, but no Harry Dresden.
47. Dust Elizabeth Bear Well, I’m an unabashed EB fan, even if I’ve not read all of her stuff. That said, I’d be hard pressed to choose between a sequel to this and a sequel to the Modern Era Promethian books for “book I most want to read by Bear.” Not to trivialize, it is Universe/Amber cross fiction by an awesome author. (It really isn’t, but it takes some of the setting and themes from the first and some of the characters and themses from the second. And there is “not Benedict” and full of awesome. And there is another one coming out eventually.
48. Song in the Silence Elizabeth Kerner A series of adventure/dragon romance novels without once straying into “Venom Cock” territory. You know, that is faint praise. They were really actually quite good books.
49. The Lesser Kindred Elizabeth Kerner
50. Redeeming the Lost Elizabeth Kerner
51. Maus Art Speigleman I get what all of the noise was about. This was a great book, and I love the Meta in the later comics.
52. Undertown 1 Jim Pascoe and Jake Myler No real clue. Maybe a manga with a teddy bear.
53. .hack Rei Izumi and Tatsuya Hamazaki It was okay, but didn’t really grab my attention.
54. Inverloch Sarah Ellerton A most excellent comic that I’m happy to have found. I would have liked the ending to have been a little less compressed though.
55. Rolling Thunder John Varley The third book in the Red Lightning/Red Thunder/Rolling Thunder series of tributes to the Heinlein Juvies. There was a lot of stuff for the encyclopedic Heinlein fan to key onto. It stands alone well (which I know because I read it first.) Pretty excellent. I do wonder about some of the physics issues from the major plot token in the series.
56. First Truth Dawn Cook Sadly, I can’t go into detail on this series. Wizardry and dragons and some modern science hidden in odd wordings and some social engineering not the hacking term.
57. Hidden Truth Dawn Cook
58. Forgotten Truth Dawn Cook
59. Lost Truth Dawn Cook
60. Human Resources I picked this up expecting a dectective novel set on the moon. Instead it was about a somewhat amoral corporate guy who has a mystery to solve.
61. Kris Longknife Mutineer Mike Shepherd Military SF. I enjoyed them. I should have written them up earlier. They shift to diplomacy/espionage stories as the series goes on.
62. Gear School Gallardo et al.Comic, future military of some sort. Possibly mecha
63. Kris Longknife Deserter Mike Shepherd
64. Kris Longknife Defiant Mike Shepherd
65. Kris Longknife Resokute Mike Shepherd
66. Kris Longknife Audacious Mike Shepherd
67. Jhereg Steven Brust I like the Vlad Taltos books.
68. Yendi Steven Brust
69. Teckla Steven Brust
70. Onegai Teacher Shizuru Hayashiya
71 Saturn’s Children Charlie Stross
72 Top 10 1,2, 49ers
73 Runaways Pride and Joy through book 7
74. Taltos Steven Brust
75. Phoenix Steven Brust
76. Death: At Death’s Door Jill Thompson
77. Athyra Steven Brust
78. Orca Steven Brust
79. Dragon Steven Brust
80 Hellsing 1 Kohta Hirano
81. A Victory of Eagles Naomi Novic
82. The Duke of Uranium John Barnes
83. A Princess of the Aerie John Barnes.
84. Common Grounds Troy Hickman
85. The Lost Fleet: Valiant Jack Campbell
86. The Pheonix Guard Stephen Brust
87. Galactic Empires Vol 1 Brian Aldiss ed.
88. Boneyard 1-3 Richard Moore
89. Red Lightning John Varley
90, Red Thunder John Varley
91. Webmage Kelly McCullough
92. Cybermancy Kelly McCullough
93. Codespell Kelly McCullough
94. All the Windwracked Stars Elizabeth Bear. Falls short of Dust in my personal index of awesomeness, but only barely. eBear is one of the masters of the craft in her generation of SF. (eBear, Stross, Novick, Doctrow, maybe a few others.)
95. Working for the Devil Lilith Saintcrow
96. Dead Man Rising Lilith Saintcrow
97. The Devil’s Right Hand Lilith Saintcrow
98. Saint City Sinners Lilith Saintcrow
99. To Hell and Back Lilith Saintcrow
100. Starship: Mercenary Mike Resnick Every time I read one of Resnick’s books I come to like his work a little bit more. This series of books is playing with the same sort of myth making as the Return of Santiago.
101. Deus Ex: Ex Cathedra Brian Vaughn
102. Moon Called Patricia Briggs
103 Welcome to the Jungle Jim Butcher
104 Princep's Fury Jim Butcher

foodish experiment one

2008-12-20T14:55:00.001-08:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/291199.html
I tired one of Alton Brown's recipies last night. My results were mixed. As were my followings of the recipie, so, you know, fair enough.
I made peanut brittle according to his recipie, though I used both less of and a different type of pepper (see I don't always pepper things as much as humanly possible) and less cinnamon than he called for. I also apparently heated it about 4-5 degrees higher than he called for. I should have stuck to the color test instead of using our thermometer.
The result was a nicely complex flavore in my peanut brittle with more long chain pseudo sugars than the recipie calls for. Unfortunately, the added complexity clashes with the complexity added by the additon of the cinnamon and the pepper. Either Brittle with additives or brittle cooked hot, not both. It is still quite eddible though.

oh tannenbaum...

2008-12-19T19:24:00.000-08:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/290892.html

So, I surrealed up the lives of some of the locals today. I went and bought a christmas tree. I considered walking home with it, but then I decided that not only would that take a long time, it would also be difficult. So I biked with it. Initially I slung it over my shoulder, but after a couple of blocks I decided that I would just strap it to the back of my bike and be happy.

books!

2008-12-19T19:23:00.000-08:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/290678.html
2008 was a good year for my book reading.But this next year is going to be awesome. I'm friggin ecstatic about the upcomming year.

Elizabeth Bear is putting the finishing touches to the sequel to Dust, which was itself packed with about as much awesome as anything I've read in the last year (It has a strong aspect of homage to both Amber and Universe, though with more skill than Universe and a tone and thematic underlayer that blows Amber out of the water. Don't get me wrong. I love me some Amber, but EB's best works are among the best things being written these days) (Dust is why All the Windwracked Stars wasn't my favorite book of the year.)

The next book in the Ravarin series by Kelly McCullough is due out next year. (It also has a strong aspect of Amber Homage to it. This has been my year for reading books by people who grew up reading the authors I grew up reading.)

Butcher's Dresden 11 is due out in 09. So I like Bear's writing better, but Harry Dresden is my Hero. (Sorry Matthew) As much as I enjoy the Caldorn series, I will be glad when it is concluded so that (hopefully) the Dresden books come out faster.

Tammy Pierce's Beka Cooper series gets a new entry, Bloodhound. I've got friends who complain that she is uneven in her writing. I have to admit to having not read everything she's written yet, but I agree that there have been some highs and lows in what I've read. That said, Terrier was some of the best writing that I've read by her. Which is saying a lot.

Scott Lynch's 3rd Locke Lamorra book is due out. Wherein, hopefully, both our Hero and our Protagonist find a way out of the dire predicament that he left them at the end of Red Seas over Read Skies. (I liked The Lies of Locke Lamorra better, but "not quite as good as TLoLL" is something that most authors should strive to achieve.

Diane Duane's A wizard of Mars should be out in 2009. She has shown a very uncommon talent for maintaining tension in a setting where characters gain in skill and talent as the books progress without having to ratchet up the scale of the consequences of failure. (While characters have had to save the entirety of reality in at least one of the books, the book after it wasn't a letdown even though the scope of the conflict was much much smaller.) (There are a bunch of genre cliches that she managed to avoid in the early books that made me incredibly happy.)

In theory, Martin's A Dance With Dragons is due out next year. I wouldn't hold my breath. Alas, this one will probably have even more PoV time dedicated to fucking Daenerys Targaryen, my least favorite character still living.

I know I'm missing books, things that I didn't even think to look to see if they were due out.

mutter mutter, internet is full of idiots

2008-12-19T19:22:00.000-08:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/290095.html
Okay, so some of you may have figured out that I am a left-centrist. I generally like the people on the left more than the people on the right, they are generally more compasionate, more decent, and more grounded in the real world. That is not to say that they are all like that, just that the majority are more so than the majority of the folks on the right. (And while the left has its own black hats, they've never been given the sort of power and influence, the sheer ability to direct the Left's agenda as say a Delay, a Rove, or a Regan have for the right.) This is why, by the way, I like Obama. He's a left centrist too. He's openly a left centrist. If you read The Audacity of Hope, there is no surprise for you that he's not some wonder-leftist, that he likes some aspects of the right and has some bones to pick with his own camp. He's got one of the more amicable scuyzzball preachers doing his inauguration, a guy who, while decent as his set gets is still anti-gay and anti-woman. He's also popular with the less extremist members of the religious right branch of the Blackhat party. Obama intends to be the President of America, not the president of the American Left. This is called meeting that part of the population half way. Sure, they are badly and deeply wrong, and we have to fight their agendas if we wish to consider ourselves decent human beings and furthermore, we must win that fight if we wish to consider our country a decent country, but excluding them from the dialog, alienating them and further fracturing our society? Not the way to do it. The left's big thing for the next 60 or so years needs to be undermining the division in America that the Right has created in the last 30 years. (Always harder to build than destroy *sigh*)
I read feministing. I love the articles mostly. Occasionally, I have a stupid moment and read the comments.
"Ok, this does it for me. I'm officially anti-Obama and would support his impeachment on day one if it were an option. Nothing short of a totally, 100% feminist president is acceptable anymore. Fuck his bigot pastor, fuck his inauguration, fuck the "christian" political agenda of hate, fuck his rhetoric and lies, and most of all FUCK OBAMA."

(About the above scuzzball pastor)
The thread following that is sort of special too. So glad that the left has to build coalitions instead of being strongly centralized like the right. Keeps this person's spiritual brethren and sisteren out of dangerously powerful positions.

(My take on Obama's political position is that he is a solid conservative in the rest of the world. In America, he's to the left of our current political process and a little bit to the right of our actual population. Americans are generally conservative, though less so than their politicians would indicate. There is a disconnect (engineered by the RR and the NeoCons) between our political beliefs and our political landscape. A few wedge issues, some effort to bring about voluntary disenfrachisement and disenchantment with the process, and wham, you've shifted politics way over to the evil side without having to shift the populace. Of course the Blackhats have occasionally forgotten that they didn't shift our memetics, just our voting patterns and over reach themselves.

My body my sel... er what the hell?

2008-12-19T19:21:00.004-08:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/290047.html

So my hair is turning white/grey. Been happening for more than a few years now. I'm not particularly bothered by or opposed to this. On the other hand, my eyebrow is turning blonde. That's just not right.

Harry Dresden is my Wizard

2008-12-19T19:21:00.003-08:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/289538.html

I really like Harry Dresden, especially in the later books after he's had the chance to gain some control over his life:

"I struggled to find the right words. “There are a lot of things I can’t control. I don’t know what’s going to happen in the next few days. I don’t know what I’m going to face, what kind of choices I’m going to have to make. I can’t predict it. I can’t control it. It’s too big.” I nodded at my shovel. “But that, I can predict. I know that if I pick up that shovel and clear the snow from the walkways, it’s going to make my neighbors safer and happier.” I glanced at him and shrugged. “It’s worthwhile to me. Give me a minute to shower.”

cut cut

2008-12-19T19:20:00.001-08:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/289417.html
I bought myself a cheap santoku. Even the cheap ones are fun to use.

Ouch

2008-12-19T19:19:00.000-08:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/289044.html
So, some days I just do it to myself.
I mean seriously, have you ever made a series of choices, each in a row, each the one you knew was wrong, until you finally just had a horrible mess on your hands?
Guess who did that?
Yeah. Me.

I left work today a little late, I'd stopped to read for a bit, since I had a place to be at 7, and work ended at about 5:10 and while I had a few errands to run but plenty of time.
I had grabbed a final refill on my soda at work before I walked out the door. Since my front breaks are fubared (yeah I need to fix that) I didn't even hesitate to carry it in my left hand since that break wasn't going to do me any good. I took off, and it was chilly, but my first stop was only a block or three away, I didn't bother grabbing my gloves out of my backpack. I took off singing along with my new MP3 player, and headed down the road. I avoided catastrophe via the use of my flintstones breaks and got to the first block of my goal. Now, I was headed to the good will and their setup is annoying. They have a bike rack in front of their door, but there are only two points of access to their curb, the driveway at the far end of the building from the bike racks, and one from inside their parking lot. I usually take the sidewalk from the driveway to the racks. Today was no different. So I coasted down the sidewalk, one cold had steering the bike and distacted by singing. Went right off the sidewalk into the grass beside it. wheel jerked hard in a thin little crevice and wham, up and over the front went I.
Caught myself on my hands and my knees. On the concrete sidewalk. Bent my front fender thing a bit (regular occurence really) cracked my knee something good (same damned knee I always hurt. I think it is ok, but we'll see tomorrow, and now I get to be careful with it all winter.)

So recap,
I was riding a bike on a sidewalk, distracted, with one cold and numb hand on the handle bars and then crashed. Welcome to the "well duh moron" club. (seriously, on the road I wouldn't have hit the crevice. Not distracted I would have stayed on the sidewalk, two hands or one not numb hand and I could have corrected for the sudden jerk of the handlebars.

Made the rest of the evening a pain, and the thing I wanted to do at 7, apparently was canceled (or since I was 20 minutes late, maybe it just ended early, though the person I ran into getting there had been 15 minutes late and nothing.)
Meh.

you spend a decade without listening to pop and it gets all weitd

2008-12-19T19:18:00.000-08:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/289002.html
Been listening to some current pop.
Rap wants its memetics back.
R&B wants its music back.
The 80s want their vocal distortion modules back.
And techno wants its beat back.

a poem

2008-12-19T19:17:00.002-08:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/288732.html
Oh how sublime,
the words that tear and strain to rhyme,
a fare with lost loves living there,
isolation and writing on the walls,
silence and islands,
I do recall,
a time when lyricism and music was all.

Not a party?

2008-12-19T19:17:00.001-08:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/288473.html
If you have to dress for it, it isn't a party.
It may be fun, it may be an enjoyable event, but it isn't a party.

never did write that post...

2008-12-19T19:16:00.001-08:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/288077.html
So I wasn't going to write my next blog post. But then I thought about my evening, and realized that this next post is entirely in tune with my night.
See, I went to the FMLA fundraiser tonight and I had a realization. I don't have work tomorrow. I mused a little outloud along the lines of "Hey, no work tomorrow, I should do something tonight." The woman sitting next to me suggested that I should make something, then she suggested that I should make a website. Not exactly what I meant, but I realized that I didn't have any better ideas for the evening. (Jessica has a somewhat skewed view of what I do for fun I think.)
Then I got home and Eva had posted a reply to my request for a theme for a numbers post with a suggestion that I make a numbers post out of synopses of the previous numbers posts and ask the question again. I'm hoping that she is meaning something different by numbers post than I do since I can't come up with any interesting way to do numbers stuff with an overview of what numbers stuff I've done before. Also, since I don't tag my posts mostly, doing this would be a huge undertaking (I envy you folks who organize your blog sensibly) So in a comment, I sort of said "no" but then I thought for a bit and realized it was as good as anything else I was going to do tonight.

FMLA Fund Raiser

2008-12-19T19:15:00.000-08:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/287814.html
Okay, so if you are in Bloomington this afternoon between 4:00 and Midnight, you should print off one of these vouchers and come to the college mall (eastside) Steak n'Shake. The FMLA is planning on being there at around 7:30 if you want to come and hang out with yours truly and a bunch of other awesomeness.

Frogs

2008-12-19T19:14:00.001-08:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/287614.html

my frog is astonishingly lazy.
My tree frog remember.
Last night I dumped the remainder of the crickets in its cage.
I forgot to put the access strip back on.
Meaning that there has been an inch and a half gap across one side of said cage all day.
And all night.
Yet, there is still a frog in the cage.

A question for the crowd

2008-12-19T19:13:00.000-08:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/287247.html

Hey, it has been a while since I've done a numbers post, and I was wondering if anyone had anything along those lines they'd like to see me tackle. (Numbers posts are things like the "random generation of proteins" post.)

Since my to blog blog is fairly comment driven, and numbers posts tend to get relatively good comment counts, this would also tend to increase my likelyhood of actually blogging other things.

That's great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes, an aeroplane. via matociquala

2008-12-19T19:10:00.000-08:00

Put your music player on shuffle, and write down the first line of the first twenty songs. Post the poem that results. The first line of the twenty-first song is the title.

Media player has an incredibly bad randomizer.

Listen as the wind blows, from across the great divide.
I often wonder what makes it so difficult for politicians to talk about values in ways that don't appear calculated or phony.
I'm making this one special evening.
A rabbit and a top hat, a handkerchief and ring.
And you don't seem to understand,
I feel your love
If I had the chance, love
Your lights are on, but you're not home
It's time we acknowledge a few simple truths.
It was the fearful night of December 8th.
Excuse me If I may Turn your attention My way One moment
I feel uptight on a saturday night
Hearts are worn in these dark ages
I love the time and in between
Out through the foggy window there
Under a blackened sky
Across the evening sky, all the birds are leaving
To the sea to the sea, let me follow.
Just yesterday morning, they let me know you were gone.
Hey your glass is empty.

standing between the darkness and the light

2008-11-29T20:09:00.000-08:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/286861.html
I need a better job.

I was wandering around the mall today, looking at various things of the thingish persuasion (mostly I wanted to see if either of the game stores had any of the games I'm looking for, if anyone had an appropriately sized and "stylish" white hat for me, and if halmark had a sale on ornaments so I could get some for my eventual spaceship tree. Answer was no.)

The folks ringing the bells in the mall had a wish tree or what have you.

Let's just leave it at I need a better job.

On my way home this evenng, via a "short cut"

2008-11-29T19:46:00.000-08:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/286558.html

Heard on my ride home through suburbia:
"Oh joy.
Lost in suburbia.
In the dark.
Again.
...
I hate suburbia."

2008-11-19T20:11:00.001-08:00

So far, it looks like yours truly is going to be not doing the group dinner thing for thanksgiving. *chuckles* well at least that means that I won't need to buy the nicer turkey, though I was sort of hoping to get to play around with a couple of different food types for a mixed trophic levels crowd.

2008-11-19T20:08:00.002-08:00

Last night
Heading home.
My paths diverge.
One long.
One short.
The long one has the virtues of interest, light, noise, and people.
The short, being short.
Down the longer path also lie morally suspect cookies.
Alas, justice is served again.
And I am home earlier than expected.

2008-11-19T20:08:00.001-08:00

So I bought a new thing. I now have a frame for my futon mattress. I've not had a post floor bed in years.

facebookery

2008-11-19T20:06:00.000-08:00

Created a new facebook group. Well, actually, two.
One, http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=36499608854 is a serious group for the development of Roninlabs.
The other, http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=34841677559 is a parody of Against the So-Called Freedom of Choice Act.

putzing

2008-11-15T18:22:00.000-08:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/283926.html
so, putzing about the memespace is mostly a 2+ player game apparently.

illustration ex post facto

2008-11-15T17:39:00.001-08:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/283655.html

So a couple of nights ago I was at the Lezbopalooza work party. I've been pitching in some consulting work for Lezbopalooza and since I wasn't going to be able to make it, I figured I'd help get stuff ready. Mostly, I cut out disks of paper for buttons.
Well, the conversation ranged across a lot of topics and eventually came to biking and traffic laws.
I chided someone about riding through a stop sign and shortly thereafter mentioned that I tend to stop at stop signs in deserted areas in the middle of the night. For which I was told by another member of the conversation that I was well conditioned (or trained or something) to follow society's rules or some similar snideness. As I didn't really feel like lecturing or arguing, I shrugged an "as you will" and let it pass.
I meant to blog about it last night, but I forgot.
Last night, I was riding home in the rain and the dark, and I was coming to a stop sign at the bottom of a hill. I was playing with by breaks, experimenting with their ability to stop me while wet (poor) and while going down a hill (we were accelerating) and a goodly bit up the hill I decided that I was going to do the far back rolling stop and lunge thing. Except I was rather interested in the acceleration while breaking thing and I decided to keep playing with it for a bit. While I was doing that, a car came around a turn that, in the dark, I had no idea existed and rushed through the stop sign (perpendicular to my route of travel) without even slowing down. Now I am not sure that the car and I would have had a close encounter of the ouchy kind if I'd not kept playing with my breaks, but the timing would have been damned close.

Part of why we have rules like "stop at stop signs even when there isn't anyone coming the other ways" is that we have an imperfect knowledge of reality and this category of rule allows us some extra time to help develop a little more knowledge in a manner that occasionally keeps us from harm. That's why I tend to follow rules like that when they do me no harm and present me with little inconvenience.

annals of awesome, part the second

2008-11-13T19:59:00.000-08:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/283625.html

Taylor.
From my, admittedly limited, viewpoint, Taylor is the motive force behind Lezbopalooza this year. She works at a community bookstore and in active in about two hundred bazillion different organizations, she sponsors people and events, and if she hasn't yet discovered emotionally that you don't have to go broke doing good, or that you don't have to be on all the time, those are to her great credit. She and I disagree on the modes and ethics of activism, with hers being a purer, more unbending form of personal activism. She holds herself to her own standards without apparent limit or flex. I on the other hand, am a tactical activist, frequently focused on the goal to the exclusion of the means. She lives her causes. If I am, as a few have said, harder on myself than I deserve, Taylor sets herself impossible standards while still allowing others their failures (and most likely doesn't even see it as such) without limit or apparent judgment.

If I am the tarnished Paladin, the is the real thing, the gentle and passionate champion of Right. Ten years from now, when she looks back, she will have done great and wonderful works. She will have changed worlds. If I can make her path, and the paths of people like her, smoother, then I will have done good works of my own.

She and her brothers and sisters are what Ronin Labs is for.

points of light

2008-11-13T16:44:00.000-08:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/283259.html
I find myself surrounded by awesome people whose names I never catch.
For example, I’ve told several of my friends the story of the puppy I’ve been playing with at one of the local pet shops. She was a wire hair fox terrier and she was there for several months. Now, those of you who know me, know that the amount of time that it takes me to bond with animals that are in the least bit affectionate can be measured in low digits of heart beats, so I was quite fond of this little puppy after a short while (I mean seriously, she would try to eat my hair and my shoes and she’d maul my hand. What is not to like?) Well, I can’t afford a dog at the moment so I went in several times a week to play with this (not particularly cute) puppy. Well, when I told people that the puppy I’ve been talking about was sold, most of them expressed sympathy. And obviously expected me to be sad.
The pet shop girl? (Well, pet shop young woman, but “pet shop girl” has a certain sound to it.) She came up to me and announced that my wire hair terrier had been sold in a tone that expected me to be excited too.

She gets it.

in other news

2008-11-11T20:05:00.001-08:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/282998.html

So, in other news,

I now have a slightly less ancient computer (it was given to me. AMD 1.5 ghz, 1 mb ram, XP box. I did some playing around to give it things it previously lacked.)

I replaced the back wheel of my bike. This is a harder task than it looks like. But now I know how.

I'm wearing a sweatshirt thingy tied around my waist. Preppy and convenient.

My dog got sold. This is mostly a good thing since I couldn't buy her.

In related news to the first post, I now have a 17 inch monitor.

I mulched just under half of the front thing of the apartment.

I planted bulbs for next spring (hopefully the squirrels aren't reading this.)

I missed yet another VagMon meeting. I wish that reminders were sent out at least 20 hours earlier.

Still searching for a better job.

Amy Gardner from the WW is still about the epitome of hot.

I'm now on facebook.

I am playing D&D Tiny Adventures. This is almost like playing D&D, except not interactive.

FF 12 is still the best story teller of the FF games since 4. And the starwars movies before 4.

The kitchen has been swept for the first time since we moved in. One of us needs a girlfriend so as to be motivated to do more (and insist on the other one doing more) housework.

I'm still mostly not spending enough time at home for me to get the housework bug.

I'm reading All the Windwracked Stars. so far it is standing up to my expectations. I'm tapping my toes for Chill though.

The same with the next book in the Cybermage series.

And the Dresden Files series.

A little less so for the Game of Thrones series, but that's because the next book is supposed to be about the characters I'm bored by.

Replaced the burnt out bulb in the front room. Seriously, we moved a lamp into the room to avoid replacing the bulb. (In my defense, I did go buy bulbs right after it burnt out. They just weren't the right size.)

I saw a flyer for the first thing that Ronin Labs has helped support. My logo is a negative of the actual log, but that's ok.

See, not everything in my life is politics, activism, or advocacy.

olbermann on the destruction of marriages ammendment in CA

2008-11-11T18:51:00.000-08:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/282591.html

Finally tonight as promised, a Special Comment on the passage, last week, of Proposition Eight in California, which rescinded the right of same-sex couples to marry, and tilted the balance on this issue, from coast to coast.

Some parameters, as preface. This isn't about yelling, and this isn't about politics, and this isn't really just about Prop-8. And I don't have a personal investment in this: I'm not gay, I had to strain to think of one member of even my very extended family who is, I have no personal stories of close friends or colleagues fighting the prejudice that still pervades their lives.

And yet to me this vote is horrible. Horrible. Because this isn't about yelling, and this isn't about politics. This is about the human heart, and if that sounds corny, so be it.

If you voted for this Proposition or support those who did or the sentiment they expressed, I have some questions, because, truly, I do not understand. Why does this matter to you? What is it to you? In a time of impermanence and fly-by-night relationships, these people over here want the same chance at permanence and happiness that is your option. They don't want to deny you yours. They don't want to take anything away from you. They want what you want—a chance to be a little less alone in the world.

Only now you are saying to them—no. You can't have it on these terms. Maybe something similar. If they behave. If they don't cause too much trouble. You'll even give them all the same legal rights—even as you're taking away the legal right, which they already had. A world around them, still anchored in love and marriage, and you are saying, no, you can't marry. What if somebody passed a law that said you couldn't marry?

I keep hearing this term "re-defining" marriage. If this country hadn't re-defined marriage, black people still couldn't marry white people. Sixteen states had laws on the books which made that illegal in 1967. 1967.

The parents of the President-Elect of the United States couldn't have married in nearly one third of the states of the country their son grew up to lead. But it's worse than that. If this country had not "re-defined" marriage, some black people still couldn't marry black people. It is one of the most overlooked and cruelest parts of our sad story of slavery. Marriages were not legally recognized, if the people were slaves. Since slaves were property, they could not legally be husband and wife, or mother and child. Their marriage vows were different: not "Until Death, Do You Part," but "Until Death or Distance, Do You Part." Marriages among slaves were not legally recognized.

You know, just like marriages today in California are not legally recognized, if the people are gay.

And uncountable in our history are the number of men and women, forced by society into marrying the opposite sex, in sham marriages, or marriages of convenience, or just marriages of not knowing, centuries of men and women who have lived their lives in shame and unhappiness, and who have, through a lie to themselves or others, broken countless other lives, of spouses and children, all because we said a man couldn't marry another man, or a woman couldn't marry another woman. The sanctity of marriage.

How many marriages like that have there been and how on earth do they increase the "sanctity" of marriage rather than render the term, meaningless?

What is this, to you? Nobody is asking you to embrace their expression of love. But don't you, as human beings, have to embrace... that love? The world is barren enough.

It is stacked against love, and against hope, and against those very few and precious emotions that enable us to go forward. Your marriage only stands a 50-50 chance of lasting, no matter how much you feel and how hard you work.

And here are people overjoyed at the prospect of just that chance, and that work, just for the hope of having that feeling. With so much hate in the world, with so much meaningless division, and people pitted against people for no good reason, this is what your religion tells you to do? With your experience of life and this world and all its sadnesses, this is what your conscience tells you to do?

With your knowledge that life, with endless vigor, seems to tilt the playing field on which we all live, in favor of unhappiness and hate... this is what your heart tells you to do? You want to sanctify marriage? You want to honor your God and the universal love you believe he represents? Then Spread happiness—this tiny, symbolic, semantical grain of happiness—share it with all those who seek it. Quote me anything from your religious leader or book of choice telling you to stand against this. And then tell me how you can believe both that statement and another statement, another one which reads only "do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

You are asked now, by your country, and perhaps by your creator, to stand on one side or another. You are asked now to stand, not on a question of politics, not on a question of religion, not on a question of gay or straight. You are asked now to stand, on a question of love. All you need do is stand, and let the tiny ember of love meet its own fate.

You don't have to help it, you don't have it applaud it, you don't have to fight for it. Just don't put it out. Just don't extinguish it. Because while it may at first look like that love is between two people you don't know and you don't understand and maybe you don't even want to know. It is, in fact, the ember of your love, for your fellow person just because this is the only world we have. And the other guy counts, too.

This is the second time in ten days I find myself concluding by turning to, of all things, the closing plea for mercy by Clarence Darrow in a murder trial.

But what he said, fits what is really at the heart of this:

"I was reading last night of the aspiration of the old Persian poet, Omar-Khayyam," he told the judge. It appealed to me as the highest that I can vision. I wish it was in my heart, and I wish it was in the hearts of all: So I be written in the Book of Love; I do not care about that Book above. Erase my name, or write it as you will, So I be written in the Book of Love."

considerations, setting aside the past

2008-11-11T18:39:00.000-08:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/282667.html

So, I've been having a bit of an exchange of emails with an old friend over a fundamental difference in our world views. He made a comment in our latest exchange to the effect that he was sad about my apostasy as he was sure I was sad about his continued membership in an organization that I see as evil. Personally I'd say that I'm not apostate, not that I find the word insulting. I renounced a religion, not a faith. I quit taking part in the members only aspects of rituals that I had never believed in when I sorted out that not believing in them was reason enough to not take part in them. Apostasy is, by my lights, a renunciation of a previous belief and taking part in rituals isn't the same as believing in them. Er.. that wasn't what I was going to write about... ooh look a butterfly!

I was going to deny that I thought his Church was an evil organization, but as I was trying to figure out the wording for what I wanted to say, I realized that that wouldn't be true. His church was a major sponsor of proposition 8, a constitutional amendment in California that destroyed existing marriages in order to "protect" marriage. The bishops in Africa have been spreading disinformation about condoms and HIV, disinformation that is used to decrease women's bodily sovereignty and which works to speed the spread of HIV through the population. The church itself has acted to shield child molesters from legal consequences. It censures or worse members who refuse to tell the people who they minister to that their ~~lifestyles~~ sexual identities are fundamentally disordered. They encourage members in representative and democratic societies to be single issue voters at the expense of social goods and civil liberties. The list of (current) evils perpetrated by the church is overwhelming. Yes, it does a great deal of good in the world, but that good is insufficient to counter the basic position against human dignity and growth. (By the by, those of you who possess or are possessed by a church of your own, you should take a good look at this list and see how much your own church does that is against human dignity. And work to change that. His church is particularly unamenable to change by members who aren't actually part of the hierarchy, and the centralized structure makes the sins of the parts the responsibility of the whole in a manner that is not replicated by groups like the Episcopal church.)

and thus do I take up my shield

2008-11-07T20:35:00.000-08:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/282125.html

So the other side of the thing I was talking abut last night (the one that wasn't the election. Remember, I don't only talk about the election and how awesome the people who helped us win the election dispite ourselves are.)

My sister recieved a reply to her message (I numbered the sentences):

"Subject Line: That is incredibly sick, hurtful, and not funny.
1. Brie, Do you understand what FOCA DOES? 2. It overturns all state and local resrtrictions on abortion. 3. It makes Partial Birth Abortion legal again. 4. It means full term babies, otherwise healthy, can be killed in utero when they're OLDER then Ben was when he was born. 5. It means Drs and Hospitals are FORCED to perform abortions, even against their beliefs.

6. It's about removing the chance to choose for life. 7. It takes federal funding away from crisis pregnancy centers and 8. provides taxpayer funsding for abortion.

9. It is pure evil, and I'm sorry you don't see that.

10. Goodbye."

1. Irrelivant.
2. Well, no shit. That is the meat of the act, and a direct blow against those who are opposed to a woman's right to control her own body (actually, what it does is force all of those laws to undergo the highest level of scrutiny applicable under the courts. If the law is not over-reaching what it is allowed to do, it is fine.)
3. Well, here we come to a bit of memetic theater from the anti-choice crowd. Partial birth abortion is a term that was created as a political tool. It doesn't show up anywhere in the literature. As such it is amprphous term, if not semantically null. It is also a valuable procedure for ensuring a woman's health after a late term abortion (admittedly, most anti-choice folks want women to suffer as much as possible for their abortions)
4. That's not actually true. It specifically affects laws that are set before the stage of viability.
5. I think we all know my thoughts on doctors who won't do their jobs.
6. Except no, it isn't. Allowing someone else to make a given choice doesn't keep you from making the opposite choice.
7. Well, about damend time. These places are actively harmful, they mislead and decieve women who come to them for help.
"Women describe being harassed, intimidated, and given blatantly false information, or being forced to pray with the crisis pregnancy center's staff. They complain that their confidential information was used against them. In some cases, they were followed home, and mail and phone calls intruded into their homes."
8. Again, good.
9 and 10. She then defriended my sister. There is some drama lama going on here... And removing a woman's right to reproductive health services and controll over her own body is "pure evil, and I'm sorry you don't see that."

2008-11-07T17:26:00.001-08:00

So I screwed up a post last night. I changed the posting date in a manner that means that, unless you are reading directly from ronin_kakuhito@gmail.com or you have a very small inactive friends list, you are unlikely to have seen it. Honestly, it was mostly just a recap of a series of posts I'd already made, and I wasn't certain that I liked the formatting anyway. (Essentially it combined a series of independent posts into a single narrative. They do form a narrative, but I also think they work best as independent entities tied together by an outside post. Also, I do like the intro I wrote, but I think it works better in isolation as well.
A couple of notes.
I did very minimal editing of these posts. I wrote most of them long hand and transcribed them nearly verbatium. If you are expecting polish? Not so much.

On pronouns: I switch between the detached they and theirs and the personal we and ours throughout these entries. It usually is a reflection of my emorional state when I was writing whatever it is when I did so. I was attempting to keep some distance for my writing, but as I got more and more caught up in the events I was chronicling, I lost that distance. I could have fixed that in the edits, but I'd rather not.

So here it is once again, in a more internet centered format:

I spent last night surrounded by heroes, people whop have given more of themselves than anyone could have asked, people who for the last six months, the last fourteen months, the last two years have put everything on hold to try to bring America back to the country that we read about in our history books. I ended my night in tears. I was crying for many different reasons, some of which will be obvious a little bit down the page, but one of which is this: I knew that the biggest thing I will be able to do for these people who I spent the last three days with is these words, and that these words, if they are the best that I have written, if they are the best that I will ever write, they will fall short of what these people have done for me and for you and for America and for the world. I dedicate these words to the people I met at the Campaign for change between November Second and November Fourth 2008, I dedicate them to Domini, to McKenzie, to Ian, to Jeff, to Miguel, to Hope, and to the dozens of people whose names I can not recall or who I never knew.

October 31st 2008: Black Hats and Elections The events that lead me to visit the Obama Campaign:

November 2nd 2008: Serendipity Writ Large I had no idea what was going to happen. A confluence of events, a theft, two stores closed, and a bored night conspire to direct my life. Of course, I hardly noticed at the time:

November 3rd 2008 The Edge of History My first glimpse that there was something different about what I was doing, that there was something that I had missed.

Tuesday November 4th: More of the Day First thoughts, my first return to the campaign of the day:

Tuesday November 4th part 2 Election Night My thoughts during the returns.

I want to thank my friend Eva for her suggestion that one megapost is not really the best format for this work.

The edge of history

2008-11-06T20:01:00.001-08:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/281745.html

I spent last night surrounded by heroes, people whop have given more of themselves than anyone could have asked, people who for the last six months, the last fourteen months, the last two years have put everything on hold to try to bring America back to the country that we read about in our history books. I ended my night in tears. I was crying for many different reasons, some of which will be obvious a little bit down the page, but one of which is this: I knew that the biggest thing I will be able to do for these people who I spent the last three days with is these words, and that these words, if they are the best that I have written, if they are the best that I will ever write, they will fall short of what these people have done for me and for you and for America and for the world. I dedicate these words to the people I met at the Campaign for change between November Second and November Fourth 2008, I dedicate them to Domini, to McKenzie, to Ian, to Jeff, to Miguel, to Hope, and to the dozens of people whose names I can not recall or who I never knew.

October 31st 2008: The events that lead me to visit the Obama Campaign:

I got tuesday off work. That means that I can slog out to my polling place and vote that morning. I know I could have voted early or absentee, I could ride my bike or even call either of the campaigns for a ride (and tactically, I should call the McCain campaign, but really, no, that's the sort of shit the black hats do, not my side. Well, if I find the memebers of my side that do that sort of thing, I'm panning on meeting them in a dark ally some day, but I digress...) but call it a mediation on the system. I find that taking the time to walk some distance to the polls and then waiting in line to vote holds some value. (sadly, English lacks non-supernatural references for this whole category of event, but oh well, that's what I get for speaking a language with a basis in superstitious cultures. So all of them.) Essentially, one takes part in the spirit of the event by the saccrifice of some minimal time and effort. No utilitarian value, but a symbolic one, and you have to be pretty stubbornly blind to completely spurn the value of symbolisim both in the personal and public sphere.

Also, speaking of alleys, I have some folks I want to meet in one.
Riding in to work I see assorted campaign signs in people's yards. While I think that the blackhat candidate is a moral and political danger to the United Statea, I don't believe that his followers should be silenced. Especially when they are using their own space to unobtrusively post their message. Well, both his signs and the good guy's signs have occasionally been taken by people who would silence the supporters of one or the other candidate. Two I noticed in particular.
In one of the nicer neighborhoods on my ride to work, there is a lone McCain/Palin sign. This morning all that was out there was the metal stand the sign was supposed to be slipped over.
In another neighborhood, rather closer to home, an Obama/Biden sign is missing stand and all.
Even though I'm supporting Obama and even though that sign was an act trying to silence my own personal voice, I am more upset by the McCain sign. See the Obama sign was taken by McCain's supporters, a group who historically have worked to suppress the voices of their opposition through pretty vile tactics in a representitive government. I expect black hats to act like black hats and when they fail to do so, I am pleasantly suprised, but when they do act like black hats, I am not particularly bothered. I may take action to try to counter their actions, but they are black hats, and thus are expected to act like thugs.

On the other hand, when my own side does the same, I get pissed off. We are the fucking good guys ass holes. You are fucking dragging us down to the black hats' level by your actions. Please stop. I will eventually find you somewhere alone and far from help and remind you that decent people don't act like that. (I think the good guys should be turning some of the blackhats tactics and methods against them, but that doesn't mean amoral free for all.)

November 2nd 2008: I had no idea what was going to happen. A confluence of events, a theft, two stores closed, and a bored night conspire to direct my life. Of course, I hardly noticed at the time:

So I went stickering tonight.
I hadn't intended to.
I was going to get a pair of replacement yard signs then go to Box Car books and the game store. But BCBs and the Game store were closed, so I went back to the campaign for change and put stickers on fliers for them.
Talked with an older visitor there while we stickered, discussed the value of realpolitik (something that the Blackhats are immensely better at than the Democrats. Makes sense. The power structure in the bh party was forged in a cauldron of realpolitik devoid of humanity or compassion. This is known as the neocon revolution, and can be identified as when the Republicans traded conservatism for power.,) and generally had a good time.
Hee, my polling place is a church. This amuses me.

The Dems know how to have a good time doing good. This is a value that we should push in our culture.
(No I am not a democrat, save by default. I tend to vote tactically, and it is hard to find a decent person who is a non-democrat with a chance of winning in the US.)

November 3rd 2008 My first glimpse that there was something different about what I was doing, that there was something that I had missed.

I missed the edge of history. I start these words on the back steps of the Bloomington Obama Campaign Headquarters. Beautiful night and a promise of a spectacular dawn. I came to help. Instead I'm hiding out back writing. Typical really.

I am really not nor have I ever been the right person for this campaign. This isn't the place for cynics. These kids, and most of them really are kids, are trying to change the game. When I was their age, I loved the game, and now I am not sure that it can be changed. That isn't to say they can't win. The blackhats took 8 years in power and so massively fucked things up that they may have killed their revolution, the one that's been poisoning American politics since I was born. The blackhats set the field, they've darkened the tone of American politics, they've polarized the country in a way that may take the rest of my life to repair.

Moving back inside. Not sure where this is going and I need to go in and refocus on the swell of their energy.

Lots and lots of wireless routers.

Okay I'm back. I helped organize some things (I am very much a facilitator.) They have focata. I don't feel so bad about eating their food after helping out.

I missed the edge of history. 12 months ago, I was jobless. I saw campaigning related job listings and never stepped up to the plate. They all slipped past - over and over again until June when I got my job and essentially quit looking for them. I should have volunteered after the rally (some day eventually I'll finish blogging the rally for then not yet president Obama.) I should have joined these kids' cause. But I am not the right person at the right place or the right time. I'm not actually sure I've ever been that person.

Good people doing good things. That floats my boat, but my own works are always colored by era and my outlook and it is probably best that I am keeping out of the memetics side of this campaign.

Now it is after hours. I'm probably the only non-staffer left and they ran out of tasks for me hours ago. I'm watching comrades winding down and gearing up for one last big push to bring about a sea-change. I'm sitting on the edges looking in . Just a moment...

A young woman, Hope's her name, just dragged herself across the room and sank into a seat. She read one of the pieces of campaign literature that is scattered here and there in assorted boxes and a big grin captured her face, her shoulders straightened, and she got ready to start again. This is the campaign.

Sorry, didn't want to lose that.

Energy level - 11 pm. Incredible. I said this before. These are my people. Within the last hour Obama said something about Bobby Knight and Chris Matthews called Indiana for Obama. Bonhomme is not sufficient a word for the atmosphere.

I was just asked if I was a staffer. I wish. It's probably the stubble and the receding hair and the tired aspect. All evening people have been bringing them food. They have a woman who is driving some local up to Indiapolis tomorrow at ungodly early so he can go vote. Also, surrounded by the invincible beauty of youth. Two or three times I was recognized from yesterday.

I missed the edge of history. I hope to your assorted gods that a thing like this campaign is never needed. I hope we never fall so far that this degree of mobilization is needed. At the same time, it is awesome to see that a positive message can bring a level of response that is more traditionally associated with fear campaigns,

oops
...
McKinsey "It is the best day of our lives tomorrow."

back to the thread

associated with fear campaigns, campaigns run on a threat, be it brown people, or uppity women, or a scary godless elite, the suppression of your (massively in the majority) faith, etc. This time it is hope and change and a drawing back together that motivates, and it is the democrats mobilizing.

I missed the edge of history. But fortunately for me, history comes back for us.

As always,
Michael Phillips

November 4th 2008 Part one
I missed the edge of history. I start these words on the back steps of the Bloomington Obama Campaign Headquarters. Beautiful night and a promise of a spectacular dawn. I came to help. Instead I'm hiding out back writing. Typical really.

I am really not nor have I ever been the right person for this campaign. This isn't the place for cynics. These kids, and most of them really are kids, are trying to change the game. When I was their age, I loved the game, and now I am not sure that it can be changed. That isn't to say they can't win. The blackhats took 8 years in power and so massively fucked things up that they may have killed their revolution, the one that's been poisoning American politics since I was born. The blackhats set the field, they've darkened the tone of American politics, they've polarized the country in a way that may take the rest of my life to repair.

Moving back inside. Not sure where this is going and I need to go in and refocus on the swell of their energy.

Lots and lots of wireless routers.

Okay I'm back. I helped organize some things (I am very much a facilitator.) They have focata. I don't feel so bad about eating their food after helping out.

I missed the edge of history. 12 months ago, I was jobless. I saw campaigning related job listings and never stepped up to the plate. They all slipped past - over and over again until June when I got my job and essentially quit looking for them. I should have volunteered after the rally (some day eventually I'll finish blogging the rally for then not yet president Obama.) I should have joined these kids' cause. But I am not the right person at the right place or the right time. I'm not actually sure I've ever been that person.

Good people doing good things. That floats my boat, but my own works are always colored by era and my outlook and it is probably best that I am keeping out of the memetics side of this campaign.

Now it is after hours. I'm probably the only non-staffer left and they ran out of tasks for me hours ago. I'm watching comrades winding down and gearing up for one last big push to bring about a sea-change. I'm sitting on the edges looking in . Just a moment...

A young woman, Hope's her name, just dragged herself across the room and sank into a seat. She read one of the pieces of campaign literature that is scattered here and there in assorted boxes and a big grin captured her face, her shoulders straightened, and she got ready to start again. This is the campaign.

Sorry, didn't want to lose that.

Energy level - 11 pm. Incredible. I said this before. These are my people. Within the last hour Obama said something about Bobby Knight and Chris Matthews called Indiana for Obama. Bonhomme is not sufficient a word for the atmosphere.

I was just asked if I was a staffer. I wish. It's probably the stubble and the receding hair and the tired aspect. All evening people have been bringing them food. They have a woman who is driving some local up to Indiapolis tomorrow at ungodly early so he can go vote. Also, surrounded by the invincible beauty of youth. Two or three times I was recognized from yesterday.

I missed the edge of history. I hope to your assorted gods that a thing like this campaign is never needed. I hope we never fall so far that this degree of mobilization is needed. At the same time, it is awesome to see that a positive message can bring a level of response that is more traditionally associated with fear campaigns,

oops
...
McKinzey "It is the best day of our lives tomorrow."

back to the thread

associated with fear campaigns, campaigns run on a threat, be it brown people, or uppity women, or a scary godless elite, the suppression of your (massively in the majority) faith, etc. This time it is hope and change and a drawing back together that motivates, and it is the democrats mobilizing.

I missed the edge of history. But fortunately for me, history comes back for us.

As always,
Michael Phillips

November 4th 2008 Election Night.
November 4th 2008, 17:00

Back at headquarters, one hour before the polls close. Most of the campaigners are out with signs and flyers, a last ditch effort to remind people to vote. The people left are making sure that the poll closers know what to do. They are making sure that people know that if they are in line by 6 pm, that they can't be turned away. The returns begin in an hour and people are trickling in to return their final canvassing packets.

I'm in the standard ~~journalist~~ anthropologist position, hovering near the food. There is a spectacular spicy chex mix. I'm wearing my camouflage, a bike helmet, obama, and activism tee shirt (take back the night), a sort of portable blind behind which I can watc h and write.

I just finished calling everyone on my phone who I am not sure voted and whose vote isn't a guaranteed vote for the bad guys.. (I'm not all that good at uninvolved observer really…) Somehow I'm not being targeted for any of the last minute to save the world brigades.

Back at the food, people are continuiously amazed as they walk by at the generosity of the folks who donated food.

15 minutes to go and we have mostly wound down the phone efforts.

18:00 hours, the polls closed – Several cheers. Fivethirtyeight is calling for an electorial college landslide. A returning driver is telling a story of rescuing a lost group of voters, rushing them to the polling place with scant minutes to spare.

18:30, someone mentioned that we weren't done here Indiana.

Google says that Lake County, Newton, Perry, Gibson, Spencer, Starke, Vanderburg, Jasper, Warrick, and LaPorte counties are still open. The campaign office has reopened the phone lines and now Activate is being set to connect them to uncovered voters in western Indiana. I've got volunteers mistaking me for staff again, but now I've been here long enough to know how to answer many of their questions and I can use it to help organize the effort.

The numbers for Monroe county are now coming in. Districts that were 50/50 last time are 55/45 or 60/40 now. We are gaining points even where we aren't winning here in Indiana. Places that were 75% for bush are now 35% McCain. I was going to head over to the IU returns parties, but the atmosphere here is better.

we watch the polls on someone's laptop. Cheering at every county, every precinct, each falling out exactly as predicted. I'm talking to kids who did map projects when they were in grade school back in 2000 and who woke up to find their maps wrong. Many of them are being careful to not get too attachd to the win, but I think that in this case, Obama is right. Hope is never false. (Admittedly, this is about the time that I saw that Bruce Schneier was not only calling it for Obama, but he was calling 538 and Princeton election consortium too pessimistic in their calls. This is when I decided intellectually that we won.)

Next we close down and head to Opie Taylors where the returns are on the wall and every screen. The noise is awesome, the excitement palpable. None of the hesitation I noticed in the office has made it through the doors. I walk in with the folks who closed the campaign office, and the noise is awesome the excitement palpable. I do wish the TVs had closed captioning on though.

I love these people, these children of the age of cynical and trash politics, of Regan and Rove and destroying your opponent in the elections so that you can't work with them in the aftermath. Of doing anything to win and failing that doing all that you can to sabotage the winners' efforts to govern. These kids are the future of this republic, and they are not a future of scorched earth and 50% + 1 victories. Even now, in the middle of returns, in the early stages of winning a contest that has eaten months and years of their lives, they hold no more acrimony toward their opponents than was earned by the tactics used by the republicans, and even that is muted.

Also? Lack of access to data reminds me forcefully that I want a laptop.

Iain gets a call, and Brown County, his own personal campaign was called for Obama. The east coast polls are all closed now and it is overwhelmingly Obama 103-34.

I can no longer hear or scream after the announcement of the early eastern states.

20:00

Sodrill conceded.

My best friend's state was called at 21:00 for Obama.

Many of these people worked the campaigns in states across the country. Now as their earlier work pays off, the screaming and clapping gains physical force. While they applaud the returns, I am busy applauding them.

These hours are why Domini spent 14 months being a better person than I. This is why she was calling people into the last minutes of the last polls of the state. It is why she has slept less this week than I did yesterday.

CNN is calling Pennsylvania and Illonois for Obama to a roar of "Yes we can!"

I get the diet coke I wanted at 20:50 as Indiana is entering the 779,000 to 715,000 for McCain. My voice slowly recovers.

At this hour, there are still people who confide in me or who I overhear talking about their worries that Obama might not win. I'm pretty sure that their concerns are unfounded at this late hour. My worry is that we won't dominate so hard that the republicans won't be willing to consider the tactics of thugs and sleezes for a campaign for any office in the land for the next decade.

21:20 52 seats in the senate with 13 up for grabs.

21:22 OHIO.

This confirms my earlier statement. With Ohio, we have won the election. Now the question is "is it by enough to convince both sides that the old style of campaign must end?" When New Mexico is called for Obama, the cheer is "New Mexico, New America!"

21:43

Indiana is 890k McCain, 850k Obama with neither Lake nor Monroe reporting yet.

The aura of hope that has permeated the parts of this campaign that I've seen ever since the Rally in Bloomington, but I'm beginning to feel that the edge of victory might be excluding the healing that this campaign is putting front and center. I suspect that, from the people I've met, this is more a matter of excitement and the flush of seeing things you've worked long and hard for starting to happen. I believe (and Hope) that this won't last out the week, that these people will take the campaign's core message of bringing America back together to heart, even in the face of the neocon's inevitable attacks.
*CHANT* Yes we Did!

By 22:00 is is pretty obvious that we won the election. For the moment, no one cares that we need to do more than win. Just winning is validation of the massive effort these people have put forth. Soon, the first flush will pass and we’ll remember that the goal of this campaign isn’t to win (seriously, check Obama’s speeches, he is clear that he wants to change the USA’s politics and that winning isn’t succeeding. Personally I think that if we are going to win the race, we’ll also need to sweep at least the electoral college to drive home the message that the old style of campaign, the sleaze and the muck and the wedge campaigns will no longer be accepted by the American public. We have won the election, but that isn’t all we have to do. Now we have to fix the nation’s problems, heal a rift that has grown wider and wider in the last thirty years as one side of our electorial politics has consistently sacrificed half of the nation to the god victory. We must fight sectarianism, we must help all of our people, we need to end or at least curtail the power of the American oligarchy, to split the neocons and the religious right from the decent republicans.

22:40
40% return polls puts Monroe County at 12,600 votes for McCain, 23,750 votes for Obama. The folks surrounding me are jubilant. Even if Obama wasn’t going to win the election, they have done awesome things this day.

I’ve said before that I love good people doing good work. This is what it is like to be with good people doing good work and succeeding. They are celebrating the people who helped engineer Monroe County’s election. They are celebrating eachother.

22:58
207 Plus Virginia’s 13 is 220.
220 is a win.
We need 270 points and some of you know that 220 is less than 270, you forget that California is a safe state these years. 220 plus California’s 55 is 275. The numbers are done and Virginia pushed them over the top. 2 minutes until the Polls in California Close.

23:00
The noise is deafening two minutes later as both CNN and NBC instantly call the results from CA, WA, and Oregon, confirming America’s first black president. Only time will tell if we received the points needed to denounce republican sleeze tactics, but at the least we have won this fight.

23:04
Exactly 4 minutes after the call, 4 minutes of screaming and chanting their joy at victory, they begin a chant that I can’t help but join.

U.

S.

A.

Four minutes to change from a victorious political party into a victorious American people. I love these people. I haven’t sweated and bled beside them, I can’t claim any but the least signifigant portion of their victory for my own. The only way I was going to not vote for Obama on this day after the primary results was if I was dead or in a coma. This isn’t my personal victory, I don’t own it like these people do, but it is my victory. It is mine because it is Ours, the Big “O” Ours of the American People. Even if you can’t see how Obama is your president, even if you hate him to the bottom of your soul, no matter who you are, this is you victory, it is a victory of hope over cynicism, the victory of our better history over our darker past.

CNN is showing scenes around the country
and suddenly, we see a jubilant celebration in Kenya, in Japan, in England, We are on the verge of of a global American era not just of the gun and the sword but of the olive branch. We will remind the world why they loved us, what it was about the USA that they watched and hoped for, a reminder that our great experiment can create a greatness of spirit as well as a greatness of strength.

55 in the senate.
Obama is pulling ahead in the Indiana polls.

23:18
McCain’s concession speech. If you missed it, go to youtube and watch it.

He is gracious both to his opponent and to his base, he tells them why they lost and he pushes them to Obama’s message for America. There are things he says that he has to say, thanks he gives to the people who murdered his campaign, people like Palin.
Just a second.

McKensey’s eyes are tearin, joy at success, at a hard won fight… She has given of her self, worked until she couldn’t work, done great things, been successful and been thwarted by the changing needs of the campaign. This is the culmination of her struggle. This is her victory.

(Sorry about the colors, I didn’t want to use a flash in this case.)

Personally, I think that the McCain of this speech, I think that he is the John McCain who could have won this election. He is the John McCain who could have deserved the office. It is unfortunate that the McCain he has been these last four years isn’t the same man he is right now on that podium.

The speech is over and there is a great chant of “Thank you Sarah.”

Senate is 40-55 do far. The concessions for 4 votes if the cause is big enough to need an immediate override will be pocket change.

Oi, I’ve been writing with my pens instead of the pencils and water on my pages means that there are places where there will be no reading of my words. Alas.

A thought, one that I doubt would make me popular in this room. It is probably for the best that the democrats don’t have a fillabuster proof majority. Being required to compromise on occasion, in order to pass a bill, it will be good for a victorious party.

The woman who gave me my “I voted for Change” sticker earlier today is standing on a chair next to me, shaking, unable to control her excitement, unable to hold still. She is their joy made manifest

She’s not alone.

Not at all:

Obama:
Hello, Chicago.
If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.
It's the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen, by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different, that their voices could be that difference.
It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled. Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red states and blue states.
We are, and always will be, the United States of America.
It's the answer that led those who've been told for so long by so many to be cynical and fearful and doubtful about what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day. It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this date in this election at this defining moment change has come to America.
A little bit earlier this evening, I received an extraordinarily gracious call from Sen. McCain.
Sen. McCain fought long and hard in this campaign. And he's fought even longer and harder for the country that he loves. He has endured sacrifices for America that most of us cannot begin to imagine. We are better off for the service rendered by this brave and selfless leader.
I congratulate him; I congratulate Gov. Palin for all that they've achieved. And I look forward to working with them to renew this nation's promise in the months ahead.
I want to thank my partner in this journey, a man who campaigned from his heart, and spoke for the men and women he grew up with on the streets of Scranton and rode with on the train home to Delaware, the vice president-elect of the United States, Joe Biden.
And I would not be standing here tonight without the unyielding support of my best friend for the last 16 years the rock of our family, the love of my life, the nation's next first lady Michelle Obama.
Sasha and Malia I love you both more than you can imagine. And you have earned the new puppy that's coming with us to the new White House.
And while she's no longer with us, I know my grandmother's watching, along with the family that made me who I am. I miss them tonight. I know that my debt to them is beyond measure.
To my sister Maya, my sister Alma, all my other brothers and sisters, thank you so much for all the support that you've given me. I am grateful to them.
And to my campaign manager, David Plouffe, the unsung hero of this campaign, who built the best -- the best political campaign, I think, in the history of the United States of America.
To my chief strategist David Axelrod who's been a partner with me every step of the way.
To the best campaign team ever assembled in the history of politics you made this happen, and I am forever grateful for what you've sacrificed to get it done.
But above all, I will never forget who this victory truly belongs to. It belongs to you. It belongs to you.
I was never the likeliest candidate for this office. We didn't start with much money or many endorsements. Our campaign was not hatched in the halls of Washington. It began in the backyards of Des Moines and the living rooms of Concord and the front porches of Charleston. It was built by working men and women who dug into what little savings they had to give $5 and $10 and $20 to the cause.
It grew strength from the young people who rejected the myth of their generation's apathy who left their homes and their families for jobs that offered little pay and less sleep.
It drew strength from the not-so-young people who braved the bitter cold and scorching heat to knock on doors of perfect strangers, and from the millions of Americans who volunteered and organized and proved that more than two centuries later a government of the people, by the people, and for the people has not perished from the Earth.
This is your victory.
And I know you didn't do this just to win an election. And I know you didn't do it for me.
You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead. For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime -- two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century.
Even as we stand here tonight, we know there are brave Americans waking up in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan to risk their lives for us.
There are mothers and fathers who will lie awake after the children fall asleep and wonder how they'll make the mortgage or pay their doctors' bills or save enough for their child's college education.
There's new energy to harness, new jobs to be created, new schools to build, and threats to meet, alliances to repair.
The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term. But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there.
I promise you, we as a people will get there.
There will be setbacks and false starts. There are many who won't agree with every decision or policy I make as president. And we know the government can't solve every problem.
But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree. And, above all, I will ask you to join in the work of remaking this nation, the only way it's been done in America for 221 years -- block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand.
What began 21 months ago in the depths of winter cannot end on this autumn night.
This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were.
It can't happen without you, without a new spirit of service, a new spirit of sacrifice.
So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility, where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves but each other.
Let us remember that, if this financial crisis taught us anything, it's that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers.
In this country, we rise or fall as one nation, as one people. Let's resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long.
Let's remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House, a party founded on the values of self-reliance and individual liberty and national unity.
Those are values that we all share. And while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress.
As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, we are not enemies but friends. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.
And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn, I may not have won your vote tonight, but I hear your voices. I need your help. And I will be your president, too.
And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces, to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of the world, our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand.
To those -- to those who would tear the world down: We will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security: We support you. And to all those who have wondered if America's beacon still burns as bright: Tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope.
That's the true genius of America: that America can change. Our union can be perfected. What we've already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.
This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations. But one that's on my mind tonight's about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta. She's a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing: Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.
She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn't vote for two reasons -- because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin.
And tonight, I think about all that she's seen throughout her century in America -- the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can't, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can.
At a time when women's voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot. Yes we can.
When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs, a new sense of common purpose. Yes we can.
When the bombs fell on our harbor and tyranny threatened the world, she was there to witness a generation rise to greatness and a democracy was saved. Yes we can.
She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that "We Shall Overcome." Yes we can.
A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination.
And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change.
Yes we can.
America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves -- if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made?
This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment.
This is our time, to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth, that, out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope. And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can.
Thank you. God bless you. And may God bless the United States of America

That speech, it shows that McCain might not ever have been the man to beat Obama.
“Our stories are singular, but out destinies are shared”

Early, late, optimist or cynic, this is our hope, this is our struggle. Come, help, come be with us, come to the edge of history. I missed the first steps and I almost missed the next, but I am here for the next and the next and the next. Come with me, help me when I lapse, don’t come to hold us back but to keep us true to this hope to this promise, to this nation.
As he ends his speech, we get one final call. Obama leads by 15,000 in Indiana with about 70,000 votes out in counties that polled 50/50 or better. We know the results now, probably hours before the news calls the state.

To all of the people I met today, this week, to the people I’ve tried to capture here on this page and to all of those like you across my nation, I am honored to have met you.

Thank you.
This is the edge of history:
Barack Obama, 44th president of the United States of America.

Election night

2008-11-06T19:34:00.000-08:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/281535.html?mode=reply

November 4th 2008, 17:00

Back at headquarters, one hour before the polls close. Most of the campaigners are out with signs and flyers, a last ditch effort to remind people to vote. The people left are making sure that the poll closers know what to do. They are making sure that people know that if they are in line by 6 pm, that they can't be turned away. The returns begin in an hour and people are trickling in to return their final canvassing packets.

I'm in the standard ~~journalist~~ anthropologist position, hovering near the food. There is a spectacular spicy chex mix. I'm wearing my camouflage, a bike helmet, obama, and activism tee shirt (take back the night), a sort of portable blind behind which I can watc h and write.

I just finished calling everyone on my phone who I am not sure voted and whose vote isn't a guaranteed vote for the bad guys.. (I'm not all that good at uninvolved observer really…) Somehow I'm not being targeted for any of the last minute to save the world brigades.

Back at the food, people are continuiously amazed as they walk by at the generosity of the folks who donated food.

15 minutes to go and we have mostly wound down the phone efforts.

18:00 hours, the polls closed – Several cheers. Fivethirtyeight is calling for an electorial college landslide. A returning driver is telling a story of rescuing a lost group of voters, rushing them to the polling place with scant minutes to spare.

18:30, someone mentioned that we weren't done here Indiana.

Google says that Lake County, Newton, Perry, Gibson, Spencer, Starke, Vanderburg, Jasper, Warrick, and LaPorte counties are still open. The campaign office has reopened the phone lines and now Activate is being set to connect them to uncovered voters in western Indiana. I've got volunteers mistaking me for staff again, but now I've been here long enough to know how to answer many of their questions and I can use it to help organize the effort.

The numbers for Monroe county are now coming in. Districts that were 50/50 last time are 55/45 or 60/40 now. We are gaining points even where we aren't winning here in Indiana. Places that were 75% for bush are now 35% McCain. I was going to head over to the IU returns parties, but the atmosphere here is better.

we watch the polls on someone's laptop. Cheering at every county, every precinct, each falling out exactly as predicted. I'm talking to kids who did map projects when they were in grade school back in 2000 and who woke up to find their maps wrong. Many of them are being careful to not get too attachd to the win, but I think that in this case, Obama is right. Hope is never false. (Admittedly, this is about the time that I saw that Bruce Schneier was not only calling it for Obama, but he was calling 538 and Princeton election consortium too pessimistic in their calls. This is when I decided intellectually that we won.)

Next we close down and head to Opie Taylors where the returns are on the wall and every screen. The noise is awesome, the excitement palpable. None of the hesitation I noticed in the office has made it through the doors. I walk in with the folks who closed the campaign office, and the noise is awesome the excitement palpable. I do wish the TVs had closed captioning on though.

I love these people, these children of the age of cynical and trash politics, of Regan and Rove and destroying your opponent in the elections so that you can't work with them in the aftermath. Of doing anything to win and failing that doing all that you can to sabotage the winners' efforts to govern. These kids are the future of this republic, and they are not a future of scorched earth and 50% + 1 victories. Even now, in the middle of returns, in the early stages of winning a contest that has eaten months and years of their lives, they hold no more acrimony toward their opponents than was earned by the tactics used by the republicans, and even that is muted.

Also? Lack of access to data reminds me forcefully that I want a laptop.

Iain gets a call, and Brown County, his own personal campaign was called for Obama. The east coast polls are all closed now and it is overwhelmingly Obama 103-34.

I can no longer hear or scream after the announcement of the early eastern states.

20:00

Sodrill conceded.

My best friend's state was called at 21:00 for Obama.

Many of these people worked the campaigns in states across the country. Now as their earlier work pays off, the screaming and clapping gains physical force. While they applaud the returns, I am busy applauding them.

These hours are why Domini spent 14 months being a better person than I. This is why she was calling people into the last minutes of the last polls of the state. It is why she has slept less this week than I did yesterday.

CNN is calling Pennsylvania and Illonois for Obama to a roar of "Yes we can!"

I get the diet coke I wanted at 20:50 as Indiana is entering the 779,000 to 715,000 for McCain. My voice slowly recovers.

At this hour, there are still people who confide in me or who I overhear talking about their worries that Obama might not win. I'm pretty sure that their concerns are unfounded at this late hour. My worry is that we won't dominate so hard that the republicans won't be willing to consider the tactics of thugs and sleezes for a campaign for any office in the land for the next decade.

21:20 52 seats in the senate with 13 up for grabs.

21:22 OHIO.

This confirms my earlier statement. With Ohio, we have won the election. Now the question is "is it by enough to convince both sides that the old style of campaign must end?" When New Mexico is called for Obama, the cheer is "New Mexico, New America!"

21:43

Indiana is 890k McCain, 850k Obama with neither Lake nor Monroe reporting yet.

The aura of hope that has permeated the parts of this campaign that I've seen ever since the Rally in Bloomington, but I'm beginning to feel that the edge of victory might be excluding the healing that this campaign is putting front and center. I suspect that, from the people I've met, this is more a matter of excitement and the flush of seeing things you've worked long and hard for starting to happen. I believe (and Hope) that this won't last out the week, that these people will take the campaign's core message of bringing America back together to heart, even in the face of the neocon's inevitable attacks.
*CHANT* Yes we Did!

By 22:00 is is pretty obvious that we won the election. For the moment, no one cares that we need to do more than win. Just winning is validation of the massive effort these people have put forth. Soon, the first flush will pass and we’ll remember that the goal of this campaign isn’t to win (seriously, check Obama’s speeches, he is clear that he wants to change the USA’s politics and that winning isn’t succeeding. Personally I think that if we are going to win the race, we’ll also need to sweep at least the electoral college to drive home the message that the old style of campaign, the sleaze and the muck and the wedge campaigns will no longer be accepted by the American public. We have won the election, but that isn’t all we have to do. Now we have to fix the nation’s problems, heal a rift that has grown wider and wider in the last thirty years as one side of our electorial politics has consistently sacrificed half of the nation to the god victory. We must fight sectarianism, we must help all of our people, we need to end or at least curtail the power of the American oligarchy, to split the neocons and the religious right from the decent republicans.

22:40
40% return polls puts Monroe County at 12,600 votes for McCain, 23,750 votes for Obama. The folks surrounding me are jubilant. Even if Obama wasn’t going to win the election, they have done awesome things this day.

I’ve said before that I love good people doing good work. This is what it is like to be with good people doing good work and succeeding. They are celebrating the people who helped engineer Monroe County’s election. They are celebrating eachother.

22:58
207 Plus Virginia’s 13 is 220.
220 is a win.
We need 270 points and some of you know that 220 is less than 270, you forget that California is a safe state these years. 220 plus California’s 55 is 275. The numbers are done and Virginia pushed them over the top. 2 minutes until the Polls in California Close.

23:00
The noise is deafening two minutes later as both CNN and NBC instantly call the results from CA, WA, and Oregon, confirming America’s first black president. Only time will tell if we received the points needed to denounce republican sleeze tactics, but at the least we have won this fight.

23:04
Exactly 4 minutes after the call, 4 minutes of screaming and chanting their joy at victory, they begin a chant that I can’t help but join.

U.

S.

A.

Four minutes to change from a victorious political party into a victorious American people. I love these people. I haven’t sweated and bled beside them, I can’t claim any but the least signifigant portion of their victory for my own. The only way I was going to not vote for Obama on this day after the primary results was if I was dead or in a coma. This isn’t my personal victory, I don’t own it like these people do, but it is my victory. It is mine because it is Ours, the Big “O” Ours of the American People. Even if you can’t see how Obama is your president, even if you hate him to the bottom of your soul, no matter who you are, this is you victory, it is a victory of hope over cynicism, the victory of our better history over our darker past.

CNN is showing scenes around the country
and suddenly, we see a jubilant celebration in Kenya, in Japan, in England, We are on the verge of of a global American era not just of the gun and the sword but of the olive branch. We will remind the world why they loved us, what it was about the USA that they watched and hoped for, a reminder that our great experiment can create a greatness of spirit as well as a greatness of strength.

55 in the senate.
Obama is pulling ahead in the Indiana polls.

23:18
McCain’s concession speech. If you missed it, go to youtube and watch it.

He is gracious both to his opponent and to his base, he tells them why they lost and he pushes them to Obama’s message for America. There are things he says that he has to say, thanks he gives to the people who murdered his campaign, people like Palin.
Just a second.

McKensey’s eyes are tearin, joy at success, at a hard won fight… She has given of her self, worked until she couldn’t work, done great things, been successful and been thwarted by the changing needs of the campaign. This is the culmination of her struggle. This is her victory.

(Sorry about the colors, I didn’t want to use a flash in this case.)

Personally, I think that the McCain of this speech, I think that he is the John McCain who could have won this election. He is the John McCain who could have deserved the office. It is unfortunate that the McCain he has been these last four years isn’t the same man he is right now on that podium.

The speech is over and there is a great chant of “Thank you Sarah.”

Senate is 40-55 do far. The concessions for 4 votes if the cause is big enough to need an immediate override will be pocket change.

Oi, I’ve been writing with my pens instead of the pencils and water on my pages means that there are places where there will be no reading of my words. Alas.

A thought, one that I doubt would make me popular in this room. It is probably for the best that the democrats don’t have a fillabuster proof majority. Being required to compromise on occasion, in order to pass a bill, it will be good for a victorious party.

The woman who gave me my “I voted for Change” sticker earlier today is standing on a chair next to me, shaking, unable to control her excitement, unable to hold still. She is their joy made manifest

She’s not alone.

Not at all:

Gaia?

2008-11-06T16:46:00.000-08:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/281235.html

I think I'm in love.

I'm sitting in at the quasi-public computers downstairs at the library. Three young ladies are sitting at the computers to my left. Talking video games and trash talking forum posters in the mmorpg that at least one of them plays.

Maybe not in love, but greatly appreciative.

hum. something is very familiar here...

2008-11-06T15:42:00.000-08:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/280893.html

So some old friends of mine have recently founded a branch of an anti-woman group (specifically Indiana against the Freedom of Choice Act.) My little sister and I were batting around alternate names for this group, and we really quite liked "Indiana for the War on Women" (Obama has demonstrated the value, politically, of being for things instead of against things.) She promptly joind IaFOCA and created IftWoW. (The second can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=33041354019 the first is a blackhat operation and I will leave it unplugged.) She's not the most subtle person on the planet, but then when I was her age, I was a lot less subtle than I am now as well. She posted a welcome message in the IaFOCA group:

""*waves* Greetings, fellow black hats! If I may be so bold as to speak before being spoken to, I would like to commend your efforts in our War on Women. There are a lot of ungodly heathens out there, these "liberal" creatures, who wish to crush our efforts, who believe the health and freedom of a lowly woman is more important than the parasite in her abdomen that could potentially reach maturity and become a hearty meal for hungry god-fearing white men. It would be a great tragedy if the enemy prevailed. To strengthen support and broaden awareness of the core family value of the oppression of women, head on over to the group "Indiana for the War on Women." "Against" groups can be strong, but we feel that positive identification may be stronger.
May all your babies be gay. ^_^ Lots of love."

Now, not that I mostly disagree with her root points, and I definitely find the black parody somewhat amusing, but I think I'd have worded it differently.

The group's owner is the wife of a friend of mine, and her reply (which I will talk about later in more depth) proves that she both speaks a different English than I do, and that we really share almost no values in common. Sadly, this is a place where cultural and moral relativisim just doesn't cut it. There is a distinct right and distinct wrong in this case, and depending on which position you accept as true, the other is irredeemably wrong and, depending on your parlance, evil.

(As for the difference in how I would have worded it, here is a pair of posts, one in IatFOCA and my mirroring post in IftWoW:)
IatFOCA:
Deirdre Mundy wrote
at 10:56am
Start calling your congressmen now!!!! If they've already received a landslide of calls before Jan., they'll be more likely to work to oppose it.

IftWoW:
Michael Phillips wrote
at 4:16pm
Okay, so groups who area against the Freedom of Choice act are going to be starting call in campaigns to their congress critters in the next week or so. The theory is that if they start making noise before the start of the next legislative session, their congress kritters will be more likely to listen to them. That is our cue to start making calls to let them know where we stand.

obama 2

2008-11-04T10:23:00.000-08:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/280437.html
I'm back at Obama HQ. I got home at 3 AM and made chex mix to bring down to the HQ. It might be a tad spicy. I'm never sure. I got out this morning and voted, bought a new rear wheel for my bike, dropped off my "fuck you" package for AT&T, and here I am.
The campaign is still making get out the vote calls. I don't know if I can articulate how awesome the use of technology is within the halls of the democratic party. The methods and means they are using to organize this might have been possible in 2000, but not before. Unlike me, they are canvassing to get as many people as they can, no matter their political affiliation, out there to vote.
Heh, one of the head organizers at the campaign had his facebook account hacked by a blackhat. (If your party stops acting like blackhats, well, then we'll see to upgrading you to the loyal opposition. Good luck.)

At noon, it is still pretty mellow and calm. People are talking quietly, there is a buzz of conversation punctuated with happy laughter. We are soaking in the optimism that is the hallmark of the whole campaign.

Personal aside, dad and I've been playing phone tag, this latest round while we were both out voting. He signed off his message with something along the lines of "You'd better have voted for Obama." I just about fell off my bike from laughter. It's been a great day so far.

I'm now at the library checking my email. I headed out a little after the aside got made. It is awesome to be around people who are campaigning for instead of against. Two parties this year, the party of hope and the party of fear, and we are damned tired of fear.

As always,
Michael Phillips

The edge of history.

2008-11-03T21:13:00.001-08:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/279922.html

I missed the edge of history. I start these words on the back steps of the Bloomington Obama Campaign Headquarters. Beautiful night and a promise of a spectacular dawn. I came to help. Instead I'm hiding out back writing. Typical really.

I am really not nor have I ever been the right person for this campaign. This isn't the place for cynics. These kids, and most of them really are kids, are trying to change the game. When I was their age, I loved the game, and now I am not sure that it can be changed. That isn't to say they can't win. The blackhats took 8 years in power and so massively fucked things up that they may have killed their revolution, the one that's been poisoning American politics since I was born. The blackhats set the field, they've darkened the tone of American politics, they've polarized the country in a way that may take the rest of my life to repair.

Moving back inside. Not sure where this is going and I need to go in and refocus on the swell of their energy.

Lots and lots of wireless routers.

Okay I'm back. I helped organize some things (I am very much a facilitator.) They have focata. I don't feel so bad about eating their food after helping out.

I missed the edge of history. 12 months ago, I was jobless. I saw campaigning related job listings and never stepped up to the plate. They all slipped past - over and over again until June when I got my job and essentially quit looking for them. I should have volunteered after the rally (some day eventually I'll finish blogging the rally for then not yet president Obama.) I should have joined these kids' cause. But I am not the right person at the right place or the right time. I'm not actually sure I've ever been that person.

Good people doing good things. That floats my boat, but my own works are always colored by era and my outlook and it is probably best that I am keeping out of the memetics side of this campaign.

Now it is after hours. I'm probably the only non-staffer left and they ran out of tasks for me hours ago. I'm watching comrades winding down and gearing up for one last big push to bring about a sea-change. I'm sitting on the edges looking in . Just a moment...

A young woman, Hope's her name, just dragged herself across the room and sank into a seat. She read one of the pieces of campaign literature that is scattered here and there in assorted boxes and a big grin captured her face, her shoulders straightened, and she got ready to start again. This is the campaign.

Sorry, didn't want to lose that.

Energy level - 11 pm. Incredible. I said this before. These are my people. Within the last hour Obama said something about Bobby Knight and Chris Matthews called Indiana for Obama. Bonhomme is not sufficient a word for the atmosphere.

I was just asked if I was a staffer. I wish. It's probably the stubble and the receding hair and the tired aspect. All evening people have been bringing them food. They have a woman who is driving some local up to Indiapolis tomorrow at ungodly early so he can go vote. Also, surrounded by the invincible beauty of youth. Two or three times I was recognized from yesterday.

I missed the edge of history. I hope to your assorted gods that a thing like this campaign is never needed. I hope we never fall so far that this degree of mobilization is needed. At the same time, it is awesome to see that a positive message can bring a level of response that is more traditionally associated with fear campaigns,

oops
...
Kinsey "It is the best day of our lives tomorrow."

back to the thread

associated with fear campaigns, campaigns run on a threat, be it brown people, or uppity women, or a scary godless elite, the suppression of your (massively in the majority) faith, etc. This time it is hope and change and a drawing back together that motivates, and it is the democrats mobilizing.

I missed the edge of history. But fortunately for me, history comes back for us.

As always,
Michael Phillips

I do tend to fixate on single topics, no?

2008-11-02T19:46:00.001-08:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/279616.html
*chuckles*
I've been spending a lot of processor time on this subject. Probably more than it deserves. In at least one case to something that wasn't actually said.
In reply to "Does condemning someone for having a different value system than your own fall under the umbrella of supporting and celebrating diversity?"
I paraphrase Sorkin:
I believe, as long as the republicans are intolerant toward gays, lesbians, blacks, unions, women, poor people, and the first, fourth, fifth, and ninth amendments, I will remain intolerant toward them.

jumped

2008-11-01T19:53:00.001-07:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/279163.html
I think that I just got jumped on verbally for calling the ~~blackhats~~ republicans blackhats and thugs.
Someone is a little late to the party. I've been calling the republicans "blackhats" almost as long as I've been on livejournal. And thugs? That's in the public record at least since Nixon and very much on the surface since the neocon revolution.

Also, anyone is welcome here. But if you don't want to see what I've got to say, well you are always welcome to go here:
http://www.livejournal.com/friends/edit.bml
That'll releave any memetic discomfort with a few quick clicks.

Me at my best

2008-11-01T17:43:00.000-07:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/278784.html
Jessica: random! but cool!

Pictures!

2008-11-01T17:19:00.000-07:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/278673.html

So, I bought some digital camera batteries. It is amazing how much better they work.
Pictures from last night (mostly me)

So I was dressed as a blogger, but I had the mad scientist look down pretty well too: Here's the lens glare from my death ray:

The glow of righteous victory:

Note: Ballooning goggles? not for use at standard temperature and pressure. They fog like crazy.

There is a rather neat ceiling mural at Baked's new place:

and

My frog tank (in progress. It has a frog at least.)

Blurry version of the mesh cave in my fish tank. I really should get a tripod.

My Torii gate (needs paint) and my dragon:

More tank. More blur:

I've still got one more to carve. Who lets a little thing like Halloween being past slow them down?

My free hand igor was iffy:

My largeish bonsai:

The end.

election musings

2008-10-31T20:32:00.000-07:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/278505.html
I got tuesday off work. That means that I can slog out to my polling place and vote that morning. I know I could have voted early or absentee, I could ride my bike or even call either of the campaigns for a ride (and tactically, I should call the McCain campaign, but really, no, that's the sort of shit the black hats do, not my side. Well, if I find the memebers of my side that do that sort of thing, I'm panning on meeting them in a dark ally some day, but I digress...) but call it a mediation on the system. I find that taking the time to walk some distance to the polls and then waiting in line to vote holds some value. (sadly, English lacks non-supernatural references for this whole category of event, but oh well, that's what I get for speaking a language with a basis in superstitious cultures. So all of them.) Essentially, one takes part in the spirit of the event by the saccrifice of some minimal time and effort. No utilitarian value, but a symbolic one, and you have to be pretty stubbornly blind to completely spurn the value of symbolisim both in the personal and public sphere.

Also, speaking of alleys, I have some folks I want to meet in one.
Riding in to work I see assorted campaign signs in people's yards. While I think that the blackhat candidate is a moral and political danger to the United Statea, I don't believe that his followers should be silenced. Especially when they are using their own space to unobtrusively post their message. Well, both his signs and the good guy's signs have occasionally been taken by people who would silence the supporters of one or the other candidate. Two I noticed in particular.
In one of the nicer neighborhoods on my ride to work, there is a lone McCain/Palin sign. This morning all that was out there was the metal stand the sign was supposed to be slipped over.
In another neighborhood, rather closer to home, an Obama/Biden sign is missing stand and all.
Even though I'm supporting Obama and even though that sign was an act trying to silence my own personal voice, I am more upset by the McCain sign. See the Obama sign was taken by McCain's supporters, a group who historically have worked to suppress the voices of their opposition through pretty vile tactics in a representitive government. I expect black hats to act like black hats and when they fail to do so, I am pleasantly suprised, but when they do act like black hats, I am not particularly bothered. I may take action to try to counter their actions, but they are black hats, and thus are expected to act like thugs.

On the other hand, when my own side does the same, I get pissed off. We are the fucking good guys ass holes. You are fucking dragging us down to the black hats' level by your actions. Please stop. I will eventually find you somewhere alone and far from help and remind you that decent people don't act like that. (I think the good guys should be turning some of the blackhats tactics and methods against them, but that doesn't mean amoral free for all.)

oi vey

2008-10-25T06:06:00.000-07:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/277403.html
Gah!
Reunion this weekend. It is spread out over two days and the way it is arranged is maybe silly, but c'est la vie. I'm wasting a lot of weekend here in not reunion stuff. To deal with that problem, I brought several things with me.
I brought the PS2 and my new game (FF12), I brought the as yet unwatched Dr. Horrible's Singalong Blog, and I brought a thumbdrive full of music.
I forgot the PS2's controller. So I can watch the trailer, maybe.
I forgot that mom's computer's soundcard is completely borked, so I can't do either of the other things I'd planned on doing this weekend.
I also decided last minute that I was going to not bring my bike, so yay that too, being stuck way out in the middle of nowhere.

THis year, not a cowl

2008-10-20T20:02:00.001-07:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/276475.html
I have completed my costume
I have some things I can do, but I have nothing I need to do to have a functiopnal blogger costume
I've spent more on halloween this year than in all of the previous years since I developed my Hiro Protagonist costume

booking

2008-10-20T13:44:00.001-07:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/276039.html
My library book stack:
Rebel's Quest, a quasi sf quasi romance. I read these because I keep hoping to find something like the best work by the best sf authors who include romance in their books. guess how often that happens.)
Schneier's Beyond Fear
Resnick's Starship: Mutany (There's maybe a dozen authors out there who I really wish I could be. Resnick, even if I'm not always fond of his work, is one of them.)
The Mirrored Heavens, claims to be more cyberpunk than the cyberpunks... probably basic military/corporate city violence book
and
Knitting for Dummies

postypost

2008-10-20T08:26:00.000-07:00

Written last night in a McDonalds. Other things came up that kept me from transcribing it.

So, I bought a cape for halloween today. On my way home (via College Ave.,) I realized that I was biking while in possession of a cape that I wasn't actually wearing . I immediately corrected this problem. I now know why super heroes wear capes.

Now, I just need some blogger-goggles. Well, actually, I also need to modify the cape to toughen it up a bit. A couple of weights in the corners and a hardening of the trailing edge to keep it from fraying in the wind would be nice.
.
I'm considering wearing the blogger costume to the reunion.

Also, those bluetooth earpiece phones? Hilarious. You'll not catch me with one of those until they are more along the lines of micro-hearing aids and throat patches. (possibly a pendant/microphone) I'd definately wear something bigger if it was techy-cool. I'm talking large mags and such. I'm still wanting wearable computers.

I don't understand (while still partaking in some degree) the human urge to entropy, especially at the expense of others. I went to a resturaunt with self service free refills of sodas. In fact, I'm blogging from there right now (sort of, I'm writing long hand, but it will get transcribed to the blogs.) Well, the drink station is somewhat obscured from the employees' view. Some jackass(es)* rigged the icemachine to run constantly until it ran out of ice, causing it to run out onto the counter. I really don't get that one. The store's manager spent at least 20 minutes fixing the problem. I don't understand the desire to break other people's stuff, to make life unpleasant for random people. I do get some enjoyment from acts of destruction per destruction, but I limit that to things that are my own, usually items that have no more use. At the same tme I do enjoy making life easier for others, making things work, facillitating people's success.

I guess it breaks down to keeping my playing with entropy limited behind the aegis of "an ye harm none..."

Also, watching how closing works at this resturaunt, I really really like working at Kroger. The manager ended up doing a lot of work that she shouldn't have been doing, not because it was the best use of her time, but because she'd have had to babysit her workers while they worked on it. (Yeah, that's as much a statement on the competency of the management there as the employees.) We're very very lucky that we have several real competant managers at various levels throughout the store at my Kroger. We beat the average for competant and better managers. I think I'll hold my assessment of the whos and whats of competent or not until I''m not working there anywhere.

* Yeah, they didn'ty actually rig it they way I thought they did. The machine broke and they rigged it to quit spewing ice. And then didn't actually tell anyone that it wasn't working. Still not good, but better than I thought.

1001 uses for a ground red pepper

2008-10-18T05:24:00.000-07:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/275223.html
So popcorn shows the same improvement and decline curve as chex mix with the addition of red pepper flakes. Of course, adding those red pepper flakes to popcorn is much harder. (What you really want with popcorn is for the oil to be infused with the pepper, not the flakes on the popcorn itself.)

LMBD

2008-10-16T06:06:00.000-07:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/275050.html
So, I made a "Love my body day" shirt and alas, no one else did. Oh well. A buck for the shirt, a few minutes with my permanent markers and google looking for pictures of the pineal gland, and wham! I have a non-conversation starter.

FMLA et al

2008-10-15T23:34:00.000-07:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/274790.html

I'm putting thoughts and motivations in hypothetical people's heads in this post. Be aware that I could be wrong about all sorts of things, like lines of reasoning and people's beliefs. Just remember that a lot of this is speculation.

I went to the FMLA movie and potluck today. We didn't end up watching a movie, but instead we sat around and talked for several hours. These folks feel like an extension of my inner circle some times, and I hardly know most of them. I was going to say something about us not being as closely in accord as the inner circle, but then I scrubbed away the mists of stupidness and memory and recalled that my inner circle is about as fractious as it is possible to be. We are held together by friendship/love and an enjoyment of eachother's assorted company. I've got as much in common with some of these men and women as I do with my closest friends, I'm just not close friends with these people, hopefully yet.
*chuckles* There are some slight discrepencies in the way some of the folks involved see the world and the way I see it. Not a shock, but occasionally jaring. On the other hand, it was somewhat reassuring to find myself on opposite sides of a position with my original contact with the group. (Believe me, after a while it becomes nice to find a point of disagreement with people.)
So it seems that there are two different images of what the FMLA is/should be. Some folks want it to be more active in direct activism, to stake out a cause and go after it full tilt. Others see it as more of a, if you will, social club. In their vision, it acts as a safe haven, a community that can do a lot to enable cross-activism. Sort of like the best of blogging moved into meatspace. There's obviously a spectrum of thoughts on this matter, I'm just pulling out the polar ends. I personally think that it serves its purpose best as a meeting for people who each have allied causes without doing too much specific activism. Honestly, I suspect that I am the only person who comes to the meetings who isn't active in at least one other organization, and the FMLA itself acts as a more than a little useful crossfertilization zone for the actions and memes of each of these groups. I'm all about the meta, the interstices, the crossfertilization, so, of course I like the way things seem to work now. It seems that being too active outside of what the group already does might well be counter productive, especially since most of the members are already active in their own organizations and if the FMLA starts demanding more from them, they are likely to say "screw this."

Of course there are already the sorts of things that the FMLA here traditionally does. They host a Women't Health Day thing, they do/intend to publish a newsletter thingy about stuff going on in the world of feminism. They do/intend to publish an essay collection on feminism. They help organize the production of the Vagina Monologues.

Of course, in the eyes of the first group, these aren't actions, they are the sort of thing that you do to fill in the gaps between real actions.

Personally, I see them as building community, doing outreach, helping to expand the memespace. Since all activism needs to be cross activism, I really think that these are as important as any direct political action, possibly more so. Hell, reclaiming the word "feminisim" from the blackhats is almost entirely the place of this sort of thing, it is entirely a matter of changing our cultural memespace and doing better than the blackhats at one of the things that they do better than almost anything, defining the public conversation.

I think that I've mentioned this before, but at the center of things, I have three primary social causes:
a Social Justice
b Environmental Conservation
c Civil Liberties

I think that I have also mentioned before that I don't think that you can seperate any of those from any of the others.

It is late. I might continue this later. Depends on my mood and or feedback. Good night

New stories, anyone?

2008-10-15T15:13:00.001-07:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/274634.html
So,
I'm looking for some new Fantasy and Science Fiction (preferably series) to read. Mostly I want a character like Harry Dresden and the next Dresden book isn't out until next year. (Late Artemis Fowl would be neat too.) Dresden is my kind of hero, Magic or No, and I'd love to find some more books with that style of protagonist/hero. (When she isn't being kind of whiny, Dante Valentine fits the bill, though if she and Japh don't get their little problems straightened out soon...)

*edit*
Elizabeth Bear's Matthew *I forget his last name* fits the bill pretty well, but I've read those books too.

last but not...

2008-10-12T17:44:00.001-07:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/274110.html
Last post of the night. Definitely the most important which takes some doing tonight.

Earlier today up in the bitter bitter north where they don't even have airplanes, one of my best friends, my closest friend and water brother married her long time boyfriend.
Eva Nicole Schiffer, Alan De Smet, congratulations and I wish you the joy of each other. I wish that I had been able to attend, but I've been thinking about you all day.
Pax Vobiscum

vigilant

2008-10-12T17:38:00.000-07:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/273753.html
I went to the 10 year vigil for Matthew Shepherd.
I talk about how much the world has changed from time to time, but being there with a bunch of kids who were little kids when he was killed, hearing them talk about how they perceive the differences in the world since then, it makes me wonder. (Any of you reading this, I'm not using "kids" pejoratively or in a dismissive manner. I treasure the (fairly large) chunk of kidhood that I've hung onto since I was your age. I hope you each manage to do as well or better than I did)
Mostly we stood in silence, a few of the leaders spoke. Most of the folks here are more directly touched by the violence against Shepherd and other gays. For them, it is always a horrible possibility that someone might attack them because they are members of the lgbt community. The society that we are part of still persists in treating them, in many ways, as second class citizens, restricting the ways that they can express love and devotion, telling them that crimes committed against them because of their sexual identity are obviously not hate crimes, a hundred hundred things that I am privileged not to experience. For that, as much as for the fact that I had nothing to add, I kept quiet myself. There is beauty in silent togetherness as well as vocal community, and I was not going to break the first to attempt to gain the second.
All places and times are holy, but those moments in that circle, they are worth singling out. The sun sinks below the horizon, our faces are lit by our candles and the falling dusk. A bitter melancholy and a tang of hope, the belief that progress has been made, these are the contents of the circle. If we have come less far than these people around me believe, it is only because the past they believe in was not quite as bad as they think it was. These people are part of the hope of the world.
Afterward, we break up and turn to inconsequential talk, Pippin (a name I remember because it is full of awesome) assumes that I'm gay myself, something that I will correct next time I see him, but for now, correcting a misapprehension is not worth breaking the moment.

These are my people. They aren't all of my people, and their cause is not the entirety of my cause, but people gathered together in good will to bring about change for the better, they are all mine as I am theirs if they will have me. If their portion of the cause is what they see most clearly, that is no short coming, it is part of our shared humanity.

We depart into the night, richer for each other.

a decade

2008-10-12T17:14:00.000-07:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/273582.html
10 years.
It has been 10 years since 1998.
I don't have time to do the research to talk about how the world has changed.
10 years have rocked the world to the very foundations.
Some times though, it looks like nothing has changed at all.
I run into that especially when I go to things with the young activists and what have you on campus. They talk about events of a decade ago, of the culture of then, as if it was a foreign country. And to them, it is. I know the world has changed since I was in highschool and they were beginning grade school, but I'm sure it hasn't changed quite that much. This isn't where I wanted to go with this post. I've been doing a lot of musing about the state of the past's future recently, and it tends to color the things that I say. I'll be back in a minute with the original intended post.

The more they stay...

2008-10-10T14:46:00.000-07:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/273004.html
I meant to blog about this yesterday, but then I didn't do it.
The world is completely different than it was. On the cusp of the second decade of the twenty first century, not 200 yards from the little old lady with the dog and the phone, there were a bunch of kids running around playing with toy trucks on strings. Sure, they were plastic and multi-colored instead of wooden and monotone, but they were doing the same things that kids have always done.

The more things change

2008-10-10T14:45:00.000-07:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/272667.html
I meant to blog about this yesterday, but then I didn't do it.
The world is completely different than it was. On the cusp of the second decade of the twenty first century, walking around talking to yourself like a crazy homeless man is a status symbol. It means that you own a cell phone with attachments so advanced that no one can actually see them.

Moreover, I saw a little old lady walking her little dog the other day. Chatitng away on her little metalic pink cell phone. Old people having tech adoptation issues? Not so much any more.

FTC!

2008-10-08T20:47:00.001-07:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/272433.html
Oh I almost forgot!
The coffee shop in the Wells Library has Fair Trade Hot Chocolate. Yays.

posty-mc-postasalot

2008-10-08T20:41:00.000-07:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/272357.html
Sunday October Next, there is a candlelight vigil in honor/memory of Matthew Shepard.
It meets in Dunn Meadow by the stage (the hill on the west side of the meadow for those of us who had to ask what the stage was in an essentialy stage-less meadow.)

People doing good things.

2008-10-08T20:35:00.000-07:00

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/272067.html
Went to the FMLA meeting.
Got there way late. Will try harder next time. Alas, I was late because I needed pointy sticks. Will explain later.

I got to discuss fundraising methods and concerns. It was fun. I really like hanging out with activists. Like seriously, even if they aren't activisting about my particular issues (more on that in a graph or two.) So collectivist thinking is not compatable with computer security. Along the same lines, I bet IU doesn't let you set up multiple passwords for a single account, even for a student group. They really should. Also, even if you are required to keep the IU provided tools for your groups, you should move group management and such to a modern system (I'd suggest gmail and google groups, though any shared information system would work. Set the IU email account up to auto forward to the other system (if you are worried about privacy, you should be able to set up pgp as an intermediate somehow, but I'm not absolutely sure how.)
Evan is my kind of geek, by the way. He keeps using words from assorted Joss-verses. Sadly, I don't pepper my fandoms so much into my daily speech, though I guess I do pepper it with my geekery, but that is just part of me, not an expression of geekery. (Shindig and shiny within 30 minutes of each other triggered this.)

Oh Confirmation, Olivia was the 3rd name from the other day. Alas, I just grabbed a dozen new names not to remember. Oh well, I lose some and then lose some more.

Went to the Out meeting after the FMLA meeting. I'm definately more FMLA's target audience than OUT, but activisim is activisim and their cause is just, and the people are fun, so, ya know. (Kinsey 1.1, glad they're straight friendly.)

I like the big poster on their wall, I want it in a vinyl wall thingy:
"Safe Zone
This zone is declared SAFE.
Regardless of race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, age and ability, you will be treated and respected as a human being. Ignorance, bigotry, and harassment will not be tolerated."

Happily it doesn't list "snark" or "sarcasm" though I guess both of those sort of fall under harassment of you aren't ready to deal with them. I'm not sure that I could give up my snark. But I do promise that I'll not snark you any more or any less because of any of the above.

The degree to which tech has changed the way people do stuff is horribly evident in these meetings by the way. 7 people, 4 computers and an Ipod with communications capabilities. They influenced the way the meeting ran. Incredibly cool, not really a possibility when I was these "kids" ages. (I know, I know, but you youngins'll always be "kids" to YT.

Good time, hope to relearn some of the names.