Moderation Comments and Novel Progress

Three cheers for the return of moderation to the Senate (and maybe even the House). It would be nice to not loose our country to the loony fringe.

I continue to work on my novel in fits and starts. Last week, while I looked at my novel quite a lot, I really wrote very little. Over the last few days, I've started to make progress again, so I'm up to 71,000 words. So I'm continuing with my recent average of about 1000 words a day.

I'm going to be busy the next couple of days, but then Memorial Day weekend should be pretty quiet (other than a likely trip to the Ethnic Festival and a family picnic over in Crafton).

Medical Services: Central Massachusetts Versus Western Pennsylvania

I'm not sure where to start/where to go with this discussion, but I'm puzzled.

I live in Western Pennsylvania. We're all in reasonable health, but we all tend to have nuisance ailments like gastritis and allergies. We have HealthAmerica, and have never had any trouble getting treatment or tests for anything. For example, my doctor told me to have my sinuses X-rayed the next time I wasn't having an active sinus infection. I called last Wednesday, and got CAT scan appointment for next Monday. The ability to always get tests within a reasonable time has always been reassuring, partcularly since we have a high percentage of the elderly in our area.

My mother lives in Central Massachusetts. She's in her 70s, lives on her own, is in reasonable health, but has been having more age-realted health problems. Last fall, she had a major knee problem and it took her weeks to get all the tests she needed, and she didn't have surgery on it for something like four months after her injury. Currently, her doctor thinks she may have had a mini-stroke because her memory has gotten quite bad recently. But it's going to take her a month to get a CAT scan!! Now, I'd always thought medical care was reasonbly good in Central Mass (UMass Medical School is right there, Fallon is right there), so why does it take over a month to get tests for a potentially dangerous condition?

Is health care being rationed to the elderly? After her knee injury, my mother couldn't walk for a few days and wound up getting one of the last orthopedic beds in a rehab facility. Is health care merely incompetently managed in Central Massachusetts? What's up?

Mini Review and Commentary on Revenge of the Sith

We went to the 9am showing out at the Waterfront. The theater was probably about 1/4 full (but the 3, 5, and 7 pm showings were all listed as being sold out). No one was in any costume at 9am - I was wearing my "May the Force Be With You" button that I'd gotten at the Star Wars premire 28 years ago.

I thought it was very good but not great - probably a 7 on the IMDB rating scale, maybe even an 8 because I thought the last hour was much stronger than the first.

The first half hour or so is one solid video game - all sound and fury, signifying very little. It gets a little more interesting in the quieter moments, until an awkward Lucas line hits, or Hayden Christiansen looks more uncomfortable than dangerous. The effects are great, but because there so many special effects it seems like overkill after a while.

The final battle is pretty good, and there is a frighteningly ironic detail that shows you how Vader survives his encounter with hell.

The acting is all over the place, but it's mostly pretty good, led by very strong performances by Ian McDarmind (Palpatine) and Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan). Christiansen is certainly stronger in this movie than in Attack of the Clones, but still doesn't quite pull it off. Natalie Portman is good as Padme but is given depressingly little to do. It would have been nice to see more of Jimmy Smits. Yoda has become the best CGI character since Gollum.

This week, we watched episodes I & II before going to the theater to see episode III, and we watched episodes IV & V after seeing Sith. The earlier movies have a kind of visual elegance to them that's almost totally lacking in the current set (with a couple of exceptions in III, and cribbing from Dinotopia in II). Some special effects gurus feel compelled to fill up the screen with just more effects. This doesn't necessarily make a better movie.

***Comments on how it should have been*** **sorta spoilers**

There is a wonderful scene in Return of the Jedi between Luke and Leia, where they talk about their parents. Leia has a line where she simply says "I remember my mother. She was so beautiful...and so sad," as if she'd known her biological mother, and her mother had died when Leia was a little girl (and not just when Alderan is blown up in Star Wars). I'd always hoped that Padme survived childbirth, perhaps being presented as a queen on Alderan, to raise Leia as her daughter. Since Leia is, also, raised by an adoptive mother, that line won't feel the same the next time I see Return of the Jedi (probably this weekend!).

I thought it was a terrible cheat to not show Annikan slaughtering the Jedis-in-training. We saw him slaughter everyone else, and the movie was rated PG-13 for a reason! I'm not advocating blood and guts, just honest, on-camera proof of what a monster Vader had become.

More Voting Screw-ups

Well, we all know how things went in November? Think things are any better?

Apparently not.

I had no problem voting in November. I went to vote today and learned my voter registration change (I'd changed from Independent to Democrat in late January when I renewed my driver's license) didn't go through. So I was still listed as an Independent. Meaning I didn't get to cast a vote against Michael Diven *sigh* At least I could still vote yes for both ballot questions.

So the Mount Lebanon poll worker was really quick to blame the Department of Motor Vehicles. Said she'd heard the same story from other people. But I wonder where the problem really was? Was it with the DMV? The County Board of Elections? The Mount Lebanon board? Who knows? I will write a letter to the Allegheny County Board of Elections today to complain. This is ridiculous - it shouldn't take over three months to change your party!

Star Wars in All Its Forms - Honeymooning with Wookiees

We've been getting in the spirit of the upcoming Star Wars finale by watching the movies. We watched Phantom Menace on Friday and Attack of the Clones last night.

I've always enjoyed the movies, though George Lucas put spectacle in front of story for the most recent Star Wars movies. One thing I've always loved about the Lord of the Rings movies is that the story is so strong, Peter Jackson would have to have been a major idiot to let the special effects overwhelm it. The Star Wars saga, while certainly interesting, isn't as rich a story as LOTR, and much of the recent two movies felt like the movie was going from one video game to another.

It's particularly funny that Galaxy Quest, which came out in 1999, perfectly satirized the stupid "clone factory" sequence in Attack of the Clones, which didn't come out until 2002!

[thanks to IMDB for this relevant quote:
Gwen DeMarco: What is this thing? I mean, it serves no useful purpose for there to be a bunch of chompy, crushy things in the middle of a hallway. No, I mean we shouldn't have to do this, it makes no logical sense, why is it here?
Jason Nesmith: 'Cause it's on the television show.
Gwen DeMarco: Well forget it, I'm not doing it, this episode was badly written.
]

But, anyway, I do look forward to seeing Revenge of the Sith this week. I think thse are all hopeful signs: the movie is dark, not for young kids and that Jar-Jar has no dialog!

The Post Gazette had a great Star Wars tribute today. I enjoyed the trivia test, particularly becuse I scored a 71 on it! ["The Force is strong with you, and the Jedi Council is preparing a seat for you"]

How much of a fan was I of the first three movies? Oh, a pretty major fan. A few years ago, I wrote Honeymooning with Wookiees, which was about my life as a 20-year-old Star Wars fan and newlywed.

Good News/Bad News Kind of a Day

Well, first the bad news - I didn't get hired for a full time job, but at least they wrote to me to tell me so (unlike another place where I had an in-person interview a few months back and never heard a thing).

But, in some ways, that's kind of good news. I'm still making progress on the novel and am up to 63,000 words.

I've been working more this week on the Growing Greener II primary ballot initiative. Remember, even if you're a registered Independent, you can still go and vote for ballot questions (like Growing Greener II if you live anywhere in Pennsylvania, and reducing the number of row offices if you live in Allegheny county).

Non-Smoking Restaurants and that Novel Obsession....

We've discovered another two restaurants considerate of non-smokers in the Pittsburgh area: Red Robin (out at the Waterfront, just down the street from Loew's) and Il Pizziola in Mt. Lebanon. Even better - Il Pizziola has added a non-smoking wine bar in the back, a place Jim and I will try out some night soon. We're at the point with restaurants that if we have to choose between a restaurant that permits smoking and one that is smoke-free, we'll always choose the smoke-free restaurant. And we really don't go to bars very often when we're at home as a result. Molly Brannigan's in Mt. Lebanon has turned out to be something of a disappointment. The food is erratic, and the "non-smoking bar" often isn't.

Sorry for my novel obsession, but I did reach 57,000 words this morning. I still work on it in fits and starts. Sometimes, I'll spend an hour or so just rearranging a few words. Other times, I write steadily for a couple of hours and find I finished a sticky scene or had added another 2,000 words. I'm working some for my old employer as a contractor, and soon I know I'll have a pile of database work to do for Interaction Programme. I haven't heard back yet on the interesting full-time job I interviewed for last week, and hope to hear either way soon.

Spring in Pittsburgh

Two signs, one a little old but one from today, that spring is really here:



I'm not sure what the salmon-colored flowers are, but we thought they were pretty so we'd planted a bunch of them.



We live on a busy street, so seeing some three deer in our teeny-tiny back yard during rush hour was a tad disconcerting. They stayed long enough for a photo session, then wandered away. We alerted the Mt. Lebanon police to warn them about this possible traffic hazard.



I've been doing some contract work for PennFuture recently. It involved mostly database work, but I've been distributing posters for the Growing Greener II referendum on May 17. I brought posters to Shadyside and Squirrel Hill yesterday, and to the South Side yesterday. I lived in Shadyside in the late '70s and wish I could afford to live there again!

My novel has been coming along slowly this week, because in addition to the contract work, I also had a very lengthy and interesting job interview yesterday. I'll probably hit at least 51,000 words tonight. Tomorrow, we'll probably go see Kingdom of Heaven. I like that it's both ambiguous and doesn't have a tight narrative structure - it was about a war, after all! I don't like that it seems to have put crossbows about 400 years early in time, but...

Up to 45,000 Words...

I hit 45,000 words today. Well over 1/2 way through it.

I've been envisioning this story for a while, since at least late 2000. The first chapter hasn't really changed much in over four years. Just after I wrote the first chapter, I realized what the structure of the novel would be, and have pretty much stuck to that structure.

Of course, some of the details have changed, but the character arcs are basically intact. And during most of the last four years, I really didn't have all that much of the novel actually written. I was up to about 17,000 words as of about six weeks ago, and have written over 28,000 words since then (probably closer to 30,000, but have periodically gone back and pruned). I also keep jumping around what I'm writing. Now that the beginning is solid, I'm mostly writing chapters in the middle and chapters near the end.

Now that I'm having some success at getting the writing done, a contract job is beckoning and I'll have a second interview for a permanent job that sounds pretty interesting. It never rains but it pours...

Letter to Senator Specter on S. 786

I appeal to you to please not vote for Senator Santorum's S. 786 - National Weather Services Duties Act of 2005. As written, it could privitize the excellent online services already provided by National Weather Service. It sounds like an act written only to protect the business of AccuWeather in State College - it again puts the interest of a private business (and contributor to Senator Santorum's re-election campaign) above the interests of the taxpayer.

Where will this kind of behavior end? Can we rely on at least one of our senators in Pennsylvania to care at all about its citizens?

Sincerely,

Laurie D. T. Mann
Mount Lebanon, PA

My Linguistic Profile...

45% Yankee

35% General American English

15% Upper Midwestern

5% Dixie

0% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

I'm not sure how 5% Dixie crept into my speech as I've never lived further south than southern Ohio... The rest of it makes sense.

Santorum Bought by AccuWeather, Lock, Stock and Barrel

Do you think you have a right to get free weather information from the government's weather service? Rick doesn't think so - he thinks his constituants who own AccuWeather in State College should control online access to weather information. He's filed legislation (S. 786) that would, essentially, force much government meteorological information off-line. The relevant part states:

(b) COMPETITION WITH PRIVATE SECTOR- The Secretary of Commerce shall not provide, or assist other entities in providing, a product or service (other than a product or service described in subsection (a)(1)) that is or could be provided by the private sector unless--

(1) the Secretary determines that the private sector is unwilling or unable to provide such product or service; or

(2) the United States Government is obligated to provide such product or service under international aviation agreements to provide meteorological services and exchange meteorological information.

In short, since AccuWeather is in the private sector, it means that the NOAA Web site (http://www.erh.noaa.gov) and its data could be forced off the Web.

This is a typical Republican response - protect your corporate pals at all costs. Never mind that citizens, scientists and other people whose taxes have already paid for the collection of the data can't access it as easily. Just keep your buddies employed.

Thanks to The Daily Kos for picking up on this - no one in the Pittsburgh media seems to have yet.

Yet another reason that Rick must be voted out next year. If you need any more evidence, read DumpRick (yes, I know it's another Web site I own...).

Progress Continues on the Novel

I hit 37,000 words this afternoon, which I suspect is somewhere close to being half way through. If I continue at my current pace, I should be done in June.

I spent last weekend in California, in Palo Alto, which is becoming one of my favorite places in the country. One of the colleges I'd considered going to over thirty years ago was Stanford, just because it sounded so wonderful. Last week, I got to visit Stanford, and was very much impressed.

Jim and I went to Palo Alto to work on the scheduling of the Programme for this year's Worldcon, which will be in Glasgow. Scotland. Only in fandom! After a weekend of dealing with Post-It Notes on a large board, we went to Gilroy for dinner with Jim's employees and his boss. Then Jim stayed in California for a week of IBM meetings, and I came home on Monday.

Missing in Action: Environmental Protection Agencies...

I spent last week working on Pittsburgh 2005: Conference on Health and Environment. It was a fascinating conference. As I wound up helping with A/V during the conference itself, I got to hear a number of researchers and public policy folks give very interesting talks on medical and public health issues around the environment.

This conference attracted about 250 folks from all over the northeast, probably about 1/3rd reserachers, 1/3rd activists and 1/3rd others. There were even a few people from the Centers for Disease Control, which was good - at least one governmental agency was paying some attention.

However, one agency that seemed to be completely unrepresented was the Environmental Protection Agency. There did not seem to be anyone from either the federal or the state EPA at this environmental and health conference.

Why not?

In the case of the federal EPA, it shouldn't be a big surprise. When was the last time the federal EPA considered health more important than business? I was a little more disappointed by the state EPA's failure to show up, but given the state had just given permission for a coke plant to blast even more mercury into our environment, I shouldn't have been surprised about that, either. Heavy metal toxicity is probably going to be a bigger problem to our health than nuclear power ever was threatened to be.

If Ya Can't Beat 'Em...The Unitarian Jihad (Reform) Strikes Again!

I saw the Unitarian Jihad comments from Jon Carroll all over the place, both in political and SF-related blogs over the last few days.

So I decided to join the reform movement...

My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Sister Switchblade of Moderation. What's yours?

This is kind of ironic as Mary Kay Kare, who looks a little like me but is rather smaller than I am, got to be the "Flaming Sword of Moderation." So does that mean I'm more moderate than she, or less? ;->

Been working on the novel more. It keeps getting darker and more marginally sfnal. Oh well, and there I was going for a contemporary novel with a few satiric twists. I hit 29,000 words today, after a few days of working on a local conference and recovering from that.

Mary Doria Russell's A Thread of Grace

Russell wrote the splendid The Sparrow and Children of God in the late '90s, and went on to win the Campbell Award for best new writer. Then she spent the next seven or so years researching and writing A Thread of Grace, a book about the Holocaust set against the background of the Italian resistance, 1943-1945.

The book works pretty well on many levels, but it is a little hard to follow. However, as you finish it you understand why she had so many characters and so many locales and why this is so important to the story.

Russell's ability to write completely haunting scenes is very much in evidence in this book. One near the end caused me to burst out crying in a public location and will stay with me for a very long time (luckily, I was alone and managed to pull myself together before anyone happened by).

I highly recommend this book, though it's a shame that the one scene set in 2007 probably isn't enough to to make it nominatable for the Hugo next year. However, no doubt that this book is much closer to history than to speculative fiction.

Really Writing, Not Just Tinkering

So up until about three weeks ago, I had about 17,000 words of a novel on my PC, one I started thinking of about four years ago. From time to time, I'd change a word here or there, but really made little progress.

I've written nearly 6,000 words over the least three weeks, and still have some notes and miscellaneous scenes not yet online that I still plan to integrate. So I might have close to 30,000 words total. The story is taking an unexpected turn or two, but the basic outline is the same I came up with in early 2001.

Working on the novel has been slowed a little by my temporary job (which will be over in less than a week) and still doing some Briany History work. Still, I seem to be making progress.

Ayelet Waldman's Excellent Adventure

I've been a huge fan of Michael Chabon since I read The Mysteries of Pittsburgh back in the '80s. He went on to write The Wonder Boys and the Pulitzer-Prize winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay. A few years back, he came to Pittsburgh to do an informal signing at Jay's Bookstall, and brought along his wife, Ayelet Waldman and their then-youngest daughter.

I was unfamiliar with Ayelet's writing, bought one of her novels, read it, and rather liked it considering that I really don't care for mysteries. Last year, I read Daughter's Keeper, which I generally liked quite a bit more. Today, I found she'd written an essay published by The New York Times on sex and parenthood. It was very honest and fairly funny. I found her (sadly now defunct) blog and her Salon essays. I really like that Ayelet is willing to write about many things that many of us think about but don't quite have the courage to publish!

Dancing Naked Was Nominated for a Hugo!

Phil sent me the good news on Monday night, so other than telling some friends, I haven't been able to say anything here until Interaction announced it officially today. Dancing Naked got a nomination for Best Related Book. Phil's really happy about this, and so am I. We both worked very hard on this book and am glad it has gotten some recognition.

Phil is unable to attend Worldcon due to a problem with his passport, which is a particular shame this year!



NESFA Press, an amature press, did something only one professional press did this year - it has two books nominated for Hugos. Peter Weston's With Stars in My Eyes: My Adventures in British Fandom was also nominated. Orbit also had two books nominated for Hugos; other publishers only had one each. Oddly, Tor, which usually publishes the best SF books and generally has at least one book nominated, has no books on the ballot this year.

Full 2005 Hugo Nomination List

Making Terri Schiavo Appear Before Congress Constitutes Abuse of a Corpse

Of all the sad and tragic turns this case has taken, this is about the most appalling of all. Yet another example that it's better to flog the dead than pay attention to the living - this must be the new quote of the Republicans in America.

People frequently use other people as props. This is most common in families - think of the way most parents dress up and show off their kids. This is a fairly innocent use of people as props. It does no harm to the child to dress the cute six month old baby as a Halloween pumpkin, and, meanwhile, the parents get "Oooh isn't she cute?" from their friends and neighbors. This can become more malevolent over time - did little Jon Benet Ramsey really enjoy being made up, gowned, and paraded at baby beauty pagents? We'll never know.

Or think of the way some older men acquire younger girlfriends or trophy wives. The way some women live through their husbands and children. There are times when people use other people for their own needs rather than letting others stand on their own.

But, increasingly, people use others as political props. The "props" tend to be people who cannot stand on their own. It tends to be done most often to women who are unable to speak for themselves. Twenty-five years ago, it was Karen Ann Quinlan. And, today, it's Terri Schiavo.

Terri Schiavo is being used. She became brain dead in 1990. Brain scans show that the portion of her brain that governs consciousness has been nonexistent for years. It is a sick parody to photograph a brain dead person with an autonomic reflex to light and then treat her as if she was conscious. She is being anthropomorphized the way a person talks to a dog and asks "Oh does Fido want a dog biscuit?" when the dog barks.

When people are so quick to jump up and down and talk about honoring the dignity of the individual, they have robbed Terri Schiavo of any "dignity" she may have had. What happened to Terri Schiavo is extemely sad, but no one can bring her back. She'll never talk to her family, get out of bed or do anything. She's being moved around like a puppet, and her family ought to be ashamed of themselves. People are using Terri to reflect their needs. Their need for her to be alive. She may be still breathing, but she isn't really alive.

People die, and it is fascinating to me that people who say they believe in religious teachings seem the most determined to force physical existence long after the brain had died. Terri died in 1990. It's a sad view, but a realistic view. All the tube feeding in the world isn't going to bring her back.

Some day, I don't want to be a breathing husk in a hospital bed. I signed an organ donor card in 1978 and have discussed living will issues with my husband. Today, even though I'm middled aged and in reasonable health, I am filling out a lengthy living will. I absolutely do not want to exist indefinitely in a kind of "Nazgul" state - neither living nor dead. If I'm seriously injured, sure, use the heroic mesures if I have a chance, but don't keep the feeding tube going years after all real chances have gone.

I hope that any disabled people who may be reading this essay aren't reading this essay as an anti-disabled people piece. If you are reading this piece, you are conscious, you are capable of reading and comprehending the world around you. After Christopher Reeve was so tragically injured back in 1995, he was understandably devastated by his condition. But his wife Dana turned to him and said, "You're still you." That acceptance made a huge difference to his acceptance of himself after his accident. He understood precisely what happened to him. Terri Schiavo is incapable of understanding what has happened to her.

Terri Schiavo isn't the person who collapsed in 1990. To make Terri a symbol of all disabled people is just wrong. Simplistic and wrong in every way. To keep Terri breathing does not celebrate or honor life. It means that people cannot comprehend the difference between living and breathing. I don't want to be in a state where I'm merely breathing. And I would hope all adults would make the same point by thinking about and signing a Living Will and giving a trusted friend or family member a durable power of attorney.

On Writing...

I didn't just tinker yesterday - I wrote over 1,000 words. I haven't written that much fiction at once in a long time. And I've added about another 500 words today, so far.

I've battled writers block for nearly 30 years. As a result, I haven't really submitted very much, and focused on writing at work (which generally went fine) and Web writing (which has generally come pretty easily to me).

Most of the fiction writing I've done since 1973 has been SF/horror, mostly short bits and story outlines. Four years ago, when I was finishing up my long-delayed BA and taking a wonderful writing class with Chuck Kinder at Pitt, I started writing a contemporary novel. I've worked on it a little at a time since then, and, at one point, didn't look at it for a year. A few months ago I looked at it and found it really had possibilities, but, other than a little tinkering, I just wasn't writing then.

A few weeks ago, while sick, I was watching daytime TV and heard Jennifer Weiner talk on the Jane Pauley Show. I remembered seeing her book, Good in Bed, while I was working at Borders and thought it looked amusing. What I didn't realize was that it had a fat protagonist, and she discussed this point in detail. I also started reading her blog that day and enjoyed her writing. But would her book mean I shouldn't even bother to finish my novel, which also featured the humourous/amorous observations of a fat, female protagonist?

So I bought Good in Bed and started reading it. It's, on the whole, very funny and reasonably different from the book I've been writing. Without knowing it, I've been writing a response to her book. And maybe that's been helping me subconsciously - there's a market out there buying books with "nonstandard" heroines.

On Getting a Research Contract!

I've always loved doing research on the Web. Some of the Web sites I've put together, particularly Dead People Server, demonstrate that I'm pretty good at it. At one point a few years ago, I even started a Web page called "Fact Checker" in an effort to get some contract research jobs, but nothing came of it.

Last week, while perusing a site I'd looked at some, I noticed some errors and submitted corrections to the Webmaster. We started to correspond, I offered to lease him some Dead People Server content and do some additional research. Long story short, I've just finished my first research job for BrainyHistory and will continue to do some some jobs for them over the next few months. As I'd had a bad experience with telecommuting a few years ago, he even paid in advance, and I submitted my material on time (today). With a little luck, it might lead to some additional research contracting work.

I've been feeling better for about a week now, so I've been getting caught up on some miscellaneous stuff like taking my laptop to the shop, cleaning the office, doing some work for Interaction, and completing my first research job for money. I'm even starting to think about returning to my novel, something I've been tinkering with for about four years.

Allegheny County "Uncertified" Assessments - Way, Way, WAY OFF!!

Our county administrator, Dan Onorato, says that while initial assessments are available, they probably aren't the "real" assessments. He says, "his plan" would mean that real estate taxes would not rise by more than 4% on any property.

Well, that may be, but the "uncertified" assessment for my house is ludicriously high. How that will translate into taxes is uncertain.

So look at my house. It's a small house on a tiny, hilly lot, on the second busiest street of a suburb with a good school district. This house is not undergoing major renovations. Yet the "uncertified" assessment lept up an additional $41,000 in value IN ONE YEAR. And that was after "only" increasing in value $29,000 over the previous TEN YEARS. How logical is that? This isn't Boston, New York or San Francisco - housing prices increase very gradually.

I guess I'll have to call the tax office to complain tomorrow.

More Bad Ideas from Google

I've been a huge fan of Google for years, but given some their current projects, I've got to wonder if going public has been bad for them. Google used to be very ethical, but between gMail and AutoLink, I've got to wonder.

And the problem with both is the same thing - that Google can create links based on content according to what Google has decided upon, not upon what the page's writer has decided upon. This is just unbelievably slimey. As a result, I don't use gMail and never will, no matter how many "free accounts" I've been offered.

AutoLink is simultaneously "better" and "worse" than gMail. Many Google users will never see it. The only ones that will are those who use the GoogleToolbar. But, if you use the toolbar, you'll see links included on Web pages not intended by the Web page's creator.

Sorry, this is wrong. It looks like Google is going down that slippery slope that other search engines have gone down - making advertisers more important than content creators. I'm very disappointed by Google's behavior.

Oddly, I first read about AutoLink in this week's Time magazine. I went in search of scripts to kill AutoLink at my site, and found some at Threadwatch.org.

I guess that's what being out of the country then getting sick will do for you. I am doing a little better - I'm only really sick in the morning. By the afternoon, I start to feel better.

Oscar Stuff

To my surprise, I managed to stay awake until the Oscars were over.

I wrote up a bunch of comments on this year's Oscars, last year's Oscars, and how to make the Oscars shorter.

Best-Laid Plans...

I was laid off, and immediately started making plans for how I would spend my unemployment. First off is, of course, getting a new job. Then, getting caught up on some household projects. And helping the Interaction folks with the Program part of the Web site and drafting some press releases.

*sigh*

I felt pretty good while we were in Dublin. It wasn't too cold and we walked quite a bit. But, when we got to Boston last week, I had a migraine on Saturday, which pretty much blew most of that day for me (aside from a nice dinner with friends and getting to the Saturday night event at Boskone). By Monday, I had a rebound migraine and started having dizzy spells. My concentration was really shot. I felt a little better on Wednesday, and pushed myself to do an hour of brisk mall walking. I've felt rotten ever since. Finally, I went to the doctor's on Friday, said I thought I had a sinus infection. He took a look at me, decided I was right, and prescribed some heavy-duty antibiotics and prescription Sudafed. I've been on them for two days, and still feel worse, though I'm not running a fever or anything like that. The antibiotic has the annoying sside effect of making your mouth taste like metal. I hope I get over this pretty soon, beause I honestly don't like just sitting in the easy chair in front of the TV all day.

More Red State "Family Values"

Couldn't help but notice these two headlines on CNN this morning:

• Dad kills 2 kids, slits own throat


• Seven-month old sexually assaulted

It looks like an awful lot of kid murder/rape is going on in those red states. Y'know, those states where people say they are religious, vote Republican and talk about how evil feminists and homosexuals are. The states where people are too busy protesting the physical death of a woman who was brain dead almost 15 years ago to notice what's happening in their own neighborhoods. States where the divorce rate is surprisingly high, particularly when compared against blue states like Massachusetts. States where the social service net is growing ever smaller as the public is being brainwashed into believing that taxation and government intervention are greater evils than having a stable, supportive society.

People in red states will continue to believe their self-delusion that they are somehow more moral than those of us who eschew religion and believe that government services, particularly education and social services, should be well-funded.

Back from Ireland and Boston

When I asked Jim what he wanted to do for his 50th birthday this winter, he said "Go to Dublin." We did the math and figured we could swing it, even with the currently depressed dollar (and, as it turned out, my being laid off).

We had a nice trip with surprisingly little rain (it rains constantly in Ireland during the winter). I'll post some photos shortly.

Boston and Boskone were both a lot of fun, though I had a migraine the Saturday of Boskone, and again once I got home.

Comments on Saturday Night Live - 2/5/2005

I've been a pretty regular Saturday Night Live Fan (except for a few years in the early '80s and again in the mid '90s) for many years. I just watched Saturday's show, and had some comments I want to send along to the show. Unfortunately, the NBC Web site pretty much does not accept user feedback. So...

Paris Hilton is one of the most underwhelming "talents" of the day. She spent most of the show reading straight off the cue cards. That said, she was willing to make fun of her image, so, on the whole, she worked well as a host.

The "Fannish Phone Sex" skit was a gem. While most fannish men I've met aren't into those kinds of fantasies, the people who wrote the skit were quite familiar with the slang and made the most of it.

On the other hand, the attempted "yinzer" skit near the end showed that the Pittsburgh accent and attitude were pretty tricky to pull off. To understand a Pittsburgh accent, Seth Meyers should have listened to Dan Marino, whose yinzer accent is pretty much intact. If you didn't see the skit, Seth played a guy trying desperately to come onto Paris Hilton in a bar. Most people watching the skit probably thought he was from the south, because after he said "How'yinz doin'?" he launched into a southern accent. He went on to try to pick up Paris by talking about Bill Cowher, the Steelers coach. And he ended up the conversation by trying to give her his number, which started with "412." Now, it's true that many Pittsburgh men are into the Steelers the way that Paris Hilton is into fashion, so the skit was a cute idea. When the accents are obvious (Boston/New York/Chicago/Southern), these sorts of skits work well. But most people outside of Pittsburgh don't really understand the accent or are familiar with the slang.

Yet Another Net Test

In taking a break from sending out resumes today, I found a reference to the "What Book Are You?" quiz. Here are my results:

You're To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Perceived as a revolutionary and groundbreaking person, you have changed the minds of many people. While questioning the authority around you, you've also taken a significant amount of flack. But you've had the admirable guts to persevere. There's a weird guy in the neighborhood using dubious means to protect you, but you're pretty sure it's worth it in the end. In the end, it remains unclear to you whether finches and mockingbirds get along in real life. Take the Book Quiz at the Blue Pyramid.

Ironically, To Kill a Mockingbird has been one of my favorite books! The description of me according to the test is really more the way I'd like to be than the way I actually am (except for questioning authority, of course!).

Pilgrimage to Punxsutawney, Part II

To drive to Punxsutawney from Pittsburgh on any day, you have to leave here about two hours before you need to get there. It's really not so far away - about 90 miles or so - but about half the trip is across narrow country roads. And it was very dark. And I'd never driven on 119 during the day before, much less before dawn.

So I got up a little after 4 and was on the road by 4:45 this morning.

By the time I'd gotten to Punxsutawney, it was starting to get light.


Contrary to what you might have thought from the movie Groundhog's Day, Gobbler's Knob was over a mile and a half outside of town on what looked to be someone's farm. You needed to park your car at a nearby WalMart and take a shuttle bus over to the festivities. I got into the area in time to catch some of the fireworks.



By 6:45, it was up to 13 degrees Farenheit, but because there was no wind and about 18,000 people on Gobbler's Knob this morning, it wasn't really all that cold. The crowd was pretty rowdy, reported to be the largest non-weekend crowd ever. There was a raucous rendition of the Village People's "YMCA" and similar music all morning long. Unfortunately, I stood in the midst of some drunk teenagers, one of which kept accusing me of pinching him. Believe me, I've never found drunk boys a turn on!

Eventually, the Inner Circle (the guys in black coats and top hats) dragged Phil out of his tree stump, and, to the surprise of virtually no one, except for the drunk boys in my area, proclaimed he had indeed seen his shadow.



Nope, that was not a fur muff on the right of the picture, that was Phil himself. Yes, it was blurry as I was probably about 150 feet up the hill from the stage.

Once the weather prognostication was pronounced, the crowd dispersed with amazing rapidity. However, for those of us who hadn't been to Punxsutawney and who might not be there again, it was a time for some close-ups. That's me with Phil, and
me again with a member of the "Inner Circle."




Since there was not much to do on the Knob once the pictures were done, I got in line for a shuttle bus back to downtown. That was when I started to get cold! Luckily, I didn't have to wait for long. I bought some groundhog trinkets in downtown, and found a restaurant that cooked I don't think I'd had since I was a kid: Chipped beef! It's a fairly disgusting-looking dish, and about as heart-non-healthy as you could imagine, but it was good and I felt much warmer when I was done eating.

Most of the in-town activities centered around the community center, where craft-sellers had set up tables to sell everything from groundhog woodcarvings to groundhog stonecarvings. I bought some groundhog earrings and a groundhog Christmas tree ornament. One of the town organizations thoughtfully had a big birthday cake and gifts (notepads and pencils) for those of us who celebrated our birthday today.

Afterwards, I went to the one winery on the Groundhog Trail that was on the way back to Pittsburgh, bought some wine (which appeared to be groundhog free), got a little lost, and got home about 1:30.

Planned "Pilgrimage" to Punxsutawney

My birthday is on Groundhog Day, a fact that has always amused me. It's one of the littlest secular holidays we note.

Even before the Groundhog Day movie, I'd planned to, someday, go to Punxsutawney and stand in the cold to watch the little rodent get pulled from its treestump. So given that the weather looks good for Wednesday, I live only about two hours away, and that I'll be unemployed after tomorrow, it looks like this year is the year. So if you see a well-bundled, round-faced woman with a sign saying something like "I'm 48 today!" that might be me.

Finicky About Flicks

Y'know, I've hardly seen a movie all year that I've loved unreservedly. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind comes close, and that came out almost a year ago! I also liked Kinsey quite a bit. We saw Phantom on Christmas (Jim's uncle loves musicals), but though Emmy Rossum is a lovely singer, the movie didn't come close to working.

So we finally went to The Aviator today. That too is rather flawed, but is, for the most part, a very watchable movie. Leonardo DiCaprio was superb. So were Cate Blanchett, Jude Law and Kate Beckinsale.

There's something about Scorsese movies that never quite works for me. I think my favorite movie of his was Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, and he made that 30 years ago! It's also the least like any of his other movies as it has virtually no violence and focuses on a middle-class woman. I like Taxi Driver but it's too violent in places.

So in The Aviator, Scorsese doesn't deal with violence directly - the most violent scene is one of a plane crash that was pretty gruesome. But he does deal directly with Hughes' decline into madness. I hadn't realized Hughes started to loose touch with reality quite so early in his career, and Scorsese really plays this up. It's as if Scorsese's greatest pleasure is in making his audience squirm. Frankly, it would have been a much better movie if about 20 minutes or so of the "Hughes is nuts" part of the movie had been cut.

I'll Be on the Mike Romigh Show, KDKA 1020, at 9:05 Tonight (1/25)

I've been asked, in my capacity as Dead People Server curator, to go on and talk about Johnny Carson's death and dead pools.

I was on his show once before and I had a good time. If you're a Romigh listener, give us a call - be sure to say if you're a Pittsburgh Weblogger!

The Jenny Turpish Slapped Me Humor Quiz

I love taking those online quizzes - here's a fun one Eva Whitley referenced in her blog today. If you want to take it, go to:

http://hokev.brinkster.net/quiz/default.asp

My results:

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Sunny/Dark: 4/10
drY/Gross: 3/10
Traditional/Offbeat: 2/10
Active/Passive: 1/10

[[Current Rankings: http://hokev.brinkster.net/quiz/default.asp?quiz=Better%2BHumor&page=7]]

You are a SYT--Sunny Dry Traditional. This makes you a Sophisticate.

You like conservative humor -- implied rather than explicit, and a well- timed eyebrow raise rather than a punchline. You're exactly the right kind of funny a well-bred hostess would want at her functions. You might be Jewish.

You're not afraid of a risque joke -- you just don't often make them. This means that people may keep it squeaky clean around you, and that when you do work blue it's super too so funny.

You're like Jon Stewart on that fake cover of the public domain Victorian erotica textbook in the back of America. You should get that book. You'll think it's funny as hell.

You might like The Daily Show, Remember Wenn and when Hamlet says, "Do you think I meant country matters?" You would snigger thyself all the way to the buttery bar.

Of the 7867 people who have taken this quiz, 26 % are this type.

Your Active humor score of 1/10 means you are too shy shy. Hush hush, hide-away. You could really unload a can of whoop-ass hilarity on anyone -- anyone receptive to humor at all -- but the sneaky thing here is you don't really care. You don't feel the need to be the center of attention, so you hold the big guns in reserve until the right moment. In a world full of people who think they're funnier than they are, you're exactly as funny as you want to be. Um, regardless of whether anybody else ever takes notice.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The results are reasonably close - I do like John Stewart and have been enjoying most of his textbook satire America. I don't tend to lead with jokes out of shyness, but because I don't tell jokes very well. When I start to be funny, it tends to be very contextual - with a group of people, just bullshitting.

The other quizzes are quite interesting, but I don't think I'd like to share the results here!

The Government According to Woody Allen

I've just seen Bananas (1971), written by Woody Allen and Mickey Rose, directed by and starring Woody Allen. The plot is basically irrelevent. Near the end of the flick, the Allen protagonist, Fielding Mellish, is on trial for treason.
A number of people were were questioned, including J. Edgar Hoover and Miss America:




Prosecuting Attorney: Tell the court why you think he is a traitor to this country.

Miss America: I think Mr. Mellish is a traitor to this country because his views are different from the views of the president and others of his kind. Differences of opinion should be tolerated, but not when they are too different. Then he becomes a subversive mother.

---

Does anyone else have the impression that Bush & buddies studied Bananas instead of political science when they were in college?

I hadn't seen the movie since I was about 14. It was Allen's second movie as a director, and it is wildly erratic. Parts of it are still quite funny particularly the last 20 minutes of so.

Prince Harry, Brad, Jen and the Death of Common Sense

During a time of economic weirdnesses, tsunamis, war and strange elections, you'd think people would have more to worry about than the state of Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston's relationship and what Prince Harry chose to wear to a costume party. That these are two of the main stories of the day is a sure sign the people running media companies have contributed greatly to the death of common sense.

I do a fair amount of celebrity watching, probably more than the average reader. I've been a longtime watcher of Entertainment Tonight, but I shut it off in complete disgust over its Brad and Jen fixation this week. So what if a beautiful, busy, rich, distracted couple decides to get separated? We have such a fixation on looks, that somehow beautiful people must stay together - when they separate, it's somehow a tragedy. I'm not that surprised that Brad and Jen are taking some official time apart, after several long "working" separations. But it's not worth the kind of international frenzy this story has engendered. Despite the fact they're rich and famous, even they deserve a little peace and quiet to see if they can work things out, without all the endless speculation.

Likewise, the Prince Harry in Nazi dress feeding frenzy. Yes, choosing to wear a Nazi uniform to a costume party did show a remarkable lack of common sense. However, the people raving over an adolescent's adolescent behavior are even more guilty of not showing any common sense about the situation. If Prince Harry was sneaking off to neo-Nazi meetings, of course there should be ranting and raving. And it would be justified. But he was going to a costume party! He was not representing the royal family at an event - he was at a party!

If I go to a costume party dressed like Barbara Bush, it's not because I want to be Barbara Bush! It's because it might be funny!

On Jobs and Housewifery...

I can't say I was shocked, I'd been warned so I sort of saw it coming.

I got laid off on Wednesday. I have a job (I think) until January 28. But, nothing's in writing so who knows.

A few weeks back, I got into a long phone conversation with a jobless person who's been looking hard for months. This person is extremely bright but, like me, doesn't play political games very much. We also either tend to be honest and direct with our employers/co-workers, or spend a lot of time just biting our tongues in reaction to stuff around us. In the course of our discussion, we both came to the conclusion that there are certain classes of jobs that are kind of like "housewife" jobs. They aren't overly sexy, but no one notices all the work these people do until they're gone. Unfortunately, these are the kinds of jobs we tend to do best.

Money, while important, isn't a super-critical issue for me right now. Jim's job appears secure, and the house and the cars are paid off. Maybe a few weeks away from work entirely might help me get out of my long-term insomnia. I can go the the gym more regularly. I can work on the house (as much as I don't like housework). Maybe the changes will help push me out of my long-term writer's block.

I was working on a mundane novel about two years ago. I recently went back and read what I'd written. While I don't have a stunning writing style (my writing, like my Web site, is very Amish - in other words, plain!), I know some of it is pretty good. But, the whole thing isn't, and I've only written about 20,000 words or so. And I haven't written much in over a year (aside from the blog and keeping my Web sites up to date).

Anyway, if there is anyone out there looking for search engine optimization, hand-coded HTML or XML, or small bits of content or research, drop me a line. My rates are completely negotiable!

Suggestion for Observing Inauguration Day (Thursday, January 20, 2005)

I've been trying to think of a way to observe this year's inauspicious inauguration.

While political protest is certainly a good thing, I really don't like the idea of going to Washington to protest the event. Sometimes, protest just gets way out of hand.

I think a quiet protest is the most appropriate thing to do.

So I will wear black on Thursday, January 20.

Some Thoughts on Kinsey

As someone who got basic reproductive biology as a child from reading Dr. Spock's Guide to Baby and Child Care in the '60s (which was generally reassuring about things like masturbation without ever explaning what masturbation was!), I generally understood most of the basic mechanics about human sexuality even if I got the details wrong. My mother bought some books about sexuality aimed at children, so we had reasonably complete sex ed at home, at school and in church youth groups. By the time my class graduated from high school in 1975, there was only one generally known pregnancy in the whole class, even though many of the kids were already sexually active. Remember, this was the late '60s and early '70s, before the government decided to resume lying to children about sex again.

So, I've always been a fan of Dr. Kinsey. I haven't read his books, but I've read books sparked by his research, and I know I've benefitted by his insistence on teaching the biological information about sex.

Bill Condon, a director/writer who created the very insightful Gods and Monsters a few years ago has made another wonderful movie in Kinsey. It carefully recreates a time when people ranted about zippers leading to promiscuity and oral sex leading to infertility. It's a useful movie to see because we may be headed down that road again. Kinsey makes it clear that while sexual experimentation can be very messy, studying sex and describing it honestly is very important.

One thing that's fascinating about Dr. Kinsey is that Liam Neeson, with a spot-on Midwestern accent, plays him as if he had Asperger's Syndrome - he's very obsessed and just doesn't relate that well to people. He eventually marries one of his students played by Laura Linney. Their relationship is the heart of the first half of the movie, but as the focus of the movie shifts from studying wasps to studying human sexuality, she rather drifts out of much of the movie until closer to the end.

The pacing of the movie is leisurely at first, but speeds up rapidly over the last ten years or so of his life, which is a shame. I would like to have seen a little more of the controversy over Dr. Kinsey in the '50s. The movie is absolutely worth the trip, for its compelling acting and intelligent writing, but it's also, rather strongly, a cautionary tale.

Good News After Smofcon

After leaving Smofcon in DC today, we drove to Silver Spring to take my brother Jeff out to lunch. While eating lunch, I asked if he'd heard from our younger brother, Terry, whose wife Jess is due to have a baby any day now.

"Nope, not yet."

We continued eating, and then the phone went off. It was Terry. Jess had had her baby earlier in the day! Their son's name is Luke, and here's his first family photo at just a few hours old:



Grandparents Bill and Ruth, Aunt Carrie, Dad Terry, Mom Jess and Luke Trask, big sister Leah, and Grandparents Ed and Charlene Bradford

I had a good time at Smofcon, the annual convention runner's conference. Last year's Smofcon was stuck out in the Chicago suburbs - you had a 30 minute subway ride to get to downtown Chicago, after a 15 minute walk to the subway station. While downtown Chicago is a great place to be in December (the Christkindlemarket made me want to go to Germany for Christmas someday!), the distance to get to downtown Chicago was a major pain.

This year, we were at the Wyndham in DC, just off of Thomas Circle. We had fabulous meals at Gerard's Place (French), Malaysia Kopitam, and Taberna del Alabardero.

I always find Smofcon a good place just to go talk to people. At Worldcon, I'm always running around. At Smofcon, I can actually stay on one place for a while! Unfortunately, I was so tired I was in bed kind of early so I missed out on a little more of that than I'd like to!

Another Break from Reality - My Report from The Lord of the Rings Oscar Party, 2004

I have a bunch of started-not-finished projects at my Web site. Notably, I've been taking lots of digital photos over the last two years, and it's my intention to put a selection of them up at my Web site. Well, I should say that most of them are already at my Web site, but I haven't added any commentary to them.

Tonight, I finally finished writing about going to Hollywood last February for Return of the One Party, the Oscar watching party for Lord of the Rings fans. So that's one trip report down, and about another six to go!

A Break from Reality - Some Recent Movie-going

Between lots of travel and the election, I didn't really go to the movies very much this fall. I think the last movie I saw in a theater between summer and November 6 was Garden State, which I liked quite a lot. I've more than made up for that over the last week, having seen The Incredibles, I <Heart> Huckabees, Alfie, and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. And, over the next week (or whever they reach Pittsburgh), I plan to see Kinsey, Finding Neverland and Sideways. I might even drive across town to see Vera Drake as I'm a longtime fan of Imelda Staunton and Mike Leigh.

I have to admit that while all of the movies I've been to were watchable and diverting (probably necessary given life's recent stresses!), none were as good as they could have been, which was frustrating. All of the movies more style over substance, but they also lacked something in style.

The Incredibles was great to look at and had well-cast voices. I loved hearing Holly Hunter as an animated character-that was long overdue. But it wasn't nearly as sharp as, say Shrek, and devolved into a few too many chase sequences.

I <Heart> Huckabees sounded like a wonderful idea (I love weird movies), but it didn't hold up to the high standards of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. If you like Jude Law and Naomi Watts, it's worth seeing because both turn in excellent performances. But the lead, Jason Schwartzman, didn't give any evidence of actually acting in this movie - he just sort of schlepped on through. And both the script and the direction go in some curious directions.

Alfie, Alfie, Alfie...Jude Law was a great Alfie. But the movie just didn't work. The melancholy level felt much higher in the remake than in the original. The women were mostly cyphers.

The Bridget Jones sequel had reviews that were all over the place, edging more on the negative side. I liked it, though it wasn't quite as sharp as the first movie (which I'd liked quite a lot). The director general had an interesting visual sense (the skydiving sequence looked glorious, as did most of the Thai photography), but then lost her way (the skiing sequence) at times.

I was at the first-ever Pittsburgh Creative Nonfiction Literary Conference this weekend. I was reminded of how much I enjoy this particular genre and how much I enjoy talking with its proponents. I even got a book on working your way out of writer's block, which I plan to start reading soon.

When the Democrats Asked, I Answered!

Here's how I answered the Democratic post-election survey

1. How did you participate in this election?

I worked hard for John Kerry by volunteering in July, doing database work and helping out at several rallies. On election day, I was a poll watcher for MoveOn.org.

I gave several hundred dollars to Democratic candidates and progressive 527s this year.

I created a number of Web sites, including:

• http://www.getoutandvote.us


• http://www.thefactsdomatter.com


• http://www.thefactsdontmatter.com


• http://www.dpsinfo.com/blog

I voted and made sure my husband and daughter did, too (my husband always votes, but this was the first time our 24 year old daughter had voted in a federal election).

2. Is this the first time you participated in election activism?

No. I worked for a moderate Republican Congressional candidate in Massachusetts in 1974 (who was doing well until Nixon resigned) and for a Democratic state rep candidate in Pennsylvania in 1996 (who also lost).

I also worked some for Clinton in 1996. I would have worked for Clinton in 1992 and for Gore in 2000 if I'd had the time.

I've been giving money, almost always to Democratic candidates, since about 1984, but usually no more than $100 total over the course of the year. When I lived in Massachusetts I donated to Kerry's campaign so I've been on his mailing list for a very long time!

3. How would you like to continue to stay involved? (Volunteering, phonebanking, fundraising, local organizing, etc.)

I will keep up with Web sites. In the wee hours of November 4, I bought the domain http://www.dumprick.com, a Web site dedicated to seeing Rick Santorum be defeated in 2006. I'll also keep the "facts" Web sites updated.

I'm going to attend local meetings of Democracy for America in Pittsburgh.

I've volunteered to Americans United for Separation of Church and State to look into starting a Pittsburgh local chapter.

I'm willing to do work for the Democratic party. I'm a registered Independent, but am considering switching to the Democratic party given my general disgust at the behavior of the current Republican party.

I would like to try to get activist groups to rethink their use of databases. It's 2004 - we should be using databases much more smartly than I generally saw us using databases. I did like Bottled Lightning very much and thought it was an effective tool.

I would also like to work with people to make sure that elections are fairly run. There are still some outstanding issues that we should continue to publicize (not enough voting machines in some areas, voter intimidation, et.c.).

4. Did you feel the actions you took were effective?

Up to a point. My town, which usually goes Republican, voted for Kerry by 1,000 votes.

5. Was it a good experience for you?

Mostly, yes. I met some terrific activists working for Kerry and working for MoveOn. I'd work for Kristina Petronka, Jonathan Lyons and Lindsay Patross any time!

Of course, the outcome was a disappointment...

6. How would you make it better?

Use databases, telephone banking and mailings more intelligently.

7. Please share other thoughts and comments you have about the 2004 election and what Democrats and the Democratic Party should do going forward.

Resist the temptation to become Republicans. I always thought Clinton had a great vision of the party - responsible government and personal responsibility.

The Republicans used to always say that the Democrats were the "tax and spend" party. However the Republicans are, more dangerously, the "spend and spend" party. The Democrats have to resist the temptation to play the "we won't tax you either" game. Instead, Democrats should talk a lot more about responsible government and taxation.

Still promote progressive ideas - health care in the richest country in the world should be more available to the working poor. Discrimination against any group is evil. Science is more important than superstition - we can only continue to be the most advanced country in the world if we promote advanced ideas.

Reflecting on America's Choices

There was a lot of doom and gloom yesterday on many of the blogs I read regularly. While I am more pessimistic about the short-term future of the country, I hope Kerry's loss will energize progressives to organize. We've done a lot over the last two years, but clearly we need to do more.

There's also beyond sour grapes about Kerry's loss on the part by some. Yes, clearly elections are still somewhat screwed up in parts of the country. This is unfortunate and needs to be fixed. But I do not believe the extent of dirty tricks in this election erased enough Kerry votes to prevent Bush's popular and electoral victory.

Here's the problem - four years ago, Bush absolutely did not get the popular vote. Florida was kind of dicey. So we had every right to be pissed off, not just at Bush but at the process.

This time, in addition to the minority and majority election judge every poll gets, there were all kinds of independent observers, from groups like MoveOn, Election Protection and from foreign countries. So while there was probably some vote fraud, and some voter intimidation, the evidence that it was pervasive just isn't there. Sorry. I'd like to say it was there. I'd like to blame it on Diebold. But I need evidence, and it just isn't there. If Diebold was doing some sort of massive fraud, someone would have noticed.

We lost, plain and simple. It's painful, but it's true. And, speaking as a person who worked hard for Kerry on this campaign, I'm disappointed. But his concession speech was because he is a realist. When I got up at 4am on November 3 and did the math, it was clear Kerry's election wasn't going to happen.

I am offended by people on the left calling Kerry a coward for conceding. He is not a coward, but he is a realist. Waiting until all the provisional ballots were counted isn't going to matter.

It doesn't mean that we shouldn't be pissed off about the election results, but it means we need to avoid too much hang-wringing and assuming Bush only won the election because it was rigged.

But here's what we've got to watch for.

For one thing, the politics of fear clearly beat out the politics of reality. That's frightening, because history shows that countries often go down the authoritarian path when the government knows that works. As clear-thinkers, we need to deal with the facts.

An oddity of our electoral map that sort of plays into the fear thing - did you notice that the states that had the highest number of 9/11 deaths (New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, California and DC (and those blue-leaning northern counties of Virginia)) all went Democratic? As many people (including Jon Stewart) have observed, the folks with more direct experience with foreign terrorism on our soil did not vote for Bush!

For another thing, the social/culture war is doing more damage to this country than the Islamist terrorists have done so far. I don't accept that I am less moral than Dick Cheney because I approve of gay marriage and birth control - I haven't used a multinational corporation to rape and pillage my government. I will never accept that my beliefs that people must be true to themselves and responsible for themselves makes me less moral.

This event has the chance to energize progessives, and if Bush and buddies behave as badly as I expect they will, it'll piss off the right-leaning moderates, too.

We need to have our eye on the 2006 elections. There are now a couple of Senators actually to the right of Rick Santorum, Pennsylvania's awful (as opposed to kinda bad) senator. We need to help Americans understand that regressive politics are very dangerous for our country (as if the war in Iraq shouldn't be enough evidence of this fact).

I'm not optimistic over the near term, but I'm not heading for Canada. Yet, anyway.

Oh Well...

I had a bad (and temporary) case of irrational exuberance yesterday afternoon. Nothing like having the rest of the vote come in to really throw cold water on my hope that we'd have a new president today.

I guess the main bad news seems to be turn out. I kept hearing and seeing that turnout was really big, and might trend towards 120,000,000 nationally. It looks more like about 116,000,000 or so voted. And the youth vote was the same 17% this year as it was four years ago. It did seem like more young people got involved, but maybe they didn't wind up voting.

It looks like it's gonna be a long four years...

Before the Election Night (Hopefully VICTORY) Party!

I won't be blogging for a bit, as I'm going to a party.

Earlier today, I posted about possible problems in Allegheny County. The main problem seems to be about how provisional ballots are being handled. The rumor is each precinct only receiveced 12 provisional ballots. This in a year where many people's new registrations were lost or screwed up with. So that's the main screw-up - all else seems to be OK.

I went back to the polling place to pollwatch for a little longer. A new Republican showed up, she almost got hysterical with the MoveOn people ("You're not here legally!" she yelled, and was reminded by a Republican politician that we were!). She didn't last long. I think she knows they're on their way out. I HOPE!

Wow - Kerry in a Landslide?

I don't like to use the "l" word (landslide) but man oh man...

What prompts this is watching the voting in Western Pennsylvania, which is already exceeding 60% of the eligible voters voting (election officials predicted 60% total for the day, and it's not even 3:30 yet!).

I did some pollwatching for MoveOn.Org in Mt. Lebanon, a Republican suburb of Pittsburgh. There was a very steady stream of voters there all day. Only a few
glared at us (we were wearing Kerry/Edwards stickers) but most were very nice. Two Republican candidates greeted voters for nearly an hour.

However...

As soon as the candidates left, the Republican pollwatchers (except for one) left! So for most of the afternoon, there were 2-3 Democratic pollwaters, 2-3 MoveOn.org pollwatchers. Very interesting. We only had one person who complained about a voting irregularity (their son was in Japan, had requested an absentee ballot and never got one).

At one point, I called liberal friends around the country to find out how their voting was going. Leslie Turek was a pollwatcher in the Manchester, New Hampshire area. She reported unprecedented voter turn-out, high visibility of Kerry supporters and almost complete invisibility of Bush supporters. Peggy Thokar voted in suburban Massachusetts, and said she was voter #800(!!) at around 11:30. Marc Gordon said there were more voters than usual in northern Virginia, and John Pomeranz, also in northern Virginia, used that wonderful term "unprecented turn-out." My brother, who lives in southern Maryland, said it was quiet at 11am and they voted quickly.

I tried to reach Jim's uncle who lives in Florida, but it turned out I didn't have his number in my cell phone correctly.

It's interesting to check things on the Internet. I tried to check the blogs I always check - Talking Points isn't accessible. Taegan Goddard's Political Wire isn't accessible. Making Light isn't accessible. But the Kerry blog and daily kos were both going great guns. Hopefully they're just very busy and not having some sort of denial of service attack.

We have unplugged our phones after getting 7 recorded messages from Moveon.org and 2 from the local Democrats. Enough already! You can always E-mail me.

What Allegheny County Is Doing Right

As I've already voted, I want to write a bit about what was working right this morning. My earlier post was a reaction to County Executive Don Onorato's contention that very little was going wrong. While I take that with a grain of salt what he said about the newly registered, those of us who've been registered for a while shouldn't have a problem.

Jim, Leslie and I got in line at about 10 to 7 this morning. For our precinct, we were voters 5, 6, and 7. Two other precincts vote in the same location, and there were maybe about 25 people in line at 10 to 7.

The voter rolls looked easier to read, and the scanned signature of the voter from a previous vote was included. I think that's a very good idea and should help prevent fraud. Some of the records had a special text flag - either ABSENTEE or CHECK ID. I was relieved to see this, as that, too, should help prevent fraud.

We had finished voting by about 7:04. Three more votes for Kerry/Edwards!!! The line outside the voting place had grown to about 60.

Since we were so early, we didn't have to run any kind of gauntlet because none of the candidate's poll watchers were there yet!

It Looks Like New Voter Registration Is Screwed Up in Allegheny County

NBC has reported that people in Allegheny County have reported more problems voter registration problems than almost anyplace else in the country.

Map of Pennsylvania showing places reporting voter registration problems. (This map was working at about 5:30am, but died at about 5:50am - check back later because Allegheny, Westmorland and one of the Philly-area counties have many more voter registration complaints than anyplace else in the state (yes, I know they're also the highest in population).)

Our County Executive, Don Onorato, doesn't seem to think this is a real problem. He blames it on the intensity of the election.

Unfortunately, the facts will not bear this out (and I hate to say this, because Onorato is a Democrat and Allegheny County is quite Democratic).

I spent some of the summer doing volunteer work for Kerry. People were calling the office complaining that they hadn't received their voter registration receipts even though they had recently registered. We've also heard about some Republican dirty tricks (people thought they were signing a petition but their registrations were changed to Republican), and, to be fair, some Democratic dirty tricks in other parts of the state (older people being called and told that Bush would do away with Social Security).

I'm going to spend a few hours today as a MoveOn poll watcher today. I hope things will not be too screwed up, but, at least for the new voters, I'm not very optimistic. And it sounds like Onorato has his head in the sand just like Bush does with regards to problems on his watch.

If you've been registered to vote before this year, you're probably fine. If you registered to vote for the first time this year, you might not be able to vote, but please try to! If you have any receipt of any kind from when you registered, bring it with you just in case. And help the rest of us fight for a fairer, uniform voter registration system in the future. This is a complete embarrassment for a "modern" country like the US.

Viggo Mortensen Joined Michael Moore's Slacker Tour in Columbus Ohio on 10/30!

I am a huge fan of Viggo's, and a moderate fan of Michael's. I thought about seeing Michael when he was on tour in Pittsburgh a few weeks back, but he was in town during one of my trips out of town.

But here's a shot of Michael and Viggo in Columbus:



(*Sigh* and Columbus was only three hours away!)

After spending yesterday just hanging out, resting, and staying pretty glued to the Internet, today I was awake enough to rake my front yard and then go work for Kerry/Edwards. I leafleted a friendly Squirrel Hill neighborhood with Tracey, a woman who lives in DC but who's spending the next few days helping out in Pittsburgh. Then we walked from headquarters (with a third person, whose name was Cliff, I think) across town to Heinz field for a little visibility before the Steeler game. The weather was perfect for the walk, and we spent some time waving to the crowd.

Now, I'm home watching the Patriots playing the Steelers. Talk about your mixed feelings! I like the Steelers, but the Patriots are having a great year.

Don't Panic - Suicide Bombers, Anthrax and Other Fears of Modern Life

[[I wrote this in the fall of 2001, for obvious reasons, and want to republish it here because I think it's a useful essay to consider just before our upcoming election.]]

I haven't been fretting much more about life and death since September 11. Sure, I had a major anxiety attack after watching about 36 hours of TV news on the night of September 12. But that was to be expected. Since then, no. I've driven to New York, New England and Maryland without any more concern than usual. I've gone to work and opened my mail.

Perhaps it's because I'm naturally a little more cynical than most people. When the media spoke of September 11 as "the day we lost our innocence," I wanted to ask what alternate reality they had been a part of. Just in my lifetime (I'm 44 now), I've seen bigotry and terrorism and war and just plain bad accidents. I've experienced sexism and hate speech. America has had many bad days in my lifetime.

While I do not remember the exact date, that terrible day in November 1978 when nearly 900 American citizens murdered members of their own families then took their own lives on the command of "religious leader" Jim Jones particularly affected me. How can people follow the insane commands of any person? Very few people ran out of the jungle to the relative safety of a nearby town. Almost everyone who was told to poisoned their children and then, themselves. The ability for nearly 1,000 people to think for themselves was completely lacking.

Or the day of the Oklahoma City bombing. Initially, we all thought it was some sort of foreign terrorist. It was almost a worse thing to learn that it was a pair of Americans who murdered 168 other Americans in cold blood.

September 11 was a bad day, but much greater in scope.

I live in Pittsburgh, a city with more bridges than any other city in the world except for Venice. I've always been aware that bridges could collapse or tunnels could be blown up, yet I travel on them daily. I flew in early December, for the first time since July. I did fret a little more than during my last plane trip, but I expected the plane would not be hijacked and that I would get to my destination safely. And home again. And, I did. Statistics bore this out, even after this year.

My husband and I went to England, a country with a long history of living with small-scale terrorism. There are more video cameras about, but I did not notice many more police. Security in English airports was a little stricter than in American airports even before September 11. It was not a coincidence that none of the September 11 planes were international planes, despite the fact a plane flying to Europe would have had even more jet fuel than a plane flying to California.

I don't want to sound too much like a Pollyanna. I'm always aware of the terrible things that could happen, but I'll go along with living regardless. Life isn't about seeing how safe we can be, it's about having many different experiences, interacting with many different people and making contributions to society. Despite the horrible events of this year, statistically, we aren't that much less safe than we've ever been. Statistically, we aren't going to die from the acts of terrorists or from a war. We're way more likely to die in car accidents or from cancer or heart disease or AIDS.

These are the facts: Terrorists, whether they be foreign or domestic, do not have limitless resources. A number of their planned activities had been discovered and stopped before September 11 and continue to be discovered and stopped now. That doesn't mean they will never succeed again - it's likely that they will. It's unlikely that they will ever be able to hijack a plane and turn it into a flying bomb. But we might have small-scale suicide bombers like those in Israel. We may have more anthrax and other acts of bioterrorism. (Frankly, the anthrax letters and most of the threats look more like the acts of the American looney fringe than the Islamic looney fringe.) The looney fringe might even deploy "dirty bombs" (bombs made with nuclear by-products, but without enough enriched uranium to go critical), but getting a real nuclear weapon is unlikely (unless the government of Pakistan collapses).

Next fact: Lots of people get their kicks from making bomb (and now anthrax) threats. Bomb threats were very common in the '70s and early '80s and making threats have made massive comeback. None of the major terrorist incidents from the last few years had any real warnings. Frankly, I'm ignoring all threats as hot air.

Anthrax has people very upset, but I have to take the attitude of Dan Rather - if we let things like anthrax paralyze us, the terrorists, whether they be domestic or international, have won. Most of the people who got anthrax were mail handlers. Most of the people who died from anthrax had compromised immune systems. It's sad that anyone has gotten sick or died from bioterrorism, but, statistically, it's unlikely to happen to you, me or the vast majority of people alive today.

The level of fear is particularly troublesome when you consider how much the world has changed over the last hundred years. One hundred years ago, the life expectancy was not all that high; people died easily from TB, from childbirth, from viruses. Yet people still went out of their homes and went on with their lives. They explored all parts of the world without being guaranteed of their safety. We who have long lives and sanitary environments should not be so afraid of dying from a statistical unlikelihood like "murdered by terrorists."

I might be more fearful if I had lost a loved one on September 11. I heard the terrible news at work, and the Internet was so slow that virtually no news was available for an hour. Once I heard about the Pentagon, I thought of my brother who lives just down the street in Alexandria. It took nearly an hour to reach his answering machine, but even hearing his voice was reassuring. I was so shocked by the events of September 11 that it was literally days later that I remembered that, with all his business travel, he could have been on one of those planes.

I have many friends who live and work in Manhattan, but they work in publishing, within sight of the twin towers, but not in them. A handful of acquaintances have not been able to return to their apartments in lower Manhattan. Still, the closest call was an acquaintance from Massachusetts was due to fly out to California from Logan Airport to have a meeting that Tuesday morning. The man he was going to see called to postpone the meeting on Monday night. The flight he cancelled himself off of later crashed into the World Trade Center.

We felt extremely safe in Pittsburgh that September 11. No one would try to crash a plane in Pittsburgh, we all reasoned. But we had friends who called us to check in, having heard about the plane that crashed some 90 miles to the east.

I did panic briefly on September 11. I stayed at work but couldn't concentrate. My job was closed down at noon that day. I wanted to do something, but couldn't think of what to do. A friend sent around E-mail, urging people to go out and give blood. So that's what I did. Having something useful to do gave me a little better focus.

Short term panic in the midst of catastrophe is understandable. We're only human after all. But long-term panic isn't good, either for the individual or for the culture. We've got to do what we can to avoid cultural panic.

[[And, it probably goes without saying, that I think John Kerry can better help our country deal with societal panic than the Bush has.]]

"We Don't Know When the Explosives Were Removed"

On 10/28/2004, KSTP broadcast video that proved the explosives were at Al-Qaqaa and still under IAEA seal in early April 2003. Further, American soldiers were shown breaking the IAEA seal!!!! When confronted with these facts on the Today Show on 10/29/2004, former US ambassador to Iraq Paul Bremer stuck to the party line - "We don't know when the explosives were removed" and used his time on TV to attack John Kerry for daring to say that the American government botched this big time. Matt Lauer mentioned the original broadcast date at least three times, but Bremer completely ignored him and stayed in attack Kerry mode.

It's very ironic that this scandal is popping up at the same time as another scandal - the proof that Osama bin Laden is still very much alive. Yet another failure of the Bush administration.

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I had a lovely time at the Pittsbugh blogfest last night. I had to leave in a hurry, but it was fun to meet more of the local bloggers. Sorry I didn't start my post that way - I guess I'm just in "attack Bush" mode these days!

Maybe Lunar Eclipses Are Good for the Red Sox

I'm pretty cynical about sports, especially about the Red Sox. I remember well the debacles of '67, '75, '78 and especially '86. I thought they were dead nearly two weeks ago, and I was wrong. Of course, being a Massachusetts native, I'm delighted to be wrong about the Sox - it's the eighth inning of game 4 and it looks like, barring some sort of unlikely event, the Red Sox will finally win a World Series!

Lunar Eclipse from Mount Lebanon, PA October 28, 2004

Oh How I Hate to Live in a Swing State...

There's only so many times you can hit "Mute" when yet another lie-filled Bush ad shows up. Of course I'm still going to vote no matter how disgusted I am by Bush and buddies.

On Travelling, Lawn Signs, Bumper Stickers and Political Advertising on Television

All things considered, I've done a lot of traveling this month and have been to four different states in different parts of the country:

Pennsylvania (I do live here, after all)
Massachusetts (family stuff, Central & Eastern MA, early October)
Florida (SF convention, Orlando & Cocoa Beach, mid-October)
California (tag-along on Jim's business trip, San Jose, Palo Alto, rural areas, late October)

Given the big election next week, it's been interesting to compare how visible politics are from state to state.

Things are crazy here in Pennsylvania. Lots of bumper stickers, lots of yard signs, lots of TV ads. We are, after all, a swing state. Further, Ohio is also a swing state, and West Virginia is close to being a swing state. There are lots of TV commercials for both candidates. The intensity is very high here. In the Pittsburgh area, more Kerry bumper stickers and yard signs, but this is to be expected. One interesting thing - I live in a Republican suburb, where most of the yard signs are overwhelming Republican ones. This year, the yard signs are nearly 40% for Kerry. Also interesting - a number of Republican households have yard signs for all the candidates but Bush. I don't think this is a case of sign-thievery, as these non-Bush Republican yards are often adjacent to Republican yards with a Bush sign.

A weird PS to Pennsylvania - I put a Teresa Heinz Kerry for First Lady bumper sticker on my car about two months ago. On Sunday, October 17, someone ripped half of that bumper sticker off my car, either when my husband was at a local Giant Eagle, or when the car was sitting in our driveway. I responded to this the only way I could - I popped another "Teresa..." bumper sticker in its place!

Massachusetts is mostly going for Kerry - it's a state where he has the "native son" lock. There were a fair number of TV commercials for both candidates on TV earlier in October, but that was probably mostly because many folks up in New Hampshire, which is something of a swing state, watch Boston television. There were lots of Kerry bumper stickers and a few Bush bumper stickers. There were almost no presidential lawn signs, though there were lots of lawn signs for local candidates.

The presidential election was surprisingly quiet in Florida a few weeks back, though that may have changed recently. While there were plenty of TV ads, there were almost no yard signs or bumper stickers. Locals said that due to all of the hurricane chaos, few people bothered with lawn signs. However, I saw a number of yard signs for local races, just no presidential lawn signs. And there were also few bumper stickers, which was particularly weird. (Here's the latest on Republican dirty tricks in the Florida election.)

California was interesting. I got back from California just this evening. On Saturday, we drove up to Palo Alto, and almost every house on the main street had Kerry and local Democratic candidate lawn signs. On Sunday, we drove out to Monterey, which was much more balanced with its lawn signs. On Monday, I drove in the more agricultural/rural areas and the signs were overwhelmingly Bush. On TV, I don't think I saw a single presidential ad (frankly, a welcome change from Pennsylvenia!) but I saw many TV ads about the many propositions Californians regularly vote on.

In short, it's hard to tell how things will wind up next week. Particularly given the way that some people are trying to discourage voting, it's all the more important for all registered voters to get out and vote!

Yet More Bush Lies and Misjudgements

I only have a few hundred megabytes of space on the Web, so I can't list them all.

However, I have been tracking some of them on one of my Web sites, The Facts Don't Matter. Here are two
Bush lies to be remember:

The Democrats Will Ruin Health Care...

Our current health care system is so incompetently-managed that millions of people who should get flu shots due to chronic illnesses won't be able to get them. Why? Because since most medicine is private, and there's no profit in flu shots. America outsourced its vaccine purchasing to a British company that, unfortunately, contaminated about half of this year's batch. So many Americans are getting their flu shots the same place where they're getting cheaper prescription drugs - Canada! - a country with national health insurance! In short, America's health care system is being partially propped up by a country with national health insurance!!

"I Am the Pro-Life President..."

Oh, really?

We've lost over 1,000 American soldiers, probably over 100 contractors, and several thousand Iraqis under our "pro-life" president.

But wait, there's more evidence that, like the term "hard work," Bush wouldn't know a "pro-life" policy if it hit him in the face.

Due to Bushanomics, millions of people have lost their jobs, had their wages cut and lost their health insurance. As a result, the abortion rate in America has gone up under Bush's administration.

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The Bush boys, led by Karl Rove, have been at their usual negative advertising and dirty tricks. No matter what they do, so long as we all vote, we should emerge from this election in much better shape than we currently are.

And here's a very relevent quote from well-known capitalist and geek Andy Grove, the president of Intel:

When it comes to bioterror or epidemics,
"You look to government to protect you from that, and the government looks to the science and technology infrastructure.
This government can't even
prevent an ordinary failure of the business market for causing probably more
American deaths than terrorism. It is a manifestation of a government that
has no appreciation for science and technology." -- quoted by USA Today, 10/20/2004

I May Have Severe Political Burn-out But Nothing Will Stop Me From Voting

I'm at the point where I tune out of commercials and I'm listening to classical music at work rather than NPR.

However, despite my exhaustion, I will vote, and I'll work some on election activities during the weekend before the election and maybe even on election day. This election is just too important to sit out (not that I ever have - I've voted in every presidential election since 1976).

We Kerry fans supporters some additional reason to feel pumped up - take a look at: http://www.electoral-vote.com/, a fascinating site I'll check often over the next two weeks.

I haven't felt much like writing lately. I'd like to write something called "Massachusetts Liberal and Proud," because pretty disgusted by how the Bushies are trying to make that sound like saying you're a child molester or something. When we saw the recent Bushie commercial that claims Kerry is the most liberal Senator and the most liberal person to run for President, Jim immediately said, "Well, what about Franklin Delano Roosevelt?" Roosevelt was both our most liberal president ever, and probably the greatest president of the Twentieth Century. Maybe we need a really liberal president to help out country get over its Bushie-induced fear. Roosevelt said "We have nothing to fear but fear itself," and that was at a time this country was in even worse shape than it is now.

I made one last donation to the election by attending a really neat party on a sunny Sunday afternoon in one of the most fabulous houses in Pittsburgh, with the best personal wine cellar I have ever visited. Way cool!

Why the US Does Not Have Enough Arabic Translators

Since keeping its base happy was more important than actually collecting information on terrorists, the Bush administration discharged as many as 37 soldiers who were training to be Arabic translators. And this was just since 2002 - after 9/11!

Why were they discharged? Because they were openly gay. This was strikingly shortsighted behavior two years ago, and it may now be coming back to haunt Americans.

In certain parts of the military, openly gay soldier have not been discharged when their skills were deemed necessary to national security. But what could be more necessary to national security at this time than skilled Arabic translators?

On September 27, 2004, the FBI announced that it was behind in translating Arabic documents and tapes. Not only that, but some tapes were being automatically deleted before they could be examined. Since the FBI typically hires many former military members, they might not be so far behind if not for the institutionalized homophobia of the Bush administration.

The only way we can maintain a civil, modern, safe society is to use the talents of all. I want a president in office who understands this, and that's why I'm voting for John Kerry.

[[I've also submitted this as a Letter to the Editor at the Post-Gazette, and added it as a page to The Facts Do Matter.]]