And you are ...?

I'm attending Ravencon. My first con. I know where all the geeks are. Well, not all of them. I don't qualify, of course. I can clear a conference room in no time. I came in on the end of the "Are comics just for kids?" forum by which time the seven attendees were engaged in desultory conversation about prejudice against graphic novels. After I sat down they ended the discussion and cleared the room. I stayed for the next discussion on "How to write a blurb." Which turned into "How to write a query letter" which will later be the blurb used on the back on your dust jacket and in all other attempts to sell your book.* The tiny room was full except for the two chairs on either side of me which were apparently off limits to everyone else or were covered with a frost that I couldn't see. Half way through the hour a very senior gentleman entered pushing his walker. I shoved the furthest chair and mine aside, making room for him to exit his walker and enter the nearest empty chair. A tiny rustle stirred the room. Ah, now they knew who I was. Friend of old man. Nah. Guess again.

Last weekend I attended my first non-denominational earth-centered spirituality retreat. For the first 24 hours I got pretty much the same reaction. No one is rude or cold. There just happens to be a larger berth of air around me than anyone else has. I'm sometimes talked to as if I have made a wrong turn and am too proud to admit it. No. I want to be here. Listen. I've tried everything else, why not this? And get used to it. I'm not the only bored boomer out here. There's plenty of us looking for new, different and educational experiences.

*It's scary the amount of marketing publishers expect author's to do. The author is supposed to determine their market, locate the editor or agent who covers that market, sell it, write the blurb and the pitch. Really. I would have thought just writing a good book was enough.

just say "go"

For nearly seven years now I've been thinking about jettisoning the ordinary life for something fully creative. I have been living a sort of half artistic life (whatever that is – just remember to take away the myth) all this time or rather all my life. I've been let go from my place of employment with a decent package of benefits like free use of an outplacement agency and wad of cash. The proper phrase is "my position was impacted by corporate restructuring."

It's like they said "Go!" You know, that thing you say after "Ready, Set, ..." (or "On your mark, get set, ..."). I'm doing all that stuff now: thinking freely, investigating options, and seriously moving forward. I'm finding places that will pay me to write and others that will pay me to design. I'm fixing up my novels for publication. I'm building my dream life. All it took was someone to just say "Go!"

Song of the Day: Hold on to This Coat, The Rosebuds

Hello Cleveland

Amazingly, here's a school (SucessTech) with a plan in place that worked. A city with a responsive police force that actually responded quickly. Yet on CBS they badged the Superintendent of Schools to death about security measures. You can't stop up all the loop holes. And you can't stop someone from finding them.

Another story on TV this morning was about crash test dummies and SUVs. Just another way to protect us from each other because we are imprecise and don't always pay attention.

Let's take all that crash test money and engineering development money and all the money for hiring more security and the money for making better bombs and the money for better jails. Let's take it all and put into something worthwhile, like figuring out what makes a good, attentive, alert, precise, well-adjusted and healthy human being and let's make as many of those as we can. Let's put any money left over after that into helping the rest become better. Let's find out what it takes, whatever it is — whether it's physiology, or psychology or critical development periods or whatever. Let's find out what it takes and let's do it. Oh, and along the way, let's talk to the kids. The kids know.

Spending more money and time on security is like putting us all in jails. And even there we won't be safe.

The Virginia Tech Massacre

There's a saying that if you want to stop teenage problems, stick a baby in a bottle and when its 12 put a cork in it. Seung-Hui Cho was way beyond ordinary teenage problems. Yet there's a mindset now that universities and schools should be fortresses. Cho was very sick, yet smart enough to exploit the loopholes of university life. The thing is, that no matter how many holes are closed by increased security, a person intent on finding a hole will find one. Maximum security prisons have lost prisoners.

Since the insane Cho rampage there has been a lot of finger pointing, breast beating and downright anger about Tech. Security was slow. Well, what did you expect? There has never been a shooting at Tech. Campus security does not normally handle this kind of thing. They're used to parking tickets and student brawls. I'm sure they did what seemed right at the time. It's not the fault of Tech. The fault is Cho's. He did the shooting.

Super cop movies have given us unrealistic expectations of police and security. There probably are some James Bond's and John MClane's out there but that's not the norm. In the movies the good guys have a certainty that only comes from knowing the plot ahead of time. Movies have also given us unrealistic expectations about bad guys. There are no markings on potential killers. They don't wear weird hair or have especially nasty tattoos or sneer in a certain way (wait! that's my brother – kidding!). Even if they did, the law can't act on suspicion of possible intent. The law can't act until the deed is committed or being committed.

Cho was a crazy guy who didn't get all the help he needed. In hindsight, it can be shown that he fit a profile for crazy killers. Sure, one teacher thought he was dangerous, but one teacher isn't enough. There could have been a personality conflict. It happens. Evidence needs to build. Perhaps if all of Cho's teachers, roommates and friends had been interviewed the school would have had good evidence of his serious problem. Finding the evidence required time and people the university either didn't have or didn't feel motivated to use. But that's normal. That's what happens around here. Maybe his high school could have told Tech about Cho's problems if they hadn't been bound by privacy laws. Perhaps his parents would have let Tech know that their son needed help if they had thought his condition was serious. Cho was an adult. It was his job to manage his health care. He didn't.

The best thing to do is to learn from Cho. Virginia Commonwealth University has by creating an emergency notification system that combines cell phones, campus TVs and sirens. Tech has created a similar system. We all need to learn a lot more about mental instability and insanity. We need to focus on developing healthy, active and sociable people. If we do those things then most of our problems will go away.

Locking up schools isn't going to fix anything. Especially if the killer is locked up inside.

My Mood Cafe

myth of the happy relationship

I've written about love not being enough and it isn't. Finally it's news. And I'm also right that in the end it's just two old people in a room. That's what you have to deal with. With warts on.