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.

Gadget-lovers Future Paradise

How do you like the future so far? Trek to the MOMA and see how much further you can go with personal gadgets. They can make your environment perfect for you and keep it perfect for the person next to you (those backseat fights are a thing of the past). You can create energy by walking, remove impurities from the air naturally, and cool insulin anywhere. Are you a lonely guy? Get a virtual companion to steal the sheets, rub their cold feet against yours and throw plates. I'm telling you, whatever you want, it's there.

(The site has a funky interface so Mac people go with Firefox.)

the best resistance

Die beste Art sich zu wehren, ist sich nicht anzugleichen.
–Marc Aurel (121-180)





The best form of resistance, is not to adapt.

Translations: What men really mean in those online dating profiles

1. Willing to relocate = No fixed address; I'll go anywhere for sex.
2. Skeleton profile = I'm here for the sex.
3. Preferred body type "Any" = I can have sex with anyone.
4. Active = high libido
5. Separated = married but looking for extra sex
6. Looking for a warm, caring woman. = I'm looking for safe unlimited sex.
7. If you're looking for sex, move along. = I've discovered I get more sex when I say I'm not looking for it.
8. My friends say that I'm ... = I've heard these lies will get me more sex.
9. Be prepared to be treated like a real lady. = I will totally take over your life (so that no one can have sex with you but me).
10. ... enough of a bad boy to be interesting. = You will never know where I am.

Virginia is for Dogs

While checking out Boom Your Brand (long load time) I found this hilarious ad. Nothing like a good laugh first thing in the morning. Worth a visit if you have the time. Very sixties. They also share some interesting opinions about boomers (mostly why you need to sell them stuff).

annoyers and annoyees

Neighbors are either annoyers or annoyees. Most of my neighbors are quiet people like me and therefore end up being annoyees. Two houses down is a couple who have broken the unwritten rule of physical annoyance by putting up a high privacy fence, filling their yard with a pool and building a huge high deck surrounding it. That way, whenever anyone is out on the deck they can look down over the fence at the rest of us. They had maybe two annoying parties last year. It wasn't really awful. They quieted down by 10:30 p.m. On the other hand, they have only invited the extroverts across the street for one swim. I know they don't have to invite the neighbors over for a swim, it's just one of those annoying things.

Today I had my annual unfriendly exchange with the little man next door. As usual, it involved him sharing his limited vocabulary at the top of his voice about my dog and what I can do with it. I listened to him rant for a few minutes.

Then, during a break in his ranting, I replied, "Are you suggesting inappropriate congress with my dog?"

And he said, "Yes, I am!"

Which surprised me because I didn't think his vocabulary extended to two syllable words. Then I listened to a further demonstration of his limited vocabulary while waiting for him to wind down.

"That fuckin' dog is the only fuckin' boyfriend you'll ever get," he threw at me while the dog barked madly.

"He's a damn sight better than you!" I retorted loudly, which shut him up. Once again, Elaine wins!

We didn't have our little conversation last year because the previous year he played his trump card by complaining about my dog to the mayor through a friend of a friend. That trickled down to my local animal control agent who agreed with me that the little man has some serious problems. (And lucky me, I get to be his neighbor.)

Subsequent to his fruitless appeal to the mayor, I won the last little shouting match, too. He had, as usual, entertained me with his limited vocabulary for about 10 minutes. As he was winding down, he shouted, "What about my right of quiet enjoyment?" To which I replied, "What about mine?" which shut him up instantly.

Maybe he'll learn one day that no matter how much he doesn't like me and my dog he just can't win that cockeyed little game. One mustn't like one's neighbors but one must learn be unannoying.

I Was Not There

I was nowhere near the earthquake that is called "Thriller." I was in Saudi Arabia and then Lebanon. When I got back to the states my brother had to describe break dancing to me. I still have trouble understanding the excitement. It's just an album.

overheard at lunch

"You can definitely backspace in life." Young man to young woman while "renegotiating" their relationship. So that's what they call it now. What about rebooting?

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.

Impeach Bush and watch extreme videos

I really enjoy watching others go all out for whatever they've got going on. Probably because I'm a pretty calm person (most of the time). Reminds me of high school when my friend Mary confronted a friend who had labeled her "phlegmatic." This was the highest insult Mary had every heard. She talked about it for days. She pontificated on all the evidence that proved she wasn't phlegmatic. There are those from my past lives who would never describe me as phlegmatic but I think I'm there now and have been there for a long, long time. That doesn't mean I'm uncaring.

Anyway, so back to Bush. I signed a petition to impeach Bush and have been getting these emails ever since. Today I took a look at a video claiming infringement of the First Amendment and police brutality with a horse. I agree on both counts. Police arrested the poster posters claiming inciting to riot. Well, talk about politics and you can incite a riot almost anywhere. Is that a judgment call? What's the difference between peaceable assembly and inciting to riot? When does it get to that point and stop being a Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park?

From there I went to the Impeach Bush YouTube site and viewed a few videos, including one from Neil Young and one showing Bill Maher. Bill's a guy who leaves no doubt about his opinion. A strong opinion tends to generate strong opinions in reply. Is that inciting to riot?

I try to feel concerned about the whole Iraq/Bush thing and I strongly disagree with 99% of Bush's foreign policy. On the other hand, it's hard to keep my life going when I'm so freaking angry all the time. Good luck to the protesters. I hope they get to march on D.C. and exercise their first amendment rights and all the other ones, too.

In the meantime, for a little light entertainment, try Extreme Girl Kiteboarding videos. I'm so glad women get to be just as extreme as men.

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.

travel polllution

Leo Hickman, in an extract from his book in the Guardian, complains about aircraft and tourists in general polluting up the few remaining natural phenomenon of the planet. I agree that stag parties should not be allowed in historical areas, especially small historical areas with limited resources. I also agree that delicate ecosystems involving coral and tropical beaches should be treated with respect. He does not mention the cultural damage that comes with tourism. While I really enjoyed my stay in Cancun, there were places I went where I could have been anywhere. Senor Frogs, for instance. Except for the bill produced in pesos I could have been right here in lovely downtown Richmond VA. If you want to experience real travel pollution that has been going on unchecked for ages, you don't have to go to Phuket (Thailand) or Tallinn (Estonia). Simply spend the night in my guest room.

I live three blocks from the railroad tracks. I've noticed that quite a few trains pass through between 2 and 4 a.m. Some of those drivers really like to blow their whistles. There used to be one train at 4 a.m. with a particularly annoying, off-key whistle that brayed and brayed and brayed. If you weren't awake, it would wake you up. If you were awake, there was no chance of getting back to sleep. And yet no one writes much about train pollution, or how much trash they dispense into the air from spent fuel, or the many things that spill from them and how they disrupt our sleep (lack of which, we all know, can make us very unhealthy). I often think about talking to the city's environmental concerns office and wonder exactly what decibel level is allowed at 4 a.m. Judging by the train whistles, it seems excessive. If my stereo were that loud at 4 a.m. the entire neigborhood would rise up and expel me, just like they did that drug dealer seven years ago.

To balance this out (well, that's my excuse anyway), is Ode which claims to publish "Stories that bridge the gap between thinking and doing, between rage and hope, and the painful gap between the rich and poor – and thus build peace and sustainability. " Very noble. If only I could be so good. Worth a trip, anyway. Maybe if I read the stories I'll be motivated to actually complain about the trains.

The Queen's Royal Welcome - Now playing!

At the link above temporarily. I was wrong. It's not very packed at all. But I wouldn't want to try to leave during rush hour. Plenty of room. Bring your raincoat.

The U.S. is not at war

While traveling back from Cancun, I heard an interview on the plane "radio" with a lawyer in New York who stated that George Bush has taken the U.S. back to pre-Magna Carta days. Deeply disturbed by this I have investigated if this is in fact the case. Apparently not. But I'm not a lawyer.

After reading the opinion of one of my senators, John Warner whose statement is obviously biased and who is a huge proponent of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA), I googled the MCA and found a somewhat more even tempered opinion at Wikipedia. One of the references quoted there led me to Joanne Mariner, who is a lawyer (and a smart one presumably since she trained at Yale Law School and is a regular contributor to FindLaw's Writ) with a sobering, if mildly biased, opinion. Nonetheless, she points out the major flaws of the MCA and sees ways it can be misinterpreted.

After reading these sources, my opinion is the MCA does not give the president the right to try U.S. civilians in a military court, but it does allow him to grab any foreign national he considers a threat as he defines it. Excuse my limited imagination. King George does not wish to rule the U.S. He is preparing to rule the world. Almost everyone (except the defendant) who participates in the arrest, incarceration and trial must have a security clearance. This eliminates a lot of civilian lawyers and also makes it generally impossible for the defendant to learn what evidence there is against him (since it is classified).

"The recently declassified National Intelligence Estimate confirms that U.S. policies have spawned deep-seated Muslim resentment, and that terrorists are using this resentment to draw recruits." Joanne Mariner

The saying goes that you can catch more bees with honey than vinegar. Wouldn't it benefit us to be as friendly as possible with Arab and other Middle Eastern nations so that together we can find the unlawful extremists who turn to terrorism? The U.S. policy toward the Arab countries is (and has been) based on prejudice and a serious lack of understanding of cultural and local political information.

"As a result, detainees who have been tortured or otherwise mistreated are forever barred from going to a U.S. court to seek redress and to air what has happened to them." Joanne Mariner Loc cit

Seems to me, that passing a U.S. law that allows the President to capture foreign nationals and then hold them forever on foreign soil without access to any kind of fair trial or communication resources would be a great breach of international law. Is no one complaining? What about the UN? What about the European Union? Googling "Military Commissions Act" and "international law" I selected the transcript of a speech by John B. Bellinger, Legal Adviser to the U.S. Secretary of State as published by the Harvard International Law Journal online. Mr. Bellinger answers questions about the MCA on a regular basis and put together a pretty comprehensive summary of the main objections, which he lists:

"First, what is our detention authority to hold these people to begin with? Second, were we required to release them all after the war in Afghanistan seemed to end in 2002? Third, can we and do we have the legal authority to hold these detainees indefinitely without trial? Fourth, why not simply try them in our criminal courts? Fifth, are these military commissions unfair? And lastly, do we finally have it right, now?" John Bellinger

His answers seem fairly reasoned and stated without much bias. During war prisoners can be captured and held without recourse. He concludes that although the war on Afghanistan ended in 2002, the war on the Taliban and Al Qaeda is still going and therefore the U.S. is still at war.

"Now, the problem is that the current situation is obviously different from any kind of normal armed conflict because we do not know how long this war will continue." John B. Bellinger Loc cit

The solution is to keep a war going at all times and then the president can arrest any foreign national he chooses and detain them for an unlimited, unspecified time (and take advantage of his other special war privileges). This definition of "war" seems more like an analogy than an actual war. For example, we have the "war on drugs." Is this a war? No. Likewise I don't see the "war on the Taliban and Al Qaeda" as a war. It is a police action. It is a rounding up of loose ends following a sloppy dispatch of a gang of criminals harbored in the wilds of Afghanistan. Rules of war do not apply.

Likewise, I don't consider the "peacekeeping" occupation of Iraq as war. It is interference in the internal affairs of an independent nation. The U.S. should not be there and should get the troops out. If things don't go the way we think they should, then too bad. It's not our job to run other countries – especially if they don't have weapons of mass destruction aimed at King George's head.

Good news and bad news for college-bound students

Plenty of young people bringing along the culture of excellence but they can't all get into Harvard. Good point made about the accomplishments of today's college bound compared to the 70s or 60s. Life keeps getting more complex and people keep meeting (or exceeding) the requirements. Also, very nice description of how opinions, based on the same facts, change as a person ages.

Song of the Night: Never (Heart)

The Real Richmond

Read the "InBox" letter Typewriter Tirade (scroll down) to discover what real Richmonders are like. Once upon a time there was a Style Weekly "You are really Richmond ..." contest. My undying favorite is "... if you believe that the real power in Richmond comes from those who died three generations ago." or something like that. It was so true. It's not so true anymore. We had a massive immigration of native New Yorkers about 15 years ago that livened things up. And, I've recently discovered, even more arrived after the 9/11 incident. So we're not quite so insular as we once were. Yeah. Right.

Thank goodness for Brick taking the torch from Style Weekly which now holds aloft a designer illumination.

Being Here and Here

Last night I hooked up with some Richmond writers through a MeetUp. MeetUp has hit the mainstream, finally. I knew it had when my younger sister asked me last fall if the site was okay. Although I had no personal experience at that time, I had heard friends discuss earlier in the year how they were going to use it to start a MeetUp.

Last summer I played around with the idea of starting my own tea shop, mostly because the only real bubble tea shop around here closed suddenly. I still miss them. While I was doing research I discovered what I wanted to start was already here (mostly) as Cafe Gutenberg (even though they don't have bubble tea). I dropped in on the Objectivists Group which meets there. They decided that MeetUp would be a good way to publish events and get the word out about being logical. (heh) So, I had to get involved in MeetUp. I joined five groups right away.

All this is my verbose way of saying that the next big thing is here already. Websites that bring two worlds (meat and cyber space) together. Which is probably the real reason MySpace and YouTube exploded. MeetUp does that. NaNoWriMo does that. But they also let me keep in touch (or in sight) of those who aren't able to turn up in meat space.

I've watched my own personal cyber presence cross the barrier into meat space at an excruciatingly slow pace since 1996. Back in the day when I got 3 visitors a week there was no point talking in meat space about what I was doing in cyber space. No one had a clue. At yesterday evening's MeetUp, there was not only understanding of what a website is but demands for the address, summaries of what I offer and promises to visit. It's not unusual for conversations like that to result in real visits to my site and sometimes real feedback; as opposed to even two years ago when promises would be made and not kept.

I've loosely tracked DQ and MKWM (and their ilk) as they put together a nifty community that links cyber and meat space in a happy and useful way. In the 90's my extended family (which runs to Germany and at one point the United Arab Emirates and Guam) had an AOL Group which did the same sort of thing – but not really because we were all still wholly committed to face-to-face interactions. The group was just a stop gap ersatz temporary bridge to that. I suppose not fully engaging in the interchange of the two spaces had something to do with learning the language of cyberspace and how to translate everything that face-to-face (or voice-to-voice) offers into an online presence.

Apparently we've got there at last. I feel like planting a flag.

In other news, Blogger logged me in automatically when I browsed to their home page. I guess I may have actually asked them to do that. Next time I visit the home page I'll have to check my prefs. Scary though, since I know my ISP does the old random IP thing. But good, too. I'm clearly of two minds about being identified wherever I go. I'm attached to my anonymity.