November is NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month. Last year, I edited the second draft of my novel (mostly) during November, and was happy with how that went. About a month or maybe six weeks ago, a friend mentioned NaNoWriMo and I thought, well, I’m not going to write my next novel during it, but I should do extensive planning.
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This movie was recommended to me back in August, and I think it looks quite interesting:
That doesn’t look like your typical treatment of vampires at all, so I think I’ll have to go see it to see what they’re doing.
I haven’t had a television feed for a few years now, ever since I decided that cable television just wasn’t worth paying for. I was paying more than fifty dollars per month for something that I almost never used, and worse, that I mostly didn’t like using when I did watch it.
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Possibly the most important vote for Californians next week is on Proposition 8, the “Eliminates Right of Same–Sex Couples to Marry”/”California Marriage Protection Act” measure. Since California is going to vota Obama, while the polls for Proposition 8 are relatively close, US electoral mechanics mean that each individual vote on 8 is more significant than on the Presidential vote.
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I love the story and atmosphere of A Crow in Hell. In it you play a crow who is shot by a hunter and ends up in Hell… and you have to try to make your way up and out to take revenge. It seems like a rather difficult game to me, although you do effectively get infinite lives since you can continue after each checkpoint. Definitely worth a look.
Before reading this article by Dennis Perrin, I’d never heard of Billy Jack. But I think I might have to see this 1977 movie (contrary to what Perrin implies, it is available on DVD):
Somehow, I can’t bring myself today to write about something other than a completely ridiculous call to action from some religious nuts. Via Who is IOZ comes this piece of utter insanity, opening of course with a classic spam-like statement:
Dear friends:
THIS IS EXTREMELY SERIOUS.
Minutes ago I spoke with friend Dr. Norman G. Marvin, M.D. and he is so concerned at what he has learned about Barack Obama’s family in Kenya that he is calling a special prayer meeting in his home to pray against the witchcraft curses attempted by them against John McCain and Sarah Palin.
—Block African witchcraft curses against McCain and Palin NOW!, Jim Bramlett, Sep 28 2008
… I always questioned things—especially my superiors. Over the last month I have stopped this habit… [...] Instead, I take comfort knowing that my time is not taken for granted; my superiors use me efficiently and intelligently. To me, that matters more than you know.
Youth member of some fascist party? Volunteer for one of those scary Christianists Palin associates with? Scientology cultist? Hardcore Communist under Stalin? Psych ward inmate finally giving up?
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The In Twin Peaks blog is a collection of photos taken of the show’s iconic locations. Very simple, very well done, and something about it brings me right back to when the show was on in the early 90s, when I used to watch it with my family, and when it seemed like everyone in my school watched it that night as well.
I went to see Bill Maher’s Religulous on Friday night. The SF Chronicle reviewed it and didn’t like it, characterizing it as completely unfair and one-sided. After reading that review, I thought I might not like it, myself, since I tend to prefer fair and reasonable debate/argument.
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The current financial crisis, even though it appears to have died down a little, may have serious implications for the position of the US as the world’s greatest power. Economic crisis often precedes imperial collapse, and signs have been present for years that the United States has been spending far beyond its means. Aziz Huq discuss this issue in TomDispatch, with particular reference to the waning of British power after World War II.
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Against my better judgment, I did watch most of the debate last night. I thought that McCain’s desperation or frustration was growing more evident as the night went on, and that Obama maintained a smooth demeanor throughout—which is of course one of his strengths. McCain was pretty far out there sometimes, as I recall periods where I was having difficulty figuring out what he was trying to say.
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President Bush signed the “Pro-IP” Act yesterday, because despite everything else that’s going on, there’s still plenty of time to please the RIAA and MPAA by increasing statutory damages for infringers—apparently up from a capped $150,000 for a ten-song album to $1.5 million.
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I’ve never been to Oklahoma, but I have to say that this article by Tulsa-area media, about a child’s doll allegedly spouting Islamic or Satanic slogans, doesn’t make me want to visit…
It’s so obviously people reading way too much into indistinct sounds, and the article does nothing but feed paranoia and sensationalism while applying no critical thinking whatsoever to the reporting. I know none of that is shocking, but still, this is ridiculous.
For several years, I’ve read cursor.org more or less daily, and it has been one of my primary starting points for political news.
On Friday, due to ongoing resource problems, they suspended publication. I think that’s a major loss, given the amount of ground they covered. They did some good original research, but much of their value came from their aggregation/filtering role. With so much information out there, filtering is unbelievably important, and they did it really well. I hope they manage to get some funding and to come back.
When Western governments start seizing assets belonging to companies from other Western countries, I think that’s definitely not a sign that the economic crisis is getting better. The specific example here is that Britain is using “anti-terrorism” powers to freeze the funds of Icelandic companies in an attempt to recoup the losses of British investors in Iceland, Iceland’s financial sector and currency having just suffered collapses.
That’s both ridiculous and quite frightening, terms which also apply to Berlusconi stating that “world leaders” are considering closing world financial markets while they “rewrite the rules of international finance”.
This Rolling Stone demolition job on John McCain is long, rather detailed, and replete with quotations from many sources. It doesn’t paint a pretty picture, but it’s absolutely worth reading.
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Apparently, at a recent Sarah Palin rally in Florida, Palin’s handlers kept reporters not merely away from Palin, but away from her supporters:
When one reporter asked an escort, who would not give her name, why the press wasn’t allowed to mingle, she said that in the past, negative things had been written.
—tampabay.com, 06 Oct 2008
I’ve been reading a lot of fantasy novels recently. I tend to read a fair number of them per year, but the last several months have been almost entirely focused on that genre. I’ve read nineteen of them since mid-June, when I started Joe Abercrombie’s The First Law series.
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I went to The Exploratorium today. For the first time ever, despite having lived in SF for quite some time now.
It was really great. I had no expectations, but found myself entirely absorbed by the experience, and both surprised and disappointed when it turned out that hours had passed and it was time to go. I highly recommend it, and definitely have to go back. I’d probably go back just to play with the floating magnet tube and the electrical arc manipulation.
Thanks Monika!
The Senate passed it, but given the fact that Senators are better insulated from public opinion, I’m not surprised. I continue to regard the bailout as utterly wrong, and even if Obama were perfect in every other way, I would regard his pushing of it as a reason to not support him. I certainly think that anyone who sees McCain and Obama in agreement on something like this should be deeply suspicious. This is a fantastic example of the well connected enriching themselves at taxpayer expense.
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