Only two days left to convention. Am very, very excited. Should probably buy/obtain more than a few batteries for my camera to chew through in its quest. Either that, or obtain a few disposable cameras and have them do all the work. I’m thinking lots of batteries will do the trick. Assuming that the camera doesn’t eat a couple AAs per picture or something. I think I’ve got just about everything I’ll need. I’ll be on the plane when I forget something important, whatever it is, I know it, but I have most things packed already.
Oward to the news, then.
In Myanmar/Burma, what little aid that has entered the country is being substituted for by the government, handing out low quality and potentially spoiled food aid instead of the promised materials coming from foreign countries. The military junta’s continued refusal to accept and distribute food aid should be causing riots soon, I would think. At least there is some amount of aid getting into the country. Now it needs to get where it should go. The junta needs to let in the aid, or be held responsible for the deaths of all those who could have been saved.
In Afghanistan, the commander of NATO forces has suggested that UK troops take a longer tour of duty so as to make more progress toward the group’s goals and to have more continuous time to perform operations.
The face of battle is changing for the United States. Increased automation and the use of unmanned drones permit the Air Force to use more power for longer with less risk to the people involved. Only a fractino of the unmanned wing is actually local, to take care of those logistics that need local presence. Everywhere else, it’s a bit like Ender’s game, with monitors and cameras and remote-control warfare. If we build ground troops and robots like this, will most of the battles be fought with humans in video-game style rigs?
It may have to be, considering contractors associated with KBR are building base electricity units that are ungrounded or poorly grounded, resulting in several electrocutions. Hrm. Bases back at home falling apart. Bases abroad falling apart. How much money has been spent so far, and with dangerous buildings the result? Just how much money are these defense contractors making as profit by doing things shoddily?
Further changing the face of battle, Col. Charles L. Williamson III thinks the U.S. military should develop a combat botnet that can be unleashed against particular targets, utilizing already-existing cyberwarfare machines. The ability of the military to do DDoS is a truly frightening possibility, and would have to be used with extreme care. And then there’s always the possibility that the military’s botnet could be hacked and then turned against its fellows. I can also just imagine another country’s botnet, like, say, China, deciding to DDoS the U.S. for one reason or another. If the Intertubes are crowded now, imagine what they’ll be like if countries start throwing out swarms at each other.
The troops in Iraq are enjoying donated "dang-it" dolls sent their way as stress relievers. The dolls are meant to take the abuse that can come with stress, and are less expensive and dangerous than small breakable objects at high velocity. I’m sure the best de-stressing, though, would be to have some time at home. At least one solider found another way - getting an amputee Iraqi a pair of prosthetic legs.
The Weekly Standard is certainly doing its part to play up Iran as a big threat, accusing Tehran of trying to influence most of the Middle East’s politics, through Hamas, Hezbollah, and training and directing militants into Iraq to fight. The solution offered, in addition to keeping the surge working, is to take some strikes at Iran’s current nuclear potential and keep them away from obtaining any enriched materials at all. This continued bellicose rhetoric is justification enough for Justin Raimondo's insistence that the United States' foreign policy is being directed completely by Israel for the purpose of going to war and using missile strikes against Iran. For a lot of logistical reasons, the United States really shouldn’t be engaging Iran with weapons strikes or anything else, but there’s still seven months of the current administration left - no matter who wins the next election. Especially if the results should turn out unfavorably, there’s a chance that Mr. Bush will decide to do something extreme right before he’s supposed to leave office.
Domestically, The increasing price of gas is causing problems for gas stations still fitted with mechanical readouts. The profit margins for the station owners aren’t enough to permit wholesale upgrades to electronic pumps (even as oil companies post record profits), and so new solutions have to be put in place so that an accurate price is shown.
With regard to candidate matters, a new poll suggests that being associated with Mr. Bush's party is as damaging to the Republican candidate as Pastor Wright is to Senator Obama. The one association might actually be damaging, because Mr. Bush and Mr. McCain share the same political views by belonging to the same political party. Pastor Wright and Senator Obama don’t have to share the same views to be part of the same church. So why is the Wright association as damaging as the Bush association? It shouldn’t be. The wright association is more like which candidate would pair well with which Doctor, really.
Senator McCain displayed a plan to combat global warming with a cap-and-trade system on carbon dioxide emissions, drawing criticism from Senator Obama and Clinton on his voting record against climate change while a Senator. As the Republican candidate, Senator McCain doesn’t seem to be the person who would campaign on climate change, but if he’s serious, then a good debate on his solutions should follow.
The Libertarian Party has an additional candidate now, Bob Barr. More on whom the actual Libertarian candidate is when their party convention/elections are finished.
The Wall Street Journal reviews "Gross National Happiness", a book that says, based on self-reported data, that conservatives are happier. The habits of the conservatives, like religious attendance of religious services, marriage, and children (who then turn out like them) are touted as the reason why they’re happy and liberals aren’t. It’s probably a difference in outlook - conservatives like to focus on how good things are right now and why we don’t need to change, liberals are focused on what isn’t good right now, and what change needs to happen to correct that. Might be that liberals want everyone to be happy as much as is possible, while conservatives want to make themselves happy and don’t worry as much about others. I don’t know. It just seems very odd to me that someone would claim a particular political stance as contributing to more or less happiness.
Technology time - Google has introduced FriendConnect, a way of adding social capabilities to just about any website. From the looks of things, it wants to leverage already-existing profiles on social networking space and let people identify and comment and see each other using those on sites taht aren’t social-networking sites. More information about FriendConnect available from Google. I think I’m beginning to see a bit better how these things can work. I just wonder if everyone will add those gadgets on without really thinking about whether they need those capabilities. After that, astronomy data is turning into virtual telescope tours. With all these nice images, it’s good to see them appearing in software packages of that others can use them and get fascinated by the stars and planets in the universe. Closing out technology, Cubicle Culture shows off the ten best and the ten worst workspace in tech, in their opinion.
Of interest to our Unabashed Feminism department - an ad in poor taste from the 1970s. For pants. Which are apparently good enough to turn women into rugs. There are a lot of things wrong with that advertisement, but I wonder whether the underlying sentiment is still around. Also of interest, and a lot better, anonymous rape evidence collection kits will be made available nationwide, which will hopefully make it much more likely for women to both give evidence and then press charges against their assailant in the appropriate case.
Of interest to those in unions and those wishing to organize around the world, some unions are making secret agreements with companies that give the companies final say on where and how many workers can organize. Which kind of defeats the purpose of having organized labor in the first place. No doubt these agreements have made it possible for many workers to become parts of unions, but the companies are likely to make sure that any actual organization of organization is too small to be effective in any manner if push comes to shove. And the unions have also apparently given up the right to strike worldwide.
Last for tonight, an exhibit from the National Archives - When Nixon Met Elvis. Elvis wanted to be an enforcement agent for the federal government against drugs, Nixon agreed to meet him, they talked, and Elvis got his badge. Although with the dispatches from the drug war that are in the New Yorker today, I’d say that things have only gotten worse instead of better. A man who couldn’t get a liver transplant because he was using marijuana on recommendation from his doctor, a woman who may have to go back to prison for twenty years after walking away from a twenty year sentence garnered by being peripherally involved in heroin (okay, that one I can understand - fleeing the sentence is no good. But twenty years on the charge? Ouch.), and a study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse showing that while tobacco smoking leads to lung cancer, marijuana smoking does not and might even be preventative. Of course, that study an story got buried fast, and the Institute was probably not happy that the conclusion it wanted had not been obtained. As Cory Doctrow notes, "The War on Some Drugs is as unwinnable and destructive as all the other wars on abstract nouns. Who needs terrorists to rip America apart when you’ve got drug warriors killing off, imprisoning and shunning its innocents?" With more than 1% of the nation’s populace in jail, I wonder how much space in overcrowded prisons could be freed up by simply letting go of many small quantity drug offenders.
Okay, one last thing. The Vatican has given its stamp of approval on the belief in extraterrestrial life forms. We can all sleep safer knowing now that Catholics can believe in aliens as well as angels, saints, and G-d. Then again, human can create the Passively Multiplayer On-line Game which apparently has missions and such for browsing around the web as one might normally do, or more directed browsing. Yes, there’s XP and other things like that, too.
Time for me to go to bed, though.
Oward to the news, then.
In Myanmar/Burma, what little aid that has entered the country is being substituted for by the government, handing out low quality and potentially spoiled food aid instead of the promised materials coming from foreign countries. The military junta’s continued refusal to accept and distribute food aid should be causing riots soon, I would think. At least there is some amount of aid getting into the country. Now it needs to get where it should go. The junta needs to let in the aid, or be held responsible for the deaths of all those who could have been saved.
In Afghanistan, the commander of NATO forces has suggested that UK troops take a longer tour of duty so as to make more progress toward the group’s goals and to have more continuous time to perform operations.
The face of battle is changing for the United States. Increased automation and the use of unmanned drones permit the Air Force to use more power for longer with less risk to the people involved. Only a fractino of the unmanned wing is actually local, to take care of those logistics that need local presence. Everywhere else, it’s a bit like Ender’s game, with monitors and cameras and remote-control warfare. If we build ground troops and robots like this, will most of the battles be fought with humans in video-game style rigs?
It may have to be, considering contractors associated with KBR are building base electricity units that are ungrounded or poorly grounded, resulting in several electrocutions. Hrm. Bases back at home falling apart. Bases abroad falling apart. How much money has been spent so far, and with dangerous buildings the result? Just how much money are these defense contractors making as profit by doing things shoddily?
Further changing the face of battle, Col. Charles L. Williamson III thinks the U.S. military should develop a combat botnet that can be unleashed against particular targets, utilizing already-existing cyberwarfare machines. The ability of the military to do DDoS is a truly frightening possibility, and would have to be used with extreme care. And then there’s always the possibility that the military’s botnet could be hacked and then turned against its fellows. I can also just imagine another country’s botnet, like, say, China, deciding to DDoS the U.S. for one reason or another. If the Intertubes are crowded now, imagine what they’ll be like if countries start throwing out swarms at each other.
The troops in Iraq are enjoying donated "dang-it" dolls sent their way as stress relievers. The dolls are meant to take the abuse that can come with stress, and are less expensive and dangerous than small breakable objects at high velocity. I’m sure the best de-stressing, though, would be to have some time at home. At least one solider found another way - getting an amputee Iraqi a pair of prosthetic legs.
The Weekly Standard is certainly doing its part to play up Iran as a big threat, accusing Tehran of trying to influence most of the Middle East’s politics, through Hamas, Hezbollah, and training and directing militants into Iraq to fight. The solution offered, in addition to keeping the surge working, is to take some strikes at Iran’s current nuclear potential and keep them away from obtaining any enriched materials at all. This continued bellicose rhetoric is justification enough for Justin Raimondo's insistence that the United States' foreign policy is being directed completely by Israel for the purpose of going to war and using missile strikes against Iran. For a lot of logistical reasons, the United States really shouldn’t be engaging Iran with weapons strikes or anything else, but there’s still seven months of the current administration left - no matter who wins the next election. Especially if the results should turn out unfavorably, there’s a chance that Mr. Bush will decide to do something extreme right before he’s supposed to leave office.
Domestically, The increasing price of gas is causing problems for gas stations still fitted with mechanical readouts. The profit margins for the station owners aren’t enough to permit wholesale upgrades to electronic pumps (even as oil companies post record profits), and so new solutions have to be put in place so that an accurate price is shown.
With regard to candidate matters, a new poll suggests that being associated with Mr. Bush's party is as damaging to the Republican candidate as Pastor Wright is to Senator Obama. The one association might actually be damaging, because Mr. Bush and Mr. McCain share the same political views by belonging to the same political party. Pastor Wright and Senator Obama don’t have to share the same views to be part of the same church. So why is the Wright association as damaging as the Bush association? It shouldn’t be. The wright association is more like which candidate would pair well with which Doctor, really.
Senator McCain displayed a plan to combat global warming with a cap-and-trade system on carbon dioxide emissions, drawing criticism from Senator Obama and Clinton on his voting record against climate change while a Senator. As the Republican candidate, Senator McCain doesn’t seem to be the person who would campaign on climate change, but if he’s serious, then a good debate on his solutions should follow.
The Libertarian Party has an additional candidate now, Bob Barr. More on whom the actual Libertarian candidate is when their party convention/elections are finished.
The Wall Street Journal reviews "Gross National Happiness", a book that says, based on self-reported data, that conservatives are happier. The habits of the conservatives, like religious attendance of religious services, marriage, and children (who then turn out like them) are touted as the reason why they’re happy and liberals aren’t. It’s probably a difference in outlook - conservatives like to focus on how good things are right now and why we don’t need to change, liberals are focused on what isn’t good right now, and what change needs to happen to correct that. Might be that liberals want everyone to be happy as much as is possible, while conservatives want to make themselves happy and don’t worry as much about others. I don’t know. It just seems very odd to me that someone would claim a particular political stance as contributing to more or less happiness.
Technology time - Google has introduced FriendConnect, a way of adding social capabilities to just about any website. From the looks of things, it wants to leverage already-existing profiles on social networking space and let people identify and comment and see each other using those on sites taht aren’t social-networking sites. More information about FriendConnect available from Google. I think I’m beginning to see a bit better how these things can work. I just wonder if everyone will add those gadgets on without really thinking about whether they need those capabilities. After that, astronomy data is turning into virtual telescope tours. With all these nice images, it’s good to see them appearing in software packages of that others can use them and get fascinated by the stars and planets in the universe. Closing out technology, Cubicle Culture shows off the ten best and the ten worst workspace in tech, in their opinion.
Of interest to our Unabashed Feminism department - an ad in poor taste from the 1970s. For pants. Which are apparently good enough to turn women into rugs. There are a lot of things wrong with that advertisement, but I wonder whether the underlying sentiment is still around. Also of interest, and a lot better, anonymous rape evidence collection kits will be made available nationwide, which will hopefully make it much more likely for women to both give evidence and then press charges against their assailant in the appropriate case.
Of interest to those in unions and those wishing to organize around the world, some unions are making secret agreements with companies that give the companies final say on where and how many workers can organize. Which kind of defeats the purpose of having organized labor in the first place. No doubt these agreements have made it possible for many workers to become parts of unions, but the companies are likely to make sure that any actual organization of organization is too small to be effective in any manner if push comes to shove. And the unions have also apparently given up the right to strike worldwide.
Last for tonight, an exhibit from the National Archives - When Nixon Met Elvis. Elvis wanted to be an enforcement agent for the federal government against drugs, Nixon agreed to meet him, they talked, and Elvis got his badge. Although with the dispatches from the drug war that are in the New Yorker today, I’d say that things have only gotten worse instead of better. A man who couldn’t get a liver transplant because he was using marijuana on recommendation from his doctor, a woman who may have to go back to prison for twenty years after walking away from a twenty year sentence garnered by being peripherally involved in heroin (okay, that one I can understand - fleeing the sentence is no good. But twenty years on the charge? Ouch.), and a study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse showing that while tobacco smoking leads to lung cancer, marijuana smoking does not and might even be preventative. Of course, that study an story got buried fast, and the Institute was probably not happy that the conclusion it wanted had not been obtained. As Cory Doctrow notes, "The War on Some Drugs is as unwinnable and destructive as all the other wars on abstract nouns. Who needs terrorists to rip America apart when you’ve got drug warriors killing off, imprisoning and shunning its innocents?" With more than 1% of the nation’s populace in jail, I wonder how much space in overcrowded prisons could be freed up by simply letting go of many small quantity drug offenders.
Okay, one last thing. The Vatican has given its stamp of approval on the belief in extraterrestrial life forms. We can all sleep safer knowing now that Catholics can believe in aliens as well as angels, saints, and G-d. Then again, human can create the Passively Multiplayer On-line Game which apparently has missions and such for browsing around the web as one might normally do, or more directed browsing. Yes, there’s XP and other things like that, too.
Time for me to go to bed, though.
- Mood:
excited - Music:The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - Midna's Lament
So, in prepping some promotion ideas my buddy
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
moshdaddy suggested I start up blogs on other blog sites and then post a new comic every day to each of those sites (obviously including LJ). He says there are applications that can feed into all those other sites. I'm open to other ideas.• typepad
• blogger
• movable type
• pownce
• tumblr
• vox
• wordpress
• myspace
He also suggested that I ask people to start reviewing/listmania/discussion stuff on Amazon. So... if you're inclined... I'd be appreciative.
I'm going to give it a shot. I'm really proud of the Postage Stamp book set. I want it to sell.
Since the opera has finished up I've lacked motivation. A friend once said "a rut is just a deep groove." I hope he was right. I also hope I can get my sorry ass in gear. I'm frustrated with myself and I feel overwhelmed for no good reason.
- Music:nouvelle vague - dance with me
Of a retiree!
- 07:53 If you could only have 1 Pixies album, which one would it be? Can't decide so I've decided to let the Interwebs decide for me. #
- 09:47 Am I a bad person if I still kinda want to catch a matinee of Speed Racer? #
Excellent point. This might be enough to sway Ally although, if this is really lighting she should be able to zap them before Aaron does get a shot off. And what about Brad's dodging abilities? Now that he knows it's coming, maybe he can dodge it? Maybe? Not really? No? Okay. Maybe Ally could blow Aaron's face off? But then Loki would be awfully upset. Will this stand off continue? Will Ally just wait for dawn to break? Will her Mom be upset with her? Will someone get shot? Some of these questions and most likely more answered on a later date! Hopefully Friday!
These are the twits I twitted.
- Location:home -- at the desk in the corner
- Mood:hungry
Here’s today’s progress on the west coast steampunk Victoriana book with zombies, air ships, toxic gas clouds, mad scientists, dead folk heroes, secret criminal societies, and Bonus! extended deleted scenes from the Civil War:
Project: The Boneshaker
New Words: 3510 (pretty good!)
Present Total Word Count: 123,267 words
Goal: 130,000 words by July 1st.
Observations: Steampunk is fun to write. It is also complicated, and reaching the end of this book has started to feel like a sisyphean undertaking. But if nothing happens to eat my life during the rest of this week, I might be able to cough up a Draft Zero by Friday afternoon. Then again, I might be an overly optimistic liar. Stay tuned.
Things Accomplished in Real Life: Two loads of laundry, including bedding; sent off book review; corresponded extensively with distant friends and colleagues; learned my way around my twitter account a little better; determined that I might be far too boring to maintain this twitter account; decided that maybe I’d just use it as a link dump or something, but I don’t want to ditch it yet; spent a downright silly amount of time chatting in gmail with my college roommate and a fashion-fixated Australian woman.
Reason for Stopping: Came to the end of my chapter. Also, it’s Tuesday night — and that means that The Helvetica Quartet shall ride again … or at least, we shall drink and giggle and participate in a pub quiz over in West Seattle. Ergo, I ought to brush my hair or throw on some respectable clothes or something. Also [:: glances out the window ::] I need to drag out my rain boots. The weather is sucking ass.*
Total Fiction Words Composed in 2008: 191,842
* I hear that — starting tomorrow — it’s supposed to get pretty for three or four days in a row … but then the weather will return to its regularly scheduled ass sucking. Oh yes. You can count on it.
[Crossposted to/from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so either here or there.]
- Location:home -- on the couch
- Mood:cold
- Music:"This is Not America" -- David Bowie
Akaelae, Abby's Agency and NeverNever have updated! AD auctions are still up!
And... new incentive for Akaelae, donate a minimum of $5 and get a cameo on Akaelae, cameo rules are basically, one or two appearances, felines, mice, rabbits, fox (all colors except white), wolves, misc other species and genoworks mixes (No native roos, rifiers or talking shivae/scythetails.) None of them out of the cyantian ordinary. I've responded to all the emails. If you donated and did NOT get an email.. email me,because sometimes paypal doesn't send me the notice and I miss it.
More Hell's Kitchen tonight! I'm looking forward to Prince Caspian this week. *Now if only we could score free tickets again. :D)
Today's To Do: Coloring 1 page Akaelae and misc other work.
Completed: 2 pages Akaelae
AD Book #1 with text progress: 75% complete - Need to finish cover, layout book after proofreading text.
AD Book #2 with/without text progress: 15% complete - Going over lineart in Manga Studio in preparation for recoloring.
And... new incentive for Akaelae, donate a minimum of $5 and get a cameo on Akaelae, cameo rules are basically, one or two appearances, felines, mice, rabbits, fox (all colors except white), wolves, misc other species and genoworks mixes (No native roos, rifiers or talking shivae/scythetails.) None of them out of the cyantian ordinary. I've responded to all the emails. If you donated and did NOT get an email.. email me,because sometimes paypal doesn't send me the notice and I miss it.
More Hell's Kitchen tonight! I'm looking forward to Prince Caspian this week. *Now if only we could score free tickets again. :D)
Today's To Do: Coloring 1 page Akaelae and misc other work.
Completed: 2 pages Akaelae
AD Book #1 with text progress: 75% complete - Need to finish cover, layout book after proofreading text.
AD Book #2 with/without text progress: 15% complete - Going over lineart in Manga Studio in preparation for recoloring.
...they still haven't called back? WTF? This is my HEALTH, dudes. WhyTF hasn't my hospital sent in my paperwork so I can stay healthy? BUH?
In other news, my DS Lite (white one with the hinge crack issues, and it did indeed have a hinge cracked in two places) has disappeared from the face of the earth. We have torn apart the house and found remote controls, forks, garbage, an entire king-size fitted sheet in one of the couches (I kid not), but no DS Lite.
I am missing it, and feel like one of my waldoes is gone.
Even fecking used DS's are ridiculously expensive.
This is nothing on quakes and twisters, no mistake. But the lack of these things is uncomfortable, the medical more so than the gadget.
In other news, my DS Lite (white one with the hinge crack issues, and it did indeed have a hinge cracked in two places) has disappeared from the face of the earth. We have torn apart the house and found remote controls, forks, garbage, an entire king-size fitted sheet in one of the couches (I kid not), but no DS Lite.
I am missing it, and feel like one of my waldoes is gone.
Even fecking used DS's are ridiculously expensive.
This is nothing on quakes and twisters, no mistake. But the lack of these things is uncomfortable, the medical more so than the gadget.
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aintitcoolnewss : Our first review of Kevin Smith's ZACK AND MIRI MAKE A PORNO cums in! [+0] - aintitcoolnewss : Let the political talkback craziness continue... Michael Moore working on a FAHRENHEIT 9/11 sequel! [+0]
- aintitcoolnewss : Werner Herzog's BAD LIEUTENANT remake? Double-You Tee Eff? [+0]
- silveradept : Lots yet to arrange - 13 May 2008 [+0]
- jenndolari : "That went better than I expected," said Sylvia between breaths. - "But we didn't get him to recant his wish!" - "We're alive." She retorted. "I honestly wasn't expecting that!" [+0]
- tmcm : ideas... [+1]
- joshreadscomics : Desperate housewife [+0]
- dirkdada : The Twittering [+0]
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dannysdomain :: charcoallungs02 : Hmmmm.... [+6] - demiurgent : The Twits. [+0]
- ericmonster : Streaming posts ... [+0]
- cmpriest : OMGWTFBBQ??? Yes. Precisely. [+48]
- aintitcoolnewss : Gargantuanly Important News From Cannes: There's A POINT BREAK Sequel On The Way!! [+0]
- aicncoaxial : How Many TV Shows Can Tyra Banks Produce?? At Least Four!! The CW Announces Its Fierce Autumn [+0]
- bluknight : Automatic Shipment of Tweets from Twitter [+0]
- cmpriest : May 13, 2008 [+5]
- syke : Tuesday Updates - D'oh, I'm LATE! [+0]
- aintitcoolnewss : Moriarty Interviews Speed Racer! [+0]
- dollraves : What's up with that? [+17]
- divalea : Today's WTF: You Called Them on April 10 and... [+4]