Uh, some stuff

Surprise.

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:29:50 GMT

And he was here this morning too. I'm calling him Little Boots. We'll see if he stays around--he does seem to like Sparkey and Neezer.

Bad journalism

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 23:51:50 GMT

It's not just for the tabloids anymore.

I was listening to a piece on All Things Considered this afternoon and was once again struck by sensationalism in mainstream journalism. I've seen the same thing on 60 Minutes too. There just don't seem to be standards anymore.
The ATC story was interviewing a Miami newspaper reporter who is running a series in the Miami Herald about people with criminal records being given licenses to give loans in Florida. Toward the end of the story, they finally ask the reporter if there's any evidence that the people with criminal records were more likely to do anything wrong than those without. The reporter responds that that is a good question--but he doesn't know the answer.

If he doesn't know the answer to that question, how is this a legitimate story? It isn't. It is taking something that sounds bad and playing off people's fears and prejudices. The very shit that bad journalism is made of.

My morals, let me impose them on you.

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 19:08:38 GMT

Thanks to rm for the heads up.

Contraception is abortion?
http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2008/07/15/hhs-moves-define-contraception-abortion

I think I'm PMSing

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 18:25:06 GMT

Feeling way too emotional today. Want to overreact to everything.

Must avoid Dumbo at all costs!

Because EVERYBODY on the WHOLE INTERWEBZ has already done this...I feel so lonely

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 20:37:25 GMT

Here's Entertainment Weekly's list of the top movies of the last 25 years. Go through their list and BOLD the ones you own on video or DVD, italicize the ones you've seen, and put an asterisk next to those you'd like to see someday.

1. Pulp Fiction (1994)
2. The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-03)
3. Titanic (1997)
4. Blue Velvet (1986)
5. Toy Story (1995)
6. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
7. Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
8. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
9. Die Hard (1988)
10. Moulin Rouge (2001)
11. This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
12. The Matrix (1999)
13. GoodFellas (1990)
14. Crumb (1995)
15. Edward Scissorhands (1990)
16. Boogie Nights (1997)
17. Jerry Maguire (1996)
18. Do the Right Thing (1989)
19. Casino Royale (2006)
20. The Lion King (1994)
21. Schindler's List (1993)
22. Rushmore (1998)
23. Memento (2001)
24. A Room With a View (1986)
25. Shrek (2001)
26. Hoop Dreams (1994)
27. Aliens (1986)
28. Wings of Desire (1988)
29. The Bourne Supremacy (2004)
30. When Harry Met Sally... (1989)
31. Brokeback Mountain (2005)
32. Fight Club (1999)
33. The Breakfast Club (1985)
34. Fargo (1996)
35. The Incredibles (2004)
36. Spider-Man 2 (2004)
37. Pretty Woman (1990)
38. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
39. The Sixth Sense (1999)*
40. Speed (1994)
41. Dazed and Confused (1993)
42. Clueless (1995)
43. Gladiator (2000)
44. The Player (1992)
45. Rain Man (1988)
46. Children of Men (2006)
47. Men in Black (1997)
48. Scarface (1983)
49. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
50. The Piano (1993)
51. There Will Be Blood (2007)
52. The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad (1988)
53. The Truman Show (1998)
54. Fatal Attraction (1987)
55. Risky Business (1983)
56. The Lives of Others (2006)
57. There’s Something About Mary (1998)
58. Ghostbusters (1984)
59. L.A. Confidential (1997)
60. Scream (1996)
61. Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
62. sex, lies and videotape (1989)
63. Big (1988)
64. No Country For Old Men (2007)
65. Dirty Dancing (1987)
66. Natural Born Killers (1994)
67. Donnie Brasco (1997)
68. Witness (1985)
69. All About My Mother (1999)
70. Broadcast News (1987)
71. Unforgiven (1992)
72. Thelma & Louise (1991)
73. Office Space (1999)
74. Drugstore Cowboy (1989)
75. Out of Africa (1985)
76. The Departed (2006)
77. Sid and Nancy (1986)
78. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
79. Waiting for Guffman (1996)
80. Michael Clayton (2007)
81. Moonstruck (1987)
82. Lost in Translation (2003)
83. Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn (1987)
84. Sideways (2004)
85. The 40 Year-Old Virgin (2005)
86. Y Tu Mamá También (2002)
87. Swingers (1996)
88. Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)
89. Breaking the Waves (1996)
90. Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
91. Back to the Future (1985)
92. Menace II Society (1993)
93. Ed Wood (1994)
94. Full Metal Jacket (1987)
95. In the Mood for Love (2001)
96. Far From Heaven (2002)
97. Glory (1989)
98. The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
99. The Blair Witch Project (1999)
100. South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut (1999)

Top how? Any "top movie" list that doesn't include Seven sucks in my book.
Kind of surprised at how many I've seen.

Presidential campaigns make my head hurt

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 22:21:50 GMT

Almost nothing changes. At least it seems that way during campaigning season. Everything is chopped down into the same old sound bites. Nothing seems to have been learned. Same shit, same spoon, and apparently people are eating it up once again.

Flip-flopping.

For the love of God they're on about that crap again. You would think after 8 years of an administration that clung doggedly to ideas long proven foolish at best, we'd be at least a little more accepting of someone realigning themselves based on new information.

Granted, no one likes a leader with no resolve at all. And we all get tired of pandering. But one politician accusing another of saying different things to different people at different times is like one cat accusing another of crapping in a box. It's just what they do.

My brain is too small

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 16:09:00 GMT

When I joined LJ I was incensed by the ridiculously complex requirements for a password. My bank and credit cards didn't even require such craziness. Well, they're now working toward it.

Already weary of trying to keep all my usernames and passwords organized, this is mighty disheartening. Longer and more arcane passwords, different questions not always as obviously answered as they might have intended, it is all becoming too freaking complicated.

And is it all really more secure? I can't possibly keep all this crap in my head so I have to keep it in physical form and handy. If this trend continues I'm going to drown in all this crap.

Anyone tried one of those programs to store all your passwords? I keep imagining that breaking down and me losing everything. But it seems like it is becoming a necessity.

Trip Post 3

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 01:13:10 GMT

If you're just tuning in, here is post 1 and post 2 (and post 2 part 2 the panoramic pic).

Monday dawns and looking out our window I can see the tide has gone out.

So we hurriedly dressed and headed down to the beach to explore.

On closer inspection, the rocks were teaming with life.

Starfish huddled together.

The wind and water do amazing things to wood.

It was a chilly morning so I'd bundled up. For me chilly in June rocks.

I've mentioned to some my fascination with the geology of the region. In the US Midwest, most of the rock is sedimentary--limestone and such. What I saw out there was igneous or metamorphic.

Our motel from the beach.

After exploring and a wee hike (walking on sand is tiring!) we went back and cleaned up to go to breakfast. We'd seen our breakfast destination on the way into town the night before. We were a little surprised.

Not connected with the infamous chain. They had changed the original name a bit and focussed on the tiger. A different time in 1957 when it opened.

After breakfast we discovered a similarity between Oregon and New Jersey--no self-serve gas. The guys there got nervous that Hex was taking pictures of the place and asked her why she was doing so. They thought she was from the state or a reporter.

Then on down the coast.

Something we saw a lot of especially up north were these.

It seems they've at least invested money in signs. Let's hope they have proper plans too. I'm happy to say we experienced no tsunamis on our trip.

Another thing odd for a Midwesterner was the sheer number of these.

Every little town had at least one. And they all seemed to be built to accommodate trucks.

Something else interesting was the variety in a day's travel and not just a progression but switching back and forth.

Mountainous coast roads.

Broad valleys.

And brooding forests.

It would regularly change from sunny to overcast and back again. Never a drop of rain, though--we were lucky.

We, of course, had to stop when we saw this.

This was our third dinosaur place on vacations. It seems to be our hobby. I was impressed by the life-size brachiosaurus.

Overall, this was the most scientifically on the ball one of these we'd been to. What really made it, though, was the setting.

So much of the areas we'd been in had seemed prehistoric. I'd often had the feeling that a dinosaur would fit right in.

Further down the coast we came across this.

There were a number of rocks on the beach and in the ocean in this area. This was the largest. I'm there for, uh, scale.

I managed to climb some way up it. That's Hex down there.

What you can't really see is how amazingly windy it was. A steady probably 40 mph (64 kph) at least. Sand was whipping along the ground.

As per usual by this point we arrived a bit late at the Motel Trees. Right outside the Del Norte forest, it, the attached restaurant and the Trees of Mystery across the road was all there was there and all surrounded by forest.
The woman who checked us in called over to the restaurant to tell them not to pack everything away yet. So after a brief supper, we retired to our room. It had a theme--perhaps you can guess it...

The place itself was nice. At least until the folks with lots of kids came in at midnight to the next room. They talked up a storm for I don't know how long. Then the baby started in early the next morning--but the triumph and tragedy of the next day will have to wait for the next installment!

Another opportunity to become less popular!

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:34:44 GMT

I think the US supreme court made (somewhat unusually of late) the right decision in regards to the Washington DC gun law.

While the decision does favor my libertarian bent and I agree with it on that basis, I was struck by something I read at CNN.com:

"There were 143 gun-related murders in Washington last year, compared with 135 in 1976, when the handgun ban was enacted."

A little searching led me to these data, which report the population of Washington at 702,000 in 1976 and 581,530 in 2005 (the last year shown). It certainly doesn't look like the handgun ban had any positive effect on gun-related murders.

I have a bit of a pet peeve with this sort of thing--laws that curtail the rights and freedoms of otherwise innocent citizens without even significantly (or at all) achieving their goals. Politicians like these sorts of laws because they're flashy and make headlines--they seem "tough." But often, it seems to me, they crop up around divisive issues like guns. Lawmakers on both sides of these issues tend to take extreme positions and propose sweeping legislation in line with the extreme positions of the advocates who support them. And easily lost is the question of effectiveness.

And not just overall effectiveness, but "efficiency." I believe, and I hope that most would agree with me, that the best law is one that achieves the greatest effectiveness with the least hardship to innocent citizens. I would call a law that met those criteria efficient.

Unfortunately, such laws don't necessarily garner the headlines politicians love and seldom please advocates of one cause or another. And really, while people notice laws that bring inconvenience or hassle to themselves, they rarely bother to notice or care when such trouble is brought on others. And from what I've seen being in a political party often means shoveling inconvenience, cost, harm, hassle, etc. onto those who vote for the other party.

And so it is that I find myself looking to the supreme court to reign in at least the most egregious of such laws, which restrict the rights and liberties of the citizenry. Unfortunately, the politicization of the court has resulted in many very disappointing decisions for me (eminent domain, physician assisted suicide, drugs, etc.). So perhaps it is with more happiness than I should have that I greet this decision--and wish the court sided with personal liberty more often.

Trip Post 2-2

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 23:29:18 GMT

This was by Lake Quinault.

Trip Post 2

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 23:25:42 GMT

Sunday morning we got up early (much easier after gaining two hours) to do some hiking. It was cool and foggy. Our first goal was a short way to the "world's largest spruce tree." There are a lot of superlative tree-ish objects in the area.

After that we took a trail across the road from where our cabin was up to an old logging road.

One of the first things you notice in the coastal rain forests are the ferns. They're also one of my favorite things.

I look as though I may have gone a bit wild. I think I actually look like an anthropologist here.

There was logging in a number of places (including, not surprisingly, the logging road). Also signs by the roads telling when areas had been logged in the past and replanted. I have very mixed feeling about it all.

But even so, everything seemed alive. This was odd, but neat.

As we returned down the main road we saw that the fog was lifting from the lake.

And a cute cabin was for sale.

We then took another short trail with a detour by a creek.

After we went back to the cabin and showered, we drove back into the forest around the lake on mostly gravel roads. Much of the drive was along rivers. I'm always fascinated by mountain rivers--unlike rivers in the plains they're wide and gravelly.

And there were lots of really cool mossy trees.

Near the end of our loop around the lake we took the trail to the "world's largest red cedar" (told ya). This was a fairly short but surprisingly difficult hike since there were "stairs" in several places that were all shapes and sizes--though generally not a comfortable size. Saw this on the way there.

Turns out the cedar is dead. Maybe. It seems some trees look dead but aren't quite while others are dead but don't look it because other things (including trees) are growing on them. Here it is.

Here's the base.

Then back to the car and into Amanda Park--the little "town" at the end of the lake along US 101 to have breakfast/lunch at a diner. Then back onto 101 heading south. The drive alternated between little towns and amazing coast.

That last shot was from a little overlook off the road that was amazingly high up with an almost sheer drop down to the beach. I'm not sure if you can tell from this pic but it was high.

It was almost dark when we arrived in Lincoln City, Oregon at the Ester Lee Motel. Our room looked out over the beach and ocean from a small height. We found some late pizza and called it a night. Actually, I called it a night--Hex apparently stayed up watching the real estate channel and determining we couldn't afford to live there.

Trip Post 1

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 00:11:45 GMT

We took off from O'Hare on Friday the 13th only an hour late. Hex had the window seat.

In Seattle we hopped a shuttle to the car rental. We decided to go for the upgrade and considering the amount of driving we did and the roads we were on, I think it was worth it. It had many features, but the most useful were the sun roof (for Hex's periscope shots) and the Electronic Stability Control which made for some fun on the winding roads.

We spent that night with my friends. Standing in for them is their tortoise, Michael.

They found him at an arboretum. I remember him from their wedding.

Saturday, we hung out and got a later start up to the Edmonds-Kingston ferry across the Sound. That was a fun and beautiful ride.

If a bit windy.

Once on the Olympic Peninsula, we headed for Port Angeles where we ate at a diner outside town with a small group of locals talking Harleys. Then the first really fun driving around Crescent Lake.

The picture I posted last week was a stream flowing down to the lake. There were several. Here's me and the car.

It was a Hyundai Azera. I'd never heard of it before but it was a nice ride. It even had the fake stick shift, which I used once to affirm my suspicion that it is a silly thing. I'll take auto or real stick, thank you.

As we headed down the west side of the peninsula we saw three of these.

This one and another were in trees by the side of the road with another flying over them. By the time we got turned around for a picture this was the only one that hadn't started flying away.

Shortly thereafter, we arrived at Lake Quinault and went to our little cabin on the southeast corner of the lake. We were in time for sunset.

Then we walked along the shore and sat on a log for a while. This shot is a long exposure--it was really much darker.

After a bit more walking, we turned in. And that was Saturday.

Home again

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 22:01:57 GMT

We got back last night--our plane delayed by an hour again. But considering the state of the airlines today, not bad. Right now trying to get adjusted to being back. Organizing pics for some posts to come.

A really great trip.

quicker post

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 07:25:47 GMT

In Hollywood on Sunset in a passable motel. Will be flying back tomorrow. Again tired.

Quick road post

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 06:37:10 GMT

Finally managed to put a bit of time and an internet connection together. We're in the Motel Trees in Klamath California for the night. Across the road is purportedly the largest Paul Bunyan in the world.

Below is a random pic from Saturday driving around the Olympic Peninsula.

Tomorrow we hope to see a place called Hobbiton...

Right now very tired.

S---T---I---L---L---------N---O----------D---S---L

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 22:27:58 GMT

Dialing up to say the last vote for LJ Idol has less than two hours left. I managed to check in and my personal fave, tulip_in_yellow is in second. So if you want to change history, or uh, alter the universe, or um, click a box and hit a button, you can go here and do that.

Then it will be all over!

There's access to their final entries as well as their entries from the entire season there too!

Arrrrrrrg!

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:58:44 GMT

My DSL has crapped out.

It may actually happen

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 17:28:04 GMT

Trying here to get everything organized for our trip. For those who don't know, we're flying to Seattle Friday and driving down the coast. So we'll be seeing lots of the Pacific and redwoods and such. Hope to take lots of pics for your later perusal.

Thoughts

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 20:06:05 GMT

Ya know, I've got a cynical, snarky streak a mile wide. I can find the shit in the best pie. And the truth is I've rained on quite a few parades in my time. But I realized somewhere along the line that it never accomplishes much other than multiplying unhappiness. It is certainly tempting to try to make everyone as miserable as oneself. But like so many things, it is a child's game--even when you dress it up in a life-weary guise or a mod style.

I'll probably always struggle with it. Or maybe I can find a way to fill the holes in myself that drive me to such things. And I hope the many people with the same problems can find a way to combat them within themselves.

There is a blurry and difficult line between being cruel to be kind and just being cruel. Too often we find vaguely noble excuses for cruelty when really all we want to do is satisfy the sadist in ourselves.

LJ Idol home game

Fri, 30 May 2008 23:13:55 GMT

The remaining four therealljidol contestants are writing the gauntlet. Those not competing have been encouraged to do "home game" entries. One of the topics is "do over" a chance to revisit a past week's topic. I actually wrote this back in week 15 when the alternate topic was a "Harlequin romance with zombies." I went with the main topic at the time. This isn't exactly "Harlequin" but, well, here it is:

Jean-Marie was by far the most handsome man in the village. The women often shot glances, and some just stared as his tall frame worked the field. Watching his muscles slide under his glistening skin. They would shiver a little when his baritone laugh echoed through the streets in the evenings.

Of course, he knew this. He didn't need to stop and stretch as often as he did. And he laughed often, even at James' poor jokes. And so it was that when he was stricken and his health suddenly failed, “vanity” was whispered with the other rumors. It was said he had taken to bed, listless and weak. “Ain't no man so pretty God won't curse him!” was heard often through the village.

A week to the day after he had disappeared from the field, word went round that he was dead. Cut down like the cane in his prime. Some scoffed, some wept when he was buried, the priest showering blessings. Many a trinket was slyly left by careful women with darting eyes.

Three days had passed since the burial and a thick fog kept the people indoors. Pegu wasn't much remembered. He wasn't handsome or strong like Jean-Marie; not wealthy or social. He had no teeth and was lame, so no one paid him any more mind in death than they had in life. Almost no one.

He quietly dug shovel after shovel. Like a machine, his pace was unrelenting as Claire sat on a nearby stump, smoking a pipe. Her eyes were intent in her otherwise passive face. Thick wild locks of hair surrounded her face as the smoke curled round her and merged with the fog. When she heard the shovel hit wood she stood, “Bring it, Pegu. I'll be waiting.”

Claire's small shack stood away for the village. Everyone respected her power, and many had used it—for a price—but no one wanted to live near her. Inside hundreds of candles burned, the flames caught by bottle and jar. Powders and liquids, pastes and ointments; bark and leaf, skin and entrails. They filled every shelf lining the room and spilled onto the altar opposite the door.

Claire knelt before this ancient and bloodstained shrine slowly moving the pestle as she hummed a tune. Her smooth shoulders rocked under her shawl as she ground in unison with the rhythm. She did not stop but smiled as the scraping sound faintly began and came closer. “Put him on the floor in the circle, Pegu. Then you will sleep.”

As Pegu's steps faded around the corner she suddenly arose and whirled about, mortar in hand, beads and dress a flash of many colors as her shawl fell about her feet. Her laugh was rich and long, then she slowly knelt again, her knees to either side of the dead man's head as she cooed, “Jean-Marie, Jean-Marie, Jean-Marie.”

Her hand traced the contours of his face as she sighed, “So long, I have waited. When your mother came to me thick with child, I did not refuse her. 'Please, Mama, please!' she cried. 'My husband ... he is so ugly ... I fear for my child!'

'You want beauty for your child?'
'Yes, Mama. More than anything ... I want the most beautiful child. I have saved for this, see!'
She laid gold and jewels before me.
'I will take this as promise of payment,' I told her, 'but I will collect the balance in time.'

And now that time has come!” Claire pulled down her bodice and nestled in the cleave of her opulent breasts was a large crimson gem that caught fire in the light. She leaned over and the gem fell forward and dangled on it's fine chain just above his full lips. She opened his mouth and let the pendant slowly slide in.

“Commence,” she shouted, and his mouth snapped shut as she sprung up, the necklace snapping from about her neck. The song she'd been humming became a chant as she danced and writhed about his body. Like dripping honey, her dress seemed to melt off her body and her skin glistened and sparkled as the flames bowed and swayed with her. Distant drums echoed through the forest, rooted in the song and movement of her body. Faster and faster as the smoke swirled and gathered, the beat, the heat, the song rose in crescendo, her skin tingling and one with the night, a handful of powder from the mortar brought close to his face and she blew ...

As the last beat crashed his eyes flew open. The silence sudden and powerful was broken only by the call of a bird, high and clear but faint. And as that note descended, so did she.

Her round hips swayed as his tongue took up the rhythm. Lightly at first but stronger as the phantom of life filled him. She could feel it as the heat began to flow from him as sinew and muscle tensed and strained, power bursting from him and entering her like electricity wherever their bodies met.

His large hands drew up and slipped onto her sides matching her motion as they slid around her breasts, the intensity forcing her head back and a guttural moan from deep within her. Though all seemed silent the music was rising in her again, beaming from the place where her pleasure and his tongue danced, where his hands touched her body, drowning out her cries as wave after wave washed up her thighs and crashed into her body.

The beat was slow now, but deliberate. Sultry and smoldering with the shimmering threat of fire as she moved down his body. She felt his chest as it expanded under her hands and breasts with each breath, an almost subsonic sound coming from him, louder as she descended.

She felt the pulse of his heart in her hand as she murmured, “Erzulie, you have outdone yourself with this man.” She marveled at this sculpture of the Goddess as her tongue explored in adoration. She would know this arch, each vein, the crest of head so she could match each sensation she felt with the memory. The power, now channeled into her flowed forth and she felt as his muscles tense and his taught hips could not help but leave the floor, his strong hands straining to lightly cup her face. His breathing became ragged and she lifted herself above him and drank the anticipation as she ever so slowly lowered herself, her eyes locked on his, savoring the wildness he couldn't hide.

At the touch, neither could contain their breath or the sound as the music leaped again and engulfed her as she engulfed him. And the sensation and the memory fused and burst forth, covering her body and he was inside her and all around her and no nerve was free of the song and the rhythm and the touch as she moved and slid, her mind consumed with the physical.

She moved forward and turned and felt the Earth beneath her, pleasure seeping in like roots as the softness of her legs met the hardness of his and they intertwined, forcing herself down to meet his thrust with each beat. He felt like a force of nature, something divine and ancient with barely enough control to keep from destroying them both.

And as she screamed a bottle on the altar toppled and the wine splashed down and each drop that touched her exploded as her body flashed forth and she was drowned and lost as her arms and legs melded into him and they were the center, aglow and aloud ...

... Pegu stood in the doorway looking at the cold, lifeless bodies on the floor of the shack. A light of freedom was in his eyes as his smile showed gleaming teeth. He turned and walked away. The ghost of a limp faded and he interrupted his humming to speak to the air, “Tout est reglé*. Eh, Erzulie?”

*Everything is as it should be

Another thought

Mon, 26 May 2008 19:30:56 GMT

It seems most of what's wrong with humanity is exemplified in denatured alcohol.

Thoughts

Sun, 25 May 2008 22:35:43 GMT

I'm not sure which was the more dangerous invention: guns or statistics.

Where would America be if its government had spent the money used to subsidize oil companies and to wage war in Iraq on subsidizing energy efficient products and sustainable energy sources?

While we're wailing about the housing crisis and gas prices, what future crises that we could do something about right now are we ignoring?

A more general take

Fri, 23 May 2008 14:25:01 GMT

To my eye, many of the baby boomers, of which I am a very late example, suffer what I call the "Mulder Syndrome." Named for the character Fox Mulder from the X-files. It is that annoying tendency for failed zealots to viciously attack anyone advocating the changes they couldn't bring about. It seems these days the majority of those who advocated radical change in the 60s and 70s are often the major obstacles to change. Not only that, but they seem to have gifted their children with their cynicism.

I look back with such nostalgia at the 70s. I certainly don't miss most of the fashion, but I do miss the attitude. The rebelliousness and rejection of authority that permeated everything is much preferable to me than the insipid fatalism of today. The defeated, accepting tone that seems to underly so much of society today depresses me terribly. I've heard rumblings that the latest generation may be changing that--I certainly hope so.

Lord knows I'm a very cynical person. It is often tempting to simply give up and accept my fate. But to foster that on those who still have hope? Sure it is nice to have company in the bunker (the graveyard of failed idealists), but it sure as hell isn't fair to anyone else. Certainly there will be more failures. But we must let those happen. Change is annoyingly incremental and usually not as complete as one would like. I know how frustrating that is but, other than my stubborn, lingering nihilistic thoughts, it is the best hope.

Mr Grumpy says what he's been thinking for a while.

Fri, 23 May 2008 13:53:12 GMT

The following was originally a comment in regards to LJ Advisory Board elections, which opened yesterday (http://community.livejournal.com/lj_election_en/25463.html). I'd suggest everyone go there and vote. It is in response to a number of journal entries and comments I've read recently either deriding attempts to change LJ policy or advocating inaction or the futility of action.
Anyway, I find myself fed up:

I've been continually disturbed by the reactions to any attempts to work at changing LJ's policies. While I understand that disaffected cynicism is very hip these days, I'm amazed at the vehemence with which people are advocating indifference.

As a cynic, I do understand the desire to believe in ones impotence to avoid disappointment. But to attempt to persuade people to inaction is absurd and harmful.

The argument that LJ is a company and therefore its customers should simply take what they get is, to me, strange. Certainly LJ has monetary desires, but to suggest customers have no effect on policy is absurd. I'm regularly put in mind of serfs justifying the abuses of their lord. That's how a system like that continues to work--once many of the victims themselves participate in the perpetration of their abuses, how will those abuses end?

Now I also get that many people object to the methods used to affect change. But I've heard no alternatives or simple wishing that something substantial changes. I know it is cliché, but tearing down the ideas of others without offering any of ones own never changed anything.

Yes, it is stylish to ridicule anyone who takes the internet or any part of it seriously. But like it or not, LJ is a powerful force in many people's lives. I wouldn't know most of you but for LJ. It is unusual in that its users are both its product and its customers. The internet is still relatively new and providers and users are still mapping out how it all will function in the future. To my mind laying down is not an option because if you do, you'd better get comfortable because a lot of folks will be walking over you.

Bottom line: If you have ideas for changing things for the better--let's hear them. If all you have is scorn for anyone who tries to change things, then STFU.

That Lj Idol thing

Sat, 17 May 2008 18:23:45 GMT

No, I'm not back in it again. But it is down to the vote to determine the top 5. It is a bit weird since of the 7 contestants left 3 got immunity so 2 of the four without immunity will be leaving. (Did you get that?)

Anyway, folks are pulling out all the stops so I'm here to pimp for my friend tulip_in_yellow. The voting is here. Each contestant wrote two entries so they have two voting boxes. The entries are linked from the voting page.