Happy birthday, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) patsmor. Hope you're enjoying England! |
Tonight, the damndest thing happened: the guy I voted for won an election. The person I voted _for_, rather than the placeholder I used for voting _against_, won an election. First time since ... well, forever, since before this election I've never had a candidate I could honestly support.
I've been kicking around on this planet for 54 years. Missed being able to vote against Nixon in '72 by four days. Not too long ago, I startled myself by realizing that I've been alive through ten sitting Presidents. And until this election cycle, I thought I'd never see a statesman. I thought those days were past, that all we had left were politicians.
I've never been more glad to have been wrong.
In 2000 and 2004, I told people that that was the election in which leaders of both parties went to bed at night praying, "Please, God, send us a candidate." But (providence be thanked!) that was then. Now...
This cycle, I watched a man who knows how to be gracious, how to listen, and how to think. I watched him endure a campaign where his opponent's primary message was, "Look at the scary nigger!" and still have the character to thank that opponent for his service to our nation rather than berating him for his indiscretions. (Watched him, that is, do what I couldn't have done though I know it's the right thing to do.) And -- mirabile dictu! -- felt like that's who he _is_, not just a persona he puts on.
This cycle, I watched the politics of fear have their ass chewed off by the message of hope. And, sweet bleeding fuck, I sincerely think the guy who promulgates that hope, who embodies it, really means what he says, that he is who I think he is, who I want him to be.
For once, I think this country that I love will actually have a leader who'll love it just as much as I do, in the way I do.
"These are the days of miracle and wonder, this is the long distance call, the way the camera follows us in slow-mo, the way we look to us all."
God help me if, for the first time in my life, I'm not actually looking forward to inauguration day. |
Oh, my. Paul Krugman at the NY Times directs us to this article [PDF] by John McCain in the Sept./Oct. 2008 issue of Contingencies, the magazine of the American Academy of Actuaries:
http://www.contingencies.org/septoct08/mccain.pdf
Krugman's take-away from the article is Senator McCain saying:
"Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation."
Well. I'm glad we have that straight. I am _sooo_ looking forward to the prospect of President McCain ... we're not nearly bankrupt enough yet, we can do way better.
(We do note that McCain's principal economic advisor is former Senator Phil Gramm, one of the architects of financial deregulation.)
...As if his apparently not knowing where Spain is wasn't enough. |
Some of you have been asking recently about the server that had the MP3s of Leigh Ann's music on it -- it's been down for a long time, and "Real Soon Now" has come and gone several times trying to get it back. Well, okay, so I punted; but they're back now.
I put up a one-stop place to get at every recording she and/or she and I ever did. It's here:
http://motogrrl.org/Bands/
Her solo work, Annwn, nuit, and Uglytown: all there. Have fun. |
Aeron, hyla_regilla's Himalayan cat, died in the wee hours this morning, aged not quite 14. Went to sleep on a blanket, didn't wake up. Goodbye to the sweetest cat I ever knew. Fare well.
http://nithaus.org/fuzzbuckets/Images/aeron_kitten.jpg
"Beside a dried up fountain
Lie five dusty tomes
With faded pasted pictures
Of love's reverie.
Across each cover is written,
'Herein are Photos of Ghosts'" |
| » Happy birthday, motogrrl |
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Happy birthday, motogrrl. I love you.
Jul. 31st, 2008 @ 02:11 pm
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| » more fun with spam |
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Not exactly spam haiku, but. Hoping it makes you smile ...
The titles of the first 5 message in my spam "almost certainly" file since I last cleaned my traps:
Describe your day
If you are looking for
third world debt
Oprah raises money for Obama fundraiser
Describe your day
...and the last 3:
consumer credit
Join best casin0
to get out of debt
Jul. 29th, 2008 @ 01:30 pm
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| » apropos of nothing ... |
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Lately, my home email has been getting several spams per day with the title "christian debt relief". Just a thought, but: didn't someone already allegedly do that for me, a couple thousand years ago?
Jul. 26th, 2008 @ 04:59 pm
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| » 3 things? Well ... |
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Aw, shucks. Because I'm sufficiently bored, an end to radio silence ...
--
Rules: Post 3 things you've done that you believe nobody else on your F-list has done. Indulge in remorse if someone calls you out on a listed item.
--
Let's see:
1. Qualified "expert" with hand grenades.
2. Bounced radar signals off the moon. (With detectable results, I mean.)
3. Appeared on stage with Willie Brown at a charity benefit.
Anybody...?
-- Nitnorth
Jun. 25th, 2008 @ 06:11 pm
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| » One year ago today |
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It's an anniversary. Hooray. One year ago today, give or take about 5 hours as I write this, Leigh Ann died.
But, what I actually came here to say is: everyone who knows me in this forum also knows Leigh Ann. In fact, most of the people I know here, I know because I know Leigh Ann. From pagandom, the SCA, SF fandom, music, WetLeather, the OTO -- all of you, I know from the places she took me to and the people I met there. For you...
I'd just like to take a moment to thank all of you for having known her, for the things you gave her, for how you all helped her grow into who she was. It was a great ride. Thank you for being part of it. I say that on her behalf as well as my own, and regret only that she can't be here to say it herself -- at least, not in any place where it's easy to hear.
And for her, this bit of Rumi:
The minute I heard my first love story
I started looking for you, not knowing
how blind that was.
Lovers don't finally meet somewhere.
They're in each other all along.
-- Nitnorth
May. 16th, 2007 @ 02:00 pm
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| » Another icon gone |
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I don't know whether to be surprised or not, that no one on my friends list has remarked on this yet:
Jerry Falwell, founder of the "Moral Majority", died today. Aged 73, cause not immediately apparent from the sources I read. (They are all pretty much rewrites of the info available at Faux "News".)
-- Nitnorth
May. 15th, 2007 @ 02:34 pm
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| » the Illustrated Daily Scribble returns! |
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It's back: The Illustrated Daily Scribble by Charles Pugsley Fincher, one of the best political cartoons ever. He went on hiatus last March because, he said, all the news was repeats so all the jokes were old and stale -- been there, done that. Dude, welcome back!
...Gleep. I wonder if this means I should be _really_ scared about Dubya versus Iran?
Feb. 5th, 2007 @ 01:41 pm
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| » I'm stuck in the wrong holiday. |
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Why is this night different from all other nights?
Mostly, it's because this year I don't get to play Santa Claus. So instead, here I am mired in the middle of Feeling Sorry For Myself. ...And I don't. fucking. care.
Every once in a while, I envy my sister more than words can adequately express. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep. And miles to go before I sleep.
Dec. 24th, 2006 @ 09:46 pm
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| » What does your library say about you? |
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Our house is littered with books. Of course, that doesn't describe anyone else I know (no, really), but I suspect theirs doesn't look quite like this. Today I happened to notice the stack of books on my desk ... in order, top to bottom, it looks like this:
Santeria
Cascading Style Sheets: the Definitive Guide
The Bahir
Cabala Para el Mundo Moderno
The Book of Thoth
DNS and BIND
The Chicken Qabalah
I suppose, somehow, you really needed to know that. Extra points for knowing what BIND even is.
-- Nitnorth
Nov. 17th, 2006 @ 10:12 am
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| » Go here, read this |
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Mm-kay, a second thought about the election, then I'll shut up. I encourage everyone to read Stirling Newberry's thoughts on what to do next, available here:
http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/coffeehouse/2006/nov/09/the_democratic_renewal
I don't agree with his politics -- it'll be a strange, strange day when I become pro-union -- but despite our differences I think the man's a proper visionary.
-- Nitnorth
--
"We act as though comforts and luxury were the chief requirements in life, when all that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about." -- Charles Kingsley
Nov. 9th, 2006 @ 11:06 pm
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| » The news just keeps getting better. |
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It's starting to feel like the 12 days of Xmas around here: nearly _all_ my favorite Congressional idiots have been shown the door, or are fading to insignificance. Pombo, Weldon, and Santorum on Tuesday. Hastert announcing Wednesday that he won't seek to retain a leadership position in a Republican minority. And now, George Allen (VA) and Conrad Burns (MT) have both conceded their Senate races to their opponents rather than suffer through a recount.
...And it gets better. George "the torture never stops" Bush put out a press release saying he's re-nominating John Bolton as ambassador to the U.N., and outgoing Senator Lincoln Chafee (RI) said categorically, no. So Bolton's confirmation, like the wicked witch of the West, just had a house dropped on it.
That almost makes the thought of Robert "Humpty Dumpty" Gates(*) as SecDef tolerable. Almost.
-- Nitnorth
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(*) "When _I_ use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less." ... Rather like Gates' approach to intelligence gathering: "When _I_ create an NIE ..."
Nov. 9th, 2006 @ 03:02 pm
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| » Found a picture ... |
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Poking around Leigh Ann's computer, I found that she did what I wanted her to, what I wished she had: she captured the pictures off her camera of our geocaching trip to the steam trains in Tilden Park, May 14 -- two days before the accident. ( here's a sample )
-- Nitnorth
Jun. 5th, 2006 @ 10:51 pm
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| » Mailing list active for Leigh Ann memorial info |
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This is a message to make sure I flagged everyone who wanted to be flagged. Many people want to be kept informed of when and where the memorial(s) will be for Leigh Ann. I set up a mailing list, "lah", for that purpose at nithaus. The initial message with cursory details has gone out for the first event.
Alas, things have been confused enough that I'm sure I missed people who really wanted to be on the list. If you have not received from that list a welcome message and my initial report of the event date, you're not on the list. If you wanted to be, you can sign up here:
http://nithaus.org/mailman/listinfo/lah
Bare bones: Saturday 3 June, her house, time to be determined. Detailed info to follow later on that list.
Please also spread the word around, point people at this message, since only the tiniest fraction of her friends reads this journal.
Thanks,
-- Nitnorth
May. 22nd, 2006 @ 04:22 pm
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| » I updated the LAH memorial site. |
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In my previous post, I remarked on the memorial site I had set up for Leigh Ann. This is just to let you know I added a couple features to it:
- A guest book
- A better interface to view the photos
...Plus I added a bit of stuff, such as a really rather morbid scan of the "notice of stored vehicle" the California Highway Patrol sent to ... uh, her. That's linked from my post in the guest book.
Let me know what else you'd like, and tell me if anything's broken.
-- Nitnorth
May. 22nd, 2006 @ 02:19 am
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