Tuesday, September 28, 2004
Wheels Have Traction, Finally
I'm no longer spinning my wheels on my current short story. It's moving along quite nicely, in fact, though I doubt I'll have it ready in time for my next writer's meeting. If you go to my webcam, you can actually see me working on it.
Yes, I still have a webcam. It seems that they've fallen out of style, now, especially with the demise of JenniCAM (the original, much celebrated, and now defunct webcam site). That, and the fact that I don't keep mine on 24/7. I could, but, who would really want that? And also, it would eat up my bandwidth allowance.
Interesting that we've arrived at a place where a webcam seems old fashioned.
Speaking of old fashioned, I discovered that old-style computer BBS systems are making a comeback. Weird! It must be a nostalgia thing for old geeks (like me). The new thing is, though, is that instead of calling them up via modem, you telnet into them via the Internet. Like, here's my local one: Collin County Station BBS
A direct telnet link: telnet://web-idiot.d2g.com/
This one also allows you to call up via modem. Well. How quaint.
Okay, enough jibber-jabber. Back to writing...
Monday, September 27, 2004
Bike
I've got a bike
You can ride it if you like
It's got a basket, a bell that rings
And things to make it
Look Good.
I'd give it to you if I could, but I borrowed it.
-Pink Floyd
Yeah, I've got my bike all fixed up. It's an expensive French bike I bought in Long Beach, back in the days of wine and roses, and when I decided I would ride it again I found out it would cost something like $120 for new tubes and tires (because they're an odd size, you can't just go to Wal-Mart and pick them up for a few dollars). So, I found a bike with the same sized tires on eBay and bid $20 for it, and won. The bike was right here in town, too, so I just picked it up, brought it home, pulled the tires off and put them on my French bike.
On the road again...
Yesterday, Sunday, I rode it to work, just to see how long it would take. 20 minutes. Not bad. Easy ride, too, since most of it was down hill. Of course, going home was another story, and that's why I decided to NOT ride the bike to work this morning. The ride home was not something I wanted to face on a Monday evening.
I missed a SciFi convention right here in town. Totally forgot it was going on! Damn. Now I have to wait until next year. In the mean time I'm having problems finishing my current story. This has happened twice now. I've been losing interest in the story while working on it, but I'm too stubborn to give up. The result is that I'm spinning my wheels.
Monday, September 20, 2004
The Communist mindset is alive and well, and eerily fascinating to look at:
http://english.people.com.cn
Yes, it's the "People's Daily Online" from China, in English. Full of puffy, self-promoting "China is #1" weirdness. Go China, go. You communists are so smart. Yeah, keep telling yourselves that.
Meanwhile, if you're a protesting student, stay away from military tanks.
Friday, September 17, 2004
Freedom of Speech?
Before our current president was "elected" he was asked at a press conference about a website that featured material lampooning him. He was upset about it, and wanted it taken off the Internet. But he couldn't, it seemed, because in America we have this thing called Freedom Of Speech, the very basic freedom upon which our democracy is built. His reaction to that was to say, "There needs to be limits to freedom."
The moment I read that, I knew I did not want this person leading my country.
Too many people had too much hatred for President Clinton, and desperately wanted a Republican back on the throne, and so this little warning sign was ignored and through a somewhat dubious election Bush ascended to power.
Since then he has done more than any other president to limit the freedom of speech. Case in point: THIS STORY which my friend Tim sent me.
Laura Bush, campaigning for her husband's reelection, was confronted during her speech by a distraught mother who wanted to know why her son had to die disarming a bomb in Iraq. A simple question, asked by a grieving mother. Did Laura pause and express regret? Point out that her son, in giving his life to Our Country of the Free and the Brave, was a hero, and will be honored along with countless others who died defending America?
No.
The woman was ARRESTED and charged with TRESPASSING on PUBLIC PROPERTY. How dare anyone interrupt the wife of President Bush. After all, our freedom of speech should be limited, right? As in, the Bush family has the freedom to speak, and we have the freedom to listen without interrupting. We have the freedom to remain silent because, obviously, our opinions don't count.
Not in Bush's America, they don't.
(Please note, in MY AMERICA, you have the right to disagree with me by leaving a comment on MY BLOG and I won't charge you with trespassing.)
Wednesday, September 08, 2004
Gee, Mail
Some weeks (months?) ago I switched to Gmail, Google's new online email system. I love it, love it, love it. It's still in beta and they're still making improvements, but knowing Google it will only get better. Since it's invitation only, it was quite the chic thing to have, too, and some people were selling their invitations for $300 on eBay before Google put a stop to it.
They're opening it up to wider "testing" and I have a stack of invitations to hand out, if anyone wants them. First come, first serve, but if it continues the way it's been, I'll have about 6 invitations to hand out every week.
So if you're interested, let me know.
Ouch!
 You know, this is not what I'd call a soft landing.
This is the Genesis capsule, which has been out in space collecting samples of the sun, and was due to come home SOFTLY today, drifting down on a parachute so that they could snag it with a helicopter and bring it GENTLY down. As you can see, things did not go as planned.
Here's my sympathy to those who have worked so hard and for so many years on this project. I tell ya, this really sucks. Hopefully they can salvage some of the samples, but, well...
Yeah. Ouch.
Thursday, September 02, 2004
Good Movie
I watched the best movie I have seen in a long, long time: Donnie Darko.
Loved it.
It's David Lynch meets John Hughes. Totally.
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