Let out early for good behavior
Nov. 4th, 2009 10:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lydamorehouseToday is an early release day for Mason. I'm hoping the weather will turn nicer and we can finish raking up the leaves that my tardy Maple tree finally dumped on our front yard. I suspect he will also attempt to talk me into heading out to a Barnes & Noble or a HPB to look for Goosebumps, which is what he wants to spend some of his gift money on. (Money for my German sales came, and we each get a little moola to spend on totally frivolous things. I should probably not have offered books, as we generally buy Mason whatever books he wants, but I said it. And, as you know, Bob, once a parent says something they have to stick with it.)
I've been working on RESURRECTION CODE. I wrote a little about why this project has been so slow going for me over at Wyrdsmiths, and some time ago I had another epiphany. It's not fun writing about Mouse before Deidre and angels and all that. So, I've come up with a way for the book to be actually a sequel and a prequel. Clever, no? The important thing is that it seems to be working.
Last night, I accidentally tuned into "Biggest Loser." I've never watched a minute of that show partly because I find it beyond post-modern to be sitting on my big, fat a$$ watching other people work out and mocking them for not losing enough weight to stay on the show. The show was just about as awful as I suspected it would be, only worse, because I realized that the people most likely to be booted are the people who most need to stay on. And that just makes me sad. Shawn and I tried to figure out what people get out of watching. What's the point of that show? Is it all about seeing large people in spandex and thinking, "Thank God/dess that's not me (yet)!"? Is it for the jiggle porn?
Then we went on to be vaguely disappointed by the newest-to-us "Dexter" disc. We're on episode 8 "The Damage a Man Can Do" in Season 3. If you don't have an episode guide handy, this is the one in which Dexter introduces Miguel to "the code" and Miguel, let's just say, reveals his darker nature. Shawn and I noted this morning that what we loved about the show was never the gruesome bits. What we liked was the character study of a sociopath, aka "the little wooden boy." We miss the voiceovers and Dexter baffled by human nature. We miss moments when Dexter struggles to pass.
I remain interested by Dexter's relationship with Rita, but Shawn just finds her annoying. We'll have to see if this is one of those shows, like BSG that we just quit hoping that we picked a good spot before the dancing robot montage ruins the entire experience for us.
In political news, I have to rant slightly. Hey, CNN, two local-yokel governors does not equal two seats in the House. This was not a Republican victory, okay? Also, we lost Maine, but we won Washington state. So shut up with your doom and gloom, all ready will ya? Stop buying the right's bull. Be a real news agency and report the facts: 8 dem wins, 2 republican wins. If you want to comment about "mandates", put down the facts first.
*sigh*
And I'm one of several thousand people who is disappointed with the instant run-off win in Saint Paul. Most of the people I know who voted for the "Australian ballot" have never used one. The Hugo awards are decided by instant run-off, and my personal opinion is that the second best story tends to win. I watched Eleanor lose a win for "Stellar Harvest" (the popular #1 choice according the LOCUS) because she wasn't everyone's favorite #2 spot. A friend of mine and I argued a bit about this this morning, and he suggested that politics are just going to be campaigned differently and instant run-off is going to break the Republican strangle hold on politics when two liberal candidates are up against one conservative. I said I hoped he was right, but that I'd bet he'd be disappointed the first time it happened in reverse or something that people were really passionate about hit the ballot like a divisive referendum for something like gay marriage. In those cases, I'd bet money that people will be pissed because passion will be out voted by the option everyone is "mostly okay with" and that kind of watered down answer will, frankly, suck.
But what can you do about it, eh?
I've been working on RESURRECTION CODE. I wrote a little about why this project has been so slow going for me over at Wyrdsmiths, and some time ago I had another epiphany. It's not fun writing about Mouse before Deidre and angels and all that. So, I've come up with a way for the book to be actually a sequel and a prequel. Clever, no? The important thing is that it seems to be working.
Last night, I accidentally tuned into "Biggest Loser." I've never watched a minute of that show partly because I find it beyond post-modern to be sitting on my big, fat a$$ watching other people work out and mocking them for not losing enough weight to stay on the show. The show was just about as awful as I suspected it would be, only worse, because I realized that the people most likely to be booted are the people who most need to stay on. And that just makes me sad. Shawn and I tried to figure out what people get out of watching. What's the point of that show? Is it all about seeing large people in spandex and thinking, "Thank God/dess that's not me (yet)!"? Is it for the jiggle porn?
Then we went on to be vaguely disappointed by the newest-to-us "Dexter" disc. We're on episode 8 "The Damage a Man Can Do" in Season 3. If you don't have an episode guide handy, this is the one in which Dexter introduces Miguel to "the code" and Miguel, let's just say, reveals his darker nature. Shawn and I noted this morning that what we loved about the show was never the gruesome bits. What we liked was the character study of a sociopath, aka "the little wooden boy." We miss the voiceovers and Dexter baffled by human nature. We miss moments when Dexter struggles to pass.
I remain interested by Dexter's relationship with Rita, but Shawn just finds her annoying. We'll have to see if this is one of those shows, like BSG that we just quit hoping that we picked a good spot before the dancing robot montage ruins the entire experience for us.
In political news, I have to rant slightly. Hey, CNN, two local-yokel governors does not equal two seats in the House. This was not a Republican victory, okay? Also, we lost Maine, but we won Washington state. So shut up with your doom and gloom, all ready will ya? Stop buying the right's bull. Be a real news agency and report the facts: 8 dem wins, 2 republican wins. If you want to comment about "mandates", put down the facts first.
*sigh*
And I'm one of several thousand people who is disappointed with the instant run-off win in Saint Paul. Most of the people I know who voted for the "Australian ballot" have never used one. The Hugo awards are decided by instant run-off, and my personal opinion is that the second best story tends to win. I watched Eleanor lose a win for "Stellar Harvest" (the popular #1 choice according the LOCUS) because she wasn't everyone's favorite #2 spot. A friend of mine and I argued a bit about this this morning, and he suggested that politics are just going to be campaigned differently and instant run-off is going to break the Republican strangle hold on politics when two liberal candidates are up against one conservative. I said I hoped he was right, but that I'd bet he'd be disappointed the first time it happened in reverse or something that people were really passionate about hit the ballot like a divisive referendum for something like gay marriage. In those cases, I'd bet money that people will be pissed because passion will be out voted by the option everyone is "mostly okay with" and that kind of watered down answer will, frankly, suck.
But what can you do about it, eh?
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Date: 2009-11-04 05:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-04 05:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-04 05:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-04 05:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-04 05:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-04 05:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-04 05:38 pm (UTC)i don't know why i had somehow thought it would apply to all positions up for election in st. paul. i suspect to blank out the horror that will be the logistics of the next inner city presidential election in st paul that i work. (we have a guy who speaks vietnamese passably. we have a few hmong judges, so the hmong translation is covered. the recent immigrant somali voters we pretty much hope come in in groups where one of them speaks english and can translate. last year i don't *think* we had any one get frustrated and go home without voting, but we did have a few who had to try it three times before the machine would accept their ballot.) (need more translators. yes we do.)
no subject
Date: 2009-11-05 04:12 am (UTC)