Is a fairly compelling opinion on the matter. Luckily, I spent the rest of the weekend surrounded by family and friends, while we ate, drank and were merry, and had a fantastic time.
And while I may tune in, I will place exactly zero blame on Georgia fans if they find something other to do than watch this game next year.
Because we're beyond explanations and logic and futility and and faith and moral victories at this point.
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No Treats, Just Tricks
It's rare that we get a glimpse into the inner workings of a hockey team. It's rarer still that we see the inner workings of a hockey team's social life. But that's what we're all about here at the Hurricane Siren-breaking boundaries and taking you where no fan has gone before. And when we can't do that, we just make stuff up. Luckily though, we didn't have to resort to lies and Photoshop to bring you scenes from the Carolina Hurricanes' 2010 Halloween Costume Extravaganza! (Ed. Note: We resorted to lies and Photoshop to bring you these scenes from the Carolina Hurricanes' 2010 Halloween Costume Extravaganza.)
The costumes were both impressive and scary. Some were frighteningly accurate and others made you wonder just what the player was thinking (and how much alcohol was coursing through his bloodstream while he was thinking). But you don't want to hear my recap of the evening when you could see some of the night's best moments! So without further ado, let's roll the tape.
As you can see, a great time was had by all, including some unexpected guests (bonus points if you leave the name of the party crasher and the scenes in which he appears in the comments). The group did the Monster Mash and the Time Warp. I even believe that I saw a few players who shall remain nameless break out into the Thriller dance. They ate ghost-shaped cookies, drank Ghoul-aid and chowed down on candy corn (no, I can neither deny nor confirm that Chad had to be sedated before they could get him into the car to go home). Tripp told both wildly inappropriate and completely unfunny Halloween-themed jokes while the band took a break. There was even a pumpkin-carving contest!
But, the best part of the evening may have been the costume parade and contest where everyone brought their best catwalk skills in order to take home the completely nonexistent trophy shaped like a pumpkin. It was a tight contest with the judges having to make a very tough decision. Honorable mention went to Zac Dalpe, Drayson Bowman and Justin Peters for their interpretation of Snap, Crackle and Pop. They almost took it home, especially when the judges realized that they carried a giant cereal bowl around all night long, but ultimately the imaginary trophy was won by our very own Stormy the Icehog. His dedication to his costume (including the false eyelashes and lipstick) really helped him edge out the competition. He definitely went whole hog (so to speak) with his costume and I'm sure he will forever keep that fake trophy on his mantle...or whatever the Icehog equivalent of that is.
It was certainly a Halloween to remember (and one some of us may wish to forget). Happy Halloween Caniacs!
The costumes were both impressive and scary. Some were frighteningly accurate and others made you wonder just what the player was thinking (and how much alcohol was coursing through his bloodstream while he was thinking). But you don't want to hear my recap of the evening when you could see some of the night's best moments! So without further ado, let's roll the tape.
As you can see, a great time was had by all, including some unexpected guests (bonus points if you leave the name of the party crasher and the scenes in which he appears in the comments). The group did the Monster Mash and the Time Warp. I even believe that I saw a few players who shall remain nameless break out into the Thriller dance. They ate ghost-shaped cookies, drank Ghoul-aid and chowed down on candy corn (no, I can neither deny nor confirm that Chad had to be sedated before they could get him into the car to go home). Tripp told both wildly inappropriate and completely unfunny Halloween-themed jokes while the band took a break. There was even a pumpkin-carving contest!
But, the best part of the evening may have been the costume parade and contest where everyone brought their best catwalk skills in order to take home the completely nonexistent trophy shaped like a pumpkin. It was a tight contest with the judges having to make a very tough decision. Honorable mention went to Zac Dalpe, Drayson Bowman and Justin Peters for their interpretation of Snap, Crackle and Pop. They almost took it home, especially when the judges realized that they carried a giant cereal bowl around all night long, but ultimately the imaginary trophy was won by our very own Stormy the Icehog. His dedication to his costume (including the false eyelashes and lipstick) really helped him edge out the competition. He definitely went whole hog (so to speak) with his costume and I'm sure he will forever keep that fake trophy on his mantle...or whatever the Icehog equivalent of that is.
It was certainly a Halloween to remember (and one some of us may wish to forget). Happy Halloween Caniacs!
Capital Investment
That's one thing about infrastructure. Sometimes the projects are big and costly, and you have to take out loans to pay for them.
While I understand the knee-jerk reaction to big ticket items, this is a mistake, and a big one. This isn't about total cost, it is about return on investment.
The worst thing this says about our nation isn't that we're spending too much money, but that we're incapable of getting Big Things done on time and on budget. Christie could have focused on implementation, and pushed through a major project. Instead, he just wants to cancel it. I can understand his reasoning, even as I disagree with it. His "solution" solves nothing.
Though I also have a problem with the way it is reported. Cancelling the project "cost" 6,000 jobs a year for a finite number of years. It "cost" a projected 45,000 jobs long-term.
Not one item, however, about the cost-effectiveness of tax dollars funding the creation and maintenance of those jobs. Not one item about how this process could be sped up or costs could be brought under control. Not one item about who the planners are or why this is taking so long or why there are expected cost overruns. Not a thing on the contractors and planners who have already collected $600 million with nothing to show for it.
(But I'd bet they all talk shit about Louisiana....)
And that's a problem. We don't have the will or budget to make major infrastructure improvements in this country because our infrastructure projects are used, politically, as temporary employment programs. There is no political incentive to get the jobs done efficiently and actually improve infrastructure even though doing so rewards you with more jobs and economic development in the long term.
Yet the GOP sees this guy as a rising star. Which tells me where they're at in this process: addressing problems uncreatively with lazy solutions that solve nothing. The problems this project was designed to solve will remain undone, the money will remain spent, and development will continue to be slowed by an unresponsive government.
Infuriating.
.
While I understand the knee-jerk reaction to big ticket items, this is a mistake, and a big one. This isn't about total cost, it is about return on investment.
The worst thing this says about our nation isn't that we're spending too much money, but that we're incapable of getting Big Things done on time and on budget. Christie could have focused on implementation, and pushed through a major project. Instead, he just wants to cancel it. I can understand his reasoning, even as I disagree with it. His "solution" solves nothing.
Though I also have a problem with the way it is reported. Cancelling the project "cost" 6,000 jobs a year for a finite number of years. It "cost" a projected 45,000 jobs long-term.
Not one item, however, about the cost-effectiveness of tax dollars funding the creation and maintenance of those jobs. Not one item about how this process could be sped up or costs could be brought under control. Not one item about who the planners are or why this is taking so long or why there are expected cost overruns. Not a thing on the contractors and planners who have already collected $600 million with nothing to show for it.
(But I'd bet they all talk shit about Louisiana....)
And that's a problem. We don't have the will or budget to make major infrastructure improvements in this country because our infrastructure projects are used, politically, as temporary employment programs. There is no political incentive to get the jobs done efficiently and actually improve infrastructure even though doing so rewards you with more jobs and economic development in the long term.
Yet the GOP sees this guy as a rising star. Which tells me where they're at in this process: addressing problems uncreatively with lazy solutions that solve nothing. The problems this project was designed to solve will remain undone, the money will remain spent, and development will continue to be slowed by an unresponsive government.
Infuriating.
.
Necronomicon 29 & More (Photo heavy)
Moon over St. Petersburg, FL, where Necronomicon was held. I managed to take this steady shot freehand, with a 1/40-second exposure at f4.
First, some news briefs...
The cover for Bloodlines is now in the running for a New Covey Cover Award, here. You can see the full set of this month's contestants here.
Examiner reviewer David Roth gave Covenant five out of five stars here. Among other things, he writes, "Without sensationalized graphic violence or the glamorized pornography of pulp romance novels, Ms. Malcohn achieves what good science fiction/fantasy is intended to do. She has created a believable world, with characters with whom you can empathize, in a good story that is well and eloquently told."
You can hear me perform my poem "Neighbors" (which appears in Vampyr Verse) as part of the Science Fiction Poetry Association's 2010 Halloween Poetry Reading, put together by Liz Bennefield. I also have some digital collage art on the page. Also among the performers: David Kopaska-Merkel reading "By the Grace of Winter's Queen," David Lee Summers reading "A Vampire's Domain," Lyn C.A. Gardner reading "House 5," Karen A. Romanko reading "Country Inn," T.J. McIntyre reading "The Revolutionary Behind the Tavern," Shelly Bryant reading "Night Falls," Stephen M. Wilson reading "Frost Bitten," Liz Bennefield reading "Alien Life," and Maria Alexander reading "The Little One" (translated from the French, "Petite"). Gardner, Romanko, and Bennefield also provide digital art.
I attended Necronomicon 29 on October 22-24, 2010 in St. Petersburg, FL. Thanks to coordinator Ann Morris and all the volunteers for a great convention!
Click below to continue...
My display included Deviations: Covenant (paperback, Aisling Press); Covenant and Appetite on CD (click here for more info and free downloads); She Nailed A Stake Through His Head: Tales of Biblical Terror (Dybbuk Press, 2010; contains my story "Judgment at Naioth"); Bram Stoker Award-winner Unspeakable Horror: From the Shadows of the Closet (Dark Scribe Press; contains my story "Memento Mori"); IPPY Silver Medalist Riffing on Strings: Creative Writing Inspired by String Theory (Scriblerus Press; contains my story "Arachne"); Oct./Nov. 2009 Asimov's (Contains my novelette "Flotsam" and poem "Derivative Work"); Vampyr Verse (Popcorn Press; contains my poem "Neighbors"); My chapbook 30 Science Sonnets for April 2010; and chapbook Divinations: Writing by the Throw of the Dice.
Thanks also to K.L. (Kathy) Nappier and her husband Richard for putting me up over the weekend and for their awesome hospitality.
Above: Kathy with her able assistant, Justine.
Andrea Dean Van Scoyoc (in the gown) poses with friends.
Several passers-by.
At three months old, Puck was already autographing his own calendar (thanks to food coloring), which sold out. Throughout the weekend he seemed fascinated with the convention, loved being held and petted, and met each day with a fresh costume change. His human Dee kept him on a leash for walks and also carried him in a homemade Kitty Snugli, while keeping food and litterbox at the ready.
David Gerrold was this year's Guest of Honor and gave a fabulous address about reading outside the genre to develop as a writer, why we have smartphones instead of flying cars, and much more.
On Saturday morning, John Tumlin and I hosted a speculative poetry workshop and reading. That afternoon, I joined Richard Lee Byers, E. Rose Sabin, and Terri Garey to talk about "Pitfalls & Traps Writers Can Avoid on the Road to Success," from the writing process through publishing.
Necro coordinator Ann Morris reads contestant entries for the Masquerade on Saturday night.
The title of this entry was "Prince of Darkness." Note "BP" on the hardhat.
The shield and costume for Captain America were all handmade.
Effect created with latex and spirit gum.
Alice in Wonderland.
I also encountered a young Iron Man.
These lovely ladies welcomed us to the Necronomi-Prom.
Dancing just starting to get underway. I headed off to bed before things really got going.
More Necro photos may be found in my photoset.
Necronomicon came on the heels of the NaNoWriMo Kickoff, the first of the Citrus County Library's three-part NaNo Series.
We had an audience of almost 30 people. Here I am with my usual wares:
I dug out my old literary tee for this place because it's purple. I wore that, along with my rainbow peace pin and rainbow kerchief tucked alongside my belt (you can just see the ends in this shot), in memory of the teens who have committed suicide over the past few weeks as a result of bullying. More info on "Wear Purple Day" is here.
I joined fellow panelists (click on the pictures to get to their bios) Loretta Rogers:
Joyce Elson Moore:
Dylan Newton:
and our fabulous attendees:
The Kickoff consisted of two sets of presentations. First, we held a genre workshop. I gave a general intro to the concept of genre and spoke about science fiction and memoir/biography. Loretta covered westerns, inspirational, and mystery; Joyce covered young adult, historical, and romance; and Dylan covered fantasy/paranormal and children's fiction. Earlier, we'd collected surveys from attendees that told us what genres and other areas they wanted us to discuss.
After a break, the second half of the Kickoff included "words of wisdom." Dylan started us off with inspiration and energy: what it takes to write 50,000 words in 30 days. (Her NaNoWriMo project became Despite the Ghosts, a paranormal romance published with The Wild Rose Press.) Joyce followed with general info on how to get published. Loretta spoke about how writers get their ideas. I brought up the rear with general guidance and helpful writing hints, and gave a preview of what we're doing for the "Write-In" next month, the second part of the NaNoWriMo series.
Thanks to Citrus County Library director Flossie Benton Rogers, reference librarian Tom Mueller, programming and youth services coordinator Karen Slaska, library staff, and Friends of the Lakes Region Library!
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Vol. 3, Deviations: Destiny
Vol. 4, Deviations: Bloodlines
Free downloads at the Deviations website and on Smashwords.
 | Go to Manybooks.net to access Covenant, Appetite, Destiny, and Bloodlines in even more formats! |
 | Participant, Operation E-Book Drop. (Logo credit: K.A. M'Lady & P.M. Dittman.) |
Culture of Fear
Scared, frightened people make less rational decisions, are more prone to misplace their priorities and are easier to mislead. Belief that crime is perpetually on the rise is part of a larger American narrative that is destroying this nation economically and culturally. Such irrational fear leads to bad decision making and mismanagement of resources. It also has political ramifications:
HT: The Daily Dish.
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Part of the reason for this divergence is what sociologists call pessimistic bias: the unshakable conviction that things are not just worse than they are, but also worse than they used to be. Humans appear to have a hard-wired tendency to compare contemporary life with largely fictitious good old days, in which all schools were top-notch, politicians had integrity, children behaved, and crime was nil.
HT: The Daily Dish.
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More Election Thuggery
In South Carolina and a brutal bit of tape from a Rand Paul event in Kentucky.
Curb stomping a political opponent? Really?
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Curb stomping a political opponent? Really?
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Your Vanishing Oil
Over? Nothing's over until we decide it is.
Well, or until the national media stops reporting it.
Nothing to see, here, please move along.
It is time for BP to blame others for overstating the damage.
Because the oil has vanished. Really, it has.
#LandOfMakeBelieve
.
Well, or until the national media stops reporting it.
Nothing to see, here, please move along.
It is time for BP to blame others for overstating the damage.
Because the oil has vanished. Really, it has.
#LandOfMakeBelieve
.
Freedom of the Press
(Tangentially related, this is the 2010'th post on Hurricane Radio.)
Everyone who talks about politics should go and get involved with their local community politics. You want better government, you have to work for it. Part of working for it is taking rational action to affect your politics locally.
That being said, one can only imagine the importance of having independent media like the American Zombie to investigate stuff most of your locals won't touch.
And that's the thing that has intrigued me the most about this episode in New Orleans. Here is one overwhelming problem with our politics - locally, statewide and nationally - that has led us to the government we have today.
Here is an independent internet investigator going through pages and pages of official documents and timelines to examine and thoroughly vet a candidate for the United States House of Representatives. This is stuff you would expect media groups with more robust resources to be doing.
But they're not.
You'd expect this to be bigger news, especially in this town. You'd expect this kind of possible scandal to be on all the talk radio and all the papers. But except for a passing mention, it isn't.
So one must beg the question: why? Why not?
First of all, these questions are being asked of the frontrunner. This guy is very likely to become New Orleans' next congressman. And in a town more suited for feudalism and patronage than the free market and results, he is poised to hold a great deal of power. If he wins, he is expected to hold the seat for a very, very long time.
No one wants to be on his bad side. Few members of the local media want to be that person who self-limits their access by investigating his past.
Moreover, as I learned this summer, many of the things being talked about were considered normal behavior on the part of state legislators of both political parties. If the frontrunner has his career options limited by this type of behavior, other powerful patrons will likely run into the same scrutiny. (Well, not really, but in theory.)
In a macro sense, these are problems that exist across the land. It is why the GOP tend to focus on marketing utopian visions of the "good ole days" countered by paranoid fantasies of what will happen if Democrats get elected. It is why the Democrats tend to focus on ethnic and labor memberships to provide their base.
Nobody really wants to fix the problems inherent in political government. And with so much power at stake, few individuals in the media are willing to expend the resources necessary to exhaustively investigate those who would lead us when A) those investigations may go nowhere, B) aren't guaranteed to increase readership from a harried population if they do, and C) result in limited access in any case.
In a perfect world, or at least a more rational one, our Democratic frontrunner for US House would be facing serious critique and examination for his qualifications. In a more rational world, our GOP Senatorial frontrunner would be facing serious critique and examination of his record, competence and ideological consistency.
But we have none of those things. Instead, we have only outrageous political advertisements and appeals to team loyalty.
And real independent, beholden to none, investigative journalism posted on the internet.
.
Everyone who talks about politics should go and get involved with their local community politics. You want better government, you have to work for it. Part of working for it is taking rational action to affect your politics locally.
That being said, one can only imagine the importance of having independent media like the American Zombie to investigate stuff most of your locals won't touch.
And that's the thing that has intrigued me the most about this episode in New Orleans. Here is one overwhelming problem with our politics - locally, statewide and nationally - that has led us to the government we have today.
Here is an independent internet investigator going through pages and pages of official documents and timelines to examine and thoroughly vet a candidate for the United States House of Representatives. This is stuff you would expect media groups with more robust resources to be doing.
But they're not.
You'd expect this to be bigger news, especially in this town. You'd expect this kind of possible scandal to be on all the talk radio and all the papers. But except for a passing mention, it isn't.
So one must beg the question: why? Why not?
First of all, these questions are being asked of the frontrunner. This guy is very likely to become New Orleans' next congressman. And in a town more suited for feudalism and patronage than the free market and results, he is poised to hold a great deal of power. If he wins, he is expected to hold the seat for a very, very long time.
No one wants to be on his bad side. Few members of the local media want to be that person who self-limits their access by investigating his past.
Moreover, as I learned this summer, many of the things being talked about were considered normal behavior on the part of state legislators of both political parties. If the frontrunner has his career options limited by this type of behavior, other powerful patrons will likely run into the same scrutiny. (Well, not really, but in theory.)
In a macro sense, these are problems that exist across the land. It is why the GOP tend to focus on marketing utopian visions of the "good ole days" countered by paranoid fantasies of what will happen if Democrats get elected. It is why the Democrats tend to focus on ethnic and labor memberships to provide their base.
Nobody really wants to fix the problems inherent in political government. And with so much power at stake, few individuals in the media are willing to expend the resources necessary to exhaustively investigate those who would lead us when A) those investigations may go nowhere, B) aren't guaranteed to increase readership from a harried population if they do, and C) result in limited access in any case.
In a perfect world, or at least a more rational one, our Democratic frontrunner for US House would be facing serious critique and examination for his qualifications. In a more rational world, our GOP Senatorial frontrunner would be facing serious critique and examination of his record, competence and ideological consistency.
But we have none of those things. Instead, we have only outrageous political advertisements and appeals to team loyalty.
And real independent, beholden to none, investigative journalism posted on the internet.
.
Your Small Government, Constitutionalist Authoritarians
Y'all remember when the most egregious political thuggery had to do with Georgians stealing political signs and covering themselves in fox urine? How we are wont to pine for those days.
I saw this news story pop several days ago, but like a lot of flashes in the pan of divisive elections, I always want to give something "controversial" a few days to settle down. Most of the time, the story isn't as bad as it first seems, or the video ends up being from the Andrew Breitbart film studios or whatever.
But the story of Joe Miller's bodyguards just keeps getting worse.
For those of you not following this one, here's the long and short of it:
Miller is Palin's candidate, the Tea Party choice. Their selling point is small government and Constitutionalism. On one side of the country, Christine O'Donnell is demonstrating that these folks may not actually know the principles of the United States Constitution; over in Alaksa, Miller is demonstrating that lack of knowledge in practice. That's two candidates of the same political group, on a Senatorial slate, with similar rhetoric, in very different states on different sides of the country. They are the inheritors of the Party that brought us the PATRIOT ACT and the last decade of hyperventilation and hyperbole.
And part of their political narrative is that President Obama and the Democrats are the illegitimately elected, secretly socialist activists who will lead us down the path to police state and government control.
Because if Miller was a Democrat, and this had happened, you'd be hearing plenty about OMG KENYAN ANTI-COLONIAL DICTATORSHIPS!!
There is another video donwpage that shows just how hairy things are getting out there in the political theatre. I wonder how much the hyperbole is affecting the way these people act?
But make no mistake, thugs exist on all sides, and should not be tolerated.
.
I saw this news story pop several days ago, but like a lot of flashes in the pan of divisive elections, I always want to give something "controversial" a few days to settle down. Most of the time, the story isn't as bad as it first seems, or the video ends up being from the Andrew Breitbart film studios or whatever.
But the story of Joe Miller's bodyguards just keeps getting worse.
For those of you not following this one, here's the long and short of it:
If it's not completely intolerable to have active-duty soldiers handcuffing American journalists on U.S. soil while acting as private "guards" for Senate candidates, what would be?
Miller is Palin's candidate, the Tea Party choice. Their selling point is small government and Constitutionalism. On one side of the country, Christine O'Donnell is demonstrating that these folks may not actually know the principles of the United States Constitution; over in Alaksa, Miller is demonstrating that lack of knowledge in practice. That's two candidates of the same political group, on a Senatorial slate, with similar rhetoric, in very different states on different sides of the country. They are the inheritors of the Party that brought us the PATRIOT ACT and the last decade of hyperventilation and hyperbole.
And part of their political narrative is that President Obama and the Democrats are the illegitimately elected, secretly socialist activists who will lead us down the path to police state and government control.
Because if Miller was a Democrat, and this had happened, you'd be hearing plenty about OMG KENYAN ANTI-COLONIAL DICTATORSHIPS!!
There is another video donwpage that shows just how hairy things are getting out there in the political theatre. I wonder how much the hyperbole is affecting the way these people act?
But make no mistake, thugs exist on all sides, and should not be tolerated.
.
Airing Fantasy Hockey Frustrations-Part 2: Honeymoon's Over
When we first met Sutterly Camtastic, they were a wide-eyed (not quite floppy-haired, but close) bunch looking forward to all the excitement of the 2010-2011 season. They weren't the best team on paper, but they had heart and a strong work ethic; fans (and their GM) really believed they had a shot.
Now things are different. The shine has worn off, the new car smell is gone and the "coolest toy in the world!" is just another cheaply made chunk of plastic covered in paint. Fans (and the GM) have started to realize just what this team is capable of and it's not pretty. It's bad. In fact, it's "oh for the love of the hockey gods, I hope we manage to avoid last place" bad. If this was an actual team, we'd be talking about firing the coach and trading players. That panic button? Smashed to smithereens by fans WEEKS ago.
It should have been apparent that this was going to be a LONG season when Brian Campbell went on the IR before the season had even started.
Then Michael Cammalleri decided the preseason would be a great time to test out his professional wrestling career potential on El Nino and ended up sitting for the team's opener. Well it couldn't get any worse could it? Ha. Clearly you don't know me. Niklas Hjalmarsson then got to ride the pine in the press box for two games for a hit from behind on Jason Pominville. I'm officially petitioning to make "dumb life choices" a stat category for fantasy hockey because my players would have that category LOCKED up.
The dynamic offense I so lovingly crafted has produced 16 goals 18 assists for a grand total of 34 points. In 67 games played. That's .51 points per game. From an ENTIRE team. Oy. :reaches for the pack of Tums beside my GM chair: Patrick Kane is the team leader in points with 6 (which ironically enough is the number of hours he remained sober this summer). He's also rocking a pretty impressive -5, although he's going to have to try a little harder if he's going to keep up with teammate Niklas Hjalmarsson who's a -7. Dude. You certainly aren't contributing offensively so let's try and play some D every now and then ok?
Speaking of defense, I'm calling you out Tyler Myers. Tyler, seeing as how you're last year's Calder Trophy winner, I understand life is difficult for you. Reporters now want to talk to you after practice and games. Your teammates have all these lofty expectations. Women suddenly want to talk to you when you're out on the town. At age 20, you haven't quite grown into your limbs yet. Plus you're freakishly tall so at least 22% of your day must be spent trying to find clothes that fit you. I get it. But, I'm going to need something better than 2 points and a -7. Calder winners can still be dropped to the waiver wire. Just sayin'.
Speaker of the waiver wire, yo Donut Hole...what the heck is going on? Prior to last night's shutout (which seemed like a stroke of pure dumb luck) you were pretty bad. That 3.81 GAA was not pretty. I know New Jersey can only afford to put 5 people on the ice per game so things are rough. But when the going gets tough, you can't turn to large amounts of Kripsy Kremes and crawl into bed. Pull it together Marty, whatever it takes. Pretend the pucks are Ding Dongs. Or maybe you could make a deal with Dunkin' Donuts; for every save you make, you get a free Munchkin. I'm not picky.
Then to kind of top it all off, I have the misfortune to report that the Sutterly half of Sutterly Camtastic is likely injured. We finally have some sort of confirmation from John Forslund via Twitter that "Sutter does not appear to be at full strength. He did practice." In my expert opinion (HA!), I think this is all the result of that awkward fall in Vancouver and having bones with the same relative diameter as a toothpick. I'm thinking some sort of wrist injury is what we're dealing with. Ugh. Give me a moment to pull myself together. (For the record, that picture is not actually from this injury, but rather "the hit" from his rookie season. But the hurt in my heart is pretty much the same.)
Now if I've learned anything from being a hockey fan, it's that the Stanley Cup isn't won in October. On the flip side of that though is the knowledge that it can be lost in October. Now I'd hate to have to throw away all of the Sutterly Camtastic: 2010-2011 Fantasy Hockey Champs t-shirts I had made up (hey there was a really good promotion going on!) so I hope everyone can pull themselves together and hit mid-season (or just any season) form soon. If not... :reaches for bottle of Jack on table next to GM chair:
Now things are different. The shine has worn off, the new car smell is gone and the "coolest toy in the world!" is just another cheaply made chunk of plastic covered in paint. Fans (and the GM) have started to realize just what this team is capable of and it's not pretty. It's bad. In fact, it's "oh for the love of the hockey gods, I hope we manage to avoid last place" bad. If this was an actual team, we'd be talking about firing the coach and trading players. That panic button? Smashed to smithereens by fans WEEKS ago.
It should have been apparent that this was going to be a LONG season when Brian Campbell went on the IR before the season had even started.
Then Michael Cammalleri decided the preseason would be a great time to test out his professional wrestling career potential on El Nino and ended up sitting for the team's opener. Well it couldn't get any worse could it? Ha. Clearly you don't know me. Niklas Hjalmarsson then got to ride the pine in the press box for two games for a hit from behind on Jason Pominville. I'm officially petitioning to make "dumb life choices" a stat category for fantasy hockey because my players would have that category LOCKED up.
The dynamic offense I so lovingly crafted has produced 16 goals 18 assists for a grand total of 34 points. In 67 games played. That's .51 points per game. From an ENTIRE team. Oy. :reaches for the pack of Tums beside my GM chair: Patrick Kane is the team leader in points with 6 (which ironically enough is the number of hours he remained sober this summer). He's also rocking a pretty impressive -5, although he's going to have to try a little harder if he's going to keep up with teammate Niklas Hjalmarsson who's a -7. Dude. You certainly aren't contributing offensively so let's try and play some D every now and then ok?
Speaking of defense, I'm calling you out Tyler Myers. Tyler, seeing as how you're last year's Calder Trophy winner, I understand life is difficult for you. Reporters now want to talk to you after practice and games. Your teammates have all these lofty expectations. Women suddenly want to talk to you when you're out on the town. At age 20, you haven't quite grown into your limbs yet. Plus you're freakishly tall so at least 22% of your day must be spent trying to find clothes that fit you. I get it. But, I'm going to need something better than 2 points and a -7. Calder winners can still be dropped to the waiver wire. Just sayin'.
Speaker of the waiver wire, yo Donut Hole...what the heck is going on? Prior to last night's shutout (which seemed like a stroke of pure dumb luck) you were pretty bad. That 3.81 GAA was not pretty. I know New Jersey can only afford to put 5 people on the ice per game so things are rough. But when the going gets tough, you can't turn to large amounts of Kripsy Kremes and crawl into bed. Pull it together Marty, whatever it takes. Pretend the pucks are Ding Dongs. Or maybe you could make a deal with Dunkin' Donuts; for every save you make, you get a free Munchkin. I'm not picky.
Then to kind of top it all off, I have the misfortune to report that the Sutterly half of Sutterly Camtastic is likely injured. We finally have some sort of confirmation from John Forslund via Twitter that "Sutter does not appear to be at full strength. He did practice." In my expert opinion (HA!), I think this is all the result of that awkward fall in Vancouver and having bones with the same relative diameter as a toothpick. I'm thinking some sort of wrist injury is what we're dealing with. Ugh. Give me a moment to pull myself together. (For the record, that picture is not actually from this injury, but rather "the hit" from his rookie season. But the hurt in my heart is pretty much the same.)Now if I've learned anything from being a hockey fan, it's that the Stanley Cup isn't won in October. On the flip side of that though is the knowledge that it can be lost in October. Now I'd hate to have to throw away all of the Sutterly Camtastic: 2010-2011 Fantasy Hockey Champs t-shirts I had made up (hey there was a really good promotion going on!) so I hope everyone can pull themselves together and hit mid-season (or just any season) form soon. If not... :reaches for bottle of Jack on table next to GM chair:
Puttin' On Airs
Timothy Noah at Slate thinks the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear should not be held because it smacks of elitism. He thinks it pokes fun at ignorant people like Tea Partiers and Glenn Beck's followers. And you know how ingorant people chafe at those elitists laughing at them.
How patronizing.
First of all, the Tea Partiers, Glenn Beck's followers, and other members of the activist right aren't stupid or ignorant. There is no biological reason for their lack of knowledge, as a movement. And they aren't ignorant, as they have been able to memorize entire universes of knowledge. If they were ignorant or stupid, it would be just plain mean to make fun of them, since they'd have no control over what they thought, bless their hearts.
However, willfull ignorance can be made fun of mercilessly, and is hardly an elitist gesture. As a matter of fact, doing so is incredibly important to moving politics forward. That's why it is a moral wrong to bully the kid with learning disabilites, but it is an essential cultural trait of functioning democracies to have individuals demonstrate in and to the public that the emperor has no clothes.
And let's face it, it isn't "elitist" to expect someone who considers themselves an expert on a topic to have at least basic reality-based working knowledge of said topic. It is high time this nation stopped turning its back on established history and fact because accepting established history and fact is somehow snobbery.
Die-hard members of any political movement are acting in willfull ignorance of at least some facts that either discredit their own arguments or they don't agree with. The thing is that right now, on a scale far greater than the politically correct mavens of the 80s and 90s, many Tea Partiers and the Glenn Beck followers of the world aren't just being willfully ignorant, they're actively celebrating it in front of the video cameras. They're so proud of their willfull ignorance, that they have become the elitists of a different universe. And they aren't content to just talk about it amongst themselves, they want to lecture everyone they know about it.
And the stuff they're lecturing the rest of us about are whoppers, let me tell you. Exposing them as whoppers is not "elitist."
I wouldn't take you seriously if you told me the Ohio State Buckeyes were still undefeated in football, so how can I take you seriously if you tell me the Supreme Court allows local school boards to inject religious doctrine into public schools; or not one drop of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico during the hurricanes of 2005; or that only Muslims can be terrorists; or that our President is a secret Kenyan anti-colonialist, who wasn't elected in free and fair elections in this country? That these are the same people who claimed the Dow would hit 30,000, that we would be "welcomed as liberators" in Iraq, and that we should do something about those pesky illegal immigrants who clean their homes.
Credibility, credibility, credibility.
But the problem does exist when your regular American-consensus conservatives start buying into these falsehoods, or when the media lets folks get away with those kinds of falsehoods without challenge. I expected real conservatives to be appalled by O'Donnell's butchering of concept, fact, and history, but that is just not happening.
We are now witnessing a wholesale destruction of the concept of historical fact, where self-proclaimed experts can say whatever they want, and people will believe them (or at least defend them) if it lines up with their political beliefs. That's not good, and it isn't OK when anyone does it.
Which brings me back to John Stewart and Stephen Colbert. At this point, satire and mockery are your last major outlet defenders of cultural democracy.
.
How patronizing.
First of all, the Tea Partiers, Glenn Beck's followers, and other members of the activist right aren't stupid or ignorant. There is no biological reason for their lack of knowledge, as a movement. And they aren't ignorant, as they have been able to memorize entire universes of knowledge. If they were ignorant or stupid, it would be just plain mean to make fun of them, since they'd have no control over what they thought, bless their hearts.
However, willfull ignorance can be made fun of mercilessly, and is hardly an elitist gesture. As a matter of fact, doing so is incredibly important to moving politics forward. That's why it is a moral wrong to bully the kid with learning disabilites, but it is an essential cultural trait of functioning democracies to have individuals demonstrate in and to the public that the emperor has no clothes.
And let's face it, it isn't "elitist" to expect someone who considers themselves an expert on a topic to have at least basic reality-based working knowledge of said topic. It is high time this nation stopped turning its back on established history and fact because accepting established history and fact is somehow snobbery.
Die-hard members of any political movement are acting in willfull ignorance of at least some facts that either discredit their own arguments or they don't agree with. The thing is that right now, on a scale far greater than the politically correct mavens of the 80s and 90s, many Tea Partiers and the Glenn Beck followers of the world aren't just being willfully ignorant, they're actively celebrating it in front of the video cameras. They're so proud of their willfull ignorance, that they have become the elitists of a different universe. And they aren't content to just talk about it amongst themselves, they want to lecture everyone they know about it.
And the stuff they're lecturing the rest of us about are whoppers, let me tell you. Exposing them as whoppers is not "elitist."
I wouldn't take you seriously if you told me the Ohio State Buckeyes were still undefeated in football, so how can I take you seriously if you tell me the Supreme Court allows local school boards to inject religious doctrine into public schools; or not one drop of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico during the hurricanes of 2005; or that only Muslims can be terrorists; or that our President is a secret Kenyan anti-colonialist, who wasn't elected in free and fair elections in this country? That these are the same people who claimed the Dow would hit 30,000, that we would be "welcomed as liberators" in Iraq, and that we should do something about those pesky illegal immigrants who clean their homes.
Credibility, credibility, credibility.
But the problem does exist when your regular American-consensus conservatives start buying into these falsehoods, or when the media lets folks get away with those kinds of falsehoods without challenge. I expected real conservatives to be appalled by O'Donnell's butchering of concept, fact, and history, but that is just not happening.
We are now witnessing a wholesale destruction of the concept of historical fact, where self-proclaimed experts can say whatever they want, and people will believe them (or at least defend them) if it lines up with their political beliefs. That's not good, and it isn't OK when anyone does it.
Which brings me back to John Stewart and Stephen Colbert. At this point, satire and mockery are your last major outlet defenders of cultural democracy.
.
Got Make Believe?
Now that we've witnessed Constitutional constructionists who don't know what's in the Constitution and Christians who don't know what the Bible says, we are exposed to history textbooks that make up history.
Shocking, I know.
We're back in the land of if-you-don't-like-the-facts-make-up-your-own.
Alternate title for this post: "They're climbing through your textbooks, they're snatchin' your people up."
.
Shocking, I know.
We're back in the land of if-you-don't-like-the-facts-make-up-your-own.
Alternate title for this post: "They're climbing through your textbooks, they're snatchin' your people up."
.
Not the Crime But the Coverup
There are a lot of folks on the right and the left who will claim their political opponents, if successful, will take us right down the road to a police state. Some claims are more credible than others. But what I don't understand is how so many folks will focus on the erosion of their rights from Washington, but won't demand accountability from government offices down the street.
Because, really, "Isn't the Blue Wall of Silence really just the most successful Stop Snitchin' campaign in history?"
You don't have to live in New Orleans for this issue to be important. It happens everywhere.
HT: Daily Dish
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Because, really, "Isn't the Blue Wall of Silence really just the most successful Stop Snitchin' campaign in history?"
You don't have to live in New Orleans for this issue to be important. It happens everywhere.
HT: Daily Dish
.
Tea Party Candidate Hearts US Constitution
But Christine O'Donnell doesn't know what's in it.
I'm sure she likes the Bible a lot, too.
No wonder the preferred campaign strategy is silence.
She also addressed her widely publicized unfamiliarity with the Supreme Court of the United States, and specific decisions made in the past:
One can only hope a sharp moderator then followed up by asking her to name one she agreed with and why.
Updated Summary: Because in a world where Christianity requires no knowledge of the Bible, and being a Constitutional Constructionist requires no knowledge of the Constitution, it stands to reason that you can use politics to convince people that a tax cut was a tax increase.
.
I'm sure she likes the Bible a lot, too.
No wonder the preferred campaign strategy is silence.
She also addressed her widely publicized unfamiliarity with the Supreme Court of the United States, and specific decisions made in the past:
O'Donnell began by defending herself for not being able to name a recent Supreme Court decision with which she disagrees at a debate last week. She said she was stumped because she largely agrees with the court's recent decisions under conservative chief justices John Roberts and William Rehnquist.
One can only hope a sharp moderator then followed up by asking her to name one she agreed with and why.
Updated Summary: Because in a world where Christianity requires no knowledge of the Bible, and being a Constitutional Constructionist requires no knowledge of the Constitution, it stands to reason that you can use politics to convince people that a tax cut was a tax increase.
.
Spooky Empire (Photo Heavy)
I was a guest at the Spooky Empire Ultimate Horror Weekend Oct. 8-10, 2010. Thanks to Linda S. Cowden (Auntie Maim) for coordinating the Author Track!
Full report follows.
Thanks also to K.L. (Kathy) Nappier for securing some superb budget accommodation at the Country Inn & Suites, a short walk from the convention's locale at the Wyndham Resort. ("Elevators!" "Continental breakfast with eggs and sausage!")
For once I got a decent sleep before the con. I took off from home around high noon and arrived about 90 minutes later at Room 212...
... where a young squirrel greeted me from the palm tree outside my window.
I'd first swung by my P.O. Box, where my membership pin from Broad Universe awaited -- just in time for me to take to wear throughout the weekend. The pins are being distributed to members in celebration of Broad Universe's tenth anniversary, but I've also just joined the organization's Motherboard (a.k.a. executive board).
I'm also wearing an Orlando Area Science Fiction Society t-shirt.
Kathy and I hoofed it to the Wyndham, where we met up with Linda to get our badges & tent cards before the Zombie Walk. Behind us was this line waiting to get into a convention that, last I heard, clocked in at around 15,000 attendees:
Below: Zombie Walk about to begin. I thought it quite a propos that the Tourist Info spot behind them is captioned, "Know Before You Go."
Much screaming soon ensued.
See my photoset for more Zombie Walk shots. Also get a load of this video, courtesy of Orlando Attractions Magazine.
Traffic had been warned:
Kathy and I repaired to Uno for dinner, where Spooky Empire had infiltrated as well -- from Young Frankenstein showing above the bar...
("Put ... the candle ... BACK!")
... to Kathy's special Spooky Empire Zombie drink eyeballing my beer.
Across the aisle, a zombie family decided to have me for dessert.
Across from Uno, the Ripley's Believe-It-Or-Not Museum lay at its usual tilt.
Back at the Wyndham, we caught a saucy performance by the VaudeVillains burlesque troupe.
John Citrone of Xomba gave a Horror Journalism workshop after the performance, with article, pitch, and review samples along with their deconstruction. For me it was an education in SEO (search engine optimization) and the special considerations of writing for the web.
My Saturday schedule included three panels, two signings at the author tables, and an interview. Kathy and I had a solid breakfast at the Country Inns & Suites, then trundled our wares to the Wyndham with a semi-mad dash across broad and busy Sand Lake Road.
I had my full complement of offerings with me but only so much room for a display, which included Deviations: Covenant (paperback, Aisling Press); Covenant and Appetite on CD (click here for more info and free downloads); Unspeakable Horror: From the Shadows of the Closet (Dark Scribe Press, Bram Stoker Award winner; contains my story "Memento Mori"); Vampyr Verse (Popcorn Press; contains my poem "Neighbors"); and She Nailed A Stake Through His Head: Tales of Biblical Terror (Dybbuk Press, 2010; contains my story "Judgment at Naioth" -- the anthology is newly reviewed here and received a starred review at Publisher's Weekly).
After the first signing I packed up my gear and high-tailed it to my first panel, "Believers, Skeptics, and Cynics," led by renowned cryptozoologist Scott Marlowe of MonsterQuest fame. We discussed where we fell on the spectrum of whether we believed in monsters, which expanded to paranormal phenomena and UFOs. With respect to monsters, I consider myself a skeptic and also questioned the language. In my view, a thin line may exist between "monsters" and species not yet formally discovered. (What would we have said, for example, about the "Hobbits" of Indonesia, prior to finding the current evidence? That said, "evidence" is also in the eye of the beholder.) Other panelists included Robert Shuster, Stokely Gittens, Vince Courtney, and Joe Garden.
From there I sat in on "Zombie Outbreak: How to Survive," where Kathy took her seat beside T-shirt Bordello's "Don of the Dead" Myers and played to a packed room:
Zombie blogger Scott Kenemore moderated the panel, joined also by Kimberly Raiser, reviewer Laura Reuther, and Rob Fox.
That left us an hour before my next book-signing and Kathy's next panel. We scooted to the Wyndham's Market Cafe, where Karen -- who if I heard correctly was serving 11 tables, all of them in a hurry -- was Positively Fabulous. She got us served, satisfied, and out of there lickety-split.
After Signing #2 I hoofed it to an interview with That Sci-Fi Show, which was broadcasting live onsite for the weekend. Thanks to Chris West and Sci-Fi Amy! My 10-minute spot begins about 20 minutes into the show's final installment on Oct. 9. Transcript to come.
Then I was off to moderate "Poetry: Spice Up Your Story," with readings and discussion among myself, Linda S. Cowden, and Sierra Costner. We told our stories of how we became poets/genre poets. I distributed literature from the Science Fiction Poetry Association. Audience members scribbled notes as we discussed markets, resources, sources of inspiration, and different poetic forms.
That brought me to 6 p.m., with one more panel to go for the day. I had a quick dinner back at the Country Inns & Suites, where I also dropped off all but my display books -- though I managed to make a sale at my 9 p.m. panel, "Villain or Victim: Which is Easier to Write?" There I joined Richard Lee Byers, Jason Surrell, Kimberly Raiser, and moderator John Catapano.
I loved this panel topic, because the line between my villain and victim can be pretty slim. One tends to turn into the other and back again. As one might expect, we all pointed out the necessity of making characters complicated, victim and villain alike, along with the pitfalls of providing too much background info that might spoil a character's mystery. Discussion crossed from literature into film, spanning from the tragedy of Frankenstein's monster to the layering of Hannibal the Cannibal.
And then -- to bed.
Sunday began with the 11 a.m. panel "Research & History Can Make or Break Your Story," moderated by historian Brett Link, with myself, Linda S. Cowden, Owl Goingback, and K.L. Nappier. Along with research methods and the importance of using multiple and primary sources (i.e., Wikipedia can be the first step, but don't make it the only step!), we discussed the advantage of having way more notes than make it into a story.
Then I pretty much laid back until my 3 p.m. signing, before heading to a final, quick Q&A panel as part of John Citrone's presentation "Writing Fiction Isn't as Hard as it Seems -- It's Much Harder." But not before I snapped this shot:
(Scott Marlowe is just in frame at lower left.)
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Vol. 2, Deviations: Appetite
Vol. 3, Deviations: Destiny
Vol. 4, Deviations: Bloodlines
Free downloads at the Deviations website and on Smashwords.
| Go to Manybooks.net to access Covenant, Appetite, Destiny, and Bloodlines in even more formats! |
| Participant, Operation E-Book Drop. (Logo credit: K.A. M'Lady & P.M. Dittman.) |
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