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aberwyn's Journal  Last night a wildfire swept across part of Angel Island. The wind drove the smoke south our way. This morning all the cars parked outside on our block had a coating of ash. Needless to say, I'm wheezing. The fire, mercifully, is nearly under control though there are hot spots. Fire crews had to be taken by boat over last night, and fire equipment as well. For those who don't know, Angel Island lies in the San Francisco Bay, just north and east of Alcatraz. There are several historic sites on it, a WWI fort and the Pacific version of Ellis Island, the Immigration Center, which has been undergoing restoration for the past three years. I hope it doesn't go up. This weekend had minor annoyances with the damned new Deverry book. I keep looking over bits I've written only to realize that they don't match up well with stuff in earlier volumes. Very frustrating! Flavia Catt has become a drug addict. We started giving her bits of catnip occasionally. Now she whines for it every night just before bedtime. She eats it, doesn't just sniff or roll in it. She ate so much Saturday night that she took a few steps and flopped over on her side; didn't move for a long time. I kept checking to see if she were breathing, but she did recover, thanks be to Bast. I noticed that last night she was much more temperate about it. I think she may have to go without tonight. Current mood:  wheezy.
Haven't made a will yet? Are you a writer or artist? Do read this, then: http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2006/10/i Current mood:  impressed.
I am shocked! Shocked, I tell you! I owe wyldemusick for a tip-off to the following. I then looked on Google and found plenty!Apparently the Palin was associated with the Alaska Independence Party and its now-dead founder, Joseph Vogler. He's dead because the FBI shot him when he was trying to buy plastique to blow up US government buildings. . . This party wants Alaska, and its oil resources, to secede from the US. They are now scrambling to deny that Palin ever was a member, but the evidence is there that she supported them heartily. There's quite a lot about this on the web, if anyone else cares to google for it. There is also the charge that the Party was being backed by Iran, but I've not seen any credible evidence for that. It's bad enough without Iran, frankly. Spread the word! Has Jon Stewart picked up on this yet? (evil grin) Current mood:  pissed off.
klwilliams
Current mood: amused.
How many science projects could be funded with 580 million dollars, the amount the AIG CEO plundered from his corporation? Current mood: angry.
I have this affliction, that if someone insults me, I can always think of a great rejoinder -- hours later, when they're long-gone. Yesterday we had a bit of unpleasantness on the Deverry listserv. One of the members called us all idiots and announced that he was leaving because there were others places where he could see stupidity. What I should have said was "Oh, you keep a blog?" I thought of this much too late. (The cause of the blow-up was politics; he was a True Believer far-right person.) Anyway, the one "interesting" insult he tossed whilst leaving was his hope that I wouldn't let my politics ruin my writing, "the way Sheri Tepper has." The arrogance of this is breath-taking. What are novelists supposed to do, keep all ideas out of their work and write fluff so they won't offend anyone? The simple solution is don't read the books that offend you so much, of course; don't ask the author to denature their views! I don't read Jerry Pournelle, for example. I have enough trouble with my heart as it is. :-) But I'd never suggest he stop writing what he believes in. Current mood:  wryly amused.
Watching bits of the AIG and other financial hearings in Congress is not good for my blood pressure, especially when it's intercut with news like 2 Trillion dollars gone from the retirement accounts of those who actually do the work. Yesterday I learned about credit default swaps and trips to fancy resorts, the latter paid for by you and me, the tax payers who bailed these greedy bastards, to use Jay Leno's phrase, out. Also, executive compensation for the CEO alone to the tune of 580 million dollars. That's over half a billion. More and more I think someone in Congress or elsewhere should add up all the bonuses, golden parachutes, and compensations, including perks, of the top 4 officers of these corporations. "A million here, 10 million there -- sooner or later it begins to add up to real money", to paraphrase someone who's name I've forgotten. I suspect that it would come to more than a drop in the bucket -- a couple of cupfuls, perhaps. The Big Cs of global finance: CEO, CFO, COO, and in some cases, CTO. Cancers, indeed, in the work force. Current mood: angry.
Well, when Palin confused personal income tax with the taxes on small business, then went on to her definition of patriotism, Howard and I looked at each other in disgust and turned off the debate. I have a limited tolerance for empty-headed nonsense from people who smile and smile while they talk it. I realize that the smile is her beauty-pageant-says reflex, but yuck. Imagine her talking with Putin . . . and trying to be firm . . . Current mood: irritated.
I see that the "bail-out for Wall Street" has become the "rescue of our American financial system." So someone in the Bush administration does have half a brain, after all! Amazing. The negative connotations of "bail out" are manifold, if probably accurate in this case. We'll see how the change influences people, or if it's too late. Speaking of brains, or at least of half a one, the vice-presidental debate tonight should be interesting. We'll see if Mrs. Palin has more to say on the matters presented than she did on the periodicals she reads regularly and other such "unfair" questions. :-) Current mood: cynical.
galeni* Grab the nearest book. * Open the book to page 56. * Find the fifth sentence. * Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions. * Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST. "Third, humanitas provided a description of Roman culture which also operated to define it and bind it together." (This sentence is part of a list, obviously.) From BECOMING ROMAN: The Origins of Provincial Civilization in Gaul, by Greg Woolf. Current mood: amused.
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