What lies beneath

Mt. St. Helens is still bubbling, but apparently, not in danger of erupting anytime soon, according to the People Who Know These Things. I've always been a rabid fangirl of things that go boom and shake, preferably in a very dramatic and explosive way but without minimal property damage and no loss of life. For the record, I feel same way about thunderstorms, tornadoes, and hurricanes.

While I've always considered myself a wee bit of a volcanologist*, I didn't know until Mt. St. Helens started to spew, that 'she' actually had 14 siblings in the Cascade Mountain range. That's right, 14 active volcanoes dotting the Pacific Northwest. Now, I always knew the Cascades were part of the famed Ring of Fire, but I never really thought there were more volcanoes in the PacNorthwest than Mt. St. Helens.

And certainly not 14 of them!**

Talk about sibling rivalry! Gorgeous peaks, all of them, but since Mt. St. Helens went and blew her top so explosively and decisively back in 1980 and has continued to bubble at various times since then, it's not surprising that none of the other peaks get quite the same level of attention -- especially since some of them haven't erupted in over a thousand years or more. Yes, the word 'active' is used very, very loosely here.***

The other volcanoes in the area, all of them bubbly to varying degrees, including Mt. Shasta, Mt. Hood, Mt. Baker, Mt. Rainier, and the other most recently explosive sib -- Mt. Lassen, gone volcanic back in 1914-1917. You can read more about the formation and explosive history of the 'active' Cascades volcanoes here and also, some lovely snapshots and a peak-by-peak rundown here provided by the folks currently camping out on the flanks of the unruly sister.

* Is this even a word?
** I've heard estimates of as many 20 volcanoes in the Cascades and as few as 12. Check here for a list of volcanoes; I believe Crater Lake used to be a volcano that went totally ballistic and literally imploded on itself.
*** An explosion once every 500 years just doesn't seem to cut it as 'active'; blow your top every 10 or 15 years or put out an Old Faithfulesque stream of ash and lava on an hourly basis and then we'll talk active.

The game is on!

It's all jemima's fault (tm); she introduced me to Nation States today, an online political simulation. While it's nowhere near as addictive as my other addiction, Civilization, it has the potential to get verrrrrrrrrrry interesting. Already I've applied to join the UN and have joined a new region, other than the default and oh so romantic South Pacific.

Letter from Baghdad

Wall Street Journal reporter Farnaz Fassihi wrote an email about current conditions in Iraq to 40 of her friends and without her permission, it's been circulated on the Internet. You can read the original letter -- which I highly recommend for its simple eloquence and human quality -- here.

There's been some controversy over the content of the letter, what it means to Fassihi as a reporter and you can read about more here, here, and here. Another reporter backs Fassihi's account here.

This email -- originally intended as private correspondence between friends -- paints a very different picture of what Iraq looks like, what it's actually like there now. It was no paradise under Saddam Hussein, that much is clear, but Fassihi writes I heard an educated Iraqi say today that if Saddam Hussein were allowed to run for elections he would get the majority of the vote. This is truly sad. Later, she goes on to say, I asked a 28-year-old engineer if he and his family would participate in the Iraqi elections since it was the first time Iraqis could to some degree elect a leadership. His response summed it all: "Go and vote and risk being blown into pieces or followed by the insurgents and murdered for cooperating with the Americans? For what? To practice democracy? Are you joking?"

So there you have it. The Iraqis prefer Saddam over the Americans; Saddam might be the boogey man, but at least he's their boogey man. It's not exactly the desert oasis the Bush administration would have us believe in. Somehow, we're supposed to be believe 35 UN observers can successfully pull off an election in a country increasingly overrun by insurgents. They'd like us to believe the Middle East and the United States are safer places because of the removal of Saddam Hussein. The facts tell a different story.

George W. Bush started this war, and by all rights we have to stay the course and finish the job; there is simply no other choice now. However, staying the course does not perclude a change in leadership. You do not keep a CEO who has effectively squandered his relationships with the global community, who has impacted the bottom line in not only a financially costly way, but also in one that has cost human capital and has run the country into debt -- both in a financially measurably way but also in the loss of that intangible and most valuable asset, goodwill.

Clinton may have lied about a cigar and twisted definitions around, but his loss of goodwill -- intangible asset that it is -- did not affect the way this country was run and perceived overseas. You cannot say the same about this administration. You don't give a second chance to someone who cannot take responsibility for their own actions, who say even with the intelligence we know now they would make the same decisions; we don't need that kind of rigidity and blindness in the White House. For that reason, if for nothing else, it's time for Bush to return to Crawford, for Cheney to go back to making his millions as CEO at Halliburton.

In a perfect world

There would be no such thing as abortion, but since the sad reality is otherwise, here's some startling figures on just how many women unsafe abortions kill every day. The numbers speak for themselves. For that reason, I believe it is important to keep abortion safe and legal.

My computer got SP2 and all I got was this lousy t-shirt

A good part of Sunday was devoted to Updating The Machine (tm). After about a week or so of downloads, SP2 made its apperance on my toolbar this morning, along with a nice little note from Microsoft saying, "Back up your files." Cue panic mode. Any program which requires a file back-up cannot be a good thing; in fact, given my past experiences with Microsoft, it's a Very Very Bad Thing (tm). So, I dutifully burned a copy of the contents of my hard drive to CD and then came the moment of truth: I clicked 'Install update.'

As far as I can tell, the 'back up files' was just a precautionary measure. Everything went smoothly, though the install itself took about 30 minutes and I couldn't really use the computer for anything else. There was one reboot, and when it came back, Microsoft was hammering home the 'automatic updates' (which I highly recommend if you don't already have it turned on) and also gave you the option of turning on the firewall; I'm now super double-protected from all the big bad things out there. Now if I could just get my antivirus to update, I'd feel a lot less like I'm surfing the internet superhighway* without a big red target on my back.

Link of the day: Get a real browser here.

* Doesn't that phrase just sound like nails on a chalkboard? ::shudder::

All dressed down and somewhere to go

I realized tonight I have absolutely nothing to wear to go 'out'. This is not to imply I run around naked, but rather that my staid, boring wardrobe (read: Casual Corner, Gap, with shades of Banana Republic and Ann Taylor) is no match for a night out on the town. Add a recent weight loss which leaves my pants sagging somewhere past my hips and given that many of my shirts are in the snug-fitting category, it's a little precarious: there's now a little gap of skin between pant and shirt and I spend an amazing amount of time performing the Picard Maneuver. Up pants, down shirt! It's an all around sad, sad -- if not energetically aerobic -- story. (mental note: buy a belt).

The old!Seema would have taken the lack of cool going out wardrobe as a reason to stay home and curl up with a good novel. The new!improved!Seema put on a pair of saggy pants (Gap!) and a rather boring sweater (Ann Taylor!) and went out. Of course, the whole time I was out, I was trying desperately not to stand up or move around as not to reveal the saggy pants situation. And I was also hoping for a dark corner, because yo, I'm still a wee bit sensitive about the hair.

But the night was warm, the plaza was full of people and the food filling, if not extraordinary. I talked the night away, and the company talked back to me. I found myself out of water, my throat parched, and somewhere between the time the waiter took my empty plate away and when the police said it was time to get going, kids, I realized the saggy pants and boring sweater didn't really matter; I was out and feeling like myself, more so than I have in a long time. It felt, in a word, good.

Phone confessions

Things you should know:

• When my phone rings, it sounds like a doorbell. The doorbell sound is my own fault; one afternoon, while taking a nap, the phone rang. Three times. Three times telemarketers. Not even people I like, but telemarketers rousing me from my Saturday nap. Fie! Fie on you telemarketers! I tried to turn the ringer off but you see, my dad got me a New High Tech Shiny Phone that requires an engineering degree to master; as we all know, I do not have an engineering degree -- I am a business major, for goodness sakes. So I thought I turned off the handset, but instead transferring the phone ring to the base and I can't figure out how to turn off the base.
  
  
• The doorbell sound causes some problems because I can't figure out if it's a fundraising teen at my door or a telemarketer. The end result: I screen phone calls! Forgive me! If you call between 6 and 9 pm on my landline, I'm automatically going to assume you want to sell me health insurance at a fraction of the cost. Mea culpa in advance!
  
  
• I hate call waiting with a passion. There's nothing you can say to me that will convince me otherwise. I always feel second-best when I talk to people with call waiting. "Hey," they say, "can you hold on? I'm getting another call." And then a few seconds later they say, "Oh I really need to talk to this other person, bye!" Humph. So, if both my cell phone and landline are busy, I'm talking to someone who needs my full attention or I'm busy and can't come to the phone; so leave a message. I promise, when I'm done with whoever I'm talking to or whatever I'm doing, I will call you back and give you my full attention.*
  
  
• I find it hard to sit still while talking on the phone. Which is why most of my housecleaning happens while on the phone. I don't vaccuum, obviously, but dishes are fair game, as is mopping/sweeping the floors, and changing out linens and doing laundry.
  
  
• And I'm ashamed to admit I don't answer the phone during some of my favorite shows. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I should be a better person and not let the boob tube rule my life, but it goes back to giving the person I'm talking to my whole attention. I mean, would you really want to compete with The Donald's Boardroom? Or Tribal Council? Or the Cool Navy Show With Fighter Planes and Pretty People? I didn't think so.
  

Linkage: File under 'Hello, pot!' Bush's Top Ten Flip-Flops. Thanks to Lori for the link!

*Or you can do like Florida Girl, when she really needs my attention, which is to call my cell phone every five minutes. Dilligence like that, I'm bound to notice.

Media and language

Yesterday, while watching the news on PBS, a report on rising crude prices caught my attention. The reporter at one point said words to the effect of "analysts blame increased demand from China as a factor..." I remember thinking, "Wow, loaded word." Blame China? Fault China? For what? For being an emerging economy and a developing market that everyone wants a piece of? Perhaps, free of bias, it would have been better to say, "analysts point to China's increased demand for crude supplies." The question is whether any US-newscast would ever say "Analysts blame the US for rising prices due to fuel consumption of SUVs and other fuel-inefficient cars." I doubt it.

Biased language isn't limited to the political, but also to the nationalistic, whether intentionally or not. In fact, language varies from country to country; an easy example would be how US-based media describe those participating in uprisings in Iraq as "insurgents" or "rebels." But check the same stories on foreign media -- especially articles from non-aligned countries -- and see how the language changes. For instance, some articles will refer to those thorns in America's side as "freedom fighters" and "resistance fighters." It's an interesting contrast, especially if you consider that many Americans consider our troops in Iraq to be the true freedom fighters.

Living through you

When people are successful, you can take heart and encouragement from what they've accomplished. I think it's easy to look at someone you identify with and say, "Hey, the did it, so can I!" In theory, that's how it works. But here's the tricky part -- we've all accomplished something other people want to accomplish. We all have something someone else wants. The key is how to motivate without slipping into condescension and it's hard to get that tone -- not to mention, the timing of the message -- exactly right. What moves one person into action may not necessarily work on another person at all, and heck, may insult another person all together.

I appreciate the unsolicited pep talks as much as the next person, but there are also times when I just want to say, "Hey, that's what worked for you and it's not necessarily what will work for me. We're different that way. Please acknowledge that." While vicarious living is one to follow an example, it's important to remember we don't all work the same way and no one has the surefire consistent formula that will equal the success you want; the key is to do what makes you happy and satisfied.

One of these days, when I'm my own girl and I've figured all this out, I'll let you know my secret.

Looking alert

I blogged sometime ago about what I thought made a successful blog. I neglected to mention that while you can go in with good intentions on being a) personal or b) relevant, you can't always guarantee the steady stream of content on either front. In fact, to come up with a new topic every day to blog about that fits under either category can be difficult and possibly why some blogs eventually bite the dust; some people will argue if you want to be successful at writing -- whether fiction or blogging -- you have totreat it like a job -- whether you want to or not.

All of this build-up to admit the truth to you: I do 'can' blog entries. I save things that catch my attention, I write entries when I have a free moment, and I brainstorm to figure out what I want to blog about next. Sometimes, the entries -- such as the recent Hair Gate ones -- are right off the cuff, based in the now. Others, like this entry, have been written and saved at some time in the recent past.

So, without further adieu, I present to you the slightly dated, but still eloquent and expressive Michael Moore on why the GOP doesn't reflect America

Hair update

Thanks to everyone for their support during Hair-gate. Update: the hair is, in a word, strange, but I'm slowly getting used to it; it's apparently not a good idea to re-dye your hair within 24 hours, so, the color is still there. I've found if I comb it a certain way, the most egregious splotchiness isn't that visible. My friends say it isn't as bad as I think it is, and over time, I'll get used to it. One friend said no one will notice.

She means well, she really does.

I just shudder to think what I'll look like tomorrow beneath those harsh fluorescent lights at work; I just hope my co-workers are kind enough not to laugh in my face.

Hair be dragons

Here's the deal -- my hair hasn't been its natural color in quite a while, but at the same time, it had grown out a bit so I thought, hmmm, let me fix that. So I went to the store, found out they no longer make my hair dye and they said, "Here, try this, it's the same thing except NEW! IMPROVED! Fifty percent more free! And oooh, shiny pretty box!" What I didn't realize was the New!Improved!Fifty Percent More Free! was also insta-hair dye. The last hair dye barely would work, and after 30 minutes, I'd maybe see faint results. Not with the NEW!IMPROVED! hair dye; it gives insta-results in about 30 seconds. I keep walking back into the bathroom as my hair dries to see perhaps if the shade isn't as bad as it seems on initial look, and there's some slightly improvement, but people, the horrifying truth remains: I've gone red-blond.

Think about that for a moment.

This New!Improved! formula has turned thick black hair... red-blond.It wouldn't be so bad if it was uniformly red-blond, but unfortunately, it is splotchy red-blond, as if the dye decided to work sometimes and not other times. Wah! I have a very laissez-faire attitude towards my hair -- it's thick, dark, curly, unmanageable -- and so I usually tell it, "Do what you want, I'll just deal." Well, for the first time in my life, I'm thinking I'll put a hat or scarf on and NEVER TAKE IT OFF.

Thar she blows!

In honor of the super weird freaky hurricane season we've been having, you can read about the 'perfect storm' here. Pretty neat reading. You can find out more about the 'ingredients' that contributed to this storm here.

It's baaaaaaaaaaaack!

It's not a big surprise, given the rate we've been invading countries at lately, but there's a bill pending in the legislature to bring back the draft and this time, the women get to go too. To wit:

Universal National Service Act of 2003 - Declares that it is the obligation of every U.S. citizen, and every other person residing in the United States, between the ages of 18 and 26 to perform a two-year period of national service, unless exempted, either as a member of an active or reserve component of the armed forces or in a civilian capacity that promotes national defense.

If you're interested in learning more about this bill, visit Thomas (aka the US Congress) and enter 'HR 163' into the search engine. You can read all about the new 'draft' there. More news here.

I'm not entirely convinced this will pass, not when the majority of Americans are against the draft. But here's the bottom line: America is stretched thin. We're fighting wars in Afghanistan -- why yes, there is still a war there -- and there's one in Iraq. Neither situation is getting better anytime soon. We can't pack up our bags and say "It's been real, kids, see ya." We're stuck. We're stuck over there for years and someone has to go over there and fix this mess. And if people aren't volunteering, then the only way to get soldiers out there is to make them go.

That being said, I'm no supporter of the draft. In fact, I think the people who voted for this war, who sanctioned this war, who promoted this war -- I think they're the ones who ought to take a turn at the front line. And I don't mean just a quick secretative in and out visit; I mean an honest to God tour of duty. And if not them, then their offspring. Now there's a bill I could get behind.

And you know what? If my suggestion went into effect as part of this new bill, I bet we'd stop invading countries unilaterally too.

Linkage

Language and the presidency: neat article on rhetoric and explains just how, even with mangling his native tongue, W still manages to to tell Americans what they need to hear and believe in order to follow him, even when his words belie the truth. Thanks to T'Other Liz for the link.

In other news, one of my favorite shows, "The Amazing Race," has come to a satisfying end. Read who won here. Needless to say, I'm pleased as I really did like the winners (g).

My favorite things

What are your favorite things? Here are a few of mine, because some days, it's nice to think of the things that make you happy:

• A good, book that makes me want to curl up in bed and stay up just a little longer to read more
  
• Fresh coffee
  
• Comfortable shoes
  
• Trying a new restaurant and discovering that I really, really, really like it
  
• Those spurts of creativity when writing just seems so 'easy'
  
• An unexpected phone call from a friend/family member whose voice I haven't heard in a long time
  
• Skirts and dresses -- I love wearing them, especially since they are easier to iron than pants
  
• Funny people are always nice to be around because they make me laugh and I'm always in awe of their wit and how clever they are
  
• A 'fresh' episode of one of my favorite television shows. I don't have many so I definitely appreciate when something new comes along!
  
• Waking up in the morning and feeling 'wide awake' rather than sleepy and cranky.
  

So, these are just a few of my favorite things. Hopefully I will have more to share with you later. But for now, I must indulge in what is probably my most favorite thing of all: a good night's sleep.

The Truth is Out There

I've been working my way through the X-Files at a pretty good clip and I've finally gotten to that point where I've already seen most of the episodes and so most of these are now familiar. I started watching the first time around somewhere in season 5 -- probably "Redux I" & "Redux II". The obvious 'shippiness drew me right in and that was that. However, watching from season 1 straight through to season 7 (where I am now), it's funny how my ideas of the relationship between Mulder and Scully have changed and I can see the evolution now, and how they've changed as people (I still can't forgive Chris Carter for season 9's Weepy!Scully though).

The X-Files is unbelievably well-written, so smart, so clever, and every now and then, it tells an absolutely amazing story -- for example, "Milagro", which is one of those episodes that really gets me every time I watch it. And oh, the acting isn't so shoddy either -- witness "The Field Where I Died" or "The Pine Bluff Variant". If I had to pick a season that has kept me absolutely riveted from begining to end, it'd be number 5, but season 1-5 are all amazing. I'm not as fond of seasons 6-9, for a variety of reasons, and perhaps it's the change from Vancouver to LA that changed the feel of the show to an extent, but perhaps it's also that you can start to see the weariness in David Duchovny's countenance.

It seems weird to go on about a show that's been off the air for two years now, but perhaps that's the truest test of time -- that the episodes still feel fresh and nuanced, and make me profoundly sad that I only have one set of DVDs left (I have season 9 on VHS) as rarely have I enjoyed two characters as much as I have Mulder and Scully.

When the editor wasn't looking

I recently finished Undue Influence by Steve Martini, and it's one of those books that could be really, really good if an editor had simply taken a cleaver to it and cut down about a third of the text. Christine suggested that to me not too long ago, and it's now a guideline I try to follow when I'm writing. Martini, who is overly fond of explanations, repetition and metaphors, could have done the same.

I'm not really going to talk about the plot of the book or even review it, because it's the stylistic tics that really interest me (or rather, got under my skin). I first read this book quite a while back and Martini's style didn't grate on me then as it does now. The thing is, Martini doesn't just do things once or twice -- he does it multiple times so if you didn't get his initial cleverness, you have 80 gazillion additional opportunities to pick up on it throughout the text. Given the blundgeoning effect of these tics, I'd suggest avoiding them in your* writing at all costs or at least, use very, very sparingly. Examples**:

Page 149: "Then again," she says. "I can't tell you." She's looking at the ceiling, a pained expression.

The fact the statement is a little too short to actually break up effectively is nitpicky, but what is annoying is the 'a pained expression' part -- which describes *nothing*. Yes, there's a logical leap that Martini is describing the speaker's facial expression, but in general 'pained expression' doesn't really give the reader much to go on. And the sentence construct is just, in a word, painful.

Page 232: At this moment, when I look at Laurel I am moved by the fact that she is consumed with the fervor of the battle, in the way Joan of Arc led the troops before being fried at the stake.

Yikes! Holy metaphor, Batman! Now, this wouldn't be so bad if Martini didn't depend on similes/metaphors/cliches so often to carry his descriptions. By this point in the book, every single one of these gets right under the skin. Not only that, there's the problem of trying to be clever with the metaphor and it fails miserably. Fried? Not quite the 'write' description in the first place.

Page 266: "What is it ya wanna know?" He's making microscopic notes with a ballpoint pen, light ink-squiggles on the back of the picture.

Here's where an alert editor would have been a Very Good Thing (tm). A great example of redudancy combined with an acute awareness of the obvious. There's no reason to include 'ballpoint pen' because it really adds nothing, especially when you have 'light ink-squiggles' coming right after it. Also, 'makes' doesn't really fit the action here -- another more obvious verb will work better. In addition to its other crimes, the sentence itself is passive. It'd be so easy to tighten this up to: He writes in light ink-squiggles on the back of the picture or He writes microscopic notes in light ink-squiggles on the back of the picture.

Page 62: "It isn't the money. That ran out a month ago. Laurel passed me two bad checks since," she says. "Bounced and skipped like flat stones on a pond," she tells me.

Oh heck. We've got reptition and simile both in the same paragraph. When a person speaks without interruption, there's no need to throw in an additional phrase saying so unless there's some lengthy description interrupting the two statements. In this case, there isn't, so the second 'she tells me' is absolutely unnnecessary.

Page 178: Twenty minutes later, over the scent of a freshly brewed French roast, Dana is studying the contents of the note written by Kathy Merlow and the envelope it came in.

The sentence is passive*** and it wouldn't be so annoying if it wasn't for the fact Martini starts nearly every section in this way. Tighten it up to: Twenty minutes later, over the scent of a freshly brewed French roast, Dana studies the note Kathy Merlow wrote and the envelope it came in.

Page 119: Head slowly shaking. "No. I didn't know they had."

Whose head is 'slowly shaking'? This is a random body part -- it's always good to attach the body part to the owner. Plus, it's a fragment of a sentence. Complete sentences -- ones with subject, verb, and noun -- are always preferable, though fragments can occasionally be used for stylistic purposes.

Page 89: "Oh." An expression like leprosy is now stalking her beyond the screen door.

Good grief. Leprosy is a disease, not an expression descriptor, and unless this woman is about to get leprosy right there and then, there's no reason for it to be stalking her. Another example of how a simile can get totally off base and say *nothing* at all.

Page 232: "Tell me about Jack's operation." I'm talking about the vasectomy.

::facepalm:: Martini does this a lot. He'll use a piece of dialogue and then follow up with an additional explanation of what was just said. At this point in the book, we know about the vasectomy and even if we didn't remember, the word 'operation' coupled with Jack's name should make it fairly clear what the narrator is referring to. There is *no* reason to drive it home. If Martini wanted to be even more clear than 'Jack's operation', perhaps he could have written: "Tell me about Jack's vasectomy."

Page 137: The thing Jack lives for, power, will be drained from his bones like some leaking, dead battery in a discarded toy.

The sentence speaks for itself. Now imagine reading nearly 500 pages of text with writing like that liberally littered throughout. You* probably would go insane as well. My reaction, btw, was that I wanted to kick the narrator because he was rapidly getting on my nerves. I wanted to scream, "You're about as clever as a block of wood mildewing in the kitchen sink." Why, yes, I do have strong feelings about this book, why do you ask?

I don't deny Martini spins a good story, but some of the elements have a real way of bogging down the narrative and making the reader stop and go, "Huh?" None of this stuff is insurmountable -- only requires a good editor to rein it all in. I'm still giggling over the leprosy thing.

* 'You', of course, is generic.

** Examples are literally taken randomly. I didn't mark them through my initial read. I just opened the text as I was typing this up and found an example on each page I turned to. Kind of scary, isn't it?

*** Yes, I am aware of the passive sentences in this entry.

Link of the Day

I meant to write something amusing today, but unfortunately, time has run away from me and so I have to concede defeat and instead direct you to another blog, written by a girl in Iraq: Baghdad Burning. Check it out -- see what an Iraqi has to say about what's going on in her world. Sometimes we get so focused on the American POV, what is happening to us, that we forget there's a whole country out there, with people who laugh, sing, shout and cry just as we do.

Sometimes it just doesn't pay to get out of bed

In other words, I fear I must issue a correction on a previous blog entry. How awful is that? Issuing a correction is bad enough, but in a blog? A venue that is completely a self-serving, subjective, biased, unresearched soapbox? And yet, I find myself issuing a correction. Mind you, the misinformation in this blog probably didn't harm anyone or cause anyone to lose any sleep or money. And yet... yet, I'm issuing a correction.

Here it is:

Gerald Ford was president when I was born, not Jimmy Carter. During the time Ford was president, I discovered how to stuff both feet in my mouth, grew hair, and generally gurgled. By the time Carter took office in '77, I'd advanced from crawling to walking, and spent every other minute asking, "'appen?" In answer to that question, a correction happens when you don't check your facts first. It's all terribly embarrasing, especially in an election year.

So ends the first (and hopefully) last correction in this blog.

Friday Five on a Tuesday

Gacked from Elise:

1. It the election were tomorrow, who would you vote for?

This is actually still kind of up in the air, but I'm leaning towards John Kerry. I'm thinking about writing in Howard Dean or Hillary Clinton.

2. What are the main things that lead you to vote for a certain person?

If I vote for any of the above people, it's because they are Democrats who hold certain views as I do. It's very rare that I vote for an individual because I 'like' them. I prefer to vote on the issues and 90 percent of the time, that means I'm going with the Democrats, whether I think the candidate is a putz or not.

3. Where do you get your info on the candidates?

Television, newspapers, news magazines, Internet and conventions. I don't pay attention to political ads on television, by the way, regardless of party or candidate. I do not believe in attack ads, and I do not think they are productive or reflective of a candidate's values or what they will actually do in office. In fact, attack ads make me view the candidate making the allegations in dimmer light -- and yes, that applies to Democrats as well.*

4. Who was president when you were born?

Jimmy Carter

5. If you could choose anyone, dead or alive, to be president, who would it be?

Hmmm. I think I'd go with Hillary Clinton. Now, before you spit up your coffee all over your keyboard**, let me explain. She is a strong, capable and independent woman who has strong convictions as well. She has drive, intelligence, motivation and she's articulate. While there are parts of her personality that are probably a little rough around the edges, as a role model I find her refreshing. And since this is a meme -- aka a pipe dream -- I'll go ahead and advance the idea that for a country that claims to be progressive, it's been more than 200 years since the birth of the nation and we still haven't entertained the possibility of a serious female contender. And so yeah, Hillary Clinton. If other nations -- UK, India, Ireland, for example -- can do it, what's keeping America from doing the same?

*This also applies to the blog. While I make very clear my political preferences here, I will do my very best to keep the blog positive. I have no desire to impunge the name of any of the candidates; I think they do a pretty good job of that themselves.

** Not responsible, btw, for any damages to keyboards while reading this blog.

Things that make you go hmmmm...

I can't remember if I've blogged the cost of war calculator or not, but even if I haven't, it's a good reminder of what Iraq is actually costing not only the country, but also broken down by state and community. Another thing I learned over the weekend was apparently the Taliban are back in Southeastern Afghanistan and are still putting up heavy resistance. It's even a toss-up over whether the Taliban will wreck havoc on the upcoming elections. I dunno about you, but why head into Iraq when we haven't finished the job in Afghanistan?

I had no idea -- my first clue came from this article from the Asia Times. After googling for quite a bit, I came up with not a lot in the American media, but plenty from the foreign press. Are we not actually supposed to realize the war in Afghanistan is far from over? That we're actually engaged in not one, but two excercises in nation-building? It boggles my mind. Talk about the ultimate flip-flop -- George W. Bush wanted nothing to do with nation-building and yet here he is, going at two nations once. Just something more to think about. You can't paint John Kerry as a flip-flopper without smearing W with the same brush. But don't take it from me. Read here about what might be if we hadn't gone into Iraq.

It's all geek to me

I've been having ISP problems for the last couple of months, but they got really bad over the last couple weeks to the point yesterday, I could only chat on AIM (Hi, Mad Chatters!) and not actually get online; every website I clicked on came back with a message similar to: 'http://www.cnn.com could not be resolved'. Considering the Internet is as dear to me as water, air and blood, this was a no-good solution, and I was thinking about firing my ISP -- doesn't our relationship, after three years, mean anything to you? -- and going with the super fast DSL. (I actually had a theory that my ISP problems started shortly after I ordered DSL the first time, and the ISP got all jealous and cranky and refused to work. You'd think DSL would have the opposite effect).

So I called tech support. Now, there are good tech people and there are bad tech people. Since my ISP went call-center, it's been an even mix of both. So obviously, I dialed with trepidation, explained my problem and then the conversation went something like this:

"Are you online?"

"Yes."

"So open Internet Explorer."

"I don't use Internet Explorer. I use Mozilla."

"Mozilla?"

Uh-oh.

After a rough WTF is Mozilla start and a mix-up in instructions with IE, tech boy got it together and had me clear my cache, dump my cookies, and then restart the computer. And then came the magic. The magic of ipconfig /flushdns. Apparently Windows XP caches the old IP address everytime you go out there, even if it doesn't resolve, and after that, no matter what, you get the old IP address, even if it has changed. You can run ipconfig /flushdns from the cmd line to clean out your DNS cache on your system and then, like me, you too can zoom along the Internet Super High Way. You can read more about this issue here. I know at least one of the Mad Chatters has had this problem and thankfully, it doesn't mean you have to fire your ISP, just clean house.

Bwahahaha!

Cheney Says eBay Numbers Missed In Economic Figures

Moment of silence

Earlier this week, the US body count in Iraq surpassed 1,000. Meanwhile, Iraq Body Count says the number of civillians dead exceeds 11,000. The numbers -- and the results -- speak for themselves.

It's how you play the game

I'll be honest -- there are very few reality shows I've seen I haven't adored and as such, I'm a horrendous armchair strategist.
You won't ever see me toughing it out in some tropical paradise, wearing the same bathing suit day after day, nor will you ever catch me eating squirmy live tomato worms. And while "The Amazing Race" amazes, I haven't the guts to go sky diving or sledging down a waterfall. But that doesn't stop me from shaking my fist at the television at the people brave enough to do these things (I mean, really, tomato worms?) and say, "What are you thinking?" (The most recent edition of "Survivor" is a perfect example; good grief, people, break up Rob and Amber already!).

I freely admit I haven't the gumption ( or the wardrobe) to be on a reality show, but you should definitely try it so I can sit in my recliner and cheer you on. I mean, c'mon, it's the opportunity of a lifetime. If you do choose to go, keep these 10 tips in mind before you head off in search of 15 minutes (or a season) of fame and fortune. It could be the difference between $1 million and walking away with nothing. Go go go!

The 99% perspiration part

I've been doing a lot of editing lately, and not so much writing. As some of you know, I hate editing with a passion. It's a cruel, cruel thing to do to excise large parts of text, to change out other parts, add detail -- you get the idea. Writing is hard work, but I think editing is harder; it's the less fun part of putting together something that is readable and enjoyable.

Last fall, in my writing workshop, the question of how to self-edit came up. I have some guidelines I follow when I edit, and I've listed them below. By no means is this how you're supposed to edit, it's simply the way I edit. Everyone has a different way of doing and looking at things. In a nutshell:

• Make sure every sentence has a verb, noun and subject and that they make sense.
  
• Make sure every sentence ends with some kind of punctuation mark. There should be *no* double or even triple punctuation.
  
• Check spelling
  
• Remove 'that' from most sentences.
  
• Rewrite passive sentences
  
• Check to make sure there is a good balance of external and internal dialogue. In other words, I need to make sure I know where the characters are positioned in each scene and what they are doing as well as what they are thinking and feeling.
  
• Along the same lines, there should also be a balance between exposition and dialogue. Too much of either will bog the story down.
  
• Especially in a short story, make sure every element is there for a reason. As one of my writing teachers once said, "If there's a gun over the mantle in the first act, it'd better be fired by the third."
  
• Make sure the action starts as close to the climax as possible. If I have to start the story too far out, then I'm either in the wrong place or telling the wrong story.
  
• Check to verify all elements of the story -- character, plot, conflict, climax, resolution -- are present and that they flow nicely from one detail to another.
  
• Be absolutely brutal with the delete button. Sometimes things, no matter how well-written or loved, just don't work. Delete, delete, delete. Someone once told me to cut out a third of every story once completed, and while that might be a little harsh, I think it's good to go into it with the *idea* the story needs to be made more succinct.
  
• Wait. Seriously. Wait three or four days and then take another look. The waiting period helps kill off any gremlins hiding in the prose, things I might have missed the first time around. When I go back for the second edits, I follow this same list of steps. I might wait again for another day or two after that -- it really just depends on my mood.
  

There you have it. If anyone else has other ideas, feel free to share. Again, this is just what *I* do. It always helps to have a second pair of eyes to go over the story, the more critical the better. However, remember the final judgement of what stays and what goes belongs to the author. Still, it never hurts to whack a few paragraphs just for the heck of it. And speaking of whacking, I've got some 7,000 words to cut out of a story and unfortunately, all of the 'thats' are already gone. Wish me luck!

Love is in the air

There was a lot of honeymooning cut short this weekend as I drove west first and then back east. I've always believed if you're going to call it a relationship, it's best to do it in a spectacular, gut-spattering way. Of course, I meant that all figuratively, not literally. However, try to tell that to the members of the insecta kingdom*, who in the throes of their delirious passion, ended up splat on my windshield and the front of my car, complete with gravel-like sound effects. I tell you, there's nothing more frightening than a black cloud of insects kamikazing themselves against your windshield, leaving behind little bits and white smeared stuff which I suspect is the insect form of blood, but not being a biology major, couldn't tell you for sure.

The insects got their revenge as I headed back. I stopped to get some gas, not far from where I had first met the swarm heading east. I hadn't even gotten out of the car before they started to attack me, a la Alfred Hitchcock. I flailed at the bugs, somehow managed to start the pump, and ran towards the grocery store, screaming about the bugs. Meanwhile, other people were standing around as if there weren't 80 gazillion mating bugs attacking their cars, children, dogs, etc.

One woman looked at me oddly as a particularly amorous couple landed on her arm and said, "Well, yes, there are a lot of bugs. So what?" I just looked at her -- as best as I could while still doing jumping jacks to avoid the bugs -- and asked, "Haven't you seen 'The Birds'?" She just stared at me and I made a run for it. You can't say I didn't do my part to warn my fellow human beings about the insect threat.

I managed to leave the parking lot with only one mating couple inside of my car. Luckily, they were so in love, they didn't get much further than the window, so it was easy to shoo them out once I was on the road. As I continued to drive, I thought it was interesting how the bugs continued to fly madly two by two, when obviously it'd be more aerodynmic and efficient to attack the humans as individuals -- not to mention, the two-by-two method was obviously the more suicidal one as they continued to bust up against my windshield. Who knew the insect world had Borg characteristics? Unlike the Borg, however, it doesn't appear the insects learn from their mistakes; I was far from being the only one with bug guts all over my car. Poor buggies.

I can't help but think insects -- other than the windshield thing -- have it really easy when it comes to relationships. They probably sit there with their checklist saying, "Wings, yup, atennae, yup, six legs, yup, a little short in the thoracic cavity, but hey, he's got a really orange head. Let's hook up." Bugs simply don't have the luxury of time, to be able to sit around and contemplate various candidates for happily ever after.

Whereas with people, it's so much more complicated and we sit around wondering** if person A we just met is "the one" or even though person B meets all of the checklist requirements, is that really enough? We should probably just take a lesson from the insect kingdom and just go for it. None of this five-year dating and two-year engagement stuff. Just meet, decide if the other person meets your basic requirements and vice-versa, and just go for it -- you'll*** have the rest of your lives to figure out whether you actually like each other. Some will argue this is probably a recipe for human relationships to go splat on the windshield; I argue it's a biological imperative and probably a lot less confusing.

* I don't know much about bugs, but maybe some bug lovers out there can identify a flying insect with an orange head, and two body sections. And oh yes, they have white insides.

** I honestly don't think paleolithic man and woman sat around contemplating relationships either. They probably just grunted at each other a few times, paleolithic man presented the paleolithic woman with a bison instead of a diamond ring and that was that. I'm just sayin'.

*** I mean this in the most generic of ways.

To whom it may concern

Dear Sir/Madam:

You may not know me, but I'm the owner of the dark green Toyota parked yesterday between the hours of 6 pm and 8:30 pm at the Uptown shopping center. You may have seen my car briefly outside of Ann Taylor or maybe you noticed the car outside of Champs American Grill. Either way, sometime between those hours, you absconded with my John Kerry bumper sticker.

My knee-jerk reaction is that you might be a Bush supporter and perhaps you didn't like the idea of a Democrat driving around this heavily Republican enclave. My second thought was that you were a Kerry supporter and couldn't afford the $2 necessary to purchase a bumper sticker of your own; if that is indeed the case, you're welcome to the bumper sticker, and if I may say so, you need John Kerry more than I do. So fret not -- hope is on the way!

I figured an open letter on the Internet would be a good way to let you know how I feel about the theft of my John Kerry bumper sticker. Perhaps you'd like a little bit of history on how that sticker came to be on my car. Originally, you see, I was a Dean supporter, and I drove around triumphantly with Dean's name affixed to my car's rear end. Then after the spectacular implosion and howling antics in Iowa, Dean's name came off and my car felt curiously naked. You should understand, that until this year, I was firmly against bumper stickers. Nothing marring the paint on my car, thankyouverymuch! But I felt it was very important this year to express my views.

You see, in the last election we had here, back in 2002, not a single person I voted for -- with the exception of the state controller -- won. In one way, it makes me feel all self-righteous and elitist when our legislature does something completely whacked, I can remove myself from their actions and say, "Not my problem! Didn't vote for those clowns." But at the same time, there's the realization that my vote has disappeared somewhere into the ether and there's nothing I can do about that in the near future -- short of moving to Massachusetts -- and that makes me unbelievably sad. Hello, my name is Seema and I'm a disenfranchised voter.

I'm a yellow dog Democrat, so I felt I had to say something, because I was feeling so bitter and silenced. So when I was in Quincy Market (Boston) last spring, some GBLT supporters were rallying for Kerry and selling bumper stickers. When I asked how much for the Kerry sticker, they said $20. I noted that I'd already donated much money to the campaign, given that living in my state, money was the only resource I had to help out. The campaign contributer was shocked -- stunned that someone from my state -- would be a Kerry supporter; she slashed the price and gave me the sticker for $10. My friend remarked, "Oh you can't put that sticker on your car! Someone's going to hurt you." And I replied, "I can and I will." And for three months, I proudly drove around this town with John Kerry's name affixed to my back windshield.

I plan to buy another bumper sticker. In fact, I plan to buy a few more bumper stickers. The thing is, if you were someone who didn't like my point of view and decided to take away my right to express my opinion on who I thought should win this election, it's backfired, because now you're sending me and my credit card back to the Kerry Gear store. In other words, I thought I was done with donations to the Kerry campaign, but you've strengthened my resolve and my determination. Because what you did was unAmerican in every way.

You took away my right to peacefully and politely tell people where I stood politically. I am no means an expert on Republican agendas -- I avoided all mention of the RNC this week -- but I do know one thing for sure about Republicans: they love this country and they value the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment and the vast majority of them would never stoop to do what you did. Yes, I know it's a big deal to make over a $2 bumper sticker -- easily replaced and don't worry, it will be -- but just think about what exactly your actions say about you as a person and how what you did stains the party you support.

Sincerely,

Seema

Do you want maple syrup with that?

Stop by and have a cup of coffee at Dubya's Waffle House*. I might be in a minority, but I don't think people ought to be penalized for changing their opinions. Obviously, opinions/ideas are based on the information at hand. Sometimes that information is wrong, not complete, etc., and you have to make a quick decision that you later have to backtrack on. I've got no problem with that -- it happens to all of us. I do, however, have a problem with hypocrisy. If they're going to sell flip-flops with John "I'm a serious politician" Kerry's patrician visage on it, then I think there ought to be some out there with 'W' stamped all over 'em -- fair and balanced, and all that**. I'm just sayin'.

Link of the day: Bush-words vs. Facts: “America and the world are safer” from terror — except for the all the deaths.

* Thanks to KC for the link.
** Now that the RNC is over, it's time to resume spreading the liberal propaganda.

Location^3

Question of the day: what are the Republicans doing up in NYC? I mean, Republicans are free to gather anywhere they desire, that's the beauty of this country, but NYC? That's like the US government deciding to have a hoedown in Moscow in the 1970s. But that's what the Republicans have done. They put on their boots and ten-gallon hats and they've throwing themselves a party in the Big Apple where Democrats out-number the Republicans 3 to 1 and for that you have to commend the Republicans -- they say they're brave and resolute, and through their actions, they've proven they can walk the talk by striding right into the middle of enemy territory.

That being said, given that a convention ought to give a candidate a bump in the polls, why not pick a swing state? Granted, hurricane-ravaged counting-challenged Florida would probably be a little too nepotistic of an arena to throw the shindig, but how about Oregon or New Mexico or Ohio? After all, all of that money we're pouring into the coffers -- whether Democratic or Republican -- are paying for warfare in the 20 states who keep their lips shut tight on who exactly they're rooting for. For those of us in the 30 remaining states, it's a little like the Battle of Bull Run. We're sitting on the sidelines with our picnic baskets while the rest of you are fighting it out. Go swing states!

All joking aside, the Democrats made their pilgramage to Mecca and paid homage at the Kennedy altar. The Republicans decided to tread on other sacred ground -- that of America's saddest and finest moments. To revisit that moment makes perfect sense; it's the moment around which this presidency has been crafted. Whether it will help him win another four years is not yet clear. I doubt it'll ever be said that Bush or Kerry lost the presidency because they didn't party in a swing state, but I can't help but wonder, with just 3-4 undecided people left in the country, why not go to where they live? Why live it up in Democrat strongholds where the influence of the message will be diluted? On second thought...

Flying the friendly skies

Warning: Disturbing content ahead, especially for those of the male persuasion. As the NBC commentators told us so often during the Olympics: If you don't want to know, look away now!

And now, to the blog content:

Jemima pointed me to this link: Ace of Spades HQ: Russian Planes Exploded From Toilets as it is somewhat related to my previous entry. First I boggled, then I thought, and since my brain is directly connected to my keyboard, I blogged what I thought, in what I hope is a reassuring and caring way.

Women of the world, do not worry about your internal bits when flying through US space. You probably won't have to show them off, as that would require some semblance of professional medical care on site and (obviously) free of charge. We Americans are firmly against any kind of socialized medicine and so it's not likely women will end up with free PAP smears on an airport tarmac. In fact, I strongly advocate a check-up for women at the metal detectors at your local airport, perhaps throw in a mammogram or two just for kicks. Can't afford to visit your doctor? Just buy a airplane ticket, cheapest you can, try to look Islamic, and voila, you'll get your healthcare subsidized by the government. (Actually, I'm thinking that you probably don't even need to buy a plane ticket -- just rush the security gate and you'll get a full bodily cavity check gratis). So, in the words of our president, Bring it on!

Maybe tomorrow, I will share with you how my brother fights terrorism, one traffic light at a time.*

* I keep meaning to blog my entry on 'Location^3' but I keep getting distracted. It's all Jemima's Fault (tm).

If you find a cash cow...

Annie Jacobson's 'terror' flight cross-country has now turned itself into a series prominently displayed on the front 'page' of Women's Wall Street (not to be confused with the WSJ). Her story is like hydra; chop off one head, and it grows another. In journalism, normally I'd consider this exciting -- as one professor once said, "There's a story with legs and look at it walking right out the door."

But I have no respect for someone who is willfully spreading thinly veiled racism and paranoia under the guise of investigative journalism. You only have to read Ms. Jacobson's words to realize that nothing less than throwing these 14 Syrians into prison will appease her. In fact, I'd laugh at her if it wasn't for the fact so many people are buying into her story, that there were indeed musicians masquerading as terrorists aboard this Northwest flight and that even after they were checked out so thoroughly, people are still calling them terrorists. Whatever happened to presumption of innocence? Or does that not happen when flying Muslim and in large groups?

And don't get me wrong: I have no doubt there are terrorists in the United States and I firmly believe we must take all sensible and rational measures to protect the population at large. But to go around and immediately cast 14 rowdy Syrians as terrorists and contine to do so even after all evidence points otherwise? I have no patience for that. That's not investigative journalism; that's just crap, but people are buying it because these days, fear sells. It's the idea of "us versus them" or "good versus evil" that gets the blood boiling to hyper-patriotic levels.

A colleague said to me when Ms. Jacobson's article first hit the Internet that "Guess what? It's not the blond-haired blue-eyed people who are terrorists." It's a rationalization, a justification to signal out a particular ethnic group and slap an all-purpose brand on them. But here's the rub, folks. Believe it or not, there's a long, long list of airplane accidents not caused by Islamic fundamentalists. We only remember the Islamic fundamentalists because they brought themselves to our attention so spectacularly and terrifingly on September 11.

If you're curious about other terrorist acts in the air not caused by Muslims, see here for the entire list. I'd like to point out one particular incident -- the downing of Air India Flight 182 from Montreal (not Toronto as written in the article), which is the largest air disaster of all time. The terrorists responsible were Sikh. I remember this, not just because it was an Air India, but because a good family friend was on that flight, but flying 'Sikh' doesn't raise eyebrows these days -- even for me, though personal experience should dictate otherwise.

However, jemima points out that profiling isn't about old grudges, but rather about current statistics. So given that, yeah, we ought to focus more on Muslims to the exclusion of anyone else -- even if history shows that non-Muslims have enough of that incomprehensible hatred and anomosity towards Americans (or anyone else for that matter -- let's not make this American-centric) to kill. But there's got to be a line in the sand, when you have to stop back and say, "Hey, there are Muslims who travel in large groups who aren't terrorists and there are people with information who know these things." I postulate that given current evidence, there's a journalistic responsibility to be had and taken seriously when one is trying to blow a second wind into a story that, by all counts, ought to be on its last leg.

But as for Ms. Jacobson? What she's doing is not journalism -- it's fearmongering, buoyed by current events -- and milking it for all she's got. If it's been verified and proven by intelligence officials that a particular individual isn't a terrorist, then what the hell is Ms. Jacobson doing, going around trying to say otherwise? Does she think she's breaking some vast government conspiracy to not protect America from terrorism? And if so, MSNBC (among others) has already beaten her to it (perhaps we could have used Annie Jacobson and her powers of insight and logic before September 11). But most damning of all? You'd think John Ashcroft would jump at the chance to throw not one, but 14 terrorists in jail. Hmmm, on second thought, maybe the only conspiracy here is the one in Ms. Jacobson's head.

Link of the day: Terror level alerts: Collect them all!

Quick link for now

More bloggity coming to you tonight, but in the meantime, here's an Olympic link for you. I was remiss over the weekend in providing the links. Real content later, but for now the Olympics in a nutshell -- from scandal to ambush.

Personal satisfaction

jemima responded to my earlier post on what makes a successful blog with one of her own here. One thing I forgot to add earlier is, you* have to want to blog and you have to like blogging exclusive of any interaction from others.

It's the same as writing fic and posting it online; if you're not writing for your own intrinsic satisfaction, if you're require the hallelujah chorus every time you get up on the blogbox, then chances are, your blogging career is going to be short-lived. There are a gazillion blogs out there and maybe 1 or 2 percent get a huge audience; chances are, you and me are not among the lucky percentage, in which case the motivation to blog has to be from within.

My personal view on FB these days is that it's an extraodinary event and ought to be treated as such, whether it's here in the blog or on my stories. Either way, the existence -- or lack thereof -- isn't going to stop the blog from churning out Seema!propaganda because I like blogging and I want to continue.

Go west, young lady

And west I am. I have fled the sticky humid city for the weekend, and headed, literally, for the hills. Hills and the lake, that is, and dry heat versus the humidity. Already, the air smells cleaner, the pace is so much quieter and sedate, it's cooler and all is well. I will catch up with all of y'all on the other side of the weekend.

Where you go, that's where you are

I think it's interesting that one of the number one searches that brings people to this site is for Lindsay and Sidney Greenbush. Remember them? They were the twins who played Carrie on "Little House on the Prairie" and were never given much to do. In fact, iirc, they were constantly being replaced by other adoptive children -- Albert, and then James and Cassandra. All of this reminds me of "Seventh Heaven", with those twins who play David and Sam and who are constantly being upstaged by random children who wander in and out of the house. What is it with family drama shows ignoring the children who are already there and then introducing more and more children who have absolutely no charisma or spunk? And how do the parents not even notice that their original children have been shunted to the side?

Though, on "Seventh Heaven," I did appreciate Reverand Camden's befuddlement of walking through the living room and observing that none of the 80 gazillion teenagers there belonged to him; unfortunately, it came too late for me, as I'd already been rendered unconcious by Ashlee Simpson's character of Cecilia.* Pa Ingalls, for all of his good qualities, never did notice that he had two other children -- Carrie and Grace -- once he started the process of accumulating other children from other venues.

But I digress: for those of you who come here and look for the Greenbush twins, here is their official site.

Geek additions to the blog: You can now email individual posts to people, if you so desire; just click on the little 'envelope' in the date line at the end of each post. Also, I've added a few new links under the category of 'personal' -- direct your eyes to the upper right hand corner of your browser for the low-down.

Olympics link of the day: HDTV and the Olympics.

News link of the day: Bush Acknowledges Iraq 'Miscalculation'.

* For all of the Ashlee Simpson fans who may storm this blog in defense of their musical idol, I allow for the possibility that the character of 'Cecilia' may have just been so badly written that Ashlee's only way out was to whisper her way through the role.

You write it, maybe they'll come

I've been pondering what makes a successful blog, what attracts the reader. Face it, there are thousands and thousands of blogs out there -- it's so easy that anyone can do it, and not everyone out there has a hook and following like Wil Wheaton. There's this idea that maybe if you write it, people will become automatically interested in you and everything you do. There's also the flipside, in which case no one could possibly be interested in you, so why bother?

Here's the thing: it really depends on what you* want your blog to do. If you want tons and tons of people to read it, then there is essentially two things you have to do: 1) make the readers care about you and 2) blog content the readers care about. And to accomplish this, yeah, you're going to have to make some compromises, figure out what people want to read, and you're not always going to be able to say what's on your mind (or if you do, you may have to temper it with humor or leave the mundane out). The truth is, no one except maybe my mother cares what I had for breakfast and even that is doubtful.

An interesting blog isn't a litany of things done or to be done. It's not a list of all the things that went wrong in a person's day. It's not even a list of links. That's not to say you can't blog these things -- sometimes it's nice to put it out there for cathartic purposes and some readers may even appreciate hearing about the ups and downs -- especially if written in a way that they can relate to (finding the humor in a bad situation is sometimes the way to go in these cases -- if possible). But there's a point when it's simply navel gazing and even your mother will get tired of reading your grocery list.

In my not so humble opinion, when you put a blog out there, you're automatically writing for an audience. You don't necessarily know who that audience is (hi, mom!), but someone is popping by for whatever reason. Maybe it's a one-time deal, maybe it's a "refresh the blog nine times a day for updates" deal. And since you're now a blogger, you've got at least care somewhat or want somewhat for people to read. In that case, you're going to have compromise and put out stuff that people will find interesting.**

If you're going for a narrow focus -- geek all the time, for instance -- then you've got to keep it up, get the information early and be on the edge of technology at all times. That's what people are reading you for, so that's what you got to do. In that case, the blog is content-driven and if people don't care about the content or don't think you're doing a good job keeping up, then they aren't going to read. It's that simple; the Internet has made thousands of pundits out of ordinary people, so if you can't fill a niche, it's easy to find someone else who will.

If it's more of a personal nature blog, then it's all about personality, about who you are and why people should care about you. Some of the most successful bloggers are successful because they are funny, they are honest, and they write in a way that's easy to understand and more importantly, the reader can identify. If a reader doesn't care about the person behind the blog, they aren't going to care about the content. And that means being able to laugh at one self, to pull out the funny more often than the gloomy; after all, no one wants to be depressed while reading a blog.

So make it fun, stick links out there that amuse, and more importantly, blog about what you care about; that doesn't necessarily mean always blog about yourself, but rather, what's on your mind, those little touches that make a blog personal. Chances are, if it's something that interests you, then that's going to translate to the reader and make your blog that much more interesting to that individual.

Olympic link of the day: Oh what to do about the judging controversies. I don't agree with the writer, but I'm sure there are many people out there who'd love to get rid of judged sports in the Olympics.

* I'm using 'you' in a very general way and hopefully not too preachy, but when using one's personal soapbox to wag a finger and say 'This is how you do it!', it's hard not to be preachy.

** This is also not to negate the importance of well-written content. Grammar and spelling does indeed count! If people can't understand what it is you're trying to say, they're not going to read. And yes, this includes using complete words easily recognizable or found in a dictionary, which does not include text-messaging or AIM short-cuts.

If you see a fork in the road, take it!

I've been on an X-Files watching marathon lately. For those of you wondering, I'm now on season 6 (I watched the movie in between seasons 5 and 6, which is where it fits in the chronology). I got delayed briefly because of the Olympics, but I'm back on schedule now, having knocked out "The Beginning" and part of "Drive" before being distracted by phone calls. It's still a ways to the 'shippiness of season 7, but it's been fun watching how Mulder and Scully grow together first as friends and then as a couple. Plus, so many pieces of the conspiracy are now falling together. It's a revelatory exprience -- I now understand what Krycek is all about and where that blasted black oil comes from. Plus, some of the exchanges between the characters are so classic. I like this one from the seventh season episode "all things" (penned, incidentally, by Gillian Anderson):

SCULLY: What if there was only one choice and all the other ones were wrong? And there were signs along the way to pay attention to.

MULDER: Mmm. And all the... choices would then lead to this very moment. One wrong turn, and... we wouldn't be sitting here together. Well, that says a lot.

I added new blogs to my sidebar for your reading pleasure, so do visit the new blogs on the block.

Olympics link: Israel gets its first gold medal.

Living in a glass house

I'm always amazed at what people will do for an entry in the Guiness World Book of Records. To wit: a woman moves in with 6,000 scorpions. Apparently, she was going to try the stunt earlier, but couldn't find enough scorpions. Obviously, she hasn't been to my neck of the woods. I can get her scorpions and centipedes and millipedes and snakes.

I'm starting to reach my threshold of Olympic watching. I've watched something like, 1,304 hours of coverage and when beach volleyball came on for the 80 gazillionth time, I had to draw a line in the carpet. I think beach volleyball would be cool if the guys played in their swimsuits too. None of this tank top and modest short business; if the women have to play in their bikinis, I say the men have to play in their Speedos! Well, on second thought...

Olympic link of the day: Just in case you didn't get enough already, you can keep the excitement alive with a new game for Sony Playstation. You too can hear the roar of the crowds, live the hype, and experience that moment of standing on the podium with your very own virtual medal.

Misc

Not much to report today, other than busy-busy at work, so other than my unusual weird obsession with the film "Open Water," I have nothing else to report. However, looks as if Olympians largely barred from blogging so unfortunately, you will have to stick with the mass media to find out the 'inside story' on the Games. I will vent my frustrations about the NBC coverage at another time, but the NY Times has already reviewed the commentators. However, the goal of this blog is to accentuate the positive! So check out Carly Patterson.

Also more than half of Americans still believe Iraq has WMDs.

Whoopah!

Olympic comeback of the day. This was simply amazing, spectacular, unbelieving -- if you didn't get a chance to see it on television, it's hard to explain just how marvelous a comeback this was, but the article gives a pretty good idea. And whoa, isn't that the world's longest run on sentence?

Linkage

The True Story Behind the 'Open Water' Movie; please note, this article contains spoilers for the film, and so don't click if you intend to see it and don't want to know how it all turns out.

Olympics link of the day: Where are all the people?

To catch a thief

jemima and I have been on similar quests lately -- she's trying to stymie the thieves who willy-nilly link to your webspace and eat up the bandwidth, while I'm trying to figure out how to get false referrers out of my weblogs. As I said to jemima, it's no fair that I'm getting over 60 hits from webdevboard.com* and yet NO feedback. Turns out, after going undercover on the message board, I figured out what the deal was -- webdevboard sends out its spider for nefarious purposes; they say it's free service to track down broken links and then to email the site owner. I say they're spamming my weblogs and I want them to stop eating my bandwidth already.

So I did some research on the topic. I already looked into the image stealing problem some time back and made some adjustments to my .htacess file to prevent any image stealing. (Before the modification, I did replace the stolen graphic with another graphic that read 'I stole bandwidth from seema.org and all I got was this lousy image' but I was too chicken to leave it up for more than a few minutes). But this spamming spider is a new beastie to contend with. I am grateful for one thing -- I'd often wondered how certain sites were showing in my logs as referrers and now I have a better idea of how that might be the case.

So, if you have a spammity spider problem, here are some links. Most of the 'good' spiders like google, yahoo, etc., will respect your robots.txt. It's the bad spiders like webdevboard's that don't. Here are some suggestions on how to keep the bad spiders away and to modify your .htaccess file accordingly. If you need to know who the spiders are, check here. If you don't have a robots.txt at all, get started here. And finally, more information on the uses for .htaccess files can be located here.

Two Olympics links today: Geek Trivia: Olympic muddle winners and US women take the silver in gymnastics.

* Yes, I didn't link to webdevboard. com on purpose because they are Evil (tm) and do not deserve a direct link. Unfortunately, I had to give them the extra publicity, but those spammity spammers deserve no referrer from me!

You'd think...

That after the lessons of Rwanda or Bosnia, the world community would take action.

Genocide in Darfur sparks outrage, but little action

Linkage

Your Olympic link of the day is a little early today. I wish I could feel sorry for these guys, but I honestly don't. I'm just glad the men are having to go through this most annoying, most time-consuming part of life: Shaving down: Swimming's painful ritual.

Later linkage will include geekity stuff, so enjoy your Olympics coverage now.

All about FSOs

So today I made a second pilgrimage in a week to my favorite purveyor of all things Swedish and flat. I had to go a second time because last weekend, I made an impulse purchase -- yes, yes, me who cannot commit to furniture, bought a small folding table on impulse -- and when I came home to set it up, that's when it all fell apart.

You see, this small folding table is pretty easy to set up. There are no weird looking wrench thingies, no odd shaped screws, no quirky pieces to line up. It's a folding table, so you literally unfold it and voila, it's functional. So I was pretty excited about the table, especially since I'd spent about 45 minutes in IKEA hauling the thing around. See, I was only running in for a moment with a friend who needed to pick something up. She left me alone and when I'm left alone in a store, I buy things.

An example of a thing I bought when left alone was a lovely rosewood carved elephant in Nice. I didn't actually need or want the elephant; it was just there, I admired it, and just out of casual conversation, I asked the street vendor, "Combien?" And he started to wrap it up for me. "Thirty-five euros," he said. I shook my head. "Too much," I said, "but it's very lovely." And then the street vendor said, "Twenty-five euros." I offered him a sad smile. "Sorry," I said. Anyway, to make a long story short, I ended up buying this wooden elephant that I didn't even want for 15 euros.

See, IKEA is just like a vendor with a blanket of pretty things. It's impossible to just walk by and restrain yourself to plain ooohs and ahhhhs when you have plastic in your wallet. And that's how I ended up buying the table (I also bought a spatula and a basket, but at 99 cents a pop, neither were a particularly angsty purchase). See, I saw the table when my friend ran off to chase a salesperson, and I was meandering around aimlessly. We were near the cash registers at the time, so I just picked up a table and then proceeded to walk through IKEA as if I didn't have a table under my arm. What I somehow forgot was that this was the new supersized IKEA, the size of two football fields; I have no idea how big one football field is, but this IKEA is pretty gosh darn large.

The way IKEA is set up, everyone goes in the same direction. You start on the second floor where all the furniture is, and then you somehow work your way to the first floor where all of the baubles, kitchenware, etc., are located. Traffic flows very well, unless you are the girl with a table under her arm going against everyone else. And I could totally tell that they were wondering how come I was going the wrong way and would I please get out of their yellow shopping bag-induced lust way and for God's sakes, what the heck was I doing without a shopping cart? Trust me, I was wondering the same thing myself.

Anyway, after roaming the two football fields, I turned around. By now, I was in serious trouble because I had added the aforementioned spatula and wicker basket to the table and I still didn't have a cart. I'd my eyes set on some pretty glassware, but given the circumstances, I figured it was best to get back to the cashier and locate my friend and thus, prevent any more damage from being done.

To make a long story short, I got home, tried the table out and just as I pushed the legs apart, what happens? The screw goes flying. Across the room, clear into the kitchen, to disappear forever and ever. To properly illustrate this, you must also know that there was a sound effect -- a kind of popping explosive metallic sound. There was trajectory, there was velocity, and magnitude; now you all know the truth, that IKEA tables also secretly masquerade as weapons of mass destruction. And like other famous WMDs, I still haven't found the dang thing.

Anyway, I went back to IKEA to exchange the table today, and this time, I decided to follow 'traffic' and start on the second floor and work my way down like all the other good IKEA shoppers. But halfway through the first football field, I got bored with the whole thing. I picked up three mini cheese graters and walked with them as the only item in my yellow shopping bag before tossing them aside somewhere in Linens. I looked at plants for a little while, before deciding to make a clean getaway altogether sans table. No more flying screw objects for me, thankyouverymuch.

Olympic link of the day: US Gymnasts Qualify for Finals.

Let the games begin

I'm a huge, huge Olympics junkie. I cannot begin to tell you the extent of my junkiness but let's put it this way -- you cannot tempt me away from gymnastics/swimming/diving with the usually lethal combination of margaritas and pizza. Why, you ask, do I care so much about these hugely expensive endeavors that come around ever two to four years (depending on whether you're including Winter Games in the count)? It's quite simple.

I always love the staging,the bravado, the sense of history and spirit that infuses these Games. I love the idea that these people have trained so hard, have sacrificed so much, all for this moment. I love that they go there, and they forget all of the artificial boundaries we construct -- political, national, religious, racial, sexuality, gender -- to come together on a playing field. I love the stories, the humanity of what we see for sixteen days. It's not always about winning, but the journey that brings the athlete to this particular moment in time.

And I admit, watching the Opening Ceremonies, I did get a little choked up watching the American team come into the arena. More universal, it's impossible to miss the joy on the athletes' faces and not share in their excitement, the desire to represent one's country. Or how about the Afghani team which is sending a woman to these Games? Or the Iraqi team, welcomed back into the Olympic fold, and upsetting Portugal in a first-round soccer match? It's the human spirit at its finest, the story of individuals that make up nations, a way for us, the world population, to get to our neighbors a little better. More importantly, it's the physical manifestation of pride and love for what one does and for one's country. It's hard not to find some resonance of some kind for every person in these Games, this pagentry of the human spirit.

Olympics link of the day: At the Games, it's a woman's world.

Vote 2004

Hey, the four of you in the country who haven't decided who you're voting for? If you're unhappy with either Bush or Kerry, go with a third party candidate who has done it all and has a kick ass wardrobe to boot: you know you want to vote Barbie in 2004.

Go go go!

Linkage

Thanks to jemima, I now understandThe Kerry's One-Point Plan For Better America.

Play it again, Seema

This special 'extra' blog link is brought to you by Jemima: A Successful Blog. It's well-worth reading, especially since it seems that prevailing thought is "if you write it, they will come." The guidelines make for a good checklist or goals to strive for when blogging.

I understand that this blog has had an unusual amount of geekity in it lately. I assure you this will stop as soon as the Olympics come on, starting with the Opening Ceremonies on Friday. Then it will be all Olympics All the Time (tm). You thought the DNC was bad...

Geekity geek geek

I went on the prowl for webhosts with CGI and Perl capabilities today for jemima today. I found a whole listing here. I'm not speaking to the quality -- some are definitly better than others -- but I was interested to see the whole "no ad" movement lives and is as strong as ever. It's a tough trade-off. You get bombarded with ads on sites like Geocities, Fortunecity, what have you, but they tend to be fairly reliable sites and easy as heck to use.

But these days, webhosting is really, really cheap. I found some plans for as little as $2.50/month, and most plans are around $7/month. Even Geocities offers webhosting for not a lot of money; examples of other pricing plans are here.

Now I understand there is still some philosophical push-back on the idea of paying for hosting. I've never understood it, mostly because I believe to get something, you have to give something back in return. That means eventually your free webhost is going to smack ads all over your lovely layout or take away features once promised. I still lament the loss of FTP from Geocities -- funny, when I started this whole web stuff back in '98, I loved browser upload and thought FTP was the work of the devil; FTP is so much better, and free of browser 'issues' too.

Every now and then, I do prowl for webspace. You never know when you might suddenly come into the need for webspace so it's good to know what's out there. Still, it makes me very glad for the largesse of the brother as it means I will never ever be subject to the whims of a free ad-hosting company and their random changes in ToS either.

Aggregate me, baby!

I went looking for a news aggregator today because I spend way too much time flitting from blog to blog, and then also being so disappointed when I pop on by and a blog wasn't updated. So, I found bloglines which is a news aggregator run online. So, no software to download, and accessible from any computer and more importantly, free.

It also includes some additional features I don't understand like unlimited disposable emails (you'd think this would be self-explanatory, but I don't really get it), as well as a clip blog. Bloglines has a 'catalog' of blogs to subscribe too, including these top blogs, but you can even find lil ol' me in the catalog, as well as jemima's site.

If you're looking for a way to condense your reading and not worry about having software downloads on multiple computers, this just may be the way to go. It seems relatively straight-forward and every blog I've subbed too seems to work properly. And did I mention, it's free?

A shout out

I just checked my site stats and saw someone from my most recent educational institution has popped by a few times so I just wanted to say howdy to that person :-)
Gig 'em :-)

Worry wart

For those of you who don't know my dirty little secret, I'm about to out it to the Internet as a whole -- or the few of you who stop by here each day. ::deep breath:: I'm a worry wart. I've never met an anxiety attack I've not embraced and cuddled. In fact, worrying is such a state of being for me that if I'm not worried, I immediately find the small molehole possible and turn it into a mountain. Then I fixate, until I'm so paralyzed by my own fears that I find it exceedingly difficult to relax or make a decision or do anything that will distract me.

I confide this to you because currently I'm at work. Yes, on a beautiful Saturday at a time when I'd planned to go for a walk in the park near my apartment. I'm here because I woke up at 4:30 in the morning and couldn't go back to sleep, despite my eye-lids being very heavy and my body being dead tired and sore (Oh yes, I forgot to mention -- I fell down some stairs Friday at lunch, and so now I'm worrying about whether I'll be one big bruise or not). The reason? I could not remember if I had checked one little thing at the end of the day.

Now, this little thing isn't really that little. It has to do with dates and if any dates are wrong, then that messes up the database and guess what? We re-run the whole thing in Tuesday's issue and management will be very, very, very upset with me. And I couldn't remember, for the life of me, in all of the Friday panic, whether I had checked the dates or not. Now, keep in mind that we rarely have a date problem any more here at Very Big Publishing Company (tm) because of our lovely macros. But it was the weekend and if we were going to have a date problem, it would be the weekend when the dates are all messed up.

So finally, I decided I had to come in to work so I could check on the dates. Keep in mind that there is nothing I can do if there is indeed a date problem, but I needed to know so I could enjoy the rest of my weekend or prepare for doom on Monday. So now that I checked, I can rest somewhat -- the dates were fine, all the data got in just fine and calculated just fine. However, that doesn't mean we're completely scot-free and that I cannot know until Monday.

So now, my anxiety level has come down several decibels and I'll be able to relax somewhat until the next thing comes along.

Scary: Unabashed Racist Leads Tenn. GOP Primary

Clean as a whistle

I think there comes a time in every blog's life where it literally and figuratively jumps the shark. Today, dear readers, is such the case with this blog. I say this because of today's topic -- which has nothing to do with politics, odd events in the life of Seema, IKEA adventures, or random news articles culled from around the web or even recipes. But that doesn't mean I've forgotten what a blog is all about, that it should enrich and pontificate, but not necessarily in that order or even in that importance. That being said, today, I'd like to talk about my two favorite cleaning supplies. Yes. Cleaning supplies.

First, I'd like to advocate the use of Arm & Hammer's Clean Shower with baking soda. Spare your knees by investing in a shower spray. Start out with a clean tub (so there is some scrubbing involved) and then after every shower, spray liberally with the shower spray. Voila, no build-up, no soap scum, no yucky black stuff in the tile cracks. Saves time, energy and your knees, all for $4.

Second, I'd like to also say that those blue drop-ins? They don't work. You're just as well off throwing food coloring into your toilet bowl for all the good the Vanish Drops In do. But Clorox Bleach drop-ins. Now that's the way to go. Sparkly, odor-free, and germ-cleaning all in one flush. What's not to love? So do away with the blue, and stick to the clear stuff; your bathroom will thank me.

Don't even get me started on orange-scented Fantastik. My quibbles with the spelling of 'Fantastik' aside, nothing smells quite so good or comforting. Lemon, you see, is rather sharp to the nostril, it's a little too pungent and a little too much on the nasal passage. It practically screams "the kitchen has been doused with lemon!" So, mix it up a little bit with the orange. Maybe orange in the kitchen and some lemon-scented Pledge in the living room? And perhaps some lavander-scented dish soap with aromatherapeutic properties for your dishes? Your nose will thank you!

This blog is not endorsed by any of the companies named above, but are simply the lunatic rantings of an obsessive cleaner..

We all need validation once in a while for our crack habits and wouldn't you know it'd come from Finland and why yes, the Internet habit is one hard baby to break -- I recently spent months breaking myself free, so I totally sympathesize with these poor Finns. However, though I doubt I'd use my need to be plugged in as a way to avoid military service. Can't think of a better way to go cold turkey, as a matter of fact. Check it out for more: Web addiction excuses conscripts