The Esoteric Science Resource Center

Mr. Sulu.

Goodness knows you've earned it.

I polled my constituency about a live video of me drawing, and here are the winners of the What Time and What Does Lea Draw? poll:

What Time?
9PM to midnight

And Draw What?
Whatever, Just Gimme Some of Dat!

What Day is Best for You?
Any Weekday

Want Some Demos?
Ben Caldwell-Style Coloring? Looks Awesome & is Easy!

Pencilled time and day is:

Mondays from 8PM to 11PM Central. Something to look forward to on a Monday, not too early, not too late.

Still want to vote? Go ahead!

Want to watch?
I'm on UStream. UStream is a quick register, makes no spam, and is easy to use. If you also have Twitter (and why not, it's also easy to register for and makes no spam), you'll get a Twitter when I start to draw.
My Twitter name is "divalea" and my Ustream name is DivaLea.

Room 2: Chest pain, EKG changes, admitted.
Room 3: Intoxicated, acting erratically, chased into ER by police. Alcohol 252 mg/dL.
Room 4: Intoxicated, domestic dispute, head injury. Alcohol 281.
Room 5: Bipolar, OD, drug screen positive for several substances
Room 6: Intoxicated, domestic dispute, fled police, broke ankle. Alcohol 208.
Room 7: Drinking all day, passed out in bar. Vomiting. Alcohol 283.
Room 8: Elderly. Abdominal pain.
Room 9: Cocaine. Chest pain.
Room 10: Infant. Diaper rash.
Room 12: Intoxicated. Alcohol 381.

I don't care what the date is, SUMMER IS HERE.

You never know when it's going to repeat on ya.

In Wal-Mart today, in the frozen food aisle, and there's this horrible bawling howl. I went flashback city, standing on the curb, screaming at firemen who seemed to not be moving very fast even though a tree is starting to burn. I had just convinced myself that it had been someone dragging a pallet when the howler did it again.
I had to hunch over the cart and breathe and remind myself where my feet were. Not on a curb. Nice shiny white linoleum Wal-Mart floor. Frozen food aisle. A two-cart trip. I made myself start moving again and felt better. Moving helped me get back to the present, and that's a good thing to know for the next time.
It was hard to throw off, though. Really fucking hard.

It's been a year and eight months. Holy cow.

A list of cult movies now in the public domain, available free from the Internet Archive (or, in many cases, $2 compliations in bargain bins). Not all of them are classics, by any means, but the list does include 'M', 'Nosferatu', 'The Cabinet of Dr Caligari', and Kurosawa's 'Rashomon' - as well as 'Reefer Madness', 'Satanic Rites of Dracula' and 'Werewolf in a Girl's Dormitory'.

The Internet Archive also contains wonderful material in different based on the works and lives of Poe,Lewis Carroll, and others.

Dear Shit talkers:

I'm lonely and bored. My old invisible friends will not talk to me. How can I make new invisible friends? Where can I find them? How do I get them to talk to me @ midnight on a Saturday night?

Most importantly, how do I get them to send me noodz?

Yes, I'm tired.

Thank you to everyone who commented on my post about religion.  So far, knock wood, it's a model of polite discussion and friendly disagreement, which is all I could hope for and more.

It really does make me want to start that blog about Common Wisdom About The Bible That Is Dead Wrong (okay, that wouldn't be the title, I call it something different every time anyway) but man I'm over-committed just now.  I admit I also hesitate to draw quite that big an Internet target on myself, but on the other hand, not doing it because I'm afraid is just lame.

Tonight's random example: Did you know that Jesus not only didn't provide any signs of the end of the world (nor did anyone else, by the way), but that He went further and said He didn't know when it would be?  Many people clearly don't!

Cheers,

Random

I've said it before: the really interesting politics are never about good versus evil. That's easy. Nearly everybody's for good, and against evil, so it tends to be really easy to unite people. No, when politics gets really interesting is when it's about good versus good: when we have to choose between two incompatible good things, or when we can't currently afford both good things on a list and have to choose one for now. Well, where politics gets not merely interesting, but grimly interesting, not merely grimly interesting, but really tough is when it's about evil versus evil: when no matter what choice we make, something truly awful is going to happen, and it's going to be our fault either way, and what remains is to decide which of the two evils is the lesser.

I've been thinking a lot about the Myanmar cyclone damage, wondering which of two truly monstrous evils the world community was going to settle on. Because the wind had barely stopped blowing before we knew two things. We knew that the military government of Myanmar just plain doesn't have the airlift capability to get enough food, water, and medicine to the people in the hardest-hit coastal areas, even if they had it; that to save literally tens of thousands of innocent lives, they were going to need help. And we also knew, again before the wind even stopped blowing, that the ruling junta had flatly ruled out accepting any such help. By day two, we saw clearly why. No ambiguity, no conspiracy theory, no doubt; it ran on Myanmar's own official government TV stations. The junta is confiscating all aid that enters the country, relabeling it in the name of the ruling generals and their close friends, and only delivering it to their political supporters -- even to political supporters that weren't affected by the cyclone. Which leaves the world's humanitarian aid community, both governments and non-governmental organizations, to do some very, very ugly math.

If we do absolutely nothing, then at least 40,000 people will die of hunger, thirst, and infectious disease. And it will be partly our fault, for having decided it was better to let them all die than to help the junta punish its internal opposition, real or suspected.

If we deliver the aid to the ruling junta, probably at least half of those 20,000 people will still die of hunger, thirst, and infectious disease ... and it will be partly our fault, because we will have helped out those who chose the slain, and because we will have directly funded the junta with the half of the aid that they confiscate and keep for themselves and their supporters.

And there really isn't a third option. It's a mark of how desperate everybody is not to make this choice that some diplomats and reporters have actually floated a trial balloon: what if we send the Marine Corps in to seize and hold a beachhead, then send in the Seabees to build a temporary port and landing strip for the aid workers? Or to evacuate the dying? But it's a fantasy solution; aside from the fact that the US military is kind of busy right now, fighting two land wars in Asia already, it'd be flatly illegal. Nor is it a given that the people who need the aid wouldn't join the junta in rising up against us; it's not as if we have any credibility left on the subject of invading countries for their own good. Nor are the American people going to put up with even a half-serious suggestion that we risk American soldiers' lives for tiny little Myanmar.

So all we can do, all we could do, was threaten to withhold the aid while trying to persuade Myanmar's few remaining allies, notably China, to try to talk them into accepting international assistance, or more to the point, into letting people receive aid without the generals getting personal credit and without first checking their names against a list of possible pro-democracy subversives. Since the junta knows full well that the US government, like nearly every government in the world except for China's, would really like to aid pro-democracy subversives in Myanmar, there was never any serious chance they were going to give in. They can let 40,000 or 50,000 people die without losing a night of sleep, and would rather do so than let opponents of the regime, foreign or domestic, claim any credit for doing anything good in Myanmar. So they just kept us reminded, day after day, how many people were dying, how many more people were going to die, leaving it to us to decide which of two monstrous evils we were going to pick.

Over the weekend, one by one, all of the world's governments and NGOs started shipping food directly to the junta.

It makes my teeth itch, sure, to prop up a military dictatorship. But to be fair, they're no worse a dictatorship than probably 40 or 50 other countries' rulers, nor are they the only military junta we're supporting, at least a couple of which are way worse than Myanmar. (Half of "Stan-istan" comes to mind.) And either way, we were basically screwed, let alone the tens of thousands who are going to die no matter which choice we made. So however I feel about it, I'm hesitant to second-guess anybody's decision, in either direction; I'm far from sure how I'd decide, if the mess landed in my lap as anything other than a theoretical problem. But as a theoretical problem, it is an interesting one, isn't it? Grimly interesting. And a genuinely tough call.

10 Things Christians and Atheists Can (And Must) Agree On

Of course we have the people in the comments splitting hairs and missing the entire fucking point, but that's what you get when things are on the intertubes. It made me feel good inside, at least.

Even if it was on a humor site.

A Play in One Act by Kevin James
(Additional Dialogue by Chris Matthews and Mark Green)



Radio host Kevin James's recent Hardball appearance (posted in yesterday's Friday Night Videos) was a brilliant distillation of the essence of contemporary political discourse in the broadcast media. One "wins" by repeatedly shouting talking points and catchphrases; facts, accuracy and actual knowledge are irrelevant. James shows up ready to steamroll all comers with the Official Talking Point that the Democratic frontrunner would be an "appeaser" of the Neville Chamberlain variety, as implied by the President in his speech to the Israeli parliament ostensibly commemorating that country's 60th anniversary. (Stay classy, W.) When pushed by Chris Matthews to define his terms and to put this accusation into a historical context, James merely repeats the charge at full volume: Barack Obama would be just like the appeasers of the Nazis. "It's the same thing!" he keeps bellowing in his cracking, adolescent voice. "It's the same exact thing!!" But Matthews won't relent and it becomes immediately obvious that James has no context for his claim other than: Bush said it. By the end, when Matthews explains to him what Chamberlain did and what appeasement actually means, James, unbowed as ever, simply inverts his prior rhetoric. "There's a difference, Chris!" he screams meaninglessly. "There's a difference!!"

The video is a classic for the ages but reading the transcript has its own special pleasures. As a public service, Voucher Ankles here offers the official acting version of this modern masterpiece of the Theatre of the Absurd.

( What do you mean I don't know what I'm talking about?! )

Today I went down to Olympia to play with Caitlin. We didn’t get to perform as much recon as we’d hoped, but we tootled around the old brewery property nonetheless and took a few pictures. Later, there was shopping and I found a vintage button-up wool skirt for thirteen dollars. Following this, there was ice cream, and we hung out lazily around her place.

Good times!
Good pictures! Lot’s of ‘em.

Click the link.

Abandoned buildings (exterior shots only, alas); cats; babies who stalk brunettes ...

[Crossposted to/from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so either here or there.]

( Loudtwitter cut because, frankly, I was threatened. )

I'm feeling better. Thank you for the well-wishes.

So I'm looking through the panels and stuff for WisCon.

I got a letter a couple of days ago agreeing to remove me from the Joy of Fat Sex panel. It's not that I don't want to be on a panel someday--I do! But I want to watch another year and see how it's done. My eyes were bigger than my stomach this time.

Admittedly, some of the other topics I Just Don't Get. Maybe I should attend those to stretch my head? And some of them--I know I would get so frustrated because I would want to rant. (Like the grammar one. OMG. Grammar.)

So, places you my find me in the audience:

6 It's Not About Identity
Feminism & Other Social Change Movements Friday, 4:00-5:15 P.M.
In the wake of the demise of 'woman' as a unified category, many second-wave feminists felt undermined, saying that there could be no feminism unless there were some absolute, essential definition of the category woman. Other feminists (both second- and third-wave) have argued, though, that this attitude rests on a misunderstanding of the relation between political theory and practice of politics. This panel will explore some suggestions for new ways of thinking about feminism and its future.
M: L. Timmel Duchamp, Sylvia Kelso, Lauren Lacey, Joan Haran

16 Punctuation, Grammar, Usage: Who Needs 'Em?
The Craft & Business of Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy ? Friday, 8:45-10:00 P.M. ? Senate B
The difference between 'that' and 'which' or 'anxious' and 'eager'; proper use of the subjunctive mood; the serial comma. Lots of rules...why should you care? Panelists discuss the delicate balance between the precision of expression that the rules are meant to support and the fact that living language is fluid and malleable, and how this all applies to a genre which is sometimes described as unconstrained by time, space, or reality.
M: Delia Sherman, Deb Taber, Rebecca Maines, Tom LaFarge, Sarah Monette I may not go to this one because the temptation to jump up and down and fling feces may be too strong for me to resist....


22 Scribe Agency/Electric Velocipede
Party Friday, 8:45-3:00 A.M.

36 Balancing Creativity And The Day Job
The Craft & Business of Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy ? Saturday, 8:30-9:45 A.M. ? Senate B
Unfortunately, most of us can't support ourselves with our prose, nor do we have patrons who pay our bills for us. So how do you cram a nine-to-five job, a commute, exercise, writing, a personal life, errands, chores, entertainment, and adequate sleep into a twenty-four hour day without totally losing your mind?
M: Jennifer Pelland, Catherine Lundoff, Caroline Stevermer, Jordan Castillo Price, Vandana Singh

40 Porn Crushes the Patriarchy!
Reading, Viewing, & Critiquing Science Fiction and Fantasy Saturday, 10:00-11:15 A.M. Assembly
Erotica for women is coming into the mainstream—novels from the pioneering Black Lace line are now available in trade paperback editions, shelved among the romance novels, which have long been described as 'porn for women,' and several major publishers (Harlequin, Avon, Kensington, etc.) have begun lines of women's erotica in the last couple of years. Publishers go where the money is, but what made the market favorable for erotica right now? Who's buying the books? Was the renaissance encouraged by online publishers such as Ellora's Cave? And does reading (and writing) porn really crush the patriarchy?
M: Victoria Janssen, Mary Anne Mohanraj, Leanne Shawler, Connie Wilkins, Diane Greenlee

49 Strong Or Stroppy?: Annoyingly Feisty Female Protagonists
Reading,Viewing, & Critiquing Science Fiction and Fantasy Saturday, 10:00-11:15 A.M.
In SF/F—particularly it seems lately in paranormal romance—the protagonist/narrator is meant to be a 'feisty' woman, but comes across instead as irritatingly stroppy in attitude, and rather less tough in action and practice than she sounds. Has this become a rather tedious cliché, and what might other, different, models of effective strong women characters look and sound like?
M: Vito Excalibur, Lesley Hall, Alma Alexander, Paula Fleming, Jennifer Stevenson


60 How I Did It All Wrong And Got Published Anyway
The Craft & Business of Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy Saturday, 1:00-2:15 P.M.
Mom's favorite aphorism was 'Do as I say, not as I do.' How you can learn from published authors' mistakes (and unexpected successes) and tighten up that learning curve.
M: Eileen Gunn, Kathy Steffen, Jim Munroe, Jeannie Bergmann

80 Women and Hard SF Now this will be all my shit. Front row.
Reading, Viewing, & Critiquing Science Fiction & Fantasy Saturday, 2:30-3:45 P.M.
Let's have a discussion of what hard SF is, and why lists of hard SF writers rarely include the names of women. Hard SF is usually described as the real stuff, the fiction that is core to the field, science fiction that's really about science. Is it? And if so, where are the women?
M: Margaret McBride, Victoria Gaydosik, Sue Lange, Janice Bogstad

103 Prineas/Schwartz Book Launches
Party Saturday, 9:00 P.M-3:00 A.M.

119 Biscuits, Bells, Bravery, and other things that Start with B
Reading Sunday, 8:30-9:45 A.M. If I can roll out of bed, that is.
Jenn Reese, Kat Beyer, Catherine Morrison, Sarah Prineas, Heather Shaw

120 'How to Manage Teh Stupid': White Allies Confronting Racism
Feminism & Other Social Change Movements ? Sunday, 10:00-11:15 A.M.
Combating learned racism is our duty as white allies, and this is the time to come together for that purpose. But how do we begin? How do we know when to speak and when simply to listen to our friend of color, so that we reach an honest understanding? When is anger a strength and when is it a wall built between us and the facts? What do we need to do to really hear the truth of racism without internalizing everything and taking these conversations as personal marks of guilt? Acknowledging white privilege may be the first step, but what do we do to champion true social change?
M: Rebecca Holden, Doselle Young, Cabell Gathman, Richard F. Dutcher, Leah Marcus

Now how can I do these at the same time?

133 Love, Sex and Weirdness
Reading Sunday, 10:00-11:15 A.M.
Christopher Barzak, Haddayr Copley-Woods, Benjamin Rosenbaum, M. Rickert

134 Inside the Magic Book Machine
The Craft & Business of Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy Sunday, 1:00-2:15 P.M. Assembly
Having leaped the hurdle of selling a book to a publisher, few authors grasp the rest of the process. A managing editor takes you through the mechanics of the black box that is publishing. Learn how to prepare a manuscript so that the book that comes out is the one you envisioned; keep the process on schedule so sales and marketing have the time and tools they need to promote your book most effectively. A guide to becoming the author people at the publisher like—and will go the extra mile for.
M: John Klima, Sean Wallace, Shana Cohen, Kandi Schaefferkoetter

149 Does Written SF Have a Future?
The Craft & Business of Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy ? Sunday, 2:30-3:45 P.M. ? Assembly
Is the print SF/F book or magazine as outmoded as the dodo? Is online writing the wave of the future, or will that, too, fall by the wayside in favor of other media? Is the sky falling, or has it always been falling, or is it not falling so fast after all?
M: Susan Groppi, John Klima, Stephen Eley, Ellen Datlow

Again, 2 thing I have to decide between.

153 Publishing, Profit, Agendas, and Ideals: The Eclipse One Cover Debate
Feminism & Other Social Change Movements Sunday, 2:30-3:45 P.M. Wisconsin
Last year when Night Shade Books released the cover for their anthology, Eclipse One, a debate broke out over the names represented on the front. Namely, in an anthology that had 50/50 male and female authors, only male names appeared on the cover. The ensuing argument centered around two main points—the publishers felt that, of the authors in the anthology, the names they'd put on the cover were likely to attract the attention of more casual buyers. And because they were in the business of making money, they could not afford to put an 'agenda' ahead of anything else. Readers felt that, because no women were given a slot on the cover, the publishers were reinforcing patriarchal assumptions about who sells books, and who doesn't. Some expressed the opinion that the lack of women on the cover was actually likely to deter them from buying the book. In this panel, which will be a debate, let's explore both sides in depth. Does indulging agendas and ideals hinder profit? Or can adhering to an ideal lead to different and/or better ways of creating more profit?
M: K. Tempest Bradford, Micole Sudberg, Eileen Gunn, Jeremy Lassen

169 Violence, Destruction, Degradation, and Catharsis
Reading, Viewing, & Critiquing Science Fiction and Fantasy Sunday, 4:00-5:15 P.M. Capitol B
Because we abhor violence, pain, and degradation in the real world, some of us are ashamed that we like to read about it (or write about it, or role-play it, or sexualize it in a BDSM context, or...). At the same time, some of us are attracted to at least certain fictional depictions of violence and degradation precisely because they are fictional, and therefore safe. And then there's the linear critiques of violence and degradation in media, those that say that depicting violence fictionally gives permission to perform it in real life. How do we — as writers, readers, and feminists — wrestle with these thorny issues?
M: Lori Selke, Robyn Fleming, Ian Hagemann, Phoebe Wray, Nabil Hijazi

174a Strange Horizons Tea Party
Party Sunday, 4:00-5:15 P.M. 629
Strange Horizons' much-beloved tea party! Come drink tea and eat yummy things while mingling with your favorite Strange Horizons staff and authors. Hosted by Susan Groppi, Jed Hartman, and Karen Meisner.

Well, here I am at Mobicon in Mobile, whiling away the time... as relaxacons go, this is pretty relaxed alright. (Yes, Jeannine and I still go to sci-fi cons! Been going since the early 80's... and hey, C.O.G. played its first show at a con some 12 years ago this June...)

On the positive front this con, my script editor Chris Enyart and I got to listen to (and speak with) current fave author Jim Butcher - the biggest reason I got tix to the con. Mr. Butcher answered many of my questions about his own book to TV series adaptation (he wasn't very involved at all, they changed producers on the series 10 days before shooting began, necessitating an almost complete rewrite of the entire season, he thinks the series got some things right, etc.) Also listened to a nice artist panel earlier (digital vs. traditional art), checked out the art show and an anemic costume contest, and toured a respectable dealer room (where DVD bootleggers were brazenly hawking movies that were still in the theater, such as Iron Man and Speed Racer, as well as fan productions and commercially available offerings like Dr. Who! Sheeesh!) Well, at least the dealer room yielded a good gag purchase - 'DM'ing for Dummies' (for real!) which I intend to bring to the next shoot of 'Dice Jockies'.

As far as costuming themes go, BTW, piracy is still surprisingly hot, and once again I've seen a number of people dressed as drow elves (what's up with that trend?)

Aside from that, this outing has really been more about bumping into old friends, much like CoastCon was, than proper con events. This hotel's configured like a motel, with a large open courtyard, and at this hour, there's no real con events going on, just a bunch of parties with lots of people congregating in the open space adjoining the pool. Which is fine, of course; but it still makes me think fondly of the cons we had a decade ago in New Orleans, where there were lots of activity tracks going into the night and cool new things to see.

I just hope somebody reinstates a New Orleans (or at least Baton Rouge) area convention; I'd certainly love another chance to contribute meaningfully to the local fan scene, even if it's just DJ'ing the dance or contributing a classic arcade game for some diversion. It's been way too long (since Exoticon, really), and lemme tell you, the dance at this con SSSUUUUCCCCKKKKSSSSS... (well, at least the parties are decent and going strong now at 1:30am)

Aw, poor widdle server

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• 12:30 There's an Oscar winning family-that-loves-each-other-in-spite-of-its-dysfunctional-highjinks screenplay in this weekend. I can feel it. #
• 21:14 @arashikami avoid the sequel. it's *really* bad. Also, the novel it's based on is good. #
• 22:55 methinks it's high time I got back to learning Python. #

LoudTwitter. Because my attention span is only 140 characters long.

• 11:29 Sometimes TED rubs me the wrong way, like a "smarter than society and oh yeah probably you" club.
• 11:58 heading out for 20-miler. was loath to give up Saturday morning sleep-in, will pay for it in heat and UV stress. Hello sunscreen!

Good night, everybody.

It’s been a productive weekend so far. I don’t know if I will go out tomorrow at the crack of dawn like today. I’m wiped out, have a migraine, and have been so busy packing for the impending move (6 blocks away) that I should probably stay in and get some work done on a few side projects. I really like the weekend ritual of heading out in search of good photos, though. I feel more in touch with nature than I have in years. I sometimes think that giving up on the biology field did some damage to my soul that is taking a very long time to heal.

Even if I don’t go out tomorrow, the coming week is going to have some absolutely great images. This is one of the lesser ones. I try not to post the really good ones on the weekend because a lot fewer people read this site over the weekend. Anyway, I hope you enjoy.

Originally published at JeremiahTolbert.com. You can comment here or there.

Just finished the first draft of Immunity!

Does happy dance on way to shower.