Y'all have been following XKCD's "Time", right? If not: Over three weeks ago, XKCD's comic was an image of two people sitting on the ground. The mouseover text was, "wait for it". Every half hour, the image updated (the updates have since slowed to 1 per hour). It is still going. over 650 frames later. Here's a site that's been tracking it. It's not even that it's the best XKCD comic ever -- there are a dozen XKCD strips that I think of on a regular basis, and a few that still make me smile even though I've read them multiple times. But it's such a totally strange way to read a comic. And it's still not clear what the comic is about. Which maybe explains the addiction. I guess that's what people got out of Lost (I haven't actually watched it myself). Or some of why I used to read Hitherby.

But with books, the waiting thing can be totally frustrating. Like, I don't really care when the next _Walls of the Universe_ novel comes out. Because yes, there are things I would like to know about the multiverse, and yes, I believe it will be reasonably diverting, but ultimately, the mystery can wait. Whereas with _The Steerswoman_ series, every time I think of it, I get annoyed that there's not more. And I haven't started the second R. Scott Bakker trilogy because I'm going to be annoyed if I start it and then have to wait a couple years for the remainder. I might even wait until the third series is complete. Then if it turns into the Wheel of Time (which I quit after book 9, but should have quit earlier), I won't have wasted the time.

I don't really have a thesis here -- just some random thoughts.

[forgot to x-post this earlier]
sandmantv and thekinginyellow have posted about Rob Portman, but I don't think either of them has it quite right.

sandmantv says "I think there’s too much emphasis on the personal dimension of this." Then he follows up with "Yes this is their personal journey and lots of people have their eyes widened regarding tolerance because of how it touched them or someone close to them. Basic compassion is how liberal morals march on." Which seems to be pretty much saying that the personal dimension is all there is. I don't think that this is how liberal morals are supposed to work, but since I am not a liberal, I guess I can't say for sure.

thekinginyellow says it's about philosophy -- that what matters is getting the right answer for the right reason, and that our society doesn't value that enough. This is closer to right, because a philosophy is how you avoid making the same class of mistakes again. Portman has compassion for gay people now? Great! But he's still got a lot of work to do; he could, for instance, start having some compassion for cancer patients and support medical marijuana (yes, I checked; he doesn't).

I think it's actually all about cookies. Portman did a bad thing for a long time. His actions hurt a lot of people. It's good that he's no longer doing that bad thing. But he hasn't apologized. And he hasn't done anything to fix the problem that he was a part of. He could introduce a bill in the House tomorrow legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide. It probably wouldn't pass, but it might shift the debate some. But even if he's a lazy bum, he could at least put his name on a brief. Where are you, Rob? Apologies and reparations matter, because they're the only thing keeping purely cynical politics from being a dominant strategy.

There's also the whole God problem. If you had asked Portman five years ago why he didn't support marriage equality, he would probably have answered with something about God. (You might have had to ask twice in order to get past the meaningless boilerplate "I believe a marriage is between a man and a woman"). So, what changed? Is God wrong? Or did God change his (God's) mind? Or did Portman "pray" and come to this conclusion? And if so, did God tell him something different than he told the next Republican over? Or is the next Republican over just really bad at this whole praying thing? Shouldn't this make Portman question all of the other stuff he thought that God had strong feelings on, like abortion?

This, I think, also explains some of the anger at Portman; he doesn't have to give up religion, but he's got to give up the kind of religion that's about controlling other people's lives. And because he hasn't done that, we simply can't trust him.

[x-post: http://novalis.livejournal.com/174799.html]

"The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, & breeds reptiles of the mind." - William Blake.




I want these motherfucking snakes off this motherfucking brain.

Using blogger? Watch your gadgets.

... but I could be wrong.

(1) regyt has some wool laid out on a towel top of the chest freezer. I just reached into the freezer to get some lamb stock, and it struck me how apt it was that I was reaching under lamb wool to get (boiled) lamb bones.

(2) A couple of my friends had posts up which mentioned Will Shetterly, but they didn't say his name. I wondered what they were afraid of, so I went into the bathroom, turned out the lights, and said "Will Shetterly, Will Shetterly, Will Shetterly," while spinning around in front of the mirror. When I opened my eyes, I saw nothing at all in the mirror -- but suddenly, all that comes out of my hot water tap is tomato juice, and all that comes out of my cold water tap is vodka. And why has my soap been replaced with this tabasco sauce?

(Edit: I swear I posted this before I saw xkcd)

I don't think I have your snail-mail address. Comments are screened.

I'm presently reading The Lost Steersman, the third Steerswoman novel by Rosemary Kirstein. It's going to be impossible to explain the awesome bit without minor spoilers for the second novel, so I'm not going to bother. I can't even give you the bare conclusion, because it will give you the entirely wrong idea about the book.

( Read more... )

Alas, Free Rice has added five more levels. I can only get to 52. Time to read more Gene Wolfe.

I read sinboy's copy of Little Brother, and then ordered a copy for wiz_jord.

I think it might be better to read it as a work of journalism than as SF. The technologies involved are so real that I've actually met some of the people involved. And the politics are so real as to be utterly depressing.

If you have youths in your life who care at all about freedom (or even hip non-youths), you should pre-order this book for them.

I asked regyt to marry me and she said yes. We're waiting until it becomes legal for same-sex couples to marry in New York, because it wouldn't be fair not to.

I am totally thrilled and delighted.