Where IS She?

Posted: August 20th, 2014 under Life beyond writing.
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I’m here, but other things have taken over my time in the past couple of weeks.   The Perry indictment (Yay!) and the Ferguson, Missouri situation (@##*!!**!)  and the Border situation (#**@!!!)  and of course various international FUBARs, all of which make me wonder if the entire world has gone insane at once.

Should you want my opinion on either or both of these, the posts are up at my LiveJournal.    There are better versions of the Perry indictment’s background (all the way back to how Perry got a statewide office in the first place and his connection to Karl Rove) in an article by James Moore on Huffington Post.  The Ferguson article was written on this past Sunday afternoon and already could use some updating (as in, the convenience store did not call the police–a customer did.  The police did not even come by to subpoena the video until the following week.  So apparently the original story, that the two teenagers were accosted for jaywalking, and not in suspicion of a crime, was right.)

Meanwhile choir practice is back in session, and tonight we start rehearsals on both music for the coming weeks and large chunks of the Mozart Requiem, which may keep me sane as this mess goes on.    Next week I leave for DragonCon and will be absent for days (not taking electronics with me–they’re paying my travel so I’m flying.)    You’ve all been very good about playing nicely in the sandbox while I’ve been distracted–please keep it up.  You’re a wonderful bunch.

 

17 Comments »

  • Comment by Daniel Glover — August 20, 2014 @ 7:27 am

    1

    Elizabeth,

    My brother and some of his friends will be at DragonCon. I think he has room amongst the costumes to bring some books along for signing.


  • Comment by Oz Ozzie — August 20, 2014 @ 7:32 am

    2

    No, the entire world has not gone insane.

    It already was. We desparately need a Paladin or 2 to come and clean the place out.

    Not that I know how they’d function with high-tech weapons…


  • Comment by elizabeth — August 20, 2014 @ 10:14 am

    3

    I will be signing–don’t have my final program yet, but signing was on Sunday afternoon. Also, if not rushing off somewhere, I’ll sign a book or two anytime where we aren’t blocking traffic.


  • Comment by Lise — August 20, 2014 @ 1:31 pm

    4

    Things went completely insane for half a year in Quebec not too long ago, but then sanity caught up and the party peddling the really divisive rhethoric imploded. Hopefully the same will happen in Ferguson.

    Actually the worst of the social tension coincided with when I was reading the ARC of Crown of Renewal. It was eirily similar and thankfully ended almost as well. I remember thinking Crown should be made required reading in all schools to teach people about tolerance and respect.


  • Comment by Ed Bunyan — August 20, 2014 @ 2:15 pm

    5

    You had your comments turned off and I think that was definitely a smart move with some of the nut jobs out there ( I am thinking of poor Robin Williams daughter, Zelda, and the attack of the dirtballs on Twitter). Your posts were excellent and on point and your “Jesus Wept” had me saying “Amen” by the end. There is a lot of crazy and a lot of hatred out there and it is easy to see because it is loud and demonstrative, but let us not forget that there is a lot of goodness and brother and sisterhood out there. It is not so easy to see because it happens by simple acts of kindness often just one person to another and does not jump up and down and say “look at me, I am here”.

    Just a thought

    Ed


  • Comment by Iphinome — August 20, 2014 @ 8:11 pm

    6

    Not take electronics? Not even a couple android phones/phablets and a tablet? Luddite.


  • Comment by Susan — August 20, 2014 @ 11:43 pm

    7

    I’m so jealous about the Mozart Requiem. Our church choir isn’t that ambitious! Hope you have a great time at Dragon Con. Do any of those events ever happen in Seattle?


  • Comment by Sharidann — August 21, 2014 @ 1:10 am

    8

    The world was already mad and getting madder.
    And I don’t see the madness stopping anytime soon.

    Great article about Ferguson, you nailed all relevant Points on the head. Didn’t find the time yet to read about Gov. Perry.


  • Comment by Ann — August 21, 2014 @ 4:07 am

    9

    Wish I could see you at DragonCon, since I live in Atlanta, but I’m visiting my son in Seattle that weekend (very excited – never been there). Perhaps we’ll pass each other in the airport as you leave and I return.

    Thinking of crooked cops. In Alabama in the early 70’s, the sheriff of the county where I went to college arrested his opponent in the primaries for attempted homicide. What was the evidence? The opponent was pulling ahead in the polls.


  • Comment by Wickersham's Conscience — August 21, 2014 @ 12:02 pm

    10

    Off topic: Do you think it is time for another Spoiler Space thread? The earlier one has scrolled down into Ancient History…

    And yes, we sure could use something equivalent to Gird’s Cow in Ferguson, Missouri just now.


  • Comment by elizabeth — August 21, 2014 @ 3:27 pm

    11

    Wickersham’s Conscience: Sorry…since I haven’t looked at Spoiler Space in over a month, I had no idea. Yes, a new Spoiler Space needs to appear before I read a story from the new stuff at DragonCon.

    And along with Gird’s Cow, Arvid would also be useful in Ferguson. Let your imagination roll.

    Ann: The South Texas specialty when I was young was “suicide by shooting yourself in the back with a rifle.”

    Susan: As far as I know, Seattle does not have an equivalent to DragonCon. It, along with AKon, GenCon, San Diego ComiCon, and New York ComiCon, are all huge and run by professional groups, not fan-run by volunteers. I’ve never been to SDCC, but have been to DragonCon and AKon several times each as a writer-guest, and GenCon and NYCC once each at my publisher’s request (and they paid my admission.) I hope you find a group to sing with that performs the Mozart Requiem in your area–it’s an incredible experience. If you have a choice, go for the group doing the Levin revision…since Mozart didn’t finish it himself, all versions you’d sing were messed with by someone else and the final Amen chorus of the Levin is (besides difficult) the most gorgeous.

    Iphinome: I’m not a Luddite, I just don’t like to travel with things that a) aren’t working right (neither the netbook nor the tablet, at the moment), b) would replace something that is working right with something I don’t know diddly about (a smartphone: my old clamshell is reliable and tough), and c) would add to the aggro in the security line at the airport (since I’m flying this time, not on the train.)


  • Comment by elizabeth — August 21, 2014 @ 3:41 pm

    12

    Sharidann, Ed, Lise: There’s a persistent strain of “I don’t care, I’m going to do it anyway!” in human nature…I have it myself and it’s overtaken me, mostly when I was younger…that leads people to do things they know will likely or certainly make a situation worse. They’re so scared, or so angry, or so frustrated. I broke my front tooth that way. I’ve written letters I shouldn’t have written. I’ve been bucked off a horse I should have had more sense than to let gallop…those “I don’t CARE” or “Oh, what the hell” moments. There’s also a persistent strain of goodness. Solzhenitsyn said “The line between good and evil runs right down the middle of every human heart” and then (though I don’t remember exactly how he phrased it next) he said it moved back and forth with circumstances. Isaiah Berlin discussed this in The Crooked Timber of Humanity…the title referring to Kant’s “Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made.” As humans, we can subvert the ideal…but we can also create the ideal that we subvert.


  • Comment by Iphinome — August 21, 2014 @ 9:20 pm

    13

    Who said anything about replacement, One can carry a clamshell phone (I do) and a smartphone that doesn’t actually have phone service (I do) to use as a phablet. A preloaded google map of whatever area you’re about to spend time in plus a couple small apps such as twitter and mail for when there’s wifi available is useful for quick tasks.

    And getting TSA aggro is half of the “fun” of travel. You can hold up the “security” line and make everyone most especially the TSA miserable, we have few enough ways to fight back against security theater why take the little rebellions out of your arsenal?

    @Wickersham’s Conscience wouldn’t the cow just return things to the status quo? What they need is Marshal General Gird to lead people against their natural enemies, the elitists who protect their own while opposing justice and oppressing the very community they were hired to serve?


  • Comment by Wickersham's Conscience — August 22, 2014 @ 10:11 am

    14

    Thank you, Ms. Moon.

    Iphinome: Gird’s Cow was perfectly capable of dealing with Really Bad Guys; more than rain came out of the sky when the Marshall General went to to meet the mob.


  • Comment by GinnyW — August 24, 2014 @ 1:56 pm

    15

    The post about the situation in Missouri brought tears to my eyes. Thank you. And Amen.

    I am poised to plunge into a relationship with a smartphone, since a) my old clamshell will not hold a charge; b)my eleven year old granddaughter thinks I’m retarded; c)I need to text for social reasons. So now I need to deal with MAC or Android issues. Any help forthcoming?


  • Comment by Lise — August 24, 2014 @ 8:15 pm

    16

    I have an e-reader with limited Android capability and I particularly love the flexibility of having loads of free apps to choose from. I found the learning curve was not too steep, and Android seems pretty undemanding memory-wise, given how little processing power my e-reader has and how well it runs.


  • Comment by Karen — August 29, 2014 @ 9:08 pm

    17

    GinnyW,

    I resisted even considering ownership of a smartphone until the battery on the clamshell I never used started leaking.

    I ended up with an iPhone (old version since Apple was giving them away for free on the basis of the same contract I had for the clamshell since I share the contract with others who use cell phones more.

    It’s an amazing camera. I keep finding new and inventive ways to enjoy using it as a camera.

    I still don’t use it much as a phone, but if you know other people who have iPhones, it’s supposed to be free to IM to them (don’t ask — I’m sure there’s someone who understands why pitting clients of one technology stream against those using another ends up making customers happy in the long run but I’m not that person), so that’s another consideration if you like to send IMs to people instead of interrupting them at work with a phone call.

    And have I mentioned how much I like the camera, lol?


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