The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by Dru:

dang, that's what I get for not answering at home, and getting into work before subbing :). This pegs all my 'pick this up' triggers, too. Well, this security geek will have to wait til next week.

And if there is any iota, twinkling, glimmer of doubt in your mind if TNH is a Thing...

Let me save you some agony: She's a Thing. But by the point you've decided to test her, she's already plotted your removal.

Oh, and dimples will doom you.

*sniff*

I'm pretty sure the VPX alumni are horribly jealous of the new crop of students, staff and instructors. They get to make up their own unique group culture.

I guess this proves that nothing ever truly disappears from the Internets if it contains potentially embarrassing content.

Thankfully, the riffs about the dinosaur sodomy was mostly off-mic. Ahem.

Disclaimer: Most of us had been partaking of tnh's scurvy cure by that point in the evening, or zak's ambrosia.

@#95 (JBWoodford):

Until I can vote no-confidence on the ballot, instead of a write-in, I'll vote the fictional character. Depending on the reader machine and software mechanics, a blank vote gets the entire sheet(s) rejected. The crew at my station were more than happy to take the write-in, I even asked them afterwards. YMMV.

Voted today, but not straight ticket for the Dems. My Congresswomen time after time have returned letters and calls to them about issues like, oh the Patriot Act, civil liberties, silly things like that, with "thank you but we won't be listening to you, Mr. Constituent." I know it won't be a popular sentiment here, but I cannot in good conscience support someone who has told me that civil liberties are passe to my face (actual or virtual). So, Mickey Mouse got some votes today. Then there were the three pages of propositions and local elections.

I have modified my whiteboard, in a high traffic zone at work, to read "Get out and VOTE". The number of people who have stopped and said, "Oh, is that today?" is truly disheartening. Still, a couple people at least said they would skip lunch and make sure they got home to vote (many have less than 15 min travel time to/from work).

Hurrah for Susan and others who are keeping a keen eye out for potential fraud. Black Box Voting got another donation last night, along with Open Secrets and the EFF.

Xopher and Lisa Goldstein:

I think maybe the problem is that it is hard in English to properly wrap up the sentiment of "successful holiday remembrances" with dual-factor holy days in two or three word fragments. Especially when/if you're an outside observer merely attempting wish others well. California is such a mish mash, I generally hold no ill will to those who are simply trying to positively remark on ceremony and remembrance.

That said, I'm with elise on this one. Some people are best remembered somberly, others with mighty mirth. Quiet reflection or joyous songs in honor? Depends on the soul I suppose. That said, I'll watch the sun set and tip my glass alone tonight to those gone on before. Then I'll find a crowd to move with onto the next part of the cycle.

BB

re: cat waxing

guess I'm in the disturbing/disturbed crowd. vacuuming always seemed so passive, while trying to give a good brazilian to a cat seemed to reach the height of displacement activities. clipping nails is hard enough!

then again the whole traveling to another country to learn how to construct a yurt for "story research" does top my list of actual activities.

greg:

sometimes you just have to step away from a tool, just like a story. get it "good enough" and see how you feel about it in three months. otherwise you really will be waxing (says he, posting on ML)

kr:

hard to explain wavel. just one of those nettisms like Jen's sporfle.

greg:

last comment for waxing utilities: why not give the user the ability to enter in the strings used for chapter and scene (I've used ***, # and ###), that way if they were freaky it shouldn't matter. One thing to keep in mind, all this really doesn't matter until you're ready to submit, so you can just do it on the assembled MS, which should just be one big file?

oooh, shiny!

Wonderfully said Bart.
*wavels madly at Bart's prose*
What he said.

VP is not the sum of the technical parts. It is tribe, meme, wordplay, collation in the stairwell, jellyfish at night, patience, thoughtfulness and more.

--

Greg:

How about something *really* bog simple, like grepping for a newline and then [cC]hapter 1-9(verbal/numeric) followed by another newline? Or have the script prompt for someone's new chapter common-string?

Laura is a great thing vector, along with Steve G., quiet and unassuming. Of course, TNH and Jen are excellent things once thing'd, as they are such Alphas, everyone just burbles along, allowing them to infect.

I am quite possibly the worst thing vector, evah. The dimples kill me every time. Well that, and no poker face.

Teresa:

I can also send you what I have for your lecture, so that you may peruse that. Hmm. I think I'll do that for all the instructors. I won't send anything out without checking with the lecturer prior.

G. Jules:

There were several people who had YA sf. I was one of them, and hoo-boy did VP crank up my understanding about a thousand-fold.

All:
Back to security land now. I *love* audits.

No worries, that is why I asked. I figured there would be some variance on the matter. Get some sleep/rest and let me know your thoughts when it is convenient for you.

Before I forget:

Teresa, I posted this question on the yahoogroup, but wanted to ask if you and/or Patrick have any objections with my transcribing those lecture notes and sharing with the community (here, AW, LiveJournal)

I think they way I described it to my writing group was "it blew the back of my skull off in an incredibly amazing way" and then "absolutely 1000000% worth every frakkin' penny".

Still in process of transcription of my horrible handwritten notes into something that can act as a mental anchor to remind me some of those "unknown knowns" the pros have.

I'm glad in a way that the instructors are as crispy as the students and staff were, it's one of those weird neuroses that crop up:

"Surely Professionals Don't Go Through This"

That last Friday conversation I had with Uncle Jim re: his accepted work really helped me feel *so* much more sane.

"Home again, home again, jiggity jig"

Doh!

Elizabeth beat me to it, dallied too long on the submit button. Does the recommendation hold true for wet conditions as well as dry?

Speaking of wool, what can you use that would work similarly well in wet and cold conditions? All the survival notes speak highly of it, but I haven't read many recommendations for other materials if you happen to be deathly allergic to wool.

Sounds like Leather Week here in SF!

I have this wonderful image now of The Secret Night-lives of Dinosaurs by James Gurney, coming to a specialty shop near you. Replete with cavernous gothic architecture, humans and dino's milling around in their best fetish garb.

Silencing the random giggling during meetings today is going to be such a chore.

Nix:

I've always secretly thought of the Gap series as
"Covenant in Spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace". Barely disguised. Not one likable character, or situation.

I was stuck with the series in a blizzard and read the entire thing. I think I threw them against the wall at least five times each (three over the 'stop reading limit'). I found that it is possible for monetary policy textbooks to begin to look appealing after enough fiction trauma.

Hangups, perhaps that's the difference between Brust, Mieville and other high-value word authors and Donaldson. Their fiction doesn't feel like some form of verbal-cathartic therapy.

Ok, while we're on the subject of methods of contacting our senators and reps, who has any insight into what will actually be read/listened to/acted on?

Each time I send something in postal mail, I get a bulk reply (if I'm lucky). If I call, they tell me they'll just tally my name, if they answer the phones after putting you on hold. If I email, it generally never gets a reply.

Considering the resources of this group, someone must have a better insight into the best method to get your message across to your congress members?

I don't create the most publishable letters to the editor, but the Chron will definitely be getting mine.

The march in SF on the 24th is a definite for me now. I hate crowds, but my comfort isn't what the day should be about.

aboulic:

My error definitely. I was referring to the Star Chamber (abolished in 1642), which I find eerily similar to circumstances now.

on despair:

It is not hard to despair when you see your attempts to supply sanity to an insane world come to nothing. All I can do at this point is educate people on how thoroughly out of whack the voting situation is. Attempt to educate and inform them on the false arguments being presented to "make them safer".

How many times can Diebold be proven to be insecure before the various board bow down and admit to the flaws and remove them from circulation?

How many election boards have to decertify these machines before they are actually removed from use? (How many de-certified systems were used last fall?)

People get... frustrated. When we see damning evidence being provided and nothing being done.
How do you speak up when effectively your voice has been stolen?

Iterate and educate. Your knees get torn and bruised after the first few times falling down. I don't have a solution. How do you fight the good fight without coming across to apathetic public as a paranoid freak? I'm all ears to any helpful suggestions.

Comment statistics for Dru on the Making Light blog

Total: 45 comments. View all these comments on a single page.