Raina

Though we have several cats, the one who I think of as "my" cat is Raina. 

I was the one who suggested we bring this stray into our house, and apparently Raina picked up on this because unlike most of the other animals that seem to prefer my wife, Raina prefers me. Which sounds good, but Raina isn't one of those cats content to lie peacefully in your lap and purr. She constantly kneads and and seeks out your hand for more active petting with impressive head butts. Which means that typing at the keyboard can sometimes be a challenge.

Anyhow, the impetus for this post: My wife thinks that if Raina could choose an accessory, she'd wear big designer sunglasses.

Oprah Backs Obama

Oprah Winfrey has long backed Mr. Obama, and she recently appeared with Obama at a rally promoting him for president.

I've previously indicated my initial fervor over Obama has faded somewhat. Since then, it strikes me as strange that Obama has become so careful in his language that he never ends up saying much of anything (other than his desire to cut NASA funding). I think what's really moved me out of his camp, however, is my realization that if Ms. Clinton gets the nod, she'll have years more contacts and experience than Obama can hope to bring to the table. I mean, her First Man will be a former sitting president whose time in office was the last generally positive period of our nation's history.

Anyhow, I don't fault Winfrey for backing Obama. Oprah certainly backs a whole slew of other worthy and laudable causes, so many it makes my head spin. However, sometimes she trots out psychics, ghost hunters, and mediums as if these shysters were legitimate instead of grief-predators the evidence indicates. Not that I liken Obama in any way to a medium! Nope, far from it, if he gets the nod, I'll support him. All I'm saying is, like any human being, Oprah is not above making less-than-ideal choices.

P.S. Of course, if Clinton is elected and she turns out to be a corporate-controlled drone, or Obama gets elected and becomes a man led by reason and compassion, then I'll eat these words. Or, you know, admit I was wrong.

P.P.S. Grief predator. I've just coined the term! Do you like it? Oh, nope. I'm wrong. A search reveals at least one other person has used the term, describing 'psychic detectives.' Ah well.

I'm No Electrician, But . . .

Our exterior outlet simply stopped working a few days ago. All the pretty christmas lights went dark.

A trip to the fuse box revealed no tripped circuits, so the problem was filed for later.

A few years back I picked up a book called Wiring 1-2-3 so I could learn how to change/install a doorbell, change a chandelier to something more modern, add a ceiling fan, etc. (all things you want to eventually learn how to do as a home-owner if you want to save yourself some coin).

Well, I got out the book today when a had a few free minutes. First, I learned outlets are called receptacles (by electricians). Then I learned all the various ways one might wire and ground a receptacle into one's home. I had a tester from my previous foray into wiring, so I pulled that out preparatory to sticking the probes into the socket to make sure the wires were cold. Turns out the battery in the tester was dead so I had to take that apart and charge a 9V battery to get it up and running.

Anyway, about 45 minutes in I was standing in the garage again looking at the fuse box, when the idea struck me that perhaps the exterior receptacles were on a circuit with a GFCI outlet located elsewhere in the house. Sure enough, on the other side of the garage I found one, pushed the reset button, and ta-da, exterior christmas decorations are back to being festive twinkling lights.

Wife thinks I'm smart but really, I'm just lucky.

Who's Got Environmental Policy

This post by Adam Stein is so good, just go here to terrapass's blog and read it.

But if you've got click-fatigue, read on:

Thomas Friedman is one of the most important national writers on green issues – maybe the most important. Which is why this quote from a recent column is so confusing:

[N]one of the leading presidential candidates has offered an energy policy that would include a tax on oil or carbon that could trigger a truly transformational shift in America away from fossil fuels.

The column is framed as a mock assessment of America's security program from the point of view of an Iranian intelligence agency. It's a clever enough conceit, and in the middle of it Friedman drops in the line about carbon taxes to underscore the point that America isn't serious about energy independence.

The problem here is that the statement isn't true. Of the three leading Democratic candidates, 100% have offered strong plans for taxing carbon emissions in the form of cap-and-trade programs. On the Republican side, it's a bit hard to figure out who's leading these days, but two candidates (McCain and Huckabee) have at least endorsed the idea of a cap-and-trade system. This is pretty thin gruel, but it's not nothing. McCain has actually pushed for passage of such legislation in the Senate.

There are surely differences between a straight carbon tax and a cap and trade system, but the distinctions aren't really strong enough to support the column's contention. And it's true that the line is just a small piece of an article that covers a lot of ground, but I think this sort of thing matters.

Here's why. It's good to hold politicians' feet to the fire, particularly during a campaign season. But there's a flip side to this: when politicians actually take bold positions, it would be nice to see them rewarded for their courage. Otherwise, why should they stick their necks out? Several leading candidates have great -- even transformational -- energy plans. They should reap the political benefits.

Which raises a secondary, related problem with the column: the careful evenhandedness. A lot of candidates don't have great, transformational energy plans. And that so-called "green gap" is a perfect place for a columnist with Friedman's megaphone to focus his attention.

Halting State by Charles Stross

I'm in the middle of reading Halting State. I had to laugh at the homage Stross paid himself when the protagonists were attacked by slaad in an online RPG. It wasn't really like a snake biting itself on the tail after 20 years of circling, but, you know, something like that.

But hey, if that doesn't make you smile, I bet this will:

US Still Puts Profits over Climate Change

I guess we need a few more shocking disasters to hit our shores before politicians in the US will wake up. It seems the upcoming CAFE standards will continue to allow the SUV loophole where cars and light trucks are categorized separately.

Actually, as long as politicians are allowed to take money from corporations whose profit motives push aside moral considerations, I question whether we really have the ability to respond to real, actual pressing needs in this country anymore. Sure, we can respond to fabricated needs, needs fabricated by those few set to make big bucks on cost-plus contracts. I suppose if Haliburton were in the business of wind, solar, and biomass energy production we'd see more of an Apollo-project-like fervor on this topic, as opposed to what we've currently got, which essentially amounts to lip service.

Ok, here's something positive about to balance the negative points of the previous 2 paragraphs: it looks like the professionals may have taken about enough from their commander and chief--the CIA downgraded Iran's nuclear threat, throwing cold water in the administration's latest drumbeat for a new war in the mideast. Apparently, Bush only found out last week.

Seattle Humane Society Ain't What It Used To Be

If you've read my blog for a while, you may recall I've said really great things about the Humane Society for Seattle/King County (located in Bellevue).

What you may not know is that there has been a lot of changes over the last few years. Some of those changes led to my wife's departure, but she still has friends that work there so we have heard a lot of distressing stories.

I don't want to go into all the details, but it seems like this organization that once boasted an adoption rate of 80+% has changed its policies so drastically that they've turned themselves into a no-kill shelter.

You know what evil can lurk below that heart-warming-SOUNDING label (read my post on what no-kill really means here). Lest there is any confusion on this claim, click here and search the page for 'humane' to see that the new CEO is on the Coalition For No-Kill King County's board! Based on what we're hearing from the inside, the behind-the-scenes bad things that can happen at a no-kill shelter are happening now at the Humane Society for Seattle/King County.

The folks in Operations are incredibly devoted to the well-being of the animals and their care. But they must abide by the decisions made by the new CEO and the board that supports her.

There are still a lot of great animals there that need homes and I wouldn't want to dissuade anyone from adopting a shelter animal from them or anywhere else. However, you might want to consider sending your animal-shelter charitable donations to a shelter that appreciates its staff and whose decision-makers care about animal welfare.

First Drafts and Visitors

We had a visitor over the weekend--one of our old foster dogs came and stayed with us for a day (as Dee recounts in her blog entry here). Although Dee says "destiny stepped in" to save Gracie, it was Dee who made certain Grace got all the chances she needed until she was adopted.

In other news, I finished the first draft of a novel yesterday at about 5 pm. I love doing the dance of done-ness. Nothing quite like that feeling of finishing off a 9-month long project. I guess the feeling is best described as giddy.

Earthcore Minireview

I just finished listening to Scott Sigler's free audio novel Earthcore.

The fact that the book was free influenced me to try it, I have to admit. I listen to a lot of audio, and sometimes I need a diversion from the regular lineup. However, I ended up enjoying Earthcore so much that I donated $6.00, about the cost of a paperback. I think Scott ends up with 75% of that. Pretty good compared to my royalty percentage.

Anyhow, I recommend this book, probably give it 4 of 5 stars. I don't want to go into the plot, because I actually enjoy movies and audiobooks a little more if I know nothing about them when I begin; prevents my mind from spinning its own story. So, I knew nothing about Earthcore when I started listening. Well, there was a picture of a weird, crescent shaped knife on the download page.

Give it a listen, it's free!

(iTunes download here; I looked around a bit for somewhere else to download this from, but came up withing nothing. Sorry, time is short, I need to write the last 1,500 words of a novel of my own today!)

I'm Busy

I talk about how I'm so busy I have to work at home today on my Gleemax game blog:

Sometimes so many things are going on in the office that the only way to get anything done is to work at home. Yesterday I went from one unscheduled 'conference' to another, end to end, for pretty much the whole day. Many were in my cube, many more were via email, and a couple actually occured in conference rooms.

Which means that when all was said and done, I had written a grand total of about 700 words. Not to say that all the mini-conferences I was involved in were not also work--I'm leading two books simultaneously right now, and both have several writers working on them, and it's my job to keep everyone appraised of everyone else's work, to make sure everyonoe is actually on schedule, and to mediate disagreements on approach. Plus, I am responsible for an equal writing contribution. Whewh!

Anyhow, here I sit, working at home. At the very least, it's given me enough time to post here!

SFWA

I've considered joining SFWA a couple times (the sci-fi and fantasy writers association of America).
I never quite pulled the trigger, for reasons I won't go into here.

But it looks like I may have made the right decision. One of my all-time favorite writers, Charles Stross, takes SFWA to task for a recent decision. Click here to see how mad he is.

Yes, here's the place where I tell you that Charles Stross was one of the designers of the original Fiend Folio way back when, responsible for such favorites as the slaad, the githyanki, and death knights.

Prius Tips

Do you have a Prius? I usually get about 45 miles per gallon in the summer, and about 38 miles per gallon in the winter. I've heard about people using special techniques to achieve much better mileage than than, but I've just now discovered what those techniques actually are (click here to see).

I'm going to give these techniques a shot and see if I can't raise my mileage to 80+, even in the rainy winter. I doubt I can get to 100 mpg with the resistance the rain offers, but I guess it'll be an experiment!