PocketWatch Romances

Archive for September, 2004

*Giggle* I got my shirts! And my cards. But the shirts were what I was -really= looking forward to.

“I went to Skyland Mountain and all I got was this lousy implant” and “God is in the tub.” Hee.

I cannot throw away books.

Actually, that’s not entirely true — but in order for me to actually physically place a book into a refuse receptacle, the book has to be an utter and complete loss. My copy of To Kill A Mockingbird was rescued from a bit of woodsy grounds outside the school my brother was attending, where some junior-high boy had thrown it after tearing off the cover and the first few pages (the first page of the first chapter is present, but damaged). It has a few notes scribbled in it, underlining how uninterested in reading it its former owner was.

I picked up that book, not at all intending to read it, because I’d never had any interest in it, because I could not leave it exposed to the elements. It’s not because I think that books have feelings, or souls, but because I have a deep and abiding love of and respect for books. I may not agree with everything ever written, nor do I plan on reading everything ever written (that would be impossible, after all), but it doesn’t matter.

I did eventually end up reading it and understanding -why- it is a classic, -why- teachers still think it’s worth teaching and worth reading, and -why- some people would find it an offensive, horrible book.

I read Of Mice And Men of my own volition, too. And _that_ book I hated. I still hate it, though I have actually discovered that Steinbeck has indeed written something that I can and will read more than once. Just because I can’t stand Steinbeck doesn’t give me the right to go on a one-person crusade to rid the world of Steinbeck’s works.

To declare that you yourself knows better than anyone else what is good for them is to A) indulge in delusion on a grand scale and B) run the risk of being labled a fascist. Reesa is correct in stating that people are (usually*) quick to recoil in horror if you tell them they’re being Nazi-like; Nazi is a term that no one wants to be saddled with.

One more example. A year after the rape of the books, a young writer, writing about his alter ego, has his hero cope with disabling coldness in his study. The narrator [hero] decides to burn old books, bought for that purpose, in a dilapidated bath tub. He wants to start with a venerable German tome on medicine, whose subject and language are incomprehensible to him. But he cannot do it:

It is simply this: that if you have any respect for the mere idea of books, what they stand for in life, if you believe in paper and print, you cannot burn any page of any book. Even if you are freezing. Even if you are trying to do a bit of writing yourself. You can’t do it. It is asking too much.

That says it far more eloquently than I could ever hope to. It comes from a very well-written essay on the American response to the Nazi book-burnings, and can be read here. It also explains very nicely the frightening idea behind the book burnings: they’re a tool to try to suppress the dissemination of dissenting opinions (or facts).

And that’s about all the time I have for today, since I have things I have to run about and do tomorrow.

* I say usually because there are the few horrible people out there that are proud to claim their alliance with the Nazi party… and there’s also the whole Soup Nazi-related continuum of jokes. I don’t think it’s all that funny, but I digress.

In other news, I miss Sparx. And I’m hungry. Boo.

This is how I often envision Sparx to be dressed, only with glasses (magic disappearing glasses, but anyhow) and without a cigarette.

There are a few more pictures like that on this page featuring pictures from Crowe’s latest movie.

Featuring Cho Hakkai from Saiyuki. He’s so sweetly sad…

Speaking of manga, I still think it’s absolutely hysterical that the seventh volume of Fake gets shrinkwrapped whilst pretty much every volume of Angel Sanctuary I’ve seen has been flapping around in the breeze. *Snerk*

A new (to me, anyhow) Ellen Kushner book, set in approximately the same place and time as Swordspoint! It sounds good, so I can only hope…

Cute rubber clogs that would be perfect for tromping through downtown Seattle, in the rain…

I like little flats like these. There’s something… I don’t know, doll-like? about them.

Ah! I have the Asolo Vert shoes, and I really like them. I’d love to have a pair of their boots, too.

One can never go wrong with docs.

Shoes and jewelry are about the only things that J. Jill sells that will fit me. And boy, do they have some interesting/beautiful stuff.

Also, wireless broadband networking kicks seventeen kinds of ass.

You know, Captain Planet just never gets any better.

I should go back to sleep.

- Riiiiiing – - Riiiiing -
- Click – “Hello, police, how may I help you?”
“Yes, I’d like to report a theft.”
“All right. What was stolen?”
“Bandwidth. It’s being stolen right now.”
“Bandwidth…?”
“Yes! Hurry, they’re stealing it!”
“I’m sorry, ma’am, but… What is this bandwidth? Can you describe it for me? Where is it located?”
“Bandwidth, bandwidth, you know, the amount of information that can be transferred from a website?”
“So you’re saying that someone is stealing data from you. Are you saying that someone is hacking your computer?”
“No! Not a hacker. A theif! They’re stealing my bandwidth!”
“Ma’am, I’m sorry, but I don’t understand what it is that is being stolen. Is this a thing, like a credit-card number, or is it something else?”
“It’s my bandwidth! They’re taking it! Stop them! Punish them!”
“I’m sorry, ma’am, but I can’t help you. Would you like to speak to someone in the Computer Crimes unit?”
“Yes please. Hurry!”
“All right, I’ll transfer you. Hold, please.”
- click –
- Riiiiiiiiing – - Riiiiiiiiiing –
“Computer Crimes, Barnes speaking.”
“Hi, I have a problem — someone is stealing my bandwidth!”
“Someone is stealing your bandwidth. Okay, how are they doing that? Have they physically hooked into your broadband line, or are they hijacking your network…?”
“They’re posting a picture I host on their website! I want you to hunt them down and arrest them for stealing!”
“…a picture. Just the one?”
“Yes! Now find them and stop them! They’re stealing!”
“Ma’am, I’m going to hang up on you now, as I have real criminals to track down and apprehend.”
“You can’t do tha-” -click-
“Hello? Hello!? Theft! Theft! Hello?”

- the end –

(Not that I think that “bandwidth theft” isn’t stealing — but I think that there’s a difference between doing something intentionally (i.e. posting pictures hosted by someone on, say, Fark or Slashdot, for the express purpose of sending their bandwidth usage sky-high) and doing it unintentionally (posting a picture to a forum because ‘it’s pretty!’ and not realizing that someone has to pay for it). Yeah, it may not totally excuse someone from doing it, but it’s the sort of difference that results in convictions for manslaughter (accident) instead of murder in the first (on purpose).

Also, it occurred to me that ‘bandwidth theft’ is pretty much an unprosecuteable crime in the accident version of events. Police departments have waaaaay too much to do to worry about someone posting a picture somewhere online. Also? If someone is hosting a picture of yours somewhere and you’re upset about it, do something about it. I discovered that someone had found one of my Career dolls and was using it as both a forum avatar and in a game of ‘run a GIS for your forum name and post the results’, so I changed the picture. Nothing horrible (although some of the ‘I stole this img’ replacements I’ve seen have been amusing, in a train-wreck sort of way):

So. You have alternatives besides whining.

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And this is what I did with the clam picture:

It’s for a Pixel Challenge on FameTracker. Hee. I’m looking forward to the next one, which is ‘Celebrity Children’s Books That Have Yet To Be Written’. *Blink* *Giggle* I have a couple of ideas…