Doonesbury Nilbloggery

If you follow the Doonesbury strip at all, you know that the blogosphere is portrayed as being populated by vacuous troglodytes, mindlessly control-C'ing and control-V'ing whatever mundane, trivial data happens to ping their limited attention spans. I call them (I mean "us") "Nilbloggers". So I sent a note to the Doonesbury site and they chose to post it, along with a link to this blog. So we've got this kind of recursive, self-referential thing going on if you link back and forth. Wow. So in the spirit of Nilblogging, note that this post and three bucks will get you about a gallon of gas.

Katrina Hath Not Charmed

OK, you gave some bucks for tsunami relief a while back. Give a little bit more to help out the unfortunate folks here at home. Support the Red Cross. But you know what? Some companies will match the donations of their employees, so hold off until you get a feel for how your workplace will handle worker donations. If they match donations, great. If not, send in your $ now.

Update 8/31: send in $ now, and also when you find out that your employer matches your donation.

What Would Camaxtli Do?

I've culled a couple of thoughtful pieces from the ether regarding the Cindy Sheehan affair, one direct, one indirect, for your perusal, here and here. I invite comment.

Open Apology to Texans

Did I recently post that Texans were synonymous with "dismayingly ignorant" hominids? Sorry. Once again, the good people of California have stepped into that role, including our state Attorney General Bill Lockyer, who, on behalf of consumer groups, has filed a lawsuit against top makers of french fries and potato chips. According to the complaint, companies such as McDonalds and Frito-Lay must warn their customers that their products contain low levels of acrylamide, a chemical created when foods with high starch content are cooked at high heat, and which has been found to cause cancer in laboratory animals in high doses. Oh, please.

A responsible blogger would follow up by reading the FDA study on acrylamide, interview Lockyer, the consumer group spokesperson, the chief FDA scientist, and the potato chip and french fry company representatives, and then post an informative, thoughtful, and balanced report summarizing the entire affair.

Call me when you find one. I'm going to the beach, then over to McD's for some fries.

Power on. Not!

How bloody hot was it around here in SoCal today? Suffice it to say, I was reminded of the old joke: At the International Astronautics convention, the delegate from Poland strode to the rostrum and announced, "We plan on landing a space ship on the surface of the sun!" Dumbfounded, other delegates shouted, "You fool! You can't land on the sun. It's too hot!"

"Hah! We plan on landing at night!"

(For you toddlers out there, people from Poland were once looked upon as dismayingly ignorant, and worthy of ridicule. Times change). Update: these people are now called "Texans".

But the point is, it's hot around here, and that can mean trouble for the power grid. We had rolling blackouts throughout the area yesterday, which was a creepy reminder of the energy crisis we had foisted on us back in 2001. Yesterday's problems weren't caused by a slithering Enron-type conglomerate however. In the words of our intrepid governor, "I think it's the same as when you have a car," he said. "You can have the best car in the world, but a car can break down. The key thing is you have an organization that responds quickly." Oh.

One wonders why Schwarzenegger's approval ratings are heading south.

Yet Another Useless List

Because I still don't have satellite radio in my car, I am able to say with authority, "Jeez, radio really bites." Luckily, Indie 103.1, a fairly recent arrival on the LA & OC airwaves helps dispel some of the radio gloom. Especially noteworthy is Jonesy's Jukebox, a very freewheeling segment hosted by Sex Pistol Steve Jones. And I haven't even listened yet to Rob Zombie's show at the station.

OK, that's what I tend to listen to in my car; that, and traffic reports of course. However, here in my sanctum sanctorum, I most often have radioioEclectic running in the background. It's my main source of inspiration for the songs I'll end up getting from iTunes.

"What are the five most recently downloaded songs," you ask?

"Drivin' Thunder" by Stephen Stills (new version) (the song, not Stills)
"Empty Room" by Marjorie Fair
"Hey Ho" by Tracy Grammer
"Bird on a Wire" by Girlyman
"Black Betty" by Spiderbait

I'll add some links when my laziness ebbs.

Shut Up, Bako Rocks!

OK, Bakersfield is cool, at least some of its components, just like any other city, right?

Check out good open source journalism at http://www.northwestvoice.com/

Real Life Rules Too

Unplug yourself from all media inputs, stand up, walk out your front door, take a few deep breaths, and look around for a couple of minutes. Report back when sanity has been regained. Or not, if you happen to be in Bakersfield.

OK, Galactica is BlogWorthy

Just wanted to note that you have serious mental problems if you are not jacked into the latest incarnation of Battlestar Galactica on the SCIFI channel. ML reports that the latest stuff is "intense and creepy." I'm ashamed to say I'm behind a few episodes, but TiVo rules, so I'll catch up soon.

To put this in perspective, Jews are refusing to leave their homes on the Gaza strip, unsure if Starbuck will accede to Cylon demands.

Real life rules too.

MIT Courses Online

My favorite classes in school were the basic Physics curricula. Physics I, II, and III. They were also some of the most difficult. But what an eye opener! So this is how the world really works! It was great! And I rarely use exclamation points, but that's how it felt! Like there was a big exclamation point being shoved into my brainpan, but in a good way. Uh-huh, right, but stick with me here. "Knowledge is Good." Say, wasn't that the aphorism chiseled into a statue on the campus of National Lampoon's Animal House? Sorry, I'll have to verify that later. But I'm getting sidetracked here.

Anyway, if you wish to seriously get some higher education, for free, avail yourself of the MIT OpenCourseWare site, which offers the notes, lectures, assignments, and associated sundry data for over a thousand courses, ranging from Aeronautics to Writing.

I don't believe there is a course offered on "Intelligent Design". That may come later, depending on the outcome of Harvard University's study into the origin of life.

Nilbloggers vs Milbloggers

Check out the John Hockenberry piece on milbloggers over at Wired, along with Jon Stewart's interview with Hockenberry at his Daily Show site. Fascinating stuff. Blogs, emails, just about any type of digital media (photos, anyone?) flowing out of the Iraqisphere are causing big headaches in Pentagon craniums. As you'd expect, these bloggers aren't writing primarily about, say, a nice little bike ride they went on yesterday. It's probably just a matter of time before a "cone of silence" gets erected around the whole thing, but come on, there's no way to staunch all that data flow.

Milblogger, by the way, is a cool moniker. So I hereby coin my own term for most of the writers around here (Mike says, as he looks squarely in the mirror): Nilbloggers.

Speaking of Iraq, at least we've turned the corner. I mean, look at our accomplishments: we've caught Saddam, evil mastermind behind 9/11; we now know where the WMD are; and democracy is spreading like wildfire in the Middle East. What? Oh.

Right Turn at Rosecrans, Left at CEV

Barb and I rode bikes to my brother's house this morning, and it took us a little under 2 hours, rather than the 5 or 6 hours I had originally anticipated. I heard the phrase, "What were you thinking?" (due to my inept ETA) many times today, but no matter, it was a good ride. Kim picked us up in my car, we rode home without incident, albeit Kim and Barbara discussed their mutual admiration for Sex and the City episodes, recounting some favorites, with Barb saying to me, "See, men are idiots." Duh, like I couldn't agree more. But, following their spirited conversations regarding Carrie's exploits and how cool the show was, not quite ad nauseum, I didn't bring up the subject of irony.
Ahh, back to work tomorrow. I think I'll step up my efforts to move over to a job on the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV), which is planned to be the space shuttle replacement. But that's another story.

Exiting Belmont Shore

Speaking of mundane posts, we helped our friends Chris and Dawn and Colton move out of the neighborhood today. I'm tired, and my back hurts. To put it in scientific terms: getting older really bites. The good news is, they didn't move to Jupiter, because the furniture would've been pretty damned heavy. Drinking Coronas earlier today, it was agreed upon that that was a funny joke; however, at this point in time, the Divine Judges of Comedy are probably shaking their heads and muttering. I don't blame them.

Leviathan Isles

So the thing is, I'm in the middle of editing slash re-writing a short story. The plan is to polish it up and submit to Asimov's or F&SF for publication, or, statistically more likely, rejection. But that's OK. I can handle it. Sniff.
The story is "The Leviathan Isles" and concerns a harrowing rite-of-passage adventure of a girl living on a fairly low tech human colonizied planet in the far future. The two primary re-writes I need to accomplish are 1) make the antagonist character Chendry more menacing and intelligent, and 2) add two final scenes with our heroine Jenna and her grandfather, which will kind of sum up our experience with her in this particular story, and leave the door open for more adventures. Piece of cake. I'll work on the re-writes on this site, and document the story submittal process, along with whatever other details come up. The beauty of this is, I can write about the re-write process, and not have to do any actual story writing, which happens to be hard work.

Borg'd

Latest T-Shirt from my friend Mary Lou.

Random Musings

I suppose a blog post entitled "Random Musings" is superfluous, but what can I say? I'm a rank amateur.
Don't forget to check out the sky show this evening (best after midnight) as a predicted peak of the Perseid meteor shower arrives, with specks of dust screaming through our atmosphere at 59 km/sec lighting up the night sky. Look to the Northeast! If possible, get away from our bloody city lights for the best viewing scenario, though those of us city-bound should still be able to ogle a few, because the moon will be out of the picture, so to speak. For those of you with a smattering of interest in cosmology, I highly recommend Guy Ottewell's Astronomical Calendars, available at http://www.universalworkshop.com/.

Miniscule fanfare

With little fanfare, and less than zero media attention, Mike King launches his blog. Mission statements can be codified at a later date, if even necessary for criminy's sake, but it would probably be nice to let folks know what's going on in this blogspace. I'm now cogitating.

I believe my intent here is twofold: 1) use this site as a workspace to putz around with my short story work, and 2) add some commentary to general world news stories that seem interesting, if only for my own edification. We'll see what happens... mk

Hello World