Dear LJ,

Too busy to write. I'm having too much fun biking.

Bye.

Lots of things have happened since I last posted. Perhaps the biggest is that my dad just bought me a $300 bike. At first I was like, "WTF?" Not having ridden a bike before, I was apprehensive, but as it turns out, I learned how to ride it within two days. I'm not perfect--I can't get the damn thing to go straight for very long, and I'm having trouble getting up hills--but I can do it. That's pretty amazing, considering I haven't ridden a bike in close to two decades. And its a cool bike too, in bright orange. Spiffy.

Dad also got Mom a Dyson vacuum today. Can't wait to try that out.

My boss introduced me to an internet series called Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. It's a superhero musical done by the ungodly--or just amazingly good--Joss Whedon. Now, I hate musicals. I think its really, really stupid when characters just burst into song. I haven't seen "High School Musical" or "Hairspray" or anything like that. However, I actually enjoy this series. It's 3 19-minute or so episodes, which he's going to put into a direct-to-DVD movie sometime this week or maybe later. I was told they were getting pulled on Saturday to prepare, but its Sunday evening and they're still up. They have two things going for them: one, Nate Fillion (from Firefly) who plays Captain Hammer, and Neil Patrick Harris (Doogie Howser?), who plays "Dr. Horrible," are really, really great singers. Either that, or they have good dub artists. The other great thing is that the dialogue is full of hilarous one-liners (such as when Captain Hammer thinks he sees a character at the gym, he says "I don't go to the gym; I just naturally look like this.") Hammer, who is supposed to be the good guy, is actually a dick who just wants to have sex with girls; Dr. Horrible is actually a sweet guy. Seriously, I cannot stress it enough, YOU MUST WATCH THIS. It is GOLD, GOLD I tell you!

I also saw The Dark Knight last night. I don't want to spoil much, but I found it to be disturbing. It really shows the darker part of humanity's psyche, what fear will drive people to, and it makes me afraid, deep down. Are we really, as a society, that tenuous, that we'll give up our principles so easily in the face of fear? Heath Ledger's role as the Joker is incredible; I had a hard time realizing it was actually him under that makeup. It's just so different from what he did before. (And now a moment of silence for Casanova.) Is it worth your money? Maybe. As superhero movies go, this was very realistic, and not campy or cartoony at all. (FYI, I hated Batman Forever and Batman & Robin.)

As for writing (what, you thought I wouldn't bring it up?) I'm working on both my novel, sporadically, and a short story I plan on submitting to a magazine, perhaps Asimov's or Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. I'm guessing around 5000 words, although it isn't typed up yet (its in my notebook made from recycled paper) so I'm not sure. Guess I'll find out later in the week when I write it up.

I work as a Contract Archivist at my place of employment. I archive all the paperwork from the paper stacks into the electronic database.

First assignment of the day: an order for 36 boxes of Trojan condoms for the US Navy.

I FEEL SO UNCLEAN!!!

My cat died today. Here is his story.

It obviously started when he was born, but I entered the picture much, much later than that. For us, it started when my mother was on her way to a rabbit show. She was on the thruway and decided to stop off at a rest stop. When she came out, she heard a cat crying. She looked in some cars, but didn't see anything. Sixty miles later, she stopped at another rest stop and heard the same crying. This time, she looked around her car. In the rear wheelwell, there was a hole where rust had triumphed over the metal, and she saw a small tail sticking out of it. She yanked, and out came a scrawny black cat with sizzled whiskers, who just rode sixty miles on her shocks.

She figured he had been through hell, so she named him "Job" after the man in the Biblical story. For awhile, she was afraid of diseases or rabies, so she kept him in a rabbit carrier. He was pretty darn thin; I probably could have snapped him over my knee. Eventually, when she was sure he was well, she let him out and we started to feed him on a regular basis. He rapidly ballooned from a small critter to a giant. When he sat on his haunches, his black and grey hair gave off an imperial atmosphere. There was no joking or reasoning with this cat; he had claimed our house as his territory, and we were allowed there by his grace only. We learned this the hard way when we tried to cut back his food, as he tripped us going down the stairs. Eventually we gave up on that front and basically fed him when he was hungry.

Mostly, Job laid around the house alot. He liked to roll on his back and purr, looking up at us. When my dad laid on the couch, Job would jump up there and roll on his side, belly sticking out at us, and Dad would rub it. Job looked just like Jabba the Hutt, and a few times I called him Jobba the Hutt. Me and him got along grand; I had a tradition of rubbing him with my feet, and he loved it. He would roll over and shove his head at my feet, and then, when he got excited enough, he would turn around and bite them. Everybody, myself included, thought it was adorable.

This morning, my mom came into my room crying. Apparently, Job died of a heart attack as Mom was giving him breakfast. Dad was real torn up, and I think he still is, as Job was his buddy. I went down to the basement and saw him, wrapped up in a blanket. I rubbed his cheek with my fingers, and then with my toes, one last time. A memorial to him, I suppose. A send-off worthy of our friendship. I helped my dad bury him a half-hour later.

I don't really talk about family stuff on this blog because I'm usually too busy ranting about politics or religion or science or writing or whatever, so I never mentioned Job before. But I'm doing it now, so I will never forget the wonderful fuzzbucket that warmed my life. Its the first death that really mattered to me, that really hit home; I cried in my room, away from everyone. I loved that cat. I mean, I really loved that cat. So even though my mood icon says "Sad," it should really say, "Extremely fucking upset."

I'm sorry we didn't have the fortitude to keep you on a diet, Job. This is our fault. And I know you can't hear me, and that there is nothing beyond this, but damn, for you, I wish there was a heaven. One adorned with millions of sock-covered feet for you to rub.

My sister is getting married this Saturday, and I still don't have my speech written. I feel like a bum. I'll have to get to it today, time permitting.

I was reading the fine articles at AutoBlogGreen today, when I stumbled across one that spoke of the Kawasaki Ninja 250R. The article said that it had something like an 88mpg fuel efficiency. I thought to myself, "Wow! What a great idea to save gas! I'll just drive an entry-level sports bike to work!" Then I remembered all the people who have died on motorcycles in my area, and the fact that I'm not very good on an unpowered bike to begin with. So scratch that off. I'll buy a ZENN instead.

So far, the novel is giving me more problems, but I got the whole "Get from Scene A to Scene B" problem fixed; now I only have to write it. Before that, though, I think I need to rewrite an earlier scene. Listen, kids, when you go to write a novel, have a plan first. Luckily, its still proceeding at a good pace. I hope to have it finished by the end of the year, and then just polish.

But all this and more is giving me a headache. I need a migraine pill.

I did nothing to celebrate 4th of July, although most of my friends went in one big group to Rochester to do so. They never called up and tried to invite me. I'm miffed. I mean, I probably wouldn't have been able to go, but couldn't they have called me up just to ask? That couldn't have taken much effort.

After a week of not touching it, afflicted with writers block, I'm starting to reattack the novel. Its mostly a question of going from Scene A to Scene B. I think I can get a good chunk finished tonight, which will ease my troubled mind. Part of the reason I haven't focused on it has been chores, thinking about work (which starts at 8AM Monday), and me playing RF Online, a free MMORPG. Its science fiction with an anime flair. Kinda stupid, but hey, sometimes stupid works. EVE Online reports that I can get another 2 free weeks on its service, though, and I'm actually considering reactivating my trial account. They're offering a cool new form of space warfare, and it looks considerably more advanced than anything any other MMORPG has come out with.

So that's basically my recent recap of life. Yours?

I'm not sure why, but my story for SpaceWesterns is not up. It was supposed to go up yesterday. If its not up by Friday, I'll send an email to the editor. Nevermind, its up there.

I also passed my road test today. I am now a fully licensed driver. I have the little receipt and everything; my "real" license will come in the mail in a few days, probably a couple of weeks.

I'm still working on my novel, but I'm going to rewrite two short stories, I think, and try to get them published. So I might have up to four published stories this year, although I haven't heard back from the editors of Ghosts in the Machine yet.

To those of you just coming here from SpaceWesterns, my name is Jeremy Kolassa, and I'm a writer. I want to warn you beforehand that this blog is somewhat Not Safe For Work, although I am working to clean it up. In the future, when I have more published stories under my belt, I plan on creating a writers blog to be my storefront to the world, and leave my LJ as my personal journal where I can rant about imbecilic things behind a friends-lock. I will also be editing my profile to provide links to all my published stories. So please, look around, find out what you're getting into, and enjoy. Please leave comments in my entries, I love to talk!

PS: For my more regular viewers, my story is here.

I want to take a moment to review some anime I have been watching. I'm going to put them under cuts so you aren't spoiled.

( Rebuild of Evangelion 1.01: YOU ARE (NOT) ALONE )

( Blassreiter )

I happen to be a fan of D&D (haven't investigated 4e, however), and sometimes peruse RPGNow.com to check out what's there. I tend to get a lot of ideas for stories just by looking at some of the products. And once in awhile, I find some really dumb shit.

Today's example is Unorthodox Wizards from The Le Games (pronounced TEY-LEE Games; apparently it's French, which may explain this debauchery.) Its the latest in their line of UNORTHODOX products, which bring new variants of common classes to the D20 system. (A class, for those of you primitive barbarians who don't play D20, sets out your skills and occupation. There are hundreds of products with thousands of classes, although the basic ones everbody uses are barbarian, fighter, ranger, rogue, paladin, wizard, bard, sorcerer, druid, and cleric. I think those are the basics, anyways.)

The Le, however, has done some pretty shitty stuff in this one. First, I'll go straight to dumb. The first is the "Crimson Mage"--ooh, like that hasn't been done before. From the description, its a mage with power over the color red. No offense, but that's ridiculous. "Ooh, that guy is wearing red, I can slam him into a wall!" I mean, really, what mage would focus on the color red? Its so narrow its impractical. It might see use as an NPC class, but any player taking it would be very disappointed. The other really dumb class is the "Horse Flesh Devourer." Coming from a barbarian tribe, the character eats horseflesh and turns into a centaur. Yeah, okay. That too, is ridiculously narrow, to the point where I really can't see that many worlds being able to incorporate it. And besides, there are far easier ways to transform oneself into a centaur, even permanently. Eating horse flesh is just a way to be "edgy" and gross, and it can't give one all that much power. So again, a worthless class.

But then there is something that is just disgusting: the Necropimp. Its exactly what you think, a necromancer who raises the dead to be sold into mindless prostitution. That's creepy, and I couldn't think of any GM would let necrophilia into their games, at least not at the forefront. (Most people don't even like The Book of Erotic Fantasy.) But what really gets me is what's next: "The only thing more despicable than a Necropimp is one who uses children for his business--"

WTF?

"--but thankfully, there have been no such Necropimps, as they must even have some sort of code of ethics. Thank the gods there are no pedophile Necropimps."

The first, relatively minor, insult, is the repetition of "thanks," which just sounds bad to my wordsmith ear. But that is absolutely nonexistent with this disgusting crap about pedophile Necropimps. Why even bring that up? Why put such a disgusting, corrupting thought into anyone's head? Thanks, The Le, for bringing even less honor to a hobby that's already been denounced as the past time of satanic cults. Do you have any brains over there, or better yet, any sense of good taste? Are you trying to stir up shit ala` Jack Thompson, Ace Attorney? What the hell is wrong with you people?

I might be a libertarian, but that doesn't mean I can't, nor shouldn't, demand this product yanked. While the first two classes are dumb, the Necropimp is downright vile and shouldn't be entertained at all. The Le has got to revise this product without such a horrific class. Most of their other products are okay, and some, like Solaris, are downright intriguing. But this Necropimp destroys all of that, and makes the company look like a bunch of sickos who'll be next week's guest stars on "To Catch a Predator."

In short, I find this completely without taste and is a complete waste of money. Anyone who bought this specifically for the Necropimp class is, in my opinion, the exact reason why some idiots want D&D banned. They should be ashamed of themselves.

I have absolutely no idea what to put down as my entry title, so I'll just start typing about the content. First off, I encourage everyone to listen to a band called "Kenai." My sister gave my dad some disks from them. They're a Native American band that is kinda new-age, though my mom says I can't say that because then he wouldn't listen to them. They're freaking awesome, and completely unlike any other Native American band I've ever listened to. (All the others, to quote my mother, "Sound like a bunch of preschoolers." And, if I may add, on cocaine.) [PS: I've checked online, and apparently there are several bands by this name, as well as a city in Alaska. One of these bands is a hard rock screamo bunch from Essex.]

Speaking of Dad, he's very sick today. I don't know why. It has me worried.

I also recieved two books today, Characters, Emotion, and Viewpoint by Nancy Kress and Description & Setting by Ron Rozelle. It's a mixed bag. I mean, the books are great, and on one hand I'm picking up new things. On the other, though, I can see where my writing isn't following them, I can see mistakes, and its depressing. I'm supposed to be focusing on books that target different formats, so I can branch out and fall back on other markets when one gets tough. But I'm not. Ah, such is the idiot within me. Although, it can't really hurt all that much to have these ~25 books on writing.

I'm going to get a job starting in July. On June 30th I have my road test; on July 1st I plan to go into work. I'm going to call tomorrow and set something up, see if they'll have me. Gamestop might call me in late summer to "train" me for a desk job, then have me come in in the winter and next summer. Blargh, no help for me now. At the most, I'll get $470 from the job I'm looking at, but with taxes, I'll probably get closer to $400, maybe $350. That might just be enough to start upgrading my computer so it can play Crysis, STALKER, and maybe Super Ungaloid Revolution. Or Timeshift and Jericho. Dammit, I cannot remember what that other FPS was. Oh, blast, I've lost my memory again...

I just want to remind everyone that my first sold story, "A Real Red and White," will be up for FREE on SpaceWesterns.com on June 29th.

Oh, if only Obama said this, I would vote for him in a heartbeat:

So the Supreme Court has decided that what Bush is doing at Gitmo is unconstitutional. I'm mixed. On one hand, I think its great--Bush did some really shitty things at Gitmo, and I find the whole thing to be extremely unethical. On the other hand, I don't think the Constitution applies to US military bases overseas, I don't think it applies to foreigners, and I don't think the Supreme Court should just rewrite the Constitution to fit current public opinion. Yet, they may have some points on its application, and I'm no expert in law, so I'll defer to them. But I still think they're wrong. And I still think Scalia is a moron.

Earlier today I went down to vote for two propositions put forth by the school board. The polling place was about five minutes away in town, and was the only one for our ward, which I don't think is very large. So when my dad and I walked in, and one of the ballot assistants asked, "So, you from around here?" Both of us were thinking, "Nah, we're from Arizona, just passing through, saw the sign, figured we might as well vote. It'd be a hoot." HERE'S YOUR SIGN.

Like I said, there were two propositions. I voted YES to Proposition I and NO to Proposition II. P-I was allocating funds to refurbish several old elementary schools, which had been built in the years just after World War II. I voted YES for three reasons: one, they really need to be fixed, and even though I really dislike our public school system, that is no reason for these kids to go to crappy buildings; two, 97% of the funds are state grants, and so if the money is there, why not use it; and three, if I can make even one stuck-up Manhattanite pay for our school district's refurbishing, then I'm happy. It's payback for making all of us Upstate New Yorkers pay for their damn sport stadiums and other projects that have absolutely no concern for us. P-II wanted to move one of the elementary schools and the district's Central Office into the old high school, which is being torn down because it's old, unsafe, and, well, not a good building. So I voted NO, because the school board was obviously not thinking, and it tended to reverse its positions so rapidly it gave everybody a headache. John Kerry would have been proud; these were real flip-floppers. Pissed everybody off, and really gave the impression that they had absolutely no idea what they were doing. It doesn't help that between the time that the old board resolved to put the propositions before the public and the time of the actual vote, ~five incumbents either lost or were giving up their seats, so now the board is almost completely different and is trying to reverse just about everything the old board did. This letter to the editor explains some of what I feel: nothing in this damn scenario makes any sense. Plus, people are no longer willing to bite the bullet, and to do the hard things (namely, shut down some of our six plus elementary schools that are all under-enrolled.)

Ah well. Guess we're up for another couple of years of just wasting money in a futile effort to teach kids something.

PS: It's not the kids that's the problem, although I will admit a lot of them don't even try. Rather, its the administration. It sucks. I also intend on making a post about some of these letters to the editor and other editorials I've found in the paper. I'm just too lazy. Honest.

I just want to say, if I haven't made a comment on your blog and you're on my friends-list, don't worry about it. I probably haven't died, dissed you, or sold my soul to a Guatemalan shaman-mercenary who is on a personal quest to excise the Arab Muslim imp from Barack Obama's left hallux. No, I'm just inattentive. I do get around to it, though, usually commenting on a bunch of people's posts in one fell swoop.

Such as today, I hope to post on some. This weekend I took my father on a camping trip. We went all the way up to Moss Lake in Adirondack State Park, which meant we left civilization behind. Okay, not all of civilization, as there was the hamlet of Eagle Bay and the town of Inlet nearby, but they were still a good ten-to-thirty minute drive away. It was actually pretty good, if it wasn't for all the damn bugs. I look like the Himalayas with all these bug bites.

I did get a cool book on Friday, though, just before I left, called "Writing for Animation, Comics, & Games" by Christy Marx. It's actually a good book--it won't teach you how to write (as in, plot, characterization, so forth) but it will teach you the format and guidelines for these three genres. I think some of her book is inaccurate, though. Not the technical stuff, but more of the generalities about animation. I'm trying to think of that one example that stuck out in my mind, but I'm bringing up a blank. I'll post it later.

Certain things suck, though, about the animation field. First off, that you really can't break into the feature film market for animation unless you've already made it in another field. If I can get this novel published, that'll be moot, but it still sucks. And then there's the fact that everbody and their mother has to have their input into your script, which is both good and utterly disastrous. (Can you say "Stupid execs turned a really good script into a piddling tribute to bland commercial trash?") And finally, the blatantly obvious one: that in America, most animation (and especially most feature animation) is geared towards those 12 and under. I hate that; I want to write animation scripts aimed more for older teenagers and adults. I don't want to be afraid of saying "Kill them!" or dropping the D-word. But I should probably just focus on this damn novel for now; luckily, I managed to get two major scenes done, and now I just have to type them up and do some slight editing. (It's almost wondrous how you forget small things on paper, yet you actually have it done.) As I've said before, this feels like the final major draft, and it is. I fully intend to only edit small things for description, characterization, dialogue, etc after this, but the major part--plot, structure, overall character traits, theme--will be done and over with and completed and FINETO!

It feels good to say that. Really.

The panel crashed on me and would not allow itself to be fixed. So screw that. I'm back to XFCE.

Damn-de-damn-damn...

So Wednesday I went to a restaurant called the Garage. It's up where Chestnut St. and North James meet, right across from Friendly's. I had always wanted to go there, but until Wednesday I was forced to just watch it as I went by. My dad had sent it was a pretty cool place. Luckily, that day, he took me and my mother there for food. I have to say, I never expected it to have corrugated metal sheeting over every wall, giant bolts to hold up the tables, and a wrench as the door handle. It was really, really cool, and on top of that, the food was really good too. The only downside is for my parents: I've been heckling about them to go back, and they're just starting to get annoyed.

The day after that I had my first driving lesson. Essentially it was just an intro to see how good I drove and if I could get used to a first generation Prius.

Dear god, that thing was a death-trap. I think I would have rather driven the Blue Beetle.

I suppose it wasn't that bad, but it was tiny, far too small for someone who stands 6' 2" (188 centimeters) in the morning. The dashboard was also not in the front, as I'm used too, but in the center of the vehicle, so I have to look over to see how fast I'm going or what gear I'm in. What a dumb, dumb engineering decision--I don't want to have to look all over blinking creation to find out basic facts about my vehicle's condition. The lever to shift gears was also wonky, and both pedals were far, far more sensitive than anything I have ever used before. I really hope they have that fixed in the new versions of the Prius. Not that I would ever get one, mind you.

I might also have a job at Gamestop, but I'm not sure. I handed in the application Wednesday, and the "Assistant Systems Manager" told me that, if picked up, I'll train in the summer, and then work on a rotational basis during the winter and next summer. Next summer depends largely on whether or not I go to Japan (well, I will go, it all depends on what program and its start dates), but I'll burn that bridge when I get to it.

Finally, I installed KDE on my system. The original reason for why I went with Xfce and not KDE was that I heard KDE (and GNOME) were both kinda bloated, and worried about my laptop being unable to run Vista properly, I didn't want to exert that sort of stress on it. So far, I've been testing KDE for about an hour, and everything is good. Its a lot different from Xfce, obviously, and I'm getting used to that, but I like it. Its got a ton more features, which will all, I'm sure, contribute to me not working on my writing, but its nice to have those there when I need them. Although Konquerer can go to hell as far as I'm concerned; it can't even open my Gmail account. (Then again, Gmail has been acting wonky today with everything on this computer. Hmm...)

Speaking of my novel, I've actually been working on it for the past few days, although slowly. I'm bleeding lead, it seems, over this one scene. I'm trying to get the characters to move through it without sounding retarded. Some famous writer would probably tell me something is wrong, because I'm forcing them--I'll just tell him to STFU because he doesn't know what he's talking about. If I was forcing them, my characters would speak up a hell of a lot louder, and I would know it.

I don't really believe in online petitions, because they usually fail, but this is one I do believe in. At the very least, it can't kill you to sign.

Essentially its a letter to the GOP begging them to reconsider choosing John McCain and choose Ron Paul instead. I know it won't work, but it feels good to sign it. Taking five minutes out of your time to sign an online petition can't hurt, and can only help your feelings.

So please sign this letter to the national GOP and tell them what morons they were choosing John McCain to be their nominee.

Later I'll have a post up detailing what I've been doing over the past few days.

This is the sort of sentiment I see developing in the American political audience. Although usually its not as ballistic, is it there, and it is growing. People are getting sick of how the major parties are deciding elections all on their own. The terrible choices presented in the 2008 election season--as well as the shutout by the GOP on Ron Paul and by the Dems on Kucinich, Gravel, and even to some extent, Edwards--has led even more voters to be disaffected by the political system. Change will not be immediate. The closest I think until anything substantial happens will be between 12-16 years from now, and probably closer to ~25 years. But rest assured, the system is weakening.

The protracted nomination fight between Clinton and Obama has fractured the Democrats. There aren't any real political factions, either. There are just Clinton-supporters and Obama-supporters, instead of "liberals" or "conservatives." But at least the Clintonista points out the hypocrisy of PC bullshit, and how being "politically correct" not only failed to pan out this year, but also made the Democrats look shitty on all points. They really can not win for losing in the PC arena this year, which is ironic considering political correctness is a liberal/Democrat invention. There are also, of course, those from Nader Heights who view the Democratic Party as being far too corporate to support. While they seem to have shrunk since 2000, at least in Nader's vote totals, I suspect a larger number of them are out there than those numbers let on. I would not be surprised if the far left begins to pull out of the Democratic Party in larger numbers, splitting it and shoving Democrats farther to the center. Why conservative Democrats have not bolted to the GOP or to the Libertarian or Constitution parties is beyond me, however. Maybe because of Georgie, but then again, since mid-2007 nobody has really paid any attention to him.

On the GOP side, its even more fractured. At least the Democrats can rightfully say, even with the Clinton/Obama war, that they are largely unified. The GOP, however, is a ragged coalition of ideological entities that have only stayed together because the alternative would be political suicide. You have the far-right demogogues, the so called "Religious Right," with its social and cultural conservatives; you have the fiscal conservatives, who just want the damn government to cost less; the big national-security conservatives, who are tied (somewhat) with the neoconservatives and their desires to create an American Empire; and then you have the libertarian wing. Plus there are a few who don't fit the above descriptions, although since the beginning of the 21st century there have been virtually no moderates or liberals. Considering the rancor that John McCain was elected amongst, it appears more divisions are appearing in the GOP tent. Ron Paul is leading a revolution, definitely; his supporters have tried to take over state conventions, and he has inspired a new legion of small-government libertarians to run for office (such as Murray Sabrin in New Jersey and Pat Dixon in Lago Vista, Texas.) The center cannot hold; the Religious Right, furious its plans of Christian Dominionism have not come to fruition under the GOP banner, has already started to support the Constitution Party (even though I have doubts as to its actual size and effectiveness); the libertarian wing of the GOP has started to move over to the Libertarian Party, making it a sort of "Republican-Lite" party. If McCain loses in 2008--or even if he wins--there is going to be a power-struggle within the GOP. Whoever comes out on top of the tussle will set its new direction. Personally, I think the fiscal and small-government conservatives will win. The neoconservatives and the social conservatives brought the GOP George W. Bush, one of the Top 5 worst presidents and an unbelievable disaster for the party; compared to him, Bill Clinton's blowjob deserves an award for public service.

So what does this mean? Well, nothing in the short term. We'll still get an awful president, and for the next two or three presidential terms, we'll see an ever-expanding government and more corruption and incompetence. (If Obama wins, we're almost certainly guaranteed incompetence; if McCain wins, we don't get incompetence so much as just bad judgement.) But I believe that people will start voting for others, just fed up with the whole system; God forbid if one of the major parties enacts compulsory voting, you might just see people vote Libertarian as a protest vote! In any case, the two major parties won't have much longer to stay alive. Give it 20-30 years, and you'll see either one of them replaced, or a third party enter the scene.

Then again, people are more interested in iPods than what the frell is happening to their country.

In rhetoric class last semester (which I got an A in, by the way), one of the assignments we had to do was a "State of the Debate" paper, or a "synthesis argument." Essentially, the state of the debate paper was to sum up all the major views on a debate. Since mine was on marijuana legalization, I had to find and write about the various sides debating marijuana, which meant Legalizers, Decriminalizers (who I admittedly found very little about), Medicals, and Prohibitionists. Outside of the classroom, I never thought I would actually find a state of the debate paper, but today I have. And I found it on ThirdPartyWatch.

The blog entry is called Roundup Calls for LP Unity (and Divorce). I haven't read all the hyperlinks yet, but some of the text I definitely agree with. For starters, the quote by Jerome Tuccille, former LP candidate for New York governor: “maintaining ideological purity is the job of philosophers and hard-core factions, while achieving political impact on selected issues is the job of politicians and political parties." There is definitely a place for the purists and radicals, but it is not out in front campaigning. It is in writing books, giving speeches, things like that, but I do not think having them run for office would do the party--or the message of libertarianism--any good. Call me a hypocrite if you want, but that's my opinion and I'm sticking to it.

There's quite a lot of interesting stuff here, most of it pro-Barr. I suppose that can't be avoided, since just before the LP National Convention, ThirdPartyWatch was bought by one of Barr's campaign advisors. Since TPW gets kinda high on Google nowadays, at least when you search for third parties, the new boss would most likely not want any stuff that denigrates Barr. Still, I maintain my position that the Barr/Root ticket deserves a chance this November and every libertarian should vote for it, because the different options--Obama/McCain/McKinney--all suck. And besides, Barr won't win, but he might get over the ballot access requirements in some states, making it that much easier for a "real" libertarian candidate to pick up more votes and get farther in the election come 2012.

If Barr was going to be a serious contender in the presidential race, I might actually have doubts. If we used Approval Voting, or in this case, even Equal and Even Cumulative Voting, it wouldn't be a problem--mark down Barr, possibly the GP candidate, and Obama. Or maybe McCain. But with our really crappy plurality voting system, we have to worry about "spoiler effect" and "Wasted Vote Syndrome", both of which really piss me off. Ergo, we have to all start voting tactically, and you may not vote Barr. But in this case, it doesn't matter. I'm voting Barr, just to see him get at least 50,000 votes in NY and give us automatic ballot status.

If the damn NYLP can do its job, anyways...

I am seriously contemplating abandoning this novel. Its a wreck. I've worked on it for four years and have gone nowhere. Part of this problem is that I never had a plan, I just dived in each and every time. And then I would abandon it for weeks or even months while I did other stuff--school, college, chores, Livejournal, work. Its made it a mess.

So I'm contemplating. At the very least, I'll delete a few paragraphs ahead of the section I'm currently rewriting and then possibly change up the number of engagements between our heroes and the enemies. I also have to work on characterization and "Show vs. Tell."

I also got confirmation of my story submission being received. Not accepted, as of yet. I'll probably find out in a couple of months.