Fear, Doubt, and FUD

Garrison Keillor's column contains this, about his Republican friend:

The problem is that his party has become the Calvinist party and he is Episcopalian. In his church, faith and doubt sit side by side: It's fear that we must cast out. But in the Republican Party, fear is the fuel that runs the car.

Four-Twenty

I almost forgot to tell you. I attended the 4:20 celebration in the Porter Meadow last Friday. My car was parked at Kresge, it would have been a shame to miss it again. I've never been available at the right day and time. And since I usually work until 4 anyway..... More...

No Numbers, No Subordinant Clauses, No Illusion?

Someone at work mentioned to me that one of our favorite professors at the Help Desk, Geoff Pullum, had been heard on NPR. The story was about the Piraha, a small group of about 350 people who have a language unlike any other. More...

Beaded Treasures

I wore a beaded sweater to work today and someone admired it. I thanked her, and found myself saying "I would wear beaded sweaters to work every day if I could. I wonder if I could find them on eBay?" More...

Sounds like a Fun Party

NASA still has it, and always will. Wired brings us a story about a party just over the hill at Moffett field, part of which is run by UCSC where my group does IT support. "It was, as one attendee remarked, as if NASA had decided to host Burning Man." More...

Ride the Real Estate Rollercoaster

via Alternet, you can ride a rollercoaster designed by the real estate market. Talking about real estate is something that Santa Cruzans can't stop doing--perhaps it is the same in your town too. I'm quite bored of it, and often bringing it up is just rude. But it was weird when for a few years our house made more money than we did. On paper. Once houses in Santa Cruz started selling for more than $450K, they were pretty much out of reach of most families without hereditary wealth. More...

The Secret

We were talking--about the space between us all
And the people--who hide themselves behind a wall of illusion
Never glimpse the truth-then it's far too late--when they pass away.
We were talking--about the love we all could share-when we find it. More...

Sad But True

An excellent documentary on Lesbian Fashion. The first 15 seconds with Ellen Degeneres set the tone. More...

The Dangerous Book for Boys

Here are two books that I would have loved as a child, being the son my father never had. The Dangerous Book for Boys has plenty of hype (I heard about it in Vanity Fair), but according to the reviewers on Amazon, still worth it. The same authors have released "Things to Do" as a follow up. More...

The Experiment at Santa Cruz 1967

I just found out that as a Harper's subscriber, I have on-line access to all of Harpers, going back to 1850. This will be fun. First I searched for my favorite topics, and one of them is "Santa Cruz." The searched turned up this article by John Fisher, published in July of 1967. More...

Kurt Vonnegut

I didn't read until today that Vonnegut has died. Jane Epsenson
reproduced a list of Vonnegut's Eight Rules of Writing Fiction, from Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction. Number 8: Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

Game Adaptation

I haven't had a chance to see this myself, but the Engineering Building has an art installation this week.

The Wonderful World of Makeup

Cosmetics never interested me. Never liked them, as a teen I never tried them. I've worn make-up for performances and that one television interview I did, but that's it. But I've been reading the blog of an old college acquaintance, Angela Bocage, where she, among other things, reviews make-up. Her recent primer on mascara of all things started a desire in me wanting to wear it. Life is so full of surprises. And perhaps I'm just susceptible to a good writer's passion.

The Lesbian Coterie

Last week we passed around a xerox copy of a San Francisco magazine article about UC Santa Cruz. The article asks the question "What really happened to ruin the meteoric career of provost M.R.C. Greenwood and drive chancellor Denice Denton to the roof of the tallest apartment building in San Francisco?" The article is now available for you to read too. More...

Audible Erotica

A long time ago, I wrote a short story called "P.G. Diary." Susie Bright included it in Best America Erotica 1994, and recently, she has made the entire series available as audiobooks. I don't think that anyone has published quality erotica as audiobooks before. Will it sell? I hope so. Audible.com offers so few books I'm interested in, the entire genre has been a disappointment, and I love to be read to. And my story? I write all my stories to be read aloud (those few that I finish) and this adaptation of "P.G. Diary" is excellent, if I do say so myself. Go buy it; that one story is worth the price of the entire book.

More Madonna, Less Jesus

Finally, a group I can be a member of: Blogging Against Theocracy. The Santa Cruz Sentinal rarely covers religious events, but never fails to cover those sick, sick, sick, parades of "The Passion." No other religion in America subjects the public to this kind of perverted, violent, gross, necrophilac activity. There ought to be a law.....well, no, There Shall Be No Law.

And this is why we patriots defend and protect our Constitution and Bill of Rights against all enemies, foreign and domestic. There's nothing else for me to write on the subject except recommend to you the other writers who are participating in this week's activity. And watch the PSAs at First Freedom First. I have never felt this patriotic on Easter before. Perhaps this will be how I celebrate it from now on.