A Beautiful Day In Melbourne

Tammy and I started the day off with a jog-and-walk around Albert Park, during which we had to contend with scenery like this:

We then spent part of the afternoon on Chapel Street, visiting a comic store, eating amazing burgers at Grill'd, and then hitting the Farmers Market on the way home:

After 6:00, hard-working Ryan finally got released from the salt mines (where he'd worked every night this week until 10:00 or later) and joined us in The City for dinner at an amazing outdoor Italian restaurant:

From there, we visited a downtown alley that's specifically set aside for graffiti artists to show their talents:

On our way to a souvenir shop, I spotted the rarest of the rare: a McDonald's that's actually been re-branded as "Macca's", which is what all Australians call the golden arches: 

I have no idea how that ever got approved by McD's Corporate HQ, but I guess somehow it did.  If you look beyond the two Macca's signs in that picture, you'll also see a Hungry Jack's placard.  That's really just a Burger King.  When they introduced BK to Australia, nobody ate there.  But changing the name apparently saved the franchise Down Under.  Weird, huh?

We're settled in for the evening now, and I just realized that we've reached the midway point of this trip of ours.  We've been on the road for 11 days so far, and have another 11 to go before we'll be back home with Emma, Jonesy and Lucy once again.  I think the second half is going to have to go some to match what we've seen and done so far, but who knows: maybe it'll even top it!

A Rainy Day In Melbourne

We've been here a week now and hadn't seen any significant precipitation, which I'd call awfully lucky for a vacation.  But today our luck finally ran out, and the rain moved in:

Tammy and I managed to get a tennis game in this morning, before it got wet, and Vicki and I even got to the nearby Subway for lunch just ahead of the first deluge. Since then, though, we've been socked in by the rain.  It was home cooking (steak, rice & corn) for dinner and now we've settled in for some Aussie TV viewing, as it's just too intimidating to head out in the downpour that's been happening for hours now.

In the absence of anything very interesting by way of a travel update for the day, here are a few tidbits that I've been looking for the chance to introduce:

• "No worries" appears to be the most common go-to phrase around here, as it gets used in place of "You're welcome," "That's OK," and even "See you later," sometimes.
• Everything's incredibly expensive here, sometimes costing as much as twice what we're used to paying back home.  However, the high cost of living can sometimes be at least a little misleading, as posted prices in AUS always include any taxes and tips that might apply.  So a plate of fish & chips for $22.50 seems outrageous, but to compare apples to apples you'd have to consider it as being more like $17.50 before adding 13% HST and 15% tip in Ontario.
• Melbourne's impressive in many ways, including how energetic and vibrant it is.  You see a huge number of cyclists here, as well as people walking and running.  We'd only been here about a day before I remarked to Vicki that there were hardly any obese people to be seen, in sharp contrast to what you see today in any major American city, for example.  There's a real emphasis on physical activity here, making it easy for Tammy and I to undertake our goal of working out once a day during our visit.
• Vicki's been keeping a journal of our trip, which she started in the Detroit airport before we got on our first flight.  I'm terribly impressed by this, as I know writing doesn't come naturally to her as it does for some of us.  I really hope she decides to type up her notes when we get home, so that she can share them with others.
• I've loved getting to know Tammy again, after years of not seeing her very often.  This is the largest amount of quality time she and I have had in probably a decade or more, and I wouldn't have missed this experience for anything.

Beaches, Smooches And Sweets Day

Today was one of the hottest days of our stay here in Melbourne, so we decided to make it another beach day.  We went to the much-closer-to-home St. Kilda Beach, a short tram ride from Tammy's apartment.  The water was extremely calm, and only felt cold until you went under and got completely wet.  After that, it was delightful, so Tammy and I did a few laps and generally hung out together in Salt Water Heaven for close to half an hour while Vicki stood guard back on the shore:

When we'd had our fill of that, we walked by the entrance to the world-famous Luna Park amusement area and provided unsuspecting passersby with a brief public display of affection:

Then it was time for lunch at an Acland Street pub:

But we didn't order dessert, as we had a few stops to make on our way back to the tram stop:

That's right - we made purchases at three different cake shops! You got something you want to say about that? Nah, I didn't think so.  By the time we climbed onto the tram home, we had a small cache of yummy treats to last us for the next several days.

Not long after returning home, Tammy organized a family fitness session, managing to get all three of us down to the gym for 20 to 30 minutes of strenuous exercise in order to earn a dessert reward later on.

I'm not sure what our evening plans are just yet, but it's already been another fantastic day here in Melbourne.

Our Miserables Night

No, that's not a typo: we went to see Les Miserables last night!  I surprised both of my girls with the news that "I'd be OK going to Les Mis... I know how much both of you would enjoy that."  Then I surprised myself by actually loving it!  I know - a musical that I loved!  What are the odds?  We talked about it all the way home afterward.

Other than that, it was a quiet day here in Melbourne.  Ryan worked (we never even saw him, actually) while Vicki and Tammy shopped in the afternoon and I did a little writing.  I needed some down time after the hectic-but-wonderful long weekend, and I got it.

This morning Tammy and I were supposed to go for our first run, but that was scheduled for 7:30 and she's still sleeping as we approach 9:30.  It's probably too hot now for anything quite so strenuous, but there's always tomorrow (or possibly even tonight, if it cools back down and we're not busy).

We're now about 1 week into our 3-week vacation, and it's been terrific so far.  I haven't started feeling too homesick yet, but I'm sure I will.  It definitely helps having both Vicki and Tammy here... now if only Jonesy could've come, too! :(

One Crazy Fun Day Follows Another

Sunday's adventure to the Dandenong Ranges was followed up on Australia Day Monday with even more fun. Tammy and I started the day off right: going for a 2-hour bike ride around Melbourne, taking in the harbour and the nearest edge of The City (downtown) as well as several other areas:

Vicki got the driving tour while we were gone, courtesy of Ryan and the rental car. Then we all reconvened back at the apartment for our arvo (afternoon) and evening travels. We embarked on a 90-minute drive to Philip Island, to wade around in the water where the surfers go:

After lunch, it was Surprise # 1 of the day, thanks to Tammy & Ryan: koalas!

In the same conservatory, we got our first good glimpse of wallabies, also known as "mini kangaroos":

We then had dinner and hung out near another beach on Philip Island, waiting for the sun to get lower in the sky. Vicki and I didn't know why we were doing that, until we got to our final destination, and Surprise # 2 for the day: the world famous Penguin Parade!

Photography wasn't allowed during the march of the adorable little blue creatures as they came out of the ocean and headed to their burrows where hungry offspring awaited, crying out for food. It was a remarkable sight, though, especially as we moved to the boardwalk just above their path, placing us a mere foot or two away from thousands of waddling hunters returning home in small groups just minutes after sunset. I did manage to snap one fuzzy photo before the march began, showing one of the baby penguins waiting near its hole for its parent to bring home the proverbial bacon:

What an incredible experience it was to see this daily ritual acted out before our eyes!

Then it was time for us to make our own trek home, weary but extremely gratified by the day's events.  Major kudos to Ryan and Tammy, once again, for organizing and executing the perfect day trip for their guests.

A Fantastic Day In The Countryside

Tammy and Ryan took Vicki and I on quite the tour of some areas outside Melbourne yesterday (Sunday, our time). We did a couple of short hikes through the Dandenong Ranges, which feature incredibly tall trees and ferns:

Vicki decided to play "Hobbit" and investigate the interior of a tree that called out to her:

She got a little scared once we pointed out that all manner of beast might live within that tree trunk, after which she required a bit of consoling:

Temporarily worn out from all the sightseeing, we rewarded ourselves with a late lunch at a wood oven pizza restaurant known as Ivy in a tourist town called Olinda:

The next stop on our tour was Sky High, where you're elevated enough to see Melbourne off in the distance as well as lots of farmland and other natural beauty:

Speaking of natural beauty...

... it was finally time to go looking for kangaroos! We visited Cardinia Reservoir, which is one of the best places in this neck of the woods for 'roo hunting. For awhile, it seemed we might come up empty, and then:

Success!! We saw a small herd of them, bounding across the dry grasslands not far from where we stood. That was definitely the highlight of the day, which is saying something in a day full of amazing sights, sounds, smells and experiences. Tammy and Ryan are the ultimate tour guides, and we can't wait to see what they've got planned for us next!

Slightly Under The Weather Down Under

Last night I started noticing I had a sore throat, and it got worse as the evening progressed. The four of us were perched in front of the TV watching the riveting Men's Semi-Finals of the Australian Open, which kept me somewhat distracted from how uncomfortable swallowing was becoming. When I went to bed, however, it hit me full-on, and I spent at least half the night awake and feeling like crap. Today I sent the three of them, in the rental car Ryan had gotten for the long weekend, off to a winery tour that I knew Tammy and Vicki in particular would enjoy. I've read and watched various weird Aussie TV offerings all afternoon, but still feel somewhat lousy. It seems like I can't travel any more without getting/being sick, and that's definitely depressing.

First 30 Hours Down Under, In Photos

Here's Vicki and Tammy, not long after we got here. It only looks like Tammy's being scolded by her mother:

Last night, on the way out for dinner, Tammy took this shot of us with part of the downtown skyline in the background:

This afternoon the three of us headed into the city in search of comic stores and lunch, and wandered into Treasury Park (so named because it's right beside the Treasury Building):

Same location, but this time highlighting my even bigger, fatter belly compliments of all the First Class food and beverage we'd enjoyed on the way here:

So far Melbourne seems like a beautiful, vibrant city. Yesterday was a scorcher but today was much milder and that made it easier to walk around. Monday is Australia Day, meaning that Ryan should be able to spend a three-day weekend with us (lucky guy!) before he gets to escape back to the peace and quiet of his job on Tuesday. We haven't decided yet how to spend the long weekend but a rental car will be involved in some capacity.

Bushfires, Aussie Open And A Flap Over The Flag

Those are the topics dominating the news here in Melbourne this morning.  I rarely watch the news at home, but put me in a faraway country and I find local news absolutely fascinating!  You can always learn so much about your new locale from watching an hour or two of earnest correspondents reporting on and evaluating the big events of the day.

Oh, and "no worries" is most definitely Australian for "you're welcome."  Being Canadian, I say  "thank you" a lot, which means that I'm hearing "no worries, mate" on a regular basis.  Funnily enough, I wasn't even all that worried to begin with.  I'm feeling pretty mellow down here thus far, not even stressing over the food choices for once.  I had both a great lunch and a delicious dinner yesterday, which was an especially nice start to our stay Down Under.

Life Down Under

Our 32 hours of travel, starting with my brother Richard kindly shuttling us to Detroit Airport and ending with a $70 cab ride to Tammy's apartment in Melbourne, went very well.  If you have to fly as far as Australia, paying for first class (or business class) is definitely worth it.  The seats were incredibly roomy and folded out into beds, allowing me to get my first ever significant amount of sleep on a plane.  I think I may've racked up as many as 5 hours of snoozing out of the 15 total that the flight occupied.  But even the other 10 hours were enjoyable, with much of it passed playing Resistance: Burning Skies on my Vita as well as various free games on my laptop.  Vicki watched a couple of movies and seemed to be entertained by them.  Having a power outlet available as part of my seat made a huge difference in keeping me going, electronics-wise.

I had a lengthy afternoon nap today.  We'd arrived at 9:00 a.m. local time (5:00 p.m. on the second day of travel according to our internal clocks) and spent the first several hours walking around Tammy's neighbourhood and grabbing lunch.  Thanks to that nap, I'm still feeling perky as we approach 11:00 p.m., even though Vicki, Tammy and Ryan have all crashed already (Ryan worked a full, 10-hour day).  It should be interesting to see how long it takes before my sleep cycle gets back to what passes for 'normal' for me.

I should soon have some photos to post here to give a sense of what sort of things we're seeing.  I will mention that the stores are quite different down here, at least in terms of brand names.  While McDonald's ('Maccas' here), Subway, EB Games, 7-11 and Burger King (known as 'Hungry Jack's' to Aussies) were all familiar, the vast majority of the signs were for companies I'd never heard of.  My two favourite of the day were Condom Kingdom and Massive Wieners, only one of which, surprisingly, was actually in the sex trade.

Leaving On A Jetplane

We're sitting in Detroit airport right now, with about 2 and a half hours until our flight to Los Angeles departs.  Then there's another 5 hours of cooling our heels at LAX tonight before the long haul flight from L.A. to Melbourne (Australia) which will take us to daughter Tammy!  Emma's holding down the fort in our absence and making sure that nothing bad happens to Jonesy, right Emma?!

This will be the longest trip Vicki and I have ever made, both in terms of distance and time away, but it'll definitely be worth it to get to see Tammy after 9 months or so.  Now I just have to get through the next 36 hours of airplanes and airports...

Happy 2nd Term, President Obama!

Today's the Inauguration for Barack Obama's second presidential term.  He remains in office at a time when his country appears to be melting down, between the lunacy of the Republican Party and the incredibly scary civil-war-over-guns that seems to be brewing.  It's hard to imagine what the U.S. will look like four years from now when the reins of power are handed over to someone new, but at least we can draw a little comfort from the fact that the near-term American policies won't be determined by the principles of Mitt Romney and the Conservative Machine. 

14 Wonderful Words With No English Equivalent

What a great list!!  How come we can turn 'leverage' into a verb but we can't come up with words for any of these much more useful concepts?

No Brother Of Mine Has Sold 100 Copies!

Thanks to Vicki selling a copy of my 2nd novel today, we've now hit the 100 sales mark!  From a self-publishing point-of-view, that's a significant milestone to achieve, especially when you consider that it's not in any bookstores and is really only available 'widely' via the Kindle Store.

Obviously, there's no way I could've moved so many copies of No Brother of Mine without the help of lots of generous people.  First of all, there's everyone who pre-ordered a copy, almost a year ago, which allowed me to do a sizable first order on the book.  Since then, Vicki has sold at least a dozen copies (probably more), including over Facebook and to perfect strangers that she's met on the train or wherever.  My niece Vanessa accounted for nearly a dozen sales, thanks to her getting the book (and me!) into the lovely Quai du Vin book club.  She also offered to provide sale # 100 yesterday, as she wants a copy to give to a friend, but I'm going to save that potential sale for another special occasion, which should be coming up shortly (more details later).  My sister-in-law Meena bought five copies of NBoM just so that she could give them away to friends, which was incredibly sweet of her.  And finally, I was lucky enough to have one of our neighbours who saw my flyer buy six copies to put up for sale in the hospital gift shop that she's on the board for.  So I'd say it's abundantly clear that I've had some awesome helpers on this!!  Thanks to you all!

Counting Down To 100: 1 To Go!

My pursuit of 100 sales for No Brother of Mine is now inches away from completion!  If you'd like to be the one to push me over the finish line, now's the time to buy a copy of my 2nd novel, either from me directly or via the Kindle store.

For Those Who Like To Blame Real-Life Violence On Its Video Game Equivalent

Sorry, but the data just doesn't support your viewpoint.  In fact, it outright refutes the idea that "more video games = more real world violence", as shown by the trend line across industrialized countries in that article.  That doesn't mean that you can't continue to espouse your opinion that banning violent video games would make society safer; it just means you're a moron to do so.

[Gun ownership, on the other hand, might provide a clue as to the reasons for gun violence.]

Odd Video For A Nice New Bowie Song

New album to follow in March, his first in a decade.

Positive Externalities And The Resentment They Cause

This is a great article by Canadian-born Cory Doctorow, describing the current fixation with "getting my cut" from things that we did or created without any expectation of financial reward. 

"You translate a document because you need it in two languages. I come along and use those translations to teach a computer something about context. You tell me I owe you a slice of all the revenue my software generates. That's just crazy. It's like saying that someone who figures out how to recycle the rubbish you set out at the kerb should give you a piece of their earnings."

It's a fascinating read that may make you look at the topic in a new light (or, for the first time!).

Halfway Home?

I just finished Chapter 7 of the 3rd novel, minutes ago. It's a short chapter, balancing out the very long one right before it. It feels like I'm somewhere around the midway mark: everything's been set up, lots of balls are in the air, and some mysteries have been introduced. My brother Richard has helped with a few bits in it, and Julie suggested a couple of helpful plot ideas last week. Even with those contributions, though, this story has been written on my own more than either of the first two. Hopefully that doesn't turn out to be a bad thing!

As usual, one of the hardest parts of writing is the not being able to talk about it while you're doing it aspect. Another challenge is the unshakable feeling that whatever you come up with won't be as good as the book before it, which I definitely had while writing No Brother of Mine, and am experiencing again, now that NBoM is the new bar against which I judge myself.  There's not much I can do about that, however, except try to write the best book I can.  So on I go!

Summing Up My View On Air Travel

This Freakonomics article, focusing specifically on baggage fees, includes the line:

"Air travel, even economy class, was once a joy; now it’s an exercise in stoicism."

That perfectly sums up my feelings about flying, which I used to love but now loathe. Whether it's the reduced seat space, the over-the-top security (one guy, once, tried to blow a plane up with explosives in his shoes, so now billions of people have to remove their shoes each time they go through security?), the nothing-is-included approach to the fee structure, or the increased frequency of delayed or cancelled flights, air travel absolutely sucks now. I can't wait for the teleportation machines, personally.

Counting Down To 100: 3 To Go!

Following another round of flyers late last week - into an area just a little farther away than before - I've boosted our total up to 97 copies of No Brother of Mine sold!  My goal of hitting 100 within the next couple of weeks is now looking positively possible... and that makes me very happy!  If you've read the book and enjoyed it, now's the perfect time to buy another copy off me to use as a gift for a friend.  It'll be the best post-Christmas gift they get all year, I'll bet!

2012: The Warmest Year On Record

Climate change denialists will keep right on denying that anything's happening, I'm sure.  But the evidence against them is starting to get ridiculously overwhelming of late.  As this article shows, it was a pretty one-sided story in 2012.  Not only was it the warmest year ever recorded, but there were also 362 new high-temperature records set in the U.S. compared to zero records on the low side.  That's right: the score was 362-0 in favour of a warming planet. And yet somehow the media will manage to convey the impression that there's still lots of room for debate here.

My New Toy: A PlayStation Vita

In the run-up to our 3 week Australian trip to visit Tammy, I've been trying to think of ways to make the 25+ hours of plane-and-airport time - each way! - at least somewhat bearable.  I used to love flying, but even before 9/11 it had started to lose its appeal.  The tight confines of modern planes don't agree with my 6 foot, 2 inch frame, I really can't handle airline food and the whole experience is just always so damned boring!

One of my ideas was to buy a handheld gaming system, since that sort of activity is one of the few where I can completely lose track of time.  I wasn't sure which system to get, but in the end my loyalty to all things PlayStation won the day: I bought a Vita!  I got the Call of Duty: Declassified bundle, providing me with one game that I expected to enjoy.  At the same time, I bought Resistance: Burning Skies, one of only two Resistance games I've not already played (Resistance: Retribution, for the PS Portable, is the other).  I received that package of Vita + games yesterday, less than 24 hours after I'd ordered it from Amazon, and I've already tried both games out to make sure they're going to hold my interest (seems like they will!).  However, I'm still wanting to get another game or two, as there's going to be a lot of time to kill.  On a friend's recommendation, I've ordered Unit 13, which looks like another good shooter.  I'd certainly be happy to hear thoughts on other games for the Vita, if anyone has them.

The hour or two that I spent setting up and trying out the Vita yesterday fit with my expectations of the system, based on the reviews I'd read: it's sleek and impressive in many ways, and frustrating in others.  I like the look and feel of it, and some of the ways R:BS, in particular, uses the touchscreen capabilities of the device are mighty impressive.  On the other hand, there are some strange design choices that I just don't understand.  As a simple example: there's a browser built in, which claims to support the concept of bookmarking sites you like.  So far, so good.  However, it seems to keep a history cache of every URL you go to, as well, and intermingle it with the bookmarks you've specifically set.  Rather than giving you an easy way to clear the history cache, though, the only option you appear to have is to clear history and bookmarks!  I almost couldn't believe it, until I tried it: I selected "Clear History" and sure enough, there went all of the bookmarks I'd carefully set.  Damn, that's dumb.  Another example involved the e-mail app on it, which defaults the protocol choice to IMAP (rather than POP, or POP3), and only allows you to change that selection when you first add the account.  You can change just about every other attribute of your e-mail account afterwards, including the server names and passwords, but you can't edit the protocol.  I hadn't noticed it was set to IMAP at first, until my attempt to use that account failed.  Then I actually had to delete what I'd set up and go through all that typing on the virtual keyboard all over again, which was really frustrating.

Having said that, though, I woke up this morning with a strong urge to power up my Vita and play some games.  I had to remind myself that those games are for the trip!  And I think that's a good sign, as a few truly immersive shooters could most certainly make our travel doldrums fly by.

Breaking The Breaking Bad Final Half-Season

If you're a fan of the incredible TV series, Breaking Bad, then you'll want - no, need - to read this article about show-runner Vince Gilligan's thought processes as he works through 'breaking' the final eight episodes down.  Warning: there is at least one significant spoiler for the mid-season finale, so if you're not 100% caught up on BB right now, you should wait until you are, before following the link.  I can't wait for July to get here so that we can finally see how it all ends for Walter White and company.

Leaded Gasoline And The Crime Rate

Hey, this is fascinating!   I always bought into the "legalizing abortion reduced the crime rate" theory from "Freakonomics" but now we have a competing hypothesis.  Which isn't to say that legalized abortions aren't still a good thing...

Riddle Me This: What Do 2013 And 1987 Have In Common?

I saw an interesting fact on BoingBoing today, leading me to produce this riddle: What do 2013 and 1987 have in common?  Your first thought might be, "They're both 13 years away from 2000", which is obviously true.  But the answer I'm looking for is more interesting than that, and here's a clue: they're the two most recent years to have something very specific in common, numerically-speaking.

If you haven't seen the answer to this elsewhere, then please feel free to leave your guess(es) in the form of a Comment to this post.  After a few days I'll post the answer as a Comment myself, in case anyone's waiting for it.  In the meantime, put your thinking caps on, all!

How Psychopathic Is Your Profession?

From BoingBoing comes this report on which professions are most, and least, likely to have psychopaths in them:

I'm surprised to see Tammy's accounting cohorts made the second list, although she might be able to name the odd outlier there, even so. Software jobs don't appear on either list, which is probably understandable. We're not about power (+) or feelings (-), after all; we're all about logic and structure, just like everyone should be! :-)

I Love The Girl...

We just finished watching the original (Swedish) version of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, which is the 3rd in the trilogy that started with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and continued with The Girl Who Played With Fire.  I loved all three of them, although the first is still my favourite, thanks to the mystery angle that's such a big part of it.  I also greatly enjoyed seeing Prometheus's Noomi Rapace in all three films, as I think she's a wonderful, unconventional actress.  I'll watch the American versions, I'm sure, but I suspect it's going to be hard to match the gritty realism of the originals and the fine, low-key quality of the acting.  Highly recommended to anyone willing to read sub-titles in pursuit of being thoroughly entertained.

Another Year Ends, 2012 Edition

In just a few hours (in this part of the world, anyway), 2012 will become history instead of an exciting glimpse into our possible future, as it was when I was a kid.  Canadians will remember it as a year that had no NHL hockey to watch after early June, or possibly as the year the Blue Jays got serious about making the postseason again.

For me, personally, 2012 was a good year.  I finished and published my 2nd novel, and got about halfway through my 3rd.  Just for good measure, when Julie was over last night, she and I spent an hour or so somewhere between midnight and 3:00 a.m. discussing a new story idea I've had recently, and in the process plotted out a fairly significant portion of a 4th novel.  She liked it so much that she said, "I know you're going to hate what I'm about to say, but I almost wish you'd start writing this one instead of finishing that one!"  I didn't actually hate that comment, but I also have no plans of abandoning the current work.  Instead, I'm excited at the thought of having another story already in-hand, something that wasn't true after either Game Over or No Brother of Mine.  It's a very nice position to be in, indeed.

Vicki and I had a great year together, traveling to Orlando with one set of family members and to Las Vegas with another.  And of course in just a few weeks, we'll be "on the road" again, off to see Tammy and her boyfriend Ryan in Australia.  That's a lot of travel for me in a 9- or 10-month stretch, but I'll probably survive it somehow.  And the time with family has been greatly appreciated.

We added Jonesy to our family in 2012, and I can't adequately express how much joy he's brought to my life.  As Vicki would say, he's so my cat!  He spends as much time as he can manage on my lap, and is rarely very far from me the rest of the time.  I find it hard to believe that we've only had him 6 and a half months, as it now feels like he's always been here.

2012 was also all about welcoming great-niece Emma into our home, as she started her university career with us.  We haven't seen her in a couple of weeks now, but she'll be back in 6 short days, and we can hardly wait.  Jonesy's especially counting the hours until he can resume his campaign of terror against her, which we all know is really a budding romance between the two of them.

Anyway, it's almost time for Vicki and I to settle in to watch a movie or two and ring out the old year in our typical fashion.  I hope everyone reading this has a lovely evening and a thoroughly satisfying 2013.

Counting Down To 100: 6 To Go

Thanks to a Kindle purchase of No Brother of Mine almost 2 weeks ago and today's sale of a paper copy to a neighbour, we're run the NBoM tally up to 94 copies!  I'm still cautiously optimistic that we'll hit 100 before we leave on our Australian trip late next month, but it's definitely going to be a challenge.  I delivered 35 flyers within another part of our neighbourhood yesterday morning, although today's sale came from a batch Vicki and I had distributed more than a week earlier.  In other words, I'm trying!  Just half a dozen more sales to go for this big milestone achievement.

Speaking of No Brother of Mine, a few days I received the following comments from an Ottawa-based relative of mine:

"Loved your book - though I spent the first few chapters trying, in vain, to find tight parallels with real family history. Once I started treating it as just a good story, it got better and better!"

The Amazing, Secret Legacy Of TV's Quincy & Oscar Madison

Actor Jack Klugman, best known (depending on your age) as either Oscar Madison on the TV version of Neil Simon's The Odd Couple or Dr. Quincy on the Quincy, M.E. (Medical Examiner) show, died recently at the ripe old age of 90.  He had a fine acting career over several decades of his life, but as The Washington Post reported recently, his contribution to the advancement of medical science was much more significant.  When I saw the WaPo headline, I assumed that Quincy, M.E. had sparked an earlier version of the CSI-phenomenon, increasing the general public's interest in the field of forensics.  But no, this was even bigger than that.  Go read and you'll see what I mean!

I'd never heard this particular story before, although I probably watched the Quincy, M.E. episodes in question and was just too young to be aware of the larger context surrounding them.

On Robots And Robber Barons

Here's a a great op-ed piece on what's happening to the wages of the various work forces these days, by Paul Krugman. For those friends of mine in the high tech industry, you may find it particularly interesting, since it sounds like our wages are being suppressed just as effectively as those of so-called blue-collar workers who didn't spend all that time in university earning fancy degrees.

Our Christmas Without Gifts? Just Lovely!

Vicki and I had a great Christmas today, giftless as it was (by my choice).  We watched a Bond movie (Tomorrow Never Dies) because Showcase was running a Pierce Brosnan-as-007 marathon, went for a walk after dark to see the neighbourhood lights, and are about to try out the new Ratchet & Clank game that we've been saving for today.  I don't think we missed the gift exchange at all, and I know I didn't miss the stress related to buying all that stuff leading up to today.  Julie did break the embargo slightly, however, as she dropped by this afternoon to deliver some sweet treats and a personalized tree ornament that sums up the highlights of 2012 such as "Fun in Vegas", "Roadtrip to Florida", "Walks with Cooper", "Emma", "Missing Tammy" and "No Brother of Mine" very nicely.  She's pretty clever at thinking up novel and personalized presents, even if she's not all that good at playing by the rules!

Anyway, I think next year we'll go back to normal, especially if Tammy's back and comes for a Christmas visit.  Skipping a year will just make us appreciate that event all the more, I suspect.

A Good Year For Football Playoffs

How do I know, when the playoffs are still 2 weeks away from even starting?

That's easy... today the Bengals beat the Steelers on a last second field goal and eliminated Pittsburgh from any chance at making the postseason! 

The 6 AFC teams are now set: New England, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Houston, Indy and Denver.  The NFC is a lot less settled, with only 3 of the 6 entrants decided (Green Bay, Atlanta and San Fran).  I can't believe the Saints didn't do better this season and will be sitting out the playoffs, but I guess that's the thing with there being only 16 games to play: anything can happen.

I'm already pumped for the 11 matches that will decide this year's champions.

Breaking News: World Doesn't End!

It's already December 22nd in parts of the world - including where Tammy is - and civilization continues to exist, unfazed by the so-called 'Mayan catastrophe.'  People will go on killing each other, both quickly with guns and slowly with greenhouse gases, and we'll eventually probably go extinct.  But not this week, at least.

Car Horn For Bicycles

I've railed before about the way some car owners abuse their vehicle's horn by pressing their door lock button repeatedly until the horn honks... because, you know, that's easier than just pressing it once and not bothering everyone around you!

Well, maybe I'll soon be able to get a car horn for my bike that will allow me to use that device for the sole purpose it was intended - to prevent accidents and near-misses from happening!  And if I do put one on my bicycle, I promise not to use it to say "Bye" to people standing on their front porch waving at me as I'm leaving or to assure myself that I've locked up my bike as I walk away from it.  Because I actually try to avoid bothering other people.

End Of An Era

After spending something like 10 hours today trying to get my Java database applications (Comic Catalogue and Meal Planner) working on my recently-wiped laptop, I think I'm giving up.  I remember it being a huge hassle setting up when I got this laptop last year but this tops even that experience.  It's always challenging, as Windows 7 functions differently than Vista, which was different than XP, and so on back through Time.  Today, however, I ran into brand new problems that I suspect are related to changes to MySQL since I last downloaded it.  First, it required that .NET 4.0 be installed on my machine, which I almost couldn't believe when I saw the error message.  After biting the bullet on that, Windows Live Connection started failing on my laptop, affecting both my Windows Live Mail app and my access to Live Messenger.  While I was dealing with that, I noticed that my Comic D/B app was exhibiting problems such as none of the comic titles having any issues in them!  When I looked into it, I saw that there seems to be a difference in how this version of MySQL handles numeric data from past releases.  At that point I realized I'd have to go into the code and change a whole lot of queries to get them to work... and the life just went out of this project for me.

I've had my comic collection catalogued - first on paper, then on a D/B - since I was about 10 or 11 years old.  As of today, it looks like I'm ending that practice.  Every time I get a new laptop or have one break and need to be re-imaged, the thing I dread most is having to get the Java D/B apps to run again.  I've made notes on it each time, but they're always woefully out of date by the time I use them again thanks to so many environmental changes in the software that I rely on.  So I'm just not going to play that game anymore.  I figure this is probably a major step in me abandoning Windows entirely, and moving to either a Mac or iPad.  Microsoft simply makes their world too complicated to live in, and so I don't think I will, for much longer.

Of course, this means I'll no longer be able to tell you exactly how many comics I own, but I think I can live with that more easily than the alternative.  And Vicki had stopped using the Meal Planner several months ago, so that's not a huge loss.  Still... it makes me a little sad, and feel a little old.

Counting Down To 100: 8 To Go

With another neighbour purchasing a copy of No Brother of Mine this morning after receiving my flyer, the total number of sales on that book has now hit 92.  We're so close to 100 at this point that I figure it's time for a countdown.  I'd love to reach the century mark before the end of the year, but that's probably a stretch.  Instead, I'm setting myself the goal of getting there before we leave for our Australia trip in late January.  Even that's asking a lot, but hey, if you don't aim high, you'll never know what you could've accomplished!

Of course, if you're still looking for the perfect Christmas gift for that hard-to-buy-for friend or family member, you could solve that problem of yours with a mere $20 and an e-mail to me!  I keep getting great feedback from everyone who's read No Brother of Mine, to the point where people are starting to ask what other books I've written because they want more of me to read... which definitely speaks volumes, if you ask me.

A Few Small Updates

1) My heel is, uh, healing quite nicely!  It's all scabbed over and generally doesn't hurt unless I try to do too much in a shoe without a bandage over the affected area.  I expect it'll be 100% in another week-ish.  I may try a walk with Julie before then, her schedule permitting, but it won't be of the superlong variety like the one on which the injury happened.

2) My cough hasn't entirely gone away, but it's much, much, much better than it was during our trip to Vegas.  I did both yoga classes this week as well as cycling class, and none of those had been possible over the preceding month.  I'd sure like to see a full return to health soon, but for now: I'll take this!

3) The broken laptop was only gone for part of 5 days (Fri, Sat, Sun, Mon and back on Tue), which seems more than reasonable to me.  They had to replace the hard drive and various other parts related to heat-control, and so I've had to restore all personal files from backups (which, thankfully, were being done daily) and reinstall all of the software for Office, our camera, Java, etc.  That's still continuing, although I've been up and operating quite well since sometime this afternoon.

4) I'm now working on Chapter 6 of the new novel, and it's going swimmingly so far.  I'm about 5 or 6 pages in and enjoying it immensely.  Chapters 5 and 6 are really fun, and I imagine some of you will quite like them when you get a chance to read them next spring.

5) Tomorrow is Tammy's 26th birthday, although technically it's already past her birthday as far as she's concerned, since Melbourne is something like 16 hours ahead of us.  It's hard to take in that she's that old, but I guess the calendar doesn't lie. 

6) Emma leaves on Sunday for 3 weeks at her other home, and we don't plan to miss her at all.  So there.

7) There is no 7th item.

Happy 12-12-12!

Today (as of a few minutes ago) marks the last time most of us will ever see a date where the 2-digit day, month and year are all the same.  We've had a dozen of them over the past 12 years, starting with 01-01-01 in 2001 and ending now.  So live it up, and if you were born on Dec 12, 2000 that means that you're turning 12 today, on 12-12-12... so you get to celebrate extra hard this year!

Hunkered Down In Basement

No, the supposed Mayan apocalypse hasn't come a week and a half early (by the way: there's no such thing)... I've just had a laptop give up the ghost on me (again) and have to rely on my basement PC for my access.  This meltdown is covered under an extended warranty, though, which means I just have to wait for it to be fixed, shipped back to me, and then reload all of the software that I'm sure will be missing after they wipe my hard drive.  I've got a much better automated backup system in place now, between my laptop and Vicki's, than I had for the last laptoptastrophe, and so I don't think I'll have lost much, if any, data this time around.

Anyway, expect even lower than usual blogging output for the next week or so.

My Latest Affliction

Yesterday, I let Julie lead me on the longest walk I've done since I've been sick. I asked her to walk a little more slowly than we usually do, and she did; I asked for a few rests along the way, and she graciously complied. The whole time, I was worried that I'd overdo it and start coughing or just plain pass out, but neither happened.

Instead, as we were on the final leg of our journey, I noticed that my right heel was sore. It kept getting worse, and for the last half km or so, it was all I could do to limp back to Julie's house. When we got inside, I took off my sock and saw that something in my right boot had caused a blister on the heel, covering an area larger than a toonie! The skin came completely off as soon as I touched it, leaving the skin raw and exposed. (There's a small piece of material missing from the inside heel of the boot, apparently, which is what caused the irritation. Time for a new pair of boots, I guess!)

Here's what we're talking about:

When I got home, Drs Vicki & Emma put ointment and a bandage over the affected area and after a few hours it stopped hurting.  It was tough to find a position to sleep in that didn't sting, but I must've eventually.

This morning I thought I'd go to yoga class, only to discover that putting a shoe on, even over the bandage and a sock, caused so much pain that I couldn't take more than a few steps before it was too much for me. Looks like I've traded in one ailment for another, which impresses me not at all. I've now missed more than 3 weeks of yoga and cycling classes, and am getting fed up... and very out-of-shape!

Public Shaming Works

About an hour ago, I finished Chapter 5 of the new novel.  I'd started it before Vegas, worked on it quite a lot yesterday, and so it only required another couple of hours today to wrap it up.

It was an interesting chapter for me, because I thought I knew where it was going before I began writing it, and then it went somewhere else entirely.  I'm still trying to decide if I'm 100% happy with the new direction, but for now it's good.

One other thing distinguishes this part of the book from the rest, and that's the fact that I decided to build a subtle little trick into it that I'm fairly confident no one will ever spot and appreciate.  I'll eventually have to tell someone, I suppose, just to get a reaction for it.

Anyway, 5 chapters are in the bag now, and I expect there are about twice that many still to go.

Public Shaming Time

I'd gotten back on a good roll with novel # 3 before the Las Vegas trip, but I haven't written a word since.  We've been back 2 weeks now, so I think that's about enough of that.  I need to set a longer term goal soon, but for now I'm putting on the record that I'll get Chapter 5 done this weekend.

There.  I've said it in public.  Now I have to do it, right?

The Latest In The Medical Saga

My current illness, which has lasted, in various forms, about a month and a half now, just keeps on hanging in there.  I went to the doctor today - my 4th visit over the past 6 weeks - and she confirmed that my ear infection has mostly cleared up.  However, I'm still coughing a fair bit and am exhausted after even a 1 or 2 km walk, as I discovered earlier this week when I walked to the mall and back.  By this point even Julie's beginning to express frustration that I'm not available to her as a walking partner, and she's pretty understanding about such things!

So the doctor gave me a prescription for an inhaler to use whenever the coughing's bad.  It's supposed to help clear up the airways somewhat.  We'll see how that goes.  She also instructed me to use a Netti pot, which I only know about because Emma had to buy and use one a couple months ago to address a bad sinus headache she was getting.  I tried it for the first time tonight, and it's very strange: you basically pour warm salt water up one nostril in the hopes that it'll come out the other... yeah!  I had a lot of trouble getting the water to do that, which probably means my sinus passages are, indeed, plugged up.  By the end of my first attempt, though, I was getting a little bit of flow, and some disgusting mucus was coming out.  I apologize that I don't have photos to post of that - I know, what was I thinking? - but you'll just have to take my word for it.  I'm hopeful that tomorrow's ritual will go better, and that eventually I'll be rewarded with some free-flowing movement.  The doctor seemed firmly convinced that this is what's going to take care of the post-viral issues I'm having, so I'm certainly willing to give it the ol' college try.

This is definitely the longest I've ever been sick, and I'm really, really ready for it to be over.

Mitt Romney's 47%

Yesssssss.  That feels good.

A Harrowing Look Inside The Music Streaming Business

I'm always interested in articles that shed light on how various entertainment industries work.  As a writer now, I'm particularly drawn to anything related to publishing, as I find myself dipping my toes into that tepid bath.

And then there's the music industry, which I get a great deal of enjoyment from, while lacking any direct involvement in.  I've got a copy of David Byrne's How Music Works, for example, and look forward to reading it as soon as I get through some of my current pile.  In the meantime, though, there's this Pitchfork article about music streaming services Pandora and Spotify.  The revenue numbers provided in it are horrifying to anyone who imagines musicians actually making a living from their work.  As the author notes, those services appear to exist solely to make money for their investors and provide their users with easy access to music.  That's all well and good, but what of the artists providing the actual goods in question?  I get so irate these days when I think of people enjoying the fruits of others' labours while the labourers get next to nothing (or, in the case of actual pirating, nothing).  Maybe we're simply approaching a point in history where art really won't be considered to have any intrinsic commercial value, but all that can possibly do is discourage most people from making it.  The only ones who'll bother, I suppose, will be those who don't need to be paid for their efforts.  Mitt Romney's Greatest Hits can't be far off, I guess!

When I read articles of this sort, I think: just keep publishing my books, selling them one copy at a time, and count myself lucky I can even make that much money.  It's sad, really.

Just One More Reason I'm Thankful I Don't Live In Kentucky

Not that I needed any, but this would certainly do it! In case there was any doubt as to just how backwoods that state continues to be, well into the 21st century, they've got a law requiring the acknowledgement of Almighty God as the only thing keeping them safe.

Future Post-Apocalyptic Historians Take Note

Apparently, in my original Vegas write-up I inadvertantly attributed a couple of photos to the Venetian hotel complex when in fact they were actually taken inside the Wynn (or Wyrm, as Meena calls it).  Those would be the shots of the waterfalls and colourful indoor display.

I wouldn't want anyone responsible for the virtual reconstruction of the early 21st century, (aka "before the Fall"), with only my blog to go by, to get that wrong.

And here are a few more Vegas photos, as a reward for reading this far, locations unknown:

and our wine-and-smoothie treats

 not to mention my brother getting grabby with Meena

Black Ops II Progress Report

For the fearless few who care, I'm now through Day 4 of Call of Duty: Black Ops II online play, and it's been the usual bout of obsessive playing, as Emma and Vicki can attest to.  I've logged somewhere around 12 or 13 hours, I think, which really isn't all that much when you consider that 4 days have almost 100 hours in them!

Last weekend was a Double XP Weekend for those of us who bought the Nuketown 2025 map (it just came with my pre-order, but yay!).  That meant I could level up twice as fast as normal, and I did: going from nothing to level 43 (Brigadier General, I believe) over that span.  I started off well, then tanked as is more usual for me on new maps.  My kill-to-death (KTD) dropped briefly below 1.0 on Friday, and then bounced back up after I unlocked and started using the Target Finder attachment for the default assault rifle (MTAR).  That addition improved my skill considerably, and I started kicking some serious butt.  The Target Finder helps you spot enemies more clearly - always a problem for me, as the allies and enemies never seem to look any different to me - and gives you better feedback as to whether or not you're aiming at your target or not. 

My real goal for the weekend, though, was to get to level 40, as that's where the SCAR-H assault rifle is unlocked.  For the past several Call of Duty games, the SCAR-H has been my go-to gun, and I eagerly awaited trying it out in this version.  I got there last night, and was rewarded with a familiar feeling piece of weaponry.  However, I had to then unlock its attachments, just as I'd done with the MTAR earlier, and so it was only this afternoon that I got the Target Finder for it.  Since then, I've been on a big roll, pushing my KTD from around 1.20 to nearly 1.30, which is a higher standard than I've achieved with any consistency before.  I'm also learning the maps now, which allows me to run around them more confidently and pick better locations to reload or call in UAVs, for example.  I was planning to add the Extended Clip attachment, as I'm always running out of ammo, but just a few minutes ago I unlocked the Scavenger perk (which picks up ammo from dead bodies) and started using it.  I promptly went through a match only dying 3 times, and only had to worry about ammo once (after I'd stayed in the same high point for too long, with no dead bodies nearby).  It's a lot of fun figuring out the loadout in this game, as they've placed serious limitations on it, and it really is a zero sum game: after getting the essentials, you always have to give up something to get something new.

My next milestone will be level 53, at which point the Claymore finally becomes available to me.  I can barely wait, although I've been getting good use out of the Bouncing Betty that's kind of similar.

Loving the game so far, and haven't even tried the campaign or zombies mode yet.  That'll come later, when I burn out on the online play, as I'm sure I soon will.

A Few Vegas Photos

I should have mentioned in my original write-up that the entire Vegas trip was organized and booked by my brother, Rich, who even went so far as to print off our boarding passes (leaving and returning) after telling us just to show up with our passports and baggage.  I'm used to Vicki taking care of all those sorts of details when we travel, and therefore I think she found it particularly enjoyable to be able to just sit back and have everything done for us.  He did a great job of it, too: it all came off without a hitch, from the flights and hotel rooms to the rental car and Cirque du Soleil tickets.  He should really consider a new career as a travel agent!

While we didn't take a lot of photos on our trip, we did manage to snap a few.  Prepare yourself for a brief tour of Sin City, led by someone who barely remembers any of what happened there...

Here's our rather huge room at the Palazzo, which is 'attached' to the Venetian (for those who thought I was making that pilates-like name up):  

Here we are standing outside the waterfalls at... I'm guessing... the Venetian?  My already poor sense of direction was even weaker than usual because of how sick I was:

Vicki and Meena fit right into the beautiful display that was up somewhere in our dual hotel complex:

One topic was never far from my mind, no matter how many miles we travelled:

 
On our second last night, if memory serves me, we walked to the Bellagio fountain show:

which held our rapt attention:

And on our final full day, Rich and I hit the comic stores:

And then it was time to head home and be greeted by Emma and her neglected roommate:

Now I just need to get rid of this viral infection that's plagued me for a month, and life will be good again!

On Vegas, Near-Death Experiences And Video Games

Vicki and I got home last night after a six-day trip to Las Vegas with my brother, Richard, and his wife, Meena.  I had a lot of anxiety about the trip, for months beforehand, because I travel so poorly and wasn't relishing the idea of inflicting that reality upon my brother and sister-in-law.  Little did I know that I'd not only be sick for the trip, but would actually get sicker as the vacation went on!  And yet that's exactly what happened.

I'd gone to the doctor with a persistent sore throat about 3 weeks before our departure date, and was given a prescription for a nasal spray to address my diagnosed "post-nasal drip."  About 10 days later, my throat was somewhat better but my chest was now congested and I was coughing extensively, so back to the doctor I went.  That particular visit netted me nothing but assurances that it should pass on its own and a suggestion to use cough suppressants and Tylenol in the meantime.  As it proceeded to not get better, my concerns about the trip to Vegas continued to grow.

I actually considered cancelling out and just sending Vicki without me, but she seemed to really want me along, coughing or otherwise.  I tried to prepare the other two travelers for what they had awaiting them, but I don't think I did it justice.  Within a scant few hours of getting together last Friday evening, though, I'm guessing they got the idea.  I've never coughed so much, or with as much obvious distress, as I have for the past week.

Vicki had a great time, however.  She partook in the three main activities of Vegas: gambling, shopping and eating.  I tagged along, as best I could, but sometimes had to bow out just to give the rest of them a break from my hacking.  We did take in a Cirque du Soleil show that was amazing - "Love", featuring Beatles music - and I kept it together for most of that, except whenever the dry ice would hit me.  Other than that, the cigarette smoke in the casino made it particularly hard to breathe, and I was brutally ashamed of how little walking I could do before being exhausted, but somehow I survived.  I expected to drop dead at any given moment.

On the flight home yesterday, my left ear wouldn't pop when the plane descended toward Detroit, and I was completely deaf in that ear for the next several hours.  This morning, I booked my third trip in a month to the doctor, and Vicki accompanied me this time.  Looking into my left ear, the doctor said, "That doesn't look good at all."  Apparently I now have an ear infection - maybe always did, although she looked in that same ear two weeks ago and didn't see anything - and am on amoxicillin.  I also had chest x-rays done, which I'm told came back clean.  I'm still confused as to how the ear infection could be causing all the trouble I've had for the past month, but on the other hand maybe the amoxicillin will just wipe out all vestiges of the virus.  I can only hope!

When we got home last night, Emma was excited and relieved to see us after the better part of a week by herself.  I took that to mean that she'd missed us, just as we'd certainly missed her.  She had a million things to tell us, and stayed up late to bring us up to date on everything.  This morning when she left for school, I think she was on the verge of tears at the thought of leaving us for the weekend.  But she'll be back Sunday night and then the three of us should have lots of quality time together between now and the Christmas break.

While Vicki did most of the shopping in Vegas, I did manage to come home with something I'm quite excited about.  Rich and I spent Wednesday afternoon going to comic stores.  Before you jump to any conclusions... that was his idea!  Seriously.  And he wouldn't even hear of skipping the final store we'd scouted out, as he told me, "No, I was promised three comic stores, and three comic stores is what I expect to see."  At the second store, Alternate Reality Comics, I saw a great display of original artwork on the wall and got talking to the owner about it.  He has an impressive collection of the stuff, including some pieces I'd love to own, but it was his jaw that dropped when I casually mentioned my Watchmen page.  It was clear that getting one of the extremely rare Moore/Gibbons pages from that seminal series was something he'd always aspired to, but hadn't managed.  Unfortunately, none of his artwork on the wall was for sale, but I did spot an item I've only ever heard of, but not seen: the 17" x 13" hardcover Original Art Edition of Alien: The Illustrated Story by Archie Goodwin & Walt Simonson.  It's a massive art book featuring a comic book adaptation of Alien along with lots of other goodies related to the film.  Since I was missing Jonesy, big-time, I figured getting something that's sure to include his namesake was a good idea.  It should make an excellent addition to my Alien collection.

Emma had kindly brought in the special package that I'd pre-ordered months ago, which had arrived on Wednesday while we were away: Call of Duty Black Ops II.  I was thrilled to see it, but also frustrated that I felt too sick to even try it out last night.  Instead, it had to wait until this afternoon to be unwrapped.  I've now played 3 or 4 online Team Deathmatches, and surprisingly have an early kill-to-death ratio of 1.82:1.  Usually I start off terribly, amassing a KTD well below 1.00 at the beginning, and have to struggle to bring it up to respectability.  Somehow this time I've gotten lucky and been put in games with total noobs, resulting in the impressive early stats.  I'm not going to complain, as I definitely needed a pick-me-up.  But I also don't expect it to continue.

My other near-death experience involves my laptop.  It decided to encounter serious hardware problems of some sort literally an hour before we left for our vacation a week ago.  Vicki and I had to scrap the plan to take my laptop, and took hers instead.  She was nice enough to let me use it extensively during the time away, which provided a much-needed balm for my sick self.  However, I spent considerable amounts of time worrying about having to deal with my computer when we got back home, and was quite depressed and stressed about it.  When we arrived last night, I powered it up just so I could see what error message it was giving, and lo and behold! it came up fine.  I don't know what the problem was last week, as I didn't have any time then to look into it, or if it's likely to reoccur anytime soon.  But at the moment it's working fine once again.  Strangely miraculous, that.

And that's the past week, in as much detail as I can manage in my weakened state.

More On Denialism

Paul Krugman has a great article on how far down the rabbit hole the Republicans willingly and willfully fell in the run-up to this year's election, as well as a look back at some of the same behaviour during the Bush Jr era.  I love the way they actually felt empowered by 'unskewing' the polling data until that it became supportive of their unrealistic views.  Usually that sort of thing has caused enormous problems for the rest of us - see the economic disaster under Bush, as well as the ongoing climate change denialism - but in this case, it actually did a lot of good.  It kept them out of power for another 4 years and gave Obama another shot at fixing things.  That's a tall order, I know... but it still beats the alternative!

Life In The Parallel Universe

It's seemed for a while now that some of the Conservatives in the U.S. live in a parallel universe with some significant differences from our own.  You know the universe I'm talking about: where climate change is a hoax, the planet is only a few thousand years old, lowering taxes on the rich magically improves the situations of everyone, and evolution's still - at best - a crazy theory that could never be proved.

Well, in the aftermath of this week's election results, we can add another line item to that list of differences: the reliability of polls in predicting outcomes, and by extension, how math works.  Romney was apparently shocked by what happened as the election returns came in.  Why, when it had been so clearly forecast by a multitude of polling-aggregators?  Well, as an article at Huffington Post puts it:

'[T]he campaign was unprepared for this in part because it had ignored polling that showed the races favoring Obama. Instead, it turned to its own internal "unskewed" polls, which it believed more accurately reflected the situation on the ground. They didn't.'

That's what life must be increasingly like for those folks.  They know, to their very core, all kinds of things that just keep turning out not to be true.  That's pretty rough, but I find it hard to feel sorry for them.

A Great Day For America And The World

Yesterday's U.S. election went as well as any left-leaning observer could've reasonably expected.  And it went just about exactly the way Nate Silver, at FiveThirtyEight predicted it would, based on his aggregation of thousands of polls.  If Florida goes to Obama, as it looks like it will, then Silver will have gotten all 50 states right, as well as most of the Senate races.  And yes, Elizabeth Warren, one of my favourite voices on economics, will be sworn into the U.S. Senate in January!

Now that it's over, here are a few reflections and observations on what it all means:

• Nate Silver FTW!  It's fun to watch the same Conservative attack dogs who, just a few days ago were claiming that Silver's results were "skewed" by his liberal bias, suddenly declaring that "he just averaged the poll data; he didn't do anything special."  That's right, you dummies: he didn't do anything special, and yet it was still more than you could manage!  Makes one wonder what value any of you have, doesn't it?
• So yeah, the rampant denialism about what the polls were saying about the election, among Conservatives especially, was soundly and dramatically thrashed.  What are the chances that those folks will learn anything useful from that experience, such as what that might say about their similar attitudes toward climate change and evolution?  (Slim to nil, is my guess.)
• In my mind, the single most important outcome of last night's events is that Obamacare will survive long enough for the American people to get used to it.  Yes, there are going to be problems with it, and likely some will hate it.  But what won't happen, that's been occuring with shocking regularity over the past couple decades, is families won't be going bankrupt when someone gets sick any longer.  And people won't decide against visiting a doctor about a condition out of fear of not being able to afford it.  I personally believe that, once they get a taste of this - a watered down version of what the rest of the industrialized world takes for granted - there'll be no chance of ever getting rid of it.  Welcome to the second half of the 20th century, America!
• Mitt Romney, the Etch-A-Sketch candidate, has finally been erased from the political landscape. He may enjoy firing people, but in this case he couldn't even land the job in the first place. Romney can now continue not caring about the 47% of Americans who he views as parasites, and in fact can just go back to focusing on the top 0.01% of income earners, which is where he does well.
• These results aren't going to make the country to our south any less divided, but that would've been true even if Romney/Ryan had won.  The growing diversity within the U.S. - blacks, latinos/latinas, gays - is something that those who fondly remember an America that never was just aren't going to accept.  It's possible, maybe even probable, that their children will, but that's at least another 10 years away.
• Having said that, the fact that several states legalized gay marriage last night is huge!  These are examples of a popular vote favouring it, rather than a judge or political figure.  That shows real progress, if you ask me.  But, of course, as someone tweeted overnight, the real progress comes once it's not called "gay marriage" any longer... but just "marriage."
• And did I mention that Elizabeth Warren will soon be a U.S. Senator?  I can't wait to see what effect she has on that stodgy out institution when she gets there.

Anyway, it was a truly exciting night. I coughed most of the way through it, unfortunately, but at least the good guys (and gals) won. And that lessened the pain considerably.

All Signs Look Positive

I'm not taking anything from granted, but I am encouraged to see that FiveThirtyEight's Nate Silver now has President Obama's chances of getting re-elected tomorrow at 91.4%, which is certainly the highest it's ever been.  If accurate, that's an amazing example of peaking at the right time. It's the sort of thing that, in sports, usually results in championships (see: 2012 San Francisco Giants).

Considering all that's riding on tomorrow's outcome, I really hope Silver knows what he's talking about.

Weird

I always operated under the conviction, growing up, that Marvel Comics fastidiously avoided mentioning characters from their rival, DC Comics, even going so far as to refer to DC as "our Distinguished Competition" rather than by name.

And yet I just read a Marvel comic from 1979 (when I would've been all of 16 years of age) that included not one, not two, but three ads on which DC's Batman appeared!  Master of Fung Fu # 83, from December 1979, featured two Saturday morning cartoon advertisements, one for The SuperFriends on ABC and another for the Batman - Tarzan Hour on CBS, as well as a rubber mask promo that had Spidey, the Hulk, the Red Skull and Batman masks!  I guess I must've been skipping over those pages completely when I was a kid.  I wouldn't believe it now if I hadn't just seen it with my own two eyes! 

Speaking of eyes: I'm happy to report that this comic also had an ad for X-Ray specs, a longtime mainstay of comic book ad pages.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find one for Sea Monkeys (sorry, Meena!).

3rd Novel Progress Update

I think my Facebook post from this morning says it all:

My deadline for getting Chapter 4 of the new novel done? End of this week. 

Actual time when I got Chapter 4 complete? This past weekend! 

It's true: I don't just hit deadlines; I beat them senseless! ;-)

Good Brain Teaser

Courtesy of BoingBoing comes a nice little puzzle: 4 Men in Hats

I didn't figure it out, but I should have. I blame my illness!

That Obama, What A Job Killer!

Conservatives keep beating the same drum: President Obama has been bad for jobs! And yet the data shows:

Where the shrinking job market in the U.S. recently has been, of course, is in government positions. Forced by Republican obstruction in the House of Representatives and elsewhere, and fueled by an absolutely moronic misunderstanding of how austerity affects a recession where interest rates can't go down, millions of jobs within the eduction and public service sector have been slashed. So-called 'deficit hawks' insisted on those cuts with one breath, while demanding tax reductions for the wealthy in the next (so much for cutting the deficit!), and so the government rolls have shrunk significantly. Meanwhile, as the graphic above shows, the private sector's been pulled out of the death spiral George W. Bush put it into.

I can't remember seeing quite this level of dishonesty and dismissal of the facts among one of the parties since the Watergate days.