When they kick you in the face, give them the silent treatment

I don't understand why the Democrats continue to fight the wrong fights against the Republicans. This is happening day after day, on terrible news show after terrible news show. What really bothers me is that they have some very good ideas but they don't talk about them. For that matter, they have a lot better ammunition to use in their current battles with the Republicans, but they continue to spend all of their time defending the attacks coming at them without ever mounting a proper counterattack.

Take the filibuster, or "nuclear option" debate going on right now. The Republicans are accusing the Democrats of trying to "veto the will of the majority." The Democrats are hitting back with threats to shut down the Senate, followed by going off on tiraids about how the filibuster has been part of the legislative process in the Senate for 200 years.

But consider the Republican attack - "will of the majority." Both parties seem to be forgetting that while the Republicans have 55 members in the Senate to the Democrats' 44, the Democrats actually represent more people. So why aren't they saying that?

Maybe those numbers are too complicated. How about this: President Clinton had 60 judicial nominations refused by the Republicans using a pocket filibuster. The Democrats are saying no to a whopping 7. How about that?

I always felt that Governor Howard Dean would have been the ideal Democratic candidate to run against Bush (but we'll save that discussion for another entry). Later when he became DNC Chairman I felt that the Dems were finally going to get an organized offensive going and take some ground back in 2006. But if things keep going the way they are now, I'm going to have to really start thinking about that move to Canada again.

Is Toronto nice in the summer?

How do they know that?

I consider myself to be a somewhat private netizen. I do not make my e-mail address or AIM/MSN handles available on the public Internet. I don't link my real name or phone number to my blog. I don't use a photoblog or online photo-storage service. Honestly, it probably wouldnt bother me to have this information made publicly available, but I want to decide what is made public and what is kept private. Sadly, that choice was already made for me by "People Search" companies.

There is a relatively small amount of legislation governing what kind of information can be collected, who is allowed to collect it, and what they are subsequently allowed to do with the information (resell it, mine it, etc.). Without some sort of specified limits, there is nothing stopping companies from compiling the same types of data repositories that were proposed under the (now defunct) Total Information Awareness Project, which had it been allowed to continue would have become the most expanisive and agressive invasion of personal privacy that the US has ever seen. Worse still, these info-warehouses would operate with virtually no oversight from the government.

Sometimes, sites pop up that really bring the reality of net privacy into focus. Zaba Search, a people-search engine I stumbled across while perusing some random weblogs, truly shows how effortless it is for someone to find large amounts of personal information on just about anyone. This one searches as fast as Google, and while it only provides birth-years, addresses, and phone numbers, there is an option to purchase additional information if you so choose.

Yes, I know. Linking to the website is only an encouragement for people to use it. But in this case, I think it's important that you check out the site and run some searches. Once you see how easily it finds matches, you might begin to think twice before the next time you give out some of your "personal" information.

All Aboard the Oregon Trail

A long LONG time ago, I was introduced to the wonders of technology when I got my first Apple IIe. I wore the ink off the keys learning logo and trying to get that damned turtle to move the way I wanted him to, but I was always drawn to the games. I think that's when my gaming passions really started to form, and I have such wonderful games to thank for that: Transylvania, Math Blaster (trust me, it was fun), and of course, The Oregon Trail, one of the earliest games to be considered "edutainment."

For those of you who dont know what I'm talking about, here is the best description of it I can find, and amazingly it includes screenshots!

Perhaps many of us loved that game a little too much. So much so, in fact, that it is still available for download and playing via Apple2 emulators. While reminiscing about the game other day, a few of us decided to do a google search, and low-and-behold, we found a copy of the game!

You can pick up The Oregon Trail from here.

Find a good Apple IIe emulator from here.

Always remember - if the river is more than 5 feet deep, float your wagon, dont ford the river. And if you die of dysentary, you can even get a t-shirt marking the occaision!

Everyone loves Harry Potter... even the Pope

There have been millions of websites that are mourning the loss of Pope John Paul II's passing, so I will stay away from any direct commentary on it. However, I recently learned that The Leaky Cauldron, an excellent HP-related news site, marked his passing by quoting a statement the Vatican made in 2003 regarding the Harry Potter books, which have been villified by many radical religious organzations as teaching "anti-Christian ideology:"

"I don't see any, any problems in the Harry Potter series...I don't think there's anyone in this room who grew up without fairies, magic and angels in their imaginary world...They aren't bad. They aren't serving as a banner for an anti-Christian ideology...If I have understood well the intentions of Harry Potter's author, they help children to see the difference between good and evil...And she is very clear on this...[JKR is] Christian by conviction, is Christian in her mode of living, even in her way of writing."

I may not have agreed with his views on everything (I'm not Catholic, anyway), but I feel surprising relief that the most prominent voice in the Catholic religion was able to see the books for what they are and did not shy from responding to the traditional criticism of radical Christian groups. For that in particular, I salute him, and I wish him well, wherever he's off to now.

Still, considering his near-divinity on earth, I wonder - Do you think he knew how the story ends?

You ain't got no job, you ain't got shit to do

So yes, it's important to have a job. It's important to further your career and take steps towards building the foundation for future employment. My question is this: If you're not sure what you want, if you're not certain you know what career to pursue, or in what flavor that career will present itself, are you screwed from here on out? Is there a deadline for deciding your direction?

Lately I've been wondering if it isn't better to keep your mind open to all possibilities, to all possible twists and turns that might be ahead. I've been spending the last four years trying to convince poor med students to spend too much money on books - books we just end up throwing away when a new edition arrives. Literally, into the garbage can. I don't think this is right, but it's my job and I salvage what I can. I spend too much time researching the daily value of the Euro and creating labels from conference attendee lists. You want to know why you get so much junk mail? I know why, and I know how to get your name.

But this is not what I want. I don't want to be a marketeer for the rest of my life, nor do I have any interest in sales or advertising. I happen to be pretty good at my job, but I just don't care that much. So, in the fall, I hope to move on to other things. The other things I have lined up, namely production and design, are a throwback to my days on the yearbook staff moving picas around and cropping awful pictures of the band teacher. I happen to love doing this, but it has been awhile. I didn't have to worry about parsing SGML code from FrameMaker files or preflight PDFs back in the day - the oh-so-ancient times of the mid-90's (how I miss them). So I'm pretty sure that this will not only be going back to something I love, but also an opportunity to learn a ton of stuff in the electronic publishing realm. Fine. Good by me.

But all of this leads me back to my point. If I'm not completely sure that publishing is the career for me, is this a waste of time? Should I go ahead on the assumption that publishing is where I'll end up, or should I test a couple of other flavors while I'm still young and (cough, ahem) unmarried? It's always good to be employed, no question there. And since I'm fairly certain this is the industry for me, I can feel fairly comfortable moving ahead. They say you should do something that makes you happy - make your hobbies your career. I'm a reader and a writer, so this makes some sense. But if I have to start a blog to force myself to write often, and if the book I'm reading has been sitting on my nightstand for almost 10 months, are these clues that what I'm actually more suited for is watching TV and playing video games? Can I be a professional coffee drinker and cigarette smoker? Are there jobs for people whose hobby is finding excuses to leave work early?

Today it's 75 degrees and I'd like to find employment that requires me to walk through the city with the sun on my face and the breeze at my back. Barring that, an office with a window would be nice.

The Peculiar Institution

When you are so high you don't know what to write but have a desperate desire to do so, there should not be blogs. A white screen staring plaintively: wanting words and eloquence inspired by illicit drugs. It wants grandiose sentiments and enlightening revelations. It begs with such need for meaning and purpose that I'm only inspired to shit all over it; to fill it with base less rumors, and gossip bordering on libel. I want to tantalize and titillate; to inspire fame and fortune; to make the world believe only as I believe. I want to be the press!

If Ever a Wiz There Was

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, the most anticipated new book since Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix, was finally completed at the end of December and will be out on bookshelves at midnight on July 16th, 2005. My BF and I were fortunate enough to attend the OoP release party at a local bookstore two years ago where, as a reward for reading all of the books 17 times, we received a Wizard's hat, a #20 spot in line for the midnight rush, and a trivia ass-beating by a couple of 13 year old girls.

Needless to say, we are gearing up for the April 7th marketing launch which will carry us through the spring months. I will try to avoid posting or linking to spoilers, but we will be carefully following any new items of interest in the coming months.

For more news, great articles, and basically anything to satisfy your HP cravings, check out the divine wisdom at The Leaky Cauldron:

If all Harry Potter books ever sold were placed end to end, they would go around the equator 1.4 times.

On its first day of sale in the UK, Harry Potter and the Order of The Phoenix sold at a rate of 21 books per second. If all those books sold in the UK in the first day were stacked up the pile would be 12 times higher than Mount Everest.

The total number of Harry Potter books ever sold is more than the populations of Britain, France, Germany and Italy combined.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince will have the largest first print run in the history of publishing: 10.8 million books in the US alone. This breaks the record set by the previous Harry Potter book in 2003. For comparison, first print runs of my employer's titles are usually in the thousands. As in two thousand.

We'll also be keeping an eye out for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire movie news. The film will be released November 18th, 2005.

I'm In

Good Morning...Has everyone created their user accounts? Testing 123, testing 123.