The Phantom Menace

How nice that on Halloween they would provide us with a new spectre to haunt our dreams. Darth Alito. The Los Angeles Times assures us that an "epic battle is expected." The Washington Post says that this pick is sure to rally the GOP. And the USA Today, America's gold standard for inoffensive news and the official newspaper of Generica (is there a hotel that DOESN'T stick this under your door?), printed a variety of opinions but labeled the article "Nominee Signals Step Backwards."

Meanwhile, I guess we know how Aaron McGruder felt about the Miers nomination...

Peeps Make the World Go 'Round

The past few weeks have been crappy busy at work. I was committed to do some Halloween cube decorating but had run out of time. The Thursday night liberal trivia gang came in and helped me out. Thanks, guys!

2000

Today we passed the 2,000 mark for soldiers dying in the Iraq war. The last time I was this depressed was, well, November 2000.

Oh, no kidding...

You scored as Sleeping Beauty. Your alter ego is Princess Aurora, a.k.a. Sleeping Beauty! You are beautiful and enchanting, and as sweet as ever.




Which Disney Character is your Alter Ego?
created with QuizFarm.com
Heh. My husband has been saying this for years. It's a toss up between Sleeping Beauty and The Princess and the Pea. If there's a Princess sleeping, that's me. Apparently if she can be sleeping and COMPLAINING, even better.

Watch Out for the Dangerous Donuts

Ah, at last. Scott Adams, Dilbert artist and author of God's Debris, has joined us in the blogosphere with The Dilbert Blog. Get on over there.

Say What?

I had the sudden epiphany that our president is Yogi Berra and this quote clenches it:

"I never blame myself when I'm not hitting. I just blame the bat and if it keeps up, I change bats. After all, if I know it isn't my fault that I'm not hitting, how can I get mad at myself?"

Except W would give the first bat a medal of freedom.... Oh wait! There's more!

"If you ask me anything I don't know, I'm not going to answer."

"I wish I had an answer to that because I'm tired of answering that question."

"I never said most of the things I said."

"Half the lies they tell about me aren't true."

"It gets late early out there." (Can't you just hear him saying that about Iraq?)

"There are some people who, if they don't already know, you can't tell 'em."

"We made too many wrong mistakes."

Oh, maybe not that last one so much. But once he DOES admit a mistake, I'm sure it will be expressed just as eloquently.

She Never Raised Her Voice, Just Our Consciousness

(Rep. John Conyers) remembered her as someone who never raised her voice -- an eloquent voice of the civil rights movement.

"You treated her with deference because she was so quiet, so serene -- just a very special person," he said, adding that "there was only one" Rosa Parks.

There's a gentle new voice singing with the angels tonight.

A Few of My Favorite Things: Star Trek

When I say that I’m a big Star Trek fan I say it with a bit of hesitation because this is something with such a range of shades that you need an RGB color-picker just to figure out where you fall. For every guy on the left of me saying, “Star Trek? I liked that movie. The light sword was so freakin’ cool” (just typing that made my inner geek cringe a bit) there’s another one on my right who can quote all the lines from, well, everything. And can debate the minutia on copper-based blood and transporter technology. In Star Trek, like in life, I’m too much of a geek to be considered normal and too normal to be considered a geek. Some people at work are actually surprised by my geekiness when its vastness begins to be revealed to them.

So, back to Star Trek. How much of a fan am I? The core of my collection was passed on to me by my older brother who had the good fortune of seeing the original series on TV (I was born a year after cancellation) and he was such a fan that I consider myself to be a fan from birth. From the start I wanted to follow my charming and engaging older brother. Then my step-sister and best friend came along and we found a common bond over science fiction geekery, Star Trek chief among our obsessions. We met in 1982 which was a sort of Star Trek boom time. It was the year of Khan. Novels (some of dubious quality now that I try to reread them) were churned out almost monthly.

Things I own:

• The Original Compendium (a little the worse for wear since I actually read it repeatedly)
• Novelizations of The Original Series
• The Star Trek Logs (animated series novelizations)
• A lot of other books on this page
• My beloved Spock Bear (with cute little removable pointy ears and his own tricorder)
• Multiple Starfleet badges
• A sign that says “Captain’s Quarters, USS Enterprise”
• Three models of Enterprise NCC-1701
• Some tricorders (homemade and manufactured)
• Some phasers (homemade and manufactured)
• TOS Star Trek coffee (yes, I said coffee)
• Lots of action figures (please don’t make me count – it’s more than 10 and less than 50 with at least 10 still in their packaging)
• A red yeoman’s uniform I picked up for $5 from a costume store clearance rack
• TOS DVDs
• Vulcan ears

Things I’ve done:

• Drawn a LOT of Spock pictures
• Written my own series of Starfleet spoof short stories about a ship called the USS Bob crewed by my aforementioned brother (Captain Dave) and all my friends (many of whom have also contributed stories)
• Joined Starfleet in the 80’s (“We’re just one big happy Fleet!”)
• Tried to start my own fan club (bad, bad, bad idea – there are some WEIRD people into Star Trek and you don’t want your 13-year old hanging out with them)
• Started numerous Star Trek novels and TV series concepts with my co-writer, co-conspirator, step-sister and best friend Cmdr Tal. The winner of novels by weight fills a desk drawer since I kept all of the revisions from back in the day before computers.
• Gone to a convention (yes, only one – I’m lame)
• Emailed Wil Wheaton – and got a response!
• Pulled Leonard Nimoy’s home address off an online political donations database. No, you can’t have it.
• Wore black to The Undiscovered Country because it was supposed to be the last movie with Spock in it (all dressy, too, because I was going to see SPOCK)
• Used my USS Bob moniker as my online identity from the beginning (there was never a question because I AM Commander Sue London – First Officer, Science Officer, and All Around Fun Chick. Uh, no, I’m not Vulcan.)
• Had pictures taken of myself bouncing up and down in front of the sign at the Smithsonian saying they were going to have a Star Trek Exhibit (Yes, I looked like an idiot. No, I won't post the picture.)
• Had pictures taken of myself touring the Star Trek Exhibit when it finally arrived. Including “pulling a Spock” pose next to the Captain’s chair (stiff posture, one eyebrow raised). Also loudly discussed with myself how difficult it would be to pry open the case holding the one of the original “Trouble with Tribbles” shooting scripts (including hand written notes in the margins). My friends suppressed me.
  

Things I still plan to do… one day:

• Turn the USS Bob into an online animated series
• Go to another convention (or ten or twelve)
• Get our Star Trek series produced. If you know Majel Barrett ask her to give me a ring.

I think that answers the question of what kind of Star Trek fan I am, so the only remaining question is… why? I find the underlying ideas to be very heartening. I like the thought that in the future we will be out there exploring the stars. And although we will still be working to keep our moral compass in trying times we will somehow manage to do a bit of a better job about it than we seem to be doing now.

 Besides, Star Trek is FUN. It’s a universe I’ve lived in part-time my whole life. There’s camaraderie, idealism, and cool-looking aliens.

If you have Star Trek stories to tell, feel free to drop ‘em on me here, or go tell Eugene Roddenberry at Trek Nation. I will probably update this some more before I think it is "done," maybe adding some pictures of my collection and stuff.

(p.s. The original USS Enterprise NCC-1701 is still on display at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum Store.)

I am the Semicolon! Hear Me Pause

Semicolon You scored 30% Sociability and 70% Sophistication!

Congratulations! You are the semicolon! You are the highest expression of punctuation; no one has more of a right to be proud. In the hands of a master, you will purr, sneering at commas, dismissing periods as beneath your contempt. You separate and connect at the same time, and no one does it better. The novice will find you difficult to come to terms with, but you need no one. You are secure in your elegance, knowing that you, and only you, have the power to mark the skill or incompetence of the craftsman. You have no natural enemies; all fear you. And never, NEVER let anyone tell you that you cannot appear in dialogue!

My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 33% on Sociability You scored higher than 83% on Sophistication

Link: The Which Punctuation Mark Are You Test written by Gazda on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Funniest Thing I Read Today

From Meghann Marco's open letter about GooglePrint:

Someone asked me recently, "Meghann, how can you say you don't mind people reading parts of your book for free? What if someone xeroxed your book and was handing it out for free on street corners?"

I replied, "Well, it seems to be working for Jesus."

Tip o' the hat to Boing Boing.

The Complete Idiots Guide to Voting in Virginia

So Virginia has a pretty important election coming up in a couple of weeks. We're deciding if we want to continue to follow the leadership of the Democrats who, you know, have balanced our budget, increased jobs, and generally made things better in the state. Or not. You can probably guess how I'm going to vote. But the thing that bothers me is that I don't keep up with all the little details on who is running for what, or what party they are, and find myself a bit anxious (not to the point of doing research, mind you) by the time election day rolls around. It occurred to me that sending a little card out to citizens with the list of their democrat people to vote for, and a reminder of when to vote and where, would be very, very helpful. I assume that you could blanket an area based on the map, or you could solicit addresses for people who want this reminder service. Me, I want it. No issues, no hype, just a nice little list of "here's the Democrats" with my polling location, maybe a map, and the date/time I can vote. Maybe a nice reminder that voting is a right. I'd be happy to go to the Downtown Mall, etc. to get people to sign up, and they might even throw a few bucks in the donation jar to help cover their future mailings. Dems are nothing if not fair-minded.

I assumed that there must be a Virginia Democrats group who could do this sort of thing and merrily went a Googling. Yes, they exist. They even have a blog.

Now I just have to convince them that this subscription/reminder/mailer service is money well spent.

Home for the Holidays

It’s that time of year again where we have to decide, “Will this be another year where we go hang out with family during the holidays and slowly learn to hate ourselves?” To try to figure out exactly what is wrong with our family gatherings I’ve decided to do a little biological classification of the family members.

familia necrotoxinae – I think that this woman probably exists in every family. She’s poison. She might even kill you with kindness at times, but you always know that her endgame is all about the "kill you" part.

familia unreliabilum – They're late. They borrow 50 bucks. Everyone has this sibling/uncle/aunt/cousin. They are just sure that with a little help from you they will get their life together. You stopped believing that some time (and dollars) ago.

familia imperiousum – You know that they can't believe that they are related to the rest of the family. Hell, you can't believe you're related to these people either, but at least you don't have your nose stuck in the air about it. One year you promise yourself you're going to dip a little too deep into the spiked eggnog so that you have an excuse to call them a supercilious asshole. (Or a stuck-up bitch. Your call.)

familia bellicosum – They want to turn everything into a fight. One year you're just sure that the whole holiday will turn into a bloodbath. Sometimes your only defense is to retreat to the bathroom for an inordinate amount of time and wait for another family member to distract them. Some day you may find out whether you can get out that bathroom window and down to the car before anyone notices.

Those are the ones who come to mind. I'm sure as Thanksgiving approaches I will have other revelations...

She's Such a Card...

I've been called that before, I just didn't know what card I was. Now I have my answer.

Joker
You scored 77 clubs, 16 diamonds, 57 hearts, and 62 spades!

Fitting almost everywhere, you're the Joker! More than balanced, more
than the Gemini! You spice up most events you attend to and people want
you around. Keep going!


My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 99% on clubs
You scored higher than 13% on diamonds
You scored higher than 67% on hearts
You scored higher than 79% on spades

Early Morning Breezes

Last night's Daily Show guest was Dolly Parton, who I adore. I had always liked her voice but I had underestimated her talent until I got a copy of her album Jolene. It has the most delightful songs. I think I can be forgiven for missing the album until a couple of years ago since it came out shortly after was born. It includes a song that basically captures my own brand of prayer called Early Morning Breeze.

I open up my door to greet the early morning sun
Closing it behind me and away I do run
To the meadow where the meadow lark is singing in the tree
In the meadow I go walking in the early morning breeze
I cup my hands to catch a multi-colored butterfly
Perched upon the petals of flowers growing wild
Freeing it I watch it as it flies away from me
To visit with the flowers in the early morning breeze

And in case you doubt her song-writing prowess, remember that the album included I Will Always Love You. Yes, the same song that Whitney took back to the top of the charts about 15 years later.

A Report on Colbert on the Colbert Report

I've been waiting for The Colbert Report and tonight I get to find out if it's everything I've been hoping to see. I'm writing this intro during The Daily Show and my report will be LIVE. Provided I don't laugh myself silly.

The Daily Show provided a good lead in, having both Rob Corddry and Ed Helms giving reports. Ya gotta love those guys. And it makes you say to yourself, "Gosh, now I just need some Stephen Colbert." And they did at least five ads for The Colbert Report during Daily Show - good move.

11:27. Nothing left to do now but wait... And wait... And wonder why the Mercedes ad is so, so weak. And wait...

11:28 - Daily Show has a "check in" with The Colbert Report. Fun.

11:30 - The Colbert Report starts. Much more of a FoxNews feel, which deserved some spoofing. I know that his guest tonight will be Stone Phillips - who I had heard was Stephen's inspiration for his "souless delivery." He does a good job giving us "lead stories" such as "Why did the chicken cross the road? To bring the avian flu." Heh-heh.

"On this show your voice will be heard. In the form of my voice."

11:33 - Word of the Day: Truthiness. Makes fun of the "Wordinistas" over at Websters. "I don't trust books. They're all fact, no heart."

Then Stephen does a riff on head bad/heart good.
"If you THINK about Harriet Miers, of course the selection is absurd."

11:35 - "Like any good newsman I think that if you're not scared, I'm not doing my job."
Introducing "The Threatdown"
5. Avian Flu
4. Basketball - What's a Canadian team doing in our NBA?
3. Babies
2. Hurricane Names
1. James Brady

11:40 - Commercial Break
Thoughts so far: very funny, but you can see that they are trying hard. Part of the charm of The Daily Show is that they very rarely LOOK like they are trying hard, even though I've heard that Jon is quite the perfectionist. We'll have to see how Stephen settles in. I adore him so I have to hope that this will all work out well. I've been hoping to have a Daily Show/Colbert Report double header for quite awhile now.

11:44 - We're back, and Stone Phillips is on. Stephen needs to realize that the "I'm so stuck on myself" riff gets OLD QUICK. Man, he and Stone are ripping into each other.

11:49 - Commercial Break
Ok, the "I'm so stuck on myself" and bitchy attitude need to be turned down.

11:51 - "What's the most important thing that a journalist needs? Humility. What's the second most important thing? Gravitas." He then "rewelcomes" Stone Phillips. They are going to demonstrate that with sufficient gravitas it doesn't matter what you're saying. A gravitas-off.

Heh-heh. That was funny.

11:55 - Commercial Break
Ok, so Stephen KNEW how he was pissing me off. And it was all leading to his humility and gravitas bit. So now I will have to wait until next week to see how he decides to play it from then on out.

11:58 - Announces that Peter Mayhew was sworn in as an American today in Texas. Places a new Chewbacca action figure on his shelf to celebrate it.

All in all, it was fun.

Great. Now I'll be up until midnight every night.
*******
10:16pm Update: In case you'd like another viewpoint you can check out Spocko's post about how Colbert is "Make You Cry" Funny.

Evolutionary Issues

No, I'm not about to enter the debate between Intelligent Design and Evolution (although I can think of a few animals that make either theory seem unlikely). I'm at a bizarre evolutionary plateau in my blog growth where every other time I check I'm morphing between a Flappy Bird and an Adorable Little Rodent. Granted, I could put some more effort into my blogging to try to close the distance, but just sitting here and whining about it seemed like much more fun.

I DO Aim to Misbehave!

Does it count if I thought some of the questions were offensive and shallow?

The Resistance
Achtung! You are 30% brainwashworthy, 22% antitolerant, and 42% blindly patriotic
Welcome to the Resistance (Der Widerstand)!
You believe in freedom, justice, equality, and your country, and you can't be converted to the the dark side.

Breakdown: your Blind Patriotism levels are borderline unhealthy, but
you show such a love of people from everywhere and a natural resistance
to brainwashing, you would probably focus your energy to fight the Fuehrer with furor, so to speak.

Conclusion: born and raised in Germany in the early 1930's, you would
have taken up ARMS against the oppressors. Or even your friends'
oppressors. Congratulations!

Less than 5% of all test takers earn a spot in the Resistance!

The Would You Have Been A Nazi? Test
- it rules -

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

	You scored higher than 33% on brainwashworthy
	You scored higher than 27% on antitolerant
	You scored higher than 64% on patriotism

Link: The Would You Have Been a Nazi Test written by jason_bateman on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

You Can't Stop the Signal

"Everything goes somewhere and I go everywhere."

Speaking of movies, have you seen Serenity yet? That's right, I'm not going to shut up about it anytime soon. I'm a total fan of Joss Whedon, what can I say. Universal didn't do a good enough job promoting the movie so I'm trying to take up the slack. It is already #126 on IMDB's list of all-time top 250 (which is a list that Flightplan, the ticket revenue eater, isn't even DREAMING of being on, thank you very much).

Ok, so that other movie has Jodie Foster, but we have:

Nathan Fillion (one of those, "hey, it's that guy" guys - the boyfriend on "Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place," a soap actor on "One Life to Live," a bad guy on Buffy, and Minnesota Ryan from "Saving Private Ryan")
Gina Torres (Cas from "Matrix Reloaded" and "Matrix Revolutions", recurring roles on Hercules, Alias, Angel, and 24)
Alan Tudyk (one of my favorite little scene stealers who played Wat in "A Knight's Tale," Steve the Pirate in "Dodgeball," and was the voice of Sonny the Robot in "I,Robot" - I would probably see anything with Alan in it because he's so funny)
Morena Baccarin (she hasn't been in much, but I have it on good authority that she is HOT)
Adam Baldwin (no, he's not one 'the' Baldwins, he's that guy from, well, tons of stuff - starting with "My Bodyguard" in 1980 and including roles in "Independence Day" and "Full Metal Jacket")
Jewel Staite (the cutie-patootie of the crew, but she hasn't been in much I've heard of - things like episodes of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids)
Sean Maher (played Brian Piccolo in "Brian's Song")
Summer Glau (she's been on Angel, CSI, and the 4400)
Ron Glass (you know, the guy from Barney Miller! back in the day I was enough of a fan that I followed him over to "The New Odd Couple" and watched all the episodes that aired)
Chiwetel Ejiofor (a British actor and, as Kevin Smith once said, 'It's like the British f'ing INVENTED acting' - was in "Love Actually" and "Dirty Pretty Things")
David Krumholtz (yes, our friendly elf Bernard from the "Santa Clause" series)

Team Nevsky and the Trivia Challenge

Over the past few months the Morning Liberal Coffee had morphed into the "when in the hell are we getting together?" gathering, but I think we just found our groove tonight. Six gathered to munch wings and try our brains on a trivia challenge. Led by our trivia champ Nevsky we managed to have a good showing, winning the movie round.

Fashionista

Yes, I have an important project that I'm freaking out over, what's your point? I need some fun. OK??

Fashionista 53% Tastefulness, 60% Originality, 52% Deliberateness, 47% Sexiness

[Tasteful Original Deliberate Prissy] One is certain: you have great taste and plenty of ideas. You have clearly defined beliefs about what's good and what's bad in fashion but they are far from banal. Stylish and imaginative, you prefer to inspire admiration than to shock and you mostly succeed. Even if sometimes you'd like to have more courage to put on something absolutely outrageous you do great job in creating a unique look that others look up to. There is a possibility that you work in the fashion industry. If you don't, perhaps you should. The opposite style from yours is Bar Cruiser [Flamboyant Conventional Random Sexy].

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 13% on Tastefulness You scored higher than 91% on Originality You scored higher than 43% on Deliberateness You scored higher than 52% on Sexiness

Link: The Fashion Style Test written by mari-e on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Cool, I'm Zoe

You scored as Zoe Alleyne Washburne. The Soldier. You are the second in command, and that is fine. You like a chain of command, but only when the one in charge has earnt your respect. Those who earn your love or loyalty will find no one better to guard their back. Zoe Alleyne Washburne 75% River Tam 69% Simon Tam 69% Capt. Mal Reynolds 69% The Operative 63% Hoban 'Wash' Washburne 56% Shepherd Derrial Book 56% Kaylee Frye 56% Inara Serra 50% Jayne Cobb 50% Which Serenity character are you? created with QuizFarm.com

I knew Zoe was my girl.

They Can't Take the Sky From Me

What can I do? They'll give me points for my Browncoat goodness if I post these links.

Serenity: The Official Movie Website

FireFlyFans.net

http://forums.prospero.com/foxfirefly/start

Test Screening-Early Reviews

Another Serenity Review

Forsooth! I am a Paladin!

Smart Paladin 59% Combativeness, 20% Sneakiness, 61% Intellect, 80% Spirituality

Valorous! Noble! Or possibly just a self-righteous jerk (but with the brains to keep you alive!)... You are a Smart Paladin! Paladins are holy warriors. They are valorous defenders of the light. Unfortunately, most of them are so ardent in their defense they tend to meet sticky ends faster than you can say "rampaging red dragon." Many people look up to Paladins, while others just consider them stuck up, overbearing, or self-righteous. Fortunately for you, unlike most Paladins, you're pretty smart. Which means that you're more likely to fall into the "admired" category, rather than the "obnoxious" or "dead" categories. Much like the crusades, you manage to combine violence and religion, though unlike the crusades, you add a healthy does of intelligence. You may be a staunch defender of the faith, a valorous champion of the weak, or the stuff that jihads are made of. Which ever one you are, just be happy that you�ve got the smarts to back it up and make it work.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 51% on Combativeness You scored higher than 12% on Sneakiness You scored higher than 27% on Intellect You scored higher than 99% on Spirituality

Link: The RPG Class Test written by MFlowers on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Workin' for the Weekend

It's another weekend in the office. I guess I can be happy that it's been awhile, but I must be getting too old for this. I don't remember feeling this resentful before. As you can tell I'm having to take frequent breaks to check the blogs and chat with my sister about Firefly.

I read an article in BusinessWeek a little while ago that I've looked up to quote for you here. The title is "The Real Reasons You're Working So Hard."

"Companies have been willing to pay big bucks for those longer hours. Over the past 15 to 20 years, people working a 40-hour week received virtually no increase in real pay, according to research by Kuhn and Lozano. Yet employees putting in a 55-hour week saw their real pay rise by 14%. The implication: The gains of two decades of growth have mainly gone to ambitious -- or fearful -- Americans who are working longer hours."

This harkens back to a slogan my team adhered to during the most grueling weeks of a software implementation in the mid-90s. "Everything is ok as long as my check shows up at the bank."

I'm An Adorable Little Rodent!

Thanks guys! Due to your obsessive checking to see if I might have written something interesting (for which I apologize that it generally isn't true) I have been elevated to the rank of Adorable Little Rodent in TTLB's Ecosystem. My current rank is #5844 which means that I only have to take out, er..... overtake about 1,850 other bloggers to get my coveted spot on the list of Marauding Marsupials. I have to say, though, I'm rather enjoying being an Adorable Little Rodent, so I'm ok being here for awhile.

Which Star Wars Character Are You?

Which Star Wars Character Are You?

I probably shouldn't have been surprised at these results... I guess I have to stop calling her "Queen I'm a Dollar" now that we're soul sisters.

"I Aim to Misbehave"

If you haven't seen Serenity yet then, well, why?? It is probably the most quippish and quotable movie I've seen in years. Ok, admittedly I am a big sci-fi geek, and a fan of Joss Whedon, but really. You should see this movie!

If "Serenity" isn't the next "Matrix," it will at the very least become this generation's "Highlander." Mass audiences may ignore "Serenity" the way they did "Firefly," but the comic book convention crowd will still be hailing this film 30 years from now.

- Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle

FREE TOM DELAY!

Nevsky & sixthdoctor have outdone themselves.

"Do you think Tom Delay is innocent? Do you think that he's being railroaded by an activist judicial system out to get him?

Neither do we.

But in the spirit of bipartisanship, we've developed a shirt that will annoy conservatives (the joke) AND liberals (the initial statement).

And we figure if you DO think he's innocent, you can always white-out that last part."