What happens is that you get two copies of the same letter, and they spell your name wrong. During the ICE crisis in Minnesota in January, I was looking for ways to help from my chair. I’ve given up on protesting–it doesn’t do anything, and if it does, the effects take too long to achieve. People were dying and getting kidnapped now. Plus it was a very cold Winter, and driving all the way down to Minneapolis is no longer something I wanted to do (fun fact: I went to a Twins game yesterday and with all the road construction, it took ninety minutes to get from eastern Lake Minnetonka…
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Cragun’s Resort Review
I just got back from a three-day stay at Cragun’s and I feel like I have to take a vacation from my vacation. The food is disgusting. The accommodations are outmoded. Everything feels muddy and grimy. I know it’s a lake resort, but the inside shouldn’t feel like the lake. The first night, I was woken at 2:30 AM by the people next door, loudly clapping and drunkenly singing. We immediately called the front desk. They did nothing. I know they did nothing because the walls are thin enough I would have heard a knock at their door or a phone call. But they continued for another hour. And this…
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Pawlenty as Governor Part 2: What I Do Care About
I talked before about things politicians keep bringing up that aren’t things I care about. Here’s what I do care about. Education – this is, and always shall be, my number one priority. Because my biggest fear is living in a country of ignorant. Ignorant people are like play-doh–they have no substance and even a mediocre leader can mold them into zealots. Smart children grow up to be smart adults who make smart advances. They make life better. They make medicine and businesses and inventions and because I don’t want a world where being “ig’nant” is a symbol of pride, or you’re supposed to hate school, or be a slacker/disengaged…
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So Pawlenty as Governor…
So I used to ignore politics. But in my state, the governor race has begun. This is going to be interesting because, for the first time in my life, I’m scrutinizing candidates and vetting policies. I even sent in a ballot for my Homeowner’s Association election. So revel in the bantling thoughts of a guy coming to government as unsteady and moist as a newborn calf. In my state, Tim Pawlenty is running for governor as a Republican.This is noteworthy because he already served from 2003-2011 (and then took six years off to go backpacking in Europe?). I don’t know why he wants to run now. Is he afraid the…
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Why I Shall March
When Donald Trump became president in January, it became immediately apparent that this was not going to be a run-of-the-mill presidency. Iran-Contra scandals and blow jobs in the oval office–those are issues that reach far away and don’t affect me. Let the kings play their game of thrones, I have a family to maintain. But this one’s different. I worried about George W. Bush, but he played a political game. This one has made promises that will affect my friends. They will worsen the lives of people I know, people I work with, creative people like artists and authors, even porn stars I like. To say nothing of making others…
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The Books I Read: May – June 2014
vN by Madeline Ashby In the first chapter, a five-year-old child robot eats her estranged grandmother, python-style, and goes from kindergartner to adult in an instant from the additional biomass. Good opening, and there are some interesting WTF circumstances (like robots were created to fill out the Earth after the rapture) but the rest stagnates. Once again, it’s a book where the robots don’t act like robots. They act like people. The only difference is they know they were artificially created. But other than that, they eat, they fall in love, they procreate. You can’t tell the difference. The interesting things are just background — they don’t come into play…
