Halloween trick-or-treat

The Ester Community Association is putting on its annual Halloween event for kids tonight, 6:30 pm at Hartung Hall. The trick-or-treating starts at 7 pm.

Lots o' parties tonight. I'll go as the plague, I think....

Library meeting on Sunday

The official details:

Date and Time: Sunday, November 2, 3pm
Location: Hartung Hall, corner of Main Street, Ester Loop, and Wellhouse Road (just past Frank's log castle toward Judie Gumm's, on the left as you go toward Fairbanks), Ester village

The Ester library's had a good fundraising year, and some actual construction got done, albeit on the gazebo, not on the actual library. The two big holdups have been a) lack of a design; and b) lack of sufficient funds. The latter is not so important as the former, actually, because having the plans will help kick the fundraising into high gear, and enable building to commence with the funds we do have and the volunteer labor and donated materials already promised. That will only work for so long, but once we start, the rest will follow pretty quick.

So we're starting up the library planning meetings again, and preparing for what will be a pretty humongous year. We need to get past the $6,000 barrier on the Lallapalooza, so we can pay for basic materials like concrete for the foundation, which means starting work on the fundraiser now. The first meeting will cover certain housekeeping chores, which won't take too long, such as getting a treasurer and planning a time for cleaning up the stacks (they've gotten a bit out of control lately), and getting the two early volunteer positions for the Lallapalooza: the performance organizer (Kate Billington's not doing it this year) and a volunteer coordinator.

Most of the meeting will be devoted to the actual design and construction plans for the library. Gary Pohl is coming, and will, I hope, have a sketch for a final design. I'm hoping a bunch of interested construction types will come and give Gary the feedback he needs.

The other topic for the meeting is other types of fundraising: the capital campaign, the United Way, the Rasmuson Foundation, and a legislative grant. All of these, however, require that our 501(c)(3) status is secured and filed, and that we have an official copy of the letter. So all we can do on them is get everything ready except for that official letter, and then shoot 'em out the moment we do.

Stevens can still vote

I stand corrected: Stevens does get to vote for himself. Or anybody else, for that matter. But it took a special decision by the state legal department. From the Anchorage Daily News:

Sen. Ted Stevens gets to vote in next Tuesday's election despite being found guilty of seven federal felonies because his conviction won't be final until he's sentenced, the state Department of Law decided late Wednesday.

Personally, I don't think he should lose his right to vote at all.

Reporters without Borders: US press freedom ranking

Struck by insomnia, I decided to check out Common Dreams and discovered an interesting article by Craig Aaron and Josh Stearns of the Huffington Post about press freedom in the US. The article notes that the Press Freedom Index (put out every year by Reporters Without Borders) places us at #36 out of 173 countries, right on a par with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cape Verde, South Africa, Spain, and Taiwan. Isn't that special? And, astonishingly, this is an improvement over last year, in which we ranked 44th!

Aaron and Stearns list several contributing items to the US's abysmal ranking:

• media consolidation
• the Pentagon's covert propaganda campaign using retired military officers
• the campaign by phone and cable companies "to dismantle the long-standing principle of Net Neutrality"
• Aaron claims that "nearly 100 journalists were arrested and detained in St. Paul, Minn., while trying to report on the Republican National Convention." (He doesn't say where he got this figure from, though. The highest I've seen to date other than this is 46.) However, it is clearly true that the treatment of protestors and journalists (not to mention medics!) at the RNC was appalling, unconstitutional, and beyond the pale.

The complete report (PDF) is pretty hefty, at least if you're on dialup, like me. There is an article available online giving the highlights. Several other interesting articles are available, too.

The first list was published in 2002, and the US was at 17th place at that point. In 2006, we'd sunk to 53. So I suppose this is the sign of an upward trend, which is heartening, but somehow I can't feel jubilant about 36th place.

Plague o' Crud

I have been home sick for the last week. It's a cold that's going round, nothing much, just a laryngitic throat and a runny nose. Doesn't sound so bad, does it? Except, of course, until yesterday I was in need of one or two lengthy (oh, four to eight hours) naps per day, and every time I woke up I coughed and hacked and spit up horrible green boogers. Drank a LOT of tea. A couple of times I thought I was getting better and went to the Eagle, briefly, to hand out papers (Hans fetched 'em from the printer), check out some movies from the library next door, or just see SOMEBODY other than felines and my Noble Spouse. (Nothing wrong with seeing the Noble Spouse, of course, but after a bit one craves a game of cribbage.) I did this twice, I think, and both times it was a Big Mistake. Nothing like an hour out to require at least six of recovery time. Gads. For "just a cold" it's been the nastiest, sneakiest, snottiest, underhanded little green virus it's been my misfortune to harbor in a long time.

I've been watching a ton of movies: The Fall, The Darjeeling Limited, Looney Tunes, X-Men 1 & 2, Men in Black, The Water Horse, Bridge to Tarabithia, Star Wars II: the Clones, the Californians, Die Another Day. There were a few others, too, but I forget now what they were. Mind fluff, mostly. Comedies that didn't take much thought. And I've been reading a lot of Piers Anthony.

I was hoping to go in to work tomorrow, but after the horrible hacking I endured today, I don't think the folks at the office will want to see me. I'm going to try working from home instead.

Icky, icky, icky.

Voting: yet another social event in Ester

As I've said before, I love going to vote. Voting day is lots of fun in Ester: hanging out and hobnobbing with the neighbors while we await our turn to sign in, bringing edibles for the volunteers who sit there all day and make sure we have our opportunity to do our civic duty, choosing among the various candies they thoughtfully provide, and, of course, snorting to ourselves in the voting booth as we contemplate the absurdities of the latest election.

It's also a bit of a friendly competition: there's a sort of informal contest between Ester and Goldstream precincts as to who can get the biggest turnout. Ester usually wins, but in the last few elections our formerly uncontested top-dog position in the state has been bested several times by Goldstream. We're slipping! O, the shame! We must defend our Voting Preeminence and Git Out to the fire station in DROVES!

Tuesday Next, folks, the Big Game! See you there!

Ted Stevens: a man of convictions

All 7 counts, in fact. Stevens keeps exclaiming that he did nothing wrong. But, apparently, he did, and still doesn't recognize that what he did was in fact, wrong, illegal, and, um, corrupt.

Alaskans have voted a dead man in office before, and a barbie doll into the governor's mansion, so it wouldn't surprise me if they voted a felon back into the Senate. But I sure hope not. We don't need any more Corrupt Bastards running around, and I don't care what party they are from. It was internal corruption that brought Soviet Russia down, and it'll bring us down too if we don't clean up.

Interestingly, one Alaskan can no longer vote for him: Stevens himself. I used to think this policy was a good one, of removing the right to vote from felons, but I no longer do. I started to change my mind on this when I began to learn more about prison conditions and the skewed rates of conviction in the US.

The Ester bus line

Susie Fenner of SCANFairbanks alerted me to this. The Fairbanks North Star Borough is once again considering the possibility of having a bus line from Ester to the university. Last time this failed miserably because of the stop times, apparently, and also because there were a lot fewer people out here back then. Fenner and others are advocating for a line that would go along Gold Hill Road from the university to Ester and back. She asks:

What are your thoughts on this? Would you ride public transportation at least one way, or at least once a week? Is carpooling or a park & ride arrangement of interest to you? Please let me know if this is something to pursue. David Leone, DOT Public Transportation Manager, is interested in your response (dleone@co.fairbanks.ak.us) and so is Tylan Martin (publine@yahoo.com), the private contractor with whom David is working for this project. And please don't hesitate to contact me directly with your comments.

I'd certainly use this in the winter, probably three days a week, and on rainy days in the summer, if there was a bus going in between 8 and 9 am. It would be nice if it would make a loop to Fred's and Safeway, too.

Apparently not: now it's Clothingate

Ah, yes, the piddling $150,000 new wardrobe with which the McCain campaign outfitted dear Sarah and family has prompted an ethics complaint filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington:

According to news reports, the clothing and accessories purchases for Palin and her family included a whopping $49,425 spent at Saks Fifth Avenue, and a $75,062 spending spree at Neiman Marcus.

These shopping excursions violate campaign finance law.

FECA specifically prohibits a candidate for federal office from converting campaign funds to personal use. FEC regulations make clear that the prohibition applies to clothing purchases, such as those made for the Palin family.

The RNC implicitly admitted that the clothing was purchased with campaign funds by stating that it will be donated to charity after the campaign. The RNC also relies on this prospective contribution to explain why the personal use prohibition is not applicable as FEC regulations provide that donations by candidates to charitable organizations are not for personal use. It does not appear, however, that this exception would apply to the clothing worn by Palin’s family, even if it does apply to her own.

Palin is apparently complaining that this is sexist and alludes to the atrocious treatment of Hillary Clinton in the press for her hairstyles and clothing. While I agree with Palin that Clinton was treated badly this way, Clinton wasn't spending political funds for her family's personal wardrobe. The clothes will be going to charity later on, apparently, but still--$150 grand?

Will the embarrassment never end?

Governor Palin is applying for a job, and she doesn't even know what it is. When asked by a third-grader what the vice president does, Sarah Palin said:

[T]hey’re in charge of the U.S. Senate so if they want to they can really get in there with the senators and make a lot of good policy changes that will make life better for Brandon and his family and his classroom.

I thought she was reasonably intelligent, but now I'm beginning to have my doubts. What happened to her brains? It's like as soon as she was chosen as McCain's running mate that she's been zombified, turned into the Alaska Barbie everybody makes jokes about. I mean, come on!

The full story comes from ThinkProgress (thanks to Michelle for tipping me off on this). Here's what the Constitution says about the role of the Veep in the Senate:

The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided.

So, Gov. Palin has embarrassed Alaska yet again by demonstrating that she doesn't understand the difference between the Executive and the Legislative branches of government. (I suppose that's fitting, given that GW Bush doesn't understand them either.) More on this at the Raw Story:

Palin also apparently did little to study up after fumbling a question about her prospective duties during this month's debate with Democratic VP nominee Joe Biden.

"I'm thankful the Constitution would allow a bit more authority given to the vice president if that vice president so chose to exert it in working with the Senate," she told the debate audience.

Asked to explain what she meant, Palin continued into the realm of the fanciful, endorsing Cheney's position of a more powerful vice presidency while crafting interpretations of the office even he didn't seem to have envisioned.

"Well, our founding fathers were very wise there in allowing through the Constitution much flexibility there in the office of the vice president. ... So I do agree with him that we have a lot of flexibility in there," she said. "And we'll do what we have to do to administer very appropriately the plans that are needed for this nation."

My aunt and cousin used to live in Wasilla, back when it was an Alaska town and hadn't been taken over by the box store/strip mall worshippers like Palin (it was under her mayorship that the runaway box building really got going). Wasillans should be cringing by now. I hope.

Zombie Walk for ending world hunger

O boy. Here's the latest from our beloved Bobbleheaded University (only this one's got some merit!):

Zombie Walk, part of the World Zombie Day fight to end world hunger, takes place Sunday, Oct. 26 from 3 – 6 p.m. Dress up as a zombie and walk from the West Ridge parking lot to Wood Center, then enjoy the free 1969 movie Night of the Living Dead. Bring canned food donations to help the fight against hunger.

Zombait.org ("Attracting zombies since 2007") is an Alaska site celebrating World Zombie Day.

Sooo....should the zombies be bringing canned brains? ('Tis the season, fa la la la grunt snarf lurch...)

Sarah's convenient hindsight twist

Found this one over at Bent Alaska:

"In my own state, I have voted, along with the vast majority of Alaskans who had the opportunity to vote, to amend our constitution defining marriage as between one man and one woman."

That's Sarah Palin, talking with the Christian Broadcasting Network. Now, back in April 2007, we had a little advisory vote on a discriminatory piece of legislation, which passed by 53 to 47% in favor of bigotry. At that time, Ms. Palin said of the vote:

"It's hard to characterize that as a mandate."

In 1998, there was 68% support for a ban on same-sex marriage. That was pretty pathetic, and it's clear that the public, when faced with the reality that this shameful amendment could be used to enshrine all kinds of discriminatory practices, clearly wasn't quite so keen on it the next time.

What a mockery of civil freedoms these people have made of our constitution.

Running in the snow

Well, the last library fundraiser of the year is OVER. The Readers on the Run 5-k footrace through Ester took place on Sunday, in the thick white snowfall and cold breezy weather we had that morning, and I'm pooped. It was pretty exciting watching the runners come tearing around the corner of Old Nenana and Village Road, though. That and the start (and the arrival of Stanley, Red Lantern Award winner) was about all I saw of it--after that, I was too busy copying down the participants' magnetic poetry.

It was fun, though, even if I was half-frozen by the time it was over. We had twenty racers, and a dog or three, and a ton of poems and t-shirts. And the gazebo got used for the first time. Lots o' fun!

Now the only official event left for me this year is the ECA meeting on the 19th!

InDesign coursework

I'm taking a class through the University of Alaska Fairbanks on InDesign. Now, I have been using this program since version 1.0, but I am mostly self-taught on layout in general and specifically on InDesign (I once took a class from David Marusek on using PageMaker, and I've had an Illustrator class, but that's it for formal instruction in desktop publishing). Consequently, I have learned what I needed to know and never messed with what I didn't need to know right away for this week's or month's deadline. I took a couple of tutorials that came with the program, usually adding to my store of tricks and workarounds with each update to the program. I subscribe to InDesign Magazine (which I hardly ever get around to reading) and get a weekly tip on the program, but really, there are huge gaps in my knowledge of the program.

Which is a shame, because it's such a great layout tool. So now I'm taking the class to improve my skills here at my UAF work and elsewhere, and it's GREAT. I'm learning a ton. I don't like the idea of not working with open-source software, but Adobe makes a great program, even if it is expensive.

singing

Sometimes, I get to singing, at the top of my voice, in tune, with the lyrics, and I think to myself, Damn I'm good, if I could only relax and remember the entire song. That's my main two problems when it comes to singing: I get uptight and my voice cracks as a result, and/or I only know the refrain, or one or two of the stanzas but not the whole thing. Very frustrating. I've long wanted to learn an instrument, but of course I'm really not terribly into practicing, and so I have never gotten myself ept at music.

However, it will happen. Hans, who is musically inclined, is getting himself back into performing (he plays guitar and has one hell of a voice), and as he plays more and sings more and goes off practicing, I recall that yep, I'm reasonably good at music too and actually like to sing, and try to do more in that vein.

Tonight, the song that inspired us both (after Mack the Knife, which I do know by heart) was Under Pressure, by Freddie Mercury and David Bowie. Going over the lyrics of a song again and again forces one to really think about what those words actually mean. In this case, it seems to be about homelessness, and despair, and yet hope: how inner or physical alienation can still be overcome or resisted by paying attention to the things and people one loves. Really, a very hope-filled song, and given that Mercury was dying when this song was written and performed, an amazing piece of music. Something we should pay attention to in this day and age.

Haines poetry CD

John Haines' CD is finally out. This is the CD I designed the cover for, back oh so many months ago. There are actually 77 or 78 poems, not 80 (getting that count right was quite the job, believe me), with four essays and several short introductions to the various collections. It's available from Susan Todd or from Gulliver's now. It seems anticlimactic to see it, but hey! it's a project completed. That's a rarity. Or at least if feels like it these days...

Running in place

Well, not really. But it sure feels like it. Both Hans and I have been sick--that deceptively mild cold that gives you a runny nose and makes you tired, tired, tired--and yet a ton of things seem to be happening, or not happening. I'm up to my eyeballs in things to do. Lessee:

1. Car froze up. Or rather, the lock did, so it wouldn't start. Put key in, no turning. Hence, no ignition. We had to get it towed to the car dealership, where it will sit until October 9, when the part comes in, and maybe will be ready at some point after that. Part of our warranty includes a loaner car while we wait for our vehicle to be repaired. So Hans went in (taking a cab to do so, $35 one way), but guess what? He hasn't got a credit card, so no, the warranty won't be applied to our situation. Imagine a very very very steamed Teutonic type carpenter guy. With a cold, and a beard, and bits of sawdust all over him starting to smoke. He took the cab back (another $35), because the shuttle guy was off work. We are very unhappy with dealer. They aren't going to reimburse us for the cab ride. Not even half of it. But they didn't tell us we needed a credit card. So now I'm going to be calling our insurance and the Honda national service center about this. Automobiles make a tremendous difference in day-to-day life and livelihood.

2. Readers on the Run. Happening this Sunday. Yer friendly library volunteer is not yet starting to panic, but she'll get there, never fear. Marjorie Kowalski Cole has volunteered to be our magnetic poetry judge. I've got to come up with an appropriate costume for the event: something warm, since I'll be outside from 9 am on! Ed assures me that runners are indeed cracked enough to race on snow (my description, not his--he thinks it a sane event).

3. the Annex Gallery show opened last Friday. This meant madly trying to get something together for that. The first plan, a glass bookshelf, fell through, but Hans is still working on it. I ended up making two window/glass collages. I rather like them. Didn't go to the opening though because I a) was sick and b) had no transport (see #1).

4. Actual painting happened in the kitchen. I couldn't stand it. I had to finish something, anything, paint in bright colors. So I did, yesterday. Photos will follow.

5. InDesign course. I'm already behind. Somehow this happened even though I was ahead last week (having caught up from being behind the week before...). GACK!

6. Work. Perpetually behind on that, don't you know. Well, I go in tomorrow and we'll see where I get.

7. Self-defense for women. There are two classes here, one this Sunday, yesterday, that I bagged out of that to go paint (see #4) and next Sunday, which I might actually get to. Been a while since I've done martial arts or self-defense practice.

8. Republic. Behind already on this month. Gack again!

Hence, hardly any posting on the blog in the last fortnight. Will attempt to rectify this, although my fans don't seem to have noticed that I'm not here...drat.