I bet there are folks here who do not remember the Rialto (rec.org.sca) and even fewer when it was a very useful discussion community.

A number of problems -- and changes in use of the Internet, has pretty much left it a shell of its former self.

Then there's the EK List.

Criticism has been getting more and more strenuous over postings there. Even I, who needs to know everything, got out a couple of months ago.

But when there are things happening that are as nasty as have happened over the last week or so, driving the king to make a proclamation and more and more people to leave the list, it's hard to ignore it.

A number of us, by invitation, have been batting around ideas about what would need to happen to make it a vibrant, useful part of the East Kingdom again, rather than a place new folks are warned about and hard feelings sprout.

I have lots of ideas. I always do.

But what are your ideas?

If you were the tsar or tsarina (czar or czarina?) of the EK List and had total power to make any changes, what would you do?

1. So apparently something I said or did has made me one of "You people." I don't ever remember being one of "You people" before.

2. Signal-boost: My friend valr has three helms for sale, and he also does wicked cool woodworking.

3. If you know Duchess Mary Grace from Gleann Abhainn, Queen Brenwen asks that you send a note to queen@eastkingdom.org and let her know that. No, nothing is wrong.

4. Big cooking day. Brownies, pumpkin bread (with applesauce instead of oil, chicken-fried steak and chicken-fried pork (yes, I see the juxtaposition), and I also heated up some ravioli. Nom!

5. I find LJ to be fascinating sometimes in terms of what draws a lot of posts. There are certain days, like Veterans Day, that draw a lot of heartfelt postings. There are other days like that, too. Deaths, especially science fiction folks, beloved actors/actresses, politicians and others get a lot of posts. It is interesting to see who gets more posts than others. My LJ friends are also intensely interested in the political, even on the many groups I am on. As I am thinking about this, it seems as though I am seeing fewer and fewer memes here. Are people doing them on facebook instead?

6. From www.ktnv.com:

I do very much agree with this judge.

Despite objections from a number of parents, two controversial high school plays will go on.

Several parents of students at Green Valley High School took their objections to the plays "Laramie Project" and "Rent" all the way to the court system.

Tuesday, a judge ruled.

When Green Valley senior, Meagan Smith, is finished performing in the "Laramie Project" this weekend, she'll exit stage left, with the feeling she was in the right.

"I don't really know if it [the controversy] was necessary, but I'm a firm believer in expressing your opinion," says Megan.

"There are not grounds upon which I could grant injunctive relief in favor of the plaintiffs," says District Judge, David Wall.

Wall ruled the "Laramie Project," and also the play "Rent" will go on as scheduled.

Some parents had filed an injunction, trying to stop the performances because they have homosexual characters, some of whom have AIDS, and center around the theme of tolerance.

But Judge Wall ruled that it's a matter of choice.

"There's no showing of any mandatory participation by any student," says Wall.

7. I lost the photo for No. 7 somehow.

--

i'm off to work soon (one appointment at 5:30). although i was at work from 7:30 AM until 6 PM yesterday (after being up at 5 AM for karate), on the whole this looks to be a lazy week. i spent Monday (once i got home) cleaning my room and doing a bit of laundry, and today i ran some errands, finished my trip post, and watched _Up_ with mom and dad. i have tomorrow off.

i compare how hard i work to some, and i feel rather guilty.

still... it's life. :)

If you ever served or if you serve now: Thank you!

1. We can haz new readerz. Every since the marnanel joule tracker went away, I have not been good at welcoming new folks.\

So, let's give a big, happy Liamverse welcome toknobhby, alisonpv, blaisepascal and miamstem!

If anyone else has climbed aboard lately, and I missed you, please chime in.

2. I had my to-do list done by 2 p.m., so I had a nice coffee and a couple of newspapers at the Rock Hill Bake House.

Did the laundry, cleaned the kitchen, put all the food away, put books away and brought most of the recycling out to the truck.

I also went grocery shopping, put all that stuff away, am making brownies and cleaned the toilet.

3. I missed Thanksgiving Day football already. I grew up in Westerly, and we played Stonington every year. You could get in excess of 5,000 or more there. One year, both teams went on to win state titles (Westerly in RI, Stonington in Conn.). ( covered the game for years for The Day and/or the Providence Journal. Because of life, I probably have not gotten to a game in five years or more. It was cool when I started seeing the sons of folks I went to high school with playing in the game. We will be in New Jersey, then Pennsylvania.

4. My nephew, my sister's oldest son, is apparently "wicked smaht" and is looking at some big-time and expensive schools. Decent kid. I hope he gets some scholarship money and gets to a great school.

5. I am actually doing some writing for work. I wrote an article on "How to get an e-mail address for your job hunt." for people who know little about the Internet. It's fast becoming a barrier for people. There are a lot of places that only take applications on the Internet.

6. My dad was a veteran. He served in London as a clerk typist. He was in a air-arid shelter when his office got bombed.

7. I do not know where my pictures of the cemetery at Normandy are. They were taken years ago.

Here's one from Jason's Travel Photography on flickr.



If you have been there, I know you have strong memories of it.

I ran across this disconcerting, kind of disturbing piece of animation a week ago.  It kind of resonates with a good many people I've met in and around the art lit business world. If you have about ten minutes or so to check it out....

It's about a man named Ryan Larkin, a Canadian who thirty years ago produced some of the most influential films of the time.  



On a happier note, I was sitting around yesterday and thinking about this thing I'm writing strictly for money.   See, I had this guy interested in making a picture out of a few of my stories, he couldn't decide which, and so we started talking on the phone, exchanging email, and finally the guy decided he didn't want to do anything I had done already, but he wanted me to write something I'd mentioned in conversation, so now I'm writing this show bible based on a story I once thought about doing, having to make it up out of whole cloth.  The money's all right, not great, but there's pie in the sky, you know.  So anyway, I was pissed he hadn't done what he said, which was to option one or two of my pieces, and I got to thinking that that's what these guys like to do, to play creator, get you to write something for short money that they'll have creative control over, they can give you notes and so on, and pretend they created something.  And I wondered if that's not the principle reason we see all this lame scifi and not the great books that could be made into films.  Or maybe it's more complex than that. LIke Lisa G. was telling me the other day that Tim Powers had an option taken on On Stranger Tides for the next Pirates of the Caribbean movie, but now Johnny Depp doesn't want to do it, he wants to play Tonto instead in this comedy they're making out of The Lone Ranger.   Whatever, I started imagining all the scifi or genre-ish books I would like to see made (not including my own, which I want made for purely venal reasons.)  I'd really like to see a picture based on M. John Harrison's Light.  I love a crack at the screenplay for that one.  I'd like to see the Wachowski Bros get around to making Geek Love, but it appears they've lost their minds and are more interested in producing dreck like Ninja Assassin.  That's for starters.  Assuming the producers and director would do a good job of rendering your favorites into movies, what would you like to see?  Man, I can't stop making lists.

Mike Jaspar is in a contest to win a contract from DC:


His comic is called In Maps and Legends, so if you can spare a minute, go here:

http://www.zudacomics.com/node/1540

And vote for him., please.

[Click to enlarge]

Does goofiness run in my family? The foto above should answer that question. It's my Mom and her grandson, my nephew, Zach, recently reenacting THE PERILS OF PAULINE. My brother Bob took the shot on his current trip to Oregon.

Posted by Paul DiFi.

I've got 8 google wave invites, and I've forgotten who wanted them. Speak up!

Feel free to repost as appropriate.


On this and every day, thanks to all the servicemembers and veterans who take on the most important job a country can ask of its citizens.

Bobby Martin, Corporal
United States Marine Corps
E Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Division
September 1966-September 1968

I got my tattoo on Fathers Day 1987 or '88. We stopped at a red light, my wife wanted to buy me something, I looked out the window, we were
right next to a tattoo parlor, and I said "You know what? I want that Marine tattoo" My oldest daughter designed the letters along the top, and I went and got it.

I think about a lot of things when I think of those days. It's mostly the comradeship; we were like a family in that short period that we were together. I miss the hell out of them. But I also remember the day I got wounded. October 21st 1967 -- mortar round. I knew I was hit bad because I was bleeding in the front -- tore a hole in the front of my stomach, and there were holes all in my arms and I could feel the blood all rolling around in my back -- I had a hole up in the middle of my back, that missed the spine, fortunately, but just nicked the artery. My best friend said to me "Bobby, I can' t stop the bleeding." I was weak, I was tired, I knew that I was bleeding to death.

At that point I knew it was over -- I knew I wasn't going to make it. At that moment, I was at peace with myself -- I wasn't upset, I sat there and waited for the end.

The thing that really saved me was that there was a medevac that was flying right over head -- he heard the radio call and said "I'm right there" and they picked me up. When we landed at the air strip in DaNang, they didn't even take me off the chopper -- two corpsmen jumped in, and they grabbed my arms and started giving me plasma and blood. Talking to guys from the company afterwards, they told me that we were wounded at about 9:20 Saturday morning and I believe they started the operation at 10:45, so within an hour and twenty minutes I was forty miles away and in the operating room. The surgeons told me afterwards that I should have bled to death, and that the wounds themselves should have killed me, but somewhere there I had the will to live.

It's like my 2nd birthday -- I started life again right then. I celebrate it every year with my wife and my kids. My wife -- we were engaged before I went over, she waited for me -- always hugs me and kisses me on that day -- It's a day I'll never forget.

I always wanted to be a Marine. Just the idea of doing something that I thought was right -- if you believe in something, like freedom, that strongly then I think you should be willing to defend it. That's what I thought about it.

---

From my photo project Warpaint: Tattoo Culture and the Armed Forces

[Click for readability]

I'm rather proud of the names associated with mine by this software:

http://literature-map.com/

I could do without Stephen King, I suppose. And the presence of Proust is baffling but flattering. The name "Sarmiento" meant nothing to me. Can it be this fellow?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rub%C3%A9n_Dar%C3%ADo

If so, I'm honored.

Posted by Paul DiFi.

i had to get a 20,000 mile maintenance thingy done on the car. yes, 20,000 miles in a year and a half since May, 2008. i drive A LOT.

i also figured, since i still had mud cakeys on the bottom of the car from faire, and leaves and mud inside the car from faire, and squoosh marks on the seats from heavy boxes pressing into it from the move (we're NEARLY DONE), i'd get it washed, waxed, and shampooed, too. since i haven't done that either since May, 2008. ;)

oh i've washed it, but i haven't done that other stuff. plus with winter coming, i figured i'd get her all spiffed up before the salt trucks come and add some protection to the car. i never got it detailed after driving on LAST year's salty roads.

they tuned it back up to "factory specifications," i had the brakes adjusted, and now the steering and brakes are all touchy like they were in the beginning. it's like learning to drive the car all new again! it even SMELLS new. the only thing they didn't seem to have done, or didn't do well, was wipe off the inside windshield. it's still smeary which is why i originally decided, "you know? i'm going for the whole ball of wax. this car is a MESS."

grr. at least all of that didn't cost me much. i have "free lifetime oil changes" and they were running a special that the "platinum" detail service cost as much as the "gold" package detail service. so... yeah!

bottom line is that Lucy is shiny. even with the rain today, the water was all beady on top. coooooool.

Continuing my theme of sfnal technologies becoming reality, I offer this piece from yesterday's Science Times, about a small spacecraft, to be launched next year, that will begin an ambitious three-year project to explore and refine the concept of space flight powered by solar sails. The mission is partly financed by The Planetary Society, in memory of Carl Sagan, who would have turned 75 on Monday. A fitting, if only preliminary, memorial!

Meanwhile, according to a new study, there may well be sufficient oxygen in Europa's vast oceans to support life -- and not just simple life but complex macrofauna -- i.e., fishlike creatures. This based on analyses of likely mechanisms for surface ice formation. It's amazing how much can be deduced from so little . . . But of course a lot more data remains to be gathered -- and the Europa Jupiter System Mission is on track to do just that. Here's a cool video: