Jeff Duntemann's ContraPositive Diary

Yesterday, I went to put the rolling trash cans away after the garbage and recycling was picked up. The cans sit just to the right of my car in the garage, so I have to take my car out before the cans can be put away. Normally, daisy_knotwise would do this during the day while I was at work, but there were two problems.

It was a holiday, so I was at home.

My car hasn't been in the space recently, because we're garaging catalana's car while she's visiting her parents in Las Vegas.

I'd taken both sets of keys with me so I could back my car down the driveway, then back out Erica's car, then move the cans into position, and then put the cars back. And I looked at Erica's car. And the blue rolling cart that was in front of the ladder that was between the driveway and the spot where the cans go.

So I picked up the cart, moved it out of the way, and rolled the cans into their accustomed spot in the garage without having to do the automotive shuffle.

Erica's car is a Ford Fusion. Mine is a Ford Five Hundred. That apparently makes all the difference.

Maybe I should get a smaller car. :)

Tags: home, musings

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

— John Hancock

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Source: www.ushistory.org

Idea from shsilver

I was going to post something sarcastic when I learned that Hollywood is working on a movie based on the arcade game Asteroids, but it seems Io9 beat me to it. So did the New York Times. So did everybody, really.

Quoting Io9:

Anyone who is a fan of classic video games knows the familiar story behind Asteroids . . . which is that you are a triangle, and you are shooting a series of geometric shapes. Released in 1979, the game is a perfect example of extremely early and crude computer graphics. And seriously, there was no effort made whatsoever to have a story. Why were you shooting the asteroids? Were they controlled by aliens? Were you trying to break them up so you could mine them for nickel in their cores? It was all an 8-bit mystery.

Here's a brief history of the game.

Happy Birthday carbonelle

Give up any hope of achieving anything else for the next half an hour or so; you've got some cartoons to watch. Via Tegan at Bloggity-Blog-Blog: The Ten Best Uses of Classical Music In Classic Cartoons. Go to it!

We took Katie and Julie to the water park today, joined by our friends, samwinolj, Bonnie, and Jerry. Katie was much happier with the pool today than she was last year. In fact, we couldn't keep her off the kiddie slide. Julie is still skeptical about this whole water thing, although she did walk off the edge of the pool into about two feet of water as Daddy was paying too much attention to Katie and not enough to her. (This is not to say that no one was watching her, but rather than Julie wanted Daddy's attention.)

Katie, meanwhile, wants to go into the deep end of the pool. I towed her out near there and let her float around attached to me, but solo expeditions to the deep end will have to wait until she's a bit older and gets swimming lessons. Right now, she's limited to the depth where I can conveniently walk.

mia_mcdavid and I are at Convergence, the biggest of the local science fiction conventions. We are having a good time. The programming seems more interesting (for me, anyway) than in some previous years.

With the assistance of the Bad Astronomer, I can help!



Oh, and... homeopaths? You're useless quacks and you kill people. Drop dead, mm-kay?

Does anybody know what they put in the drinks at the Republican Governor's Association meetings? 'Cause it sure ain't water.

(If you need a clue, see here)

Back in the day, Edward Bulwer-Lytton was a popular writer, easily as influential as his contemporary Charles Dickens. But now, all he's known for is opening a novel with the line "It was a dark and stormy night." Well, ratmmjess thinks Bulwer-Lytton is getting a bum rap. (Found via Making Light.)

Now, the article linked to is rather long, but Jess Nevins, the author, makes one point I'd like to reiterate. Namely, Bulwer-Lytton's writings haven't aged well. Consider "dark and stormy night." Modern readers are used to street lights, and so simply aren't aware of the relative "darkness" of nights. Bulwer-Lytton and his readers, used to gaslight, were.

"Relative darkness of night?" you say. It wasn't until I was in the Navy and went to sea that I gained an appreciation of night. Some nights, clear and moonlit, when my eyes were night-adapted I could read reports by moonlight. Others, cloudy and overcast, I couldn't see a damn thing. Even the light from a flashlight seemed to be sucked away as if by a sponge.

I guess the bottom line is that art, like everything else, is a product of its time.

I need someone who can do a quick bit of translation from English to French for me.

I was too knackered to mention yesterday, but I finished the kitchen floor!!! Well, finished laying the boards, anyhow; there's still the beading to do, but never mind that. And it looks good! The gasfitter came yesterday to remove the oven so I could do the last of the ripping up of evil ugly slate tiles -- I worked from home again, which is a habit I really need to get out of because I rarely get a full day's work done -- and then I went ahead and finished the floor. Unfortunately, that means we now have no oven or stove, and with the microwave choosing this week to die, we are somewhat handicapped in the not-starving-to-death department. So we're off to Fyshwick tomorrow to get a new stove and a microwave, though they'll have to wait until Monday to be delivered due to me being too much of a twit to transfer the money out of our account in time, meaning we won't be able to pay for them. D'oh! Ah well, we'll manage. We had toasted sandwiches, made in our lovely huge sandwich toaster, and they were scrummy and disturbingly filling (can't... move... limbs... too... full...).

Umm... I think that's all. Going to bed now.

On somewhat spur of the moment, karenjeane decided to attend this year's Worldcon in Montreal in August. Neither of us has ever been on a vacation together, or been on a vacation anywhere in many years. Our days and months have been ones of wage slavery, but we have little money to show for it. So, with that little money we are going to go to Montreal, especially since it is withing driving distance (about 14 hours) with my new car.

So we are staying in one of the residences at McGill University because it is very cheap, and have bought our memberships to attend the conference. I have also voted in the Hugo Awards, but on rather short notice since the voting closes tomorrow. I didn't vote in most of the categories because I'm not familiar with the nominees, but voted Cory Doctorow's Little Brother for best novel, and Wall-E for best film. However I did snag all the literature included in the voting package to read later.

Neither Karen nor I have been to a convention before, so we are very excited. A whole raft of well known science fiction and fantasy authors will be there (Neil Gaiman is the guest of honour), including most of my favorite authors like: Cory Doctorow, Guy Gavriel Kay, Ian McDonald, Karl Schroeder and Charles Stross.

I got the new dual monitor KVM switch yesterday and brought it into work to try it out. It seems to work, mostly, although I'm having trouble getting the hotkey switching to work at all.

But it will make things much better when I have to take all this home.

Man Burned by Burning Man Can't Sue Festival

"The risk of injury to those who voluntarily decide to partake in the commemorative ritual at Burning Man is self-evident," Justice Ignazio Ruvolo wrote.

..."if there ever was a case to apply the assumption of risk doctrine, this is it. This is person who was a well-educated man and experienced with the festival and appreciated the danger, who voluntarily exposed himself to a much higher degree of risk by walking into the Burning Man."

Sorry for this blog becoming an all-Honduras-coup-all-the-time, but I had a thought last night that I'm going to share.

I was at home, channel-surfing, and one of the channels was playing Star Wars - Revenge of the Sith. It's fairly mindless entertainment, so I watched it for a bit while waiting for something else to come on. (That and I've seen it enough toknow where just about every scene fits into every other.)

At any rate, there was a scene with Samuel L. Jackson's character, where he suspects that the Chancellor is up to no good. Jackson says words to the effect of "if he doesn't step down, we'll have to take him out." Obviously, Jackson attempts to do so later and fails. In the context of the movie, this is a correct decision.

But, thinking about my ongoing Honduras discussions, watching the movie I asked, "what about impeachment?" Is there really no mechanism other than assassination to remove a Chancellor? And who the hell put the Jedi Council in charge as the final arbiter of what is a legitimate government?

The parallels to Honduras should be obvious. Yes, Zelaya was trying to do an end-run around the constitution. But the mark of a stable democracy is not putting the army on the streets every time a politician gets too ambitious.

Another blast from the past via my backups directory: a song about how not to deal with teh intarwobs, to the tune of Tom Lehrer's ode to the Boy Scouts, Be Prepared.

Feed The Troll!

Feed the troll! That's the way to have some fun,
Feed the troll! Share the love with everyone
Feed the egos of the flamers on your list
Don't be timid, don't be silent, don't resist!

Feed the troll! When he tells you you're to blame
For the way no one wants to play his game --
"When the Nazis took the Jews away to turn them into glue,
"When Mohammed crashed those aeroplanes, they acted just like you,"
That's the sort of thing he'll say, he's on a roll -- feed the troll!

Feed the troll! Answer every little dig --
Feed the troll! Let your paragraphs grow big.
When he mutters that your mama was a ho',
Tell him "loser" only has a single "O".

Feed the troll! And be careful not to stay
Calm and sane, you won't make your point that way.
If you're looking for a pastime that will eat away the hours,
And you fancy brushing up on all your literary powers,
There is nothing quite as challenging or droll - feed the troll!

It's quite common for me to be delighted by some short turn of phrase that, even encountered outside of its native environment, leads to a thoughtful pause. But I almost never think to write them down or otherwise celebrate them. I'm going to see if I can teach myself to use LJ for this in the future.

"The smell of dry-erase marker always made her think of murder and frustration."

Slowly finishing up a photoshoot from, erp, 13 days ago.

My preferfed mechanic (I think I posted this before) closed up his mobile shop. This put me in the problem of finding someone. I'm taking the car to a place close to home on Liberty (Convenience Auto??). Just a couple guys, and they have good reviews on the mechanic files at cartalk.com. Fingers crossed.

We dumped the Tent mahal onto free cycle and bought a 'smaller' one. The initial setup showed a tear in the mesh, but instead of returning it, we repaired it. One of the points of setting it up was to seal the seams, but they turned out to be presealed. Back to that 'smaller' word, the tent mahal was some 12x18 feet. A reasonable size for two people, but it was in four 6x6 sections arranged in a T and not as usable as one would like. Maybe 7x7 sections. The new one has an internal size of only 12x12 feet plus some extra rain fly coverage at the door. Packed its less than half the size of the tent mahal, and it a ton easier to fold.

The berzerker shower is almost ready. I need to buy a couple nuts, and a test would be good, but I don't have an LP tank here so that isn't happening.

It looks like this year (finally) Burning Man is a go for me. Fingers majorly crossed. A couple dear friends can't go, that makes me sad, but I have excellent traveling partners lined up so it'll be good. I've wanted to go forever, and can't imagine not having a good time. Well, unless I die on the playa.

Lastly, I need to make some notes about the vegan stuffed green peppers I made Monday. This has been an ongoing redo from memory of a recipe. Almost right this time, need to bump the tyme and roesmary up to at least a tsp each, and more salt. 1/2tsp?

Oh, really lastly, must lean on next victim, er, friend who really needs new photos done. I'd like to get them shot before berzerker and that's like tomorrow.

I just picked up the twenty-sixth annual Year's Best Science Fiction, edited by Gardner Dozois and discovered that my debut story, "Les Lettres de Paston," originally published in Helix #10, was listed in the Honorable Mention section.