Had a headache in the morning. Took a single dose of treximet and headache subsided.
Headache Log Feb 25 2012
Presidential Campaign Songs
This is a bit of a kerfuffle over the songs used by the various republican candidates for president. Mostly the liberal songwriters aren’t happy with their songs being used by conservative politicians, and that is of course their right, both as citizens and copyright holders.
My problem that these self-selected songs rarely capture for me the true sprit of each candidate, Here are my suggestions for the right campaign songs, with the You Tube clips since none are very modern. Continue reading
Book Discussion: The Island of Dr. Moreau
Considering that The Island Of Dr. Moreau was written about 116 years ago this is less a review and more of a discussion, as such I shan’t be concerned about spoilers. If you are concerned about spoilers, please go read the book, it is in the public domain, then come back and join me. Continue reading
“This is the voice of World Control…”
For the last five or six years I have been using an iBook made in 2001 as my laptop computer. This little machine is gleaming white and has primarily been used as a writing platform during my breaks at my day job, running gaming software during my D&D game (3.5 thank you very much), and allowing me and my sweetie-wife access to the internet while away at conventions. Given the machine’s coloration and gaming duties when I had to name it for my network the natural choice seemed to be Gandolf. Continue reading
The Noise IS the Signal
I’m going to take two very different ideas and meld them together in that fusion that is best achieved by way of science-fiction. Continue reading
Navy memories
There is a tangled network of possibilities in each of our lives and the difference between our lives and the lives that could have been turns as often on tiny decisions as the monumental. Continue reading
Sunday Night Movie:Island of Lost Souls
My most recent acquisition is the Criterion Edition Blu-ray of the classic
horror/SF film,Island Of Lost Souls, adapted from the H.G. Wells classic novel The Island of Dr Moreau.
The novel has been adapted to the silver screen three times, most recently 1996 starring Val Kilmer and Marlon Brandon, in 1977 with Michael York and Burt Lancaster, and this, the first time, 1932 under the title Island of Lost Souls. After Universal’s staggering successes with Frankenstein and Dracula, and MGM’s profitable Freaks,Paramountwanted in on the horror market. They had limited success with Murders in the Rue Morgue, which played obliquely at the taboo or human/animal breeding. After acquiring the right to The Island of Dr. Moreau for $15,000Paramountplanned something wells had not imagined, a sexy, titillating horror film. Continue reading
What really matters
This image was part of a story about how the Obama Administration’s Department of Justice was declining to defend the section of DOMA that preventing the recognition of gay 
spouses and denying those spouses benefits. A move I fully support, I think a generation from now this whole period will be looked upon with the same sort of distaste as we have for the Jim Crow era, and I will be proud of my support for equality.
What struck me interesting though was my reaction to the photograph, and instantaneous and un-contemplated reaction. No, it wasn’t that strange erotic thrill that so many men get from watching or conjuring up the thought of two women having sex. The first and foremost emotion I felt was one of sincere and profound happiness.
I have been a sailor in the United States Navy, having toured once the Western Pacific (WestPac) in a several month cruise. It is a hard and at times very lonely task. To come home to such warmth and such love is truly a blessing and it moved me to see this image, which captures the ideal so perfectly. I have no idea who the sailor is in the image, but I am terribly pleased that a person sacrificing for my safety and my rights has such love waiting here at home.
All this flashed through my mind and on a deeper than conscious level before it even registered with me that this were two women kissing. That element was trivial, not worthy of notice or consideration. What mattered here was the love.
In the end that is all that matters.
(Updated to include the link)
Our science-fictional world.
Two weeks ago researchers UC Berkley reported a breakthrough in understanding human speech, a breakthrough that could someday shatter many of our social conventions. The scientists, studying the patterns with varies subjects’ brains, were able to determine what words the subjects hearing by the brain’s activity alone. It is a small step from there to deciphering the unspoken words thought by a person. The researchers are developing this technology to medically help people with severe brain injury and disease. We could even learn just what is going on in a person who is in a persistent coma state, breaking through to these terribly isolated people. Continue reading
Book Review: Heartless
When a ghost, on the verge of the final death, warns Alexia of a threat on 
the Queen’s life, Alexia Woolsey, far advanced in her delicate condition, is thrust into a mystery that will lead her deep into the her husband’s pack’s darkest secrets of betrayal and treason. Continue reading