Weekend of Storms

So, after I finished up that last post, I ate dinner, and then debated if I should recharge the laptop or work until it went out. The lights had been flickering for a few hours. They always do that when we have high winds. As Bette and I were preparing for the week (making extra rice, cleaning up after dinner, etc), the lights went out. About 15 minutes later there was an attempt to bring them back on, but it just made everything flicker. Too late to recharge the laptop. I took it as a sign from the universe and just shut the thing down and read a book (shout-out to Todd for that excellent booklight in the winning package last year).

Now, you'd think that having the power out would lead to a stress free sleep, wouldn't you? Nothing of the sort was in our cards. Our wireless weather station has an alarm, and it runs on batteries, so I set that to wake me up at the proper time. After starting to sleep at around 10 (hey, it's a work night, gotta get up early), the cat needed comforting. So I spent half an hour or so petting her. Try to fall asleep while planning how to get the garage door open without power, how much hot water in the heater may be left come morning, etc.

Then at midnight, right after the point where you know you're asleep, our CO Alarm decides that the battery is too low. This provokes an alarm beep which repeats three times. Every half hour. Not enough time, after having woken up, to determine which alarm is sounding (as it sounds exactly like our fire alarms when their batteries run down). So, we wake up at midnight. Then at 12:30, figure it's the fire alarm in the hallway, replace the battery unable to properly make out the diagram for the correct +/- alignment, but guess. Put alarm up, doesn't sound, go back to bed. To be awoken at 1am. Finally figure out it's the CO Alarm, unplug it and remove batteries (alarm moans as it dies). Too tired (and pissed) to replace batteries, will fix in morning.

Then there was the power spike at 2:30am, which turned on the light I had left on (so I would know when the power came back) and set off the fire-alarms (which screeched, then beeped twice, then went silent again). So just enough power to set everything off, and then it died again.

Finally at 4:30am the power came back and stayed on. Of course, light goes off and the fire alarms squawk, and beep twice. Set my regular alarm, think about just getting up, but decide that I can sleep in until 5:30, so another 45 minutes (at this point) of sleep. And then the fire alarm, because I put the battery in backward, decides that there is no battery installed, and so begins beeping, just as my head hit the pillow.

I did restrain myself and didn't rip it out of the ceiling. I disconnected it, took it into the kitchen so I wouldn't disturb Bette too much, reinserted the battery correctly, did a test (to clear out the error codes) while trying to muffle it the best I could, and then reinstalled it.

Now, since power was off, I really wanted to wake up in the middle of the night and go look at the stars. However the sky was cloudy, until the 4:30 am wake up call. And at that point I just wanted more sleep, and the street lights were back on anyway.

I'm better than some, there are swathes of the country that don't have power and won't for at least a week. I had hot water and electricity to get ready for work. I didn't have to disengage the garage door opener to get the cars out.

But I am tired and grumpy. Tonight I'll check the roof (kind of hard in the darkness). I didn't hear anything big hit, just acorns. Lots and lots of acorns. Like it was a Squirrel Armageddon going on out there.

And good thing Ike kept us all from watching the other storm this weekend. Lehman Bros. and Merrill Lynch faltered. Merrill was bought by Bank America and Lehman filed for bankruptcy this morning (having failed to find a buyer after the British Bank backed out). Yeah, if it weren't for Ike this would have been all over the airwaves.

So people in Texas and the midwest emerged this morning, blinking in shock at the devastation wrecked around them just like the financial sector workers emerged in NYC this morning, blinking in shock at the devastation. Oh, it's going to be a great week.

In other news, my money troubles are over. Apparently my email address has been doing more traveling than I have. Specifically to Europe where it has won 2 million euros. But I think it's not legit, because I got the same claim number on three different email addresses. That can't be right.

But I did win a caption contest over at Jim Hines' place. I'm going to be on the bookplate (well, at least my caption is). That set the smile back on my face.

Submission Boomerang

Spent much of my writing time today rewriting Daddy's Little Girl. Went from 2836 words to 2606. Eliminated most of the "was" phrases (there were three I couldn't figure out how to change without changing the story or leaving something important out).

Did a quick Duotrope search and picked Doorways Magazine as the best option to send to. So with the remnant's of Ike battering my trees outside, which in turn are pelting my house with acorns, the story is back out.

Also did some freelance stuff (which we have final approval on, hurrah!). Did a lot of walking around the house. Only did a little work on A History of Lightning which I wanted to finish up today (maybe later tonight).

So right back out.

Rejection Weekend

Jude-Marie Green, Associate Editor over at ABYSS & APEX, sends word that she's passing on Daddy's Little Girl. It was a personalized rejection letter, and I sent her a thank you, but they're closed for submissions and I received back an email saying that the submission will be deleted. So I'm hoping she does a little googling and finds this so I can say thanks.

With my new editing skills I've learned this summer I'll go through the story again, but I'm coming to a conclusion that I'm just not a short-story writer. When I started I did set out to write novels, but found I was so bad at telling a story that I should try to perk up my skills. That's when I switched to short story writing. It's a more immediate form, and (IMHO) I'm a much better writer now than I was all those years ago. If I would have gone through this learning curve with novels I think I would have given up. When I think I've been very successful at shorts, I get responses like, "we felt the story was just starting," "we wanted to know what happened next," or the "nothing explained, not a satisfying resolution." I write out more and get the "too wordy," responses. So I'm thinking it may be because I'm more adapt to novel length works.

Good thing I have a few novels I can work on.

Delicate Sound of Thunder

Work work work. Hint to all those who freelance, ask for a good price up front. I've found that the most egregious use of changes and revisions come when the price is too low. For the freelance work I think I'm really close to minimum wage now with the edits. Wasn't to far ahead of it to begin with.

Last night I did get some words out. I went through "A History of Lightning" and firmed up the copy. I connected a few pieces and amplified the language. Went on a furious hunt for "was", routing it out from deep in paragraphs and rewriting the sentences to make sure it would never come back in.

I think I have two more transitions to complete and it'll be at draft v1.1. I think my going through the earlier copy constituted a rewrite of what I had. Currently it's 3463 words. I have a feeling well end up in the 4500 word range.

Went to be very late last night, and couldn't sleep in too long this morning. So I'm back at it. Hope your Sunday is going to be productive too.

Rainy Saturday Working

Was planning on writing, staring at the screen until my brain cells either screamed in death-throws or cranked out some wordage. But I ended up doing freelance work after checking email. While it was for only a little money (I'm a sucker for start-ups and females owned businesses, it's my weakness), it was probably for more than what I would make for the daily word count. Hopefully tomorrow (or later tonight) will see some word output.

Right Back Out

Sent "What the Sea Sends" to Weird Tales. They only publish a few poems, but what the heck. Nothing ventured nothing gained.

What's a Query?

Well, Josh Palmatier answers that question. With examples. You should go familiarize yourself with it (I intend to re-read it more thoroughly this weekend, which is also why I link to these things).

Rejectomundo!

Goblin Fruit sends word they're passing on "What the Sea Sends."

With all the various and wide argumentary about saying what editors put in their rejection letters, I'm debating if I should continue the practice. Until I reach a firm decision I should probably lean toward the "not saying" side.

The rejection was not a form letter, which is nice. Can't argue with their determination (and it would be fruitless anyway, see prior comment on them being the editors).

Thanks for the good rejection letter. Now to find another market to inflict submit the poem to.

Oil Redux

Just so we all can see the numbers together, OPEC called for a 520,000 barrel a day cut in production from their members to stabilize the price per barrel at $100. OPEC believes they are producing too much.

Remember that if we open up the off shore drilling and drill in Alaska's ANWR we can increase our domestic supply by 300,000 barrels a day, just a little over half what OPEC cut this time. And those cuts are easy for them to make.

So, first, why $100 a barrel when ten years ago OPEC was concerned about stabilizing the price per barrel at $25? The prices are actually the same, on the world economy. That how far the current administration let the value of the dollar fall (fortunately they've made moves to shore up the value and our economic woes are starting to affect other economies which are also declining, which makes the dollar stronger on comparison). The value of the dollar has dropped to 50% of what it was worth in the summer of 2007. So OPEC is pegging their target to the price of oil in relation to other currencies.

Next, I wouldn't worry too much about an OPEC cut. As it is there is too much oil on the world market. Supply exceeds demand (the exact opposite you hear from Washington). But OPEC member nations know they can sell all the oil they can pump. They'll reduce production in the short term, to comply with their agreements. Then in a few weeks they'll go back to full production and sell the extra on the spot market, just like they've always done.

As for drilling here, there are some new developments. You might have heard about the scandal in the Interior Department's MME Denver's office, the office that handles the leases and payments to the government from oil companies. If it got lost in the 9-11 hoopla, you might want to go read that and get familiar with it. Note that the whistle was blown by another MME employee, not the industry. The oil industry is slobbering at the prospect of having new leases. One, because they under pay what they need to for the right to pump oil, and two, because they want even greater heights in stock prices (see reasons and discussion about oil companies not drilling on land they already have leases on, even when there's a good amount of oil available).

There is now a (possibly) viable process to extract oil from shale. However, it involves a large amount of water and energy to convert that water to steam. There's not much water available in the places where the shale oil is at. The water would come from underground aquifers that replenish at rates measured in centuries, and much of those have already been promised to farmers (which have depleted the resource at an alarming rate already). Then there is the energy needed to extract the oil. Remember, energy in must be less than the energy from the oil extracted for it to be really viable. Oil industry execs say they could bring in the oil for around $25-35, but that's based on getting the water and energy for practically nothing. And, all oil is sold on the world market, which means it still will be sold for around $100 a barrel (if it was available now. I'm still trying to find more information about this (my guess is that it really is just a PR stunt aimed at positioning claims for when we might have an actual process, and this is the same process that has been shown not be be economically viable).

Shale oil, though, is a game changer. Setting aside the environmental concerns, if we could extract oil from shale cheaply and on a large scale, that does have the opportunity to wean the US from foreign oil imports (not completely, but it'll put a big dent in them).

So, OPEC does a temporary cut that is almost double our potential output increase if we open up everything and a possible new process (that sounds like an old discredited process) to extract shale oil. I think the oil business has officially entered the spin cycle.

Some Help for Our Conservative Friends

It seems that no one in the Republican Party, or at least those that were at the Convention or at Sarah Palin's speeches knows what a "Community Organizer" is (I know some other Conservatives who actually have a brain, but those were in short supply there).

Well, I'm sure they don't have that definition on Conservipedia, but here's a Wiki Page (which I see is having a dispute over the "balance" of the article). Since I know most of them wouldn't soil themselves to look at something that Fox News hadn't washed first, here another comparison.

A Community Organizer is kind of like that guy in your gated community that makes sure everybody uses the same color and style of Xmas Lights in their outdoor display every year. Only the people the community organizer helps actually want to talk with them and they do other things like bring groups of people together to make sure there is police presence on the streets, the interests of those people are made known to local officials (like mayors), a local quickie mark owned by a big conglomerate doesn't charge three times as much as they do in their suburban supermarket for a gallon of milk, pool resources between groups to help in a greater or better fashion (like Pastor's Councils), or that a business is actually OSHA compliant so their employees stop losing fingers.

You're welcome.

Try to remember the kind of September, when life was slow and oh so mellow.

Another anniversary and still there aren't heads on pikes. For that, and that alone, I blame the President.

I'm going to be a little heretical now (and really, haven't you noticed that I am normally heretical?). Just how many public memorials do we have to December 7? Well, to be fair, one is on the drawing board and the USS Arizona hosts many visitors every year. I've not been to Ground Zero, or the Pentagon since the attack, but I have been to Shanksville. I've seen the make-shift memorial wall there and walked through the little shack the National Park Service erected, and stared out across the field toward the tree line. But in all honesty, the actual site is just a hole in a field. This hole has now become a place of modern pilgrimage, just like Ground Zero and the Pentagon which has the first in-tact permanent memorial dedication today.

I can see how this has come about. The cynical use of the memory, and the constant beating of the drum by the current administration, tied with their impotent response and lack of bringing those responsible to justice have consigned us to this Groundhog Day like existence every September 11th.

Out in the country we have seen the growth of descansos, or roadside memorials. These are normally crosses with plastic flowers, although some have become very elaborate in a weird competitive "my grief is greater than yours" way. While these used to be temporary markings of the place where someone was last alive, many are now more or less permanent emplacements, regularly updated and refreshed.

It's easy to understand why. The people who place these are still hurting. They have no closure and are unable to let go of the dead.

The same is true with the continuing veneration of 9-11. Is it a day to remember? Certainly. We all remember just what we were doing when we first heard of the attack. But a two-acre memorial park outside the Pentagon, and National Park of ten acres in Pennsylvania, and a permanent memorial/museum in NY? For all the sacrifice of towns across this country during WWII, most have simple stones with the names of the dead inscribed.

Why not instead dedicate ourselves to living better and more fully? Why not instead of concrete and steel firm up heart and soul? Why not, when it's a bright clear morning, feel a moment of sadness remembering that September when life was slow and mellow, remember those who have passed, and then get on with our lives here and now? Remember those who were doing nothing other than working, and the sacrifice of those who ran to help them and take those lessons with us.

Because we have no closure, no healing, no justice. We are stuck on that morning, unable to move on. The bells ring, heads are bowed, widows, widowers and orphans cry as the names are read aloud, and the hurting continues.

Catch Phrases Are Out of Bounds?

Fair warning, I get a little ticked off in this post.

Christ on a pogo-stick, don't we have anything better to talk about? Obama tosses out a phrase that both sides of the contest have used, "a pig in lipstick is still a pig" and the conservatives get all frothy on how it's a slam against Palin. Get real. If he had said, "Put lipstick on a pit-bull and you still have a dog" that would have been a slam against the governor. Obama used the phrase to categorize McCain's policies and "Same Old White Guy, Now With Change!" campaign as more of the same. McCain used the exact same phrase to criticize Hillary Clinton's health care program. It's a common phrase. Pretty soon the neo-cons will be claiming that Obama's campaign of Change is really stealing McCain's campaign ideas.

Neo-cons are expecting an attack. Here's one. Gov. Palin is lying to you about the "Bridge to Nowhere." She was for it before she was against it, never talked to the US Congress, and in the end took the money that was earmarked. She's lying. Not "putting a spin on it," not "mis-remembering," not "showing it in the most positive light." She's lying. That is an attack.

Oh, and in case you missed it, not only is Paulson punting by pushing off any attempt to solve the pending economic meltdown (let's call it what it is) to the next administration, so is Defense Secretary Robert Gates by saying that any troop reductions in Iraq will be postponed until the next administration. I don't have words that explain my contempt for these acts of fiduciary and managerial acts of malfeasance. That there is at least 30% of this population in the US willing to give this party another four years at this just astounds me. Are they so wrapped up in worrying if everybody else maybe having a good time that they can no longer deal with objective reality? I still have problems believing that (because I know many people in that party that I accredit having a high degree of intelligence).