It's a Christmas (Carol) Miracle

Okay, well, maybe epiphany is more the like.

For those of you new to my blog you may not know this, but Dickens's A Christmas Carol is one of my favorite stories and has been very informative on my psyche. I know I haven't done much on it in the past few years. I have a feeling that there will be more this year.

But it just occurred to me that I now understand the conservative mind a little more. This whole "War on Christmas" thrust has been confusing to me. I mean, you could just chalk it up to the feelings of martyrdom envy, the perceived persecution of "christians" (which, in this case, has always translated as "conservative privilege"), and a need to feel that it's "us against those dirty liberals". However, I finally just got it.

See, if you promote free-market capitalism, the belief of being overtaxed, living in a welfare state, and promoting the concept that those people on the "have not" side of the equation should just go out and get a job already… well then, those are the people who are cheering Scrooge as he snuffs out Christmas Past with her cap. Don't believe me? Go and reread the Stave 1 in A Christmas Carol. Scrooge is a market capitalist, to the nth degree. When approached for charity, he complains about his high taxes supporting the welfare society and certainly that is enough for him. If those people who are in "want" don't like the Treadmill or the Work Houses, well then, they should die and decrease the surplus population.

So the "War on Christmas" (or, the War Against a Non-Existent Foe) is actually a preemptive strike to avoid that label of "Scrooge" being applied to them. See, "we's all about the Jebus and Christmas, so obviously we can't be Scrooge."

As the song goes, "but don't you believe it." Dickens wrote his little yarn because capitalism was driving Christmas into being just another work day.

"And yet," said Scrooge, "you don't think me ill-used, when I pay a day's wages for no work."

The clerk observed that it was only once a year.

"A poor excuse for picking a man's pocket every twenty-fifth of December!"

If that's not a complaint about not letting capitalism run it's own course without interfering government and societal, long-haired hippy notions, I don't know what is.

Never vacation at a casino

Because I gained 6 pounds last week. Damn. I think it was the smokey atmosphere (it was an Indian Casino, so exempt from local laws regarding smoking), the 5 hours of sleep (if I was lucky), jet lag, and not access to the food I would have liked. The bad part of this is that after Monday, I no longer have my major exercise event (walking up to the third floor of the building for class).

Linkee-poo is back home

Okay, I think I missed posting one of the linkee-poos this week. I'll need to check everywhere it might be to see what happened. Also, just ordered tickets for a play down at Playhouse Square. Each time I do this, the lingering feeling that I've been fleeced after having a jailhouse romance are reasons I don't do this more often. First up is the ordering system that doesn't let me choose the seats (I'm a large guy, sitting in the middle would make a bad experience for me and my neighbors, especially since theaters love to put in small seats, so they can fit more). After $70 a piece for the back of the balcony ($50 second balcony tickets were no longer available, and when I say "back" I mean the last row), then they add the fees on top of it. Including the "shipping and handling" charge… when I have them at "will call" (don't worry, the fee didn't change even if I selected the "print out your own tickets").

Some iPad apps for designers.

Jim Van Pelt on voice. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

John Joseph Adams gets a starred review in Publishers Weekly for Lightspeed: Year One, a compilation of the magazine he edits (and now publishes).

I've never really gotten into LARPs (live-action role-playing), although I find it interesting to see people do it in real life (ie. not a part of a game). But in case you were interested, heres some basic rules of how not to be. What happens inside the LARP, stays inside the LARP. Although some of the problems Michele Reznik points out are basic problems with any gaming group (board games, RPGs, monopoly tournies, scrabble enthusiasts).

Ta-Nehisi Coates takes Rick Perry to task. The more I watch the Republican Primary, the more I see Coates's main point reiterated. The Old Order has collapsed and people who were quite comfortable in their bubble now have to live in the real world. They don't like it and don't want it. For many reasons, including the general denial when world views are shattered, but also because they know the rules they set up were fundamentally unfair for those in the under-class. And now they realize, they may end up there themselves. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

Then, of course, it's not just Rick Perry who is living in their own fantasy land, Ricky Santorum believes that nobody has ever died from lack of health insurance. That's not merely living in your own bubble, that's active denial. Newt Gingrich, the history professor, is busy rewriting his own history. Only someone in their own bubble can live two and a half decades in Congress, attain the office of Speaker, engineer the "Republican Revolution", become a highly-paid lobbyist and political commentator for Fox News try to run as an outsider. And if you think the conservatives living in bubbles only affects them, you don't understand their delusions force the rest of us to live in their world. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

Erich points out how warped the conservative view of history is. In this case, about how the Minority Leader of the Senate has a complete misunderstanding of what the Constitution really says. Not that I support the movement Mitch McConnell is bashing, but that he should do it on reality based arguments. But that would require the argument about equality.

Symptoms of a Malignant Disease

Chris Armstrong talks about some obvious (to me) design issues for websites. Well, it's mostly about how we (the design industry) typically prototypes and generate comps for the client. Much of what he is talking about transcends much of the design industry and also works for print and TV. What he's talking about are legacy industry issues (I've only recently run into design shops that still have the old rigid job hierarchies, really, dudes, ADs that don't understand or can't do production? Get with the 90s.). I can't tell you how many times I've been in meetings where I've made the comment, "Hey, that's fabulous. It doesn't work that way in the real world." 

And here I will make the comment that I've broken new paradigms and have a knack for figuring out tough production problems. And it's a matter of pride that at my last day job I only had to go back to a client once to tell them, "Not possible" (although I have had to tell them that doing a 3-sided bleed on an envelope just isn't going to happen without converting the envelopes, which costs more and wasn't in the quote - or things similar to that, which goes back to actually understanding production). What I did tell them was, "I can make this effect you're looking for (which, BTW, your production solution was the worst concept) in two-color. I can do it in four color, like how you prototyped it, but two-color doesn't work that way." 

But with web design, I've been in teams that have experienced more of the, "this doesn't look like the prototype/demo" meetings.  It's all related to doing design work without an understanding of how the work will be produced in the real world. BTW, this is also a major failing of software instruction seminars/manuals. Most of the instructors and manual writers have never produced work in the products they make or train on. So they make basic mistakes, which they then convince their students are "just the way it is." 

For similar concepts see yesterday's link regarding standardized testing in education. The people doing the front end, management, training, and consulting only have a basic academic understanding of what they're doing. They've never done the work themselves, so they make rookie mistakes. But just like the garage passing through a computer, because they're being paid big dollars, nobody questions their shit. 

When I worked at Wendy's, one of the many shifts I worked was late night/prep. Every newly minted manager would be given that shift. After the third jerk came through with the, "We're going to make late night a money maker because, obviously, you've all just been lazing around and I've got ideas." They would all fail and usually mean we'd have to work extra hours to make up for the time they wasted. So the last two managers I trained on that shift, as they started their, "We're all a team" speech, I stopped them and said, "Work with us for a week. If you have ideas to improve the process after that, we're all ears."

Dear business managers, please learn the production side of the work you're involved in. It will save you so much time and money you just wouldn't believe it.

Linkee-poo came out even at the slots, called it a day

Still in California. Still way behind on studying. Only having as minute amount of fun.

Chuck Wendig talks about self publishing and reality assessments. Lots of good concepts in there, including a list of what not to do. Well, okay, more of, "these are not the droids you're looking for" kinds of tests. Not a 25 items list.  

Alma Alexander talks about how to treat your audience and what you can expect back. And I like to echo those thoughts, although not everybody feels the same. As is obvious from a lot of TV, some people like being spoon-fed their entertainment. It's been my experience that the more successful works of communications are the ones that trust the viewer to keep up. 

Jim Hines follows up on his earlier post with a post on those comments that you most often hear in response to being confronted with abusers of others. I lost another link that explained this a little more, but words have meaning. Jim gives you what the real meaning behind the script.

Vince gives some historical texts on how our "true Christian founders" of this country felt about Christmas. News to current conservatives, they started the War on Christmas, and they were very successful (for their time). And as an opposite side, I'll just remind us all that one of the reasons Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol was that businesses were demanding their employees work on Christmas, and that the observance of the holiday were diminishing. 

Tobias Buckell has a post on Denver voting to go green for energy. His thoughts pretty well nail the difference between green and carbon based forms of energy production, localized (community to point source) versus distance production. When the costs of producing electricity were enormous, it made more sense to have distance generation (it placed the generative capability  near their sources, and away from population centers). Now that the cost of energy is being reduced (and green sources are coming down), and generation is having a lighter footprint (see green), it makes more sense to localize energy production. And this is why "big" coal is fighting like hell. They can't make money that way.

Jim Wright nails the mental space Bachmann and her like dwell. This is one of the major things about the social conservative movement that drives me batty. BEcause to do what they really want, they require a much more invasive and controlling government. Of course for them, it won't seem like it because they were already going to behave a certain way. But for the rest of us, it would be like having to pass aTSA screening every thirty minutes. And that's on a good day.

On the fallacies of standardized testing. As someone who is going through consultant hell right at the moment, hey, education, welcome to the world we've been living in for two decades. Yes, it's bs. But it's MBA bs, which has its own shine on the shinola.  (Grokked from Jay Lake)

Linkee-poo runs at periscope depth

Getting a little more used to using the iPad as a working device. Also hitting several roadblocks (combination on limits of device and internet apps *cough*microsoft*cough*). In general, the iPad isn't a viable laptop replacement for what I'm doing. Now I'm just seeing how productive can I be with it (and finding things I could change to make it more productive). So, still fiddling.

Also, let me state the obvious, I'm way behind on reading and keeping up to date.

Tobias Buckell and Dave Klecha's co-written story, A Militant Peace is being picked up for Dozois' Year Best. Fargin' cool, guys. Congrats on the score.

Jim Hines talks about how to support victims of sexual harassment. And here I'll say that his points are also pretty good about any harassment, including your standard bullying (which is a form of harassment) .

Once again, my friends are channeling my own thoughts. This time about Newt Gingrich. I should mention at some point, I don't always agree with Eric and Jim, but sometimes they elucidate my own thoughts better than I can.

Fox Business News (besides being completely ignorant of real business practices) has officially jumped the shark. Again. And let's give as good as we get, shall we. Okay. Obviously Fox News is against small, entrepreneurial business because their against the Muppets getting a small business back up and running. A business that offers more job opportunities, is local, supports their community, and provides a needed service. Instead, FNB is all about the monopolist who will rape local resources and provide nothing back to the community (including no long term jobs, no support, no local responsibility). (Grokked from wannabewriter6)

You Million Dollar Money Maker iPad App Idea of the Week

Okay, there's a lot of music apps for the iPad, but very few set up for live band performances. So here's your idea, go ahead and use it. If you make it a pais app I only ask for a free copy for a friend.

There is a need for an app for bands that perform live music. There are some that work as music controllers and the like, mostly a lot of home rolled apps, but I'm talking about something else. What would be helpful is if a band could set up their playlists with lyrics and maybe tabulatures or notes all tied to the individual song. Then save them as cards, say (just an organizational idea). Then for their live performances the ability to juggle the songs as playlists, doing a preset for the order of songs with the ability to change on the fly (so, read cards in order, but can quickly flip between all cards).

That's the basic idea. If you could tie in things like, say, a tuning app, maybe a music washing section (like adding effects to a local channel), a sound board app (that could be it's own app, a commercial release would be cool), maybe a sound visualizer might be helpful.

Anyway, the song/playlist app would be th emain thing. Go forth and make your millions.

Linkee-poo gets ready

Tomorrow we'll be flying off to the left-coast for business. I'm not sure what connectivity I'll have, or how much time I'll have, so things may be light until next Saturday. Depending. Of course, you know, this means you're in for record output over the next week, right? If you need me, I'll be here. It wasn't my choice, and it's a business event. This weekend Celtic Women are playing, next weekend is Ron White. This week, some jazz guy I've never heard of. Sigh.

Also, finished up the decorations outside. I'm not at the level of having a separate electrical box to handle the outside load, but I could get there if I wanted. This year we relamped two dear, two garlands, and a wreath. We have new sets of lights and decorations on the trees outside. Yes, I'll need to get pictures. Will probably do that next weekend.

How lucky are the 1%? An arrow to the heart of "hard work" myth. (Pointed to by Sheila)

Rachel Aaron shares how she went from 2000 to 10000 words per day.

How far away can the ansible be when we can quantum entangle larger items. That's a story on how entangling diamonds will vibrate together. While scientifically I think this should bring plenty of cool technology, I fear it'll just be used for porn. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

Scenes from a Morning Commute

Welcome to the Seven Seas of Rime

Linkee-poo la's all its fa's at least eight times

Nuthsells, dollhouses of the damned. Before CSI, we had crime scene doll houses to help train investigators. Cool history. (Grokked from Phiala)

Operation Track Santa is back up and operating. We'll get the bastard this year. If not, our plan to flood him out by removing the ice under his secret layer will be complete in about 10 years. Either way, Kringle will bite the big one. This is the true war on Christmas. (Grokked from Absolute Write)

Wait a sec, Herman Cain is running an ad about how we should elect him as "America's CEO" so he can create jobs. Hey, isn't he running for the nomination of the party that believes Government can't create jobs? Shark is jumped. Oh, and the "apologize for America" thing has been well debunked. Hey, conservatives, could we have some options from people who aren't into conspiracy theories and maybe have been paying attention for the last four years?

Okay, Dear News Outlets, because a crime is committed and then tweeted doesn't mean the story is about twitter and who is following what. It's that a felony occurred and should be prosecuted. That the idiot bragged to Gov. Walker on twitter about his ripping up a petition (an actual felony election crime), is only germane in that he bragged about it in a sycophantic way. Not that it was a tweet.

Just in case I haven't completely disabused you of the "greedy borrowers caused the collapse" myth, a former Chase executive talks about targeting the naive and less savvy borrowers for sub-prime (ie. high commission) mortgages. (Grokked from Tobias Buckell)

Tweet of my heart:
@jimchines: How long before Congress authorizes the military to detain suspected enemy combatants in the War on Christmas?

Double dip tweet
@ChuckWendig: Writer tip: find that number one excuse you parade about like an ugly pony, the one that keeps you from writing. Then fucking burn it alive.

Linkee-poo wouldn't touch the Grinch with a 39 and a 3/4 foot poll

Linkee-poo would like to take this moment to wish Jay Lake's computer a speedy recovery. How are we to keep up the pretense of actually being witty, urban, and well read without his daily feed?

Cherie Priest's future is so bright, she'll have to wear sun-goggles. Also, her follow up to answer your questions. Somewhat a synchronicity as a fellow student in class just started reading Boneshaker and I got to play "knowledgable writer person" about it. Fellow student was duly impressed, but I think mostly that he met another sf/f person.

Copywriting, the number one skill for authors. Well… (yeah, no matter what your fiction style, you should be able to string words together in the standard fashion for non-fiction correspondence)

While I often suffer from the feeling I'm a "very witty boy", Grue save me from coming off as a snob.

"For the sweet sake of Saint Fuck, keep on writing." Chuck Wendig on the end of this year's NaNoWriMo. Congrats for those of you who made it to the end, even if you didn't make the word count. Also, what makes you think you can stop now?! Bwahahahaha. The first hit is always free, suckers.

And now that you have your novel, Chuck has 25 things you should know about it. Also, because I have one in the barn, as it were, very relevant to me. Maybe it is to you as well.

Steve Martin corrects Fox New concerning galaxies and solar systems. Okay, 1) Kewl! Photos of extra-sol planetary systems! 2) Steve Martin is actually a pretty sharp cookie (even if he plays the banjo). And 3) When you're a news organization and you're being corrected on a factual basis by a professional comedian, you've jumped the shark. (Grokked from Tor.com)

Researchers find a "latent" virus that aids HPV cervical cancer cells commit apoptosis. It's far from certain this will pan out, but an interesting step forward. Also note, it was a random step forward, and something unexpected. (Pointed to by John)

In case your Xmas shopping isn't done yet, Tor.com has your Cthulhu Xmas shopping guide. You know, for all your tentacularly undead goodness. (And yes, I've been saving up that word for a long time and now I get to use it) Ah, nothing says Xmas like bronze tentacle ornaments hanging from the unholy green, glowing, spectral pine tree (that will be next year's hot tree color, BTW).

It's a war of words, and most of them are lies. Some people don't remember when the RNC had a meeting to discuss how they would stop using "liberal" and instead use "socialist" (as in, "Obama, the most socialist president evar!") Here's another meeting where these decisions are being made. Only this time it's about how not to be "seen as defenders of quote, Wall Street, end quote, we’ve got a problem (says Frank Luntz, the person who brought you such goodies as the "Death Tax")."

Michelle Bachmann is still running for President?

Tweet of my heart:
@SamSykesSwears: From now on, I'm going to say "yeah, I've been meaning to do that, if only I had the time" when someone tells me what their job is.

There's a store in Hermitage, PA, that is a local draw this time of year for their holiday displays. It's called Kraynaks. And that's where we went last weekend. It's fairly popular, and there's always a wait to get in.

But, that's not the whole line, once you get around the front you can see the rest of the line.

And then once you're in the door it's another 15-20 minutes before you get to the actual displays. Which can be worth it.

The TV set is a little snow covered village diorama. It's pretty good and seemed to be a stopping point for people to have their photos taken with it. But then there's the standard stuff.

Like the bumbles and your basic tree setup

But some of the things are pretty good. I'm not sure the palm trees will take off (they sold some smaller versions of theme).

They're more traditional, the manger having had been wired only the year before Mary and Joseph showed up, so the lights were still in good shape that night.

Then there are plenty of the creative class of decorations. Which some are quite impressive. And pink.

The in thing for trees this year is the ribbon topper. Which, strangely enough, they didn't sell although they had plenty of ribbon for sale at a fairly high price. I did buy ribbon that will go with the tree we're setting up this year, but I bought it at Michael's where it was on sale.

And then there are the variations on a theme. Like the white decorations.

And this one. There were a lot of good ideas, especially if you want to spend hundreds on tree ornament sets (I prefer the "homegrown collection" look myself). There was only one thing that really got me going.

WANTS. That would look so cool in my yard.

The odd decoration that I've just been seeing this year is the Charlie Brown (musical) tree. I think if I was in an apartment, I'd be tempted to get this. Or maybe as a joke office decoration. However, I'm not sure how it will fit within most people's decorating schemes. But it was interesting to look at. (This was one of a humungous assortment of brand tie-in products, not my most favorite concept)

As you may (or may not) know, I'm pretty in to decorating my house for the fall and winter holidays. So I keep track of what's happening when it comes to trends. This year the LED light is fairly well entrenched and fortunately they're offering "warm" white mini lights now (one of the major criticisms of LEDs are the "cool" light - ie. skewed to the blue spectrum). I relamped two of my white-wire deer with these and am please with how they look.

But the major thrust this year is the color changing LED lights. There's several products from C9 bulb sets, to stick luminaries, to tree-toppers, all are being sold on their "the lights change colors" properties. All of them being sold with the appropriate premium price points.

The display is free, if you're in the area. Of course, it empties you out into the area where they're selling all their decorations. I did see a lot that I wanted, but didn't get. There were new garland forms, the 6' wreath I've been dreaming of, some pencil tree decorations I could use for my entry way (but they were the wrong shapes and sizes). I did add some things, but not as much as I could have or wanted to. To much else needed to be purchased (like 2 heavy duty timers).

Once I get it all up outside I'll take some pictures.