Brain Stream

(A stream of conciousness from the brain of B.K. DeLong)

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Tuesday, September 18, 2001

I've finally taken some time to sit down and write my thoughts as part of a response from the entire Attrition.org staff. Check out my personal notes here.
posted by B.K. DeLong 9/18/2001 12:17:56 AM
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Thursday, September 13, 2001

I'm starting to get VERY nervous. DC is talking about calling up "tens of thousands of reservists". BOTH my brothers are Army National Guard, one is 31U (Signal Support Systems Specialist) with the 747th MP Company out of Southbridge and the other is a Helicopter Repairman for a unit at Westover AFB. It's getting to the point, though, where I'd enlist if it came to it.
posted by B.K. DeLong 9/13/2001 10:30:55 PM
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Yes, I'm here. I'm very empty right now but I took some advice from CBS today and on my way to pick up a permit for a Yard Sale in two weeks, I took picture of every American Flag flying that I saw. The captions leave something to be desired but there are some decent shots in there. I'm still fluctuating non-linearly through the various levels of bystander grief, having spent the last few days in front of radio, TV, Web site, and listserve and hope to be able to articulate my thoughts soon.
posted by B.K. DeLong 9/13/2001 09:30:42 PM
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Tuesday, August 28, 2001

Some interesting local news today. Greenpeace scaled some of the coal hills near the Salem Power Plant today to protest Bush's national energy plan. Weird thing is, I haven't found the news at Boston.com or wbur.org yet though the Salem Evening News has an interesting editorial written while the Greenpeace ship was still moored in Salem Harbor. (I recently got a cable modem and broadband service so I've been able to listen to NPR all day.)
posted by B.K. DeLong 8/28/2001 06:49:03 PM
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Monday, August 20, 2001

Yes, I'm back....for the most part. A lot of stuff going on in my life including a new puppy, lots of travelling, some medical issues, and still no job. Hopefully, I'll start posting more info soon.
posted by B.K. DeLong 8/20/2001 02:45:36 PM
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Unbelievable. The Traditional Values Coalition has put out a press release publicizing a video put out by religious film company Jeremiah Films called "Harry Potter: Witchcraft Repackaged" claiming that the Harry Potter book series is a recruiting tool for religion of Wicca who's practioners "incorporate radical feminism and homosexuality into their practices."
As most fans know, J.K. Rowling has staunchly denied that her books have anything to do with the Pagan religion of Wicca though Wiccans do incorporate the practices of Divination, Herbology (herbalism), Astrology, Charms, and Numerology (taught to students at Hogwarts) into their spirituality. Those who have actually READ the books will notice that students celebrate Easter and Christmas - these are NOT Pagan holidays (though Ostara and Yule are celebrated around the same time)

The most noise regarding Harry Potter we've heard from the Pagan community is from Kevin Carlyon "High Priest of British White Witches" who made a stink regarding how the witches in Rowling's books fly brooms. He complains that the broom stick represents male genitalia and the broomhead the associated "hair". An opinion that is, I believe, more of a personal preference and still open to interpretation.

After closer examination, Carlyon appears to be no more then a media whore and opportunist exploiting his spirituality to make money (I find it very disturbing that he refers to himself as a living god and seeks "beautiful and young" women. - (not crones, he says) for a ritual to break the curse of Macbeth. I know quite a few witches who have stores where they sell ritual supplies ad even do tarot readings for a living - I respect many of those people very much. What upsets me about Carlyon is that he'll do a tarot reading based on a picture of a person or do spells for people who pay him. It just comes across as, well, slimy. Not a good representation of the Wiccan community, IMNSHO.

I shouldn't be rising to the bait of a radical, conservative Christian group but they appear to be focusing on a very small part of the Wiccan community - radical feminists and homosexuals. While all are welcome, these two groups make up a small contingent of practioners of the Earth-centric religion. Of course, I do agree that Wicca goes against the first commandment - "You shall have no other gods besides Me". What a selfish religion ;) Actually, I see that commandment pertaining to those who choose to practice Christianity. Kind of "if you choose to worship me, don't worship anyone else." Thus not pertaining to non-Christians.

If anyone wants to email your comments to the people involved with distributing this video of lies, email Rev. Louis P. Sheldon, head of the Traditional Values Coalition, Steve Aiken listed as the contact on the press release, Caryl Matrisciana the alleged cult expert and wife of Jerimiah Films owner Patrick Matrisciana, who has also hosted videos regarding the topic of evolution and how it's a conspiracy, as well as a Pagan Invasion video series that included videos claiming "Freemasonry is a pagan religion, Halloween is a tool for Satanic abduction, and Mormonism is a cult heresy." Also email Robert S. McGee another "narrator" and Associate Pastor of Education at the First Baptist Church Merritt Island.

On second thought, it seems like they're blatantly obsessive about their views. If you DO email them, be VERY careful with how you word things and don't attack. Be very professional about it.

posted by B.K. DeLong 8/20/2001 02:31:42 PM
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Monday, June 04, 2001

Did I mention that I became an Uncle this week? No, my brother did not get another cat. My brother-in-law and his wife had a baby boy Wednesday night names Christopher. I'm very happy for them primarily because the miracle of birth is a wonderful thing and also for the fact that it takes the pressure of Kirky and I for a couple more months. ;)

I'm taking a beak to do some writing here after wrapping up a leisurely but tiring week. I just finished doing a massive news update to The Leaky Cauldron and am progressing quite well on my database for Artemisia Botanicals. Last weekend while planting the herbs in our herb garden we let the cats out (on purpose) so they could get a taste of freedom. Since we're getting a puppy at the end of next month who we're going to put a doggy-door into the backyard for, there's no way the cats will be strictly "indoor" anymore. However, we learned that teasing them with an hour of outdoor heaven was a mistake - especially long before we were ready to make it permanent. The whole next week I got pitiful meows every time I opened a window in the back of the house or even looked out doors. You get to know your cat's meow's after a while. You know when they're out of food, you know when one of them wants you to come and turn on the faucet in the bath tub for them to drink (don't ask) and this one was definitely of the "I don't love you anymore, you're not my parents" meow. It hurt.

So Wednesday, we somehow left the front door open and the screen had slowly been ripping more and more. Sure enough an hour or two later we went searching for Nessa, nowhere to be found. I was very tempted to freak out again like the last time this happened but my last class with Teri was that night and I would be participating in my first rital.

Speaking of which, my first ritual and "casting" my first spell was an amazingly powerful experience. I should have written down everything that happened and what Teri said for future reference but because I am working on her Web site we're talking about negotiating with more teaching so I can always ask her. We turned off the lights in her store and light 4 candles at each of the compass points at the edge of the circle representing the elements as well as God and Goddess candles. Teri purified the tools and participants with oil, cast a circle and did her spell which was basically asking the God and Goddess to be patient with us and help us on our path as we were new to it...but to not hesitate to give us a kick in the pants if necessary (my words). The other students went ahead and lit their intention candles, cast their spells, and burned their spells using those intention candles, placing the parchment into a cauldron when it couldn't be held anymore.

My spell, (handwritten on parchment which will be a shock to those who know me well), was a "new job" spell that I had written myself. I was incredibly anal in the editing because I wanted to make sure I was VERY specific and I have been taught that rhyming gives it more power. (Though I think that's from the school of "the more you put into it the more powerful it is). I had heard many stories about how spells could go awry - someone asking for more money, for instance...and their parents died leaving them an inheritance. Not good. I even had the equivalent of a disclaimer just to make sure.

Before I cast my spell, I invoked the Goddess Athena (wisdom, knowledge) and God Zeus (business, prosperity, wealth, success) by lighting a green and purple candle respectively and asked them to be there with me as I cast my spell. Then I read my spell and as I did, I could feel the power surge in my body as I asked Zeus and Athena to give me the wisdom to find and choose a job that would meet my needs as well as make me successful and prosperous. Then I lit the parchment the spell was written on with the two candles and held it in my hand as it burned. I placed it in a small, black cauldron on he altar when I could hold it no more and as the flames burned out, I lifted my hands into the air as I "released" the power that had built up and surged inside of me sending it into the cosmos to carry out the spell. Like I said - a VERY powerful experience.

After our spells were cast, we performed the great rite and left an offering of food and drink (tea bread and spring water) to the God and Goddess before releasing the elements and opening the circle.

That was the end of 6 weeks of class but only the beginning of my spiritual journey. A few of us in the class talked about starting a study group to learn more and discuss a lot of our beliefs. Teri said she'd participate every so often which is great. I have a feeling after participating in a full ritual that simple spells such as sending out healing energy to someone who's ill or hurt will become easier. We shall see.

So I got home that night and even though I received a call in class that my nephew was born the first thing I asked was if the kitten had come back. No such luck and I of course apologized to Kirky for not asking about Christopher first. We left the basement window and back door open so Nessa could find her way in. I couldn't sleep.

I spent a few minutes looking out the window and sure enough Nessa skipped into view in the back yard and went to play with something under our lilac bush. Looked like a mouse or mole which she proceeded to bat around and make squeak for the next hour. Kirky finally got up frustrated, stomped down stairs and outside to pick up kitten and bring her in. Turned out it was a baby bird that had fallen out of the nest. I was HORRIFIED that I hadn't gone down sooner. Then again, I should have even if it were a mouse. The next morning, the bird was gone. We were desperately hoping (rather delusionally) that it made it's way back to the nest.

Friday we went to a fabulous wedding of friends of Kirky's. Actually they're friends of "ours" as they just live up the street. Kirky has spent a lot of time with the wife as she was introduced by her friend and co-worker to her. I only met her at one of the tupperware parties Kirky hosted albeit briefly. Anyway, the wedding was at a beautiful historic property deep in the woods in Danvers (or as deep as you can get) and was gorgeous. It was the first wedding we had been to since our own and was a nice change to sitting at home.

Last night we had Kirky's cousin over for a dinner of chicken cutlets, salad, and a baked potato bar with angel food cake for dessert garnished with strawberries, blueberries and vanilla ice cream. Speaking of fruit, I've taken to loading up on fruit recently at Stop & Shop, our local supergrocery. As people working at home know, snacking is a horrible by-product. I figure fruit is going to be a hell of a lot healthier to binge on then wheat thins, peanut butter cups and hot pockets. *shiver* So I have created a nice inventory of pears, peaches, apricots, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, and grapes. Yum.

Anyway, Kirky's cousin is about to move to Oregon in a couple of weeks and we're really going to miss them. I figured it was going to be a quick goodbye dinner but we all ended up talking until midnight and were incredibly and pleasantly surprised at the breadth of the conversation. They really are a wonderful couple very much in-line with our realm of thinking.

This afternoon we took the cats over to Petco to get their shots. I was amazed - they each had three needles stuck into them quickly in rapid succession. Not a flinch. I would have had my wife next to me so I could grip (read: rip off) her hand as the first needles penetrated. I'm a big wimp.

So we were saved from meows of "I hate you" for not letting them go outside (the medication made them sleepy) we started our plan to preparing them for the outdoors. We talked flee & tick collars and purchases heartworm pills alongside new collars that would have their info on them. I need to look into a place that will NOT put them to sleep for the microchipping process because Chelsie is too old for it and might not come out of it. We've started feeding them with a bell at 9pm - that way when they go outside they will always know 9pm (and/or the bell) means food.

My job hunt is going "OK". Suits me right for thinking I had two "definite" jobs to fall back on as I began my search. One is running into internal problems right now and is on hold and the other guy has not gotten back to me since we first talked before his wife had a baby. So I sent my resume into MIT for a Network Security Analyst position. I figure I have the experience now I need to jump right in and test my skills in the realm of computer security. I have another potential job in that field but will most likely have to redo my resume for Web standards jobs since the others didn't come through. Pah. Live goes on and I will find a job.

More soon.

posted by B.K. DeLong 6/4/2001 10:21:13 AM
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Tuesday, May 29, 2001

I've spent the last few days recreating a piece of my adolescence - a cassette tape of mixed music given to me by my friend Erica Quin (affectionately known as EJQ) on October 9, 1993. You see, Erica was mostly responsible for the type of music I spend most of my time listening to. (The other, of course, are influences from my mother of all people and the hours of Celtic and New Age music that wafted through the house during my childhood).

"Why do that?" you might be asking yourself? Why live in the past? Well, this particular tape has phenomenal memories with it. When I'd get some new music as a kid (through college), I'd play the thing over and over until it was ingrained in my head and I was bored of it. One such "memory" of actually listening to the tape is when I was cleaning the garage one fine summer weekend at home. However each of the songs remind me of some of the most fun, intellectually stimulating, and "living life" times I've ever had - it reminds me of NoHo, Massachusetts (Northampton to you laypeople).

I remember spending many an evening at the Iron Horse Music Hall listening to some great folk, Celtic, or singer-songwriter music. I can remember drinking bitter (but real) hot chocolate in the basement of The Haymarket Cafe - a used bookstore piled to the ceiling with old books with comfortable places to kick back. I remember looking at all the fun, useless stuff at Faces being sure to catch all the Polaroids of previous patrons on the wall before I headed out the door. I remember cruising through the shops in Thornes Marketplace and stopping by the Northampton Ticket Office to see what musicians were coming through the area, picking up a calendar but never using it. I remember frequent visits to Pride and Joy for wacky and off-the-wall buttons and bumper stickers while sneaking peaks at the toys in the back. I remember eating cold Sesame Noodles and Sesame Chicken with a cold Stewarts Root Beer at the Vermont Country Deli. I remember filling up a 3lb bag of candy at Sweeties. I remember it all and more.

*shakes off fog of flashback* I have a very sensitive memory. Not that I can remember things down to the detail....and I even can have a lousy short-term memory. It's just that certain smells, songs, and tastes will bring back a flood of memory that can sometimes go to when I was a toddler. Like there's this Billy Joel song (can't remember it off the top of my head) that I associate with this one Kings Dominion (Virginian Amusement Park) trip I took with a church group back in middle school.

Anyway, putting this musical puzzle back together hasn't been easy. At first, I figured I'd look for the tape....it couldn't have strayed too far from the case it was given to me in. However the organizational state of my office (or lack thereof) made that a rather boring and tedious possibility. So I took to the Internet, hoping I could piece this fabulous mix back together through MP3s found on various P2P music trading sites. Since most of my waking daylight hours are spent glued to a computer screen with WinAMP playing my huge 20hr playlist of music, this seemed like the most logical decision.

My task? To find these songs:

Side A:
Hole in the Bucket - Catie Curtis
French Illumination - disappear fear
(?) - Jane Siberry
Only for a Little While - Heidi Berry
Kill the Messenger - Shawn Colvin
Into the Fire - Sarah McLachlan
All Souls Night - Loreena McKinnett
Dance Without Sleeping + Place Your Hand
- Melissa Etheridge
time after time - everything but the girl
Witches - the Cowboy Junkies
Side B:
Thanksgiving + Fall Upon Me - Poi Dog Pondering
This Eye + Circle - Edie Brickell
Everything Possible - Fred Small
Testimony + Ancient Mother - Justina and Joyce
African Ivory - the Samples
Disneyland - Dada
Come a Long Way - Michelle Shocked
Alright for Now - Tom Petty

So I started with the songs I already had - which unfortunately only consisted of "Thanksgiving" from Poi Dog Pondering (which I downloaded a few months ago while I was reminiscing) and "Ancient Mother" from Justina & Joyce. I also had "Testimony" from their "So Strong" album but when I ripped that CD, I forgot to get the track info and lost the listing. So I finally looked on CDDB tonight to figure out which track "Testimony" was. I would have had "Into the Fire" from Sarah McLachlan but I haven't seen my "Solace" CD for at least 6mo. I also thought I got "All Souls Night" off one of my mother's Loreena McKinnett CDs when I ripped them a while ago. Also, I have most of Catie Curtis' stuff but not the CD with "Hole in the Bucket".

So I started a WinAmp playlist with 3 songs out of the 22 I needed. The next step was to hit the P2P music programs to see what I could dig up. So when I fired up Napster, I was incredibly disappointed to see how few files were currently being shared. Since all the Napster chaos hit, it all went downhill. I used to be able to find anything. So a few Google searches later, I came up with "Morpheus" from Music City. FABULOUS. Not only to they let you do MP3s, but video, images, documents, and software as well. I really didn't care about the rest - I was more interested in my sound files. I also gave Gnutella and Aimster a shot but the former didn't seem to connect to anything and the latter crashed several times before I uninstalled it.

So simultaneously using Napster and Morpheus, I found "Kill the Messenger", "Into the Fire", "All Souls Night", both Melissa Etheridge songs, "time after time", "Witches", "Fall Upon Me", both Edie Brickell tunes, "African Ivory", "Disneyland", "Come a Long Way", and "Alright for Now".

That left me without: "Hole in the Bucket", "French Illumination", some song by Jane Siberry that I had no title for, "Only for a Little While" from Heidi Berry, and "Everything Possible" from Fred Small.

Let's break this down....I had a lot of difficulty finding ANY early Catie Curtis and anything from Fred Small or disappear fear would not be found on either service. However there were tons of Siberry and Berry. The question was....am I looking for the right thing? So I started with Heidi Berry and quickly discovered there was no song titled "Only for a Little While" and a swift browse later at the lyrics for her albums resulted in finding "only for a little while" is the chorus for her song "The Moon and the Sun". That was easy to find and download.

Next was Jane Siberry. How the hell was I going to find a song for an artist that I had no title for? I was doing this downloading on a dialup - not convenient if I had to download any song of hers that came up. So I hit her Web site. She was one of those rare artists that had short MP3 samples of ALL her recordings. Short enough for me to download in 20 seconds. So I started with her fifth album (the only one that would have been brand new when the mix came out). No luck - however one of her songs from that album showed up on another mix I received 5 months later. I tried the second album. BINGO! "The Life is the Red Wagon" started playing and my brain shot back into Northampton - this sone was definitely on the mix.

Finally I got everything added to my WinAMP playlist and listened to it. Damn. The Tom Petty song was a live version...had to download the original recording from the album. Urg...."African Ivory" skipped during the ripping process - the Jane Siberry song had too many pops and gurgles. Need to find clean copies.

So here I am, downloading a new copy of the Petty song while listening happily to the songs I did find and with just a short list of songs left to find:

Everything Possible - Fred Small

French Illumination - disappear fear

Hole in the Bucket - Catie Curtis

African Ivory - the Samples (clean copy)

Non Live copy of "Alright for Now" - Tom Petty

Clean copy of "Life is a Red Wagon" - Jane Siberry

Not bad.

----------------------

And yes, I did do other things this weekend. I went to the live herb sidewalk sale at Artemisia Botanicals and bought several herbs. I even came home, got them planted, watered, and mapped them out so this time I knew what was where.

We already had some purple-flowing Chives, Catmint, a very dead Rosemary, Tarragon, Parsley, Thyme, a mostly dead Italian Oregano, and both normal and verigated Sage. We bought a Lavender plant, Purple Basil (no regular), Dill, Purple Coneflower (otherwise known as Echinacia), Chamomile, and Verigated Lemon Thyme. We also transplanted some mint that was taking over the garden and put down some nice, cedar mulch. I'm rather psyched about the Lavender, Echinacia, and Chamomile....I hope to use it in some tea.

While Kirky went out to a bachelorette party one of the nights this weekend, I stayed home and *gasp* actually got caught up on an XML book I'm tech editing. I LOVE tech editing because if you get a real good writer, they make it so easy to understand things like modularization and other obscure annoyances that come out of the W3C with nothing but an unreadable "prose specification".

OK, I don't LOVE tech editing because sometimes the pay really sucks and if you don't make time to do it, it can be a painful burden. But after tuckering down on this project...I'm actually enjoying it. I will be the first one to admit to not knowing everything about XML and sometimes am not sure I should be tech editing certain books. But unlike many other people, I know how to read the specifications put out by the W3C and most times that's enough - so much of it is purely never-implemented theory that if you can read and understand the spec...that's better than most people. While this works for tech editing, I DO NOT recommend this method for book authoring. I've come across some pretty horrible books where the author tried to learn the subject matter as they wrote the book. One of those books I recommended it not be published....and it was scrapped.

After I got caught up on the book, I also cleaned up a few rooms in the house and did some laundry so Kirky could be lazy and hang out today. Which we did.... We were going to grill some burgers in the backyard but the freak rain that would pour down without warning every 10 minutes of so put a stop to that. So we spent the day cuddling on the couch while watching a Magnum P.I. marathon in A&E. Sometimes it's nice to be lazy. Gives you a break from everything for a change.

More to come.

posted by B.K. DeLong 5/29/2001 12:36:35 AM
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Tuesday, May 15, 2001

One of the mailing lists I'm on had a recent thread about Bush and the energy crisis. (There's a surprise). Anyway, one of the respondents couldn't believe that Dubya suggested the tax cut needed to be passed right away so Americans could use the money to pay for rising power costs in this "energy crisis":

"Give people more of their own money so they can meet their bills," Bush said. "Give people money in order to be able to deal with this [fuel price] situation. If I had my way, I'd have it in place tomorrow."

What the HELL is he talking about?

<rant emotion="bitter" length="long" detail="verbose">

The only reason energy prices are so high is because the unregulated producers of said energy have marked up the price almost 1900% during peak usage times [1] and the only reason there is an energy shortage is because the utilities cannot afford to purchase as much energy from said producers due to this unregulated price gouging...hence, there is no energy shortage and both Dubya and Cheney (the latter of whom declared $36M[2] on last year's taxes, most of which came from his exercising of stock options from Halliburton Co a *surprise* energy company that boasts it helped stimulate the most prolific producing oil well in the Gulf of Mexico) have no plans to step in and intervene with the energy companies. Hey, Bush and Cheney are oil men and many of the key people involved in the raping of California with regards to power are the very people who made contributions and helped get them elected.

The point? Of course they'd recommend we use our tax cuts towards paying increased energy costs. Of course Cheney would make the absolute ridiculous claim that "Conservation may be a sign of personal virtue, but it is not a sufficient basis for a sound, comprehensive energy policy" [3] while Bush is running around trying to use eminent domain[4] at the Federal level to put up as many power lines as he can. They're primary supporters are making loads of money! What's even funnier is that we have no shortage of energy [5] and even the Federal government's own scientists have produced research [6] at odds with the Bush administration.

It's just something Cheney and Bush are pushing, I'm guessing, because since two oilmen hold the top two positions in the country, they want to do everything they can to give the environmental movement the finger, pay back all their supporters, destroy the environment in as many ways as possible that they previously weren't allowed to, and pave the way for good jobs at energy companies before they are kicked out of office and the Democrats are brought back in to clean things up.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] According to a June 2000 article from SJM, prices were spiking as high as $750 per megawatt hour until the ISO board lowered the cap to $500. "Normally, the price of a megawatt hour -- which is enough to power 1,000 homes for an hour -- ranges between $25 and $40. "

[2] According to an April 14th AP article, "Vice President Dick Cheney took in $36 million, according to income-tax documents released Friday." ... "Most of Cheney's income came when he exercised stock options and sold stock in Halliburton Co., the Dallas-based energy services firm he headed until late in the presidential campaign. The vice president received $4.3 million in deferred compensation and bonuses. He reported $806,332 in salary and $823,509 in capital gains." ... "Cheney's tax total put him in the rarified realm of the top 39.6 percent tax bracket, which Bush wants to eventually reduce to 33 percent." ... "Using the small standard deduction of $7,350, the calculator estimates Cheney's tax cut under the Bush plan at more than $2.3 million, a 16.1 percent cut. "

[3] Source for quote and hideous pro-resource consumption rhetoric.

[4] "'We need more electricity wires carrying product across the country,' the president said Tuesday night at a speech to the Electronic Industries Alliance in Washington. One of the ways Bush intends to achieve that goal is by asking Congress to pass legislation that substantially expands the government's eminent domain authority."

[5] Forbes says there is no energy crisis and that not even the whole state of California is effected - LA has it's own municipal power service. Oil and Natural Gas reserves are at an all-time high.

[6] "Most of the savings came from installing geothermal heat pumps, an efficient home-heating and cooling system that circulates fluids through underground coils but otherwise uses conventional technologies." ... "The heat pumps, though still something of a novelty, are proven and save so much money that President Bush installed a system at his new ranch home in Crawford, Texas. Cheney's official home, the Naval Observatory in Washington, also uses geothermal heat pumps to cut down on its energy bill." This article has many more reports from Federal scientists showing cost-effective conservation methods.

</rant>

posted by B.K. DeLong 5/15/2001 12:07:56 PM
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