The Livejournal of zdashamber

9:55pm: If you have pets, you need pet health insurance
Ask yourself, do I have $6000 sitting around that I can spend tonight on my cat? I'm guessing the answer is "I need pet health insurance, which is only about $20 a month, but which I have to buy before my cat is too old, because more than 10 or 11 years old means there's no one who will insure my cat."

$6000 is the price after your cat catches his leg on something while jumping off it and breaks the leg: it covers taking your cat to the emergency vet in the middle of the night to get him painkillers and antibiotics, and then getting the leg pinned together again later. At least 6K. It's probably more than that, because Flat Hair Girl, who had this experience, did not have that kind of money.

I'll tell the story sometime, and it's sad and you might not want to read it, though the cat lives. But the main point of this post is, veterinary bills have gotten insane, and you might not have known. Maybe things are better if you don't go to Berkeley, home of enormously rich people. But I'm thinking that the cost drivers are systemic. This is my hypothesis: 1. Drugs: crazy expensive due in part to the drug war. Ketamine, frex, is both abusable and a veterinary anaesthetic. 2. Veterinary "guild" attitude: frex, there's only one state school in all of California (pop. 60M) that gives out veterinary degrees, and it's damn hard to get into the veterinary program at Davis; and veterinarians from other countries have insane hoops to jump through to be able to practice in America. 3. Pet Health Insurance. Yeah, this ain't a scene, it's a goddamned arms race: once people started thinking "why can't my cat have chemo?" they needed insurance, and then when a decently large number of people got insurance the vets could start charging $4000 for an amputation, which according to Flat Hair Girl was only $300 20 years ago in Illinois.

1:07pm: Holy Shit
OMG check this out. I've been doing research for torchwood_1920, and I found this page of Cardiff history timeline stuff, and on it was the note "1918 = E.T.Willows of Cardiff set up in business manufacturing Balloon Airships" and I'm like, wait, what? And googled him, and found this explanation of his visionary development of the first directed airship to circle the Eiffel Tower, and then this page of photos, among which was this photo of a guy on a rope descending from an airship onto a speeding locomotive...!



OMG! Totally fucking metal! Can you imagine how much effort went into setting up that shot? I've done that in games, but here in 1913 someone's doing it in real life! Who knew the past had moments that cool?

ETA: Hah, another page on early British airship development. On his first Cardiff-London flight Willows only made 14 mph because he had to keep descending to shout at people with a megaphone to find out where he was.

9:10pm: You Yes, you! should go to Ambercon Northwest
I suppose it's about the time that I let you all know that Ambercon Northwest is something that you should certainly attend. It's in my mind lately because apparently the "Deposits Due" deadline is Monday, which deadline I can safely attest is a delightful fiction you can ignore with impunity, but nevertheless it is for all that a deadline which moves me to post, and how, my friends, could that possibly be a bad thing.

Which is to say, you don't have to freak out if you can't decide in the next few days, because there's still plenty of time, but you should certainly begin the process of deciding to come. It's in Portland, Oregon, in November, from Thursday the 6th to Sunday the 9th.

Why should you come? It's like finding your people, if your people are imaginative clever interesting readers of text and players of games. There's about a hundred attendees, reasonably balanced between men and women, and they're all in festival mode of friendliness. The average level of game is "entertaining", and there are at least a handful a year that rise to heaven and walk with the gods. I can only think of a few stinkers I've been in, over ten years of attendance. You're far more likely to have fun than at a typical gaming convention.

( Also, good organization, good location, and good price )

10:51am: Erick Wujcik is gone
Erick Wujcik died Saturday night, 6/7/08. The press release from Palladium Books with further details can be found here. jimhenley asked me to repost the bit I sent to the Amberlist: perhaps I'll elaborate it a bit further later on, but for now, being rather too sad to embroider, here it is.

I was lucky enough to meet and game with Erick a couple times once he moved out here to the Bay Area... I was pretty daunted (as one is when one runs into a guy who's created a thing that is awesome, which thing you have suggested at perhaps firey length has shades of non-awesomeness about it) and putting up a good face; he was generous and easygoing. I very much respect that he made the ADRPG that is awesome and then set it free to mutate without stepping in to stomp on the odd fronds it put out. He seemed like a good guy. My deepest sympathies to the many people who were his good friends.

3:33pm: June 3rd election thoughts
O my California peeps and the delight of my afternoons, coming up this Tuesday the 3rd is an election. My opinions - let me show you them.

The only thing that applies to all of us is the two propositions about eminent domain. I'm planning to vote No on both. 98, because I'm concerned it would strip environmental protections; 99, because "if both pass this will be the REAL law" is a fucking dick move from a pack of watered-down shiny-thing-dangling lying bought-and-paid-for shits. Seriously, the whole point of 99 is to neuter 98 while changing nothing whatsoever. It offends me that they're lying to us and claiming it will have some effect... Sure, guys, maybe you don't appreciate California's whack-ass proposition system, but damn shame is, that's the law of the land. If you don't want 98 to pass, just go up against it straight.

( Though it would be nice to get rid of rent control )

( City Council my district, Nadel vs. Sullivan )

( State Senate, Hancock vs. Chan )

( City Council at large, Kaplan vs. Killian )

( Odds and Ends )

6:57pm: Everything about EL wire and how to do it yourself!
So! I took a class on EL wire at The Crucible. Upshot: if you can solder, you can make stuff with EL wire. And soldering is really, really simple.

( The makeup of EL wire )

( What you need: )

( First steps )

( How to solder )

( The rest )

3:04pm: 24-hour LJ hiatus
Starting in about 2 hours is a Thing, where people will not post LJ posts or comments, or go by any LJ site, for 24 hours. Midnight to midnight GMT, which for me on the Pacific Coast is 5 PM today to 5 PM Friday. The object is to introduce a noticeable dip in activity to protest the recent yoinking of the free ad-free account option. I'm going to be taking part because I'm annoyed at LJ and because I'm interested in how it will work.

( But why the rum? )

1:13am: The first bit of a report on ACUS 2008
ACUS! That was seriously fucking entertaining from start to finish. Making a note here, huge success. I would actually recommend it to people as distant as here in California. A large part of the fun is discussing your games and characters with other people at the con... You see everyone all the time, eat with random people because most anyone with a con nametag is going to be smart and entertaining, and thus get the fun from several different perspectives. The base assumption here, that the games are generally fun, is nearly a theorem. And yet for all the people you chat with, there are still people to meet years later: frex, this year I finally got to game in person with RF and the Kunkels; and I met totally random new people who had even so been going to the con forever, like Barbara B; and brand new people like the younger David McC.

( Con changes and hotel stuff )

( My trip out )

( Bay Arean in the Midwest: alas for the salad )

( Slot one, Thursday night, ShadowWorld )

Friday and onwards later.

10:48pm: ACUS update
I just figured out that on Thursday to get to the con I have to get up at 4 in the morning. To ride a bus! To ride another bus! To ride a plane, which is Southwest leaving out of Oakland, which has a friendly coffee stand, so that's not so bad. Until they dump me at Midway!!! And then I ride another plane to Detroit!! Still on Southwest, but even so, I might be a bit peeved. And then a taxi! Which at least will be with notshakespeare.

Then, with any kind of luck, I take a nap! Oy. But all of this is with about 1-hour layovers, and there's no quicker way to fly. So, woe.

But it's not all that woeful, since then I get to be surrounded by awesome people and play awesome games for four days.

( Schedule, prep notes, running around in circles )

8:32pm: Diet varieties of liquid will fuck you right the hell up
Holy Fucking Shit. Do you drink "diet" or "light" things? STOP.

Admittedly, this may be a completely idiosyncratic chemical reaction; I know not all of my chemical interactions are wildtype human norm. Like skunk stink: it doesn't smell that bad to me. Has notes of lemon.

Anyway, if I were you, I wouldn't risk it. There's been plenty of research suggesting that diet drinks are bad for other reasons. Now, my anecdote of woe:

( Anecdote... of WOE, involving Light POM Tea )

An hour and a half later, I'm recovered enough to type.

So, maybe I'm a fucking freak... Well, maybe, hell. Up 'til today I was holding all of the UK partially responsible for an appalling product choice that apparently America has made, too. Anyway, maybe I'm some sort of genetic anomaly... But maybe I'm just a person who hasn't been taking tiny doses of arsenic for years, and so when I chug some arsenic the feedback isn't muted by a partial tolerance. Seriously, guys, this shit fucked me up, and I doubt it's any good for any of you.

( * )

9:04am: For those about to Barack, we salute you
O my Washington peeps and the light of my life:

Today, 1:00 PM, is the day for you to go caucus for Obama. This may be the first chance you've had to have a say in who the Democratic nominee for President is, and the choice here, I think, matters a great deal in terms of the future of the country. Plus, caucuses are fun! You really get to feel like a part of a democracy when you're sitting around in someone's living room with serious faces discussing the fate of the nation with real consequences. I hear you don't even have to sit around and talk, though, if you're busy: just show up, sign in with your name and your preferred candidate, and leave, and that's good, too. The Seattle PI has info here about what to expect and where to find your caucus location.

I hope you vote for Obama. One of the most interesting reasons why, that I haven't heard much elsewhere: consider the Senate. The Democrats have a significant advantage this year in terms of defending seats vs. attacking seats. Three of the states so far where the Democrats have a good chance, according to polls, to get a Democrat into a Republican-held spot are Alaska, Colorado, and Minnesota. Obama won those states by 75%, 67%, and 67%. He wiped the floor with Clinton there: people there like him more. They will be more likely to come out and vote for him if he's the Democratic nominee, and vote for a Democratic senator while they're at it. Clinton has the advantage in only one Senate-race state so far, New Hampshire; and, like New Mexico, that one is basically a tie.

The Senate is where we can really do some good: get a solid enough majority that we don't have to worry so much about individual legislators flaking. If we're really on our game, we might be able to get a filibuster-proof group of 60 Democratic senators. (More info in a comment I left on Making Light here.)

( Obama positions I like )

3:06pm: Blood and rhetoric
So, I gave blood yesterday... It's something I try to do a couple times a year, but I have to do it when I know I can do nothing for a couple days and nothing strenuous for a fortnight after, because I don't have a whole lot of blood or pressure. The time I tried giving blood and then going back to work, I ended up sitting and then lying on the floor of the lab, with the hot feeling of "sit down or fall down, 3... 2... 1..." So I've been lax last year.

Anyway, finally had a 3-day weekend with nothing really planned... Also, denyse is hopefully going to be giving birth in the next week, and that reminded me. When I first got my blood type card I was kindof annoyed... "B negative?! I thought I was O!" Mom had always said I was O, but turns out that spot on the birth certificate referred to her, not me. After doing a bit of research turns out that unlike in Europeans, B is pretty common in Asians, so I kinda figured that I was in a good location for having B and my blood would go to people with Asian backgrounds giving birth. I asked yesterday how far blood from Oakland travelled, and apparently it stays in Oakland, but anyway.

( Bit of kvetching about being B- )

( Bit of talking about the process of giving blood and how it's not so bad )

3:20pm: Recent activism
You know how things every once in awhile just strike you? I can't believe that Arnold Schwarzenegger is our governor. Schwarzenegger! Sheesh! I just saw a picture of him while I was reading the East Bay Express article on the high-speed rail line proposed from San Francisco to San Diego, and it's like, What the hell?

Anyway, I recommend you check out that article; it's a good in-depth view of the bullet train that names political forces at work. More than that, though, I recommend you vote early and often for the train... It's clearly a good idea, it's certainly the kind of thing government should be doing, now is the time (decades ago was also the time, but now is the time we have, and hopefully now we can have Pelosi doing something useful for us nationally).

I've also been putting up some bits on the new LJ community for focusing attention on works of SF/F done by women: femsfaward. If you read stuff published 2007, why not pop over and post a blurb? The Hugo nomination ballot for stuff published in 2007 is live now, and closes March 1st... Keep in mind that to be eligible to nominate, you must be a Worldcon member by January 31st. Lovers of Avatar: the Last Airbender! I think The Day of Black Sun Part 2: The Eclipse is way deserving of a Hugo. Need to mention it on hugo_recommend.

For the presidential election, I guess I'm for Obama. ( Edwards muffed it )

( How California delegates are dispersed )

( Fun with voting in Michigan )

( The Writer's Guild strike and Michael Pollan )

12:39am: In which I am vaguely delirious from a brain too cold
You know that feeling, when your hands are so cold that they can't tell what temperature the water you're running over them is, just that it's quite different, kind of peppery? I do. In other news, I'm back in California!

( Kvetching, Celcius vs Fahrenheit, mutations, bright side, Cyberpunk, plotting )

11:11pm: Note to self: Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies
I went looking for my Spicy Hermits recipe (the cookies that smell like ACNW! and that's a good thing) and it wasn't in the drawer, so I backed up to the Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip cookie recipe. It occurred to me, though, that unlike the Spicy Hermits recipe I think I only have one copy of the Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip cookie recipe, so it's something of a precious endangered resource. The answer is, of course, as it always is: put it on the internet.

( Recipe for Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies )

11:11pm: Bring me your engineering jobs!
Does anyone know of an opening for a mechanical engineer? My brother-in-law, who recently got a masters in Mechanical Engineering from University College London, is looking for a job.

Steve's a hell of a great guy, immensely patient, full of cheer, quietly clever. He solves problems even when all around are stressed and edgy, and he's socially ept about it. I'd love to work with him myself. He's had a lot of real life working experience (fixing cars! That's gotta involve the ability to listen to people and extrapolate from patchy data), and I gather, real life engineering experience too (a la the doodad that the vendor said recorded on eight bands recording on only one band)... He learns fast and did I mention what a frigging sweetie he was?

Anyway, his resume is at http://denver.craigslist.org/res/498883564.html currently, if you know anyone who might have an opening. He and my sister are happy to go anywhere in the country... Heck, they've already been across the world.

In me news, I saw a kestrel last week on the pedestrian bridge over the train tracks at the Emeryville station. Really! A kestrel! It was nifty. (...Er, my trouble is that more substantive posts take forever to write, and yet I feel like I should get them done.)

10:49pm: My first macro ev4r
Sorry, it had to be done, and I'm amazed I haven't seen it before now:

( LOL Dumbledore )

11:42pm: Ambercon Northwest 2007: what games I'm in
Well, that's the way of the world: posting what games I'm in for ACNW. Ubergood haul. Lessee....

( Read more... )

12:45am: I, who hold the very reins of the world
Hello, my dear ones! Sad-ish news from the Bay Area: Poppy Fabrics, the store of uberfancy hippie textiles, has lost its lease and the owners are retiring. Its last day is Sunday. I happened by today and bought a bunch of $2 patterns, and will no doubt go back tomorrow, so if anyone wants to make their own frilly Kaylee-from-Firefly dress, I saw something like that there.

But! The joyous news: the cardboard rolls the fabric comes on are in a couple bins, which say "Free".

These are truly excellent cardboard tubes: solid, and yet light. A tube like this could be yours.

( Autumn Razor, the patient hunter )

9:25pm: Yegods! amberdiceless has tagged me for a meme! Is she afraid that I have died? Is she posting from two years in the past? Who can tell?

1. List seven habits/quirks/facts about yourself.
2. Tag seven people to do the same.
3. Do not tag the person who tagged you or say that you tag whoever wants to do it.

1. I am drunk right now. Well, alright, tipsy, and living it up. ...Goddamnit, I just read the meme, and that doesn't qualify. Well, goshdarnit, I will explain myself, and then maybe (maybe!) come back and post something that qualifies if I can think of enough habits/quirks/facts. ( Read more... )

1:00am: Hay guyz I'm in London
Just got back from ACUK. Good people! Dearly love Andy Ransom. Four games, more detail later perhaps. No troubles. Sweet hotel, save for heat issues in room of 3 of 4 games. Pulpy flavor, evil mercenaries, mercy towards Pattern, mystery solved. Met goldfired, did not get enough chat in with kittentikka; no doubt unintentionally slighting many other lj users...

In UK, visiting sister. Regret to inform, will not be in US again until mid-August.

Trip through New York was freeking hot, JFK v. stupid terminal design. Air France lost my bags, connecting flight, and vote. Trip from Reading (ACUK) back to London involved crouching in aisle of packed, creeping train for 50 minutes. I laugh about it now, of course!

We're all fine here, now. How are you?

1:47am: Transformers
Verdict: A bad movie, not much worth seeing.

Longer: It reminded me of "The Da Vinci Code" and that ain't good. Not plotwise, at all, but they both have the same mickeymouse modern movie style. Most evident in: 1. blendered action scenes, ostensibly to make them seem more interesting and startling, but in fact demonstrating pure laziness and the lack of enough intelligence on the director's part to think up long cuts in which the viewer could follow the action and see that it was exciting inandof itself. 2. characters motivated solely by getting to the next setpiece. 3. Too goddamn long.

( The bad, the medium, and the good; no major spoilers. )

Eh. Every time I was getting interested again, the movie would do something so stupid I slumped back again. Basically? Competent characters? Cool. Drama from competent characters making ridiculous moves to create drama? Whatever.

12:02am: Digging bar FTW
Why, you may ask, have I even ventured into the backyard? At all? At first, I suppose, I was driven by curiousity, a certain mercantile interest, and the need for a path to the shed to store stuff. I'd some months before made a deal with the landlords that I would manage the front yard in return for a small break in the rent: this freed me to plant tomatoes in the only sunny spot on the property without fear of them getting mowed. It also brought me back to my dear friend the Oakland Tool Lending Library, where I take out a weedwhacker every few weeks, and am constanly reminded of the plethora of fascinating tools I could be doing things with.
( Gardening, tools, and fragrant roses )

10:32pm: Things I have found in my backyard
( Toxic, tasty, living, and just plain odd )

11:01pm: Dreadful "your (blah) name" meme
I got this from corwin77... Posting it because it's good for a great deal of mocking.

( Sunmoon Stormydai )