sapphoq reviews books and more

Google Takes at Least One Step Backwards with the New Google Plus

2012-01-27T02:25:00.000-05:00

I've been trying out Google Plus [commonly referred to as Google+ or G+] and it's okay. I like the circles, how everyone's +1's show up as one feed so I don't have to go site-hopping in order to comment, and the photo albums.

I don't like and I seriously object to the idea that we are supposed to use our given legal names in order to use Google + . There is no anonymity on the internet anyways. That I know. Why I find Google +'s policy on this to be pigheaded [in my opinion] is for several reasons.

(1). Google has a ton of personal information on us, its' users. Any information we provide is theirs for as long as they exist.
(2). There is no allowance for the use of a pen name. Folks who operate on the internet under an alias for
whatever reason-- folks who have been stalked, folks who are hiding from abusive partners or family members, folks who don't want an ex-boyfriend to find them, folks who are writers (as I am), folks who are members of Anonymous and who need to network in that fashion) can be kicked off of Google Plus. Anyone whose name is not believable to the Google employee or committee who goes through "the name people used to sign up list" also risks being kicked off of Google Plus and will have to prove their identity in order to be reinstated. Google + is not a service that we pay for with money (yet?) or credit card (yet?) which is the only reason why I can understand the demand for a legal name.
(3). If Google has decided this on the basis of "a kinder gentler internet" or some such rubbish that folks who use their real names will somehow not be (gasp) cyberbullies-- that's just stupid. If Google has decided this on the basis of their marketing needs, desire to sell our names to mailing lists (hey, the V.A. does it) then we should have the option to opt out.
(4). If someone is looking for my legal name, I want them to have to think about it first for at least a minute.

So Google Plus, you fail.
so saith sapphoq reviews books and more

We Interrupt these Irregularly Scheduled Blog Rants

2012-01-19T22:06:00.001-05:00

Censorship is bad, m'kay. sapphoq reviews

Crazy River: Exploration and Folly in East Africa, Richard Grant

2011-12-22T09:46:00.001-05:00

Crazy River: Exploration and Folly in East Africa, Richard Grant. New York: Free Press, 2011. paperback, 336 pps., incl. index.

     I first encountered Richard Grant through an earlier book of his called God's Middle Finger which narrated his trip through the Sierra Madres. I was delighted to find Crazy River on the shelves of my local bookstore. Although different in tone from his earlier work, Crazy River immediately drew me in. I haven't been to Africa (yet) but this book transported me to a very different world.

   The Malagarasi River, dotted with small fishing villages between the wild places, is full of pissed off hippos and crocodiles and bandits. Grant skillfully interweaves the stories that the river has for him into the histories of other adventurers, politicians, and the East African peoples. The crew that Grant hires in Tanzania is composed of men who each have their own story to tell. Crazy River carried me away from my reading chair to a place I had never been. I was there as Grant made his way through checkpoints and red tape, as prostitutes tried to pick him up, as children demanded money. I was also there on the river itself with the tsetse flies and passages of choking weeds. And there as Grant actually got to view the source of the Nile itself.

   By the end of Crazy River, I had a visceral sense of the horror of genocide and specifically the genocide that took place in Rwanda. Grant tells the story of some two thousand people that took refuge in a Catholic Church in Nyange. The priest there, one "Reverend" Athanase Seromba, was more than compliant in the slaughter of those seeking sanctuary in his church building. He arranged to have his church building bulldozed. He let the drunken militia in with their grenades. He then pointed out any survivors who were then killed off with bayonets. The priest did this because the folks hiding in his church building were the wrong tribe. The priest himself belonged to the other tribe.

     Crazy River is a most excellent book eluding a real sense of place. This book is a definite keeper and the finest example of the modern travel essay.

sapphoq reviews says: Highly Recommended.

fundies say the darndest things webiste

2011-09-15T06:36:00.000-04:00

No matter how many of you DEFEND anime/manga, you NEED to realize that this genre of entertainment is nothing short of witchcraft...Creation has been unanimously proven...Registering [the poor] to vote is like handing out burglary tools to criminals...Most knowledge cutters the mind anyway...

Those are just a few of the more recent quotes culled from the fstdt website. Folks can submit a quote; and also comment on the quotes if they sign up for an account. Each quotation is identified by who said it and the website where the original can be found.

sapphoq reviews says: A winner!

Children of Dust, by Ali Eteraz

2011-08-28T12:13:00.000-04:00

Ali Eteraz, Children of Dust. New York: Harper One, 2009. hard cover, 337 pps.

Ali Eteraz was born Abir ul Islam in a small village in Pakistan. He built his identity around having been promised to serve Islam. He attended madrassa and was beaten. Beatings were routine during lessons if a boy made too many mistakes in his recitation of a portion of the Koran which was set for his memorization that day. And sometimes for other things.

He migrated to the United States with his family, finally settling in the Bible Belt. Abir then became Amir. The young Amir experimented with sex and the secular, then settling into a routine of super-Islam-dude. His idealized self fell short when presented with the responsibility of running a student Muslim organization in college.

He became a lawyer, lost his practice, reinvented himself as Ali Eteraz and went to Kuwait to seek converts to his idea of Islamic reform. A friend enlightens him. He returns to the United States.

This book was not as satisfying to me as A Thousand Splendid Suns was, but still good and worth reading. Ali's name changes seemed to be a bit more than the reinvention of his self. To me there were whispers of fragmented selves rather than an integrated personality. I may be wrong about that. That is the impression the book left with me.

sapphoq reviews says: recommended to those who are curious about life in a small Pakistani village.

A Dead Hand, by Paul Theroux

2011-08-28T12:06:00.000-04:00

Paul Theroux, A Dead Hand. New York: Marina Books, 2010. paperback, 279 pps.

A Dead Hand, subtitled A Crime in Calcutta, is a work of fiction and a crime mystery by the great Paul Theroux. (He and Oliver Sachs are tops on my wish list of people to hang out with for a couple of hours drinking tea and talking about regular stuff). As always with Theroux's writings, a sense of place is omnipresent. The narrator is a man reluctant to leave Calcutta because of a mysterious woman. The woman, Mrs. Unger, is an American ex-pat with an orphanage, some knowledge of tantric sex and Kundalini, and a fetish for the blood of black goats. She also has a pair of quasi sons-- Charlie and Rajat. She is a wealthy philanthropist, but not after the fashion of Mother Theresa so it seems. Theroux inserts himself into the book by meeting the narrator and asking if he knows Mrs. Unger. The ending involves a cremation without rain.

This book should be required reading for any fluffy bunny who believes that Kali-Ma is a benevolent protector of women and fluffy bunnies.

sapphoq reviews says: Highly recommended for fans of Paul Theroux as well as for those who appreciate a sense of place.

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

2011-08-28T12:03:00.000-04:00

Khaled Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns. London: Riverhead Books, 1997. hardcover, 372 pps., including Afterword and Acknowledgements.

I found A Thousand Splendid Suns in a rummage sale at a library. The author Khaled Hosseini is noted for his novel The Kite Runner (on my "to read" list now along with all of Paul Theroux's fiction and any future works of J. Marteen Troust) and for his work with U.N.H.C.R. (refugee agency of the U.N.). I found the afterword to be highly informative about the Afghan refugee crisis and I have visited
http://www.UNrefugees.org as Hosseini recommends. I regret not having read the afterword first of this fine book.

A Thousand Splendid Suns tells an interwoven fictional story of several Afghani families set against a historical backdrop of three decades. Mariam was born the illegitimate child of a cinema-owning tycoon and one of his servants. He sent Mariam and her mother to live in a small hovel near a stream approximately two kilometers from town. Although he regularly visited Mariam once a week, he did not acknowledge her officially. Thus, she remained cut off from the benefits received by his other children and three wives. Mariam was also visited by a kind elderly mullah who tutored her in the Koran. Mariam the adolescent wanted to attend school like her half sisters and go see a movie at her father's cinema in town. But she was denied these opportunities because she was a bastard child.

Upon her mother's death when Mariam was fifteen, she was briefly moved to the guest room in her father's mansion. Shortly after, her father arranged a marriage for Mariam to a shoemaker who was much older than she. The man Rasheed met Mariam, they married in haste, and moved to his two story house in another city very far away. Thus, the problem of Mariam was gotten rid of.

As the old saying goes, everything worked for the first couple of weeks. Rasheed presented his bride with a burqa. Shortly after, Mariam experienced her first pregnancy and her first natural abortion. Rasheed began to reveal his temper and his pickiness, resulting in regular beatings of his teen wife. More pregnancies and natural abortions followed. Mariam was unable to carry a fetus to term.

Meanwhile, several overthrows of the government had occurred and the Afghanis started fighting amongst themselves based on tribal geography. Down the street, a barely pregnant teenager lost both of her parents to a rocket. Her teen lover had left for Pakistan. Rasheed found her in the rubble and dug her out. Mariam and Rasheed nursed her back to health. Laila, the teen, quickly agreed to be Rasheed's second wife. She was out of options. Laila's upbringing had been more modern. For the sake of her unborn daughter, she donned a burqa and submitted to Rasheed. Her first child, a daughter was born. Rasheed suspected the child was not his. And so, after a time the shoemaker had two women to beat. Mariam and Laila became friends. Mariam got a chance to be an auntie to Laila's daughter by her absent teen lover, and then to her son by Rasheed.

Laila and Rasheed's son copied his father's treatment of the two women. He defied them and would not listen to them as he knew they had no real authority over his. He was his father's
child in many ways. He remained so throughout most of the book. When Laila's teen lover returned, the son ratted to Rasheed. This resulted in a severe beating of both women. Mariam sacrified her self so Laila and the children could escape with Laila's teen lover. They settled in Pakistan for two years and then returned to their hometown.

A Thousand Splendid Suns was an excellent historical fiction. The characters were well drawn, the history presented was accurate, and there was a real sense of place. I found myself involved with the characters. There was enough suspense to hold my interest. The horror portrayed when the Shittites marched victoriously into town chilled me to the bone. What would I do if I woke up one morning to men wearing black turbans in a jeep announcing that all women must now wear burqas and are required to have a male relative accompany them when on the streets?
I had a Muslim acquaintance of several years who startled me one day by telling me that he wanted the United States and other places to be under Sharia law. My acquaintance was educated and well-spoken. My reaction reflected my shock at his viewpoint. [The man has since disappeared]. I have at least one relative who fervently believe that the more fundamentalist Muslims will "take over the world one day." And another who believes that all divisions between fundamentalist and the more modern Muslims are artificial at best. He says that Muslims are more prone to becoming fundamentalist than Christians are due to the lack of higher criticism available related to the Koran. Thus the prevalence of Muslims who interpret the Koran literally is higher than the prevalence per population of Christians who interpret the Bible literally.

There is, I think, a common assumption that almost all Muslim men who embrace Sharia law are violent and beat their wives. I wonder about that, if there have been studies or not. What is the percentage of Shittite men who have beaten their wives vs. the percentage of Sunni men vs. the percentage of men who belong to other fundamentalist religions vs. the general population in various countries? One beating of one human being is one too many. Is fundamentalism of any ilk a contributing factor to probability of domestic abuse or is it merely a correlant?

sapphoq reviews says: Highly recommended for those who like narratives, memoirs, or historical fiction

The Broken Window by Jeffrey Deaver

2011-08-28T11:54:00.000-04:00

Jeffery Deaver, The Broken Window (a Lincoln Rhyme novel). New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008. paperback, 596 pps., including Author's Note.

Fans of Lincoln Rhyme and privacy activists are sure to warm up to this novel. The story opens with Lincoln's cousin Arthur Rhymes visiting an attractive woman at her domicile, then she gets brutally murdered. The murderer absconds with her latest collected painting by a minor artist named Prescott. Arthur is unjustly accused of the murder and is sent off to prison. Lincoln is asked to look into the matter.

Lincoln detects a pattern. Underneath the pattern is a giant data collecting corporation and a disgruntled ex-employee. The pattern itself involves several men imprisoned for crimes which they did not commit. The ending involves a piece of historic rock and the healing of the fractured relationship between Lincoln and Arthur. The Author's Note speaks to privacy and identity concerns.

This novel was satisfying and for the most part fast-moving enough to hold my interest. And I liked it. The caveat to watch over one's identity in a time of decreasing privacy is well to heed.

sapphoq reviews says: Recommended for fans of Lincoln Rhymes.

Russo's Adirondack Grill

2011-05-15T14:17:00.000-04:00

Russo's Adirondack Grill
3664 State Highway 30
Vails Mills, New York 12078
518-883-7601
Proprietors Michael and Barbara Russo

It was St. Paddy's Day and my dad was hankering for a drink. So we went to the rundown Italian bar and restaurant called Russo's in Amsterdam NY. Dad had a glass of wine and a toast. I had a diet soda. We watched the teevee at the bar and the traffic go down West Main. A train blew through. Dad had to pee.

Dad came back from the mens' bathroom and I knew it hadn't gone well. "This place is a rat hole," he said. By his description, the bathroom was filthy. We left.

Russo's in Amsterdam had been there for many years-- more than thirty by my reckoning. And the place looks it. The restaurant is housed in an old building which had seen better days probably before I was born. The bar rats look like they crawled out of the Mohawk. Even the pizza and the pasta fazole ain't what it used to be there.

But this review is about the new Russo's, the one in neighboring Fulton county. My dad flatly refused to visit the new Russo's, even after I went to check the mens' room one day. That may be just as well.

Companion and I went to the new Russo's for lunch yesterday. There were three men at the bar-- they could have been transplants from the old Russo's so similar in style and appearance they were. The food is uninspired and flavorless. On the plus side, companion reports the mens' bathroom is clean. More negative: the radio was loud and the music-- really bad sixties and seventies style (think, "the worst of..."). There was one drunk at the bar talking to a couple of restaurant patrons who were leaving. Even the drunk had to yell to be heard. The bear with the pizza out front rendered by a local chainsaw artist was the only thing remotely Adirondack about the place. Logs and timber do not equal those great mountains.

From the menu, companion ordered Lobster Bisque ($3.59) and I ordered the Italian Wedding Soup (also $3.59). In addition to the soups, I also arranged for a plate of garlic bread toasted sans cheese ($2.79, with cheese the price is upped a dollar to $3,79) and I asked for a cup of coffee.

The coffee sucked. It was lukewarm and uninspiring to my now conditioned for black coffee palate. It was served in an old fashioned diner style cup which did nothing for the total non-ambiance of the place. And the wait for the coffee was unacceptably long at 18 minutes.

Companion's soup was served in a crock and it was a pleasing lobster bisque color-- not the fake pink that some places serve. He declared it to be acceptable. My Italian Wedding soup was served in a crock also. I was pleased to see some little slices of squash that so many places leave out. I was unhappy with the subtraction of cheese from the ingredient list for the little meatballs. I was very unhappy with the deletion of SPICES from the soup altogether.

The garlic bread was also disappointing. It was over-toasted and under-buttered. The cup of marinara sauce that it came with was similarly uninspiring, lacking flavor. I know times are hard and spices are expensive but geez. Even at rock-bottom prices, I expect food eaten out will have some taste to it.

So folks, if traveling about the area skip Russo's Adirondack Grill and keep going. My personal suggestion is to wait until you hit Saratoga if traveling east, go to Romano's in Johnstown if traveling west, the Crystal Ristaurante if heading south, and some sleepy little diner perhaps in Day or Northville or further along if venturing north. Russo's Adirondack Grill is bound to disappoint so don't bother. Even a hot dog from the local Stewart's is more pleasing.

sapphoq reviews books and more

Time Warner Cable in the Capital District

2010-11-12T23:50:00.003-05:00

I've been a customer of Time Warner Cable and its' predecessor for several decades. The number of television stations have increased along with my bill. I was alive for the breakup of Ma Bell, the creation of Baby Bells, and the introduction of bundles services-- cable plus telephone plus internet access all in one bill. I was a part-time toll collector when a bunch of folks were traveling up the Thruway installing fiber optics.

Not all of the news is good. There is a disturbing connection with Comcast-- a company whose policies I hate. Time Warner Cable uses dynamic I.P. addys in order to prevent regular customers from having access to creating a business class website without proper payment. This switching regularly causes fluctuations in the signal coming into my home. With the advent of an option to buy faster download times, my non-turboized net speed has suffered significant decreases. Additionally, the installation of higher-speed cabling to local hospitals have left some of us complaining that our phones cut out briefly at irratic intervals.

This customer is not entirely happy. And yet, I don't want The Dish. My choices for high speed internet access are severely limited by geography. That is to say-- non-existent at the current time. Until something better comes along, I choose to remain with a less-than-stellar performer.

sapphoq reviews says: Time Warner Cable gets a D- in my grade book

Atheism by Kerry Walters

2010-09-08T05:36:00.002-04:00

Atheism: A Guide for the Perplexed by Kerry Walters. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group Inc., 2010. Paperback, 195 pps., incl. Works Cited and Index.

I had two professors who used a book they'd written for the textbook of college courses they were teaching. One was a man who taught Phonetics. I loved everything about that book, from the soft red leather cover to the typeset used on the pages to the subject matter. The other was a creative writing instructor. I did not find his book to be as worthy. I judged that book to be as stilted as the writer-- not terribly creative and more concerned with pumping up his false ego. It was with these past experiences that I picked up Atheism: A Guide for the Perplexed written by a college professor who also uses it in undergrad courses that he teaches.

Atheism: A Guide for the Perplexed is designed to make atheism accessible to the average intellectual. On that level it succeeds admirably. It is an easier read than Richard Dawkins, cites numerous philosophers and theologians in its' pages, is careful to define what is meant by key words, and distills the framework of both worldviews into easy-to-follow ideas.

Where the book fails is in Kerry Walters' constant apologies for the outspokeness and brashness of Dawkins and other "New" Atheists. Those theists who are turned off by Richard Dawkins' take no prisoners style are unlikely to convert to atheism anyway. I see no reason to apologize for Dawkins just as I also see no reason for a theist at an A.A. meeting to apologize to the sole atheist in the room before sharing her spiritual experiences.

Apart from the constant mention of Dawkin's presentation, I enjoyed this slender volume. I came away with a deeper understanding of Aquinas' Five Proofs for the existence of God. I also gleaned from its' pages the multifactorial nature of a decision to believe or not to believe. And finally, I was able to identify the commonality vs. causality concerns inherent in a naturalistic historical narrative of religion itself.

Atheism: A Guide for the Perplexed is unlikely to win any converts from the fundamentalist crowd to non-theism. Nor will it suit the reader who possesses only a rudimentary understanding of logic and discourse. Although I do not agree with Kerry Walters' final supposition of where the atheists and believers may begin a constructive dialogue, there was much in this book I found to be informative.

sapphoq reviews says: cautiously recommended.

Drowning Anna by Sue Mayfield

2010-09-08T05:33:00.000-04:00

Drowning Anna, Sue Mayfield. New York: Hyperion, 2001. Small size hardbound, 316 pps.

Set in England, Anna is a new arrival at school where she is befriended and then shunned by most of the other girls in her class. She is outright bullied. No one lifts a finger to help. Hints of anorexia and then a full-fledged suicide attempt take place before Anna's mother determines that her daughter needs her intervention.

sapphoq reviews says: It may be that anorexia and self-injury express themselves differently in England than they do in the U.S. Stateside, anorexia is usually attributed to a sick rebellion against controlling parents; and cutting to trauma whose purpose is to make the cutter feel more or go numb. I give this one a clear miss.

The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti

2010-09-08T05:31:00.001-04:00

The Good Thief, Hannah Tinti. New York: Random House, 2008. Paperback, 345 pps., inc. reader's guide.

Ren is stuck in a Roman Catholic orphanage for boys run by some priests. With one hand amputated, he is passed by when the boys are lined up as prospective parents drop by to bring home a kid. He is almost at the age where he will be sold to the Army. Then a mysterious relative shows up.

Ren leaves behind the only home he has ever known and joins his "uncle" on various escapades involving thievery and trickery. There is grave robbing also. Eventually he finds out who his parents are and he finds a true home.

The Good Thief is set in New England sometime in the 1800s. The author's familiarity with New England and its' history moves the story along to a successful conclusion. There are a couple of drunks in the story who never do quite sober up, a doctor, some nuns, local villagers, and a murderer. This book has an unusual take on the orphan-finds-love theme. Blood and guts also abound. The story is well-told and enjoyable.

sapphoq reviews says: recommended.

White Oleander by Janet Fitch

2010-09-08T05:29:00.000-04:00

White Oleander, Janet Fitch. New York: Little, Brown & Co., 1999. hardcover, 390 pps.

White Oleander is a real gem of a book. Ingrid is a poet of some note in the coffeehouse crowd who becomes a cause celebrite after poisoning an ex-boyfriend and landing in prison. Astrid, the narrator, is her teenaged daughter and an artist in her own right. Astrid lands in the foster care system. She suffers through a variety of placements. She makes it out through to young adulthood with her muse intact.

I don't have experience with the foster care system myself but I have a couple of friends that do. They were foster mothers in Vermont-- mostly to boys-- over the space of several years. White Oleander caused me to question my own perspective of the boys' experiences as foster kids.

In spite of being an Oprah's Book Club book (sorry, fans-- I'm not), I liked this book. The language was lyrical and colorful. The dialogues and the characters were believable and well-rendered. The author tackled a tough subject and came out shining. Additionally, White Oleander the book cleared up a few things that I had missed in my prior viewing of White Oleander the movie. The book was not a fictionalized collection of morose reflections on the temporal relationships experienced by foster kids nor was it a catalogue of traumatic events that foster kids can experience. There is both heartbreak and true joy in this book.

sapphoq reviews says: highly recommended.

Italian Neighbors by Tim Parks

2010-09-08T05:28:00.001-04:00

Italian Neighbors, Tim Parks. New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1992. Hardbound, 272 pps.

Tim Parks and wife moved to Montecchio near Verona in Italy. Native Londoners, they had never encountered fog like that in their adopted town. From the lizards who enter their living space via French windows to the lemon trees and continuously barking dog outside, Tim Parks and wife adapt to their new landscape. Now they are three, as wife has given birth to a baby boy.

radical sapphoq says: This is a dull book. Not recommended.

Secrets of the Talking Jaguar by Martin Prechtel

2010-09-08T05:26:00.000-04:00

Secrets of the Talking Jaguar, Martin Prechtel. Boston: Element books, 1998. Hardbound, 283 pps.

Secrets of the Talking Jaguar was a captivating book. The author was lead to a Mayan tribe where he lived for the next 13 years. The local shaman taught him the ways of the tribe as well as old folk medicine. This book is full of fantastic stories about Prechtel's adventures. He married a native 17 year old who produced a baby boy. At the end of the book, the family had to migrate to the States, as the local Guatamalan regime was against anything that could be construed as communistic interest.

sapphoq reviews says: Mr. Prectel's claim of special shamanistic knowedge was troublesome. Still, the book sucked me in and I'd read the whole thing in one sitting. Secrets of the Talking Jaguar is full of unverifiable claims and this bothered me greatly. Not recommended.

The House on mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

2010-09-08T05:24:00.000-04:00

The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros. New York: Vintage Books, 1984. Small hardcover, 110 pps.

The young narrator of The House on Mango Street has much to say and a cool style of saying it. This book made me feel like I was instantaneously in on Esperanza's intimate thoughts. She tells about how it is to live in a small brick house on Mango Street. The rhythms of everyday living come alive under the author's craft. I felt like I was there.

radical sapphoq says: Written in an easy to read style, any Hispanophile is bound to appreciate The House on Mango Street. I read it in one sitting. Highly recommended.

Freedom's Landing by Anne McCafferty

2010-09-08T05:22:00.000-04:00

Freedom's Landing, Anne McCaffrey. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1995. Hardbound, 277 pps.

A University of Denver student is captured along with a bunch of other people and taken to another planet. She, other earthlings, and aliens from other places are held as slaves. When Kris escapes, she is rounded up along with other troublemakers and dumped on a different planet thought to be uninhabitated. Folks keep getting dumped there, some go rogue, and some die. Freedom's Landing concerns itself with the initial setting up of the colony which the settler-slaves have named Botany. There is of course a swank alien dude with whom Kris becomes enamoured and a few troublemakers on the side.

Place plays an important role in this particular book. The place settings are integral to the plot and I like that in a story. Interspecies love is also something that I like (and something that Anne McCaffrey explores in other books of hers as well as in this one).

sapphoq reviews says: Folks looking for either fuzzy science or hard science in a science fiction novel are not going to find it here. Folks who are interested in the building of relationships during hard times will. Highly recommended for science fic afficiandos who appreciate well done interspecies romance born in the middle of the hardship of settling in a hostile environment.

The Happy Isles of Oceania by Paul Theroux

2010-08-21T02:36:00.004-04:00

Paul Theroux, The Happy Isles of Oceania. New York: Mariner Books, 1992. Large Paperback, 528 pps.

I've been curious about the dots of land in the Pacific west of Hawaii ever since I read J. Maarten Troost' The Sex Lives of Cannibals. I was delighted to discover Paul Theroux' account of his trip through Meganesia, Melanesia, Polynesia, and Hawaii. As he paddled his kayak around nooks and harbors, Theroux frequently listened to c.d.s of various artists. He met locals and tourists, slept out under the stars and in slovenly motels, recorded local stories about cannibalism, cargo cults, and missionaries.

Theroux wanted to go to the island Tanna specifically because the Jon Frum cargo cult was flourishing there [N.B. and is to the present day]. The followers of Jon Frum believe that he will return in a future February in order to rescue them from the ministrations of the missionaries. On the day of his return, the rich white people will be forced to leave Tanna. The missionaries wanted to rescue the natives from such evils as cannibalism. The natives yearned for rescue from the missionaries.

The Happy Isles of Oceania was a fascinating in-depth account of many islands and peoples. The mention of related literature left me with a desire to seek some of it out, the cargo cults' description resulted in my own interet-related. the foibles of the misguided missionaries and the remark that humans tasted like pork had me laughing out loud. Folks who relish the dream of a tropical paradise will do well to read this account of traveling throughout the Pacific in a kayak.

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The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, by Oliver Sacks

2010-06-10T10:09:00.002-04:00

Oliver Sacks, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. New York: Harper & Row, 1970. paperback, 243 pps., incl. biography.

Dear Oliver Sacks,

You are the person I would most like to have tea with on a calm uncluttered California afternoon sitting on your veranda sharing the silence that embraces both of us. You are my hero. You remind me intensely of my humanity-- my intense unwavering humanity-- in the midst of dealing with the professional robots who would rather work to reduce me to deficits and lapses that they can pigeon-hole into stereotypes. I suppose that dealing with the authentic self that is me and more than me is riskier. I am not at all gracious nor grateful for their "help." I have lived quite well over the past six and a half years without their "insight, wisdom, knowledge." For like you, I have learned and relearned that the clinical without the human being is dead, empty stuff. I am weary of these professional robots who cannot hear me when I tell them that my brain damage did not kill off my memory. My memory ranked in the 99th percentile when tested at the rehab hospital six months after my motor vehicle accident. My ability to multi-task has bit the dust, my vision and perception are somewhat skewed, and I've been told that I am now highly distractible. But my memory is intact and I do not need the professional robots to extoll the virtues of writing things down nor of following a written checklist.

Oliver, if I can be so brazen as to refer to you by your first name in this blog post, you declared to the world in this book that the oft-cited axiom that the brain-damaged have only the concrete at their [our] disposal simply is not true. I needed the concrete during the first several months of living with my rearranged brain. I had to teach myself to write in sentences again-- I did this through the internet-- and when I was able to read, I turned to factual books rather than the fantasies that I previously had enjoyed. But brains do heal somewhat and after a time I was able to revel in the abstract once again. You have taught me to focus and build on my strengths rather than to batter away at my difficulties which in fact may not be ameliorable. Oliver, I am so sick of people blindly repeating the phrase, "The brain re-wires itself!" They don't really know what they are talking about, do they? Some of my wires re-connected but not to where they were originally. Dirt roads replaced freeways. Others grew but didn't connect anywhere, thus my central nervous system tremor is one of the prices of recovery. I have named my post-head injury brain Briella. Briella-- still brilliant but a bit sideways. Now I can describe who I used to be in halting unsure words. For a time, I could not even do that. I had to learn my self over again. You remind me not to leave my self behind. For indeed, we are more than our pathologies, labels, problems, diagnoses. So much more!

When I re-read this book, I found again a reunion with friends. I could love Rebecca and Mr. MacGregor and the others. I touched them through your pages. I held my breath as I witnessed Madeleine J. reaching for a bagel. I watched transfigured as she sketched and then made models of what she perceived through her treasured hands, once thought of as "lumps." I was there in your office as you helped Dr. P. put on his shoe. How fortunate your patients are to have had you! I recognized bits of my own difficulties in some of their stories.

Thank you, Oliver Sacks for writing about your patients in such a humane accessible way. My world is a brighter, kinder place with you in it. I take my tea with a bit of lemon sometimes, but no milk or sugar or honey. I'll be up sometime after lunch. Looking forward to it!

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Ghost Train to the Eastern Star by Paul Theroux

2010-06-10T10:08:00.000-04:00

Paul Theroux, Ghost Train to the Eastern Star. New York: Mariner Books, 2008. large paperback, 496 pps.

I've been engaged in reading as much Paul Theroux as I can get my hands on over the last several months and am now just pausing long enough to write the reviews. Ghost Train is the repeat of a trip which Theroux took as a younger man in The Great Railway Bazaar. He left from London (now on a second wife) and trained his way through to India (this time with a detour around Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan), The Far East, Japan, and back via Russia. He also had to take an occasional bus and a couple of plane flights. Along the way, Theroux mixes with the local folks, stays in hostels and hotels, and reads. As in his other accounts of his travels, Theroux has a gift of mixing history of a place with literary works and stories told by people he meets along the way.

Theroux is quick to point out what has changed and what hasn't. Several Indian cities have become meccas for IT, manufacturing, and call centers. The call centers themselves I found interesting. The Indians who work there take on American sounding names and are tutored extensively so that they "sound" like native speakers rather than like Indians. Often it is a college graduate making less than 4000 U.S.D. a year providing customer/tech support India relies on cheap labour in order to be competitive. In India, Theroux comes across many people who dislike Bush 43 especially in relation to the war over in the Middle East. There is abject poverty in India also which he describes without romance or rancor. There are bits also about Buddhism, Islam, and Hinduism. There are riots and bombing in Ceylon. Over in Thailand, there is a movement among fundamentalist Moslems to establish their own country in the south. Everyone certainly seems to be fighting these days, that is for sure.

Theroux also recounts bits of history while he is visiting Myanmer (Burma), Cambodia, and Vietnam. The behind-the-scenes decisions of politicians (Bush 43, Nixon in particular) were a fascinating glimpse into some of the background behind military actions. He describes in detail his tour of the killing fields, the genocide commited upon the orders of Pol Pot and exactly who helped that corrupt murderer to attain and stay in power. India, China, and Russia all continue to support Pol Pot (each for their own reasons). Theroux also talks about Vietnam and how the Viennese are faring these days. Although he leaves out the prison terms being bantered around for such offenses as e-mailing a relative in the U.S.A. from an internet cafe, he does address the war in Vietnam quite well.

There are throngs of people in the larger cities in Japan. Theroux takes some time there to go cross country skiing in the less populated north and to enjoy the use of two bathhouses before setting off for a final train trek through Siberia and China back through Poland and Germany to England. On the trains themselves, berths (sleeping compartments) are almost always shared and food bought at train stations from the locals is usually safer than what is offered in the dining cars. There is a bit of reflection in this book not present in his earlier journey across Asia. I enjoyed in particular Theroux's musings on invisibility and ageing.

sapphoq reviews says: This book comes highly recommended to the armchair traveler who likes a true sense of place along with an interweaving of history and a sprinkling of literature.

First a lousy poem

2010-05-18T12:12:00.001-04:00

No apologies for merging with the stillness,
no regrets for eating the sun.

No tears for a broken heart,
no recompense for a broken brain.

No recognition or awards for greatness,
no publicity for mediocrity.

No affection for privacy panels,
no love for ignorant neighbors.

No sympathy for Georgie Reyers,
no condemnation for Lucien.

No reason will be given for this lousy pretend poem,
no explanation for sudden clapping of hands.

sapphoq doing "more"

Shambala Meditation

2010-03-22T10:26:00.004-04:00

At a friend's urging, I attended a public meditation session held at a Shambala Center. Shambala Centers are located worldwide and they offer public meditation sessions, meditation instruction, and classes in buddhism.

After shedding my boots and leaving them in the vestibule, friend and I waited in "the waiting room" for another meditation session to end. The waiting room was pleasant and well-appointed with a comfy couch and chairs, literature and magazines related to Buddhism, a selection of herbal teas, and some fresh fruit. The session before ours ended. I was temporarily startled by the presence of my shrink, who bowed to me and left with the others.

We entered the meditation room. There was an option of chair or cushion. I chose cushion and sat, arranging my jacket next to me. There was a small altar up front which I liked. The group leader for that session began with a small explanation that teachers were available if anyone wished, and an overview of the next 90 minutes. First the sitting meditation, then a walking, then a sitting. Then a sharing period where folks could say what they wished-- as long as it wasn't in direct response to what another had shared. And a five minute sitting meditation to finish.

During my sitting meditation, I was taken back to the Grand Canyon and the flight of small birds among the cliffs and sparse vegetation. I practiced gently stopping these thoughts and letting them go. It wasn't forced and I was much relaxed. The walking meditation was a tad more difficult. I was concentrating on the idea of not falling-- as walking without shoes remains a difficult thing for me. It was with relief that I sat back down again at the leader's direction. I will not share the discussion here, nor who the other attendees were. I will say that the sharing was deep as the strictures of others' potential responding to what anyone said were observed. After the five minute ending meditation, we adjourned to the waiting room for herbal tea and fruit.

Two folks discovered that their wallet and daypack were missing from the vestibule. That made me at once glad that I had elected to bring my jacket inside the meditation room with me. When a third person discovered that her bicycle was also missing, it was realized that this wasn't a case of "the janitor moving these things to the lost-and-found box." I felt badly that a thief had entered the vestibule during the meditation session itself and taken these things.

The meditation experience itself was charming, however the theft gave me pause. I am hesitant to return to that particular center. I watch lots of crime shows on teevee. My imagination flashed pictures of us tied up in the meditation room and being ordered to hand over our money and jewelry, being held up with a loaded gun in my face, stolen cars from the parking lot. I am considering starting a womens' meditation group around here.

And one more thing: I am fairly certain that I cannot be a Buddhist. There is nothing about me that is passive in nature. I am too programmed to fight back and I understand the necessity of war in our current world. Until I lose the feeling of wanting to butcher those who planned 9/11, I will remain as I am-- a happy atheist with discordian and pastafarian leanings.

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Shambhala website: http://www.shambhala.org/

Taking Off Pounds Sensibly

2010-03-22T09:56:00.003-04:00

After gaining five pounds in two weeks, I decided that enough was enough. My weight gain has been steady since early adulthood-- at least 10 pounds a year. Gathering up my courage and my bulkiest clothing off I went to a meeting of TOPS, or Take Off Pounds Sensibly.

I was warmly greeted, given a membership packet, had a before picture taken and measurements taken, then shown to the weigh-in room. I registered at 213 pounds, the heaviest I've been in my life. My first reaction-- these people are crazy!-- quickly melted into "What I've been doing hasn't worked, so I may as well try this." I am an O.A. drop-out and the purveyor of many fine diet ideas, none of which have worked for me. (I cannot afford the more expensive commercialized programs around).

After weigh-ins, the main meeting began. First the KOPS folks stood up to recite a pledge-- KOPS stands for Keeping Off Pounds Sensibly, followed by the TOPS folks. Then we had roll call. We could announce whether we gained, lost, or stayed the same weight that week. Folks clapped for the maintainers and losers, chanted "tomorrow starts another week" for the gainers. At my name, I announced that I had gained five pounds in two weeks.

After the roll call, there were the raffles-- for the biggest loser, for those who lost, and for the KOPS folk. Then, a member did a presentation. And finally the 50/50. The meeting dispersed with lots of friendly goodbyes. I was given a telephone list for support. A couple of the members who have seen me walking with the dog greeted me. "Now you know where your friends live in your neighborhood," one of them said. There were smiles all around. For the first time, I felt hopeful about getting to a healthy weight and being able to maintain that weight.

Yes, I did go back the next week. I was indeed the biggest loser there that week-- seven pounds. Hooray for me! As I continue to strive to adjust my relationship with food, I am confident that my goal of getting down to a healthy weight is doable. And I feel pretty good about that.

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Website for TOPS: http://www.tops.org/default.aspx

James Cameron's movie Avatar

2010-01-09T15:35:00.003-05:00

Yes, I was among the throngs of folks who have seen the movie "Avatar." We went yesterday. There were three choices-- a regular screen, 3D, or 3D with iMax. The time slot that fit in the best with our plans was the 3D showing so off we went. We sat halfway up in the bleeder section and put on our special plastic 3D glasses. As it was a Friday afternoon, the theatre held maybe 12 people in all. After returning a stale popcorn for a fresh bowl (to discover that the freshness of the popcorn did not improve the flavor much), we settled back to a long line of previews and a few which included 3D movies in the offing.

The movie Avatar was full of 3D effects-- many of which appeared to be happening in front of our noses. I enjoyed the forest on the planet Pandora. I especially liked the very realistic looking ferns, the giant-sized fiddleheads, and the white jellyfish-like seed pods floating in the air that were being released from the mother tree. Ah but here I am getting ahead of myself.

Sam Worthington plays Jake Sully, twin brother of a dead scientist named Tom. Because Jake's D.N.A. "matches" that of his dead twin, he is recruited in Tom's place to go to the alien planet Pandora and act as the human control for an avatar which looked somewhat like the cat-tailed natives of the planet. The plan was for the human controls to lay in isolation pods and have their "nerves" (nervous systems?) connect with the "nerves" of the artificial avatars who would then go off to explore Pandora and befriend the primitives. The indigenous race on Pandora lived smack dab in the middle of a site where it was determined that a mother lode of the element Unobtainium lay. The mother tree of the tribe also grew there and her roots were described as forming neural networks with the roots of many other trees on the planet in a number exceeding those connections in the human brain.

The plan hits a snag when Jake (who is paraplegic possibly acquired during his career as a Marine) revels in the avatar's ability to walk and so Jake the avatar escapes and goes native. Going native involves falling in love with one of the savages after she teaches him the local lingo. Jake the human neglects to shower and has to be cajoled into taking enough time to eat. There is a showdown at the end of course. The natives triumph over the bad humans who are sent packing off to their abused home planet Earth.

I especially enjoyed the performance given by Stephen Lang as Colonel Michael Quaritch. The Colonel is pure Marine, driven to fulfill the mission assigned to him. His acting was most convincing to me. I found myself hating his character halfway through the movie. Sigourney Weaver was less convincing as Grace Augustine, the scientist who comes to believe in the Mother. She started off with a bang as a bitch who had little to no use for Jake Sully. The script had her too quickly deteriorate into a gentler kinder human sort. I have to believe that her unconvincing transformation was a fault of the writer, rather than of her own fine acting.

The movie Avatar borrows heavily from other science fiction pieces, notably from Asimov's Foundation series with this whole business of a planet being seen as a living, breathing Gaia (yes, you folks who believe that, your belief is rooted in stories). Also present was shades of Anne McCafferty's Dragonriders of Pern and also influences by David Brin. The science in this science fiction piece was notably lacking. The one thing that I especially did not care for was how the group mourning scenes were portrayed-- the natives sat cross-legged moving their upper torso in ever-expanding circles. I was also perturbed when once again an atheistic bitch scientist yields to the throes of religiosity, a theme that I watched in some other movie portraying the world ending whose name escapes me at the moment.

The most significant thing about the movie "Avatar" was the decision that I made after seeing it. I've decided to donate my whole body to science and not just any organs needed for transplant. I figure that if there are any gods hanging out in the afterlife, they will have to deal with my lack of a corpse in a creative manner. Folks here on earth need my body more-- whether it's my retinas, heart, a kidney or two, skin. Or perhaps my earthly remains can help teach some future surgeons how to make those precise cuts. After watching the aftermath of the death scenes in Avatar, (yes those funky scenes where the natives sit cross-legged while moving their upper torsos in those ever-expanding circles...) I figure that our remains are wasted by being allowed to rot in expensive boxes in cemeteries. And cremation does not allow for full use of the shells we leave behind.

While it's nice I suppose for some people to have a spot to go to in the middle of a wide expanse of lawn in order to remember me, I would prefer to be the eyes for one who can now see or the new skin for a burn victim.

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Backyard Bird Secrets for Every Season by Sally Roth

2009-12-28T18:26:00.002-05:00

Backyard Bird Secrets for Every Season, Sally Roth.
New York: Rodale Press, 2009. large paperback, 337 pps. inc. sources and index.

We've had a bit of a cold snap and I found my self wanting to read books that remind me that spring will return. Backyard Bird Secrets for Every Season fits the bill. Sally Roth is an avid birder from Indiana. She knows her stuff and has been widely published. The book itself uses medium thickness glossy pages which pleased my fingers and colored photographs which were a feast for my eyes. Charts and writing style are both clear and precise. I am as pleased with this book as I have been with other things that Roth has written.

The book is divided into sections according to the four seasons with winter being the last. I turned first to Part 4 subtitled Winter: Getting down to Basics. In Part 4, Roth addresses the need for proteinous foods, water, and shelter. The colorful pictures compliment her information rather well. A picture of a hollowed out tree caught my eye. I was pleased to see Part 4 mention the roosting together of birds in nesting boxes and small cavities that we observe here. If I get up early enough in the morning that was preceded by a cold night, I can be rewarded by the sight of a bunch of little birds pouring out of a roosting box, having all shared the box and body heat for the night. Roth suggests putting up birdhouses early, cleaning the feeders once a month in the winter time (with steps included), and providing water via a heated water source or at least special plastic with a dark interior that will delay freezing. I am now actively looking for either a solar water unit or a water heater for my birdbath. Roth also mentions the reliance that buffleheads have on woodpeckers in finding shelter. Buffleheads are considered incidental here along the Mohawk, although I did have the pleasure of watching a female bufflehead one fall down by the locks. Upon spying me and my dog, she dove underwater and came up again 50 feet later. Charts included in Part 4 illustrate which plants and trees attract which birds in the winter landscape.

Sally Roth has once again succeeded in presenting information about birds in an easy-to-read style bound to appeal to people who find pleasure in feeding birds. Although this book is not a scholarly tome, it is worth the look-see for anyone wishing to hone their knowledge about backyard birds.

sapphoq reviews says: break out those suet cakes! A definite plus for the casual birding library.

Nothing by Nica Lalli

2009-11-26T08:01:00.002-05:00

Nothing, Nica Lalli. New York: Prometheus Books, 2007. paperback, 271 pps.

Nica Lalli grew up in a (secular) Jewish Italian family. In second grade, she envied a classmate who was going for First Holy Communion. She wanted a white dress too and a veil. But when she asked her parents about what the family was, she was told that the family was "nothing." The family did not practice any religion and her parents did not believe in God. This resulted in a round of tears as now Nica would not be a miniature bride of Christ for one day after all.

The book transitioned smoothly from remembrance of times past to philosophical musings of time present. There is a proselytizing high school ski trip and Girl Scouts and a dead bird. There is a marriage, a couple of kids, and a very Christian sister-in-law. There is also 9/11. Meg and Jacob (husband's very Christian sister and spouse) have several protracted fights with Nica and her spouse Greg and the end result is estrangement shortly after 9/11. "Nothing" was very powerful up until the last two chapters.

Nica went through her struggles and was able to choose atheism for herself in the end. In the last couple of chapters, she belatedly discusses her own two children. Amanda and Victor are more fortunate in growing up. And the answer to "What are we?" is a somewhat sappy "Let's find out together."

In sixth grade, I had a classmate who was an atheist from an atheist family. She was open about her non-belief but not obnoxious. We were the obnoxious ones, demanding to know of her how she thought the world began. Even at that young age, we used the First Cause argument in our own primitive manner. But classmate was a strong kid and would not yield to our reason and logic. After a few minutes, we let her be.

Our great nephews are being raised also in an atheist home. The two kids are comfortable within themselves and confident in their views of the world. Their parents are upfront about their atheism and when asked will tell the kids directly, "We don't believe in any gods. We are atheists.
That family is fortunate to live in an area where their scientific nature is understoon and celebrated.

sapphoq reviews says: "Nothing" is an interesting book. Through its snapshops, we get an impression of life in the fifties up through today in the eyes of an unbeliever. Although Lalli's style
will not appeal to everyone. Nica's story may appeal to those who are going their own"crisis of faith."

DumbHeart, a Get Fuzzy collection, by Darby Conley

2009-11-14T09:04:00.002-05:00

Dumb Heart, a Get Fuzzy collection, by Darby Conley.
Kansas City: Andrews McNeal Publishing L.L.C., 2009.
large paperback, 127 pps.

I love Get Fuzzy. The antics of Bucky the snarky cat, Satchel the lovable pooch, and their friends vs. Rob Wilco the human never fail to please me. This collection does not disappoint. Of special delight to me was the introduction of Satchel's new hosta and Bucky's new clothing line. The presence of weasels was unexpected and livened things up. The brief political banter between Satchel and Bucky left me lmao.

As an aside, I have problems reading other books with comic strips because of the layout and print use. I had no problems reading this one. (And never do).

sapphoq reviews says: Highly recommended.

A.B.C. Wife Swap

2009-10-20T21:34:00.002-04:00

Today I sat through an entire episode of A.B.C.'s Wife Swap show. The episode I watched turned out to be a rerun. The actual episode was episode 6 of season 4-- Kim and Randall Beckman-Heskett vs. Lee-Ann and Christopher Childs. The guide describing the two families can be found at:
http://abc.go.com/shows/wife-swap/episode-guide/beckmanheskettchilds/79727?page=1#

Basically, the show goes for drama (as much of unreal "reality" teevee does). The paired up families are frequently polar-opposites in parenting styles as well as in values. Randall is a stay-at-home dad with a strong background in theology who likes to sing fundamentalist religious rounds in an off-beat way. Wife Kim is a C.E.O., kids Allison and Hannah are "regular kids," the family is liberal. I believe that "Lutheran" was specifically mentioned but I am not entirely sure of that.

Christopher refers to himself as the gatekeeper of his family (odd how that particular term is also used in a very witchy context, although the meaning of course is a bit different). He works. Lee-Ann is a stay-at-home mother who homeschools her six kids-- five girls and one boy. The boy does manly chores involving garbage and lawn-mowing. The girls are being trained up to be good fundamentalist christian housewifes. There is an emphasis on cheerful service as well as a firm belief that their god will bypass the whole dating scene and just sort of reveal the girls' future intended husbands to them. The middle girl wants to be a medical doctor and cannot understand why she cannot combine her dream with marriage and raising a family.

Kim talks to the middle child about her dream and assures her that it is possible to have a career and a family too. Kim stares in obvious disbelief as the the two older girls and the one boy explain that their god will just drop their mates upon them. They don't want to date and they like the feeling of "being sheltered." Middle child is whisked away to safety by the god-fearing dad as the girls scuttle around doing chores cheerfully.

Lee-Ann and Randall get into theological tiffs. She does not have the background, knowledge, or proficiency with languages that Randall has. In the show, he soundly trumps her several times and she appears "silly" in her sincerely held beliefs. By far the most disturbing thing to me was when Lee-Ann had the two Beckman-Heskett girls write out vows concerning dating (or rather not dating). These "vows" were forced upon the two girls. When mother Kim returns home, she spends an evening with the two girls undoing the "vows" which they had been pressured to write out.

I found this particular show to be offensive on several levels. In the United States, since children do not have the right to choose their own religion (especially without parental consent), parents get to raise their kids in the fashion that they choose to. Forcing two 12 year olds to record fake assurances that they will remain chaste (virginal) until marriage etc was upsetting to me. On the other hand, it was more than likely wrong for Kim to impose her views of happy slavery and life options on middle fundy daughter. That did not upset me nearly as much. I suppose that exposes my own bias. If there is any truth to this episode, I suspect the battle for middle daughter's future lifestyle to line up in accordance with literalist biblical ideology has already been lost long before the television crews showed up.

sapphoq reviews says: One complete episode of the show "Wife Swap" was more than enough for me. A big YUCK.

I Cry "Fowl" on Sion Chickens

2009-09-24T07:54:00.003-04:00

Yes it is true, sapphoq is a Second Life (r) drone-- I mean avatar. Within the past month over on the grid, I was given some eggs and they did the expected thing. They hatched into fuzzy yellow chickens. One thing led to another and soon our group (friends of sapphoq-- the branch that is on Second Life) had a big skybarn and lots of chickens in coops squawking their little heads off. Soon after, the group acquired a version 12 vendor and a Sion corn vendor. We swung into chicken farmer mode with a vengeance. And then suddenly, all vendors went down. And ours did not come back up.

The creator of this mad mess, one Sion Zaius by name, allegedly does not speak English very well. His profile says so. After the failure of the vendors, Sion Zaius changed his profile to reflect a three month vacation. Must be nice. No matter. A cursory look-see revealed that many vendors besides our own remained non-functional.

Sion Zaius himself does not want to be bothered with the problems of his customers. His profile says so. Sion Zaius has two assistants. I was able to get one of them online-- GreenShamrock McMahon-- who was "busy" of course. She did take a few moments to carefully explain to me that since the stolen chicken food episode, security was tightened and our dinky little market did not make the cut. Or rather, friends of sapphoq was cut out. All small businesses were cut out and their vendors permanently offline. Only the top one hundred or so vendors were allowed to remain. (This is supposedly in response to the great food heist. Apparently, someone had stolen a bunch of Sion chicken food and was selling it in bulk). There was a vague promise that perhaps "more vendors can be given out in the future." So in other words, if friends of sapphoq wishes to sell eggs and chickens in Mirr, folks would have to then go elsewhere-- to the larger farms and markets-- to purchase the totally necessary food, transport boxes, and other "accessories." To my way of thinking, this sucks. My group had spent significant amounts of money to get set up in the chicken business. Belatedly we discovered we are to be denied the privilege of having Sion Lab vendors in our store. In the vast world of Sion Labs, the individuals and the small groups-- even a small group of disabled and otherwise misunderstood folks-- really don't matter. Business is business, to quote my dad. To which I say, "Phooey."

GreenShamrock McMahon was unyielding as befitting her job description of Customer Support. After a bit more stomping of pixeled feet, I was told to "Have a nice day and be safe." I held back on what I really wanted to say. What I really wanted to say was a vulgar phrase denoting the advisability of Sion Zaius and Sion Labs (r) to http://www.amishrakefight.org/gfy/ . Or that is to say, to engage in carnal intercourse with themselves. What I did say was, "Stick a fork in me. We are D O N E done. Thank you Sion Labs for wasting the time and investment money of our group." Then I muted her so she could not ever contact me again.

I returned to the skybarn and in a fit of rage, deleted bunches of chickens. Let the great Sion Labs boycott begin!

sapphoq reviews says: If you are in Second Life (r), don't bother with Sion Chickens or the new "pettable turtles" or any other thing that Sion Zaius wishes to sell to you. Instead, get yourself over to the dogpark on Canis Beach in Rhoda and buy yourself a pixelated doggie. The dogs come with a training package, they respond to you, you can pet them. And although they do come with a set of dog food bowls, you are not required to shell out money repeatedly to feed the dogs. Cuz they, unlike Sion Chickens, don't really consume the "dog food" in their bowls. The dogs come in a variety of breeds and price ranges. Furthermore, Vitolo Rossini and his young son Danny06 Aya provide excellent customer support.

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Campos de Castilla by Antonio Machado

2009-09-22T17:00:00.002-04:00

Antonio Machado, Campos de Castilla. (trans. from Spanish by Stanley Appelbaum).
New York, Dover Publications, 2007. trade paperback, 195 pps.

I was first introduced to the Dover line of dual-language books (Spanish on the left side/translation on the right side) during my foray into community college level Spanish courses several years ago. During those four semesters in which I engaged in my lifelong dream of learning Spanish, I quickly found that I needed more than textbooks and language labs. That void was filled by Dover dual-language books. Although today I read Spanish-language newspapers and periodicals, I have not set down these books which I favored early on.

Antonio Machado (1875-1938) was a teacher and poet from Seville Spain who spent some time in the Old Castile province at a teaching job. It was from that time that this, his second published book of poetry, hails. The poetry itself is lyrical and descriptive both in Machado's native Spanish and in Appelbaum's translated English. I was at once enchanted by his use of colorful adjectives as well as by his subject matter-- common people and the countryside of Castile.

highly recommended for those who love Spanish poetry written in Spanish

Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory, The Phoenix Endangered

2009-09-04T12:57:00.000-04:00

Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory, The Phoenix Endangered: Book Two
of The Enduring Flame.
New York: Tor, 2008. trade paperback.
468 pps including preview of The Phoenix Transformed.

Book Two of The Enduring Flame does not disappoint. The two teen heros--
Harrier and Tiercel-- continue their long trek past the veiled lands and into
the desert in order to find a mysterious Lake of Fire and the evil contained
therein. The story opens with Harrier being dunked into some water by
a golden unicorn named Kareta and then having a red satchel with three books
foisted upon him. Kareta is not the usual sort of unicorn. She is somewhat
annoying and impetuous. The Three Books of the Wild Magic mark Harrier's
passage into the ranks of Knight-Mages, something that the son of a harbour
master would not have chosen for himself. For one, Harrier hates spells. He
doesn't want to do them. He has no interest in studying the books which contain
them. For another, he cannot imagine himself killing another human being,
never mind fighting in a war. Kareta hitches herself to the caravan so she can
nag Harrier until he yields.

Tiercel, son of a noble family, discovered some time ago that he was able to
"do" high magic. He continues his growth in this book cumulating in a quite
formidable purple (I quite approve of the color purple) shield used to hold back
some crazed desert folk from destroying a city. The cities in the desert are built
around the presence of water, water wells to be precise. There is a glorious black
dragon also, Ancaladar, who picks off shoters (something like camels I imagine
although we are never told directly) and other desert game for his meals. The
dragon comes equipped with a saddle so his newly Bonded, Tiercel, can go along
for the ride as the caravan containing Harrier, Kareta-- and later on a wounded
swordsmaster-- makes its way along roads and sand.

The people of the desert are drawn with excellence. Of particular cunning is the
foe, a BlueRobe gone bad ["bluerobe" being the name for wild mages] named
Bisochim who for the love of a lady is able to rally the desert tribes into one
maddened hoard. He tells them that those who do not follow him and the way
of The True Balance are actually disciples of The False Balance. His argument
of needing both the dark and the light are convincing to me (but unfortunately,
it is the "wrong" argument in the book).

Having rallied the people to his cause, Bisochim leads the various tribes to a
city where everything is provided to them in the middle of the desert. The
people are not used to idleness and so Bisochim appoints the young and the
restless warriors to go out in bands of twos and threes to find the Nalzindar
and their woman leader Shaiara who did not follow along with his propaganda.
Instead, they went off into hiding and managed to find another city underground.
Shaiara is able to keep the peace within her own tribe and their frugal ways
enable them to live quite well in the artificial orchards miraculously provided
for the Nalzindar.

Unfortunately for Bisochim, the young warriors have taken his words to heart and--
under the leadership of Zanatter-- mass destruction of the desert cities occur. There
is killing and plundering enough for those who like that sort of thing. There are also
fine examples of military strategy as can be found in any fantasy world. Bisochim
must now work even harder and faster to undo what Zanatter et. al. had unwittingly
done to make his goals even more difficult to achieve.

The Phoenix Endangered was an especially pleasing read for me. I enjoyed immensely
the introduction of new characters to the series. I also enjoyed being let in on the
thoughts of Tiercel and Harrier. The only weakness perhaps was when the two were
"held prisoners in a suite of luxurious rooms" at the bequest of the city heads. This is
something which is repeated often in the fantasy genre. It is overdone in my estimation
and not very convincing in this book. Perhaps there could have been developed another
way to get the two where they needed to be for the rest of the story to continue. At any
rate, this book comes recommended to those who like fantasy and especially to the
adolescent crowd.

sapphoq reviews

Victor LaValle, The Ecstatic

2009-09-04T12:53:00.002-04:00

Victor LaValle, The Ecstatic. New York: Crown Publishers, 2002.
Trade paperback, 276 pps.

The Ecstatic is a different kind of book. The narrator is a fat, black, and
crazy college drop-out named Anthony who comes home to his mother who
had traded Haldol (registered trademark, no copyright infringement
intended) in for thin living via vegetarianism, his 13 year old sister
Niasase who fought viciously with his mother and also entered beauty
pageants, and his feisty 93 year grandmother who did not hesitate to
call the cops on either her daughter or her grandaughter. Actually,
Anthony doesn't come home. Urged on by his younger sister, all
three family members show up at his rented room in Ithaca to find
that Anthony is not mentally well. Instead of admission to the nearest
nut ward, Anthony is installed in the family basement and watched
over until once again he becomes an impaired but functioning member
of society.

There is sex in the book. Anthony picks up Lorraine, a fat woman with
ambition on the subway and there is a brief two week interlude of failed
love. Niasase also has her day in a movie theater, much to Anthony's
horror. Besides sex, there is the neighborhood loan shark and a preacher.
The preacher, Uncle Armes, is responsible for the beauty pageant held in
small town Lumpkin, Virginia for teen girls who are virginal and have
allegedly fallen upon hard times. Naisase wins the hearts of the audience
by declaring that she and her grandmother-- strapped to Naisase's back
due to a bruised hip-- are both "orphaned." Anthony finds out that Uncle
Armes is a fraud. In return for his knowledge, Uncle Armes offers to allow
Naisase to win the pageant if Anthony opens the door to some protesters
outside the auditorium. Anthony agrees and gets hated for it later on.

Between a flooded hotel room and a pack of neighborhood dogs intent upon
biting whoever they can; between Mom's burgeoning collection of dog
statuary and Anthony's job cleaning up moldy abestos; between the ill-fated
barbecue and the ill-fated visit to the local fat clinic, there is much laughter
in this book. Yet the laughter rings hollow when we consider the underpinnings.
Still, this is a worthwhile book for those who like offbeat books about folks
who are not typical heroes. I enjoyed it immensely, although not enough for
a re-reading. Recommended for the offbeat reader.

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Cristina Garcia, Dreaming in Cuba

2009-09-04T12:48:00.001-04:00

Cristina Garcia, Dreaming in Cuban.
New York: Ballentine Books, 1993. 246 pps. trade paperback.

Dreaming in Cuban is a novel written in the lyrical style. Husband surprised me
by picking this book up at a sale and further astonished me when he read through
it and liked it. "You like Spanish lyricism," I taunted him over his morning coffee.
Intrigued by the idea that husband was reading such a novel, I read it also. Last
night.

Dreaming in Cuban introduces us to several branches of one family scattered
in several places. The grandmother, a strong atheistic woman named Celia,
remains in Cuba but has preternatural conversations with a granddaughter
named Pilar nightly. Pilar lives in Brooklyn with her mother Lourdes (who is
one of Celia's daughters) and her father Rufino. Lourdes runs a bakery and gets
fat on the pastries.

Lourdes' younger sister lives in Havana and her baby brother lives overseas in
Czechoslovakia. There are also relatives in Florida that send Pilar back to Brooklyn
when she runs away in an effort to get back to Cuba. Pilar is the most intriguing
woman-child in the novel. She is artsy but not insane. She is there when her
grandfather is sent to Brooklyn for cancer treatments. (He dies). She is the
catalyst for a trip to Cuba with Lourdes in time to witness Celia's passing on.

The thing is, both Lourdes and the middle sister Felicia go insane. Felicia is
intoxicated with the (Cuban) revolution. Lourdes (who is as anti-Castro as
Felicia is pro) has an unhappy marriage to a cheating husband. Yet Cuba
still calls to Lourdes. She reminisces about birds she had over there in an
aviary once in times past.

But the glory days never quite return. And the old haw about never being
able to return home again holds true.

The language in Dreaming in Cuban is rich as befitting the genre. The
novel is sentimental, perhaps syrupy. I found myself liking Celia and
Pilar the best out of all of the characters in the story. The forays into
Santeria were also of interest to me since there are some who practice
here in my hometown.

Cautiously recommended, for those who are devoted to the lyrical
genre.

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Jeffery Deaver, The Broken Window

2009-09-04T12:46:00.001-04:00

Jeffery Deaver, The Broken Window: A Lincoln Rhyme Novel.
New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008.
Hardcover, 418 pps.

The first Lincoln Rhyme novel I read by Jeffery Deaver was
The Bone Collector. For the uninitiated, Lincoln Rhyme
was a detective until an accident rendered him a quad. He
now has a high tech life in his townhouse, an attractive
girlfriend by the name of Amelia Sachs, an assistant Thom,
and a bunch of N.Y.P.D. colleagues who depend upon him.
Amelia walks the grid of crime scenes and Lincoln processes
the information into leads and suspects. The Bone Collector
has also been made into a movie with the attractive Amelia
Sachs played by Angelina Jolie.

The Broken Window has at its' heart several identified and
convicted innocents and one estranged Rhyme cousin who is on
his way to a similar fate. UNSUB522 is cunning. He has inside
connections to a data mining company. The data mining company
holds a half-dozen suspects and an aura of evil. One of the detectives,
a young man with a traumatic brain injury, has a run-in with one
of the suspects who mocks him for not knowing what Excel (trademark,
no copyright infringement intended) is. With a great deal of compassion,
Lincoln Rhymes tells the detective not to bother learning stuff that isn't
useful for him.

Jeffery Deaver comes through with shining colors on this novel. For
those who enjoy mysteries, highly recommended.

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My Sister's Keeper, the movie

2009-09-01T11:03:00.002-04:00

Recently some women friends and I opted for a night out. After dinner at the King's Buffet, we adjourned to a local cinema to feast on "My Sister's Keeper." Here I must confess that I have not read the book and probably won't.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Cameron Diaz in a starring role as the evil, controlling mother. I am a great fan of hers ever since "Something About Mary." She played the role with excellence. I found myself hating Mrs. Fitzgerald during the show for what she was putting her younger daughter through medically.

Younger daughter Anna (Abigail Breslin) was very convincing. I felt her pain as she talked about being "spare parts" for her older sister Kate (Sofia Vassilieva) who was then terminally ill with leukemia. She was gutsy in court and I applauded her triumphs.

Older sister Kate was also very convincing. I was glad to see that sex happened during the movie. Very often professionals and others forget that we folks with disabilities, illnesses, and conditions often still like sex and want it, just like anybody else. Her death was moving and she got to say all the things she had to say via a scrapbook collection she shared with her witch of a mother.

The movie opened with a horrific nosebleed. The seriousness of Kate's condition was immediately established. The hospital scenes were poignant, the court scene was dramatic, the sex scene was fun. Dad (Jason Patric) who was usually cowed by Mom showed character growth when he defied her in order to fulfill Kate's last wish for a day at the beach. Unfortunately, the ending paled. It resembled "On Golden Pond" and I would have liked to have seen something stronger done.

"My Sister's Keeper" is a pure chick flick and one I recommend as such. Ladies and those men with especially sensitive souls, bring your crying towels. You will need them for this tearjerker.

sapphoq reviews

Poetry Jamming at Barnes and Noble

2009-07-16T14:57:00.003-04:00

Last night (which was Wednesday) I went to the open mic at the Barnes & Noble in Niskayuna. The open mic was held in the lounge area rather than the coffee shop. There were rappers there-- including the famous M.C. Graffiti-- and singers and poets and one really old guy with an easel making art.

The guys there were bee-bopping away, the singers sang, the poets jammed, the rappers rapped. I got up and told part of my journey. I talked about my car accident and the traumatic brain injury, about Nick from the bait shop who went down to the police station and started screaming at the desk sargeant that I needed help too (the man who was high had proceeded downstreet causing a second accident), about the hospital taking x-rays of everything but my head. Unbeknownst to me, Nick's granddaughter was in the audience. Nick has been dead now a couple of years (that I knew) and a grandson had recently reopened the bait shop (that I also knew). We talked later, a difficult meeting for her to be sure as she was not expecting to hear a stranger talk glowingly about her dead grandfather last night.

There were truly some beautiful talented young people there last night. I plan to go more often as the jam is held the third Wednesday of each month at 7:15 p.m.

five stars
sapphoq reviews

Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay

2009-07-03T20:25:00.002-04:00

Jeff Lindsay, Darkly Dreaming Dexter. New York: Vintage Crime Books, 2004. paperback, 288 pps.

I am a big fan of The Sopranos, a Home Box Office Series that ran for six seasons. Very recently, I've been treated to Nurse Jackie on Showtime, another series staring Edie Falco (Carmella Soprano). Showtime is now releasing yet another series called Dexter. The other day, I found the books that the character Dexter is based on.

Like The Sopranos there is killing in Dexter. Like Nurse Jackie, there is a cut off ear. Where The Sopranos tells a somewhat fictionalized account of a New Jersey crime family, Dexter tells the fictional story of a serial killer who works alone. Nurse Jackie is pithy and self-confident. Dexter is socially clumsy but hides it.

Dexter is serial killing with a twist. He operates out of Miami, Florida. He has a day job where he is quiet and unassuming, attempting to blend in with the scenery. Dexter Morgan is a blood splatter analysis by day and his foster sister Deborah Morgan is a cop. Deborah is a frustrated cop stuck in the clothing of a prostitute busting johns in a seedy motel with a real bitch arch-rival. Dexter has an arch-rival too (besides himself) in the form of a cop named Doantes who hates him for a reason he cannot quite finger.

Dexter's late great foster dad Harry Morgan was also a cop. Harry realized that Dexter had the makings of a serial killer when Dexter was young. We are told that Harry taught Dexter to only kill people who deserve killing. Throughout the book, Dexter endeavors to live up to The Code of Harry. The first principle is not to get emotionally involved. Dexter comes close to violating that essential rule in the book but does not cross the line.

This book has all the elements of a thriller, complete with one high-speed chase. Jeff Linday the author has also managed a fair amount of forensic psychology in it, especially in portrayal of a sociopath as one without feelings. The one and only weakness I can point to is the repeating of a phrase several times by Dexter the narrator whenever he chooses not to answer a question that might give him away.

I genuinely like this book, read it in one sitting. I like this book so much that when done with it, I was ready to go out to the bookstore to get the other three. No doubt the other three books will make their way into the home library. Not since Jeffrey Deaver's Lincoln Rhyme mysteries was I so captivated by a crime fiction book.

Highly recommended for readers who watch C.S.I. and who are fascinated by serial killers.

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Mexico Lindo

2009-06-08T16:47:00.001-04:00

Mexico Lindo describes itself as a "Family Restaurant and Cantina." It has four locations-- Melrose and Methuen in
Massachusetts, South Portland and Portland in Maine. We visited the one located at 865 Forest Avenue in Portland,
just down the street from The Caravan Bead Shop. Steps and a ramp lead up to the front doors which are situated
behind a Thai Restaurant. Once inside, we saw colorful clean premises and cheery personnel. We were immediately
seated in a booth whose table was painted flamingo pink, given menus, and asked what we wished to drink. Along with
the water (no straws) came a basket of chips and some watered down but fresh salsa. The salsa did not have much
hotness to it and we figured that was in deference to northern gringos who dislike food that burns on its way down
the esophogeal canal. The chips were homemade and delicious.

For our main courses, I had Carnitas de Res (8.45 lunch special in the back of the menu) and companion had Chicken
Mole (also an 8.45 lunch special). According to the menu, my dish is described as "Top sirlion, grilled and sliced
with bell peppers and onions, sauteed in...mild sauce, served with rice and beans and melted cheese, guacamole and...
warm corn or flour tortillas." The meat was sliced thin and flavorful. the bell peppers and onions were fresh. The
sauce was tomato-based and yummy. The rice was separate from the beans with melted cheese but were easily mixed
together to form a satisfying repast. I chose the flour tortillas. They were good.

Companion's chicken mole sauce was peanut butter based with less chocolate and more cinnamon than I personally care
for. The chicken was shredded nicely and well cooked. Coleslaw was crisp. His rice and beans were served the same
way as mine. Companion remarked that his corn tortillas tasted suspiciously of wheat (a potential problem for any
patrons with celiac disease). Otherwise, companion enjoyed his meal.

We declined dessert. Our bill came to under 20 dollars. Recommended for those on the road and looking for something
slightly different but reasonably priced lunch.

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Desert Solitaire, Edward Abbey

2009-06-04T14:11:00.002-04:00

Abbey, Edward, Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness. New York: Ballantine Books, 1968. paperback, 337 pps.

Naturally since I am on an island in the northeastern part of the United States this week, I decided to pick up an Edward Abbey book about living in the desert of Utah for reading. Abbey was a guy (he is dead now) who liked his living and had many things to say about stuff I am just getting educated about now. The books covers a couple of
summers worth of time spent living in an old trailer at Utah Arches before Industrial Tourism came in and wrecked everything. Abbey had a pithy style of telling stories interspersed with humor which I admire greatly. He spoke about the desert surrounding the town of Moab, the hikes he took, his reflections on nature as found in the desert, the great irrigation and dam projects which served to and continue to serve to obliterate much of what was once remote and beautiful. Glen Canyon was one such place and Abbey described a rafting trip there before the engineers took over.

Abbey and his friend with one bum leg navigated the Glen canyon on a blow-up boat-- no leaks, rips, or holes the whole trip. There was catfish aplenty, a few day hikes which Abbey took alone, petroglyphs and pictoglyphs left by the natives in times past. It sounded grand and I would have liked to float through Glen Canyon myself.

On another trip, Abbey went down the Grande Canyon in Arizona (I'd been to the rim) and he stopped at the Indian settlement at the bottom. The folks there had been wise enough to refuse the government's offer of a "free road" which would have enabled more tourists to wreck havoc with their way of life. Abbey stayed in the tourist hostel one night, then rented a house. He floated a few more miles down the Colorado River and slept out in the stars among some old ruins. It sounded wonderful!

Abbey's dealings with the tourists passing through Arches is not to be missed. Of particular hilarity are the questions that the tourists asked him over and over again. His comment on television caused me to laugh out loud. Something there about vacuum tubes. Many of the tourists complained about the rutted road they had to take to go into the Arches and leave by in order to get to the highway. At that time, there was also no soda machine-- that little "problem" has probably been fixed by now.

It is hard to summarize this book. A few of the things Abbey talked about I had passed through on my cross-country trip several years ago. Most of it was foreign to me and even so I was moved when reading about the plight of the desert out west. I came away with a distinct feeling that I will not purchase any land west of the 100th meridian and a desire to see more of the desert which I had caught only glimpses of in my travels.

Highly recommended for those who like the outdoors and simple living.

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Lost on Planet China by J. Maarten Troost

2009-06-04T14:10:00.001-04:00

J. Maarten Troost, Lost on Planet China. New York: Doubleday, 2008. paperback, 382 pps.

I have become a fan of Troost. I was first introduced to his rollicking style in The Sex Lives of Cannibals and went
on to laugh through Getting Stoned with Savages. Lost on Planet China is Troost's third book and I hope there are
many more to come.

J. Maarten Troost decided to go check out China. He was unable to pick up any Mandarin Chinese and knew virtually
no one when he landed in China. The book narrates his haphazard voyages around mainland China. I learned several
things from this book: the air in China is incredibly foul, and so are the bathrooms. Prostitution is rampant there.
Karaoke bars are very popular. At one such bar, he was forced to sing "Hotel California" for his guide of the day
whose name was MewMew. People are numerous. Lines are disorderly and little kids are encouraged to use the streets
as a restroom. And I won't quickly forget the mental image of schoolkids pissing on the Great Wall.

While retaining his humor, Troost also addresses the race toward Industrialization and Bigger Cities that continues
to be going on in China as well as the desert which continues to threaten to overtake Bejiing. Not a riotous book
but still recommended to those who like his writing.

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Down the Nile, Rosemary Mahoney

2009-06-04T14:08:00.001-04:00

Rosemary Mahoney, Down the Nile: Alone in a Fisherman's Skiff. New York: Little, Brown & Co., 2007. paperback, 269 pps
excluding bibliography and reading group guide.

Rosemary Mahoney is a rower by choice. She likes it. She first began to row from a Casco Bay Island in Maine where
she used to live to the mainland. She continues to row where she now lives in Rhode Island. Having been to Egypt
a couple times before, Mahoney became enamoured of the Nile itself as well as with the folks who live along side it.
She decided that she wanted to row part of the Nile.

The problem is that (most of Egypt is Muslim and there are a few Coptic Christians thrown in for good measure) as a
woman in Egypt, Egyptian men did not believe that she should or could do much strenuous work. She found the purchase
of a skiff to be very difficult. She ran into an Egyptian man who did allow her to row his boat around the hotel
where she was staying at. The friendship between her and Amr resulted in her being a guest in his home on Elephantine
Island. At long last, she was allowed to row his boat partway up the Nile with his felucca sailing behind her. At
a halfway point, she takes her leave of Amr and succeeds in buying her own skiff. She rowed the rest of the journey
alone.

rosemary Mahoney has written a fine book. The rowing is essential to the story but also a backdrop. Through her
experiences, she illustrates the difficulties that vastly different cultures have in understanding each other. She
also quotes from the travels of several other Nile travelers-- among them Florence Nightingale. Florence Nightingale
was far more than the nurse I had learned about in grade school. For me, the book got off to a slow start, the middle
was excellent, and the ending was rather anticlimactically and suffered a certain lack. At any rate, this book comes
recommended to armchair travelers looking for something a bit different. I also must admit that Down the Nile seems
to me to be very much chick lit and not something that the average man would appreciate.

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Bitter is the New Black

2009-06-04T14:06:00.001-04:00

Jen Lancaster, Bitter is the New Black. New York: Penguin Books, 2006. paperback, 400 pps.

Jen Lancaster had a high tech career and an expensive wardrobe, a live-in boyfriend, and a penthouse apartment in
Chicago. The memoir opens with a series of e-mails before one is transported to a high-tech chartered fishing boat
where she holds court via an impromtu comedy routine. She was a rising star in the company one day with a promotion
in hand. The company was in the process of a merger/takeover and thus two days later she was dismissed. Laid off.
Done. Five years later she was still unemployed.

During those five years, Lancaster sold most of her extravagances on E-Bay. She also married the boyfriend, moved to
a "slum" (in comparison with her old digs), and acquired two dogs. She never did buy the fancy 8K couch with no
back. The two dogs were a total riot, her quest to find employment was one I can relate to. These days employers
want one's experience to be specific to their job offer. For instance, years of tutoring adults with a myriad of
disabilities somehow does not translate into the ability to make sure that the folks living in a community residence
for those with "mental health challenges" are doing their laundry on a regular basis or washing dishes.

The reason why I had picked up this book at the island library buck for a book sale is that Lancaster became a blogger
during the time of her unemployment. In fact, she was not hired at one company because they had mysteriously "found"
her blog. She had published a list of places which passed on her for work. Some of that company's client companies
had made the list. The interesting thing about finding her blog is that the domain wasn't registered to her, but
rather to her live-in boyfriend. The personnel woman refused to say how her blog had been found. It turned out that
a former co-worker competing for the same position had spilt the beans about Lancaster's website.

The first half of the book to me was boring. I have never been a clothes horse. Lancaster made the point many times
over that she was. The second half moved quicker for me and there were some priceless moments. Her description of
her Las Vegas wedding made me smile. The best thing about the book was it left me curious about her blog.

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The Last Gangster by George Anastasia

2009-05-14T19:38:00.002-04:00

Anastasia, George The Last Gangster
New York: Harper, 2004.
paperback, 341 pps., with b&w pictures

When I was in sixth grade, I said something about the Mafia. The teacher (who was Italian) retorted, "Oh, you watch too much television. There is no Mafia."

Over the past several years, himself and I have watched the steady influx of mafioso chronicles infiltrating the true crime section at the bookstore. We have read many of them. And we own quite a few.

The Last Gangster is a true gem of a book. Anastasia's style highlights his subject and it is evident that he knows it well. The Last Gangster plays out on the streets of Philadelphia (and some other places like southern Jersey). The well-researched book chronicles the failing Philly family after the days of Bruno, the bloody struggle for power, and the reflections and experiences of Ron Previte who was wired for sound. Previte comes across as a WYSIWYG sort of guy without any phoney baloney conversion experiences.

Worth reading for anyone who is fascinated by mafia history or desires a deeper look into the psyches of made guys.

sapphoq reviews

Harry and David

2008-12-25T20:17:00.001-05:00

This year instead of rushing around madly finding presents for the adult members of my family, I ordered Harry and David stuff for them. Harry and David is a company that does expensive fruit and other goodies in baskets. I spent more money than I would have liked but saved time, energy, gas, and frustration associated with crowded malls. Although some Harry and David stores do exist in malls, they do not usually ship from the mall stores. For that, one needs the catalog and access to the internet or a telephone.

Last Friday I roused myself out of my indifference and attempted to get to the online version of Harry and David but was unable to for awhile. When I finally did get there, I found that correlating the catalog I'd gotten in the mail with the online products was exceedingly difficult-- probably due to my traumatic brain injury related processing difficulties. At any rate, I couldn't manage so I shelved the internet in favor of ordering by phone via a real live person.

The woman I got to on the phone was efficient and pleasant. My ordering was done within eight minutes. And everything got to the relatives on Christmas eve.

Ordering from Harry and David on the internet: recommended only for those who are neurologically intact.
Ordering from Harry and David via telephone: highly recommended for the rest of us.

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Jetting with the Swifter

2008-11-12T10:52:00.002-05:00

The other day, I went to visit a friend who recently acquired a brain injury and like me is not eligible for any services because we have the misfortune not to qualify for medicaid or consequently for the brain injury medicaid waiver program or house-cleaning help. Anyone who has ever struggled with damage to their frontal lobe knows that organization, multi-tasking, and motivation all are various shades of difficult to impossible. It is no surprise really that the ability to do housework in any meaningful way resides within executive functions.

Friend is overwhelmed by housework and so I volunteered to mop a bit. She handed me a purple plastic thing called a Swifter Wet Jet (tm). This contraption is a step up in complexity from the Swifter mop (tm) which is a green plastic thing that I have used for several years now and loved. The Swifter mop (tm) is admittedly not designed for rugged cleaning. This Swifter Wet Jet (tm) thingy is.

The overall purpleness pleases me as a purplephiliac. And the stick itself was study. The place where one attaches a sticky pad is wider than the plain green mop. There is also a strip attached to the side which I found to be rather useless. I prefer the strips to be part of the sticky pad myself. At any rate, with button pushing the Swifter Wet Jet (tm) emits a stream of special Swifter Wet Jet (tm) liquid dirt-busting cleaner. I was quickly done with friend's floors. And there was none of the "omgz I have to drag this heavy pail of sudsy water around" feeling. So I went out and bought one.

I got my shiny purple package home. After a difficult assembly, I discovered to my horror that (1). the Swifter Wet Jet (tm) requires four AA batteries and (2). according to the owner's manual one is not supposed to use it on unfinished hardwood floors. From the owner's manual I also gleamed that there is a model that charges; that horrible things will happen if one were to use strips, cleaning solutions, and sticky pads other than those manufactured by Swifter (tm); that there are several versions of the approved cleaning solution; and that one should never attempt to disassemble the purpluscious thing I was holding.

With batteries grudgingly installed and visions of purple plastic pieces scattered about, I set out to conquer my beat-up linoleum floor and my unfinished beat up wood floors. The stream of liquid set off by pushing the white button is adequate and the sticky pad showed evidence that the mop was indeed working to pick up dirt, dustbunnies, and dog hair. Clean-up afterwards involved simply tossing the recyclable sticky pad into the trash. Nothing horrible happened to my unfinished beat-up wood flooring.

On the minus side of things, the pad could be sturdier. It tended to fall apart with the vigor of my application. The mop does not manuever easily in anything other than straight lines. The white strip on the side can only be ordered via the website to the best of my knowledge and it is useless where it has been placed. And of course the demands that one uses only the strips, cleaning solution (and the purple plastic bottles are not supposed to be refilled), and the sticky pads put out by the company put me off. What put me off most was having to install batteries into a mop. Surely there must exist a valve connection thingy that would open to emit fluid without the need for batteries or electric recharging.

sapphoq reviews says: The Swifter Wet Jet (tm) is probably satisfactory to those who are more typical customers. It also has its uses for those of us who are not able to slug around buckets of soapy water. However, it will not replace same. Overall a C+ is awarded.

Swifter Wet Jet (tm) http://www.swiffer.com/swiffer/en_US/wetjet.do

Peter Kahrmann

2008-10-27T19:16:00.003-04:00

Peter Kahrmann is an ex-cabbie from New York City with a traumatic brain injury. He was shot in the head and part of the bullet is still lodged in his brain. I have heard Peter speak several times at Best Practices and in a few other places. Most recently, a friend and I went to the Albany Public Library on Saturday to Peter's weekly and free workshop/support group.

Peter was running late. Friend and I went to a room up on the third floor. We were the first ones there. Shortly after, we were joined by another survivor and his helper. The helper went off to get someone to unlock the door. More folks drifted in-- survivors, professionals, helpers, and family members. Small talk and introductions were slow.

When Peter came into the room, the atmosphere instantly changed. People became animated and eager to talk. People hugged. Peter recited a creed which reminded us that we were in a place where all of us are equal (including the helpers and professionals) and free from judgment. We all went around and introduced ourselves.

Peter talked some about various areas of the brain and their functioning. I have read and heard similar material. The difference is that Peter furnished his information with easy-to-remember examples culled from the group itself. It was there that I learned that the reason why my "ability to multi-task has shit the bed and ain't coming back" (as the neuropsych from Sunnyview so eloquently expressed it a few years ago) is because of frontal lobe damage.

If any of you ever have a chance to venture into Albany New York on a Saturday, do go to the Public Library on Washington Avenue at 1 p.m. ish and mosey up to the third floor conference room. Do go visit his blogspot blog over at http://www.thekahrmannblog.blogspot.com.

spike

Dear Asswipe 7/5/08

2008-08-05T16:31:00.000-04:00

A big fuck you going out to V.E.S.I.D. for operational failure.
Taking the side of the stoopid job developer in demanding I get a "return to work" note for a vertigo attack-- bovine fecal matter.
Furthermore, as far as "return to work," what work?
Screw off.
If you aren't going to help me, then get the fuck out of my way.

No love,
the traumatic brain-injury malcontent on your overflowing caseload.

The Roomba (tm) two years later

2008-07-31T20:24:00.003-04:00

Yeah a couple of years ago I got a Roomba randomly automated vacuum cleaner and I fell in love. The little whirly brush (shabbily made) snapped off about a year ago. I left the thin plastic arms in place and found that dog hair will twirl around them and twist into little balls. I could replace the whirly brush but so far have not felt any inclination too.

The rest of the Roomba is still working fine. It excels on sweeping floors as well as carpets. In fact, the Roomba can negotiate floor surface changes from linoleum to wood to carpet or throw rug without difficulty. The only catch is any rug with fringes-- better off picking those up. The Roomba doesn't do fringe.

A visit to the iRobot store on-line at http://store.irobot.com/home/index.jsp reveals that now in addition to a two-Roomba-vac sale, there is also now a pool cleaning model as well as the floor-washing and shop-sweeping robots. I can also upgrade my old vac model for a new and improved for 200 bisexual bucks. (The newest vac model goes for approximately 300 dollars). Thanks but no thanks. I shall keep my old Roomba until it dies.

sapphoq reviews

Wafergate LOLCatified by the illustrious Owlmirror

2008-07-13T03:09:00.003-04:00

Below is an excellent rendition of Wafergate which has been LOLCatified by the Illustrious Owlmirror.
(sapphoq reviews says: full of win!)

The following was copied and pasted from Owlmirror's comment over at P.Z. Meyer's science blog:

Being aware of All Internet Traditions™, I think we all know that no Internet Phenomenon is complete until it has been properly LOLCATIFIED.

Thus, we present for ur lolz:

WAFERGATE

CEILING CATLOLIC IS WATCHING YOU MASTICATE

Act I, Scene I
University of Central Florida, Catholic Chapel

PRIEST: JEBUS HAS A FLAVR!

PARISHIONER 1: I CAN HAS JEBUS CRACKER?
PRIEST: YES, YOU CAN HAS JEBUS CRACKER.
PARISHIONER 1: NOM NOM NOM

PARISHIONER 2: I CAN HAS JEBUS CRACKER?
PRIEST: YES, YOU CAN HAS JEBUS CRACKER.
PARISHIONER 2: NOM NOM NOM

PARISHIONER 3: I CAN HAS JEBUS CRACKER?
PRIEST: YES, YOU CAN HAS JEBUS CRACKER.
PARISHIONER 3: NOM NOM NOM

WEBSTER COOK: I CAN HAS JEBUS CRACKER?
PRIEST: YES, YOU CAN HAS JEBUS CRACKER.
WEBSTER COOK: YAY, JEBUS CRACKER SOOVENEER!
PRIEST: WAIT, WHUT?
WEBSTER COOK: KTHXBYE

PARISHIONERS: NO! YOU NO CAN HAS JEBUS CRACKER! NOT YOURS!

WEBSTER COOK: FEETS DON'T FAIL ME NOW

PARISHIONERS: OMGWTFBBQ!!!!!
PARISHIONERS: NOOOOOOO! HE BE STEALIN OUR JEBUS CRACKER!!!

Act II, Scene I
Diocese of Orlando

GONZALEZ: HALP! JEBUS CRACKER IS KIDNAPPED!
SUSAN FANI: STEALIN JEBUS CRACKER IS HAET CRIEM!

Act II, Scene II
Catholic League

DONAHUE: STEALIN JEBUS CRACKER IS TERRIBLE HAET CRIEM!
DONAHUE: EXPUL-SION-ATE! EXPUL-SION-ATE! EXPUL-SION-ATE!

Act III, Scene I
University of Central Florida

EMAIL TO WEBSTER COOK: WE SAD
EMAIL TO WEBSTER COOK: WE WANT JEBUS CRACKER
EMAIL TO WEBSTER COOK: WE MAD
EMAIL TO WEBSTER COOK: WE WANT JEBUS CRACKER
EMAIL TO WEBSTER COOK: WE FIND YOU
EMAIL TO WEBSTER COOK: WE RESCUE JEBUS CRACKER
EMAIL TO WEBSTER COOK: WE BRAEK IN
EMAIL TO WEBSTER COOK: WE RESCUE JEBUS CRACKER
EMAIL TO WEBSTER COOK: WE KEEELL YOU
EMAIL TO WEBSTER COOK: WE RESCUE JEBUS CRACKER
WEBSTER COOK: DO! NOT!! WANT!!!

Act III, Scene II
University of Central Florida

WEBSTER COOK: DO NOT WANT JEBUS CRACKER. TAEK IT.
PARISHIONERS: YAY! WE CAN HAS JEBUS CRACKER!
PARISHIONERS: WE GET COPS TO GAURD JEBUS CRACKERS NOW.
WEBSTER COOK: WTF?

Act IV, Scene I
Pharyngula Headquarters

PZ MYERS: WTFBBQ!!!
PZ MYERS: CATLOLICS GO APESHIT OVER JEBUS CRACKER!
PZ MYERS: IT'S A ~~GODDAMN~~ FRACKIN' CRACKER!
PZ MYERS: TEH STUPID, IT BURNZ!
PZ MYERS: WANT CAN HAS JEBUS CRACKERS!
PZ MYERS: DE-SE-CRATE! DE-SE-CRATE! DE-SE-CRATE!

PHARYNGULA: LOL
PHARYNGULA: SAD CATHOLICS ARE SAD
PHARYNGULA: CONCERN TROLLS ARE CONCERNED
PHARYNGULA: ANGER TROLLS ARE ANGRY
PHARYNGULA: HATE TROLLS ARE HATIN
PHARYNGULA: SOCKPUPPETS ARE SAD+CONCERNED+ANGRY+HATIN
PHARYNGULA: WTF! SOMEONE IS WRONG ON TEH INTERNETS!
PHARYNGULA: THEY SEE US SCOFFIN, THEY HATIN
PHARYNGULA: (Repeat above 1000 tiems)
SCIENCE BLOGS PHARYNGULA DATABASE: AAAAOOOOOGAAAAH! OVERLOAD!
SCIENCE BLOGS PHARYNGULA DATABASE: ERROR 500 SERVER ERROR!
PZ MYERS: WTF! NEW THREAD.

Act IV, Scene II
Catholic League

DONAHUE: DESECRATIN JEBUS CRACKER IS WORSE THAN HAYT CRIEM!
DONAHUE: EXPUL-SION-ATE! EXPUL-SION-ATE! EXPUL-SION-ATE!

Act IV, Scene III
Pharyngula Headquarters

PZ MYERS: WILLAIM DONAHUE IS DEMENTED
PZ MYERS: PHARYNGULA! HALP!
PHARYNGULA: PZ MYERS IS TEH AWE SUM!
PHARYNGULA: SAD CATHOLICS ARE SAD
PHARYNGULA: CONCERN TROLLS ARE CONCERNED
PHARYNGULA: ANGER TROLLS ARE ANGRY
PHARYNGULA: HATE TROLLS ARE HATIN
PHARYNGULA: SOCKPUPPETS ARE SAD+CONCERNED+ANGRY+HATIN
PHARYNGULA: WTF! SOMEONE IS WRONG ON TEH INTERNETS!
PHARYNGULA: THEY SEE US SCOFFIN, THEY HATIN
PHARYNGULA: (Repeat above 1000 tiems)
SCIENCE BLOGS PHARYNGULA DATABASE: AAAAOOOOOGAAAAH! OVERLOAD!
SCIENCE BLOGS PHARYNGULA DATABASE: ERROR 500 SERVER ERROR!
PZ MYERS: WTF! NEW THREAD.

Act IV, Scene IV
Pharyngula Headquarters

PHARYNGULA: ~~SECOND~~ ~~THIRD~~ ~~FOURTH~~ FIFTH VERSE, SAME AS TEH FIRST
PZ MYERS: HEY! SOCKPUPPETS! GET OFF OF MY LAWN!
PHARYNGULA: (REPEAT SUM MOAR)

TEH END.......?

Posted by: Owlmirror | July 12, 2008 4:37 PM

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/07/fyi.php#comment-980385

Pow-Wow in Yosts, New Yak

2008-07-07T21:35:00.002-04:00

Saturday I had the pleasure of attending the pow-wow in Yosts, New Yak. Admission was six dollars, with an option to get a mark on one's hand for leaving and re-entering. Tents and small camper trucks were scattered in the sparse woods and fields surrounding the site. The site itself was rather compact although pleasant with a mixture of sun and shade. The pow-wows I had attended in previous years were held at the Auriesville Shrine in a larger but too sunny.

I wandered around the vendor sites. I found one site with donated ice cream and popcorn from Stewart's. My first food purchase was a chocolate cone for a buck. Other sites had the usual assortment of homemade crafts and ribbon shirts. One enterprising local man was selling leather seconds for cheap. Piles of colored one-sided suedes tempted the eye. The proprietor told me that some folks had purchased swatches on Friday and had some other folks make regalia out of them. "Make your own fun," he told me. Although I was tempted, I held on to my bisexual bucks.

Much to my delight, I met a couple of old neighbors who also had made the trek. We sat together at a picnic table by the circle along with several other folks who for various reasons could not sit comfortably on the ground and had not brought chairs. We were a cheerful lot and conversation flowed amicably. During the afternoon, we became six acquaintances sharing a good time rather than random strangers.

Joe Firecrow performed starting at just before 12 noon with some fluting and his amazing singing voice. Following, the east gate was opened to the honor guard. Several inter-tribal dances followed. A repeat (from other years) performance by the Aztec Salinas Family of Mexico City was fast-paced. Volunteers enjoyed participating in a dance contest between the "beautiful ladies" and the "ugly macho men." After the contest, we volunteers danced in a friendship circle with the Salinas. A red blanket went around for donations. Not enough people were giving though as Miguel remarked that they would have to sell the two family chihuahuas!

It was shortly after three p.m. and some fry bread and homemade limeade that I left. There was going to be a trading blanket that evening but I was tired and the distance was too far for me to consider a round trip.

Although the grounds this year were smaller and thus compacted a bit, the trees made for a very pleasant surrounding. I enjoyed myself immensely and came away relaxed and happy. The indigenous and native-americans present were open and welcoming of those of us whose ancestors had migrated to the States later on. Public attendance at this pow-wow in particular is encouraged and is considered to be a teaching event as well as a gathering of tribes.

sapphoq reviews

Only a Theory by Kenneth R. Miller

2008-06-13T19:08:00.002-04:00

Only a Theory: Evolution and the Battle for America's Soul, by Kenneth R. Miller. 2008: New York, Penguin/Viking. hardcover. 244 pp. inc. index.

Kenneth R. Miller, a biology prof at Brown U., testified on behalf of evolution in a DeKalb County, Georgia courtroom. He also met with a certain Kansas school board regarding intelligent design and had some doings in Dover, Pennsylvania. Unlike the more controversial Richard Dawson, Miller is a monotheist.

The book is written in understandable English and includes a few scattered black and white illustrations. Miller covers the plagiarism inherent in Intelligent Design (I.D.), recounts the history behind the phrase "intelligent design," the distancing of most proponents of I.D. from the young earthers, and attacks the fallacious 'logic' behind the famous mousetrap argument. He also explains where the artifacts are for a particular enzyme whose lack forces humans (and closest primate relatives) to consume vitamin C rather than produce it naturally in the liver, where the artifacts are for the two clotting factors missing from those humans who have hemophilia A or B, and the evolutionary descent of horses.

Miller does not hesitate to plunge into the factors which have contributed to the in-fighting between Americans and I.D. vs. evolution in public school science classes. As an expert witness, his job was to build a case for evolution in the courtroom. Miller has penned a comprehensible book which answers many questions from a scientific standpoint. Particularly refreshing is his willingness to take on Intelligent Design as a serious theorem for the origins of life. Those who are proponents of I.D. probably will not come away converted. The average layperson who views evolution as the basis for all modern scientific understanding will come away better able to refute the claims of the most ardent in the I.D. camp.

sapphoq reviews

Voted Out of Kindergarten-- Alex Barton

2008-05-27T21:48:00.000-04:00

The blond-haired little boy stared back at me from a photo distributed on the w.w.w. [w.w.w. = world wide wasteoftime]. In a parody of democracy in action, Alex Barton was voted out of kindergarten for the remainder of the school day last Wednesday. His crime? Having a neurological condition called Asperger's and some associated behavioral problems. The teacher-- a Wendy Portillo-- cajoled her class into voting. And reportedly had children describe what they didn't like about young Alex. One reported adjective was "disgusting." Two kids voted to keep Alex in the classroom that day. The majority voted that he be excluded. Alex who was just returned to the class from the principal's office for his behavior spent the rest of the school day in the nurse's office. Needless to say, Alex has not been thrilled about his experience.

Although folks on both sides of the issue have resorted to name-calling, what I find even more repugnant are the public comments which support Wendy Portillo in her actions. Her excuse ran something like teaching the children about tallying. I wasn't there but I have an opinion anyways-- bovine fecal matter to that. Was the teacher lying about the whys and wherefores of her ill-advised election activity a la Survivor fashion? Nah, she was just being reckless with the truth.

Yes, I know how difficult it can be to maintain reasonable discipline and order in any rowdy bunch of human beings. Been there, done that. Yes I am intimately acquainted with the cluster of symptoms which comprise Asperger's. Of course I know how aggravating it is to herd cats.

I also know the frustration of living with atypical neurology.

I do not belong to the Autism Squeaks camp. [Autism Speaks but not for me, a curebie organization of unhappy parents]. I don't understand why forcing eye contact is such a big deal to neurotypicals, don't wish to blend in, will not give up my passions, and certainly will continue to celebrate diversity. I hate all clothing that is not cotton. I detest polyester and nylon in particular. I don't use makeup or wear high heels. I used to stare at the dust specks illuminated by the sunlight pouring through a window. I was clumsy rather than graceful and the last to be picked for any gym class team. I have been accused of staring too long, daydreaming, having obsessions with the things that are of intense interest to me, being intense or too intense or thinking too much about weird things or the wrong things, eating food in a specific order rather than varying what is on the fork from bite to bite, eating the same thing for breakfast daily, not making small talk, not caring about small talk or the lives of celebrities, being a geek or a space cadet or pedantic, not fitting in. And worse, daring to be content with my own company and my own internal focus and my own way of being.

No Child Left Behind. One Child Voted Out.

radical sapphoq says: A huge phooey to Wendy Portillo. As an adult and as a teacher, I cannot believe that she didn't have other options for dealing with a misbehaving five year old.
While I support reasonable discipline and consequences for one's actions, I abhor what happened to Alex Barton. I sincerely hope that he will find a new classroom where he is valued for who he is, a teacher who knows about the issues that people on the broad autistic spectrum face and who has a better arsenal of tools for keeping order in a classroom.

Bev over at Autism Square 8 has an excellent list of who to write to should anyone feel so inclined:
http://aspergersquare8.blogspot.com/2008/05/not-special-support-alex-barton.html

Educate yourselves if you wish to. Here is a partial incomplete list which includes two news articles from the same newspaper in Florida and some other bloggers who are blogging about this crapola:

excellent thoughts about this whole mess
http://lastcrazyhorn.wordpress.com/2008/05/25/the-golden-rule/

Laura Hershey
http://crip-power.com/2008/05/27/thoughts-on-alex-barton-and-the-way-we-organize/

the politics of exclusion
http://qw88nb88.wordpress.com/2008/05/25/mend-the-link/

Amanda
http://ballastexistenz.autistics.org/?p=538

an interview with Alex Barton and his mother
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/05/27/earlyshow/main4130288.shtml

two Palm Beach Post articles-- links working as of 5/28/08
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/treasurecoast/content/tcoast/epaper/
2008/05/27/0527slteacher.html#comments

and
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/treasurecoast/content/tcoast/epaper/
2008/05/23/0523slclassvote.html?cxntlid=inform_artr

Labels: Alex Barton, Asperger's, broad autistic spectrum, No Child Left Behind, One Child Voted Out, Wendy Portillo

SecondLife, a Virtual World

2008-05-10T14:41:00.003-04:00

SecondLife is my reason for not blogging for the past almost two months. Thus, this review.

SecondLife (tm owned by Linden Labs) is a virtual world where folks get to look hotter than they do in first life. There are almost no fat people in SecondLife and that includes me. In SecondLife, my hair actually does something, I am tall and thin and blonde and hawt enough to be working as a stripper earning mucho Lindens.

Lindens are the monetary exchange units there. People can buy lindens with their real money or can earn lindens by camping (doing a catwalk, dancing, cleaning, or sitting around), getting a virtual job, or going into business for themselves or with partners.

Some folks buy virtual land in SecondLife-- like me-- and others don't. Some folks go on luscious virtual shopping sprees and others-- me again-- rely on freebies to outfit our avatars. There is plenty to do on SecondLife. Within the past month and a half or so I've taken some classes, joined some groups, hung out with other avatars, gone camping, did some discussions, went to some A.A. meetings, built some houses (that look like someone with brain damage built them, accurate on all accounts), and gone exploring. I've danced and rollerskated, flown and crashed numerous times.

The minuses are easy to delineate: some folks can spend too much real money having a virtual good time; there are avatars there who spam, try to convert you to their religion, or pick you up for a freebie session of virtual sex; sexual organs (vaginas and penises) are available as freebies but to get the really good ones (that respond to virtual probing) one has to pluck down some Lindens, and all of the orientation islands are totally whacked out and confusing. Oh yeah, and there is the same superficiality that plagues the rest of the worldwide waste-- we don't really know just who we may be communicating with most of the time.

So is SecondLife worth the annoying grid lock-ups and crashes? Maybe. Each individual will have to answer that one individually. It depends. Guardedly neutral on this one folks.

Whatever Happened to SpamBob

2008-03-11T18:23:00.000-04:00

I don't know what happened to SpamBob, the site that allowed you to create an email addy with the "@SpamBob.com" (or .net if you wished it to be forwarded).

The great folks at BugMeNot have partially filled in the gap. Goto http://email.bugmenot.com/
to created a non-password protected email addy "@bugmenot.com."

I will miss SpamBob although I applaud BugMeNot for branching out in their services.

spike

Second Life

2008-03-02T00:40:00.003-05:00

I went off to Second Life to check it out. I'd been reading somewhere how a few companies are using it to promo their product and how it is a game but not a game. I opted for a freebie account because I am not sure if I will make it there and besides, 75 bucks or so for the year is a lot to shell out. Even 9 bucks a month is a lot. Especially if being there is no escape from consumerism.

Paid folks get an allowance weekly-- 300 Linden Bucks, abbreviated L$ and the opportunity to own a small parcel of land. Freebie folks can sometimes get jobs or engage in exotic dancing or whatever to get some moola. Well, anyways at first there is orientation and I learned how to fly rather quickly. After flying, I learned how to search, communicate, and work with my inventory.

I joined some groups-- some Discordians are there on Second Life. Besides the Discordians, I joined a couple of pagan groups, a witch group, and a few bi groups. There is a limit of how many one can join but I didn't hit that limit.

To play on Second Life, one has to download about 70mgs in a bundle. That installed quickly. What I really disliked was having to install Quick Time Player. I did have some fun though. I chatted with a couple of folks, got some chainmail for free, and watched a few people crash-land.
I also drove a steamroller and squished some cyber-rats as was my civic duty. Next visit I shall venture off the Orientation into Second Life itself.

sapphoq reviews

Wikileaking Wikileaks

2008-02-23T18:33:00.000-05:00

Any of you who have been following the drama over at Wikileaks will be glad to know that following this here linkage: http://88.80.13.160/wiki/Wikileaks will get you there (a mirror site from Sweden) for the time being anyways. Alternate linkage outside of the United States was part of the original plan-- to have sites set up in various countries should the courts of one country succeed in getting a shutdown order. Here's another one, this one is based in England: http://www.wikileaks.org.uk/wiki/Wikileaks .

Wikileaks protects whistle-blowers from corporations (or governments) who would much rather not have folks tattling on any suspicious practices. Recently, a Swiss bank challenged Wikileaks and now the site is facing a court battle with the United States versus responsible exercise of the First Amendment. Bloggers across the internet have protested the February 15 court decision and this blogger too joins in the fray. Buzz-flash has quite a few things to say about this whole mess over at: http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/contributors/1545 .

Quite amazing to me is that the court case took place in the United States. While the order to erase the D.N.S. from U.S. servers will certainly not hold up on appeal,http://commons.globalintegrity.org/2008/02/us-court-order-shuts-down-activist-site.html<--- here it is disconcerting that this case involving documents regarding a Swiss bank doing business in the Cayman Islands made it court on United States soil. Still, we are far better off living here than in places like Egypt where one can be severely physically beaten for dissident web-surfing and document leaking or in Red China or even Vietnam where folks have been imprisoned for similar activities.

radical sapphoqcross-posted all over

Wikileaks
first amendment
censorship
sapphoq

Three Little Words: A Memoir

2008-02-16T07:57:00.002-05:00

Three Little Words: A Memoir by Ashley Rhodes-Courter

On our weekly jaunt to the bookstore yesterday I picked up this book and read the whole thing in the cafe. I was immediately captivated by the author's vivid descriptions of her life and the people in it. Ashley and a younger half-brother were removed from her mother and step-father's care and moved around in the Florida foster-care system for years. Foster homes ranged from okay to really really bad. Most were overcrowded. [One couple was prosecuted for the things they did to the children in their care but received very little punishment for their crimes.] Finally landing in a children's orphanage, Phil and Gay Courter came forward to adopt Ashley. Tragically, the younger half-brother's adoption didn't work out and he was returned to the orphanage.

The conversations ring true, the feelings are very poignant, the healing shows in this book. This book will not rip you raw in the way that Dave Peltzer's writing does. It may leave you with a gut feeling that the foster care system is broken and a desire to be part of the change necessary.
Especially compelling is the list toward the end of the book of the sheer numbers of people who were supposed to protect Ashley while she was in the system.

Recommended for those readers who like this sort of thing and wish something beyond the oh-poor-me syndrome.

sapphoq reviews books and more

Viking Kitties

2008-02-13T07:59:00.000-05:00

http://www.rathergood.com/gaybar/
http://www.vikingkittens.com/

Es Traicionero

2008-02-03T10:02:00.000-05:00

Al pan, pan y al desprecio, al desprecio.
Y el diablo ha vendiendo iconos religiosos para los lameculoses.

¿Puede usted decir muchachos y a muchachas de las "alimentaciones agregadas"?

Ha Ha. Opt OUT!
Parado el incomodar de mí. No más de mi dinero para LJ.

¿Y dónde es la nueva TOS? Ahogado en mierda.
Ponte mosca, ponte mosca.

spike

A Brief Blog Review plus a bit of Vocabulary 1/18/08

2008-01-18T23:59:00.000-05:00

I recommend both Commie Journal and Insane Journal to anyone looking for an alternative to Live Journal or Multiply.com.

Live Journal continues its' public relations fiascos with a brand new 2008 news announcement which is epic fail. The announcement claims (falsely) that the 500 journals suspended in May 2007 were immediately restored and is generally full of teh stoopid. Any announcement which hails a flagging system so the trolls can rat out the rest of us just goes to show how the corporate brain works.

Commie Journal is an adults only site with free, annual, and permaccounts (currently selling for the cheap until the end of January). Because Commie Journal is adults only, there is a certain relaxation there associated with not having to police other peoples' rugrats on the web. Communities are not really functional yet due to lack of users. Definitely worth a look however and hopefully the site will grow.

Insane Journal is not adults only however is similar to Commie Journal in other ways. Communities are a bit more functional but still lacking the flair of personalities which developed on El Gay.

And now as promised is a brief vocabulary review. Readers may add their own vocab words for blogging in the screened comments.

ban_set: blocking an annoyance from posting comments on your journal.

Barak: a past boss of El Jay who was caught mocking users in a community devoted to same.

Blog: short for web blog, usually focused on one topic or subject and may include pictures, artwork, opinions, references.

Blogspot: this here site, duh.

Brad: legendary dude who started El Jay but who has since defected in order to have a real life.

Cat Macros: what happens invariably whenever Live Journal staff make yet another profane announcement of what is happening or what is going to happen to the users.

Censorship: something Live Journal engages in to protect hundreds of children who are too stoopid to lie about their ages in order to read the good stuff.
something Yahell 369 has engaged in to protect its' trolls from everyone else.

Comments: what readers may post in response to user posts on a blog.

Commie Journal or C.J.: Commie Journal-- run by my friends Nebris and Shamangirl-- a fantastic site for adults only which doesn't give two shits about social acceptability.

Communities (or Asylums on Insane Journal): places where folks with a common interest can get together and kick it. The following example is from the Insane Journal Asylum thefridayfive over at http://asylums.insanejournal.com/thefridayfive/1627.html?view=9051#t9051

1. Would you rather be alone OR surrounded by enemies for the rest of your life?

I like my own company; so, alone. I am indeed solitary by nature in many ways.

2. Are you an early bird OR a night owl?

Night owl. I used to be an early bird. As part of my sleeping disorder manifested itself (the part that puts me into REM sleep very late in the sleep cycle, not the part that is the sleep apnea and treatable), my sleeping pattern changed to what it is now.

3. When sick, do you prefer to be pampered OR left alone?

Leave the food right over there please and now go away. The worse thing: having company when throwing up. The best thing: I rarely throw up.

4. Do you believe in the relative OR the absolute truth?

I don't know. And I remain unconvinced that anyone, including all the philosophers, really do know. Perhaps there is a bit of both without any one statement belonging to both at the same time.

5. Which is worse, the Burning Question OR the Painful Truth?

Neither. Both must be faced up to and wrangled with. It is better to question than not to question for out of a question comes possibilities (and sometimes an answer or two). And it is better to know something unpleasant (like the state of one's health or one's relationship) than to live a lie or a fiction. Knowing implies ability to take some sort of action that is meaningful and direct. Deceit leads to plastic living and missed opportunities.

Covenspace: designed with pagans and heathens in mind.

Dashboard: on blogspot the place which shows your blog information and from which you can update your profile or your blog(s).

El Jay or El Gay: Live Journal, site where censorship is becoming the norm.

emo: never capitalized; possessing a Beatles haircut and a dramatic flair for description of ordinary events.

epic fail: cruddy and opposite of full of win.

F'Locked: Live Journal users who haven't left are friends-locking their posts in order to protect themselves somewhat from the Censoring Trolls.

full of win: awesome and opposite of epic fail.

G.J.: Greatest Journal, a dying journaling site which had a fair share of fanfic lovers and spambots.

hijacking the thread: same as in e-groups; a troll making irrelevant comments in a thread which causes the subject under discussion to change.

Icons or avatars: small user pictures usually 100x100 or less inserted into a journal by the user.

I.J.: Insane Journal, another fantastic journaling site run by Squeaky who swears not to censor unless forced to by a properly filled-out legal takedown order.

Journal: something like an on-line diary which may include anything that a blog can include, with the added feature of a friends-list. Live Journal, Dead Journal, Commie Journal, Journal Fen, and the now almost defunct Greatest Journal are all based on the same open-source code with individual embellishments.

Journal Fen: another fantastic site where fanfic folk tend together.

Llama Drama: chaotic mayhem created by El Jay users.

Live Urinal: El Jay on a regular business day.

mockity mock mock: making fun of a user or posts to a blog or community which is full of teh stoopid.

Multiply: where many of my Yahell 369 friends and blogging buddies fled to. potential for future censorship is great.

My Space: a blogging site primarily overrun with teenagers and their stalkers.

Pagan Nation: a board associated with A. J. Drew and the Drewbies vs. the Dancing Wiccans-- the Frosts. has free wordpress blogs associated with it, however the words "So Mote It Be" appear after every frigging post.

Paganspace: a take-off of Covenspace, designed with pagans in mind.

Posting: typing an article, essay, or thoughts onto a blog.

Posts: the user's contribution to the blog.

SUX: variation of S.U.P. which stands for Single User Portal i.e. the Russian Company which bought out Live Journal from Sux Apart (or Six Apart or 6A).

teh stoopid: self-explanatory. In common usage: Teh stoopid has taken over teh corporate brain at Live Urinal.

Troll: someone who skates around the internet with the intention of causing mayhem and division.

Users: bloggers or folks who use a particular blogging or journaling site.

wank: reaction of fans to anything wanky; mental masturbation on paper.

WhacKKKoes 4 Installation-of-spyware: Warriors for Innocence who claim they are doing it all for teh children.

Word Press: for the serious intellectual blogger.

Xanga: a blogging site much like My Space without the emo.

Yahell 369: yahoo's blogging site which is now going to be terminated at the end of January.

sapphoq reviews

Aureantes' Realm

2008-01-08T01:12:00.000-05:00

http://aureantesrealm.blogspot.com/
is the latest addition to the blogroll and definitely worth a look-see. I met Aureantes via his Live Journal. He is well-spoken and knowledgeable about what he writes. His observations are pithy.
Singular word to describe him as I perceive him via his postings: wise. Best thing about his stuff: the evident research behind it using primary sources whenever possible.

Aureantes' Link List on his blogspot also does not disappoint. His interests are varied. And I like that.

sapphoq reviews

Jesus Camp

2008-01-01T21:32:00.000-05:00

Several nights ago i watched "Jesus Camp" on A&E teevee. I found it to be both enlightening and scary. The enlightening part-- President Bush's visit. The scary-- the idea that folks actually believe the things that the folks at Jesus Camp believe and that some of those folks are willing to act on those beliefs within the political structure of our society.

For those not easily offended by differing viewpoints, it is worth a look-see. I found the dancers with their military camo make-up to be interesting, the kid who got saved at the age of five to be memorable, the idea that any teacher would tell kids that if they "believe in creation" [rather than evolution] that they "are stupid" to be shameful and hopefully not accurate. I cannot agree with the news reporter who likened Jesus Camp to brainwashing. If that is brainwashing, then any religious instruction provided to children by their parents is brainwashing. [Actually I might give a nod to the last sentence, in spite of its' engagement in overgeneralization].

I'm glad the kids in the vid weren't shooting up heroin. I'm saddened that dominionism has come to be so accepted by so many who don't have a clear notion of all that it entails. I refer the reader to Wikipedia for the definition. There are several branches identified there-- hard Christian nationalism vs. soft Christian nationalism in particular as well as several influences.

Okay so I am somewhat of a nerd. Here I must confess to being interested in the idea that those within the Christian national movements do not refer to it as being dominionism. Since I am on the "wrong" [read: dechristianized bisexual pagan witch with atheistic leanings and a clear opposition to creationism/intelligent design being taught in science classrooms] side of these things, I may never know how the dominionists refer to themselves aside from the word "Christian." And I do wonder what ever happened to the notion that rock music is "of the devil." Times change I guess and so do ideas. European classical composers fought similar accusations way back when by composing music for kings and church services.

Yes, I am aware that not all Christians count themselves in with the Jesus Camp crowd and the Christian nationalists. For that I can only be extremely thankful.

sapphoq reviews

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5745767401002835964 <--- Google video of "Jesus Camp" as shown on teevee without the commercials.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominionism

Finding Common Ground

2007-11-27T21:13:00.000-05:00

The things you learn in maturity aren't simple things such acquiring information & skills. You learn not to engage in self destructive behavior. You learn not to burn up energy in anxiety. You discover how to manage your tensions. You learn that self pity & resentment are among the most toxic of drugs. You find that the world loves talent but pays off on character. You come to understand that most people are neither for you nor against you: they are thinking about themselves. You learn that no matter how much you try to please, some people in this world are not going to love you - a lesson that is at first troubling & then really quite relaxing.

-- John W. Gardner

excerpts from my own posts at http://pagannation.com :

Well, okay.
There are a bunch of things here that I don't know or can only guess at and perhaps we agree on some of those?

I don't know how person X is as a mother.
Person B has seen person X with her kids.
My fellow wingnut friend C for whom I feel some affection has not observed Person X with her kids.
I will rely on the observations made by Person B-- that Person X is a good mother to her kids.
And yes, I have to agree it is a low blow to any mother to be accused of poor parenting or things similar or worse.

I don't know how many screws loose any of us have.
Is having one big screw loose worse than having two or three little ones loose? What proportion of big screws to little screws determine the severity of the rattling around of a brain?

Even if any or some or two or all of us do have screws loose, is that germane to the original argument?
Is my not being entirely sure of the original argument an indication of too much caffeine [actually caffeine calms me down] or too little caffeine or
an indication of my own brain injury gone awry from fatigue or
perhaps that I've just stumbled into this forum haphazardly?

I don't remember getting born.
A bunch of other people assure me that I was born.
On earth.
So if they are lying, is there a chance that I am a martian viking transplant?
How do I know?
What are my sources?
How valid are they?
Can they overcome my innate strangeness and sense of otherness?

Or, maybe you think I am a whack shack and in that respect as bad as Alan Webster or should be committed or a funny farm escapee or
any number of things.

Here I have to admit that vingnut, whack shack, mental derangement, screws loose, schizo, hallucinating... are just words to me and rather devoid of meaning or threat.

And if you were to tell me that I need "mental help" of some sort, since you aren't my medical doctor I am free to discount that conclusion while admitting that my posting is off the wall.

Yet if you began calling me a Untied [spelling on purpose] Statsian version of Alan Webster [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article787073.ece], I am free to examine the evidence and conclude that there really isn't any evidence for me being an Alan Webster [http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,1793469,00.html] in the making.

As Nathaniel Branden would say [badly paraphrased here] what other people think about me today can never be as important to me as what I know to be true about me.

What I am trying to convey here is that as long as PersonX knows he is not as sick as despised scumbag, not as bad as despised scumbag, not like despised scumbag; and there is no legal evidence that he has ever done things similar to the things despised scumbag has done [shudder],

isn't it more important that PersonY and crew know that he is not despised scumbag, as bad as despised scumbag, or like despised scumbag in respect to that sort of stuff?

This is a forum. It is a lively forum and there are some exciting people here yet it is a forum. Whatever mix of people on this forum may like me, hate me, think ill of me, wish me well, don't have many thoughts about me at all, it is still just a forum.

The sun will more than likely rise and set somewhere in the world at some time tomorrow, my dog will still wish for me to take her for a walk and spend time with her, there will still be laundry to do and bills to pay and frogs for me to feed, and so on.

Marian Zimmer Bradley said, "The world will go on as it will, and not as you or I would have it."

Bowing out now,
spike q. whack shack

***

To practice self-assertiveness is to live authentically, to speak and act from your innermost thoughts and feelings, as a way of life-allowing for the obvious fact that there may be circumstances in which you wisely choose not to do so-for example, when confronted by a hold-up man.

— Nathaniel Branden

My self-respect is not based on how well I defend myself in a public forum
*or on whether or not I choose to defend myself at any given time in a public forum or in real f2f life
*or on people choosing to think less of me because of my choices in this matter.

I don't operate under the same rules or shoulds as you do.
Different strokes for different folks.

Of course it is always acceptable for someone to choose to defend themselves, their reputation, their character, their abilities, their family members...

The operative word here for me is "choice."

There are times when I may deliberately choose not to defend myself. When I choose thusly, it is an active conscious choice. In my own case, my level of self-respect does not dictate my actions or my choices when it comes to arguments and disagreements.

For example, lets' say you or someone here accuses me of being as bad as despised scumbag or a pedohead or another Alan Webster [http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/article752141.ece] or really sick in the head, demented, needing medication, or any other thing. My choice to defend myself or not will be based on several factors.

When I choose to defend myself, my self-respect is not one of the determinants in making that conscious deliberate choice.
When I choose not to defend myself, it is not a sign that my own self-respect is sinking or not existing at a good enough level.

I appreciate that self-respect may be one of the factors for others when they decide to defend their character. It just doesn't weigh when I have to pick which battles I will fight, that's all...

spike

I am a viking vingnut or is that a wiking wingnut
or maybe a ...

***

Of course it is always acceptable for someone to choose to defend themselves, their reputation, their character, their abilities, their family members...

The operative word here for me is "choice."

There are times when I may deliberately choose not to defend myself. When I choose thusly, it is an active conscious choice. In my own case, my level of self-respect does not dictate my actions or my choices when it comes to arguments and disagreements.

For example, lets' say you or someone here accuses me of being as bad as despised scumbag or a pedohead or another Alan Webster [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Webster] or really sick in the head, demented, needing medication, or any other thing. My choice to defend myself or not will be based on several factors.

When I choose to defend myself, my self-respect is not one of the determinants in making that conscious deliberate choice.
When I choose not to defend myself, it is not a sign that my own self-respect is sinking or not existing at a good enough level.

I appreciate that self-respect may be one of the factors for others when they decide to defend their character. It just doesn't weigh [in] when I have to pick which battles I will fight, that's all.

spike

***

My intention was not to call into question Person X's ability to parent and nurture her children.
Nor was my intention to smear or besmirch anyone's character in any way.

Actually, my intention was to find a tiny bit of common ground with you rather than to concentrate on our differences.

Perhaps you or anyone may wish to ask Friend C why she said the things she said. Or not as you choose.

It is not for me to speculate upon the actions of another. For me to guess would be mental masturbation. My brain is battered enough from thinking my way through everyday life.

I endeavor not to engage in sorting people into categories such as [opposing camps]. Usually, I will take people at their word unless there is a preponderance of credible evidence to the contrary.

...The rest of my post did have something to do with all of the name-calling, character assassination, labeling on the parts of many of us here regardless of "sides" and alliances-- and other thoughts and observations that flitted through my head at the time that I was typing it.

As always, you or anyone is free to disregard or to place my name on the iggy collection.

If it don't apply, let it fly.

Kyrra,
spike

***

Your balls don't itch?
I was just about to suggest athlete's foot cream...I don't see why that wouldn't help itching in damp places.

I will duck now.
spike

***

No. I'm saying [that if] you stick your feet on your balls often enough they can suffer from fungus.

Okay now I am really ducking.

spike

***

Warm coffee salve applied to the balls will relieve the itch temporarily.

I read that in a book somewhere.

spike

***

Regarding Person Z's chocolate balls.
No actual balls were harmed in the creation of this treat.
Had they been harmed, we would have told you so...

Actually, his balls are like fluffy bunnies.
They reproduce, however not on this plane.
The chocolate balls have reproduced themselves on an astral parallel plane of existence, thus we are free to offer you Person Z's chocolate balls for loving and gushing without impinging upon the immoral scrutinies of anyone observing us for fear of us becoming a mob of thinkers and doers--

On the second day of solstice, my lover gave to me
two chocolate balls and a...

spike q. chocolate freak

***

Oh goody an assassination.
Two tickets for front row seats please and some popcorn heavily buttered.

Two-four-six-eight!
Who do we assassinate?

Oh what's that? Yuck, no thanks. I don't eat hot dogs and I don't allow my dog to either.

spike

***

Quote: Spike, you have been assassinated!

I have resurrected myself with the help of a holy pot of coffee poured onto my smoldering remains.

*Ta-da*
Never better.
Wow. More muscles even.
And I'm thinner and blonder.

Walking along in the woods by the coliseum, my dog brings back a limb-- looks like a right forearm-- of--
oh no it couldn't be!-- Person R!

Crap! Hey everyone, Person R has been assassinated!
Oh what to do, what to do.

Doggie, put down that limb!

spike

Quote:

Here's how it works:

I just assassinated you! You are now dead. Or you can resurrect yourself and assassinate someone else. All you have to do is just post in the assassination forum this entire post...

Okay, I can't tell you who assassinated me, or I'll lose! So, I have chosen to resurrect myself and assassinate you!

GAME ON!!!

***

I don't believe that our government has proven itself to be adept at keeping very many secrets secret.

Nope, I don't believe that Bush "ordered" 9/11, plotted it, caused it, was in cahoots on it, or any other thing.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/1227842.html

http://www.debunking911.com/

http://www.daylightatheism.org/2006/05/loose-marbles-i.html

***

I do not believe that President Bush is a puppet of the Religious Right. There are many assumptions about his specific religious beliefs floating around

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24634-2004Sep15.html

however, I am personally appalled at some of his policies. There is some evidence for the idea that the agendas of the Religious Right are being pushed through the Senate and Congress in the form of various laws.

http://www.theocracywatch.org/
The folks at Theocracy Watch are based from Cornell U.

Call me reactionary or a crackpot or any other name if you will, I care not.

Bottom line for me is I don't particularly care for what is happening to this country in terms of religiosity and how that effects policy-making.

We disagree on this last I am sure and I for one agree to disagree peaceably.

spike

***

Yep, well-versed on that aspect.
And opinionated too.

I don't happen to believe that Bush is anyone's pawn.
I do believe that the preponderance of evidence points toward the founding fathers [signers of the declaration of independence] were deists rather than christians

and that furthermore, even if the United States was founded as a christian nation, it does not naturally follow that it should remain so today.

spike

***

I like fluffy bunnies coated with shake-n-bake and barbequed.

spike
a wiking wingnut

_________________________
I am a viking vingnut or is that a wiking wingnut
or maybe a ...

***

...am I growing on you like a fungus?

I hear that coffee is a great anti-fungal...

spike q. fungus

Fungi rule. Pictures of fungi altered make great backgrounds for e-stationary.

***

Okay, I am not a fungus then.
A mold?

I must be a mold.

That's it! I'm a mold.

[spike goes wandering off in the direction of coffee and happy pills]

***

sapphoq on life

Borders' Open Mic Night 11/21/07

2007-11-22T00:54:00.001-05:00

Borders' Bookstore in Albany New York had an open mike night the evening before the American Thanksgiving holiday. Jessica and Matt were the youthful and ambitious announcers. Open mike will be held on the third Wednesday of the month is what Jessica told me. She admitted that last month was her first time ever doing this and last month was the first one at Borders'. There was a small crowd of about 15 people in the coffee shop, including a guy passing through from Indiana.

First to open were Joshua and Josh on the piano. They did a snappy ragtime rendition duet. I didn't recognize the music but I knew I should have.

I read three of my poems next. I had to hurry up and substitute a bit of language. I curse fluently and my prose poems are no exception to that rule.

The Spanish Dragon one man band did a spirited rendition of George Michael's "I Want Your Sex."

The American Elk followed up on acoustic with a couple covers of No Doubt and ended with the Marcy Playground Classic "Sex and Candy." He sounded just like John Wozniak. He treated us to various voice contortions done with skill during his set.

Ken Nelson from Indiana led off with three instrumentals on his 12 string Fender guitar which he had written himself. Of the three-- Daybreak, Firefly, and Tucson Nights, I thought Firefly was the most technically satisfying and was reminiscent of the flamenco playing found in a certain Spanish restaurant Down Neck years ago.

Matt read a poem by a woman named Lori who had also lived in Tucson. He had a fine reading voice. Her poem was about the dreaded high school class reunion and was well received.

The Spanish Dragon and The American Elk duetted on a song called "El Presidente." Both young men demonstrated a nice range of vocals.

I read another poem and two lists-- one is called "How I Realized I had a T.B.I." and the other is a tongue-in-cheek list of possible jobs not necessarily approved of by the local unimaginative VESID office.

Ken Nelson did a cover of "House of the Rising Sun." [I would have liked to hear The Spanish Dragon and The American Elk do it instead as their voices are far more suited to it]. He finished with the self-written instrumental "Dunes" which was most excellent.

Mate was tiring so we left at that point.
The next open mike will be held the third Wednesday of December. Barring snowstorm, I will be there.

sapphoq reviews

Multiply

2007-11-16T17:03:00.000-05:00

With the dieing deathship Yahell 360 sinking, many of my Yahoo buddies flocked to Multiply. I had never heard of Multiply before last month but I elected to add yet one more blogging site so I ccould keep in touch with those who were determined to move in to Multiply.

Multiply is free. If there are ads, I miss them totally because of my settings on my browser.

Adding a profile pic, adding other pics, inviting friends and blogging buddies, cross-posting to other sites such as livejournal, blogspot, and xanga are all handled in a straight-forward way. I also uploaded my yahoo 360 blog into Multiply and that went smoothly although it took a few minutes.

Theme styling is something else again-- neither straightforward like blogspot nor with the option to upload your own background sans CSS. Perhaps there is an option to upload backgrounds but I haven't found it yet. There is a choice of 12 themes and a link to a page of a user group which includes Multiply user-made themes. I really ought to learn some CSS. Oh well. Meanwhile, I am satisfied with my default theme since it is rather plain and makes for easy reading.

The guestbook on Multiply is reminiscent of MySpace with a sprawling long line of "huthas" and glittery things from friends. The place where one can see who posted what since the last visit is easy to use, intuitive, and certainly faster than yahoo's little layout. The profile has pics and vids and music as options that one can choose.

So far it is okay and more will be revealed in months to come.

sapphoq reviews

A Cup of Comfort for Writers ed. by Colleen Sells

2007-10-31T17:40:00.000-04:00

A Cup of Comfort for Writers, ed. by Colleen Sell. Avon, Mass: Adams Media, 2007. 327 pp., paperback.

"I write because, if I don't, I will explode" Camille Moffatt writes on page 30 of A Cup of Comfort for Writers; a collection of short prose pieces (1000-2000 words) by such notables as Sally Bellerose, Pat Gallant, and Lauren Kessler. Many of the writers in A Cup of Comfort for Writers knew early on that they were writers, some as early as grade school. Essays about experiences with teachers and mentors, rejection slips, writing workshops abound. Writers who need short interludes between the vast expanses of solitude will find kindred souls and a cup of comfort in this book. Those who don't write probably won't be interested.

sapphoq reviews

Please Stop Laughing at Me by Jodee Blanco

2007-10-26T20:03:00.000-04:00

Please Stop Laughing at Me, Jodee Blanco.
Avon, Mass.: Adams Media Corp., 2003. .

Jodee Blanco was teased in fifth grade for befriending a deaf girl who also had severe vision problems that also attended her school. When Ms. Blanco refused to play a mean trick on an elderly woman, her classmates turned against her. Sixth grade continued to be hell. In seventh grade, Ms. Blanco transferred to a school for the gifted.

But gifted kids are not immune to the lures of being bullies, and once again Ms. Blanco found herself on the fringe. By high school, she was getting beaten up regularly. She was also mocked for having a physical deformity which required surgery to correct. Her parents sent her to a shrink who recommended pills; and then to biofeedback sessions.

In the pages of this personal treatise on bullying, Ms. Blanco records her repeated public humiliations and grapples with serious issues.

...Why are the kids who get picked on by the school bullies always the ones who
end up being poked and prodded in psychiatrists' offices? Why aren't the bullies
ever taken to psychiatrists? Why do doctors keep telling the parents of the victims
that it's their children who need help? And what about the parents of the bullies?
What is wrong with all the adults? It seems that if you are mean or cruel to another
kid, that was "okay" because it was just a normal part of growing up. If you are on
the receiving end and allow it to bother you, you were the one who needs help. What
kind of logic was that? p. 87

Please Stop Laughing at Me has plenty of insights about vulnerability and humanity. Ms. Blanco matriculated into New York University (N.Y.U.) and later on became a media success. The reader will wince at the defeats of her earlier school years and applaud at what she has become.

For those who are intrigued by a sharp environmental analysis, the book is highly recommended.

sapphoq reviews

National Novel Writing Month

2007-10-14T15:52:00.000-04:00

I'm writing a novel in November. Yes, a real novel of at least 50,ooo words. I've signed up over at the nanowrimo site: http://www.nanowrimo.org and gotten my Novel Writing Kit from the bookstore on Friday.

The NaNoWriMo site is still a bit buggy however it is loading faster than a week ago. That is the place where one can sign up, have a small "about me" profile, and subscribe to a regional board or two if one so desires. It is free. Donations will not be turned away [to help pay for hosting of the website and to help build new libraries in Southeast Asia]. Participation does not depend upon financial ability to contribute.

Here are some stats pasted directly from the media kit located at: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/mediakit

Founded: 1999 in Oakland, CA

Annual participant/winner totals:

1999: 21 participants and six winners

2000: 140 participants and 29 winners

2001: 5000 participants and more than 700 winners

2002: 13,500 participants and around 2,100 winners

2003: 25,500 participants and about 3,500 winners

2004: 42,000 participants and just shy of 6,000 winners

2005: 59,000 participants and 9,769 winners

2006: 79,813 participants and 12,948 winners

[end of direct paste]

NaNoWriMo has built 22 libraries via site contributions and sales from its store. Additionally, fifteen authors are listed as having novels published. Perhaps I too will get on the list.

Word counts can be uploaded every day during November and a final word count [of the potential novel which may be submitted in scrambled format] may be submitted at the end of November. Winners are those who have reached or surpassed the 50,ooo word limit. There are no prizes, except perhaps for the satisfaction of having written at lest 50,000 words in one month. Some regions may hold any of the following: a meet and greet, a pre-kick off party, a kick-off party, and a hooray it's over party.

The novel-writing kit which I've gotten from the bookstore [also available on the NaNoWriMo site at their store] is strictly speaking not necessary. It contains a booklet of inspirations, a card-a-day card pack, a log and gold stars, pep-talks in the form of letters, a novelist certirficate,
commitment coupons, and a button. I bought the kit for the card-a-day pack. The commitment coupons provide an opportunity for others to get the would-be novelist promise to do "things" if failing at the word count. I plan not to use those. I will probably hang up the chart with the daily count and gold stars. I will be wearing the novelist button before I reach my word-count as a way of evangelizing the program and my participation in it. I figure the more people know what I am up to in the month of November, the more I will be motivated to actually get my 50,ooo words down.

Folks have already asked me what my novel will be about. The truthful answer is something along the lines of, "I have no idea" [adding the hopeful word "yet" in my head while swallowing panic]. I am doing this and hopefully I will find, claim, sweat out, torture a novel into existence somehow. And the month of December is for the re-write. Maybe by January I will actually be submitting the novel or portions of the novel to a real publishing house.

IF the novel I write this November actually sees publication [not self-publication], I pledge to donate some portion of my royalties to NaNoWriMo and their library-building project. The universe does not distribute riches and bonuses for free. There is always a price.

This is my first crack at trying NaNoWriMo and at a novel. It is not my first crack at writing. Besides the numerous blogs zooming around in electronica, I also do have bunches of poetry, a couple of essays, a few short stories, and some really bad 2 dimensional drawings which have been published in a variety of literary magazines, fanzines, as well as in four anthologies. [Oh noes, I've been anthologized!] Whether or not the stuff is of lasting literary value is irrelevant quite frankly-- because I have been published extensively I can indeed call myself a writer. I do not know if I will ever attain the status of a Stephen King or a J.K. Rowling-- being among the sainted 5% who are able to quit their day jobs and write for a living. I do know that writing is lots of work and writing professionally is highly competitive. This has been a lifelong dream of mine and so I have reached a crossroads of sorts.

I would encourage anyone who has secretly or not so secretly dreamed of being a writer to submit their work and to begin reading publicly at coffeehouses and open mic nights, join a writer's group at the local library, and to write regularly. I further encourage anyone who is serious about wanting to write a book to join up over at http://www.nanowrimo.org/ and commit to the dream.

sapphoq reviews

A Field Guide to American Houses, by Virginia and Lee McAlester

2007-10-06T21:45:00.000-04:00

A Field Guide to American Houses, by Virginia and Lee McAlester.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006.
525 pps., including index.

Virginia and Lee McAlester succeed admirably well in this volume at what they have set out to do. A Field Guide to American Houses is a treasure trove of black-and-white line drawings and photographs designed to help the reader identify houses commonly found in the United States. I became interested in architectural styles in the course of planning renovations of my own one and a half storied front gabled craftsman with a centered side dormer and eyebrow. I was also able to identify a friend's home as Germanic Gothic, the Victorian stick down the street, and the Sears bungalow around the corner.

Through A Field Guide to American Houses, I learned quickly to study houses in a new way. The text is readable and the book is sensibly divided into sections based on a timeline of building styles. Highly recommended for anyone with a serious interest in the guts of houses. The forty dollar price tag may be out of reach for some; however the atmosphere of many of today's bookstores allows for reading and study without purchase. I have spent a week of Sundays doing just that with this book. I found out just today that I am getting this book for Yule as a present from my honey. Hooray for me!

sapphoq reviews

Ingenious and Giveawayoftheday

2007-09-05T20:55:00.000-04:00

Those of you who do not know about Giveaway of the Day really ought to go check it out over at
http://www.giveawayoftheday.com. The folks there give away a different licensed pay software program for free daily. I have the site bookmarked so I never miss out on a chance to get something of value that I might actually want for free-- and legal. Past giveaways have included back-up and watermarking programs, algebraic calculators and html validators, toolkits for the aspiring geek and D.V.D. rippers; and more. Each giveaway lasts for 24 hours.

Several days ago I downloaded the game Ingenious from Merscoms Ltd. Ingenious is a board of pentagons upon which one of each of five colors [red, blue, orange, yellow, green] are placed. The player starts by placing one double helix-pentagon on one of the singular colors. The computer [or other player] does the same. Turns go back and forth. When one color of the five are completed on a chart in the left-hand corner, the "ingenious" button lights up and the player gets another turn. When there are no more moves left, the game is over and the screen announces the winner.

My love of shapes and colors keeps me coming back for more Ingenious [as well as for more of Snood, my all-time favorite which also has shapes and colors]. I am not sure I would have plucked down $19.95 but I was more than happy to be able to download Ingenious for free. At the Giveawayoftheday site, Ingenious is running with a 97% approval rating.

It's too late to get Ingenious for free. There are plenty of other programs to be had-- full-featured licensed programs-- at the rate of one a day. I urge you all to check out the Giveaway of the day site daily. There is a high probability of worthwhile snagging to be had there for all.

sapphoq reviews

Cassandra Eason's Complete Book of Natural Magick

2007-08-27T16:06:00.000-04:00

Cassandra Eason's Complete Book of Natural Magick, Cassandra Eason.
New York: Quantum, 2006. 528 pps.

Cassandra Eason was originally known in psychic circles. Unfortunately, she has now branched out to calling herself
a witch and a druidress. Her most recent books have deteriorated into imagination run riot. This particular book
has a companion-- equally hefty-- book of Spells.

In Natural Magick, Eason starts off with basic witchery: a how-to for those who bear fascination but no experience.
After the first 64 pages, she gets into the meat of the matter dealing with such subjects as spell bags, plants and
animals, the senses, element[al]s, and deva. There are suggestions for spells and commonplace observations written
in a breezy tone, correspondences scattered throughout, and a rather piteous description of "drawing down the god
or the goddess."

It is Eason's discussion of "magick of the nature spirits" that falls most tragically short and potentially dangerous
for the read-a-book-wiccans. Eason talks about setting up an altar for angels [reminiscent of Silver Ravenwolf's
work], connecting to elementals [shudder], the "devas," and the fae. She neglects to mention the real power held by
the beings that are featured in wannabees' aspiritions and forgets to warn that not all of the Good Peeps are good
or friendly.

It is with sadness that I cannot recommend this book to any but those who are most discerning of bullshit. And those
who are won't want it in their collection.

sapphoq reviews

Meeting the Other Crowd, Lenihan and Green

2007-08-27T16:05:00.000-04:00

Meeting the Other Crowd: The Fairy Stories of Hidden Ireland, by Eddie Lenihan and Carolyn Eve Green.
New York: Penguin, 2003. 332 pages.

The authors traveled around Ireland and recorded the stories that people had to tell of the Fae. Words richly
illustrate tales of chance encounters, captivity, gifts with high price tags attached, and the occasional beneficiary
relationship between the two races. In these pages, one will find scholarship, knowledge of Gaelic, and wisdom.

The book is divided into three parts: encounters with the fae and a bit about what they want, where they live and
symptoms of their presence, and gifts given. Each chapter is a story complete unto itself. Putting the need to
scientifically prove and disprove aside, one will quickly warm to the tales of Biddy Early, fairy forts, and favors
done.

A fascinating book and highly recommended to any who wish to read about experiences with the Good Folk.

sapphoq reviews

The Fifth Sacred Thing, by Starhawk

2007-08-27T16:03:00.000-04:00

The Fifth Sacred Thing

The Fifth Sacred Thing, by Starhawk. New York: Bantam, 1993. 486 pages.

The Fifth Sacred Thing is a futuristic novel set in the year 2048. It is a speculation of what can be. It is a
story of resistance, of witches vs. other. And so much more. From the first sentence on the first page to the last,
the reader is taken on a captivating journal of interweaving plots and characters and elements. A rather skillful
weave it is.

San Francisco is the place held by witches, where the four elements are free and not to owned or sold. Polylove
is present as well as memories of Vietnam, the hippies, and Che. The dead interact with the living and all religious
expression is embraced. [Atheists however are distinctly lacking]. Angel City in stark contrast has been taken over
by the Stewards who are anything but. There is a mean prison there, toxic waste dumps, and camps where women breed
warriors for war.

The main characters are likeable and hold evidence of strengths and weaknesses. There is a healer-doctor Madrone who
sets out on a journey that she does not wish, the entrapped Bird, madrina Maya, many lovers and others. Those who
are worthy of hatred are painted with a human stroke also. The battle between having a place with non-violent
resisters and listening to orders barked out by the ones who have stolen the names of their underlings is a very
real one. "I feel like a number. But I'm not a number," sums up the internal struggle of the soldiers of the
Stewards.

The Fifth Sacred Thing is recommended for those who have not lost their patience with feminism of an idealistic
flavor and who enjoy light science fiction. Those who prefer hard science fiction would do better with other books
and other authors.

sapphoq reviews

Battle Cry July/August 2007, Jack Chick and associates

2007-07-29T01:02:00.000-04:00

During my indoctrination into the Aggie Church [Assemblies of God] at a younger age, I was exposed to Jack T. Chick tracts and indeed I used them in my "witnessing" to bring people into fundamentalism christianhood. I was unaware of some of the controversies involved and would have dismissed it as "the work of Satan" if I had known. I had never heard of Alberto Rivera, Elaine Moses and her cohort Rebecca Brown [a.k.a. Dr. Ruth Bailey], John Todd, or Bill Schnoebelen. I did know and read the works of Charles Finney and Hal Lindsay. [By the way Hal, what happened to the rapture occurring in 1981?]

I look back on that period of my life with mixed emotions. The problems that I'd had fitting in socially were not alleviated by my forays into pentecostalism. Nor were my fantasies about women relieved. Two things did happen during that time that may have ultimately saved my life. It was a church member who called my father and blew the whistle on my mother's physical abuse. And I took a break from drinking and using street drugs. It was during that break that I was exposed to an accurate definition of addiction. I remembered that definition several years later when I was seeking a way out of my own active addiction.

Husband [non-theist] has an obsession with Jack Chick tracts. To my chagrin, he dropped-- I think it was-- 15 bucks on a box of them and now he is on the list to receive a copy of each new freebie as it comes out. Additionally, he gets a bi-monthly copy of Jack Chick's little 16 page "Battle Cry."

Jack Chick has been a long-time advocate of conspiracy theories regarding the Vatican, the Illuminati, and witchcraft. Via contact with the late Alberto Rivera and the now convicted rapist alleged former satanic high priest and Green Beret John Todd, Chick has made various claims in his tracts that are not historically accurate. Among the claims are that the Vatican orchestrated the founding of the Muslim religion and the Holocaust, and that an unholy triad of witches, Masons, and Catholics [some being Jesuits a.k.a. Illuminati] have infiltrated all or most christian churches. Sucks to be christian these days. According to Chickology, one can't trust the cops or the folks in most christian churches these days.

Jack Chick has [wisely] chosen to distance himself from the now dead Elaine Moses and her controversial defrocked physician cohort Ruth Bailey/Rebecca Brown. Both have claimed to be witches who converted to Christ. Brown authored a book about curses on christians and others. Elaine Moses claimed to have literally married Satan [in a white tuxedo] and then supposedly traveled all over Europe and the U.S.A. on behalf of some huge satanic network. Brown was brought up on charges [as Dr. Ruth Bailey] for doing things like praying over patients for deliverance from demons, diagnosing non-existent illnesses in patients, claiming special knowledge of healing including sharing Moses' leukemia very much in the fashion of pranic healing but with the twist of actually [allegedly] coming down with Moses' leukemia herself, and injecting people with non-medically necessary controlled substances for treatment of the non-medically existing diseases.

In the July/August issue of Battle Cry in the editorial on page 15-16, Jack Chick claims that the [now dead] Alberto Rivera as a [supposed] Jesuit was told that Pope John Paul II [also dead] in pre-papal days of lusting after the young boys of the factory workers he was [supposedly] assigned to investigate priests who were assigned to minister to Polish factory workers. Alberto Rivera was no Jesuit, despite his pretensions otherwise. He was a bit of a con man and a fraud. Many christian bookstores removed the Alberto comics when he was found out. Chick touted the action as a victory for the Vatican and Satan. In the editorial, there is an oblique reference to the controversy.

Also in this issue are advertisements for various books-- including one by anti-Mason and alleged former wiccan turned satanist Bill Schnoebelen-- witnessing and tract-passing tips, a summary of a lawsuit allowing a bible study outfit to send inmates who request it material [note: an outcome which I believe is correct according to the described circumstances], and references to the sexual abuse scandal within some catholic churches in California [continuation column on page 7 subtitled "Homosexual Subculture"], and a few other tidbits.

The back cover features a cartoon frame equating Islam's promise of peace with chopping the heads off of the infidels. A tiny chick in the right-hand corner says, "Ouch" much in the fashion of Spike the dog in some of the tracts.

I found the editorial in the July/August issue of Battle Cry to be particularly abhorrent. Then again, Jack Chick is known to be anti many things and to use inaccurate or made-up information as the basis of the biographical stories featured in his tracts.

sapphoq reviews

http://faith.propadeutic.com/authors/fundamental

http://www.squidoo.com/garydale/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Rivera

http://www.monsterwax.com/chicktapes2.html

http://www.catholic.com/library/sr_chick_tracts_p5.asp

http://www.chick.com/reading/comics/0112/indefense.asp

http://members.aol.com/monsterwax/Contents.htm

http://www.witchvox.com/protection/kerr_chick1.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_Brown

http://members.tripod.com/monsterwax/brown1a.html

http://www.kt70.com/~jamesjpn/articles/closet_witches.html

http://www.holysmoke.org/wb/wb0073.htm

http://answers.org/satan/brown.html

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/2919/brown.html

http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0046/0046_01.asp

http://www.fecundity.com/pmagnus/darkdung.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Todd_(evangelist)

http://www.kt70.com/~jamesjpn/articles/john_todd_and_the_illuminati.htm

http://www.holysmoke.org/sdhok/todd00.htm

http://www.skepticfiles.org/mys3/jtc-jtc.htm

http://www.masonicinfo.com/schnoebelen.htm

http://www.holysmoke.org/wicca/bills00.htm

http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=cabc&c=whs&id=4355

Order of the Phoenix

2007-07-17T18:23:00.000-04:00

Friday, husband and I went to see the long-awaited "Order of the Phoenix," the fifth of seven Harry Potter movies. I was impressed. The array of special effects was stunning, the plot did leave out lots of stuff present in the book [Hollywood time constraints I suppose], and the development of several characters was notable.

It is noted that Ginny Weasley had a very minor role in this movie and hopefully that will be remedied. Luna Lovegood did remarkably well with her bit, acting every bit the part of a budding young conspiracy theorists. Voldemort remains the evil that everyone loves to hate.

I am noting nothing about the storyline in this review for the sake of those fans who have not been to see the movie yet. With this movie and the seventh book being released within 10 days of each other, there is much cause for rejoicing in those of us who have awaited every new book and every new movie with the eagerness of Snape dealing out detentions to a Griffindor.

sapphoq reviews

Two Forks, Maine

2007-07-12T09:03:00.001-04:00

A friend who is nuts over white-water rafting wanted to goto this place in Maine for a few days and I went along.

We left on Sunday with my doggie looking out the bedroom window and crying. That was a bit sad.
There is no direct route to this place. It took seven hours or so. And the last bit of that was on a rather dinky road.
Ah, but the scenery was most rewarding. There were pine trees and little houses and stores and water and all of that.

The pictures in the on-line brochure really are a poor representation of The Forks Resort Center. Actually, The Forks looked a tad run down.
The lodge was not as splendid, the hot tub was made of metal, the pool had a line of algae along the rim.

The cabins and lake were sweet though.

Our room had comfortable albeit noisy beds, hooks and hangers but no dressers at all.
The air-conditioner [an older model hung out the window] worked well.
No phone in the room-- not even a direct line to the front office or emergency number-- was a safety hazard.
No television was forgivable since the wifi signal reached upward.
And the price-- 25 bucks or so per person per night-- was right.

For dinner Sunday, I had a huge portion of dead cow cooked as steak-- just the way I had ordered it and deliciously flavored with herbs and spices. Along with that came a salad [satisfactory green stuff], mashed red potatoes, and three very large grilled slices of squash.

Monday dawned wet and got wetter.
Friend went off on her white water rafting adventure [$129 buckeroos] after a false start [a showing of a vid and a solicitation to rent a wetsuit]. She came back looking very much like a frozen dead rat.
I spent most of the day sleeping. I did some puttering on the computer.
Friend and I went to the outskirts of Jackman to a trading post which had cool tourist trap stuff.
For dinner we split a plate of nachos. At 5 bucks apiece, it was a bargain. And quite tasty.
A huge portion which included the nachos, cheese, black olives, peppers, onions, and salsa.

Tuesday was a sunny-cloudy-sunny sort of day. The breakfast buffet was like buffets all over. Not distinguishable from any other breakfast buffet. Morning was spent poolside.
Afternoon we went off to Moxie Falls, a quiet stroll of less than a mile to some very turbulent water with signs advising not to even wade.
In spite of the danger, there were two locals jumping off of one rock into a swimming hole.
We also found a small memorial to someone who ?had died? at the falls.
The water was brown from tannic acid and the rocks were all broken up into slender pieces of bluish-gray.

We went off to a meeting that night at the library in Jackman.
It was a small meeting and everyone felt they had to tell us that no one could get sober and stay that way without god.
The regular members were warm and welcoming there, a point in their favor.
We ate at a little diner afterwards. I had a nice juicy reuben.

Today being Wednesday, we packed up and left with rain whipping at our backs.
Yeah it did rain more.
We did get home and doggie was happy to see me.

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DRUG COURT GRADUATION

2007-06-23T19:01:00.000-04:00

I went to Drug Court last week to support a young friend who was graduating from the program there. Drug court is a concept which is spreading throughout New York State. A county judge presides over each one. Some drug courts are very large and have massive community tie-ins and supports. Others are struggling with funding issues and thus are limited in how many people they can help.

When someone is brought before the justice system on charged related to or stemming from chemical addiction, if they are fortunate, someone from drug court will visit them in jail to determine if they are eligible and motivated to stay out of jail or prison. If so, they are released from jail, placed on probation, and must follow their individual treatment programs.

Drug Court is not something that people can just skate through. They are subject to random urine screenings and must report to drug court as directed, usually biweekly. They are given forms to take with them to self-help programs which much be signed by someone there as proof of attendance. The drug court participant must attend day treatment programs on weekdays and any other counseling as directed. Sometimes, they must interview at halfway houses and then follow the dictates of those residential programs as well. Drug court is strenuous by definition. Those who miss days at treatment, are caught driving after losing their licenses, relapse, do not obtain employment after completing a day treatment program, or have a dirty urine may be sanctioned by the court and remanded to jail for a long weekend or two weeks. Occasionally, a drug court participant violates their probation and must go to prison. Almost all drug court participants complete and many go on to maintain abstinence and become productive members of society.

After going through a cursory screening, I walked down the hall and entered the courtroom. The jury boxes on either side of the judge were occupied by treatment professionals and law personnel. I sat in the general audience with the families and friends of the graduates and with those who were not graduating yet. Everyone was dressed up rather nicely. There were no jeans or casual clothing in evidence. The bailiff and sheriff personnel had on their crisp blue uniforms. The judge appeared in a suit rather than in robes.

That afternoon, instead of participants meeting for an hour beforehand to talk, the judge went into what is usually done second-- he called up the participants one by one to his bench to ask how they were doing. Two people were sent to jail for a long weekend. One had missed two days of treatment and one had not brought in his meeting attendance slips. Many people were told, "We have a very good report on you. Well done!" Each was asked by the judge if things were going alright or if they had anything to tell him or how their family was. The judge was obviously familiar with all participants.

While speaking to each one, the judge would dispense tidbits of wisdom. "You have to have a Plan B" was one phrase. "There are consequences for your actions" was another. In speaking to one man who had lost his third job in as many months, the judge told him, "You and your bosses butt heads. You need the job. I want you to have long-term employment at one place. You have to back down. Do not let your machismo take over. Understand?" Another man said he didn't know why two halfway houses had rejected his application. He had three more to hear from and another interview scheduled. After a few minutes of hemming and hawing and then finally admitting that he told the last director of a halfway house that he didn't like group homes, the judge thundered at him, "What do you know about group homes that makes you think you know you won't like it???" The man continued to present excuses. "I think you are sabotaging your interviews," the judge declared. A third, a woman, was cheered because she had managed to gain weight. [She was overly thin]. Everyone clapped for her. A fourth man was advised to get or borrow a bicycle for when his car broke so he could pedal to treatment and to meetings-- that was one of the Plan B people. A fifth was instructed to stick around because the judge wanted to speak with him privately. All of that went smoothly. Folks were called up in alphabetical order. A few seemed a bit nervous. Most were not.

After it was over, a defense attorney who had been the victim of property destruction by the hands of one graduate when drunk gave him his graduation certificate. The judge handed out all of the other other certificates of completion, telling a bit about each graduate and how far they had come, and also reading from something each had written beforehand about how they had changed. Each graduate also said a few words. There were many stories of people who were drunk or high a lot, drove drunk or high a lot, were estranged from their families, were unemployable, had been arrested three, four, five, or six times, had been through treatment programs before and didn't make it. It was heart-warming. Graduates had between fifteen months and two years of sobriety. All graduates were employed full-time or had completed schooling. My friend who graduated had had his house raided. 1000 pounds of mushroom-laced chocolate was recovered during that raid. Before drug court, he had flunked out of a two year college in three and a half years. During his time at Drug Court, he was able to graduate a community college with a 3.75 average and is on his way to a bachelors. He has plans to get a masters.

After the graduation, we went out to a jury room where a nice spread of sandwiches was laid out, along with fresh fruit platters, cookies, pastries, fruit punch, sodas, and coffee. The food had been prepared by members of Lifeworks! Lifeworks! is composed of some folks who are currently in drug court, some who had graduated and a few family members. The tuna sandwiches, [artificial] crab salad sandwiches, and egg salad sandwiches were prepared on small hoagie rolls. I had an egg salad-- it was good. Graduate friend had one of each. Pineapples and strawberries were fine specimens and delicious. Cantaloupe also looked fresh. Pastries from a nearby Italian bakery were tasty.

Everyone who had stayed on to eat were looking pretty happy and excited chatter filled the room. I knew almost everybody there. Friend left because his father [who wasn't able to get the time off of work for the graduation] was there to pick him up. He and his parents were going out to dinner. I spent the rest of the time talking with a treatment professional that I know casually.

For those with concerns about forced treatment programs for addictions, I write this addendum. The participants of drug court were able to resume their lives and stay out of the criminal justice system. They are not accepted into drug court if they do not want to be there and would rather just complete their jail terms or prison sentences. [And yes, some do refuse drug court]. Participation in drug court is an alternative to time behind bars. As such, the participants must be under severe strictures, watched, monitored. They must remain abstinent in order to continue to live in their homes during their time in drug court. They must follow the program guidelines. All of that is as it should be.

Drug court teaches people that their actions do have consequences, that they must change playmates, playpens, and playthings in order to avoid jail time, that they must be responsible for their problems, that they must have a Plan B because the drug court judge does not accept excuses or rationalizations for bad behaviors.

The success rate of people who attend a drug court and required treatment [day treatment; or day treatment plus halfway house] is higher than those who attend any treatment or self-help programs without a drug court. Drug court is another tool that we now have at our disposal in order to mitigate the effects of addiction on society. Putting someone in drug court is cheaper than housing them in the criminal justice system. And many many times more effective in terms of self-rehabilitation.

sapphoq reviews

Mr. Brooks and Shrek 3

2007-06-04T11:28:00.000-04:00

A couple of nights ago, husband and I went to see the movie "Mr. Brooks" featuring William Hurt, Kevin Costner, and Meryl Streep. Kevin Costner is Mr. Brooks, a filthy rich business man with a rather bloody little secret. Marshall, his devious alter-ego played by William Hurt, steals the show. Meryl Streep, Mr. Brooks' wife did alright. His daughter however was just too cute and rather enjoyable as she mirrored my own relationship with my dad when I was younger-- although I was never that coy.

Mr. Brooks is driven by an addiction and goes to the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous-- identifying himself as "an addict"-- to try to escape it. That is only a very small part of the movie but it was the hook which prompted husband to want to go see the movie. Marshall loves the bad thing. He also offers brilliant insights into the workings of his fellow men.

There is one genuinely heart-racing scene involving a white van; and quite a few dramatic holding on to the edge of your psyche scenes. While the two people behind us appeared to dislike the movie and were too loud about it for my taste, husband and I enjoyed it.

Movie has mood music which some folks may not care for. Audiences who are not involved in 12-step programs and who prefer action, action, action would do better to spend their bucks elsewhere. Those of us who like psychological thrillers will enjoy.

***

A week ago, husband and I went to see Shrek 3. I concur with the real movie critics who say 3 was better than 2 but not as good as 1. The sneaky adult-level jokes are missing. The frog-king and the motley assortment of friends and defenders remain very very cool. Ani of course is awesome.

My favorite character remains the orange pussycat and the voice I most dislike remains Pinocchio. Arthur the high school student is introduced and I suspect there will be a Shrek 4. Husband and I will go see 4 I am sure, if only to categorize 4 on the scale of excellence to okay but...

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Mercury Designs

2007-05-21T22:19:00.001-04:00

My new friend from Norway makes beautiful purses and things. I was impressed by both her artistic vision and her craftswomanship. She is saving up for a trip to England. If you are able, please go visit her live-journal pages where you can see some of what she does. Prices are very reasonable for one of a kind articles that cannot be found anywhere else. And if you are unable to buy anything, show her some love and encouragement in her comment section.

Spread the word. http://mercury-design.livejournal.com/
Thanks,
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Disclaimer: sapphoq reviews received no monetary or other compensation for this ad/review. sapphoq reviews supports independent artists wherever they may be found.

The Best of Bead & Button Magazine: Get Started Beading, compiled by Julia Gerlach

2007-05-17T17:54:00.000-04:00

My friend Joy who I visited in Scottsdale Arizona is a prolific beader. She makes stunning rope necklaces and more. Her projects are truly works of art, demonstrating both craftswomanship and an eye for color which cannot be taught. Inspired, I decided to learn more beading techniques and that led to the purchase of beading magazines and this book.

Get Started Beading includes a few pages explaining the tools and materials needed along with the basic stringing techniques; a gallery; and 52 projects. All are accompanied by colorful pictures. Among the projects are ones dealing with necklaces, bracelets, earrings, lariats, and cuffs. There is something in these pages sure to please everyone. Besides beading on string, the book also covers wireworking and beginning stitching.

Highly recommended.

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THE KING'S RANSOM 5/6/07

2007-05-06T22:24:00.000-04:00

Folks planning to visit Sedona Arizona should consider staying at the King's Ransom [Quality Inn] on Highway 179. The prices to stay are reasonable, the pool is heated, the whirlpool spa is open-air but under a roof and has night lights, the grounds are beautifully landscaped. There is a K store downstreet and it is a short walk to Hillside where one can pick up the Sedona Road Runner which stops at several downtown locations. Internet access and two computers are available at the lobby [although a sign informs that access to MySpace dot com is blocked].

Over the lobby is a restaurant providing breakfast [yummy] and dinner [pricey] and a cafe providing lunch [yummy]. Art galleries for those disinclined to journey further downtown and two other restaurants are within walking distance. Marge's Draw, a trail which leads to Snoopy Rock, has a trailhead also just downstreet.

Sedona is part of an initiative to provide hooded traffic lights and NO streetlights so that way residents "can always see the stars at night." Anyone planning to stay at the King's Ransom should bring a flashlight for any night walking.

Rated: B+

sapphoq reviews

TEEVEE WEB 4/30/07

2007-04-30T13:45:00.000-04:00

I am sitting here at the business center of a hotel in Phoenix paying for internet access when the advertisement for the hotel claim to have internet access in every room. Why is that? Because the teevee web service at $9.95 per 24 hours bites. The keyboard is wireless. If one types at a speed of more than 2 words a minute-- in the words of Tony Soprano or someone I vaguely remember from my childhood perhaps-- "Ferget about it!" The thing freezes up with regularity and suddenly a decent working computer at the business center [for 50 cents a minute after the first 10 minutes for 5 bucks] looks like a bargain. As for the internet connection, the hotel is hot to sell ya their wifi card but no internet support staff exists. They are not interested. In expensive San Francisco, the hotel there had a nifty little wire one could use to connect up via laptop. That avenue is much preferred.

The hotel otherwise is alright. Right on features include the pool and whirlpool outdoors with shedding hibiscus flowers resembling alien roses; and the free breakfast. The laundry room makes it very easy to wash clothes-- 2.50 or 3 bucks-- and to dry clothes at 2.50. Lack of a trade dollars for quarters machine hurts as did the failing to dispense laundry detergent machine experience of my first day here.

The grill is a bar with the complimentary breakfast and some cheap dinners. Food in Phoenix is affordable and there are several options for dinner. The prime rib special on Friday and Saturday nights [yummy at under 15 bucks] is an affordable option.

Left out features include internet support-- even the Holiday Inn in San Diego had that-- a concierge, and courtesy cab phone calls. The staff is mostly friendly if business-like. Lack of a real restaurant certainly hurts.

Best thing has to be the busstop right across the street which brings one to the Metrocenter. Once there, a huge mall can be found along with buses to everywhere anyone could want to goto in Phoenix. With a Medicare card, discounted busfares can be had by anyone-- a definite plus.

Would I stay at this hotel again? [Psssst: the Ramada Inn at Metrocenter.] Yeah sure. The maid service is efficient and no yellow scorpions graced my bed at night or fell out of my clothing by day.

Phoenix is a [Sonoran] desert after all.

sapphoq reviews

TRAIN FOOD 4/22/07

2007-04-22T02:23:00.000-04:00

Amtrak has some adventures for those of us interested in getting to know our country from the [rather dirty] windows of their scenic view train routes. For those of us who have paid the exorbitant rate to upgrade to a sleeper of any variety, meals are included. For those of us who haven't, we can buy our meals at the dining room, buy off of the snack stand, or bring our own.

I was advised by a friend who also has sleep apnea that I really did need to upgrade to sleepers for my trip. Consequently, my presence was expected in the dining room for several meals so far-- two breakfasts, a lunch, and two dinners.

The best things on the menus are the iced tea with lemon, chocolate bundt cake, and cheesecake with either chocolate syrup or strawberries.
The most salty things include the quiche, the vegetarian veggies, and damn near anything else they serve ya. The safest breakfast is oatmeal or cereal with fruit. The safest dinner is one half of a chicken baked. Anything else is at your peril.

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SICK SATURDAYS 4/14/07

2007-04-14T16:09:00.000-04:00

Whatever you do, don't decide to seek medical attention on a Saturday.
On Saturdays, my doctor's medical practice offers hours.
Who is there on any given Saturday is pot luck.
Originally, the physicians' assistants were assigned to take on Saturdays and evenings on a rotating basis.

Doctors secretly complain about what liabilities that the P.A.s are to them but forget that patients like the physicians' assistants.

"What the hell is he doing here today?"
The rent-a-nurse shrugged. "It's becoming more common to have one of the docs work today."
I offered her the same vacant smile she offered me.
Office politics.
Mustn't ask.

In walks doctor friend of doctor.
They forgot to tell doctor friend of doctor a few things in medical school.

Thus in my ever present spirit of helpfulness, here are my pointers for dealing with Nervous Wreck:

(1). Do not tell Nervous Wreck something like, "I hope it's only that."
Do not then say, "Uh if you get feverish or see blood, go to an e.r.--
right away."
Especially if Nervous Wreck is leaving on a long trip the next day.
Nervous Wreck is well-acquainted with every health rule and symptom
there is. Furthermore, cruising Medscape is her hobby.
She knows every single thing that can go wrong with human, dog, cat,
frog, or husband.

(2). Listen to Nervous Wreck when she tells you that it's the little tomatoes
in the sauce that triggers runs for two days.
Don't repeat the words "little tomatoes" in a monotone to show Nervous Wreck that you are listening.
You are getting paid to listen, moron.
Nervous Wreck has made it through life thus far by being able to spot
faking interest.

(3). Don't tell Nervous Wreck that San Francisco is a beautiful city. Nervous
Wreck has already paid enough attention to know more about your
proclivities and has known for several years what they involve. [Hint:
that pic in the specialty magazine...Nervous Wreck reads everything
obsessively on her obsessive jaunts to the bookstore].

(4). Dump the entire Saturday office staff. They are lazy and badly dressed.

(5). Bring back the physicians' assistants on Saturdays dammit.

sapphoq the Nervous Wreck reviews

MICROSOFT STRIKES AGAIN 4/9/07

2007-04-09T11:09:00.000-04:00

The un-wonderful folks over at Micro$oft haven't given up on squeezing all of the money that they can out of their customers.

Seems that the Windows Genuine [dis]Advantage spyware thingy makes for many false claims of pirated software. I bought an upgrade to a Windows product. W.G.A. failed. In the course of investigating the "failure" which produced crashes every time I tried to activate the product in question, I found a board run by a volunteer related to these false positives. Confusion reigns.

To top it off, the only suggestion at the Micro$oft site is to buy oneself an "authentic" key for the same price as the boxed software.

The phone number is hard to locate and indeed, I had to sign onto chat in order to locate one.
Once I did, it was another 45 minutes of a guy from India telling me what to do and me doing it.
Oh, I'm not done yet.

It turns out that M$ Office is "pirated" also.

Thumbs down, along with all of the other fingers except for perhaps the middle one.
I'm switching to Apple; or possibly Linux [Ubuntu+wyne] just as soon as I'm able.

Sue me, Bill Gates.

sapphoq reviews

Windows+Genuine+Advantage
Windows+Genuine+disAdvantage

KATHY SIERRA 4/3/07

2007-04-03T02:02:00.000-04:00

Kathy Sierra, blogger extraodinaire, was recently driven out of her part of the web by a bunch of creeps. I am aware that events and activities can have many facets to the telling and yes, I have investigated all the sides I could find. I did find two of the pictures which had been doctored up. I found them to be chilling. I will not continue the madness by re-posting them here.

I also learned that posting personal information about someone else on the internet-- like an address or a picture or a social security number-- is not legal in many places. Not funny or justifiable by any quasi "freedom of speech" sort of arguments. And a few steps up from trolling or flaming or even starting a forest fire.

The bruhaha took me out of my self-centeredness for a needed breather. We witches/pagans/heathens do have our petty little snits. With the exception of the actions of two or three players, our swipes at each other aren't really anything much. To be sure, the stance of a somewhat wary watchfulness is wise when dealing with faceless strangers who fly past us in Electronica. Social networking sites and e-groups can foster a sense of intimacy among acquaintances who haven't actually met f2f in Meatland. It is that false sense of recognition that can lull us into a false sense of safety.

I am by no means blaming any target. There is far too much of that going on. This is what targets have to do with getting selected as targets: having an opinion, expressing that opinion, breathing.

We can blame the early evolution of Usenet groups. We can learn what to do and what not to do. We can point to yahell's own unique trolls. We can mutter about the crudeness and rudeness of others. We can go on a troll hunt ourselves. There are techniques. How-tos are easily available to anyone with a working net-capable computer. Or maybe we can just go on being bloggers. We do not always agree and we do not have to.

Comments are moderated due to the wonderful spambots infesting blogger which encourage the purchase of whatever it is being sold. For this post, I am turning the comment function off. I don't get a bunch anyways-- other than a few feeble attempts to hijack a thread of thought. And I understand that turning off the comment function for any article that mentions trolling pisses them off more.

Have a great day or night if you want to.

sapphoq reviews

trolls
flamers
flame wars

DRIVING IN PHOENIX 3/31/07

2007-03-31T17:33:00.000-04:00

This review comes to you courtesy of my friend Joy who lives in the valley of the sun:

HOW TO DRIVE IN PHOENIX:

1. You must first learn to pronounce the city name, it is: "FEE-NICKS".

2. The morning rush hour is from 5:00 am to noon. The evening rush hour is from noon to 7:00 pm. Friday's rush hour starts on Thursday morning.

3. The minimum acceptable speed on most freeways is 85 mph. On Loop 101, your speed is expected to match the highway number. Anything less is considered "Wussy".

4. Forget the traffic rules you learned elsewhere. Phoenix has its own version of traffic rules. For example, cars/trucks with the loudest muffler go first at a four-way stop; the trucks with the biggest tires go second. However, East Valley, SUV-driving, cell phone-talking moms ALWAYS have the right of way.

5. If you actually stop at a yellow light, you will be rear ended, cussed out, and possibly shot.

6. Never honk at anyone. Ever. Seriously. It's another offense that can get you shot.

7. Road construction is permanent and continuous in Phoenix. Detour barrels are moved around for your entertainment pleasure during the middle of the night to make the next day's driving a bit more exciting.

8. Watch carefully for road hazards such as drunks, skunks, dogs, barrels, cones, cows, horses, cats, mattresses, shredded tires, Squirrels, rabbits, crows, vultures, javelinas, roadrunners, and the coyotes feeding on any of these items.

9. Maricopa Freeway, Papago Freeway and the "I-10" are the same road. SR202 is the same road as The Red Mountain FWY. Dunlap and Olive are the same street too. Jefferson becomes Washington, but they are not the same street. I-17 is also called The Black Canyon Freeway as well as The Veterans Memorial Highway. And if all that isn't enough to remember SR 51 has recently been renamed to Piestewa Freeway because Squaw Peak Parkway was too easy pronounce. SR 101 is also the Pima FWY except west of I-17, which is also The Black Canyon FWY, and The Veterans Memorial HWY. Lastly, Thunderbird Rd. Becomes Cactus Rd. but, Cactus Rd. Doesn't become Thunderbird Rd. Because it dead ends at a mountain.

10. If someone actually has their turn signal on, wave them to the shoulder immediately to let them know it has been "accidentally activated."

11. If you are in the left lane and only driving 70 in a 55-65 mph zone, you are considered a road hazard and will be "flipped off" accordingly. If you return the flip, you'll be shot.

12. For summer driving, it is advisable to wear potholders on your hands.

MOONCHILD by Aleister Crowley

2007-03-29T17:14:00.000-04:00

Moonchild, by Aleister Crowley.
Boston: Weiser Books, 2004, (1927). paperback, 335 pps.

Aleister Crowley remains a bit of a controversial figure nowadays. I do have a few acquaintances who are fascinated by the legend. Truthfully, I myself have a grudging respect for someone who walked naked through an English town to a favorite cafe, believing that the invisibility spell he had cast rendered him invisible [as told by John Sutton in his biography].

But there are plenty of other things which are less admirable. One of them is Crowley's track record with women. He tended to pick out unstable addicted women, encouraged them to believe that they were "channeling" ascended masters or spiritual entities of some sort or another, and cheated on them with predominantly other males. Crowley was interested in gaining personal power through the use of "magick." Crowley-- not present day fluffy bunnies so-called-- popularized the spelling of "magick" with the "k" in order to distinguish it from sleigh of hand magic. The extra "k" was also a subtle reference to the Greek word kteis which meant the female reproductive organs.

Moonchild is a work of fiction which is interspersed with his own occult ideology. Crowley in real life was interested in creating a perfect specimen of humanity-- a sort of god incarnate. There are other references in the book to a few of his rivals; a "black" lodge, the poet William Butler Yates [who appeared in the book as "Gates,"], and H. Spencer Lewis who founded A.M.O.R.C. [who was a character named "Butler"]. The appearance of Eliphas Levi [who in real life Crowley claimed to be a reincarnation of], and the hideaway on an Italian island are among the many references in the book which point to things that Crowley believed or experienced. In order to truly understand Moonchild, the reader must know something of the author who penned it.

The story itself, reflective of Crowley's pathos, is engaging at once. From the first chapter dealing with a "chinese god," through the introduction of Lisa, and right on through to the ending introduced and developed a formidable cast of characters. The plot and dialogue were both engaging. Narrative passages were explanatory and flowed into the story.

I was not seeking any great mystical understanding when I picked up Moonchild. As a work of fiction written by a crazed occultist, it did not disappoint. Those who are hoping to gain an unbiased understanding of the author won't find that in the book Moonchild. Moonchild is chock full of Crowley's delusional 'magick' and the casual reader might do better elsewhere. Those who do not recognize the truth about Aleister Crowley will plow through Moonchild looking for hints of his present-day charisma I am sure. As for me, I liked the book even though I do not like the man.

sapphoq reviews

http://fusionanomaly.net/aleistercrowley.html

http://www.mith.demon.co.uk/CROWLEY.htm

http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/crowley.htm

http://skepdic.com/crowley.html

http://www.crystalinks.com/crowley.html

AMTRAK SERVICE REP

2007-03-23T22:27:00.000-04:00

In my planning of a rather complicated itinerary, I was recently very impressed by an Amtrak Service Rep over at 1-800-USA-RAIL (1-800-872-7245) or TDD/TTY (1-800-523-6590).

He seemed in no hurry to get me off the phone, was willing to answer all of my questions, and offered some very helpful travel tips. He was himself a train hobbyist and enthusiast. A nice gentleman with charm.

Service reps from Micro$oft can certainly take lessons.

As can several area travel agents, including one notable young woman who spent three hours in throwing together a hodge-podge of bad advice. [You can too take a cab from Point A to Point B...Why did you change your mind about this? Read: impractical cab ride of a duration of four hours...and a schedule involving the meeting of a friend. Thanks for nothing.]
I allowed her to live that day, just barely. As I gathered myself up to exit, I pointed out the similarities between what she had just gone through in her three hours of futility was very much like what my atypical neurology forces me to live with daily.

Kudos, Amtrak. I do believe you will get me there.

sapphoq reviews

TROLL FELL by Katherine Langrish

2007-03-15T22:46:00.000-04:00

Troll Fell, by Katherine Langrish. New York: Harper-Collins, 2004. paperback, 355 pgs.

Katherine Langrish's first novel is set in a fantasy Nordic era and at once engages the reader in the struggles of Peer Ulfsson and his dog Loki. Having been orphaned, a wicked uncle appears to take him away to a place where trolls live under a mountain and where a Granny with fangs inhabits a murky stream near a mill. To his astonishment, one wicked uncle morphs into twins. Peer finds love and a courage he didn't know he had.

The author hails from a part of northern England where ancient Danish influences can still be found. Her own scholarly research paints a realistic portrait of life way back when in rugged Scandanavia. This tale pleased me immensely and I look forward to more.

Although the writing style indicates that the book is suitable for young teens, it is cautioned here that the very sensitive should be steered to other stories.

sapphoq reviews books and more

SAINT PATRICK: MAN AND MYTH 3/10/07

2007-03-10T19:10:00.001-05:00

St Patrick's day is coming up. A river in Chi-town will be dyed green for several hours and some folks will be whooping it up with green beer. Once again, a glbtiq Irish group will be denied a marching permit at the New York City Parade. Some pagans are circulating a letter suggesting that rather than green, we pagans wear snakes on that day. St. Patrick was said to drive the druids out of Ireland.

Patrick was born either in England, Wales, or France [depending upon which historical account one finds most credible] of Roman parents sometime during the fifth century a.d. He was kidnapped and sold into slavery and that is how he got to Ireland "the first time." At the age of 16, he was forced to be a shepherd. It is said that a dream he had helped him escape from Ireland around the age of 22 or 26. He then studied for the priesthood [uh, maybe] at any rate he was studying something somewheres or other for a bit until a vision or hallucination or dream told him to go back to Ireland. Patrick was given his name Patricus during his ordination or something. Again, depending upon preferences for which sources, Patrick was either affiliated with the Roman Catholics, the ancient Church of England, the Baptists, or none of the above. The idea that he explained the trinity using a shamrock is crap-- the shamrock symbol for the trinity didn't come about for a thousand years or so after his death. There were no snakes in Ireland. The "snakes" he drove out might or might not be [or might have come about later as] a reference to the spiritual takeover of Ireland by the Roman Catholics or the other christians around [again depending upon who you believe]. He was not the first with a missionary bent to arrive upon the druidic Irish shores.

He might have died on March 17th or he might not have. At any rate, the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church both recognize the date as one to celebrate the conversion of pagan Ireland to their version of christianity. Yes, I will be wearing a snake on that day this year. Not because "our spiritual ancestors were killed." Rather, because we pagans and heathens continue to survive in spite of ugly rumors about us and our beliefs and our lifestyles.

sapphoq reviews

http://www.irishchristian.org/stpatrick/

http://web.ncf.ca/er719/patrick.html#Main

http://web.ncf.ca/er719/patrick.html#The%20Primary

http://web.ncf.ca/er719/primepat.html

http://chi.gospelcom.net/GLIMPSEF/Glimpses/glmps075.shtml

http://itotd.com/articles/491/st.-patrick/

http://hnn.us/articles/615.html

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/03/0315_050315_stpatricksday.html

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1795581/posts

http://www.spiritwatch.org/patrick.htm

http://www.cprf.co.uk/articles/stpatrick.htm

http://allsaintsbrookline.org/celtic/saints/patrick.html

http://www.edwardtbabinski.us/essays/st_patrick.html

http://www.stbrigids-kilbirnie.com/Pages/SaintBrigid.html

http://catholicism.about.com/b/a/200603.htm

http://books.google.com/
books?hl=en&lr=&id=SY6DUnOOZSAC&oi=fnd&
pg=RA1-PA9&sig=IhAtmpoy0bheg4uLiOuihQDkmAc&dq
=st+patrick+snakes+druids#PPA11,M1

http://media.www.thetraveleronline.com/media/storage/paper688/news/

http://www.st-patricks-day.com/about_saintpatrick.asp

http://irish.spike-jamie.com/stpatricksday.html

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/146116/
oh_the_luck_of_the_irish.html

http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/ali/ali174.htm

http://www.sacred-texts.com/etc/wos/wos09.htm

http://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/idr/idr21.htm

http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/ffcc/ffcc310.htm

http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/bim1/bim1008.htm

http://www.sacred-texts.com/the/sd/sd2-1-22.htm

saint patrick
snakes
druids
pagans

A TRIP TO THE BEACH by Melinda and Robert Blanchard 36/07

2007-03-06T13:50:00.000-05:00

A Trip to the Beach, by Melinda and Robert Blanchard. New York: Random House, 2000. 295 pps., paperback.

The Blanchards decided to move from Vermont to Anguilla and open a restaurant. Their dream exploded from a shanty serving lunches and snacks into a full-blown restaurant with fine cuisine. With the help of islanders, they were slowly able to locate what they needed, built the restaurant, and found suppliers for the ingredients for their entrees. A few of Melinda Blanchard's original recipes are interspersed throughout the book, making my mouth water. It is particularly chilly here today so I am also hankering for a bit of island life. The book is definitely more interesting than this review makes it sound. Recommended for anyone who has daydreams of starting over in a warmer clime.

sapphoq reviews

GOOGLE READER 3/3/07

2007-03-03T01:22:00.000-05:00

Google Reader is one of the services that Google offers users. I found the personalized Google homepage first. I added some feeds to the homepage but I wasn't satisfied because I wound up with six tabs and feeds in boxes scattered all over.

A friend told me about the reader and I checked it out. The Google Reader has truly been pleasant. It is easy to hunt for subscriptions by feeds or by subject matter or by title. Adding them is done with the push of a button. When I want to read my subscriptions, I sign in and there they are! The ability to scroll through my subs, the set-up, click a title to the whole article all yields pleasure. Now that my widgets are confined to my personalized homepage and my subs to my Google Reader, I have become a happy camper indeed.

Adding to my ecstasy is the ability to add a clip to my blogs [I added one to this blog] and to share selected articles. Again, push button. Remarkably easy.

Google continues to shine in my world. So much so that I am considering buying stock.
Well done Google, well done.

sapphoq reviews

TOOLS FOR BLOGGERS 2/26/07

2007-02-26T01:57:00.000-05:00

I noticed as I was surfing around tonight that quite a few blogs have those nifty little banners on their panels with names like "Blog Explosion." So I surfed on over. This is some of what I found. Over at Blog Explosion, there are free tools for bloggers, including pinging the blog indexes such as Technorati. In return for surfing, bloggers get points to spend in order to send traffic to their blogs. I'm going to give it my best whirl. I will let you know the results. I was not paid to do this review.

On the right-hand side of this blog, you will notice my growing list of writers who maintain websites or blogs on the web. A few of them I have had personal contact with and a few of them are folks whose writing I like and admire.

There is also a list of free tools for the blogger [or anyone else who would like to use them]. One of my personal favorites is the JournalistExpress site. Over at radical sapphoq, I do primarily commentary on current news articles. The JournalistExpress site keeps the articles all on one page. If you haven't been there yet, I encourage you to go there. Joining is free and painless. You can personalize your page according to your beat. In the months that I have been a member there, I have not received one spam mail in the e-box I used to sign up.

Check them out and drop me a line if there is something you need that you can't find on your own. I found many of the sites listed via StumbleUpon, a social bookmarking site which I highly recommend. I also use del.icio.us and I like it just fine-- in spite of the fact that it is now owned by Yahoo. The thing that sets StumbleUpon apart from del.icio.us is the button I've got on my Firefox browser that allows me to surf to random sites according to my interests. That is truly a wonderful button.

And here I will also insert my shameless plug for Squidoo. I have several lenses on Squidoo. In fact I added another one last night. Squidoo splits its' profits with us starving lensmasters/bloggers. Money may not be able to buy love but it sure helps. It's those nasty little habits I've got like eating and wearing clothing that keeps me plugging along, hoping you will be interested enough to click on my ads or click on my Squidoos or keep coming back to read all of my blogs.

sapphoq reviews sapphoq

THE HAITIAN VODOU HANDBOOK by Kenaz Filan 2/25/07

2007-02-25T10:49:00.000-05:00

The Haitian Vodou Handbook by Kenaz Filan (Houngan Coquille du Mer). Rochester Vt: Destiny Books, 2007. 283 pp.

The Afro-diaspora religions have ancient roots in Africa, which is probably one of four motherlands of civilization as we know it. Those four are regarded to be Egypt, Iraq [Mesopotamia], the Indus Valley in India, and China. Yoruba Land [including much of modern day Nigeria] is a bit east and south of Egypt. There was a vigorous slave trade going on there. Some tribes sold members of other conquered tribes to the French who carried their human cargo off to the West Indies [which included St. Domanique, or Haiti] and carried goods back into Europe on their return trip.

My euro-centric pagan views were recently tested by a spiritual problem. A man from a botanica helped me out of it. He told me what to do about it, I did that, and it was immediately effective. My interest in the loas of Iba and the lwas of Vodou was peaked by this experience, and so off to the bookstore I went where I located this gem of a book.

The Haitian Vodou Handbook examines Haitian Vodou within the context of history and is a valuable source of information-- particularly for paganfolk. It addresses such hot-button issues as the Haitian political arena, co-opting the religious practices of indigenous peoples, prejudice, the limitations of Euro-centricity, and poverty.

Houngan Coquille du Mer is very careful not to reveal any oath-bound secrets in his writing. He clearly states what he cannot tell the reader and he offers realistic alternatives. The writing itself is very personable. Chapters are sensibly organized and include the right mix of personal anecdotes and information. This book made me think. And because it did, I give it my highest recommendation. Great for anyone who has an interest in this subject.

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CHRONIC BABE 2/20/07

2007-02-20T09:10:00.000-05:00

Medscape featured a short intro to the ChronicBabe website. A short hop provided a look at an online community with bunches of articles geared toward women who are living with chronic conditions/disorders/diseases. There is also a bi-weekly newsletter and opportunities for women bloggers to be part of online Grand Rounds. Among the offerings I perused was an interesting take on the Japanese idea of using genetic therapy to increase the size of boobs. ChronicBabe definitely rules the roost. Highly recommended for any woman living with fibro or any other medical thing that just won't go away.

sapphoq reviews

1-2-3 SOLITAIRE

2007-02-19T19:23:00.000-05:00

1-2-3 Solitaire is nifty in spite of being able to pass for nagware at random intervals. The free trial version contains 12 solitaire games with ample variations to each one. Personal favorites are Diplomat, Klondike, Pyramid, and the three versions of Spider trailing behind. The playing surface is a smooth flannel green and the cards deal themselves with a quickness. I have found the freeware version suitable for my purposes.

The major limitation is that one cannot "undo" a move as can be done in the heftier 30-day trial program nor in the overly packed shareware version. Another is the screen urging the downloading of the heftier versions that appears periodically after play.

sapphoq reviews

GOOGLE APPS FOR DOMAINS 2/12/07

2007-02-12T17:04:00.000-05:00

Google has some apps that are easy to use for domain owners. Google offers domain registration via a third-party and hosting for ten dollars a year. For that ten dollars, one gets 200 mailboxes, management of spam and abuse reports, personalized start pages, and webpages. The domainster can choose to give out mailboxes and offer chat via Google chat.

On the down side, there is currently limited to no functionality regarding the running of scripts. The WYSIWYG editor is also limited and those who desire to get their hands on the code would do better to look elsewhere. Premium services will be available at a future date and perhaps the down-and-dirty techie will be more satisified with that.

Verdict: Recommended for those who are starting out with a first domain or who desire the ease and comfortability of Google services.

sapphoq reviews

GOOGLE WIDGETS 2/7/07

2007-02-07T14:02:00.000-05:00

Google has entered into the widgets market with pages and pages of free widgets to add to a new homepage. Users can now choose to have a homepage with up to six tabs full of widgets. Categories include:
Popular
News
Tools
Communication
Fun & Games
Finance
Sports
Technology
Lifestyle
New Stuff

[as listed at http://www.google.com/ig/directory].

Almost all of the widgets work just the way they are supposed to. They are cute and fun and easy to add. sapphoq reviews now has a homepage with six tabs chock full of news and brain candy.

There is also a place where developers can go to download a widget toolkit and then to submit their own widgets.

Verdict: absolutely the best !

sapphoq reviews books and more