A quick, random note on writing

Finally finished reading Stephen King's Dreamcatcher. He's definitely one of my favorite writers out there. The man's got a hell of a talent, and this excerpt from the author's note at the back of the book reminds me of part of why I enjoyed writing so much back when I was writing more fiction of my own:

"This book was written with the world's finest word processor, a Waterman cartridge fountain pen. To write the first draft of such a long book by hand put me in touch with the language as I haven't been for years. I even wrote one night (during a power outage) by candlelight. One rarely finds such opportunities in the twenty-first century, and they are to be savored."

I used to write just about everything long hand before typing it up, just because there's nothing quite like the pen gliding over the page - the ink flowing in graceful curves onto the surface of the paper - the peace that only writing by hand, alone can grant.

I keep a total of three different journals by hand. One for dreams, one for past life experiences, and one for instances of intuition/psychic phenomena/synchronicity. Those things are so much easier for me to record manually, as opposed to typing, but there's nothing quite like letting your imagination run free with no aid outside of pen and paper.

The look of written word is so much more organic than computerized text as well. It's truly an expression of oneself. While words themselves are good tools to express a person's innermost thoughts, the handwriting itself grants a peek into personality and sub subconscious.

It used to be a mark of sophistication to be able to read and write. In many ways, it still is, although it's a far more widely known skill.

Beyond all that, however, I tend to feel more connected with the world on a far different level when I use pen and paper to write, instead of a keyboard and monitor. There's a sense of permanence, connection with my ancestry and with the overall natural energy of my surroundings. When I'm long gone, who will see what I've written? Who will be impacted by my thoughts? While I'm still here, for that matter, the same questions still apply.

Not to say I still don't enjoy computing for recreation. Computers and the Internet are wonderful things, but I somehow doubt they'll ever replace the more simple joys in life.

Ok, people, alternate POV time

Don't go blindly believing the mass media says. It's always a good idea to seek out and concider other viewpoints. Here are a couple -




Critical Alert: The Swine Flu Pandemic – Fact or Fiction?

So, seriously. How about we take a step back and think about what's going on with a clear head, hm? Sure, do your best to maintain your health, as is common sense, but let's not let ourselves be steered into panic.

AS IF WE DIDN'T SEE THIS COMING!

Where'd the bailout money go? Shhhh, it's a secret

All I have for this is an inarticulate "AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!"

I just can't wait to see what the auto industry does with the money given to THEM.

UGH.

Count how many times you yawn while reading this article

The Yawn Explained: It Cools Your brain

...I couldn't stop, but then that might also be because I haven't really slept since 3 am.

World views have always fascenated me.

It may be because we're all in our own little environments...of course local/respective national news is always more important to us, because it has a direct affect on us, but it's good to remember that there's a whole world outside of our own borders.

Seems to me that the only things that draw us out of our shells are mass disasters or horrible tragedies. All too rarely do we sit back, and take a look more than three inches past our noses. Why are we all so cut off from each other that we can't even seem to take a couple of minutes to reflect upon a culture not our own?

I've internet friends and acquaintances throughout the world, and as a result, I've been treated to pictures of places on the other side of the planet - taken by people just like me. As a result, a lot of the shots I've been privileged enough to see have shown me just how alike their worlds are to mine in the simple ways. The sky - the earth - the water...but especially the sky. That brilliant blue flecked with fluffy white clouds is the same in New Zealand as it is here. The clouds which can veil the British Isles are very much the same as the ones which blanket the US northwest. Nature, in all her dynamic beauty is the constant throughout all the human exploration and tampering each country now as well as each civilization in time.

Stormpulse of all things is what got me on this line of thought. The satellite image shows the interconnectedness of the weather patterns in a way our weather forecasts never show. It's fascinating how the local weather formations originate from so far away, and then how far they go after they hit us. In Minnesota, we're breathing the same air our friends in Canada were breathing a few days to weeks ago, and in a few days or weeks, New York could very well be breathing the same air we are now.

Yes...that's a very oversimplified way of looking at it, but it is an interesting thought, especially as I trace the cloud patterns across oceans and continents with my eyes.

Ah, late night ramblings.

The dreamer within can't help but wonder, though, if more people remembered that we are all indeed people instead of labels, how much better would the world be?

Heh. Yeah, sue me. I'm a dreamer...always have been, likely always will be.

Local news, baby.

First, the story in progress - Rejected absentee ballots: Should they count?. This is about the Franken/Coleman race. Last I saw, only about 200 votes still separated them, with Coleman narrowly in the lead. Now, they're bickering about whether or not to count those rejected absentee ballots. Well, why were said ballots rejected in the first place? There are valid reasons, I'm sure, but the example they used in the article, of the guy who didn't sign the envelope, just seems like red tape to me.

Long story short - Franken's fighting to count the ballots, and Coleman, predictably enough, is fighting not to. Looks like Coleman's also sticking by the disproven story of a poll worker driving around with 32 ballots in her car as well. I suppose he's calling vote tampering because he can't believe he's the run away victor or something. Poor boy and his bruised ego.

Personally, I'm glad Franken's not folding. I tend to have more respect for a candidate who won't give up without an obvious loss, and when well over 9 million people voted, 200 votes is not an obvious loss - not by a long shot.

Anyway. We'll see how it goes.

Onto the I35W bridge! Apparently, the official story is indeed the gusset plates. An error in design 40 years ago.

I still don't buy it. If an error was made that long ago, and problems were already sited along the way, why wasn't anything done about it?

As one of the main thoroughfares into Minneapolis from the north, why wouldn't they take into consideration that maybe the increasing load of traffic would compromise the integrity of the bridge, and maybe it would have been a good idea to reinforce the underlying structure, instead of repaving the surface every once in a while?

Apparently the NTSB members who share that opinion don't really make a hell of a lot of difference.

On the upside, it looks like new rules will be introduced regarding double checking design schematics and enhancing the inspection process.

Even if it should have been common sense.

In that last article, they even mentioned that there were photographs of the plates that hade failed bowing from the existing stress. Then they mentioned that it wasn't included in the report, and that enhancement added more weight to the bridge. Why would anyone just assume that the supposedly strongest part of the bridge was ok, and not bother including it in the final report - especially when there was photographic evidence of strain?

I'm really not trying to point fingers. My point is if they're going to concentrate on what they've been talking about ever since it happened, and not look at any other options, how will the overall problem get fixed?

MPR has an article explaining a little bit more about the investigation itself, here. It's not exactly a transparent process, especially when one of the big guys hired on, Dr Gene Corley, refuses to disclose who he was hired by.

For those not in the know, he was the team lead of the FEMA-sponsored investigation of why the Twin Towers fell on 9/11. His findings are still strongly disputed by several people, as evidenced by the letter in the following link.

The questions beg to be asked...just who else is 'investigating' the bridge? Why is the general public being kept out of the know?

I get the sinking feeling, however, that even if further evidence contradicting this final report does come out, it'll be swept under the rug as the holes in the official story of why the WTC towers collapsed was or forgotten by and large, like the mysterious collapse of WTC 7.

Bear in mind - the bridge falling isn't nearly at the same scope as 9/11, but there are still some disturbingly similar vibes brewing just under the surface.

Steal back your vote!

Now, this is pretty damn cool.

I'm not really part of a group at the moment, and with these ridiculous dental bills we're working on paying off (wait, why do we have insurance again? Thank Gods we have no serious, acute medical problems), there's no way I can spare any money for much of anything outside of what we have going on now, but this is immensely important to at least do a little research on. Then take action on it.

In all honesty, it shouldn't matter what part of the political spectrum an American lands in, the fact there has been all this voter fraud going on should be extremely upsetting. The voters being targeted, black, Latino, low-income have just as much right to vote as everyone else. However, to put another spin on it, who's to say a politician the naysayers out there dislike won't come up with something similar? What happens when their votes get taken away?

This doesn't apply to only those being targeted right now, but to every American citizen.

Take those Diebold voting machines. Is it really a good idea to put that much power into such a vulnerable system? How often do we hear of this new computer virus or that?

In fact, there have been studies done showing that these machines are indeed unsecure. Princeton for one.

Black Box Voting had found security seriously lacking in them as well.

In fact, hey...check the below video out. This is a guy who wrote a prototype program to tamper with votes -



There's an interview with a Princeton professor here.

I, for one, am glad we didn't allow them into our polling places in our precincts. If I get wind of officials trying to introduce them again, I'll be going to the public hearing as well, make as many phone calls as I can, write as many letters as I can, do anything I can to avoid getting these things in my area. I really hope more people take action as well - especially those who're already subjected to these crooked machines. We citizens really need to take our country back from the already too powerful corporations.

In case people are wondering where exactly all this drama originated, try looking at The Help America Vote Act of 2002.

"Section 102: GSA establish grant program for payments to States to replace punch card or lever voting machines."

Basically, this means that if states don't get these electric voting machines, they won't get the extra federal funds. Strange how it always seems to come down to money, isn't it?

Punch card and lever voting machines seem to be working pretty well around here. The vote tampering where they're used seems to involve ballets simply being thrown away, or the voters being turned away because of "invalid" ID.

This is very likely partially the result of an over-burdened system, and poorly worded instructions, but the sheer volume of voters denied their vote for this reason indicates otherwise.

The reason I bring wording up is because my husband and I were nearly denied our own votes back in 2004, because we'd moved in mid/late October of that year, and we hadn't received our updated IDs by the time voting time rolled around. Our instruction card was so badly worded that we weren't sure what bill was to be used, and exactly what back-up ID was necessary. I don't know if it's changed since then, but if it hasn't, I can't blame people in similar circumstances if they just give up.

It's pretty likely that things like Voter caging, false registrations, and gross misuse of the felon-list are still going on, and will continue to go on come this November if nothing more is done about it.

It's not an old issue, either, as recent as the Republican primaries, it looks like Ron Paul was a victim of it as well.

It's not just on the Republican side, either, while I couldn't find much information not put out by anti-Democrat groups, I did find this article alleging voter fraud in the Democratic primaries in Woodville, MS.

Still think this is all just hot air? I doubt so many people would be so badly disenfranchised if it were. Our very own government put out a report about the year 2000 Voting Irregularities in Florida. Here's the part about voter disenfranchisement.

C'mon, people, can we really let this stuff continue to go on? Why not keep an eye out for more things like Steal Back Your Vote? Why not look past what these officials desperate to get in office say, and more in what they've done? Not only politically, which is not only very important, but also what kinds of businesses they're a part of, or at least linked to.