it's like the eye of a duck

I’ve not been watching too closely because while I’m horrified I’m not shocked (and if I know more details it will feed my already overactive misanthropy). This is, what, the second mass shooting this year? Fourth in ~2 years? Isn’t it terrible that I don’t find this surprising anymore?

A lot of explanations and possible solutions have been proffered. I’ve read about raising kids to be more compassionate, regulating violent movies and video games, tighter gun controls, and I think some of these (especially the latter) might help to some degree, but I suspect American's strange relationship to guns comes from deep seated, cultural values/myths that no law is going to help abolish.

( Random thoughts below )

This is just spitballing, I know I'm not showing my work with links or anything, nor do I have answers. I don’t know what kind of mental health policies would help catch potential mass shooters before they snap; I don’t know what needs to change in the culture to make people not feel like they need guns.

Feel free to debate in the comments, but keep it civil.

House: Still up to my eyebrows in boxes and scheduling. We have 3 days between closing and moving, so I'm using the time to have the air ducts and fireplaces cleaned - I figure it will be easier without furniture potentially in the way.

We still haven't tackled the unfinished part of the basement. I can't speak for D., but I know I've been avoiding it. I've already gone through the fabric stash twice but dread facing whatever else I've accumulated over the years.

Current events: I'm still stunned about the Colorado theater shooting, and my heart sinks a little more every time I see that the victim count go up. The continuing coverage isn't informative beyond that - developments are slow, yet the demands of the 24 hour news cycle means that the media is filling the time with foolish speculation. I really hope this doesn't get pinned on geek culture or fans; my personal guess (I do it too, yeah, yeah) is that the Holmes chose the theater simply because he knew the premiere of a summer blockbuster would be packed.

Between this and Salon's cruelty on the border story, I am reminded why I don't follow news as closely as I used to. I don't ENJOY being misanthropic, but <rant>What is wrong with these people!? I get that illegal immigrants are breaking the law (need for immigration reform is another rant), but they shouldn't have to die for it. Leaving water in the desert assures that at the least they're alive to be sent back to their countries of origin. And the acts of the border control agents in the article are pointless sadism for...what? Because they can (also saving rant how law enforcement sometimes attracts power mad bullies)?</rant>

Fencing: wearing myself out with tiring "dancing" footwork and trying to get out of the bad habit of attacking out of range. Also, I'm involved in creating a fencing fashion blog (details forthcoming).

Tangential: the complaints about Twitter and Facebook destroying written communication holds true, at least for me. dustdaughter has rightly pointed out that with only 140 characters, everyone winds up sounding like Rorschach from "Watchmen", and while typing the comparatively huge tome above I found myself mixing tenses, repeating verbs, and dropping articles left and right. Maybe this is another bad habit to break.

I have not been living under a rock. I am aware there are things going on in the wider world, I just don't often write about them because others do it better and I find it frankly depressing to follow the news too closely. But two things are so much on the radar that I find it impossible not to comment:

( OWS )

( Sandusky and the cult of football )

Or wasn't for us. Lots of wind and rain, but no power outages. I didn't even need to bake brownies!

I'm aware that there were/are power outages locally but I'm not seeing a real pattern - some friends lost it for a few hours, fencing club lost it this morning, but I didn't see anything during my evening grocery run (why was the cat litter sold out? Was everyone planning on being stuck inside and decided they might as well knock out this unpleasant task?).

Yes, the media hyped it, but so did seemingly every authority except the weather forecasters, who simply couldn't predict specifics until it was right on top of us. Frankly I think after Katrina county/state governments never, ever want to be caught unprepared again.

Hot on the heels of Tuesday's earthquake, Irene is about to grace us with her presence this weekend. At this point it's not a question of "if", but "how much", and given [electric company name redacted]'s frail performance last summer I'm erring on the side of caution and accepting we'll probably lose power for awhile.

I stopped off at the grocery today (see how I'm thinking ahead?) and picked up bread, peanut butter, canned soup and crackers and other food that doesn't need a refrigerator. If it looks really dire I may bake on Saturday before it hits, as baked goods make blackouts better.

Meanwhile, off to do laundry and watch True Blood.

Y'all take care of yourselves, ok?

Despite my busy-ness, I have been keeping up with the news in a limited way. What with Libya, Japan, Bahrain and elsewhere it's all a bit much too much to take in effectively.

I've had to back off following all of the news about the Japanese nuclear reactor. Fortunately or no, that hit the news not long after I watched The Battle of Chernobyl, which while an excellent documentary about the unsung heroes and heroics involved with the 1986 explosion cleanup, it's also high-octane nightmare fuel even if (like me) you didn't grow up under constant terror of nuclear holocaust*. No matter how complete and quick the cleanup of the Fukushima plant, it seems like a recurring theme with nuclear accidents is that the damage goes on and on, even when it disappears from the news cycle - the environment is essentially poisoned for centuries and those who don't die outright from exposure are burdened with ill health for the rest of their lives.

As such, I just can't watch that coverage anymore. Unlike the rebellions in the Middle East, it just reads as so hopeless to me.

*Tangentially, it's not that I didn't grow up on this planet in the 20th century, but I gather that I'm unusual in that I didn't have nuclear fear drilled into me by parents, teachers, etc. It's not that the adults around me weren't cognizant of the news, it just wasn't mentioned. I don't even remember doing "duck and cover" drills at school.

I was 13 when Chernobyl hit the news, and while everyone understood it was a terrible tragedy, there was no handwringing about it happening HERE, ANY MINUTE NOW.

Is it just me, or did I get off really lucky in not being pre-emptively traumatized by the Cold War? Or were my parents/teachers really shamelessly naive?

Prop 8 struck down: Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker ruled that the state constitutional amendment imposes a private moral viewpoint without a legitimate governmental interest and tramples on the equal rights of gay and lesbian couples.

I know this isn't the end of the story, but man, it's a step in the right direction!

• 09:49 Joy beyond measure - Loldogs has a #bassethound tag: ihasahotdog.com/tag/basset-hound/ #
• 09:50 RT @i_clavdivs: i_clavdivs - what happens when you don't vaccinate: RT@nprnews Whooping Cough Epidemic Strikes California n.pr/brOUu1 #
• 12:49 92F, heat index of 100+ and air quality warning? Yes, sounds like summer in the city :/ #
• 14:07 RT @neilhimself: RT @Jadenewt: @neilhimself Calls closing libraries "stealing from the future" tinyurl.com/GaimanOnLibraries #
• 20:14 Elizabethan guidance on Object-Oriented Software Design: bit.ly/9hwwrw #cool #librarians #fencing #
• 21:36 @AveryHutchinson - Because True Blood toys are for grownups? #

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Just a quick thank you to everyone who helped me find good tights. My Foot Magic cotton tights came in and I test drove them today. Upon first wearing: hmm. And as they day went on, DAMN - warm, comfortable, and not itchy or pinchy! I've chucked my old nasty nylons and ordered 2 more pairs of these! Looks like skirts may be back in rotation...

The paradoxic thing about my latest wardrobe revival is that I'm throwing out almost as many things as I discover/rediscover. Which is good, because my closet is small, and I don't need to hang onto anything that really doesn't need to be there.

I've also worn more color and in more unusual combinations in the past 2 months than in perhaps the past 3 years (Academicchic.com has an excellent series on combining colors and patterns which has been helpful to me and I suspect other ex-goth sorts who are unclear on the concept) but that's another post.

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I feel like with everything going on in the world, I ought to have something more substantial to say. This being the 5th of November, I watched Valerie's letter from V for Vendetta [YouTube] and then heard about Ft. Hood and so I'm in melancholy mood, but can think of no useful observations or answers.

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I ironed the fabric and pattern for D.'s leine. With most of Saturday at home plus a holiday next week, it has the potential to go satisfyingly fast. We shall see.

Preventing future same sex marriages while allowing those that took place before the ruling to remain valid makes it seem like the CA Supreme Court is trying to have it both ways, while pissing off everyone - Christ on a cracker, if you're going to let those married stay married then gay marriage can't be all that bad, can it?

Gads, let's move into the 21st century already. Marriage for all consenting adults! It's just not that difficult.