fox@fury
On IRC, 'watching' Bloggies
Sunday, Mar 09, 2003
I'm sitting on IRC, watching the IRC simulcast of the 2003 Bloggie Awards, being held in Austin at SXSW...

I'm up against Metafilter, Kuro5hin, and a few others, so my chances are slim, but here's to watching, anyhow!

First Dead Dream
Saturday, Mar 08, 2003
I had my first dream about being dead last night. not dreams about dying; that happens to me all the time. no, in this dream I was living in the underworld, which was represented by a jail where nobody ever came to visit, everyone was grey and listless, and I had to fight inside my own mind to try and find relevancy in this (under)world.

I tried to rally others into original thought again, I tried to get them to pick up and read the letters that had been written to them by the loved ones they had departed. Some greater power was trying to keep the status quo, though, and I found myself with my head in between prison bars, with pulsing and ringing coursing through, trying to abolish original thought.

I kept trying to fight it, trying to think free, and trying to find meaning in existance beyond death, and trying to bring it to others.

It was odd, because it felt different than many of the other dreams I've been having, it fel like it had a flavor that came completely from outside myself.

It didn't occur to me until this afternoon that I do live less than a hundred feet from very real graves, and maybe my dreams aren't entirely my own.

Maybe I'll bring them some poetry tonight.

The 50 most significant SF/F books in the last 50 years
Thursday, Mar 06, 2003
The Science Fiction Book Club has come out with their list of The 50 Most Significant SF & Fantasy Books of the Last 50 Years, 1953-2002.

For kicks (and because friends are doing it), here's the list, with books I've read and books I started:

  1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
  2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov
  3. Dune, Frank Herbert
  4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
  5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
  6. Neuromancer, William Gibson
  7. Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke
  8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
  9. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
  10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
  11. The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
  12. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
  13. The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
  14. Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
  15. Cities in Flight, James Blish
  16. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett
  17. Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
  18. Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
  19. The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
  20. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
  21. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey
  22. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
  23. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson
  24. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
  25. Gateway, Frederik Pohl
  26. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling
  27. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
  28. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
  29. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
  30. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
  31. Little, Big, John Crowley
  32. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
  33. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
  34. Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
  35. More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
  36. The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
  37. On the Beach, Nevil Shute
  38. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
  39. Ringworld, Larry Niven
  40. Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
  41. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
  42. Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut
  43. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
  44. Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
  45. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
  46. Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein
  47. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock
  48. The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks
  49. Timescape, Gregory Benford
  50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer
Pentagon's View for Shaping the New World
Thursday, Mar 06, 2003
This is really a fascinating article about the Pentagon's view of the purpose of a global superpower (hosted by the U.S. Naval War college) and the whys and whens of international military action. This is the 10,000 foot view of how current international politics relate to the last 50 and the next 50 years.

All the press and public sentiment nowadays relates to the recent past (15 years) and immediate future (10 years). This document goes beyond terrorism and human rights, and looks at geopolitics from the standpoint of economic and sociologic stability of a globalized planet.

The analysis in this document is very, very well thought out, in my opinion, and just as terrifying. The question I'm left with is what is our role in the world? Who gave us the keys and who are we to drive?

Agree or disagree with the moralities presented in this 'plan', it presents a more honest view than the 'of the moment' motives spouted out daily in the chambers of the UN, or the pages of the media.

My Bathroom
Wednesday, Mar 05, 2003
For a seminar yesterday, we were to make a collage of our bathroom, real or ideal.

I took pictures of my own bathroom and mixed them together for a cognitive level look at my bathroom, with more important things taking up more space.

I can't explain how I forgot the actual toilet...

I hate warblogging
Wednesday, Mar 05, 2003
I so don't want Fury to become a warblog, but I wold like to point to an editorial critical of the Bush Doctrine that was published in the SFGate today. A highlight:
"Here are the words you will never hear from Dubya: We have won the war on terror. Never will you hear this, because the battle is, by definition, unwinnable; you can't win a war on terror any more than you can win the war against racism, or ignorance, or drugs, or cutesy boy bands or sunlight. Terrorism is as much a concept as a force, an idea as a scattered, well-organized, global network we can't possibly pinpoint."

Yes, the article is designed to enflame people, polarize them one way or the other. At the same time, it underscores my primary anger about our country. Beyond any one action, vote, or invasion, we've become a nation of pre-emptive aggressors who fight because we're scared of what happens if we don't beat people up before they beat us up.

Okay, so if the last warblog post I made was any indication, this will probably get a lot of comments. Go ahead and comment away. I won't be putting as much effort into point-by-point rebuttals to people's vim this time around. I've expressed my opinion well enough.

Disenfranchised Patriot Seeks New Regime for LTR
Saturday, Mar 01, 2003
The political world is going to shit. I strongly believe that our top leaders are lying to us, that they have their own agendas that don't mesh with the well being of the nation and the world, and that they realize that since the media won't call them on it, they can make more daring and more glaring lies every day.

My question for the weekend is: If the United States is taking on the role of the World's Policeman, ensuring that the world enjoys the American standards for human rights and freedom, then why do we not listen to what that world is saying?

I say 'we' though every day I feel less and less that 'we' are represented by our government. I'm travelling overseas later this month, and I'm just hoping that people in other countries don't treat me like I agree with what my country is doing ostensibly in my name.

I don't understand why Democratic leaders (or any domestic leaders for that matter) aren't coming out against the way this charade-driven prelude to war is being played out. With less than 50% of Americans saying that they would vote to re-elect Bush if the election were held today without even having an alternative candidate in mind, why don't we hear more from those politicians who better represent our views? Why don't we hear it more vocally from the US media? What little true investigative reporting that's done by US news services is usually printed as 'opinion' or 'editorial.' Bush understands that the first step to controlling the media is to make sure the other guy never gets heard.

We're being bullied. We're being spied upon. We're being lied to, and we're being robbed.

Give the populace a lollipop tax refund and make them pay for it later when 'the other guy' is running the country. Make the government earn less and spend more, call it the price for our liberties and tell us that the best thing we can do for our economy is to buy ourselves a new VCR and look the other way.

How do I raise my own flag, for all the world to see? How can I identify with a nation that feels as I do, led by a government that does not? What is the best way to say that I stand up for the ideals that this country was founded upon, but that I think that those ideals are not represented by the people currently at the nation's helm?

What happens to the United States' credibility if we go it alone and invade Iraq, and not find weapons of mass destruction (other than our own) in the ruins we create? Would our leaders plant them, like crooked cops at a drug bust, or would we blanket our slaughter of the Iraqi people under the guise of their emancipation from tyranny? How will other nations ever again justify allying with us when we collaboratively set the rules for a country's disarmament, then unilaterally say 'fuck it. I don't believe you, but since I can't prove it I'll decimate your infrastructure to be on the safe side'? What does it say when our foreign policy is based on Napoleonic Law, and even France won't stand with us?

We're inches away from strip searches for traffic violations. Our bank account and previous travel activity are already looked at by threat-assessment computers to decide which planes we can fly on, and how often we get searched along the way. And more invasive systems are in the works. American citizens are being held without bail, without charges, and without paperwork or public scrutiny, under the oxymoronic guise of protecting our freedoms. If an American was treated this way by any other nation, it wouldn't be tolerated. But this is America, where our government knows what's best.

Our 'terror alert' scale is designed to tell us when to feel scared (but not why), and when to feel safe (but not for how long). We're told to prepare for ambiguous terrorist threats, then told not to feel fear or overreact as we're instructed in how to walk leisurely away from a nuclear attack.

We're being played as puppets. We're brainwashed into thinking that Iraq and Al Qaeda are the same thing, and that having a missile that can travel 113 miles instead of the proscribed 93 miles is tantamount to possessing smallpox.

Our government has told the world that they're either with us or against us, and if they don't like the way we run the world, well, then they just might be next on our list. This is the same ultimatum that's also being given to the people of our country.

How wrong is it that I fear a repeat election in 2004 more than anything that Iraq, Al Qaeda, or even North Korea could do?

How can we stop this ride? I want to get off.

Trading spaces: Kevin and Rachel Style
Friday, Feb 28, 2003
Inspired by the many requests here last week from people wanting to see what my bedroom looked like before and after our re-do last weekend, Rachel surprised me by gifting me and you all with a peek at what changed.

Courtesy of Rachel, I'm proud to present Trading Spaces - Kevin Style! (shockwave)

A US Diplomat's Letter of Resignation
Friday, Feb 28, 2003
This is a teriffic read. I't s both comforting and worrisome to know that those on the diplomatic front lines see the same problems as I do.

I hope that Political Counselor John Brady Kiesling's letter of resignation doesn't just slip under the cover of sensationalism in the next news cycle.

Bye, Mr. Rogers! See you next time...
Thursday, Feb 27, 2003
Pittsburgh is a sad place today, with flags at half-mast all around. Mr. Rogers lived in shadyside, and it was his neighborhood.

There's a memorial service on campus tonight, and the local station is airing a 3-hour retrospective...

  
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Hi, I'm Kevin Fox.
I've been blogging at Fury.com since 1998.
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