tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-141685822024-03-12T22:56:49.109-07:00anticontrariandallas taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00112023233468137495noreply@blogger.comBlogger388125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14168582.post-21784188809862152032011-08-26T11:02:00.000-07:002011-08-26T11:02:21.333-07:00First-Ever Fiction Sale<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/zcIbrz3tLmY" width="640"></iframe><br />
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Also, go check out my new website, at <a href="http://dallas-taylor.com/">dallas-taylor.com</a>.dallas taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00112023233468137495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14168582.post-75176363737377040982011-06-17T21:21:00.000-07:002011-06-17T21:21:12.206-07:00Hello, visitors. Thanks for stopping by. I have moved my blogging/website operations over to <a href="http://dallas-taylor.com/">dallas-taylor.com</a>. Come on over and check me out over there. Love to see you.<br />
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For what it's worth, I will leave anticontrarian up for awhile while I decide what to do with it, but almost all new content will be appearing there, at least for the time being.<br />
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Thanks, y'all. See you at the new digs.<br />
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ddallas taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00112023233468137495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14168582.post-38750979327446494932011-04-05T11:29:00.000-07:002011-04-05T11:29:09.905-07:00The Chanteuse<blockquote>Chanteuse (flute)<br />
4 oz sparkling wine, spl absinthe, 1/2 oz pernod, 1 cube sugar, peychaud's<br />
soak sugar cube in peychaud's<br />
pour absinthe and pernod over it through a slotted spoon<br />
top with sparkling wine<br />
drop sugar cube in bottom</blockquote>The Chanteuse has a couple of origin threads. One is my friend Cumorah, who used to work at the bar next door to mine, and is a culinary-school-trained chef and a big fan of Pernod and anisette in general. The other is an <a href="http://www.ajrathbun.com/blog/category/iron-bartender/">Iron Bartender</a> competition that I lost (albeit closely) a few months ago at Tiger Tail in Ballard. The secret ingredient that evening, which we were obliged to use in three different concoctions, was Marteau Absinthe, a French-style absinthe made in Portland, Oregon. Marteau was the semi-official sponsor of the competition that evening (they did, at very least, donate a case of the stuff for us to use).<a name='more'></a>Two of the rounds of the Iron Bartender competition involved creating a cocktail to match with food from the Tiger Tail kitchen, and the first round was an oyster shooter appetizer that was heavy on the salt and lime.<br />
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Now, normally anisette is not the congener that I would match to something like that, but, it being an Iron Bartender competition, I was obliged to use the absinthe. But the classic pairing with oysters is sparkling wine (well, champagne, technically, but you get the picture). And so I got to thinking about how I could combine the two. Absinthe and sparkling wine, that is. I also wanted something light, minty even, to counteract the sour-salt sting of the oysters, which was, honestly, a little overdone.<br />
<br />
Mint didn't really seem the way to go, though, but I thought that maybe the eucalyptusy airiness of Peychaud's bitters might work. Mint and Eucalyptus are pretty different, but they do share a certain sort of ethereal quality, in that they clear air passages and soothe them with a similar coolness.<br />
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What I decided to do, in the end, was a variation on a classic, the Champagne Cocktail, which is just a glass of champagne with a bitters-soaked sugar cube dropped in it (the bitters being Angostura, the one every bar carries). Instead of the Angostura, I used Peychaud's, and I mixed a little absinthe in as well. It worked okay, though I wasn't as crazy about it as I wanted to be, at least at the competition, but it put the idea for the thing in my head.<br />
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Later, one night while I was working at Tost, Cumorah came in for a drink, as she was wont to do from time to time, and told me to make her something. I am, apparently, the only bartender she trusts to just make something up for her, and I knew she had a certain fondness for anisette, and for funny bitters-y liqueurs in general. And so I decided to make her a second-generation prototype of the Chanteuse. I made it without the absinthe, which Tost doesn't stock. I just dropped a Peychaud's-soaked sugar cube in a flute, poured sparkling wine over it, and drizzled a little Pernod over the top, which turned it a lovely shade of green.<br />
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She loved it. Which made me happy, because I like when people like my drinks.<br />
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So, for the party, I decided to take it just a little bit further, and prepare the drink in accordance with traditional absinthe service (wherein it is poured over a sugar cube). So, for the Chanteuse, the cube is soaked in Peychaud's, over which the Pernod and Absinthe are poured, then topped with sparkling wine, making a cloudy green bubble bath of anise-flavored decadence. Then I drop what's left of the sugar cube into the bottom, where it bubbles away for a while, giving the drink a nicely effervescent texture and slowly sweetening it as the sugar dissolves. It also makes a little patch of pinkish-red below the cloudy green, which I think looks nice as well.<br />
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As for the flavor, if you like licorice, you will love the Chanteuse. It's a very powerfully flavored drink, that provokes an odd mellowness when you drink it. It's not the most complicated flavor I've ever devised, but it's a little challenging and exotic (hence the name), and the rewards for engaging with it are well worth the effort, I think.dallas taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00112023233468137495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14168582.post-57256468238235947552011-04-04T17:40:00.000-07:002011-04-04T17:40:13.263-07:00<blockquote>Since I don't smoke or drink and swear unconvincingly, symmetry is my only vice.<br />
-Richard Powers, <i>Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance</i></blockquote>dallas taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00112023233468137495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14168582.post-90614728415333028152011-04-04T16:58:00.000-07:002011-04-04T16:58:40.034-07:00Draining the Swamp in my InnardsSome what know me well know that once a year or so I give over my bad habits and try and give my corpus a chance to clean itself out and set itself straight. Last year was the intestinal flora rebalancing diet. The year before was the allergy elimination diet. Both were hard, and took several weeks, but did wonders for my body, which I appreciated, since I've only got the one and it's lost a touch of its native resilience what with the punishment and the aging and such.<br />
<br />
This year I'm going back to my roots, and working my way up to a fast.<br />
<br />
I've done several over the years. It's a nice way to give my body a break from digestion and let it process out some buildup. There's a fair bit of controversy over the practice, with the western medical establishment pretty decidedly anti- on the one hand, and many individual anecdotes on the other side quite fervently pro-.<br />
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<a name='more'></a><br />
As for myself, well, I suppose I come down on the pro side, though I'm cognizant of the arguments on the other side, most of which seem to revolve around the lack of studies showing that fasting and the like produce the results proponents promise and concern that the lack of nutrients, protein in particular, can, if taken to extremes, result in serious harm to the body. The second thing makes sense, certainly, and I'm certainly mindful of those risks (though having the amount of stored extra calories I carry around in my belly gives me a bit of wiggle room, I suspect). I have also, for what it's worth, not found any studies in my internetical peregrinations that purport to demonstrate the harm in fasting, so there's that, too.<br />
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This time around, I've decided to try a little something different. Previously, I've been a pretty staunch juice faster, which is just what it sounds like, pretty much. You stop eating food, but keep the nutrients coming in by juicing fruits and vegetables. You can also drink vegetable broth and herbal tea. It's good, because it keeps your blood sugar from doing crazy things while giving your digestive tract and your liver a chance to move some things along.<br />
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This year, I'm trying the Master Cleanse, also known as the Lemonade Diet. The notion is similar. You mix up a concoction of lemon juice, grade b maple syrup, cayenne pepper and water and drink it when you get hungry. The notion is that the lemon juice and cayenne help to unstick the gunk that gums up the works in your digestive tract and the water helps flush it out (with the help of senna-based teas, which stimulate intestinal peristalsis in a downward direction). The maple syrup, presumably, provides the calories.<br />
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Back in the day I used to just start right in, but over the years I've learned it's a bit kinder on your body to ease into things a bit. So for the last two weeks I've been what amounts to a teetotaling vegan. No booze, no coffee, no animal products. Minimal processed food, though I haven't been too strict on that (there have been chips and salsa; I'm not ashamed). Now, for the last couple of days, I've cut my diet down to just cooked vegetables and fruit and nuts. If it feels right, I will start fasting tomorrow.<br />
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I have also, in preparation for the coming process, started drinking the spicy lemonade, and I think it's working, though I don't know that I have yet really begun to work out the really deeply-embedded gunk.<br />
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As for how long I'm going to do it, my goal is to make it three days and see how it feels. As far as I can recollect, I've only ever made it five before. Most of the master cleanse sites I've visited and read say ten days at a minimum, but that seems long to me. Mostly I plan to just listen to my body and play it by ear. <br />
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So far it seems to be going okay, though I'm a little sluggish upstairs and undermotivated. There have been some headaches, and the intestinal flush process is still not quite underway in the way I'd like it to be, but overall I'm optimistic.<br />
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I'll let you know how it goes. Wish me luck.dallas taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00112023233468137495noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14168582.post-40175809203081058552011-03-31T11:57:00.000-07:002011-03-31T11:57:54.022-07:00Worst April Fool's Day Joke EvarHouse Republicans so desperately want HR 1 (a budget bill with $61 billion in spending cuts, which went to the Senate and was voted down 56 to 44) that they are going to try and suspend the Constitution on Friday to make it law.<br />
<br />
That's right. They're going to try and <i>suspend the Constitution</i>. <br />
<br />
Did your head just explode? Thought so.<br />
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Oh, and the funny thing? The Senate would have to willingly cede its constitutional authority for such a maneuver to work. Yeah, that'll happen.<br />
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I guess, in the end, the joke's on them. Or us. Yeah, probably us.dallas taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00112023233468137495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14168582.post-36274014934737014672011-03-30T12:23:00.000-07:002011-03-30T12:23:33.380-07:00The Libyan InterventionSo, I've been doing a fair bit of reading about the No Fly Zone and the limited projection of American military power in support of the uprising in Libya. Unsurprisingly for the blogosphere, people have pretty strong opinions. To say there's been some Monday morning quarterbacking would be an understatement.<br />
<br />
For what it's worth, the most worthwhile exploration of it I've read is <a href="https://zunguzungu.wordpress.com/2011/03/26/libya-waiting-to-see/">here</a>.<br />
<br />
As for my own part, first off, I think that it doesn't matter that much what anyone's opinion is as to whether or not we should have, because, well, we did, and until someone invents a time machine, we live in the world we do, and things can be done, but rarely undone. That said, you can support or not support our intervention, on many different grounds, most of which seem to fall into the rubric of moral or practical.<br />
<br />
Both sides have some compelling arguments. And I do not wish to discount them. One of the things about modern discourse I find just absolutely maddening is that when many people take a side, they are unable or unwilling to grant any legitimacy whatsoever to the other side's position or arguments, and denigrate and discount them (or, often as not, the people who make them), which trivializes and nastifies the debate without doing anything to serve the truth. To my mind, it's not a question of who's right and who's wrong, since both sides are often both: it's a question of who's more right and less wrong, and what will the outcome likely be if a particular policy or course of action is undertaken. It's about weighing the arguments against each other, and finding where the balance of truth lies.<br />
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In my own explorations of the issue of the Libyan Intervention, I've done my level best to do so, and where I've come down is this:<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
I support the intervention, at least so far.<br />
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Now, I could spend enough paragraphs to make your eyes glaze over and your mind start singing Hansen tunes rehashing the various arguments and weighing in on them from the position of my own personal moral calculus, but neither of us really wants me to do that, I don't think. Suffice to say I've gone back and forth, momentarily swayed by the words of many an earnest partisan of pro or con, right up until I read the above linked post (by new favorite blogger <a href="https://zunguzungu.wordpress.com/">zunguzungu</a>).<br />
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Put simply, if we hadn't intervened, there'd be a whole lot more dead Libyans right now than there are. <br />
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When the UNSC resolution was passed down, Ghaddafi's forces were poised outside the town of Benghazi, where the revolution's main battle force, such as they were and are, were holed up. These were regular people, armed with assault rifles and whatever other munitions they'd managed to seize, most with no military training. Ghaddafi's forces, on the other hand, had fighter jets and helicopter gunships and tanks. Serious military hardware. Had they been allowed to attack, it would have been a absolute slaughter, not only of the revolution's army, but of the people of Benghazi. Some estimates have up to 100,000 people killed, just in that engagement.<br />
<br />
100,000 people.<br />
<br />
And here's the thing. Knowing it was going to happen, and having the forces in place to intervene, had we decided not to, we would have been morally complicit in those deaths. Not as much as Ghaddafi and his army, certainly. But we would have, because we could have stopped it but didn't. We would also have been on the hook for the crackdowns that would have followed. No dictator ever has responded to an uprising by liberalizing his regime's practices. It's not how that game gets played.<br />
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On the side of non-intervention, the question of Iraq has arisen many times. And indeed it applies. Just not how it's been meant. It's not Iraq in 2003 we'd have been looking at, but <a href="https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/1991_uprisings_in_Iraq">Iraq in 1991</a>, after Operation Desert Storm, when the Shia, encouraged by us, staged an armed uprising against Saddam Hussein, which was put down in true dictatorial style, with indiscriminate projection of military-grade force into crowds of civilians and random executions in the streets on the principle of collective responsibility.<br />
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Now understand, my support is provisional. That we have stood down from leading the operation and are taking on more of a support role is encourging to me, because a) we don't need to be seen leading another operation against an Arab regime, no matter how odious (and if you think Ghaddafi isn't odious, well, I'll just suggest you consider his material and spiritual support of guys like <a href="https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Charles_Taylor_%28Liberia%29">Charles Taylor</a>), and b) because our economy and our military are just stretched too damn thin. The second we talk about putting boots on the ground, I'm against it, for the above-stated reasons and others I won't enumerate at present.<br />
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But in this particular case, where we were able to step in and level the playing field, giving the popular uprising a chance to fight and win their own revolution, using our air and sea capabilities without committing to a ground invasion or (heaven help us) nation-building, I'm for it, even given the inevitable negative externalities that will undoubtedly manifest. <br />
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Given the opportunity to save 100,000 lives, and to allow a people the chance to win their freedom, I think it's worth the price I think we're likely to pay. Your mileage may vary.dallas taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00112023233468137495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14168582.post-68147825438403323502011-03-08T14:28:00.000-08:002011-03-08T14:28:36.635-08:00One Year Ago TodayI got the email telling me I had been accepted into the <a href="http://clarion.ucsd.edu/apply.html">Clarion Writers' Workshop</a>, a life-changing event (or, more accurately, a series thereof) whose repercussions are still playing out. And now here I am, still unpublished, but much more serious about writing and being a writer than I ever was before, about to get on a train so I can finish a novel draft on my way to see three of my fellow students and two of my instructors at my first ever Con, and happier with the direction of my life than I have been for a long, long time.<br />
<br />
I know there are probably a hundred or more people out there right now, waiting to hear back about their own applications, or keeping a lid on the fact that they've already been accepted until everyone has been notified. To those who'll be chosen, you're fortunate to be so, but more than that, you are deserving, so keep rocking with your bad selves and get to girding those loins for the struggles ahead, because it won't be easy. And to those who don't make it this year, don't despair and don't give up. Keep writing, keep trying, and keep becoming more awesome.dallas taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00112023233468137495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14168582.post-91956349344936662322011-03-07T10:50:00.000-08:002011-03-07T10:50:16.814-08:00It's on Everyone Else's Blog<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqas3v8LB15K4W7tayuFnKY_YjuiiFPTOZ5GrT4vLbmh58MHuiTBp44qaElsJ9d3N0qBB2HOdl-Tl3paEPD-cWEvJ_OPBCbwMIcGHw-jt1ufop7xb-NZ8F4VwM9KiikvPBvaBb/s1600/taxes-vs-budgetcuts-final.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br />
</a></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihFg_Pk8kac7oTIGILRZ-KXgFt0ld8CE-EwcUTlcyWmEXdZwxfdlKXOgiXEBDnvzqESn733_a9l4MMeF7LeGD6GT3qr8EJQDyDA85laZWhzWl8aXrtQjM8E27OLVvgDbz57G4V/s1600/tlG0Y.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihFg_Pk8kac7oTIGILRZ-KXgFt0ld8CE-EwcUTlcyWmEXdZwxfdlKXOgiXEBDnvzqESn733_a9l4MMeF7LeGD6GT3qr8EJQDyDA85laZWhzWl8aXrtQjM8E27OLVvgDbz57G4V/s640/tlG0Y.jpg" width="268" /></a><br />
<br />
So here it is on mine, too.<br />
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It's not that we don't need to do a little belt-tightening as a nation. Though it's not the sky falling, the federal deficit is an issue that will need to be addressed. But it's rare that we ever get a look at the trade-offs that are negotiated behind closed doors.<br />
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Here, in handy chart form, is a series of, on the one side, programs we're being asked to sacrifice, and, on the other, tax breaks that have been granted to those members of our society who have the most money and power.<br />
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Put like that, it doesn't seem right, does it?<br />
<br />
Look, I'm all for fiscal responsibility. But more than that, I'm for fairness, and those at the top of the economic chain derive far and away the most benefit from the American economic system. More than seems fair at all, it seems to me, but that's a whole other blog post.<br />
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Nonetheless, it seems to me not only fair but reasonable that in times of economic hardship and revenue shortfalls that everybody ought to do their part. Some would say that that means everybody ought to contribute equally, but that isn't really fair, because far too many Americans ain't got shit and can't afford a share.<br />
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No, what seems fair to me would be for everyone to contribute proportionally to the benefit they derive from the system we all support.<br />
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But maybe that's just me. Either way, if you can look at that chart, at the line by line comparisons between tax breaks for those who need the least help and vital programs for those who need the most, and say to yourself, "Yeah, that seems right," well, I would contend that there's something wrong with your sense of fairness, and, maybe, with your heart, too.<br />
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But then, I subscribe to some pretty radical notions, like that we're all in this together, and that the society that doesn't provide for all of its citizens is not much better than the jungle we so pride ourselves on having gotten out of as a species.dallas taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00112023233468137495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14168582.post-14884881054589935212011-03-06T22:18:00.000-08:002011-03-06T22:18:51.832-08:00What the Protagonist Carried with Her into Battle with Her Nemesis1 <a href="https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Uzi">Uzi-Pro</a>, with two clips<br />
2 <a href="https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Jericho_941">Jericho 941</a> pistols, with two clips each, one clip being short 2 rounds<br />
1 <a href="https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Beretta_21A_Bobcat">Beretta 21A Bobcat</a>, with 1 full clip<br />
2 <a href="https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Stun_grenade">Flashbang grenades</a><br />
2 <a href="https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/MK3A2">Concussion grenades</a><br />
1 <a href="https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Trench_knife">Trench Knife</a><br />
1 Pair <a href="http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://cdn1.iofferphoto.com/img/item/142/147/835/hot-aviator-sunglasses-rayban-3029-black-mirror-29a3d.jpg&imgrefurl=http://pt.ioffer.com/si/ray%2Bban%2Bwomen%2Bsunglasses%3Fpage%3D6%26price%3D2&usg=__niNC1kmeoOgpSXH1kYQy0kG6LJk=&h=567&w=567&sz=75&hl=en&start=75&sig2=zMDtxQihiOFU35gSsIe2wA&zoom=1&tbnid=LOqzFsvAH9VK6M:&tbnh=167&tbnw=166&ei=YXd0Td3TA5HmsQOEmYG3Cw&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dblack%2Bwoman%2Bin%2Bcop%2Bglasses%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1424%26bih%3D677%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:10%2C1950&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=1160&vpy=345&dur=230&hovh=225&hovw=225&tx=154&ty=213&oei=QHd0Te2zPISusAO7l5zgAw&page=5&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:5,s:75&biw=1424&bih=677">Mirrored Cop Glasses</a><br />
<br />
Now to decide how she will use it all. I suspect there will be mayhem.<br />
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Being a writer is fun.dallas taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00112023233468137495noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14168582.post-2582742285632073232011-03-04T10:41:00.000-08:002011-03-04T10:43:41.533-08:00Writing DreamsIt's taken me a while to notice, but I've started having a new kind of dream somewhere in these last few months, in which my sleeping brain is trying to figure out how to put together various stories. I never remember them when I wake up, which I do quite frequently on the nights that I have these dreams (I had several last night, and am grumpy and groggy this morning as a result), but I remember snippets, and they all have to do with fitting the moving parts of a story together into a shapely, coherent whole.<br />
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Oddly enough, none of them seem to have anything to do with any of my current projects, though I wish that they did a little. Or maybe not. Being that I don't remember anything of them after it probably wouldn't do me any good, anyway.<br />
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As a writer, storytelling is my kryptonite, which fact I freely admit (see previous sentence clause). Due to my cussedness as a person, I spent the first decade of my self-taught writing apprenticeship obsessing over my prose style (with largely pleasing results), but it wasn't until Clarion that I started to think in any systematic way about what to do with said prose style. Partly it had to do with the fact that I primarily, read, write, and think in novel-sized chunks; there's just a lot more room to play and experiment there.<br />
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But you can't do that shit in a short story for the most part. There just isn't time, or room. <br />
<br />
I remember my first one-on-one at Clarion. It was a hot, sunny Friday afternoon, a week into the workshop. I had just had my first story critiqued, and it smarted (oh, how it smarted), and I was meeting with the estimable Delia Sherman to discuss another story of mine (which I had been quite proud of, before I knew any better). Long story short, she basically told me to read it again, scrap it completely, and start over, which took all of two minutes, and then we talked about my strengths and weaknesses as a writer, which was, as you might expect, rather bracing. The gist of what she had to say was that I did the grad-level stuff very well, but that I failed the basic, elementary school stuff almost completely. On the plus side, she reassured me that once I got to figuring it out, it would come to me easily enough.<br />
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And I assume that's what's happening now, with these dreams. They are my brain rearranging itself in such a way that I will become better at arranging the depolyment of narrative, backstory, character, and plot in a more pleasing shape. That's what I hope, at least. <br />
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If nothing else, they're way better than the bartending dreams I used to have. Those were just annoying.dallas taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00112023233468137495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14168582.post-83285686352112458072011-03-02T13:29:00.000-08:002011-03-02T13:29:01.044-08:00Thought for the DayThe problem with class warfare (at least as waged in contemporary America) is that only one class knows there is one (hint: it's not the middle class).<br />
<br />
Discuss.dallas taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00112023233468137495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14168582.post-59748062251258291582011-03-02T11:28:00.000-08:002011-03-02T11:29:15.106-08:00The Wise Man's Fear Book Signing in Seattle<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWLKjm3qRtl92wOErm4-smTFExSF1MBCLtU3t2GGlmmryWX-dlvTtohDVOAJWPHvv-JMLjt5G5YIBIBhoEbZrvC5h94Ow0ff4ux1foq2oF9SagRiyjWdjBjbGBzKJlPNHEtbj4/s1600/51ZQ%252BYN6EyL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWLKjm3qRtl92wOErm4-smTFExSF1MBCLtU3t2GGlmmryWX-dlvTtohDVOAJWPHvv-JMLjt5G5YIBIBhoEbZrvC5h94Ow0ff4ux1foq2oF9SagRiyjWdjBjbGBzKJlPNHEtbj4/s320/51ZQ%252BYN6EyL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Yesterday was a good and writery day for your faithful correspondent. After an afternoon in the office plugging away at the ever-expanding manuscript (made my quota plus 700 words-w00t!), I made my way over to the University District, where my dear friend Suj'n had saved me a spot on the floor near the back of the actual seating for Pat Rothfuss' first stop on The Wise Man's Fear signing/reading/hilarious extemporizing tour.<br />
<br />
I will pause here a moment and offer further mad props to my homegirl Suey, who not only saved me the aforementioned spot, she also told me about the event in the first place, which I was ignorant of, having been eye-deep in the day-to-day grind of writing my own novel on a looming if self-imposed deadline.<br />
<br />
Those of you that follow this blog may recollect my recent <a href="http://anticontrarian.blogspot.com/2011/02/name-of-wind-by-patrick-rothfuss.html">extended squee</a> over the first book in the Kingkiller Chronicles, <i>The Name of the Wind</i>, some two weeks ago. I had been saving the book for most of a year before I read it, for various reasons, and I enjoyed it most thoroughly. I seem to have done something right, albeit unconsciously, because unlike most of the rest of Mr. Rothfuss' fans, I did not have to wait long for the next book, and indeed I purchased a copy yesterday for him to sign.<br />
<br />
But enough about me.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
First thing to say about the reading is: man is that Pat Rothfuss a funny, entertaining guy. He's apparently a big anti-fan of spoilers, so the only bit of the new book that he read was the prologue, which, like the first book, is really very short. Mostly he just extemporized, sometimes extemporaneously, other times in response to questions. He even managed to answer many of those questions in the course of said extemporizing.<br />
<br />
At first I was a little disappointed that he didn't read more, but as things went along I realized that that was just because all the other events like this I've been to were mostly taken up with an author reading a story or a passage from their book. But I respect the choice he made not to read much from the book (which several people in the audience were reading while waiting for him to start and then for him to sign; I saw at least one guy who was three-quarters of the way through it), because of spoilers but also so we could all get an extra dose of Pat being Pat.<br />
<br />
I suppose when you enjoy the kind of success Pat Rothfuss has, it encourages you to grow a little larger than life. In many people this turns out to be a bad thing. Not so Mr. Rothfuss, who seems to have grown into his success with some humility and recollection of where he came from intact. He's still wicked funny, and I'm not saying the man doesn't know he's a badass, because he does, and he's not afraid to let you know it, too. But he's so obviously having such a great time that it's hard not to go along with it. And like I said, the man is damned funny. He's also damned smart (smart enough, for instance, to ask that no one record the proceedings, so that he could speak off the cuff without the fear that he'd end up on YouTube saying something about how long-winded JRR Tolkien was).<br />
<br />
Most of the hour or so was taken up with answering questions (though he did read, in addition to the prologue of the new book, a couple of his poems, at least one of which ended quite badly). Most of it was pretty typical fan stuff (my own question involved the chicken and egg of world-building vs story), and he was expansive in his answers. But what I really respected was his refusal to answer certain questions that didn't lend themselves to the pith and concision required by the venue. For instance, a poor college student asked if he might, having purchased the hardcover, make his own digital copy, which is a viper-infested minefield that one might spend hours and hours discussing, and Mr. Rothfuss ably answered why he couldn't answer that question without coming down either way on it (like I said, this is a smart guy).<br />
<br />
As for my own experience with him, of course I wanted to chat him up and drop my credential and whatnot, but I was just another guy in line, and given how many people were behind me waiting it seemed like it would be disrespectful to do anything but say thanks and have him sign the book (I got <i>The Wise Man's Fear</i> inscribed to me and had him inscribe my paperback copy of <i>The Name of the Wind</i> to my gfk August, who I hope will like the book as much as I did). I did manage to stand out a little by offering him and Nate Taylor (who drew the map for the Kingkiller books and illustrated <i>The Adventures of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle</i>, his not-for-children children's book) some of the girl scout cookies I had bought on the way in. Perhaps if I am lucky enough to meet him sometime in the future I will remind him of that and see if he remembers me. After all, everybody loves girl scout cookies.<br />
<br />
<br />
You can buy <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Name-Wind-Kingkiller-Chronicles-Day/dp/0756405890/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1299093992&sr=1-2"><i>The Name of the Wind</i></a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Wise-Mans-Fear-Kingkiller-Chronicles/dp/0756404738/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_b"><i>The Wise Man's Fear</i></a> here at Amazon, but if you have a local bookstore you should buy it from them if you can. Local bookstores rock.dallas taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00112023233468137495noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14168582.post-61206749752192468042011-02-28T13:30:00.000-08:002011-02-28T13:30:11.020-08:00Worthy Quotations<blockquote>The imagination is necessary not to make things up - that would be wrong - but to come up with plausible scenarios for what one's senses are detecting; theories that might explain what is going on.<br />
-Iain M. Banks, <i>Transition</i>, p27</blockquote>dallas taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00112023233468137495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14168582.post-79902821755501292432011-02-28T13:14:00.000-08:002011-02-28T13:14:07.602-08:00One for the AgesA unionized public employee, a teabagger and a CEO are sitting at a table. In the middle of the table is a plate with a dozen cookies on it. The CEO reaches across and takes 11 cookies, looks at the teabagger and says, "Watch out for that union guy. He wants a piece of your cookie."dallas taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00112023233468137495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14168582.post-91060738926946054592011-02-25T13:11:00.000-08:002011-02-25T13:11:55.033-08:00A Statistical Observation, in the Form of a PredictionNeither you, nor almost anyone you know, will ever be rich. I don't mean wealthy. I don't mean comfortably well-off. I mean fuck-you money rich.<br />
<br />
On the plus side, studies show that money doesn't make you any happier. So you got that going for you. Which is nice.dallas taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00112023233468137495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14168582.post-69671151993831144002011-02-24T16:45:00.000-08:002011-02-24T16:45:26.186-08:00Something I've NoticedWhen I'm writing, and the words are coming easy, when I'm just cruising along with the road open ahead, when I know what's happening and what happens next, and exactly how I want to say it; those are the stretches I end up editing the most when I go back. It's the times when I struggle, when every word is like squeezing water out of a rock, when I don't know what I'm doing and can't remember what I just did, that what I come up with reads the cleanest, the clearest, the smoothest, as if the wrenching discontinuity of the words' production somehow folded in on itself and became its own opposite on the page when I wasn't looking.dallas taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00112023233468137495noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14168582.post-18529473720524206312011-02-23T22:13:00.000-08:002011-02-23T22:13:36.236-08:00Fun with NumbersAccording to the Financial Times (article is behind a paywall, citation from <a href="http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2011_02/028142.php">here</a>):<br />
<br />
<blockquote>The Republican plan to slash government spending by $61bn in 2011 could reduce US economic growth by 1.5 to 2 percentage points in the second and third quarters of the year, a Goldman Sachs economist has warned. </blockquote><br />
Now, I trust Goldman about as far as I can throw them, ethics-wise. But I do trust them to be clear-eyed when it comes to economic projections. That's their bread and butter. <br />
<br />
According to <a href="http://ycharts.com/economy/Macro?gclid=CI3tyduOoKcCFQI8gwodIH0fKw">this website</a>, the GDP from Q4 2010 was $13.38 T. That's more than thirteen trillion dollars. So if the economy grows by 1.5 to 2 percentage points less, that's at least $200 billion dollars less money sloshing around in the economy, paying people and buying stuff. <br />
<br />
How many jobs do you suppose that is, even after the super-wealthy take their outsized cut? <br />
<br />
Oh yeah. <a href="http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/02/boehner-if-jobs-are-lost-as-a-result-of-gop-spending-cuts-so-be-it.php">They don't care</a>.<br />
<br />
Dear slight majority of Americans: You voted for these guys why again?dallas taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00112023233468137495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14168582.post-67731255941251465632011-02-23T16:35:00.000-08:002011-02-23T16:35:18.888-08:00I Stole This Graphic from Mother Jones<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguKwu218IsT5hURVcLH8ROQ25ut2UuhupEt3vTAwVyz4fiVN3ArZTTgAcIoJPeyh6aWkh6XZq60eIh3PDDxku-DMac_7YGZEWYuT8SmGpvKLq1D3sw5o9tP2-yKhmrqiz1DmVt/s1600/inequality-p25_averagehouseholdincom.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguKwu218IsT5hURVcLH8ROQ25ut2UuhupEt3vTAwVyz4fiVN3ArZTTgAcIoJPeyh6aWkh6XZq60eIh3PDDxku-DMac_7YGZEWYuT8SmGpvKLq1D3sw5o9tP2-yKhmrqiz1DmVt/s640/inequality-p25_averagehouseholdincom.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmAJiLTh-edFwj3ryxtECuz2VTIH9gDo29YKvQpmHklzUSWa91olkG6KR4cvat0OAw7MI-0Kpdtuf7nnhzhiLyqOVNrRlJy_8NkoE1oDw13aM5gVLEcdyPr31UhTnN5S4Ba4RJ/s1600/inequality-page25_1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br />
</a></div>If you want to know why things are the way they are in America, economically and politically, this graph (and the <a href="http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/02/income-inequality-in-america-chart-graph">other seven</a>) will give you a pretty good idea, I think.dallas taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00112023233468137495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14168582.post-56533156400229491672011-02-23T10:38:00.000-08:002011-02-23T11:10:11.292-08:00How the Other Half ThinksScott Walker got punk'd yesterday, and had a 20 minute phone call in which he spoke quite candidly about what's going on in Wisconsin with Ian Murphy of the Buffalo Beast (or 50 Most Loathesome fame), thinking Murphy was David Koch of the Koch brothers.<br />
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You can listen to the call here:<br />
<br />
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<br />
and here:<br />
<br />
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<br />
Edited transcript <a href="http://www.buffalobeast.com/?p=5045">here</a>. <br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
No real surprises, and no admissions of overt wrongdoing, though there was at least one tactical error in describing the quorum trap Walker's people are working on. Still, that's just political hardball, and my panties remain unbunched despite its dirtiness.<br />
<br />
No, the real takeaway is the mindset behind Walker's moves, and the coziness of the oligarchy/parasite class with the officials their money helps elect. Posing as David Koch, Murphy gets right through to the governor (whose face must be pretty red, now that this has gone public), which of course I would expect, but expecting and hearing firsthand are two different things.<br />
<br />
It may be that Walker genuinely believes that he's doing the right thing. He probably does. After all, no one is a villain in their own mind, and people generally do what they think is right, or find ways to paint doing what they want or what is to their advantage as the right thing to do. But it's also clear who the man's real constituency is, and who he really represents. And it's not the working people of Wisconsin, who are only useful insofar as they have been made to suffer, and can be convinced to desire the suffering of others like them, to provide cover for the plutocracy to make everyone suffer even more, so that they can have what little wealth remains outside their immediate control.dallas taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00112023233468137495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14168582.post-51772570512681721972011-02-22T21:50:00.000-08:002011-02-22T21:50:55.267-08:00If You Ever Wanted to Know......under what circumstances I would not only approve of but encourage the projection of military force overseas by the United States' Armed Forces, shooting the helicopter gunships and jet fighters attacking civilians in Libya out of the sky would probably be right up there.<br />
<br />
It's one thing to sic your riot-gear cops on protesting civilians. But it's a whole other can of worms when you cut loose on civilians with military-grade weaponry.<br />
<br />
Of course, we would never do that, because Libya has proven oil reserves.dallas taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00112023233468137495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14168582.post-52726704199508278942011-02-22T14:19:00.000-08:002011-02-22T14:19:08.438-08:00Quote of the Day<blockquote>"Inasmuch as most good things are produced by labor, it follows that all such things of right belong to those whose labor has produced them. But it has so happened, in all ages of the world, that some have labored, and others have without labor enjoyed a large proportion of the fruits. This is wrong, and should not continue. To secure to each laborer the whole product of his labor, or as nearly as possible, is a worthy object of any good government."<br />
-Abraham Lincoln </blockquote>dallas taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00112023233468137495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14168582.post-22739869638669746872011-02-22T14:09:00.000-08:002011-02-22T14:19:37.170-08:00Koch Whore Pays the VigIf there was any doubt that Wisconsin governor Scott Walker is anything other than a bought-and-paid-for thug for the parasite class, <a href="http://www.ginandtacos.com/2011/02/21/stand-and-deliver/">this</a> and <a href="http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_551d34c2-3e8f-11e0-8f91-001cc4c03286.html">this</a> should put those doubts to rest.<br />
<br />
If he was arguing in good faith, that Wisconsin's budget troubles necessitate some collective belt-tightening and that public-sector unions have to do their fair share of the tightening, that would be one thing. Those unions have said over and over that they'd be willing to sit down with the governor, and would even make many of the concessions he's asking for in order to strengthen Wisconsin's budget picture. But that's not what he's asking for. In fact, he's not asking for anything, he's playing Big Daddy and telling them what he's gonna do, and what he's gonna do is strip away the public-sector unions' collective bargaining rights.<br />
<br />
So why does Scott Walker hate working people?<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
Make no mistake, this is not an assault on big government. This is an assault on the working middle class of Wisconsin and of the United States at large. Lots of other governors have similar rules changes in the pipeline, waiting only to see if the unions in Wisconsin, which has a long and storied history of labor activism, can be broken.<br />
<br />
The middle class as we know it was born of labor activism. It doesn't take a genius to figure it out. I'm willing to bet that everybody reading this has at one time or another worked for a company or a boss that wanted to screw you out of all the work, time, and productivity they could while paying you the least they could possibly get away with for it. It's not even their fault; it's in the DNA of capitalist enterprises. And unless you're some kind of irreplaceable rockstar genius, when you sit down to negotiate your compensation and benefits, the power dynamic involved is going to be weighted against you.<br />
<br />
So how do you equalize that power dynamic? Collective bargaining. Collective bargaining is why we have things like child labor and workplace safety laws, why the 40 hour workweek is standard, why we have things like weekends off and vacation time and pensions for when we're too old to work. Take that away and we're all at the mercy of our plutocratic overlords.<br />
<br />
Which is exactly how Scott Walker and his parasite-class puppet-masters want things. Because it makes it easier for them to keep all the money. After all, there's only so much to go around, and in any sane society the inequalities Americans take for granted and even cheer on, some of them, would be cause to rethink the whole damn system.<br />
<br />
In a way, you almost have to admire the brilliance of Walker's agenda. First, pass upper-income tax giveaways that take your state's small surplus, which was the result of hard choices made by the previous legislature, some of whom probably paid the price for their prudence at the ballot box last November, and turn that surplus into a deficit. Then, take the resulting deficit, which you have created through irresponsible giveaways to people and industries that supported your political campaign, and use the resulting 'crisis' to justify not only taking money out of the pockets of working people (it doesn't matter who their employer is; in this case it just happens to be the state), but to take away their right to a seat at the table when the terms of their employment are negotiated. It's absolutely fawking brilliant in its malevolent nefariousness.<br />
<br />
And now that the people have risen up, and protested for eight straight days, what's Walker's response? Well, he's going to start laying people off. Not that he needs to for budgetary reasons, but to teach those lousy proles a lesson about who they're messing with.<br />
<br />
But I guess when you are a tool of the Koch brothers and the other members of the parasite class, that's just the vig on the money they loan you to get elected in the first place.dallas taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00112023233468137495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14168582.post-56341606307854683452011-02-21T13:05:00.000-08:002011-02-21T13:05:20.546-08:00Quote of the Day, the Second<blockquote>When anyone in a position of authority--an employer, the police, a school administrator--advises you not to hire an attorney, it's time to hire an attorney. When they advise you not to hire an attorney because it will create a confrontational atmosphere, you should have hired one yesterday; you're being railroaded.<br />
...<br />
[T]he system has a word for a guy without a lawyer, and it's guilty.<br />
-<a href="http://whoisioz.blogspot.com/2011/02/teach-your-children-well.html">IOZ </a></blockquote><br />
There's a reason our system of jurisprudence is adversarial. Because, not unlike the class war the bottom four quintiles are so often in denial about, the powers that be are, in general, out to get you. That they ever say otherwise is just part of the game.<br />
<br />
Put another way, never, EVER, trust anyone who says "Trust me."dallas taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00112023233468137495noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14168582.post-28782579851004225232011-02-21T10:22:00.000-08:002011-02-21T10:22:42.853-08:00Quote of the Day<blockquote>Science fiction is read most avidly by precocious children, brainy adolescents and a particular kind of retarded adult.<br />
-Thomas M. Disch</blockquote>dallas taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00112023233468137495noreply@blogger.com0