Lilith Saintcrow

Mmmh, wish it was a Sunday…no, not really. But here I am, random.

* This is what my life is like this week. Picture is definitely worth a thousand words.

* I don’t know what’s up with my forum. It just died. I didn’t touch it, I didn’t do a thing with it. We’re all poking at it trying to make it respond. It just won’t. ARGH.

* There’s a signing this week, and Orycon. Stay tuned!

* When I get a bit fitter (and since I’m going to be upping the time I run pretty much weekly or every two weeks, it’s not that far away) I want to get myself a flapper dress full of fringes. Because I want to, and also because I’ve been listening to the Bangles this morning.

Look, just don’t ask. Just let me have my dream.

* The book isn’t as bad as I thought. I took a little break from it yesterday–the Selkie and I met Candy from Smart Bitches for brunch (Candy and I compared our shovelgloving muscle gains. She wins best all-around bulging, I win on the deltoids. I am apparently a specialist.) Then we ambled to Powell’s, did a blazing run through (I think that’s the shortest half-hour I’ve ever spent) and then Everyday Music. I did find the Callas Tosca, used, for $8.50. Much rejoicing was had by all. Then I came back and filled in some holes, making wordcount by the skin of my teeth.

* Last but not least…you asked for it, if you read this far. Tell me, can you…WALK LIKE AN EGYPTIAN?

You’re welcome.

Does anyone know of a WordPress plugin that will allow me to mass-edit privacy settings on blog entries? There has GOT to be one, I just can’t tickle search engines into telling me…

Five random things from Tuesday in a drive-by post.

* Yesterday I rediscovered Bailey’s and espresso is a wonderful drink. It certainly made the afternoon easier to bear. My only regret is that I could only have one. I made it a double in recompense.

* I am at the point in revisions where I begin to think, huh, this book doesn’t suck nearly as much as I thought it did. Go figure. The Teen and the Selkie are unimpressed by me telling them this. Apparently I say it every time. Although this does not make the process of writing a book any easier, it is still a good gift.

* The Muffin got me talking about politics last night while I was folding clothes. No wonder my blood pressure gets sky high–the oligarchy using Fox News to whip the xenophobic mass into a frenzy of hatred while said oligarchy systematically loots the country would tend to make any reasonable human being a little miffed.

* I hate raking leaves. I used to be forced to rake them until blisters broke and bled on my hands. (There were stains on the wooden handles of the rakes that I am reminded of every time I smell wet fallen leaves.) I am everlastingly glad that the Teen and the Princess not only love raking leaves but beg to do it, the crazy kids. I think this year I will let them take care of it.

* I think the type in Foreign Affairs is large so people can read it while on the treadmill. At least, this is when I read it, and I have been really glad of the large type. I am also fond of playing “what’s the agenda?”–looking at the unconscious assumptions and the agenda of the author of any paper dealing with foreign policy issues.

My joys, they are few and small. But they are mine.

Back to work.

God bless Romancing The Blog. Vibeke Courtney just wrote today about how short-sighted it is not to link from your site, or to only link to places who reciprocal-link. (She suggests using the target=”_blank” addition to your links.)

I do understand, like Vibeke, that you might not want people to navigate away from a site you’ve bought and paid for, this site that is your window to the world and has your merchandise for sale. This is your bread and butter. But someone savvy enough to find your site is savvy enough to bookmark it, and equally savvy enough to use their “back” button. I myself use the “open link in new tab” option when clicking links on one of the sites I enjoy, like Pharyngula or Digby or even my f-list. And I think my readers come back because I have content and I share neat things I find interesting. (At least, I hope so.) Having links throughout a post means you don’t have to Google whatever the hell I’m talking about.

Like when I say the Democrats have to not only win, but win by a large enough margin to cover up illegal Republican vote-stealing.

On February 5th, the day of the Super Tuesday caucus, a school-bus driver named Paul Maez arrived at his local polling station to cast his ballot. To his surprise, Maez found that his name had vanished from the list of registered voters, thanks to a statewide effort to deter fraudulent voting. For Maez, the shock was especially acute: He is the supervisor of elections in Las Vegas.

Maez was not alone in being denied his right to vote. On Super Tuesday, one in nine Democrats who tried to cast ballots in New Mexico found their names missing from the registration lists. The numbers were even higher in precincts like Las Vegas, where nearly 20 percent of the county’s voters were absent from the rolls. With their status in limbo, the voters were forced to cast “provisional” ballots, which can be reviewed and discarded by election officials without explanation. On Super Tuesday, more than half of all provisional ballots cast were thrown out statewide.

This November, what happened to Maez will happen to hundreds of thousands of voters across the country. In state after state, Republican operatives — the party’s elite commandos of bare-knuckle politics — are wielding new federal legislation to systematically disenfranchise Democrats. If this year’s race is as close as the past two elections, the GOP’s nationwide campaign could be large enough to determine the presidency in November. “I don’t think the Democrats get it,” says John Boyd, a voting-rights attorney in Albuquerque who has taken on the Republican Party for impeding access to the ballot. “All these new rules and games are turning voting into an obstacle course that could flip the vote to the GOP in half a dozen states.” from Rolling Stone

Yeah, I just thought I’d slip that in there. The Republican party is no longer conservative. Instead, it’s the party of power and privilege, looking to retain that oligarchic power and privilege by whatever means. But you knew that.

*sigh* Back on topic, Lili.

The “don’t link to anyone else!” thing is silly in the extreme. People come back to your site because you have content that is clearly arranged, informative, and fun. It can also be instructive, educational, or persuasive. If your site doesn’t link anywhere else, it’s a dead end. And no matter how fun or informative dead ends can occasionally be, they’re still dead. And you’ll be left wondering why nobody comes back.

Anyway. Enough of this, I’ve got revisions to do. Weasel Boy is shaping up, and the cats actually stayed off the treadmill this morning. Which was good, because I’d probably pass my spleen out through my nose if I laughed that hard again. Instead, for the past couple days the cats have been drugged to the nines by catnip spray the UnSullen Teen brought home. The funny thing is, when the cats get really high on catnip, they start looking for love in all the wrong places–stuffed animals, laundry, each other…

Then they get all cross-eyed and can’t hold down whatever they’re trying to, ahem, cuddle. So there’s three yowling cats staggering around, trying desperately to focus and hold down random cat-sized objects.

I have hidden the catnip spray. But I’m sure the cats will do something else to make me pass my spleen laughing. They’re good for that.

Over and out.

This weekend I:

* Completely rearranged my kitchen, mostly because I had to do something about the tea (it was threatening to take over the whole cabinet next to the stove) and because I broke down and got a professional-grade mixer. (I was repeating up to 14 cups of flour! all weekend, like a mantra.)

* Had time to myself. Glorious uninterrupted time to think WHOLE THOUGHTS without being interrupted, time to eat without bugging someone else to at least taste their peas. Time to finish a task from beginning to end. Since the kids were visiting their Oji-san in Seattle, I had an empty house. It was divine.

* Got a new hat and jeans/sweatpants for the Little Prince. He’s getting so big! And shopping for the Princess is becoming more problematic, because her tastes change so quickly and are so definite. But, solid colors and classic shapes go over very well.

* Found the cutest coffee cups at Target–they’re shaped like little three-legged cauldrons. I swear, I wait all year for this time, because I can decorate the whole house the way I want it for the other 364 days that aren’t Samhain.

* Practiced with the EmWave. I’m not sure how I feel about it yet.

* Went grocery shopping at Trader Joe’s on a Sunday afternoon. It’s like painting yourself with steak sauce and running around naked inside a hungry-lion cage.

* Finally have enough wire racks to cool all the baked goods I’m planning.

* Slept, and slept, and slept.

All in all, a wonderful weekend. The Selkie and I both finished Ivanhoe (her review here, mine forthcoming). And today is the day I knock off a lot of revisions on Weasel Boy. I feel rested and renewed, and since today has already been a deadly obstacle course of one kind or another (note to self, do not turn the treadmill on without looking behind you, because cats are STUPID) I am really glad I’m firing, so to speak, on all cylinders.

Over and out.