Whistling In The Dark

Though I do not live there, in my heart I'm always from Maine.

I love Maine. I love its contentiousness. I love its idiosyncratic pride in itself. I love its trees. I love its lakes. Put in the right stew, I even love its potatoes.

And sometimes, just sometimes, Maine makes me even prouder.

That's my state. I'm from there.

In my day job, we work a lot with cloned images. We create an image for a given model of computer, for example, and use it to quickly put our standard software build onto that model. In the summer, we spend an inordinate amount of time cloning computers -- wiping them clean of their grum, and making them identical.

The thing is, that 'identical' nature of our clones never lasts. From the first day our users have their cloned machines, they deviate from their original basis. Sometimes dramatically. And when we do repairs, we can't just blithely assume nothing has changed on the computer, even on the applications or systems level. Though the machines started as clones, they become individual almost immediately. They shape themselves to their users and their environment.

Which is the point we're at with Dreamwidth versus Livejournal.

In one sense, I've created a clone of my Livejournal account. My interests are up on Dreamwidth, now. My posts are on Dreamwidth. Even the comments I've received have been magically replicated. Locked posts on Livejournal are now locked posts on Dreamwidth. And so on, and so it goes. The two accounts are now clones of one another.

Or they were. But such things don't last. They never can.

My account on Dreamwidth is demiurgent . My account on Livejournal is also demiurgent . When I post, it goes to both accounts, locking them both if I protect the entry. But when folks comment on my entries, from the point of synchronization forward, those comments will be on one side of the divide or the other.

Right now, Dreamwidth is tiny. It remains to be seen if it will develop the critical mass to survive. Livejournal, for all its issues, is huge. It has that critical mass. Maybe that will change, between Dreamwidth or the other various code forks. We have seen the beginnings of diaspora, and that way leads to decline. It always does. By crossposting between accounts, I hedge against fragmentation -- but that doesn't mean I'm having a conversation that includes Dreamwidth friends and Livejournal friends. That means I'm having two separate conversations.

I pulled all my old entries into Dreamwidth against the unlikely possibility that Livejournal will implode and take all the stuff we've done with it. Right now, if one of the two services was to fail, it's more likely to be Dreamwidth -- so my crossposting will have the effect of saving my stuff to Livejournal as well. Either way, I'm proof against loss. That's all to the good.

But the hard thing to remember, for me at least, is that these really are two separate things, not one big one. A minor thing? Maybe. But a real one.

The next step in the replication process is to pull my entries et al over. We'll see how it goes.

My dreamwidth account (demiurgent , naturally enough) is up and running. And, as I mentioned, it's configured to crosspost at livejournal automatically. Which means, among other things, that I'm going to start using Dreamwidth to post things unless it turns out not to work well.

As I said in my last post on the subject, I'm doing this because... well, because I want to make sure that everyone who wants to be in touch with me can be, even if they drop out of LJ.

Otherwise, I don't anticipate much changing how I use these posts -- it's just, they'll be in two places instead of one.

So, you know. Sampo.

The Wall Street Journal has an article on how real life murdering pirates are souring all the fun of dressing up and doing Robert Newton imitations.

I've had fun with "Talk Like A Pirate" day like a lot of people have. It's fun to shout 'Arr, matey' and make references to scuppering on a handspike else and all the rest. But it's always seemed a little weird to me -- almost as weird as the Pirates of the Caribbean movies have been, with their convoluted Pirate code and the weirdass sense that somehow we weren't talking about people who did horrible things because they wanted your shit. I hear about all the good things from pirate culture, like the funds that pirate ships would set up to compensate crewmembers for the injuries they suffered while attacking, sacking, pillaging and sinking ships and murdering their passengers and crew, or how ships were set up as democracies so the crew had the chance to elect the captain who was best at selecting targets to sack, murder and sink. Really, it was all about the sense of freedom, of living life as they chose on the open seas! The whole "killing people and taking their shit" thing? That was no big deal.

A few years back, on one enterprising Talk Like A Pirate day, I elected to do something different. I thought I'd write something close to what a pirate would actually say -- not what Robert Newton would say (the depiction of Pirates in the popular media was established by Walt Disney in the fifties and reinforced by Walt Disney in the last ten years. Real life pirates talked like... well, talked like sailors, often of questionable literacy. No 'Pieces of Eight' or stuff.) It wasn't an angry post and it wasn't a post telling folks to stop shouting 'arr.' It was just another way to talk like a pirate -- e.g., talk like someone who wanted to take your shit and was more than happy to kill you if that's what it would take.

Some folks really liked it -- they saw it, as they said, as being creative or trying to stretch the definition. Others thought I was being... well, a poop. (I think that's when I made my Poop icon.) I also got some e-mail that was... unflattering. I was, so they said, being a downer.

In subsequent years, I either quoted actual songs from the golden age of piracy or just didn't play. Not because I dislike fun, but because I had something of a bad taste in my mouth. It seemed... I don't know, less fun to talk like a pirate when I felt a societal requirement to pretend pirates weren't... well, bad people who did bad things.

And now, suddenly, piracy is getting a bad rap, because honest to God pirates have re-entered the public consciousness (they had always been around, mind -- Somali piracy didn't start in 2008) and the people they were killing or kidnapping had started to be white Americans instead of black Somalis or brown Indonesians. So reading an article written about Mark Summers -- one of the founders of "Talk Like a Pirate Day" -- describing how he's pissed off because real life criminals are making acting like a fake criminal less palatable seems... well, it seems astoundingly insensitive. Saying that there should be different words for 'pirates' and 'piracy' today because you want to mythologize the crime they're committing just seems to miss the point.

There have been a baker's dozen piracy incidents in the last two weeks. Sometimes pirates have been warded off by shipboard anti-piracy measures, Sometimes the pirates have boarded ships, taken what they want and left. Sometimes the pirates have kidnapped crew off the ships. Sometimes they have seized the vessels in toto, to bring to port, repaint and sell. Actual murder is rare these days, but happens.

Look, have fun cosplaying. Honestly. Shout "Arr, Jim-Boy" all you like. I was a Renn Faire actor -- I know how much fun it can be. When the 19th of September rolls around, have a grand old time with it.

But let's have some perspective, shall we? We're talking about killers who take peoples' shit. We're not talking about folk heroes or Keith Richards impersonators or free wheeling anarchists who'd never harm a hair on a pretty girl's head. Pirates aren't like that.

And you know what? They never were.

When you make a statement like "if we allow homosexuals to marry -- what's to stop the broadening of marriage laws further? What's to prevent people from marrying their animals?" You're equating homosexuals to subhuman status.

You are saying that their happiness, their relationships and their lives are bestial.

You're not just being offensive when you do that. You're taking human beings and reducing them to chattel.

If there is a Heaven and there is a Hell? Doing that shit should be what sends you to Hell.

If you're right and you get to go to Heaven? I would rather go to Hell.

See the new joy of the new, hip, trademarkable era at TÖRdötCÖM

These are the twits I twitted.

• 10:56 And we're awake, and moving in the direction (albeit slowly) of NEWW. Last night was amazing. Today, there will be... something. #neww #
• 18:59 Mr. T has an infomercial. It is for an infrared oven. It is... epic. #
• 19:01 Day 1 of NEWW was fantastic. There were many people. I got sketches by cool people. Weds drew an Anklosaur for someone. #neww #
• 19:02 Also! Cat Garza totally gave us his current anthology! And Ryan Sohmer had excellent bags and gave us Volume 1 of LICD too! #neww #
• 19:09 Sketches so far: David Willis, Randy Milholland, Cat Garza, Maggie Weidner. Tomorrow -- try to grab Spike, Kurtz, Guiger, Straub... #neww #
• 19:10 I'd try to get a sketch from Corsetto, but she intimidates me. I'm not certain she has any idea who I am. Nor any reason to learn. :) #neww #
• 19:14 Oh! I should also check with Lar DeSousa. I talked with Sohmer for quite a while, last night and today. He's awesome. #neww #
• 19:15 Other awesome people: Willis, Weidner, Milholland, Spike, Gran, Stevens, both Jacques, Kurtz, Straub, Campbell, Logan, North, Garza... #neww #
• 19:15 Hell, *everyone.* That way, I won't forget one of the awesome people. #neww #

These are the twits I twitted.

• 11:10 Unexpected death in the family, which is always a stunner. Kind of in shock just at the moment. #
• 21:40 And heading for home, where Weds awaits. I like her. She smells good and is pretty and funny and smart. These are good qualities in a wife. #

These are the twits I twitted.

• 15:00 My brain is softened, I have not slept enough, but by God I'm having fun with life. #

These are the twits I twitted.

• 17:42 Got us a hotel room for the webcomics weekend. Just far enough away that we'll need to cab from barhopping. That's doable. #
• 17:49 Hah! I learn how to prioritize SSL connections! HAH! Now I have power! Now you learn nature of threat! Now I stop using definite articles! #

These are the twits I twitted.

• 10:53 God I hate car expenses. I know they're necessary but they feel like you're being probed by aliens. #
• 16:33 I give up. I just plain give up. They win, I lose. I thank God my wife is awesome, because otherwise I would simply be pathetic. #

These are the twits I twitted.

• 03:28 Hopefully, I won't have to rebuild the traffic/class tree and the scripts to adjust prioritization too many more nights in a row. Sleep now #

These are the twits I twitted.

• 13:45 I was shown the beginnings of Revolutionary Girl Utena and Mazinkaiser on the same night. My brain is still reeling. #
• 22:09 Dear @dreamhost. When sending me a newsletter full of features, in as much as I pay you, don't be fucking cute. Just tell me what they are. #

Things I did not know: "selling out" actually comes to us from the military. In particular, from the British military, but most European nations (notably excluding the Prussians and the Imperial Russian Army) had a system like it.

See, to become an officer in those days, you paid for the privilege. Each rank had a cost associated with it. To get a promotion, you paid the difference in price. If, of course, there was a commission available. It actually puts the end of The Three Musketeers into perspective. When d'Artagnan confronts the Cardinal with the Carte Blanche that will absolve him and his fellows of any murder charges, the Cardinal both recognizes the young man's bravery and recognizes his need to pay a recompense for his silence -- and thus offers him a Lieutenant's commission, blank, for d'Artagnan to use as he will. Ultimately, when all of the other Musketeers refuse it, d'Artagnan uses it himself as they suggest, thus ensuring his future.

Well, when a high ranking officer of some standing and renown were ready to retire, he could elect to sell his commission. In other words, a person who had proven his worth and proven himself to his men and his nation, showing success and building a military force of renown, could leave that life and receive a goodly amount of money. Of course, the person who bought the commission might not only not deserve it but might be downright incompetent.

The act in question? Was called selling out one's commission.

It was most infamous in the tragic Charge of the Light Brigade. The Regiment's head, Lord Cardigan, was utterly incompetent but absolutely loved the military, ultimately buying his way up to Lieutenant Colonel and then General. His legendary 'charge' directly into Russian guns was glorious but foolhardy, leading to the deaths of many under his command. In a later battle (the Battle of Inkerman), Lord Cardigan had spent the night on his yacht and not only missed the battle but had to ask passing journalists what all the shooting was about.

When a military officer is publicly demoted or dismissed, his sword broken and his rank and even buttons stripped from his uniform, it is called 'cashiering.' This is a holdover from the old system, since a disgraced officer who is cashiered from the service has no opportunity to sell out and make some money as he leaves the service.

So, when we talk about a band selling out because their poignant song of personal and intimate emotions has become the new jingle for Smuckers brand preserves, it's a holdover from a system that implies that the band is retiring, cashing in on their reputation and exploits, and allowing someone incompetent to take over their military unit.

There's no useful purpose to this knowledge, but I thought it was at least interesting.

These are the twits I twitted.

• 14:36 I have a weird yen to do a couple of weeks of John Stark. #

These are the twits I twitted.

• 12:57 Better today. So now there's just a billion hours of work to make up. #

These are the twits I twitted.

• 14:34 Awake again. Head is pain. Life is pain. Weds is not pain, save that Weds also has the crap. And that? Is pain. #

These are the twits I twitted.

• 04:10 Nutrasweet cheesecake ninja. #

These are the twits I twitted.

• 01:57 And home again. And now bed. Such is life. Such are things. #
• 23:05 I am tired of sinuses hurting. I don't think it's too much to ask that they stop. #
• 23:15 OMG -- lucid-tv.com/174.html #

That's right. When the vote came, not one Republican voted for it. Meetings at the White House and all the rest led to... not one vote.

I'm not commenting on the package in general, mind. This is, to use the term, a process story.

For the next two years, this is how it's going to run. The Republicans are going to vote 'nay' unless they bring the bill to the floor. They're going to find something to oppose in any bill, whether it's a good one or not. They're going to play hardball. They're going to have their ranks closed. They're going to shut down whatever they can shut down, and they're going to oppose, period. It's been a long time since we've been in this situation, so let me reiterate the lesson of Bill Clinton's first congress to President Obama:

No one. No one. No one is better than the Republican party on defense. No one.

If the Democrats want to have a prayer of retaining Congress in two years, they need to close ranks and do shit. There can be no more 'serious concerns' out of the Democrats over things President Obama proposes. Not in the media. Not publicly. Obama on the other side of the equation must must must sit down with Congressional leaders before going public with anything, and must iron out differences before they begin.

This is Varsity League shit, and if the Democrats show any of the chickenshit divisiveness they're so famous for, there's going to be a bloodbath in 2010.

(And if you're gearing up to respond about what a pork-laden excess the stimulus package was, go back to the beginning. This is a post about strategy. Don't mistake the content for the structure.)

These are the twits I twitted.

• 12:54 Back from the Cardiologist. I may be feeling sick, but my heart's healthier than we could have hoped. #
• 22:37 Long evening. With Weds so fun, but very sore and uncomfortable now. #
• 00:06 Right. I am old. #

These are the twits I twitted.

• 01:03 Brave and the Bold's Green Arrow might be my favorite interpretation. Which is weird, since he's not... well, political. #

...and all looks well. No signs of the Cardiomyopathy returning.

I still need to discuss different stuff with my cardiologist on Monday, so we'll see how my overall cardiac health is, but either way, I'm just as glad to not be having a Problem right now. :)