A new blog entry from Kristin! Zvláštny! I figured I'll check in once in a while, but keep the anarchic subversive rantings to a minimum so that my lawsuit-shy company doesn't boot me to the unemployment line and fork my job over to someone named Prabhakar. (Hmmmm... could I get canned for saying that?)

After getting my fill of the loverly Neko Case last night, I decided to turn on YouTube for background static (my 13" tv collects dust in my closet, along with my workout gear, so I get my eye candy through the net). I tend to rank political tousling up there with cold sores and embarrassing rashes, but given my desperation for a reminder that someone, someday, will do something for this country again, I tuned into some of the Democratic debate fodder.

Duplicate videos of Hillary & Barack swatting at each other like an old married couple on the verge of dividing the family china. I must say, I agree with every policy I've heard of from Hillary, but I still want to smack her. Just a little. And if that's how I feel, imagine how the fag-hating, bomb-toting, patriots of the right feel? I think Barack Hussein Obama -- freakass terrorist name and all -- is the better choice.

<random thought> Why do people fear death? It's not like you'll be cooped up in your grave going, "God, this is sooo boring." You're dead. I just don't get it. I don't have particularly horrific memories of the 1930s. I didn't exist. It was pleasant enough.</random thought>

So I'm planning another trip. I think I'd like to go from Poland to Istanbul this time, hitting Warsaw, Krakow / Auschwitz, Prague, Budapest, Transylvania, Cluj Napoca (Romania), Bulgaria, and Istanbul. Something like this, with side trips to villages added:

NW Romania has a huge Hungarian population (and gypsies/Roma of course!) and should make for some fascinating exploration. Unfortunately, those are the two languages in which I couldn't even conquer "thank you," but I'll manage. Based on my previous trip and my stack of Serbian flash cards, I'm assuming the musicians in Southern Serbia will be fascinated by both my language prowess and my inexplicable presence in their country.

Tiring quickly of the political stuff, I poked around Speaker's Forum on KUOW -- always something good on there. The same way I would go to Fono Records on the outskirts of Budapest and wish I could be a waitress or something at their tiny cafe, I sometimes wish I could do anything at Rick Steves' offices in Everett. I listened to his recent NPR talk on political tourism and think he's just amazing. He completely gets why I travel -- to experience not just the museum crud (and folk music!), but the completely unfamiliar ways people around the world interpret reality and their place in it. He has the best job on the planet!

Paper or plastic? No thanks. (eco-whining)

With all of the grossness and criminal insanity (and inanity) going on the last few years, it seems trivial to write a local congressman or superstore about these things, but they're irritating me just the same:

> Pharmacists offering me a plastic bag in which to put my medicine, which is already in a white paper bag
> Checkout counter folks offering to put my single item in a plastic bag (for gum? an apple? Really?)
> Having to remind these folks two or three times not to instinctually yank out a plastic bag. Sometimes, when I remind them I didn't want a bag, they remove my item and simply throw away the unused plastic bag. Eh??
> 20 pieces of junk mail for every piece of real mail (including giant packets from the Sierra Club -- Forest conservationist geniuses? Maybe not)
> A packaging:product ratio of about 13:1. You would think most items were biohazards, the way they are sealed up in the USA.
> Dry cleaning hangars. I save them and bring them back when I have a handful. Do they want them back (at cost savings to them)? Noooo...

San Francisco Nears Ban on Plastic Grocery Bags - Awesome. Or at least a step in the right direction. The best solution is encourging people to use their own reusable / canvas bags. Maybe the stores can offer recyclable bags AND reward customers who choose instead to use their own bags (refund .5-1% of the bill).

The recycling contradiction: Why recycling alone fails to protect the environment - Ok, so I don't agree with stopping prescription meds because they will be excreted into the water supply, but other than that, this is a good piece on how recycling is only a third resort.

NaNoWriMo: Start Yer Engines

I haven't written in my blog in a year and a half -- partly because my life hadn't been really interesting, partly because I'm tired of coming across 18 year olds' blogs about their boyfriends and how they're failing algebra, and partly out of fear that I'll write something incriminating and get fired, indicted, or arrested by Bush's minions.

But this month I've started a project that will be a fascinating journey (maybe not for you, but for me, at least) and a challenge unlike anything I've ever tried. I'm writing a novel in 30 days -- from November 1 to November 30, along with about 80,000 other would-be J.D. Salingers around the world. My boyfriend Ian, two of his friends, and myself are embarking on a 50,000-word extravaganza whose origin and purpose is explained here: http://www.nanowritmo.org. Basically, a SF Weekly journalist challenged himself to write a 50,000-word novel (about the length of Catcher in the Rye) during the month of November. Most of his friends thought he was nuts, but 21 decided to join him. Six of them finished victorious (victory is not writing something good, just writing 50,000 words). In other words, the goal was not quality but quantity, which alleviated the pressure all of us feel when staring at that blank page: writing the next great American novel (something I've never even wanted to read, let alone write). Letting go of all hindrances, one can let the words flow freely, unafraid of self-censure without expectations of brilliance. The ranks grew each year, with something like 82 million words being written last year, even though only about 16 percent of the 60,000 participants finished what they started.

And for me, that is the goal -- to set an impressive goal and follow through with it. To get back to the reason I began writing years ago. It has been five years since I've published something, and most of that stuff was of the 1,500-word variety. Ultimately, the difference between those who write novels and those who only muse about writing one is not talent, or even detmination, but a deadline. Telling 30 of your closest friends what you're doing and sending your daily wordcount (1,666 per day, to come out victorious on November 30) to be posted on a website.

In December, the rewrites begin for some, and for others the satisfaction of a job (not necessarily) well done is enough. They may laugh at their horrific plots, contrived or flat characters, and myriad typos. But they crossed the finish line. Right now I'm in the first lap, at about 7,200 words -- ahead of schedule, but painfully behind Ian's 17,000. He's 100s of yards ahead of us, but I'm quite happy with what I've done so far, and am managing to merge my two passions -- folk art environments and gypsy music -- into one plot. No small feat.

So for the next 26 days, I'll be forgoing movies, accordion and recorder practice sessions, and lazy Sunday afternoons on the couch (that's where I am now and will be much of tomorrow -- my knees are killing me and the blood is pooling in my ass), but come hellish chapters or high water, there will be one hell of a party at the end. Wish me luck or good wishes, but most of all patience, determination, and a holy fear of failure!

See our daily wordcounts here: http://www.muppetlabs.com/lonowrimo/nano2006/.

Wild Kindgom

So it's 1:30 AM and I'm alone in the house with Sake, my cat, and I hear a clang, then a clatter, then a banging on the kitchen glass doors and a jiggling of the handles. I grab my pepper spray and wait for more noises, and of course they come. We've had construction on the house lately, so I wonder if one of the guys has come back for the goodies they saw while moving our furniture. I decide to call 911, though I think it may be an animal. Then I hear someone trying to open the door. I ask them to drive by and check things out. One officer comes to the door and the other one goes around the back of the house. He shines the flashlight on the back French glass doors and I see two 30-pound raccoons. They have knocked over two giant patio chairs (4 feet high) and are now trying to open our back doors. One is turning the handle while the other one pushes on the door. You have to hand it to them. They freeze and make like bandits (not surprising, considering their looks). Hey - I'm from L.A. -- my first thought is gang bangers and mass murderers.

A few weeks earlier, my dad hears this whirring noise coming from their fancy toilet (it heats up and shoots water). 6 AM every morning. Finally he gets up and sits on the floor in front of the toilet and waits for the noise. 15 minutes. He eventually goes to bed, and the noise starts up again. A few days later, our neighbor asks him, "Hey, have you heard the woodpecker on our roofs?" Doh.

AWESOME

three way prank call. chinese delivery. totarry hirarious! Wow, how rude of me.

Rants

This sort of stuff disgusts me. I collected about six inches of research for this in 1998-1999 about corporations that do this, and now the government is getting in trouble for it. Apparently other administrations have done it, which is equally reprehensible. Video News Releases, or VNRs, are commercials that promote a certain product or agenda and aired as unbiased "news segments" on television. They are often unedited and uncredited, so the public does not know that the source is actually the company or agency that is being promoted. This is clear deception of the public and Communist style propaganda, but worse, as no one knows the source. There is enough covert stuff going on in this government - we really don't need this now (CNN story). Not to mention the "oops" factor on being completely off the mark with Weapons of Mass Destruction (Fox, CNN), as a scathing report by the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction. At least Bush is roasting a bit for getting the government involved in the Schiavo case. 70% of Americans (some polls say a bit fewer) say they would want their tube removed and disapprove of the government's intervention (CNN). I agree. I drew up a living will in 2001 in fear of everything from feeding tubes to having the highlight of my day be someone changing my diaper. But I drew up another, more detailed one last week. Phew.

tee hee

ZAGREB, Croatia - A Croatian armed robber abandoned a bank hold up after the cashier laughed at his order to stick 'em up, state news agency Hina reported on Thursday. The masked robber entered a bank at Zagreb's main square in plain daylight and threatened the clerk with his gun. "Knowing she was behind a bulletproof glass, the clerk laughed heartily, rang her boss to say she was being robbed and asked him to call the police," Zagreb police spokeswoman Gordana Vulama told the agency. The humiliated robber turned and fled the bank, she said.
-- Associated Press

Awesome. I actually know where that bank is in Zagreb. I sat in front of it in September 2003 and ate barbecued corn on the cob that was sold in the streets in little carts.

There is also a new Emir Kusturica film out, Zivot je cudo (Life is a Miracle). Supposed to be really good.

Finally, someone sent my brother this. "Don't try this at home." http://killsometime.com/video/videos/Crocidile-Arm-Bite.wmv