Author: cdwan

So, I tried to go entirely wireless this evening, and I totally failed.

first, I was boned by Linksys

There is currently a massive human rights travesty going on in Burma.

It began when thousands of Buddhist monks staged peaceful protests in which they walked in public and prayed for peace. The Burmese military smashed these protests, beat and defrocked the monks, and tossed them into jail. Students and other monks took up the protest, and were beaten and jailed as well.

This is a country with a long history of having some of the worst prisons in the world. People routinely have their fingernails pulled out, among other things.

Public outcry expanded after video of the military shooting a Japanese reporter at (approximately) point blank range made its way out into the wider world. There was a brief spasm of public interest fueled by video of soldiers beating and shooting students and monks.

The military government of Burma cannot presently account for even *how many* people have been hauled off to prisons … much less provide their names. Current estimates are around 6,000 monks imprisoned. They have cut the main internet lines into the country to prevent more embarrassing images from leaking out.

The United States should act unilaterally, now, to stop this massacre. We are presently holding back, at least in part, because of reluctance from China to have us acting in their backyard.

Please watch this and then watch this.

Watch as long as you can stand it. Keep watching. Your stomach should be knotted in fury, and you should have a cold sweat going before you stop.

Then write, call, and visit both your favorite media outlet and your national representatives and demand that they pay some attention to this. Please do the same with your friends and family.

If we sit silent on this one, I’m not kidding when I say that “the terrorists win.”

I talked at the Greythumb meeting in Cambridge on Monday.

Here are my slides. Yes, it’s a 30MB PDF.

For the past two days, neither CNN nor the New York Times web sites have had coverage of the ongoing disaster in Burma. Monks defrocked and imprisoned, protesters shot, and so on.

Did all that shit just get peacefully resolved, or what? I got all upset because it was happening, and then *poof* … no more news.

Stupid media.

the move

The movers asked if they could use “booter” to prop the door open.

I looked over, and they were pointing at my little buddha statue, from the garden.

I said “sure.” I’m sure that booter won’t mind.

The die is cast.

We have keys to the apartment. The cats are ensconced, and pissed off. Maia, in particular, was hiding *under* the fleece in the bottom of her kitty carrier. She popped out, made a circuit of the guest room (where they are staying for the acclimation period), and went back in the carrier. Poor girl.

I’m doing better than that through a combination of willpower and pride. I have, however, transcended material possessions for a brief moment. I recall the last time this happened. It’s sort of fun to be beyond giving a damn about any particular thing.

Now, I drive north and wait for the Verizon guy to install my FIOS.

21.7 million pounds of meat recalled

TRENTON, New Jersey (AP) — The Topps Meat Co. on Saturday expanded its recall of frozen hamburger patties that may be contaminated with the E. coli bacteria and may have sickened more than a dozen people in eight states.

Topps said it was recalling 21.7 million pounds of ground beef products distributed to retail grocery stores and food service institutions throughout the United States, up from the 332,000 pounds it recalled on Tuesday.

Yup. Good to know that all those cows died for a worthwhile cause.

Some words of comfort came out of my mouth while getting ready to face the day. redmed found them amusing:

When the movers leave, and you have to get in the car to drive to the new apartment, don’t think of it as saying goodbye to this house. We have not even gotten one goddamn offer on this house. This house is going to be with us for a nice long time. It’s very much still “ours.” So, it’s not “goodbye” to a house, it’s “hello” to paying two monthly housing payments at once!

I feel like I ought to post something here, but there’s not much to say. Actually, there’s plenty to say … but I don’t feel like saying it.

* Work is going well. We had an “all hands” meeting yesterday that was remarkably effective. We designed content and menu bars for our new website. By designed I actually mean “haggled through and figured out what the hell we want.” Someone else is going to write the content. Hooray!

* The move is going as well as can be expected. Most stuff is in boxes. Some is not. Today, the entertainment center and the kitchen shelf get packed. Frankly, “everything” that needs to get packed gets packed either today or tomorrow.

* My allergies are subsiding. Mostly.

* I’ve got an appointment for my first lesson at a new martial arts center on Monday. I’m relatively nervous about this. Not the physical part … I’m confident that I’m in the best shape of my life right now. The problem is allowing myself to be a beginner again. The problem, as usual, is pride. This will be fine … but it’s giving me some truly weird dreams of late.

* I’m going to a geek bar night in Cambridge tonight, with some seriously high-power geeks.

* I’m picking up keys to the new apartment tomorrow. At that point we will also transfer cats and plants, and the 12 gallons of vigorously fermenting wine, if at all possible.

* On Monday, redmed supervises the movers, and I go up to the apartment to prepare for my greythumb talk. What will I say? Who knows. Seriously. I promised to talk about “shit that be cool.”