Health

Well, this is interesting.

On Thursday night, I spent the night in the Sleep Clinic at the nearest hospital, having my sleep studied for apnea, which frankly you could have diagnosed in about 30 seconds with a paper cup pressed to the bedroom door (or a geophone* hehheh). It was about as unpleasant as it could be, short of, yanno, actual surgery or illness, but on the upside, the diagnosis was confirmed, and they (eventually after much shuffling of papers and waiting around) issued me with a CPAP machine.

This comes with a mask, or in my place a noseplug, to feed air to you at night at overpressure (quite a LOT of overpressure it turns out), and assists in breathing by forcing the breathing passage open when it closes.

Stupid really, I've known I have apnea for aeons now, at least 15 years - and it was probably much longer without my realising, as it's quite insidious. I'd thought repeatedly about getting this treatment, but the idea of covering up my face and nose at night just made my skin creep, so I kept putting it off. What changed my mind was simply in some stupid TV program, seeing someone getting fitted with a mask while he slept and ... son of a gun, it was a tiny thing, didnt cover his mouth at all, or most of his nose! Realising (duh!) that there must be many variations for different levels of claustrophobia, completely changed my mind.

Parenthetically, I wouldn't have said I have claustrophobia ordinarily, but something about the whole cover-the-nose-and-mouth thing just makes me feel smothered, even just contemplating it.

So, after three nights, I must admit it seems to be going pretty fantastically well. I've got sleeping pills to take at night, so I can get used to wearing the mask - just as well, it would I'm sure keep me awake otherwise. Both Saturday and Sunday, I just felt .. better. Not boing! bouncing off the walls full of energy, just better, a little more clearheaded: and I didnt need a nap either day, which ordinarily would be an absolute necessity on the weekend. Definitely a big improvement.

Now I'm trying to get my head around the idea of having laproscopic surgery for a stomach stapling, or whatever it's called now. I've toyed with the idea for a long time, but always been put off because when Mum had it done, it seemed to have an awful lot of unintended & unpleasant consequences, and not to deliver that much positive for all that price ... but as my doctor, and Cat, have pointed out, they've made a huge number of improvements and advances since then, and it's a lot safer, less invasive, and more positive in outcomes.

There's a woman at work who had it a while back, and a guy who has just had it, and both are completely positive about it.

Mostly, I just need to get it embedded and normalised in my head - especially the idea that I'll be eating tiny meals, and NOT being or feeling deprived about it. That may take a little while to drill through, but without that I can see I'd just do something foolish. Plenty to contemplate: hard to imagine a new slimline Phil full of energy, really :)

Oof

Well I seem to be out of fire and inspiration today [cheering, off]

Cat has decided that, as my wargames room will be much more visible in the new house (being one of the 'reception rooms' at the front of the house, by the front door), that it needs to look a good deal smarter. One thing she decided to do was to stain & seal the wooden cabinets my toy soldiers are stored in - a series of 4 tower-drawers, and a large number of 3-drawer units, all from IKEA, and made of cheap but serviceable wood - that is, something with a discernable grain, not plywood.

We went on Saturday and decided on a stain, and she's been working at it, and I have to say the finished wood looks sensationally better than the raw wood used to look.

However, the fronts of the drawers are all finished with a heat-sealed laminate, a sort of linoleum essentially, which are almost impossible to shift. After a couple of experiments, I suggested simply spray-painting them with satin black, which looks smart and is fairly easy. As a result, Cat was busy working on them yesterday and left a bunch of drawers out on the deck to dry, in the strong sunlight, heat, and humidity.

Something about the conditions must have been just right, because on about 40% of the drawers she'd put out, the vinyl started lifting & peeling off - not evenly, and not all of any drawer of course, so now we have a bunch that are partly-laminated and partly the underlying & nasty-looking plywood backing. Oh well, back to square one.

I suspect we're going to have to refinish the fronts by screwing or gluing on a wood veneer strip, to hide the underlying variations. Ah, the joys of DIY <achoo>

sic transit stupor mundi

that is, so passeth the wonder of the world...but the wonder is mostly why he is so exalted.

What am I on about? Ted Kennedy, last and least of a stupendous clutch, has finally popped his clogs, and is now being adulated in fountains of empty rhetoric all over the TV screens, rather like an eruption of shaken champagne - spectacular, foaming, but essentially nothing but froth and bubbles. Much of the left are reacting like their last best hope has suddenly been snatched away, and nothing is left but doom and destruction.

When you try to focus on why he was so wonderful, and what was his great achievement, well, there's quite a bit of umming and ahhing, and descriptions of him as the Greatest Legislator of Our Times, and how No Progressive Laws passed without his influence, and he was a Liberal Lion. But for specifics? not so much. There's also a good deal of havering, and describing his life as a 'great struggle between light and dark' and suchlike, most of which is I think referring to Chappaquiddik, and his middle-age hedonistic splurge (as though this was not something indulged by essentially the whole american upper class of that time - and since).

But really, from what I can see, he rode the coattails, and reputation, of his far more dynamic brothers for all his life, to cover for a modest intellect, and a talent mostly for schmoozing and making friends. Which, it turns out, is an essential quality for senatorial government here, and I'm sure he did achieve a certain amount of success through his influence and friendships, but hardly of the quantity or quality to deserve the ringing accolades.

On the other hand, his heart was always in the right place - no small achievement for a son of privilege, and the last, most spoiled son of the dynasty - and he DID parlay his modest talents into a long and influential career, which is no small beer. Plus of course, his greatest talent, not getting shot.


Sorry, I had another screed in my mind about terrorism and the GWOT, but that will have to wait for another day ... your regular foaming at the mouth should be resumed tomorrow :)

The bad guys, redux

It occurs to me I shouldn't deliver an indigestible lump of rant like that last bit, without also observing: you know what works? what does produce good, useable intelligence?

Kindness. Understanding. Sympathy.

Treat your prisoners kindly, with the understanding of what their culture deems important, let them carry out their religious obligations and observations, listen to their woes, their worries about their families, and talk to them like they were, oh I dunno, people: and they will unbend and open up. I'm not even talking about tricking them into accidentally blurting things out: with almost anyone, simple human kindnesses - especially when you know the brutal cruelty you'd hand out if the positions were reversed - are usually enough to shake any resolution, introduce doubts, and - in time - even convert their basic views.

Several segments of the intelligence community in Iraq for the last 7 years can testify, and have been trying to testify - eloquently and at length - to the success of this.

The bad guys

Well, I made myself severely sick last night, reading excerpts from the IG Report detailing the american abuse of prisoners in the soi disant War on Terror (a war lacking a protagonist, definitions, or means of winning or losing or indeed ever coming to a close).

It's pretty brutal, hideous stuff. And - idiot me - what upsets me most is the arrogant stupidity of it.

Torture is evil: in a world that's composed of almost nothing but shades of grey, torture is one of those few things you can point at, and go, that is wrong, that is evil, that should never be done. I mean, this is not subtle philosophizing here, this is simple evil that any child above the moral level of pulling wings off flies can identify.

Torturing your admittedly evil opponents is to give up the moral high ground, and to render yourselves no better than the torturers. It strengthens their hands, garners them more recruits, and makes you publicly odious and loathed - as indeed it did in the Bush Presidency, among those who would have been staunch supporters.

But beyond that - if you're such a moral simpleton as Vice President Cheney, who apparently believes that brutal cruel violence can only be met by equal or greater savagery*, and who seems to believe that America can only survive by abandoning all ideals and becoming more savage and vicious than the Mongol Empire at its worst** - torture doesn't work. It famously, absolutely does not work. It has an enormously long history of not working, from at least the later Assyrian monarchs onwards - the Romans could produce witnesses to fill Yankee stadium that torture does not work. The current Turkish state (and the Iranians for what it is worth) has been trying to crush Kurdish rebellion and quasi-terrorism with torture for at least 60 years, and it did not work.

It does not work because the truly hard men will die rather than giving up information, or will yield a melange of truth and lies impossible to untangle, the weak men will immediately break and tell you anything they think you want to hear, true or not, and the great majority will break after a shorter or longer time, and they will also tell you what they think you want to hear: that is what you're motivating them to do, after all. It does not - indeed, cannot - produce reliable, actionable intelligence, it's supposed purpose.

Or, rather, torture does not work to reduce terrorism. What torture does deliver, is a terrible reputation and an increasing polarisation amongst the oppressed: the meek become more terrified, the stubborn become more intransigent (and produce more terrorists). To some people's perceptions, sufficient torture will cow a population into semi-submission (terrorists aside), and allow them to portray this as a sort of peace.

I can only suppose this is what Vice President Cheney and the segments of the CIA and Pentagon that pushed this approach, actually intended - to try and cow Iraq into a temporary show of submission long enough to be able to declare a final victory, before fleeing the ship of state like plague-ridden, scabrous rats.

Now try to get your head around this - they are trying to cow the Iraqis, who have just emerged from 30 years under one of the more spectacularly brutal and careless dictators of the post-war era, with their own ideas of cruelty. Offhand it's hard to think of a more fruitless and pointless effort. Their predecessor in this, Saddam Hussein, killed over two million*** of his own people, and used poison gas on civilian populations. It's hard to top that level of brutality, and I can't see how they could have, short of recruiting a whole separate army to inflict random violence on the population.

(Except, oops, they did that too: check out the private mercenary company Blackwater. However, as all they got were the usual bunch of diletanttes, tired ex-squaddies, and megalomanic ex-officers drunk on their own testosterone, they didn't even oppress the population efficiently, just indulged their own tastes for murder, rapine and theft in a fairly random manner).

I cannot comprehend these actions, except perhaps in some sort of pseudo-Freudian psychobabble about manhood, ego satisfaction and proving themselves. I mean, these are passably-intelligent, more-or-less educated**** people: and the facts about torture aren't exactly secrets. There is in fact reams and reams of information about the uselessness of all forms of torture, endless studies of Russian & Chinese brainwashing & other approaches from the Cold War era, all pointing to the futility of torture in achieving anything beyond scare tactics and show-trials for public propaganda.

I have to say, I can only applaud the Attorney General's move to prosecute at least a few of the thugs responsible for the most egregious excesses. I would - dearly - wish that this would reach much much higher up the hierarchy of callous evil that approved this, and prosecute (at least) the lawyers who provided a feeble figleaf of legalism on completely spurious grounds, and the inhuman and intolerable cabinet members who approved and urged this action, not excluding the last Vice President.

I have to recognise, tho, that the price of these prosecutions would be a calamitous political war of proportions unknown since the Brothers Gracchi, and would mean the only thing the current President would achieve, even if re-elected, would be these prosecutions. Political deadlock would be a complete understatement - there would be a flurry of lawsuits, protests, threats of violence, angry menaces and a blizzard of resistance, interruption and discord such as to make the current protests about health reform look like afternoon tea at the Ritz.

Lord knows, there are too many pressing problems that need to be dealt with, to let that happen. If political war is the price, better to deal with the improving the future, and let the memory of these callous fools fester and rot in the history books, where their memories will stink worse with the passage of the years.

In some ways, the worst of it is that this is America. If this was the Brits, I'd just shrug and go, well, what can you expect, they've been practising the cruelest and most foolish realpolitik for at least the last hundred and fifty years. America has always held itself to a higher standard, and I think we all expect it from them, the knowledge that they are actually capable of some morality beyond blind self-interest, even if only intermittently.

I'll close with the words of one of the better wordsmiths of the last century, Randy Newman:
Political Science
Noone likes us
I dont know why
we may not be perfect
but heaven knows we try
But all around even our friends put us down
Lets drop the Big One and see what happens

We give them money but are they grateful?
No they're spiteful, and they're hateful
They dont respect us so lets surprise them
We'll drop the Big One and pulverise them!

Now Asia's too crowded, and Europe's too old
Africa's far too hot and Canada's too cold
and South America stole our name
Let's drop the Big One, there'll be noone left to blame us

Well, boom goes London, and boom Paree!
More room for you and more room for me
and every city the whole world round
will just be another american town
Oh how peaceful it will be
We'll set everybody free
You'll have Japanese kimonos, baby
There'll be Italian shoes for me
They all hate us anyhow
so lets drop the Big One now



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* though not in person, goodness no - the closest he's come to personally risking his precious skin would be when he shot his lawyer in the face with a shotgun, while hunting.

** And in passing I'd have to say that the Mongols have a worse reputation than they deserve - as conquerors they were unlimitedly cruel, but as rulers they were on the whole more benevolent than any of the Chinese dynasties or the British Empire, and at least the equal of the Romans.

*** estimates from the Economist, circa 2002 (I cba looking them up sorry, just recall reading them before the 2nd Iraq war).

**** Insert jokes about the american education system here

Egalitarianism

There was one incident that occurred during our house-hunt, that struck both Cat and I as a bit odd. We were in a car with a real-estate agent, Mike, who was driving, and Cat said she needed some more cigarettes & bottled water, so he stopped at a supermarket enroute our destination. Cat hopped out when he stopped, and went off to get what she needed, without a second thought - and Mike was flabbergasted. He had naturally assumed that, as clients, we would expect him to do the fetch & carry - and I suspect also to pay for it out of his pocket, tho I didnt ask.

It rather made me think about the whole way deferrence and superiority are treated here. In the UK, social deferrence was definitely structured around both class, rank and money, but primarily around class. I think Cat experienced this much more, and worse, than I did, as floristry is regarded there as a working-class profession, so all florists get treated as such (with perhaps a tiny minority of floral boutique designers who get treated as 'artistes'). Of course, shop-owners are pretty much the definition of bourgeousie, so are middle-class, and get to treat the serfs like scum if they so desire - and quite a few DO so desire, in fact for some I would have observed it is their primary cause for emerging from the cave they're pleased to call a bed, every morning.

As a result, Cat - who noone could ever accuse of lacking backbone or spirit - had an endless headache with employment, and got fired or encouraged to move on, many times: a total lack of respect for the despicable, plus the common Kiwi attitude of brutal egalitarianism, guaranteed that this would be a frequent outcome. Funnily enough, the two bosses (both women) who treated her well, she is still on close terms with, and did freelance work for even after moving on to other positions.

Which is not to say she had no fault in the matter, having her own authority-figure issues, but these were - to my eyes - enormously multiplied by the strict class/hierarchic (and patriarchal) attitudes that seemed to be universal.

I'd have to add, I had my own problems with these attitudes. Of course, being an IT worker and therefore something approaching a professional (now there's a subject to get me foaming and gibbering, but another day, another day), I was slotted into the comfy middle-class cardigan, but still supposed to show proper deference to those above - and to treat those below me with the appropriate panache and disdain. After all, how else do you know where you are, if you can't rain your contempt downwards?

Funnily enough, none of the janitors, secretaries or food-workers objected to being treated as just people - and til I gave up smoking, they were the bulk of the people I knew at that worksite (after that, working life got a lot lonelier). However, I know I made enemies through most of our company's hierarchy because - when they made their annual trip down to see us and assure us we'd get treated as 'part of the company' from now on - I would always ask pointed comments about contracts, performance of sales staff, the necessity of so many layers of management, and (especially) about the financial figures in the finance reports they presented so proudly.

Of course, they couldn't answer these - some because there was no acceptable answer, but in the case of finances, usually because they didnt actually understand the figures or what they actually showed. Often enough, neither did I, I know - but that's why I was asking: and sometimes the figures were such an obvious flimflam, I was trying to pry out some reason for why they were lying so badly.

I managed to mostly avoid the customers' management hierarchy, which is probably a good thing, but I am told I did create some annoyance, simply by not observing the proper protocol towards the CFO and CEO while in an elevator - what I did wrong, lord only knows, and could I care? Doubtless I just failed to kowtow to the right degree, or spoke to them offhandedly: as I couldn't pick either out of a police line-up anyway, I can't really say.

Aaaanyway, having wandered off on a massive tangent, what I started off on was, here in the USA I had thought they would be much more egalitarian (well, the whole race mess aside), and they are ... sort of. What gets deferrence here seems to be wealth and custom, that is, if you're paying someone it seems that you're meant to treat them as inferiors. I suppose this is the flipside of the supposed great service that is available in the US (and often, it really is).

Naturally, as good honest kiwis, we still tend to (or try to) treat everyone as our equals. I think we (all us kiwis) have tended to expect the same treatment back, and if that means the waitress doesn't jump when we snap our fingers, or the server looks us in the eye and calls us mate, or the food is a bit slower than we might want, well, that's just part of our culture.

It seems to cause real shock and surprise here, tho - for instance, both the estate agents we dealt with commented on how easy we were to work with, and what a pleasure it was: and at our favoured diners, we are now instantly recognised & treated as warmly as friends.

Up til now, it hasn't caused either of us problems at work - Cat hasn't been working, and as I'm working essentially as a team of one, there's noone much to offend except my site manager, and she was a gem. How this turns out now, as Cat is gearing up to start, and I've got a new site manager who is vastly more bureaucratic, and seems to lack even the simplest understanding of what the job is, well, I guess we'll just have to suck it and see.

It's still a badge I wear with pride, though, and I think it is something, paradoxically, that makes kiwis a touch better than other people :)

Nothing to get too excited about

These are just the (frankly not very good) real estate companies pictures of the new house.

It's on a quiet cul-de-sac, with part of the rear backing onto a busy road, the rest onto a leafy lot which turns out to be a Property Owners Association park (including us). Off-picture to the right is a short path leading to a POA swimming pool, which is very handy - easy walking distance, even for me!

This is just a part of the back yard, which is quite extensive - there is a large garage/storage area attached to the back of the house (roof just visible here), then more yard beyond that, also screened by more trees from any neighbour.

Of course, it's hard for us to remember, but a lot of this foliage will disappear in autumn! (fall, I should say)




This is the dining room, one of the 2 rooms at the front of the house. Larger than it looks, its about 12' x 10'








Main Bedroom I think - again, doesnt show it to advantage, nor the ensuite (which isn't that huge, let it be said)




Bedroom 2 - the Guest Room
(ta daa!)





Bedroom 3 - about the same size - the Sewing Room, as it will be, I think (except when we have lots of guests of course)



This is a really poor shot of the front lounge (designated the Games Room once we get there). It's actually very spacious - 18x10 - and should suit well.

To the left you can just about see the front door.




This is the entryway from the back yard to the Hearth Room (i.e. the one with a fireplace :) This will be our actual dwelling space. Again it's much larger than it shows here.





This is the (pretty tiny) kitchen, with the door to a laundry, then out to the garage behind the house.

Not visible, to the left of the camera & where the photographer is standing, is a smallish 'breakfast area' between the kitchen and the dining room proper. The left hand wall is shared at the moment with the Hearth room

High on our list of plans is to open this out - remove most of that wall and replace with a breakfast bar, extend the kitchen a bit into the
'breakfast' area to give more storage, then rearrange the invisible bit just over the photographers shoulder :)




This is a better view of the Hearth room, altho it still understates its' size I think (22x10). There is an odd set of builtin cupboards to the right of the chimney area.






The front door. Odd thing to take a picture of, but there you are. Does show the nice tile work, and the start of the very elegant hardwood floors to the left (everywhere except the Games Room, alas - I guess they wanted to keep that carpeted for the benefit of their very young children crawling around on it)











A better shot of the Dining Room, along with one of the very lovely aquaria that the house was filled with (I did briefly think of stipulating them to be left as part of the furnishings - for a price, naturally! - but what do I know about fish, except feeding them, and sleeping with them? :)









Once we've got hold of the place, I'll ask Cat to take some better photos (that being one of the skills I make conspicuous by my utter lack of skill).

Books (and publishing)

Ray sent me a quote a few weeks ago, from one of my favourite authors, Orson Scott Card, who (political and religious views aside), I find a truly spellbinding author when he's at his best - some of his early short stories are so heartrending that I can never read them without weeping.

Aaaaanyway, what Card was saying was, we are living in a golden age for fantasy writing, and there are an astonishing number of really excellent fantasy writers out there producing at the moment, & he then proceeded to cite a number of them. Well, I've been looking for fresh fields for reading for a while, so I bought a selection of these from Amazon (one per author), and have been chewing my way through them, so here you go.

Pick of the litter is probably 'The Name of the Wind' by Patrick Rothfuss - a really gripping tale, told by an ex-hero who has settled down as an innkeeper, flashing back to his earlier life, interspersed with an ever-darkening current story. I found it a real page-turner - the system of magick is quite interesting, but the rest of the background a fairly ordinary fantasy world; but this hardly mattered, as the tale was quite visceral and the main character highly sympathetic.

Next, and in some ways better (not least because all 3 volumes are already published) would be Mistborn & it's 2 sequels. This was almost as gripping, and had a far more intriguing premise - what happens after the Great War of Good vs Evil is over, the Hero has won, and turned into a tyrant almost as bad as the Evil he overthrew? Definitely highly recommended, although the author has a disconcerting habit of killing off major characters at a fairly steady trot: again, a fascinating idea of magic systems, and certainly a somewhat different concept of world.

Less gripping, but possibly better thought out and articulated, and definitely more intellectually appealing, is 'Lamentation: the Psalms of Isaak' by Ken Scholes. This is in many ways radically different from any other fantasy I've read, and absolutely worth reading. It is faintly reminiscent of a Canticle for Liebowitz, altho - so far - much less pessimistic and more personalised: the world it is set in has suffered more than one (it's unclear how many) catastrophic events, and since the last, a thousand years ago or more, a religious cult (a cross between Jesuits and Librarians) has been accumulating & reassembling lost knowledge: and they get wiped out, right at the start of the book, with a decided bang.

I've just started 'Kings Dragon' by Kate Elliott, first in a series called Crown of Stars. Cat has read it and said it was pretty good, but she didnt devour it incessantly, which is her sign of real approval. So far it is interesting, set in a world deliberately very similar to 9th Century Europe, and quite deeply colored by Ottonian/Germanic history, which appeals considerably. The only thing that puts me off a little, is checking on Amazon and seeing this runs to at least 7 hefty, muscular volumes (and who knows, possibly more to come), which I tend to regard as the sign of a certain authorial flatulence*

On the other hand, there is 'Ship of Magic', by Robin Hobbs, first of a series called Liveship Traders, which, well, oh dear. Don't get me wrong, it is well-written, cohesive, with a fairly interesting if narrowly-scoped world, but it was a real labor just to read. I found the characters largely unsympathetic and unpleasant, the plotting appeared to be Titanicly predictable, and the pace intolerably slow. I must admit, I abandoned the book after hitting about page 350, but in that time, basically nothing had happened ... slowly. The premise of ships that can 'come alive' after sufficient time and sacrifice was quite interesting, but the details of it detracted enormously from the plausibility, inasmuch as fantasy has any: but that just made another distraction to slow down. Perhaps I should try one of her other series, as she was warmly recommended by Card, but ... another time, after the memory of this one has paled and faded into the wallpaper of my cranium.

I have a couple more, so doubtless I'll revisit this subject sometime in the future, but while I'm talking about books in general, I should also recommend an SF series, namely:

• Old Man's War
• Ghost Brigades
• The Last Colony
• Zoe's Tale

all by John Scalzi. They are based on the premise of recruiting old men & women nearing death, to fight an interstellar war (and enticing them with completely rejuvenated bodies in return for a 10 year contract). It starts interesting and gets even more so, and the final volume, written from the point of view of the original hero's adopted daughter, just left me stunned with admiration, and absolutely enthralled - while the rest of the series is good to great, the final volume is one of the best things I've ever read. I've read all the books this guy has published so far, and none of them is a pup, but I think these are his best work to date.

OK, back to work!

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* This reminds me of something else Ray observed, or read and passed on, which is the dearth of editing in modern publishing. Apparently, the book manufacturers (being totally profit-driven and ignoring the inherent promises of publishing, I can't call them publishers) have decided that it is more cost-efficient to simply hire 'readers' to scan and evaluate the manuscripts submitted.
These readers then decide either it will sell enough to be profitable, or not: then the manuscript is published, without ever being edited, reviewed, or even read again as far as we can tell.

This is much more cost-efficient for the manufacturers than the traditional reading, editing, correcting, checking for coherence and internal contradiction, and the back&forth between editor and writer that we (well, me, anyway) tend to think is the norm for getting a book produced.

However, the result is - from my point of view - a calamitous collapse in the quality of what is published, with books that might have been great being encased in great superfluous rolls of authorial excess and padding, unnecessary exegesis, and endless effluence, terminally tedious, of colour and description. Mentioning the details of a meal a character is eating is interesting, gives flavour and immediacy, lets us make a quick judgement of his character, and adds to the reality of it. Giving the details of every meal just gets tedious.

Now, I know that popular, best-selling authors like Steven King have the heft and influence to insist on their books not being edited by lesser talents, however wisely or otherwise, and that is fair enough: if they are happy to be judged entirely on their own merit without other input, so be it, they have earned the right to that by their previous successes and demonstrated skills. I selected King for that, because while I'm a great admirer of his narrative skill, plotting, and empathy, he is someone whose later books could, I think, have benefited from some more rigorous editing than they received (I have no idea whether he refuses to let them be edited, or the editors are too in awe of his reputation to edit effectively, or whether I've got my head in the posterior inferior position on the whole subject).

However, it strikes me as the height of folly - and a terrible way to treat novice authors in need of guidance - to treat all books this way, and I have to say after an extended stint of reading new fiction, that this appears to be nearly universally what has occurred. So many of the 700 page books I've slogged my way through should have been 400 page books, and would have been far more fascinating for it. Perhaps this is just part of the national (international) epidemic of obesity?

OK, end of doing my nut (til next time :)

House buying, Part 2

Well, that was simpler than I'd expected - they went immediately to $137,000 (or rather $142,000 but they meet $5000 in closing costs*), which was below where I was prepared to settle! Plus the agent mentioned that this was what they needed to cover their mortgage, i.e. anything lower would necessitate them putting cash in, just to settle the mortgage.

Well, we aren't in the business of screwing a deal down til the iron bleeds, and as they'd already dropped so far, we just accepted that counter-offer, rather than try to dicker for another thousand dollars or so.

So, BOOM! Apparently we are now home-owners ... subject to inspectors approval, termite inspection, bank-appraisers agreement as to value, and getting the finance sorted. Feels kinda weird, after so much lavish energy expended on it, to be finished.

Ha! well, except for the packing, the moving, the unpacking, the arranging for power & gas, shifting cable and phones, and ... lord only knows what else. I thought we would arrive with Cat having a laundry list of things she wanted to change/rebuild immediately, but actually not: she suggests that we should live in the house for 6-12 months first to see how it fits: that should help us prioritise which changes are important, and which arent.

One thing that will have to happen fairly early tho, is upgrading the storage, bookshelves and wargames table for my games room, as this will now be at the front of the house, right by the door, and one of the first things that people will see (no doors on the front rooms just wide arches). I might suggest she finds a japanese-style screen to go across the entrance to the games room, as a start.

Time to start packing boxes, anyway.

House buying, Part 1

Well, that became very easy.

We met with our agent this morning to discuss it, and she had some fresh information - the house on Serenity (and the place we're renting) have been re-zoned or whatever it is called, and are now reckoned to be on a flood plain, so will require (very expensive) flood insurance in order to qualify for a mortgage. We phoned our next door neighbours to confirm this, and they said that yes, their property had recently been reclassified to this.

As our current place has a stream running down the back of the property, and Serenity is between this stream and another stream (with a more substantial river about 200 yards away), its not too surprising a rating, really.

Well, that would add 20-25% onto the monthly repayment schedule, which means this would be a ridiculous decision. So we went back and had another look (and a careful measure) of Overby, and checked out loadbearing walls and otherwise (to see what could be removed), and then put in an offer - $138k plus seller pays costs (I'd guess these to be $4500): thus effectively $133,500. As they are asking $145k, I imagine they will come back with an offer net to $140k, so plan to make a counter bid at (net) $138k, or $142,500 plus they pay costs, and see if they take that or make another counter. Of course, if they are desparate enough, they may give more in their counter .... we shall just have to see.

Wish us luck :)

House hunting, part X

Well, that was interesting - went to half a dozen places & had a look inside. Several we eliminated for insufficient privacy in the back yard (and no possibility of reasonably remedying that), one of which was otherwise spectacularly mouthwatering (and well above the others in price), two got eliminated because they were too small for the price (i.e. you are paying for the neighbourhood & local schools, which essentially we don't care about), and then ... there were two :)

One, Overby Court, was a revisit, and was as striking as the first time: and one, in Serenity, one street over from our rental home, is well, huge for the size, but not nearly as nicely finished. Serenity needs fencing to make the yard private, while Overby has a yard screened by bush and tall trees. Serenity is on a moderately busy street, while Overby is in a cul de sac .. but Overby's back fence is on a very busy main road, which produces a fairly large volume of noise at times.

Overby is definitely the better investment as an investment, but the extra space in Serenity is tempting - it has the same number of rooms, but they are all quite a bit larger, with a really huge lounge/dining/kitchen open area. Of course, there's just two of us, do we really need that much space, I ask myself. But then, Cat feels negative about the internal layout of Overby, too many internal walls that make the place feel more choppy (something I point out can be remedied, over time).

The agent is strongly urging Overby - and as far as I can tell, this is in our interest, her commission will be much the same either way - and I suspect that is the smart way to go: the idea of buying Serenity and refinishing it to a high standard is, I suspect, an unachievable goal - or rather, even then it will yield much less than it's cost, due to the busy-street syndrome.

Time to dither at high speed - I've suggested to Cat that she get Rob the builder to come and look at both and offer his advice on what problems might be expected, and I think she'll do that.

* * * * * * * * * *

Oh, one of the houses we visited, I found quite sad - it was very nicely done out indeed, and someone had poured their heart and soul into the gardening, which was just immaculate - but it was positioned in a dip in the ridgeline, so the decks/patios on all the surrounding properties (and they all had them) looked down into the back yard. The real issue was, it wasn't vacant - the guy who opened the door (somewhere in his 50s), took his old dog for a walk, while the wife sat outside on the back stoop, crying. Given the brand-new Harley parked in the drive, I would guess mid-life crisis + divorce, and it just felt a shame, after seeing how much love and attention had been lavished on both house and garden. Nothing to be done, of course, but I'm guessing that sort of reception is going to slow down the house sale quite a bit (and then I wonder if that isn't a ploy on the part of one or other ... getting too cynical I suppose).

How unreasonable can it get?

The guy in the next cubicle to me, Mark, is a very engaging, friendly guy. We have hardly anything in common, despite being about the same age, not even background or history really - he is an orthodox traditionalist christian (although brought up as an evangelical), hard-right Republican (& always has been), who more or less avoided popular music, drugs, & the university lifestyle when younger, and has 5 kids.

Despite that, or because of it, we have long, extended conversations, comparing and contrasting experiences, arguing fairly intently on a range of political subjects, and occasionally even finding common ground - for instance, we both agree on the recent ouster of the President of Honduras:

(Massive tangent here) Despite being popularly elected originally, we both think that he has both extensively violated their constitution, and was the one to originate the violations - with his opposition doing only a minimum of violence to the rule of law, necessary to actually protect the rule of law. After all, when your opponent is expressly ignoring the laws, and the rulings of your Supreme court, and is arming and recruiting mobs threatening violence, to wait for the next congressional meeting to pass a motion of impeachment (which he can equally ignore), is to invite your opponent to complete the violent overthrow of the constitution and claim perpetual power under the guise of 'popular action' a la Venezuela.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Chavez stole his initial election there (the subsequent ones, yes, the first one was honest) - but he has comprehensively ignored the laws and the constitution at his own whim, and even if he has retained popular support (a debatable proposition), to destroy the rule of law is to destroy all legitimacy: without it, all you have is the whim of the tyrant, whether his power arises from the army, the divine right of kings, or 'popular majority'.

But, to get back to my original point at last! We were wrangling over the Health Care reforms being proposed, and I was flabbergasted when he said his opposition is based, not on anything in the bills being submitted, but because they contain the seed of something that may be carried much further as a precedent, which he would oppose, such as the supposed 'death panels' that are causing such hysteria here.

God spare me!

On that basis you should oppose any and all laws - I can certainly find in the roots of any bill that is passed, something that could be egregiously exagerrated into a total abuse of power. How can you even argue with someone who won't argue the law being offered, only possible extensions of it and hypothetical actions of future politicians? The time to argue against the things you actually resist is when they are proposed, not at some earlier irrelevant juncture, surely.

I've listened to these slippery slope arguments for 40 years now** - ever since Vietnam - and they have never borne fruit, not once. I'm just utterly exasperated at this point. Worse than that, Mark and his family would be amongst the beneficiaries of these reforms (whereas I doubt if it will benefit me, short of losing my job), yet he has this apparently totally irrational opposition to these very moderate and mild reforms, because 'they could lead us to having a Canadian style health system'.

I won't even bother with the argument that the Canadian system actually delivers much better average outcomes than the US one does, at 2/3 the price - it doesn't matter, the Canadian system has been so systematically vilified as terrible, with horrible rationing of care, that no argument based on facts could actually penetrate. Of course the US system also has horrible rationing - done by insurance company functionaries operating out of a profit-first motive, so even more callous than any government bureaucrat - but that also doesn't matter, apparently.

The fact is, the current proposals dont resemble in any fashion the Canadian system, and noone is suggesting that it should, or that it would be a good idea: and what truly seems to horrify people here about the Canadian system is that they forbid you to go outside the government system if you're rich enough to pay for private health care.

Of course, the Canadians can afford to do this because they know anyone rich enough to seek private health care (and thus skip over the dreaded queueing), will simply drive across the border and get it in the USA, where, after all, the best health care in the world is available, if you're rich enough. Besides which, if any politician ever made such an egregiously egalitarian proposal here in the Land of the Free, they would be immediately and permanently jerked out of office, and laughed to scorn, with popularity ratings as low as the despicable Cheney.

Anyway, with even the reasonable wing of the opposition being apparently totally unreasonable (and I would talk about how chickenhearted the uncrazy Republican politicians are about this subject, but I appear to have exhausted my store of invective for the moment): all we can do is hope the Democrats find some backbone and cohesion, and ram this through. There is no possibility of getting bipartisan agreement on the bill(s), and the opposition have made that painfully clear: but, the Democrats actually do not need this, and can & should ram it through on their own, as soon as possible. Once it's done, the storms of opposition will move on to some other subject, and health care will be forgotten, and eventually (like Medicare and Social Security) be seen as part of the American heritage, and a great thing. Eventually.


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Update: and apparently it was going on a long time before I started listening (from Political Animal):

Though no one was talking about "death panels" back then, opponents claimed that Social Security would result in massive government control. A Republican congressman from New York, for example, charged: "The lash of the dictator will be felt, and 25 million free American citizens will for the first time submit themselves to a fingerprint test."

Another New York congressman put it this way: "The bill opens the door and invites the entrance into the political field of a power so vast, so powerful as to threaten the integrity of our institutions and to pull the pillars of the temple down upon the heads of our descendants." A Republican senator from Delaware claimed that Social Security would "end the progress of a great country and bring its people to the level of the average European."

Today, opponents of a public health insurance option claim that it would drive private health insurance out of business and put a bureaucrat between doctors and patients. Back then, opponents of Social Security warned that it would "establish a bureaucracy in the field of insurance in competition with private business" that would "destroy" private pensions.

Then as now, opponents played the socialism card.

It wasn't just Social Security. When FDR tackled health care reform, the right condemned "the socialization of medicine," and the AMA said Roosevelt's plans were "un-American."

Meeting hell

Jesus, what is wrong with these people?

I send an email asking a simple question that should only need a one word answer, and he wants a half-hour meeting instead? I don't CARE how his application typically uses (or 'leverages' in his peculiar gibberish) Development & Quality Assurance environments, it's not my concern: I'm only paid to deal with Production environment, and wasting half an hour of my life listening to him expound on how marvellously clever his application is to be able to test things in a development enviroment before they are deployed to production** is not going to enhance my management of his database, or my ability to do my job.

And, in fact, seeing he accidentally stumbles out the answer I was looking for, near the end of his invitation - i.e. that they are going to handle data loading through application-specific interfaces, and I don't need to be involved in the data loading at all - I don't need to talk to him at all, it's just another friggin' database after all.

OK, end of rant - now to play nice with the client (or in this case, the dickhead the client is paying to install his application), write a polite reply & let him waste my time: it's paid for anyway, so how much can it matter. I wouldn't go off pop about this, except this is the fifth instance of this behavior in the last week, from various self-important software developers: and even that might be tolerable, except my new boss has introduced semi-daily morning meetings to review our status.

I say semi-daily because they are only scheduled for Monday, Wednesday and Friday: apparently if something goes wrong with our systems on a Tuesday or a Thursday he doesn't need to know. However, because they involve all the company's teams working on this contract - something over 40 people in all - simply getting everyone present or dialled in to the meeting, and giving the OK, is taking nearly half an hour - and god forbid if there should actually be problems to discuss.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

On an entirely different subject, we went back to look at the Humpty Dumpty house yesterday, with estate agent and builder in tow. Just as well, as a closer examination revealed many many more faults and problems than I had spotted on first inspection (although I think I can fairly claim to be a bit rattled & less than attentive then, for obvious reasons).

The plumbing would appear to need to be entirely replaced, along with almost all the downstairs walls and beams, and some of the joists where moisture has gotten in, on top of the deck & rear room needing to be entirely ripped down & redone, and on and on. What Rob (yes we had Bob the Builder :) said was, if you're paying more than $60-$70k, you're paying too much.

So, so much for that. We'll start looking more closely at some finished places that just need redecorating, now.

The intersection of ugly and mean

I've found it extremely strange here, since the election last year: it's like half of the Republican party (and all the further right parties, like Constitutionalists, Libertarians, etc) have gone utterly barking mad, and are resolutely refusing to recognise that they legitimately lost the election. They're not claiming vote fraud (like the grotesquely obvious stolen election of 2000), but rather, some (many) are alleging that the President isn't actually an American, and the rest are just having a totally childish tantrum and denying reality, without providing any reason at all why they should still be controlling everything.

It's really quite frightening - I mean, they may be a relatively small proportion of the populace (perhaps 10% overall?), but 10% of 300million is still a lot of people - and most of them seem to be concentrated in the deeply racist south (hello, Arkansas!). It's not like they're subtle about the racism of it, either - one of the most common howls of tantrum is, 'Give me my country back', which, um, well, it's right here, it's just a tiny bit less totally-controlled by old rich white guys (and really, it is only a tiny change, unfortunately).

But their hysteria then gets preyed on by the more cynical right-wing operatives (mostly not actually Republican Party leaders, to be fair): ridiculous and appalling lies are circulated, and swallowed whole, every time - and as quick as one gets batted down, the next one pops up.

All that would be more or less standard operating procedure, in many ways, but the media here have so comprehensively abandoned any sense of duty or responsibility to the truth, that they do little or nothing to stop this, quite the reverse (in fact explicitly the reverse when it comes to Matt Drudge, and to Fox 'News').

I guess this is more or less inevitable - as news has become just another form of entertainment, the lowest common denominator operates, and the most sensationalist news stories are seen as 'winning' - whether they actually get the most viewers or not. Instead of ignoring or scoffing at an obviously ridiculous lie, they actively promulgate it, and at the same time seek the most sensationalist opposition to the lie, to create 'drama' and 'story', without ever taking an editorial position on the subject - any subject.

That form of dispassion is all well and good on topics where reasonable people disagree, such as a lot of policy ideas: but it is utterly abhorrent, and a disgusting lapse of ethics and reason, when the topic is one that only crazed, totally unreasonable people would disagree - but these are the people the media are now giving equal footing, and treating as serious people with subjects worthy of discussion, rather than dismissing or ignoring, or ridiculing (and here, Fox News and the Wall Street Journal - Murdoch operations - are specifically and comprehensively more guilty than the rest of the rotten shower).

I know that a lot of people, here & overseas, grew to loathe GW Bush (eventually - 9/11 bought him a lot of goodwill on all sides, which he frittered away in the most foolish of ways, in my opinion) - and some of the extreme left became quite unhinged and came up with ludicrous, preposterous stories about him & his government. But, these were seen as what they were (are) - crazed lunatic extremists, worthy of neither debate nor attention.

Obama's opposition, on the other hand, has sprung forth fully-grown, a veritable Cadmus' harvest of enmity, and have been widely and consistently reported, interviewed, summarised and debated, at every turn of the clock. This poison is, I think, gravely weakening the whole political process in this country.

In the end, politics is about letting everyone have their say, and in the nature of things involves most big segments of the populace having a turn in power, for longer or shorter. If the lunatic right is going to insist on having it's own way, with menaces, violence and threats of assassination, and if the elected politicians get scared into permitting this (which I wouldn't blame them too much for**), then it can only lead to an even greater explosion from the wide majority who have been again excluded from power. How long do they remain inert, sheep to be shorn by the interests of the extremely rich - banks, insurance companies and credit card companies, in essence?

Well, probably quite a while, they have been so comprehensively blinkered by propaganda.

So, how to make sure the politicians pay attention to the actual opinions of their voters? well, there's the trick, isn't it? Californian direct-democracy certainly looks pretty tarnished :) I guess I better get myself to the next local Town Hall, tho, and put my money where my mouth is.

Enough blither for one day

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** Well, OK I probably will - but it's hard to resist menacing violence, it takes a lot of willpower, over a long long period.

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Update: In case you think I exaggerate on how crazy people are getting, let me just cite a couple of examples from yesterday (and there are some every day)
From Steve Benen (Political Animal):

One of the protestors, in particular, brought a unique perspective.

Diane Campbell of Kingston, N.H., held a sign with Mr. Obama's face superimposed on a Nazi storm trooper, a sign, she said, that was made by her chronically ill mother.

Her mother's hereditary autoimmune disease is treated with expensive transfusions of gamma globulin, paid for by Medicare. Her sister, Louise, was born with no arms and one leg, and is also covered by Medicare, the government-run, health-insurance program for the elderly and disabled.

"Adolf Hitler was for exterminating the weak, not just the Jews and stuff, and socialism -- that's what's going to happen."

Now, my goal is not to pick on Diane Campbell, whom I do not know. She's quite clearly confused, though, and has come to believe some ridiculous lies. Campbell has apparently been so enraged by the right-wing nonsense she's been told, she feels entirely comfortable going out in public with signs comparing the president to a Nazi, and telling a reporter, on the record, that health care reform is comparable to Hitler's Holocaust.

But let's not overlook the irony of Diane Campbell's situation. Government-run, taxpayer-financed health care has kept her mother alive. Government-run, taxpayer-financed health care provides treatment and care to her sister. Based on the descriptions, it's safe to assume the costs associated with treatments for Campbell's mother and sister are enormous, but taxpayers and a socialized health care system pick up the tab. What's wrong with that? Not a thing.

Except, of course, that Diane Campbell is now trying to convince people that health care reform is both radical and dangerous.

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It was a painful clip that quickly made the rounds. At a town-hall event hosted by Rep. John Dingell (D) in Michigan, a local man named Mike Sola brought his wheelchair-bound son to confront, and scream at, the long-time lawmaker. He was eventually escorted from the event by police.

Yesterday, Sola appeared on Fox News, arguing that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sent "thugs" to his house "in the middle of the night." He added that he's prepared to use "lethal force" against "the person" in the future, before arguing that health care reform would "sentence our families to death" because "old people" would be "discarded."

It was very sad to watch. Sola's son has cerebral palsy, and their family has experienced difficulties that I can scarcely imagine. It's not surprising that he and his family would want to know how health care reform would affect their lives.

But the poor man has been fed so many lies, he apparently doesn't realize what he's saying. Mike Sola, who I suspect is entirely sincere, actually believes that Democratic proposals would kill the elderly and the disabled. He seems to have no idea that his beliefs are not in any way grounded in reality.

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Medical Day, again

Well, it seems like medical day today: I'm off to the Sleep Clinic this afternoon to see whether they'll treat me (i.e. give me one of those overpressure masks). Not at all sure that I will be able to sleep in it, but it's got to be worth trying - and of course I should have done this years ago, really.

Otherwise my bruises and scratches are gradually healing up - some of them are sunset spectaculars now, and a couple only showed on Sunday, and are still coming up - on my wrist and the side of my stomach, and on one foot. So I guess I'll be wearing them for a few days yet, to show off to the real estate agents :)

Martin, most steadfast of friends, advised me to seek compensation from the property owner (in this case, a bank, as it's a foreclosed property), and I suspect he's right that I should do so, but ... ahh .. this is still a property I'm interested in making a bid on, and I don't want to queer the pitch for that: if they've had to pay me, even a trivial sum, it may make them harder-nosed about negotiating on the final price and conditions.

In fact, I should discuss this with the agent and get them to raise it with the Bank, if we offer, to try and use it as a lever - gratitude isn't quite the word, it's more, well ... heh, blackmail (how appropriate, looking at my bruises). Well, that's a bit harsh, but it might be a useful additional lever - and probably much easier for the property manager to adjust the price, than to have to explain a claim for compensation.

We are still having headaches about financing tho - the mortgage seems quite straightforward, but if we buy somewhere needing repairs, we'll need additional (unsecured) credit, and that seems to be unavailable to me at the moment: at least, I've contacted a couple of banks and the credit union, and none of them are interested. I don't think that this is about me (I've checked my credit rating which is fine), so I guess they are just being tight and super-cautious after last years spectacular financial disasters, and the subprime mortgage fiasco.

Oh well, we'll keep looking for ways around that - perhaps arrange for a higher purchase price, with a 'redecoration allowance' stipulated as part of the price, as we've seen on a couple of TV shows. Failing that, we'll just have to buy a finished house - that wouldn't exactly break my heart, but Cat would be massively disappointed, she really wants projects to improve a house and set her own design seal on it - she probably should have been an architect or a master builder, when I think on it. And, of course, financially you can make a lot more in appreciation, on a house you get fixed up yourself.

Still, there are some lovely finished houses we've seen, still dirt-cheap, even by Little Rock standards - the foreclosures are hitting, and some neighbourhoods are being quite crippled by them it looks like: every block has 3 or 4 for-sale signs out in some areas. We shall see.

America

This is an excerpt from the blog of a friend of mine, Sarah in Chicago, who is about to return to NZ after a long period living in the USA - it sums up so much of what I feel about the place, I thought I'd grab part of it and republish (I wish I could have summed it up so pithily):

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I am completely expecting this to be a very large part of my homecoming soon. Particularly so given that I'm going to be moving into policy and political work as a career back in NZ, as while I definitely participated in politics before moving here, I really cut my teeth, as it were, in the cauldron that is American, and Chicago, political theatre. There are attributes of a vicious, vivacious, incredibly fast-moving, animal when it comes to US politics that really exists no where else in the world. The political world here is constantly changing, constantly moving, always shifting from one thing to the next, as issues of huge ramifications are debated, lost and won. Knives are being moved from one back to the next, just as acts of incredible self-less charity are given. There is passion and anger, joyfulness and celebration, utter sadness and dejection, love and sacrifice, here.

New Zealand politics are, as any kiwi will tell you, quite different. For a start, despite setting the course of a nation, they're simply not taken as seriously, In fact, culturally kiwis take nothing incredibly seriously. Not that we don't care, or that we make fun of such, but rather, the all-consuming nature of the way Americans approach most things is just something your average New Zealander would cock their eyebrow at and ask "Wot are ya, mate?". Our laid-back nature as a culture just doesn't allow us to care, or at least be seen caring, about anything the way Americans do about seemingly most things (except, naturally, about such things as beer, rugby, and having a fair-go). This cultural passion and approach to things is something I have certainly internalised.

And I have to say, I have moved to the Right on some political issues. The US centre politically is ridiculously to the Right ... almost to the point of caricature. What is considered reasonable right-leaning political positions are positions that anywhere else in the developed world, the Western world, would be rightly laughed out loud at. Don't get me wrong, I haven't gone insane and turned into a libertarian or any such nonsense. But I have repositioned myself to the pragmatic need for a strong military, for instance, and do tend to give police and such forces the benefit of the doubt. While as a sociologist I certainly come down on the side of the structural forces in society being the dominant cause of individual behaviour, I have definitely taken-on individual responsibility attitudes that I hadn't had previously. Don't get me wrong, even back in NZ I'm still going to be a left-winger, but I am a far more centrist one than I was before I left.

Then, of course, is the way Americans approach work. To an American, what you do for your career encapsulates in large part, if not in majority, who/what you are as a person. This is in part pragmatic, because so much of the American life is accessed via one's employment, from health-care to consumerism, to grilling and neighbourhood, credit and psyche. This is both in terms of the amount of one's income, but also where one's status is viewed to be located. Furthermore, it's also about how much Americans work. There is an absolute good seen in working as many hours as possible in the day, week, or whatever. Rooted in Calvinism, the US culture sees fundamentally how much time you spend working as a sign of effort and commitment, of how good you are as a person. This is something present across all of Western society, but only in the US has it taken on absolutist principals ... working oneself to death is not a euphemism here. You'll often over-hear on the subway professionals boasting of, as part of their everyday conversations, how many hours they've been putting in ... being 'busy' is taken to be the regular state of affairs.

And I will admit, I've totally bought into such. I find a lot of pleasure and worth in sitting in a cafe late at night, working ... in getting up with the dawn, grabbing my espresso, knowing that I'm getting into the office before most, owning a part of the day most people don't see ... in getting home in time to just grab some food before bed, just as I know I'll be getting up early to repeat the day over-again. One of the things I am really looking forward to once I am back is working after-hours in cafes around Wellington. I expect I'm going to be putting in more hours than your average kiwi ... and I'm going to love it.

There are, however, things I haven't taken on, that I remain most emphatically a kiwi, as well as Dutch, over. The consumerism of the US society, where everything requires money and/or an assessment of your ability to pay, where any misstep can doom you for life, at the same time as making self-worth require getting as close to that misstep as possible. Not to mention the related insane individualism of the culture, where a society's responsibility, or the need to relinquish one's rights to the benefit of society as a while, are seen as evil and hideous concepts (as evidenced by the treatment of Sonia Sotomayor currently). The US really needs to get beyond this if it is to mature as a nation, right past wrongs, and gain respect. The same for the high focus on competitiveness, where one needs to the best in everything, or one is nothing. Where everything (and I do mean everything) is hierarchically organised and ranked ... a mentality that leads to ignoring any and all weakness or fault, an absolutism that can produce nothing but disaster, depression, and American exceptionalism as absolute good, as difference is not prised for its diversity, but rather questioned as to level of worth. Then there is the pervasive displays of religion everywhere, in everything, something that for New Zealanders is highly offensive, where religion, and any reference to such, is considered a personal, and highly private, thing.

But, that all said, there is a beauty and wonderfulness about America that I have experienced nowhere else. While the American Dream is precisely that, a dream and a myth, the ideal that if one just works hard enough one can fix any problem, solve any issue, and go places no-one has gone before, means that as a country America will try things and do things that no other nation will. It believes in itself in ways that no other nation does. Sure, this gets it into trouble quite often, as it will meddle where it has no invite nor experience, not listening to the advice and knowledge of other more mature societies. Or it will over-simplify like a teenager, earnestly thinking that no one else has come up with a particular idea ever before in history, ideas that will solve everything.

But occasionally, just occasionally, it can live up to that ideal, and in doing so, like no other nation on earth, it is glorious and wonderful. It will trip over its huge gawky feet regularly, but those feet will carry it to places from time to time, that no one else really has never been before. This is a country that birthed the civil-rights movement, the feminist movement, the LGBT movement, etc ... movements that, while here still have a long way to go, had ramifications throughout the world, reverberating through time and space. America embodies the best and worst of humanity ... it is the excesses and extremes of our species and societies, the incredible highs to which it can succeed, and the depths that it can descend to. It is risk personified as a nation, that which holds not just our darkest fears, but also most cherished dreams as a world.

And it this hope, this positivity, that I have really garnered living here ... Americans believe, fervently, in their core, that things can, and will, get better, if only one believes that they can. I love this country for that. When I speak to my students about issues in America, I want them to reclaim this country, as I have investment in it, as I see its worth and possibilities as my own. As annoyingly grating as every other culture in the world finds America's insane optimism as a nation, something I will say I too wince at often, there remains the fact that to an American, the phrase "that's just the way things are" is not an explanation, but rather a call to change.

So, as teenager-ish as this country is, for all it's faults and for all it's beauty and wonder, just as I call myself Dutch, and a New Zealander, I can call myself an American.

I have become an American.
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Unlike Satah, I have not yet become an American, and I'm not sure I ever will, being a lot older and crustier by the time I got here (I certainly didnt become English even with 7 years there)... but it is quite an insidiously inviting place, and I probably will slide into Americanity, at least in some parts (and of course there are some bits where I was already there, like being assertive with restaurant service). Mind you, when someone tells me of all the extra hours they work here, my reaction is still, You can't be very good at your job if you need to work extra hours! and somehow I doubt that will ever change.

Update: I forgot to say, I have some amazing bruises today, & spent the weekend very sedately.

Humpty Dumpty

Well that was exciting! We went looking at houses with an agent - a terribly nice guy called Michael Fausett, with a strong Arkansas drawl and an astonishing resemblance to the Confederate general George Pickett (at least as portrayed in Gettysburg).

However, while viewing the first place, we climbed the stairs to see the upper story (the front door led into a sort of half-assed mezzanine, with stairs up and down), and noted that one of the stairs felt pretty wobbly. Well, on the way down again, bingo! I broke it completely, and fell all the way through, down into the lower floor's understairs cupboard, about 12 feet in all.

Fortunately the space was empty, and there were no exigent nails or splinters: and I landed on my feet intially before falling on my arse, so no serious damage was done - I've scraped and bruised the undersides of my upper arms (trying to slow my fall by bracing them on the risers), and banged my calves and bum with a few bruises as well, but nothing broken. Quite a shock - tho I think Cat and Michael were more shocked than I was :)

Nevertheless, after a few minutes recovering, I got up & we got on with the house-hunting - I was a bit surprised at myself, truth to tell: I 'm usually such a wimp about pain, but this didnt hurt too much and, unlike when you trip and fall, or have a slip, it didnt' shake my inner self-confidence, that essential understanding that you know how to cope with the world (which I found does get shaken up when you have a fall usually) ... perhaps just because it was so outlandish and weird, and it's not something that is going to happen every day. Michael has gone off to check with his boss about liability, having never heard of it happening before (not that I'm planning to sue or anything, but it's wise for him to know in case it ever recurs I guess).

Well the houses were all fairly interesting. I think we have it down to 3 contenders, of the bunch we saw today:

The Broken-stairs house, $130k on a quiet cul de sac. Great private yard, needs repairs (haha), and the add-on back room needs to be completely replaced essentially (done quick&dirty), the whole place needs redecorating & the downstairs area prolly needs relaid floors. Still, it's very large, quiet, and relatively cheap

The Parapool house (no not really), $142; on another quiet cul de sac. Another big yard, again private, possibly some road noise (a main road is through the fence & the line of trees out back, but the trees seem to screen the noise fairly well). Allegedly 1760sqft, but I'm sure it's more - or the architect was a genius at using space, because the place has 3 big bedrooms, a smallish kitchen, a large dining room, and two large reception/lounge rooms. Move-in ready, and nicely done (the stone-flagged fireplace really appealed to Cat). My favourite, I think. Oh, single level, which is frankly getting to be a big deal - we both have creaky knees that will only get worse with time in honesty.

The Dennison house, $113K (and prolly will go lower, it's been on the market for months), on a very quiet street, much closer to the city centre and in a gentrifying/gentrified area. Old, 1930s or so, and needing a lot of refurbishment, but a lot of lovely touches, such as a wrap-around porch, high ceilings, a couple of large reception rooms, and an eat-in kitchen area, plus a huge and refitted bathroom. Upstairs the attic has been converted into a single big open room, light and airy and well done from the look of it. The yard out back is not huge, but includes a drive-on area for parking (down a little alley), and is pretty private and well-screened by lots of trees. This is far and away Cat's favourite, so far.

I can see that the Dennison house is the one with a lot of potential: any work and money put into it will appreciate greatly, and it's in an area destined to keep appreciating anyway. My doubts are over the (narrow, steep) stairway, and simply the amount of work it's going to involve: no major structural rebuilds, but a new kitchen, quite a few walls re-gibbed, possibly even a ceiling relined. Still, it may well make the most financial sense - I kinda yearn for somewhere I could move in & not bother about for once, but that isn't Cat's point of view (at least not yet - and I suspect even when she's working regularly, she will feel the same way).

Decisions, decisions! Anyway, my wrists are starting to ache now, time to go and rest a bit.

Job hunt

Another very busy day it seems: I guess the increase in meetings and paperwork guarantee a lot more of these than before, even if it is just so much make-work. Oh well, if they want to pay me to shift the hole from one side of the yard to the other, that's their prerogative. (I'm joking of course - tell me to do anything with a shovel and you're likely to have an emergency visit to a proctologist).

Cat is doing her unpaid work at the florist's place today, getting some more experience with American floristry, which is apparently quite strange and different from European floristry. Normally she'd do this on Friday, but we're planning to have that day devoted to house views. She's also applied for her first paid job here, which has her hyperventilating a bit: the whole experience of American employment seems incredibly fraught and treacherous, being so unregulated and leaving the employees so unprotected.

Still, I'm very glad that she's been able to start applying for jobs: that's a big hurdle to jump. Once she lands a job, I must see about union coverage for florists - although on past experience it will be dross (to be polite). Even in England, there was no coverage until you'd been at an employer for 12 months, which, given the heavy turnover with florist shops, almost noone was ever eligible.

With all the political brouhaha about the appalling american health system, it looks like one (at least) of the major terrors about employment here (health insurance & coverage) might be alleviated. Then all we need is a Labour Department with any teeth or method of enforcing the existing labor and industrial laws, and some regulators able to enforce the environmental laws, and things will be a bit less scarey :)

Of course, whether anything gets passed about that, it's still up in the air very much: I think it's likely, but by no means certain. Hmm, more on that another time, I need to pay attention to this meeting it seems.

Stewing

Well, now we wait for Friday & the agent, to do a round of about a dozen places nearby. One (the dirt-cheap one) is already under offer, so that may not be a go-er - but then it was, as they say, priced to sell.

Cat is still mulling over the Grand Old Lady, and saying, well, if they dropped their price by 40% (cough, cough), then we could afford to fix it up, over time: which, I suppose, yeah, it seems to have been on the market for a couple of years. But I suspect the price has already been dropped several times, and the wiggle room will be small, although we will check.

There's another place, one we looked at months ago, which she's really caught by: it's on a quiet cul-de-sac, single story brick, with the house in a V shape giving a very secluded back yard. It's been empty a couple of years (owned by whatever govt agency funds veterans mortgages), and is pretty rough, certainly plenty of scope for projects for her, but also fairly large, and not so bad that it isn't liveable immediately.

The problem? well, it backs onto West Markham, which is pretty much the main arterial road for west Little Rock, and the traffic noise is not just loud, but fairly much constant, even in the weekends and late evenings.

Cat is dreaming of putting up an earth rampart, perhaps topped by a new privacy fence and then a line of trees, but ... well, it already has the fence, and at least some trees, and damn it's loud. I can't see anything that would realistically be able to buffer that much noise, but Cat's "I will" is so strong she can persuade herself of most anything ... for a while. I have to admit, it is a GREAT bargain - I haven't found what the price has fallen to, last we checked, 6 months ago, it was $110k, so probably under $100k now.

But, with that much noise, the outside space that Cat is hungering for, will be pretty much unusable to her. We went through this with the balcony in Sunbury, which she worked on enormously, but could never baffle the traffic noise there (from much further away.

I suggested she cruise West Markham looking for people with substantial fencing, to ask them how well it has worked as a baffle for the noise, and I hope she does that: lord knows, if she can produce a good solution, I would love to buy something that big, flat, and cheap.

Sorry, seem to be obsessing about houses this week, funny that.

As expected

Wow, what a day - almost lunchtime & I've barely had a moment to take a breath. Not that I'm getting much useful done, just meetings, meetings, meetings: one to sub for the client boss we more or less work for (or at least aim to please), one with some developers who have (they thought) been doing the DBA support work on a server*, and one with the monitoring guys (at last! after only 5 months of trying).

*And I have to say, if they thought they were doing DBA work on these databases, they've really had their thumbs up their posterior fundaments, because I've been doing it all, including noticing, oh, when they were about to run out of friggin' disk space and other minor items like that.

Never mind - lunchtime is also taken up, Cat has arranged for a viewing of the Grand Old Lady I mentioned yesterday, so we can see how much of a disaster - or otherwise - the interior is: lord knows the exterior needs a ton of work, aside from the (brand new) roof.

Then another BS 'team meeting' with the new boss and all the teams - of course, I'll be on the phone for this meeting as it's down in New Mexico, so I'm sure it will be deep and meaningful.

I'm starting to get really bothered about the new boss, in fact: I've asked him 3 times whether he wants to receive some reports his predecessor got automatically, without reply: and sent him my weekly report yesterday, with a couple of comments asking for feedback as to level of detail & specificity, stuff like that, and ... nada; not even acknowledgement.

I was fine for the last 12 months, having a line manager in N'awlins that never communicated with me at all (except for once when my timesheet was late), as at least the site manager was giving me guidance and, yanno, managing me: but having both of them playing the deaf&dumb game is extremely unpleasant. It's not as though I don't feel isolated and ignored already (god knows my first couple of months here rammed that home firmly), I really dont need more alienating behaviour.

Oh well, after that off to see the mortgage broker to fill in the paperwork & hand over all the bumph needed to back up the verbal OK he gave us last week.

& now to dash off for a sub, so I dont go crazy with low blood sugars.

Update
Well, been to see the Old Lady, and man is she a wreck inside. Would need complete eletrical refit (followed by relining the whole place), both bathrooms & kitchen completely redone, new ceilings, refinished floors, in fact almost everything: plus, as it's in the Old Historical District (I forget the name of it), it all is strictly limited as to what you can do with it, as it has to be kept closely in theme with the whole Victorian thing, which will hike the price further.

Oh well, it always looked like a bit of a pipe dream, at least we didn't dismiss it immediately but explored the possibility.

House hunting

Well, I fair wore maself out with house-hunting this weekend. Excuse the southern drawl, after all those fake real-estate folks, I plumb gone got infected with rural-Arkansas-speak, a nonlethal but very annoying virus.

We spent both days tiki-touring around, mostly just drive-bys to check the external aspects (and quite a few places could be eliminated just from what we could see from the outside). For some odd reason, open-house time is restricted to 2pm-4pm Sundays only: I must try & find out why, after all, if I was an estate agent, I'd be thinking - "hmm, open home from 4-6, when all these people are still lookin', but there ain't nowheres to look, heckfire I'd be inundated with them". I imagine it's got a lot to do with the power of the churches here.

Still, that's how it is, so we trundled around half a dozen open homes yesterday afternoon, but none of them really rang our bell - either too small a yard, too small rooms, or just a bit pricey for what's being offered, really. Some of the ones we haven't looked inside yet, have been far more promising: there are 3 foreclosure properties, and 3 agent-listed properties we are pressing our agent to get us access to, hopefully this Friday when I'm off work.

Then there's this old lady. I think Cat has fallen in love with it already, even tho we haven't seen inside yet.



















It's a 5 bedroom victorian (1896) that has been partly refurbished inside (with photos on the website of the bits that have been done). Despite being on a corner lot, it also has a large, privacy-fenced back yard which - of course - we have no idea what state or what it contains. It's near the top of our price range, but definitely affordable, but the real issues will be, what major defects need rectifying (like piles, structural beams/rot, and so on), and how much has been renovated inside - if the bathrooms & kitchen have not been renovated, then that may be an insuperable hurdle, as we wouldn't have money spare to fix them straight away, so they would have to be ... ah, liveable.

I'm trying hard not to fall in love with it - that way leads to idiot headstrong decisions - but I can certainly see the temptation. After looking at so many bland 1990s/2000s houses with no eaves, pinched little bedrooms, and a couple of planks that get called a deck, this is, well, expansive, immense, stylish.

There are a couple of other contenders that are quite strong tho - all 3 very close to where we currently live, on cul-de-sacs: one very large (2300sf), with a nice private back yard, one with a swimming pool (!) but not much privacy in the yard, but also a big house, and one split-level about the size of our current house, and dirt-cheap - I mean, really, the mortgage payment would be about 60% of our current rental. All of these are financially more appealing, at least in the short term, tho none offer the longterm potential returns of the Old Lady, once she's completely renovated (and the property market has returned to buoyancy, ie at least 5 years away I think). Plus, there's half a dozen cheap, large places that look to be in decent areas, but no addresses listed - I've sent those to the agent asking for addresses & viewings, as well. So WAY too early to get fixated (I keep telling myself).

Hmm, well, just have to wait on our estate agent to get us the viewings now. Waiting ... oh yeah, that's always fun :/

OH, almost forgot, added links to the websites for the Old Lady and a couple of the others, if anyone wants to click through to see pix.