JanerBlog

Street Harrassment

2010-09-02T01:57:56Z

More on the oil spill

2010-08-31T21:19:41Z

One Silverbean for sale, going cheap

2010-08-30T14:53:07Z

Sadly, after five years into my early-adoption Biodiesel experiment, it's become next-to-impossible to find a regular supply of fuel. There's only one gas station on this side of the state that sells B20 and it's a half-hour out of the way, the local recycled-grease co-op is only open about once every three weeks and you can only get 10 gallons at a time, Wacker Oil has stopped selling B100, I suspect that the "B20" Meijer is selling me is closer to B5, and unless I want to put in a tank here and pay for deliveries from Crystal Flash (which is moot, as I have no room for such a thing), I'm running out of options. Running it on straight petrodiesel makes it a pretty filthy car to drive, and I'm ready to trade up for a Honda Fit or something similar. Recommendations welcome. Anybody want to buy a 2001 VW Golf TDI? 156K, lots of scratches but runs great, rebuilt engine, cold A/C, ~40mpg hwy if you drive it right. Asking $3500 if I fix the grocery-cart dent on the left front panel, $3250 as is. Runs on any blend of bio and petro-diesel. Lovely car, and I wouldn't give it up if I could get fuel for it.

Art Supply WIN

2010-08-26T17:44:11Z

When I teach workshops, I always warn my attendees to not get overly attached to specific art supplies, to just use what's at hand. Getting hung up on not having your special pencil only causes one more block between you and producing actual work. In this, however, I am a bit of a hypocrite, because I'm really picky about some of my art supplies. Some things I don't care about all that much, like which fine line pens I use, but there are several other art supplies that I insist on using, after years and years of trial and error. These things I order by the boxload, so that if a manufacturer stops making the item I love, I'll have time to find a suitable replacement before I run out of supplies. Which brings us to today's find: A large supply of the out-of-manufacture Staedtler Integrity 9505, which I found by the literal dozens on ebay. Free shipping means I bought 16 of them. Man, I love that pencil. Beautiful grip, nice weight, perfect eraser, no lead wobble. I am a happy camper. So, readers. What're your must-have art supplies? Writing supplies? Coding supplies?

And since I was just beating my linguistic high horse...

2010-08-17T20:50:58Z

... I find this post from Pandagon's Amanda Marcotte, also about language use and sensitivity in writing, to be a useful counterpoint. More useful discussion here.

I do not think that word means what you think it means.

2010-08-10T01:44:27Z

Start here: When Writers Fail To Understand How Words Work and then go here: Because writing a book for fun and profit is totally just like what happened at Bataan and then here: Patalim and finally end up here: Your Broken Project is Not a War Crime I've had a post about this -- not this situation specifically, but others like it -- brewing for a long time. I've used the word "deathmarch" before, in flippant context. After reading these essays, though, I'm going to stop doing so, for the reasons that Bill (whump) outlines in his post. It trivializes other peoples' pain, it erases and disregards history, and most of all, trying to defend the use of such a word in such a context makes you look like a jackass. The argument I have always seen against dropping the use of such words always boils down to "But I'm a word nerd, and I think I should be able to use any word I want. Not using that word cuts a hole in my lexicon, and demonizes it, besides. Also, I like that word." That's not word-nerdery. That's laziness. That's favoring metaphor over precision, generality over specificity. A real word-nerd would keep searching until they came up with a more correct, more fitting descriptor. If the situation you're involved in actually resembles a death-march? Then by all means, go ahead and use that word. If not? Head back to the well and drop the bucket. Surely you can come up with something better than that. The other thing I don't get is how people can say something like that, and when called on it (with politeness, gentleness and sincerity, I might add), to issue a half-assed "Sorry you found it offensive" and then keep using the term. This is not someone else being too sensitive. This is you being too insensitive, especially after someone stuck their neck out to point out your mistake -- to educate you. Case in point: When a kid with Downs hears someone use the r-word in casual conversation and says "I know that when you use that word you're talking about me," with hurt in his voice, what kind of person says "Hey, I'm sorry you were offended. But r--ed is just such a satisfying word to use!" Full disclosure: I actually used that defense once, on that same word. And then my friend told me how her brother -- yes, that kid -- felt. And then I stopped using it, because I was ashamed of myself for privileging my own word-nerdery over someone else's feelings. I found a different word. It wasn't hard, it was beneficial: looking for better words makes me a better writer. If there's one good thing that came out of the horrible A:TLA Racebending debacle, it's that it led me to discover that I'm an absolute sucker for specificity, in both visual detail and in language. I don't want generalities. I want specifics. I want to be a more rigorous writer, one who more closely examines my word-choices, my settings, my historical details -- and if I make a mistake, and get called on it, (which I will, of course) I hope to God I can listen and learn and grow from it, rather than alienating -- and further hurting -- someone who took time and courage out of their day to be polite to me and educate me when I was off-base. That education is a gift -- a token of esteem towards you, the writer, for the hurting party feels you've got the capacity to learn, despite the fact that you just hurt them -- and it comes free of charge to you, but not to them. Speaking up takes bravery, costs energy, and frequently earns an unwanted backlash. So thank you, miir, littlebutfierce, whump, ephemere, ktempest and megwrites. I'm sorry that all of you had to write what you did, but thank you for taking the effort and time to do so.

Prop 8 struck down!

2010-08-05T13:16:52Z

Booyah! Boo. Beautiful.

Trip Report Day Four: Hurricane Ridge

2010-08-05T04:42:58Z

We went sea kayaking at Freshwater Bay in the morning -- I don't have any photos of the trip, because I didn't want to risk the camera to my clumsiness. The trip was great, and we saw all sorts of wildlife we'd never seen before -- pigeon guillemots, rhinoceros auklets, and a mother harbor seal carrying her pup on her back. The seals followed our boats in quiet curiosity, disappearing backwards into the water whenever we noticed them. The kayak-tour company (which we recommend wholeheartedly) shared a building with a winery, so at the end of the trip we got to sample some nice local wines, and wound up getting a bottle to share later. Afterwards, we drove up to Hurricane Ridge and did some hiking, which is where these photos are from.

Trip Report Day Three: Dungeoness Spit

2010-08-05T03:47:17Z

Okay, some overdue trip photos from Day Three.

What it's really like to work at a music store

2010-08-03T04:22:30Z

Seriously, I laughed so hard at this that I nearly peed myself.

Closer to home

2010-07-29T13:15:00Z

Man, the Kalamazoo River oil spill is just heartbreaking. Nearly a million gallons of crude, dumped right in my back yard, gives me new respect for the horror the Gulf Coast's been going through. Terrible pictures of oil-slicked Canada geese and muskrats are everywhere, and the beautiful river I'd been hoping to kayak tonight is ruined all over again. Poor Kalamazoo River. It's been the dumping grounds for all sorts of heinous shit for as long as western settlers have been here. Things were finally looking up -- after years and years of Superfund cleanup and local efforts, the river was clean enough to sport and play in, again. Festivals, like Kanoe the Kazoo, sprang up in an effort to lure residents, long taught to avoid the smelly watershed, back to the rejuvenated river. And now it's all gone, those years of effort will have to start all over again, thanks to one company's negligence. The summer-long Kalamazoo Water Festival -- sponsored by the watershed council -- couldn't be more timely. Maybe the last few events of the year will be turned into volunteer cleanup parties. God knows we'll need it. I confess that I'm kind of scared to volunteer, myself, though this is kind of thing is right up my alley. But something's got to be done, and we can't count on the folks who made this mess to clean it up.

Guess What I Have

2010-07-22T21:42:39Z

Seriously, the whole package is so gorgeous, from the hand-stamped wax-sealed stacks pass to the bookplates to the Spinoza patch to the adorable Luther sketch (Dylan, how is your hand still capable of gripping a pen so soon after your release party?!) to the gorgeous original watercolor of Ariana which is so getting framed and going up on my studio wall next to the last page of Speed's Finder:Talisman. I am thrilled. Best hundred bucks I've spent in a long time. Congratulations, Dylan, for giving flight to your fancy, and in such stellar style. May there be many more.

And people wonder why I love my job

2010-07-21T13:59:37Z

Biggs|Gilmore wins Advertising Age's Best Small Agency (76-150). Biggs is a fantastic place to work, and I love it. Nice to see other people catching on to how awesome the company is.

OMG YAY

2010-07-21T13:57:59Z

Nickelodeon announces a new ANIMATED Last Airbender series! ETA: More info in this interview! **KERMIT ARMS**

Trip Report Day 2: Forts Worden and Flagler

2010-07-19T03:48:50Z

On the second day of our trip we got up early, had a nice breakfast with Dave and Brenda, and then drove and ferried our way out to Port Townsend for an Orca Tour. Alas, there was a gale warning, and so the tour didn't go -- so we decided to hike out to nearby Fort Worden, which has been turned into a nature preserve, and also has a really super Marine Science Center, which I wholeheartedly recommend to any fellow visitors who are big nature nerds like me. Our next stop was nearby Fort Flagler, on Marrowstone Island, a short and beautiful drive away.