Long Winters in studio

reviews

I’ve mentioned KEXP, a Seattle-area listener-supported radio station that plays great local and indie-pop (and lots of other stuff) music. I listen as much as I can. You’d think that wouldn’t be a lot, since I live in Portland, OR, hundreds of miles south of Seattle, but thanks to the internets, I not only get rumors but I get streaming feeds from KEXP.

John in the morning yesterday had John Roderick as an in-studio guest, (shortly after 9:36 AM, according to their web-based archived playlist. Roderick is the main member of The Long Winters, a band who, I think, should get far more airplay than they do. Roderick’s lyrics and arrangements are catchy, sweet, and very much like indie-pop versions of traditional Irish folk songs.

Roderick traded quips with the DJ, and sang three songs; “Ultimatum”, a brand-new song that is supposed to appear on the Long Winter’s upcoming third album, “Cinnamon”, a great sing-along song from their second album “When I Pretend To Fall”, and “Fire Island”, a brand-new song that apparently isn’t going to appear anywhere but here, or possibly in live performance (if Roderick can find and train a band that will stick with him long enough to tour).

I have fond memories of Long Winters concerts… so I was transfixed Friday morning, resisting the urge to call up friends (and ex-friends) and tell them to tune in. It was… brutalful.

Dr. Peter Davidson, Multnomah County’s highest-paid employee

Politics

More local political news — my employer, Multnomah County, is still having problems. Intimidating managers seem to be the norm. Dr. Peter Davidson, the county’s highest-paid employee ($157,000 annually) was trying to keep his racial slurs out of the press. Unsucessfully. The Oregonian first reported last Thursday that an unnamed county employee was reporting that Dr. Davidson had been pressuring her to keep quiet.

The employee used the “I” word — intimdation.

She was named in a survey that the county performed earlier this year, where she claimed that Dr. Davidson referred to African-Americas as “mud people.” The report linked above showed that the good doctor was put on administrative leave when the employee made the complaint about intimidation, which seems like a good move — put him on leave, then launch an investigation.

But… why wasn’t that done back in 2002, when the first reports of his racial slurs were made? Instead, Chair Linn merely shuffled the org chart, and kept Davidson on as an employee of the county. A tactic, I can report as a county employee, that was also used regularly when complaints surfaced about other managers.

Which is apparently what they’re going to do about Jann Brown. Even though, technically speaking, Jann Brown doesn’t have any staff under her… she sent out a meeting request for a “staff meeting”. She’s even bringing in breakfast! Joy. Rather than substantially address the hostile environment that Ms. Brown created, county management is going to pretend nothing happened. They’ll spend taxpayer money to send these awful managers to “sensitivity training”, but meanwhile the staff that has to work with her sees that favoritism and intimidation and suppression of complaints results in promotions and continued employment. Which further sends the message to other managers that, hey, these kinds of poor management are A-OK, too, perpetuating the culture of fear at the county.

The six-figure award that a jury gave to Lea Lakeside-Scott in an amazingly-fast decision (the jury in that case deliberated for only 2 1/2 hours, which normally signals that the defense has won the case but should be seen by county management as a strong rebuke, above and beyond the punitive damages) is only seen by the higher-ups as the cost of doing business. They want to push to reduce the award, then pay Ms. Lakeside-Scott off and make it go away.

I don’t think this issue is going away, however.

As Mary Botkin, a representative for AFSCME (the union that many state and county employees belong to) said in another local case of racial discrimination (this one at the Oregon Department of Agriculture), “We wouldn’t tolerate this at Nike. Why do we tolerate it in state government?”

Update 26 January 2022: I can not find any current links to replace the ones originally in this post, sorry. Linkrot is real, y’all. – Brian M.

Sluggy Backstory

reviews

Second, one of the webcomics I follow is Sluggy Freelance, which has been running for years. I’ve been reading it for 5 years, and there’s a whole lot of backstory, so it’s taken on a depth just from sheer history that not a lot of comics have.

At any rate, the current story would take paragraphs and paragraphs to explain, but the main character, Torg, is just a regular guy but right now he’s on this quest or something. He’s spent the last several months in an alternate universe that was taken over by demons from the Dimension of Pain, and in that universe Torg met the alternate version of Zoe. In his regular universe Zoe and Torg are friends, and have tried to date but it’s never worked out. Torg still has feelings for Zoe, though.

And, yes, you guessed it, because alternate-universe-Torg has gone missing, our Torg steps in for him, and Zoe and our-Torg fall in love.

Which is all just backstory (and recent backstory, too! I told you it was complicated (yes, it’s very much like a geek soap opera))… and it all leads up to two of the saddest moments in the history of the comic.

(Pete Abrams is the creator of the comic)Why, Pete? Why did you have to kill off alternate-Zoe? I was unbelievably saddened when she died. Maybe it’s just the stupid holiday season that’s got me so emotional (I friggin’ hate the holidays) but… dammit.

And then, in the past week, came the moment when our Torg rescues alternate-Torg from the Demon-King’s freezer (see, Torg is trying to get the Ziploc-baggie of Goodness stored in the fridge, and the Demon-King’s fridge has the freezer-side on the right, not on the left like Torg expected… oh, go read it, it’ll make more sense that way)

…and it hit me. Our Torg has his own Zoe to go back to (although any geek worth his caffeinated beverage knows the pain of having a relationship and then having to go back to “being friends” and that is precisely what our Torg will have to do, with the added pain from having our Zoe not know what went on between our Torg and alternate Zoe (I just can’t see Torg telling Zoe what his relationship with alternate Zoe was, but I’ve been wrong before (Why?! Why did you kill her, Abrams?!)

…but alternate Torg has lost his Zoe forever.

Dimension of Pain, indeed.

How We Are Hungry features

reviews

First, a correction about yesterday’s post, a minor matter: the black elastic band bound into the cover of “How We Are Hungry” is not a bookmark. It’s some kind of elastic band, apparently meant to hold the book closed or something. I’ve seen journals with that, now that I think about it. Oddness, but in a cool, quirky way.

However, there is, in fact, a silver ribbon bound into the spine that is, in fact, a bookmark. It doesn’t show up in the picture I posted, but it’s there. I discovered it last night.

It’s strange to think of a book as having undiscovered properties or features. But, you know, in a cool, quirky way.

The book is so good so far. The second story features Hand, one of the main characters from “You Shall Know Our Velocity”, but the story is told from the point of view of Pilar, a girl who is not Latin but has dark hair and a Latin name. Let me quote from the story (p. 50):

If there were a question that needed to be answered in this story it would be not one but many, and would be these: How can a world allow all this? Allow these people to live so long? To travel all these miles south, to a place so different but still so comfortable, and in that place, meet again? To allow them to be naked together for the first time? What would their parents think? What would their friends think? Would anyone object? Who would plan for them? How many times in life can we make decisions that are important but will not hurt anyone? Are we obligated–maybe we are–to say yes to any choice when no one will be hurt? We use the word hurt when talking about things like this because when these things go wrong it can feel as if you were hit in the sternum by a huge animal that’s run for miles just to strike you.

The story is called “The Only Meaning of the Oil-Wet Water”.

So good.

How We Are Hungry, by Dave Eggers

reviews

Ahem…

There’s a new Dave Eggers book!!


There’s a new Dave Eggers book!!

It’s called “How We Are Hungry” and it’s a collection of short stories, some previously published and others… not. I’ve just started it (yeah, I bought it, this is a hint (or possibly an anti-hint) for those of you who may be wondering what to get me for Christmas) but already I’ve gone back and re-read lines that made me chuckle and I’m only on the second story, for Mithras’ sake.

Look: it’s even a very beautiful book:

The “dust jacket” is just a thin maroon strip. There’s a built-in elastic bookmark. And the smooth black cover is embossed with some kind of griffin or something.

And if you’re wondering just who this Eggers fellow is, anyway, go check out “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius” and “You Shall Know Our Velocity”. He also edits the journal McSweeney’s, which I’ve never actually read (this is an anti-anti-hint).

Very very cool. I’ll be devouring this over the next week or so. Maybe less.

More layers plz

General

I started my (latest) diet just over a year ago, in mid-November 2003, right before the holiday season. Yes, before — I know, I am, in fact, crazy.

At any rate, I started losing weight around this time, but by Christmas I was still over 200 lbs. I think. I’m not sure and I don’t really want to go back and dig through my notes from the time.

At any any rate, what I’m getting as is that this, November 2004, is my first “thin” (and I use that term advisedly — I’m only really “thin” from the perspective of where I’ve been) (where was I? Oh, right) — this is my first “thin” winter.

And, without my normal layer of insulating blubber, IT. IS. SO. FREAKING. BITTER. COLD. Great grandiloquent Gehenna! How do actual thin people stand this? I feel as though the wind is CUTTING. THROUGH. MY. BONES. like a freakin’ bone saw chilled to just below absolute zero. And I dressed (ha! I thought!!!) warmly today — two t-shirts, a black hoodie, lined winter coat, stocking cap… And yet, and yet, no. Just no. It’s still COLD.

Gloves, and scarf, and maybe long underwear… yeah, yeah, that’s it. I need more layers. To make up for the layers I’ve lost.

It ain’t boring

exercise

So, the cold weather is here, and even though I’ve broken down and bought some running clothes more suitable for winter, it’s still too frickin’ cold outside to go running if I do it in the morning before work or in the evening. It’s OK to go running on the weekends during the light of day. Sometimes. But the rest of the time, it looks like I’ll be running on the treadmill at the gym.

Many years ago… like, oh, say, December 2003… when I first started actually running instead of using the elliptical machine or the stair climbing machine or going for a walk and jogging for 5 pathetic minutes before collapsing in a heap, I ran on a treadmill. Runner friends had told me that running on the treadmill is a lot different than running on a trail, or running on asphalt and concrete. It’s easier on your knees and hips, for one thing, because of the extra padding. And it’s BORING.

I like running outside, in the sun, watching all the scenery change, seeing other people out. Yeah, yeah, it’s weird; after all, I am a geek, more accustomed to the cold glow of a CRT or LCD than the sun. But, it’s true. I really like running outside. So the thought of having to go back to the gym, with it’s unchanging scenery and the feeling of confinement is not a positive, motivating thought.

Still, the advantage of running on a treadmill is that I can listen to my iPod. iPods do not do well when running, no matter what anyone else will tell you. Sure, iPods have 32 MB of skip protection, but they are still a hard drive, and hard drives are susceptible to shock, and, speaking for myself, I generate a lot of shock when I run. But on a treadmill, I can set the iPod up on the shelf against a towel and listen to my heart’s content. Or my ears’ content. Whatever.

So since I have music to help motivate me, picking the right music to listen to on the treadmill is important. If I pick some mellow or dour music, even though that’s what I really like, it might hurt my pace. Today I got up early to hit the gym before work, and the album I chose to listen to was “Kill Bill Vol. 1”.

There’s just something about running to the “Green Hornet” theme that really gets my blood pounding… and I think it paid off, too, because I did 2 miles at a blistering (for me) pace of 9:18.5 pace! Whoo-HOOO! Go, me!

I’m going to be working on both pace and distance. When I head back to the gym on Wednesday, I’m going to aim for 2.5 miles at the same pace. Let’s see what happens…

Out of internet range

General

Caleb has been away from the server that runs his site, my site (ta-da!) and Geeks Against Bush, along with all of our email and some other sites I’m not remembering right now. Yeah, can you believe it? He went away for Thanksgiving weekend. As in, out of the range of the internets. Scary, huh? I mean, the server could have fallen over and I would have been without email and my site!

But, it didn’t. Yay! Yay for Caleb! Yay for BSD (which powers our sites)! Yay for rock-solid hardware!

Still… next time he goes away I’m hoping he has a contingency plan.

Happy Anniversary, me

General

Shit!

I let the one-year anniversary of this site come and go. I made my first post here on November 1, 2003. It was a rant about my ex, disguised as the beginning of a short story, that I had actually written months previously. It was, sadly, unfinished, very much like the relationship itself was.

In the past year, I’ve become an amateur runner, I’ve gotten my weight under 190 (weighed myself this morning and I’m at 185 — think it’s time to trim up again), been to Puerto Vallarta and Coachella and Vegas, met some new friends, helped some old friends… dated and lived and spent money… hmmm… what else? Discovered lots of great new local and not-so-local music, made some money on the side, learned a lot more about BSD and computers and networking… taken in a kitten, took a stand politically, got mentioned in the local news (a couple of times, obliquely)… shit, I know there’s more but can’t think of it now.

Anyway, happy anniversary Lunar Obverse, here’s to hoping you’re still going strong in another year.

Oregonian mentions Lea

General

OK, Lea’s story is starting to percolate into the press. The Oregonian picked it up.

From the article:

In the ruling on Nov. 19, however, the jury did not decide whether Lakeside-Scott’s allegations were true, only that she was terminated in February 2002 for airing her complaints in the state filing. That violated the First Amendment, the jury found.

In the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court of Oregon in 2002, Lakeside-Scott alleged that co-workers and supervisors used county e-mail and phones to conduct personal and social business; that co-workers sent her sexually explicit messages; and that Jann Brown, who was a manager but not Lakeside-Scott’s immediate supervisor, showed favoritism by hiring and promoting gay and lesbian employees.

Instead of responding to her complaints, she claims that supervisors retaliated against her by dragging their feet on her requests for ergonomic furniture and refusing to reclassify her position or consider her applications for promotion. She claims her firing was at the behest of Brown, who, according to the complaint, “was (at least in part) motivated to have Scott discharged because of the personal nature of Scott’s allegations against her.”

This article adds details that I wasn’t previously aware of, for instance that the jury didn’t rule on whether or not Lea’s allegations were true.

Also of interest is that the total award could actually go higher:

He [Judge Michael Mossman] is expected to rule on a second claim brought by Lakeside-Scott under Oregon’s whistle-blower law, which makes it a civil rights violation if workers who step forward with complaints are retaliated against. At that time, the judge could award a separate amount of money for lost wages and other non-economic damages.

And the official county response to the verdict?

Lawyers for Lakeside-Scott and the county, and county Chairwoman Diane Linn, declined to comment on the case while aspects of it remain undecided. The county has until next week to file post-trial motions.

Update 26 January 2022: I can no longer find a direct link to the Oregonian’s article quoted above. – Brian M.