Convention Drinking Game:

Every time someone says 'change' take a drink.

Who's in?

ETA: mindrtist, queenmorgana, I'm looking at you...

I'm at anonymously4's house. She isn't. She's doing errands or something and told me to come over at any point, and I have a key, so I busted in. I had a joyous reunion with Bucky dog who I haven't seen in over a month. Red Sox and Yankees are on ESPN. Later: speechifying.

I'll have to change the baseball when Kris gets back. OH HEY Kevin Youklis shaved his head. Suddenly he's a lot cuter than he used to be.

I'm not sure how I feel about this instant replay business. But then, I'm old fashioned and set in my ways.


It just occured to me that SOMEONE on my friends list owes me a baseball game. The clock is ticking on the Blue Rocks season, dude.

• 07:45 Time for a coffee run and feeding Dylan's cats. #

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I'm not a political junkie but I am a recreational user. I'm like a martini-a-day drinker who goes on a bender every two years. I love electoral politics. Last night I actually cried during Uncle Ted's speech. Tonight I heard part of Clinton's speech-the Twin Cities line was genius. Props to the speechwriter. Tomorrow I'm going to anonymously4's to watch Uncle Joe on tv. I'm hoping that if I say 'oh NO he didn't just say that!' it is while laughing and not cringing. Audacity is good if you can keep your feet far away from your mouth. Just don't stray from the teleprompter, Joe. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE. Between the conventions and election day is the MLB playoff season. I do love autumn.

HIllary Clinton was awesome tonight. Did you hear her speech at the convention? She made me feel a little better about politics and this presidential race. But I still suspect, sadly, that the Republicans are going to win.

I'm not sure when it happened (though I suspect the post howardtayler's Schlock Mercenary plug may have a lot to do with it) but my ranking has climbed at Fictionwise.

If you check out the "Best Sellers and Highest Rated" section there, you'll find that I'm currently holding the top two spots in the Highest Rated Under a Dollar category.

So, if you've been holding off downloading these stories, they're not going to get any better. :)

In the Number 1 spot, it's "Buffalo Dogs." It's been in the top ten continuously for over two years.

In the Number 2 spot, is "Bidding The Walrus," originally written for Low Port, a really excellent anthology edited by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller.

My thanks to any folks reading this who read and rated either (or both) of these stories in recent days. I guess you liked 'em, huh?

I just spent a few days in Spartanburg, South Carolina. I enjoyed seeing my sister and her family and their tastefully decorated house. And my nephew won his first varsity football game by a spectacular 47-10! Spartanburg is trying hard to capture some of the artsy image that nearby Asheville, N.C., enjoys; it now has a small but excellent art museum, a great Thai restaurant, and a really nice Marriott (disclaimer: my brother-in-law directs sales there).

Unfortunately, some things aren't so easy to change. The culture is still overwhelmingly Republican and dominated by the Religious Right. Racism and sexism are rampant. Nobody seems to have heard of the separation of church and state, or they think it doesn't apply as long as the religion in question is Christian. My nephew's public high school has Bible quotes on the walls, and the football team holds prayer breakfasts before games. Everyone seems to be a strong McCain supporter because, they say, he's a patriot and an all-around nice guy. They even want to continue this debacle of a war in Iraq and will call you unpatriotic if you suggest otherwise. They're convinced that we had good reason to invade, because after all, Saddam Hussein attacked us first, on 9/11. Ohmigosh. No reason to let a little thing like the facts get in the way of one's worldview.

The scary thing is that Spartanburg, S.C., is much more representative of the country than my own anti-war, bleeding-hearted, gun-hating, organic-eating, diversity-embracing, liberal-minded, intellectually snobbish Alexandria, Virginia. Here inside the Beltway we sometimes forget what's going on in the rest of the country. Yes, we're in a red state, too. But our city council came out with a resolution condemning the war. We have a local living-wage statute and a city ordinance barring descrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Kerry won by a landslide in my city, and by a freakishly high margin in my own precinct.

Even before I went to South Carolina, I was afraid Obama would lose this election. Now, I'm certain of it. I hope I'm wrong, but I'm feeling pessimistic and utterly depressed about his chances of beating McCain. If you're one of the many people who is still filled with unbridled optimism about Obama's chances, please try to change my mind! I could use some hope.

I've noticed some new names on the list of people subscribing to this blog. Some of you may be folks I recently met at Denvention, or found your way here by virtue of the generous plug over on Schlock Mercenary (thanks, Howard!), or you could be fellow authors from the Hadley Rille anthologies, or some combination of these, or none.

In any case, welcome all. Please use this post as an opportunity to leave a comment and introduce yourself. I'd love to know more about you and how you come to be here.

And for the rest of you, here's the question: I'm considering opening up a Café Press shop to start the wheels of merchandising turning. What sorts of Amazing Conroy and Buffalito products would you like to see/buy? T-shirts? Coffee mugs? Decorative tiles? Lunch boxes? C'mon, surely the world needs this stuff?

• 11:31 Wondering how a story can be at 5003 words and still...not...go...anywhere. #
• 11:55 Seriously, these painters will never be done. It'll be Christmas 2011 and ladders will be be clanking around outside. #
• 12:16 Wheeeeeeeeee, I sold a short-short story to Paul Jessup's HATTER BONES. Title is "Things Spoken in the Rain". #

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The internal website I need to do my job is down.

*sighs*
*drums fingers*

SO! What's new with you? How 'bout them Phillies, a half game out of first?

At least there are only 24 minutes left of my workweek. But I'm annoyed because, see, we got this new internal website because the other one was so breaky and this one is slower, less helpful and just as breaky. But hey-only 22 minutes now.

Poetry tomorrow. I have been a bad patron of the arts; haven't been for two weeks.

My journal posts have been BORING this weekend. I'm afraid this one is not going to break the trend. Sorry friends list.

...still getting an error message. But hey, only fifteen minutes left until
yabba dabba doo time. Off to find youtubes to post on madwitch's journal.

Despite the excesses of my trip to Denver (i.e., much fine dining with Valerie at amazing restaurants, followed by late night snacking at parties every night of the convention), and insufficient ability to get my daily exercise (staying up to the wee hours for those darn parties), I managed to not lose too much ground.

My plan upon returning PA was to acquire a membership at the nearby Greater Plymouth Meeting Community Center. The intention was to make use of their gym equipment, in particular the elliptical machines, but also ease into some weight training, as well as their swimming pools. And indeed, I went there the day after I came home, only to be told that in another week the facility was closing for their annual week long cleanup.

Well, it didn't make sense to start a new exercise regimen for a week, only to stop it for another week, and then go back. That's not the way to build new habits. So, I returned to walking around the neighborhood instead. Today is the first day of the cleanup, and on Saturday they'll be done and I can go in and begin the new regimen. Then we'll see how things go.

316 lbs - (06/03/08) Starting weight
297 lbs - (08/25/08) Today's weight
250 lbs - (07/27/09) Goal weight

I'm back. My mom and I arrived home in Northern Virginia this evening from our trip to Spartanburg, South Carolina. I'm too tired to write more tonight, though, so I'll pick it up tomorrow. Bear with me if it takes a few days for me to get through all my piled-up e-mails. I hope you all had a great weekend!

In mid-September, petrini1 and I will be traveling to Southeastern Idaho and would like to do some sightseeing while we're there.  We have a late afternoon to drive between Salt Lake City and Idaho Falls, and then we have an entire day to explore Idaho Falls and the surrounding area before our first conference meeting begins. My question to the LJ hive mind: what should we see?

What Devo is to consumer culture, Laibach is to identity politics. They've been making fun of nationalists and supremacists since the mid-'80's. They are based in Serbia. That they aren't dead says a lot about civilization.

This is their stageshow. In some parts of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New Jersey, making fun of nazis would get you a stomping. Imagine doing it for 20 years in Bosnia.

Here is their most famous hit, where they demand "friend dance with me" to the stormtrooper beat.

Okay, so I haven't seen that Two Girls One Cup thing and I have no plans to.
I do know what it is, however. I'm thinking that anything that might remind one of Two Girls One Cup may not be the best thing to name your cookbook. Two Dudes, One Pan? I was hoping it was an older book with an unfortunately reminiscent title, but no. It's coming out on Tuesday. Yes, I can see by the cover, with your tattoos and your tshirts that you are a coupla culinary bad boys. But really? A whole lot of people decided this was a good idea? At least pick a shocking internet meme that doesn't involve...ingesting stuff.

Audio clip from NPR's On The Media:

Who else thought, when you were a kid, that the person who came in second in a presidential election became vice-president?

Was it just me?

Personally, I like Lucy Van Pelt's feelings on the matter. She wanted to become president because from there it would be a short step to her true ambition. To be queen.

A guy created poster art for a theoretical Batman movie. This Harley's a little shabby, but menacing. Does it have Bunny's Seal of Approval?


Batman 3 Poster - Harley Quinn by ~joshwmc on deviantART



I don't know much about fashion, but I like Karl Langerfeld as a person. He never struck me as a guy who took himself very seriously.




And I'll be stopping by here tomorrow.
MonsterMania in Cherry Hill NJ.