Zer Netmouse

also going on this week: trash talk about one of the 1st daughters

2009-07-11T11:59:14Z

On Thursday the DailyKos pointed out that people were criticising Malia Obama for wearing t-shirts, especially one with a peace sign and talking trash about her in general. The freerepublic.com discussion thread has been pulled, but a number of the comments were captured on the DailyKos site.

I appreciate abydosangel's comments about this, and the connections she gives to other hateful things going on. I've been reading about this trash talk for a couple days and feeling really sad that there are so many cruel and stupid people in this country.

One cynical part of my brain looks at the picture of Malia in the peace T-shirt and wonders if part of this disgusting reaction isn't because she was walking next to a sexy (darker) black guy. "Of course she's a ghetto whore - look who she's hanging out with!" *shakes head*

She's a not-quite-11-year-old girl.

This country, man. It is *so* messed up.

Comparing her picture to one of the pictures linked to in comments of Sarah Palin and her daughter Willow made me laugh though. Such a stark contrast to the collected, tailored style and grace that Malia displays even in her shorts and t-shirt.

netmouse @ 2009-07-10T22:23:00

2009-07-11T02:33:03Z

I can no longer relate to how people eat as much in a regular meal as many people do. For dinner tonight I had a leg and a thigh and a wing from an adorably small roasted chicken plus a small pile of green beans and shitake mushrooms, served in a garlic miso sauce, and I'm still feeling overstuffed an hour later. It was the wing that did it, I bet. :P

My guitar is lying on my bed looking wounded. Not wounded in the "how could you do this to me" way, but literally wounded, since one of her strings has sprung. It's probably past time to put a whole set of new strings on her, which I would do if I had any idea how. I think I even have another set. Maybe there's a musical instrument store around here that could help me...

In the meantime, I find playing without the 5th string kind of fun. G and C are both much easier chords with only 2 strings held down. Tonight I reminded myself how to play folk underground's Tea and Corpses, which is a simple arrangement of G, C, and D. And also a fun song to sing. :)

(though it would be better in 3-part harmony)

And now I think I'll play Man in the Long Black Coat and go to bed.

This one is for Jessi

2009-07-10T19:30:30Z

netmouse @ 2009-07-10T14:38:00

2009-07-10T18:41:35Z

Re: the kids in Philly who were forced to leave a swim club in what appears to be a violation of section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act, if you'd like to condemn the Valley Swim Club's actions and encourage the Department of Justice to consider suing them for a violation of Federal law, go here to do so.

flowers inside! look, they match my new picture!

2009-07-10T12:25:28Z

flowers inside! look, they match my new picture!
Originally uploaded by netmouse.

I bought a painting at MidWestcon called something like Dragon Orchids. The other day I picked some flowers from my garden and rather liked how they went together...

The problem is still here.

2009-07-10T03:37:15Z

From yesterday's news: Summer camp kids get expelled from a private club their camp paid for membership in because club members and owners concerned minority kids will "change the complexion … and the atmosphere of the club."

"When the minority children got in the pool all of the Caucasian children immediately exited the pool," Horace Gibson, parent of a day camp child, wrote in an email. "The pool attendants came and told the black children that they did not allow minorities in the club and needed the children to leave immediately."

The next day the club told the camp director that the camp's membership was being suspended and their money would be refunded.

"I said, 'The parents don't want the refund. They want a place for their children to swim,'" camp director Aetha Wright said.

Go to the article and watch the video linked to on the left. Those kids are so articulate, and so bewildered at the same time, by comments made by club members.

Then consider watching this video here:

Happily another place stepped up and offered the campers a place to swim. The club is now claiming the reason was really that the pool couldn't accommodate so many children in addition to the private members. That's obviously not the whole story, and in any case that doesn't take away the experience of these kids hearing racist comments and being told they had to leave.

Another five words

2009-07-07T03:49:40Z

Two people gave me five words with the Five words meme. The other one was shsilver. Here are his words and what they mean to me:

1) Neil Gaiman
2) Apples to Apples
3) Midfanzine
4) Dayton
5) Ann Arbor

Neil Gaiman is a friend of mine. I first met him at Torcon when Cheryl Morgan (who knew him) and I borrowed his Hugo to pose with as we imagined winning one for Emerald City (which in fact we did, later, but that's another story). But I didn't really speak to him at the time, so I really truly met Neil as his Guest of Honor liaison at Penguicon 2.0. I was not previous to that a big fan of Neil's, and I'm not exactly a rabid fan of his work now - though I find much of it delightful, other of it is not to my taste or goes over my head much in the manner of the writing of Gene Wolfe, of whom Neil is, in turn, a big fan.

I had heard of The Sandman comics but hadn't read them until my honeymoon in 2001, when Laura Hewitt sent them with us to Cozumel and they became a critical factor in the lying-around-recovering-from-the-sunburn-we-got-while-snorkeling phase of the week. Previous to that, I'd read Good Omens when the wolfpack loaned it around enthusiastically, which I think was shortly after it came out. But when I became Neil's liaison, like a good liaison, I went to read his work. Turned out there was too much of it to read between then and that Penguicon, but it also turned out Neil was a delight, and we got along really well, so by happenstance and inclination I helped him out at three more events that year, (and at the Nebulas the next spring thanks to shsilver himself, actually). I have kept picking up his books and stories, many of which I have read before they were published, because sometimes he honors me with beta reader duty, or asks me to favor him with a quick proof of something, so in this way and also through working for Subterranean Press I have beta read, copyedited or proofed drafts or editions of Sunbird, Anansi Boys, How to Talk to Girls at Parties, The newspaper/poster version of A Study in Emerald, some of Fragile Things (that was during Balticon; Neil almost never stops working on his writing, even during a con), Odd and The Frost Giants, Coraline, The Graveyard Book, and his story in Songs of the Dying Earth, plus little things like the Halloween piece he published a couple years ago and showed a few of us the weekend of Mike Ford's funeral, which was just before it went to press.

In the meantime, Neil and I have become friends, and I have also gotten a little slice of fame through an essay I wrote that first year, called Notes on Neil-Handling. It has been convenient for Neil to refer other conrunners to that essay, and he has delightedly related to me how people in distant countries I've never been to say things like, "We're not sure we have exactly followed the instructions of Anne Murphy, but we have tried." Sometimes I meet people and find out they are fans of Neil, and mention the essay, and find out they have read it already. I also had fun and privilege of introducing him at the banquet at Mythcon.

As a friend and assistant to Neil, I am sometimes privy to information about his private life that is not public, but I don't share it with other people any more than he does, so if you are looking for gossip I will likely disappoint you. But I have very much enjoyed meeting all of the people I have been lucky to meet through my association with him, including of course his other assistants, the Fabulous Lorraine and Cat Mihos -- they are both of them fabulous in truth. It will be good to see him at the upcoming Worldcon, Anticipation, where he is a Guest of Honor and I am his liaison to the con. It will also be a lot of work - Neil is currently a rock star in fandom, so assisting him involves crowd management, phrases like "and we're moving," press conferences, skill at procuring dinner reservations for suddenly larger groups of people or acquiring clothing accessories like cuff links and bow ties on short notice, and etc. But it's good work, and rewarding work, and I'm happy to do it. Because he's also a very nice person who works very, very hard, and he's also, well, Neil. Whose smile when he shares something that truly tickles him still manages to be shy, after all these years of all of us loving him.
Apples to Apples

Nothing compares to my first game of Apples to Apples, which was also the first time I met shsilver, and though we did not know each other found we were sufficiently on the same wavelength that I took every one of Steven's adjective cards, to the point where he drew one and turned to me to ask, "should I just give it to you now?"

In some ways it is sad how few times since then Steven and I have met in person, but since he was and is happily married to a very nice person, I had to conclude a long time ago that that legendary Apples to Apples game was not in fact the Universe saying we were fated to be together romantically. Then again we have collaborated on a number of endeavors, and I dare say we shall again, so fate has at least thrown us together in the same bag. (of apples...? And made pie? Keith, I'm blaming you for this turn of mind.)

Other memorable games include playing Apples to Apples with Carl Sagan's niece over at Mary's apartment and learning how much it bugged her when people misquoted her uncle as saying "billions and billions..."

I believe the game is best played in smaller groups of people. Say, fewer than 8. Which is probably part of why my crate version of the game has gotten very little use.
Midfanzine was and perhaps is the fanzine produced by Midwest Conventions, Inc, or MidFan. The group and the fanzine are about smoffing in the midwest, as was MidWest Construction, the con where I met Steven and Apples to Apples. I edited three editions of MidFanzine, which I will get up on eFanzines any year now. One includes an essay by Steven on "Fannish Apples to Apples" and some awesome illustrations of that by Kurt Erichsen. I'm trying to revive the group; we have a discussion list. Check it out.

Through MidFanzine I had fun publishing artwork and articles and also one of my favorite poems by Laura Hewitt:

Recurrance

You know that dream?

You know, the science-fiction one. Where you have been given a bi-cornate uterus, and your ovaries stuffed with millions of redundant-data engineered unicellular genotypes, and eventually you will allow yourself to give birth, every month, to the hermaphroditic parents of two more species to colonize a terraformed planet, becoming the Supreme Justice of Clarke's law, a living ark of a new covenant, the Isis throne to the Osiris cycles of a new earth, Moses' cradle among the bulrushes? Where every cell your skin sheds will grow to be a new plant, a colony of microorganisms? You should be a little grossed out, but it all feels perfectly natural — perfectly wonderful, perfectly blissful. And you smile benignly, fat with life, floating among millions of spilled-salt, throbbing stars, and press your forehead against the viewport, reaching tender fingertips to that blue-white saltwater opal that calls you to your mutual destiny? And you know that, whenever you have that other dream from now on, that other dream where you haven't really graduated and can't find the final exam for the course you'd never been to even once that semester, you'll smile serenely at the principal and say, "I'm sorry I didn't learn what I came here to learn, but it's not what I need to know. Excuse me, I have a world to populate." And you look...

You know that dream?

The dream of anticipating cats?

How do you have it again?

How do you have it again?
Dayton

I haven't seen much of Dayton yet. I live half an hour away, in Yellow Springs. I've been downtown in Dayton four times for a) dinner in the Oregon District, b) dinner and a drag show, c) the gay pride parade, and d) dinner in the Oregon District (same place as a. The oregon district is not actually that big).

There are good people in the area, though, and an amazing network of Rails to Trails biking trails. Soon I intend to check out the museums and the art institute.
Ann Arbor

I can speak at great length about how Ann Arbor is no longer the hippie down-to-earth small town with all the resources of a big city where I was privileged to be born and grow up attending alternative, student-centered schools and thus become one of that rare breed of person who can say "I liked high school" without having her nose grow metaphorically longer. It is yippified so that art galleries are more common than art and dance studios, the music scene is not what it was and Zingerman's is not what it was and Drakes Candy shop and restaurant is gone and downtown is gutted of many of the wonderful things like, well, drugstores and camera stores and department stores and a downtown McDonalds with stained glass windows and the Pan Tree restaurant (and then Denny's downtown, briefly) and Fantasy Attic Costumes and Ryder's Hobby Shop, and Borders died and came back in Zombie form (shudder) and Kerrytown is Upscale and no longer a place to make your own candles on the lower level, but Dawn Treader books still exists (now above ground!) as does the Michigan Theater and the Hands-on Museum and many things but not the Graceful Arches stage at the Art Fair nor Discount records, nor our once-proud record of having the most used book stores per capita of any town in the US.

For the last 7 years of living there I drove around with my head half in a ghost shell of the city that was no longer there, and it hurt.

So it was time to leave.

But it's still a nice place to visit.

On the Best Graphic Story Hugos

2009-07-01T11:52:44Z

I hope that people voting for Best Graphic Story will keep in mind the point of the category - the books should be evaluated not just on the script or whether or not they look pretty, but also on how well the graphic storytelling is done.

Personally, I have the same problem with this category as I do with "best dramatic presentation: short form". I kind of think series should be considered as a whole, with the entire story arc, rather than as individual volumes or episodes, though how well they stand on their own varies and some series are really really long. Hrm. which means they would cross years. That doesn't work either.

frustrating.

Anyway, if anyone cares, my votes for best Graphic Story will likely go as follows:

1. Y: The Last Man, Volume 10 -awesome, and bonus! female artist (Pia Guerra)
2. Girl Genius, Volume 8: Agatha Heterodyne and the Chapel of Bones
3. Fables: War and Pieces
4. Dresden Files: Welcome to the Jungle
5. Serenity: Better Days
6. Schlock Mercenary: The Body Politic

I fear that Serenity: Better Days might win for the nostalgia factor or Dresden Files for the name recognition and the fact that the script is decent even though the graphic story craft is weak in both though worse in Serenity than Dresden Files.

short dramatic presentations

2009-07-01T01:32:07Z

Does anyone have any comments on any of these Hugo nominees? I don't watch these shows:

“The Constant” ( Lost) Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindelof, writers; Jack Bender, director (Bad Robot, ABC studios)

“Revelations” ( Battlestar Galactica) Bradley Thompson & David Weddle, writers; Michael Rymer, director (NBC Universal)

“Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead” ( Doctor Who) Steven Moffat, writer; Euros Lyn, director (BBC Wales)

“Turn Left” ( Doctor Who) Russell T. Davies, writer; Graeme Harper, director (BBC Wales)

If you know where I can find the episodes, let me know. I will decide whether or not to vote on this category based on people's comments and hopefully on seeing them.

Five Words

2009-06-30T13:07:23Z

Variant from atdt1991:

Reply with 5 words that remind you of me. I will reply with A) my thoughts on what those 5 words mean to me and B) 5 words for you.

You can then either reply in my journal with what those words mean to you, OR you can post them in your own journal and perpetuate the wordity.

My first set of words came from atdt1991

1. Dance
2. Collaborate
3. Orange
4. Performance
5. Laughter

Dance

If I were to dance for you, as hard as that would be to do, would you watch?

That was written on the bathroom wall at Grinnell, and it struck a chord for me, but I don't think it means to me something that's obvious in the words. Is dancing hard for me? No. Dancing is like breathing, like singing with your body. I have danced since I was little, danced down the street despite my sister digging me in the ribs with her elbow, danced with my family every holiday and with friends in childhood summer solstice parties, barefoot in the grass, barefoot on the beach, and also in the studio and on stage. I love to dance.

Dancing around other people, however, is hard for me now. When I read "would you watch?" I think, "would you see ME?" Not would you enjoy some sexy object dancing in front of you, but would you see me and feel my joy and see what I'm doing there when I try that trick and manage to look like I'm flying instead of falling, because flying is where you fall and miss the ground. I love to dance with other dancers, to play off of each other's themes, and fool around. I used to be married to someone who rarely danced, who didn't understand me and dancing. Dancing around those who do not dance makes me feel awkward and self-conscious. People are jealous, or lewd, and just generally don't understand. Sometimes, I dance, and people catch the joy and share a smile with me, and that's wonderful. Sometimes I dance and pretend no one is around me at all, so I can get into the music and the movement. Mostly, I dance by myself, where you cannot see me.

But I'm working on that.
Collaborate

At its best, dancing is collaborative play and performance. I enjoy both of those things. I think participatory fun is the best kind. I like to cook together, paint together, and do all kinds of projects together, including running science fiction conventions. Things that cannot be done by a single person, but involve the interest, ideas, energy and talents of many, are some of the most challenging and rewarding things you can do.

I like to collaborate on not-so-pleasant chores, too. This topic reminds me of Free To Be You and Me, and the poem Housework, which ends,

If you want all the days of your lives
To seem sunny as summer weather,
Make sure, when there's housework to do,
That you do it together!

But generally, if I invite you to do a project with me, it's not because I think it's a chore and I want others to bear the burden. It's because I think it would be fun to do together. If it's not your thing, just say no. But don't get the impression that I'm just inviting you over because of what you can do for me. That sort of invitation is about what we could do, together. Which ought to be fun, or you're doing it wrong.
Orange

Orange you glad I didn't say banana?
Performance

I have been performing on stage from time to time since I was 6. Second grade. I played Mr. Sylvester McMonkey McBean in the play The Sneetches. I did not have the most lines. My friend Frannie, the narrator, had the most lines, but I got to ride my tricycle on stage and wear a red hat! I was hooked.

I like performing on stage. It's a place where you put your all into what you do for a defined period and the metrics of how you did are very very clear, and when the performance is over you're done. The ultimate deadline-driven work, which is the format I work best under.

Every performance is different, and it's not just about being the shiny star solo. I have been a member of a greek chorus (the trick is to listen to each other breathe and inhale to speak at the same time). I have sung in the wonderful Singers choir in Grinnell. I never soloed in the choir, but I loved being part of the choir. The orchestral power of Carmina Burana. The a cappella beauty of the All Night Vigil by Rachmaninoff. I would love to perform singing jazz and blues, but I've never had the opportunity, except in high school.
Laughter

Laughter is The Best Medicine.

Remember when Reader's Digest was worth reading? Well, for the jokes at least. Laughter is a really important part of life. When you choose a partner, choose one that you can make laugh. Turns out I didn't, in my first marriage, and that took away a number of the coping mechanisms I'd grown up with. My parents made me laugh 5 minutes after my first serious boyfriend broke up with me. It isn't about forgetting. It's about accepting. Letting go so you can hold on and move forward. Sometimes it's laughing so you won't cry (though laughing through your tears works too), but sometimes it's just laughing.

I *love* friends I can get the giggles with. I'm going to see one of them in a couple days -yay!- and I hope to have friends like that all my life. I feel lucky to have a family that laughs together. It helps us deal with all the ways we make each other crazy, but it's also just something we share, how we appreciate life and the world. I want to be like that. I choose to be like that. I love to laugh. Loud and high and clear!

(And if you know that song, now you have it going through your head. Ha! Aren't musicals wonderful?)

zer_netmouse tweets of the day

2009-06-29T22:02:14Z

11:51 @AletheaKontis congrats! the awesome women continue to take over @SFWA! er, I mean join. that's right. :) (*innocent look*) #
11:53 RT @mitten Ingite Ann Arbor tomorrow night: igniteannarbor.eventbrite.com/ #

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Fund for the Benefit of Officer John's family

2009-06-29T00:41:46Z

On June 10th , Officer Stephen Tyrone Johns was slain in the line of duty, guarding the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. He had served as a Special Police Officer at the museum for six years.

The Museum has established a special fund for the benefit of Officer Johns' family; please spread the word to your communities. Gifts can be made by calling the museum toll-free at 1-877-918-7466 from 8 am to 8 pm Eastern time, through the web site, www.ushmm.org, or by check, payable to "USHMM Officer Johns Family Fund", sent to: USHMM, 100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW, Washington DC 20024. All proceeds from the fund will go directly to the family and are not tax deductible.

Please consider extending your expressions of support and condolence to the family of this brave and dedicated man.

netmouse @ 2009-06-26T07:40:00

2009-06-26T11:46:26Z

The Livejournal User Advisory Board election closes at 4:30 p.m. PDT on Friday June 26, 2009 (today).

Please vote for vichan, kylecassidy, and webqatch in whatever order makes the most sense to you (if someone doesn't take at least 50% of the votes, there will be a runoff). Kyle has the huge advantage of an endorsement by Neil Gaiman, but he and vichan agree on the topic that is most important to me, which is backups, and I liked some other things vichan said about community and listening to the users. Provided the two other candidates do not win, I'm happy, I guess. I hadn't thought about this tremendously much.

zer_netmouse tweets of the day

2009-06-24T22:02:57Z

06:46 pretty much sick of this sore throat, and the coughing up of phlegm morning ritual. #

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zer_netmouse tweets of the day

2009-06-23T22:02:49Z

09:33 @AletheaKontis can't eat pears! How sad. reminds me of how I couldn't eat cheesecake after smofcon in florida: cheesecake overload. #
09:35 @JaeGamer make sure to check out Jeni's Ice Creams while in Columbus. The lemon with blueberry sauce is really good! #

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zer_netmouse tweets of the day

2009-06-22T22:02:52Z

10:12 is eating a banana. Thrilling, I know. #
12:34 New discussion group for MidFan (Midwest conrunning): bit.ly/18KghX #
13:43 I miss you, Banana. #
15:20 @Sorcycat :P with a flourish. I miss the banana I ate this morning, not a euphemistic banana. C.f. Grr: I miss you, cupcake. #
16:24 Never mind, I have a pear now. #
16:50 The banana is forgotten, in favor of the pear. #

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Monkey Rampant seeking extras for short movie filming Sunday, June 28

2009-06-22T14:01:48Z

head Monkey Ken wrote yesterday (Sunday):

Hey folks. Just wanted to remind everyone that we're shooting the short movie, "Love Song Straight from the Heart" next Sunday. I have about fifteen confirmed extras, and a number of "probably"s, but I need between 50 and 100 people to make it work well, so if you are at least 21 and interested in being in a movie, please be at Club Divine on N. Washington in Ypsi at 10:30 am one week from today. This is not a paying gig, but you will receive screen credit, and when Monkey Rampant and Lion Belly are doing feature films and skyrocketing into stardom, you can say, "hey...I did a movie with those guys!"

Besides, it'll be fun. There will probably also be some downtime, so bring a book or something.

That's the town of Ypsilanti, MI, for those of you who are not local and are wondering what an "Ypsi" is...

zer_netmouse tweets of the day

2009-06-21T22:02:20Z

09:41 My dad is so fabulous, he got up this morning, made himself breakfast, and did the dinner dishes while I slept in! #

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zer_netmouse tweets of the day

2009-06-20T22:02:36Z

20:38 Show support for democracy in Iran add green overlay to your Twitter avatar with 1-click - helpiranelection.com/ #
23:29 Looking like the best route to worldcon will require staying overnight in NYC. airlines are weird. A night in NYC, I can handle. #
00:24 @nalohopkinson beddy-bye for me too. Oh wait, I have to drive home from work first. Why don't we have transporters *yet*?! Night. #
12:21 Have discovered leaving a snack bar next to the bed at night is a good way to facilitate sleeping in. #
14:02 Have friends and family who smoke? Check out the alternative: www.njoycigarettes.com/ #
15:34 I just did my full physical therapy for my shoulder for the first time in way too long. Had to lower some weights but I did it. #

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netmouse @ 2009-06-20T15:42:00

2009-06-20T19:43:42Z

Oktapodi from Asım Varol on Vimeo.

via coffeeem :)

zer_netmouse tweets of the day

2009-06-19T22:02:28Z

13:33 Full episodes of classic Trek are available for free on bit.ly/YcBov #

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zer_netmouse tweets of the day

2009-06-18T22:02:51Z

13:22 Ginjer Buchanan is right - she has edited bazillions of books. #
13:28 @fabulouslorraine "Homecoming" should be in _From the Dust Returned_ (orig in the New Yorker Halloween issue for 1946) #
13:30 stayed up late last night filling out details on Ginjer's wiki page, bit.ly/ido0U #
13:38 @fabulouslorrain also in The Stories of Ray Bradbury #
13:42 @fabulouslorrain "Homecoming" should be in _From the Dust Returned_ (orig in the New Yorker Halloween issue for 1946) #
15:02 @mactavish I studied Spanish in school & college & went to Spain once. Just try to keep my hand in. So to speak. #
15:05 @Jodyth no kidding. I was looking up Charlaine Harris last night while people on LJ were babbling about True Blood - Ginjer's her editor. #
15:09 Plus of course Charlie Stross, Jack McDevitt, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Sharon Shinn. @Jodyth which ones stood out to you? #
15:10 @chr0me oo, nice green icon in support of #iranelection . Good idea. #
17:18 @Vaguery I think if you're local you should go see Manolete play at Top of the Park at 7 pm tonight... ... I wish I was local. #

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zer_netmouse tweets of the day

2009-06-17T22:02:52Z

10:29 "Positive thinking" statements could do more harm than good if they conflict with self-image: tinyurl.com/lv64qz #

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barefoot again

2009-06-17T04:06:08Z

This evening after joining other women in World Dance at the gym, I left my shoes off to spare them from the light, irregular rain, and walked home barefoot.

I had danced barefoot indoors. Now I wandered barefoot out of doors. I did not go straight home. There was the later half of a summer evening still waiting to be tasted, like dessert.

On the way to the gym I had noted, in fact, a mulberry tree with ripe berries on it. I went to it, feeling the mulberries in the grass squish and stain the bottoms of my toes, and pulled down the branches to pick the lovely dark ripe berries hanging higher than the average kid can reach. I ate a few and then noticed the voices of an approaching trio - a man, a woman, and a younger woman. Possibly a family. I picked a handful of mulberries to offer them as they passed. It was a good decision. "What kind of tree is this?" they asked me, and, "Are the berries edible?"

I handed them each a mulberry and explained how they are tart when they are not yet ripe, and ripe when they pull easily from the tree. "Delicious!" they declared. They were from Alaska, they said, where they don't have trees that grow berries you can eat. I watched them walk away, murmuring about returning later for more, then I myself headed on, content (after just a few more berries, of course).

In the elementary school playground, another trio of people was perched on top of one of the large cement tubes. We had things like that in the playgrounds I grew up with, I mused as I crossed the park-like school yard and found my way to the swings. The black swings were wet with rain, but they can be flipped over to get a dry place to sit. The clouds were clearing and the sky was light with the remnants of evening as I pumped my way up into the lower levels of the trees. Across from me was a smaller version of the old-fashioned curved half-dome metal jungle gym they had at Bach school when I went there. Except the one at Bach was all different colors. There are no playgrounds like this in Ann Arbor anymore, I don't think. The cement tubes and metal bars have been cleared away in favor of wood and plastic. It's nice to go back in time every so often.

Eventually I drifted to slow, leaning my shoulders against the chains and letting my arms dangle, shifting my weight to balance on the swing without holding on. I pattered my feet on the ground to slow myself further, then jumped off on the next forward sway and took a few quick steps to use up the last of my momentum. As I expected, my feet complained about taking my weight on the rough ground. They preferred flying through the air.

I didn't mind the complaints. I remember what I went through as a child to develop decent callouses on my feet, and I'd like some semblance of them back. Experiencing pain is really the only way to get tougher, I thought, continuing the diagonal path that led to the street where I live, turning onto my sidewalk, and eventually climbing the old wooden porch of the house that I rent.

I have the privilege to choose whether or not to be uncomfortable, in order to change how I can go out in the world and experience it.

I am really very lucky.

(If you don't know why this text is green, you haven't been reading your daily dish. I support the people of Iran in their efforts to choose their own future.)

RIP Officer Stephen T. Johns

2009-06-11T14:06:16Z

A hardcore anti-semitic gunman entered The U.S. Holocaust Museum yesterday with a long rifle and opened fire, fatally wounding a security officer before he himself was gunned down. The gunman is in critical condition. Neighbors noted that the gunman did not believe the holocaust ever happened. He had written an anti-Semitic treatise, "Kill the Best Gentiles," in which he decried "the browning of America" and claimed to expose a Jewish conspiracy "to destroy the White gene-pool." He had been imprisoned in the 80s for previous violent intentions, and has been tracked by the Southern Poverty Law Center since the 1970s as someone with "an extremely long history with neo-Nazis and white supremacists," according to Heidi Beirich, the SPRC's research director.

The security guard, Stephen T. Johns, had worked at the museum for 6 years. He was black. As museum director Sara Bloomfield said, he "died heroically in the line of duty." My heart goes out to his family.

I am a founding member of The U.S. Holocaust Museum. An incident like this only strengthens my conviction that people must remember the Holocaust. People who deny that it happened are not just a little nutty. They are the type of people who are violently opposed to the human rights and freedom of all people, especially the 83% of the people on this planet who are not white. They would deny the humanity of non-whites. I would deny them their denial.

If you can, please support the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups and crimes across the country and promotes tolerance education. And please support the U.S. Holocaust Museum, which has traveling exhibits as well as a very powerful collection of photos, journals, film, and memorabilia. The fight against genocide is on-going, and this is represented there, as well as the fact that the holocaust targeted gypsies, gays, and the disabled in addition to jews.

President Obama said it well:

"This outrageous act reminds us that we must remain vigilant against anti-Semitism and prejudice in all its forms. No American institution is more important to this effort than the Holocaust Museum, and no act of violence will diminish our determination to honor those who were lost by building a more peaceful and tolerant world."

And FWIW I fully support "the browning of America." And I'm not Jewish at all.