(no subject)

( Русский язык )

Damn, I slept later than I meant to. I know I set the alarm. Weird.

So, I'm walking in the English northern countryside with some people. Someone is... I don't know who he is, he's tall and kind of lean and light brown/dark blond haired and he's played by some actor who kind of wants to be the bastard child of Cillian Murphy and Garrett Hedlund (go on, picture it all you Tron: Legacy fans) and we're talking about the people with us. One of the people with us is Nope. Another is the bastard child of Jason Statham and Ron Perlman, so, clearly, we're in a cheap action movie. Probably with lots of monster effects. We're here to pick up a guy.

The guy turns out to be Christian Bale.

Suddenly I'm a very happy dreamer.

We're also there to do something for The Military. Whose military? I don't know, it looks like the end scene of 28 Days Later. With a chickenwire fence we're walking alongside. I'm talking with Cillian Hedlund about cute guys, I don't know if he's putting up with me or joining in. We're walking, we go through this residential stock shot of a San Francisco neighborhood but we're still in England, I don't know why. Bale gets us all into this fairly large clearly jury rigged industrial equipment type contraption, with huge tires and armor. I organize us before we get in so we can all get in efficiently because there are Bad Things on the way. Of course there are. The only line from this I remember is someone, possibly Bale or Jason Perlman, saying something about these guys shoot, these guys lookout, and "Girlfriends stay quiet." I look at the only other woman in this scene and we both shrug and I say "No girlfriends here." Because a) it's true and b) we can hold our own weight, fuck you very much.

So we start down the hill/countryside/I don't even know anymore, and we're jolting and riding along, and then someone says "Here they come." And I don't see anything at first, but then we're riding down into an army enclave, fortified, and the requisite horde of zombie/shambling evil masses comes shambling down. They're not quite as fast as 28 Days Later/Resident Evil: endofworldnounhere, but close. Faster than shamblers, anyway. We start firing. We take out some soldiers, too, I think Bale did it because he looks very Bruce Wayne but acts very Reign of Fire. We all get into the enclave, and seal the doors shut behind us.

And now it all becomes apparent what this is about because Bale is opening up some kind of serum container and tossing it to me to toss to the authorities while he organizes our defenses. It's a yellow liquid in a Hollywood "safe storage this is toxic/important/dangerous/radioactive" container. It's also kind of glowing. Clearly this is a Paul Verhoeven or someone or other movie. If it were Michael Bay, shit would have blown up already. I pass it along, and the shamblers are at our door, and there's chaos and for some reason instead of being dressed how I was now I'm dressed for post-apocalyptic success, in a rough cotton shirt and cargo pants and some kind of hand-woven big brown poncho thing that's probably only brown because it's covered in post-apocalypse dust. And I go to the back door which is now crawling in shamblers, I don't know why or what happened to our defenses, and they stop. They just stop.

And, and this is the weird part. Behind me, Bale and a bunch of other humans (including, I think, Ron Statham, I don't know where Garrett Murphy went to) are watching me wondering why the hell they stopped when they saw me and if there's a way they can get out of this without being either infected or lunch. And now I know, I didn't learn I just sort of know now, that they picked me up in some sort of between-zone, between our territory and theirs. My mind makes this distinction, but still.

Oh, and the shamblers have turned to roughly human shaped people in fluffy neon-colored stuffed-toy puppetish dog suit things. I shit you not. The one I'm talking to is neon pink. As stuffed toy dogs sometimes are.

And they're all crowding together and asking if the [unintelligible word meaning human] people are going to kill them all, and I say I don't think so, they just want to be left alone, and then they ask me what kinds of weapons they have, and a few more questions besides, and over the course of this conversation it becomes clear that if the human side of this doesn't have enough weapons of mass zombie annihilation they're going to get these weapons taken away from them and then... dominated? Probably killed. And I don't know how I feel about this because I was only half-heartedly trying to convince the Puppy People not to, while Bale is standing behind me looking, oh! Terminator: Salvation, that's what he looked and acted like. And I'm standing there in the finest in post-apocalypse chic negotiating for humanity's right to survive and not be bitten by a stuffed toy.

Hey, Supernatural writers. I found your next episode script. Want it back?

(no subject)

Okay. Wow. I wasn't going to do one of these for a while, give myself and you all a break, but then I saw a headline that pissed me off. And heard a few more things that are going to go up later. This isn't reality anymore, it's a farce.

Usual stuff: Wisconsin matters are here as usual or here on DW, please reblog and repost this anywhere you like, previous entries are here on LJ or here on DW. I'm going to try and find the text of the bills in question in a couple days, when amendments have settled down, but bill texts should (may?) still be up on the preceding two posts. Since it's early in the day in Eastern Standard time, there haven't been a lot of developments, so we'll see what happens as the day goes on.


Ohio
* Cleveland.com reports that the Ohio Senate Republicans removed a committee member and replaced him in order to ensure their bill passed.
* Then, this local news station reported that the bill indeed passed. 7-5, all four Democrats and one Republican voting against. The bill is summarized in this article thus: "It would ban public worker strikes and establish penalties for those who participate in walkouts. It would let unionized workers negotiate wages, hours and safety conditions but not benefits."
* The Dayton Daily News provides a cluster of articles, including a more comprehensive look at yesterday's protest involving 8,500 people and Catholic bishops speaking out against taking away collective bargaining rights.
* NPR reports this afternoon that the bill passed by a narrow margin, with six Republicans and the Democrats against. It now goes to the House.

Indiana
* The Indy Channel and the Post Tribune both report that the Democratic Leader in Indiana returned to speak with the Republican House Speaker. The Indy Channel reports the five bills still in major contention as "HB1216, HB1203, HB1538, HB1003 and HB1479."
* Tangential, the Indiana News Center reports that the New Haven Chamber of Commerce (NE Indiana, apparently) met with lawmakers yesterday to discuss bills they favor. Unions were indeed mentioned.

New Jersey
* NJ.com/Statehouse Bureau reports that a schedule for Gov. Christie's budget proposal has been released. It will take place over three days, over the rest of March.
* The same source also reports that Christie claims to be behind collective bargaining. A quote from Gov. Christie: "While I was governor I've said the opposite: lets get rid of civil service and let everything be collectively bargained." There are also two links at the bottom which I will reproduce here.
* A blog entry discussing labor, Wisconsin, and New Jersey
* And an article from Feb 18 saying that Christie supports Walker's decision and strong budget measures. I post this here mostly for comparison, as between Feb 18 and today, March 2, there has been a significant shift in mood.

Tennessee
* The Tennessean reports that a bill reforming the teacher tenure process has passed committee and heads towards a Senate vote. Towards the end of the article it also reports that this was with the advocacy of the Professional Educators of Tennessee group, which claims that restrictions from another group, the Tennessee Education Association, have impeded their ability to organize. The TEA has their doubts about this bill but no major objections are described in the article.
* News Channel 15 concurs. The reservation seems to be that the teacher ranking system has not been put into effect and therefore its efficiency is untested.
* The Tennessean also reports on that anti-Shariah law bill, and the State Senator who introduced the bill says that it exempts the peaceful practice of Islam. The bill also claims that Shariah law requires its followers to overthrow US national and state governments. A constitutional law scholar at a local university summarizes the problems with the bill.
* This blog entry on the Knoxville News also popped up and struck me as interesting, describing a potential for government interference, subsidizing and/or tax-exempting certain newspapers, with the government deciding what the definition of a newspaper is. I might have to look into this more.

Iowa
* The DesMoines Register says that Iowa Republicans are accusing Iowa Democrats of inciting a Wisconsin like atmosphere.
* The Iowa House Democrats Page lists a public hearing scheduled for March 7th.
* A local news station reports that Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad says he will not try to end the collective bargaining rights of state employee unions. He does want reductions and is seeking changes in contracts themselves, and states that he wants to remove insurance from bargaining, but not the bargaining rights themselves.
* The Chicago Tribune has a little more and goes into Branstad's history with unions. It also seems to be an AP sourced story.
* The DesMoines register reports public employee union members are incensed about a plan to outsource school jobs.

More as it develops.

(no subject)

I am so. So. So damn tired of fucking politics. And politicians. Who think that the best way to do things is a way that's been tried and tried and proven only to enrich those already in power and rich. And who continue to try either because they're greedy fucking bastards who can't stand to see anyone succeed but themselves or because they're incompetent morons who only got into power by the grace of good looks and a good smile and some clever sex act metaphor here I'm too tired to make. I am tired. I want it all to stop.

Unfortunately the universe isn't in the habit of giving me what I want or I'd have a Friesian Ster mare on the farm, and possibly a pretty pretty Friesian gelding to ride. Plus a six book contract. And maybe a German Shepherd. So I'll have to settle for putting it on pause for the next few hours and doing German and shipping and such.

( Deutsch )

And that's probably enough of that. Holy crap. I can't believe I got all of that done today. And am going to get more stuff done tonight, like Japanese and guitar and writing. Sometimes my mind boggles. And I can't think about all the stuff I've done or will do because I'll start wondering how the hell I'm going to do it all and then I really will fall over.

Thanks, you guys, by the way, for putting up with my link roundups. I have no idea how much it helps anything but my peace of mind, but thanks.

Oof. So, heh, I went to bed early last night, had the weirdest dream I've had in a long time which you can read a couple entries back, and then woke up about half an hour to forty minutes late. Oops. And I'm still tired. I'm pretty sure this is a sign from the universe that I need to take a step back and chill the fuck out, but I'm not sure when to do that. Or how. I could drop Russian for a few days and sleep in, I could drop Japanese for a few days and go to bed early but I already did both of those. I could drop my writing deadlines but, um, no. I could drop my link roundups but that would set off so many things in my head. Maybe take, um. Friday. Off. Or something. I don't know, I'll figure it out. In the meantime, I have shit to do.

(no subject)

( 日本語 )

I think. Mazbe.

Dammit, keyboard, stop dicking around with my languages when I'm not paying attention.

I had shit to say here, but I forgot. Which probably goes to show how tired I am. I'm watching Walker's siege mentality from outside Wisconsin and all I can think is Dude. This is not your own little fiefdom. This is the United States of America and we are not bankrolling your dictatorship. Fuck off. I mean, the Koch brothers are bankrolling his dictatorship, but they seem to be doing a crap job of it so far.

Somehow, I'm managing to get shit done despite being fucking exhausted. More emotionally than physically, but still. I have no idea how I'm managing to get shit done or even comprehend speech at this point. Pure luck? I mean, just today I canceled a subscription (long story) that took me no-ing three upsells to do, practiced three languages, guitar, did 8 hours worth of a day job, did some player wrangling, a link roundup, exercise... and I still have writing/editing and spinning to do. I'm sure I'm missing something in there that I did, too. I have no idea how I'm accomplishing all this when I feel this tired. Maybe this is the new normal? I know why I feel tired, too. It's an illusory tired. Sort of. It's the tired of being at a level of political rage I haven't been in years, not this consistently. It's exhausting.

I will say, though, that at least I have the ability to do this. To do link roundups and post them on the internet, to advocate and research and read the bills that are being enacted in state governments and come to conclusions, make decisions. What Walker's doing right now makes me very uneasy mostly because he's acting more and more like he's a dictator under siege (Hi Gaddafi) and when they tend to do that, they tend to eventually explode and take as many people with them as they can. Often, anyway. And I'm glad that as far as I know, this isn't a country where he can take over the military, all the police, etc, and do that.

Right. And in the meantime, I have guitar and shit to do, so I'm going to go do that. Catch you all on the flip side. Link roundup (DW | LJ) will be updated one more time before bed, I just don't have the energy to do it right now.