Thursday, December 28, 2006

Today's Moment of Zen

Friday, December 22, 2006

New Potter Title Released

The lovely and talented JKR has finally released the title of the seventh and final installment of the Harry Potter series. She did so first on her website (with a fun puzzle to figure out first, of course, LOVE HER) and the next day Scholastic issued a press release with the news.

The last book is officially titled:

Harry Potter and His Piercing Green Eyes that Look Directly Into Your Soul


...OH!!
AHEM!!
*Cough Cough*

Excuse me.

I mean it is called:

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

I CAN'T WAIT!! ~giddy with anticipation~

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Saturday, December 16, 2006

Another Day, Another... Hey Wait, I Don't Get Paid for This!

Saturday morning...

The kitty pulls an entire branch off the Christmas tree and chases the pretty glass ball across the room

Puppy whines to go outside

the strains of Disney lyrics waft across the surround sound speakers

"Life is much better, down where it's wetter..."

I cut my foot on an identified piece of toy as I try to navigate across the living room

The three year old is openly weeping about having to eat all the cereal he poured in his bowl

I think I hear a draft sneaking in and after checking and rechecking the windows three times, realize the five year old is singing something under her breath

"..a whole new world..."

The dad is still asleep as we have newly designed this co-op agreement in which we take turns sleeping in on Saturday and Sunday

The biggest is still asleep because she just went to bed about three hours ago

I hurt my foot again as I twist my knee trying to switch the soundtrack

"The circle of life..."

Friday, December 08, 2006

When and Why Does the Courtship End?

This is something that has been on my mind a lot lately. At what point do you stop trying to impress each other? Is there something wrong with knowing exactly what the other person is going to say in response to something you say... so you just don't bother saying it?

My husband Steve and I have been together for 10 years. Most of that time has been great; we are very compatible and don't argue much, and he has a dry wit that usually can lighten my very dramatic moods. But like every couple, we have rough spots. And what I like to call "anti-rough" spots - phases where we are not really fighting, per se, but it seems that we are more like roommates than lovers.

I started dating my husband in the devastating aftermath of another relationship that had gone as far south as relationships can go. This is someone I thought I was going to marry and spend the rest of my life with, and I was completely emotionally destroyed when it didn't work out. That's not to say that Steve was a rebound, because the fact of the matter is that the previous relationship had been over for more than a year. I was just still in a very delicate place and had not been dating much. (A twist in the story is that the ex and Steve are very good friends; they grew up together and ran around together throughout most of their teens and 20's. They even have the same birthday. A second twist in the story is that Steve used to date my best friend; the four of us hung around together all the time during this period. A third twist is that we are now all still friends. The fourth twist is that... nah just joking!)

I thought he was exactly the balm for my sore heart; the ex was one of those overly funny and vivacious charmers who always knew exactly what to say to people to make them feel good and laugh. People love having him around... especially female people. I'm sure you can guess what led to my broken heart. Beyond that, though, it seemed that the ex and I had *too much* in common and our fiery personalities would lead to some of the most dramatic fights ever. There was a certain degree of psychological manipulation that he was successful at, as well. There were times when I was so screwed up in the head that I actually thought I deserved to be treated as crappy I was being treated. Like the old Offspring song says (which incidentally was seeing a lot of radio play at the time of this relationship); "the more you suffer, the more it shows you really care".

Anyway, the man who was to become my husband is the polar opposite; he's very practical and down to earth, a much more quiet personality and doesn't call too much attention to himself. He's really funny as well; he just has more of a dry humor that is a little more intelligent and less showy. He is also extremely reticent in showing his feelings. For example, we had been together for over a year when he finally told me he loved me. What's more, it was only in response to my question, "do you love me? Why don't you tell me? Say it!"

We dated for a year and a half before we moved in together. The only reason I got him to move in together was because I broke up with him and started dating someone else. I'd like to say he started missing me but the opposite was true... and we made up and made this decision.

Then we lived together for four years before I got pregnant. At this point I knew that this arrangement was permanent. The entire pregnancy, I kept thinking he was going to propose. I thought he would propose at Christmas.. no. Lindsay was born in March, so I thought he would propose on my birthday in April.. no. Finally I said, "You know what we should do? We should just get married."

At the time I really didn't care that he didn't actually propose because I was getting what I wanted. Now, however, it bothers me more and more. Of course he *says* that he was going to propose, he was just a little nervous about it. About proposing to someone that he's been sharing closet space with for five years. hmmm.

Anyway, these days it seems that the things that were originally great about Steve are now the things that cause me heartache. But why? Why am I so selfish? He never was a sweet talker, so why should I expect him to be one now? He was never the romantic type, so why would he be now? Not that there is really anything *wrong* or even unlikable about him - he's reliable, successful, still cute and he's a FANTASTIC daddy. He even does dishes and cooks. But my personality really craves drama and passion... and I'm not sure he even finds me attractive.

Anyway, this post has gone on much longer and become much more maudlin than my original intent. I meant to simply question when and where the "fire"goes out and why it seems to continue burning for some couples and not others. I always thought that when I did tie the knot, it would be one of those Great Loves... Bogie and Bacall, John and Yoko type stuff.

So why does the courtship have to end? Wouldn't you think that since that person has become the most important thing in your life.. you should spend all your waking energy trying to impress that person? After all, you had a legal ceremony telling the world how they were your very favorite person out of all the people you've ever met. Shouldn't there be an expectation of flirting, affection and - yes, I dare say it - passion?

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Insurance Only Pays Half

So last Tuesday I spent two and a half hours being held down in a chair by a couple wearing masks and latex. They had me at their mercy and told me to do things like "open wide", "wider", "now bite down", and "clench" while brandishing an astonishing collection of scary metal instruments. Then at the end of the session they charged me $300.00.

I walked out of there sweating and numb and frankly, I'll never be the same. Apparently I liked it, though, because I made an appointment to be back in two weeks for another session. They're nice people, though, despite the fact that they chose to take up dentistry as a living.

The problem with dentists is that most people only go when they have a problem. And then the visit is exponentially worse than it would have been if you'd gone regularly. I have three kids and I hadn't taken myself to the dentist since my oldest was a baby - 14 years ago. At that time I had had a crown started; they put a temporary one in and I was supposed to return in two weeks to get a porcelain one put in. Of course, at that time I literally didn't have two nickels to rub together, and of course I had no insurance, and of course my ex more than likely missed one or multiple child support payments, so the plan was shot to hell and I never had the chance to go back for the good crown.

Fast forward 14 years, I get married, buy a house, have two more kids, and now my oldest has an immensely expensive amount of orthodonture going on in her mouth, so during all that time my personal dentistry issues got pushed to the side. So for 14 years, I'd been carrying around in my mouth a temporary silver crown meant to last two weeks.

About a month ago, said crown started to really bother me whenever I ate chocolate, and we know that THAT SHIT WON'T FLY. Snickers are right up there with air and water for me, so I decided to just make the move and take myself to the chair to put myself out of my misery.

My first visit was actually all right... the dentist had nothing but glowing compliments about the state of my teeth. He said that people who haven't been in for five years have worse buildup than I did (did I mention that it had been 14 years?) and it was all due to my exemplary home care.

Now, I don't wanna brag (too much), but I am rather anal about my teeth. (Never ever thought I'd write the words "anal" and "teeth" in the same sentence, but I digress.) It drives me nuts when I have stuff stuck in them and I really truly do floss at least three times a week. As Dooce says, it's not cleanliness, it's suffering from mental illness (sorry, another digression). I had a friend in college that was studying to be a dental hygienist and she once told me that you could not ever brush your teeth and just floss and your teeth would be in better shape than if you brushed three times a day and never flossed. (Though you probably would have a ton of cack on your tongue...)

So where was I? Oh yes. Well, people in my family have pretty good teeth... my dad at 60 still looks like a toothpaste commercial. So I was feeling good about the fact that even though I usually don't know what the hell my kids are thinking when they do those things, or how to deal with a 15 year old girl that is nothing like me at that age, or why the hell my husband is so OBVIOUSLY from Mars when I am so OBVIOUSLY from Venus (would it KILL him to say "you look PRETTY" instead of "you look fine"?! Though obviously a "hot babe" wouldn't hurt...), and I usually have no idea what's going on at work... well, dammit, all those things are just gonna have to take a back seat to the fact that I will have all my own teeth when I'm a senior citizen.

Despite their health, I did have a minor issue with an extra incisor in my mouth. This guy was really, truly extra, and I'd had it in my mouth since my permanent teeth grew in. I was supposed to get braces on the bottom, but again, there was that pesky issue with the money and insurance... anyway I never got braces and I walked around with an extra tooth crowding out the teeth that belonged. So at my first visit Dr. Dentist pulled that tooth.

Which I thought was no big deal.... but OH MY GOD, HAVE YOU EVER HAD A PERFECTLY HEALTHY TOOTH PULLED? OH MY GOD. OH MY GOD. There was not enough local anesthetic in that office to dull the pain and let's face it: I've had three kids - I AM NOT A WIMP. I have a perfectly normal perspective on pain, and in fact I'm one of those people that are not afraid of shots because, really, they don't hurt. If anything, I'd say I have a higher threshold for pain than most folks.

So after that, Dr. Dentist gave me a prescription for Vicodin, which was supposed to last for two weeks. I'm not ashamed to tell you that it was gone in three days. But of course some of that might have been my predisposition towards that funny, relaxed, light headed and euphoric feeling that can only be found through the use of prescription painkillers... When my last baby was born, the OB-GYN gave me Percoset... and let me tell you, if there is anything better than having sex while eating chocolate, drinking vodka martinis and getting a pedicure and scalp massage at the same time... its Percoset. Especially if you wash it down with a couple vodka tonics. Which really explains why I stopped breastfeeding my son at three weeks when I had nursed his sisters until they were six months old.

So I digressed again. Now that you think I'm Elvis in the 70's, I'll go back to the dentist story. Had the tooth pulled, it was pain in a form you can't imagine in this life, and then I had to make an appointment to commence the work on the crown. That is where I am right now. They took the old temporary off, fixed up the poor nub of a tooth underneath, fitted a fresh stainless steel temporary one and took molds for a really real porcelain crown, which I'll have put on in about two weeks. No more problems. ~crossing fingers~

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Overheard

"I'm having a horrible day."

"I'm sorry to hear that. Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really."

"Quack!"

"Did you just quack at me?"

"Yes, yes I did."

"..."

"Did it echo?"

Friday, November 03, 2006

A Disturbance in My Pants

If you watch the Nickelodeon cartoon “Jimmy Neutron”, you might have seen the episode where Jimmy ingeniously devises pants that put themselves away. Of course, since it’s a cartoon, the invention goes horribly awry and the pants start thinking and acting for themselves. There is a scene where Jimmy’s pants are starting to act up; he’s in school and runs to the front of the room exclaiming, “There seems to be a disturbance in my pants!”.

A friend and I were discussing this episode and he told me about the list of phrases in the Star Wars movies that can be improved by substituting the word “pants” for key words. Being as adept at Google as I am, I quickly looked up the list and viola! Here it is for everyone’s enjoyment!

25 Lines from Star Wars

That can be improved by substituting the word “Pants”

  1. A tremor in the pants. The last time I felt this was in the presence of my old master.
  2. You are unwise to lower your pants.
  3. We’ve got to be able to get some reading on those pants, up or down.
  4. She must have hidden the plans in her pants. Send a detachment down to retrieve them. See to it personally, Commander.
  5. These pants may not look like much, kid, but they’ve got it where it counts.
  6. I find your lack of pants disturbing.
  7. These pants contain the ultimate power in the universe. I suggest we use it.
  8. Han will have those pants down. We’ve got to give him more time!
  9. General Veers, prepare your pants for a surface assault.
  10. I used to bulls-eye womp-rats in my pants back home.
  11. TK-421, why aren’t you in your pants?
  12. Lock the door. And hope they don’t have pants!
  13. Governor Tarkin, I recognized your foul pants when I was brought aboard.
  14. You don’t look strong enough to pull the pants off a Gundark
  15. Luke…help me take…these pants off.
  16. Great, Chewie, great. Always thinking with your pants.
  17. That blast came from those pants. That thing’s operational!
  18. Don’t worry. Chewie and I have gotten into a lot of pants more heavily guarded than this.
  19. Maybe you’d like it back in your pants, Your Highness.
  20. Your pants betray you. Your feelings for them are strong – especially for your sister!
  21. Jabba doesn’t have time for smugglers who drop their pants at the first sign of an Imperial Cruiser.
  22. Yeah, well, short pants is better than no pants at all, Chewie.
  23. Attention: This is Lando Calrisian. The Empire has taken control of my pants; I advise everyone to leave before more troops arrive.
  24. I cannot teach him. The boy has no pants.
  25. You came in those pants? You’re braver than I thought!
 

Saturday, June 24, 2006

P&P

Have you seen the new Pride & Prejudice starring our girl Keira Knightly? (oh, how we love her!)

Anyway, it's good. The mini-series starring Colin (OH HOW WE LOVE HIM) Firth is the most faithful to the book but I have to say that this most recent version is so very entertaining.

Anyway.

Moe is now watching it for the 5,000th time. Which not only renews my personal love for the classics (especially our friend Jane Austen) but also makes me feel better about the generation coming after me; if they appreciate Our Friend Jane as much as I do, they can't be all bad.

God Bless Keira Knightly (oh how we love her) for not only resurrecting Our Friend Jane but also showing How Not To Fear Pirates and How To Play Soccer as well as How To Be A Bounty Hunter (should we so choose).

LOVE her!!!!

THAT is what woman in the 21st century is all about: Bounty Hunter looking for a suitable husband, not scared of pirates. That could be an ad on Match.com.

Thursday, June 22, 2006

Lay Me Down

First check this out if you have been living in a cave for the last couple of years and don't know what's going on at Sun Microsystems:

http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/05/31/78807_HNsunlayoffs_1.html

I have been working with the channel marketing group (or whatever they call themselves) over at Sun for the last couple of weeks trying to get them to release channel partner marketing money for a lead generation program we want to implement.

This morning, after a ridiculously large amount of time arguing, rediscussing in committee, hemming and hawing, and generally driving me up the wall, I received an email telling me that our request was denied.

Whatever.

Did I mention the program was for lead generation? As in: it will help us sell their product for them?

Anyway, I called the sales guy for this program immediately and let him know that we won't have the funding, etc. He said of course he understood and that we could work something else out with another partner. Blah blah blah, pleasantries, okay you take care now.

About an hour later he called me with a story about a friend of a friend who works for Sun- apparently tomorrow first thing is when the axe is going to fall, and NOBODY knows who is getting it. Everyone is sitting on their hands because they don't know if they will have a job at 8:05 tomorrow morning.

Now this got me to thinking, and I told the guy exactly what was on my mind: If you knew your company has been in trouble for the last, oh I don't know- five years or so, (ever since the dot-com bust, really) and they were engaging in virtually annual layoffs, and the CEO recently told Snoopy and the gang "Sayonara!!", AND they announced more layoffs (5,000!) this year , isn't there really two logical courses of action?

The first one being, of course, get the hell out of Dodge and work somewhere else; and the second one being to start being the best damn employee anyone's ever seen so as to make yourself indispensible?

Or maybe that's just me...

Friday, May 26, 2006

From Moe

Just to give you a glimpse into the mind of the weirdo that is my first born, this is a letter she wrote me this afternoon (all the misspellings and grammatical errors are original, I couldn't make this stuff up):

Mommy-Doo-Dah-Day,

Hola comostas, I am well and kicking. It's a lovely friday afternoon. It's just you and I. Sitting at the kitchen table. Your reading a blog. You know the visual. I'm procrastinating against my chores...again. I had a 9th grade writing assessment today. I wrote about raising the driving age to 18. I think it's a good idea. But I'm pretty sure I'm the only one, but oh well. It's okay to be unique. Well I guess I should do my chores so I can go do something with the Melissa's tonight. Like spending the night and watching a movie. K g'bye

Love ya' Always and Forever
Moe

p.s give me a jingle someday- Tee-Hee. JK.
Love you Mom.

Sunday, February 19, 2006

The Awesome Risk of a Chinese Editor

I have been following the nonsense coming from China about the clash of free speech and the Communist government, even if I haven't been blogging it. So far I've been an interested spectator, but I came across this article in the Washington Post and it so deeply touched me that I had to reproduce it here.

It is the risky acts of quiet heroism that do the most to bring the freedom-sucking machine down; it has always been so. This risk-taking editor has executed a most courageous act in the face of the "if you don't like it, keep your mouth shut" Chinese government, with positive results, including a fire lit under the populace.

To Li Datong, here is a little American for you:

You Go, Boy.



The Click That Broke a Government's Grip

By Philip P. Pan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, February 19, 2006; A01


BEIJING -- The top editors of the China Youth Daily were meeting in a conference room last August when their cell phones started buzzing quietly with text messages. One after another, they discreetly read the notes. Then they traded nervous glances.

Colleagues were informing them that a senior editor in the room, Li Datong, had done something astonishing. Just before the meeting, Li had posted a blistering letter on the newspaper's computer system attacking the Communist Party's propaganda czars and a plan by the editor in chief to dock reporters' pay if their stories upset party officials.

No one told the editor in chief. For 90 minutes, he ran the meeting, oblivious to the political storm that was brewing. Then Li announced what he had done.

The chief editor stammered and rushed back to his office, witnesses recalled. But by then, Li's memo had leaked and was spreading across the Internet in countless e-mails and instant messages. Copies were posted on China's most popular Web forums, and within hours people across the country were sending Li messages of support.

The government's Internet censors scrambled, ordering one Web site after another to delete the letter. But two days later, in an embarrassing retreat, the party bowed to public outrage and scrapped the editor in chief's plan to muzzle his reporters.

The episode illustrated the profound impact of the Internet on political discourse in China, and the challenge that the Web poses to the Communist Party's ability to control news and shape public opinion, key elements to its hold on power. The incident also set the stage for last month's decision to suspend publication of Freezing Point, the pioneering weekly supplement that Li edited for the state-run China Youth Daily.

Eleven years after young Chinese returning from graduate study in the United States persuaded the party to offer Internet access to the public, China is home to one of the largest, fastest-growing and most active populations of Internet users in the world, according to several surveys. With more than 111 million people connected to the Web, China ranks second to the United States.

Although just a fraction of all Chinese go online -- and most who do play games, download music or gossip with friends -- widespread Internet use in the nation's largest cities and among the educated is changing the way Chinese learn about the world and weakening the Communist Party's monopoly on the media. Studies show China's Internet users spend more time online than they do with television and newspapers, and they are increasingly turning to the Web for news instead of traditional state outlets.

The government has sought to control what people read and write on the Web, employing a bureaucracy of censors and one of the world's most technologically sophisticated system of filters. But the success of those measures has been mixed. As a catalyst that amplifies voices and accelerates events, the Internet presents a formidable challenge to China's authoritarian political system. Again and again, ordinary Chinese have used it to challenge the government, force their opinions to be heard and alter political outcomes.

The influence of the Web has grown over the past two years, even as President Hu Jintao has pursued the country's most severe crackdown on the state media in more than a decade. The party said last week that Freezing Point would resume publishing, but Li and a colleague were fired, making them the latest in a series of editors at state publications to lose their jobs.

With newspapers, magazines and television stations coming under tighter control, journalists and their audiences have sought refuge online. The party's censors have followed, but cyberspace in China remains contested terrain, where the rules are uncertain and an eloquent argument can wield surprising power.
Dueling Views

They clashed from the start, two men named Li with conflicting ideas of what a newspaper should be.

One was the maverick editor Li Datong, 52, a tall man with a scholarly air who had spent his entire career at the China Youth Daily and helped turn the official organ of the Communist Youth League into one of the country's best papers. After the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square, he nearly lost his job for leading journalists in a petition drive seeking freedom of the press.

The other was the new editor in chief, Li Erliang, 50, short in stature and slick in manner, a favorite of the propaganda authorities who made his reputation running the party's official mouthpiece in Tibet. He was an outsider at the Daily, a product of the party apparatus who was sent in to get the paper's feisty staff under control.

One night soon after his arrival in December 2004, the new editor stopped the presses and tore out Li Datong's Freezing Point section because it contained an article criticizing the Chinese education system. The next morning, the chief editor went to Li Datong's office to explain, but Li was furious and refused to talk to him. He just kept writing, banging on his keyboard and ignoring his new boss, colleagues recalled.

Relations between the two men only got worse. The party's propaganda department had targeted Freezing Point in its media crackdown because it often published investigative reports that embarrassed officials, as well as essays on history, society and current events that challenged the party line. Colleagues said Li Erliang, who declined to be interviewed, tried to rein in the section to please his superiors. Li Datong, who spoke out after Freezing Point was suspended, said he fought to protect it.

"The propaganda department wanted to shut us down, and we were under a lot of pressure," he said. "They tried to get rid of our columnists and cut the size of the section and take away reporters, but we resisted."

Then, in August, Li Erliang proposed a point system for awarding bonuses to the paper's staff members. Reporters would receive 100 points if their articles were praised by provincial officials, 120 if praised by the propaganda department and 300 if praised by a member of the Politburo. Points would be deducted if officials criticized articles. Just one report that upset a party leader could mean loss of a month's salary.

The newsroom simmered with anger, reporters said. But Li Datong saw an opening to fight back. "The plan was just stupid," he said. "A newspaper can evaluate reporters that way, and many do, but it can't be so blatant about it."

Li holed up in his apartment, and two days later, emerged with a 13,000-word letter that denounced the point system, saying it would "enslave and emasculate" the paper, cause circulation to plummet and put the Daily out of business.

He also painted a damning picture of the propaganda apparatus. He described an official who measured photos of two party leaders before publication to make sure neither man would be offended. He wrote about a senior editor who resigned in protest over an obsequious column that compared President Hu's words to "a lighthouse beacon, pointing and illuminating the way for China's students." And he attacked the party's censors, questioning their legitimacy and alleging they favored publishers who showered them with gifts and banquets.

Li saved his harshest words for his new boss. But he crafted his letter carefully, citing the support of generations of party leaders for the paper's journalism and even quoting Karl Marx to make the case that editors should put readers first.

He showed the letter to a few colleagues and to the reporters on his staff. Then, on Aug. 15, at 10:09 a.m., he posted it on the newsroom's computer system. "I hoped it would have an impact," he said. "I never expected what happened next."
System of Censorship

Every Friday morning, executives from a dozen of China's most popular Internet news sites are summoned downtown by the Beijing Municipal Information Office, an agency that reports to the party's propaganda department.

The man who usually runs the meetings, Chen Hua, director of the Internet Propaganda Management Department, declined to be interviewed. But participants say he or one of his colleagues tells the executives what news they should keep off their sites and what items they should highlight in the week ahead.

These firms are private enterprises, and several, including Sina, Sohu and Yahoo! China, are listed on U.S. stock exchanges or have attracted U.S. investment. But because they need licenses to operate in China, they comply with the government's requests.

The meetings are part of a censorship system that includes a blacklist of foreign sites blocked in China and filters that can stop e-mail and make Web pages inaccessible if they contain certain keywords. Several agencies, most notably the police and propaganda authorities, assign personnel to monitor the Web.

The system is far from airtight. Software can help evade filters and provide access to blacklisted sites, and Internet companies often test the censors' limits in order to attract readers and boost profits. If an item isn't stopped by the filters and hasn't been covered in the Friday meetings, the government can be caught off guard.

That is what happened with Li Datong's letter. Minutes after he posted it, people in the newsroom began copying it and sending it to friends via e-mail and the instant messaging programs used by more than 81 million Chinese.

"We had to move quickly, before they started blocking it," recalled one senior editor, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Pu Zhiqiang, a lawyer and advocate of journalists' rights, said he received a copy at 10:20 a.m., 11 minutes after Li posted the original. He forwarded it to 300 people by e-mail and sent it to others using Microsoft's MSN Messenger program. Then he began posting it on some of the bulletin board sites that have proliferated in China.

At 11:36 a.m., Pu put the memo on a popular forum called Yannan. Then he noticed that someone had posted a copy on another part of the site.

About the same time, the editors' meeting at the China Youth Daily ended and Li Erliang rushed back to his office. Colleagues said he contacted superiors in the propaganda department and the Communist Youth League after reading the memo.

Neither the government's censors nor the editors at the major Web sites had begun deleting the letter, yet. Some editors said they waited because it didn't challenge the party's authority or discuss subjects that were clearly off-limits, such as the Tiananmen Square massacre. At the same time, the official censors either failed to spot the memo or hesitated to act because they were worried that some senior officials might support Li Datong's views, editors said.

As they waited, the letter continued to spread.

At 12:17 p.m., it appeared on an overseas news site run by the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement, and minutes later on others managed by exiled dissidents. These sites are blocked in China, but many people access them using software that slips past the government's firewall.

By 1:30 p.m., a prominent blogger, Li Xinde, had downloaded the memo. He said he sent it using China's top instant messaging service, QQ, to more than 20 chat groups, each with 30 to 40 members. By 2 p.m., the memo had been posted on popular university Web sites.

The document was spreading so fast that many people received multiple copies. A writer in Anhui province said that when he went online to check his e-mail at 2:30 p.m., four friends immediately offered to send him the memo on MSN Messenger. But two copies were already in his inbox, including one that had been sent to 1,000 people.
Race in Cyberspace

It was midafternoon before someone in the party bureaucracy decided Li Datong's letter should be removed from Chinese cyberspace and government officials began calling executives at the major Web sites.

Some said they were contacted by the Beijing Municipal Information Office, others by its national-level counterpart, the State Council Information Office. None reported receiving a formal notice or any legal justification for the decision. As usual, they were just told to delete the offending material.

There are at least 694,000 Web sites in China, according to official statistics, and the party didn't try to contact them all. They called the most popular sites in Beijing first. Hours passed before some smaller bulletin board sites were notified. Forums with national audiences in other cities received calls only at the end of the day.

At a recent news briefing, Liu Zhengrong, a senior Internet affairs official in the State Council Information Office, declined to explain the legal basis for the orders, saying only that many comments about the China Youth Daily remained on the Web.

Even as Li's memo began disappearing from some Web sites, it went up on others the authorities had not contacted. Shortly before 10 p.m., it was posted on the popular Tianya forum. At 11 p.m., it became a featured item on Bokee, China's top blog and portal site.

Almost everywhere the letter appeared, users added hundreds of comments backing the reporters of the China Youth Daily. Inside the newsroom, spirits were buoyed. Some journalists posted notes on the internal computer system supporting Li Datong.

The next morning, officials continued calling Web sites, but readers started posting the memo on sites that had already removed it. Some Web site managers said they tried to drag their feet or leave copies on less prominent pages. One said the memo was viewed 30,000 times before he took it down.

But other Web sites added Li Datong's name to keyword filters used to block sensitive material from being posted.

At 2:15 p.m., Li Erliang distributed a rebuttal on the China Youth Daily's internal network. It was quickly leaked, too, triggering another wave of e-mails and postings.

Authorities were scrambling for a way to end the controversy. A few hours after Blog-City, an overseas blogging site, was blocked, the party announced in a rare retreat that it was ditching Li Erliang's point system.

"It was a breakthrough, and the Internet played a critical role," said Xu Zhiyong, a civil rights lawyer in Beijing. "If something is written well enough, they can't stop it from spreading. People will find a way to read it."

Freezing Point enjoyed a renaissance in the months that followed. Li Erliang appeared chastened, unwilling to risk another fight he might lose, reporters said.

But in January, propaganda officials finally shut down the section. Before doing so, they called executives from all the major Web sites to a special meeting and warned them not to allow any discussion of the action.

The news spread quickly anyway.

Researcher Jin Ling contributed to this report.
© 2006 The Washington Post Company

Friday, February 17, 2006

This is a Good One

Every now and then I get sent a real gem via email, and this is one of them.

I haven't laughed so hard in a long time- enjoy this little bit of soul candy!

www.glumbert.com/media/dancewhiteboy.html

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

It's in the Stinkin' Name!

This morning was a stressful one for me. I had two classes today beginning at 10:00 am and continuing straight through until 12:45 pm. I didn't quite make it to class today. And not because I am a slacker, quite the opposite. I'm always the only one who did the reading the night before and prepares questions for the professor. But I digress. I'll tell you why I skipped school today.

As a student at Metro State College of Denver, which is on the Auraria Campus downtown (the campus also houses CU Denver and the Community College of Denver), I can ride the RTD buses and light rail for free with my student ID. Which is nice, since parking at the school runs anywhere from $2.50 to $5.00 a day, depending on how far away you leave your car. The light rail stops right at Colfax and 9th Street Park, which is about 20 yards from my 10:00 am class.

Anyway, I live in the suburbs so taking the light rail means I drive about 5 miles to get to the Park & Ride, where I leave my car while I go to school. I say "leave my car" rather ironically, as there is NEVER ANY DAMN PARKING at the "Park" & Ride.

Usually I have to serriptitiously park *around* the Park & Ride, where ever I can find a spot that won't leave me subject to a ticket, or worse, a tow.

Now this really irks me.

There is a continuous flow of chatter coming from RTD and various city councils in the Denver metro area regarding why suburbanites who work downtown should take more advantage of RTD (air pollution! rising gas prices! work on the way to work!), especially since the Southwest Corridor project has been in operation. The truth is that many SW suburbanites *do* take advantage of the light rail.

HOWEVER.

There are only about 20- count 'em out loud, 20- parking spots at the downtown Littleton Park & Ride. Tell me how I am supposed to catch a 9:35 train when every single parking spot was filled up at 7:00 am that morning?

Granted, RTD did not make their $1.25 from me, and they don't any other day because my ride is free. But Metro State paid for my Eco-Pass, which means that I am a customer, and I deserve Customer Service. And what about the other people who would or would have ridden the light rail today if they had found a place to park? Not all of them are students, I can guarantee that, so probably would have paid the $1.25. Who can afford to walk away from that kind of money?

Apparently RTD can.

HEY DUMMIES!! How 'bout putting together some parking at the Park & Rides? Just a crazy suggestion, I admit. But it just might be crazy enough to work...

P.S. I later drove by the Park & Ride at Ken Caryl & C-470. Which, incidentally, boasts about triple the number of parking spaces as Littleton. A Park & Ride that is served by exactly three buses, none of which go downtown. Guess how many parking spots were open at that Park & Ride? All of them.