burnunit

Please consider joining our conversation about the next possibilities for our diverse community. This touches the participants in CONvergence, Anime Detour, MISFITS, Marscon, Minicon, Gaylaxicon, Mn-Stf, Omegacon, and more and more. . .

http://leagueofwonders.wordpress.com

We began talking about big inter-community projects this year. There have been conversations at MN Society for Interest in Science Fiction and Fantasy open meetings. There have been conversations at closed meetings too. There was a wonderfully interesting panel at CONvergence last week on the subject of a "geek community center." That panel will likely make an appearance at other conventions.

Well we also want to have a public conversation with the members of the communities in which we are active. About joint efforts, about structure, about autonomy and interdependence, and about where we go from here. About what we could do if we start dreaming out loud.

That conversation lives here for now: http://leagueofwonders.wordpress.com and I invite you to take part. Share this info with others and get in on the action. Today!

Okay! So, I suppose if I find the time, I'll write more than one of these types of posts, expanding on my issues, over the next several days. The usual disclaimer applies: YES, I am a director of the CONvergence convention. NO, my statements below do not represent official CONvergence policy. YES, I recognize that this does not absolve me of making misstatements or troubling claims. But you must know that the following is not official. Not by a long shot. Yet.

( CONVERGENCE IS DEAD. Long Live CONvergence! )
If high unpredictability and ambiguities really truly will not work for you... honestly? This is probably not your convention.

But if you really think CONvergence is broken? If you so don't like something that it shatters for you any possibility of our con being a good con? Well giddyup and make a choice from at least these three options: Work to change it, examine your own expectations, or go somewhere else.

27 days until CONvergence

This is the one.

CONvergence.

Tell your friends.

The MinnPost listed this address in an article recently where they said "He even said there's the public to advise him: People can send their thoughts on what should be cut to budgetideas@state.mn.us." So I did. Here's what I just sent to the address in question:

Governor Pawlenty,

Here's my ideas
1. Cut the governor's pay
2. Remove the governor's motor pool
3. Eliminate the governor's health insurance
4. Reduce any matching funds for the governor's 401K or other retirement accounts
5. Restrict the governor's travel allowance
6. Reduce the governor's paid vacation days
7. Reduce the governor's paid illness days
8. Reduce the governor's staff
9. Eliminate exterior lighting on the governor's mansion
10. Eliminate the governor's mansion entirely and request that he telecommute.
11. Ask Grover Norquist for a loan, he apparently is writing the rest of your policy decisions, so he must be very important and therefore wealthy.
12. Replace the governor with the current Secretary of State

Governor, I really loathe your policies and I hope this is the end of the line for your political career.

Jon Olsen
Minneapolis

I pictured the boys there, bodies heaped, sweat and dirt and flecks of bright young blood on their clothes. I could hear Blackbird and Robin gasping, crying. Above them Wren and the others breathing hard, the great silence of the north reaches, the unpopulated houses and the broken City streets.

The whole pathetic arc of it stirred me, I laid a hand on Blackbird's arm. He smiled. Kiki finished the drink, the sun finished its fall. The evening wrapped us up. Which one of us stood first I'm still not sure. We were all together before long, looking away from the sunset, now toward the darker places. Past those pools of orange, down the hill and across the low roofs and lawns here to stare at the ruined Broad Way.

"All right. Let's get in there."

when the gems of midmorning would wound us and we'd swoon with the pure bitter bite of the drinks, the dazzle of the golden liquor.

What we were doing was toasting ourselves at the edge of the faultlines, toasting our sweet ironies and haute exclamations. But we didn't enter. We hovered at the periphery, again at the periphery, while the City smoldered slowly then burnt right through.

"I want to tell you—" Blackbird began.

Kiki interrupting bored, hostile: "This isn't going to be another Spider story, is it?"

Blackbird answering, all simmer and patience: "I want to tell you what I remember from the places I lived, the northern reaches of the City."

"Up...uphill?"

"Uphill of the Market, yes. Some nights I remember every rowhouse, every turn and every terrace. Because they were all the same, you see. Brown upon light brown. White. Red roofs. Or green? This is not one of those nights--"

--snorts of laughter from us.

"--this is more a night of remembering how we moved in the City, when the sun was up. And then how we moved in the moonlight. The further north, the more moon you could see. The houses were lighter and lighter, until nearest the wall of the City it was a great canyonmaze of bone heaps laid before the cobbles. Dotted with concrete scoria ejected into the earth from dead projects, forgotten pilings. Weren't these the newest constructions? I wondered. But it was the dirtiest, and worst kept.

"There we moved more boldly. Caution always marked the start of any of our walks, but we accelerated toward the wall, pulled to its shadows. It was me and the rest of the boys, and we liked to slink among the broken buildings, playing at secret struggles."

Kiki snickered. Thin smile. Sip. Deep breath.

Blackbird went on, "Robin was a climber and he reached the high tip of a pylon crested with rebar, thrust his chest, cried, 'We are kings!' I trembled always, watching him. And this time he fell. None of us breathed while he hung there for what felt like hours. In a moment we realized that he did hang there: his shirt had hooked one of the spikes of rebar, and he dangled by it, legs kicking!"

"Oh god."

"Right! We gathered around the base, a perverse kind of maypole dance, hollering up at him while he struggled. We realized too that he was starting to choke, strangled by the collar. My boy Wren (such pretty eyes he had) searched crazily among the trash for some kind of stick, something to lift him off there. We tried to leap up and grab Robin's legs, they hung just above our hands, kicking. Wren found a length of aluminum, and we held it above our heads, tried to jab into the shirt. To lift Robin I suppose? We didn't exactly know, but we scraped his back and he cried out. We jabbed it into the shirt and finally the strain began to tear the fabric. It gave way and Robin fell directly on me. We collapsed to the dirt, sobbing."

Well, I finally despaired of squeezing any more humor out of Marv Ellis from US Data Corporation, the artist formerly known as [redacted sales guy] and called his boss. Boss gave me his email address and I just sent off the conversations. Maybe they'll make it right. We'll keep you posted.

Kelly,
Per our phone call, attached below are the email exchanges I had with Marv in late April. I hope you can see where my concerns are. If opportunities present themselves and if we are a good fit with my clients' needs, I can probably still hear your pitch.

Best,

Jon Olsen
jon@raygunbeliever.com


Here's the whole email chain (which most of you have already seen) ( beneath the cut )

61 days until CONvergence 2009

Can I just say I really appreciate the fine work of all the volunteers who make this happen? I believe I just did. I do. Thank you. You now have 2 months to make it happen all over again. This should be a cause for celebration, not alarm. Stop being alarmed, you!

You should register before May 15.

And just 425 days until CVG 2010
 

We need a tiller. I'd prefer not to be forced to rent one. Help me LJ-wan, you're my only hope!

Anybody got a tiller or access to a tiller? We really need one.
Comment or email jonsolsen at gmail dot com

 

I intend to remember
and not try to turn it off
I have the lingering ghosts of the moment
in the palms of my hands
impressed quite firmly upon them,
directly under my nose
and there they'll live, stilled
though able to haunt

I'll not exorcise them
I don't have a good bible for that
nor any of the old rituals
that they used
to dust out the mansions
evict their many spirits
or fling open the windows
to set sun upon the empty dance floor
and loose cool spring breath
among the motes

instead I close my eyes
and for once
stand so still

Just finished Death Proof, which I need to watch with my full attention some time. Not sure if Leann would like that movie. Might. Will really hate some parts of the first half). Now I'm going to watch Vanishing Point. Any suggestions for my afternoon if I get thru VP?

MONDAY MONDAY MONDAY!

netflix instant. hells yes.

We've had some tough financial times lately. They reduced everyone's salaries at work (mine fell into the group "only" reduced by 5%) and stopped matching 401K contributions. I understand this, because I'd prefer the company stay in business and if we survive, they'll eventually restore these changes. They had to freeze raises quite a while ago, though, so I've been holding at the same salary for over 30 months (well, LESS than now with the reductions) after several years of steady increases at this and previous jobs. Well I can't really afford that. I just can't. So I had to make some changes to give myself a "raise." More like a little plundering of Peter, but Paul is being such a bitch right now (and by "Paul" I mean "very few frivolous expenses, seriously" I mean stuff like Health, Dental and Vision!). I reduced (didn't eliminate) my 401K contributions significantly, along with changing my exemptions. I realized I hadn't increased our tax exemptions since Henry was born. The net result is that my take home pay today is about $100 more than it was a month ago. It's not much, and I know the 401K thing could bite me later, but having two hundred extra bucks per month right now could mean the difference between making it to retirement and fucking falling into destitution.

These are the choices you make.

I'd rather have to retire many years later (or never) than have my beloved children get a chronic illness without health insurance, or be able to clothe them when they outgrow things, or be able to eat healthily (kind of important right now as I'm living the way I am). Or you know, pay for hotel at CONvergence (done). Or every once in a while get a babysitter. IT's been a while for that last one, however!

Do you remember this performance?
White City

Man, I sure do. This was just incendiary for me. I was what? Seventeen. I immediately, like the next day, joined BMG or Columbia House, and got three of their albums (on cassette!) I also got The Waterboys. This was a seminal moment for me I guess. Gods what a demented genius Shane McGowan is.

Here's the song I have in my head this morning. Not a bad thing to have stuck up there. The great "Sunny Side of the Street"

"Seen the carnival at rome Had the women I had the booze
All I can remember now Is little kids without no shoes
So I saw that train And I got on it With a heartful of hate And a lust for vomit
Now Im walking on the sunnyside of the street"

"Stepped over bodies in bombay Tried to make it to the u.s.a.
Ended up in nepal Up on the roof with nothing at all
And I knew that day I was going to stay Right where I am, on the sunnyside of the street"

"Been in a palace, been in a jail I just dont want to be reborn a snail
Just want to spend eternity Right where I am, on the sunnyside of the street"

"As my mother wept it was then I swore To take my life as I would a whore
I know Im better than before I will not be reconstructed
Just wanna stay right here On the sunnyside of the street"

Okay. So, regrettably, there's nothing new from my salesguy/'boyfriend'. what shall I do next? we all want a fix of his antics, this is for sure. But perhaps three times is the charm and it's time to change course. LJ, what do you think I should do about [redacted sales guy] ?

Poll #1389218
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Next action

On Thu, Apr 23, 2009 at 8:21 AM, [redacted sales guy] wrote:
We attract customers that are truly interested in purchasing quality [redacted product], not bargain basement shoppers like yourself. Save the suit, your probably much more comfortable working from moms basement in your pajamas.

Good day and I hope all works out for you.

Best,

[redacted sales guy]

my response

Dearest [redacted sales guy]

Oh, no no surely I have given you the wrong idea! Our office is on the ground floor, and when you are next in the Twin Cities, do come by for the tour. We shall have butternut squash and bacon canapes (my own recipe). And I make a lovely Aviation cocktail which I'm told inspires many to feats of the most grandiose entrepreneurship and unparalleled client service. I'll introduce you to the wife and kids and you can even examine our data center.

And my dear mother, bless her soul, is hundreds of miles away pining for her grandchildren. It was certainly a difficult time in our lives, living under her roof those many years ago. She loathed our noisy dog and stifled her anxieties for my pride's sake while we sought to get back on our feet. What a strong and vigorous woman. Do you know that she is already 71? Seventy-one! I will tell her you asked after her, she'll be so pleased.

The dog, of course, had to be put down.

Warm regards,

Jon

He wrote back.

On Apr 22, 2009, at 4:13 PM, [redacted sales guy] wrote:

Well apparently it worked………..you finally responded. Oh and go ahead give them the other quotes, safe to assume your quoting [product] which we all know how well that works. As you know we are a [different flavor of product] and we choose who we work with not the other way around. Again if you are serious about discussing a partnership then let me know a good time to get on the the phone to discuss.

We may not be a match, hard to say. Thank you for the response.


my response

[redacted sales guy]!

It did work; you must say that to all the businesses! You are correct, I AM looking for [flavor of product he implied was bad] and I agree, we likely will not be a perfect match.

Your PPC guys must be going crazy. They have to hate it that leads who click their carefully made ads can't tell that it's [redacted company] who does the choosing, and not the other way around. Maybe they could reduce their spend, since the customer's shopping process is evidently immaterial. Once they learn the inside sales reps have eliminated the need for attracting customers, it should make budget negotiations much easier.

As requested, I'll keep your number. I can foresee a time when someone I work with insists I put on a nice suit, buy flowers, and beg you to take me back.

Best,
JonO

please God, make him write back...

Last week's LOST ... man, it was so gentle and friendly and character-driven. Great work by Ken Leung, just great. We're being set for some massive shoes to drop. I predict this was like a sorbet course. The rest of the episodes are going to be killer. If this was a sorbet or intermezzo, the rest of the season is going to be frigging gavage!

So I've done some work with some of the madness you've read in days of yore on this journal and reworked it into spoken word pieces. Here's a sample:  My Own Distortions (part 1)

There's several more tracks over at my home writing page. 


 

Taken from magicmarmot. . .

Tired of all of those surveys made up by high school kids?! Have you ever kissed someone? Missed someone? Told someone you loved them? Drank alcohol? These questions for the people who are a little older.
( read, then post your own if you like )