Tinfoil on the Windows

I think I'm shifting back into that frame of mind where working from home is okay, provided that work happens once everyone else is asleep. If I'm not careful the sheer scope of everything I have to consider gets overwhelming, but if I focus on what's right in front of my face I'm okay. I don't have any choice but to trust that the cumulative effect of taking care of one thing after another will lead to my having built something I can live in.

I read a friend's screenplay today, and it's good. Really good, and very much something only they could have done. I'm really quite afraid that I've lost seven years worth of craft, that I'm so busy righting myself that I've got no objective perspective on what I'm creating. Dmetri was right though: your craft saves you. In relearning and applying the things that make a good story I feel like I'm also shifting the walls of my house into the configuration it's meant to hold. Like relearning good story structure flows into perspective about life and behaviour and some of the stupid crap I do without thinking. Defragging is probably as good a metaphor as any. Slowly. Piece by piece. That and exercise.

I have no idea where I'll be in ten years. None at all. All I know is there's one more step I can take, that's followed by one more step. Sounds wanky, but everything boils down to the fact that so far the ground holds. I really hope I don't end this life with a list of nearlies.

Got feedback from that second-stage interview. If I do this right then not getting that particular job, but the experience of sitting that particular interview, could get me a far better position that'll get me an ambulance position quicker. But it remains to be seen.

Penguin mailed out an invitation today. For a ghost story anthology. Me and a group of writers, many of whom have good profiles. I need to get onto this.

Someone made an exasperated post on Facebook about her untrainable baby daughter crapping wherever she felt like it, asking for advice. People offered a lot of sound advice. My comedy gland kicked in, but I got it under control.

So I didn't post 'Taser?'

Also, I effing loathe Facebook. Just booting it is like bracing for a punch in the head. It's a lint filter for other people's mental laundry. The keyword often being 'mental.'

Curse its organisational efficacy.

Sarah Palin wants Julian Assange hunted as a terrorist.1 She's among a swelling chorus of American politicians calling for the arrest - and even the death - of the Australian citizen who runs Wikileaks. It's a shame that real terrorists, the kind we should be focusing our attention on, don't show up at British Police stations with their lawyers, as Wikileaks founder Julian Assange did yesterday.

Here in Australia, Prime Minister Gillard pre-emptively judged Mr. Assange "illegal," even as the Attorney General confirmed that no Australian nor international crime by wikileaks has been identified.2

The death penalty? Judgment before trial? This isn't the kind of justice system we have in Australia. If our Government won't stand up for the rights of Australian citizens, let's do it ourselves.

We're printing ads in the Washington Times and the New York Times with the statement our Government should have made, signed by as many Australians as possible. Will you add your name to the signatories, and invite your friends to join too?

http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/Wikileaks

The statement:

Dear President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder:

We, as Australians, condemn calls for violence, including assassination, against Australian citizen and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, or for him to be labeled a terrorist, enemy combatant or be treated outside the ordinary course of justice in any way.

As Thomas Jefferson said, "information is the currency of democracy."3 Publishing leaked information in collaboration with major news outlets, as Wikileaks and Mr. Assange have done, is not a terrorist act.

Australia and the United States are the strongest of allies. Our soldiers serve side by side and we've experienced, and condemned, the consequences of terrorism together. To label Wikileaks a terrorist organisation is an insult to those Australians and Americans who have lost their lives to acts of terrorism and to terrorist forces.

If Wikileaks or their staff have broken international or national laws, let that case be heard in a just and fair court of law. At the moment, no such charges have been brought.

We are writing as Australians to say what our Government should have said: that all Australian citizens deserve to be free from persecution, threats of violence and detention without charge, especially from our friend and ally, the United States.

We call upon you to stand up for our shared democratic principles of the presumption of innocence and freedom of information.

We're printing this statement in the Washington Times and the New York Times early next week - and the more Australians sign, the more powerful the message will be. Please add your name by clicking below, and forward this message to friends and family:

http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/Wikileaks

What has started with WikiLeaks being branded as terrorists won't end there.

In fact, just yesterday U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman, Chair of the Senate's Homeland Security Committee, said that the New York Times should also be investigated under the U.S. Espionage Act for publishing a number of the diplomatic cables leaked to Wikileaks.4 We can help stop such plans in their tracks, by showing how they are affecting the image of the US in the eyes of their staunchest friends and allies.

Click here to sign the statement before it's published in the New York Times and Washington Times.

Thanks for being part of this,
the GetUp team.


---

1 Beckford, M., 'Sarah Palin: hunt WikiLeaks founder like al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders', The Telegraph, 30 November 2010.

2 Oakes, L., 'Oakes: Gillard gushes over US leaks', Perth Now, 4 December 2010.

3 The quote is widely attributed to Jefferson, but some now dispute whether he actually said it. We know, at least, that he said "knowledge is power," even if Francis Bacon did say it first.

4 Savage, C., 'U.S. prosecuters study WikiLeaks prosecution', The New York Times, 7 December 2010.

I thought I was over this insomnia shit. It's 4:20am and doing bench presses in the back yard is looking like a good idea. Enough already.

The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something and tell what it saw in a plain way. Hundreds of people can talk for one who can think, but thousands can think for one who can see. To see clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion all in one.
- John Ruskin.

Imagination is intelligence with an erection.
- Victor Hugo.

Teaser for A.D. - an animated zombie flick (not sure if that was an unintentional pun or not.) Not sure if it's been released yet, either, but it looks good to me.

On November 21, 2010, I was allowed to enter the U.S. through an airport security checkpoint without being x-rayed or touched by a TSA officer.  This post explains how.

Worth noting: this case only applies to US citizens.

- I've been told a publisher is going to approach me with a two-book deal sometime soon. Something about writing the first and last books of a series, and plotting out the overall multi-book plot arc.

- I've been told I'll be invited to submit a story into an anthology with a bunch of Names.

- Got the interview of the year on Monday. If I can land this job it'll stand me in really good stead for the Queensland Ambulance job next year.

- Off to see a play, and then the post-election Greens Party boozeup at the Savoy. I'm a friend's handbag, and far be it from me to decline getting drunk at the Savoy on the government's dime.

Holy crap.

National Geographic's Photo Contest includes this stunning image: a supercell thunderstorm rolls across the Montana prairie at sunset. (Photo by Sean Heavey)

The Cave Clan dudes recommended this. Fascinating stuff. To me at least. Though I think as a result of this film being made all those guys wound up being turfed out.