BoingBoing alerted me to Sean Tevis' campaign for the Kansas state House of Representatives. He's running against an incumbent who represents all the worst we've come to expect from Kansas: "anti-abortion, anti-evolution, pro-censorship, pro-surveillance, anti-gay." He's polling within three points of his opponent and is looking to raise $8.34 from $3000 people to enable him to get the name recognition it takes to win at the polls. I just donated $25.
Tevis is our kind of people. Internet-savvy to the point of producing an XKCD-style graphic that explains his situation.
He's also blogging about what he's learning as a new politician. I particularly liked this blog entry:
Many front doors have a prominent “No Solicitors” sign displayed, which is a nice way of pointing out to hopeful door-to-door salesmen that the door will be shut on their face. Thankfully, as a politician, that sign doesn’t pertain to me as I’m not selling anything. The trick, however, is to let people know that I’m not a solicitor.
I rang one doorbell and heard someone on the other side of the front door. I think they were looking at me through their peephole when I heard a man yell “No solicitors!” without even opening the door. “I’m not a solicitor!” I sort of yelled back through the door. “I’m a politician!”
There was a pause.
I wondered if he had gone away, and then he yelled back, “That’s even worse!”
He's campaigning on the issues of sales taxes on food (doesn't like them), education (Kansas can do -much- better), illegal immigration (it can be solved calmly) and my personal favorite: government transparency (more please).
His site seems to be getting slammed right now and is slow to load. If you want to go donate directly just paypal it to
sean@seantevis.com
My college buddy and inspiration for the 52 things project is touring with Bootsy Collins right now. Soimeone uploaded this video that captures a trombone solo of his. Go Thomas!
I actually wrote this while Mie and Tesla were in Japan for a week but hadn't posted it yet. When they came back Tesla's ability and/or willingness to repeat new words had increased significantly so there are actually more words now. I'll post it as originally written though.
Tesla isn't really talking in the general sense yet. I've heard that toddlers being raised bilingually take a bit longer to start talking, and it seems to be the case. She has a limited vocabulary though, here's a round up:
Japanese
word (english meaning): tesla pronunciation
moto (more): toto
hana (nose): nana
ashi (foot): ashi
teh (hand): teh
meh (eye): meh
kuchi (mouth): kuchi
zousan (elephant): zousan
uma (horse) uma
shu shu (going to the bathroom): shu shu
wau wau (doggie) wau wau
tori (bird): tori
gomi (trash [man]): gomi
shu shu (use the bathroom): shu shu
arigato (thank you) - gato
chodai (give me that) - dodai
isu (chair) - isu
ringo (apple) - lingo
English
no: no
uh oh: uh oh
Sofia: fia
banana: nana
apple: bapple
wash you hands: wash wash
water: wawa
meow meow (cat): mrau mrau
quack quack (duck): quack quack
Schnappi: bappi
pig: big
frog: fuk
book: book
flower: fower
chair: chehr
shirt: shoot
shoes: shoooooz
diaper: daipah
all done: all done!
door: door
juice: juice
thank you (but she uses it when she wants to give you something): tankoo
Tesla-ese
milk: gotsche
blankie: daiki
pillow: ba
She understands more words in both Japanese and English, but these are the ones she uses.
I've had a movie in the top ten or so of my queue for about six months now. It's called Russian Ark:
A visually hypnotizing cinematic feat, Russian Ark is Alexsandr Sokurov's spellbinding ode to St. Petersburg's State Hermitage Museum. As the photography floats and careens through the lavish corridors of the museum, examining its architectural details while following a dreamlike plot, a cast of 867 actors supplies the action -- including The Marquis (Sergey Dreiden), an aged European who acts as the film's charismatic guide.
Every time it would get to the top two or three I would bump something up and displace it. I expect it's an artsy movie, probably slow paced, and I guess I kept feeling not in the mood for it, but I never had the heart to remove it. It finally made it to the top today and got shipped. I feel like we should have a little party in honor of its tenacity.
Thanks to Sean Savage for sending me this camphone shot of a T-Shirt design I wish I'd thought of
The original:
Here's a video from Camp Tipsy last weekend. I need to re-export it in the proper size ratio, but you get the idea.
My Aunt June, professional psychic and the leader of the coven of witches that many of my Scottish female maternal relatives belong to, just published a novel, The Skye in June, about a Scottish family with a rebellious daughter named June who becomes interested in wicca and psychic powers. The family immigrates to San Francisco and, I'm sure, hijinx ensue.
