September 2004 Archives

Something British visitors to the United States in these pre-election months immediately notice is the yard signs. Outside an increasing proportion of homes (including ours) are small signs on metal legs proclaiming the residents' candidate of choice. It's something new to me; it's encouraging as it shows a high level of involvement in the political process; it's scary as there are far too many Bush/Cheney signs; and it's the surest sign yet that this is a country divided.

Through July and August it was easy for those of us who want to see Bush out of the White House to become complacent. Yards across Grand Rapids were filled with Kerry/Edwards signs, and there wasn't a single Bush sign to be seen. We knew they were coming (his campaign were holding back until after the convention) but didn't want to believe that they could compete with the sheer numbers our side had already made manifest.

We were wrong. They're now out in force. The larger houses in East Grand Rapids displaying up to four, and the parties are jostling for prominence on many a street. The Bush campaign has made their vision clear in the typography they've chosen: it's big, bold and forces itself upon even the most casual passer-by. Kerry's, by contrast, display a leaner font, ever so slightly more pleasant but requiring a little more attention. Not that I would ever suggest that such basic aesthetics would be a reason to decide on voting habits.

And yet neither candidate is really offering a better reason to make that decision. The simple sloganeering of these signs increasingly seems on a par with the general tone of political discourse. Neither candidate is a strong speech maker, but Bush clearly has the better writing staff. Neither candidate is managing to bring the discussion around to any radical or even constructive issues. Whichever wins will do so on the back of the other's failings, and while the world might win a respite it will not win a victory.

I had hoped that Kerry would gain strength following his first Grand Rapids rally, but the hints of promise have remained buried in poor speech writing and a reactionary campaign. I had hoped that the increasing number of mobilising groups would raise the quality of discourse, but they have settled into sniping and reacting. Maybe yard sign discourse is all we can hope for. Maybe Thursday will tell....

In the meantime, I'm tired of seeing "A Stronger America" projected from the sign outside my house. 'Democratic' and 'Tolerant' don't quite do it for me as alternatives to 'Stronger'. Any suggestions for a re-wording?

Just as I was sitting down to work some more on the MoveableType bugs that were disrupting this blog I spotted that a solution had been posted on the support boards. Monthly archives aren't yet building properly but everything else should now be back to normal. I may even write more this week. No promises.

As the more observant may have noticed, a few test entries appeared here today. I'm at It's A Grind in Grand Rapids working some more on grwifi.net. I now have comments enabled, and this entry is mainly a test to make sure it works.

It's A Grind is a good place to get work done. The WiFi connectivity varies during the day and occasionally, um, grinds a little, but the service is friendly and it's usually a decent connection.

Since upgrading to the latest version of moveabletype I've been experiencing a litany of issues getting this blog to rebuild properly. So far attempts to fix that have led to me ditching the previous template for this front page (hopefully it'll be back soon) and now to making a slight change to the MoveableType code and switching off monthly archives.

Right now, it seems to be working, but I'd rather like to get monthly archives back. And my old design. Hopefully within the next few days....

UPDATE: It seems that MT wasn't doing all the checks it needed to in the 'rebuild_file' function of MT.pm. I've taken out the previous code:

defined($html) or
	return $mt->error($category->id ?
		$mt->translate("Building category '[_1]' failed: [_2]",
			$category->id, $tmpl->errstr) :
		$mt->translate("Building entry '[_1]' failed: [_2]",
			$entry->title, $tmpl->errstr));

which was failing for monthly and individual rebuilds because $category wasn't set, and for monthly builds because $entry wasn't set, and replaced it with:

if (! defined($html)) {
	if (defined($category)) {
		return $mt->error($mt->translate("Building category '[_1]' failed: [_2]",
			$category->id, $tmpl->errstr));
	} elsif (defined($entry)) {
		return $mt->error($mt->translate("Building entry '[_1]' failed: [_2]",
			$entry->title, $tmpl->errstr));
	} else {
		return $mt->error($mt->translate("Building archive type '[_1]' failed",$at));
	}
}

And that seems to have done the trick.

ANOTHER UPDATE: As soon as I posted this I began to suspect it hadn't worked and of course it hadn't. This new code makes sure that errors are only thrown when they should be, so unaffected templates (such as the index page) will update correctly. I'll have another go at fixing it properly next week.

When I'd visit Grand Rapids every few months and need ways to fill my days while Kari was at work, I kept an eye on Alan's reviews of Grand Rapids WiFi Locations. It was great to have such a comprehensive list of locations that I could get online, get good coffee, and only pay for the latter.

When Alan left Grand Rapids, Topher took over the listings and moved them to grwifi.net. And now they've changed hands again. I've just completed the first stage of a redesign/reworking of the site. Now with search functionality, polling and the promise of comment facilities and XML feeds. You can find it all at grwifi.net.

The refrain about WMDs and WMD programmes and *insert qualifier here* WMD *insert further qualifier here* is not just all too familiar, it's ridiculously familiar. It seems that the US government, and the Bush junta in particular are not content simply to watch their hens come home to roost in Iraq, they're looking for opportunities to be surrounded by still more poultry.

I'm writing, of course, about yet another increase in rhetoric about Iran. Thankfully it looks as though the European powers have defused the situation for the time being (and I don't think the US is likely to invade any time soon, troops are in too short supply) but this time the key thing that leapt out of this BBC coverage was the US government's proposed deadline to Iran.

They wanted, you see, to insist that a UN resolution calling on Iran calling for Iran to end its uranium enrichment programme include a deadline. October 31st. Of course that couldn't have anything to do with that date being two days before an election that seems to be being fought on the ability to be foolhardy...

I try and refrain from blogging too much about the latest online tools/toys I'm playing with, but this one was just too good to pass up. It may be the biggest money saving device I've found this year and it all works from your bookmarks bar.

What it is is a script that will let you generate a 'bookmarklet' (a useful script you can place in your bookmarks) that will take you from a book listing on amazon to the corresponding book on your local library's search system.

At last my amazon wishlist can fulfill its original purpose, rather than simply being the storing place for interesting sounding books.

For those who were enthralled by Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Ying Xiong (Hero) is likely to be a must-see. We were certainly engrossed, with disbelief quickly suspended in the face of such fine cinematography.

The film made an interesting juxtaposition with the trailer for Alexander that preceded it. That film's tagline (The Greatest Legend Of All Was Real) not only drawing questions from me as to how "great" a man who destroyed Persepolis could be considered, but also as to Hollywood's propensity for either/or dichotomies and the need for a "greatest" hero.

By contrast with the heavy-handed epic making of so much recent cinema, Hero's grand vistas and sweeping crowd shots display a light-hand and an elegance that allows the viewer's awe to breath. And it's introductory disclaimer that in any war there are heroes on both sides allows the viewer to enjoy the story and sympathise with the characters without being drawn into questions of their true historical stature.

Despite pleas from one over-eager reader, this blog has been rather neglected of late. It could be the process of moving into the house (it went very well, very few boxes remain, furniture is in place, DSL has been connected for a while now). It could be beginning to prepare jystewart.net to see if I can't get some freelance web work to fill my time and bank account. Or it could be that I just never quite seem to get round to it.

Today's excuse would have been that I'm reading up before taking the written test to get a Temporary Instruction Permit for driving. But then on page 101 of "What Every Driver Must Know" I ran across:

The Car/Deer Collision

At night, be alert for shining eyes at the roadside. Slow down. Be ready to stop--deer are very unpredictable. Try not to swerve if a deer enters the roadway. If one deer is visible, others may be nearby. If you hit a deer, report it to the local or state police, sheriff's department, or the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. They also can provide a permit to keep it.