Year: 2004

Merry Christmas!

I just want to take this time to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. For those that celebrate the day, I hope you have a wonderful, stress-free experience. I know so many people who dread the Christmas family get together, but I look forward to it all year.

I hope to see a lot of people this week I don’t get to see often. As much as part of me wants to hole up in the office to make up for all the writing I didn’t do this week, the rest of me is really looking forward to that as well.

If you want to do something nice for someone at Christmas, drop on by The Secret Monkey Shop and buy something. It’s been a tough year for Ye Olde Turbo Crew. Show some support, if you can.

How’s That Novel?

I haven’t posted much about my novel lately. The first draft is still coming along (I finally past 25% this week). I’m still plugging along, and that’s pretty much all I
wanted to say about it for now.

I do update the word count graphic at the top of this site a few times a week, so those of you who care can always see how far along I am.

Remake of “The Evil Dead”?

There seems to be a lot
of
talk
about a remake of Sam Rami’s 1981 Horror flick, The Evil Dead.

For those of you who know what I’m talking about, I’ll let that
sink in. For the rest of you… shame on you!
See
these
films and then come back (unless you’re squeemish, then just
don’t bother).

It seems that Rami will not direct, and there is no word if
Bruce will be
involved. While I can’t imagine him playing Ash in the remake, I
can’t see much point to an Evil Dead film with someone else playing
the role.

In an
interview last month Rami said that the rumored Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash was not going
to happen. He also said “maybe someday” about a possible
Evil Dead 4, which is only
slightly more positive than past statements.

I’m sure that a remake would look a lot more interesting today than
a low budget film from 1981. I guess I’ll wait and see what
happens, but I’m not convinced it’s a great idea.� If this thing
can make some money that can be put towards making a fourth Evil
Dead film with Bruce and Sam, that’s great.� If not?�
Eh.

More on Electronic Voting

I don’t really want to keep talking about the election, nobody does. I fear the problems with Electronic Voting as it exists currently will be ignored as a result. These things need to be fixed by the next time around.

Votes cast were lost in Florida and North Carolina (at least).

I’m not saying these issues changed the outcome of the big race, but it may have impacted more local races. The message it sends is, "Your vote may not count." It’s as if those people had never voted. Of course I imagine most coverage will be like this, and nothing will be done.

Looking Ahead to 2008

I plan to keep a close eye on Jesse Ventura.

Yeah, you heard me right, Jesse Ventura. He surprised people in Minnesota when he was elected govenor. Let’s see if he can surprise the country. I doubt I agree with him on all things, but at least I can comprehend his thought process.

This is from a recent article about him in The Gadflyer:

Ventura went on to criticize Bush’s attempt to write discrimination into the Constitution with the proposed amendment to outlaw same-sex marriage. Ventura demanded to know how the marriage of a man to another man would have any impact whatsoever on his own marriage to his wife. He told a moving story about a friend and fellow professional wrestler who was gay and was not allowed to visit his partner in the hospital during an emergency because he wasn’t "family." "That’s just cruel, and a government shouldn’t commit acts of cruelty against its citizens," said Ventura.

That’s a clear statement that I can stand behind. He’s standing up for what he believes is right, rather than trying to appease all parties.

Discomfort

However the election turns out, I feel the need to gripe about something. I keep hearing about how the provisional ballots in Ohio don’t mean a thing because provisonal ballots are from voters who were "challenged" at the polls.

I haven’t heard neary enough about the number or people in Ohio who registered to vote abscentee and never recieved ballots, and were then denied the right to vote at the polls. A federal judge overturned this, allowing these people to fill out (ready for this?) provisonal ballots.

I’m not comfortable with the number of these types of stories. Before you say it, I still wouldn’t be comfortable if things had gone the other way. Everyone who wants to vote needs to be able to, and they need to be counted, or they will become disenfranchised and no longe vote.