Like I said, I want to keep these posts to 2-3 pictures each. I have lots. But the idea is that it enforces a kind of discipline. Somewhat like athenais and her ten-point lists.

So, we went down to Orycon on 5-7 November — the weekend before last. This is a science fiction convention in Portland, Oregon (since I know some of you aren’t fannish).

The hotel is on Hayden Island, which is just across the Columbia River from Vancouver, Washington. Portland is actually about 10 miles farther south on I-5, and against the banks of the Willamette… I’ll bet because the Willamette was better behaved to the original Anglo settlers in the 1840s-1850s or so.

Here’s the bridge across the Columbia:

As in many fannish events, much of the socializing revolved around food. There was one bunch of us who went to BJ’s, a pizza and brewpub place that’s on Hayden Island, but is an old favorite of ours from when we used to go their original location at Balboa Beach, in Orange County.

I took a number of shots of just random people crowded in the vestibule, waiting for a table. I like this one of a scout best:

We also hung out in the Fan Room, where many of we older types usually hang out during an Orycon. This is Jenna Faulkner:

Even though I think my Kodak DC4800 digicam does reasonably well under low light conditions (and I hate flash), I’m still fighting for every photon both in that photo, and others of people in the fan lounge. It’s a less well lit space than one would think, which only goes to show the ability of the human eye to adjust. I guess I’m saying, yeah, I know that pic is a bit grainy, but I still like it.

One of the things I’ve really been wanting to do is share more of my photography. I’ve been very pleased with some of the results I’ve been getting lately… pleased enough that I’m in danger of not being as self-effacing as usual.

So, I’m going to start making more photo posts. This one is the first. In these posts, I don’t want to show more than two or three images each time, just to keep the emphasis sharply focused… and to let me post frequently.

I have a wacky work schedule. Wednesday-Saturday, 7a-6p. What that means is that akirlu and I have only one day off in common — Sunday. As we’re still relatively new in the area, we’ve been going on various day trips.

Sunday, October 31 was one. We went to Ellensburg, and went on to Yakima, simply because we hadn’t been on that side of the mountains very often.

The wind in Ellensburg was whipped up. It made the sky startlingly blue. Ellensburg is home to Central Washington University, which has a fine old Victorian building on campus.

While we were driving through Snoqualmie Pass on I-90, the sun was just breaking through the clouds, illuminating the snow on the slopes:

Later, we got to Yakima. Why Yakima? Well, mostly because the first brewpub of the post-Prohibition era opened there, in 1982. The web page for it is still up. But it’s no longer there.

However, we did toodle about a bit, and I got a picture or two. This is the Larson Building, a fine Art Deco tower of its type.

More pictures (though not necessarily of this trip… I mean, more pictures) to come, I hope.

From Josh Marshall comes a referral to this page from the Washington Post. It’s a graphical display of every single US soldier kiiled so far in Iraq.

These are the over 1100 brave men and women, so far, who have had to die because their commander-in-chief wants to brag to his daddy about conquering a country his father was wise enough not to touch.

Here’s hoping that, someday, our soldiers regain a commander-in-chief worthy of their skills, their loyalty, and their sacrifice.

I was showing a co-worker Google’s Mission Statement, which is one of the most breathtakingly simple and elegant I’ve ever seen:

“Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

Makes you wonder if they’ll ever buy out Project Gutenberg, scan in every public domain work available, put it online, and make our idiot Librarian of Congress Mr. Billington eat his words about digitizing books, eh?

But, me being me, I poked around a little more and found Google’s official corporate history.

It’s what’s at the bottom of that page that I think says more about Google’s culture than anything else. Remember, kids, this is an official corporate document, naked to the world:

“What’s next from Google? Hard to say. We don’t talk much about what lies ahead, because we believe one of our chief competitive advantages is surprise. Surprise and innovation. Our two chief competitive advantages are surprise, innovation and an almost fanatical devotion to our users. Well, you get the idea.”

This goes way past Sergey and Larry’s pledge to “Do no evil.” This is the spirit of play in its best sense.

Bravo.

This is the best representation I’ve seen of this basic idea so far… Lord knows {oops} I’ve heard people talk about it, as a concept.

OK, this is going to be my last political post before the election. And in it, I want to talk about voting.

On Tuesday, 2 November 2004, if you’re an eligible American, please vote.

I don’t care so much how you vote. Even those of you who will vote for Bush — and I assume in any sufficiently large quasi-random collection of people such as my friends list there are some — I would say that we’re Americans first, and supporters of a particular candidate second.

Mind you… Senior members of the Republican Party hierarchy might not agree.

Some of the best reporting I’ve heard on this was done by the radio show This American Life. Last week, they even had a special segment on vote fraud, and they’ve posted it as its own Real Audio file. (if you need RealPlayer to hear that, start at http://www.real.com/ ) And, as they point out, while it’s true “both sides do it”, the scale is massively disproportional — hundeds of votes in the case of Democrats, tens of thousands of votes in the case of Republicans.

More than anything else, the big approach taken by the two parties has been this:

* Republicans want as few people as possible to vote, participate, talk, go to rallies, etc.

* Democrats want as many people as possible to vote, participate, talk, go to rallies, etc.

I’m enough of a small-d democrat to know which approach I vastly prefer, which approach seems vastly more honest, which approach seems to stem from confidence, and not fear. Fear of our fellow citizens, no less.

So there is no small irony that while the Bush view has no place for me, I make way to co-exist with those who support Bush.

But that’s America for you.

Now, some of you may live in what you’ve been told are “safe” states. Some of you may think your vote doesn’t matter.

I think the people who sell that point-of-view are, indeed, selling something. That they are trying to persuade you of something other than the truth.

I don’t think any state is “safe”. I think every vote matters.

I think the common, average, everyday American voter is the most potent political force in the world. And I think hundreds of millions of dollars are spent to discourage us poor sods who fit that description because the political professionals are so damned afraid of us.

Political spending keeps going up and up, yes? Yet participation keeps going down and down, yes?

That means one of two things. Either political professionals have no idea for the value of a dollar, and are throwing their money away — tempting, I’ll grant — or…

Or what they’re buying is your silence.

If you want to be a rebel, if you want to be heard, if you want either change or more of the same, if you want The Few to take notice of The Many, if you want to honor our soldiers, both alive and dead…

Vote.

I’ve never seen a dollar bill punch a ballot.

Vote.

Put it to you this way: If voting was so goddamned ineffective, why are so many people spending so much money to convince you NOT to do it? What do you think they’re afraid of?

YOU, big boys, and big girls.

Vote.

*^*^*^*

But, Hal, I hear you say, what’s in it for me? Not some high-falutin’ abstract greater good thing, I mean cash on the barrelhead?

Fine. Have you ever heard of http://www.HOTorNOT.org/ ? It’s a kinda-sorta dating site, which has a certain (young) fan base.

The guys who own HOT or NOT have started a new project — VOTE or NOT.

Basically, if you click on this link, and vote (and didn’t sign up when akirlu ran this, because you can only sign up once), you become eligible for a chance at $100,000. If someone signs up citing you as a referral, that’s a second chance for you to win $100,000.

Yes, many people have been signing up. But nowhere near as many as buy lottery tickets every day, and hey, it doesn’t cost you anything.

All you have to do is sign up, and vote.

*^*^*^*

But, even if you don’t sign up at VOTE or NOT…

Please.

Vote.

Back on the last weekend of February, there was an SF convention here in Seattle called Potlach.

pecunium gave me a lens, a 60-300mm zoom that he didn’t need anymore, and this was my first real chance to play with it. To show you how far behind I can get in such things, I only received my pictures back today, having taken them to the lab last week.

The pictures use Tri-X 400ASA black and white film, pushed to 1600. They’re all from the last day of the con, when nearly everyone was in the con suite, in one biggish, happy, party-like atmosphere. The light was coming in through the windows, and I thought it was very striking.

I’m pleased to say it appears to have come out on film that way as well.

Even though they’re B&W and small, I’ll put them behind a cut…