Back of the Envelope

Wow, it's been a while since I've done one of these. Two months, in fact. I'm going to make this two separate posts, one for October and one for November. I'll eventually move them back to the proper place in the archives (November 1 and December 1), but I'll just note here that these weren't written until December 5th. Anyway, here are all the important posts from October.

---

Nuclear Bunker Buster symposium -- My post for Hugh Hewitt's nuclear bunker buster symposium, wherein I argue that we should develop such weapons only if we're willing to use them.

An Unexpected Answer, Chapter 1 of an unnamed story -- Well, the story has a name now, but this is where you should start if you want to read Eyes in the Shadow.

Iraq and al Qaeda -- After pointing out some new evidence of an Iraq-al Qaeda link, I resign myself to the fact that if you don't already believe in a link between the two, it's going to take more evidence than you ever see in the intelligence business.

Stolen Honor -- I point out that the Democrats were behaving pretty hypocritically to go up in arms over Stolen Honor without batting an eye at Michael Moore's plan to broadcast Fahrenheit 9/11 on election eve. I don't think any of the big blogs pointed this out, but I still didn't get an Instalanche or anything. I ask you, "Is that fair?"

Why can't they stay out of our elections? -- Why does everyone in the world think they should have a say in our elections? I say, "Sure, you can vote in the US, if we can vote in your country."

Hmm, I thought the other Jonathan Edwards spoke for the dead -- John Edwards promises miracles without even feeling the need to address the ethical problem. Evil which you overlook because it's inconvenient leads to the worst abuses.

The most boring video in the world -- Why are children's videos so mind-numbingly dull to adults?

First impressions of Doom III -- Okay, I admit, I was compelled to buy this game. And it is one tense game, let me tell you!

Draft rumor e-mail counterattack -- Doc Rampage writes an e-mail designed to counter the draft rumor.

Leadership and IQs -- I don't think there's a direct correlation between leadership skills and IQ.

Breaking and entering -- A heartwarming story of breaking into my sister's home.

The religious right: extreme minority? -- I google a few polls to show that the evangelical positions on embryonic stem cell research, abortion, and gay marriage are actually rather mainstream.

Tom Harrison now has a blog, Monday Afternoon. Tom's a regular visitor and commenter both here and at Doc's blog, so I'm glad to see he's finally blogging. Go visit, and add him to your blogrolls. I have.

You may be wondering why I haven't posted much in the last couple of days. Despite what you may think, it's not because I've been playing too much Doom III. I've also been playing too much Jedi Academy. Now that I've got my computer working again--all right, so the desk fan pointing at the video card is not so much "fixed" as "temporary solution"--I wanted to pull out another first person shooter. To be honest, I think I like Jedi Academy better. Sure, Doom III has better graphics, and most of the weapons have a more satisfying feel to them, and it's a shining example of the survival-horror genre, but survival-horror was never my favorite. Given the option, I'd rather whip out my lightsaber and really mow through some Stormtroopers.

Anyway, aside from my obsession with computer games, I've also had the hardest time getting online. Dial-up is pathetic, and it's even worse when you have to compete with your parents and your sister to get online. I wasn't able to log in until after midnight last night, which is why you only got the Weekly Webcomic Review, and that was two hours late. I so need a new job someplace where I can get decently fast Internet service. More on that later.

It looks like I'll have Chapter 2 of the story I began here done in time for the next Storyblogging Carnival. I'm not sure we've done continuations of a story in progress in the Carnival before, so I guess I'll be setting a precedent. Between the writing and a couple of job applications last night, I'm afraid I didn't get much blogging ready for today. Yikes, the election's only a couple of weeks away and I'm blogging less, not more, about it. Well, check my sidebar, especially Blogs for Bush, for bloggers who are doing political commentary.

I'm fairly happy with the amount of writing I finished this weekend. All told, it's about 4,500 words added to Fire's sequel, although somewhere around 1,200 of them had been written earlier when I was first trying to figure out what a new character was like so I wrote a scene with him before I reached that point in the story. Anyway, I finally had a chance to merge that scene with the current storyline, which is harder than it sounds. It was a bit more complicated than just cutting and pasting--I had to edit too. Alright, alright! It wasn't that hard, so I guess it's really only 3,000+ words for this weekend. It's still pretty good for me, and I'm pretty happy with my progress, even if I'm still not sure where things are heading.

Meanwhile, I'm going to take a break from The War of the Elementals for a bit and see if I'm ready to write another chapter of the story I posted earlier this week. If so, it may appear in time for the fourth Storyblogging Carnival.

Sorry, folks, I wanted to get some writing done last night, so I didn't get a chance to prepare posts for today. I was going to say that the ISG report is actually good news. It may hurt Bush politically, but objectively, it means we got Saddam before he could get stockpiles of WMDs. That means we don't need to worry about those stockpiles falling into terrorist hands. However, never think that no WMDs have been found in Iraq. A couple of sarin and mustard gas shells may not be stockpiles, but one of those set off in the streets of New York could kill thousands. Even one is a breach of the UN resolutions, but frankly, you don't need to have found even one to realize that Saddam had broken the resolutions. Saddam was supposed to verifiably disarm; he refused and played games with inspectors. The US decided that the Gulf War ceasefire was null and void. (Frankly, how many times did Saddam have to violate it for it to become null and void? He was shooting at our planes, for goodness sake!) In the long run, it's not such a bad thing if rogue nations view the US as having a hair trigger when it comes to WMDs.

Well, I guess I did "say that the ISG report is actually good news." If I were going to spend more time on it, I'd have provided links. Maybe I'll do that when I get a chance later.

Meanwhile, don't forget to send your submissions to the Storyblogging Carnival. You have 12 hours left.

This is just a reminder that the storyblogging carnival is being hosted at Beyond Salvage. It will go up a week from today, but all entries must arrive before midnight Friday night. Check Robin Jones's Carnival announcement for more information.

One thing I noticed is that while my blogging has slowed down while I've been in Louisiana, my writing is going well. I'm over 30,000 words into the next part of The War of the Elementals. At this rate, I'll be finished with the rough draft in another month or two. (It's going well, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's going fast. It's a marathon, not a sprint.) Meanwhile, I'm preparing a story for the Storyblogging Carnival, something several years old that I had lying around. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to publish it--it certainly hasn't gone through the usual three revision process, and what I do have is incomplete--but I think it may go up as Part I of a story in progress.

It's been a while since I've done this, partially because my blogging has been sporadic, but I thought I ought to do a variation of the Week in Review. So here it goes:

Now accepting submissions to the Storyblogging Carnival — This is the inaugural post for the Storyblogging Carnival, where I lay out the ground rules.

Dozer's death — A short post on the death of my dog, Dozer.

Forgeries? — My first and only post on the forgeries CBS was presenting as proof of Bush's failure to live up to his National Guard responsibilites. I look at whether it's likely that Rove was behind it.

9/11 — A short remembrance about September 11th, 2001.

Storyblogging Carnival I — This is the first Storyblogging Carnival, with eight stories from around the blogosphere.

Allergies — I complain, loudly and longly, about my allergies.

Review of Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson — I review Dave Barry's Peter pan prequel.

Improvement in superconducting materials? — I consider the plausibility of an al Jazeera article about an improvement in superconductors.

The philosophy of the president — I talk about whether we really want the President to be a good philosopher.

Max's War — A very short story I wrote a while ago, giving a child's eye view of war.

The return of the draft? — I do my part to try to dispel the draft rumors.

Allawi and Kerry — I take Kerry to task for his contempt of Allawi.

Temporal anomaly at Instapundit — A double-post on Instapundit, separated by eight months, and the entire blogosphere goes up in flames.

Storyblogging Carnival II — The second storyblogging carnival, this time with twelve stories.

Catblogging — I don't usually do any catblogging, but I had to take some pictures of these guys.

Hosting a Storyblogging Carnival — I explain what's involved in hosting a Storyblogging Carnival.

Debate advice for Bush — My pre-debate advice for Bush, which turned out to be all wrong.