So, I've had a viral flu thing-y since about Monday. It sucks. To pass the time in bed I've been watching tons of Star Trek The Next Generation. I forgot how much I love it. TNG has such a rosey outlook. It says to us "in the future, peace will come as the result of calm, reason and science." It's reassuring.

I remember an essay I read or talk I heard somewhere about different periods of time and their concepts of the future. It's hard not to compare the Star Trek version of the future to the I Am Legend, 28 Days Later apocalyptic dystopian versions.

I guess what I'm getting at is this, I miss the days when science fiction was about building a beautiful future, not surviving a terrifying cataclysm. Any good places to look for good fiction? Can anyone relate to this?

Dance party on live TV! community access TCTV!

Friday February 1st's Dance Oly Dance features Olympia's very own The Pasties, performing live.

Come one, come all. The more the better. show up at 7:30. we go live with the dancing at 8pm. wear a radical costume.

at the TCTV studios, in the comcast building on the westside. 440 Yauger Way SW.

DIRECTIONS are here:

Okay first off for the squeamish I may reference my gun collection and reloading equipment. Hey, it's a small boat and my hobbies take up a decent bit of it....

I will apologize for the lack of pictures :-( I don't own a digital camera, but I will provide some links to pictures of similar boats to mine.

I get asked a lot not only about living on a sailboat, but how on earth can I do it one so small, and can't I afford something bigger?

Yes I could buy a bigger boat, but I am content with this one, plus I have a great price on a slip I couldn't get with a bigger boat.

The Aquarius 23 is a small trailerable sailing yacht. Lateral resistance is provided through a retractable centerboard. Most of the ballast is encased inside the hull in the form of lead and iron punching. The boat is self righting even with the centerboard up, an uncommon feature in boats of this type.

The cockpit is about seven feet long and can seat four people. A cutout in the transom sports a 5hp British Seagull outboard. The removable rudder/tiller assembly sits in a well inside the cockpit. On the starboard side of the cockpit is a small vented stowage locker for fuel, oil, life jackets, etc...

Stepping inside the main saloon (proper term BTW) on the starboard (right hand side) is a settee going the length of the cabin, approx 8.5' long. A drop leaf table is mounted on the centerboard trunk. With the leaf down, there is a clear passage to the v-berth and head. On the port (left hand) side of the boat is a smaller settee, and the galley, consisting of a stove, sink and icebox with a small cabinet below. Above the galley area is a plastic faced cabinet with retractable doors for storing food. Both settees have a "quarter berth" going the full length of the boat back underneath the cockpit seating area. This enables a person of any height to sleep on the port side, and two people to use the starboard settee.

I was talking with OlyBlogger Ogre Mage today and in the course of the conversation we came up with a weird, but not entirely unrealistic scenario for Iraq's future.

First, here's the precedent. When I was in high school, back when Richard Milhous Nixon was in office, the highly unpopular Vietnam War was continuing to drag on. The military recruiters really had their jobs cut out for them. So, what happened was this: when a young man got into any kind of legal trouble the judge would give him a choice-- serve time or serve your country. Several of my high school classmates went into uniform this way.

So, today. The Bushites are having trouble keeping up the troop numbers in the places where we went in to destroy all those weapons of mass destruction that didn't exist. But now we are stuck. In an extension of the 1970s "nudge from the judge," we place massive numbers of convicts in uniform and send them to Iraq and Afghanistan. Meanwhile, legitimate troops are sent home to finally be with their families and perhaps help in domestic disasters like Katrina, which is where they should've been in the first place helping to avoid the kind of total Bush Administration failure and incompetency we witnessed.

At first, it seems to work. Professional soldiers at home really helping real Americans in need (what a concept!) and out in Iraq, disposable American convicts running around with powerful weapons shooting at disposable Iraqis. And when everyone is dead, we can march in under a flag of democracy and claim all the oil in the name of Anglo-Americanism. Sounds sweet, if you are a sweaty-palmed corpulent neo-con in an air-conditioned office who sees the outside world through venetian blinds only when you separate the slats in order to peek out there.

However.

Last night I am playing Rock Band. I am trying to 5-star all Easy songs. I have the main game songs completed and all of the downloaded songs that I have except the Metallica songs which are all 4 starred. So I start with Ride the Lightening and make it though the song warming up. There is quite a bit of kick drum in the song and I need a couple run troughs to get prepared.

On my third run I am doing great, keeping my multiplier at 4x and not messing up the fills. Then I feel this weird lump under my foot. It was like my sock had balled up or something. I finish the song and almost have the 5 star but not quite. I look down and my kick drum pedal has split in half.

The break was just behind the spring so it still works but most likely not for long. I am thinking of buying a real kick pedal and trying my hand at improvising some thing more sturdy and like the real thing.

Here are a couple examples I found:

• Simple
• Complex

Any drummers have an old kick pedal laying around that I could purchase cheaply?

•What: A Community Forum on Climate Change in the Pacific Northwest

•Who: A panel of South Sound and state lawmakers, business leaders and scientific experts on global warming will talk with residents about environmental issues.

•Where: The Washington Center for the Performing Arts, 512 Washington St. S.E., Olympia

•When: 7 to 10:30 p.m. today

•Admission: Free

Other events

•Today: The films "The Story of Stuff" and "Climate Change: Olympia's Call to Action" will be shown at noon and 4 p.m. in Building 26, Room 105, at South Puget Sound Community College, 2011 Mottman Road S.W., Olympia.

•Today: Climate-change workshops will be from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at The Evergreen State College, 2700 Evergreen Parkway N.W.

•Thursday: Information booths, demonstrations and food, noon to 2 p.m. at SPSCC's Student Union Building, 2011 Mottman Road S.W., Olympia. Speaker Paul Horton of Climate Solutions will discuss possible climate-change solutions.

•Thursday: Tamra Gilbertson and Kevin Smith, researchers with Carbon Trade Watch, will give a presentation about the effects of carbon trading and offsets in third-world countries and more prosperous nations from 3 to 5 p.m. in Lecture Hall 4 at Evergreen. For more information, call 360-867-6137 or e-mail chriset@evergreen.edu.

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