Magus

Cravats

2009-12-21T18:49:37Z

For the years I've been involved in re-enactment of the English Regency, I have been frustrated by the absolute dearth of information on what seems to be one of the defining features of Regency menswear: the cravat. Given this problem, I've taken it upon myself to do some research on the topic, with limited success. I'd like to put together a good resource so men getting into Regency reenactment have somewhere to turn to learn more about neckwear, but I'm not yet satisfied with the quality of the information I have.

I have a lot of historian-type friends, and I think it's time to turn to you all for help. If anybody can provide any of the following, I would appreciate it greatly:

Access to or measurements of primary sources [material, thickness, and particularly dimensions of existing neckcloths in archives, preferably with information on when, where, and in what context they were worn]
Leads to non-satirical contemporary secondary sources describing details of the construction of neckcloths and their manner of tying. White/Le Blanc's "The Art of Tying the Cravat" is useful, but a work of satire, and thus teasing out what's exaggerated is tricky. The popular-on-the-web "Neckclothitania" is a parody of that.
Links to any treatment of the subject I may have missed thus far. I seem to get a lot of fashion plates and portraits and the like, which are great, but rarely any instructions, let alone instructions with accompanying documentation.

Note that at present I'm looking for about two generations worth of the beginning of the 19th century; if I get enough information to distill it into an instructional form I'll be careful to be clear about likely dates for things. I'd be happy to have sources outside the target date range as well, as I might eventually branch out depending on how this goes.

Originally posted at http://marcmagus.dreamwidth.org/123748.html. ( comment[s]|comment there)

LJ GenderFail Update

2009-12-15T15:24:49Z

I awoke this morning to an email from the LiveJournal Community Care Team explaining that the changelog is beta code and that they would have fixed this before release:

Thank you for taking the time to contact us with your concerns. We understand that gender is not binary, and intend to respect that understanding for our users.

At this time, the code you reference is not live on the site, and will not become so in the future. We know that you, and many other users, have serious concerns about any requirement to specify gender, so we'd like to take a moment to explain events and our position further.

The intention of this code was to change the sign-up process to include a field for the selection of gender; that the code would completely disable the "Unspecified" option at the same time was deemed unacceptable. While the code in question had gone to our beta (testing) server, it had not gone to our production server, and will not do so due to this problem. Furthermore, we'd like to clarify that code posted to the changelog community is not always final, as such code must then go through the beta testing process and can often be changed before actual implementation.

Additionally, some erroneous information has been spread regarding the potential public display of the gender field. We would like to clarify that gender is not currently publicly displayed on the profile, nor anywhere else on the site, and there are no plans to change this behavior.

Regards, LiveJournal Community Care Team

Given hope, I went and checked out the changelog. True to their word, r16042 rolls back the commits associated with the gender field over the last few days.

Hopefully when this comes back it will retain an "Unspecified" field and add "Other".

Given that the first diff went in on 2009-12-10, I kind of wonder how long it would have taken before somebody inside LiveJournal had caught this and fixed it [and how they would have fixed it] had synecdochic not caught it and pointed it out.

Originally posted at http://marcmagus.dreamwidth.org/123513.html. ( comment[s]|comment there)

LJ GenderFail

2009-12-15T04:48:35Z

Update: LiveJournal has rolled back the relevant changes and sent letters indicating these changes would never have been allowed to go live.

If you haven't heard yet, synecdochic has pointed out that LiveJournal is changing their codebase to make the gender field mandatory at account creation. http://synecdochic.dreamwidth.org/366609.html

I've been asked if the code really does what's being reported, and I'm starting to see a fair amount of speculation about what it does and what it will do, so I'm going to go over the changelog entries which seem relevant myself and report back on what I find.

Caveats

I do not have a strong working knowledge of the LJ codebase. I'll be working off diffs, and things could easily have unexpected interactions [I've already found one change that doesn't do what its comments say].
I'm only looking at changelog entries in the last 5 days which have the word 'gender' in the title.

Ok, here we go...

Account creation wizard only has two options: "Male" and "Female". Input verification [attempts to] requires that one of these options be selected 1, or gives error "Gender must be specified". 2
Code was provided to allow a user to specify whether to display your gender [with friends-only, nobody, everybody type permissions] in your profile, but that code appears to have been removed. I'm sorry, but I'm too lazy to check the diffs against each other to see what remains of it.
I see no change to the display routines [so it looks like behavior will remain the same as it currently is for whether gender is displayed in your profile....I think that's never?]
I see nothing which clearly affects editing existing profiles, though this code might apply. If it applies, that means you'll be able to change your gender later, but existing account holders will have to select a gender the next time they edit their profile. If it doesn't, that existing code [which doesn't yet have a change applied] would allow all users to change their gender, including back to unspecified, through the profile editor. This is where my lack of deep knowledge of the codebase is particularly problematic. Basically, I'm not sure what will happen, and they may introduce further changes down the road.

TLDR: I'm not 100% certain, but my code browse suggests this forces only new users to select a gender. I'd anticipate an upcoming change to force existing users to select a gender at next profile edit, if this doesn't do it. I believe you will still be able to change your gender in your profile, unless they decide to add some extra Fail.

Edit: If it's not immediately apparent to you why this is a bad thing, well, I don't have the energy to explain it right now. rm does an excellent job at http://rm.livejournal.com/1770434.html.

Originally posted at http://marcmagus.dreamwidth.org/123309.html. ( comment[s]|comment there)

Foot pump?

2009-12-15T01:14:23Z

Car has a mysterious flat. Will deal with it tomorrow. In case it's some sort of a slow leak, anybody out there have a foot pump I could borrow for a little while, and able to bring it to me?

So much for going dancing tonight.

Originally posted at http://marcmagus.dreamwidth.org/123128.html. ( comment[s]|comment there)

Because you needed one more way to contact me

2009-12-10T22:02:31Z

As it required minimal effort on my part and might someday help someone get in touch with me, I've turned on LJTalk.

As with the other IM-type services I use, I'm just going to leave it logged in all the time. Feel free to use it if that's convenient for you.

I'm experimenting with the feature that lets some notifications come as IMs rather than as emails....it's a nice idea; we'll see if I actually end up liking it.

Originally posted at http://marcmagus.dreamwidth.org/122706.html. ( comment[s]|comment there)

Cool!

2009-12-10T20:59:50Z

When did Dreamwidth sneak the "Quote" button into the comment editor?

I'm still not all that big on application-in-your-browser type stuff, but this gets points for making a tool that directly addresses a common task one might want to perform and makes it easier for the user. Go Dreamwidth devteam.

Originally posted at http://marcmagus.dreamwidth.org/122552.html. ( comment[s]|comment there)

Sexism and Slacks

2009-12-10T18:59:09Z

It seems Levi Strauss & Co. no longer wants my business. This is really frustrating, as for at least a decade I relied on them as making decent, affordable garments for my lower body which fit me well without a lot of hassle. Now, not only is this no longer true, but they've decided they can't advertise effectively without being ludicrously insulting to vast swaths of the population.

rm points me to their ad campaign for their Dockers trousers, which made me angry enough I sent them the following note at their contact page:

I am completely appalled by your "MAN-IFESTO". Disappointed, that you are making it more difficult for me to buy your products. Angry, that you thought it was a good idea to insult me and my friends with this gender-essentialist, anti-feminine, man-hating tripe.

I have been wearing both Dockers and Levi's jeans for almost fifteen years now. I'm a repeat customer, and I'm a man. It's coming time to do some replacing, and, as I refuse to support this terrible message with my hard-earned money, I fear I will have to shop around with your competitors. Hopefully there's someone who makes a decent men's trouser and doesn't feel the need to sell it with personal attacks against me and the people I love. You are clearly not that company.

Sincerely,

Marc, an ex-satisfied customer

On top of that, as I think I mentioned a few months ago in this journal, I've discovered they no longer make their garments true to fit [if they ever did]. They also seem no longer to make a jean with the fit I like [even if it were my size, which they don't make]. Anybody have any suggestions for non-evil brands to try for either slacks or jeans?

Originally posted at http://marcmagus.dreamwidth.org/122152.html. ( comment[s]|comment there)

Jane Austen's Birthday Dance

2009-12-09T23:13:27Z

Jane Austen's Birthday Dance in Rehoboth, MA. This Sunday, 2009-12-13, 13:00-16:00. I'm told Rehoboth is near Providence, and about an hour from the Boston area.

I'm planning to go. I'll hopefully be sporting my new breeches, which will hopefully be the first time I've ever worn a finished pair of breeches at an event. There's emphatically no costume requirement for this event.

This is Regency English country dance. As I keep saying, it's trivially accessible to people who do SCD, and skills in contra, modern ECD, and Victorian contras all apply. The event is beginner friendly, and everything will be taught.

I encourage other people to come. There's currently space in my car if anybody wants to carpool.

Disabling comments on LiveJournal to centralize responses in case there's carpooling discussion, and also so I'm sure I'll see any replies.

Originally posted at http://marcmagus.dreamwidth.org/121986.html. ( comment[s]|comment there)

Argh

2009-12-09T21:29:01Z

LJ's comment notification is broken and seems to be getting worse, not better, as time passes. If they don't fix it soon, I may turn off comments at LJ and direct everybody to Dreamwidth [something I've been considering anyway to consolidate discussion].

If I did so, I hope the comment count and direct link to mode=reply would suffice to not be too much of a pain for people to comment.

Originally posted at http://marcmagus.dreamwidth.org/121852.html. ( comment[s]|comment there)

Warning Label

2009-12-09T20:25:15Z

[via ninjaslug]

If I came with a warning label, what would it say?

Originally posted at http://marcmagus.dreamwidth.org/121350.html. ( comment[s]|comment there)

So Wrong I had to Share

2009-12-09T19:26:37Z

jonquil and I were discussing what Orrin Hatch's "mock Torah" might look like, and came up with the Disney!Torah.

It has a Mickey Mouse white puffy gloved hand, and wears Mickey Mouse as Sorcerer's Apprentice red robe, blue peaked moons-and-stars cap [with ears attached], and an old spellbook "breastplate".

I'm terrified someone's going to tell me such a thing actually already exists.

Originally posted at http://marcmagus.dreamwidth.org/121256.html. ( comment[s]|comment there)

Microwave

2009-12-09T03:45:43Z

Because I am ridiculous, I basically only use my microwave for the following intervals:

0:11
0:33
0:44
0:55
1:06
1:39
2:22
3:33
4:44
5:55
9:28
10:00
10:39
15:00

I don't suppose anybody else is weird like me?

Originally posted at http://marcmagus.dreamwidth.org/121061.html. ( comment[s]|comment there)

More Health Benefits of Cocoa?

2009-12-03T05:21:38Z

[via stakebait]

Nutrition: Chocolate Milk May Reduce Inflammation

Pretty cool news, but:

Move over, red wine. Make room for chocolate milk. . . . Researchers noted, however, that the effect was not as pronounced as that seen with red wine.

So, the new kid in town is . . . demonstrably inferior to the champ?

I consume about 45 mL of cocoa powder every morning. I wonder if I'm getting any sort of effective anti-inflammatory effect. I think it makes me feel a little better in general, though I hadn't thought about it specifically with respect to pain.

Originally posted at http://marcmagus.dreamwidth.org/120600.html. ( comment[s]|comment there)

LJ Black Friday (Signal Boost)

2009-11-27T16:46:32Z

rm has made a Black Friday shopping list of LJers promoting their wares or those of people or small businesses they're connected to. Some are having discounts.

If you're doing gift shopping and want to support artists and small businesses, it's a great resource.

Originally posted at http://marcmagus.dreamwidth.org/120520.html. ( comment[s]|comment there)

Will Phillips is a Hero

2009-11-21T05:07:22Z

For anybody who doesn't know who Will Phillips is yet, go watch the CNN coverage. I'll be here when you get back.

If you don't have the time or can't view the video where you are for some reason, he's a 10-year-old who has decided he will no longer stand to recite the pledge of allegiance until the clause "liberty and justice for all" is fulfilled. The specific failure he perceives is that same-sex marriage is denied to those who desire it.

There's a lot of discussion about how adorable/cute/etc. he is, and sure, he is. A fact which is totally irrelevant, and which should ideally be removed from the discussion because it distracts and diminishes him.

Put simply, Will Phillips is a better man than I.

He observed an injustice and decided to respond with civil disobedience. He has persevered in face of ostracism from his peers. He has continued despite explicit instructions from authority to desist, and in spite of that authority being used to make his life more difficult. I would be shocked to learn that, in addition to the above [all stated in the CNN report], he hasn't been threatened either directly or indirectly. He continues, and carries himself well, despite the obvious discomfort the media attention is causing to his father.

So please, stop talking about how precocious he is. Call it like it is. Will Phillips is a hero.

Originally posted at http://marcmagus.dreamwidth.org/120279.html. ( comment[s]|comment there)

Senator

2009-11-18T00:21:39Z

Call me shortsighted, but I don't want to elect a Senator based on how well they'll direct Federal money to my state, thus creating more jobs. I want to select them based on how well they'll enact appropriate legislation for my country.

This message paid for by television advertisements for the MA special Senatorial election.

Originally posted at http://marcmagus.dreamwidth.org/119376.html. ( comment[s]|comment there)

I'm not the only packrat I know...

2009-11-12T17:44:43Z

It just occurred to me that a lot of my friends, like me, have the habit storing potentially useful but currently unused items in case they'll be needed again in the future. I've also been thinking that there are some specific household items which I believe would improve my quality of life, and possibly my health, particularly through this winter. I'm not really in a position to be buying new things at the moment.

So, if anybody has any of the following just sitting around unused, and would be willing to loan them to me for a winter, I'd really appreciate it:

room humidifier -- the air here is seriously dry, and the switch to using a lot of electric heating in my room is only going to exacerbate that; the forced-air heating at least has an attached humidifier.
sun lamp/light box -- I noticed this week that my apartment is currently getting no direct sunlight, as the sun is below the roofline for the entire day.
electric mattress warmer/blanket -- something that will heat just my bed at night. I'm thinking something I can safely lie on top of would be good for my back [and thus my shoulders, and thus my arms, and thus my hands], and I think such things exist, but if there are safety/availability constraints it's possible a blanket would be preferable.

Originally posted at http://marcmagus.dreamwidth.org/119129.html. ( comment[s]|comment there)

Top Chef: Las Vegas gripe

2009-11-11T19:08:37Z

[Yes, I watch a lot of television these days.]

This is old at this point, and I've seen it before, but I threw it on to occupy my attention while I was eating breakfast, and hit this quote again.

"Who would you rather see in wet clothes: girls or fat boys?"

Fuck you. On many, many levels, I find this appalling. To name just a few:

They're not pulling off their shirts and jumping into the pool to give you a good show, they're doing so because they'll find it fun to do so.
By saying this, you're supporting the idea that women should do things like this in order to give other people a show. That is, you're encouraging the cultural objectification of female bodies.
By saying this, you support the idea that male bodies are something to be ashamed of, never to be displayed in public.
By saying this, you support the idea that fat bodies are something to be ashamed of, never to be displayed in public.

I'm sure other people have already discussed this to death, as it was months ago, but it bugged me today and I wanted to take a minute to rant. Not that this is the only incredibly inappropriate moment even in that one episode ["Purty" comes to mind. Seriously? You can't be bothered to learn her name?]

Originally posted at http://marcmagus.dreamwidth.org/118835.html. ( comment[s]|comment there)

Why isn't this all over my friends list?

2009-11-09T16:54:38Z

New York State Governor Paterson has called for an extraordinary session of the State Senate for tomorrow, Tuesday, 10 November, 2009. He announced last Thursday that he will include his gay marriage bill on the agenda for that session.

Other than one email forwarded to me, I've been seeing surprisingly little call to action. I don't know if this is flying under the radar, if I've just not seen it, if people are still exhausted from Maine last week, or if I'm missing something else.

Regardless, a high fraction of my reading list are New York residents. Give your state senator a call, or at least drop them an email. You can get their contact info here.

Edit: added year to date

Originally posted at http://marcmagus.dreamwidth.org/118750.html. ( comment[s]|comment there)

Friends

2009-11-07T06:24:22Z

Just got back from spending about 9 hours at friends' house playing games, sharing a meal, and generally enjoying the company of people whose company I enjoy.

I've realized I don't do this often enough, and it's a major thing that's been missing from my life since I lived in the dorms, and even more since I left Poughkeepsie. I've observed before that I'm a much more social person than I think I am.

And yet, lacking the ability to wander down the hall and bother people, or call a couple people up and try to get a game together, or a daily time a bunch of us tend to gather for dinner, or a whole bunch of semi-scheduled entertainment activities I could go to and expect people to be there if I wanted, I'm finding I have a tendency to stay at home on the computer and maybe watch TV and/or talk to my girlfriend over IM. Which I value, but it's not getting me the comfortable companionship I'm apparently really missing.

I think this is a lot of why I keep entertaining the fantasy of some sort of communal living arrangement with friends who share interests with me. If the people hanging out in my living room were people I was enthusiastic about chatting with, likely to be doing something in my living room I'd want to participate in, and interested in sharing meals and the like, it would go a long way toward recreating that sense that there was readily-available socialization around. Because I can be pretty lazy, and I miss having so many cool people around that I could pretty much always find someone if I was feeling lonely. Not that that was so good for me getting my schoolwork done . . ..

This seems to be turning more melancholy than thoughtful. Ah, well. I miss you, Friends and Family, flung far and wide as you are, and I still love you, even if we haven't spoken in a decade.

Originally posted at http://marcmagus.dreamwidth.org/118402.html. ( comment[s]|comment there)

V

2009-11-05T17:17:55Z

[Again, I started to write a comment to somebody else and decided it was better as its own journal entry.]

So I watched the V premiere the other night, and . . . it had some mild ups and some pretty severe downs. I don't know if this one's going to be a keeper, though I might watch a few more episodes. Some random thoughts:

I can't stop giggling about Jesus dive-bombing Roy. There was just something wonderfully silly about that in my mind.
When the ships first arrive over the major cities, we have a lot of shots of our cast reacting in various ways. In it, we get a couple of shots from the POV of one of those characters looking up in the sky at the ridiculously fucking big ship over the city [those things are huge, guys]. This shot is a staple of the genre because it works . . . it gives us, the audience, a share of that feeling of awe and terror that something huge showing up in the sky should give us. Mixed into the middle of it is a view-from-above of the ship not quite filling the screen with the city's buildings all visible below it. That whooshing sound you're hearing? That's all the awe and wonder getting sucked out of the viewer's experience because the amazing, majestic, possibly godlike mysterious ships suddenly don't look so amazing. WTF were you thinking, guys?
Really? "The Vs"? That's what we all call them? Even though they call themselves "The Visitors"? Right from the beginning, when we all think they're the most awesome thing since sliced bread, we can't use the name they've given us for themselves that's conveniently in our language? How . . . American. No, actually, it just sounds weird, even if we do seem to have a fetish for initialisms these days.
Good job on everybody suddenly and mysteriously showing up in church right after the whole world changes. Is anybody else feeling that the creative teams for Flash Forward and V read slacktivist on Left Behind and decided to split between them all the suggestions for what should have happened in the response to a major, possibly apocalyptic, event?
The V's have gravity manipulation of some sort sufficient to keep those huge fucking ships in a low geostationary orbit over arbitrary cities without any apparent effort and cheap enough that they use it for art displays. Yet their shuttlecraft appear to use some sort of combustion-based impulse power to launch? Does this strike anybody else as weird? Did I misread that visual? [Refrigerator moment here]
The secret society that the FBI is tracking as a terrorist cell but turns out to be the only people who know what's going on thing was kind of cool, although it resolved really quickly. Ditto the mole bit. Although there's still something slightly weird going on there [why did he tip them off, or is there another mole?]. I'm hoping the leader of the cell turns out to be a V [he didn't offer proof like he demanded that I saw] and the whole thing is part of the plot, to round up potential resistance and eliminate them. Otherwise, something about this feels slightly off.
Journalist fails basic test of integrity. Nice.
"Universal Health Care". Ok, I'm worried about this one. Are we intended to read this as "Look, the V's are so amazingly good and godlike they're offering to heal everybody." or "'Universal Health Care', see, they're evil!"? I really can't tell . . . it was during the ominous "We, the audience, already know they're evil and out to get us" phase. If this is going to be a really unsubtle political message I highly disapprove of, I'm going to get mighty cranky. Because, really, you're against being taxed for universal health care, ok, I can see where that comes from. You think universal health care is inherently evil such that it would be bad even if it actually didn't cost anybody anything, we have a problem.
Also, what's with that? Given the whole V front of "we come in peace" "we offer technology in exchange for water and a suspiciously unspecified compound" "we'll heal the world's sick" amazing goodness, we could have easily let the audience play along with "Wow, this is great! But something feels slightly off..." that the world is experiencing for months. The FBI person could have taken longer to track down the cell, giving us an increasing "terrorists or freedom fighters" ambiguity before it resolved. Instead, a lot of potentially interesting stuff is resolved in the first episode to put all the pieces in place, and I suspect the show will suffer for it.

IOW, I kind of wish this show had been done by a JMS or even a Joss [I still love the Jasmine arc]. I caught the first bit of the original when Syfy [gak] was showing it Sunday night, and it seems to have handled a lot of this stuff much better, with both a good sense of amazement and wonder, and keeping us going with an uncertainty as to exactly what was going on. Maybe I'll obtain and watch that in its entirety instead.
"Compromising one's principles for the greater good is not a shameful act, it's a noble one." That line, OTOH, was awesome. The show needs a lot more of that.
Did I just miss it, or was there disappointingly little evidence that the rest of the world was reacting to this in any way, or in any way really affected? I feel like I missed the "talking in all languages" from the beginning of the original. Plenty of shots of random Americans, at least, so it wasn't all about the protagonists--that I appreciated. But where's everybody else; were they even in the news clips?

If you didn't watch it, I probably wouldn't bother unless you're looking for something to do. It might get better, and I'll probably give it a bit longer to see [and, knowing myself, get sucked into even the lousy story and keep with it to see where it goes], but after one episode I can't say I really recommend it. As serious SF, it's not quite getting it. As fluff, the density of fun/great moments just isn't high enough, at least not yet; there's better ridiculous crack out there [Eastwick]. Meh.

Originally posted at http://marcmagus.dreamwidth.org/118050.html. ( comment[s]|comment there)

Ballot Addendum

2009-11-04T15:56:34Z

If anybody looked closely, they may have noticed an oddity to the ordering for the Alderman-at-Large candidates. They were sorted alphabetically, but the incumbents were all listed before the one non-incumbent candidate. Presumably the sort is, in fact, list all incumbent candidates in alphabetical order followed by all other candidates in alphabetical order.

I have mixed feelings about the alphabetizing thing. It has some screwy effects in terms of giving some people an advantage over others, which is bad. It also makes it easier for people to find the name they're looking for, which is good. Thus, while I have some temptation to suggest listing them in a random order, I'm not sure the confusion is worth it.

However, the confusion caused by pulling one candidate out of alphabetical order in order to demote them is definitely not worth it. I can't think of any benefit to this [except that it gives an advantage to incumbents, which they already have; not a benefit in my book]. It's confusing and it distorts results. This is bad organization, people.

Originally posted at http://marcmagus.dreamwidth.org/117919.html. ( comment[s]|comment there)

Elections and Voting Machines

2009-11-03T23:18:29Z

I just returned from my polling place. I feel I could have done a better job of being aware of local issues earlier and taking opportunities to discuss the candidates with the small number of people I know who'd be voting on the same tickets and gotten a better sense of the relative merits of the candidates. I did find the relevant debates for the local community access TV station and listen to them, however, and formed an opinion. It helped that for one position there were two candidates, one of whom came across as a single-issue candidate with a stance I was dubious about.

But what I really want to talk about is the voting process. I forget if I mentioned this last year, but it bears repeating: my Ward makes voting really simple and straightforward, in a way that gives me good confidence in the accuracy of the machine-tabulated results, and in a way that leaves a strong paper-trail which would be simple and straightforward to count manually should it be necessary.

You walk into the polling place. A person asks you for your address and name, locates it in the check-in book, and marks you as having entered. You can see all of this. You are handed a ballot in a "privacy sleeve".

You then walk to an empty booth, which is basically a table with walls dividing it into four parts, which you stand at while filling out your ballot. There is a black felt-tip pen there. You slide the ballot out of its sleeve, mark it with the marker, and slide it back into the sleeve.

To elaborate, marking the ballot consists of drawing a dark line from the tail to the head of the arrow pointing at the name of the candidate you wish to vote for. That's it. Using instruments [pen and paper] that most Americans are reasonably proficient in, in a straightforward way. If you want to see more about how that works, the ballot can, at least at present, be seen here. They've made it pretty hard to vote for the wrong person, and it seems to me that ambiguous ballots would be fairly rare. There are even clear instructions with examples provided at the top of the ballot.

Then you walk over to the exit area. You tell the person there your address and name, and they mark you in their book, just like when you came in. Then you walk over to the machine. It has a little green light showing it's ready, and a prominently displayed number which is presumably the count of ballots it has accepted. You feed your ballot out of the privacy sleeve and into the machine using the slot which runs most of the length of the sleeve. This is probably the most difficult part of the process, and I have to take on faith that they have people reasonably trained to assist without violating privacy if somebody needs help. It should be pretty doable. The slot doesn't line up with the arrows. The machine feeds in your ballot, makes a little noise, and another light lights up and you can see the counter increase. You're done.

Some highlights of the system:

You mark the ballot directly, and can thus see that it is what you intend.
A machine counts the votes, reducing needed manpower and potential for human error.
There is a clear paper trail should a recount be called for.
You don't need multiple computers to allow multiple people to fill out their ballots at the same time.
Privacy can be readily offered without interfering with the effectiveness of the system [if you wanted more private booths fr marking the ballot, they could certainly be provided; ditto when you're feeding your single ballot into the machine].

I've heard tell of electronic voting machines with touch screens which silently accept input. I'd like to say, for the record, this is terrible design. I personally have a lot of trouble with touchscreen input for some mysterious reason presumably related to my skin chemistry. I also have very steady hands. But I would not trust that the input a touchscreen had accepted would be what I had intended: anything like this must have a feature which makes it clear to the user what input it received, not just that it received valid input. This is true for anything using a touchscreen for input.

The system we use here in Somerville Ward 6 might not be the best one out there, I don't know, but it's the best one I've ever personally used, and it at least passes basic tests of not totally sucking. Whoever was on that search committee, good work.

Originally posted at http://marcmagus.dreamwidth.org/117723.html. ( comment[s]|comment there)

Upcoming Dance Events

2009-10-27T19:17:39Z

It seems posting about events I'll be attending has the positive effect that friends of mine frequently decide to join me. Accordingly, I'm going to try to occasionally post information about upcoming events I'm planning to attend.

You can always contact me about any of these for further information; for some I don't have information or links on hand to provide.

October 31st, Albany NY, Fall Frolic [SCD] ($50, Students $25)

The Albany-area Scottish Country Dance group hosts an annual ball in late October. Always lots of fun and good dancing, I try to attend every year. On Halloween this year, which means costumes! No costume requirement I'm aware of. More information in the PDF flyer, including instructions for all the dances, 'cause SCD folks are cool like that.

December 13th, Rehoboth, MA (near Providence, RI), Jane Austen's Birthday Tea Dance [Regency]

Afternoon Regency Tea Dance, period day dress encouraged but not required. I'll probably post about this again when I have more detail.

December 19th, Salem, MA, Fezziwig Ball [Civil War?]

This is being hosted by CVD, and I don't yet have very complete details on the event. Evening event to be preceded by a lantern-light promenade in Salem. Period dress encouraged but not required: period being anytime during the life of Charles Dickens [1817-1870]. Dance likely to be primarly Civil War-era, but that's a guess.

I may not be able to attend this one, as mid and late 19th Century dance features a lot of couple dancing that's very hard on my right forearm. These are interspersed with set dances and quadrilles danced in the stately walking style.

February 21st, Cambridge, MA, Tea Dance [Regency]

I'll definitely be attending the Regency Tea Dance. Also worth mentioning is the rest of the Vintage Tea Dance series--I'm sure I'll be attending some of them, although as they're mostly Victorian, my arm may again limit my participation this year. These are great, fun events, though; I encourage people to go without me. These are Third Sunday afternoons through April.

Alternate Fridays, Salem, MA, Vintage Dance [19th Century]

Fun, beginner friendly, low emphasis on costume evening of dancing in Old Salem Town Hall. I get up there occasionally when my free Fridays coincide with the event, especially if I have someone to drive up with. However, again, with my stepping back from couple dancing I haven't been up as much recently.

Originally posted at http://marcmagus.dreamwidth.org/117433.html. ( comment[s]|comment there)

Eastwick: How Not To Act

2009-10-21T15:19:53Z

Trigger warning: dubious consent/potential sexual assault

I've been watching Eastwick since it started and quite enjoying it, and I believe I'll continue to watch it and enjoy it. However, I noticed something last night when watching last week's episode which had me yelling at the screen to the point that shield_toad111 had to pause the show and let me finish ranting so we wouldn't miss anything.

See, the show contains a perfect demonstration of exactly how not to act with a [potential] lover if you aren't a raging asshole. Displayed, as best I can tell given what follows, as a man being "romantic" [he's not portrayed as perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it doesn't seem like the moment I'm about to call out is intended to be part of that].

Someone has conveniently put up some of the relevant scenes on YouTube [sorry, embedding disabled]. I don't know how long it will remain up, but for now, it gives what we need. I call your attention to the kissing which begins around 4:25, particularly the second kiss.

Here's the backstory: Morgan [note also the creepy shoulder-grab in the first scene] is Joanna's ex, who bailed on their wedding day and informed her via text message. Yeah, what a charming chap. By astounding coincidence, he has shown up in Eastwick [to marry his bubbly new fiancée]. For some stupid reason, Joanna agrees to have Morgan over for dinner, standing up a date she's worked pretty hard to schedule in order to do so. They get together, they have some wine, they talk about old times, he talks about how stupid he was to leave her and how he never stopped loving her.

He kisses her. She is stiff and wooden for a moment, then rolls away, tear obviously streaming from her eyes. He responds to this by going in for another kiss. She responds enthusiastically and they have great sex, etc.

What. The. Fuck?!

Just no. The fact that it turns out you actually were a mind-reader and she wanted you to kiss her again doesn't excuse what you just did. You kiss someone, and she's obviously unenthusiastic and crying, you do not go in for another kiss. You stop and ask her if she's ok.

She's fucking crying. Now is the time when you tread lightly and make absolutely certain that she's ok and that these are happy tears first. Are you so caught up in your own libido that you didn't even notice the tears? Or are you actually such an insensitive dickwad that you think this is appropriate behavior?

Think. In the simplest terms, two obvious possibilities: she's crying tears of joy from the rush of emotion that you've finally come back to her and still love her, or she's crying because she's uncomfortable with this situation and doesn't know how to deal with it. You err on the side of caution and it turns out she was happy, she'll presumably tell you so and kiss you/ask you to kiss her again. You decide you know it's all ok and you're wrong, and you've sexually assaulted the woman you claim to still love. And you chose Option B?

I guess, if your goal is to get laid as frequently and with as much variety as possible, and that's how you measure your success, Morgan and creeps like him probably offer a winning formula, at least in part because we see so much of this shit portrayed as appropriate and even encouraged behavior that I'm sure a lot of people buy into it. But if your goal is to be a decent human being, don't do shit like that.

[Gender pronouns used to match those in the scene, but obviously this rant applies regardless of the specific genders of the persons involved.]

Originally posted at http://marcmagus.dreamwidth.org/117230.html. ( comment[s]|comment there)