Well, the book signing was pretty much of a bust; with three authors there we sold only a couple of books each. But, for those of you in the East Bay, I did leave six copies of Aaron's Intifada on consignment. The store is "A World of Books" at 137 Pelton Center Way in San Leandro. The rest of you can always order online, you know.

It was an interesting afternoon anyway, with some amusing characters stopping by to chat, and getting to know the author who organized the event, Jack Schroder, a bit better... maybe too much better...

Jack on the molestation of children by Catholic priests: "A survey shows that only 4% of priests are pedophiles. That's far lower than in the general population, so what's the big problem?" Questioned about how prevalent he thinks pedophilia is in society, Jack says, "about 80%," and points to a teenager in the immediate vicinity: "Take that girl there. You know she's being f***ed by an uncle or a brother..."

Later, pointing to another teenage girl who happens to be dressed provocatively: "Look at that. But if I tweaked her bottom, you know she'd be calling the cops in a second."

Jack, after selling one of his "children's books" to a very nice woman: "I just hope she doesn't flip out if her daughter starts asking questions about the prostitute." A prostitute in a "children's" book? "It's alright; she gets what she deserves in the end for her immorality."

Jack on immoral characters in general, in response to a question about one of his books that takes place in an AIDS hospice: "Four of the five men die for their immoral acts, but I let the one with a pure heart live."

Jack on his wife: "She thinks I'm a sociopath." Me to Jack: "She might be right."

Book Signing Tomorrow...

Saturday, May 15, I'll be at the "World of Books" bookstore in San Leandro (137 Pelton Center Way) with several other local, Bay Area authors.

Beginning at noon, I'll be signing (and selling, we hope) copies of my "Aaron's Intifada and Other Short Stories."

Hope to see you there...

Improvements at Blogger.com

I've been having a little fun exploring the updated blogger.com site and some of the improvements to the system.

One new feature (or at least, one I've never noticed before) is user profile pages. Taking a look at my profile we can see that I've been blogging since April 2001, averaging three posts per week. I've written 138,079 words over 572 posts with 776 outbound links. Of course, that will all change once I post this.

From my profile page, you can also click on any of my interests, or favorite books, etc., and find other bloggers who share those passions. Like-minded people can now more easily find each other, but is that an improvement? Does that make the world smaller by bringing us all closer together? Or does that just help to isolate us in our own small portion of the big, scary world?

Of course, my small portion is really damn small. A few of my favorite books and movies pull up a list of just me. Turns out, I am unique after all.

(Small twist: while the site has been improved, I'll be less likely to visit it, as I'm now able to more easily post directly through email. It's ironic. You know; like rain on your wedding day?)

Trying to Think Positive

"I was going to buy a copy of The Power of Positive Thinking, and I thought: What the hell good would that do?" - Ronnie Shakes

Every day I wake up and try to find a way to feel better about the world, and get motivated to go out and do my work, but it's not always so easy. I don't even know how to approach yesterday's beheading of American Nick Berg in Iraq. How do I go about any of the trivial things that are on my to-do list today when such things are possible?

Of course, some of my fellow citizen's reaction - even peace-loving progressive citizens - is quite understandably, "Let's kill those SOBs, torture them, then kill them again." Of course; we're already doing that. And that is the purported reason for the beheading of Nick Berg.

Before the Berg story broke yesterday, there was the story of the Senator from Oklahoma who was "outraged over the outrage" over our treatment of Iraqi POWs. Defending the torture and humiliation, he thought it was nobody's business but our own, and nobody had a right to criticize us. I, of course, was outraged at his outrage over the outrage.

And so it builds, and so it goes. Snowballs, dominoes, whatever metaphor you prefer. There appears to be no end to this growing cycle of violence.

When all outside seems hopeless and impossible, the best thing we can do is look inside ourselves and try to find some small kernel of the goodness we'd like the world to reflect. As Gandhi put, "Be the change you want to see."

In these cynical times, that may seem incredibly naïve and futile. But it's better than the alternatives of giving in to the violence or simply giving up.

"When I was young and free and my imagination had no limits, I dreamed of changing the world. As I grew older and wiser, I discovered the world would not change, so I shortened my sights somewhat and decided to change only my country. But it, too, seemed immovable. As I grew into my twilight years, in one last desperate attempt, I settled for changing only my family, those closest to me, but alas, they would have none of it. And now, as I lie on my deathbed, I suddenly realize: If I had only changed myself first, then by example I would have changed my family. From their inspiration and encouragement, I would then have been able to better my country, and who knows, I may have even changed the world." - Inscribed on the tomb of an Anglican Bishop in Westminster Abby (1100 A.D.)

Gee - I've only just started posted here again, and already I'm getting email from my regular readers commenting on my return. I got to admit that I'm actually surprised by that. I would have thought everybody had given up on checking the page for new posts.

One of those comments came from an online friend who - after welcoming me back online - shared her experiences with local political corruption that led to her withdrawing from the process and boycotting the ballot box. Here's part of my response...

I can't say that I blame you for joining the slumber party. Similar experiences and disappointments - from Gary Hart to Bill Clinton, and a dozen lesser names in the decade between - led to my abandoning the two-party duopoly in 1994.

I still vote: so what? Most people would say I generally waste my vote, and I've had to defend my 2000 support of Ralph Nader constantly to those who attack me as if I were solely responsible for everything that W does. But my feeble statement makes me feel better than not voting. Whatever.

This year, I'm expecting to return to the Democratic fold. It's not that I'm expecting to feel good about voting for John Kerry, or expect him to do anything other than disappoint me for the next four to eight years, I just want to be able to travel overseas and am terrified to so with the enemies that the present regime is making.

And so, with that level of de-thusiasm (what is the opposite of enthusiasm?), you can see why it's been hard to keep up the blogging.

I'm not always angry. Really. It just seems that way because anger is a good inspiration for blog entries. Even then, I'm never really as angry as it comes across online; it's just that I have a certain way of getting my point across sometimes. With a large mallet.

Today what set me off was a lovely little picture frame in a overly-precious gift shop. Written in a circle surrounding the area where one would put the photo was the inscription, "There's nothing wrong with the world that a competent woman couldn't fix in an afternoon."

Now, I'm not going to give you any anti-feminist, ditto-head crap. You know me too well to expect that here. But come on. Give me a freakin' break here. That's over-simplifying the problems of the world just a tad, and explaining it away with a little bit of sexism, impugning the competence (and possibly the motive) of all men.

This sort of garbage may make some nitwit somewhere smile as she frames the graduation photo of her highly competent, but soon to be disappointed with the world daughter, but it does absolutely nothing to actually identify the person (woman or not) who's competent enough to pull off such a stunt in one afternoon.

Like it or not, even our positive stereotypes of female values being all about peace and common sense are more often than not proven wrong by those women who do end up in positions of great power. The Margaret Thatchers of the world are more likely to be elected to leadership positions than the Pat Schroeders. Sad, but true.

I wish we did have a woman (or even a man) who could fix everything - I'd even give her or him two or three afternoons to do it in. But, unfortunately, the choices we have are not so perfect. And that's what gets me angry.

So where the Hell have I been? I don't know. I have no excuses for having seemingly abandoned my blog. None at all. So there you have it. I've fallen down on my commitment to you, my dear reader.

In these two-and-a-half months off have I used the time to write the great American novel? No. Haven't done that yet. Have I been working around the clock? Not quite. I wish. I mean, I've been busy. Certainly. But not quite working around the clock. Hell, I'm my own boss these days, so it's not like I need to make excuses about using five minutes of time to post in my blog. But I haven't.

I think I'm going to blame W for my absence. Yes. That's it. It's all W's fault.

Why take the time to point out the absurdity of the current political state of society? It's gotten to the point where it's either painfully obvious to anybody with a brain that we're living in surreal times, or any potential reader will have already become numb to the lies and doesn't want to hear anything that will jar them back into consciousness. I know I don't.

It's just too painful to pay attention anymore ... and that's probably just part of their plan. Lately I seem to have adopted a line from an Adrian Belew song as my guide: "I've seen enough / Now I'm willing to be out of touch." The only news source I trust is the Daily Show on Comedy Central. The sick and sad part is that I'm not kidding.

But the world clamors for active bloggers, and who am I to disappoint? So pull myself out of this torpor I must. Not for my sake alone, but for yours, and yours, and yours. I'm back.