_www.FantasyLibrary.com [Visit Who Is Joseph Teller?] Synthesis & Synchronicity 051

Synthesis & Synchronicity #51

Iowa is of course, now over. Gephart paid for his negative attack ads, dirty tricks and game of newspaper inuendo as his campaign is dead and he'll be bowing out when he gets back to St. Louis. Dean didn't do well, but I never thought he would in that state. Iowa is NOT a good measure of how America votes, nor how America thinks. Clark wasn't even in the race, so there is still no measure of the impact he will have on the election.

For those who are new readers, I decided last year to put my money where my mouth was in politics (as well as my feet, my computer printer, some paper, and my webspace) to put some support for the first time behind a candidate more publically and dove in to the Dean Campaign.

Why? Beause there is too great an evil in control of the country that must be opposed. Because I thought he had a chance to overcome the machine politicians. Because Edwards feels too much like "Clinton-lite". Because I never trust a military man to think peacefully. And because I didn't think that the man from Ohio, who had the best message, was ever going to get a fair chance from the media. That left Dean and his fine collection of technological visionary supporters.

I will continue to support Dean. I will continue to oppose with my vote, for what good it may do, the current resident of the White House and his cabal. (Yes I know that its possible that they may have already fixed the race for themselves in many states with electronic voting machines supplied by fanatical supporters who got contracts they shouldn't have).

If Dean drops out I will hold my nose and vote for whoever is left to oppose the Republicans. Because whoever it is we can't do worse than what we have now in there.

Right now, I continue to support Dean and his efforts. That's it, plain and simple.

Stocking Up I'm running around a lot today, as I was yesterday. Yesterday was "recover from convention" day, which involved shopping, errands, cleaning, laundry, unpacking, writing, and eventually falling into bed somewhere around 9pm (an early time for me) since I had been up since 4 am.

Today is more shopping. I need to restock us on drinking water (we use bottled water as Kiralee doesn't like the taste of water in Massachusetts in general, and I don't trust the ancient water main along our street or the old pipes in this building that are getting replaced as part of our massive reconstruction project on our condo building). I also need to buy soda and other recreational consumables as this weekend we make up for two months or rather limited gaming.

Fri Night, Sat Afternoon and Sun Afternoon the Western Ave Irregulars will be meeting for roleplaying sessions here. This is highly unusual for us in this quantity, and should be great fun.

Next week is, of course, Vericon the Harvard University SF/Fantasy & Gaming convention. Cindy & I will be in attendence, and acting as representatives of the Western Ave Irregulars. Ted Wadsworth will be there, representing both the Irregulars and in his official capacity of Executive Producer for Sanguine Productions Ltd. the producers of the roleplaying games Ironclaw and Jadeclaw. They have a variety of other guests that will be speaking, presenting demonstrations and being accessible to the attendees.

To say the least, I highly recommend Vericon to everyone who's in the area. It's inexpensive, a great 'relaxation-convention' after last week's Arisia. There's no vendors, and the book signings will take place at Pandemonium Books & Games in Harvard Square's "garage" mini-mall on JFK Street. The Western Ave Irregulars will be helping out at the Con Suite/Green Room and instigating pick up games in the Open Gaming Room. We'll also be bringing along a great mound of Free Stuff! as we give away books, games and other materials that we just don't have room for at our condo any more with the ongoing construction project.

Kiralee won't be there for the entire convention (she has to work part of the weekend) but has promised that she'll try to put in an appearance at some point along the way and not be a total workaholic. If you're one of the folks that have wanted to talk to her about getting involved with the Irregulars, this will be the time to do it.

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