HEAR YE! HEAR YE!

Voting is now open for the following proposal:

To have a Book Club thread wherein a specific book would be discussed, Buffista style, on a specific time rotation. The initial basic structure for the Book Club thread (subject to unrestricted modification as contained below) will be:

1) One book a month. The first 3 books will be chosen at the beginning of the thread by participants in the thread with at least a month of lead time for the first book, and every book thereafter. The method of choosing will be suggestions from participants, narrowed down by consensus and, if necessary, a Mr. Poll. Literary diversity will be encouraged. Only books that are readily available at your public library will be eligible.

2) Book discussions will not be officially moderated. "Benign" moderation in the form of discussion points, questions and suggestions from readers well-versed in the text will be welcome.

3) All the details of the book club operation (including method of book selection, number of books per rotation, length of rotation, and length of discussion period) are flexible and subject to change to suit the preferences of the thread denizens.

The purpose of the thread is to accomodate an expressed desire by a number of Buffistas to have such a thread to allow focused and uninhibited discussion on a particular text as well as providing us with an opportunity and excuse to read and discuss books that may be outside our usual genre. And to have fun doing all that!

Discussion started here: DXMachina "Voting Discussion: We're Screwing In Light Bulbs AIFG!" Jul 5, 2004 5:21:42 pm PDT

Voting closes Monday (July 12, 2004) at 9 PM (that would be "Board Time", i.e. PDT).

Vote Now!

A quick update for the twelve Buffistas who requested citrus cookies this baking:

I'll be baking them all Tuesday morning while awaiting a furniture delivery, then getting them packaged up and taking them to the post office Tuesday afternoon. They'll all go Priority mail.

Hey folks --

Congress is going to vote within the next 48 hours on the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would amend the Constitution to deny homosexuals the right to marry.

In addition to being hateful and divisive, this amendment would, for the first time, alter the Constitution to *deny* rights to US citizens.

MoveOn.org has made it easy for you to e-mail your Reps. and Senators, as well as King George, in one fell swoop, here. There is a space where you can add your own message into their boilerplate text, which I urge you to do, if you decide to participate.

Voting results on Wolfram's proposal, with 100 voters:

YES: 68 votes (68%)

NO: 22 vote (22%)

NO PREFERENCE: 10 vote (10%)

So I guess there is going to be a Book Club thread. Good luck!

NYistas: Anyone interested in checking out Buster Keaton's The General in Prospect Park tonight at 7:30pm, drop me a line. Complete details are below. Profile addy is good.

The renowned ALLOY ORCHESTRA performs its newest original score to THE GENERAL (1927), a wild train chase/love story starring Buster Keaton set during Civil War that is one of the great accomplishments of the silent era (1hr19min @ 8:40). Come early to catch INVERT, a maverick Brooklyn based string quartet that confounds expectations by folding jazz, rock, and world music flourishes into its new music repertoire.

Through various sundry methods and illicit schemes, we have settled on a genre-busting book to kick off the action.

The first selection for The Buffista Book Club will be:

The Intuitionist, by Whitehead, Colson.

Discussion begins August 15, 2004.

Job posting:

My company is in the market to hire one Java developer.

If you're a Java developer in the Boston area (we're based on the North Shore, about 25 miles up the coast from Boston), and you think you might be interested drop me a line at my profile address (add 'Buffistas:' to the subject line to avoid my harsh spam-filtering).

A little ways up thread I posted that Amber Benson's Chance will be the feature presentation at this year's Trinoc*coN speculative fiction con in Durham, NC. I just learned the times and thought I'd post em': 1AM Saturday, 1AM and 1:30PM Sunday. Original post: Tam "Sunnydale Press" Jun 30, 2004 1:41:44 pm PDT

I've just realized that I was over-efficient in setting up my spam filter, and that anything sent to my profile address has been getting reduced to its constituent electrons, for oh, months now.

So if you were trying to reach me, I wasn't ignoring you! I was just really, really dumb.

I'm helping to organize (and my band is playing in) a great fundraising event happening Friday, July 30th in Baltimore.

WHAT--Estrofest, an all-ages, estrogen-fueled night of rock and roll to benefit House of Ruth.

WHEN--July 30, 8PM-2AM (FREE BEER at the downstairs bar from 8-9)

WHERE--The Ottobar, 2549 N. Howard Street, Baltimore

HOW MUCH--$7/$8 (for the under 21s)

WHO--Vestal Vermin, Secret Crush Society, Egyptian Sun Belly Dancers The Sirens (Northern Virginia, punk), Dawn of Man (DC, New New Wave)

WHY--House of Ruth provides thousands of battered women and their children with a safe haven and gives them needed resources to escape from domestic violence situations. In addition to offering emergency shelter, House of Ruth Maryland offers such programs as job training and legal counseling to help women end the cycle of domestic violence.

WHAT ELSE--A $2 a ticket raffle featuring prizes from Atomic Books, A Cleansing Touch (day spa), In Watermelon Sugar, Oh! Said Rose/Ma Petite Shoe, Fat Elvis, Trixie's Palace, Stickky Fingers, the Children's Bookstore, and the Baltimore Tattoo Museum.