Goblin Mercantile Exchange » Search Results » Gambit

3 days

Alan — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 17:48:32 +0000

One of McCain/Palin’s gambits for winning this election is a form of assymetrical warfare on the democratic process. It goes far beyond feigned outrage, “working the refs”, and even the blatant racism and xenophobia oozing from McCain on down (though all of those are horrible enough). In fact, I think it’s the only consistent pattern that McCain has shown throughout the general election season: an attempt to foster a crisis within the very polis. Guiliani is an expert at the kind of off-handed (yet pointed) fear-mongering and fraying of the rule of law. Perhaps someone told McCain, obliquely or not, that this is his only chance of winning. Who knows. But you saw it with his selection of Sarah Palin — a baffling choice except as one designed to inject surplus fear and chaos into the electorate — galvanizing the authoritarian wing of the Republican party (and by “wing”, it is a wing that dwarfs the bird), who thrive on this chaos and, in turn, take it as a cue to blame those who aren’t falling in lock-step with them. It’s a way of getting the vicious cycle of victimology kickstarted.

The “suspension” of his campaign in terms of the financial crisis was much of the same — more than a cheap publicity stunt, he was trying to create crisis, to recreate that “old time feeling” of October and November 2001 where only a strong leader (in his mind) could step in and provide Sun-King-like direction (direction from division of course–the Greek root for crisis is “separation”). The fact that it more or less failed miserably was immaterial for them as a campaign strategy.

And the contradictory layers of Obama typecasting — an uppity socialist Muslim dandy raised in a madrassa in West Hollywood? Coherent messages are for the weak. They want the electorate to buckle under by the sheer kinesis of incomprehensible bullying, viruses of nano-fascism slipped into the discourse hoping to infect the host.

So the only thing left to do is to double down, and keep doubling down, as if the very friction that this doubling down creates is going to catch something on fire.

On that note, Tuesday is going to be crazy.

still life, with puppy, with favorite stuffed animal

Alan — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 00:21:49 +0000

Kristin just took these on her camera phone. And because I am Powerless To Resist posting them, here they are. P.S. Kristin swears these weren’t staged! Gambit is just 100% all natural goofball.

We Interrupt this Blog with a Sleeping Puppy

Alan — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 22:01:47 +0000

Though I guess he’s technically not a puppy anymore?

It’s almost about 1 year since Kristin and I got Gambit, and it’s been a pretty wild ride, with his post-Katrina feral-ness, his initial shyness (we actually had to pick him up to take him outside so he could do his business), the parasites in his body, the urinary birth defect, the removal of a kidney and (now) some kind of tendonitis that means he should refrain from chasing tennis balls/jumping for frisbees (?!?). But I wouldn’t trade any of those weird medical, er, quirks for the world, because he’s pretty much the sweetest, most cuddly dog I’ve ever known, and he’s one hella tough, persistent dog. And a total goofball.

Here’s to you, Gambit!

Diversicon Report

Alan — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 22:53:02 +0000

Quite low-key, quite fun. Kelly was guest of honor so it was good to see her and Gavin, as well as Mark and Martha. Bryan Thao Worra was the Special Guest, and he gave a really amazing multimedia talk about Laos and its attendant folklore. (Check out a PDF ebook of his speculative poetry here.) The auction (although it did drag a bit long) is also rather nice in that the opening bids are rather low. Kelly, in particular, gave a great birthday present through one of these bids–and sit down in preparedness for the geekiness of this–a slew of 1st and 2nd edition AD&D hardcovers. About 9-10 of them: Monster Manual I and II, Wildnerness Survival Guide, Dungeoneer’s Survival Guide, Legends and Lore, etc. etc. It’s this weird nexus of collectibility and browsability and nostalgia-crack that made me really excited about this. So, thanks, Kelly! (The geek quotient of our house just went up a few notches, so I’m not sure how Kristin feels about this.) Another highlight of the weekend was catching up with Eleanor Arnason, who has been a great mentor to me throughout the years…so it was good chatting about writing, the writing life, and other things with her.

As a side note, one of my friends from work dog-sitted for Gambit, and he seemed to be pretty good throughout the weekend. They have a beagle named Max who is on the same wavelength, energy-wise, with Gambit. So the weekend for him seemed to be the Max and Gambit Show, starring Max and Gambit. They had fun.

All in all a good weekend.

it’s hopeless

Alan — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 20:59:39 +0000

Cannot…resist…posting…puppy photos!

with the blizzard comes

Alan — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 17:53:43 +0000

…sliding cars and jack-ass mist–must be in the snowflakes–which cause people to barrel through St. Paul spaghetti junction 50mph where there’s not, because of the snow, any real lanes. That was fun. Or this morning, when the woman in the VW SUV turned right into the street I was crossing with full right-of-way priviliges. Awesome. Other than that, loved the snow. Oh wait no I didn’t. I want it to be spring so so bad. This March snow is to be expected. It’s all part of the grand plan. Gambit DID love the snow, and that was all good. He uses his giant cone as a scoop, so now he has this scooping and skipping motion down pat.

The Infernokrusher clan in Kingdom of Loathing, btw, has 8 members. Rockin’.

Recovery

Alan — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 01:37:28 +0000

Gambit had his stitches out but he still has to have the stupid cone (I call it a cone but it’s actually an “Elizabethan collar”, so what do I know) for another two weeks:

after a long absence, link

Alan — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 23:08:33 +0000

Crazy book sale from Small Beer Press. I mean it’s really insane. Trampoline for $8 and Meet Me in the Moon Room for $5!

Meghan has some good writing advice.

Weird L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E-type poetry from the 70s involving a vampire, kind of, appropriately named Dracula.

Goldmine Shithouse.

Gambit is doing very very well, btw.

puppy (ii)

Alan — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 18:50:08 +0000

Good news. Gambit’s surgery went well. He had a birth defect that was wholly unrelated to his neutering surgery. (I don’t remember word for word the exact science of it, so rather than misquote it, I’m going to go bare bones with it.) Essentially, one of his kidneys was shot and useless, and had to be removed. But he’ll expect to make a full recovery. We visited him today and, except for a little dribbling, he was the same old Gambit–it was unreal how alert he was after the surgery. When we held him and petted him it was like a massive weight was released. We take him home tomorrow and there’s 2 weeks of recovery where he’s not supposed to make any sudden movements because of his stitches. That will be…interesting. The vets and vet techs who performed surgery and took such good care of him are all wonderful, and we can’t thank them enough.

Here’s hoping that Gambit has a long, boring, uneventful rest-of-life.

puppy

Alan — Wed, 22 Feb 2006 17:45:25 +0000

Our puppy Gambit was neutered Friday, but we knew something wasn’t right–he was having trouble going to the bathroom–so we took him in Sat. to the vet, who gave him antibiotics, checked him out, etc. And he seemed to be doing better, although still having trouble peeing. Last night he pissed a lot of blood and Kristin took him into the pet emergency room (I was still coming home from work). He spent the night there and early this morning was taken to the U. of M. veterinary school for surgery. They’re not entirely sure what is wrong with him–so they’re doing exploratory surgery pretty much right now. It could be complications from the neutering surgery, or just that, indirectly, the surgery had triggered something that was already there (because of his weak immune system when we got him). Needless to say we’re freaked out and worried as all hell. It’s just a devastating waiting game. I keep thinking that the little puppy survived the toxic wastelands of Hurricane Katrina on his own and that he’ll pull through. He’s a trooper and survivor. There’s that hope, even though it feels like it’s only a thread.