Wednesday, June 12, 2002

This story is moving it's way up daypop. In Washington there was a growing suspicion that the arrest was seized on by the Bush administration in dramatic fashion for political ends. British and European security agencies do believe, however, that there is still a real threat of a possible attack. 11:49:39 PM

Turns out my troubleshooting wasn't all that far off. I never did locate the transformer, which was tucked nicely away inside the furnace. Even if I had, I wouldn't have been able to replace it. And even if I would have replaced it, I wouldn't have known that the reason the transformer blew in the first place was that whoever repaired the AC umpteen years ago did a crappy job wiring, so they carried so much heat that they ended up soldered some key parts (not the foozitz, but something similar) together, resulting in a surge -- kablooey -- bye bye transformer. So: new foozitz (with appropriate wiring), new transformer, addition of a fuse between the transformer and the foozitz, so, in the unlikely event of another surge, it blows the fuse instead. Few hours of work. Total damage: $560. Not bad, I guess. Especially now that the temperature has dropped enough that we don't need the air conditioning on anyway. 10:39:03 PM

Record flooding in Northern Minnesota. Record forest fires in Colorado. Not very nice. 10:17:45 PM

More on this topic from The Register: It was interesting that the carders exhibited so little imagination, curiosity and patience. If they couldn't get what they wanted easily, either by trying some stock exploit or running some automated progie, they gave up without a struggle. Those who attempted additional exploits and failed seemed not to ask themselves why they failed. 10:04:46 PM

Neil Gaiman will be doing a complete reading of his upcoming book, Coraline. As he states in his journal, it'll be three hours of comfortably listening to a story, rather than five hours of standing in a long line for thirty seconds of hello. Since there aren't any permalinks in his journal, here's the relevant info: Cody's Books of Berkeley will host the exclusive West Coast launch event on Tuesday, July 2 at 6:30 p.m. (doors open at 5:30 p.m.) at the First Congregational Church of Berkeley on 2345 Channing Way. Starting at 6:30 p.m., Gaiman will do a rare complete reading of Coraline, which has been called "bittersweet and playful" (San Francisco Chronicle), "magnificently creepy" (Kirkus Reviews) and is being likened to a modern-day Alice in Wonderland. Signed copies of Coraline, selected backlist titles and audio will be available for sale at the event. Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for children, and go on sale beginning June 17 at both Cody?s Books locations (2454 Telegraph Ave. at Haste; 1730 Fourth St.); www.codysbooks.com; telephone orders to 510-845-7852; email orders to info@codysbooks.com. All major credit cards are accepted. The purchase of a ticket entitles the holder to a $3 discount on Coraline books and audio. A separate East Coast launch event for Coraline is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, July 11 at Barnes & Noble, Union Square in New York City. There will be no other U.S. events until the fall. 1:41:36 PM

A few nights ago, Esmé was having trouble falling asleep, saying that she was too scared, that she was afraid of robbers. I walked her through the house, showing her all of the locked doors. Illusions of security, really, but more on that later. She still couldn't sleep. I was in "go to bed now" mode, not "acknowledge your daughter's fears" mode, so Esmé shared the following details with Melissa, who later shared them with me (as an aside, Es also said that I listened to her this much -- hands close together -- when she wanted me to listen THIS much -- hands far apart). She couldn't sleep because she imagined a robber breaking into our house. He had to break a window to get in, but he had construction equipment to fix it so we wouldn't notice. He was very quiet so we couldn't hear him inside the house. He took her somewhere and nobody knew where she was. He killed her and she died and then he burned her body so nobody could recognize her. Scary stuff, especially considering parallels to recent news (which we've been careful not to discuss at home). The next morning, she drew a picture of a "robber trap." First was a house, with a stick figure halfway up, on the outside. Next was a telephone. Next were three numbers: 911. Finally, she drew a policeman stick figure, and another stick figure inside a box, which she then "locked in" with criss-crossing lines. She drew an updated picture, later, that had a police car between the numbers 911 and the jail cell. We've got a couple other things we can do to help her out: reiterate our phone number (including work numbers), and our address. Teach her how to use a pay phone. Teach her about calling collect. Teach her how to get to our house from the main road, or how to explain to somebody where she lives. Help her deal with her fears herself by knowing that she's better equipped, real world, to handle them on her own. 12:08:03 PM