Welcome to the new Sinister.

The left-handed electric mice who run this blog have made a tactical decision to shift its focus from politics to writing. This decision was reached because:

1) The mice have neither the time nor the energy to attempt to follow and comment coherently on the increasingly bewildering political circus.

2) A good deal of pretty good fiction and poetry has lately been spewing forth from the sinister brain that controls the mice.

3) In November, the electric mice will be working quite a bit of overtime to write an entire novel in the span of 30 days. This particular experiment might kill most of the mice.

Several things to note. First, the archives will remain available and visible on the left sidebar. Secondly, the right sidebar has been removed, allowing the main text to take up the majority of the screen. Thirdly, the font has been changed from courier to arial/helvetica, which is, in my opinion, much easier to read.

This relaunch simply reflects a change in emphasis. While the primary purpose of this blog will be to showcase my fiction and poetry, I may still write about politics from time to time. However, my intent is for all posts to be interesting, engaging, and held to a higher standard of writing quality than is usually found in a purely political blog.

Now, this next bit is critical. This blog isn't just for me to show off my work and go "woo look at me I'm great." I want people to give me feedback on what I write. I want constructive criticism. I want you to tell me, "Hey, this idea here works, but you've done something kind of stupid over here." Most of all, I want you to tell me if you think something I've written is good enough to submit to someone who might publish it, and if not, what you think I need to do to get to that point. I want to grow as a writer, to work hard at it, to focus my energies on creating a unique voice that I can contribute to the greater literary world. I want to be one of the people that high school students get bored having to study - because that's how you know you've really made it.

In any event, enjoy the new format. In a little while, I'll be posting the first part of a science fiction story I've been working on.

Please stand by.

This blog is experiencing technical difficulties. We apologize for the inconvenience*.



*note: The inconvenience in question is not actually caused by technical difficulties, but rather by the author's continued inability to find the time or energy to do political blog posts at the moment. Your results may vary. Do not apply internally. If accidentally swallowed, do not induce vomiting. Not valid in all states. Sinister is a production of me, my brain, and my penchant for political pontification. Stay tuned - I have plans for this blog. I'm doing a lot more fiction and other kinds of writing lately, so Sinister might just shift its emphasis to feature stuff I'm writing rather than being a purely political blog. I'm not sure yet. But rest assured, this blog is not dead - merely hibernating.

Happy Friday

In honor of the upcoming Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashana, here's this:

Happy Friday!

In Tulsa, enjoying a weekend with family.

Here's a great video of a thunderstorm hitting downtown Tulsa earlier this year.

Breaking: Obama to address joint session of Congress September 9th on health care

If he's not crystal clear about the need for a strong public option, and if he doesn't address, condemn, refute, and/or ridicule the far right fringe astroturf propaganda groups terrorizing the American people with images of Hitler and Stalin, and if he doesn't demand that Congress pass something now, and if he doesn't chastise the Republicans (and Blue Dog Dems) in Congress who simply refuse to vote for any reasonable reform bill, then this speech will not accomplish anything.

Monday loldog

see more dog and puppy pictures
Three day week for me.

Happy Friday!