Author: Charles Céleste Hutchins

Table of Contents

1. What is it?
2. Why you really ought to go set this up, really, it would make me happy
3. Set-up instructions for blogger users
4. How to read Feeds
5. Set-up instructions for LiveJournal Users
6. How paid members of LJ can add feeds to their friends page
7. How unpaid members of LJ can add feeds to their friends page
8. Favors I’d like from LJ users

What is it?

Ok, you know how you go to Google News and you see a bunch of AP News Stories and then you go to Yahoo News and see the same AP news stories? It’s because the AP publishes just the content of it’s news stories. Then Google and Yahoo can go get just the content and put it into their web pages with their “look.”
In this great age of personal publishing, you too can publish just the content of your blog! You can tell your journal to create an Site Feed. The feed contains only the content of your blog posts and none of the graphics or look of your blog’s web page

Why you should set this up

Publishing a site feed allows your readers to view your blog posts with a program called a “news aggregator.” This program will show the reader all the new posts on their favorite blogs. This is handy for folks like me who read many blogs. Instead of having to view every blog separately, I can see just new posts. If I want to look at your actual blog, I can sill do that and will if I want to leave a comment. But it’s very handy to be able to see everything that’s new on a single page. This is a lot like the friends page on Live Journal
If you have a Site Feed, it’s likely that more people will read your blog regularly. People will check it every time they check the rest of the blogs that they read. Also, some news aggregator programs not only track your blog for the users, if it’s a web-based service, it tracks references to your blog. This means that when I read your blog (or mine, as I’ve got an Atom feed), I can see if anybody has linked to a particular post. This is interesting, as I can see what people are saying about my favorite blogs and if anybody is saying anything about me.

Setup instructions for Blogger users

1. Log into your blogger account
2. Click on the name of your blog from the dashboard page
3. Click the tab at the top of the page called “settings”
4. Click the sub tab called “Site Feed”
5. Select “yes” next to “publish site feed” (this may already be selected)
6. If you don’t see anything else on the page, click on “save settings”
7. Select “full” next to “descriptions”
8. Click “save settings” (even if you already did it)
9. Copy the site feed url, so you can tell people about it
10. If you feel comfortable with HTML, click the “template” tab and add a link called “Atom feed” that links to your site feed url. People generally put this someplace on their side bar
11. Otherwise, click on the “posting tab” and post that you’re doing a site feed now, and include a link to your site feed url.
12. Check out Blogger’s help files on syndication if you have any questions

How to Read Feeds

You need a program called a news aggregator. A Google search will give you a list of possibilities. I use Bloglines because it’s free and kind of handy. To use it, you set up an account. Then, you add the site feed urls of your favorite blogs. For blogger blogs, the site feed url is almost always http://[blogname].blogpost.com/atom.xml .   Most blogs with site feeds will tell you their url, usually in the sidebar someplace. Their link may say “site feed” or “syndication.”

Setup instructions for LJ users

Yes, even Live Journal users can publish site feeds. In fact, you already do! If somebody asks you about it, point them at http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=149

How paid members of LJ can add feeds to their friends page

You’ve got some real-life friends who are not on Live Journal. They’re on Blogger or some other service. You know the publish a site feed, because they’ve got a link to it on their blog. (The link is called something like “RSS Feed”, “Atom Feed”, “Feed”, or “Syndication”.) But you tire of having to go look at their blog every time you want to read it. Why can’t they just show up on your friends page like all you LJ-using buddies? They can. You need to create something called a “syndicated account.” Fortunately, there exists a Live Journal help-page on how to create a syndicated account. It’s very easy. Just go to http://www.livejournal.com/syn/ and type the site feed url into the text box on the bottom of the page.

How unpaid members of LJ can add feeds to their friends page

Unpaid members cannot create syndicated accounts, however, they can add existing syndicated accounts to their friends page, at http://www.livejournal.com/syn/. It works for them just like paid members, so they should consult the same Live Journal help-page. If you are an unpaid member and want to read a feed which nobody has creates a syndicated account for, you will need to talk to somebody who has a paid account and ask them to create one for you. Tell them read the Live Journal help-page and then give them the feed url for the blog you want to read.

Speaking of which….

I wouldn’t mind reading all of my blogs on the LJ friends page, as it has a nice interface. So, would a paid user mind adding:

• http://www.euplastic.com/blog/index.rdf
• http://myrss.com/f/b/l/blogspotGt6mg02.rss
• http://silversand.blogspot.com/atom.xml
• http://ethnicallyambiguous.blogspot.com/atom.xml
• http://ltloink.blogspot.com/atom.xml

also, you know if you wanted to add
http://celesteh.blogspot.com/atom.xml , that might be cool….

Please help Sophie move
Monday, in Oakland, in the morning. She will make some token effort to help you with lost wages and will buy you lunch. Her parents are both seperately very unwell, so it’s a hard time for Sophie and she needs some help.

Of course, we don’t have to delay the election if we can just catch the evil doers ahead of time. I mean, then terrorists can’t, um, interfere with our democratic processes and Bush gets major props from fearful voters. Wouldn’t it be great if Pakistan caught some important bad guys soon, like during the democratic convention? A July Surprise! Or right before the election? Why, we might reward them with a bunch of stuff, like say, maybe there could be scenario like: “Powell designated Pakistan a major non-nato ally, a status that allows its military to purchase a wider array of U.S. weaponry. Powell pointedly refused to criticize Musharraf for pardoning nuclear physicist A.Q. Khan–who, the previous month, had admitted exporting nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea, and Libya–declaring Khan’s transgressions an “internal” Pakistani issue. In addition, the administration is pushing a five-year, $3 billion aid package for Pakistan through Congress over Democratic concerns about the country’s proliferation of nuclear technology and lack of democratic reform.” Actually, this already happened.
Pakistan wants stuff, so they can be more of a threat to India. We want them to catch some bad guys. We’ve got some good dates in mind.

In case you missed it, the Depart of Homeland Security is deciding whether or not to delay the presidential election. (see CNN Article) The election day, a highly inconvient Tuesday, instead of across a few days including, say, a weekend day, is set in the constitution. You vote that day or you vote absentee before that day. This was what our “founding fathers” decided. To change the voting day ought to require a constitutional amendment. But the supreme court has been voting straight party line sometimes, regarding elections, and had no problem simply appointing our president before, so hey, why not let him delay the election?

Um, cuz it would scare ths shit out of people and effect the outcome of the election. And also, an election is like the day your final paper is due. It’s a snapshot of that moment. On that particular Tuesday, everybody who wants to and is elligible can stand up and be counted. Your state goes with whatever the most people in your state say. Woot. Democracy in action. Apparently Bush feels he’s going to be unprepared for that day. He wants to take an incomplete this term. Have some more time to do his research and work on his final project. Our constitution set an election day to prevent this. A sitting president isn’t allowed to delay an election until he feels ready for it. This would be unthinkable. Election are what seperates us from a feudal monarchy. And with our current state of things, elections are the only thing seperating us from a feudal monarchy.
The Administration has been planning on delaying the election for months. As soon as that bombing in Spain happened right before their election (thus letting the Socialists win), Republicans have been claiming that Al-Quaeda will want to interfere in our elections. On May 2, 2004, the article on the cover of the New York Times Datebook contained an aside by Condeleeza Rice that terrorists would certainly try to interefere in our elections. Is there actual data on this? Is it speculation? Is it wishful thinking? With our current state of “intelligence,” is there really any difference between data points, speculation and wishful thinking? I’m still waiting for them to find the WMD in Iraq.
It seems obvious that any attempt to move elections is an assault on democracy itself. Bush says things would be easier for him if this were a dictatorship. He had no problem getting into office through massive election fraud. But even then, he barely made it. why have the election at all? Or why not use federal resources to scare the shit out of people and delay thigns until he knows he can win?
Right now, they’re just preparing us for it. Talking about the eventual “possibility” to see how people are going to react. will we sit quietly at home watching thigns unfold on TV like we did while he stole the election? If so, then why not go for it?
you know all that patriotic stuff? We’re the World’s Oldest Democracy. We invented a new system of government. Liberty and Justice for All. All that nice sort of fuzzy stuff about our government and the ideals of democracy that we’re supossed to represent. Those ideas are ideals. We’ve never reached those ideals. But they’re ideals worth having. Throwing them away is throwing away America. We cannot allow this to happen. Jefferson envisioned that freedom would periodically be threatened by corrupt men. He imagined that we would need to periodically have new revolutions, to protect our democratic ideals. In the Declaration of Independence, he wrote, “. . . in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them . . ..” If Bush tries to delay the election, if he decides that constitutionality no longer applies to him, that he is entitled to lead us not because of our laws, but because of his own will and political might, he will have broken the contract we have with our government. It will “[become] necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them.” We will have revolution.
We must, as citizens of this nation, pledge that we will do whatever it takes to save our country. We must all stand together and say that we will not allow this to happen. We will not go to work. We will not go to school. We will be in the streets. We will not disperse. We will not follow the orders of a police that is defending a state no longer based on laws, but based on the whim of powerful men. We will not back down. If Bush’s people are seeing how we’ll react if he tries to destroy our democracy, we need to let them know that we will not take it lying down. We will not sit at home and watch it on TV. We will shut down the machinery that makes the economy and the country run. We will sit down strike in our office dorrways, in our factories, in our streets.
It is therefore necessary to put this position forward, so that those who would destroy our country know that we are willing to defend it. It must be blogged. It must be written to the editor. We need chatter saying that this would be a very bad idea for them.
would it be bad for us, though? I have no question that we would win. Citizens would again have power. Our “leaders” would be reminded that they rule at our consent. Huge strikes in the 30’s yielded results that were very very good for the people. We have nothing to lose but our chains.

Yesterday was the first day since getting the cold from hell that I’ve been able to stay awake all day without a nap. I feel sleepy right nw, but I’m fighting it. So there ya go. Go topless at Dyke March, get sick for a week and a half! bah. damn it all.

I keep having dreams about death and about my parents and especially about my mom. Ok, I’m ready to stop having those dreams now.
Yes, I feel all stressy right now, for no particular reason. Let me say to you, “grrr!” and also “grrrrr!”
Finally, I don’t pretend to know the ultimate meanings of things in the universe, but I suspect that the relationships that we have with each other are ultimately more important for ourselves than any other factor. There are many things that are very important on a macro level, but on a micro, personal level, it’s about getting along well with others. Which is why having flame wars with your friends is a stupid, bad idea. Yeah, there are somethings that you can’t “agree to disagree” on: I think it is my duty to save you from eternal damnation by getting you to drop your silly life style choice. You have declared your love of Beanie Babies to be an intergral part of your identity. As long as nobody but the Beanie Babies are being harmed, we ought to part company. However, most things aren’t worth ending friendships over.
Some people in the world are good writers. You can read some folks and laugh till you cry. You can read other folks and cry till you … um.. laugh. Most of us are more verbal than literary. That means that when we communicate, we tend to rely on cues that do not come across on the printed page. It is possible for a good writer to convey tone. But most folks, alas, are not good writers. (Before you get offended, let me note, that you are good writer. I’m talking about other people. (also, some people are bad readers.)) What is my point here? People end up typing arguments that they would never have in a face to face conversation. And sometimes people end friendships over that.
I mean, hell, friendships and relationships in general don’t last forever. But if you’re going to end them, end them over something worthwhile. That’s all I’m saying. Don’t end a friendship because you can’t convey tone well in your writing. That would be stupid.
Also: grrrrrrrrrr!

Esperanto is a human language invented by Dr Zamenhof in 1887, designed to be the International Language. Zamenhof envisioned a world where everyone spoke, proudly, their national language and were bilingual and could speak the International Language to communicate with others. Thus Esperanto is easy to learn, with only a few grammer rules.

While not as widely spoken as Zamenhof hoped, Esperanto is spoken by people in more than 200 countries and is especially popular in Eastern Europe. It is useful for people who want pen-pals or for travellers. Esperantists can get lists of addresses and contact information of other Esperantists through the Esperanto Passport Service. More than 1200 people in 79 countries have signed up to host travelling Esperantists. Travellers get a local contact and free or very cheap lodging.
Because Esperanto is so easy to learn, some folks feel like it can be catalyist for social change, allowing workers around the world to communicate. The SAT is a progressive rognization, which uses Esperanto as an organizing tool.
The easiness to learn also makes it useful for students who must pass launguage exams. A student can become fluent in Esperanto in a year or less. Free courses exist on-line at Lernu.net, or you can sign up for a free correspondence course, or, if you call 1-800-ESPERANTO, Joel will be happy to help you find a class in your area. If you can round up some friends and a location, the Esperanto League for North America will find you a teacher who will come to you and teach you for free.
There is a weekly Esperanto conversation group that meets Thursdays 6:30 – 7:30 at Original Pollo’s at 100 Shattuck in Berkeley and this coming weekend is ELNA’s summer open house and Icnic, Sunday July 11th, 10:00am- noon at ELNA’s offices, which are located at 5712 Hollis St., Emeryville. Then, at noon until 4:00 pm is a Picnic at the Emeryville Marina.

Meanwhile, as we debate women-only space, President Holmgren of Mills College has issues a response to Hustler‘s recent article about Mills. Yes, in the normal, non-exclusive parts of society, anybody who wants to can read Hustler without violating anybody else’s them-only space. Yes, absolutely anyone who wants to look at degrading images of women as sexual objects is free to walk to their corner smut shop and proudly tell the cashier, “I would like to purchase one copy of Hustler, please!”

Well, I mean, within the bounds of heteronormativity, at least. I mean, a woman buying Hustler needs to make sure she’s someplace where the cashier is open to the idea of women buying degrading images of women as sexual objects, otherwise she might get denied in her request or harassed or who knows what. I mean, hey, sometimes women get called “dykes” and beaten up for such things in some parts of the country. Sad but true. And you know, some women don’t really like the idea of looking at degrading images of women as sexual objects, cuz they’re not into sexualizing women at all or cuz they object to the degrading part or something. And you know, some men don’t like degrading images of women as sexual objects either cuz they’re gay! Or they’re feminists who might as well be pansies! Yeah, really, Hustler is best viewed by manly men who enjoy the idea of degrading women and viewing them as sexual object. It’s really the target audience. Anyone else either shouldn’t buy it, or else they’re taking a risk of being harmed or at least wouldn’t enjoy it.
I’m sure glad society is a whole is so open and freedom loving. I mean, I would hate to see the world divided into little exclusive enclaves where certain identity groups try to carve out niches of power for themselves by excluding others. That would suck.

why am i posting to defend the idea of women-only space? what decade is this? didn’t everybody have all these arguments during the 1990 Mills Strike against going co-ed? why do these arguments happen over and over again? bah bah bah. i’m tried and i’m going to take a nap.

I posted a comment to Nicole’s blog and I want to repete it here. It was in reply to Matt’s comment, which I will quote from: “there are MANY ASSHOLES IN THE WORLD. some of them are men, some of them are tall people, some of them have brown eyes, some of them are baptist. it’s so much simpler to just slap a label on someone and deal with them that way. . . . i’m just fucking fed up with misdirected hostility.” I feel like it’s appropriate to respond to this here, cuz some guys were unhappy about my facetious suggestion of creating a testosterone-targetting virus.

it’s true.

unfortunately, sometimes assholes organize. like white folks organized for a long time to keep black folks down with jim crow and whatnot. the people behind that were assholes, but they were assholes with power who organized according to their power structures.

and now we’ve got some problems with some male assholes and there’s a social power dynamic where men tend to have a certian sexual power over women, which is a bad thing. but some assholes like that and want to exploit it. and since the identity and power dynamic all centers around gender issues, the problem in this case is actually asshole men. and, unfortunately, many men, who are assholes like rush limbaugh and micheal savage and many conservative guys have adopted an ideology where they deserve power imblanaces and want to work to maintain it. that does create a “war between the sexes” sort of situation. this causes two seemingly paradoxical things: it creates value for women-only spaces and it creates a need for male allies. i mean, there’s no need for tall-only spaces cuz so far tall people have not organized to opress short people, at least in this country that i know of. however, men do organize to opress women. those men are assholes. and they must be stopped. since the dynamics are centered around gender and identity, then using gender labels is essential for the folks resisting the assholes.

so yeah, not all white folks are racist. not all men are sexist. but some are and there’s an imbalance of power. so the power to opress has to be taken away from men and white folks. unfortunately, because this power is social in nature, even men and white people who oppose this power imbalance end up benefitting from it. which is why having actions or events specific to the disempowered group at hand can be very empowering and useful for that group. this can cause some men to feel threatened, prolly because they sense somehow that it’s taking power away from them. so they write articles to hustler. or leer with cameras. or whatever.

unfortunately, in the case of dyke march, the no-men rule is only repected by allies and ignored by assholes. so really it’s a no-supportive-men rule. rather than give up on creating the march as a woman-only space where supportive men can cheer on from the sidelines, there’s got to be a way to convince asshole men not to march. i dunno how to do that.

but you know, men opressing women isn’t some isolated incident. it’s not one guy. it’s not disorganized assholes. it’s men with a particular ideology working to push it on the world couples with indoctorinated males working to maintain power they feel entitled to since birth. that’s a problem.

I want to say further that alliances are useful and attacking allies or would-be allies is not useful. i want everybody to work together and get along.
but sometimes that doesn’t work.
or other social forces take over. cuz the people trying to change the culture are still functioning within the culture.
so you end up with a group trying to advance black women being lead by white males.
that can happen way too easily.
also, all these -isms are tools of the elite ruling class. They create systems where one group of people has a bit of power over another group of people. So I can tell some white guy that all the presidents have been white men. But that guy isn’t in Skull and Bones and is never going to president either. The British land-owners can let the Protestants opress the Catholics while they buisly export all the food during a crop failure. And so the Catholics end up fighting the Scotch-Irish, another colonized group the Brits imported to help keep the Irish under control. Really, both groups should turn on the British landowners, but they’re too busy killing each other. And southern american slave-owners can appoint white overseers who have a smidgen of power the slaves to help disguise the fact that slaves and poor whites had a hell of a lot more in common with each other than poor whites had with the ruling class. That same dynamic happens now. And the Bushes and Saudis and the Bechtels laugh all the way to their Cayman Island accounts. So, yes, we need our heterosexual, white, male allies for when we rise up and destroy the ruling class. But you know, maybe we should work out some of these issues first so the the het white boys don’t end up just taking over…

Apparently, walking around in the San Francisco cold without a shirt on, drinking vodka to stay warm, is a good way to catch a cold. *sniffle* At least it was fun.