The Carter Gilson Report

First change: new theme.

Second change: more writing.  No, really.

Third change: still more to come.

WordPress, the engine that allows this blog to be, has released a major upgrade, so I’m just testing it out.

With my brief campaign officially over, it’s back to the old blogging grind. I’ll be making the rounds on the news this morning, so keep an eye out.

Merry Christmas Eve to those who are working (and to those who aren’t).

On October 2nd, 2007, Michael E. Festa stepped down as the Representative of the 32nd Middlesex District in the Massachusettes House of Representatives. Festa became the Executive Secretary of Elder Affairs for the Patrick Administration. As one of the citizens of the 32nd Middlesex, I wish Mike all the best in his new position.

However, this does leave another vacancy in the House that will need to be filled by special election. Speaker DiMasi and Secretary Galvin have not settled upon a schedule for the election yet, so there are no official candidates for the office.

It is my intention to seek the office of Representative of the 32nd Middlesex. I am still determining the shape of my campaign, but as soon as a special election is called, I will be taking papers to collect the 150 signatures needed. I will keep you up to date on my progress here on this blog and in other places. This address may become home to a campaign website, in which case the podcast will be archived in a different location.

I will be coming out with position papers soon for important issues facing Massachusetts, the 32nd Middlesex (including Melrose and Wakefield) and our nation as a whole. By and large, you can probably figure out my positions based on things I have already written here. Should I not win in this election, I will continue with the podcast, but for right now I must focus on building a campaign to move Massachusetts forward. Thank you for your support, and thank you also for following the Carter Gilson Report.

Between yesterday’s shooting in Cleveland and the arrest in Plymouth Township, PA today, is it okay once again to question the ready availability of firearms?

A search of the youth’s home had turned up a small arsenal, including a 9mm semi-automatic handgun with a laser sight, 30 air-powered weapons, a live-hand grenade, bomb-making instructions and two inert hand grenades that he apparently intended to convert to live ones as well as notebooks outlining his plans, authorities said.

This kid is 14. Teenagers, and I was one once upon a time, don’t have as much skill as adults do in holding emotions in check. This kid was bullied enough that he was actually pulled out of school. That’s not to excuse his actions, but rather to provide context.

High School is a fascist society built on Randian principles. The good looking and athletic are given the power at the expense of the weak while the authorities look the other way. Free expression is suppressed even by well-meaning authority figures. Any difference is a reason for someone to be shunned, if not outright attacked. It’s always been this way.

The outcast have always been there, and they have always wanted to get back at their oppressors. It’s only the ready availability of firearms that has led to the marked increase in school shootings.

So, during this vacation from everything less important to me than my wife (except baseball), I have turned very domestic. Not domestic in an illegal spying without warrants kind of way, but in a Martha Stewart but not annoying way. On top of doing a lot of cleaning, which has been necessary, I’ve also made applesauce and right now I’m in the midst of making paneer, which is an Indian cheese that is quite wonderful. I’ve never made paneer before, so we’ll see how it comes out. It’s currently dripping into our kitchen sink.

I’m still deciding the new schedule for the podcast. I’m thinking it may be Sunday and Thursday nights, but I’m not sold on that yet. At any rate, don’t expect a podcast from me until this Thursday at the earliest.

In other news, Mary Ellen and I are walking in the Walk to D’Feet ALS this Saturday, and if you could contribute, we would certainly appreciate it. I apologize that the website isn’t very good, but it’s a great cause with a lot of personal importance to me.

It’s been a busy few days, let me tell you.

To start with, on Friday morning, we heard on the news (far too late to be of any real use to us) that the Orange Line wasn’t running between Haymarket and Back Bay. Which, really, fantastic. That would mean a choice of:

1. taking the overcrowded shuttle bus from Haymarket to somewhere (as the shuttles don’t stop at Downtown Crossing, where both Mary Ellen and I get off)
2. getting off the Orange Line at North Station, taking the Green Line to Part Street, and then going our separate ways (she to Kendall, me to South) on the Red Line; in hindsight, this might have been the best option
3. driving to Alewife and taking the Red Line all the way in

We opted for the last one, which managed to get us to work late, but on the plus side with only a minimal amount of aggravation. That decision would haunt us later in the day.

My wife leaves Kendall at 4 and gets to Alewife without incident. I leave work at 4:30, get to South Station around 4:45, and sit on a train. The train sits for several minutes before finally pushing off.

When we get to Park Street, there is an announcement to the effect of, “Park Street, the doors open on both sides. Please don’t mind the signs of a fire and exit quickly.” That’s hardly encouraging, but since there’s quite a few stops between Park and Alewife, I don’t think anything of it.

The train rolls along, perhaps a bit slower than normal, but hardly at an unusual speed until Central Square, where we wait for a few minutes. “This train will be standing by due to traffic ahead.” Given the number of times we hear that in a given week, it’s easy to discount (and none of us ever believe that that’s actually the issue). And soon enough, we’re rolling into Harvard.

Leaving Harvard is when all hell breaks loose. We sit for five minutes, not moving, at two points between Harvard and Porter. After Porter, we sit for another five minutes before pulling into Davis. If I had been smart, I would have gotten off at Davis and walked to Alewife. But I didn’t know the extent of the clusterfuck yet to come.

About a hundred yards out of Davis, we stop again. I’m shocked that we didn’t derail from the combined force of everyone on the train rolling their eyes. My cell phone, by the way, is dead, so even if I could get a signal, I can’t send the “Fucking T” message that I had tried to send around Harvard.

As we’re waiting (and waiting), the driver get on the intercom and says, “Due to a fire at Park Street, traffic is backed up between Alewife and Park. Because of that, traffic going into Alewife has to wait.” This announcement is repeated five minutes later, followed by, “Would the person having the medical emergency please press the emergency intercom again?”

About ten minutes later, the driver says, “We’re sorry for the inconvenience. We are waiting to be cleared by control. We need to wait for a spot in Alewife to open up in order for us to go into the station. We will let you know if there is an update.” To which I said, “That ‘if’ is rather ominous sounding.”

And then, as if by magic, we roll again, into the station. It’s nearly 6 pm. When I find Mary Ellen, she looks at me as though I would intentionally be this late, which confuses me, since I’m sure there must have been some announcements, with the back-ups as bad as they were. But no, There weren’t any announcements at all. None until about five minutes after my train got in.

So, that blew my Friday night. Saturday, we drove up to visit my mother-in-law. She’d had surgery on Thursday to repair a disc and remove some bone spurs in her neck. So we went to visit and came home on Sunday.

Today and tomorrow, I don’t have to work (hoorah), but I don’t know how much updating I’ll do. It is a vacation after all.

The time has come to reduce my time on the podcast. It’s been getting in the way of real life, and real life is far more important. I’m not stopping the podcast, but I will be reducing the amount of time I spend on it during the week.

Strangely, video takes a lot longer to edit together than audio does. This fact seems to have been known to everyone but me…

Anyway, unless something major happens in the next twelve hours, the podcast will still be relevant when I post it tonight. I think, while doing this video experiment, I’ll be going to three a week. We’ll see how that goes.

It’s been an eventful 24 hours, I’ll tell you that much.

After work yesterday, Mary Ellen and I had a meeting for a committee we are on at the church that went on and on (and on), and as it was way late by the time we got out, I wasn’t able to write and record a podcast. I’ll be giving $5 later today.

Then, as we were snuggling with guinea pigs, which we do every night, Mary Ellen noticed a thing on Cesar’s ear. Cesar is nearly five, so anything abnormal is cause for concern, but this was weird. A swelling where his ear flap meets his face, about the size and shape of a marble. It was squishy and spongy, and didn’t seem to hurt at first, though it did the more we poked it.

Anyway, I brought him to the vet this morning, where it was declared an abscess, lanced, drained (I’m throwing up a bit in my mouth at that), and now we have to give him anti-biotics for two weeks. He’s fine. I’m not ready to deal with piggie mortality. Hopefully I won’t have to for a very long time.

Given how dead tired I have been today, doing a podcast was not first and foremost on my mind. Instead, as promised, I will be giving a donation. This donation will be to the Jena Six defense fund. I tried to go there now, but Color of Change is understandably having some server issues. After David Bowie donated $10,000, and today’s rally, I’m sure they’ve had a flood of people looking to support them. So I’ll try again tomorrow when it calms down a bit.

Mary Ellen has jury duty tomorrow, so we’ll see if she gets picked for anything juicy.

I’ve been sleeping wonderfully all week, which doesn’t explain why I can barely keep my eyes open, let alone write and record a podcast. So, none tonight. Sorry.

The Boston Globe, re. Sen. Craig:
GOP seeks probe of Idaho senator

My wife got a new computer, which took up all of our time tonight. Sorry. I’m sure my insights into the mind of Alberto Gonzales would have been quite different from everyone else’s, but you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out about them.