Here's a story from the Sierra Vista, AZ paper reporting that Glenn Spencer, local xenophobe wackadoo, is complaining that the Border Patrol is inflating their figures of how much new fence is finished out of the required amount that Congress mandated be done by the end of this year.

Of course this in common knowledge. But I think it's funny that they're getting attacked from both sides - the racists griping that the fence isn't getting put up fast enough enough, or secure enough, and more sane and humane people who say it shouldn't be put up at all.

The story also mentions and links to the Sierra Club video that I made. An interesting comment thread follows the story, including an admittedly good point made by one of the pro-wall nutjobs: Sierra Club shouldn't be calling it a documentary. If I've ever called it that I apologize now. It's not a documentary, in the sense that a documentary is at least nominally objective - this film is an advocacy piece that takes a clear position, and I was hired to take that position and deliver a very clear and specific political message. It's not impartial reportage, it's a polemic. Guilty as charged.

Anyway, I'm glad it's getting more and more exposure.

I had a bad scare yesterday. Having stupidly said "yes" to an automatic upgrade that Apple told me to install, I suddenly couldn't get final cut pro to start up. I tried something recommended by one Mac hints site, starting in safe mode and fixing permissions and re-installing by hand the Quicktime update that the upgrade included (the other thing that it included was the new version of iTunes, which includes the new, slightly creepy and very annoying "Genius" feature. bleah.).

That got FCP to start, but i was unable to capture or output to or from firewire devices. In fact I couldnt get any application to not crash when i told it to access my firewire DV deck. I was freaking out. What to do? Would I have to reinstall OS X from scratch? wipe my hard drive in order to go back to the old version of Quicktime?

Luckily after one more desperate Google search I found a page that described how to downgrade to an earlier version of any Apple package using a little program called Pacifist (funny coincidence that a program called Pacifist has enabled me to continue work on a film about resisting war!).

I got the shareware and followed the directions to install the earlier package, Quicktime 7.5, and restarted and things now seem hunky dory again. Whew. I think I owe a registration fee to Pacifist's creator.

Anyway, if you are a user of FCP (at least version 5.1.2) and you haven't upgraded to the new QT, you might want to think twice before doing it. Oh, and I recommend skipping the new iTunes as well. By the way, during my research into this problem I read that the "security fixes" that Apple lists as the reason for the upgrade actually have to do with Digital Rights Management (locking up content) rather than any sort of protection from your machine getting hacked or that sort of thing. So the new version is pretty unneeded anyway.

author: Dick Hebdige

name: Steev

average rating: 3.96

book published: 1979

rating: 4

read at:

date added: 2008/09/14

shelves:

review:

author: Michael Caine

name: Steev

average rating: 3.94

book published: 2000

rating: 4

read at: 2008/09/01

date added: 2008/09/11

shelves: filmmaking

review:

Check out this BraveNewFilms video clearly illustrating the distortions and falsehoods that the McCain campaign is spewing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH0xzsogzAk

• 10:44 wow. nervous. my film went out on sierra club e-newsletter to LOTS of people. tinyurl.com/63snx5 #
• 11:22 awesome: womenagainstsarahpalin.blogspot.com/ #
• 14:53 i dont think i like iTunes' new 'Genius' feature. a little creepy, it is. #

Reports are out today that Homeland Security is a little overbudget on the new border fence construction and they need Congress to hand out another $400 million so they can finish what they were asked to do by the end of this year.

"If we run out of money, unfortunately the construction will have to stop," Ahern said. He said it is not known exactly how much extra it will cost to build each mile of the fence, because the costs differ due to varying terrain and environmental issues.

In the big scheme of our massive federal budget, this is chump change, and it seems likely that Congress will just reach in their pocket without thinking much about it - but in this election year maybe if enough people make a stink about it, it won't happen. Write your representative and senators today and tell them not to authorize this further insult to injury. Stop the wall!

• 16:21 capturing an interview with the Mexican Consul of Tucson. #
• 18:42 almost time to go to Pan Left meeting. #
• 20:31 feeling tired and bored. sitting in pan left meeting. #

This is hilarious stuff. Sarah Palin is such great comedy fodder...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioGC40_AWhs

author: Kurt Vonnegut

name: Steev

average rating: 4.18

book published: 1963

rating: 5

read at:

date added: 2008/09/05

shelves: novels

review:
This is probably my favorite Vonnegut, with the possible exception of Player Piano. Ice-9 is terrifying.