I am so geeked about this season!

Nominations for this year's Parsec Awards open on June 1, 2008. I plan on submitting the show for consideration in the Best Audio Production category, and I also intend to offer one of the short stories for consideration in the category of Best Speculative Fiction Story (Short Form).

I've picked out the three stories that I think are the best, but I'm having trouble whittling it down further. Which of these stories do you think is the best?



Thanks for your input!

Today I had one of those rare, truly transformative spiritual experiences. I went to my old church, Valley Vineyard Church in Scotts Valley, CA. As it happened, the visiting speaker was a woman who shared about the personal struggles that she went through with the conception, development and birth of her third child (also her first son). Central to her message was a simple and heartfelt lesson about continuing to trust God in the midst of difficult and traumatic circumstances. She talked about God's promise in Jeremiah to "restore the years that the locusts have eaten" – that God would bring healing to the land after it had been ravaged by disaster, even in those cases where the initial disaster was a judgment for sin.

After the sermon, Pastor Bob came up and asked two groups of people to come up for prayer: women who had been having trouble getting pregnant, and people who needed healing. He mentioned a couple of problems that God had specifically impressed upon him that people needed to come up and get prayer for: one person with back problems, and one person suffering from "wobbly knees." He wasn't sure what that meant, but he said that hopefully it would mean something to someone.

Well, it meant something to me: my knees have been defective for years, due to damage to the cartilage underneath the kneecaps. They frequently hurt, and they often feel, for lack of a better word, "wobbly." I went up to him and told him, and he sat me down on the steps to pray for me.

"Do you believe that God can heal your knees?" he asked.

"I do," I said. I wasn't sure if God would heal my knees, but I certainly believed it was in His power to do it if he chose.

So Bob began praying for my knees. He had only been praying for maybe a minute or two when he changed course. "I feel that God is saying that there's something else he wants to heal in you," Bob said. "You've been carrying around a huge weight, and He wants to lift it off of you. He wants me to tell you that He has always been pleased with you; even in those times when you've felt like a disappointment and a failure, He has never seen you that way. He said that He wants to put a new song in your heart today, to replace the song of shame and hurt and frustration that you've been carrying inside you. He wants to take that away and give you a new song of hope and joy. He has a plan and a future for you, and it starts today."

This floored me. I haven't talked to Bob in at least a year. I never told him about my knees -- which have only become bad since I left Santa Cruz – and I never told him about the heart-crushing despair and frustration that I've been feeling. My time in corporate America has dragged on years longer than I expected, and I've suffered rejection after rejection for jobs in science and teaching. By the time I came out here, my hope was almost completely gone, but I'd been living with the despair so long that I'd become inured to it.

Bob's words changed that. They showed me that God was not only cognizant of my pain, but that He was present in the pain with me, and that my feelings mattered enough to Him that He had chosen to take part of Bob's ministry time to address it specifically. Bob is always under high demand after Vineyard's church services, and he spends at least an hour praying for people after the service is over. The message God gave Bob was so specific, so completely appropriate to my situation, that I had no doubt that He was putting my hurt at the "front of the line." I guess I had a little of my grandfather's attitude that "my problems aren't important enough to bother God with" – I wouldn't have gone up for prayer if Bob hadn't specifically called out the problem I was dealing with.

It's going to take a while before I'll really sort out the impact of this experience, but it's definitely an "altar-building" sort of moment – I want to make a record of this so I don't forget it. In the midst of one of the most emotionally difficult times in my life, God singled me out to give me a message of encouragement, and a promise that He is leading me to something better. I have no idea what that "something better" will be, but I feel very heartened by the experience. From this point forward, I'm going to hold on to that message and remember that God really, specifically cares about what I'm going through. He promised to give me a new song, and I'm going to do my best to listen for the tune.

My apologies to anyone who has tried to comment on my site and has been unable to do so. MySpace has somehow frakked up the control panel even more than usual, so comments that I attempt to approve are getting mysteriously deleted instead. Thereafter they fall out of the realm of human knowledge, beyond hope or recall.

Give it a day or two, then repost, if you wish. Hopefully everything will be working then.

So you ask me what I want this year
And I'll try to make this kind and clear
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days
'Cause I don't need boxes wrapped in strings
And designer love and empty things
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days

So take these words and sing out loud
'Cause everyone is forgiven now
'Cause tonight's the night the world begins again

And it's someplace simple where we could live
And something only you can give
And that's faith and trust and peace while we're alive
And the one poor child who saved this world
And there's ten million more who probably could
If we all just stopped and said a prayer for them

So take these words and sing out loud
'Cause everyone is forgiven now
'Cause tonight's the night the world begins again

I wish everyone was loved tonight
And somehow stop this endless fight
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days

So take these words and sing out loud
'Cause everyone is forgiven now
'Cause tonight's the night the world begins again
'Cause tonight's the night the world begins again

--Goo Goo Dolls, "Better Days"

2007 has been a very mixed year, with some major successes and accomplishments and a lot of setbacks and tragedies. I'm looking at the state of the world and the challenges that face us, and I have serious doubts about whether we are up to the task.

"It's not enough to survive. We have to be worthy of survival." --Cmdr. Adama, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA

In America we have been on a course that we cannot sustain for much longer, one that threatens not only our own economic prosperity and our reputation in the world at large but the health of the world as a whole, both environmentally and socially. This year the American people will have the opportunity to choose a new direction, but it remains to be seen whether any of the choices that are presented to them will be noticeably better than the current state of affairs. After all, the American people "voted for change" in 2006, and what did that get us? No measurable improvements of any sort, whether in economics, foreign policy or environmental protection. We're still as far off the rails as we were three years ago, and rapidly approaching a cliff.

And yet ... we've been in dire straits before and come through them. Change for the better IS possible, if not without pain. It is my hope and prayer that we will see a turnaround in the coming year, that we will wake up to the realities of our situation and reject the attempts by the Powers That Be to make this election another false choice between two authoritarians. I also pray that more Americans will realize, as I have, that our government cannot and will not save the world, and that it is up to us as individuals to reach out and help others however we can.

This time, we know we all can stand together
With the power to be powerful
Believing, we can make it better
We're all someone's daughter
We're all someone's son
How long can we look at each other
Down the barrel of a gun?

You're the voice, try and understand it
Make a noise and make it clear
We're not gonna sit in silence
We're not gonna live with fear

--John Farnham, "You're The Voice"

Remember that this year: You're the voice.

Not the President.
Not the Congress.
Not the political action committee of your choice.
You.

You can make a difference.
Reach out.
Act.
Give.
Love.

We are God's eyes
We are God's hands
We are God's heart

--Jewel, "Hands"

How are we going to get to "better days"? Only if we choose to do what's necessary to bring them.

There are plenty of people who are praying for peace
But if praying were enough, it would have come to be
Let your words enslave no one
And the heavens will hush themselves to hear
Our voices ring out clear with sounds of freedom

--Jewel, "Life Uncommon"

Remember that this year, and act on it. You are God's hands.

What will you do with them?

The Universe speaks in many languages, but only one voice.
The language is not Narn, or Human, or Centauri, or Gaim or Minbari.
It speaks in the language of hope.
It speaks in the language of trust.
It speaks in the language of strength, and the language of compassion.
It is the language of the heart and the language of the soul.
But always, it is the same voice.
It is the voice of our ancestors, speaking through us,
And the voice of our inheritors, waiting to be born.
It is the small, still voice that says:
We are one.
No matter the blood; No matter the skin;
No matter the world; No matter the star;
We are one.
No matter the pain; No matter the darkness;
No matter the loss; No matter the fear;
We are one.
Here, gathered together in common cause,
We agree to recognize this singular truth, and this singular rule:
That we must be kind to one another.
Because each voice enriches us and ennobles us,
And each voice lost diminishes us.
We are the voice of the Universe,
The soul of creation,
The fire that will light the way to a better future.
We are one.

--Citizen G'Kar, "Declaration of Principles", BABYLON 5

My thoughts go out to the friends and family of Benazir Bhutto, the closest thing Pakistan had to a democratic leader. She was assassinated today after a political rally, supposedly by a suicide bomber. It's almost a certainty that Musharraf's government was to some degree culpable in the killing, whether because he ordered the hit or just because the police who were supposed to secure the gathering were conveniently looking the other way at the wrong moment.

Either way, with the general's only serious rival dead, it seems unlikely that the elections this January are going to amount to anything. We can only hope that eventually someone else will stand up and be a voice for justice in that benighted country ... but after this, I suspect they'll be a long time in coming.

=========

"No dictator, no invader can hold an imprisoned population by force of arms forever. There is no greater power in the universe than the need for freedom. Against that power tyrants and dictators cannot stand. ...

"There is a greater darkness than the one we fight. It is the darkness of the soul that has lost its way. The war we fight is not against powers and principalities, it is against chaos and despair. Greater than the death of flesh is the death of hope, the death of dreams. Against this peril we can never surrender. The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain."

--Citizen G'Kar, BABYLON 5

Those great champions of civil liberties, the Democrats -- note that I'm using my sarcastic voice -- have rushed through the House of Representatives a bill that seems more in line with the philosophy of Jerry Falwell or the Moral Majority:

House vote on illegal images sweeps in Wi-Fi, web sites

Here's the punchline:

The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a bill saying that anyone offering an open Wi-Fi connection to the public must report illegal images including "obscene" cartoons and drawings--or face fines of up to $300,000.

That broad definition would cover individuals, coffee shops, libraries, hotels, and even some government agencies that provide Wi-Fi. It also sweeps in social-networking sites, domain name registrars, Internet service providers, and e-mail service providers such as Hotmail and Gmail, and it may require that the complete contents of the user's account be retained for subsequent police inspection.

What the hell, people? Did you get voted into office because people were sick of the Republicans' efforts to legislate morality and pry into people's private affairs? Now you're doing both, and rushing the bill past all analysis and debate in order to do so. ISPs are already required to report the use of their services for distribution of child pornography, so you can't legitimately say that this is to "save the children."

I can only think of a few reasons for them to push through a bill like this, and none of them are good. Something is very rotten in the District of Columbia.

Giuliani supporter says to RP supporter : "you will get hurt" to try to keep her quiet

Tony DiMatteo, chairman of Pinellas County Republican Executive Committee, and a Giuliani supporter, tells a female Ron Paul supporter after she complained about corruption at the straw poll: "if you make a big deal out of this, you will get hurt." People were voting 80 times each for Romney.

Jason Whitlock has posted a very thoughtful -- and brave -- column about the recent murder of Sean Taylor.

Taylor's death a grim reminder for us all

There's a reason I call them the Black KKK. The pain, the fear and the destruction are all the same.

Someone who loved Sean Taylor is crying right now. The life they knew has been destroyed, an 18-month-old baby lost her father, and, if you're a black man living in America, you've been reminded once again that your life is in constant jeopardy of violent death.

The Black KKK claimed another victim, a high-profile professional football player with a checkered past this time.

No, we don't know for certain the circumstances surrounding Taylor's death. I could very well be proven wrong for engaging in this sort of aggressive speculation. But it's no different than if you saw a fat man fall to the ground clutching his chest. You'd assume a heart attack, and you'd know, no matter the cause, the man needed to lose weight.

Well, when shots are fired and a black man hits the pavement, there's every statistical reason to believe another black man pulled the trigger. That's not some negative, unfair stereotype. It's a reality we've been living with, tolerating and rationalizing for far too long.

When the traditional, white KKK lynched, terrorized and intimidated black folks at a slower rate than its modern-day dark-skinned replacement, at least we had the good sense to be outraged and in no mood to contemplate rationalizations or be fooled by distractions.

Our new millennium strategy is to pray the Black KKK goes away or ignores us. How's that working?

About as well as the attempt to shift attention away from this uniquely African-American crisis by focusing on an "injustice" the white media allegedly perpetrated against Sean Taylor.

Within hours of his death, there was a story circulating that members of the black press were complaining that news outlets were disrespecting Taylor's victimhood by reporting on his troubled past

No disrespect to Taylor, but he controlled the way he would be remembered by the way he lived. His immature, undisciplined behavior with his employer, his run-ins with law enforcement, which included allegedly threatening a man with a loaded gun, and the fact a vehicle he owned was once sprayed with bullets are all pertinent details when you've been murdered.

Marcellus Wiley, a former NFL player, made the radio circuit Wednesday, singing the tune that athletes are targets. That was his explanation for the murders of Taylor and Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams and the armed robberies of NBA players Antoine Walker and Eddy Curry.

Really?

Let's cut through the bull(manure) and deal with reality. Black men are targets of black men. Period. Go check the coroner's office and talk with a police detective. These bullets aren't checking W-2s.

Rather than whine about white folks' insensitivity or reserve a special place of sorrow for rich athletes, we'd be better served mustering the kind of outrage and courage it took in the 1950s and 1960s to stop the white KKK from hanging black men from trees.

But we don't want to deal with ourselves. We take great joy in prescribing medicine to cure the hate in other people's hearts. Meanwhile, our self-hatred, on full display for the world to see, remains untreated, undiagnosed and unrepentant.

Our self-hatred has been set to music and reinforced by a pervasive culture that promotes a crab-in-barrel mentality.

You're damn straight I blame hip hop for playing a role in the genocide of American black men. When your leading causes of death and dysfunction are murder, ignorance and incarceration, there's no reason to give a free pass to a culture that celebrates murder, ignorance and incarceration.

Of course there are other catalysts, but until we recapture the minds of black youth, convince them that it's not OK to "super man dat ho" and end any and every dispute by "cocking on your bitch," nothing will change.

Does a Soulja Boy want an education?

HBO did a fascinating documentary on Little Rock Central High School, the Arkansas school that required the National Guard so that nine black kids could attend in the 1950s. Fifty years later, the school is one of the nation's best in terms of funding and educational opportunities. It's 60 percent black and located in a poor black community.

Watch the documentary and ask yourself why nine poor kids in the '50s risked their lives to get a good education and a thousand poor black kids today ignore the opportunity that is served to them on a platter.

Blame drugs, blame Ronald Reagan, blame George Bush, blame it on the rain or whatever. There's only one group of people who can change the rotten, anti-education, pro-violence culture our kids have adopted. We have to do it.

According to reports, Sean Taylor had difficulty breaking free from the unsavory characters he associated with during his youth.

The "keepin' it real" mantra of hip hop is in direct defiance to evolution. There's always someone ready to tell you you're selling out if you move away from the immature and dangerous activities you used to do, you're selling out if you speak proper English, embrace education, dress like a grown man, do anything mainstream.

The Black KKK is enforcing the same crippling standards as its parent organization. It wants to keep black men in their place — uneducated, outside the mainstream and six feet deep.

In all likelihood, the Black Klan and its mentality buried Sean Taylor, and any black man or boy reading this could be next.