Waking up to read the news
Dec. 12th, 2009 04:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ellestraThe weather changed today. It was still pretty warm for this part of year till yesterday. Even during the night the temperature didn't drop below 0. But the forecast kept predicting cold and it came last night. The frost covered roofs but the water didn't freeze. Then the temperature kept dropping all day and now it's -2 and the puddles are covered with ice. The air feels even colder.I've been barely conscious these past few days and it may have something to do with the change in weather (or I'm going to be sick). Anyway I was so tired I came home yesterday, ate dinner and fall asleep. I slept with small breaks till 9 a.m. And would gladly go back to bed soon. I think I finally caught that famous winter solstice sickness which is used to explain feeling bad, sad and tired this time of year.
Anyway this was the reason I haven't posted anything lately, including yesterday when I should've noted that my visa papers finally came. Now all I need to do is to have a talk with somebody at the embassy and then get into USA. That last part may turn the most problematic as, as I learn today when I got up, even leaving US can tricky. As Charles Stross reports on BoingBoing Canadian SF writer Peter Watts got stopped at the border crossing back to Canada and was beaten, pepper sprayed and arrested by US border guards on Tuesday. What happened in Peter Watt's own words:
There is a campaign to raise money for his defence found as he writes a very interesting but also very hard SF which means he is not by any means a best selling author and the legal costs my prove debilitating. And since you can download his books (like Blindsight which I happen to own and which I loved and have been in heated discussion about lately) you can treat it as an exchange. There even is a sign for free the squid (marine biologist) movement. And I admit I thought of him today while writing the letters for Amnesty International :P
I've heard a lot of scary stories about people treated badly when trying to get into US. This is the first one about someone trying to get out. My mother asked me lately what will happen if they won't let me in - after all people are waiting and everything - I'm a little worried. Of course a lot of people went through US border without any problems as many friends of mine did. And as my father noted police forces are pretty much the same everywhere as they press charges for beating you in here too. So my plans in near future are to get an appointment in the embassy and choose the luggage I'll get for Christmas and to be nice to any officials.
Anyway this was the reason I haven't posted anything lately, including yesterday when I should've noted that my visa papers finally came. Now all I need to do is to have a talk with somebody at the embassy and then get into USA. That last part may turn the most problematic as, as I learn today when I got up, even leaving US can tricky. As Charles Stross reports on BoingBoing Canadian SF writer Peter Watts got stopped at the border crossing back to Canada and was beaten, pepper sprayed and arrested by US border guards on Tuesday. What happened in Peter Watt's own words:
Along some other timeline, I did not get out of the car to ask what was going on. I did not repeat that question when refused an answer and told to get back into the vehicle. In that other timeline I was not punched in the face, pepper-sprayed, shit-kicked, handcuffed, thrown wet and half-naked into a holding cell for three fucking hours, thrown into an even colder jail cell overnight, arraigned, and charged with assaulting a federal officer, all without access to legal representation (although they did try to get me to waive my Miranda rights. Twice.). Nor was I finally dumped across the border in shirtsleeves: computer seized, flash drive confiscated, even my fucking paper notepad withheld until they could find someone among their number literate enough to distinguish between handwritten notes on story ideas and, I suppose, nefarious terrorist plots. I was not left without my jacket in the face of Ontario’s first winter storm, after all buses and intercity shuttles had shut down for the night.
In some other universe I am warm and content and not looking at spending two years in jail for the crime of having been punched in the face.
There is a campaign to raise money for his defence found as he writes a very interesting but also very hard SF which means he is not by any means a best selling author and the legal costs my prove debilitating. And since you can download his books (like Blindsight which I happen to own and which I loved and have been in heated discussion about lately) you can treat it as an exchange. There even is a sign for free the squid (marine biologist) movement. And I admit I thought of him today while writing the letters for Amnesty International :P
I've heard a lot of scary stories about people treated badly when trying to get into US. This is the first one about someone trying to get out. My mother asked me lately what will happen if they won't let me in - after all people are waiting and everything - I'm a little worried. Of course a lot of people went through US border without any problems as many friends of mine did. And as my father noted police forces are pretty much the same everywhere as they press charges for beating you in here too. So my plans in near future are to get an appointment in the embassy and choose the luggage I'll get for Christmas and to be nice to any officials.
