West Wing

Guess who's girlfriend was mad enough to get him West Wing for Christmas?

Bartlet: Did you know that two thousand years ago a Roman citizen could walk across the face of the known world free of the fear of molestation? He could walk across the Earth unharmed, cloaked only in the protection of the words civis Romanus -- I am a Roman citizen. So great was the retribution of Rome, universally certain, should any harm befall even one of its citizens. Where was Morris's protection, or anybody else on that airplane? Where was the retribution for the families, and where is the warning to the rest of the world that Americans shall walk this Earth unharmed, lest the clenched fist of the most mighty military force in the history of mankind comes crashing down on your house?! In other words, Leo, what the hell are we doing here?!
Leo: We are behaving the way a superpower ought to behave.
Bartlet: Well our behavior has produced some crappy results, in fact I'm not a hundred per cent sure it hasn't induced it.
Leo: What are you talking about?
Bartlet: I'm talking about two hundred and eighty-six American marines in Beirut, I'm talking about Somalia, I'm talking about Nairobi-
Leo: And you think ratcheting up the body count's gonna act as a deterrent?
Bartlet: You're damn right I-
Leo: Oh, then you are just as stupid as these guys who think capital punishment is going to be a deterrent for drug kingpins. As if drug kingpins didn't live their day to day lives under the possibility of execution, and their executions are a lot less dainty than ours and tend to take place without the bother and expense of due process. So, my friend, if you want to start using American military strength as the arm of the Lord, you can do that. We're the only superpower left. You can conquer the world, like Charlemagne! But you better be prepared to kill everyone. And you better start with me, because I will raise up an army against you and I will beat you!
Bartlet: He had a ten day old baby at home.
Leo: I know.
Bartlet: We are doing nothing.
Leo: We are not doing nothing.
Bartlet: We're destroying-
Leo: Four high-rated military targets!
Bartlet: And this is good?
Leo: Of course it's not good. There is no good. It's what there is! It's how you behave if you're the most powerful nation in the world. It's proportional, it's reasonable, it's responsible, it's merciful! It's not nothing. Four high-rated military targets.
Bartlet: Which they'll rebuild again in six months.
Leo: Then we'll blow 'em up again in six months! We're getting really good at it... It's what our fathers taught us.
Bartlet: Why didn't you say so? Oh, Leo...when I think of all the work you put in to get me to run and all the work you did to get me elected...I could pummel your ass with a baseball bat.

Dreamwidth Usage

So, I've had this Dreamwidth account for ages now, and have used it for absolutely nothing. I have no intention of joining the great LJ exodus (I happen to like it here with our criminal Russian overlords) or crossposting or any of the other common uses for a DW account. Instead, I've decided to lock it all to hell and use it as a dedicated writing journal.

In short, I've had about a dozen projects on the go for the last year, and due to work, X-Box and borderline alcoholism, all of them have been stalled. Since I seem to do my best work while under the scrutiny of others (as my exes will attest to), I've decided to offer a one time pass into the weird crannies of my mind and writing process. The stuff going up won't necessarily be coherent, but it will be consistant.

What does it give you? Well, not a whole hell of a lot, really. Some posts will be open for comments - feedback, criticism, etc. Others will not be. Pretty much anything that is a fragment of something else will likely not be open for comments until a larger piece is done. I will also be purging the diary regularly, as things approach the stage that I'm looking to submit for publication (or in my case, submit to add to my stack of rejection letters).

If you want to be added and don't have a DW account, you'll need to make arrangements to get one. Most people seem to have several thousand invites available, and you can use the comments here to request it. If you do have a DW account, please friend the following journal:

http://dexfarkin.dreamwidth.org/

At the end of January, I'm going to be closing the profile in terms of new people. So if you want to be able to read, you're going to need to join by then. I don't think I need to mention that anything on the journal will be locked, so please do not forward it or link it to anyone not added on the profile page.