*PRESIDENTIAL PONDERINGS*

     Had a good time at the picnic.  20+ people showed up and
things ran until well after dark.  Food was good - hamburgers,
hotdogs, baked potatoes, pie, etc. etc. (Since I knew people were
gonna be hanging around till after dark I prudently included some
garlic in the bean salad I made.  There was a full moon
scheduled.)  It was also Mike Cowper's birthday so Cheryl
baked him a cake and we all sang(?) both versions of Happy
Birthday.  This year's get-together even included a fireworks
display courtesy of Tim and Randy!

     The September meeting will be at the Children's
Museum as usual(September 23rd).  Proposed agenda was
in the Presidential Ponderings in the pre-picnic mini version of
the Circular. (If you didn't save it you can read it on the net
by going to http://www.inconjunction.org)

     Well, that's enough for now.  C'ya on the 23rd!

                                    Andy
 

p.s. We should prolly all dress in black.  Linda D. didn't
win the John Campbell award.
p.p.s.  You can find the minutes of the last meeting at the
net site also.



      
Tenets - First Reformed Evangelical Voodoo
Church of Earth, Ltd.
                 by the Rev. Billy Bob Chalmers


      Friends, I've come to you today to speak to you of a new
way of thinking.  A new path in mankinds eternal quest for
understanding in this, our universe.

      What is this way you ask, what is it called?   Well,
friends, I call this the First Reformed Evangelical Voodoo
Church of Earth, Ltd.  Why-in-the-hell did you name it that,
you ask?  Well, to understand that, let's break the whole name
down word by word.

      First is because I'm the "founder" (if you will)
of this system of
thinking.  Therefore this is the "first" version of this brand of
thinking.
     Reformed is because I have spent time dwelling on
this system and have made modifications in it as new insights
have come on my horizons.
      Evangelical is because I see a need to
preach/teach the message as I see it.
      Voodoo is an eye opener word.  It's main purpose
is to rock you back and make you think.  To shatter the
ingrained habits of thinking you have about philosophical systems
when thinking about this system.
     Church is because this way of thinking focuses on
areas that have typically been the focus of churches and
religious beliefs.  It is to let your brain know in a mental
holographic sort of way some of the areas we will explore.
     Of is a preposition necessary to make an
intelligible phrase.
     Earth is the planet we live on, the planet we know. 
The planet we are from.  Although I feel the basic message of
this system is relevant to beings of other stars, other
universes, this interpretation is only for beings native to this
planet and time because it is what I am currently aware of.
     Limited.  This word is used to further reinforce
that this interpretation is limited to the natives of this, our
planet.  And also for tax purposes in some foreign
countries.


      I would now like to explain to you the basis for the
belief system of the First Reformed Evangelical Voodoo Church
of Earth, Ltd.  Please realize that these did not come
engraved on tablets of stone, or as an inspiration in a flash of
light.  They are the product of all that I have learned and felt
in the years of my existence. (Including "borrowing" part of the
name from Harry Harrison.)

      The are two basic tenets of the First Reformed
Evangelical Voodoo Church of Earth, Ltd.:
           1) A belief in a soul/spirit that outlasts/exists
     separate from the body.
           2) An acceptance that we cannot truly understand
     the characteristics and capabilities of something that we
     cannot study thru the use of our own senses.

If you cannot believe these things, cannot credit them
as likely true, then this system is not for you.

I.  Soul/spirit
      The first basic tenet is that there is a soul, a
spirit, a non corporeal something that exists and is independent
of this too, too mortal flesh.

     Man is a selfish creature.  This selfishness has
been bred into us over the thousands upon thousands of
generations that preceded us, and will continue in those that
will follow.  For this selfishness is essential to our
individual survival, and the survival of the individual is
essential to the survival of the species.

      If this corpus is all there is of me, what is the
purpose of my existence?  If indeed there is no such thing as
soul or spirit, but only flesh and blood,then the light that is
me will shine never again and no more in just the blink of an
eye, as our universe measures time.
 

     Could this be true?  Yes, sadly it could be.  Can I
prove that there is, or is not, something to me besides the
mixture of water, proteins, etc. which you see before you right
now?  No, I cannot.
     But, I CHOOSE to believe that there is more to
me. I CHOOSE to believe that there is more to me than what you
see.   If there is not, and I knew this to be true, then what
would my life be?  What would my focus be?
 
     If there is not, then would not my focus be the
immediate, the pleasure of the moment, rather than the plan for
the future?  Because if there is not, and if I knew this
to be true, then YOU and YOU and YOU and YOU, and all of the
world, would you not be to me as mere toys for my use in the
pursuit of my pleasure?  To be used and discarded, or used and
destroyed at the whims of my mood?

     Is this your wish for you?  A toy, a plaything. 
Nothing more than a fancifully shaped golem of water and
dirt?   For if there is not, and I knew it, and you knew it,
then where would we be?   For you would see me as your toy, while
I saw you as mine, and what would happen then?  Peaceful
cooperation towards mutual pleasure, or bitter squabbles over who
was the ascendant, who the superior?  There are over 5 billion of
us on this blob of dirt.  If we each saw all others as our toys
and playthings, then what would this world be?

     If there is not, but I believe there to be, what
have I lost in my error?  True, I have lost some of the pleasures
of the moment.  I have also lost discord.  I have lost discord
with anyone I meet, wherever I'm at, any time of day or night,
every day of the year, for all of the years of my life.  I
have lost little if I am wrong.

      But if I believe there to be a something that is
separate and survives apart from what you see before you know,
what have I gained?  I have lost discord but gained caring. 
Gained love, cooperation, and friendship.  I am no longer a
stranger in a strange, strange land but have gained all of the
reaching out to one another that we can do and do every day.
      Without this sense of something separate, I am the only
man in a world full of animals.  A Robinson Crusoe on a hunk of
dirt that is 25,000 miles around, floating in an endless empty
sea of night.  I have my toys to amuse me, but I am alone. 
Alone, unloved, grudgingly tolerated  - perhaps -  by the lesser
creatures that surround me here, in my isolation.

      I CHOOSE to believe that there is more to me than
what you can see with your two eyes, I CHOOSE to believe
that there is more to me than what you can feel with the
touch of your hand, I CHOOSE to believe that there is more to
me than what you can discover thru the use of any of your
physical senses, because you are more than that to me.

      Can I prove, then, that there is, or is not,
something to me besides the mixture of water, proteins, etc. 
which you see before you right now?  No, I cannot.  But
I CHOOSE to believe that there is more, and I have lost
little if I am wrong.


II. Unfathomability

        None here, I think, would deny the occurrence of the
ending of life that we call death.  In one form or another it has
touched all of our lives.  We have all seen loved ones who no
longer respond to the sound of our voice, the touch of our hands,
the glow of our smile.  Loved ones for whom the body can still be
seen, but who lack that spark we call "life."

      Herein we speak of the soul/spirit which earlier
we discussed.  We speak of its ties to the corporeal body. 
 Again, though, we have unprovables.  We assume that what was
once tied can be tied again.  And that what was once untied, may
again be tied.  Can this be proven, no.  But I CHOOSE to believe
that it is true.

      Once this spark of life, this soul or spirit
loses its ties to the body, what is its fate?  Does the
loss of the spark of life from the body of our beloved, or a
stranger, indicate that this spark no longer shines?
Or, since we notice its absence, does it mean it no longer
shines here, but has gone somewhere else?   A "somewhere"
that cannot be sensed by our corporeal senses, but still is
existent?  I CHOOSE to believe the latter, not the former. 
 I CHOOSE to believe that this spark still shines, just in
other climes.
  
      If I am wrong and death extinguishes the spark of life
that is the spirit/soul, what is it to me?  It is to me as if
that spark never existed at all.  Then I am a stranger in a
strange, strange land.  A Robinson Crusoe, alone, in the dark
starry sea of night.  For my life then has no meaning other than
my own existence, and I must live, not just exist.
      But if the spark endures, what then?  Where does
it go, what does it do? What forces act upon it now, as forces
acted upon it when it was tied to a fleshy frame?  I know
not.  For you see I must seek the answers with the senses of
my body and they can but sense the presence or absence of the
spark of life in matter, not its existence itself.
      If existence continues, then could it be that it
never again binds with the world, the universe, that my senses
survey?   Yes, it could be.  Could it be that it again binds,
perhaps many times, perhaps many ways, with the world, the
universe, that my senses survey?  Yes, that could also be.  But
which of these true? or perhaps could both be?  Yes, any, all, or
more than this could be true.  But we will never know while
limited to the sensory abilities of this 3 dimensional
existence.  It is an ancient truth that only time will
tell.


      Take a moment and look into your heart, into your soul. 
Does what I've said ring true with the inner you?  Does it sing
to you on a pure clear note, or does the note strike a discord
that makes your ears hurt and your jaw clench?
      To me the note rings true, after many years of
discordant tunes.  If it rings true for you, then perhaps you'd
be interested in hearing more about The First Reformed
Evangelical Voodoo Church of Earth, LTD.


*PIRATE WARNING*
            by J. Michael Straczynski  (creator of Babylon 5)
                              Reposted by request.

     For some time, I've been cautioning people dealing in
pirated material; videotapes, Links, PPGs, the whole gamut.  The
usual reaction from those involved is, basically, screw off, on
the grounds that there's plenty of ST pirated stuff out there,
and nobody does anything about it.  Well, for starters, that's
because there's a lot of grey about the copyright during the
period during which ST wasn't being produced, and the copyright
wasn't being enforced.  Second...we're not ST.  A mistake many
pirates continue to make, to their detriment.

     To the pirates out there, be warned: Warner Bros. is
prosecuting these cases to the full extent of the law.  Case in
point: I saw bootleg copies of B5 episodes for sale at the
Chicago ComicCon, confiscated them, and told the person selling
them, David Scott, *not* to do this anymore, because if he did,
we would come down on him...hard.  His reaction was basically a
shrug.

     So this same person showed up at San Diego Comic Con,
selling the same B5 tapes.  WB was notified.  And the FBI showed
up and seized the material. And that of the other shows he was
selling.  He tried to make light of it at the time, nobody
follows through on this stuff, after all.  Wrong again.  He has
been prosecuted by Time Warner Entertainment, with charges filed
in United States District Court (case number 92-1602 H POR), and
there has already been a judgment rendered to the tune of
*thousands* of dollars.

     To the pirates out there: be warned.  We're not kidding
around.  We will take you down, hard.  Especially those selling
the poor-quality videotapes, and those selling supposed "real
props" from the series, which are simply cheap knockoffs with
expensive price tags to separate fans from their money.

     (And to the OTHER dealer in Chicago, who was selling fake
PPGs and other items, from whom I confiscated the illegal goods,
and has since been mouthing off to other dealers that in lawfully
confiscating this material I "shoplifted" -- and I confiscated
this stuff in front of several witnesses, and put the dealer on
notice as to what I was doing -- by all means, continue running
your mouth; you assiduously didn't have an address anywhere
available, and your behavior will simply make it that much easier
for us to find you.)

     One of the reasons that I'm very careful on what we do and
don't license is that I want them to be done *right* when they're
done; as a fan, I've grown to despair over cheap knockoffs whose
exorbitant price tags only feed the sharks that made them.  I
won't have inferior quality products out there, licensed or
otherwise.  We take great pains to make everything involved with
this show of the highest quality, and will not allow anyone
outside to hinder that effort.

jms


1995 Hugo Winners

Best Novel: Mirror Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold
Best Novella: "Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge" by Mike Resnick
     (F&SF, 10-11/94)
Best Novelette: "The Martian Child" by David Gerrold (F&SF,
9/94)
Best Short Story: "None So Blind" by Joe Haledeman (Asimov's,
11/94-hooray!!!)
Best Nonfiction Book: I. Asimov: A Memoir  (Doubleday)
Best Professional Editor: Gardner Dozois, Asimov's 
(hooray!!!)
Best Dramatic Presentation: "All Good Things" Star Trek: The
Next Generation
Best Fan Writer: Save Langford
Best Fan Artist: Teddy Harvia
John W. Campbell Award: Jeff Noon
Best Pro Artist: Jim Burns
Best Fanzine: Ansible
Best Semiprozine: Interzone
Best Original Artwork: Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book
by Brian Froud & Terry Jones

*1995 Hugo Award Nominations*
Novel:
     Mother of Storms by John Barnes
     Brittle Innings by Michael Bishop
     Mirror Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold
     Beggars and Choosers by Nancy Kress
     Towing Jehovah by James Morrow

Novella:
     "Cri de Coeur" by Michael Bishop (9/94 Asimov's)
     "Melodies of the Heart" by Michael F. Flynn (1/94
Analog)
     "Forgiveness Day" by Ursula K. Le Guin (11/94 Asimov's)
     "Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge" by Mike Resnick (F&SF)
     "Les Fleurs du Mal," by Brian Stableford (10/94
Asimov's)

Novelette:
     "Cocoon" by Greg Egan (5/94 Asimov's)
     "The Martian Child" by David Gerrold (F&SF)
     "The Singular Habits of Wasps" by Geoffrey A. Landis
(4/94 Analog)
     "Solitude" by Ursula K. Le Guin (F&SF)
     "The Matter of Saggri" by Ursula K. Le Guin (Crank!)
     "A Little Knowledge" by Mike Resnick (4/94 Asimov's)

Short Story:
     "Mrs. Lincoln's China" by M. Shayne Bell (7/94 Asimov's)
     "None So Blind" by Joe Haldeman (11/94 Asimov's)
     "Dead Man's Curve" by Terry Bisson (6/94 Asimov's)
     "Understanding Entropy" by Barry Maltzberg (SF Age)
     "Barnaby in Exile" by Mike Resnick (2/94 Asimov's)
     "I Know What You're Thinking" by Kate Wilhelm (11/94
Asimov's)