![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silveradeptWorking out logistics with the interview that should be happening on Thursday. I’m probably paying a visit up to the school just to make sure that everything is in order and that all the right people have spoken to each other on getting the videoconference call set up. Spent most of my afternoon reading literature geared toward a teenage audience, as recommended to me by those with much more experience and wisdom than I, and their offerings have not been off the mark. My ability to string them into some sort of coherent narrative may be, but that’s my problem for the moment, and I should be able to work through it by the appointed hour of my destiny. Somebody’s got to hire me, right?
Oh, and as an aside, I’ve been shedding a bit, but I suspect that started about the time my hairline started receding. Might be stress-accelerated shedding these days, but the general result is that as each year passes, I manage to lose more hair. I think.
But, in addition to all of that material in my life, which, y’know, everyone is waiting for me to say “I got hired!” just so that they don’t have to hear me talk about it all the time, the Internet delivers on its promise to have all sorts of material freely available for perusal.
Some of it is about the triumphs of science, such as solar power making after-dark lighting and water purification possible in remote places of India. Or the demand for recycled paper to print Harry Potter Seven was sufficiently large that it pushed the publication of a biodiversity paper back at least a month while stocks were restored. And some details about an ambitious ESA planet-finding project that requires some technology we haven’t quite developed yet. Something that could be coming to us soon, however, is the Crowd Farm, flooring that uses the act of being stepped on by people to generate electricity. Or possibly, transforms a pogoing mosh crowd into extra decibels from the speakers.
Other parts of it are about the darkest parts of humanity, where a bookseller was investigated by the FBI because he was reading a document on how the media has been poisoned by corporate interests. Spy on your neighbors, citizens. You must be vigilant, or the thoughtcriminals will win. But how can you trust your government to tell you the truth, when the Attorney General says there was no dissent when he want to renew the spying program, yet two of those also there says there was quite the dissent? That’s on domestic matters. It doesn’t help them out any more when someone supposedly killed by a friendly-fire incident displays bullet wounds more like an deliberate execution. And that the general involved in the potential cover-up was only censured, with the possibility of losing a star. Or that voting machines are still easily compromised by security testing teams, admittedly in situations that more resembled inside jobs than an outside attack, but the extent to which the devices were hacked makes you wonder whether the numbers from any vote are accurate, and more so on the important ones. This kind of attitude, in addition to the problem of being a single entity in a country controlled by large groups, makes![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bladespark afraid. It's not the terrorists you should fear - it's what the government has done while distracting you with terrorists.
And then there's Bill O'Reilly, self-proclaimed "culture warrior" who routinely advocates hateful, false, and offensive positions, all the while claiming his opponents are the real enemy.
Parts of the things on the web sound familiar, although they claims to be new - an opinion in the New York Times that says that Iraq is stabilizing, and that's reason enough to keep supporting the war effort, even with larger questions about the eventual health of the country as yet unanswered and without major progress. There’s also the continued opposition ,like Lenin's Tomb on how much "the Iraqis have let the occupiers down" by not rolling over and providing record profits for American corporations after their country had been bombed and then bought.
Some of the material is new, but tinges of some familiar elements, like Herb London's opinion that the United Nations understands and uses Orwell's "newspeak" to the fullest.
Some of it will make people squeal and faint, like a kiss delivered to Neil Gaiman at Comic-Con. Others will make them curse and spit, like the economy that has sprung up to feed the wants of the super-rich, some of whom recognize that their continued super-richness is driving out the middle class and putting more and more people into poverty. Some might make them shake their heads in disbelief, like the couple, awarded $2, who wants to have their attorney fees paid as well. Or that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has no plans on requiring objects to be labeled "contains nanotechnology". Or the revelation that Marshall Mathers has never licensed his music for download, despite it being available on iTunes. Speaking of music, if a patented gene appears in a song, who gets the royalties?
Some of it is stuff that’s of interest to me professionally, like the Happiness Project's children's literature recommendation list (many of which I have read at least one). Some parts tickle my interest by being related to my other degree, like the Archeological Ministry of France's piece on Saint-Denis. (The translations from French are there for the main content, but some French has remained, so if you know a little, it helps, especially on map legends.) Other parts are more interesting on a personal level, like an opinion expressed regarding Ratzinger's wish to see the Latin mass restored - that’s the one that happened before Vatican II, when the priest and service turned around to see the people, put the service in the vernacular, and gave them responses to the prayers being offered. There’s probably a significant amount of philosophy behind this maneuver, perhaps a strong sign of Catholic fundamentalism of some sort. The Slacktivist skewers a certain popular theological rhyme in asking an important question - Who made Steve? - you know, the one mentioned in the phrase “God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.” What might be the best of the actual canonical responses is “God made both men, just not their blessed union, because, y’know, being a homosexual is a choice.” Something in the same sort of seriousness, especially for those who want to consider homosexuality a crime, is to look at the result of what happened when people start talking about what the penalty to a woman should be if she has an abortion. It was something that appeared to have slipped the minds of those who wanted them banned - they haven’t considered what the penalty should be, under law. Maybe some of them are thinking stoning, but I suspect that’s been established as cruel and unusual.
Of course, some of it is just weird, like a wearable USB keyboard that would put a new spin on touch-typing. Some aims for nostalgia, liek preserving and emulating Apple II disks, or DIY knitting kits for the headwear of a Firefly character. And some of it is just disturbing, like seeing just how much $80 a week in food stamps goes toward feeding a single mother with three children. Said mother works full-time, by the way, and still sometimes forgoes food for herself so that her children can eat when they are hungry. Similarly, The 9th Ward of New Orleans still appears to be pretty run down, even though it’s been nearly two years since the hurricane was there.
On occasion, though, it’s inspiring. Sometimes, really good messages come through. Like this one - You are Beautiful. Yes, you. Something to think on, anyway. Something to enjoy, though, would be the Fire-Breathing Dragon Cake, which is artistic and delicious, no doubt.
So, that whole bed thing sounds like an idea. Still have one more book to get through, a synopsis to write/memorize, and possibly to do a little practice on the storytelling part of the interview. By the time I’m hired, I’ll probably have a good repertoire of material to perform when I am doing it as part of my job, rather than just as a hope.
Oh, and as an aside, I’ve been shedding a bit, but I suspect that started about the time my hairline started receding. Might be stress-accelerated shedding these days, but the general result is that as each year passes, I manage to lose more hair. I think.
But, in addition to all of that material in my life, which, y’know, everyone is waiting for me to say “I got hired!” just so that they don’t have to hear me talk about it all the time, the Internet delivers on its promise to have all sorts of material freely available for perusal.
Some of it is about the triumphs of science, such as solar power making after-dark lighting and water purification possible in remote places of India. Or the demand for recycled paper to print Harry Potter Seven was sufficiently large that it pushed the publication of a biodiversity paper back at least a month while stocks were restored. And some details about an ambitious ESA planet-finding project that requires some technology we haven’t quite developed yet. Something that could be coming to us soon, however, is the Crowd Farm, flooring that uses the act of being stepped on by people to generate electricity. Or possibly, transforms a pogoing mosh crowd into extra decibels from the speakers.
Other parts of it are about the darkest parts of humanity, where a bookseller was investigated by the FBI because he was reading a document on how the media has been poisoned by corporate interests. Spy on your neighbors, citizens. You must be vigilant, or the thoughtcriminals will win. But how can you trust your government to tell you the truth, when the Attorney General says there was no dissent when he want to renew the spying program, yet two of those also there says there was quite the dissent? That’s on domestic matters. It doesn’t help them out any more when someone supposedly killed by a friendly-fire incident displays bullet wounds more like an deliberate execution. And that the general involved in the potential cover-up was only censured, with the possibility of losing a star. Or that voting machines are still easily compromised by security testing teams, admittedly in situations that more resembled inside jobs than an outside attack, but the extent to which the devices were hacked makes you wonder whether the numbers from any vote are accurate, and more so on the important ones. This kind of attitude, in addition to the problem of being a single entity in a country controlled by large groups, makes
bladespark afraid. It's not the terrorists you should fear - it's what the government has done while distracting you with terrorists. And then there's Bill O'Reilly, self-proclaimed "culture warrior" who routinely advocates hateful, false, and offensive positions, all the while claiming his opponents are the real enemy.
Parts of the things on the web sound familiar, although they claims to be new - an opinion in the New York Times that says that Iraq is stabilizing, and that's reason enough to keep supporting the war effort, even with larger questions about the eventual health of the country as yet unanswered and without major progress. There’s also the continued opposition ,like Lenin's Tomb on how much "the Iraqis have let the occupiers down" by not rolling over and providing record profits for American corporations after their country had been bombed and then bought.
Some of the material is new, but tinges of some familiar elements, like Herb London's opinion that the United Nations understands and uses Orwell's "newspeak" to the fullest.
Some of it will make people squeal and faint, like a kiss delivered to Neil Gaiman at Comic-Con. Others will make them curse and spit, like the economy that has sprung up to feed the wants of the super-rich, some of whom recognize that their continued super-richness is driving out the middle class and putting more and more people into poverty. Some might make them shake their heads in disbelief, like the couple, awarded $2, who wants to have their attorney fees paid as well. Or that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has no plans on requiring objects to be labeled "contains nanotechnology". Or the revelation that Marshall Mathers has never licensed his music for download, despite it being available on iTunes. Speaking of music, if a patented gene appears in a song, who gets the royalties?
Some of it is stuff that’s of interest to me professionally, like the Happiness Project's children's literature recommendation list (many of which I have read at least one). Some parts tickle my interest by being related to my other degree, like the Archeological Ministry of France's piece on Saint-Denis. (The translations from French are there for the main content, but some French has remained, so if you know a little, it helps, especially on map legends.) Other parts are more interesting on a personal level, like an opinion expressed regarding Ratzinger's wish to see the Latin mass restored - that’s the one that happened before Vatican II, when the priest and service turned around to see the people, put the service in the vernacular, and gave them responses to the prayers being offered. There’s probably a significant amount of philosophy behind this maneuver, perhaps a strong sign of Catholic fundamentalism of some sort. The Slacktivist skewers a certain popular theological rhyme in asking an important question - Who made Steve? - you know, the one mentioned in the phrase “God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.” What might be the best of the actual canonical responses is “God made both men, just not their blessed union, because, y’know, being a homosexual is a choice.” Something in the same sort of seriousness, especially for those who want to consider homosexuality a crime, is to look at the result of what happened when people start talking about what the penalty to a woman should be if she has an abortion. It was something that appeared to have slipped the minds of those who wanted them banned - they haven’t considered what the penalty should be, under law. Maybe some of them are thinking stoning, but I suspect that’s been established as cruel and unusual.
Of course, some of it is just weird, like a wearable USB keyboard that would put a new spin on touch-typing. Some aims for nostalgia, liek preserving and emulating Apple II disks, or DIY knitting kits for the headwear of a Firefly character. And some of it is just disturbing, like seeing just how much $80 a week in food stamps goes toward feeding a single mother with three children. Said mother works full-time, by the way, and still sometimes forgoes food for herself so that her children can eat when they are hungry. Similarly, The 9th Ward of New Orleans still appears to be pretty run down, even though it’s been nearly two years since the hurricane was there.
On occasion, though, it’s inspiring. Sometimes, really good messages come through. Like this one - You are Beautiful. Yes, you. Something to think on, anyway. Something to enjoy, though, would be the Fire-Breathing Dragon Cake, which is artistic and delicious, no doubt.
So, that whole bed thing sounds like an idea. Still have one more book to get through, a synopsis to write/memorize, and possibly to do a little practice on the storytelling part of the interview. By the time I’m hired, I’ll probably have a good repertoire of material to perform when I am doing it as part of my job, rather than just as a hope.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-08-01 08:44 pm (UTC)I suppose it would be harder to do a piece-by-piece, but then if it's not piece-by-piece, grocery stores should lower their costs of things like fruits/veggies to comare to farmer stands. or even offer a lower price for WIC people, like they have their bonus cards.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-01 09:02 pm (UTC)You also want a grocery to say, "Here, people on assistance! We're going to give you a lower price, take pity on you, and show off to all the world just how poor you really are and how generous we are that we're giving you this discount!" Even if that's not the intent, I can hear people bristling were they to see "$1.29 for those who can afford it, $.99 for those who are too poor to even pay that." on prices.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-01 09:06 pm (UTC)As for the pricing, it wouldn't be a "you can't afford this so pay this", it would only apply if you had the access card or whatever they call it, and you would have to pay with that card.
but i suppose it might cause animosity. Atthe same time though, the grocery store can't afford to charge everyone farmer's stand prices, wheras the people with more money COULD go down to the farmer's stand and get their veggies for cheap becaise they had the money to spend on food.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-01 09:17 pm (UTC)Regardless of how you want to go about it, people have real funny ideas about "takin' charity" from others, and others have even weirder ideas about "paying taxes so that some bum can sit around all day.", and they're not referring to their legislators. Recall that a strongly prevalent attitude about the homeless and the poor is that they're lazy, and that with hard work, even at minimum wage, they'd make it into a proper life. All they have to do is want it, y'know. Even the single mother, who never went to college because she had children, who had her husband leave her and their four children, she can take care of all of them, she just has to want to work hard, that's all, and in no time she'll be pulling in plenty of money to pay for everything.
All she has to do is work eighty-hour weeks and starve herself. That's not so bad, is it?
no subject
Date: 2007-08-01 09:26 pm (UTC)sure, sure. I totally get the "not taking charity" thing, but you know...sometimes, it's just needed. I also honestly don't think that anyone who is homeless or on assistance is lazy. it's just that they don't have as large of a support system as the single parent you know who's raising her three kids on her own and has a cushy job. That's what it comes down to, I think. People see a single parent "making it" and then think that the single parent in poverty must be doing somethig wrong, but what they don't see is that the single parent "making it" migh thave a stronger support network. I'd like to make all those folks who say you can live of minimum wage DO IT for afew weeks. No outside help allowed. They have to pay rent, gas, electricity, and food out of their minimum wage job - and oh yeah, they have to raise the children at the same time. Let them see how "easy" it is.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-01 09:36 pm (UTC)What we haven't mentioned so far is the network of religious and nonreligious organizations that exist to give people a support network, in addition to or because of the amount of family support someone gets. Woefully, a lot of people who could use their help don't know they exist. And some of them may be a bit heavy on the "Come to Jeezis if you want to sup at our table" bits, which could very well grate on people after a while if they're not already of the appropriate Jeezis sect. Even more woefully, sometimes even knowing where to go and having a good support network isn't enough. All it takes is one cavity and no dental insurance...
no subject
Date: 2007-08-01 09:43 pm (UTC)As for caveties, there are traveling dentist busses that can take care of that in a child for free, but if you're an adult, forget it.
Yes, I'd actually like the government to, you know, take care of the people that live in it every once in a while.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-01 09:58 pm (UTC)Government? Take care of the people? That's communism, miss, and I'll tell you right now, we red-blooded American patriots will have no truck with terrorists! Besides, if we wait long enough, all the lazy poor will die out like how that wave smashed all those sinners, and especially those degenerate black and brown people for their misdeeds, praise God. And then, all we have to do is wait for God to come and take us up to heaven, while everyone else in the world suffers.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-01 09:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-01 10:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-01 10:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-01 10:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-01 10:18 pm (UTC)