silveradept: A kodama with a trombone. The trombone is playing music, even though it is held in a rest position (Default)
[personal profile] silveradept
A lot got accomplished today, though it doesn’t really look like it. Although much more just got put on my plate. That said, it was a truly heroic effort tonight - started the marinade for the dish I’ll be bringing to work on Thursday, with the rest of that being cooked tomorrow and prepared. Then cooked a gigantor, Mongolian-squadron feeding pot of chili, which actually turned out really well, and a little on the spicy side. Then there was the project that I did for work (yeah, took some “work” home because it’s easier to GIMP something here than to dink around with Ghostscript there. That, plus comic and this, and you have an idea of what I’ve managed to achieve before bed tonight.

One channel of my headphones died yesterday, so I’m using my spares today, and I guess I’m getting a lightly higher static charge than normal with it being much colder out. I seem to recall purchasing a pair of headphones about once every so often - maybe I should find a really good pair and get them. Problem is, I’m not sure I want to be bopping along the streets with my boss DJ-style headphones on.

Add on top of this that I had a reason to join the Society of Librarians Who Say MotherF**ker today, and it was a very event-filled day. Somewhere in all of this, there was wisdom obtained, too. But you’d probably have to work your way to the center of the Katamari to find it.

So, let’s just get all of that wisdom buried under link glut! Staring with bombs targeting Iraqi politicians' compounds. The political part still seems to be lacking. Working off a different destructive mandate, Israel's tanks and bulldozers moved into Gaza again, blasting and razing away.

While anti-government demonstrators were met by pro-government demonstrators a few blocks away, Cuba promised that it would sign an international human rights treaty. There’s probably something to be said about the juxtaposition of those events, but I’m not sure what it is.

In Australia, a doctor has suggested the imposition of a tax on families that have more than two children, to pay for the carbon dioxide emissions the additional children will be producing. That’s one way of asking the population ot control itself, but I do not think Australia is the place to be making such a proposal.

Mother Nature got her kicks and then some across the United States, with 533,000 people losing their power when an ice storm and freezing rain ripped through the central plains region. Mudslides in the Pacific Northwest, ice storms in the middle, drought, and more. And this is just normal climate variation? Maybe the weather is harsher wherever you go, compared to home.

[livejournal.com profile] throwingstardna comes to a conclusion regarding the recent spate of shootings in the country - those areas that were "gun-free", where even concealed carriers can't suffered a rampage, where at the church, which wasn't, the shooter was gunned down with much less loss of life. The solution, then, is simple - stop stopping the concealed carriers from carrying.

The accounts of the actions where soldiers are awarded the Silver Star medal for heroism should be public, says the Sun. Citing the possibility of increased personal risk, as well as a want to keep some things private, the government so far has not released those accounts to the public. Which, depending on whether someone gets the idea in their head they want to pester the hero, or what awards them the Star is classified or something they’re not proud of, might be prudent.

There appears to be an actual standoff on appropriations. The Democrats have not yet caved in and just given what the other side wants. Maybe the proximity of elections has stiffened their resolve.

The Southern Baptist Convention has graciously allowed us a peek into their mental processes. Read their page about Cults and/or Sects, complete with warning signs and the process of "witnessing" to someone in one of those organizations. They have a certain fondness for using the LDS church for examples, it looks like. I’d almost call it a pocket reference of how the SBC and many of its members view the world around them. Although, a much more image-heavy, but less-page rendering of the philosophies of life and their hope value is the Weirdo "No Hope" Diagram, designed to make sure that people live their lives appropriately, without exercising in silly things like hope.

The past continues to come back and bite presidential candidates - in 1998, Mike Huckabee signed an ad stating his belief that "A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ." Well, now. That probably gives him more evangelical street cred than Mitt could ever hope for. I’m not sure that’s a good thing, thouhg.

Our pastry runner-up tonight is the principal at Toll Gate High School, Stephen Chrabaszcz, who ordered the painting-over of a peace mural because the quote selected by the painter, a graduate of the school, was from Jimi Hendrix, and Hendrix’s drug usage was unacceptable and “not something I want promoted in my school”, according to the principal. The quote? “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, then the world will know peace.” I think there’s definitely some room for improvement there at Toll Gate, starting with the principal’s office.

The winner for tonight’s smack in the face with quiche is a judge in Australia, in addition tot he Child Safety services that allowed this bizarre situation to happen. First, The Child Safety Officers took an aboriginal child that was doing well in foster care and sent her back to the abusive place she was taken out of, citing a need not to have another “stolen generation”, referring to the time when aboriginal children were forcefully taken out of their native homes and raised by white people. After already having syphilis once through rape at seven, she was gang-raped by nine boys and contracted gonorrhea. She’s ten years old, by the way. Which brings us to the judge. In sentencing the nine boys, she had this to say:
All of you have to understand that you cannot have sex with a girl under 16. If you do, you are breaking the law, and if you are found out, then you will be brought to court and could end up in jail. I accept that the girl involved, with respect to all of these matters, was not forced, and that she probably agreed to have sex with all of you.
As such, the boys were let off much more lightly than they could have been. It sounds almost like the judge said that the age of consent, in this particular case, was ten years of age, rather than the sixteen that the boys are being prosecuted under. But a judge really wouldn’t say that, right?

Warming to other items, the following two pieces are fascinating, perhaps not as much for what is written, but for the attitudes that appear in the writing. In both cases, the sentiment that appears is “We know much more than you do, so shut up.” The first example is Thomas Sowell describing why the police always seem to be using excessive force and shooting a lot - the accuracy is slightly this side of Imperial stormtrooper, and that even hits don’t necessarily mean the threat has stopped. Fair enough. But then right at the end, Sowell goes right for the “Unless you’ve done their job, you can’t comment on the way they do it.” and then says that if the school system taught real subjects instead of “self-esteem”, that problem might go away. Well, armchair quarterbacking doesn’t go away, I’ll say. But let’s get the second example out before I get wound up - CIO magazine publishes In Defense of Gen Y Workers, describing how Jarina D’Auria, a fresh face in Gen Y, sees the job market and what society needs to pick up on for Gen Ys to do their work. The article itself is good only in relation to the response it got. People in management, “boomers” and Gen Xs pile on the writer with the “When you get to be our age, you’ll think like we do. Go out and get some experience in the job world, then maybe we’ll listen to you. Otherwise, you’re just an arrogant, whiny kid.” It sounds like a classic case of ageism (“You damn kids! Can’t you be quiet! This is a library!”) from the boomer/X side, and the youthful enthusiasm and two middle-fingers up from the other. I’m not saying this is necessarily a new fight, but I think, perhaps naively, that there’s some sort of circular spiral of death going on here - old managers think that new kids are full of pep and no brains, so kids chafe at working under what they perceive to be glacially slow and outdated modes, wanting to do new things, so they flit about, trying to find someone who believes in them, or starting their own companies, which leads to the older crowd having their stereotypes reinforced, which leads to the younger crowd having their stereotypes reinforced, and eventually, those who stuck through it are twisted and disillusioned or have decided to stop fighting and become appropriately corporate drones. (There are a significant number of third-way people, but bear with me on this.) Those that drone on make it to management, where they run into the same problem as before, with the next generation. Except now they’re the people who are resistant to change, possibly because of the bad experiences they had when they were trying to change things.

Maybe that’s why I like my current place of work - there seems to be no official taboo on trying stuff or making suggestions here and there. There are occasionally minefields regarding how to ask and make suggestions properly so that nobody is offended, but the clientele forces an innovation cycle, so new ideas are welcomed.

Anyway, I’ve rambled on long enough for no point. It’s the bed thing, now.
Depth: 1

Date: 2007-12-12 09:51 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] eisenhart.livejournal.com
"...the accuracy is slightly this side of Imperial Stormtrooper..."

I lol'd. Then I cried a little.
Depth: 1

Date: 2007-12-12 04:16 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] annaonthemoon.livejournal.com
If the problem was with the quote, why didn't they just paint over the quote and add a new quote? Seems extreme to cover up the entire mural. If the quote was integrated into the mural design, I bet a current art student would have been able to somehow fix it.

I'm thinking a 10-year-old didn't consent to sex between that many men, and even if she had, aren't there still laws against having sex with a minor? Oh wait, there are and the judge chose to blatantly ignore the law. And moving her back home just because they wanted her raised with her own race is ridiculous and such a backwards step for integration. Of course, the whole thing sounds just horrible reading farther and farther into the article. Not releasing records, trying to determine if an STD can be contracted in a non-sexual way just to try to say the girl hadn't been raped? Heck, I'm surprised a young girl even knew to go and inquire about a pregnancy test and condoms.

I'd like to smack the author of the Gen Y article. And some of the commenters. First off, I resent being called an "old folk" because I am in Gen X and not Gen Y (technically I'm on the cusp between the two and depending on where you get the generation lines from I can be in either, but I do identify more with X in terms of stuff I grew up with). Second of all, it was Gen X that started with the whole using computers thing. Commodore-64 and TR(a)S(h)-80s? My generation. Using modems to communicate with other computers? My generation (and the generation before mine). Heck, even the move from cassette tape to compact disc was more my generation than Y, proving that we aren't as "afraid of change" as it's being claimed. There are plenty of late 20s-early 30s Generation Xers who are just as dependent on new technology and computers as this Generation Y person seems to think every Gen Yer is (and as has been noted in the comments of the article, plenty of Gen Yers who don't give a damn about computers or other technology). I also think Gen Y (or at least, this author) thinks that Gen X and Baby boomers are ancient. The fact is, My mom is a baby boomer. She's not old. Many people in their 50s and 60s are able to use current technology and are *required* to in their jobs. It's more my grandparent's generation (upper 70s and above) that are the "change is bad" group (and I've seen it in my own family. Heck, my aunt won't learn how to work her new cell phone until it's time to trade it in for a new one). I also think this article continues to prove the "us vs. them" mentality of a lot of the Generation Y folk. An article like this is bad for the generation it's being written from the point of view of, because now it's going to have every non Gen Yer who reads it thinking that it is the opinion of ALL Gen Yers because of the way it was worded. And even if you want to group me with Gen Y because of the overlap (some studies say X was born until 1980, some 1983, some as low as 1976), I'd be pretty pissed off at this author for deciding to make general statements about my Generation.

Depth: 2

Date: 2007-12-13 08:03 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] 2dlife.livejournal.com
Odd, my impression of Gen Y is a little later: if you text message faster than you speak, you're probably Gen Y; if you write snippets of code to solve simple math problems rather than use pencil and paper, probably Gen Y (every smart engineer/scientist older than 30 still defaults to pencil and paper for quick back of the envelope, a lot of the younger folks just plug into Google or write quick perl scripts); if don't even know what a word processor is, almost certainly Gen Y. It's also a social thing: if you have close friends who you first met online or have never met in person with, Gen Y; if you prefer IM to phone calls for telling someone you're running late, Gen Y; if you PLAY (not just work) with people on the other side of the globe, Gen Y. It's also a language thing: If you use "friend" as a verb, I'd guess GenY, if you use text as a verb, you're borderline. If you don't use either (and choose instead "associate on social network" or "send a text message to") I'd guess not Gen Y. If what you did before Sept 11th 2001 is not significantly different from what you're doing now, Gen X. I would consider the fall of the Berlin Wall the be the major political turning point in the lives of the GenXers, I would consider Sept 11th to be the major political turning point in the lives of the Gen Yers. If you can remember a time when HIV wasn't a health crisis at all, when video games weren't in 3D and in every home, when music was essentially radio, Gen X.
Depth: 3

Date: 2007-12-13 10:11 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] uncle-pervy.livejournal.com
Guess that would make me Gen X with me being born in 82. I still vaguely remember watching the Berlin Wall & the attack on the Russian Parliament bldg on TV.
Depth: 4

Date: 2007-12-14 05:40 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] 2dlife.livejournal.com
I was born 83, but I'd call myself Gen Y. I remember the fall of the Berlin Wall and Tienanmen Square but by the time I was old enough to really appreciate their political significance, they were history. Really, all I remember about them was that they were on TV a lot and my parents were very upset -- and that we went to some kind of protest in Washington DC. On the other hand, I can remember exactly where I was on Sept 11th 2001 and in March 2003 when the current war started and I appreciated how the world was going to change significantly at each juncture.

Not to mention the fact that I and most of my friends are so entirely "plugged in" to facebook and treat Google as an extension of our own conscienceness.
Depth: 3

Date: 2007-12-13 04:09 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] annaonthemoon.livejournal.com
I'm still Generation X.
Depth: 1

Date: 2007-12-12 05:47 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] greyweirdo.livejournal.com
I think a few points in the Gen Y author's article could have been stated better, but she's right on most points. Gen Xers particularly should know we ignore them at our peril. I mean if most the other Gen Xers don't remember how we spent the late 90s bumping old people (ie only about 5 to 10 years our seniors) out of the way when they obstructed us then I have no sympathy when some youngin' bumps one of us.
Depth: 1

SBC on Cults and/or Sects

Date: 2007-12-13 10:04 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] uncle-pervy.livejournal.com
That was actually a bit hilarious for me. After reading their criteria for what constitutes a cult or a sect, then by their own thinking all the Protestant religions (Including Southern Baptists) would fall under a cult or sect since they were once a sect of Catholicism.

It's been a while since I've seen or read something akin to "speaking out of both sides of their mouth" but they did it quite well on that article. May they be held under the same criteria and microscope by other religious groups...and face the consequences. Although I'm a bit intrigued that they didn't go after Anglicans since there's a schism occuring with the Anglican congregation over gay priests, bishops & the thought of Gay Rights overall.

I'm so glad I'm not part of any organized religion. I enjoy sleeping in on Sundays.

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silveradept: A kodama with a trombone. The trombone is playing music, even though it is held in a rest position (Default)
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