Garfield Park

Flashback

2008-04-12T10:18:00.003-05:00

Looking at site stats is always interesting. I like to see the searches that bring people to this blog, and I usually end up doing some searching of my own. I was a little surprised to see a search bring up this New York Times article.

I also found another interesting blog: Dallas Progress

Can you guess what the search was?

Proof that I'm White

2008-03-24T21:56:00.006-05:00

A friend of mine forwarded me the following site:

Stuff White People Like

I guess it's both funny and a little tragic that I recognize myself in a number of the items in that list. In particular, #8 Barack Obama, #14 Having Black Friends, #15 Yoga, #25 David Sedaris, #35 The Daily Show/Colbert Report, #38 Arrested Development, #39 Netflix, #44 Public Radio, #50 Irony, #61 Bicycles, #64 Recycling, #69 Mos Def, and #71 Being the Only White Person Around are the items that hit home the most. I would have to add Tivo to the list, but maybe they haven't gotten to it yet.

Of course, the convergences are really illustrative of the whole point. I heard about the movie Once on Public Radio, and then rented it with Netflix. Also, it's a little silly, but I've been reading The Daily Show and Philosophy, and when I bought that, I also bought The Simpsons and Philosophy. They're both just the kind of thing that a "White Person" would like to read.

However, there are some items in the list that give me hope. I'm definitely not into #17 Hating Their Parents, #23 Microbreweries, #26 Manhattan, #28 Not Having a TV, #30 Wrigley Field, #40 Apple Products, and a number of others that aren't significant enough to mention.

Great Line

2007-07-23T14:57:00.000-05:00

"The Cubs are doing well, playing before turbo-charged crowds at Wrigley, while the Sox are losing and showing all the excitement of an English major having to take Linear Algebra."

-Rick Morrissey
Chicago Tribune

My wife was an English major in college, and I -- being a Math major -- took Linear Algebra. We both had a good laugh when I shared this line with her.

Musical Patterns

2007-05-24T08:48:00.000-05:00

Since January, I've taken two classes at DePaul University dealing with Bioinformatics, and more specifically, proteomics. Bioinformatics is the process of using computer systems to gain insight into biological systems. The amount of information that exists in biological systems is so large that deciphering it is almost impossible without the benefit of computer models. However, modelling biological systems with computer programs and data structures is itself a mammoth undertaking. Once you add the problem of describing what is needed ( requirements gathering ), you have a very difficult undertaking. The purpose of the classes that I've been taking is to familiarize computer programmers with the basic biology, research methods, and lingua franca of the biological research world. It's very interesting stuff, and I've been told it's also very lucrative for programmers.

All this is to add some context around my interest in article linked below. Apparently, some researchers have created software that interprets protein sequences as music. It's a clever method for comparing sequences of DNA that correspond to specific protein structures, particularly since it doesn't take specialized biological knowledge to listen to differences in musical patterns.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/05/24/proteinmusic_tec_02.html?category=technology&guid=20070524091500

Something to Do

2007-05-09T08:08:00.000-05:00

The Garfield Park Conservatory is hosting an art exhibition that they're calling Niki in the Garden. There's a web site with more information. About a month ago, I was looking for specific events at the Conservatory to give me an excuse to visit. I pass the Conservatory on a regular basis when we're dropping my daughter off at her bus stop. I just need to schedule some time to go.

Scheduling time seems to be the catch, though. I'm probably juggling too many things already between school, work, and home, but I still want to take advantage of the many venues and events throughout Chicago over the summer. I rode my bike to work today, yesterday, and a couple times last week, and I'm going to register for the 'Bike the Drive' at the end of this month, which is the weekend after I'll be in Atlanta for my 10-year college reunion. In June, I'm planning to participate in the 'Bike to Work' week, which I'm gearing up for now. Of course, there's the Taste of Chicago at the end of June, the next Harry Potter movie and the last book in mid July, my wife is due the first week of August, and I'm planning to take a class during summer school. However, there will be plenty of weekends to fill up with the other various events and restaurants in Chicago.

NFL Draft

2007-04-28T21:44:00.000-05:00

The 68th overall pick of the NFL draft this year was a guy named Quincy Black. He was the fourth pick in the third round by the Buccaneers. He had been featured in pre-draft coverage here in Chicago for two reasons. He played the same position for the same college that Brian Urlacher played, and he attended high school on the South Side of Chicago. What interested me, in particular, was that he attended the same high school that I attended: Kenwood Academy.

10 Years!

2007-04-26T16:00:00.000-05:00

It's amazing how some things coincide. I'm reminded of Jeremy Piven in "Grosse Pointe Blank": "10 YEARS!!" The 10-year reunion for my college graduation is this year. My daughter was born that same year, and she just turned 10 in January. Also, this year marks the 30-year anniversary of the release of Star Wars, which was a movie that greatly impacted me. I think the impact of Star Wars had on me was closely related to anther major event of my life that occurred just two months after its release: the death of my father. I think that I related to Luke back then because his father was gone, too. About a month after my father died, Elvis died. Another "anniversary" this year is that we've been in our current home, our first-owned home, for 5 years, which reminds me of another weird set of coincidences. When we bought our home, our close date happened on my father's birthday, and we finally moved in on the 25th anniversary of the day he died. It was a Friday that I had planned to take off, and it worked out for the movers we hired.

As an aside, here's another coincidence. Two years ago, there was a strange alignment of ages in my family. My age was exactly half my mother's age, and that same year, my daughter was exactly one-fourth of my age, my nephew was exactly half my daughter's age. My sister's age was also a multiple of 4. And that year, my niece was born. Check it out, this was the alignment:


     Mom: 64
  Sister: 40
      Me: 32
Daughter:  8
  Nephew:  4
   Niece:  0

2007-04-16T11:20:00.000-05:00

Just the type of joke a math geek would love:

http://www.mightywombat.com/toons/numbers.gif

More geek-love:

http://www.xkcd.com

Word of the day...and a half

2007-03-30T15:05:00.000-05:00

sesquipedalian - ah, the illustration of irony. The definition: someone who uses long words.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sesquipedalian

I particularly appreciate the origin. From a word etymology site, Etymonline.com:

1615, from L. sesquipedalia verba "words a foot-and-a-half long," in
Horace's "Ars Poetica" (97), nicely illustrating the thing he is criticizing,
from sesqui- "half as much again" (see sesquicentennial)
+ pes "foot" (see foot)

Chicago Summer Festivals

2007-03-30T08:52:00.000-05:00

Check the Metromix 2007 Festival Guide for things to do in Chicago this summer:

http://metromix.chicagotribune.com/events/festivals/summer/mmx-festivalguidefront,1,2491012.htmlstory?coll=mmx-ctmmx

You could also visit the Garfield Park Conservatory for one of the Flower Shows or the Garfield Market Place. Although I've lived in the Garfield Park area for almost five years, I haven't been inside the Conservatory, but I have been to the market.

May Day

2006-05-01T20:20:00.000-05:00

Around this time last year, I was a little surprised to find out that May Day, May 1st is celebrated internationally as Labor Day. I was talking to someone from London who had the day off, and as we discussed the origins and differences between the American and British holiday calenders, I realized that May Day was, in part, a commemoration of the "Haymarket Riots" that occurred in Chicago. All the fuss was about the eight hour work day, which is something that we tend to take for granted today. I have to put the word "riots" in quotes, because it's not clear to me that it was really a riot. Both sides seem questionable to me.

Just now, I was reading on Wikipedia about the significant historical events that fell on May 1st, and that led to an article about May Day. Two Chicago-related events: the "general strike" mentioned above in 1886, and the opening of the World's Columbian Exposition, which is the backdrop of the novel, The Devil in the White City.

The Wikipedia link to the Columbian Exposition has an interesting section about electricity at the Fair, and mentions Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse. By the way, Chicago's Westinghouse High School is near Garfield Park. It's probably not more than 1 to 1.5 miles from my house.

I love Chicago.

Good Quote

2006-03-16T08:30:00.000-06:00

"I must obey the inscrutable exhortations of my soul."
-Calvin, Calvin and Hobbes, explaining
to Hobbes why he's looking for frogs.

Cold Call

2006-02-10T09:30:00.000-06:00

Something I never expected to write:

I got a call from the Secret Service yesterday.

The call concerned a $10 bill that was a little suspect. On a Monday, a week or so ago, I got the bill with some change during lunch. The next day, I went to breakfast, and the McEmployee thought the bill might be counterfeit. Some of the employees used a counterfeit bill marker to check it. They drew some really long lines on the bill, and they thought the bill was a fake, but I wasn't too sure of their assesment.

I took the bill to a bank branch, and they were really uncertain whether it was counterfeit, although they also seemed to think it was a fake. There's a certain irony here since the place that gave me the bill as change had received it from the bank branch that was telling me it was a fake. Their only course of action at that point was to give me a form to send it off to the Secret Service to determine if the bill was authentic or not, which I did.

Anyway, the call from the Secret Service was to confirm which branch had sent them the bill. They confirmed that the bill is authentic, and they're sending it back. I'm thinking, 'great, a bill that everyone thinks is counterfeit.' Maybe I could hold onto it for 44 years, and it will be worth something more than $10. It is a 1950s series bill, which might explain the confusion. Most of the current anti-counterfeiting measures have been put in place over the last 20-30 years. I really have no basis to make that last statement, but you could always read up on counterfeit bills on Wikipedia.

Well, at the very least, you've learned that the "original mandate [of the Secret Service] was to investigate the counterfeiting of U.S. currency--which [they] still do."

Believing Scientists?

2006-01-29T14:52:00.000-06:00

New York Times article about scientists and faith.

Interesting stuff. The search for truth versus the search for facts. If you make any assumptions about either search or assumptions about their answers, you undermine the process.

Since I read this article, I've been kicking around the idea of believing in God and pursuing science. There have also been some articles about the Intelligent Design arguments as an alternative to Evolution. Kansas and Pennsylvania have seen some Boards of Education struggling with how to address both of these interpretations of how the world got to be the way it is now. What's interesting to me is the argument from scientists that Intelligent Design is not a theory because it cannot be tested for validity. Also, by it's nature it does not seek anything new, it doesn't ask questions, it offers only a single answer: God did it. Science seeks to understand the minutiae, to determine how every cog fits the scheme and the purpose each contributes to the whole. Science is not satisfied with the Atom, but with how the atoms fit together, of what they are composed.

Once you begin to accept that God plays any regular, significant role, you cease to ask new questions and seek their answers with relation to the role you believe God fills. The scientific process doesn't deny any role for God, it just seeks to understand the relationships and mechanisms of the universe.

This was another post that I started months ago, back in August. I'm just getting around to addressing some of the ideas, but it still feels incomplete. I'll have to get back to this subject eventually.

Small-Market Teams

2006-01-29T14:42:00.000-06:00

For the Super Bowl next weekend, the Seatle Seahawks are up against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Both are considered small-market teams. Of course, a couple of small-market teams concerns advertisers since the viewership might be lower, but...

IT'S THE SUPER BOWL!

The World Series had two small-market teams (see below), and the NBA Finals had a couple of small-market teams, too. Of course the numbers were down, but the main differnce is that those events are week-long developing stories. If they are quick series, they just don't develop the suspense.

Why the White Sox have been a small-market team.

Chicago is the third largest city in the United States. Consider the Houston-Chicago numbers from the 2000 Census:

Houston: 1,953,631

Chicago: 2,896,016

Note that Chicago has been decreasing in population, while Houston has been growing. However, when you consider that Chicago has two baseball teams, and we divide these numbers, the White Sox fan base in the city is probably much smaller than the Houston fan-base (Chicago has a larger metropolitan area, however, so these numbers are probably not a good measure).

Winning brings the fans out of the woodwork, though. The White Sox have sold more than 20,000 season tickets since winning the World Series. It probably helps that they've made some serious commitments to bring back vital parts while adding better pieces here and there. Since the Bears looked horrible in their playoff game, and the Bulls are looking pretty shaky right now, I'm just looking forward to Spring Training next month.

This was a post I started just before the World Series started, but it seemed like something I could just get out there.

Catch up

2006-01-29T14:07:00.000-06:00

For the past few weeks, I've been debating whether to do one long post to catch up on events since I last posted, or just dump a bunch of little posts over a few days. It would definitely be easier to write a few small posts to hit the salient points, but I've got so many excuses for why I haven't been posting. I want to beg forgiveness for not posting by dropping to my knees in front of Carrie Fisher like John Belushi in Blues Brothers:

"I got a flat tire...a rat ate through a wire on my car engine...I had class at DePaul...the White Sox won the friggin' WORLD SERIES...my wife and I went to Vegas...it was my wife's birthday...The Boondocks cartoon premiered...it was my birthday...the White Sox shook up their roster...someone came into town...there were the holidays (including Christmas, of course)...the Bears swept the Packers...I was sick for two days after Christmas (I didn't get out of bed)...it was my daughter's birthday...I had to help my brother set up TiVo...I replaced the rat-chewed wire in my car engine...my wife and I went to Nashville...I started another quarter at DePaul...the Bears had a home playoff game...it was Dr. King's birthday...IT'S NOT MY FAULLLTTTT!!!"

In actuality, it's completely my fault, of course. My bad, y'all, but everything I listed above did transpire since my last post. I took the week after Christmas off, and I've taken a couple of days off since the beginning of the year. I haven't worked a 5-day week since the week leading up to Christmas. I bought myself the Scrubs, second season DVDs and the Arrested Development, season one and season two DVDs. I've been vegging in with those DVDs for the past few weekends. I spent most of the King holiday watching Scrubs, season two trying to overcome my frustration with the Bears horrible performance in their playoff game. I spent all day yesterday just watching the first season of Arrested Development. Both of those shows have some really good satire in spots, and are usually pretty silly. I was in Scrubs withdrawal since there weren't any new episodes all fall.

One last thought on the White Sox 2005 season: They were a team. In a sport that is quick to glorify individuals, the White Sox were a team, which is why they defied explanation. They could only win as a team. Yeah, they had a bunch of people step up at different times, but there was really no one person who was "the man". None of the guys were .300 hitters for the season. They had a no-name-trade-deadline pickup (Geoff Blum) hit a World Series game-winning home run in his only at-bat during the Series, the only run scored in game 4 was by a guy who spent almost half of the season in AAA (Willie Harris). The last two runs of the World Series, both the margin of victory in their games, came from guys who were on the team for about half the season each, and both those guys won't be around next year. A friend sent me a link to a site that has done some analysis, and the White Sox probably shouldn't have been able to pull it out based solely on the numbers. It's exciting to see a team where the team is somehow better than the sum of its parts. The same sort of team-centric play was evident last year for the Bulls, the Bears, and Illinois Men's Basketball team. The Illini made it to their first NCAA championship in large part due to team play. They didn't have any superstars. It's the basic sports story behind Hoosiers, and it's the democratic ideal. The fact that the same theme of overachievers winning the big game is repeatedly told in many different forms highlights that it is a core theme for Americans. We love to believe that if we put the right parts together and they can complement each other, than we can do the unthinkable. Isn't that really the story of the United States? Who would bet on the colonists to take on a global power and win?

By the way, when in Vegas, I got to pick up $400 that I won when the White Sox won the World Series. I had visited Las Vegas for the first time in November of 2004, and the odds against the White Sox winning were 20-1, so I put down $20. What a great season. It was fun to watch.

About the rat-chewed wire, it must be one of the hazards of living on the West Side. It's the second time that it has happened since we moved in here 4 years ago. It was really cool, though, that I was able to fix it myself. The cables cost about $70, and I don't want to think what labor would have cost.

Anyway, I'm going to try to get back to posting on a more regular basis, but already that hasn't worked out too well. I started this post about a week ago, but didn't get it finished. Of course, I was sitting in class at the time, and I've already seen most of that material. Posting was just a way to keep me awake.

Sweet Victory

2005-10-27T06:53:00.000-05:00

Ahhhh...that's nice.

There's no need to gloat. 88 years of futility should be enough motivation to prevent any gloating, but damn, it's nice to have a World Series on the South Side.

I've got a lot of thoughts on the playoffs and the season that I'll be posting about later, but I just wanted to respond to my sister's comment about gloating. I won't be.

Ahhhh...

2005-10-17T22:55:00.000-05:00

GO SOX!!!

Freedom of Speech

2005-10-05T10:33:00.000-05:00

On the Chicago Tribune's site today, Kathleen Parker's article addresses the "workout" that the 1st Amendment has been getting.

In Gainesville, Fla., where the 1st Amendment argument is more clear-cut, cartoonist Andy Marlette drew an image that has angered some black groups. Yes, a new generation has produced another Marlette. This one is the nephew of Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist and author Doug Marlette, whose talent as an equal-opportunity offender apparently seeped into the family gene pool.

Marlette the Younger's cartoon in the Independent Florida Alligator was a commentary on rapper Kanye West's remarks following Hurricane Katrina that: "George Bush doesn't care about black people." Marlette drew a cartoon of West holding an oversized playing card labeled "The Race Card," with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice saying, "Nigga Please!"

The N-word makes me cringe ... especially every time I hear West say it. His spicy songs, including his current hit, "Gold Digger," are liberally seasoned with the word "nigga," often couched in violence and obscenity. But when I imagine the immaculate and proper Condi Rice saying it, especially to a "brotha"' who has made a fortune playing the bad boy, it makes me laugh.

Which is to say Marlette's cartoon hit the mark. It was sophisticated, irreverent and funny. His use of West's own language to parody the rapper's political statement was, in fact, the "art" of the cartoon.

When did Kanye West play the "bad boy"? One of the problems that he repeatedly had in getting his first record made was that he didn't fit the bad boy image of most rappers. He's not "from the streets". His music is more complex in that it both criticized Hip Hop's "bling" mentality even as it admits, and at times embraces, the allure it holds.

Why refer to his "music" with quotes? My guess as to the number of times that Ms. Parker has listened to Kanye West's "music":

0. Zero. Zilch.

So, Kanye's use of the "N-word" is "often couched in violence and obscenity"? Well, I guess that must be since he's a rapper, and that's what they do, right? I cannot think of one example of obscenity on Kanye's latest album, Late Registration, and I listen to it regularly. In fact, the album has received accolades for returning Hip Hop to its origins as socially-conscious commentary.

The First Amendment:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

The 1st Amendment protects against government limitations, not against private limitations. Organizations have the right to limit speech. In fact they are compelled to limit speech, but not by the government. They are compelled to maintain limits by the potential for other responses, namely civil actions. Consider verbal harassment. Why wouldn't that fall under free speech? Does the government actually limit such speech? No, but organizations definitely limit such speech. To protect themselves against litigation and against loss of revenue, organizations regularly place limits on their employee's speech.

When Louis Farrakahn was asked to speak to some universities in the 90s, protests were held by the Anti-Defamation League. Is there much difference?

The point is that organizations regularly limit the speech of their members, and those limits are not a violation of the Constitution. Removing a person from a position does not limit that person's speech. If anything, it limits the association of that person's speech with the organization. A person can choose to limit their own speech to maintain an affiliation, whether personal or professional.

In fact, either of the people that Ms. Parker mentions could publish their "speech" in another medium. Maybe they could start a blog together and start publishing all their stuff, offensive or not, as often as they want.

Sibling Rivalry

2005-10-01T09:52:00.000-05:00

At the beginning of August, the White Sox had the best winning percentage in Major League Baseball and a 15 game lead in their division, but August was going to be the test. They had to play the Yankees twice, the Twins twice, and they had a road trip to Boston. White Sox fans were bracing for the worst. Actually, many White Sox fans had been bracing for the worst since the start of the season. We're a dispirited bunch, White Sox fans. I guess 46 years without a trip to the World Series will do that to you. Of course, you could confirm that by spending some time talking with Cubs fans. The Cubs haven't been to a World Series since 1945. So, 60 seasons for the Cubs and 46 seasons for the Sox, which means 106 continuous seasons of baseball futility in Chicago. It's only been 92 baseball seasons since the city of Chicago has participated in a World Series.

I've been watching and listening to games and commentary all season, and White Sox fans have been picky and frustrated with every loss and even with many of the wins. I've tried to sit back and enjoy their time atop the division while I could because, if recent history is any indication, they were probably going to fall out of the race at some point. It's been hard to watch the team late in the season over the past couple of years. Last year, the Sox were leading their division at the end of July, but fell apart in August.

My wife has used a southern phrase "bless his/her heart" a few times (she's from Georgia), and Eric Zorn has started using it on his Chicago Tribune blog when referring to some politicians. The phrase has been used by Southerners in an almost dismissive way, but even more, it's used in a denigrating way. The speaker is almost shaking their head while speaking it.

When I started this post on August 24th, the White Sox were in the midst of losing their 15 game lead in their division. Eric Zorn, bless his heart, took it upon himself to begin tracking the Cleveland Indians' magic number and he referred to it as the White Sox' "Toxic Number". It is the number of Cleveland wins combined with White Sox loses that would give the division title to Cleveland. He wasn't far off. The White Sox have been very average since the beginning of August, and that's partly to blame for my hesitancy in finishing this post. Their record since August 1st through Thursday was just 27-28. Now that they have won their division and guaranteed themselves the best record in the American League, I feel a little more comfortable completing this post.

Zorn: Sox hater.

"Hate, hate, hate, hate, hate." -- Chappelle's Show's Playa Haters

This week, I read this on the Chicago Tribune's web site:

Q: If a Cubs fan living in Chicago pulls against the White Sox, does it indicate he or she might be mentally unbalanced?

A: "If the teams are not directly competing against each other, the idea of a Cubs fan rooting against the White Sox becomes a little pathological," says Dr. Robert Burton, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Northwestern University. "Technically, it probably stems from some unresolved sibling rivalry kind of thing. Otherwise, you have to wonder what a Cubs fan has to gain by pulling against the White Sox. Not too much, really, unless it's to feel better about himself. If the White Sox lose, then they're both in the doghouse.

"A resolved sibling rivalry would let you enjoy the success of your neighbor, or whomever, and root against each other only when you're going head-to-head. Any kind of sibling rivalry is commonly referred to as arrested development. Then, you get history and other issues layered on top of everything, and it can compound things. I personally pay more attention to whichever team is succeeding."
-- Mike Conklin

Did you catch that? "[I]t probably stems from some unresolved sibling rivalry kind of thing." Hilarious. I had titled this post "Sibling Rivalry" because my brother, bless his heart, is a Cubs fan. In 1983, our family moved into the city of Chicago from a small town about an hour's drive outside the city. Our family had been to White Sox games a few times at old Comiskey Park before we actually moved to the city, but apparently that had little effect on my brother. The Cubs had a big year in 1984, and he became a Cubs fan. He's been lost to me ever since. I mean, come on, we lived on the South Side, and we went to Sox games on occasion. I'm a White Sox fan, and I've kind of wondered if that also played a part in my brother's preference for the Cubs. Maybe there was some sibling rivalry there.

Now, I don't hate the Cubs. When they were in the playoffs, I didn't root against them, even though some Sox fans did. I just waited to see them collapse, as they always have. Actually, part of me was hoping that the Cubs would at least get into the World Series just so the "woe is me" fans would shut up about their stupid curse. Ideally, the Cubs and Red Sox would have played each other in that World Series in 2003 just so we could find out who had the bigger curse. It could have been branded as the "Worse Curse" series. Ironically, they both fell apart just five outs from clinching a World Series berth.

Those two teams in the World Series might have shone some light on the plight of the White Sox. The White Sox have been cursed by not having a curse. The other Sox team is more popular, the other Chicago team is more popular, and both of those other teams are cursed. The White Sox struggle in the shadow of two overly-reported curses. The history of the White Sox has been filled nearly as much with futility.

Earlier this season the White Sox were doing well, and the Cubs looked pretty good, too. Of course, we both think: 'wouldn't it be great if they met in the World Series?' Yeah, that would be the ideal. In fact, I'd love it if the Cubs would make the World Series on a regular basis...and lose to the White Sox. I've come to look on the Cubs the way I look on my brother: I want them to be successful, just not more successful than the White Sox. I think Chicago baseball fans have come to hate the other team so much because its hard to watch your team flounder every year. When your object of affection is struggling, there's some comfort in the knowledge that the other team is struggling, too.

Wait, all this is so...familiar...hmmm, let me think. Check this out.

Wait til next year, Cubs fans. Hopefully, both teams will make the playoffs then.

Go Sox!!

Roll Bounce

2005-09-25T10:50:00.000-05:00

See, I'm not completely out of it. I finally published the last post because something in the mainstream media came along that made my point precisely. I just saw the movie Roll Bounce yesterday, and I was impressed. The movie is set in Chicago, and there were some interesting uses of local sites. The movie begins in a roller rink. The roller rink used as the site has been the location of a few Skate Nights by my daughter's school. Also, the outside of Navy Pier was used as the facade of the "North Side" roller rink. That the terms "South Side" and "North Side" are used regularly in the movie is also a nice Chicago touch. Bow Wow wears a Chicago T-Shirt in a number of scenes, and in one scene, I even saw an old White Sox T-Shirt on an extra. Very nice.

My favorite scene had to be a remake of the drive-by scene in Boyz N the Hood...with water balloons. Very funny, although I'm certain that the young audience in the theater with me didn't catch the reference.

Anyway, besides the Chicago-centric aspect of this movie, in his review, Roger Ebert makes my point from my previous post:

Film by film, the makers of "Roll Bounce" have been creating a new world in American movies. This is a world in which black people live in well-kept homes, have jobs, don't do drugs, don't have guns, aren't in gangs, don't call anybody "bitch" and do not use a famous 12-letter word.

It is sad that I need to write such a paragraph, but relevant: The dominant image of African-Americans in the movies is of the lawless, the violent and the drugged. This image does not represent the majority of black people, but it works as subtle propaganda in the minds of audiences of all races.

Now consider some titles. The producers of "Roll Bounce," Robert Teitel and George Tillman Jr., also made "Soul Food," "Men of Honor" (with Cuba Gooding as the first black Navy diver), "Barbershop" and its spin-offs, and "Beauty Shop." Some of the movies are better than others, but all of them have good hearts. They reflect a reality that is missing in the Friday night multiplex specials.

Thank you, Roger Ebert.

Ebony, not Ivory

2005-09-25T10:49:00.000-05:00

I originally started this post on 8/16/2005, and I've been adding to it over the past week.

Leonard Pitts has an interesting reflection on John Johnson's media empire. In response to the typical question from whites about why there is a magazine named Ebony:

Why is there an Ebony? The short answer is that Johnson created it, taking out a $500 loan secured by his mother's furniture to start his publishing company in 1942. Ebony came out in '45 with an initial press run of 25,000. Sixty years later, it claims monthly circulation of 1.6 million.

As I said, that's the short answer. To understand the long answer, you have to understand 1945. A black man named Jesse James Payne was lynched that year in Florida. A thousand white students walked out of schools in Gary, Ind., rather than integrate. Jackie Robinson joined a Brooklyn Dodgers farm team.

It was, in other words, just another year in that strange half-life between free and not-free where African-Americans had existed since the Civil War--a little progress, a little pain and a whole lot of invisibility. Black life, black striving and black aspiration were conspicuous by their absence from the nation's newspapers and magazines. As far as mainstream media were concerned, the only blacks who existed were "hulking negro brutes" (they were always hulking, and "Negro" was always lowercase) who were forever preying on virginal white women.

For black people, mainstream media were mind poison. Ebony--and the newsweekly Jet, which came along in '51--was an antidote. It emphasized black upward mobility and mainstream success, its stories always illustrated by carefully posed photos of Negroes Doing Well.

Not that the magazine's own success came easily. Johnson had to fight to convince skeptical advertisers that Negroes did, indeed, buy mayonnaise, Cheerios and the occasional automobile. The company likes to say that he invented the black consumer market, and that's pretty much true.

So, beyond the media empire that Johnson created, he also expanded the black consumer market and created a mindset of success amongst African-Americans. Not bad.

Now, if only he could have gotten more white people to read it.

Seriously.

There are few images of successful African-Americans for white people to see, and as Dr. King noted, racism affects the oppressor as much as the oppressed, albeit, in a different way. I would go so far as to conjecture that the injustices surrounding the institution of slavery reinforced and extended the latent bigotry of Europeans and Americans towards non-Europeans. My point is that the dehumanizing effects of slavery and the brutality of its enforcers greatly outmoded the initial prejudices that defined the relationships between Europeans and Africans. The brutality of the Jim Crow period in American history, and the extent to which Southerners went to protect their "way of life" (firehoses and police dogs turned on children who were marching), perfectly exhibit the extent to which many white Americans had come to see African-Americans as less than human. I've also read that lynchings were treated as community events by whites, where families often picnicked. So, while mainstream media may have been "mind poison" for African-Americans, that media affected whites just as much. Depictions of black men both reflected and reinforced the bigotry of white Americans.

In recent memory, the media have not changed too much. There have been few television shows or movies that reflect the upward mobility of African-Americans that have been "crossover" successes with white audiences. The persistent images are of the dangerous "angry black man" or the fool. Think Samuel L. Jackson and Chris Tucker. I'm also reminded of Spike Lee's Bamboozled. It is this sort of inexperience that leads a white person to tell a black person, "you're different." I've seen and heard this type of interaction a lot. How silly is it for a white person to claim to know that this one black person is "different". The first response to such a claim should be: "based on what?" The most likely scenario is that the white person is basing their opinion on their very limited outlook that has been defined by other ignorant white Americans. It's probable that dealing with media will only do so much since ignorance seems to breed more ignorance and an ingorant person is not likely to seek knowledge in any form.

Anyway, why would there need to be an Ivory magazine when there are the magazines People, Us, and even niche market magazines like Seventeen? This same argument can be made in defense of African-American history month since the majority of American history is about white people and their stories. There is a need for more emphasis on minority stories to breed better understanding of issues that remain unresolved. Poverty quickly comes to mind as an issue in need of more understanding.

By the way, I found it kind of funny that "Negroes did, indeed, buy mayonnaise" considering that the movie Undercover Brother made a running joke of the fact that African-Americans hate mayonnaise.

Yawn, stretch, roll over

2005-09-15T11:07:00.000-05:00

I guess I've taken what amounts to a nice European Holiday from this blog: six weeks without a post. I've done a little writing for this, but obviously nothing that made it to the blog. I have four posts that I started in August, but never got around to finishing. Hopefully, I'll get to them soon, and I have a few comments to post on the whole Katrina mess even though every possible angle is being turned over again and again. I just want to pull together some of the stream of interesting stories and opinion pieces that I've read over the past couple of weeks.

The title of this post was meant to reflect what cats and dogs do during a nap since that's essentially what I've been doing for the past several weeks. I would start a post, lose my train of thought or get busy doing something else, and then just "Save as Draft".

"Green" Bullets?

2005-07-29T14:17:00.000-05:00

You know, we want to be able to kill people, but we don't want people to die because of it.

Lead or Tungsten, it doesn't seem to matter. According to this Chicago Tribune article, the Army's efforts to limit lead contamination at training bases resulted in the development of "green" bullets that would not leach into the ground and contaminate ground water. Hey, I'll give them credit for trying, but the possibility that the tungsten bullets could speed up the process of existing lead to contaminate ground water is very hard to overlook.

"Bring It"

2005-07-25T11:17:00.000-05:00

It's kind of fun to learn things about your kid. I've learned that my eight-year-old daughter is almost fearless. Last Saturday, we went to Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, Illinois. I figured that my daughter might not want to go on some of the bigger roller coasters, and that her hesitancy could be a problem.

I had the situation figured all wrong. In fact, the biggest limiting factor was probably the length of the lines for some of the rides. Although, her height did prevent her from riding several roller coasters. She was about an inch or two shy of the height required for four rides, and she was very mad. During the line for a ride that she could get on, she was crying. Some people in the line in front of us asked if she was crying because she was scared, and we informed them that she was angry that she couldn't ride.

When we rode the Viper, she insisted on sitting in the first car. My wife rode with her, and told me that when they got to the top of the first hill, my daughter emphatically said: "Bring it!"

Credit Reports

2005-07-24T23:10:00.000-05:00

Check out AnnualCreditReport.com.

This site is the result of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT Act), which allows every person in the United States the right to a free credit report from each of the 3 major credit reporting agencies every 12 months. Some states already mandated that their citizens were allowed a free credit report annually, and Georgia allows two per year, but the FACT Act now extends this right to everyone.

You should check your credit report annually to ensure that there are no discrepancies that could affect your ability to get credit or even a job. You can see your credit reports online, and even challange items that are incorrect. I've had issues in the past with a name mix-up. A few negative items appeared on my credit report due to a Michelle Davis, who had lived in an apartment before me. I had to get some court documents to prove that the items had been attributed to me incorrectly.

Bike to Work Recap

2005-07-22T12:38:00.000-05:00

The second week of June was "Bike to Work" week. I had pledged to myself that I would ride my bike the whole distance from my home to work, which is about 5 1/2 miles. Since February, I had been driving my daughter to her school, and then I would park near Halsted and Roosevelt and ride my bike the rest of the way to the office in the Loop. The distance was only about 2 miles and took about 15-20 minutes, but at least it was some exercise. At the end of March, or maybe the beginning of April, the bike I had been riding, which I've owned since I was in college, broke down. One of the joints broke. So, I bought a new bike, and I rode that regularly after dropping my daughter off at school.

On Monday, June 13th, I rode in to work, and then at the end of the day, rode home. I repeated the ride the next day, but by the time I got home, the back wheel of my bike was a little out of whack. I took the bike to the shop where I bought it, and they "trued up" the wheel. The bike stayed in the shop over night since I dropped it off near closing, which cost me Wednesday. I needed the break, though. My legs probably couldn't have survived the entire week. For the rest of the week, I just rode in during the morning, and my wife picked me (and the bike) up in the evening.

The following week, I did the round-trip twice and rode one-way trips two or three times. Unfortunately, I had to take the bike back to the shop since the back wheel got out of whack again. Over the course of the past six weeks, I've had to take the bike in five times. The last time, they completely rebuilt the back wheel with new spokes. After a round-trip, when I got it back the last time, the wheel is starting to get out of whack again. I'm getting really annoyed with this, but I'm thinking that my weight is a contributing factor, but I'm not sure how to proceed. I'm considereing a call to the manufacturer to get another opinion.

Overall, I've realy enjoyed riding in to work in the mornings. Even during some of the hotter mornings, the ride is very pleasant. I'd like to build up my stamina to be able to join my brother for some of his 20-40 mile rides. In a year or two, if I can keep it up, we might be able to plan a biking trip around Lake Michigan. We'll see.

Best Disclaimer Ever

2005-07-22T11:47:00.000-05:00

You have to read the title to this in the voice of Comic Book Guy of the Simpsons.

As the title implies:

"Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball"

Happy Fun Ball was a Saturday Night Live commercial years ago. Funny stuff.

States' Rights

2005-07-06T15:24:00.000-05:00

This is another post that I've been sitting on for a few months. I've added to it occassionally, but it's relation to my last post also delayed things. Again, there is an underlying tension between the rights of individuals or companies and the needs and rights of communities.

The Supreme Court, the Commerce Clause, and government regulation:

From age to age, the court’s decisions have revolutionised the relationships between the presidency and Congress, between the federal government and the states, and between the individual and the state.

There are two very different kinds of conservative. The worldly statesman, distrustful of large visions and focused on the prudent management of concrete problems has long been familiar. But Bush has more often relied on neo-conservatives with a very different temperament. They throw caution to the winds, assault the accumulated wisdom of the age, and insist on sweeping changes despite resistant facts. Law is a conservative profession, but it is not immune to the neo-con temptation. The question raised by the coming vacancies to the Supreme Court is whether American law will remain in conservative hands, or whether it will be captured by a neo-con vision of revolutionary change. The issue is not liberalism v. conservatism, but conservatism v. neo-conservatism.

Over the course of the 20th century, the judicial champions of fundamental rights were the pre-eminent advocates of judicial restraint. Justice Felix Frankfurter reconstructed the libertarian foundations of due process doctrine after the New Deal, but was also the modern court’s foremost practitioner of restraint. He passed the torch to Justice John Harlan, an Eisenhower appointee who was the Warren Court’s fiercest critic during its heyday, but also wrote a brilliant opinion which laid the due process foundation for married couples to use contraceptives. As he explained, the court had, for generations, understood the ‘liberty’ protected by due process to include ‘a freedom from all substantial arbitrary impositions’. In his view, a state statute criminalising contraception ‘involves what, by common understanding throughout the English-speaking world, must be granted to be a most fundamental aspect of “liberty”, the privacy of the home in its most basic sense’. Since criminal trials centring on contraception would inevitably require the revelation of the most intimate details of marital life, Harlan joined the court in striking down such statutes. Harlan has died, but the due process tradition endures, and it has been conservative Republican appointees, not Democratic justices, who have taken the lead in further developing the implications of the due process right to privacy.

Judicial revolutions have happened before. The ghost of Franklin Roosevelt haunts our present discontents. In seeking to catalyse a neo-con revolution, Reagan and George H.W. Bush were travelling down the path marked out by Roosevelt during the New Deal. The only difference is that they failed and Roosevelt succeeded. During his second and third terms, he appointed seven New Deal justices who transformed the reigning vision of the Constitution. The aim of the anti-regulatory agenda is to reverse this New Deal revolution and to turn the clock back to the days when the Old Court regularly struck down social welfare legislation.

This last paragraph really struck a chord with me. Part of my interest in this was not to just evaluate what the Constitution says, but really what it means. I took AP History in high school, and I have had an interest in American history that was nutured, in part, by my mother. She took our family on a number of trips by car, and made a point to stop for many historical locations. We visited Gettysburg, Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, and even Graceland. I don't mean to imply that Graceland has the same historical significance as the Lorraine Motel, but it was still a cool tour, especially the tour of Elvis' plane that he took to Denver for a Peanut Butter and Banana sandwich (eww). Anyway, my point is that I've felt that I had a pretty good understanding of many aspects of American History, but the Constitution seems to hold much more nuance than at first glance. "Law & Order" holds my interest, in part, for the legal wrangling that takes place in reviewing our Constitutional rights.

Beyond the legal aspects of change within the framework of our Constitution, my interest extends to the social implications of proposed changes. Ironically, a recent Supreme Court decision showed a bit of hypocrisy on the part of some conservative justices. The Chicago Tribune's Clarence Page had a pretty good article about it. The case centered around the medicinal use of marijuana, which is legal in a number of states:

Justice John Paul Stevens' majority opinion stretched the meaning of "commerce" to include anything done in one state that could have "a substantial effect on interstate commerce." And how does the court define "substantial"? Broadly enough to cover just about anything.

"... [P]roduction of the commodity meant for home consumption, be it wheat or marijuana, has a substantial effect on supply and demand in the national market for that commodity," Stevens wrote.

Justice Antonin Scalia, the archest of the high court's arch-conservatives, chimed in, if only to say that Stevens' federal "intrusionism" did not go far enough. "Drugs like marijuana are fungible commodities"; even when "grown at home and possessed for personal use," it is "never more than an instant from the interstate market."

Both opinions sound more like economic theory than day-to-day reality. After all, the medical marijuana market is only a tiny fraction of a state's overall drug traffic.

That very rational point, among others, was made by Justice Clarence Thomas, who cut himself loose from his usual tether to Scalia's world view to raise a clear, compelling and badly needed voice of reason: If the two California women who are the defendants in this case are involved in "interstate commerce," he asked, what in these United States is not "interstate commerce"?

"Respondents Diane Monson and Angel Raich use marijuana that has never been bought or sold, that has never crossed state lines, and that has had no demonstrable effect on the national market for marijuana," Thomas wrote. "If Congress can regulate this under the commerce clause, then it can regulate virtually anything--and the federal government is no longer one of limited and enumerated powers."

So, which is it? Does the Commerce Clause allow for the federal government to mandate a minimum wage? Does it allow for the creation of environmental standards? Does it allow the Supreme Court the right to overturn state laws legalizing the medical use of marijuana?

If there is a move to a smaller federal government that has the strictly defined and limited powers as conservatives desire, wouldn't that just allow the states more leeway to determine their own paths independently? At first thought, this seems like a good thing. Consider the result: America becomes a group of states that are separate but probably unequal. Doesn't America become more like the Confederate States? There are much broader economic and social implications as well. I'm not really concerned about the implications specifically, I'm more concerned that we take the time to consider the implications. Considering implications of proposed public policy and reviewing the results of existing policy need to be central to the democratic process. The greatness of our Constitution is not what it specifically defines, but it's inherent flexibility -- it's elegance.

The Zen of Politics

2005-06-28T12:57:00.000-05:00

So, I'm reading an op-ed piece on the New York Times web site about the different and distinct meanings of Freedom and Liberty, and I get to thinking...

I started to write the above post probably around the time the linked article first appeared...in February. I've been sitting on this post for a while because I wanted to reflect on the ideas a little more. I have and haven't been reflecting on the ideas. I mean, in a general sense, there are central ideas that are regularly turned over and over again, but specifically, I haven't been thinking about these ideas. The title even threw me for a minute. I've been reading a book about Zen because I wasn't really sure what Zen is. Zen seemed to me to be a synonym of balance, like yin and yang, and I think that's how I meant to use Zen in the title here. The following passage seems to be what I focused on:

Equally surprising are the origins of our English words liberty and, especially, freedom. They have very different roots. The Latin libertas and Greek eleutheria both indicated a condition of independence, unlike a slave. (In science, eleutherodactylic means separate fingers or toes.) Freedom, however, comes from the same root as friend, an Indo-European word that meant "dear" or "beloved." It meant a connection to other free people by bonds of kinship or affection, also unlike a slave. Liberty and freedom both meant "unlike a slave." But liberty meant privileges of independence; freedom referred to rights of belonging.

We English-speakers are possibly unique in having both "liberty" and "freedom" in our ordinary speech. The two words have blurred together in modern usage, but the old tension between them persists like a coiled spring in our culture. It has inspired an astonishing fertility of thought. Americans have invented many ideas of liberty and freedom. Some are close to independence, others to rights of belonging. Most are highly creative combinations. For most people they are not academic abstractions or political ideologies, but inherited ideas that we hold as what Tocqueville called "habits of the heart." They tend to be entire visions of a free society, and we see them in our mind's eye through symbols and emblems...

The most pertinent line to me was: "The two words have blurred together in modern usage, but the old tension between them persists like a coiled spring in our culture." The idea that there is tension between these concepts and the author's use of the coiled spring imagery were very intriguing. Since college, I've wondered about the balance between the needs and rights of the individual and the needs and rights of the larger community, and that seems to be the gist here. This balance is a key aspect to American society, in particular, between the Individual States and the nation as a whole. A similar tension exists internationally. The needs and rights of the United States must coexist with the larger global community's needs.

The political process in the United States should be regular reviews of and adjustments to the underlying tension to both maintain the society and advance necessary changes.

My Calling

2005-06-27T11:54:00.000-05:00

Being a programmer is sort of amorphous in that your job involves modeling and processing data around other people's needs. Often times, those other people are not technically savvy, and they have unrealistic expectations of what can be accomplished. Regardless, I enjoy the process of programming. There's a little thrill in getting the computer to do exactly what you want, exactly how you want. The process satisfies the control freak in me, and at the same time, it engages the logical side of my brain. I particularly enjoy setting up some code that has a lot of flexibility built in. It's very satisfying to edit some older code and find that only minor tweaks are necessary to encompass some new, unanticipated functionality.

I used to say that I was just inherently lazy. I didn't want to do the same tedious steps repeatedly; I just wanted fairly simple solutions to complex problems. Now, I've come to realize that it's a mathematical mindset. The mathematician is continually searching for "elegent" solutions. So, I'm not lazy, I just have a fondness for elegance. I'll do hours of extra work if the result is an elegant solution that requires little maintenance. Ultimately, there's a time-savings there. The future time needed for adapting or updating the code is decreased considerably by adding some flexibility on the front-end. The programmer just needs to do some planning, and a little guessing about the types of information that could change in the future.

Benign Neglect

2005-06-20T10:36:00.000-05:00

I guess I've been neglecting my three readers in this space. My posts have become a little too few and far-between, but I'm going to get back to this. I've been ruminating on a number of different subjects, and I've just not been too motivated to start posting on any of them. I do want to address Bike To Work Week, which was last week. I started a post about it, but obviously, I didn't finish the post. So, I need to get things together. Hopefully, I'll have my act together this week, and have three or four more posts completed.

Most Likely to Survive

2005-05-29T21:04:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, a coworker approached me and said: "Congratulations, we've decided that of all the people on this floor, you're the only one who would survive in prison." I think my response was something like, "What?"

I was pretty much speechless since this seemed to come out of nowhere. I guess I should point out that I'm 6'4" and weigh 300+. (As far as I'm concerned, there's no need to be any more specific than that. Although, it bears mentioning that getting my weight below 300 during this year was a goal of mine, and considering that June is upon me, I really should get started. This is where the whole "bike to work" idea would fit in nicely.) So, I guess from a purely physical consideration, it's not too much of a stretch.

Now, I was selected "Most Athletic" during my senior year, but then they lost the picture, so I wasn't in the yearbook. Oh, well, at least I can now tack the dubious distinction of "Most Likely to Survive Prison" on my resume. It sure beats out "Most Likely to Get Gang-Raped" or other such nonsense.

Revenge of the Science Fair

2005-05-10T11:06:00.000-05:00

When I was in school, I may have done two Science Fair projects, mostly under protest. I really hated Science Fair projects because they seemed so contrived.

Of course, now that my daughter attends a school focused on math and science, she has to do a Science Fair project every year. She even had to project as a pre-schooler while she was there. Come on, she could barely read and write.

I'm sure you can guess what this means: My wife and I were doing these projects and explaining them to our daughter. Now our daugther is in 2nd grade, and while she can read and write, we are still helping her with the process and helping her with creating the project board. Well, we actually created the board for her.

Last year, "we" got an "A". This year, my wife feels that "we" deserve an "A". I just think this whole process is sort of a Karmic payback for my lazy-student ways of high school.

Damn the justifiable retribution.

Blame the Victim

2005-05-10T09:09:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I parked the car near an industrial area not too far from downtown Chicago. I've been parking in this area for more than a year. Last night, instead of going to pick up the car right after work, as I normally would, I went to my brother's place. When I got back to the car, someone had broken into the car. Literally, they BROKE into the car. The passenger window was smashed.

So, what did this person get? They got some cheap sunglasses that had a corner melted, a couple cell phone chargers, a trash bag that hangs on the back of the seat, and the real take: a little air compressor. In all, maybe $50 worth of stuff.

It's not the stuff that concerns me, it's the cost to fix the window. Also, the idiot managed to mangle the emergency brake so that it won't stay locked. They left some change behind, and left some CDs on one of those CD visors. Oh, and when they stole the little trash bag, they emptied the stuff in the back seat: a wonderful collection of breakfast bar wrappers.

Bastard.

Secret Life

2005-04-27T09:32:00.000-05:00

If you're even a bit of a tech geek, you need to check out The Secret Life of Machines.

I remember seeing some of these shows on the Discovery Channel quite a while ago. The simple, but informative, presentation added to the quirky allure. Other than the presentation and animation, what stands out in my mind is some of the facts. For example, the fax machine was invented around the same time as the telephone, and a switch used in the washing machine has another use in stunt driving, which they show by setting up a demonstration with a real car. Fun Stuff.

Since I watched these shows about the same time as Connections, the two are loosely linked in my memory.

Bike to Work

2005-04-14T15:41:00.000-05:00

Have you ever gotten one of those emails that encourages a gas boycott for a specific day? Over the past several years, I recall getting a few of them. At first, it seemed like a good idea, but a little more thought made the proposition just ridiculous. Think about it: skipping gas on just one day. Even if the whole country participated it would be a useless gesture. Unless people altered their need for gas over a considerable period of time, there would be no net effect. Sure, gas stations might lose revenue for one day, but as drivers buy gas before or after the one-day boycott, the drop in revenue would be repaid completely.

Consider the Montgomery Bus Boycott. It lasted for over a year. Do Americans have the capacity to avoid using their vehicles for even a month? I know a number of people who don't own cars, and are fine with using the CTA. My point here is that any real change is not easy, and will not be achieved with one-day actions now and again, which brings me to the point of this post: biking.

I've been occasionally using my bike for commuting purposes on and off for about 12 years. I commuted to school for a while in college, I commuted to work (at The Container Store's Buckhead Store in Atlanta) for a while after that, I rode with my daughter to her day-care and then on to my job for a summer, and recently, I've been riding part-way to work when the weather is not untenable. My goal for this summer is to ride my bike the entire distance from my house to work most days, which is not that big a deal. I'm about 4 1/2 miles, one way, from work. The Chicagoland Bicycle Federation is having a "Bike to Work Week" in June. So, it's my intention to be riding the full distance from home to work during that week. I've got eight weeks to get ready. I've been riding about 1 1/2 - 2 miles each way for the past few weeks. I had to get a new bike recently, though, since the bike I've had for about 12 years, broke down.

What's in a Name?

2005-04-12T13:39:00.000-05:00

Check out this Slate.com article about research into the possible economic impact of "black names".

By way of Eric Zorn's Notebook.

Virtual Communities

2005-04-10T21:59:00.000-05:00

I have become a big fan of TiVo, as some of my previous posts can attest. Of course, they have an online presence and an email newsletter. In the most recent newsletter there is mention of how Digital Video Recorders (DVR) are changing "water-cooler" chit-chat around the country. As the number of DVR users increase, there is a corresponding increase in the likelihood that one or more of those conversing has recorded the show for watching later. This is an obvious example that while technology brings down barriers to communication and creates the "global village", technology creates new interpersonal barriers. Maybe this just suggests a new technology is needed? Ah, yes, the ongoing search for technological solutions to problems created by technology. Like searching for new ways to deal with pollution. Maybe the Amish have it right: less technology = fewer problems. I'd still like to keeps my buttons, though.

I'm starting to get off track here, but if a technological solution presents itself (such as...oh, I don't know...blogging?), does this just maintain the new barrier or does this solution overcome the barrier? What I mean is that we've turned personal discussions with co-workers into impersonal online discussions with strangers, and if not strangers, at the very least we've created distance within the "discussion".

Let me get to the title of this post. By Virtual Community I don't mean one of the Sims computer games, and I don't necessarily mean Internet-based groups, although Internet friendships fit nicely within the concept. A year or two ago, while contemplating the church attendance of a friend and former coworker, I thought of the Parish system of the Catholic Church and its role within a community. It occurred to me that a person today probably belongs to more than one "community", particularly in a large city. Because of my Math Geek status, I started to think of Venn Diagrams. Do you remember Venn Diagrams? They're graphical representations of sets that may overlap (showing the intersection of the sets) and can be joined (the union of sets).

What really struck me was how disconnected I felt with the church I was attending. The friend and former coworker mentioned above attended another church in a different part of Chicago, and I was attending a church in Oak Park. It seemed a little odd, but neither of us was attending a church near where we lived. Essentially, our lives were segmented. There are distinct groups: a group of coworkers, a group of friends, a group of neighbors, and the church congregation. The intersection of these various groups was very small -- one or two people -- or nonexistent. These small, or empty, intersections led me to contemplate the Parish. Back in the day, the Parish was the center of a community. The intersection of the various groups was very high. If you lived in a Parish, your business connections, neighbors, friends and church congregations were all pretty much the same. The difficulty of travelling limited contacts for most people to those in a relatively close proximity. In the US today, the "relatively close" proximity is much greater than at any other time in history. I guess you could use available travel methods as a measure of community "closeness". As the time required to travel longer distances decreases, the result is even more virtual communities. We could maintain relationships over very long distances, and then not "need" to start new relationships with the people who happen to live close by. This is kind of the phenomenon in a large city. My friends are all over the city, 15-30 miles away.

Anyway, the main point was that we create and maintain these virtual communities that are almost arbitrarily defined: high school friendships, a coworker from a job five years earlier, etc. Now I'm wondering if these virtual communities are both a blessing and a curse.

More Name Games

2005-04-06T21:24:00.000-05:00

Since we bought TiVo, I've found myself recording shows that I probably wouldn't watch otherwise. I tend to watch them when there's some free time, and I just want to lay in bed and veg. Also, I usually forget about when shows air, and TiVo is a nice safety valve that catches the stuff I would normally want to watch. I've been regularly watching Arrested Development, which seems to get crazier each week, and Scrubs has me watching each week. The first season of Scrubs comes out in May, and I think I'm going to buy it. I'm usually not one to buy DVDs since I expect the format will be dead within the next 5-7 years. DVDs will probably be replaced with Holographic Memory in the long term, and definitely by HD-DVD in the short term.

Anyway, not long after we bought the TiVo, I decided to record Carnivale on HBO, and I found myself getting addicted. I recorded four or five episodes before I watched any, but then I quickly caught up, and hated waiting for the next week's episode. I thought that this was the second season, but I wasn't sure. I just went to the HBO web site and learned that they have the season one DVDs for sale. I may need to pick them up.

The Name Game reference alludes to a strange thing that I noticed after watching the last episode of this season: the name Michael Davis in the credits. This Michael Davis was the "Transportation Coordinator" for the show. Interesting. Check out this really cool graphical representation of name popularity over the last century. One site I found with a Google search had the name Michael as the fourth most popular, and the last name, Davis, as the sixth most popular. I couldn't find anything showing occurrence rate of name combinations, though. I'd guess that John Smith is probably occurs most often.

When I was looking to register a domain name, I found that the city of Davis, California had Davis.com registered, but now someone else has it. An architect had michaeldavis.com registered.

The first time I remembering hearing my name used in reference to someone else was a juggler on Saturday Night Live. That Michael Davis was a pretty funny guy.

Easter Family Fun

2005-03-28T11:54:00.000-06:00

Easter was nice overall, although my mother was very frustrating. We went to church where my mother was "commissioned" by the church for her trip to Africa. She leaves tomorrow night to fly to Durban, South Africa by way of London. She'll be volunteering in a HIV hospice in Durban for the month of April. She has written about it on her blog.

After April, she's going to visit my sister in Botswana for about 10 days, and then she flies back here. Anyway, her church pledged their support, and they bought her a digital camera. They had a quick ceremony during the worship service to present the camera to her and officially commission her. Of course, my mother initiated the volunteer opportunity all this by herself, but the church is very supportive.

After the service, my mother asked me to set up the camera, which I did. I took a couple of pictures, just messing around. She asked me to take some more, and I suggested that she do it herself to get acquainted with it. She refused claiming to be "tired". Now, how can you be too tired to push one freaking button? It really annoyed me. It just seemed like a very flat excuse, especially when you consider that she was planning to leave church and go to Walgreen's to do some last-minute shopping and she wanted to go to a restaurant for lunch.

Interacting with my mother surrounding technology is typically like this. She refuses to put forth any effort to figure things out on her own, and of course, I insist that a person with a Bachelor of Science degree from an Ivy League institution can figure out a few things on her own. (My mother has a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Pennsylvania.)

She's a very intelligent woman who has handled some difficult life situations like raising four children after her husband died. (Our ages at the time of his death: 12, 6, 4, and 3). She has a great memory and easily assimilates scientific information.

She reads this blog, so I hope she can take into consideration that my frustration is borne from my respect for her (occasionally) untapped abilities. I Love you, Mom.

Not Quite MIA

2005-03-18T09:11:00.000-06:00

Almost every day last week I was home in bed, sick. At one point, my temp was 102 and I was constantly shivering. My brother finally posted again on his blog, and I just realized that it's been a couple of weeks since I posted here. I've been letting things pile up. I've been sitting on a couple of posts for over a month because they were loosely related and I wanted to better organize the thoughts. I started another blog for more personal reflections, and I haven't posted on that since January. I've got to get back in the game here. Eventually, I plan to share the other blog, but I'm not to a point with it to do that; at least, not yet.

The last modification that I made to this site was to include a more organized blog roll on the right side. I've been using bloglines.com as a tool to monitor the blogs and sites that I read regularly. The service highlights the blogs and sites that have been modified since I last read them, including a number to indicate how many posts have been made. It's a pretty useful way of quickly checking any number of sites at once. I had found myself checking a bunch of blogs that were not being updated (like my brother's and my wife's, for example). I looked into another service: blogrolling.com, but it wasn't much different from bloglines.com. The cool thing, technologically speaking, is that adding a little code to the template of this site allows me to manage the links on this site from the bloglines.com interface. Also, you can check out the my public links on the bloglines.com site.

On an unrelated note, I have a new job. What's really interesting is that I had been working at this place since the beginning of May 2004, although I was working as a contractor. This past Monday, March 14th was my first day as an employee here. I've been looking for a job since December with barely any response to my submitted resumes. Actually being hired is quite a relief.

Technical Difficulties

2005-03-03T10:42:00.000-06:00

This post just proves my point. I wrote a post about some problems I was having with the Blogger interface, and apparently, it doesn't like criticism. When I clicked on the "Publish Post" button, the post disappeared, like it pissed off the mob or something.

A friend who just started a blog asked me how to add a blog roll to his site, and I sent him some information. Since I've messed around with some of the blog template code on another site, I was familiar with the Blogger Help, which is a pretty good resource with some interesting ideas to enhance blogs. One of the ideas that I've implemented on this site is the expandable comment section, which allows the reader to "unhide" and "hide" the comments section for each post. So, if you're reading a post with comments -- the two or three posts that have been commented on -- you can view and read the comments, hide them again, and move on. Of course, I don't post so much that people are reading multiple posts on a single visit, but I'm a tech geek and viewing the comments inline is pretty neat.

Anyway, to get back to the technical difficulties, the problems dealt with publishing. Publishing itself is pretty straight-forward, but I've been noticing a delay between when I post and when I see the change. I've also noticed that by specifying the "index.html" page within the URL shows the changes immediately. I'm assuming that there is a lag in propagating the newly published information to the site. It's just annoying, and I'm wondering why there's a lag and how long it could be.

Holly-Jolly reference

2005-03-03T08:21:00.000-06:00

On his Chicago Tribune weblog, Eric Zorn was posting about words that are typed using just one hand on the QWERTY keyboard (when using all fingers to type, which I have to mention since my mother types with just two fingers). He elicited examples from his readers, and posted some of the responses including two words I offered: westward and holly-jolly.

Some other offerings from readers were a few paragraphs using a bunch of the one-handed words he listed in his original post. I didn't attempt that task, but what was submitted is pretty funny. You try to use killjoy, sweetbread, streetcars, pumpkin, lollipop, aftertaste, exacerbated, and exaggerated in one paragraph.

Yeah, but Will There Be Robots?

2005-02-25T13:38:00.000-06:00

There's a fairly comprehensive vision for what the CTA can become by 2055 on Gaper's Block. I've seen smaller versions of these types of plans on other site's, but this one includes much more, and -- always a good thing -- it has pictures! This vision is not nearly as flashy as the "I, Robot" movie with Will Smith, but it's probably a more realistic sense of what Chicago might be like in 50 years.

Also on Gaper's Block, check out 'Ask the Librarian' about the Chicago connection to the last man on the moon. Did you catch that pun? It was a complete accident. There's no way I could plan that. I usually head to Gaper's Block late in the week to catch up on 'Revenge of the Second City'.

The Definition of Surreal

2005-02-24T10:53:00.000-06:00

Be careful what you read online. You might come across something truly strange. Law-speak can make sex seem almost passe. From the article linked above:

But the judges agreed with the lower court's decision to dismiss fraud and theft claims against Irons.

They agreed with Irons' lawyers that she didn't steal the sperm.

"She asserts that when plaintiff 'delivered' his sperm, it was a gift — an absolute and irrevocable transfer of title to property from a donor to a donee," the decision said. "There was no agreement that the original deposit would be returned upon request."

When is there EVER an "agreement that the original deposit...be returned upon request"?

You've really got to get the whole story to understand how freaky this whole thing is. Both...uh..."participants" were doctors, and she was married to another doctor at the time. The "participants" never had intercourse, but she "acquired" his sperm and impregnated herself with it. DNA tests proved that the child was his.

eeewwwww

Just Another Monday

2005-02-14T17:04:00.000-06:00

Really, this year February 14th is just another Monday. I've never been overly sentimental about Valentine's day. As a kid, it was just another excuse to get some candy. Later, it often was just a reminder that I was alone. Now, with a family, preparing candy bags for my daughter's class takes some of the fun out of it. Okay, my wife actually put together the bags of candy, I just held them shut while she taped them closed. I think she would not be doing this if we had more than one child, but we'll have to wait for another child to confirm that belief.

The great aspect about the mostly free flow of information on the internet is that you can get information about almost anything. Take the New York Times online, for example. Today, you'd find an article debunking some of the Valentine's Day mythos with a little history:

Popular celebrations of Valentine's Day gained ground in the late 17th century, but not until 100 years later did most Europeans and Americans begin to agree that marriage should be based on love and young people should freely choose their own partners. Even in the 19th century there were still many defenders of traditional marriage who predicted that the new vogue for "marriage by fascination" instead of hardheaded negotiation would undermine the social order, and that high expectations of marriage would lead only to discontent.

They had a point. High expectations of married love can lead to huge disappointments, and free choice means that an individual can refuse to settle for a marriage where love is absent. Thus modern marriage almost inevitably brings higher divorce rates. Prince Charles and Diana Spencer, for instance, could have had a very stable marriage if she had not refused to live with the traditional disconnect between love and marriage - a disconnect that both Charles and his new fiancée, Camilla Parker Bowles, were prepared to accept 20 years ago (though presumably not today).

See, it makes perfect sense that I want to maintain low expectations in my marriage. I'm pretty sure that in the 10 years I've known my wife, including the last 7 in...uh..."wedded bliss", I haven't observed Valentine's Day. Of course, our anniversary is the week before, which gives me some leeway to claim joint gifts. In retrospect, it might have been better to have our wedding a week after Valentine's day. In that situation, you'd always be getting the post-holiday sale prices.

Oh yeah, love is in the air.

Other People's Posts

2005-02-08T10:08:00.000-06:00

The new OPP? Not nearly as intriguing, though.

Anyway, there's a very good post on The Washington Note about private accounts for kids as a wealth-building technique instead of the current Social Security replacement put forth by President Bush. The best point is actually from an article in the Washington Post:

Perhaps a good way to begin debate on President Bush's bold and commendable ideas for an "ownership society" would be to ask, "Who owns America?" After all, if ownership policies further concentrate the ownership of assets for those who already own a lot, while doing little for those who own nothing, what's the point?

So, I'm quoting a quote from another blogger. Objection, your honor, that's hearsay!

Set the Phase-out to Annihilate

2005-02-07T13:43:00.000-06:00

The Talking Points Memo has a pretty good take on the president's plan to change Social Security. It simplifies, and thus clarifies, some of the verbiage about the proposed changes. It is particualarly compelling from a philisophical standpoint by addressing what Social Security is and how it fits within a balance retirement plan for Americans. Interesting read.

Sign O' the Times

2005-02-07T08:43:00.000-06:00

The New York Times, that is. I seriously doubt that anyone at the New York Times is reading this blog, but this article about redistricting hits on the same points that I made here last week.

Actually, it's most likely that few people outside my family members have ever read this thing, but at least I'm not filling my family members' in-boxes with email links to all this kind of stuff.

Two quotes stand out for me. First, from Nathaniel Persily of the University of Pennsylvania Law School: "There is a problem when the turnover in the United States House of Representatives is lower than it was in the Soviet Politburo."
Second, toward the end of the article: "... redistricting contributes to polarization, as map-drawers cluster like-minded voters into the same districts. That makes it less likely that a candidate will work to appeal to swing voters."

Really, Must-See TV

2005-02-04T11:10:00.000-06:00

I just read an article about "Slavery and the Making of America," airing on PBS Feb. 9 and 16 at 9 p.m. EST. The money quote from the article:

'Slavery wasn't the sideshow in America, it was the main event in American history.'

Interesting links from the article:

www.thirteen.org

www.slaveryinamerica.org

Banned! in Fargo?

2005-02-03T11:38:00.000-06:00

How cool would it be to have your name on a do-not-admit list for a presidential visit to your city? Especially if you're in high school! It seems pretty silly, but this article contains the information:

Among the 42 area people on the do-not-admit list: two high school students, a librarian, a Democratic campaign manager and several university professors.

Who cares what the reason for inclusion on the list is, it would just be really cool to have been prevented from attending.

Freaky Name Recognition

2005-02-02T08:17:00.000-06:00

Until recently, the name Michael has been consistently the number one name given to boys in the United States. So, it's not too surprising that I've run into a number of guys with whom I share a name. There was a guy in high school, two in college -- I was on the football team with one of them, and usually a couple in each company that I've worked for, which makes the email thing pretty interesting. On a side note, I've even mistakenly sent email to the other guys because I forgot to include my middle initial. There's a juggler named Michael Davis who has appeared on Saturday Night Live a couple of times (like 20 years ago). He used to juggle ping-pong balls with his mouth.

Anyway, I got started thinking about all this because a Chicago Tribune article about a potential increase in the GI Death Benefit begins with information about the family of Donald Davis, which happens to be my brother's name. A google search of "Michael Davis" "Morehouse College" brings up web sites documenting hazing incidents including the deaths of a Morehouse student and a student at another college named Michael Davis. It also brings up information on one of the guys who attended Morehouse at the same time I did.

It's just a little freaky.

Knit picking

2005-02-01T08:56:00.000-06:00

When I was a kid -- maybe seven or so -- my sisters decided to take up knitting. They are both older than me, and I jumped on the bandwagon. The three of us went to knitting classes not too far from our house, but eventually, I gave it up. I think I may have finished a scarf, but that was about it.

I hadn't really thought about knitting until this past year, when my wife started to crochet baby blankets for a number of her friends. She's finished two or three blankets for expectant mothers, and she's planning a few more. She's also looking to create a rug for my brother and his wife. So, my wife and I would end up at Michaels or Hancock Fabrics for her raw materials: yarn and crochet hooks. This past month, while on one of these yarn buying excursions, I thought about taking up knitting again, but I definitely wanted to keep it to myself. Today, in a Chicago Tribune article, a trend of men knitting is addressed. It's almost surreal that I would come across this article so soon after I had started knitting again, and the article mentions Russell Crowe and Laurence Fishburne as knitters. Suddenly, I'm struck with the image of Morpheus saying: "Neo, you must knit two, purl two to create the ribbing pattern." Okay, I admit that it was funnier in my head.

My sister, Theresa, has consistently knitted since she first started. She's made a few fairly intricate blankets for our mother and my daughter. I doubt that I would ever be that involved, but then again, I hadn't thought that I would take it up again at all.

New Focus: Redistricting

2005-01-31T13:51:00.000-06:00

The drawing of Congressional Districts has become increasingly partisan. Politics has always been involved in the process, of course. The term Gerrymander dates back to the machinations of a governor of Massachusetts during the early 19th century.

When a House majority leader has charges of ethics violations raised against him as in the case of Tom DeLay in the Texas redistricting and the governor of California proposes a new method of drawing his state's districts, the whole process should receive more scrutiny.

In his column this week about the 1965 Voting Rights Act, Clarence Page writes:

...redistricting, the uniquely American system in which the incumbents in state legislatures get to choose their voters--and those who will vote for their states' members of Congress.

Section 5, the part of the act that is set to expire in 2007, prohibits "retrogression," any change in district boundaries that would diminish a district's percentage of black voters. In the past couple of decades, white Republicans and black Democrats in state legislatures have gotten together to redraw districts that round up black voters and other liberal-leaners into black districts, leaving other districts more white and more politically to the right.

The Republicans big reward for this tactic came in 1994 when Republicans took control of the House. As a result, black Democrats have gained seats in Congress but their party has lost power as conservative Republicans have gained a majority.

That's why Lewis and some other broad-minded Democrats have taken a second look at districts that have a high concentration of minority voters and are actually backing some plans that call for their dilution. After all, it has been shown that, even in the South, white voters will support black candidates who campaign well on shared interests.

Bush is right to think that he has time to make up his mind on whether to extend Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act when it expires. It's not just the history of civil rights that he has to consider, but also the future of his party's politics.

Once he gets fully briefed on it, I predict that President Bush and congressional Republicans will gladly renew Section 5. Defending minority voting rights makes a lot of sense, especially when it helps you keep your majority.

I'm just left with more questions. What should redistricting accomplish? Should it just be an adjustment for population shifts? Should there be some philosophical underpinnings to group together people of similar political interests such as race or class?

Ultimately, it may be best to draw district lines across boundaries of race and class to create diversity on the local scale, which would facilitate compromise solutions to local and national problems.

Dave's Top Ten

2005-01-28T15:47:00.000-06:00

Check out these Top Ten lists about:

Star Wars

05/24/1999 - Top Ten Thoughts On The Minds Of People In Line For Star Wars
05/06/1999 - Top Ten Star Wars Fans Complaints About The New Movie< /td>
04/28/1999 - Top Ten Star Wars Fan Euphemisms For Not Having A Girlfriend
04/06/1999 - Top Ten Rejected Star Wars Characters
02/21/1997 - Top Ten Signs You've Seen the Star Wars Movies Too Many Times
01/31/1997 - Top Ten Surprises in the New Version of Star Wars

Outing SpongeBob

2005-01-26T13:03:00.000-06:00

Here's further proof that I don't have gaydar. In addition to the character of the assistant DA on "Law & Order" outing herself in the actresses' last appearance, apparently, SpongeBob Squarepants is gay. Really? I think SpongeBob's homosexuality is about as dubious as Tinky Winky's alleged homosexuality, but maybe you don't know about the Teletubbies. My daughter watched the Teletubbies a few years ago, and so I have an excuse. I'm doubting that Tinky Winky carrying around a bag means anything, especially since the bag was red and Tinky Winky is purple. Come on, let's stick to the stereotypes that we all can recognize. Would the guys from "Queer Eye" give a red bag to a purple person? Well, I really don't know, and I don't care. It seems to be more ridiculous fear-mongering.

All this was brought up by reading
an article on the Chicago Tribune's site. One passage that stood out:

What the SpongeBob controversy has revealed is that pledging allegiance to diversity and tolerance is religion by any other name--just as irksome to the devout as Dobson and Vitagliano are to the secular. The purveyors of Feel Good Vibes can be just as dogmatic and unyielding as those who condemn from the pulpit. Whether defending literal scripture or advancing bumper-sticker virtue, the self-anointed protectorate are essentially cut from the same cloth.

This passage reminded me of something a friend had mentioned when I was in college. She said that a mutual friend was "so open-minded, that they're close-minded", which sums this up nicely.

HOWEVER, there is an underlying issue of tolerance versus hate, democracy versus theocracy that such statements fail to acknowledge. Eric Zorn pointed out that Bugs Bunny is considerably more "sexually ambiguous" than SpongeBob, but hasn't been accused of being part of some homosexual agenda. It makes me think there is an agenda against homosexuality.

Solidifying Class Structure

2005-01-25T09:36:00.000-06:00

The New York Times' David Brooks has a suggestion for President Bush's State of the Union address: "it would be nice if he would devote himself as passionately to the grandest theme of domestic policy - social mobility."

Expanding on the problem, he writes:

Economists and sociologists do not all agree, but it does seem there is at least slightly less movement across income quintiles than there was a few decades ago. Sons' income levels correlate more closely to those of their fathers. The income levels of brothers also correlate more closely. That suggests that the family you were born into matters more and more to how you will fare in life. That's a problem because we are not supposed to have a hereditary class structure in this country.

But we're developing one. In the information age, education matters more. In an age in which education matters more, family matters more, because as James Coleman established decades ago, family status shapes educational achievement.

At the top end of society we have a mass upper-middle class. This is made up of highly educated people who move into highly educated neighborhoods and raise their kids in good schools with the children of other highly educated parents. These kids develop wonderful skills, get into good colleges (the median family income of a Harvard student is now $150,000), then go out and have their own children, who develop the same sorts of wonderful skills and who repeat the cycle all over again.

In this way these highly educated elites produce a paradox - a hereditary meritocratic class.

It becomes harder for middle-class kids to compete against members of the hypercharged educated class. Indeed, the middle-class areas become more socially isolated from the highly educated areas.

And this is not even to speak of the children who grow up in neighborhoods in which more boys go to jail than college, in which marriage is not the norm before child-rearing, in which homes are often unstable, in which long-range planning is absurd, in which the social skills you need to achieve are not even passed down.

I guess there's concern that societal structure is solidifying, but I remember during an Introduction to Psychology class in college, oh eight or nine years ago, this phenomenon was already pretty well documented, which I assume is the basis of the reference to James Coleman. Granted a decrease in mobility would be somewhat daunting, but overall, this is how America has worked since its inception, the potential for upward mobility is enough to get everyone to "buy into" the societal norms, even if that potential is rarely realized.

I would think that this revelation should also raise questions about the potential effectiveness of the "No Child Left Behind" legislation. Does the legislation address the outside incluences?

By the way, part of Mr Brooks conclusion:

"We can spend all we want on schools. But if families are disrupted, if the social environment is dysfunctional, bigger budgets won't help."

Are we able to see that there is probably a synergy across Education, Health Care, Child Care, and Head Start programs? Can we understand that a child's educational success is tied to all of the above, and to their parent's ability to provide them?

Perhaps we need more reasearch, but if there is a connection and nothing is done to incorporate these aspects into a comprehensive vision of education, children will continue to be left behind.

They keep on coming...

2005-01-06T09:06:00.000-06:00

So, a couple of people were inspired. Well, they probably just hadn't realized how easy it is to blog these days, but now that they know, they're getting themselves out there.

My brother started a blog "Why teach in the Inner City?". He teaches at a high school on Chicago's South Side, and his first post is a good summary of his motivations for becoming a teacher, and some quick reflections on his first four years teaching.

A friend Michelle started one called: Bronzeville Blog. She lives in the Bronzeville area in Chicago, and I'm sure she'll keep us up to date on the dramatic changes going on there. The city has already removed some of the old projects, and new townhouses are going up. Her first post is about changes to McCormick Place.

If you hadn't already noticed, I added some links on the right to all these blogs, and to some other sites that I check regularly.

It's So True

2005-01-05T13:56:00.000-06:00

Don't you just love this? I know I do. A Rick Morrissey column this week has me feeling good about the White Sox's chances this year.

So a bold prediction for 2005:

The White Sox will win the World Series. This is the only way life could be any worse for the Cubs. And that is where you always go with this franchise. You go to wherever the maximum pain is. Five outs away from the World Series in 2003? Yes, that does hurt. The Red Sox, the Cubs' brother in futility, winning the Series in 2004? Thank you, sir, now hit me across the back of the legs with your cane.

When the Red Sox stunned the Yankees in the ALCS, I wrote a column about it for the Tribune, with the Cubs' misery threading its way through the piece. Didn't mention the White Sox and their misery once. And heard about it from miserable Sox fans. How dare anyone dismiss their pain, they said. They hadn't won a World Series since 1917 and have had to live with the Black Sox scandal all these years. Surely that torture counts for something.

Fair's fair, and Sox fans will be able to rub a World Series title in the faces of Cubs fans. You rightly ask: How, with that lineup and that budget, could the Sox win the Series? How, after trading Carlos Lee and not re-signing Magglio Ordonez, could the Sox win it all? Especially with that pitching staff?

I have no idea. I just know that, in the grand scheme of things, it would make perfect sense. A Chicago team wins the World Series, and it's not the long-suffering Cubs. It's the almost-as-long-suffering Sox. (The standard Cubs fan would react typically—by pretending South Side fans don't exist and catching up with his old friend, pain.)

So it's the Sox in seven games. Oh, yeah, over the Cubs. I almost left that part out.

And if not this year, then next year. Always next year.

In the past, I've told my brother, a Cubs fan, that the ideal situation for me would be for the Cubs to make the World Series...and lose to the Sox. It's the ultimate in sibling rivalry, I know.

Everyone's Blogging

2005-01-05T08:17:00.000-06:00

I started this blog about 5 months ago, and now, it seems, a number of my friends and family are getting into the game. I got an email yesterday from my sister, who just moved to Africa with the U.S. State Department, and she started a blog a couple of months ago. In fact, her first post was the day after my birthday, during the last week of November. Her blog is Theresa's Overseas Musings.

A good friend, Chris, finally started a blog to augment the numerous emails that he was sending out to his family and friends. Check out Chris's blog, titled: Agree to Disagree .

My wife just started a blog a few days ago. Her blog is Southern Chick's View, and I look forward to reading her thoughts since she doesn't tell me anything. Just kidding.

The great thing about all these blogs is that we never have to talk again. We can just dump our thoughts into our blogs, and the "conversation" occurs at our leisure.

Another blog that I've been reading consistently is The Story of Why. It's written by a white women living in the West Garfield Park neighborhood, and conveys some very personal history. I think I may have seen her on the El one evening, when coming home from work. Now, for any readers not in the know, West Garfield Park is truly the "West Side" of Chicago. It's a predominantly-black low- to middle-income community, with the emphasis on low. I'm pretty sure that I can count the number of white residents on one hand, and that includes me and my mother. So, I'm pretty sure that it was her. Anyway, I should probably blog more about living in the area. Interesting stuff.

Rudolph: Beloved Marketing Tool

2004-12-23T08:50:00.000-06:00

There's a pretty thorough history of the story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer at this site. I had heard that Rudolph was created as a Christmas marketing tool, and also that it was Chicago-based Montgomery Ward.

It's a little strange that Montgomery Ward had filed bankruptcy, and their former buildings are being converted in Chicago and Fort Worth, Texas.

Superstitious Math Geeks?

2004-12-15T09:09:00.000-06:00

Reading Eric Zorn's notebook on the Tribune site is becoming a daily indulgence for me. Today, due to a Zorn link, I found out that I'm not the only person fixated on a prime number.
Okay, to be fair, I have a friend named Keith who is fixated on the number 37 (which is prime), and he sees it everywhere. I'm not considering Keith to be a superstitious math geek, though, because he's an artist, and in this sort of math-oriented obsession takes the interest to another level.
My personal fixation is with the number 13, which I find connected to me. For a quick example, consider the letter M. It's the 13th letter of the alphabet (I learned this thanks to Jim Carrey's Riddler in _Batman Forever_). Also, the letter D is used for the number 13 in hexadecimal notation (base 16). I could go on, but I don't won't to get weird here. I'm not even going into the connection 13 has with the United States or the mathematical properties of 13. Well, I will mention that 13 is prime, of course, and it's also a Fibonacci number. But that's all I'm going to write. At this time, anyway.

On the subject of the properties of numbers, consider that the number 28 is perfect, by mathematical definition, essentially, a perfect number is one that is the sum of its proper diviors (e.g., 6 = 1 + 2 + 3). I mention this because of that number's relation to the lunar cycle and, as a segue, women's average menstrual cycle. Rough segue, but Zorn's giving away a book, _Woe to the Women - The Bible Tells Me So: The Bible, Female Sexuality, and the Law_, which "documents the bible's punitive, antediluvian rules and attitudes toward women." What's interesting to me is how this relates to another site that I've seen arguing that Jesus was a feminist. To me this is an extension of an underlying conflict over the legacy of Jesus, which seems to be primarily a struggle between James and Paul. I'll return to this subject another time.

India and China

2004-12-10T16:28:00.000-06:00

The Talking Points Memo has an older post with extensive excerpts of a Fortune Magazine interview discussing the economic potential and impact of Indian and Chinese economies.

There's also an interesting point on the potential hazard of America's debt. Since we have no idea how American debt in American dollars could affect America's economy.

An Ounce of Prevention?

2004-12-10T14:48:00.000-06:00

In a new blog jointly written by an economist and a circuit court judge, the first "real" post addresses the legal precedent for preventive war. It's a very logical argument based on the legal approaches of dealing with potentially dangerous individuals, and then extends the argument to terrorism in general and "rogue states" in particular.

What struck me about it, though, was that I was reminded or the movie _Minority Report_. Judgments are passed based on what probably would have occurred.

Finding My Religion

2004-12-10T11:16:00.000-06:00

Check out the Belief-O-Matic on beliefnet.com

My top 5 (percentage match):

1. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (100%)
2. Bahá'í Faith (87%)
3. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (87%)
4. New Thought (85%)
5. Reform Judaism (85%)

Wow, look at that, I'm probably a "Liberal Christian Protestant". Go figure.

Globalize already

2004-12-09T08:42:00.000-06:00

According to the New York Times, Labor Unions are seeking to reorganize in an attempt to regain their influence. In particular, they are looking to increase their membership in "swing states" to help elect a "pro-labor" president, which seems to mean "Democratic".

The unions seem to be missing other opportunities. Aren't they ignoring labor in other parts of the world? Wouldn't it be to their advantage to organize unions in the areas where American businesses are moving jobs?

Imagine if unions organized labor in Mexico, for example. As the Mexican standard of living increases, the cost advantages to American companies moving to Mexico would decrease. Also, the increased standard of living would create markets for more American products and services. Now, imagine that happening on a global scale. The rise in standard of living is already beginning in China and India.

Labor protectionism is counterproductive. It does not address the rapid gobalization of business, and is not likely to be successful. I'm reminded of the Industrial Revolution, when businesses moved to more mechanized forms of production. As labor unions were being formed to address the unfair treatment by these larger, more powerful businesses, the new unions were very selective in their membership admittance, usually excluding minorities. As a result of exclusive membership to unions, business was able to employ the non-union minorities as strike breakers.

In essence, the moving of American jobs overseas is an attempt to decrease the cost of labor. Ultimately, this leads to exploitation of workers where the local governments have not established the structure of worker protections that have been created in America and Western Europe.

Now, here's a quirky twist for you: Labor Unions are anti-Communist, in theory. Think about that. This idea comes directly from the reading of an article on The New Republic's site. Of course, Marx's theory of communism is based on the assumption that the polarization of the "haves" and the "have-nots" would continue until the "have-nots" could take no more and revolt against the system. From a labor standpoint, this seemed to directly reflect their experience with large, industrial businesses. However, the rise of labor unions created a new option: The potential for workers to see the fruits of their labor, to participate -- and profit -- in the growth of the companies for which they worked.

The problem now, though, is that labor unions have steadily lost their effectiveness and membership. New workers are getting the jobs overseas, and Labor Unions aren't there. Consider that the disparity between the "haves" and the "have-nots" in America, and on a global scale, is increasing. Doesn't Marx come back into the picture?

All workers benefited from Organized Labor. I like my Saturdays free. I like working (roughly) an 8-hour shift and (roughly) a 40-hour week. I like health care, dental care, paid sick days, and paid vacation. The organization of labor needs to become another American export. Ultimately, it protects us all. Organized Labor allows us to become partners with business and not adversaries. It protects democracy and probably even protects capitalism.

So, Labor, please, Globalize already.

The Next Big Thing

2004-12-01T13:35:00.000-06:00

Like Tickle Me Elmo for adults, or at least tech geeks like me, Digital Video Recorders are definitely the next big thing. I really want a DVR. I've even looked at putting one together from an old computer. The Trib has an article about them on their site, and it just gets me thinking about them again.

My sister has TiVo, and a friend also has one. Everyone who has them, loves them. When we were at my sister's house for Thanksgiving, I got a chance to check out some of TiVo's features. It's very cool. I especially like the idea of connecting the box to my home network and the internet scheduling feature. Great ideas. There are some limitations, though. Since we have digital cable, we wouldn't be able to watch one show while recording another. I'm sure we'll get one eventually.

I would guess that DVRs may become mandatory for some types of cable subscription programming. Imagine paying for the number of scheduling blocks of shows or movies that you request instead of paying a flat-fee without much schedule control. I think it will happen, while friends have pointed out that many people wouldn't like the idea that their viewing prefrences could be monitored. Understandable. Who knows.

We need a new word, really

2004-11-30T17:49:00.000-06:00

The first definition for the word redundant on Dictionary.com reads:

1. Exceeding what is necessary or natural; superfluous

I mention this only because I'm a bit of a computer geek, and in the dark, dreary recesses of the computer network rooms, the word redundant always refers to the repetition of hardware as a protection against system failures. So, in the computer geek world, redundancy is anything but "superfluous" or unnecessarily repetitive.

It was one of those moments...

2004-11-30T09:43:00.000-06:00

when I was reminded of something completely unrelated. While I was typing "Blogs of Interest" in the last post, I could hear the Futurama narrator saying "Tales of Interest". Just abject silliness in the middle of a serious post.

So, then I'm searching for a link to drop in this post, and Google confronts me with: GotFuturama.com, a Fox Futurama Site, TV Tome, and our friendly neighborhood Internet Movie Database. These are only a few of "about 1,970,000" that Google found.

Self-references to note: Frank Welker was the voice of some of the characters on Futurama, which is why I'm still hearing voices, and, of course, the reference to the Internet Movie Database in the Token Opposition post that's in the August archive.

Ah, "I love it when a plan comes together". -gratuitous A-Team reference.

Losing my religion...

2004-11-30T09:18:00.000-06:00

The evangelicals are a-comin'!!

Aren't they just everywhere since the election? The following is a passage from a New York Times op/ed piece about John Stott.

There's been a lot of twaddle written recently about the supposed opposition between faith and reason. To read Stott is to see someone practicing "thoughtful allegiance" to scripture. For him, Christianity means probing the mysteries of Christ. He is always exploring paradoxes. Jesus teaches humility, so why does he talk about himself so much? What does it mean to gain power through weakness, or freedom through obedience? In many cases the truth is not found in the middle of apparent opposites, but on both extremes simultaneously.

Stott is so embracing it's always a bit of a shock - especially if you're a Jew like me - when you come across something on which he will not compromise. It's like being in "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood," except he has a backbone of steel. He does not accept homosexuality as a legitimate lifestyle, and of course he believes in evangelizing among nonbelievers. He is pro-life and pro-death penalty, even though he is not a political conservative on most issues.

The relationship of Evangelical Christians to America is something that I would like to explore in this space a little further. There is a very good site that I've been meaning to look into in more detail: www.truthgirl.com. The person who created the site refers to herself as a converted evangelical. She's dedicating the site to helping Democrats and liberals to understand, and ultimately "convert", evangelicals. The site was one of Eric Zorn's recommended "Blogs of Interest".

OOoo, it sounds "Edgy"

2004-11-17T10:54:00.000-06:00

Hey, who doesn't want coffee with an attitude?

Well, apparently some small towns don't.

I'm not much of a coffee drinker to begin with, but I definitely don't want any ass coffee. Especially not bad ass coffee. I guess it all depends on how you emphasize the words.

Do you think they had a hard time getting their domain name?

Okay, it's not that bad...

2004-11-04T10:46:00.000-06:00

Eric Zorn linked to this from his notebook. There's no need to start researching the hangman's knot, well...unless you're planning to go fishing. In the blog posting, James Wolcott alludes to _The Plot Against America_. I think I have something more to read. It reminds me somewhat of _Fatherland_, albeit from a more American standpoint.

I'm not going to panic, yet. Obviously, due to Rehnquist's illness, the President will be appointing at least one member to the Supreme Court, but there could be more in the next four years. As one blogger pointed out, the next four years will be squarely the responsibility of the current Republican administration. With a Republican House, Senate, and White House, they will be completely responsible for everything. There will be no blaming Clinton, or Democrats in Congress for preventing whatever initiatives they propose.

I'm hearing voices

2004-10-29T13:04:00.000-05:00

Not in a bad way, though. Have you ever seen the show called Connections by James Burke? The shows are like stream of consciousness with scientific advancements. Occassionally, that sort of connection happens that links otherwise unrelated things through general thought processes. The internet allows, and probably facilitates, those connections.

So, what about the voices? Well, let me start by saying that I was looking up _The Blues Brothers_ as part of a radio contest. Of course, I ended up at the Internet Movie Database looking at information about Frank Oz. As a Star Wars fan, I knew that he was the voice of Yoda, and I remembered that he was the voice of Miss Piggy. I didn't realize the extent of his vocal talents within the various roles of the Muppets. I knew he directed some movies, too, but didn't know the number. Very impressive.

So, that led me to consider the career of the other Frank: Frank Welker. I remember Frank Welker from _Aladdin_ as the monkey, Abu, and other movies and TV shows, usually as animal voices. I didn't know that he has been the only voice of Fred from the Scooby Doo cartoons, he voiced many of the Transformers, many of the Gremlins, some of the Smurfs, and the list goes on and on. There are 423 listings for voice credits dating back to 1962. Check it out. If you were a kid in the 80's, Frank Welker was there for almost everything. More recently, he did some vocal work on _Family Guy_, which led me too...

Phil LaMarr. Phil LaMarr has done some vocal work on _Family Guy_, but I was very, VERY surprised to find out that he is the voice of Samarai Jack, AND was Marvin in _Pulp Fiction_. You remember Marvin, right? He got his face shot off by Vincent Vega (John Travolta). He's had a fairly extensive career in just the past 15 years. Best of all, there's a Star Wars connection there, too.

Another Sign of the Apocalypse

2004-10-28T08:36:00.000-05:00

So, the Red Sox not only won the World Series, but they swept their way to that win. AND, it happened on a night with a lunar eclipse. AND, they made history by getting into the Series by overcoming both the New York Yankees AND a 0-3 Pennant Series deficit. Surely, this is a sign of the End of Days. Now, if the Cubs manage to win next year, I'm moving to Montana.

Now, if you tack in the strife in Babylon, there are truly Biblical implications. I think I need to go read Revelation.

Hitting Bottom...

2004-10-26T13:03:00.000-05:00

And not in a good way. On the lighter side of life, things aren't looking much better. With the Miami Dolphins winning big, and the Bears' offense reaching a new low in productivity, the Bears have been ranked dead last by ESPN.com.

And consider this: Marty Booker is doing pretty well in Miami, and Adewale Oguleye didn't play this week and has 1 sack in 5 games. Hey, great trade, Angelo!

Woe is me.

1984 Revisted

2004-10-26T11:35:00.000-05:00

The New York Times' Paul Krugman opines that the Bush Administration has created "A culture of cover-ups". I've read elsewhere that this administration has edit environmental reports that were released to the public. The explanation was that the administration wanted to present a consistent message, and a similar practice was in place under the Clinton administration. Fair enough, I'd say. However, the consistent modification and suppression of information is more akin to the superpower that George Orwell describes in his novel, _1984_.

A scene from that novel that has always lingered with me is the political rally where the main character takes note that enemy has changed IN THE MIDDLE OF THE RALLY! It seemed pretty absurd to me when I read the book about 15 years ago. I didn't doubt that a dictator could get away with that sort of nonsense. When you rule by fear, you can subjugate the truth to your means. But in a "free" country, it couldn't happen, right? Well, the more the George W. Bush and Dick Cheney spoke of Saddam Hussein and Al Qaida in the same breath, the more people were willing to accept the new enemy, unaware. Even as information has shown that there was no link, people continued to make the connection. Amazing. Maybe the "Aw, shucks", Gomer Pyle act is the perfect cover for deception.

Voting Rights?

2004-10-26T10:21:00.000-05:00

As the election looms, more reports regarding attempts to disenfranchise voters have been appearing. Florida authorities were attempting to remove several thousand African-American names from the voter rolls using the guise of convicted felon lists. New voting machines have been put in place that do not allow for auditing the information, and the issue is compounded by the fact that the manufacturers may have a conflict of interest. To top that, some voting machines in California had not passed Federal requirements when they were put into use for local elections. It's a mess.

Voters Outreach of America has been accused of trashing the registrations of Democrats that it registered. The New York Times is reporting here that Republicans are gearing up to place election challengers in minority district ostensibly to prevent fraud. However, this could severely increase the time needed to vote and dissuade people from voting.

The quirky couterintuitive aspect of all this is that, by some polls, the president has almost doubled his support among African-Americans since the 2000 election. The increase in his support has been attributed to conservative social issues, most notably: gay marriage. So, even while this administration has worked to gain the support of the African-American community, other Republicans are attempting to disenfranchise them. Very weird.

What the hell happened to Democracy? I mean, besides the fact the I was naive enough to believe America ever was one.

Supreme Possibilities

2004-10-26T08:54:00.000-05:00

With Rehnquist's illness, more focus will go to the Supremes, much to the dismay of Diana Ross.

But seriously, it has become more and more obvious to me that the function of the Supreme Court really is to slow the course of change within American society. A decision by the Supreme Court has far-reaching implications that can affect American society for multiple generations. The three most striking examples are Dred Scott, which may have led directly to the Civil War; Plessy v. Ferguson, which, more or less, established the Separate-but-Equal standard; and, of course, Roe v. Wade.

While one of the Court's functions is to balance the legislature, the Court's lifetime appointments serve to ensure some consistent interpretations of the law for decades. Chief Justice Rehnquist has been on the court for the last 32 years, longer than I have been around. Clarence Thomas has been on the Court 13 years already, and he could potentially be there 25 years from now. The thought that the next President could appoint 2-4 new justices in the next 4 years is a staggering thought. These new appointees would probably define the court for the next 30 years. Amazing and frightening.

I'm surrounded by crazy people

2004-10-14T13:10:00.000-05:00

Really, I am. Everywhere I go I'm constantly running in to people who seem to be without a clue. I'm becoming worried about this situation. It reminds me of this guy I worked with who was fired from three consecutive jobs. He felt that he had been the victim in those instances. I worked with the guy, and I can tell you this: he was not stable. So, I began to wonder...at what point would he begin to think that the problem was him and not everyone else? Could he ever come to this realization? Probably not. Self analysis is just too much to ask. So, this leads me to some of my own self-analysis. If I'm running into people EVERYWHERE who have no clue, maybe I'm the one who doesn't get it and this blissfully unaware thing is the way to go. I need to be more like Reese on _Malcolm in the Middle_, and just turn off my brain for a few hours. The world itself becomes a sensory deprevation tank. Ah, there we go...

There should be only one

2004-09-30T08:16:00.000-05:00

In his "notebook" on the Chicago Tribune website, Eric Zorn mentioned that he and his son had read the sequel to "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". He thought that it was horrible and requested other stories of bad sequels. Today, he used part of an email that I sent him about a bad sequel. My full email:

I'm reminded of the sequel "rules" that were discussed, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, in Scream 3. Mostly, and unfortunately, my mind went to The Highlander sequel(s). The gist of the first Highlander story was that "there can be only one", and the story follows "the one". My main problem with the second of the Highlander movies is that it seemed to reinvent the wheel, while also attempting to extend the story line. A completely new back-story is created, none of which was mentioned in the first. Oh, they're not just immortal, they're aliens living amongst us. It was all very silly, and I finally felt silly for watching it. To make matters worse, they went on to make another sequel with more characters, and then a television series based on another new character. What happened to "there can be only one"? Definitely, there should have been only one.

My sister is a huge Sci-Fi fan, and told me that considering the second movie outside the story line of the first film, the second works just fine. My response was something like: "why would you EVER consider a sequel outside the structure of the original story?" Since Hollywood loves franchises, and Sci-Fi particularly so, I'm sure this story would be altered today to allow for all the sorts of expansions that followed.

You can see Zorn's notebook here.

There's Something about Brett

2004-09-16T08:50:00.000-05:00

Seven straight. Brett Favre and the Packers have beaten the Bears seven straight times. It's very frustrating. They only meet two times a year, which means the Bears haven't beaten the Packers in THREE years!! I'm starting to feel old when I remember the late 80s and early 90s. Back then, the Bears were in the midst of winning 12 of 14 meetings between the two teams. "Before the dark times...before the Empire." Let's face it Brett Favre is like Darth Vader: "He's more machine now than man, twisted and evil". What other explanation is there? How can a quarterback with a broken throwing thumb still start games? How can he have started every freakin' game for, what, 10 years?!?

Help us Lovie Smith, you're our only hope.

Go Bears!!

Cheap Speakers

2004-09-15T15:22:00.000-05:00

A friend, Rory Johnson, sent me a link about a Japanese Company that has created an invention that turns flowers into speakers. Imagine hooking up some Hip Hop to a couple of sunflowers. Obviously, a very useful device.

America's Mission Statement

2004-09-14T10:56:00.000-05:00

Lately, I've been thinking about the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution, and I'm beginning to think that it's America's mission statement (as cheesy as that may be). What I mean is that the Preamble succinctly states the overriding purpose of the Constitution, and reflects a bit of the founders' hope for the future of the country:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

The Preamble may not serve much of a purpose outside of the opening flourish, but it easily provides a simple guide for everyday questions of America's policies.

What do YOU think?

2004-09-13T09:45:00.000-05:00

The following, from the So-Called "Austin Mayor" pretty much sums up my thoughts about listening to uninformed opinions:

...I don't listen to talk radio. This is why, although I hate Tavis Smiley's show, I don't miss "Talk of the Nation." I just don't care what "Joe six-pack" thinks.

Every day I commute with hundreds of examples of "the man on the street." If I cared what they thought, I would ask them. I don't ask because I don't care.

Regardless of the subject, I want to hear from people who either, 1) know more about the subject than I do, 2) have thought more about the subject than I have, or 3) are just smarter than I am. I guess I just don't see much value in non-expert opinions.

We seem to encourage every blowhard to speak their mind, when little substance exists behind their opinions. I even have a hard time listening to morning FM radio shows because of this. Can you play some more music? Thanks.

Already missing Booker

2004-09-09T15:48:00.000-05:00

Ho hum, as the NFL season is set to begin, the Bears chances of making the playoffs is on my mind. The defense should be fine, especially when you consider that Lovie Smith's Rams defense last year ranked just two spots behind the Bears D at the end of the season. Hmmm. Unfortunately, you STILL can't be sure about the offense. With a young, unproven QB, a bunch of young receivers, and a running back who was a wash with two other teams, I'm really concerned about the loss of Marty Booker. I'm more interested this year, though. The White Sox have been maddening since the last week of July, when I may have witnessed the turning point as they lost to the Twins. They haven't been mathematically eliminated yet, which is like a passenger on the Titanic feeling good to have a life vest.

Well, we'll see.

London Bridge is fine

2004-09-08T11:54:00.000-05:00

Despite the consistent attempts by the fourth grade propaganda machine to convince me that London Bridge was deteriorating, I never believed it. Now, I have proof. I may even post a picture. My wife and I split 10 days between London and Paris during August, and a wonderful time was had by...well, both of us. We did lots of touristy stuff, and, unfortunately spent a few hundred dollars on souvenirs. It's probably a good sign, though. We have lots of family and friends to spend on.

Now, don't go thinking that we have lots of money to spend. We returned with gifts, yes, but also the credit card bills that went with them. In fact, the trip was a prize my wife won by being an avid listener to Chicago's Country Music radio station, US99. I have become somewhat enamored of country music as a result.

Learning

2004-08-09T17:31:00.000-05:00

I snatched this from Eric Zorn's Chicago Tribune blog:

Learning brings out the stupid in us all. Psychiatrist Thomas Szasz wrote that, "Every act of learning requires the willingness to suffer an injury to one's self-esteem. That is why young children, before they are aware of their self-importance, learn so easily; and why older persons, especially if vain or important, cannot learn at all."

It's a quote of a quote. How silly.

Token Opposition

2004-08-06T13:26:00.000-05:00

Well, the Illinois Republicans had to look outside the state of Illinois to find an African-American to offer up as a scrificial lamb on the temple of OBAMA! I think I'll begin to present Barack Obama's name in the future - both in print and speech -as simply: OBAMA! It reminds me of the movie 'SARAFINA!' Hopefully, OBAMA! won't be as easily forgotten.

By the way, how cool is the Internet Movie Database? I did a search for Cleavon Little earlier in the week while watching 'Blazing Saddles'. I was actually searching for an obscure western actor who is mentioned in 'Blazing Saddles'. It was a bit disconcerting that 'Blazing Saddles' had been stripped down for presentation on the ABC Family Channel. Should this really be shown on a 'family' channel? Why ruin it for everyone?

Robot trees

2004-08-03T10:02:00.000-05:00

So, I'm reading this article on the New York Times web site about genetically engineered trees being created to do environmental cleanup, and I start thinking: 'Hey, we were supposed to have robots doing this kind of thing in the 21st century!'
Do you realize that the Sci-Fi future of wanton environmental damage is slowly slipping away? Instead of widespread pollution and acid rain a la 'Blade Runner' or 'The Fifth Element', we'll have Green Buildings that are designed to minimize energy and water consumption among other things. Soon, we'll combine Green Buildings with genetically engineered plants and trees to provide photosynthetic energy sources. We'll all be living and working in giant treehouses like the Ewoks or the Swiss Family Robinson. Hey, maybe that's not too bad. As long as we get to swing from tree to tree with big vines.

Feminism: the new counterterrorism?

2004-07-29T09:16:00.000-05:00

This New York Times opinion by Barbara Ehrenreich argues that a possible approach to dealing with terrorism would be to advance the cause of "human rights for women". What is even more interesting is the thought that the U.S. needs to address the problem at home:

If Kerry were to embrace a feminist strategy against the insurgency, he'd have to start by addressing our own dismal record on women's rights. He'd be pushing for the immediate ratification of the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, which has been ratified by 169 countries but remains stalled in the Senate. He'd be threatening to break off relations with Saudi Arabia until it acknowledges the humanity of women. And he'd be thundering about the shortage of women in the U.S. Senate and the House, an internationally embarrassing 14 percent. We should be aiming for at least 25 percent representation, the same target the Transitional Administrative Law of Iraq has set for the federal assembly there.

Hey, we should also toss in the Equal Rights Amendment for good measure. Talk about seizing the high ground.

The Florida Vote

2004-07-27T11:40:00.000-05:00

This New York Times opinion piece raises questions about the voting machines that are to be used for the upcoming election cycle. The details surrounding the Florida machines and the attempts to eliminate felons from the voting rolls should concern everyone. The potential for abusing these systems is simply too great. On a related subject, Chicago Tribune columnist Steve Chapman points out in this article that preventing former felons from voting does not make much sense. You will need to register for both of the sites to access the articles.

Hmmmm...

2004-07-26T15:38:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm new to blogging, but I want to give it a try.

"We've only just begun..."