Very Quick Williamsburg recap

Posted on December 19, 2013 by A Dreamer

Great time, super nice people and fantastic food.  Also, a shout out to Tim at Christiana Campbell’s Tavern!

More to come over the weekend, must unpack and get ready for Christmas.

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I survived the semester

Posted on December 13, 2013 by A Dreamer

Paper turned in Sunday night, project dropped off Monday.  For all I know I may have to take the damn research seminar over, but I don’t really care, because I am done.

I’ve spent the week reveling in not having any academic responsibilities.  To the point where I’ve continued to ignore other responsibilities, like laundry and Christmas shopping.

I’m even doing it right now.  Today is “get the Christmas tree up” day.  I am at IHOP gleefully dipping my bacon in pancake syrup and seriously enjoying the fact that I am not madly writing an essay or trying to find sources or trying to read a book as fast as I can while still maintaining some level of comprehension.  The laundry and shopping and cleaning and decorating will happen.

Just not in the next hour – I’m very busy doing nothing.

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If this semester doesn’t break me, nothing will.

Posted on December 3, 2013 by A Dreamer

Holy hell, this semester has kicked my ass. Only two classes, but dayum. One has been a real fun class, but it has a group project. Even when you are working with great people, group projects being their own special set of stressors. (Thankfully, I am working with a great group do people. If I had ended up with idiots, I’d likely be in a small room being given many, many medications.)

Then there is the research seminar. The biggest weird challenge I’ve had to deal with in grad school is that the syllabus rarely changes, it’s highly unusual for deadlines to change, and at the end of the semester, the requirements are the same as they were at the beginning of the semester. Basically, the complete opposite of every job I’ve ever had. I was finally getting used to this concept and then I took this class.

Let me say first – I really genuinely like the professor, even if he is contributing to my slowly losing my mind over the past 3 months. He’s obviously incredibly smart, wants the students to do well, and actually has a rather charming personality in a bit of a Columbo kind of way.

But good grief. Changing deadlines. Being pointed into new directions only to spin my wheels for multiple weeks in a row. More changing deadlines. Or brand new ones. With the semester being topped off with presenting abbreviated versions of our papers at his house. (He is providing dinner. I have it on good authority that there will be wine. Sadly, he apparently has no pets, so I can’t hide in a corner with the family cat.)

Then my discovery this week that neither of my classes is actually adhering to the exam schedule hasn’t exactly been a big positive. (It’s far less an issue with the group project than the research seminar, but I feel like I’m being cheated out of some time that could be very useful.)

The good news is that despite all the insanity this semester, I haven’t fallen into a sobbing heap of human jello.

But hey, there are still six days to go!

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I’ll be at home on Thanksgiving

Posted on November 22, 2013 by A Dreamer

I didn’t like it when stores started opening a Midnight for Black Friday. I like this trend of being open all day on Thanksgiving even less.

I’m old. I remember when nothing was open on Thanksgiving besides 7-11 and some restaurants. It was nice when grocery stores started having a shortened day so shoppers could dash out for that last minute missing ingredient. They didn’t even have a full day, just long enough to cover cooking emergencies. Honestly, that was more than enough convenience for me. And I’ll admit, the first year I was responsible for Thanksgivng, I did have to make the mad dash to the market for some critical-yet-forgotten component of the feast.

But actual Christmas shopping/deal hunting on Thanksgiving? Can’t say I ever sat around and wished I could go to Best Buy after the turkey. Or before. Or during. (A bar, maybe, but not Macy’s.) So, it’s not really groundbreaking that I won’t be doing any shopping this Thanksgiving, but there are other reasons.

1. I don’t need to. Seriously, there is absolutely no reason I desperately need to get a one day jump on Christmas shopping.

2. If I’m out shopping, then other people are working don’t get to spend the day with their families. And most of the folks I will encounter in retail situations aren’t making a ton of cash, and it’s not right to make anyone to choose between a really shitty day of pay and their family. (And let’s face it, if they choose family, they aren’t going to just lose a day of pay, they’re going to lose a job.)

3. This is one of the few holidays we have in the country that isn’t religious or particularly easily politicized – it’s really for everybody. Why the hell can’t we ALL enjoy it?

4. For fucks sake, can we have ONE DAY where we set aside Keeping Up With The Joneses as well as the chase for the almighty dollar? Just one day?

I’ll probably avoid Black Friday, cause it’s just too insane, and it’s a good bet that I’ll use Small Business Saturday as a terrific excuse to hit up my local bakery for some elephant ears. The rest of my shopping will be done here and there piecemeal between Black Friday and Christmas. But there is no reason for me to be ruining someone else’s Thanksgiving to get a deal on a PS4.

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Living wages

Posted on November 20, 2013 by A Dreamer

The living wage debate has reared its head again in the wake of revelations that Wal-Mart is having a food drive for their own employees, and McDonald’s is telling employees to sell their stuff and apply for food stamps.  Most of the time these discussions center around retail and food service industries, and I keep seeing people just shrugging their shoulders and having a, “Well, what are you going to do?” attitude about it.

I think we have a tendency to look at these jobs as inherently “temporary” – something you do while you’re hellbent on getting a “better” job and a “career”.  And since it is temporary, there is no need for it to pay well, and if you are in one of these “temporary” jobs for any length of time, there is obviously something wrong with you.  Also, if these “temporary” jobs paid a decent wage, people would just get lazy and complacent and lose all their ambition.  (Because apparently being able to buy groceries without food stamps will just destroy all your ambition.)  It’s almost as if we are telling people, “It’s your own fault you picked this poorly paying job.  Go find a better one.  Until then, this is your punishment.”

But what about the people that aren’t hellbent on a career?  Or don’t have the education to just “go get a better job”?  (Maybe they want to, but it takes time and money.)  Or people who actually like the work that they’re doing?  Why would it be so horrible for people who are in these industries – regardless of whether it is a stop on the way to something else, or something more permanent – to be able to make a wage that they could survive on without their employer telling them to sell their stuff or apply for food stamps?  It isn’t going to destroy their work ethic.

I also keep hearing that if we raise wages for the lowest earners, the inevitable result will be rampant inflation and we’ll all be worse off.  I’m not buying this one.  (I did 15 years as a cost and revenue accountant.)  First, if you raise wages, you’re not raising total costs of whatever it is that you do.  Labor is only part of the equation.  Yes, your costs will go up, and your prices will go up (or profit down) but not to the extent that it will negate everything for everyone.  Getting employees to a point where they’re not needing food stamps or other assistance to survive doesn’t just benefit those employees.  Payroll tax receipts increase.  Drawing on public assistance decreases.  Income tax receipts increase (maybe not by much, but add it to less use of food stamps, etc, it’s a net positive.)  Because the employees have money they can spend, local sales benefit, and sales tax receipts increase.

We can do better for employees in the US.  So, why aren’t we?

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Is it that weird?

Posted on November 14, 2013 by A Dreamer

So, the traffic lights at the intersection next to the pub are messed up. Messed up enough that if you look at the wrong light, you are blowing through a red light and going to t-bone somebody. Having nearly been creamed at this intersection when all the lights were actually working, I felt the need to tell this to someone in a position to fix it. Now, there wasn’t the usual random police officer cruising through the parking lot or doing paperwork that I could flag down and tell, so off to the Googles to find out how to report a potentially dangerously fucked up traffic light.

After being on hold for a very long time (not many folks working e VDOT phones in the middle of the night, I wasn’t surprised) I got through to a very pleasant gentleman who took the report and agreed that having 3 lights doing one thing and a fourth doing the complete opposite was a definitely a problem. He looked and saw that there had been another report as well, and he would see why someone hadn’t been out to tend to it yet. (I was just happy that it wasn’t my imagination.)

What struck me as odd was how appreciative that this gentleman was that I had called in the first place. He wasn’t gushing or anything, but it just didn’t sound like people made much of an effort when these things happen if it isn’t causing them some spectacular inconvienience. To me, it was the most natural thing in the world to make a phone call and be on hold for a while to tell them that “this is broken and could cause real problems.”

Am I wrong in my thinking that it should be a totally normal thing to call *someone* in a situation like this? ( I have also put in web requests for car-eating potholes on side roads as well.) I can’t be that off the wall on this,can I?

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Happy Sunday

Posted on November 3, 2013 by A Dreamer

Most years, I completely squander my extra hour when we go off DST by staying awake for an extra hour and then oversleeping to top it off.

Not this year!  Sure, I did take advantage of the extra hour at the pool hall last night, but I inexplicably woke up *early* this morning, got out the door for a leisurely breakfast, I’m almost finished with the Sunday morning shows and I am ready to go upstairs and get to work on class stuff.

It’s a gorgeous day out there (as long as you’re out of the wind), the Cub Scouts appear to be making their popcorn deliveries (really guys, get to my house!) and the Carmen cat is glued to the back door CatTV watching the leaves go skittering across the deck.

I’ll admit, I’m not excited that sunset is at 5:06 tonight, but right now, it’s a good day.

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Some days I am just done with it all.

Posted on November 2, 2013 by A Dreamer

And this week is seriously pushing me to go far, far away and just be a hermit.

— 5th circuit decides that corporations can apparently have religious consciences and that is more important than women’s health.  (Which I suppose women aren’t supposed to worry over, because religion has such a great track record of looking out for us.)

— 5th circuit also decides that Texas’ new abortion restrictions are just fine and dandy.

So, I am feeling like the 5th circuit isn’t really keen on women and I suspect there are a few on it that are still quite displeased with the whole 19th amendment to boot.

— Another fucking mass shooting – this time targeting TSA agents at LAX.  Now, I am not totally shocked that someone finally snapped at went after the TSA.  I just figured it would be along the lines of someone just taking a swing at an agent.  Sure, there are a few assholes in the ranks, but there are a few assholes in every industry.  The vast majority of TSA agents I have encountered have been pleasant and professional and trying to do their damn jobs while dealing with people who somehow think that they make policy.  (If you are about to say that the Nazi’s were just “doing their jobs” just stop now and walk away.)  So, no, I don’t think people should be assholes to the TSA agents, much less shooting them.

Do I think this will start another discussion on gun control?  Of course not.  I’ve actually just given up on that.  I have already heard calls for arming the TSA agents.  How about NO?

I have hit a point where I don’t think that we’re going to see any meaningful discussion on gun control in my lifetime.  Why?  Because from where I stand, the people that can actually enact change fall into three groups, and none of them are able or willing to get it done.  This is the breakdown I see:
— People who care, who want gun control, will talk about it and maybe even try to get some sort of gun control, but deep down they know it won’t happen because they are outnumbered by those in the next two groups below.
— People who might care, but really don’t, because they care more about money than people and if gun control costs them money, they aren’t going to do a damn thing about gun control.
— Then the small cadre of crackpots that is convinced the President is going to TAKE ALL THE GUNS! and then allow the United Nations to invade the US and take over.

So, yeah, hard to have a ton of faith in the system right now.

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When will it stop being “too soon”?

Posted on September 16, 2013 by A Dreamer

My alarm is set to turn on the radio, and so the first thing I heard this morning was that there was a mass shooting event at the Navy Yard.  By the time all was said and done, 13 people died.

Any calls or a renewed look at gun control, or actually looking at the underlying causes of gun violence will be swept aside because it is “too soon”.  People need to mourn.  Don’t make it political.

It was too soon after Aurora.  And Oak Creek.  And Minneapolis.  How long will it be “too soon” after the Navy Yard, and will we ever look at our society and really try to figure out why this happens and what we can do to prevent it?

While I was absolutely saddened by it, I cannot honestly say I was shocked or surprised.  If we don’t really address why these things happen and are happening at an increased rate, it’s just going to keep happening.

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So, I want to share this, cause I think it is cool.

Posted on September 14, 2013 by A Dreamer

I’m taking a historical editing class this semester and I love it so far.  Our professor is one of the editors at the Eleanor Roosevelt Papers project at George Washington University.  As such, we’re working with her papers as part of the class.  I always knew she was a badass, but this is neat to be learning more specific bits about her life and work.

One of the things she did was write a 6 day a week newspaper column, called “My Day” – she wrote it from 1936 to 1962.  We’re reading selections from it for class, and when I have the time, I am going to go back and read all of it.

The Papers project has transcribed them and you can read them here, and I think you should take some time and go do some reading.

It also makes me realize that no matter how busy I am, I can certainly sit my ass down and write a bit every day.

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