Air Conditioning!

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Signe Wilkinson Philadelphia Daily News Jul 6, 2010 EditorialCartoonists.com

Thankfully the weather seems to have shifted to fall here, for our air conditioning has been out for over a week. We need to gen-up some cash quick, before winter, for our unit is a heat pump and without a couple thousand dollars, we won't have heat, either! Yikes.

The cartoon reflects my desperation. I am already doing some dubious work for money, and I wonder sometimes just how far I would stoop for more cash. I have children to feed, a house to maintain, bills to pay...and no matter how well I do my job (or how poorly) the wage is still the same. *sigh* I am all for merit pay, personally.

My current status has made me more empathetic with those who might resort to illegal enterprises, whether they be white collar crimes or tending gardens of verboten herbs. I understand laws, how they are more-or-less standards we tend to agree upon for a civil society. I know also that laws are impossible to really wholly enforce unless people comply. Though this air conditioning inconvenience is minor, I am starting to better grasp the dimension of disregard for law that prevails when well-being/family is threatened in any way. It is becoming increasingly difficult to comply with the body of law when hardship comes knocking. That's a fancy way of saying, when people are pushed and repressed, they rebel.

I just watched a documentary that forewarns that the greatest threat to civilization as we know it is exactly that: the repressed "developing" nations are likely to reach a critical mass and...well...explode.

From CommonDreams:
Published on Friday, December 7, 2001 in the Toronto Globe & Mail
"Our Best Point the Way: On the 100th anniversary of the Nobel prize, 100 Nobel laureates warn that our security hangs on environmental and social reform:

The most profound danger to world peace in the coming years will stem not from the irrational acts of states or individuals but from the legitimate demands of the world's dispossessed.

Holiday Road

This image of a giant banjo is from the Grand Country Mall, Branson, MO, courtesy of Roadside America.

Next weekend we're going to Branson as a family. That's Branson, MO, for those some ways away w/no regional context. I dunno, maybe everyone knows about the place, where Dolly Parton and lots of other mega-country legends (and also Andy Williams, Baldknobbers, other strange acts) end up selling out nightly shows. It's like hillbilly Vegas. We're going to take the kids to Silver Dollar City, which is, yes, a theme park, but it (at least did) features a reenactment camp of early America (candle making and the like). I am looking forward to it.

I just returned from a zip trip to Tulsa, OK, and back.
In July, I went to NYC for several days.

I'm sharing all that just for context. What I want to mention is how our country was once an awesome, quirky collection of Americans, but it's becoming one large corporate franchise sellout. We had to hunt with some diligence to avoid Applebees and the like in Tulsa. I'm positive my family won't care to find local dives on the MO trip. *sad*

For me, it's the quirky America that still has charm. I like places with individuality. I want to be surprised by what's on the menu and by how it may taste once I get my order. I like to marvel at strange statues and natural wonders. For me, in a website, it's Roadside America. If you are not a frequenter of said site, go away--click over there now and check it out!

BEST Holiday EVER

Banner from the boys at the International (truly, multi-cultural, several languages represented) Talk Like a Pirate Day Website.

Today is "Talk like a Pirate Day" and I'm going for the whole day. Some years I've only been in character through my 3 hr lecture or a dinner w/family. This year, I'm going for it.

I would be remiss if I did not mention that today I am celebrating by working the bulk of the day on my family's pirate ship. Wish you were here? C'mon.

Resources you need for today:
Pirate Dictionary

Video Primer--thar be others, but this remains the best!

Substitutes

Substitutes are for teachers, right? I have recently had need of substitutes for my classes. One day it was a medical necessity. Two others are conference-related. Two more are a family vacation. I've not employed so many substitutes ever before, and it's a bit awkward. I'm very grateful they'll be at my lectern, and I'm sure they will hold down the fort well. It is a lot of work, prepping for them, however, and it is also a little uncomfortable leaving my flock with an interim shepherd. It will be interesting to see how this has all shaken down in about 3 weeks.

Meanwhile, I've written about avatars and clones before on this blog--I know I have. There was once this goofy movie, Multiplicity, featuring clones generated to take the stresses off of Michael Keaton's character. That would be great, if things didn't get out of control. The same idea was covered in an episode of the Simpsons, something to do with a magic hammock that spit out copies of Homer.

I am revisiting this idea of substitutes as they might fill in for me in other, non-academic environments. I would most like someone to be my driver, so I could just lounge or read or nap while my sub filled in for me behind the wheel. I don't know that people know this about me, but I don't like eating (really) and so I wish I had a sub who could do the dirty work (all that cutting, chewing, swallowing, and worse yet, listening around the table to others masticating and burping, smacking, or eating with their mouths full). Just writing about the event of eating repulses me. But if I had a sub, he could fill in, so long as I gained the nutrient value. Heck, I'd even share the nutrient value, 50/50.

I would want a sub to fill in for those marathon grading sessions, for the frantic lesson planning, for even the many, many meetings that could otherwise be simply notes and email transactions. A sub could stand in line for me. A sub could do my chores, like mowing, laundry, etc.

Oddly, there are some seemingly unpleasant things I would still want to do, myself. I'd want to do the lectures. I would want to read my own books, as tedious as some people consider that act. I would even want to change diapers, myself, for there's some odd bonding that goes on there with one's offspring over a fragrant diaper.

Of course, I would like to think that in many environments, there simply is no substitute for ME...but I will leave that up to others to decide.

Always look on the bright side...

As hard as it is to do, this is good advice....



From Monty Python's "Life of Brian"

This blows!

Parents do the strangest things to their children. Watch any episode of AFV on ABC to confirm this.

There I was in Exploration Place, lugging around my daughter, when I saw an exhibit that used forced air [ten times as powerful as a blow drier] to demonstrate the Bernoulli principle (usually a beach ball is spinning in mid-air over this). It seemed like a good idea to put my darling daughter over the fan.

My wife was worried. My boys thought I was nuts....but young Ella thought it was about as cool as I did.

If nothing else, it made for a funny photo.

Introducing...web camming!

I am very excited (and grateful) that I now have a web cam! I do not know that I will post video footage here, but I do intend to use it in my courses. I also hope to use it for video-phone calls (Skype, VOIP...) but I do not yet know how much I'll use it for such things. I know I will employ it in desktop lectures, screen capture how-to's and the like.

I feel like a guy with one of those old telephones, the big boxy kind in which the ear piece was on a cord and the mouthpiece was a horn affair that jutted from the box; had to wind it up to ring and use it on a party line after all that... In the same way, I think all this compatibility crisis we have between software and hardware (and wetware for that matter) will be a thing of the past. Some fine day we'll be able to comfortably, afford-ably, flexibly have live-time video conferencing on hand held units. (You can see it in commercials--or in really old Dick Tracy comics--but it's still the stuff of dreams here in my office and lifestyle and most importantly, my budget.

Meanwhile, I'll cobble together whatever tools I can to communicate as well as I can and hope for the best, overall. As technology catches up to fancy, I'll be there in the stream.

Traditions

Big breakfast Sunday morning--we have a few traditions, but not one that rivals my love of FOOD, celebrated weekly with excess pounds of bacon, eggs, toast, sometimes waffles, pancakes, etc...we have this only once a week, while my grandfather ate such a feast every day of the week!

I love to eat, as is evident if you meet me.

Another eating tradition we have is to eat donuts most Saturday mornings. Mmmmm...donuts. We go to Newton, KS to the Daylight Donuts shop and bring home about $20 worth (but remember, there are nine of us, and we do have leftovers to snack on).

We also grill frequently. When we have guests, it's often on the fire pit, most often grilling lots of hot dogs and marshmallows using a wire rake. Good times.

Hmmm. Other eating traditions? We carve pumpkins in October. Every year I attempt to broil the seeds....fail. Maybe this year?

I'll add to this post or stream of thought.

"What if" entry

I spoke about this w/classes this week as an option for journaling, suggesting they write entries that speculated what life coulda/shoulda been like, had they only, or should they only...

If I'd decided to stay in Ark City after my dad died...

• I would have always wondered if I could have returned home and lived in Ulysses (since learned that you can never really go back).
• I would have never had this job at BCC, and thus, might not even have so many kids or so much fun at work as I do now--to say nothing of the fantastic people I've met, both staff and students.
• I would surely not be living in the country, for I was trapped in town, over my head in a mortgage, etc.
• I would have been too complacent and too content, yet also too wrapped up in the volunteer/service program that was taking 60 hrs a week or more out of my life's blood.
• I would not now have my in-laws living with me, and thus would have missed out on the family and closeness and intergenerational charm that a blended home can sometimes offer.
• I would have missed out on much of the technological advances I am afforded access to at this job, from an iPod to a Flip camera to (now) a webcam.
• I would not be working with such great folk as I do, including the very great staff of the online program (unparalleled, anywhere) and the English dept crew here (such good people!).

That's just scratching the surface! This is just one fork in my road and where it's been leading. I find this practice to be just as rewarding when looking ahead to what choices I may have in the future and to speculate on what will happen when I take one course over another.

Tons o' fun.