Category Archives: Military and War

What have I been up to?

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What a question. I feel like I need a recap of some of it myself sometimes.

I hope to have some semi-substantial blog posts and/or Flickr sets for some of these but I’d like to get them mentioned before they all become old news.

[some kind of division]

Been watching a fair few movies, started running (4x 5x 6x now), and have been taking and uploading lots of photos.

“Article” project

This is an ongoing project that I got a recent jump on due to my school hiatus, if it is possible to say that [hiatus, that is].

Flickr set. Main pic.

This is one of the things I’ve been considering blogging. But it mostly seems like a waste of time; for any system to work for someone it must meet their individual—current and future—modes of working. Any idiot can say: enter them into a citation manager (that meets your needs), put them into some sort of order (which also meets your needs), and stick them in something (that works for you).

Besides, who else has so many printed and photocopied things?

Much of what I might say is already in the Flickr set via notes and comments; especially on the “main pic.” By the way, I could very simply publish assorted bibliographies of all this, to include good discovery metadata (COinS).

Reading some David Bade things

UIUC Progressive Librarians Guild is hosting a lunch time (11:30-1 PM) discussion with David Bade on Monday, 21 April 2008.

Technology Waits For No One: Thinking About Technology, Progress and Responsibility in Academic Librarianship

I’ve been getting something on e-reserve (Harris’ Epilogue) and making another short Word doc available.

David’s been sharing a few other things with me, too. :)

Job Search

Nothing going on here. Have nothing out at the moment.

The End of the Semester

We have 3 weeks left in the semester and then finals week. After Subject Access/Analysis seminar Tuesday, one of my fellow classmates asked me how I was dealing with the end of the semester. I had to tell her, not so bad, but then it isn’t the end for me.

She knows I’m only sitting in on Subject Access/Analysis and that I was sitting in on Allen’s Ontologies, but she rightly assumed I should be taking something. Anyway, I kind of felt a little bad cause I knew she was just looking for a little commiseration and reassurance that we’ll both get through. And in a sense, I took that from her. So. Bad.

But about 20 minutes later when I realized that this was the first semester in 10 years in which I wasn’t facing her exact situation, I decided that I will not feel bad about not being in that space right now when I “fail” more of my friends.

But I am prepared now. I can most certainly empathize, sympathize, feel you, and so on to an extraordinary level. I will not lord my situation over any one [cause I'd like to have been finishing, too]. But I will not feel bad when any of my friends put us in the same same situation as Tuesday afternoon.

I am taking a Deferral on my paper; hope to write it in the Fall.

Since I won’t be walking the stage and I’ll be going to the GSLIS Commencement any way [lots of friends' big day] I volunteered to help. Looks like I’ll be the “candid photographer.” Will have to have lots of little short conversations but I’ll be “forced” to move around and see folks at Commencement and at the reception. :)

[Volunteering. It's an addiction.] [Also got 2 other students to volunteer. Surely that counts towards being an Enabler of Vices.]

[the other part of the union of topics]

ASIS&T panel

Mentioned this a bit back. Been trying to work out what we are actually doing based on reviewers’ feedback.

Fifth Annual GSLIS Storytelling Festival, Saturday, 18 April

[Audio] [My Flickr set] [Missouri Botanical Gardens in St. Louis in April 2006. It was Spring and there were 100,000s of flowers and trees in bloom and I took a couple hundred photos. But never since.

Well. I had bought a larger capacity memory card than came standard when I got my first camera, and it subsequently moved into 2 more cameras. 256MB.

I keep forgetting that at some point recently I managed to accidentally put the new camera in highest-quality mode. Yeah. I got 74 pictures. It filled up right before Rachel Shulman and thus I missed almost the whole back half of the program. I really feel bad about that.

So I remedied that a couple days ago. For probably less than I paid for the 256MB card initially, I bought a 4GB card. And if I somehow fill that one up before exhausting all the batteries I can carry then I have a “small” backup card. Sweet!

The Festival was awesome! And the art this year was superb. It was done this year, and I think the year before last, by Tiffany Carter. [I had to ask. And I suggested that whoever the artist is each year ought to have their name in the program; it may have been once before.] [Left-side] [Right-side]

Afterwards, a few of us went to a friend’s house and had a drink, conversation, and cat-watching and NSFW [you get my water bottle there].

Opportunity sent my way

A person of quality recently sent me a nice opportunity; thank you. Still to hear from the other party, though.

Incomplete

Found out Monday that my petition to withdraw from my independent study was denied. So that means I will either be keeping that F and my A- GPA. Or I do something about it for my own pride.

This was not good news but I was kind of expecting it. Have not decided what I am doing yet. Considering possibilities; talking to some folks. Lots of things going on around here that could use some terminologies services thinking.

Scheming and pondering at the same time.

Crane Alley Guinness Mondays

A little birdie whispered in my ear that the Alley would soon be doing away with the Monday $2 Guinness / Harp special. I have feared this one coming for a while now, too. Seems they want to run some other specials. Fair enough, I guess, but it will affect my lifestyle. And they’ll get a lot less of my money.

Sara is going to library school

My daughter called me on my birthday (back in Feb.) to tell me “Happy Birthday and, oh, by the way, I’m applying to library school.” I hadn’t even known it was on the table. I was hoping that Sara might wander on to grad school some day but I wasn’t going to harass her. We’d talk about it when she wanted to let me know what she was thinking. She worked very hard her whole life in school, but especially throughout high school, because she knew if she wanted an opportunity for a good education she was responsible for it, in many ways. Four more years of school at Oberlin took its toll.

I do not prod my kids for much in the way of information. I know another parent who does that and it drives the kids crazy. I’d rather have what they want me, or think I need, to know than a bit more grudgingly dragged from them.

Monday evening, Sara called to tell me she got accepted. Yippee! She’s currently an indexer & abstracter at Chemical Abstracts where she intends to remain full-time with a flexible schedule. Her education is in chemistry and she has a year of nanotech research under her belt prior to about 8 months at Chem Abs so far.

Other than probably academic, I have no idea what area of librarianship she intends to focus on. And I’m happy with that. I’m twice her age and I changed my mind after getting here so she ought to have that opportunity. I have, of course, put her in touch with Christina because if Sara is thinking sci/tech librarianship then this is my friend best suited to introduce her to that world.

Also trying to talk her into coming to ASIS&T this year since it’s in her city.

[Yes. I purposely left out where she's attending. It is not here, which is perfectly fine.]

Sandy Berman and panel

Wednesday evening, Sandy Berman and 3 others, along with a moderator, joined in a panel discussion on the question of, “What is a progressive librarian?” [Flickr set]

  • Carolyn Anthony, Director, Skokie Public Library
  • Sandy Berman
  • Allison Sutton, Social Science Librarian, UIUC
  • Anke Voss, Archivist, Champaign County, IL
  • Moderator : Abdul Alkalimat, Professor, GSLIS

I had volunteered to meet Sandy at the Illini Union and walk him over to GSLIS at 5:15. I went to the Quad side of the Union, visited the ATM, tried to call my son back, and took some photos to kill a few minutes before meeting Sandy out front.

Seeing as I knew I only had a few minutes alone with Sandy I took a peek at his site and checked out his biography [probably have a copy somewhere, but this was easier]. I noticed he had spent a few years in Germany in the 60s so I took that as my angle. Upon meeting him he immediately asked me what my story was. Knowing I had about 7 minute tops I gave a 2-minute or so answer [stop snickering, you!], to which he politely asked a couple further questions. So somewhere a bit past halfway to GSLIS as soon as I had given my latest reply to Sandy I spit out something along the lines of, “Iknewwe’donlyhaveafewminutestogether / soIscannedyourbioforsomethingofinterest /andIwanttoaskyouaboutyourtimeinGermany.” To which we immediately had a short but spirited conversation with many points in common. We have shared several locations in space (Germany) together, just about 15 years apart.

Sandy was quite easy to talk to and before you knew it we were at GSLIS. I handed him off to Abdul Alkalimat, our moderator. Turns out they had met when Sandy was in Uganda in 1971-72.

I got a few photos of the pot luck that aren’t necessarily good photos but they capture the feel. Most of the photos are of the panel discussion, which was quite good.

Afterwards, Abdul, Kate Williams (GSLIS faculty), Sandy, I and a few other students went to Murphy’s for a beer. Nice time, to say the least, except for the table of very loud undergrad boys next to us. I walked Sandy back to the Union from Murphy’s. The weather was excellent for an evening stroll and I got a few more minutes with Sandy.

Jer at Fort Hood

Ten minutes after walking Sandy back to the Union, getting a hug and saying goodbye, I finally got hold of my son. He had just signed into Fort Hood and ended up in the new (2nd) battalion in the Division’s Aviation Regiment.

They are packing their bags this Monday and they head back to Iraq in July. He hasn’t even been issued his gear and he’s supposed to sealing it up to be shipped off on Monday. He had just signed a lease a couple days before. Volunteering can get you in some seriously jacked up ….

I had a rough day or so after hearing this, but I’m putting it off to the side for now. July is not April.

I’m thinking I might head down there for a couple/several days in late May or June; whatever works best for him.

Update [Sat. eve]: They now leave the 2nd week of June. I will probably be heading down there.

Update [Sun. morning]: Narrower leave period than he originally thought; will be probably heading down there sometime between 22 May – 1 June once he knows how much leave he’ll have. He just got off a month’s so he may not have much left.

It’s times like this that make me smile that we even use the same words [serve/service] to describe what librarians do for their patrons/customers and what service members do for their nation.

I guess the main difference is in the kind and amount of sacrifices made.

Overall

Some unexpected positives; some not unexpected negatives (and positives). A massive [expected] negative. It’s my life.

What Martin Luther King Jr. Day now means to me

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Truthfully, I will not be addressing that directly as such. Much more oblique will be my comments.

But first some initial resources:

Five years ago today—well, it was 20 January in 2003—I was sitting at home listening to the MLK Jr. specials on the radio (NPR) when at 4:02 PM CT I heard that 12,000 soldiers from Fort Hood (4ID) were being mobilized.

4th Infantry Division (4ID) is the division I retired from and the one my son was serving in at the time. Not that this was publicly known yet, but they were to be the hammer out of the north from Turkey in the initial invasion of Iraq.

Later that evening after a couple pints of beer and attempted reading I went by the ex’s for a hug and some talk. Jeremy called while I was there. Said aircraft had to be on ships down south by the end of the week & they’ll be 2 weeks behind. When I got home from Mary’s I called my mom and then my sister.

So, here I am, almost 44 years old & my baby’s ordered to war. Where did I go wrong? [my journal, 9 PM 20 Jan 2003]

The complete irony of the formal announcement of these deployments on Martin Luther King Jr. Day did not escape me. Nor will it ever.

My son’s deployment was quite hard on me. The reasons are quite complex and I will never fully understand them myself and certainly never be able to explicate them to others.

My son and his family have been lucky so far and he has had a job for the last couple years such that—unlike many who have been back several times in the last almost 5 years of war—he has not. That shall change soon, though. He is on his way back to Fort Hood and the 4th ID.

So here I sit again contemplating my son’s (possible) deployment.

That, and so much more, is what Martin Luther King Jr. Day will forever mean to me.

… consistently we are resistant to love …

Four Bitchin’ Babes. “Beautiful Fool.” Beyond Bitchin’

Song I used to “commemorate” MLK Jr. Day 2003, the mobilization of 4ID and the march to war on my 2003 compilation CD.

My Spring Break has begun, with a whimper

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Despite working, and schoolwork which needs done, my Spring Break actually began yesterday with my last class of the week.

After class, I attended Metadata Roundtable as I’m wont to do on Wednesdays. Yesterday’s topic was on the Dublin Core Eprints Application Profile. I wasn’t sure I was going at first, but I’m glad I did as it was one of the most interesting (for me) MDRTs so far, and I was able to participate more than normal. They have adopted FRBR or, more realistically, a FRBR-like model. But it also differs from FRBR in several ways, which makes it quite intriguing, particularly since it is dealing with electronic “items.” While FRBR is supposedly format agnostic, I have my doubts about how that actually translates in practice, especially with electronic stuff.

Once I got home I took a nap. Early in the evening I was trying to decide whether to go to the Blind Pig and have a beer or two in celebration of Spring Break while working on my Ontologies paper, which is due during break, or to go to a movie. I eventually decided to go see the movie, 300. It was OK; typical action movie. I don’t think it reflects so badly on the “Iranians,” as “they” are trying to claim, but it certainly over-glorifies the Spartans. While the battle depicted in the movie is certainly one for the history books into perpetuity, the Spartans were a savage group of human beings. Their way of life is not one that should be in any way glorified; especially in this day and age. Anyway, glad I skipped the beers.

Yesterday, I seemed to be fighting a headache all day again and this morning when I woke up I still had it. Ate breakfast and had some of my coffee. Time kept passing as I was supposed to be eating 2nd breakfast and finishing the coffee, then it was time to be in the shower. But these things weren’t happening. I couldn’t find the energy, or motivation. I emailed work and said I might come in later, but I was sick today. I put myself back in bed (after 2 cups of coffee) at 7:33 and got back up at 11:54. And, yes, I still have a headache and not much energy.

So, yay! Spring Break. I guess it only makes sense. Those goddamn ants had me pretty stressed. I (sort of) get some time off from school. Thus, once I get a bit of a break my body is going to let the stressors have their day, even if they have technically gone away.

As for Break, I don’t really have much of one. My trip to OCLC never worked out, which is disappointing, but probably for the best as it would only increase my stress levels, in both good and not-so-good ways, of course, but increases nonetheless.

I have a lot of class work to get busy on. I have an Ontologies paper due on the 20th, I need to write my book review and decide on—and begin—a final project for Representation & Organization, and I need to put some serious work into my independent study on terminology services.

Of course, I have 2 jobs to work, and now another 5 hours to make up at one from missing today. Oh, and my 3rd part-time, temporary job needs some serious efforts over Break.

I really shouldn’t even bring up the more personal things like working on my personal website, going to the dentist (nest Tues.), etc. as those only add to the load.

The March weather has returned and I had to close the window. But we had two days of 70 degree weather and I got to wear shorts two days in a row. The flowers are starting to come up, and while they are other people’s flowers I can enjoy them nonetheless.

if i had any sense, i guess i’d fear this

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i guess i’d keep it down
so no one would hear this
i guess i’d shut my mouth
and rethink a minute
but i can’t shut it now
‘cuz there’s something in it

Ani DiFranco. “Shameless.” Dilate.

This is a somewhat blind post, if I understand that concept correctly, although it is rather transparent to some.

Depending on how quickly you attend to your aggregator, and on your click through habits, some of you may have noticed that I removed a post.

One person had commented on it fairly quickly and seeing as they are my friend, I took their comments in the best light I could. Nonetheless, although I disagreed with whether it was unprofessional or not, I did agree that they were correct as to how many others would perceive it. This caused me so much inner turmoil that I literally became sick. I struggled with what to do for the next 30 hours or so, wondering if and what other kind of feedback I might get, where it might get linked from, etc. In the meantime I worked on a reply to my friend. After two nights of not sleeping well and having my stomach and worse torn up, I got up Tuesday AM, made a copy of the post and the reply, and removed them. Of course, I was quite aware that those actions would only make me sicker, and despise myself. I then wrote much of this post [except for this paragraph] and decided I might want to wait and review it before posting. I also decided to see if anyone even noticed before posting. This morning I woke up to find a comment from another friend—in another venue—that said they had wanted to comment on it because it was “a great critique.” At that point—now being actually sick due to a stress-reduced immune system—I just started crying. [Thank you, btw, for the compliment.] I have discussed the behavior of those I was critiquing with several professionals—none of whom has seen my critique—and they all agree that the argumentation in that article is not the slightest bit professional. I have provided a copy of my critique to one of them and they may provide me some feedback; I certainly hope so. This person understands me, I think, and knows that I am only trying to grow. They also understand the dangers of “public” growth. [Now back to my original comments....]

I would appreciate it if you would just let it go. I am not ashamed of it. In fact, I was kind of proud of it. I worked on it on and off for 8 days. Sure, it could have been better in many ways. Almost any piece of writing could be improved. And, yes, I did mean my subtitle. I thought it fit very nicely with theirs.

Nonetheless, I’d appreciate it if you’d just let it go. I guess if you have a copy—in your feed reader or wherever—you are free to do what you want with it under my CC license, as long as you attribute me. But I am asking that you just let it disappear into the great bit bucket in the sky. [I might be up for some back channel discussion at this point. Maybe.]

I’m tired, and I’m sad. I believe the things I said and some days I wish I could really say what I want. But this profession, for all of its vaunted beliefs in freedom of speech, freedom to read and other espoused principles, in no way supports that. They are most certainly not accepted for its own members. And most people in the profession, if they even truly believe in them, would never sacrifice a moment of discomfort to uphold them for someone else, much less themselves. Sure, we have a few heroes each year who do the right thing, but most librarians—and here I mean the “professionals”—wouldn’t think twice before violating almost every one of those principles if it meant keeping themselves out of jail or perhaps keeping their job. Sheep.

Some days I don’t really care. I know what my family and I have sacrificed—and continue to sacrifice, over the last almost 30 years now, and on a daily basis—so that other people can (purportedly) have these rights in our nation.

“Professionalism.” Often, use of that term is simply Orwellian so that it can be used to rein in others.

As long as it is “professional” to label a completely unnamed group as “fervent believers” with all the “elements of a religious argument” with a “plethora of unexamined assumptions” but it is unprofessional to actually name your opponents and point out their unexamined assumptions … well, simply count me out.

I have personally seen what those sorts of arguments lead to! After giving up the best years of my life (and much of my family’s) I had to find a way to cope with the fact that my son was being sent to war for just those sorts of reasons. And I have to continue to cope with that. Every. Day.

I have so much more to say, but I’ve already said too much. I’ll leave you to ponder this:

“Professionalism”, at the moment in my mind, is no better than “United We Stand.”

Can someone please tell me where I can find the magnetic ribbon for my car?

some people wear their smile
like a disguise
those people who smile a lot
watch the eyes

Ani DiFranco. “Outta Me, Onto You.” Dilate.

Congratulations to SFC Jeremy Lindner

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As of today, this young man is now SFC Lindner.

Parading in Fayetteville, NC

Jeremy has attained the same rank as his old man, and in about 2/3rds of the time. He got off to a somewhat rocky start in the Army, but managed to work his way back to become a true professional.

Although I try every day to find a way to cope with my country having sent my son to war, I could be no prouder of him than I am.

When he first told me that he was going to reenlist I thought my heart was going to burst. But I also knew it was what he wanted, that he was happy doing what he does, that he does it well, and that he takes pride in that fact. A father has no choice but to support his son in those circumstances. [And if you happen to think it's not possible to support your children's choices yet still be proud, then you live a blissfully simple life.]

Here’s a more recent picture from Christmas morning 2006:

Jeremy on Christmas morning 2006

SFC Lindner, I salute you!

Veblen’s Conspicuous Consumption: an excerpt review

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Unproductive consumption of goods is honourable.

I recently finished this little, but powerful, book [OWC]. Actually, I believe it is an excerpt from a much larger work, The Theory of the Leisure Class, edited and introduced by Robert Lekachman (Penguin Classics, 1994) [OWC].

I bought this book in the Penguin Books . Great Ideas series. This is a series of excerpts, extracts, abridgements, etc. And while I generally loathe such things, this may be a good idea in this case; some of them for some people anyway. Would I have really ever read 400 pages of The Theory of the Leisure Class? Probably not.

Some of the works in this series include Sun-tzu’s The Art of War, Plato’s Symposium, Rousseau’s The Social Contract, Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Women, Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling, Marx & Engels’ The Communist Manifesto, among others.

While I would only read several of these titles in their entirety, some might be more useful to me in a shorter version. I imagine the same applies to others, just differently. For instance, although I see no need to read a short version of the Symposium, I would recommend the full-length version to very few people.

All in all, this edition seemed like a good one. The book is small–18×11 cm.–and costs only $8.95 retail. Type is a reasonable size, although not large, and there is a decent use of margins. The publisher provided information about which edition this “extract” came from, and the birth and death years of Veblen. What they did not tell me, and I consider this to be the major flaw of this manifestation, was when the first edition of this book (or its whole, actually) was published. That information seems just a bit useful to place the work in context!

There were a few points where I was trying to decide if something being described was during the interwar years or earlier. It turns out the book was originally published in 1899; almost 20 years before the interwar years. There have been many editions and manifestations of this book. It is possible that it had been edited over all those years and that the things I was questioning had been added later. I’ll just have to do a bit more research into the actual editions of this book if I want to know.

The contents include: The Leisure Class; Conspicuous Leisure: Status and Servants; Conspicuous Consumption: Women, Luxury Goods and Connoisseurship; Canons of Taste: Greenery and Pets; Admission to the Leisure Class; Survivals of Primitive Male Prowess: Fighting and Sports; and Conspicuous Uselessness of Education.

Now I’d like to highlight some passages I found particularly “important” to me:

The ground on which a discrimination between facts is habitually made changes as the interest from which the facts are habitually viewed changes. Those features of the facts at hand are salient and substantial upon which the dominant interest of the time throws its light. Any given ground of distinction will seem insubstantial to any one who habitually apprehends the facts in question from a different point of view and values them for a different purpose (8).

This should be common sense, especially in library work, but is it? How many people in our society, or even our profession, really honestly believe— and more importantly, live by— this idea?

The early development of tools and weapons is of course the same fact seen from two different points of view (19-20).

See also: “Every tool is a weapon if you hold it right.” Ani DiFranco. my iq. Puddle Dive.

[The] term ‘leisure,’ as used here, does not connote indolence or quiescence. What it connotes is non-productive consumption of time. Time is consumed non-productively (1) from a sense of the unworthiness of productive work, and (2) as an evidence of pecuniary ability to afford a life of idleness (21).

A knowledge of good form is prima facie evidence that a portion of the well-bred person’s life which is not spent under the observation of the spectator has been worthily spent in acquiring accomplishments that are of no lucrative effect (26).

Unproductive consumption of goods is honourable, primarily as a mark of prowess and a perquisite of of human dignity; secondarily it becomes honourable in itself, especially the consumption of the more desirable things (43).

But a base service performed for a person of very high degree may become a very honorific office; … (53).

No class of society, not even the most abjectly poor, forgoes all customary conspicuous consumption (58).

The enthusiasm for war, and the predatory temper of which it is the index, prevail in the largest measure among the upper classes, especially among the hereditary leisure class (77).

Now ain’t this just the damn truth? And what are we to finally do about it?

It is only the high-bred gentleman and the rowdy that normally resort to blows as the universal solvent of differences of opinion (79).

Sports shade off from the basis of hostile combat, through skill, to cunning and chicanery, without it being possible to draw a line at any point. The ground of an addiction to sports is an archaic spiritual constitution – the possession of the predatory emulative propensity in a relatively high potency. A strong proclivity to adventuresome exploit and to the infliction of damage is especially pronounced in those employments which are in colloquial usage specifically called sportsmanship (85-6).

The addiction to sports, therefore, in a peculiar degree marks an arrested development of the man’s moral nature (86).

The slang of athletics, by the way, is in great part made up of extremely sanguinary locutions borrowed from the terminology of warfare. Except where it is adopted as a necessary means of secret communication, the use of a special slang in any employment is probably to be accepted as evidence that the occupation in question is substantially make-believe (87).

Hmmm. What does this second sentence say about librarianship?

The chapter entitled “Conspicuous Uselessness of Education” is particularly damning of the humanities. While I tend to agree with Veblen’s analysis, I do think that there are some countervailing issues that bring their value (of which Veblen admits) more to the fore. There have also been further changes in higher education (or education, period), along with the demographics of students, professors, and so on, which impact his analysis. All in all, though, a very interesting chapter; especially since it was written so early in the history of public higher education.

The presumption that there can ordinarily be no sound scholarship where a knowledge of the classics and humanities is wanting leads to a conspicuous waste of time on the part of the general body of students in acquiring such knowledge. The conventional insistence on a modicum of conspicuous waste as an incident of all reputable scholarship has affected our canons of taste and serviceability in matters of scholarship in much the same way as the same principle has influenced our judgment of the serviceability of manufactured goods (99).

A breach of the proprieties in spelling is extremely annoying and will discredit any writer in the eyes of all persons who are possessed of a developed sense of the true and beautiful. English orthography satisfies all the requirements of the canons of reputability under the law of conspicuous waste. It is archaic, cumbrous, and ineffective; its acquisition consumes much time and effort; failure to acquire it is easy of detection. Therefore it is the first and readiest test of reputability in learning, and conformity to its ritual is indispensable to a blameless scholastic life (102).

I may just have to read Veblen’s whole work one of these days. I’m also interested in seeing some critiques from over the past 100+ years of its issuance. It is very insightful, although I imagine some of the ideas could be couched differently, also more scholarship in areas which Veblen uses for support has been done. If things have changed in these areas, it might affect his arguments.

Anyway, highly recommended short read. As for the series, you might consider it for your library if you have patrons that need an “easier” or, at least, shorter introduction to assorted “classics” of Western lit.

And as “good Americans,” as I have no doubt most of my readers are, remember, “Conspicuous consumption of goods is honourable.” Even our president urged us to consume in the wake of 9/11; so it must be honorable.

Hey, Iris, Veblen is a Carleton geek, er, I mean grad. ;)

Schlock! vs. The Atom and Eve

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This evening I finished watching a movie I started last night, Schlock! The Secret History of American Movies (2001). Pretty interesting history of exploitation films and larger changes in American society. But on the DVD I rented—in the extras—is something even better:

The Atom and Eve.

By the Connecticut Yankee Atomic Power Company, 1966.

Oh. My. Freakin’. God.

It’s a bit over 9 minutes long and is referred to in the notes as “simultaneously hilarious and horrifying, “The Atom and Eve” epitomizes the lethal and consumerist “straight” culture the exploiteers rebelled against.”

Holy crap. No kidding, Batman.

[Oops. Meant to say some more.] If you are (were) from New England, you would be more likely to have seen this consumerist sales pitch for nuclear power [back in the day, anyway]. It was the promo for Connecticut Yankee’s (a consortium of 11 power companies in all New England states) 1st reactor to be built at Haddam Neck, CT. Despite the calming allure of blue-clad Eve dancing around all the consumer goods, all the suits towards the end repetitively telling me they had checks and double-checks and that it was “all good” had me worrying again. But, damn, that floating coffee pot in that fully furnished modern kitchen was an awesome appliance. And God forbid, and Jimmy Carter forgive me, but Eve was looking pretty darn hot sliding up in that refrigerator. Ackk! Gah! Pure unadulterated evilness, it was. Decades of the best psychology could dream up and prove effective simply to market a way of life. A highly suspect way of life. And speaking of the nuclear…

I loved how this film [Schlock!] treats Duck and Cover as an exploitation film. The government has been hard at work at scaring the citizenry for a long time. At least all of my life.

The exploitation of fear is a very powerful tool.

Words. They’re OK.

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I had my thesaurus meeting and it went pretty well.

Luckily, the boss has done this herself and believes thesaurus work to be intellectually difficult work. So, basically, it’ll grow on me. And we all have the same basic priorities. Check.

As many of you can tell, I’m not exactly satisfied [although I stand by my claim that it went pretty well]. I have some other ideas/options and I’ll start rolling them out very soon.

For instance—duly noted, earlier today I was told that it should be time for me to call in my coffee date. The messenger had to duly note it from the source, and I duly noted it from the messenger. [One thing I do know after starting my military career on a nuclear missile site is how to duly note the important messages!]

I’ll just have to do some extracurricular work and bill for it. I’m already slotted for 5 hrs/wk right now and am only working 3 (for just one more week, then I’ll work more). This is a budget line in a grant and she wants me to work as many of the hours budgeted as I can.

There are possibilities here. I sure hope I can learn to visualize this thesaurus and have the time to make it well-structured and (vastly) more useful. Definite possibilities.

Anyway, the boss is relaxed about the issue of my “seeing” the thesaurus and thinks it will come to grow on me. There are ways to work on structure as a community, which agreed could be a very good thing. She understands it is not quick work.

So I basically feel better (for the moment) because my boss fully understands my concerns, likes what I’m up to, and thinks it’ll just take some time. Soon, my constant worrying will take over, but for now the boss is less concerned about my concerns than I am so I should enjoy that.

As for any specific short-term answers to help me “see” the thesaurus, well, zip. Not a problem, in the short-term anyway. I’ll do an hour or two of thinking about questions that might help me understand some structure, I’ll print the 14 top terms and their list of terms (some anyway), I’ll talk with Jon and see if (some of) my questions make sense in terms of the database, have some run, call in my coffee date somewhere early in this process.

Ah. The Perils of Pauline. ;)

“Cliffhanger” is just about right for this. Certain of my radar are currently on overload. I do not like to feel better about a situation when my fundamental questions remain unanswered. Maybe it’s all those years of never being able to ever get answers to the fundamental questions. By the way, “all those years” includes a fair amount of library work; I was not just busting on the military. I guess it could be the case that sometimes forward progress can be made while still leaving the questions of basic import unanswered; that can only go on so long though.

’til the next episode…

Veterans Day

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Veterans Day 2006

Today is a very special day. I hope you do more than treat it as simply another sale day as much of our culture has.

Take a moment to talk to a veteran. Ask them about their stories. Thank them. Give them the hug they may badly need. Take a moment to consider the homeless. Look into the statistics regarding the numbers of homeless who are vets. Visit a VA hospital. Encourage them (especially our older vets) to record their story for posterity.

Here are a couple resources to get you started. VA Veterans Day page. LOC Veterans History Project. A simple search on “veterans day” in your favorite search engine will turn up many others.

Please do not thank me, at least not unless you have worked a bit harder to thank others who have given far more than me. [Thank you Jenny and you are welcome!]

The ultimate thanks would be to help turn this country into what it can be. And, please, let’s not send any more children to war unless absolutely necessary.

What price would you pay for the freedoms of your neighbors?

Fathers and sons

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Today my son told me that he that has reenlisted in the Army for 6 more years. It did not come as a surprise as we had discussed the possibility via IM on Monday evening.

I am extremely proud of my son and I support him in this decision! He has discovered what he likes, he does it well, and he desires to continue making a contribution to his country. Should that we all are so lucky.

This decision will put him at around 13 years of service wehn this enlistment is up, which means that quite likely he has become a “lifer.”

Yet, as you can imagine, I am quite torn. I am completely against the uses to which our military has been put over the last several years, and quite likely will be over the next several. And this has absolutely nothing to do with whether it’s my child, your child, or someone else’s child on the line.

I’d like to share a bit of what Jeremy wrote today in his MySpace blog:

I love being a soldier. I am proud to put on my uniform every day. I was born into the Army thanks to my father, even if it isn’t perhaps a distinction that he enjoys at this point. I know he is proud of me though and both my parents support me in my decision, although they both would prefer that I hang it up. I understand that alot of people do not support the current political regime in the United States. However, I would hope that people understand that we as soldiers (at least at the point that I am in in my carreer) are not in the Army for the college money, the benefits, or that we are too stupid to do anything else. And we certainly are not in it for the money! We are also not sheep. I have very accute opinions on just about everything, even if I cannot express my views as openly as I would like. I signed up to defend this country and defend the Constitution. I have to follow whatever government that is elected by YOU whether I voted for them or not. It is an oath that I have taken three times now and one I take very seriously. I cannot call it quits just because I don’t want to go to war for a cause that I do not believe in. There is honor in fulfilling obligations and standing up for what you believe in, a concept some people do not understand.

I love my son very much and am very proud of him. I am overjoyed that he knows both of those things.

One last comment to the parents or soon-to-be parents out there. Be very, very careful with the examples you set for your children. Otherwise, you may well find yourself extremely proud of them for doing something that every fiber of your being wishes they were not.