Photographs and Memories

Some odd experiences, last couple of days.

For one, my wife took bunches of pictures of the girls of color guard for the annual Memorial Day Parade, and this time she had the experience of having them say Hey, a creeper's taking pictures!



And for another, we saw a current picture of last year's French guest. We were amazed.
When did she get to be so pretty and so grown-up?

Trade

No matter what your stats are, there's nothing like Opening Day.

Aww...

I am not a cute video guy. But....

Carrying A Torch

I'm not a big Torchwood fan, but this looks interesting.

Bigger, Faster

Runner

There's runners....and then there are runners.

Blockbusted

I usually think that technology could be implemented better than it actually is. I suppose that's the difference between wouldn't it be cool and the real world.

A few weeks ago, we rented two movies from a Blockbuster Express kiosk. The experience was pretty painless. So when my wife and I thought let's rent something tonight, I thought of doing that again. My wife said she'd hit the place that we went to last time. While she was getting ready to go, I looked at the BBX web site and found an inventory of the movies in their box. Nice. Hey, Mao's Last Dancer -- sounds good. Let's get that, and, what the heck, Vampires Suck. So she went.

First problem was when she called. The machine isn't accepting any of my credit cards. Hmm. Okay, I've got the time, I'll go rent them. You go do the other stuff you wanted to do. On the way, I thought I think that web site said there's a closer one - let's go look.

Second problem: The newer one is coming, not here yet. But hey, there's a 7-11 type place right across the street, they've got a competitor's box, let's give them a shot. Ah, rats. No Mao or Vampires. Okay, fine. Lets go to that store we used last time, see if it works for me.

Third problem: It didn't . So, as I have the time, I called the customer service number on the side. Yeah, the box must be broken, the person on the phone said. We won't be able to get anyone out to it for two or three days. Holiday weekend, you know. But there's another one about half a mile from there. Oh, yeah, I had forgotten that one. Okay, allons-y!

Fourth problem: That one is under an awning. It rained last night. Guess where some of the rainwater collected, and dripped? But I soldiered on. Selected Mao; got it. In cart. Selected Vampire. Ah, rats: not in this box. Um, okay. Need something light. Sherlock Holmes, with Robert Downey Jr. Entered credit card info. First movie pops out. Sherlock. Big message on screen: The movie you have selected is not dispensed. Your credit card will not be charged. Gee, thanks.

Technology. It could use some work, y'know?

Economics

France

As we get closer to actually going to France, I find myself wondering what, exactly, we're going to be doing, and where we're going to be going.

And I don't even want to try translating that into French.

The primary reason that we're going is to meet the family of the girl who was with us last year. Ironically, we might not see her at all, or, if we do, it will be only for dinner at the restaurant/culinary school where she's working. Where she might actually be working that night, in fact. I'm a little sad about that. Over the past year, I've gone through phases of missing the kid, then being irritated by her - mostly because she's so terribly bad about replying to emails and such. I'd think this is the kid we really liked? Want to see her again? Not hardly. Well.... I haven't quite resolved that dichotomy in my mind, and I doubt I will. I'm not going to try. We're going to France to meet the family, and as a nice side note, to see some of a lovely part of the country. Its to be able to talk with them that I've worked so hard to learn French. Along the way, I wanted to be able to go into a boulangerie and say Bonjour, Monsieur...Je voudrais deux bagguetes, s'il vous plait, et un croissant. Merci. C'est combien? Ah - prenez-vous le carte bleue? Non? Je comprends. Je paierai avec liquide. Au revoir. Now I can. (All but one word in that string was from memory.) My goal is to experience being in Burgundy. Not being a tourist - being a guest. Same with being in Paris. There's no way we're going to see Paris in four days - we aren't even going to try. We have a few places where we'd like to go, but mostly, it'll be to experience being in Paris. Seeing the kid will be nice, but it's not why we're going. Though, I admit, if her parents later say They're so nice! Why didn't you keep in touch with them? - well, that'd be okay. Petty of me, I know.

All of this means that I really don't know where we'll be going when we're there, for the most part. Wineries, vineyards? Probably. Castles and chateaus? Mostly likely - one or two. Certainly, we're going down to Lyon. And in Paris, I know where we're staying, and what we'd like to see. But the rest of the trip is going to be freeform. We're going to take each day as it comes. This is unusual for us, who like to have things planned out, but given that we really don't know what to expect, I'm thinking its the best approach.

Or is that hope?

Excitement

The last time my daughter drove by herself, she called quickly after departure. Her voice was shaky, and she was breathing hard. She'd had an accident.

Tonight, she drove again, by herself. She called sooner than I expected, and the first thing I heard was her taking a deep breath. Oh, no....

"Just calling to say I got here okay", she said.

Whew.

High Speed Robotics

Observation

Sometimes, I just get overwhelmed.Usually, I don't, and usually, it's because I don't think deeply about many things. When I do -- when I give more than the most cursory thought to some issues, some concepts -- I get overwhelmed.

Right now, I'm reading a book titled The School. It's a memoir from a woman who was a teacher in a Pennsylvania high school -- though she doesn't say which, I get the impression that it's a suburban school near one of the big cities -- Philadelphia, possibly. I picked up the book at a book sale by the local college, thinking that it was stories about what it's like to be a teacher. Boy, is it ever. The book is rampant with notes about school board members more interested in the budget than education, principals more interested in keeping the gym clean than education, teachers more interested in getting to the end of the day than education. Every so often, there's a note about a victory, but you get the feeling that the victories are accidental -- the monkeys actually typed The Taming of the Shrew, after all.

And I wonder how much of this is true about my daughter's school? I bet, a lot.

It makes me think of the attitudes of the Republicans in Wisconsin and other places, who see teachers as a cheap and easy way to affect their budget. And it makes me think of my own glib comments about how the school really ought to do THIS, or THAT ... when I really have no clue about what's possible in our school system, or even if my great idea is worth spit. Because I've moved on to other things, and I'm not thinking about that any more. Only the teachers are, and they have to live with it. They can't make a glib speech and move on. I think about that, and I think do I have any idea at all whats happening here?

This happens when I think about other things, too. How Great Britain has mutated into such an intensively surveillanced society, and how people want to do that here. How Republicans seem to generally suck, these days, and whether Obama's right to include them in policies anyway (and I bet Republicans could be easily found who'd say they never get asked to be involved unless they give over all their core principles. Nyah nyah, back and forth. ) How the economy could well tank again. How terrorists still exist. How....

And I get overwhelmed.

Delay

So now it's October 21st? Wow.

Bears, You Say?

Cat

My daughter has been tossing the cat into the air and chanting Rapture Kitty!

It Takes A Network

One of the people at the polls made a funny comment to me. I was talking casually with them about how we did things, and she said that in the years since we'd started, I'd loosened up quite a bit. I was surprised, and asked what she meant. "Well ", she said, "the first time we did this, you were pretty hands-on. You wanted to be involved in everything we did. Which makes sense, because we were all new to this. But over time, you got to the point where you trusted us to do what we were supposed to do. You only got involved with the things where we actually needed you."

I thought that was a great compliment. The idea of leadership by exception, if I can use that phrase, came to mind this afternoon when I was reading an article in the Wilson Quarterly called Learning from Al Qaeda, about the command structure used by that organization. The article's based on one in Foreign Policy, It Takes A Network, where Stanley McChrystal talks about what they learned over time regarding the need for command-and-control structure to infuse an organization and keep it effective and on-track. They found that what worked for the American military was virtually the opposite of what worked for AQI:

Like all too many military forces in history, we initially saw our enemy as we viewed ourselves.... By habit, we started mapping the organization in a traditional military structure, with tiers and rows. At the top was Zarqawi, below him a cascade of lieutenants and foot soldiers. But the closer we looked, the more the model didn't hold. Al Qaeda in Iraq's lieutenants did not wait for memos from their superiors, much less orders from bin Laden. Decisions were not centralized, but were made quickly and communicated laterally across the organization. Zarqawi's fighters were adapted to the areas they haunted, like Fallujah and Qaim in Iraq's western Anbar province, and yet through modern technology were closely linked to the rest of the province and country.

Essentially, they found that because of the networked structure that AQI used -- one based not on rigid authority but on location, mission, and even who you were married to -- the enemy was nimble; because of the hierarchical structure that the US military used, they were not.

So they changed.

But fashioning ourselves to counter our enemy's network was easier said than done, especially because it took time to learn what, exactly, made a network different. As we studied, experimented, and adjusted, it became apparent that an effective network involves much more than relaying data. A true network starts with robust communications connectivity, but also leverages physical and cultural proximity, shared purpose, established decision-making processes, personal relationships, and trust. Ultimately, a network is defined by how well it allows its members to see, decide, and effectively act. ... Although we got our message out differently than did our enemies, both organizations increasingly shared basic attributes that define an effective network. Decisions were decentralized and cut laterally across the organization. Traditional institutional boundaries fell away and diverse cultures meshed. The network expanded to include more groups, including unconventional actors. It valued competency above all else -- including rank. It sought a clear and evolving definition of the problem and constantly self-analyzed, revisiting its structure, aims, and processes, as well as those of the enemy. Most importantly, the network continually grew the capacity to inform itself.

It's a fascinating article.

Dollar Med

Over the years, I've heard occasionally about 'concierge medicine', also called 'retainer medicine'. Basically, you pay a fee to a doctor for the privilege of coming to them and paying for a visit. Frequently, there's no insurance company involvement. The doctors involved always say that they don't do this to make more money; they do it "to practice medicine the way they want". They intend that to mean "to give full and thoughtful care to people, without pencil-pushers peering over their shoulder".

When I was at the polls, one woman there told me that she went to a local doc who practices that kind of medicine, and she really likes it. She feels as if she gets attention, and the doctor is her partner. (This woman is a nurse, and her husband is a doctor, so she's pretty into the medical ethos.) I started thinking about whether it might make sense for us to do this. Still that lingering feeling about they just do it for the money - because, despite what they say, these docs almost always do make more money, while working less hours and having less stress, but still..... So I did a search for a local doc who does that, and I found an article done by our local PBS on that very subject. And this image of the doctor being interviewed leapt out at me.


Hmmm.......

Bookmark

Found at The Berry.

Electing

I've mentioned that working at the polls isn't a great deal of fun. Actually, it is -- but not all of it. The fun parts are fixing problems, answering questions, keeping things moving. The not-so-much parts are getting up at 430 so I can get to the church by six... and the process of shutting it all down, with the extensive arrangement of forms and documents. Here's part of my shut-down checklist, as an example:

With all officers, judge signs Affadavit of Voter Identification form (from WHITE BOX) TO: WHITE BOX
Judge signs Record of Assisted Voters form (from WHITE BOX) Files with used assistance-request Declarations TO: ENVELOPE K / BLACK BAG 2 (Note: no Envelope A exists, even though mentioned on Envelope K)
Put 1 complete copy Numbered List of Voters TO: ENVELOPE E / BLACK BAG 2 (Note: there is no Envelope A)
Put 1 complete copy Numbered List of Voters TO: ENVELOPE F >> ENVELOPE B (for Minority Inspector)
Take one set signed Oaths from Envelope G and put TO: ENVELOPE H >> ENVELOPE B (for Minority Inspector)
Put Envelope G with remaining 1 set of Oaths TO: BLACK BAG 2
Judge confirms that Compensation Request forms (including judge's) are completed. TO: BLACK BAG 2 (no envelope is used for this)

There's about 56 steps, overall. None of them is especially difficult, but at the end of a long day, when all you want to do is get out of there, and when there's a certain amount of paranoia about turning the stuff in at the voting office (is this going to be the time I forgot something key?) - well, not fun. I think that if I could do the middle part - say, from around 8AM till around 7 PM - I'd do it. It's the other parts that make me think that when my 'term of office' is up (I put that in quotes because, while I do have a term of office - I was elected for four years - it seems pretentious) - anyway, when it's up, I'll say No mas. Or however you say that in French. No plus?

None of which means I'm not interested in articles about the Next Big Election, and the technology that they're going to use to try and win it.

Office Supplies TIE

From Instructables.