|
 |
Friday, July 26, 2002 |
This past week, at age 65, she attended a workshop for divorced Catholics at Notre Dame. Then, on momentum from that, she went on to reunite with her best friend who she hasn't spoken to since her divorce 15 years ago. This fills me with hope. I feel like she hit two home runs this week and I am very happy for her.
The people she is going back to live with after her lap of victory are anti-hope. Her elderly aunt is an empty shell of grinning evil. The Qlippoth personified. She is slipping into dotage, but when the odd thought fires, she reminds her sister or niece that they were always fat or to accuses them of stealing her money. She reminds me of the other reason Americans have to drive and that is to avoid black people. As she (the aunt) related to me several years ago, she used to walk every day to work at the packing plant down the hill. Then one day in 1961, she encountered a black man on the sidewalk and then drove every single day after than. Drove to the church 6 blocks away every Sunday as well. Nothing explains this country better than that story. We are a nation of old ladies.
4:58:31 PM 
|
|
One of my "men on the street" had a good mass-transit insight today. The person that drives a bus for his school rants about how she'll never be one of "those welfare mothers" who wait at the bus stop with a stroller. She would have a really easy commute by bus, but must maintain two cars in her household and drive (and stay in poverty) to avoid the association with poverty. So the people that ride the bus either grew up so rich as to not be concerned with their perceived status or so poor that they don't have a choice. So we are stuck with car culture until it becomes too damn expensive for anyone.
4:38:10 PM
|
|
I took the bike trail along Portland all the way home from downtown Minneapolis. It is a speedy route, but too scary to be enjoyable. S.U.Vs whipped by at 50 mph inches from my handlebars. One mistake by either me or a driver and I am hamburger. I am supposed to be comforted by two white stripes that demarcate a magic zone into which cars can't cross. Why they have to step on the gas to get to that red light faster is beyond me. Bikes bring out a lot of aggression in the drivers. I attribute this to raw american horror for anything small or weak, as a bike inarguably is. There is a word for this. Misopedia, the hatred of children. The cars seem to see the presence of a bike as some kind of challenge to them and I really don't mean it that way. I am just looking for a way to get where I am going.
4:28:54 PM
|
|
One of the Utah folks described how Microsoft pinched them with a full audit. This sounds like when the cops pull you over and make you unload every last thing from your car so they can search through it. He feels that they are being punished for being one of the states on the anti-trust lawsuit. No company that had competitors would ever treat a customer like this.
2:43:53 AM
|
|
The CIO of the State of Utah told employees to start blogging. Blogging, Windley provides an excellent service for other Utah state employees, vendors, citizens, and state IT workers everywhere. Other states can look at his experiences and avoid pitfalls and repeat successes. Consultants can browse his posts looking for problems to solve. Windley's employees can all start being micro-journalists and contribute to a cohesive picture of reality. The few employees that have taken his challenge have really useful blogs as well. I want to start including state of MN IT worker stuff here. I would focus on the effects of the hiring freeze, name people doing excellent work, give reports on conferences, products, problems, and news.
2:34:25 AM
|
|
© Copyright 2003 mcgyver5.
|
|
|
