The Next Dark Age
We're in it Now
Sigmund: Then and Now
I decided to use pictures of Sigmund, the African Grey parrot I am fostering, to feature my Crowdrise project for the Rescue. It struck me then, how much progress he has made. This pic is labelled June 2010:
And I took this last night:
You can see he is still over grooming. And he will pull feathers when freaked out. But wings! And tail!
Crowdrise
As I have become more active volunteering, I am more aware of how much time, effort and money are required to keep charitable organizations going. I am not good at this fundraising stuff – this asking for money.
At the same time, my family has gotten better at charitable giving. My grandfather in particular has made an effort to make Christmas less commercial. When, for my birthday, I asked for dontaions to the Refuge, he was very happy to contribute. But two things went wrong:
1. Whatever P.O. Box my mother sent him was no longer active; and
2. The Refuge, as an all-volunteer organization, isn’t exactly speedy in acknowledging gifts.
Such that, if not for the first problem, I wouldn’t have know the gift existed. Enter a new tool:
Crowdrise.com is a website that is part social networking and part fundraising tool. I can set up all of the groups that I support and point people to it if they would like to sponsor the efforts. This is particularly awesome for me because I rarely have an event like a walk/run (although the Refuge is trying to pull one together for this year) or a food drive as an excuse to spread the word around. Crowdrise spotlights the efforts of the average volunteer. They also run contests and have some kind of point system for the competitive people. So that’s fun.
I like that one can use a credit card to make a donation, and get immediate documentation. And I as the participant can also record donations that I receive offline.
I set up my page, which you can find here. I have some more building out to do, but I think this is a good start. If you are using it, please let me know so I can check out your profile!
White Jazz, by James Ellroy
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=leartojugg-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0375727361&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifrBook 25
I like Ellroy a lot, but I have to take him in small doses. You know how long it took me to finish this book? Nearly a month. We might blame the fact that this was my “carrying around” book. Lunchtime, coffee, standing in line at the grocery store.. But also, there were times that I would read two pages and something so crazy would happen that I would have to put it down.
So. 1958 Los Angeles. It seems that all of the cops are on the take and the Feds are trying to take them down. Our “hero” Dave Klein, a Lieutenant, has been a mob enforcer for years. He gets caught in the middle of some burglaries and murders and side jobs with Howard Hughes that start to intertwine until he is totally screwed.
This book is ugly. With the violence and the racism and the sex (read as: prostitution, rape and incest) that I don’t even want to talk about. And let’s not get started on my issues with wondering just how close to any reality these police stories may be.
The reason I read this stuff is the trying to figure out, among all of these bad guys, who The Bad Guy actually is.
Another reason that this took me awhile is style that Ellroy employs. Klein has this clipped sort of train of thought when he is working things out. By the end of the novel, one gets used to it, but it is slow going to follow at first. He has a theory, shoots down a theory, remembers something someone said, runs through the options. In a few dozen words. I’d have to read some passages three times to put the thoughts together in English.
I will need at least twelve months before I pick up another Ellroy.
But that was fun.
Mornings on Horseback, by David McCullough
This biography of a young Theodore Roosevelt, has been in my library for some time. I picked it up after a conversation with my friend Jamie at our last book club. He said that he was reading one of the Edmund Morris
Why yes, I am a fan of the old boy. Being a fabulous president, practically hand-picking a successor, then deciding the bloke was doing it all wrong and starting a third party? That’s just good stuff.
I have read a non-zero number of books on the family, but Mornings on Horseback goes into some great detail. And I really do love McCullough.
Roosevelt came from a very tight and very New York family. You may think Edith Wharton, as she was a childhood friend. Ridiculously privileged, but I can’t hate ’em for it, because as a whole they made some good use of themselves.
A good part of the book talked about his early health problems, and how because and in spite of them, he very much valued being in the Great Outdoors. Also connected to that is the time he spent in the Dakotas after the death of his first wife. The better part of three years as a “ranchman”.
I could have done without the descriptions of every poor beast the man ever shot. But the book could not have done without them, because they are so very Roosevelt.
I don’t have to like everything about the guy.
In the end, I think it is his sincerity that makes me like Roosevelt as a person and a politician. Dude had a temper. Dude could change his mind. Talked rather too much. But if he ever lied, it was only to himself and that is worth a lot.
Another Project Linus Shout Out
Carlo Garcia, whose blog I have mentioned, is closing in on the end of his year donating something to a different organization every day. For Day 355, he chose Project Linus.
It seems those Bloomingtonians stick together.
Lists
The Blog of Note today on iGoogle was Ah the Possibilities!, written by Sarah. She is a list maker and when a friend accused her of being “bossy” with her To Do List, she asked for opinions.
Her commenters were almost all list-makers. I feel that I must speak for the minority:
OK, I do them sometimes. When I feel like I have too much going on at the same time and I don’t want to miss anything. When I want to feel like a responsible grown up.
But they are. so. boring.
I tried for awhile to make lists to go grocery shopping. I seem to recall it was advice in a “How to Save More Money” column. No kidding, I would leave the lists in the car. I could remember to bring my reusable shopping bags, but the grocery list? Forget it. Then I tried putting the list in my bag before leaving the house. I would walk around the grocery store with a list in my bag and not take it out even once.
When I returned to the office from being on the road, I made a To Do list. That was two weeks ago and it isn’t finished yet. Perhaps I am rebelling against The List. Once a task is on The List, it becomes a chore.
Through the whole of my childhood, I don’t remember my mother ever giving me a To Do list. (Maybe I have blocked it out.) But at the same time, she is the type that will plan ahead for the route she will take to drive to the gas station.
I have done several personality profile things that call it by different names: Low Systematic, Unstructured, Spontaneous, Perceiving (as opposed to Judging), Cluster Thinking. It is preference. I still get to work every day. I meet deadlines. I am not late for appointments. I just don’t like lists.
So. Do I think list makers are bossy? No. Not unless they are trying to get me to use one.
Blanket Ten
Just as I was finishing that last blanket, Michael’s had a serious sale on its house brand of yarn. So I am going to be doing this stuff for awhile:
“What the heck with the pink?” one might ask. Two things:
- All of the yarn was on sale. I had to mix it up somehow.
- That variegated yarn? It is actually called “Neapolitan”. As in ice cream. I stood in a store and chose to buy yarn so that I could make “the ice cream blanket”. That’s just good marketing, folks. This is how the corners turned out:
Taproot
Last year, in my annual review, my boss asked about my plans for professional development. I had a list. One of the items was doing pro bono work. I had stumbled across the Taproot Foundation last fall while researching resources for a retirement planning conference we hosted. Their mission is, “to lead, mobilize and engage professionals in pro bono service that drives social change.”
While I do my share of volunteering, I haven’t tried anything that involves using my professional skills. The deal is that “pro bono consultants” sign on to a six-month project using their expertise to help a non-profit that needs the resource. They estimate about 100 hours of work – 3 to 5 hours each week. And would you believe that HR people are in demand?
My boss thought it was a great idea. I have been with the same company for 14 years – my entire career – and I could really use a reality check on the real world. Yes, I do realize that the Land of Non Profits is not quite the Real World. But it is close enough.
I applied, was accepted and attended the orientation session today. They are trying to up their game by increasing the number of projects this summer. Right now, they have about half the volunteers they need to staff them, so the facilitator begged us all to spread the word. The website specifies web/tech, marketing/creative services, strategic/financial and project managers. They work out of Chicago, Washington, LA, San Francisco and New York.
I have now completed my first assignment.
Apple Tech Support
Somewhere resembling Day 4 with the MacBook, I noticed that the charger wasn’t charging. Jiggled the cord and it worked fine. Over the next day or so, I had the same problem and ran my own personal diagnostics involving different electric sockets and swapping in and out the extension cable.
Jiggle the cord seemed to be the fix.
Late-ish last night, I called tech support to make sure that “take the bad cord into a retail store” was the correct answer. It took 30 minutes and two techs to tell me it was. But I was to take the entire machine with me also, just in case.
Just in case of what? In case it isn’t just the cord and they have to replace the entire machine. Apparently, Apple has a 30 day DOA policy. In fact, last night, the guy offered to send me a new machine right then. But that seemed like a waste.
They made me an appointment in the store by my office. This store is in what I think is still the largest shopping mall in the state of Illinois. The store was packed at the lunch hour, so they were a few minutes late to my appointment. Nothing tragic, but it bothers me to have an appointment and then be sent to the queue.
Appointments are for the purpose of avoiding the queue.
The tech in the store didn’t ask to see my machine, she just said that she would go get me a new charger. Several minutes later, she came back and said they did not have any in stock. She would order one and call me when it was in.
Um..no.
I asked her to call the store nearest my house. Several minutes later, she confirmed that they had one and they would put my name on it.
I arrived at the store after work. The store was packed. The first guy that intercepted me had no record of a call on my behalf, so he put me in the queue. 20 minutes later, a guy arrived to help me. Then another customer, one who had made an appointment, got to budge. Whatever.
When it was my turn, I explained the problem. Tech wanted to run a diagnostic. He said, “if it is the charger, we will replace the charger. If it is the computer, we will replace the computer.” He gets a network cord, plugs it in, then thinks again. Test the charger first. Mine – bad. Store sample – good.
“I don’t think I need to run a diagnostic.”
He made all of the notes on my original case file, gave me a new charger and sent me on my way.
Summary:
Sunday night: Two techs, 30 minutes
Monday lunch: One tech, 30 minutes
Monday night: Three greeters, one aborted attempt, one tech – 40 minutes
Every single person I spoke with was perfectly pleasant. They were all interested in solving my problem. But really, this was a lot of time and effort for a charger. I guess I should be happy that they were all trying to be absolutely sure the problem was solved the “first time”, and not taking the User’s word for it that it was just a charger cord. But really. A lot of time.
Note to self: The thing costs $61, in case you just want to buy a new one and be done.
Weekend Assignment #365: Tax Time
Extra Credit: Have you ever had to revisit a tax return after filing, due to an audit or other circumstances?
The Next Dark Age 