Author Archives: WD

He’s Back! Yeah

Hey, remember me?

It’s been a while and no good reason for it! I’ve been working on a project recently which was to build a computer. My mom’s laptop was really at the end of it’s rope, and it was time to find her a desktop replacement. I found this very cool little system called the ZPCgx by iWill, a Taiwanese company. It’s a desktop that is designed for laptop parts. That is, a laptop size hard drive and cd rom. The processor and memory are regular size, and graphics and audio is built into the motherboard.

On the front there are two USB ports and two Firewire ports. Also, there is audio in and out. The little notch you see in the front is the opening for the CD drive. On the back there are more USB ports, the monitor out, serial cable, etc. There is a small fan right below the circular opening at the top. The CPU is right below the fan. Then, there are small vents at each corner of the case so that air circulates throughout the whole case. The great part is that this thing is tiny: 7″ x 11″ x 3″ !

So I did some thrifty ebay shopping and now we’ve got a fully running system with: 2.4 GHz Pentium IV Processor – 40 GB 7200 RPM HD – 512 MB DDR SDRAM. Needless to say, coming from my old (but reliable!) Pentium II 400 with 256 MB of RAM, I’m jealous. But it was extremely fun, and at times a little frustrating, to piece together a system. I think that once I settle I’ll throw something together in a similar fashion.

**********

My job…. hey I have one. Actually it is perfect, if a little dull. I’m doing data entry (don’t vomit yet,) for a small sports photography company. Basically these are the people who photograph kids doing sports in grammar and middle school. I’m sure all of you have at least one plaque of yourself grinning foolishly with some type of ball or bat!! What I have to do is match up the handwritten orders with the proper photo. It’s not thinking work, but I have to be very accurate – wouldn’t want little Johnny to get his pictures back and wonder when the sex change happened.

It’s in Andover, MA, a cool town. Andover is home to the prestigious (in the Hersh sort of way) Philips Andover Academy – the kinda place many Trinity kids went to. It’s pretty classy. Nice main street with stores and beautiful public parks. So I take an hour for lunch every day and sample the food and enjoy sitting outside while I still can. Although I hope such activities do not represent the zenith of my working career, as do many others (i.e. those who paid for my education,) it’s good honest work and it’s satisfying to get a paycheck every week.

I’m loving it now although it gets dark too early. In the days it’s summery hot, and then in the night decidedly autumnal. The crickets still chirp outside my window, though perhaps a bit less loud, and the breezes can waft through open windows while I sleep. I saw a house today with halloween decorations up… seems like someone was eager to decorate, maybe they’ve been watching too much Bravo.

**********

Speaking of TV, I have a few new favorites. The Daily Show continues to be good, Stephen Colbert still obviously the king of the correspondents. A tall lanky guy did a segment about Kerry choking last night and was very un-funny. Another treat is on weeknights on the Sundance channel. For about an hour and twenty minutes there is a “best of” the day’s Al Franken Show from Air America Radio.

Air America, if you don’t know, is a steadily growing liberal talk radio network. Al Franken kinda started it, and has a show in the afternoon. I really enjoy, though, Mike Malloy. He’s a firebrand for the left – sensible and vocal! You’ve got to love his liberal usage of the term, “Bush crime family…” If you haven’t given it a shot, check out http://www.airamericaradio.com/ today! Be forewarned though, the commercials are cheesy to the max factor – a blend of the usual awful radio spots and little plugs by interest groups. I’m very glad that this exists. One last good show that I’m into is Real Time with Bill Maher. Fridays on HBO – one hour of political discussion with smart guests from both the left and the right (but with a heavy left bent if you haven’t guessed…)

So I’m starting to feel that it’s fun to be political and well versed in what’s up in this country and world. I think that feeling has really spread recently. I wonder though how much of it will remain after election day. The indignation by members of the left is loud and clear, but maybe we’ve learned that we’ve got to prevent so as to avoid backtracking in the future. In that vein, I’ve volunteered to join the Kerry campaign and go canvass in New Hampshire this Saturday. I really can’t believe I’m doing this, because I’ve never officially done any political stuff, but NH is close and I’d like to see Kerry do as well as he can.

**********

I’ve had lots of random thoughts come and go, such as: “What is/was the longest pneumatic tube ever built?” – “You know those people who try to hard to act as if they are not trying to hard to be cool in an alternative sort of way?” – “I’m not a perfect perrrrrrrrrrrrrson.” – “Why not just take the bag off the little air freshener tree? Because you are a compulsive/neurotic freak, that’s why!” – and many others.

For now.

Fashion Police

I was listening briefly to Air America radio today and heard the story of two people being arrested for wearing anti-Bush T-shirts at a Bush speech. What was particularly shocking about this even was that it was held on public property – at the West Virginia Capitol. The T-shirts had Bush’s name crossed out on the front and the words, “Love America, Hate Bush,” and “Regime Change Begins at Home,” on the back.

The couple was led from the event in handcuffs after refusing to remove the shirts.

Although the charges were later dropped, the incident caused one of the protesters to briefly lose her job. The city’s public officials have apologized. The two, however, are bringing a lawsuit against the federal policing agencies involved in the arrest, with the help of the ACLU.

This is a very clear cut case. These individuals, one of whom is a registered Republican, were singled out because the political message on their shirt did not sit well with the authorities. These people were not out there trying to shout the president down or belittle other supporters, instead they were involved in a quiet but visible protest. Protest is not always about disruption, and wearing a shirt with a particular message is a direct way to make yourself heard without speaking.

Take two examples from back at Trinity. For one, a certain sorority during pledge time had shirts made up for pledges. As part of the ritual these pledges had to wear the shirt and a white skirt around campus on certain days. The shirt said, “If I don’t remember it, it didn’t happen.” As you might imagine, some people on campus were furious about these shirts. They found them demeaning to women, and couldn’t understand why some would chose to wear it. Someone mentioned it in a letter to the editor of our newspaper, and the issue was discussed. However, no T-shirts were confiscated, and the girls (I say girls because I mean girls) wearing them were not kicked out – all perfectly correct.

Another instance is when I would wear my famous “San Francisco Physical Education” T-shirt around campus. The message of this shirt was pretty obvious, and I knew that a lot of people did not agree with the message. I’d get stares and sometimes glares, but again, nobody demanded I remove the shirt or leave Trinity.

Obviously what these people were trying to do was bring attention to their viewpoints. Their intention, as far as I can ascertain, was to use the shirts to engage with those who did not agree with the messages on them. Furthermore, they did this all at a public gathering in a public location. Had this been a private place, such as a Bush-Cheney “Town Hall,” then such censorship, though perhaps still odious, would be legal.

But this was a traditional public forum. As such, the arrest of these individuals expressing their viewpoints in a non-disruptive manner, based solely on the fact that the authorities didn’t like the message, is clearly a violation of the 1st Amendment.

I can only hope that this two people, who acted within the law during both their protest and arrest, can get their message out there. There is no doubt in my mind that the treatment these two received has been imposed on countless others, both outside of and within the Bush administration. Incidents such as this are what really turns me away from these Bush type Republicans more than anything else.

Peaceable public protest is the guarantee that makes this country so special and so hated by those who would rather stifle all dissent. If Bush’s platform is going to be a hard line against intolerant regimes, then he must practice what he preaches.

But I don’t see that happening.

Sad, Shocking News

Those of you who live in the Boston area may have heard the story on the news about a teacher striking and killing a student who was walking to school. Well, I don’t watch the local news, and since I have been out of town for a few days, haven’t been reading the paper either. It turns out that the teacher is someone I know. In fact, I had her for a class in middle school. I found out about this after receiving a bulk email from a former high school classmate, who I wasn’t particularly close to. She was upset because she thought that our local news station, WBZ (CBS) 4 had really demonized the teacher unfairly.

I remember clearly the circumstances of me having this teacher. After a few hard unsuccessful weeks in Spanish class, I decided to quit (unlike me, I know,) and instead take a general reading/writing class. So I entered this class late, which, in middle school, is perhaps the greatest mortification. But it all turned out well, and this teacher came to be one of my favorites. Not only was she fun, but she was engaged with her students and always caring. In sum, a first rate teacher.

However, as I’ve done more digging, it turns out there is more to the story. When this accident occurred a few days ago, this teacher was driving to a school in Canton. I wondered why she was no longer in ***ton. Anyway, it turns out that she was asked to leave at the end of last year because of allegations made by a former student of hers. Although it’s nearly impossible to get any details on this, it seems that she took this troubled kid under her wing for counseling. When all was said and done, he was supposedly suicidal and she supposedly had sent him sexually inappropriate emails.

This revelation was, of course, shocking. Although I don’t have the facts, my first guess is that this teacher wanted to help a particularly disturbed kid, he didn’t improve, and ended up blaming her. The parents got involved, the story changed, things were made up, the kid got attention, and the teacher was fired.

So, at this point, my former classmate is asking that we write to WBZ4 giving testimonials about this teacher. I am willing to help in any way, however, I must have some more information before I proceed. I do know that this teacher would never maliciously run over a kid, but I’d like to know a little more about the circumstances surrounding her departure from my middle school.

Regardless, though, this is a shame. First there is this questionable action at one school and she’s forced to leave, then this. This was a quality teacher who perhaps got too involved (non-sexually) with a student. I wonder if this event has caused other teachers at my school to be more wary of acting as counselors to their students, even though we are always told that we can confide in our teachers.

So I’m going to try to get some more information, and if I feel she was innocent and that this accident was just that, then I will certainly write and speak in her favor.

Greek Wedding

Back from a great time in New Jersey. A cousin of mine got married yesterday so I got to see the whole of that side of the family. Interesting thing is that my cousin had to convert to the Greek Orthodox church in order to marry this guy! Normally I’d be wary of that, but her husband is a really worthy guy.

So the ceremony was at a Greek Orthodox church and was, in my opinion, very regimental and not so warm. Also my whole family picked up on the strong patriarchical overtones present in the service. The one thing that really annoyed me, though, was when the bride and groom were introduced later that night at the function place, they were introduced as “Mr. and Mrs. [Guy’s First Name] [Last Name] That struck me as rather old fashioned.

Nonetheless the party was great – and I got to dance with all three of my cousins, my aunt, sister, and anyone else willing. Plus there was an open bar and a guy who would circulate taking drink orders. All in all a great party. I guess I get some of my party genes from this side of the family!

In other news, I begin a temporary job I’ve secured for myself tomorrow. It seems pretty straightforward, based on the interview. I’ll be entering handwritten photograph order information into a software system used by the company. It’s certainly not brain surgery, but it’ll help me get out of the house for a few days each week. Hopefully there are no giant curve balls here. It’s in Andover, so I’ll also have the opportunity to explore a new town.

If I do get accepted by the PC I’m def going to need an MP3 player… else I’d go crazy. So, does anyone have some firsthand experiences with these. I’ve been holding out for a while, and I know there are tons of products on the market. I’m especially interested in the Creative Zen – which I think is a relatively new player. Any help would be appreciated! Anyway, wish me luck tomorrow so that I don’t crash their entire computer network or anything else bad like that…

For now.