Victor Co. of Japan Ltd., better known as JVC, has stopped producing VHS-format videocassette players and will end global sales when existing inventories run out. Panasonic Corp. and others no longer make the once-ubiquitous machines, so JVC’s exit rings the curtain down on major Japanese manufacturers’ presence in the VCR market.
It’s gonna be a really long, ugly week, so I’ll get these out of the way right now lest you not hear from me again for several days:
- Is it really sad that I didn’t even realize the World Series was going on until I realized the DVR hadn’t recorded The Simpsons last night? And that I still don’t care?
- Cool download via Scrubbles. This is surely one of the most bizarre albums ever recorded, featuring Hugo Montenegro (who wrote the theme from “I Dream of Jeannie” among other classics), an early Moog synthesizer, and covers of such groovy hits as “Dizzy”, “MacArthur Park”, and “Touch Me”, not to mention “My Way”. I remember it very well, as it may have been the first 8-track my parents ever owned. I think it came with one of my dad’s Buicks. For some reason, it sort of gives me visions of the cast of The Mothers-in-Law on acid.
- Via my hubby: The Skeptic’s Annotated Bible. It’s a fundamentalist’s nightmare.
- New site from the creator of Charlotte Eats: Charlotte Ads.
- And don’t forget the newly remodeled Diners of the World, to which I may even be contributing soon.
Back to the grindstone…
It’s election season — as if you could have missed it. I’ll most likely be voting something close to a straight Democratic ticket on the local and statewide races, which is pretty much my default strategy here. I’ll be voting for Barack Obama as well, but that’s for different reasons that I may talk about later. Or not.
I’ve lived in two very culturally distinct regions of the United States, and my political choices have always been a reflection of (or perhaps a reaction to) this geography. I moved steadily to the left of “mainstream” through my years in the south, and moved rather decisively to the right of it when I was in San Francisco. I don’t think either migration necessarily means that I’m a “centrist” at heart nor does it reflect any radical shift in my political values over time.
Ultimately, I’d call myself a “pragmatic libertarian” in philosophy. Mind you, this is not to say that I support the Libertarian Party, a group of anti-government zealots which has almost nothing to do with libertarian philosophy, as evidenced by their choice of Bob Barr to lead the ticket this year, among other shining inconsistencies. Unlike the capitalized Libertarians I don’t believe that the government should be abolished nor that taxation should be eliminated. I merely believe it should follow the most non-invasive and minimalistic course of action that is feasible and realistic. A good example is community college funding. I’m a big supporter, because a reasonable investment in education now saves what will eventually a much bigger investment in cleaning up the effects of a lack of education. Call it government by preventative mantenance — or maybe governement by cost-benefit analysis. Similarly, I question whether the government should be in the business of regulating, rewarding, or penalizing what should be private contracts or individual decisions (e.g. marriage, bearing children, home ownership, etc.)
In California, it was sometimes easy for me to reconcile voting for Republicans because western Republicans, particularly urban coastal ones, often come from this intellectual tradition, or at least from a similar one. Even John McCain used to be accused of it before that scary stranger inhabited his body. Many of them started out with an assumption and a foundation of equal rights for all individuals (social libertarianism, if you will) onto which they built a level of more fiscally conservative or pro-business policies. Again, it was a largely intellectual process that reflected a consistency of reasoning with which I did not always agree, but one that I could usually respect. Of course, this is not the case with all western Republicans, and I still found myself siding (sometimes reluctantly) with Democrats as often as not in California, but this sort of approach is much more common west of the Rockies.
In the south, however, most Republicans seem to lack that intellectual aspect (maybe it involves too many shades of grey) and are coming more from an ideological tradition — specifically a fundamentalist Christian-derived ideology. For many, I suspect, it’s more a case of “knowing their audience” than an indicator of any specific conviction (Elizabeth Dole, in particular, strikes me as just such a performer), but the end result is a inconsistent ideology of less government — except when it comes to sex, or profanity on TV, or flag burning, or religious diversity, or other things that are “inconsistent with North Carolina values.” In these cases, the same Republicans who want government out of our everyday lives are far too willing to make exceptions, citing God, family values and norms, or whatever other excuses they can concoct. I have no respect for parroted ideology; there is no critical thinking going on here, only memorization of random Bible verses and glib soundbites.
Southern Democrats, mind you, are only somewhat less offensive, but they at least tend to pay lip service to the concept of social diversity and to skip the more blatantly race-baiting and gay-baiting tactics of their Republican counterparts. In fact, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress from my district is actually an avowed supporter of same-sex marriage, which is considerably further than Democrats are willing to go, even in California. Barring any other realistic option, these southern Democrats, mixed bag that they are, generally get my support, and will probably continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
Seven years ago today, I was still in Fresno. I spent most of the day taking pictures of old supermarkets.
Then, I went to Club Fred, where I’d arranged to meet up with this guy I’d been exchanging email with for a couple of months. We went to a party for a while, had dinner at Denny’s on Blackstone, and then went back to his place to look at his new iBook:
Nothing was ever quite the same for me after that.
I love you, baby. Happy anniversary.
Seven years ago today, gas was really cheap in downtown Fresno, where I just happened to be for the weekend. I had dinner at the Wienerschnitzel on Blackstone and then spent the evening in the library.
As of late this afternoon, the whole site (including something like 2300 journal entries from twelve years) is all converted to WordPress. It only took me about two months.
Now, I get to go back and fix all the links…
I’m down to converting the last few months of entries from 2000 now, after which this site will be 100% database-y. Despite all the stuff I have to do this weekend, I’m close enough that I’m determined to finish. And if you’ve seen a couple of odd things pop up on the front page today, it’s probably because I’ve been a little sloppy and forgotten to re-date some old entries. Thus, I didn’t really bugger a boy in front of an audience nor have dinner in Oakland last night, and I don’t have strep, either.
It’s funny how I don’t seem to get strep anymore now that I don’t hang out in backrooms and sex clubs and bugger boys in front of audiences.
The title refers to the fact that I’m looking for it, not providing it.
Mom and Her Computer:
The first question has to do with my mom. She’s had a computer for about eight years. She’s actually become increasingly less adept at using it during this time. I’m talking about basic things, like being able to create a word processing document and then save it to a specific location on her hard drive and find it again later. My mom basically does not know what an application is nor how a hard drive is arranged. The concept of highlighting items with her mouse and editing or moving them largely eludes her.
Early on, she learned how to use AOL (to some extent) and that’s about it. She has no grasp of the basics. None. Now that she no longer has AOL as a standalone application, she doesn’t really even seem to know how to check her email; she has weeks worth of unopened messages every time I visit. I tell her how to look at them. I come back the next week, and she’s surprised when I mention that those same messages are still unread. And it’s getting worse and worse.
This is not just a case of my being anoyed at having to provide occasional tech support to get her out of a jam, which I’d gladly do. No, I’m questioning whether or not my mom has any business even using computer at this point. I’m not sure that she really can learn what she needs to know, but even if she could, I’m not sure who could teach it to her. My mom is an intelligent woman, and she actually worked with computers in the 1970s and 1980s, long before most of the rest of us, but she learned a certain set of tasks with no background context, and I think it’s too late for her to recover from that.
It’s really causing problems for her. She gets so incredibly frustrated–often to the point of tears–and that, of course, gets me frustrated and stressed as well. Frankly, I don’t think she needs that extra stress in her life, and I’m pretty sure I don’t either. The computer was supposed to be fun for her. That’s obviously not how it’s working out.
I understand that there’s more to it than meets the eye. She doesn’t want to give it up because doing so would mean admitting that her abilities are getting more limited as she ages (although I’m 95% certain something like dementia is not an issue at this time). My mom is already depressed, I know, perhaps even clinically depressed, so maybe it’s good that she keeps trying. But it’s hard to watch her, and hard to take answering the same questions over and over again and never seeing any progress.
Has anyone dealt with a similar situation? How do I tactfully suggest that the computer may be doing her more harm than good and that it’s sometimes even making me dread visiting? I’d like to spend the remaining years talking to my parents, not getting annoyed by a piece of technology.
Colleague/Bigot:
I recently discovered that someone I’m working very closely with on a project is also of a somewhat activist bent on the issue of “preserving” marriage (yes, we all understand what that code word means). This is someone I pretty much have to work with for the next few months, and I’m not entirely sure how I’m going to react the next time I see her. We haven’t really discussed our personal lives all that much, and I’m not even sure if she realizes I’m one of those “radical agenda-carrying homosexuals”, although it’s certainly no secret and not something I’ve hidden either. I just can’t remember if it’s come up in the conversation; I thought I’d mentioned my husband in passing at some point, just as she has, but I’m not sure. We’re not exactly “chummy”, although we get along fine.
I can deal with people I disagree with, which is good, since this would include most of the population. But it’s hard not to take this particular issue personally, rather like it would be difficult for an African-American to work with an avowed and vocal segregationist. We’re at the same point on the organizational chart, so it’s not a supervisor/subordinate issue, and it’s also not like the Agnes incident, because Agnes was nuts, and that involved a disposable part-time job anyway. Any thoughts on how to avoid letting this affect my work while still maintaining my principles?
See more funny videos at Funny or Die
