Xux's Gate

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 04:27:19 GMT

The past month, I have been traveling to where the rest of my family lives each week. And since I hate driving, that's gotten more than tedious. But I've realized that the real reason I'm tired of ending up seeing my parents every week is...the facade.

I don't really have anyone in real life to give me a listening ear. I can't talk about how incredibly bad everything is and how nothing shows any signs of improvement in the near future. Because I have to pretend that Everything Is Okay.

You can't express doubts to the contrary to my parents. They grow angry, tell you that you "have to think positive" and that's the end of the discussion. No jobs, and it's been two months yet the state has yet to give me a penny of the unemployment money they said they'd give me each week. I recently found myself entertaining thoughts that, in retrospect, are uncomfortably self-destructive.

In short, things are bad, they continue to be bad, and there isn't a healthy discussion to be had about it.

Meanwhile: apparently, when I wasn't looking, comparing Obama to Hitler has jumped from being the kind of slander bandied about by anonymous people having political arguments on the internet to being the kind of thing that is seriously used by professional members of the media. I am currently using my spare time to work out the logical form that demonstrates why the argument that "Obama is Hitler so don't let them pass this health care plan" is a cherry-picking, ad hominem, appeal to spite.

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 06:02:55 GMT

Applied for an "entry-level" editing job down in Findlay, Ohio.

I figured--hell, I meet the qualifications. Graduated from college with a bit of professional experience. Probably something I'd enjoy doing.

And Findlay is where one of my old roommates live.

I pretty much had to do it, then.

Also: discovered the joys of using Microsoft Word to print the addresses on envelopes. With any luck, this will make the applications I submit by snail mail look far more professional than envelops with my terrible handwriting on them. First impressions, etc.

The Fall of the House of K_____

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 20:31:47 GMT

It feels like we've reached the part of the play I will go ahead and call "the fall."

The grandparents are dead or in their last days. The parents are getting old enough themselves that one is suffering failing body parts and the other has back problems and is trying to make it through his final years of work in an economic climate where companies would rather terminate their employees than have to pay them full retirement benefits. One uncle has been laid off, another is dealing with health problems and reaching the limit of his ability to work but is neck-deep in debt because of his irresponsible wife and daughters.

Basically, everyone in my family is starting to have some major problems.

But the main players in your tragedy must be raised up before they can fall.

I got a position that was, essentially, my goal in life. Make just enough money to be on my own, enjoying the various little past-times that make me happy. I don't need much. But now I'm going to lose even that.

My sister went a different route. She started a family. Now she faces the same problem of being unable to get a job--but in addition the father of her children has persistent cancer. There are even lumps against his spine.

The more I let myself think, the more certain I am that we are nearing the final act. Next up: rocks fall, everybody dies.

The continuing adventures of Unemployed Jon

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 20:22:45 GMT

Last week, not two days after I sent the application in, I was pleased to hear from my contacts at the Enquirer that a Michigan newspaper was checking out my references. That particular application was one that I had a good feeling about, so I'm hoping that I'll hear from them eventually.

My contacts at the Enquirer also helped me out with a little networking; the executive editor referred me to a bank manager he knew was in desperate need of some tellers, and so over the weekend I applied for that. I had the first of two interviews for it this morning, and she complimented me on my ability to ask questions during the interview. It's something that I picked up from a lecture in college; a journalism professor has a guest speaker come in, and the man talked about how if he was interviewing someone for a job at his newspaper, he wouldn't hire any candidate that didn't ask questions. It is not actually something that should only be applied at a newspaper--I have asked questions at every job interview I've been in, and it has always helped. Hell, the HR director at the Enquirer still goes on about my ability to ask smart questions, and all I've ever done is ask her about practical stuff. The bank manager said that most interviews end up something like this:

"Do you have any questions about the job?"
"Um, nnnnno?"

She was also impressed that I showed up fifteen minutes early for the interview (an accident; I was shooting for ten, but the office wasn't five minutes from my apartment). This implies a certain lack of quality in other candidates--showing up early for the interview is one of the first job hunting tips anything I've read gives you.

It's not a job I want to do at all, which means that I performed excellently for the interview. It's hard to get worked up and nervous about a job you don't want. The manager said she can't do any hiring until I've talked to her HR person, who is out for the week. I should expect a call next week, then I interview with HR, and if it goes well, I then get two full weeks of paid training. The job is technically part time, but I'll work twenty hours a week with the option to take on a lot more hours. At the minimum possible starting salary, it'll cover rent at the very least. And I'll get health benefits. I could perhaps flesh things out with freelance writing on the side.

In the meantime, I continue to spam newspapers with job applications. There's one in Indiana that I would love to get a call back from. And one in Wisconsin. And the one in Michigan that I alluded to earlier. And...you get the picture.

One thing got me down, though: I was on the phone with my mother, telling her about this morning's interview, when my phone started to beep. "Call waiting," the display said, with a phone number I didn't recognize. I cut my conversation with my mother short, excited that perhaps one of the applications I had sent out was getting a call back.

It was the insurance company for the health plan I'd signed up for through my previous job. They want to know what I'm going to do since I'm no longer employed by them. If I want to continue coverage with that plan I have to pay twice as much money through COBRA.

Talk about a mood killer.

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 02:18:53 GMT

I'm attacking this with greater energy than previously. Last time I was on the job hunt, I complained and complained about how hard it was to get a job, but I realize now that I half-assed it and still got a job that I loved.

This time I'm averaging nearly ten job applications a day. I sent out maybe nine applications today, and I have another nine bookmarked to take care of first thing tomorrow morning. With any luck there'll be new jobs posted tomorrow to apply to as well. I have more than doubled my work experience as a journalist.

I will be employed.

Here's my epiphany: when I was working full time, I'd look forward to my days off because hell, I'd been busy all week long. I could lounge on the couch for a day and finally read, and the next day do laundry and cleaning that had built up over a week. Those two days were ultimately just a brief breath taken before diving back into the job for another week. It was a routine. It was easy. It's how I want to live.

Sitting in the apartment all day, every day with no end in sight, though? It is somewhat depressing.

So now my full-time job is looking for a job. Maybe I'm not the most employable person ever. But I've finally found my drive.

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 20:52:19 GMT

Some key factors for identifying when people are trying to use your job search to scam you:

1. You say are a company based in Europe and you want to hire me to move money through my bank account to them. Let me laugh in your face.
2. You send me an email without identifying yourself or your company, saying that I need to take an online consumer report to further my application process. Like hell I'm going to click those links.
3. You send me an email on a weekend about a job. Human Resources in America doesn't work Saturdays at 4 a.m.

Come on, scammers. I'm sharper than that.

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 08:20:53 GMT

Finally got my tomato and strawberry plants. I inevitably faced the conundrum of coming up with names for them. It's a long-standing tradition for me to name my plants, and I've generally used the muses as the theme. My umbrella tree plant, the first plant named under this theme, is Mnemosyne, the mother of the muses. My Mnemosyne has been with me over five years, now.

The second is my lucky bamboo, Erato. This one has also flourished for years, though recently started dying because of root rot. I've taken steps to help it recover, but we'll see.

The third is the mother-in-law's tongue plant that I got as I moved into the apartment, Calliope.

The planter of strawberry plants are, technically, more than one plant. But they get the collective name of Thalia anyway.

But then, a problem--the tomato plant will be dead before the year is out. It's going to be replaced with a different one each year. It hardly seemed appropriate to name it after a muse.

So I decided that each year, each tomato plant would be named "Biff the Understudy," after a recurring NPC throughout the Baldur's Gate series. In the first game, if you managed to kill a plot-important character before that character could deliver his or her dialogue, Biff would show up to read the character's lines.

I considered naming the tomato plants after a red shirt, but that would not have worked by the very nature of red shirts.

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 02:35:31 GMT

People are depressed about the recession and stuff, but things are looking up for me--even though I just had to take a week of unpaid leave to save the company some money.

I hadn't planned on it, but I basically spent the entire time at my parent's house. Ran around with my nieces. Moved hay, took care of one of the horses and the cats for a couple of days. Got some free lettuce and asparagus from the garden (a two-gallon bag stuffed with asparagus, in fact). My dad decided to give my check paying him for the cost of replacing my car's taillight, and gave me a few twenties for giving up extra days of my leave to help out with moving hay--which is truly some backbreaking work. The majority of the edge of losing that week's pay has been taken off, and I got to enjoy being around my family at the same time.

I'll also be getting a free G4 tower and monitor from work, a fact that should not be mentioned to my father by anyone reading this because I intend to surprise him by following through on an old joke of his. The company has ten leftover G4 towers from when they went through and replaced all the computers with G5 towers. Human Resources sent an email around to everyone asking who would like to give one of the computers a new home, and I figured the price was right, even if a G4 tower is slightly obsolete-ish given the rate at which computers advance. I can certainly think of a few things that I can do with it.

I need to go grocery shopping, and when I do, I intend to pick up a tomato plant to grow on the balcony. Meijer also has excellent planters full of ever-bearing strawberry plants, such that assuming I don't get the plants killed, I'd have an indefinite source of strawberries. In theory, it would definitely pay for itself.

And to balance out all the good things going on in my life, my bamboo is starting to turn distressingly yellow after years of flourishing.

Years ago, I had a brief affair with religion. A Bible had been given to me by the pastor of the church that the Boy Scouts were meeting in. I started reading it back then--made a genuine effort to make it from cover to cover.

I will admit that I didn't make it a quarter of the way through. I've mentioned this to a few people over the years, and they laughed and generally told me something along the lines of "no average person would read the whole thing." Quote is paraphrased on account of this was years ago, prior to my college days.

I returned to work only to find the five-year-olds squabbling in the online Opinion section about accepting the whole Bible. Essentially, someone said that they do not believe that every word of the Bible was written by God, and the "conversation" took the predictable course.

Reading the comments of people declaring that if you don't believe every word of the Bible was written by God, I found myself asking: "I wonder if this person has actually read every word in the Bible?"

Religion certainly can't be compared to reading an entire contract before signing it, but I still can't help holding that stupid little question. After all, you should make sure that you agree with all of those words and not just accepting them without knowing what you're supporting, right?

It's probably what ultimately killed me, in terms of religion.

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 08:35:42 GMT

I chose a bad day to try taking a peek at the kind of stuff the people who are considered the face of conservatism turn out. I have to agree that people like Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly really are just spouting some pretty ugly, incendiary things.

So a doctor who has performed controversial abortions for years is murdered while he's at church. Which is bad enough to begin with.

Going through the reactions of conservative voices, however, makes me feel kind of sick. The wording is different each time, but each one amounts to "Yeah, I guess the law says murder is wrong, but this guy really deserved it."

Some political writers criticize O'Reilly because the guy's been saying incendiary things about how the doctor was a "mass murderer" that "needed to be stopped" and etc. O'Reilly talks about the number of abortions the doctor performed as if that makes everything better, and he has a couple people pop on screen for a couple moments to go "people are just saying that stuff to stifle criticism of abortion." All kinds of crazy things have been said.

A man was killed and all anyone can do is argue about arguing about abortion.

I'm looking forward to my furlough next week so that I can cut myself off from stupid, disgusting humanity for a week.

Tue, 19 May 2009 20:58:00 GMT

I managed to approach the new Star Trek film with a mostly open mind, and as a result I did manage to enjoy it. It'll never take the place of beloved films such as "Wrath of Khan," "The Voyage Home," or "The Undiscovered Country." But it kept me entertained.

After some reflection, I have boiled the bits I didn't like down to four complaints:
1. Frantic pacing. The Star Trek I'm most familiar with had much better pacing, if perhaps slowed by the details of things, such as how the planet Khan got marooned on was devastated, or the entire Genesis project. But that's what made it good science fiction. The movie tries to appeal to fans of something more fast-paced, at the cost of some of its development. One moment Captain Pike is handing out orders, the next moment bam Spock's on the bridge and the action is going. One moment Kirk is marooned, bam he's being chased by a monster. How is Nero destroying planets? Uh...some kind of "red matter" that is...matter that is colored red...QUICK CUE THE NEXT FIGHT BEFORE WE HAVE TO EXPLAIN SOMETHING.

2. Soundtrack. I loved that it opened with the classic bridge sound effects, but. Where were the horn fanfares that cut through the theater? Star Trek needs that fanfare, and putting it in the ending credits as an afterthought saddened me. Or maybe I just missed it in the frantic action.

3. "Homages" to everything that came before. That's cool. I liked Metal Gear Solid 4, which is like a series of homages to MGS' rich history. But as they did their best to say "this is a new, completely different Star Trek," these homages quickly turn into them refuting a lot of memorable moments. For instance, all through "The Voyage Home," Spock ponders the question "how do you feel," and his answer by the end was "I feel fine." The new Spock says that "fine is unacceptable." The writers kept Sulu's background faithful, as he mentions that his combat training was fencing--but then when it's time for him to fight, he pulls out a katana and doesn't fence so much as go through all the typical Hollywood swordfighting moves.

4. Product placement. Hi there, Nokia, Budweiser and...some kind of whiskey that slips my mind. What the hell are you doing in the 23rd century? Uhura ordering a Bud just doesn't do it for me, and Nokia's cell phone ring doesn't particularly fit into a future where all the rest of the communications devices chirp and beep. It was very jarring.

But in the end, when I see the noble lines of the Enterprise swinging around to make an approach on the enemy ship, and the evil captain sees which ship it is and shouts "WAAAAAAAAIT" I can forget all those complaints.

And they have the obligatory scene where the new ship has trouble going to warp. That's one grand tradition that I enjoyed seeing continue, even if they make it Sulu's fault this time.

And the red shirt died, which we all know is the most important tradition of all.

Mon, 18 May 2009 22:16:13 GMT

I'm still grumpy because someone rear-ended me while I was stopped at a red light a few days ago.

I was having a great day on Friday, so it figured that on my way back from work around midnight, it was raining. I was stopped at a particularly long red light for some time, when suddenly there's a bang and my car jolts. The car that hit me swerved at the last moment, and so they're in the right-hand turn lane, and still moving very quickly--and they promptly zip around the corner and disappear into the night.

Let me tell you, it just isn't possible to get a license plate number when it's dark, raining, and you have all of a second to try and read it.

My bumper just has some deep scratches, a fender has one small crack, and the tail light and turn signal on my passenger side had to be replaced. Without replacing the bumper or fender, since it amounts to minor cosmetic damage, the taillight replacement still cost around $130. That's more than I make in one day of work.

I wish the person that hit me would have taken responsibility for what they did. But he or she chose to flee, and that makes me feel rather...vindictive.

I hope whoever hit me had more expensive repairs to deal with. I doubt that they did, considering it looked like they had a sturdier, metal bumper as opposed to my dinky plastic-encased car--but I still hope. I dream that karma has something in store for them.

And I want to smack the people carrying out their stupid bickering on the paper's website. It's a side-effect.

Thu, 14 May 2009 03:31:08 GMT

Sarah Palin is going to publish a memoir, and it happens to be coming out in 2010, they year she's up for reelection in Alaska. When I read about this, I was at work and I tried terribly hard to keep from laughing because even though we're fairly casual at work it just didn't seem right.

Why is it so funny?

She said this: “There’s been so much written about and spoken about in the mainstream media and in the anonymous blogosphere world, that this will be a wonderful, refreshing chance for me to get to tell my story, that a lot of people have asked about, unfiltered.”

An unfiltered account of your life the year that you're running for reelection? Excuse me while I laugh, and laugh, and laugh.

Putting aside my cynicism in regard to the motives of a politician's actions, I still have to pick this statement apart.

I believe that there is no such thing as an unfiltered story about yourself. The written word is so much easier to control than the spoken one--it's why I'm so much more comfortable with it, really. When someone talks about themselves their story is generally going to paint themselves as a pretty good person; after all, we generally see ourselves as good people. When someone writes about themselves, you get the same thing, but with the added bonus of being able to go and take your own words back.

You can edit.

And that is a filter in and of itself.

Sun, 10 May 2009 02:22:01 GMT

Apparently we practice censorship and push porn at teenagers.

I think I can see why so many of the older people I work with are jaded.

The really funny thing about this is that person thinks teenagers need help finding porn on the internet. Or that they even need us to encourage them to seek it out.

They also use ridiculously huge font and end with the random thought that we'll just remove that post because "The Enquirer is very liberal." Whether or not the Enquirer is liberal has so little to do with whether or not we'd remove that post. Actually, I think we manage to be a pretty moderate organization, but it's hard to shake the broad-stroke label of "the liberal media."

As long as I'm close to the subject of politics:

I'm really tired of seeing people compare Presidents Obama and Bush to Hitler. I might not have liked Bush much, but he was no Hitler--and neither is Obama.

I keep seeing people write "oh, Hitler was loved by the far left too, you know" and "oh, Bush practically brought the Gestapo to America." Hey people, you know what else they have in common with Hitler? They eat. Diabolical!

Obama, Bush, Hitler. Which one of these things is not like the other?

Job Evaluation

Thu, 07 May 2009 06:02:49 GMT

My introductory period at work ends on the ninth, but my editor, Bill, decided to go ahead and do my evaluation today.

Here's how Jon scores for the first thirty days of a real job:
Quality of Work: (Accuracy, attention to detail, organizational & planning skills, thoroughness of work, appearance of work products, understanding of elements of job, equipment operation and procedures, applying sound judgment & decision making skills.)

Needs improvement. A few inaccuracies have slipped by me, such as that one that had someone trying to get me fired.

Quantity of work: (The amount of acceptable work produced as compared to expected results.)

Meets expectations.

Initiative: (Seeks additional work, is a self-starter, takes action to improve performance, makes suggestions for improvement for Department/Company.)

Needs improvement. Taken with a grain of salt; Bill generally isn't around much when I am, so it's pretty much impossible to judge this.

Communication: (Deals with management, co-workers and/or clients and other external contacts in a cooperative, professional manner. Reacts positively to suggestions/instructions from supervisor. Maintains confidentiality of information.)

Meets expectations.

Adapatability: (Works well under pressure, accepts unexpected assignments, meets deadlines, responsive to change, copes with changing priorities.)

Meets expectations.

Safety: (Follows and supports safety guidelines, notifies management/safety rep of potential safety hazards; keeps equipment maintained; practices preventive maintenance; reports accidents/incidents immediately.)

Meets expectations.

Creativity/Innovation: (Abiity to think and act in ways that are new and novel, acts on creative ideas to make a tangible difference, successfully implements ideas.)

Needs improvement. I'm taking this one with a grain of salt as well. When you're new to a job and learning how to do it the way they want, you're more focused on doing things right as they are than on changing them.

Teamwork: (Works collaboratively with others to achieve a common goal, builds constructive relationships both externally and internally.)

Meets expectations. On the self-evaluations I put this down as "exceeds expectations;" Angela and I make a kickass team and have worked together to help each other out in ways that Bill hadn't expected.

Attendance and Punctuality: (Identify patterns of absence/tardiness or exceptional attendance to date.)

Meets expectations.

Key development and "focus" areas for the next review period:
Goal: -Continue to develop and keep up to date the sports section of our Planet Discover calendar.
-Continue to produce and improve the weekly Road Watch feature on area road projects.
-Take on additional page layout duties.

Manager Comments: Jonathan is off to a good start at the Enquirer. He took on a newly designed job quickly, focusing on content conversion from print to online. He performs it generally with good attention to detail.

He has made a few mistakes -- identifying some items for the Web site carousel, correcting a Military Notes listing, and a spelling and fact error in a calendar item. But he is conscientious about improving his performance, has a good attitude toward his work and is always cooperative.

Outside his daily "XML" duties at the end of his shift and other routine Information Desk tasks, he has taken on the responsibility to assemble the weekly Road Watch feature on area road projects and keep the sports events entered and updated on our Planet Discover calendar.

The "improvement needed" checks on performance are meant to encourage Jonathan, now that he had been employed 90 days, to take more initiative and suggest ways to improve his job. He sometimes expresses a lack of self-confidence, but his work is well done and he is improving. There's no need to apologize for asking questions and making suggestions. Both are encouraged and necessary for successful employment.

--

Bill went on to tell me as we discussed the evaluation that he sees me as a very measured person, thinking out what I say very well. And...I am very pleased to hear him say that. I'm really hanging onto that as a compliment.

So it looks like, long story short, I'm good for a newbie! I just need to keep driving myself like I have been to improve. When I sat down to do the self-evaluation, I felt that it was kind of silly for me to do it; on the employees end, it seems to me that as they improve the expectations should move up with it. I think if I continue along this path I'll be just fine.

Thu, 07 May 2009 03:29:19 GMT

Meijer is going to start providing nutritional ratings on the food the sell. They aren't adding to the nutritional information on the packaging--it's something they're going to add to the shelves and so on. Basically, if you're looking for the rating, you should be able to find it, and if you don't care then you probably won't notice it anyway.

When we ran this information in an article, the reaction was basically "if Meijer really cares about our health, then they would stop selling unhealthy products. This is nothing more than a publicity stunt!!1"

Well sure, it's good for their image. Any time a business does something, it's generally with the hope that their consumers

A comment: "If Meijer is really concerned with the public health the company should back it up by discontinuing the sale of tobacco products or alcohol for that matter."

That's not really what they're doing. It isn't Meijer's job to decide what you consume. What they're providing is convenience; if you happen to be purchasing food with the goal of establishing a healthy diet, then you can look at these signs and say "okay, if I buy this product, it would be more nutritious than that product."

To be honest, consumption isn't as simple as "that isn't good for you, stop selling it." To be healthy, one has to moderate everything. If you stop buying alcohol, that doesn't mean you won't still kill your liver with something else. If you stop buying cigarettes you can still get cancer. If you eat too much of one thing you can still end up with too much of some mineral or another in your system.

Someone complains about a perceived inconsistency in ratings; their example is cored pineapple versus halved pineapple. They say the only difference is the portion you receive, and they express frustration that there is an eight-point difference in the nutritional rating.

Well, yes. Half of nutrition is what you eat. The other half is how much of it you eat. So in a hundred-point scale, the portion difference between that cored pineapple and that halved pineapple made one a measly eight points more nutritious. Because it is, shall we say, a healthier portion.

Sun, 03 May 2009 02:03:48 GMT

I don't know if I'm maturing, or becoming desensitized.

Today when I read an article about the Catholic higher-ups being mad at the University of Notre Dame for giving an honor to Obama, the only reaction it got out of me was a chuckle because there's going to be a Mass of Reparation over the whole thing.

Apparently Notre Dame has to make amends for its sin of honoring a president who happens to have a pro-choice stance. I guess "hate the sin, love the sinner" is out of style?

--

I'm a little surprised. My column has started to pick up some recommendations, which doesn't actually mean that much; it's just a little thing to click in the article to show that you "recommend" it to the other readers. It doesn't mean that more people will read it or anything like that--but at the same time, people generally can't be bothered to recommend a story.

Having this column also means that I am slowly growing into the role of an expert on what road work is being done. The other day someone did a blog post on the paper's site complaining about being surprised by sidewalk work on his or her street. The poster was truly unhappy because they were jealous that someone got a sidewalk right up to their house (something that I'm fairly certain the recipient had to pay for), but I commented to fill in the information that they'd been missing. I mean, if they found it an unpleasant surprise to come home and find the sidewalk was being worked on, they'd surely be stewing next week when they close the road to through traffic to resurface it. All information they'd have known if they'd read the column, but I know how news can just be completely missed. If you don't know where and when to look.

After my comment, the poster deleted the blog post and put up a new one with much nicer wording.

I got the warm fuzzies.

--

By Wednesday, I'm supposed to come up with a tentative schedule for my...looks like sixteen vacation days for this year. Never having had paid time off before, I am uncertain what to do with it.

Worse, I want to simply horde them. I generally default to saving something in case I want it more later--old books, money, tasty snacks, even one-time-use items in games. Especially one-time-use items in games. You should see how I horde items in Baldur's Gate. It's generally harmless to be stingy in a game, whereas in real life it can actually lead to some problems. You can horde items in a game to the point of succeeding without ever getting around to using them--but if you save food too long it'll go bad (speaking of, I really need to finish off the loaf of zucchini bread my mother gave me...last month.).

Or more to the point, this vacation thing. It's like having that five-day furlough that's coming up next month; I don't know what to do with it, but in this case it's a good thing so I don't want to simply plunk it into the schedule any old place it's convenient.

What am I supposed to do with a vacation? Surely I should actually do something with that time. It feels like I should visit relatives or friends, which naturally takes coordination with said people. I don't need to worry about sinking my vacation into spending time with a special someone, at least. Benefits of not having a romantic life.

Maybe I'll call Cliff and see if the Venture Crew is going on any fun trips this year.

Fri, 01 May 2009 01:53:12 GMT

A local school has decided to make band class mandatory for fifth through 12th graders. I feel this is a bad idea.

Now, I loved band. I hope this is evident in the fact that I learned two instruments, became a drum major and still play the French Horn from time to time. I suck now because I neglected to play throughout college, but I still love it and most of my favorite school memories are connected to it.

Maybe this is a selfish part of me. It was an area where I was able to step out of the crowd. I was able to hang out with my fellow band geeks, and we would have fun. We chose to be there, for various reasons. The music program didn't get as much support as it should have, resulting in funding problems, etc. Some people stuck around because it was an easy grade, and they caused some problems because they wouldn't really try. But that band room was our place.

I wonder if this school is willing to provide the resources it will take to have every student participating in a music program? I wonder how they'll deal with the people who won't actually care about doing well? And the ones who just don't want to be there?

If the school provides the proper support for their expanded music program, more power to them. I still say that the band experience would've been ruined for me if every jerk in the school had been involved, though.

Why bother using question marks properly.

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 02:38:57 GMT

We got a "news tip" today by which I mean there's an event that we were notified of that has card games, music, auction, and just all kinds of things that you'd expect at a "Michigan Farmer's Hall of Fame Weekend Show."

The information provided is a pair of poorly scanned schedules--one is illegible and the other is just better. The sender included this friendly tip:

Are you covering this event? If not, why not? Battle creek is covering it, why are you not covering it.

Well.

For one thing, I assume "Battle creek" does not refer to the CITY. So who is covering it? If you mean the "Battle Creek Enquirer," THAT'S US. You cannot peer pressure someone by saying "Why aren't you doing this? You're doing do it!"

Assuming that it isn't us, since this is the first we've heard of it , why does this person leap from wondering IF we're covering the event to WHY AREN'T YOU COVERING IT. Putting a period on that sentence when the sender clearly understands how to use a question mark especially makes it stand out in my mind.

Finally: until the event actually happens, our options to "cover" it are kind of limited to putting it in a calendar.

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 03:25:59 GMT

The city police are going to hold a series of workshops teaching people how to recognize signs of meth labs so that the police can use tips to try and crack down on the meth problem that's taken root in the area.

The reactions to this are pretty amazing. It started with someone wondering if that meant the people at the workshops would learn how to make the drug. Then someone pointed out that no, they don't need to teach how to make the drug to tell people how to recognize signs of a meth lab. This person made the unfortunate choice of making derogatory remarks about the police in the same comment.

And then every person after that misunderstood and thought that the cynical commenter was saying the workshops would teach how to make the drug.

What was left of my faith in this country's literacy hurts and stings.

Is demonizing the political left wing any better than demonizing the right?

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 23:06:58 GMT

I should apologize that I regularly use this space to vent my opinions about the things that come on my computer screen as part of my work. It seems to me that it wouldn't be professional to put my two cents in the comments of the articles, since I need to keep a good representation of the paper and since we have paranoid people who think the political arguments that go on in our forums are simply carried out by people who work for us in order to drive page views up. (And no, they are not.)

So I turn here, where I can fire it off into the void where most people either won't read it or it at least doesn't come back to hurt the paper.

What's got me today: one of tomorrow's columns talks about this Homeland Security report on "right-wing extremism," and it touches very close to home for me for several reasons.

That is, it's the use of words to demonize a position. Columnist Diana West writes about how the report is, apparently, an attempt to demonize right-wing dissent as hate. I don't know; I haven't read it and only know that there's a lot of people joking about wrinkled old military vets being "radicals."

West's main complaint, for most of the article, is that apparently the report tries to connect white supremacists with being against abortions and same-sex marriage. I agree with West: a racist is not necessarily against same-sex marriage or even opposed to abortions. So far as I can remember I have not met someone who is "pro-life" yet supports gay marriage--or vice versa--but it's reasonable to assume there's at least one out there. Every person is a unique mash of views, after all. Lumping them together as "white supremacists" is painting with a rather broad brush.

Demonizing positions by twisting words, as those who read my previous posts know, is something that pisses me off. I remember that even here in America there are those who beat and kill people of different races, there are people who beat and kill homosexuals, and perhaps the most memorable is that there have been hit lists put on the internet inciting people to harass, attack, and even kill doctors who practice abortions. I feel it is fair to say that is highly condemnable extremism. To lump it all under the label of "white supremacists," conjuring images of Teh Evil Nazis, is also unfair and I can see where it could wrongly come to be applied to conservatism in general.

Much the same way it wouldn't be fair to say that liberals are un-American socialist baby-killers.

West's article almost gets it right--the problem being that she ends it by claiming that all this is a liberal attempt to demonize right-wing political views that is "not only unconstitutional but also un-American."

People who live in glass houses should not throw stones. Both sides are equally guilty of demonizing the other. How often have I heard people say that liberals hate America--with the implication that they are evil and, therefore, so are any of the political values they hold? Just a few weeks ago there was a rash of people on the newspaper's forums citing a study that claims to prove that conservatives are more generous than liberals. Apparently this study said that liberals couldn't even be bothered to donate blood. Why, if all that's true then that means conservatives are better people than liberals, right? And since it's a study that means it's a proven fact that liberals are selfish and horrible. Right.

You see? Demonizing. My political values most likely label me a liberal, but I donate blood when I can (and I have the cards in my wallet to prove it, though I really just carry it with me in case I end up in a hospital and they need to find out what blood type to give me) and generally strive to overcome the selfishness that I think is just a part of instinctive human behavior, regardless of whether or not you're liberal or conservative.

So, aside from the fact that the Department of Homeland Security doesn't write reports that paint liberals as threats to security--why isn't demonizing the liberal political values "un-American?"

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 22:41:29 GMT

Oh dear lord these opinion letters. A person writes in that "Democratic voters have always needed to turn a blind eye to the contradictory behavior of their leaders. Barack Obama, for example. Whatever he does, he claims he's doing the exact opposite."

The reader then proceeds to give a bunch of examples--except that only one of them is actually a contradiction.

"The ironies are pretty tasty. Some Democrats love their firearms. Obama claims to support the Second Amendment as he plans to ban guns. Some Democrats are religious. Obama is very open about supporting abortion and is in fact the most vicious baby killer ever to be elected to anything. While on his apology tour overseas, in a Muslim country, he specifically stated America is not a Christian nation. Illegal immigration is supported by Obama. Has anyone inquired as to how this is supposed to help American workers? No, I suppose not. We just wanted change, and yes we can."

Okay, I'll buy that Obama is being contradictory if he says he supports the Second Amendment yet plans gun bans. However, "some Democrats" being religious doesn't make Obama being pro-choice a contradiction in his behavior. You can be religious and still be pro-choice. FURTHER I'm pretty sure he's never killed a baby. The wording of "pro-abortion" and calling the practice "baby killing" is simply language chosen to vilify it. After all, if you look at it in terms of "pro-life" and "pro-baby killing" the moral choice becomes pretty loaded. People who are pro-choice don't actually get out of bed in the morning and say "I think I'm going to get pregnant/impregnate someone JUST so I can have an abortion." Rather, it is about giving women the right to choose what to do with their bodies.

Anyway--how is Obama saying America is not a Christian nation a contradiction with his own behavior? I'd say it fits pretty well with his behavior so far.

The letter isn't actually about Obama's behavior being contradictory; it's just a list of things this person doesn't agree with.

For instance, he goes on to complain: "General Motors has been making vehicles people want, like trucks and SUVs. The government plans to end that."

Woah, woah, woah.

If people wanted trucks and SUVs, they would've been buying these trucks and SUVs and General Motors wouldn't be in the trouble it's in now. I drive one of GM's Saturns because that's the kind of car I want. People scrambled away from trucks and SUVs well before the government started taking control of the auto industry. I'm inclined to agree that Obama shouldn't assert government control over the auto companies, but I also feel that the reason the auto companies are failing is because nothing else will get them to give us a desirable product.

A modern tea party?

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 23:46:51 GMT

We ran an article about the "tea parties" that have been going on. People protesting the bailout spending, and it's certainly within their rights to do so.

I just wish I'd stop hearing about children carrying protest signs.

At a local "tea party" there was a kid in a stroller trying to hold up a sign that said "STOP Subsidizing STUPIDITY." Now, I have to ask: does this kid even know what subsidizing means?

Another person stuck a tea bag in their dog's collar.

As I look through various Associated Press articles on these protests, I keep seeing things like this.

Yes, you can protest, yes, you should express your opinion, but the kids don't know what's going on and the dog probably doesn't even know where he is. I imagine that the people who set these examples up are trying to convey something like "even THEY disagree" but to me, it's a meaningless gesture.

A person commented on our article about the local protest, saying "In a small town in Central Florida the 'Tea Party' rally was a huge success. Of course the left leaning main stream media won't acknowledge this, but those of us who attended know the truth and we will spread it! Just wait until the July 4th rally. It will be huge!"

...I don't have any idea how this came up, but our article doesn't pretend to judge whether or not the protest was a success; it just says "hey this event happened, here's how it went down."

Now my opinion is that a protest isn't a success until the thing you're protesting is changed. In which case schyeah, the protest wasn't a success. Maybe it will be eventually, but for now? It's too early to say.

...okay yeah, I'll admit that I'm kind of put off by how much tea they're wasting.

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 23:17:30 GMT

The paper I work at is owned by Gannett, which is a pretty huge company, really.

We ran an article today about several small Michigan Gannett papers closing or merging. I made the mistake of reading the comments made to this article.

One comment, to give you the tone of all of them: Gannett will be closing quite a number of newspapers this year.

One of the indicators is not only hits to their websites, but community interaction and diversity.

BCE has stifled and censured themselves onto the most likely to be closed sheet.

Too bad, but [we] might actually see the emergence of a non-dictatorial exchange of thoughts and ideals when the boards aren't influenced by the narrow and short sighted.

There exists a suppression of thoughts not deemed to be within some well defined parameters and counter productive to the growth of any community.

Perhaps excepting thought trains other than your own might be the ticket.

Excuse me, reader, but if you'd been paying attention, we just got an journalism award for the best website in the state. Not only are you being rude and pretending we are some kind of ogres to our faces, but you're NOT BEING CENSURED WHILE YOU DO IT.

Well, technically I suppose there's the profanity censer that replaces swear words with more family-friendly asterisks, but generally? We only get rid of comments and forum posts that constitute as abuse of our site. We won't keep someone from saying something just because we disagree with the opinion. Hell, we let you people squabble like five-year-olds twenty-four hours a day, constantly insulting each other because you think everyone else commenting is stupid.

Laws regarding what's said on the web can pretty much go any which way. The best way to keep from running into trouble is to monitor the site, looking for anything inappropriate that we don't want people to think negatively of us for. It's called being responsible for the content on our website. We aren't Livejournal, which can weather having people get in a tiff about inappropriate content.

We aren't burning books over here.

Sun, 12 Apr 2009 00:37:40 GMT

I "took one for the team" this week, when a superior asked me to change my days off so that I'd be at work on Friday to cover for her work. This not only let me take a three-day weekend with which to visit my grandparents, but it also let me concentrate one of my work days this week on a fun duty I don't get to do as often as I'd like: page layouts.

Got to design three of Sunday's pages and give advice to my fellow newbie AND one of the veteran reporters on how to do theirs. I was giddy. Basically, I got to show off my experience with InDesign.

Came home, whipped up a cheesy potato soup, and sat down with that and a beer to watch the newest episodes of Castle on ABC's online player.

Not to mention, on Thursday I visited my parents, sister, and nieces. We chatted, went to our favorite Chinese buffet, and dyed Easter eggs.

And I realized today that despite the fact that my paycheck leaves less money for me to save away than I'd like, despite all the worries of today's politics and economy, despite the fact that I'm alone every night in my apartment...I'm happy.

Maybe I've got some good karma going.

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 00:38:11 GMT

The mind behind the D&D parody comic "Nodwick" has recently noted that he has no sympathy for the apparent plight of political comics as the newspaper medium goes through what is widely considered its death throes. He points out that it is a comic genre that relies on explaining the joke to the reader, where in any other medium the joke would be considered a failure because it has to be explained. He cites the way every creature and object has to be labeled.

I agree with his opinion, but feel that to say that the political cartoon has to explain its joke is putting it politely. It is my opinion that political cartoons consist of nothing but an explanation of itself.

Observe the razor-sharp wit of political comic humor.

Today, April 8, we start out with a depiction of a man labeled "North Korea" with a drawn bow. Nocked on this bow is, instead of an arrow, a tiny rocket labeled "missile test." The bow is held backwards, thus pointing the "missile test" at "North Korea." We learn from these labels that artist Clay Bennett is trying to say that North Korea is shooting itself by bungling shooting something it doesn't really know how to use.

Are you laughing yet?

Maybe I'm in denial, but I still don't foresee newpapers going the way of the dinosaur--but I wouldn't mind it if the political cartoon genre as we know it went under. I say we let a better form of it come about, one more along the lines of cartoons that people actually enjoy. Scot Adams has made a fortune with his idea of making the typical office goings-on a comic theme--it really wouldn't be that hard to do the same with politics.

It'd take just a little more effort than sitting down and drawing a pig, then labeling it the economic stimulus package.