Personal

The stuff about me and my life. The “diary” side of blogging.

Candlelight Vigil at Green Lake, Seattle

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Little girl at the candlelight vigil

I was just starting to go through my regular online reading tonight when one of the first posts I read was Shelly Powers’ post about the candlelight vigil she was planning on attending (Update: her post about the vigil she attended is up). I checked the MoveOn page where the vigils were being organized, and found that there were many planned for Seattle. The largest was being held at Green Lake, so ten minutes later I was on a bus out to Green Lake.

The entire vigil was very nice. Hundreds of people turned out (literally — when I was on the MoveOn page, over 500 people had signed on with intent to attend, and I’m sure that many more showed up that hadn’t hit the website) for the walk around the lake. Greenlake is already one of the prettiest areas of Seattle that I’ve seen so far, but it was absolutely gorgeous tonight. Lit by an incredibly bright full moon, at any point along the three mile path you could look across the shimmering waters of the lake and see the softly flickering lights of candles being carried along by participants. An area by the main parking lot had been set aside as the primary staging and meeting area, and some people had set up a quick sculpture that looked like it may have been modeled after an American Indian dreamcatcher (I’m not sure if the design had any special significance, it’s just that that was what it reminded me of).

As has been the hallmark of the recent demonstrations, the assembled people were from across the spectrum, from students to businesspeople to entire families. Everything was nicely low-key, as people worked their way along the path either singly or with friends, talking quietly, enjoying the cool weather, the walk, and the companionship of so many others gathered together in their hope for peace. As people left, one section of flowerbed started gathering candles that hadn’t gone out yet, carefully placed between the daffodils, creating a softly glowing island of serenity on the way out of the park.

As I made my way around the lake (candleless, unfortunately, but with camera in hand), I came up behind a family with two little girls. One of the girls (shown in the picture at the beginning of this post), striding in front of the group, carried her candle in front of her and proudly set the pace for her family by singing “My country ’tis of thee.” The simple sound of her young voice singing that song as she walked gave the lyrics an air not of irony, but of hope — words of a land of liberty, letting freedom ring from every mountainside.

How I hope she’s right.

I’ve posted some pictures (those that weren’t too dark to be visible) of the evening’s walk on my family’s website. Feel free to take a look.

I want a Big Wheel!

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Big Wheel!

From a Yahoo! Messenger conversation with my friend Laura back up in Alaska…

Laura: dawn just got a bike!!! i’m so jealous!!!
Michael: really? wow…cool!
Laura: not a harley…but still…
Michael: Big Wheel? lol
Laura: LMAO
Laura: that would be cool
Michael: dude
Michael: I would so get an adult-size Big Wheel
Michael: haul my happy ass around seattle on it
Michael: that would rock
Michael: r
Michael: a
Michael: w
Michael: k
Michael: rawk
Laura: HELL YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Michael: lmao
Laura: that would be so very very cool
Laura: lol
Michael: y’know, I think the front wheel would end up something like four feet high
Michael: sweet
Michael: lol
Laura: someone could probably make a lot of money off people like us….
Michael: no kidding
Michael: i need to go into business
Laura: it’s another get rich quick scheeme

New job position!

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I’ve got a new position at work! My first full day was yesterday — I hadn’t written about it yet, both because it all happened fairly quickly, and because I don’t like to jinx things too much before they happen.

Last Friday, my boss came up to me and told me that one of the guys in the EDS area (where customer submitted files are tweaked, adjusted, set up, and sent to the printers) was leaving, and asked if I’d be interested in taking a shot at the spot in there. Hm. Was I interested? You bet’cha.

So starting this week, I’m now a member of the EDS team at MSCopy, Xerox’s print shop on the Microsoft campus. I’m finally away from the Big Green Button! I’ll now be spending my days bouncing among Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Acrobat, Illustrator, Photoshop, Pagemaker — and probably more, those were just the ones I got to play with yesterday — making sure everything we’re sent is ready to go flying out of the machines. Fun stuff!

Quiet time

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I’m around, I just haven’t been feeling overly talkative lately. Not sure why, really, but figured a couple days away from the weblog wouldn’t really hurt anyone.

I’ll surface a bit more later on tonight, after I’m home from work, but I wanted to get a quick note of this up — the Seattle Times is starting a weblog tracking the Iraq conflict called Battle Lines. No clue where it’ll go, as they’re still on their first post, but it might be worth keeping an eye on.

Oh, and while they’re not linked from the main page, you can find RSS feeds here (RDF) and here (XML).

Update:

There are also two associated weblogs as part of the site — one by a family against the war, and one by a family in support of the war.

Interesting approach, this. Could it be one of the first signs of corporate media “getting” blogs? Dunno yet, too early to tell.

Nice to see they’re using MovableType, though! Now the just need to turn on comments, trackback, and all the other associated goodies!

Love me, love my country

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I found this post from Dave Winer today, which definitely raised my eyebrows.

Our European allies say we don’t need to go to war. But what do they say to the families whose kids are going there to die? They say that they love the American people but hate our government. They don’t understand the US. Read the Constitution. Check out the first three words. It’s our government. You can’t like us and not like our government, and vice versa.

This seems to me to be completely off base. In fact, the first thing to pop into my head after reading this was, “Sorry — but Bush is not my President.”

Not My President

Yes, the Constitution of the United States begins with “We the people….” The thing is, not only did I not vote for Bush, but “we the people” didn’t vote for Bush either. It’s well known at this point that though he got the Electoral College votes to put him in office, the popular vote was not for Bush.

But — even if that were not the case (and it is a moot point, not to mention one that’s been beat to death many times over) — why must an appreciation of a people equate to appreciation and condoning of that people’s government? That doesn’t make any sense to me, for many reasons.

One of the great things about being an American is the right to disagree with our government. I can look at the decisions my government is making, decide for myself whether or not I agree with them, and voice my approval or dissent without fear of reprisal or retribution (at least that’s the theory, though some recent events have called that into question — just another reason why I am dissatisfied with the current government — but I digress…). I can do things like state that Bush is “not my President,” a technically false statement that does a good job of indicating my displeasure with Bush’s tactics, without having to hide behind a false identity, or worry about secret police knocking on my door. Given that that is the case here in America, and one of the things that we pride ourselves on — why in the world would we deny that right to others?

This “love me, love my country” attitude is, in all honesty, kind of frightening to me. If we’re really so fired up about how great our country is, and how everyone really should be just like us (whether or not they want that…), shouldn’t we allow others the same rights we allow ourselves? Such as the ability to appreciate America and Americans while having difficulties with where the present administration is taking us?

A question for Dave — you state that “you can’t like us and not like our government, and vice versa”. Turning that around, does that mean that because you dislike the decisions of France, Germany, and Russia, that you now dislike the French, Germans, and Russians en masse? Or that because you dislike what Saddam is doing, that you dislike all Iraquis? I don’t really think that that is the case, but it’s the same attitude, and it’s one that worries me.

iPod troubles

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Well, this bites. I’m having problems with my iPod. Normally I’m pretty good with getting things fixed, but I think this is beyond my abilities. Bleah.

Problem one: every so often, when plugging in the remote to the jack on the iPod, or just bumping the connector, the iPod will “short out” and reset. It’s more or less a minor annoyance — the iPod will reboot and start right up again, and the only real lasting effect is that the date and time need to be set — but an annoyance nothenless.

Problem two: iTunes doesn’t know that my iPod exists anymore. As far as I can tell, this behavior started after I applied the Security Update 2003-03-03 system patch. The iPod mounts to the Finder just fine, but nothing I can do seems to clue iTunes into the existence of the iPod.

I’ve tried applying the 10.2.4 Combo Update (even though I’d already updated to 10.2.4 using incremental upgrades, rumor has it that using the combo updater will fix a number of issues), completely deleting and then reinstalling iTunes, and completely resetting the iPod as outlined in Apple’s iPod troubleshooting pages. Nothing’s worked.

Luckily, my iPod is still under warranty, so I went ahead and placed a service request through Apple. I’ve never had to do this before, but I’ve read good reports on Apple’s turnaround time for service, but for the moment I’m without music when I’m not at home.

For some people, this might not be that big of a deal. For me? This bites. Hard.

Especially when some of the people at work insist on listening to “smooth jazz” — one of the few genres of music that I would gladly wipe from the face of the planet. Ugh. I want my iPod back!

Star Trek personality test

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Wil pointed to a Star Trek Personality Test based on the Myers-Briggs system. I wasn’t sure what to expect for an answer, but apparently the author did a surprisingly good job of translating the Myers-Briggs questions to a Star Trek format, as I ended up scoring as an ISFP — the same result as when I took an online version of the actual Myers-Briggs test!

Anyway, here’s what the Star Trek test said about me…

Read more

Just Hang Up

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Hang up when I’m talking to you. Get off your cell phone. In fact, turn off your cell phone. Just turn it off, put it down somewhere out of reach, and pay attention to the conversation that you’re already invovled in.

I’m sick of cell phones — or rather, I’m sick of what we put up with when cell phones are involved.

Personal calls at work on company time? Forbidden, of course — unless that call comes in on the cell phone at someone’s hip. Having a conversation with someone? Sorry, hold on, I’ve got a call. Out at dinner at a nice restaurant? Hope you don’t mind sitting there while I chat on the phone. Driving down the highway at 60 miles an hour in that gas-guzzling SUV that’s never left the pavement? Perfect time to distract yourself with the phone!

Why, for so many people, is everything put aside when the ringer goes off? You’ve got voicemail on that thing, right? Good. Then use it when I’m talking to you. I’m standing in front of you, looking you in the face — that should take precedence.

Expecting an important call? Fine, I can accept that — use the caller ID to check before answering if you can. If you can’t do that, then if an incoming call is not “the call,” make your apologies, offer to call back, and hang up.

This is simple stuff. To me, at least. Why doesn’t it seem to be for anyone else?

If you are using a cell phone, think about your behaviour while you’re on the phone. It’s basically a given that the people around you are going to be able to hear your side of the conversation — often whether they want to or not. Put some small amount of thought into what those around you are hearing. I’ve seen businessmen in expensive three-piece suits take a call and immediately turn into a foul-mouthed frat boy talking to whichever friend called, then hang up and turn back to the business conversation as if nothing had happened.

In a noisy environment? Maybe you should find a quiet place for that oh-so-important call then. I don’t know how many conversations I’ve been able to “sit in” on because one or the other party couldn’t hear well, so voices were raised, shouting into the phone, apparently under the bizarre assumption that there was some sort of “cone of silence” surrounding them. Here’s a hint, folks — we can hear you. Especially when you’re yelling.

Oh, and just because a cell phone is on your hip and you have the ability to call someone every time some little thing crosses your brain — don’t. Please don’t. Chances are, it’s not that important. If it’s really important, you’ll know it — if it can wait, let it wait. I’ve already lost too many hours to calls that had no real purpose or need, made only because there was no inhibition stopping it. I don’t need to lose any more.

I’m starting to feel like some sort of freak in today’s society. I don’t have a cell phone, nor do I want a cell phone. The only time I’ve owned one it was required by my job — and paid for by my job, too. I’m just sick to death of seeing people so engrossed in their phones that they neglect everything else.

Sorry about the rant. But please — put down the phone. Pay attention to the world.