I’ve no lack of things to look forward to this year. I take very little for granted, even if I often leave people with the impression that I look only to find the wrong in things, or that I focus exclusively on the ills of the world. I don’t. In fact, I often find that quite ironic; but that in itself is a topic worth a post of its own. I just wanted to log, briefly for now, that I’ve been doing well and look forward to the new year..
I’ve been doing a few phone calls on behalf of votemalik.org. If time weren’t an issue this week, I would’ve put further effort into this; but there’s a little while yet and I intend to do whatever is feasible. Ignoring even the incumbent Democrat’s predictable lack of integrity (below par even for that party), this election bears the potential to obtain, for the Green Party and those interested in environmental justice and increased participatory democracy, an office with the power to influence policy for the better, ideally..
I’ve got a fair bit of work lined up over the next few days, which is good. In the face of our economic intrigues, I don’t take it for granted that we’ve enough of an income for now to live indoors..
Itinerary for this week: everything ought to be dealing primarily with database integrations, to varying extents but with a focus on logins and e-mail lists. I’ve been experiencing issues with ODBTP in one of the projects (timeouts, etc.), which I ought to iron out, too.
I finished Orr’s Earth in Mind
I’ve been a little indecisive on the topic of protesting Obama’s inauguration, on which Drew Poe expresses a few important points very well, I think. I don’t know if I feel this is worth the effort, though, even while I definitely pass no ill judgment on those who plan on doing it. Ironically, I don’t even find it overly difficult to imagine an inaugural protest including people who in fact voted for Obama, with the internal justufucation of it being a pragmatic, tactical decision to prevent an ‘even worse’ outcome, yet want to protest the institution - the office, its power and the political infrastructure of which it is a part. I don’t feel, personally, that the issue with doing this is one of ‘propriety’; but I do think a well informed evaluation of the potential effectiveness of a demonstration ought to include its expected or predictable interpretations, and with this particular inauguration one wonders if the definition of what’s being protested isn’t too broad.
I of course feel that each of the ill-born ‘policies being inaugurated’ ought to be dealt with, ideas being put forth to that effect and then pursued intensively (i.e., not only with peaceable demonstrations); but I don’t want to invalidate the fact that, for example, indigenous peoples and others who too often experience in the first person the ill effects of ‘our’ international and economic policies even feel it worth the effort lately to write open letters to the president-elect. Inversely, of course, I’ve yet little or no expectation that those efforts will yield the desired effects in the end, either. It being a while yet before the inauguration, perhaps I’ll view this differently by then.
In a way, perhaps I’m waiting to an extent to pass judgment; but I don’t intend to do that passively. I think it ought to be an iterative process, definitely; but for now I just don’t feel the pending inauguration is as dire a problem as the efforts to further ecological injustice and other ills by those yet in office for the interim..
Inconveniently, news.infoshop.org is offline every time I try to visit it over the last few days.. ;/
On 11/10, the Indigenous Councils of Northern Cauca posted an open letter to US President-Elect Barack Obama (initially found this on intercontinentalcry.org). I’ve written up a petition, for what it’s worth, with the intent of demonstrating backing for it, and the important points expressed therein..
I’ve been passively interested in a few of the latest public offerings in the field of info/data visulalization, and thought I’d log them for now..:
I’ve often felt this is an interesting problem, and definitely think it worth a fair bit of in depth effort to iron out what ought to be done exactly. I’ll probably edit this post later with further thoughts on it..
I love the irony: one of the least depressing projects I’ve worked on this year (for pay) is an obituary database, due to its being one of the few to be well defined from inception but with the introduction of enhancements and whatnot being identified as exactly that: ideas worth pursuing that were not put forth in the initial project definition and therefore ought to be budgeted for post facto, not things I ought to do pro bono..
