Personal
Personal reflections, comments about things I've been doing, etc.
Final day at the Courthouse
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 03/01/2007 - 09:53Well, this is it, my final day at the courthouse during the Libby deliberations. I don’t know if this will be the day that the jury reaches a verdict. I would love it to be, but I have my doubts. So, stepping away from the reporting on minutiae and the speculation about what it means, let me return to some personal thoughts about the bigger picture.
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Two houses
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Wed, 02/14/2007 - 18:40Today, I received two emails about different houses. One was from Jesse Lee writing about The Gavel, the blog on Speaker Pelosi’s website talking about what is going on in the House of Representatives. I’m glad to see it, and I especially like that there is a kids page on Speaker Pelosi’s site.
The other email was from a friend I know from the Edwards campaign. She writes about how the winter storm affected her in Illinois and gripes about how the AP stories about the storm talk about New York and the Northeast, but they don’t talk a lot about what is happening in Illinois.
Too much of the news and politics online have focus on the national story, and don’t get down to the how it effects people living across the country, in places like Springfield. I do hope that Speaker Pelosi remains down to earth and thinks about how things going on in Congress affects kids across the country and people living in places like Springfield.
Random Stuff
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 02/10/2007 - 13:18Well, it has been a busy week and there are a lot of things that I would have liked to write about that I just didn’t get a chance. I may write about some of them in more details soon.
change.org is now open. They describe themselves as a “social network for hundreds of social causes and over 1 million nonprofit organizations.” Yup, yet another online social network (YAOSN). It does have a clearer goal than many of the online social networks which seem to exist solely for the purpose of being YAOSN. I’m an early adopter there, and I hope you stop by.
Toyota Debuts New Cars Simultaneously in Chicago, Second Life. Today, I went on to Second Life with my daughter and we bought a new Toyota. It is bright pink, to match my daughter’s preferences. I’m still not good at driving it, but I’m getting there. I also haven’t gotten a John Edwards bumper sticker for it yet.
Speaking of John Edwards and Second Life, I got an email that the campaign has set up an official group in Second Life. I’ve joined what I’m told is the official group, but I don’t have any more information on it yet.
Yesterday, I wrote about the elusive micropayment. Today, I paid for my new Toyota in Linden dollars. Yesterday, I got a MasterCard Debit card from Obopay, so now people can send money with their cellphone to me that I can access immediately with a Debit Card. They seem to be targeting teenagers, talking about allowances and the ability to get parents to send cash quickly in a crunch. I haven’t sent money with my cellphone yet, and I worry that I’ll never remember the proper command to send money.
I received a galley of Jeffery Feldman’s upcoming book, Framing the Debate: Famous Presidential Speeches and How Progressives Can Use Them to Change the Conversation (And Win Elections). On first glance, this looks like a must have book, although I sure hope I don’t get the title in a game of charades. I will write more about this soon.
My mind has been spinning about this book together with Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces. At some point, I expect to have a long rambling post about the return of the hero and how it applies to personal and political life, at least when my mind stops spinning long enough.
It has been such a busy week, that there are probably a bunch of other things I wanted to blog about and have, at least for now, completely forgotten about.
When life gives you lemons
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 02/09/2007 - 15:25
When life gives you lemons, make lemon sherbet. This video starts with about 30 seconds of just the cranking, partly inspired by the NPR soundscapes. Spend some time just listening to the cranking of the sherbet.
As Miranda explains, we got the ice from the waterfall behind our house, a small effort to use nature around us, instead of relying on fossil fuel produced electricity to do the cranking and freezing.
R.I.P. Jo Wheeler
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 02/02/2007 - 22:46At around 9:30 on a Friday evening, my daughter looks over to me from her computer. She has been reading notes on Facebook from her classmates from The Long Ridge School. She tells me that they are saying that Jo Wheeler has died. I check the local paper and find this obituary.
JOSEPHINE STALDER WHEELER - creative and beloved teacher of young children, died peacefully Jan 28 at home and surrounded by family. She was 81. She had for several years suffered from COPD and lung cancer.
My mind goes back to the numerous times my children brought treasures to school for Jo to talk about in class. You never knew what you would find in her classroom. I thought of the urgent phone calls I would receive from her about some important physical phenomena that I should show the kids.
Long Ridge School always spoke about giving children a life long love of learning. It was more than just a marketting line, it was embodied in the life of Jo Wheeler, and it is now carried forward in the lives that she touched.
In the song Joe Hill, Joe tells young labor activists, that he didn't die, "Where working men are out on strike Joe Hill is at their side, Joe Hill is at their side." Well, perhaps something similar applies to Jo Wheeler.
Whenever a teacher joyfully accepts a little discovery, a dead beetle or a piece of animal dung that some child brings to the the teacher with urgent fascination, Jo Wheeler is at their sides.
