Confronting the Blank Page
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 09/14/2008 - 19:23I’ve done a lot of writing today. Most of it has been for mailing lists, and nothing seems to fit for the blog. Other stuff that I’ve written will make a good blog post when I have some time to sit and think and pull it all together. Yet other than an automated post from ma.gnolia, I haven’t written anything for the blog today, and I feel compelled to do so.
Both yesterday and today, I wrote some long detailed personal emails that I was fairly pleased with. They required some serious thought and good wordcrafting. It felt good to write that way, and I’ve been thinking about my posts on the blog recently. Some of them have caused me to think as I put my words together, but a lot of them have been pretty light.
To a certain extent, that is okay. If I was having serious, weighty discussions all the time, I’d probably be even more boring. Yet I like to engage in serious discourse when I can.
I’ve also been speaking with the folks at sezWho, trying to get their post and comment rating system working more reliably on Drupal. They seem to have fixed most of the problems, although there are a few outstanding minor problems.
With that, I’m starting to get people to rate my blog posts. My welcome blog post has received six ratings, for an overall rating of 4.0. There really isn’t much of anything in the blog post, and perhaps people are using it to rate the blog overall. My most recent Wordless Wednesday post also received six ratings with an overall rating of 3.8. It was a picture of a German Chocolate cake that Fiona and I made for Kim for her birthday. As is common with Wordless Wednesday posts it received a fair amount of comments as well.
Yet my more serious post, the day before about discussions of the nature of authority on a mailing list that I’m on, received three ratings, for an overall score of 2.3. It received one comment, which didn’t really address the main theme of the post. Yet this post stimulated great discussions on two different mailing lists. I wish people who disagreed with what I wrote would leave comments about what they disagreed with, instead of simply giving it a poor rating. I also wish that sezWho would make it easy to see who has given which ratings, and what other posts they’ve rated. Without this, the ratings seem arbitrary and don’t really help to build either community or help further the discourse. I’ve suggested this to the folks at sezWho and we’ll see if this comes in a future release.
So, I sat down, I didn’t have a clear direction of where I wanted to go with today’s blog post, but, in order to stay with at least a post a day, I managed to crank out something. I hope it was interesting and/or informative. For me, the discipline of forcing myself to post every day, has been beneficial, and I think I’m improving as a writer because of it.
What do you think? What should the balance of light and serious posts be? How do we build community and discourse around our blogs? Do you have goals or other things that help you write regularly, or improve your writing?
Recent ma.noglia bookmarks
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 09/14/2008 - 03:01
Why I Support a Constitutional Convention in Connecticut
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 09/13/2008 - 12:05This November, voters in Connecticut will be asked, "Shall the state Constitution Convention be convened to revise or amend the state Constitution?" Many of my friends oppose such a convention, noting that the mechanisms are not well defined and that it opens up all kinds of potential issues for abuse. I take a contrary view, with a few important caveats.
We have a representational democracy. Many of us are too busy to be involved in drafting and lobbying for legislation that matters to us, so we have elected representatives to handle this task for us. This works well, if the representatives are doing their jobs effectively. Yet as Internet communications makes it easier for people to be better informed and more involved, I believe we should move towards more direct participation in our legislative processes.
In addition, another key aspect of our constitution, both in the Constitution State, and across our country, is the notion of checks and balances. If our elected officials are not doing their job, we should have recourse through checks and balances.
Granted, the electoral process is a key check and balance, but there are some that think our current electoral process is so flawed that we need something stronger, like a constitutional convention.
This takes me to the caveats that I have. If you feel that your representative is not doing the job that they should be doing, and the electoral process is so flawed that there is no other way of addressing this, then you should vote for the constitutional convention.
However, if you don’t even know who your state representatives are, then you should learn how your state reps are before voting for this. Likewise, if you haven’t followed any legislation through the General Assembly, and contacted lawmakers to express your opinion about pending legislation, then you shouldn’t vote for this. If your state representative hasn’t responded the way you like, and that representative has run unopposed, you should not vote for this, but you should run for state office yourself, instead.
If calling for a constitutional convention will get more people to know who their state representatives are, follow closely the legislation working its way through the General Assembly, get involved in discussion the legislation with the representatives and run for office if the representatives are not responsive, then I think the constitutional convention is a great idea.
However, my understanding is that 85% of people do not know who their state representatives are, of those, only a handful ever contact their state representatives, and even fewer even consider running for state office.
So, if you want a constitutional convention, work to get everyone you know to become more involved, and perhaps when a constitutional convention rolls around on the ballot next time, people can vote for it with a clear conscience. On the other hand, if enough people truly get involved, we may find that the electoral process can provide the checks and balances we need.
Ike
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 09/12/2008 - 21:25As Hurricane Ike approaches landfall, I’m spending a little time following what people are saying in Twitter. In particular, using Twitter Local I can get all the tweets from people within twenty miles of Houson and withing twenty miles of Galveston. The Galveston tweets are sparse and don’t say much right now, but the Houston tweets have a lot to say.
The Houston Chronicle has a special section on the hurricane, which is sending out updates to their twitter page. ‘Curfew ordered in La Porte’, ‘Humble Emergency Operations Center open and ready’, ‘POWER OUTAGE UPDATE: At least 164,000 without electricity’
Looking more closely, there are interesting comments: “CenterPoint Energy has said that it expects some places to be without power for at least two weeks.“ So, how do you cope with this? There are lots of good suggestions. One that caught my attention was “Cook meat on a gas stove or barbecue grill and start eating it right away. Share with friends and neighbors.”
While the recommendation may have more to do about not wasting leftovers since you can’t refrigerate them without power, there is a more important message underneath that. We are at our best when we all look out for our friends and neighbors. The list goes on to say, “Embrace good old-fashioned entertainment like games, story-telling and conversation.” This too, echoes the importance of being in community, of looking out for one another.
Another note, illustrates what people are in for: “All first responding agencies (fire law enforcement and medical) will cease operation at the onset of 50mph winds. “
Meanwhile, others are finding other ways of dealing with the coming storm. “Getting drunker and drunker as I await Ikey”, “ike-hurricane is giving me a giant headache” “West houston is like a ghost town - looking for the hurricane parties in my hood” “Walking dogs in 40 mph winds - ike is going 2b nasty” “DAMN! The wind is really now blowing hard here in west Houston! Power outage around the corner!” “Done laundry, got food, full gas tank, cash in pocket, generator works, gas stove, time to relax and watch TV till Ike takes the power out!” “things they’re doing at my family's: semi-filling gallons w water 2 freeze, will put ice gallon in fridge when power goes out 2 keep cool”
Dispute concerning Central Grid may lead to legal action
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 09/12/2008 - 14:49(Originally published at SLNN.COM.)
Doing business in virtual worlds like Second Life presents unique challenges and at times these challenges can lead to disagreements or even legal actions. The latest such disagreement, which is beginning to be discussed widely on various online sites is a disagreement between Barbara Newman and Frank Corsi concerning Central Grid.
