On Doc's IT article

A response to Doc's Illinois Times commentary piece:

I know you can't indefinitely subsidize the state of IL but thanks for donating your time, Doc. I'd be out there if I could; for a while my sister and I were volunteering at the Sam Hill House.
It’s disheartening to see closures and cutbacks of historical venues like Lincoln’s New Salem, the Dana-Thomas House and Fort Kaskaskia.
Thanks for reminding us of the seriousness of these decisions.

Are people allowed to pick their own nicknames?

I’d been reading through some of this material yesterday in a moment of functionality. There is some interesting stuff here, made possibly more interesting that I don’t agree with many of this guy’s political views.

But, that clip we just heard in class was incredibly refreshing. I can’t remember whether I’ve mentioned in class discussion or posted to my blog (probably both) my loathing of the word “objective”. And wouldn’t you know it, there’s an audio clip where Terkel said everything I have been thinking, except he said it better. That’s a relief. I especially liked the part where he suggested that a person without an opinion has some kind of deficiency and is better compared to a robot than a flesh-and-blood person.

It’s neat to me that he was invested in learning about the “little people”. I love talking with so-called normal people, who rarely turn out to be normal after an hour’s discussion. It’s funny where you can end up after accidentally intruding on a law-enforcement convention or a find a silver clarinet grimy little junk shop on a Florida island. Those “little people” seriously have the best stories.

From what I’m reading about his personality, it seems a little odd that he died, “quickly and peacefully” as his son put it. But hey, that’s how I’d like to go.

I did a quick search through my public library database to find what kind of material there is out there related to him. Doc, you weren’t kidding when you said he was prolific. I think I found where to go with my old-timey music bent, and I want to pick up a copy of Working.

Good stuff.

Don't take ice cream from PETA

So one of my major weaknesses in life is ice cream. Love the stuff.
I'm a little bit of an ice cream snob, I'll admit it. But normally I'll even eat the refrozen-five-times generic brand if I'm desperate.

I've often wondered where I would draw the line with my love of ice cream. I'm not into the double-churned, light, super-creamy stuff because it relies very heavily on corn syrup and soy protein--ingredients I'm allergic to.

I'm searching for a good feature story on which to do my analysis, and I came across this little gem. It brings up some decent points. The last couple sentences would have been especially appropriate for discussion in the law and ethics class.

AND, I totally know where I draw my ice cream-addiction line, now.
Eeeeew.

Calculated Pi

First, I am here in class, participating. Gold star.

Okay, I don't like this article.
It tastes bad.

Bleh. There was an extended characterization of Obama; it was well-done... nice imagery, color, all that. Since it was so well done, it probably made me like the article less.

I guess the part that's getting to me is what Obama said to the business owner. I'm not saying it wasn't a good point, I'm not saying it wasn't a perfectly framed media moment. He just sounds like a snot, and that makes me bristle.

Normally, when I'm reading political material, I try to keep an open mind and give the benefit of the doubt. Since the author certainly wasn't aiming for objectivity, I'm not going to bother to stifle my irritation.

Potential Markets

http://chefmom.com/ Chef Mom magazine

http://www.relishmag.com/aboutus/index.html#contact Relish magazine

I didn’t see anything right away (on the freelance writing site) that looks like it would want a version of my “bucket list” article.
But, I’m working on a cookbook, so I could probably whip up a foodie piece. And I have some great quality photos that could go with it.

Many Travels of the Swastika

We were talking about swastikas in class thanks to Claire's discussion of reading her girl-power Grandmother's diary (yay for swastika club?!).

Some people mentioned how swastikas were a symbol of peace and power. Here's another weird way a swastika came up in another culture.

This is a Roman encaustic (painted with wax) funerary mask. Some Romans down near Alexandria practiced mummification for a period. There are tons of these nice paintings, so one day I was scrolling through and spotted a swastika on the sleeve of the guy on the left.

Creepy? Kind of.

Check out other masks at http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/mport.htm .

THE LINK:

The link to the good topic/bad writing style article I was looking at:

http://adage.com/digitalnext/post?article_id=130971&search_phrase=use+crowdsourcing