» 2004 » July -a dabbler's journal-

Gilmour’s Albums

The Handel harp concerto was one of Gilmour’s theme songs, at least in the sixties when I made a point of listening to his program. One of the neat things about Clyde’s use of this theme was variation–always the same piece, but an array of recordings, each with strengths and weaknesses, all with something to appreciate. A good lesson.

Filed under Musicks Posted on July 30th 2004

Stopgap Solutions

While I really dislike the short term limits we’ve put on the legislature, I don’t see this connection. Methought one purpose of the term limits was to reduce the proportion of career politicians in office, thus reducing those officials’ institutional commitments and freeing up the creative juices. That objective was certainly worthwhile, and ought to still apply.

Filed under Mitten State
Politickin' Posted on July 28th 2004

Fabulous Ruins

Lowell’s tribute to Tiger Stadium is a wonderful thing. Read it, and read all the Detour panels about the stadium. Read it even if you hate baseball, and despised the old ballyard. This is love, and it’s something beautiful.

Filed under Mitten State Posted on July 27th 2004

Herding Data

Greg’s perspective is very different from mine, but we seem to be watching the same issues….

Filed under Bureaucratic Whimsy
Semi-Geekery Posted on July 27th 2004

Unintended Consequences

In short, all the failings attributed to government happen in private enterprises too. These failings are a fixture of human nature and organizational dynamics.

Filed under Bookworm Alley
Bureaucratic Whimsy
Politickin' Posted on July 27th 2004

Republican Primary

The national gerrymander habit must die. The practice of routinely creating one-party election districts undermines political discourse, and subverts republican government. One party elections encourage extremism, and create a climate where debate, discussion, and compromise are impossible–on many issues, the practice permits folks to honestly believe that reaching a compromise is indecent. Few politicians, and few citizens, are naturally extremist, but we’ve created a system which encourages an extremist culture. Party advantage is not a healthy basis for defining political boundaries, and ideology needs to be tempered by honest discussion. We ought to do better than this. We must do better than this.

Filed under Politickin' Posted on July 26th 2004

Sales Pitch

Sunday afternoon, fifteen years or so ago….

Filed under Yarns and Tales Posted on July 25th 2004

I’m here to help

Dear old Rands is at it again.

Filed under Bureaucratic Whimsy Posted on July 12th 2004

Boom Town

John Clum, Wyatt & Sadie/Josie Earp, George Parsons, Nellie Cashman–all lived in Tombstone in 1881, all lived long lives, and all spent many years in mining camps in many places. This short paragraph expresses an important force in all those lives, and in the lives of many less heralded folks who mined, or lived near mines. To all appearances, everyone on this list would have lived pretty much the same life with or without the savage gunfight which appears to define the Tombstone story.

Filed under History Scrapbook Posted on July 12th 2004

From Model to Reality

The legal changes gave us reason and opportunity to rethink and rebuild our processes. First we implemented a jury-rig on the old system; it was clumsy and ignored the spirit of the legal changes, but adequately met the intention of the law. More or less simultaneously we began work on an Invitation to Bid for a replacement system which would meet our “corporate” needs. Much of the planning effort went into improving process flows, of course; another intention was to move much of the activity to the state website, so our customers could interact directly with the system. While adapting the old system to the new law was not considered feasible, it contained millions of data records and microfilm images, so moving the data and the images to the new system would be a major part of the undertaking and was a major cause for concern.

Filed under Bureaucratic Whimsy Posted on July 8th 2004

a dabbler's journal

Archive for July, 2004