Monthly Archives: March 2007

Generally speaking

“Democrats want to…”

“Republicans won’t…”

“Conservatives can’t…”

“Liberals believe…”

“Christians think…”

Go ahead: fill in the blanks. You won’t be alone. Countless times each day, someone fills in those blanks, and many more. One big statement — accusation or applause — is painted on one big label, and that statement is asserted to be true for every person who might don that label.

Why not? They’re easy assertions to make if you can believe that every big label covers a monolith, a slice of the population that thinks, believes and acts the same. And since so many people are willing to use those broad brushes, you’re more likely to be met with equally easy assertions than you are to be challenged to think on a smaller scale.

Democrats want to … destroy the foundations of America? Republicans won’t … pull their heads out of the sand?

I realize this generalization is necessary to some degree; to cover the variety contained in any one large group would require a prohibitive amount of time and effort. The range of specific beliefs within the “Christian” label, the range of specific ideals within the “Liberal” label and the range of specific opinions within the “Republican” label are far too large to be easily listed. So for the sake of convenience and continued dialogue, a world of pundits — both credentialed and self-appointed — speaks generally, perhaps with the assumption that everyone remembers the details within the broad strokes.

But do we?

I am not sure I can honestly say I am consistently careful to avoid the traps of the big labels; even if I am, it would be hypocritical for me to produce my own broad brush to assert that few consider the details. That is not my intention; There are plenty of people who use the larger labels as a tool of necessary convenience rather than a shortcut or a crutch.

Unfortunately, those people are not as entertaining as the easy label traders, so they don’t attract such vociferous fans, nor are they as easily parroted. Broad labels with underlying complexity become shallow labels with overarching simplicity, making it easy to forget that allies can have some differing opinions — and enemies can have some common opinions.

And if you disagree with this post … well, you’re whatever label you most dislike. So there.

Photo of the Variable Time Period, vol. 85

Today my parents and I visited the Air Zoo in Kalamazoo. It is a wonderful place full of history, both inanimate — the airplanes — and animate: many of the musem volunteers are military veterans.

We were blessed to have a conversation with a man named Larry Jenkins, a World War II veteran who was shot down over Austria and who spent time in a German prison camp. He was very friendly and very willing to speak of his experiences in the war, and it was very moving to hear the stories directly from Jenkins.

In addition, he had made the effort to maintain written accounts of his war experiences (even while he was in the prison camp!), and he had provided those accounts to the Air Zoo. His words, along with the others the Air Zoo has accumulated, are necessary remembrances in a modern world so eager to move forward without taking much time to look back. Few can truly understand Jenkins’ experiences, but all should take care to ensure that those experiences are not forgotten.

A vanishing generation (26 March 2007).

See the full gallery.

Spring Silliness in Shorts and Sneakers

For me, watching the NCAA basketball tournament is like watching the Lions: it’s occasionally frustrating, often inexplicable … and yet it draws me like Florida draws whiny football coaches. Okay, maybe not quite that much, but I am a sports fan. (Besides, I’m in a pool.)

Anyway, a few thoughts from the first few rounds of this year’s tournament:

  • Obviously, CBS doesn’t highlight attendance deficits, but they also can’t always hide the empty seats. Even into the third round, I have been a bit surprised at the number of empty lower bowl seats. Last night, I had no problem spotting blocks of empty seats at the Ohio State/Tennessee game; tonight I’m seeing them at the Florida/Butler game. When do the games start drawing capacity crowds?
  • At the beginning of the year, Ohio State freshman Greg Oden was hyped as one of the best player in the nation. I have a question for the more basketball-minded among us: is he really an elite player? The two times I’ve watched him play, he’s gotten in early foul trouble and played limited minutes, and his team won without him. For his sake, I hope those were isolated incidents.
  • More generally, I dislike the offensive bias in basketball. Actually, I’m not too fond of it in most sports, but I’m watching basketball right now, so it’s on my mind. Most basketball fouls are a mystery to me anyway, but it bothers me to no end that defensive players are whistled for seemingly pedestrian bumps while offensive players are given the liberty of backing into a defender and creating space for a shot near the basket. Maybe there’s something I’m missing (likely), but it irks me nonetheless.

Reading the ‘Book

Some impressions after a couple weeks of exploring my MacBook:

  • The Dashboard and its many available widgets are fun. I can see why Gates and His Merry Band of Bloated Software Purveyors decided to incorporate a similar idea into Vista.
  • iDVD? Amazing. Seriously. My team DVDs are (I think) more attractive productions, and they’re easier to make. For that part of my work, iDVD went a long way towards justifying the cost of the MacBook.
  • For some reason, Firefox does not like to cooperate with certain page elements (flash or java applets). Sometimes they display, sometimes they don’t; typically, they display only if I scroll down so they’re at the very top of the screen. I have no such problems with Safari. Out of curiosity, I may try Mozilla’s Mac-specific Camino browser to see if I like it.
  • I don’t know if this is my imagination or not, but it seems to be a bit more mysterious about its inner workings. It seems a bit hesitant to communicate even things like, “Hey, I’m really busy thinking right now, give me a moment.” Really, that’s not much of an issue; it’s just a difference I may not always like. But let’s be honest: it’s not like the countless cryptic messages and error codes of Windows are particularly informative.
  • The remote is fantastic. I love it. It may not be a true necessity, but it’s nice to have. Like power steering and elevators.
  • The monitor is a bit of a sardine can — this 13-inch display has a slightly higher resolution than does the 15-inch on my Dell — but I knew that would be the case before I bought the ‘Book. From the start, I planned to buy a larger monitor for photo editing purposes (both for photographic accuracy and so my eyes don’t have to focus on small objects for long periods of time); since spring sports will begin soon, that purchase is in the very near future. Most likely purchase: the 20″ Apple Cinema Display (but refurbished, so cheaper).
  • On the positive side of the sardine can: it’s small. Very portable. And yet the keyboard is pleasant to use. That, I think, is a major accomplishment.
  • The apple on the front lights up. It means nothing for performance, but it’s worth some cool points.

Overall: I like it. No buyer’s remorse here.

Minister of Menial Tasks and Other Minutiae no more, part 2

When last we left the story, my chair at the university looked sad and lonely, like a Michigan State football coach who just realized the astounding futility of his job. It’s been a week, and my chair almost certainly continues to be sad and lonely. But this is not about an inanimate piece of university property (my chair, not the men’s basketball team); this is about the inanimate piece of blog author whose words you are reading.

The end of my temp position left me with a world of options, if “a world” can be translated to mean “I have no idea what’s going on.” As my last day approached, I assumed I would fill the void simply by seeking another MoFri job teeming with equally menial minutiae, gathering a regular paycheck while living a cell phone life (coming alive in the evenings and on the weekends). It was the safe, obvious option.

If you’ve been reading this site for any length of time, I’m sure you’ve noticed an unusual number of photographs of high school sporting events; this is a pursuit of mine that has grown significantly over the last year or two, as I have gained further experience and equipment. The response to my efforts has been pleasantly positive, and I have enjoyed the time I’ve spent around the teams; as one who enjoys both photography and sports, it has been a natural fit.

Despite that, I never saw it as a potentially serious career. I thought I should just keep it on the side, doing what I could outside my work schedule. Trying to make a living mostly off high school sports photography? That’s not safe, right? Not for a while, at least. So even though I enjoyed my photography, I assumed it would take a back seat to that desk job that had to be out there somewhere.

As it turned out, God wasn’t focused on the safe, obvious option. I suppose that shouldn’t be surprising; He often has a much larger view than we (I) ever do. While I kept looking at the safe option, God kept nudging me with the option I’d discarded as unrealistic. And over the course of one weekend, when the thought of seriously pursuing photography wouldn’t leave me alone, I went from scarcely considering it as a possibility to considering it my primary choice. Or more accurately, God took me from one to the other. If left to my own devices, I’d probably try to be as safe as that kid wearing a life vest and floaties in swim class. And, like that kid, I’d be totally safe … but I’d never learn much of anything.

So, when my job ended on 06 March, I left my position as Minister of Menial Tasks and Other Minutiae, and I accepted the position of Minister of Myriad Megapixels.

I could elongate this post with piercing narratives and pithy anecdotes from the last week (like the humor of telling people, “I don’t have a job! Oh, and I bought a computer”), but the fruit of today’s efforts sums up everything quite nicely.

Lest you think I have gone off the deep end, let me assure you: I’ve actually gone off only the somewhat deep end. If my photography ventures don’t yet generate enough to keep me out of the poorhouse, I will eventually supplement that business with one of those aforementioned desk jobs.

But you never know what tomorrow holds.

“Many are the plans in a man’s heart,
but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”
Proverbs 19:21

Big fat moleman here

A week or two ago, I received a piece of junk email. In and of itself, this is not an unusual event; junk email is like a runny nose: there’s always more. But this particular piece of junk … well, let’s put it this way: if the people in charge of D-Day were as accurate as this particular spammer, the troops would have landed in Rhode Island.

Those of you who know me are familiar with the shape of my body; for those who don’t know me, I think health care professionals call it “string bean.” According to the BMI scale, I hover on the edge of being underweight; to make my watch fit my wrist, I had to remove every removable link and move the clasp as far as possible. Once, when I declined to join my father in ordering food at a deli, the owner looked at me and said, in his thick accent, “Are you sure? You need some meat on your bones!”

In summary: I am lightweight and portable.

With that context, imagine my laughter when this email invaded my inbox.

Hi, I hate to be the one to mention this, but people continue to talk about your weight issue and it just disgusts me. Whether you know it by now, people are always chattering about each other at work but you come up more than enough. I wasn’t the happiest or best-fit up until a year ago or so but that did change. Thanks to my dam brother-in-law(of all people). Anyhow, it was for the best.

What I am saying is that you need to do something different and maybe you can make the same difference I did. Try this stuff I used. I took it on the idea it’s just more junk but it worked great. I see more positive reviews on it nowadays and makes me feel even better. So, I am encouraging a change, not only in the chatter around here but in you personally.
-Anonymous for now
Using an anonymous email website to send this btw;)
When it helps/works just send a memo out with the name “Angel” in it. Then you can take me out to lunch to thank you. Talk to you sooner than later I hope;)

(If you know the source of the post title, you get 10 extra cool points. If you don’t, order Brian Regan’s DVD.)