links for 2005-05-31
2005-05-31 23:59:59 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Meta::Linkblog
The Bought & Paid For Oklahoma Capitol Dome
While I was growing up, the Oklahoma state Capitol building didn’t have a dome. This isn’t actually unique like I was taught — some other states have domeless capitols as well. Oklahoma’s was the only domeless one that had been intended to have a dome.
There were periodic calls that Something Must Be Done, but every time someone came up with something better to do with the money like, y’know, make the public schools a little less abysmal.
Until 2000, when Governor Frank Keating decided that it really needed to happen. Over the next few years, something on the order of $21 million was spent to build & install a dome; 75% of the funding came from private sources; I don’t know whether it came in on budget or not, and whether the private funding kicked in the full 75% or not.
What I do know is that, with the dome, the Capitol looks both boringly generic and top-heavy, and I don’t like it.
What I found out tonight, while looking at at these pictures, is that the ‘private funding’ sources got something concrete in return: their company names inscribed in the dome itself.
I’m not sure whether that says “these politicians for sale” or “these politicians already sold; go find your own”. Either way, it rubs me the wrong way.
The new photos are by KellyK.
2005-05-31 22:17:46 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Personal
Jim Thorpe Office Building
Jim Thorpe was the greatest athelete in the world. Having been born in what would become Oklahoma, he has a state office building named after him (he also has a town in Pennsylvania named after him; he never lived there, never even visited there, but it’s named after him anyway).
Among the other things housed in the Jim Thorpe Building is the Office of Personnel Management, where I worked during my college hiatus.
Unisys PCs, Banyan Vines and token-ring, ahoy!
Originally uploaded by KellyK.
2005-05-31 19:25:59 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Personal
Book Tag
I’m told I was “tagged”, so I’ll give this a shot. Too bad it wasn’t the music one; that one, I have better data for.
What is the total number of books I’ve owned?
Unknown and unknowable.
When I moved cross-country in 1996 and paid for shipping by the pound, I apparently literally had “a ton of books”, or so I was told by the moving company.
When my complete-ish book database was last updated on September 10 2000, I had 1561 books. That appears to include Amazon shipments up through June 22 2000. Since then, I’ve made several purchases from Amazon:
| Month | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | - | 21 | 8 | 11 | 8 | 8 |
| February | - | 13 | 2 | 9 | 7 | 10 |
| March | - | 4 | 5 | 10 | 13 | 12 |
| April | - | 8 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 13 |
| May | - | 6 | 19 | - | 5 | 11 |
| June | 31 | 11 | 13 | 6 | 8 | - |
| July | 202 | 18 | 6 | 4 | 14 | - |
| August | 11 | 4 | 10 | - | 5 | - |
| September | 19 | - | 12 | - | 26 | - |
| October | 12 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 13 | - |
| November | 11 | 4 | 4 | 11 | 7 | - |
| December | 5 | 11 | 6 | 21 | 4 | - |
| Total | 81 | 103 | 95 | 81 | 113 | 54 |
So, there’s a lower bound of 2088 on the number of books I have right now. That doesn’t count books I’ve bought places other than Amazon, the ones that were given to me as gifts, or the ones I inherited from my grandmother; there are at least a couple hundred of the latter, I think.
I can’t even begin to estimate the number I had as a child that were given away, or the ones I sold as a teenager and college student.
1 June 23rd and on, only.
2 including Harry Potter and the Doomspell Tournament: guess the title wasn’t updated yet when it shipped.
What is the last book I bought?
The most recently shipped was The Year’s Best SF 10 edited by David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer. I prefer the Dozois annual, but I read both, and the Dozois 2004 volume hasn’t shipped yet.
The most recently ordered was The Old Man’s War by John Scalzi
What is the last book I’ve read?
I read Gregory McDonald’s Skylar this weekend; that was a quick comfortable re-read. Skylar is an interesting attempt to merge the commercially successful funny mystery McDonald can sell but seems to be tired of (_Fletch_ et al) with a sympathetic view of modern southern country life; the southern country life is more fleshed out in the excellent, but apparently commercially unsuccessful, Time Squared Quartet (of which only 3 have been published, alas).
What are the 5 books that have meant a lot to me?
This will have to wait for another day.
2005-05-31 03:01:43 | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) | CopyrightCartel::Books
links for 2005-05-30
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scalable flash font replacement
2005-05-30 23:59:59 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Meta::Linkblog
Alice Harn Park
This art deco monument is from Alice Harn Park, across the street from the house I grew up in from age 8 on.
Several times, we found evidence of people living in the park, right behind that monument in the little grove of trees. Once, we found a knife there; my memory says it had blood on it, but that may be a youthful memory exaggeration.
I’ve never known who Alice Harn was.
Originally uploaded by BaronBrian.
2005-05-30 22:39:11 | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) | Personal
links for 2005-05-28
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disclosure triangles via unobtrusive javascript
2005-05-28 23:59:59 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Meta::Linkblog
Mr. Gordo Fanfic
The Adventures of Mr. Gordo is the “Official Writer’s Guild Zone for writing Mr. Gordo”.
One of the best parts is the guide to Mr. Gordo’s friends:
Mr. Gordo and Tara - Tara lived at Revello Drive with Willow following season five. If any of the characters on the show seems like someone who would be a stuffed animal type person, Tara is it. Both Mr. Gordo and Tara are very quiet and good listeners, too. Most likely, though Mr. Gordo would have been missing his Girl a lot after season five, he probably liked this Quiet One. Also, Tara could read auras. Could she have noticed some pretty colors clinging to a certain pink plush piggy?
This site specifically disclaims it, but you’ve gotta know there’s Mr. Gordo slashfic on the way.
(via Theresa Nielsen Hayden’s linkblog)
2005-05-26 21:45:58 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | CopyrightCartel::TV::Buffy
Divorce Court: Parents v. Judge
As part of a divorce proceeding, Cale J. Bradford, chief judge of the Marion (Indiana) Superior Court, has forbidden a pair of Wiccan parents from exposing their child to “non-mainstream religious beliefs and rituals.”
Mind you, neither parent asked for the order, and both objected to it; the apparent problem is that the child is attending a Catholic school, and the judge is worried the differences will confuse the child. Even if such a concern was reasonable, which it isn’t, and were properly within the judge’s perview, which it isn’t, this is an insane solution. Given a choice between practicing their religion or changing schools, I suspect they would have chosen the latter.
It’s easy to imagine the outcry if non-Catholic Christian parents were forbidden to expose their children to any religious beliefs that would differ from those shown in a Catholic school, or vice versa; the outcry here should be at least as great.
For the record: I grew up in a Unitarian family (which in turn meant in-church exposure to everything from Animism to Zoroastrianism) , attended an elementary school associated with a Presbyterian church (but which had little or no religious content), attended a Catholic high school (which had required religion courses, a daily prayer, and optional daily and mandatory monthly masses) and attended a Methodist college (with required religion courses). And I’m not confused at all: there is no god, and there’s no meaning to life except what we make of it. So we better choose to make something good of it.
(via Deus X’s linkblog)
2005-05-26 20:37:18 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Politics::Legal | Religion
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2005-05-21 03:07:00 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Meta::Referers
links for 2005-05-20
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blank keyboard, real switches
2005-05-20 23:59:59 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Meta::Linkblog
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2005-05-14 03:06:00 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Meta::Referers
links for 2005-05-10
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official jeopardy forum
2005-05-10 23:59:59 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Meta::Linkblog
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2005-05-07 03:13:00 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Meta::Referers
