Musings

General-purpose musings

There are 780 posts filed in Musings (this is page 24 of 78).

Never ask for business cards. Ever.

In spite of yesterday’s misfortune, I couldn’t help but note a bit of dark humor. Years ago I was promoted to technical marketing manager at Raritan. I was full of optimism and bursting with ideas of new features and directions for the CCNOC product I was responsible for. I was at the top of my career. Then three weeks into my new role, I asked my manager for an updated set of business cards reflecting my new title. Days later Raritan pulled the plug on the CCNOC product, sending the team and me to the unemployment line (I never got the business cards).

Yesterday morning, I approved my very first order of business cards since I’d been with Monolith. Look at how that turned out!

In the future I believe I will dispense with business cards altogether. It’s just safer that way!

Petrol price panic

On my daily dog walk through the neighborhood, I encountered an elderly neighbor I’d never seen before, also out walking her dog. After exchanging pleasantries and walking on, I hit upon a thought that should have been obvious all along.

When we were living in North Raleigh I saw the writing on the wall that one day I will be too old to drive safely around town. Since I expect to retire in Raleigh some day, I wanted to live where driving wasn’t necessary. Thus, we now live within walking distance of downtown, buying our house as much as an investment for our twilight years as much as an investment for right now.
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Robert’s Rules of Order not just for meetings!

I came upon a brilliant idea yesterday to keep the kids from constantly interrupting each other around the house: Robert’s Rules of Order! I’m used to using the Rules of Order to run my East CAC and Parks board meetings, why not apply them to my kids?

As chair of the household, I will formally recognize our kids as speakers and allow them the floor. Should the other wish to interject, I will ask if the current speaker chooses to yield. This will keep the squabbling down to a minimum and ensure the household runs smoothly.

(My tongue is firmly planted in my cheek here. But I can dream, can’t it?)

Keeping dogs calm during thunderstorms

Rocket


The N&O wrote about a new product to calm dogs during thunderstorms. Called the “Thundershirt,” it professes to soothe a jumpy pooch during thunderstorms and such. My neighbor bought one for her Labrador and swears by it.

This got me thinking about other proposed solutions. Kelly said she had heard people express success by rubbing a sheet of fabric softener on the dog, the idea apparently being that this would remove the storm’s static electricity from the dog’s coat. So, during the next storm I thought I would give it a try.

The other night a storm approached. The dog got nervous again, panting heavily and pacing around. I fetched a sheet of fabric softener and dutifully rubbed it on the dog. Sure enough, he seemed to calm down. But was that from the fabric softener or was it because the storm had come and gone? I can’t really say. After a second storm came by I tried it again. This time I didn’t see much of a difference.

The verdict? Sheets of fabric softener will indeed help keep your dog calm during storms, but only if you stuff them into your dog’s ears!

Seeing eye dogs

I had another of my CERT classes this evening. This time, though, I had the pleasure of sharing my class with a charming blind woman named Leah and her seeing-eye dog, Ralphie.

At the end of the session, I chatted with Leah about Ralphie, a yellow Lab. Leah expressed some mock frustration when I commanded Ralphie to sit and he instantly did it.

“My boyfriend got Ralphie to sit the very first time he met him, “she said. “It took me over two weeks to get Ralphie to sit on command!”
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Norway terrorism

By Johannes Grødem, Wikimedia Commons


I was working away yesterday when I got news that an explosion had rocked government buildings in Oslo, Norway. Later evidence pointed to it being a bomb, that a far-right Norwegian may be responsible, and that the same Norwegian is accused of a mass shooting at a summer camp soon afterward.

The first thing I noticed is that a mere 10 minutes after the bombing, I was seeing photos sent through Twitter from eyewitnesses on the scene. Putting the loss of the tragedy aside for a moment, it’s an amazing world we live in now where most everyone carries a camera and anyone can break news. It’s become my habit to turn to Twitter, Twitpic, and other direct-from-eyewitness sources whenever a big story is breaking. Nearly every one of these breaking news photos on Twitpic has comments from a media company or wire service, asking permission to run the photo. It’s obvious I’m not the only one who goes straight to these sources.
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Gerrymandering

The problem with gerrymandering (no matter who does it) is that it makes it impossible to vote for leaders solely on the basis of who has the best solutions to our common problems. The goal should not be “how can we remain in office?” Instead, the goal should be “how can we find the best solutions to our problems?” If one team has a better idea of how things should be done let’s put that team up for an honest vote, not a vote that’s a foregone conclusion. We voters aren’t stupid – why shouldn’t we be trusted? Why are politicians afraid of giving us a fair choice?

I guess I’m old-fashioned, but the partisanship-at-all-costs stuff got old a long, long time ago.

Google Plus

Google Plus

I know Google likes to stir up excitement about its services, but I question the value of the invitation-only nature of Google Plus.

I got an invitation and now I’m in, and certainly it seems better than the Google Buzz service that preceded it. However, by making it invitation-only, Google is limiting the number of friends, family, and acquaintances that can join the existing Google Plus users.

At this point, having a Google Plus account kind of like owning the world’s first telephone: it’s cool technology but it’s useless if you’re friends aren’t using it, too. A social networking site should put fewer obstacles in front of potential users wanting to sign up.

The power of mentors

We took the kids to the neighborhood pool on Sunday and Hallie happened to meet a classmate there from one of her earlier grades. He’s an African-American boy who came to the pool with his grandfather and his cousins. These kids all were hanging around the shallow end and seemed to be hungry for some activity, so in between games of tag with my own kids, I wandered over to them and said hello.

Hallie’s classmate was friendly and wanted to play tag, too, but during one such tagging expedition he abruptly stopped.

“I can’t go that far,” he said solemnly. “I can’t swim.”

“Well,” I said. “You can float, can’t you?”
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CACs and the Open Meetings Law

A question came up during last month’s RCAC meeting, regarding the legal standing of CACs with regard to the city. RCAC Chair Will Allen got an opinion from Raleigh City Attorney Tom McCormick. Will says:

Tom advises that the CAC is an organization created by the Raleigh City Council and is therefore a public body and subject to the Open Meetings law. Email is a type of communication that is covered by that law, and so any of the types of email communication involving CAC and/or city matters would be public record.

But the CACs aren’t advisory boards in the spirit of North Carolina’s Open Meetings Law. From the City’s own page on CACs (emphasis mine):

CACs are nonpartisan. They also are independent of the City Council. In fact, CACs are the only advisory boards to the City Council that are not appointed by the Council. Instead, residents of each CAC region elect the chairperson and other officers of their CAC.

Membership in a CAC isn’t by appointment like other city boards: one becomes a member of a CAC based on where one lives. That means every city resident is now subject to the Open Meetings Law. And since there are over 10,000 residents in the East CAC (for instance) and therefore 10,000 members in the East CAC, does that mean a quorum of this “advisory board” is 5,001 citizens?
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