Re: Happy 2009 Winter Solstice!

[Robert <http://dummy.us.eu.org/robert>]

 > From: "Simon D. Levy" <http://www.wlu.edu/~levys>
 > Date: Mon, 21 Dec 2009 17:51:25 -0500
 >
 > Thanks for your news, Robert!  Things are pretty quiet here.  I'm 
 > Department Head now (I said "head", huh huh huh) mainly because there 
 > was no one else to do the job.  Based on my bad experiences with 
 > meetings, I've managed to maintain a policy of no department meetings 
 > whatsoever, for the past term at least.  (We're small, only four 
 > full-time faculty, so it's easier just to go around to people's offices 
 > and chat on-on-one.)  It's funny you mention Barbara Ehrenreich's latest 
 > book, because the reaction I get to this policy reflects the kind of 
 > silly optimism she lampoons. 

At my work, some groups have adopted Scrum.  I guess part of that involves
stand-up-only meetings.  I frequently seem them in the corner in front of
a white board.  It's sorta strange.  Whatever works, I suppose.

(With my last one-on-one meeting with my boss, he was worried that people
were getting bored in the meetings.  So, he ended up changing the format
of each one and often just making them short.  I asked him if anyone
complained about them being boring and no one had.  I suggested that he
was just projecting our boredom.  I liked the format of the some of it
because I'd learn what everyone else was doing (which is always difficult
for me -- I guess I'm too stand-off-ish).)

 > I'll be teaching a four-week course in May on iPhone programming, and 
 > it's opened my eyes to how off the hook the telecomm industry has 
 > become.  Apple has a deal with AT&T that seems clearly in violation of 
 > the Sherman anti-Trust Act; Verizon meanwhile won't let me buy a smart 
 > phone (i.e., a device that they don't manufacture) without signing for 
 > an additional $30 month data plan, and they clearly avoid offering any 
 > kind of phone that works with Apple's iSync.  Damn it feels good to be a 
 > gangsta....

Interesting.  One of the responses to my solstice message was someone
suggesting that I get an iPhone.  I like my Internet Tablet just fine.
What's more, I could always install Android on it if I wanted.  Maybe I
will if I get fed up with the Maemo stuff installed on it.  At least, with
Android, I've be moving from one Debian-based OS to another.  And I can
keep my Debian-centric technologies...

 > What else?  Mark and DeAndra are in Peru for the holidays.

That's exciting.  Noelle and I have to renew our passports next year, but
we haven't thought of anywhere particular to go to...

 > I need to 
 > tease them about how all their turning down the heat and lights and 
 > recycling and composting and whatnot is more than nullified by the jet 
 > fuel they burn on their frequent pleasure trips.

Ha!  My father-in-law and step-mother-in-law are always travelling and I
ask them about their jet-set ways and climate change, and, 'though they
are interested in preventing global climate catastrophe, they have no
intention of changing their ways, despite it costing them a whole lot and
eating into their retirement money.

 > Like meetings, flying 
 > is something that I'm trying and mainly succeeding in avoiding.

It's hard.  Noelle and I have talked about staying with boats and trains.
It is something to think about.

(I heard a story that said that dirigibles are the most fuel-efficient
form of transportation available.  Who knows if that would be an
option...)

 > Love to Noelle,
 > Simon