This is Minor Stuff Now, Given the Tsunami

Still, I wanted to say again at this moment in American political history:

Poop.

When Did We Become a Cargo Cult?

The other day Karen, the girls, and I went to a movie and stopped by the local Cracker Barrel for dinner. Yes, I know. Consider, though. We have young(ish) kids and need a place to eat that we can get everyone to agree on. At least we don't have to go to McDonald's as often as in the past.

Anyway. As I stood in line to pay our check, I found myself looking up at all the stuff they hang from the ceiling and walls. They have boat motors and lard presses and lanterns and instruments and and a great deal more. Even, if you are lucky, cranberry sorters. This is a key part of their business. There's a guy in charge of all this and they do an admirable job cataloguing it all on-line.

And it's not just Cracker Barrel that decorates in American detritus. Consider Applebee's. Or Ruby Tuesday's. Or TGI Friday's -- just to stay in the restaurant realm. American diners seem to like to surround themselves with evidence of our consumer history.

I couldn't helping thinking, as I stood there, of the Cargo Cults I read about as a child in National Geographic Magazine. These were quasi-religious groups, on small Pacific Islands, that developed a certain level of worship around the astounding wealth of modern materiel dropped onto their Islands by the military during World War II. The military moved on, but the stuff remained and became a center of culture, if not religion, on the Islands.

Now, here we are. Decorating our restaurants with our left-over stuff. I guess I rather like it; I feel like I am eating in an almost museum.

Then I noticed the antique iron hanging above the customer part of the cashier's station. I decided to pay quick and get out of there.

A Walk in the Park to End 2004

Matt, Bob and I took our kids for a ramble in Cape Henlopen State Park on New Year's Eve.


The Cape is the southern shore of the entrance to the Delaware Bay. In World War II it served as a part of the coastal defense system, as Fort Miles.


Delaware's State Parks folks are working to restore parts of Fort Miles as a living-history museum, much as they have done so well with the Civil War prison island of Fort Delaware, further up in the Delaware River. At the moment, there are just a few guns and deteriorating barracks buildings.


Guns, as mechanical artifacts, are cool.


I would guess that this 155mm Howitzer, with Carriage, dates from 1955.


The Cape is dotted with watch towers, from which spotters would be able to guide the fire of the big guns. One is still open to the public. It provides a wonderful view of the Cape, the Bay and breakwaters, lighthouses, and Lewes.


Back in the woods there are a number of WWII-era bunkers. I believe these were used to store the ammunition for the large coastal defense guns.


The Walking Dune is one of the Cape's most interesting features. It's one of the largest dunes on the east coast.


Cape Henlopen State Park provides a fine example of what the flora and fauna of this area is supposed to look like.

Tsunami

It occurs to me that I have written nothing about the Tsunami that struck people all around the Indian Ocean this week. The simple fact is that the fact of this tragedy is so permanently in our minds this week that it seemed un-needed to point it out. Also, the scale of this loss of humanity is so huge that I have not really felt able to get my mind fully around it.

I could offer links to news feeds about the situation. I could offer links to sites gathering donations to help the people of the region. All that is available elsewhere. You don't need my help to find information or opportunities to help.

After several days with the story, however, I think it's time for a moment of reflection. I can't help thinking back to the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. I found myself wondering this week whether our reaction to this disaster measures up to our reaction to those attacks.

The loss of life is so much larger in this case, but the September 11 attacks were here, in our land. The dead in 2001 were victims of attacks by other human beings, while the Tsunami was an act of nature, an impersonal fact of life on a planet with tectonic plates, earthquakes and oceans.

That someone could willingly act to murder several thousand people still seems a larger fact than the reality that when the oceans rise, tens of thousands die. I mourn more for the larger group of victims, simply because there are more victims of the Tsunami. But my grief over the fact that the ability to murder on a mass scale exists among humans is just as large.

Finally, we should all remember to be humble in the face of the power of nature.

Work, Work, Work

I've just republished my main work web site, the web site of the Delaware Office of State Planning Coordination.

I've been working on transferring the content of the site over to the new page design all this week. This week, the slow time between Christmas and the New Year, is always a great week for me to do the sort of job that is best done when the phone is not ringing quite so much. I can multi-task, but some jobs are best done with a single-minded sort of craziness. This is one of them. It's dull, head down, locked to your PC, slog-through-it work, but satisfying when you come out the other end with a newly updated and fresh-looking site.

For this update, I have adopted the "common look and feel" web templates created by the folks in the state's Government Information Center. They manage the state's web portal and have tried to come up with a standard web page design that gives visitors a sense that they are on a web site that represents the whole of state government, while maintaining a sense of individual agency identity.

I have long designed my own sites, and I take pride in creating sites that look professional and work for the visitor. There comes a time, however, when pride should be set aside. In truth, I'm only setting aside my pride as a graphic designer, which is not my greatest skill-set anyway. I still take pride in providing a site that is rich in content and constantly updated.

Using Blogger, and its perfectly workable templates, have helped remind me over the last few months that it really is all about the content, more than the design. It's a lesson I learned early in my career, but often forget. Bells and whistles really only serve to deafen us and block out the important things. Heaven knows there are enough web sites already that prove this true,

So. I have tried to maintain the most useful pages, and to improve several pages. A site redesign is a rich opportunity to prune and reshape and I'm working on that part now that the main pages are up and functioning.

Hopefully, when everyone else comes back to work, they'll have a pleasant surprise.

I'm Very Proud of My Nephews

Jimmy and Andrew Mahaffie have published a tale of martial arts magic on the webpage of Yong Studios. My favorite part?

They had never seen a dog teaching class before, so all of the parents fell on their backs and fainted.

Jimmy and Andrew are cool.

Tale From a Christmas Eve

Karen, the girls and I spent this Christmas Eve in what has become our traditional fashion. We were in Rehoboth Beach for the Christmas Eve services at Epworth United Methodist Church. And we met our Friends the Southmayds at Nicola Pizza for our traditional Christmas Eve dinner (Nicobolis, of course) between services.

This year, Christina is part of the Children's Bell Choir. They performed at the earlier service. Colleen filled in to help out. They played very well. Another feature of the early service was the smaller children of the church presenting a puppet show version of the Christmas Story.



Here we have Shepherds, sheep, barn animals, Joseph and Mary, and a trio of Angels as the Baby Jesus (a Little Bear Doll) lies in the Manger. I have to confess that when Mary and Joseph first appeared, I had this vision of Joseph, as Sesame Street's Count von Count, saying "now I vill count the mangers here in Bethlehem. Ah-Ah-Ah. One! One manger here in Bethlehem! Ah-Ah-Ah!"



Yes, it sounds sacrilegious, but I mean it in the kindest way. This was a very cute version of the Christmas Story, the kids were great, and everyone got a charge out of it. It was a wonderful way to involve all ages in the service.

After our Nicoboli break, we were back in church for the later service. Both Karen and Colleen were playing with the adult bell choir. Colleen has graduated from the kids group to status as a frequent stand-in for the adult group. There's a real shock of pride, as a dad, to look up and see your daughter standing among a group of adults, almost their equal in height, almost a full adult, holding her own in that social setting, and playing music with great skill.

Christina and I contented ourselves with belting out traditional Christmas carols from the congregation. That's one of my favorite parts of the season.

The Epworth service, like many others I'm sure, ends with a quiet singing of Silent Night as the lights are dimmed and a flame is passed from person to person, all holding small candles and singing together.

I treasure the tears on Karen's face at this point each Christmas Eve.

I Find Myself Thinking About...

Summer, in Vermont. Here's a shot from a hike Karen and I took this past summer on our annual stay at the far north end of the Green Mountain State.


Each summer, we spend a week at The Tyler Place, in Highgate Springs. We've already planned our summer 2005 visit, and I've been thinking back on our stay in 2004.

Los Super Seven Return!

Here's exciting news: Los Super Seven will have a new album out in March.

According to an article on Billboard.com, the new recording will hit the stores on March 22 and will feature guest appearances by some of my favorite artists, including Lyle Lovett, Joe Ely, John Hiatt, Delbert McClinton, and the core members of Calexico.

This will be the third Los Super Seven album. The second, Canto (short samples available here in real Audio and Wave formats), has been a favorite of mine for some time. Los Super Seven play Mexican-American rock, blues, folk and country music -- sometimes all in the same song. The rhythms of Canto have proved perfect for intense typing sessions when I want to hammer our a document at work.

I am particularly excited by the addition of the guys from Calexico to the new album. They have been a great new find this past year. Their sound is classic, but their approach is fresh and challenging and I like that.

According to a news update on the Calexico web site, the new recording focuses on "Border Radio" music, from the 30's to the 70's. This was an outlaw style of radio that brought great new sounds into American music, supported some classic acts and inspired others.

This should be interesting. There's a great debate on in this nation about the changing demographic of America, the addition of so many Latinos, and what that means for our national identity. I say, if it means more of this sort of music, then I'm all for it!

I Should Hesitate to Complain, But....

Several Delaware papers have run items this weekend about what's described as a "new" e-government service from the State of Delaware. The Sunday News Journal Article, State info can come in e-mails, is fairly typical. The Department of Technology and Information (DTI) now offers e-mail listservs of state information.

This is a great idea, but it's not a new idea and certainly not unique to Delaware. What bugs me a little is that several state agencies, including mine, have been offering this sort of service for years, but we are not mentioned in the story and are not listed as options on the web site set up by DTI.

In State Planning, we've worked through DTI to take full advantage of e-mail listservs to offer updates about land use planning issues, and to help create the community of GIS professionals that is the Delaware Geographic Data Committee.

One might say that the difference here is that a press release went out about this "new" service. That seems likely, though I have not been able to find it on-line on the state's portal, on the Governor's web site or on the web site of State Representative Bob Valihura, who is quoted in the News Journal story. I am fairly certain that I also sent out a press release, but it was a year or so back, and I haven't archived those on my site.

I am hesitant to complain because any increase in public access to government information is good. Any increase in public awareness of public access to that information is also good. I do wish that the news coverage could have included all of these services, though. I also wish that the site set up by the GIC and DTI included all of the services that the DTI listserv system offers. That part worries me; who isn't talking to who?