Family Pride: My Nephew the Author

There's an interesting-looking interview with one of our nephews in the winter edition of NorEaster, a publication of the North East Anarchist Network.

He has taken on the name Magpie Killjoy for his work as a writer, editor, photographer, designer, musician and activist in the anarchist world. I don't fully understand his politics, but it is fascinating to discuss them with him, read his work, and check out his artistic efforts.

The interview is about his book, Mythmakers & Lawbreakers, which is a collection of interviews with a variety of writers about anarchist themes in fiction and a study of the history of anarchist fiction. It also touches on his history and how he became an anarchist.

For example:

When I was 15 or 16, I thought I was a libertarian. I was dating a communist, and she said, “You know, if libertarians had their way, corporations would run everything.” And I said, “Oh crap, you’re right. But I’m just not a communist. I've never been a communist, I'll never be a communist. Crap.”

I was at a meeting today focused on demographic changes and how they will affect society and government planning (my field). We were talking about the advent of the generations that follow the Baby Boomers. Magpie is part of what we call the Millennial Generation; and I think he is one of the group that is referred to as the Creative Class.

These are young adults who have come of age in a turbulent time. Magpie was in college when 9-11 happened. His generation has a different take on things, but they have a lot to offer us. We just have to do a little learning to really be able to hear them.

2009 Metrics: A Slow Blogging Year

There's no question; 2009 was a slow year for blogging for me. I posted only 142 times during 2009, the lowest annual total in my blogging history.

I averaged just 11.8 posts per month in 2009. The most active month was August, when we traveled to Hawaii and had lots to write about. That month I managed 22 posts. The slowest months were April, October, and December, in which I posted only seven times.

By contrast, my chattiest year was 2005 -- my first full year of blogging -- when I posted 272 times. Looking back at that year, though, I think it is safe to say that many of those posts were short and externally-referenced -- links to other places. This is the sort of thing that I now handle with posts to my Twitter account or to Facebook.

I've started an effort to try to increase my blogging this year, but we'll see.

Fun With History

From time to time I come across a bit of family history out on the great web. This evening, I found a page from Evangelical Magazine and Gospel Advocate of July 18, 1835, announcing a family wedding.


Here on page 232, the first entry under "Marriages," is the announcement of the marriage of one set of my great-great-great-grandparents.

Harrison Otis Henry and Phoebe Maria Gibson were wed on June 18 of 1835, in Rome, New York. Their son Harrison L. Henry married Susan Tucker and fathered Honora Henry, whose brief marriage to James Cooper produced, in 1892, my grandmother Isabel Ruth Cooper.

Editors Pose Thesis; Commenter Proves Point

The News Journal editors published an opinion this morning that I agree with whole-heartedly: 'Official prayers' exclude citizens despite claims.

There is a minor controversy here in Delaware about some government bodies starting their meetings with official prayers -- some explicitly sectarian, some not. When challenged, elected officials tend to defend the practice as "tradition." The News Journal takes meets that defense square-on:

Tradition has its virtues, but that's not one of them. The council members are perfectly free to pray, individually or in groups, all they want -- just as long as they don't do it when they are acting in an official capacity.

But they balance that with some common-sense advice to those complaining, noting that the official prayers don't do as much harm as some claim.

Our reservations about the actions of the council members would not begin with their pleas for divine guidance. If anything, we would encourage more of it -- provided it was not part of the meeting.

But, the editors conclude, the tradition of prayer is not worth the damage it does to Democracy:

Reciting a prayer, especially a specific one, such as The Lord's Prayer, as part of a government function, automatically excludes a portion of the audience -- people who pay taxes and have the right to participate in the government business at hand. That should not happen.

Now, normally I advocate against looking at the readers' comments on the News Journal's site. This time, curiosity got the better of me and immediately found a comment by a WalterPerry that I think proves the point:

America is a Christian Nation founded by Bible believing. God Fearing,Jesus Loving & Holy Spirit filled Men & women of God!.Not Muslims,Hindus,Harry Christa's. or any other "religion" If u don't like God or Jesus, id suggest u either SHUT UP, or Move to a Communist country! "Official" Prayers do not exclude ANYONE..Go ahead..Pray!

Walter, dude, take a deep breath and wipe the spittle off your keyboard.

2009 Metrics: Reading

I read 63 books during 2009. That's almost exactly the same as my total for 2008 (which I find a little freaky).

I find that, of the books I read, 51 were checked-out from the Lewes Public Library, 11 were books I own (either gifts or books I bought), and 1 was borrowed (The first in a series by Owen Parry, handed off to me by my brother Matt, who often finds great novels for us to read.

2009 Book Montage

Mike's favorite books »

For 2009, I used a web site called GoodReads to track my reading. Ill be looking around this weekend for where to track reading in 2010. I'm leaning towards designing my own Google Docs spreadsheet.