Well, we have all heard a lot of talk about web 2.0 being the “social web”. And blogs are so web 2.0. Well, I don’t know about that, and I am certainly the most social being that has ever walked the planet in human form. But I figure one thing about blogs is that they can be used to knit up a community. And, well, even if I don’t feel it, I suppose I am part of a community.

If my experience in long-term sobriety teaches me anything (over and over again), there is not much I can accomplish alone. In fact, alone, mostly I am a complete mess.

Why am I going on about this?

This blog has broken new ground. In recogniti0n of - no, in celebration of - my status as a social being, I have started putting links up on this site. Well, OK, you can consider my del.icio.us cloud tag links of a sort, but …

And, the set of categories came out of an ephinany of sorts. You see, I have been thinking about links for a while. And, there is a lot to link to, a lot to show off, a lot that deserves to be seen. And, how to sort it all out, and keep it succinct?

The other day at work, slogging through another day of data slice and dice on auto pilot, wondering how much longer I could survive this job with the “i don’t give a shit” mantra going loud and strong, I got a little desperate. You see, I really can’t afford, at this exact moment, to just get up, go out for lunch, and never come back.

What is it, I thought, that I could do with a pasion? Where does the compass point that will show me a way out of this rut. For I am hungry for work that satisifies, work that simply needs to be done.

I picked up a pen and four words penned themselves with bold strokes. A simple calender, two lines of rough financial scaffolding. I have a plan.

And the headings for the links list you see in the far sidebar was born.

Happy Surfing.

Went the Sock Hop last night, hosted by Joel Najman, the host of VPR’s “My Place” celebrating 25 years on the air.

Yes, there were girls on roller skates flying around serving hot-dogs. There were poodle skirts - I had never seen one in action, never realized how graceful, how tantalizing they were. There were kids, and hot rods parked outside, and the VPR ‘family’ and people asking each other to dance. The dance floor in the old Union Hall was ample and welcoming, and you could go hang out in the cool evening air on on the railing through the generously arched doors. It was a perfect summer evening from another time.

I wonder about the Fifties a lot. I have been listening to My Place for a lot of years now, at first because I had the radio on on a saturday night, after Prarie Home Companion. The picture that Joel paints of that time is interesting, and that 50’s rock-n-roll can even be enjoyable, given the right frame of mind.

It seemes, through the perspective of teenage rock, a mythical time, but, when I think of it, no more mythical than the sixties are to me, though, if you asked, I would say I was a child of the sixties. But, while the kids were doing be-bob in the subway entrances in the bronx, we had McCarthy, we had the start of the Civil Rights movement, we had the Cold War, we had Korea (anyone remember Korea), we had the seeds of Vietmam being sown.

It was an odd moment in time, when the US, triumphant from The War, flipped the production switch from armaments to consumer goods, when we could do no wrong, when our muscles, just having been flexed, were at their strongest. It was at this time that England put together the National Health Service. We put together suburbs, the red scare, and the teen-age culture that set the stage for the baby-boomers.

Ok. Back. One day missed, then another, then … Well, lots of ‘life’ stuff … career issues (Been a while since I’ve sent out a resume. Apparently the notion of acknowledging receipt has died, yet anther common form of politeness that has died) parents health, … but still …

Not for lack of things to write about. Congress caving in to a sham of a “compromise” war funding bill. This so-called compromise reminds me of the parent in the cereal isle at the supermarket, holding up box after box while the two year old screams “No” … till finally the brat gets his sugar pops. I don’t really think of this as ‘negotiation’. Apparently there are some others out there who don’t either. Very appropriate Danziger cartoon at Vermont Daily Briefing

And the issue of socioeconomic integration in the Burlington schools. Can we reconcile the need to share resources equally and keep neighborhood schools that serve as a source of strength for the community? What about starting by addressing the socio-economic segregation that comes from allowing variances so that the “rich” kids from the “poor” neighborhoods can go to the “nice” schools? Ought we not plug this gap first?

What about the fact that were the issue race rather than income, the some of the folks that are saying “not my kid” would be falling all over themselves to support integration, and and the rest would be considered racist? This is a complicated issue. Here are the maps, should you wish to cut through the talk and see what the school district is thinking.

Will have to look at this more. Here is how you can get involved (from the Burlington School District page on the matter)

Informational opportunities:
Sustainable Schools Info Session May 21 6:30 - 7:30 pm Wheeler Elementary
Flynn Center for Performing Arts session 6 pm May 30 at Wheeler Elementary School
Proposal Q and A May 22 Ward 5 NPA
Proposal Q and A June 5 Ward 6 NPA

Public Hearings:
8 am May 22 Champlain Elem Learning Center
7 pm May 29 Flynn Elementary Learning Center
7 pm May 31 Edmunds Elementary School
8:30 am June 4 Barnes Elementary Learning Center
7 pm June 4 Wheeler Elementary Learning Center

Additional input may be provided through email to superintendent@bsdvt.org or through letters sent to Superintendent, Burlington School District, 150 Colchester Avenue, Burlington, VT 05401.
For further information, call 802.865.5332 or visit the Excellence and Equity Home Page.

From a just received email … Saturday night is looking up.

Dear Friends of the IFD,

Don’t spend another Saturday night nursing your broken
heart and thwarted dreams, watching the ants march
across the kitchen counter [while listening to
Prarie Home Companion - ed.] Life is waiting for
you at Euro Gourmet, this Saturday, 9:00. There,
paninis abound, the people are warm and
attractive, and inebriates may be acquired
for a minor fee. As if all that were not
enough, Inner Fire District will be there, playing
their noble accordion, heroic clarinet, morally
authoritative bass, and roguishly lovable
electric guitar. It’s also Tim’s birthday, and if
you don’t come, he’ll have a sad, no-fun birthday.

And I’d hate for you to have that on your conscience.

Best,
David Symons

Was a wonderful show last time. See you there?

Went to the blogger meet-up Saturday. Good to put some faces to the blogs I’ve been reading. I didn’t have my camera, nor am I good with names, nor the whole social thing … which may explain why I am writing this rather than being say, a prize winning photo journalist, or even moderately popular. But Stan Cyendom put together a nice write-up with pictures.

The company was interesting, the coffee was good and the wifi was ‘buck in the basket’, one of my favorite funding mechanisms. I would have liked to stay longer, but the kids were getting restless. I left wondering when then next one would be … but not where …

Because Monday, headed to Waterbury, I found the perfect site for our next meetup. The Williston Rest area on I89 (southbound). I stopped at the Williston (southbound). This place is amazing. Beautiful high ceilings, plenty of light, airy. Very nice architecturally. Plenty of free parking, as they say.

And, the coffee! Green mountain coffee roasters … buck in the basket! Not to mention, the wifi is free.

Thanks to the state of Vermont for this wonderful oasis. I am sure I am not the only one who might take a break from the Burlington rat race, the scramble for high speed access, and head out to Williston for an alternative hipster wifi coffeehouse scene.

What do you think, guys?

Up at Small Dog today getting a battery for the little apple laptop and ran into their recycling day. Monitors, printers, telephones, a jumbled mountain of electronics out in the parking lot. I’ll bet most of it - well, maybe not the gutted cpu boxes - still worked.

I was amazed. Being a bit of a junk hound, I had to stop myself from starting to pick through it.

Over and over, I look with awe and disbelief at the huge amounts of material things this culture of ours cycles through. This stuff was all new not so long ago. Desired, worked for, cutting edge … it was going to make a life better, make someone happy, impress someone maybe … It was going to be just the thing, just what we needed.

And here it all is, no respect, (where did the love go?) out on the pavement, enough to fill a 50′ tractor trailer. I know that there is more where that came from. In your closet, maybe?

In a spllled heap these beauties look slightly tawdy, a theater with the lights coming up, the fair midway the morning after. Almost don’t want to look too closely, like we don’t really want to take in that person asking us for spare change. We might see a person underneath the grime. Here, we might just see the fact that this old junk looks a lot like the stuff we just loaded ito the car at the mall today.

We buy it, off it goes to the landfill. Here is some information on why that is not a particularly good idea from from the Small Dog site It is nice to see yet another small vermont company doing the right thing because, well … it is the right thing to do.

E-waste, electronic equipment such as computers, televisions, printers and related peripherals, is both an environmental problem and a health hazard. Electronics contain substantial amounts of hazardous materials such as lead, mercury and hexavalent chromium, discussed in detail below. When electronics are not properly disposed of or recycled, the toxins can potentially seep into the ground and affect our groundwater and the air we breathe.

Some discarded electronics end up in landfills in the U.S., but many are shipped to third world countries where children and other workers sort through the discarded electronics searching for parts they are paid several cents for. They often do this work without gloves, masks or goggles, suffering exposure to the harmful chemicals, glass, and other sharp objects.