dilettante

trying to evolve, but getting stuck in the mud

I can't be in San Francisco today, but I cheer every time more people show up to block the intersections in the financial district.

Somehow I didn't really think Bush would go through with it. If I were the type to pray, I would. But I'm not. So instead I just hope for peace for you.

Be Willing to Be Pleased

Today's joys are many: digging two evil, resistent weedy stumps out of the side-garden so that they will stop sending their rotten tendrils all over the fence and garden (which I will plant this year); sweating while conducting this activity, though I had previously felt quite cold; smelling the oregano, jasmine, rosemary, and some basil-like bush while pruning them; eating Good-n-Plentys, which I think of as old-person's candy, while drinking mineral water mixed with Angostura bitters (tastes a little like Campari) and studying Samuel Johnson.

"Let no man rashly determine, that his unwillingness to be pleased is a proof of understanding, unless his superiority appears from less doubtful evidence; for though peevishness may sometimes justly boast its descent from learning or from wit, it is much oftener of base extraction, the child of vanity and nursling of ignorance."

Johnson: Rambler #74 (December 1, 1750)

A soft spot for bottom feeders

It is a wonderful thing to wake up in San Francisco. This day was actually sunny, filled with cool air and just the faintest smattering of Saturday morning street noise. I hadn't slept well; I was visiting Leah at her aunt's house, where she was house- and cousin-sitting, and the two kittens had kept me awake with their restlessness and loud purring. Watching the people stroll along Irving, though, made me wish for a life there, in the not-too-urban Sunset District. We had pear-blueberry scones at the Arizmendi cooperative bakery, sitting outside on a bench (three cheers for the "make loaves not war" sign, augmented with a peace symbol constructed from bread! three cheers for the friendly workers and the yeast, butter, and coffee smells! three cheers for the toddlers of the neighborhood and their oat biscuits!).

I fed the little starlings my crumbs. "They're bad birds," said Leah. "They force out native species." I know this, but I like starlings anyway. They might be the colonists of the bird world, but I admire the way they build their nests wherever they find room, in neon supermarket letters and old iron pipes, singing goofy little trills. I like how they will just wait for whatever you have to offer, as long as it resembles food. The little buggers will even eat nacho cheese Doritos. I cannot believe we humans eat Doritos.

"So do we," I replied. "We do that too. Shouldn't we like them because their way of living so closely resembles ours?" All hail the bullies of the bird world.

Snip

How can I live my life without committing an act with a giant scissors? --Joyce Carol Oates

Are you who you say that you are?

In A Cultural Rut

I had all sorts of dreams and thoughts to share with you, but I've been mired in learning XHTML and mired inside my own brain as well. The view from in here is sort of weird and I think I need to get out more. Does anyone want to have lunch with me?

For now, though, I want to pass on a little bit from one of my class handouts:

"Geert Hofstede saw culture as the collective mental programming of the people in an environment. People with different mental programming perceive the same object in different ways. Hofstede studied IBM employees in 50 countries and identified five cultural dimensions that impact work, home/family life, and education, and that appear in a nation/culture's symbols, heroes, rituals, and values. The cultural dimensions that he identified were:

Power distance (the measure of inequality in a society and the degree to which people accept that inequality)

Individualism and collectivism

Femininity and masculinity (the belief that masculine cultures have clearly defined social gender roles while these roles overlap in feminine societies)

Uncertainty avoidance (the extent to which members of a culture feel threatened by the unknown)

Long-Term Time Orientation (how well a culture adapts tradition to modern perspective)"

--Dr. Main, the SJSU Information Technology Tools and Applications instructor

I know it's dangerous to generalize about people or places or cultures, but think for a moment about how American culture looks against these criteria. It's so hard to put your finger on a culture's statistics with any kind of reasonable accuracy, but take a second. It's not looking good to me. You?