Trying to learn how to walk like the heroes/we thought we had to be

James Bowman ranks on the media's treatment of real-life heroes as opposed to fantasy heroes by way of expressing his unhappiness with United 93 and Oliver Stone's movie about 9/11 in New York. I think he may be right when talking about the media culture, but there's always been a big chunk of folks (and not just Southerners) who have always respected the "ordinary men" who stood up and did extraordinary things at Saratoga, New Orleans, Gettysburg, San Juan Hill, the Argonne, Bataan, Kasserine Pass, and hundreds of other blood-stained acres around the world. This also includes police and firemen at home who chose what my leadership instructors called "the hard right over the easy wrong", even when the right choice meant that you would certainly die in order that someone might live.

That's about all the deep thought I have in me for now. Work has come in a fairly steady drip drip drip throughout the day, but I've had some idle time here and there to look at the cost of living in various places around Virginia. It's anywhere from 15-37% cheaper than here, except for Charlottesville which is 1% more expensive; I suspect it's a lot higher than that in Alexandria, Fairfax County, and possibly Loudoun County. Also, none of the places I'm looking at are more than five hours' drive from the ancestral digs in Forest Heights. So, I signed up with a teachers' job site and will be plugging away at that tonight after I wrap up the much-delayed authentic assessment and send that off.

Also to be dealt with tonight is my property tax return, which can and will be submitted online. I would have had it all done yesterday, but unfortunately the return couldn't find its way out through the firewall, so I'll have to do it all over again at home. :(

Grant Comes East, by Forstchen and Gingrich, was good enough to keep me up until 0030 this morning and got me to go out and pick up a copy of the sequel, Never Call Retreat. So far, just as good.

Last but not least, jamestrainor found my other pair of sunglasses. Better late than never, I guess.

Trying to learn how to walk like the heroes/we thought we had to be

James Bowman ranks on the media's treatment of real-life heroes as opposed to fantasy heroes by way of expressing his unhappiness with United 93 and Oliver Stone's movie about 9/11 in New York. I think he may be right when talking about the media culture, but there's always been a big chunk of folks (and not just Southerners) who have always respected the "ordinary men" who stood up and did extraordinary things at Saratoga, New Orleans, Gettysburg, San Juan Hill, the Argonne, Bataan, Kasserine Pass, and hundreds of other blood-stained acres around the world. This also includes police and firemen at home who chose what my leadership instructors called "the hard right over the easy wrong", even when the right choice meant that you would certainly die in order that someone might live.

That's about all the deep thought I have in me for now. Work has come in a fairly steady drip drip drip throughout the day, but I've had some idle time here and there to look at the cost of living in various places around Virginia. It's anywhere from 15-37% cheaper than here, except for Charlottesville which is 1% more expensive; I suspect it's a lot higher than that in Alexandria, Fairfax County, and possibly Loudoun County. Also, none of the places I'm looking at are more than five hours' drive from the ancestral digs in Forest Heights. So, I signed up with a teachers' job site and will be plugging away at that tonight after I wrap up the much-delayed authentic assessment and send that off.

Also to be dealt with tonight is my property tax return, which can and will be submitted online. I would have had it all done yesterday, but unfortunately the return couldn't find its way out through the firewall, so I'll have to do it all over again at home. :(

Grant Comes East, by Forstchen and Gingrich, was good enough to keep me up until 0030 this morning and got me to go out and pick up a copy of the sequel, Never Call Retreat. So far, just as good.

Last but not least, jamestrainor found my other pair of sunglasses. Better late than never, I guess.

Riot in my brain

Unintentionally omitted from the previous post was a mention that I've succeeded michaellee as co-head of Convergence programming. There was a brief meeting last night over at the Sprawl (to which I was ridiculously early, having forgotten that the meeting was at 8:30 and not 8 PM) with petsnakereggie during which I got a quick walk-through of what I'm expected to do as co-head. Ninety per cent of it tallies with what I had in mind, which is to say no major changes to the way michaellee and thaadd did things this year, and the other ten per cent was stuff I hadn't been aware of. There are some things I want to tweak, such as adding a panel submission form to the Convergence website a la Anime Detour, but if you're happy with the way programming works now you can relax because I don't have any grandiose plans to reshape it and I don't think thaadd does either. I mean, why screw with something that works?

More meetings to follow, including a programming post-mortem with michaellee, thaadd, petsnakereggie, and Yr. Humble Narrator sometime after thaadd gets back from GenCon. In the meantime, if anyone on my f-list is interested in suggesting panels, working on panels, or helping out as a future sub-head, keep your eye on this LJ.

I should also add that I'm giving Diversicon a miss this year. I need to patch some holes in the exchequer, finish up some school work and start other work, do some cleaning up, and maybe, just maybe, get a little extra rest so the Clindamycin can lay the smackdown on the bacteria that doth vex me and my poor abused legs.

Riot in my brain

Unintentionally omitted from the previous post was a mention that I've succeeded michaellee as co-head of Convergence programming. There was a brief meeting last night over at the Sprawl (to which I was ridiculously early, having forgotten that the meeting was at 8:30 and not 8 PM) with petsnakereggie during which I got a quick walk-through of what I'm expected to do as co-head. Ninety per cent of it tallies with what I had in mind, which is to say no major changes to the way michaellee and thaadd did things this year, and the other ten per cent was stuff I hadn't been aware of. There are some things I want to tweak, such as adding a panel submission form to the Convergence website a la Anime Detour, but if you're happy with the way programming works now you can relax because I don't have any grandiose plans to reshape it and I don't think thaadd does either. I mean, why screw with something that works?

More meetings to follow, including a programming post-mortem with michaellee, thaadd, petsnakereggie, and Yr. Humble Narrator sometime after thaadd gets back from GenCon. In the meantime, if anyone on my f-list is interested in suggesting panels, working on panels, or helping out as a future sub-head, keep your eye on this LJ.

I should also add that I'm giving Diversicon a miss this year. I need to patch some holes in the exchequer, finish up some school work and start other work, do some cleaning up, and maybe, just maybe, get a little extra rest so the Clindamycin can lay the smackdown on the bacteria that doth vex me and my poor abused legs.