The United States military would do well with a lot more officers like US Army Captain Fishback. This article tells the abbreviated version of his efforts to do the right thing. Officers who back and support the enlisted personnel who serve under them is rarer than it should be.
aloha
My psychological make up is that of a first responder. I find it very difficult to do nothing when a disaster has occurred. I want to go and help. I want to be part of the effort to rescue those affected and clean up the mess. I prefer the chaos in the moment of and immediately after the disaster to the comparative calm and organization of the reconstructive phase which is when most of the volunteers start arriving.
In my pursuit of opportunities to get involved in those types of activities I began some conversations with an organization called Greater Good Global Support Services (G3S2). Over the course of the last six or eight months I have had ongoing conversations with G3S2. In early September, looking for opportunities to go and help the victims of Hurricane Katrina, I contacted G3S2 and ask them what they had. G3S2 asked me to come and help them in their participation in Katrina Response Initiative. Machiko and I decided that I would go out to Meridian, Texas where G3S2 is based and spend a few weeks working with them.
I flew out of San Francisco Airport on Monday and arrived at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. I was a little late in getting to the airport and thus my baggage did not make it onto the same flight that I was on. So I ended up cooling my jets in Austin for a few hours while I waited for my luggage to catch up. Headed north towards Meridian at about 2230 and arrived at the G3S2 complex at about 0030. I'm pretty sure there was some beautiful country that I passed through but I had no way to know it. All I could see was that which fell into the truck headlights.
G3S2 is a very small organization that provides support to missionaries and NGOs that are serving human needs worldwide. G3S2 was involved in efforts to coordinate volunteers looking to go to regions devastated by the tsunami with areas and people in the devastated region. In the case of hurricane katrina, G3S2 has joined a number of other agencies in a similar effort which is now called the Katrina Response Initiative. The primary focus of Katrina Response Initiative is to coordinate those who want to help with those who need help. It's a great effort doing a great work.
Today was my first day out here. I am reminded that I really do prefer being in the thick of that action. This is one of those parts that I like less. My tasking here in a broad, general sense is to coordinate and troubleshoot organizational and logistical operations. Spent today gaining an understanding of what G3S2 does, brain storming about how genericize some of the processes that have developed within Katrina Response Initiative so that the concept can be reused in the future. While I find some of this kind of thing interesting I don't really find it all that enjoyable. I am generally frustrated by the mechanics of trying to get large organizations to do what they've committed to or worse getting those same organizations to commit to something. Today I was calling warehouses in an effort to find out who has supplies still needing to go to Katrina victims. I finding frustrating that these people have stepped up to the challenge and are now left in a lurch because someone else failed in their commitment.
aloha
Interesting movie. Not all that good in my opinion but thought provoking. There are probably going to be spoilers here so if that bothers you you may want to come back after you've seen the movie. The movie is about a town called Stepford which is supposedly in Connecticut. Mapquest says there is no town anywhere in the United States. Hardly surprising at this juncture.
In Stepford there is the Stepford Men's Club which meets at the Stepford Manor. This men's club has pretty much one purpose. Designing and manufacturing robots to replace the human wives of the men in Stepford. The men's club first convinces men new to the community that having a robot wife would be better than the human they are currently married to. The club then sets about the task of making a robot that looks and talks like the human woman it will replace. This involves having a few meetings at the home of the new member so that the artist in the club can draw the features. Later, another member of the club stops by and asks the wife to write down all the places she has ever lived and make a recording of a list of words in her voice. With this information the club then sets about the task of building a robot that looks and sounds like the woman. The president of the club is a retired Disney executive they call 'Dis'. He is also the mastermind of this fiendish organization. As can be guessed, he is a very controlling individual very convinced of his own wisdom and knowledge. The process takes about four months. The husband and wife go away for a weekend and when they return the wife is interested only in cooking, cleaning, caring for the children and submitting joyfully to her husband's every whim.
The case could be made that The Stepford Wives is a commentary on the traditional roles of women in society. The main character of the movie has a budding career as a photographer which she is interested in pursuing. It comes out in the course of the movie that her husband would like her to stop taking pictures and focus more on her duties as a mother, wife and house keeper. One might conclude that The Stepford Wives is telling us that traditional role models for women cast them into mindless robots deprived of self-expression or pursuit of their own interests. It was interesting that the robot wives in the movie wore long demure dresses while the wives not yet replaced wore sexy, revealing clothing. The main character throughout the movie does not wear a bra and it appears that the set was kept at about 55 degree so that her nipples remained firm and obvious.
The main character at one point goes into a neighbor's house looking to talk to the woman who lives there. She can hear what is obviously the woman she is looking for in the 'throes' of sexual activity with her husband. This scene furthers the commentary on traditional roles of women in society, stating that women should seek only to bolster and affirm their husband's masculinity at the expense of their own desires, interests or pleasure.
The movie's ending was disappointing to me, in part because I like movies with strong, victorious endings. The Stepford Wives is not about entertainment so much as it is social commentary. The Stepford Wives sets out to instill a fear of societal norms in the hope of inspiring change. At the very least, The Stepford Wives sets out to make its audience think about what the social norm dictates as the roles of women. Given that The Stepford Wives inspired me to write this entry, I have to admit that it is effective in its endeavor. That doesn't mean I liked it.
Thinking through The Stepford Wives caused me to think through my own life and marriage. Early in our marriage my wife and I agreed that she would stay at home with the kids. Me being a product of the women's lib generation, this agreement between my wife and I mostly consisted of me accepting that what my wife really wanted was to stay home, raise children and be a wife. 17 years of marriage and 15 years into raising children I now understand that raising children and maintaining a household are very difficult, demanding, and potentially rewarding endeavors. I've spent most of my working life in the corporate environment and can honestly say that my wife works a hell of a lot harder than I do. The notion that stay at home moms have it easy was developed either by people who have never raised children or by people who wanted to justify not having to work so hard.
In my own family there is no doubt, I support my wife so that she can do the important work of our family. My contribution to society through my efforts at various computer firms such as Microsoft and Apple are insignificant. The most significant contribution that I will make to society is to take seriously my responsibility as a husband and father which will in turn provide the model by which my children will make their contribution to society. In the example that I live for my children I affect not only my own generation but also generations to follow. One of the primary motivating factors in our decision to leave the comforts of corporate life and start our own company was so that I could make more of a contribution to and play a bigger role in the raising of my children. The kind of work that we have ventured into as provided a greater creative outlet for my wife in that we sought something that would allow both of us to contribute in order to more evenly distribute the load of provision.
The Stepford Wives was not entertaining and I can't say that I recommend it. I didn't like it and wouldn't watch it again. It was thought provoking and it was interesting to consider some of the assertions made in the movie.
This the course of writing this article, I came across this which I found interesting. Feminists never actually burned their bras.
aloha
I read Engadget pretty much daily. They had a t-shirt contest, they posted the results, they aren't allowing comments on their web site and I feel strongly enough about this that I have to comment so I'll put it on mine.
Go here and take a look at the winning t-shirt. Now take a look at the fourth runner up t-shirt. Yeah, so I think the fourth runner-up t-shirt should have won. The t-shirt that did win, is lame.
OK, I feel better now.
Aloha
In the course of migrating from Eclispe Hosting (which was bought by Jumpline Hosting) to Host Excellence I upgraded my Movable Type install to 3.2. I decided to stick with one of the standard templates because modifying or creating your own is a lot of work. In the past when I have tried to create my own look I usually ended up leaving the job about half to three quarters finished.
Host Excellence seems a pretty decent web host provider, especially if you have several domain names and web sites to maintain. It can be done from one account, one control panel with Host Excellence. Host Excellence is not yet able to transfer domains. Hence, the offer of free domain name registrations applies only to new registrations.
Not much in the way of political commentary today. Plenty to comment on I just lack the motivation to write the comments. It was called to my attention that al Qaida's plan to take over the world has been made public. Not one of the better plans when compared with those through history. Actually, kind of stupid if you ask me. But I'm not commenting on that.
If you haven't already, donate to help those displaced by Katrina. The Red Cross is a good place to start. If you don't like them find another but donate. As for me, I will be heading to Texas for two weeks to help with the relief effort.
Lots of things to comment on with regard to Katrina and the situation in New Orleans as well. The lawlessness that followed the disaster was unbelievable and disgusting. New Orleans police officers remaining on the job and on duty 24/7 for weeks, themselves among the displaced, is absolutely amazing.
Aloha
