Jim’s Brain Online

Posted by Jim at December 29th, 2007

I’m aware enough about racial issues to know that I sometimes don’t get it. Part of it is not having a personal experience of racism. Part of it is not knowing the historical experience of blacks and other minorities.

I’m linking to a few blog entries by Pam Noles. In her blog “And We Shall March,” she writes about her life and interests, science fiction/fantasy, movies, and sometimes about the intersection of race and fiction.

I don’t know about you, but I’d always wondered where the word “wog” came from. It’s sometimes used by British people to refer to foreigners, but apparently comes from a doll (that also happens to be a racial caricature). Until reading this series of posts, I’d had no idea what the Golliwog was or how it connected to minstrelsy.

1. “When time was things was looking bright / I started to whittle on a stick one night / Who cried out stop now, that’s dynamite / Not a soul.” ***

2. “One white woman, two white girls, twenty five white men dressed up like women, made up to look like black people to entertain other white people.” ***

3. “The greatest decade in the history of mankind is over. And as presuming Ed here has so consistently pointed out, we have failed to paint it black.” ***

4. “I don’t want to have anything to do with anything black for at least a week.”

5. “In this present moment we are either smaller than we were, or else are on our knees.” ***

Posted by Jim at December 22nd, 2007

I’ve avoided buying organic foods for years. The reason is partially inherent cheapness on my part. Organic foods often end up being more expensive (sometimes twice as much) at the local grocery store.

That doesn’t stop me from liking the idea of organic foods.

I certainly can’t argue with people who think that industrial agriculture has some major problems. I think specifically of e. coli outbreaks, mad cow disease, the nasty conditions food animals face, and the overuse of pesticides.

Lately (by which I mean the last two years), Kristen and I have started buying locally grown meat and vegetables when possible.

West Michigan Cooperative:West Michigan Coop is an organization that distributes locally grown meats and produce. Meat seems to be the main focus, but they sell seasonal fruits and vegetables as well. It works on an invitation only basis. You give them your name and when they have an opening, they give you an account on their website. Using that account, you can order anything they have available from a variety of local farms. You then pick up your orders at a local warehouse on the monthly distribution date.

Oddly enough, if you visit the site on the day that I’m writing this, you’ll find a mass of php errors and sql code. I’ve volunteered to work on the site if they need help. They haven’t called.

Trillium Haven:A local organic farm started by people I know through my church. Basically, you buy a membership in the fall. Then in the summer through the late fall you receive fresh produce. We have a half share. A full share would be too much food.

I’ve been introduced to a lot of vegetables that I’d never have used otherwise through Trillium Haven. Leeks. Celeriac. Swiss chard. A wide variety of heirloom tomatoes…

It’s good stuff.

Incidentally, they also grow vegetables that you’ve heard of.

Posted by Jim at December 15th, 2007

I happened to be driving back from a client’s office when I noticed a tow truck ahead of me. It’s one of those tow trucks where you put the vehicle on the truck rather than actually towing it–making their rather memorable tag line obsolete.

See if you can find it in the picture below:

Posted by Jim at December 8th, 2007

In the mid 90’s I was in graduate school for sociology and working at a market research firm. I’d initially been working part time in the phone room, but was moved into the Analysis and Consulting department when one of the professionals there noticed I was reading a book on multiple regression (a statistical technique).

My supervisor in A & C knew that I was interested in web development and mentioned that Nermin Elmi, someone he knew through his place of worship (the Islamic Center), needed help getting a web page going. Nermin was trying to raise money to help her cousin come to the United States to get treatment for leukemia.

In the course of working on the web page, I met her family–her husband, daughter and Erdin, her son. I didn’t really get to know him, but he seemed like a decent guy. He was going to high school at the time.

Nermin Elmi succeeded in bringing Elmira (her cousin) to the US for treatment–though complications from the chemotherapy ultimately killed her.

Nonetheless, I’ve still kept in touch with the family on and off. It’s been a little while though and that’s why it was a bit of a shock to read the following article in the paper:

25 year-old steps in front of commuter train

The 25 year old man is Erdin.

It’s a sad and strange thing. I remember hearing that when Nermin and her husband immigrated from Romania (at that time a communist state), the state would not allow Erdin to go with them. Ultimately, bringing Erdin here would involve Grand Rapids’ congressional representative (Rep. Paul Henry?) as well as (I think) the State department.

I’m sure that this event will prompt me to reconnect with the family again soon, but a card or phone call seems such a small thing in the face of something like this.

Posted by Jim at December 5th, 2007

Some of you may not have noticed, but this blog has been changing themes lately. In one case I’m sure I had five different ones in the course of a day.

For the last few weeks I’ve mostly stuck with one, but I didn’t like it. It had features that I liked, but looked like a good theme that had been messed up by too much editing.

So, I’ve currently got a theme that I like the looks of even though I suspect that it’s bit heavy on graphics and javascript.

Nonetheless, I’m likely to stick with it for a while.

Posted by Jim at December 3rd, 2007

I do work for non-profits. At one non-profit I actually draw a part time salary in addition to my computer consulting. For a while, in fact, I did all my work for that non-profit from my house, connecting via a VPN.

It’s thanks to that, I suspect, that I got a call tonight.

As I was sitting down at my laptop, catching up on email and meditating on how soon I should make supper, I received a phone call that asked for one of my supervisors at work.

The caller wanted to know exactly what we did as part of our AIDS related program.

I told him. I also attempted to make it clear that we weren’t doing much with it at the moment because all our state funding had been cut off.

It didn’t make much of an impression, but it was after that that the call turned a little weird.

He wanted to know if any of our patients were ever cured of AIDS. I explained that no one gets cured of AIDS. At best, your virus load gets down to near impossible to detect levels.

“That’s with pharmacia,” he said, “not God’s medicine.”

Over the course of the next half hour, I learned a number of things:

1. That disease is not caused by bacteria or viruses. It is caused by chemicals, and parasites. For example, people with AIDS have benzene in their pancreas (or maybe their liver? I forget). Also, cancer has been cured in at least one person by removing a tape worm.
2. AIDS has been cured in Africa by using seven herbs plus a little bit of electricity.
3. “Pharmacia” (sp?) is the original word for our current style of medicine and it comes from a word that meant sorcery.
4. The real reasons for disease have been known since the 1930’s and are in every public library.
5. The reason you’ve never heard this before is because the government does not want you to find out.
6. Doctors know all this too, but they’re using the current methods because it will make them more money.
7. That whatever form of medicine this guy is using uses the “qxci.” Search for it on Google. The results are… wacky. Oh and incidentally, qxci is short for Quantum Xeroid Consciousness Interface device.
8. I can learn even more if we get together everyone in our office and watch a videotape. At that point, all will be explained.
9. And we may even make some money…

The end of the conversation left me thinking that I need to learn to be considerably less polite. The guy talked for more than half an hour, needing no encouragement at all beyond “mm-hmmn” and a brief yes or no.

I would have hung up on him if he’d been a telemarketer, but hanging up on him as a salesman would probably reflect badly on the organization. Also it seemed like he was about to wrap up three different times.

He never did.

In the end, I gave him the organizational number, made clear the fact that he was calling my house, and directed that he leave a voicemail for someone that I’m quite sure will be out tomorrow.

In the meantime, I’m sending everyone an email…