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Cleopatra: A Life

Thanks to Ellen, I renewed, well, I got a new, library card. Now that I have an actual commute since my un-semi-retirement over to Largo MD where my offices at UMUC are, I download audio… Cleopatra: A Life

The Importance of Storytelling

Over the last year or so, I decided to focus a bit more on academic opportunities.

I have attempted to become a better professor at the University of Maryland University College (UMUC), helped start a non-profit focused on increasing academic involvement with government (ATARC), and this semester signed up for two graduate courses at the University of Maryland College Park in, of any things, Government and Political Science.

One of the two graduate classes I am taking focuses on Political Institutions in the US, the other focuses on Political Theory relating to human rights. It is the latter I wanted to talk about in this post.

The Importance of Storytelling

Perhaps You Cannot Go Home, But Sometimes You Get Close

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Monday at 10:30 am, I found myself at Northwood High School in Silver Spring MD with Bette Brotman Dolan. I went to Northwood as did Bette.

When I was in high school, we both rooted for the Northwood Indians. In these politically more sensitive times it is the Northwood Gladiators. Evidently it is more acceptable to have a nickname honoring people who were often slaves and fought to the death, or killed wild animals, to entertain crowds, but I digress.

There is a Facebook page where former students of Northwood can check into the status of classmates and teachers, or ask questions that typically start with “You went to Northwood High School if you remember <something from the distant past>”.

Earlier this year, a teacher currently at Northwood asked if any graduates were willing to talk to a class about their current profession and to provide advice for students who will be entering the job market in the near-term future. Perhaps a dozen or so former Northwood students answered. By chance the two people who responded who had careers in technology, Bette and I, both graduated in 1966.

Perhaps You Cannot Go Home, But Sometimes You Get Close

Word Processing

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.” 
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master – – that’s all.”  – Through the Looking Glass

On June 29th of this year, Washington experienced a Derecho, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/post/derecho-behind-washington-dcs-destructive-thunderstorm-outbreak-june-29-2012/2012/06/30/gJQA22O7DW_blog.html.

A Derecho, prounounced “de ray cho” is Spanish for straight and per Wikipedia, the source of all knowledge, is a “widespread, long-lived, straight-line windstorm associated with a fast-moving band of severe thunderstorms.”Word Processing

A Visit to Cornerstone Christian Church

A few weeks ago, early on a Saturday morning, I found myself at the Cornerstone Christian Church in Richmond, VA, sitting in a chair in the Church social hall. Facing me were perhaps 15 young (and not so young) immigrants from various parts of Sudan.

I had wrestled for perhaps two weeks since I was invited to kick off a two-day seminar on volunteer organizing, trying to figure out what I could offer that would be of value. For each of these immigrants were members of the Lost Boys (or Girls) of Sudan, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Boys_of_Sudan.A Visit to Cornerstone Christian Church

The History of Invulnerability

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When I was young I was an avid comic reader, originally obsessive about lots of DC comics like Superman and Batman and later Marvel comics like Spiderman and the Avengers. Today I get to see all of these characters on the movie screen, the aging fanboy I guess I have become, without much regard to the quality of the film.

The last thing that would have occurred to me to think about was the fact that the comics were created by actual people with actual lives and actual concerns and issues.

Last night we went to see The History of Invulnerability by David Bar Katz at the DCJCC. The play focuses on the story of Jerry Siegel, one of the creators of Superman in 1938 along with his artist partner, Joe Shuster.The History of Invulnerability

This Year’s Passover Sedar

I have previously posted about the Passover Sedar we hold at our house each year:

https://www.ourownlittlecorner.com/2011/04/10/our-annual-passover-seder/

and

https://www.ourownlittlecorner.com/2011/04/11/our-passover-seder-quotes/

In 2008, one thing we focused on was “We think about from what, to what, and what we have to accomplish to initiate and complete the transition.” This year we want to expand a bit on that: thinking about what risks have to be taken in order to successfully achieve freedom and have to happen to enable people (or communities of people) to take those risks. Perhaps we can consider what implications this has for the current day.

This Year’s Passover Sedar

Why Is A Raven Like A Writing Desk or How I Literally Married the Internet

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I find myself these days on a regular basis having discussions, for one reason or another, about the impact of Information Technology and inevitably the Internet on organizations, life, society, culture, and in general, the individuals having the conversation.

About a decade ago, the first time I remember having this discussion with a friend of mine, he remarked that he felt his parents had experienced greater dislocation due to technological change than he had. His parents had lived through the growth of radio, the invention of television, the ubiquitous growth of telephones, and the creation and expansion of commercial air travel.

All he and I could come up with, at the time, were faxes, cell phones, and perhaps email; which while significant seemed less amazing than the list he had for his parents. That was a sobering conversation since the common wisdom was that everything was changing so radically. Having said that, I suspect that if I repeated that conversation today we would both come to a different conclusion.Why Is A Raven Like A Writing Desk or How I Literally Married the Internet

I Once Was Young And Now …

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On weekends I generally try and get things done that I do not get to during the week, both at work and in my on-line classes I teach. However, almost always I am able to avoid accomplishing too much by wandering over to youtube and getting side-tracked in watching video’s.

While I am wasting time with youtube, I often will update my various social media connections with a link to a video with a song that I am particularly struck by. A recent interaction that resulted from that caused me to think about the mid-west.

When I was growing up I was always a little bit unclear as to exactly where the mid-west started and stopped.I Once Was Young And Now …