Carleen and Mike » 2004 » June

so, about that license…

Carleen Huxley — Wed, 30 Jun 2004 18:18:39 +0000

From the Bartlesville Sunrise Reporter:

“A Bartlesville couple is charged with felony child abuse for allegedly locking a teenage boy in his room. Terry and Angel Barrows are accused of repeatedly locking the 16-year-old boy in his room for up to 16 hours at a time. Authorities say the door was locked with a sliding bolt and a chain and the windows were screwed shut. The couple told police the boy has attention deficit disorder and oppositional defiance disorder. They said they were advised by a counselor to lock the boy in the room. Police say the counselor denies telling the couple to lock up the boy.”

First of all, if I was left without parental supervision at the age of 16 for that amount of time, I would probably have a pretty bad defiance disorder too. Second of all, if my kids behavior was so bad that I had to bolt his bedroom door to keep it closed, I think I would realize that he needed some serious help that I can’t provide him with at home. Thirdly, Mike was rather appalled to find out that Terry Barrows, the father, actually works the same shift as him at Central States Business Forms. There’s nothing like socializing with your local child abusers without being aware of it.

Didn’t we have a previous discussion on this blog somewhere about licensing people to have children?

Carleen Huxley — Mon, 28 Jun 2004 19:58:44 +0000

Had to find this for a co-worker today. This shows a election contributions by county for the State of Oklahoma. We live in Washington County
Contributions by County

Mike’s pictures are pretty

Carleen Huxley — Mon, 28 Jun 2004 19:01:15 +0000

Our friend Beth volunteers for the Heart of Town Market every Saturday morning. It’s a really neat produce market/crafts/activities thing. Last Saturady the booth she was in charge of was supposed to feature a local artist and asked Mike if he would volunteer. Although she made it seem like we were helping her out more (she had just gotten back from holiday and didn’t getting around to working on this until last minute) she really provided Mike with a wonderful opportunity. The booth was free, for one thing and he could keep all the money for whatever he sold. Although he didn’t sale anything Beth said he did get a lot of really nice compliments from people. It’s really nice to hear that so many people enjoyed his work.

Our mid-term last week was a nightmare. Blackboard had trouble uploading the exam so we didn’t get started on it until 30 minutes after we were supposed to. I was already nervous enough. I’m not very confident about what the results will be. I always tend to do poorly on essay exams anyway. I can’t seemed to organize my thoughts and write under the time limit. I always end up running out of time and rushing the end which is what I did this time. Keeping up with all the studying and readings continues to be a bit of a challenge. It’s not so much the time factor than the focus factor. I feel so lethargic and tired lately.

image trial

Mike Huxley — Sun, 27 Jun 2004 06:34:09 +0000

In our ever-lasting battle with images, here’s another attempt. This is a picture of my Grandmother with my Uncle Dennis

war titles

Carleen Huxley — Thu, 24 Jun 2004 16:47:04 +0000

There’s a girl at the library sitting at a computer in front of my desk with a sweater on that reads “Operation Iraqi Freedom” on the back. This reminds me of something I’ve always wondered about when it comes to “naming” a war and what the criteria of a war has to be before it is called a “World War”. Right now, we are having a War on Terror. When you think about it, this is a rather strange and obscure title. In this case, terror is supposed to be synonomous with “terrorism”, but really if we just say terror then we could technically claim war on anything that instills fear into people. Spiders, snakes, possums, men driving big trucks, my old history teacher.
Then there’s this idea of an “operation”. Operation Desert Storm, Operation Iraqi Freedom. Is this supposed to be a kind of pre-war title? I can just see the president: “Let’s just go in and operate first, just to see how things go, then we can declare war.” I don’t mean to sound so sarcastic. It’s the name of the war that people will remember. Sometimes the name itself seems to cause so many misperceptions.

NPR-Information Overload

Carleen Huxley — Sat, 19 Jun 2004 16:31:10 +0000

Broadcast featured on NPR titled Information Overload. They interviews some professor form University of Washington’s Information Science program.

http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1916988

Gravy??

Mike Huxley — Sat, 19 Jun 2004 09:02:53 +0000

Where I work if someone is running an easy job the people there say “You’re running gravy tonight.” This has always been a bizarre term to me. Most of the rest of the english speaking world say “Cake” as in: “That job is a piece of cake.” But not here in good ol’ Oklahoma. They gotta confuse everything. I told my wife about this phrase and she said, “That’s weird because gravy isn’t that easy to make.” So why gravy? Personally I like cake more than I like gravy, actually I hate gravy, but even if I liked it I think I’d like cake more. Why do I spend time trying to dissect the intracacies of the Okie mind? I just don’t know.

TGIF…almost

Carleen Huxley — Thu, 17 Jun 2004 17:03:52 +0000

It’s been a tiring week. I fell behind on the readings for class (not for the lack of trying) and didn’t even finish my reaction paper until last minute Wednesdy right before it was due. Our topic for this week was Information Infrastructure. It took me awhile to get used to the word “infrastructure” and how it’s used. I’m definitely learning a lot of new vocabulary words in this class.
A great deal of our readings focused on improving imformation infrastructure on a global scale and “closing the digital divide” by providing better information technology to underserved communities and lesser developed countries. Basically, they’re trying to help the poor people out. When I told Mike about this he was rather repulsed by the idea and I have to admit that I am rather at odds with it too. Many of my classmates also showed some concern. One classmate likened it to a kind of “digital manifest destiny”. What right do we have to try and transform whatever remains of these indigenous cultures just so we can say that everyone in the world is “connected”. There’s this strange sort of enthnocentricicty going on, forcing a technological culture on those who are probably more interested in having access to food and water then they are with broadband internet connection. I have this bizarre image in my head with men and women in suites, waving computer manuals in the air, just like Christian missionaries with their Bibles “Save yourself, get connected!”
Obviously, I wouldn’t be in this profession if I didn’t think technology was a good thing. I have my complaints and a also many fears. However, I am a passionate believer in the code of my profession, in intellectual freedom and free access to information, etc. I realize the lack of knowledge leads to an oppressive society and if technology can help combat that then I am all for it. I just think we need to tread carefully. I have a feeling that those who are involved in this movement already have an understanding for this in the back of their mind. I was just dissappointed that none of the readings so far have made much mention to some of the negative implications of technology, socialogically speaking. These are things I have always been concerned with and are probably what will make me more of a “traditional old-fashion librarian” then a future informational specialist. Hopefully, I’ll find a medium somewhere.

I’ve provided a link to the website for the World Summit on the Information Society which met last December in Geneva. You can download their Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action where they outline some of their plans for global information infrastructure. I did my reaction paper over an article that summarized the event and expressed some concern for the Summits plans for internet governance. You can read that article here.

I have the day off tomorrow so technically today is a Friday for me. Thank heavens. I need a break. I think I’ll watch a chick flick and drink a nice cool cape cod. I might even do the laundry if I feel motivated enough.

Postcard from Prison

Carleen Huxley — Thu, 17 Jun 2004 15:57:36 +0000

We recieved a postcard in the mail at work today. It read:

“Hello! Recieved my inter-library loan book from you, “Annals of the Former World” by John McPhee. Thanks so much. I appreciate being allowed to read your books. I suppose if I had spent more time using the Public Library, I wouldn’d be using the prison library today…:)”

Take that, Steve Brown!

Harry Potter amongst other things…

Mike Huxley — Thu, 17 Jun 2004 14:06:50 +0000

So I have finally gotten around to reading the Harry Potter Series. I went to see “Prisoner of Azkaban” a few weeks ago and that movie finally sunk the hook in me. I’ve finished the first one and I’m working on the second. I know now why it’s so popular–I’ve never smiled while reading so much in my life. Such a facinating world Rowling has created. I love it.

*sigh* what else….I know there was more…We’re having another party at work for July 4^th. Great. I have to sit through another one of my boss’s speeches about how great we’re doing (flat out lie) and how much he appreciates what we’re doing (oh really?? coulda fooled me). And we’re being served Buffalo Burgers. Aren’t buffalo protected? or is that just a term, like Buffalo Wings? I know the Buffalo Wing got it’s name cause it was originated in Buffalo NY, but I don’t know where Buffalo Burgers come from. Maybe we’ll all be eating our Buffalo Burgers and the EPA and PETA will raid our warehouse and we’ll all get arrested. I’ll have to ask about that, not that eating Buffalo disgusts me, I’ve tried reindeer (really good), it’s just I’m a bit (a lot) of a liberal and I’d have a serious problem with eating a protected animal.

I’m so loopy, I know there was more that I wanted to blog but it just won’t come to me. Oh well. I’ll try and remember it this weekend.