Go to:
journal front page
website updates
mental health
homo ruminations
rondak.org
Site Index
References
web essayists
Media / Journals / e'Zines
about "Short Notes"
"Short Notes" was the title of a column I wrote while
working for a newspaper in the Adirondack Mountains some years ago.
The format was similar to what you'll find here, except augmented
with pictures and maps. The subject matter shall sometimes be personal,
at other times comments on events or situations of which I am aware. Comments,
suggestions welcomed but not always acted upon.
search engines
scrub the web
dogpile
ask jeeves
yahoo
hotbot/lycos
altavista
northern light
google
LEGAL & DISCLAIMER NOTICE: © 2000 / Will Brady
I hope you’ve found this site interesting, even thought provoking.
Please don't write to me about the content of other peoples' sites linked
from here. On the other hand, please let me know of any inactive links.
Constructive comments, suggested links to add, are welcome.
This website is maintained by Will Brady / wbrady@connix.com /
Last update: see most recent entry
|
|
|
21 feb 00
| respite |
Okay. It was real pleasant
having three days off and just being leisurly.
Friday saw the snow storm which slowed everything down.
Saturday night we had Chris & Gerry Miller (who run the
Amazon Tours
and returned from a great Millenium trip where their tour group came to a
remote village as they were about to celebrate the global festival last 31
december); Sunday I got to meander all over the area for a couple of
hours and even did two quick pencil sketches. Today, I even painted
the cliff in back of the house. When it dries I'll see if I can scan it
for the page.
The downside was that in the middle of the weekend, the woodstove started
back belching and my studied avoidance of cleaning the chimney bore fruition.
Good thing we have oil heat as backup, tho I certainly hate to rely on this.
19 feb 00
| forced treatment |
This week has been all work. Focus on forced treatment and legislation
about the same. Across the USA proponents of involuntary psychiatric
interventions have been aggressively promoting bills and legislative acts
designed to make it easier to pull people off the streets and shove them
into locked settings. Connect this kind of action with "confidentiality"
laws, and it makes it possible to "disappear" people.
Connecticut's Governor John Rowland (R-Corporate Interests) this season has called for cut-backs in funding
of geriatric inpatient units at CVH, and eliminating the drug detox unit. Wants
to bail out his friends who run "nursing homes." Gawd knows the big boys raping
the coffers of the elderly and addicted don't get enough to live on.
As I write this I'm kind of tired out. Glad to have a three day hiatus
from the mental hospital atmosphere. Not seeking to avoid the residents so
much as the psychic drain on the spirit that comes from working in a place
and instutitutional systemn that, even with some positive changes recently,
still seems hell-bent on totally detsroying people's souls.
13 feb 00
comic strip artists |
I don't suppose I want to make too much of the
fact that Charles Schultz died the same day I learned that Bill Griffith, creator
of Zippy the Pinhead has moved to East Haddam. | Both seem to represent two
completely different aspects of the "funnies," yet both carry threads that
clearly indicate the two artists try vailantly to make some sense out of the
world around them. Both, paradoxically, sometimes have trouble making sense
of things. Small wonder. The world is a pretty weird place, after all.
I'll miss Peanuts
although it has not really been my favorite. But, for that matter, neither has
Zippy; he's just too out there (tho' as drawing styles go, I have come to be fonder
of Griffith's strip the more I see his work on actual locales).
Combic strip artists played a major influence on how I have learned
to literally see the world. Older strips, like Rick O'Shea,
Dondi, even Winnie Winkle provided me with a glimpse of other
parts of the globe, as well as gave a fresh visual perspective every week
of the world as the comic artists saw things. Even now I still have clear in
my mind the image ofa Chinese Junk ship with a vibrant sunset over the sea
as a backdrop as depiced in Milt Caniff's Terry and the Pirates. (Then, of course,
I was also fascinated by the strong jawed men in that strip was well as in
Mike Nomad and Hal Foster's swarthy medieval warriors in
Prince Valiant ... but that's another subject).
I am heartend to
see so many strips I liked as a kid are still carried by
King Features
syndicate, incidentally, and many are available online. Another interesting
site to find favorite strips is thru Stu's Comic Strip World.
These days I don't get to see too many of my favorites. I can still see John
Cullen's version of Prince Valiant, but other than that... Calvin and Hobbes is
gone, Doonesbury is too wrapped up in dot.com culture for me to relate, and while
I enjoy some of the story lines in some of the newer strips, I am disturbed that
many cartoon creators think it is perfectly alright to draw badly (Dilbert in
mind, but he's not the worst drawn that's syndicated). So I hate to admit it
but I mostly only read the "soaps" these days. Anybody wonder when Mary Worth is
gonna get the skinny on the grifters from England?"
Out fer now.
| HIV status
& prejudice |
One of the discussion groups I take part in has recently been talking
about HIV status: how this can affect relationships, human interactions and
one person's impressions about another person.
Anyway, on this latter point, one man talked about, and then established,
a discussion group for folks who remain HIV- to talk about their
angst over being uninfected. [hmmm. have to think about that one]
But it was the ensuing conversational thread that became of more interest
to me. In part, because by merely raising the issue, the discussion brought
out of hiding, an assortment of people who, far from needing "support groups,"
seemed content to reveal their unbridled prejudices about others who are
different from themselves. They postulated that it was legitimate to hold
prejudices against folks who were HIV+ yet, like the "race conscious" Aryan
Nation types, couldn't come up with any good rationale for being against those
whom they now revealed they hate.
Now, another aspect of this discussion was from folks who were HIV+
but who have not yet begun to effectively deal with their seropositive state.
Among this group was a man who -quite passionately- made it clear that he
became infected as a result of a blood transfusion; that it was an
accident!!! and one that, now years later, still traumatized. Not
the same problem as the HIV status bigots, but still not capable of getting
on with his life.
The general trend toward demonizing people because of their "status" (whether
pos or neg)is disturbing. Then again, I'm of the belief that maintaining any
prejudice (as contrasted with a preference) is far more debilitating and
destructive than having a particular condition (or orientation, skin color, national
origin, etc).
As for the person who remains traumatized about having become HIV+ from a
blood transfusion, while the angst, anger and anguish are valid they need to be
dealt with. One could just as likely have lost a limb or had a traumatic brain
injury. Accidents do, indeed, happen and people can become disabled as a result.
Yet the solution (personally at least) lies
not in remaining distraught, but in
identifying what tools are needed to go on from that point; to work around
the barriers and obstacles that arose from the new-found disability and in
going forth and living a full life anyway. HIV has been with everyone
long enough now to learn how to do this.
The trick is: to combat prejudice and learn how to better fight the disabiling
aspects of HIV, both personally and socially. Hating others because of their
pos or neg status is not the direction for accomplishing this.
And for those who get bent out of shape because they go propositioned by
someone who might be a certain status, could you please explain in a
rational manner how your hatred and ire is any different than that of the
homophobe
or racist bigot who harrases you just becuase you only said you
thought he was good looking? Is it really all that difficult to just
say "thank you, but I'm not interested" and leave it at that?
Okay. Enough. I'll get off the soapbox.
5 feb 00
| other voices:
Living with nature |
Van Waffle writes a weekly column about Living with Nature. I
envy his self-discipline, since my own ruminations are often unpredictable
and sporadic (tho I am getting better at it).
Two weeks ago, just as we went into deep freeze he chose to drive up
to the
North Bay region of Canada. Small wonder his car's engine wouldn't
start. This week he warms up to more complex relationships between
humans/nature/economic needs and the "apparant privilege of naturalists to
urbanism. Worth checking out.
historic preservation | And
PlanetSoma's David Gwynne asks an important question
of those who purport to value historic preservation but end up fostering
Disneyfication of the landscape. Specifically, he wonders why some folks
seem to hold a greater value to artifacts that are pre-20th century at the
expense of more recent (as well as commercial)
structures.
I couldn't agree with him more. Historic Preservation is more than postcard
renderings of Victorian "Painted Ladies" or saving parchment documents and
spinning wheels.
Saving endangered industrial sites like the
Huletts is equally important.
I know I sure don't want historic areas to all look like theme
parks. (by the way, you can find more info and show some support for saving
these particular industrial marvels by writing to Save the Huletts).
Huletts, by the way, are ore unloaders and were integral parts of the steel making
industry in the midwest USA and are the large black images in the background right of the picture.
| arbitron
Bruce and I were randomly selected to take part in the
Arbitron radio log project this
week, which makes me feel 1- gee, maybe this really is a random poll,
and 2- has me looking more closely at my radio listening habits. Now, I don't
expect my meager sampling to result in any changes in how corporate radio
programming decision makers operate, tho' it does give my a chance to show that
at least one person hates schlock/shock jocks, "classic rock" formats, and other
muzak idiot blather audio pablum that we get stuck listening to on the airwaves.
And I got curious about webradio listening habits, since I often pop on to
some streaming site and was told, go ahead, document it. ...it's still radio.
Anyway, after the week is over, I'll share some of my findings (don't want
to skew the outcome) but I can tell you know that even the [USA] Public Radio
begathon commercials get tuned out during my listening habits.
4 feb 00
| santee watercolor
Okay. Here's a rendition of the Santee painting. The color is not
true, too yellow and this is just 'cuz I didn't feel like fooling around in
the graphics and scanner software all that much tonight. But you can get
a sense of the image. Also, the line about 1/4 of the way into the pix on the
left is from two different photos not quite matched in size.
here's an onsite view for comparison
archives:
may - sep '99 | nov - dec '99 | jan 2000
|| website updates || favorite pages
Catch you on the rebound!
~Will Brady
|
