Self-indulgent | ReallyRedding

June 8, 2009

A tale of two empires.

I’m not a doomer. Well, not exactly. But I occasionally read some of the doomer stuff, and one of the more interesting authors I have come across online is Dimitry Orlov. He was a citizen of both the US and the former Soviet Union during the period of the old USSR’s collapse, and traveled between the two. He has a really unique perspective. He sees parallels between our two empires that citizens of only the US might not have considered. In his opinion, we have much more in common with the old Soviet Union than we usually think. And because of our relative wealth, a greater distance to fall….

Anyway this video goes on for quite a while, but I found it worth a watch. Dimitry has that dry Russian style that can be so endearing and so disturbing all at once. His ideas are quite thought provoking. Whether or not you agree with his conclusions, you can learn from his experience. It’s hosted by Stewart Brand, who is a very interesting character himself. If you have the time, take a look:

January 16, 2009

Jury, it's not just a duty.

They floated me a few days, but finally called me to serve. I sat with the hundred or so of our fellow jurors in Shasta County waiting to do our duty. There was fellow Chamber Member, Kurt Mitchell of Edward Jones. Also seen there were was fellow agent and friend Lara Wells Osborn of Coldwell Banker. All taking a day (or more) off to do our civic duty. Good to see our citizens exercising their rights and duties under our judicial system.

We watched the video from the judge, and listened as staffers talked us through the process. Did you know it’s against the law to take pictures in the Jury Assembly area? I didn’t. You learn several new things at every chance to serve.

Courthouse

As it turned out I was juror 11. The plaintiff acted as her own attorney, in pro per, as I understand it. (Note to self – NEVER DO THAT!) We sat through her day in court, but she seemed to have no case. The opposing attorney absolutely SHREDDED her, although very kindly and professional, all the while. The judge, Cara Beatty was exceptionally patient and understanding, and made an excellent impression. That’s how all judges should treat people. It was dismissed mid-afternoon on a motion, mercifully. You should have heard people’s comments as we walked out the Courthouse. Wow, they were very patient in the jury box, but the conversation at deliberations would have been flaming, I’m sure. Glad we didn’t get there.

As I arrived in the assembly area, my shoe disintegrated. These were Clarks, supposedly a good British shoe. I wonder if this was a knock off? Naturally, I sat in the front row of the jury box, so all assembled in the room could clearly see my toes. Nice. If ever there was a good indicator that I need your business, this was it. I need new SHOES!
Clarks shoes

January 2, 2009March 22, 2012

Oh, it IS a Happy New Year in blogland after all

Heh.

I was given a reprieve by the blog gods, and one of my restore operations brought the old blog back to life. I had spent yesterday moaning and wringing my hands as 3 years of posts turned to dust. Okay, I was more like wailing in sorrow, and shaking my fist at the cursed fates. Ahem. Today, I feel a whole lot better.

I will be more vigorous about fixing errors before they have an opportunity to corrupt the database. But then, I always say that….

Actually, the world without my posts looked just fine, as it turns out. Blogs can be instructive that way. And in 3 years and 120 posts, only a few seemed worth keeping. Most of it is blather, like this one.

I like the photos, though. Like these two I took.

January 1, 2009March 22, 2012

Happy New Year :-(

2009 is off to an inauspicious start, here at the ReallyRedding blog. The database had been acting up on the backups, and I thought I’d use the holiday break from work to “fix” whatever was going on with the tables. Instead, it seems to have completely bit the dust. I killed it, somehow. And because the database was acting up on the backups, the backups won’t restore.

3 years of work, 123 posts, abruptly vanish.

Well not exactly. I can still read the posts in raw html. I just can’t seem to publish anything on the old blog. The pages all publish blank.

Much heavy sighing ensues. I was happy with the look and feel we had developed. The content offered a glimpse into my work and thoughts over the last couple of years. It was erratic in the beginning, but I had developed a voice, of sorts, and was posting pretty regularly throughout 2008. You could look back and get a good idea what I was thinking and some insight into my personality. Which I hope was helpful. But it all evaporated somehow. It’s very discouraging.

Well, it’s a new year, or so the calendar says. Perhaps it’s time to wipe that slate clean and move on.

No doubt.

Unless something magic happens to that data, I really don’t have much choice. I will try to re-post some of the work as time goes by.

Perhaps appropriately, a couple of buzzards find a dead possum outside my back window, which only adds visual imagery to my blog’s untimely demise. Watching them work, it occurs to me that this is the reason we humans bury our dead. Nobody wants to watch old Fred the possum as he is dispatched. Nobody wants to see their blog end either, but it inevitably does.

Buzzards work on a possum Buzzards in Redding

November 5, 2008March 16, 2012

Emotional election night

I suspect there were few dry eyes in America last night. I know mine weren’t. We saw history, some of it ending, and some just beginning. I’ll leave the political commentary to the other bloggers, however. If you are near my age, you have seen many changes in the way we consider race in the U.S. Sometimes the changes are slow to come, and sometimes they arrive in an instant. Last night that paradigm shift moment arrived via TV for me, with Charlie Gibson stating “We are ready to predict the winner….” The winner was all of us.

I enjoyed the Onion’s take on things. Click HERE. Warning, link contains ironic humor.

The music in the player is by Craig Padilla. It’s an excerpt from the song titled Vast Emotions. It’s one of my favorites from the 1996 CD Eye of the Storm. My emotions were vast indeed. The music reminds me that Obama has big job ahead. Let’s all wish him luck, because we’ll all need it.