eric.openflows

Not much to say today. Well, that's not true. I have a lot on my mind but can't seem to organize it into something worth posting.

Since my father died almost 3 months ago, I've spent many long days sorting through, packing up, throwing out and archiving the detritus of my parents lives. Today was another of those long days.

Today's photos are two shots of some of the random stuff not yet packed.

 
 

the personal is political

Today is the 38th anniversary of the Supreme Court's decision on Roe v Wade that made abortion legal in the US. Instead of ranting about the logical failing of equating a fetus with a child, and the even more logically disconnected equating of an embryo and a child; instead of quoting old testament verse that supports a woman's right to abortion, I'm going to take a few minutes to tell a story about my mom.

Those that know me know that my mother was diagnosed with alzheimer's dementia a while ago and has been falling deeper and deeper into the haze for years. About 1.5 years ago, things got to the point where she needed a level of care that my father was incapable of providing so she moved into the dementia ward of a nursing home.

I can't help but wonder what her condition would be if the religious-right had not forced the de-funding of the most promising avenues of alzheimer's research in 2001 -- embryonic stem-cell research. What treatment might be there today if the anti-abortion crowd did not feel the need to turn their religious doctrine into secular law?

But, that is a tangent and not what I want to write about. I remember my mom's first bout with dementia very well. In the mid-stages of her deterioration, when the illness went from her being a bit foggy to actual dementia and loss of connection with reality, it would hit her in waves. She would be there one minute, and the next she would --for lack of a better way of explaining it-- suddenly become un-stuck in time; drifting mentally back to somewhere else.

Her first serious time-shift came while she was in the hospital being treated for an unrelated condition. I went uptown to visit her, she was doing well until she had to change rooms. I grabbed her suitcase and the nurse led her down the hall to her new room. Somehow, she convinced herself that she was on a train, moving from one sleeper compartment to another. When I told her she was not on a train, but in the hospital, her response was "really? I'm on a hospital train? I've never heard of those before, where are we going?"

As I calmed her down and got her in to the bed, she slipped completely to another place and time in her mind. She started talking to me as if I was a co-worker in the office she was a nurse in when she was in her early 20s. I tried to make sense of what she was saying -- "it's such a shame that the couple in room 1 can't have one while the woman down the hall is willing to risk everything to get rid of hers..." -- it took me a while to remember that her first career was in nursing. As soon as I started to figure out what she was talking about, I went to ask her a question, in my imagined roll as her co-worker.

At that moment, she snapped back to the present. She was frightened and confused; she realized that she had just been somewhere else; she was still aware enough to know that it was a sign of what was to come. She was losing touch with herself, her present, her life.

After a difficult conversation where she made me promise to help her commit suicide once her condition deteriorated, I managed to get the courage to ask her about her dementia flashback.

It turns out that back in the late 1950s, my mom worked in the office of a fertility specialist that also performed illegal, medically safe, abortions.

My mom, the same woman that always worried and lectured me about the consequences of my own political activism had put herself on the line to assist in providing illegal abortions because it was the right thing to do. "Why should women risk death and infections for what should be a simple medical procedure?" she said in a simple matter of fact way.

I was blown away. The images I had of her being middle-of-the-road shattered. My mom was a radical; my mom was an activist; when she was faced with the reality of injustice, she actually did something instead of turning a blind eye or taking the safe path.

I asked her why she never told me; why she kept this a secret for so long. She looked up and shrugged -- "it never occurred to me that it was something worth talking about, it's just what I did"

For all the pain that alzheimer's has sent my way, it gave me this one gift. Without that flash of dementia, I would never have known, I would have never realized just how proud I am of who she is and how she lived her life.

To all those people that fought for abortion rights, this day if for you. Thank you, you have saved countless lives. Stand tall and be proud, don't believe the hype. You did the right thing.

Mom, I hope that somewhere in there, you know that today is a special day.

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Today's photos:

A rolling bike gathers no moss (or branches)
 
 

help, I've fallen and I can't get up

Female desire and the princess culture
http://margotmagowan.wordpress.com/2011/01/18/female-desire-and-the-prin...
a review of Peggy Orenstein's new book Cinderella Ate My Daughter.
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Think that the congress overstepped with the healthcare bill? The founders of the country disagree
http://blogs.forbes.com/rickungar/2011/01/17/congress-passes-socialized-...
Congress Passes Socialized Medicine and Mandates Health Insurance -In 1798
In July of 1798, Congress passed – and President John Adams signed - “An Act for the Relief of Sick and Disabled Seamen.” The law authorized the creation of a government operated marine hospital service and mandated that privately employed sailors be required to purchase health care insurance.
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Grow NYC has taken the idea of the "really really free market" and run with it. This should be fun.
http://www.grownyc.org/swap
Community "swaps" provide the perfect opportunity to find new homes for things you no longer need. By taking home items that you can use, you are also helping to prevent waste from production, packaging and transportation required to get new things.
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and of course, today's photos:

 
 

 
 

 
 

I'm just finishing up on another relatively long-term project, and for the first time in a long time I'm really sad that it's over.

The staff at PSC CUNY, the City University of New York teacher's union, has been amazing to work with; and I've been thinking about the things that made this project so much less grief-ridden than others.

So, for those of you working on projects from the client end, here's some things you can keep in mind if you want to be loved by your technology development crew.

5: be demanding, but flexible. Know when to push for exactly what you want and when to accept "no" from the developers. You are likely to get more in the end if you know where to draw that line.

4: use the tools for communication and coordination that your developers want you to use. It's easy to default to phone calls or email to give feedback and make requests, but in the long run it's better to use a tool that provides for tracking of these things and that the techies are going to be looking at frequently. For us, this tool is mantis. Being able to keep track of what needs to be done, what questions there are, what we've asked and what responses we've been given allows us to give more in the end. Things don't get lost; everyone knows what the decisions and agreements were; time is not wasted on searching for old emails or figuring out what to do next.

3: respect the skills and experience of your techies. Remember, you know what your organization does better than anyone, you know what you need: but you don't know technology -- that's why you hired consultants and developers. Help them see how to make what they know work to facilitate what you do.

2: Look for creative solutions to problems. When your techies say "we can't do that" don't assume they are being lazy. Collaborate and brainstorm, don't complain and demand the impossible. You'll get what you need and more if you don't force time to be spent pushing digital rocks up a hill.

1: Accept that no technology project is ever without bugs, glitches or problems. Look at technology projects as a never ending process. Get what you need in place and build with future additions in mind. Successful technology projects are not completed commodities, they are ongoing collaborations.

And now for today's photos:

sad little umbrella
 
 

beware the trees!
 
 

From time to time, members of the NY City Council need to make a stink so their constituents think they are doing something. Often, they will pick some powerless segment of society to attack; the poor, tenants in rent regulated apartments, and of course bicyclists.

It's that time of year again. A new proposal is going to be brought to the City Council by Councilmember Eric Ulrich. This insane proposal would require all bicycles to have license plates.

The logic is painfully disconnected with reality. Let's ignore for now how silly it would be to create a new bureaucracy to oversee and administer this policy and look at what problems they hope to solve with this. The advocates for this plan say that it will make the streets safer by making enforcement of bicycling laws possible. Recent history shows clearly that the police have no problems writing tickets to cyclists -- this law would not change that at all. If you are one of the few unfortunate people to get hit by a bicycle, the license plates will be so small that there's little chance of being able to see it and write it down.

However, this will make it harder for people to take up cycling, it will prevent people with limited funds from using free transportation, and will instantly create a huge new class of criminals and provide new excuses for various violations of rights.

Nothing good can come from this.

Go to http://transalt.org/takeaction/actioncenter/5059?v=4 and send an email to Councilmember Ulrich letting him know how misdirected his plan is.

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Today's photos:

Not sure how the crate ended up balancing on this angle
 
 

Big metal box
 
 

nice arrangement of assorted trash