|
Holiday Greetings:
the christmas tree adventure |
holiday gift ideas
 "
22 dec |
"Bah Humbug" Award | This year goes to the
Connecticut State Department of Social Services
, who
oversee the federal fuel assistance program. Why? Well, for being intractibly bureaucratic and not terribly
concerned about whether or not people actually get the fuel assistance they apply for.
As an example:
Last year a local non-profit agency which manages the fuel assistance application process
for the county, was taken over by a different agency in a different county.
First off, some people looking for fuel assistance were told to wait as
long as a whole month for an appointment, just to fill out the danged
application form !
Then... when people call the vendor delivering the fuel, they have to provide an approval
"confirmation number" before the fuel ever is scheduled to be delivered. Okay, maybe that part is reasonable,
the vendor wants to get paid, after all. Without some proof that the poor folks asking have applied, the
vendor has to eat the cost of the fuel himself. AND the vendor himself has to be registered with the state
as an "approved contractor". Again, fair enough. Don't want anybody
ripping off hard spent tax dollars, right?
But what happened when the outside agency took over the list from the local one? Simply, the
Department of Social Services required the vendors to reapply for offering their
product in a different county. When the fuel dealers didn't do this, they were automatically dropped
by the Department of Social Services from the list of approved vendors.
Nobody knew about this, apparently, until local folks went to get their oil, coal or
natural gas from the vendors.
The Department told the new fuel program managers that informing DSS about either intent to sell,
or intent to purchase, was the responsibility of the vendors and applicants. After all, what
could the Department do, it being strapped for resources itself? (right!)
So people who really need fuel to keep from freezing to death, have to wait extra time
to get fuel delivered just because DSS bureaucrats don't give a fig about honoring the old
agency's records of approved vendors until later.
I understand from some of the hard workers in the non-profit who have to speak and
meet with eligible clients face to face, that this has been a real nightmare. Not only are they
forced to tell folks they have to wait -sometimes for weeks1 for a fuel
delivery, but they also have vendors who have walked away, telling them dealing with
state bureaucrats are impossible to deal with. (not to mention that the vendors have to
wait for more months to get paid when dealing with the state.
So hats off to the top administrators at
DSS. Not only have they further served to cut
costs, they've made it possible for more suspect welfare cheaters to freeze to death
...for what, to remove them from the service roles? Hope you bastards sleep well. Cuz' when
you folks pass on theirs a real warm place waiting for you in Hell.
Compassionate conservatism, indeed!
21 dec |
Best of Intentions | For those of you who read this regularly (which is not to say
religiously)
obviously I've not had time to update some of the topics I promised to on this page,
sd noted below. I shall get around to them, juts looks like it won't be this week.
Finishing quarterly reports for work takes precedence, as it ought to.
I did make time to add a few new places to find unique gift times on
the gifts page (see above). And as an aside, for those of you who are inveterate
esoteric website collectors, I want to tell you about kottke.org,
a site that scans and reviews all sorts of curious trivia. I only hope this
site doesn't get reported there some day (or do I want the attention? Who knows?)
That's it fer now.
18 dec |
Land Stewardship | Back in June 2000, I committed to developing a separate section on this
site to practical, ethical and thoughful planning about Land Stewardship. Tonight I
shall write some more about this and the progress, I'm making on this effort. Many other sites do
exist on this. I hope to have one that is accessible to the average citizen/small property holder.
Until I get to this, check out the Canadian
Land Stewardship Recouce Center's
website, which is fairly comprehensive, and pleasing to look at as well.
GJB Graphics | Okay. Blatent (almost) self-promotion. My son has set up his own
webpage and is using it to promote his own work and graphics design efforts. He
has yet to put up an extensive portfolio but if you look for his "free stuff" you'll get a
glimpse of some things he's done and scanned to put up. My son "married Art" some years
back, even before he married his wife. This is to say he made a lifetime committment
to creative expression. Incidentially, he has been doing illustrations as far back as
early childhood, as the image of the Norfolk, NY dam attests.
He does a father proud!
Grey Literature | I plan on talking some about the wealth of unpublished documents, sometimes
known as "Grey Literature",
and of how accessing such material can help in expanding access to the sum of knowledge, particularly
with regard to so-called cutting-edge technologies and publichally funded services.
In the meantime, here's someone else's links,
(Grey Literature Report),
which gives you an idea of the breadth of subject matter available in this format. Stay tuned.
Preserving the Moderns | Likewise, I shall spend some time writing about efforts to preserve Modern
(i.e. 20th Century) Architicure and structures. In the meantime, check out one of
Docomomo's websites, for a perspective on this historic
preservation movement.
current entries |
 |
19 nov |
23 nov |
1-2 dec |
5-6 dec |
11-13 dec |
Catch you on the rebound!
~Will Brady
|
|
|
|
Go to:
mental health
homo ruminations
obligatory photo page
rondak.org
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 || Occasionally
some images come from commercial sources and are reproduced here under
fair use guidelines of US Copyright law ||
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
|
write me |
reference |
favorite pages |
site contents |
diary archives |
What's up with this? |
main page |
