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20 oct |
What!?! No pictures? What gives? | Glad you noticed. Tell the truth I just haven''t
had the time to mess with this, and ~besides~ I've been having trouble with both my camera
and my scanner. Now, this has also forced me to re-evaluate the whole picture thing,
in part since I wasn't using thumbnails (the file sizes could be huge) and in part since I
know that folks have occasionally griped about how long it took to download the page as a
result. SO this is the "new" look, or text centeredness of the journal pages.
I'm also toying with the idea of going to
BLOGGER as a means of maintaining the weblog part of the page, but don't yet know
about this. Sugestions?
Welcome new viewers | It's been brought to my attention that a potentially new set of
viewers have stumbled on to my site. Welcome. Hope you find the site's content (and that of
my companion site rondak.org)
interesting. But, please, whether you like or dislike the content, feel free to tell this to
me directly. I'm far more interested in
constructive dialogue on issues than remaining lock-stepped in one POV versus another. Thanks.
And my apologies to the individual who brought this to my attention. There may be
those who thought one of the indirect references I made to a particular group might have
applied to you, but it didn't and doesn't. I guess that's one of the problems with being too
specific about an issue but lacking specificity in identifying accused.
Travel Plans | Headed out to Sacramento CA in about two weeks for a conference for
work ~presenting on the grievance process. Exciting, huh? This is thus an open pitch for
folks to write me and suggest things they think I'd find interesting during my spare time.
Once at the locale, and as I've done in the past, I've always offered the courtesy of at
least thanking the best suggesters with coffee or a pleasant repast for taking the time and
energy to give some good advice.
I know that some time ago I wrote somewhere else about exactly this kind of thing (asking
online for suggestions) which I've posted here. Tell me whether or not it makes sense.
For the guy who asked about going to San Francisco might not have gotten any responses because
he seems to have asked pretty close to the last minute. Posting intent about travel plans less
than a week before leaving??? Not realistic planning for others.
I have made successful use of discussion group lists myself when doing travel plans but have
generally found they work better if giving the info on travel dates far enough ahead in time
for people to respond to me.
I've asked for travel advice on various internet digests on some occasions. I've found that
if I ask way ahead of time people have sent GREAT suggestions on places to eat, quirky tourist
sites to visit, sex slut havens, bed&breakfasts, even alternate road travel tips that are
better than those car rental dealers will be able to provide, as well as a how passel of
suggestions that I'd no intent or ability on following up.
In contrast, when I've gone and done the asking too late, I have found myself using pay tour
sites like Damron (which -in my experience- not very good for offering current info in the USA
South at any rate) at a strange town's public library for tips and information.
But the main point I am trying to emphasize here is you REALLY
gotta ask well in advance of traveling to a site. And it's also
really unfair to then slam the non responders form and area just
cuz they didn't get back to you. I know there are times when I
don't have time to read digests and they can wait a couple of
weeks until I get the time to read a bunch of them. Of course,
then the requester's travel questions have come and gone and even
folks from outside
the area (who know a bit about the area) can't respond either.
Finally, it always helps to request of the group to send travel
related tips and invites to yourself directly and not to a larger
subscriber list. Sure we might be curious to know the details
about a particular location, but for the most part ...living all
over the planet... it is stuff that -at the time- many have no
need to know or might use other ways to search for- and can easily
become W-A-A-Y off topic to a list.
Don't stop asking, just show some common courtesies, to yourself as well as others, by
planning in advance.
18 oct |
Get out and VOTE! | Okay, I think just about all the major party candidates are flawed.
The hydra-headed political party running the USA, offering two different versions of the same
intellectually toxic brew (gorebush or bushgore, whatever). Buchanan running on the not so
cryptonazi party slate. Nader, maybe the most intelligent contender, suffers from lack of
exposure and presence and (so I am told) has a poor standing on forced treatment issues.
And the Libertarian party, well, I guess I'm just too skeptical of any group who wants to be
free to buy a working Sherman Tank and decriminalize heroin and cocaine at the
same time.
Nevertheless, I have spent a great deal of time getting people registered to vote, and in
helping fill out absentee ballot applications. If all decide on voting day to participate,
over 100 patients who have not voted before will be adding their decision to the ballot boxes.
Most intriguing is that many who speak with me about the process seem to be as well or better
informed than folks I know who think they make decisions based on something more important
that who the candidate's hair stylist might be.
As for me? Well I'll be away in Sacramento on Voting day. SO I've already turned in my absentee
ballot and have irrevocably made my decision. You can guess all you want, but I won't tell you.
In many states, you still have time to register, so go and do it now!
• for more info on reigstering to vote go to
Vote Smart!
•
for an Absentee Ballot application
Absentee Ballots
20 sept |
Goodspeed Opera House Expansion | This group of suits comes to
East Haddam recently to
show the townspeople some nice flip chart bullet point lists and a bunch of pretty colored
illustration boards with conceptual sketches and maps of what we might expect if the
Goodspeed Opera House builds a second theatre right
after the entry into town and across the locally famed "Swing Bridge."
They did not expect to speak. What it is they expected to do is uncertain. Show us their
drawings and then go home, thankful they didn't have to touch any rough rube's hands? Anyway,
at the meeting, it quickly became clear that they couldn't just waltz in to the high school
cafeteria with a bunch of pretty pictures and not explain themselves.
So they stayed, and talked, and had to listen to a whole group of very interested citizens
who really want to know how their firm is spending our hard spent tax dollars.
Some folks were
upset to see maps that effectively re-landscaped their own properties with trees and buffer zone
plants around a mostly rectangular parking lot set (interestingly enough) smack on the top of
a flood plain zone behind the local car dealership. Others were enthused that the Opera House was
finally being provided with the option of expansion. (Tho' what the suits, a team from the
architectural firm McGuire Group, out of New Britain, CT, had shown us is essentially no
different from ideas the Goodspeed staff have been bandying about to town for two years now.)
Stage two? We wait and see. One thing is certain. The next public meeting will most
likely be more crowded and people will expect real conversation to take place. The guys and
gals from McGuire had best be better prepared to present this.
13 sept |
Awards time | At a conference sponsored by a mental patients' right's group,
Advocacy Unlimited I find out that
I am this year's recipient of the Dr. Karen A. Kangas Excellence in Advocacy award. I'm
honored but somewhat embarrased since I don't like being put on the spot.
Besides, I had promised the guys I took with me we'd do a tour of the state capitol building
in Hartford (where the conference was held). When told I was not allowed to leave the dining
room, I turned to them, remarking, "Great, now I'm ward-restricted!" They thought it was funny,
tho' the gal restricting me didn't sem to think so.
I wasn't completely surprised. After all, I had gotten a notice indicating I'd been nominated.
But nominations are often an indicator that you get a little paper certificate and a coffee
mug as recognition, so the 10" blue-green crystal obliesk was a complete surprise.
Naturally I spoke, protesting I hadn't written a speech but that I had a few notes. I thanked
the gathering of some 200 people, but eventually chided them since, for all these advocates
present, I noted we never see 'em at the hospital, where people could use the attention and
support. [note: that was now a month ago as I write this, and so far no one has taken me
up on the challenge to come visit folks at CVH]
Incidentally, we did get to tour the Capitol building, even got to go into the Governor's
office, tho (not surprisingly) he wasn't anywhere to be found. John Rowland -I'm certain-
isn't the kind of guy who really wants to know what his "sane" constituents think, much less a
bunch of mental patients and their advocates.
7 sept |
Montreal | This was a much overneeded vacation! And one well worth it!
We went on a bus tour, 44 total strangers and ourselves, the only unifying
factors being that we all wanted to go to Montreal and that we signed up for
Roy Moeckel's Gay Fun Tours,
sat back and enjoyed the trip. Nicely planned excursion ~with things to do~
but also time to get away from the group if we wanted to. So we did both.
• for more info about Montreal go to
Montreal.com
or Montreal Tourism
•
for more info about Montreal's Gay Village go to
Gay Montreal
• for more help on
translating go to
Altavista's translator service,
translating on the Internet,
or Free Translation
june |
jul 1-9 |
jul 28-aug 15 |
aug 19 |
aug 27-sep 1 |
sept 5 - oct 20
Catch you on the rebound!
~Will Brady
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about "Short Notes"
"Short Notes" was the title of a column I wrote while
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I hope you've found this site interesting, even thought provoking || Occasionally
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