It’s been a busy week. Very busy, actually. I’d love to have time to write and rant, but that won’t be in the cards for a day or two yet. Between class and work and travel for work, I’m reasonably convinced I may have passed myself going the other direction pulling into the driveway tonight. My current class wraps up on Monday, so I’m looking forward to a week of relative easy living. I can’t begin to tell you people how much I am looking forward to that.
Author Archives: jdtharp
Playing Tourist…
I never really stopped to play tourist in the whole time I was working in DC. The Capitol and the White House were sort of landmarks you used when giving someone directions about how to get from point A to point B. They were just sort of “there,” but not something you ever really paid a good deal of attention to. I certainly never toted a camera around town between meetings and I guess that’s why I was so pleased with how some of my pictures from last week turned out. I was lucky enough to find a hotel downtown at 16th and K and had a perfect weather in the evenings for shooting.
The heart of the empire…
It has been years since I have flown directly into Washington. Living in Baltimore, it was always more convenient for me to use BWI. This afternoon was one of those moments that gives even the cynical and jaded bastards among us a moment of pause… following the Potomac north the City spreads out from the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials in the West (ever stopped to think that the two presidents most identified with “the west” have their memorials on the west end of the Mall?) to the dome of the Capitol in the east. It’s later afternoon and the marble of the official city of Washington is catching the last orange rays of the day’s sun. It absolutely glows. Working here for the better part of four years, you grow a little immune to the charms of this place. You never really stop to look because you’re on a mad dash to the next meeting or trying to get home before the rush hour really gets fired up.
It’s good to be back here, in this place, in the beating heart of the American empire. Of course it’s even better to know that all I have to do is walk downstairs and hail a cab in the morning and someone else will drive me to work, too.
Indispensible…
Some days it’s hard to believe that the government ever managed function before I came to work. Apparently I like thinking I’m indispensible way more than I like actually being the man of the hour. Quite frankly it’s just too damned much work. I’m off to the District again tomorrow to avert another crisis.
And for those of you who already think I take myself too seriously, please note that I write this with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek.
A dangerous thing…
Some of you may have noticed that I’m a bit of a technophile. I love the new and the shiny, the sleek and the powerful. I have an overwhelming belief that two year old computers should be heading towards the ash heap of history. And that sets the stage for what comes next…
One of the wonderful features of my work is the quasi-regular video-teleconference we have with various and sundry locations. We tried to host said VTC from our new office this afternoon. When I walked into the room 15 minutes before the great event was to start and all the lights were off, I had the first inkling that there could be a problem. When I went to find the IT people to set up the equipment and they weren’t around, I knew we had a problem.
When, 15 minutes after the meeting should have started, the IT tech is struggling mightily to get the equipment set up we should have known the better part of valor was to throw in the towel. And just when you think the day couldn’t get any more odd, the computer supposed to be running all of the telephone equipment boots up… and is running Windows 95.
Win 95 was a groundbreaking OS back in the day… way back. There have been 5 new versions of windows since then and I hate to estimate how many generations of new computers have come and gone in the last 12 years. I guess that’s why no one was really surprised when 20 minutes into a meeting that started 20 minutes late, the computer froze and dropped the connection.
It boggles my mind that anyone would try to conduct business with this kind of set up. Quite frankly it’s more than a little embarrassing. In the right hands technology is a beautiful thing. In the wrong hands it can be a dangerous thing. But when it’s 2007 and your communications infrastructure is running Windows 95, it’s just a paperweight.
Not quite writer’s block…
Actually, I suppose the phrase “writer’s block” implies that I haven’t been writing when, in fact, I’ve turned out a fair amount of copy in the last few days… Just nothing that I would think of as blog-worthy. Predominantly, it has been for class or for work, but I have found a few moments to do some writing purely for my own purposes and have found it as satisfying as ever. Some days I think I may have missed my calling and should have made a career of thinking on a topic, reading a little, writing, and then repeating the process until I have a new idea worked out. As I understand it, though, that job description is a little hard to come by and the pay scale sucks. One thing I have found is that a business degree has very little resemblance to actual academics and it’s nice to get back to thinking about issues of history and politics, even if no one but me will ever read the end results.
The rule of three…
You always hear the old saying that bad things come in threes… here are mine so far for this week:
#1 Jeep overheating… probably needs a new radiator. OK, I can deal with that.
#2 No hot water pressure in my shower… annoying, but the plumbers were here all afternoon and everything seems to be working again.
#3 Home security system on the fritz… Called alarm company… They are out of business.
This is the point in the week where my blood pressure probably recorded a new personal best and I should consider spending the next few days sitting in the dark watching trashy television, eating chips, and drinking ever so tasty rum drinks.
Ever have one of those days when you’re convinced the world is conspiring against you?
“Ambivalent” should be a 4-letter word…
I was always under the impression that taking a vacation was suppose to leave you refreshed and ready to take on the world again. At the moment, though, all I am feeling is pure, unadulterated ambivalence. I can’t get back into the routine… and worse yet, I really don’t give a shit. Forgive me… this is kind of a new experience for me. Usually, I want to run a hundred miles an hour with my hair on fire, but lately all I really want to do is sit in my big comfy chair and watch Buffy on DVD.
I’m not going to lie to you people… I’ve been doing the bare minimum to scrape by at work and really not even doing that for my class. And I find the whole experience a little disturbing. I want to be the guy who has lots of fire in his belly. I want to get back to knowing the all the answers before anyone gets around to asking the questions. I’ve got to get my head back in the game. Balance has never been my forte and once the stress level cranks back up a few notches, I think things will sort themselves out.
Note to self…
It’s good to be reminded from time to time that at some level, I’m basically a hermit. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing… Just one of those little personality quirks I’ve come to actually appreciate in time. Every time I start to think that maybe I’m missing something, life throws a gentle nudge to put things back in the proper perspective. Nice work life. Nice work, indeed.
Appropriate areas of federal responsibility… or not so much.
Beginning this year, the evacuation of pets during declared emergencies will be a national priority for the United States government. That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, Fluffy, Fido, and Aunt Gurtie’s pet python Stretch will be evacuated right along with Ma and Pa Dipshit who were too stubborn to get out of the way of the next hurricane.
Evacuating people, of course, I’ll buy off on that as a legitimate responsibility of government. Preservation of life is precisely one of the major tenants of the social contract that makes government legitimate. And while I know Fluffy, Fido, and Stretch are “like members of the family,” a quick review of your high school biology (that’s right, the good old kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus and species definitions), you’ll quickly be able to determine that they are not, in fact, a member of your family. They are pets and some of them are even downright loveable, but getting them out of harm’s ways is not a legitimate responsibility of the federal government (i.e. your fellow citizens). Ensuring the safety of your family (and your pets) is by in large a personal responsibility. I’m not entirely sure where we lost the thread of individualism in this country, but those of you sitting back, waiting for big daddy government to drive with a horse trailer and travel kennels to do what you should have done are appalling… and downright un-American.
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