I am deep into Barnett's Pentagon's New Map after having listened to the brief on C-SPAN and dug deeply into Barnett's blog. This is one of the most engaging works I have ever read since I am constantly writing notes in the back of the book and find myself getting lost in thought after reading so many paragraphs. I will review the book once I finish it. For now something that strikes me is the need to use quantitative measures to identify the Core and Gap and treat them less as either or and more as shades of purple (in reference to the recent election with simple maps depicting the outcome in terms of red or blue states when in fact most states were a closer mix).
On Friday my wife and 6 year old son went to a high school football game which gave me the opportunity to take my 3 year old daughter out on a date. She chose the International House of Pancakes (IHOP) and I was able to enjoy her complete enjoyment of life - her singing and dancing while eating pancakes for dinner. I decided to rent a couple of films and en route as we pass a pickup truck she lets out a loud 'see you later, sucker!' - I have got to find out how my wife drives with the kids... Disney's 'Aristocats' captured her attention the rest of the evening.
The other DVD I picked up was "Supersize Me". The film squandered a lot of potential in order convince us that McDonald's is evil, too bad but not a complete waste of time. And besides the whole family is thoroughly enjoying the British fireplace we installed in our den/newly created library. It has been getting down to freezing, so we pull the heavy drapes on the heavily windowed little room, brew some tea, crank up the fire and we're all as cozy as can be. My son has also discovered the German board game "Mensch Ärgere Dich Nicht", so that has become quite popular with us. I am hoping for a very snowy winter for plenty of this family time.
Last night I was up way too late searching for software to easily take economic and other data and display on a map of the world. I found something that looks like it will work - so now I just need to find lots of free time that doesn't take away from the family... to remember those days when there was so much time you had to worry about getting bored... my wife is very patient with my extended hours of writing, reading and watching C-SPAN.
Today was a typical Sunday, enjoyable, fun, intriguing and exerting. During my getting ready for the day rituals I stumbled across a C-SPAN Washington Journal live call-in piece with Nadia Hijab from The Palestine Center in Washington DC. It was the usual one sided nonsense about the terrible Israelis and poor Palestinians. She ignored the hard questions (such as how Palestinians feel about Suha Arafat's opulent living off the aid money intended for the poor) and dissembled the rest. However it is always difficult to hear the American public call in live and hear how many are justifiably grieved by the suffering but wholly lost as to the actual causes. It struck me that for years the same arguments have always led nowhere and that Barnett provides an understanding which is rarely or never considered (that this is really not a struggle about religion or liberation, but about globalization). I will develop the matter further, stay tuned.
Next I taught my son his in-home weekly Hebrew lesson. We were so disappointed by the local offerings and attitude that we arrived at 'if you want it done right, do it yourself'. A common attitude is that young children don't have the interest or attention to learn Hebrew. I call it ridiculous and lazy. His progress is amazing and his joy in learning sweet. One of my few fears for our children is the danger of losing that love of learning. You know, it is that same thing that you see when your child thinks he is too old to enjoy Winnie the Pooh, just uncool, too mature... Tammy Bruce spoke on CSPAN-2 discussing the danger of 'group think' and how we give up our selves to be part of the group. He loves 1st grade and his Wednesday night class as well. How will he keep that innocence and still gain maturity?
Next the local Sunday paper, checking e-mail, VPN to work check a few things. I can't resist tinkering with the mapping software - it is called EPI info and distributed by the CDC. It looks like it will be a great first step - gather the data into a spreadsheet, normalize it, then link the results into the maps. There is some very cool stuff on the web, in particular some web based front ends that uses ODBC to keep the maps live - but this is spendy stuff and I first need to validate my idea.
Then while my son is engrossed in GameCube and the ladies are at work I take on the winterizing of the house. We live in a charming house built in 1931 and rather than modernize the house and lose its charms we chose to restore. It would be far easier to install modern windows or storms (not to mention cheaper) but there is something very satisfying about taking the screens down and rehanging the the storm windows once the weather changes. It is a concrete acknowledgment of the change of seasons and a good excuse to slow down and let my mind wander. I take the same approach with mowing our lawn (a little non-powered reel mower that makes the quietest whirrr) or shoveling the snow in the driveway - very physical acts in our knowledge worker world. Barnett is right on about the problem with globalization is the rate of adoption, the need to find our cultural equilibrium as we move forward. We cling nostalgically to our traditions, often ones that we grew up with. But the world is changing and always has, the old house I live in was a modern innovation when my father was young. The America of 200 years ago is nothing like the one we grew up in. Yes there are core principles that haven't changed, this is how you can read the Bible or 2000 year old historic documents and find yourself how surprised at how modern they are. But for all those who hate Walmart because it has destroyed the corner market, you are taking on the wrong enemy. You either need to stop change or change people's values or better yet take on a more important issue. Where was I? Oh... This task also forces me to wash the exterior windows - the house always feels nicer with clean windows.
Next the ladies are back and we promised to take my son bowling (recently discovered at a school party). I have never played with 'bumpers' before - what a nice innovation. We play three sets, two on two lanes. My son gets 123 and I get my best score ever of 159. Funny how when you are really focusing on fun you get some good scores. My daughter sort of walks up to the line and drops the ball - it slowly rolls toward the pins - I wonder if the ball will ever make it to them. My sons also drops the ball with some weird underhand wrist action causing the ball to careen off both sides of the bumpers. It is very strange to see a bowling ball zig zag towards the pins.
We get home to have a typical home cooked meal with old fashioned family conversation (and taunting and laughing and whining and all). I feel so sorry for those people that eat most of their meals away or without their whole family - something that the Supersize Me film brings to mind. We chose to lead a life centered around our family knowing that we would sacrifice to have this. But the gains are infinitely greater for us than the sacrifices.
Finally bed time rituals, some crying, some laughing, then back to the virtual world...
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