Fingers Crossed

Ok a long time ago, in a small college town far far away...

I was a tyke.

I was living in Grayson dorm and hanging around with my friend from home and two lesbians that lived on his floor. I had a bit of a crush on one of them, which was typical. Might as well stick a rainbow flag sticker on a woman if I have a crush on her. But they were great and fun people. I remember watching Dynasty (OMG someone is bi... even if they barely do anything to show it omg omg! media exposure! omg omg!) with them. And all that. Very different people and they were heading into the lesbian world while I was just getting frustrated by the limitations of being a tyke and we sort of drifted apart.

So yesterday I'm on a lesbian board and we're talking about places that are good for lesbians and I bring up, duh, Northampton. I mean, if it gets better than Northampton I'm not sure where. And someone else chimes in agreeing and saying they went to U-Mass. So I ask when and they say 85-88 and they lived in Grayson, but after a year moved to Northeast. Um, I lived in Grayson in 85 and my lesbian friends moved after that year to the social awareness cooridor in Northeast. And they were transfer students so 85-88 would be right...

So I asked if she lived on 5 North. And I keep checking to see if she's replied. It would be a pretty amazing coincidence if it didn't turn out to be one of them.

*checks clock* *taps fingers* *reloads the bbs page*

Fingers Crossed

Ok a long time ago, in a small college town far far away...

I was a tyke.

I was living in Grayson dorm and hanging around with my friend from home and two lesbians that lived on his floor. I had a bit of a crush on one of them, which was typical. Might as well stick a rainbow flag sticker on a woman if I have a crush on her. But they were great and fun people. I remember watching Dynasty (OMG someone is bi... even if they barely do anything to show it omg omg! media exposure! omg omg!) with them. And all that. Very different people and they were heading into the lesbian world while I was just getting frustrated by the limitations of being a tyke and we sort of drifted apart.

So yesterday I'm on a lesbian board and we're talking about places that are good for lesbians and I bring up, duh, Northampton. I mean, if it gets better than Northampton I'm not sure where. And someone else chimes in agreeing and saying they went to U-Mass. So I ask when and they say 85-88 and they lived in Grayson, but after a year moved to Northeast. Um, I lived in Grayson in 85 and my lesbian friends moved after that year to the social awareness cooridor in Northeast. And they were transfer students so 85-88 would be right...

So I asked if she lived on 5 North. And I keep checking to see if she's replied. It would be a pretty amazing coincidence if it didn't turn out to be one of them.

*checks clock* *taps fingers* *reloads the bbs page*

The un-free free market

Today's Salon has a wonderful article about US broadband policy which brings up a lot of issues about competition or not. It also brings up a lot of issues about broadband, but I'm thinking of the greater issues.

I'm actually not as liberal as people think I am. I'm actually a big believer in the free market for example. But one of the things I think is vital to the free market is protecting that market from the companies that do business in it. A monopoly market isn't a true free market. The only way for a monopoly to die is to have a paradigm shift in its industry or be broken up by a government.

I've ended up arguing this a lot recently because in their infinite wisdom, our state government has decided to use only open source file formats. That's an admirable idea, but it's not really a viable strategy. Microsoft, much as I hate them, has a monopoly and if we provide information to the public in a format that isn't MS, then the public will email us asking us to provide it to them in MS format. That's not a free market.

And one of the big differences (along with spending like maniacs vs balanced budgets) between classic conservatism and neo-conservatism is the free market. Not that classic conservatives have been particularly aggressive at monopoly busting, but at least they aren't actively trying to build them. But really, neo-cons are against the free market. They're actually working to produce policies that benefit monopolies--mainly I think because a single provider is easier to extort for contributions to continue their "thousand year majority." Speaking of which, actually what it reminds me of is the crony laden but fast growth economic policies of German national socialism where a small number of players work in synergy with the government. Essentially, a planned economy in terms of big business, but with private for profit management and other small independent businesses. And lots and lots of volkswagons and other bread and circus sort of aspects. The same is really true for the emerging mixed economy of the PRC.

For the personal angle, we stand to lose our current DSL provider at work because of the changes in DSL regulation mentioned in the article. It won't cost us any more money, but there's no way we're going to get the same kind of service from comcast or verizon that we do from cape.com. I put in a call and they get back right away. When we had a line go south, they went to bat for us with Verizon because we were a local government.

Anyway, that's just a few of my thoughts.

Note: You can sit through a short commercial and get a daily site pass to Salon. You don't have to be a subscriber.

The un-free free market

Today's Salon has a wonderful article about US broadband policy which brings up a lot of issues about competition or not. It also brings up a lot of issues about broadband, but I'm thinking of the greater issues.

I'm actually not as liberal as people think I am. I'm actually a big believer in the free market for example. But one of the things I think is vital to the free market is protecting that market from the companies that do business in it. A monopoly market isn't a true free market. The only way for a monopoly to die is to have a paradigm shift in its industry or be broken up by a government.

I've ended up arguing this a lot recently because in their infinite wisdom, our state government has decided to use only open source file formats. That's an admirable idea, but it's not really a viable strategy. Microsoft, much as I hate them, has a monopoly and if we provide information to the public in a format that isn't MS, then the public will email us asking us to provide it to them in MS format. That's not a free market.

And one of the big differences (along with spending like maniacs vs balanced budgets) between classic conservatism and neo-conservatism is the free market. Not that classic conservatives have been particularly aggressive at monopoly busting, but at least they aren't actively trying to build them. But really, neo-cons are against the free market. They're actually working to produce policies that benefit monopolies--mainly I think because a single provider is easier to extort for contributions to continue their "thousand year majority." Speaking of which, actually what it reminds me of is the crony laden but fast growth economic policies of German national socialism where a small number of players work in synergy with the government. Essentially, a planned economy in terms of big business, but with private for profit management and other small independent businesses. And lots and lots of volkswagons and other bread and circus sort of aspects. The same is really true for the emerging mixed economy of the PRC.

For the personal angle, we stand to lose our current DSL provider at work because of the changes in DSL regulation mentioned in the article. It won't cost us any more money, but there's no way we're going to get the same kind of service from comcast or verizon that we do from cape.com. I put in a call and they get back right away. When we had a line go south, they went to bat for us with Verizon because we were a local government.

Anyway, that's just a few of my thoughts.

Note: You can sit through a short commercial and get a daily site pass to Salon. You don't have to be a subscriber.

(no subject)

BLOOD ELVES!!!!

(no subject)

BLOOD ELVES!!!!