Illegal Words

We played the word game Upwordstonight. It made me think about the concept of illegal words. In the game there are certain words that you are not allowed to use. These words are referred to as Illegal words. These “illegal” words set limits on the possible plays in the game. In the real world, outlawing words, either by taboo or legal mechanism, places bounds on the possibility of discourse one with another. Common courtesy is maintained by voluntarily refraining from using offensive speech. Codifying this courtesy tends to chill open discourse. This occurs because of the escalation of the consequences of the speech. When common courtesy is breached, one can be shunned or ignored. When speech laws are broken, imprisonment or other punitive actions are attached to the speech. Sensible people will err on the side of caution, making legitimate policy discussions unapproachable and leaving social problems unsolvable.

Building Together

I started building things with my son this week. The first project, a catapult. For Christmas, our family received an Erector set. I requested it. All of the kids have been showing a lot of interest in building things, mostly with Legos. I wanted them to turn it up a level and get into building and designing things that weren't static, but could do things and go places. My son was immediately drawn to the catapult. A machine for throwing things was his idea of a great project. We worked very well together, he practiced screwing pieces together using the Allen wrenches and I worked to decipher the instructions. It took us the better part of an half hour to put it together. It led to hours of fun, especially when we discovered that the best projectiles were jelly beans. As they say, a good time was had by all.

Walking with Children

My children like to walk in front of me. Everywhere we go is a race. The first one there wins and there is no consolation prize. In the movies, parents walk hand in hand with their children into the sunset, or wherever it is that they are going. With my kids, I am always trying to keep up by either slowing down or yelling hopeless threats from behind. “If you don't stop right there, I am not going for a walk with you again!.” They are too smart to really believe me. Every once in a while they do actually stop. Once I am within ten feet of them, they take off running. It doesn't bother me too much. I would rather have them trying to beat me home than to have no desire to go out with me in the first place. Next time maybe I will run.

150 words.

Sharing the Work

California has a program within the unemployment insurance program called Worksharing. For our company, it allows them to retain personnel through an anticipated slump in demand. Our slump came with the collapse of the construction market. After laying off as many people as they dared, the office opted to use the Worksharing program. This means that the remaining employees reduce their hours in order to share a smaller amount of work between them. That meant a twenty percent reduction in hours and pay, and presumably that the office could afford to keep twenty percent of the personnel that they would have otherwise needed to lay off. In our office that translates to 10 individuals. It means that as work starts to come back we have some productivity left to apply to it. It seems like the sensible thing to do. And I couldn't tell you ten people to lay off.

150 words.

Buses

The buses around here are a pretty good deal. For about the price of the bridge toll, you can ride the whole hour and fifteen minutes without having the stress of driving in traffic. That said, the rides themselves are uncomfortable. The chairs are stiff, like benches, the seats recline enough that you can say they recline. There is little space between the rows of seats. The windows are cold in the winter, with warm, heated air being pumped up from the sill. This has the strange effect of making you too warm near the window, but cold when you touch it.
Then you add the attitude of the generally stoic riders. You are shushed if you speak to loudly, whether on the phone or to your neighbor. Everyone likes to sit alone and employs many different tactics to secure a row to themselves. The most private of public transportation.

150 words.

Movies of Books

It took me many years, but I just came to terms with the fact that movies made from books are only loosely inspired by them. They rarely follow the whole story line. They often leave out some of the best characters. You never get the secondary plots. Content is always sacrificed for spectacle. In the end, I end up telling myself, “the movie was good, the book was good, but they were different stories, and I should just enjoy them as pieces of art by themselves.” If I try to compare them to each other, I always like the book better, the deeper development that just isn't possible in two to two and a half hours just does not compare. In all honesty, the only way I can really enjoy the movie version is to see it before I read the book. Then it is easier to enjoy both.

150 words.

Emergencye Preference

When I was in college in Minnesota, my roommates in the dorm would always comment that they preferred tornadoes and sub-freezing temperatures to earthquakes. I have always preferred earthquakes, not because I find them any less dangerous, but for the very reason my mid-west companions disliked them. They aren't an annual occurrence. They happen sporadically at any time, there is no earthquake season and you don't need to worry about finding the nearest earthquake cellar when the alarms go off. It was this unpredictability that drove my roommates nuts. Tornadoes only occur during certain times of the year under predictable conditions. You often have time to see them coming and do what you can to prepare. They preferred to minimize the threat and damage and hope that the localized nature of the emergency would avoid them. I prefer to just let the disaster hit and get on with the recovery.

150 words.

Sleeping Like a Baby

Is there any point in going to bed, if you are just going to be woken up every two hours? Our baby girl has decided that sleep is something you do for only an hour at a time, and in between, you scream until someone picks you up. I often hear people say that if you don't get at least 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep at night it affects you negatively. My question: is that worse than getting no sleep at all. In college I would go without sleep sometimes two days in a row when I had a serious deadline. All-nighters were part of the curriculum, maybe some kids are the same way. I am seriously considering doing a few all-nighters. I can work on things I need to get done, and when the baby wakes up, I can take care of her. For maybe a night or two.

150 words.

Goals

I have never been one to really take goal making seriously. Nice as it was to sit down and think about what I would like to do, I much preferred to just do what I could without too many goals. The goals I did have focused around established credentials that were related to my career. These goals had been set by someone else as a way to become a good architect. You get a professional degree, work as an intern and then take the required licensing exams. Tada! You're an architect.
Personal goals worked much the same way, go to college, get married have some kids. From there you have some options, but for the most part, the goals I set were very impersonal. More just me conforming to what society expects. I am starting to see goals in a different light and trying to make them work for me.

150 words.

Choosing an Architect

When you are looking to hire an architect, there are many methods you may use to choose one. The best method is to find friends or coworkers who have used an architect in the past to do a project similar to what you have in mind. Often times they will be able to help you reduce the breadth of your search by recommending someone they have worked with. Failing this, you should find architects who have experience with the type of project you are planning on doing. Search their web page or portfolio to see if they have a certain “style” and if that “style” is one that you like. Ask them for recommendations from both clients and contractors that they have worked with. By doing this you can see if they are easy to work with, accommodating of your need and capable in their knowledge of construction.

150 Words.

Naming Girls

When we picked our childrens' names we had a hard time naming the girls, and have had a boy's name ready for every pregnancy. I found that the main obstacle to any girl's name was my wife's association of the name with classmates from the past. Unfortunately, she knew a lot of people and many of them had names that I liked. The second obstacle was nicknames. She was worried about what other people would call them. I didn't worry so much about what other people would call her, I worried about what I could call her. We named our youngest daughter based on my desire to call her Ginny as a nickname. From there I researched given names that commonly, or at least occasionally resulted in the nickname Ginny. Guinevere was my choice, and it slowly grew on my wife. After all, she had never met anyone named Guinevere.

150 words.

Chase Bank's Overdraft Fee and Refund Policy

Chase bank charges between $33 and $35 for each overdraft transaction. How do I know this, because I received three such charges yesterday. Unfortunately, they have a courtesy refund policy that allows for the removal of a maximum of two fees. Well, almost. In fact, they have a fixed dollar maximum, $70 that they will refund as a one time courtesy to good customers. What this meant was that I was charged three occurrences of $33 dollars for a total of $99. The customer service agent was generous enough to give me the full refund of $70 dollars, leaving me with a $29 fee for my mistake. In the end, a supervisor was able to refund that amount, not as a courtesy, but because I was supposed to have overdraft protection, but when Chase bought WAMU, it never transferred. In a nutshell, this is Chase Bank's overdraft and refund policy.

150 words.

Day Two: Topics

Coming up with topics has proven to be a tricky thing. I am not trying to follow a certain theme. I am just trying to practice writing. I had assumed that I would have plenty to say, and I do, but I am just shooting for 150 words after all. So, seeing as this is only my second post, I think I will use that excuse to write about what I am not doing. I am not writing a political manifesto, though I doubt I will never write about politics. I am not trying to keep everyone up to date on my life, my kids, or my work. I have other places for that. I am hoping that I can become a better writer simply by writing. I don't know if it works that way, but hopefully you will find what I write instructive or interesting, or a little of both.

151 words.

About 150 Words

I am setting out to write around 150 words a day. I haven't written regularly since college, but have always enjoyed doing so. So here I am trying to resurrect the habit from school, but not so much that it really takes over my life. Someone suggested that I write a certain number of words a day, just free writing about whatever comes to mind, but to limit the number of words. I chose 150, hopefully this can serve as useful practice for my budding writing skills.
Why 150? It seems about right, 10 to 15 sentences should be long enough to make simple, clear and short statements while avoiding citations or serious research. And mostly because it will force me to keep this short and concise and not inundate the inter-webs with yet another overly verbose, inane line of self gratification. I guess we will see how that goes.

150 words.