January 2004

End of Month "Cut Off"     posted:  1-30-04

Reviews and Resolves
Toward the end of each month, the shop where I work does a "cut off" - in which they pull in all the account billing information they possibly can from all of us on that day. Personally I think they are a little to compulsive / obsessive. I would think that allowing the figures not making it into January's cut-off to foreward to February's count; and February's too March's ... etc would be okay. In the long run - you are still left with a good sense of monthly productivity and income; without the compulsory push and shove the whole plant must endure each month. Doesn't it all "even out" in the long run?

The "bean counters" and upper management people must feel they are helping to enforce an important accounting process - an accurate "snapshot" of earnings on that special "cut-off" date.
It would seem to me though, that this is just another example of a company bureaucracy getting all caught up in itself - and forgetting ... losing sight of the point of the whole thing. Like it or not ... the point of a business is to make money; not self-aggrandizing bureaucratic models of productivity and assessment.

There's no doubt in my mind that the single most expensive day of each month is that "cut-off" day. It results in scores of hours of overtime in each plant.

What is this?
I only spent the first two weeks (in my spare time) of January working on my "blog". I have so many unresolved questions like, "What is it?". What should this be called? what should it contain? How personal should it be; that is - how much information is "too much information"?

I Caught a Cold!
So, yes, I was sick with a cold/flu bug for about 10 days. What does that have to do with this work? I have a lot of stress at work (Oh, I could tell you some stories.). How's my emotional health? How's my love life? ... Too much information??

My end of the month cut-off

Taking stock (On or around the end of the month.).

The short and sweet:  I think I'm off to a good start. This advocation of mine is going to be a bit "time intensive", but I think that time will be well spent.
Time will tell.

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In Search of Truth    posted:  1-17-04

Sojourner
This evening I went looking for "truth" and - completely by accident - I found Truth ... goodness and beauty.

  Sojourner Truth possessed a powerful internal force that only grew stronger - as she found her mission in life - her power of purpose. The cruel ravages of slavery and disappointments in new found freedom finally led her to give in to her heart felt mission.
http://digilib.nypl.org:80/dynaweb/digs-b/wwm97253/@Generic__BookTextView/567#X

What follows are my gleanings; excerpts from a variety of accounts of the life of this remarkable person. My research has been brief and I apologize in advance for any mis-interpretation.

"Born into slavery"
"-(as Isabella Baumfree) in upstate New York, Sojourner Truth obtained her freedom and moved to New York City. There she began to work with organizations designed to assist women. She later became a traveling preacher and quickly developed a reputation as a powerful speaker. A turning point in her life occurred when she visited the Northhampton Association in Massachusetts. The members of this association included many of the leading abolitionists and women's rights activists of her time. Among these people Sojourner Truth discussed issues of the day and as a result of these discussions became one of the first people in the country to link the oppression of black slaves with the oppression of women."
from: http://www.brightmoments.com/blackhistory/nsotrue.html

"A former slave who had been called Isabella, she chose the name Sojourner Truth because it represented the mission she believed God had given her. She explained in her autobiography, Narrative of Sojourner Truth, 'I was to travel up and down the land, showing people their sins, and being a sign unto them.' "
http://www.theglassceiling.com/biographies/bio36.htm

ISABELLA--SOJOURNER TRUTH
1777 (perhaps 1797?)--1883
She was married once and bore five children, all of whom were sold from her in their early life. We first see her as a slave in the state of New York. Her age is uncertain. The only event on which to build any substantial conclusion as to her age was her liberation in 1817. At this time an act went into force in the Northern States which freed all slaves who were forty years of age. Judging from this fact her birth year would probably have been 1777. According to this she was more than one hundred years old, but she lived not so much in years as in great deeds. She was called Isabella until she gained her freedom then she tells us that she asked God for a new name. She was given Sojourner because of her many wanderings and Truth because she was to preach the truth as to the iniquity of slavery, and because, as she says, "God is my master and His name is Truth and Truth shall be my abiding name until I die."

http://groups.msn.com/TheAmericanBeachObserver/otherphotos.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=145
Soon after her liberation, she commenced her traveling career as an abolitionist and developed into a noted Anti-Slavery lecturer. Side by side she stood with Frederick Douglas and in history they are the only two noted ex-slaves who were ardent workers for freedom and qualified public speakers. She was optimistic by nature and became prominent as a publicist and was readily received by Presidents and Statesmen. She became an orator of a superior type, enlisting the sympathies and effecting conviction wherever she spoke. from: http://digilib.nypl.org:80/dynaweb/digs-b/wwm97253/@Generic__BookTextView/567#X

After months of travel, she arrived in Northampton, MA, and joined the utopian community "The Northampton Association for Education and Industry, "where she met and worked with abolitionists such as William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass and Olive Gilbert. Her dictated memoirs were published in 1850 as The Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave. http://www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/trut-soj.htm

Excerpts from:
NARRATIVE OF SOJOURNER TRUTH
Written by Olive Gilbert, based on information provided by Sojourner Truth.
1850
Speaking of one of her former owners, "...........'Never mind,' says Sojourner, 'what we give to the poor, we lend to the Lord.' She thanked the Lord with fervor, that she had lived to hear her master say such blessed things! She recalled the lectures he used to give his slaves, on speaking the truth and being honest, and laughing, she says he taught us not to lie and steal, when he was stealing all the time himself, and did not know it! Oh! how sweet to my mind was this confession! And what a confession for a master to make to a slave! A slaveholding master turned to a brother! Poor old man, may the Lord bless him, and all slave-holders partake of his spirit! .........."

".............Her next decision was, that she must leave the city; it was no place for her; yea, she felt called in spirit to leave it, and to travel east and lecture. She had never been further east than the city, neither had she any friends there of whom she had particular reason to expect any thing; yet to her it was plain that her mission lay in the east, and that she would find friends there. She determined on leaving; but these determinations and convictions she kept close locked in her own breast, knowing that if her children and friends were aware of it, they would make such an ado about it as would render it very unpleasant, if not distressing to all parties. Having made what preparations for leaving she deemed necessary,-which was, to put up a few articles of clothing in a pillow-case, all else being deemed an unnecessary incumbrance,-about an hour before she left, she informed Mrs. Whiting, the woman of the house where she was stopping, that her name was no longer Isabella, but SOJOURNER; and that she was going east. And to her inquiry, 'What are you going east for?' her answer was, 'The Spirit calls me there, and I must go.' ........"

".... She left the city on the morning of the 1st of June, 1843, crossing over to Brooklyn, L.I.; and taking the rising sun for her only compass and guide, she 'remembered Lot's wife,' and hoping to avoid her fate, she resolved not to look back till she felt sure the wicked city from which she was fleeing was left too far behind to be visible in the distance; and when she first ventured to look back, she could just discern the blue cloud of smoke that hung over it, and she thanked the Lord that she was thus far removed from what seemed to her a second Sodom. ...." http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/truth/1850/1850.html

above narrative also available here:
http://www.gutenberg.net/etext99/sjrnr10.txt

SOJOURNER TRUTH, THE LIBYAN SIBYL
by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Atlantic Monthly 11 (April 1863): 473-481.
"..... I do not recollect ever to have been conversant with any one who had more of that silent and subtle power which we call personal presence than this woman. In the modern Spiritualistic phraseology, she would be described as having a strong sphere. Her tall form, as she rose up before me, is still vivid to my mind. She was dressed in some stout, grayish stuff, neat and clean, though dusty from travel. On her head, she wore a bright Madras handkerchief, arranged as a turban, after the manner of her race. She seemed perfectly self-possessed and at her ease,--in fact, there was almost an unconscious superiority, not unmixed with a solemn twinkle of humor, in the odd, composed manner in which she looked down on me. Her whole air had at times a gloomy sort of drollery which impressed one strangely. ....." from: http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/BHM/sojourner_truth.txt

This speech
- given extemporaneously at a woman's rights convention in Akron, Ohio, 1851, was recorded by Frances Gage, feminist activist and one of the authors of the huge compendium of materials of the first wave, Gage, who was presiding at the meeting, describes the event:
"..............Don't let her speak!" gasped half a dozen in my ear. She moved slowly and solemnly to the front, laid her old bonnet at her feet, and turned her great speaking eyes to me. There was a hissing sound of disapprobation above and below. I rose and announced, "Sojourner Truth," and begged the audience to keep silence for a few moments. The tummult subsided at once, and every eye was fixed on this almost Amazon form, which stood nearly six feet high, head erect, and eyes piercing the upper air like one in a dream. At her first word there was a profound hush. She spoke in deep tones, which, though not loud, reached every ear in the house, and away through the throng at the doors and windows. "Dat man ober dar say dat womin needs to be helped into carriages, and lifted ober ditches, and to hab de best place everywhar. Nobody eber helps me into carriages, or ober mud-puddles, or gibs me any best place!" And raising herself to her full height, and her voice to a pitch like rolling thunder, she asked. 'And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! (and she bared her right arm to the shoulder, showing her tremendous muscular power). I have ploughed, and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man--when I could get it--and bear de lash as well! And ain't I a woman?..." Amid roars of applause, she returned to her corner leaving more than one of us with streaming eyes, and hearts beating with gratitude. She had taken us up in her strong arms and carried us safely over the slough of difficulty turning the whole tide in our favor. I have never in my life seen anything like the magical influence that subdued the mobbish spirit of the day, and turned the sneers and jeers of an excited crowd into notes of respect and admiration. hundreds rushed up to shake hands with her, and congratulate the glorious old mother, and bid her God-speed on her mission of "testifyin' agin concerning the wickedness of this 'ere people." Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, & Matilda Joslyn Gage eds. History of Woman Suffrage, 2nd ed. Vol.1. Rochester, NY: Charles Mann, 1889. from: http://www.nisto.com/wct/who/sojourn.html

Keeping the Thing Going While Things Are Stirring Excerpt from A speech delivered by Sojourner Truth in 1867 ".............. I am above eighty years old; it is about time for me to be going. I have been forty years a slave and forty years free and would be here forty years more to have equal rights for all. I suppose I am kept here because something remains for me to do; I suppose I am yet to help to break the chain. .... I suppose I am about the only colored woman that goes about to speak for the rights of colored women. I want to keep the thing stirring, now that the ice is cracked."
from: http://www.pacifict.com/ron/Sojourner.html

Web Site of the Sojourner Truth Memorial Statue Project in Florence, Massachusetts! http://www.noho.com/sojourner/

http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/odyssey/archive/03/0311002r.jpg

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Threw together a logo    posted:  1-12-04

Apocalypse Not
The plain old text header looked a bit lame. I don't have any special graphics programs for fonts and logos - like Adobe or Paintshop Pro.
So I visited http://www.gifworks.com/ and put together the above logo ("Accidental Tourist") in about 10 minutes. I highly recommend the GifWorks site - fun and easy to use (and fast with a broadband connection). And its free for non commercial use.
I hope this new logo doesn't put viewers in the mind of the title font for Apocalypse Now.

Also began work on secondary pages for subjects like a "links Library". I'm taking a very inefficient approach of working on several aspects of this "blog" at the same time - working from different angles; hopefully all roads will lead to - blog.

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Navigation, Content and Introductions     posted:  1-10-04

A little more flesh on the bones
Currently adding content to January's blog and matching the menu and "footer-sub-menus" to current content. And at the same time continuing to work on overall design "building blocks".

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A thank you to the bloggers tribe at  tribe.net      posted:  1-09-04

Learning About Blogging
I really appreciate everyone's input on helping me choose a blog. Over the course of the last couple weeks I explored the blog resources provided to my post in tribe and I would like to share the results of my explorations in that thread.

What is RSS??
I tried to find info -
Article on RSS - "Armed with an RSS newsreader--a simple cheap or free application--you can get headlines from your favorite news sites or receive an aggregated news feed on a single topic, like Iraq or computer software, that includes articles from many Web sources. .... RSS is a nested acronym: RDF Site Summary, where RDF stands for Resource Description Framework. But it's commonly called Really Simple Syndication--an apt name, since simplicity is key to RSS's growing popularity.
"News aggregators have the potential to let people scan a lot of different sources quickly," says Joel Abrams, partnership development specialist for the Christian Science Monitor's site. "RSS can help people find a lot of what they're looking for in one place." "
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,111784,00.asp

More RSS info - "RSS is a new and useful tool that helps you find out what is new on the web, without having to browse multiple websites. More and more websites are starting to embrace RSS, a new XML-based technology.
RSS stands for a number of things-most commonly, Real Simple Syndication. When a website publishes content using RSS, you can use a desktop RSS reader to view the content as it is published on the website. For websites that publish timely news or constantly changing content, even web stores such as Amazon.com, it's useful to get the updated information fed to you, so you don't have to go to the site and rummage around to see what's new."
http://www.knowyourstuff.com/rss.html

Here is a great article that breaks RSS down in "plain english":
http://westciv.com/style_master/house/blog/what_the.html

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What this seems to mean - to me -
If your site is RSS enabled - your visitors can choose to subscribe to it and get your latest postings automatically (if they download a "reader") without having to visit to see if you have posted anything new? (This holds no interest for me as a newbie, but I think I should consider my blogs compatibility - for possible future use.)

What am I to do?
At this point - I will enjoy my exploration of what a "blog" is and the exercise of web page design. I'm not sure if what I end up with is going to be a true blog, but I suppose - since its primarily for me - what matters is whether or not it evolves into something that meets my needs.

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Welcome to my first "blog".     posted:  1-03-04

This is currently under construction - not really open to the public (as if there was going to be anyone else besides myself). The menu to the right is not functional - just a proto-type. I'm still working on layout and site structure. It will be quite a while before I put flesh on the bones of this beast.

Its taken a lot of time and work and might seem like a waste - considering I can pay a blog host for automated / template apps (or free with banner ads and possibly popups and cookies). But, I guess this fits into my "independent" nature - desire to create and to continue my "slow movin dream" to become proficient enough with web design to earn a little supplemental income.

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