Three Hipster Haiku
SWM
Tall, fit, curls, soul patch, Vespa
You … me … my scooter
SWF
5’6″, blonde, blue
Seeking … anyone
Razr phone, iPod,
MySpace, Converse tennis shoes.
Why’s she still lonely?
— Stace Johnson, 2006
Category Archives: Signs o’ the Times
(When) Did You Graduate?
During my early college years, one of the most common questions asked of me was, “Where did you go to high school?” I would answer, and the next question was usually, “When did you graduate?” That seems like a normal course of conversation to me, though it’s been a while since anyone asked me when I graduated.
However, I heard a variation while I was at work the other day. I was on site at a local restaurant, and two young women were discussing their school years while waiting for customers to come in. The conversation went something like this, though the names of the schools have been changed.
“So, how old are you?” asked the brunette.
“Nineteen,” replied the blonde.
“Hm. I’m twenty. Too old to be working here. Where did you go to school?”
“Harrison,” said the blonde, “though not by choice. I wanted to go to Paulson, but I couldn’t get in before the open enrollment ended.”
“Ah. I went to Northside,” said the brunette, wiping a plastic glass with a towel. “Did you graduate?”
I did a mental double take. What did she say? I thought.
“Yeah,” replied the blonde, as if she expected the question.
“I didn’t,” said the brunette. “That’s why I’m still working here at twenty.”
I was completely floored that asking whether a person graduated is considered to be a normal course of conversation these days. I checked it out with my son, who is a high school senior.
“Oh. Yeah,” he said, monotone. “That’s pretty normal.”
Normal?
Since when did it become normal to ask a person “if” they graduated? I know the high school dropout rates continue to climb, but when did they get to the point where it’s necessary to ask “if” someone graduated, rather than when? Is there anything we can do to reverse this trend?
Somehow, I don’t think the “no child left behind” edict has come to fruition. In fact, it seems that more children are being left behind than a few years ago, and that upsets me.
The Demise of SciFiction
Earlier this month, a message appeared on SciFi.com’s SciFiction website from editor Ellen Datlow. Evidently, SciFi.com (which is owned by the SciFi Channel) has decided to cease online publication of SciFiction, leaving Ellen without a job.
I’m dumbfounded.
Over a seventeen year period, Ellen Datlow built Omni magazine into the premier market for science fiction and science fact. When Omni ceased publication due to the financial difficulties faced by General Media, Bob Guccione’s publishing company, Ellen ran the online version of the magazine — successfully — for three years. With the final demise of Omni‘s online version, Ellen collaborated with Robert Kilheffer on the Event Horizon website for a short time before being hired to edit SciFiction for SciFi.com in 1999.
Like Omni, SciFiction quickly became the premier market for short science fiction. Since the magazine was supported by the SciFi channel’s revenue stream and had no physical print costs, it was able to pay double the standard professional rate for fiction ($.20 per word!) Over its six-year lifespan, SciFiction broke new ground in many ways, most notably garnering Nebula and Sturgeon awards for stories and novellas first published in electronic form. Datlow herself won the Hugo award twice for Best Editor, as well as the Locus Magazine Best Editor award in 2005.
So, why would SciFi.com shut down such a well-regarded publication and editor? No one is quite sure, but suspicion points to finances. Evidently SciFiction wasn’t bringing in enough money, so it had to be cut.
Let’s get something straight; SciFiction was originally published as a loss leader. The idea was to become the industry’s leading fiction market, and with Ellen Datlow at the helm, they did that. It was never intended to make money; it was intended to attract fans of true science fiction. SciFiction was created to lend an air of industry credibility to a cable network becoming increasingly known for its reliance on formulaic original programming. Faced with declining ratings, I wonder if the SciFi.com brass decided that it was easier to cut Ellen’s salary and eliminate a well-paying fiction market rather than spend the money and time necessary to improve the quality of the network’s original programming. I don’t know for sure, and I’m not enough of an industry insider to have all the facts.
But I do have a blog (of sorts.) And I know an e-mail address where people can write if they think this was a poor decision. Write to feedback@scifi.com if you wish to express your displeasure.
Alberto Gonzales for Torturer General? No thanks.
It’s no secret that I’m not a fan of the Bush administration, and that I’m terribly disappointed in the results of the 2004 presidential election. But I’m growing even more alarmed about the early actions of this “same as the old boss” president in his new term. He wants to replace all of his cabinet positions with hand-picked yes-men and yes-women to eliminate any dissenting opinions from his closest advisers. Evidently Bush can’t handle reasonable dissent, as evidenced by the reduced role Colin Powell was forced to play in the latter part of his term as Secretary of State.
One of those Bush picks is for Alberto Gonzales, whom George Bush would like to see replace John Ashcroft in the Attorney General position. This is an extremely dangerous move, in my opinion, and could further threaten the stability of already shaky international relationships. Largely because of Gonzales’ past work, Bush saw fit to disregard the Geneva Conventions and allow torture of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. Powell publicly opposed this move, and felt that all prisoners should be treated as prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions. Gonzales, on the other hand, has described the Geneva Conventions as “obsolete” and “quaint” in official memos.
Why would we want to place this person in the position of Attorney General? Do we care that little about human rights? Or do those rights only apply to Americans in Bush’s eyes?
In filling his cabinet only with ardent supporters, and with Republican control of Congress wrapped up, Bush is preparing to steamroll anyone who gets in his way, and that is not an acceptable or responsible way to run a Presidency of the United States.
If these issues concern you as well, please call your state Senators today and urge them NOT to vote for confirmation of Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General. Today, 60 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, let’s make a stand for human rights, not against them.
For more about Gonzales’ record, see the following links.
The Digital Generation Gap
I think technology is widening the generation gap at an increased rate. I guess technology has always been at the root of the gap, though when the term first surfaced in the sixties or seventies, I think it had more of an idealogical meaning. We’ve all heard stories about how kids today don’t know what an LP is, or how to use one. One of my favorite examples is from an early Bloom County strip, in which Binkley asks his father what it means “to wind one’s watch.” My kids have grown up in a post-MTV world, and they think in much more visual terms than I do when it comes to music, and sometimes even in terms of literature, thanks to movie adaptations of comic books and classic literature like Lord of the Rings.
Recently, I have seen a couple of new examples of technological generation gappage, both from my stepson, Logan.
One day, when picking him up from day care, he pointed up to a small Cessna flying overhead and asked if it was one of those “old-fashioned” planes. When I heard the term “old-fashioned,” I immediately thought about Steerman biplanes, and started to explain that the plane was not a biplane. “No,” he said, “I mean is it one of the kinds that just have one propeller that they have to use to fly.”
Then, last night, Lannette decided to take a picture of two of our cats, who were snuggling on the living room floor. She got out her compact 35mm, waited for the flash to activate, and took the picture. (Fortunately, the cats were content to sit and pose while the batteries warmed up the flash.) When she was done, Logan asked, “Can I see?”
“See what?” Lannette said, a confused look on her face.
“See how the picture turned out,” he replied. At that point, it dawned on both of us that Logan had grown up in an age where digital cameras are more common than 35mm cameras, and it was normal for him to expect to see immediate results on a small LCD screen.
As technology accelerates, this will, of course, become a wider gap. Ten years from now, when my son Keith has kids (if he has them that soon), my grandchildren will grow up in a world where PDAs will be a requirement for elementary students, and the teachers will automatically beam the homework assignments to the classroom using Bluetooth (or something similar.) To check that the homework is being done, Keith will have to ask his son or daughter to show him how to work the PDA, and will probably have to add his voiceprint to the machine to be able to even access it.
Their allowances (should Keith choose to issue them) will be credits transferred into their accounts, and they can use their PDAs to purchase lunches at school, sodas at the pop machines, and toys at the toy store. In their squeaky-clean world of credits and WiFi, cash will have no meaning; money will be an abstract concept reduced to a red or black number on the screen of their PDAs.
Is this a good thing? Yes and no. Yes, because it will contribute to the safety and security of the kids, and once the parents learn how to use the kids’ PDAs, it will be easier for them to track homework progress and grades. No, because it means that technology will continue to widen the gap between parents and children. As parents, it will be our responsibility to keep on top of current technology if we want to maintain a connection with our kids.
This weekend, I will be giving Keith his first convergence device: my old Treo 300. It will be his phone, his scheduler, his alarm, and his toy, just as it was for me.
Keith, if you are reading this, stay on top of technology. It will help you preserve a relationship with your kids, when and if you have them.