Handy with a lot of things

Driving around the Valley They Call Silicon I came across a vanity license plate that pretty much takes the biscuit for droll appropriateness:

Ray—if I ever need handyman services, I know who's getting the call.

Library science

Remember how the Santa Clara County Library District was revamping its computer systems? Well, so far I’m not impressed.

Back pre-new-and-improved I got two kinds of emails: a “materials ready for pick-up at library” notice and a “materials coming due at library” notice. They were clearly distinguished by the subject line.

Well, since the installation of the new system, here’s what the former looks like:

And here’s the latter:

I don’t know how they could have made them less informative. (Unless they want to go down the route of my healthcare provider, who send out “new important stuff from us” emails, which require you to log onto their website to see what they designate as important.)

I’m particularly annoyed by the lack of link to the library’s site so you can actually renew the checked-out item(s). That used to be there. Perhaps it’s cheaper to send out emails without links?

Because I’m thinking that saving money is high on their list. Witness the self-service checkout terminals at the Cupertino branch:

There used to be twice as many in that row. I’m wondering if they sold the missing ones on eBay?

Pulled from the wreckage

It’s been one of those weeks—maybe the whole damned month. You know—you just can’t seem to drag yourself out of the Slough of Despond, and you start thinking that you’ll never get out because that Slough is endless.

So—I do what I can. One of my tools is music, and I’ll share one I’ve been listening to with you.

Here’s hoping it works.

All synched up

Oh, my—ordinarily I’m not a fan of synchronized swimming, or any activity that purports to be athletics while involving the use of fake eyelashes and the Tammy Faye Bakker style of makeup.

However, this example has come to my attention and I have only enough energy left to slap it up here because I’m laughing too hard.

I give them at least a 9.4, and bugger the East German judge.

Gratitude Monday: Vis et voluntas

Let me step away from the strictly personal and move into the realm of the universal for Gratitude Monday today. Because this month marks the 800^th anniversary of Magna Carta, a document that first put words to parchment delineating the notion that people should be governed by something more reasonable and responsive than the vis et voluntas (“force and will”) of any crackbrained individual who happened to bear the title “monarch”.

Magna Carta did not bring democracy to the people of England (although that’s pretty much the way it’s explained to us in grade school). None of the signatories gave a toss about “the people”, and they all would have been horrified by the idea of “democracy”. But what it did was to limit the powers of the monarch, which (when you think of it) kind of put paid to the notion of the divine right of kings. It was essentially the thin edge of the wedge that cracked open the door leading to government by the consent of the governed.

I mean—once you’ve said “the king has donkey’s ears, and his brain’s no improvement on that”, it’s not so many steps to get to “We hold these truths to be self-evident.”

Yes, King John signed Magna Carta under duress, and weaseled out of it as soon as he could. And the barons who exerted the duress weren’t a massive improvement on John, as far as the rest of the country was concerned. But that divine right horse could never be put securely back into the barn after that.

Yes—representative government has its flaws. I personally believe that if we examined the $250 haircuts on all 535 members of Congress (and most of the Executive Branch) we’d find a fair plurality of donkeys’ ears. But I’m a lot happier knowing that the asses are corralled by laws than I would be if it was just them running free-range.

So I’m heartily grateful for the power struggle between King John and his barons (which would make a pretty good name for a garage band) that resulted in Magna Carta.