Head Spinning

My day job goes through periods of lull and periods of intense workload. It's nice when the universe of bloggable events becomes active during slow work weeks, but that hasn't been the case lately. Moving from in to out:

I blogged last week about the planned switchover to Linux by the Bexley City Schools. That's actually what has been keeping traffic going through this week of sparse blogging. I never thought I was the kind of person who got petulant about hat tips, but when I see Belgian articles state that the news article mentioned that they hadn't even priced a Vista upgrade... well, let's just say that ThisWeek never mentioned Vista, and like the grunge band in Singles, I must be big in Belgium.

From blue bexley out to Bexley... I made a resolution to be more informed and informative about local government and politics, but things are moving faster than I anticipated. Our council president, Helen MacMurray, is stepping down and moving to New Albany. Before I get distracted by noting that David Goodman, also a former Bexley Council Member, preceded her in the move to Wexnerville, I need to mention that she has said that she wants to be near her new law firm, which she has formed in New Albany. I'm a bit confused, because it sounds almost as if the law firm ended up outside of the Outerbelt accidentally, and Ms. MacMurray has to step down to chase it. She has floated the idea of sticking around by having her newly formed firm take over as City Attorney. The only problem is that the City Attorney must reside in the City of Bexley, which she doesn't. I mean, she does, but she won't after she moves to be closer to her job as Bexley City Attorney in New Albany...

I'm nowhere near informed or informative enough to keep joking about this. I've never met Ms. MacMurray, and quite honestly it will be months before I have any good idea whether or not I should have been sad to see her (sort of) go, and whether I'll wish I had been more or less teasing in the prior paragraph. In the meantime, the reason that she can talk about the City Attorney's position is that our current City Attorney Jim Gross is retiring later this year. Before that happens, the City Council will have to vote on a replacement for MacMurray from among the pool of applications received by the Mayor's Office during the next two weeks. If the Council fails to act, a replacement will be appointed by Mayor David Madison. Assuming that he hasn't moved up his tentatively planned retirement date.

So, it's obvious that a lot of shuffling will be going on at City Hall this year. Whether that means a lot of real changes or is specifically to forestall changes is the sort of thing I'll be trying to figure out. If anyone wants to offer a tutorial, I'll buy you a beverage of your choice.`

From Bexley out to Ohio. Even with the expansion of the blogroll this week, I don't really link to too many folks. So it seemed like half of my blogroll was involved in a mini-drama this week...I'll admit that I took Jill's Buckeye Institute post at face value. Which left me trying to figure out how to say what Eric said, nicely. Of course, that sort of thing is better said somewhat not-nicely and over the top, so I'm glad Eric said it instead of me. Especially since Jill says He/I/We should have read between the lines and caught the "oh-so-innocently playing along with the irony-challenged right-wingers" intent of the post. And given that Jerid, simultaneously side-stepping and acknowledging Jill's post, did exactly what Jill was subtly threatening, leads me to believe that perhaps I really should have.

And finally, from Ohio out. It's not like I'm already sick of the Presidential race, I'm not, but I have to admit that I have a hard time getting up for it. Even with Obama having lunch a couple hundred feet downstream of me, nothing. I just have a hard time believing that anything will change significantly between now and August, and if it does, it almost can't be a good thing for Dems. What will happen between now and then is fund-raising. Lots of it. I really dislike the fund-raising process. It's absolutely necessary. I just don't like it.

Off Topic. Off Any Topic.

I've gone about acquiring big bunches of old 45 records. I like to go through and play unfamiliar ones, treasure hunting. Because of what I have, what I know, and what I like, the typical record that gets me going during one of these sessions is a late 70s/early 80's funk/disco tune. This is because a bunch of the 45s fit that description, it's a genre I don't know very well, and there's some pretty cool stuff to be found.

Anyway, I came across a record by Slingshot, which was a medley of Steely Dan's "Do it Again" and Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean." The medley is done in mash-up style, 20 years before mash-up became a genre. I thought that this was pretty cool. But then it got weird. I came across a record by the group Clubhouse. It was released the same year, and featured the same style of mash-up medley. Not just the same style, actually, but the exact same two songs, "Do it Again" and "Billie Jean."

The information on the discs was enough to confirm that these were indeed different performers, on different record labels, with different producers. Furthermore, even a casual listen would immediately let you know that these were not the same tracks. A trip to Wikipedia by way of Google let me know that in fact, the Italian group Clubhouse released their version first, with the Detroit band Slingshot following later with a U.S. release of their version.

I'm not sure how well I can make anyone else understand how bizarre I find this.

Getting around to it

I've been asked to spread the word. Actually, several different different words have qeued up, waiting patiently to be spread...

1) If you or someone you know has experienced the effects of the No Child Left Behind Act, and have suggestions or concerns regarding the Act, you can tell them to someone in a position to do something. Progress Ohio is collecting commentary on NCLB, and will present the collected stories to your new Senator, Sherrod Brown, who sits on the Senate's Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. This is what representative government is all about.

2) I got "tagged" for the first time this weekend. I'm supposed to post about a particular topic and name 20 of my blogger friends to do the same. The second part is amusing, as I don't have 20 blogger friends, and if I did manage to cobble together something close to 20, most would have appeared on the same tag list I was on. The first part is less problematic, but only somewhat so. The topic is an open letter to the internet porn industry asking them to please put their "free tours" behind passwords. It's true that promo porn makes a complete mockery of the age restrictions placed on pornographic material, and it is also true that those restrictions are appropriate and reasonable. I actually think that porn is not a simple issue, but asking for volunteers on this can't hurt.

3) I was tagged for a second time, with a more typical example. Give five reasons why I blog and name 5 other bloggers that I'd like to see do the same. So here goes:

1 - Because it's a productive-feeling way to waste time.
2 - Because I've only got a little cash and one vote.
3 - Because I want *somebody* to blog about my candidates, officials, and community.
4 - Because I tend to think in something like hypertext anyway.
5 - Because the rants I compose in my head tend to start smelling funny if they aren't released out into the wild.

So now I tag 5 people. Hmmm. Paul, Brian, Jeff, Anthony, and Sarah.

I have links up to the first 4, and a link to the 5th is one of the last tweaks to be done to the new site design. If you like it, don't like it, like it okay except for X, which bugs the heck out of you, let me know. If you think I'm missing a relevant link, suggest it. I'm sticking with 3 columns no matter what you say, because I think having all that stuff in a single sidebar makes some of it inacessible. Otherwise I'm done. I hope you enjoy it. Which is probably reason #6 - I like to believe somone actually might.