Posted: December 31st, 2011 | Author: miconian | Filed under: Miconian At Large | Tags: books | 2 Comments »
The short version:
Read more books.
“Books” defined: Complete, self-contained works printed on paper.
The long version:
The amount of time spent reading books should, by the end of 2012, be greater than the cumulative time spent doing the following:
- Checking, reading, or writing email.
- Checking, updating, or otherwise using Facebook.
- Watching Twitter or any other continuously updating content stream, such as network television.
- Consuming any material, written or video, online or offline, the existence of which I had not known about five seconds previous, e.g. memes, viral pieces, articles linked by friends and strangers, and self-help features in print magazines in waiting rooms.
- Arguing about things that, with 30 seconds of research, can be proved factually one way or the other.
- Arguing about things that are essentially matters of opinion, when it’s obvious to everyone involved that no opinions are going to change.
- Arguing with people who enjoy arguing.
- Arguing with people who could not possibly understand why they are wrong, without reading books that they will obviously never read, or having experiences that they will obviously never have.
- Drinking.
- Dating. This includes everything from reading personals to sex to flirting to engaging in any activity the underlying purpose of which is essentially about finding sex or love, in general or from someone specific.
- Buying books.
- Wandering around in bookstores.
- Going to and from bookstores.
- Reading book reviews.
- Blogging.
Posted: August 15th, 2011 | Author: miconian | Filed under: Miconian At Large | 1 Comment »
First of all, I just want to say that I’m sorry I didn’t get a better look at what you were reading before I pushed your book back out at you so that the doors could close and the train could leave the station. When I encounter someone with a philosophy of life that’s clearly far different from my own, I usually make an effort to find some common ground, and reading material is often a great place to start.
But you see, there wasn’t time. I had somewhere to be. And, not insignificantly, so did the other twelve hundred people on the train, to say nothing of the other fifty thousand or so people on the other south-bound six trains behind ours that you were holding up. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: January 17th, 2011 | Author: miconian | Filed under: Miconian At Large | Tags: high school, martin luther king, MLK, SME | 3 Comments »
My high school, which had been around long enough for my mother to attend it, had never officially acknowledged Martin Luther King Day, up until my senior year. A few words from my favorite teacher, and I was resolved to change that.
Mr. DeBarthe had been pointedly relegated to the classroom that was as far as one could get from the principal’s office and still physically be in the school. He was a Mormon with an elaborate mustache and no beard, fond of wearing Hawaiian print shirts, especially one that said “Tahiti” on the pocket. He went on archaeological digs. He coached the chess team. HIs grading system was difficult for many students to understand. He refused to answer yes or no questions. He could draw a perfect circle on the blackboard, and he often came up with reasons to do so.
My first real interaction with Mr. DeBarthe happened when I was taking a journalism class my sophomore year. I was writing an article about the chess team, which regularly attended the national high school chess championship tournament, despite paltry support from the district. Mr. DeBarthe had some inflammatory things to say about the school board, and I put them in the article. The journalism teacher refused to accept my assignment, insisting that no teacher in his right mind would make such a statement if he knew it was going to be printed and distributed to the administration. I returned to Mr. DeBarthe, explained that we were talking on the record, and asked if he wanted to change his quote. I read it back to him.
“I was being too kind,” he said, and gave me another quote, twice as inflammatory. Upon hearing about this, the journalism teacher threw up his hands, and the quote went into the paper.
I resolved to spend as much time as possible in Mr. DeBarthe’s classroom for the remainder of my high school career.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: January 12th, 2011 | Author: miconian | Filed under: Miconian At Large | Tags: army, bilko, biloxi, DADT, gays, homosexuality, military, stripes | No Comments »
A few weeks ago, my social media feeds were full of updates from friends and acquaintances who were thrilled with the “repeal” of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. Most of these people are, like me, heterosexual and with no experience or interest in military service. One friend tweeted that she was excited to be in the vicinity of the Capitol building when the historic repeal took place.
I remember the advent of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell in 1993, when I was in college at the crest of the wave of political correctness that had gay activists, among activists of many other kinds, protesting on campus constantly. It seemed that no political event, local or national, was too small to provoke a march or an angry public speech.
I suppose it’s possible that there were protests over DADT, but I don’t remember any. I do remember a gay friend shrugging as he explained that DADT was a compromise policy. Clinton had campaigned on the promise to let gays into the military, other forces convened to block him, and DADT was what emerged.
Much anti-DADT rhetoric of late implies that DADT is the problem in itself; as if, without it, the US would have a military in which sexual orientation was not an issue. This is not true. Read the rest of this entry »
