Link for Jeff

http://mvccsa.com/ <— This is the local CSA website, where you can sign up and learn more about it.

Might Makes Right

I’ve been wrestling with this idea for years, but I think I’ve finally come to terms with the fact that might makes right. “Right,” in this case, means actualized, manifest correctness. It does not mean, nor imply, any unrealized concept of correctness – that is to say, as understanding and experience increase, so to the potential for better rightness. Until that improved rightness is successfully implemented in the world, however, it is not right. The method by which an improved right is brought to the world is Might. Ability. Power. This means that any dominate thing is right, at this moment and in whatever place it holds power. To replace it with something new requires energy, attention – that is, a conscious effort to...

The Book of a Google Faces

It’s been a long stretch of Truckin’ with Ron posts, so I thought I’d ramble a bit on the uses and abuses of ye olde Facebook. Recently, a friend of mine (who is an excellent blogger) “quit” Facebook. I say “quit” because, as she pointed out, Facebook saves ALL of your information (contact and “about me”, pictures, links, friends, groups, pages, and so on). The difference between an active account and a deactivated account is simply how long it takes to log back in. There really is no quitting Facebook – even if you took the time to manually delete everything, your account would still be available to FB’s database mining, and if you did decide to rejoin you’d just have more work to do. I...

The History of Fairfield and Jefferson County, Iowa

I recently wrote a two-part article on a basic history of my hometown, published down at Fairfield Voice. Part One: The Beginning of Time to the First Settlers Part Two: The First Settlers to Today It took me significantly longer than I anticipated to write these things. First, I put considerably more effort into writing them – I don’t think I put that level of research into any academic paper I’ve had. Second, I kept getting sidetracked by interesting stories and information that didn’t make it into (or had almost nothing to do with) the article. For instance, upon reading how Central Park (the Square) was considered to be the center of the county (although it was off by a mile or so), I stopped reading, found a map, and traced from the...

No More Frontiers, No More Discovery

I’ve been researching the history of my hometown and county: Fairfield, Iowa in Jefferson County. I know it’s a myth, the idea of pioneers and settlers “discovering” the land, when people have been living here since 10,000 BCE. And, of course, what happened to the Native Americans was freaking tragic. But the settlers themselves didn’t really think about that. To them, this land was new, and they were effectively the first people on it. The things they did – build a cabin, apply a name to an area, survey an plot of land – was the first time, for them, that anyone did these things. The names they used still apply today, the groundwork and structures they constructed have lasted over 200 years. In this day and age,...

Clash of the Titans (1981) vs Clash of the Titans (2010)

They’re both terrible, terrible movies. I was just going to publish the above sentence and be done with it, but I’m still kinda pissed off about it. Who thinks that the timeless Greek epics are not interesting stories, that they “need improving?” Seriously – reading the Wikipedia article on Perseus is more interesting and engaging than either movie – from there I can read more about the Gorgons, Quoits, and the Aegis. I guess it’s a point – if I had no interest in Greek Mythology, I’d probably be all “dude, that movie was dope!” or “I loved how that mechanical owl saved the day when Perseus was mincing around.” I have to say that the 2010 was at least somewhat visually interesting....