Memnison Journal

This works for either me or Meredith.  There’s some question as to whether Susan has been in Mexico; if she was, it was to take two steps over the border in Tijuana or something.

This is Mere’s states.  California from when we brought her home, Massachusetts from a trip to the Boston Worldcon, and the rest are family visits of one sort or another.  Consider that she has a sister in Alabama and Susan has major family in South Dakota, plus side trips, and you can dig this.

This is me.  Aside of California, all the rest were covered with my family before I was 20, and mostly when I was small.  California got hit at the San Francisco Worldcon in the mid 1990s, and three more times in mid-2000.  Alaska got picked up in 1971.

And this is Meredith’s ‘places she wants to go’ list.

Live streams at CSPAN TV and CBC

Results:

• Elections Canada
• Nodice
• Close ridings (Globe and Mail)
• Provincial breakdowns (Globe and Mail)
• National list (by province) (Globe and Mail)

The Star’s party game (asks questions, your choices reflect which party you’d be likely to vote for, can be weighed for your interest in the issues.  It rated me as Lib/NDP/Green in that order.

Susan and I took advantage of the federal holiday (but not one for the elections people) to go for the first day of early voting.  We have to, because we’re election judges.  The ballot was light - only a scattering of races, and in our heavily red area, a lot of the more local stuff was one-party-only.  Voted for the local park district getting a bond for a new rec center, and for the Illinois Constitutional Convention to be held.  And if you haven’t figured out the Presidential, Senate and Congressional votes, you haven’t read my political notes.

I was irritated at having to use the Diebold machines; don’t like or trust them.  And the person taking our ID stuff was asking Mere cutesy questions, including stuff about who she was for.  Susan didn’t mind it, but I didn’t care for it at all from a poll worker - the preference stuff.  Not her business to ask such questions of anyone.

I’m also giving up debating this stuff online, pretty much, at least for a while.  Debating political issues can get to be a situation where, as in religion, people can get invested in a particular point of view, and trying to explain, say, the advantages of Buddhism or polygamy to the Pope, a big waste of everyone’s time.  Even if you think that the Pope’s explanation of some point of Catholic doctrine is dodgy and doesn’t hold water, the Pope’s eyes will glaze over as you point everything out, no matter how closely reasoned you think your logic is.  It’s a matter of faith in the logic of his system, and that’s that.

it’s a matter of realizing that that point has been reached, I guess.  Or pre-guessing that further discussions on this line will be more likely to alienate a friend than to get anywhere.   I prefer to have a diversity of friends - I certainly don’t want them all to think exactly like me.  (It would get pretty boring.)  And frankly, most everyone around here has probably made up their minds on the issues of the day, and I’d rather discuss something with the Pope or Pope-ess that is a whole lot more fun for us to talk about.

That doesn’t mean I give up my ideals or my search for truth, justice and a better world.   Not a chance.

Oh, yeah - good luck to my Canadian readers going off to the polls tomorrow!

The concept - how to get old polluting clunker cars off the road? One possible solution that’s going on in Canada and a few other places is to have a government buy-out of old clunker cars to retire the things for scrap and pay off the owner for the thing something that would act as a real stimulus to them in finding something better in the way of transport - say, up to $5000 - and target it at poorer households.

Obviously, for $5000, you’re not going to be able to afford a Prius. But it’s a start.

The interesting part of the last week, of course, was to watch McCain be seriously stupid in the face of Obama’s trip to the Middle East and Europe. The whole thing started off with McCain double-dast-daring that gormless Obama guy to be a real man and walk down a Baghdad street like he did, and talk to the Generals, learn their languages….hmm, hmm…of course, McCain’s walk last year to prove ‘how quiet things are now’ had the cast of the 12 days of warfare. 100 soldiers on point, three Blackhawks hawking, two gunships gunning and a geezer in a big flak suit… ah, you know the song.

The idea, too, was to show how McCain was a maaaaanly man, and Obama a know-nothing elitist pipsqueak and how that would go over with Mr and Mrs. Bubba.

Of course, the answer is that Obama went and – well, looked seriously Presidential wherever he went. And the VIPs he met on the way treated him as such, and were sighing with relief that someone who was halfway sane and sensible might be President of the USA. And at point after point on the trip, and just before, Obama’s ideas on the problems with the Middle East came out as sensible, sound solutions – so much so that the locals he was visiting were endorsing them to the great consternation of Bush and McCain. And since polls are showing that Obama’s weak spots is that he’s something of an unknown factor who may not have sound stuff on security and foreign affairs – well, this is all money in the bank for him.

McCain saw the huge crowds in Berlin and compared them to the sixteen people and an oompah band that he had at his speech in New Orleans when Hillary hit the wall, and – well, he didn’t like that. So now he’s throwing dirt at the idea of Obama Campainging Overseas, the horror of it all – of course, the fact that he’s campaigned and given speeches and travelled recently for fundraisers in such places as Mexico, Canada, Britain and Colombia is set aside.

Why? Because nobody’s calling him on it. CBS got caught the other day screwing around with an interview and rearranging the answers to the questions to avoid showing that he had (1) no idea as to when and what has happened in Iraq over the last couple of years, and (2) forgetting that the war against the Taliban happened since 9-11 and Iraq happened a couple of years after that. In short, he would have looked like a total fool, and CBS was protecting him.

With that, McCain could call Obama the Muslim Spawn of Satan and get away with it, because the big news agencies are not willing to aggressively report about his failings. They aren’t willing to pull apart his fakery, his non-plans, his weak numbers and figures, his failure to remember his butt if it’s not attached. They’re not willing to point out that the man can’t remember the most basic things about the whole situation in the Middle East, supposedly his strong point. Or that short of Bush’s policies for another four years, he has nothing to offer except that there will be a different picture in the post offices with the title President of the United States of America under it.

And basically, that’s the whole campaign. He wants the big job bad enough that he’s willing to say or do anything to get it.

At various times, I get into research projects; some simmer on for decades in various forms, and some break off and pick up speed because I happen to run into something that really fuels the fire, so to speak.

My library here is largely one that I use for reference. I have a huge amount of material that isn’t in book form, and I’m going through that all the time and hacking away at it to be able to organize and marshal the stuff. At present, the idea is to digitize everything, and use various management utilities to be able to find and figure out what’s what.

Here’s a *short* list of the topics I’m still digging for:

Museum exhibits:

• Historical maps from Dutch cartographers
• Mapping Arabia (from Aramco)
• Historical maps of Macau (Library of Congress)
• The David Rumsey collection (worldwide historical maps)
• The Social Explorer (US Census maps 1940-2000)

Chinese Maps:

• Shanghai, 1928
• More pre-PRC China maps (heavy on Shanghai)
• GIS: Chinese Historical GIS
• GIS: Chinese Civilization in Time and Space (a little arcane for me, but maybe you can dig it)

German / European Maps:

• 1883 Ravenstein atlas of the German Empire, downloadable as PDFs.
• a collection of German-language maps for the last 150 years, which are mostly available in digital reproduction for around 5 Euros a throw; you can preview them all over the place online, one small swatch at a time. Looks like good scans.
• another collection of German-language maps, most of which is online in medium-quality (and good for all that) and purchasable in sets of CDs. Pretty impressive stuff. Here’s an example of downtown Berlin.
• Various Berlin maps, mostly of the Cold War period.
• A historical map server with nice if plain computer-generated maps of Europe.
• Several good maps from the Anglo-Saxon period in England/Britain.
• If you want a good printed set of pre-WW2 atlas reproductions to buy, try Genealogy Unlimited in Canada. Prices aren’t bad, considering what you’re getting.
• Historical online interactive map of Britain over the last 200 years. Impressive if you’re looking for a particular place and you want to see the progress there over time.
• Pre-WW2 German wall maps for sale; I DO NOT agree with the philosophy of this site, but the maps look nice.
• Sort of a flag and administration resource for Germany, not really maps but interesting.

Genealogical Maps and information: Researchers trying to find some small village in Hamberdoorst sub-province where Grandpa Georg cam from are digging around for information, and they want DETAIL. Here’s a short set of map info related to that.

• Small collection of German maps from a family geneological site.
• More complex geneological reference for Germany and the adjacent area, with lots of maps of the period and historical maps, requires a little drill-down.
• Another geneological site with lots of good German, Russian and Eastern European atlas maps from around 110 years ago. Tons of detail.
• Cyndi’s List of Genealogy sites includes a lot of individual country pages, with good links to local maps of all-over-the-place. Very well worth a browse.

Other:

• Maps for sale from a Spanish-American War site of various places important in the 1890s. Looks reasonably priced.
• Map and article on the Franz-Ferdinand linked project of a United States of Greater Austria; useful for alternate history sorts who posit that Franz Ferdinand missed his assassination in Sarajevo and became Emperor-King.
• Drool city; a Tennessee maps and globes store that specializes in selling antique maps. Worth a scan.
• German settlement in Russia.

Some seriously good items on how the horrible economic picture courtesy of Dubya’s Gang Who Can’t Shoot Straight is starting to seriously impact people on a day to day basis. But first, a personal note.

As promised, the photos from the trip:

While we were recently in Detroit, we went over to Windsor, Canada to my two favorite spots, the Devonshire Mall and Tunnel Bar-B-Que. I got turned on to both **many** years ago, by Valli Hoski and (I believe) Dick Smith. This was my first visit to the mall in a long time; it’s been massively expanded, and had a really nice Indigo/Chapters, where I spent most of my time. Really, we didn’t get very far in the mall at all.

Dubya’s weak dollar seriously whammed into us, as the price of everything was horribly high with the US dollar at par or a little less than the Canadian dollar. The kids were impressed with their first taste of drive-through poutine, the wonders of Canadian ketchup (can sugar, not corn syrup, and far better), Canadian Coke (ditto) and a little choked by the prices. And they liked sesame candy crackers.

We drove along the Detroit River, and while it was mistily drizzingling out, we stopped at a park, looked at the ships going up and down the river and the general skylines, and at the gothicy University nearby. Then out to the mall, and back down to Tunnel BBQ for a feast.

The entire family (me, Susan, Mere, Grandma Connie and the Four Cousins (Kira, Kelbi, Kay and Kenni)) plus Rich Rostrom (along for the ride from Chicago) piled into the ribs and stuffed ourselves silly. They all proclaimed the ribs just unbeatable and the best ever (which is my feeling), and they loved the visit.

There were some tense moments at the border in re worries over the new and tougher border controls, but everything went fine. The kids pounced on some extra ribs that Grandma Connie had brought along for the Cousins’ parents (Susan’s brother Doug and Becky, his wife), but both were too tired to eat them when they got in. The kids also brough home a jug of the special BBQ sauce from there (as we also did) and a supply of the Canadian Coke and Ketchup (ditto).

Needless to say, the gang would jump at any sort of a return trip. Photos on the next rock/entry.

As noted earlier, the next month will be a busy one around here for a number of events.

First, Mere and Susan are leaving on Thursday morning for a trip to Alabama - and Sissy is breathlessly waiting. We got a postcard from Sissy telling us so. I wish I could go, but that’s another big chunk of money that we can’t afford, etc. They’ll be back on Monday.

Second, my MIL Connie should be back today from her trip to South Dakota as mentioned earlier. Susan says that Connie gave away a lot of her stuff out there to friends or charity; my MIL is a very non-materialistic person, so I’m not totally surprised. The kids there will miss her terribly.

Third, the whole fam-damily of my BIL and SIL will be passing through here the next weekend on their way moving out the Hazel Park; they’ve found a new house (not the same one they’d thought to get before) and my SIL has a job at the sporting goods store waiting for her. My understanding is that they will be stashing a load of meat from their freezers with us overnight, and two of the kids and their two dogs will be staying here overnight. The next morning, Connie will go off with them for a week to help them set up and help with the kids (who will probably be a little shell-shocked).

Fourth, we go out the next weekend to Detroit with our two dogs. Susan’s rigged up Doggy Day Care for them there; I’d have just as soon had the dogs stay locally here, but….

The idea is that we leave after Mere gets out of school, and go out and come back, picking up Connie - Susan wants to see the Detroit Zoo with two of our nieces and Mere. And I want a trip over to Windsor for Tunnel BBQ and the like.

So it looks like it’s more likely that we will be making some trips to the Detroit area in the future. Since that’s close to Kurt and John, and other things and people I want to see, it suits me just fine.

My brother-in-law Doug is getting a new job in the SW Detroit suburbs as the assistant manager of a big sporting goods store.  Brand new one, I believe, in Allen Park.  His wife Becky has been running a day care out of their house, and is going off with him for an interview with that store and to look for a new place to live this next week.   In about a month, they’ll all move out to the new place and set up shop in Detroit.

This has caused a cascade of changes.

First, the house they live in is actually owned by his mom, my MIL Connie.  She’s helped them out a *lot* over the years financially, and when they leave, she’s unloading the house off her financial back.  (Actually, it’s already listed for sale as they pack, on an as-is basis.)

It does mean that anything she left behind when she moved into our house is going to have to be moved here or junked, and that she’ll have to move her official residence (and all that that entails) from South Dakota to Illinois.  Lots of paperwork there and a scramble to make room in our crammed house for MoreStuff.

The demands and concerns of the move has really shaken up the family; the kids really don’t remember any other home, and they’re all moving a long way from anyone that they know (almost all in the greater Sioux Falls area).  They’re all pretty fried, and I get the impression that the closer it is to the big day, the more upset things will be.

This Sunday, Connie will take off in our SUV to stay out there with the kids for a week while the parents are off to Detroit for the interviews and house-hunting.  And next month, when they come through on their way to Detroit, the younger two kids (and the family’s two dogs) will stay with us overnight, and then Connie will take off the next day with them for a week to look after the kids and help everyone get settled.   Then the *next* weekend, us Rittenhousii will go off to Detroit to retrieve Connie.

Unfortunately, Conclave is the weekend that the Johnsons are coming through Chicago.  So we won’t hit that.  We will be at Windycon, for what that’s worth.

One thing I have to hustle on is getting a new passport for Meredith.  If we’re going back and forth to the Detroit area, Susan and I like to go over to Windsor, and while we have functional passports, Mere’s ran out on her a year ago.

Interesting set of articles on various plans to reorganize Australia and Canada’s provincial/state systems. My readers are more than welcome to discus the merits.

The augmentation of Liechtenstein and the payoff of the British War Debt to Canada and the USA from WW2. I note that they still haven’t paid up on the WW1 debt, though.  Tsk.

St. Pierre et Miquelon and a lot of gas.