Does Peace Corps Matter? Reflections 40 Years Later

Some time last year the head of Friends of Thailand (a group of former Peace Corps Volunteers) emailed members of Thai 19 (the 19th group of Peace Corps Volunteers to go to Thailand) to ask for something written to go into a book for the 50th Anniversary of Peace Corps Thailand in 2012.

I volunteered.  It took a while to finally do it, but eventually it got done.  I'd like to share it here.  Especially with people serving in the Peace Corps somewhere around the world right now.  Have a great year.

A Few Thoughts from a Thai 19 Peace Corps Volunteer

The bus hurtled around mountain curves through the black night, the red dirt road and dirty green jungle revealed by the ghostly glow of lightening. Then the rattling of every part of the bus would be swallowed by the head piercing boom of the thunder. After a week in Bangkok, then a few more days in Chiangmai with the other volunteers assigned to the North, I was now wondering if Iʼd survive to reach my teaching assignment in Kamphaengphet. After all the dialogues weʼd memorized and the lesson plans weʼd written and practice-taught to each other, the real thing was about to begin. If I survived this bus ride through the mountains.    “Mai ben rai” I chanted. My favorite Thai phrase covering a lot of English situations in the general category of ʻno big deal.ʼ Mai ben rai, mai ben rai until the many grisly ways this bus ride could end faded and I fell asleep.

That was the end of phase one - preparing to be a Peace Corps volunteer. Weʼd spent two summers in DeKalb, Illinois learning Thai, learning TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language), how to eat hot food, dance the ramwong, and survive temperatures and humidity in the high 90s. Back then - our first summer training was 1966 - Peace Corps was training college students between their junior and senior years, in hopes of snagging them before other recruiters did. That was when students got jobs when they graduated, and when the army was drafting males for Vietnam. The Peace Corps wanted to get us first. Then we returned to school, graduated, and returned to a second summer of training. While we lost a fair number of people during the school year, everyone who went to Thailand stayed the full two years (except one volunteer who was kicked out because she got married) and about a third of us stayed longer. Because we had one summer of training before our last year of college, I was able to become friends with several Thai students at UCLA and even to learn to play (badly) one song on a kind of Thai gong the ethnomusicology department had.

I could write volumes about the mistakes I made and less about the things I learned, but as someone whoʼs been a returned Peace Corps Volunteer for 40 years now, perhaps what I can contribute most is perspective on the burning questions most volunteers have: Am I doing any good here? After all that work, has anyone besides me gotten anything out of my being here? So let me tell you a couple of stories.

I had a student, letʼs call him Somsak. He was a bright student, but very poor. He was awkward with others and didnʼt have the fun loving demeanor and smiling face of most Thais. I helped Somsak study for national exams that would qualify him to go to an excellent private high school in Bangkok that would improve his chances of getting into college. He passed and was accepted at the school. When Iʼd first arrived in Bangkok, the well-to-do family of one of my UCLA Thai friends ʻadoptedʼ me and insisted I stay with them when I was in Bangkok. And Khun Mae and Khun Paw truly took care of me. I asked if Somsak could stay with them in Bangkok, and they agreed he could stay in the servant quarters when we was going to school. I left money for the schooling before leaving Thailand when my assignment ended.

But it didnʼt take long for me to be certain that Iʼd really screwed up. Somsak wasnʼt going to be happy in the servant quarters. How was he going to handle the much more affluent kids at this school? How was he going to get along with the family members? He wasnʼt a sweet and easy-to-like kid. It took a bit to get past his armor and tease out his sly humor. And I regretted what I now regarded as me playing God. After a few years, writing letters in Thai became too difficult and the family had never said anything about Somsak. My connections to Thailand faded.

Flash forward. Iʼd first gone back to Thailand 17 years after I left, with my wife and two kids. I went to my Bangkok familyʼs home, but it had been replaced by a shopping mall and I couldnʼt find out where they were.    The reception in Kamphaengphet was fantastic - as though I hadnʼt left. My family was taken in like, well, family. Somsakʼs name never came up. I had occasion to return to Thailand a few more times over the years, and one time I asked about Somsak. I was told he lived in Bangkok and worked for the post office but no one had his phone number and I returned to Anchorage (my home in the US since 1977) without getting to see him, and not completely unhappy about that since I still was sure my meddling had led to no good.

About a month after we got home, I got a phone call. It was Somsak calling from Bangkok. Heʼd heard Iʼd asked after him and was very sorry he missed me. He went on to tell me how grateful he was for everything Iʼd done. It had changed his life for the better and he was saving money to set up a scholarship to help poor students like himself. He was still close to my Bangkok family. Wow, Hollywood couldnʼt have written a sweeter ending. We did get to meet in person a few years later when I attended the 45th Anniversary of Peace Corps Thailand. He also remembered the first and last name of Khun Jim, another volunteer from my group who was at the anniversary, whoʼd been in Maesod and whom he had first met in 1969 at the English Summer camp weʼd held in Lan Sang National Park in Tak.

On one of these trips I also got to meet another former student Somprasong, who was the headmaster of a school in the very remote border town of Umphang (past Maesod). The night before, at a dinner in Kamphaengphet, the regional supervisor had complained that Somprasong had scored first in all of Thailand in the test for school headmasters and could have had any school, but heʼd chosen this remote little village school. Visiting the school the next day, I was totally amazed. It was the most beautiful school Iʼd seen in Thailand. The grounds were full of trees and flowering plants - every one had the name of the student who was tending it - and he had dormitories for 200 students. Most of the students were hill tribe kids. When he first took over the school heʼd gone into the mountains to ask villagers why their children werenʼt going to high school. It was too far away, they couldnʼt afford to pay for housing. Somprasong managed to raise the funds from the local businesses and the international NGOʼs (non-governmental organizations) in the area working at the Burmese refugee camp. He said it was all due to his ability to speak English to raise money, which, he said, had never been an interest until he took English with me. He was upset because the supervisor wanted him to leave for a bigger school. We talked a long time about how to deal with this.

About a year later I got an email from Khun Jim, who lived in Bangkok, with a link to a Bangkok Post article. “Is this your student?” he asked? Somprasong had been named one of four Thai teachers of the year.

I mention these two stories not to brag, because, really, what I did was typical of what all Peace Corps volunteers do as a routine part of their assignments. My actions werenʼt any more noteworthy than anyone elseʼs. The only difference is that I had the chance to go back and find out, 40 years later, that some of what I did actually had tangible positive results. Even, in the case of Somsak, where I thought Iʼd made a huge mistake.

I know these experiences were not exceptional because at the 45th Anniversary of Peace Corps Thailand, other former volunteers gave similar accounts of learning that their name still lives on because of things they did years ago, things theyʼd long forgotten, which had turned out to have had a significant impact on a person or on a whole community.

Measuring the impact of Peace Corps volunteers by the number of students taught or wells dug may have some meaning, but the real impact is in peopleʼs hearts.    And the way to know about those changes is through stories, not statistics. So I offer these stories for people who want to know if the Peace Corps is doing any good. And particularly for current volunteers who wonder whether they are doing any good. Yes, I assure you, that you are having an impact that will grow over time. Hang in there and yes, take that extra effort. People are watching and noticing and it will make a difference that you probably will never know about.

Happy New Year on a Sunny and Cold New Year's Day

A little photoshop to start the new year.  Clockwise from upper left:  original; cutout filter; colored pencil filter; and I'm not sure how the last one came about. 

Here's the view from our living room window.

And out back.

And the kitchen indoor/outdoor thermometer
showing a chilly -4˚F (-20˚ C) outside.

A Wabi-Sabi Home

I first became aware of 'wabi-sabi' last spring reading Lynn Schooler's  Walking Home [fixed the link, sorry] where he's writing about building a house in Juneau. 

The woods I was using - spruce and hemlock for the cabinets, fir for the timbers and frame of the house, rot-resistant cedar for the outside decks and siding - were soft woods, without the defenses against marring offered by hardwoods like oak and maple or “engineered” products like laminated bamboo.

But this was part of the plan.  In time, I hoped, day-to-day wear, weather, guests, and rambunctious children or grandchildren would eventually mark and smooth the various parts of the structure into what the Japanese call a wabi-sabi home.  At it’s simplest, sabi can be defined as the beauty that comes to physical things with the passage of time, such as the way an old wooden door weathers into striking colors and patterns, or the grip of a tool develops a glowing patina after years of respectful use.  Wa, the root of wabi, means “harmony” and connotes a life of ease within nature.  When applied to objects,  wabi-sabi  implies the beauty of simple practicality.  More important, the phrase carries a Zen overtone of living in the moment and accepting the inevitability of decay.  It might take decades, but years of good living would transform the assemblage of wood and concrete into a comfortable wabi-sabi  home, where my wife and I could grow old together graciously.  pp. 25-26

There's a lot packed into that.  The obvious is the idea of cherishing the scratches and dents as like a physical photo album of the family.  These marks are when Billy was 6 and tried to eat the door.  This reddish spot is from our 1st Thanksgiving when we spilled the cranberry sauce on the tablecloth. Marking a kid's growth on the wall is almost a movie cliche.

The positive flip side means not getting so hung up about making a spot or dent. 

But it goes deeper than just family history.  Schooler was building a not just a house, but a home that was going to last for generations.  Most people today build or buy homes as investments as well as places to live.  Our economic system promotes that by turning everything in our lives into commodities.  And by encouraging people to move around in pursuit of higher paying jobs.  Toward this end, the house is to be kept as 'new' as possible.

I copied down the passage, but left it to settle.  And then eight or nine months later my wife showed up with a book simply imperfect by Robyn Griggs Lawrence.  The subtitle is "revisiting the wabi-sabi house."

It's clear that wabi-sabi is more than marks in the dining room table and scuffs on the floor.  One of Lawrence's attempts to describe wabi-sabi:

...wabi-sabi is the Japanese art of finding beauty in imperfection and profundity in nature, of accepting the natural cycle of growth, decay and death.  It's simple, slow and uncluttered - and it reveres authenticity above all.  Wabi-sabi is flea markets, not warehouse stores;  aged wood, not Pergo;  rice paper, not glass.  Minimalist wabi-sabi reveres age and celebrates humans over involnerable machines.  It celebrates cracks and crevices and all the marks that time, weather and use leave behind.  It reminds us that we are all transient beings - that our bodies and materials world around us are in the process of returning to the dust from which we came.

We'd learned about feng-shui while we lived in Hong Kong before it came to be hip in the U.S.  So I look at books like this with caution.  They offer us a glimpse of a view of the world from another culture.  That's good.  But we shouldn't think we understand it just from this one book.  After all, how wabi-sabi can a book with a bar code on it be?

I grew up in a family where things were to be treated with care and respect.  Wabi-sabi was not in anyone's vocabulary or world view.  On the other hand,  only a few of my grandparents' possessions survived Nazi Germany so there was always the understanding that mere things were transitory and not to be overly valued.

It seems that in the end there's a balance between caring for things so that they last, yet recognizing that things age with use and to accept and cherish those age marks. Including those on my wabi-sabi body.

The last day of the year seems to be a good one to wrap one's head around the idea of wabi-sabi.  A good time to consider how things have aged this year and how we'll think about them next year. 

I also have to mention that Schooler's marriage never got wabi-sabi.  His wife left pretty early on. 

Lake Otis Sidewalk/Bike Path Ends, Forcing Me Into The Street

Finally running again yesterday, I decided to bike to an evening meeting that wasn't far off.  The bike path along Lake Otis was cleared, a little messy with loose snow, but doable if you like adventure.  I can understand why some cyclists move into the street. 

But then I got north of Northern Lights.  Cross the first street and then the trail/sidewalk abruptly ended.  It just stopped and there was a big pile of snow.  I thought maybe the trail would pickup again. 

But no, there was a 2-3 foot high berm the rest of the way with one set of six inch deep footprints on top. 

There was no other place for pedestrians or bikes except the street. 


Lake Otis and Tudor is one of the busiest intersections in town.  This is less than a mile north of there and there's no place to walk or bike except the street. 

When the traffic light back at NL was red, there was a pause in the traffic where I was.  I slipped into the street and went down the hill, past the Chester Creek bike trail, then up the hill.  At least my rear bike light was flashing so the cars knew I was there when the light changed and theycaught up with me. Fortunately the traffic was light enough that they could all pass me in the left lane.  At the top of the hill I turned right into the neighborhood where I was headed. 

Snow plowing started out fine this year, but quickly deteriorated.  I know there's been a lot of snowfalls - there's another inch this morning.  But this is a major street and pedestrians shouldn't be forced into the streets. 

What Does "Taking Responsibility" Mean these days? Sheffield Resigns for $60K/year

ADN on line has this headline:

Sheffield resigns as port director
CONTRACT: Ex-governor will earn $60,000 a year as city's liaison on the project.
By ROSEMARY SHINOHARA
Anchorage Daily News Published: December 29th, 2011 11:06 PM
Last Modified: December 29th, 2011 11:26 PM

It took long enough to get him out of the Port.  The story tells us:

The cost of the port expansion project, as envisioned by Sheffield, has jumped from $360 million in 2005 to about $1 billion. [Anchorage Mayor] Sullivan has proposed a less ambitious project. The city late this year asked the Legislature for $350 million to continue port construction work.

The port was supposed to be finished in 2011, but the ADN reported last July, that the completion date is now 2021.  That's not a minor adjustment.  Why the delay?  Because Sheffield had championed a controversial, untested piling design which failed.

Some engineers are questioning whether the new dock can even be built as designed. Much of the work done in 2010 involved dismantling construction from just a year earlier. Numerous sheets of steel that were planted in Cook Inlet as part of the dock expansion have been ripped up and now lie stacked in twisted and warped piles at the port.

You can see some of these on a video of a Port tour in a 2009 post.

But according to Sheffield and his supporters, it wasn't his fault.

"The project has faced challenges but we have worked hard over the last two years to get the management and construction back on the correct course," Sheffield said in a written statement . . .

. . . Sheffield supporters say the port construction problems were largely beyond his control, and that a federal agency and a contractor are responsible for quality assurance, not the port director. Former Assemblyman Dan Coffey, whom Sullivan has hired to lobby the Legislature for additional port funds, says he thinks Sheffield "is the face of a mess not of his making."

Yeah, it wasn't me.  Just because I was the port director, you shouldn't blame me.  The Feds should have done it.  Ask the feds who was pushing the controversial pilings. 

Let's see.  This is the former governor who was brought up for impeachment inquiry by the legislature in 1985.  The LA Times reported:

Alaska's impeachment inquiry stems from what might be considered routine patronage politics in some places: the steering of a $9.1-million lease for state offices to a Fairbanks building in which one of Sheffield's supporters and fund-raisers held an interest. . .

. . .The office lease matter took a serious turn on July 1, when the special grand jury investigating it, citing page after page of Sheffield's failed memory in his testimony, declared that the governor is "unfit to fulfill the inherent duties of public office."

'Lack of Candor'
The jurors added that "Sheffield's testimony reflects a lack of candor and a disrespect for the laws of this state."

In the end, he was not impeached.

But here's some more history from a 2007 post I did on Carnival Cruise Lines:

1987 - Sheffield sold Sheffield Enterprises to Holland America [which belongs to Carnival Cruises.] His number two man at Sheffield Enterprises, Al Parish, eventually became a vice president of Holland America.
And from the Alaska Railroad website we get the following:
April 1995
Former Governor Bill Sheffield is appointed to the Board of Directors and elected chairman.

During his tenure, the Anchorage International Airport got a new train depot, that the Railroad says cost $28 million (I think that was just the federal money, others have hinted it was much more) that is now named after Sheffield.  The only passengers who ride on trains from that depot are people who travel to or from the airport to downtown train station (a ten minute taxi ride) which is part of their Alaska cruise ticket.  And the cruises only come up during the summer months.  But us Anchorage folks can rent it out for a party if we want. 

The Alaska Railroad's 1998 Annual Report says about the Depot:

Anchorage International Airport
What It Is: A $28 million project to develop a state-of-the-art rail
station at the Anchorage International Airport. The station will be
the centerpiece of all passenger services development at the
Railroad, connecting Seward, Whittier and Girdwood, making
commuter services to Wasilla and Palmer a more viable option. (p.10)

In the Chairman's message it even gives a time estimate:

And by 2005, we hope to be carrying commuters from the Matanuska-Susitna Valley and Girdwood into Anchorage with safe, cost-effective, environmentally friendly rail transit.(p. 1)

It's the end of 2011 and no one has gone anywhere but downtown from that depot.  But maybe, like the port, the commuter service had to be delayed 10 years.  But don't hold your breath until 2015.

Accountability
Heads of agencies and governments and corporations frequently tell us that they have the responsibility to make important decisions, but when things go bad, they rarely seem to be held accountable.  How are those bankers doing who made all those bad loans?  Do you think W. is going to apologize any time soon for getting us into Iraq?   The only Alaskan politicians who have been held accountable were convicted by the feds after an FBI investigation.  And the ones who spent the most time in prison were convicted of crimes involving $10,000 or less. 

Mayor Sullivan's been cutting the Municipal budget on the grounds of being fiscally responsible, but this is the end of his third year as mayor.  He's left Sheffield at the port all this time. 

Some folks thought the political corruption cases might change things, and they did for a bit.  They helped get Sarah Palin elected governor, for example.  But just looking at Sheffield's record as Governor, railroad president, and head of the port raise very troubling questions about accountability in this state.  The gift of the railroad depot to the cruise lines all by itself should have been investigated.  It has cronyism written all over it. 


Who's accountable for it never being used for commuter service?  Who still thinks there was ever that intention?

The current ADN story says that no one knew about the resignation and it was announced at a Wednesday night fundraiser for Mayor Sullivan at Sheffield's home.  Sweet deal.  I'll resign and I'll give you a fundraiser, but I want a $60K retainer after I resign.  Or even worse, maybe he didn't have to ask.  

Watching Eagle Harrassed by Ravens and Magpies While Running

I've been rationalizing that shoveling the driveway has been my exercise since October 30 and we've had measurable snow about every three days since then (at least that's how I remember it.)  But shoveling isn't running.  Today I cleared the snow that had accumulated on the deck.  Did some indoor tasks and the sun came out which got me itching to run.  It's a little colder than I like (10˚F or -12˚C), but I thought I should go at least on a short run.  I forgot how good it feels to run outside, even in the cold. 

I also got to see ravens and magpies ganging up on a bald eagle.

The raven is on the right above the eagle

The bald eagle, alone

And now a magpie (left) comes over to keep an eye on the eagle (right)

The sun was already covered again by the clouds at 2:30.  Official sunset was at 3:48pm - we gained, according to the newspaper, 1 minute and 27 seconds of sun over yesterday.  That may not seem like much, but at that rate, it's ten minutes in a week, and the amount we gain is increasing daily.  And for those of you wondering about sunrise - it was officially 10:15am. 

I know the photos aren't very good, I was running.  And my pocket canon powershot doesn't do distance well.  But I'm just documenting here what I saw. 

What's Wikipedia's Annual Budget? Is Donating $5 Too Much? Too Little?

If you've been to Wikipedia lately, you've seen a photo of  Jimmy Wales and an appeal to make a donation.

I use Wikipedia a lot here so I've been thinking I should make a contribution.  How often do you use Wikipedia?  Do you think it might average, over a year, once a day?  Twice a day?  Three times?

Think about it.  OK, some days you don't look at it at all, but other days you might look something up on Wikipedia five or six times.  Or you might read something here or on another blog that comes from Wikipedia, in which case you are a second hand Wikipedia user.

Let's take twice a day.  That would be 730 visits per year.  At a penny a visit (it's worth that much isn't it?) that would be $7.30.  And they are saying that if everyone sends them just $5, they're ok.

There are three days left until the end of the year and their current fund raising campaign.

It takes less than a minute (if you don't put the wrong credit card expiration date in as I did) to fill out their form on their website.  

If you don't like to pay online, you can send a check:

Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.

P.O. Box 98204

Washington, DC 20090-8204

USA

OK Steve, so what's the budget already?  That's what the title said I'd get. 

Here's from their FAQ page:

How much money are you hoping to raise?

The 2011-12 plan posits revenue of $29.5 million, a 24% increase over projected revenue of $23.8 million for 2010-11.

Why Should You Contribute?

Contributing your fair share or not is the difference between someone who believes in making the world a better place by giving back at least as much as he's given, or what economists call free riders.  People who sponge of the work of others.

Wikipedia isn't asking us to pay back the real value of Wikipedia.  They have lots of volunteers who give their labor free. (Their annual report says hundreds of thousands.) They're just asking for us to help out with things they actually have to pay for.  Imagine if you had to buy all the information you get from Wikipedia.  Hire someone at $25- $100 per hour to look it up.


Does Wikipedia  Spend It's Money Well?

OK, I've wandered way off from, "is it worth 1¢ per visit?" to writing how I imagine  Wikipedia works.  I don't know how efficient they are or whether anyone gets a $100,000 salary or not.  And if they do, whether it's money well-spent.  But . . .

. . . whenever I ask questions like those I have to go look, so here's from the overview financial page from their annual report (pdf):

Where the money goes
The Wikimedia Foundation continues to enjoy a stable base of revenue, stemming largely from its annual community giving campaign. In 2010–11, we doubled the number of small donors to over 500,000 individuals from all over the world.
Now in the second year of our five-year strategic plan, we are hiring new staff members, increasing the capacity of our server network to deliver Wikipedia and our other projects to the world, and intensifying our efforts to expand the reach of our projects in the Global South through on-the-ground initiatives.

44%  Maintaining our site and improving our software Operations and engineering, purchasing servers, maintaining and improving our data center, internet hosting, and software development and product engineering. $8,869,675

12%  Expanding our global reach
Improving access to Wikipedia on mobile devices in the Global South, public and education outreach, support and grants for our global chapters. $2,388,698

9%  Direct support to our volunteer community Researching community activity trends, increasing editor retention and recruitment, improving new technologies to help project editors. $1,889,084 

11%  Fundraising
Planning and development of our annual giving campaign, global payment collection fees (including Paypal and other fees). $2,142,217

6%  Board of Trustees administration and special projects Travel and professional development for our governing Board, as well as special research projects and initiatives to support the Wikimedia community. $1,172,654

18%  Administration
Benefits and related administration costs for Foundation staff, capital expenses, leases, training, travel, and other costs. $3,636,236

Total cash expenditures, including all capital purchases. $20,098,564

I just realized that was this year's annual plan.  Here's a link to the Wikimedia 2011-2012 Plan.


Charity Navigator gives them 65.49  points (out of a possible 70 points)  and four big stars overall.  Here's what they say that means:

Exceptional

Exceeds industry standards and outperforms most charities in its Cause.

So here's the donate page link again.

Record Your Skype Calls Easily With Call Recorder

Back in October I talked to Brent Scarpo via Skype before his trip to Anchorage.  I wanted to record it, so I used my digital camera on a tiny tripod to do it.  It was ok (the problems were more in the quality of his cam), but I realized what I needed was software to do it through Skype directly.

I quickly found ecamm's Call Recorder - made especially for Macs.  One of the perks of being an Alaska Apple User Group member is that if you review books and software and other products for them, you get to keep the item.  So I checked to see if they could get Call Recorder for me.  Actually, it was only $19.95 so it wasn't that big a deal.  But I figured writing up the review and this post, got me twenty bucks.  And I can buy my wife some flowers or use it for a dinner out.

click to make clearer

This software is really easy to use.  You download it, turn it on (and they walk you through all this), and there it is.  You turn on Skype and you get this little Call Recorder box (upper left.)

Click the middle circle with the yellow dot and it starts recording.  The dot turns red when it's recording.  And the green volume indicators get bright.

Click the circle to the left of that and you get the skype preference box with the Recording options.

If you click on the image you can get it bigger and sharper.  (Blogger, why do they have to do that?  Why can't you make it sharper right here?)   Anyhoo, you can see that you can set it different ways.
The key ones that mattered for me were:

1.  Tell it where to save the files.  Once you click record, it starts recording.  When you stop it, it automatically saves the very compressed files (about 11 minutes was 14mb).  So you might want to figure out where you want it to be saved and do that on the preference window.  If you don't, the button on the right of the yellow dot, shows you where the files are.

2.  Set how you want the video to record.  It came set to record both cams, split screen.  I just wanted the person I was interviewing.  So I set it that way.  But you can also just record yourself or put yourself in a small box with the person you call.

3.  You can mark the recording as it is happening so it will have separate chapters.  I haven't tried that yet.

4.  You can record a voice chat as well.

Very cool and very easy.

Of course, this also means that your Skype chat could end up on YouTube so be careful who you chat with and what you say.  [Update Dec. 31, 2012:  People have been telling me that there's a red light on when it's recording.  Then I saw the red light too.  So, if the other person is paying attention, they may notice the red light and figure out they are being recorded.  I'm not sure if this was there the whole time or it was added more recently.]

Ecamm does note on their site that different states have different laws about recording phone conversations without the other party knowing.  In Alaska, just one person has to consent (me or the other guy).  You can check Summary of Consent Laws Requirements for Taping Telephone Conversations which has  a table of states (38+DC) that allow one party consent and all party consent (12 states).  But even if you are in a one party state, if you call another state, its laws and federal laws apply.  And there's no date on that website and laws change.

I was making videos for the blog, so I let the people know.  I think it's probably a good idea to tell the person you are recording and keep the clip that says they know in case anyone says they didn't know they were being recorded.

The video quality is only as good as the Skype video - and nothing I got was nearly as great as what ecamm shows on their website. 

I did three of these of film makers who had films at the Anchorage International Film Festival, but who weren't able to get to Anchorage.  You can see how it turned out.
1.  Nayeem Mahbub - He was in Nairobi, Kenya.  The video quality was terrible on Skype.
2.  Ru Kuwahata and Max Porter - They were in Tilburg, Holland.
3.  David Andrade - He was in San Diego, California. 

David's was the best video.  You could see his lips and the audio wasn't synched right, so I had to move the audio track a smidge to get it to synch.

For what I need, this is perfect.

[Disclosure:  As I said on top, I did get a free copy through the Alaska Apple User Group and I had to write a review for them.  But otherwise I have no obligation to the company and I'm posting this because I think it's neat and easy and some of you might be looking for a a way to record Skype conversations.  It doesn't do iChat or MSM.]

Check the website for more details.

The Difference Between "Oral" and "Verbal" Overturns Alaska No Texting Law

Magistrate Jennifer Wells in Kenai ruled that the state law that sponsoring legislators thought bans texting is too ambiguous.  The Anchorage Daily News reports:

The Kenai case involves Tyler S. Adams, 21, who was charged in May with texting while driving. Adams sought to have his case dismissed, which Wells did in October citing the ambiguous language in the law. Earlier this month, she declined to reconsider her decision.

So, what is the problem?  The law (see complete law below) says:

(a) A person commits the crime of driving with a screen device operating if
(1) the person is driving a motor vehicle;
(2) the vehicle has a television, video monitor, portable computer, or any other similar means capable of providing a visual display that is in full view of a driver in a normal driving position while the vehicle is in motion; and
(3) the monitor or visual display is operating while the person is driving.

"Screen Device"?  The dilemmas of trying to be specific enough to cover what you want to cover, but broad enough to not get left behind by new technology.

This does sound like they are talking about some sort of a television-like monitor or computer "that is in full view of a driver in a normal driving position" which makes it sound like it's mounted.  What about GPS?  Well that's covered in the exceptions as are a number of other such mounted screens used by different professionals as part of their work:

(c) Subsections (a) and (b) of this section do not apply to
(1) portable cellular telephones or personal data assistants being used for verbal communication or displaying caller identification information;
(2) equipment that is displaying only
(A) audio equipment information, functions, and controls;
(B) vehicle information or controls related to speed, fuel level, battery charge, and other vehicle safety or equipment information;
(C) navigation or global positioning;
(D) maps;
(E) visual information to
(i) enhance or supplement the driver's view forward, behind, or to the sides of the motor vehicle for the purpose of maneuvering the vehicle; or
(ii) allow the driver to monitor vehicle occupants seated behind the driver;

So, clearly the legislators had to be very careful to identify screens they meant to outlaw and those that are ok.  The problem cited by the newspaper article was the use of the word "verbal."


Language is a tool for communication.  Good tools should be used for their intended purpose.   You can often use a good bread knife, say, to cut other things it wasn't intended for, like string, and get the job done.  But when you go back to the bread it doesn't do that job as well.   The same is true for words and grammar.  For most everyday uses there is enough context that using a close, but different word, can get the meaning across.  But if you do that enough, people forget the original meaning of the word, and you've lost a precision tool. When you want to use it for its precise meaning, people no longer know that meaning.

In this case we have the word verbal which means precisely "related to words." 

The Kenai case involves Tyler S. Adams, 21, who was charged in May with texting while driving. Adams sought to have his case dismissed, which Wells did in October citing the ambiguous language in the law. Earlier this month, she declined to reconsider her decision.

Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2011/12/25/2233718/driver-texting-law-challenged.html#storylink=cp

From kerryr:

Q:  Do I use verbal or oral?
A:  Verbal is the more generic term, and means 'related to words', whereas oral in this context means 'using speech'. The distinction is somewhat blurred these days, but if you mean something spoken, use oral.

Example:

• We had an oral contract.

• I gave an oral presentation.

• We have a verbal agreement.
  (The agreement could be spoken or written.)

 So, the exception written in the law is for 'verbal' communication, which could be either oral or written.  If the lawmakers had written 'oral' perhaps there would be no ambiguity here.  The bill was first introduced in 2005 and passed finally in 2007. It makes an exception for Cell Phones and  Personal Data Assistants (PDA's).  That suggests to me that reading small handheld computer screens was allowed in the law.  And from PDA to text messages?  Yes, there's a difference between thumbing a message and reading it.  But I don't think the law goes there. 

The magistrate, it appears to me, made the right call.  The law is ambiguous.  If one looks at the DMV's Driving Manual (p4 and inside back page), there is nothing about texting.  Cell phone use is listed as something that could be distracting, but not forbidden:

• All parents should consider other restrictions, which may help their young driver have a safer beginning experience as an independent driver. Cell phone and stereo use should be discussed as well as eating and drinking while driving. Any activity, even conversation, can take the focus off the driving experience, causing distractions, which can lead to violations and crashes.  (p. 4)

• Driving is not just getting behind the wheel and taking off down the road. Driving involves many other issues

• Privilege - Driving is a privilege, not a right. 

• Distracted Driving - The use of cell phones, eating, grooming, playing the radio or CD player extremely loud, or other activities while driving contributes to crashes.  (Inside back cover)

And the search found nothing about texting.  But the the Manual says at the very beginning:

The purpose of this manual is to provide the reader with a general familiarity with the principles of safe and lawful operation of a motor vehicle.
The contents of this manual are NOT intended to serve as a precise statement of the Statutes and Regulations of the State of Alaska pertaining to the opera- tion of a motor vehicle and should not be understood by the reader as such.
REV. 01/2010 Printed 01/2010

But it seems texting and cell phone use happen frequently enough that when there is a new law, it should be in the manual. 

I would also observe that I went into this with a story line about the difference between the two words.  And that's basically what I've written.  But as I got more into it, I suspect that it wasn't simply the use of 'verbal' that caused the magistrate problems.  The fact that cell phones and particularly PDA's are exempted suggests that reading text was not prohibited.  Should I drop the post because it's not exactly the story I had in mind?  I think this paragraph is probably better than dropping the post altogether.  It allows me to make my point about why using the right language is important and it also let's me make a point about how reporters and bloggers can write the story they looking for and not the one that is really out there. 

Here's the complete statute:


Alaska Statute Section 28.35.161
Driving a motor vehicle with a screen device operating; unlawful installation of television, monitor, or similar device.
(a) A person commits the crime of driving with a screen device operating if
(1) the person is driving a motor vehicle;
(2) the vehicle has a television, video monitor, portable computer, or any other similar means capable of providing a visual display that is in full view of a driver in a normal driving position while the vehicle is in motion; and
(3) the monitor or visual display is operating while the person is driving.
(b) A person may not install or alter equipment described in (a)(2) of this section that allows the images to be viewed by the driver in a normal driving position while the vehicle is in motion.
(c) Subsections (a) and (b) of this section do not apply to
(1) portable cellular telephones or personal data assistants being used for verbal communication or displaying caller identification information;
(2) equipment that is displaying only
(A) audio equipment information, functions, and controls;
(B) vehicle information or controls related to speed, fuel level, battery charge, and other vehicle safety or equipment information;
(C) navigation or global positioning;
(D) maps;
(E) visual information to
(i) enhance or supplement the driver's view forward, behind, or to the sides of the motor vehicle for the purpose of maneuvering the vehicle; or
(ii) allow the driver to monitor vehicle occupants seated behind the driver;
(F) vehicle dispatching and response information for motor vehicles providing emergency road service or roadside assistance;
(G) vehicle dispatching information for passenger transport or freight or package delivery;
(H) information for use in performing highway construction, maintenance, or repair or data acquisition by the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities or a municipality; or
(d) Subsections (a) and (b) of this section do not apply to devices and equipment installed in an emergency vehicle. In this subsection, "emergency vehicle" means a police, fire, or emergency medical service vehicle.
(e) It is an affirmative defense to a prosecution under (b) of this section that the equipment installed or altered includes a device that, when the motor vehicle is being driven, disables the equipment for all uses except those described in (c) of this section.
(f) A person who violates (a) of this section is guilty of
(1) a class A misdemeanor, unless any of the circumstances described in (2) - (4) of this subsection apply;
(2) a class C felony if the person's driving causes physical injury to another person; (3) a class B felony if the person's driving causes serious physical injury to another person; (4) a class A felony if the person's driving causes the death of another person. (g) A person who violates (b) of this section is guilty of a class A misdemeanor.

From "Braile Tattoos" to "jesus of course i accept people with pierced bodies cartoon" - More Google Searches

Here are a few terms people used to get to this blog that caught my attention in the last couple of months for one reason or another.


diminutive crony -  Is this like a Leprechaun lobbyist?  The person got to the post on Cronyism at UAA. 

I got enough searches for this that I looked to see why.  It was part of clue #2 in the Independence, Kansas Neewholah Medallion scavenger hunt.  Here are the clues (regular font) with the answer in the bold font:

SUNDAY:
Allan and Mikael sang in this band,
the song was a big hit.
Two singers for the Hollies – “He Ain’t Heavy He’s My Brother”
A diminutive crony, they lent him a hand,
“He Ain’t Heavy He’s My Brother”
the first two lines provide the fit.
It’s a long road, with many a winding turn.

Diminutive Crony = My Brother?  That's a stretch, but it's a great, old song that people should listen to today when so many of our brothers (and sisters) need a little help. So I put it here on top so you can listen while you read the rest of the post.



The medallion was found:

LOCATION: Taped underneath a big green dumpster. Adjacent to the parking lot at the 10th street baseball/softball fields 

jesus of course i accept people with pierced bodies cartoon - they got to a photo of the cover of Gary Trudeau's book The Long Road Home.   But I want to see the Jesus cartoon.

utozombiesbra - This one got to a post on when the first Permanent Fund Dividend check was due out in 2010.  Searching the page found 'uto' in statutory and 'bra' in librarian, but no zombies.  The word vampire did appear though. 


ant egg oil reviews -  I didn't know people were using ant egg oil.  For cooking?  For driving?  This searcher got to the post Catching Up- Thai Bugs, which included a photo of a baggie full of red ant eggs - a delicacy for a Thai friend in Chiangmai. 



is there farsi book shop in london - This got to a post from LA which included a visit to a Persian book store.


blurk for newborn baby - Got to Baby Burke Brouhaha. But what's a blurk? The Urban dictionary offers two meanings that don't fit:

1. Popular, conventional wisdom which may be factually right or wrong, but which loses meaning through frequent, often thoughtless repetition
   
   "Tommy never thinks for himself. He just repeats these blurks that he hears all day on CNN and then tries to pass it off as wisdom.
   
   
2. to spew, chuck, or to throw up.
   
   when something is disgusting 

Maybe it was just a typo.  Maybe someone whose vocabulary includes 'blurk' can clarify.


wooden post old timey pig pen - Not too many people say 'old timey' these days. [Actually, since I wrote this, I've started to notice it again.] It's cool when the kind of word someone uses amplifies the meaning of the word itself. And this searcher got to a post (no pun intended really) with an old wooden pig pen in Thailand.
Someone else 20 minutes later got there with natural pig pen which worked, but just didn't have the same ring.


I've been noticing that sometimes two folks get to the same post, one after the other, seconds apart. Does someone clicking on a link cause Google to push that post higher for the very next person who searches for the same or a similar term? For example:
what do i know (from Toronto at 9:26:26am Alaska Time) came right on the heals of explain the quote "what do i know" (from Alexandria, VA at 9:26:25am). But messing up my speculation here (or maybe there's even more going on than I know) the first one came from Bing and the second from Google. This is probably a bad example because the second one got the post with the Victor Lebow quote and the second to the main What Do I Know? page. Or maybe that's evidence that it's just coincidence.  But I've been seeing this pattern lately.

braille tatoos - Never thought about this, though I have thought that surgeons should learn how to make artistic stitches so that the scars they leave have a cool design. This searcher got to a post on braille playing cards.   I'd also note that tattoo has 3 t's, but bloggers who misspell words pick up readers who misspell them too.

what if i didn't get my alaska permanent fund check yet - This one came October 22 from Las Vegas.   The checks were distributed October 6.  But the website also says, "Applications in eligible status after September 23 and before October 21 will be distributed October 27."  So it may still be coming.  But searches like this stir my imagination. How many stories can you create to explain this inquiry? An Alaskan living Outside? Visiting Oustside? Former Alaskan hoping to get one more PFD check? Or a gambling addict waiting for his check? Lots of possibilities.
BTW, the searcher got to a 2010 post on the PFD, not the 2011 post.   Neither would have answered the specific question.  But this gave me a chance to respond to an overlooked question from Kathy in KY.
 

how many black us congressmen have been members of the us congress - My snarky answer: All of them. Sorry, I just can't help myself. This is not a biggie, but it shows how people can't quite say what they mean. But Google has a lot of tolerance for such people  and this person got to my post on the number of black congress members. Did you want to know about black Congresswomen too?
For those of you who have no idea what I find wrong in the query, leave a comment or email me and I'll explain.

modern office lobbies with taxidermied animals - This was an image search which gave them this picture and highlighted this sentence from the post "Providence Alaska Medical and Animal Park" : "Some places have stuffed moose or bear in the lobby."

This is indeed an office building lobby, but the moose isn't in a glass case.  This is Anchorage and the moose is live,  outside, browsing the landscaping.

andropi -  Do you think they were looking for entropy?  In any case the got the post Happy Birthday, Moni, Alex, and Ropi see the andropi?).  Probably not what they wanted.  It said North America, on a computer using US - English and Linux but in a European time zone. (Yes, Sitemeter tells me all that, and usually the city and country too.)  While computer time in Sitemeter is usually a good clue to the visitor's location when location itself is 'unknown', it reflects the timezone set on the computer.  So, when I'm traveling, my computer still reflects Alaska time.

what to google when you cant sleep -  Why not?  You can find everything else on google.  This person got to a previous google search post "those nights when you can't sleep, it might be bacause you're awake in someone else's dream film" - More Google Search Terms which had gotten that person to a post on the movie Inception.

what is the name of the flower you blow on it and everything little whote thing come out when you make a wish - Google got this person to an archive page.  If the searcher scrolled down long enough, she would have gotten a picture of a dandelion flower gone to seed and an explanation about making wishes.  Not bad Google.  But why didn't you just take the person straight to the dandelion post instead of the whole archive page?




owl to put in tower -  What does this mean?  Is this some sort of Harry Potter reference?  This person got to this picture of a great horned owl up close at the July 4th celebration on the park strip post.  There was also a climbing tower in the post.

frank "the tank" sullivan has acquired 38 plates at the flying saucer - Here's another good example of how one could use Google search terms to write short stories. Clearly there is a story behind this. Google gave him an archive page (August 30, 2011 back to Aug. 17) which includes the words: Frank (Murkowski); tank (underground storage); plates (license); and flying saucer (house). The number 38 is on the page too.

how do you eat them orchestras - Who knows what this person was thinking?   He got to a post about an orchestra that makes its instruments out of vegetables.  I guess Google did about as well as could be expected.

2012 number missouri delegates republican convention  - Google got this person into the vicinty, but should have taken him to the exact page. This person got sent to the blog, but not to a specific page.   I'd done a post recently on the Republican primaries and the possibility of selecting their candidate at the convention specifically answered this question.  I'm not sure if the searcher found it.  If he searched 'Missouri' on the page, he should have found it.

That's it for now, for previous such pages click here.