Tony Taylor's blog

QotD: How I Ended Up Here

Why do you live where you live?
Submitted by memtony.

I guess I should answer this questions because I asked it.

 

I live in Memphis, TN because of my job.  I grew up in Southern California thinking that it was the only place in the world that I ever wanted to live.  After a couple of bad job experiences in 1986, I was blessed by being employed at a wonderful transportation company headquartered in Memphis. (Yes, the one with white and purple airplanes.)  I had to go to Memphis for training and occasionally for other meetings and found that the cost of living was low and that Memphis is a beautiful place.  I couldn't see a way to afford a house in Los Angeles, so I applied for a job in Memphis and got it pretty quickly.  So we packed up the kids and moved from the Pacific Ocean to the Mississippi River planning to stay a couple of years before returning to California.  That was exactly 19 years ago. My career and my life here have been great and I plan to stay here at least until I retire.  Obviously, I consider moving to Memphis as one of the good decisions in my life.

QotD: Jury Duty

Have you ever served on a jury?  What was your experience?
Submitted by jacolily.

Although I have been on jury duty 3 or 4 times, the closest I ever got to being seated was when I was an alternate juror.  (Attorneys tend to favor potential jurors who appear clueless and without opinions about anything.)  I listened to a fender bender case in Los Angeles where the plaintiff was clearly trying to get rich off of a poor old lady whom he rear ended while she was waiting to make a left turn.  I was thrilled when the jury did what I would have done and awarded the guy a big fat nothing.  His attorney didn't care much because he was being paid by an insurance company regardless of the outcome.

The thing I like about jury duty is the chance to spend a few days with total strangers from all sorts of backgrounds in an environment that is different for almost everyone.  People are fascinating and everyone has something interesting to share.  But most importantly, each time I have participated, I have come away with a feeling that most people are decent and honest and want to do the right thing.  I think that's the beauty and the genius in the "jury of peers" concept.

Here in Memphis, someone in the court system came up with a wonderful way to take advantage of their "captive audience" and the general attitude of community service that seems to increase among people on jury duty.  They arrange to have the local bloodmobile come and park outside the courthouse on the day when the pool of waiting potential jurors is the largest.  They allow (and encourage) potential jurors to donate blood while they are waiting to be selected for a jury pool.

 

 

It is  entirely too easy to be overloaded with media stimulation and conclude that people are generally rotten and up to no good.  My experience with face to face interaction tends to demonstrate the opposite.

QotD: Can't-Miss Podcasts

Are there any podcasts that you never miss an episode of?
Submitted by Kadeeae.

This Week in Tech, otherwise known as TWIT

I have always enjoyed Leo Laporte since his days at Tech TV.  He's always fun to listen to, he has good guests, and the level of conversation is just at the right level between novice and esoteric geek.

 

What Passes for Education in 2007

I live in Memphis, Tennessee, a city which has many fine qualities but lacks a good school system.  In fact, our system is widely acknowledged as among the worst in the United States.  I have been thinking about our system a lot lately because the local Superintendent has accepted a position in Boston and the search for a replacement is in the news pretty frequently.  We hear constantly about the usual symptoms of bad school systems (violence, drugs, hyper-sexuality, drop out rates, dismal test results, illiterate graduates, etc.) and wonder if anything can be done to improve the situation.   I'm sure these problems are not unique to my community, in fact, I'm confident that these problems are fairly universal and that they are probably just slightly more pronounced here.

I believe that any significant change in the direction of our educational systems requires a much broader cultural change.  After all, any institution as ubiquitous as public schools is a pretty accurate reflection of our society in general.  I remembered recently a piece entitled Screwtape Proposes a Toast  by C.S. Lewis that I read many years ago and I believe he has described the problem pretty clearly.  Here's an excerpt:

 

The basic principle of the new education is to be that dunces and idlers must not be made to feel inferior to intelligent and industrious pupils. That would be “undemocratic.” These differences between pupils – for they are obviously and nakedly individual differences – must be disguised. This can be done at various levels. At universities, examinations must be framed so that nearly all the students get good marks. Entrance examinations must be framed so that all, or nearly all, citizens can go to universities, whether they have any power (or wish) to profit by higher education or not. At schools, the children who are too stupid or lazy to learn languages and mathematics and elementary science can be set to doing things that children used to do in their spare time. Let, them, for example, make mud pies and call it modelling. But all the time there must be no faintest hint that they are inferior to the children who are at work. Whatever nonsense they are engaged in must have – I believe the English already use the phrase – “parity of esteem.” An even more drastic scheme is not possible. Children who are fit to proceed to a higher class may be artificially kept back, because the others would get a trauma -- Beelzebub, what a useful word! – by being left behind. The bright pupil thus remains democratically fettered to his own age group throughout his school career, and a boy who would be capable of tackling Aeschylus or Dante sits listening to his coeval’s attempts to spell out A CAT SAT ON A MAT. 

(Note that the speaker here is a fictitious character named Screwtape, a devil who is teaching other devils how to do as much damage as possible.)

I don't think we can put all the blame for our current problems on our current President because the notion of "no child left behind" was around way before he even entered the educational system.  The real root of the problem is in twisted notions of equality that value "sameness" over excellence.  While modern education appears to be a symptom of a deteriorating democracy, it also seems to be accellerating the decline of our society.  I can't find anything in the U.S. Constitution that supports or even justifies the level of control that that our government has over education in our time.  Public education is one of those things that we have grown up with and therefore believe that it was always so and always must be so.  But if we look at our history a little closer, we can see that the notion of universal, compulsory, and tax payer funded education is a fairly modern one.

It sounds sophisticated, progressive, and even enlightened to say that education is the answer to societal problems but I believe there is a lot more evidence to show that what we call education ends up doing more harm than good.  In my ideal world, education would be a service like any other in a free market.  Competition and consumer choices would determine the price and levels of service available.  I'll admit that this a fairly radical idea, but what we have now clearly isn't working very well.

What is your solution to the problem? 

Public and Private Blogging

I ran across an interesting survey being done for a dissertation by a fellow VOXer about how bloggers view various forms of communication on the internet.

 

Her original post is here.

 

You can take the survey here.

 

I wish her the best in her study!

 

QotD: Do Not Want (To Eat)

What do you absolutely refuse to eat?

horseradish

I probably will never understand why many people think that it actually makes food taste better.

QotD: Change The Channel

Who's the most annoying person on TV?

Billy Mays.  That guy with the beard that sells all kinds of home cleaning products.  Why does he have to shout all the time?

QotD: I'll Have The Usual

If a waiter stopped by right now to take your order, what cocktail or drink are you having?

Water please.  Don't worry about the lemon.

 

I'm trying to cut down on the sodas.

QotD: If I Never Hear That Again...

What is the one saying that your parents said to you that you absolutely hate? 
Submitted by victoriassecret.

"Are you on drugs?"  The answer was always "no" because I never even dabbled in such things.  I just took it as an insult that they would think I might be stupid enough to do drugs.

I was just a typically irrational teenager at times and my poor parents couldn't figure out how I could act that way.  Drugs was the only explanation they could come up with.  I have to cut them some slack though.  After all, it was the 70's and parents were becoming aware of recreational drugs in many ways for the first time.

What are you doing here?

One the things I enjoy about VOX is the opportunity to read opinions and thoughts that are very different from my own.  For the most part, I have found VOXers to be quite respectful and very often interesting and insightful.  So I thought it would be fun to ask a question that I've been thinking about for an upcoming talk that I'm going to give.  The question is:

What is the purpose of mortality?

Or you could think of it as "what is the purpose of human existence on Earth?"  I have some very clear beliefs on the subject that are largely based on scripture and religious principles.  I believe we have been put here by a loving God who is our Father to experience happiness and joy as well as to pass through difficulty and adversity in preparation for our future life which continues after our bodies die.  There are other essential aspects of mortal life that are just too hard to describe without some lengthy background so I'll leave those things for other days and other posts.

I'm interested in the thoughts of others even if they aren't particularly religious in nature.  Maybe you think there really is no purpose for human existence, if so, I'm interested in how you come to that conclusion.