Inside an Abusive Relationship, Questionable Traffic Laws, Captain Planet Gone Mad, and a Couple of Lighter Stories

This entry is part 94 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

Wow… not a lot in the feed today, but of what there is a lot of it is pretty heavy.

Guess I’m making up for all that fluff the past week or so.

The most important story is an inside look at an abusive relationship. If nothing else, it should remind us all that how our minds work on the outside of such a situation isn’t at all the same as what’s going through the head of someone in the middle of the situation. We don’t have the wild emotional connection to the events, our internal defenses aren’t firing to try to compensate for the utter dissonance between what we experience and what we want–let alone everything in between.

It’s a bit rough to read, especially if you or someone you know has been in the thick of it.

There’s also an article about how D.C.’s traffic and parking laws–and how they’re enforced–appear to be much more driven by profit motive than public safety concerns. For those of us in the D.C. area who’ve ever had to drive–let alone park–in D.C., this is no surprise at all.

On an entertaining, though no less dark, side there’s the Captain Planet shorts that Funny or Die got Don Cheadle involved in a few years back. They answer the question: What if Captain Planet Was a Power Mad Super Bastard?

And, man, do they answer it well!

There’s also the Duck Tales opening done with real ducks. That should brighten things up a little… unless you’ve got at hing about ducks… in which case I really can’t help you (and I’m oh so sorry for that video of the hundreds of ducks walking down the road yesterday…)

Here’s the feed…

Affordable Housing, Role Playing Games, Legal Wranglings, Inspiration, Tragedy, and Everything Since Friday

This entry is part 65 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

Yeah, apparently I’m skipping Friday updates more often than not. I should stop that. Actually stick to my own schedule.

One of the big topics that ended up being discussed today in the stream was the whole rich/poor divide and the idea of affordable housing… spawned by an article about a new building in NYC that’s going to have a separate entrance for it’s less privileged residents (who they agreed to take in so they could get a tax break, mind you).

The topic of “affordable housing” comes up frequently here in Maryland. Particular in Silver Spring. The issue is a little different than it is in places like NYC.

Here we have the problem of people building a lot of expensive housing that is then bought/rented by people who mostly work and play in DC. This leaves people who work in Silver Spring (which has a wide diversity of jobs and pay rates) unable to afford to live there (in some cases), pushing them farther out where public transportation is less viable, leading to a bit of a traffic problem and a bit of a parking problem (which leads to all sorts of other problems… like local businesses being able to do solid business because people can’t get to/part at them easily or actual residents not being able to find parking/get around easily during the day).

A number of members of the community here are very interested in trying to build and maintain an actual community. One that’s vibrant at all times during the day…. not just during rush hour. What’s been in place has been slowly slipping away as development has boomed and busted a few times. (Most of what’s being built are one or two bedroom apartments/condos… not conducive to people with families, encouraging more transient people who go elsewhere to put down actual roots.)

It’s an interesting situation. A problematic one. And one I know I haven’t come up with a good solution to (mainly because I’ve got some very mixed feelings about all the affordable housing solutions I have seen–some of which were laid out in the article that Nancy shared–but some of those concerns are at odds with my desire to have poor people actually treated as people, since I’ve seen that be one of the best ways to help someone get back on their feet).

Needless to say, a number of people disagree with me on a lot of those points.

I’m okay with that.

Like I said, I don’t have an answer, so the discussion obviously needs to keep going on somewhere.

Here’s the extra long feed (which contains a few interesting discussions or starting points, so you should check it out)…

Science, Aliens, Sexism, Stupid Application of the Law, and Buzz Aldrin

This entry is part 60 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

I’ve been fiddling with websites all day–first at the day job and then after I got home.

But, pretty much every site I have my fingers in is up to date now. So, that’s good.

Sadly, this is the only one of my own sites that gets regular content these days. (And, really, calling some of this intro text “content” is really a stretch… and the FB feed reposting doesn’t count at all.)

I have a plan for tomorrow’s feed… I should have pre-loaded everything, but I haven’t. So I’m just going to be winging it tomorrow between crunching through on projects. Y’know, just like normally do. But it’ll be more frustrating, because I do have a plan I’d like to carry out.

Ah, well, my own fault for not budgeting time better.

Onward with today’s (surprisingly short) feed… (I must have really been busy)…

Internet Shenanigans, Poverty, Artful Words, Militarized Police, and the Unauthorized Saved by the Bell

This entry is part 49 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

Totally crazy day at the office. No real time for anything other than meetings and nose-to-the-grindstone work. Mostly due to projects falling off schedule… due to people getting us stuff late and technology conspiring against me.

Oh, and did I mention that I didn’t even come close to getting to sleep on time last night… in part because of a totally awesome thunderstorm that powered through the area? Fantastic lightning. Some of it was even green. Spooky cool.

Of course there was an extra-early meeting today. And I ended up working late just so I could actually cross something off of my list.

My brain is kind of fried and I’ve got one more day of this dog and pony show before the weekend hits.

Here’s what passes for the feed today…

Crawfish Boil, Taste the World, Star Wars Day, Church and State, and a whole lot of other stuff

This entry is part 21 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

This past weekend was a busy one. Some friends of mine had their second annual crawfish boil. A day full of more food than you can sensibly eat. (Not that that stopped any of us from trying.) Also the requisite and assured good company of good friends. Really can’t beat that.

Followed that up on Sunday with another food-oriented event, the fourth annual Taste the World in Fenton Village, one of the projects I’ve been helping out with for the last few years. It’s a fantastic community event that, four years in, really seems to be coming into its own. This year the weather cooperated pretty well (could’ve done with a little less wind… but that was far better than the rain drenching everyone at the end of the day last year) and we had a little extra boost from Yelp! along with all the normal local support.

Sunday was also May the 4th… Star Wars Day! Not that I did anything special for it, since I was out all day with Taste the World, but it did lead to some very entertaining online things to come home to.

All in all, pretty solid weekend… and one that I could really use another weekend to recover from.