Tag Archives: supernatural

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

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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)…

Lots of Questionable Government Decisions, VR for Chickens, Public Fiber, Vocal Range Ranked, Netflix Glitched, and Why I’m Amazed We Still Any Money in the Bank (Computer Security)

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This entry is part 32 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

There’s a lot of stuff in this world that amazes me. Some of it in good ways, some of it in very bad ways.

On the list of “bad ways” is how utterly broken our ideas (and implementations) of security are. There’s a good (and terrifying) article about that, focused on computer security, in the feed. Of course, the related “good way” is that I’m constantly amazed any of us have any money in our bank accounts, despite the ease with which it can be whisked away.

Also on the “bad” list is how quickly people escalate things to ridiculous levels. Skipping over pretty much everything regarding the Department of Homeland Security (in the feed: the billion plus dollar over-run on building their headquarters… which still hasn’t even really started being built), there’s the feed article about the guy who called the cops when he came across two kids who were out for a walk. There seems to be no reason he couldn’t have called their parents, at least not from the article. But the mess it’s made is epic in the worst ways.

On the good side, sometimes people are just so full of joy. That really shines through in the video where two complete strangers join in the music with another dude who’s just playing guitar and signing on the sidewalk. It really made my day.

There’s always going to be amazing stuff out there on both sides of the divide. I always hope to run into more of the positive than the negative. Sometimes, that happens. Other times… well… reality conspires against me, it seems.

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

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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.