autumnal-ish

[jazzfish]

Grey and chilly today, much like yesterday. Bits of Stanley Park are starting to go russet and orange, too. Looks like fall is here.

For the first time I'm not rejoicing at its arrival. Maybe because summer was so very pleasant for the first time, and I don't feel the same need for coolth and crisp air. Maybe I just need more and better light in my office so that the overcast doesn't get to me.

I think I'm coming out of hibernation. This week and last were awful work-wise and not as good as they could have been for my general mental/emotional health, but I'm ready to start dealing with that. Contacting shoulder and head specialists next week, and also seeing about getting that online Do game up and running. (One more slot available if anyone's interested.)

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Postal workers: The Last Union: "Zlatkin finds the whole 'blame it on the Internet' excuse amusing. The Internet had already existed for quite a while in 2006, the USPS's busiest year, not to mention that every item purchased on Amazon and eBay - every piece of information addressed to stockholders and bank customers - still needs to be snail mailed, which is enough volume to keep the Postal Service prosperous." Short version: the USPS was a profitable unionized environment in 2006, so it was a natural target for destruction by the people selling the idea that government is the problem, and they went at it with a will. Fucking Republicans.

Tony Fratto's Post Office Field Trip: "Is there a certain 'kind' of person who visits post offices?"

(Both via jadelennox. There are still slots available if you want to help me save the post office [LJ version]. I figure I'll start sending those out later this week or early next.)

Also, before anyone throws out "Just let FedEx/UPS handle it," FedEx and UPS contract with USPS to deliver packages to most rural areas, because there's not enough profit in it for them to run routes out there. I know that as an urban liberal elite I'm supposed to be all about screwing the country folk, but I find it difficult to get behind any plan that would have stopped me writing the occasional letter to my uncle Jim.

Whew. Onward.

J Scott Campbell’s Mary Jane Entertainingly Mocked: "I don't know about you guys, but I always drink my coffee like this."

What Socialism Is and Is Not, For Dummies: "Barack Obama is not a socialist, but Sarah Palin totally is one, or she was as Alaska’s head of state for ten minutes, anyway. Ha-ha, you let a commie tell you other people were commies because you’re so insanely scared of commies, dope."

Motorbike And Unicycle Combine To Form The Limited Edition Ryno Micro-Cycle. I cannot tell if this is brilliant or horrifying.

Is it OK to run an illegal library from my locker at school?: "[M]y locker got to overflowing with the banned books, so I decided to put the unoccupied locker next to me to good use."

Green glowing cats are new tool in AIDS research. They had me at "green glowing cats."

Comments

Advocating devils

[rbandrews]

For someone who doesn’t frequent a post office to see people who simply can’t replace the postal service with the technologies Fratto described as having replaced the postal service–fax, email, and online payments–it’s easy to forget that those technologies are simply inaccessible to a big chunk of the country

So, uh, rather than prop up an insanely inefficient way of moving data around a few k at a time, why not use that money to make the internet accessible to everyone in the country? I'm talking set up public ISPs in any city that has fewer than two ISPs, and give everyone who can't afford internet access a voucher for a computer and some free internet access.

We'd still need services to move packages back and forth, and the USPS does a good job at keeping UPS / Fedex / DHL prices down, but for letters? Screw that.

There's an environmental aspect here too. I dislike the idea of hauling things across the country in trucks only to be immediately thrown away at the other end.

Re: Advocating devils

[jazzfish]

Internet's something I could see making a public utility, like power or water. The trouble with giving everyone a voucher for a free computer, though (apart from cries of "how dare you give poor people a computer"): are you also giving them free tech support? If not we're back to slightly-ahead-of-square-one.

I dislike the idea of hauling things across the country in trucks only to be immediately thrown away at the other end.

For bulk mailing and bills and such, yeah, agreed, such things are better handled online. But personal letters and cards... I'm pretty sure I've still got every letter/card uilos has ever sent me, and other letters dating back to late high school.

Re: Advocating devils

[rbandrews]

It would probably be a lot cheaper to run the post office if the only things mailed were packages and personal letters. The real problem is junk mail overloading the system, same as with email. Maybe we just remove every form of mail except first-class and up, to make junk mail no longer viable.

As far as tech support... I can see arguments either way. We provide mail service to every address but we don't fix someone's mailbox if it gets knocked over. On the other hand we can reasonably assume anyone can repair a mailbox.

[desfido]

Just to clarify, do I have one of the Do slots? Because if I don't, I'd like the last one.

Also, while (as per usual), all your links were cool, I particularly liked the USPS ones and the Socialism one.

[jazzfish]

Indeed you do!

The socialism thing was great. If I were into starting fights on Facebook I'd post it there.

Also:

[rbandrews]

Separated at birth.

Re: Also:

[desfido]

That's one of my favorites in the National Gallery Sculpture Garden. It just always catches my eye.

Re: Also:

[jazzfish]

The unimotorcycle rider needs better[1] hair, but, yes!

[1] Where "better" means "more awesome," or simply "more like Eraserhead."