Areas of Unrest

30 April 2000 - Adventures in Bureaucracy, Technology and Fantasy

QOTD: "I had no choice, either I became a comedienne or a serial killer." - Mimi Longuemare

Reading: Ernest Shackleton, The Heart of the Antarctic

Listening to: Old Blind Dogs, Live!

Bureaucracy

After the fiasco with the primaries when they couldn't find my voter registration in the book, I had called the Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters and been told they had me registered at my previous address, despite my voter registration card for this address. They told me the only thing to do was send in a new voter registration, which I did. A little over a week ago, I got a new voter registration card in the mail - with the effective date being in November 1998 (which is when I'd moved in here and changed the registration in the first place). Three days later I got another new voter registration card, this one having an effective date in late March (when I sent in the new registration). Am I registered twice? Can I straighten this out short of moving to Vermont and changing parties?

An even more frustrating bureaucratic matter came up Friday. I had registered for a UCLA Extension class (a 2 weekend intensive Introduction to Chinese). They called me because the receipt they sent me had been returned by the post office, so they needed to verify my address. Now, the catalog label had my address correct, but they badly mangled my last name. I put the label on the registration form and corrected the spelling. Apparently, they just check that the name is in their database if they have a label and it was correctly spelled at my old address. I think I straightened things out enough to get a receipt, but I made the mistake of trying to get them to correct the database. The guy I was talking to said I needed to talk to someone else for that and transferred me. I then got the following voice mail message, which I consider a classic example of why technology doesn't actually improve our lives: "You are being transferred to a voice mail box. However, the person you are calling does not subscribe to this voice mail system. Goodbye."

I hope that these adventures in bureaucracy don't bode ill for the speedy return of my passport, which I sent in to get additional pages added. I would have gone in person, but the Passport Agency no longer accepts non-emergency applications in person. Once I get my passport back, I get to go through the joy of dealing with visa applications. I need 8 photos and a dozen copies of the ID page of the passport and a check for an undisclosed amount of money. Nothing on any of the applications or on any of the instructions tells me how much money the visa is. That just means a phone call to the travel company I'm taking the trip with, but it's still annoying.

Technology

The latest issue of Technology Review had an interesting short piece about digital scent. There are actually a few companies working on systems that will add smell to the multimedia experience. I'm not sure that there's really any consumer demand for it. I know that I, for one, don't really want my computer to be spraying chemicals at me as I surf the web. In fact, I have nightmares about the future of banner ads on web pages turning into the equivalent of those dreadful scented magazine ads. Just because you can do it, doesn't mean you should.

I did, however, like the idea for a new product that is forthcoming from Polaroid. It's a combination digital/film camera. The idea is that you can give away the instant print and have the digital image for yourself. Or, at least, that's what I thought was cool about it.

The other thing I noticed in the magazine was how job ads have changed. In the old days, an ad for an engineer would emphasize the coolness of the technology and would have a lot about the specific types of engineering challenges that a new employee could work on. Most of the ads in this issue didn't give me the faintest idea of what the company actually does. The one exception was Bose and, had it not been for their old-fashioned ad, I might not have noticed this. I find it depressing that kids fresh out of school don't seem to care about the challenges as much as they do about the stock options. The notion that somebody would do what I did and take a lower-paying job at a nonprofit corporation over a higher-paying job with growth potential at a profit making enterprise must have become completely unfashionable in the past 15 years. It wasn't all that unusual in my day, though, particularly not for people who completed advanced degrees. I feel old.

Fantasy

I had my fill of military ceremony this week between a promotion and a retirement. They always play the Air Force song at the end of these events. I'm always grateful that they print the words in the program, even though we don't sing along. Not that I don't know them if I stop to think about it, but my brother used to sing a filk based on the tune and those words always come to mind first. So I find myself mentally starting out, "Off we go into the wild blue yonder, blotting out the light of the sun" and praising the Nazgul Air Corps. Hmmm, maybe that is the explanation for those huge black birds that hang around our building.

The frustrations of the week had me fantasizing about a new career and I spent a little time researching what is involved in learning to bind books. I can't decide whether a small artist bindery or a conservation job would be better. I am, however, seriously tempted to enroll in the University of Virginia Rare Books School, because I like the sound of it. There was also a program in the Czech Republic that sounded appealing.

This is going to be my third week in a row without traveling on business. Pinch me - I must be dreaming!