The Duchy has been raked over the coals in the press for Secrecy, not keeping the public informed, not keeping the Bored informed. The reason for this? The Duke and his minions hatched a plan for closing villages. Of course, they hatched this plan without involving the villages or, more importantly, the parents and taxpayers of those villages. The public was irate. The Bored was irate (maybe). The GOM (Grand Old Man) of the Bored voted against Duke Phfffr (Gasp!) Silver, an on again off again Bored watcher, can't remember the last time the GOM voted against Duchy administration. She thinks that it was toward the end of King Hairboy's reign. Silver, a conspiracy theorist to the bone, wonders whether the school closing was supposed to pass. Or was it just a feint to conceal the Duchy's real intentions.
In the meantime, while everyone is screaming at the Duke for "lack of transparency", what is the Duchy doing about it? Let's see. The White Tornado was chastised for summarizing a public meeting...in public! The White Tornado is no longer allowed to have unsupervised contact with librarians. Doesn't seem to be a problem. Apparently all of the available supervisors are too busy being secretive to supervise the White Tornado's meetings. Silver has also been told that while she can continue working, she is not to be seen actually producing any work. Isn't this a wonderful Duchy!
In other news, after a cooling-off period, the SNEAC Peace talks resume tomorrow. The White Tornado has refused to participate.
On the rumor side, there was a rumor that the Black Queen had considered relocating to another Duchy. Supposedly she thought better of it. Apparently the Duchy is such a wonderful place to work, with friendly people and big budgets, that she just couldn't leave it. What???
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Charmed, I'm sure.
At the last School Bored meeting, there was a presentation by the Oracle (really). The Oracle said the Duchy needs to upgrade technology because employees are tired of having to do so many things manually that could be done automatically with newer software and faster networks.
One of the Bored members asked the Oracle, "You really heard this from our employees, not from outsiders?"
Oracle "Yes."
Bored member "Is there a comfort level here? I mean, one of the things one can assume about this slow-moving district is everybody likes the fact that they've got a job they understand and that they take a lot of time to do and that they can do it all manually."
That's the second time I've heard the Black Queen's words coming out of someone else's mouth at a Bored meeting. It might make more sense if the Black Queen were breathtakingly beautiful or overpoweringly charismatic. How DOES she do it? I've been watching reruns of Charmed after work. I'm reminded of a recent episode in which Bardas, the Demon of Fear, almost conquered the Charmed Ones by whispering lies in their ear which they then repeated, causing lots of mayhem. Is the Black Queen really a Demon in disguise? Is that the secret of her power in the Duchy.
It has been suggested, among other things, that the Duchy eliminate Librarians and have libraries run by full-time Peasants. I am realizing that several decisions made in the last 2 years make this more possible, one of those decisions being the purchase of Destiny. Destiny was designed to be run centrally, not site-based. Silver thought it was really idiotic to buy a centralized program in an increasingly site-based Duchy. She even sent out a Pigeon about it (in the days when she still had access to the Pigeon Loft). The Black Queen went ballistic. Could it be that even then she was setting things up to eliminate village Librarians in favor of a centralized program, a District Librarian (the White Tornado?), a small central library support staff (currently Sage and one-fourth of Silver, an alchemy recipe, surely), and a Peasant in every village. Was her overreaction to Silver's pigeon caused by fear that her scheme was suspected? Is the Black Queen really a Schemin' Demon?
One of the Bored members asked the Oracle, "You really heard this from our employees, not from outsiders?"
Oracle "Yes."
Bored member "Is there a comfort level here? I mean, one of the things one can assume about this slow-moving district is everybody likes the fact that they've got a job they understand and that they take a lot of time to do and that they can do it all manually."
That's the second time I've heard the Black Queen's words coming out of someone else's mouth at a Bored meeting. It might make more sense if the Black Queen were breathtakingly beautiful or overpoweringly charismatic. How DOES she do it? I've been watching reruns of Charmed after work. I'm reminded of a recent episode in which Bardas, the Demon of Fear, almost conquered the Charmed Ones by whispering lies in their ear which they then repeated, causing lots of mayhem. Is the Black Queen really a Demon in disguise? Is that the secret of her power in the Duchy.
It has been suggested, among other things, that the Duchy eliminate Librarians and have libraries run by full-time Peasants. I am realizing that several decisions made in the last 2 years make this more possible, one of those decisions being the purchase of Destiny. Destiny was designed to be run centrally, not site-based. Silver thought it was really idiotic to buy a centralized program in an increasingly site-based Duchy. She even sent out a Pigeon about it (in the days when she still had access to the Pigeon Loft). The Black Queen went ballistic. Could it be that even then she was setting things up to eliminate village Librarians in favor of a centralized program, a District Librarian (the White Tornado?), a small central library support staff (currently Sage and one-fourth of Silver, an alchemy recipe, surely), and a Peasant in every village. Was her overreaction to Silver's pigeon caused by fear that her scheme was suspected? Is the Black Queen really a Schemin' Demon?
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Space Wars!!!
The Space Wars continue! The White Tornado was spotted surreptitiously pacing off dimensions in StudioLand. StudioLand is considering closing their borders and requiring a passport and visa for entry. Supplies labelled "Science" have turned up in odd places. Are they arming? Dotland is thinking that the labels are small and easily missed and the supplies would make nifty fortifications. They are thinking castle with moat and crenellations. Where will it all end? Will disarmament talks be needed?
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Extreme Makeover TUSD
The Black Queen is once again embarking on a makeover, TUSD style. She hasn't revealed her plan for the Makeover, but as a first step Turquoise has been made over into a Peasant and ordered out into the villages. Dotland is once again in mourning.
So far the Black Queen's previous forays into the world of Reality TV haven't been overwhelmingly successful. Her most recent previous attempt was Trading Spaces. She put the White Tornado to work redecorating in the SNEAC building. In her usual whirlwind fashion, the White Tornado put Turqoise to work emptying shelves of clutter. To her great surprise and chagrin, no sooner was a shelf emptied than another department filled it up! Any freed up floor space was immediately filled in with new shelves! Duh! One of the first rules of bureaucracy and empire building is that you NEVER empty space unless you want to lose it. One of the strong points of TLC's Trading Spaces was that even when the participats HATED the results, they loved the process and would do it again. Not so with the Black Queen's Trashing Spaces. Turquoise certainly won't do it again! The overall enmity caused by the Black Queen's attempt to redo the space without actually consulting anyone in the building will probably die down eventually since the inhabitants of SNEAC are basically good, friendly people.
The Black Queen doesn't consult anyone about anything. At a recent Bored meeting she was asking the Bored's support for a project of providing e-mail for all students from 3rd grade through high school. One of the Bored members asked, "Have you asked elementary parents whether they want their children to have e-mail?" No, of course, she hadn't. We can see why she didn't bother though. The Bored voted for the project anyway!
The Black Queen's latest project appears to be of the Extreme Makeover variety. She seems to be intent on making elementary school libraries non-existent. Making libraries nonexistent would free up all of those librarians to become Dibbles teachers. (Since Dibbles is a very inefficient way of teaching reading, it takes many more teachers.) It would also keep librarians away from all of those information sources that they insist on using to verify facts before passing them on. The Black Queen's facts or "data" as she calls it doesn't stand up well to that kind of scrutiny. Her "data", unlike genuine scientific data, is very fragile and tends to fade, discolor and shrink when exposed to the hard light of day.
In the meantime, the Black Queen seems to be working on filling up those...rooms full of books (we won't use the L word) with useless technology, like Promethean boards that don't work. This is not a slam against Promethean. I'm sure they make very good technology. It's just that TUSD is in a region of space where technology doesn't work. After all the rest of the world allows teachers to look up library books from home. Not TUSD. The rest of the world uses streaming video. Not TUSD. The rest of the library world uses Z39.50 access to the Library of Congress. Not TUSD. The odd thing is that TUSD spends a great deal of money on technology. TUSD and people associated with TUSD are currently under investigation by various law enforcement agencies for irregularities with purchasing and bonds. Is it possible that it is only important for technology to be purchased so that various people in TUSD can get kickbacks or payoffs? Selling non-functional technology is definitely has a bigger profit margin for the vendor than functional technology. For the seller, it's a win-win. For those of us trying to use it, not so much!
So far the Black Queen's previous forays into the world of Reality TV haven't been overwhelmingly successful. Her most recent previous attempt was Trading Spaces. She put the White Tornado to work redecorating in the SNEAC building. In her usual whirlwind fashion, the White Tornado put Turqoise to work emptying shelves of clutter. To her great surprise and chagrin, no sooner was a shelf emptied than another department filled it up! Any freed up floor space was immediately filled in with new shelves! Duh! One of the first rules of bureaucracy and empire building is that you NEVER empty space unless you want to lose it. One of the strong points of TLC's Trading Spaces was that even when the participats HATED the results, they loved the process and would do it again. Not so with the Black Queen's Trashing Spaces. Turquoise certainly won't do it again! The overall enmity caused by the Black Queen's attempt to redo the space without actually consulting anyone in the building will probably die down eventually since the inhabitants of SNEAC are basically good, friendly people.
The Black Queen doesn't consult anyone about anything. At a recent Bored meeting she was asking the Bored's support for a project of providing e-mail for all students from 3rd grade through high school. One of the Bored members asked, "Have you asked elementary parents whether they want their children to have e-mail?" No, of course, she hadn't. We can see why she didn't bother though. The Bored voted for the project anyway!
The Black Queen's latest project appears to be of the Extreme Makeover variety. She seems to be intent on making elementary school libraries non-existent. Making libraries nonexistent would free up all of those librarians to become Dibbles teachers. (Since Dibbles is a very inefficient way of teaching reading, it takes many more teachers.) It would also keep librarians away from all of those information sources that they insist on using to verify facts before passing them on. The Black Queen's facts or "data" as she calls it doesn't stand up well to that kind of scrutiny. Her "data", unlike genuine scientific data, is very fragile and tends to fade, discolor and shrink when exposed to the hard light of day.
In the meantime, the Black Queen seems to be working on filling up those...rooms full of books (we won't use the L word) with useless technology, like Promethean boards that don't work. This is not a slam against Promethean. I'm sure they make very good technology. It's just that TUSD is in a region of space where technology doesn't work. After all the rest of the world allows teachers to look up library books from home. Not TUSD. The rest of the world uses streaming video. Not TUSD. The rest of the library world uses Z39.50 access to the Library of Congress. Not TUSD. The odd thing is that TUSD spends a great deal of money on technology. TUSD and people associated with TUSD are currently under investigation by various law enforcement agencies for irregularities with purchasing and bonds. Is it possible that it is only important for technology to be purchased so that various people in TUSD can get kickbacks or payoffs? Selling non-functional technology is definitely has a bigger profit margin for the vendor than functional technology. For the seller, it's a win-win. For those of us trying to use it, not so much!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
