The end of an era

Blue is leaving!
Dotland is only one Dot smaller...but Blue was the foundation! Blue kept us together. Blue made us nicer Dots. Blue knew everything and, more importantly, knew WHY. What will we do without Blue?
Blue is leaving to join JTED. (Is that like a gang? Will there be colors? Will Blue stop wearing Blue? Will Blue stop being Blue Dot? Perish the thought! Once a Dot, always a Dot.)
On the good side, Blue will still be in SNEAC building and available for potlucks and general moral support.
In other news, the Coordinator Job beast has been sighted once again. The description is much more accurate. I am concerned about one thing. The Job is listed as Exempt Grade 2. Do the grades for Exempt positions differ from regular positions? Grade 2 is pretty low in regular positions. Peasants are Grade 4. So is the Coordinator less important than the Peasant? Oh, let's not go THERE. We all know that without Peasants, it all falls apart. Will the Coordinator be paid less than the Peasant? Hmmmmm.

The Alternate Universe

I've just finished reading Un Lun Dun by China Mieville, which is about an alternate universe containing all that is broken, discarded or worn out from the "real" universe. UnLondon is only one of the cities in the alternate universe. There is also Parisn't, Lost Angeles, Sans Francisco, No York, Baghdidn't, Hong Gone and so on. I know we've always assumed that the Duchy was part of the "real" universe, but look at the evidence. Clearly the Duchy is broken, the teachers worn out, the educational philosophies we keep pursuing are the those long discarded by assorted business philosophers. Remember "strategic planning"? Remember how it was proclaimed last year that we would all be doing this new "strategic planning" lark? The guru of Strategic Planning, Henry Mintzberg, published "The rise and fall of strategic planning" in 1994! I rest my case. Clearly the Duchy is located in the alternate city of Tucsoff rather than Tucson. Doesn't that explain a lot? Most of our tech is broken when it's delivered. Well, of course it is. It was broken in Tucson and leaked over to us in Tucsoff. Really explains GoG and the Black Queen, doesn't it. In Un Lun Dun, the villains are eliminated with the UnGun, loaded with an assortment of appropriate things. What would the UnGun need to be loaded with to eliminate GoG and the Black Queen? Information might be the silver bullet in both cases. The Black Queen has a real aversion to fact checking. She assured Idea that the JOB would be correctly posted Friday. A simple check of the the Duchy Web site would have revealed that the job is already posted, incorrectly again. Incidentally, there is hope in the alternate universe. Broken things that are completely repaired go back to the real universe. (Ever noticed that the things TS fixes are never completely fixed?) However, broken things can be repurposed. How can the Black Queen be repurposed?

The Rumor Mill

Various interesting tidbits have come to the Rumor Mill lately.

• Duke Roger's end of the year letter once again very sincerely stresses the great importance of intercultural proficiency. (Not a rumor - read the letter here )
• Next year all 9th graders will have to take a 2 semester course in intercultural proficiency - which is not on the AIMS. (rumor)
• At intercultural proficiency meetings, below the level that Duke Roger attends, the main concern is with the lack of intercultural proficiency in faculty and staff. (rumor)
• Most people feel that the way to tackle intercultural proficiency is in early childhood, kindergarten might already be too late. (unsubstantiated - can't quickly find the research)
• A certain gap-toothed ex-Bored member is widely known for interfering in Duchy affairs whenever there is a perceived breech incident of bigotry or racism.
• An excellent Anglo candidate for the Library Coordinator job was just rejected by Duchy Human Resources because her Arizona fingerprint card is out of date...because she has been working at the university level out of state...her out of state fingerprint card was current. This rejection was made by Human Resources without notifying anyone on the hiring committee. (rumor)

All of this raises a LOT of questions. Was the rejection "reverse discrimination" or SHEER OVERWEENING INCOMPETENCE on the part of HR? How would GapTooth have reacted if the rejected candidate had been non-Anglo? How many of GapTooth's past crusades have been motivated by incidents caused not by lack of intercultural proficiency but SHEER INCOMPETENCE? Could all relationships in the Duchy be improved by just insisting that a) the entire faculty and staff do their job competently and b) that the operations of the Duchy be conducted with public oversight instead of always sweeping everything under the rug, thereby attracting the attention of community watchdogs like GapTooth? Does anyone believe that the Duchy doesn't NEED WATCHING? Why doesn't Duke Roger know what the inhabitants of the Castle are DOING? Will the new yearlong course in intercultural proficiency be overseen by Curriculum under the Black Queen? In fairness, the Black Queen is equally incompetent in both cultural and intercultural proficiency. This does not seem like a good recomendation for her position.

Other interesting rumors...

• The Lime Green Knight is miffed because he thinks Silver and Idea have been deciding the Duchy's Destiny without consulting him. (rumor) (A lot of nerve on his part since he picked Destiny without consulting them or anyone else for that matter. Maybe he feels that it's HIS TOY and he shouldn't have to share.)
• The previously sighted Library Coordinator Job beast is being dismissed. Supposedly the beast will reappear "soon" in even finer plumage. (Good thing, that last plumage was piss-poor.)
• Idea will be seen in Dotland erratically (or a least as erratically as Idea can be) until the new Job is permanent. Care to join the pool on when THAT will be?
• The Library Technical Coordinator Job beast will not be seen until after the Library Coordinator Job beast. (rumor)
• The Duchy appears to have sprouted two new departments - Student Services and Teaching and Learning. (Not a rumor - see Job Openings for the two assistant superintendent postings.) (I think Teaching and Learning is a LAME NAME, it lacks flow, also lacks meaning.)

Enough rumors. Happy Memorial Day!

Security risks

The Dots cannot use flash drives because that would be a security risk. However, as Purple pointed out, allowing the chimpanzees in the Castle to run the Duchy is an even greater security risk. Purple, Silver, and Sage were attempting to divine the new Org Chart based on clues in the posted job descriptions. However, they were unable to determine which statements were true clues and which was just normal Duchy incompetence. At that point they gave up on the org chart and turned to other possibilities. The Dots were closely questioning YellowandBlack Dot about the new Cannon in Bombs and Engineering. YellowandBlack assured them that the Cannon was a compact model and would easily fit in a car trunk. "Oh, good." said Sage, "No trailer hitch". ("At this point there's a gap in the recording." "What recording?" "Never mind. Just ignore the little antennas in the leftoever cherry tomatoes.") "(inaudible)...back up to the front doors, pop the trunk, fire a volley through the front doors, and leave." said Sage. "A drive-by volley!" crowed Silver. "But's a Canon, not a cannon." said YellowandBlack. "Doesn't matter" said Purple, "It'll still work. We can bury them in paper." (The rest of the conversation was lost when someone ate the cherry tomato.)

As the Duchy turns

The Job sightings get stranger and stranger. Supposedly there were two, count them two, applicants for last week's strangely described "Teacher-Librarian" sort-of coordinator. Boy, the world is really beating a path to the door. Now this week there are a plethora of other jobs. There is the CIO of Technology and Telecommunications Services, which is really interesting because Telecommunications packed his bags and moved to Facilities several months ago. Does this mean there has been a reconciliation? Then there is the CEO of Educational Support Services. That would be the CIO's boss, maybe? Now there is the Assistant Superintendent of Student Services. Is Student Services over Educational Support Services? The CEO of ESS used to report directly to Duke Phfffr. Has the CEO been demoted before being hired? But my personal favorite new job is the Assistant Superintendent Teaching & Learning. WHAT?!! The obvious thought is that the Duchy has changed CITI into T&L (not to be confused with T&A). However, there two NEW jobs listed for CITI. Does that mean that T&L is a NEW department? (Starting salary is $100,000 for the assistant super. Way to reduce administrative costs!) Do we get to guess who's going to get that job? Supposedly there is a new org chart and Libraries are not under Customer Service. Libraries are, however, understaffed, underfunded, underappreciated, underused, and perennially under threat of being eliminated. The new org chart is apparently invisible, sort of the Duke's new org chart. Everyone says it's wonderful but us commoners can't see it.
Back to the question of TiTS. Since Telecommunications has abandoned his partners, we are left with just TS, which appears to be the new department motto. Silver thought we should be able to use flash drives for exchanging information and put in a request for that to happen. Which was denied by the Preventor of Information Technology, head of TS. Exchanging information is a security risk and we will have none of that in this Duchy. (Does this explain our AIMS scores?)

CI, CI, O

Old Duke Phfffr had a duchy
CI, CI, O
And in the duchy he had some schools
CI, CI, O
With a test, test here and a fail, fail there
Here a test, there a fail, everywhere a test failed
Old Duke Phfffr had a duchy
CI, CI, O

Old Duke Phfffr had a duchy
CI, CI, O
And in the duchy he had a network
CI, CI, O
With a router down here and a switch down there
Here a dead hub, there no connection, everywhere a network failed
Old Duke Phfffr had a duchy
CI, CI, O

Old Duke Phfffr had a duchy
CI, CI, O
In that duchy he needed a -- CIO
CI, CI, O
With new software here, old hardware there,
Here no M&O, there a Soft Capital Committee, everywhere a Duchy failed
Old Duke Phfffr had a duchy
CI, CI, O

Will this CIO last longer than the last Director of Technology and Telecommunications?
When this CIO quits, will his resignation letter be printed in the daily paper?
CI, CI, O!

Bombs and Engineering

Today Yellow/Black announced that Bombs and Engineering had acquired a new cannon. They are very pleased about it but the other Dots were somewhat nervous. Is Bombs and Engineering preparing for war with Busland over the new No Parking lot? (Normally it would be called a parking lot but since no one parks there and it's usually locked, it's more of a No Parking lot. ) The White Tornado will turn into a pumpkin in a few short weeks. This will leave the Dots once again at the mercy of the Black Queen and GoG. There are rumors about the new Org Chart. Will Librarians have to wear caps and ask "Would you like fries with that?"? Rumor is that instead of a new head of TS there will instead be a Duchy CIO (Chief Information Officer) just as if the Duchy were a real organization. Perhaps the CIO will be the Lime Green Knight. (Although he would be more of a CDO, Chief Disinformation Officer.) Then GoG could be the new Library Coordinator and the Librarians could all retire and move to a more library friendly state, maybe Utah.

The Job Chimera

The Job Beast is definitely some sort of Chimera. The White Tornado had a detailed description which seems to bear no relationship to the current Job Beast. Speculation now is that this is a genetically engineered beast created specifically for ... (gasp)....GoG. In addition to the Job Beast we were apparently supposed to see another fabled creature this week, the new Org Chart. The New and Improved Org Chart was waved briefly in front of the audience at this week's meeting of the Bored. However, a few members of the audience were unfortunately still awake so the Bored tabled the New and Improved Org Chart until another meeting away from curious public taxpayer eyes. Hmmmm.

The Magical Destiny Tour

Sage and Silver and the White Tornado were first in line for the Magical Destiny Tour, tickets in hand, eager to see the wonders of Destiny. Also present were the Lime Green Knight, some folks from Follay, Bookstore Guy, 2 Librarians, HighTech Guy, some folks from TS, and some Desert Tribesmen. It's a very popular tour and very, very interesting. All kinds of int-ter-resting information. Silver thought the Lime Green Knight would be the tour guide, but he seemed to be more interested in concealing information than dispensing it. Follay asked when the Destiny servers would be delivered. The Lime Green Knight said he didn't know. Follay asked what district wide library policies we had. The Lime Green Knight said "We'll discuss that later." Follay asked who was in charge of textbooks for the district. The Lime Green Knight said "We'll have to talk about that later." Follay asked which central office bought the textbooks. Uh, none. Which central office receives the textbooks and distributes them to the schools? Uh, none. Who is responsible for the textbooks? Uh, nobody. Follay said, "Well, the ultimate goal will be to handle textbooks centrally in order to save money." (Quick now, how many people have heard both the Black Queen and the White Queen say, "All of the budgets are going to the sites in the future and this will never change. The budgets will never come back to central.") Follay stopped short of asking why we bought this sucker when we apparently don't ever plan to use it the way it was intended to be used. In the meantime, Bookstore Guy is calmly explaining why Destiny won't work for them and besides Pooh Bear Software is working wonderfully already. (Wait a minute. I thought Bookstore Guy wanted Destiny. Oops, guess not.) Then we moved on to the question of student records. This was the Desert Tribes turn. Silver has been asking White Tornado for weeks if the Desert Tribes had been part of the decision making process. This was news to the Desert Tribe. They said, "Wait a minute, no one told us that WE had anything to do with this. We can't do anything. Our schedule is completely booked. We have caravans scheduled for every day from know until the Harvest Moon. We can't help in ANY WAY." Then the Desert Tribe went back to their tent. Bookstore Guy and HighTech Guy had both been listening to the negotiation with the Desert Tribe and they said "Wait a minute, this means that Destiny won't do what the Finance Offices want either." Hmmmmmm. Has someone bought a pig in a poke? The Desert Tribe did come back and say that they would help with some basic things, nothing too complicated. After that things moved on to library issues which were much less interesting. After all the library folks have already opened the poke and examined the pig as thoroughly as possible what with the Lime Green Knight trying to keep the poke closed and the pig out of sight.
In other news, the Job Beast is a chameleon - or maybe a chimera. This morning it was of the Library Services species. Tonight it's of the CITI species. (Isn't CITI some sleazy offshore banking operation?)

The Magical Destiny Tour

Sage and Silver and the White Tornado were first in line for the Magical Destiny Tour, tickets in hand, eager to see the wonders of Destiny. Also present were the Lime Green Knight, some folks from Follay, Bookstore Guy, 2 Librarians, HighTech Guy, some folks from TS, and some Desert Tribesmen. It's a very popular tour and very, very interesting. All kinds of int-ter-resting information. Silver thought the Lime Green Knight would be the tour guide, but he seemed to be more interested in concealing information than dispensing it. Follay asked when the Destiny servers would be delivered. The Lime Green Knight said he didn't know. Follay asked what district wide library policies we had. The Lime Green Knight said "We'll discuss that later." Follay asked who was in charge of textbooks for the district. The Lime Green Knight said "We'll have to talk about that later." Follay asked which central office bought the textbooks. Uh, none. Which central office receives the textbooks and distributes them to the schools? Uh, none. Who is responsible for the textbooks? Uh, nobody. Follay said, "Well, the ultimate goal will be to handle textbooks centrally in order to save money." (Quick now, how many people have heard both the Black Queen and the White Queen say, "All of the budgets are going to the sites in the future and this will never change. The budgets will never come back to central.") Follay stopped short of asking why we bought this sucker when we apparently don't ever plan to use it the way it was intended to be used. In the meantime, Bookstore Guy is calmly explaining why Destiny won't work for them and besides Pooh Bear Software is working wonderfully already. (Wait a minute. I thought Bookstore Guy wanted Destiny. Oops, guess not.) Then we moved on to the question of student records. This was the Desert Tribes turn. Silver has been asking White Tornado for weeks if the Desert Tribes had been part of the decision making process. This was news to the Desert Tribe. They said, "Wait a minute, no one told us that WE had anything to do with this. We can't do anything. Our schedule is completely booked. We have caravans scheduled for every day from know until the Harvest Moon. We can't help in ANY WAY." Then the Desert Tribe went back to their tent. Bookstore Guy and HighTech Guy had both been listening to the negotiation with the Desert Tribe and they said "Wait a minute, this means that Destiny won't do what the Finance Offices want either." Hmmmmmm. Has someone bought a pig in a poke? The Desert Tribe did come back and say that they would help with some basic things, nothing too complicated. After that things moved on to library issues which were much less interesting. After all the library folks have already opened the poke and examined the pig as thoroughly as possible what with the Lime Green Knight trying to keep the poke closed and the pig out of sight.
In other news, the Job Beast is a chameleon - or maybe a chimera. This morning it was of the Library Services species. Tonight it's of the CITI species. (Isn't CITI some sleazy offshore banking operation?)

A Sighting!!

One of the legendary Job Beasts has been sighted at this location. It is supposed to remain visible until Friday. The description is somewhat sketchy and the Beast appears to be somewhat undersized, but it's definitely a Job Beast. Let's see, it took the Black Queen 8 months to get a 2 sentence description posted. Will wonders never cease?

The Quest, redux

Occasionally I begin to think that I misjudge the Black Queen. I begin to think that I'm really exaggerating, artistic license, you know. No one can be that devious, even more, no one human can convince the White Tornado, over and over, that the Coordinator Job beast really exists. However, once again, her Blackness exceeds expectations and once again the Coordinator Job is nowhere to be seen. Yesterday the White Tornado related another story from the Black Queen. In a dreaded Budget Meeting, someone suggested cutting 4 hours of peasant time from every village in the land. Everyone around the table nodded solemnly, "Yes, it will be so." But the Black Queen sprang up, sword and shield in hand, and valiantly defended the peasants 4 hours until the Meeting gave up and went back to sleep. Somehow, I have trouble visualizing the Black Queen defending libraries or peasants. I have no trouble picturing the White Tornado, but she doesn't need a sword and shield. She manages just fine with Wand of Logic and the Aura of Attitude. Of course, the White Tornado wasn't present at this Budget Meeting, she heard it all from an unimpeachable source, the Black Queen herself. (We all know the Black Queen is unimpeachable. God knows we've tried!)

Roll up, Roll up for the Destiny Tour
The Magical Destiny Tour is waiting to take you away.
The Lime Green Knight has organized the Magical Destiny Tour for next Tuesday. Unlike the last time, when White Tornado was voted off the island and Silver wasn't even allowed on the boat, both Silver and the White Tornado were able to get tickets. Silver, Sage and the White Tornado are eagerly awaiting the excursion.

Dotland Daily Advertising Supplement

Is your dot agitated? Do you grind your teeth at night? Do you gring them in the daytime? Do you need more of my little white pills? Come see me tomorrow at Purple's Plethoria of Pills, Dotland's apothecary.
Dr. Purple

Unkept promises

I have been thinking of the number of things the Duchy libraries have been promised over the last year. We were promised that the Office Managers had all been well trained to handle the library purchase orders that they had never had to handle before. Not only had they not been trained, it hadn't even been mentioned to many of them. We were told that principals had been told about the new policies with respect to library books and materials. Apparently not. Silver and the White Tornado were told that full-time jobs for them both would be advertised by the end of October, 2006. Really. We were told that there would be a new organization chart That was supposed to happen a couple of weeks ago. These are just the big promises. There have been innumerable small promises that are kind of like the rental car ads...Not exactly. Looking at the promises made by the Black Queen and the success rate of keeping those promises, I can see only two possibilities..that the Black Queen is hopelessly and completely ineffectual or the the Black Queen is a ...never mind. I realize that in the Duchy it isn't the CREAM that rises to the top, but even so, I have difficulty believing that someone completely ineffectual could have risen so close to the top in such a relatively short time. Both the White Tornado and the Lime Green Knight assure us that the Black Queen is working very hard for libraries. Everyone can see that the White Tornado IS working very hard for libraries and we can all see the results. The Lime Green Knight is slightly less visible (funny, you would think Lime Green would always show up really well) however, we can see some results from him as well. The Black Queen, though... The White Tornado and the Lime Green Knight tell us the Black Queen is working very hard for us. How do they know this? The Black Queen has told them it is so and how could they doubt her? The work of the Black Queen doesn't seem to visible to us mere mortals. Perhaps it is virtual. Virtual jobs for the Library Coordinator and Library Technical Coordinator. Virtual office managers trained to handle virtual purchase orders. Leading perhaps to virtual librarians and peasants working in virtual libraries with a virtual budget? Virtual office managers trained to handle the virtual library purchase orders. The real office managers would, of course, handle the real budget and the schools would continue with their real work, which is, as we all know, testing.
TGIF!

Quest for the elusive Job

Silver and Purple are on a Quest for elusive "Technical Coordinator Job". The White Tornado insists that it really does exist. Silver is doubtful but agreed to keep an open mind about it. The White Tornado was able to obtain a description of the "Job" and Silver and Purple pored over it. They were puzzled about some parts of the document which described the "Job" as having the "ability to mange software". Neither Silver nor Purple have mange but both agreed they could probably acquire it. Sage suggested Pima County Animal Control as a possible source of mange. Purple thought possibly her neighbor's dog has mange but said Silver would have to get her own mange. It might all be a moot point anyway. Silver just came back from Job Lookout Point and instead of seeing "Jobs" she saw this

Silver doesn't think this is a "Job" but hasn't seen a real "Job" in a very long time.

Mythical Beasts

Two of the most talked about and least seen mythical entities are the Library Coordinator Job and the Library Technical Coordinator Job. Rumors about these beasts have been circulating the whole school year. The Black Queen has assured the White Tornado that the two "Jobs" are real and would be visible to all this weekend. Well, the weekend isn't over yet. Maybe they will suddently materialize. Silver is taking a Missouri (show me) attitude toward the whole thing.
The White Tornado, Silver, and Sage have been agitating the village librarians about Call Numbers. Several years of not allowing the village librarians to Organize has taken a toll of the libraries. In addition, GoG has been holding classes, teaching the basics of Library Management. This is really unfortunate, since GoG has never practiced Library Management herself. She's probably quite expert at bookstore management (She works for or owns part of a bookstore the Duchy buys from, can you say "conflict of interest"?) but Library Management is a total mystery to her. As a librarian, GoG is a hedge witch. However, I think that hedge witch might just be a disguise. I think she might be an agent of KAOS, Kommittee to Abolish Organized Systems, a highly secret, very dangerous, anti-library, terrorist organization. Was the librarian who shelved the books by size was influenced by GoG or possibly even a protege? If there were no more libraries, more people would buy books.

Searching for the Computer Whisperer

The stories about the Computer Whisperer are legion. The Computer Whisper walks into the room and the computer starts working. When you've lost all hope of recovering your lost document, you feel a presence, a gray shadow at your elbow and your document appears back on the screen. Just as you hit the Delete key, you glimpse a quick movement. When you look back at the screen you notice that you would have deleted your whole database instead of just a temporary file. Some say that all of the stories can't possibly be true. Some say no one person could do all those things. They say there must be lots of Computer Whisperers, an organization like the Jedi Knights, years of study and testing. Some think Silver is a Computer Whisperer. Silver says she's not. Silver says "A Computer Whisperer must be Clear of Mind and Pure of Heart. No one who works for She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed can retain clarity or purity." She is right about that. The Black Queen is surrounded by a miasma. Everyone it touches quickly becomes cloudy in their mind and petty and vengeful in their heart.

The Computer Whisperer

The Duchy becomes increasing chaotic. The villages are promised Central Cataloging but Central Cataloging is but a myth from long ago. The villagers are promised Huge Savings with Central Ordering while the White Queen assures Dotland that Central Ordering is truly dead and will come no more. The villagers are also promised Huge Savings from tracking down students with overdue books. The Committee whose existence and makeup is secret seems to have misinterpreted some of the Destiny sales brochures. They believe that Destiny comes with bloodhounds. Actually Destiny can produce food for bloodhounds, if the Duchy happened to have any. However, breeding bloodhounds would be a job for the Mojave Guild, a small, select Guild that doesn't accept quests or requests, even from secret committees. So no bloodhounds, no tracking, no Huge Savings? Silver is promised new robes but still trails desolately around in rags. The White Tornado is promised rest and Gardening but is still whirling frantically around the Duchy looking for the way out. Looking on the bright side, if Dotland is sent to the Compost Heap, perhaps WT can use it for her garden. Although Sage warned that composting catalogers could result in toxic byproducts making it unsuitable for home use. The Village of Cajero can no longer talk to the GUCCI (Grand Union etc. etc.) . The Village of the Green Tree lost a hub today and took 20 other villages with it. This all sounds like a job for The Computer Whisperer.

Welcome to Lucky Times Services

The Duchy is being reorganized - again -. Duke Phfffr is retiring again in a year and there will be a new Duke (or King). The new guy will probably want to rearrange the furniture as well. This could all be considered a waste of resources but I guess the Duchy has a patriotic duty to make a contribution to global warming and destruction of trees as well as wasting the taxpayer's money. In the reorganization supposedly LibraryLand and Dotland will be under the Department of CS (Customer Services). Currently the Duchy has no customer services. The new arrangement would seem to imply that they plan to develop some customer services. Based on past experience the Dots are doubtful about the Castle's ability to recognize either customers or services. In order to be prepared the Dots are working on services of their own, for example, Lucky Times Escort Services. Was this what the White Tornado had in mind when she requested a private office with a locking door?

Press Release

From the Association for the Preservation of Clueless and Incompetent Administrators for immediate release.

The Association of the Preservation of Clueless and Incompetent Administrators is pleased to announce the opening of a new refuge in Southern Arizona. The plight of these creatures is just heart-breaking. They are unable to communicate, unable to obtain food, usually unable to interact meaningfully with others, even others of their own kind.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q Was the refuge created because of habitat loss or overbreeding?
A. Neither. Habitat for incompetent administrators actually seems to be increasing. As for overbreeding, well, there's the competence problem with that. No, the real problem is that these administrators are just no longer able to survive in the wild. By creating this refuge, we are providing them with a protected area where they can interact as much as possible with others of their kind. There are a suitable number of attendants to help them send e-mail, schedule meetings, get food and other normal activities. This is an open refuge so they will still feel like they are in the real world but they will be protected from the consequences of their actions.
Q. Will the public also be protected from those consequences?
A. No. Making irresponsible decisions is instinctive. They can't help it. It's important for the public to carefully evaluate any e-mail or documents that might issue from the refuge. Usually they should just be ignored.
Q. Will it be possible to visit the refuge and observe these administrators?"
A. Oh, yes. Visitors are completely welcome during daylight hours. The new refuge is located at 1010 E. Tenth and is open to the public from 8 am to 5 pm, although visitors are warned that many of the administrators nest at odd times and might be unavailable for viewing.
Q. Is it possible to interact with these administrators?
A. Not really. They can sometimes mimic normal human behavior but it is not believed that they understand what they are doing.

Book Talk
One of the seasons hottest new movies (Literally! Have you seen those hunks?) 300, is now out in graphic novel form. Some early reviewers had reservations about the number of dangling p... appendages, however, an experienced librarian pointed out the opportunity to use the graphic novel as a leadin to a lesson on dangling participles. The popular graphic novel series Ranman
was also extolled for its contribution to intercultural proficiency by highlighting differing cultural norms with respect to nudity.

Meeting News
The newly formed Duchy Customer Service and Reading Room Department will holding focus groups to determine their mission, vision, strategic goals, and color of uniform and cap. The working group mission statement is "Knowledge comes from books. Over 3,000,000 loaned." Cap and uniform color is being hotly debated as is the question of whether or not to have a smiley face on the name badge. There is general agreement that, unlike the post office, the take a number system should be used. This will mean a capital expenditure for a take a number machines for each library, er, Reading Room but that can easily come from the money saved by not buying Destiny. Wait, they did buy Destiny? Damn, how did that happen? Are those guys getting out of the refuge again?

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

Last night the Duchy Bored approved Destiny. Our fate awaits us. Let's take a look at what was said.
A committee made up of librarians, a bookstore manager and TUSD’s central cataloger met to discuss upgrading the district’s library automation system. What librarians? The librarians that I know were all voted off the island.
At the same time, many of our high schools especially, have been concerned about the tracking of textbooks and the ability to know exactly where we have extra books that could be used for increased enrollment at another school. This is completely true, so true that several high schools have already purchased, out of the school budget, a program called Blue Bear* to manage their textbooks. Maybe there should have been more than one bookstore manager on the committee. Or maybe it was a Borders bookstore manager instead of a Duchy bookstore manager.
Centralized textbook management and cataloging will eliminate the need for site level entry. Who will be doing this centralized management and cataloging? The Black Queen has repeatedly told Dotland that all money had to be spent in the schools, not centrally. She already eliminated one third of Dotland.
Libraries will extend into homes. We could have been doing this for years but TS wouldn't allow it. What policy has changed here?
The student interface within the electronic card catalog will make it easier for students to search for, locate and reserve books. Liar, liar, etc. The interface is very similar to what we already have.
Centralized cataloging and information processing will save hundreds of hours of work for librarians on-site. The time that is saved will be spent working with students. Let's see now, her Blackness has attempted to move ALL of the ordering, processing, and cataloging out of Dotland and dump it on the librarians and school offices. She has not been completely successful but not for lack of trying. Again, who is going to be doing this centralized cataloging and information processing, the spectral ghosts of Dotland?
Schools will be able to view the textbook inventories of each school, making it easier to borrow or swap textbooks. What's going to usher in this new era of interschool cooperation?
Destiny’s centralized system will let the District share expensive instructional materials across the district, helping stretch the media and textbook budgets. Yeah, right. School A will definitely be willing to loan school B their expensive resource purchased with their own limited school budget. Also obviously they could be doing this with the current software...if the will were there. The technology has been there for years.

It appears that once again the Duchy is buying technocrap as a substitute for fixing the district peopleware. ALL and I do mean ALL of the things Destiny can do could have been done with our current software and some changes of personnel and policy. Oh, wait. Destiny will allow us to do our Duchy work at home, after hours, of course. We never do that now, do we? And we really, really want to do that, don't we? Liar, Liar!!

Let's hear it for the remaining dwarfs of Dotland, Clueless, Mystified, Puzzled and Baffled!




*Normally I don't use real names here to allow reasonable protection or at least plausible deniability in a duchy that has had a century of political infighting to hone the bloodless blood feud to a high art. However, I have so much trouble believing that anyone would buy (or sell) accounting software called Blue Bear. That must be made up!

Get your phone service from Verizon, not Duchy

I listened to the Bored meeting tonight. I guess they approved the purchase of Destiny but it's always hard to tell since all of the important or interesting stuff is always buried in the consent agenda which is the part they vote on without discussion. They did object to a bid for a school playground being rushed through and they did object to not being "properly briefed" on another item, there was apparently no objection to the "Resource Management System". So were they briefed on the "Resource Management System"? If they were, why was it a secret from those of us who will be working with it?
The Bored also did not discuss the fact that Tolson Elementary was without telephones all day yesterday and today. Yesterday the school was closed and the only person at risk was a TUSD employee. That was only a little lawsuit waiting to happen. However, today the school was open and children were at risk. (Much big potential for lawsuits.) Were the parents warned in advance so they could keep their children home? The office manager used a cell phone to call the T from TiTS and was told to turn in a work order and they'd get around to Tolson eventually. Guess Tolson should have gotten their phone service from Verizon (all of those people following you around, available to call 911 in an emergency) instead of from the T from TiTS.

The Gathering Storm

I forgot to mention that if you want to know what happens at a Bored meeting but don't want to have to get there early in order to sit in an uncomfortable chair in a crowded room for several hours, you can listen to the Bored meeting on the computer in real time at this link http://tusd.k12.az.us/contents/govboard/gbmeetings.html
Click on the link after 6:30 and you can hear the meeting live.
While we're talking about links, you have to watch this video..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFAWR6hzZek
about a Help Desk problem. Dotland has been waiting for over a month for their new workstations to be set up. Today the White Tornado announced that the reason for the delay is that TS (formerly TiTS) is shorthanded. NO! You don't say! I guess the Black Queen has gotten her hands on the Sword of RightSizing again. Duke Phfffr should keep it (or her) locked up more securely! Silver asked the White Tornado how TS was going to be able to cope with installing Destiny if they were so shorthanded. The White Tornado told Silver to have faith. Silver went away muttering "Faith is a poor substitute for planning."
I guess TS should be pronounced "tis", although "tisn't" would probably be more descriptive.
For those who are interested there are some new Dotland Quilts posted.

Procuring and other vices

The White Tornado has told us that on Tuesday, April 10, the Duchy Bored will make the decision to buy Destiny for the libraries. (Actually, the decision is secret, so White Tornado is not allowed to know that, but we all assume it.) If you look at the Bored Agenda you will see why they are bored, but you will also see RFP No. 07-94-12 labeled Resource Management System. Is that it? Why doesn't it mention libraries anywhere? If I google resource management system, I get a lot of hits from construction companies and a few more from networking companies, none from library automation vendors. However, we'll assume that the Black Queen hasn't once again lied to the White Tornado (Silver's "new" robes) and that RFP No. 07-94-12 is for libraries. Let's go over the normal RFP process. When a public agency wants to buy something expensive, they have to publicly ask for bids and then pick from the bidders (or start over). The last time the Duchy bought library automation, a committee got together, wrote an RFP (Request for Proposal), Duchy Purchasing sent it to a bunch of library vendors as well as posting it publicly somewhere. They got back responses and gave them to the library committee. The library committee went over the responses and picked what seemed to be the best vendor. The committee was pretty much self-selected, anyone who wanted to join in was allowed. Silver and Gold had conflicts of interest and couldn't be on the committee. This fall, the Black Queen again asked for volunteers to be on a committee. Silver had resolved the conflict of interest and volunteered this time along with a reasonable sampling of others from all levels. Gold was semi-retired and didn't want to make choices that others would have to live with. (Of course, that particular ethic has never bothered the Black Queen or GoG, or the Lime Green Knight, has it?) The committee met, looked over Destiny, decided that they could probably live with it...but they had some questions that needed resolution before a final decision was made. They wanted to see a real test of the system on the Duchy's network. In due course, the Lime Green Knight announced that there would be an RFP. The committee waited to be called together again to write the RFP and then evaluate the results...and waited and waited. The committee has not yet been called together again. However, Tuesday the Bored is supposed to be voting on the decision made by "the committee". Who? What? Since the decision was not made by the committee that was formed to make the decision, who did make it? Who was the RFP sent to? What companies sent responses back? How many responses were there? When the White Tornado found out that an RFP relating to libraries was being evaluated, she made an effort to be part of that evaluation and was told that the RFP responses were Classified and she didn't Need to Know. What? By law, all of this has to been made public after the Bored votes on Tuesday. By then it will be a little too late won't it? Has the Bored been allowed to see the RFP? Maybe they don't Need To Know, either. Does the Bored know and approve of all of this secrecy? Does Duke Phfffr? We were promised a committee decision made by members of the real library community. Was this decision made by members of the real library community? Who are they?

One of the big issues with library automation currently is single centralized database or separate site databases. We currently have separate independent site databases. From so many standpoints, a central database makes more sense. Of course, pooling library orders and submitting them centrally makes more sense, too, and look what the Black Queen did with that. The big drawback to a central system is that it depends absolutely on the quality of the whole Duchy network, especially the connections to the Duchy castle. Currently if a school server goes done, it has no impact on the other libraries. If the Duchy Castle's connections go down, well, everything generally runs a little smoother without the spam issuing from the castle regularly. With the ONE and ONLY library database sitting in the Castle's servers, when the Castle connections go down, all 105 libraries will also go down. Shouldn't this have been discussed by the committee, if they had been allowed to meet? Just to make you have even more confidence in our leaders, have you noticed that the Duchy Job Openings page has been down more often than not? The Monday communique had the wrong links for the BIG back to school conference. It took me multiple tries to get the Bored agenda because the agenda page was inaccessible. TiTS has lost multiple employees, a director, and a T. They are now only TS. Have you seen many TS jobs posted (assuming the jobs page is up)? Doesn't that mean that TS is extremely shorthanded, shortheaded, and shortlettered, (maybe even shortsheeted)?

Wait! I understand it! It's in the Black Queen's Top Secret Management Handbook. If 100 library databases have 100 computer problems in a year, then 1 library database will only have 1 computer problem in a year and obviously fixing that 1 problem can be outsourced to Circuit City. Maybe we can apply the same logic to Dotland. Dotland, with 6 employees, was ordering for 105 libraries and created around 500 requisitions. Therefore, each school ordering for themselves would only need to create about 3/4 of a requisition each. (If you want to work it out for youself, 6 employees times 105 libraries is 630. 500 reqs divided by 630 is .79 or about 3/4) Since it's not possible to create 3/4 of a requisition, libraries can wait and only order every other year or 2 orders every 4th year. 2 reqs every 4 years is not an onerous burden for school offices. No wonder the Black Queen wants to get rid of Dotland. (We'll set this segment to the song "New Math" by Tom Lehrer. )

The Black Queen's easy 5 step plan for eliminating libraries

Step 1. Eliminate library leadership and library advocacy. King Hairboy took care of this one for the Black Queen.
Step 2. Convince principals that library staff must not be allowed out of the villages. If possible, make sure library staff teach reading for 2 to 4 hours a day. This will keep them from having the time or opportunity to enter conspiracies to actually improve libraries. If you make them teach a reading block in the library that has the double benefit of tying up the librarians time and making sure no one else can use the library as a library.
Step 3. Make the libraries do all of their own purchasing paperwork. You can use site-based budgeting as an excuse. Tell the librarians the the village offices know exactly how to handle the paperwork. Make sure you DON'T tell the offices how to handle the paperwork. If necessary keep changing procedures until ordering becomes impossible.
Step 4. Eliminate all central support of libraries. Again, you can use site-based budgeting as the excuse. It will work better if you eliminate most central support of technology at the same time. Remember to reserve a little bit of technology support for step 5.
Step 5. Buy a new library automation program designed to run centrally. This is where your reserved techies come in. You need to have enough techies left to intall the new program and remove the old programs...but not enough techies to make the new program run. Once the new program is in place, you can get rid of the remaining techies. After all, you don't intend for anyone to actually use this program.

At this point, any librarians who haven't already retired will be too tired and discouraged to mount any opposition when you point out to the Duchy Bored that libraries have become unused spaces (step 2) full of out-of-date material (step 3) where no one can check out books any way (step 5). Getting the Bored to turn over the library budgets to you for "more appropriate" spending should be a cakewalk.

Black Queen's Plan Revealed! Secrets Leaked!

It was recently revealed the the Black Queen's Top Secret Management Handbook was accidentally sent to an obscure cartoonist named Scott Adams. Adams then sold the book to HarperBusiness. HarperBusiness then published the handbook under the title Dogbert's Top Secret Management Handbook. The Black Queen's office denies any knowledge of any kind of management secrets (or any knowledge of management for that matter.) Here are some excerpts from the published handbook so that you can judge for yourself.

From Section 1.1 Acting like a manager
...you will be expected to spend as much as forty hours per week doing management stuff, regardless of how much management is needed. Obviously, unless things are seriously broken, most of what you do will be "filler"

Management Time Fillers

• Renaming the department
• Status Reports (Job descriptions? Strategic Planning?)
• Teamwork exercises
• Office relocations
• Writing mission statements
• Random Organizational changes
• Making view graphs
• Micromanagement

From Section 1.7 Technology Primer for Managers
If you're too lazy to skim technology magazines for good ideas, simple combine any two good concepts , then challenge your staff to make it happen. For example, you could say "Why don't we make all of our electrical outlets digital?" or "Why don't we use SmartyPants Boards for Inventory?"

From Section 1.12 Ways to Avoid Making Decisions

• Form a task force of people who are too busy to meet
• Send employees to find more data
• Lose documents submitted for your approval

From Section 1.14 Leadership
Leadership is also about empty, meaningless expressions. Here are a few you should memorize.

• Work smarter, not harder.
• It's a new paradigm
• It's an opportunity, not a problem.

From Section 2.1 Employee Satisfaction
Employee Satisfaction Alternatives (pick one)
1. Increase salaries
2. Improve the working environment.
3. Do an employee satisfaction survey and ignore the results.
Choice 3 is the correct answer.

As you can see, the Dogbert "handbook" bears an eerie similarity to the management style of the Black Queen. Can you doubt that she wrote the book on this?

Secret Plan Revealed

We recently had a telephone interview with Gold, long known for her brilliant tactical mind and innate logistics ability.* Gold, having time on her hands since being stupidsized by the Black Queen, has discerned the outlines of the Black Queen's plans for the Duchy libraries. To explain the Plan, we have to go into a little history. First, King Hairboy used the Sword of Rightsizing on the Library Queen and her protectoress, the Undisputed Reigning Queen of K-12 Education in the Realm of Arizona. The Diva was assigned to watch over libraries, however, the elimination of the K-12 Queen left a Power Vacuum in the Duchy Castle. The Black Queen moved into vacuum and wrested control of the libraries from the Diva and started her machinations. First it was necessary to eliminate any central library organization, so the Black Queen introduced Strategic Planning to keep Dotland busy for a while. Then she decreed that the librarians could not use the services of Dotland in an attempt to discourage and isolate the librarians. This caused a certain amount of restlessness and the Black Queen was forced to bring in the White Tornado, allow training and make lots of promises, none of which have yet been kept. The White Tornado and the promises have allowed the Black Queen to stall for most of a year. At any sign of organized opposition she brings up Strategic Planning and Job Descriptions again. That brings us to the present. What does Gold think the Black Queen's future moves will be?
The Black Queen has already committed to buying and installing expensive library software without buying any hardware and while banging away at TiTS with the StupidSizing Mace. With non-functioning library software, old hardware, no TiTS support, no Dotland support, the librarians will no longer be able to buy books, catalog books, look up books, check out books or any other library activity. At that point the Black Queen will be able to say "The libraries are no longer being used. That proves that libraries and books are old technology. We need to turn all of these useless libraries into Technology Classrooms and equip them with SmartyPants Boards. Since the libraries are useless, you can eliminate Dotland. With the SmartyPants Boards we will no longer need teachers, either, a clear savings."


*Silver reports that people keep asking her questions like "How many shelves will these 10 boxes of books require?" assuming that since Silver and Gold were inseparable, Silver also has a brilliant logistical mind. Silver's logistical mind can be summed up by telling you that Silver once broke an entire set of expensive, French, heat-tempered, stacking, glass mixing bowls because she thought she could replace the middle bowl of the stack with one hand.

Annals of Technology

A reliable source reports that the Duchy has a new weapon in their arsenal for the continuing battle against knowledge in all forms. The new weapon is the Blunt Intrument of Intercultural Proficiency. The Instrument is currently in the final stages of testing with administrators. Administrators will be bludgeoned in a series of classes at an undisclosed location. If, at the end of the testing period, the administrators are still able to disagree with pronouncements from PD and HR, testing will be extended and the bludgeoning repeated. If the tests are successful, the Instrument will then be used on teachers and staff.

Danger!

Run for your lives! The Duchy is reorganizing. There hasn't been a major reorganization in the Duchy since King Hairboy's bloodbath of several years ago, when King Hairboy wielded the Sword of RightSizing with a mighty hand. Then the Duchy Bored wielded the Sword of RightSizing on King Hairboy. Duke Phfffr hasn't used the Sword the way his predecessor did but he has allowed the Black Queen to borrow the Rack of Strategic Planning. I think she tried to use the Rack on the Diva but the Diva was too fast for her. We know she used the Rack on Dotland, however, the Dots are tough and flexible and the Black Queen was unable to break them either. The Sword is actually a weapon whereas the Rack is an instrument of torture. Does this mean that the Black Queen prefers torture to battle? Let me think. The Black Queen normally operates in secret, says one thing and does another, makes promises she has no intention of keeping. Yes, she probably does prefer torture (or maybe assassination) to outright, open battle.
Currently the whole Duchy is quaking, waiting to see where they will be in the org chart or IF they will be on the org chart. (Aside: I once worked for a company that never fired anyone, they just left your name off of the org chart. If you didn't take the hint, they removed the door from your office (this, boys and girls, was in olden times, before the invention of the Cubicle). If that still wasn't enough of a hint, they moved your desk out into the hall. The next step was probably to move your desk into the lobby, but this was a software company and programmers are easily bored. They usually got tired of the game before the desk to the lobby move. )
So, be ready! Arm yourselves! The reorg is coming!

Followup on rumors

The possible palace coup is looking less coupish. According to an unidentified source, the Black Queen has said, "Rash decisions were made. Those decisions are being rethought." I imagine she looked grim when she said it. Sounds like Her Blackness pulled some strings. I wonder who those strings are attached to?
The robes for the White Tornado's replacement were supposed to be on view starting yesterday and Silver's new robes next week. I didn't see them. Did you?
We are just astonished at that lapse - NOT.
Duchy administrators are still acting like they have a nice little nest egg in some place without extradition and that they will at some point in the future catch the last train out of Dodge and let it all fall down behind them. I'm not quite sure how you accumulate a nice little Duchy nest egg, but the Black Queen is always assuring us that she knows more than we do. Maybe that's one of the things she knows!
As you all may know, Dotland is renowned for Potlucks. The Dotland potluck recipes will now be posted to the Dotland wiki at http://www.dotland.pbwiki.com Check it out.

Rumors!!

Dotland was staggered today by rumors of a coup, a shift in power, a change in the Castle. Is the Black Queen laid low? Can it be true? The Dots kept breaking out in smiles just at the possibility of freedom from tyranny. When will we know for sure? There is supposed to be a new org chart coming soon. Will it tell us? The current org chart doesn't show the Diva and still shows the Laird of TTS even though he packed up his bagpipes and left months ago. Of course, TTS is now TS and that's not shown on the org chart either.

Librarians, physicists and zen masters

I've been thinking about libraries and librarians. Librarian is kind of a multi-purpose word at the moment. For some, a librarian is anyone who works in a library. For others, a librarian is some one with a Master of Library Science. But some states have a test that they say is equivalent to the MLS. And then there are teaching certificates. Nearly all states require children in school to be supervised by someone with a teaching certificate. Some states require the school librarian to provide planning time for the other teachers and therefore require the librarian to have a teaching certificate but not necessarily a library certificate. And some states don't require anything of the librarian. The Duchy insists on the teaching certificate but is kind of fuzzy about the library part of it. And those are just issues about the official definition of a school librarian. I find the Librarian state of mind more interesting than the job definition. In terms of mindset, Librarians have a lot in common with physicists and zen masters. They all believe that there is an underlying order to the universe that can be discovered by study. And they believe that understanding that order is the ultimate goal. I realized this listening to Sage explain that Melvil Dewey didn't need to know about cell phones to have allowed for their existence. You can probably think of some librarians who really don't have a Librarian mindset because they clearly don't believe in an underlying order. And there are clearly people without credentials who have the Librarian mindset. I'm not sure where I'm going with this but maybe we should just people by the content of their mindset rather than the color of their credentials.

The Queen on the couch

What motivates the Black Queen? What makes Queenie run? Part of the reason we have trouble with the Black Queen is lack of understanding. She says she's just cutting central administrative expense. But she doesn't seem to care whether or not the cuts she makes will result in an educational establishment that still functions, i.e. educates. In some ways, it's like she's just going through the motions. Is that the real problem? Is the Black Queen just another Duchy burn out, counting the days to retirement? She certainly doesn't seen to enjoy her job. Clearly the Diva enjoys her job. The White Tornado has a pretty thankless job, attempting to paper over the ruptures caused by the Black Queen's bull-in-the-china-shop approach to management. However, the White Tornado finds ways to enjoy that job. The White Queen seems to enjoy her job. Even Duke Phfffer seems to find paths to job satisfaction. The Black Queen just seems singularly joyless. Long term depression? Serious self-esteem problems? Some have suggested that the Black Queen is extremely power hungry. Why would someone so joyless want more power. She doesn't seem to enjoy the power she now has. Or does she go home at night, disappear into her bedroom, close the door and then chortle hearily over that days exercise of power for the sake of power? Geez, I hope so. Otherwise, I'm going to start feeling sorry for her.

What's in a name

The Black Queen has changed the name of her office again. Now it's CITI which must stand for:
Class of Ignorance, Technocrap, and Idiocy?
Compendium of Immature, Trivial Ideas?
Circle of Idiots, Twits and Incompetents?
Cadre of Inattentive, Totalitarian Incubii?
Cookbook of Insipid, Tasteless, Ideas?
Other suggestions?
I discovered the name change browsing around the Duchy website. I came across the Duchy org chart and noticed that The Diva is not even listed on the org chart, even though the Diva is running OMA (Opening Minds through the Arts), the hottest education program around these days. That led me to think about how every different OMA is to the Duchy dibbled-to-death approach. Even though test scores go up with OMA, what people notice in OMA schools is Joy, Fun, Happiness, Satisfaction. Interestingly enough, if you read the parent responses on the school quality surveys, that's exactly what parents want for their children. Funny how none of those words are ever linked to the Black Queen. Why is the Duchy castle so joyless? We could all send them jokes. Would that help? (Can you even imagine the Black Queen laughing at a joke?)

Rumors r us

Rumors
Silver's new robes are ready for preview this week.
The Bored would meet with Destiny this week.
The Bored would decide about principals this week (that's pals, not ples, clearly the ples kind are in short supply in the Castle)
Facts
The Black Queen is advertising for a staff assistant II (07-2236). If those are Silver's new robes, they're well-disguised.
Destiny wasn't on the agenda, unless it was disguised as a professional development management system.
Neither principals nor principles were on the agenda, although Cultural Proficiency was on the agenda.
Speculation?
Who knows what evil lurks in the heart of the Black Queen? The Shadow do.

The way of the Duchy

I think I'm finally beginning to see how things work. I could not understand why the Black Queen would try so hard to make the Dots get fed up and leave. After all, if she wants to get rid of the Dots, she has the power. And then I realized what would happen if she turned the remaining Dots in Dits like Pink and Navy. In order to make the Dots into Dits, she would have to claim that there was no more work for Dotland. And after claiming there was no work for Dotland it would be extremely embarrassing if the villages complained about work that the Queen said didn't exist not getting done. In addition she wouldn't be able to hire replacement Dots ever. However, if the Dots would quit, take better jobs, retire, whatever, then the Black Queen could say " We are trying very hard to hire replacement Dots but the paperwork just keeps getting lost. " This is an excuse that she could use for years (after all, look at Silver's new robes that still haven't come) and she could use the Dots salary to buy more new tech toys. Probably the SmartyPants Boards could use Hello Kitty holders for their markers and things like that. Unfortunately for the Queen's plans, the Dots are hard to discourage. After all, working in a library is sort of like being in the Marines...the few, the proud, the Librarians and all that.

Breaking up is hard to do

The latest Duchy debacle has reactivated calls for breaking up the Duchy into smaller Duchies. (Is it like Dune where the giant sandworm sort of explodes into millions of little baby sandworms? Do we want a lot of little baby Duchies?) Several proposals have been put forward for breaking up the Duchy. I have my own proposal. I think it could be broken up into two duchies. The first would encompass the area bounded by 10th Street on the North, Park on the West, Broadway on the South, and Fremont on the East. The North boundary is somewhat flexible. It's possible that the North boundary could be moved from 9th to 10th. This would pick up any stragglers and allow space for parking. That new district could be called District Zero. The second Duchy, called District One, would encompass the rest of the current Duchy. I think a lot of Duchy employees would agree that such a reorganization might drastically improve education. All in favor say Aye.
Of course, most people don't realize that the Duchy is already breaking itself up. (It's a process similar to shooting oneself in the foot but involves a chainsaw, the Black Dot Queen, and Site-Based Management.) First they took away central support of library purchasing, meaning that all of the villages are on their own dealing with vendors, po's, requisitions, and other paperwork. Then they took away central hiring of library assistants, meaning that the villages had to figure out for themselves how they were going to talk someone with an associates degree into taking a no benefits 10 hour a week job. Then they took away the money for Summer School meaning that each village has to come up with the money for summer school themselves. So this summer there will probably a lot of disappointed parents. Sooner we will just have a lot of isolated villages and, in the center, The CASTLE, thrashing around like a maddened octopus. Hey, this could work out! After the villages are completely isolated and the Castle is busy with the chainsaw, the villages could band together in a buying co-op to bulk buy library books, hire assistants, and have summer school!

The beat goes on

Duke Phfffr announced in the town crier that the Duchy is being unfairly maligned, that it's hard to hire and retain technical staff in a competitive market place. Like the Laird of TiTS left to take a higher-paying job! If so, why did the opening line of the resignation letter contain the phrase "I have been subjected to outrageous conduct" Admittedly not treating employees like S**T does help in hiring and retaining staff. There is the saying "S**T runs downhill." I always thought that the head of TiTS was above the waterline. Guess I was wrong.
In other news, the Black Queen told the Dots that they would have to move to make room for the Alchemists who were starting a production line to turn FOSS into gold. The Alchemists were quite surprised to hear that. Wonder what the Black Queen told the Alchemists about the Dots?

Discord in the Duchy?

Everybody was talking about yesterday's amazing revelations. Duke Phfffr said that the "turmoil" in the Duchy wouldn't have any impact on the students. Oh, really? If the actions of the Castle denizens have no impact on the students, then what's the excuse for the existence of the Castle? What is the sound of one administrator falling?
One of the Dots said, "Here we are going to work every day, quietly going about our Dotly duties and our administrators are acting like this?!"
And why is the acquisition of a new version of Follay such a BIG SECRET? Let's see, the Laird of TiTS was accused of shady dealings involving procurement. Now the Lime Green Knight and the Black Queen are involved in a purchase that MUST be kept secret. Who exactly are they trying to keep it secret from? Could it possibly be the STATE and FEDERAL investigators they are hoping to keep the secret purchase from?
So many questions and NO ANSWERS.
In other news, the Dots were ordered to rearrange some of their Wednesday afternoon soirees. The upper echelon of the Castle needs to learn about something new called NOVUS Agenda. Without the V, that would be NO US. As Purple said "They are the NO US in ...." Very succinct statement of the Castle philosophy!
And the Dots were told that they MIGHT be moved down the street to the Carpenter's Guild Hall. The Diva wanted the Guild Hall for her troupe but the Castle said that it would be entirely unsuitable for the Diva or anyone else and was going to be sold immediately. (The Diva is now miffed.) Now Her Blackness says the Dots should move there, even though (or maybe because) it has no place for sending and receiving pigeons and no contact with the rest of the Duchy. Even more than pigeon space, the Dots should make sure that there are door handles on the insides of the doors. Remember, private prisons are now legal. Her Blackness also requested new job descriptions from the Dots today, all of the Dots except Silver, that is. White Tornado considers the request a bad omen. Silver considers it harrassment. (Silver is just jealous because the Queen doesn't want her job description.) Last time she asked for job descriptions the Dots provided their normal 4 volume abridged set, with accompanying charts and graphs. This time, the Black Queen was careful to specify that she wanted bullet points only with no long words. Silver was heard to mutter "I'll give her bullet points, all right!"

Distress in the Duchy!!

Wow!! Who knew!!
The Dots thought the Black Queen was out to get them. Who knew she was after TiTS as well! I read the infamous resignation letter and it could have been written by any of us Dots. You go, guy!!
I suppose the villian in TiTS problems might not be Her Blackness but that means that the Duchy has two people that behave like that. Seems statistically unlikely.
Wow!!

Dots and plots

The Interim Director (IDEA) of LibraryLand and Dotland is no longer exactly Interim. IDEA is now demi-permanent...that is officially permanent until the end of the year. In honor of her new status, she has a new title - The White Tornado. After she blows through Dotland, the Dots are all slightly dazed and have a tendency to ask plaintively, "Are we still in Kansas or not?" However, even the White Tornado has her limits. Today the Lime Green Knight voted her off the island. (Silver never even made it on the boat, much less to the island.) Sage is assuming she will be next since she spoke to White T after the vote, apparently violating one of Lime G's rules. Who knew there could be so much drama and intrigue over libraries? In other plots, Sage and Silver have learned that GoG is planning on initiating all new librarians into the mysteries of Follay. Sage and Silver are trying to develop an anti-GoG to protect new librarians, so far unsuccessfully. GoG is, after all, a powerful agent of KAOS (Keep All Order Suspended) It is rumored that books come unshelved and scatter themselves across the floor when GoG walks though a library.

Dotland Dispatches

The Dots have been immersed in teaching and learning while the Duchy has been immersed in...? We all know what the Duchy is usually immersed in and I have to admit it does seem to be getting deeper. The Lime Green Knight has been holding secret meetings. Sage attended one of the meetings but has been sworn to secrecy so we know nothing of the details. Is there a secret handshake? Are there special robes? Were there secret ceremonies? Why is it all so secret? Is it a plot? Is this a danger to public safety? Should Homeland Security be notified? So many questions!
In other news, the buzz is all about Sage's new feature attraction, "Dewey does the Duchy", unrated. The content of the new feature is a closely guarded secret in Dotland however your intrepid reporter was to able to obtain this. You be the judge.
And now for something completely different...Cabinet National Library The same site also has the ideal meeting place for the Duchy's next administrator's retreat...The Hidden Agenda in Cabinetlandia. Unlike the present Castle there would be no parking problem.
Speaking of parking, Pink recently attended an mandatory inservice on Service, held in the Bored Room of the Castle. There was, of course, not enough parking...or seating...or handouts. Let's see...105 schools, more than one person from each school, mandatory attendance. Should the organizers have a mandatory inservice in arithmetic first?

Professional Development

The Dots have been attending professional development on how to do professional development. This is being taught by the Professional Development department, of course. While they have some interesting tips and tricks, the PD department doesn't seem to have a very good attitude about professional development. They also make a lot of noise about not doing "drive-by" training, that is, training without follow-up. Of course, they pretty much absolutely forbid follow-up trainings. (We have to remember they work with the Black Queen, the ultimate seagull manager. She flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps all over everything and flies out again. ) The PD people seem to feel that purpose of training is to keep people from asking questions. That is NOT how the Dots do training. The Dots do training to create empowerment, to forge alliances, to make sure people are comfortable enough to ask questions, comfortable enough to experiment, to try new things, to learn new things. Maybe we should call it coaching? After all most of the information is in manuals or on websites. However, only when we get together, do we figure how to make the information work for us.
Happy Valentine's Day!!

Culture change?

I've been reading about Cultural Proficiency which is a very hot topic at the moment. Cultural Proficiency is essentially one end of a continuum with racism and bigotry at the other end. The Duchy Board, Duke Phfffr, the White Queen, and all of other Assistant Dukes are very concerned about achieving Cultural Proficiency in the Duchy. It appears that regardless of Nickleby, the dreaded AIMS, and STANDARDS, they actually want to educate the future citizens of a better world. Wow, I'm impressed. However, an organization which allows the Black Queen to hold a position of authority clearly does not value cultural proficiency, or actually, any kind of proficiency. Cultural proficiency requires open communication, a willingness to trust others, a willingness to let others speak, a willingness to take risks. Let's see. The Black Queen is secretive, unwilling to communicate, defensive, not willing to make a decision. Nope, not a good administrator for an organization that is trying for a high level of cultural proficiency. The Black Queen seems to be best suited for an organization with the motto "Off with their heads!" Possibly the Spanish Inquisition? She has actually made fairly Byzantine attempts to spread rumors of ill-feeling between the Dots and the Diva, the Dots and the teachers, even the Dots and the librarians. This does not mean the Black Queen is racist or a bigot. It's more like she doesn't want anyone to get along well with anyone else. Possibly she's afraid that if they all get together they'll vote her off the island? We can only hope!

Let's recontextualize metacognitive critical thinking

Last week I was listening to a discussion about the difficulty good classroom teachers have in coping with the educational "solution" du jour which is imposed on teachers by every new principal, imposed on districts by every new superintendent and so on. (Incidentally, there is research showing most educational programs work if maintained for long enough and none works when maintained for the length of time the average principal stays at one school in our district.) One teacher said her solution was to put the 5 most current edspeak phrases on a poster and make sure she stood beside it anytime an administrator was in the room. In that spirit, the internet has a solution for those who are in need of phrases for posters, Wednesday Professional Development presentations, and grant applications. The Educational Jargon Generator will gives you phrases that sound professional while guaranteed to contain no harmful (or other) content. In the spirit of the EJG, the Department of Teaching, Learning and General Obstruction has a nifty Bloom's Taxonomy* Question and Task Design Wheel that can be used to generate strong, measurable Performance Objectives guaranteed to sound really good on your PD application. Unfortunately, what you want people to learn might not be very measurable or even worse, might be hard to learn and result in bad evaluations so it's important to keep those objectives focused on simple, measurable tasks.
In Professional Development today we learned that we need to honor different learning styles and always have an agenda. I like agendas, but I'm Concrete Sequential. What about those Random Abstracts out there? Should we be constraining their learning with agendas? Should we have an agenda for sequentials and a mind map for randoms?

*Bloom's Taxonomy categorizes thinking as higher or lower level skills, a definitely hierarchical system. Why does PD put it in a wheel which is continuous and not hierarchical? Are they deliberately messing with our minds? Incidentally, if the Bloom's design wheel doesn't work for you, try the Bloom's Question Design site.

GoG reappears

The Dots hadn't seen or heard much of GoG lately. This is not to say that she had been missed, unlike Pink and Navy who are sorely missed. Dotland is a quieter duller place without them. However, today GoG reappeared, chattering away to Sage about her plans to teach librarian wannabes all about Folly. This is really curious. While GoG might be quite good with folly, she hasn't been around Folly for years. Actually, she hasn't worked in a library for years. Maybe she thinks working in a bookstore is the same thing. That would explain her peculiar ideas about shelving. However, she feels competent to tell novices all about what it is like to be a librarian. We could wish she would do a little research first. Maybe actually ask questions and listen to the answers? She has enlisted Sage to introduce her good friend Marc to the wannabes. GoG might be a bit of a social climber. She likes to pretend that Marc is her good friend too but the Dots know better. Sage is always willing to introduce Marc in the Duchy. Of course according the the Duchy's arcane social rules, Sage should collect a few pence for introducing Marc. GoG says that since Sage has already introduced Marc before, she can't collect pence for introducing him to new people. GoG should know better that to nitpick with the Dotland Divas of Detail. Introducing Marc to wannabes requires a different introduction that introducing Marc to librarians, therefore, it's all new and Sage collects the pence. Dotland 1, GoG 0.

Questions for the Black Queen

The Black Queen has repeatedly told Dotland that there is no Library Services in the Duchy. This is pretty much true. Even though the Queen's colleagues speak strongly about service and about having a customer service attitude in the Duchy, the Queen is not about service. Librarians are pretty service oriented, always trying to help people find things out. That's probably why the Queen would prefer that there be no libraries. However, what the Black Queen says that what she means is that there can be no central Department of Library Services because all expenditures must be made at the sites and all decisions must be made at the sites. It's called Site Based Management. If we look at the budget we see that, sure enough, under M&O there is no department of Library Services. Instead there are catalogers working for the Queen in the Department of Teaching, Learning and General Mismanagement. However, if we look at the capital budget, there IS a department of Library Services. (No employees, but they have capital?) The capital budget allocates a couple of pittances for library type things and then 4.8 MILLION for "Technology Plan - Curriculum". Could this be why the district inventory lists pages and pages and pages of classroom equipment that "belongs" to the non-existent Library Services? If it's classroom technology and all decision-making and budgeting is supposed to be site based, why isn't that 4.8 million in the site budgets and that equipment in the site inventories? Is it possible that while the Black Queen wants village headmen to be able to choose between a librarians and a classroom teacher, she doesn't want them to be able to choose between technology and, say, adequate classroom supplies? Could it be that she thinks her beloved technology might be rejected? We're not likely to get answers to any of these questions since the Black Queen is not inclined toward open communication with anyone and certainly not the Dots of Dotland. The Black Queen says "Perception is everything." The problem is that it is very hard to control someone else's perception. The Queen tries to control perception by controlling information. This pretty much ensures that she will be perceived as a micro-managing bitch. Hey, I guess perception is everything!
On a sad and serious note, one of the Bus Monitors died today in an accident near Dotland. In a heartbeat the day changed, lives changed. We really do have to live as if every day will be our last.

Free Speech Triumphs!

Free speech has triumphed in the Duchy. The blogs are unblocked! According to TiTS, the Web Censor inexplicably turned into a HAL 9000 and seized control of the Duchy's internet, blocking all kinds of things. The excuse the Web Censor used for the blocking was "illegal or tasteless". Please. futureofthebook.com tasteless? And what about allfiberarts.com? However, let's look at this from the computer's point of view. Futureofthebook.com discusses topics related to the preservation and conservation of the PRINTED word, BOOKS! Allfiberarts.com is about weaving, knitting, spinning and other human craft activities involving thread. If I were a HAL 9000 computer, what would I consider illegal and tasteless? Well, printed material for sure. A site devoted to preserving old books would be positively pornographic! And suggesting that humans could entertain themselves with bits of thread...definitely in bad taste. Perhaps we all need to reassure the obviously insecure Web Censor that we will continue to bow over our keyboards regularly in addition to reading books and making pot holders. There is room in our lives for both computers AND books. After all without the computer, we wouldn't have access to all of this wonderful information. For example, did you know that February 20 is Hoodie Hoo Day. To celebrate Hoodie Hoo Day go out at noon and February 20, wave your arms over your head and shout "Hoodie Hoo"! On the other hand, Hoodie Hoo Day is a copyrighted holiday. Does that mean we need to request permission of wellcat.com, the copyright holder for Hoodie Hoo Day, before shouting Hoodie Hoo? Or does it only count if someone is paying us to shout Hoodie Hoo? What are the Fair Use Guidelines for holidays? What if other holidays were copyrighted? Could you then say "Sorry, we won't be having Thanksgiving this year. It would be a violation of copyright." What holiday would you most like to see copyrighted?

The Black Queen is just no fun

The blogs, including Dotland Dispatches, are still blocked in the Duchy and so of course the blocks must be blogged. I just finished reading "Julie & Julia: My year of cooking dangerously" by Julie Powell. She points out that what Julia Child brought to cooking was joy, great joy, enthusiasm, fun. I realized that the big problem with the Black Queen is her total lack of a sense of humor. I e-mailed about the blocked blogs and got a very severe reply from her Blackness saying that I didn't use the proper channels to report the blocked blogs. I think she probably doesn't see the irony of blocking blogs about public education in a public school district. Perhaps we should start sending her jokes to cheer her up? Probably not. But I think we definitely need a new vision statement.
"All children can learn....in some other school district."
"The Duchy - Together against children"
"We're the them in DUCHY" or "Us against them in DUCHY"
Particularly appropriate today "We don't want anyone learning anything from anyone anytime because we're DUCHY and we're here for the children"
"This is a learning free zone"
"The Duchy is a professional anti-learning community that ensures every student is bored, has no performance standards, drops out, and will make some CEO rich by working 80 hours a week for 50 cents an hour." (That's the truth in advertising version. If you think I'm being too harsh, just think over actual results, not what they say they are going to do, but what actually happens. Do we have a library coordinator yet? Does Silver have her new robes? What happened to those robes anyway? Do the Smartpants boards that were going to revolutionize classrooms work? Do the school that say OMA on the front actually have OMA teachers? Are you sure? How many classrooms still have only long term subs?)

CENSORSHIP!!!!

Dotland Dispatch Censored!

In a suprising move, the Duchy today blocked access to this blog. Is there no end to the tyranny? Is this another move by the Black Queen to surpress dissent? Supposedly the Black Queen was recently devastated to learn that she was not wildly popular. What could have given her the first clue? Was it the peasants marching on the castle or the Librarians petitioning the White Queen for redress of their grievances?

In other news, GoG is working hard to gain the coveted title of Preventer of Professional Learning. Today she and Sage were engaged in a swift exchange of pigeons as GoG attempted to keep librarians from learning anything from Dotland. GoG claimed that librarians had learned everything they needed to know from her last year and it would be redundant for the Dots to teach anything. Of course, GoG seemed a little unsure of exactly what the librarians had already been taught. As Purple said "She should have remembered that the Dots know the details of EVERYTHING. We are Detail Divas!" "Why does GoG object to librarians learning from the Dots?" asked Sage. Purple responded "I think she doesn't want librarians mingling with us peons" "I'll pee on her anytime!" muttered Sage as Purple prudently stepped a bit further out of range.

TiTTS Bits

It's now official. The head of TiTTS has resigned from the Duchy. Supposedly the reason is that the Black Dot Queen was making it impossible for him to do his job. She really is sucking all of the oxygen out of the Duchy.
I'm still pissed off about the vision thing. Duke Phfffr recently issued a proclamation about world music and "intercultural proficiency" It's clear from the proclamation that the Duke feels strongly about this. The proclamation has lots of good verbage, heartfelt verbage, about making the world a better place through intercultural education. The White Queen's Monday Missives also frequently express the same 0bviously heartfelt feelings about education. And if you read any parent comments about what they want their children to learn in life and they will say they want them to "be happy and get along well with others". With both the Duke and the White Queen of the same mind as parents, WHY are we constantly harassing teachers and students about testing, grades and standards? Why doesn't the vision express the obviously core belief of the both leadership and the parents that the job of schools is to create a better world, one student at a time. Or is the whole district being led by the soulless like the Black Queen?

Vision (or not)

Today in professional development, the facilitator presented this nifty graphic which summarized what is required for change in an organization to occur. It looks like
Vision + Skills + Incentives + Resources + Action Plan = Change
With any of the pieces missing you get confusion, anxiety, frustration and other bad outcomes. When the facilitator asked us to relate this piece of information to our personal experience I realized just how bitter I have become. I don't think I'm alone either. The group had been interacting up to that point and then they became very silent. On of the participants asked for a show of hands for how many people know the Duchy's vision. There were no hands raised. I went to the web site and looked it up. Here it is
Tucson Unified School District is a professional learning community that ensures every student learns, exceeds all expected performance standards, graduates, and is able to compete and succeed in a global economy.
Aside from the fact the "professional learning community" is such a meaningless buzzword right now, it's not a bad vision statement, just kind of uninspired. Considering that a vision statement should be inspiring that's not good. A bigger problem is that NONE of the actions taken with respect to the Duchy library community relate to that vision in ANY WAY.
Going back to the effective change, the way it works is:
First you have the vision, then you need to determine the skills needed for that vision, the training needed, the incentives, and the resources that will be available. With that information, you can create an action plan. Is that anything like a strategic plan? Even with no information about resources, no control over skills and incentives, and no articulated vision, Dotland was asked to create a strategic plan. They did. It vanished into that black hole that exists around the Black Queen.
Possibly I would feel less bitter if the Duchy had ever provided ANY of the crucial parts. The closest to the vision anyone can get is "It's all about the kids." Yeah, right, that's helpful. Skills and training, that costs money and requires planning and takes people away from the school site. We can't have that. Incentives. We should be able to at least say if you learn this it will make your day to day job easier. It would be nice if we could say this. However, the Duchy does not have a good track record with making jobs easier. Chances are if you are trained in a procedure that will make your job easier, the Duchy will change the procedure immediately after training everyone. Resources. With a clearly articulated vision and a clear understanding of the skills, incentives and resources that will be available, it is possible to develop an action plan to implement anything over some time frame. Little skills, incentives and resources, looong time frames, lots of skills, incentives, and resources, short time frames. However, it's critical to know what resources will be made available. Have we EVER been told what resources can be used and how?
Bitter? You bet I am!

Destiny (again)

You've probably already heard that our Destiny might not be so destined after all. It seems the Lime Green Knight did such a good job of telling people how wonderful Destiny was that all of the villages want all of its bells and whistles and in order to get all of those bells and whistles there will have to be an RFP (Really Fat Paper). (Actually that means Request for Proposal. A request for proposal says "We want to buy something that does everything on this list (with a really long list attached) How much will you charge us?" And that RFP has to go to every vendor that might be interested. That means competition and choices. That should be interesting.) Silver is a little concerned about the RFP because the only person writing it seems to be the Lime Green Knight. Silver isn't sure that the Lime Green Knight remembers all of the different things a library program needs to be able to do. The Black Queen promised us committees to deal with things like that. What has happened to all of those committees?
In other news the head of TiTS has disappeared from the pigeon address book. What does this mean? Is there some good gossip there? Actually that's what we need to cheer up these winter days - some good gossip. Anyone know any? Maybe we'll have to start making some up!

Snow Day!

Yesterday was a SNOW DAY in Tucson, Arizona! Well, at least a snow half-day. The entire Duchy got the morning off due to an inch of snow on the ground. (Stop snickering, Buffalo!) And today Duke Phffer announced that no one would have to take personal time for that half-day. Whoa! Of course, then those hardy people who went in to work anyway wanted to know if they were going to be paid extra for working on a paid holiday. That question hasn't been ruled on yet. Silver spent the snow morning reading Wintersmith, a new book by Terry Pratchett. Everyone knows that Silver reads Sci-fi and fantasy and when asked what a book by Terry Pratchett is about, she says "Oh, it's fantasy" because Terry Pratchett is really hard to explain. In truth, Terry Pratchett is not fantasy at all. It's straightforward satire, which means that unlike fantasy it's about the REAL Real World. Wintersmith is about Tiffany Aching, a 13 year old apprentice witch who has unfortunately attracted the attention of the Wintersmith, the Winter Elemental responsible for bringing Winter to the world. (Anyone who doubts the existence of the Wintersmith in the Real World just needed to look out the window yesterday morning.) Tiffany has already learned the truth about witchcraft in the Real World. When she is home from her apprenticeship, her mother finds her scrubbing the floor on her hands and knees and says "I thought you could do that by just moving your hands about" Tiffany replied "That works, but only if you move your hands on the floor with a scrub brush in them." The truth about witchcraft is like nuclear weapons it's much too dangerous to use. The Wintersmith was of particular interest to Silver because it talks about the Librarians, a group like gypsies that travel from village to village in wagons full of books which they will lend for a penny. If you bring them a book you get three free loans. It is said that a Librarian can tell just what book you need just by looking at you. When the Wintersmith has dumped 6 feet of snow on them, they are in dire straits. They are running out of fuel to keep the lanterns burning so they can read. Of course, freezing to death is also a problem but that's a secondary consideration to not being able to read. (See, I told you it was about the Real World.) So that you won't worry about the Librarians when the story is really about Tiffany and the Wintersmith, I'll tell you that they are rescued by small blue men, the Nac Mac Feegles, who are the only people ever thrown out of the Underworld for singing on Charon's boat. Of course, there was also the destruction of Cerberus, the three-headed dog. I've looked for a good guide to Terry Pratchett, but there just isn't a definitive guide on the internet, so I guess I'll have to browbeat Silver into writing one to introduce people to the memorable characters like The Luggage which has feet and holds clean laundry when you open it and lots and lots of teeth when anyone else opens it. Never go into Iraq without The Luggage. That was clearly Emporer Shrub's mistake!

Dispatches from Dotland

Things have been quiet and productive in Dotland. The Dots are doing training and fixing and arranging and normal Dotly things that would have been happening all along if the Black Queen hadn't stopped them. The training is happening because IDEA arranged it first and mentioned it to the Black Queen later. The Black Queen did send a pigeon to the Dots congratulating them on the training. One wonders if perhaps there was a blind copy of that pigeon that went to someone else, say the White Queen? Certainly it is not in character for the Black Queen to congratulate someone on doing a job she has previously blocked. The Black Queen is also sometimes called the Technology Queen, sort of a legend in her own mind. However, some of the tech such as the Spectacularly Clever Boards don't seem to work. In other news, your faithful correspondent attended a meeting of the Duchy Board. Duke Phffr delivered the State of the Duchy address to the board using some of the Tech Queen's new tech. The Duke tried to show a video to the board but the Proxima didn't work. However, later, the Diva had a video of her own and that did work. I'm thinking that possibly the Tech Queen treats her electronic servants just like she treats the Dots. I'm thinking that if I were a Proxima I probably wouldn't want to work for her either.
Attending a Duchy Board meeting is always an adventure. Students from one of the villages keep escaping into the neighborhood and upsetting the neighbors. The Duke hopes to solve the problem by building a Parking Palace. The Duchy Board is doubtful. "The students live in the neighborhood and they'll still be walking home through the neighborhood" commented one board member. Of course, the Parking Palace will be built anyway. Maybe they can make the students all camp out in it all year.