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.

Breaking News! Castle evacuated!

Duchy Castle, at XX E. X, stands silent, guarded by grim policemen, after today's threats of violence and terrorism. Authorities have not disclosed any details. According to some reports, men with guns were seen in the halls of the Castle during an important meeting of village headmen. Speculation was rampant. Terrorism, gunman, disgruntled teachers, and bombs were all mentioned. Details are very sketchy at this point but this conversation was overheard before the castle occupants fled for their lives... or an afternoon off.
First woman "My friend saw men with guns so we called 911 and got out of there. I was so scared!"
Friend "I said I saw a man with GUB! What were you calling 911 about? How come we get to go home early?"
First woman "She means GUNS! Of course I called 911."
Friend "I hab a code. I said GUB! He was chewing GUB!! It should be against the law.!"
First woman "Oh. Well, we got to leave early anyway. See you tomorrow!"
Occupants of the SNEAC building were jealous "Nothing ever happens here!" "That's because they can't find us since Homeland Security said that we couldn't have a map or a sign." "When are we going to get to go home early, huh? It's months before it's hot enough to break the air-conditioning so we can leave!"
In other news the SNEAC building is being painted a lovely shade of pink. Reaction of the occupants...."It didn't look pink in the sample."

All Quiet in Dotland

The Duchy is very quiet these days. The Black Dot Queen and her henchman are apparently on vacation. And when the Black Dot Queen is not making mischief and vandalizing library programs, the Dots aren't agitated. Some of the Dots are even Taking Time Off. Others are going about their Dotly duties, making sure thing run smoothly. The only niggling concern is whether the Black Queen is really on vacation or just plotting more mischief. What will the new year bring from Black Dot Castle?
In other news, the Dotland Quilts are now online at http://barbssewing.pbwiki.com/.

Destiny awaits or The Queens new computer system

Lime Green Knight says Destiny conversion will be "transparent".

The Lime Green Knight says that the conversion to Destiny will be "transparent". The Dots are wondering what that means. The Dots thought it meant "free from guile, candid or open", so that all of the "stakeholders", the librarians, the peasants, the village headmen and, yea, even the Dots, would be informed of all discussions. This is obviously not true since a meeting about the conversion was held last Friday and only Sage and Silver were invited...and only for part of the meeting. Then Silver found a different definition of transparent on the the WEB. According to that definition, transparent means you can't see what they are doing. That definition matches very well with the way the Black Queen operates. She definitely doesn't want people seeing what she does. Then there is the definition of transparent that is like window glass...you can see through the window and if it's very clean, you can't see the window glass itself. It's invisible. So maybe Destiny is also invisible, or as we say in the computer biz, "virtual". If Destiny is "virtual" then it would work with virtual servers, virtual networks, and a virtual student download from the Great Desert software. That must be it. That must be why the Black Queen and the Lime Green Knight keep saying we don't need to worry about network speed even though our networks consist primary of geriatric hamsters running on old squeaky wheels. Destiny, the Queen's new computer system, must be virtual. The Lime Green Knight said that the purpose of the meeting Friday was to "answer questions". Silver and Sage did ask a lot of questions however, neither Silver nor Sage can remember any answers being given. Maybe the answers are virtual as well.


If the Black Queen's operations were actually transparent, perhaps there wouldn't be quite as many of these "stakeholders".

Destiny

Are you findin' Destiny fair, Silver, Sage, Black Queen and Lime?
Remember taxpayers will pay for your share, if you think Destiny's fine.

The Black Queen invited Sage and Silver to an audience last week with IDEA, the Lime Green Knight, and the Lords of Folly and Destiny. Silver wasn't quite sure what the meeting was about. Silver and Sage discussed cataloging arcana to the dismay of the Black Queen who kept poking her blackberry imp in a effort to find out who this guy MARC is. Most of Silver's questions started out with "When...?" and were answered with "We'll decide that later." "Later, when?" "We'll decide that later as well." Silver suspects the answer is "After you leave the room." but then Silver always was something of a pessimist. The Lords of Folly had a Powerpoint but none of the slides seemed to have the answers to questions either. Then Silver and Sage were dismissed and the next group was admitted to Audience. According to IDEA, the Duchy is reluctant to consider allowing students to look at library catalogs from home citing "Security Issues". Possibly the Black Queen is afraid that this guy MARC is a terrorist? Possibly MARC is a member of dreaded DDC Underground, dedicated to classifying all of the knowledge in the world? Later Purple and Silver discussed the question of Security. Purple thinks the right approach is to equip all workstations with a Matthew Brady Security System, a black hood attached to the monitor, with drawcords like a theatre curtain. When a user is accessing secret information like library records they can throw the hood over their head and shoulders thus protecting the free world from knowledge of the existence of Books... in School Libraries.
Incidentally, if you think the DDC Underground is just another urban myth, you should read about their counterpart organization, Al Gebra.
In this busy holiday season, while celebrating Christmas, Kwanzaa, and Hanukkah, don't forget to include Holiday, the Pastafarian winter holiday.
Happy Holiday!

Mysterious appearances in Dotland

Once again the SNEAC building is the site of uncanny occurrences. Bundles of curious metal cages have been appearing in unusual places, then disappearing and reappearing in other places. Some sort of structure is being built across the ceiling, going around the edges of the room, disappearing into holes in the ceiling even though no workers are ever seen. Is this some sort of Close Encounters thing? Are aliens building a mysterious device to trap the inhabitants of the SNEAC building? (Well, probably aliens are building it. Aliens do all of the construction in Arizona.) Silver thinks the new structure looks like a hamster run. Sage is hoping it's a track for an electric train. She thinks a nice train running around below the ceiling, blowing its whistle at crossing, would add a nice homey atmosphere to the place. Bringing the Dots back down to Earth, Black-and-Yellow Dot of Bombs and Engineering, says the new structure is cable runs for wiring. Of course, one of the other Dots heard a rumor that the SNEAC building is going wireless. Let's see. The SNEAC building is currently wired but doesn't have any cable runs. Now it's going to be wireless so they are installing cable runs for the non-wires. Makes perfect sense.

Holidays in Dotland

Dotland, and the rest of the SNEAC building, has been decorated for the holidays, Christmas tree and all. The Dots were invited to a Christmas party by the Black Queen but decided it wouldn't fit into their busy social schedule. (Actually, invitations from the Black Queen always make the Dots nervous and they have to go and lie down in a darkened room.) Blue is on a trip. Sage is immersed in arcane cataloging spells. Silver sits in her cubby all day poking at the Grand Union and muttering "That's not right.." under her breath. Purple and Turquoise are kept busy answering budget questions (But how can I be overdrawn when I still have checks left!) Maybe it's time for a looong vacation. What do you think?