Erik Geiger's Blog

It seemed for awhile, everyone was recommending this book to me. I resisted reading it, feeling that since I was already familiar with much of the ground it covered, i.e. crack-pot conspiracy theories regarding the lost legacy and bloodline of Jesus Christ, I'd find the book irritating.
I was right. I did find certain elements of the book irritating, yet I still enjoyed it for the most part.

The protagonist, Robert Langdon, was not believable as a Harvard trained scholar - he was too credulous, accepting as gospel too many unproven and unprovable assertions. The only way to make sense Langdon's utter credulity was to strech the concept of artistic license to the extent that it covered the gap between crackpot conspiracy theory and historical fact. Much of Brown's "information" about the Templars, Merovingians, Mary Magdalen, the Priory of Sion and Jesus Christ can be found in the disreputable but entertaining conspiracy theory book "Holy Blood, Holy Grail", by Baigent and Leigh. In it they rely heavily on the "dossier secrets", mysterious documents found in the Bibliotheque Nationale. These were later found to be forgeries planted by prankster and ex-con Pierre Plantard, the same man that these documents pointed to as the Grandmaster of the Priory of Sion, and the lineal decendent of Jesus Christ.
If you can suspend disbelief and stipulate for a time that the frauds perpretrated by Pierre Plantard on Baigent and Leigh are true and real, then you can sit back and enjoy Langdon, which I did.
I found the book predictable at times. From the moment that Robert and Sophie left Paris for Versailles, it was obvious to me that Leigh Teabing woud turn out to be "The Teacher". It's a cliche that in a mystery novel with a nameless, faceless villian, that villain turns out to be someone close to the protagonist.
Of course the particulars remained a mystery until the final pages, and I was surprised by the revelations about Sophie's family.

Okay, I'm pissed.
I have been giving stuff away on, and getting stuff free from a locally run Yahoo group called Madison Freecycle. The deal is that if you've got something you'd rather give away than throw out, you can send a message to the group, and if the moderator approves it, your message is posted to the group for others to respond to.
I've given away a couple of old computers, a keyboard, a car and a dining room table to folk who I got in touch with through this group. I've taken a couple of things away too, but overall I've given more than I've taken.

I have watched in concern as folks have given away pets with "free to a good home" type postings. If you've ever worked at or volunteered for a vet clinic, a humane society an animal rescue group, you know that pet giveaways are a bad idea. Free pets are often regarded as disposable. Free pets are often sold into animal research. Free pets become food for constrictors, become blood fodder for attack dogs.
I always suggest to anyone who'll listen, if you value the pet's life at all, charge a nominal adoption fee, say $30.00. Think about it - if someone wants a pet, and can't afford a $30.00 adoption fee, can they possibly afford to feed the pet, to provide veterinary care?
So I reacted to my concern by sending a letter to the moderator of the group.:

Please consider revising the Freecycle charter to
forbid giving pets away. This practice often results
in tragic consequences for the pets, as these article
indicate:

http://www.petrescue.com/library/free-pet.htm
http://www.parrett.net/animalaid/free.html

I can provide you with a list of licensed, state
monitored animal shelters in the area to whom you can
refer anyone looking to get rid of unwanted pets, or
anyone looking to adopt.

Here's the response I got:

We're not going to change our policy unless there is a huge outcry from
the Freecycle subscribers. We took a poll, and it was 2 to 1 in favor
of
allowing pet postings. I'm the founder of the group, and I voted
against
such posts myself. Still, I went with the desires of the vast majority
of Freecycle members in Madison.

Thanks for the feedback.

That's fairly cordial, but it doesn't at all address the fact that the group is facilitating an easily abused practise that often ends tragically.

Here's the next message I sent:

I understand your position. I do hope you'll
reconsider, however.

As you know, the threats to the well-being of "free"
and therefore disposable, pets are tangible and well
documented.

The benefit to freecyclers being able to give pets
away on the group are more nebulous and seem to be
primarily a matter of convenience.

I'd respectfully suggest that the wellfare of the pets
involved is a higher priority than the convenience of
those giving them away.

As you know, there are several rescue and placement
groups in Dane County who will help place unwanted
pets, so freecyclers can still get their needs met,
without threatening the well-being of the pets.

May I open a dialog on the group message board over
this matter? Is there an established protocol or
etiquette for discussing matters of group policy?

The next response was rather less cordial:

No, I won't approve posts to the group discussing the pets/livestock
issue. This was discussed several months ago, I ran the poll, and the
results were clear.

I appreciate your concern, but I'm not going to run this group as a
dictatorship.

I will address one issue--it isn't just a "matter of convenience". I've
adopted two animals from rescues, and in the first case I paid a $70
dollar adoption fee. I paid $200 in the second case. This is a HUGE
cost for many people.
Yes, I understand why animal rescues charge these
fees.
I also understand that a lot of people find these fees to be beyond
their means.

That's the last I will discuss this issue with you. Again, thanks for
your concern.

For someone who's "not going to run this group as a dictatorship", his tone is quite dictatorial.

He has forbidden free discussion of matters of import to a number of group members.

He refuses to correspond further with me on a matter of import to me and several other group members, telling me "That's the last I will discuss this issue with you."

He refuses to give more recent participants in the group a voice in policy decisions made before their time.

That's fine - it's his group, and he can run it in anyway he please.

I will no longer participate in a group which tacitly contributes to the abuse of animals, run by a moderator who seems more impressed with exercising authority in a peremptory manner than in the outcome of those decisions.

I will find other ways to dispose of the types of items I have previously made available here. I will further encourage others to reconsider their participation.

I will write the ASPCA, asking them to contact the moderator, urging them to discontinue this easily abused practice.

Further I will be sending a letter to the Madison City Council asking them to introduce an ammendment mandating a minimum $30.00 adoption fee for pets "given away" in the city limits.

I will send a letter to the editors of the Wisconsin State Journal and the Capitol Times and the Isthmus, outlining the problems with pet giveaways, and the exact text of our correspondence on the topic.

Finally I will send a similar strong letter to the Yahoo board of directors and the manager of services urging them to disallow any groups that facilitate pet give aways.

I don't know what results these efforts will have, but none of them will be saluatory to the group.

 

As you have noticed, I've moved my site to a new server. I had been sick of geocites for a long time. Nothing against them - they run a pretty decent server, and I've had a free site with them for years, but I have long been aware of the server's limitations. I was just to cheap and lazy to do anything about it. But I recently mentioned to a friend, Tsurasa Sarake that I was thinking of shopping around for a new hosting server in order to start a new Plone based site when he offered me a subdomain and space on one of his servers.
I've been working with Plone at work recently, so I think it'd be nice to have a Plone based sandbox of my own to play in.
Along with the new webserver, I've begun managing my blog through Blogger. It only took a few minutes to take one of my template pages and convert it to a Blogger template, so my blogger posts seemlessly match the web site.