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by doug | October 23rd, 2008 @ 7:16 pm
As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, audit season has begun. Today I was out in the middle of nowhere – which is located, surprisingly, about 45 minutes by car from downtown Birmingham. The school was seriously outdated. The library, where we set up, was the size of a regular classroom, and the shelves were around the perimeter of the room only. Also, this one school encompassed all grades, K-12. There were two separate buildings though, and we were stationed in the 7th-12th grade section.
My first observation is that the level of a school district’s hick-ness is not necessarily a key indicator of how clean their bookkeeping is. The internal controls seemed to work well, especially compared to some of the other schools I’ve seen (some in much more affluent areas than this one). My conclusion: the accounting and secretarial staff were definitely more competent than I expected them to be, which means I need to check my pre-conceived assumptions at the door next time.
Secondly, returning to a school setting has a not-unexpected tendency to take me back to my own schoolboy days – in this case my old junior high and high school days. Not my favorite era, but there were glimmers of joy. Mostly, though, I remember not fitting in very well. I am still uncomfortable in social situations, and I tend to be hyper-focused on what people think of me. So you can imagine how much worse I was back then, when I had no conception of any coping skills and no perspective on the importance of popularity, etcetera, etcetera.
Well, nowadays, over a decade removed from the high school experience, I experience a weird mental transformation when I walk into one of these schools. I immediately become much more self-aware. If we are working in a space where students are coming and going (as they were today), I have a real need for them to think I’m cool. Retarded, huh?
Thirdly… well, I have to remind myself not to ogle the girls. Old habits die hard. What can I say?
by doug | October 22nd, 2008 @ 9:48 am
This will be a fairly transparent attempt to make up for not posting anything yesterday. I tried. The MSG in my thrice-warmed-over Chinese take-out finally caught up with me last night, and I ended up lounging, eyes bleary and half-closed, heart beating erratically, sleeping wife and dog and cat beside me, listlessly browsing through my RSS feeds for something, anything to blog about. I was unsuccessful. My apologies. It is disheartening to watch my readership plummet, Palin-favorability-rating-like, from a better-than-I-can-hope-for 37 to a meager 14. [insert wah-wah-wah sound here]
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Brief Interlude:
I just overheard a visitor in the lobby talking to the partners about the upcoming Presidential election. This redneck was spewing the “Barack Obama is not an American citizen” bullshit. Because I value my employment and the income it provides, I chose not to stride down the hall and take part in the conversation. But here, for the record, is the truth – provided now in the off chance that a visitor to this page might base their vote on the ravings of lying right-wing scumbag scaremongers.
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Anyway, before that ugly intrusion, my purpose with this post was to briefly reflect on a subject I have not yet expounded upon here – my job. Despite having to work with people who may disagree with me politically (see above), I truly love my job. Odd to say, since it seemed when I first chose this career path – accounting – that it would not be a good fit with the more artistic, free-thinking elements of my personality. It is a boring job, don’t get me wrong. It is repetitive and governed by strict regulations. I wear a tie and sit in my little fluorescent-lit office and fill spreadsheets and ledgers all day. People who know me well might find that hard to reconcile with the person who has, at times, been spontaneous to a fault, who adores the bohemian lifestyle, and whose interests range from literature and art to general aviation and bush flying to politics and philosophy. Why would I go into the business and finance field?
The answer is that this job grounds me. It is a vacation from my otherwise racing mind. In my personal life, my thoughts bound from one focus to another – and none are remotely related. Here I, by necessity, must follow the rules to the letter. I must focus on the task at hand. Quite the contrast, since I normally abhor the idea of rules and am generally juggling several pet projects at a time.
I did not arrange my life this way intentionally, but this is how it has turned out. It runs counter to all the choose-a-career-to-fit-your-personality (or your interests or strengths or whatever) advice that you hear in high school and college. This job is not who I am at all – and I have never felt more satisfied with my life than I do right at this moment.
Now, as autumn settles in, we are getting into my favorite part of this job – the auditing. The past few months have been more about taxes, report prep, and tying up loose ends. But now, after the close of the school systems’ financial year (the majority of my job involves auditing several local boards of education), it is finally time to get out of the office and do some fieldwork. While I am out at the various schools, I get a chance to meet and observe a great variety of personalities, which makes my work much more fascinating than you would think. I also get to be “the authority” – I am, in essence, checking their work; passing judgment on it, even. It’s a bit of a power trip – bookkeepers quaking in their boots at my approach.
So, what I hope to do in the coming months is to use this blog space as a journal in which to record and examine the quirks of the people I meet and the systems I visit (preserving client anonymity, of course). It will be a kind of sociology experiment – my observations from the audit trail (pun intended). I know – it should make for a riveting internet browsing experience.
[And my readership drops lower, and lower, and lower.]
by doug | October 20th, 2008 @ 10:41 pm
Sometimes it’s fun to dig out the old notebooks and try to recapture my emotional state at a certain point in time. This piece, for instance, was written at a little sidewalk café. I do not remember what initially inspired me to write, or what exactly I intended it to mean, but I can read the words and be transported to that chair on the sidewalk under the fading light of a foreign sky. I can feel what it was to be there. Sometimes the shittiest poems are better than the most brilliant photographs.
By the way – according to Babelfish, “hoche” means “shake.” I have no idea.
Hoche
The automobiles pass by balconied buildings:
floating objects among the immobile.
The Brasserie le Do Re Mi bristles with excitement –
the day is over.
Birds perch on streetlamps, awkward,
for a moment, then move on.
The author perches on his bench.
Paris, August 2000
by doug | October 19th, 2008 @ 10:59 pm
Was it not a beautiful day today? The little lady and I woke up (fairly) early and took a pleasant drive to Northport, AL for the 2008 Kentuck Festival of the Arts. I last frequented the festival back in 2004 and 2005 when I was manning the booth for the University’s Marr’s Field Journal (the last time alongside a young pixie-like grad student dressed in a full parrot costume – ah, memories). I remember it being an eclectic mix of “serious” artists and folk artists, of hippies and auteur savants, of starving unknown locals and nationally recognized craftsmen. It was exactly as I remembered it, and the experience was not diminished by the fact that today I felt I was definitely on the outside looking in. I’ve been to other art shows, but I’ve never experienced a feeling of creativity that was as remarkably tangible as it is at Kentuck. I do not create that much anymore – neither written nor visual work – but I still felt like I was back among my own kind, if only for a little while and through a thin but palpable barrier of artistry and commitment to the craft.
There were hundreds of booths, but I have tried my best to whittle my hastily scribbled list of favorites down to three. These artists are my personal picks for best in show:
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 Never passing up an opportunity to spend money on unnecessary items – even in the midst of the worst economic recession since the 1930’s – my wife and I walked out of the park with Thomas Andrew’s “Somewhere In Time #65”. The JPEG picture (from the artist’s website) does not do it justice. It is a fantastically melancholy landscape piece with a grey/gold fall color palette. It is thick acrylic on wood, and has just enough bright elements (and a red barn in the corner) to convince my wife that it is cheerful. What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her. It looks great in our sage green den with the red furniture. A worthwhile purchase.
Incidentally, my first pick (as indicated by the ordered list above) would have been a Bojarski, but my wife would not allow “something that creepy” in the house. Visit her site and form your own opinion. I don’t think it’s creepy at all.
My indecision being what it is, I now give you my “honorable mentions” list: Scott Phillips, Kent Ambler, William Skrips, Gina Cochran, Aaron Hequembourg, Ronna Katz, Pam Bailey, Foust, Rick Anderson, and Katherine W. Linn.
Please check them out if you are so inclined, and please support the arts by either donating to artistic organizations or purchasing an artist’s work. I left Kentuck today more convinced than ever of the importance of the arts. Our children must not only be taught math, science and reading. They must also be encouraged to express their own individual creativity and to appreciate the creative works of others, unless the future we are working to build is a future that is wholly corporate, homogenous, thoughtless and cold.
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After the festival, we ate lunch at The Globe in downtown Northport – where we had our second date back in 2005. I am pleased to report that the salmon baked in a parchment bag is as good now as it was then. We then drove over to The Crimson Cafe, where I spent many a dining dollar and hours “studying” late into the night, for a mocha milkshake. We strolled through campus, with many a “I don’t remember THAT” from me along the way. We browsed the walk of champions at Bryant-Denny, we popped in to the Ferg, and we circled back around the quad before returning to the car and beginning the nostalgic drive back to Birmingham along highway eleven.
It was a perfect Sunday (sans bloody mary… thanks, Tuscaloosa County). Now, with the chance to reflect not only on today but also on my student life that was, I am more determined than ever to find time to rekindle my creative fire – if only for my own psychological benefit. For me, there is just no satisfaction in balancing the debits and credits at the end of a spreadsheet. I need to step back from a sheet of paper, or a canvas, or a computer screen and feel that I crafted something that may not be a work of genius, but that is solely and without a doubt a work of MINE.
by doug | October 18th, 2008 @ 2:31 pm
Kickoff time. I have no idea what to expect out of this game. Nobody seems to think we will have any problem with the Rebels, even though this is the team that went down to the Swamp and beat Florida a couple of weeks ago. If they play like that today, and we play like we’re looking ahead to Tennessee and LSU, then Ole Miss has a shot at this one. I am concerned… and I will be for pretty much every other game this season.
More at halftime.
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UPDATE:
Okay, I’m not as concerned now. Aside from that 62-yard run, Mississippi’s offense isn’t getting anything done. A couple of pretty interceptions. And what about putting Terence Cody on the O-line to block for Ingram on a 1 yard TD run? Awesome. That guy is huge.
Bama 24, Ole Miss 3
Back in 30 mins. with some final thoughts.
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UPDATE:
We cannot continue to do this. If we keep shutting down at halftime we will eventually lose – probably to Tennessee and definitely to LSU. I know that Nick Saban is aware of the problem… now I want to see him fix it. Playing the way we played in the first half, I think we could beat any Div I team. In the second half – well, we got shut out, now didn’t we? Upsetting. Terence Cody getting hurt doesn’t do much for my confidence in the rest of the season. Our depth doesn’t extend too far beyond our starting lineup.
Final score: Bama 24, Ole Miss 20 @#$%!
by doug | October 17th, 2008 @ 4:23 pm
Public Radio:
WBHM (90.3 FM) began their Fall fundraising campaign this Wednesday. So far it seems to be less intrusive under the new station format – they do not seem to be as willing to interrupt the national news programs with the pledge drive info as they were when they played classical music all day. So, whereas before this would have been a personal plea to please give so that I can have my radio back, this time around I will simply try to appeal to your better natures. Certainly, if you live in Birmingham and listen to WBHM regularly, you should seriously consider supporting the station with a small donation (rhyme time!). If you are outside of the B’ham market, then I would urge you to donate to your local public media outlet. It is an undervalued community service that deserves our support.
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I’m a Funcle (again)!
That’s either “Fake uncle” or “Fun uncle,” in case you were wondering. The eminent Memphissian physician’s new baby boy arrived at 1:51 PM and weighed in at a healthy 7 lbs. 10 oz. Congratulations, mi compadre!
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Kentuck:
 It is time again for Northport’s Kentuck Arts Festival. I have missed out on it the last couple of years – and if not for The Terminal calling my attention to it, I probably would have missed it again. If the rain holds off, the weather should be fantastic for browsing the rows of arts & crafts booths at this nationally-renowned event. I’m thinking about going on Sunday, mostly so I won’t butt up against the Tuscaloosa game traffic. In addition to artists showcasing their works, there will be food and live music. Check out the list of participating artists at their web site, and make plans to attend and support this wonderful cultural institution! I’ll be there, and I just might come back with an art or two.
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Blog-Friendly Establishment Amendment:
Last week I bemoaned the lack of prime coffee-shop space from which to read, write, browse & broadcast. Today I decided to try out o kafés – a new coffee house in Pepper Place. It is beyond ideal. The place is huge (not that it needs to be – there is one other patron in the whole place), it has at least five easily accessible power outlets, a number of seating options, friendly staff, and good coffee – all in a wonderfully eclectic and industrial atmosphere. The WiFi connection is better than the one I’ve got at the house – as fast as you could possibly want. The lack of patronage is a little troubling, as I would really like to see this spot succeed. I’ve only been here for 45 minutes or so, but already I can say it is my new favorite place to indulge in the solitary literary and geeky pleasures.
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Music:
I love this idea. Three songwriters (and a group of around 50 collaborating artists) took an off-the-wall suggestion and turned it into a 3-disc opus: Of Great and Mortal Men. It is a collection of 43 original songs about each of our 43 past U.S. presidents. Especially timely, since we’re going to the polls to elect the 44th in a couple of weeks, this set sounds like it should be both educational and entertaining. Sign me up. I haven’t listened to the songs yet, but I foresee an iTunes visit coming in the near future.
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Politics:
I think we all needed this: the Alfred E. Smith dinner. Finally a little lightheartedness in a sea of slung mud.
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Your Weekly Geeky:
Listen to your entire music library anywhere! It’s called Simplify Media. Use this service to access all your music files from your laptop, your work computer, or even your phone! I have 40 GBs of music at home, and now I can listen to every track whether I’m at the coffee house or the office or wherever. Superuseful! Plus, I can share my music with other people who use the software (and I’ll be happy to authorize you – the only stuff you can’t get are the Apple security-enabled files… and I’m working on that). Try this out. It is open-source (read: free)!
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Toodle-oo and thanks for reading!
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