only in America

The Christian Science Monitor reported that Blair House in Washington D.C. would not bump its customers for....the President! I am worried about where the President's family will stay, but still, this is kind of inspiring in the first-come first-served department:

"Even President-elect Obama experienced the crowded conditions surrounding his swearing in. Mr. Obama explored the possibility of moving into the presidential guest quarters across the street from the White House in early January so his daughters could start school on January 5. But the family was told that Blair House was already booked with events and receptions and so would not be available for overnight use until January 15."

awwww...

Sometimes one's culture is captured in a tiny anecdote that kind of makes you proud. Apparently the Space Station launched some spiders for science experiments. There were news reports of a missing spider, but not to worry:

"We're not missing a spider," space station flight director Holly Ridings assured reporters Monday, adding that — since it's NASA — there is a backup spider with his own designated area. "The way it was explained to me, he came out of his bedroom and may be into the living room of the house."

A backup spider. In his living room! That essentializes for me the improbable mix of mind boggling planning with childish delight that is American science.

proved wrong

Thank goodness.

In 2004 I saw Obama at the Democratic Convention and was very impressed. I said peevishly to my husband, "He should have changed his name so he could have a run at President."

Like millions, including some high profile pols like the Clintons, I greatly underestimated Obama. Not only did Obama prevail, he did it on his terms, with authenticity, civility, grace, and calm.

Here are a few reflections on the election that captured its essence for me:

Peggy Noonan observed that in defeating Clinton, Obama "brought down a political machine without raising his voice."

Obama took a page from Howard Dean and cranked up his technology machine right away. John Dickerson in Slate wrote, "Obama inspired a host of new voters and young voters, who helped make him the first post-baby boomer president. They all call him Barack, and he responded by texting them on victory night: "All of this happened because of you. Thanks, Barack."

Barack, I love it.

Even my original home state of Ohio went for Obama. Thanks again Dean for the 50 state strategy! Here's one of my favorite images from the campaign.



(If you have not seen Midwestern barns, they are really big, and it must have taken a lot of work to paint the image.)

socialism is alive and well in the USA

I recently made a reservation at a hotel in San Diego to attend a conference. $179 a night. Not cheap.

I needed one more night. I called central reservations. They got me mixed up with another Bonnie and said the rate was $84. I said, "That must be another hotel." They said, no, same hotel. Then the clerk realized she had confused me with the other guest and said that wedding parties get a special rate.

OK, I can see a little bit of a discount for a group. But I am paying more than double what the wedding party is paying. How is that fair? And those reveling guests will probably make my business-oriented stay less enjoyable.

I don't know who's getting married, but I hope they appreciate my financial contribution to the nuptials :P

WoW and Pym

I'm still playing World of Warcraft for my research. And because I just *had* to get the explorer achievements finished for Azeroth and Outland before the xpac.

After I play WoW I often curl up with my old Barbara Pym novels. I'm pretty sure I'm the only one on the planet with a passion for both.

gosh time flies

I decided to take a few hours to organize my digital self today. I may start posting in here again. And my webpage is hideously out of date which I shall remedy shortly.

In this day and age of twitter and its ilk, blogs and websites seem positively Victorian. I cannot motivate myself to tell you what I had for breakfast, but I admire those with such self-possession.

Life is good. Children doing interesting things, amazing grad students, work fun, Obama poised to win. My Night Elf priest got her first piece of T6.

Looking back at my life (I'm getting to the age where you start doing stuff like that), I realize how privileged I have been. My parents came from extremely humble backgrounds (although they were educated and part of the middle class). Thanks to my grandparents being incredibly hardworking, in only one intervening generation, I have had a very different set of experiences than they: traveled all over the world, met some of the smartest people on the planet (literally) in my work life, and had the wonderful experience of building my dream house.

By contrast, one of my grandmothers was a cleaning lady after my grandfather died, and my other grandmother was a farm wife whose labor literally never ended (although she finally got the eight kids out of the house and then had some peace). I think it is such life histories that make America a little different than many places I have visited which have more stable class structures.

So where have I traveled? When I was in Sweden recently I met an American who had been to 45 states. I was moved to count my states: 30. Sheesh, I have a lot more to see, including Maine, Montana, and Alaska in particular. (This count only includes those where I have actually seen something, not just driven through).

During dinner with the American and our Swedish hosts, we started talking about travel, and the American and I were waxing poetic about desert scenery, the Grand Canyon, Mount Rushmore, and the like. The Swedes listened and then agreed with each other that they were amazed we were so excited about our own country. They did not mean it in that snide European way (you don't have any healthcare...) but were genuinely impressed at our enthusiasm and connection to the American landscape. I realize Swedes are a little more temperate than Americans, but still it's interesting to see how others see you. I have had many similar conversations with other Americans and always thought it perfectly natural to gush over traveling in America. You learn about home by being away from home.

So, I've still got 20 more states, but I have also been to New Guinea, Western Samoa, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, China, Russia, Lithuania, Austria, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, France, Italy, and the UK. Everywhere (except Belgium for some odd reason) I have met locals, through work or fieldwork, so I feel I have seen something deeper than a tourist typically sees.

The extent of my travels leaves many many places I have not been to, but one of my grandmothers never set foot outside Ohio after she emigrated from Italy, and the other one only left Ohio once to visit my family in California.

Evolution of a MMOG

I have been observing World of Warcraft as a social space for over a year.
I have found much to admire in terms of the game’s design and the player culture that has emerged. For those not familiar with WoW, these remarks won’t make much sense. But blogs are about whatever is on the blogger’s mind.

With the expansion (more content added to the existing game) I believe the designers diminished one rich aspect of social life in World of Warcraft. They demoted the great city of Ironforge to an auction house pit stop. Had they replaced Ironforge with a vibrant new social space in Outland, that would have been fine. Instead, Shattrath is a shopping mall gone bad. There is no natural gathering place. You are forced to choose between two opposing factions of the city. Since these factions are mostly about what gear you can work toward, there is no interesting narrative that justifies the fact that you will not always make the same choice as your guildmates and friends, hence you will not see them in Shattrath. Shattrath is simply a place to get business done as quickly as possible. While people would hang out conducting all sorts of activities in the space between the Auction House and Bank in Ironforge, there is no such space in Shattrath.

Furthermore, and it pains me to say this, Shattrath is populated by both Horde and Alliance! After slaying evil forces in deep dungeons, beating back ferocious beasts throughout the land, and encountering worthy opponents in the wilderness encampments of Azeroth, it was always nice to hearth back to Ironforge to be amongst one’s natural allies. Now the game is more focused on the repetitive quests, rep grinding, and so on. The designers believed that people would still go back to Ironforge for the Auction House, and made it easy to get there. What they missed was the diversity of tasks that kept people in Ironforge, giving them an excuse to mingle. It was a village with the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker.

I have much less experience on the Horde side, but Orgrimmar seemed to have a similar feel. It does not have the same gathering space Ironforge does, but there is an area with Auction House, Bank, and so on that was a focus of activity. I haven’t been there since the expansion but I expect it’s the same ghost town Ironforge is.

How can one get so worked up over a video game? Massively multiplayer games are a genuine social space in a world in which taverns, bars, hair salons, and all those other great spots simply do not have the same function they used to. I don’t think there is a one to one correspondence between online games and real world social spaces, but there is one important parallel, namely, a not-work social place for recreation and diversion. It is sad to see something that was working so well in the game messed up for no good reason. All the designers had to do was create a decent couple of capital cities in Outland. Perhaps they themselves had the same nostalgia for Ironforge I have, and they tried to preserve it, rather than having it become an abandoned ruin. It is, however, abandoned.

Just had to get that off my chest about Ironforge (*cries*).

More soon on what I love about Outland!! Outland is spectacular on many ways!