BGD & DC Trip Wrap-up

Wednesday:

On Wednesday, I arrived at DC’s Union Station with my luggage and headed out. I quickly found the Metro and checked the class map to see where the hotel was (where the class was leaving from). There was a red pushpin right near a Metro stop near K-street, so I took the Metro there. After getting out, I looked around but couldn’t spot our hotel. I kept staring at the map and still couldn’t find the hotel. It turns out that the map wasn’t centered on the hotel; it was centered on one of the myriad of places we’d be meeting people at during the week. So, I was in the wrong place. At this point, I’d be running late to get to the hotel, and I realized taking Metro there meant a 4-6 block walk with my suitcases, so I took a cab. I checked into my room and then called the instructor to see where to meet them. It turned out that I’d only missed like the first ten minutes of meeting with Congressman Kind, because he had been running late, too. I took a cab from the hotel to the Longworth building. For reference, here’s a quick map of the House and Senate buildings I’ll be referencing in this post. (Google Earth/Maps is also helpful here.) Longworth is one of the House buildings toward the bottom of the map. So, that all worked out okay, aside from me already being a sweaty mess. Meeting Congressman Kind was relatively uneventful. Most of his talk was about how he sees many common issues between the parties and believes in bipartisan efforts.

Our next stop was Union Station (hey! I was just there!) for lunch. I didn’t really get to hear the guy that met us there for lunch. I was sitting kind of far away, and there was alot of ambient noise. However, Ed Greelegs was sitting near me, and I got kind of a private audience with him, which was great! I really enjoyed talking to him. Then, we walked to the Dirksen Senate building to meet with Deb Whitman. Deb was really enjoyable. She went through the real version of how a bill becomes a law. She gave an example of a bill that she’s been working on for two years for her congressman, a relatively unobtrusive one that would prevent people convicted of violent or abusive crimes from working in nursing homes. Even though there’s no opposition to it, it’s still taken years for it to even get into committee. (It actually moved out of committee and made it onto the floor list while we were in DC. She texted us to let us know that we were her lucky charms!)

Then, we walked to the Hart building. I can’t remember if we met with someone or if we just went over there to see something. What I do know is that we found out that the Senate hearings regarding Health Care were being held over there, and we eventually tracked down the room. We didn’t have enough time to really sit in, but we got a quick glance inside the room:

There was also a Calder sculpture in the lobby. I took a picture, just because it’s a tie back to Chicago (where Calder has a famous Flamingo sculpture).

Our next stop was a lobbying office on Constitution. I found the location using my G1 and had GMaps give me walking directions, but the class ended up taking a different and longer route such that we walked a mile for what should have been a half mile walk. The view from the office of the Capitol was spectacular; I took 2-3 photos. At the office, we heard from a person, not affiliated with the office–he just met us there, who (by his own description) makes conspiracy theorists stay awake at night. He manages public opinion, which is to say, he does things like push polls, hiring protesters, hiring people to ask questions at town halls, and drafting opinion letters that aren’t real. Ironically, I can’t recall his name. Then, two of the lobbyists spoke to us about their job.

One of the things that most people in our class found shocking (but I already knew) is that lobbyists serve a valuable purpose in the system. They provide information to the Congress (via staffers, usually) that the people might not otherwise know. Congresspeople aren’t experts on every topic, and lobbyists primarily give briefings. In the 80’s and 90’s, they’d gain Congress’ ear by taking staffers out to dinner or having fancy parties. But now, staffers aren’t allowed to accept things from lobbyists, which really sucks for the (incredibly underpaid) staffers…and has basically made it such that you have to be independently funded (i.e., your parents are rich) to be a Congressional staffer…and being a staffer is the #1 way to get into more influential positions later. So, by cutting off lobbyists from staffers without compensating staffers, we’ve created a system that kind of sucks and will eventually really screw with the quality of our government. At any rate, yeah, the lobbyists are trying to sell the staffers on something, but every single person we talked to, lobbyists included, noted that staffers, even back in the “good old days”, couldn’t be bought. A staffer can’t force a Congressperson to vote a certain way, and it was rare to come across a Congressperson who could be bought. That is, the scandals were scandals because of their rarity, and they got overexaggerated. What lobbyists do for staffers generally is to help them get briefed on side effects of legislation that they might not understand, to keep the Congressperson from voting for a bill that might not do what (s)he thinks it will do. And, staffers are generally smart enough to take what lobbyists say with a grain of salt. Many DC-ers commented on Obama’s anti-lobbyist policy and said it’s a huge mistake. They said it will end up with him getting less-qualified staff because he’s enacting a rule that eliminates anyone with any real history in DC…as you pretty much go into being a lobbyist when you aren’t working on someone’s campaign, if you’re good at understanding and working the system, have contacts, etc. So, I mention all of that because it seems like it’s still not really understood or well-known.

The class split up to head back to the hotel. Some people wanted to take a cab, and others wanted to enjoy the (now cooler) weather by walking to union station. I ended up leading the walking group back to the station and eventually to the hotel. Along the way to Union Station, we came across a memorial to the Japanese Americans that were held in internment camps during WWII. I formed a quick friendship with the girls I walked with. Their names were Karen and Linda. One was a fan of Amazing Race and the other was a West Wing fan, so we had things to talk about.

We ended up back at the hotel. A bunch of people were going with the instructor to dinner and a night walk around the monuments, but I was tired of walking and tired in general, so I didn’t want to go. Neither did Karen or Linda, so we met separately and had dinner near the hotel. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at a Walgreen’s. I wanted to buy a cheapie cup to use for soda at the hotel, and one of them needed a toiletry item. I ended up getting a DC souvenir glass. While looking at souvenirs and postcards (including the one that those of y’all on my postcard list got), I saw lots of camo-print items with a panda on them. I was like, “why are there pandas on DC things?” I had no idea that DC had a National Zoo that had pandas. Apparently, they’re a source of controversy because it costs alot to maintain them. After buying my cup, I went back to the hotel and crashed.

I should note, I had a roommate, who was also nice generally. But, she went to bed late most nights, and I went to bed early. She got up early in the mornings, because she took *hours* to get ready, literally. I woke up at the last minute I could. I don’t know how she exists on so little sleep. Also, she wore 2 inch heels every day. Granted, she took cabs many times that I walked or Metro’d, but still! I’d die if I were her.

The next morning, I met Karen and Linda in the lobby, and we Metro’d to our first stop of the day. We stopped in Union Station for breakfast along the way. Then, we headed to the Dirksen building for the Durbin/Burris town hall meeting. (IL senators have a longstanding tradition of holding a weekly town hall versus holding individual meetings with visiting constituents.) The meeting started with introductions from every group represented at the town hall. Then, they opened it up for questions, and anyone could ask any question. That didn’t mean you got an answer…but you got to ask. The highlights were:

• Burris accidentally introduced Durbin as “the senior citizen” instead of “the senior senator.”
• Burris meant to reference that there’s no intention of death panels for senior citizens, but instead said that there’s no intention of giving the death penalty to senior citizens.

So yeah, generally, Burris was a dolt, and Durbin was impressive. Then, we headed over to the house buildings for meetings there. Congressman Ryan struck me as a balanced and reasonable person, with good and innovative ideas. He also had what I jokingly call iPod nipples when DH has them…that is, he had an iPod Nano with lanyard tucked under his shirt, so that the headphones look like nipples.

You can see the list of people we met with in the post before this one, so I won’t itemize. Suffice it to say, we ran all over the place. I tracked it on Gmap pedometer, and I did around 8 miles of walking that day. I went on the Capitol tour, which sucked. I don’t recommend it. I mean, it’s free, which is nice…but you don’t get to see anything anymore. They’ve shortened it considerably since 9/11. The tour is less than ten minutes long. I really enjoyed meeting with the EPA. The two people who met with us were young and really enthused about what they do.

That night, the class went to a restaurant near the hotel. They had a martini drink that I loved. I had several. We all laughed and told stories, and it was a blast. Some folks stayed out late, but I crashed, as usual.

The next morning, I was awake before my roommate. My plan was to check into my hotel for that night before leaving with the group to go to our first stop of the day. So, I went there first thing. I took a cab, even though it was only a few blocks away. The hotel location was awesome, right around the corner from a Metro stop. Also, I was able to get into my room at 8am, which is amazing. Then, I had another busy day of meetings. The two most interesting were Paula Pfingsten, a member of the press corps, and Grover Norquist, a Conservative leader and author. Norquist was an eloquent speaker, but he started off his bit by saying that the Republican party is the party of freedom and the Democrat party is the party of loss of freedom. He said many other things that bothered me, but that’s just a joke. Neither party is high on my list of defenders of freedom these days, but Republicans are far lower on the totem pole than Dems. So, I began making notes of all the freedoms I could think of that Republicans have either denounced or removed in the past decade or so that Dems have generally supported…you know, like the right to marry, the right to an abortion, freedom of speech to criticize one’s government, free borders (which goes hand in hand with free trade), the right to not have a cellphone company hand over your phone records to the government without a warrant…stuff like that. When Norquist asked for a question, I brought up all of this and asked if he still considers Republicans the party of freedom. His answer, in short, was that government security is important, the only vital mission of a government, and basically implied that rights should be sacrificed for security and/or those rights aren’t important enough. He did not give me a chance for a follow-up.

We ended up having a long lunch break that allowed for sightseeing, due to some cancellations and whatnot. I spent my lunch at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. I’d been to it before, but they had a Darwin exhibit that had inspired a smattering of picketers, and that made up my mind for me. I learned that Darwin was an avid beetle collector. I also went through an indoor butterfly garden with hundreds of butterflies flitting about. I saw tents being set up for the National Book Fair and resolved to look up more info about it, to decide whether to make it part of my agenda.

After our speakers finished up and the class finished a wrap-up talk, I had just barely enough time to Metro back to the hotel, change, and then Metro over to Chinatown to join up with my scheduled Segway tour. Though my feet were aching, I signed up for a Segway tour, which means standing in one place for 2-3 hours….’cause I’m brilliant. Anyways, I had tons of fun on the tour. I was one of the few that never took a tumble. Most people fell getting on or off, or they brushed a wheel against something and lost control…or one person didn’t realize she was about to drop off of a curb at the last second and jumped off. During the Segway tour, we saw the president’s helicopter land at the West Wing, which was pretty darn cool. I briefly saw an Obama head. The Segway tour was actually a great way to get the lay of the land before my day of touristing on Saturday. The tour guide recommended a few things that I hadn’t thought of doing but ended up doing, like lunch at the Native American Museum (the newest Smithsonian), the Japanese art exhibit, and seeing the pop culture exhibits at the American History Museum.

I had dinner in Chinatown and then Metro’d back to my hotel to crash. I spent some time on the internet, during which I found that the one author at the book fair that I’d want to see (Gwen Ifill) would be speaking too late for me to do. It was also supposed to be rainy, so I opted for touring the Smithsonian campus rather than doing the National Zoo. I decided to wake naturally instead of an alarm, which worked out fine because I didn’t sleep in much. I got everything packed up and checked my bags with the porter before heading out for the day.

My Saturday was as follows:

• First stop: Freer Gallery – Japanese art exhibit
• Next stop: American History Museum – saw the pop culture exhibits and the musical instruments area
• Next stop: Swung through the book fair – saw one author speaking, didn’t recognize her, got a tote bag and a picture with Bullseye at the Target tent
• Then, I walked along the mall to the Hirschhorn Museum (contemporary art) and sculpture garden – was interesting, but I wasn’t in a mood to contemplate art
• Walked up to the American Indian museum to have lunch – had to wait in line for a half hour to get lunch, mainly because people DO NOT UNDERSTAND BUFFET SERVICE. You do not have to wait in line at a buffet-style service unless the space demands it. In most large buffet setups, you just dart from station to station, like a bee in a garden. I’m so tired of people not getting this. THIS IS WHAT MAKES BUFFETS EFFICIENT, PEOPLE!!! So, anyways, the Mitsitam cafe at the American Indian museum has stations that serve food from each region represented in the museum. You can get South American food, Alaskan food, or lots of others. I got Midwest food. (Hey, I had to eat from my own region!) I had a pulled buffalo sandwich that was dee-lish. It came with Chayote squash slaw, also good. And, I got Fry Bread with Cinnamon and Honey for dessert…yummy! I also got Prickly Pear Agua Fresca to drink, which tasted kind of like watermelon juice. Then, I went upstairs in the museum and wandered around. One of the cool things about this museum is that it’s got all these story stations, which are basically cozy areas around a speaker or TV that has a recording of someone telling a story about American Indian life. I heard stories about how the stars came to be. It was a very cool museum.
• My final stop was the Portrait Gallery. I decided to see if Colbert was still there somewhere. If he was, I couldn’t find him.

After that, I took the Metro out to Reagan International to pick up my rental car. People, do not rent from Enterprise near DCA. First, they’re off-site. Now, I knew that going in…but they have a shelter area that is marked for the Enterprise shuttle that is NOT where the rest of the rental car shuttles go. So, I had to hunt for this special shelter which took awhile. Then, the shuttle driver didn’t even stop at the shelter…he just did a slow roll to see if anyone waved at him. I didn’t, because I was in the shelter with like eight other people, so I figured him stopping was a given. It clearly wasn’t until I flagged him down. When I got to the site, the service was SO slow, and they were overly enthused about the upsell, even after I kept saying I was in a hurry and really didn’t want to upgrade. The girl wanted to give me a ten minute lecture about getting their insurance because it was sprinkling rain. She tried to sound ominous, and I just laughed. I have insurance. I don’t need theirs. Rental car insurance is a rip-off, in part because the only people who get it are the people who need it, if you know what I mean. So, finally, I was on the road back to my hotel to pick up my luggage. Fortunately, my generous tip to the bellhop when I dropped off my luggage paid off (the bags were very heavy), as he was super-speedy in getting it to me, so I tipped generously again ($5 for 2 bags). I ended up with plenty of time to make it to my friend’s concert out in MD that night. I even got to stop for ChickFilA on the way there. Woot!

So then I spent that night and part of the next day with our friends in MD. We played Pillars, and we caught up on things. I had an uneventful drive to the airport and then…more reason to not rent from Enterprise at DCA. They weren’t clearing the returns fast enough, so there was a line backed up out onto the street to get in. I waited 15 minutes just to be able to pull the car into the garage. Then I was standing by it for another 10 minutes waiting on an attendant. Finally, I gave up. I left the keys in the ignition, locked the doors, left the “turn in” copy of my receipt in the car (keeping my copy), photographed every side of the car and the keys in the ignition and then headed out to the airport shuttle just before it left. Then, I called the office and told them where the car was and why I’d left it there. They were friendly about it and admitted to being crowded, but still…it was just lousy service all the way around.

The flight home was uneventful. Oh, yeah, people were stupid at the Midwest Airlines check-in counter. Midwest and Airtran’s counters were right next to each other. Airtran’s “first class only” line was right next to the normal line for Midwest. And then on the far right, Midwest had their “online check-in baggage check” line. So, the normal line was empty, and the online check-in line had 30 people in it. What’s more, there were 3 “check-in luggage” machines, but only one was getting used, though all three were functional. I had checked in online, but this seemed ridiculous. I examined the signs three times, looked at the people in the line and then went through the normal check-in line. While in it, I looked at one of the people in the online line and asked why they were all standing in that line. The man was like, “That line is for first class.” I said, “No, it’s not. The line over there (pointing) is for Airtran’s first class. This is just the normal line…”, I paused and caught the eye of a desk attendant as I walked up to the counter, “…right?” She nodded. I shrugged and checked my bags in at one of the two free machines. I got many dirty looks from the line of people. But, as I see it, politeness only dictates that I inform them of their error, not that I let them go ahead of me once I confirm the error. (And honestly, it’s Midwest’s job to manage their line. One of those attendants should have fixed this problem.)

So, that was my DC trip. Pictures are posted in the gallery, as per the usual way of things.

Business, Government, & Democracy

A more vigorous description will come when I have time, but here is the schedule that I followed while in DC for LFGSM 5895:

Wednesday, September 23rd
11:30 – 12:00 – Congressman Kind – 1406 Longworth HOB
12:30 – 1:30 – Neil Hare, President, Global Vision – America Restaurant in Union Station on the 2nd Floor – 50 Massachusetts Ave NE (lunch included)
2:00 – 3:30 – Debra Whitman/Ed Greelegs/ Chris Brown – Staff Director Senate Committee on Aging – Room SDG – 31
4:30 – 5:00 – Steve Palmer at Van Scoyoc and Associates—see www.vsadc.com. 101 Constitution Avenue NW
5:00 – 5:30 – Bill Knapp – 101 Constitution Avenue NW

Thursday, September 24th
8:15 – 9:30 – Town Hall meeting with Senators Durbin and Burris. Russell Office Building Room 385
Walk to
10:00 – 10:30 – Congressman Paul Ryan – 1113 Longworth
10:30 – 11:00 – Congressman Manzullo – 2228 Rayburn House Office Building
11:30 – 12:00 – Congressman Danny Davis – 2159 Rayburn House Office Building
12:30 – 1:30 – Capitol Tour
OR
1:00 – 1:30 – Lieutenant Colonel Luke Knittig – ActionAid Office – 1420 K Street, 9th Floor – Suite 900
1:30 – 2:00 – Tim Kay – ActionAid Office – 1420 K Street, 9th Floor – Suite 900
2:00 – 2:30 – Dan Mendleson – Avalere Health – ActionAid Office – 1420 K Street, 9th Floor – Suite 900
3:00 – 3:45 – Andrea Wilkinson – Director of Federal Government Affairs-Takeda DC –
725 Ninth Street NW Suite 725 (5th floor)
4:00 – 4:30 – Karen Ignagni – President and CEO America’s Health Insurance Plans –
601 Pennsylvania Ave, NW Suite 500 South Building
5:00 – 5:30 – Billy Tauzin, President and CEO of PhRMA – 950 F Street, NW Suite 300
OR
5:00 – 5:30 – Environmental Protection Agency – Mollie Lemon, Stratospheric Protection Division – 1301 Constitution Ave. NW EPA West Building

Friday, September 25th

9:30 – 10:00 – Kristen Hedrow – MPH, Assistant Director of Regulatory Affairs and Quality
Improvement Programs of the American College of Surgeons – ActionAid Office
10:30 – 11:00 – Paula Cruickshank – Washington News Bureau Chief – ActionAid Office
2 – 3pm – Peter O’Driscoll – Executive Director, ActionAid – ActionAid Office
3 – 3:30 – Grover Norquist and Hal Morse – ActionAid Office
3:30pm-5pm – Wrap-up/Conclusions

Riding the Train

(Edited to add: This is a link to the route I was on.)

So, this morning, I left my hotel at 5:30am to head to EWR. I arrived at 6am, dropped off the rental car, and got on the monorail to go to the EWR train station. About twenty minutes later, I was at the NJ transit platform, waiting on a commuter train to take me from there to Newark Penn Station. It took about ten minutes. At the Newark station, I scanned my pre-bought Amtrak ticket receipt at a machine, and it spit out my train ticket.

This part was confusing. I’m sure there’s some way that I’m supposed to be able to look at a screen or examine my ticket to find out what track to go to, but I couldn’t figure it out. I went to the Amtrak information desk, and an attendant directed me to platform 3 and showed me where the elevator was, since I was hauling my large wheeled bag around with me (currently clocking in at 52 pounds, by the way, and my backpack was at 35 pounds…luggage scales are fun!). I eventually found my way to platform 3 and waited there for my 7:24am train. The same attendant that I’d seen at information came up to the platform about ten minutes before the train was set to arrive and started directing people to what area of platform to stand for their ticket. They sorted people by destination and ticket class into several numbered areas along the platform. I had bought a regular coach ticket and that plus my destination of Washington, DC landed me at area 5.

So, in fairness, I had to leave the hotel just as early as I would have for an airplane. However, that was mainly because I had to drop off the rental car at the airport and then take transportation to the train station. If I could have gone straight to the station, and if I hadn’t been avoiding NYC traffic, I could have left a bit later. It was lovely to not have to deal with the TSA, nor a line to check my bag. Granted, I generally like the convenience of not having to tote my bag around with me.

(“real time” note: pulling up to the 30th street station in Philadelphia now)

Then, I boarded. Most of the window seats were taken, so I slid my stuff, with some guilt, into a section of seats marked as reserved for parties of two. I was not the only single person in the seats, but I still felt bad. But, I wanted a window seat, and I figured I could move pretty easily if needed. I tucked my big bag into a niche toward the front of the railcar that seemed designed for large bags. Fortunately, I didn’t have to lift it over my head, because that would have been a dangerous endeavor. I settled into my seat happily. The seats have plenty of butt and legroom. You can totally stretch out and relax. Also, and this is a HUGE bonus to me, every seat has its own power outlet. My laptop is charging while I type this. The only thing that would make it more awesome is Wi-Fi, and to my understanding, they’re working on getting that going. (Or, I could always buy a 3G data card…or trouble the guys at my company who make them to give me a prototype and then just pay for the service.)

A little bit ago, an older man sat next to me for awhile. He used to work for Amtrak, and part of his retirement package was an unlimited train pass for life. So, he takes the train everywhere. I told him it was my first time and explained my interest in someday taking the train through the Rockies, and he said it’s a beautiful trip but that riding a train is definitely more tiring than flying. He was very nice, but I think he may have had some continence issues, because he smelled distinct in that regard. He moved to a different seat a little while ago (he mentioned he wanted a window seat because he gets motion sick…I offered mine but he said he’d just switch at the next stop), and, now, the seat next to me has that distinct smell, too. Eew. Well, actually, it’s fading now, so maybe it was just a linger.

Speaking of, I used the bathroom on the train a little while ago. It was roomy in general, but the actual toilet area was cramped. The toilet was set in at a 30 degree angle, but there was a wall that prevented you from sitting on it at that angle, so that was odd. And, it smelled funny, too.

So, that’s a downside, I guess. Also, I do really wish you could just reserve a certain seat instead of it being open seating. That way, I could get a window without feeling the guilt of being somewhere I shouldn’t be. I guess I could have done what the man did and hunted down a window when we stopped at Philadelphia…but I’m not sure there was another one, and so far, no one has needed this seat anyways. There is definitely some rocking and motion, but it’s not unpleasant. It’s just there. And, it’s quiet in here…not like a plane with the noisy engines and such.

I am really enjoying the scenery. I mean, it’s not much, because it’s all urban areas, but it’s still something to see. Like, just now, we passed a trolley depot. At one point, we passed a junkyard with a big claw that was picking up and moving cars around. I saw Philadelphia’s skyline in the distance just before that stop.

All in all, barring some major catastrophe between now and my endpoint, I think I’ll be happy to take Amtrak again.

Birds!

One of my benefits for joining the Milwaukee Zoo society was a free pass to their special exhibit, Wings From Down Under. I had initially blown this benefit off because I don’t really like birds. They kind of freak me out. I feel like they’re too close to dinosaurs, and they don’t have features I can anthropomorphize. I don’t like the beaks, either. I mean, really, what’s up with that? Have teeth or don’t, but a beak is just *odd*. If you know me well, you probably know this, as you’ve probably heard me comment on it or seen me run away from birds before. So, I imagine this photo will shock you:

This is from the Wings exhibit at the Milwaukee Zoo. I decided to go, and it was a blast. The entire exhibit boils down to that you walk into a giant birdcage with a popsicle stick that has millet adhered to it, and then you’re there with hundreds of parakeets and quite a few parrots and cockatoos, all native to Australia. The birds are smart, too. They would immediately set upon anyone walking in the entrance, because those people definitely have fresh millet. ? You could buy additional millet sticks inside, too, but the people walking in were a guarantee of millet, and the birds had that figured out. So, like, the minute you walk in, you just feel these whooshes of air and then you have birds all over your arms and hands. I’m not going to lie…I was completely freaked out at first…but it was like immersion therapy. After a bit, I felt at home…and I even began to notice some characteristics I liked about the birds. For one thing, I liked that they were smart enough to focus on the new people. I liked how they totally blew off and avoided the kids that seemed overly interested in touching them or poking them but did give plenty of attention to the nice, calm kids and parents. At one point, I found one bird who just seemed kind of shellshocked and clearly wanted some millet but wanted no part of the people associated with it. I held my millet stick up to him, and he went after it hungrily and eventually inched toward me a bit, but he wouldn’t leave his branch. I’m guessing he’d been terrorized by someone. Poor guy. (Oh, and I learned from the keepers that the little stripe above their beak usually tells you if they’re a guy or girl bird, so I know he was a he.)

It was so much fun that Ms. Moo and I called my DH in. He’d stayed outside, since I just had the one ticket and he was listening to the game anyways. We had all thought the exhibit would just be one of those walk-through aviaries or a bird show or something like that. We had no idea it would be so hands-on.

The only disappointment was the lack of education. I really wish I could have learned more about why the birds are so varied in color (is it just breeding? Or do certain colors have certain qualities) and why the parrots from Australia are so much smaller than the ones I saw in Mexico. But, overall, it was a blast. Check out the Milwaukee Zoo 2009-09 gallery for more pictures from our visit. (Note that the gallery has two separate visits in it, one with my dad over labor day weekend and one from this past weekend.)

(“Real time” note: I’m typing this on the train, by the way…we just stopped at Wilmington, Delaware. It’ll be backdated when I post it.)

Schooling

(Don’t faint; I’m posting again. I’ve been struck with a desire to write stuff, and I have time and ability to indulge it.)

This year, I’m taking 2 classes each term (we have 4 terms in a normal year, plus a 5th accelerated term that is optional in the summer), as follows:

• Term 1: Economics for Managers, Business Government & Democracy (1st half of term), Survey Methods (2nd half of term)
• Term 2: Financial Management, Innovation & Risk
• Term 3: Marketing, Project Management (online)
• Term 4: Global Business & Cultural Diversity, Negotiations & Conflict Management

I’m enjoying the curriculum for Economics, but I’m not enjoying the class itself. The instructor is a nice guy and very reasonable and friendly, but he doesn’t seem to prepare much for our class (he’s mentioned a few times that he teaches at several colleges in the area and gets confused as to which class he’s in at any given moment). So, he’ll get a problem wrong on the board sometimes and have to correct himself, or he’ll explain a concept using terms that aren’t used in our book, confusing the vast majority of the class that don’t know that he’s just using alternate terminology for the same concepts. I’m lucky in that I listen to Planet Money, an NPR show that is available freely via podcast feed (easy to find on iTunes, Zune, or your aggregator of choice). Planet Money keeps me knowledgeable and current, and they do a GREAT job of breaking down economic concepts in simple terms. I highly recommend it.

My other issue with the Economics class is that LFGSM decided to merge what used to be 2 classes into 1 class during the summer break. So, this used to be a 5-week class in MicroEcon and a 5-week class in MacroEcon. They decided after last year that it made more sense to teach them cohesively as one class. Problem is, they didn’t spend enough time revising the syllabus, so it’s VERY apparent that they just merged the two syllabuses’ grading. The result was that, in the version published to us, over 60% of the grade is group work. That’s against LFGSM policy, and, more importantly, it’s against *my* policy. It pisses me off that my work on a group project has, on more than one occasion, pulled up another student by a full letter grade. LFGSM offers no recourse for a group member that is slacking. On one hand, I appreciate that group projects approximate real-life project teams. However, in real life project teams, if you slack off, there are consequences from your management. In this approximation, the “management” is LFGSM, and they do *nothing* to penalize slackers. It has been a frequent complaint by many people at the Class Rep meetings. Suggestions to fix it have included implementing a 360 feedback program (with built-in process for handling both the highest and lowest rated students), providing the instructor the flexibility to adjust a person’s group grade if it’s clear that the person did not contribute adequately, and advising instructors to consider participation in the group project as part of the participation component of the overall class grade. (Currently, participation almost assuredly equals attendance, despite every instructor claiming it doesn’t.) Anyways, I complained to the appropriate channels about the grading scheme being against policy, and they’re working on fixing it…but the other big problem is that this class has two fairly large group projects (a result of the combination of the two classes), whereas most classes tend to have one individual project and one group project. Which means, in a term where I was already going to be overloaded, I’m more overloaded than will be normal going forward. Meh.

As for the Business, Government, & Democracy class, it’s a mixed bag. The class is a half credit, but it costs nearly as much as a full credit. There was one lecture session early in the term, and there’s a class trip to DC coming up next week. During the trip, we’ll be meeting with staffers and congresspeople and lobbyists…and talking to them about how business and government interact. So, that seems like loads of fun. But, here’s the downside: I really don’t get what I’m paying for. So far, it feels like this class could have been independent study with an equal level of success. The students are tasked with setting up all the meetings for the trip. The one lecture class was almost entirely spent discussing logistics of the trip. So, we’re getting almost no benefit from the instructor. It feels like it could have been run for a much lower budget by letting students schedule their own travel arrangements and DC meetings, at their leisure in the “acceptable” time period. The two papers that are assigned in the class could have been graded by peer review with a dean or assistant dean’s oversight. What’s more, the papers are basically just something for them to grade us on, as the real class content is this trip that’s coming up. It may be that the instructor starts shining during this trip…I hope so, because otherwise, I’ll be unimpressed with what is a really cool and innovative class concept. But, the fun part is that I got to write a briefing paper on an issue of importance to me. I chose the legalization of online poker, and as for my meeting, I’m setting it up with the Poker Players’ Alliance, an action group formed to combat the UIGEA (the midnight rider legislation that effectively prevents Americans from playing online poker for money, though it doesn’t ban it outright). Also, I arranged my flight to spend a little more time in the DC area for touristing and for visiting with friends in that area. Yay!

Grayslake Farmers’ Market

I had a great time at the Grayslake Farmers’ Market on Wednesday. It’s one of the few farmers’ markets in this area that operates on a weekday evening, instead of on a weekday morning or afternoon. I’d been meaning to go for most of the summer, but one or another thing always interfered. A desire for berries finally motivated me to get over there, and it was lovely. It was like a street fair. There were all sorts of yummy produce booths, as well as 3 different fresh butchered meat vendors with their freezer trucks. I ended up getting some raspberries and some blackberries from a farm that’s actually near the Moos’ house. I also got a small package of apple-infused ground pork, for making a burger or two at some point. My last purchase was a small package of homemade Apple Donuts, from an orchard in Harvard. Every vendor was very friendly and not at all pushy. Most of them offered me a sample or two before I bought anything. And, generally, the prices were on par with the local grocery store.

There were other odd and assorted vendors, too. I bought a plate of fresh fried veggies (tempura style) from one booth that was kind of partnered with another booth…they bought the veggies from the booth next door, and you could specifically pick out your mix of veggies and have them fried or grilled for you while you wandered around, in about ten minutes. Or, you could get a pre-made mix right away. There was a funnel cake vendor, and a hot popcorn vendor (who was also selling “raw” corn and corn kernels for home popping…he was a corn farmer from a few blocks away!). There were several people selling sauces that they’d made themselves. For example, Two Fat Guys Sauces had a booth, and the eponymous guys were there selling and providing samples! (It was very tasty, but I just don’t barbecue enough to go through a bottle of sauce.) Another booth was Grayslake Massage, and they were doing dollar-a-minute chair and arm/hand massages with all proceeds going to benefit Save-A-Pet (a very large no-kill shelter in our area).

I ended up having fruit and veggies for dinner that night, which is a rare (but deliciously satisfying) thing for me.