Wednesday, April 22, 2009

IVC: "earth day" miscellany

It was "Earth Day" at Irvine Valley College.
Pretty festive, I guess.

The kid at right didn't think much of the vegan cookies, and he hadn't even tried 'em!

These kids seemed to be sellin' grumpiness.
Well, no, they were nice. And their signs were colorful.

There was some kind of "travel abroad" program at one table. I looked at the pricey brochures. I told the girl that I'd like to visit New Zealand. Someday.

The IVC library is photogenic, inside and out.

Fancy-schmancy, I say. I wanted to slide down that banister.
I didn't.

On the toll road interchange, lookin' south. This image captures the Zeitgeist. I want to set up a lemon-aide stand on this spot, tempting Hummer drivers with the refreshing beverage.

Workers in the fields, just down the road from the college. I wonder what they think of Earth Day?

I snuck up on these two in the library. "Click."

Today is a big day for the district's ambitious ATEP initiative because the five-year period that started in 2004 is at long last over.
Now we wait to see if the City of Tustin will give our efforts their official okey-dokey. Or not.

Does anybody remember what happened on April 28th, 1997? Hint: a day that will live in infamy.
(Of course, if nobody remembers, then I guess the day failed to live in infamy.)

7 comments:

mad as hell said...

Without at all meaning to disparage the students' efforts, these scenes are poignant, sad, and frustrating to me. While individuals attempt to change minds, hearts, and habits (e.g., toward a vegan diet, which would be sustainable, unlike our traditional, meat-heavy one), corporations like the cattle industry continue practices that will most definitely ruin the planet if they continue.

How to get power out of their hands and into voters', or at least into the hands of the informed and concerned? That seems to be the crucial question regarding how we can attempt to reverse the amazing damage we've done. For that reason, many environmentalists I know think that *campaign finance reform* is the absolute key to making progress in the environmental arena.

Obama has made some good first steps, though, and at least will be able to reverse some disastrous Bush-era policies. I do think there's some hope there--more than there has been for a very long time.

Anonymous said...

Hey RB, you stated "Zeitgeist of our time." Doesn't your phrase actually translate into “Spirit of the time of our time?” Isn’t the use of “…of our time” following the word Zeitgeist rather redundant?

Roy Bauer said...

You are correct. I have made the correction.

Anonymous said...

Roy's usage would be considered correct, even though technically a redundancy. It has to do with it being a loan word that has actually become part of our vocabulary, rather than a case of linguistic code switching.
ES

Anonymous said...

I believe that the way Roy used "zeitgeist" is only a redundancy when "zeitgeist" is translated to English. "Spirit of the times" is the best we can render "zeitgeist" in English, but in German the term expresses a concept that means more than just that. This is one of the reasons we "borrow" words from other languages; sometimes a concept conveyed by a certain word cannot be as well expressed by any in our language. We use the word as a whole, inclusive of all it's subtle and nuanced meaning, in order to hold onto and convey that complete concept. If you take the time to understand the nuances of "zeitgeist", it no longer seems redundant to write "...the zeitgeist of our times.".
ES

Anonymous said...

I like eating steaks.

Anonymous said...

Spoken like a true 8-year-old, 6:23.

Roy's obituary in LA Times and Register: "we were lucky to have you while we did"

  This ran in the Sunday December 24, 2023 edition of the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register : July 14, 1955 - November 20, 2...