THE TRIALS OF ST TIMMY'S 34
=================================================================
THE TRIALS AT ST TIMMY'S --
The Continued Saga of Paul Ess's Rehabilitation
=================================================================
This is episode 34. I received this forwarded message and
recommendation from a member of the alt.tasteless fraternity:
Date: Fri, 09 Aug 1996 20:16:56 GMT
From:
To: Paul Frederick Schnellbecher
Subject: Secondary School Students Seeking Assistance
Hey Paul, how about introducing these students to the
alt.tasteless crowd? I'm sure you alone would be worth a few
lessons on your "work" with the computer.
In aus.computers, [.....] wrote:
This is an opportunity to help some secondary school students in
their studies. I am looking for people who use computers in
their work to communicate with my students via electronic mail.
If you might be willing to help out in this way, please read on.
I am a teacher of information technology to upper secondary
school students in an independent school in Melbourne, Australia.
As part of their studies, students need to become aware of the
use of information technology by, and impact of it on,
individuals and organisations. They must make one face-to-face
site visit during the year to organisations of their own
choosing.
It has been my experience that contact with just one organisation
over a year, even when supplemented with printed case studies, is
not enough to give them much taste of real issues, or what it's
like to be really working. However, to arrange more face-to-face
visits is a burden on the teacher and student to organise them,
students to actually make the visits, and importantly, companies
that it will be convenient for them.
Since our students have access to e-mail at school, it seems
logical that if I could find some contacts - that is ANYONE WHO
USES A COMPUTER IN HIS OR HER WORK (which may be paid or
voluntary) - who would be willing to be contacted by students via
computer.
Any person willing to be asked questions and enter into an
electronic discussion with students will not actually be
contacted by any more than one student (or group of students
working together). Students will be in contact with you sometime
between the end of August and the end of September. Students
will be expected to adhere to normal protocol of courtesy in
making contact with people out of school; they can therefore
expect that some people may become unavailable or not willing to
answer certain questions. Samples of the sort of information
students may want to find out about you & your organisation are
given below.
If you are willing to be contacted by students in the next month
1996, please send an e-mail to <.....> detailing
your name, e-mail address, brief description of your job and
what it involves, and the organisation you work for.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me
at <.....>
If you can repost the message, or draw any of your colleagues'
attention to it, that would be greatly appreciated.
Information which students may need to find out ... Note that the
plan would be for them to engage in conversation with you, and
for them to phrase appropriate questions. The following list is
provided simply so that you know what you might be letting
yourself
in for ...
In relation to a whole information system (of small to medium
size):
- what are the components of the information system (ie hardware,
software, people and procedures)
In hardware, this system consists of a Pecker & Balls 486 with
color monitor, two hard drives (the second divided into logical
drives D and E), 2x CD/ROM, Soundblaster 16 with Labtec speakers,
and Canon inkjet printer. In software I have Word Perfeck 5.1,
DeeBase III+, Loutis 123 2.3, Windoze 3.11, VewPrint 4.1,
Kameeleon, and Ajunt 99.
Datafiles consist of categorized feelthy peekchures downleeched
from the Net, bawdy textfiles captured from the Net, and all my
personal business, correspondence, and shrinking financial data.
The people involved are myself only with ocassional shows given
to nursing staff who have a taste for pornographic GIFs and JPGs.
The procedures include but are not limited to looking at the
durty peekchures while the CD/ROM plays Episcopal cathedral
music. At other times I will be writing letters or preparing new
episodes of my ongoing series, The Trials of St Timmy's, the
story of my vegetation in the clutches of the caregiving
establishment. Fag ballads by Romanovsky & Phillips go well with
that. While doing financial tomfoolery, queer punk by Pansy
Division fills the bill. When playing Solitaire or Hearts, I can
play 50s top ten or JS Bach for pipe organ.
- what are some effects of this information system on individuals
I actually have a life through the Internet and don't need to sit
in a corner drooling and poking my thumb in my ass for a thrill.
I entertain people with my snide comments about tardfarms, and I
amuse and amaze nurses with the hideous and funny images plucked
from the ether. Whoever heard tell of a rest home resident
having a computer in his room, being a militant fag, and being
all over the Internet?
- what are some effects of this information systems on the
organisation
Nobody says anything, but I think they're scared to death of me.
They know I can send electronic mail and may think I can send
bitch letters to the Governor.
- what are some effects of this information on society (if any)
It is to be hoped that my earlier series The Eternal Rest Room
(ERR) and the current (Timmy's) series are wising up the people
on the subject of elder and orthopedic rehab care. As one dear
wag put it, "Read this and know just what kind of shit grandma is
in for at the tardfarm." I have repeatedly been told that a
series of tales I wrote about my adolescent sluttishness made
even confirmed hetties pop wood.
- what management procedures are used to co-ordinate the
equipment, the people and the information
I have to steer clear of anything stronger than Aspirin. Glub
forbid they put any HappyJuice in my coffee. My 'puter is
password protected just in case any of the office creepettas gets
cute and wants to snoop. Everybody is disinvited from this room
as a standing rule because I have had things ripped off -- in a
rest home for Christ's sake! -- and so staff are expected to be
in here only on official business like to wipe my ass.
- what changes in management procedures have been necessitated
or 'encouraged' by using this information system
I keep a record of all my dealings with the bureaucracies
controlling ADA-compliant tardhives with which I have dealings.
I've thought of adding subroutines to perform constant
recalculations on which year and month of the next millenium I
can expect to move out of this place.
- what changes in personal tasks and routines (yourself and
others) have been necessitated or 'encouraged' by using this
information system
I don't have to keep paper files around for people to browse when
I'm elsewhere. It's all stored electronically and can be
produced in hard copy only when necessary.
- what are some ways in which individuals or society may
influence technological developments and applications, and any
you have participated in (eg acceptance or rejection of
systems, group pressure or lobbying, consultation by
management)
I wanted them to put an Ethernet card in my box so I could get on
their house network so I could read everybody's medical data, but
then I decided it wouldn't help the cooking around here, so fuck
it.
================================================================= (
geocities.com/sunsetstrip/disco/3645/dakween) (
geocities.com/sunsetstrip/disco/3645) (
geocities.com/sunsetstrip/disco) (
geocities.com/sunsetstrip)