kmusser

For those that don't follow me on FB, my contract was terminated, made a public post with details on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/karl-musser-gis_firedfeds-activity-7304877295201050624-8RWV?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAABUSw0B1GVZjZtpRkXJvbCzNGkpA010LBw

So I don't talk about my work much, but we have an election coming up and working in government I am more directly impacted by changes in administration than most. The Democrats are not very good at touting their accomplishments, but that doesn't mean they don't have them, and these past 2 years have been a bit of a whirlwind for our office. For those that don't know I provide geographic analysis for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

For a long time most of what our office did was collect data and report on the conditions of our agricultural lands. During the Bush years, reports on environmentally sensitive topics were suppressed, but we kept collecting data and Obama let us report again. I also did some work directly for Biden, mostly documenting where recovery funds were going, and it was nice having an administration that cared what we did. Trump for good or ill didn't know that USDA existed so we never got new instructions during his years and we just kept going on autopilot. My immediate boss recognized that our data could be used for a lot more that it was, rather than just reporting it could actively identify where funding was most need looking forward, so we started laying the groundwork for that, but didn't know if it would ever be used.

When Biden got elected it was like flipping a light switch, not only did the administration know we existed, but it had very definite ideas of what the agency should be doing and was very very interested in that data and modelling work we were doing to help target agency activity. Then two years again the Inflation Reduction Act was passed and the flood gates opened - I won't summarize everything in this bill, Wikipedia does a decent job of that and I'll drop a link, but it is an absolutely massive investment in rural America and my job has been dominated by it since. It authorized a ton of new spending and the agency turned to us to help direct the agricultural portion of it.

So where is that being directed? To farmers and ranchers that have been historically underserved by the agency, whether because they are minorities, or small farms rather than big corporate ones, or are new to farming, or veterans, or urban farms. For all farms the type of work being funded is landowners putting practices on their land and crops that make it more drought resistant, wildfire resistant, mitigate climate change, prevent fertilizer and pesticides from going into streams or leaching into ground water, and just in general make agriculture more sustainable - all with an eye to where the funds can be used most efficiently to target the most vulnerable lands.

That money is primarily coming from corporate taxes and if DJT is elected I do not think we will be overlooked again thanks to Project 2025. This work will all be shelved so that he can shovel more money to his billionaire friends instead, and what's especially sad is that the bulk of this spending is going to red voting parts of the country that are generally neglected. Unlike DJT, the Biden administration really does try and serve the whole country and doesn't seek to punish the parts that vote against him.

I know I'm mostly preaching to the choir here. There are lots of reasons for vote against DJT, I mean he's a crook and doesn't give a shit about anyone other than himself, and maybe you'd like the country to stay a democracy. But I'd also like you to have a reason to vote for Biden, especially after that abysmal debate performance. I don't always agree with Biden, but I do believe he has the best interests of the country at heart and surrounds himself with pretty smart people - and as a lowly peon member of his administration I think we're doing good work and I hope you'll let us keep doing it.

More on the Inflation Reduction Act:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflation_Reduction_Act

This post partly inspired by one about the Act's impacts:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/why-is-quiet-new-106917389

Just going with bullet points this year:

• I mostly failed to come out of hermit mode, will keep trying.
  
• The finances have mostly recovered though, only travel out of state was a jaunt up to the Finger Lakes and one Chicago trip, but I'm hoping this year will have more.
  
• I did succeed in reading more, will do a book update soon, but currently on Chernow's Hamilton biography which is great.
  
• The year was obviously dominated by the train wreck of an election, the effects of which are just getting started, I'll be keeping up my little news summaries.
  
• In gaming still addicting to EU IV, Stellaris and Civ failed to de-throne it. For board games, most played new game is probably Orleans.
  
• So many celebrity deaths - first up on this years see them before they leave us list is Aretha Franklin.
  
• Cubs win!
  
• Faire without Pyrates :-(
  
• Brunswick gains its own brewery!
  
• Changes at work as my boss has been busy fighting cancer, the rest of us have had to pick up some of the slack, still going good though and hoping work can survive the Trump years as we did the Bush ones, just laying low and keep collecting data without calling too much attention to ourselves. On the plus side did a handful of freelance projects, so might increase that if thinks turn south.
  
• A lot of change and 2017 promises more, one thing reading history has taught me is that our country has faced worse and survived, just hoping it can do so again.

No news on the move, still waiting for someone to buy our place. Active renovations are done, so life is not quite as frantic, just need to maintain the place in viewable condition. That does mean having to make the commute are little more often than would otherwise be necessary due to our cats tendencies to leave us unwanted presents that need to be cleaned up. Bleh. Otherwise still mostly in hibernation mode, with what free time I have going to Ingress or my latest computer game obsession which has been Europa Universalis IV. That said I will be at faire this Sunday, so hopefully will see some of you there. That and closing day are likely to be my only faire days.

So the house renovations are still consuming my life, but we are making progress and I think we'll be on track to list the house within the next week or two. Once listed we can begin the house hunting in earnest, perhaps actually moving sometime in September? Once move is done I want a week with nothing to do other than play computer games. After that perhaps I'll attempt having a social life again, at least I'll get to see a few of you at TCEP.

Will be short since I didn't like this year very much. Starting out spending the 1st quarter out of work was not good. The financial hit from that left me feeling like I was playing catch up the rest of the year, and both zammis and radiant_one struggled quite a bit. The shutdown in the fall didn't help. Did I do anything useful with the enforced time off? No, I became even more hermity than usual and mostly played computer games, though in fairness Skyrim is pretty frickin' awesome. I also played a lot of Ingress, a sort-of virtual geocaching game - join the Enlightened, free on Android. Only travel was a weekend trip to Mt. Gretna, PA and visiting family for the holidays. Highlight was radiant_one finishing grad school, that at least was definitely a cause for celebration.

Best books: Digger by Ursula Vernon, Daughter of the Sword by Steve Bein, The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver

Best new to me music: Thea Gilmore, Murphy's Heart; Salsa Celtica, El Camino; Ramblin' Sailors, Bright Shining Clear. Ramblin' Sailors also get best concert attended.

Best new board game: probably Lewis & Clark, though I've only played it twice. Most played game is probably Kingdom Builder.

Best movie: I didn't get to see many, probably Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing.

Best TV: Game of Thrones, Sherlock, Downton Abbey

Computer games: I've actually gotten more into them than I used to be. Besides Skyrim and Ingress, also lost quite a bit of time to Victoria II, Civ, and various older games like Master of Orion II thanks to Gog.com. Lost a weekend to LOTRO. Am currently eyeing Assassin's Creed IV and Europa Universalis IV.

So I made it to 40 this year.

Cons: This year seemed to have an awful lot of death, I lost an aunt, Sam lost her father, and it seemed like a disproportionate number of friends lost immediate family members this year. While I know death is necessary it's a little easier to deal with if it's not all concentrated at once.

Pros: On the plus side I did get to do a lot of great travel this year with trips to the Midwest, San Diego, Outer Banks, Cornwall, and Aruba! Also my families, both those I was born with and those that are chosen continue to be awesome. I'm very grateful to you all and glad a bunch of you got to celebrate my birthday together. Also, Skyrim. Also, Del is still with us.

Other: For good or for ill the election dominated much of the year, I'll be glad for the break before we have to go through it again.

Currently I'm still in Chicago with the family, having a good visit except that everyone in the house except me is sick :-( Coming back to Maryland tomorrow. Next Saturday is Brunswick Games Day!

Thanks to all that participated in birthday shenanigans, many games were played, wine was drunk, cheesecake was eaten, friends were snuggled.

Just did a clean-up of the friends list, primarily deleting defunct journals of folks that have left LJ. If I deleted you but you do still use your LJ acct for reading, let me know and I'll add you back.

A note on my current use of social networking sites:

LJ remains my primary blog - any content of substance will be posted here, anything of an even vaguely sensitive nature will be friends-locked. Travelogues and the occasional blog-like entries will be public.

I have a FB acct mostly for keeping in touch with my family, it'll have links to my public LJ posts and occasional status updates that I want the family to see.

G+ will also have links to public LJ posts and status updates directed more towards friends and the occasional "yo, does anyone want to game tonight?" type posts.

Boardgamegeek I have an acct to maintain my game collection and buy/sell/trade games, I don't use it for networking.

Linkedin I have an acct, but it isn't used for anything. If I have an acct on any other SNS I've forgotten about it.

As for what I read, if you post content to LJ or G+ I will probably read it. Content posted to FB, Twitter, BGG, or linkedin will probably be missed.

As usual how much time I spend on social networking sites is heavily dependent on how busy work is, if it's busy they all get dropped, when it's slow I'll read and comment more.

If you want to get a hold of me IM is best, or e-mail if I'm not online. Messages sent via LJ, FB, BGG, linkedin, or G+ will reach me but it might be a couple of days before I check them.

A quick note to let folks know I'm still alive. The day job has been keeping me way too busy to do much blogging, that's ok, job security is a good thing. In other news my Ticket to Ride contest entry is essentially done so will be sending that off with fingers crossed. Otherwise I've been enjoying the streaming Netflix and catching up on shows the rest of you have watched ages ago *cough*Dr. Who, Torchwood, BSG, True Blood*cough*.