IT Paranoia

What is in it for people in the IT profession to make things easy for those of us who have to use their systems? Nothing. I'll explain. In the college I teach at, the set up as to how one enters grades or gets a class roster is so non-intuitive that it takes phone calls and trouble-shooting to resolve, sometimes several times before figuring out what you need to do. Not to mention the fact that one's email rarely works because you have to change your password every month or two. Who can remember passwords that change that often? Not me.

But the object of IT people is to keep their jobs. And they do that by keeping us a captive audience and adding ridiculous steps to what should be simple. We NEED them.

It's the same with exterminators, perhaps. They don't kill all the bugs--just some of them. Why? Because obviously they want to be able to come back next month. There is no incentive to get rid of every roach for once and for all. So with IT. If they make it hard, we all have to call and they can prove their importance to the administration. "Look how many problems we had to solve..."

Weeping Beech Trees

New Work by Julia Healy

Weeping Beech Trees are obsessing me right now. I’m doing them in lots of media: large oils, medium-sized oils and watercolor, gouache and acrylic on paper. I’m painting some at night and most of them in winter. Sometimes branches from neighboring trees almost touch. I love the tension that creates.