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Showing posts from March, 2008

Him

He sits at home watching the children his only job folding clothes playing warcraft in his mind level 19 like a ticking clock he waits for her to come home In his dream He stands there at the podium, facing the crowd power deals him power she stands there behind him stealing time in his long shadow taking everything she can and driving him on The lights shine in his eyes and turn everything to white and he is suddenly home again a child in the shade of a tree that he remembers - old, majestic. he is playing with her again she brings a piece of folded paper three times back and forth pick a fortune He walks home from playing with her they are best friends inseparable playing with dolls sometimes - two wives somedays two husbands like peas and carrots they know where the bodies are buried He climbs the stairs in his mind of the old white house in virginia and pulls the cord to the attic to the room where he makes the l

In the Waiting Line - Zero 7

The Final Solution (to my WoW addiction)

I have finally solved my WoW addiction problem. And yes, just like SL - I actually did a really nice project while I was in there (working for a guild). I happily created a site and a blog for them as well as a raiding calendar and many others. You can take the game from the programmer, but you can't take the programmer from the game! After tooling around in-world in WoW for about , oh six months or so, I'm pretty much clear on what I need to do. There's alot I've already taken: the stunning beauty of Mauradon, edgy sunsets on Thunder Bluff where I mind controlled horde to jump to their death. Winning the DPS Race in Warsong. I usually keep pretty decent priorities. This game violated those priorities. The most important thing in my life right now is the sort of undefined, quest that is life . Some people call it god. So be it. Then comes the kids and the wife - whom I miss very much. Funny how I sort of set things straight about how I am going to be, wh

Happy Easter Colorless Green Reader

Just as in relationships, and life, there is a pattern of dominance - discovery - faith - that we seem to weave into our own lives, to help us prepare for the unexpected. Maybe its a genetic memory of some extinction level event driving us on... comet hits the earth kind of thing. At any rate, the games we play strengthen us and help us focus ourselves. We can visualize the far future and record the distant past. We can even sense slow change. People who tell you that God created the world in seven days are obviously trying to tell you something. Its worth it to find out what. The clip I posted below is really about how a specific argument against evolution and selection fails if are too into dogmatic views about creation.... Information - as the author of the clip is partly expressing, is mathematical in nature (cf. Claude Shannon ) - similiar to entropy. The way I read many of the arguments against evolution - are that entropy can never spontaneously decrease, which

I Hear It Too - Tales from the Pub

The Night of the Dark Bunny Rabbits

I was thinking about which to bite first the head or the tail When I heard the kids running around outside looking for eggs Is it over the top to believe in the easter bunny or that poor lawyers exist ? Anyone that's ever been lonely Anyone ever split apart Christianity appeals to the lovelost So I pictured this calm room full of people I folded my hands in my lap and made a steeple Opened the door Something hanging in the center of this room is an instrument of torture Finished up my Easter Bunny, bit off its bunny ass. I am kind of first with the ears She used to go for the tail. God I miss her Well Better get back outside and check on the kids Later that night - seems like no-one writes about Easter Night .. I went outside The kids were asleep The lights were shining in the steeple I couldn't see them Neighborhood is zoned to keep us shopping and in our cars Nobody rides for free Looked up Watched the stars shine brilliant tiny li

Clinton Can't Win

The way the democratic race is running, Hillary no longer has a chance to win any more votes than the total Obama took away. What that means is that the only way Clinton will win is if she gets superdelegates to head over to her. I think questions like these strike at the heart of democratic process. Republicans enjoy the concept that we're not a democracy - they argue that , like the Roman senate - we elect those who will in turn represent us but we do not actually decide (there is therefore no rule by the people). Most of the Republican ideal is based on making that process effecient, having less bureaucracy and more centralized power. The Democratic argument that is slowly evolving, however, is one that recognizes that the world changed. In the blink of an eye , 200 million people could weigh in on a subject - without cost. They could hit thomas.gov and read the legislation without having pages or runners travelling the Appian way to bring them the scroll. And so thats

Matrix - Linkin Park AMV

Akeela

The spirit is willing the flesh is weak The rhythm of the word superstring jumprope Salt tears Wiped clean 50,000 teachers I cried the night I first watched the film Akeela and the Bee. for W. E. Dubois

Child's Pay

Obama in 30 Seconds

When I first saw the contest, I was reminded of how my wife and I would take 30 seconds to solve our fights. It was simple - most of our fights were about a struggle for power - and she and I would talk over each other - so we would say, hey - lets take 30 seconds - and in that 30, the other person talks and you listen no matter what. And then 30 seconds later , you get to do the same thing. It solved alot of problems between us. We've been married a long time. Getting into an argument with your wife is one of the strangest experiences in the world, and it teaches you alot about politics. The fight right now for the nomation is about status. And social change. Its a perfect storm of a failed administration, the desire for change and the drive within the party for identity. The GOP has always tried to tag the Democratic party as the 'female' party - protective, willing to talk things out. But moreoever, the GOP loves to try to paint itself as the party of saving your har

In The End - Linkin Park

House Beyond Your Sky

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House Beyond Your Sky is a story by Benjamin Rosenbaum - a short story - that is based on the idea that God collects and preserves humanity as a sort of pet. And at the same time, God is also - in some sense - human and vulnerable. And needs us. And more. The story opens with two story lines, that of Sophie (a human child) and Matthias (a sort of priest and keeper - a being effectively God) . Sophie suffers from a violent family life. She takes solace in her Teddy Bear. Matthias, who acts out of a sense of benevolent curiousity - even though it makes him depressed - refers to those living in the model universes that he keeps in his workshop as 'the imprisoned' - Matthias whispers to her through the mouth of the Teddy Bear. When they die—these still imprisoned ones—they die forever. She has bright eyes, a button nose, unruly hair. Sodium and potassium dance in her muscles as she moves. Unwillingly, Matthias imagines Sophie's corpse as one of trillions, piled on the al

Planet Earth - Caves

Nascar

I went to my first nascar race yesterday, with my kids. My son had a special day there with his den + he got everyone in for free. Holy moses, son of Abraham, Jacob and Cane that place was loud! The cards fly around the track like - they remind me of nothing other than earthbound jet fighters. They move that fast. And when they make the turn near you the sound hits you right in the gut. Its like a wall of sound. These guys were so fast it blew my mind. Unfortunately for little kids the sound is so loud it hurts their little ears. I had to get some earplugs for them, and we made it a short day and skipped out on all the rednecks that would have otherwise held up traffic for an hour. I hope the kids got the message about watching a pit crew because I sure as heck did. Ok. Here are four guys - that are going to check fluids, clean windshields, hydrate the driver - change parts, remove all four tires and replace them and completely gas up a vehicle in .. are you ready for this. ..

California Dreaming - The Mamas + the Papas

Junk . Unsolicited. Email

I had to find driving directions that were sent to multiple users, today. This would have been for my daughter, who is going to go to a meeting tonight. But my mail inbox didn't have it. So I had to go into my dreaded Junk E-mail folder. I caught my filter taking mail from my mother into that folder. I was bracing for it. I expected it to be boring and difficult, and that it would test the art of not reading something or skimming it for content but I never expected that I would feel sad. Not just a little sad. I guess its shannon information theory perspective stuff - with so many people just getting hammered by this kind of thing. Their shade dancing through it all. I have seen the junk people descend on forums and destroy them. I have seen the internet change so much - and so much for the worse particularly in the area of junk mail. I was seeing heat death. Entropy. My junk email folder has one piece of mail in it that I am going to rescue and white-list the sender a

Free - Take One

The final Reagents, listed for your perusal and kind attention. Choose your discipline. About 3 minutes each. Lets assume you actually have that much time..? And the other discipline - which also has its benefits and drawbacks. These are two different approaches, but they are again - McCain vs. The Bush Republicans, deep baseball vs. reality. I suppose you are ready to decide whether or not you will farm another human being cloned from your dna - for spare parts - when you are older. Or whether or not the use of American military power is the best means by which to secure foreign policy objectives. As a bona fide independent, I can honestly say that I haven't resolved these issues but that I'm thinking about them now so that I can help my children in the future. I have a deep sense of my own mortality that comes from having lost alot of good friends, my brother. Life, for me, is too short to be blowing my chance to change something with a kneejerk although I have

Everquest Sucks

While the GOP nomination was an exciting race, now that Huckabee has faded - the race for the Democratic party nomination now shifts to Texas. But what is the focus? For news media entertainment, a contest. Like a full body contact sport - an exciting ratings winner that brings people to the television set to watch, enthralled. Will your team win, or mine? Break out the popcorn. However, Charlie Rose had on Daschle last night - I happened to catch a bit of it late at night. Daschle is a campaign manager for the Obama campaign, and he supported the presidents war. And in the end, he brought up the most important point that I've heard. Not that climate change hasn't been spoken of more often - although I believe that is true given that weather goes in cycles and the cycles are obviously amiss (how quickly we forget that only a few months ago there was only water enough for 90 days. I am writing as the rain is falling again). Or that the gig. is. up. The sense that the

Silkwood

Oil Paint

The smell of oil paint how it gets on you and doesn't get off white sand rubbed between the palm of my hands the sound of the ocean blues whites greens yellows fix the errors with the opposite color the children see the greens and want less she sees cobalt blue and wants more I took the palette and pressed it on the canvas and made polka dots And then I looked out to sea