Posts

Showing posts from October, 2009

The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, Book I

If you desire to master pain Unroll this book and read with care, And in it find abundantly A knowledge of the things that are, Those that have been, and those to come. And know as well that joy and grief Are nothing more than empty smoke.

Why Obama Appeals to Indies

Obama really does appeal to Independents, Republicans and other people interested in effeciency. And there really is a liberal media out there. Here is why: Today, the Obama administration did something that truly shows his stripes as an effecient, effective President. And the Media coverage is practically Zero. Today the White House revised and approved administrative budgets for the A few Agencies and the Pentagon, which would normally include things like expensive toilet seats, etc. Obama succeeded in stripping 260 Billion dollars in waste out of that budget as submitted and the agencies agreed to the revised budgets. That's 260 Billion. With. a "B". That sounds like effecient government to me. Do you think anyone will pre-empt the news media entertainment cycle for this?

Healthcare Reform in the Whole Cloth

Image
Winston Churchill was a man my father admired, and I think, that like any son - I picked up a few things from my father that I never really knew I had until I matured. He was a deeply flawed man, an alcoholic. He was known for once attending a social event completely drunk - and a woman of extremely high social status went up to him and said disparagingly "Mr. Churchill, you are drunk." To which came the reply "And you my dear lady, are ugly. But tomorrow I shall be sober and you will still be ugly". I am going through an extremely stressful time in my life. I have enjoyed most, writing here - of the art of the polity - as it is removed from my own life inasmuch as any man is an island. And so we see that the leaders of our country have decided that now is not a time for half measures. Certainly, when you have bad legislation in place - the correct answer is not to simply add more bad legislation to try to fix it. Unless of course, you are serving your own in

Tool Schism - AMV

The Dark Moment's Grip

It starts out like fire ants swarming around your neck choking you and then it grabs you and your vision becomes a tunnel gripping you I black out and come to I am in a shabby apartment building on the wall is a sign that says temet nosce children are bending spoons in the living room attention all fish how to escape getting caught in a net get so big you bust the muther get so small you swim right through

The Dark Moment's Message

This is a dark moment look into it and see nothing faint traces of blood and the color of the sky at four in the morning It is one of many moments and darker than I have ever seen before in this moment we have nothing left to protect us no armor no sense of what is right no aphorism intuitively we gauge our strength against it Its sheer cliff walls spread up on either side nothing but raging sea below and to right, sheer cliff there is only one way the enemy will come I am outnumbered, but those I have around me know what to do against the evil eye And just tonight Darkness sent its message "If I enter your home I will level it to the ground" Tomorrow just before sunrise, I deliver my humble reply in black and white: "If."

Setting to Rest the Whole Bank Robbery Thing

Ok, there is a class of thought I call 'lottery thinking' that goes like this: there's some finite chance I'm going to get rich so even if the odds against me are huge, and its not a profitable thing to do - at least I have this finite chance, I might as well go for it. In the State of Washington, there were 153 bank robberies and 1 bank burglary in the state during the time period of 1/1/2008 through 12/31/2008. The dollar loss to the state’s banking industry was $743,160. Despite the economic crash, this represents a decline in the numbers. As reported by Seattle Division. 743/154 = 4,889.00 per robbery. Lets say you have at least one accomplice, even a getaway car driver counts there - after all... who would rat you out for reward money? You get the picture. Ok. So. Cut them in. That leaves you with just north of 2,450.00 per job. Lets say you could rob one bank a month. You are now making a grand total of 29,400.00 . But wait it gets better. Bank Robbery l

New Resolution - Azure Ray

Chicago

Her mother's grace belies violence and hate its been raining all day she decides our fate and just like that we're gone She's home and to our family that means no more happiness no more fun And so to my daughter I promise no murder for mom But she's got it coming and the woman just might accidentally fall on my knife 17 times

Teenage Wasteland - The Who

Lessons Learned From Solitaire

I have been playing alot of solitaire lately. Mostly due to the fact that my wife has been gone for six months, but also in part due to her return. Solitaire is a game, which has a few ways you can win. Each of us can define that win in different ways. I would offer there are three distinct ways to win. Not to play at all To play for the pattern To play to complete the task Task completion is the most common form of win - its a sense that you actually did something by shuffling up four suits of cards that were patterned after the four seasons, hearts, clubs, diamonds and spades... and neatly reorganize them into either spider stacks in two and three deck suits or the other variants of the game, until the cards are reorganized into whatever that variant calls a win. This kind of win is that warm feeling you get from reorganizing your sock drawer or rearranging pencils in order from lowest to highest.. its a kind of feeling people go after when they want to waste time, an

Darkness - Cirque Du Soleil

Dead Letter Office

On a warm, wet evening in Atlanta he finds himself wondering.. why is it that horniness can be so random? He thinks cool thoughts to abate the images but they do not go away. Skin on skin. Power exchange. Vivid thoughts painted against the grey sky and carefully manicured lawns. He pulls the car over. It seemed too good to be true. He'd not thought of sex for days. Then again, his wie returned and it had been six months since she'd been home. He closed his eyes and remembered her, in the hope he could make it all go away. She looked so thin, when he saw her. Too thin. He stood in front of her, and she walked within six feet of him and kept right on walking. She had arrived early in the morning. Her baggage was waiting for her on the international carousel. He called out the number to her three times, once in a foreign language. Finally she heard him and went over to give him a hug. He was on the opposite side of the rail. They walked together, a rail dividing them. And

Where the Wild Things Are - Spike Jonze

His actual name is Adam Spiegel - Joe Kid on a Stingray

Kat

Krazy Kat Complete my sentence before I speak me to your right and crying Morgan to your left Roll pumpkins in the dark And a shirt that says Texas Pizza and smiles and Morgan stops crying You played Gaelic Football and it shows I come to work the next day at four And write a few lines because sometimes I am a whore. Maybe not the bad kind definitely randomly horny This is my secret: Once a punk Always a punk Like Henry Rollins or Margaret Trudeau Shine it For Halloween this year I'm going to a rave And wield the Horrible Fanfare/Landslide Exoskeleton warglaive That's how I roll That's how I let go But I'd trade it all for some tasty waves
My daughter treats youtube as a sort of communications medium, similiar to email - and she is constantly making films. There are two types. The first time seems to be a film that she makes to communicate with others, and she uses editing techniques that put the film industry of the early 30's to shame - just to send a few notes to a few friends. The second are well thought out movies with scripts. This is a cool thing. She is going over to her friends house today with a video camera, a bag full of props and a script in hand. When the film industry arose, it was a form of art - an evolution from photography, which was in turn an evolution from portaiture and painting. Where it will go from here is anyone's guess, but apparently - in the next five years or so, we'll have an entire generation that sees television in a fundamentally different way. Already, we can see the political effects of this transformation. Congratulations to the blogosphere for getting Healthcare reform

Three Things for My New Office

First, I am going to make sure we have good coffee. Caffeinated. Maybe even a bean grinder or something. Next, I'm going to make sure we have food in the fridge and snacks. Good healthy snacks not just junk food. Finally, I am going to make sure there are trade journals + a place where people can snack + read. This assumes of course, I am not bankrupt by 5:45pm today.. Update: 3:33 AM , I'm still at work, but I still have a job. :D Update: 4:56 AM , Got home and I'm too tired to care. Tomorrow it starts all over again. Note to self. Raise invoices.

She's Always A Woman - Billy Joel

Image
She can kill with a smile, she can wound with her eyes She can ruin your faith with her casual lies And she only reveals what she wants you to see She hides like a child, but she's always a woman to me She can lead you to love, she can take you or leave you She can ask for the truth, but she'll never believe you And she'll take what you give her as long it's free Yeah, She steals like a thief, but she's always a woman to me Ohhh... she takes care of herself She can wait if she wants, she's ahead of her time Ohhh... and she never gives out And she never gives in, she just changes her mind And she'll promise you more than the garden of Eden Then she'll carelessly cut you and laugh while you're bleeding But she’ll bring out the best and the worst you can be Blame it all on yourself 'cause she's always a woman to me Ohhh... she takes care of herself She can wait if she wants, she's ahead of her time And s

Numbers - Great Northern

Three Classic Greek Plays

Lysistrata I wait at the airport for my wife but she doesn't arrive reading things from books at the newsstand for three hours I wondered how (new word) I was I found a formula in a book /salary (in thousands) \ / marriages \ | ------------------ | X | Years in + children | = [result] \ age - career changes / \ mortgages / "You're acting like a [___] year old" I finally called customs and found she was not on her plane but I waited for her like a puppy dog just the same Electra She cons the calendar and marks the day on which her cunning plot destroyed her father She sees herself as a pillar a tower A subway sandwich an ogre with layers like an onion See, Donkey? The siren song comes and she tells of her love like Scylla to Charybdis Orders a Happy Family and loses the reason in a bottle of saki and I'm not kidding damned if you don't damned if you do And tell me w

Red Barchetta - Rush

Barack Obama Wins the Peace Prize

I have been trying to convince my nanny that the net is a good source of news. 4 minutes after the Nobel committee awarded Obama the Peace Prize, and publicly announced in a press conference in Sweden - I knew. And so did she. She now gets her news online - and ameliorated her condition of being the one in her class who doesn't know current events. In spades. Although Obama's award was seen as a call to action, on behalf of his group - in fairness the ability of our president to be free of lobbyist influence, and now - owing to Nobel - to pursue his course of action safe in the knowledge that he will be among the elite within the American presidency whose accomplishments have included halting war, and founding the UN - we can press forward from a legislative and activist agenda to carry out the plan laid out by this president. His call to action, is in fact - our call to action - just as his victory in 2008, predicated this award. Anyone who voted for Barack Obama deserves

LCROSS

Early reports show success, there is a layer of water on the moon. This is good news for anyone wanting to build something there. This information is 2 minutes old.

Climbing Sulfur

There were rungs cut into the mountain, which made it easier to climb. The view from above was astonishing. We were at least two miles high, perhaps more - to the coast below. In back of us was the strange descent, bolted handhold feeling secure. I grabbed one and held myself out into space, swinging around to the other until eventually I descended into a high plain bamboo forest. The warthogs were there, and one of them ran as fast as he could, butting his head against me. White tusks gleamed. He snorted then ran on. The impact was strong but it was almost symbolic. I lost my fear of the pack. A strange feeling of calm enveloped me as the herd ran all around. When I awoke, I could still see the coast. It was a view that inspired both awe and fear. I awoke wondering how I could launch a hang glider off such a narrow ledge. As I worked through the dark of the early morning, it occurred to me that perhaps JATO was the way to go there. And as I sent my son to school, walking bac

Distractions - Zero 7

Image
Fancy a big house Some kids and a horse I can not quite, but nearly Guarantee, a divorce I think that I love you I think that I do So go on mister, make Miss Me Mrs. You I love you, I love you, I love you, I do I only make jokes to distract myself From the truth, from the truth. Fancy a fast car A bag full of loot I can nearly guarantee You'll end up with the boot I love you, I love you, I love you , I do I only make jokes to distract myself From the truth, from the truth. I love you, I love you, I love you - I do I only make jokes to distract myself From the truth

Orbiting Iapetus

Change suffuses life its pattern of beginning and end, like opposites in balance bereft or beginning continuous movement within infinity two as me and four across the sky clean and white geon gam gon ri Asian tigress she walks alone a million miles away and too close to her I dance the claws of Jeju island wait hungry for me miracle on the han - rivers and mountains embroidered on silk a new year, a new me Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur Mother told me I'd be just like you Hwang Woo-suk and Mommy out surfing came home from school Eating with narrow metal chopsticks We make a Library of the Human Seoul

Comets are a Big Deal

Image
Today, NASA announced the discovery of an extremely large ring of ice and dust around Saturn. The moon Iapetus has been apparently backing into the inner edge of this ring, for centuries. This discovery explains why an entire side of the small moon appeared dark, and another side light - sort of like the national flag of korea. In fact, if you think about it. This discovery makes the flag of Korea look pretty cool. Comet fragments are the most likely composite material - having hit its neighbor hard for millenium - and the fragments of those collisions likely making up this new ring. It is very dark (impossible to see visually, but thermally detectable) - and there are alot of ice particles in it. And its huge. If a ring like that were to hit our upper atmosphere, we would experience it largely as rain. Fragments this size created the oceans on our planet, and are responsible for seeding life into our upper atmosphere (from where thermal venting helped created DNA).

The Beatles - Rock Band

There is a game out now that actually delivers a bonus for harmony in the game play - and one that intrigues me to no end. So much so, that after being on the net since forever - I actually clicked on my first banner ad to get to it. (this was off my playlist ) The name of the game is Rock Band - a game similiar to Guitar Hero with the exception that there is some basic speech recognition on the main microphone, mostly energy based - and we add to that a drum kit, a bass and bonus score for accompaniment. In The Beatles / Rock Band - there is actually support for 3 part harmony. This intrigues me to no end. Unlike previous versions, instead of one microphone, this version of the game will have support for three microphones. This means that, like the Beatles performances in Germany, Britain and America, you will score well if you can strike a three part harmony that strikes a chord with the audience. Each song will have different scoring potential. What song would you want to

Riders on the Storm - Blondie/The Doors

The Battle of the Sexes

Given the right building blocks the formation of protocells isn't difficult membranes and genetic polymers self assemble and the two are brought together in ways that seem innocent And if as it happens, there are differences Something as simple As blowing hot and cold The sudden temperature shift would rip the helix into single strands and once back home They might say that was fun let's do it again And soon it dawns to him She's playing for keeps For Ms. Lee

Grace

The soft black mud sucks my legs down the rope presses against my arm and chest And its a fair wind blowing warm out of the north on my shoulder I'm not fully grown which is a disadvantage on the open sea here in the marsh I afford six meters from shore to shore to sail my boat out of the marsh Still, working fast, I make way from shells that cut and alligators that bite and reeds that catch and the turning tide until the wind fills my sail tight and I am free at last of the marshgrass One day Grace and I sailed up upon a shark as long as she the huge dorsal cut close, churning sea and blue windows of lightning shoot within me I sail in, fast and hard and sit on safe ground shaking the slow realization dawns the damn shark was a vegetarian Grace responded to the rope and a firm hand When you and I are clear of land she whispers boy I am gonna to make you a man She makes her simple feminine demand We were not quite lovers And more than fri

Nature is Ancient - Bjork

A muddled argument against healthcare

I am a bona fide independent, I have friends from all over the political spectrum. One of them is a frustrated woman who lost her husband when she was in her 30's and has since been relegated to the life of an old maid. She is an adamant and vociferous Christian Conservative, using her catholicism as a kind of shield against the world. In many ways, she is almost fundamentalist in her perspective. She is a nice person, and we've known each other for years. She made an argument tonight against Healthcare that I wanted to share with you. She started our conversation off by telling me that she asked her congressman, "Where in the constitution is it written that we have to provide healthcare?" Lets reflect for a second , the role of the constitution. It says that the government shall make no laws which shall abridge the right of a person to assemble, speak, bear arms, or worship in their own way. It outlines, in the tenth amendment - The powers not delegated to th

Long Time Coming - CSNY

It's been a long time comin' It's goin' to be a Long Time Gone. And it appears to be a long, long time before the dawn. Turn, turn any corner. Hear, you must hear what the people say. You know there's something that's goin' on around here, The surely, surely, surely won't stand the light of day. And it appears to be a long, Appears to be a long, Time, yes, a long, long, long ,long time before the dawn. Speak out, you got to speak out against the madness, You got to speak your mind, If you dare. But don't no don't now try to get yourself elected If you do you had better cut healthcare `Cause it appears to be a long, Appears to be a long, Appears to be a long, Time, such a long long long long time before the dawn. It's been a long time comin' It's goin' to be a long time gone. But you know, The darkest hour is always Always just before the dawn. And it appears to be a long, appears to be a long,

500 Days of Summer

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

A memoir of life in death. This is a story that evolves slowly over the readers course of slow realization regarding an extensive, and traumatic brain injury. The landscape of pain the author conveys bears an implicit message of strength. It is a fight for life and soul. And in the end, he wins. Jean Dominique - a man who feels as if his entire body is encased in a diving bell - unable to move except for his left eye - finds the freedom of fantasy to thought, and thought to word like a butterfly in a garden. A stroke survivor is indeed the same person on the inside. In this case. Locked inside. Unable to speak, the first therapy step is to practice blowing a kiss. And in the quiet, he is either practicing alone or - in the moments when all have left on Sunday, simply waiting. And he writes - the waiting is hard. Sundays are a desert - the hospital with only a skeleton crew. Real and substantive change occurred in the arc of recovery for Jean Dominique, as soon as he bega

America - West Side Story

Telomere

The work of a poet if done right must be somewhat brutal The lines, like pairs wish to marry they wind tight the white of the page seems like a dream I light a cigarette and watch the smoke and wonder why so many think of divorce in the time of cholera Pablo Neruda, like Sandburg - understood And such a strong man, the pieces of him breaking off let you know that he, like myself is capable of love and know the quiet happiness of a well married man They were exacting , and precise - no word out of place Their women were dark and wild When I close my eyes I see them holding their husbands close and her soft, graceful hand tracing the weathered features of her man I was born with a broken chromosone no backup, an x and a y And a piece of me will fall away I will never be the same But a piece of you broke off and exploded in my heart And I love you forever Because you set me free