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Showing posts from January, 2010

Do You Wanna Touch - Joan Jett

Rain Man

It was 4 am I came down to feed you a fish flounder, I think You were scared and your eyes were dilated and your paws stepped hesitantly towards the plate I let you eat While you were snacking I cleaned the litterbox smiling to myself that this was my day off here is what I do And noticing out of the corner of my eye that you were still scared for no reason Then I moved your cage and in a quiet spot , I saw you jump away from the new home and the new place and the new smells and I picked you up and I held you until you purred and then I sat there with my head cocked to one side seeing and not seeing just petting your fur definitely nice to pet your fur yeah Thinking about nothing at all and finally realizing happy just the same

Sleep Furiously

Strategic Inflection Point

I will arrive at a strategic inflection point tomorrow; the response matrix includes the options of leaving the country, moving to a different place, children changing schools, home schooling, leaving my wife, going to counseling, declaring bankruptcy, selling my home, cashing in on the stock market gains, finishing a long overdue project, cancelling it, going to market with a new product, shutting down the company, paying off dividends and buying back stock, pulling back on our budget, registering my business, buying a new bike, fixing an old volvo, selling it, buying a cool gaming system, not buying a TV at all, selling off everything I own, donating everything I own, keeping part of what I own and starting life over, getting bailed out, bailing myself out, bailing someone else out - setting up an office in a church, leaving my church, leaving my community, staying, living off the Indian stock exchange , working harder and smarter - or, ultimately, leaving my chosen career and just...

Fibonacci Sequence - Lateralus / Tool

Saying Goodbye

Today I referred to my home, as where I used to live. It's been a good home. I will help my neighbor to repair his pickup truck - I've found an old Volvo for 400.00 and repaired it to get my family and I to a new place. I will use the pickup truck to more or less complete the bigger elements of the move this week. We've sold off almost everything. An old english armoire. The washer/dryer. The cars. The home. I have moved out of a home I've lived in since the '90s. I'm going to a place where we'll be closer in-town, a bit farther north. The cats will have to make up their own mind whether or not they will stay. They're used to hunting the woods near my home. They will miss the readily available prey. I will keep them indoors for a while, to let them know where home is located. And then, as all my cats - I will let them become indoor/outdoor animals. This strategy has backfired only once before. A kitten from one of my first cats grew to a very l...

In The Flesh - Pink Floyd

The Missing Mass. Problem

Day before yesterday, in a special election - an insurgent powered up from nowhere to beat a lobbyist-funded Democrat and win the support of the people of Massachusetts. There will be one less senator in the storied institution of the senate, that will vote in locked step to an agenda of lobbyist-written legislation. The Democratic supermajority is no more, thanks to people powered campaigns. This is a good thing for Healthcare reform. The senate bill was a horror. A vote against it pushes the Democratic leadership, elected through the same people powered mechanisms - back to a primal question. Should they continue to represent the interests of the lobbyists, or the American people? We now have a moment in which real reform can shine through. The house can pass a bill that contains a National Health Service, and then head it back to the senate for a knock-down drag out. The bill contains real reform, or none at all. The GOP, weakened for years with Bush republicanism- will have ...

The Trojan Games

The Ring of Fire

All light is eclipsed nothing but a burning ring remains arc of white and fire at the edge of darkness shadow against light black sun in the sky Spinning into aether heart in my mouth I fade sideways from my desk as the screen burns circles into my eyes and carries me off into quiet darkness nothingness the hollow blank look of despair upon my face marked with faint trace of ozone the nightmares are now all gone replaced by a blank sense of pain after pain and life after life rejoice rejoice we have no choice but to carry on the light like dawn flooding out from the ring of fire the black cold gone, replaced by warm all the natives smiled When we gave them back their sun

Readers Write

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"Love your Blog, but I like it best when it's personal. The Soapbox Rants can be exhausting. Then again, are you really all that concerned about pleasing anyone" Pleasuring attractive readers continues to be a guiding principle here at CGI. Your criticisms are well received. Someday soon, when I'm out of packing boxes and in my new place I promise I will post something personal, and with at least 50 percent less soap. In other news today, Wyclef Jean called for an evacuation of the city of Port Au Prince . Speaking as a former resident of the Carribean, and with enough knowledge to know what PAP will look like in a few days - its safe to say he's correct. Port Au Prince will look like a giant smear. Three things have to happen, or Haiti is in serious trouble. First, they have to get their port operating again. Not sure how this is going to happen. Second, they have to get the water back on. And third, they have to get medical supplies to treat the...

Interstella 5555 - Part 1 - Daft Punk

Atlanta

A perfect place in an imperfect location the rose garden thorn a railroad spike crossing see how it burns And up from the ashes to spread her wings against the sun in her talon Resurgens By the river and the mountain the road and the rail the fiber optic cable the A T L In Te Domine Exulta

Haiti, Policy, and Healthcare

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We are , as a country - dispatching medical aid to Haiti in the wake of their catastrophe. At a time in which Chaos reigns, the concept of a National Health Service should be brought to bear. Great Britain, upon seeing their country devastated by the war - and realizing that the economy just before the war was nearly destroyed, but somehow during wartime - the economy flourished as the government built warships, tanks and guns - decided that during peacetime they will build hospitals, clinics and schools. Haiti is a libertarian country. They adopted the lowest import taxes of the Carribean. As a result, the cheaper 'Miami Rice' flooded their markets and drove their farmers into bankruptcy. They also take the view that regulation of the environment shoulders needless burden on businesses, and the taxation that goes along with it stifles innovation and small business - and have taken a low taxation 'hands off' policy in regard to such laws. Here's what it look...

A New Indicator for Stroke

Stroke is the secondmost deadly killer in the world, lagging only radical cardiac arrest. It is a type of disease that occurs without warning, tied to high blood pressure. Take your blood pressure regularly, if you can. And work to keep your blood pressure down. Interestingly, reading and blogging does not seem to be harmful to you although watching TV is in fact likely to raise your blood pressure and contribute to cardiological conditions. Do whatever you can to keep your blood pressure down. Eat well, exercise, whatever. But if you see someone and you suspect that they're undergoing a stroke - remember to think FAST. Face - ask them to smile. Arms - Ask them to raise their arms. Speak - ask them to say a sentence. Tongue - Ask them to stick out their tongue. This is my version of the acronym. I found that many stroke survivors cannot control their tongue and that lack of control can go all the way back to the very moment the incident occurred. So it's a grea...

The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It

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Haiti, Island Paradise - Earthquake Zone

Living in California, I came to believe that places like the Carribean were immune to earthquakes. Haiti's 7 yesterday led me to realize this was just not the case. A Magnitude Seven earthquake is huge. A magnitude 4.5 shook me out of bed and could have thrown me to the floor. An eight would have almost detonated the ground. A seven is a very, very big quake. The day before, there was a 6.5 that happened off the Coast of California. Are the two related? Here's hoping everyone there in Haiti are going to be ok. Haiti is a poor nation, and such events are probably not going to be easily survivable. You don't have alot of safety net at the lowest rung of the economic ladder - the least little thing can tip you into starvation and chaos. The government is focussing on Food and Medical care. Rightly so. And so, America will send a hospital ship and provide it, free. This is a clue, to anyone still wondering if we should go forward with real healthcare reform. A real...

This is how it ends

This is how it ends not with a whimper but a bang And here is how I know I was standing at the top of the stair and I heard in my mind the sound of an air raid siren Unmistakeable And I knew what it meant I saw at once, in a still vision the extinction level event and felt at the core of my being this is how it ends It happens at night When the earth turns away from the sun As it pulls comets into an atomic furnace Our atmosphere blasts the smaller ones into rain pieces the size of a small home every sixty seconds every day Lucifer's hammerstrike will leave nothing to survive everything dies This is how the world ends this is how the world ends this is how the world ends Not with a whimper but an extinction level event

Incubation - Joy Division

Getting My Butt Kicked in Scrabble (Edited)

I have a friend who claims to be a kink author, but I'm not really sure if this is the case. Certainly she's bright. And she knows her way around the scrabble board. But I have never had the chance to read anything other than the scrabble board - mostly with my face pressed into it by the back of her elbow against my head. Ok, just kidding. We play online. At this point, thanks to her win last night - has the score between us is 'tied'. Double entendre, anyone? Last night I was defeated (civil word for it) 234 to 330. This is largely due to a vocabulary that is nothing short of amazing. Also, more than likely due to the fact that she's autistic in some way, probably some suppressed form of Asperger's syndrome. Give her one wildcard and she can almost always score a 35 point bingo bonus. She supposedly scored a 447 in a single game. 119 on a single word alone. And yes, I can beat her. Damnit. And I will. She claims she plays the board, and not the player...

Malspelling

How do we characterize the error, on behalf of the author - of not actually reading through his or her own copy, and catching the errors that the spellcheck made. CNN is supposed to be a class act. Its a News Network, and whenever its accuracy is called into question it costs them money. Granted, the following article is an entertainment piece - but the question remains as to what kind of error this is: "Pandora is a pristine world and there is the synergy between all of the creatures of the planet and I think that strikes a deep cord within people that has a wishfulness and a wistfulness to it," Lang said. "James Cameron had the technical resources to go along with this incredibly fertile imagination of his and his dream is built out of the same things that other peoples' dreams are made of." Is this a spelling error? We know that the author simply ran spellcheck and was not able to catch the directed dialogue / wizard prompt that required a correction ...

Crawling- Linkin Park

Why I Blog, Part Seventeen in a Series

Joe Johnson, of Hedlund Oregon is going to prison day after tomorrow for filling out a comment card that said asked 'how was your flight?' - as follows : "I thought I was going to die, we were so high up," the card said. "I thought to myself: I hope we don't crash and burn or worse yet landing in the ocean, living through it, only to be eaten by sharks, or worse yet, end up on some place like Gilligan's Island, stranded, or worse yet, be eaten by a tribe of headhunters, speaking of headhunters, why do they just eat outsiders, and not the family members? Strange ... and what if the plane ripped apart in mid-flight and we plumited (sic) to earth, landed on Gilligan's Island and then lived through it, and the only woman there was Mrs. Thurston Howell III? No Mary Anne (my favorite) no Ginger, just Lovey! If it were just her, I think I'd opt for the sharks, maybe the headhunters." The pilot, reading the card, panicked (sp?) and returned th...

The WeatherMan- In the 800 Band

Now We are Free (Translated) - Lisa Gerrard/Gladiator Lyrics

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Healing to me And freely to you from Sol Omnipotens Yellow Wings of Joy Warmth of Day, Sun of Dawn O Sun of Yellow, The Son of Righteousness, Son of Morning Light, Shine high and below! Shine Aeonion! Shine now, O Great I-am! Shine now, O He Who Was! Shine now, O Great to Come! Now We are Free One - the One now whom he was to be And the One by whom we now do all see Healing to me; Healing to you now freely from Sol: Yellow For all the world too: Yellow Live on Rays below, Come now, Wings of Joy Warmth of Day, Sun of Dawn; The Sun of Yellow, Yellow, Flame by Day From Our Lord True Sun of Liberty Healing you Free.

Sliding Doors

Sliding doors is a film based on the premise that time can split at a single moment, in this case - a small child playing with a toy that caused a delay of no more than a second. A woman arrives too late to the sliding doors of a train in london. She then must take a cab, and ends up following a life-path that diverges from the one she was travelling. The film follows her into the train and home, where she discovers her boyfriend and so-called novelist fucking another woman. Against her will she stands beside her own reflection and takes a course through time that puts her directly into the path of someone who is separating from his wife, and keeping up appearances - and they become lovers together. It is an arc in which that love expresses itself in steps -at first revealing only a simple compatibility but giving away, for we of the male sex - the real drive to care for our better half. Of course, this is equalized by the guys driving around with a gun rack in the back of their ...

Democrats Demand Inquiry into How They're Doing..

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Source: Onion News Network, USA Democrats in both houses of Congress demanded a thorough inquiry Monday into whether or not the American people think they are doing a good enough job, and what, if anything, they should do differently. Sen. Majority Leader Reid grills the press on whether they like him. "We cannot afford to make a wrong move as we face this crucial crossroads in our nation's history, which is why we need to know for sure what decision you'll support the most before we make it," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser Monday, scrutinizing the assembled crowd for signs of approval. "The question facing us today is simple: Do you like us? If not, why? We demand an answer." Added Pelosi: "The time for second-guessing our every move is now." Do you want to know more?

True Faith - New Order

Healthcare Bypasses Conference: Call your Rep

NOW is the time to call your representative Senator, or Congressman and let them know that a National Health Service should not be dropped from the final, merged bill between the house and senate. Congress has decided to bypass conference committee to assemble the final bill - two versions, one of which (the house version) constitutes real reform - and the other, (senate version) most decidedly does not. This is zero hour. In less than a week, there will be a final bill sent to the president to sign. If it contains real reform, it is a huge upgrade for our country. And if it does not, it sets the tone for half-measures, appeasement, lobbyist influence and unabated corporate control over American institutions for the next century to come. Word on the street is that the House is planning to stand strong on real reform, so tell your rep. you want a national health service. And the Senate, which is a more divided chamber, is where your voice will be most effective - they will n...

EVE Online - Vangelis/[AMV]

Nexus One

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The Nexus One. Nexus one utilizes speech recognition, to allow users to text without typing. It ships with 5.7 MegaPixel Camera, internal compass, and accelerometer. I think it has a GPS in it as well. The nexus one is an open-souce version of an iPhone. You can develop code using Google Android but the phone will run on any network (sprint/verizon/att/boost) and ships unlocked. By contrast, the iPhone is locked to a single network. The intersection of Solid State computing, Voice ,GPS, and mobility yields applications like- proximity based social networking, geocaching, cloud computing office suites, voip based telecommunication + go-anywhere pbx systems, voice biometric signaturing, remote acces, remote control, and really interesting games. (The city is your playground). These phones are able to sense whether or not they're picked up, moved, what point they are on the globe, which direction is north, and what network devices are near them. They display in high resoluti...

Strange Fruit - Billie Holiday

National Health Service - A Dream

A strange dream. Written at 2 AM in the morning, after I woke up to the sound of applause that a strong bill had been forged out of the conference committee. I was a member of the press ; we were located in the House of Representatives during a vote. However, it wasn't really a vote - it was a conference committee that reconciled a bill between chambers of Congress - the House, and Senate. But it was a dream, and in that dream we were able to see how things were going. And I was wearing surf trunks. The reporting was avid. I was part of a gallery of reporters watching the results of the vote. When I arrived, the vote was 717 to 64 in support of a National Health Service. For some reason it was known that both the top and bottom number could change. I remember saying to someone, its a National Health Service - and I don't call it the public option because its not optional. Just like us having to buy insurance. But then again, I also remember being in orange swim trunks...

A Serious Man - Joel and Ethan Coen

Why Not

Nobody really wants to live forever if by living forever we mean staying the same growing old, helpless, lame Nobody wants to be Mr. Nice Guy all the time its just too much fun to be slightly insane partying, going large, playing the game Nobody wants a sure thing Las Vegas shot out of the desert so we could win les jeux sont fait A heart that loves is always young but go at each other like minx Love can be like a religion or so says Jonathan Keats Why not live with abandon and take the calculated risk Even if you fail you defeat hopelessness The third circle from a yellow star is where you are Go far Fly high Win big Live life Surf More Work hard Play hard After all Why not

Post Secret

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Why

First, if you ask a simple question you should get a simple answer so. Why? Because its there. Do you want to know more? I'm doing my part I want to be a citizen of the federation And you still question why? Ok. Let me pull you up next to me, by the fireside And we'll get this straight Close your eyes Now Think of a happy place That is where I come from Now see the dark That is where I am going These words on your screen, glowing divide the darkness from the light and help me understand wrong from right They are not meant for anyone Like Marcus Aurelius' meditations And also, I am, like he lonely at times and I like to sing in the shower And yes, they are written to you Who else is here? Joy and desire are but empty smoke and the art of living is more like wrestling than dancing Are we agreeing? Or are we disagreeing?

Habitat - 1986

Should I Stay or Should I Go

My roots descend into this ground driving through cold earth wending their way around stone holding fast my berth The wind and rain fly against my face hard features against the sky strech my arms like wings to fly not to touch the earth not to touch the sun Yellow star my brother Azure moon my sister We reach escape velocity running as hard and as far as we can come Our arms stretch to the edge of the limb and we balance on the horizon Should I stay turning, falling back to the warmth of my home or Should I go into the dark adventurous unknown Untouchable a voice begins to form The clawing, writhing mass of humanity pushing against your skin like the oracle at delphi It whispers This is your decision Just remember Once a punk Always a punk

No Quarter - Tool/[AMV]