The cacophony of everyday life is no more blatantly evident than when the power has gone out and we are left with only silence. ~Me
This past weekend I was a unfortunate (as some would put it) or fortunate (as I would state it) “victim” (isn’t everyone a victim?) of hurricane Irene who seems to have done more damage to inland areas of my location than to the coastal areas, of course not all damage reports are in yet so…
The old adage is true, silence is indeed deafening. And had the silence not been broken by the one fool in the hood that has a generator, it could have also been a small taste of nirvana. You see in no uncertain terms I hate modern civilization, which is sort of a dichotomy when you understand what I do to make it in the world, at least for now.
The finest time I think I have ever had is right now. No power, no noise save the fool neighbor and his generator, living the way our ancestors did as few as 80 years ago. Save the modern convenience of running water, it’s not been all that bad, fact of the matter is it’s been quite enjoyable.
The largest conundrum I have had to overcome in all of this is the odd look or questioning from someone when I mention that it either don’t bother me, or I wish it would stay off forever. There appears to be a normalcy bias in most people’s minds, that states unequivocally “electricity is a must” that it is some variety of “God given right” for people to have power piped directly to their homes to run all of the appliances and especially the idiot box because God forbid we miss American idol or dancing with the has-beens yet again this week due to no power.
I’ve come to the conclusion that while very nice to have its not absolutely necessary at the micro level, the personal level, I understand and whole heartedly agree with the necessity of power at a macro level, to keep the gas pumps on, the stores working etc. but at my level, down here where the peons live, it’s not a necessity. I don’t watch a lot of television anyway, and while my mode of earning an income is dependent on the power being on at the office; it certainly does not need to be on at home. “But what about the refrigerator and freezer” is the hue and cry?
Here is an idea; how about we relearn how to do things the really old school way. Mankind lived for tens of thousands of years without electricity, in fact in the grand scheme of things electricity is relatively new technology. Until just recently in historic terms we lived without power coming out of every wall socket, we canned our food, harvested when we could and put up for the winter, not unlike the ant in the in the parable of the ant and the grasshopper who toiled away to put up sufficient supplies for himself while the grasshopper did nothing.
I know this is getting posted well after Irene, and well after the lights “magically” came back on, in retrospect, they really weren’t necessary. I and those who where her e with me did just fine thank you, although I will admit to the need to mind whatever time piece was handy and still functional so that things could get done while the natural light was still about to be had. Normally I don’t recognize time itself except for the normal social things of arriving at an appointment at some pre-described moment during the day that has been mutually agreed to.
I am daily attempting to voluntarily simplify my life, mini disasters like Irene are just reminders of what stuff we really don’t need.
15 October 2011
26 June 2011
What does matter anyway...
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter. ~Seen recently on a bumper sticker.
I won’t regale you with the contents of the other bumper stickers on the back of that particular car, since most of them defiled my basic conservative view point’s anyway, I’m still wondering how that whole hopey-changy thing is working for everyone.
Nevertheless, it got me to thinking, so I suppose we can ignore the proclivities of the occupant to think that the government is going to come to their rescue, just like they did during Katrina a few years back, oops never mind.
I however started to ponder the ideation, what does matter? Ultimately what matters to one may not matter to another, coincidently does that infer that everyone’s lives begin to end on different days because we all certainly do not stop caring at the same moment? Or perhaps we all stopped caring too long ago to account.
I read constantly how people are getting out of debt by doing things like cut out the 5 dollar coffee, now I don’t drink coffee, never appealed to me, so maybe am not equipped to understand how anyone can spend that much money every day on a coffee, especially when a coffee maker at the local department store runs what? 20 bucks or so? Seems to me that for Monday through Thursdays coffee expenses you could acquire one of those and find a brew you like (hell even the expensive ones will turn out cheaper than 5 bucks a cup).
I attempt to have as little debt as possible anyway, some is unavoidable, i.e. the house payment, tax payments are a form of debt that come around once a year, that sort of thing. Having 4 children who are my responsibility takes a good chunk of my venerable pay, but I don’t mind that, one it’s not forever, and two they are mine and by that extension I have an obligation to take care of them until they turn 18. Or can successfully take care of themselves on a day to day basis.
I don’t turn on lights or the TV (very often anyway), I light the house with what the universe saw fit to put into place, the sun, during the winter I use candles I purchase at the dollar store, I spend about 10 dollars a month during the winter, and even less in the summer. House stays cool enough most nights that the AC is a luxury I rarely use. Heat can be made with wood or small space heater in one room etc.
Yes I have a cell phone, no its not one of the latest and greatest, it texts and makes calls, that’s all I need it for anyway. My car is 10 years old and slowly but surely falling apart, until it does so completely I’ll keep it on the road. Yes I work on it myself.
It’s not that I have some grandiose idea that anything I do is going to save us from what’s coming at us at breakneck speed, the fact that the main stream media seems to finally be figuring out, we are headed for doom be it financial, or from Elenin, from some rogue nation setting off an EMP weapon, or the sun itself deciding that it needs to belch and we just happen to be in the way.
I guess the one thing that matters right now, is survival, without that you won’t have anything to worry about anyway. So work on that, if a few bills get missed, it’s not the end of the world, after all mankind spent the first 5000 or so years of his existence without the luxury of electric lights, cell phones, television, game systems, cars, gasoline, JIT delivery of his food (well that could be argued), or anything else we take for granted now, including permanent housing.
I won’t regale you with the contents of the other bumper stickers on the back of that particular car, since most of them defiled my basic conservative view point’s anyway, I’m still wondering how that whole hopey-changy thing is working for everyone.
Nevertheless, it got me to thinking, so I suppose we can ignore the proclivities of the occupant to think that the government is going to come to their rescue, just like they did during Katrina a few years back, oops never mind.
I however started to ponder the ideation, what does matter? Ultimately what matters to one may not matter to another, coincidently does that infer that everyone’s lives begin to end on different days because we all certainly do not stop caring at the same moment? Or perhaps we all stopped caring too long ago to account.
I read constantly how people are getting out of debt by doing things like cut out the 5 dollar coffee, now I don’t drink coffee, never appealed to me, so maybe am not equipped to understand how anyone can spend that much money every day on a coffee, especially when a coffee maker at the local department store runs what? 20 bucks or so? Seems to me that for Monday through Thursdays coffee expenses you could acquire one of those and find a brew you like (hell even the expensive ones will turn out cheaper than 5 bucks a cup).
I attempt to have as little debt as possible anyway, some is unavoidable, i.e. the house payment, tax payments are a form of debt that come around once a year, that sort of thing. Having 4 children who are my responsibility takes a good chunk of my venerable pay, but I don’t mind that, one it’s not forever, and two they are mine and by that extension I have an obligation to take care of them until they turn 18. Or can successfully take care of themselves on a day to day basis.
I don’t turn on lights or the TV (very often anyway), I light the house with what the universe saw fit to put into place, the sun, during the winter I use candles I purchase at the dollar store, I spend about 10 dollars a month during the winter, and even less in the summer. House stays cool enough most nights that the AC is a luxury I rarely use. Heat can be made with wood or small space heater in one room etc.
Yes I have a cell phone, no its not one of the latest and greatest, it texts and makes calls, that’s all I need it for anyway. My car is 10 years old and slowly but surely falling apart, until it does so completely I’ll keep it on the road. Yes I work on it myself.
It’s not that I have some grandiose idea that anything I do is going to save us from what’s coming at us at breakneck speed, the fact that the main stream media seems to finally be figuring out, we are headed for doom be it financial, or from Elenin, from some rogue nation setting off an EMP weapon, or the sun itself deciding that it needs to belch and we just happen to be in the way.
I guess the one thing that matters right now, is survival, without that you won’t have anything to worry about anyway. So work on that, if a few bills get missed, it’s not the end of the world, after all mankind spent the first 5000 or so years of his existence without the luxury of electric lights, cell phones, television, game systems, cars, gasoline, JIT delivery of his food (well that could be argued), or anything else we take for granted now, including permanent housing.
05 June 2011
Oooh Shiny...
“Oooh shiny” ~Homer Simpson (or at least he’s the most attributable to it)
Welcome to the OOOH Shiny generation, those whose lives are so enamored of technology that should they lose the ability to purchase their triple half soy mocha mint latte no whip with a wave of their android phone would simply have a nervous breakdown right there in the middle of Starbucks.
I have taken notice that everyone has some variety of “smart” phone permanently tattooed to their ear (give them time and they’ll be actual tattoos, if the world lasts that long). They all have a million friends on Facebook, but none in real life, they text incessantly, talk on chat programs that would make our parents blush with the utter risqueness of dress that the avatars are allowed to have. Never mind the fact the person on the other end of that never ending sexy avatar most likely needs a hover round to do their grocery shopping for no other reason than they fell victim to what grand daddy used to call “elbers bends” disease, every time your elber (elbow) bends your mouth opens.
Now I understand that some people (but I would be willing to wager not the majority) of those have some actual medical condition that requires the use of such a device, but too often I see them in the store with a basket full of Twinkies.
They also have the attention span of a gnat, the planning capabilities of an artichoke, and wouldn’t know a real book if it jumped up and bit them in the ass. All of this of course courtesy of our technological march toward the grandiose Olduvai Gorge that is coming toward us at a pace heretofore unseen before in human history.
Teachers are now required to “teach to the test” that George W. Bush put into place in an effort to make teachers more accountable, and elevate the worst performing schools to meet the rest of the nation, this has had the net effect of a bunch of small hominids who do nothing but regurgitate rote memorization of the basic facts needed to pass the standards of learning so their teacher doesn’t get fired at the end of the school year.
It however is a very poor method to teach our children to “think” past the end of the test, given a problem to solve (which they should be acquiring the skills to do so) if it falls outside of the parameters of the exam, then they simply cannot fathom how to accomplish this. I have seen it firsthand.
Take all of this and couple it with Facebook, Twitter, and a plethora of other distractions, and it’s no wonder our children cannot do simple things without either immediate gratification, or stick to something long enough to see it through to the end without someone there acting as a drill instructor to get it done.
I work until the sun goes down, how do I know it’s time to stop working? It’s dark outside. I’m not saying that everyone should take this approach, and often times I’ll take a break in the hottest part of the day (on my days off) so as to not kill myself, however as it cools in the evening I return to the task in order to attempt to finish whatever it was I was doing when I stopped earlier in the day.
I’m not going to complain about it, it does no good to do that. At the very least I will acknowledge it, and simply shake my head, what else can I do really. The world is as we have wrought it, nothing more, and nothing less. It is as it should be, only human beings would dare to think otherwise, after all we made it this way, and unless we as a whole (that is the entire of the human race) collectively do something to reverse the trend, I’m afraid we are headed toward the cliffs edge at a blistering pace, Oooh shiny…..
When people inquire of me where I see the modern age going, I just reply, you truly do not want to know what I see, history does not repeat, but it certainly rhymes.
Welcome to the OOOH Shiny generation, those whose lives are so enamored of technology that should they lose the ability to purchase their triple half soy mocha mint latte no whip with a wave of their android phone would simply have a nervous breakdown right there in the middle of Starbucks.
I have taken notice that everyone has some variety of “smart” phone permanently tattooed to their ear (give them time and they’ll be actual tattoos, if the world lasts that long). They all have a million friends on Facebook, but none in real life, they text incessantly, talk on chat programs that would make our parents blush with the utter risqueness of dress that the avatars are allowed to have. Never mind the fact the person on the other end of that never ending sexy avatar most likely needs a hover round to do their grocery shopping for no other reason than they fell victim to what grand daddy used to call “elbers bends” disease, every time your elber (elbow) bends your mouth opens.
Now I understand that some people (but I would be willing to wager not the majority) of those have some actual medical condition that requires the use of such a device, but too often I see them in the store with a basket full of Twinkies.
They also have the attention span of a gnat, the planning capabilities of an artichoke, and wouldn’t know a real book if it jumped up and bit them in the ass. All of this of course courtesy of our technological march toward the grandiose Olduvai Gorge that is coming toward us at a pace heretofore unseen before in human history.
Teachers are now required to “teach to the test” that George W. Bush put into place in an effort to make teachers more accountable, and elevate the worst performing schools to meet the rest of the nation, this has had the net effect of a bunch of small hominids who do nothing but regurgitate rote memorization of the basic facts needed to pass the standards of learning so their teacher doesn’t get fired at the end of the school year.
It however is a very poor method to teach our children to “think” past the end of the test, given a problem to solve (which they should be acquiring the skills to do so) if it falls outside of the parameters of the exam, then they simply cannot fathom how to accomplish this. I have seen it firsthand.
Take all of this and couple it with Facebook, Twitter, and a plethora of other distractions, and it’s no wonder our children cannot do simple things without either immediate gratification, or stick to something long enough to see it through to the end without someone there acting as a drill instructor to get it done.
I work until the sun goes down, how do I know it’s time to stop working? It’s dark outside. I’m not saying that everyone should take this approach, and often times I’ll take a break in the hottest part of the day (on my days off) so as to not kill myself, however as it cools in the evening I return to the task in order to attempt to finish whatever it was I was doing when I stopped earlier in the day.
I’m not going to complain about it, it does no good to do that. At the very least I will acknowledge it, and simply shake my head, what else can I do really. The world is as we have wrought it, nothing more, and nothing less. It is as it should be, only human beings would dare to think otherwise, after all we made it this way, and unless we as a whole (that is the entire of the human race) collectively do something to reverse the trend, I’m afraid we are headed toward the cliffs edge at a blistering pace, Oooh shiny…..
When people inquire of me where I see the modern age going, I just reply, you truly do not want to know what I see, history does not repeat, but it certainly rhymes.
13 May 2011
Why oh Why did he have to say That
“You and I are essentially infinite choice-makers. In every moment of our existence, we are in that field of all possibilities where we have access to an infinity of choices.” ~ Deepak Chopra
I know I know, two posts in a row with a quote by the same guy, but I’ll tell ya Chopra got it goin on in the philosophy department.
I hate more than a couple choices, even when faced with a slew of them I’ll try to narrow it down by dismissing those things that flat out don’t fit into whatever it is I’m trying to make my choice about.
We have (at the place of my ostensible employ) been attempting to hire a junior version of us. Things started out bad, and essentially fell off the edge of the table. None of the 11 candidates we deigned to interview (which is what it was in all reality as none were qualified and we knew it) could get the rudimentary questions right, we did however settle on one likable chap who at least had 40% of what we were seeking (the remaining 10 were to say the least not very useful).
Now I am not sure I’ve mentioned this in the past, but I’m Buddhist. Western Zen variety for the most part, however I have been known to partake in sazen from time to time even though it’s not really a necessity to comprehend the universe as I do.
My boss is aware of my “religious” affiliation, and the fact that I do not deign to discuss religious differences with anyone, simply because I do not feel that it would be productive in any way shape or form, I get paid to write code not play “my Gods better than your God” games at the office.
Well one person decided it would be in his best interest to mention that he brings a “Christian” centered perspective to his work, now that’s all well and good, but like the Christ said, let your actions speak since your words say nothing. Anyone who has to TELL me that; one is no Christian and two has no place in MY shop.
Mind you the other people who work in my department are both very Christian in deed and belief, and neither of them would EVER think to bring it up in casual conversation (the boss occasionally will but only in the context of going to church no more makes you a Christian than standing in a garage makes you a car).
Why oh Why did he have to bring THAT up, which by the way after he did my boss damn near slapped me out of my chair in an attempt to keep me from opening my mouth, but I as the consummate professional did not say anything, much as I really really wanted to.
All of this leads back to choices, this individual could have chosen to answer the final question any number of ways, most of which would not have affected the final outcome, but never the less, they chose to utterly alienate themselves from the prime mover of the group’s decision making process.
Bit of advice for ya’ll, next time you find yourself in a job interview, leave the religious proclivities at home where they belong, you’ll no more convince me of the existence of your God than I will convince you I’m a car.
I know I know, two posts in a row with a quote by the same guy, but I’ll tell ya Chopra got it goin on in the philosophy department.
I hate more than a couple choices, even when faced with a slew of them I’ll try to narrow it down by dismissing those things that flat out don’t fit into whatever it is I’m trying to make my choice about.
We have (at the place of my ostensible employ) been attempting to hire a junior version of us. Things started out bad, and essentially fell off the edge of the table. None of the 11 candidates we deigned to interview (which is what it was in all reality as none were qualified and we knew it) could get the rudimentary questions right, we did however settle on one likable chap who at least had 40% of what we were seeking (the remaining 10 were to say the least not very useful).
Now I am not sure I’ve mentioned this in the past, but I’m Buddhist. Western Zen variety for the most part, however I have been known to partake in sazen from time to time even though it’s not really a necessity to comprehend the universe as I do.
My boss is aware of my “religious” affiliation, and the fact that I do not deign to discuss religious differences with anyone, simply because I do not feel that it would be productive in any way shape or form, I get paid to write code not play “my Gods better than your God” games at the office.
Well one person decided it would be in his best interest to mention that he brings a “Christian” centered perspective to his work, now that’s all well and good, but like the Christ said, let your actions speak since your words say nothing. Anyone who has to TELL me that; one is no Christian and two has no place in MY shop.
Mind you the other people who work in my department are both very Christian in deed and belief, and neither of them would EVER think to bring it up in casual conversation (the boss occasionally will but only in the context of going to church no more makes you a Christian than standing in a garage makes you a car).
Why oh Why did he have to bring THAT up, which by the way after he did my boss damn near slapped me out of my chair in an attempt to keep me from opening my mouth, but I as the consummate professional did not say anything, much as I really really wanted to.
All of this leads back to choices, this individual could have chosen to answer the final question any number of ways, most of which would not have affected the final outcome, but never the less, they chose to utterly alienate themselves from the prime mover of the group’s decision making process.
Bit of advice for ya’ll, next time you find yourself in a job interview, leave the religious proclivities at home where they belong, you’ll no more convince me of the existence of your God than I will convince you I’m a car.
No Accident, Move Along Nothing to See Here
"There are no accidents... there is only some purpose that we haven't yet understood." -Deepak Chopra
I could turn this into a rant against that last bastion of “My God is better than your God”, or welfare mama’s and their Lexus cars and gold hoop earrings, or about my Buddhist leanings and learning’s; I won’t however do any of those things as much as I could have fit the quote to all of them.
The question then becomes what is our purpose? That is the interminable question that has haunted mankind since the beginning of time immemorial. Well I suppose not base man, not the man who’s only ideations revolved around food and procreation, but from the time man figured out he could draw on the walls with a burnt stick, and then discovered that some natural things around him could add some color to the drawings, I’m relatively certain that we have thought about something other than food and procreation.
Man is the only animal on the planet (and yes believe it or not boys and girls we are mammals) that forces his surroundings to fit his desires, rather than simply finding his place in the natural order of things.
Of course as previously mentioned, the discovery of oil in a Pennsylvania field in the 1800’s changed the face of mankind’s machinations forever. At first it was considered a nuisance more than anything else, wrecking fields and poisoning animals. It was not long however before us hairless monkeys figured out how to make fuel out of this black substance that flowed so readily out of the ground.
Plastics followed shortly thereafter, creating the detritus world in which we now find ourselves. The plastic pumpkin universe here on earth, where large swaths of ocean are covered in floating plastic debris that will never degrade in the oxygen depleted environment that it finds itself, the salt water acting as an insulator of sorts against the UV radiation that is required to break it down.
For all of our “advancements” (ostensible at best) there is evidence that the human race (or something resembling it) has “been there done that” in the past. All one has to do is search for “out of place parts” (aka oop parts) for some interesting data on the true age of man. It is possible that some catastrophic event wiped out a much more advanced civilization than we first thought our ancestors to be. Christians will call this the flood of Noah, other say that the most advanced civilization predated even him and his family.
The legends of the Vedic in India, the legends of Atlantis and LeMuria in ancient Greek texts, these lost to time civilizations that supposedly existed prior to us arriving, could there be a modicum of truth to those legends?
We may never know, however we do know that the current “civilization” apparently is reaching the point in time when the other ones bit the dust. The question is, will this version of man even have an ark to run to? Or are we it.
02 April 2011
Pot, Meet Kettle
“And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?” Jesus of Nazareth as quoted in Matthew 7:3 KJV
OMFG to quote the teenagers and pre teens that seem to have invaded my house here just recently in an attempt to drive the old coot up the wall I’m sure, but that’s a blog for a different time. Just when I thought I had heard and or seen the pinnacle of absolute debauchery and asshattery along this story comes, first seen on Matt Drudge’s site so hat tip there.
http://www.courthousenews.com/2011/03/31/35407.htm
Now normally I do not comment on news of the day, as the news itself seems to me to be specifically designed with SOMEONE’s agenda in mind, you have the “rabid right radio” and the “rabid left everything else” otherwise known as the main stream media (MSM) who, let’s face it, do a dismal job of reporting the actual news, of course there are “alternative” new sites out there, none of which are free from their own bias’s and prejudices to begin with, and who make no bones about it. Unlike the MSM who continue to insist that there are no tanks in town as they go rolling by behind them on camera.
The gist of the linked story is that the State of Georgia has allowed Fulton County to “create” out of thin air cities that are, get this, “TOO WHITE”. Where’s Louis Farrakhan, Jesse Jackson, Barak Obama, the ACLU and a whole litany of other players who would be all over this like (pardon the expression) white on rice should the roles of the players find themselves reversed.
Does this mean I can sue the City of New York because the Bronx is too Italian, or Queens is too Puerto Rican, or the City of San Francisco because there are areas that are too Chinese? The largest problem I see with the whole thing is that it’s not just a black and white issue, can I sue my HOA for my neighborhood being “not white enough”, of course should I do that calls of racism would echo throughout city hall so fast as to make ones head swim, there would be accusations of membership in the KKK, however membership in the black panthers in Philadelphia is almost a requirement just to go to the 7-11 there without a police escort should one find themselves guilty of being born white, you don’t wish to know how I know that.
America was built on everyone getting along, people as a whole have always self segregated, which is how we end up with predominantly black, white, Hispanic, Cuban, Chinese, Vietnamese et al. neighborhoods in cities that are otherwise “progressive”. I’m not saying that in the past we did not forcibly keep those who were different from us out of the areas we were, we most certainly did, and while I personally don’t condone that behavior, I was not there, I was born after the civil rights act in the 60’s, I’ve only ever known mixed neighborhoods, some good, some not so good.
So someone in government allowed a city to get a charter, for tax base purposes, and that city or neighborhood happened to be predominantly white, so what, why is this even a consideration when we have children of all colors and creeds starving on the streets of the most prosperous country on the planet. Hunger and poverty do not know socioeconomic boundaries, those who were once “middle class” are now poor, homeless and hungry. Perhaps the Georgia black caucus should concern themselves with righting that wrong, rather than pursue the perceived ills of a city that is “too white”.
OMFG to quote the teenagers and pre teens that seem to have invaded my house here just recently in an attempt to drive the old coot up the wall I’m sure, but that’s a blog for a different time. Just when I thought I had heard and or seen the pinnacle of absolute debauchery and asshattery along this story comes, first seen on Matt Drudge’s site so hat tip there.
http://www.courthousenews.com/2011/03/31/35407.htm
Now normally I do not comment on news of the day, as the news itself seems to me to be specifically designed with SOMEONE’s agenda in mind, you have the “rabid right radio” and the “rabid left everything else” otherwise known as the main stream media (MSM) who, let’s face it, do a dismal job of reporting the actual news, of course there are “alternative” new sites out there, none of which are free from their own bias’s and prejudices to begin with, and who make no bones about it. Unlike the MSM who continue to insist that there are no tanks in town as they go rolling by behind them on camera.
The gist of the linked story is that the State of Georgia has allowed Fulton County to “create” out of thin air cities that are, get this, “TOO WHITE”. Where’s Louis Farrakhan, Jesse Jackson, Barak Obama, the ACLU and a whole litany of other players who would be all over this like (pardon the expression) white on rice should the roles of the players find themselves reversed.
Does this mean I can sue the City of New York because the Bronx is too Italian, or Queens is too Puerto Rican, or the City of San Francisco because there are areas that are too Chinese? The largest problem I see with the whole thing is that it’s not just a black and white issue, can I sue my HOA for my neighborhood being “not white enough”, of course should I do that calls of racism would echo throughout city hall so fast as to make ones head swim, there would be accusations of membership in the KKK, however membership in the black panthers in Philadelphia is almost a requirement just to go to the 7-11 there without a police escort should one find themselves guilty of being born white, you don’t wish to know how I know that.
America was built on everyone getting along, people as a whole have always self segregated, which is how we end up with predominantly black, white, Hispanic, Cuban, Chinese, Vietnamese et al. neighborhoods in cities that are otherwise “progressive”. I’m not saying that in the past we did not forcibly keep those who were different from us out of the areas we were, we most certainly did, and while I personally don’t condone that behavior, I was not there, I was born after the civil rights act in the 60’s, I’ve only ever known mixed neighborhoods, some good, some not so good.
So someone in government allowed a city to get a charter, for tax base purposes, and that city or neighborhood happened to be predominantly white, so what, why is this even a consideration when we have children of all colors and creeds starving on the streets of the most prosperous country on the planet. Hunger and poverty do not know socioeconomic boundaries, those who were once “middle class” are now poor, homeless and hungry. Perhaps the Georgia black caucus should concern themselves with righting that wrong, rather than pursue the perceived ills of a city that is “too white”.
31 March 2011
A Tiger is a Tiger, No Matter How Small
What is the nature of a tiger?
"To talk much and arrive nowhere is the same as climbing a tree to catch a fish." - Ancient Chinese Proverb
To which I point you today to the link below. This is latest entry into the realm of unbridled, inane asshattery that would cause the local haberdasher to blush brighter than a Maine lobster in a steam pot on a summer’s night.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Editorial-Board-Blog/2011/0330/The-inside-story-on-cats-and-songbirds
The gist of this entry into the annals of the Christian Science Monitor is that when house cats (you know, fluffy, Mr. Pickles, whatever cutesy name you gave that moribund killing machine) are let loose “out of doors, they (gasp, quick look surprised) KILL SONGBIRDS”, how dare they. How dare Mr. Fluffles resort to the way GOD (this being the CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR after all?) designed him. Let us face the hard cold truth; a tiger is a tiger no matter how small. Cats are predators, not omnivores; carnivores, their main diet in the wild would be other animals smaller than themselves, rodents, birds, insects etc. would make up the bulk of what they would normally consume, if left to their own devices, eventually disease and predation by larger animals (i.e. coyotes, dogs, and other carnivorous mammalian and reptiles) would bring their numbers into check.
The problem is that too many of us feel poorly for little kitty and feed them when we should allow nature to do what nature does best, balance itself out. For someone to suggest as they have in the article that small scale felines are not indigenous to America, and therefore are our responsibility is absurd, there are plenty of indigenous animals that without the intervention of mankind would probably have died out long ago due to the lack of suitable habitat. Somehow what some fellow brought with him on a leaky boat 400 years ago is my fucking responsibility, err, hey fella’s guess again. Instead we protect the feline population from predation, hell we even feed them and then expect that by some miracle of jayeeezus that they won’t do what animals do and procreate beyond the carrying capacity of the local ecosystem, well guess what Einstein, when you interfere with the natural cycle of things that’s what happens.
I am tired, I’m tired of the self righteous asshats telling me that I should give my money to them and be grateful because they are doing “GODS” work, hmm…I dunno about you, but why does God need a twenty? If god is omnipotent and omnipresent as the people at this particular publication are sure to tell you, then why do we not allow his designs to reign supreme? Are we so disenlightened as to think for one Pico second that we as lowly humans who god put here to do whatever it is they believe God put us here to do have a better idea than him?
Makes me glad I’m Buddhist. Hat tip to Pamela at End of Empire News for the link to the asshattery today, without her all the doomers would never get any news at all.
"To talk much and arrive nowhere is the same as climbing a tree to catch a fish." - Ancient Chinese Proverb
To which I point you today to the link below. This is latest entry into the realm of unbridled, inane asshattery that would cause the local haberdasher to blush brighter than a Maine lobster in a steam pot on a summer’s night.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Editorial-Board-Blog/2011/0330/The-inside-story-on-cats-and-songbirds
The gist of this entry into the annals of the Christian Science Monitor is that when house cats (you know, fluffy, Mr. Pickles, whatever cutesy name you gave that moribund killing machine) are let loose “out of doors, they (gasp, quick look surprised) KILL SONGBIRDS”, how dare they. How dare Mr. Fluffles resort to the way GOD (this being the CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR after all?) designed him. Let us face the hard cold truth; a tiger is a tiger no matter how small. Cats are predators, not omnivores; carnivores, their main diet in the wild would be other animals smaller than themselves, rodents, birds, insects etc. would make up the bulk of what they would normally consume, if left to their own devices, eventually disease and predation by larger animals (i.e. coyotes, dogs, and other carnivorous mammalian and reptiles) would bring their numbers into check.
The problem is that too many of us feel poorly for little kitty and feed them when we should allow nature to do what nature does best, balance itself out. For someone to suggest as they have in the article that small scale felines are not indigenous to America, and therefore are our responsibility is absurd, there are plenty of indigenous animals that without the intervention of mankind would probably have died out long ago due to the lack of suitable habitat. Somehow what some fellow brought with him on a leaky boat 400 years ago is my fucking responsibility, err, hey fella’s guess again. Instead we protect the feline population from predation, hell we even feed them and then expect that by some miracle of jayeeezus that they won’t do what animals do and procreate beyond the carrying capacity of the local ecosystem, well guess what Einstein, when you interfere with the natural cycle of things that’s what happens.
I am tired, I’m tired of the self righteous asshats telling me that I should give my money to them and be grateful because they are doing “GODS” work, hmm…I dunno about you, but why does God need a twenty? If god is omnipotent and omnipresent as the people at this particular publication are sure to tell you, then why do we not allow his designs to reign supreme? Are we so disenlightened as to think for one Pico second that we as lowly humans who god put here to do whatever it is they believe God put us here to do have a better idea than him?
Makes me glad I’m Buddhist. Hat tip to Pamela at End of Empire News for the link to the asshattery today, without her all the doomers would never get any news at all.
16 February 2011
Ignorance is Not Bliss
Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education. ~Bertrand Russell
Here’s a question I’ve been pondering. Something along the lines of “if a man speaks in the forest and a woman is not there to hear him, is he still wrong” type of ideations. Let’s face it, by and large, the majority of people (especially my fellow Americans, even though I am certain it applies to other countries as well) are stupid, or rather ignorant.
Stupid conjures up some Forest Gump level of intelligence wherein the individual afflicted with such ends up dutifully shooting themselves multiple times in the foot. Ignorant is a lack of training or lack of understanding borne of not being informed about a particular subject matter. I personally use the term ignorant quite a bit, and I use it in its normal non derogatory manner simply meaning that the information has not been passed to the individual yet and given a length of time and a bit of attention span, ignorance is thusly curable. Stupid is almost always fatal. And of course I will now admit to being ignorant myself in many areas, however, observation is not one of them.
Unfortunately for most, observation of one’s surroundings almost always falls to the level of importance of picking the strangers nose that happens to be standing next to you. I recall reading at one point in my first college career in a psychological journal someone left lying about the science lab (me being the uber geek I was) that spoke about a psych student taking a nude statue from the art department, placing it in the schools trophy case for a week, the removing it. Afterwards the student sent out a survey with all correct answers to be entered into a drawing for 3 free pizzas or some such nominal prize for returning the survey (this was pre computer ubiquity). Some quantity in the 4 digit’s went out, roughly 50% of them were returned, NONE had the right answer, out of 2000 or so sent out, 1000 or so returned not one person noticed that there was a nude statue in the school’s athletic achievement cabinet.
This leads me to believe (and through 40+years of observation know, however anecdotally) that the majority of bi-pedal hairless fire monkeys don’t pay much mind to what goes on around them. Even less so now than say 30 years ago or longer when one’s life literally depended on a situational awareness level that is no longer necessary for day to day survival. To wit,” Weenie suburbanite consumer anti-depressant-addled television addicts beget weenie suburbanite consumer television addict offspring. There are exceptions to the rule, however what do you expect from these kids' whose parents are utterly incapacitated by fear of the unknown and risk of any kind?” as stated by Boris the Schnook on a board I belong to, kind of says it all right there. Situational awareness is no longer needed; at least that’s what the majority of suburbanite America believes. Plug into your IPod, put your head down and don’t even notice the pennies that are lying on the ground where you walk.
This led me to a stream of consciousness, epiphanal as it was, that if I were to plant 10 various fruit trees in my back yard, would anyone notice I had an orchard (however small)? Since the trees would not be planted in a straight line one after the other for efficiency purposes, would the majority of people simply walk by? Even if they were hungry at the time they passed by it? Since everyone knows that orchards are all planted in a straight row right? Right? Bueller? What about planting corn in triangles or some other such pattern that is not normally seen, what about scattering corn plantings (one or two plants maybe three if I’m feeling feisty) around the yard in such a way as to mimic some sort of native American themed landscaping? Would anyone notice there was food planted between the holly bush and the English boxwood. Would anyone other than the birds notice strawberries planted in a tiered planter on the porch cascading down like some piece of landscape art?
Since the inception of public schooling in America we have been consistently dumbed down to levels heretofore unseen in the world, not everyone mind you, but enough of us to have made a awful large impact in the world. If you look at the famous 8th grade exit exam from the late 1800’s I’ll tell you right now that I have a masters degree and would be hard pressed to make it out of the 8th grade if I were alive back then.
The ultimate result is a general inability to keep situational awareness, something that is about to become extremely important for everyone. Because it’s in being able to take advantage of other peoples failures of situational awareness that those of us left who retain it to thrive in the post whatever is coming world. By mixing and mingling edible plants into the normal landscape most individuals will pass them by without a second thought since they do not come in a neat row being grown for obvious food, they probably will simply think they are ornamental and not edible anyway, because what they have learned tells them that are not how food is grown, unable to think outside that box will be their downfall, and possibly your saving grace.
Here’s a question I’ve been pondering. Something along the lines of “if a man speaks in the forest and a woman is not there to hear him, is he still wrong” type of ideations. Let’s face it, by and large, the majority of people (especially my fellow Americans, even though I am certain it applies to other countries as well) are stupid, or rather ignorant.
Stupid conjures up some Forest Gump level of intelligence wherein the individual afflicted with such ends up dutifully shooting themselves multiple times in the foot. Ignorant is a lack of training or lack of understanding borne of not being informed about a particular subject matter. I personally use the term ignorant quite a bit, and I use it in its normal non derogatory manner simply meaning that the information has not been passed to the individual yet and given a length of time and a bit of attention span, ignorance is thusly curable. Stupid is almost always fatal. And of course I will now admit to being ignorant myself in many areas, however, observation is not one of them.
Unfortunately for most, observation of one’s surroundings almost always falls to the level of importance of picking the strangers nose that happens to be standing next to you. I recall reading at one point in my first college career in a psychological journal someone left lying about the science lab (me being the uber geek I was) that spoke about a psych student taking a nude statue from the art department, placing it in the schools trophy case for a week, the removing it. Afterwards the student sent out a survey with all correct answers to be entered into a drawing for 3 free pizzas or some such nominal prize for returning the survey (this was pre computer ubiquity). Some quantity in the 4 digit’s went out, roughly 50% of them were returned, NONE had the right answer, out of 2000 or so sent out, 1000 or so returned not one person noticed that there was a nude statue in the school’s athletic achievement cabinet.
This leads me to believe (and through 40+years of observation know, however anecdotally) that the majority of bi-pedal hairless fire monkeys don’t pay much mind to what goes on around them. Even less so now than say 30 years ago or longer when one’s life literally depended on a situational awareness level that is no longer necessary for day to day survival. To wit,” Weenie suburbanite consumer anti-depressant-addled television addicts beget weenie suburbanite consumer television addict offspring. There are exceptions to the rule, however what do you expect from these kids' whose parents are utterly incapacitated by fear of the unknown and risk of any kind?” as stated by Boris the Schnook on a board I belong to, kind of says it all right there. Situational awareness is no longer needed; at least that’s what the majority of suburbanite America believes. Plug into your IPod, put your head down and don’t even notice the pennies that are lying on the ground where you walk.
This led me to a stream of consciousness, epiphanal as it was, that if I were to plant 10 various fruit trees in my back yard, would anyone notice I had an orchard (however small)? Since the trees would not be planted in a straight line one after the other for efficiency purposes, would the majority of people simply walk by? Even if they were hungry at the time they passed by it? Since everyone knows that orchards are all planted in a straight row right? Right? Bueller? What about planting corn in triangles or some other such pattern that is not normally seen, what about scattering corn plantings (one or two plants maybe three if I’m feeling feisty) around the yard in such a way as to mimic some sort of native American themed landscaping? Would anyone notice there was food planted between the holly bush and the English boxwood. Would anyone other than the birds notice strawberries planted in a tiered planter on the porch cascading down like some piece of landscape art?
Since the inception of public schooling in America we have been consistently dumbed down to levels heretofore unseen in the world, not everyone mind you, but enough of us to have made a awful large impact in the world. If you look at the famous 8th grade exit exam from the late 1800’s I’ll tell you right now that I have a masters degree and would be hard pressed to make it out of the 8th grade if I were alive back then.
The ultimate result is a general inability to keep situational awareness, something that is about to become extremely important for everyone. Because it’s in being able to take advantage of other peoples failures of situational awareness that those of us left who retain it to thrive in the post whatever is coming world. By mixing and mingling edible plants into the normal landscape most individuals will pass them by without a second thought since they do not come in a neat row being grown for obvious food, they probably will simply think they are ornamental and not edible anyway, because what they have learned tells them that are not how food is grown, unable to think outside that box will be their downfall, and possibly your saving grace.
09 January 2011
Knocking on the Sky...Listening to the sound
Knock on the sky and listen to the sound ~Zen Proverb
I have been doing a bit of that lately, the sound that comes back however is never the sound one wants, it usually emanates from the deleterious wasteland that the internet has become. Populated by the modern equivalence of reprehensible miscreants, whose sole purpose it would appear is to populate social networking and social games.
It has ever so slowly dawned on me that not only are these games such as second life, IMVU, YoVille, and Mini Planet to name a few, grandiose time sinks, they lead some of the players down the road of solely existing inside the game. It becomes much more than a simple past time of talking to friends and acquaintances to consuming their entire day and night schedule to the point of its all they do for all intents and purposes.
I have nothing against them, I’ve met some wonderful people on a couple of these games, but for the most part, they are occupied by the most egregious versions of vapid human detritus that one might muster a Stephen King quality nightmare to effectively fathom. The somewhat sentient bi-pedal hominids that are the greatest users of these social platforms are the ones who themselves have a hard time fathoming why the rest of us with a life outside the game can have a life outside the game. After all they manage to exist almost solely in the game, why shouldn’t we?
At one point I would make an appearance nightly on one of these grandiose time sinks. After, however, my other stuff that had taken precedence that day had been accomplished. So I viewed it much like going out on a Friday night, after working all week, putting up with the necessitated BS I got to go do something I enjoyed. Except, when one considers it in an intellectually honest manner, the vicariousness of the existence of the denizens that inhabit these areas is sufficient to give even the simplest among us pause in consideration of the utter waste in which they partake.
And it’s not just the games; it’s the whole social networking paradigm. 1984 and Brave New World were supposed to be warnings, not instruction manuals. Americans will on the one hand rail against big brother, (or in the current case big sister) taking naked pictures of you to get on an airplane, however, will happily post digitally vapid overtly drunken pictures for the world to see on their Facebook page, along with the obligatory “I’m so stoned” status update. What is worse is that invariably fifteen people who may or may not actually know this person will “like” their status. Have we sunk that low as a society that we must find countenance with our peers via some piece of software?
It would seem so, that we as a society no longer want, need, or desire contact with our “friends” except through the likes of Facebook, MySpace, or the myriad of other places one might find someone. It’s a shame that people know more about what’s happening in the lives of people they never met than they know about what’s happening in their own neighborhoods. The shear amount of drama that occurs in these places rivals that of daytime television. I’ll bet you any amount we can agree upon that you or someone you know knows the names of 5 people that are “friends” on some social networking site, but cannot tell you the names of the people that live on either side of them.
No wonder we have such a obesity epidemic in America now, we have become like the fat slobs in the movie surrogate, where you can be anyone you want to be, without leaving the house, where it was a shame that the protagonist had the same realization I have, I’d rather have one relationship in real life “meat space” than 10,000 on Facebook.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have real world things that need taken care of, I grow real plants, and fertilizer comes from the next county over, not some unknown individual whom I will never meet in real life.
I have been doing a bit of that lately, the sound that comes back however is never the sound one wants, it usually emanates from the deleterious wasteland that the internet has become. Populated by the modern equivalence of reprehensible miscreants, whose sole purpose it would appear is to populate social networking and social games.
It has ever so slowly dawned on me that not only are these games such as second life, IMVU, YoVille, and Mini Planet to name a few, grandiose time sinks, they lead some of the players down the road of solely existing inside the game. It becomes much more than a simple past time of talking to friends and acquaintances to consuming their entire day and night schedule to the point of its all they do for all intents and purposes.
I have nothing against them, I’ve met some wonderful people on a couple of these games, but for the most part, they are occupied by the most egregious versions of vapid human detritus that one might muster a Stephen King quality nightmare to effectively fathom. The somewhat sentient bi-pedal hominids that are the greatest users of these social platforms are the ones who themselves have a hard time fathoming why the rest of us with a life outside the game can have a life outside the game. After all they manage to exist almost solely in the game, why shouldn’t we?
At one point I would make an appearance nightly on one of these grandiose time sinks. After, however, my other stuff that had taken precedence that day had been accomplished. So I viewed it much like going out on a Friday night, after working all week, putting up with the necessitated BS I got to go do something I enjoyed. Except, when one considers it in an intellectually honest manner, the vicariousness of the existence of the denizens that inhabit these areas is sufficient to give even the simplest among us pause in consideration of the utter waste in which they partake.
And it’s not just the games; it’s the whole social networking paradigm. 1984 and Brave New World were supposed to be warnings, not instruction manuals. Americans will on the one hand rail against big brother, (or in the current case big sister) taking naked pictures of you to get on an airplane, however, will happily post digitally vapid overtly drunken pictures for the world to see on their Facebook page, along with the obligatory “I’m so stoned” status update. What is worse is that invariably fifteen people who may or may not actually know this person will “like” their status. Have we sunk that low as a society that we must find countenance with our peers via some piece of software?
It would seem so, that we as a society no longer want, need, or desire contact with our “friends” except through the likes of Facebook, MySpace, or the myriad of other places one might find someone. It’s a shame that people know more about what’s happening in the lives of people they never met than they know about what’s happening in their own neighborhoods. The shear amount of drama that occurs in these places rivals that of daytime television. I’ll bet you any amount we can agree upon that you or someone you know knows the names of 5 people that are “friends” on some social networking site, but cannot tell you the names of the people that live on either side of them.
No wonder we have such a obesity epidemic in America now, we have become like the fat slobs in the movie surrogate, where you can be anyone you want to be, without leaving the house, where it was a shame that the protagonist had the same realization I have, I’d rather have one relationship in real life “meat space” than 10,000 on Facebook.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have real world things that need taken care of, I grow real plants, and fertilizer comes from the next county over, not some unknown individual whom I will never meet in real life.
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