Did you ever study MORTIE, the organisation that doesn't exist? Talk about fiction talking about fiction.
I have to make sure many of my encounters in life have a random feel to them. Sure, I'm giving my cohorts the slip but I also like variety within the moment. I get tired of looking at planning diaries telling me what to do next.
Today, I randomly ate lunch at Old Heidelberg Restaurant with family and friends, seeing Dr. Nixon and her family at a nearby table, which was the clue the server knew that triggered the delivery of a stack of CD-Rs (CD-R = computer compact disc that one can store data/music onto).
During the normal-looking exchange of birthday presents at our table, I let the server know which bag I would drop the discs into. Before that, I had "accidentally" punched one server in front of a colleague of mine who was acting as a random customer. He passed a note written on a sales receipt read by the cook who then told the hostess to inform a server to deliver my dinner plate to me with the CDs attached underneath. She was only to hand the plate to me after I passed the phrase "Zigeunerschnitzel" and then I would receive a dish covered in white cream sauce that told me the CDs were actually fake and I was to leave them under another "random" seat at the Monaco Theatre matinee showing of "Crazy Heart."
The actual data delivered to me was stuffed into a strip of red pepper that I "swallowed"; that is, I bit into the pepper, felt the USB drive inside, tucked it into a place between my teeth and gums and ate the rest of the meal until I wiped my lips with the napkin and spit the USB drive into a fold of the napkin.
I slipped the USB drive into my coat sleeve as I put the coat on and then dropped the USB drive between a cushion and arm of a stuffed chair at the Chocolate Crocodile that will be vacuumed by a "random" employee there. The next morning, another "random" worker will empty the contents of the vacuum cleaner and pass the USB drive to a "random" customer first thing in the morning.
Or so I was told to lead you to believe by the bald guy sitting across the room from me who used the old folding napkin semaphore messaging system taught to me during a college miniterm in Writing Spy Fiction, given by a hackneyed Russian comedian who was going into a new line of work, jokes disguised as collegiate-level mathematical philosophy.
In fact, the data was written in some oil stains on the carpark surface that held microfilm which my shoes picked up and I am now analysing while typing this blog entry.
Old-school tech still serves us well in the business. Just like we know that e-book theft is rising, we know that e-theft in general dominates both the teenage life and the underground (and commonly both). E-data is meant to be stolen so why confuse those of us in the business about what is and what is not supposed to "stolen"?
Meanwhile, muscular thugs with nothing better to do are performing old school tactics of their own to convert some indebted middle class families into workers for "the cause." I keep trying to tell these out-of-work, over-the-hill female roller derby gals to lay off the violence but they like to stay in shape. Besides, they tell me, intimidation gives their skin a special glow they can't get anywhere else. They think the Stanley Cup will reflect their personalities beautifully [blatant free (not blatant-free) advert inserted here: "the Stanley Cup is slated to make an appearance at the Alabama-Huntsville-Bemidji State "National Defense Night" hockey game on March 5th at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville"]!
I'll take data however it was derived or extracted. I'm neutral, as you know. If the church women's circle or the longshorewomen want to bring me information at their discretion, I'll nod, smile and be the delivery boy for the rest of the network processing possible future outcomes, incomes, outgoes or delicious takeaway.
Did you know a group of scientists has shown that large quantities of bacteria, large numbers of giant squid and other massive movements of biological substances can change the ocean currents? Did you also know that cruise ships have been known to dump their trash at sea? Well, now we know a little more about the future, don't we?
I've just about got the hackers off on a wild goose feather lasercut design contest and off my back which means I'll have time to put together the backup version of the "totally awesome, for sure, yes" scenario I promised you, the original version having been shredded by a four-year old who had rewired her father's electronics outlet store into a giant hackbot and figured out how to get into the supercomputer network stored in duplicate underground bunkers located in Los Alamos, Las Vegas, Huntsville, Oak Ridge and Lake Buena Vista. Thank goodness she didn't know what she found and thus just rearranged the words and numbers in the files, turning them into a baby's nursery rhyme as a joke.
Yesterday, while enjoying cocoa/vanilla delicacies at the Huntsville Botanical Garden with the rest of the area's chocoholics, I saw some old friends, including a trumpet player and the guy who used to work for the Chases, and some new friends, including a drummer and a woman who told me, "Is it just me or is it getting hot in here," after she introduced me to her husband. Made our afternoon meal at Wintzell's more enjoyable because James used his quick decisiveness to fix the confused kitchen crew and brought me hot Southern cheese grits with crawdad sauce.
You don't know who I am. I don't know who I am. I am unimportant. I have nothing up my sleeve that you can see or use. I am simply the messenger.
But data is power. The more data you move, the more powerful you are. Money is a symptom, not the cause. Don't confuse wealth with power. Don't confuse electricity with power.
I have told you over and over (and told you "over and over" over and over) - the key phrase here is "states of energy." Focus on those facts alone and you will be able to say "yes" without hesitation. You are but states of energy. The quicker you change those states of energy, the more power flows through you and the easier you say "yes" every time the question pops up.
That's all I can share with you right now. My supercomputer is overheating while rebuilding the "what if the species could say 'yes' even while thinking of mooning green cheese" scenario so I've got to shovel some buckets of dry ice to cool it down. I told the team members who wanted to build cool gaming machines with overclocked CPUs that I'd need the computers when the time came and to have their übercomputers supercooled but they have spent too much time installing their lightshows to finish the simple instructions I gave them. Watercooled is all I asked for, not retro rocketcar radiator tubing a third of them have half-installed!
To the double-head-swing woman in line at the Marriott job fair, I wish I had more time. Same time, next time, perhaps? Same signal, too.
28 February 2010
Cauliflower Ears For Dinner Again?!
While the social termites choose up sides and decide the parts of civilisation they want to chew up, I am sorting through the hay bales of information rolling up beside me.
Here's one needle: several international groups are gathering their resources, including lobbyists, aides and pages, from whom a new battlefront is being drawn, whereby, the forthwith data presented, in the event that previous contracts were nullified before they were signed, whereas a gaggle of lawyers will submit lawsuits that drain the bribery-laden accounts of legislators, lawyers, barristers, lobbyists, corporate interests, judges, czars and other players who are being asked to slow down their activities to make their counterintuitive interests known...slow down! Enough with the legalese!
Another straw: while the lawsuits flow like warmedover molasses, the computer programmers who are being paid to look the other way will divert rivulets of wet paper soaked with electronic ink to those who are interested in de-electing the whole bunch at once, thus taking down the wizard's curtain and exposing who's pulling the pulleys and chains. Same as the "who's making money off of whom" medical shell game.
Some people take my reset button scenario far more seriously than a writer would wish for.
Meanwhile, the creatures that don't exist who keep our planet turning want to take a long-deserved holiday. Where do they go and who will take their place?
And I thought today was a slow news day!
More for you after I give the hackers something else to sink their teeth into. I have some readers who want another romantic interlude, a pedestrian pas de deux for the masses who don't know or care about atomic weights or new Copernican elements. An Italian holiday without one mention of Filippo Brunelleschi!
Here's one needle: several international groups are gathering their resources, including lobbyists, aides and pages, from whom a new battlefront is being drawn, whereby, the forthwith data presented, in the event that previous contracts were nullified before they were signed, whereas a gaggle of lawyers will submit lawsuits that drain the bribery-laden accounts of legislators, lawyers, barristers, lobbyists, corporate interests, judges, czars and other players who are being asked to slow down their activities to make their counterintuitive interests known...slow down! Enough with the legalese!
Another straw: while the lawsuits flow like warmedover molasses, the computer programmers who are being paid to look the other way will divert rivulets of wet paper soaked with electronic ink to those who are interested in de-electing the whole bunch at once, thus taking down the wizard's curtain and exposing who's pulling the pulleys and chains. Same as the "who's making money off of whom" medical shell game.
Some people take my reset button scenario far more seriously than a writer would wish for.
Meanwhile, the creatures that don't exist who keep our planet turning want to take a long-deserved holiday. Where do they go and who will take their place?
And I thought today was a slow news day!
More for you after I give the hackers something else to sink their teeth into. I have some readers who want another romantic interlude, a pedestrian pas de deux for the masses who don't know or care about atomic weights or new Copernican elements. An Italian holiday without one mention of Filippo Brunelleschi!
27 February 2010
Splintered Fractions
Belgian Framboise Lambic Beer. How many beers (pardon me, "malt beverages") have you uncorked in your lifetime? Stop in Vlezenbeek, Belgium, and find out why you should know the answer to the question, "Are there any connections between a chunk of ice no longer pressing down on a piece of land and a tectonic plate floating loose over a bed of magma?"
No statistical evidence for the power of prayer, yet we still gather together in rooms and beg our gods for favours.
I don't want a scoop of ice cream but I want to hear the "Bananas" song where they chop nuts on frozen slabs of marble, don't you?
If I only didn't know what lonely me knows. Prayer is not the answer - action-based responses to prayers, where time and place do not matter, matter. What's the matter, batter? Don't you know how to swing that bat?
Glad I know who I am not, at this moment. Aren't you glad I don't take myself seriously? Otherwise...ho ho ho...I wouldn't sit here with quill in hand. I'd gather all of you up and line you against that wall over there, next to that newly-dug ditch, and ask every one of you singly, "Are you going to do what I told you you are meant to do right now or do I have to get you to fill that ditch back up one more time?" Then I'd hand you a shovel so you can scoop up all the self deception and false fronts pouring out of your mouths and patch over that ditch you dug in your previous moment against the wall that you don't remember because I can erase your memory at will.
But I'm not like that. I'm a nice guy. I don't hold mirrors up to you because I believe all of us deserve the right to live however we wish, including hidden behind our rose-coloured glasses that make the world look like a bottle of raspberry beer.
Drink up!
For the rest of you, those who know what's going to happen next, you have the chance to answer the question for the first time in your life. You can say "yes" or "no." Any hesitation or reasoning/excuses will automatically count as "no." This is not a question about your afterlife, your soul, your moral/ethical standing in your thoughts or in your community, or your favourite child you think you're going to protect. This is only about you.
Keep in mind, every one of you is the most important person (set of states of energy) in the universe at this moment in time. No one else exists in this moment. [In fact, you don't exist, but for this question it's easier to think of yourself as existing so you can momentarily accept a personalised, anthropomorphic request.]
Remember, I'm not the one who will ask you the question. I am just here to serve as an easy-to-read signpost to point the way. I am pretending to serve as a representative of the arrow of time, for those who understand theoretical physics (and the arrow of time is truly a theory but one that will make sense to many of you who like to see through mathematical lenses).
The question will appear once and only once. It will not be posed to you as a question, but if you are quietly listening to yourself and not the demands of the artificial world around you, you will sense the moment when what seems like a question will be asked of you. You will know when you answered the question (or rather, you will know when your response was "no").
Once in a very long while, there appears a period of time when the whole population gets to answer this question again. That's right. Even those who have already responded in the negative get to reconsider their answer and hear the question one more time. How long is a "very long while"? I don't know. I have no concept of time. I do not exist. I am inside and outside the concept of time, neither quantifiable nor infinite.
All I know is all I know and all I know is that the whole population can reset itself simultaneously. Of course, this has never happened. Some say it will never happen, that our universe is composed of variations on a theme in everything that constitutes the universe. In other words, sameness can exist but it doesn't happen. No two planets, no two suns, no two people are exactly alike.
Therefore, I can assure you many of you will say "no" and go on being you. When you do, feel secure that most of the people around you probably did the same thing. You will live the rest of your life just as you probably would have had you not heard and answered the question. The universe will not end because you said "no."
For the slim possibility all of you said "yes" and proved that the universe does have its comic, uncharacteristic moments, let me show you a possible future.
As you know, this has never happened before, so to show you this future I had to borrow a lot of extra computer cycles to generate or simulate a whole species' thought patterns reaching the same conclusion within a narrow space of time.
I burned out a lot of processors and made more than a few computer programmers and IT maintenance engineers angry while they repaired their machines. No, you don't have to thank me for going above and beyond the call of duty. I enjoyed the looks on the faces of those folks while they figured out how an ol' country boy like me could have hacked the hackers.
Wait a minute...what's this? The programmers are trying to access my system and erase the scenario I'm about to show you. Okay, I can play this game back. Pardon me while I set in motion a series of counterattacks to their countercounterattacks and come back to you later on. I have a safe copy of the species-wide "yes" scenario stored across a number of secure locations, including keypad entry locks for houses and automobiles, air traffic control towers, a few UAVs circling overhead and in some garage door openers, too (they make some really small UAVs these days), but it'll take a while to reconstruct the scenario if I lose this hackerfest tonight. Until tomorrow! May the best beer-guzzling g33k wannabe win!
No statistical evidence for the power of prayer, yet we still gather together in rooms and beg our gods for favours.
I don't want a scoop of ice cream but I want to hear the "Bananas" song where they chop nuts on frozen slabs of marble, don't you?
If I only didn't know what lonely me knows. Prayer is not the answer - action-based responses to prayers, where time and place do not matter, matter. What's the matter, batter? Don't you know how to swing that bat?
Glad I know who I am not, at this moment. Aren't you glad I don't take myself seriously? Otherwise...ho ho ho...I wouldn't sit here with quill in hand. I'd gather all of you up and line you against that wall over there, next to that newly-dug ditch, and ask every one of you singly, "Are you going to do what I told you you are meant to do right now or do I have to get you to fill that ditch back up one more time?" Then I'd hand you a shovel so you can scoop up all the self deception and false fronts pouring out of your mouths and patch over that ditch you dug in your previous moment against the wall that you don't remember because I can erase your memory at will.
But I'm not like that. I'm a nice guy. I don't hold mirrors up to you because I believe all of us deserve the right to live however we wish, including hidden behind our rose-coloured glasses that make the world look like a bottle of raspberry beer.
Drink up!
For the rest of you, those who know what's going to happen next, you have the chance to answer the question for the first time in your life. You can say "yes" or "no." Any hesitation or reasoning/excuses will automatically count as "no." This is not a question about your afterlife, your soul, your moral/ethical standing in your thoughts or in your community, or your favourite child you think you're going to protect. This is only about you.
Keep in mind, every one of you is the most important person (set of states of energy) in the universe at this moment in time. No one else exists in this moment. [In fact, you don't exist, but for this question it's easier to think of yourself as existing so you can momentarily accept a personalised, anthropomorphic request.]
Remember, I'm not the one who will ask you the question. I am just here to serve as an easy-to-read signpost to point the way. I am pretending to serve as a representative of the arrow of time, for those who understand theoretical physics (and the arrow of time is truly a theory but one that will make sense to many of you who like to see through mathematical lenses).
The question will appear once and only once. It will not be posed to you as a question, but if you are quietly listening to yourself and not the demands of the artificial world around you, you will sense the moment when what seems like a question will be asked of you. You will know when you answered the question (or rather, you will know when your response was "no").
Once in a very long while, there appears a period of time when the whole population gets to answer this question again. That's right. Even those who have already responded in the negative get to reconsider their answer and hear the question one more time. How long is a "very long while"? I don't know. I have no concept of time. I do not exist. I am inside and outside the concept of time, neither quantifiable nor infinite.
All I know is all I know and all I know is that the whole population can reset itself simultaneously. Of course, this has never happened. Some say it will never happen, that our universe is composed of variations on a theme in everything that constitutes the universe. In other words, sameness can exist but it doesn't happen. No two planets, no two suns, no two people are exactly alike.
Therefore, I can assure you many of you will say "no" and go on being you. When you do, feel secure that most of the people around you probably did the same thing. You will live the rest of your life just as you probably would have had you not heard and answered the question. The universe will not end because you said "no."
For the slim possibility all of you said "yes" and proved that the universe does have its comic, uncharacteristic moments, let me show you a possible future.
As you know, this has never happened before, so to show you this future I had to borrow a lot of extra computer cycles to generate or simulate a whole species' thought patterns reaching the same conclusion within a narrow space of time.
I burned out a lot of processors and made more than a few computer programmers and IT maintenance engineers angry while they repaired their machines. No, you don't have to thank me for going above and beyond the call of duty. I enjoyed the looks on the faces of those folks while they figured out how an ol' country boy like me could have hacked the hackers.
Wait a minute...what's this? The programmers are trying to access my system and erase the scenario I'm about to show you. Okay, I can play this game back. Pardon me while I set in motion a series of counterattacks to their countercounterattacks and come back to you later on. I have a safe copy of the species-wide "yes" scenario stored across a number of secure locations, including keypad entry locks for houses and automobiles, air traffic control towers, a few UAVs circling overhead and in some garage door openers, too (they make some really small UAVs these days), but it'll take a while to reconstruct the scenario if I lose this hackerfest tonight. Until tomorrow! May the best beer-guzzling g33k wannabe win!
26 February 2010
Who Is Al Gore To You?
About this story: Al Gore in line for honorary doctorate from UT
I've always been of two minds on Al Gore. First, he served as a publicly-elected official representing Tennessee, he was elected into the White House as VP, and he has received international recognition - all of these point to positive contributions he has made; on the other side, he is not his father and has always projected a wooden public personality or a personality he copied from Clinton, partly, I think, because he was never a true Tennessean politician, traveling throughout his youth in his father's shadow, and thus never able to establish his own public persona (which I bet would have been more like a primary/secondary school teacher or smalltown journalist, if there had not been pressure on him to follow in his father's footsteps).
What do they say about a person never getting respect in his hometown?
I think the carbon "cap and trade" concept is sound but is hard to sell during this economic downturn because people tend to view the concept as anti-growth (or worse).
So, all the best for Al, who represents Tennessee and, despite controversy, deserves an honorary degree for what we'll understand in later centuries about the changes our species has caused to this planet's complex ecosystem. An energy consumption device provided by the Atomic Energy Museum that my father demonstrated to my schoolmates in the late 1970s taught me long ago that fuel=carbon and the megamegatons we have used/released creates longlasting effects, including the permanent heat bubbles our concrete/factory jungles create.
Sure, outer space is a big heat sink but "greenhouses gases" are good insulators. Tip the balance far enough and see what happens! Unfortunately for our species, in 10-20 years, Gore will have the last laugh on this one when the climate change (i.e., "global warming") theories he supported become reality.
I've always been of two minds on Al Gore. First, he served as a publicly-elected official representing Tennessee, he was elected into the White House as VP, and he has received international recognition - all of these point to positive contributions he has made; on the other side, he is not his father and has always projected a wooden public personality or a personality he copied from Clinton, partly, I think, because he was never a true Tennessean politician, traveling throughout his youth in his father's shadow, and thus never able to establish his own public persona (which I bet would have been more like a primary/secondary school teacher or smalltown journalist, if there had not been pressure on him to follow in his father's footsteps).
What do they say about a person never getting respect in his hometown?
I think the carbon "cap and trade" concept is sound but is hard to sell during this economic downturn because people tend to view the concept as anti-growth (or worse).
So, all the best for Al, who represents Tennessee and, despite controversy, deserves an honorary degree for what we'll understand in later centuries about the changes our species has caused to this planet's complex ecosystem. An energy consumption device provided by the Atomic Energy Museum that my father demonstrated to my schoolmates in the late 1970s taught me long ago that fuel=carbon and the megamegatons we have used/released creates longlasting effects, including the permanent heat bubbles our concrete/factory jungles create.
Sure, outer space is a big heat sink but "greenhouses gases" are good insulators. Tip the balance far enough and see what happens! Unfortunately for our species, in 10-20 years, Gore will have the last laugh on this one when the climate change (i.e., "global warming") theories he supported become reality.
See disclaimers on the backside of this blog
Before you continue reading this blog entry, please pick up the web browser and turn it over. New rules and regulations require that I disclose the location of all fine print.
Okay, are you finished reading the details about my disclaiming any direct knowledge regarding the hints, tips and data discussed in this blog? Good! Let's go on to the latest, then.
My apologies to international readers. A few colleagues of mine in this country are pressing me to reveal the future outcome of the health care legislation debate that dominates the local news because politicians can use this time to negotiate other deals more important to them in the short-term. As I've told my distinguished colleagues many times, I have already revealed the future on this one many times.
Do you understand how a satirical novel works? The plot turns back on itself and reveals that it is a living corpse within a tragicomedy that breaks down into sad but funny subplots which all point back to the original plot as if none of them existed in the first place. The best satirical novel in the world will reveal that the readers did not exist until they became players within the novel who see themselves reading themselves being formed and unformed at the same time. A reader becomes the novel and then they both go away to reappear in pieces and parts in the fantastical creations of other works of art (and life that imitated art and art that imitated life and life that imitated art that imitated life and...) that have and will not have existed at any point in time.
Universal health care in a nutshell, you see? No matter how they font the title or backlight the leading actors' faces, the facts remain the same - they will appear as you before your eyes and when you see yourself, they (and you) disappear just as suddenly, absorbed into everything around you as if they already existed in the first place.
So, pick your favorite poison. Rising costs. Rising liabilities. Rising expenses. Rising assets. Rising coverage. Rising dough. Cooked books. Less coverage. More coverage. Fewer doctors. More doctoring. More patients. Less patience. It will all turn out to be the same.
That's the funny thing about the Book of the Future. Simple predictions for complex scenarios. Different futures for the same future. I'll see you in the same place we agreed not to meet. It won't be us we run into, anyway. But we'll be there just the same. After all, your reading of the disclaimer proved the point you'll read anything, including words that never existed, except in the future that's not going to happen because we left it to relive the past we can't go back to.
Just like before.
Okay, are you finished reading the details about my disclaiming any direct knowledge regarding the hints, tips and data discussed in this blog? Good! Let's go on to the latest, then.
My apologies to international readers. A few colleagues of mine in this country are pressing me to reveal the future outcome of the health care legislation debate that dominates the local news because politicians can use this time to negotiate other deals more important to them in the short-term. As I've told my distinguished colleagues many times, I have already revealed the future on this one many times.
Do you understand how a satirical novel works? The plot turns back on itself and reveals that it is a living corpse within a tragicomedy that breaks down into sad but funny subplots which all point back to the original plot as if none of them existed in the first place. The best satirical novel in the world will reveal that the readers did not exist until they became players within the novel who see themselves reading themselves being formed and unformed at the same time. A reader becomes the novel and then they both go away to reappear in pieces and parts in the fantastical creations of other works of art (and life that imitated art and art that imitated life and life that imitated art that imitated life and...) that have and will not have existed at any point in time.
Universal health care in a nutshell, you see? No matter how they font the title or backlight the leading actors' faces, the facts remain the same - they will appear as you before your eyes and when you see yourself, they (and you) disappear just as suddenly, absorbed into everything around you as if they already existed in the first place.
So, pick your favorite poison. Rising costs. Rising liabilities. Rising expenses. Rising assets. Rising coverage. Rising dough. Cooked books. Less coverage. More coverage. Fewer doctors. More doctoring. More patients. Less patience. It will all turn out to be the same.
That's the funny thing about the Book of the Future. Simple predictions for complex scenarios. Different futures for the same future. I'll see you in the same place we agreed not to meet. It won't be us we run into, anyway. But we'll be there just the same. After all, your reading of the disclaimer proved the point you'll read anything, including words that never existed, except in the future that's not going to happen because we left it to relive the past we can't go back to.
Just like before.
There Is Only One
Because you are here, you know you are the only one who exists and who does not exist.
Because there is only one, only you matter.
Because you're the only one who matters, only you know your actions/thoughts.
Your actions/thoughts are the only things that matter.
What are things? Things are like decisions you make as well as the material objects around you.
Only you decide what is right and what is wrong or if right and wrong have any definitions in your world.
I depend on you to know the difference between right/truth/facts and wrong/false/lies.
Do we need to camouflage ourselves from one another like a tiger in the reeds (potential predator) or a caterpillar in the jungle (potential prey)?
We are nature by nature, natural and unnatural.
Our states of energy have no moral grounds.
Knowing the definitions of states of social awareness has no meaning to a light bulb so why care if stealing adds or subtracts from a subcultural situational equation?
Two families, each with one baby. One apple in your hand that can keep only one baby alive (half an apple is not enough). No right or wrong. You decide which one lives. (Oh, by the way, now that you've fed the baby, let me tell you a small detail I almost forgot - you and the rest of the two families are going to die.)
Making decisions with no regard toward moral or ethical factors. Subculture without culture. Civil with no civilisation. No social considerations. No background stories. Just you, here and now, over and over and over again. That's all that being you is really all about. Living with yourself and every decision you ever made, actively or passively.
And now it's the next moment. Can you begin again, with no memories of who you were and the decisions you made? Are you ready for the brand-new you? If I gave you a reset button with no promise what the next moment would be except the fact no one would be the same or even remotely similar to anything you knew before, would you press it? Erase it all, the good and the bad, the right and the wrong, the social clues, the familiar body, everything that you think is you and yet not you?
How could you erase it all and yet still have some semblance of an existence, some connection between then and now? How could all those states of energy be rearranged so that they approximately equal the old you and yet have no resemblance to the old you?
There's only one way to find out. No going back. No ability to change your mind because there won't be any memories of what you were to change back into.
The moment for the decision appears and then disappears in an instant. You'll always know you could have made the decision if you didn't but you'll never know you made the decision if you did.
Some of you already made the decision and don't know it. Amazing, isn't it? Because, see, you can make the "yes" decision over and over again without knowing you already did. Many of you said no. You may not have known you had only one chance to say yes but now you know...and will always know. There's only one chance to say no. There's always a chance to say yes again.
Think about it and you'll know which one you are. At least one movie has made a comic point about that decision. Many have made tragic points about the decision.
I am here because I was selected to say yes over and over again and never knowing why; especially not asking why. Killer whale with a taste for people? Okay, let's go for it! Eating fried food with a family history of blocked arteries? Bring it on! Waking up in the middle of the day with no previous self as a reference? What are you waiting for? Yes!
A decision with no moral/ethical consequences? Absolutely. Making a decision that erases the most wonderful memories ever recorded in a brain? Without a doubt.
There is only you. There will never be another you. As unique as you are, why would you ever want to change to another you? Only you will know when the moment comes and only you will know if you said no. You never know when or if you said yes, except for this teeny, tiny voice that tells you you've never said no, not yet, anyway.
That is, if you're listening to yourself and not all those shouting around you to get your attention.
Because there is only one, only you matter.
Because you're the only one who matters, only you know your actions/thoughts.
Your actions/thoughts are the only things that matter.
What are things? Things are like decisions you make as well as the material objects around you.
Only you decide what is right and what is wrong or if right and wrong have any definitions in your world.
I depend on you to know the difference between right/truth/facts and wrong/false/lies.
Do we need to camouflage ourselves from one another like a tiger in the reeds (potential predator) or a caterpillar in the jungle (potential prey)?
We are nature by nature, natural and unnatural.
Our states of energy have no moral grounds.
Knowing the definitions of states of social awareness has no meaning to a light bulb so why care if stealing adds or subtracts from a subcultural situational equation?
Two families, each with one baby. One apple in your hand that can keep only one baby alive (half an apple is not enough). No right or wrong. You decide which one lives. (Oh, by the way, now that you've fed the baby, let me tell you a small detail I almost forgot - you and the rest of the two families are going to die.)
Making decisions with no regard toward moral or ethical factors. Subculture without culture. Civil with no civilisation. No social considerations. No background stories. Just you, here and now, over and over and over again. That's all that being you is really all about. Living with yourself and every decision you ever made, actively or passively.
And now it's the next moment. Can you begin again, with no memories of who you were and the decisions you made? Are you ready for the brand-new you? If I gave you a reset button with no promise what the next moment would be except the fact no one would be the same or even remotely similar to anything you knew before, would you press it? Erase it all, the good and the bad, the right and the wrong, the social clues, the familiar body, everything that you think is you and yet not you?
How could you erase it all and yet still have some semblance of an existence, some connection between then and now? How could all those states of energy be rearranged so that they approximately equal the old you and yet have no resemblance to the old you?
There's only one way to find out. No going back. No ability to change your mind because there won't be any memories of what you were to change back into.
The moment for the decision appears and then disappears in an instant. You'll always know you could have made the decision if you didn't but you'll never know you made the decision if you did.
Some of you already made the decision and don't know it. Amazing, isn't it? Because, see, you can make the "yes" decision over and over again without knowing you already did. Many of you said no. You may not have known you had only one chance to say yes but now you know...and will always know. There's only one chance to say no. There's always a chance to say yes again.
Think about it and you'll know which one you are. At least one movie has made a comic point about that decision. Many have made tragic points about the decision.
I am here because I was selected to say yes over and over again and never knowing why; especially not asking why. Killer whale with a taste for people? Okay, let's go for it! Eating fried food with a family history of blocked arteries? Bring it on! Waking up in the middle of the day with no previous self as a reference? What are you waiting for? Yes!
A decision with no moral/ethical consequences? Absolutely. Making a decision that erases the most wonderful memories ever recorded in a brain? Without a doubt.
There is only you. There will never be another you. As unique as you are, why would you ever want to change to another you? Only you will know when the moment comes and only you will know if you said no. You never know when or if you said yes, except for this teeny, tiny voice that tells you you've never said no, not yet, anyway.
That is, if you're listening to yourself and not all those shouting around you to get your attention.
Oceanic Oxygen Levelers
Which part of your future depends on dependable ocean currents? This bit o' news portends current futures. Place your bets now - the world's floating supply of bacteria and plankton will tell your protein supply line, soothing or soothsaying aside.
25 February 2010
Boreal Forest Over All Us
I have no life without my wife. You and I are alike - we find social life indispensible. So, while tending a running nose with soft facial tissues, crafted from trees cut out of boreal forest tissues, and watching programming on GMC, we saw a great advert by Wal-Mart celebrating age barrier breakdowns and the National Urban League during "Sue Thomas: F.B. Eye," and more adverts for an old favorite of ours, the Cosby Show.
So, while Koreans face Olympic-sized judgments and U.S. politicians show they aren't telling us truly why they're sticking to their party-san ventriloquist acts, Greeks and Turks wonder what tomorrow will bring.
But is that what we really need to know at this hour? No, there's something else we could have known had we asked that one guy carrying around a document (de classified or declassified) sold to pay off some...er, questionable debts. Tell me, what's the price of integrity? Or is integrity part of the purchaser's dictionary? Je ne sais pas. Are we back to looking for hanging Chads?
So, while Koreans face Olympic-sized judgments and U.S. politicians show they aren't telling us truly why they're sticking to their party-san ventriloquist acts, Greeks and Turks wonder what tomorrow will bring.
But is that what we really need to know at this hour? No, there's something else we could have known had we asked that one guy carrying around a document (de classified or declassified) sold to pay off some...er, questionable debts. Tell me, what's the price of integrity? Or is integrity part of the purchaser's dictionary? Je ne sais pas. Are we back to looking for hanging Chads?
Benefits and Fringes
After making reservations for this year's An Irish Evening benefiting United Cerebral Palsy, what to do with a recent $100 gift from Amazon? Buy some stuff to support the economy, of course:
Nothing: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions), by Frank Close
Green Roof Plants: A Resource and Planting Guide, by Edmund C. Snodgrass, Lucie L. Snodgrass
From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time, by Sean Carroll
Planting Green Roofs and Living Walls, by Nigel Dunnett, Noël Kingsbury
Wasabi Peas 5 lbs. (80 oz.), Sold by: JR Mushrooms & Specialties
I'll put off purchases of Rejcha, Vranický and Dolly Freed's Possum Living until another day.
For some reason, all of this got me thinking about Karl Haas, a former host of a classical music program, "Adventures in Good Music." I always wondered what happened to him and just discovered today that he died in 2005. A great loss. He often remarked that the variety of lifestyles of his listeners kept him going. We should all be so lucky, to impact people across the spectrum of living.
Nothing: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions), by Frank Close
Green Roof Plants: A Resource and Planting Guide, by Edmund C. Snodgrass, Lucie L. Snodgrass
From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time, by Sean Carroll
Planting Green Roofs and Living Walls, by Nigel Dunnett, Noël Kingsbury
Wasabi Peas 5 lbs. (80 oz.), Sold by: JR Mushrooms & Specialties
I'll put off purchases of Rejcha, Vranický and Dolly Freed's Possum Living until another day.
For some reason, all of this got me thinking about Karl Haas, a former host of a classical music program, "Adventures in Good Music." I always wondered what happened to him and just discovered today that he died in 2005. A great loss. He often remarked that the variety of lifestyles of his listeners kept him going. We should all be so lucky, to impact people across the spectrum of living.
The High Sunbird One Certainty Principle
Another day, a new song. Today, let us enjoy the weather - sun, wind, storm, calm - because, regardless of our conditions, we're here to sense Earth's changes around us.
I am receiving many requests to air grievances and have honoured my commitment to give voice to those who truly grieve. I have activated some passive voices. I have tried to calm passive-aggressive attitudes. I am and I have.
But I am not and I need not have. Thus, I will discontinue the current line of satirical notes, ignoring the momentary bits of humour I recorded over the past few days...well, just one more:
I appreciate all the input you have given me recently. The trends you showed me told me that we have many long hard years ahead of us to heal our social ills and illnesses. Based on what I've seen, I'm going back to my focus on curable social diseases rather than the chronic phantom pains that others want you to believe they can cure. Most of what bothers us can be fixed with giving each other the little bit of attention we regularly need and that, I have seen, is easy, as long as we cycle through recognition of every subculture on a periodic basis, adding or removing subcultures as they rise and fade in popularity.
So, back to my simple tasks, such as working with those of you who want to figure out the form we want to take as our representatives who move into permanent living quarters off this planet.
Metaphors and similes - like and as we will be, eh?
Let's remember that change causes pain and we deal with the pain while we grow with the change. Two steps forward and one step back. Some of us will have to help those who falter or fall backward, while others keep the standard moving onward. See us as one people, like a flowing river or a tidal pool, and you see all.
I am receiving many requests to air grievances and have honoured my commitment to give voice to those who truly grieve. I have activated some passive voices. I have tried to calm passive-aggressive attitudes. I am and I have.
But I am not and I need not have. Thus, I will discontinue the current line of satirical notes, ignoring the momentary bits of humour I recorded over the past few days...well, just one more:
- According to some esteemed colleagues of mine, an obscure sociologist has developed a formula that applies the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle to the patterns generated by mobile phones and other trackable devices (GPS, etc.). My colleagues then obtained mobile phone data, iTunes song buying data (which shows, for example, a sudden rise in an artist's sales often points to people attending an artist's public performance), social networking site location tracking data and face/voice print analysis data (from phones, webcams, etc.) - with this data, they tested the formula's accuracy. The formula works. Now the formula is part of the realtime "Sims" superprogram we use to predict people's occasional diversions from their daily habits. Of course, we're tempted to sell this formula to corporations so they can refine their marketing campaigns to sell products and politicians alike. Curious as to how it applies to my colleagues and me, we reran a simulation we'd ignored a few months ago. Turns out it predicted us receiving the formula six thousand years. Sure enough, we've already been using this formula for a while and just didn't realize it was embedded in the mix of subcultures that have come and gone over the centuries. Four-dimensional modeling - if we only knew what we already knew, we'd save ourselves a lot of time! [as an experiment, I switched to Anapod Explorer instead of iTunes to see what effect removing a single person's tracking data causes - more as I get a clearer picture]
I appreciate all the input you have given me recently. The trends you showed me told me that we have many long hard years ahead of us to heal our social ills and illnesses. Based on what I've seen, I'm going back to my focus on curable social diseases rather than the chronic phantom pains that others want you to believe they can cure. Most of what bothers us can be fixed with giving each other the little bit of attention we regularly need and that, I have seen, is easy, as long as we cycle through recognition of every subculture on a periodic basis, adding or removing subcultures as they rise and fade in popularity.
So, back to my simple tasks, such as working with those of you who want to figure out the form we want to take as our representatives who move into permanent living quarters off this planet.
Metaphors and similes - like and as we will be, eh?
Let's remember that change causes pain and we deal with the pain while we grow with the change. Two steps forward and one step back. Some of us will have to help those who falter or fall backward, while others keep the standard moving onward. See us as one people, like a flowing river or a tidal pool, and you see all.
24 February 2010
Smog Is The Reason
So, while deciding if "From Eternity To Here" is a valid representation of the arrow of time, I thought I'd enjoy a respite from the Olympics with my lovely wife and contemplate the effects of time stopped on film. Something like "Get Shorty" on IFC. Life is good, real good. Y'all come back now, ya here?
What Is Your Essence?
Upon which part of the planet do you depend: decomposed remains of ancient beings or modern, cultivated fields? Of these, what do you give back to the planet in return? If time does not matter, where in the Luís Ángel Arango Library is the wisdom to tell us when to give back? To whom, also?
The silent whisper of an owl passing through the forest. Answers found when one stops trying to listen, letting noise and chatter settle down. The pounce of a cougar preceded by much you cannot hear.
The silent whisper of an owl passing through the forest. Answers found when one stops trying to listen, letting noise and chatter settle down. The pounce of a cougar preceded by much you cannot hear.
Is Science Real?
While you sat in secondary school science class, were you one of the two or three up front staring at the teacher and hanging off every word the teacher said or were you part of the rest of the class caught up in the reality of group dynamics?
Reality...ah, yes. That word again. You have a schoolmate you've known since you were both born and then while standing in a crowd of people that barely knows you, you hear rumours about your schoolmate which make no sense but the crowd all agrees your schoolmate has been seen or heard in a constant state of activity that contradicts everything you know about your schoolmate. Nothing you say will change their view of reality, will it?
What is reality? Very little in group dynamics is real but all of it is real. Reality is not perception but perception is reality.
Memories are but snapshots through the tiniest, clouded windows of your senses.
However much we rely on memories and thoughts, in computer technology we have found ways to check reality against errors. One set of words typed here will match the same set of words read from here in another location on this planet, the space station or an electromechanical satellite floating out past the edge of the solar system.
Reality is your bank account, the amount of petrol left in your tank, the number of goats you sold yesterday, the size of the place in which you live.
In other words, you can count reality.
Can you count the number of negotiating points in a business deal? Can you? You probably think you can, but in reality you are only guessing because of what I'll stick to calling "group dynamics." You anticipate what the other person is thinking about and may have done your homework/research about what motivates the other person, but you really don't know exactly what's going through that other person's set of thoughts, do you?
Let's get back to this secondary school science class. Do you remember the details of any individual class lessons? Can you recall mental images of the schoolbooks you used or pages within the books? How about any science experiments you conducted and their results? Can you recall the conversations within the room, the clothes people wore, the relationships between the people in the room and the names of every person in any one particular class?
So tell me again, which is more real, the science taught by the teacher or the science of group dynamics you taught each other in class? It's a single choice answer. No cheating to see what someone else picked. You have to pick this one yourself.
I'll give you a few more seconds to answer the question. Notice the permanent ink pen I handed you so that once you pick an answer, you can't erase it while passing the test back up the line and making changes based on summary glances at other kids' test answers?
Okay, I've got your test results here. Very enlightening.
What? You want to know what the right answer is? How about a tally of your classmates' answers, instead? No? You'd rather I just tell you whether you passed or failed so you can go on texting or IMing one another or passing paper notes back and forth?
Okay, a show of hands of those who believe there is no right answer... one, two, three, four...yes, more hands going up. Come on! Who thinks this was a trick question? Very good, all of you. See what happens when you rephrase a question?
Now that you know that reality isn't real, that what you learn in science class is all science but not the same science being taught by your teacher, what are you going to tell your kids when they come back with their science class test scores and have an overall failing grade? Anyone?
You two in the back, quit the liplock and look up front. Let's say you both just had a kid. No, I'm not trying to spread a rumour you're pregnant. This is "make believe," for just one moment. What do you want your kid to be when the kid grows up? Gender doesn't matter to me, you pick.
Okay, we've got a professional ball player and a lawyer. Do either one of them use science in their daily lives? Actually, they do. Sports involves physics, for instance. A lawyer uses statistical analysis. Yes, they both rely on hunches but again we can trace the origin of their hunches to the body's ability to gather information and "multivote" an action in the moment that will most likely lead to the best result.
So, to get back to Jeremy's question, should popular entertainment present "real" science? Anyone? Do you understand now that nothing is real and everything is real, so that one cinematic presentation of fantasy may inspire another person to compare that fantasy against the results of scientific experimentation and have an "A-ha!" moment that came out of a group discussion of the difference between fantasy and reality like we've just been having? No? Well, then I've answered Jeremy's question, haven't I? Those who pursue a narrow, "pure" science career will know the difference and the rest of us won't care as long as the movie was entertaining, right? So, who wants to watch the classic old movie "Wayne's World" in class tomorrow? That's more like it. See you in class tomorrow. Don't forget to bring your flash drive presentations of your opinions about the fashions in this year's Olympics. Extra credit to those who show me their knowledge of the relationship between the clothes and faster speed times for skiers and skaters!
Reality...ah, yes. That word again. You have a schoolmate you've known since you were both born and then while standing in a crowd of people that barely knows you, you hear rumours about your schoolmate which make no sense but the crowd all agrees your schoolmate has been seen or heard in a constant state of activity that contradicts everything you know about your schoolmate. Nothing you say will change their view of reality, will it?
What is reality? Very little in group dynamics is real but all of it is real. Reality is not perception but perception is reality.
Memories are but snapshots through the tiniest, clouded windows of your senses.
However much we rely on memories and thoughts, in computer technology we have found ways to check reality against errors. One set of words typed here will match the same set of words read from here in another location on this planet, the space station or an electromechanical satellite floating out past the edge of the solar system.
Reality is your bank account, the amount of petrol left in your tank, the number of goats you sold yesterday, the size of the place in which you live.
In other words, you can count reality.
Can you count the number of negotiating points in a business deal? Can you? You probably think you can, but in reality you are only guessing because of what I'll stick to calling "group dynamics." You anticipate what the other person is thinking about and may have done your homework/research about what motivates the other person, but you really don't know exactly what's going through that other person's set of thoughts, do you?
Let's get back to this secondary school science class. Do you remember the details of any individual class lessons? Can you recall mental images of the schoolbooks you used or pages within the books? How about any science experiments you conducted and their results? Can you recall the conversations within the room, the clothes people wore, the relationships between the people in the room and the names of every person in any one particular class?
So tell me again, which is more real, the science taught by the teacher or the science of group dynamics you taught each other in class? It's a single choice answer. No cheating to see what someone else picked. You have to pick this one yourself.
I'll give you a few more seconds to answer the question. Notice the permanent ink pen I handed you so that once you pick an answer, you can't erase it while passing the test back up the line and making changes based on summary glances at other kids' test answers?
Okay, I've got your test results here. Very enlightening.
What? You want to know what the right answer is? How about a tally of your classmates' answers, instead? No? You'd rather I just tell you whether you passed or failed so you can go on texting or IMing one another or passing paper notes back and forth?
Okay, a show of hands of those who believe there is no right answer... one, two, three, four...yes, more hands going up. Come on! Who thinks this was a trick question? Very good, all of you. See what happens when you rephrase a question?
Now that you know that reality isn't real, that what you learn in science class is all science but not the same science being taught by your teacher, what are you going to tell your kids when they come back with their science class test scores and have an overall failing grade? Anyone?
You two in the back, quit the liplock and look up front. Let's say you both just had a kid. No, I'm not trying to spread a rumour you're pregnant. This is "make believe," for just one moment. What do you want your kid to be when the kid grows up? Gender doesn't matter to me, you pick.
Okay, we've got a professional ball player and a lawyer. Do either one of them use science in their daily lives? Actually, they do. Sports involves physics, for instance. A lawyer uses statistical analysis. Yes, they both rely on hunches but again we can trace the origin of their hunches to the body's ability to gather information and "multivote" an action in the moment that will most likely lead to the best result.
So, to get back to Jeremy's question, should popular entertainment present "real" science? Anyone? Do you understand now that nothing is real and everything is real, so that one cinematic presentation of fantasy may inspire another person to compare that fantasy against the results of scientific experimentation and have an "A-ha!" moment that came out of a group discussion of the difference between fantasy and reality like we've just been having? No? Well, then I've answered Jeremy's question, haven't I? Those who pursue a narrow, "pure" science career will know the difference and the rest of us won't care as long as the movie was entertaining, right? So, who wants to watch the classic old movie "Wayne's World" in class tomorrow? That's more like it. See you in class tomorrow. Don't forget to bring your flash drive presentations of your opinions about the fashions in this year's Olympics. Extra credit to those who show me their knowledge of the relationship between the clothes and faster speed times for skiers and skaters!
23 February 2010
A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Technology
Met a bunch of good locals at the pub last night. They were joking about my blog, remembering when I was just a snotty punk on the playground, and asking why I hadn't used any of their stuff here. Well, y'all, here's a few of your ideas from last night:
JOE THE PLUMBER'S DICTIONARY DEFINITION
Gardenification - noun (or that's what we were taught to say in school):
While I do not agree with many of the definitions you gave me, I had and still get a good chuckle out of your sense of humour. I couldn't remember your exact term or definition for the false scare governments use when shouting words like "SARS" or "deadly, heinous flu virus" so maybe next time you can remind me at our weekly darts and draughts game.
= = =
I checked on the tip a reader gave me who wrote me about the government's secret testing of DNA on all money exchanging hands in Morristown, Tennessee, USA, which pointed to who was being paid cash for work and not paying taxes but instead using the money to buy drugs or send money orders to family in other countries. My inside source tells me several bureaucracies are coordinating their efforts to gather evidence and sweep up whole sections of the town for illegal activity, thus setting a precedent for the rest of the country. Right now, they're developing a marketing plan to sell the idea of internment camps so that they look like drug rehabilitation centers. More as I receive details on this matter. Also, I'll let you know that a few bureaucracies are opposed to this idea because they know the money being sent to other countries helps stabilise the economies of the bordering countries, which creates a nonmilitarised buffer zone while this country continues to overextend its military reach.
In the maritime, a network of naval vessels has been identified as the source of cyberattacks. Turns out yet-to-be-identified monetary sources have funded centrally-planned training exercises that include farming out tiny computer code development to both people and cyberbots so that no one person or zombie machine can understand/show what is really going on. The purposes of these exercises vary from gaining military secrets to getting "dirt" on adversaries in all walks of life so that large-scale population manipulation can be accomplished at the macro- and microscale simultaneously. Schoolchildren's homework exercises and automechanic training manuals have been linked together in this massive scheme.
Experts are stumped - how to stop this complete infiltration of life as we know it without causing total chaos? How many people's new hybrid vehicles are now working for this underground cyberattack network? Are smartphones involved? What about artificial limbs? Home wireless networks? Coffee shop WiFi links? Your dog's embedded ID chip? People want to know! I can't tell you how many of my well-educated readers are hounding me for more information about this new revelation.
To be honest, there's a shakedown going on inside my own loose network of associates (or "solo operatives," for those who like spylike terminology). We work for no one and know we pass information inertly, which means we feed predators and prey alike. Our greater goals have no time limit and have waxed and waned with the vagaries of fashion, fame, and fortunes of our peoples. Every generation of our associates faces this dilemma - how strongly do we nudge us along? Since defeat and setback is only a historical perspective and not fact, what do we do about those who've put new technology to use on the global population (use, I might add, that hinders our greater goals, at least temporarily)?
As always, an afternoon of meditation will reveal which parts of the Book of the Future I should next record for your reading entertainment. Until next time, random readers!
JOE THE PLUMBER'S DICTIONARY DEFINITION
Gardenification - noun (or that's what we were taught to say in school):
- A false sense of security, like piling rocks around your yard to keep out snails and deer, caint work for both
- A false sense of security, like a large military force that can't prevent economic/cybersecurity losses
- Having your livelihood sucked out from underneath you. (example: "I heard you lost your job." "Yeah, I got hoovobamervilled by The Man.")
- A gathering of regular, unemployed folks who've set up residences in abandoned subdivisions
- A self-declared, tax-free, mortgage-free, rent-free, utilities-free area that includes folks and their places in definition number 1, where out-of-work technology workers (following the recent example of Israel) create false identification papers for the new class of the permanently unemployed for these areas in which they live (following the example of Soweto); newborns will be registered in the name of the new townships, not the so-called countries in which their parents were abandoned by authorities who only catered to the rich and powerful
- Seeing someone in public watching you, obviously listening to your conversation while texting, so you and your companions make up false stories that the texter passes on unknowingly (example: "Honey, what do you think of my new blouse? Does it make me look fat?" "Wife, you know me. I only have three requirements when it comes to clothes - 'One, show up naked, two, in bed, three, with beer.'" "Honey, are you serious or are you textduping that girl looking at us?")
- Thinking you're electing a member of your own party who crosses party lines because his American Idol daughter wants more time in the limelight and hopes her whole family becomes reality TV stars, taking over CSPAN as the next Presidential family like "The Truman Show" or "EdTV" (and hopefully a little latenight "Girls Next Door" for the non do-gooder/churchy crowd)
While I do not agree with many of the definitions you gave me, I had and still get a good chuckle out of your sense of humour. I couldn't remember your exact term or definition for the false scare governments use when shouting words like "SARS" or "deadly, heinous flu virus" so maybe next time you can remind me at our weekly darts and draughts game.
= = =
I checked on the tip a reader gave me who wrote me about the government's secret testing of DNA on all money exchanging hands in Morristown, Tennessee, USA, which pointed to who was being paid cash for work and not paying taxes but instead using the money to buy drugs or send money orders to family in other countries. My inside source tells me several bureaucracies are coordinating their efforts to gather evidence and sweep up whole sections of the town for illegal activity, thus setting a precedent for the rest of the country. Right now, they're developing a marketing plan to sell the idea of internment camps so that they look like drug rehabilitation centers. More as I receive details on this matter. Also, I'll let you know that a few bureaucracies are opposed to this idea because they know the money being sent to other countries helps stabilise the economies of the bordering countries, which creates a nonmilitarised buffer zone while this country continues to overextend its military reach.
In the maritime, a network of naval vessels has been identified as the source of cyberattacks. Turns out yet-to-be-identified monetary sources have funded centrally-planned training exercises that include farming out tiny computer code development to both people and cyberbots so that no one person or zombie machine can understand/show what is really going on. The purposes of these exercises vary from gaining military secrets to getting "dirt" on adversaries in all walks of life so that large-scale population manipulation can be accomplished at the macro- and microscale simultaneously. Schoolchildren's homework exercises and automechanic training manuals have been linked together in this massive scheme.
Experts are stumped - how to stop this complete infiltration of life as we know it without causing total chaos? How many people's new hybrid vehicles are now working for this underground cyberattack network? Are smartphones involved? What about artificial limbs? Home wireless networks? Coffee shop WiFi links? Your dog's embedded ID chip? People want to know! I can't tell you how many of my well-educated readers are hounding me for more information about this new revelation.
To be honest, there's a shakedown going on inside my own loose network of associates (or "solo operatives," for those who like spylike terminology). We work for no one and know we pass information inertly, which means we feed predators and prey alike. Our greater goals have no time limit and have waxed and waned with the vagaries of fashion, fame, and fortunes of our peoples. Every generation of our associates faces this dilemma - how strongly do we nudge us along? Since defeat and setback is only a historical perspective and not fact, what do we do about those who've put new technology to use on the global population (use, I might add, that hinders our greater goals, at least temporarily)?
As always, an afternoon of meditation will reveal which parts of the Book of the Future I should next record for your reading entertainment. Until next time, random readers!
22 February 2010
Square Root Of Three
I remember years ago, when Tom Brokaw was on late night TV, a question about what he had missed in his career. He joked that he'd never had a relationship with a "Mrs. Robinson," and at his age it didn't seem like the same kind of relationship that everyone talks about. So now, years later, it's good to see him still at it and introducing the story on Kevin and David.
Some other quick thoughts on this day of George Washington's birthday, who was born the year of the square root of three...well, sort of (1732 versus 1.732).
Now that we have remote erasing features of our smartphones and Pennsylvanians spying on their children, what's technology doing for us that could be improved?
One reader suggested that if the dissing Russian skaters get high scores again, that we implement "Plan Betazoid," activate the computer programmer networks that keep track of electronic records (bank accounts, credit cards, criminal records, etc.) and make things uncomfortable for the skaters and those associated with them. I said that Putin and his associates have the situation under control - besides, it's the Olympics, not economic disaster.
So, while we face a bankruptcy sale of continental proportions, let's remember many heroes like Lech Walesa, whose solidarity movement continues to teach us the importance of focusing on what's important.
Global warming and Olympics - it's all about us, seven billion strong!
Some other quick thoughts on this day of George Washington's birthday, who was born the year of the square root of three...well, sort of (1732 versus 1.732).
Now that we have remote erasing features of our smartphones and Pennsylvanians spying on their children, what's technology doing for us that could be improved?
One reader suggested that if the dissing Russian skaters get high scores again, that we implement "Plan Betazoid," activate the computer programmer networks that keep track of electronic records (bank accounts, credit cards, criminal records, etc.) and make things uncomfortable for the skaters and those associated with them. I said that Putin and his associates have the situation under control - besides, it's the Olympics, not economic disaster.
So, while we face a bankruptcy sale of continental proportions, let's remember many heroes like Lech Walesa, whose solidarity movement continues to teach us the importance of focusing on what's important.
Global warming and Olympics - it's all about us, seven billion strong!
Volumes and Reams
I had listened to many proposals to resolve the stalemate. Some of them included references to recent pop culture - movies like "The Net," "Hackers," "Antitrust," and "Live Free or Die Hard."
So I dug deeper.
I pulled out scrolls given to me by an old couple down the street, both who meditated on the enormity of every task at hand, telling me that this moment in which we live is it, so treat it with grace, honour, dignity, seriousness, humour and patience.
I consulted with wise sages by reading their texts in dogeared books.
I smelled the wind.
I picked up fallen leaves and compared them to the naked, twisted sculptures standing tall above me.
I listened to those who had no solutions to offer.
Here, in this moment, is what I found. The seriousness of this moment is a laughing matter. We need not raise angry voices to sway lost leaders. So, I call on those of you physically able to do so to give thanks for all we have. Let us proclaim this "Hunger Strike Week" and demonstrate our solidarity in wanting to creatively get us out of the way of fatcats and others who desire to enrich themselves by taking all our money.
In this part of the world, it is Black History Month, which is a way of celebrating the diversity within our general culture.
Diverse ways of thinking. Martin Luther King, Jr. Gandhi. Benjamin Franklin. Sacagawea.
I live only in this moment. In this moment, I choose to drink water. Let this moment live for a while until I see that leaders put us first. If they, active or retired, show they are using their re-election funds for personal use, then I will continue to find similarly quiet, dietary ways to encourage them to think otherwise. I will not act rashly.
So I dug deeper.
I pulled out scrolls given to me by an old couple down the street, both who meditated on the enormity of every task at hand, telling me that this moment in which we live is it, so treat it with grace, honour, dignity, seriousness, humour and patience.
I consulted with wise sages by reading their texts in dogeared books.
I smelled the wind.
I picked up fallen leaves and compared them to the naked, twisted sculptures standing tall above me.
I listened to those who had no solutions to offer.
Here, in this moment, is what I found. The seriousness of this moment is a laughing matter. We need not raise angry voices to sway lost leaders. So, I call on those of you physically able to do so to give thanks for all we have. Let us proclaim this "Hunger Strike Week" and demonstrate our solidarity in wanting to creatively get us out of the way of fatcats and others who desire to enrich themselves by taking all our money.
In this part of the world, it is Black History Month, which is a way of celebrating the diversity within our general culture.
Diverse ways of thinking. Martin Luther King, Jr. Gandhi. Benjamin Franklin. Sacagawea.
I live only in this moment. In this moment, I choose to drink water. Let this moment live for a while until I see that leaders put us first. If they, active or retired, show they are using their re-election funds for personal use, then I will continue to find similarly quiet, dietary ways to encourage them to think otherwise. I will not act rashly.
21 February 2010
Going A Round With The Greatest
With my wife, I have watched snippets of the 2010 Winter Olympics, enjoying parts of the opening ceremony and then later part of ice dancing where C&W and bluegrass music were featured (with other tributes to folk music native to local cultures, where it matches the home country of their dancers or contributes rather than distracts (a man pulling a woman's hair very offensive to females, according to an informal survey of locals in this conservative community)). In our viewing and discussion with others in the community of what NBC has presented, we wonder about the timeliness of telling the average viewer, many millions without jobs, about the wealth and privilege of some of the elite athletes (Caribbean fun on a yacht, for instance).
What to do, what to do? Do we say that we expect in the future we must pool all gifted athletes, rich and poor, as representatives of our country for international competitions?
I wish I could ask someone like Muhammed Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard or some new competitor like Steve Holcomb did s/he ever feel like they were regular people with non-elitist upbringings (Tanya Harding being an example that comes to mind for reasons that we remember all too well).
I want all of us - leaders, workers, business owners, politicians, elite/average, famous/unknown - to put aside our fear and anxiety that create emotionally-sensitive gulfs and...what? See, that's the issue, isn't it?
There's a lot of pain we can and will talk about. What can we do to turn the strength of our energy-draining emotions into positive, life-affirming attributes?
I will watch the leaders of this country in their showcase of bilateralism to produce tangible results, even for politicians obviously paid to play the age-worn, sworn enemy roles in boxing/skating smackdowns on television. Any sign they will play par for the course (or claim bogus mulligans, to maintain this innersentence analogy), then I have no choice but to reach out for help from others in the international community to provide solutions we may not like in the short-term or, in my worst-case scenario, the long-term.
I am just one person. I have no hierarchy that reports directly to me. But, and I stress the importance of us as one people in only one global village, my unimportance is what matters most. It is the absence of any one self that draws together and builds the desire of others to work around obstacles and make consensus-building solutions out of thin air. A river will wear down a stone in the middle of the channel. In other words, time is also unimportant. Choose your postures carefully - many are watching who have no eyes you can see; many are listening who have no visible ears. What was the famous quote the screenwriter put into the voiced/acted character of Spock, played by Leonard Nimoy?: "Were I to invoke logic, however, logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." Logic dictates we bypass self-centered careerists in business or politics to achieve greater goals than what narrow-minded leaders appear to promote.
I am a writer. For me, there is only one direction I take - the pen is mightier than the sword. I will not rest my verbose, virtual writing tool until we put "the people" first. Politics is just a feel-good institutional implementation of our multifaceted, complex personality made of many, individually-important, subcultures. Maintain that perspective and you, too, will find ways to heal our temporary, business-created aches and pains. I, this primate image made of universal states of energy, belong to you.
Until we can find ways to help all of us, from feeding/clothing the homeless in Haiti to eliminating chronic inner city unemployment to providing jobs for people who still want to use their hearts, hands and heads for non-elitist/specialist job skills, I will not rest. Be careful about creating too complex a global enterprise. The difference between what an elitist calls a barbarian and what most of us call a good, motivated former factory worker is less than you think, almost miniscule, very much microscopic.
What to do, what to do? Do we say that we expect in the future we must pool all gifted athletes, rich and poor, as representatives of our country for international competitions?
I wish I could ask someone like Muhammed Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard or some new competitor like Steve Holcomb did s/he ever feel like they were regular people with non-elitist upbringings (Tanya Harding being an example that comes to mind for reasons that we remember all too well).
I want all of us - leaders, workers, business owners, politicians, elite/average, famous/unknown - to put aside our fear and anxiety that create emotionally-sensitive gulfs and...what? See, that's the issue, isn't it?
There's a lot of pain we can and will talk about. What can we do to turn the strength of our energy-draining emotions into positive, life-affirming attributes?
I will watch the leaders of this country in their showcase of bilateralism to produce tangible results, even for politicians obviously paid to play the age-worn, sworn enemy roles in boxing/skating smackdowns on television. Any sign they will play par for the course (or claim bogus mulligans, to maintain this innersentence analogy), then I have no choice but to reach out for help from others in the international community to provide solutions we may not like in the short-term or, in my worst-case scenario, the long-term.
I am just one person. I have no hierarchy that reports directly to me. But, and I stress the importance of us as one people in only one global village, my unimportance is what matters most. It is the absence of any one self that draws together and builds the desire of others to work around obstacles and make consensus-building solutions out of thin air. A river will wear down a stone in the middle of the channel. In other words, time is also unimportant. Choose your postures carefully - many are watching who have no eyes you can see; many are listening who have no visible ears. What was the famous quote the screenwriter put into the voiced/acted character of Spock, played by Leonard Nimoy?: "Were I to invoke logic, however, logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." Logic dictates we bypass self-centered careerists in business or politics to achieve greater goals than what narrow-minded leaders appear to promote.
I am a writer. For me, there is only one direction I take - the pen is mightier than the sword. I will not rest my verbose, virtual writing tool until we put "the people" first. Politics is just a feel-good institutional implementation of our multifaceted, complex personality made of many, individually-important, subcultures. Maintain that perspective and you, too, will find ways to heal our temporary, business-created aches and pains. I, this primate image made of universal states of energy, belong to you.
Until we can find ways to help all of us, from feeding/clothing the homeless in Haiti to eliminating chronic inner city unemployment to providing jobs for people who still want to use their hearts, hands and heads for non-elitist/specialist job skills, I will not rest. Be careful about creating too complex a global enterprise. The difference between what an elitist calls a barbarian and what most of us call a good, motivated former factory worker is less than you think, almost miniscule, very much microscopic.
Another Constant Reminder For You
I'm tired this afternoon, tired because of questions that I want to answer but don't have time to figure out which questions I have to answer and which questions that I think I randomly picked to answer which I was supposed to answer anyway.
To answer a bunch of questions that fit into a general category that I see frequently - the validity of palm readers, Tarot card specialists, soothsayers, priests, rabbis, preachers, imams, witch doctors, herbalists, medicine men, political/economic analysts, marketing consultants, etc: a blindfold test is best. Submit your questions via text typed/printed on a card and typewriter/computer printer supplied by the reader; do not let the reader know who you are or where you came from. Mix in a question or two for which you have specific, detailed answers. Do not interpret the readers' answers to your known answers. If you cannot find a direct correlation of no more than one degree of separation to your known answers, then stop right there. There are readers trained to interpret their customers via sight, sound, etc., and they have value in that they can provide immediate help for a current issue or crisis of yours but they do not necessarily provide true readings of the future. If you just need someone to talk with, or a light-hearted independent reading of your body language, feel free to consult with readers, including those who claim to have occult powers. But if they failed the blindfold test, do not put a lot of thought into their predictions for your future.
Now, back to my nap while I snooze to the sounds of sports on the tellie... a middle-aged bloke like me needs his beauty sleep, too, you know.
To answer a bunch of questions that fit into a general category that I see frequently - the validity of palm readers, Tarot card specialists, soothsayers, priests, rabbis, preachers, imams, witch doctors, herbalists, medicine men, political/economic analysts, marketing consultants, etc: a blindfold test is best. Submit your questions via text typed/printed on a card and typewriter/computer printer supplied by the reader; do not let the reader know who you are or where you came from. Mix in a question or two for which you have specific, detailed answers. Do not interpret the readers' answers to your known answers. If you cannot find a direct correlation of no more than one degree of separation to your known answers, then stop right there. There are readers trained to interpret their customers via sight, sound, etc., and they have value in that they can provide immediate help for a current issue or crisis of yours but they do not necessarily provide true readings of the future. If you just need someone to talk with, or a light-hearted independent reading of your body language, feel free to consult with readers, including those who claim to have occult powers. But if they failed the blindfold test, do not put a lot of thought into their predictions for your future.
Now, back to my nap while I snooze to the sounds of sports on the tellie... a middle-aged bloke like me needs his beauty sleep, too, you know.
Whatever Happened To Microfilm?
Who are your business competitors? Angry customers? New technology? Lack of a burning desire?
While conversing with a new friend in a checkout queue, who inadvertently passed on the code phrase, "10 packs of sugar for my cup of drive-thru coffee," I received the information I didn't know I was looking for. Happens all the time. So, because I promised my associates that I would never keep information hidden or encrypted, here is what I learned and what I'm passing on to you. It's a bit more complicated than usual so it took me longer than I thought to decipher and pass it on - hope it's still relevant.
A competitor has developed a line of spiders nearly invisible to the naked eye. These spiders, containing both natural spider parts and nanotechnology, can carry lethal doses of poison or debilitating viruses. A variation under testing will be able to carry a load of deadly parasites that burrow into the skin of people's pores, causing open sores susceptible to another airborne disease under development. To prevent the spiders from traveling too far, the competitor has also created a tiny wasp that feeds exclusively on the nanotechnology parts of the spiders, destroying the spiders and eliminating any evidence of foul play that could be detected by modern forensic pathology investigative methods (unless you know to look for that which will be passed on to you by another associate).
In addition, a large [unnamed] superpower has made copies of the lab notes of the competitor's scientists. Willing to sacrifice millions of its people in order to further its temporary historical dominance of the planet, the superpower has unleashed a large number of these spiders into the superpower's general population. Prevailing global winds have carried the spiders into the upper atmosphere.
The mix of spiders, bacteria and dust in the atmosphere is currently an unknown influence on the future. I am passing this information on to those of you who have already sampled the air and are working to compile evidence leading to the source of the spiders and the mutations occurring because of the spiders' consumption of some types of bacteria along with exposure to radiation at high altitudes.
My questions to you: I calculated several scenarios that show a slight increase in workers reporting strange illnesses with results that show a variable reduction in global productivity and posted the results for your review - what is your assessment of the effect on political stability of the mining operations and deforestation we've been tracking in certain areas of the African continent? Should we continue to downplay high-rise development on the Chinese coasts? Should we offer discounted tours to Mongolia? What about the long-range plans for a chain of low-cost resort-style hotels along the Trans-Siberian Railway? Should we drill into the side of Montserrat and make a permanent relief valve for lava flow so we can rebuild the tourism trade on the island that disguises our archaeological research into whether the origin of the species started there and later migrated to Africa, leading to the buried thoughts in our bodies we attribute to places like Shangri-la, NirVaNa, HeaVen, AtlanTis and EDen?
While waiting for you to send me your analysis of this data, I'm looking at some new tips that came in concerning the previous analysis sent me in the interview with a Greek politician who spoke the phrase you asked me to look for about the rigged financial debacle there. I dug through some old microfiche data that has not yet been computerised and found what you thought I might not find. As you know, I do not fluently read all archaic languages so I am concerned that my translation of the Greek translation of another ancient document will give me incorrect information. As usual, it will probably turn out that my mistaken translation is the message I'm supposed to send. In any case, my report is on its way in the channel you asked me to swim across, using the sailfins attached to my vertebrae and ribs number 2, 5 and 11, with the new foot-mounted paddlefish boosters left for me at the beach on Nickajack Lake a few weeks ago. The Chattanooga "Allemagne-en-Provence" Choo-Choo is out of the terminal and chugging along. The euro be damned - fools peed a head.
While conversing with a new friend in a checkout queue, who inadvertently passed on the code phrase, "10 packs of sugar for my cup of drive-thru coffee," I received the information I didn't know I was looking for. Happens all the time. So, because I promised my associates that I would never keep information hidden or encrypted, here is what I learned and what I'm passing on to you. It's a bit more complicated than usual so it took me longer than I thought to decipher and pass it on - hope it's still relevant.
A competitor has developed a line of spiders nearly invisible to the naked eye. These spiders, containing both natural spider parts and nanotechnology, can carry lethal doses of poison or debilitating viruses. A variation under testing will be able to carry a load of deadly parasites that burrow into the skin of people's pores, causing open sores susceptible to another airborne disease under development. To prevent the spiders from traveling too far, the competitor has also created a tiny wasp that feeds exclusively on the nanotechnology parts of the spiders, destroying the spiders and eliminating any evidence of foul play that could be detected by modern forensic pathology investigative methods (unless you know to look for that which will be passed on to you by another associate).
In addition, a large [unnamed] superpower has made copies of the lab notes of the competitor's scientists. Willing to sacrifice millions of its people in order to further its temporary historical dominance of the planet, the superpower has unleashed a large number of these spiders into the superpower's general population. Prevailing global winds have carried the spiders into the upper atmosphere.
The mix of spiders, bacteria and dust in the atmosphere is currently an unknown influence on the future. I am passing this information on to those of you who have already sampled the air and are working to compile evidence leading to the source of the spiders and the mutations occurring because of the spiders' consumption of some types of bacteria along with exposure to radiation at high altitudes.
My questions to you: I calculated several scenarios that show a slight increase in workers reporting strange illnesses with results that show a variable reduction in global productivity and posted the results for your review - what is your assessment of the effect on political stability of the mining operations and deforestation we've been tracking in certain areas of the African continent? Should we continue to downplay high-rise development on the Chinese coasts? Should we offer discounted tours to Mongolia? What about the long-range plans for a chain of low-cost resort-style hotels along the Trans-Siberian Railway? Should we drill into the side of Montserrat and make a permanent relief valve for lava flow so we can rebuild the tourism trade on the island that disguises our archaeological research into whether the origin of the species started there and later migrated to Africa, leading to the buried thoughts in our bodies we attribute to places like Shangri-la, NirVaNa, HeaVen, AtlanTis and EDen?
While waiting for you to send me your analysis of this data, I'm looking at some new tips that came in concerning the previous analysis sent me in the interview with a Greek politician who spoke the phrase you asked me to look for about the rigged financial debacle there. I dug through some old microfiche data that has not yet been computerised and found what you thought I might not find. As you know, I do not fluently read all archaic languages so I am concerned that my translation of the Greek translation of another ancient document will give me incorrect information. As usual, it will probably turn out that my mistaken translation is the message I'm supposed to send. In any case, my report is on its way in the channel you asked me to swim across, using the sailfins attached to my vertebrae and ribs number 2, 5 and 11, with the new foot-mounted paddlefish boosters left for me at the beach on Nickajack Lake a few weeks ago. The Chattanooga "Allemagne-en-Provence" Choo-Choo is out of the terminal and chugging along. The euro be damned - fools peed a head.
Driving A Coupe In Niger
While Nigerians watch their neighbours in Niger all cooped up during this latest coup, where is the esprit de corps to prevent corpses from lining up the streets on which one could drive a coupe?
Meanwhile, the data keeps on keeping on, telling me that I don't need to listen to opinions to tell me what the planet's clearly telling me with facts:
Facing the Skeptics' Arguments
Faith in faith versus faith in numbers means doing nothing about something going on without nothing to show someone.
Never let a symbol symbolise symbolic cymbals balanced on balloons held up by Tom Thumb's thimbles.
Other facts that tell me our planet's facing changes: mininature rhinos (armadillos) living underneath my house and "rooting for grubs" in our backyard garden.
Time for a cup of Dunkin' Donuts robust coffee, using caffeine to boost my perceived level of energy so I can enjoy today and ignore my chest congestion for a few hours. This blog is about you but right now I need to focus on me to heal myself so I can spend more time thinking about you in good health.
Why The Issue Of Global Warming Is Of Paramount Importance
[I have lung congestion/infection and took some medication to reduce the phlegm so I can breathe better. Unfortunately, the medication makes me groggy right now so I apologise ahead of time for poor grammar or inconsistent thought trails in this brief blog entry.]
A quick thought. You do understand that getting the whole connected world to discuss the issue of global warming shows that we are one people, don't you? The fact that we can discuss this issue and compare action plans about the issue, one way or another, and their effects on all of us, regardless of where we came from or what we look like, indicates we are treating ourselves as one species on this planet.
If it weren't for this medication I'm taking, I'd raise a glass of beer or shot of whiskey in your honour for considering me one of you. I'll do so later this week after I get rid of this chest congestion. In the meantime, here's to you, fellow Earthlings!
And yes, I will repeat this line of thought often. Every time I see the brief moments when we see ourselves as one, I feel happy to be alive, no matter how much we disagree about the details of our daily habits.
A quick thought. You do understand that getting the whole connected world to discuss the issue of global warming shows that we are one people, don't you? The fact that we can discuss this issue and compare action plans about the issue, one way or another, and their effects on all of us, regardless of where we came from or what we look like, indicates we are treating ourselves as one species on this planet.
If it weren't for this medication I'm taking, I'd raise a glass of beer or shot of whiskey in your honour for considering me one of you. I'll do so later this week after I get rid of this chest congestion. In the meantime, here's to you, fellow Earthlings!
And yes, I will repeat this line of thought often. Every time I see the brief moments when we see ourselves as one, I feel happy to be alive, no matter how much we disagree about the details of our daily habits.
Insolvency
Sometimes I have to remind myself that this blog is about you. I don't mean that in a bad way. All I'm saying is that there are moments when I've been passed information that seems like common, everyday conversation which needs not be repeated. However, the network of associates requires the information to circulate in order to confirm the feedback testing that goes on within the multiple loops, layers, cycles and spirals of what we need to know to accomplish the tasks we don't know we've assigned ourselves.
For instance, I know that a pretty young woman who handed me my food at Chili's tonight thought she just happened to put on a blouse with the logo "A87" from Aéropostale to wear to work but I know that the logo has more significant meaning to someone I don't know. Let me explain.
You see, some people think that my associates use codewords or passcodes or a breakfast cereal decoder ring to encode and decode encrypted messages. Well, as a matter of fact, some of them do. But they're making you into a fool for believing the codes have some deep, dark meaning. They're just playing an April Fools' Day joke on you.
Instead, by receiving information about a female restaurant worker wearing a specific article of clothing on a specific day, our network of computer programmers can plot trends about the future, showing that if enough people buy the same article of clothing, it changes stock prices, it determines the amount of available disposable income and eventually it leads us to understand what type of tree will be growing at any given location in the next 200 years because of the influence of the amount of paper money in circulation on the growth of the economy and the number of living carbon sinks (i.e., trees).
So, two facts: one, that Brandi served my wife and me at Chili's, and two, later on another young woman, this time at the Target checkout line, told us that dissolving a cup of sugar in a pitcher of warm Kool-Aid makes the Kool-Aid taste sweeter (a trick she learned from her mother) while she purchased a pastel spaghetti-string camisole. Combining the two facts, according to a quick run-through of the latest update of the software my computer programmers sent me a moment ago, indicates to me that sometime in the next year a young Hmong-American mother will decide to become an important leader of her community after being inspired by Obama's determination to turn around the economy despite being hampered by politicians who are acting on the behalf of the people/corporations/foreign entities filling their reelection coffers who want the politicians to do nothing to show that when the economy improves it was their lack of action (no major government expenditures/taxes) that made the economy better. (BTW, while verifying the meaning of the word "coffers," thanks to a video by Kory Stamper at Merriam-Webster for reminding me that slang is slang for words, and both formal and informal usage in our daily vocabulary are equally strong factors for determining the set of words to put in a dictionary).
What would happen to us bondholders if all municipalities declared Chapter 9 bankruptcy? You know, I'm not a gold hoarder but... no, I'm not an alarmist, either. Even so, I'll follow this thought a little longer. If all I had left was what is on this plot of land, could my wife and I survive? If the governments of the Western world go bankrupt on purpose, how do they defend themselves from countries that are solvent? What was Stephen King thinking when he wrote "The Stand"? Who picks the articles for the Tehran Times?
I remind myself this is my world, my people, my solar system, my galaxy, my universe. Therefore, what happens happens because I wanted it to happen. Therefore, I need to stop dicking around with old-fashioned apocalyptic rubber-necking storylines and return to the way I really want the world of our people to follow. With that said...
Here is what the Book of the Future will show us next. There is no force or coercion that will make you give up your privacy, freedom or independence. You can still do the things you want to do with the limited means you have available. However, should you want to join the members of our species who understand we can make real progress toward a better future, together we will learn to wisely share ourselves and our resources, which is not the same as socialism, communism or fascism. Under the auspices of the democratic republic form of government that determines the acceptable common behaviour of the people of this land on which I live with you, we have leeway in how we can choose subsets of behaviour we think best suit our personalities, families and local communities. Let us have civil disagreements without resorting to petty namecalling or acting huffy and taking the ball home because we don't like how the rules of the game make us lose sometimes.
Let us look at the issue of taxation - would you rather have a VAT or enforce local/county/state taxation rules which already exist that should govern tax collections of Internet transactions? If you believe in small government then what shall you small businessowners do about your customers who are good citizens who retired as public servants (court clerks, police officers, firefighters, teachers, etc.) and face the possibility of losing their pensions? In other words, do you know how much of your business comes indirectly from public funds? Remember, we are all one people. Whatever affects one of us affects all of us. You can't simply wish away someone else or someone else's problems.
An acquaintance asked me if I knew how much money that immigrants, legal or illegal, take out of our economy and send back home, which he thought drained the economic power of our country. I don't know. It's a question I haven't thought about or analysed so I've thrown it to my computer programmers to figure out. If we buy foreign goods that are subsidised by foreign governments and don't collect taxes on the goods we manufacture domestically, on top of a large trade imbalance, when do the scales completely tip over? Have they already reached a state that can't return to equilibrium again? What does history teach us about countries that spent too much on public funding of military pursuits and other noninfrastructure expenditures without nonaggressive support from other countries and with minimum military aggressiveness by other countries (the same or different)?
I now know all the answers to the questions above and am acting on behalf of our species to accomplish some long-term goals. There are short-term causes and effects I have already seen coming. You can't please all of the people all of the time. Actually, pleasing people is not one of the goals. To know the future and take responsibility for that knowledge requires an absence of emotional response. I am not trying to make the people happy or sad. I am working with others to make sure our people have the time, room, and means to individually make themselves happy or pleased, if they want.
These are my words. We are my people. We will not disappear overnight. We cannot make sudden major shifts in the general direction our species takes. Words are only a small part of what it takes to make us see who we are and who we are not.
I know who we will be 1,000 years from now and I know it takes one thousand cycles of the planet around the Sun to get there - no shortcuts - 365+ days a year. I have about 14,684 days left to help us get to where we'll be 1,000 years from now. Not a very long time. Thank goodness I'm only one of seven billion working together toward the same goal.
You know deep down it is our species you belong to, not a club, a clique, a country or an ideology. Act upon what you know, not what others have taught you or are forcing you to act upon.
I like to laugh and have a good time but when it comes to our species, I will rise up in rage and anger if you stand in my way to get us to see us as one species. I resort to obscene language, not giving a damn care if my fucking words offend you when you engage in genocidal behaviour. I am a complete member of my species, with all my emotions available to me all the time. I carefully use my states of energy, including those we call emotions, to nudge us along.
We are going wonderful places with ourselves as one species that you cannot comprehend in your current state. But you have an inkling, don't you? That's why you're here. It's in you to see the future ahead of us 500 generations from now if you let the noise of your thoughts evenly disperse and slowly gel into one thought. But that's a thought for a future blog entry, isn't it? You know it is!
For instance, I know that a pretty young woman who handed me my food at Chili's tonight thought she just happened to put on a blouse with the logo "A87" from Aéropostale to wear to work but I know that the logo has more significant meaning to someone I don't know. Let me explain.
You see, some people think that my associates use codewords or passcodes or a breakfast cereal decoder ring to encode and decode encrypted messages. Well, as a matter of fact, some of them do. But they're making you into a fool for believing the codes have some deep, dark meaning. They're just playing an April Fools' Day joke on you.
Instead, by receiving information about a female restaurant worker wearing a specific article of clothing on a specific day, our network of computer programmers can plot trends about the future, showing that if enough people buy the same article of clothing, it changes stock prices, it determines the amount of available disposable income and eventually it leads us to understand what type of tree will be growing at any given location in the next 200 years because of the influence of the amount of paper money in circulation on the growth of the economy and the number of living carbon sinks (i.e., trees).
So, two facts: one, that Brandi served my wife and me at Chili's, and two, later on another young woman, this time at the Target checkout line, told us that dissolving a cup of sugar in a pitcher of warm Kool-Aid makes the Kool-Aid taste sweeter (a trick she learned from her mother) while she purchased a pastel spaghetti-string camisole. Combining the two facts, according to a quick run-through of the latest update of the software my computer programmers sent me a moment ago, indicates to me that sometime in the next year a young Hmong-American mother will decide to become an important leader of her community after being inspired by Obama's determination to turn around the economy despite being hampered by politicians who are acting on the behalf of the people/corporations/foreign entities filling their reelection coffers who want the politicians to do nothing to show that when the economy improves it was their lack of action (no major government expenditures/taxes) that made the economy better. (BTW, while verifying the meaning of the word "coffers," thanks to a video by Kory Stamper at Merriam-Webster for reminding me that slang is slang for words, and both formal and informal usage in our daily vocabulary are equally strong factors for determining the set of words to put in a dictionary).
What would happen to us bondholders if all municipalities declared Chapter 9 bankruptcy? You know, I'm not a gold hoarder but... no, I'm not an alarmist, either. Even so, I'll follow this thought a little longer. If all I had left was what is on this plot of land, could my wife and I survive? If the governments of the Western world go bankrupt on purpose, how do they defend themselves from countries that are solvent? What was Stephen King thinking when he wrote "The Stand"? Who picks the articles for the Tehran Times?
I remind myself this is my world, my people, my solar system, my galaxy, my universe. Therefore, what happens happens because I wanted it to happen. Therefore, I need to stop dicking around with old-fashioned apocalyptic rubber-necking storylines and return to the way I really want the world of our people to follow. With that said...
Here is what the Book of the Future will show us next. There is no force or coercion that will make you give up your privacy, freedom or independence. You can still do the things you want to do with the limited means you have available. However, should you want to join the members of our species who understand we can make real progress toward a better future, together we will learn to wisely share ourselves and our resources, which is not the same as socialism, communism or fascism. Under the auspices of the democratic republic form of government that determines the acceptable common behaviour of the people of this land on which I live with you, we have leeway in how we can choose subsets of behaviour we think best suit our personalities, families and local communities. Let us have civil disagreements without resorting to petty namecalling or acting huffy and taking the ball home because we don't like how the rules of the game make us lose sometimes.
Let us look at the issue of taxation - would you rather have a VAT or enforce local/county/state taxation rules which already exist that should govern tax collections of Internet transactions? If you believe in small government then what shall you small businessowners do about your customers who are good citizens who retired as public servants (court clerks, police officers, firefighters, teachers, etc.) and face the possibility of losing their pensions? In other words, do you know how much of your business comes indirectly from public funds? Remember, we are all one people. Whatever affects one of us affects all of us. You can't simply wish away someone else or someone else's problems.
An acquaintance asked me if I knew how much money that immigrants, legal or illegal, take out of our economy and send back home, which he thought drained the economic power of our country. I don't know. It's a question I haven't thought about or analysed so I've thrown it to my computer programmers to figure out. If we buy foreign goods that are subsidised by foreign governments and don't collect taxes on the goods we manufacture domestically, on top of a large trade imbalance, when do the scales completely tip over? Have they already reached a state that can't return to equilibrium again? What does history teach us about countries that spent too much on public funding of military pursuits and other noninfrastructure expenditures without nonaggressive support from other countries and with minimum military aggressiveness by other countries (the same or different)?
I now know all the answers to the questions above and am acting on behalf of our species to accomplish some long-term goals. There are short-term causes and effects I have already seen coming. You can't please all of the people all of the time. Actually, pleasing people is not one of the goals. To know the future and take responsibility for that knowledge requires an absence of emotional response. I am not trying to make the people happy or sad. I am working with others to make sure our people have the time, room, and means to individually make themselves happy or pleased, if they want.
These are my words. We are my people. We will not disappear overnight. We cannot make sudden major shifts in the general direction our species takes. Words are only a small part of what it takes to make us see who we are and who we are not.
I know who we will be 1,000 years from now and I know it takes one thousand cycles of the planet around the Sun to get there - no shortcuts - 365+ days a year. I have about 14,684 days left to help us get to where we'll be 1,000 years from now. Not a very long time. Thank goodness I'm only one of seven billion working together toward the same goal.
You know deep down it is our species you belong to, not a club, a clique, a country or an ideology. Act upon what you know, not what others have taught you or are forcing you to act upon.
I like to laugh and have a good time but when it comes to our species, I will rise up in rage and anger if you stand in my way to get us to see us as one species. I resort to obscene language, not giving a damn care if my fucking words offend you when you engage in genocidal behaviour. I am a complete member of my species, with all my emotions available to me all the time. I carefully use my states of energy, including those we call emotions, to nudge us along.
We are going wonderful places with ourselves as one species that you cannot comprehend in your current state. But you have an inkling, don't you? That's why you're here. It's in you to see the future ahead of us 500 generations from now if you let the noise of your thoughts evenly disperse and slowly gel into one thought. But that's a thought for a future blog entry, isn't it? You know it is!
20 February 2010
Losing The Game Of Monopoly
[The following conversation has been translated from its original 'language' to American colloquialism.]
"Father, it does not seem fair."
"Son, there is no sense of fair play. It is how it has always been."
"Do you mean that every game we play on this board here on this intergalactic travel cruiser directly affects the major intelligent species of that planet over there?"
"Yes, son."
"Can we tell them that is what we are doing? Wouldn't it give them a chance to mess with the outcome of the game and make our strategies a little bit harder?"
"Son, there are some down there who are already aware of what we are doing."
"Does that mean we are in direct communication with them?"
"No, it does not. The ones who are aware are some of the first to become like us. But their intelligence factor, their interconnectedness with all that surrounds them, their wholeness, is far from complete. They are barely on the early stages of taking the path that leads to our level of being."
"Is that why we play this game when we travel to this part of the galaxy?"
"No, this game is solely for our entertainment so we can watch how easy it is to make other beings act according to the whimsical moves of a board game. There is no deep lesson to learn here. We can allow ourselves pure leisure, even at our level."
"What is Mother doing?"
"She is conducting research on how to make this game more interesting. She is gathering samples from the planet to bring back to the game design team."
"That sounds exciting. When do we get to play the new version?"
"The outcome of our current game determines that, my son. For you see, entertainment is also part of life and thus affects all around it."
"Father, I thought you said there was no deep lesson to be learned here."
"There is none. The chance outcome of a game is a fact ingrained in you that cannot change. All is all, Son."
"All is all, Father."
"Father, it does not seem fair."
"Son, there is no sense of fair play. It is how it has always been."
"Do you mean that every game we play on this board here on this intergalactic travel cruiser directly affects the major intelligent species of that planet over there?"
"Yes, son."
"Can we tell them that is what we are doing? Wouldn't it give them a chance to mess with the outcome of the game and make our strategies a little bit harder?"
"Son, there are some down there who are already aware of what we are doing."
"Does that mean we are in direct communication with them?"
"No, it does not. The ones who are aware are some of the first to become like us. But their intelligence factor, their interconnectedness with all that surrounds them, their wholeness, is far from complete. They are barely on the early stages of taking the path that leads to our level of being."
"Is that why we play this game when we travel to this part of the galaxy?"
"No, this game is solely for our entertainment so we can watch how easy it is to make other beings act according to the whimsical moves of a board game. There is no deep lesson to learn here. We can allow ourselves pure leisure, even at our level."
"What is Mother doing?"
"She is conducting research on how to make this game more interesting. She is gathering samples from the planet to bring back to the game design team."
"That sounds exciting. When do we get to play the new version?"
"The outcome of our current game determines that, my son. For you see, entertainment is also part of life and thus affects all around it."
"Father, I thought you said there was no deep lesson to be learned here."
"There is none. The chance outcome of a game is a fact ingrained in you that cannot change. All is all, Son."
"All is all, Father."
Dust and Armadillos
Spring is here for us in north Alabama - crocuses in bloom, daffodils moments away from the climax of their popup act, azalea buds swelling with anticipation...and our family of armadillos coming out from underneath the sunroom to eat the feral cat's food and dig up our backyard bog.
A note about dust for your reading enjoyment:
Someone asked me whatever happened to Luke of Luke and Laura, or Bo and Hope, for that matter. Questions, questions, questions. I'm not the 411 of your anorexic actors' life inquiries. Call the KGB, if you're really interested. Or see if Baidu is less invasive of your privacy than Google. There are many who will talk who will not give away what you were searching for or which of your best friends' faces you've booked. Privacy is still yours to keep, just as much as freedom and independence are yours to fight for and preserve at all costs. Or no costs, the way this economy is dragging its feet!
A note about dust for your reading enjoyment:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100219/ap_on_sc/us_sci_dustupTime to take a walk and look for other late winter enders.
Someone asked me whatever happened to Luke of Luke and Laura, or Bo and Hope, for that matter. Questions, questions, questions. I'm not the 411 of your anorexic actors' life inquiries. Call the KGB, if you're really interested. Or see if Baidu is less invasive of your privacy than Google. There are many who will talk who will not give away what you were searching for or which of your best friends' faces you've booked. Privacy is still yours to keep, just as much as freedom and independence are yours to fight for and preserve at all costs. Or no costs, the way this economy is dragging its feet!
One Last Word About Toyota
Through the years, my wife and I have owned Toyotas: 1988(?) Toyota Corolla, 1991 Toyota Camry DX, 1996 Toyota RAV4, and 2002 Toyota Camry XLE.
We stuck to Toyota, mainly for my wife's daily driving, after a carpark incident when a FedEx driver ploughed his van into the backend of my wife's Corolla (estimates showed the driver was doing 40-45MPH in a 15MPH zone). Although the impact should have crumpled the rearend and possibly turned the petrol tank into a burning inferno, the Toyota crumple zone absorbed most of the impact, saving my wife from serious injury (to complete the description, the FedEx van pulled my wife's car out of her parking space, and pushed it into two other vehicles parked nearby; my wife's head and shoulder hit and broke the driver's side window, causing bruises and some mental anguish).
Therefore, like Volvo drivers, we see Toyota as a safe vehicle for safe drivers.
However, our experience at Toyota repair shops has been less than spectacular. Seems like the repair shops have hired away service managers from other "push as much crap-to-fix stuff on the customer as possible" repair shops, both foreign and domestic. A regular oil change, if you're not careful, can turn into a major fix, especially when the local repair shop needs to raise cash to build ever more extravagant-looking quarters that have nothing to do with getting your vehicle maintained and repaired. A pretty, shiny lemon is still a lemon, is it not?
So, as American politicians continue to waste taxpayers' money pretending to care about their constituents while grilling Toyoda (or before that, HUAC circus performances, MLB owners, bank CEOs, and soon-to-be BCS show producers), it's up to us regular automobile owners to tell repair shop mechanics and managers "enough is enough." If they offer more than you asked for, tell them "no thank you" and find a reputable local repair shop mechanic who will fix what you asked for and nothing more. Then and only then can we show we've empowered customers who know a bad dealership/repair shop when we see one.
I've said all I had to say about one automobile manufacturer and its distribution network. In my experience, all automobile manufacturers and their distributors do about the same thing to their customers, if you don't watch out and stop being a passive sheep.
We stuck to Toyota, mainly for my wife's daily driving, after a carpark incident when a FedEx driver ploughed his van into the backend of my wife's Corolla (estimates showed the driver was doing 40-45MPH in a 15MPH zone). Although the impact should have crumpled the rearend and possibly turned the petrol tank into a burning inferno, the Toyota crumple zone absorbed most of the impact, saving my wife from serious injury (to complete the description, the FedEx van pulled my wife's car out of her parking space, and pushed it into two other vehicles parked nearby; my wife's head and shoulder hit and broke the driver's side window, causing bruises and some mental anguish).
Therefore, like Volvo drivers, we see Toyota as a safe vehicle for safe drivers.
However, our experience at Toyota repair shops has been less than spectacular. Seems like the repair shops have hired away service managers from other "push as much crap-to-fix stuff on the customer as possible" repair shops, both foreign and domestic. A regular oil change, if you're not careful, can turn into a major fix, especially when the local repair shop needs to raise cash to build ever more extravagant-looking quarters that have nothing to do with getting your vehicle maintained and repaired. A pretty, shiny lemon is still a lemon, is it not?
So, as American politicians continue to waste taxpayers' money pretending to care about their constituents while grilling Toyoda (or before that, HUAC circus performances, MLB owners, bank CEOs, and soon-to-be BCS show producers), it's up to us regular automobile owners to tell repair shop mechanics and managers "enough is enough." If they offer more than you asked for, tell them "no thank you" and find a reputable local repair shop mechanic who will fix what you asked for and nothing more. Then and only then can we show we've empowered customers who know a bad dealership/repair shop when we see one.
I've said all I had to say about one automobile manufacturer and its distribution network. In my experience, all automobile manufacturers and their distributors do about the same thing to their customers, if you don't watch out and stop being a passive sheep.
When The Distinction Between Art and Life Blurs Into A Comedy Sketch
I have watched more than a few episodes of "The Honeymooners meet The Flintstones at the party for Roseanne decorated in The Simpsons' theme" (a/k/a Family Guy). So, I need your help because the line between fantasy and reality is completely blurred for me. Which one of these is real and which one of these is the cartoon caricature of the other?:
[Basically, how do you show an appreciation for an award-winning journalist while at the same time showing that this new post-TV world has to be able to make fun of its seriousness?]
[Basically, how do you show an appreciation for an award-winning journalist while at the same time showing that this new post-TV world has to be able to make fun of its seriousness?]
Movies of the Week
Weekly cheap movie purchases from Wal-Mart:
Sometimes a good movie is hard to ignore, especially when the smell of musty books overwhelms you and gives you chest congestion.
I don't watch Comedy Central so I depend on others to tell me what goes on over there. Word has it that the stuffy humour of Colbert cheese was seen being spread across the back of a stuffed moose. Stuff of dreams or stuff of nightmares? The little bird told me it was a royally mounted moose and that's between them to decide who got the short end of the stick.
Now, out of the gutter and back to above-the-neck middle-class-value writing again...
Sometimes a good movie is hard to ignore, especially when the smell of musty books overwhelms you and gives you chest congestion.
I don't watch Comedy Central so I depend on others to tell me what goes on over there. Word has it that the stuffy humour of Colbert cheese was seen being spread across the back of a stuffed moose. Stuff of dreams or stuff of nightmares? The little bird told me it was a royally mounted moose and that's between them to decide who got the short end of the stick.
Now, out of the gutter and back to above-the-neck middle-class-value writing again...
19 February 2010
Stirrups and Spurs
Meanwhile, back at the ranch...
"Ted."
"Yes, sir?"
"Am I to understand that you're supporting this upcoming takeover of the government?"
"No, sir. I wouldn't say that. Not in those words."
"Yet, you've petitioned the government for secession of your landholdings."
"Yep. That's what I did. You see, I know there's a war coming. And it's going to be a bloody war. There ain't nothing civil about this one. So I've got it figured out that if I just go ahead and declare my land a sovereign nation, I won't get caught in the middle of all the fighting over who's in charge and who's got to be sacrificed for the cause."
"The cause?"
"Hell, yeah. You know what I'm talking about. We've been working on this for how long now?"
"I never heard anyone refer to it as 'the cause.'"
"That's the issue, isn't it? We're not a cause, in the strictest sense. We're visionaries, you and I and the rest of the folks gathered here this weekend."
"All with different visions, I might add."
"In a way, yes. In a way, no. All our visions combined make one big helluva plan for the future, don't they?"
"I certainly hope so."
"It is. Mr. Kissinger, I've always wondered how you arranged things so smoothly with China. Since it's just you and me here, tell me what you had on 'em that made 'em want to negotiate."
"Vell, Mr. Turner, it's like this. The enemy of my enemy is my adversary's apothecary. We sent agents disguised as missionaries into the countryside to determine what made the Chinese people one people. It turns out that the magic of apothecary secrets is the common thread among all the diverse populations of China, from waterfront docks to skyscrapers to rice fields. I arranged with President Nixon that we would supply certain...how do you say it in English?...under-the-counter ingredients not readily available on the open market. Elephant tusks and rhino horns, for example. The beaks of an endangered Hawaiian bee eater. Blood samples from English aristocracy. Hair from Queen Elizabeth's scalp."
"You what?"
"They were very curious about the apparent invisible power the English monarchy has over its people. I was assured that Chinese scientists would discover this secret and use it on future leaders of their country. Now I know this sounds absurd but in the course of many international treaty negotiations I have seen many requests that have little relevance to the treaty itself. In fact..."
"I'm sure you've seen a lot, Henry. Tell you what. Let's get back together with the others and see if some of them are ready to make serious concessions. I'm willing to host their fortunes in the hidden, underground vaults of my ranch but I need more than verbal assurances they'll back each other when the chaos hits the fan."
"Mr. Turner, you have my full support. I will work with the others to consolidate our position that if we are to be future beacons of hope for the common people, we must hide our wealth and make it appear that government bureaucracies have stolen our hard-earned money for their evil plans."
"Not only that but we'll have to pool some of our resources to fund counter-insurgencies when the first wave of 'freedom fighters' turn out to be ruthless dictators in disguise."
"You were reading my mind. I will convey just that very same message."
"Kissinger, you're all right. I had my doubts about you but some of your old Chinese colleagues backed you up. I even got a good recommendation from Jimmy Carter, of all people. Bill and Hillary told me you're a sly fox and coming from them, I took that as a compliment. Even the ol' intelligence buddies, George Bush and Vladimir Putin, put in a good word for you."
"Of course."
"Now, before we get out of here, I've got a couple of names to throw at you. Joe 'Red Eagle' Ginn."
"Good man. He has made his tribe a lot of money."
"Do you think we could promote him to territorial president of Americanaxo?"
"Possibly."
"Good. Dick Cheney."
"What about him?"
"Leader of the first wave of insurgents or the second wave of counter-insurgents?"
"Will there be a third wave?"
"Yes, that's where Red Eagle comes in."
"First wave, then."
"Any recommendations for the second wave?"
"Do you anticipate the counter-insurgents to be simply anti-first wavers or pretending to unite the North American continent into one?"
"Anti-first wavers."
"Then, you need to form a committee, not have one single leader. What about Oprah, Sarah Palin, Carlos Slim and Stephen Harper from Canada?"
"Those are good names, Kissinger. But you know Bill Gates was really hoping to get in on this action. He's grown tired of the philanthropist role."
"Yes, but he is seen as a business tycoon. The people will not accept anyone of that caliber to lead them. Not even Ballmer, I don't think."
"What about Carlos Slim that you mentioned? He's no destitute dude."
"But the people of the United States do not know that. We can build him into a man wrecked by ruthless business leeches who caused the Second Great Recession when they wouldn't lend any of the money from the stimulus funds, only lining their pockets and building even bigger mansions with the people's money."
"Thanks, Henry. Keep those ideas coming. Let's get in there and see if we wrap this up. I'm ready for some trail riding."
"Ted."
"Yes, sir?"
"Am I to understand that you're supporting this upcoming takeover of the government?"
"No, sir. I wouldn't say that. Not in those words."
"Yet, you've petitioned the government for secession of your landholdings."
"Yep. That's what I did. You see, I know there's a war coming. And it's going to be a bloody war. There ain't nothing civil about this one. So I've got it figured out that if I just go ahead and declare my land a sovereign nation, I won't get caught in the middle of all the fighting over who's in charge and who's got to be sacrificed for the cause."
"The cause?"
"Hell, yeah. You know what I'm talking about. We've been working on this for how long now?"
"I never heard anyone refer to it as 'the cause.'"
"That's the issue, isn't it? We're not a cause, in the strictest sense. We're visionaries, you and I and the rest of the folks gathered here this weekend."
"All with different visions, I might add."
"In a way, yes. In a way, no. All our visions combined make one big helluva plan for the future, don't they?"
"I certainly hope so."
"It is. Mr. Kissinger, I've always wondered how you arranged things so smoothly with China. Since it's just you and me here, tell me what you had on 'em that made 'em want to negotiate."
"Vell, Mr. Turner, it's like this. The enemy of my enemy is my adversary's apothecary. We sent agents disguised as missionaries into the countryside to determine what made the Chinese people one people. It turns out that the magic of apothecary secrets is the common thread among all the diverse populations of China, from waterfront docks to skyscrapers to rice fields. I arranged with President Nixon that we would supply certain...how do you say it in English?...under-the-counter ingredients not readily available on the open market. Elephant tusks and rhino horns, for example. The beaks of an endangered Hawaiian bee eater. Blood samples from English aristocracy. Hair from Queen Elizabeth's scalp."
"You what?"
"They were very curious about the apparent invisible power the English monarchy has over its people. I was assured that Chinese scientists would discover this secret and use it on future leaders of their country. Now I know this sounds absurd but in the course of many international treaty negotiations I have seen many requests that have little relevance to the treaty itself. In fact..."
"I'm sure you've seen a lot, Henry. Tell you what. Let's get back together with the others and see if some of them are ready to make serious concessions. I'm willing to host their fortunes in the hidden, underground vaults of my ranch but I need more than verbal assurances they'll back each other when the chaos hits the fan."
"Mr. Turner, you have my full support. I will work with the others to consolidate our position that if we are to be future beacons of hope for the common people, we must hide our wealth and make it appear that government bureaucracies have stolen our hard-earned money for their evil plans."
"Not only that but we'll have to pool some of our resources to fund counter-insurgencies when the first wave of 'freedom fighters' turn out to be ruthless dictators in disguise."
"You were reading my mind. I will convey just that very same message."
"Kissinger, you're all right. I had my doubts about you but some of your old Chinese colleagues backed you up. I even got a good recommendation from Jimmy Carter, of all people. Bill and Hillary told me you're a sly fox and coming from them, I took that as a compliment. Even the ol' intelligence buddies, George Bush and Vladimir Putin, put in a good word for you."
"Of course."
"Now, before we get out of here, I've got a couple of names to throw at you. Joe 'Red Eagle' Ginn."
"Good man. He has made his tribe a lot of money."
"Do you think we could promote him to territorial president of Americanaxo?"
"Possibly."
"Good. Dick Cheney."
"What about him?"
"Leader of the first wave of insurgents or the second wave of counter-insurgents?"
"Will there be a third wave?"
"Yes, that's where Red Eagle comes in."
"First wave, then."
"Any recommendations for the second wave?"
"Do you anticipate the counter-insurgents to be simply anti-first wavers or pretending to unite the North American continent into one?"
"Anti-first wavers."
"Then, you need to form a committee, not have one single leader. What about Oprah, Sarah Palin, Carlos Slim and Stephen Harper from Canada?"
"Those are good names, Kissinger. But you know Bill Gates was really hoping to get in on this action. He's grown tired of the philanthropist role."
"Yes, but he is seen as a business tycoon. The people will not accept anyone of that caliber to lead them. Not even Ballmer, I don't think."
"What about Carlos Slim that you mentioned? He's no destitute dude."
"But the people of the United States do not know that. We can build him into a man wrecked by ruthless business leeches who caused the Second Great Recession when they wouldn't lend any of the money from the stimulus funds, only lining their pockets and building even bigger mansions with the people's money."
"Thanks, Henry. Keep those ideas coming. Let's get in there and see if we wrap this up. I'm ready for some trail riding."
All The Snooz You Can Use
"Hi there, I'm Daniel Burymore and this is Snooz TV live on the scene. Excuse me, what is your name?"
"Lisa."
"Lisa?"
"Yes.
"Great. So tell me, Lisa, what do you do?"
"I'm a senior at Grissom."
"Grissom? That's the secondary school named after the astronaut killed by shoddy workmanship at NASA?"
"Umm...I don't know about that."
"No problem. Ancient news. Today, we're here with Lisa and all the others gathered to reenact events that happened earlier in the day. Lisa, can you describe for us this horrifying story? Take your time. I know this was traumatic."
"Well, I had just turned to my best friend, Murialalanad, and commented what a great-looking sweater she was wearing when..."
"That's okay, Lisa. We know this is difficult."
"This...thing. It came out of nowhere."
"Did it literally come out of nowhere or did it seem to come out of nowhere?"
"I don't know. Is there a difference?"
"Tell you what, Lisa. Let's skip that for a moment. What about you? Tell the audience a little more about Lisa."
"Oh, yeah, sure. Well, next year I plan to go to the University of West Florida and..."
"West Florida? Is that Beach U? I mean, do you plan to...say, take classes between swimming and sunbathing?"
"Haha. Yeah."
"And what do you plan to do there?"
"I'm going to major in communications and minor in public relations."
"Fantastic, Lisa. Fits you to a tee, I might add. You're cheerful, alert, fairly well coherent after this devastating tragedy. Speaking of which, Lisa, do you feel like telling us more about what you saw today?"
"Oh, gosh! One moment, I was talking to my best friend and next moment she was gone."
"Gone?"
"Yes. She and that...that thing...just seemed to disappear."
"So, let me get this straight. A normal day in secondary school. You're walking down the hall between classes..."
"Actually, we had just finished lunch."
"You were walking down the hall after a delightful meal in the school lunchroom, savouring the aftertaste of..."
"I had a salad."
"Of a salad, and admiring your companion's sweater..."
"She's not my companion. She's my best friend...or was."
"There, there. It's all right, deary. Can I go on?"
"Yes."
"And out of 'nowhere,' a thing appears, grabs your compan...best friend and..."
"It didn't grab her."
"It didn't?"
"No."
"Okay, so out of 'nowhere,' a thing appears and then it and your best friend suddenly disappear."
"Yes."
"Wonderful."
"Wonderful?"
"Oh, no, not you. I mean it's wonderful that I summarised your awful tragedy in one sentence."
"Umm...I guess you did."
"Precisely. So, is there anything else you can remember?"
"Like what?"
"Any smells, bright lights, gooey liquid on the floor..."
"Now that you mention it, there was this odour...it reminds me of the time my little brother was playing with his DNA kit in the basement and cloned some E. coli."
"He what?"
"Well, that's what he said. But my brother lies all the time."
"Ah, very good. So what does the memory have to do with this?"
"The thing looked like my brother."
"There you have it, ladies and gentlemen. The thing from 'nowhere' is Lisa's brother. We'll come back after this break to find out more."
"No! Wait! I didn't say he was my brother!"
"This is Daniel Burymore capturing another exciting moment where our citizenry have no clue what's really going on."
"He wasn't my brother! He wasn't my brother!"
"Yes, sweety, we'll work out those details after this timeout for an advert. Gotta hook the audience to come back, you know. It's only business."
"Lisa."
"Lisa?"
"Yes.
"Great. So tell me, Lisa, what do you do?"
"I'm a senior at Grissom."
"Grissom? That's the secondary school named after the astronaut killed by shoddy workmanship at NASA?"
"Umm...I don't know about that."
"No problem. Ancient news. Today, we're here with Lisa and all the others gathered to reenact events that happened earlier in the day. Lisa, can you describe for us this horrifying story? Take your time. I know this was traumatic."
"Well, I had just turned to my best friend, Murialalanad, and commented what a great-looking sweater she was wearing when..."
"That's okay, Lisa. We know this is difficult."
"This...thing. It came out of nowhere."
"Did it literally come out of nowhere or did it seem to come out of nowhere?"
"I don't know. Is there a difference?"
"Tell you what, Lisa. Let's skip that for a moment. What about you? Tell the audience a little more about Lisa."
"Oh, yeah, sure. Well, next year I plan to go to the University of West Florida and..."
"West Florida? Is that Beach U? I mean, do you plan to...say, take classes between swimming and sunbathing?"
"Haha. Yeah."
"And what do you plan to do there?"
"I'm going to major in communications and minor in public relations."
"Fantastic, Lisa. Fits you to a tee, I might add. You're cheerful, alert, fairly well coherent after this devastating tragedy. Speaking of which, Lisa, do you feel like telling us more about what you saw today?"
"Oh, gosh! One moment, I was talking to my best friend and next moment she was gone."
"Gone?"
"Yes. She and that...that thing...just seemed to disappear."
"So, let me get this straight. A normal day in secondary school. You're walking down the hall between classes..."
"Actually, we had just finished lunch."
"You were walking down the hall after a delightful meal in the school lunchroom, savouring the aftertaste of..."
"I had a salad."
"Of a salad, and admiring your companion's sweater..."
"She's not my companion. She's my best friend...or was."
"There, there. It's all right, deary. Can I go on?"
"Yes."
"And out of 'nowhere,' a thing appears, grabs your compan...best friend and..."
"It didn't grab her."
"It didn't?"
"No."
"Okay, so out of 'nowhere,' a thing appears and then it and your best friend suddenly disappear."
"Yes."
"Wonderful."
"Wonderful?"
"Oh, no, not you. I mean it's wonderful that I summarised your awful tragedy in one sentence."
"Umm...I guess you did."
"Precisely. So, is there anything else you can remember?"
"Like what?"
"Any smells, bright lights, gooey liquid on the floor..."
"Now that you mention it, there was this odour...it reminds me of the time my little brother was playing with his DNA kit in the basement and cloned some E. coli."
"He what?"
"Well, that's what he said. But my brother lies all the time."
"Ah, very good. So what does the memory have to do with this?"
"The thing looked like my brother."
"There you have it, ladies and gentlemen. The thing from 'nowhere' is Lisa's brother. We'll come back after this break to find out more."
"No! Wait! I didn't say he was my brother!"
"This is Daniel Burymore capturing another exciting moment where our citizenry have no clue what's really going on."
"He wasn't my brother! He wasn't my brother!"
"Yes, sweety, we'll work out those details after this timeout for an advert. Gotta hook the audience to come back, you know. It's only business."
An Honest Look At Us Outside History
I consider myself an anomaly. I have had visions all my life, seeing connections in social situations that tell me what will happen in other social situations long before they happened. But I do not predict the future. Instead, my body's wiring, including that of my brain, has allowed me to run multiple scenarios in my head at once. It's like watching TV reruns and figuring out three TV seasons from now what the next set of new TV shows will be based on instant comprehension of the interaction of social trends, advert advances and the way the weather is slowly changing around us.
I am an anomaly because my basic body wiring is focused on social integration. Despite the cultural "brainwashing" to which I've been exposed all my life, I have never fallen for the idea that we are separate from one another because of skin colour, body size, religious belief or country of origin. Even more than that, I don't even see us as separate from the environment in which we exist.
As this anomaly, I also see and feel the pain of others. I see their joy, their happiness and their brief moments of insight into their fully-integrated place in the universe.
What we do as a people has little bearing on our planet's rotation around a star. We contribute to the changing weather patterns of this planet and will have an effect on its wobble due to the influence on large sections of melting ice that shift into states of water that flow into different parts of the world. But Earth will still spin on its axis and give us the changing seasons that vary from pole to pole.
Because of this awareness of our small influence, which becomes significant with time (as most changes that morph into larger changes do), I accept that our people will do what we do because we really don't know what our little changes will turn into. We're both a big ball and we're the people who slowly push the big ball up a hill; the ball gathers no moss as it crushes everything in its path; the ball changes position with a lot of effort on our part, especially at the individual level.
I believe whatever you tell me. If you have strong religious convictions, I accept that your convictions are real - pagan, Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, deist, atheist, agnostic, socialist, whatever. If you have strong ecological ties, I accept that our ecosystems are as important as anything else we can think about or act upon.
I am part of all of you so I am part of all that you believe. I also know that everything we believe is not true because none of us, not a single one of us, knows what's really going on around us because we are limited by our bodies and what our bodies can dream up, imagine and create. We make believe (or pretend), in other words.
There's nothing the matter with "make believe." If all you've got is all you've got, you make do with what you've got.
Which begs the question, "How can I get more?" Also, "Is there anything else to get?"
Which is ultimately why I'm here. This blog is for those of you like me who see through the social fabric of our lives. We have bigger goals than manipulating members of our species.
I wish all of us could see outside of space and time but we can't. It's just not the way we were born to be. Our species is full of everyone with a unique body type that allows us to diversify and make our survival together on this planet more enjoyable than it could be if we were single families left to fend for ourselves on a world that doesn't care whether we live or die.
That's why we've developed all our sets of beliefs, in order to create reasons why something/someone other than us cares why we live or die. I accept all our beliefs. They're really good tools for dealing with our millennial-long process of learning the knowledge of self and further into the next millennial-long process of getting past the knowledge of self.
When I sit here and realize that my life is but a dot on the history not only of this universe or this planet but also of our people and even on the line of historic changes that the species of this planet are going through, including us, I feel happy. To be that dot! To be the only person who could form the glue between the two dots beside me! Miraculous!
My personal transformation from the joining of an egg and a sperm to who I am now is nothing but amazing. To know both that it mattered and doesn't matter that I lived and had insights into the working of the universe is insightful.
What is true insight? What does it matter that my limited set of thoughts can see what my limited set of thoughts shouldn't be able to see or that the trees outside the window have no "thoughts" like mine, all of us one contiguous set of states of energy interacting with one another constantly?
A grain of sand. A single ridge on the millions of ridges on a grain of sand. Something infinitely smaller than that. Something even infinitely smaller than that.
How can I know that I am completely insignificant yet believe I am the most important set of energy states in the universe as I believe it exists? I believe I exist when I know I don't exist.
Our people's history doesn't matter. It really doesn't. We are not here to put our names in historic books that will disappear as the next generations write their names over ours. But we will do that, anyway, because we, in this current 100,000-year snapshot of our existence, believe that's what we're supposed to do because it's what we can do with what we've got.
So don't let me stop you from what you're doing. As a matter of fact, I probably couldn't if I wanted. This big rock that represents us is too big to stop, even for Atlas or Shiva or your monotheistic God. Our existence has been set in motion and it can't be stopped.
If we can't stop being who we are then what's the point of seeing what else we can be? Ah, the question of our times! Again, that's why I'm here, why I'm insignificant, yet also the ultimate, most-important reason why our species exists at this moment.
You are not your species. You are not what you think you are. You do not exist. Everything in your thoughts is false. In fact, you do not think. You do not see. You do not feel. You cannot comprehend what is it that you are, let alone what you are not.
At the same time, you know what you are not and have complete knowledge of the condition of what it's like not to be you. The "knowledge" is actually the absence of knowledge. You find out what you are by giving up any thoughts that you can know anything.
But most of us are unwilling to stop existing. All of us see that we exist, no matter what form we take. We say we exist because we believe we do not have to think anything to see our noses in front of our faces, so to speak. Can you understand all the body processes, including thinking, it takes to see our noses in front of our faces?
I'm a jester, a jokester, a prankster, a diversionary tactic. I like to laugh for no reason and laugh at the random incongruities that define our lives. In all these instances, I am an example of myself to myself and a caricature of myself I give to others. I also know that all these images of me do not exist because I do not exist.
Is there anything to be gained from learning you do not exist? After all, you may have found a successful lifestyle that requires very little action or thought on your part.
I can't answer that question for you. Until you see you do not exist you can't understand what a difference it makes between thinking you exist and having no awareness at all, to un-be.
I discuss this here only for those of you who know what we're here after - to expand, to grow, to transform, to take ourselves from one type of existence to another by passing into and out of existence altogether. To leave a message for the version of our species that will exist 10,000 years from now and will complete the transformation we only barely understand today.
What can a grain of sand do to move an ocean? If you only knew!
I am an anomaly because my basic body wiring is focused on social integration. Despite the cultural "brainwashing" to which I've been exposed all my life, I have never fallen for the idea that we are separate from one another because of skin colour, body size, religious belief or country of origin. Even more than that, I don't even see us as separate from the environment in which we exist.
As this anomaly, I also see and feel the pain of others. I see their joy, their happiness and their brief moments of insight into their fully-integrated place in the universe.
What we do as a people has little bearing on our planet's rotation around a star. We contribute to the changing weather patterns of this planet and will have an effect on its wobble due to the influence on large sections of melting ice that shift into states of water that flow into different parts of the world. But Earth will still spin on its axis and give us the changing seasons that vary from pole to pole.
Because of this awareness of our small influence, which becomes significant with time (as most changes that morph into larger changes do), I accept that our people will do what we do because we really don't know what our little changes will turn into. We're both a big ball and we're the people who slowly push the big ball up a hill; the ball gathers no moss as it crushes everything in its path; the ball changes position with a lot of effort on our part, especially at the individual level.
I believe whatever you tell me. If you have strong religious convictions, I accept that your convictions are real - pagan, Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, deist, atheist, agnostic, socialist, whatever. If you have strong ecological ties, I accept that our ecosystems are as important as anything else we can think about or act upon.
I am part of all of you so I am part of all that you believe. I also know that everything we believe is not true because none of us, not a single one of us, knows what's really going on around us because we are limited by our bodies and what our bodies can dream up, imagine and create. We make believe (or pretend), in other words.
There's nothing the matter with "make believe." If all you've got is all you've got, you make do with what you've got.
Which begs the question, "How can I get more?" Also, "Is there anything else to get?"
Which is ultimately why I'm here. This blog is for those of you like me who see through the social fabric of our lives. We have bigger goals than manipulating members of our species.
I wish all of us could see outside of space and time but we can't. It's just not the way we were born to be. Our species is full of everyone with a unique body type that allows us to diversify and make our survival together on this planet more enjoyable than it could be if we were single families left to fend for ourselves on a world that doesn't care whether we live or die.
That's why we've developed all our sets of beliefs, in order to create reasons why something/someone other than us cares why we live or die. I accept all our beliefs. They're really good tools for dealing with our millennial-long process of learning the knowledge of self and further into the next millennial-long process of getting past the knowledge of self.
When I sit here and realize that my life is but a dot on the history not only of this universe or this planet but also of our people and even on the line of historic changes that the species of this planet are going through, including us, I feel happy. To be that dot! To be the only person who could form the glue between the two dots beside me! Miraculous!
My personal transformation from the joining of an egg and a sperm to who I am now is nothing but amazing. To know both that it mattered and doesn't matter that I lived and had insights into the working of the universe is insightful.
What is true insight? What does it matter that my limited set of thoughts can see what my limited set of thoughts shouldn't be able to see or that the trees outside the window have no "thoughts" like mine, all of us one contiguous set of states of energy interacting with one another constantly?
A grain of sand. A single ridge on the millions of ridges on a grain of sand. Something infinitely smaller than that. Something even infinitely smaller than that.
How can I know that I am completely insignificant yet believe I am the most important set of energy states in the universe as I believe it exists? I believe I exist when I know I don't exist.
Our people's history doesn't matter. It really doesn't. We are not here to put our names in historic books that will disappear as the next generations write their names over ours. But we will do that, anyway, because we, in this current 100,000-year snapshot of our existence, believe that's what we're supposed to do because it's what we can do with what we've got.
So don't let me stop you from what you're doing. As a matter of fact, I probably couldn't if I wanted. This big rock that represents us is too big to stop, even for Atlas or Shiva or your monotheistic God. Our existence has been set in motion and it can't be stopped.
If we can't stop being who we are then what's the point of seeing what else we can be? Ah, the question of our times! Again, that's why I'm here, why I'm insignificant, yet also the ultimate, most-important reason why our species exists at this moment.
You are not your species. You are not what you think you are. You do not exist. Everything in your thoughts is false. In fact, you do not think. You do not see. You do not feel. You cannot comprehend what is it that you are, let alone what you are not.
At the same time, you know what you are not and have complete knowledge of the condition of what it's like not to be you. The "knowledge" is actually the absence of knowledge. You find out what you are by giving up any thoughts that you can know anything.
But most of us are unwilling to stop existing. All of us see that we exist, no matter what form we take. We say we exist because we believe we do not have to think anything to see our noses in front of our faces, so to speak. Can you understand all the body processes, including thinking, it takes to see our noses in front of our faces?
I'm a jester, a jokester, a prankster, a diversionary tactic. I like to laugh for no reason and laugh at the random incongruities that define our lives. In all these instances, I am an example of myself to myself and a caricature of myself I give to others. I also know that all these images of me do not exist because I do not exist.
Is there anything to be gained from learning you do not exist? After all, you may have found a successful lifestyle that requires very little action or thought on your part.
I can't answer that question for you. Until you see you do not exist you can't understand what a difference it makes between thinking you exist and having no awareness at all, to un-be.
I discuss this here only for those of you who know what we're here after - to expand, to grow, to transform, to take ourselves from one type of existence to another by passing into and out of existence altogether. To leave a message for the version of our species that will exist 10,000 years from now and will complete the transformation we only barely understand today.
What can a grain of sand do to move an ocean? If you only knew!
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