Saturday, January 31, 2009

Don't be clumsy twice in a row.


Writing... I do like how it sometimes forces you to flesh out an idea a little more than you would have if you just thought it out instead and then moved on. This installment is founded on minutia. I made some eggs for breakfast and then with plate in one hand I reached into the fridge for some Tabasco. It was on a ledge rather than in the door where most people would put condiments... but my fridge runs bare most of the time, so stuff just goes where ever. I clumsily grasped at it (that's what she said) and I sent it flying toward the kitchen floor. With the same offending hand I circled around and caught it mid air, plate of eggs still level. And with a lack of humility I hissed "Yesss!" to the morning sun that was flooding the living room and pumped the first clutching the Tabasco. The pumping was good, both celebration and function... (shake well) I added the Tabasco to the salsa on the eggs, took a bite to test and then made my way over to my desk to 15% work and 85% eat I then managed to unbalance the fork just as I was maneuvering to sit. Once again a hand shot out and caught the fork mid air before it had a chance to stain the nice clean carpet with salsa and egg. Within the space of 2 minutes, two instances of clumsy. No harm done however. A full bottle of un-shattered Tabasco is safely back in the fridge and the salsa and eggs are all safely in my tummy rather than some of them in the carpet.
Inattention, bad luck, poor thought processes... these can lead to "oops". The cool thing about oops is that many times, if you act quickly and correctly you can then create a solution before the consequences of "oops" fully manifest themselves. The American Public made an Oops a little over 8 years ago. Some how or another, four years later no hand shot out to catch the falling item, no we just allowed four more years of shattered Tabasco all over out kitchen floor and no one stepped up to end sub prime balloon mortgages. At first I thought it was insane with cars... but said hmmm, whatever. But houses? HOUSES? Of course, I have known what it was like to be house poor and then house screwed when i lost my job in 2001 and vowed I would never do it again. I will straight buy future housing after this condo. That is to say that I will have paid the condo off, then I will start working on a down payment on a modest stand alone house out in the woods. I will then have a single mortgage to pay for the period of time during which I sell the condo. Then, with the money from the Condo, that will go to destroy the mortgage of the new house. Done done and DONE. See, there is me not being clumsy twice in a row. I am sure that there are some mistakes that I make over and over again. I think I will take some time the next time I have to drive a long distance and figure out what those things are. It can sometimes be very hard to be self critical. Looking at America, our Oops is plain as day. The middle east, Dependency on Oil and other fossil fuels, corruption of the rich, financial retardation of the middle and lower classes. That just names a few. Let me clarify the retardation. Buying too much house, to many nice things. They couldn't afford it, but we kept making it (or China did I suppose) now all of a sudden... we are all not just kinda out of money... I mean we are OUT.
It's all too late now. There was no magic hand to grab that bottle before it struck the tile floor. Grab a mop, be careful to not cut yourself, and don't sniff in too deep while you are picking up the glass shards. Clean up in Isle world.

Monday, January 26, 2009

Creatures of Habit

We all are. I have changed a good number of habits in the last few days. I can do that fairly well. The more I sit here and try to type, the more I understand that I have no clue where I am going with this. It can't go on the blog. This is nothing more than a personal mental book mark so that in the future, I can come back, read this and then recall ... ah yes, the thing about the thing. At any rate, one of the craziest things I can think of is when you do all this work to route the water of your soul into the channels that you feel best serve it and then a full moon tide sweeps in and lets you know that you actually have no idea what you are doing. No idea at all. You stand waist deep in muddy water with sand in your shoes, slightly uncomfortable, a little chilly, and all you can think about is... "well what is this going to look like after the water recedes?"

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Day of Days

My observations about our 44th President. More to come I suppose.

1. I am happy that Barack Obama has not been assassinated. I pray he dies an old man many many years from now and gets to see his lovely daughters have children of their own. Like every man, he deserves it. I'd say he deserves it more than me because of the risk he is taking for the common good. I look at our greatest presidents, the brave ones, the barrier breakers, the ones who really made positive change in our nation. That same energy draws evil to it and they are far too often shot at and often hit. Obama is SO positive for this nation, for the world in fact, that I am scared SH!tless for his safety. With the nation and the world in the shape it is in right now, if he is killed, I fear the worst for not just America, but for the human race. THE HUMAN RACE. I'd take a bullet for the man. I have never said that about someone I don't know personally.
2. I watched NBC. In this day and age, the ALL the technology, what a crappy job they did. Lack of sound feeds, poor editing. For a network that did so much to help Obama (subtle ways mind you, but I feel they did). MAN what a crap job of bringing us the day.
3. Obama's Speech... well, what can I say, the bar was set so very high...
Out of any other president in my life time I would have said "oh hells yeah". I think the victory speech on election night was much better.
I really would have liked for him to say. Fine, I am a black man. Whatever, I am just the right guy at the right time. This should have happened long ago because slavery should not have happened etc etc etc. Great, whatever... you know what, good for America for making this change and thanks to all African Americans who had to suffer and beat on that glass ceiling (that honestly looks like an Arctic ice shelf with a few holes poked here and there... and i mean like, every few miles here and there) over and over to make this even possible. That aspect needs to keep improving. Then I really wanted him to Really get impassioned and hammer home the green revolution of making new jobs that ultimately get us off oil. And I wanted him to say this more definitively all the other things that got him elected. And I wanted him MOST of all, to tell the American Public that they are lazy and we have to really kick in gear and fix this. We must be accountable for everything we do, each person should strive to do better. With the lines about responsibility, he did it... but in a vague and flowery way. He could have pressed the issue harder. He is an icon, he has emotional capital to spend. I wanted to see him become a peaceful warrior, a drill Sargent of sorts for the boot camp of the American public. Obama more than any other president in my memory would get the response of "SIR YES SIR!" to demands made of it. 300 million people doing a little better each day is a huge thing. It could be personal health, it could be driving less, anything... But when Obama sat back down I didn't feel a call to arms to do much different than I do now. And sure, my goals are aligned with his... But I wanted this speech to drive it home somehow. Because if he really made me think again with his speech then I would know that he might have also really swayed republicans with his speech.
Well, maybe our 44th is taking a page out of the 26th's play book... today he walked softly. And upon hearing the words a few more times. Perhaps I must say, Obama is not soft... rather he is a professional political boxer. He has not tried to deliver any knock out blows too early in his opening rounds. But he did land scoring punches in every place that he needed to without opening himself up to a counter punch of any significance... well played sir, well played.
Now as for the senate and house that needs to fall in line with Obama's views... the battle of attrition has already begun. Cheney is in a wheel chair (funny and appropriate) not that I wish ill health on people but I really have nothing nice to say about the man apart from personal matters. And in Obama's corner, Byrd and Teddy Kennedy BOTH could not make it through lunch, LUNCH. Ok. I have no doubt what so ever that both Teddy and Rob have nothing but love for their country and support for our new president. But, you know what, the country needs men and women of youth and vigor to deal with the nations challenges. Hell, my kid is 11 and she is doing things on an I touch that I have no clue about. And I am 32. The men in power.... yes, years and years of experience... but the world... I feel it is changing at a rate never before seen. Lets look back... combustion engine. 100+ years ago now it is possible to sail England to the US in a few weeks, MUCH faster than wind. Then we build rail ways. Things across the nation in a week or so. Lets invent the telephone also 100+ years ago. A message around the world from one person to another in less than a minute. However, getting that message to more than that one person could take some time. Now, entire videos with audio, things that happened minutes ago. can be transmitted anywhere in the world without bias or editing, instantly, but this time around... TO EVERYONE ( now this is truly about 2 years old..). Now the question is not who sends the message, BUT can we trust the message sent? At any rate. within the next ten years anything will be seen live anywhere in the world by anyone if it is deemed relevant. In fact I propose that in a decade a group called the department of relevancy will be more important than any national security unit of government. At any rate, I love change, I love this nation. The future is scary exciting challenging and amazing. And I wonder if I will ever feel so Alive ever again. This could be our time. Our grand fathers fought world war two with new bullets, tanks, planes and Atom Bombs. Perhaps we fight a war of truth this time... there are no regiments, there are no artillery shells. We might fight this war from from comfort of our living rooms. Our weapons are a key board and a connection to a global interface none could have imagined 50 years ago. And so it goes. We bunker down in our living rooms and make claims. Then we kiss our children and loved ones emerging from our bunkers to fight... But in this war, death is not apparent. You can get yourself AND your family killed and not find out until years later. You can go home every day and hug your family, but every next day you had better be ready to fight. Welcome to the global economy and all the trappings that come with it.
Namaste.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Things We Take For Granite.


Yes, Yes indeed, someone wrote that on their wall on facebook in reference to something or other that was important to them. And no, this person was not making a joke. They meant the thing that is written to say, things we take for GRANTED.

That is a good one right there... Much better than a "moot" point vs. a "mute" point. That one runs rampant through Engineering types in the south. It always made me giggle first then be depressed for that fool with a 4 year degree yet apparently no command at all over the English language.


I will say no more about the "Granite" person other than to say I have known them since I was 5 and leave it at that. And, this does not surprise me in the least. Said individual had also recently joined the facebook group "keep God in Schools ". This starts me on a very sad path of discourse. I estimate that for every 50 or 60 christian idiots I can show you 1 smart one. I used to think that the number was something like 2 billion to 1. Having a few christian Friends has changed that for me. They do worship God as best I can tell. It is important to them and it is not lip service. Their actions seem to reflect this daily, yet they somehow live and function as normal people and can relate to us heathens. Which is a very important part of Christianity I think, spreading the word by being with all people in an inclusive manner. The more commonly practiced method is that of exclusion and fear (hell fire etc). Why the carrot of heaven and the stick of hell. My christian friends are like, "hey, here is a carrot, when are we hanging out next?" They don't try to force religion down my throat. If they are worried about my immortal soul they might pray for it behind my back, if they do, that is very sweet of them, but they certainly don't confront me with it.

I know even more idiots who just claim to be christian because they haul themselves to church once a week and think little else about it as if Jesus Christ is some sort of weekly errand that must be done. "OOOP! It's Sunday, I'm fresh out of the Lord, gotta stop by for some more."

At any rate, these christian friends of mine are SMART, they understand the importance of separation of Church and state, and they want to see this nation move forward. It is lamentable that Religion is holding us back politically as a nation. Freedom of religion is an awesome thing, but it must be balanced perfectly with indivdual rights. If only my smart christian friends could some how infect the dumb ones with a "wake the hell up!" virus.

As Americans our freedom is not something we should take for GRANITE. Um... well cause unless it is just a little tiny piece of it, that shit is heavy. And I wouldn't want to carry it very far.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

The love virus

No not the high 5. Something useful. I watched a show on National G that revolved around the concept that viruses drive evolution and all sorts of things. It makes sense, I buy into it. It also explains all of the "junk code" in DNA... Well, that is crap I think, scientists are calling it junk because they don't know what the hell it does or what the hell it once did. So, anyway, they had these two strains of prairie vol. One type was known to be monogamous, the other type was known to spread his seed far and wide. They took one of these "playa" vols and injected him with this virus found in the monogamous species. The little pimp turned into a home loving man ( or little furry thing, whatever). Simply amazing! Everyone releases chemicals into their own blood stream during sexy time. There were 3 specific ones named. One is responsible for pair bonding, AKA love. Oxytocin??? Which is the same stuff that causes labor. At any rate, the playa vol released it but without that virus the chemicals were not reacting in the brain and changing behavior, the virus acts as a catalyst.
There have been a small handful of women that I have been absolutely addicted to. I would never in a million years have thought of cheating on them, and when we parted, for whatever reason, I was seriously messed up. But with all other women, it's been fine, even some that dump me. I have been like... enh... ok, next.
Put the TV show together with what I just wrote about and it brings all sorts of questions up.
1. Was I infected?
2. Who carried it?
3. Am I now immune?
4. Will I need a booster shot?
5. Do I want a booster shot?
6. Can I keep myself single by using disinfecting wipes consistently?
7. Am I a carrier?
8. Can I spread it to others?

Ah, the love bug... literally, that may be what it is. At any rate, I hope to god that if I come down with love again it does not end in a train wreck.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Busy day... new thought at long last

I spent the day doing that which I do best. My job. Meeting with Clients, guiding races to follow the proper path, both physically and metaphorically. I want them to grow, physically, metaphorically, financially. My company is not a Remora eel, it is yeast. We provide the catalyst to make the bread rise. That is yet another thing I love about my job. Sure, I live pretty much pay check to paycheck, but in the last two years I have served as a lightning rod for charitable contributions that total well over a quarter of a million dollars. I get this lovely warm feeling inside from that. No other job I have had since I have graduated has given me that specific feeling that I was a vital link in an endeavor that served to provide me a means of living while giving back more than that to causes and communities. My first job out of school was working for a fiber optic cable company... I said to myself and my ex wife, Oh, I am working on a product to make the world closer... My ex horse laughed me. And well, she was a bitch most of the time, but in this instance, maybe she was right. Corning was making money hand over fist. I made a living and supported my wife, who did not have to "work"(not to discount what goes into raising a child) and supported my young child... other than that... I can't see the higher cause now that I look back on it. My next "real job" was working for a company that sold custom printing press products... well, turns out that most of what we sold went into mass produced packaging that turns to waste products after consumption. SOOOOOOOOO Lame, and completely against what I love and believe in. So now, I am thankful daily for what I do. I work in a business that I was first passionate about because it was my hobby. And now I make that experience happen for my clients while helping organizations raise money for good causes.
Man I am digressing something awful tonight. Well, It is late, I am tired. At any rate the next blog will revolve around love, evolution and the role that viruses play in that. I just watched a fascinating show on national geographic about how it is now being theorized that viruses have created evolution, child birth, the emotion of love.... So many amazing things. Anyway it is going to be a massive discourse of and on thought. stay turned.

Friday, January 9, 2009

No, I am fresh out of Moderate


That is a lie actually, I have never had any moderate that I can think of. It started with my mom suggesting that I could grab the bissell and clean the carpet in my bedroom. Unfortunately the Condos have to have carpet in the bedrooms. The rest of my place is a neat sweep and mop affair. Even during the cleaning, I knew what was happening. My "office" would be moved to the other side of my bedroom and switch place with my bikes. That much made sense. I like the new layout. But by moving a few things it set off the avalanche. ALSO, with clean carpet comes clean responsibilities. Thus I had to get the floor in all other parts of the house clean or else what is the point of having really clean carpet, I'll just track crap back onto it from within the house. So I did the full monty on the rest of the house including moving all of the furniture.
. I stayed up until 3am doing "stuff" this included a midnight run to walmart to grab hangers and storage bins. It is killing me to stop and blog right now. During this multiday exercise I do take little breaks to have a laugh... all I can say is damn I'm Weird (reference above picture I took while waiting for carpet to dry). I am going to go run right now, then go back to walmart, get more organizing crap and then keep going. Luckily nothing is pressing in the office at the moment. And this thing that I have started will be finished before I hit the road next week. But it will literally be 48 hours worth of work to get everything "just so". I sometimes wonder why I don't just keep things in order over time. I definitely let things go all to hell and sweep in with a fury and fix everything. I used to say, I'll work on that in the future... but I never do. Now I just wonder about it rather than make promises to myself that I won't keep. temet nosce. I think I am doing better there these days.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Beard Watch


I have never REALLY really let my facial hair become silly long. It's winter, what the Heck. BUT I must say that making yet another resolution to not cut it till my birthday is quite a tall order. I hope it starts to get less itchy. The other thing is... how does one deal with the in between period when you can't push the stash to the sides yet... I already trimmed it at the lip line once. That was before i decided to give this thing free reign over my face. I promise that there will be no other crazy resolutions for this year. Other than get in shape as I was in 2006. That is the tallest order of all considering my core still aches a bit. I am clearing myself to start road biking now...