Rants, Raves, and Rhetoric v.3.02

What is a Web Log?

Ran across this article, "What makes a weblog a weblog?", at Blogdex.

Some other articles.

• In the Trenches with a Weblog Pioneer
  
• How To Write A Better Weblog
  
• The Weblog Review
  Posted by Ezra at 01:03 PM | Comments (0)

Risk

For a while I had a computer version of the board game Risk. For a while, I played the game incessantly. My strategy was very simple. I took it from my strategy at life in dealing with confrontation. Stamina and consistent pressure.

One needs overwhelming force to be certain of victory. When everyone starts with the same level of resources, to reach overwhelming force one must grow faster than the others

In Risk, one can do this by being the first to secure a continent. Taking South America allows one to have the advantage of accruing a couple extra armies a turn. In real-time strategy games like Warcraft or Red Alert this means finding the mines and tapping them for all they are worth. Growing the characters that get the money for you and draining them quickly is key.

However, one cannot allow the others to also achieve domination of the resources as you must do. In this I keep others off balance. Misdirection. Ambushes. Coordinated attacks. Where the enemy gets their resources is key.

Those From a certain perspective, I would think many think of me as a coward. I guess this is true. I hate to lose. Whatever it takes to stack the odds in my favor.

Some like life's uncertainties. I like uncertainties only in the respect that I like discovering the keys to them. Like climbing Mt. Everest. Some people feel that the luster of achieving so great a thing has been lost because so many are able to climb the mountain. Some people feel the Advanced Placement exams for high schoolers are tarnished because so many people are able to take the exams and pass them. Discovering the keys to something difficult and bending it to one's will is a great thing.

As with all power, we have to know when it is appropriate to use such power. The lesson of the Spiderman comic, "With great power comes great responsibility." Humans have such a strong mastery over the world. We manipulate chemicals and atoms. Plants and animals are grown solely for the purpose of our consumption. We look to soon be able to recombine the genetic makeup of cells the way we currently produce synthetic foods.

Minds will not be safe. Nothing outside our home planet's gravity will be safe. Nothing below the the waves of the ocean will be safe. Given time and the increasing rate of technological advancement, we will only increase our mastery of the universe and reduce the risks of life.

The truly unfortunate part of all this the lack of distribution to all of the world. Medicines to cure diseases all be eliminated in the developed world are almost impossible to attain for those without wealth. Tuberculosis, cholera, and smallpox are so well know and preventable that with the cost of one naval aircraft carrier group we could eliminate them across the globe.

*sigh*

Graduation

Killing some time while my computer attempts to move several thousand emails from one data file to another. Had just shy of 1 GigaByte of email in one data folder. Decided to do some rearranging.

My brother graduated from high school yesterday. Have pictures to prove it.

Wrote about some weird dreams over at Xanga.

They Might Be Giants

Meant to post this to Xanga, but they seem to be having problems.

Samuel has a great point. One of the primary messages of The Matrix could have been to realize the control the media have on our thinking. We have to free ourselves from this overbearing influence. Yet one of the major distributors of this movie is one of the media giants that has so much influence.

The influence of these companies has only increased through mergers and buyouts. I really do not see this waning any time soon.

C’mon. The real reason CNN was all over the Matrix Reloaded is AOL/Time Warner owns both the Production Studio Warner Brothers and CNN. The reason ABC can’t stop showing commercial after commercial about Finding Nemo is Disney owns both Pixar and ABC.

The consolidation of the media industries has not led to the synergy the companies claimed to need in order to survive. Combining Internet with Television, Music, Film, and Print has not made AOL/Time Warner swimming in money. If anything, the bursting of the Dot Com Bubble has brought the company to its knees. Traditional media is keeping the company afloat.

Reactions

One reason I identified strongly with The Matrix, was I have been struggling with the idea of Cause and Effect. The speil on it in the movie just lit up nueral receptors. Science has boiled cause-effect down to "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction" (Newton's 3rd Law). Many forces act upon an object, some obvious and strong, like gravity; others minor and easily unnoticable. Yet movement is the result of combined forces overcoming those opposed.

From the Matrix, our point of view is described as though we only see shadows such as those on the wall of a cave. Baha'u'llah described our view of God as though seen through a mirror. Our point of view is not the reality.

We learn about the physical forces in school (gravity, drag, lift, friction, etc.). We also learn a little about social forces in school, but this area is more difficult to made into a science. Through religion or approximations thereof we learn about the spiritual forces.

Think I have a pretty decent understanding of how things work. Arrogant, I know. That is because how do I know what is real? Are my experiences real? Are my memories? Is anything we see in life worthy of trust?

That is where faith comes into play. Some things in life we just have to trust.

Phones Suck

Of all the communication technology out there, I hate phones. Possibly it might have something to do with my reliance primary and secondary reliance on visual and kinesthetic learning methods (why I am so learn well by doing and being clumsy is such another blog).

Anyway, I hate phones. If I could get away with never using a phone again, then I would do so in a heartbeat. Email and instant messaging, are wonderful technologies. Asynchronous email is better than a voicemail as I have something to which I can quickly refer. Synchronous IM allows me to converse with someone and even lets me know when they are online.

I like to see people or read their words. Body language is a great tool for interpreting meaning. Phones do give the opportunity to read into tone and such, but they fail to provide facts. People do not think about what it is that say, they cannot read the confused look on my face to tell that I have no comprehension, and I cannot refer back to what they said for proof that what was said made no sense.

Summer School

Back from the Georgia Baha'i Summer School (more on Baha'is. Was fun. Saw lots of people I've seen before from the Atlanta area. Met quite a few new people.

The main workshop on The Dynamics of Authentic Relationships was very kewl. I got to use my B.A. in Psychology to wrap myself around some terminology and understand some of the allusions. Sheri and Mary K. are wonderful faacilitators.

Pictures of this weekend are also up in my gallery.

UPDATE: Part of the workshop dealt with (head) games. The core lesson to learn from that portion was that it is better just not to play the games. Dwelling on why not led me to the game "Thermonuclear Warfare" in the movie WarGames. In thinking about pointing this out to everyone else (a mostly over 40 crowd), I chose to go with tic-tac-toe. Everyone is familiar enough with it to draw the tie so no one ever wins. Ultimately, the only winning move it to decide not to play.

Eh

Yeah, I know most guys would have run from this, but I am not scared of my... singularity? Lets face it. I've had platonic relationships with over a dozen women. Cosmo and Vogue do not scare me.

Thought the questions were good ones people I know should have gotten around to talking about 2-3 months into a dating and not years later.

Censorship

Read a NYTimes article Lay-C posted on her site. The article referenced the site of a blogger who seems to have alienated family, friends, and coworkers with her blog (she also has a story about it).

In all the time that I have been blogging, I have always gotten apprehensive over the idea of posting personal or identifying information about people not involved in the blogging game. Even changing names is not complete obfuscation.

UPDATE 2003-05-21 19:39:XX
We have to be our own editors as bloggers. We cannot depend on someone more knowledgeable to make sure that the best product is published. Once you hit that button to publish it on the Internet you do not have control over whom may view or redistribute that content.

Family, friends, and even enemies may make the worst judicious use of what you supply them.

Matrix Mecca

A crew of us drove down to Tally to see the Matrix. Our group consisted of Moon, Keef, Pancho, Snickn, Duritiz, Apad (w/ Christy), Joemama, and Sneezy (me).

Hit up the stores, got to the movie early so we did not have to fight for seats, watched the movie, and spent 3 hours eating at the Olive Garden. Really enjoyed the trip down there.

Perhaps being a media savvy person kept me from being disappointed. As much hype as was put into this movie, I felt there must have been problems when they tested it with consumers. People looking to see a good special effects would not have been disappointed. People looking to see great acting, a superb plot, and have a mind boggling emotional roller coaster because they have become one with the movie are the ones that were disappointed.

I knew the basic concepts that would be covered by the plot. The special effects were good, but in my opinion not so real that I couldn't tell.

The original Matrix movie was very good, but not the best movie ever. So why people would expect a sequel to just blow people away, I have no idea.

Have some new photos. Scattered showers caught up to me this afternoon.

A house I keep driving by that is for sale.

Looks like the walkway was not so safe from the rain.

Fascinating

Wanted to watch the original Matrix last night in preparation for seing Reloaded this afternoon. However, I believe my brother has my DVD and my mom my VHS. Oops... too bad I don't have better access to P2P... could have grabbed the DivX?

Instead watched Kiss of the Dragon. About 1/2 way through I thought that is such a Luc Besson thing to do. Turns out it was directed by him.

I find the characters in this picture really fascinating. I'd have to say that Alice in Wonderland was instrumental in the kind of person I am today. I can't count the number of times I read it cover to cover. The only book I probably have read more times was the story of Odysseus.

I've been looking around Fotolog. Of course, I have not bothered to look around until AFTER signing up for the account.

By the way, mark your calendars, I can expect to die on April 23, 2044
at the age of 68 years old. (Death Test)

Matrix Regurgitation

Going down to Tally to see the Matrix Reloaded tomorrow. Up until Tuesday I was going to the very first show here in town. Then, I realized the theatre's here suck! So many great movie experiences have been ruined for my by these cheesy places.

So, I am going tomorrow to Tally! W00t!

Maybe while I am there I can get a black trenchcoat and mirrored lens sunglasses? Okay, maybe not.

Lucky Numbers 4,7, 11, 12, 35, 41

Furtune cookie: "Don't expect romantic attachments to be strictly logical or rational!" (UPDATE: forgot the "or")

Over the years in attempting to figure out human reasoning, I have come to realize this quite well. Of course, there are no easy answers for anything. Well, they are easy answers, but they do not explain everything. For those who wish to disagree, those holes are the lynch pins that bring down the structures of ideas.

Dreams

After I tell someone, "I don't remember my dreams," I usually start remembering them.

Yesterday morning, I recall slowly walking up the concrete steps like one would find at a football stadium. Anway, seated to either side are all these women in bridemaid's dresses. I reach the very top and start down the row. Two make some room for me and let me sit between them. I can't see past the women in front of me. That is when I realize that my eyes are much lower than their shoulders. BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

This morning, somehow I popped from glaringly empty parking lot to another empty parking lot. That the lots were empty really irritated me. I remember telling someone, "See, no one is going to use a parking lot on top of a building. How are people supposed to get their cars up here?" BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Think the problem is I have been falling asleep about an hour later than usual. Need that extra hour to finish the dreams.

Lost

Played a recent addition to my CD collection. Had it on look and lost 3 hours in the process. The culprit? Vol. 2 - Trance Nation America. Really good stuff.

It is a good thing I was not driving. A whole 3 hours home? Whew!

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was pretty good, I guess. Took my grandmother to her church. A very, very long time ago I attended it and even attended the school there. Even after all these years I remembered many of the procedures, responses, and intonements. Found it very interesting that such skills as those which I had not even thought about in years could so readily be recalled.

So far I have already written 27 emails and answered 11 phone calls and 2 walk-ins. Has been pretty preoductive I think. Too bad that does not mean I can take the afternoon off?

Ugh. Meeting in a few minutes. Just need to wait a minute or 2 for that phone call that always happens just before I should leave for a meeting.

La Femme Kikita

Watching the original La Femme Nikita movie by Luc Besson. Nikitaaaaaaaa!

Hehehe

Better get out of here. Need to do something other than watch movies and work on a Saturday.

Dressed Up

Okay... here is A pic...

UPDATE 2003-05-10 10:15: Over the years I have collected several dress shirts. Most of them are blue of course, but the slate blue one is my favorite of the blues.

My ties are few. The tie in the pic has Coca-Cola and polar bears all over it. It was a gift from my mom. The other one she gave me has Looney Toons characters on it.

Presentation

We have been collaborating on a new web site look and feel. This also ties into a need to improve the ease of use. Our designer researched web site desgin and came up with some great site designs.

We presented these designs to the Cabinet this morning in order to get feedback and allow the movers and shakers the opportunity to see our houghts and ideas.

Down the road, I would like to shift my role in the web site to being that of a techie. Write code and make things happen. Express to me your ideas. We will find a way to make those ideas come to life. Not, "make it better."

By the way, it is the first time I have worn a tie in 5 years.

2003 LHS Jazz Band Brown Bag Concert

Here are select pics of the concert. The full gallery is also around somewhere.

More pond pics

Musically Challenged

Music for me is a spectator's sport. I really enjoy listening to Tchaichovsky, Oakenfold, Pearl Jam, etc. Good music makes me feel. However, I do not participate well.

Musical instruments I can play? 0
Songs I can sing? 0
Dancing style/movements I know? 0

On occasion, some pretty females attempt to convince me thaat I really should dance. I don't mean to offend, but I really have absolutely no skill what-so-ever at dancing. In various video media there are humorous segments where someone is supposed to be a really bad dancer. Those cemedic scenes feature people with more skill than I.

My singing is okay, but it is a skill I use so rarely that my confidence is lacking. Given the shadow of others, I will try to sing. On my own? No chance.

Maybe some day someone will convince me to dance again. The person that wins that battle is very, very persuasive.

Tally Mecca

Enjoyed the trip to Tally. Lots of fun. Acquired some new DVDs: Grave Of The Fireflies and Castle In The Sky... some new CDs: Tiesto and Trance Nation America Vol. 2.

Now, I've gotta scat if I am to get a descent seat at X2!! W00t!

Break? Yeah, Right!

Time to go home... take a nap... meet the family for dinner...

Tomorrow we should be going down to Tally for good eats, reads, and gadgets. W00t!

When I first started here, I was was the flunky. The low man on the totem pole. Yet, before I was made permanent, I thought I would be happy just having a job that was not temporary. Not too long after getting a permanent position, I set my sights on getting the "advanced" professional level (3). Almost a year ago, I got a promotion to the 3. Over the past few months, I have found myself thinking about what it would take to either get the classification for what I do which has a higher pay scale or even leapfrog that directly into a director position.

Didn't realize I was the ambitious sort? Always thought of myself as extremely laid back. Happy go lucky and stoic.

One problem I have historically had is absorbing too much work. I need to make some really good shell scripts.

G4 and 21" Monitor Action

Have a new machine on which to play... some photos (excuse the mess)...

Monitors & G4 | Cables mess | My monitors make a fort!

I now have a P4 mini-tower, a G4 tower, and a Sun Blade! Not mention my 2 assistants' computers, and a test bed computer. W00t! Fire hazards are us!