President Bush’s Legacy

I am still amazed at what oozes through the play-doh factory clip-ons that is the web version of <insert semi-respectable publication name here>. I could add a Kent Brockman quote here but I won’t.

This is what I am referring to…

I think a proper summation of this article is, “republicans hold the belief that it’s ok to lead a life of fucking over everyone, if you can donate to charity to make your bio look better”. Lots of collectivists seem to be following this credo.

Oh no! The good guys won the election! We better protect our values (that everyone with a sense of self-worth despise), or failing that, the value of our possessions. BANG! Now I’m a patriot slash national socialist slash dissenting regime replacer.

This Tuesday, Jan 20th, work will stop and I will celebrate with friends the inauguration of a president that will hopefully, despite the prevailing climate in the once great USA, and despite being handed the worst possible “portfolio”, with his obvious intelligence, start an era of repairing the damage his exact opposite did to whatever goodwill the USA had.

Perhaps a smile will return to the face of the earth?

Final Proof that Microsoft Hires Oafs

Not to jump on the Microsoft-slagging train (be that they deserve it), I tried to associate image files with an excellent (well, generations ahead) picture viewer in Vista.

Turns out there’s no easy way to say “use this to view these image types”, even though, after about 17 years of development and buying-up of any company that has good ideas, they should have realized the dreaded 3-letter suffixes they made standard are of some importance to the functionality of a computer.

The staggeringly mind-blowing abysmal functioning of the Control Panel/Default Applications utility makes that clear as mountain dew from Tibet. They actually mean for users to click one file extension at a time, each time clicking a button and selecting a program.

I’m not kidding. Check for yourself. “Do it! Do it NAUWW!”. The power of Arnold compels you.

The Ane Brun Thing

There’s is such a thing as an Ane Brun thing, and I have it.

Hearing The Treehouse Song on the radio was a revelation. I actually thought I was listening to a 70s gem like “Alice” or something, that had been hidden from the public (by, for example, bad marketing) thus far. Magic!

Delving deeper, I discovered she was a very talented singer, brought to the fore by (among others) Bjork’s producer. But Ane Brun can sing.

I could hear her inspiration from Dolly Parton, like from ‘Jolene’ (as made famous in place of the more prominent original by later remixers / coveresses <- wohoo! newly invented noun!) and even (yes!) Nine To Five.

But as usual I’m swayed by loveliness in the person / voice / mix domain over flaws in lyrics. So with further scrutiny,

WTF is: “I was gonna love you till the end of all daytime” ??
“I was made to believe that our love would grow old”, WTF?

Just asking… hehe. Rest of the lyrics is fine, more than fine, finer than her cleft chin.

I need this

Well, it keeps working. Four days, four poems, so far. (See the first one two days ago.)

Closing in
on both sides of the old gravel road
armies of firs
impenetrable by gaze or gun.
A harsh welcome to nowhere,
desolate summit gusts bend the tall pine king
and I teach myself to see
as I head
into
the wind.

Got my car gassed up for further lessons. Don’t know why, but I need this.

It’s just getting hotter.

Got upset watching a motor journal on TV today. Of course, 99% of all cars tested in these types of programs are gasoline guzzlers with roaring V8s – they apparently think people would watch reviews of cars they will never afford to buy, rather than affordable, sensible, smaller cars. Not that there is a single gasoline or diesel driven car that is a sensible buy with regards to the environment.

Or, put so succinctly with this quote, infamous by now because of its source:

You know, we don’t have a problem with global warming, it’s just getting hotter.

The motor journal promoted LPG, which stands for Liquidized Petroleum Gas. That means it’s the same old oil product, only in gas form, which has been liquidized in order to not blow your car up if you crash, and converted back into gas when injected into the same old inefficient petrol engine. Sound complicated? Nooo, it’s the technology of the future! (scornful laugh)

Right now LPG is just above half of the gasoline price, but the engine consumes 30% more fuel. ‘A lot of money to be saved’, you say. Don’t be fooled. I remember just 10-15 years ago when diesel was 25% of gasoline. Now it’s about the same.

‘Government grants’, you say. Yes, it’s insane. The UK government gives a 60% grant to people that can show that their car is more environment friendly with this product. This rules out most people’s cars: LPG only works on gas guzzlers like jeeps, high-end BMWs, and the like; the gains are not sufficient for cars with already more efficient motors. Those cars then run on the equivalent of 60-70% of gasoline.

It costs £2,000 to convert your car to LPG. The UK, at the time the program was shot, had 1,100 gas stations that had LPG. 100 garages qualified to work on LPG converted cars.

There’s only a couple problems with LPG:

1. Keep the oil dependency
2. Keep spewing CO2 into our atmosphere
3. Keep noisy engines that are marginally more inefficient at turning gasoline into energy than those made in the 19th century.

I simply don’t understand why people want to live in the stone age. General Motors has already proven the viability of commercial electric cars with the EV1:

Stimulating Inspiration

Well, I don’t know if I’m becoming a kook or were a closet kook to begin with, but I’ve started a habit. Don’t worry, the only white powder it may involve is snow. Anyway, as soon as I get up I have breakfast and coffee and drive out to Nowhere. Plenty of that around here. The worse the grade of the road, the better.

When I get there, I park the car and go for a short walk. Suddenly, poems spring to mind. It seems completely automatic. Here’s the first one:

Ascending road ahead
every fork an upgrade.
Gaping gravel pit wound
boulder ridge raped silent
the corpse of a car door tells a story.

It’s funny, I haven’t seen a single animal yet, not even a single bird in the sky. Maybe they know a kook when they see one and steer well clear.

Changing Reality

Today was the first day of winter, with 5 cm of snowfall and gusty winds stirring up what has fallen into whirligigs of white. Kids on my street just came home from school and they love it. All the sounds are dampened by the blanket of snow, with the occasional yelp from a kid receiving snow to the face. Makes me happy. You know, sigh happy.

This is a retrospective entry. There were three possible obstacles between me and my dream, and I didn’t wanna jinx it. Yesterday saw the final hurdle overcome, so now I dare speak of it. I’m humbled by the fact that this became a reality at all. You doubt yourself and think it’s impossible when in fact it only takes the tiny effort of believing it can be done.

I’m grateful and now I must work diligently and will raise my discipline level a notch to go from potential success to success made real.

The following was written a few days after my last post: (If it sounds too me-me-me it’s because I felt inspiration.)

Today saw the first step toward reaching my new goal. Destiny has dared me to take this chance, and I must be diligent and disciplined to purposefully take all the steps to reach the end of the path.

I will reach it. The first thing I have to do is bend the world, fold a few dimensions so that I will get the breaks I need.

The US Government doesn’t have secrets as closely guarded as mine. And that’s saying something. That’s why no one will see any of it here. But don’t worry. Though I’m gonna work like a dog at this (that would be a working dog then) I will try to fill my days with life and interesting things to address in my blog.

I always knew I was a star. I’ll shine yet.

Destiny’s Double Dare

Sitting in my sacred chamber, smelling the soft autumn rain drizzle outside. Waiting for my third coffee of the day to cool slightly in my hands. For the first time in a great while, my eyelids need not strain to stay up. For a Great Idea with initial caps has found me.

It found me twice before, but both times it was just an idea: filled with promise but no way to become reality. This time it approached me like a lover, flirting with my imagination. And suddenly, I saw the full path to completion. It all seems like destiny; at first I just made it up as a wild idea. The second time, just a few days back, it tapped my shoulder again, making me say, “could be neat.” The third time was a time of realization; I could do this and get away with it. It could be something really new and great, and not just an experiment that might or might not result in success.

Why Destiny? Because things came together. The new technology it required was made available and affordable only months back; I had now learned what I needed to see it through; it built on old skills I already had. It has it all, baby.

“But what is it?”, you ask in frustration. This I cannot tell you. For a man with a Great Idea is a man with a secret, and may he guard it well, lest he eternal damnation of his soul face wouldst.

OK, enough of the Yoda slash Wannabe Writer syntax. Suffice to say I’ve found a career goal to pursue that could lead to better days for me.

It might even take me to the Stars.

World Trade Center re-revisited

The 9/11 tragedy keeps springing up again. Not least in book form. The video links below recommend reading for the inquiring mind.

It’s a tragedy because of the amount of lives that were extinguished, both at September 11, 2001 and in the war where USA exacted revenge on Iraq. Being respectful is never wrong, but accepting explanations without proof is always wrong. Judging the truth needs a mind which is distanced from emotional attachment, on both sides.

This World

It’s a quiet afternoon. Everything is still. The temperature is soothing, so soothing that even the birds are quiet. Outside my porch there’s a big field of green. Beyond it lies a sleeping forest, and above it a pale cyan sky peeking through ice cream clouds.

On days like this, it’s hard to ask yourself why we’re here. This world seems as if it was made for us. On the other hand, it seems like it was made for dolphins, hyenas and viruses as well.

Science tells us we’re here because primordial slime combined into living organisms, which after a lot of trouble evolved into the massively complex lifeforms we are today. But that’s not really an answer, or rather, that wasn’t the question.