The Best Of….Me

As we approach the end of 2009, it seems that everyone is putting out a “best of” list along with the beta release of their newest social software. (There’s like 50,000 apps for Twitter alone.) Since I’m too stupid and lazy to write an app and capitalize on this trend, I can at least provide my own little “best of”. Forget about the best 100…too much work. How about I list the ten or 15 apps and/or websites that I utilize everyday. They may not be someone else’s idea of what’s “best”, but obviously they have some merit if I use them everyday. (Besides, this is my blog..bugger off!)

• Gmail: I’ve used them for years and I’m not going to migrate. It’s an ass-kicking free email service.
• Google Reader: An information junkie’s wet dream; all your feeds and subscriptions in one Gmail type,(sorta), interface.
• Twitter: I’m a Johnny-come-lately to this service; even poking fun at it at one point, but, like Google, I realized the value of real-time data. Besides, I get to tweet the world about my peanut butter preferences.
• Livewriter: How the hell do you think I’m writing this? This is Microsoft’s blogging software and it’s pretty cool. Microsoft gets picked on a lot, but they do have some some fairly neat,(and free), stuff.
• Firefox: Sorry Microsoft, but Firefox is the shit. With the add-ons and extensions, you can tweak this browser to your own version of perfection. Google, I love you, but you’re just not quite there yet with Chrome. However, I can see the writing on the wall and I think the browser and OS,(I guess that’s kinda redundant…the browser is the OS…anyway), have both got very bright futures. What is there, like 500 extensions for Chrome already?

Those are the five apps that I use everyday. There are many others that I use on a sporadic basis, but those are biggies. On to websites: These are ones I check everyday. The list could be huge, (remember I’m an info junkie), but I’m going to limit it to five. (Nice round number:10)

• Makeuseof.com: Their subtitle is “Cool Websites” and they’re not kidding. They point out a lot of free and cool stuff on the net; and they have writers that are very good at explaining complicated stuff that even morens like me can understand.
• Techcrunch.com: It’s one of the most popular sites on the net for good reason. They are usually on top of all the latest computer/internet news worldwide.
• Techmeme.com: The name says it all. Like Techcrunch, they are all over the latest tech news. There is, of course, some redundancy between the two services. But….that’s why there’s that big ol’ “Mark all as read” button in Greader.
• Lifehacker.com: Just like the name sounds, Gina Trapani and friends suggest more than just software “hacks”. It’s a great site.
• Howtogeek.com: The name is pretty self-explanatory. The “Mystic Geek” is a wise sage.

Ok, that’s about enough. I hate writing and reading long articles. Neither list is even remotely complete, (e.g. my Reader subscription list is rather long), but that gives a fairly good representation of things I utilize on a daily basis.
Have a merry Christmas and a happy New Years. Oh….wait a minute, I know people of different faiths all over the world. In that case, I’ll be safe and say: “Season’s Greetings”.

What’s Good For The Goose

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
-John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton

It’s amazing how vehemently certain people and groups will defend a right or privilege; providing of course that it serves their purposes. Take that very same right and exercise it in a way that is detrimental to them and watch how fast these people want to put restrictions on that right. The first amendment is a prime example.

There is a reason that freedom of the press is in the first amendment. To establish any form of government, you have to control at least part of the media. Think about it. I do not like making generalizations, but a vast amount of the media acts as nothing more than the PR department of law enforcement and the government. Stories are “leaked” and are routinely planted in order to serve governmental objectives. The line between the two estates is often very thin.

Now, take that right and use it to point out, let’s say, police abuse and watch how quickly you start to have in problems here in America-land of the free and home of the brave.

Some Additional Thoughts

Oftentimes the very technologies that were initially designed to help us, become counterproductive by introducing levels upon levels of redundancy. We start to make “lists of our lists” and what used to take one sheet of notebook paper and a pen, now takes six software programs and a consultant.

Now What?

Now that I have a blog, a webpage, and a Twitter account….what the hell do I do with them? Are they going to help me write more or better? Probably not. If anything, they are just more distractions;toys. Do I use them as a forum to air my grievances against my roommate, my town, my environment? (Actually, this idea has some merit.) I guess I could post endless tweets about news items that continuously feed across the bottom of my browser, ( I’m sure plenty of people have RSS feeds.), but frankly I find people that do that annoying. When I get a tweet from someone I am(was) following that contains the same info I just read five minutes ago…it’s like, why the fuck even have this?

Ultimately,(at least in my case), these devices; outlets are simply platforms to exercise my ego. When you have no product to sell; no agenda to push-what other reason is there?  Hopefully, I occasionally post a blog entry, a tweet, a video, or a toy that makes someone a little happier, a little more informed, or, perhaps, a little less bored.

Happy surfing.

Avatar

In Indian reincarnation legend, an Avatar is a being that has attained union with the spirit and has returned to earth to help mankind. Today, the term is widely used to denote those funky little representations people use on various social media sites. It is also the name of James Cameron’s movie being released next month.

Now, I generally don’t hawk products or services unless I’m really impressed. Last night, I went to: http://www.avatarmovie.com, which is the “preview” site for the December release. This is unlike any trailer site you’ve probably seen. The actual “sneak” is a software download that’s pretty slick. I don’t want to give away any details, (go see for yourself), and spoil the fun. After seeing this download, I think this movie is going to be pretty awesome.

Twitter

You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way.

-Pink Floyd

Time

These days “you twitter and waste” would be more appropriate. With a tool like Twitter, it is easy to constantly update it with useless, inane information. Hopefully, I won’t do that.

Yes, I have recently joined the Tweeters; even after kinda poking fun at it in a previous blog post. I realized that it’s a great tool to instantly update your website without writing an entire post like this. (Being inherently lazy, this is a very attractive feature for me.) But what really convinced me was that I found myself using Twitter Search quite often to stay abreast of the latest “buzz”. Being an information junkie, the attractiveness of this feature is/was fairly self-evident.

Hopefully, I don’t succumbed to the temptation of Twitteritis and start to write “inane tweets”.

Happy “Black Friday”.

 

The Life of an Information Junkie

I am a certified information junkie. (Is there a twelve step program for this?) When I fire up my browser on any given morning, I am immediately greeted with a streaming, aggregated RSS feed that gives me my first “rush” of data; and my first nest of tabs.Like all junkies, that first hit is never enough. After reading a couple articles, I then open my Gmail and start to respond to the entries that accumulated in the fifteen minutes I slept. (Damn, no Wave invite yet.) The juice is flowing through my veins, but like a crackhead, the thrill is quickly gone. It’s time to go to my connect.

Google Reader is the Tony Montana of data. You want some data..maybe a little more….maybe just a tad more. There is no limit.

I am now on a serious “run”. Twelve hours, 300 windows, 1200 tabs, 55 videos, 35 software downloads, 36 uninstalls, and 120 pdf downloads later; I sleep my necessary 15 minutes and do it all over again. Betty Ford-here I come.

 

Critical Infrastructure?

Infragard

Then there's Infragard. Coordinated by the FBI, it's is a fellowship of federal, state, local, industry, and academic cybercrook catchers and watchers. Infragard has about 33,000 participants in almost 90 cities around the country, and you can apply to become a member yourself. The point is to build an accessible community for the FBI to contact on any given cyber-crime problem, especially in the private sector, where IT managers and policy folk are understandably touchy about this stuff. "No governmental entity should be involved in monitoring private communications networks as part of a cybersecurity initiative," warned Gregory T. Nojeim of the Center for Democracy and Technology, speaking before that Senate hearing.

Mindful of these concerns, Infragard hangs out around the margins between government and the private sector, "to promote ongoing timely dialogue," in the FBI's own words. Its chapters work with FBI Field Offices in the same geographic area. Infragardians conference on the latest technology and hold hacking contests.

Here's the deal, as far as we can tell. You join Infraguard and become part of the FBI's information cohort. In exchange, you get the following cool stuff:

• "Network with other companies that help maintain our national infrastructure. Quick Fact: 350 of our nation's Fortune 500 have a representative in InfraGard.
• Gain access to an FBI secure communication network complete with VPN encrypted website, webmail, listservs, message boards and much more.
• Learn time-sensitive, infrastructure related security information from government sources such as Department of Homeland Security and the FBI."

Needless to say, this makes people nervous. The Progressive magazine ran an exposé about Infragard in 2008 titled "The FBI Deputizes Business." The piece suggested that the organization may have given its members authority to "shoot to kill" in national emergencies. The FBI strongly denies this. "Patently false," FBI Cyber Division director Shawn Henry called the assertion. But it's likely that civil-liberties-minded observers will continue to squint at Infragard for the foreseeable future.

-Matthew Lasar

 

The Latest Internet Buzz

Since I practically live on the internet these days, I guess I might as well start writing daily,(yeah, right), posts about the latest buzz. I’ll try to be somewhat consistent. Be gentle, this is a virgin feature.

Yesterday, the net was all about the Chrome OS and the Beta release of Office. I got my copy of Office and will be using it. The UI looks pretty cool, but I have yet to use it. ( Give me a break, I only got it ten minutes ago.) I’ll keep you informed.

Unless you’ve been literally living under a rock. you’ve heard about Google’s new Chrome OS. In my post on internet history, I concluded that most apps would migrate to the cloud. It makes sense. I don’t know about you, but the first thing I fire up is my browser. And in my browser favorites/bookmarks is a folder called “browser apps”. Dude,it’s packed. I can do a lot of things on-line. Why have all these programs that you have to fire up, when you could use only one.

I believe in brevity-get to the point and shut-up. I’ve done that. Ciao.

 

 

Intellectual Entitlement

I am autodidactic. I technically never finished high school. (I did eventually take the GED and take a few college courses.) Subsequently, there are great holes in my knowledge base. I may know a little html, a little javascript, etc, etc, but the other day, for example, I had to ask someone how to burn a movie to dvd. (I download software not movies.) Most of my learning is the ol’ trial and error method.And believe me, there’s been plenty of errors. In the computing arena, there have been a few memorial ones-like the time I downloaded a virus in the early days of Netscape. (Must have been that yak porno site from Uzbekistan.) We, still to this day, don’t know what the fuck it was. All I know is that we ended up replacing the entire motherboard. Now that’s a gnarly virus.

In the writing arena, my mistakes are self-evident. Most of these are intentional; some are not. (Thank God for Livewriter. Without prompts, this article would resemble your daughter’s fifth grade comp class assignment….probably does anyway.) I break a lot of grammatical rules because I know what I want to say and how to say it. And I’m not going to be limited by rules that say that I shouldn’t start a sentence with “and”. I use “----“ and “;” and “….” quite often in the wrong place. It indicates my mood as I’m writing. And isn’t that what writing is all about…..getting your thoughts out to the world?

Time for me to check my Reader,(probably got 100 entries), and see what’s new and weird on the internet today. Have fun. I will.

Technology and Art

OK, so l haven’t posted anything written to this blog in quite a while. Shoot me. I’ve recently acquired a new toy and have been playing with it; as you can see. Buuutttt, I figured it was about time to write something…just to prove I still can.

Lately, my appreciation of technology has increased tenfold. Clarke was right when he said that: “Any sufficiently advance technology is indistinguishable from magic”. If you stop and just think about it abstractly for a minute, our advances have been amazing in the last twenty years. I can type words onto a computer screen and voila!…a movie pops up that can be seen all over the world. How the hell would you have explained that to someone eighty years ago?

Unlike a lot of of people that have a certain level of fear when it comes scientific knowledge, I embrace it wholeheartedly. I see digital media as one of the greatest advances in human history. The field has been leveled and a vast number of people now have a platform to present their work. Everyday, I get on the internet and am amazed by the ingenuity of people all over the planet.

My own webpage (pier51.com) started off without any clear aim, but I find myself now posting videos, browser apps, widgets, and goofy stuff that I run across on a daily basis. Hell, maybe I’ve actually found some direction here. I’ll just continued doing what I’ve been doing and see where it takes me.

Video Experiment 3

Why I Love Santa Barbara from John Bielecki on Vimeo.

Some Old Film Of San Francisco

Download An Mp3 and Go To Jail

"The Copyright Wars and the recent grotesque expansion of rights and remedies should be regarded as a legal equivalent of the subprime mortgage crisis: cancers on our system that were foreseeable and preventable but for greed, a failed ideology that the unregulated private pursuit of profit is also in the best interest of the public, and worldwide lack of political courage to admit to and take responsibility for the damage caused by copyright laws that harm rather than serve the public."

"The term graduated response should be replaced with a more accurate term 'digital guillotine,' reflecting its killing of a critical way people connect with the world and in some cases, eliminating their ability to make a living. If proportionality is a hallmark of civilization, the digital guillotine is the hallmark of barbarians... The French Revolution shows that when we are in the throes of a moral panic, harsh, disproportionate measures can be made to appear essential."

"Corporate copyright owners live in fear, especially fear of their own consumers. Those consumers are young, tech savvy, and have wrested control over corporations' physical product from them, an unthinkable act 10 years ago. The result is a classical moral panic against youth... The Copyright Wars are a fight against our own children and it is a fight that says everything about the adults and very little about the children."

"The DMCA is the 21st-century equivalent of letting copyright owners put a chastity belt on someone else's wife."

"I cannot think of a single significant innovation in neither the creation or distribution of works of authorship that owes its origins to the copyright industries."

William  Patry

Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars

In September, I posted an article about the Cybersecurity Act and its possible consequences. Well, the Obama administration is at it again with the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. This agreement, which may be passed by the time you read this, has in its internet chapter the followings points:

    ISPs will have to police the copyrights on user-generated content. They will be required to deter unauthorized storage and transmission of  “ infringing” content.
    “Notice-and-takedown” will be an ACTA requirement. Whether or not a piece of content or media violates a copyright will be arbitrary. Without any proof of actual violation, the content will be removed by the ISP as soon as a takedown notice is issued. The takedown will be enforced regardless of considerations such as fair use.
    Requires ISPs  to cut off internet access for copyright violators.  A three-strikes rule will apply. ISPs will be required to terminate the user's account after three complaints from the content owner.
    Extending criminal enforcement to both (1) cases of a commercial nature; and (2) cases involving significant willful copyright and trademark infringement even where there is no direct or indirect motivation of financial gain. Non-commercial infringement could lead to criminal penalties, even jail time.

It’s time to take the kiddies to bed because this article is about to go into tirade mode.

Hey, government dudes, listen up.  You’re telling us, (We the people), that we can lose our internet access and be put in jail for downloading a fuckin’ song? Are you out of your collective minds? I just don’t think you quite get it.

The internet has always been about sharing. In the early days before browswers, Flash movies, and AOL/Time Warner; people shared information, code, etc. That’s what “opensource” is all about. I’ve been on the internet a long time, (I remember using text only bulletin boards), and the community is pissed. Get a clue!

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Orwell Said It Best

Putting aside the need to earn a living, I think there are four great motives for writing, at any rate for writing prose. They exist in different degrees in every writer, and in any one writer the proportions will vary from time to time, according to the atmosphere in which he is living. They are:

(i) Sheer egoism. Desire to seem clever, to be talked about, to be remembered after death, to get your own back on the grown-ups who snubbed you in childhood, etc., etc. It is humbug to pretend this is not a motive, and a strong one. Writers share this characteristic with scientists, artists, politicians, lawyers, soldiers, successful businessmen — in short, with the whole top crust of humanity. The great mass of human beings are not acutely selfish. After the age of about thirty they almost abandon the sense of being individuals at all — and live chiefly for others, or are simply smothered under drudgery. But there is also the minority of gifted, willful people who are determined to live their own lives to the end, and writers belong in this class. Serious writers, I should say, are on the whole more vain and self-centered than journalists, though less interested in money.

(ii) Aesthetic enthusiasm. Perception of beauty in the external world, or, on the other hand, in words and their right arrangement. Pleasure in the impact of one sound on another, in the firmness of good prose or the rhythm of a good story. Desire to share an experience which one feels is valuable and ought not to be missed. The aesthetic motive is very feeble in a lot of writers, but even a pamphleteer or writer of textbooks will have pet words and phrases which appeal to him for non-utilitarian reasons; or he may feel strongly about typography, width of margins, etc. Above the level of a railway guide, no book is quite free from aesthetic considerations.

(iii) Historical impulse. Desire to see things as they are, to find out true facts and store them up for the use of posterity.

(iv) Political purpose. — Using the word ‘political’ in the widest possible sense. Desire to push the world in a certain direction, to alter other peoples’ idea of the kind of society that they should strive after. Once again, no book is genuinely free from political bias. The opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude.

-George Orwell 1946

Evolution

Anyone that has paid even the slightest attention to this blog has probably noticed a slow, (we’re talking Joseph Heller slow here), flowering. Having started out as a bare-bones, text only series of blurbs and tirades; this platform has evolved. The next step in this evolvement has occurred. I’m taken the plunge and started my own webpage: shameless self-promotion.  Right now it’s a website without any definitive direction. I’m not really sure where I’m going with it. It could be a show-off forum for my creative endeavors. It could be a commercial site to hawk some product or service. ( I’m not overly opportunistic, but, now that I’m unemployed, it would be nice to make a little money for my efforts.) It could be a general synopsis of new and cool things on the net. After all, I do subscribe to some pretty gnarly websites. I have faith that the “powers that be” will lead me in the right direction. Stayed tuned.

Video Experiment 1

Cold Blooded

The Masses Are Asses

I’m often asked why I don’t go to church. Though this is America, and my right not to go to church is supposedly protected by the first amendment, I wish to explain my reasons. Perhaps this essay will quell the “Antichrist” allegations.

First of all, I’m not a big joiner of groups. I’m not a big fan of aggregate human behavior and it’s great, historical track record. By joining any organization, I am giving my blanket approval to all the activities engaged in by that association. Additionally, in any association there are people that you dislike. As a member of their faction, these people now think they’re your “buddy”. This includes every child molester, sheep abuser, and politician that wants to bond.

Secondly, I’ve read the entire Bible twice and am quite able to  effectively research it on-line any time I wish. I don’t need someone that has read one chapter of it to give me their interpretation. Why would I go to an Algebra class to learn Calculus?

Thirdly, I don’t like the thinly disguised quid pro quo innuendos that people have made concerning my pack participation. In a previous blog entry I stated: “Any group of people that needs to trick, bribe, or in any way coerce people to join them is certainly not a group I wish to be part of.”  My feelings have not changed.

Addendum 10-29-09:

Perhaps the biggest reason I don’t go to church is the remembrance of things past. From 1987 to 1992 I was sober. No alcohol. No drugs. Nothing! Hell, I even gave up cigarettes. I jogged, went to the gym several times a week, made a concerted effort not to swear and generally became the best I could possibly be. I did this without becoming an AA or born-again neo-cult member. That was the problem. Since I didn’t give “the victory to Jesus” or go to 52 AA meetings a week, I couldn’t possibly be clean and sober. I got the impression from some of these people that they actually wanted me to fail; that they would rather me drink and attend their do’s than stay sober on my own. I’m still somewhat jaded because of that.

A Bachelors of Journalism From Fontbone University Is A BJ From FU

I have to give a lot of credit to journalists. The ability to consistently write clear, informative copy that’s neither pithy nor verbose can be damn intimidating. Imagine starting your day staring at a blank computer screen that begs for an unique voice; an uncommon take on news items that have been dispensed and commented on by a deluge of sources. When vast amounts of information are available by the mere application of a few keystrokes, serious questions concerning redundancy arise.You ask yourself, what can I add to the already bloated infosphere? Are my feeble attempts at analysis justification for feeding the information overload monster? Am I becoming a Bing commercial caricature? At three a.m., as I stare at a blank computer screen, these questions are causing me some angst. I could open numerous tabs of newsites, blogs, and forums; digest copious amounts of data; drink several cups of coffee and still wonder what the hell to write about. Here’s a thought. I’ll continue in the same vein and write about writing.

When knowledge can be obtained from an infinite number of sources , the old rules of journalism no longer seem to apply. The mere reporting of data has taken a back seat to the interpretation of that data. The journalistic, Dragnet  style of “just the facts, ma’am” is no longer warranted or wanted. Facts we have plenty of. Soundbites are no longer enough for a vast majority of the populace. Americans have demonstrated, via the Nielsen ratings, that they want a rational dissection of the issues that have ramifications for their lives. Witness the rise in popularity of such shows as The O’Reilly Factor, The Glen Beck Show, and Hannity.

Conversely, we have seen a steady increase in the number of Seinfeld-type news columns, programs, and websites. These “soft news” sources are like comfort foods. In our chaotic lives, these vignettes of life are reminders that other people go through the same crap that we do; that we share a certain commonality.  Starshine Roshell, a writer for the Santa Barbara Independent, personifies this. Besides having a extremely cool name, Starshine is a very funny lady. I can only hope to be able to write as well as her one day.

Well…my word count tells me that I’m now at almost four hundred. I guess that qualifies as an article. It’s time for a cup of coffee and, heaven forbid, a cigarette. Ciao.

The Cybersecurity Act

There is an interesting piece of legislation that is presently being debated in the Senate Committee for Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Written by John Rockefeller(D-WV), Bill Nelson(D-FL)and Olympia Snowe(R-NE), Senate Bill 773 has some chilling  Orwellian possibilities. Anyone even remotely connected with the computer industry needs to read this bill. It  can be found in it’s entirety at: http://www.govtrack.us/ For those of you unwilling to read through pages of abstruse legalese, let me present some of the more curious sections.

Just so we know exactly who or what this bill refers to:

SEC. 23. DEFINITIONS.

In this Act:

(2) CYBER- The term ‘cyber’ means--

(A) any process, program, or protocol relating to the use of the Internet or an intranet, automatic data processing or transmission, or telecommunication via the Internet or an intranet; and

(B) any matter relating to, or involving the use of, computers or computer networks.

(3) FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AND UNITED STATES CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND NETWORKS- The term ‘Federal Government and United States critical infrastructure information systems and networks’ includes--

(A) Federal Government information systems and networks; and

(B) State, local, and nongovernmental information systems and networks in the United States designated by the President as critical infrastructure information systems and networks.

SEC. 14. PUBLIC-PRIVATE CLEARINGHOUSE.

(a) DESIGNATION- The Department of Commerce shall serve as the clearinghouse of cybersecurity threat and vulnerability information to Federal Government and private sector owned critical infrastructure information systems and networks.

(b) FUNCTIONS- The Secretary of Commerce--

(1) shall have access to all relevant data concerning such networks without regard to any provision of law, regulation, rule, or policy restricting such access;

You can probably read as well as me. This can and will cover all computer networks, giving our government some pretty awesome “big brother” power. Let’s read some more.

SEC. 7. LICENSING AND CERTIFICATION OF CYBERSECURITY PROFESSIONALS.

(b) MANDATORY LICENSING- Beginning 3 years after the date of enactment of this Act, it shall be unlawful for any individual to engage in business in the United States, or to be employed in the United States, as a provider of cybersecurity services to any Federal agency or an information system or network designated by the President, or the President’s designee, as a critical infrastructure information system or network, who is not licensed and certified under the program.

What constitutes a “critical infrastructure system or network”? Am I going to have to have a license to work for Google?

Now here’s the chilling part:

SEC. 18. CYBERSECURITY RESPONSIBILITIES AND AUTHORITY.

The President--

(2) may declare a cybersecurity emergency and order the limitation or shutdown of Internet traffic to and from any compromised Federal Government or United States critical infrastructure information system or network;

(6) may order the disconnection of any Federal Government or United States critical infrastructure information systems or networks in the interest of national security;

Why do I see a Skynet scenario in the future? If you wish the internet to remain as it is, I urge you to write, call, or e-mail one of  fourteen senators that are on this committee and urge them to rewrite the bill.

    Chairman John Rockefeller(D-WV)
    Mark Begich(D-AK)
    Barbara Boxer(D-CA)
    Maria Cantwell(D-WA)
    Byron Dorgan(D-ND)
    Daniel Inouye(D-HI)
    John Kerry(D-MA)
    Amy Klobuchar(D-MN)
    Frank Lautenberg(D-NJ)
    Claire McCaskill(D-MO)
    Bill Nelson(D-FL)
    Mark Pryor(D-AR)
    Tom Udall(D-NM)
    Mark Warner(D-WA)

Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves

There are many misconceptions and half-truths about the homeless. As a person that has been in this situation, I might be able to shed some light. It’s time to do some myth busting.

Very few people set out to be homeless and contrary to popular wisdom, very few prefer to be that way. Don’t confuse apathy with choice. Once in this situation, many just resign themselves to it.

There is a very high rate of alcohol and drug abuse among the down-and-out. This is obviously true. However, cause and effect often get confused here. Sure, substance abuse is directly or indirectly the cause of homelessness in many cases, but it is oftentimes the effect of the situation. Think about it. As a “bum”, they are ridiculed, targeted by the police; (which is ridiculous if you think about it. A smart, successful criminal is not going to be living on the streets.); and victimized by predators. Their peers are more than likely substance abusers, so it becomes a self-perpetuating cycle.

Many of the homeless really are criminals. This is no myth, but there are varying degrees of criminality. There are the sociopathic, career criminals that will spend their entire lives  on the streets; going in and out of prison. Then there are the hopeless drunks that go in and out of jail due to public intoxication charges or open container tickets that they never pay. Unfortunately, many of these drunks end up dying on the streets. Finally, there are the novice criminals. These are people that have recently become homeless due to a period of incarceration. Many of these people were highly successful, but lost it all due to domestic violence charges, multiple dui’s, or something similar. A lot of these people will become career criminals. Yes Virginia, the system really does produce criminals.

Then, there are the homeless that are disturbed. Many of the displaced are mentally ill, but, like substance abusers, the line between cause and effect is not definitive.  There are people on the streets that just can’t take care of themselves and will never be able to live independently. There are borderline cases. These are people who had the ability to live self-sufficiently at one point, but have lost it due to substance abuse or to the stress of being itinerant.  And believe me,  homelessness can be incredibly stressful at times.  Many “normal” people go a little bonkers after being on the streets for a while. How would it effect you if you suddenly found yourself without a home, a car , a job, or even a place to keep your things? How would you like to carry all your earthly possessions on your back? It’s hard to be empathetic if you’ve never experienced it.

A large chuck of the homeless population, like the migrant farm workers, are the working poor. Some of these people have “regular” jobs, but just can’t make it. There are others that stay at homeless shelters or camp out, but wake up at four a.m. in order to get to day-labor offices, ( an entire book could be written about these places alone… maybe my next project.), hoping to get work that, was once thought, only illegal aliens would do.

No article on the homeless would be complete without some commentary on the “poverty pimps”. These are people and organizations that exploit the destitute. While there are many associations that are legitimately trying to help, others merely go through the motions; doing just enough to maintain their nonprofit charter. Most of these groups started out with good intentions, but have subsequently mutated into something the founders never intended; ( kind of like our country); existing merely for the benefit of the employees. Just take a look at some of the workers at these places. Enough said.

In closing, I’d like to remind people of an old Hollywood adage:” Be nice to people on the way up. You may meet them on the way down.” With the economy in shambles and the apocalypse apparently looming on the horizon, this is advice that we may all want to heed.

The Job Search Blues

If this were a movie, the opening scene would be an interior shot of a stark bedroom. It has very little wall art and very few items that even denote a human presence. On the bed is an unshaven, young man with a laptop on…well, his lap. The shot starts to slowly tighten in on his face. He is clearly distressed; mumbling obscenities. He yells one final “fuck this” and throws the computer against the wall. The credits start to roll and B.B King breaks into Why I Sing The Blues.

Unfortunately, the above is not a screenplay. This is a reality for a lot of Americans. According to information just released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, California led the country in the number of jobs lost in the month of July. With a statewide jobless rate of 11.9%, we are ranked fifth in overall unemployment. Only Michigan, Rhode Island, Nevada, and Oregon have higher rates. With national unemployment at 9.4%, the stimulus package seems to be working well.

With such a large number of Americans looking for work, on-line services such as Craigslist are receiving a record amount of hits. For the uninitiated, the search for jobs on-line is tedious and full of an incredible amount of bullshit. Many jobseekers go through the bother of preparing a job history in PDF and Word format. They get out of their beds in the morning and start perusing the cyber ads. After filtering through the obvious crap, they finally find a job they wish to apply for. Hope springs eternal. They flip through three pages of a website, upload their resume, and then come across another page that is an application; asking for the same information that they just uploaded. Unfortunately, the application is a PDF document that can’t be fill out anyway. Clever person that they are, they convert it to a Word document, fill it out, and then reconvert it to a PDF. Three pages later, they finally find an email address to send it to. Five minutes later, an automatic email responder program has sent a message to their inbox congratulating them for being one of a select group of people qualified to sell silicon coated butt plugs -- providing that they remit a one-time membership fee of $99.95.

Has the national homicide rate spiked recently?

Intelligent Design

I know I’ve blogged on this subject before,(no I’m not latent), but let us look at homosexuality from an engineering point of view. Even if you disagree with the Biblical aversion to Gay marriage, how about from the design angle? Men and women were made to be together, (Put part A into slot B), and, as far as I know, a colon was designed for exit only.

 An Attitude Of Gratitude

The other morning I was walking down State Street in Santa Barbara. At five a.m. there is very few people about and I found myself simultaneously walking and day-dreaming. It dawned on me that I’m a pretty lucky guy. (This has not always been the case.) I live in a “nice” town. Though Santa Barbara is only ninety miles north of LA, it is a different world. This is really a small town; Mayberry on the Coast. And like all small towns, everyone knows your business. It is a small price to pay. It keeps the town “nice”.

Due to the huge amount of students, the beach, and the proximity to “ The Industry”, we have a intellectual, creative, and energetic population.  We have a definite bohemian mentality here. Though there are people here with more money than God, ostentatiousness is frown upon. No Ferraris or Lamborghinis here, but plenty of Beemers and Benzes. The unshaven, flip-flop shod “bum” next to you could be worth 10 million dollars. Kinda cool, huh?

OK, enough of the Chamber of Commerce crap. I’m going for a walk.

The Idiocracy Chronicles

If it is true that the history of music has come to an end, what is left of music? Silence?

Milan Kundera

The Book of Laughter and Forgetting

The other day I was listening to the song Awaken by the group Yes. Though it is technically in the rock genre, it could best be described as New Age Classical. (Did the term “New Age” exist in 1977?) Perhaps I’m a dinosaur, but there has been very little rock music that has come out in the last few years that has impressed me. When I listen to old stuff like this, I realize that very few contemporary musicians even have the ability to perform something like this. Regardless of whether you hate it or love it, the technical mastery is there. Ask any true musician and they will tell you just how difficult a typical Yes song is to play.

Unfortunately, the days of true musicianship seem to be gone. Where are the Robin Trowers, Rick Wakemans, Bill Brufords, and Eddie Jobsons of 2009? They don’t exist.They have been replaced by people with drum machines, samplers, and a bad grasp of the language.

Overheard Conversation

Hollywood screenwriters can not duplicate the humor that is found in everyday life. I recently caught the following exchange:

"Have you tried introspection?"

"No, is that a new kind of medication?"

I wish I could write funny shit like that.

Race Relations

This is getting so ridiculous in this country that I feel compelled to state my opinions on it. The absurdity of it was epitomized by an exchange between senator Barbara Boxer and a member of the Black Chamber of Commerce I saw on TV a couple of weeks ago. The gist of the "problem" was that Ms Boxer quoted a member of the NAACP to this gentlemen. He took umbrage at it and called her a racist. Barbara and I both must have felt the same sort of incredulity. Isn't this a classic case of " the pot calling the kettle black"? The mere fact that that this gentlemen is a member of an ethnocentric organization indicates racism on his part. If I, as a white male, was to start an inclusive organization such as this, I would immediately be accused of being a white supremacist, a Nazi, or something equally charming. There is a definite double standard in effect here.

Idiocracy

The first step in liquidating a people is to erase its memory. Destroy its books, its culture, its history. Then have somebody write new books, manufacture a new culture, invent a new history. Before long the nation will begin to forget what it is and what it was. The world around it will forget even faster.

-Milan Kundera
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting


It never ceases to amaze me just how ridiculous contemporary American culture is. Every day we seem to be moving closer and closer to the society that is depicted in the movie Idiocracy. Every day I'm reminded just how close that reality is. Take advertising for instance.

Not more than a couple of hours ago I was watching TV. The amount of drug advertisements in that short period were astounding. There are male enhancement drugs that warn you to seek medical attention if an erection lasts more than four hours. This is a problem? If I have an erection for four hours, the last thing I'm going to have time for is a phone call. I wonder how many prescriptions that possible little side-effect sold. There are drug ads for depression medication that lists increased suicidal thoughts as a possible adverse reaction. Hey, I'm no brain surgeon, but doesn't this medication seem slightly counter-productive? We also have a drug that cures social anxiety. What we used to call "shy", and what was once cured by heavy consumption of alcohol, is now cured by a pill. At least we're making progress. Ethel, the mousy librarian, is no longer the closet alcoholic, but is now the socially accepted pill-popper from hell.

Geographics

The other morning I was sitting in a coffee shop one block from the ocean in Santa Barbara. At four a.m. conversations can get a little strange. This is nothing unusual. Strange conversations are pretty common here. Got to consider where you're at.

While sitting in this coffee klatch, a recent acquaintance of mine remarked: "I went to Aspen to get away from drugs". What? Needless to say, I and the rest of the group broke into laughter. Later, when I thought about, I knew what he met.

AA is inundated with platitudes. " No matter where you go, there you are" is used frequently to discouraged geographical moves. They claim they don't work. I beg to differ. If done the right way, they can help recovery tremendously. Let me give you an example.

A few years ago, I knew a person that was having problems with alcohol. They realized that they would never quit drinking in the environment they were in. They legally changed their name, moved to a town where no one knew them, told no one where they were going, and told no one where they were from. They, in essence, "disappeared". They remained sober for five years. Draw your own conclusions.

The Tyranny of Political Correctness

I am a white male that is nearly fifty years old. I was raised in an extremely liberal environment; so liberal that it bordered on the sociopathic. Having realized the error of my ways, I am now somewhat conservative.


The mere fact that I feel it necessary to preface this essay with explanatory, biographical data just goes to show how ridiculous political correctness has become. The PC Nazis have done more to curb free speech than Stalin. And what's really funny is that they don't even see the hypocrisy of their own positions.


I can no longer say that I prefer not to put my dick in another man's ass without being accused of being a bigot. A bigot? You're got to be fuckin' kidding me. As late as a few years ago, this behavior was still considered illegal in most states. And I don't want to hear a rationalization based on the idiocy of old "blue laws".


I can no longer like or dislike whom I please. I am now obligated to like, or pretend to like, everyone on the planet. This is not going to happen. In case you haven't looked around lately, the world is still filled with some pretty serious assholes.

I can no longer say mailman, chairman, fireman, etc. ( I'm confused here. Do I have to say madperson instead of madman? ) Now, we're changing the entire English language. Where the hell is this going to end?

I can no longer compliment a woman. This does not have to be crude comments about body parts. Merely saying that a woman looks good can be construed as sexual harassment. This has made courtship intensely difficult.

There is politeness. There is culture. Then there is political correctness.

Rationgize

dam smart-never lerned to spel.
-Rachel Ehrlich


When I have free time, which I seem to have alot of lately, I occasionally look over these old blog postings and cringe. Some of them are horrible; with syntax and grammatical errors that almost qualify me for rap star status. It's a real bitch not having editors. In my defense, I like to say that these writings are not intended for publication. ( Then why the hell are you posting them? You ask.) For all practical purposes, these are nothing more than on-line notes. It's convenient. I don't have to carry around a notebook, digital or traditional, and I can access them anywhere in the world.

Oh, almost forgot. You're probably wondering about the title. Well, let me explain. You know how people apologize and rationalize at the same time? ( Sorry, I fucked your wife, but...) That's exactly what this is. Ciao.

The Sobriety Diaries

I am a recovery alcoholic. I have "recovered" on several occasions. Some of these have been voluntary. Others have been prompted by the gentle application of handcuffs or the dismal lack of funds. This particular period of abstinence has been voluntary. Well....sort of.

As part of my recovery process, I have been going to group therapy. These are mini AA meetings that are refereed by a drug counselor. I'm supposed to sit in these meetings and talk about intimate aspects of my life with a group of total strangers. Yeah, right.


As you might expect, a room full of alcohol and drug users can produce some pretty strange imagery. During a recent group; as a fellow hostage was sharing about about their sponsor, Sven Golly; I started to drift into this sort of surreal MTV documentary that was part Postcards From The Edge, part Analyze This!, and part One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. I can only imagine what goes through the minds of the other occupants.


After two weeks of meetings and a substance abuse evaluation, I was given a copy of my advanced treatment program. It stated that I have abused alcohol and drugs for thirty years. It also stated that I was alcohol and cannabis dependent. Sounds like I'm the poster child for the Betty Ford Clinic, doesn't it? Well, what I told them and the conclusions they've reach don't exactly match. You decide.

Like alot of Americans kids, I started partying in high school. I'm not trying to play the blame game here, but this was in the mid to late seventies and if you remember,( I understand if you don't ),during that decade we had a pretty liberal attitude toward drugs. Hell, at the time NORML was even trying to get cocaine decriminalized. Like many of my classmates, I went to my share of parties and did a cornucopia of drugs.

After high school, the drug use has been has been practically non-existent.With the exception of one downer, which I took when I was already drunk-visualize The Hangover- and one overnight session with cocaine, in the last twenty-two years all I've done is drink and smoke pot. The pot smoking has been very sporadic. ( The last time I smoked a joint was over six months ago.) Unfortunately, the alcohol intake has been slightly more than sporadic. I am what is known as a "periodic binger". This means that I can take it or leave it. However, when I do take it, I take it very well.

These are the facts that were revealed. Maybe I'm deranged; addled by too much drug use, but I think the conclusions are a little misleading. Now, at least there is a permanent record. Isn't technology wonderful?

Existential Pizza

My spiritual path is 100 proof.
-John House

I've read books on the occult and books on every "ism" and "ology" under the sun. I've also read the Bible and other religious texts..Do I have any definitive answers? Hell no! Run from anyone that says they do.


These days I like to call myself a Christian, though I do have some problems with it. (Correction, I am still a Catholic. People make a distinction between Catholic and Christian. I thought all Christ-based beliefs were Christian.) Some of the biggest assholes I've ever met have called themselves Christian. With a perfect being as a role model, it is easy to find fault with anyone. If beliefs systems are a sort of spiritual assembly line, then I guess you would judge them by the product they produce, no?


To give equal billing, I also have a few problems with most philosophies. Usually they are the product of one person; merely their opinion and no matter how much they try to be objective, their bias will always be included. This bias will naturally justify their own behavior, regardless of how twisted it is. Another problem I have with a lot of philosophies is thesaurus overload. A "philosopher" will take a perfectly simple piece of commonsense, cloak it with 64 dollar words, and claim some sort of cosmic profoundness. Unfortunately, these "revelations" usually directly contradict the insights that you received last week. No wonder Nietzsche went nuts.


These days I try to make my life as simple as possible. The "Golden Rule" seems good enough.

Tweets II

I asked. They answered. I wrote.

-Sebastian Junger

When I originally created this blog it was not my intention to turn it into a grandiose, electronic journal. (My intention was for it to be a online audition for Ashleigh Brilliant's ghostwriting position.) Frankly, I believed that very few lives warranted periodic airing. Well, with the advent of Twitter I was proven wrong. We can now read, (and see), what brand of peanut butter Ashton Kutcher, (no offense Ashton), is putting on his toast. We can now read inane "tweets" that are touted as mountaintop revelations. We can now see that the sign of a superior intelligence is merely the ability to eloquently, and sometimes not so eloquently, state the obvious.

Now that I've got that thinly disguised rationalization out of the way, I can safely continue to state my opinions.

The title escapes me, but I remember reading a book a while back in which a future, heavily computerized society is on the brink of shutting down due to a digital virus. Before the apocalypse, a company produces a software program that saves the day. They are perceived as heroes. However, by the end of the story we learn that this software company was the entity that created the virus to begin with. Allegorical? Of course. The author, like Ray Bradbury in his book Fahrenheit 451, is definitely trying to tell us something. I guess we're all have to come to our own conclusions.


The Bible states in Acts 4:32 that: "...the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common." It also states in Acts 4:34 that: "Neither was there any among them that lacked; for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold." Sounds a lot like socialism/communism does it not? If you think about it rationally, communism is much closer to the Christian ideal than Capitalism is.

Things That (Hopefully) Make You Go Hmm

And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. 2Cor. 11:14

The clever machinations of humans are often mistaken for benevolent celestial interventions. One must be extremely careful as to which " higher power " one is paying homage to. However, do not let me discourage legitimate Christian belief. Even if the mythology of Christianity was completely wrong, the ethical system inherent in it would justify the existence of God.

Tweets

Any group of people that needs to trick, bribe, or in any way coerce people to join them is certainly not a group I wish to be part of. Besides, any organization that would have me as a member has standards that are way too low.


Contrary to the impression that I may have given, I actually have alot of respect for AA. However, I still can't help but feel a certain amount of cynicism when I see people in the program use the concept of "tough love" as a tool to further their own agendas or as a license to engage in some pretty mean spirited shit.


I've heard the phrase "the leveling of pride" spoken of by various AA members and various pseudo-Christians. It has been explained via neo-spiritual psycho-babble as a desirable step in personal development. What it really means is that if I'm stronger, faster, smarter, or in anyway better than them, then I'm obviously arrogant and need to be brought down to a level equal to or, preferably, below then. Only then can I achieve the blissful state of humility.

Go Ask Alex

A PTSD Adventure

(Post Traumatic Substance Disorder)

I was raised a poor, black child. Oops,wait a minute, wrong story.

Today as I celebrate three months without a drink, ( My last drink was on February 22nd. ), my thoughts turn to writing. This is something I haven't done in a while. Serious drinking can sometimes make it difficult to type.

What I have done is quite a bit of reading. Recently, I finished a book written by Mary McGarry Morris that was titled: Songs In Ordinary Time. In it there is an alcoholic character by the name of Sam Fermoyle. While in a sanitarium, he makes the following observations to a Dr. Litchfield: " Hey! Okay, I'll tell you the honest-to-God truth. You see, a lot of people think I'm a natural-born loser, but actually I can win anytime I want. Okay? You like this, don't you? You see, the trick is I'm a lousy winner, but I'm a hell of a beautiful loser. I am comfortable with defeat. I know it well. I understand pain and anguish. They never pull any punches the way happiness does. You see, when you're happy, you're always looking over your shoulder for the big sucker punch. But hell, when you've been down as low and as long as I've been down, you don't have a worry in the world, because the only way from here is up, right?"

Nietzsche it is not, but I thought it profound enough to christen this little writing exercise.

Assholes Anonymous

When many alcoholics are actively engaged in their disease, they are not very lovable people. More often than not, they are manipulative, controlling, ( We could increase the list ad infinitum. ), assholes. After they have quit drinking, a lot of these people are simply just sober assholes. So in an effort to curb the rising tide of assholism, I present the following twelve step recovery program.


1) We admitted we were powerless over being assholes-that our attitudes had become unbearable.

2) Came to believe that an asshole bigger than us could intimidate us to civility.

3) Were forced to turn our will and our assets over to the care of our sponsors as they've seen fit.

4) Made a scathing and fearful immoral inventory of ourselves

5) Admitted to our sponsor, to ourselves, and to another asshole the exact nature of our wrongs-and were promptly indicted.

6) Were entirely unready to have our sponsor publicize all these defects of character.

7) Arrogantly demanded him to approve our shortcomings.

8) Made a list of all persons we hated and began to take revenge on them all.

9) Took direct revenge on such people whenever possible, except when to do so would martyr them or others.

10) Continued to take your inventory and when we were wrong promptly lied like hell.

11) Sought through therapy and medication to improve our reputations, hoping only for good PR and the money to carry that out.

12) Having had a rude awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to force this bullshit on other assholes, and to fake these principles in all public affairs.