6.29.2002
Hey hey everyone
I bought a computer. Oddly enough, my first. I say oddly enough, because I am a tech-nerdy Electrical and Computer Engineering major, but have yet to take the plunge and actually purchase computing equipment of my very own. Until yesterday.
[sploosh]
1569.22 dollars later (2% discount plus $80 shipping UPS to AK (no ground service - it all comes on da plane)) I am the proud, future owner of a laptop computer. Like an expectant parent I await the day when I can train my new little prodigy. It has an empty memory and a virginal hard drive, and is just waiting for data. And the chance to be corrupted. My little guy (or girl- as most expectant parents, I have not yet discovered the sex of my future little minion) is going to be brilliant I just know it. It's little pentium brain runs at speeds of at least 2.2 GHz. It has such a good memory, it will never fail to remember any of the lessons I teach it. Until I turn it off, anyway. The things I teach its hard drive to love and fear will be exactly what I love and fear. and none of those other little newly-minted fledgeling guy computers will ever try to corrupt or infect my little girl (assuming it is not a boy). Just let them try it once [gently strokes the trusty (or perhaps trysty) baseball bat] ah, life will be perfect. ummm yeah, ok. Thats enough.
On to more profitable subjects.
As all are acutely aware, I am sure, I am not a very political or activist guy. I guess I must not be paying attention, because (as the bumper sticker informs me) I am not outraged. I rarely get outraged at anything. mean people would probably come closest to outraging me, I guess, but that is about it.
The sense I get from all this is that we are fed just enough information (or disinformation as the case may be) to keep us squabbling about trivial details while larger, more hidden forces are at work. But the very fact that we are aware of that (or I am, rather) negates the effort to try to be outraged, because, if I know something now, it is only because the information is no longer pertinent. I realize this sounds paranoid, and I guess it is, but more in a lackadaisically paranoid way. What am I going to do about anything? We could be fashionably angry at the world and protest everything because it foists injustice upon somebody (every action foists injustice upon somebody, almost by definition), but who has the energy? I have a hard enough time managing my own affairs, let alone trying to make a coherent protest about something I am only pretending to be an expert about.
A for instance is in order. As an Alaskan, nothing makes me more outraged, politically (in the minimalist way I get outraged, politically) than when people from outside (an Alaskan term for everyone not living in Alaska, or in references to places other than Alaska, particularly the lower 48) try to tell Alaskans what to do with their state. Environmentalists battle ANWR. Peaceniks battle the missile defense system. The fruity remnant of the hippie days battles the HAARP array (it apparently is broadcasting negative mind control rays into our souls). yet nobody has even been here. (they all live in lush, friendly Washington DC) About 3 people go to ANWR every year. yet everybody raves about the "pristine wilderness". They decry everyone who thinks of spoiling such untouched wilderness by daring to set boot on it, citing an obscure caribou herd that will surely be hewn down by the mere sight of a human. They neglect to mention that every caribou herd that has lived in proximity to the oilfields and tundra-raping trans-alaska pipeline has surged with growth. (predators stay a ways back, creating a bit of a safe zone directly beneath the dreaded scourge of the sinful pipeline). It is a bit humorous in a way. Losing sleep and worrying years off their life for a land they will never see. And making a poor attempt at intensifying their arguments with the excessive use of adjectives.
Leading me (in a very roundabout way) back to my argument. Why get upset about it? Everybody knows what will happen. It is inevitable, so why fight? What difference does everyone hope to make? Even if we made super-dee-duper efficient vehicles (something I heartily approve of - ask me about my plans for an emmision-free hydrogen/hybrid electric vehicle sometime. I have ideas I am toying with) eventually we will run out of oil. Fuel prices will rise, and eventually even the hardest of hard core protesters will crusade for an agressive drilling schedule when they can no longer afford to gas up their Subaru (with the ever-present rooftop ski rack) at $4.75 a gallon.
Mark my words, because unless we perchance nuke ourselves along the way, they will come to pass.
If you ask me (and I noticed nobody did) environmentalists should cede to the developers, while they still have enough clout to control how it is drilled. It can be done safely, and cleanly, if just given a chance.
whew. So that is my thing. Let's all just get along, because there is nothing we can do about anything after all. Except to be nice. Nice people are cool.
jeff 'a lover, not a fighter, but mostly because he is good at neither' green
"a developer is someone who wants to build a house in the woods.
an environmentalist is someone who already has a house in the woods."
I bought a computer. Oddly enough, my first. I say oddly enough, because I am a tech-nerdy Electrical and Computer Engineering major, but have yet to take the plunge and actually purchase computing equipment of my very own. Until yesterday.
[sploosh]
1569.22 dollars later (2% discount plus $80 shipping UPS to AK (no ground service - it all comes on da plane)) I am the proud, future owner of a laptop computer. Like an expectant parent I await the day when I can train my new little prodigy. It has an empty memory and a virginal hard drive, and is just waiting for data. And the chance to be corrupted. My little guy (or girl- as most expectant parents, I have not yet discovered the sex of my future little minion) is going to be brilliant I just know it. It's little pentium brain runs at speeds of at least 2.2 GHz. It has such a good memory, it will never fail to remember any of the lessons I teach it. Until I turn it off, anyway. The things I teach its hard drive to love and fear will be exactly what I love and fear. and none of those other little newly-minted fledgeling guy computers will ever try to corrupt or infect my little girl (assuming it is not a boy). Just let them try it once [gently strokes the trusty (or perhaps trysty) baseball bat] ah, life will be perfect. ummm yeah, ok. Thats enough.
On to more profitable subjects.
As all are acutely aware, I am sure, I am not a very political or activist guy. I guess I must not be paying attention, because (as the bumper sticker informs me) I am not outraged. I rarely get outraged at anything. mean people would probably come closest to outraging me, I guess, but that is about it.
The sense I get from all this is that we are fed just enough information (or disinformation as the case may be) to keep us squabbling about trivial details while larger, more hidden forces are at work. But the very fact that we are aware of that (or I am, rather) negates the effort to try to be outraged, because, if I know something now, it is only because the information is no longer pertinent. I realize this sounds paranoid, and I guess it is, but more in a lackadaisically paranoid way. What am I going to do about anything? We could be fashionably angry at the world and protest everything because it foists injustice upon somebody (every action foists injustice upon somebody, almost by definition), but who has the energy? I have a hard enough time managing my own affairs, let alone trying to make a coherent protest about something I am only pretending to be an expert about.
A for instance is in order. As an Alaskan, nothing makes me more outraged, politically (in the minimalist way I get outraged, politically) than when people from outside (an Alaskan term for everyone not living in Alaska, or in references to places other than Alaska, particularly the lower 48) try to tell Alaskans what to do with their state. Environmentalists battle ANWR. Peaceniks battle the missile defense system. The fruity remnant of the hippie days battles the HAARP array (it apparently is broadcasting negative mind control rays into our souls). yet nobody has even been here. (they all live in lush, friendly Washington DC) About 3 people go to ANWR every year. yet everybody raves about the "pristine wilderness". They decry everyone who thinks of spoiling such untouched wilderness by daring to set boot on it, citing an obscure caribou herd that will surely be hewn down by the mere sight of a human. They neglect to mention that every caribou herd that has lived in proximity to the oilfields and tundra-raping trans-alaska pipeline has surged with growth. (predators stay a ways back, creating a bit of a safe zone directly beneath the dreaded scourge of the sinful pipeline). It is a bit humorous in a way. Losing sleep and worrying years off their life for a land they will never see. And making a poor attempt at intensifying their arguments with the excessive use of adjectives.
Leading me (in a very roundabout way) back to my argument. Why get upset about it? Everybody knows what will happen. It is inevitable, so why fight? What difference does everyone hope to make? Even if we made super-dee-duper efficient vehicles (something I heartily approve of - ask me about my plans for an emmision-free hydrogen/hybrid electric vehicle sometime. I have ideas I am toying with) eventually we will run out of oil. Fuel prices will rise, and eventually even the hardest of hard core protesters will crusade for an agressive drilling schedule when they can no longer afford to gas up their Subaru (with the ever-present rooftop ski rack) at $4.75 a gallon.
Mark my words, because unless we perchance nuke ourselves along the way, they will come to pass.
If you ask me (and I noticed nobody did) environmentalists should cede to the developers, while they still have enough clout to control how it is drilled. It can be done safely, and cleanly, if just given a chance.
whew. So that is my thing. Let's all just get along, because there is nothing we can do about anything after all. Except to be nice. Nice people are cool.
jeff 'a lover, not a fighter, but mostly because he is good at neither' green
"a developer is someone who wants to build a house in the woods.
an environmentalist is someone who already has a house in the woods."
< 01:33 >< /j >
