Rediscover Communication

a fans video for angry white boy polka : )

So I guess there are good points to working at a movie theater,
you get to screen movies like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
I assure you it's more than wonderful...
but you'll have to wait until March 19th.
You MUST see it.

I thought it was funny to read the reviews of the poor tasteless souls who actually forked out cash for her disc.
What has this world come to?

***- from "Mono" by courtney love (her latest album
"America's Sweetheart")

That is the thing I don't understand... Who says rock is dead? I would like to find out who it is because they have been saying it for a long time and it has never been true.

But you're right. She should die. Don't worry, though. She will.

"well they say that rock is dead, and they're probably right"***

courtney love should fucking die. she's just pathetic.

“For the wise men of old, the cardinal problem of human life was how to conform the soul to objective reality (God) and the solution was wisdom, self-discipline and virtue. For the modern mind the cardinal problem is how to subdue reality to the wishes of men and the solution is a technique. The pursuit of happiness in the modern sense is therefore self indulgent. Man’s conquest of nature must always become man’s conquest of other men using nature as the means. But these powerful people no longer think of God and God’s laws as objective reality so they are controlled not by God’s supernatural ideals but by the natural forces of their own heredity and environment. Thus man’s conquest of nature turns out to be nature’s conquest of man.” - CS Lewis, The Abolition of Man

the ninja haiku:
--------------------
Ninjas are mammals.
Ninjas fight all of the time.
Purpose is to kill.

And if I could BE who you wanted
If I could BE who you wanted,
All the time, all the time......

today as i walked to work, my shoe came untied not even haldf way there. i ignored it and walked most of the journy with just one tied shoe lace. i wonder if i had stopped and tied my shoe if it would have had any important effect on myself or the rest opf the world?

music is a great way to ignor a dying world
or atleast view its decay as an artwork
at this moment i'm listening to interpol and planning on baking some cookies
also planning coachella as something that should be attended
cross country road trip for music, its been too long

Jeff, apparently Chad metioned what you two had discussed, but I had completely forgot. Maybe it was there subconsciously, but to be honest
my post came about after Adam Marquardt and I were discussing his mother and sister regarding the issue the other day.
I apologize for any tension created.

Okay, now that that's out of the way...
... regardless of your assumption and me clarifying,
yes, you do still come off as an "intelligent, sound-minded person."

PS: Sorry for the typos in the original message. I was typing really fast. I went back and fixed them, so now I am a bit clearer

well, not a problem, Adam. We all (as in all people everywhere in the world who talk about this) need to be careful how we approach this isssue because of the high emotions generated by this. But I think that there is a very non-religious ethical and philosophical way to address the issue, which makes it all the more powerful because it is essentially the same conclusion reached by many sectors of the religious world, even if they use different paths to get there. The Rachels book describes how not to use religion as a guide in articulating ethical thought, but I will leave it to you guys to read. I will buy the book and if anyone wishes to borrow it, go ahead. I still think it is worth buying, but that could just be me.
Adam, you mentioned in your post that you didn't think that you should be able to tell a neighbor that they should not have an abortion... I don't want to get too deeply into what I am writing -don't want to spoil the ending :)- but I think that I will be able to show that you can and should do/say something to stop it. It is difficult to launch into before we all get prepared so I will hold off, but the results can be really interesting.

It really is a lot of fun to study ethics (I didn't like it at first because I was used to hard core engineering stuff, but once I saw the logic and reason in it I really enjoyed it) because suddenly you can come up with good, well supported ways of articulating things that were just emotional railings before. By boiling off all the extraneous hangers-on, complex things can be discussed in really simple terms. Almost mathematical terms. Certainly logical ones.
well, I must go. Let me know what you all are thinking and what interesting things you find out from out little "class". :)

sorry jeff, my frustrations weren't addressed toward pro lifers. more toward the power of religion in political ideas. if i were to have a girlfriend/wife who was going to have a child i would definitely be pro life in my personal decisions. but i think that decision should be made by the people involved (agreeing with anna). but if my neighbor was having a child, and was deciding upon an abortion i will not lay down my law to them. in my observations the politics preached in the chapel are seen by those taking it in as the absolute truth. even on things where there perhaps have not absolute answers. and some (obviously not all) seem to simply feel the way they are told to feel.

oh my, my.
I made the mistake of checking the blog immediately before going to bed, which was a mistake because now I can't sleep with all the thoughts of response churning through my brain, and sleep at this moment is something I desperately need. So I am hauling myself back out of bed for a preliminary response, and ask for your patience for the larger, more comprehensive response to come.
First, clarification. I assume (please forgive me if I am wrong about this, but it seems too obvious to be a coincidence) that Chad talked to at least Anna about conversations we had at our last meeting because her post is pulled right out of our conversation. I said to chad that basically the only real political issue for me was the abotion issue. Chad was a bit upset because he viewed that as too narrow, which perhaps in itself it is, because I failed to discuss it further and explain why I thought so. In short, I think that compared to the abortion issue, all other issues are so miniscule as to hardly be worth mentioning. Further, I think that the abortion issue is the litmus test for all of my other political thoughts, because they can all be basically traced back to this root, which ties in with the fundamental nature of goverment, and the reason for its existence. I will elaborate on that more in my larger response, so I will leave it at that for the moment.

Anna: If my assumption is true (about the whole me/chad conversation thing), then I am very honored that you would think of me as an "intelligent, sound-minded person". I hope that my coming response will live up to that assesment.

Adam: I somewhat resent the implication that pro-lifers (and by extraction, me) are simply religious automatons who thoughtlessly toe the party line. This could not be further from the truth, and the dismissive nature of your response casts serious doubt on your conclusion. I urge you to rethink your position and resubmit it in a format that puts everyones intelligence in a better light.

Ok, now I have some requirements for you. If we are to engage in thoughtful, meaningful discussion on this, we all have to be on the same page, in a lot of different ways. The quickest way is required reading.
First, look up this site It is a list of many different logical fallacies. These are some starting points for intelligent discussion. They help weed out poorly formed thoughts. The original thought that is illustrated in a logical fallacy may not be in itself wrong, but if it is right, the thinker is just either too lazy or not sufficiently informed to put it in a correct format or is being deceptive. It will also help you get into the mindset for the thornier issues of reductionist ethics to come.
Second, buy this book. If the link doesn't work, it is Elements of Moral Philosophy by James Rachels. This was my textbook in one of the ethics courses I took. I am sure there are many others, but this seems to be a very common text, and I am familiar with it. I am going to buy it too, and brush up on it for my response. Please read this book twice. It is not that long, compared with many of the other books I know you have read, and it is something that should be read first, before other philosophers, just so you know what they are talking about and can form an opinion of your own without being swayed by theirs.
I also request some information on your views so I can best fit my response to them. It is pointless for me to respond to things we all agree on (preach to the choir) or to dive into things you don't know anything about.

I am going to put a LOT of work into this, because I think this is one of, if not THE largest human rights issues in the history of the world. I am serious about that. I hope that you will agree with me when I am done, or at least understand where I am coming from.
I hope I can sleep now...
jeff

its what their religion tells them is the most important.
they follow the words of those they believe knows how god thinks
hopeless puppets
mumbeling the words that should bring them to heavan

this should not be decided by gov't or men

The issue of abortion should not exist in politics.
I become overwhelmingly frustrated and sad when I hear intelligent, sound-minded persons voting for president/senator/governor, etc... strictly because he's/she's anti-abortion, or vice-versa for that matter.
It is an issue way beyond any politician to solve, therefore it does not belong.
Personally, I have not yet come to a decision on the issue of abortion, there are too many things to be considered.

anybody else have an opinion?

if you reach back in your memory
a little bell might ring
about a time that once existed
when money wasn't king
if you stretch your imagination
i'll tell you all a tale
about a time when everything
wasn't up for sale

there was this cat named johnny
who loved to play and sing
when money wasn't king

we'd all get so excited when
john would give a show
we'd raise the cash between us
and down the road we'd go
to hear him play that music
it spoke right to my soul
every verse a diamond
and every chorus gold
the sound was my salvation
it was only everything
before money became king

well I ain't sure how it happened
and i don't know exactly when
but everything got bigger
and the rules began to bend
and they taught the people
how to get their hair to shine
and how sweet life can be
if you keep a tight behind
and they raised the cost of living
and could we have known
they'd doubled the price of tickets
to go see johnny's show


so we hocked all our possessions
and we sold a little dope
and went off to rock and roll

we arrived there early
in time to see rehearsal
and john came out and lip-synched
his new lite beer commercial
and as the crowd arrived
as far as i could see
the faces were all different
there was no one there like me

they sat in golden circles
and waiters served them wine
and they talked through al the music
and to john paid little mind
and way up in the nosebleeds
we watched him on the screen
they'd hung between the billboards
so cheaper seats could see

johnny rocked that golden circle
and all those VIP's
and that music that had freed us
became a tired routine
and i saw his face in close-up
trying to give it all he had
and sometimes his eyes betrayed him
you could see that he was sad
and i tried to rock on with him
but i slowly became bored
could that man on stage
with everything
somehow needed more?

there was no use in pretending
no magic left to hear
all the music gave me
was a craving for lite beer
as i walked out of the arena
my ears began to ring
and money became king

tom petty

a few things...
downloaded mIRC. Installed, tried to find #chadshaus, and I believe I connected, but nobody was there.... How do I connect to this channel?

How do I use mIRC for more than 30 days? Do I need to pay or is there a crack?

Chad, what is your current IP? I would like to connect to your FTP server and download the K-lite exe. I found a version on the internet, but it needs the original installer to block the ads. Don't ask me why. Tried to get it from Kazaa.com, but I can't access their download page. Don't ask me why.

Work still sucks, and gets suckier every day. Now I can't write more programs because the ones I did write put too much of a load on the database server. I knew they generated a lot of queries, but I didn't realize that it would cause a problem. I mean, really. In 2004, why can't a capable server keep up with 15 or 20 queries at a time?
So I have a moratorium on programming at the moment. Not that I was getting a whole lot done at 3 am anyways.
So now I just sit, mostly. They will shut down the plant tonight at 10:15, so then there really will be nothing to do. Go get a good book, I guess.

About electoral college... I personally think it should be done away with and the IRV system put in its place. It depends more on the intelligence of the voter (it is ever so slightly harder to understand), but the quibbling over hanging chads and tactical votes would disappear into the distance. But there were a few things about the electoral college system to clear up. Electors are not elected in themselves, they are appointed by each party or candidate in an election. They are not legally bound to cast their electoral vote for the winner, but nobody has ever gone against what the popular vote in their state was. In the vast majority of the cases, the popular vote agrees with the electoral vote, but there are possibilites (such as the last election) where a candidate did not receive the popular vote but because of the winning of strategic states, (such as Florida) they came out on top. And there has been some argument in different circles about the Florida election, that things did not proceed correctly. I don't know all of the details (but then, nobody every knows all of the details), but there was a Democratically sponsored investigation into the Florida election and its results, and it came to the conclusion that Bush actually won Florida by more than was orginally reported, what with absentee ballots, hanging chads and all. I don't remember the exact numbers but it was more than the original couple of hundred. Still and EXTREMELY close race by any standard, but the final outcome was uncontested. That has no bearing on the correctness or incorrectness of the proceedings to get to that conclusion, just that it upholds the conclusion.
So, yeah. The electoral college will eventually disappear, I think. It will just take time. What replaces it is uncertain, but I vote (hee hee!:)) for IRV.


mo l8r

"Ego Tripping At The Gates Of Hell" - To derive one's happiness from only specific moments in time is to miss out on the cosmic accident that is all of life's moments...

many other countries have multi-party systems, it's just the fact that the US electoral systems promotes a "one or the other" style of choice that keeps the 2 party system around. American elections aren't about issues anymore, they're all about money and charisma. Usually one more than the other. Many parliamentary systems have the party choose a list of people who will be taking up the seats in the parliament, then the people vote for the party, and the parliament's houses are divided up accordingly, with the people high on a party's list getting priority for the seats that the party gained in the election. I think that the way we elect presidents is very outdated and flawed. Most people don't even know how the system works. They don't realize that they're really voting for electors which can sometimes vote against the popular vote (257 electoral votes are not legally bound to be cast according to how people voted). This system was efficient in a time where communication between cities took days. Now it takes microseconds, and the popular vote can easily be tallied.

its is about time to explore some alternatives to this flawed two party system.

There should be no such thing as a "tactical vote".

Well... here I sit. I am at work - again - and am doing nothing but simply trying to stay awake. it is amazing how quickly the tide can turn, how thin the line is between tolerating and being ambivalent (as close as I think I will ever get to liking a job) about a job and hating it. I started my job working first shift days, 5 days a week, 8 - 5 or so. Got into the groove, found some projects to work on that occupied my time nicely. Now I am working 12 hour shifts from 6pm-6am. Yeah, that's right. The night shift.
It is 11:15 and I am beginning to feel the beginnings of tiredness. Normally I would be going to bed at this time, but now I am not even half way done with my shift.
I was doing a lot of programming, but now I feel prevented from it. I show up to work tired. I can't maintain the necessary mindset for programming, and just end up staring at the screen. And there is nothing else for me to be doing. I really do end up just trying to stay awake. The process runs like a top, and when it doesn't there are tons of people around who are better qualified than I to fix it. I really am useless.
I have 3 options:
1) knuckle under and take one for the team. Put up and shut up. This is my most typical response. It just turns the next 5 months into a prison sentence, and I get to absolutely loathe myself and my circumstances.

2)Try to convince them that I was more productive on days (I was) and that I was doing things that were more important than what I am doing now (I was) and that they got more bang for their buck by having me there (they did). Ergo, I should move back to days, possibly with being on call for part of the night, or checking in at parts of my shift. This is perhaps the most difficult option. It requires negotiating skills I lack, and they can simply say "no" which pushes me back to option 1) or on to:

3) Quit. It is a real possibility. I didn't realize I would hate it this much. 3am is absolute stupidity. 4 is madness. There are a lot of businsses around this area, perhaps I could find something near my apt. This is wishful thinking, but an option.

So... It used to be that I was interested in the projects that I was assigned to, that I was motivated to do a good job just for the good job's sake, but now.... I don't care if I ever accomplish another blessed thing for the rest of my contract. It is purely a function of the time that I have to be here. part of me thinks "well, you stayed up late on school projects... is this any different?" Yes, it is. I worked late at school because I was laboring under the thought that by doing this now, I was putting myself in a position to not do it later. That and I was freely able to go home at 12 or 1 or 3 or 4 if I wished, and I did. Here you have to stay whether you like it or not.

Night is for sleeping.

no, peace and justice are simply a dream, an impossibility. but i think kerry will drive us away from thet dream at a much slower pace than bush.

1) Constitution Party 86%
2) Libertarian Party 67%
3) Republican Party 57%
4) Reform Party 43%
5) Natural Law Party 29%
6) Green Party 29%
7) Democratic Party 14%

Which is really interesting because I have only indirectly heard of the constitution party, and only knew a little bit about libertarians. I stand by my earlier statements that complex things like personality and political leaning are extraordinarily difficult to gauge in a 20 questions-type quiz.

I looked at both the Constitution party website and the libertarian party website and agreed and disagreed with some things of both. I didn't really agree with the personal-morality-doesn't-matter stance of the libertarians, though I agree that the government shouldn't necessarily regulate all aspects of personal morality. People say that we can't legislate morality, but that is, in fact, wrong. It is the nature of law to impose morality upon those who would not otherwise choose it. It sets a standard that is either met or missed. But there should be a limit as to how prying the government can become. That is a hazy, controversial division, so I will leave it at that.
I agreed with many of the things that the Constitution party said, but I didn't agree with the "America for Americans" mentality that was like a haze behind all of their stances. The immigrant restrictions seemed a little oulandish and isolationist, though I did agree that there should not be things like amnesty for illegal aliens and bilingual ballots and such. I think extending the green card program like is currently being done is a good thing. It opens the door and makes it easier for immigrants to come as productive members of society with rights and protections.
But these are kind of moot points because the Constitution and Libertarian parties will never gain a large footing in American politics until something like instant runoff voting is implemented. I DEFINITELY think this is something that should happen. Or current mode of plurality-majority voting keeps independent parties out and restricts true and good change in government. It turns, for instance, a vote for Nader into a vote for Bush. Or Perot for clinton, etc. And I think it does not adequately represent the views of a very large population. And this leads to the anger that is displayed at protests and demonstrations and things. It is nearly impossible, given our situation, to have a president with a majority vote. It is possible, but it doesn't happen. It ends up being that about 30-40 percent of a population "wins" the election and the remainder feel cheated. They shouldn't take the nasty tone they do in their disagreements, but this resentment is there.
It is indeed something that has confused me a lot. Many people don't like Bush. many people do. But the people that don't are absolutely LIVID about him. I don't understand. Either you agree or disagree, and possibly strongly at that, but why the absolute hatred? Why have a presidential election motto of "anybody but Bush"? Do peace and justice prevail simply by the election of a Democratic president?
Does anybody THINK anymore or do they just FEEL?

1) Green Party 75%
2) Reform Party 70%
3) Natural Law Party 65%
4) Democratic Party 55%
5) Republican Party 45%
6) Libertarian Party 40%
7) Constitution Party 35%

fun, fun, let 25 questions tell you the parties your'e interested in

oh... something else I was going to add...
I wholeheartedly agreed with MM on his point about how the news carries too many fear-related topics. It is kind of a disturbing thing when you think about how the whole point of news is to be a forum for advertising. When you think about it enough, you realize there should be some independent way of getting news that is completely uncontrolled by money, but then the realization strikes that it would end up being government-produced and controlled, and we all know how reliable that would be.
So, I guess we stick with the fear-based news offerings, but just remember that it is nearly all fake.

"No honey... that is just ketchup. That blood isn't real"

I just finished the "Bowling for columbine" movie last night. It has been residing on my hard drive for 6 months or so now, but I just haven't gotten around to it until last night. I have to say I was surprised by it. Not so much in the content of it, because it is all stuff I have heard before, but I was surprised because I was expecting more liberal invective. It was more straightforward than I expected. That said, I thought that it was a little disappointing. There was a real lack of actual information and well-drawn conclusions. He brings up many questions and never really answers them. Asking Canadians what is wrong with Americans really seemed to be a pointless discussion... It just didn't go anywhere and didn't really answer anything. They just went on and on about how canadians don't lock their doors. I thought its main failing was that it spent far too long appealing to the emotions of its viewers, and making people fit into recognizable categories. There was the token extremist militia member (the Nichols guy) the downtrodden minority person (the mother of the 6 year old shooter), the insensitive rich white male (Charlton Heston), and a list of other archetypal members of society. It was obviously edited to make the people appear to be more extreme than they really were (did he get the Nichols guy drunk? he looked pretty sauced right before he went into his bedroom and put the gun to his head...).
I thought that things were too contrived emotionally... getting Kmart to stop carrying ammunition in its stores seemed like a publicity stunt. Shot after shot of abandoned houses in a late-fall rain, muddy running tracks and leaving pictures of dead children on doorsteps didn't contribute to his point (what WAS his point in the end? I really am confused... please comment), and only served to instill an emotional response.
So anyhow, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, but it wasn't nearly as good as it has been advertised.

Comments? What did others think about it?

all the lies...

:(