If you had a choice of what you would let your kids see, would it be violence or sex?

The American culture chooses to show violence to the shapeable youth
(and the rest of the population, for that matter)… apparently sex is
so taboo that the media would rather show us footage of a 14 year old
boy shooting a store clerk that asked him to leave… Not to mention
all of the movies that Hollywood pumps out… they’re all littered with
extremely violent scenes.  Look what it does to our society…
we’re fixated on violence around the world.  We have to have a
constant “war” in order to put the blame on others… If it’s not the
middle east, it’s the elusive terrorists… Guess what, the terrorists
are winning… they’re taking up the majority of TV air time… they on
everyone’s minds.  And the terror war will never conclude unless
the visible forces concede.

Now… think if sex wasn’t such a weird subject to talk about… Along
with the videos, that kids watch in health class, that show what a
penis and vagina are, I’d like to see schools teach some useful
information regarding sex.  Show real life cases of all of the
STDs.   Let the kids know all of the ways they can protect
themselves.  Show all birth control options and teach them not to
be afraid to buy/use them.  Show videos of how to please each
gender.  And I’m not saying just the quick blow job, but show them
that there is a sensual aspect as well.  Describe how it’s
possible to extend the sexual activities for hours… and yes, it’s
possible to do that for both genders…

What bad could come from that?  More people could actually have
good sex and be better educated about the negatives of sex.

And if you’re still not convinced about how much of a taboo sex is in
the American society, notice what happens if you accidentally bring up
a picture of a boob at work.  For some people, it’s about as bad
as closing the browser, scanning the room to make sure no one saw,
shutting down the OS, formatting the HD, and burning the
monitor…  maybe not that bad, but you know what I mean… people
freak out when something accidentally pops up on their screen.  

To me, this should change… Sex should be an open subject and violence shouldn’t have the celebrity status that it has now.

I was in a shitty mood last night.  It started when my washing
machine decided to take a shit.  Then, I found myself watching
Victoria Gotti’s “reality” show.  I had a beautifully crafted
slew of words describing my disgust for each celeb/rich person with a
show, to show how chaotic their life is.  Not to completely
offend, but I would like to see some of those people actually have to
do something without being waited on… wait, there was is that useless
retard, that is Paris Hilton, who proves my point… But then the
cherry on top
of it all was that firefox crashed and I lost my thoughts… ah well…
life goes on and in the end, this is all just sand in the glass.

Anyway, if you are looking for tips or info on how to repair an appliance, check out this kick ass site: http://www.applianceblog.com/

While I was at lunch, today, there was a moment when I saw some flashes
of light.  The most descriptive word that I can associate with
what I saw would probably be sprite.  There were a handful (6-10)
of these sprites for a couple seconds… it was throughout my entire
line of sight, not just peripherals… Basically I would describe them
as little balls of light with tails… they slowly moved in a circular
direction.  I was standing the entire time, so it wasn’t like I
stood up too quickly.

Now, I know what a light flash is… When I was in 8th grade, I got a
minor tear in the retina of one of my eyes.  Occasional light
flares are just something that I’ve learned to deal with.  What I
saw today was not like those occasional light flares or floaters…

Anyway, I just figured that I should document this somewhere… I’ll
keep an eye on this (no pun intended) and see if anything else comes
from it.

I was talking with a friend not to long ago, and he mentioned how he
has occasionally felt or saw a mesh/netting/fabric that he believed
represented the universe… I do have to admit that I have sensed
something similar a few times… Anyway, the topic came up from us
originally talking about how certain sound waves/frequencies do some
interesting things to people.  He made the point that everything
is a wave and thus affected by vibrations. 

I’d like to expand on the mesh/fabric belief, slightly, though.  I
think of the mesh more like a 3d grid/sphere… Metaphorically
speaking, think of a combination of Swiss cheese and an onion.   So… why a 3d object?

Well, I think what he meant by a mesh really represents distance and
space.  Think about everything happening at this exact moment as a
plane (in the geometric sense).  Each point on the plane would
represent an event or more precisely object.  All of the planes
would combine to make up a 3d object, in order to accommodate the notion of time.  Thus, my metaphor reference
to an onion.  So where the hell does Swiss cheese fit in?

I’m still working out all of the conceptual details, but I figure that
gravity has to fit in the picture, somewhere.  Physics says that
the more massive an object, the more gravity it has.  So… each item on the plane would have gravity and that
gravity could disrupt/interact with the other planes.  It could even create
a hole or path between some of the layers.  Mathematics has many
equations (sqrt(n), ln(n),
etc.. ) to show this.  Otherwise, if you need something more
conceptual, think of a bowling ball resting on a bed.  This is
where I pull in the notion of Swiss cheese… figure gravity is warping
the space/time continuum in ways that we don’t really know how to
utilize right now. 

Think about this, though… say an object exists with gravity strong
enough to warp the mesh enough to create a tunnel between some
layers.  Then think that the object at the center of the
distortion doesn’t really exist at all, or it exists in another
dimension.  Only the gravity distortion exists.  That way,
objects that travel through the gravity created vortex wouldn’t collide
with a super massive (and probably very tiny) object.  Since there
is no object to hit, an object that enters the vortex could exit the
other side at the same velocity.  In effect, it would be a way
shortcut time and space, or as most people have termed it, a wormhole…

The major fault in this logic is that the super massive object doesn’t
really exist.  Either that or there must be a way to create
extremely large amounts of gravity without the mass requirement. 
It might also be possible that once the tunnel is created, it could
sustain it’s form solely from the structure of the layers themselves (without the requirement of extreme gravity)…

Every day I grow; the world becomes a little smaller… It wasn’t that
long ago that I thought of the world as an infinte adventure… It’s
becoming more apparent to me that the world doesn’t move as rapidly as
I once thought.   I think that this trend will reverse once I
hit a certain age, though.  I think I’ll become more apprehensive
towards leaving my comfort area (home, city, country, etc…)

When I was growing up, I thought we’d have flying cars and amazing health care at this point… damn movies

What I didn’t realize is that there is a process that everything must
go through before it is unleashed to the general public.  That
process is the thing that ultimately slows innovation… it is also the
thing that keeps safety (arguable) and consistency in products… so you
get the good with the bad, I guess.

I went to Green Bay this last weekend and had a chance to spend some
time with my good friends from high school.  It’s something that I
enjoy more than they’re aware, I’m sure.  One of the conversations
that I had was with a good friend, Andy, who hiked the entire
Appalachian Trail.  I believe that experience was truly a life
altering experience for him…

Anyway, one of the things that he told me was that his most enjoyable
time thus far, was when he didn’t know what day it was.  This
happened while he was hiking the trail.  There was no reason to
know if the day was Monday or Saturday… I think there is a lot to be
said about that.  I don’t think I could count how many people
despise Monday and embrace Friday.  To be indifferent to all days
because they all provide equal joy, would truly be a nice
feeling.  I experienced this feeling, to some extent, when I was
un-employed last fall.  I didn’t work for about 6 months (sort of
on purpose) and days seemed to lose their meaning.  Everyday felt
like Saturday (or Tuesday for that matter) to me.  I don’t think I
felt quite what Andy felt, but I’m sure it was along the same lines.

So, Andy proceeded to then tell me about brain waves.  I hadn’t
really thought about them before, and I have to admit that I found this
very interesting… The fact that people study (and can prove) more
than the conceptual psychology of situations is pretty
interesting.  Now, he said that the first couple days in the woods
affect people differently.  The reasoning was that their brain was
switching from mainly operating in beta waves to more of an alpha wave
form.  He said that once you have been in the woods for a few
days, you’re brain waves are generally in the alpha state.

The closest thing that I can relate to this, is when you
meditate.  Meditation generally brings you from the (sometimes)
chaotic beta state to a more relaxed alpha state.  The idea is
that you push the immediate thoughts, needs, and desires aside and just
allow yourself to relax.  I personally think that if you “train”
by meditating consistently, it is easily possible to change your brain
wave from beta to theta in a short session.  The trick is to get
to delta without falling asleep 🙂  My experiences with meditation
is that it can be really quite pleasant for overall mental (and
physical?) health.

As a side note, if you ever have trouble falling asleep, try
meditating.  I have done it in the past, and it has not failed me.
 

For further information, despite it’s extremely annoying style, this
website does a pretty
good job of summarizing the different brain waves (beta, alpha, theta,
and delta). Also, have a look at the wikipedia page on Electroencefalography

For the first time in I don’t know how long… I bought a new cd today. Actually, I bought three but that’s just details… I picked up both cds from Kaki King and one from Souad Massi.

Other than that, just about every day, I think about how I’m going to teach my children. I don’t have any yet, but I figure that the day will come at some point. Anyway, I find it interesting that I’m going to have to explain how, way back in the day, I had to memorize phone numbers and other trivial information. I really see that kids won’t have to use that portion of their brains…. This makes me wonder if that’s evolution and if that part of the brain will become a second class citizen to other brain funtions. If you have a cell phone, when was the last time you memorized someone’s number for longer than it takes to put it in your phone? It wasn’t too long ago, that I had all phone numbers for people that I knew, in my head. That day has come and gone, though. It’s sort of like spelling… with intelligent spelling applications all around us, spelling has become less important…

Hunter S. Thompson died yesterday (2/20/05) of a fatal gunshot to the head. I learned of Hunter through the movies Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas and Where the Buffalo Roam. Since then, I have read his various articles on ESPN… I have yet to read his other books, but I’m sure I will in the future. In any case, rest in peace Hunter…

I have thought about writing this post for about a week or two. Either I couldn’t find the words before, or I’ve been working hard on something 🙂 So, I’ll take my best shot and throw some words together to try to get this thought across.

I have been thinking about the trend in America that, in my mind, has been developing for the last 15 years or so. It has definitely been more prevalent in the last 5 years or so. It seems as though the trend of American businessmen/women is that rather than manage local workforce (local to the US), the new trend is to manage global workforce. If you’re running a rather large organization and you don’t acknowledge off-shoring, you might be behind the game. I do realize that there are disadvantages to off-shoring, but that is for other people to bark about in a different post.

It seems to me that the US has become quite a producer of MBAs… you could think of it as universities mass producing MBAs… with 2 year degree programs being similar to assembly lines. That many people looking to expand their skills, takes away from people who work in factories, etc. Thus the gap is filled by off-shoring to “smaller” countries where people are eager to work for their money. Now I realize that the US still produces quite a lot of products, so I’m not ignoring those. I’m just curious where all of these MBA grads think they can fit in.

On a totally unrelated note, I’m not quite sure how I feel about this. If I get charged for gasoline and for the number of miles that I drive, I will not be a happy camper. I already pay taxes for roads. I would gladly pay higher taxes if the people responsible for fixing the roads would use better materials/techniques. As I understand, there are technologies/techniques available today, to allow roads to last much longer. They just don’t use them because then what would they do in the summer? People would be forced to be happy and not have to drive through half finished construction projects, everywhere. On the other hand, there is a downside to only paying the miles that you drive. It discourages buying gas guzzling SUVs and related cars/trucks. The sooner that we can wean off of oil, the better, in my opinion.