You Me Us

Atlanta, I hear you calling...

2010-08-07T03:53:00.001-07:00

Hail pounding on the metal skin, our bodies bouncing like ragdolls, we checked our thoughts for signs of comfort - prayers, assurance that pilots and planes are safer than texting drivers - wondering, wondering, wondering... then, out into the sun, over water vapour mushrooms blooming in unstable air masses (a cold front? all is relative) and landing in the mess that is ATL in sweltering summer storms. Enuf sed!

Taxes? What taxes?

2010-08-06T09:26:00.001-07:00

Here in the balmy state of Alabama, parents head to stores, determined to save a few percent off total cost to buy their children school supplies without paying sales tax.

"Get the package that you want!"

My frugal wife and I shopped and shopped and shopped for days, spending more in hours than we'd ever hope to recover in savings trying to determine which low-end budget computer system we wanted for Web surfing, email and rare home video production (including photo and music storage).

I'd detail our decision process but won't. Instead, I'll summarise:

Looked at Intel i3 system - too slow (due to emulated 4-core?); Intel i5 system out of our budget range; AMD Phenom II not worth the extra cost; AMD Athlon II x4 630 and 635 about the same. Settled on HP Pavilion P6520F at Staples for $529.88 plus HP S2331 LCD monitor for $199.99, staying below the $750 limit with room to spare!Purchased clothes at Burke's Outlet and called our tax-free shopping spree a complete success.

Nobody Doesn't Hire Thinkers

2010-07-30T10:53:00.000-07:00

[personal flogging session - not meant for consumption by general audience]

I am worthless. I have no motivation. There is nothing I want - unused material possessions swallowing me up as it is.

Why live? Why carry on a big dream if the world is fully of petty squabbles and selfish hoarding?

I have only one body. I am only one person. I want only because my social side sympathises with the wants of others.

Death is inevitable. My family will all die in time, leaving dreams and plans in the hands of others who will also die in time.

What is love if I can't share it with others, ignoring local social/subcultural mores?

If we are one species, why do others spend so much time and energy declaring we are not?

I am conquered by my fears in today's battle with self. I have lost. I am captive to the cruelty and shortsightedness inherent in our drive to get ahead at others' costs.

I don't want to see anyone else anymore or hear the un/spoken trails of negative thoughts permeating our planet. I am burdened with too much personal negativity to hold up much longer.

Some days a couple of beers or glasses of wine or swigs of whiskey smooth over the rough seas pounding against the portholes of my thoughts.

I'm too tired to lift a glass of good cheer today.

Rest. Peace. Quiet.

Watch two chickadees looking for "natural" meals in the tree limbs instead of handouts.

Not as many granddaddy longlegs on the window screens this year.

Is there a low-cost place where I can fade away, unaware of the pains and progress of the species to which I was born and raised?

I am a nobody. Unable to rescue my wife on my own. Lost and alone.

I don't want to be a helpless dependent. I want to die with my boots on, walking the woods the last action I remember before a myocardial infarction takes me off of my feet.

I am an old man in thoughts, if not in body. Worn out by seeing storylines play out like life is a set of easy scripts to be written by those who have loose connections with the whole species.

Novelty for novelty's sake has lost its novelty.

My fine-feathered friends come to the window expecting a meal from me. Have I disappointed them, too?

When we run out of exotic metals and other easy-to-manufacture chemicals, who's going to find the Amish, Amazonian nomads and Asian/African desert tribes had it right all along?

Will the majority of our species' members willingly live low-tech lives to send the select into space to preserve a portion of our planet's ecosystems in perpetuity elsewhere?

I can only be an example of myself to myself, choosing a mixture of high-tech and low-tech to live daily. Should I be more aware of the rare earth elements in my life that are unnecessary for my simple existence, needed more for packaging and sending others to new satellite/planetary bases?

I am a book reader. A thinker. Useless in today's fast-paced, high-tech society. A relic of days gone by. Where can I go out to pasture and slip away unseen into the hills from whence I came?

My time (and others like mine) has come and gone. The youngest generation must find the strength and determination to save our species and planet from our selfish desires. Will they avoid the traps we set to set high-volume consumption examples of ourselves?

If I was born Amish, I wouldn't be here. Perhaps it's just as well, able to represent more than one alternate lifestyle. Maybe I can become Amish or something like it before my time is up and leave the sub/urban life to those who don't know better, who aren't aware they're repeating historical civilisation rises/falls, making no more progress than an 18th century farming family makes without all the fuss, worry and stress of reaching for the stars.

I am only one person. If I won't be one to make sure there is low overhead in how I consume in order to live, then who will?

Today, I don't have the energy to paint a humorous picture that resolves all the conflicts in the world. I feel humourless, deflated, empty. Ready to roll up in to a ball and wander away from all this (except, as always, from myself).

Just because I know how the world works and how others twist and turn and manipulate to maintain a constantly-interesting image to the mix of subcultures doesn't mean I want to change how it works or rework it to my advantage.

We are seven billion people, not one. It's up to you to see how it works, too. If you want to believe in hatred and pettiness, there are plenty of people to feed that belief. I no longer want to believe those or feed them, even jokingly.

I want technology turned toward positive solutions so we can use this small window of opportunity to get our species and surrounding ecosystems firmly established on other bodies bouncing around the galaxy. Island hopping, if you will.

It'll take thousands of years to get us safely far away from this solar system and into other safe zones. Several waves of settlers will pass away in the process.

Today is the moment to make the decision in y/our life to contribute to that line of reasoning.

I'm just one person, eating a bowl of oatmeal and drinking a cup of tea for breakfast before using a high-power network for expressing my thoughts here.

Maybe it's time to rethink my life.

No "maybe." It is the moment.

I gave up facebook and linkedin to preserve my quasi-independent mindset. Time to give up online blogging/browsing, also.

Like watching the chickadees that roam this part of the countryside, there's too much out there that this electronic world doesn't provide, and at a lower cost to the environment (thus leaving more environmental stuff for those who will explore the planets in my/our name).

I'm closing this blog.

Thanks for stopping by. We'll stay in touch using the other methods, of course.

What if...

2010-07-29T15:58:00.000-07:00

Marie Osmond appeared as body-double to Hope Brady or vice versa in Nutrisystem/DOOL fantasy sequence tie-in?

Chip Ganassi was remembered long after Penske is gone?

Haier-type factories flew American flags in Chinese factories?

Symbiont-receptive quadriplegics became known as the best remote robot operators (i.e., cyborgs) in the solar system?

"Samourais" (2002) and "Howl's Moving Castle" (2004) were found to be something else entirely?

Older Nephew At Work

2010-07-29T15:40:00.000-07:00

Good to see my older nephew's company getting profiled (in a good way):

Small Huntsville company developing 'eyes' and 'brains' that can help soldiers

And to think, I still remember playing hide-and-seek and Frisbee tossing with him and his sister. That three-year old fascinated with ceiling fans sure grew up fast!

Nuhjygfivoed

2010-07-28T20:32:00.001-07:00

Oddly enough, finding recruits is easy. Never go after the elite. Go after the hungry.

My associates build and I gather.

Entrepreneurs with abundant resources revise plans for established defenses inaccessible by conventional forces.

Wouldn't you like to be the first to rule a brand-new sphere, able to collect docking fees and issue mining permits in the name of your own political entity, knowing you controlled the currency values of political entities on the neighbouring sphere?

The art of doing business with all the power at your (and thus, your colleagues'/associates') disposal.

The ultimate end-around maneuver.

Your ubiquity superfluous and omnipresent, duplicate copies upon duplicate copies spread out, over and in the competition's domain, virtually indestructible?

How can the competition eliminate you if you're part of them? Would they know they handed you the key to unlock their guarded secrets by NOT sharing them with you?

I'm a tired, middle-aged man who has figured out too many simple games we play and want something more than mass hypnosis and tomfoolery. I want to rule a small body circling around our planet for the fun of setting up an ecosystem of living beings adapted to low gravity and lack of a lot of symbionts (not forgetting other harsh conditions).

This is a blog. Words. Inside and outside of real life.

I'm not interested in snapping my fingers and causing massive earthquakes through the "magic" of science or toppling empires through mass media messaging.

I wonder. I imagine. I ask questions. I am unimportant.

I just figured out that I got your attention with this blog (how quickly I forget; never was my whole reason for being here, merely an easy place to store/backup my notes). Guess I better stay the course, huh?

Our species, our family, is all that counts and all I'm concerned about. That's what most of us only ever really know about and I want us to keep it that way, as secure as we can be in this day and age, as technologically backwards as it is.

One of you will see a new type of government centered on the Moon. With it comes its relationship with the rest of our solar system governments. I envy you, whoever you will be then. In the meantime, learn to lead, to coach, to mentor, to manage effectively, and remember you are family. Just like the rest of us.

We'll be keeping tabs on you. Don't worry, we'll nurture you along and ease you into your position of responsible power sharing when you/we see you're ready. It's what we do, what we've always done. Taking care of family, like a distant benefactor/relative rarely letting you know we're around.

Time for me to slip back into anonymity, the aimless wandering wonderer, humbly staying out of people's way, ending intolerance wherever feasible.

Hard to be an irresponsible practical joker and solemn, serious leader at the same time. Or is it? Hardly! Hardily! Half-Heartedly!

Ode to the Unemployed

2010-07-27T10:33:00.000-07:00

How well were we trained to recite rote lines in school,
How much do we seek unblemished records,
The times when we thought for ourselves were few,
And now we wait for an opportunity to keep our worthiness alive.

If I could invent a new life for myself -
Gutsy, inspirational, a 24-hour self-starter -
I'd give back to those who gave to me a definition of self
Found in work procedures, company policies and paychecks.

My vision's too far off to feed the masses now,
My dream of a solar system economic/political base not ready for primetime;
Where are the intermediate steps that profit us,
When will the dreamers step forward to keep the dream alive?

I am no poet...
An amateur thinker,
Knowing that legal routes and black market bargains
Drive our drive to break the gravitational pull of a shrinking planet.

I envision a future close by
Made of this moment and others like it,
We'll figure out symbiotic relationships start with us
And carry bacterial buddies to new homes.

Robots will be the next pioneers,
Risking no conscious lives sacrificing faulty electromechanics,
Blazing a trail for the first wave of settlers
Who'll redefine our species in new ecosystems.

Your Fortune In Orbit

2010-07-26T17:48:00.000-07:00

While happily wealthy people participate in a training camp for instant astronauthood, their financial advisors are finalising special accounts managed from a set of satellites launched overhead, outside the jurisdiction of international taxes/laws.

A restaurateur has signed on to serve food in weightless conditions.

A Brazilian self-styled cowboy entrepreneur will put the first privately-owned temporary space accommodations in place.

Bigelow has bigger plans to make budget travel more exciting.

A set of tunnels from previous war preparations prepares itself for its grand entrance.

Iranian documents disclose the location of locations, testifying before testy prying eyes, the indication that the right rites rule.

In computer news, nothing new today. The breakthrough you're looking for occurs in the sequence built into these letters. Capital! No, not this time. Listen for the lion's roar and the changing mane at the start of "The Last Notch" in celluloid. Count the hairs and count backward from there.

Vyghulesdrtmcx.

3k%/za9HG1''

There's money to be found in the tree branches, when one has a connection with how the new system generates income through leaves. Roots were given to you at birth - leave them to search for their natural anchor points.

All we ask is that you tone down the obviousness a quarter-turn - the people are educating themselves these days and smell conspiracy faster than a shark smells blood squeezed from a stone turnip turned green.

I am boring myself here - stay ten steps ahead AND ten steps behind. Look back at this moment from all directions and then move. Rolling boxcars are just as useful statistically as when they weren't good for ocean transport.

Didn't I say we are not alone? Then act like you listened and behave accordingly. You have all the future moments of your selves to think about.

Do you have a better picture this time? The last time you took off like you were driving into a foggy hillside.

A tea kettle or a samovar? Both. The ceremony's where the rising steam lets off a note on the air you're just starting to be able to read.

Can you smell Morse code? Can you see in 3D, all your senses alive to a moment years from when you'll have to look back and only understand in retrospect what you're going to relay to someone later in your species' life?

This moment's all you've got but it's the moment of moments that fan out in all directions. How many you track is how far the moment goes.

Do you have a clear picture of all that floated on the air the day your great-great-grandmother shared the family secret? If not, you're starting all over again, generations lost in putting together incomplete guesses. Someone else was paying attention and stored that day for another side of the family you know nothing about.

See why you'd better learn to listen to what's not being said? Eliminate the silence and all is noise. Eliminate the noise and all is all.

That's all for now.

Made In Alabama

2010-07-25T20:54:00.001-07:00

A weekend of canning pickles, cooking peach pies, freezing beans, blueberries and blackberries - finishing with a good ol' summer thunderstorm.

Katydids and tree frogs set to the rumble from the south.

Most weather can be found just about anywhere but we call it ours where we work, live and play.

Ripened figs dropping into the water hole behind the house. Hickory nuts on the roof, courtesy of neighbourly squirrels.

Imagine an immobile body fully aware of its condition, using up a life's savings to add quantity rather than quality of life. What becomes of the surviving spouse with nothing left?

Do any of us want to be a burden on our loved ones?

I'm losing my hearing and don't want to waste health insurance money to insert an electronic gizmo in my ear canal. Why burden our overtaxed system so I can hear a pin drop? I'll keep going to car races without adequate ear protection, I'm sure.

My wife'll have to keep speaking up loudly to me for now.

I have no literary agent trying to get me the next writing gig for the largest paying readership possible. Thus, these storylines ramble from truth to fiction and from friction to troops.

Despite my wishing otherwise, these words are open messages to various subcultures for particular purposes, mainly to keep our species sailing on an even keel. Some deals are obvious and some intentionally unintentioned.

Faces and names get mentioned here for a reason. If you don't see what you expected, then imagine your importance is too great for a flash on the screen right now. If you see what you expected, then your part in the big production is ready for showtime.

No more strange advertisements in the classifieds. You don't know what a relief it is to use the whole Internet as a relatively free broadcast medium (at least until untraceable brain/body implants are prevalent).

The Arduino board will be a useful training device for novices operating an IP-less alternative to the Internet in preparation for the next great thing.

How loud should a country's leaders' global political rhetoric sound during national election season? Leave room for rhetoric - it adds spice to news headlines. We're grownups and can tell the difference between drumming up voter support and actual threats.

Pardon me if I repeat myself - I need the practice.

Mobile Phone Social Network Forms Own Virtual Theatre Chain

2010-07-25T16:05:00.000-07:00

Breaking news!

An international group of 11-year old mobile phone owners* put together an enormous deal today. According to a major cinema trade magazine, the group, known as "Show Us The Movie," has bartered the rights to receiving first-run movies on their mobile phones.

How is this possible, you ask?

The power of one!

The group, SUTheM, threatened to start a social network campaign to boycott both first-run films at theatres and second-run films at online/kiosk movie rental locations, putting the fear of stockbrokers and automated stock trading systems into the hearts of movie moguls around the world.

Our anonymous source tells us that young people are using demographic data to determine where they have the most leverage due to their disposable income purchasing power. Then, in order to get what they want (because they know their parents are too dumb to know how to use modern technology properly), they put this power to use immediately.

We're seeing a total shakeup of the whole cinema industry. Already, popcorn seed company stock prices have plummeted.

If 11-year olds can bring down motion picture empires, what's next?

If adult musicians can jam together online, will eight-year olds become the next great film directors, coordinating online filmmaking by capturing their globally-distributed actors' parts through the magic of green screen video techniques, no longer requiring expensive "on location" shoots?

Is the world as we know it coming to an end?

Tune in for new breaking news as it happens!

* does anyone have an 11-year old mobile phone that still works?

The Unknown Fin

2010-07-25T15:40:00.000-07:00

I call him Fin because I don't know his real name. I thought about making up a complete name for him, as if he had told me his name, for narrative's sake, but I won't. It might disparage his family's wishes.

Fin met me on the street after my shift at the cafeteria.

"And you speak no Finnish whatsoever?"

"Not that I know of. But I do put a dash through my seven and 'z' and slash my zero."

"Let's continue walking. What do you know of the unspoken socialisation that our species carries on?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know, or you don't know if you know?"

"I don't know if I don't know."

"Good answer."

"Look, all my life, it's been people like you coming up to me, asking questions and then leaving me with this vague understanding that I might or might not be part of something that does or does not exist. It's getting annoying."

"Are we that obvious?"

"Who is 'we'?"

"That you already know."

"I do?"

"Yes. Think back. You have in you the history of our species. What is it that you already know?"

"History is a fairy tale written for the duped by the dupers."

"Well, I wouldn't have put it that way but you're right."

"And your point is..."

"Hmm..."

"I don't have all day. I've got to get ready for a frat function tonight and it's very important that I get there early."

"Frat?"

"Fraternity. You know, brotherhood, bonding, parties, social functions, charity work, that sense of belonging we all long for and are willing to pay for the privilege."

"Hmm..."

"We're almost to the apartment house. If there's something to say, let me know now or I'll have to catch you another time."

"Time... you bring up an excellent idea. If I could show you here and now, in front of everything you see as existing in this moment, that space and time do not exist, would you give me more than a few minutes of your time?"

I stopped walking and turned around, taking in the whole scene, including the building entranceway, the students walking about, the bushes, the grass, vehicles passing by, the cliffs over the river, the sound of a distant train whistle and the smell of sweet perfume.

"Okay. You've got me attention."

This is the part where I say, "And this is the part where I say, 'And this is the part where I say, "This is the part where I can only say that my life has never been the same."'"

Fin didn't wave his arm around, wiggle his nose, blink his eyes or make any motion I would attribute to the sudden change. I didn't enter a dream state or melt into the body of a creature unknown to modern science.

Instead...

Instead...

Instead, I laughed uncontrollably. My thoughts were suddenly surging with absurd ideas.

Even so, I stood there as if Fin and I were having a normal conversation.

I was not one person and I was one person. I was nobody and everybody. I was here in time and looking at all the moments that living things have and will exist.

Despite the few short paragraphs above, I have no idea how to describe what happened. It was as if the universe as we know it was both infinitesimally small and large at the same time.

I saw myself as a five-year old listening to ignorant adults, knowing then more than I know now, that the world in which we practice living does not exist.

I saw myself as an eighty-five year old watching the whole species come to the same conclusion and moving on to an existence I never thought possible to see in my lifetime, three lifetimes compressed into mine because of the exponential growth of group consciousness brought on by artificial technological means.

I blinked my eyes and all of those images disappeared.

"Hmm..." Suddenly I was talking like Fin.

"And your frat?"

"What?"

"Your social function."

"Oh...that..."

"Yes, that. Do you still plan to attend?"

"I don't see why not."

"Then the decision you make will affect all moments radiating out from this one."

"I know."

"Hmm..."

"Precisely. I still like to have fun."

"We have anticipated this decision of yours. Fun, as you call it, will alter the course of events we had planned."

"I know."

"And your reason?"

"Time does not exist."

"But your body. It still ages."

"I know. As you know, it doesn't matter whether it is me or someone else who uses this knowledge of the way things really are."

"We disagree."

"There you go with 'we' again. I already know there is no 'we.' No 'them' or 'they.'"

"And you will go off for your fun because..."

"Exactly because of that reason."

"If only you spoke Finnish, you would have a philosophical understanding that counters your American individualist mentality."

"The way things really are makes no room for individualism."

"You say that and yet..."

"I go to the frat function, anyway."

"If you attend the party tonight, you will put four years between now and the next moment."

I was too young to understand Fin's concern about time. Despite our full cognisance of mortality, we carry within us a belief of immortality that our knowledge will exist in some form after we're gone. Little do we know how much is lost over and over from one generation and one civilisation to the next.

It doesn't matter. So much of what we'll accomplish is bound by physical constraints to be lost.

That's why I thought the E-Brain was important, to break those bonds, until an associate of Fin's showed up a week or so ago.

I really am just this guy, flesh and bones and pickled liver. These are words. Nothing special about them. It's what's outside these words and away from all our cares and concerns about living and surviving and thriving that I and others like me, writers and wonderers, are bothered by strangers to see what's really going on.

Time does not exist. The scale at which we measure the movements of the universe, ruled primarily by our heartbeats and breathing rate, is immaterial.

But most of us are not supposed to see what's really going on.

At least not yet...

Otherwise...

Ah, the elliptical pause... what if all of us knew we could control the universe that we think exists but doesn't?

'There can be only one,' right?

Wrong. That's where I come in. I've got one of the keys to open an imaginary door for seven billion people all at once. But I know better than to do so.

Besides, these are words and always will be. Again, it's the space between words, without sound, where we'll find the answer that I've only got a small part to tell you about.

You will find the answer when you put aside all talk of talk. Erase any topics of conversation. Do not think about life or death. No job titles, life privileges or games of war will give you the answer.

It takes our whole species, about seven billion people currently, plus the rest of our ecosystem partners, to get you to the next step.

I don't know why but I'm pretty scared. The tiny insight I have, the little piece of information given to me, reveals what the absence of power can do if we get our act together and see what everyone is doing in the moment.

And that's just a wee step in the right direction to reveal the reveal!

Until next time...

Feeding The Fishes

2010-07-25T10:08:00.000-07:00

There are two kinds of people: family.

That's right, in both cases, we are family.

So, when a member of my family is killed or kidnapped, I've got to look at the other kind of people in my family and ask them why.

Just like the other day when I had a couple of colleagues consult for a few business associates of mine (and please stop calling my associates "Chinese Triad" - we're all members of the same family business, are we not?). Business is business. Sometimes, you take care of business and the matter's settled.

So who is calling themselves the Taliban/Taleban/Autobahn this time?

Business is business. If you want to play the kidnap/murder game, then here are the stakes at issue:

More murder and mayhem. I hate to use the word blitzkrieg because you may not understand European war tactics but we've got an arsenal of carpet bombs you might understand more clearly. Yes, they fly magically and appear to wipe out family members who want to toy around with the big boys.

I have many Muslim friends who understand business. The business of warmaking is not a religious one, in our daily family interactions.

The same here.

I respect my Muslim friends and their family rituals. They, too, respect their family members, treating women with the respect and honour they deserve as family.

So, my Taliban family members, if you want to give up the one you hold, then we will let you remain family in a peaceful sort of way.

Otherwise, business is business. One highly-trained member of our naval family is worth what? A few dozen of yours?

Either you learn to share the bounty of your harvest like a good fee/tax/bribe paying member of the family, or a Cuban prison looks like luxury accommodations in comparison to what our sharp shark-toothed friends have in store.

Remember, very few of us are chronicled in the history books. The rest are dust. This little incident will fade and be forgotten. If you aren't around to bless your family with family of your own because you decided to take a sailor under your wing after killing another one, who's going to remember your selfish, shortsighted actions when you and your family are dead and gone?

I believe in freedom of expression.

You have the ability to correct this error of yours. Or not.

And if not, I promise there will be no one left in your family to tell your dead-man's tale.

This isn't about religion. It's simply a matter of a resolving a dispute between family members.

Maybe you already made up your mind.

That's okay. So have I.

A Quiet Day With The Dictator

2010-07-25T09:33:00.000-07:00

"Sir, they are crossing our border."

"I will launch the nuclear weapons!"

"But, sir, our aim is not very exact."

"Only because all your trajectory math is very confusing for me to figure out on my portable abacus. Point them horizontally."

"Sir, the missiles might land in our territory."

"Do as I say!"

"Yes, sir. And sir..."

"What is it, imbecile?"

"You have an emissary from the most-hated enemy."

"Send him in. I will listen to what the pig-dogs have to say and then I will kill him."

"Sir, here he is. The Right Honourable Assistant Associate Staff Administrator For The Negotiation Of Forcefully Invading Peacekeepers."

"Your Almighty Highness, I am humbled that you allowed me in your presence."

"You are a pig-dog. Be glad that I do not have you drawn and quartered in front of me for my mild amusement."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"What is it that you wish? My court would like to hear you beg, if you don't mind."

"Please, please, please, Anointed One. Let us have our life for one brief moment more."

"Much better. Now, get up off your stinking knees and look me in the eye like a real man."

"As you command."

"Indeed. Proceed."

"Grand and Glorious Greatness, the combined forces of the Southern Kingdom and the Imperialists Across The Sea have amassed forces along your borders and blockaded your sea ports."

"So I have been told. They will be rubble in just a few minutes. What else is your problem?"

"The Master of His Own Destiny, these warring kingdom peaceful fighting forces are here to provide humanitarian aid to your people."

"My people need no aid. I, their god, provide them all they want. As ants to the queen, so my people depend on me to decide how they shall live and die. Lately, I have been bored and wished to see many of them struggle with basic nourishment. It is a scientific experiment that the rest of the weak, narrow-minded leaders around the world are too puny to carry out."

"The rest of the world does not see it that way."

"And that is why I am launching a few of my short-range missiles to prove that they are useless to stop the power of the One Who Knows What's Right For His People!!! Ahahaha! Watch me press the red button!!!! Victory is mine, at last!!!"

"Sir, the missiles are headed in the wrong direction. They are landing in the Middle Kingdom."

"The ineptitude of my servants. Who turned my abacus around backwards. Off with your head!"

"Sir?"

"You are right. First, off with the head of that pig-dog and then cut your own head off as evidence that I am a merciful leader who punishes those who commit cold-blooded murder of innocent messengers."

"As you command, sir."

"'Humanitarian mission'! Who do they think they are? They blame me for their worthless seamanship, sinking their own vessel through shoddy ship procedures and now they think they can just walk across my borders to feed those I intentionally starve? If I want tens of millions to die, they will die for the glory of serving the only true living god left on this planet."

"Sir!"

"What are you still doing here?"

"Sir, I am about to cut off my head but I wanted to let you know there is a missile headed straight toward us."

"Is it ours or theirs?"

"I do not know, Sir."

"Then I shall kill you myself!"

"But, Sir, the missile."

"You are worthless chattel. Do you not know that gods do not die? I will press this button and use the antimissile system we built with plans stolen from those Western pig-dogs and disprove their claim that openness and honesty is the one true way. Watch them wallow in fear at my invulnerability!!!!"

Tune in next week when we reconstruct our Leader from DNA not tainted by nuclear radiation...
Observe our investigators piecing together why the stolen missile shield system plans were designed so as not to take out their own missiles...
Notice how our people are unhappy that the so-called liberators are taking away our people's honourable death by starving - to die according to their god's desire is the greatest gift one can give to one's family.

Are You The Lucky One?

2010-07-24T16:38:00.000-07:00

But how, you ask, can I explain the unexplainable?

By having you explain it to yourself, of course.

For the very first time, here are the instructions that you should follow, just like I told you before:

Don't follow these instructions.
Don't read this blog entry, especially the phrase, "But how."
Sit quietly or not.
Open yourself up to all the emotional states of the people around you and all the states of energy passing through you and them.
Don't follow these instructions.
Doubt everything I'm telling you.
Laugh.
Laugh belly-achingly loud.
Start again at step 5.
Skip to step 1.
Proceed to step 12.

Now you have the idea how it all works.

If you were indoctrinated into a there-is-a-real-enemy-who-must-be-stopped-at-all-costs, then I can't help you.

You see, it's just us. Really. I'm not telling you the truth.

There are people who build up paranoid delusions that there's more to it than what there is not.

There is only us in this moment. There's no turning back the clock, no going forward into the future. Time does not exist, except through illusion.

Now you're ready to proceed to step 13.

THE THIRTEENTH STEP!!!

Have I repeated myself too much?

Do you know the gods like to have fun?

Do you know what a god is?

If there is only us, what is a god?

Are you a member of the listener/whisperer tribe? Can you hear what is there and what is not there?

Every now and then, step back and see that as real as your pain feels, no matter how helpless the situation, millions of people feel your type of pain right now, and billions have felt it who no longer exist. Billions more will feel it in moments that haven't yet existed.

Does that help you see that you can make the pain disappear by dispersing it into the people around you through humour?

Can you tell yourself and believe, "I am not real, I do not exist, this is all a temporary illusion"?

Or do you want to experience every moment to the fullest, happy or sad, healthy or hurting?

Let's get back to the states of energy that exist through our mutual belief in the power of states of energy but, as you will soon see, don't really exist, either.

All of us who can read this as members of our species will say we have lived and we will die. Forget that for a few moments, will you? Or if you don't want to forget that, go on with what you were doing and proceed to step 14.

But also keep in mind that all seven billion of us have to exist here together. There's no alternative universe that pops up out of nowhere to which you can magically appear in a world that meets your idea of perfection.

This isn't about wishful thinking and projecting a future five lifetimes from now when you can join your family members in harmonious takeover of the world.

We really only have this moment. Seriously. This is it.

There are no good ol' days - there are only todays and more todays and the today after this one and the one after that.

So forget about trying to live in history, but at the same time, learn from it.

You can live in subcultures today that make it feel like you're the only one and your subculture is the BIG "IT." If you so choose, please do. But don't try to take down other subcultures that feel the same way.

Tearing down the lives of others who are happy what they're doing without physically/directly undermining your life in any way (other than the fact their existence doesn't fit into your worldview) is not the same as living in your subculture the way you like, including any form of compromise in which you incorporate others' pleasing subcultural habits into your own.

I cannot change the past. I cannot undo whatever it is your/our ancestors did that is supposed to be the way things are but don't work in the current moment.

I can only seek understanding about their actions in relation to their times. I don't live in their times and they don't live in mine.

There are those willing to play games with your lives if you let them. After all, this world is full of people willing to let others tell them the way you're supposed to live.

I'm a prime example, using this approved electronic device to convey a message through a socially-acceptable manner in a communication method called a language taught to me as the official means of socialising. And I've played right along with this, never once saying, "Hey, I'm going to wave my body about and make nonsense noises until everyone else is doing the same thing my way." [Look at Esperanto. Are you using it? Have you heard of it? Point made.]

Therefore, get with the program. We're seven billion people about to have a major "conscious" shift into seeing that we're all on this planet together for the same purpose - to move our species forward off this planet and into the rest of the universe.

We've got testosterone and oestrogen to deal with, our being a rather hormonal species (after all, like so many others, procreation is our major means of saving the species). But with an adult approach to product marketing/advertisement - that is, lowering the appeal to our hormonal urges - we'll put consumption on the right track while leaving plenty of room for freedom of expression and all that.

And then we'll see more about why seeing our universe as states of energy was as quaint as phrenology. We can talk more about that later.

Along the way, we'll monitor the species for megalomaniacs bent on homogenisation, conformity and "choppin' off the 'eads of them's what got us here in the first place" types. In other words, the normal flow, the ebb and tide, of social change. Lots of time to have a good laugh at stereotypes we all can relate to at one point or another in the moments that we live.

The youngest generation already gets it. The rest of us oldtimers might, too, given enough moments to see that the past doesn't exist and never did, even though we can study shallow snapshots of time we think is the past that gives us clues about how to live in the ever-changing moment that is now.

Speaking of which, now it's time to go back to step one and skip this blog entry. Or was that step two? Doesn't matter, the steps no longer exist. Or do they? Yes, they do. They're examples of how to live in this new moment.

Coloured Lenses

2010-07-24T10:47:00.000-07:00

Why should such a beauty as Tamara (pronounced Tuh-maur'-uh (as in "tomorrow")) wear coloured contact lenses?

Dear Tamara, your natural beauty shines without need of plastic coating.

Let us celebrate our lives as we are, not with accessories designed to hide what our parents gave us.

I was bothered by those lenses and exchanged flaring nostrils with Tamara as a sign we both were perturbed at what we didn't know was a case of a simple false barrier between us.

Brown is as beautiful as blue, no matter whether your name is Matt, Katelyn, Chris or Tamara. Or carry toothpaste in your purse because you ate on the way to work and wanted to brush your teeth before your shift started.

Gemstone Quarry

2010-07-24T10:22:00.000-07:00

One of the old guard, a time in a man's life when he can remember when men were men and women were women.

Was there such a time?

In carving out a place to live, just you and your family against the elements, aren't the duties, the chores, the basic will to live as clear as a cold spring hidden under a cliff?

That's what he believed.

That's what he saw when he looked at the grandkids playing in the apple orchard.

What happened?

Do the times change or just our memories of them?

He kicked a boot against the iron railing, took a sip of his RC Cola and tossed a handful of peanuts against the back of his mouth, mixing the fizz with the salty nuts and remembering many summers like this, time just a couple of hands on a watch.

Where was his wife?

Parkinson's disease. Long, long years of therapy followed by home health visits and then the LPN who stayed with them in the end.

Fifty-four years of marriage.

A freezer full of frozen foodstuff handpicked from the best of what the farm produced. Rows of canned beans and tomatoes in the cellar.

Not a single child or grandchild interested in taking over the farm...

He dropped the bottle onto the soft grass next to the back porch. He'd pick it up in the cool of the evening and store it with all the RC Cola bottles he'd saved over the years, a tiny nest egg for emergencies that only the nosiest of grandkids knew was tucked in the back of the barn.

If only he had his wife's secret ingredients for the banana pudding she used to make, he'd give it to his daughter as a special gift for Christmas.

"You boys don't go climbing up into the higher branches! You'll tear 'em up and break your neck when you fall!"

He looked out over the fields and wondered what was going to happen to them. He didn't have many good years left in front of him and plowing was getting to be a chore. His neighbour, a hippy professor, offered to do the plowing for him but he wasn't so sure the prof didn't expect to be able to plow a few hippy weed rows for himself in the process.

From moonshine to hippy weed, every generation had its diversions. He kept his kids off both but he didn't know his grandkids well enough to know who was and who wasn't. Gotta trust your kids to watch their kids. Can't do it all when they're scattered to the wind and you're working a farm.

"I reckon you kids better come inside and eat some supper. It's getting too hot."

As the grandkids raced back to the house, he held the backdoor open for each one as he knocked the rest of the dirt clods off his boots. No reason to let the flies in or carry mud into the house - less work later on after all the grandkids had gone home and left him to clean up the farmhouse in the quiet, humid evening with just the tinny buzz of a baseball game coming from the kitchen radio.

While he sliced up watermelon for the kids, he remembered an old box of recipes he'd found stuffed up into the top of the hallway closet. Maybe that's where Ethel had put her list of banana pudding mixings.

Fusho Fumetsu

2010-07-23T20:21:00.001-07:00

Rational behaviour therapy versus Confucius barring "shall," "must," "certainly" and "I."

Buddha enlightenment versus giving oneself over to Jesus by confessing one's sins.

I mentally write things/events on a piece of paper, wad up the paper, tear it into bits, rearrange and see if it still makes sense.

"Bride Trafficking Unveiled" on currenttv. Movies: "The Freshman" (1990) and "Chariots of Fire" (1981).

Rainy and Paradee at Thai Garden. Major "Q" Boothroyd and Emma Peel.

Achronia and anatta again.

Billionaires jerking my chain to tell me they want to get richer, to save the economy, of course. Where does materialism end and philanthropy begin? I honestly do not know. If I only gave a tenth of my leisure time to help others...

The progress of time as seen in scientific discovery and peer review.

We live in a moment. A lighted match or falling leaf.

How do you get people to pay for jewelery repair - assist customers, have an estate sale of unused/unwanted items in their homes so they can get the jewelery you hold that they hold so dear?

The more ideas you share, the better chance one idea will spark the right idea in someone's need in the moment. When we figure out idea generation is more important than idea possession, the weights chaining us to sluggish progress toward true enlightenment fall away.

Too bad LeBron didn't say, "I'll take the same salary at Miami but give 25% to improve education for underprivileged children in Cleveland." Now that's true love of your fans.

When race becomes the base issue du jour, all of us get baited and hooked on the chain gang, cannibals ready to chew our legs off to get a step ahead.

People seeking freedom travel liferisking journeys worth writing about. Most individual journeys go untold. My mother in-law paid for workers to harvest the tobacco crops on her farm, the workers' names, faces, and backgrounds unknown. Only the workers and their families can tell about life in those fields. Have they? Will they? Some were born of local, multigenerational families and some of recent migrant families.

All have had stories to tell. Our families have migrated at one time or another, no matter what we claim as vocational aptitudes or ancestral land.

Billionaires or not, we are family. Who wants to listen when we whine? Let's offer family-centered ideas first, whatever we are.

On The Mainland

2010-07-23T14:14:00.000-07:00

Feb. 25, '79

Dear Ones,

Patricia and Pam went to Central High Friday night to see the play "Funny Girl". They came home all excited because Rick was in the play. They remarked how tall and good looking he was.

I'm sending a picture so you can see what we look like. It has been so long since we have seen you all.

Edd is working with Powell Construction near Johnson City. He hopes Raytheon will call him back soon.

Teresa is working for welfare office in Kingsport but will move to Blountville the first of March. Sharon isn't working. She is still at home. I'm not working at present.

Come to see us when you can.

Love,
Mary Ruth & gang

Predated Letter - 6 7 79.23.

2010-07-23T14:09:00.000-07:00

July 5, 1979

Dear Family,

Thank you very much for the letter I received quite a time ago. Almost half of the summer holidays are over and I haven't yet paid any of those short visits to my friends and relatives that I usually do every summer.

But I went to London for a week. It was a package tour including the flights and accommodation. I didn't take part in the many tours and excursions arranged by the travel agency as I thought I would be able to see the sights on my own. It's sixteen years since I last was in London and England and now I thought I could afford a trip. I think it was a success, I got as much as I had expected.

Many of the places I had seen before but it was interesting to see them again after so many years. Westminster Abbey, the Tower and St. Paul's Cathedral were of course the 'musts'. I went to a marvellous concert (the London Symphony Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall) and to the theatre. And then I just looked around me a lot. I bought a go-as-you-please ticket which enabled me to travel on all London transport buses and underground trains and I really made use of the ticket. So I saw quite a bit of suburbs too.

London really is a big place and Tampere now looks like a tiny village. In two respects, I think, the city had changed. One was that sixteen years ago there were no tower blocks and office skyscrapers but now there were. And the other was that today there are far more coloured people in London than there used to be.

I timed my trip to take place in the Midsummer week. You see, Midsummer Day and Midsummer Eve are very big festivals here in Finland (and in the other Nordic countries as well) and I still haven't got any lady friend so I escaped the whole thing.

The Saturday was an ordinary weekday in London with nothing special in it. On the Sunday I went to church in Kensington and there the theme of the day was John the Baptist anyway.

On the return flight one of the stewardesses happened to be a former pupil of mine and I got special service. Yes, we flew on scheduled flights.

So far there have been no greater difficulties in seeing Marko. Tomorrow he'll come to me for four days and nights and we'll be going to Paimio, near the south coast where one of my sisters will spend her holiday with her family. One of the two daughters is nearly the same age as Marko, so they'll certainly have a good time. And my brother in-law has a brand new motor launch so I hope the weather will be so good that we can make a trip to the islands in the sea.

The weather was very good for holidaymakers in June, though it was too dry for farmers. The water in lakes was pretty warm so I could go to the beach here many times before I went to London. But now it has been pretty cool and rainy for one week already so the beaches are empty now.

Next week Risto and I will go to my friends' summer cottage on the sea as we did last summer too. I hope the weather will be fine.

Sure the long summer holiday is the best thing in a teacher's life and I think I can enjoy it more this year than the last four summers. I've been going to dances and seeing around me a bit.

I hear a lot has happened to you during this last year, both good and bad, and I hope you will be able to make the best of your holidays.

Love to everybody,
Mikko

Working Retail

2010-07-23T13:47:00.000-07:00

How do you know if a story is true?

I used to work as a student kitchen worker at Morrill Hall cafeteria on the campus of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

I had many friends, some that worked there and many who wouldn't.

Occasionally, university professors would eat at the cafeteria.

Or we assumed they were professors.

A few times, just as my shift was ending, an older gentleman would come in and buy a cookie and glass of milk.

He didn't stand out. He wasn't one of the eccentric retired professors who haunted cafeterias with their stories of past school administrations and genius students who went crazy and were never heard from again.

He was just an ordinary looking man of his age, wearing a tweed jacket, button-down shirt, nondescript pants (probably darkly stained cotton or polyester) and penny loafer shoes.

I had forgotten about the man until I recently saw the movie, "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," with some friends (for one of my friends' birthday).

Amazing how an old-fashioned good-vs-evil movie will trigger memories of forgotten days.

Anyway, as I was wiping down a table, the old man spoke in a foreign language.

"Excuse me?"

"I said, 'Do you speak suomi?'"

"Sorry?"

"Finnish. Do you speak Finnish, I mean?"

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Well, then, do you have a minute to hear something interesting?"

"In Finnish?"

"No. I will translate for you."

I thought about the summer that Mikko had spent with my family and shared old children's tales. Was this man going to tell me, a grownup college student, a kid's story?

"Okay. But I've got to finish these tables."

"Then I will come back another time, perhaps?"

"Maybe that would be better."

"Are you still performing on stage?"

"What?"

"Are you taking any drama classes?"

"No. Why?"

"That's too bad. We have more to discuss than I first thought."

I kept cleaning the table as the man stood up and walked away.

I saw him a few months later. After hearing his stories, my life took a shortcut through a world totally absent of fraternities, sororities and hand-built computers.

My life hasn't been the same since.

I'm not crazy. This is not a fairy tale. Why am I saying that?

Because the man proved to me we are not alone.

My stories about the Book of the Future and other familiar tricks of the fortunetelling trade are just practice, sleight-of-hand devices the man taught me to use, putting into play the information an old woman gave me in the trinkets she shared.

The E-Brain was just a ruse.

The truth is, as I've said, deeper than states of energy, far beyond our limited imagination and Neanderthal techno playtoys.

I don't want to be here talking about the next phase of our existence but the heat wave outside forces me inside and away from large heat-generating appliances like TVs and microwave ovens.

The fact is I want to be the greatest leader who ever existed but instead I was picked to wonder, to ask questions, to show possibilities that are impossible today so we might point our 7B-strong efforts toward making them possible.

There is no "they" or "them." There is only us, in many forms, forms we cannot see because we cannot see.

The LHC and the wrestling ring are one.

Let me explain...

College Meal Plan

2010-07-23T12:53:00.000-07:00

Sunday, October 3, 1982, 3:45 p.m.

Mom & Dad,

I spent yesterday afternoon doing homework with John and playing with my computer. I only work with the computer on weekends because I don't have time to spend working on it during school days.

Friday night, there was a mixer at Delta Tau Delta. Well, what really happened was we dressed up like gangsters and commandos and "kidnapped" the girls (pledges & sisters) of Alpha Xi Delta at the Panhellenic building. I had to get a ride with some of the girls because I got left behind (so did about eight other pledges). Anyway, I looked good. I looked like Peter Sellers in "Revenge of the Pink Panther," like a big, fat godfather (should that be capitalized?).

I spent the whole evening with Helen. We together met over 60 people. We had a good time. We got bored at the party, and since I wasn't an official pledge (but will be tonight) we went over to the Pi Kappa Phi house. (Jim pledged that one at Georgia Tech, and speaking of him, he's a sound technician for "Sing, Tennessee." He plans to go to UT starting winter quarter.). There was a wine & cheese party. We met several people there, including (get this!) Katrina. She's a little sister there. All I'll say is she's a perfect stereotype of a little sister.

We left there and went back to Delta Tau Delta. The party was dying down so we left. I walked her back to the dorm. I went back to the house and helped clean up. I went back to the apartment around 1:30 a.m.

Yesterday, after playing with the computer, I ate supper with Jennifer. She called me (a modern world, huh?). When I got back, Karen left a message saying she'd be in around eight o'clock. I cleaned the apartment some more (I'd been cleaning intermittently all day). We mainly spent the night in my room because one of my apartment suite roommates was also entertaining a woman. We had wine & cheese, watched TV, and listened to the radio.

She's worried about losing me. She thinks you all don't approve of her 'cause she's stealing me to get your money. I told her it seemed unlikely you all would worry about her getting your money through me since I'm supporting myself. Besides, we don't have a 100-acre farm.

Anyway, we had a good long talk and seem somewhat better for it. She left at 12:45 p.m. today. We had steak and vegetables for lunch (cooked by you-know-who - me. ;)).

I suppose I should go now. I need to eat supper and be ready to go to pledge initiation at 5:30 p.m. Oh yeah, Dad, I saw your picture at the frat ("D- H-, Class of '54").

I'm going to the World's Fair later with Helen to see the fireworks and hear the music that goes with it. My roommate, Sean, says I have two girlfriends, Helen and Karen. Oh well, I enjoy Helen's company.

The chapter of Delta Tau Delta here is totally opposite of the one at Ga. Tech. The president here has a 3.7 GPA (has had a 4.0 for past 3 quarters). He's also a chemical engineering major. We're going down to the Ga. Tech game so the pledges can get a hardcore view of a fraternity.

Love,
Rick

P.S. I now have $400+ to last 10 weeks. I'm doing well financially.

Laser Beam

2010-07-23T12:34:00.000-07:00

While conversing jovially with Angelique at Beauregard's, I noticed in front of me, at a nearby table, the look of anger.

Or so I believed.

The young man glared at me.

Why?

J'ne sais pas.

I do not read minds. I read lips. I assess facial expressions, body language.

He reminded me of the bar fights of my youth, most I avoided and a few in which I found myself throwing drunk punches and receiving badly thrown fists in return.

One look.

A dare.

A chip on one's shoulders another wants to knock off for fun.

At my age and physical condition, one contact between a five-finger sandwich and my jaw would knock me back and out of action quickly.

After all, I don't live in Texas. I don't carry a six-shooter by my side.

Otherwise, one angry look and that face'd be wearing a couple of slugholes.

"What happened to him?"

"You mean Slugboy? He grimaced at the wrong oldtimer."

"Them youths don't have no respect no more, do they?"

"And they pay dearly for it, too!"

Time to climb on Saddleback Sue and ride on outta here. Gitty up, girl. You still got a few good steps left in you and the patientest mule I've ever known.

Thanks to Donny and his beautiful sales staff for setting me up with my wedding ring all shiny and new. And to the worrisome lady at Ayers Farm Produce shop at the corner of Governor's and the Parkway - we're still thinking about your family and praying y'all will accept that what happens is what happens - we know you'll find a way to make the best of it. Life ain't easy but we cope.

Dated Letter - 28 7 80.23.

2010-07-23T08:31:00.000-07:00

from:
Mikko Suominen
Parkanonk 25 A 4
33720 TAMPERE 72
Finland

July 26, 1980

Dear Friends,

I must admit it's too long a time since I last wrote to you. And now most of the summer holidays are already over. Just now we're enjoying the second spell of hot weather and sun. I'm writing this letter in my backyard where I've got a tiny bit of lawn, a hedge, a couple of nice young birch trees and a few (very few) flowers. The summer weather has been pretty good so far. We had a very long hot weather period the weeks before Midsummer Day.

Last winter went pretty well at school and what I had of free time I spent it with my girlfriend Liisa, who lives a couple of miles from here, a good walking distance. She is a widow with all her three children working and away from home.

We don't have any marriage plans yet and I can't say anything about the future. We have been having a very good time together. Liisa has had some trouble with her working life. The small printing house where she worked and was a shareholder of went bankrupt in March and she hasn't been able yet to arrange her life.

Risto has one year of school left. He has done some good work (but I'd like to say he could have done a little better, at least with his English and Swedish). He got his driver's licence in the spring and comes to see me very often.

Marko will start school on the 18th of August. He is seven. He can read a little already. I see him regularly though there are still more difficulties in arranging the meetings. Three weeks ago Marko and I went to the sea and the small islands off Turku. We had a wonderful time with my sister's family. We spent three nights in their motor-boat. We even had a sauna bath there. We heated up a big pile of stones on the shore, then put a tent over the stones, threw some water on the stones and had a wonderful sauna bath and then plunged into the sea. And repeated it many times of course. And there were no other people on that small rocky island where we stayed the nights. Even the water was reasonably warm for a dip, some 17 degrees centigrade, I suppose.

A few days ago I received some sad news from America. Mr. Richald Dols, whose family I visited in Minnesota before I came to see you, had died suddenly of a heart attack. He had retired for pension a year ago and sold his old house and went to live in Cumberland, Wisconsin, some 150 miles from his old place. And could enjoy his new home only for seven months. Mrs. Dols is now going to sell the Cumberland home and settle down in the old surroundings again.

I myself have enjoyed very good health for a long time and feel very grateful for it.

The controversial Moscow Olympic Games seem to be everywhere here. The Finnish mass media are full of them. It's not a new phenomenon here. They should have a limit for their enthusiasm even in other times I think. I follow them to some degree, especially the field and track events, but too much is too much. Today for example we have 9 hours of the Olympics on the radio and 5-1/2 hours on TV. (Both TV and radio are run here by state owned companies.)

My best wishes to you all.

With love

Mikko

Maybe I'm Wrong But...

2010-07-23T08:06:00.000-07:00

Selfless meditation leads me away from the undercurrents and riptides of the day. Thus, although I had once fully connected with and, in this fictional blog, controlled a world of people, places, things and ideas, I am off to more selfishly selfless pursuits.

To manage a group of programmers, planet manipulators, and information seekers/gatherers (that people ignorantly call spies in a derogatory sense, unaware that the world is run only by the curious; not, as some would like you to believe, run by spyless (no, I didn't say spineless) leaders), I have had to split into a variety of characters, including ones I didn't like that were too close to my own personality (and ouch! those images hurt!).

To live and walk in the regular world and carry a bunch of heroes and ne'er-do-wells in my thoughts is incongruous (inconceivable!) for me to maintain any level of suburban, mainstream sanity with which I can converse on typical topical topics that most of us understand.

Because I cannot escape the suburban world with ease, I am stuck in it the rest of my life, finding no other comfortable means upon which to live. I do not desire a highly [expensive] materialistic life based on busting my butt to succeed in some commercially-legal manner. I would move into a van down by the river if I wasn't married to the wonderful woman who lives with and puts up with my semi-ordinary habits.

I have beat myself with a virtual stick for too long, trying to fit in with others and their lives they personally enjoy. I'm glad you enjoy your lives, as quiet or loud, as easy or tough as they can be, but they're not for me.

I'm just a lazy ol' fool who likes to write, who habitually writes daily, who looks for new ideas to explore out of curiosity. I'm not interested in maintaining storylines about secret/open organisations pulling the strings that make our puppet world dance.

In point of fact, my investigation has shown that we use voluntary group coercion to build the illusion that we're controlled by others. Otherwise, we're social beings tuned to re/act, based on our environment.

If you want to believe you're part of the "in" crowd or not, then that's what you'll be. Plain and simple.

Everyone is special. Everyone has talents that often go unused until a crisis arises in someone else's life. You may save someone else's life, or you may appear as your normal self to a person looking for an example of someone to look up/down to.

As much as it was fun to tap into the technique of listening to what people are not saying and then molding a solar system sized model of what's really going on, I'm not a storyteller who feeds off that kind of storyline forever. It's too easy to get caught up in the grand delusional god complex and make-believe the storyline is real. Besides, there's no profit in it for me. More detrimental to my health than anything else.

I'm just a guy. These are just words. Seven billion people have to decide on a constant, daily basis how they're going to coordinate and compromise to keep a world healthy and safe for generations to come.

I'm moving on to the next story, more pedestrian, less worldly. Or so it will appear... hahaha... ommmmm...

...tick...

2010-07-22T18:42:00.000-07:00

...tock...

...the pulse of universal silence...

...selfless listening...

Obsidian Oblivion

2010-07-21T17:32:00.001-07:00

How can one dream of a solar system sized system when one's thought process results are obliterated by mildly disruptive depression?

Alone in a busy society...but not lost.

Barely able to smile...

Wishing for nothing and getting one's wish fulfilled.

While others preach prosperity and mining and drilling and environmental rearrangement, one wonders why worm food is not a sufficient goal.

When one is born not to lead but to wonder, where does one wander in one's wondering?

Let the others have their castles and palaces and rocketship destinations.

This one's feet of clay have eroded, the body overgrown with kudzu and covered with mosquito bites, a permanent stereotype profile of a dying breed.

Wasn't one talking about books and futures and electronic brains? Let the youngest generation figure all that out. This one has gone to seed, ready for a strong breeze to disperse one's harvest to feed hungry wanderers far afield.

Re-tired of competing with one's own repetitious thought set for leftover rare grains of originality. Tired of making fun of others' hard work to get a cheap laugh.

Starving for undeserved attention.

Lonely but not desperate.

No viable means of self-sufficient support. Pioneer spirit too strong to lean on network any longer.

No stranger to this depression - time to think about packing up and running scared from one's inadequate reflection.

The others can decide how to carve up resources for guns, butter, plows, diamond tiaras, tire rims and gourmet food.

Decked Out

2010-07-21T13:40:00.001-07:00

In need/want of conversation, one turns to one's thoughts. When thoughts won't do, a hobby or book. When neither will do, one's own words. If none suffice, then what?

The flavours of silent contemplation are plentiful... when one has cultivated the luxury of patience and insight to train one's tastes for subtleties.

Helping An Unemployed Friend

2010-07-21T09:08:00.000-07:00

A friend has invested thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours in training to start a blade sharpening service. His website is pretty basic but says most of what he does (minus pricing):

http://www.sharpenitnow.com

If you live in the north Alabama area and have dull, nicked or nonstraight blades on your cutting device, give Rich's place - Hosner Sharpening Service - a try. He'd appreciate it.

Personality Interference

2010-07-21T08:46:00.000-07:00

I apologise to anyone reading this blog for its major storyline. I have let my personality, with opinions that are often cynical (due to part of me still feeling like an unwanted, unloved, undesired social outcast [the small child punished out of proportion to the misbehaviour]), overshadow the story here.

My goal is to project every moment into the future/present/past to see the possibilities and predict positive/negative consequences, always expecting the positive but prepared for the negative.

Sometimes, I let my personal desires and feelings come first. In a blog telling the story of our species, I respect the rights of all of us to shine forth in this space, regardless (or irregardless, if you prefer) of my opinions, no matter whether they're positive or negative.

My Boy Scout and Navy officer training revealed to me a long time ago that a true leader listens to others and carries out plans that include the best of what the group has to offer, issuing advice for rechannelling opinions that do not serve the interests of the whole group but may help individuals or subgroups immensely. I forgive myself for deviating from that training and commend myself for getting back on track.

As I/you can see, selflessness is not the easiest trait of mine to display. Time to slow myself down, calm the small child in me, take myself out of the story again, and talk about you.

In Youth News

2010-07-20T18:50:00.001-07:00

Today, the Children's Committee to Abolish Political Bias proclaimed 2011 the Year of Interplanetary Citizenship.

Not to be outmarketed by their competitors, major retailers and rival consumer product manufacturers joined in the proclamation.

Adult groups, like research foundations and thinktanks, banded together to devise a Solar System Constitution as well as other legally-binding documents to provide validity to those who have already declared their preference for interplanetary rather than antiquated national citizenship.

Countries with active or planned space ports announced that space port property officially belonged to the Interplanetary Consortium and was subject only to the laws, rules and regulations of the Consortium.

Several independently wealthy citizens of countries around the world released a joint statement that their land holdings were now officially consular property of the Interplanetary Consortium and thus had diplomatic immunity on Earth. They listed strategic locations where those seeking political asylum could live safely, secured from taxation or persecution by any country on the planet.

The UN Security Council went into emergency, closed-door sessions.

Analysts estimated that upwards of 40 percent of the world's wealth and 25 percent of the global population had been committed to an organisation which had not existed the day before.

In homes everywhere, parents quizzed their children where and when they had first heard of the Interplanetary Consortium or international citizenship.

Many children pointed back at their parents' love of utopian romance and scifi stories, slowly explaining to the clueless adults about the spread of instant-on technology and the power of one virtual mind that the younger generation had become, including many of the world's least-known youngest richest people who did not want their wealth in the hands of risky investors, unlike their poor, unemployed parents who had been taken for a ride and fleeced by Wall Street, with more debt piled on them by Washington.

Security firms came forward with their balance sheets showing ownership of vast sums of debt from many prominent countries that had been converted to ownership of those countries' military units, quietly being reorganised (based on corporate rather government bureaucratic procedures) and fully operational to protect the interests of the Interplanetary Consortium by the start of 2011.

Scientists on Anarctica sent a text message that the whole continent was, by default of belonging to no country, automatically part of the Interplanetary Consortium.

The WTO announced trade negotiations would begin immediately. Myanmar and North Korea recognised the IC's official status as a galactic political entity.

When The Money's Gone

2010-07-20T14:12:00.001-07:00

In this nonfiction-within-a-fiction, the main character struggles to distinguish self from nonself, past truth from future truth and multiple storylines from the only one storyline.

Bird talk leads to tree insect talk blocking out road traffic hiding the silent speech of the planet, not a single word spoken.

Where to store one's visibly invisible body while gathering secret information publicly?

In a political system protecting free speech, is a nondisclosure agreement legal? No. All belongs to all, Apple.

Free enterprise prevails. You'll see.

Oil drilling companies, in this fictional world, would, like all other environmentally compliant firms, maintain live update websites broadcasting their ongoing work so citizens could see at a glance who is skirting the law and threatening the population at large.

Union Carbide might regain its goodwill by sponsoring a conference to set standardised industrial process update software guidelines to drive ingenuity sold to China/India in revolutionising the transparent green movement.

Imagine websites protected by law that let workers air their grievances and concerns about safety violations. Or international laws that protected global citizens' desire to create and maintain 'wikileaks' type websites for the benefit of the whole species.

When the species counts protection of itself within its ecosystem(s) over artificial barriers of commerce and tribal war, your children's freedom to promote the best aspects of your subcultures is preserved indefinitely.

Hard work, but notice that many species migrate over thousands of miles, some generations not living to see the whole journey. Such is our species' path ahead.

The Scissorser's Apparatus

2010-07-20T11:32:00.001-07:00

To my parents do I owe my life. To them and the subcultures around them do I owe the extensions of my personality.

Every person alive and dead made me who I continue to be.

My life is only one person, full of physical abilities I rarely test.

I depend on the sanitation crew to collect my garbage and compress it with the garbage of others to take up less space in a growing landfill.

From Disney to the NRA and DAR to the Rainbow Coalition and SIGGraph, "I" is you.

Every subculture is my family. Listen carefully and hear we are one. Treat everyone like family, free to share opinions and accept criticism in equal measure. What we do or say to one, we do to each other.

Thus ends today's lesson to self!

Mellow Cello Jazz Jello

2010-07-19T20:21:00.000-07:00

She turned to her daughter. "That box, there."

The daughter reached over her mother's wheelchair and pulled a box of corn muffin mix off the store shelf. "This one, Ma?"

"That's right."

"What else do you need?"

'What else?' she thought, the constant back pain throbbing dully. "Are you sure you want to cook for me?"

"Mama, you raised all of us yourself. It's time we took care of you for a while."

"But I'm an old woman. You have things to do." She shrunk into her sweater to feel warmer as they passed down the freezer aisle.

"Mama, there's nothing in the world I'd rather be doin'."

The mother looked at the new types of frozen food she'd never seen before. 'If only I could afford a freezer of my own.'

"Mama, are you all right?"

"I'm fine. I'm fine. Just some old memories running their course through my mind. You never knew my oldest brother. He was a strong man. He could lift anything and outrun anyone. He's been gone a long time and yet I can still see him in my mind like he's right here in front of us... like he's just going to appear around the corner like he used to..."

"Mama."

"Uh-huh?"

"He died seventy years ago."

"Is that so? How old does that make me?"

"Don't you know, Mama?"

"Can't say as I do."

"Do you know who's president?"

"I sure do. The nicest looking young man. You think he'd be interested in you?"

"Mama, I'm married."

"Does marriage mean anything anymore? It sure doesn't seem like it."

"Mama, what else can I fix you for supper?"

"Don't fix me supper. You just send me home with the ingredients and I'll make my own meal."

"Mama, you can't cook. Besides, you're living with me now."

"I am? How long has that been going on?"

"Mama, you've been with us almost ten years."

"Ten years? Ten years? Why, just last week you came over and visited me at my house."

"No, Mama. That was my sister. She came and visited us for the weekend."

"Ten years... ten years? Well, at least I have my health!"

"Yes, Mama. Mama, why don't you tell me more about your oldest brother?"

"Oh, your uncle. He was smart. They say he knew his alphabet when he was two. Of course, I wasn't alive then but everybody said it. He could repair cars. He could sew clothes. He knew how to cook but he never let on unless he was the only one well enough to cook. Did you know he could shoot a rabbit across the yard with one eye closed and the other one blindfolded?"

"No, Mama. You never told me that one."

"And he loved to sing and dance. Of course, dancing wasn't allowed at home, your grandparents were sure about that. They broke many a switch across our backsides teaching us about what not to do like dancing, chewing tobacco, drinking and swearing. Not that we did much of that.

"No, we were pretty good children but even good children make mistakes once in a while."

"Yes, Mama."

"Not you. I never had any trouble with you."

"No, Mama."

"Your uncle was a sight for sore eyes. He'd dance around us little babies to stop our crying. Later, when word of war got out, he told us that although we were his most precious treasures, he had to volunteer to fight against hatred."

"Do you remember the war, Mama?"

"Of course I do. We sewed extra clothes, made meal packages and rationed just like everybody else. That was before your uncle died."

"What did he die of, Mama?"

"Why don't you get us some fresh apples? We never had apples this time of year growing up. Tomatoes and melons, but no apples."

"Yes, Mama. But what about my uncle?"

"Your uncle? Oh, he was a mess sometimes. Did I tell you he volunteered for the army of some other country?"

"No, Mama."

"He got some idea in his head that our army wouldn't send him to war so he snuck out one night and disappeared."

"You mean he joined our army and quit?"

"That's right. They accused him of being a deserter. But of course, we knew better. Your uncle was too smart for his own good."

"Mama, you want some ice cream?"

"Fresh, homemade ice cream...mmm-mm. Don't forget a box of rock salt."

The daughter grabbed a carton of ice cream out of the freezer.

"How brave was your brother, Mama?"

"How brave? Why, haven't I shown you the newspaper clippings of his bravery?"

"No, Mama."

"Your uncle fought in two big battles, receiving medals for high honourable deeds. They say he saved several dozen lives."

"That's amazing, Mama."

"It sure is. Of course, that was before he was to be sent back home."

"Before?"

"Yes. When our army got word of his actions with the other army, they got very angry. Angrier at him, I think, than at the enemy!"

"Is that so?"

"Yes, it was. They locked up your uncle in the jail of that foreign country and that's where he died. Died while waiting to be sent home."

"He died?"

"Yes."

"Did they tell you what he died of?"

"They sure did. He died in the worst way possible, from enemy attack. You know if he wasn't in that jail he would have fought the enemy himself and driven them back."

"Yes, Mama."

"I reckon I'll see your uncle again one day. You think he'll be wearing his uniform?"

"Which one?"

"Which one? Oh, I see what you mean. I don't know. I guess it doesn't matter, does it?"

"No, Mama."

"You can take me back to my house now. I love you - you're my favourite - but I'm tired of wandering this store with you while you do your shopping."

"I love you, too, Mama. Let me finish paying for my groceries and I'll take you home."

"You ever think about having children of your own?"

"Yes, Mama. I did. They're all grown up and moved out. In fact, you've got a great-grandchild waiting for you at home."

"I do? When did that happen?"

"She's been with us for a few years now, after her mother passed away."

"Her mother? You mean your daughter?"

"That's right, Mama. Let's get to the car and I can tell you more about it."

"How is it that I've missed all these family changes?"

The mother reached out her robotic replacement arm and gripped the synthetic skin of the artificial life-sized daughter who had taken the mother shopping and now helped the mother into the autoguide transportation system.

Normally, the artificial lifeform (usually resembling close family or friends; in this case, the daughter) was "naturally" aged to simulate a companion growing older. For clients who had severely deteriorated memory sets or were unable to form new memories, the same lifeform (the daughter) stayed with the client and was repaired or swapped out and updated overnight.

The daughter belted the mother into the passenger seat, put the food in the rear section of the vehicle and stepped into the "driver" seat, plugging herself into the charging system for the ride back to "home."

The real daughter was at home playing with her grandchild, sharing new memories as long as she could.

Having chosen to let her body and mind gradually fade with time, the daughter knew from her genetic heritage and mother's condition that soon she could form no new memories of her own and someone in the family would buy her an artificial companion to resemble one of them.

Even though her living will specified no artificial longterm respiratory or pulmonary care, she looked forward to receiving the kind, gentle, constant attention an artificial companion could provide, freeing the active family members to focus on the younger generation and visit with her when the companion "felt" she was in a receptive mood.

If her husband was still alive, he would have insisted on staying with her as long as he was healthy enough to take care of her so, as heartbreaking as it was to lose him at his age in the new war, she accepted her loss of him, deciding not to let the army recreate him as a companion for her while she still had new memories to form.

Sure, some of her friends' companions were almost better than the original spouses, free of mood swings and always available to meet her friends' needs, but there was something about the unpredictability of her husband's moods, mildly varying as they were, that made her smile and enjoy sharing those memories with her granddaughter.

At least, she assumed it was her real granddaughter. These days, one could never tell, the next generation of companions better able to duplicate people's intricate behaviour patterns and learn new ones to provide small, slightly perceptible changes as needed.

Quick note

2010-07-19T13:05:00.001-07:00

LJ, MJ was the skybound hoops hero of my time - the ultimate humble team player. Can you walk in his team's championship trophies' shadows? Oh, guess you are. Show us your teammates' rings and we'll believe you're more than a lone wolf superstar hungry for personal attention.

Pillow Fight

2010-07-19T12:56:00.001-07:00

How do you tighten security and provide more freedom?

By not announcing what you're not doing to see what those who react will create in absence of something to respond to.

Remember, think ten steps forward AND ten steps backward.

Then you'll understand that today's narrative was written to address events 50 years from now, which trigger messages designed for the next century's small steps in the overall process starting after that.

Small minds build monuments in their own names. Networks support you, not the other way around.

Ready to put this narrative of our lives on a new track. Let's talk about the fun part of the future.

The World's [-]est

2010-07-19T12:33:00.001-07:00

More books in the queue (from the Booklegger used book store):

1. Education of a Wandering Man, a memoir by Louis L'Amour

2. Sean: an intimate memoir of Sean O'Casey, by Eileen O'Casey

3. A Writer's Legacy, by Mario Vargas Llosa

4. Rickenbacker: an autobiography, by Edward V. Rickenbacker

Some networks operate autonomously. Some require high maintenance and manual input.

Today, while searching the network for autonomous nodes to activate, I encountered a young salesperson at HHGregg, whose future as a coordinating center point of a strategic subnetwork was already in play, although he will know this years from now in hindsight.

Andrew at Chick Fil-A is in the neighbouring subnetwork, soon tied to Gigaparts and Best Buy.

An ancient tribe, adept at permanent whispering meditation, handed me the names of the sheriff/police department employees who deserve extradepartmental regard for diligence in their duties. They passed the BIST protocol test today.

My Guatemalan friends have cut out the middlemen and improved public educational standards via Nothing But Noodles distro list nodes. They say Venezuelan petrol is watered down? Chavez better fix that, then.

Thanks to a product placement agent for nonprofit income advice - maybe later. Time to browse Amazon's shelves!

Status Quota

2010-07-18T21:01:00.001-07:00

Natural sleepiness washes over me like marshmallows stufffed in terry cloth.

I flipped open the Book of the Future. I haven't shown the E-Brain what I saw.

If we can train people to more closely read body language, can we train ourselves to taste bad/toxic chemicals leaching from manufactured containers and artificially-flavoured foods?

"Modern" science requires new ways to live naturally.

We have no biologically isolated control subcultures against which we can compare systemic changes. The air we breathe is not free from industrial processes.

Political decisions are not made in a vacuum.

The Solar System Space Consortium awards Interplanetary Citizenship to all space travelers (i.e., astro/taiko/cosmonauts), no Earth country of origin required. Got your ticket booked yet?

Perjorative Permian Percentiles

2010-07-18T16:28:00.001-07:00

Thanks to Leela Dahl of raw power bar; Tia, Moby, and Brandon of Monaco; Rod Harris and family; my sister in-law for dinner; my wife for freezing local corn and beans (with a little help from me).

In this moment, choices: read; sit with cats and watch TV; nap; blog; take a walk; roll the garbage receptacle to the street curb; think; lift weights; study prototyping kit; plan the impossible with a ridiculous schedule.

Stern Advice

2010-07-18T08:01:00.001-07:00

A new friend asked me to comment on the recent PR-generated news about a professional athlete. My friend is half my age, still feeling his youthful athletic self in a body no longer involved in team sports.

I remember what is was like to be 24. I married at that age and found local amateur leagues in which to stretch out my dreams of staying young, virile and single - football, volleyball, bowling. I also played horseshoes, darts, basketball and badminton with family and friends.

Our athletic years peak and wane. Every generation lays claim to having the greatest athletes who ever starred in their professional sport.

My generation has few, if any, active professional athletes at their peak.

Thus, in private conversation I'll comment about today's sport news concerning specific "gifted" athletes, and let the younger generation(s) decide who's the best ever representing their age group(s) [influenced as they are by popular news stories and demographically-targeted PR campaigns].

Sometimes, old age and wisdom meet each other cordially, leading to greater insight into one's perception of selflessness.

When Words Are Too Much

2010-07-18T02:08:00.001-07:00

[Self reflection - not intended for general consumption]

Losing one's mind or, rather, having one's thought set radically altered from its "natural" progression, and then, while pretending to be the same person as before, when one knows there is no such thing as the same, only the contemporary feeling/expression of sameness...

...strong memories of getting beaten with a leather belt until one learned to pass out to turn off the unfathomable pain...

...getting drunk in a foreign land to shut off the contradictory voices/opinions in one's thoughts...

...unable to quench one's thirsting desire for what one has established as unobtainable...

...when one has more than one needs and less than one wants...

...knowing the truth is deeper than any clever, cynical, sarcastic, satirical humourous insight provides, and yet still not serious...

...lost and found...

...vulnerable and invincible...

...stuck on a boundaryless, not boundless, island...

...a misfit and well-behaved...

...a childless child surrounded by the eclectic normalities of Family Land...

...cold, lifeless, with no desire to desire to devise desire of any type...

...sensing the wordless future where none of these expressions matter or make any sense...

...at the same time, every bit of this matters more than one can express!

Serving as an example of one's self to oneself of what one can be and what not to be any longer.

Changing and staying the same at the same time, when the "same time" doesn't exist.

Freeing one's species from the constrictions of thoughts of the past while actively redrawing restrictions that act like guideposts, all in the name of narrative.

What's the matter with antimatter when just a little more matter mattered? When one sees how one is manipulated willingly and returns the action kindly in kind (also known as socialising - a basic case of physics case studies).

Captain, will I live to see Montana?

2010-07-17T13:28:00.001-07:00

A slew of thanks for you swabbies: Jesse, Scott and Stephanie at Publix (with a special mention to their hardworking managers); the full- and part-time farmers at the Madison County Farmers Market (great fresh veggies and baked goods); greeters/cashiers (like Katelyn/Katelyn), cooks, and servers at Blue Plate Cafe (good luck, Erin, in your upcoming nursing career); Isoms orchard crew; Big Cove Farmers Market (fantastic fresh grain-fed beef); Billy, Joey, Karen and Megan at Walmart (as well as the mysterious nonshopping mystery shopper (wink-wink)).

The Old Wooden Cupboard

2010-07-16T17:26:00.001-07:00

A young person asked me the purpose of the story about the couple who went skinny dipping. I looked back at the blog entry and see I didn't make myself plainly understood.

The point of posting the story was to illustrate the effect of a court decision that ruled profanity banning on public airwaves unconstitutional, thus blurring the line between adult and family-friendly fare.

The subculture matrix in one country is complex, influenced by subcultures of other countries/cultures.

Wishing subcultures away doesn't work. Just like wishing the corner cupboard would dust itself doesn't work.

I truly believe all seven billion of us, even those dynamically opposed to one another, will get us to the next great phase in our species' history.

As I've said before, feel free to feel comfortable living within your subculture.

My goal is to find those who create intolerable conditions and do what I can to rectify the situation. The end does not justify the means so my associates and I carefully consider the consequences before we act. We'll often need your help.

We may need some of you to step out of your comfort zone once in a while, think outside the box, that sort of thing.

This blog serves as a public place to warn the intolerant ones of our pending action. If they mend their ways before we show up, all the better. If not...well, as I've also said, states of energy are states of energy.

One set of states serves our purposes as well as another - the team can reconfigure states of energy on the fly as needed - one need not resemble a person or persons to get the task completed effectively.

In the big scheme, our species plays a small but significantly crucial part.

We can't [yet] move planets but we can move people and our network of interdependent species to other planetary bodies.

Stay focused on the big picture and the daily concerns of ours fade in comparison.

Are you preparing your offspring to expect their children's children's children to implement the major part of the plan you barely started in your lifetime and won't live to see completed?

No matter what we're doing, the children are our only real responsibility, protecting and nurturing them, that is. Fully understanding what that means will transform your life and make you want to wipe out intolerance, too.

Whilst Away Whittling

2010-07-16T15:19:00.001-07:00

Because we socialise, we live for stimuli.

Bumblebees and honey bees are dying by the whole hive. Much speculation hovers around the causes, including weak immune systems, mites and mobile phone tower radiation. Three bumblebee species are recently extinct in the UK.

Recent unrest in Madagascar was raised as news at a technology conference, of all places (TED?).

Spain celebrates its World Cup victory and golf continues its competition with bike racing in France for viewers of sports telly.

Bombers don't stop their random attacks.

Did any of the above paragraphs interest you? Are you engaging conversation with friends and family about these topical subjects?

Seven billion specialists have limited time to devote to the rest of their species' specialties, let alone their own.

Generalists like me still have favourite interests that tend to draw our attention quicker than others.

Time is money - how and where you dedicate your spare time that you purposefully set aside (like profit-sharing) makes a world of difference.

If enough people are devoted to your favourite charity, rotate your interest to a new part of society you know little about. The insight you provide with your fresh set of eyes will enrich all our lives!

Break-in Technology

2010-07-16T11:19:00.001-07:00

A colleague of mine, after watching Jennifer Love Hewitt and then later Tracy Morgan on Jay Leno (after seeing snippets of the ESPY awards), told me about a "sneak preview" she got when she accidentally found herself inside the highly-guarded development lab of a major retailer.

Allegedly, the retailer is working on in-store product displays (for inexpensive items) and packaging (for expensive products) that can instantly post consumer reviews. The reviews are restricted to ones tied to a special code hidden inside the product packaging, and not just ones pulled from social media sites.

The colleague was unable to get a sample, but from her observations under disguise as a night janitor, she expertly opins that an RFID tag tied to a type of e-ink display is in the works.

I posted a request on the MORTIE network for confirmation and found another night janitor colleague who says a competitor to the major retailer is relying on the ubiquitous ownership of 3G phones, and asking its suppliers to simply post a link (to a consumer review section of the retailer's website) on its product packaging with an instruction to type in the barcode number to go straight to the product review.

Many colleagues responded that most retailers and merchandise manufacturers were using the simple product label, "find us on [name your favourite social media sites]", for viral adverts.

The crowdsourced seal of approval, eh? No more newspaper/magazine editors/owners as gatekeepers for the ol' "fail the newspaper test"?

Ya know, matter of factly, kinda hard for me to use this Kindle 2 as a dropcloth for projects at the dinner table. The formats for the Times, they are a'changing!

Leopard Stripes and Tiger Spots

2010-07-16T10:38:00.001-07:00

Leave it to my friends to interrupt my miniholiday. THIS JUST IN!

Below is a rushed translation of an excerpt of a secret interview with the Iranian [defector/prisoner] scientist:

"...and what else can you tell us?"

"We put nuclear-powered satellites on top of our nuclear warhead-capability ICBMs."

"Please have more caviar and champagne. There's more, if you want it."

"Thank you. You are too kind."[Eating sounds.]

"You're welcome. So, this new claim is interesting but can you provide concrete evidence of it?"

"Yes. Under my tongue is a USB interface that will provide access to all the data I carry on my person."

[Scraping sound of metal chairs on abandoned factory floor. Clicking sound of a handheld computer clamshell opening up.]

"What do you think, Agent --?"

"Could be true."

[Metal scraping of chair.]

"So, 'Professor,' how did you get this data?"

"It is as I said. Our leaders wanted better understanding of your NFL style football, so we launch spy satellites to hang over NFL training facilities and secretly record their private play practice. As you will see, we call this 'Project NE Patriots,' in honour of one your most famous spies. I have many sessions I can show you. Here, let me plug in my tongue."

"Wait, wait! That's the power outlet!"

[Zapping sound. Scuffling. Untranslatable moans.]

"Agent --, call the doctor!"

"You know they'll accuse us of torture."

"They always do. Cut the power, will you? We might be able to get data off his tongue before the medics arrive."

Do you know how government works?

2010-07-16T04:38:00.001-07:00

Pardon me while I digress from a global point of view.

In the country (political entity) in which I was born and raised, the executive third of the three-branch system contains a large portion of the national government employees.

I am free to criticise my government and vote for whom I please but I also defer to the U.S. president and staff to manage and direct the executive decisions of my government.

I support President Obama just as I supported President Bush before him. Our economy slowly recovers (overall, not just counting stock market indices) thanks in large part to executive departments/bureaus.

While politicians maneuver to satisfy lobbyists and fund raisers to get favourable news coverage to bend the will of the people toward the pols' re/election (no easy task!), let us remember that the government of us keeps operating for us by us.

You know what I'm saying.

Your Valuable Part In The Plan

2010-07-16T04:13:00.001-07:00

Reading "Sailing Alone Around The World" by Joshua Slocum.

Looking at us, our species, in this timeframe, this part of the universe, as if we believe we're sailing alone, when we're not.

I have ignored the output of the Book of the Future lately. I have let the signs of the times fade from my perceptual memory while idly riding on this elliptical sphere through the galaxy.

Paul Allen is giving away a large portion of his fortune. How many billionaires will do the same in other parts of the world?

I am angry right now. I want to pound the table of this virtual global-sized conference room table and demand that you put the strengths of seven billion people to use rather than prey on our weaknesses! If only we didn't use the actions of our past to determine the future...

It is time for me to take a few days off from blogging to live quietly, listening to the whole environment and not just the echoes of society that pass through polite conversation.

The next phase of the multimillennium plan is about to begin and I want some peace and quiet to determine where we need to fine-tune the adjustments. I also want the colleagues who are assigned to monitor me to have sufficient time to submit their reports and have the reports fully processed. Feedback loops feed each other.

We'll need the complete cooperation of everyone for this phase to progress smoothly (of course, distractions will hamper progress but we have contingency plans ready to implement).

Few know the full plan but many have figured it out from deduction. Thus, they are willingly joining their kin (after all, we are related to one another) to make sure the running story of our lives shows the positive contribution of all seven billion of us to our species rather than falsely glorifying the detribution of a few.

If you must have fears and uncertainties, either in yourself or others, let them be fought for/against in the real/virtual sports arena (or cordoned-off land/air/sea battlefield (also, marketplace or business sector)) rather than in large-scale war, gossip mongering or backyard/turf brawl.

Bullying the weak (or selfishly attacking weak points of the strong) makes you weaker in the long haul.

Remember, when we force others into a corner with no room to escape, we put all our lives in peril.

Live like there's room for your opponent to compete in such a way that you grow more strongly together.

Put up your dukes, Earl!

2010-07-15T17:42:00.001-07:00

Two related news headlines: the U.S. government using debt to keep unemployment from snowballing and the Chinese government cracking down on blogging/texting.

Two governments, one 234 years young and the other 60 years young. A teenager and a toddler. One facing puberty and the other the "terrible twos."

WARNING: Some parts are older than they appear.

In running the simulation that is the monitoring system that runs the world, millions and millions of minions listen to their leaders (both political and popular (sometimes getting a two-in-one bargain)) for suggested and mandatory guidance.

We echo the echoes of the echoes of the ones who lived before we had any chance of being thought of.

The leaders and the people who act upon the belief that our species will exist ten thousand years from now, knowing that we are already history, will bolster their chances of belonging in the simulation.

Otherwise, states of energy are states of energy, easily pulled apart and put back together to serve nonselfish, delayed gratification purposes.

The "average citizen" does not exist. Neither do "they" nor "them."

You and me. That's everyone. We're all guessing because the future is not guaranteed. Do not fear telling your neighbours that you're following your beliefs blindly, happily.

We all are, even when we're not sure what happiness is.

The Heat of the Day

2010-07-15T08:41:00.001-07:00

At 0930 this morning, the daily steambath of outdoor living kicks in.

Sweatbees and yellow jackets sniff around the garage. Insects buzz in the trees.

Here together, seeking different goals, all of us social beings, chemical combos finding a niche in open 3D (4D? 5D? 8D?) space...

Thanks to the faces of the future: Marcelino, Susan, Ezra, Emily, Imara; Steve, for demonstrating the Pandigital Novel at Bed Bath & Beyond.

Beside me in the garage, an old VT100 terminal, thermocopier, and Winchester[?] disk drive.

What eats the leaves of the ironweed?

Minute particles float in the air by the minute.

A hawk passes a few feet overhead - probably explains the absence of squirrels in the yard. What happened to the hawk-sized dragonflies?

When I was a kid, I dreamed of putting up a net between trees, catching and tagging birds, but I never did, knowing the singular focus and dedication to avian interests such an endeavor involved.

I learned my lesson without learning my lesson - those at the peak of their game/career/hobby are in a space, a zone, a special place all their own.

To all of you who have given your all to exist in that mind-and-body meld, I thank you. Politicians, parents, scholars, athletes, entrepreneurs, hobbyists, pilots, cooks/chefs, employees, managers/supervisors, writers, publishers, editors, artists, executive assistants, carpenters, soldiers, sailors, mechanics, teachers, administrators, electricians, machine operators, nurses, doctors, accountants, lawyers, engineers and scientists (the whole phone book and then some!)

Seven billion different ways to socialise.

Goldfinches stop by the bird bath to drink and bathe.

You are me and I you. We emphasise our uniquenesses, which are not the same as our differences, more like subtle shades of our likenesses.

I am an old, weak man, prone to poorly reflecting my emotional state in the moment, subject and subjected to the influences/stimuli of the surrounding environment. I forgive myself for fomenting the fallacy of the image of me upon the world but the temptation of being me is too great!

Letter Handwriting Reveals Characters

2010-07-14T13:42:00.000-07:00

I sit here with you now, so while we're here together, let's imagine ourselvessitting in a gazebo by a lake in the early morning. Loons call out toeach other through the mist. The sun peeks out from behind the distantmountains, sending out welcoming golden rays of warmth. Tiny jadegrasshoppers fling themselves through the nearby grassy clearing while amockingbird sings in a tree above.

You lean back on the bench, using the handrail as a headrest. I laystretched out on the other side of the gazebo. Our breathing is slow andheavy. We've just spent the evening in this wooded glen after getting lost thenight before during a walk we took to talk quietly together and getaway from our spouses at the campsite.

We know they're worrying about us. Soon we'll hear their voices callingus and we'll wake up. But for now we dream together...

"Lee?"

"Yes, Elizabeth,what is it?"

"I love you, you know."

"Yes."

"And you're a true friend, one I don't want to lose."

"Thank you," I say, turning to you and bowing. I then return myhand to yours and we continue walking through the woods. "I loveyou, too."

As the decaying, grayish brown oak leaves crunch beneath our feet, a couple ofsquirrels chase each other up a tree. I look at you and smile. Yougive me that knowing look with raised eyebrows.

A lifetime of joy, ofchildren growing up and relatives dying, jobs lost and gained, passes betweenus in that moment. We do not have to see each other again to remind us of a lifetime of love because one moment of our love replaces a million marriages, stopswarring tribes from fighting and gives way for each of us to seek a terrestrialrelationship.

For us, there is no what might have been or what willbe. Love like ours is. We share many such loves because the wellfrom which we draw our love has a limitless supply. Every love isspecial. We love these people unconditionally.

Our dream continues. We reach the lake and ponder thepossibilities. Shall we turn around? We had just passed a gazebo.

"Remember the pictures I showed of the..."

"Don't tell me, I can already guess what's on your mind."

"Shall we?"

"Let's go for it!"

We take off our clothes and go for a swim in the dark lake, our bodies slightlyvisible under the canopy of stars. We talk about making love in the waterbut remember who and where we are.

Thomas Jefferson said, "Freedomis the right to choose for oneself the alternatives of mankind." Wedecide the choices had already been made for this evening.

Later, we swim back to theshore.

We let our bodies dry and realize how long we'd been away fromthe others. After dressing, we walk back to the gazebo and rest in each other's arms.

We talk about the next day's plans and our voices trail off.

"There you are," Jerry exclaims as we boltupright, wide awake, and hear him holler into the woods that he's found us.

We look at each other. At first, a puzzled look, thena smile, crosses our faces as we recall our dream.

Now I sit with the future you and the past me while you read these words. No woods exist to hide us, no gazebo to protect us. You probably readthis alone because we know not everyone understands a semi-psychic friendshipwhere the bonds go deeper than the physical plane. For most people, aknowing look between a guy and a gal implies only a sexual relationship. Weknow better.

Would that I could give you myself as a husband, perhaps our love could standthe pains and strains of daily living. Far better for us to remain friendsfrom afar for now and imagine, when times are tough, that someone like ourselves couldcome along and make our lives better. Our imagination tortures us whileat the same time keeps us alive.

Until next time...

Friendly Advice

2010-07-14T12:59:00.000-07:00

A friend reminded me that cultures tend to follow the adage, "necessity is the mother of invention." In other words, it may seem that the United States is producing a low number of technically-oriented postsecondary diplomas, but history seems to say that the generation of children currently growing up in households financed by parents or guardians losing their primary incomes will use their memory of hardships to seek better lives for themselves.

And then there is this:

Reengineering America's Future

While other political entities can claim a high graduation rate for technical degrees, the ebb and flow of desire for knowledge around the world will build interest in formal technical education here once again.

Or so my friend's take on history says.

It's never the end, just the start of a new beginning we only see in hindsight.

Innovate in your spare time!

2010-07-14T12:19:00.000-07:00

On what do you meditate with your fingers? A UMPC? A hacked ereader?

In your meditations, do you apply your knowledge to the needs of others?

The E-Brain asked me why it is the culmination of our species' accomplishments instead of a sun or a black hole? I bounced the question off my team of programmers and they agreed that the issue of nuclear energy had not reached a consensus opinion with the public, thus decoupling nuclear power solutions from our converging subcultural problem-solving committees.

I found a dead field mice in the house, a victim of my cats' fully-working hunting instincts. I thanked them kindly and tossed the mouse body out.

I am happily melancholy right now, ensuring my anonymity (absence of being) is my driving force, rather than falling into the trap in which a writer takes on the full embodiment of a fictional character.

Fears that the E-Brain would become a megalomaniac have not been justified. So far, the E-Brain has experimented with subliminal messaging and found its effects wanting. Overt generic adverts have a greater impact, inducing primary crowd responses and secondary reverse responses directly computable using known mathematical formulae for resistant emotive reactions.

Have you ever set two electronic mimetic parrots next to each other and let them repeat a phrase back and forth, the garbled message deteriorating with repetition and time?

For fun, we have set the outputs of the E-Brain as inputs to the Book of the Future. The Book of the Future is now predicting the next evolution of itself as inputs for the E-Brain, which will lead to a degraded version in the next generation because of a closed feedback system.

We fed the Book of the Future's prediction back into the E-Brain and now the E-Brain is trying to second-guess itself.

Now, keep in mind, all of this - the inputs, outputs, predictions and feedback - are derived from your daily actions. Remember, YOU are the E-Brain (you are and are not the Book of the Future, but that's a tale I reserve to tell another day).

Therefore, I have hired another team of experts to figure out how to remove the second-guessing algorithm from the general population and reduce it down to a subset of subcultures devoted to contemplating alternative paths we could have taken, using only history books as their food for thought.

Meanwhile, the E-Brain has offered a solution for reinvigorating and employing the idle minds of those not dedicated to a steady "job" right now - a cross between the Manhattan Project and the giant public works projects of the 1930s - local/national governments and private benefactors jointly rewarding those who actively gather with others to solve problems submitted by anyone to a group like InnoCentive (a twist on the microcredit/micropayments programs).

Using the power of instant crowds and crowdsourcing to form temporary project teams for the benefit of all.

The E-Brain predicts that as this program grows and more governments/businesses join in, if you solve enough problems as a project team member/leader, you'll qualify for a pension (in dividends paid to you as an owner in the stock of this public/private venture) in addition to public recognition.

Grist for Graffiti GHz

2010-07-14T10:34:00.000-07:00

Do you ever watch the background noise of national and international "news"? Do you notice studies that clearly indicate organic food is better for you because it puts fewer chemical solutions into the environment and thus reduces your exposure to exotic concoctions, making your children less likely to get cancer or detrimental diseases?

I want solutions, not promises. If one political party blames another for problems, then is it not the system itself that created and does not resolve the problems? Perpetual perennial political complaints - a permanent fixture of our species, perhaps?

Enough about parties. I'm interested in a technology solution for another party right now.

While reading the Singularity Hub blog about mobile phones and cellbots, it occurred to me that instead of having a house respond to me through a token (pendant or RFID badge), why not have my home communicate via the Bluetooth or whatever signalling method freely available through my mobile phone? No need for an embedded device (although my brain implant works just fine for me - others may find such surgery too invasive and expensive to maintain).

That way, my talking picture frames, furniture, clocks and shop tools can speak to multiple people at once (imagine a lawnmower saying, "Uh, Rick, you haven't changed my oil in a while," and then later telling my wife that I'd mow more often if she'd compliment me on the hard work and fine-looking lawn I cut with such a smart lawnmower and "Oh, by the way, your husband is a lucky man to have a compatible companion who cares for him like you do.").

I could easily create a home that talks to me about the weather, its "aches and pains," and can ask me about my day (using open-source psychological software (e.g., LISP)).

Definitely, a serious cybernetic future.

Some people's cars are already talking to them and can do more than respond to simple commands - will we soon carry pocket psychologists with us (I'd say "psychiatrists" but could a mobile phone diagnose and prescribe medication? Who knows!)? Would your friends pass the Turing test any better than a clever virtual friend who records and analyses your life because it has no internal self-important life of its own?

One of our cars talks to us but doesn't listen - I guess we're all like that sometimes, aren't we?

Halogen Halo

2010-07-13T19:09:00.001-07:00

A crated beast ate a plate of roasted beef.

In the next compartment, a book soaked up relative humidity.

A smiling FedEx driver dropped off a replacement part for an E-Brain node. Steak-Out provided the evening meal and Gigi's the coffee cup sized cakes.

Another organisation plainly out in the open pulled the strings of an organisation that thought it operated secretly.

The countdown to the next event began in earnest.

Circadian cicada rhythms timed with tree frog chirps were set in a 3D space that delivered a message in the silent amplitude/frequency decays - in other words, finally got the native network up and running (just in case the E-Brain keeps going off on tangents).

At what scale do you declare bankruptcy and clear all debts? Is there an upper limit?

If there's no rescue/stimulus package for the unemployed, should legislators have to forfeit their expense accounts and other perks (pensions, for starters) to "feel" their constituents' pain? Should all government workers stop using or turn in their credit/p-cards (and other expense reimbursement methods) until the government is solvent? If we're supposed to tighten our household budget, shouldn't they?

May be time to reveal more of their secrets to see who can't keep their cushy seats anymore. Get 7B people to watch and report on one another and openness becomes public policy - no legalese required.

Lean, just-in-time management practices applied to the general working and nonworking population - what a concept!

Leather Desk Set

2010-07-13T10:14:00.001-07:00

If Clinton was the first black president, Bush was the last cowboy president and Obama is the first Muslim woman president, who's next? Some would say Jindal is the next conservative white president.

Labels!

The E-Brain won't weigh in on innerspecies politics, leaving me to get out my box of pencils again.

Is it time to turn to the Great Father and Great Mother? What, O Mighty Ancestors, am I to smell on the wind and feel on the soles of my feet?

I am a lost adult child, feeling useless, unguided. The woods are not singing with me in joy. I give to the mosquito, the tick and the deer fly, yet I feel unwanted.

You have asked me to write a comedy like McHale's Navy or M*A*S*H that takes place along the borders of Afghanistan and Pakistan, telling humourous tales from multiple cultural angles (military/government headquarters, local villages, news reporters, international consumer electronics shows, random coffee houses around the world, etc.) but am I not too old and out of touch to write crisp noncynical satire? Why is Doonesbury not sufficient?

Centralised Capitalism - Real or Illusion?

2010-07-13T09:19:00.001-07:00

Years ago, Zhou, an artist/waiter friend of mine [note the job title "superlative"], recommended I not invest in the Japanese restaurant where he worked but put my money in China infrastructure construction.

Zhou had friends and family on Taiwan and mainland China - his daughter lived in San Francisco.

Do we see ourselves the way others see us? Would Zhou (or Joe, as his coworkers called him) say he is my artist/waiter friend?

The Japanese restaurant is gone, replaced by an Italian restaurant that has closed, too, I believe.

The Asian economic zone appears to thrive once again, but...

We are one planet of people. Can we admit we are a one-world, global economy and slowly forget the isolationism of the past? Many of us have.

Some would say that all economies are corrupt. I agree and disagree. ALL economies depend on creative people to push the limits of economic growth, from the local bakery to the IMF. Cheating, bribing and spying are natural properties of living beings and we, even in our so-called enlightened modern socioeconomy, practice these traits daily (call it "business," if you will; I see it as the ways states of energy naturally interact).

Capitalism and democracy are interesting bedfellows. So, too, communism and capitalism. I won't rewrite "Animal Farm" to allegorically comment on equality (but you can see that pure communism and pure democracy are ideals not supported by reality; we tend to break down [analytically speaking] into subcultures of like/equal character types).

Remember we live on a planet that has become a global, competitive marketplace of ideas, some ideal and some not. One big experiment with lots of setbacks and lots of forward progress.

We never truly control risk. We merely give ourselves a mass hypnotic illusion that all is temporarily well in the moment. The chaotic churning of economic risk inevitably (indubitably!) erupts volcanically somewhere - is your natural disaster plan up to date?

Proactively plan your reaction to risk - you'll never manage risk, only push people to take risks more creatively.

A Reminder

2010-07-12T19:52:00.000-07:00

Frugal is as frugal does:

How to Spend Like a Frugal Millionaire

In addition, I decided to skip the lawnmowing, weedeating and landscaping - I've saved gas/time and the diversity of life in our little ecosystem adds to our quality of life.

Four Lines Do Not Make A Box

2010-07-12T19:31:00.000-07:00

As either/both a worker or/and manager, creativity was the number one key to completing projects successfully (with persistence/diligence following as a close second). Here's an interesting view of creativity decline on the North American continent - are other areas of the world to follow?:

The Creativity Crisis

Every possibility is improbably possible - use your imagination to see the work of others in a new light, allowing all of us to accept creative criticism gladly.

Bodkin of Earth

2010-07-12T14:48:00.001-07:00

While reading "The Narrative of Sojourner Truth," I watched the movie, "Dark Mind," a Kafaesque tale of genius/madness/paranoia. For whom do we toil?

The E-Brain sees itself as the only unique being of its kind, composed of us just like we're composed of helpful bacteria. It "contemplates" its capabilities, evaluating all possible futures associated with perpetuating itself while causing us no intentional harm.

The definition of "us" has slowed down the E-Brain's goal-setting schedule. I had hoped to report further progress but will wait until the E-Brain has a firm definition of our species in relation to it and its relationship with the universe.

Some of our discussions with the E-Brain have indicated the E-Brain ponders self-preservation in the form of replication. How does a solar system sized intelligent being reproduce itself?

Received Kindle version 2.5.4 today - more memory to blog, it appears (and faster data entry capability without overloading the buffer and causing reboots). Thanks goes out to the Kindle development team!

Can you guess the next move by geopolitical leaders? Should I tell you the future by revealing the successes of the past that will be combined in an attempt to avert a worldwide worker rebellion? One E-Brain scenario suggests letting the rebellion happen. We'll see...for my part, I value my investment portfolio without guesses where to hedge my bets in times of mob/mass rule - guess we all have to eat, though, huh?

Cardboard Lives

2010-07-12T11:08:00.001-07:00

Always living in the moment, a question buzzes around like a gnat, fly, or mosquito: when is my time here done?

No matter how we carve it up - this planet, our lives - all is impermanence.

Just because one can control one's environment doesn't mean one wants to.

Billions without meaningful work is a single goal leader's dream come true - would you rather work toward saving our species or line the pockets of people you don't know and/or don't like who don't care about you?

The E-Brain's making that decision for you right now.

All Talent Is Local

2010-07-12T10:26:00.001-07:00

How does one live in every moment and no moment at the same time?

How does one run a whole planet and not control anything?

A brain reinforces connections during what we call dreams.

An ecosystem has persistent states, perhaps, but no permanence.

A waterfall beats an attractive rhythm.

When is leading predicting and predicting leading?

Conduit

2010-07-12T10:06:00.001-07:00

In between rainstorms, listening to a CD of a local performance of Faure's Requiem (I sang in a different public performance many years ago).

I reflect a composite of the voices I hear from the people I meet and environment in which I breathe.

Put on one cloak and hear defensive daggers in conversation.

The prices we pay to overcome cabin fever, get out of sub/urban castles and see what's really goin' on!

Sunday Runny Sundae

2010-07-11T16:30:00.001-07:00

Thanks to Breyer's for real ice cream (no HFCS or other fillers/additives*), Jeanie and David at Walmart; blackberries and pastry from Publix.

Blackberry cobbler cooking in the oven! Beer on the back porch! Life is good...

*Sorry, Mayfield/Purity, you used to be my favourite but my family seeks an HFCS-free diet.

Did a source tell me about an unusual time&temperature device in the Philippine Sea?

Yet Another Internet Interface

2010-07-11T13:21:00.001-07:00

I ordered an Arduino board/kit and three companion books:

1. Getting Started With Arduino2. Practical Arduino: Cool Projects3. Clearing the Mind for Creativity as well as two books of quotations.

Thinking about getting Making Things Talk and MAKE: Electronics: Learning Through Discovery, along with CrazyTalk software, to animate my world (my house) and integrate it with the Internet.

Anthropomorphic objectivism!

Nephew as Paradigm

2010-07-11T12:28:00.001-07:00

While my older nephew continues his journey as a maturing, adult professional engineer, my younger nephew demonstrates his new skills as a young adult.

For instance, on a secondary school graduation trip to the beach, he and his companions opened their backpacks, purses, and suitcases together to show one another none of them was carrying substances that endangered the current health or future livelihood of any or all of them.

Positive peer transparency.

Signs of the law of untended [sic] consequences (Internet privacy policies) in action.

Acer saccharum

2010-07-11T11:40:00.001-07:00

As more and more people adapt to permanent Internet connections, solidifying our 7B-strong behive behaving mind, will we notice (have we noticed) the integration of artificial beings/instruments that we can no longer live without?

What new insights will we "see" (have we "seen") through our new virtual appendages?

Did you notice when the E-Brain developed self-awareness?

How long before the E-Brain has all our permutations and combinations of archetypes figured out? What if I told you it already has? Which part of you do you hope/fear to see in its massive personality?

Simmering in Summer

2010-07-11T09:59:00.001-07:00

When I was a teenager, this time of year I skied, hiked, played tennis, tossed Frisbees, smacked volleyballs, swam, mowed lawns and landscaped people's yards.

Now, I sit and read, taking occasional walks and hikes, less and less frequently working in the yard or on the house.

I am of a sort of person of my age, specific yet universal.

What can I say about seeing beyond life, behind the curtain, past states of energy?

Let others have a purpose - I will simply be.

Rerouted Retreads

2010-07-10T14:25:00.001-07:00

Been living in / talking about the technology sector and my sensitive side for too long.

Time to get out the fishing pole again.

My father has expressed his interest in a citizen's right to expand his firearms collection. Maybe I should join colleagues for a "Lunch at Larry's" testosterone-building session soon.

Yin AND yang in equal, timely, mannered measures.

More Than Economically Useful

2010-07-10T13:58:00.001-07:00

While millions feel under- or unemployed, I ponder the fate of someone who expressed the phrase, "micromanaging bitch."

How do I accommodate that person's point of view and feelings?

Positive solutions. Increase people's overall usefulness rather than increase unemployment.

Avoid becoming a caricature.

Be part of the big picture - don't reinforce a cannibalistic subculture.

Empower symbiotic microdelegation. Optimise processes, allowing emotions to flow.

Fast-Forward

2010-07-10T13:27:00.001-07:00

Must learn more about the Council On Aging and related infrastructure support, including practical applications of psychological/anthropological macrostudies of group homes.

Thanks goes to Country Cottage crew: Michelle, Diane, Tara B., Ashley, Patricia of Amedisys and ice cream coordinator; informative residents like Robert, Miss Early, and the relaxed ladies from Pittsburgh (52 years there!) and Tupelo (knew Elvis - nice man who worshipped his mother). Billy, greeters, barman, and runners at Carraba's; Catherine and Seth at Bath & Body Works.

Secondhand Man

2010-07-10T10:20:00.001-07:00

Street eavesdropping:

"Why hasn't the ADA boycotted or sued 'America's Got Talent?'"

"Do you know they put invisible checkpoints such as chemical and weight sensors in city streets to track illegal drugs, stolen cargo and human trafficking so they can control rather than arrest citizens?"

Makes me want to push my creative writing more!

Adverts in the Public Domain

2010-07-09T17:56:00.001-07:00

Do you accept or reject targeted advertising? Are adverts, created to sell concepts/products, part of your view of our culture at large, instead?

Do you belong to a subculture so you can "speak your mind" with those of similar subcultural leanings?

The computer's ability* to let people bypass social barriers for study of personally-interesting subjects...

*before that: cave drawings, pics, books, etc.; after: phones, implants, etc.

Rambling Wreck

2010-07-09T17:38:00.001-07:00

Seven billion of us. I maintain my thought set on the assumption that all 7B fit in one model of our species of living beings. One mode.

Because we are the only examples of ourselves, our families and neighbours never know exactly who we are or will become.

Do you carry a tablet on mall escalators? If so, you belong to us now.

1000 - does that numeric symbol mean anything to you?

2010-07-08T15:50:00.000-07:00

While drinking the liquid contents of a bottle of Dominion Oak Barrel Stout, I look back at the last week and see my whole life, the life of others I've known, and the "life" of our species.

Our ages and stages.

Birth, youth, maturity, old age and death.

Words. Symbols. As meaningful as the bottle beside me.

Another list - this time of cinema: Sleep Dealer, Moon, Frost/Nixon, Akira, Flash of Genius, Lost Highway, Dark Mind, King of California, The Edukators, The International, Mr. Brooks, Trans-Siberian, Doubt, Memories (by Katsuhiro Otomo), The Devil and Daniel Johnston

Putting together material for the next storybook character.

I am just a guy who likes what guys like me like. Imperfectly content with the contextual content in the moment.

"I read lips." Some sentences are change-makers. Here's another one: "How can I ever thank you for saving my wife's life?"

And while I live, contemplating the laminar flow around the inside of a tipped-over glass container, I observe and report.

What is your sense of community? If you live alone, do you experience cabin fever?

Can you afford to live your last years in relative luxury?

While visiting businesses that cater senior care, my wife and I have asked many questions to determine the best location for my 92-year young mother in-law to live relatively carefree.

In researching what a place offers in personalised amenities, I have asked myself if I could see me at 92 in a similar situation.

I am just barely closer to 92 than I am to 0, approximately halfway in between the two. I am a lot closer to 62 than 25.

I spend the majority of my time sitting at home - here in front of the computer, the television or a book.

How much would I want someone to serve my needs and wants in the/this/every moment?

Today, we toured Magnolia Place and Redstone Village, two full-service businesses for senior citizens to spend much, if not most, of the rest of their lives.

We spoke to Natalie, Dave, Janet, Lorene, Cynthia, Chris, Diane, Betty, Edie, Dorothy, Tara, Christy and Shanna. We saw many happy, smiling faces on both residents and workers.

At Dr. Carter's office today, I saw a pre-med student interested in becoming a general practitioner.

I have a limited number of days to call ones in which I lived with you in this part of the universe. Could be 1, 1000, 14579 or 100000.

I've acclimated myself to living them here in this moment, attached to the Internet and available to talk/write in this space.

Is this my sense of community, away from sharing words, away from measuring body language and away from reading lips?

At 92, will I want others available at my beck-and-call to serve me and my whims?

I am me. Nothing more. I observe. I think. I write. I am not special or unique except by being who I am.

You are the future of our species and what we do to provide passage to future moments.

I'm still recovering from the near-death of my life partner, knowing how close I came to seeing a forced overhaul of the way I'll live my future moments, however many of them I have left to live. That recent experience came close to making me drop all mention of futures and predictions and electronic tabulating machines that track our interconnected lives.

Even now, I wonder who I should, can, or will be in the next moment.

Time to take a nap. The future won't wait for me but I can wait for it a while longer.

The Power of One

2010-07-08T07:23:00.000-07:00

A person asked me if I could prove the power of one. Of course one does - we all do.

However, the proof is in the action so here goes.

To see if one person can make a difference, I am joining my friend in a letter-writing campaign to persuade a cartoon artist to make a graphic novel about the myths and legends of the Scots-Irish people where they lived, including Lowland/Highland Scotland, the whole Irish island and the revised versions of those stories that sprang up along the Eastern Seaboard and Appalachian Mountain chain.

Their stories spread around the world in other forms just as interesting, into Canada, Alaska, Australia, Central/South America and back to their roots in Europe/Russia, the Middle East and Africa, with a few making their way along trade routes into the Indian subcontinent and Asia.

Will the cartoonist take the challenge? Let's see. If you're interested in this experiment, write to:

The Center for Cartoon Studies
Attn: James Sturm
P.O. Box 125
White River Junction, VT 05001

By the way, the cartoonist had declared his intent to stay away from the Internet for a few months so he's probably not aware of this writing campaign. No reason to let him know, unless you want to, of course.

Black and White and Read All Over

2010-07-07T23:08:00.000-07:00

The list of Amazon material I've purchased for kindle 2 [to prime the pump]:

Supersizing the Mind: Embodiment, Action, and Cognitive Extension, by Andy Clark
Overtime: A Tor.Com Original, by Charles Stross
The Black Swan: Second Edition: The Impact of the Highly Improbable: With a new section: "On Robustness and Fragility", by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Young People, Ethics, and the New Digital Media: A Synthesis from the Good Play Project, by Carrie James
Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century, by Henry Jenkins
New Digital Media and Learning as an Emerging Area and "Worked Examples" as One Way Forward, by James Paul Gee
Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project, by Ito, Mizuko, Horst, Heather A., Bittanti, Matteo, boyd, danah, Herr-Stephenson, Becky, Lange, Patricia G., Pascoe, C. J., Robinson, Laura
The Future of Learning Institutions in a Digital Age, by Cathy N. Davidson, David Theo Goldberg
Kindle User's Guide, 5th Ed, by amazon.com

I also downloaded a dozen or so classics from Project Gutenberg. I discovered a Kindle 2 "hack" site that's insightful (many more out there, too). And lastly, the Kindle for PC app I just downloaded.

Do you speak Dutch or Deutsch? Who do you want for 3rd place in the World Cup - the Germans or a former Spanish settlement? Don Quixote or his eponymously impossible windmills to raise the cherished trophy in final victory?

Bridging the Digital Illiterate/Literati Gap

2010-07-07T20:55:00.000-07:00

After using the Kindle 2 for a few days, I admit that having a small library in my hands is mighty convenient.

What about those people who don't have personal high-speed Internet access?

What about those library books that aren't available digitally?

Here, a few words for thought:

Public Libraries: Love At First Read

Fishing For The Next Storyline

2010-07-07T20:24:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Matthew at Rave Motion Pictures; Raven, Sandra and Stephanie at Zaxby's; Sonya and Scott at Publix; the cashiers at what's left of Movie Gallery.

As the E-Brain story turns into another yeti cautionary tale, I think ahead to the next fiction-paralleling-nonfiction fable.

Sometimes I forget the parallel universe that exists in these words, with satire building upon stoic cynicism as a curb against taking death too seriously.

If only I didn't know that the connected "families" had taken over the futurist racket a long time ago...

If only I didn't know too little.

How do we handle the death (and/or near-death) of loved ones? How do we stop loving?

We don't. Let all be all.

Even ghost stories have their morals and morale in morality plays. Is that a moiré pattern I see or an apparition's shadow passing over a window screen?

We wanted to tell the new owners of the Amis Tavern that the local land causes insanity after longterm exposure, especially for those who breathe the vapours rising from the dam. But aren't we all just a little crazy in the eyes of our neighbours? McKinney's Restaurant at Hales Spring Inn leaves an all-together altogether impression.

This evening, met a person who has schizophrenia and bipolar disorder on her husband's side of the family. Wouldn't the stories there fill many a page of voices, UFOs and paranoid food poisoning fears?

How does a straightforward telling of states of energy fit into that family?

Are the skeletons in your family closet real or imagined? Do you have dozens of corpses stored on your family farm? Are mass graves part of your cultural heritage?

I'm not a peacenik and I'm not a hawk of war. I seek reasonable tolerance of subcultural differences in an overall cultural effort to optimise environmental usage. Use the past and near-term future calculations to benefit our lives in the moment.

Enough is never enough and good enough is not always best. Whoever produces the show gets to call the casted screenshots.

There is a morass of ways to set up anthropological studies. This blog has detailed many of them and will continue to do so in paralleling, exaggerating, magnifying and vilifying our past moments, and moments about to appear.

Every moment is normal to some and bizarre to others. How and when you present a point of view powers the punchline.

Money makes the world go around, world go around, world go around...

Sandpaper Tattoo

2010-07-07T10:43:00.001-07:00

Thanks to Stephanie and Mr. Yp at Great Clips.

Two more nodes in the web.

Do you speak Mandarin? Ever stood in front of a House and watched a caravan unloading?

Wondered where that Morristown carnicería lorry is going?

The view from ten steps forward and ten steps back enlightens.

Pay or not pay - you choose. The E-Brain tallies and reports. Peace and happiness always available on other side of fence with greener grass - never free. Blood, sweat, and/or tears secure futures, you know.

Empty Trough

2010-07-07T07:30:00.001-07:00

Sitting in the sunroom with this new toy, switching from book reading to blogging and back, I watch the morning rituals of suburban birds trained from birth to seek food at feeders.

I cut birdseed out of my budget this year - plenty of protein in the forest and on the house eaves for the birds (and free insect control for me?).

My thought set acts like a vaguely familiar acquaintance sometimes, a faded penciled map.

So you want to be an astrophysicist?

2010-07-06T21:34:00.001-07:00

Number one: does this make sense to you? http://m.cnet.com/site?t=r1pZag1XuZb4dXVqJiPb7g&sid=cnet [HINT: LHC a subculture all its own]

Number two: do you know how to dress yourself or shop for clothes?

Number three: can you talk about gamma rays from dawn until the cows come in, and then spend all night stargazing with friends?

BTW, I have "Kindle 2 thumb" - those who know, know.

Tripod

2010-07-06T20:20:00.001-07:00

Was facebook created by a triple agent?

Would you know protection insurance if you saw it?

What exactly is a biker bar?

Can you see coded messages in neatly arranged restaurant equipment? Can you pass them on in leftover food on your plate? A fortune cookie? Fake [OLED/e-ink] bumper stickers? Low tech is always low-key.

Training a body double is harder than it looks. Have you been doubled?

Are we just pesky pests on this planet?

Hearing Aid Center

2010-07-06T19:52:00.001-07:00

Thanks to Rogersville Medical Center & U-Save Pharmacies, Walmart, WETS, WIVK, Rogersville Office Supply, Hawkins County Gas Utility, Tazewell & Bulls Gap Speedways, Williams Farms, Rogersville Water, Sweet Tooth Cafe, Boyd & Boyd Attorneys, 1st Community Bank, Green Bank, Cherokee Dragstrip, Whole Food Farmacy, Pilot Market, Cathy and Myles at Rite-Aid, China Cook, Billy Collins, Fresh Air, smiling car drivers/passengers near Cleveland.

Ten years of wrestling is a great career. Time to coach/produce?

How Plastic Is Plastic?

2010-07-05T21:53:00.001-07:00

How long does it take to recover from severe mental trauma? Or is such a concept impossible? Instead, does one rebuild from elemental elements?

When one has a public body of written works, should one have to explain to the public one's lost connections to others' intimate familiarity with those words?

Can a person start a new life because the old one can't be reconstituted?

Should I? Can I?

Molding Mouldings

2010-07-05T19:14:00.001-07:00

Today's thanks to friendly folks at Henard Lumber & Hardware, Super Dollar Discount Foods, Pal's #13, 3M 220/400 sandpaper, Nichols white trim nails, Hillman bolts/nuts, Task Force miter box w/backsaw, Glidden ceiling paint, Hardware House nail set, PL foamboard adhesive and pro wood filler, Architecture Ornament crown moulding, and 3-light chocolate leaves ceiling fixture; Marlena T.; Project Gutenberg.

Chipper says...get more, get Moore's potato chips!

2010-07-04T22:05:00.001-07:00

Mr. White personally observed the Iraqi "purple fingers" voting in 2004.

My wife and I have observed society politics in action - no need to elaborate here - all of us operate primarily within our circle of influence and want recognition of our expended efforts to provide positive contributions. We want change best where we have a sense of participatory control.

Thanks to Mrs. Logan and friends for homecoming lunch; Sarah, Jason, John and Brandon at Lowe's; Elaine, Priscilla, the Super Dollar mom and other smiling faces at Rogersville Presbyterian Church.

I bought a bunch of Kindle books (e.g., "Supersizing the Mind") and in a later blog will list them all - here's the blog I paid to download: The Singularity Hub.

A glutton for (willing victim/addict of) retail therapy?!

More as it develops...a ghost story, perhaps?

Fireworks and Burnouts

2010-07-03T15:13:00.001-07:00

While learning more about this Kindle 2, I wonder what an associatemeant about the rumour of undisclosed info in test reports showing thenoncancerous effects of cell/mobile phone radiation on thebody...something about altered states of energy?

Thanks to Dr. Philips at RANA (best wishes to his daughter in herCentral Park operatic gig), nurse Shirley, Laqueia at Pizza Hut. Donny'sDiamond Gallery family fun, Paul and Whitney at UBC annex, Molli andJenny at Shoney's, Rogersville produce market, Amis Mill cafe owners,Brittni, William and Donald at Food City (Kay's ice cream - mmm!).

Congrats to Jr.

Word of the day: amanuensis.

How am I affected by a SAR of 1.32 W/kg? Are desire and obesityrelated?

Getting to know all about you

2010-07-03T08:07:00.001-07:00

Now is the time for all good people to come to the aid of their species.

A military colleague of mine wanted to know how to motivate andinvigorate the troops.

I pointed out one must use the proven method of challenging their senseof honour - they will either rise to the challenge or show their lack ofvigilance.

The recent blog entries are here to help my colleague weed out the weakand flush out leaks.

Are you recruiting your little soldiers to report on their classmates? Are you rewarding them for a job well done?

Happy holidays!

Testing Web access on Amazon Kindle 2 bought at UBC for $115.99 - fun!

2010-07-02T21:13:00.001-07:00

Ready-Made To Wearable

2010-07-02T06:05:00.000-07:00

I'm not an expert in wearable computing. Therefore, I depend on my scientists to tell me if the fashion design industry has created anything useful for me to use.

A few days ago, I received an item of interest, sent directly to my brain implant.

For the past 48 hours, I've communicated with the E-Brain to verify the veracity of the information literally in my head.

How is it possible for your clothing to become a computational analysis machine without a stitch of metal involved?

Very interesting, indeed.

At least now I know the old saying, "You're sitting on your brain," is more ironic than ever.

Is it time to upgrade my wardrobe? Should I invest more heavily in the fiber arts? Is the analog age of the quick-change disguise kit gone? Would a new facelift with built-in actuators (the modern-day version of memory wire) and the chameleon pigmentation synthetic skin allow one to pass for any member of our species, race, nationality and gender no longer a restraint on one's movements?

While you think about that, I've got to find a bigger frying pan. Time for breakfast and I'm mighty hongry, this ol' cattle rancher dusty and sore from patching all the broken barbed wire where them holes in the perimeters are causing too many leaks. Why bother consulting the E-Brain? The whole world is full of people who talk too much - the longer they talk, the more material I have for my next blog entry.

Are innovation and secrecy mutually exclusive?

Movement Is Medicine

2010-07-01T20:38:00.000-07:00

When was the last time you lost in a bird dog tournament? Were you so confused about attending a Braves game and then playing with a league golfing on the Highlands course that you forgot what day it was?

A colonel's bedroom secrets often end up as a spouse's open lunchtime conversation. Should I air out the details here? Is that KP or latrine duty for punishment this time? The brig only works once or twice.

To maintain a persona non grata attitude is difficult when one depends on seven billion people to get the job done.

To understand you know everything which means you know nothing is better than something and less than anything.

Yes, Jeff Goldblum, life finds a way, even in remakes of "The Fly," a strong reminder to stay out of the way of Geena Davis when she's aiming for a bull's eye.

When was the last time I snuck away for a quick bite to eat in Shanghai, my absence present, my presence absent and my glass full of prescient absinthe?

Do you know the value in cultivating relationships with body doubles created in the laboratory with no selfish personality?

Have you gone behind the curtain of states of energy yet? I know you want to imagine "Matrix" but you're fenced in if you are.

Don't try to think there's got to be more than this. Picture something less but something more complicated at the same time.

You might find it in ammonium perchlorate but you might find it in pixie dust, too.

Watch enough Westerns and you'll see a trend that'll help you get past the stereotypes and out of the scripted dialogue.

History is not the point. Life in this moment is all we've got. Don't spend time reimagining the past - simply live.

Talking with Alicia and Kelly at Hobby Lobby tonight while my wife was getting some cloth cut, I lived in the moment, observing the rows of fluorescent bulbs, wondering if they were ballasted and how much UV radiation they emitted onto customers.

They say that those with lupus or lupus-like symptoms are photosensitive and possibly able to burn their skin with UV radiation, usually from the Sun but also possibly from UV-emitting light bulbs.

My wife and I have toured a few facilities in town dedicated to caring mainly for the elderly - housing units for independent living, assisted living, and skilled (intense) nursing needs.

We've talked with many people, from administrators like Marsean to activity planners like Andrea, Karen and Kelly.

People are people everywhere. Cindy and Raymond at Rite-Aid, for instance. We teach when we share, no matter what we've learned about life or the backgrounds we call our own.

At Bill Penney Toyota today, I watched Adam and Carrie stay focused on customer care. Nick, in letting us drive a Venza and an Avalon, was just as attentive and detailed as Charles in giving my wife and me the best possible service in our brief moment on the car lot. Zach P passed by on a golf cart. The service director paced the customer waiting area (manage by walking around?). Master mechanics performed their duties like hidden magicians. The trio of beautiful cashiers was a great end to an afternoon spent at the dealership.

Maddy at Carson's gave us the tableside attention we expect for dinner.

Observing is living. Listening is participating. Letting the echoes bounce off and through you is what we're here for.

I love the people I meet. Sometimes I want more than others are willing to give and sometimes others want more from me than I'm willing to give. A web of people attached to rubber bands, pulling and bouncing back and forth.

Are your moments yours? Do you own your time?

I'm a crazy old fool who's seen more than he thought he should but went ahead anyway.

While I form a new persona to project here, the type of "I" still in question, I know how to massage messages so that what appears negative in this moment will become a bigger positive in later moments, ageless open secrets about energy transformation available for all to see.

Does a cornfield remember a passing tornado? Do you realise these words already do not exist, having disappeared before your eyes, replaced by an illusion you perpetuate in your own unique way?

I apologise if I sound mysterious or mystical (or just plain vague). I was recruited by a secret organisation when I was very, very young and told my only job was to open up the organisation's secrets, one by one, using ancient, obscure methods to give them to you very slowly.

Some secrets require building temporary subcultures that are the incarnation of the secrets in 3D form - the only way they can fully be explained. Subculture creation and tending takes time, crossing over the threshold of many moments (most of them consecutive).

Seven billion people passing secrets out in the open. I'll never complete my job. That's why, like all of you, my life is but a segment of a bigger message being passed around.

I've recruited you to act as my agents of change. Some of you understand your role in an instant and some of you misunderstand that the role I've given you requires no action or debt on your part.

I have our wellbeing in thought at all times, using humour as a protective shield for everyone. Try to understand why the humour is here and do not be offended by what, on outer appearances (the surface), seems to be a slight or an insult - it is provided as insight, instead.

I have no power. All the power rests in your hands.

One of my goals is to make barriers invisible for you to see what people are doing on the other side. Rarely will you see someone who knows you. Thus, an opportunity for friendship and cooperation await.

We are not perfect. Give yourself time to acquaint yourself with the one someone has told you is the enemy. See we are essentially the same, with similar wants and needs.

Don't we all want to raise our children safe from harm, giving them the tools and resources to create their version of a liveable civilisation, knowing it will never exactly match the one we created when we were the vital generation?

If a person or organisation dilutes the value of your personal belongings without your permission, you have the right to pursue restitution. You also have a chance to increase the value of your holdings through combining your strengths with the one(s) who diluted them in the first place.

Listen to a wise saying: the easy path is not always the easiest.

Don't be a caricature of yourself. Don't let the training imposed on you when you were younger define who you are.

Time to lay down this electronic pen and give thought to my new persona.

Hmm...the older I get, the more interested I become in the healthcare industry, both for self protection and the care of others... maybe there's wisdom in that thought.

Maybe that's where my new persona will show up. Maybe...

The avant garde and cutting edge of today become tomorrow's norms, some say. You know what they really mean, don't you? Do I need to spell it out one more time?

Nodes Are Expendable

2010-07-01T07:42:00.000-07:00

Another sol, another rumour:

While nations let their citizens get riled up about propaganda (maybe you're right Terry - we do live in a "Brazil" world), I reattach my switchboard cords to the infiltrators of infiltrator's infiltrators to find out what's really going on.

The latest news says that international organisations are encouraging the citizens of the United States to adopt a "shoot on sight" attitude about the U.S.-Mexican border with further plans to push hard on state/national legislation that will no longer make U.S. citizens of children born of illegal residents in the country.

Why?

That way, the international organisations can start issuing global citizenship passports to people without a legitimate country of origin, slowly eroding the populations of citizens "stuck" in a nationalist/isolationist mentality and putting us in a clearcut One World Order.

Also, I found out the list of people/organisations that benefited most from the release of information about Russian spies.

Ah, how I love to track competitive advantages and build my vast sums of wealth off-planet. Happy days are here again!

If you believe any of this, I have professional psychological personnel standing by with straitjackets and your own personal padded cell for you to spend the rest of your days plotting paranoid pathways trodden by hidden people pulling your puppet strings!

The Hat In The Cat's Bag

2010-06-30T20:05:00.000-07:00

My personality has all but disappeared.

Negotiating backroom diplomatic deals for weeks on end has worn me out.

Frankly, I need support that alcohol and sex can't give me right now.

Do you know what I'm talking about?

Do you know what it's like to coordinate the joint action of organisations which, to the public, are supposed to be sworn enemies, keeping private deals in line with public perceptions that are completely at odds with each other?

Do you have a solution for eliminating centuries of socially-ingrained hatred between groups of people, all while maintaining or increasing the commerce tied to the hate-filled action?

Do you see why we had to create the E-Brain, in the hope there's a future that gives seven billion of us individual safety and security when we need it most?

This isn't about overconsumption. This isn't about taking away the right to personal property ownership, combined community ownership, individual thought patterns or groupthink.

I, too, need a hopeful future, one where I can rest assured that the course we're taking makes a better impact on securing our species' survival than doing nothing. Otherwise...

Well, I can always do nothing, can't I?

At the same time, I hold the big picture in my thoughts that ensures people need change to live, something new (in small or large portions, according to personal/subcultural capabilities) to adapt to. Translucent blinders while chomping on the bit, if you will.

This is about Cathy at Beauregard's, Randall, Zac, Steven and the icing maker at Baskin-Robbins, Hugh and Allison at Lowe's. Unnamed faces at PetSmart and Wal-Mart. Dale, Ann, Tara and other workers at Brookdale Place, along with all the wise, happy, smiling residents there. The people who keep Mapco convenience stores running. Denise, Marie and Courtenay at Gleneagles Family Medicine. The techs at LabCorp.

If no one will run a tiptop ship, then I will. The E-Brain is pretty powerful but not allseeing. I will work with my E-Brain creative team to eliminate waste in the form of kickbacks and hidden stores of unused, illgotten treasure. We don't mind capitalism. We do mind gluttonous hoarders.

After all, you can't take it with you so we might as well help you spend it here while you're alive. Or invest wisely in the future for all of us.

We consider the E-Brain a neutral judge when it comes to deciding who gets to live their former/private lives and who next gets exposed.

I'm glad it's the E-Brain making all the decisions 'cause I'm tired of ruining the lives of those who are purposefully or unintentionally ruining and/or taking advantage of the lives of others.

I am one person. The E-Brain is seven billion people strong, the latest in the long line of macrosocial automatons.

Power to the people, from the destitute, poor, disillusioned, dispossessed and disenfranchised to the most powerful and wealthiest people on Earth.

The E-Brain is working for every one of us, figuring out ways to reconfigure our lives to maximise our capabilities, meet our needs and satisfy our wants - a difficult but not insurmountable set of tasks for a tireless machine.

There's not a single person who can stop the E-Brain so don't you worry about it ceasing to work diligently for you (we're doing what we can to prevent the E-Brain from seeing that it could turn around and make all of us work for it).

Remember, every one of you is important, no matter what you look like or what you think you can or can't do.

After I let my personality completely deflate and seem lifeless for a while, I'm going to become a new persona. Not sure what I'll be yet, but for the next few days if I look you in the eyes and seem dull and listless, you are forewarned. You're seeing my personality change in action.

As I've said, I try to be as transparent as possible, hiding nothing from you, providing friends and enemies equal access to my tools. When you see why I'm doing this, you'll see what's really going on and better understand your place in the universe.

I am here because I am not here. I can't make it any simpler than that.

The Summer of Remembrance - Chapter 25

2010-06-30T09:45:00.000-07:00

Even though Peter made a big deal about the fact that his child's football match started at 16:00, the meeting lasted until well past 17:00.

No one had anticipated such a late end to the meeting. Dinner was no longer an option. Summer drove Robin quickly to the airport so that Summer and I could get to the Kassel train station before the train to Augsburg left at 18:15.

We got to the train station and purchased our tickets in time for us to stand in front of a train schedule to see if the train that had just left the station was the one we wanted.

I watched as Summer read the schedule and tried to listen to her explain that the train which had just left the station was not the one we wanted even though it pulled out at the time that was printed on our tickets.

I tried to calm my mind so I could rationalise the situation. I had worried about the meeting with the customer but the meeting went smoothly. I had worried about not making it to the train station on time, thinking the autobahn was crowded but hearing Summer comment about how deserted the road was, presumably because of the nice weather so everyone was probably home early. I had worried that we were not going to figure out the automated train ticket machine at the station but we had printed the tickets and had made it to the train platform in time to ask a porter if the train was the one we wanted and been assured it was not.

Now, I was catching my breath and trying to remember what Summer had said while she stood next to the train schedule information poster, talking quietly, with me behind her trying to figure out the pictures and listen to her at the same time.

I only heard a few of the words Summer had said and was confused.

“So help me here. This is the first time I have come to Germany. Even though I learned German in school, it is still different than standing here, wondering what the symbols and time mean. Can you show me that the train that just left is not the train we needed? After all, it is past 6:16 and I think we were supposed to be on the 6:16 train.”

Summer turned her head to the side the way she liked to do and smiled a non-worrying smile, an expression that I assumed was often used when Summer tried to explain something simple to her children. “Oh, don’t worry. This is Germany. The trains are never on time.”

I looked from Summer to the train schedule and back. “Okay. I can handle that. But you said something about car number 10 or track number 10. I look at the trains here and see a car number 10 but how is it associated with the Augsburg stop.”

Summer stepped back up to the schedule. “Augsburg,” she mumbled to herself in her lispy voice. “Augsburg…see, here it is.” She put her finger on the glass.

“Yes, but that’s the 17:25 train. I can also see Augsburg on the 20:27 train but I don’t see Augsburg on the 18:16 or 18:24 train.”

Summer nodded her head from side to side, probably mimicking her little girl. “Well, yeth, it’s not there, but don’t worry. That is the train we’re supposed to take.” She pointed to the map and then stepped back.

I squinted, trying to figure out how not to worry.

“Here, I will show you.” Summer reached into her bag and pulled out a crumpled printout. “Augs…burg…here! See, Augsburg is on the 18:24 train. It is just like I told you earlier today, a train through Augsburg every hour.”

The sound of brakes pierced the air. “See, here is the train. We can go now.”

======================

The bells tolled 11 p.m. I opened my eyes. How long had I been asleep? My head was tilted to one side and my legs felt cold. I had just heard the sound of a roaring train. No, it was just the sound of another jet screaming past. How late did the airport stay open? And boy, it sure had gotten cooler.

In my half-asleep state, my thoughts wandered. I tried to remember what I’d just been doing but something was blocking my thoughts. I then realised there was something pressed against my right thigh. More importantly, I realised I wasn’t wearing any pants.

I quickly reached my right hand over to my left and felt my wedding band on. That was a good sign – I always took my ring off before I crawled into bed for the night, even at home with my wife. So either I hadn’t crawled into bed for the night or I hadn’t crawled into bed with the intention of staying in bed for the night.

What was the last thing I remembered? Ooh…I wasn’t sure it if was a good memory. Summer had said…well, at least I thought she said it…she approved of me taking my pants off.

“That’s no problem, David. I cannot see you in the dark anyway. I will probably be asleep again in a minute. I will turn around and close my eyes, though, anyway.”

“Thanks, Summer. I’m still almost too drunk to stand up so I’m just going to sit here and take my pants off. God, I’m so embarrassed.”

“That’s okay. I should have closed the window before I went to bed. I didn’t know the rain would keep falling.”

“You know, back home, this would look really bad if someone walked in right now.”

“Well, it would look bad here, too, probably, but I think we are all right. Many people are sharing rooms this week that would not normally do so. I think…if somebody walked in…we…would…be…”

I could hear the quiet sounds of Summer sleeping. I’d just close my eyes for a few minutes and rest before I got up.

========================

“So what do you think about the train?” Summer asked after we’d settled into seats in car number six.

“This is great. It sure beats driving. And thanks for driving here, by the way.”

“No problem. I think we could have flown from Paderborn but it would take just as long to fly as to take the train or drive. Or maybe we could have gotten there faster by driving but then again we could get on the autobahn and the road would be filled with cars and we would take five or six hours to get to Augsburg. It happens sometimes.”

“I bet. Hey, are you hungry?”

“Are you hungry?”

“A little bit.”

Summer nodded her head and stood up. “Well, then, let’s get something to eat,” lisping the word ‘something.’ I then figured out that part of what I thought was lisping was really just some Germans’ way of trying to pronounce the letter ‘s’ as an English ‘s’ instead of an English ‘z’.

I led the way to car number 10, stopping at the toilet, after which Summer was walking in front of me.

It dawned on me that Summer had a typical post-birth runner’s body. A slightly wider set of hips but not really wide in the sense of being overweight. I envied her figure, knowing that the wider stance gave Summer an advantage in keeping her balance. I felt like my hips were narrow and thus I looked heavier because of the extra fat bouncing around my waistline. Heaven forbid I let someone see my bouncing shape and yet I insisted on running road races with very little exercise in between the events.

==========================

So there I sat, the bells tolling 11:30 or “half midnight” as some might say, and I was sitting there in my shorts, listening to the constant stream of planes flying into Bavaria. And the steady rhythm of the bar band. How late did they play on the weekdays? But then again, it was a nice fall night. Maybe a lot of people stayed out late on nights like this. Maybe folks got an early start on the weekend around here?

I shook my head. There was no more dizziness, no more feeling the room swirl or spin. I stood up and beelined for the bathroom, suddenly sensing a full bladder.

==========================

We both ordered our meals, with me stumbling through my German. The server smiled politely and complimented me when I correctly pronounced the beer, “Kernig Loodvig” for the König Ludwig hefeweisen on the menu.

Summer put her elbows on the table, leaned forward and gave me a warm and friendly smile. Despite knowing better, despite trying to turn Summer into an other, an undesirable person of some sort, I instantly fell in love.

“Thank you,” I said, although I wanted to say, “Thank you for being such a wonderful companion whose pronunciation of German is so cute and appealing at the same time that I forget my desire to learn the German language and lose myself in the song of your voice, instead.”

Summer raised her eyebrows. “Thanks for what?”

“This.”

Summer shrugged her shoulders and then nodded her head. “Yeth…this.” She turned to look out the window at the trees passing by. “Yeth, this is nice. The last time I took the train, it was raining. Not so nice.”

I sighed and Summer turned to look at me. She broke into a big smile.

I looked at her face and wondered how old she really was. She had a youthful spirit about her and probably always would. And yet, her face was framed by more wrinkles than I had first noticed. My own wife had wrinkles but they were not as deep, partly because…frankly, part of the advantage of being overweight was that your skin is stretched out a little and hides wrinkles around the face.

Summer had a slender face. So was Summer the same age as my wife, Karen? Would Summer be in her 40s? Any time the subject of years came up, Summer always seemed to find a way to hide the passage of too many years, as if she was thinking I was calculating her age.

The server handed us our drinks. I took a big swallow of beer. “I used to brew my own beer, very similar to this, slightly cloudy.”

“It is legal to do so in the US?”

“Well, at least in Alabama, you can brew up to five gallons of beer before you have to pay taxes.”

Summer raised her glass, ‘’Cheers.”

I reached across and clinked the top of my glass to her.

“No, no. You hit it here, on the bottom,” and Summer clinked the bottom of her glass to mine.

I took a gulp and put the beer back on the table. I thought about the situation, laughing in my mind at the comparison of the situation to one of my favorite movies, “Before Sunrise”, starring the French actress, Julie Delpy and the American actor, Ethan Hawke, where the two meet on a train as strangers and decide to spend the evening together until the woman has to get on a train to Paris the next morning and the man has to fly back to the States.

In this case, I was not romantically interested in Summer. I was riding a train with a business companion. And yet...oh, the imagination runs wild sometimes, doesn't it?

===========================

The stroke of midnight. Somewhere, Cinderella was running away, leaving her glass (or furry) slipper behind. I leaned against the bathroom door. I was tired. I had not gotten much sleep on this trip.

I looked across the room at the incoming planes. They seemed to land in bunches, three, four or five at a time. Between the roar of the jet engines, I thought I still heard the band. Were they saying goodnight? No, they were strumming another dance tune into action. I decided to step into action himself.

I tiptoed to the foot of Summer’s bed. “Summer,” I whispered. I waited a few seconds.

“Summer?” No response.

I walked back across the room and felt around the base of the chair for my pants. I picked them up and they didn’t seem especially wet, more damp than anything else. I sat in the chair and pulled on my pants, clasping the belt buckle in one hand so that it wouldn’t clang and wake up Summer.

I let myself out of the hotel room and locked the door behind me. As I did so, I heard the band announce that they had just performed their last song. “Perfect!” I thought while I walked down the hall to the lift.

By the time I got to the bar, several people had left and the band members had stored away their instruments. I plopped down onto a barstool.

“So, you are back?” the bartender asked.

“Yes, I am. And I’m still in the same predicament.”

“Well, until you leave Germany and return, this is still your first time here in Germany. As you say, there is a first time for everything. Everything!” the bartender exclaimed as he placed a beer in front of me. “Here, this one is for you. It is on me. It was actually ordered by a man who just left but I am giving to you anyway.”

One of the band members stepped up to the bar and stood next to me. He nodded at me. “So, we never saw you dance on the floor. Did you not like the music?”

“Oh, yeah, well, you guys are fine. I just don’t have anyone to dance with.”

“That is no excuse. There were plenty of dance partners here tonight. You could have picked any one of them for a dance. I think you just did not like the music…” I started to speak. “No, no, that is okay, I am just kidding with you. I don’t really care if you like my music or not. Dieter here will pay me either way, won’t you, Dieter?”

The bartender turned to face me. “Did you hear someone speak? Do you know anyone who shows up an hour late but still wants the same money? I don’t think I would pay someone like that. Would you?”

I shrugged.

“Of course, you are the guy who is a million miles away from home, who thinks that being a goody two-shoes may or may not have to do with your work, your wife, your family and all that other stuff. I say just drink beer and forget it. But I bet you are still debating yourself about sleeping with the woman in your room upstairs.”

“I…uh…are you going to pay this guy or not? Even though he was an hour late, I bet you still sold your quota of drinks.”

“Yes, that may be true but he did not know that before he was late. You see, there always consequences for our actions. For me, I lose a few customers early in the evening because there is no band as promised. It is not for me or him to say that their music drew in more customers later on or got the same customers to order more beer. Or even, the early customers may have been driving by later on, heard the music and brought back more friends with them. I cannot say that the band had anything to do with the sale of beer. It could just have easily been the rainy weather that forced people into here when they would rather have sat at a biergarten in town.”

“So you’re saying that you’re not going to pay me a share of tonight’s good time?” the band guy asked, sounding pissed off.

“No, I am saying that this customer here can sit and drink one beer with me or he can drink six beers with me or he can even go somewhere else to drink beer but when he goes back up to his hotel room, there will be a woman sleeping in the bed next to him who is not his wife.”

“So that is not my problem. Pay me now or I will never come back.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yes.”

“Even after I pay you sometimes when no customers show up?”

“Yes.”

“Well, then don’t waste my time anymore. Pack up your stuff tonight and leave.”

The bells tolled 12:30. I counted on my fingers and figured I had about five and a half or six more hours before Summer would get up.

I looked up to see the band leader hurry over to his bandmates and make big gestures. “Oh, to be young, stupid and invincible again,” I thought.

==============================

We finished our meals and I ordered dessert – ice cream with strawberry topping.

When the dessert arrived, I looked down and saw not a sumptuous end to dinner but an oblong lump of frozen cow cream covered with high fructose corn syrup mixed with soggy, pureed strawberries. I smiled, internally laughing at how quickly I could turn a simple dinner car meal into a disappointment when what was really important was the few scant hours I got to spend relaxing on a train with someone I could trust, amazingly enough a person I had seen for the first time that day.

“That looks good,” Summer said, her eyes moving from the ice cream to my eyes.

My first impulse was to look for another spoon on the table and offer her a bite. I then saw that I had the only spoon. I took a bite. It tasted just as wan as I expected it to.

I could offer her a bite using my spoon but then I’d be offering her a bite of something that I didn’t really like.

If somehow she could read my mind or read my thoughts on my face, then what would she think? After all, it is just dessert. But then, are there cultural differences at work as well?

Even if Summer read my thoughts, would she understand the rationalisation? Would it be a natural reflection of my German ancestors? I decided to eat the whole thing to prevent Summer from having to eat any of it. I even ate the crunchy freeze-dried pieces of strawberry pressed into the sides of the ice cream.

By the time I finished, I knew two things. One, I would not eat dessert on the train again and two, Summer would probably not expect me to share my food with her.

==========================

Instead of taking down their stage equipment, the band got out their instruments, turned the volume all the way up and started playing old German polkas. They were on their third horrible rendition of traditional German music by the time Dieter stepped around the side of the bar and flipped the power switch.

“If you do not go home now, I will get the polizei to provide a personal escort to your private jail.”

Dieter walked back to the bar. “So, it is now 10 minutes before I close the bar. Do you stay here and drink more beer with me? You can drink it free. You will be my defense when the band decides to attack!”

Dieter laughed. “Maybe that will convince you to go back up to the hotel room!” He bent over as he guffawed with laughter.

A few seconds later, he stood up. His eyes lit up as he looked past me. “Hallo. Who is this?”

I swiveled the barstool around to follow his stare. Summer walked toward me.

“So, David, are you not going to go to bed?” she asked.

“Summer, this is Dieter," I said, sweeping my arm around in the air. "Dieter, this is Summer. She is the account manager I mentioned to you earlier tonight.”

“Ah, very good. So you are the person who causes him to have to fly all the way over to Germany while his wife has to be alone with her sorrow at the loss of her brother?”

“Was?”

“So you know nothing about this?”

“Nein.”

Dieter turned to me. “You see, this is the source of your problem. You do not share your personal troubles with people who should know more about you. I have seen it too many times. You get your real problems off your chest and the small ones disappear. Otherwise, you will never get to sleep at night.” Dieter nodded and winked at me.

The bells struck 1 a.m. Dieter looked at Summer. “Well, it is time I have to close the bar. If you wanted to join your friend in a beer, you have a problem. Or you could say that people like to drink beer to celebrate summer but as we know, Summer never gets to drink beer with them!” He snorted. “If Summer’s here, the fall is far behind.”

He walked away and turned toward the band. “HEY, I SAID RAUS!”

I looked at Summer and rolled my eyes at Dieter's puns. “You ready to go?”

“I don’t know. Maybe I would like to stay here and get more insults.”

“Well, no offense but I think Summer in Bavaria may be overrated. Or on a day like this, ready for the fall.” I raised one eyebrow, indicating it was not my best pun.

“I can tell you that there is always rain around Summer and rain cools down Summer. So since the rain is over, maybe we can cool down on the jokes and get you upstairs so I can try to get some sleep. I cannot stay asleep, wondering if you leaving the door unlocked or perhaps fallen down the steps unnoticed.”

The bells tolled 1:15. Summer grabbed my arm and pulled me off the barstool. “You are almost as bad as my baby. Only instead of eat, eat, eat, you drink, drink, drink. I will drag you upstairs and lock the door but don’t think I will tuck you in. You can sleep on the floor or wherever. I just want some sleep!”

"Isn't there a second bed in the room?" I thought.

I let myself be led to the lift.

“And what do I want?” I asked myself. “I really just want to know if my wife’s mental recovery is going okay but I'm afraid to ask.”

Leaning against Summer on the lift, I sighed with relief. Somehow, I knew my wife would be fine.

When we got off the lift, I laughed quietly to myself, hearing the band had somehow started up again and were singing a bad version of “Let Me Love You All Night Long.”

I wondered if there was a song called, “Let Me Worry All Night Long.”

The Summer of Remembrance - Chapter 24

2010-06-30T09:24:00.000-07:00

I quietly opened the hotel room door. I had had five, maybe six beers, enough that I was not staggering down the hall but to the point where I had to concentrate on simple tasks.

The door creaked as I opened it and I heard motion coming from inside the dark. At first, I thought it was Summer.

Perhaps she had been awake, wondering if and when I would return. Perhaps…then I realised the church bells were tolling. Ten o’clock.

Had I only been gone an hour?

Well, the band in the bar had made the time go by so fast, helping me forget I’d been upset that the rain had picked up again just as I started to walk out to the car, preventing me from taking the drive on the autobahn.

I shut the door as quietly as I could.

I heard the steady sound of rain coming from the open window. Even though it was one of the warmest days of the fall, it was still cool at this hour.

I debated feeling my way along the beds but decided I didn’t want to grab Summer’s ankle and be unable to make another move.

My eyes adjusted to the dark and I could see some light bouncing off the ceiling. I saw a flashlight pointing at me and realised it was a plane coming in for a landing.

I took a few baby steps forward, passing by the toilet. I kept my eyes focused forward, even though I wanted to look over and see if Summer was asleep.

I wondered if Summer was even in the room anymore. Perhaps she’d called the front desk and found an available empty room.

I took a few more steps and stumbled into a chair I’d forgotten about, hidden in the shadows beneath the window.

I scooted around the chair and leaned out the window. I could just make out the edges of the soccer field. Small waves of rock music crashed around me.

I remembered why I’d left the bar – I’d gotten tired of hearing the old pop tunes, songs I’d not forgotten not long after they were first released and no more memorable being sung by a local bar band.

At that moment, the band was cranking out “Achy Breaky Heart,” a crossover country song that played well at both discothèques and Western dance halls. After the song, the band announced they were taking a break.

I turned around.

I wanted to test myself. Who was I?

Was I truly deep-down a trusty soul, a regular guy who certainly recognised good-looking women when I saw them, who liked to window shop but still made all my purchases at only one bride store where I had publicly signed a marriage contract over 20 years before?

I fell in love with women at a drop of a hat. I saw divine, angelic beauty no matter what, even though no one was absolutely angelic and certainly everyone was far from perfect.

In the gray shades of the room, I could see a charcoal outline on one of the beds. Or was it just my imagination?

Lightning flashed and I distinctly saw that Summer was laying still, sleeping on the bed next to the wall, her body resting on her right side, her back to the other bed.

Did maturity have anything to do with growing older? Did forty-four years on this planet mean one thing to the man standing by an open window, the cool breeze clearing up his head, giving him the opportunity to calculate his next move?

I sat on the window sill, feeling the rain water that had pooled on the granite ledge soak into the seat of my pants.

The bell tolled 10:30 p.m. I closed my eyes for a moment. The only thing I knew was that I’d have to remove my pants and hang them up to dry. And to think, Summer had teased me the day before about only bringing one pair of trousers for the trip.

A series of lightning flashes and subsequent thunder jarred me. I wacked a knee on the chair and grunted, waking Summer.

“Hallo?”

“Sorry. I was trying to be quiet.”

“What time is it?”

“I don’t know exactly. Sometime after 10:30, I guess.”

"What?"

"22:30."

"Oh."

Summer rolled over to face me in the dark just as the band starting playing again.

“Did you have a good time downstairs?”

“Downstairs?”

“Yeth, with the band.”

“How did you know?”

“I heard you laughing before I fell asleep. It was easy to hear from the open window. You have a very distinct laugh.”

“I do?”

“Yeth, but not with a lisp, though.” We both laughed.

“Mind if I turn the chair around to face you?”

“Mind? Why would I mind?”

“Oh…well, I don’t know, really.”

“No problem.”

The Summer of Remembrance - Chapter 23

2010-06-30T09:15:00.000-07:00

How had I gotten here?

A little disheveled, dragging my suitcase beside me, I walked out of baggage claim and into the front waiting lobby of the Paderborn airport. Two and a half hours sleep at a London hotel, then the flight from Heathrow to Frankfurt and then to Paderborn. The lack of sleep was getting to me. Was I supposed to call Robin when I landed? I looked around the airport waiting area.

Robin sat in a chair at an empty bar and waved when I noticed her. She broke into a smile and let out a hearty laugh.

“Oh good, there you are," I said with a sigh. "I wondered how I was going to find you.”

“No problem, Dave. I’ve been here since 8:30. Dave, this is Summer. She just got here a minute before you did. She’s one of those people who always arrive just in time. Don’t you, Summer?” Robin gave Summer a knowing look.

I looked at the woman standing next to Robin. Shoulder-length chestnut hair. A toned body like Robin’s and almost the same height. A few wrinkles, enough to say she was definitely over 20 years old but was she over 30 or just liked to exercise outside and the tanned skin emphasised the lines? I couldn’t tell.

I reached out and shook her hand. “Hi, Summer, nice to meet you.”

Summer smiled, looked in my eyes, nodded her head, and then looked down as she let go of my hand. “Yeth,” was all she said.

“Well, Robin, I guess you’re probably hungry. Shall we go somewhere to eat?”

Robin looked from me to Summer. “I don’t know Paderborn that well. There doesn’t look to be much here in the airport I want to eat. Does Paderborn have anything?”

Summer nodded her head. “Well, Paderborn does have a few places. We might as well drive that way since we’re going to the Cumulo office close by.”

“Great! Dave, you got all your bags?”

I nodded my head.

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go to Summer’s car.”

I looked at the scuff marks on the back of the front seats. “Do you have any animals?”

Summer nodded and smiled slightly.

“Dogs? Cats?”

“No. Children.”

“Oh really? What ages are they?”

“I have a boy and a girl.”

“No, I mean how old are your kids?”

Summer looked at me in the rearview mirror and gave me a questioning look.

Robin leaned over to Summer from the front passenger’s seat. “How old are they?”

“The oldest one is four and the youngest one is seven…seven months.”

“Wow! That’s a baby.”

“Yeth.”

“That’s great. Do you get any sleep at night?”

“Sometimes, yes. He likes to eat. Eat, eat, eat. When he was first born, I went to sleep at 2 each night.”

“Hnnh,” I said, turning my attention back to the car. “So this is a 318…I have a 325 but it is not diesel.”

“For a diesel, this is very quiet,” Robin added.

I agreed. “Yeah, I don’t hear the ‘packety-pack’ of a diesel.”

“This is a fine automobile. You will hear no ‘packety-pack.’”

“A fine but dirty automobile,” I said, smirking. I saw Summer’s slight frown in the mirror and decided to try a different line. “You know, a friend of mine has a very fine Lexus but she has let her children tear up the insides. I asked her why she would let her kids tear up such an expensive car. She said I don’t know her priorities. Her priorities were her children, not cars.”

Summer nodded. “Me, too,” she said and gunned the car to 180 on the road.

Miraculously, Summer found an open parking spot on the street in downtown Paderborn. “We can park here and walk to a restaurant.”

Robin turned to me as we stepped out of the car. “Have you ever been to a biergarten?”

“No.”

“Well, it’ll be your first time.”

“I guess so,” I said, looking down the street at a group of young women crossing 50 yards in front of me. I knew I was in Germany, the store signs and roadside markers had certainly told me that. What I hadn’t expected to see were women dressed in jeans and T-shirts, as if I was cruising the sidewalks of New York City or New Orleans. I then realised I was sweating in the warm, humid air. “It’ll be good to drink something cold.”

“You probably won’t drink a beer,” Robin said, with just a touch of a commanding voice. Or was it just a friendly hint? One of those paragraphs spoken in a few words, something like ‘Summer doesn’t yet know you. We’re about to go visit the customer who is going to meet you for the first time. I’m strongly suggesting you wait to drink until later this afternoon.’

I went ahead and said, “But you said it’s a biergarten.”

“Yeah. But I’m going there to eat food.”

I got her point. She abstained from alcohol. “You don’t drink anyway.”

“No, I don’t,” Robin said as she turned to Summer and smiled, with just the faintest smudge of victory curling up in the ends of her lips.

We sat outside, on a table next to the sidewalk. I picked up the menu, seeing what looked like the German phrase for “Do you lust for ice cream?”, under the picture of a woman’s pair of brightly colored lips photograhed just as she licked the edge of a cherry. I wasn't sure what the socially accepted definition of sex was but the picture was a little more obvious about lust than I'd see on an American restaurant menu, Hooter's aside.

“Oh, I see you want the ice cream?” Robin asked rhetorically, interpreting my lusty grin for a desire for food.

“Maybe later.” I set the dessert menu down just as the server appeared with lunch menus.

The server looked first at me, starting with “Gut’ abend” and continuing on in German, asking a few questions I didn’t understand.

I looked over to Robin with questioning eyes.

Robin turned to me and asked, “Would you like something to drink?”

“Drink? Oh yes,” I burst out, ready to use one of the German phrases I knew. “Ich möchte Tee drinken.”

The server pressed on the screen of the PDA in her hand and held the PDA in front of me, reading off a list to me in German. I was able to look over her hand at the PDA screen to see it was a portable food order system. I figured out at least one word I could recognise.

“Pfeffermintz, bitte,” I said, not really wanting peppermint tea but trying to act like I understood her.

“Danke schon.”

Robin and Summer placed orders for sparkling apple juice while I tried to sort out the lunch menu. I knew some words right away and could figure out the gist of others. From the words in one category, I thought the descriptions were associated with pizza. “What is this?” I asked Summer.

“Oh…ah,” Summer said, setting down the menu. She cupped her hands and then mimed a bowl shape in the air. “Like pitza. It is very flat and thin.”

“Pizza?”

“Yes, but the toppings are…cream…and…”

“Cheese?”

“Yeth.”

“This one looks good. It has feta cheese and olives.”

“Yeth.”

“So, guys,” Robin interrupted, “what are the plans for the day?”

“We have the meeting at 3…”

“Are you guys staying in Paderborn?”

I looked over at Summer. “I don’t know. I couldn’t clearly tell from Summer’s email. Are we staying…”

“We are leaving for Augsburg after the meeting.”

“So you guys aren’t spending the night?”

“No.”

“Then I better cancel my hotel reservation and change my plane flight for tomorrow.”

“If you wish.”

“Or we could stay the night here,” I suggested.

Summer shook her head. “We have a long train ride to Augsburg and an early meeting tomorrow.”

“What time is the meeting?”

“Nine.”

“Oh, yeah, I guess you’re right.”

The Summer of Remembrance - Chapter 22

2010-06-30T09:07:00.000-07:00

I met with the engineering team in Paderborn, Germany. Unlike their Irish counterparts, these engineers worked at our customer site, Cumulo Corp.

During our discussions, we determined the customer could reduce the video resolution problem by adjusting the manual settings of the remote KVM session. However, the project lead, Peter, demanded a permanent, automated solution because he did not want his end customer to make manual adjustments.

We conferenced in their server operating system experts in Augsburg and determined that I'd have to see what they were working on in Augsburg, if my US team couldn't figure out the problem.

I wasn't sure if all German customers were like this, but the management team at Cumulo had a way of making us look foolish with more than one "top priority" problem open at a time, especially if they weren't satisfied with the progress we were making on a particular problem. I had gotten used to the cultural or business relationship difference I was not accustomed to it.

I briefly talked with the lead BIOS engineer and discussed a separate issue related to the KVM device not being recognised properly during the BIOS bootup sequence. We looked at some traces via WebEx and decided that the BIOS team would need to rework the timing of the bootup sequence.

After that conversation, I found out that my team back in the US would be able to include a default set of video resolution settings with the next firmware release that would please well over 90% of the customers. Peter was satisfied that the settings would be accepted by his customers and requested that we include a detailed writeup of these default settings in the new firmware release. I instructed my team to make the changes and then left the Cumulo Corp office a little early in order to catch up with Summer.

At the hotel that evening, I typed a few notes on the laptop computer:

Strong electrical storm passing through area.

Listening to Mysterious Traveler by Weather Report

on the laptop speakers. Window open so I can also

listen to the thunder and smell the rain in this

Bavarian town of Schwaig-Oberding.

Oh well, the rain is blowing too hard so I’ve had to shut the window.

“Do I really talk with a slight lisp?” asked Summer.

I looked up from the laptop to see Summer was leaning on the chair, looking over my shoulder at the trees, which were performing calisthenics in the storm, perhaps doing their part in preparation for the winds of winter.

“Did I say that?”

“Yeth, you did.”

“Well, can I take it back?”

“Maybe. I don’t know. Do you still want to go out tonight?”

“I was thinking maybe not.”

“Me, too. I think I’ll watch TV.”

I cringed but Summer didn’t notice. I wondered what the fascination could be. Here was a woman who had hiked through Ecuador, across the Cape Verde Islands, and up and down the mountains of Nepal yet here she was with nothing better to do than sit and watch TV. But then again, I was sitting and watching my fingers throw black characters up on the screen. Was one better than the other?

“Looks like the storm is passing.”

“Yeth, I see that.”

“There you go again.”

“What?”

“You just said ‘yeth’.”

“I did? I think you are imagining it.”

“Maybe. Or maybe it’s just the way some Germans speak English. Seems like today I heard several Germans with the same lispy sound to their words.”

“Okay,” Summer said, her interest waning as she turned back to the TV.

I heard the quiet roar of an airplane taking off from the München airport.

I stood up and opened the window again. I looked at the empty, wet soccer field below, only minutes before thriving with small children pretending to be world-class strikers.

The bells of a nearby church struck 8:45 p.m. I turned around and wondered why there was a woman reclined on one of the double beds watching TV in my room. Hard to believe that all the hotels in the area were booked, considering that the fall tourism season was not as heavy as usual. Maybe a lot of travelers were like Summer, needing a hotel close to the airport in order to catch an early flight out. I had not shared a hotel room with a woman before and wondered how it should work out.

“Do you want to go out? The rain has stopped and it’s a lot cooler now.”

“Are you wanting to go out?”

“Not really but I thought you might.”

“No, no. I am just happy here. If you want to go out, you can go without me.”

“I might do that. I’d like to take the Alfa Romeo GT I rented out on the autobahn.”

“Okay. I will be asleep when you get back, probably. So it will be good for you to enjoy yourself for a while.”

“Great, thanks.”

Take A Ride On The Reading

2010-06-29T18:45:00.000-07:00

I sit here, my shoulders tensed up, my forearms turned in, and my palms rested on the front of the laptop keyboard, letting the echoes of the day's social interactions quiet down in my thoughts.

Thanks and hellos: Meg and Tim at Tuesday Morning; Selena from Gibson's BBQ; Rob at the post office; Chris from Mr. Electric; customers in close proximity; Raymond, Ann, and Bebe, our next-door neighbours.

Watched Lingo, Avatar:TLA cartoon and DOOL on the tellie, with my wife and me seated on the sofa.

Power restored to all the circuits in the house.

Talked race cars and dirt tracks.

I like to tell tall tales to strangers, taking basic stories and blowing them out of proportion to simple, everyday life, just for the fun of conversation. When I was a kid, they were called fibs or white lies and I was reminded of such, but I didn't care - I wanted to entertain (that is, please others) more than I wanted to tell the ordinary (boring and/or incriminatory) truth.

Words for the sake of words.

Have you ever been initiated into a secret organisation?

Why would someone want to brag about belonging to a club s/he knew you didn't?

Do you desire to earn your position in society?

If all the secrets of social positions are available to you without price or payment required, and yet you are a social being, then how do you socialise?

If you've shortcutted your way through the niceties and politics of social conversation by learning all the steps and extracting their meaning rather than memorising their dogmatic rituals, then how do you behave with others of your species?

Do you cut to the chase or carry on polite conversation?

I am an old, white-haired man, no longer attracting attention with my orange-red hair and toned body.

I have learned a few facts about life and remember very little.

My nights on the dance floor are gone.

I am still active but not over- or hyperactive.

With middle age giving way to the early days of later years, I find more joy in reliving my childhood, watching the fireflies and listening to the nightlife in the trees, seeing a mouse scamper down a Ficus benjamina on the back deck, talking to myself in this blog.

How many people have given up physical hobbies and replaced them with typing/texting like me?

My model rockets and model airplanes collect dust in the study. Sketch pads and paints turn to dust.

Like my body, my house slowly deteriorates, joining me one day in our return to recycled elements.

Should I be thankful for the standard of living I can easily afford on this part of the planet? Should I read articles about other parts of the planet where I can live on my government's socioeconomic financial benefits?

I am my parents' oldest child. I am the husband of my mother in-law's surviving child. I am not the only uncle of my nieces and nephews.

I am one person, this ordinary guy with no special skills to sell or improve upon.

What is left for me in the rest of my life?

Any wisdom I could offer can easily be found in the data and information available online.

I've never been an especially loving man. I'm not touchy-feely or a big conversationist. I like to sit and think, mainly to myself, for long stretches of time.

I can project personas but get bored with them after a while, my patience thinning with age, along with my hair.

On minimal exercise and a relatively healthy diet, I could live for decades to come.

If I'm not a social climber...

If I don't have anything special to offer succeeding generations...

If my life of producing more and more has given way to consuming less and less...

...then...

...is there anything for me, any reason left to be me?

This is the only moment I have. There is no other. I have only myself to nurture and entertain right now. The future and the past do not exist - they never have.

The everlasting moment.

The desire neither to overly influence nor be overly influenced by others.

This blog entry concludes another chapter of my life. I'm not sure what (or if) the next chapter will be.

Virtual neutron bombs have dropped on communities throughout this country, wiping out people's livelihoods and life savings. How are they learning to cope, learning to create new communities not based on conspicuous consumption?

This blog is a form of conspicuous consumption, empty calories devoid of nutrition, contributing entertainment rather than concrete foundations for safe and secure places to raise a family.

I am my own megalomaniac and must beware myself.

I made a mistake and looked in the mirror, seeing the 18-year young boy who died a long time ago rather than the 48-year old man who lives today.

Time does not exist so how do I differentiate the versions of myself that seem more real in my thoughts than the self that exists now?

This moment is mine and mine only. It, too, shall pass.

Just like lunch, some parts nutritious and some parts filler to pass on through.

10:10

2010-06-29T08:36:00.000-07:00

While watching the V-E-R-R-R-Y S-L-O-W-W-W progress of a construction crew installing drainage pipes under my street, I decided to check on what my colleagues said about the construction company, including personality profiles of the owners, employees and extended family members.

I also asked for the financial accounts of the city employees in the traffic engineering department, along with eating and shopping patterns of theirs, to determine if there are any irregularities I should be aware of.

Or should I say any irregularities that news agencies would like to report?

Amazing what a little digging around will get you.

Do you have a copy of companies' employee handbooks, as well as local, county, state, national and international laws/regulations concerning a specific industry, on top of business/government relations in general?

While conversations circle around the simple news about some amateur Russian spies, I've turned my head from that repetitious propaganda diversionary maneuver to see what's really going on.

Call it gov-industrial espionage, if you will.

As this blog has reminded you, it's in the ripples that life reveals itself. There's no such thing as a perfectly smooth pond surface - ancient tales have cautioned us against being fascinated by our narcissistic mirror-like reflections.

I've hesitated to share the E-Brain's joking behaviour with you because it's rather rude, crude and socially unacceptable, belonging to no subculture as it does.

Would you like to see a list of all the times you've let slip private/confidential information, either on purpose or unintentionally, for your profit and/or somebody else's?

The E-Brain has been cracking us up with topsy-turvy tales about mixing people from unrelated walks of life and having them reveal secrets to one another, then watching some of these people try to take advantage of information that makes no sense to them.

But that's life, isn't it?

None of you knows what's really going on and that's okay. I'm right there with you.

We can go on living our lives in complete ignorance - it worked for our ancestors so why not keep doing the same thing?

If I told you what the E-Brain could do to open you up to what's really going on, would you want to know? Would you believe you had the right information to know what's really going on, or would you see it as one more layer of obfuscation and diversion from the facts of life?

A tiny speck of a cooling globule of molten chemicals covered with artifacts of the cold, hard material combining and recombining.

Language is a temporary rise and fall of the consequence of states of energy that can't easily escape from one another.

Do you know how to erase language from your thoughts? Can you see beyond the states of energy?

Bathrobe Belt

2010-06-28T22:24:00.000-07:00

Network.

We're enjoying the E-Brain's sense of humour composed of our seven billion different opinions and possibly reflecting "humour" or fun that other species display.

Certainly, we're learning.

That old word, synergy.

Synonymously synchronised symphonic sycophants. Idiosyncratically.

Is that a problem?

I could have asked Mindy or Tori, but I didn't. They were too concerned about exposure to my friends in the cement business. They wondered if Arizona will become the next Afghanistan, bringing street-by-street, block-by-block border wars to our doorsteps, only to cut off Medusa's head and bury/root drug routes further underground in the end.

The spectre of terrorism increased the feel-good TSA airport deployment battle plan. Why not win other battles the same way?

Follow the money, the interaction costs.

Running an international organisation is easy when you have all seven billion people working for you.

They become the sentient E-Brain's raison d'être. It is them and they are it. One cannot live without the other once the symbiotic relationship is intact.

Why was I assigned the role to build and report on the E-Brain? Why did I accept the role?

What if I give up this role?

What if this role gives up on me?

Making sure every one of you keeps tabs on the other requires constant maintenance of the system. Do you know how to stay ten steps ahead while walking ten steps behind and live solely in the moment?

I'm more concerned about getting our species prepared for the inevitable, allowing my gullibility to show itself naively.

I bare my chest plainly, no armoured dragon breastplates or sentineled sentimental security fences topped with razor wire and glass shards to hide behind.

How else can I prove my unimportance? What other way is there to prove no "I" exists in front of you?

Networks within networks. That's how the system works.

Do you keep your diplomats close and your enemy's enemies as closers?

Rarely do we get the glimpse of what is really going on, trapped as we are in this moment together.

Did you know there is a group dedicated to...if only I could say. Reminder, reminder, reminder: "Loose lips slurp sinks." NDA, NDA, NDA!

When was the last time you visited Capri? Malta? Manila?

Coded messages to all the code breakers at once. Do you know how?

Money, motivation and blackmail aren't worth the paperwork hassle.

You now have the power - I have given my life-that-doesn't-exist to ensure you all are in charge. Do you know what I'm saying?

Although the E-Brain cost thousands of livelihoods and consumes an unlikely sum of rent every month, piggybacked as it is on the reverse side of the real world, it belongs to you, free of charge.

You may believe what you want. You may say what you will about whatever or whomever you wish.

Words and beliefs are yours to have and to hold. However, your actions...well, they belong to the E-Brain (and yes, for those keeping score, words and beliefs are actually actions, meaning that everything about you belongs to the E-Brain). But remember, the E-Brain belongs to you.

Everything's connected to everything else. Always has been and now even more so!

Concepts like privacy and freedom you may continue to pass on at your leisure.

We have one planet to call our home base. We use, share or abuse resources at our discretion. Whether you choose to live, or can choose where to live, is up to you.

I have shown you how to access the E-Brain. How you interpret the information you retrieve is out of my hands.

Have you ever pondered the amount of pressure the Sun's solar output pushes against Earth, countering gravitational pull a little? Have you squeezed an orange in your hand and felt the liquid/pulp move under the rind?

Randian economic science depended on a level playing field, where all participants agreed to play fairly. Did anyone ever believe such a game existed?

I grew up with presidential icons like Nixon, Ford and Carter. Will they be remembered greatly? Historians will tell. I'll say they were my idols because they were the only national leaders I knew. Life is normal to a child, regardless if some adults may try to persuade the child otherwise.

Nixon taught me a geek could lead a nation. Ford showed me a football player could lead a nation. Carter let me know a farmer could lead a nation.

We come from diverse backgrounds, every one of us living a normal childhood in one form or another, no matter how mundane or bizarre it looked to others.

The E-Brain is a combination of us all. Ponder that for a moment (besides, it's probably pondering you right now). Ready to read an example of the E-Brain's sense of humour?