Crystal Jack

So, I came across this great deal yesterday.

 

Buy.com, a private company, is trying to liquidate the public stock of a recently acquired company, sell.com.

 

What buy.com is asking people to do is sell buy.com shares from sell.com back to the buy.com sell stock page by selecting sell.com from the buy.com convert stock drop down, thereby completing a simple transaction.

 

For every 100 shares traded in this fasion, they are offering a discounted gift certificate to their online store, cashonly.com.

To claim the prize, email

Nevada City, California's 95959 zip code is weird.

 

Perhaps you cannot really learn to be weird, I think.  You either are or are not...weird.

 

Mickey

Alright, so I have a couple of confessions.

 

I guess the first would be that I am horrible about keeping track of other people.  Especially through blogs.

 

It isn't that I don't care,and often I enjoy reading them.  I just never get to that point.  I don't actively seek out other people's blogs.  I enjoy long phone conversations, or going out to coffee, talking on the sidewalk, etc.  My wife will tell you I almost never do anything simple or small...if I write music, I want hours, if I play games I want hours, if I hang with people, I am not content to sit there without being involved and asking questions...interaction.

 

I am not saying the whole thing is stagnant death incarnate, but its like...reading a book about a person.  I don't hate autobiagraphies (I think), but I hate the idea of an autobiography.  Life is being involved, but a book, committed words about real life...it feels dry, remote, solo.  Nothing captures life perfectly, not even the most amazing camera...not a thousand of them.  Life for people is memories, and the best ones come from doing.

 

Now, to be perfectly honest, my wife will also tell you I am not a social butterfly, to say the least.  Again, it isn't that I don't enjoy the moment...it usually is just the getting there.  Everything takes up time...getting there takes time, planning it takes time... I hate that.  I already feel like I never have enough time to do all the things I want anyway.

 

So, this all feels pretty selfish, and I could add to that...I really could.  I am trying to construct, from pieces, puzzles, life and muck.  If I monitor, capture, organize, and frame, it isn't just simple phase.  I hunger, and hurt, and love, and touch, but still the input brings more stuff.  I look for truth in between everything, with hope of a better life.  And it irritates me when I look so hard, I miss the things that pass me by.  Too often I see them not the hour after, but after months of wallowing through disaster.  And all of these things make me what I am, but alas, still there is no simple plan.

 

Frustrated though I know she becomes, still I appreciate so much my wife for putting up with what she does.

Here is what I get for posting my resume on CareerBuilder.com:

 

Really?  In Slovania?  Do they get enough people to accept this to make it worthwhile?  Is this purely a scam, or should we be worried about losing our workforce to a country scarce of english translators?

 

I will let you be the judge.

 

Mickey

I took a look out front just now to see what I could come up with for improving a potential sandwich in the tomato department....and decided that sometimes the best of the best isn't so great.

 

We have had the majority of good out of our tomato plant.  Only the tapering is left to us now.  The good tomatoes that died for us along the way, and provided a goodness worthy of our ego.  A good tomato, for a good tongue.

 

So, I considered on the way home that perhaps energy never really does go away.  Maybe we do create matter with our minds, create children with desire.  Maybe energy only comes, not goes away, and this would explain why the universe appears as a balloon, constantly expanding.

 

But what of the things that seem constantly to degrade around us?  What of these?  Is it then that everything created from us is filled with the lack of longevity as the imperfections of our "souls" (in this case used to mean our will, not necessarily something supernatural).  Maybe not.  Perhaps we destroy with our mind in creating things around us.  We are all different...perhaps my interpretation of the streets and sidewalks is just different enough to cause my creation of the same sidewalk to damage the existing one...like dynamite displacing a hill, like a mouth consuming a sandwich.  Certainly the sidewalk doesn't just disappear.  But then, would there be multiple versions of the sidewalk, more than we could count, one for every person who has chanced to create?

 

Perhaps not.  Maybe we only create where we 'will'.  Maybe that is the nature of will...creation.  Destruction only comes where there is conflict.  Certainly conflict seems to create a lot of chaos...and what is chaos then?  Only the difference of opinion, and multiple projections of things unknown.

 

These walks are good for me I am sure.

 

Hope you are doing well,

Michael 

I got something out of my philosphy class today that I felt was pretty life awakening: I am not responsible to anybody, nor am I obligated to do anything.  Science is not the ultimate truth, and it cannot to prove or disprove anything.  No religion yet that I have witnessed has the all the answers that I seek, nor do I believe in the god represented by any of them.

 

And I can hear a few of you saying, what about your wife and daughter?  What about people who have cared for you?  You mother, your father, your friends?

 

No.  There is no law in the universe that dictates my actions.  I am a free man, and I have free will and free choice, as does every other person in the universe.  If I had heard these words before, I assure you, I would have thought them callous because I would believe them to be wrong, or logically false.

 

Are they ethically false?  For me?  Yes.  For you?  Depends on your viewpoint.  I will, of course (for any that could possibley have had a doubt) choose to love my family whole-heartedly, with all faults and joys.  I will continue to work hard, perhaps harder, becuase I understand that for me it is a choice, and I choose to do what feels good and right to me.  I love my family, more than anything else in the world.  I think that true freedom does not lie in organized or communal belief systems, though it can offer happiness and stability.

 

While there is no verifiable method, I choose to be dependable for my family, and to provide for them in every way that I am able, and have established a precident that detmines what things and who are most important to me.

 

However, I will have my soul held by myself nor others under threat, or choose to conform either to the laws of science or religion where I do not deem them appropriate for me.  Does this mean I will forfeit dependable reality?  Of course not.  I expect when I step out of bed (or couch) tomorrow morning, that my feet shall touch upon solid ground.  Does that make it true?  No.

 

And so, a balance will be met, but it will be a balance for me.  I will not feel guilty for having fun...I could die tomorrow.  But I will not abandon myself recklessly either.  I know that in my life I will be happier if I choose to do things that benefit me, and because having a happy family benefits my happiness, I choose to do the things that will make my family happy as well.

 

Thanks for listening.  Have a good day.

Mickey

I thought for a bit that it was pretty amazing that we have used some genetic algorithms to produce some amazing technological things.  I thought, perhaps it would be awesome and purposeful for us to create well defined foundation of all the possible inputs and outputs we could think of on a few distributed super computers and create a 'basics of life' scenario, where we allow genetic algorithms and AI to produce its own method of obtaining the goal of intelligence...see what the long term conseqences of that would be.

 

I thought, well, it would likely be fast-forwarded quite a bit from our own process of evolution, even if complex though only a fraction of the complexity from which we are the results.

 

Then I thought, wait...what would happen if we succeeded?  Would we know soon enough to 'pull the plug?'.  And would we?  Then, a thoroughly secure area would be in order in which to do the experiments...could we truly create one that was absolutely secure, or even close?

 

Consder our own ventures into space, plunges into the depths of the ocean, going where humans only centuries ago considered completely impossible...we are nothing if not creative enough, even unto our own destruction, if not those around as well.

 

Space certainly has not kept us from the moon...what we keep a quickening intelligence from exceeding our limitations?  I imagine some people think this quite speculative, and unrealistic considering our currnent progress.  Likely we don't have the hardware anyway, and probably at least one great mind has already tried this approach.  Still, it was something that occupied my mind for a bit.

 

Mickey 

This will be a short blog tonight.

 

For our good, we have:

 

Wolfowitz is resigning from the World Bank.  I had a discussion with someone tonight who believed that perhaps Wolfowitz was not completely in the wrong because he did attempt to follow the proper channels.  But there is a valuable lesson that can be picked up in almost any basic ethics class: Legal and Ethical behavior are two different things.  While the ethics between peoples and cultures may vary, it is not unreasonable by any stretch of the imagination that Wolfowitz knew what he was doing had unethical implications.  Just because someone says it is okay to do something, doesn't give you the right to do something unethical.  I am glad this has moved in what I believe to be the right direction.

 

For our bad:

 

It now seems blatantly obvious that not only has Alberto Gonzoles lied, even under oath, but that the Bush administration has attempted to take our freedoms away by force.  I am angry that our system is being abused and used to keep evil in power.  Lack of action by us at this point is the admission that we are willing to be goverened by the inept, the power hungry and corrupt, and that we no longer care.  I, for one, desire action and resolution.  Justice and renewal.

 

I am not dead, I will not give up, and neither should you.

Welcome to another addition of reality and hope.

 

First up tonight, for our good, we have a move I hope to see more nations, including our own, take soon.

 

The Japanese government is working towards finding a way to move towards open source software.  Let's put that in another perspective.  Japan, a leader in the world for technology and technological advancements, is recognizing the benefits of higher security, stability, and economic gain from open source software.  I would like to see ANY non-open source company try walking through the front doors of Japans government headquarters, and try to explain why they need to be paying for closed-source software.  I am starting to view the capitalistic gain of closed-source software manufacturers to be similar to religious organization principals in America: "It's all about the money, screw you people with your logic, you are all lambs that need to keep your bleeting mouths shut and keep giving us the money we deserve."  Well, no.  Let's try some belief in intelligent ideas, economy of the soul, and recognition of the skills and and abilities of the average person.

 

So, for our bad, we have a serious problem:

 

 

How did we believe that all the plastic we buy off the shelves of our markets magically disappear?  Did you believe that?  Well, certainly nowhere have I seen anything suggesting a problem of this scale, but it didn't make it there by itself.  I would like to say this problem rests in the lap of our producers and packaging plants...and in a large way it does.  But there is another more importantly responsible party: you.  Every single time you buy a product off the shelf made with plastic you contribute to a problem that is killing our world.  Do I sound like an environmentalist?  GO TAKE ANOTHER CLOSE LOOK AT THAT ARTICLE.  A VERY real collection of plastic and garbage TWICE the size of Texas in the middle of the ocean.  Do I sound more like a human being now?  Want to try convincing me this all belongs to my daughter and the generation she will be a part of?  Lets take another approach.  STOP BUYING CRAP THAT KILLS HUMAN BEINGS.  Or alternatively, don't talk to me like you ARE a human being.  Because instead, I am starting to see many apathetic beings who might really be sheep, and can't seem to control or understand that truly, you are more.

 

You are so much more.

We have another two up for today.  But before I lay them out, let me ask you...is there anyone at all who can comment back to me and tell me they are not devastated by the behavior of those at the top of our government right now?  Are you not completely disgusted and distrurbed that filthy liars can stand so tall and spit on us without consequence?  Look at these people!  Look at what they are doing!  If justice is not served high, what justice can be demanded to be served low?  Why should anyone be held accountable who is any lower by station than those at the highest level who are not held accountable by the same laws?  You are horrible, and you are evil, and for all injustice ever done, consider your name on the list of those so foul as to be a burden on the minds of those with heart, honesty and integrity.  You are a sickness.  You are a virus.

 

As to be the usual, let us start with the good:

 

It would seem there is some real movement towards a better solution to our oil problems.  Much cleaner ethanol.  I wouldn't suggest this is the best option we have, but it is at least some direction away from oil.  I believe this to be better, and acceptable as a method of satisfying the demands of our economic needs, while reducing polution.  Is there anything we can do now that does not create pollution?  Could it be okay if we at least produce less than the world can handle, so that we know it will heal, without killing us all to solve the problem?

 

And a bad.  I am sure it is not the worst bad.  Debate as you will, it is my bad for today:

 

As a blatant and continued slap in the face of the public, Alberto Gonzoles shows that he will take any opportunity to maintain his position, even at the expense of others.  All too eager for any ounce of scapegoat he can find, he kicks a man going down in another attempt to divert from his decpetive and gruesome worship of poisened ideas.  What hat does this man wear at home?  Does he hang pictures on his wall, or the hearts of his victims?  How can a man lie so hard he believes it, and feel so compelled as if possessed?  I don't need to see you bathed anymore, I just want respite from your vile mouth and stained soul.  I am sick, let me go, let me heal.

 

I am not amazed.  I am not stunned at the shootings done by those defeated.  I am no longer aghast at the foulness of the church, declaring bankruptcy through mouhts connected to the hands that touched.  I cannot blame the environmentalists who broke those machines that did so little by themselves.  What happens tomorrow?  Do you think it will not all catch up?  Breathe it!!!  Think about it!  Does faith so blind that you believe the fire will not burn us when it is done consuming the fuel we keep throwing in?

 

I am tired, and spent.  For all but not, please respond!  I know I am not the only one drowning.