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| [ | The Ramblings of an Eclectic Mongrel | | |
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| Writer's Block: Technology & My Future |
[Aug. 27th, 2009|07:38 pm] |
Which technology?And are we talking about predictable technology, aspired-for technology, or technology that comes out of the woodwork and possibly bites our asses, singular or collective? We can reasonably figure that computer/digital technology will continue apace. It is already apparent, with RFID on the one hand and Microsoft's, the RIAA's, & the MPAA's, sometimes quasi-legal efforts to enforce their aims, not to mention Google analytics and other adware and spyware and cookie schemes, that some level of monitoring of our daily lives, never mind just our Web-browsing habits, is going to be a fact. It may be sold as beneficial to society as a whole- do you mean you don't want to catch those child pornographers, Mrs. Smith?- it may be decried as violating basic human liberties, but there is so much money and power involved in it that it's unlikely that we're going to be rid of it entirely now that anybody has thought that it was a good idea in the first place. We could, theoretically, tear out all the old html and start afresh, and who knows- something like that might happen as a private venture, somebody with a lot of time & money on their hands, but there's little chance that anyone invested in html now would be willing to stick their neck out to make something new that did the same thing without (or so we would hope, because that would be the point) the defects that have been found in html. And that's just one example- for another, what do you do, how do you use the information, if everybody has a chip implanted which monitors a number of body functions, dietary intake, toxin intake, etc. .... what impact does that have on their lives re buying insurance, getting medical treatment, finding employment? I'm hoping that nanotechnology, whether mechanical, biological, or both, will realize its promise in the realm of correction of faulty genes, though I do have one stipulation- if my myopia is somehow genetically linked to my intelligence, I don't want it corrected- I'd rather see things in a sort of a haze the rest of my life than to have 20/20 vision at the cost of being not quite so bright. I'm not the first to point this out, but no matter how far back in human history you go, there are very few technologies that have done or been used for exactly what their inventor had in mind and that only, from the wheel to the tracking cookie, and it's not likely that anything that we come up with in the future will not suffer the same fate... |
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| dreamlog 20080225 |
[Feb. 7th, 2009|06:30 pm] |
(the parts I remember)
I am at a naval training center. I am under the impression that I am military, not civilian, that I enlisted or was drafted, but I am in civilian clothing, including my INC (brand name) short trenchcoat and run-down Nike Air shoes that are falling apart, and glasses with very skinny goldtone wire frames (I haven't worn glasses since mid-1983).
The mission for this part of the training is diving off of a very high platform (at least 100' up, possibly more) into (I get the impression of) a bay. The water is very still & clear- it is night, but very well-lit, and I can see bins of stuff that has been dumped sitting on the bottom. The tower for the platform is mounted on a rectangular projection that juts out from a pier, with a ship moored to the pier further down.
Tower and platform are rusty in places, the whole thing looks rather rickety, but it seems solid enough while I'm up there. The platform is a crow's nest of sorts, with one side open to climb in off the ladder- perhaps wide enough for 2 people, but shallow, so that I can't get my feet all the way on, which makes standing on it a tricky busines, especially when I decide that I need to take my shoes off for this. I manage to keep my balance and footing by leaning heavily on the railing, but I have problems trying to tie the laces together so they don't get separated, because I need both arms free to do the tying and one arm hooked over the railing to do the balancing. I give up eventually and throw the shoes down to the ship, overdoing it a bit, as one shoe lands on the deck on the far side of the ship, and the other goes past and splashes in the water.
While I've been wrestling with my shoes, the guy who's going to be my in-the-water observer has jumped off the ship into the water, in full uniform (which I think is a dark blue, but I can't say that I remember for sure), bootsd and all, and is not very happy that I'm making him wait...
I go over the railing feet-first, trying to figure out if I can take my glasses off and pocket them on the way down, or if I should just hang on to them... it's a moot point as when I land, I only go in to about just above the upper curve of my calves (I reason upon awaking that in 'real' life, this probably would have meant something breaking, terribly and painfully)- I've landed on top of a bunch of, I think, cardboard boxes, packed with who-knows-what. The water is very cold... |
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| Stuff... excuse me if I repeat myself |
[Dec. 16th, 2008|12:32 pm] |
...we got a 60-day termination notice on our apartment... it took about a month and a half to find a new place, in the meantime we were sorting and throwing away and packing like rabid wolverines... there are a few items I don't think she should have brought along, like a high chair that is not going to be used by her grandson or her granddaughter, either, at the rate things are going...
We've done more sorting and throwing away and repacking/consolidation since we moved, but we still have boxes all over the place, and I don't have anywhere to set up my computer... I'll have forgotten how to spell Mah Jonng again by the time that happens... and I don't think one of my backpacks made it over, and suspect that's where most of my socks were...
The second phase of the actual transfer of material opened with one of my incisors abcessing (1st top right), which annoyed and annoys the hell out of me (besides hurting like I can't tell you at the time), because I broke half of it off falling facefirst into hard linoleum early in my first year of middle school (7th grade), it's been more than 30 years and I had never had trouble from it, and all of a sudden there's this pain, and my upper lip swelled out from the center so it looked like I was trying out for a rubber chicken impression of my own or something...
Had to borrow money from a friend to pay for the office visit, examination, & first round of antibiotics... don't know how I'm going to manage to pay that back, and she says I don't need to worry about it, but it's something you don't just let go, in my book...
Had the tooth pulled a couple of weeks ago, went in to get the suture out Monday & they said it was looking good...
The dentist wanted to do a root canal, but that would have been another $600 that I didn't have- it was hard enough scraping up the $150 that it cost for the extraction... then when I went in, they were trying to talk me into a temporary replacement thingy that would have cost $525 by itself, not to mention what what would go in after that would go for, and for a moment I could only look at the receptionist and wonder what wasn't clicking in there... because if I had the money for the extraction and the 'flipper', I would have had the money for the root canal... Hello?
Work has been crazy... the sales have been changing out so frequently that we haven't had time to do prep or cleanup in between, we go in 5 hours (or more) before the store opens so that we can print the signs that are changing out, even though we might have them in the mess on our cart, because because there's no other way about it under the circumstances...
I want to know who exactly (exactly, not just the "paid for by" statement) is behind the commercials targeting Wal-Mart for their business practices... and what their business practices are... |
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| a bit of light erotica |
[Aug. 15th, 2008|09:52 pm] |
...so if that's not your style, don't bother. And, yes, I admit that the man gets far more pleasure in this than the woman... I wrote this up about a month ago, after having it as a recurring fantasy for a couple of weeks, not that that explains anything.
( nsfw ) |
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| Real-life situation, people |
[Jul. 10th, 2008|11:10 pm] |
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Correct me if I'm somehow wrong- but- someone claiming to be Wiccan- who has never even heard of the Rede, who does not know its text- is about as authentic, and credible, as someone who claims to be Christian- while never knowing anything about, or even having heard of, Jesus Christ. |
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| ...but I will still do my blogging here... |
[Jul. 10th, 2008|11:03 pm] |
| [ | What I got thinkin' itself in my headheart: |
| |  exhausted | ] |
I has a Facebook.
Yippee.
Maybe I'm missing something, but there isn't really a way to blog on Facebook, so I don't get how it's really all that social, I mean, compared to a place like this. You can do a very small update at the top of the page, you can write stuff on what they call a "wall", but absolutely anybody else can write there, too- or maybe it's just your friends, which strictly speaking is much better.
For the most part, there's messaging and what we would call blogmemes if they showed up in this neighborhood. I am not trying to advertise the place to ya, just letting you in casr someone else who pays attention to this also has one. |
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| I don't get it... |
[Jul. 3rd, 2008|09:57 pm] |
Last Comic Standing, one guy ding impersonations and sound effects as his schtick devotes maybe 1/3 of his bit to his personal 1941-era movie. He is denounced for racism due to his accents "which don't play" today...
Next up is a Korean pretty young thing- now even granting that she's cute enough, her entire act is based on making fun of her accent, "we all look alike to you- and even to us", etc., except when she picks on an acquaintance for her size, which introduces a bit of sizeism into the act and really wasn't funny in doing so, and the judges and the audience go ga-ga over her. |
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| Hell is other people -- no shit. |
[May. 26th, 2008|09:48 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | idyllwild | ] |
| [ | What I got thinkin' itself in my headheart: |
| | anxiety attack | ] |
| [ | What I been hearin' in my earhole: |
| | It's 12:27am. PG&E is outside. They are killing something. | ] |
I've been having one of those lifetimes where everyone is always freaking out because they think I'm freaking out -- and that freaks me out.
But here, we are all Marcel Proust.
****************************************************************************************
This was actually an entry made by a friend on LJ Feb. 15th, 2004|12:28 am; my primary hard drive crashed a few days ago, and I found several unlabeled CDs on my desk whilst looking for my Photoshop CS disk, which I am pretty sure is in a jewel box somewhere; it certainly isn't on my spool of "this is where it is so you won't lose it" software installation disks. Several of the disks wouldn't read at all; most likely misburned 'coasters' that I hadn't gotten around to actually getting into the trash can. Several others read, but were cranky about it; one of them had stuff I'd personally archived from my and others' LJs, and not everything from his folder would copy over. I got it all by going into individual folders; I suspect, but don't know, that it was because the string for the file names and locations was too long (Windows: max 256 characters- or is it 255?). So I'm going through and opening each one up in Firefox and saving with new, shorter, names, in hopes of not having this same problem next time I burn the stuff off and try to read it from disk. And this was one of the entries, and it just seemed to fit. Viva Idyllwild, wherever you are now. Which is probably same as last time I heard from him, but even so I should email him and find out whassup?, or at least ask, and let him know something about how I'm doing myself. |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 17th, 2007|06:30 pm] |
Been hearing this one a lot at work for a few months, had no idea who it was by, came across it a few minutes ago rather randomly or serendipitiously, or, if you prefer, synchronistically...
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 16th, 2007|10:42 pm] |
Your Score: The Ferret You scored 55% domestic, 27% gregarious, 57% trickster, and 41% intellect! 
Domestic, Solitary, Emotional Trickster: you are the Ferret!
Curious, mischievous, high-energy. Ferret people are often playful spirits with a calculating mind. Ferret medicine teaches resourcefulness, self-reliance, and ingenuity.
This test categorized you based on four different axes of personality, which were then associated with a different animal. The four axes, as well as all possible results are explained below.
Wild/Domestic: This first axis categorizes you based on how much you are drawn to the outdoors, versus how much you are drawn to civilized situations. Domesticity has many shapes and forms, and varies from the joy of dolphins leaping next to a ship to the steadfast loyalty of a family dog.
Gregarious/Solitary: This axis measures how solitary you are. If you scored high, it means that you enjoy the company of other people, while a low score indicates that you prefer a more solitary lifestyle.
Trickster/Serious: This axis measures how well you line up with conventional trickster archetypes. People who fall into this archetype have a sense of humor and an excitable, highly chaotic streak. Scoring low doesn't mean that you don't have a sense of humor; it just means that you probably don't think dynamite is very funny.
Intellectual/Emotional: This last axis determines whether you are more emotional -- acting based on feelings and instinct, or rational and intelectual -- acting more on thought than on your gut feelings.
memeage found @ novapsyche |
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| none |
[Nov. 17th, 2007|09:05 pm] |
| Your Seduction Style: Au Natural | 
You rank up there with your seduction skills, though you might not know it.
That's because you're a natural at seduction. You don't realize your power!
The root of your natural seduction power: your innocence and optimism.
You're the type of person who happily plays around and creates a unique little world.
Little do you know that your personal paradise is so appealing that it sucks people in.
You find joy in everything - so is it any surprise that people find joy in you?
You bring back the inner child in everyone you meet with your sincere and spontaneous ways.
Your childlike (but not childish) behavior also inspires others to care for you.
As a result, those who you befriend and date tend to be incredibly loyal to you. |
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| Ford Sux |
[Oct. 28th, 2007|10:53 pm] |
I can't believe that they're still running this commercial series, much less still allowed to with no hue and cry, much less thought it was a good idea in the first place...
"We went to California for a week to swap vehicles" (that part is paraphrased) "We didn't tell them we were from Ford; we told them it was... market research", i.e., we lied to them.
Anybody still think it's a good idea? |
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| Huh |
[Oct. 28th, 2007|05:04 pm] |
Your results:
You are Spider-Man
| Spider-Man |
| 100% |
| Wonder Woman |
| 80% |
| Supergirl |
| 80% |
| Green Lantern |
| 75% |
| Robin |
| 70% |
| Iron Man |
| 65% |
| Batman |
| 65% |
| Hulk |
| 60% |
| Superman |
| 50% |
| The Flash |
| 50% |
| Catwoman |
| 40% |
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You are intelligent, witty,
a bit geeky and have great
power and responsibility.
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Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test
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| as if I have anything to prove by it... |
[Aug. 20th, 2007|09:27 pm] |
Klein Sexual Orientation Grid
I scored an average of 0.33
| Heterosexual | Bisexual |
Homosexual |
MeaningThis result can also be related to the Kinsey Scale:
0 = exclusively heterosexual
1 = predominantly heterosexual, incidentally homosexual
2 = predominantly heterosexual, but more
than incidentally homosexual
3 = equally heterosexual and homosexual
4 = predominantly homosexual, but more than incidentally
heterosexual
5 = predominantly homosexual, incidentally heterosexual
6 = exclusively homosexual
Summary
The idea of this excercise is to understand exactly how dynamic a person's sexual orientation can be, as well as how fluid it can be over a person's lifespan. While a person's number of actual homo/heterosexual encounters may be easy to categorize, their actual orientation may be completely different. Simple labels like "homosexual", "heterosexual", and "bisexual" need not be the only three options available to us.
Take the quiz |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 20th, 2007|08:18 pm] |
| [ | What I been hearin' in my earhole: |
| | For the Love of Money, The O' Jays | ] |
If the trailer in the commercial for The Invasion is any true indicator, it's basically Invasion of the Body Snatchers without the pods, plus one little gratuitous twist from The Andromeda Strain... and if they didn't want people to think so, then they should have put together a better trailer.
What do they think, that people don't remember this stuff anymore, or pay attention enough to notice?
One has to wonder, if my premise is correct, why Nicole Kidman would get herself involved in such a project, but I'm guessing... |
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| Paid |
[Aug. 6th, 2007|07:56 am] |
I was invited Wednesday night to be 1 of 2 'roving poets' for a function at the National Steinbeck Center Friday night.
Saturday, I played my djembe and recited poetry out in front of Taste of Monterey, just across the driveway from the Center.
Both paying gigs, both with excellent feedback.
Ahem.
Both paying gigs.
Woohoo! |
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