Another track done for "Audio REvolt"! Sweet
ON GOVERNMENT - rekzrantz 12-16-2009 by REkzkaRZ
I uploaded it to http://SoundCloud.com/rekzkarz
LYRICS are below. (Music is better)
ON GOVERNMENT
I, rekzkarz, a citizen of United States of America, so declare a desire to regain my freedom and protect my natural rights as a living being.
We as human beings share the following rights: the right to food, water, shelter, general safety, and the pursuit of spiritual, emotional, and economic success.
My God is not your God, nor is your God mine. If you have a faith, feel free to use it. If you do not have one, so be it.
My pleasures may not match your pleasures. Grant me my pursuits if no one is hurt. I grant you the same. Should I opt to use a different drug than you, if no one is hurt it can not be a crime. If only I am hurt, please try to help, but do not punish me for my vice.
My acts which harm no-one are not a crime. I claim my rights to live as I will, harming no-one, without punishment by a moralistic, judgemental Government.
I demand the right to choose where my tax dollars go. I have the right to decide, in a democracy, whether my tax dollars go to children or to the war machine.
Lastly, I choose to reclaim parts of my language stolen by propaganda, corporations, and television.
The Department of Defense, I call you The Department of War.
PeaceKeepers, I call you Soldiers.
Our 2 Party Democracy, I call you an Oligarchy or Republic -- until our Government is changed.
Our Founding Fathers, I call you wealthy white slave owners, rulers, and businessmen.
Democrat, I call you the Wealthy Moderate Party.
Republican, I call you the Business, Weath, and Pro War Party.
Pro-Choice, I call you Pro-Female.
Pro-Life Movement, I call you Movement to Defend the Unborn.
The government of this country has choices about which heritage to pursue:
Many Governments of the past have been characterized by despotic tyrants, cruel rulers who are above the laws and rule downwards, using nationalism to steer the masses, forcing obediance, and requiring blind loyalty.
More modern Governments seek to be enlightened, seeing themselves as granted an opportunity to serve their fellow people. These Governments are not above the law nor any fellow citizen, and they seek to form laws to protect rights of everyday people. These governments encourage people to be knowledgable, capable, and self-aware.
Citizens of these countries freely question, may disagree with authority, and have institutions to examine difficult issues -- to get redress. The loyalty these governments create stems from self-love and pride in national character.
Should you, USA Government, return to the mistaken road of dicatatorial rule, your power-mongering will be your undoing.
President Bush & his chronies abused their power, harshly damaged the country, expanded the deployment of the military across the globe without adequately proving the provocation's source, and as such they should all be put on trial and impeached of any benefits they are due.
These few completely abused a system which is growing in the other direction, more towards freedom.
It is upon us, the citizenry, to defend our freedoms.
It is upon the Government, to defend our rights -- without ruining the lives of other free peoples.
Money n Stuff
I wrote & emailed this track out to my peeps yesterday. WHEW!
Money Stuff v3 by REkzkaRZ
http://soundcloud.com/rekzkarz/money-stuff-v3
You are not free
You lost your rights
You are blinded by TV
You don't know what to fight
Video games tell you
to kill everybody
but the real criminals are hiding
in the code and in the company
You work everyday
Went to school to study
You learned to pay
for things that were free
They got your water
they got your food
they got your land
they got you by the booboo
That is, they get ... YOU
THEY GOT YOU!!!!
Money, what is it?
MONEY - it's a fantasy to steal your stuff
MONEY - it's a lie to rob you of your stuff
MONEY - it's a way to take away your stuff
Money, what is it?
It's a lie....
List of Stuff:
Food
Water
House
Bed
Clothing
Vehicle
Fuel
TelePhone
Computer
Internet
Medicine
Television
Killed in PlaybyPost
Damn, I got killed. Guess I'll blog about it?
Here's the scoop: I was killed in my PlaybyPost RPG (on rpol.net) & then banned by the GM. I think the issue was I was over-posting, trying to have an independent agenda (ie not just being a robot moving forwards), not playing a team player, and not playing a 'good' character. Maybe there was more?
I posted in private to the GM how it was awfully convenient to kill me, and the GM said he hadn't considered killing me & banning me prior to my complaint, but now that I had pointed out the convenience of my character getting killed, I had inspired him to ban me. The GM said "normally I let people re-roll characters", but not with me. The GM said we had 'incompatible playing styles'.
It was interesting to get killed, b/c the GM had my character get shot in the head by 'friendly fire' and then, as the character was retreating, the bad guy smashed him & killed him even as the little guy was flanked by 2 big guys with giant swords. Seemed awfully convenient.
Well, getting killed & banned for me is a first. I'm happy to be banned in the sense that -- why continue in a game where I'm not appreciated for playing a RPG the way I'd like to? As I don't really like 'hack & slash' adventure anyway, ie violence & killing to steal treasure from creatures & gain exp by hacking heads, but I've always been one for pure 'role play' concept, ie playing a role that is not myself.
But it also does stick in my craw, which is why I'm posting this here.
I have a few other beefs with RPG'ing, which this seems a good time to list:
My biggest problem w/D&D has been the racist underpinnings, the concept that somehow valiant (white) superheroes vanquish the world from hordes of mean, evil (non-white) monsters. When you look at real-life empirialism, this was in part an explanation behind much of earth's empirial expansions.
So that's part of why I ususally stay far away from D&D.
In this game, instead of allowing me to roleplay the game with those elements in the foreground, the GM would rather ignore any underlying racial issues and play a game where 'heroes' killing off scores of creatures in their own homes are seen as the 'good guys'.
That being said, I really am impressed with RPOL.net, the play by post site, and think it's amazing. GREAT WORK PEOPLE! (I hope Google Wave doesn't kill them -- but that said, Google Wave is not as sexy as Google advertised it to be.)
Thus, now that I've covered the event and my beef with D&D and that game, I want to give props to my favorite RPG of all time, Prime Time Adventures, the small rulebook which attempts to simulate a TV show series. This game rocks. It includes all my favorite things, namely collaborative story-telling, very fast conflict resolution, story driven play, character driven story, etc. There are no hit points and very few stats. And the game works WELL.
Anyway, today Arkayne Silvermist is dead, and the adventure which he doggedly had tried to pursue, getting revenge for his tribe's massacre, will never be resolved. Aahh, gaming. I miss 'face-to-face' RPG'ing!
Here's the scoop: I was killed in my PlaybyPost RPG (on rpol.net) & then banned by the GM. I think the issue was I was over-posting, trying to have an independent agenda (ie not just being a robot moving forwards), not playing a team player, and not playing a 'good' character. Maybe there was more?
I posted in private to the GM how it was awfully convenient to kill me, and the GM said he hadn't considered killing me & banning me prior to my complaint, but now that I had pointed out the convenience of my character getting killed, I had inspired him to ban me. The GM said "normally I let people re-roll characters", but not with me. The GM said we had 'incompatible playing styles'.
It was interesting to get killed, b/c the GM had my character get shot in the head by 'friendly fire' and then, as the character was retreating, the bad guy smashed him & killed him even as the little guy was flanked by 2 big guys with giant swords. Seemed awfully convenient.
Well, getting killed & banned for me is a first. I'm happy to be banned in the sense that -- why continue in a game where I'm not appreciated for playing a RPG the way I'd like to? As I don't really like 'hack & slash' adventure anyway, ie violence & killing to steal treasure from creatures & gain exp by hacking heads, but I've always been one for pure 'role play' concept, ie playing a role that is not myself.
But it also does stick in my craw, which is why I'm posting this here.
I have a few other beefs with RPG'ing, which this seems a good time to list:
My biggest problem w/D&D has been the racist underpinnings, the concept that somehow valiant (white) superheroes vanquish the world from hordes of mean, evil (non-white) monsters. When you look at real-life empirialism, this was in part an explanation behind much of earth's empirial expansions.
So that's part of why I ususally stay far away from D&D.
In this game, instead of allowing me to roleplay the game with those elements in the foreground, the GM would rather ignore any underlying racial issues and play a game where 'heroes' killing off scores of creatures in their own homes are seen as the 'good guys'.
That being said, I really am impressed with RPOL.net, the play by post site, and think it's amazing. GREAT WORK PEOPLE! (I hope Google Wave doesn't kill them -- but that said, Google Wave is not as sexy as Google advertised it to be.)
Thus, now that I've covered the event and my beef with D&D and that game, I want to give props to my favorite RPG of all time, Prime Time Adventures, the small rulebook which attempts to simulate a TV show series. This game rocks. It includes all my favorite things, namely collaborative story-telling, very fast conflict resolution, story driven play, character driven story, etc. There are no hit points and very few stats. And the game works WELL.
Anyway, today Arkayne Silvermist is dead, and the adventure which he doggedly had tried to pursue, getting revenge for his tribe's massacre, will never be resolved. Aahh, gaming. I miss 'face-to-face' RPG'ing!
VideoRevolt has begun -- Help? + Birthday Request
How can VideoRevolt.net become a real thriving business which can help the earth, earn some bucks, and help fellow multimedia artists around the world?
This morning at 6am I realized that I'm not alone here -- so I thought I'd ask YOU peeps!
** THE 'NET BRAINSTORM BEGINS *
The concept so far:
"The revolution will not be televised";
the Video (*R)Evolution flows along internet streams of public media.
The core revolution we want to see as humans can be broken into 3 core concepts:
freedom, mutual respect, and sustainability.
The Video (*R)evolution has the chance to embody the features which we want to see born from it; including peacefulness, environmental awareness, care for the earth and all of her creatures, and also entertainment -- while sharing wealth, giving credit where credit is due, empowering true democratic practices, and enabling the artistic authentic voices currently being squashed by the corporate media takeover of 9/11 & y2k.
And now, the question I pose to all of you -- how can we do this?
We have the domain name ... the rest will manifest...
Specifics -- oops, almost forgot.
Acquire a reasonably priced location in the heart of the (*R)evolution (likely Berkeley),
gather together a lot of (r)evolutionary content made by real people,
and start streaming content starting only on internet
(& later perhaps on Cable & U-verse -- if that's important).
This morning at 6am I realized that I'm not alone here -- so I thought I'd ask YOU peeps!
** THE 'NET BRAINSTORM BEGINS *
The concept so far:
"The revolution will not be televised";
the Video (*R)Evolution flows along internet streams of public media.
The core revolution we want to see as humans can be broken into 3 core concepts:
freedom, mutual respect, and sustainability.
The Video (*R)evolution has the chance to embody the features which we want to see born from it; including peacefulness, environmental awareness, care for the earth and all of her creatures, and also entertainment -- while sharing wealth, giving credit where credit is due, empowering true democratic practices, and enabling the artistic authentic voices currently being squashed by the corporate media takeover of 9/11 & y2k.
And now, the question I pose to all of you -- how can we do this?
We have the domain name ... the rest will manifest...
Specifics -- oops, almost forgot.
Acquire a reasonably priced location in the heart of the (*R)evolution (likely Berkeley),
gather together a lot of (r)evolutionary content made by real people,
and start streaming content starting only on internet
(& later perhaps on Cable & U-verse -- if that's important).
Earthv2.org -- re-visioning, re-thinking, rebuilding into a UTOPIA
Hello Drupalites, here's my Drupal proposal to you:
I need your help to fix the Earth.
I'm the guy that posted a flyer at BADCamp(.net) 2009
on the wall on plain notebook paper saying:
Here's the pitch: EARTHv2.org
Mission Statement:
Humanity has created a lot of neat things in our short period on the Earth, but we have made a lot of mistakes and have injured our planet. If we don't make changes, we may ruin our planet's ecosystem (and possibly wipe ourselves out as well). So we are challenged to re-vision, re-think, and re-do almost everything we have ever done.
Earthv2.org will become a tool to enable the needed collaborating of visionaries and creators to rework our planet into the UTOPIA we really want.
How this whole thing will work:
Earthv2 is an open-source community (running on Drupal) which shares all information in community forums. Anyone can read, only members can post, tag, & vote.
Initially Earthv2 will have three main forum catagories:
At any point, a member can 'TAG' the content with a "BUILDING IT" or "MAKING IT" tag, which means they have begun to act on this thread, and they can post URL's and info for acquiring their thing. Then the Earthv2 community can 'close the loop' and evaluate the final products, give suggestions, and so on.
Other 'TAG's (for searching/sorting) would be 'plant', 'animal', 'tool', 'new idea', 'impossible to make', 'incredible idea', and so on. The list of tags could be quite broad, maybe open.
Just as competition and greed have injured the world, so will collaboration and sharing help rebuild Earthv2 into a Utopia we can be proud of.
And so then what? Well, then the founders of the site could claim the kudos of the world and march into the sunset...
While I'm not aiming to make millions / billions off this concept, I am open to the idea being profitable, and re-investing any earnings back into Earthv2 and making it stronger.
I really believe in many ways the collaboration/sharing concept is WHY we have the internet (or neural networks, or language, etc). But so far, Google & Facebook & universities & other developer groups have not given us the tools to make this -- but we can do it ourselves using OpenSource DRUPAL!!!
I invite you to help make Earthv2,
and maybe one day we can all say we helped the Earth
when the Earth needed our help the most.
Now down to specifics -- what does Earthv2 actually need?
As for me, I am a video and multimedia artist, and I want contribute as a graphic designer and a producer.
Personally, I have no issue with existing businesses hopping into forums to pitch their stuff. The interactivity will allow them to get feedback from the community. If the thread becomes dominated by their product, a moderator could split the thread off into it's own thread.
If a lot of money arrives at Earthv2.org, I am open to making this a topic we can discuss. For now, I suggest we send any money generated by Earthv2 back into it as a developing business, with a goal of making it self-supporting. If we gather enough $$$ to pay salaries, I'd definitely consider that. I'm interested to hear other people's viewpoints on this.
Rather than start a huge thread of emails & responses, I'm going to start a post on my blog & people (drupal folks or anyone) can comment on this as they like.
Thread #1 has begun. (-- Yes, you're reading it right now!)
I look forward to helping fix the Earth with you.
Will you step up and help the Earth?
PEACE - Ari
rekzkarz.com
PS: This is not the right logo posted in this blog entry, I had the same Earth with a "v2" on it (not just a #2), but I don't have Photoshop re-installed yet and for some reason I had emailed myself this version of the logo awhile back. So fate has spoken.
I need your help to fix the Earth.
I'm the guy that posted a flyer at BADCamp(.net) 2009
on the wall on plain notebook paper saying:
DRUPAL BRAINIACS
Share mindpower & heal the Earth
We need you on a no-budget website to fix our planet.
Post your name/email & we'll contact you.
(I also may just have chatted w/you at BADCamp, or maybe I just got your bizcard somehow.)Share mindpower & heal the Earth
We need you on a no-budget website to fix our planet.
Post your name/email & we'll contact you.
Here's the pitch: EARTHv2.org
Mission Statement:
Humanity has created a lot of neat things in our short period on the Earth, but we have made a lot of mistakes and have injured our planet. If we don't make changes, we may ruin our planet's ecosystem (and possibly wipe ourselves out as well). So we are challenged to re-vision, re-think, and re-do almost everything we have ever done.
Earthv2.org will become a tool to enable the needed collaborating of visionaries and creators to rework our planet into the UTOPIA we really want.
How this whole thing will work:
Earthv2 is an open-source community (running on Drupal) which shares all information in community forums. Anyone can read, only members can post, tag, & vote.
Initially Earthv2 will have three main forum catagories:
Material -- stuff we make, have made, want to make
Social -- things we do, culture, society, philosophies
Spiritual -- inspirations, messages from other dimensions, morality, souls & spirits
Community members will post their thread concept, and other people can expand, comment, offer their own version, flush it out, etc. The content belongs to the community. Then the community can up/down VOTE the comment, which will affect it's Drupal weight & send it upwards or downwards, and affect it's score out of 10.Social -- things we do, culture, society, philosophies
Spiritual -- inspirations, messages from other dimensions, morality, souls & spirits
At any point, a member can 'TAG' the content with a "BUILDING IT" or "MAKING IT" tag, which means they have begun to act on this thread, and they can post URL's and info for acquiring their thing. Then the Earthv2 community can 'close the loop' and evaluate the final products, give suggestions, and so on.
Other 'TAG's (for searching/sorting) would be 'plant', 'animal', 'tool', 'new idea', 'impossible to make', 'incredible idea', and so on. The list of tags could be quite broad, maybe open.
Just as competition and greed have injured the world, so will collaboration and sharing help rebuild Earthv2 into a Utopia we can be proud of.
And so then what? Well, then the founders of the site could claim the kudos of the world and march into the sunset...
While I'm not aiming to make millions / billions off this concept, I am open to the idea being profitable, and re-investing any earnings back into Earthv2 and making it stronger.
I really believe in many ways the collaboration/sharing concept is WHY we have the internet (or neural networks, or language, etc). But so far, Google & Facebook & universities & other developer groups have not given us the tools to make this -- but we can do it ourselves using OpenSource DRUPAL!!!
I invite you to help make Earthv2,
and maybe one day we can all say we helped the Earth
when the Earth needed our help the most.
Now down to specifics -- what does Earthv2 actually need?
- 2-4 Drupal Engineers/Developers (build site and setup 'make a donation' button so Earthv2 pays for itself)
- 0-3 Theme Designers
- 1-2 Graphic Designers (in addition to me)
- 1 Producer (in addition to me, b/c 1 person can drop the ball but 2 will keep on pushin')
- 0-3 Marketing Specialists (*No Ads*, but people focussed on getting the word out about Earthv2)
- 3-50 moderators (thread/topic based, # will expand as we get more posts, *gotta block the spam*)
- 1,000,000+ members in the community willing to share their genius with the world (to make a ton of amazing fixes in the world)
Personally, I have no issue with existing businesses hopping into forums to pitch their stuff. The interactivity will allow them to get feedback from the community. If the thread becomes dominated by their product, a moderator could split the thread off into it's own thread.
If a lot of money arrives at Earthv2.org, I am open to making this a topic we can discuss. For now, I suggest we send any money generated by Earthv2 back into it as a developing business, with a goal of making it self-supporting. If we gather enough $$$ to pay salaries, I'd definitely consider that. I'm interested to hear other people's viewpoints on this.
Rather than start a huge thread of emails & responses, I'm going to start a post on my blog & people (drupal folks or anyone) can comment on this as they like.
Thread #1 has begun. (-- Yes, you're reading it right now!)
I look forward to helping fix the Earth with you.
Will you step up and help the Earth?
PEACE - Ari
rekzkarz.com
PS: This is not the right logo posted in this blog entry, I had the same Earth with a "v2" on it (not just a #2), but I don't have Photoshop re-installed yet and for some reason I had emailed myself this version of the logo awhile back. So fate has spoken.
Back and Forth on Animal Experimentation
This email chain was in response to an article in Wired.com about animal experimentation. The article is on the wired website here: http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/mf_optigenetics/
I thought I'd post it on my website and see if anyone cared to voice their feelings on this.
Please chime in with your comments on this debate, your feelings, or the article in the Wired magazine.
On Wed, Nov 4, 2009, rekzkarz wrote:
> Michael & Wired,
>
> As someone that is not particularly religious, nor 'PETA', nor a vegetarian, I was still disturbed by the positive spin built into this article on mixing mice brain genetics with pond scum (chlorophyll) and then having LEDs inserted into the mice brains -- and not once any question about morality, or if this is acceptable, or the question of 'means to an end' is relevant, etc.
> The fact that 'Frankenstein' is not written in the article is noteworthy, but what I find more lacking is the absence of ANY moral questioning.
> Perhaps it's too 'retro' to put the question in Wired ('what the fuck are these mad scientists doing to these living creatures in their secret laboratories'), but I was struck by the total lack of rights of living creatures to the extent that, from our 'warped human-focussed scientific perspective', it seems all creatures are nothing more than tools for human progress.
> Who gave these people the right to torture & warp these animals 'in the name of science'?
> I think a bizarre side-product of your article is the disgust I feel at reading how real scientists are actually WORSE than the most evil doctors in scifi and films!
>
> Ari -- rekzkarz.com (blog)
> sent via iPhone-bot
--- Michael Chorost, the author, wrote me back on 11/8/09 ... but when I told him I had posted his response to my blog, he demanded I take it down immediately and said he had not given me permission.
I didn't know I needed permission to post his response, but I am a nice guy, so I'm taking it down.
But I'm leaving MY responses here, and the link to the article: http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/mf_optigenetics/
In some ways, my experience with this article in Wired reminds me of when I read an old Wired (15th Anniversary) cover "Nuclear Power is the new Green fuel" or something, and was completely obsessed with arguing with that writer & disputing the entire basis of the article.
(In fact, I'm going to email the writer, Amanda Grsicom Little, again about this damned propaganda article!)
This guy has a blogpost article supporting how Wired was on the right track with nuclear power.
Nope, sorry dude. WRONG!
Give me a break! While the Sun is nuclear powered, the Earth is completely powered by solar, wind, and thermal. The only reason we would need nuclear power is because we continue increasing our demand for power, and keep producing all this garbage!
But that's not a winning strategy (for us or the rest of the creatures of the Earth)!
OK, back to animal experimentation...
--------------
Sent today Nov 9, 2009 by Ari
Michael,
I look forward to another response from you, please.
If I agreed with the core underlying issue, that human life must be preserved at all costs, I might agree with the explanation.
But I think the moral issue for me is that human life is not the apex of creation, the peak of the evolutionary process, which must be preserved. (In many ways, if you look at our world, doesn't it seem like the union of {human lack of foresight + greed + industrial revolution} can be seen as the biggest threats to life the Earth has ever faced?)
My view is that LIFE must be preserved, and that if humans understood their roles on Earth better, our moral goal would be to preserve 'all life in reasonable proportion', which would include inalienable rights to life for both plants & animals. Right now, human life is unacceptably dominating the Earth and destroying far too much of the Earth's billion-year evolved ecosphere -- and we are just now starting to feel the price of our unrestrained exploitation.
Humanity is continuing forward blindly, without considering the impacts of technology. (This is one of my problems with Wired, a magazine which endorses all forms of corporate-sponsored gadgeteering but hasn't seemed to realize that this makes a lot more non-biodegradable garbage.)
Rather than spending billions on preserving human life at all costs (incl torture & experimentation on animals, and billions of $ on R&D), and simultaneously spending billions on war machinery and the world domination industries...
Humanity could be using it's vast resources to:
* Clean up the refuse of the industrial revolution
* Restore the old-growth forests
* Switch over to renewable (non-destructive) power
* Help ALL people around the world live their lives to the best potential (ie making famine and environmental decrepitude into expressions of the past)
However, I see your point.
We need lots of $$$ in animal experimentation to help wealthy, 1st world children (and adults) to live to their fullest -- even while the already living & healthy children of 2nd & 3rd world countries starve to death b/c of lack of resources.
So far in this response, I hadn't even brought up the question of whether animals have inherent rights to life, liberty, equality, etc. I didn't even mention (until now) the fact that, simply b/c animals cannot speak a human language, they are treated as means to an ends, rather than our fellow brothers & sisters who have evolved over billions of years and share most of our DNA.
From my perspective, in one hundred years or so, the animal experiments you describe will likely be seen as equivalently evil and vile to the human experiments performed on Jews by the NAZI's.
But I say that b/c I can see from a larger perspective. It's a continuation the cycle of domination and exploitation which has in it's origins slavery, forced prostitution, and empire.
Here's a simple test to determine if the animal experimentation practice is sound morally, or is it reprehensible, cruel, and unjust:
How would you feel about this if the roles were reversed, and the animals were the superior life-form performing experiments on humans to ensure their extended survival?
Would you volunteer to be a test subject to have your brain experimented upon?
Why not?
As I said, I look forward to this next response from you.
Ari
rekzkarz.com
I thought I'd post it on my website and see if anyone cared to voice their feelings on this.
Please chime in with your comments on this debate, your feelings, or the article in the Wired magazine.
On Wed, Nov 4, 2009, rekzkarz wrote:
> Michael & Wired,
>
> As someone that is not particularly religious, nor 'PETA', nor a vegetarian, I was still disturbed by the positive spin built into this article on mixing mice brain genetics with pond scum (chlorophyll) and then having LEDs inserted into the mice brains -- and not once any question about morality, or if this is acceptable, or the question of 'means to an end' is relevant, etc.
> The fact that 'Frankenstein' is not written in the article is noteworthy, but what I find more lacking is the absence of ANY moral questioning.
> Perhaps it's too 'retro' to put the question in Wired ('what the fuck are these mad scientists doing to these living creatures in their secret laboratories'), but I was struck by the total lack of rights of living creatures to the extent that, from our 'warped human-focussed scientific perspective', it seems all creatures are nothing more than tools for human progress.
> Who gave these people the right to torture & warp these animals 'in the name of science'?
> I think a bizarre side-product of your article is the disgust I feel at reading how real scientists are actually WORSE than the most evil doctors in scifi and films!
>
> Ari -- rekzkarz.com (blog)
> sent via iPhone-bot
--- Michael Chorost, the author, wrote me back on 11/8/09 ... but when I told him I had posted his response to my blog, he demanded I take it down immediately and said he had not given me permission.
I didn't know I needed permission to post his response, but I am a nice guy, so I'm taking it down.
But I'm leaving MY responses here, and the link to the article: http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/mf_optigenetics/
In some ways, my experience with this article in Wired reminds me of when I read an old Wired (15th Anniversary) cover "Nuclear Power is the new Green fuel" or something, and was completely obsessed with arguing with that writer & disputing the entire basis of the article.
(In fact, I'm going to email the writer, Amanda Grsicom Little, again about this damned propaganda article!)
This guy has a blogpost article supporting how Wired was on the right track with nuclear power.
Nope, sorry dude. WRONG!
Give me a break! While the Sun is nuclear powered, the Earth is completely powered by solar, wind, and thermal. The only reason we would need nuclear power is because we continue increasing our demand for power, and keep producing all this garbage!
But that's not a winning strategy (for us or the rest of the creatures of the Earth)!
OK, back to animal experimentation...
Sent today Nov 9, 2009 by Ari
Michael,
I look forward to another response from you, please.
If I agreed with the core underlying issue, that human life must be preserved at all costs, I might agree with the explanation.
But I think the moral issue for me is that human life is not the apex of creation, the peak of the evolutionary process, which must be preserved. (In many ways, if you look at our world, doesn't it seem like the union of {human lack of foresight + greed + industrial revolution} can be seen as the biggest threats to life the Earth has ever faced?)
My view is that LIFE must be preserved, and that if humans understood their roles on Earth better, our moral goal would be to preserve 'all life in reasonable proportion', which would include inalienable rights to life for both plants & animals. Right now, human life is unacceptably dominating the Earth and destroying far too much of the Earth's billion-year evolved ecosphere -- and we are just now starting to feel the price of our unrestrained exploitation.
Humanity is continuing forward blindly, without considering the impacts of technology. (This is one of my problems with Wired, a magazine which endorses all forms of corporate-sponsored gadgeteering but hasn't seemed to realize that this makes a lot more non-biodegradable garbage.)
Rather than spending billions on preserving human life at all costs (incl torture & experimentation on animals, and billions of $ on R&D), and simultaneously spending billions on war machinery and the world domination industries...
Humanity could be using it's vast resources to:
* Clean up the refuse of the industrial revolution
* Restore the old-growth forests
* Switch over to renewable (non-destructive) power
* Help ALL people around the world live their lives to the best potential (ie making famine and environmental decrepitude into expressions of the past)
However, I see your point.
We need lots of $$$ in animal experimentation to help wealthy, 1st world children (and adults) to live to their fullest -- even while the already living & healthy children of 2nd & 3rd world countries starve to death b/c of lack of resources.
So far in this response, I hadn't even brought up the question of whether animals have inherent rights to life, liberty, equality, etc. I didn't even mention (until now) the fact that, simply b/c animals cannot speak a human language, they are treated as means to an ends, rather than our fellow brothers & sisters who have evolved over billions of years and share most of our DNA.
From my perspective, in one hundred years or so, the animal experiments you describe will likely be seen as equivalently evil and vile to the human experiments performed on Jews by the NAZI's.
But I say that b/c I can see from a larger perspective. It's a continuation the cycle of domination and exploitation which has in it's origins slavery, forced prostitution, and empire.
Here's a simple test to determine if the animal experimentation practice is sound morally, or is it reprehensible, cruel, and unjust:
How would you feel about this if the roles were reversed, and the animals were the superior life-form performing experiments on humans to ensure their extended survival?
Would you volunteer to be a test subject to have your brain experimented upon?
Why not?
As I said, I look forward to this next response from you.
Ari
rekzkarz.com
Capitalism: A Love Story
This is a reposting of My Yahoo Movie Review.
Great movie, should be required education for all!
by REkz (movies profile)Oct 3, 2009
Michael Moore, no matter what the (deceitful) media says about him, makes entertaining documentaries. And informative. And 'rabble rousing'. And frankly, inspiring.
STAND UP, America! If you help defend the rights of working people in the USA, you are defending them all around the world! The USA has the spotlight of corporate media, and we can help everyone on Earth by our actions today & tomorrow.
While Michael Moore often goes for the 'crying shots', its not b/c he forces them to happen (or making people 'act'), it's b/c people are crying ALL AROUND the USA: Americans are losing their jobs, their homes, their lives (cellphone induced brain cancer & cigarette induced lung cancer, obesity from meat additives, new forms of diseases from GM foods), and our foreign policy isn't helping other non-agressive countries which the USA illegally invaded, either.
How many dead Iraqi's are needed before the USA ends a policy which has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions of people? Did you know Iraq was an ally for years, getting billions in dollars (in weapons, food, medicine) before Saddam Hussein became the 'world bad guy'? Did you know Saddam Hussein was an ally for years? Did you know he helped the CIA in illegally overthrowing the Iranian (democratically elected) government?
The truth is so much harder to believe than fiction!
The reality is -- Bush & Cheney sold out the USA, attempted to bankrupt the country, and take over. When the govt gave a bailout to the worst offenders, instead of allowing 'free market capitalism' to take place & allowing the bad banks to collapse (and helping cushion the blow for working Americans), the govt did prevent another attempted govt coup by Bush & Co, but did it by giving billions of public dollars to private enterprise. It was THE BIGGEST BANK ROBBERY in history!!!
If you watch the news, you might not have heard ANYTHING Michael's movies talk about, or perhaps you have heard bits but not phrased the way he says things. But the news media knows what he says is true, they are trying to 'spin it' towards favoring corporatism and the rich. Michael spins it towards the working man and average Americans. He actually leaves out a lot of what's going on in USA (and the US's global impact) -- see my tirade at the end of this review.
I have also read several of his books & highly recommend them, incl "Downsize This" and "Dude, Where's My Country?". Michael Moore could have been a comedian, but he has a mission in his life -- to tell truth to power. Go Michael!
While I'm far more Left-wing than USA's average 'Liberals', having travelled the world and lived overseas (Europe, S.America, Australia, etc) for extended periods, I'm still so often amazed at how weak the Left Wing is in the USA: completely shut out of govt (except for Bernie Sanders, Barbara Lee & Dennis Kucinich) and MISREPRESENTED by millionaires who for some reason can't fully give in to their greed all the time (ie Barbara Boxer, Nancy Pelosi, etc) but do most of the time anyway... Here's a Democratic phrase which I hope goes down in history as one of the greatest betrayals of US Democracy: "Impeachment is off the table". (Thank you Pelosi -- you have earned yourself an impeachment and charges of blocking the US Constitution and betraying your constituency.)
I never believed the USA has the "best way", if you look at our history of native genocide or slavery. However, the quality of life in the USA had been the highest around the world ... until recently.
Last time I was in Europe, the things people relied upon FROM society was impressive -- safety, security, medical, and more. In Australia, they have all that AND they have a "dole", which is what we call 'Welfare' in the USA. While the dole did not afford one a 'high quality of life', it did help people without a job live in an apartment and have food.
What's the crime in that?
Michael's "Capitalism" movie did not talk about: Bush/Cheney or their intimate involvement in 9/11 (see 911 truth dot org or watch "Loose Change" on Google video) and allowing it to happen,
How George Bush helped Bin Laden's family the day after 9/11 AND spent the day of 9/11 with Bin Laden's relative in the White House,
How the oil industry manipulates prices (not based on demand, which is constant) to manipulate the American public,
How President Barack Obama is under assault by a multi-billion dollar Right Wing smear campaign (similar to Bill Clinton's unique experience with Ken Starr),
The significance of Skull and Bones society and the FreeMasons in US Government manipulation,
The overlap between the (endless) Drug War and the drug profiteering by CIA and other secret US operations,
The danger of XE (formerly BlackWater) attacking Americans on US soil,
American pharmaceutical blackmailing by the bio-tech and pharmaceutical industries,
and so much more.
Lately, there are so many outrageous maneuvers by rich wealthy (generally white) power, it's hard to know where to fight back.
The Right Wing in the USA is either:
Check out Consolidated: UNITY OF OPPRESSION. Consolidated is an old yet incredible Left Wing techno industrial band. (Buy their albums, or just download and share their tracks! Look up 'torrents', find utorrent for PC, and share your information!)
We are all one, we have to stand together against oppression in all forms.
rekzkarz dot com
by REkz (movies profile)
Michael Moore, no matter what the (deceitful) media says about him, makes entertaining documentaries. And informative. And 'rabble rousing'. And frankly, inspiring.
STAND UP, America! If you help defend the rights of working people in the USA, you are defending them all around the world! The USA has the spotlight of corporate media, and we can help everyone on Earth by our actions today & tomorrow.
While Michael Moore often goes for the 'crying shots', its not b/c he forces them to happen (or making people 'act'), it's b/c people are crying ALL AROUND the USA: Americans are losing their jobs, their homes, their lives (cellphone induced brain cancer & cigarette induced lung cancer, obesity from meat additives, new forms of diseases from GM foods), and our foreign policy isn't helping other non-agressive countries which the USA illegally invaded, either.
How many dead Iraqi's are needed before the USA ends a policy which has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions of people? Did you know Iraq was an ally for years, getting billions in dollars (in weapons, food, medicine) before Saddam Hussein became the 'world bad guy'? Did you know Saddam Hussein was an ally for years? Did you know he helped the CIA in illegally overthrowing the Iranian (democratically elected) government?
The truth is so much harder to believe than fiction!
The reality is -- Bush & Cheney sold out the USA, attempted to bankrupt the country, and take over. When the govt gave a bailout to the worst offenders, instead of allowing 'free market capitalism' to take place & allowing the bad banks to collapse (and helping cushion the blow for working Americans), the govt did prevent another attempted govt coup by Bush & Co, but did it by giving billions of public dollars to private enterprise. It was THE BIGGEST BANK ROBBERY in history!!!
If you watch the news, you might not have heard ANYTHING Michael's movies talk about, or perhaps you have heard bits but not phrased the way he says things. But the news media knows what he says is true, they are trying to 'spin it' towards favoring corporatism and the rich. Michael spins it towards the working man and average Americans. He actually leaves out a lot of what's going on in USA (and the US's global impact) -- see my tirade at the end of this review.
I have also read several of his books & highly recommend them, incl "Downsize This" and "Dude, Where's My Country?". Michael Moore could have been a comedian, but he has a mission in his life -- to tell truth to power. Go Michael!
While I'm far more Left-wing than USA's average 'Liberals', having travelled the world and lived overseas (Europe, S.America, Australia, etc) for extended periods, I'm still so often amazed at how weak the Left Wing is in the USA: completely shut out of govt (except for Bernie Sanders, Barbara Lee & Dennis Kucinich) and MISREPRESENTED by millionaires who for some reason can't fully give in to their greed all the time (ie Barbara Boxer, Nancy Pelosi, etc) but do most of the time anyway... Here's a Democratic phrase which I hope goes down in history as one of the greatest betrayals of US Democracy: "Impeachment is off the table". (Thank you Pelosi -- you have earned yourself an impeachment and charges of blocking the US Constitution and betraying your constituency.)
I never believed the USA has the "best way", if you look at our history of native genocide or slavery. However, the quality of life in the USA had been the highest around the world ... until recently.
Last time I was in Europe, the things people relied upon FROM society was impressive -- safety, security, medical, and more. In Australia, they have all that AND they have a "dole", which is what we call 'Welfare' in the USA. While the dole did not afford one a 'high quality of life', it did help people without a job live in an apartment and have food.
What's the crime in that?
Michael's "Capitalism" movie did not talk about: Bush/Cheney or their intimate involvement in 9/11 (see 911 truth dot org or watch "Loose Change" on Google video) and allowing it to happen,
How George Bush helped Bin Laden's family the day after 9/11 AND spent the day of 9/11 with Bin Laden's relative in the White House,
How the oil industry manipulates prices (not based on demand, which is constant) to manipulate the American public,
How President Barack Obama is under assault by a multi-billion dollar Right Wing smear campaign (similar to Bill Clinton's unique experience with Ken Starr),
The significance of Skull and Bones society and the FreeMasons in US Government manipulation,
The overlap between the (endless) Drug War and the drug profiteering by CIA and other secret US operations,
The danger of XE (formerly BlackWater) attacking Americans on US soil,
American pharmaceutical blackmailing by the bio-tech and pharmaceutical industries,
and so much more.
Lately, there are so many outrageous maneuvers by rich wealthy (generally white) power, it's hard to know where to fight back.
The Right Wing in the USA is either:
- rich
- ignorant &/or racist &/or white supremacist
- misinformed
- afraid
Check out Consolidated: UNITY OF OPPRESSION. Consolidated is an old yet incredible Left Wing techno industrial band. (Buy their albums, or just download and share their tracks! Look up 'torrents', find utorrent for PC, and share your information!)
We are all one, we have to stand together against oppression in all forms.
rekzkarz dot com
Lynda.com -- nice. Drupal -- nice!
Lynda.com is cool. For Berkeley City College, it's only $10/mo, but only the topics in our class.I'm hella impressed, & I think there should be something like this free for all.
Educational videos, passively absorbed (but you can do them NEXT TO the app).
Here's a few Lynda.com hacks (from a Forums.Macrumors.com article):
For Safari usersFrankly, I don't blame Lynda for having security. Those help files are their gold. BUT, it's not that hard to 'work around' so you can re-watch videos after ending your account. And you can download these with a 'plain vanilla browser', not any website rippers or similar.
I don't use Lynda.com but have saved youtube videos by choosing the Window menu in Safari and choosing activity.
(Window --> Activity --> download file)
This will show links to all items that are part of the page. You should be able to find the link to the video by looking for the item that is megabytes in size instead of kilobytes. When you click that link in the activity window it should download the file.
For Firefox users,
1. Open the movie in a Firefox window
2. Select Tools>Page Info
3. Select the Media tab
4. Press the Save As button
One thing though. While the movies play fine locally, they are well protected from being easily transcoded to another format. None of the usual suspects work such as QT Pro, ffmpegX, or MPEG Streamclip.
So this has me thinking, why not have HELP FILES that are all video?
I was just troubleshooting a phone system, and any kind of help besides their old & confusing paper manual would've ROCKED.
Future super help systems = videos, a chat option to talk to an expert, maybe point your video phone to the problem & have a human troubleshooter, and easy-to-search forum.
Hmmmm, maybe I should make the damned thing!
& I'm really liking Drupal. And BADCamp is this month! Wow, a free weekend-long DRUPAL learning fest in the Bay Area (hence the name). GO OPEN SOURCE!
REkzkaRZ 3.0 -- Evolution of (*R)Evolution
Back from Burning Man 2009. Whew!Lexann and I had a good time, despite my KO'ing myself with cigarettes & coffee. I was surprised that I kaboshed myself, frankly. I guess I'm more sensitive to that stuff nowadays?
Well, we have a bunch of great stories, & I'll mention two big highlights for now:
First Story:
The day of the Burn was a 7-hour+ dust storm, where Lexann and her new Canadian buddies decided to walk from 3 to 9 on the Playa. Besides the crazy weather, it took ~ 2 hours of walking! I could barely walk b/c my body was shot. Anyway, I was toasted! Luckily, Pierre & Mary had ample soup to restore my vigor! 2 cans of Chunky Soup later, and I was ready -- oh, then I passed out on a couch in a dust storm with Lexann, Mary, and Pierre.
2nd Story: Our exit from Black Rock City, the grand emancipation, where we bid sayonara to 'the dust'. We didn't have an easy time entering or leaving, really. We departed for Black Rock City on Sunday ~ 9pm from Sacramento and made great time until Empire City, at which point everything backed up for hours. We finally got in at ... 8am! Gaahhh
As for leaving BRC, well ... we packed up everything on Sat b/c I was ready. I was toasted. Couldn't take more dust.
Somehow we had 3 awesome volunteers (Mary, Pierre, and Martin - above) who offered to help us! You have my ETERNAL THANKS! We knocked out shade structure, tent, and a bunch of garbage bags in ~ 90 minutes, which was amazing. The car was completely packed.
Then it was time for that walk across the Playa ... (see First Story, above.)
So back to the return trip from Black Rock City. We saw the Burn (big! Lots of fireworks! It took forever for the man to fall!), biked back to the car, mounted up at around midnight, and then followed the instructions our campmates had offered -- to stay overnight at the El Dorado hotel in Reno, with it's famed buffet and cheap rooms.
BUT what we hadn't anticipated was that the 3day weekend had filled ALL the hotels in Reno and all surrounding areas!
I was driving on the road driving from midnight to 5:45am, pounding coffee and chainsmoking cigs, when we finally found the Elmwood Hotel. For $50, the guy let us sleep from 6am-1pm, and then gave us the boot. The Elmwood was a complete dump, but we were very happy to have a bed to sleep in and a shower to wash off in.
Ah, the Elmwood, the motel where I found out just how messed up I was from 'the rash', ie the chafing which I had steadfastly ignored and battled. Lexann said several times, "you could just shower", and now I know she was right. This final 'handywipe Burning Man' signaled the end of handy-wipe Burning Man's for me. From here on out, it's SHOWER, or pass.
I didn't scream THAT much when I was showering at the Elmwood. Just ~ 5 minutes or so of excrutiating pain, and then a heaping helpful of Mary's Canadian "Gold Bond" hydrating cream. Whew!
Have we lost our language to corporations? ROFLMAO
"ok, finally got my SP1 upgraded to SP2, then SP3, and got my AVG 8.5, and IE7."
I saw this line on a website. It cracked me up, for a minute.
Then I started thinking about a conversation I recently had with a friend where we talked about some really confusing stuff, and when it was all done I realized we hadn't said ANYTHING but brandnames & product specs.
And that is the language of Information Technology, and the reason Open Source must win. The marketing teams for software (and hardware) are sucking up so much of our brains with chatter that has no meaning that it dilutes everything in our society.
Instead of researching or investigating, we "Google" things. We "chat, IM, email, or txt" instead of 'real' f2f IRL conversations. I play pbp rpg's instead of f2f IRL rpg's.
When William Gibson & other scifi folks wrote about Otaku, I did not think they were describing the future average American. But perhaps that will be the deal -- World of Warcraft has brought us to a new world where 'in real life' is becoming far less relevant. In fact, IRL can be a hardship b/c you can't trade & exchange files or data as easily.
I want to offer some alternatives:
I saw this line on a website. It cracked me up, for a minute.
Then I started thinking about a conversation I recently had with a friend where we talked about some really confusing stuff, and when it was all done I realized we hadn't said ANYTHING but brandnames & product specs.
And that is the language of Information Technology, and the reason Open Source must win. The marketing teams for software (and hardware) are sucking up so much of our brains with chatter that has no meaning that it dilutes everything in our society.
Instead of researching or investigating, we "Google" things. We "chat, IM, email, or txt" instead of 'real' f2f IRL conversations. I play pbp rpg's instead of f2f IRL rpg's.
When William Gibson & other scifi folks wrote about Otaku, I did not think they were describing the future average American. But perhaps that will be the deal -- World of Warcraft has brought us to a new world where 'in real life' is becoming far less relevant. In fact, IRL can be a hardship b/c you can't trade & exchange files or data as easily.
I want to offer some alternatives:
- all new technology aims to enable people to do things without being stuck in a chair
- all new technology aims to help people be more effective face-to-face in-real-life
- all new technology strives to enhance human connections 'in real life' rather than forcing humans into isolation while trying to reach out to new people.
RED ROOM blog entry -- OBSESSION is my ART and my TOOL
RED ROOM sends me an email, asks me, ""What are your obsessions? Your passions? Your fixations? ... Just tell us what's on your mind--a lot of the time. " A nice, harmless invitation for me to blog on their website.
I wonder, why do they care? Does anyone in the USA really care what I think? Then I realize ... Ah yes, they are trying to get more 'hits' and 'views' on their website, which increases their stats and (theoretically) makes them look better to advertisers. They ask me to talk about myself, which they will in-turn re-package and give to their viewership for free in hopes of more 'hits'. Even my composing on their website generates 'hits', so they have already won. I'm fine with that, however, because it's a win-win world and we can all build partnerships of success -- at least they said that in my last business class.
This is the new economy, it seems; an economy about hits and views and commodification of other people's lives as Blogs in order to market and sell them to a viewership that never pays for the product -- however, someone seems to have forgotten the MONEY piece, at least for us little folks.
MONEY, the medium of exchange where one valuable item is evaluated and traded for another valuable item. Something is not working in this equation here. Advertisers are messing things up, don't you think? Advertisers are paying pennies to have their ads put up with your content, which actually is NOT adding value but subtracting value and annoying viewers, but the viewers contentment is not seen as a valuable thing. Advertisers are STEALING part of your brain-space and not paying you for that. So the equation is already fucked.
The topic of money arouses in me a powerful temptation to rant about the CRIME of the Wall Street Bailouts. In fact, I can't resist writing the number out: $750,000,000,000 in bailout money to the banks. The bankers just did the largest bank-robbery in all of known history, and the media 'explained' it away, and then moved on to Sports.
I want to rant further on the insanity which enabled Bush Jr to give away billions of dollars with minimal oversite to the richest Americans, but instead I will stop here and invite you to read any of MY RANTz on MY BLOG on MY SITE, rekzkarz.com. (Aha! I can pitch and market and sell myself EVEN AS you are pitching and marketing and selling me! So there!) I have a bunch of posts about the Bailout Robberies. In fact, I even shot an entire video of RANTz about the state of the USA, but this is not the place to market my videos... or is it?
Back to the topic: Obsession
I feel I'm an expert. I've been clean and sober for 13 years. A sober addict, I still attend 12 Step meetings and give my hand out to newcomers who are for the first time imagining the possibilities of living life without being trashed constantly. Many new people to 12 Step Programs may not believe such a thing is really possible. 13 years ago, I didn't.
But new people keep on coming, and some of them get sober. They change, they grow as people. They move past the alcohol and drug abuse, and once those drugs have faded many realize the obsessive quality has not gone away, but 'graduated' to other things, like food, sex, internet, gambling, objects and cluttering, relationship addiction, and more.
In un-fucking themselves, they have woken up -- and realized they were fucked.
But the good news is that the same skills learned in getting clean and sober can be used to clean up the other stuff. And many of us do that, successfully.
But does that remove the underlying obsessiveness?
I have been doing an Artists' Way group for the past 5 months. It's a powerful transformational meeting on Monday nights at a humble local restaurant. We started with 12 people, and now we are widdled down to three. We are not the strongest or most successful of the bunch -- we are the ones who feel there is a benefit in meeting. Last Monday, we experimented using a "Coaching Yourself" book and I felt it was very successful. We uncovered some common truths about ourselves that none of us realized we shared: Obsession, and the desire to force ourselves to perform rather than enjoying ourselves.
I generally see obsession as one of my strengths. I'm 'intense', people find me to be a 'powerful' personality. Obsession runs counter to balance, so I need to remember to eat, walk, find time with friends & my girlfriend, laugh, etc. But it is so powerful, the desire to continue what I am doing, that I can do superhuman feats (even now that I'm without drugs), such as:
- operate my computer for 12-18 hours straight without food, water, or a pee break
- stay up from midnight to 7am for several nights working on a project
- work a 12 hour day on a film set, and then work another 12 hours that night at home
- compose a song, edit and do multiple versions, and upload it to the internet (the 'tapes' on my blog site)
- send 50 emails in a day, update multiple blogs, touch my facebook account, & do graphic design work
- watch 10 hours of TV on a DVR (but with fast-forward, I can squeeze in 12+ hours of actual content)
and the superheroic feats continue... I had always associated these unique skills with my 'unique nature', my 'extreme personality', being driven or inspired, and later my 'addictive nature', my 'ADHD', and so on. Several doctors have wanted to give me psych medicine (and I tried some) to cure me. To fix me. To make me more like ... everyone else. This is the goal? To make me more able to do a corporate 9-5 job, to work at a supermarket, to be a bank teller. The goal was to make me "normal".
I'm grateful that I wandered into a Kundalini Yoga class years ago in Los Angeles where the Sikh Yoga Master began talking about ADHD several minutes after I had wandered (late) into the class. He said ADHD is not a disease or an ailment, it is not something needing to be fixed. He believed ADHD people need to be given the tools to create, and then released to do their creations.
Awhile back, I decided to re-label my world. I come up with new ones daily. So far, here's a few good ones to reclaim my language from 'them'.
- Right to Life Supporter = Fetal Rights Activist (or better yet, Fetus Protector)
- Socialist = a supporter of fairness and sharing
- Marxist/Communist = a potentially violent believer in sharing
- Anarchist = a person who believes, "if I'm not hurting anyone, leave me the fuck alone!"
- Capitalist = an advocate of "let the rich be rich, let the poor be poor"
- 40 hour 9-5 work week = slavery (albeit with some consent on the part of the enslaved)
- Non-violent Crime = occurs when a person who is not able to work for a reasonable wage opts to engage in non-violent actions (drug dealing, shop lifting) to survive. Also a term for not wearing your seat-belt, smoking cigarettes near a door, public nudity, public sex, and using any drug that hasn't been endorsed by the Government, including smoking a plant.
- NEWS = programming by media (and government and corporations) which informs but will not outrage people enough to demand justice. A conscious propagandistic manipulation of the population. News is a product to be consumed and not cause problems with the entrenched system of oligarchical capitalism.
- Conservative Republican = Fascist (a believer in a strong union of government, business, and religion, where the upper class is far above the lower, sometimes offering protection for the poorest, sometimes guaranteeing death for the poorest)
- Democrat = Centrist (a moderate position, someone ready to compromise, but doesn't completely advocate the total exploitation of the poorest parts of society or the world)
- Radical = Left Winger (a revolutionary who believes in change, and often in concepts like 'freedom', 'equality', and 'sharing'.
- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) = Artist
I know somewhere in my head that a BLOG entry should be short and sweet, and have some nice pictures, in order to keep the reader's attention and be more easily consumed. A BLOG is not a book, and reading something on a computer screen is not a fun activity like reading a book. (Know why? Computer screens are flashing direct light into your eyes constantly, painfully burning images onto your retinas. Books are the joyous observation of natural sunlight bouncing off an artfully designed wood-like material covered in wonderful patterns. Aaaah, it's soothing really, and despite the regrettable loss of trees, the light is generated without us creating pollution.)
So I guess I'm done.
No, I forgot, I want to add one point. When we are challenged by Obama, teachers, mentors, friends, or whomever, to question what we are being told, how do you DO that? Yes, I'm asking you. I can offer the following suggestion: Take whatever is being told to you, rephrase it with your words, say it (out loud if necessary), and see if it makes sense. If not, you are being lied to. Here goes a few examples:
Bailout of banks -- "We need to give more public money to the institutions we are all giving our money to, because they have mismanaged our money." <-- does that make sense?
Iraq War -- "We need to send our troups to a foreign country where the USA overthrew the leadership because the USA thought this country had attacked us because our President implied this, but now we know they didn't attack us, so we need to stay there and kill the terrorists there to help them to have a democracy like we have." <-- does that make sense?
Economic Crisis -- "Because housing prices dropped and no professional financial people predicted that, the USA needs to loan the largest lenders public money to loan to private businesses, or the 'free market' economy will collapse. Furthermore, because of this crissi, it is acceptable for large businesses and State Governments to lay off massive numbers of their employees and have salary cuts, but the government cannot force businesses to limit the salaries of their highest paid executives."
Obession is a tool ... against bullshit.
This blog entry is reposted on RED ROOM - here.
RPOL.net, a new TV show project, Kimba's Cave, FishBiteFish, Burning Man
RPOL.net is an interesting site. A facebook friend John suggested I come on-board a game & give it a whirl. He offered to GM something, but nothing has begun yet. After playing Dungeon Crawl addictively for a few weeks, the 'play by post' phenomenon seems much more interactive and keeps the feel of real roleplaying... sorta.Oh, did I mention the game we are playing is AD&D (1st Ed)? It's almost like a trip back to highschool. However, on RPOL.net you can RTJ ('request to join') into any kind of game hosted on there -- they have scifi games, 'free form' games, anime, horror -- or you can attempt to run your own game. For a gamer like me, this is quite a bonanza.
The site is setup really well also. They have multiple 'roles' (ie GM (game master) & player), each with unique abilities on the site.
The GM can setup NPC's (non-player characters, ie anyone that is not a player) with stats and backgrounds, and sets the scene. The GM also posts rule mods, makes decisions, and so on.
Players accounts are more limited -- their posts will all be as themselves, where-as the GM can post as themselves or as an NPC. Players also can post a character sheet (between themselves & GM), a description for other players to see of themselves, and an avatar (ie a pic).
From there out, it's mostly posts, rmail (emails which stay on the RPOL.net site), and private messaging.
Some interesting caveats:
Posts are generally in normal type, speaking is usually in a color, and 'out of character' comments are written with [OOC: blah] tag. You can also use italics and bold type, like a standard webpage. Another helpful functionality is the ability to insert 'private messages' into a post, which allows one person to read a line of text (but no-one else). This can be helpful for posting dice rolls or a note (backstab my friend Fred) to the GM without everyone seeing the results, or for making plans and whispering to other characters.
The commitment for the game I joined, a GreyHawk game, a is to post daily. I think this will keep things moving along. It's also very helpful for my creativity.
RPOL.net is a free site, but they take donations. I'm going to see how this game works out, but ultimately I'll kick in a few bucks too, probably.
On a related tangent, I just met with my friend Allen to brainstorm and kick-off a project about a roleplaying game themed TV series. Having watched multiple internet TV shows that touch on this theme, it seems we both have some insight into what we don't like about the genre. Figuring out what we would like however is a different matter.
But we have a premise, which sounds great, and some unique ideas.
So now we're heading off to pre-production (writing, later casting, and then finding locations) and also some research on game companies that might want to help us succeed -- maybe even promote the project.
Goals: We are aiming to do a show where non-gamers would enjoy it, and obviously gamers as well. We also want to make money for our work, rather than doing everything for free w/o any compensation in the equation -- as has been the case for both of us recently.
My girlfriend seems to think that making a good gamer show is an impossible goal. Aha! A challenge!
In the middle of our meeting, a guy named Kimba hit us up and pitched us his TV show. He gave us a copy of the DVD to look at (and then took it back). He said he'd spent 10 years and $20k of his own money making the show, but was unable to get it screened or sold.Find it online:
Youtube video is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv5U0rBMuBM
myspace.com/kimbascave
I just watched it. Whoa. Unusual and creepy, especially for a kid's show. Kimba said his show was like Peewee Herman, but I'd add -- if Pee Wee was communicating to Satan. (At one point, Kimba gestures to his demon friend, and his friend blows fire and conjures a knife into Kimba's hand.) Seems like 'knowing your audience' might've helped this project a bit.
Lexann and I went to see Zhenya & Desiree's new band play their first gig. Their band is currently called "FishBiteFish", and it was a good little party. We both figured Desiree could sing, and we were right. All the band members seem very skilled.
We had a blast, dancing & chatting w/folks. I brought my friend Johnik, who randomly vanished for most of the party. I was concerned about him, but it was all OK, he just took a long walk with a random dude (a DJ) and they had been talking. We reunited via cellphone just before leaving, so he got a ride back to E.Bay.
Some dudes were giving Lex the vibe, but ... she's hot, it's just part of the deal. I can live with it. HA We all laughed about Robin, a dude that always leaves a 'too intimate' lingering touch when he passes by. Gropey, I guess you could say.
It was a great surprise to see Denis, an old Burning Man friend that I had not seen in years. I met Denis and Xian at Burning Man back in 2003, and when they split up I kept relationship with Xian but hadn't spoken to Denis in ages. It was nice to see him, and I was stunned at seeing him after the years b/c he seemed radically changed -- ie, he seems no longer angry. Perhaps graduating college, having a child, and getting married do that?
I'd like some of that too! Um, I mean, to feel happy, grounded and chill.
Or maybe I'd like it all? HA
Oh yeah, Lexann and I are off to Burning Man at the end of the month!!!! I'm excited and nervous, very aware of what we need to do to go, and ... this is going to be FUN! If you've never gone to Burning Man, it's worth going. From my perspective, it is a hallmark even of the biggest paradigm shifting phenomenon of the 21st Century, the DIY (maker's) Festivals. Post-post-modern society is not about producers & consumers, it is about everyone being enabled to produce consciously, and everyone being enabled to consume what they feel best represents their self-concept and morality. Plus, I love the artwork and the 'Mad Max' feel of the thing.(This pic is from Gary Cohen, http://www.portraitsontheplaya.com.)
Obsessed w/Rogue Likes -- newest fav = Dungeon Crawl (Tiles)
I'm not sure why, but I buy (or dload) games and find I play them for a few weeks then stop. They lose their fun factor so fast by repetition and rote.
Why does'nt that happen with Rogue-Likes?!?!? (If you don't know Rogue-Likes, here's the Wikipedia link.)
I like the concepts of:
- every game is different,
- no 'true' game balance,
- characters can be all over the map,
- hard to win,
- easy to die,
- Graphics come second to the exploration fun.
The only thing missing for me with these games is something that doesn't only go after 'killing things' to improve experience. This one point has never made sense to me. If you look at warriors & military, the more they kill perhaps makes the people stronger & colder, but it often backlashes and causes pain, heartache, and shell shock.I feel I've grown and gained a lot in experience simply by travelling around the world, learning languages, becoming exposed to other cultures, having diverse relationships, and by NOT killing anyone.
So I'm hooked up DungeonCrawl. It's ... awesome. And yes, I cheat (and you can too -- click here) -- but it doesn't help me much.
When I had a Palm Treo, it was iLarn and iRogue. The iPhone doesn't really have a great adaptation (although I did buy Rogue Touch ... and was disappointed by a lot of it).
(*R)Evolution & Video Video Video
As I type this quick note about the video revolution, ongoing, I am recording a live city hall broadcast SOLO. It once was a two person job, and could easily be more people, but it is now solo. The main job is operating 4 robotic cameras and a video switcher, but with our loss of the second person I also operate 2DVD decks, 1 VHS deck, and try to operate COMPIXMedia (CG Program) for title overlays and lower thirds.
Whew! All that AND I can type a blog too! (My secret - I only type when someone is talking for 5 min's plus and it gets boring. Blogging helps me to stay alert and ready to move.)
So this video revolution is happening. I've ramped up my output to get on the train. It's not easy, esp with the current economic crisis (which is a very soft way of saying THE LARGEST BANK ROBBERY IN WORLD HISTORY).
My scifi dystopia feature screenplay shows my suspicion of rulers and authority. I wrote characters coming from a wide range of diversity (ethnic, racial, gender-preference, and age) and possibly have room to film little bits all around the world. I don't have money for that -- yet -- but who says that should stop this project?
The LAUNCHED screening went well, but for me it was somewhat anti-climactic because:
a) I would have liked more collaboration on the final edit,
b) I felt like my final edit was not as 'slick' as it needed to be,
c) my final 3D animation could have been a bit 'slower' with smoother motion, but it did do what I had hoped (look good and allude to a mysterious unknown planetary ailment),
d) now I'm not sure what to do next with my film career or my life.
That about covers it. Whew.
In some ways, the latest months really have felt like "God does for you what you could not have done for yourself." I left corporate $100k living because I wanted to have a real, healthy, vibrant life. I have definitely had that over the last few years -- however the financial uncertainty and instability is not the easiest to cope with.
Can anyone relate?
I'm watching jobs vanish and loyal employees get dumped on their butts, even after working for years at jobs. It's powerful, tremendous, and sad. My temptation is always to blame (particularly during a criminal action like this), but in this case I want to offer my commiseration to those who are being betrayed.Because ultimately, if a business is profitable and they are doing layoffs, it is those who are removing too much profit (generally via the upper positions) who have betrayed their loyal lower-income workers.
LAUNCHED - almost there
Well, it's getting near the crunch. Today is 5/14 and the final piece is due in less than a week. The good news is that I have most of it done, I believe, and need to do a few more sound tweaks and then a few preliminary outputs to look & see what's up.I saw Star Trek last weekend, and after that it was SAD to come back and work on this. That movie ROCKED. But, this is not a Star Trek action film, this is a low/no budget short that is a character driven piece about being stranded in space.
I'm happy to say, I think this short works quite well. It was not easy, b/c we shot A LOT of it on GreenScreen. I hope I hear similar things from viewers -- screening should be June 7th in SF.The pics are: the LifeRaft 'logo', and an early mockup of the spacestation/satellite, a completely sustainable environment built for 3.5 people.
One Minute Of My Life
Only one minute of my life is lived at a time.
Commercials try to take that minute and fill me with their program
I reject it because I suspect it and so I reject that whole system.
A commercial world built on exploitation and domination
to pull out profit is what I scoff at.
The abomination in our nation is promotion of selfishness
while earnest visionaries who dream of sharing
love, food, water, shelter, and these little techno-gadgets
They are called socialists ... or worse.
For just one minute let's remember;
there's more going on than this money - paper.
Life is our goal. And "There is enough". (x3)
PEACE! This is rekzkarz.com
I invoke and dream awake ... our Ascension! - Astarius
Here's a link to the mp3 AND the lyrics, both together online! I've been listening to this track AND meditating with this for years!
Lyrics came from here:
http://people.tribe.net/…18a927cabd
I invoke, decree, and dream Awake the full cellular Ascension of my Being, Physical, mental, emotional, spiritual in this Now ...
With the full support of God/Goddess, The Ascended Master realm to include: Our Ascended Master Self, father Saint Germain, Sananda, the Holy Mother Mary, Quan Yin/Goddess of Mercy, Archangel Michael and the Legions, Ashtar and the entire command, Babaji, Raphael, Gabriel, Clan of the Trumpet Angels, Aboriginal and tribal shaman, Goddesses of Fortune, Angels of Light, Alohim, Clan of the Serpents, Shiva, All Christ Frequencies, all animal totems, Elementals of Fire and Air, Water and Earth, All divine beings of Light, Love and Ascension named and unnamed.
To activate the cells within my Being, who are your counterparts with the Unified power of the One. I decree my Highest Good always operating in this Now.
I decree Grace & Mercy always operating in this Now.
I invoke, decree, and dream awake the full truth and reality of this ascension in this now.
I invoke and dream awake with every breath that I breathe the VIOLET FIRE transmuting my whole being.
I invoke and dream awake the full current of ascension in every cell of my BEing.
I am ascended.
I invoke and dream Awake expanded God Consciousness Fully Realized in Me as Unlimited Abundance fulfilling my every need and desire.
I invoke and dream Awake the ending of procrastination, tiredness, blockages and obstacles & unhealthy belief systems.
I decree immediate abundance in my life.
I invoke and dream awake my LIBERATION from all karmic debt.
I am Infinite Opulence.
I invoke and dream Awake my personal Empowerment in every instant that anyone is impacted by my Being & Creations.
I invoke and dream Awake the Infinite Empowerment of my sexual, spiritual, mental, emotional, physical and financial relationship with Life.
I invoke and dream Awake Sacred Sexuality, Erotic Innocence, and always express the Sacredness of the sexual force for pleasure, creativity and healing.
I invoke and dream Awake World Universal Healing from all sexual woundedness and shame.
I invoke and dream Awake worldwide release from all manipulating forces and beings who would control humanity; past, present and future.
I invoke the Angels and Ascended Masters to realign and heal all misused Energy to include the full restructuring of our DNA.
I invoke and dream awake the transmutation of all negative and judgmental projections.
I invoke and dream awake my constant ability to be centered and balanced in my psychic perceptions and empathic nature ~ all overwhelming psychic energies are released by me automatically, easily, effortlessly.
I Am Empowered by Everything!
I invoke and dream Awake my lucid dreaming each night I sleep and total remembering when I awake.
I invoke and dream Awake my Infinite Harmony with God/Goddess/I AM!
I invoke and dream Awake the full expression of my Miraculous Healing Power!
My life is a continuous stream of MIRACLES!
I invoke and dream Awake my infinite ability and willingness to receive ALL of LIFE’S BLESSINGS.
I invoke and dream Awake a constant Attitude of Gratitude for my Whole Life, all of my Accomplishments, Blessings, including the same for the Universe at Large.
I invoke and dream Awake the full Blessings of God/Goddess The Ascended Masters, Angels, Guides and Beings of Light to Bless this Earth.
I invoke and dream and Awake all my decrees, vocations and prayers – I have released to the Universe and opened myself to God’s Response, Support & Love in my Highest Good in my Life.
I invoke and dream Awake the release of all past, present and future lifetimes of decrees and vows which would bind me to limitation lack and density and anything not of Ascension in this Now.
I invoke and dream Awake the full reclaiming of my Eternal Self as Powerful Loving and Fully Aligned in ABUNDANT God Consciousness.
I invoke and dream Awake the total dissolving of all manipulating forces which would bind this earth plane in fear.
I invoke and dream Awake the influence of the Ascended Master realm and Angels to Intercede and raise the vibrations higher to bring the Darkness INTO THE LIGHT.
Raising the Frequency of LOVE and GOD CONSCIOUSNESS in this NOW!
I invoke and dream Awake the full ascension of planet Earth in this NOW!
~ Lyrics by Astarius *Spirit Rap/DNA Ascension*
Mobile post sent by rekzkarz using Utterli.
REkz PodCast Alpha via Utterli and LifeCast
How To BEATBOX (w/basic fart sounds) REkzkaRZ Intro1
Mobile post sent by rekzkarz using Utterli. REkz kitchenZ
So I recorded an audio file w/Lifecast but it wouldn't upload to Blogger. Damn, my techno-high thing got blown!!OK, now it's workin' -- if I post on Utterli & they re-post to my Blog.
Makes sense? Ummmm... nope. Blogger ain't ready for the audio, I guess?)
Whatever. I'll try it a bit & see what I think.
Anyone who gets a chuckle from this -- lemme know?
Posted with LifeCast
3am Rant re: Gateway Pundit's stupid article claiming Iraq War actually kills less Iraqis than Hussein's Leadership
There was a ridiculous article tagged in Yahoo News as one of the most read Blog articles, from GateWay Pundit, "Bush Saved Hundreds of Thousands of Iraqis From Saddam's Reign & Clinton's Embargo", about how killing Saddam Hussein actually cut down the number of dead folks in Iraq because Saddam Hussein and Clinton's blockade killed many more people. It's a stupid, misleading article.
Of course, I had to respond to that -- but what a joy to discover that a bunch of right-wingers had commented. So I hopped in there also.
It's so hard to discuss articles like these b/c they start with so many dumb assumptions. The idea that a foreign country can attack another country (for no reason), occupy it for years, steal from that country, and THEN argue that it is helping those people ... Sounds vaguely familiar. Colonialism, I presume?
Since my rant is copied below, I'll copy/paste some of other people's inane posts so we can get a chuckle (or a groan):
I'd make the point that these comments are freakin' dumb (and abrasive), but they do that for themselves, no?
Here's my RE-posting of my 3am RANT on his Blog:
----------
----------
And then I invited them all to come & post over here on my blog.
Maybe someone will take me up on my invitation? C'mon, do it!
And here's a pic of the 3D animation I'm working on for LAUNCHED short film.
I've been pleasantly suprised at how good it's coming along.
This still shows the LifeRaft vehicle where the crew lives and is 'trapped', floating above the Earth.
Of course, I had to respond to that -- but what a joy to discover that a bunch of right-wingers had commented. So I hopped in there also.
It's so hard to discuss articles like these b/c they start with so many dumb assumptions. The idea that a foreign country can attack another country (for no reason), occupy it for years, steal from that country, and THEN argue that it is helping those people ... Sounds vaguely familiar. Colonialism, I presume?
Since my rant is copied below, I'll copy/paste some of other people's inane posts so we can get a chuckle (or a groan):
- People who fought in Irak or anywhere else fought so you would have the freedom to come to this site and say your insanities. You fuc...g asshole! - Craig
- I've served my country in the U.S. Navy. Just wondering how many of the neo-cunts have. - General Lee
- I thank the men and women who volunteered to risk their lives, and who died, in wars to protect the people around the world, and Americans, including ungrateful liberals who throw you under the bus because they are self-serving and gutless. - Your Liberal Hippie Mama
- I yearn for true conservatism that is based on nationalist fervor and a rendering of the original intent of the Constitution via a Federalist model of restricted government. ... I desire to give the jihadis what they truly deserve--total war. - Publis Mare Hoc
I'd make the point that these comments are freakin' dumb (and abrasive), but they do that for themselves, no?
Here's my RE-posting of my 3am RANT on his Blog:
Dear Righty anti-Leftists,
How many homes & cars does John McCain own? How about President George Bush or GW Bush? Any idea? More than 10? Sure! More than 15? Hmmmm...
Do you understand what concepts you are opposing? 'Liberals' and the Left are what have inspired 'grass-roots' changes in the world, including democracy, women's right to vote, the end of slavery, public schools, a 5 day/40 hour work-week, and hopefully many future positive changes like a living wage, public medical care, etc.
What side was Jesus on when he attempted to change the world to a new path of love and respect? Wasn't he (the ultimate) Leftist?
Did you know Jesus was related by blood to these Islamic folks? Islam and Christianity and Judaism are all interconnected, and extremists exist in all groups (and generally those folks are missing a few brain cells, dontcha think?).
It's not just "them", it's any zealot of any religion can do really bad things and think God wants them too -- but God doesn't.
God wants us to take care of this garden we're living on, and help out the animals too while we're at it. Is this a hard message to understand?
War is the sign of a lack of imagination.
So, now that we are in the middle of a massive bailout of the upper classes, I hope it makes a few folks on the Right (who aren't rich) pause for a second and think ...
Where is my bailout?
Why is all this $$$ going to executives who made really bad decisions?
The Answer: In the USA, we live in a class-based society (similar to the systems of royal kingdoms and extreme poverty of years ago) where the wealthiest 5% do their best to keep a low-profile as they continue to live off and grow most of their old money. If you aren't in the 'clique' of money, you probably aren't on the inside of this group.
The American dream of pulling yourself up by your bootstraps is real for only the fewest of folk -- but it's not likely for you to become ultra-rich. However, for a child born ultra-rich, like the Kennedy's, Rothchild's, or Bush's, even a complete lack of intelligence is no obstacle ... even to becoming the President of the USA.
If you have a net worth of less than $100k, being a right-winger just means that you don't understand how power works in the world -- or you have submitted already to an overlord.
If you're rich, it makes more sense, since the strategy is:
1) Keep poor people poor = good cheap labor
2) Offer incentives to help exceptional people rise to the top -- on the backs of their fellows in strict competition
3) Keep poor people ignorant of their history
4) Hide and obscure the fact that there are extremely rich from those who are poor
5) Make sure that you argue not based on facts and history, but on a false morality, name-calling, and rhetoric
6) Push for policies of over-population and constant war
7) Divide and conquer your opposition
8) Hide your policy of protecting the wealthiest behind distracting moral issues of oppression
9) Always downplay how wealthy you are
10) Manipulate people with non-issues to ignorantly push for important issues about private wealth (vs public)
OK, that's enough ranting from me for one night.
And then I invited them all to come & post over here on my blog.
Maybe someone will take me up on my invitation? C'mon, do it!
And here's a pic of the 3D animation I'm working on for LAUNCHED short film. I've been pleasantly suprised at how good it's coming along.
This still shows the LifeRaft vehicle where the crew lives and is 'trapped', floating above the Earth.
Yello Face Man and Le Jo purchase their Burning Man Tickets -- in Berkeley!
A new superhero has arrived on the scene. Yello Face Man was spotted recently in Berkeley last week, wearing a hoody sweatshirt. He is reported to have purchased Burning Man tickets at a hat shop in Berkeley, also known as The Berkeley Hat Shop.
Apparently he took off his Yello Face Man mask, said "Can I bring this drink in here?", and then poked around the shop.
He tried on many hats without his mask, and then tried to hump a beautiful woman's leg. Luckily, the leg belonged to his girlfriend, who laughed.
The two were corndered in the back of the shop by the store owner, who asked them, "Can we post your photos on our myspace page?".
Yello Face Man said, "with or without my underwear?" The store owner merely chuckled and walked away -- quickly. He said, "Well then, guess I'll be 'going commando'." And this is how we obtained this amazing photo of Yello Face Man, flying around the store, and without underwear.
The worldwide famous hat model, LeJo, modelling what is sure to be a revitalized fashion phenomenon, a ladybug fur hat with dingle balls, was spotted at a local berkeley hat store on Telegraph, also called The Berkeley Hat Shop. (No pun intended re: ladybug and spotted.)
As the model purchased her tickets for Burning Man, she is supposed to have said, "Of course I worship the Jope. Jesus Christ, who frikin' doesn't worship the Jope?"(Research on wikiunreality.org says the Jope is the Jewish Pope, an underground figure who often wears no underwear.
Despite being linked with Judaism, the Jope has said, "I don't really give a flying fuck about dogma. I'm not Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, or atheist. I'm just a human being like all of you out there. We didn't make the Earth or the stars, right? I believe that matter and energy are intelligent and benevolent; the Earth is alive, the sun is intelligent. Religious dogma tries to put a brand name on the divine and then market divinity against itself, all to confuse humans. Like you. And why would I want to do that? I am wearing this silly hat because I'm saying..."
Unfortunately we missed the rest of the Jope's statement when he farted, loudly.)
LeJo also said, "Coke sucks my femme-balls -- I like beer, damnit. And why is there bacon on all the chicken sandwiches? Frikkin' douches, stop putting bacon on everything!!"
Personality Test: I passed!
Career Inventory Test Results:
This free self-test was from Similiar Minds.com
Well, I guess I'm on the right path, according to THAT test! HA HA
I find it interesting that 'computer analyst' and 'radio/TV talk show host' are on the same path, eh? Well, I've done 1/3 of these so far!
From my POV, I think I should score higher in altruism and lower in emotional stability. HA HA And a solid tie between curiosity and extroversion makes sense.
I'm happy I passed!
Your turn. If you take one of these, please post the results, or a link to your results, or give me some feedback. I'm nosey -- as the test shows.
This free self-test was from Similiar Minds.com
Extroversion |||||||||||||||||||||||||||| 86%
Emotional Stability ||||||||||||||| 50%
Orderliness |||||| 20%
Altruism |||||||||||| 40%
Inquisitiveness |||||||||||||||||||||||||||| 86%
You are an Inventor, possible professions include - systems designer, venture capitalist, actor, journalist, investment broker, real estate agent, real estate developer, strategic planner, political manager, politician, special projects developer, literary agent, restaurant/bar owner, technical trainer, diversity manager, art director, personnel systems developer, computer analyst, logistics consultant, outplacement consultant, advertising creative director, radio/TV talk show host
Well, I guess I'm on the right path, according to THAT test! HA HA
I find it interesting that 'computer analyst' and 'radio/TV talk show host' are on the same path, eh? Well, I've done 1/3 of these so far!
From my POV, I think I should score higher in altruism and lower in emotional stability. HA HA And a solid tie between curiosity and extroversion makes sense.
I'm happy I passed!
Your turn. If you take one of these, please post the results, or a link to your results, or give me some feedback. I'm nosey -- as the test shows.
CS4 - no printed manual, but it is on their website
I have CS4 Production Premium, but it came without ANY manual!! After the shock, I knew something could be done... And all of the pdf's are online, but hard to find. Here's the locales. (Just sharing the links w/the rest of y'all.)
CS4 PDF Manual downloads:
After Effects
Premiere Pro
Photoshop
Illustrator
BRIDGE
On Location
SoundBooth
Encore
This image is from Bobby Perux on Deviant Art.
Update 4/7/9: for anyone out there that feels dumb w/CS4 -- it's not your fault. Adobe has made it harder for people to learn their stuff. If you knew an old version, you have a reasonable chance of figuring things out. But their online help system is a nightmare of misleading useless info.
When I have a problem + a deadline, I know I really want to go online and search for hours to find answers -- that don't work.
This can't be the real solution, Adobe. C'mon!
Here's one example:
http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/2/922402
This is a forum post about trying to export a still image (a picture) from After Effects. I had a similar question for Premiere. You would think this would be the easiest thing to figure out, right? THINK AGAIN! HA
I know the reasons to never buy the newest thing, but I did it. Aaaaggghhhh
When will I learn? There's a REASON not to buy Windows Vista and to hold onto your Windows XP for as long as possible. HA HA
And we're not even at the 'Cloud Computing' stage yet!
That'll be fun. (Not)
Makes me think of a mashump of Monty Python + 1984.
User: "Where are all my files?"
Computer: "Well, some are here, others are on the moon, and some are in Africa."
User: "I'd like to email my resume to X company."
Computer: "Sorry, your resume has gone offline due to volcanoes."
CS4 PDF Manual downloads:After Effects
Premiere Pro
Photoshop
Illustrator
BRIDGE
On Location
SoundBooth
Encore
This image is from Bobby Perux on Deviant Art.
Update 4/7/9: for anyone out there that feels dumb w/CS4 -- it's not your fault. Adobe has made it harder for people to learn their stuff. If you knew an old version, you have a reasonable chance of figuring things out. But their online help system is a nightmare of misleading useless info.
When I have a problem + a deadline, I know I really want to go online and search for hours to find answers -- that don't work.
This can't be the real solution, Adobe. C'mon!
Here's one example:
http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/2/922402
This is a forum post about trying to export a still image (a picture) from After Effects. I had a similar question for Premiere. You would think this would be the easiest thing to figure out, right? THINK AGAIN! HA
I know the reasons to never buy the newest thing, but I did it. Aaaaggghhhh
When will I learn? There's a REASON not to buy Windows Vista and to hold onto your Windows XP for as long as possible. HA HA
And we're not even at the 'Cloud Computing' stage yet!
That'll be fun. (Not)
Makes me think of a mashump of Monty Python + 1984.
User: "Where are all my files?"
Computer: "Well, some are here, others are on the moon, and some are in Africa."
User: "I'd like to email my resume to X company."
Computer: "Sorry, your resume has gone offline due to volcanoes."
REkzrantz v5
REkzkaRZ RANTz v5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_hOi-vHRxU
Lyricz:
Obamm!
He went and said it
the rich ones took it
and ain't gonna spread it.
Omamama!
He up and slammed it!
white on black no more.
like the man planned it.
Odamn!
The prez has got it.
Time to get started
We thought it, 'n bought it.
Oh Yo mama!
Bush thought he'd never see it
He took the White House & reclaimed it
if we demand it, maybe he'll rename it.
O O O
Ya got us to get up and go.
I'm a leftwing fan though
Hey O! Let your radical show!
MixTapes from Mixwidget.org -- opensource & free -- formerly MixWit.com
Aaaah, rekzkarz' mixtapes are back!
RE-ACTION
This tape (and album) is called RE-Action and features most of my new songs.
THINK
This tape (album) is THINK and features various experimental REkzkaRZ songs.
ILLEGAL MUSIC
This tape actually consists of 3 albums - Illegal Music, CyberAnimals, and ElectroGroove - all combined in one. BONUS!
You might notice smaller versions of these tapes are hanging out on the right corner of this BLOG. Hell yeah! And they ain't goin' away this time, either!
I spent hours making my original mixtapes on mixwit.com, a website that wanted to make a music community based on sharing recorded mp3's.
I was so psyched that I could put up my music just by pointing this little app to my songs. And then listeners just hit play! WOW. And it looked cool, too! And then mixwit.com went bust. Gaaah
On a whim, I took at look at mixwit's old website recently and saw they now have a thing called mixwidget (which is hosted at mixwidget.org), a 'java widget' that is a form of the mixwit tape player front end. Cool! All instructions on how to setup & config are on the mixwidget.org) website.
The only trouble I had was it wouldn't play files on my harddrive (but the website has the workaround -- going to a Flash config webpage) and I couldn't edit the config files with notepad -- they worked better in wordpad.
Who cares? The only thing difference from this and mixwit that I've noticed is it doesn't have all the albums linked on one tape ... and it doesn't have the old community, but I never listend to other people's tapes. I used it to share my stuff! So who cares? (Sorry if I sound insensitive to mixwit -- I thought it was a great idea & hoped it would generate $$$.)
Ultimately, I coded the config files for 2 mixtape widgets that point to different directories on my server.
Also just started on SoundCloud.com, uploaded Techno-Thrash track. Does a lot of interesting stuff, pretty cool player too.
But for the moment, I'm happiest with the mixtapes again. :)
RE-ACTION
This tape (and album) is called RE-Action and features most of my new songs.
THINK
This tape (album) is THINK and features various experimental REkzkaRZ songs.
ILLEGAL MUSIC
This tape actually consists of 3 albums - Illegal Music, CyberAnimals, and ElectroGroove - all combined in one. BONUS!
You might notice smaller versions of these tapes are hanging out on the right corner of this BLOG. Hell yeah! And they ain't goin' away this time, either!
I spent hours making my original mixtapes on mixwit.com, a website that wanted to make a music community based on sharing recorded mp3's.
I was so psyched that I could put up my music just by pointing this little app to my songs. And then listeners just hit play! WOW. And it looked cool, too! And then mixwit.com went bust. Gaaah
On a whim, I took at look at mixwit's old website recently and saw they now have a thing called mixwidget (which is hosted at mixwidget.org), a 'java widget' that is a form of the mixwit tape player front end. Cool! All instructions on how to setup & config are on the mixwidget.org) website.
The only trouble I had was it wouldn't play files on my harddrive (but the website has the workaround -- going to a Flash config webpage) and I couldn't edit the config files with notepad -- they worked better in wordpad.
Who cares? The only thing difference from this and mixwit that I've noticed is it doesn't have all the albums linked on one tape ... and it doesn't have the old community, but I never listend to other people's tapes. I used it to share my stuff! So who cares? (Sorry if I sound insensitive to mixwit -- I thought it was a great idea & hoped it would generate $$$.)
Ultimately, I coded the config files for 2 mixtape widgets that point to different directories on my server.
Also just started on SoundCloud.com, uploaded Techno-Thrash track. Does a lot of interesting stuff, pretty cool player too.
But for the moment, I'm happiest with the mixtapes again. :)
Memories and Metal
I'm doing this class for Local 16 in a Scene Shop. We're working with wood and ... with metal. I haven't felt like this since art school at RMIT in Australia.
There is a pleasure in working with metal that I have not felt working with anything else. I suppose it's bc it rusts, which makes it fragile, and that it is incredibly strong. Working with it doesn't feel like working with wood at all. It is somehow separate and 'cold', but it can be worked into the most amazing shapes. Here's some of the art I made 'back in the day'.
(Click pics to see bigger images. You may download them.)
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