REkzkaRZ

Say NO to SOPA/PIPA -- a day of protest

2012-01-18T04:51:00.000-08:00

Google & others are protesting, thought I'd join in -- b/c the internet doesn't need 'protection' from 'Intellectual Property theft' at the cost of having a free & open internet!!!
Also, copying is not piracy. We must keep our language and filter out the false phrases. One false phrase is calling copying piracy. 'Piracy' is stealing something from someone such that the owner no longer has access to that thing. 'Copying' (which has been called 'sharing' at various points) duplicates something and no one loses the use of that thing. The only losers in copying are companies who want more profit from the thing, and are willing to sacrifice and sabotage and criminalize Constitutional rights (such as freedom of press, freedom of speech) in order to force people to purchase (and re-purchase) access to content which they created.

Other bogus words include:

"right to life" for the anti-abortion movement,
"insurgents" for people fighting invaders of their own country,
"terrorists" for military forces not linked to a government -- but this phrase is not applicable to mercenaries who are linked to governments (even if they may be torturing, raping, and murdering),
"contractors" which is now mis-used to include the government use of mercenaries in foreign lands,
"surgical strikes" which has been used to describe missiles and bombs which frequently kill civilians, hit hospitals, & kill journalists,
"free market capitalism" which in the USA intentionally casts a blind eye to sanctioned market manipulation with policies like farm subsidies / drug war (making products illegal) / corporate buyouts / fraudulent promotions / and government bailouts of corrupt fraudulent financial institutions, but accuses other countries of violating the principle of "free markets" continually,
"peace keepers" for foreign fighters, invaders, or neutrally-aligned foreign occupying troops,
"illegal aliens" for descendants of native peoples who's ancestors resided on the territory which is now claimed by the descendents of the conquerors (who are attempting to erase the historical factual record and also maintain a racially biased system of immigration which is biased against non-whites)

The following text is copied (word for word) from Craiglist's protest today -- http://www.craigslist.org/about/SOPA. Thanks Craig Newmark & co!

Corporate supporters of Senate 968 (PIPA) and HR 3261 (SOPA) demand the ability to take down any web site (including craigslist, Wikipedia, or Google) that hurts their profits -- without prior judicial oversight or due process -- in the name of combating "online piracy."

PIPA and SOPA authors and supporters insist they'd only go after foreign piracy sites, but Internet Engineers understand this is an attempt to impose "Big Brother" controls on our Internet, complete with DNS hijacking and censoring search results. Incredibly, many Congress Members favor this idea.

Try to imagine jack-booted thugs throttling free speech, poisoning the Internet (greatest of American inventions, the very pillar of modern democracy), and devastating one of the our most successful industries. Totalitarian, anti-American, massively-job-killing nonsense.

Tell Congress you OPPOSE Senate 968 "Protect IP Act" (PIPA) and H.R. 3261 "Stop Online Piracy Act" (SOPA):

Phone your Member of Congress via nifty Progressive Change app
Contact Senators who are refusing to meet with constituents about PIPA.
Reverse Robocall pro-PIPA & pro-SOPA MOC + Lobbyists (More at Ars Technica)
EFF Congressional Emailer - Oppose Internet Blacklisting (PIPA & SOPA)
ECA Congressional Emailer - Don't Censor Our Internet!
OpenCongress Congressional Emailer - Oppose SOPA
Generic Congressional Emailer (You'll need your Zip+4)
Petition Congress - Protect Innovation, Dump SOPA (Progressive Change )
Outside the US? Sign Petition Opposing US Censorship of Global Sites (EFF)

Supporters of PIPA and SOPA: RIAA, MPAA, News Corp, TimeWarner, Walmart, Nike, Tiffany, Chanel, Rolex, Sony, Juicy Couture, Ralph Lauren, VISA, Mastercard, Comcast, ABC, Dow Chemical, Monster Cable, Teamsters, Rupert Murdoch, Lamar Smith (R-TX), John Conyers (D-MI)

Opponents of PIPA and SOPA: Google, Yahoo, Wikipedia, craigslist, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, eBay, AOL, Mozilla, Reddit, Tumblr, Etsy, Zynga, EFF, ACLU, Human Rights Watch, Darrell Issa (R-CA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Ron Paul (R-TX)

Where does your Member of Congress stand on PIPA and SOPA? (Project SOPA Opera)

PIPA and SOPA Are Too Dangerous To Revise, They Must Be Killed Entirely

Congress needs to hear from you, or these dangerous bills will pass - they have tremendous lobbying dollars behind them, from corporations experts say are attempting to prop up outdated, anti-consumer business models at the expense of the very fabric of the Internet -- recklessly unleashing a tsunami of take-down notices and litigation, and a Pandora's jar of "chilling effects" and other unintended (or perhaps intended?) consequences.

Don't believe it? Monster Cable has labeled craigslist a "rogue site," earmarked for blacklisting and full-takedown under PIPA -- resale of stereo cables by CL users reduces Monster 's new cable sales. (reddit).

There is still time to be heard. Congress is starting to backpedal on this job-killing, anti-American nonsense, and the Obama administration has weighed in against these bills as drafted, but SOPA/PIPA cannot be fixed or revised -- they must be killed altogether.

Sen Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Rep Ron Wyden (D-OR) are championing an alternative to SOPA/PIPA called Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act (OPEN) that addresses foreign sites dedicated to piracy, without disrupting basic Internet protocols, or threatening mainstream US sites like craigslist.

Tim O'Reilly, a publisher who is himself subject to piracy, asks whether piracy is even a problem, and whether there is even a legitimate need for any of these bills.

Learn more about SOPA, Protect IP (PIPA), and Internet Blacklisting:

Growing Chorus of Opposition to PIPA and SOPA
Open Letter against SOPA from 83 Prominent Internet Engineers
Why SOPA and Protect IP (PIPA) are Bad, Bad Ideas (Techdirt)
Piracy not a problem, PIPA and SOPA are unnecessary (Tim O'Reilly on GigaOM)
PIPA and SOPA News (Google News)
PIPA Wikipedia entry ::::: SOPA Wikipedia entry
SOPA FAQ (CNET)

2012-01-11T06:42:00.000-08:00

PODCAST w/me? Anyone? C'mon!

Brainstorm of podcast plan: Make a podcast weekly (to start) which features the following stuff:

RANTS
Cursing
explicit language
Non-bullshit info on what we think
Arguing with media & news
Making & playing music (stuff we make or others we know)
Generating revenue by donors & support
Promoting our own talent(s)
Be similar to "Citizen Radio" podcast
create words
humorous elements
interviews
talk about stuff no one is talking about
bitch out people we don't like
review anything we like (I like gadgets, software, apps, movies, & video stuff)

Variety of possible titles, open to voting/changing/messin' with 'em (list hidden, will share with interested parties).

iPhone Games & Apps - end of 2011 recommendations

2011-12-28T00:32:00.000-08:00

2011 iPhone Games recommendations
Games should be replayable, IMO. So many of these $1 and $2 games are "play 3-4x and get bored". Particularly annoying for me are so-called "RPG's" which have no roleplay, no character development besides a skill-tree and stat assignment, and the equipment is alway about improving your item progression, ie a sword II to a sword III.

I did think Tiny Heroes was impressive, the War on Terror is humorous, Elder Sign is a worthy contender, BattleHeart is highly replayable (and while it is one of those 'RPG-like' games I described, the gameplay mechanism is quite fun), GodVille is truly unique (and funny & free w/o IAP), PuzzleQuest is awesome, Protector was interesting/challenging, Anomaly was fun but lacked replayability, Neuroshima Hex is a fav, Ascendancy has potential as a 4x (but UI was challenging), Battle for Wesnoth should be a 'genre breaker' (amazing strategic combat), and I also liked The Lord of the Rings: Middle-earth Defense (had some good value for unique LOTR character based TD game),

Disappointments were King of Dragon Pass (which had a great review but was less than thrilling), King Cashing (supposedly unique/amazing game, but I found it lacking), Legend of Yore (an 8-bit Rogue-like w/o anything beyond hack & slash), & Mage Gauntlet (great review, less than exciting 8-bit retro game). Also bought Chaos Rings awhile back & found that very disappointing.

I've also tried a bunch of CCG games for iPhone, incl the 'big' Shadow Era (ok game, hate the clumsy UI), Dungeon Solitaire (good fun, some strange new cards), Kard Combat (was fun for a few plays, then boring), as well as Cabals (strategic game with potential, UI was awkward & heckling IAP is annoying), Orions 1 &2 (both fun, dev's not so great), Stack & Deploy (interesting CCG-like game w/action elements, UI takes practice).

Big fan of Speedball 2 (fun!), Words w/Friends (my g/f is hooked & have a few regular ongoing games, new IAP is annoying), Dungeon Defenders & Defender Chronicles (fun twists on TD),

Non-game props for apps on my iPhone go to --> TuneIn Radio, DropBox, TapForms (a DB), Pandora, Garage Band, NetFlix (I can watch whole movies or anime episodes on my phone? WOW!), Adobe Ideas (my fav sketch app), ComicBook, Yelp (but bogus & weak reviews are annoying), SoundHound, SoundCloud, USB Disk Pro, CraigsPro+, Mint, Blogger or Blogger+, Google Voice, Genius Scan +, Evernote.

Dungeon Raid may be my all-time favorite game -- the developer started with an excellent game and improved it, dev is very responsive and committed to their community of players, and the mechanic is a lot of fun AND the sounds are great (and I can play my own music behind it).

Occupy Evolution - change that heals

2011-12-07T13:09:00.001-08:00

ninetyninetoone

The Occupy movement for 99% of the people is an opportunity for everyone to prosper and be free from tyranny and oppression.

The harsh legacy of the Roman Empire, which has evolved slowly & unwillingly to include equality for all races, genders, and sexual preferences, and to recognize the values and rights of those which have no human voice (animals, nature, environment), has reached an end-point and is ready to be shed like a butterfly sheds a cocoon.

We can now reclaim the calendar (rename our days and months), the time system (end the AM/PM and 12 hour/ 60 minute/second nonsense), and the re-invent legacy aspects of our culture using scientific and artistic insight of postmodern multiculturalism.

Shedding the garments of imperial culture which embraced domination, violation, slavery, genocide, and consumption without consequence is essential for human survival.

NOW is our time for evolution to make a society of fairness, opportunities, and mutual respect.

Philosphy Talk - on miraculous/divine

2011-11-11T08:23:00.001-08:00

I posted this comment on (the radio show) Philosophy Talk's blog:

Interesting discussion. I lean towards the view that miracles are abundant, but perspectives are limited.

Another point: science is faith-based. My Dad & I had this discussion many times -- have we ever seen atoms, molecules, or for that matter the Earth from space? Not personally -- we take the word of others to be true (or pics/videos which w/current tech could easily be falsified.)

Similarly, science is not actually a compilation of facts -- it's a compilation of theories about observed/recorded phenomena which are subject to many flaws, most notably the flaws of the theoreticians and their framework/worldview.

To continue, NAZI's and many USA/Euro scientists have conducted the cruelest experiments on unwilling victims (NAZI's experimented w/sterilization & many forms of vile surgeries, plus we know of Tuskeegee experiments & now Guatamala STD experiments) in pursuit of 'science'. Much of science continues these practices today on unwilling animal subjects, from genetic experiments to grafting & organ farming to cross-breeding & vivisection & brain experimentation on living creatures).
Worldview is a key factor for all these developments.

While I like many of the developments of science, I would like an option to collectively choose to not pursue various technologies which are like a 'Pandoras Box' of potentially evil outcomes -- nuclear weapons, GM foods (on a massive scale), and bio-war (virii & killer bacteria) are among my top list of BAD science pursuits.

Personally, I think that the products of billions of years of evolution are miraculous. I know of no evidence to show that evolution is the sole factor in current human development (ie could aliens have intervened? Etc.) Also I've experienced psychic & spiritual phenomena which I can't explain scientifically.

Last point: science requires repeatable processes for verification -- it uses deductive reasoning to figure things out. However, the possibility of unique occurrences and singularities which can't be repeated are challenging for our science of today to handle. No ways to test or repeat. Similarly, research can be skewed by manipulating the participants, the factors, changing test parameters, throwing out certain data, or locations. In many studies, the results are hidden inside the margin of error -- and occasionally (as with the global climate change 'debate' & w/research into tobacco and alcohol) the funders of the research may only release scientific research which validates their set viewpoints.

So if molecules are galaxies, if animals have souls, if the Earth &/or Sun are conscious living creatures, if water is sentient, etc -- all this and more are phenomena that science can't answer today. Same w/divine concepts; using science to tackle them is like using a speedometer to measure someone's emotions. Wrong machine, wrong device, and ultimately wrong approach.

rekzkarz.com

ps: After I submitted this comment, the machine couldn't accept my post bc my homepage listed didn't have http in front. What a great analogy for how framing affects what we can accept as input!! A little less strict parameters on the input data @ more flexibility on the results -- but some data don't fit our requirements.

Google discontinues a bunch of stuff

2011-11-02T03:43:00.000-07:00

Google discontinues (from Google's Blog post in 9/2011) http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/fall-spring-clean.html

Aardvark: <-- don't care

Desktop: <-- good! This was such an 'invasion of space', and Google kept having messages pop up asking me to install it.

Fast Flip: <-- no big.

Google Maps API for Flash: <- don't care.

Google Pack: <-- another annoying Google thingie. Bye bye!

Google Web Security:<-- I don't care, but some folks might.

Image Labeler: <-- was almost like 'hot or not' or 'rate me date me', except for *all* of Google's images. Oh well, I don't care. Do you?

Notebook: <-- Gah! At least my Google 'bookmarks' is still around. I was using Notebooks for awhile, and they were sorta ok, but at least they say they'll auto-export all Notebook data to Google Docs.

Sidewiki: Another loss! This was cool -- if you installed Google Toolbar, you could write up notes/code/info on any sites. The idea was to share that data w/others, but I just noting when a site was crap & reminding myself to ignore that site. Oh well...

Subscribed Links: <-- don't care part 3.

Gee, do I find it annoying that Google decides what to continue & what to discontinue without offering up some of that IP to the masses. Why not release that code to the world & let the opensource world choose what to continue???

Where's the -1 button?!?!?!?!?

I'm also ready to see Google+ hit the discontinued section. I signed up, and have regretted it ever since. Google+ to me is like the awkward, challenging, and annoying Google Wave (which also vanished) -- they need to hire more UI designers to help them build web-apps which are easy to use!

BrassRing jobsite -- SUCKS!

2011-10-27T02:50:00.000-07:00

Brassing SUCKS! I'd like to say it 100x.

There was a job I wished to apply for -- finally something which is a good fit for me. It was only posted on BrassRing's jobsite. Against my best wishes, I signed up.

I regret the experience already. I'd like to have a chat with the designer of the website.

Many job-sites understand that applicants are their clients as much as the companies seeking new employees -- and thus they make the sites relatively easy to submit your information. In fact, the best sites upload your resume (pdf or doc or rtf) and scan it for info, show the applicant how their info was scanned (ie parsed), and then allow the applicant to add additional materials as needed.

BrassRing on the other hand requires the user to create a ridiculous username/password combination (including a password of 8 characters which *must* have a 'special character'), then immediately asks users to submit a 'unique number' consisting of their month and day of their birthday plus the first 6 numbers of their social security.
Perhaps I won't get this job, but I did not submit this info -- why should I reveal my personal info to a third party that doesn't have any type of contact info on their website?!?!?

Anyway, despite all the relevant info being listed on my resume, the website asks me to manually retype my education and work experience. What I've chosen to do to bypass much of these badly designed HR systems is to put my most recent work experience and my college, and leave everything else off.

But the end of this rant is near; the information revolution is all around us, but bad designers sabotage the revolution continuously. Rather than me inputting our data one million times, the 'open signon' and 'open protocols' should be enabled so I can have my profile configured and appearing however I wish, have that content marked up by XML so these HR sites can peruse me and parse my data, but I can present what I wish -- and not present my social or personal info that is not relevant. If we can't get this done with opensource, maybe Linkedin will do it for us?

The future is almost here -- or so they tell me -- but for jobhunting, it's got a ways to go yet.

iPhone OS5 -- the big update is not so exciting

2011-10-17T04:39:00.000-07:00

I think the update could be called IOS 4S also.
Basically, not very elegant in many ways.

Namely:

bolding/italicizing in email. Gee, wouldn't a toolbar have made sense here?
pull down alert screen (so called notifications) -- Gee, how fun is it to manually configure each app in it's own individual menu, something you have to repeat over & over -- and the choices are *NOT* intuitive.
what a great OS update! Deleted *all* my apps and all my music! Thanks Apple!
mark email unread is now hidden under 'mark', w/choices of flag or unread. Why?
many changes are things I preferred the old way -- but guess what, you can't have it be that way! Why? B/c it's Apple.
new slider knobs are dumb, I liked the old ones.
AppStore has changed a lot. Now lists *every* app I ever installed. No filtering option (except search by name), so I can't just look at games, or music apps -- it's all or nothing. Not handy -- but at least now it seems to know what I bought, rather than forcing me when re-downloading to click '$2.99' again & hope I wouldn't get charged again.
how do you change font size / color of pull down notifications? Oh, you can't?
how do you change font size/color of pop up top-line notification? Oh, you can't?
how do you make notifications not show the preview of the email (but leave preview on in mail app)? Oh, you can't?
why does my battery life drop much faster now than before? I turned off 'push' and change to fetch every '15 min's so it doesn't drain noticeably while I'm using phone (iPhone 4).

Hey, I admit iOS 5 has a lot of cool new features -- but not all are 'well designed' or 'elegant', as Apple claims to be with most of it's design changes.

I do like the Calendar weekly view, I like 'flipping' the days, I like the moving timeline overlaid on the calendar.

I want to like Reminders -- but the UI sucks, doesn't integrate with Calendar (why not?), and most options are buried in a few clicks away & not so intuitive *where* to click.

Newsstand? Uh, how about no thank you? I used a tip to file it away -- done!

Book Reader <-- hey, update erased/deleted all my books! Thanks for that, Apple!

And lastly, iCloud. Ah, yes, iCloud. "Back up your address book, your emails, your notes, and any/all app data online" ... and then when we get hacked & have our personal data exposed to the world, have our bank accounts defrauded and our blackmailed for mistresses or porn -- do you think you have *any* recourse at putting Apple in a lawsuit? HA HA HA You *KNOW* your EULA included no liability on their part for your password sucking & someone getting all your personal data.
Your *only* protections from (yes *FROM*) iCloud insecurity are as follows: a) disable iCloud, b) disable iCloud for apps which might have any personal info you might have & perhaps your photostream, or c) hope that there are so many millions of users that the odds of you getting hacked are small.
Yes, that's right -- the cloud is *the least* secure place to post all your backup data. But, if your house catches on fire, you lose your iPhone, or your harddrive(s) die(s), you might get some of your data & photos back.

Drawings on iPhone

2011-09-21T15:30:00.001-07:00

Well, it's fun. Kinda small screen, lots of 'undo/redo', but I'm liking drawing again!

And buying the layers for $1 was worth it. I dloaded 'Adobe Ideas' for free, now it's $7. Seems a bit steep...?

Just starting out, here's a couple sketches.

Silver Dragon - VnV Character

2011-09-19T06:31:00.000-07:00

Character: Silver Dragon Secret ID: Chang Chew Woo

Player: rekz

Level: 1

XP: 0

Training: Magic Spells - 'Chi Powers'

Height: 5'3" Weight: 135lbs

Physical Description: A Chinese man with long silver hair, eyebrows, and fu manchu beard, he wears Kung Fu clothing or traditional Chinese clothes. Despite his power, he looks fairly normal physically. But he is incredibly nimble and spry.

STATS:

STR - 9

END - 14 Healing Rate: .9 ( = .3x3)
INT - 12 % DHO: 10% % DD: 14%

AGL - 27 (11) DMG: +3 ACC: +5

CHA - 8 Reaction Mod (Good/Evil): +2 / -2

Power: 62 Hit Points: 13 = (1)(1.4)(1.1)(2.8)= 4.312 x3

Movement: 50" Basic Hits: 3

Carrying Capacity: 143LBS HTH: 1d4

Inventing Points: 1.2 Inventing %: 36%

6 Powers:

Height Agi B (+11)
Height Def (-4 to be hit)
Invisibility (+1 hit/-1 to be hit per round, PR=1/hr)
Disintegration Ray (1d20 dmg, PR=2, range=STR, special dmg vs inanimate materials)
Psionic Power -- 'Chi Mastery' - Willpower Defense always on, 'Inner Air Technique' - instant PR recharge, can do 1x per hour.
Magic Spells - 'Chi powers' (generally PR=4 + Action, most effects last 1 hr, starts with only 1 power):

'Dragon Fist' - punch or kick w/carrier Disintegrate, double damage vs inanimate objects (PR=8, +3 hit melee). can't use when invisible.)
'LightFoot' -- Height Speed (add to move 1d100 x3" + INIT bonus), can run and jump on air, run vertical up walls, upside-down on ceiling, etc.
'Mind over Body' -- Height Stat A - any one STR, END, AGI (roll 2d10)
'Living Weapon' -+3 to hit w/Martial Arts weapons
'Dragon Palm' -- regenerate HP at Heal rate/turn, can also be used on others. Requires focus and attention.
'Ribbon Fighting' -- long fabric ribbons rolled inside sleaves,use them like 'Telekinesis' or 'Stretch' (ie ranged grabs or melee), or can wrap someone up (ie lose movement).
'Enchantment Scrolls' -- small paper strips with inscribed spells, strip is thrown onto target to cause effect: freeze, burn, paralyze, confusion, banish undead, make a 'forcefield cage', etc
'Viper Strikes' -- can strike anyone within reach w/melee attack, no extra PR cost (PR=4) for extra actions
Quivering Palm -- melee carrier attack delivers Disintegrate, effect is delayed for up to 24hrs, or can dissipate.
Chi Blast -- Quick PR burn - can spend 10 PR to burn *all remaining PR* to split as damage bonus/Hit bonus.
Chi Power Up -- as absorb - damage goes to PR score, max 100 PR, req's a ready action

Weakness - Prejudice -- The local (mob-owned) newspaper have a media campaign pinning any unsolved crimes on him. He has been framed for a series of murders.

Other Equipment:
He carries a bunch of Ninja weaponry, (incl those cool little exploding cloud smoke bombs.)[list]

Knives/Shuriken/Daggers - +1hit, HTH+1d2 dmg/ Thrown +2 hit, HTH +1d2, Range Agi"
Katana - +2hit, HTH +1d6 dmg
Spear - +3 hit, HTH + 1d4 dmg / Thrown +1 hit, HTH +1d4, Range Agi"
Smokes Bombs - Small cloud, lasts very briefly (no 'in-game' effect, covers going invisible)

Character Notes/Origin/Personality/Description:

Chang Woo operates with a different sensibility. He respects the law, the police, and general order -- but he sees himself, a master of Kung Fu and the spirit, as operating on a different level.
He doesn't wish to get in the way of police, but he also doesn't want them in his way to defend the Earth from all manner of dangers, including demons, monsters, and so on.
The Chi of the Dragon is a gift given only to the rarest Tai Chi disciples, the best of the best students. Chang Woo devoted his whole young life to his Kung Fu practices, and now has finally mastered his Chi -- and great powers seem to be flowing from this discovery.
With these powers comes the responsibility to defend life and preserve the balance.

MoSqUiTo - VnV Hero

2011-09-07T01:48:00.000-07:00

MoSqUiTo - Villains & Vigilantes game on rpol.net
Secret ID: None Level: 1 XP: 0

STATS: Str 12, End 14, Agi 37, Int 14, Cha 6
Hit Points: 40 Power: 77

POWERS (3)
1 - Absorption - POWER SUCK - Upon contact, drains 1d3 powers per touch, PR=1 per touch, can hold max 5 powers at once. Can't pick which power(s) drained. When drains 3 powers, also drains a Weakness (if there is a weakness). Target may be stunned (target makes END save). Powers last 1 hour, then return to source character -- unless MoSqUiTo pays 5 power +1 PR for each retained for another hour.
2 - Height Speed (+850" move, +28 INIT)
3 - Height Agi B (+21)

WEAKNESS: Prejudice

- Former Villain - MoSqUiTo was a villain for awhile, but very recently broke away. In his heart, he thinks he is good, despite his harsh upbringing. But being good is new for him.

DESCRIPTION: MoSqUiTo's early life was hard times. His skin is scarred, he was raised on the streets as an urchin, and it shows. He would rather have lived the life of a normal kid, but he never had that choice. He's very needy and hungrily appreciates any positive feedback.

HISTORY: MoSqUiTo was a reject. He was abandoned at an early age, kicked out of several orphanages, and raised in the streets. People helped him occasionally, but they felt weaker after being around him.

When he became a teen, his powers fully manifested. MoSqUiTo was quickly recruited into a group of villains, but he eventually broke free when he realized that his heart was not evil.

Now he's learning what it means to be a hero -- this is a new path for him.

Blame the Taxes, Blame the Govt, but don't take responsibilty? Nah

2011-08-22T04:56:00.000-07:00

Got an email (below) which inspired a response. The response comes first, then the email.

Friends,

Basically I'm ok with taxes. I don't love them, but ... It's the fact we spend more than 1/2 on wars and violence that hurts. And the fact that the USA spends more on our military than *all* countries on Earth combined should have all of us concerned.

If tax money was required to be spent on social programs (include Medicare & social security) & public works, and not on all the fantastical corporate subsidies and 'incentives' for corporations to employ us, and all those guns/missiles/nukes/bombs manufacturers getting public funding, I doubt most folks would be upset about taxes.

The issue is not taxes. The issue is what the govt spends our tax money on.

> Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.

No. We are all in this together. If our leadership is sinking the ship, do you blame the captain as the ship sinks, or do you say "we need a new captain, the ship is sinking" and take action?

We are adults in 2011. If the middle east can get rid of their corrupt regimes, if the former colonies can shake off their foreign enslavement, can't we do something about our situation?

Martin Luther King Jr and Gandhi both explain the process clearly.

Peace & Love,
rekzkarz
(re: Email below)
-----------------------------------
> 545 PEOPLE-By Charlie Reese
> Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then
> campaign against them..
> Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are
> against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?
>
> Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and
> high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?
>
> You and I don't propose a federal budget. The President does.
> You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations.
> The House of Representatives does.
> You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.
> You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.
> You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.
> 100 senators, 435 in the House, 1 President, and 9 Supreme Court justices
> equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally,
> morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague
> this country.
> I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was
> created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty
> to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but PRIVATE, central
> bank.
> I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They
> have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a
> congressman, or a President to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if
> they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the
> power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is
> the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.
> Those 543 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what
> they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of
> party.
> What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount
> of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood
> up and criticized the President for creating deficits..... The President can
> only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.
> The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole
> responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving
> appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? John Boehner. He
> is the leader of the majority party. He and fellow House members, not the
> President, can approve any budget they want. If the President vetoes it,
> they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.
> It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545
> people who stand convicted - by present facts - of incompetence and
> irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not
> traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth
> that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must
> follow that what exists is what they want to exist.
>
> If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.
> If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red ..
> If the Army & Marines are in Iraq and Afghanistan it's because they want
> them in Iraq and Afghanistan ...
> If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan
> not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.
> There are no insoluble government problems.
> Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire
> and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they
> can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from
> whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the
> belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy,"
> "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an
> oath to do.
> Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.
> They, and they alone, have the power..
> They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their
> bosses.
> Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees...
> We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!
> Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper.
> What you do with this article now that you have read it......... Is up to you.

---------------------
> This might be funny if it weren't so true.
> Be sure to read all the way to the end:
> Tax his land,
> Tax his bed,
> Tax the table,
> At which he's fed.
> Tax his tractor,
> Tax his mule,
> Teach him taxes
> Are the rule.
> Tax his work,
> Tax his pay,
> He works for peanuts anyway!
> Tax his cow,
> Tax his goat,
> Tax his pants,
> Tax his coat.
> Tax his ties,
> Tax his shirt,
> Tax his work,
> Tax his dirt.
> Tax his tobacco,
> Tax his drink,
> Tax him if he
> Tries to think.
> Tax his cigars,
> Tax his beers,
> If he cries
> Tax his tears.
> Tax his car,
> Tax his gas,
> Find other ways
> To tax his ass.
> Tax all he has
> Then let him know
> That you won't be done
> Till he has no dough.
> When he screams and hollers;
> Then tax him some more,
> Tax him till
> He's good and sore.
> Then tax his coffin,
> Tax his grave,
> Tax the sod in
> Which he's laid...
> Put these words
> Upon his tomb,
> Taxes drove me
> to my doom...'
> When he's gone,
> Do not relax,
> Its time to apply
> The inheritance tax..
> Accounts Receivable Tax
> Building Permit Tax
> CDL license Tax
> Cigarette Tax
> Corporate Income Tax
> Dog License Tax
> Excise Taxes
> Federal Income Tax
> Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
> Fishing License Tax
> Food License Tax
> Fuel Permit Tax
> Gasoline Tax (currently 44.75 cents per gallon)
> Gross Receipts Tax
> Hunting License Tax
> Inheritance Tax
> Inventory Tax
> IRS Interest Charges IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
> Liquor Tax
> Luxury Taxes
> Marriage License Tax
> Medicare Tax
> Personal Property Tax
> Property Tax
> Real Estate Tax
> Service Charge Tax
> Social Security Tax
> Road Usage Tax
> Recreational Vehicle Tax
> Sales Tax
> School Tax
> State Income Tax
> State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
> Telephone Federal Excise Tax
> Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax
> Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Taxes
> Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax
> Telephone Recurring and Nonrecurring Charges Tax
> Telephone State and Local Tax
> Telephone Usage Charge Tax
> Utility Taxes
> Vehicle License Registration Tax
> Vehicle Sales Tax
> Watercraft Registration Tax
> Well Permit Tax
> Workers Compensation Tax
> STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY? Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago, &
> our nation was the most prosperous in the world. We had absolutely no
> national debt, had the largest middle class in the world, and Mom stayed
> home to raise the kids.

Cassandra Clare's 'The Mortal Instruments' trilogy

2011-08-12T16:44:00.001-07:00

Finished Cassandra Clare's 'City of Bones' last week, City of Ashes' this week, last is 'City of Glass'. Not horrible, simply *bad* fantasy. Trite & lacking in almost all areas - character, story, writing style, content.
Picked first one up hoping for a great read like 'The Hunger Games'.
Not all books are winners.
I can summarize the books as vapid Harry Potter-esque styled fantasy, featuring vampires, werewolves, and 'ShadowHunters'. A thick trilogy, each book 500 pgs, but barely enough content for 1 book. Almost as light as Anime, except un-self-consciously vapid.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1416914285/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/176-1212031-0022830

DFA - failure is victory, truth is falseness

2011-08-10T18:21:00.001-07:00

In response to the mass email (@ bottom) from: democracyforamerica.com,

I wrote them this response:

DFA,

Sorry but speaking politics here is a failure at communication.

Saying losing the recall (in Wisconsin) shows the strength of your mission? Sorry it doesn't.

The issue is that Republicans don't represent working class, and Democrats have been negligent in representing working class.

We either need open democracy with 3rd parties, or a Democratic party that will stop lying and face the reality that Centrist politics betrays the base of the party over and over.

Please start speaking the truth!!!

----

End

The DFA email is here:

I'm not going to sugarcoat it -- we came up short in Wisconsin last night. We needed to win three seats to take back the State Senate and we got two.

This was always going to be a tough fight. These were Republican districts and these six Republican Senators were backed up by tens of millions of dollars from big corporations.

The fact that we won two of these elections and came so close in a third is a testament to the strength of our grassroots movement. ...
The country has seen the work we've done in Wisconsin and they know we won't be stopped.

We're going to fight in Ohio, where voters have a chance to repeal another anti-union, anti-middle class law in a special referendum this November. We're going to fight in Michigan, where the governor has launched an all-out war on local governments.

We're going to fight until we win -- and next year, we're going to beat John Boehner and his right-wing Tea Party majority.

Congressional Reform Act of 2011

2011-08-05T11:47:00.001-07:00

Doing my part to help the USA, forwarded this msg below:

Friends & family,
While I'm also not into forwarding stuff, this makes sense to me -- as the Congress seeks to damage the USA, why not the people seek to fix Congress?

I think in addition, all lobbyist visits could be transparent, public, & posted on their Congessional website.

Peace
- rekzkarz

In addition to the suggestions below I would add that members of congress would no longer be able to accept money from lobbyists or industry for any reason.

This is worth considering:

**
*The 26th amendment (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds)
took only 3 months & 8 days to be ratified! Why? Simple! The
people demanded it. That was in 1971...before computers, before
e-mail, before cell phones, etc.
**
Of the 27 amendments to the Constitution, seven (7) took 1 year or
less to become the law of the land...all because of public pressure.

I'm asking each addressee to forward this email to a minimum of
twenty people on their address list; in turn ask each of those to
do likewise.
**
In three days, most people in The United States of America will have
the message. This is one idea that really should be passed around.

Congressional Reform Act of 2011

1. No Tenure / No Pension.
A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.

2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security. All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.

3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.

4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.

6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.

7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/12.

The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen. Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.

If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people then it will only take three days for most people (in the U.S. ) to receive the message. Maybe it is time.

THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!!!!!

If you agree with the above, pass it on. If not, just delete.

Letter to Representatives & Senator re: budget attack

2011-07-26T00:35:00.000-07:00

I emailed Representative Garamendi (thru his website), Senator Feinstein (thru her website), and Senator Boxer (thru her site),

Dear Representative/ Senator,

I am very disappointed in the Democratic Party, but the current inability to defend Social Security & Medicare because of this Wall Street manufactured financial crisis takes the cake.

We don't want these things cut. We need Democrats to stand up for the people of the country.

If the Democrats cannot or will not represent the *CORE ISSUES* of the party, then please open up the discourse so 3rd Parties can have a chance to participate in our government.

We must have representation and defense from predatory groups and organizations who seek to damage the country irreparably. These groups *are not* foreign terrorists, by the way, which are generally poor small groups. These groups are here in the USA, they possess a lot of money, power, and organization -- and the Democrats don't discuss them because they get money from them just like Republicans.

We need freedom of speech in the USA, and it must be in the congress as well. Please be bold and speak clearly and truthfully about the corruption in Washington and how our Democracy is being sold off (very cheaply) to PAC's and corporations and the ultrawealthy.

Thank you.

(my name)

rekzkarz.com

Blogplus - mobile blogging app

2011-07-09T15:02:00.001-07:00

Today I dloaded this iPhone blogging app, BlogPlus, from the restroom of La Note, while temporarily occupied w/other affairs. I saw from AppShopper that the price had dropped to $1!
Time to consume!!!
And the joy of realizing I can consume software from a bathroom via cellphone Internet -- I really feel like I have arrived in the era of the mobile information revolution!!

Why the Media implodes

2011-06-20T04:10:00.000-07:00

FAIR -- fairness and accuracy in reporting -- has a lot of work to do!

Basically, very little of what the mainstream media says (including CNN) is accurate, and what they do say is spun heavily. The most confusing questions (at least for me) are WHY would CNN spin the Japan Fukushima Daichi nuclear meltdown? Why would NPR not cover the anti-austerity protests going on in all 50 states? Why don't we hear about Global Warming in ANY of the mainstream media sources?

So far, the answers are all similar -- the CORPORATIONS do not want these stories covered.

Nuclear powerplants cost ~ $60bil each, and the USA has over 100 nuke plants, so we have approx $6 trillion dollars of private enterprise interests resisting any coverage of the triple meltdown -- even though we now they are worse than Chernobyl, we know they are worse today then they were 1 month ago, and we know that the USA is exposed to dangerous radiation from the meltdown. We don't know if the radiactive cores have melted outside of the reactor foundations, which is significant.

What bugs me about this story, and all the rest, is that we have a guarantee in our Constitution of both Freedom of Press and Freedom of Speech. If we can't get the truth in our media, and people speaking the truth in media is getting blocked, then it seems our Constitution is being blocked and we as US Citizens have a right and a duty to prevent this type of thing.
I'm not a Tea Party person -- I think the Tea Party is a front for right-wing billionaire fascists -- but I am a believer in the principles of the USA's foundation -- liberty, equality, and the pursuit of happiness. Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Press, Freedom of Religion -- and Freedom From Religion.
To get current on my list of things I DO NOT BELIEVE IN: tax rebates for the rich, wars against drugs or religions, sending US troops to fight wars in other countries which are not threatening the USA, living in primal fear of terrorist attacks that we give up our freedoms and our freedom from inappropriate searches, using tax money for military ventures or to subsidize corporate endeavors rather than for the public good, the government battling to defend 'intellectual property rights' while supporting companies who exploit natural resources and leave regions unable to support human life, the exploitation of slave labor and prison labor, the expansion of prisons to include imprisoning non-criminals and non-violent victimless criminals, the expansion of CIA/FBI/Police powers without judicial oversight, and the government support of industries which have no regard for their product's consumers nor their product's producers.
I could make that list longer...

Obama vs Osama -- what is real and what is fiction

2011-05-02T02:20:00.000-07:00

So Obama has enabled the CIA & troops to kill Osama Bin Laden. OK, I get the story.

Wait a sec. Actually, I'm not getting the story. Here's what I'm not understanding about the whole affair:

Did Bush Sr give Osama Bin Laden $2 billion to fight the Russians -- and then ask him to attack the USA as a false flag attack? Media hasn't investigated.
Why did Bush Jr have a 'no flight' alert, but then use US tax money to buy all the Bin Laden family free flights to Paris? - Hello media? Any explanations here?
When Osama Bin Laden got away from US forces every time, why did it seem like the USA armed forces were given orders to leave him an escape route? Was it so the USA could continue to fight a war against whomever we want? Is the 'Al Queada', the mysterious nation-less group of terrorists a convenient cover story to an American offensive to take control of the world's oil? -- Any media commentary here?
What about the POW's in Guantanamo still? (Wait, I'm sorry, I didn't mean POW's, I meant 'enemy combatants'.) Why is the USA torturing them & not allowing them to have their day in court with lawyers to face their charges?
What exactly is the definition of terrorism? Is the USA terrorizing Iraqi citizens? When the USA uses rendition & secret military prisons, is that terrorism? Does invading a non-threatening country count as terrorism? What about nuclear bombing a country, or using drones to go into another country's borders & kill civilians? I'm just wondering here.
Why is the USA fighting a war against a group that hasn't done anything to us (yet)? Have the people of the USA become so comfortable with war that we accept fighting wars against people that aren't fighting a war against us? Is it ok to invade a country & kill their citizens just because some nasty folks are hiding out there?
When did it become legal to assassinate foreign leaders?
How can we be the leader in counter-terrorism and sitll operate the College of the Americas, a 'university' which teaches techniques used to terrorize populations & teach harsh investigative torture techniques (already used in Central & South America)?
Why doesn't Bush use his 'inside connections' with the Bin Laden family to get the USA some answers on what really happened?
Why didn't Cheney & Bush have to testify under oath, separately, about the 9/11 attacks? Why did we never get info on why Cheney ordered planes to stand down instead of shoot down those attacking flights? And why did Bush sit still for 14 minutes after being informed the USA was under attack?

I probably have a few more questions to ask Obama about Osama, but this seems like a good start.

QIK video #1 - -Exxon Mobil $11 billion

2011-04-28T17:28:00.000-07:00

First QIK video, an app that lets me stream or record & post video from my iPhone. The future has arrived, I may hold off a little longer on getting a new video camera.

re: Exxon Mobil $11bil in first quarter, record profits according to news media -- Washington Post link:
I filled my gas tank after work, felt somewhat abused at paying $55 to fill up, when I recall that before Bush Jr I paid approx $15 or so. The media, the govt, & def gas co's want us to forget that prices have gone up 4x on speculation primarily and not b/c of lack of supply.
That said, I'm guessing we are near the peak oil point, although some argue we passed peak oil. I guess we can't know until WikiLeaks posts something telling us the truth, since we don't seem to be able to rely on the government or private business to tell us the truth about our own natural resources!!! (WTF???)

If we get Financially SMART & think outside of the box, what could that look like?

2011-04-25T09:34:00.000-07:00

I posted this comment in response to The Automatic Earth Article Welcome to the Slaughterhouse, which discusses the 'next Tsunami', namely peak oil & resource wars, and Slaughterhouse Finance referring to Kurt Vonnegut & the dilemma of the global debt burden:
-----------------------------------
While I agree with much of the commentary, there is another reality possible.

The notion that 'we' (in this case wealthy consumers) must go to war to battle for all the resources, coupled with the concept that 'we' (the people stuck with huge debts thru spending ... and corruption) must pay back massive global debts are both choices.

Frankly, when Greenspan recommends paying the debts off, and Bush as well, their concern IMO has more to do with their awareness that they are completely culpable for much of both problems.

Bush didn't want the USA to be independent and healthy, but rather dependent and hooked into global commerce like the IMF & World Bank recommend -- focus on exports, let your population starve/suffer, and boost the wealthy class.

Greenspan kept arguing that market forces will correct for all the problems and regulation must be fought always.

And then when they had screwed things up (IMO intentionally) as much as possible, they got a *GREAT* interest free loan from the public coffers to boost their wealthy friends portfolios while gutting the USA's solid financial backbone.

And now we are not bailing out our economy which is under assault by 3 wars & inflated military spending, tax cuts for billionaires, sharply lowered home values and less jobs for workers, and more curious coincidences.

When the Republicans threaten to shut down the govt or not open the debt ceiling, it's b/c they live in the dream world where they will survive on bottled water for years while the poorest eat eachother in the streets (seen Book of Eli?), or they figure Armagedon is overdue.

And I say all this b/c we have a choice as human beings -- to abandon an economic system which obviously is rigged to extract wealth to the top (as Karl Marx showed so clearly) and find another metaphor for global distribution of goods & services, and improve balance.

THANK YOU BOLIVIA for your short-term work around, which is to assign rights and values to those creatures which can't speak to defend themselves, namely animals & some green areas.

We all know the metaphor of "does a tree falling in the forest make a sound if no one hears it?"

But do we all understand the metaphor that "in modern economics, raw materials and natural resources have zero value unless they can be exploited, commodified, and consumed in a marketplace"?

It's almost the same STUPID concept!!! And we need to get SMART!

Save KPFA - the disastrous management continues

2011-04-23T06:59:00.001-07:00

Thanks to www.savekpfa.org website

I emailed the following to Pacifica Board & new interim KPFA managers Andrew Phillips and Carrie Core,

I'm a KPFA listener and supporter who has paid dues for more than 10 yrs (except for a short stint when I was on unemployment in 2008/2009). I'm also originally a KPFK listener as I'm from LA.

I'm very disappointed with the heavy-handed management at KPFA recently, which is completely disregarding both the community and the staff.
While there is obviously a dispute about who gets on the air, perhaps the best way to resolve some of these issues would be by considering the feedback of the listeners & staff, as well as the executives?

Because of annoying recent changes at KPFA, including bumping Democracy Now to 7 from 6am and canceling my fav KPFA show 'the Morning Show' quite arbitrarily, and putting in Al Jazeera English (which I find surprisingly lacking in content vs Democracy Now), I am now feeling 'forced' to listen via Internet to KPFK & WBAI to hear content that I like & is useful. The upside is I learned I can stream either to my iPhone (TuneIn Radio app) and they also have other shows which are more hard-hitting than KPFA as well. I was surprised....!

While we are under attack in the USA by the Right Wing & Tea Baggers, why am I being forced to listen to Al Jazeera?!?! I'm interested in the Middle East, certainly, but I'm far more interested in the USA!!!

I really want a show like Democracy Now, which covers real news in-depth every day, and the Morning Show which expands on local & national news and had great interviews and perspectives. Switch your all-volunteer programming back to off-hours and late nights! Why am I listening to the worst of KPFA at 7am-8am?!?!

Frankly, I'm quite annoyed -- this year when I donated I requested that my money only go to KPFA and not Pacifica. The person taking my donation did not know if he could do that, but I encouraged him that we could.

If you look at the history of mismanagement at Pacifica, it includes so many bad decisions, bad policies, & bad attempts at executing bad policies, that I'm surprised Pacifica is still the mother ship. I believe KPFA needs to become more independent of Pacifica bc the organization is so dangerous, so toxic, and runs so counter to the needs & wants of local listeners.

In closing, please do not mess with Democracy Now -- put it back to 'live' at 6 & rebroadcast at 9. Those are iconic timeslots. Then give us a local & national news show with editorial / opinions from Left Wingers (like the Morning Show!!!)

And don't get me wrong, I like 'Hard Knock Radio', but it is a niche show which probably focusses less on content interesting to ALL LISTENERS and more to under-represented groups, right? So keep it in the evening slot!

Why doesn't the management listen to the paid listeners? The KPFA board is pursuing a stupid and petty agenda, which will result in either hurting KPFA more than it already has, damaging Pacifica (more than it's shoddy rep, but like taking private corporate underwriting as we are learning now), and moving listeners to other few & far between options like KQED & NPR.

I implore you, listen to us, your paying supporters!!!

PLEASE LISTEN TO YOUR STAFF!!

Thank you,

rekzkarz.com

rant on deceivers.com about Michael Moore

2011-04-17T15:47:00.000-07:00

I posted the following comment on deceivers.com, after reading their article about Michael Moore hiring non-union workers here (awaiting moderation):
http://deceiver.com/2011/03/07/michael-moore-supports-unions-and-non-union-labor/comment-page-1/#comment-65107

Wow, what a bunch of hate-spewing commentators! Gee, are you all so 'great' and Michael Moore is not b/c he hired non-union people to shoot his film? As someone that has worked with several unions and for unions, I say --> SO WHAT?

No one is perfect, and he is by no means perfect. But what he does well is tell a story that so many ignorant buffoons (probably some of you included) had no idea -- that the US medical system is cruel and inhuman and looks like crap compared to Europe or Canada, that Bush & Cheney did some unusual shenanigans around 9/11 (and before after, like lying about Iraq & leaking a secret agent's ID to the news & cheating on the voting machines), that the financial failure was caused by greed, that private corporations are predators upon their workers and their locales of operation, etc etc.

Unlike you idiots, who make fat jokes & think you are making critical commentary, Michael Moore actually is taking action and getting things done. And he never insults people (like Bush Jr) for being idiotic moronic jerks!

So, you are making less than $40 an hour? Well, don't blame the unions! Unions caused labor income to go up, work hours to go down, and profit going to the upper ranks to drop. Paying union labor (or non-union labor, like In&Out Burger, Peets' Coffee, etc) a decent wage and medical coverage does not make require your end-product to be more expensive. It can affect the price, but it doesn't have to.

What makes your products more expensive is excessive executive compensation of $1 million and up (which is more than $20k per week) and large profits going to share-holders.

I agree that some union jobs are overpaid relative to the work done. But so what? How many executives do nothing but sexually harassing employees while being paid $500 per minute? Or hwo about the executives who fail their company and make it go bankrupt while collecting their huge salaries?
Frankly, I don't care if a cop or fireman is paid well, or if the guy screwing the bolts into my car is paid enough to pay attention.
But you FOOLS who blame unions for the USA's financial problems have everything backwards.

Big business (executives, board of directors, & shareholders) want to maximize profit at the expense of labor compensation, seeing it as an unnecessary cost to be minimized. This is why we have sweatshops & child labor & prison labor. Unions want a fair (at least 'livable') wage paid to employees, regardless of what they are doing.

When you insult a worker doing a job like picking fruit or screwing in bolts or cleaning toilets, consider this -- would YOU rather do that job? And secondly, is it such a bad thing that the worker doing that hard job gets enough money that they can feel like they are doing right by their families?

One of the commenters here said they had a college degree -- well good for you! But guess what? It's good for getting you a job where the company won't want to pay you what you are worth, in order to push the profit upwards towards the executives and away from you! And you can whine all you want about workers below you charging too much, but you'll be yelling at the wrong people.

The current financial crises were caused by rich bankers stealing money from middle class & poor people by issuing loans which should have been illegal or at least unacceptable. But instead they were playing with other people's money and they took chances, and lots of people jumped in for the ride. But when the housing values started to drop, the government stepped in and bailed out the richest, not the poorest. Homeowners lose, bankers pocket their money and spend millions on lobbyists to move on & not look back. Zero criminal prosecution for billions of dollars lost by stealing, by negligence, by not doing their jobs of due diligence while pocketing millions of dollars!!!
Guess what? If no one goes to jail for fraud over this, it will happen again! (Have you noticed all those commercial real estate vacancies, by the way?)

And you people want to blame the workers for this?

So if you want to blame and accuse, go after the real criminals. Michael Moore is a great filmmaker (and yes, he uses spin. But so what? Fox is 99% spin and 1% facts, Michael Moore is 5% spin and 95% facts) and story teller, and he is not the powerful 'overlord' whether he has $50mil or $500 mil. He's telling the truth about the people with so much money that htey measure their wealth in the billions, in multiple currencies and assets, and they own the war machine (The Carlyle Group, Haliburton, Bechtel), they own the oil machine (BP is only one of many including Exon, Shell, Texaco, etc), and soon they will own your water.

It upsets these wealthy people to be forced to spend their money on social welfare and social good. They'd rather have the FREEDOM to spend 'their money' as they like. That's why they are fighting taxes and government social spending (social security, medicare, medicaid).

WHY?
Because the uber-rich don't care if you die young, if you suffer in misery in the street impoverished, if you lose your income in a oil spill or environmental nuclear mistake, if you can't pay your medical insurance, or if you are homeless.

When you have $100 in your pocket and won't give a homeless guy a dime, that is how the ultra-wealthy feel about the working class and the poor people. Who cares, they are just scum anyway! Someone else will deal with it, or maybe that person will just die & leave me alone.

This is why they don't want you to know what is really happening; they want to keep you blind, divided, and conquered. You probably don't know what Smedley Butler did to G. Bush Sr's grandfather, a nazi-supporting banker & fascist, either.

"In November 1934, Butler told the committee [Congress] that a group of businessmen, saying they were backed by a private army of 500,000 ex-soldiers and others, intended to establish a fascist dictatorship." And guess what? Bush now has a private army of Blackwater mercenaries (rebranded Xe Consultants) and other CIA mercenary organizations who don't need American democratic approval b/c they operate under a black budget of drug money and CIA 'secret treasury'.

So if you blame Michael Moore for your woes, you are a FOOL. Blame the Bushes, blame the CIA, blame the uber-rich. Who has killed millions of people, & who is making movies trying to make people wake up?

Jesse Ventura on Piers Morgan

2011-04-05T01:36:00.000-07:00

Jesse Ventura is a hero of the USA, I believe. He's a 'rogue outsider' who has the courage and passionate commitment to speak truth to power. Jesse was on Piers Morgan's CNN show. Piers Morgan is a horrible interviewer -- he has his own agenda & won't allow the interviewee a chance, and now way would he consider seeing the world from their viewoint. Piers attempted to challenge Jesse a lot, stopped him from finishing answers, contradicted him, mistated his position to counter it simply, laughed at him, and actually dared to called him a coward.

When so few in the USA say what Jesse says, but so many of us know some of it to be the truth, insulting Jesse for being a true patriot is a sad thing. If Piers could grow a pair and confront the power structure -- go after a Tea Bag idiot, or a Republican moron, with similar vindictive attacking questioning, but he can't.

What's disgusting to me is that Piers Morgan is the coward, the wimp, the butt-kisser, the sellout -- but Jesse didn't respond to Piers' lack of manners b/c Jesse has manners. He's a gentleman on top of all the other stuff!

The only thing on Piers side is that he had Jesse on and let Jesse speak a bit about what's true -- to discuss 9/11 coverup & that 9/11 was not only planes attacking the USA, that he accused Cheney of knowing about attacks (& possibly helping), that Jesse got to call the USA a fascist country, Jesse's show had an accusation of Obama as being a former CIA agent (which Jesse did not explicitly acknowledge), and so much other great stuff.

I acknowledge Jesse for not wanting to pound Piers Morgan's head -- but in some ways, Piers is a good interviewer for Jesse Ventura, b/c Piers (who is acts as if he's a highly educated Englishman working for CNN) is actually completely ignorant of the gaps in media coverage and ignorantly claims that the problem with conspiracy theories is that once you buy into one you may believe many. The flaw in that argument is that what if one or more of those theories are actually true -- do you throw it out b/c other ones (like aliens in Area 52, or CIA assassinating JFK) seem too far-fetched? Jesse made the point about being in-favor of WikiLeaks and very concerned about Bradley Manning's health. Also, Jesse criticized the use of torture and Guantanamo. THANK YOU JESSE!

I did not know Jesse is suing the TSA for violating his 4th Amendment Rights, but it's a great case -- he has a metal hip and he was a Mayor, Governor, and an navy veteran. His point is that when he flies he will always trigger the metal detectors & thus always be sexually assaulted by the TSA, and there is no reason to do this. I agree, but it should go further -- no one should be forced to be searched / probed by the TSA. The USA needs to fix it's foreing policies so no one is incentivized to do harm to citizens here -- rather than killing civilians all around the world in an effort to take over more of the resources of the Earth that the USA has no right to steal & use.

Piers Morgan, you are officially (from rekzkarz) a condescending douche-bag, a cocky ignorant wanker, a dweeb, and a bad interviewer -- but you had Jesse Ventura on your show and let him speak a bit on some things (and he was pitching his new book), so you're not THAT bad of a douche...

5 new dynamic Blogger views? WHOA

2011-04-03T09:43:00.000-07:00

Cool new Blogger stuff! Dynamic Views for Blogger Readers

Blogger currently offers five dynamic views for its public blogs:
# Flipcard: available at [blogURL]/view/flipcard -- EXAMPLE w/rekzkarz
# Mosaic: available at [blogURL]/view/mosaic -- EXAMPLE w/rekzkarz
# Sidebar: available at [blogURL]/view/sidebar -- EXAMPLE w/rekzkarz
# Snapshot: available at [blogURL]/view/snapshot -- EXAMPLE w/rekzkarz
# Timeslide: available at [blogURL]/view/timeslide -- EXAMPLE w/rekzkarz

Sidenote: I chose today to remove all the Google Ads when I saw a right-wing anti-Obama ad appear on my blog! Don't think I'll be losing too much revenue. HA (Not that I'm a big fan of Obama, but he's better than the Neo-Con Fascist White Aryan Racist party (aka Republican Party). Obama may not be progressive, he may not forward the left-wing agenda, he may not improve life quality in the USA for the poor -- BUT they can't take his blackness away, and there IS a black family in the White House right now in a country that imported millions of black slaves, tortured raped & killed millions, and never apologized for it. So whatever happens, the media-manipulating multi-billionaires can't un-black-ify him! (Or maybe they can! They are surprisingly effective! NO!!!))

ScriptFrenzy 2011

2011-04-03T09:17:00.000-07:00

Just signed up for ScriptFrenzy 2011, the 'competition' against yourself' to finish a screenplay in 1 month!

The month is April, the time is NOW -- hey, you could be doing NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writers' Month), which is a lot harder IMO -- write an entire (rough draft) for a novel in 1 month!

For a feature screenplay, 120pages is quite a lot (some might say more than 88pgs is too much), but when you get rid of the blank spaces for formatting, you're only looking at ~ 30-40 pages of actual writing.

Anyone care to join me - rekzkarz on scriptfrenzy server? :)

Journal pages - March & April 2011

2011-03-29T04:55:00.001-07:00

RANT on my feelings about USA being destroyed by Republican Neo-Con Fascists

2011-03-10T04:30:00.000-08:00

I'm reposting this here just so my RANT can be preserved on my BLOG. I think this RANT had some gems in it -- capable of getting me lynched my really crazy Christians who believe in 'punishing the heretic' (the same idiots that don't understand that Jesus was a heretic in his lifetime!!! Morons!). And these people are the ones that so fear Islam -- they don't see their own extreme religiosity (which conveniently ignores the 10 Commandments) as ignorant, regressive, primitive. Oh well.

Hey! I haven't started my 'official' rant yet! (That was all pre-RANT rant.)

My cousin posted the following on Facebook (very innocently):

"Let's all just tell eachother how we really feel. That would be fun."

So I ranted (@4am):

I feel that the USA is being destroyed by Republican Neo-Con Fascists, many of whom are White Aryan neo-Nazis. Their main goal is to take the wealth from public hands & put it in the hands of a few white families: many of whom believe they are God's chosen, the 'Visible Elect', and that when Armageddon comes, the fact that they gather so much stuff (ie stealing the wealth from the masses) earns them a really nice cloud in Heaven. (Or perhaps they know they'll burn in Hell, which I think most of them fear b/c of the bad things they do to steal all the stuff.)

THIS is quite disturbing: that you can't argue rationally with people who believe in Armageddon & Judgement Day about Global Warming (they don't care b/c Armageddon), Women's Rights (b/c they believe Jesus said all sperm is holy?), Gay Rights (b/c they think Soddom & Gomorah is about gays -- but it had far more to do w/not treating visitors well & rape & so on), or stopping war against non-Christians (again Armageddon).

The main problem, IMO, is that people allow the Roman Catholic Church (who blocked it's members from reading the Bible, put people to death for 'Heresy' & wouldn't translate the Bible from Latin until the Protestants translated it independently) to misinterpret a very influential book about a famous Jew & continue a cult which doesn't understand anything about Judaism, or even that the specific Jew they think was God actually practiced JUDAISM, not Christianity.

Last point -- Christians are constantly preaching about 'the Anti-Christ', someone/something that completely misinterprets Jesus' message & does all kinds of harm. Hey! Look! It's right there in front of us, namely Pat Buchanan, Newt Gingrich, Bush Jr, etc etc.

The 'Double Speak' (from '1984' by Orwell) has been perfected by this group. Bush said it best, 'We have to kill all the terrorists b/c they hate our freedom.' And then the USA invaded Iraq & killed ~ 150k innocent people (and destabilized 13million people), and is currently killing innocents (including many children) in Afghanistan using unmanned planes firing Hellfire Missiles into groups of civilians -- "to stop terrorism".

So is that enough about how I feel? Not sure it helps much.

Blogging for 'Green Tea Party' on my.barrackobama.com

2011-03-07T14:34:00.000-08:00

Setup a new blog on my.barrackobama.com (I will simply copy/paste my Blog posts here):
http://my.barackobama.com/blogs/rekzkarz. First post was Green Party 10 Key Principles.

Copy/paste of comment posted to
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/maryhough/gGMb5F/commentary#comment-gGqbKQ

Dear President Obama & fellow Dem's,

The President is very myopic thinking bipartisanship is realistic. He is ignoring many things, namely that the working class is under attack -- bc of bailing out fraudulent 'Private Sector Banks' (with public funds) while keeping a war and a tax break & allowing (public) States to be crushed under an artificially created debt burden (made by fraudulent banks).

This is completely backwards!

I support the President taking a fighting stance (as he did briefly during the beginning of his Presidency and certainly during the elections), and saying "NO, we will not do these despicable things" which the Republicans propose.

No one can argue that Republicans are seeking bipartisanship, so why should the Democrats lead with conciliation to a neo-fascist threat which seeks to bankrupt the USA's working classes?

This is class warfare. It would be wonderful if President Obama would say so. Minnesota is the first battle in a class war seeking to cripple the Democracy of the USA & opening us up to rule by decree.

President Obama, I urge you to *completely* give up your conciliatory approach and be clear that this is a battle. You are not leading the opposition regardless, so lead your supporters, take a strong position to protect LABOR RIGHTS and stop the special treatment for Corporations!!

Thanks - rekzkarz.com (Green Tea Party Democrat)

North Berkeley Library remodel

2011-03-05T16:07:00.000-08:00

I was planning to protest for Labor in SF or Berkeley, but didn't hear about any protests so I stopped into North Berkeley library (w/free wifi internet) & Mayor Bates & Senator Hancock were there for a library remodel public celebrationl!

iPhone 4 - a very good device, but not perfect

2011-03-04T14:19:00.000-08:00

Copy of a comment I posted in re:
Today In IOS blog
http://tii.libsyn.com/wtf-is-wrong-with-the-ny-times

I had iPhone 3 & now iPhone 4. I feel it's an upgrade, particularly in *speed* (main flaw of iPhone 3), but I wouldn't harsh the commentary (news article) so extremely.
My first corp smartphone was a b/w blackberry w/great email. Battery lasted 7 days w/heavy use. My iPhone battery may last 1 day w/o recharging. My gf's iPhone 3 (I gave her mine) may last 2 bc she's a light user.
iPhone is my fav smartphone so far (had Treo, Blackberry, & Android 1.0). But it is not perfect by any means.
I chuckle w/people's hatred of AT&T & love of Verizon: all phone co's are bloated bureaucracies w/little reason not to overbill & under-service. (Another testimony to capitalism's myth of competition generating 'best of breed'.) my 3-4 yes w/Verizon included regular incorrect bills, a mischarge of $250 for texts, and a far higher rate than AT&T's monthly bill -- for a Treo w/far lower internet usability than my iPhone now.
So, while I tell folks that iPhone 4 is *the slickest computer* I've ever owned, it is not perfect.
Main flaws IMO include:
AppStore 'iron grip' over apps, locked down OS (so I can't disable or modify dictionary for flawed autocorrect -- why does 'me' get replaced w/'mr'?!?!), no simple option to have a small keyboard w/buttons instead of LCD KB (on Blackberry my touch-typing rate was fast. On iPhone, I can't type OK finally -- but not comparable speed.), 'sandboxing' of apps blocks a lot of basic info-sharing (music, files, etc) & requires redundancy or copying, and IMO a major flaw: app purchases w/o previews, very hard to get refunds, & general Appstore navigation *sucks*. Actually, if I'm going to point out flaws, let me rip iTunes a new one: iTunes acting as a 'gateway' for iPhone interaction reminds me of AOL being a gateway to Internet. As a Mac & Windows user, I was surprised when I was *required* to install a bloated iTunes on my PC to sync, that iTunes always has components running in the background, always attempts to re-do my file structures, and often will not let me sync the phone until I update iTunes (& recently required me to update QuickTime & overwrite my purchased QuickTime Pro). So I'd like Apple to open iPhone file structure and not require me to use iTunes for anything.
But to re-state: this is an amazing smartphone. W/a few essential apps (for me incl Dropbox, Evernote, Filer, TapForms, QuickOffice, AppShopper, Tune-In Radio, NetFlicks, CraigsPro+, etc) + awesome built-ins like email, safari, & calendar, it is the best I've used so far.
+ thanks to Google, my contacts stay sync'd wirelessly & my Calendar stays sync'd. Wireless sync (w/o the insult of a 'MobileMe' extra fee) seems essential. And I'm sure glad I got an iPhone *after* copy/paste was implemented & I'm glad Apple added multitasking as well (altho if u donthave iPhone 4 u r screwed there -- which is another frequent apple flaw IMO; screwing early buyers).
I am a fan -- but I'm not a brainwashed 'Apple-nationalist' like so many folks.
rekzkarz.com

RPM Challenge 2011

2011-02-17T05:23:00.000-08:00

Hard to imagine I haven't mentioned it before, but *THIS IS THE MONTH* for RPM Challenge 2011!

Knock out ONE audio CD in 1 month.

B/c of night shifts, it's hard, but I'm going for it. Lex sugg'd I try ONE LONG TRACK, and I'm looking at how to do that. I like it. Might call the CD "MegaRant" or "Words of the Night Ari" or similar.

Just brainstorms of poetry so far. Excited to be hacking away at creative stuff!

Dungeon Raid - strategies

2011-02-15T19:09:00.001-08:00

I've been playing Dungeon Raid *a lot* & have developed a strategy, but it's great to read other strategies -- please post yours?
I promised to put something on my blog - here goes...
Quick recap: Dungeon Raid is a 'line-em up' game w/ Roleplaying elements (skills, abilities, swords & shields) which is an amazing iPhone app by Alex Kuptsov (dungeonraid.atspace.com).
I've been trying to do 'combos' of skills, and I've been also trying combos of 'non-skill' abilities (like blunt, poison, etc). Generally, I like dazzle - 'turn coins to swords' with treasure chamber - 'new items are coins' combo, and there are a few versions of this. Trying this w/big game hunter' is fun -- but can be dangerous!
Another maneuver I've been doing is collecting less rows (keeping it to 3) unless it's coins. Shields need constant replenishment, so... I try to leave 3 of swords, shields, & potions 'clumped'.
Certain skills I don't use barely at all, like exploding potions or freeze. Earthquake, teleport, & slash can save you. I'll be adding more to this list as I improve my skills.
Awesome game, really amazing!!!

Update - I had a brainstorm after playing this game obsessively for awhile now. While my scores are lower lately, I still think the trick is to see the game *purely visually* and try to keep swords near the top and skulls away from the bottom.
Another thing I've been doing is not taking all the matching things, but leaving 3 if I might need them -- so instead of taking 9 shields, I might take 3 -- unless I'm near an upgrade.
A few minor observations: taking spikes, poison, or blunt can save your butt. Getting them up a level is better than getting skills levelled 2-3x. Spikes damages them when they damage you. Poison makes them hurt for 3 subsequent rounds. Blunt actually reduces their damage every round, which can make a tough and nasty skull into nothing after 1-2 rounds.
I read another guy's strategy saying to take exploding potions, but that *def* doesn't work for me. I was considering trying to take more stuff that lets me have more ways of attacking, but the more I play, the more I think I'd do better playing defensively. Dunno

.jobs -- can't we make it easier for us job-seekers?

2011-01-30T23:54:00.000-08:00

Anyone else think it's too hard to apply for jobs online? Hey, guess what -- a smart idea: usa.jobs! (& other .jobs domains)

I've been wondering -- why can't you post your resume & the computers link it to real jobs? Why must we humans constantly fill out applications w/our name, address, phone #!??!!

.jobs doesn't fix that, but it makes a domain where companies can list their jobs easier, they say.
(Good until the 'match my resume automatically' app is around.)

Anger pops up -- thank you, CHP

2011-01-25T05:56:00.000-08:00

Well, I got a ticket for speeding 76mph coming over the Bay Bridge at 11pm. I had worked a training shift from 3pm-11pm and was tired. Everyone was driving really slow. I was getting pissed at all those slow-ass drivers.
Prior to that, I was looking at the cars on the road with this sense of acceptance and peace, and I realized that the 'flow' of all those cards will be a symbolic thing to appreciate for this years 1950-2025, because we are quick approaching the end of the oil era and it's very likely that some aspect of the Freeway Society will end. Frankly, while I like being able to get to point B really fast, I think the Earth would be better off if we went back to sustainable animal-power. Plus it's just so much healthier for humans AND animals, generally.

Anyway, then I got my ticket, and I had to work all night the next few nights (incl right now). I posted a rant on Facebook about my ticket, and started a minor flame-battle with a friend who said, "Well, you did it so accept the consequences" and so I launched out some anger at him. Called him condescending & so on -- not that I've never been condescending, right?

And then I had a visit at Kaiser... Ah, Kaiser. Where to start? My name was spelled rigth on the card but not in their system. No one could change that! Then I had a physical there, my first visit, where the doctor just asked me questions & didn't actually check my body for anything at all, despite my being 40 and not having had a physical for ~ 3-4 years b/c I didn't have medical insurance. He did take notes from asking me questions, and they did charge me $50 for an office visit. $50? Ouch! And I did get referred to an opthamologist for glaucoma, so it was a success -- sorta.
So I saw the opthamologist yesterday, and he was shocked at my condition. He referred me to their main consultant (in 2 weeks) b/c my glaucoma is rare & only in one eye. And then we discussed (~ 5 yrs ago) when I lost vision for a day, and he said I might've had a stroke. So that's another trippy thing to digest.
Last Kaiser issue -- I bougth the glaucoma drops and they charged me $290. I said, "Whoa, that's a lot." Not sure what my insurance is getting me here!! Then I went to member services to change my name in their system, and asked 'in passing' why that was so much $? The rep said it was a mistake & they should've charged me $35. Wow! So we went back together (she accompanied me), and the pharmacy said they couldn't charge me $35 and gave me a bill for $290 and said it would get worked out in billing. Oh boy... So I took the meds & left.
New eye drops have a side effect in 15% of the patients -- change eye color to red, discolor the surrounding skin, lengthen the eyelash. Not really a big deal if I was having it in both eyes, but ... Anyway, it's interesting. The docs think this is almost a negligible side-effect. He said, "you'll have to take this for life... Or you could go blind." What a lame way to get someone to get someone to take a drug!
Meanwhile, there are no 'new age' or holistic suggestions for dealing with glaucoma. I looked online & found some stuff, but they offer nothing. Actualy, they completely are lacking in knowledge on holistic treatments. Is this really 2011?!?!?
Do only non-medical people realize that the 'pharmaceutical solution" actually sucks? The solution is eye-drops for life?!?? That sucks!

(And I've been watching Sicko again, where Michael Moore completely nails the issue, which is that medical care should be part of being a citizen and not based on privatized medical insurance companies giving you services with strict limitations to protect their profit margins.)

So maybe that's why anger keeps popping up for me lately?
All this stuff, and that I'm not taking the risks I need to take to do my filmmaking stuff... Gotta step it up!

Then again, bad stuff does help me come up with creative stuff! That dang ticket inspired "freedomfromstupidlaws.com" idea. HA

WikiLeaks -- what freedom of Press & Speech looks like

2011-01-18T02:07:00.000-08:00

Have you read WikiLeaks yourself?

We have the rights of Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Press
-- but we need to use them or we might lose them!

Take a look -- http://wikileaks.org/

See anything interesting?
Tell me about it!

CNN bias & US News Media bias

2011-01-06T02:46:00.000-08:00

I tried to post this comment to a Blog on Andersen Cooper on CNN asking whether Andersen Cooper is biased. http://www.allthingsandersoncooper.com/2006/07/bias.html
The comment would not get accepted (blogger error?). Reposting my comment here. Thank you blog!

I watch CNN a lot. It is biased. I consider it conservative with rare left-wingers and frequent right-wing 'plants'. I listen to a lot of left-wing media (Democracy Now, Counterspin, Beneath the Surface) and various 'middle ground' media like KQED.
What's so interesting for me about US media is the 'self-branding' is all backwards. Generally media that describes itself as 'Left-Wing' or progressive is actually 'middle', like Green 960 or other similar self-proclaimed Progressive or Liberal media.

Or CNN, which has a huge pro-corporate pro-war bias, but says it is fair & balanced -- yet it never is called to account on those topics. CNN was eager to embed journalists with US military and provides skewed war statistics (only reporting US dead, not reporting US military violations of international law).

Fox News claims to be Conservative, but it is neo-fascistic and controlled by Right-wing thinktanks.

Democracy Now and other sources are truly left-wing 'progressive', from my POV. Trying to get access to truly 'radical' left-wing media is next to impossible in the USA, and probably would be called terrorist or inciting to revolt, so very little of that media makes it to the airwaves (except wrapped in hiphop songs & some metal & punk songs).

Last issue --> has anyone ever heard a news story on CNN discussing GM food co's (Monsanto & similar) terrorizing the rest of the world to force other countries to take GM foods? How about stories on gas co's and futures companies manipulating oil & gas prices? Where are the stories calling into question why Bush called Venezuela and Argentina part of the 'Axis of Evil' (b/c they were anti-capitalist and pro-social welfare)? How about stories about the World Bank enforcing austerity on foreign countries and forcing the poorest groups into abject poverty? How about the 9/11 coverup around the Pentagon attack (missile vs plane), or the ongoing violations of international law re: drone assassination strikes against so-called terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan -- attacks which are killing many civilians when no 'war' has been declared (and these acts are not terrorism?)?

How about some stories calling into question the unconstitutional use of Blackwater (aka XE Corp) and the US use of mercenaries (so-called 'contractors') to fight in secret foreign and domestic disputes?

Another point -- WikiLeaks. The supposed un-biased media in the USA has not addressed the actual leaks (which are historical in significance) but instead choose to focus on alleged charges of sexual misconduct by the CEO by women who continued dating him for weeks after the events occurred. What about the actual leaks? Why aren't those mainstream media stories? How can the US media get away with not reporting perhaps the most significant news in US History -- which also calls into question the practice of classifying information from the public for no reason other than to obscure the public's knowledge with no risk to US security.
Lastly, where are the stories about Guantanamo and Iraqi torture centers which the President and Congress so far are unable to shut down because the US military has begun acting independently?
THIS is the real issue here. Andersen is completely biased, from my POV, every time he says "Iraqi insurgents", or reports on stories from the US perspective without acknowledging his pro-corporate/pro-financial/pro-US govt biases. Does CNN mention that the USA has never shown the evidence claimed by Bush Jr when Al Queda supposedly attacked the World Trade Center, or that Al Queda was an organization funded by Bush Sr with more than $2 billion,, or that Bush paid to fly the Bin Ladens out of the USA days after 9/11? How hard is it to see these gaps as a clearly blatant bias?
rekzkarz.com

A New Year -- 2011

2010-12-26T23:45:00.000-08:00

A New Year 2011. Visionary times! I finally picked up & started re-reading "Awaken the Giant Within" - Anthony Robbins. This is quite a book. Change-maker! POWER!

So my goals for 2011 =

continue healthy living (wink!),
preproduce & tape my first feature length (scifi? kung fu? comedic?) video,
deepen & grow the Lex connection,
workouts (p90x? or whatever!),
create create create & re-enforce support for the creative/creator REkzkaRZ (music, video, art, poetry, acting, dance, comedy, etc),
keep helping my crew of heroic men (& woman),
get my indie business off the ground,
own more assets,
manifest goals/visions,
and push myself beyond my current limitations.

And that's just for January. HA! (Not)
This is not my first list of New Years Resolutions (but I think this is the first one I've blogged -- but then again, my memory is shot so it might not be the first), and I'm aware that resolutions do very little 'of themselves'. Resolutions are a statement before an action, a declaration that "I am taking this path" rather than saying "whatever comes along I'll wing it" (but that is also true as well).
ACTIONS are the key to progress. Actions are the opposite of passivity (ie watching TV, listening to music, chilling out, getting wasted, etc) -- and actions create results. (I suppose passivity creates results also...)
RE-ACTION 2011 -- more to come!
I invite you to post your 2011 New Years Resolutions as well -- with the implied commitment to *TAKE THE ACTIONS*!

Our paradigm is like a pair of dimes becoming a pile of twenty pennies

2010-12-11T23:48:00.000-08:00

The Earth is going thru another fluctuation -- society's preparing to make an evolutionary leap forward. Information seeks to become free (again). Profit-makers will be forced to release their marked-up products from their profit-mongering schemes when people enforce their claim to their own 'Natural Inalienable Rights" again (rights to freedom, to food, to water, to shelter, to pursuit of happiness, to free flow of information, to share with their communities).
But talk and action are so different. When things get bad, who will resort to violence? Those profitting most from the current setup. The evolutionaries will be the disenfranchised underdogs forced outside of the powerstructures, moving all of us forward into the future & forcing institutions to let go their white-knuckled grip on the copyrighted baggage of the past.
The paradigm of "don't ask don't tell" will be shattered like the paradigm of slavery and colonialism. The paradigm of "homelessness" will disappear as everyone unites in a desperate class battle against the domination of the wealthiest.
Suddenly, people will remember the historic significance of despotic rule as the ethereal veil of the Democracy illusion fades -- and a corrupt Republic of the Richest and most Cruel stands revealed.
The 'Star Wars' fight of Rebels against the Empire transforms into a fantastical metaphor for daily life, as cloned zombie soldiers patrol the streets in armor and fully armed drone planes light up the skies, trigger-happy zealot pilots sitting in remote bunkers hundreds of miles away eager to drop bombs on their video screens.

Ooops, another Saturday when I had too much coffee & then a few cokes. :)

Email to Pacifica re: Pacifica vs KPFA

2010-12-08T06:50:00.000-08:00

This is the email I wrote Pacifica via this site: http://kpfaworker.wordpress.com/contact-form/ The KPFA Worker blogsite is chronicling the manipulation and corrupt actions being committed by Pacifica HQ vs KPFA.

Dear Pacifica,

I am apalled at the manner which Pacifica is forcing KPFA to obey a top-down hierarchical structure.
Furthermore, I believe your board is operating in the worst manner. Having spoken one-on-one with one of your board members, she was so completely focussed and obsessed with cutting the Morning Show and changing up KPFA entirely that she could not see any other alternative.
While I understand there are always political battles in organizations, I would ask you to set aside your petty bickerings and allow KPFA to manage itself and donate to Pacifica voluntarily, rather than Pacifica managing KPFA from afar and dictate things which are inappropriate for KPFA.
I have been a supporter of KPFA and KPFK for years. I will from now on be donating specifically with the request that none of my donations go to the Pacifica organization. I find the Pacifica administration (historically & now) to continuously operate against the best interests of radio stations, the talent, and the communities which support it.
Please send me a response to my email to confirm that someone has received it & read it. Please explain your actions.
rekzkarz

2010-12-01T23:11:00.000-08:00

I'd like an app for iPhone that lets me play CCG's (special 'collectible card games') on my iPhone.
Seems like something easy and doable, but it ain't done
-- except for Wagic. But reviews say Wagic blows & it's a homebrew app.

Waiting for someone to make a useable 'play any CCG' app for iPhone.

How hard can it be???

a) Take 200 scans of cards

b) let people make decks of X cards

c) draw X cards for a hand

d) define a play area

e) let people play cards onto play area
f) have somewhere on play area to score points

And that's about it. Do we really need so much more?!?!?!

I'll play test it when it's built! PROMISE.

A Big # Birthday

2010-11-30T05:33:00.000-08:00

Aging -- getting some bigger numbers, yet still catching up to my highschool peers. Interesting to see the number and look at myself and feel like in certain ways it doesn't line up and in other ways it does.

Mentally & emotionally I'm stunted & just catching up -- today I'm around 27-ish. Physically I'm youthful looking & acting, but some days I feel those years hanging on me as extra weights.

But, it's 5:30am on my birthday and I'm going to focus on the positive -- I've had a LOT of good years!! And the most exciting is that the best is yet to come!

!VIVA LA VIDA DE PASION!

Palm Sounds -- a great blog

2010-11-16T03:35:00.000-08:00

Reactable Mobile

Palm Sounds -- a really cool blog that covers all the latest in mobile tech.

I've been testing out a lot of the iphone apps, and this blog has been giving me the latest & greatest stuff.

http://the-palm-sound.blogspot.com/

I wouldn't normally mention it, but the blogger said that if anyone is enjoying their blog, to post the link. And I do like it -- a lot. Hopefully you might enjoy something from them also?

Just found out from them that 'reactable' is now simulated on iPhone. Cool.

MegaMind movie - SUCKED

2010-11-10T05:36:00.000-08:00

I saw MegaMind in 3D at a movie theater. I wasn't expecting greatness, but I was hoping that something in it would be cool or neat or fun or something.
NOPE.
It was expensive @ $13 for a 3D film which didn't really use the 3D to do anything cool. Disappointing. I may not be the 'target audience' at 39 almost 40, but I saw MegaMind in a room full of kids. I laughed only 2x during the movie, the kids mostly laughed once. Behind me, a kid was so bored he got the foot tapping syndrome (right in my ear). Kids would hate this multimillion dollar film. I was wondering what audience was the target for this dud?
This film did not work in almost every way that Incredibles did work: No good action scenes, no exciting plot development, only a sad 'turn around' making the villain a hero -- which not only was not convincing but was trite and un-fun.
Pixar I've heard goes thru a huge amount of work to get the story first. This film had a flawed story, namely that a villain turned hero is not that exciting, and a loser turned loser villain is not very exciting, and the hero abdicating to live a secret life 'free of responsibility' is similarly not exciting.
Which seems to explain why MegaMind 3D was completely not exciting.

rekzkarz 3am non-RANT

2010-10-14T03:33:00.000-07:00

a 3am non-RANT from rekzkarz
DREAMS, USA, Election Nov 2010, etc

cigarettes & infomercials

2010-10-11T06:38:00.000-07:00

Someone left a pack of cigs at work. I found it at 5:30am & I was smoking 2 cig's in a row outside the night job at 5:45am. Wow, that was an amazing experience of addiction. Well, I guess I'm back to kicking cigarettes again?

Also Armando Montelongo infomercial is on the air ~ 10x a day for awhile. I read the reviews. OUCH, it's a NASTY scam -- a 3 day seminar for people who are desperate to make money will cost $3k, and you can pay $25k for a drive around with Armando (if he shows up, apparently he doesn't attend all his seminars) to learn his 'system' which is basically buying homes on a credit card, borrowing money from a rich friend/acquaintance, or getting a loan (which most folks can't get right now b/c of economy).
Almost all of his suggestions are for Texas real estate market, but apparently can work in Florida. In Arizona & California, many of the ideas pitched are illegal for these states (according to realtors who attended his workshop).
So, as my girlfriend says, don't believe the infomercials.
Another example of an apparent scam artist / nasty businessman who is attempting to exploit & steal from as many as possible before he gets busted & goes to jail for fraud.

That said, I'm still psyched on P90X workout DVD's and think that program isn't so bad. Actually, there's a reasonable percentage of infomercials that 'aren't so bad' if you buy the stuff. But so far, the only thing I've found that isn't widely disputed or hated is the P90X.

I'm still googling any infomercial that I watch here.

Green-ocrats -- if we can't beat 'em...

2010-09-21T06:06:00.000-07:00

This is a reprint of a email I sent to my fellow Green party members.

Green Party friends, & others reading my blog (rekzkarz.com)

Here's my latest 'radical' idea:

I'd like the Green party to intentionally 'spin off' a group inside the Democratic Party, similar in theory to the Tea Baggers, perhaps called 'Green-ocrats', who say clearly that they are Democrats who include the entire Green Party platform in their platform.

3 advantages to this tactic:
We can run very Green candidates in primaries,
We can exploit Democrat party funding and popularity, &
We can help pull Dem's (and the nation) to the Left.

I guess it's a strange idea, but we could call ourselves 'radicals in liberal clothing' or something humorous?

When Ralph Nader took money from the Republicans, he said it was bc the 2 parties were basically the same. I thought that message was good (despite it backfiring on him/us in the media), but there was another answer implied in his statement: the Dem's need to be pulled HARD to the LEFT to become differentiated.
Since the teabaggers strategy is working so well to bring out the reactionary Right-Wing lunatics, why not immitate their success?

Does cannibalizing ourselves and 'joining the sellouts' sound RADICAL enough to anyone?

*Fine point* - all Green-ocrats keep their Green Party allegiance EXPLICIT.

Opinions?

Peace - NOW
Ari

Ps: if ya can't beat 'em, join 'em -- & make 'em Lefties!

CNN vs Craigslist -- continuing biased, limited reporting

2010-09-04T19:55:00.000-07:00

[I emailed this to CNN and posted this comment in Anderson Cooper's CNN blog listing the story, reprinting it here:]

Commenting against craigslist without discussing
the argument of "freedom of speech" is truly awful.

Child porn & prostitution is not the fault of craigslist. It's more a product of class war and capitalism without concern for the lower classes of society. Furthermore, stopping craigslist from freedom of speech weakens the USA and weakens the society.

The govt should protect the children & do something more intelligent with prostitution, like many Euro countries.

The real story is that by making prostitution illegal, prostitutes go to pimps for help & protection. The govt could take care of these women & not criminalize them.

Sorry, CNN, your 'objective' reporting sucks now and it has continually sucked on so many stories (like the peace marches before Iraq war, like the 9/11 evidence of 'inside job', like always calling Iraqis and Afghanis "insurgents" instead of citizens + never giving us even ballpark casualty estimates for the countries the USA has invaded).

CNN has a lot of room for improvement.

Dem's ask us for dough

2010-08-30T15:55:00.000-07:00

The Dem's sent me a personal email asking for a donation. I'll probably give something -- bc the Republicans are THAT BAD.

but I wrote them back a letter, which I've reproduced here:

Dear Barackobama.com COO & Obama-ites,

I'm a Green Party person.

The dem's always cave to the center,

which is actually Right wing,

& leave the real Left behind.

Then you ask us for money??

Did you know we are called ACTIVISTS

bc we DO STUFF?!? Appeal to us &

you will get active, motivated volunteers!!

I'm willing to donate IF you take a hard line

on at least ONE Left Wing issue:

Open Primaries & debates to 3rd parties (ie democracy),

Cut military spending in half (esp during 'Great Recession'),

Commit to 90% alternative / renewable power,

Stop all KILLING in fake anti-terrorist (OIL) wars,

Resume 9/11 investigation & make Bush testify,

Impeach Bush for war crimes,

or commit to reparations for people with slave ancestry.

Why leave a big demographic behind &

suck up to corporations, ignorance, & fascism?

*Get Left* and I'll be there for you.

(I did vote for Obama in '08 & will vote

for him again in '12, but it would be nice

to have my vote count for the Left Wing

in my lifetime.)

rekzkarz.com

sent via iPhone-bot

Netflix iPhone app -- OY

2010-08-28T09:38:00.001-07:00

Well, the paradigm shifted & no-one told me!! Ha
NetFlix iPhone app w/streaming shows (IPTV) is now ... FREE.
App just came out, I highly recommend you dload it & watch endless TV.
:)

I'm impressed - obv.

sent via iPhone-bot

Check out this application:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/netflix/id363590051?mt=8

Chaos Rings review

2010-08-22T11:49:00.000-07:00

Subject: Chaos Rings review

I want to like this iPhone game. I paid $10 for it. I like RPG's. I like adventures. People claim there is a story here.
The fact that the game has 3d graphics is nice, I guess.

But... gripes:
- 3d but it isn't really used. You have a top-down run around for most of the game I've seen so far, and there are no camera controls (not that you'd need them anyways bc there's not much 3d action happening).
- the combat involves me clicking the same button combo repetitively, would love a 'repeat last' command.
- animation is 'dance' or move forward & back. Guess this is like FF games?
- why are there buckets of stuff everywhere?
- why can i run back & forth I'm the same hallways & encounter more & more creatures?
- why do monsters drop chocolate? Sounds like the wrong word. Ha
- where is the 'inventory' screen with the doll? The equip & inventory & gene screens seem like they couldve all been one clever screen.
- genes are kinda interesting, but WHY are we absorbing them? Is this revealed in the story?
- char's can't jump, dodge, or move much. Basically follow the path & try to follow a VERY awkward map.
- continuous 'fade to white' with same sound effect is just lazy programming. I was annoyed after first 3x, now it's been hundreds of times.
- no options for peace. All interactions are either 'click next for next pre-written line of bad dialogue' or *ATTACK*.
- killing hundreds of dogs, worms, monkeys, elephants, giant spiders -- anyone care that this sends a really bad environmental message?
- not a lot of non-linear that I've seen.

Personally, I'd like more 'strategy game' aspects and less repetitive animations & forcing me (player) to make a character run around a path where all options are locked in anyway.

It's a very pretty game w/repetitive sounds, creatures, & gameplay. Seems like it's 1, 2, or 3 baddies vs 2 'heroes' indefinitely.

Oh yeah, and you get new nicknacks & more chocolate.

And they never EAT the chocolate?!?!

I hope someone who reads this review hears my humor written into it? Bits not just a whine-fest, really.

Use your monkey genes, fool!

rekzkarz.com

The poem of not sleeping

2010-08-03T04:44:00.000-07:00

The poem of not sleeping
the mental pathways bend,
the body forgets basic functions,
the losses, albeit temporary,
have a sticky feeling,
deep in the bone, unleaving,
carved deep in stone, forever,
the illusion of time reveals itself,
the brief moment now become unending,
hanging in the air, in the breath,
the moment which should have ended
continuing long past it's given time...

A NOW which should be a THEN
so the next NOW can bask in it's glory
never arriving, and the NOW gone old,
staying too long and growing unwelcome,
disliked for it's dullness,
but unwilling to leave.

The unsleeping cannot shake off moments,
instead holding the time inside their eyes
like burned images on a TV screen
or the coarse diamond scars on glass,
a pattern etched into the form.

My spine unsleeping curls unstraight,
it straightens only with effort, and brief,
before aches and gravity conspire downwards
to force me into a hunched-over creature,
forced to focus on my autonomous hands
and the objects they schemingly hover over.

Hands which no longer do my bidding,
forming their own plans and not sharing them with me.
These hands wish to explore my private holes,
to clean and examine the smooth skin,
to rip imperfections, bumps, burst pimples,
to scratch boogers, yank rude hairs,
to scale the teeth of midnight fur.

Graveyard Shift Perspective at 2 weeks

2010-07-23T05:15:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been working ~ 2 weeks graveyard shift 11pm-7am at a TV station, here's a few tidbits I've observed:

4-5am is a hard time to stay up. Coffee works very well on me with occasional Coke or Chocolate to keep awake, plus I take a nap from 6-9pm before the shift, but there's still a wallop ~ 5am, almost like the ocean tide rolling in (Could it be the sun? An electromagnetic wave? A global pulse?). Humans haven't really figured out WHY we need sleep, and no doubt some scientist somewhere is trying to figure out the cure for sleep, so for now I'll just theorize that we need time to run daily 'systems checks' on our hardware and software.
Maybe at 4-5am the body's supernetwork says "hey, dude, we the cells in your body need to power down & start fixing stuff!! So we're going to start making everyday things more challenging -- like reading, or walking -- and we're going to double the effect of gravity on your bones -- but we'll resume normal function as soon as you drop unconscious for 6-10 hours." Right.

So, a bit about TV content: start rant
Infomercials -- some are crap &rip off's, some are interesting inventions, & there's really no way to tell which is which from the infomercial itself. However, apparently people need the following issues taken care of NOW:

Body -- destroy fat, rip those abs, get a super butt, hide fat under girdles to 'loose weight instantly', work out at home on strange machines or doing bizarre excercise maneuvers,
Women -- remove unwanted hair, make ugly wrinkles vanish, cover up female bald-spots, zap horrible acne,
Men -- preserve wanted hair, get a good shave, a good shower, a robotic massage, pain relief with electrodes or pills, make your thang bigger/better,
Meals -- make fast & cheap incredible food at home with various blenders,
Brain -- enhance or subdue certain qualities with various pills,
Wealth -- receive abundance by asking the universe (but with a special $90 method on DVD's to do it),
How to Live -- ask God (via Pastors & Reverends) what they should be doing -- & then pay for the info,

Watching these infomercials is like watching endless really bad scifi shows back to back. I know it's affecting my brain. Does anyone else sees this stuff as humor & parody of USA's society???
Now that I'm forced to watch so many, I see infomercials as both more critical of society than the Simpsons or South Park, and also a continuation of the long cherished art of the scam, the con-artist, the huckster selling snake oil to the ignorant public. Plus all the various payment ruses add insult to injury, like "free trial", or "return after 30 days", "only pay $29.99 today ... and then we'll bill you monthly", or "normally it's $500 but it's your lucky day -- you are in the right place and tonight, just for you, it's $29.99 -- if you call now".
My favorite infomercials are the ones that present themselves like a regular TV show with an audience and a host, and then they attempt to 'delve' into the product as though they are reporters digging out the hidden facts: "Really? Can it REALLY do this?" or "But that's impossible, how can this really work?" or "That's simply incredible! Amazing! Fantastic! And anyone can do this?" WOW!
Even if any of these things are REAL INCREDIBLE INVENTIONS, if you order anything from the informercial phone numbers, it's probably asking to be targetted by all the most predatory businesses from that day onwards.

Religious zealotry - Now that I've watched 10+ episodes of religious-obsessive programming, I think it's interesting -- sort of. (Kind of like a medical student looking at a specimen or something?) From my POV, it seems like these people are too obsessed with what happened to a guy 2000 yrs ago, and not interested enough in what's happening now, like that we could feed the world, that war is outdated & unnecessary, that we have an internet and a chance for global harmony, etc.

These shows are kind of interesting b/c this specific priest/Pastor says some stuff in Hebrew, and seems to think that now he's really got the core ideas b/c he can read them in Hebrew. I wonder if he's considered that Jesus (Jehoshua) was a Jew, and that all the ideas Jesus was offering were framed with Judaism, so maybe it'd be a good move to discover Judaism? Naaaaaaah
Sidebar: I did learn (not from this show, but previous inquiries -- most listed in Wikipedia on Paul) that Apostle Paul was the only one that hadn't met Jesus, who was not a Jew but a Roman. As a Roman, "Paul confesses to having “violently persecuted” the “church of God” prior to his conversion." Apostle Paul departed from tradition after he converted by arguing that Jesus' teachings could be disseminated to non-Jews who didn't have to observe any Jewish rituals or practices, but only had to believe in Jesus. Paul of Tarsus -- this guy really messed stuff up! It's like he got rid of the meat of the religion & replaced it with a fast-food substitute.
I've been surprised that I do occasionally like some of the wisdom these guys discuss from the bible -- but all of this obsession with Satan & 'the Number of the Beast' and so on is just sad. It's interesting for me to hear them discuss why they support the troops & how war is ok in the Bible. One pastor talks about how he'd like to put the peaceniks in front of the troops (was as though he didn't realize Jesus was a peacenik too -- which he probably didn't). It's unfortunate that these supposed religious leader guys have missed the mark so greatly, reading moral fables as though they were factual stories.
The ONE positive of watching this 'fast-food religion' is that it re-enforces my beliefs in expanding world-views, openness to mysticism & spirit, belief in the living Earth/Sun/Universe, my complete lack of belief in any anthropomorphic deity, and lastly these shows remind me that most people don't know WTF is going on & lean on others for truth -- and these leaders also don't know what's going on, but want to make some money and lead the masses.
end rant

Wired article on AA & 12 Step Programs, July 2010 issue

2010-06-24T18:00:00.000-07:00

Wired wrote an article on AA & 12 Step Programs.
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/06/ff_alcoholics_anonymous/5/

I sorta liked it. Could've been worse, certainly.

When you go for your dream, the world rises up to meet you

2010-06-04T00:41:00.000-07:00

All around me, I see this is true. The Earth, a conscious creature (albeit perhaps not fully self-conscious - yet), attempts to help her component creatures to succeed in pursuing their goals -- which will ultimately help her as well -- but only after we start moving towards them.

So why is it so hard to go after my dreams?

Jumping off a cliff where you can see a net far below is REALLY frightening.

Now, how about jumping off a cliff where you can't see a net at all? That's even more frightening (even if you've got a parachute, although I've never base-jumped).

Anyway ... HERE GOES!
Let's make a feature film!

compARTmental LIVES

May Strangeness 2010 - job, partner, new hire, eyes, cancer

2010-05-28T23:59:00.000-07:00

OK. I really would prefer that more bad things do not happen, at least for awhile. Pretty please? I can clearly see that some of the hard stuff I am causing, but others are just unpredictable life stuff.

Ah, where to start? I'll try something different -- I'll go backwards.

I quit my job.

I talked to a confidante about it -- he said I should call back & say I had over-reacted & still wanted the job (esp considering the economy & so on).
I talked to my g/f about it -- she said that I hadn't really wanted the job except to learn, that I had learned a lot, and maybe it wasn't the right gig for me. But, she also said that I could always try & patch things up also.

My boss fired my mentor and friend.
The new hire was incompetent.

It was very clear to me and my coworker -- she was nice, but not getting it. So we tried to train her in ways where she would do the least amount of damage. Despite the complexity of the setup, the first day she took no notes. The next day she laughed and said, after I suggested she write things down, "I don't really remember much from yesterday, there was so much. Can we do that stuff all again & this time I'll write things down?"
The first big joke we had was when she could not use a hole-punch. She kept hole-punching things the wrong way, and laughed when the papers were all messed up. I gave her 'hole puncher training'.
The second laugh was when she was asked to do something on the internet on another Mac and she said, "I can't find the internet on that one." No, she couldn't use a Mac, and could barely use a PC. (When I asked her which she preferred, she said "I don't like Mac. We used Dell at home. My husband is an engineer, I don't really do computers much." However, the job requirements were clearly "Maintain and manage video fileservers, web streaming servers and Video-On-Demand server", among other requirements.
The third laugh was more bitter. The job is a video engineering job, where we record clips, edit clips, record live shows, and keep the station broadcasting. The new hire couldn't do anything in Final Cut Pro, but more than that, she didn't know what the T-bar did on a video mixing board. She didn't know how to operate a sound board. She didn't know the different between Program and Preview.

I was diagnosed with Pigmentary Glaucoma in my right eye.
My friend's partner is suffering from terminal cancer.

I need some time to process all this stuff. I guess I have this nice long weekend to do it.

3 tracks @ 3am - REminderz 2010

2010-04-28T03:54:00.000-07:00

REminderz 2010 'set' (posted on Soundcloud)
went online @ 3am. ENJOY!
Free to listen, download, share.

My Name is REkzkaRZ mod3 by REkzkaRZ

Time is all I get by REkzkaRZ

Aliens on Earthv1 by REkzkaRZ

FOUR TWENTY <-- has passed me by

2010-04-27T19:02:00.001-07:00

Well, four twenty has passed. I went w/a friend to a 4:20 party -- lots of ganja smoking, eating, and some enjoyable electronic music. And more smoking. And more smoking. etc. Oh yeah -- I didn't smoke. Did I mention that yet?

The people were really cool, and (obv) the party was very chill. I was only really able to chat w/my friends, who weren't smoking weed, and one woman who's husband was getting really baked. Everyone else was fairly checked out -- but chill.

They handled their weed better than I ever did. That said, it was sad.

Parties where very few people are interested in meeting or socializing does not renew my love for humanity. It makes me saddened at the waste of spirit.

HOWEVER ...
I am inspired by the incredible power in humanity, capable for good or evil. Capable to do wonders or nightmares. Capable of endless escape into fantasy, or grounding in a reality which is deepened by our presence.

Selling + Writing

2010-04-08T18:43:00.000-07:00

Interesting times. Motivation has resumed.
I didn't get either of the video gigs at UCB. That hurts!

Working on ScriptFrenzy.org project, writing a complete 100pg screenplay in 30 days.

PITCH:
When two scifi TV shows (a Battlestar Galactica copy and a Star Trek clone) are 'traded' between TV networks with completely different production styles, hilarity ensues. The low-brow bawdy humor never stops as this movie parodies television in every aspect possible. Think Airplane! meets Network, with heavy sprinkles of Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica.

I could say more about it, but it'd probably be better to wait until AFTER April when I'm done writing it, eh? Yep. *HOWEVER*, please send in your contributed ideas & I'll do my best to get them into the script! I think you can see the status of the project here (my account - rekzkarz - on ScreenFrenzy).

Also working on getting Earthv2.org up and running. I'm really excited about it, think it's going to help the Earth in a BIG way -- and maybe me too. That'd sure be nice.

Lastly, the 'selling' idea -- I signed up with Google Ad-Sense (You can see them on the Right -->)
and I have mixed feelings about it. The reason I went for it is that Ad-Sense is supposed to search your content & find relevant stuff to advertise. My content is fairly left-wing radical stuff, so people *including me* might find cool stuff advertised!!
Another reason I went for it is I need $$$. I'm running out, and it's getting very apparent. In fact, I built this button -- -- for Earthv2.org and probably should post it there too. DONE (altho this is a rekzkarz.com version). If you want to give me a few bucks, send 'em over.

So WHY am I doing all this stuff to link my creative work to money? My beautiful girlfriend strongly suggested recently that I 'aggresively market' my stuff more. So I'm trying. Personally, I'd rather focus more on CREATING things than selling, but at this point in our world money is the way we anti-socialist Americans survive. Hopefully someday we'll find a more equanimitable way in the future -- but for today, that's the deal. And to go on the record (again), I'm far more left-wing than mere Socialism, but Socialism sounds like a pretty good way to go
(So many Americans are bitching about socialism -- do any of them realize we are actively subsidizing the ultra-rich? Would it be so bad to subsidize people so they have enough food & shelter, rather than subsidizing the multi-billionaires of the world? Oops, I got in a rant here! Me?? No way!)

I've considered making some 'sell-out' music, art, and videos ... and I think I can do it without really compromising any radicality that I have. Just made a song with the intent of having a 'sell out' sound, but my g/f didn't seem to think it really fit in the mold. Will post the song up here soon.

What I Want - 2010 + more (*r)evolution

2010-03-28T18:52:00.000-07:00

Screening The Driver, Ed Reed, Albany Bulb, RANTz - March 2010

2010-03-12T15:12:00.000-08:00

World PREMIERE
4 Bay Area short films
Should be a fun night!

The Driver

Ed Reed: A Jazz Singer

The Albany Bulb - a documentary

*RANTz*

March 20th @ 8pm
1501 Washington Ave, Albany CA

I directed 2 of the films & worked on 3.

The Outer Net

2010-02-26T11:48:00.000-08:00

A humorous dude at TV30 was talking about world facts.

He says, "I swear, there are no snakes in Maine. You can look it up on the OuterNet."

I love that idea.

If people use Google to reference the Internet,
my thought is that we use Oggle to reference the Outernet.

Have you oggled anything important today?

Overdue Emails - to old managers

2010-02-02T02:22:00.000-08:00

I just sent these emails off to two ex-managers. I did it because I am healing myself and want to move on. I wasn't sure if I'd just 'save as draft', but I hit send. Now I'm not sure that I should post this blog entry, but I'm going to (this is meaty stuff). I hope this turns out for the best.
To make this blog post, I removed their names as well as the company name.
----------------------------------------

Dear 'ex-manager who had me fired',
A lot of time has passed since the 'corporation' days. I've spent some time in self-reflection on the whole experience, and I owe you this letter.

You could have been an excellent manager; You are smart, well educated, have a professional style, and are a good speaker.

However, you really attempted to do a number on me at 'the corporation', and I don't feel that any of it was deserved. I was an excellent employee at 'the corp', b/c I did a great job, all that and I have never 'gotten in line' with the masses b/c I'm an independent thinker AND a unique and creative person.

My take on the whole affair, years later, is that an apology is overdue.

As you grow in your life and continue to deepen as a person, hopefully someday you will realize that *the best* thing a manager (or anyone) can do is to assist people to achieve their best, and if they don't do things the way you want -- perhaps consider if your way might be wrong (or perhaps wrong for that person).

Despite attempts, I have not been able to become a conformist. (Believe it or not, I did try.) Today I can see even more clearly that, when we look at the functioning of a hand, the 'thumbs' are required to enable the 'fingers' to work effectively. No matter how hard a 'thumb' tries to be a 'finger', it will always be a 'thumb', and 'thumbs' don't blend in well with 'fingers'. However, remove all the 'thumbs' from the hand and it will never get a good grip on anything.

Hopefully you can get something out of this email.

I am writing this email as an amends to myself. You catalyzed a change in my career path that ultimately was helpful, however the manner in which I experienced it was not fun.

I did keep a copy of your 'performance improvement plan' on my wall for years -- it made me laugh.

May you seek what you find,
and find what you seek.

----------------------------------------------------------

'Ex-manager who threatened me',

A long time has passed, but it has taken me awhile to fully let go of your impact on me at 'the corporation'. Maybe you do not remember, but when you were a manager at 'the corporation', one day you came to my desk and asked me "How would you like it if I smashed all your stuff with a bat?"

Then you sent me an email apologizing, and then I imagine probably realized you had made a grave mistake because now the whole event was written/emailed/acknowledged that you had threatened me. Awhile later, you returned and acted like you had only been joking the whole time.

When this all went down, I was already stressed at the time, b/c I was doing a job that really was not a great fit for my personality or style; but I am a very smart person and I can excel at anything I put my mind to.

However, your threat threw me for a loop for a long time. It added greatly to my job stress at 'the corporation'. I discussed it with a therapist and with a lawyer. I considered suing 'the corporation' for harassment and abuse, as this was not my first experience of being singled out, and perhaps you know that I did file the issue later with HR.

Your threat was not my first experience of harassment at 'the corp', however it was the first time where I felt like I really wanted to do something nasty back to someone. I'm grateful that I did not do anything physical to you.

Just so you know, I did do something back to you; you had asked me to fix something on your computer (and then left the room), at which point I hacked your computer open so I could access it remotely & I copied all of your emails and shared them with another person at 'the corporation'.

Frankly, I never did anything significant with your email except search to see if you were targeting me for a specific reason. I did not find anything.

I'm writing you this email because I owe myself an amends. I think you were unhappy at 'the corporation' (even though your pay was $160k base and $160k+ bonuses, which was quite a lot), and you allowed your stress to bleed out on people who you didn't like or that did not follow your style. I have no idea why you threatened me.

Whatever the case, I've grown past the entire affair. At the time, I managed my response to the best of my ability, which was completely holding back because I was concerned that my response would compromise my job. If a similar issue were to come up again, the best option I could take, according to a lawyer and a therapist, would be for me to encourage the offender to act on their threat -- and then I would be legally enabled to respond in self-defense.

I hope you have come to realize that bad behavior inspires more bad behavior, and do not continue to act out your repressed anger issues on bystanders.

May you find what you seek,
and seek what you find.

Machine Screams enters the RPM Challenge for Feb 2010!

2010-01-28T20:55:00.000-08:00

Make an entire CD in Feb?
10 tracks (or 35 minutes)???
Can it be done?
YES!!!

I invite you to join me on the RPM CHALLENGE for Feb 2010!
RPM CHALLENGE Website:
http://www.rpmchallenge.com/eastbayexpress
Also
RPM Challenge Facebook Page

I am asking YOU, my musician friends, if you will contribute to my RPM Challenge project,
"MACHINE SCREAMS", and contribute your music to one or more songs?

What I'd like from you is a commitment
a) to commit to something (ie 1 track of bass, drums, keyboards, vocals, etc) on Track X
b) to lay down your track(s) on top of bottom track
c) to upload your separate track before 15th of Feb (or so?)

I'm envisioning the music creation could go like this:
a) 10 tracks (working titles SCREAM1, SCREAM2, etc), each gets a 'theme' & lyrics
b) I will post a basic MP3 version online (with a lot of blank spots & room to lay down your groove)
c) you can dload the MP3 version, pull it into your DAW (or similar -- even Apple GarageBand or any Windows audio software) and lay down your track, remove or overdo any track in the 'basic' (ie lay down a better beat, more interesting piano solo, etc). *If you don't have digital setup, I'm happy to record you on my portable setup or at my place on my basic home studio.*
d) you save your added track as WAV or AIFF & then somehow get it to me (via email or we post to 'dropbox.com' or similar site) by Feb 15th
e) I mix the tracks together, burn the final CD, and upload MP3's for you to share to anyone/everyone
f) I post a final mixtape to my blog, REkzkaRZ.com, (and later possibly SoundCloud.com)

If you contribute any tracks, you are in effect giving me all rights to that track. Please do not use any syndicated or sampled tracks from other artists, only your work.

I've never done this before, so if anyone has any pointers, please add them here as a comment?

** If you want to do your own project, please be my guest! Don't let me stop you. GO FOR IT!
This note is an invite to a potentially collaborative project, "Machine Screams". **

Posting this as a note on facebook as well.

Facebook security article -- Not very secure, or 'evil'?

2010-01-12T12:12:00.000-08:00

I sent to an email to a writer on Gawker website, re: Ryan Tate's Article on Gawker "Facebook's Great Betrayal":

Facebook's privacy pullback isn't just outrageous; it's a landmark turning point for the social network. Facebook has blundered before, but the latest changes are far more calculated. The company has, in short, turned evil.

Here's the email I sent to Ryan (which includes a comment I posted on his article):
Ryan,
I just posted this comment on the tail of your article:

I guess I can see why some might see this as 'the grand betrayal', if you want to take no personal responsibility for your data. But why would we all be uploading our info if we wanted to keep it private?
Bottom line -- if you don't want the public to find it, don't upload it to ANY social networking site.
I think there's something missing in this article about the concept of 'radical self-reliance'?
rekzkarz.com

That was the extent of my response.
I guess I'm waiting for you [Ryan] to explain why this is 'evil' vs stupid policy or a bad move or 'money-grubbing' etc etc?
Can you explain to me how EVIL it is to say you are protecting people's security & then not doing it ...
vs the USA invading foreign countries, bombing countless innocent 3rd parties, assassinating suspects with drones, using BlackWater Agents to run secret missions in foreign countries, and to torture people suspected of crimes?
The issue for me is that you [Ryan] are chosing to mis-use a word to create hype.
Some might argue that, in a 2010 USA, that act is evil.
I would just say it's journalism that has forgotten the point of why journalism exists. Or, another way is to say ... bad journalism.
Have a nice day!
rekzkarz.com

Revision3.com - application sent!

2010-01-04T17:52:00.000-08:00

5 minutes ago, I sent off a resume to Revision3.com, an internet TV site here in the Bay Area that is chock full of exciting new content. They have an ad out for a Director of Programming, and that seems like a great fit for my skill set. I also tagged up the CEO's blog and also emailed one of the show producers to show how interested I am in working with them.

Synchronicity is running high right now at the start of the year. I feel in my bones that this year is going to be full of big moves for me, and that they will pay off.

I have worked hard on a bunch of projects in the previous few years, and hopefully will work much harder on the upcoming years. Money is not my goal, fame is not my goal --> my goal is to work and create incredible results.

I think Revision3 has a lot of excellent raw material already 'in the can', but my left-field type of thinking could really take everything up a notch. That said, I am not only focussing on working at that company (since I have not heard anything from them yet), but at any internet media company that is producing exciting content that takes the chance to deviate from standard TV.

At the heart of it all, it's an 'alt.' thang.

On Government - audio rant

2009-12-16T12:16:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-15T15:27:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-06T14:56:00.001-08:00

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!

VideoRevolt has begun -- Help? + Birthday Request

2009-11-27T09:11:00.000-08:00

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).

Earthv2.org -- re-visioning, re-thinking, rebuilding into a UTOPIA

2009-11-09T13:19:00.000-08:00

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:

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.)

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.
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)

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.

Back and Forth on Animal Experimentation

2009-11-09T12:12:00.000-08:00

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

Capitalism: A Love Story

2009-10-02T19:15:00.000-07:00

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:

rich
ignorant &/or racist &/or white supremacist
misinformed
afraid

There is nothing GOOD being conserved in "conservative" values. Conservatives are unfortunately fighting to 'conserve' a classist society, a racist society, to continue & expand the White Male history of oppression and racism and domination on Earth, a hetero society, an environmentally destructive unsustainable society, and a society that believes they follow Christianity but they actually follow greed and selfishness and fear.

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!

2009-10-01T20:08:00.000-07:00

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 users
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.

Frankly, 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.

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

2009-09-05T17:34:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-17T19:10:00.000-07:00

"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:

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.

We have a long way to go before we're 100% corporatized speech, but we're above 5%, I think.

RED ROOM blog entry -- OBSESSION is my ART and my TOOL

2009-08-05T14:55:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-04T12:15:00.000-07:00

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)

2009-07-15T21:03:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-11T18:11:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-14T09:16:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-05T18:07:00.001-07:00

Mobile post sent by rekzkarz using Utterli. Replies. mp3

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

2009-04-30T14:20:00.001-07:00

I had originally posted this on Soundcloud with a cool Flash player plugin, but they deleted it! GAH! Reposting w/fixed links - Jan 2010.
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. Replies. mp3

REkz PodCast Alpha via Utterli and LifeCast

2009-04-28T20:51:00.003-07:00

How To BEATBOX (w/basic fart sounds) REkzkaRZ Intro1

Mobile post sent by rekzkarz using Utterli. Replies. mp3

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

2009-04-25T03:33:00.000-07:00

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):

- 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!

2009-04-19T11:47:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-04-15T13:43:00.000-07:00

Career Inventory Test Results:
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

2009-04-02T15:32:00.000-07:00

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."

REkzrantz v5

2009-04-01T22:15:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-23T22:03:00.000-07:00

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.

Techno THRASH by REkzkaRZ

But for the moment, I'm happiest with the mixtapes again. :)

Memories and Metal

2009-01-08T06:53:00.000-08:00

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.)

New Years HOPE, 2 poems by R.E

2008-12-24T14:29:00.000-08:00

Something happened and the world is shifting. The pendulum is swinging again, this time back to the core values of hope, peace, community, and love. I used to feel that I'd missed my era, and that the 60's were the chance for humans to wake up, shake off, and manifest one beautiful potential of humanity: to be kind, caring, whole, holistic, and aware of humanity's purpose -- to guide the Earth to conscious awareness.

(click pic for hi-quality image)
But today my hope is sparked again. Not by Obama, per se, but by humanity. We have the power to see (in our lifetimes) faith outgrow fear, love victorious over hatred and violence, the illusion of separation fall apart into a united humanity, and the Earth 'wake up' to self-realization.

So with those wishes, I wish you all a wonderful New Year!

The words to these 2 hand-drawn poems are below:

HELP - 10/7/08 - by Ari Krawitz, aka REkzkaRZ
Can't do it myself
can do it with others
A lesson in saying "yes"
Yes and ... everything!
How can I change to ...
POSITIVE
Unwrap the cocoon
of protective cynicism
Move into a New World
Seen thru re-newed faith
Glasses of faith in now
Eyes re-opened to love
Embracing human potential
Empowering divine possibility.
(re-polarizing, I unknowingly became a magnet.)

Circular Prayer - 10/7/08 - by Ari Krawitz, aka R.E.
The message of all the ages
Is to embrace human potential
And to outgrow fear with love.
Please help me expand the love energy today.
Thank you, abundant universe,
For opening me beyond my anticipations.

The biggest robbery in history -- cont'd

2008-12-23T09:04:00.000-08:00

So by now you've bought the story that we're in a Depression/Recession, right? And the banks are 'desperate' for money, right? And we are inches away from a run on the banks, right?
So WTF is all this? (see article below)
Welcome to the whacked world of capitalism, where the rich execs live like kings, and the poor are supposed to shut up and take it.

Do you think Bush was a bad president? I do.
But I'm not a financial executive, or a weapons manufacturer exec, or a Haliburton employee, or an oil person. If I was one of those -- and totally ignored everything else -- there'd be ample incentive to think otherwise....

From a Yahoo News Associated Press article
The 116 banks that so far have received taxpayer dollars to boost them through the economic crisis gave their top tier of executives nearly $1.6 billion in salaries, bonuses and other benefits in 2007, an Associated Press analysis found.
...

Even where banks cut back on pay, some executives were left with seven- or eight-figure compensation that most people can only dream about. Richard D. Fairbank, the chairman of Capital One Financial Corp., ... still got $17 million in stock options. The McLean, Va.-based company received $3.56 billion in bailout money on Nov. 14.

John A. Thain, chief executive of Merrill Lynch, topped all corporate bank bosses with $83 million in earnings last year. Thain, a former chief operating officer for Goldman Sachs, came to Merrill Lynch in December 2007, avoiding the blame for a year in which Merrill lost $7.8 billion. Since he began work late in the year, he earned $57,692 in salary, a $15 million signing bonus and an additional $68 million in stock options. Like Goldman, Merrill tapped taxpayers for $10 billion on Oct. 28.

Wells Fargo of San Francisco, which took $25 billion in taxpayer bailout money, gave its top executives up to $20,000 each to pay financial planners.

At Bank of New York Mellon Corp., chief executive Robert P. Kelly's stipend for financial planning services came to $66,748, on top of his $975,000 salary and $7.5 million bonus. His car and driver cost $178,879. Kelly also received $846,000 in relocation expenses, including help selling his home in Pittsburgh and purchasing one in Manhattan, the company said.

Goldman Sachs, paying as much as $233,000 for an executive's car and driver, told its shareholders that financial counseling and chauffeurs were needed so executives would have more time to focus on their jobs.

JPMorgan Chase chairman James Dimon ran up a $211,182 tab for private jet travel last year when his family lived in Chicago and he was commuting to New York. The company received $25 billion in bailout funds.

Sherman, a member of the House Financial Services Committee, said pay excesses undermine development of good bank economic policies and promote an escalating pay spiral among competing financial institutions — something particularly hard to take when banks then ask for rescue money. He wants them to come before Congress, like the automakers did, and spell out their spending plans for bailout funds. "The tougher we are on the executives that come to Washington, the fewer will come for a bailout," he said.

Obama on the $3 bill

2008-12-03T15:33:00.000-08:00

Funny how perspective works: apparently this image is being used to ridicule Obama.
For me, the guy with a lucky number 3, this is yet another blessing AND I agree with most of those statements ... sorta.

To clarify my POV:

a) Corporations are evil
Not necesarily, but putting profit motive ahead of any human or planetary considerations is sorta evil. How about the Green Triple Bottom Line? Why is it such a good thing to weaken labor and export high-paying jobs as low-paying overseas jobs? Why is it good to fire helpdesk people and install huge digital phone trees that never answer your questions?
b) US Healthcare system is the worst in the world
Not in the world, in the modern world. Socialized medicine is better. I've tried it in Australia, Austria, Czech Republic, Spain, and probably a few other places. Whoever thought of making profits off of suffering (Reagan) was evil.
c) We're losing the Iraq war
Why are we there? Is it legal? Do the Iraqi's want the USA there? How is invading foreign countries a good strategy for world peace?
d) Global Warming
If scientists around the world argue that it is a measurable phenomenon, maybe they are right?
e) Drilling won't work
Not right away, and not in the long run. The USA has a huge stockpile of oil. But we want to move OFF of oil and into sustainable energies soon. Non-renewable Oil as an energy technology which is useful when nothing else has been developed. But did you know that oil deposits can be a valuable scientific natural resource because of organic matter preserved as well?
f) We're in a depression
No? Well, maybe we are at a point where the rich want to take $750 billion out of their bank account which we call the Federal Reserve -- and it's going to severely damage the country. Also, there's that matter of poor fiscal management. I definitely know a lot of people looking for work. Don't you?
g) They will try to scare you because I don't look like other Presidents
He sure does, doesn't he? Handsome, youthful, smart, charismatic? Obama reminds me of a smart college professor. Most other Presidents of the past make me think of the elderly, people that might need help walking down a flight of stairs. People like .. the Pope. Yes, that's right -- I'm proud to have a non-white American in charge! It's a miracle.

REkzkaRZ

Say NO to SOPA/PIPA -- a day of protest

iPhone Games & Apps - end of 2011 recommendations

Occupy Evolution - change that heals

Philosphy Talk - on miraculous/divine

Google discontinues a bunch of stuff

BrassRing jobsite -- SUCKS!

iPhone OS5 -- the big update is not so exciting

Drawings on iPhone

Silver Dragon - VnV Character

MoSqUiTo - VnV Hero

Blame the Taxes, Blame the Govt, but don't take responsibilty? Nah

Cassandra Clare's 'The Mortal Instruments' trilogy

DFA - failure is victory, truth is falseness

Congressional Reform Act of 2011

Letter to Representatives & Senator re: budget attack

Blogplus - mobile blogging app

Why the Media implodes

Obama vs Osama -- what is real and what is fiction

QIK video #1 - -Exxon Mobil $11 billion

If we get Financially SMART & think outside of the box, what could that look like?

Save KPFA - the disastrous management continues

rant on deceivers.com about Michael Moore

Jesse Ventura on Piers Morgan

5 new dynamic Blogger views? WHOA

ScriptFrenzy 2011

Journal pages - March & April 2011

RANT on my feelings about USA being destroyed by Republican Neo-Con Fascists

Blogging for 'Green Tea Party' on my.barrackobama.com

North Berkeley Library remodel

iPhone 4 - a very good device, but not perfect

RPM Challenge 2011

Dungeon Raid - strategies

.jobs -- can't we make it easier for us job-seekers?

Anger pops up -- thank you, CHP

WikiLeaks -- what freedom of Press & Speech looks like

CNN bias & US News Media bias

A New Year -- 2011

Our paradigm is like a pair of dimes becoming a pile of twenty pennies

Email to Pacifica re: Pacifica vs KPFA

A Big # Birthday

Palm Sounds -- a great blog

MegaMind movie - SUCKED

rekzkarz 3am non-RANT

cigarettes & infomercials

Green-ocrats -- if we can't beat 'em...

CNN vs Craigslist -- continuing biased, limited reporting

Dem's ask us for dough

Netflix iPhone app -- OY

Chaos Rings review

The poem of not sleeping

Graveyard Shift Perspective at 2 weeks

Wired article on AA & 12 Step Programs, July 2010 issue

When you go for your dream, the world rises up to meet you

May Strangeness 2010 - job, partner, new hire, eyes, cancer

3 tracks @ 3am - REminderz 2010

FOUR TWENTY <-- has passed me by

Selling + Writing

What I Want - 2010 + more (*r)evolution

Screening The Driver, Ed Reed, Albany Bulb, *RANTz* - March 2010

The Outer Net

Overdue Emails - to old managers

Machine Screams enters the RPM Challenge for Feb 2010!

Facebook security article -- Not very secure, or 'evil'?

Revision3.com - application sent!

On Government - audio rant

Money n Stuff

Killed in PlaybyPost

VideoRevolt has begun -- Help? + Birthday Request

Earthv2.org -- re-visioning, re-thinking, rebuilding into a UTOPIA

Back and Forth on Animal Experimentation

Capitalism: A Love Story

Lynda.com -- nice. Drupal -- nice!

REkzkaRZ 3.0 -- Evolution of (*R)Evolution

Have we lost our language to corporations? ROFLMAO

RED ROOM blog entry -- OBSESSION is my ART and my TOOL

RPOL.net, a new TV show project, Kimba's Cave, FishBiteFish, Burning Man

Obsessed w/Rogue Likes -- newest fav = Dungeon Crawl (Tiles)

(*R)Evolution & Video Video Video

LAUNCHED - almost there

Screening The Driver, Ed Reed, Albany Bulb, RANTz - March 2010