Regrettably, I’m still spending much too much time in the ANGRY DOME.
Author: wangahrah Page 6 of 7
if you need me today, you’ll find me in the ANGRY DOME.
(an interesting change from my previous post)
i woke up at 5am today.
it has been quite some time since i’ve seen 5am. i honestly can’t put my finger on the last time. there’s a better chance that it was a late-night-bar-hopping-home-at-5:30am event rather than waking up to the sun.
it’s not my fault. i brought my brother in law to the airport.
its abstractly fascinating to feel awake, and see the clock ticking off numbers that i don’t recall seeing while being functional.
i’m eating well; lots of fruits and vegetables, minimal (but still there!) meat, very few sugary drinks or processed garbage. that means day to do, i feel great, and even when i wake up this early, i still feel good and ready to go.
my brain is near its peak, if not at it. work drags sometimes; but that’s work. im quite comfortable with, just myself right now. i’m 100% able to go for a walk, bike ride, fishing, all by my lonesome, and be happy and content. some may say, so what? thats lame, i CELEBRATE alone time, its not hard! for a massive extrovert such as myself, being able to be quiet, alone, and peaceful without your brain running in thousand different directions wanting to see a thousand different people is a significant feat.
im content and peaceful with life; i have a path before me that i choose to take. i have been blessed by god, and i know i could reject the path, find another, and that wouldn’t work out poorly. but i choose to accept the blessings i receive right now, bask in them, and be peaceful, thankful, joyful, and full of love.
life is heading in wonderful directions. i do have a few selfish thoughts of what *i* want to happen. i’m interested in seeing how i handle it when the direction of my life shifts AWAY from what i want. i love basking like this, and i fervently hope it prepares me for the next storm, whatever form that may take.
My morning commute was interrupted by this:
My initial reaction was frustration and anger. I quickly realized that was useless, and, ultimately, incorrect. Why isn’t my initial reaction to smile at the glory and beauty of nature and be comfortable relaxing for a few minutes watching a wonderful scene?
There were probably about 50 geese altogether. They decided to walk across the road at that time in that place. There are some things in nature and life you just can’t control. I need focus on not just accepting that, but fully embracing it to see the beauty and peace of not being in control.
This is has been stewing in my brain for awhile, resparked by a conversation I had with a fine female last night.
To inform you: I rarely cite. If you don’t know where something is from, then be BETTER READ. Or just type the phrase into Google and it’ll give you all the necessary background. People don’t actually read links to source pages anyway; you might as well do your own research to find out if I’m correct rather than relying on my interpretation anyway.
What is the purpose of the Church, specifically, the Church in America? Henceforth, Church will be spelled lowercase, but I do think I mean for it to have an uppercase connotation.
If the Bible is interpreted in the traditional sense (as you, dear reader, surely do!), then worship that God finds acceptable is taking care of widows and orphans in their distress (and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world).
God’s working/mission has always been directed towards the poor, hurting, sick, grieving. The church’s primary goal is to accomplish God’s goals; hence caring for those who need it (widows, orphans, those being eaten by the **AAs, etc).
Roughly a third of American paychecks are eaten up by social security, medicare, etc…a variety of social welfare programs instituted in the Depression era to “…promote the general welfare [of the American people]”. Pre-Depression, I’m pretty sure America existed. We got started in the sixteenhundredsomethings thanks to the French, right? There was no nationwide healthcare coverage, unemployment, social security, etc. People STILL flocked to America to work hard and make it big. So, what’s the deal with this stuff now?
That’s not my point though. My thought was more…what happened to the unemployed/unemployable? Well, they found jobs. Granted, this was easier when there was a manufacturing infrastructure in place. For a laborer, there was labor to be had. There wasn’t an aversion to what are now “tech” jobs. Plumbers, electricians (did God invent electricity in that time period? I hope so.) and the like were fine, noble professions. People did work, and there was something to PRODUCE. Not just empty marketing, advertising, redistributing of wealth based of off fake money/credit as there is today.
However, people get hurt. Caretakers die. People get sick. Life situations happen to screw people up, and there was not government social programs to take care of them.
The church was able to do its job. It could take care of those who needed help, and watch out for the poor and homeless, as Jesus did, and as God mandated. But now, religious institutions are neutered. Caring for these folk is now in the public domain, and religious institutions can’t even be directly involved, where it was once their primary purpose to BE the involvement.
Now, churches are free to develop their building projects, debate endlessly over the type of music to sing, and argue over the color of the carpet in the new building. And that new girl is so incredibly awesome. I think I’m going to try to date her.
The Congress shall have Power … To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;
U. S. Constitution, Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8
This is the foundation of of copyright law. Copyright is to STIMULATE creative ideas; if I invent a helicoptor, you’re not allowed to build my helicoptor. Originally, just for 14 years…then it was possible to apply for a 14 year extension in some cases. The intent was NEVER to build a helicopter, then retire for the rest of your life on your helicopter income, and never let anyone else own your intellectual property. The concept of intellectual property didn’t even EXIST until recently.
Now, the idea of copyright and intellectual property is driven primairly by Teh Beig Eveels. The RIAA, MPAA, Telecoms, etc etc…copyright is a form of ownership to drive profits through licensing. It stifles progress of science and art.
Guitar Hero used to be a creative idea. Then we got GH2. GH3. GH4. GH4. Rock Band. And so on. EA is publishing upwards of 50 rhythm-based games. All the music in these…licensed by Teh Eveels. Why? Because EA is big evil too, and can afford to. People want to hear/play familiar sound tracks, so only a beeg eveel can compete in these markets, because they’re the only one that can afford to. This stifles creativity to an extent; the small guy can’t compete in the big guys game, at all. Doesn’t matter how much better his product is; he can’t afford to license all that stuff.
The little guy isn’t down and out, by any means. There’s intensely creative, original work being created. Look at games like World of Goo. Fabulous. And there’s plenty of independent artists looking to make creative works…the problem is the methods of distribution are caught up in the copyright game.
Something extremely practical that you don’t even know about…the x86 architecture. It’s what’s (most likely) running your computer. Most people don’t know it was there. People didn’t know a few years ago their CPU was PPC if they were running an Apple machine, and now its x86. It’s transparent to the end user…but the copyright by Intel on that architecture stifles development. EVERYTHING runs on it; I’d call it a commodity. But Intel won’t let you design based on that architecture unless you pay them licensing fees. Through a series of cross-licensing maneuvers, AMD is allowed to compete in this domain and develop their own chips based on this architecture. The majority of user software is built for this architecture. Practically speaking, we’re locked in…but there is NO room for a third party to develop this architecture.
I get tired of the Justic System Industry pumping copyright law for money. Yes, pirating music is “wrong”. No, the RIAA shouldn’t get to charge people $1.92 million against Jammie Thomas-Rasset in the name of the Almighty Copyright, no matter how much music was stolen. No creativity was stifled. No SCIENCE or art was shortchanged. It’s not a copyright violation. It’s a theft. If you steal a few CDs, it’s not a felony, nor can you be hit with damage like that.
We need to examine the REASON and ROOT behind our laws, rather than building monstronsities on top of monstrosities. Just like they did with the x86 architecture…
Read them. You’ll be a better person.
I’m going out of my way to “change”. Not my underwear. Just to experience “nonsense” (debatable) things that won’t hurt me, and might help me.
This week, I already got a fajita burrito with barbacoa instead of a steak burrito at Chipotle. I also ordered a different dish than usual from a local Thai restaurant…I substituted flat noodles for my usual rice.
This lets me live life TO THE MAX.
IN OTHER NEWS
TWITTER FAILWHALE: IRAN!
Twitter is less useful than purported. Does the previous sentence have proper structure? Anyway, it’s purportedly the only real way to get information about crazy things like the Iranian election/fallout. If you follow #iranelection , it’s nearly impossible to get anything valid out of. Furthermore, Twitter is unregulated (by nature), so it’s easy for Iranian government officials/evil Ira-nazis to pretend to be the unwashed masses and spread information. You have NO IDEA if you’re following someone for real, or getting fed what THEY want you to hear. THEY are also censoring the interwebs and media, so neither is there any hope for “real” news coverage…not that the mass media is worthwhile anyway.
People spamming #iranelection (which is 99.9% of people), even with good intentions, really do destroy any avenue of sharing information. Yes, it’s cute when you share your hopes about the dreams of a free Iran in the form of a haiku. Isn’t it ironic your beautiful hopes and poetry all combine together into an unreadable, unruly mashup?
PS, following me on twitter (name: wangahrah) is pretty useless since I rarely update. It’s always a gem when I do, so you’ll have to weigh the final costs yourself.
Sometimes a good argument gets me all riled up and ready to go. In a good way. It’s been a real long time since I had a great, non-emotionally-involved argument. Something no one is personally invested in, but you see very differently. I get pretty heated and into a debate. Sometimes people think that mean I’m angry, taking things personally, or holding things against the other person. Couldn’t be farther from the truth. It’s just my style.
I’m trying to pull my life back into proper balance. I do struggle with anxiety. Overally, it’s a chronic, mellow thing, only rearing its ugly head when there are specific, pointed triggers…lately there’s been multiple blunt triggers, and it’s been doing me in. Not enough sleep, eating terribly, turning to soda to drown my sorrows…these destroy me. It’d be better for me to turn to alcohol than soda…caffeine gives me wicked anxiety problems after an anxiety session has been triggered. I NEED to regulate myself to go to bed early and get plenty of sleep, and I need to start being more active too. I’ve already started eating healthier, cutting out caffeine and excess sugar. Makes me feel better overall, be healthier, and keeps my heart rate at a reasonable level.
A final note on trying to debate things with management:
This is my second blog post today.