Friday, 2 September 2016 at 6h 4m 2s |
A Wow thought |
Our perception of life is a dream of a dream in a dream where we actually exist.
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Saturday, 20 August 2016 at 21h 22m 32s |
Last Night |
I regularly go to the Bottom of the Hill Club at 1233 17th St, San Francisco, CA 94107. It's my favorite club in the city with
Ireland 32 being a close second. There was
a band called Blackwülf that is really good in my opinion. There were 3 other bands but
Blackwülf is the band I wanted to see. I bought a T-Shirt too.
However that is not why I am composing this essay. It was an interesting night mingling with
various persons and I thought writing about the events would be either edifying, or at least worth
the effort.
It all started when I parked my car on 17th after driving down 8th Street,driving around the circle
where Townsend ends to what Google calls "Henry Adams" but what San Franciscan's probably call
Kansas, because that's what the street was originally named
until the city decided to pay homage to Henry Adams for 2 blocks. Is this because there is a huge
non-profit warehouse one block over on Rhode Island Street called San Francisco
Center for the Book which is about the "arts and craft" of making books?

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No. Henry Adams is the son of John Adams who has his name attached to the City College Campus at
1860 Hayes Street (originally it was Lowell High School). Apparently Henry Adams was the Brains Behind the Design Center that is adjacent to the two
blocks of the street name change. Another in a long line of scions from the famed
Boston Adams family, Henry was instrumental in changing the industrial wasteland that existed
between Market and Potrero Hill by buying up the property and changing the landscape. The area used
to be the extension of an iron works complex in the early to mid 1900's called Union Iron Works. It was
abandoned much like the Cattle stock yards of South Chicago were abandoned.
This building
is called the Design Center
But I have to finish this later because I have some school work to do. There is more to the story.
Lots more.
To be continued when I have more time.
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Friday, 19 August 2016 at 1h 12m 9s |
Latest Poem |
I am going to a poetry reading tonight hosted by a long-term good friend named Rowan Chong. I owe
it to him to remind me of my inner poet.
I wrote my first poem when I was in middle school to a Vietnamese girl named Ahn Nguyen. I wish I
still had that poem. Funny thing about life is that many years later Ahn was the roommate to
another girl named Rebecca Jehan who was the most significant other girlfriend in my life, and is
the one girl who I will always love for the rest of my life -- even though I accept that I will
never see her ever again.
Love has no ownership. It exists. It does not control.
Anyway, I wrote this poem yesterday. I call it "What the Fuck".
We walk the earth
master of our own personal universe
having tools at our disposal
that send us images of earthly weather patterns
instant messages from half way across the globe
26 words and 260 pages quicker than the post office and the publishing cycle.
It used to be a few months before other people had the chance to read your bullshit.
Now
not only do they get this trivia within a few seconds
but
they also respond a few seconds later
and so too all too many others whom you do not know
anonymous persons who project their monstrous id
playing ping pong on the internet table
but you don’t see these players on the other side of a 6 foot table anymore
and these others
the outside world
are completely incongruous
intangible
untouchable
you have no fucking idea who these people are on the other side of the internet.
You read their words
You see their videos
but the human is imprisoned by the orifice of plastic or metal
and the electric waves and currents are alien signals
transporting power like blood corpuscles
except
they aren’t biological
and we don’t see them at all.
They happen by some unknowable magic
even though we think we know them
because we have an ideology called math
that balances equations
and minimizes the theories we call functions
because the planet has become an input into the machine of extraction
and the human slaves are fed on the conveyor belt of civilization
while the propaganda entertains them and speaks of progress like chewing on candy.
Which is why we are in this existential human crisis
wondering what exactly is this thing called “human existence”.
What exactly is this life driving in metal boxes on concrete roads
going to and fro
from rectangular boxes where human forms hold small machines
and constantly look at them while they ignore everything else
having nothing to say to the people who are standing within 15 feet
not even realizing or caring or even curious
blank faces being fed by the ether while shackled to the artificial
thinking grandiose lies and tall tales as their minds are constantly being bombarded by kitsch
because that is the only way to survive when you are a grain of sand in the universe.
But is that all we are?
A grain of sand?
A tiny small infinitesimal cube of Silicon Dioxide floating in the wind of time?
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Wednesday, 10 August 2016 at 2h 45m 51s |
Gun control nuts |
Gun extremists love to hug that 2nd amendment like their favorite teddy bear.
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people
to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
What do you think the first 4 words of that amendment means?
"A well regulated militia"
Militia that is well regulated, hmm... That means that you don't let average citizens easily buy
assault weapons that can shoot 30 rounds in a few seconds. That means you don't get to own your
personal anti-aircraft weapon -- because you never know, right? Those criminals and random elements
might just come and land a plane on your acres of private property.
It's just a wedge issue that politicians use to lead the minions to vote against their own best
interests because all they gotta do is throw up the "take your guns away" plus "Second Amendment"
red herring, and presto magic you get all the bonafides of having any legitimacy.
Come on people. Read the entire amendment, not just the last 4 words.
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Wednesday, 10 August 2016 at 2h 12m 34s |
Just saying |
I refuse to comment on anything about Donald Trump. Believe me I have plenty to say, but I intend
to make a concerted effort to not allow political insanity to interfere with this blog, save for the
historical moment and perhaps the interesting nugget of whatever.
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Tuesday, 9 August 2016 at 2h 0m 10s |
Projection is so sad really |
Lindsay Lohan has always had a special place in my heart but it is a shame that she projects her own
issues on the men she allows into her life.
“I realize now you can't stay in a relationship just for love,” she told the Mail on Sunday in an
interview she said she did because there have been “so many lies” printed about her recently. “No
woman can be hit and stay with that person if that person isn't prepared to say sorry.”
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times | Christie
D'Zurilla | 8 August 2016]
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Monday, 8 August 2016 at 2h 21m 50s |
Ichiro hits 3,000 |
Ichiro hits a triple for his 3,000th hit. Not to mention he already passed Peter Rose when you
include his 9 years in Japan. He came over to the US as a Seattle Mariner when he was 27, and got
3,000 hits in 15 seasons, from 2001 to 2016.
Peter Rose got all uppity when there was some mention of Ichiro being the Hit's leader. In truth,
Peter played until he was 45 years old, and collected 3464 hits from age 27 until 45. However, if
you compare them from age 27 to age 42, Peter Rose got 3091 hits. Pete Rose was still playing 151
games at age 42, but he got 121 hits with a .245 average that year. He got 107 hits in 121 games at
age 43.
Ichiro had 10 years of 200 hits. Peter only had 9 years. Imagine now if Ichiro had played in the
United States for those first 9 years and you get some idea of how good Ichiro really is.
Ichiro Suzuki is da man, but Pete Rose also switch hit. Who is the best? Good question.
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Monday, 8 August 2016 at 0h 16m 41s |
Honestly |
I could have fixed this blog earlier than I did, but I sort of went through an existential catharsis
over the last 14 months. My life and my profession were overwhelming me. I didn't have the
wherewithal to focus on being tuned into to the zeitgeist. I needed to evolve.
But here I am yet again. Ready to tap on this keyboard and share the ruminations of my brain for
anyone who wants to listen.
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Sunday, 7 August 2016 at 19h 26m 10s |
Omg test post |
I finally got my blog code upto date. The main issue was that my server changed the way they use
databases, but there was also legacy php code that had to be cleared up on 3 separate files.
Sorry it took so long everyone. I know it's been 14 months, but right now it appears all systems
are go.
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Wednesday, 13 May 2015 at 0h 34m 18s |
Obsession with individual entrepreneurialism |
In the modern era, we have become obsessed with the achievement of the individual to the point where
all appeals for community seem minuscule in comparison to the rhetoric and rationale. However,
human beings are group animals. We all depend upon other persons producing and making goods and
services for a large part of our daily and yearly needs. The individual is only so good as what can
be offered as worthy to the individual's peers, so why is it that the modern era seems to have very
few politically sponsored ideologies beyond obvious or subtle appeals to individual achievement.
A pitcher alone cannot win baseball games. He needs good defensive, a good catcher, some good
hitters, a bullpen that doesn't give up runs, and sometimes a little luck -- over and above whatever
talent and exploited weaknesses that might exist. Regardless of whatever players are on the same
team, a pitcher will always get the gloss of the surrounding environment.
The same can be said of a football quarterback. Or any team coordinated effort. In the modern era
the obsession with the entrepreneur making their individual mark conveniently forgets about the
other individuals or the context of the situation that enabled motivated persons to be in the right
situation at the right time. The luck arrived, and they were ready.
Entrepreneurialism is the nice word here. People walking around collecting cans or selling food
outside downtown businesses at lunchtime, or female streetwalkers, are doing what they need to do
make money -- regardless of whatever choices or life paths are involved. Disguising what the
current top-down destruction of a functional balanced economic order with an entrepreneurial myopia
forgets that people doing what they do to make money are not entrepreneurs. They are desperate.
They are dealing with the loss of jobs and income that were exterminated by upper-level management
to squeeze a few extra bucks from the revenue so that investors and themselves can have more profit.
Blind and oblivious they are to the upheaval they have made to the social system, they cannot
understand the chaos except in the terms of their own lexical paradigm they use to justify their
communal selfish destruction.
Hence, the people who no longer have the good middle class job opportunities of the past that form
their own small businesses are seen as "entrepreneurs". Which is great for the few who ever
actually succeed at this endeavor. Most people will be employed to a boss their entire life, and
most of them are not due to the weakness of the individuals themselves. Most of the time the
long-term security and reliable salary are critical factors, because in reality, employees have to
exist for an economy to function. There can never be an economy or social order in the modern world
with no employees, in which everyone is an entrepreneur. With primitive tribal groups of 1,000
members this ideal might be achievable, but it is never true in a nation of 400 million, and 200
cities with at least 100,000.
The person's who push this nonsense are using it as mace. They want to spray it into everyone's
eyes so they can be blinded by reality and not realize that the community is what actually creates
the worth of any individual. That's why the elite form their own communities. In a sense, they
have removed themselves from real communities and create their own office board room / country club
/ exclusive resort communities. But for non-elite persons, the community is the neighborhood, the
people who go to the same church or coffee shop, or the township in which they live. The elite have
lost their own attachment to any real community, and this is why they often do not perceive their
own situation as something other than individual achievement. The reality that luck or happenstance
events have anything at all to do with success is not part of their paradigm.
In reality, for most people, either the luck arrives and, for whatever reason (sometimes sad irony)
they are not ready -- or the luck never comes. The path an individual takes in life is a function
of the environment more than it is an actual choice that any individual gets to make or take. For
all people, their next step was not by design, but because that was what was available or realizable
at the time. Despite the hagiography of the self-made individual, people do not create their own
destiny. Destiny falls upon humans in a whimsical manner -- that's why we get incompetents in high
places, and stupid kings. The true test is what an individual does with the chances life gives. If
you get the royal flush on the first poker deal, what do you do with the money you made?
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