When the internet ends, information recollection begins.

What will we do as we try to function not only with our machines and devices more often but give up intelligence. When were all dwindling fools not because technology changed us overnight, but because we bred our kids that way, will they learn or will they literally be left with an Eden of time for which to raze with sloth and pestilence?
My friend Micah Knapp brought up several years ago an intriguing story he remembered, known as The Machine Stops. This is quite a similar scenario, but I was curious in looking at humans from the evolutionary standpoint that we don't do much to survive now. We no longer focus on the stars and their positions to gain insight into the timing of the seasons, months and days. Crops are planted with product, not the hybrid seeds past down from generation to generation. Would speech still exist if human machine hybrids were created and we, as man & machine communicated wirelessly our thoughts to each other? I imagine we would become hyper-social and in turn perhaps one ourselves with the networked machine. Each of us only a node of thought, in a wave of change each being received and interpreted before re-transmission.
And what education could prepare both a virtual life and physical life, if there wasn't a separation.

Looks like I'm back to ranting! Or How the 'Right' ignores their basic principles, again and again.

First off I like to declare myself an independent. I don't jump at the idea that the Democratic party is some great estuary for all liberal and progressives to spawn in. I don't like how they blame the Green party for Gore losing in 2000, and Obama's clear ignorance of why he was voted in. What angers me more so than the party that should represent more of me, is the party that ties everything to religion and everything else to catch-words like "Freedom" and "Liberty". I should make note, that I don't consider the Tea Party a political party, rather, I consider it a hijacking of both Libertarian and Republican ideals masked to hide the obvious white-supremacist, conspiracy theory nutjobs, with clear support from industrial polluters seeking a return on their investments.

With that in mind, let me get started.

The Texas GOP has gone on another illogical war against homosexuality as the GOP Convention in Texas clearly shows with a vote to support the idea of Homosexual conversion therapy in the party's platform. This has been proven time and time again to be a waste of time/money. And while they keep bringing up jobs and job creation, clearly their motives are to stop the 'Homosexual steamroller' from converting people to homosexuality. While libertarians really shouldn't care, as liberty is the act of acting freely with one's own will, Neo-Cons are clearly frightened, possibly having had a homosexual urge sometime in their lifetime. I really couldn't give a shit, as these are the same idiots who can't understand why the "Godlessness" excuse doesn't work for states that have no Sex Ed. at all, whereas states with Sex Ed have both lower Teen birth and STD rates. In other words, the states having the most sex are possibly sinning more, but definitely having less abortions as well. The 'Right' has an obsession with sex and abortions so much that they flip numbers (Senators saying Planned Parenthood is 90% abortions) or use word-speak to make Pro-Choice more like Pro-Death as the logical opposition to Pro-Life. Since before I was even in Sex Ed., I've had neighbors and acquaintances that were either Bi-sexual or Homosexual. Yet I, despite my 'exposure' to such things, still do not seek anything other the great natural beauty of the female. So why then, is a party that's supposedly for individual rights and liberties pushing for laws and ideologies that clearly deny even a majority conservative Supreme Court Justice ruling that no law should deny equal rights to 2 individuals in love, regardless of gender. If the Democrats are supposed to be the spending party, what are the 'tax less' party doing wasting tax payer funds pushing laws that are unconstitutional and will certainly be overthrown by the Supreme Court. Besides having a fear of themselves for fear of not being 'Christian', they are going against their own principle of a waste-no-penny gov't.

But of course, in other news, this isn't the last of them flip-flopping and ignoring the Constitutionality or lack there of in their actions.

5 Guantanamo Bay prisoners in exchange of a POW is clearly a hot-point this week, with pro-military actions taking a stand against both law and a US soldier. Terrorist suspects are still defined as being such despite no legitimate court cases pursued to find the prisoners guilty or innocent. Yet, it seems too many Americans regardless of party are tremendously frightened by the fact that we're worrying about the prisoners held without trial for starving themselves. As if this is equivalent to caring about the abuse that convicted child sex offenders supposedly receive in prison. Law is one of those things that sometimes doesn't work in the favor of those on either side of it, but what it's place in society is justice, and in the American society this means limits on the Government or majority as well. If the American system was still based on justice, perhaps those that would be in opposition to such an equivalent for all, would certainly consider this the 'fascist' states of Obama's rule. Which of course, if constitutional law was reigning supreme, would be quite the opposite.

We are on the path to a police state with the precedents set since World War 2 or earlier as proof, but those considering letting the starving Guantanamo prisoners die as the best path in promoting our nations' "righteousness" are clearly the ones hammering the stake of a Nationalist state into the heart of America. Of course the same goes for those who believe that those following the scientific consensus of today, Global Warming, would be burning those at the stake who believed the Earth was round. Clearly a lack of understanding in History and Law, could be our undoing.

P.S. The men of Duck Dynasty and Jesus look Muslim to me.

Money back credit cards are clearly a spending gimmick

If 5% cash back sounds good, remember that by paying month to month by this encouraging 5% back, you're not really saving money. And that 5% back is made to make you think you're saving well 5% on anything you buy. If you spend more than you can pay back by the months end, this really only turns to be a one time 5% reduction in interest on that months purchased goods. Going from 29.9% (Highest rate allowed) to 24.99% isn't much of an decrease. Realistically of course the compounding percentage rate is APR so 24.99% / 12 = about 2% a month. And as I mentioned earlier, this is compounding interest, adding onto itself, each month. Effectively, you aren't saving any money but rather adjusting your immediate rate, which only saves those with the foresight to budget and only buy what they need anyways.

If anyone, has a more precise method of calculating this out and explaining, I'd love to hear it. I truly believe knowledge is power, and wish that more people cared about their finances, time and spending as a consumer.

How well does solar work in the rainy NW

I can't help that my self diagnosed ADHD brain can't keep up with studying several programming languages (I really need to practice rather than reading) for several different ideas, and then this idea.  Almost 2 years ago a friend told me that he had done a report at Whatcom that was about the efficiency of solar panels on cell towers. His conclusion was that no grid input power was needed for day light operation. This intriqued me as one the amount of effort he put into getting sources but for other high-daytime traffic uses for solar like at a mall or other business that closes at or before 9PM. The local mall, just like most other malls doesn't stay open long into the night, and has lots of open roof space. I know several stores in the mall may go almost 24 hours with workers stocking and maintaining, but all the little stores are empty and powered down.
My next quest for answers is to find how much surface area in solar panels would be needed for the expected power of operating daytime businesses.
One thing, stands partially in the way though, what is the cheapest but most efficient brand and type of solar. Wikipedia can tell me the efficiency of different chemistries in panels, but I want at least some market insight on popular and reliable brands.
When I find that information, and have figured the available area of the mall here in Bellingham (I know the name, I'm just not advertising for them at the moment) can I finish a respectable report.
So until then, or if I somehow get sidetracked (on my original idea) and compete with Viking Food, we'll see.

Ah, lovely spring evening…

This is from a couple years ago, and I learned the lesson of recording that date before saving, as I have no record now when I originally wrote it.

The yard is flooding and the evening has that awesome ‘no-such-thing as a shadow’ ambient-lighting going on.  The rain still hasn’t given up!

When is the rain going to stop?

I want some of that harsh, contrasting bright-light from the Sun back here in a couple days.

Bombings, Benghazi, and the new state of paranoia

Days before the Boston bombing happened. All I heard the loud mouths of work talking about was what the hell we should od about North Korea. That, and Obama is really trying to take our guns.

Then the bombings happened.
And they still didn’t know how to pronounce the country of the bomber’s origin precise enough, repeatedly calling it Czechoslovakia. (A country which split only years ago. ) And not the Chechnya they were trying to say.

And what happened to those war ships, and bombers that were so close already to the North Korean border. The “training” with South Korea finished, and instead the loudmouth public eye moved to scrutinizing the Gov’t for letting a bombing happen. Scrutiny of the Gov’t for an embassy in a country in turmoil being attacked, leaving 4 dead. But where was the scrutiny of the ever growing ‘Big Brother’ Government that perpetuated these hostile backlashes. Where were the Tea Party members that had the point, that instead of us tax payers being bailed out, banks were? If I go by our local loony branch, their focus has shifted, at least by what the Bellingham Herald quoted months ago. What’s harming America more than the continued involvement of big business lobbies, the almost signing of CISPA into law, and the deficit?

According to them, as I’m sure all other Koch Corporation propaganda fueled fear tanks, the Tea Party’s focus is now on the U.N.’s attempts to regulate carbon-based emissions and guns. That’s right, the U.N. is the biggest threat to the these loonies. Too add to the fire, these are the gun-nuts too.

So next time it rains in North West Washington, don’t forget your aluminum foil hat. Because you never know if stray bullets are going to be falling to as shooters take aim at non-existing U.N. helicopters.

A New World begins

THIS IS STILL IN EDIT, BTW

It is satisfying to hear that at least one senator attempted to filibuster the approval of Brennan into his position. Why it was only until last week that it seems like politics in DC are actually working, is what get’s me as ‘scary’ for lack of a better word. Last Years National Defense Authorization Act gave the Fed. Gov’t way too much power involving killing ‘Americans’ who ‘may be involved’ in plots against the Government. Rand Paul, son of crazy anarcho-capitalist but always true-Libertarian Ron Paul, is the Senator that spoke against the clock for 12-hours, half the length of  the record 24-hours by Strom Thurmond against the Civil Rights Act of 1957 (seriously)

While of course Thurmond was doing an obviously racist act, he liked to think of it as “cruel and unusual punishment”. But that Racist was an idiot. Moving on.

My problem with this whole Drone thing is what are the implications that we’re not seeing already. The FAA since the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 is planning to release an agreed upon plan to safely integrate unmanned aircraft into FAA airspace. The FAA’s domain doesn’t cover privacy, and though concerns have been raised, nothing has been said. In other words, any of us who are “spotted” by the Drones that may be a “requirement” overhead may find charges against us for any/all infractions. That means more wastes of money by the government to line the pockets of these defense industries. The newest addition to the “Military Industrial Complex”, Information, is going to create the greatest extent of power the Federal Government has had. Completing those Group Psychology degrees at College must feel great when you’re looking forward to literally working for Big Brother.

Speaking of the Military Industrial Complex, I found out that Lockheed Martin may have built 50 for every 1 C-130 Hercules plane ordered by the Gov’t. In other words, they earmarked and lobbied their way into making more planes than the military asked for at the tax payers expense. Is this is what Eisenhower told us about?
ARTICLE LINK SOON

Next, I will blog about how this ‘Complex’ is actually impossible to shut down, especially thanks to one word: “Jobs”.

So many things wrong that should be right

Despite my atheistic beliefs, Thank God that the Presidential Elections are over. I’m sure most people are happy in the end regardless of who they voted for. Life is back to normal, and leading towards the hailstorm of shit trying to affect your mind/vote, there seemed to be an future-damning trend. Ads, specifically social ads are abundant and apparently working. The “Ignorance is bliss” (or being the unnecessary evil) logic proved itself as Presidential Candidates hid from some towns, grabber words thrown out like candy, and the business class bought everything.

Approximately $881.8 million raised in favor of Mitt Romney / SuperPACs

The thing that get’s me the most is people’s detachment from their supposed Christian morals. Peoples ignorance of Mitt Romney’s business organizations and the overwhelming support by business leaders and investors for him are a close second. In the end, facts were called lies and lies as facts. I’ve gone through political cartoons both in favor and against Barack Obama, the one thing that’s clear is the one’s that lean towards are a lot more truthful than the opposite. Cartoons from Investors.com/cartoons have a clear and obvious hatred towards Barack's supposedly socialist ways. The line between opinion and “fact” is definitely blurred as this particular cartoon which is supposed to be Part II of an on going list of lies that the President has said. One in particular says that, “Citizens United will allow foreign corporations to spend without limit in our elections” This of course was later agreed upon to be illegal along with coordinating directly with the candidate. {I need to find who decided this} However the ‘artist’ wanted that quote to look damning, the truth still exists that due to the nature of unlimited spending/donations to SuperPACs, fudging the books could easily allow a foreign income.  So in Mr. Micahel Ramirez’s cartoon, opinion of course is applied as opinion as poli. cartoons are in the Op-Ed. section, but sold as factual truth. When it comes to other  media, ‘Facts’ again is a word the must be in parentheses. Obama: The Movie, pushed by NEWSMAX a faux-news organization, scares people that the unrest in the Middle East is going to lead to a super-state that’s soul purpose is to destroy the US. Fear mongering is back full swing. All the while, Mitt is still possibly getting rich off of his ties with Bain as they move Sensata to China.

The apparent teachings of caring and moral wealth over material wealth by Christianity are completely ignored by people who are voting for a person that believes in a different book. And the history of Mitt Romney finances paints Mormonism as believers of material wealth as proof for God at the gates. Wives or Money, God wants to know you got rewarded on Earth.

The one thing that not only lets me know we still have a democracy but defines a competent candidate is tax info. How popular was the concept of tax info not released by Mitt this year? It seemed, according to how many older Republican leaning employees I work with, that Mitt was a terrific candidate that they’ve never heard of before and above all is great. It was this time (late September, 2012) that I came up with an idea…

My Idea was to listen to entire Rush Limbaugh sets for so many days until after Election Day.

Time and effort, coupled with the fact that after whoever won, those blogs wouldn’t matter anymore. But seeing as this would be a great research project as well as a glimpse into the Limbaugh way of thinking, I will listen to all the radio shows Rush has done for half of October to November 6th. Expect the first of a series soon. The question remains whether I am going to have migraines for the whole time or not?

And that’s it for a Sunday blogging session…
Something I haven’t done in a while. A long while.
And don’t get me started on how ‘scammy’ the internet is getting. That will be for another blog.

This and That all suck.

Fuck Twitter with it's incessant "we've locked you out of your Twitter acct." every week thing. If I don't touch Twitter in a week's time. I have to re-login. Now it's not that that's a problem, rather only an annoyance. It's the fact that every time this happens it tells me 5 times in-a-row that my passwords are all wrong. Everything else works. Twitter is just proving how useless it is to me. I don't like being forced to 'microblog' and nor should anybody else. And always when I see the need to speedily broadcast anything, Twitter must self-destruct before then. So it's use to me is beyond useless. Twitter is used for still the most mundane of reasons: Why aren't there more businesses using it to distribute coupon-like items?
On top of that, Twitter prevents me from braodcasting that Bellingham Fitness sucks. I prepaid a whole year, 1 year 6 months ago. And after much more study of my finances, I've been paying for a monthly membership for the past 5 months. Well that's fucking dandy! Barely went to the gym to start and now they've been charging me and not even letting me know that I'm still a member. It's like charging people for hospital visits because they happened to visit their doctor once a month for 2 months in a row.

So that’s what that other monitor was there for.

Over the past month, I’ve been trying to jumble together CSS and HMTL into the beast that I want. My work to show  has definitely been going slow thanks to me only using 1 out of my 2 monitors (for the past maybe 9 months).
Next time I boot this puppy up I’ll be hoping I get away with less distraction and more focus on code that needs to go here and there. (Add on to that I’m starting from experience years ago, trying to catch up)
Not being used to all this coding, leaves me at an unfair advantage; having to use X-Ray vision and guess what my covered windows hold is a challenge. Using a 2nd monitor ought to let me just look over and have up to 2 full split-windows still in full view versus the current 1 split-window.

Photos, Photos, Photos!

I have a ton-load of photos I’ve been holding onto for up to a year that I've been meaning to publish to Facebook, etc. They are coming!

I need an attitude adjustment

Sometimes I feel…

like life is slipping by. Pretty sure I could write a book when I’m older titled: “Just a boy” Still being stuck with the mentality of a kid, probably wouldn’t get finished, sure I could just blame self-diagnosed ADD.
What fraction of the population is this….I guess lazy?
And why do people from the Netherlands love reading my blog? Hallo Darr. I really am curious.

When is the real Internet going to get here?

So beyond all the hunk-a-junk of freaking speed and byte caps brought down onto to us loyal internet users, because we hate the ads on TV, there is still things not yet delivered on. Why aren't 'unlicensed researchers' actually doing a good job at posting the information they know.

I am currently looking for just in pure and simple English what the timings of a pulse are for my Nikon camera if it was triggered by an infrared light. I come across people using Arduino's and other micro-controllers all pretty much using the same 'schpeal' but without actually seeming to provide any information on what the timings are, their purpose or if they're adjustable. In their programs they'll list several variables for several factors going into the infrared signal which is all good and all. Sadly though I'm still a lost boy with needless information.

What the heck I'm supposed to get out of a bunch of timings when nothing is left for me to decipher except that they are there. I'm not told if they are for shutter speed or just the simple triggering of the 'photo taking' that the camera does. If there was literally just a place to find actually useful information rather than a bunch of cheap hacks of which i can find the schematic (not-so-useful) and programming (very useful) without having to sign up for a for-profit site like Make.com I would have hopefully found it already. It's been a good week of of a good amount of searching, and all I've found out is that removing the infrared filter over the CCD of the camera is daunting if not an almost useless task save for scientific imaging.

It's things like this that inspire me to push for a functioning internet that's not based on Ad clicks and intrusive Pop-up Ads. (Have you seen what the MSN website looks like with IE6.5?) It's really a waste of bandwidth, and a waste of focus. Citizens need the information to make responsible decisions, not left in the dark to horribly go after the whims of charlatans or whomever fits in their ideological bubble. And I think this applies to everything from the Gov't to people playing around with homemade solar-water heaters.

The future "will blow your mind"

Seen any 3D movies recently? By 2012, things could be quite different. 3D movies and comic books have been around since essentially photography has been around. But with advances in both facial recognition seen everywhere and eye tracking that Intel has been supposedly been doing behind the scenes, a combination of the 2 technologies will be quite impressive, if not a broad technology shift.

Most games, if not all current games by popular gamehouses have 3D support, add BluRay to that and you can see where this is going. Even YouTube has had a 3D support widget for some time. All of these require glasses for non-fatiguing viewing but doesn't excuse the sunglasses indoors look.

In the coming months though, Nintendo will release it's 3DS, which if you can figure from the name is a 3D version of their famed DS. (Maybe even their 3rd Gen DS at that.) Luckily though, it's Auto Stereoscopic, meaning no glasses are needed. The only thing is, odd viewing angles rid the screen of any world in the 3rd dimension inside of it. Perfect for a small hand-held game console screen, where only one viewer and viewing angle is common. Even more amazing is that, like the App Store has done for iTunes and the DS, 3D pictures and video will be capture-able and viewable from a DS. Making little kids everywhere have the power to have the world presented exactly as their friend recorded it.

Computers and even the increasingly popular iPod Touch and Phones have the processing power, especially so with the next-generation of iPods to track your eyes through it's cameras. Combining this with an adjustable version of the optics used in the 3DS and you have a new world defining medium. One that scary enough, because of the already high pixel count of screens these days, may actually start pulling people into that 'reality' rather than the one we all still live and breath in everyday (hopefully).

I'm going to be somewhat impressed by this feat, as well as the transition that is already taking place for implementing 3D file formats used everyday. When 3D pictures and videos become standard, how will the storage of these images/films be preserved to outlive a 'Digital Dark Age' if devices like these are lost. And besides the preservation of history and information, what will happen to the generation that is born in a world where there is not one reality, but several if not thousands interactive worlds through digital windows. Anyone else curious where civilization will go from there? Or even more so, from where we are now?

Coming soon

The limited title actually provides the perfect description. I’ve been way too busy lately, dealing with computer issues, setups, management of all of my assets and trying to start the New Year the way I’d like to.

It’s definitely been a time and need for me to get some fresh air. To start anew.

Health (Dealing with Crohn’s)

Since the Summer of 2010, it’s been 4 years after I became extremely sick and finally diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease (an IBD) which still comes up every once and a while to remind me that it is there. This year is absolutely about putting that into it’s hopefully final remission.

Finances

I finally have health insurance again that’s not just driving me deeper into debt! I found this out after I had to drive to the Finance Dept. of Peace Health to have them decipher what my Explanation of Benefits from my insurer meant. This is a major plus, an 8X multiplier of skill points if you will.

Soul (and the purpose thereof)

On a scary note, I’m 24 yrs. old and in less than 10 months I will be 25. How many years left in my life do I have from there? Half-life or quarter-life, time is of the essence.

The main focuses of me right now is applying myself to all sorts of ideas. Be it photography, expanding my limited number of drawings, to web page design and business ideas. Whatever comes first as my resonance at the time will take over for perhaps a month. In that time having built quite a portfolio of images or establishing definable qualities about myself with certification in Web languages, will be a great if not excellent use of my time. (I’d especially would love to get the drawing tablet hooked back up to my machine, but first things first!)

Here is a picture of St. Helens for your eyes. Taken last summer

Computer Memory blues

I've got only 2 640GB Hard Drives and with back-ups of all the pictures I have and then some I'm swamped with doubles, duplicates, clones, zombies and clowns of crap I don't need. Add to that the stuff I want I stumble upon, and with 2 years of organizing, then moving, then having to reorganize all of it; It's beyond the point of care for repair. I'm in no need of any more memory and after some time passes, I may finally care to have some more to match the 1's and 0's I consider I own.
Having this much extra space is just a curse, like credit and the economy.
Living lean is living happy!

Great quote heard.

Today, the 11th...
"MTV is rarely what people want!"

perhaps, just perhaps...

Perhaps the economy is in the shitter because people seriously treat each other like that in order to make a buck. And it's driven because apparently people like being con'd. If people wanted everything we had back in the day which I don't see anymore, like whether or not this toy could kill your kid, how much is the cancellation fee going to be on a credit card or whether or not the clothes you just bought are still gonna fit after you wash them. It doesn't matter because apparently nobody wants warning and information on stuff like that. Well there you go, taken advantage of when you clearly ain't having a problem with it.