Category: General

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The Holidays and Speaking of Climate Change…

I’ve begun the search for the Holiday Card photo.

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The weather this year has not been co-operative and while we’ve had our first snow it wasn’t particularly memorable.

Today it’s 49F and breezy.

“Normally” (whatever Normal is) by this time of year it’s in the 30s and we’ve seen at least a good dusting of snow. 

I have a really bad feeling that this Winter is going to come all at once.

There are examples  of this in the recent past.

The first year I moved back into this house is an excellent example.

I snowed so much in two days that the accumulation shut down my furnace because the exhaust was covered, You’d think that was a major irritation and it was… until the power got knocked out for 30 hours… then the snow covered exhaust wasn’t so much of a concern.

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In the picture, that’s my street sign and approximately 7 – 8 feet of snow piled up in the background behind it. 

During that storm we got 4 feet of snow.

It was the sticky wet heavy stuff and boy was it a pain in the butt to clear.

On the up side I got my cardio that year.

All of this leads to the problem of Holiday cards.

We’ve decided that we want to send unique Holiday cards that we produce In-House.

Last years card  was a pretty decent success even though the postal service was less than cooperative about delivering the cards & I ended up sending digital versions out in addition to the printed copies.

My Doctor was so blown away he actually kept his card in MY file for 6 months and made a point of telling me that he was impressed when he saw me for my annual exam.

This was high praise indeed from a guy that’s involved in the Laguna Pageant of the Masters.

Another Friend who’s an interior designer was also mightily impressed.

This year… well it’s been warm and sunny.

How the hell am I supposed to create a holiday card that evokes feelings of the season when it’s warm and sunny?

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I thought about using a photo from the Colorado trip… but somehow nothing works.

I can’t help but remember it was hotter than the surface of the sun!

Well, not really but it sure felt like it. I guess it was closer to the temps on Mercury.

We managed to keep the card religion neutral last year.

It’s a choice that I’d like to turn into a tradition. I like sending the same card to everyone on my holiday list. 

In years past we’ve had up to 4 different cards that we mailed. Christian, Jewish, Professional, and Personal.

It was maddening to try to keep every ones beliefs in mind and at the same time simply say “Hello, At this time of commercialism, frayed nerves, Political Correctness, and hyper sensitivity, we though of you and wanted to wish you and your family a safe… whatever the fuck you celebrate. We’re trying to reach out to you, but honestly are more afraid of offending you and ending up in court.“

That conundrum led us to sending out no cards for many years.

Last years card was a photo that I took. It was simple, pretty and the message was exactly what we wanted to convey.

This year finding a photo is  proving to be a challenge. I’d honestly expected for us to have had some winter weather and I was planning to take pictures for this years card… Well, this year!

Damn Climate Change!!! 

I’ve thought about sending a picture of the Mayan Calendar and saying something like “Hey it’s been nice knowing you, don’t bother with the shopping we’ve only got until the 21st. ” (That is MY ORIGINAL IDEA, Any of you folks in other countries looking to make a fast buck by scanning my blog will owe me a percentage. I’ll see you in court!)

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Then I thought perhaps that was too much of a downer and some people might be driven to more suicidal tendencies than usual.

I’ve thought of just a snowy field with an interesting inspirational message, but I’m worried that the less imaginative in the crowd wouldn’t get it. After all there are a large number of people that really do need to have things drawn out and labeled for them.

Then there’s the Muslim people in our circle of acquaintances. What the Hell? What picture is even appropriate? Muhammed giving the Pope the finger is right out… Besides pictures of Muhammed have been done to death.

I mean you can’t actually enclose a personal note… What would you say?

Dear Achmed, I was pleased to hear about your nephews martyrdom, Perhaps your niece will have better luck next year, once she’s out of the hospital. I’m enclosing a Mexican made digital timer for her, Chinese quality isn’t what it should be. Not much is new here we’re just getting ready to engage in our infidel celebration of the birth of our god by chopping down perfectly good trees and engaging in an orgy of consumerism…

Yeah, really cheap shot but I typed it, laughed and figured I’d leave it. Sometimes my mind is a scary place.

I have a picture of a crescent moon. That would work for the Muslims, but photoshopping in Santa and his reindeer would probably be offensive.

Our Jewish friends might not appreciate the crescent moon or Santa.

So it all comes back to the weather…

I’m going to have to search through my archives of photos and see if I can find anything that would be pretty, non-religious, and inoffensive.

This is going to take a really long time, I’ve only got till the 21st!

Have a safe orgy of consumerism!

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Was it all a tempest in a teakettle?

 

I have no idea what’s going on.

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This morning I’ve run across several articles in the Register saying that new data analysis of global warming data may suggest that all the hubbub was in fact static.

One article in The Register suggests that global warming has been stalled since 1998.. New looks at the data, suggest that since 1950 the overall global temp has risen by only 1/2 a degree. 

Like all news media, I’m not sure that I trust The Registers reporting or their ability to even understand what they’re reporting well enough to be accurate.

However It’s intriguing to me that after all the wringing of hands and wailing… Things may not be as bad as we’ve been led to believe.

Normally I’d call this a “one off” but then the same publication reports has two other articles where they quote other sources suggesting a direct conflict with “accepted climate change facts”.

This article says that there’ve been no increases in droughts since 1950. But the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in a 2007 assessment says “More intense and longer droughts have been observed over wider areas since the 1970s.”

The article says that as our data modeling gets more refined the statistics regarding global drought were over estimated.

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The IPCC 2007 report has pretty much been debunked as over blown and being wildly alarmist. However this new information will likely put a wooden stake in the IPCC report once and for all.

Another article suggests that yes the Greenland ice sheets are in fact melting. At the current rate of melt they’ll be gone in about 13,000 years. The actual effect on sea levels from the Greenland ice melt will be about a 5 cm increase in ocean levels by 2130. This is far less of a “lets scream and run around in little circles.” than has been reported in the media.

Yet Another article details the investigation into why Antarctic ice sheets are growing… This growth is limiting confidence in climate predictions. Scientists from NASA and the British Antarctic Survey have teamed up to see if they can unravel the reason for the ice growth.

None of this information is reason to go burn down a forest, or open a strip mining operation in Alaska. 

The publication of theses articles and the new data shouldn’t  be cause for us to stop being responsible inhabitants of the planet. We should continue to reduce our toxic emissions. We should search for energy sources that don’t damage the environment. That’s just being smart and responsible.

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The common thread in each of the articles is that the data used to support the Global Warming arguments, AKA “Climate Change”  is plagued with signal noise.

Think of it like when the radios in our cars were AM only.

The further you’d get away from a town the more static you’d hear until finally you were only able to catch a word or two every few seconds.

The temperature and climate data is like that. You could perhaps make a sentence out of the one or two words you heard every couple of seconds. The accuracy of that sentence would be highly suspect.

Climate scientists are re-evaluating their data and applying better software techniques to filter out the “noise”. 

Couple these techniques with more sophisticated satellites and monitoring equipment and you get much higher accuracy. Then if you take the data feeds from the Mars satellites and instruments you’ve got the ability to make comparisons and refine our data about Earth.

This is part of normal scientific process.

Another part of this process is that you need to have scientists who are free to ask questions and express their opinions.

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Consider for a moment how the press, governments, other scientists, and people in general treated scientists who questioned the claims that run away global warming was upon us and that the entire planet was going to burn… Next year!

Many of those scientists had their lives and careers destroyed. Simply because they chose to look at the data objectively and critically, which by the way they were trained to do. 

None of those scientists said it wasn’t a problem, they said the data was inconclusive. And they were right. 

Something to think about before you shout down someone with a different opinion than your own.

Just Saying…

UPDATE

Since I saw the articles mentioned above yesterday, there have been several new articles that say OH NO… the Ice is really melting.

The most recent one is Here

Which of course kind of proves the point. The data is full of noise. 

Given that there is so much conflicting data, obviously further study is needed to understand what exactly is happening.

Again I re-iterate Just because the data is inconclusive and changing doesn’t mean that we have any right to be irresponsible in our utilization of the planetary resources.

We must change, we must learn to use less, recycle more, and in general be more efficient in our energy use. 

I’ve long advocated that in a computer age, with our communication technologies we shouldn’t all be driving to our places of business. If your business is digital in nature you don’t have to be in a cubicle in the heart of an office block 40 miles from your home. You can do your job from your computer in your home office just as easily.

That alone would reduce the amount of auto exhaust daily. But thinking more “outside the box” could take us so much further. We need to change our way of thinking about work, management, and efficiency.

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Well, well, well, DirecTV updated their software

Finally!

My Surround sound system is re-integrated with the DirecTV box and all the rest of my entertainment system.

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It’s nice to have only two controls to fool around with instead of 5.

The unified surround sound control is back to controlling the TV, DVD, DirecTV box, the Apple TV, Xbox, and the external HDMI switch to handle switching all the inputs.

Try explaining the use of all these controls to someone that’s not technological.

You might as well sit them in the cockpit of a 767 and say you want to fly to Fiji.

That was part of the annoyance. All the sudden my simple entertainment system wasn’t simple anymore. That’s of course the down side of technology. As a former technology guy I do my best to fold the complexities into something simple. For example, taking the time to figure out and program all the separate controls into one.

The other part of the annoyance was that I have some premium channels and favorite shows.  True Blood for example has a great soundtrack and is transmitted in surround sound.

For that matter most of the pay per view movies are HD and Dolby 5.1 

So why was I paying for HD, and Surround sound and NOT able to hear surround sound?

The third part of the annoyance was that for 4 years everything had worked perfectly and then DirecTV downloaded an update that broke the system. No notice, warning, or ability to go back to the previous version of working software.

Much like they downloaded an update sometime yesterday that fixed the problem.

I honestly don’t like the stealth downloads. I was only aware that there had been any update because the Satellite boxes were on and I remembered them being turned off. That usually only happens when the units have been updated.

I’m not complaining, at least as Winter approaches I’ll be able to watch the boob tube. That is until the satellite dish gets covered in snow.

It’s hard not to become a couch potato. I mean… 500 Channels, and NetFlix streaming, DVDs and the ability to shoot bad guys in Call of Duty.

No the TV and entertainment system is OFF during the day. I’m busy with other things and I haven’t got the time to waste.

Well except for the porn while I’m eating lunch.

A mans gotta have at least one vice!

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Lately… I’ve been evaluating a lot of stuff.

I’m fairly sure that my former career is toast.

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Oddly, where once I was very angry about it… Now I’m not so angry.

Sure when I think about it and allow myself to feel that I’ve been thrown away by corporate America and to some extent by America in general I still get a little pissy.

But It’s not like it was this time last year.

Now I’m looking forward to what I’ll do next.

I’m going to have to trim my expenses by a considerable amount. But I think I can do that.

I’m still working albeit not as hard as I should be on finishing my first book. I will finish it… 

I’m thinking that perhaps what will be best for me in the interim is to find a simple job that pays enough for me to pay my bills.

I don’t want that as a long term solution but I do think it might be an achievable short term goal.

Recently I’ve been fortunate enough to be involved with a couple of gatherings that demonstrated several things to me.

1) People are hungering for things that the internet can’t provide.

2) There may be a growing number of people that are pulling back from things like FaceBook and other social media.

3) Intimacy is something that everyone needs regardless of their walk of life or sexuality. Men in particular seem to be starving for it 

4) Many men don’t have the ability to articulate even to themselves this need.

Much of this was brought painfully home to me as I attended the first meeting. The speaker was saying these things and I thought, “yes that resonates with me”. But what really drove it home was that I decided to start at the beginning of the book and do some editing.

As I reread the first chapters making changes and improving continuity I realized that there, in the pages I’d written was the same message.

In communications with friends and acquaintances this point has been driven home again and again.

I’ve had similar conversations with male friends and acquaintances who identify as Straight, Bi, gay, and curious. and all of these men seem to crave the same thing.

Silence, Peace, Joy, Sensuality, Compassion, Intimacy, Passion, Love, and Touch. All in varying degrees. The straight men aren’t going to need or indeed may not be comfortable with sensuous touch from another man. However all of these men could enjoy and benefit from a simple hug regardless of the gender of the person giving it to them. All of these men could benefit form having someone that would just listen.

In these conversations it’s become obvious that perhaps I’ve been ignoring a calling that was right in front of me.

These men are in general men that I care about. They’re friends (old and new), acquaintances, potential friends and because I care about them I find myself reaching out to them with the very strong desire to comfort them. 

I find that I want to help them, to allow them a few hours of safety where they don’t have to worry about defending themselves or having their defenses up at all.

Obviously, these friends are very different from the general population.

However it has raised a question in my head. Could I provide some of these unrequited needs to men? If so in what capacity? Could I find a career where I could make a living being a guidepost to people who need someone to help them find their way?

This would allow me to continue to pursue art, and writing  to feed my own soul. But it would also allow me to pass through the world leaving it a better place than it was. That too feeds my soul.

As I’ve gotten older I’ve found that I’m far less interested in the latest craze and far more interested in doing those things that fill me with joy, feeding my spirit at the same time.

Only recently I’ve come to the realization that I’ve never been truly happy at any job I’ve ever had except one.

That was when I was spent time as a Personal Trainer. In retrospect I loved helping people.

I hated the fact that the gym I was working for, was all about screwing the trainers & clients out of as much money as they could.

While I was actually working with clients… I was happy and joyful. I looked forward to going to work.

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At the time I was also using my knowledge of technology publishing a monthly magazine that I was very proud of.

Unfortunately I had a business partner that assumed I was rich and that he was entitled to all the funds in the business.

This ultimately led to me ceasing publication on the magazine, paying off the debts owed by the magazine and having to go back to work in a cubicle farm. 

I carried a lot of anger about that for many years. I genuinely hope that he learned something and won’t make the same mistakes again.

Now, many years later I’m out of the technology field, even though it’s not necessarily by my choice. 

It’s time for me to follow my heart.

I’d rather have the time to write than commute 80 miles to report to an office building.

I’d rather deal with people on my terms than deal with bosses and coworkers who are all about scrambling up the corporate ladder at any cost.

I need to pursue art, beauty & light instead of struggling to preserve those parts of me against an onslaught of negative forces.

So after over a year of worry and fretting about a new job & being “thrown away by corporate America”. I’m going to try something new.

I have no idea where this will lead. I can say that right now, I’m feeling really positive and good for the first time in a while.

Time will tell if this is the right path for me. 

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I do know going back to corporate America doesn’t appear to be an option. I suppose I would temporarily if only to fund my ability to pay for the training that I’ll need to move into the light.

My journey begins with setting down some baggage that I’ve carried far too long. 

Someone else can pick it up if they wish, I’d strongly recommend against it.

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Well… I had Planned…

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I’d planned to do an essay about the insanity of Black Friday. I’ve changed my mind.

Black Friday, which is now becoming Black Thursday. Has in recent years become such an anathema to me personally that all it serves to kick off in my world is a serious case of Bah Humbug throughout the Christmas Season.

As such I decided not to waste any more words about it.

How did I spend Black Friday you may ask?

Well I stayed in my sweats all day, watched a movie, nibbled a bit on various foods and relaxed.

Later in the day I had great phone sex with a friend and then had dinner. You know how it is… you start talking, and you rub your dick. Before you know it your pants are around your ankles and you’re riding your hand to glory. Listening to your friend on the other end of the line doing the same, the sound is hot all by itself without the visual. It’s all imagination.

This morning my day started with a lovely blow job. That’s what I get for walking through the house naked and hard to let the dogs out.

Guess my lesson here is I should stay naked in the morning more often.

This morning, I’ve been working with a nifty little piece of electronic hardware that allows me to connect my guitar directly to my computer. 

This means that I can in theory record tracks of my playing the guitar. I doubt that’slikely… but I can use elements of garage band to verify that I’m hitting chords correctly. 

I’m thinking that  the device will be of far more use to the other half who makes money playing music professionally.

However my knowing how to manipulate technology in this household is always a good idea.

I’m still practicing guitar every day, but I’m not getting much better. I’ve been wondering if it’s a matter of technique.

I’m probably going to use this little box to try recording my practice session just to see if I’m better able to hear the problems because I’m removed from playing the music and paying more attention to what it sounds like.

Today is a beautiful fall day. It’s a day as only California does them. I should go outside and do poo patrol, enjoy the sunshine, and then come in and practice. 

I’m thinking I may do the poo patrol, then come in and get naked… lets see if I can get another BJ before dinner!

Yeah… I’m a little piggy today. So What?