Tag: Musings

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We’re all writing our lives in Sand

Years ago, I was speaking with a Professor friend of mine, extolling the virtues of digital books.

In my idealism I was bubbling over about the elimination of the high cost associated with college text books. I saw this as a new age where everyone would have better access to higher education and as new discoveries were made, the new data could effortlessly be inserted in the text books so people wouldn’t have to buy the revised editions of a hard copy.

My Professor friend nodded and conceded that if things worked that way, it would improve education and could make higer education somewhat less costly.

He said simply, “Sometimes the best ideas, built on the best of intentions, don’t work out like we think they will. I’ll stick with my dusty paper books for the time being.”

At the time I envisioned a world where everyone had access to the sum total of human knowledge and that we would then all be playing on a level field. Naively I thought that the best angels of humanity would rise to the top and we would enter a new age of cooperation and creativity. I thought equality and harmony were just around the corner, built on free exchange of information and thought.

I WAS A MORON!

Yep, at that time in my life I was leaning pretty left. I thought the vast majority of people would choose light and temper their natural selfishness because the promise of everyone being happy, healthy, and productive would be so alluring.

Looking back from 2021, I have a bitter laugh. There’s also a sadness, humanity could be so much more, but the opportunity may have passed. Now I think we’re heading for another “Dark Age”.

Five years, or so later, my friend and I were having a similar discussion. This time the discussion started because He was having to incorporate EBooks into his curriculum. He was dealing with variations in some of the books. It turned out that many of the Ebooks, even though they had the same ISBN number contained different text and there was no notation of when revisions had been made. To make things more confusing the Ebooks didn’t match the hardcopy text books that could be purchased from the campus book store.

That was when I realized that an Orwellian component had come into play. In my innocence I’d never considered that anyone would prefer censorship or alteration of the facts in a book, to fit a narrative. I actually believed that we as a species had grown beyond that.

Truth rings like a bell. You might not like it, but Truth stands on it’s own merit.

Knowledge, and understanding may start out flawed, but there is a logical step by step refinement that is driven by the truth of new undeniable facts. We should be able to see that process, to chart it, and books provide the evidence of our journey towards understanding.

If we can look at the old books and theories contained within, we have a view into how knowledge evolves and how new data can, and should trigger re-evaluation of a theory or belief.

I always believed that books, and the written word were somehow sacred. That is why the Nazi book burnings were so abhorrent to me.

During our conversation, discovering that books were no longer being treated with any kind of reverence, it dawned on me perhaps digital media was too ephemeral to be trusted with the knowledge of our species.

Maybe a better method would be to have books start out as digital, collect the data and facts then publish a hard copy (a snapshot if you will,) that would be placed in every library all over the world. Then you’d publish addenda in hard copy as warranted.

But even as I had that thought, I knew the genie was out of the bottle. People will always choose convenience over having to do the actual work of locating a book in a library stack and opening it. The books would simply rot to dust on library shelves.

That was the beginning of my journey toward a more conservative view of the world. That journey continued the more I became aware of subtle changes to books. Specifically Ebooks.

I bought into the convenience of having a book on my phone or computer to read at lunch. I purchased a lot of Ebooks but as I read them there were changes. At first it was small corrections, reasonable edits that corrected a typo or made a sentence read better.

These changes were within what I considered, the realm of reasonable. I could see an author making those changes in the Ebook because it was simple and didn’t require an entirely new press run. The changes would be folded into the printed copies of the book as needed.

But the edits became more plentiful, and far reaching. Soon some of my favorite books diverged in their Ebook form from the hard copy I’d had for years. Then I started seeing it in movies.

The weirdest example was in “Alien”. A friend had a laserdisc version of Alien. When we’d seen the movie in the theater we’d noted that the Nostromo’s shuttle had a name. When we’d purchased the movies on videotape there wasn’t a name on the shuttle.

At the time, we thought it was probably something to do with the resolution of the videotape. When my friend purchased the laserdisc version of Alien, the name once again appeared on the shuttle. But DVD and Bluray versions, the name was gone again.

This suggested that there were multiple versions of the movie and there was no way of telling which cut you actually were purchasing. Shortly after our “discovery” multiple cuts of movies were being repackaged as “New” xyz cuts, thereby maximizing profit to the studios. I think at one time, this friend and I had 6 different cuts of Alien and who knows how many other movies between us.

I lost my DVD / Bluray collection and all of my books in a house fire. At the time, I chose to invest heavily in streaming movies and Ebooks so that I’d never have to face the heartbreak of losing collections again.

Except that’s not how it works.

Movies and books available online can disappear suddenly and with no explanation.

Gone with the Wind,for example now has a whole Social Justice disclaimer before you get to watch the movie.

Looney Toons collections have Whoopie Goldberg reminding viewers that some of the depictions in the cartoon are representative of an era when racial relations were horrific. She even has to comment on Bugs Bunny having a go at German and Japanese soldiers.

All she needed to say was that those cartoons were propaganda from World War II and in context, they were supposed to give theater goers of the time, a laugh and bit of hope. But instead we’re subjected to the whole Social Justice Warrior education about a 6 minute cartoon.

If you’re sitting down to watch Looney Tunes, you’re not looking for any deep political lessons, you’re looking for some mindless goofy antics to put a smile on your face.

The point here is that if everything in malleable, if everthing can be edited and altered then we risk corrupting and losing our global knowledge.

If we eliminate dissenting opinions, we eliminate healthy discourse that could lead in new directions. If we censor comedy, or free speech, in my opinion we accelerate the decline of civilization.

If all that you believe is given to you in little spoonfuls of “Approved” narrative then you shouldn’t be surprised to discover that almost nothing you know is true.

We all know that a large percentage of the population will be surprised, then angry, then possibly violent. When that happens… Well, you have book burnings, and stuff akin to the fall of Rome.

This time, it will be worse than the dark ages. Because libraries have fewer and fewer books, some libraries are even destroying books rather than curating them.

A large percentage of late 20th and early 21st century information is digital only. After everything is burned, the power goes down, the internet doesn’t work, and the cell towers go offline what resources will be available to rebuild from?

We’ve written our knowledge and history in the sand on a beach. When the tide comes in, it will be lost.

Just as a lot of old knowledge had to be rediscovered when the Dark Ages waned, humanity will have to claw their way back from the abyss and start over.

For just a minute, imagine what this world would be like if the industrial revolution had started 300 years earlier. What might we know now? The people of Greece, Rome, China, MesoAmerica, and Egypt were all equal in intelligence to us. What they lacked was knowledge, science, and resources.

All of these civilizations were working on those problems when they fell. We’ll never know how much was lost or suppressed. But we do know they contemplated the stars, and studied mathematics. We know they could build massive structures and grasped art, literature, and rudimentary physics.

An argument could be made that had these civilizations conquered their greed, need to control each other, and war, choosing instead to work together we’d be a lot further along in our development than we are today.

Then again, I’m reminded of the line from The Fifth Element, “Everything you create you use to destroy.”

Perhaps that kind of cooperation would have just reduced the population.

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Turn off the dang lights!

I haven’t been sleeping too well. Apologies for being a bit cranky. We’ve had a number of city neighbors moving in to town who apparently don’t know how to turn off a light switch.

There are nights I feel like I’m living on the runway of LAX.

When I first moved up here, it was to get away from the city. On a clear night I could see the Milky Way easily from my yard or deck. The stars were bright and clear. You could even see that some of them were different colors with the naked eye.

Over the decades, light pollution has become increasingly problematic. Now the lights of the Victorville area have grown to the point that you can’t see any of the night sky near the horizon if you’re looking to the North. Victorville and surrounding communities drown out the starlight. If you looked up you could still see the majority of the stars, so that was okay.

However, as more city people moved into my little town, they’ve gotten in the habit of leaving their exterior lights on all night. Some of them have floodlights that blink on and off all night long.

Night isn’t dark anymore. At 3am I can easily wander around my house with no lights because the light from surrounding neighbors spilling through my windows is so bright.

Over the past year, I noticed that I couldn’t see Orion anymore. At first I thought I was just looking for him on cloudy nights, but on a clear moonless night in January I realized the truth. I could not longer see my friends Orion or Ursa Major because my neighbors have the entire town lit up like an LA street. The only thing missing now is stadium lights on the tops of the mountains shining down on the village.

Right now, every night the light is brighter than what we used to call twilight. It’s only getting worse.

Why are city people so afraid of the dark?

Night used to bring out owls, raccoons, opossums, cute little kangaroo mice, the occasional bobcat, and bats. Coyotes could be heard howling & yipping while hunting. On nights with a full moon, you could watch their shadows moving along the wash as they commuted to preferred hunting grounds for their nightly meal.

A UV light would show you insects that you didn’t normally see. While I’m sure the insects are still around. The UV light isn’t strong enough to reveal them. Either the UV is being cancelled out by the background light, or the fluorescence that some insects reflect back is too dim to see. During some seasons, a UV light would make the ground around my house look like an 80s disco scene.

All that is gone, driven out by humans from dazzling urbanite cities and their terror of the dark. Also gone is my ability to sleep soundly with the bedroom shade up. I like falling asleep enjoying the changing moonlight, and on moonless nights looking out at the stars.

When I first found this place, in Spring, Summer, and into Early Autumn, the door to the deck and yard would be open while I was awake.

My dogs would routinely trot out to inspect the yard and keep out unwanted visitors. They’d come back in after their rounds, proud of a job well done. They’d lay on the floor near me ears pricked for an unusual sound. When something sounded odd, they’d be out again checking the perimeter, then if all was secure, they’d come back in and lay down. Bedtime was signaled by me brushing my teeth. They’d head out for one last look around then come in and I’d close the door. We’d all head to the bedroom where one or both of them would assume guardian position facing the bedroom door.

Nights were dark and peaceful. I rested well, secure that my boys could see anything in the night that I couldn’t, should someone or something come into the house. They were the best alarm system in the world. Smart, automatic, and selectively defensive. If they recognized you they’d greet you happily. If they didn’t, they’d let you know you were not welcome until I said you were.

I miss the days of never locking my door. I miss the dark nights, stars, and occasional asteroids leaving streaks of fire in the sky. I miss watching the constellations march across the night or dip below the horizon depending on the time of the year.

These are some of the reasons I came to this little town one weekend and decided to stay.

Now that so much of what I loved about being here is gone, I find that I stay out of nothing more than habit. Fearful humans have robbed me of the joys I used to find in everyday life here in the mountains.

It’s time to move on.

One last place to call home where I can see the night sky again.
One last place to appreciate the beauty of nature without car alarms chirping, people shouting, and nature itself hiding from all the cacophony humankind can’t seem to live without.
A place of silent beauty that somehow seems magically eternal.
A place with seasons.
Summer thunderheads rumbling the ground, flashing lightening, marching across the sky.
The sound of rain on the roof and smell of rich ground soaking up the life giving water.
The feel of a brisk Autumn wind blowing leaves across my path.
A cool bite of gentle snow landing on my cheeks in the gray time of deep Winter.
The riotous miracle of Spring as plants wake from their slumber.

There was a time in my life when I had many of these things. I was too young and impatient to really appreciate it. Where I live now, once gave me some of these wonders.

It’s said, “Adapt or die,” I think I choose to do neither.

I choose to find what I lost, and this time to really appreciate it.

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I noticed gas station changes the other day.

Let me preface with this. I hadn’t purchased gas for my car for probably 3 months. I haven’t been driving all that much and as such, the gas in the tank was mostly from late December or early January.

I went to a massage appointment in February but only burned a quarter of a tank in that round trip.

Last week I had another massage appointment and so on the way back, I stopped at a filling station. In this particular case I chose a station at the Morongo Indian Reservation where I paid $5.83 for premium instead of the $6.31 at the stations near home.

I was feeling pretty happy about the savings and went into the attached store for a drink and snack.

Coming out, I noticed there seemed to be a lot of people milling about. This is somewhat unusual since most of the time gas stations stops are a 10 minute affair at most. Gas, snacks, bathroom break, etc and then you’re on the road again.

Then I noticed that there were a lot of cars parked in the parking lot attached to charging stations.

That was my ah ha moment. There were a ton of people waiting for their EVs to recharge. This got me to thinking about the whole “Green” market. All of the charging stations had credit card slots. I’m assuming that you have to pay for those kilowatts just like you have to pay for gas. I doubt seriously that the gas station is going to give electricity away for free.

I stood there for a moment watching the bored people standing around their cars and thought this is trouble kinda waiting to happen. What happens if a single lady or wealthy man is stuck for a while recharging, at night? Does that make them “Fish in a barrel” for the more predatory elements of society? Especially right now. There are few charging facilities between Palm Springs and LA.

Then there’s the time. How many guys have gone out to their car after their spouse has driven it only to find that the tank is empty. The guy grumbles and drives to the nearest gas station and fills the tank then goes to work.

What does it do to your work schedule if your spouse forgot to plug your car in? Especially if your spouse took your car because they’d forgotten to plug theirs in as well. This presumes that both partners can afford to have electric cars.

I got into my gas vehicle and turned it on. The fuel gauge read “Full” and the indicated estimated range was 575 miles. On a cross country trip last year the furthest I pushed it was 550 miles.

I’d been at the filling station for 10 minutes and was ready to leave. I can’t imagine my frustration at sitting for 1/2 hour to an hour waiting for an electric vehicle to recharge. I’m far too impatient and I’d be losing my mind well inside 30 minutes

I should note, that 550 miles was me running the car in “Eco” mode and on a long flat straight highway with cruise control on. So that was kind of special and neat. I was comfortable and the A/C was on as the miles rolled by. I wondered what an electric car would do in similar circumstances. Would I be as confident and carefree on the trip or would I be worried about the next charging stop and how long I’d be stuck there?

More realistically, my car gets 31MPG consistently. That’s mixed mode driving between the “Comfort” setting and the “Eco” setting. I find that “Comfort” works best in stop & go traffic like in town with lights and stop signs while “Eco” really shines on the open road and also in bumper to bumper traffic in a freeway traffic jam.

On the trip I mentioned, there were two days where my car reported 45 MPG. That was a special circumstance because once you cross the mountains into AZ it’s mostly down hill. With “Eco” on and cruise control the car just kept going, only applying a touch of gas to keep up the momentum.

I suppose an electric would derive some recharging potential in similar circumstances. I’d guess that would extend the range so long as you kept the accessories to a minimum.

The trip across country took me 3 days. My car easily takes me 475 miles and I still have plenty of fuel to find a station, usually about 50 miles remain.

I looked up a Tesla long range. 375 Miles on a full. charge, 80% charge in 30 minutes with a rapid charger. The wallbox charger takes 11 hours and 15 minutes to give you a full charge.

This made me wonder how long it would take to drive across country in a Tesla. I guess the best way would be to assume you’re going 375 miles in the first leg and then 300 miles for each subsequent leg with over night stops at hotels that may or may not have charging stations. I’m betting that an electric vehicle would realistically add a day to the trip. That isn’t too bad if you think about it.

But I gotta say, there were some places where I stopped only for gas and jumped right back in the car. The “bathroom break” waited until a proper rest stop where there were lots of people around.

There was one place that made me swear I’d driven into “Deliverance” I didn’t wait around to hear, “You’ve got a purty face…”

As I left the charge lot, I was thankful for a full tank and the choice to gas up and go quickly.

The lease is coming up on my car. I’ve been shopping around and seen prices that make a Tesla look attractive. (Just Kidding) I’m thinking I’m going to hold BMW to the lease buyout. Who’d have thought that a lease buyout on a BMW would be more of a deal than buying a Toyota?

We are living in strange times.