Statement of Rights for those who Voted

I, (insert name here), hereby declare:

Upon the initiation of any vaguely political conversation in the next four years (from 10/28/08 to 10/28/12), I reserve the right to begin my participation in said conversation with the following statement:

Did you vote in '08?

If you respond in the negative, I further reserve the right to ridicule, demean, disrespect, and ignore any further political statements issuing from your pie hole.

In addition, if I am within earshot of anyone encouraging or participating in conversations about taxes, military actions, civil rights, abortion rights, gender equality, or the perception of the United States on the world stage, I further reserve the right to derail said conversation with the statement:

Did you vote in '08?

...followed with a pointed inquiry as to why not, and barring extenuating circumstances, I will proceed to remind you that you LOST YOUR RIGHT TO COMPLAIN BY NOT VOTING!

I will happily have conversations on the merits or perils of a flat tax, separate but equal treatment of any specific group, or the rights of the unborn. We will debate these issues and others long into the night, and possibly end the conversation on completely different sides of the issue, but if you did not vote...

Voting is a duty.

Voting is a privilege, that many people have fought for and some have died for.

Make your voice heard, and if you do not, then you have no further political weight with me.

Signed this 28^th day of October, 2008

-(Insert name here)

I Have Hope

After the 5^th time of getting to the bottom of this page, and finding myself with my fingers crossed for another "Show More Images" link, I realized that possibly the most influential attribute that Barack possesses is his authenticity. He is a human being, husband, father, American, and probably lastly, a politician. These attributes seem to be so easily captured in images of him, that there is no room for doubt as to his desire to improve the United States, and our reputation on the world stage, for the benefit of all US citizens, and all World citizens.

These all come from one photographer, Callie Shell, shooting for Time magazine.

I am proud, for the first time since being able to vote, to be able to do my part, no matter how small, to raise my hand, voice, wallet, and most importantly, my ballot marking device, to say to the world, and my fellow American Citizens, that I too have had enough, I have hope, and that it is time for historic change. I hope, one gray-haired day in my future, to be able to tell the grandchild on my knee, that yes, I voted for Barack Hussein Obama.

I have hope again.


The following list of traits, captured by one photographer, should be MANDATORY, but sadly are not, for the President of the United States, and preferably for all elected officials.

(EDIT: I seem unable to link directly to the images that represent these traits. Please go to her page, and try to guess which pictures represent these traits)

Compassionate Human Being
Husband
Father
Frugal footwear
Tears of hope
Inspirational
Responsibility and attention to detail

1... 2... 3:45... 6/7/08

No, I am not going to start posting nothing but videos, but WOW! San Francisco, Union Square, Bjork's "It's Oh So Quiet", flash mob dance performance. Oh, and my hottie McHot wife? With a very well produced video of the entire event. Now aren't you sad you weren't there?



[ADDITION]
I just got my pictures from the day posted to Flickr. It was a fantastic day in San Francisco, the kind that we rarely get to enjoy. Have fun with the pics!

Performance Art WOW!

I have never tried embedding a video before, mostly because video is pretty personal taste-y... But for this guy, I gotta try



5:30 and worth every second of it.

Definition: Idea Trucker

All right, the first thing that we have to do, is break down the two words individually. I think these should be pretty straightforward:

i·de·a -noun
any conception existing in the mind as a result of mental understanding, awareness, or activity.

Good enough, pretty much anything in your head. Easy. Everybody should be able to get this one as well:

truck·er -noun
a person whose business is trucking goods.

Hmmm... goods. I think we are about to see a little theme here in truck land. I thought trucking was a verb, but in the interest of thouroughness, I looked it up too, and what do you know? That theme I was talking about?

truck·ing -noun
the art or business of conveying articles or goods on trucks.

Trucking is an ART! I knew that they were under appreciated, but how do you think most truckers would react if you called them artists? Labels sure can do funny things, huh? But I digress... So if you are conveying or moving articles or goods (objects) you are a Trucker. But how about if you are conveying or moving things that are not quite so material? Things like ideas? Now we get to the compounded definition for this phrase:

i·de·a truck·er -noun
A person whose business is conveying any conception existing in the mind as a result of mental understanding, awareness, or activity on trucks.

Hmmm... Not quite perfect. Can't get ideas onto trucks (they're slippery little buggers), besides, this is a little wordy for a dictionary. Let's try a few slight changes:

i·de·a truck·er -noun
A person whose business is conveying any conception from one mind to another.

There we go. And I hope I just made my first delivery to you of many. Please sign here.

ROWE - An Alternative Business Model

After reading about Best Buy's experiment with a ROWE (Results Only Work Environment) on Tim Ferris' blog yesterday (Part One, Part Two), I started thinking about my job specifically. It started on my commute to work, and when I got in to the office, part two of this article had been posted, and I had messages from 80% of the team that I work with saying that they would be working from home (WFH) for today. Well, it WAS a Friday before a long weekend, but that is not really relevant to this...

I then had the following IM conversation with my (ostensible) supervisor, who is a peer (except maybe on an org. chart):

Me: Why am I here?
Me: And I don't mean that in the metaphysical sense!
My supervisor: hahaha you must be all alone
Me: Why is my meat in this specific chair, today (right now)? Almost everyone that I interact with has sent out a WFH message, and this is not going to change one iota the amount of work we get done as a team today. That's pretty cool, but why am _I_ still sitting in a chair in the office? Maybe the answer to that question, from [My Boss], would be better than a raise?
My supervisor: [Co-worker] isn't in yet?
Me: Don't think so, but then I just got here.
My supervisor: hahaha ok
My supervisor: yep
Me: I was already thinking this on the way to BART. I saw myself, walking a meat bag to a transport system to go put my butt in a chair, miles from where I slept. And all I could think was, "I could already be at "work", so why I am I transporting all this meat to the city?"
My supervisor: lol
My supervisor: you are in the transport business and didn't even know it!
Me: Well, I am, but I know I am an "Idea Trucker". Why do I have to be a meat trucker as well?
My supervisor: yup
My supervisor: you need mudflaps

I really like the idea of mental mudflaps, though I have no idea what they would look like.

So, 41% increase in productivity, after letting go the people who are not the best fit for the team, by empowering and respecting your employees. In exchange the company get improved retention and productivity. Why isn't every company doing this?

Oh, and the "Idea Trucker" concept will be the subject of an upcoming post.

Discuss

Art, art, and more art. We NEED more art!

Crazy, crazy Netherlands performance art:

Is this where my community has gotten off to?

Including Excludes

RICH - Propaganda Posters

WWII Era posters reminded people about their actions. I think there are a lot of people who do not quite understand the true costs of their actions. Stealing the metals (copper, aluminum, brass, etc.) wholesale out of our country for the quick cash from unscrupulous metal dealers, to ship it to other countries? We, and by that I mean ALL Americans, are gutting our infrastructure to the benefit of others for a fraction of its true worth. We need to find a way to educate those people that are doing this to our country. Who can come up with a slogan and/or a moving graphic design to help curb this raping of our country?

Now, how about for litter? Wastefulness? Driving SUV's and the gas it wastes?

Anyone want to run with this?

Compliment or not?

I was walking down the street, in downtown San Francisco, and a middle-aged African-American man, with a little visible gold in his grill, said to his friends (or to me): "That's a cold moustache!". My question to you, compliment or not?

He's Alive!!!

It has been way too long, but I think I have the transition to my new host pretty much completed. There should be no more service interruptions, though there might be a bunch of visual changes coming in the near future.

Speaking of changes... For those who know me personally, what would you like to see me talk about, cover or otherwise discuss? What sort of conversations could we time-shift to the comments that our life migrations have made difficult? I remember way too many late nights, arguing the merits of communism (or some other topic) and way to few of them in recent memory. For those of you who do not know me personally (is there even one of you who reads this?), welcome, and what do you find interesting about the things that have been written about here in the past?

A little something to get the ol' brain juices flowing:
What might we find at the intersection of Moore's Law, economy of scale, information portability, and good old enthusiasm that could be used to improve the maximum numbers of lives? For the smallest financial investment? Discuss!

I'm not sure if anyone is actually subscribed to this blog in any way, but if you are, would you let me know, either in the comments or via email, how you watch my ramblings?

There is no love without a mustache!

This just in... I have found a wonderful blog, full of photos, stories, links and humor, dedicated to:

Mustaches of the Nineteenth Century

I have not read this before, and am not sure of the source, but from the pen of Guy de Maupassant comes what I will call:

There is no love without a mustache!

I am not sure how my wife would agree with all of this, but when is the last time you read a letter this beautiful, dedicated to facial hair? Enjoy!

Burning Man 2008 Art Theme announced...

"American Dream"

If this is a prank, somebody hacked the BM website. Let the raving, flaming, angry emails start flowing!

...so... angry... maybe this is another of the 7 signs of the apocalypse? (Like the smoking ban in Irish bars) Or just the last sign that Burning Man has jumped the shark?

I am back, clean, (though most of my stuff isn't) and will be posting photos and more stories soon, but this just had to be posted ASAP.

Just HOW does this theme relate at ALL to what Burning Man is supposed to be about. Like we need MORE RVs out there? Big Red, White, and Blue RVs?

SOMEbody PLEASE post a comment about this to help me understand how any attendees can get behind this? I have nightmares of beer-helmeted, NASCAR fans saying "Well, finally! Now I can get into this Burning Thing!"

Ick!

Words of Wisdom from an unlikely source

This is a great piece of advice that I got from BRK (WOW Information for Hunters) that I think should be spread far and wide as some of the best help for day-to-day living in this hectic, crowded world:

My friend, there is one bit of advice you need to heed. One small tidbit of information that shall put your mind at ease. One itsy bitsy teenie weenie morsel of truth that shall set you free:

People are stupid.

Unfortunately, too often in our lives we have to deal with People. Friends are cool. Acquaintances are nice. People are dumb. People are ignorant. People are loud-mouthed schnooks. People need to take a long quaff from a great big tall frosty glass of Shut The H3ll Up juice.

You have three choices when dealing with People: let them control you, get away from them, or shut them up.

Heed the advice of the BRK. I know that I do!

Almost Outta Here!

I hope to be leaving for the desert in a couple of days to go to this little thing where they burn some stuff. Let's try this new embedded map thing from Google and see how it works.


View Larger Map

Hopefully this will give you an idea of where to search for me and my lovely wife!

While I am gone, I am sure that this event will get lots of news coverage, but there is one group out there that will be recording tv/podcasts and putting them online LIVE! Check out TV Free Burning Man and if you see a bunch of HUGE bikes/trikes with fire shooting out the top, look close, because I will probably be in the middle of it!

These last couple of months have been pretty insane, with lots of changes in the lives of the people I care about the most. To all of you, I give one of my new "Favorite Quotes": This too shall pass. I love you all, and will be sending my best wishes for you skyward on plumes of black smoke.

After I return from this trip (in a little over a week), I am sure there will be the usual post-event gushing of stories, but I will also be making it a point to improve the frequency of posts at That Place.

In the meantime, I might (but probably not) find access to email/blog while I am gone, so feel free to write comments or to me directly, and if nothing else, I will respond after I get back. Anyone who reads this blog, use this week to think about what you would like to see here, and I promise it goes to the top of my priority list upon my return to the world of boring normalcy.

Burn Hot, Burn Big.

Poem

It has been too long, and I promise to try to make writing here more of a priority.


When asked if I haz hunger (see lolcats) my respose was:

Hunger looms like a stooping hawk
Must eat meat
To stave off death