Stainislaw Lem

I bumped into an article on Slashdot a couple of days ago about "The Futurological Congress" written by Stainislaw Lem - - I'd never heard about him but it did raise my curiosity enough to go to the site of all semi-relevant human knowledge (wikipeidia) and search his name.

Some of the quotes they had from his work seemed to hit a note:

This one sounds like a politician's motto: "The ancients used to say: mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur — the world wants to be deceived, so let it be deceived."

"he who can transform himself has no one in the world but himself to blame for his failings, no one but himself to hold responsible for his dissatisfaction."

Seems like an interesting writer and possibly a worthy read, but he wrote a lot so I'm curious. Where's the best place to start?

Shotgun Connections

Warning: Recognized Possible Rant Ahead - from thinking through the fingers.

Seems like a rather fitting title for what has become the human norm for human interpersonal communication. All the Blogs, Face Book, Twitter, My Space, Txt Msgs, E-mail, Phone, it all comes in haphazardly in a wide spread fashion. Each declaring "I'm right here" - the phone adding the immediate requirement of asking the following question, "What are you going to do about it?"

This mode of communication has become a fun high tech armor to push those around us out of wounding range. For in the din and chaos everything is said, but nothing that you really need to hear. Each layer exists either as white noise, or encrypted to the point of carrying meaning only for the person who sent it...

And as all this communicational drivel is happening - does anyone notice what is really happening. We splatter information across the whole world, many in sawed shotgun fashion, trying to grow closer we only push ourselves further apart... only the spam marketer seems to listen as they craft ads to fit our specific need.

Electronic social interaction has taken on a huge lvl of popularity which makes me wonder - is it because you are forced to give the other person a chance to edge into the conversation ever 255 characters?

I'm just as guilty, I've grown tired of humans; those that want to be spoon fed the information - that need their shoes low-jacked with small GPS chips in order to find them.

Has the art, need and desire of self sufficiency died in the individual? Has the power of deciding our direction been passed on to the bureaucratic dictatorships of the world? If so then there really is no longer a reason to complain about the SNAFU'd FUBAR we are all sliding, and sometimes running toward.

/rant

Time to go hide from the world again, and why do I suddenly have an urge to go watch Firefly?

Check In

Hard to believe it's been close to two months, at least since I really logged into DI. I've been experimenting with Facebook as you can tell from the badge below.

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The format has taken me a bit to get used to. In many ways it feels like blogger shorthand. Somewhere between the nothing of twitter and the long winded nature of a regular blog.

On the plus side I feel a bit more connected with friends, but it's got the wave and say something real quick as you pass on the street. (I almost put in the halls at high school - but that was a different life time ago).

Some times I wonder why not use my given name for Facebook, but the answer is simple. I don't want to be pulled back by everyone in my past (those from my past I wanted to stay in contact with I have - last thing I want/need is a virtual high school reunion). The goal is to look forward, to those I have met and those I have yet to meet.

I think the rambling nature of DI is enough to keep it around for those deeper ramblings, and the postings of other items of intrest that don't seem fit for note passing or yelling down the street.

Until next post, enjoy your Friday the 13th, one of the best days of the year :)

Haitus

No idea what to say- - may be back later. . .

Until then.

Okay, so the revolution may not be televised, but would anyone caught in the middle of it notice?

Itsuka no Merry Christmas Reminder

It's been a long time since I've had a comment here on DI. . . imagine my suprise when it was for an old post from a couple of years ago. B'z - Itsuka no Merry Christmas from back in 12/2006. 

It was interesting to see how many others have recreated the song on their blog/site at JapanSugoi - here is the link to the specific post: http://japansugoi.com/wordpress/beautiful-japanese-christmas-song-itsuka-no-merry-christmas/ 

I did some research and found the fanvid for Dir En Grey - which I like as a group for some of their other work was done with the B'z version of the song (and as near as I can tell it's the richest version, and best sound quality that YouTube has to offer at the moment :)

So if visual kei isn't your thing - feel free to start the song, minmize the browser and enjoy. . .

B'z has some very rich tones that just add a certain warmth to the entire song, however it was Ayumi Hamasaki's solo version from 2002 that seemed to really seemed to stick with me this year - - speical thanks to FeelDbeat for providing the translation notes below.

English title:A Long Ago Merry Christmas

The lights of December begin to light up slowly
Anyone would fall in love with the busily dancing city

I ran, and just as the stores were closing, I bought the chair that you wanted
Carrying the package on the train by myself, I was happy

I thought that we would always be together, hand in hand
With everything glittering, I chased my dreams recklessly
Thinking the day would come that we shared all our happiness and sadness
We smiled at each other, on that faded, long ago merry Christmas

Singing while hurrying along the railroad tracks to your house
I opened the door, and you were busy making dinner

When I proudly showed you your present, you were so happy
Seeing your smile, I held you honestly again

I thought that we would always be together, hand in hand
With everything glittering, I chased my dreams recklessly
For the first time I was afraid that you would leave me
I realized what it was to love someone, on that long ago merry Christmas

While looking at the candle light coloring the room, I said we wouldn't part
After that, without knowing why, I suddenly cried

I thought that we would always be together, hand in hand
With everything glittering, I chased my dreams recklessly
For the first time I was afraid that you would leave me
I realized what it was to love someone, on that long ago merry Christmas

Standing here, someone hurridly passes by me
Carrying a package, with a happy face

Buried in the White

Haven't seen this much snow in what feels like forever. You know it's bad when they close the college campus here, and you can no longer make out where the outside grill was located.

And yet even with the hills of white closing in there was still some urgency to try and dig out. Even after being ditched by the kids the job still needed to be done. I just don't trust the local weather much and if 3 feet is bad now in a mixed power state the last thing I want to find out what it will be like if we get hit with a freezing rain or anything else that might cause it to compact or go slushy.

I'd imagine the plow coming through will be bad enough - maybe they will let me tele-commute and I can wait out the for the thaw in spring :P

Wonder if there will be work tomarrow - it's still snowing pretty good, and if there isn't work if I can get away and just lock myself in my room and get lost in the virtual snow of Northrend?

HBO - Lost Week, First Snow

There are times when hibernation really sounds good - sadly our world is on such a time crunch that loosing a week during the holidays comes with a mixed reaction. However a cold/flu has a way of adjusting those priorities, and made for some interesting realizations.

Most two parent families run on a Good Cop/Bad Cop system. This is much harder for single parent situations (even when channeling multiple voices)

It seems like most kids will play the BS card first - I'm working on at least getting them to understanding that there's more than one card to that deck. And if all goes well maybe we can get those dots will stay connected a bit longer each time :)

As for the holidays -- still playing catch up there, who knows maybe I'll get lucky and catch a tail wind to help on the Christmas stuff.

So many people - - deep down I think I'm beginning to yearn for a PVE vacation. In many ways there are just too many interruptions and no chance for escape.

How does Dexter do it :P I know good writers help. Right now I'm enjoying Season 2, Disk 2 - - some interesting twists, and I'm looking forward to the continuing of this pleasantly disturbed state.

I may not have gone through recovery, but I'm still tracking more with the main character than any of the others. Maybe there's a hidden serial bit to my life locked deep in, a dark rider that I've managed to keep submerged. I mean it's not like I've got the gulf stream to bury the Dark Rider's prey in >:)