Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Random Thoughts on a given

Well, here I find myself with time on my hands as I wait for a 1.26GB video upload to finish (146 minutes remaining), I could leave it but if it should fail (like the computer goes to sleep)- I would be royally peeved with the PC and myself.
and
that was Sunday. Today is Wednesday and it's been a ride and a half.
Today was meetings with a trip to Spirited Art, for Staff Fun Day.
Spirited Art Knoxville in case you want to know more
Where we ate some BBQ and then set to painting. Boats on the water, probably morning.
 That's me back row right,
Between the two not as attractive guys. :)

What is remarkable about this, is that I have not painted anything in around 10 years. The last thing I painted was on canvases attached to the Barn on my mother's Ranch.
I had forgotten, what it is to paint.
it is a feeling of freedom and expression that often supersedes my ability to put into words.
For me Painting is like saying I love you with acrylics.
and then I did this.
Thus coming back down to earth. I had to chase that with some Pecan Pie.

Oh Well.


And what an amazing array of ignoramuses there are.
There are so many celebrities who excel in this category only to be outdone by radio show hosts like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. TV show news anchors (all networks so far although Fox mostly tops out in this category) and then there is the ever loving lousy amount of them on 4chan/reddit/facebook as well as almost any site that allows commentary (youtube- although the vid response are quite amusing). 


There are morsels of wisdom out there True Believers!

so my Sister in Law, MVV posted this interesting video.

so I had an instant thought about this 

Yep, The Zombie apocalypse is upon us, and we have the Iphone to thank for this. Android too, not the windows phone though (nobody who hasn't been hired by Microsoft actually uses it)
I am having a "conversation" with my nephew, We will call him "James" (that is actually his name and no he really doesn't give a F- well you get the point)
Anyway, conversation is a bit skewed, because he has his cell phone in one hand and a cigarette in the other. Suddenly, I am no longer concerned with the fact that he is smoking himself into an early grave. 
Why?
He's already dead (just kidding) the conversation is mostly dead though- it's zombified.



So there you have it. Now let's recap.
  1. Cardio
  2. The Double Tap
  3. Beware of Bathrooms
  4. Wear Seat Belts
  5. No Attachments
  6. The “Skillet”
  7. Travel Light
  8. Get a Kick Ass Partner
  9. With your Bare Hands
  10. Don’t Swing Low
  11. Use Your Foot
  12. Bounty Paper Towels
  13. Shake it Off
  14. Always carry a change of underwear
  15. Bowling Ball
  16. Opportunity Knocks
  17. Don’t be a hero (later crossed out to be a hero)
  18. Limber Up
  19. Break it Up
  20. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, unless it’s a sprint, then sprint
  21. Avoid Strip Clubs
  22. When in doubt Know your way out
  23. Zipplock
  24. Use your thumbs
  25. Shoot First
  26. A little sun screen never hurt anybody
  27. Incoming!
  28. Double-Knot your Shoes
  29. The Buddy System
  30. Pack your stain stick
  31. Check the back seat
  32. Enjoy the little things
  33. Swiss army Knife
  34. if all else fails, throw spare iphone's in their path



IF WE ARE REALLY LUCKY, THE IPHONE ZOMBIES WILL EAT THEIR BRAINS FIRST.


Thanks man. You are my god of awesomeness.



In case you have found this all rather dull or depressing, just remember I love you guys (well most of you guys)

Especially the Smart women who make the world Awesome


OKAY. I concede I love all the people in the world who actually give a damn for each other. The rest of you can apply for Hugs in the comments section.

AND
that is life according to Mike!


Monday, August 26, 2013

this is my response to Philip DeFranco's question about Syria. What should we (the US) do?

I hear you. It's a lot harder to sit here in the US and make judgements about another part of the world. It's worse to have to say yes I think we should bomb the crap out of a country for killing its own citizens. (that is what I would called fucked up philosophy) Somehow I would like the US to find a different means of doing things. But as many of us (who bother) know diplomacy and economic sanctions seldom accomplish much more than hurting the populace you are trying to help.
In a perfect world, Our (the US) word should be enough. Our bombs only fall on the guilty and sending in soldiers only happens for all the right reasons. This is not nor ever will be a perfect world.
I am Half South African. When I left RSA in the 80's, I believed that I was escaping a draft that would put me in front of my fellow countrymen and be ordered to kill/hurt them. (It was a largely misinformed yet noble concern). I was convinced at the time that South Africa's problems could not be resolved without much bloodshed and outright civil war. The problem there was so much more complex then the world ever knew about (I could go on but it would take all day just to give you the picture of what it was about and like living there)
Two reasons I mention South Africa. One is that the US and much of the world had incorrect information about what was happening let alone why or how to fix it.
two, I was wrong about it as well and I was living in the middle of it. To this day, I can remember what it was like listening to the gunfire and violence in the townships which were a lot closer to the white residences than they were said to be. In the end, SA resolved the issues and much of their problems on their own. All sides agreed to end the violence and come to a resolution that for the most part saved more lives than it lost. It was nothing short of a miracle to me (hiding out in the US waiting for the end to come).
My point is we have little to no idea what is actually happening in Syria nor the means to do much more than cause more damage. Any intervention will probably not improve the situation and most of our (US) forms of intervention put Soldiers lives in peril.
Still to do something is better than to do nothing (Serbia/Rwanda)
I still want to believe that humanity (any humanity) can and will succeed over the old rules that so much of us still cling to. Anything can be resolved, it just will take someone finding a better way and then the rest of us supporting that person's resolve.
Otherwise we will carpet bomb Syria. And just like Bagdad and much of Vietnam, it will kill thousands of people without accomplishing much. If we have any positive results they will be minimal and our media/politicians will do their best to make them outshine the destruction and havok they caused.

One last thing. I am going to refer to Robert Heinlein's book Starship Troopers (which has had a larger impact than most people know or at least are willing to admit- please forget the ridiculous movie) In the book, amongst other speculations and theories, Heinlein states the only effective way to solve a problem/crisis is through direct localized action where the targets you need to reach are the only targets you hit and punish/destroy. If you want to make a point or get your point across than you must be very specific in doing so. In english and the ridiculous movie that would be illustrated when Sgt Zim impales the Pvt Levy's hand to the wall with a combat knife during a "discussion" over the use of nuclear weapons- "to get the point across. Heinlein believed this was the point to having a mobile infantry (which is what the Military at large agreed on and put into place). If we could actually do that. Then I would be all for a specific attack in which we removed the problem in Syria (i.e. remove Assad and his cronies).

It was a poignant book which I reread every now and again to remind myself that there are ways that violence can be used effectively and also to remind myself that it is both a good thing and bad thing that more people do not read much.

and that is life (at least this afternoon) according to Mike. 

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Sometimes Facebook Can be...exactly what you need it to be.

Ah Facebook,

 Love it

or Hate it
or leave it alone.
preferably like a rejected blind date in a bad restaurant never knowing that you saw her first.

Then someone you thought you knew (once) jumps the fence, runs across your freshly mowed lawn and screams like a teeny bopper and says Mikey, It's me... Tina! Don't you remember me? I sat like 5 or 6 or 8 rows behind you in Math class. I remember you because you like to push your knees into my butt in English!





 Facebook is like the Moon in a Robert Heinlein novel


She is often unpredictable, unfair, unkind and unknown 
and just when you are sure you have her figured out-

she will surprise you with things you never suspected possible

Facebook can be hope, power, speech, knowledge, friendship, trust and love.



It also can be cruel, hateful, mocking, mean, unfriendly and make you want to bash your LCD into finite flecks of plastic.





A few months ago I swore of Facebook after a particularly vicious round with a couple of former "friends" who had been at a school I had gone to 30 years ago. I had grown tired of Facebook and the denizens who I interacted with, the balance was not there.

So I said goodbye to the people I thought should know and took off.


It lasted 3 weeks. When it dawned on me that I needed Facebook more than it needed me. 









What I mean by that is, it is a social outlet for me. I get a lot of inspiration from the site. What was wrong was I was not using facebook as much as it was using me. I kind of have my brother to thank for this revelation...



Not in the way you think, however. Sorry Stephen. 

SV2 pointed me to these personality/self-image tests. I even started a few of them before it hit me what was off.
Basically it works like something Neil Gaiman says. 
"The one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and dance and live as only you can.




So in short, make facebook what you want and it will work for you.



also, choose your friends wisely.






Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Some days are just weird days

The other morning I took my mother for an appointment at the Greater Knoxville Ears, Nose and Throat office. My first thought if there is a greater one, was there a lesser ears, nose and throat?
My second thought was maybe it has something to do with size. The greater is for bigger and lesser for smaller. So that we would not be seeing anyone with small ears, noses and throats.
But that is just silly- It's probably something to do with celebrity.

another app I will not be getting


I went looking for a restroom and found my genders designation room occupied so I tried to wait, when that failed I went upstairs. I went to the elevator bank and pushed the up arrow and found a more spacious gender based restroom. I wondered why we always went to the correct (matching) gender room. Although I have seen more women coming out of men's rooms then the opposite. It's automatic- we are programmed to do it. The next thought was there are gender separated bathroom in airport but not on the planes
MyDoorSign.com  (picture credit with thanks)


.
On my way back, I had to wait on an elevator. These two women were there with me. The first car to arrive was going up. They didn't seem to take note of me (nothing new). The doors closed and they were gone. I waited for a time then the same elevator opened and the same two women got off. They were surprised to find me already there. They stopped just outside the elevator and one of them said. "Oh, nice to see you again."
I didn't laugh. I guess I was surprised that they had noticed me.
They smiled and I smiled and off they went. I
I got on the elevator and looked at the man and woman already in the car. They looked at me as if I was in on some joke. As the doors closed I said.
"They just got onto this elevator from the same floor they just got off on."

We laughed.

Today it was supposed to rain. It looked like rain and then it looked like sun and then it rained.
I realized how alone I sometimes feel.
I thought of all the women that I love. Yes, love. Not all of them love me back.
I thought of how I wished one of them could love me back in more than friend/big brother kind of way.
It is the plight of almost every person who has ever found themselves looking in the mirror one day and realizing that yes you are in fact a reject of the mainstream.
Be it nerd, geek, weirdo, romantic and a whole list of less flattering names that I will leave to your imaginations.
Until that stupid movie (revenge of the nerds) no one considered us anything but undesirable unless they needed something from us. These days, for me anyway, it is usually free technology support (this makes me a nerd in some crowds) One thing I would like to point out is that I am a 6 foot 4 Nerd who has not been bullied successfully since Middle school. Not that others did not try regardless and there are still some who ignore the fact I am 44. I will only say that most of my tormentors have not succeeded (at least to expectations)

We all want love, we all probably need it.
Few of us get it.
people who are popularly considered to be like me (stereotypes abound) often do not.
It's not fate, it's not destiny.
Mostly I think it is luck
and social depravity.

Why social depravity?
Because society often decides who gets to be in love (semi successfully in love anyway)
In the broadest sense, only the beautiful (sexy/handsome/attractive/thin) get first dibs and we the less than perfect all to often reject others (often exactly the same) because we use the same qualifiers as the "beautiful people" do.

Society tells us who we are allowed to love or at very least have the expectation to love.
let me also say this Society (culture) as diffuse as it is
wants to determine whether I will be allowed to find my mate and who/what/how/probably where that is.
It's crap, it may even look like crap, I want it to be crap but today I find it inescapable.


Why bring this up?
Because I woke up one day and found the world of rejects, freaks, geeks and nerds suddenly was filled with beautiful people.

You would think I would be ecstatic. that I would be found running down the hallways of some educational institution yelling YES!

Nope, you will not.
this says it all (especially on facebook)
Why?

The answer is simple.
I didn't wake up as prince charming or even prince better looking with confidence to spare.

I am still me. The outsider, the rejected, the guy people often ignore on facebook (I admit I can be annoying- I suspect it mostly has to do with being honest- although I could be lying), avoid sitting next to on buses, airplanes and generally distance themselves from until they hear that Mike can fix just about anything technical and often mechanical or emotional.
It's insincere.

At the end of the day. we are just using each other. So our relationship is doomed if it ever begins.

Now, before you take me off to saint me (burn me at the stake) let me point out that I am, in fact, my own monster.

I want to fall in love (bed) with a beautiful smart, thin, moderately successful woman (sorry guys, next incarnation you get dibs). I am subject to my own complaint.
Even if I rejected the whole model and went out looking for a plain, drab, woman of weight (notice I left out smart- she has to be smart- it's one prejudice I will not even entertain going without) there will be the last irony.

She isn't looking for me either. She is looking for her version of the same thing.


There's only a 1 in a million chance she isn't (massive approximates- for you brains who insist on exacting detail- "deal with it")

Yes, as old and outdated as us 44 year-olds are, I do know some lingo.

There are exceptions to that rule. I know there are happy couples who only looked for the other and never tried other venues (which is a cheap and cheesy way of saying that they are pretty much in the same boat as me). Many or at least some will make the same claim but they are lying. They settled for less on the basis that something (sorry someone) is better than nothing (isolation).


This is not an end all or be all blog post. It is just how I have felt lately and especially today.

or maybe not
Some days are just weird days
when in doubt dance


One more thing. This is just about me. All i can write about is my story. It's not yours or anyone you know (unless you know me or think you know me). This is a day according to me.
This is me before I became bump-less
as usual, you are so right Emma Watson
Or as I usually say (rather)

That's life according to Mike.