Turn around thoughts

I could write about my car-jacking last night. I could talk about the feelings and disappointment that I have in my heart. I'm not going to talk about those things. Those are such small things they don't interest me. What interests me is hope, society, and the human side of us.

This feeling is materialized in politics. This is crystallized in the votes we make and the campaigns we support. I read an inspiring email from John Kerry tonight. He sent it after being nominated as the Democratic candidate for President. The email was true and well put and it makes me proud that I plan to vote for John-John.

But there was line that caught me and actually prevented me from reading any further in the letter:

When we talk about building a stronger America and putting ordinary people back in the driver's seat of politics...

and at first I liked this line; I felt empowered by it, considering myself as an "ordinary people." But then I realized that we can't put ordinary people back in the driver's seat of politics because they've never been there in the first place. Throughout American and Earth politics, the ordinary person has never destined his position in life. The tribes have their shamans, the beduins have their warlords, the Tibetans have their monks, the Polynesian have their kings (along with the European), the Egyptians have their pharaohs, the Native Americans have their chiefs, the Indians have the caste.

Never in history, including present day, has the ordinary person fueled the motor of general politics and society. Never has Ge (to find the meaning and use of this word, contact Brian Figueroa) been empowered to drive policy because it takes the exceptional to represent the whole. This case in history is not flawed in the contents of the society it was raised for, but it is an exoskeleton that must be shed in order to develop into the next phase of humanity. Never before have we been equipped with the tools of the exceptional to direct society's path. In the past the exceptional have served as a voice for the whole, a culmination of the movement within a people. Now, the people speak for themselves and have the same volume as the traditional representatives of our cultures. A web site for David Cobb is just as easy to find on the Internet as a web site for George Bush. Genesis Google, the democratizer of the information age. With the exceptional representatives, will also shed the need for broadcast media. COD (Content On Demand) and SSE (Superior Search Engines) will eliminate the need for radio and television networks and political representatives.

With the advent of true COD, the consumer becomes the owner of each piece of content ge consumes. Copy write becomes irrelevant because cost of delivery is essentially eliminated. Electrons carry coins and creative rather than copper and canvas. A static piece of hardware and a subscription to access offer the access and voice of the exceptional. Not only do we COD, but also we produce it, making us all a little bit of the shaman or the guru.

SSE enables the ordinary person to sift through the overwhelming silt of COD and find the cohesive message that speaks to gim (another variation of ge, if you're wondering.) SSE allows us to link with other like-minded humans and share our message rather than compete between one another until we crown a victor exceptional to represent us all. With SSE we can share one voice yet remain individual.

So, my call to arms in this rant is not to put ordinary people back in the driver seat of America, but to put ordinary people in the driver seat of America and the Earth for the first historical time in our existence. With courage we can expand our system to utilize the tools we have developed. We, the ordinary people, are already in the driver seat of America but we are like a sixteen year old who has never been there before. Gas in, clutch out, it is time to go.

It's all about the delivery

Next time I'm looking for tickets to a phat show: I'll do some thing like this. Wish I could be there myself.

But anyway, tonight I'm on my way to a Drive By Truckers show here in Charlotte. So life isn't all that bad.

So True...

You know you're living in 2004 when...
1. You accidentally enter your password on the microwave.
2. You haven't played solitaire with real cards in years.
3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of 3.
4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you.
5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don't have e-mail addresses.
6. You go home after a long day at work you still answer the phone in a business manner.
7. You make phone calls from home, you accidentally dial "9" to get an outside line.
8. You've sat at the same desk for four years and worked for three different companies.
10. You learn about your redundancy on the 11 o'clock news.
11. Your boss doesn't have the ability to do your job.
12. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone
is home.
13. Every commercial on television has a website at the bottom of the screen.
14. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn't have the first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go and get it.
15. You get up in the morning and go online before getting your coffee.
16. You start tilting your head sideways to smile. :)
17. You're reading this and nodding and laughing.
18. Even worse, you know exactly to whom you are going to forward this message.
19. You are too busy to notice there was no #9 on this list.
20. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn't a #9 on this list.
AND NOW YOU ARE LAUGHING at yourself.

Virtual Gallery Crawl

Creativity spirals from the work of others. That why I like sites like The Art Conspiracy when I'm looking to expand the thoughts and creations that I contribute to the word. Worth a look.

Fresh Music Rainbow

If music was a picture is this what it would look like?
 
What you're looking at, if you didn't already figure it out, is a picture taken with my phone camera of the reflection of a fluorescent light in a CD that I burned of some Steve Kimock tunes.  Maybe you guessed the CD part, but if you got the artist right before reading this, you're hired.
I love finding beauty in unexpected places.  I don't appreciate it as much when it's presented to me on a plate.  I like it raw and undiscovered.  I like it rough on the edges and open to interpretation.

Smilefest Excitement

When I was in college I was fond of a quote that I thought I had coined: "Anticipation is 90% of Appreciation" Although some may doubt how true that axiom is, I definitely live up to it from time to time.
The more I plan and think about an event, the better I perceive it when it actually occurs. And that's what makes me excited about this year's Smilefest in 7 days! I've falling into full swing planning mode: schedules for what bands to see, menus on what to eat, layout of the campsite, supplies list. I'm downloading shows from bands that will be playing. I've even made a to-scale model of the tarp cover that we will be using on the tent. I've delegated tasks to Katie and planned for the theme of the campsite. (note, that this isn't totally out of wack because there is a contest on the best campsite decorations going along with a common theme: A 1000 stars.
All of this I enjoy because it gets me more excited to enjoy another time that is to come.
I love anticipation and the fun it brings!

Get lost in the universe

With the launch of another earth observing satilite: Aura, and all the talk about the Cassini spacecraft lately, I decided to surf over to Planetary Photojournal: NASA's Image Access Home Page. What a great site to get lost in. The images that they share are so amazinig!

Bumper Bash Enlightenment

Kensho - A brief experience or glimpse of Enlightenment

This weekend I was rear-ended in a real minor accident. Just a scrape on the bumper and the panel might have cracked a clip, but I'm not even sure about that. Anyway, it sucks to be hit by anyone in your car. It was definitely her fault. I was at an exit to a parking lot waiting to pull out, and she bumped me from behind. Katie was in the car and she immediately exclaimed what had happened. For me, the reaction was more gradual and calm, and I didn't consciously realize why at first. I got out of the car looked at where I had been hit and then talked to the driver. I didn't want to get involved with insurance companies, I told her that. I didn't want to wait for a police report, I didn't want to yell, I didn't want to get mad. I still didn't consciously understand why. I took her phone number, I didn't check her id or get her license plate number, I didn't even look at what make the car was. I told her I trusted her, I would look into getting it repaired and give her a call.
Katie didn't get my reaction, and I didn't try to explain. I just said, if she is untruthful, dharma will catch up with her. And after saying that, I understood my reaction and smiled.
Two years ago I was traveling on business in San Jose, CA. It was my first day working with a new client that was a big account. Driving to the training center, I rear-ended a girl because I wasn't paying attention. Her name was Kaia and her reaction wasn't as calm as mine was this past weekend. I didn't have my insurance information on me and I didn't know how to handle a wreck in a rental car. I was also nervous and scared about getting to the work assignment on-time. She took all the information I had to give and we went on our way. Over the course of several weeks, we corresponded and she calmed and decided not to hold me responsible for any repairs or carry through with any other actions. I was grateful for being excused for what could have been a sticky situation.
This was my chance to give back to the universe. The girl that rear-ended me gave me the name of Maggie Evans. I haven't gotten an answer at the number that she gave me the first three times that I've tried to call. I've gotten 3 estimates today on repairs for the car. They range from $199 to $550. I would like to get it repaired but it's not going to kill me or disable the car if I don't. It saddens me a little if Maggie did give me fake information, but I still feel good about the decision that I made. I have taken from the world and I have given; everything does stay in balance in the long run.

MS lends a hand

I'm happy to learn about the move that Microsoft is making with their Visual Studio 2005 Express Beta Products looks like they are doing it to try to expand their reach of programers using and being familar with VS and the .net family, but all the same, I'll take free tools and inforamtion where I can get it. Not this weekend though, this weekend the project is painting the bedroom