Sunday, May 16, 2010
Updating
I've been really "busy" with school. So I haven't done much of anything else in months. I'll be done in a week or so, for a week or so, before summer school. In the meantime, I'm going to try to make a blog just about Stockton.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Serious Gold Panning
My father and I went north-east from Stockton, over the first mountains of the Sierras, north-west of Lake Tahoe. High high up. There was snow on the ground, all we could see for miles was mountains and valleys with thousands of pines. We drove down down into a valley, to a town on the edge of nowhere, Washington California, population about 200. They all stared at us. We continued on to the one lane road that serves two way travel, it hugged the mountain side, and believe me, that's fantastically exciting on its own. Hairpin turns with no guarantee there isn't another car coming your direction on this one lane road next to a steep cliff with no rails. We came to a fork of the Yuba River and parked the car. We had to walk from there. Down down, to the river's edge. There had been water shooting out of the sides of the rock everywhere we drove, but now, up close, scaling this steep edge to the river below, it was much more fascinating. We could see where springs had come and gone, leaving loose rocks all roughly pointing riverwards. At the top, there were giant, maybe 15 foot high, hundreds of feet wide piles of stones, remnants of the 1849 gold rush. It was only a couple years after the gold rush that these massive piles of rocks were made, left over from the massive industrial operations on these mountains and rivers extracting gold. It was only a few years after that that California banned massive gold mining tactics like blasting and dredging, preserving the Sierras (unlike some now much uglier parts of America) and ending the gold rush. Yeah, I bet you didn't know that, the government ended the gold rush, they didn't run out of gold.
Finally we came to the river's edge. Just for the hell of it, I grabbed some loose rocks, and I panned them, using a spring that was shooting out perfect clean/clear water. I planned on just diving in the river. This water was crystal clear, and I thought the better panning area might be on the other side. Some parts of the river were about 10 feet deep, and I could clearly see the bottom. But caution got the better of me, and I checked the water first. It was ludicrously cold. I started panning close to the bank. I found gold in nearly every pan. Although it was very very little gold. Fingerprinters I called them, because they could fit between the ridges of my fingerprint when I picked them up. I came up with various names to call my gold if I should find anything larger.
Bill-payer: about $100 worth of gold. It would be enough to pay a bill.
Pay-checker: about $1200 worth of gold. This much could survive me a month.
Year-wager: $35-38K this was the first value I came up with, 1 Kilogram of gold is about $35-38,000 and would be about a year's wage.
After an hour of panning, I ate some lunch out of my pan. My lunch was a Lunchable.
I cooled off my Capri-Sun in the ice-cold river.
So at some point I was thinking, this river is too cold for frogs. If there was a frog that could tolerate this river, it'd be one hardcore fucking frog. Then I looked over and saw a small pool near the river made by one of the springs. Because it was much more shallow it was obviously a bit warmer, and it was full of moss and mold etc. I thought, now there's a place for a frog. Then I saw a frog, so I grabbed it.
Anyway, back to the river, I decided to cross it. By the time I had explored the other side and come back I was relatively wet from the waist down. I decided why not go all the way? So I jumped in the river and let it carry me downstream. I reached a broad area, where it branched. The river was shallow here, but slow, one part of the river took an extremely sharp turn, becoming very rapid, and the other part just went to a pool of moss with a couple very beautiful waterfalls coming out of the rocks.
Ice cold, and probably dying, I started swimming back. I finnally came out and warmed up a bit. Then I went back to panning. I found a rock that had gold color in it. I thought it was gold. My dad wasn't so sure.
After another hour, we were fairly worn out and unlucky. We packed up and climbed out of there.
When we got home, my father tried further techniques to identify the gold color, and couldn't. I still think it's gold. I stated that if it is gold, it would be a Sam's Breakfaster: about $3-4 worth of gold, enough for a Sam's Cafe' ham and eggs breakfast.
So altogether, we had a great time. I brought home snow and threw some at my brother, we brought home gold. I'm convinced I have a little nugget of gold. I have an unidentified species of frog. We got some photos, so I'll be putting them up here.
Finally we came to the river's edge. Just for the hell of it, I grabbed some loose rocks, and I panned them, using a spring that was shooting out perfect clean/clear water. I planned on just diving in the river. This water was crystal clear, and I thought the better panning area might be on the other side. Some parts of the river were about 10 feet deep, and I could clearly see the bottom. But caution got the better of me, and I checked the water first. It was ludicrously cold. I started panning close to the bank. I found gold in nearly every pan. Although it was very very little gold. Fingerprinters I called them, because they could fit between the ridges of my fingerprint when I picked them up. I came up with various names to call my gold if I should find anything larger.
Bill-payer: about $100 worth of gold. It would be enough to pay a bill.
Pay-checker: about $1200 worth of gold. This much could survive me a month.
Year-wager: $35-38K this was the first value I came up with, 1 Kilogram of gold is about $35-38,000 and would be about a year's wage.
After an hour of panning, I ate some lunch out of my pan. My lunch was a Lunchable.
I cooled off my Capri-Sun in the ice-cold river.
So at some point I was thinking, this river is too cold for frogs. If there was a frog that could tolerate this river, it'd be one hardcore fucking frog. Then I looked over and saw a small pool near the river made by one of the springs. Because it was much more shallow it was obviously a bit warmer, and it was full of moss and mold etc. I thought, now there's a place for a frog. Then I saw a frog, so I grabbed it.
Anyway, back to the river, I decided to cross it. By the time I had explored the other side and come back I was relatively wet from the waist down. I decided why not go all the way? So I jumped in the river and let it carry me downstream. I reached a broad area, where it branched. The river was shallow here, but slow, one part of the river took an extremely sharp turn, becoming very rapid, and the other part just went to a pool of moss with a couple very beautiful waterfalls coming out of the rocks.
Ice cold, and probably dying, I started swimming back. I finnally came out and warmed up a bit. Then I went back to panning. I found a rock that had gold color in it. I thought it was gold. My dad wasn't so sure.
After another hour, we were fairly worn out and unlucky. We packed up and climbed out of there.
When we got home, my father tried further techniques to identify the gold color, and couldn't. I still think it's gold. I stated that if it is gold, it would be a Sam's Breakfaster: about $3-4 worth of gold, enough for a Sam's Cafe' ham and eggs breakfast.
So altogether, we had a great time. I brought home snow and threw some at my brother, we brought home gold. I'm convinced I have a little nugget of gold. I have an unidentified species of frog. We got some photos, so I'll be putting them up here.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
What I don't know
I don't write or talk about things I don't know about or understand. Or, at least what I don't know about, or think I don't understand. Or maybe what I don't think I understand.
Isn't digital its own analog? Fundamentally even analog follows patterns, bumps, digits if you very so kindly would accept? But even then I suppose digital would still be a subset of analog, as it is characteristically quantifiable in integers.
So I started noticing the number 255 everywhere, and it was annoying me, because I knew it meant something in hexadecimal. So I looked it up, and lo, it is the highest number used in hexadecimal coding for colors (this can be used in html and CSS to indicate what color something should be, for example, if I designated this page to be blue: 255, red: 0, and green:0, this page would be completely as blue as could be displayed. Note: 255 in Hex is written "FF". If you want an easy example, open MSPaint and make a custom color, you'll see the color values go up to 255.
While looking up hexadecimal I noticed a joke on Wikipedia using Hex.
"If only dead people know hexadecimal, then how many people know heaidecimal?"
This reminded me of a binary joke I learned in binary class. "There are only 10 kinds of people in the world, those who understand binary, and those who don't."
Anyway the whole reason I wrote this is because I don't know what "tort" is. I looked it up, and I'm still confusd. Why would "tort reform" be on the mouths of people like Rachel Maddow and Jon Stewart daily, when no one gives a fuck, and never has? It is simply a too encompassing term for what they really mean, which is a trillionth of what they imply. They don't want to reform the entire justice system. They want frivolous lawsuits to stop. That's like calling a grain of sand a beach.
History channel told me today that the word "pepper" is sanskrit in origin. That's cool.
Isn't digital its own analog? Fundamentally even analog follows patterns, bumps, digits if you very so kindly would accept? But even then I suppose digital would still be a subset of analog, as it is characteristically quantifiable in integers.
So I started noticing the number 255 everywhere, and it was annoying me, because I knew it meant something in hexadecimal. So I looked it up, and lo, it is the highest number used in hexadecimal coding for colors (this can be used in html and CSS to indicate what color something should be, for example, if I designated this page to be blue: 255, red: 0, and green:0, this page would be completely as blue as could be displayed. Note: 255 in Hex is written "FF". If you want an easy example, open MSPaint and make a custom color, you'll see the color values go up to 255.
While looking up hexadecimal I noticed a joke on Wikipedia using Hex.
"If only dead people know hexadecimal, then how many people know heaidecimal?"
This reminded me of a binary joke I learned in binary class. "There are only 10 kinds of people in the world, those who understand binary, and those who don't."
Anyway the whole reason I wrote this is because I don't know what "tort" is. I looked it up, and I'm still confusd. Why would "tort reform" be on the mouths of people like Rachel Maddow and Jon Stewart daily, when no one gives a fuck, and never has? It is simply a too encompassing term for what they really mean, which is a trillionth of what they imply. They don't want to reform the entire justice system. They want frivolous lawsuits to stop. That's like calling a grain of sand a beach.
History channel told me today that the word "pepper" is sanskrit in origin. That's cool.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
To horse, you gallant princes! Straight to horse!
Stockton California. Named the second most miserable city in America this year by Forbes. It was #1 last year, and #2 the year before. It's also the only city to have such a high ranking streak. Stockton California, top of every list, violent crime, car thefts, illiteracy, home foreclosures, unemployment, etc. Stockton California, the great boiling-over melting-pot;
% of Population Foreign Born
Stockton - 31%
LA - 29.6%
San Francisco - 28.3%
New York - 22.8%
And only 1/3 of the foriegners in Stockton are citizens. Not to suggest that Stockton is bad because it has more foreigners, as I explained in much more detail in a previous blog, it's that Stockton is a storm, and California seems to just dump all its problems into this storm, and hope nothing escapes.
As I mentioned in a previous blog, 70% of Stockton's murders go unsolved. I have lost count of how many people have been murdered in 2010, but here's some news from just the past week.
There were at least 6 shootings in Stockton from Saturday to Sunday this week. 6 shootings, in 2 days. And there were many many more crimes in those 2 days, and more shootings throughout the week.
So here's Sat-Sun in Stockton California:
1. "an 18-year-old, was hospitalized in critical condition after he was shot while sitting in a parked car"
2-3. "A home in the 1700 block of West Lane was targeted by gunfire twice. Police report as many as 10 people may have been inside the home at the time of the shootings."
4. "Another shooting occurred around 8:50 p.m. Saturday. Two teenaged girls were walking on the 700 block of Sutter Street when they were approached by a black male teenager, about 17 years old, wearing a maroon hooded sweat shirt and baggy dark blue denim pants. He asked to borrow a cell phone and they complied. When the victim asked for the phone back, the suspect took a handgun from his waistband and shot her. She was struck in the lower body and taken to the hospital, where she was listed in stable condition."
5. "A 22-year-old man told police he was walking into an apartment complex when he was approached from behind by another man who asked, "what you got?"
The victim said he didn't have anything and continued walking. The second man then pulled a handgun from his waistband and fired a shot in the air before shooting the victim in the foot, police said."
6. "Later that day police responded to a report of a drive-by shooting in the 1300 block of East Harding Way. The victim told police he was walking in the area at about 10 p.m. Sunday when a car containing three men drove past. He said he then heard gunshots and was wounded in his hand."
Now what's interesting is how quick the police (and everyone else) are to write off every shooting as gang related. There is a prevailing attitude in Stockton that if you get shot, it's your fault. While Police can't solve 70% of murders, and they've solved nothing them I'm going to mention in this blog, they immediately released that two of the people shot were brothers, and therefore were probably in trouble with a gang, so of course they deserve it.
Here's some more love in Stockton:
"Three McDonald’s restaurants were robbed Monday night and Tuesday in apparently related robberies." "by a man who claimed he had a gun."
"A 49-year-old man was shot in the face Thursday night near an east Stockton liquor store." "the assailant was riding a kick scooter and was wearing a white T-shirt with bones and a cross on it. He was carrying a black backpack."
Of course Stocktonians don't just keep their fun in Stockton, increasingly I've noticed Stockton is tied in with crime all around northern California.
More recent news:
"Two teenagers were shot at the Jackson Rancheria early Sunday morning in what officials say was a gang related incident." "The shooter is reportedly associated with the Norteno gang and based out of Stockton. His name has not been released."
"Two people have been arrested in connection with two separate shootings in Concord overnight in which one man was injured, Concord police Lt. Jim Lardieri said." The gun police believe was used in the two shootings was recovered and had been reported stolen out of Stockton, Lardieri said."
==Notice here, that it took an outside force to bring in a couple Stocktonians. Left to their own accord, the Stockton Police do not do so well.==
All of these events occured in the last 2 weeks, all the events in Stockton were this week. This is not a comprehensive list of recent crimes, just what I could find in a couple minutes. This is by no means a crime wave by Stockton's standards, it is Stockton standard.
And yet, I don't have a right to protect myself? I want to be able to bear arms here. But California law demands that if I open-carry (conceal carry is illegal) the weapon needs to be unloaded. So basically I would have to advertise that I'm armed, without actually being armed. Wonderful, who do you think a criminal would shoot first? Also, the entire state of California has been experiencing a bullet shortage for over a year. And Schwarzenegger just passed a law that will make bullets extremely hard to obtain, for law abiding citizens. So while I still can, I ordered 300 rounds of ammunition online, and I'll probably order another 1,000. This is just short term though. I'm doing what I can to convince my family to get out of this city. I plan on leaving the state and/or country as soon as I'm done with college. I'm done with Stockton, and California.
In the mean time, just in case you have some illusion there are safe parts of Stockton, here is a map from Google Earth, I added red dots showing where just these most recent events occured. If you want a more comprehensive map of major crime locations, people have tried to do that, but they can't keep up with the crime. Basically it's just a completely covered map of Stockton.
Click on map to view larger. I displayed Stockton with the north to the left to fit the screen.
*All data and quotes stolen from other websites.
% of Population Foreign Born
Stockton - 31%
LA - 29.6%
San Francisco - 28.3%
New York - 22.8%
And only 1/3 of the foriegners in Stockton are citizens. Not to suggest that Stockton is bad because it has more foreigners, as I explained in much more detail in a previous blog, it's that Stockton is a storm, and California seems to just dump all its problems into this storm, and hope nothing escapes.
As I mentioned in a previous blog, 70% of Stockton's murders go unsolved. I have lost count of how many people have been murdered in 2010, but here's some news from just the past week.
There were at least 6 shootings in Stockton from Saturday to Sunday this week. 6 shootings, in 2 days. And there were many many more crimes in those 2 days, and more shootings throughout the week.
So here's Sat-Sun in Stockton California:
1. "an 18-year-old, was hospitalized in critical condition after he was shot while sitting in a parked car"
2-3. "A home in the 1700 block of West Lane was targeted by gunfire twice. Police report as many as 10 people may have been inside the home at the time of the shootings."
4. "Another shooting occurred around 8:50 p.m. Saturday. Two teenaged girls were walking on the 700 block of Sutter Street when they were approached by a black male teenager, about 17 years old, wearing a maroon hooded sweat shirt and baggy dark blue denim pants. He asked to borrow a cell phone and they complied. When the victim asked for the phone back, the suspect took a handgun from his waistband and shot her. She was struck in the lower body and taken to the hospital, where she was listed in stable condition."
5. "A 22-year-old man told police he was walking into an apartment complex when he was approached from behind by another man who asked, "what you got?"
The victim said he didn't have anything and continued walking. The second man then pulled a handgun from his waistband and fired a shot in the air before shooting the victim in the foot, police said."
6. "Later that day police responded to a report of a drive-by shooting in the 1300 block of East Harding Way. The victim told police he was walking in the area at about 10 p.m. Sunday when a car containing three men drove past. He said he then heard gunshots and was wounded in his hand."
Now what's interesting is how quick the police (and everyone else) are to write off every shooting as gang related. There is a prevailing attitude in Stockton that if you get shot, it's your fault. While Police can't solve 70% of murders, and they've solved nothing them I'm going to mention in this blog, they immediately released that two of the people shot were brothers, and therefore were probably in trouble with a gang, so of course they deserve it.
Here's some more love in Stockton:
"Three McDonald’s restaurants were robbed Monday night and Tuesday in apparently related robberies." "by a man who claimed he had a gun."
"A 49-year-old man was shot in the face Thursday night near an east Stockton liquor store." "the assailant was riding a kick scooter and was wearing a white T-shirt with bones and a cross on it. He was carrying a black backpack."
Of course Stocktonians don't just keep their fun in Stockton, increasingly I've noticed Stockton is tied in with crime all around northern California.
More recent news:
"Two teenagers were shot at the Jackson Rancheria early Sunday morning in what officials say was a gang related incident." "The shooter is reportedly associated with the Norteno gang and based out of Stockton. His name has not been released."
"Two people have been arrested in connection with two separate shootings in Concord overnight in which one man was injured, Concord police Lt. Jim Lardieri said." The gun police believe was used in the two shootings was recovered and had been reported stolen out of Stockton, Lardieri said."
==Notice here, that it took an outside force to bring in a couple Stocktonians. Left to their own accord, the Stockton Police do not do so well.==
All of these events occured in the last 2 weeks, all the events in Stockton were this week. This is not a comprehensive list of recent crimes, just what I could find in a couple minutes. This is by no means a crime wave by Stockton's standards, it is Stockton standard.
And yet, I don't have a right to protect myself? I want to be able to bear arms here. But California law demands that if I open-carry (conceal carry is illegal) the weapon needs to be unloaded. So basically I would have to advertise that I'm armed, without actually being armed. Wonderful, who do you think a criminal would shoot first? Also, the entire state of California has been experiencing a bullet shortage for over a year. And Schwarzenegger just passed a law that will make bullets extremely hard to obtain, for law abiding citizens. So while I still can, I ordered 300 rounds of ammunition online, and I'll probably order another 1,000. This is just short term though. I'm doing what I can to convince my family to get out of this city. I plan on leaving the state and/or country as soon as I'm done with college. I'm done with Stockton, and California.
In the mean time, just in case you have some illusion there are safe parts of Stockton, here is a map from Google Earth, I added red dots showing where just these most recent events occured. If you want a more comprehensive map of major crime locations, people have tried to do that, but they can't keep up with the crime. Basically it's just a completely covered map of Stockton.
Click on map to view larger. I displayed Stockton with the north to the left to fit the screen.
*All data and quotes stolen from other websites.
Sunday, March 07, 2010
spacing blogs
Except for 3 wayward months. I have at least one blog post here from every month since September 2004. So that's 64 of the last 67 months. I think this is a decent, (albeit not nearly comprehensive) timestamping of my life and writing.
This is really good considering all the 3-4 months I spent at sea at a time. Many of my blogs have been written in various foreign nations, though I usually don't mention them, except rarely in an offhanded manor.
This is really good considering all the 3-4 months I spent at sea at a time. Many of my blogs have been written in various foreign nations, though I usually don't mention them, except rarely in an offhanded manor.
Friday, March 05, 2010
Redistricting.
One argument against term limits for congressmen is that people should be allowed to chose when their representative leaves office. Unfortunately in California, ha ha, it is not your choice! A practice so diabolical it has two names, gerrymandering, or redistricting.
Basically, political parties have become more powerful than actual elected representatives, and the parties work together, at the expense of voters, and their representatives.
In California, the Democratics and Republicans get together, and cut up California into congressional districts that give each party secured positions. The Democratics will give some conservative leaning areas to Republicans, and the Republicans give over liberal leaning areas. In this way, they draw districts that guarantee wins for both parties.
Of course they don't absolute power, and they have to sacrifice some representatives in order to achieve this. If you've ever looked up the history of a congressional district, you'll see every few years, the district is somewhere else, and this usually puts a new party in power.
I was looking up my current congressional district, the 11th, and I wanted to point out some of its travelled history.
Currently the 11th encompasses East-Bay, and swoops south then east, then swoops back up to San Joaquin County into Stockton. I should also mention, all you have to do is look at district boundaries to see they are politically drawn, not logically, in nature.
In 1912 the 11th District encompassed Imperial, Inyo, Mono, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and San Diego Counties, basically most of southern California. From 1933-1943 it was the district for Los Angeles County. Then it jumped to northern California and bounced back and forth for decades, until it came to where it is now in 2003.
Congressman Leo Ryan represented the 11th district in San Mateo in 1978, when he went down to Jonestown in Guyana because of the stories about people being forced to stay in the cult. He was ambushed at the airport and murdered by Jones' thugs. Congressman Ryan was the first and only Congressman killed in the line of duty in U.S. history.
The current Congressman, Jerry McNerney has held the seat since 2007. He is likely to win again in 2010. There was a really good challenger but he dropped out for family reasons. There are a lot of challengers on the Republican side, but no one stands out for me.
What is most likely to oust McNerney? Nothing. Fixed!
Case Closed.
Basically, political parties have become more powerful than actual elected representatives, and the parties work together, at the expense of voters, and their representatives.
In California, the Democratics and Republicans get together, and cut up California into congressional districts that give each party secured positions. The Democratics will give some conservative leaning areas to Republicans, and the Republicans give over liberal leaning areas. In this way, they draw districts that guarantee wins for both parties.
Of course they don't absolute power, and they have to sacrifice some representatives in order to achieve this. If you've ever looked up the history of a congressional district, you'll see every few years, the district is somewhere else, and this usually puts a new party in power.
I was looking up my current congressional district, the 11th, and I wanted to point out some of its travelled history.
Currently the 11th encompasses East-Bay, and swoops south then east, then swoops back up to San Joaquin County into Stockton. I should also mention, all you have to do is look at district boundaries to see they are politically drawn, not logically, in nature.
In 1912 the 11th District encompassed Imperial, Inyo, Mono, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and San Diego Counties, basically most of southern California. From 1933-1943 it was the district for Los Angeles County. Then it jumped to northern California and bounced back and forth for decades, until it came to where it is now in 2003.
Congressman Leo Ryan represented the 11th district in San Mateo in 1978, when he went down to Jonestown in Guyana because of the stories about people being forced to stay in the cult. He was ambushed at the airport and murdered by Jones' thugs. Congressman Ryan was the first and only Congressman killed in the line of duty in U.S. history.
The current Congressman, Jerry McNerney has held the seat since 2007. He is likely to win again in 2010. There was a really good challenger but he dropped out for family reasons. There are a lot of challengers on the Republican side, but no one stands out for me.
What is most likely to oust McNerney? Nothing. Fixed!
Case Closed.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Thursday, February 18, 2010
California's State Song Sucks
Most everything about California is awesome, or at least better than you. This is a scientific fact.
But California does have its issues too.
I think the most obvious is that we let Mexico keep Baja California. This is just wrong. Until 1846, Baja and Alta California were united. Just throwing that out there, in case any new filibusters were being planned.
Anyway I remember learning the song "California, Here I Come" in first grade. It's a catchy showtune. I sang it everytime I was coming back to California from parts unknown. I suppose I assumed it was the state song. Nope.
California's state song is "I love you, California"
I love you, California, you're the greatest state of all.
I love you in the winter, summer, spring and in the fall.
I love your fertile valleys; your dear mountains I adore.
I love your grand old ocean and I love her rugged shore.
Chorus
Where the snow crowned Golden Sierras
Keep their watch o'er the valleys bloom,
It is there I would be in our land by the sea,
Every breeze bearing rich perfume.
It is here nature gives of her rarest. It is Home Sweet Home to me,
And I know when I die I shall breathe my last sigh
For my sunny California.
I love your red-wood forests - love your fields of yellow grain.
I love your summer breezes and I love your winter rain.
I love you, land of flowers; land of honey, fruit and wine.
I love you, California; you have won this heart of mine.
I love your old gray Missions - love your vineyards stretching far.
I love you, California, with your Golden Gate ajar.
I love your purple sun-sets, love your skies of azure blue.
I love you, California; I just can't help loving you.
I love you, Catalina, you are very dear to me.
I love you, Tamalpais, and I love Yosemite.
I love you, Land of Sunshine, Half your beauties are untold.
I loved you in my childhood, and I'll love you when I'm old.
They're great lyrics, or at least they're lyrics reminding us of how great California is, but the song is unsingable. I don't know if it can be made to sound good. I think at best it comes off as sounding like an eastern European propaganda song.
Here's the absolute best version on YouTube.
Now compare it to "California, Here I Come" sung by Al Jolson in 1924
But not all our "official" things suck. Most of them are decent. California was the first state to have an official insect. The California Dogface Butterfly.
And our state soil is the San Joaquin.
-All facts and photos stolen from the internet.
But California does have its issues too.
I think the most obvious is that we let Mexico keep Baja California. This is just wrong. Until 1846, Baja and Alta California were united. Just throwing that out there, in case any new filibusters were being planned.
Anyway I remember learning the song "California, Here I Come" in first grade. It's a catchy showtune. I sang it everytime I was coming back to California from parts unknown. I suppose I assumed it was the state song. Nope.
California's state song is "I love you, California"
I love you, California, you're the greatest state of all.
I love you in the winter, summer, spring and in the fall.
I love your fertile valleys; your dear mountains I adore.
I love your grand old ocean and I love her rugged shore.
Chorus
Where the snow crowned Golden Sierras
Keep their watch o'er the valleys bloom,
It is there I would be in our land by the sea,
Every breeze bearing rich perfume.
It is here nature gives of her rarest. It is Home Sweet Home to me,
And I know when I die I shall breathe my last sigh
For my sunny California.
I love your red-wood forests - love your fields of yellow grain.
I love your summer breezes and I love your winter rain.
I love you, land of flowers; land of honey, fruit and wine.
I love you, California; you have won this heart of mine.
I love your old gray Missions - love your vineyards stretching far.
I love you, California, with your Golden Gate ajar.
I love your purple sun-sets, love your skies of azure blue.
I love you, California; I just can't help loving you.
I love you, Catalina, you are very dear to me.
I love you, Tamalpais, and I love Yosemite.
I love you, Land of Sunshine, Half your beauties are untold.
I loved you in my childhood, and I'll love you when I'm old.
They're great lyrics, or at least they're lyrics reminding us of how great California is, but the song is unsingable. I don't know if it can be made to sound good. I think at best it comes off as sounding like an eastern European propaganda song.
Here's the absolute best version on YouTube.
Now compare it to "California, Here I Come" sung by Al Jolson in 1924
But not all our "official" things suck. Most of them are decent. California was the first state to have an official insect. The California Dogface Butterfly.
And our state soil is the San Joaquin.
-All facts and photos stolen from the internet.
Perpetual Motion
I was reading about perpetual motion machines, and basically how they have been completely dismissed as they don't fit the laws of thermodynamics. But. I was thinking, who actually needs created or infinitely re-used energy?
Perpetual Motion, in its name doesn't explicitly demand the same energy perpetually moves, it is simply a description of a reaction.
One would only need to create something that runs continuously, by its own actions, not continuously with a finite set of energy. And it isn't the continued functioning that is against the law of nature, it's the re-used or imagined energy that can't be harnessed.
Looking at the goal of Perpetual Motion, I realize the standard has been set way too high for practicality. And the true desire for Perpetual Motion is not about what energy is used, but rather if it is costly to people.
A realistic goal could be set in two lengths, and as far as technicalities are concerned would be "perpetual".
1. Create a machine that requires no more input to function once it is built, that will last a life time.
2. Create a machine that requires no more input to function once it is built, that will last for as long as its energy source exists.
Both of these goals were met hundreds of years ago. Clocks have been designed that run on temperature changes. Earth's temperature always changes, the clocks continue to run hundreds of years later.
Now some energy has to be put in them to maintain their accuracy (setting the correct time), but this isn't the source of the power for the clock, and perhaps, already proof of concept in themselves, if you simply look at the device, not as a clock, but as a machine that moves parts powered by temperature, it has worked continuously for hundreds of years.
When you up the desired results, before the technology exists, sure you might need human input. Now maybe someone needs to make one of these clocks, but make it so the clock is also able to correct its own time (like storing excess energy in a battery, use a memory chip and have it readjust when it needs to, or something like that).
In the meantime, no one gives a shit about inventing a machine that needs no new energy, we just want machines that don't need human energy.
Solar Power, wind power, water power are all renewable and will outlast 1,000 human generations. I'd say that is sufficient to call it "perpetual".
Of course everything breaks down too. But I'm sure there can be ways to solve this when you have the energy continuously backing you up. It's hard to believe there's no perpetual motion, when you think no life could exist on this planet if water itself wasn't in a perpetual state of motion. Water turns to gas, becomes liquid again (or solid) comes back to earth. Water's motion gives resource of perpetual motion to feed plants, which in turn feed animals (who also need water). If water couldn't cycle in this atmosphere, the nature of our bodies could not function.
Anyway. So I was looking at one supposed non-functional example of Perpetual Motion called a "SMOT" where the T is for "toy" meaning it is useless.
Basically you can make a ball roll up an incline if you align magnets on either side. It is argued that this only works because the magnets help "convert" the potential energy of the ball into kinetic energy.
But electro-magnetism is its own force. It is energy. Thinking you can't convert it to kinetic energy is downright idiotic.
Now whether or not the SMOT can be made into a perpetual motion machine remains to be shown, as everyone seems to only make them straight.
But I was thinking, if the magnets can raise the ball on an incline, why not make an incline, have the ball roll up, but have a hole in the incline, the ball will drop, but have another SMOT placed right underneath, each SMOT would be set in a curve, each time the ball would move maybe a few inches up, then drop down, then a few inches up then drop down, SMOT to SMOT to SMOT until it comes full circle, and that would be perpetual motion. (people then argue that might work, but it would drain the magnets power, which doesn't count, but I disagree, I think the whole point of perpetual motion is finding ways of tapping into alternate energy sources).
SMOT
Perpetual Motion? lol. That is how an electric motor works though, converting electo-magnetic energy into kinetic energy through the motion of attracting and repelling magnets.
Absence of heat is absence of friction, thus "perfect" energy transfer.
The last video isn't about Perpetual Motion, but it does make me wonder, you see at the threshold, the rules change, and energy depleting liquid nitrogen actually becomes fuel for the levitation. If absence of energy, is a source of energy, if a system could drain energy completely, and then use it, it would be Perpetual Motion. And again, no one cares where the new energy comes from.
If you want to look at it in the big picture, if no energy can be created or destroyed, no source of energy is really an "outside" source. Call it Universal Perpetual Motion and you've jumped the technicality bridge.
Perpetual Motion, in its name doesn't explicitly demand the same energy perpetually moves, it is simply a description of a reaction.
One would only need to create something that runs continuously, by its own actions, not continuously with a finite set of energy. And it isn't the continued functioning that is against the law of nature, it's the re-used or imagined energy that can't be harnessed.
Looking at the goal of Perpetual Motion, I realize the standard has been set way too high for practicality. And the true desire for Perpetual Motion is not about what energy is used, but rather if it is costly to people.
A realistic goal could be set in two lengths, and as far as technicalities are concerned would be "perpetual".
1. Create a machine that requires no more input to function once it is built, that will last a life time.
2. Create a machine that requires no more input to function once it is built, that will last for as long as its energy source exists.
Both of these goals were met hundreds of years ago. Clocks have been designed that run on temperature changes. Earth's temperature always changes, the clocks continue to run hundreds of years later.
Now some energy has to be put in them to maintain their accuracy (setting the correct time), but this isn't the source of the power for the clock, and perhaps, already proof of concept in themselves, if you simply look at the device, not as a clock, but as a machine that moves parts powered by temperature, it has worked continuously for hundreds of years.
When you up the desired results, before the technology exists, sure you might need human input. Now maybe someone needs to make one of these clocks, but make it so the clock is also able to correct its own time (like storing excess energy in a battery, use a memory chip and have it readjust when it needs to, or something like that).
In the meantime, no one gives a shit about inventing a machine that needs no new energy, we just want machines that don't need human energy.
Solar Power, wind power, water power are all renewable and will outlast 1,000 human generations. I'd say that is sufficient to call it "perpetual".
Of course everything breaks down too. But I'm sure there can be ways to solve this when you have the energy continuously backing you up. It's hard to believe there's no perpetual motion, when you think no life could exist on this planet if water itself wasn't in a perpetual state of motion. Water turns to gas, becomes liquid again (or solid) comes back to earth. Water's motion gives resource of perpetual motion to feed plants, which in turn feed animals (who also need water). If water couldn't cycle in this atmosphere, the nature of our bodies could not function.
Anyway. So I was looking at one supposed non-functional example of Perpetual Motion called a "SMOT" where the T is for "toy" meaning it is useless.
Basically you can make a ball roll up an incline if you align magnets on either side. It is argued that this only works because the magnets help "convert" the potential energy of the ball into kinetic energy.
But electro-magnetism is its own force. It is energy. Thinking you can't convert it to kinetic energy is downright idiotic.
Now whether or not the SMOT can be made into a perpetual motion machine remains to be shown, as everyone seems to only make them straight.
But I was thinking, if the magnets can raise the ball on an incline, why not make an incline, have the ball roll up, but have a hole in the incline, the ball will drop, but have another SMOT placed right underneath, each SMOT would be set in a curve, each time the ball would move maybe a few inches up, then drop down, then a few inches up then drop down, SMOT to SMOT to SMOT until it comes full circle, and that would be perpetual motion. (people then argue that might work, but it would drain the magnets power, which doesn't count, but I disagree, I think the whole point of perpetual motion is finding ways of tapping into alternate energy sources).
SMOT
Perpetual Motion? lol. That is how an electric motor works though, converting electo-magnetic energy into kinetic energy through the motion of attracting and repelling magnets.
Absence of heat is absence of friction, thus "perfect" energy transfer.
The last video isn't about Perpetual Motion, but it does make me wonder, you see at the threshold, the rules change, and energy depleting liquid nitrogen actually becomes fuel for the levitation. If absence of energy, is a source of energy, if a system could drain energy completely, and then use it, it would be Perpetual Motion. And again, no one cares where the new energy comes from.
If you want to look at it in the big picture, if no energy can be created or destroyed, no source of energy is really an "outside" source. Call it Universal Perpetual Motion and you've jumped the technicality bridge.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Good and bad for the Olympics so far
I live in California. The Olympics are being held in Vancouver, BC. Vancouver is about dead north from where I am. Time zones are longitudinal. If anyone should be able to see these Olympic games live, it should be us here in Pacific. But no. Ever since who knows when, the assholes in the TV industry have decided Pacific Standard Time will NEVER be live. You know they show all the games live in Japan? Yeah. Way to go America.
Really the only reason I wanted to post this was because I just saw a Japanese downhill skier and I realized they all get to have music playing when they go down. Her's was "Around the World" by Red Hot Chili Peppers. They do love their RCHP in Japan. Me too.
I'm going to tell you a little dream I had back then. I wanted to get my Colombian woman, dress her up in white trash clothing, and go to the Fuji Fest (which hasn't been held near Fuji since there was a big earthquake years ago.) only problems were the price (many hundreds per person) and the location (I was near Fuji, it was on the other end of Honshu).
Anyway.
I really like the music, don't like the not live.
Other stuff, it was awesome seeing those two Koreans wipe out at the last second in the speed skating putting Americans in 2nd and 3rd.
Really the only reason I wanted to post this was because I just saw a Japanese downhill skier and I realized they all get to have music playing when they go down. Her's was "Around the World" by Red Hot Chili Peppers. They do love their RCHP in Japan. Me too.
I'm going to tell you a little dream I had back then. I wanted to get my Colombian woman, dress her up in white trash clothing, and go to the Fuji Fest (which hasn't been held near Fuji since there was a big earthquake years ago.) only problems were the price (many hundreds per person) and the location (I was near Fuji, it was on the other end of Honshu).
Anyway.
I really like the music, don't like the not live.
Other stuff, it was awesome seeing those two Koreans wipe out at the last second in the speed skating putting Americans in 2nd and 3rd.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
I told you so
In one of my previous rants I mentioned people only engage me when they want something from me and nothing in return (but of course that part doesn't apply to vendors).
So this morning I was eating breakfast at school and a woman sits down in front of me, staring at me with those "I'm going to engage you because I want something for nothing" eyes.
Her: How much did you pay for that burrito?
Me: Uhh. I don't know. About 4 or 5 dollars?
Her: Why are you so hungry?
Me: This is my breakfast.
Her: Can I have some of your potatoes?
Me: No. Who are you?
Her: You're racist. You won't give me anything because I'm Filipino (she scowls at me).
Me: Are you serious?! Do you even go here?
Her: (mumbles something, looks at me nasty, gets up and walks away).
I saw her pacing by several more times after that and I planned on threatening her with police if she started anything. Not that I want to involve police in anything, but the campus doesn't have security, instead they have their own licensed police force. Then I started thinking, if any college can get its own legal police, and a private company like BART can have its own legal police. Can anyone make up a police force? Can I just sign some papers with the state and make myself a legal California police officer? (California has no "state" police, but any officer in California can lawfully arrest anyone in the state, including the Keystone Kops at my college).
I would make myself a police force. Then I could sidestep all the commie laws about bearing arms.
So this morning I was eating breakfast at school and a woman sits down in front of me, staring at me with those "I'm going to engage you because I want something for nothing" eyes.
Her: How much did you pay for that burrito?
Me: Uhh. I don't know. About 4 or 5 dollars?
Her: Why are you so hungry?
Me: This is my breakfast.
Her: Can I have some of your potatoes?
Me: No. Who are you?
Her: You're racist. You won't give me anything because I'm Filipino (she scowls at me).
Me: Are you serious?! Do you even go here?
Her: (mumbles something, looks at me nasty, gets up and walks away).
I saw her pacing by several more times after that and I planned on threatening her with police if she started anything. Not that I want to involve police in anything, but the campus doesn't have security, instead they have their own licensed police force. Then I started thinking, if any college can get its own legal police, and a private company like BART can have its own legal police. Can anyone make up a police force? Can I just sign some papers with the state and make myself a legal California police officer? (California has no "state" police, but any officer in California can lawfully arrest anyone in the state, including the Keystone Kops at my college).
I would make myself a police force. Then I could sidestep all the commie laws about bearing arms.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Lewis Carroll, mediocre writer, notorious pedophile
I read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass several years ago. Alice has been embedded in our culture through multitudinous repetitions and homages. What I realized reading the books, was that Lewis Carroll was a flagrant pedophile, and he wasn't that great of a writer.
I'll start with the bad writing first. You see, I've read references about the "deep" meanings of Alice's Adventures, and I've read about the complex math problems and philosophical dilemmas in the story.
Reading the books, I quickly realized they were very much "children's" stories. They were not deep. There was almost no character development. The story just shuffled from one scene to the next with no coherent progression and then it was over. I was very much let down. I realized a lot of the 'depth' and intrigue of Alice has actually been added on through the years. It isn't in the books.
Now, as for the seemingly serious accusation. Certainly pedophillia is serious, but it isn't much for an accusation, as I was to find out.
I first got suspicious while reading the book. It just seemed to focus on Alice the wrong way. But that wouldn't have raised any flags, had I not read the introduction. I don't ever read intros before I read books, because I've found intros try to lead a reader in a certain direction, and it's always written by someone who's already read the book (or wrote it) and assume you have too. So I read the intro after the 10 minutes it took me to read the book and I'll be damned if it didn't reveal his true nature. Alice was a real girl. Carroll actually wrote the books based on stories he would tell Alice. Although he was a priest, and a "family" friend, eventually he just started taking Alice out alone on trips. The intro mentions some unknown event caused the Liddell family (Alice Liddell's family) to forbid Carroll from ever seeing Alice again.
Now why does a parent need to ban a priest from taking their preteen daughter on trips? I don't know, can't think of any reason... except that he was molesting her.
Just reading his own books, and the intros to his books I was certain Carroll was a pedo. But then a couple years later I looked further into the matter. And this is some fucked up shit.
Carroll was a photographer. And he took lots of photos of naked preteen girls. Don't believe me? Google search it. They're online. Don't worry, if society decides child porn is "art" it's perfectly legal. Or don't search it and believe the hell out of me.
What's interesting is that I'm not the first person to realize this about Carrol. In fact books have been written about this issue. Even Wikipedia mentions the controversy, but somehow manages to dismiss it with "NPOV" (their magic word that allow Wikipedia articles to be completely biased as long as they do it in a certain way).
Anyway enjoy the latest movie version of a story created to woo a little girl into sex.
I'll start with the bad writing first. You see, I've read references about the "deep" meanings of Alice's Adventures, and I've read about the complex math problems and philosophical dilemmas in the story.
Reading the books, I quickly realized they were very much "children's" stories. They were not deep. There was almost no character development. The story just shuffled from one scene to the next with no coherent progression and then it was over. I was very much let down. I realized a lot of the 'depth' and intrigue of Alice has actually been added on through the years. It isn't in the books.
Now, as for the seemingly serious accusation. Certainly pedophillia is serious, but it isn't much for an accusation, as I was to find out.
I first got suspicious while reading the book. It just seemed to focus on Alice the wrong way. But that wouldn't have raised any flags, had I not read the introduction. I don't ever read intros before I read books, because I've found intros try to lead a reader in a certain direction, and it's always written by someone who's already read the book (or wrote it) and assume you have too. So I read the intro after the 10 minutes it took me to read the book and I'll be damned if it didn't reveal his true nature. Alice was a real girl. Carroll actually wrote the books based on stories he would tell Alice. Although he was a priest, and a "family" friend, eventually he just started taking Alice out alone on trips. The intro mentions some unknown event caused the Liddell family (Alice Liddell's family) to forbid Carroll from ever seeing Alice again.
Now why does a parent need to ban a priest from taking their preteen daughter on trips? I don't know, can't think of any reason... except that he was molesting her.
Just reading his own books, and the intros to his books I was certain Carroll was a pedo. But then a couple years later I looked further into the matter. And this is some fucked up shit.
Carroll was a photographer. And he took lots of photos of naked preteen girls. Don't believe me? Google search it. They're online. Don't worry, if society decides child porn is "art" it's perfectly legal. Or don't search it and believe the hell out of me.
What's interesting is that I'm not the first person to realize this about Carrol. In fact books have been written about this issue. Even Wikipedia mentions the controversy, but somehow manages to dismiss it with "NPOV" (their magic word that allow Wikipedia articles to be completely biased as long as they do it in a certain way).
Anyway enjoy the latest movie version of a story created to woo a little girl into sex.
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
Songs that tell you to do stupid shit
I figure it's the epitome of collectivism, this ideal of producing a song, that is intended to not be enjoyed, but to get a bunch of people to make idiotic motions together.
A lot of them simply start with "Do the" followed by the dumbshit name they gave their dumb shit commands.
Here are some great examples, old and new.
The Hustle by Van McCoy
This one is simply called "The hustle" but makes sure to say absolutely nothing but "Do it" and "Do the hustle" for 4 godforsaken minutes. At least I assume the lyrics never change, as I am physically unable to listen past 2 minutes. And the idea of looking up the lyrics seems downright insane. You know what, fuck it, here's the lyrics to "The Hustle"
Do It
Do It
Do The Hustle
DO THE HUSTLE
Do The Hustle
Do The Hustle
Do The Hustle
Do The Hustle
Do It
Do It
DO THE HUSTLE
Do The Hustle
DO THE HUSTLE
Do The Hustle
Do the Ricky Bobby by B-Hamp
This song seems to be a 4 minutes of samples. But the songs it is sampling, were samples of covers, so most of the music just sounds like electronic failure.
Interestingly, from what I gather, the "Ricky Bobby" seems to be just making a pose, as opposed to doing any dance, so this is probably the least demanding of the social command songs.
Do Da Stanky Legg by G-Spot
ROFL
Humpty Dance by Digital Underground
I listened to a lot of hip hop in the late 80s early 90s, but it was mostly stuff like Run DMC, Beastie Boys, followed by Coolio and Snoop Doggy Dog, then eventually down the terrible path of gangsta rap towards Biggie, Tupac, Warren G, Nate Dogg. Shit I remember memorizing songs like "Regulate" "Keep their heads ringing" "Murder was the case" as a young tween. This particular artist eluded until the 21st century, although I do remember the line "The humpty dance is your chance to do the hump" from Weird Al's "Off the Deep End" album. Weird Al really introduced me to a lot of different music. I completely missed the "grunge" era until about '94 when I started actually realizing other people liked music too, and I got a flood of Nirvana, Aerosmith, B-52s, Cranberries, REM, from people like my mom, dad, and friends.
Anyway. Nostalgiagasm over.
Do the Bartman by Michael Jackson
Never heard of this song until 5 minutes ago. And I've always loved the Simpsons. Apparently this song was ridiculously popular when it came out. It was mostly written and produced by Michael Jackson, who was a huge fan of the show, but he couldn't take any credit because the song went on a different label.
Walk it out by Unk
Ladies and Gentlemen, this is shitty command music at its most shitty and commanding.
Lean like a Cholo by Kilo
This homemade video has 800,000 views. Jesus Christ. This song came out when I lived in San Diego, it has a special place in my heart, mostly because I've always liked calling people "Homes" "cholo" and "vato".
The Twist by Chubby Checker
It really took radio and records to change the music world, to make the music "industry". Certainly there were folk songs, world famous musicians, and composers, but it wasn't until you could print music and play it in perpetuity, that shitty pop music really took hold of this planet. It wasted no time, and amazingly even with so much modern technology, much of it still boils down to its origins. Pop music is the heartbeat of the unthinking unquestioning masses. That so many songs simply expect people (usually millions of them) to make bad motions with their body in celebration of communal activity blows my mind.
I'm not against dancing. I'm very much for dancing, but I think if you're going to dance by yourself, you should follow your own moves, and if your going to dance with other people, it shouldn't be to the commands of the macarena, or Beck's waltzing, or whatever the shit the Monster Mash actually expected of us. If people want to dance with each other, it shouldn't veil that communal dancing in invariably about sex, and with that, I wholly support two people getting really close and holding each other, and seeing if they can literally move together, as so often metaphors and reality link, and if you can't keep in step with your partner, you might need to find a new partner, and there's no better place to do that than on a dance floor.
A lot of them simply start with "Do the" followed by the dumbshit name they gave their dumb shit commands.
Here are some great examples, old and new.
The Hustle by Van McCoy
This one is simply called "The hustle" but makes sure to say absolutely nothing but "Do it" and "Do the hustle" for 4 godforsaken minutes. At least I assume the lyrics never change, as I am physically unable to listen past 2 minutes. And the idea of looking up the lyrics seems downright insane. You know what, fuck it, here's the lyrics to "The Hustle"
Do It
Do It
Do The Hustle
DO THE HUSTLE
Do The Hustle
Do The Hustle
Do The Hustle
Do The Hustle
Do It
Do It
DO THE HUSTLE
Do The Hustle
DO THE HUSTLE
Do The Hustle
Do the Ricky Bobby by B-Hamp
This song seems to be a 4 minutes of samples. But the songs it is sampling, were samples of covers, so most of the music just sounds like electronic failure.
Interestingly, from what I gather, the "Ricky Bobby" seems to be just making a pose, as opposed to doing any dance, so this is probably the least demanding of the social command songs.
Do Da Stanky Legg by G-Spot
ROFL
Humpty Dance by Digital Underground
I listened to a lot of hip hop in the late 80s early 90s, but it was mostly stuff like Run DMC, Beastie Boys, followed by Coolio and Snoop Doggy Dog, then eventually down the terrible path of gangsta rap towards Biggie, Tupac, Warren G, Nate Dogg. Shit I remember memorizing songs like "Regulate" "Keep their heads ringing" "Murder was the case" as a young tween. This particular artist eluded until the 21st century, although I do remember the line "The humpty dance is your chance to do the hump" from Weird Al's "Off the Deep End" album. Weird Al really introduced me to a lot of different music. I completely missed the "grunge" era until about '94 when I started actually realizing other people liked music too, and I got a flood of Nirvana, Aerosmith, B-52s, Cranberries, REM, from people like my mom, dad, and friends.
Anyway. Nostalgiagasm over.
Do the Bartman by Michael Jackson
Never heard of this song until 5 minutes ago. And I've always loved the Simpsons. Apparently this song was ridiculously popular when it came out. It was mostly written and produced by Michael Jackson, who was a huge fan of the show, but he couldn't take any credit because the song went on a different label.
Walk it out by Unk
Ladies and Gentlemen, this is shitty command music at its most shitty and commanding.
Lean like a Cholo by Kilo
This homemade video has 800,000 views. Jesus Christ. This song came out when I lived in San Diego, it has a special place in my heart, mostly because I've always liked calling people "Homes" "cholo" and "vato".
The Twist by Chubby Checker
It really took radio and records to change the music world, to make the music "industry". Certainly there were folk songs, world famous musicians, and composers, but it wasn't until you could print music and play it in perpetuity, that shitty pop music really took hold of this planet. It wasted no time, and amazingly even with so much modern technology, much of it still boils down to its origins. Pop music is the heartbeat of the unthinking unquestioning masses. That so many songs simply expect people (usually millions of them) to make bad motions with their body in celebration of communal activity blows my mind.
I'm not against dancing. I'm very much for dancing, but I think if you're going to dance by yourself, you should follow your own moves, and if your going to dance with other people, it shouldn't be to the commands of the macarena, or Beck's waltzing, or whatever the shit the Monster Mash actually expected of us. If people want to dance with each other, it shouldn't veil that communal dancing in invariably about sex, and with that, I wholly support two people getting really close and holding each other, and seeing if they can literally move together, as so often metaphors and reality link, and if you can't keep in step with your partner, you might need to find a new partner, and there's no better place to do that than on a dance floor.
Monday, February 08, 2010
Just a regular guy
On Friday a woman walked up to me and asked me why I was not going to class. I vaguely recognized her as someone in my biology class. I'm rather dismissive of people as I know my worth on this planet, and it's not very high. Only people who want something from me for nothing in return, ever engage me.
Somehow she controlled this conversation into her explaining that she's been going to college forever, but that she had a head injury that had put her in a coma. I remarked it was good she recovered (as opposed to being in a permanent vegitative state) and she assured me she had not recovered, as in severe memory loss, problems learning, and has to take buckets of drugs everyday. On top of that she had problems with English, and the school was somehow screwing her in credits.
I really didn't fucking care. Especially when she mentioned she was married I pretty much tuned her out. Not that I had any superficial interest in her, rather, I've never even had a girlfriend. Love is all that matters in life, and no coma, no head injury will ever take away the fact that she got married. The way I see it, you get married you win. Doesn't matter after that. You won life.
So anyway she mentions that she's struggling in this class. I know what it's like trying to get out of this school, and knowing only 6% of students graduate, I know there's precious few people who are even trying. So I gave her my email. Nothing too special, I've already exchanged emails with people I don't know in 3 other classes, just in case there's critical information that I or they need.
I tell her if she has any questions I'd be happy to help.
Then she told me how everyone else had blown her off, and how nice I was to offer to help her. She started crying.
I hate people. Also I think I have the gout now, or arthritis or something, but I've been in constant pulsating pain and barely able to walk for 3 days now. I've gone past my limit on ibuprofen and I'm wondering what will hurt worse, this non stop pain in my foot, or vomiting blood when the drug wears a whole in my stomach? I'm thinking the stomach blood will be much less painful or inconvenient.
It took me 15 minutes to walk between classes today. Then I had to take the bus home, and walk about a mile limping in excrutiaing pain the whole time.
Reminded me of when I was in high school in San Francisco. I sprained my ankle. The day after I sprained it, I realized after class that I had no money for a bus, and I didn't really have the strength to walk up two hills on cruches anyway, so I just sat on the steps of the school and waited.
No one was coming to pick me up, but I figured maybe after my mom got home from work, maybe a few hours later she'd drive by. Or I could just sit on the steps until school the next day. Either way, I had no money,no friends, or any physical capacity to go anywhere in the city of hills on a sprained ankle.
About an hour later with few people left at that school a teacher came out. She saw I was in a bad situation and offered me a ride home.
I suppose a positive person would say "see, even when the chips are down..."
But that's fucking nonsense. Suffer long enough, someone'll come by eventually. That message sucks.
Suffer long enough, the bullet won't seem quite so sacrificial.
Somehow she controlled this conversation into her explaining that she's been going to college forever, but that she had a head injury that had put her in a coma. I remarked it was good she recovered (as opposed to being in a permanent vegitative state) and she assured me she had not recovered, as in severe memory loss, problems learning, and has to take buckets of drugs everyday. On top of that she had problems with English, and the school was somehow screwing her in credits.
I really didn't fucking care. Especially when she mentioned she was married I pretty much tuned her out. Not that I had any superficial interest in her, rather, I've never even had a girlfriend. Love is all that matters in life, and no coma, no head injury will ever take away the fact that she got married. The way I see it, you get married you win. Doesn't matter after that. You won life.
So anyway she mentions that she's struggling in this class. I know what it's like trying to get out of this school, and knowing only 6% of students graduate, I know there's precious few people who are even trying. So I gave her my email. Nothing too special, I've already exchanged emails with people I don't know in 3 other classes, just in case there's critical information that I or they need.
I tell her if she has any questions I'd be happy to help.
Then she told me how everyone else had blown her off, and how nice I was to offer to help her. She started crying.
I hate people. Also I think I have the gout now, or arthritis or something, but I've been in constant pulsating pain and barely able to walk for 3 days now. I've gone past my limit on ibuprofen and I'm wondering what will hurt worse, this non stop pain in my foot, or vomiting blood when the drug wears a whole in my stomach? I'm thinking the stomach blood will be much less painful or inconvenient.
It took me 15 minutes to walk between classes today. Then I had to take the bus home, and walk about a mile limping in excrutiaing pain the whole time.
Reminded me of when I was in high school in San Francisco. I sprained my ankle. The day after I sprained it, I realized after class that I had no money for a bus, and I didn't really have the strength to walk up two hills on cruches anyway, so I just sat on the steps of the school and waited.
No one was coming to pick me up, but I figured maybe after my mom got home from work, maybe a few hours later she'd drive by. Or I could just sit on the steps until school the next day. Either way, I had no money,no friends, or any physical capacity to go anywhere in the city of hills on a sprained ankle.
About an hour later with few people left at that school a teacher came out. She saw I was in a bad situation and offered me a ride home.
I suppose a positive person would say "see, even when the chips are down..."
But that's fucking nonsense. Suffer long enough, someone'll come by eventually. That message sucks.
Suffer long enough, the bullet won't seem quite so sacrificial.
Thursday, February 04, 2010
Bullying
It breaks my heart when I hear about these kids that commit suicide from being bullied. The most recent being Phoebe Prince. Having only come to America months ago, apparently she caught the ire of some vicious people and she was bullied physically and emotionally ceaselessly until she killed herself. Even in death the people that were destroying her have continued their rampage.
I was thinking, this probably pisses a lot of people off because it taps into the heart of our society. Everyone who claims some "care" for this world must talk about "the children". When young teenagers are driving each other into suicide, that hope for the future comes crashing down. Your society has a gaping wound.
Anyway, I was thinking about what one could do to help people in such a situation, then I remembered, I've been shit on and ostracized by society since I was 10. Fuck you people.
I was thinking, this probably pisses a lot of people off because it taps into the heart of our society. Everyone who claims some "care" for this world must talk about "the children". When young teenagers are driving each other into suicide, that hope for the future comes crashing down. Your society has a gaping wound.
Anyway, I was thinking about what one could do to help people in such a situation, then I remembered, I've been shit on and ostracized by society since I was 10. Fuck you people.
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
Fuck Toyota
I first heard about the gas pedal issue a few months ago. I heard the audio of the family that called 911 to report their pedal stuck, the phone call ending moments before their death.
Repeatedly Toyota denied every claim that the pedals would rev-up and accelerate without the driver's action. They claimed that it was the floormat, even when people reported removing their floormat and still having their vehicle accelerate without their control.
In the case of the family that died, a series of electronic systems, set up to improve convenience, and protect the car from user mistakes caused the vehicle to become a death trap.
Here is the problem, the acceleration is now electronic, so if a rogue signal is sent to the engine, it can accelerate without the pedal being depressed.
Combine this with all these modern technologies that assume the driver is a moron, and make decisions for them (the dead family couldn't simply just turn the car off, because it is started electronically, and requires specific steps to turn off).
I am becoming increasingly disgusted with these technologies; cars that automatically force you back in your lane, cars that automatically put your seat belt on, cars that automatically lock your door, cars that automatically arm your alarm.
Every technology is put out with the assumption that people are bad drivers, and that the cars know better. Now this policy has literally killed people.
Now I'm not a lawyer, I'm not an employee of the government, nor Toyota, nor anyone for that matter. Reading that people are dying because of Toyota's lies and shitty technology I was pretty much helpless. I only thought, maybe Toyota is somehow right. The fact that they have finally admitted they were wrong, and are doing the recall (I hear it was under government pressure) now I see how fantastically evil they were being.
I thought in the 21st Century this kind of shit was no more. What's worse, no one seems to give a fuck. A major global corporation was literally selling faulty products that killed people AND NO ONE FUCKING CARES. Where's the outcry? A few decades ago a couple people got poisoned by Tylenol and the fucking nation came to a standstill. It wasn't even Tylenol doing the poisoning. Toyota literally knowingly killed people with their cars.
Crickets chirping. The time is ripe for great and varied evil.
Audio of last minutes of people killed by their car:
(http://www.entertonement.com/clips/mrkdpgncbs--Toyota-911-Call-Of-Family's-Fatal-Lexus-Crash-Due-To-Gas-Pedal-Stuck-On-Floormats-The-Consumerist-911-Call)
Repeatedly Toyota denied every claim that the pedals would rev-up and accelerate without the driver's action. They claimed that it was the floormat, even when people reported removing their floormat and still having their vehicle accelerate without their control.
In the case of the family that died, a series of electronic systems, set up to improve convenience, and protect the car from user mistakes caused the vehicle to become a death trap.
Here is the problem, the acceleration is now electronic, so if a rogue signal is sent to the engine, it can accelerate without the pedal being depressed.
Combine this with all these modern technologies that assume the driver is a moron, and make decisions for them (the dead family couldn't simply just turn the car off, because it is started electronically, and requires specific steps to turn off).
I am becoming increasingly disgusted with these technologies; cars that automatically force you back in your lane, cars that automatically put your seat belt on, cars that automatically lock your door, cars that automatically arm your alarm.
Every technology is put out with the assumption that people are bad drivers, and that the cars know better. Now this policy has literally killed people.
Now I'm not a lawyer, I'm not an employee of the government, nor Toyota, nor anyone for that matter. Reading that people are dying because of Toyota's lies and shitty technology I was pretty much helpless. I only thought, maybe Toyota is somehow right. The fact that they have finally admitted they were wrong, and are doing the recall (I hear it was under government pressure) now I see how fantastically evil they were being.
I thought in the 21st Century this kind of shit was no more. What's worse, no one seems to give a fuck. A major global corporation was literally selling faulty products that killed people AND NO ONE FUCKING CARES. Where's the outcry? A few decades ago a couple people got poisoned by Tylenol and the fucking nation came to a standstill. It wasn't even Tylenol doing the poisoning. Toyota literally knowingly killed people with their cars.
Crickets chirping. The time is ripe for great and varied evil.
Audio of last minutes of people killed by their car:
(http://www.entertonement.com/clips/mrkdpgncbs--Toyota-911-Call-Of-Family's-Fatal-Lexus-Crash-Due-To-Gas-Pedal-Stuck-On-Floormats-The-Consumerist-911-Call)
Saturday, January 16, 2010
GM and eBay might be criminals.
I have been the biggest reporter on this news since it broke many months ago. This is both odd and scary to me, as I'm not a reporter.
The program, GM selling new cars over eBay ceased at the end of October.
Now, me reporting this to you is completely old and not news. But as has been the case from day 1, I'm not the top reporter for timeliness; I've been the top reporter because NO ONE GIVES A SHIT ABOUT THIS AND I'M THE ONLY ONE ACTUALLY PUTTING ANY EFFORT INTO THIS.
If you haven't read my previous blogs, you'll have no idea what I'm talking about. Basically I did an in depth analysis of eBay and GM's plans, and used actual data that the media seems to be ignoring.
Hilariously enough, they've left the conclusion for me too.
You'd think one person in all of the media might have looked into this whole program. After all, millions were spent, and it was an industry first.
Sadly, what I've seen, one guy got a few official statements from eBay, GM dealers, and one customer, and wrote a puff piece for the NY Times. I looked around, and every other report on the close of the GM eBay alliance was just plagiarized from the NY Times article. Absolutely no original work across the global media.
What really annoyed me was that they all 'speculated' on the success of the program. They seemed completely unable to provide actual stats. Some people actually concluding that eBay and GM were "hiding" their results.
DO ANY OF THESE PEOPLE ACTUALLY USE EBAY?? All I had to do was look up the "yourgmdealer" profile and I could see every vehicle they sold and the feedback from the customers.
Grand Total: 24 vehicles transactions through eBay. Note, I didn't say vehicles sold, because if you read the feedback, many of the sales fell through when dealers refused to honor their deals.
With only 15 positive reviews (and one of them recanted) This company, bailed out by America, owned by all Americans, a multibillion dollar global century old corporation completely fucking sucked on eBay. Their feedback score was 7. Motherfucking 7. With only 68.4% of feedback positive (less considering the recanted one).
This program from day one was written to screw customers. The way it was set up, no "deals" could be had, eBay and GM conspired to set up the decks in their favor, and apparently people realized this. The worst part, reading what GM and eBay had to say, I don't think they learned a god damn thing. The only reason they would admit any drawbacks, was that THEY COULDN'T SELL ENOUGH CARS ACROSS THE ENTIRE STATE OF CALIFORNIA TO FILL A PARKING LOT!!
HERE IS A LIST OF SOME OF THE BULLSHIT THEY EMPLOYED THAT ULTIMATELY GUARANTEED THIS VENTURE WITH TAX PAYER MONEY WOULD FAIL:
-"Buy it Now" prices were above sticker. Needless to say, nobody fell for it.
-eBay gave GM "Power Seller" status, essentially selling out their own standards for an accolade GM didn't earn.
-GM used a dummy account to give themselves more "e-cred" by changing some asshole's account from "bighouse0001" to "yourgmdealer" they did this to make it look like GM has been on eBay since the end of 2007, when they actually just got some guy to hand it over to them and changed the name a couple days before the program started.
-GM was given privilege to do "closed" auctions, something almost never used on eBay, it is completely the antithesis of open auctions people expect when they go to eBay. This way, it's like getting the credibility of a company like eBay, but going around their time-honored tried and loved system. The closed auctions gave the buyer no advantage (or even incentive) whatsoever compared to some shlub walking into a dealership.
-All deals made through eBay aren't guaranteed. Multiple feedback occasions showed the dealers changed the price, the car, or simply left the eBay customer ass-out in the end. When all is said and done, nothing on eBay is contractual, and therefore it is akin to window shopping. No deals could actually be made online, thus entirely negating any advantage, however small, to the buyer. Even if the buyer just didn't want to get hassled, tough shit, they still had to negotiate after the deal, then go into the dealership, negotiate again, then sign the real paperwork.
-eBay and GM did all they could to hide their failing venture. Listings only lasted a few days to a week. Even now, if you go to "yourgmdealer"'s profile, you can see eBay is violating its own rules, hiding information on the last 3 transactions. They claim the information is available for 90 days, but the last 3 transactions are less than 90 days old, and their information has been removed.
In addition to all these verifiable facts above, I have one theory, that I'm currently investigating. It would be nearly impossible for me to prove, but if I can, it would blow the fucking lid off this whole thing. I believe GM used a stooge to boost their ratings (that are still incredibly low). This is an absolute flagrant violation of eBay policy, because it is a crime in the United States to misrepresent a business transaction to dupe customers.
The easiest way to spot a stooge is if they don't bother leaving any other tracks. You see, usually people don't create accounts right before an event, then participate in said event, leaving a positive impact, and then vanish from a website forever.
So if you look at eBay user "661henryglen" who signed up for eBay June 30 2009, bought TWO CARS ON THE SAME DAY August 20, 2009 (being the second and third positive feedbacks) all the while NEVER DID ANYTHING ELSE ON EBAY FROM SIGN UP UNTIL NOW. It looks really suspicious. It is similar to the cheating card dealer on the side of the street who has a friend come bet a round and let him win to dupe the marks.
This kind of stooge work actually reminds me of the Balloon Boy, as most people know, the whole family took part in as much attention whoring as possible, and they had released a children's film. When I heard about the film I went on IMDb to check it out, and I found a couple suspicious positive reviews from two separate accounts. Both accounts had been opened within days of each other, both accounts left a positive review for the movie, and both accounts never logged on again, nor left any comments for any other movies. That was another clear Richard Heene scam, though on a much lower level, and oddly once again, I'm the only one reporting on it. Though if you go to the IMDb board for the movie, I left a comment explaining this, so any person who came after me would know about it.
Ultimately the company we own did a bunch of stupid shit at our expense, and everyone; government, media, customers, has looked the other way. I don't know why I'm the only person reporting it. It feels weird, like American news dropped the ball. But I suppose this is an indicator of the big change in American media. As the newspapers fall out, as news becomes increasingly less lucrative, reporters stop reporting, investigators stop investigating, and we get Twitter.
Previous post on GM/eBay: http://promontorium.blogspot.com/2009_08_01_archive.html
Official GM eBay Feedback page: http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=yourgmdealer&ftab=AllFeedback&items=25
Richard Heene Movie IMDb page: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387889/
The program, GM selling new cars over eBay ceased at the end of October.
Now, me reporting this to you is completely old and not news. But as has been the case from day 1, I'm not the top reporter for timeliness; I've been the top reporter because NO ONE GIVES A SHIT ABOUT THIS AND I'M THE ONLY ONE ACTUALLY PUTTING ANY EFFORT INTO THIS.
If you haven't read my previous blogs, you'll have no idea what I'm talking about. Basically I did an in depth analysis of eBay and GM's plans, and used actual data that the media seems to be ignoring.
Hilariously enough, they've left the conclusion for me too.
You'd think one person in all of the media might have looked into this whole program. After all, millions were spent, and it was an industry first.
Sadly, what I've seen, one guy got a few official statements from eBay, GM dealers, and one customer, and wrote a puff piece for the NY Times. I looked around, and every other report on the close of the GM eBay alliance was just plagiarized from the NY Times article. Absolutely no original work across the global media.
What really annoyed me was that they all 'speculated' on the success of the program. They seemed completely unable to provide actual stats. Some people actually concluding that eBay and GM were "hiding" their results.
DO ANY OF THESE PEOPLE ACTUALLY USE EBAY?? All I had to do was look up the "yourgmdealer" profile and I could see every vehicle they sold and the feedback from the customers.
Grand Total: 24 vehicles transactions through eBay. Note, I didn't say vehicles sold, because if you read the feedback, many of the sales fell through when dealers refused to honor their deals.
With only 15 positive reviews (and one of them recanted) This company, bailed out by America, owned by all Americans, a multibillion dollar global century old corporation completely fucking sucked on eBay. Their feedback score was 7. Motherfucking 7. With only 68.4% of feedback positive (less considering the recanted one).
This program from day one was written to screw customers. The way it was set up, no "deals" could be had, eBay and GM conspired to set up the decks in their favor, and apparently people realized this. The worst part, reading what GM and eBay had to say, I don't think they learned a god damn thing. The only reason they would admit any drawbacks, was that THEY COULDN'T SELL ENOUGH CARS ACROSS THE ENTIRE STATE OF CALIFORNIA TO FILL A PARKING LOT!!
HERE IS A LIST OF SOME OF THE BULLSHIT THEY EMPLOYED THAT ULTIMATELY GUARANTEED THIS VENTURE WITH TAX PAYER MONEY WOULD FAIL:
-"Buy it Now" prices were above sticker. Needless to say, nobody fell for it.
-eBay gave GM "Power Seller" status, essentially selling out their own standards for an accolade GM didn't earn.
-GM used a dummy account to give themselves more "e-cred" by changing some asshole's account from "bighouse0001" to "yourgmdealer" they did this to make it look like GM has been on eBay since the end of 2007, when they actually just got some guy to hand it over to them and changed the name a couple days before the program started.
-GM was given privilege to do "closed" auctions, something almost never used on eBay, it is completely the antithesis of open auctions people expect when they go to eBay. This way, it's like getting the credibility of a company like eBay, but going around their time-honored tried and loved system. The closed auctions gave the buyer no advantage (or even incentive) whatsoever compared to some shlub walking into a dealership.
-All deals made through eBay aren't guaranteed. Multiple feedback occasions showed the dealers changed the price, the car, or simply left the eBay customer ass-out in the end. When all is said and done, nothing on eBay is contractual, and therefore it is akin to window shopping. No deals could actually be made online, thus entirely negating any advantage, however small, to the buyer. Even if the buyer just didn't want to get hassled, tough shit, they still had to negotiate after the deal, then go into the dealership, negotiate again, then sign the real paperwork.
-eBay and GM did all they could to hide their failing venture. Listings only lasted a few days to a week. Even now, if you go to "yourgmdealer"'s profile, you can see eBay is violating its own rules, hiding information on the last 3 transactions. They claim the information is available for 90 days, but the last 3 transactions are less than 90 days old, and their information has been removed.
In addition to all these verifiable facts above, I have one theory, that I'm currently investigating. It would be nearly impossible for me to prove, but if I can, it would blow the fucking lid off this whole thing. I believe GM used a stooge to boost their ratings (that are still incredibly low). This is an absolute flagrant violation of eBay policy, because it is a crime in the United States to misrepresent a business transaction to dupe customers.
The easiest way to spot a stooge is if they don't bother leaving any other tracks. You see, usually people don't create accounts right before an event, then participate in said event, leaving a positive impact, and then vanish from a website forever.
So if you look at eBay user "661henryglen" who signed up for eBay June 30 2009, bought TWO CARS ON THE SAME DAY August 20, 2009 (being the second and third positive feedbacks) all the while NEVER DID ANYTHING ELSE ON EBAY FROM SIGN UP UNTIL NOW. It looks really suspicious. It is similar to the cheating card dealer on the side of the street who has a friend come bet a round and let him win to dupe the marks.
This kind of stooge work actually reminds me of the Balloon Boy, as most people know, the whole family took part in as much attention whoring as possible, and they had released a children's film. When I heard about the film I went on IMDb to check it out, and I found a couple suspicious positive reviews from two separate accounts. Both accounts had been opened within days of each other, both accounts left a positive review for the movie, and both accounts never logged on again, nor left any comments for any other movies. That was another clear Richard Heene scam, though on a much lower level, and oddly once again, I'm the only one reporting on it. Though if you go to the IMDb board for the movie, I left a comment explaining this, so any person who came after me would know about it.
Ultimately the company we own did a bunch of stupid shit at our expense, and everyone; government, media, customers, has looked the other way. I don't know why I'm the only person reporting it. It feels weird, like American news dropped the ball. But I suppose this is an indicator of the big change in American media. As the newspapers fall out, as news becomes increasingly less lucrative, reporters stop reporting, investigators stop investigating, and we get Twitter.
Previous post on GM/eBay: http://promontorium.blogspot.com/2009_08_01_archive.html
Official GM eBay Feedback page: http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=yourgmdealer&ftab=AllFeedback&items=25
Richard Heene Movie IMDb page: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387889/
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Stockton Killings Up, Underreported and Unsolved
I try to tell people, in this city with an underreported population by tens of thousands of legal residents, the true number of killings is never acknowledged.
Stockton officially had 35 homicides in 2009, which is lower than average in the past, but more than in 2008. The Record's report admitted they cut out many deaths for these numbers,
No one the police kill are ever tallied, even if the death hasn't been ruled "justifiable homicide", no "justifiable homicides" are counted, and no DUI killings are counted.
Seems to me, death by cop, justifiable homicide, and car crashes would be three of the biggest sources of death tolls, I mean, at this point we're just talking about cold blooded murder, involving no law enforcement, and no vehicles, and still, Stockton can get up to 1 a week, like in 2006, 2005, 2004, where 40 plus people fit the category.
For regional comparison, Stockon in 2009 was 35, the entire county was 52, with the second highest city Tracy with 5.
2009 saw some of the worst rates for law enforcement, only 10 of the 35 cold blooded, unjustified, non police, non vehicle murders led to any arrests.
So in Stockton, if you're murdered, there's a 71.5% chance the police will completley fail in catching the criminal.
My contetion is this, if the police can't solve over 70% of the murders, and Stockton is actually much larger in population than anyone will admit, with or without the illegal encampments I know exist, and can show you on a map. How can we trust the number is actually 35? If someone is killed, and you don't find the body, and the person never officially existed in Stockton to begin with, there is no stat, that person was and will ever remain a ghost.
And it is precisely those people on the fringe who are most likely to be involved in shady operations, who are most likely to be murdered. The undocumented illegal brothers, sisters, cousins, of documented legal immigrants. The ones who couldn't get legal status, so they can't work legally, living either in the encampments or with their legal relatives. Either way, they must work, so they do it illegally. And once one crosses the legality threshold, once the threat goes straight to deportation, there is no limit, and here come the drugs, prostitution, slave labor, sex slavery, and with these criminals, all ghosts in the machine, murder goes unnoticed, unchecked, undocumented, and unsolved, or perhaps obvious to those who knew the victim, but never officially reported.
I have recently been in discussion about the subjectivity of focusing on blocks of time such as years and decades, so to throw in one more unhappy stat, 16 of 2009's murders in San Joaquin county were in November and December, 8 each. This is double the average. 2010 isn't looking good.
Stockton officially had 35 homicides in 2009, which is lower than average in the past, but more than in 2008. The Record's report admitted they cut out many deaths for these numbers,
No one the police kill are ever tallied, even if the death hasn't been ruled "justifiable homicide", no "justifiable homicides" are counted, and no DUI killings are counted.
Seems to me, death by cop, justifiable homicide, and car crashes would be three of the biggest sources of death tolls, I mean, at this point we're just talking about cold blooded murder, involving no law enforcement, and no vehicles, and still, Stockton can get up to 1 a week, like in 2006, 2005, 2004, where 40 plus people fit the category.
For regional comparison, Stockon in 2009 was 35, the entire county was 52, with the second highest city Tracy with 5.
2009 saw some of the worst rates for law enforcement, only 10 of the 35 cold blooded, unjustified, non police, non vehicle murders led to any arrests.
So in Stockton, if you're murdered, there's a 71.5% chance the police will completley fail in catching the criminal.
My contetion is this, if the police can't solve over 70% of the murders, and Stockton is actually much larger in population than anyone will admit, with or without the illegal encampments I know exist, and can show you on a map. How can we trust the number is actually 35? If someone is killed, and you don't find the body, and the person never officially existed in Stockton to begin with, there is no stat, that person was and will ever remain a ghost.
And it is precisely those people on the fringe who are most likely to be involved in shady operations, who are most likely to be murdered. The undocumented illegal brothers, sisters, cousins, of documented legal immigrants. The ones who couldn't get legal status, so they can't work legally, living either in the encampments or with their legal relatives. Either way, they must work, so they do it illegally. And once one crosses the legality threshold, once the threat goes straight to deportation, there is no limit, and here come the drugs, prostitution, slave labor, sex slavery, and with these criminals, all ghosts in the machine, murder goes unnoticed, unchecked, undocumented, and unsolved, or perhaps obvious to those who knew the victim, but never officially reported.
I have recently been in discussion about the subjectivity of focusing on blocks of time such as years and decades, so to throw in one more unhappy stat, 16 of 2009's murders in San Joaquin county were in November and December, 8 each. This is double the average. 2010 isn't looking good.
Monday, December 21, 2009
The Death of Liberty
Too many words have been written by too many people on too many subjects. Saturation is complete.
Nobody is noticing this grand overstepping of authority by the U.S. government.
Nevermind the politics. Whether you are for or against national healthcare, or universal healthcare. This isn't the issue.
Mandatory health insurance is what I consider a coffin nail to American liberty.
There is nothing, nowhere, in the United States government that is mandatory for all citizens. Some things get close, like registering for the draft, which has a lot of baggage behind it. Another is Social Security, which every person who works must pay into.
This is 100% mandatory for all Americans. If the health care bill passes, I guarantee you it will be in it, because NO ONE IS PUTTING UP A FIGHT.
You apathetic, pathetic American voters put these corrupted people into office, and they act in your will, to subvert the concept of individualism, and natural human ritghts. Things you have lost concept of. None of you know why the Bill of Rights exists. It isn't a list of all our rights it is a list of intentionally designed commands to the government. Your rights don't exist on paper, except in the words of the founding fathers who believed they were obvious, and inalienable. Inalienable means INHERENT, ABSOLUTE, UNASSAILABLE. Yet you have managed to fuck it up.
This isn't about small concessions anymore, and that's what I'm talking about when I say we have reached saturation. This isn't some nitpicking about welfare, or public transportation, or traffic laws. This is the fundamental nature of government being altered, and the INHERENT RIGHT OF MAN BEING USURPED.
This is not a small step. It is not a death of a thousand paper cuts. It is a frontal assault, and all we have is dead silence from all political factions.
The health insurance bill will pass. No one will stop this. And for the first time in this nation's history, every person will be mandated under threat of PRISON to pay money for health insurance.
This is the death of liberty.
YOU ARE GOING TO LITERALLY PAY YOUR GOVERNMENT FOR THE PRIVILIGE TO LIVE, OR BE SENT TO PRISON.
"just like car insurance" 'living is not a right, it's a privilige.'
You have just destroyed your right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Nobody is noticing this grand overstepping of authority by the U.S. government.
Nevermind the politics. Whether you are for or against national healthcare, or universal healthcare. This isn't the issue.
Mandatory health insurance is what I consider a coffin nail to American liberty.
There is nothing, nowhere, in the United States government that is mandatory for all citizens. Some things get close, like registering for the draft, which has a lot of baggage behind it. Another is Social Security, which every person who works must pay into.
This is 100% mandatory for all Americans. If the health care bill passes, I guarantee you it will be in it, because NO ONE IS PUTTING UP A FIGHT.
You apathetic, pathetic American voters put these corrupted people into office, and they act in your will, to subvert the concept of individualism, and natural human ritghts. Things you have lost concept of. None of you know why the Bill of Rights exists. It isn't a list of all our rights it is a list of intentionally designed commands to the government. Your rights don't exist on paper, except in the words of the founding fathers who believed they were obvious, and inalienable. Inalienable means INHERENT, ABSOLUTE, UNASSAILABLE. Yet you have managed to fuck it up.
This isn't about small concessions anymore, and that's what I'm talking about when I say we have reached saturation. This isn't some nitpicking about welfare, or public transportation, or traffic laws. This is the fundamental nature of government being altered, and the INHERENT RIGHT OF MAN BEING USURPED.
This is not a small step. It is not a death of a thousand paper cuts. It is a frontal assault, and all we have is dead silence from all political factions.
The health insurance bill will pass. No one will stop this. And for the first time in this nation's history, every person will be mandated under threat of PRISON to pay money for health insurance.
This is the death of liberty.
YOU ARE GOING TO LITERALLY PAY YOUR GOVERNMENT FOR THE PRIVILIGE TO LIVE, OR BE SENT TO PRISON.
"just like car insurance" 'living is not a right, it's a privilige.'
You have just destroyed your right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Wednesday, December 09, 2009
Whiskey in my life
I've heard Whiskey is currently experiencing a popularity boom unlike ever before. It probably has something to do with me coming to enjoy it.
I've always loved whiskey. Long before I ever drank any alcohol. Maybe because it originated in Ireland, I'm not sure. No one in my alcoholic family ever drank whiskey. It was always my default idea of alcohol.
I'm not going to go all wikipedia, or drink expert here, I just want to lay out my opinion on the matter.
The first whole glass of liquor I ever drank was some Jim Beam. I was 21 years old, it was about the end of 2003 and I was in Stockton on leave from the Navy. I had never been drunk before so I told my dad I wanted to see what it was like. He let me drink his Jim Beam, but it was only about a glass and it didn't actually get me drunk. I wouldn't have another sip of alcohol for 2 years.
I love the process of making whiskey. The charred oak barrel aging is actually where most of the flavor comes from, though whiskey is never distilled to pure alcohol, so it retains the flavor of its grain origin as well. Like pretty much everything else on earth, there are hundreds of ways to make it, and many variants. I would like to note one in particular, Bourbon, which I recently learned, is found in almost all major foreign bottles. Scotland, Ireland, Canada, etc? get their barrels from Kentucky (namely Jim Beam) and reuse the barrels, so most Irish, Scotch, and Canadian whiskeys have a certain percentage of Bourbon in them (and it isn't as little as you might think). Now how can you get snooty knowing that?
Coming in usually around 80 proof (40%) whiskey is mid range in the liquors, above the girly drinks, and below the mixers.
I'm going to list here most of the whiskeys I'm rather familiar with, with a snippet of opinion and rating.
Good Whiskey
Glenlivet I drank this for the first time a little over a week ago. Tony got me to go to a boring party in Ukiah, which was a 4 hour drive, I should do a blog about that. In fact, I will. It was the first single malt I've ever had, and it was very fine. It had a burn to it, so It's not as miraculous as I oddly assumed single malts were, in fact, tasting it, let me know single malt doesn't necessarily mean anything at all. I enjoyed it neat and that's about as good as it gets for me and whiskey.
Jameson This may be my second favorite whiskey, purely by its taste. Jameson sure doesn't have what Budweiser calls "drinkability" it has a harsh burn to it, but it does taste and smell very good. It also isn't anywhere near as syrupy as most whiskeys, which makes it easy going down. I like Jameson because it lets me get drunk very quickly. When I was in San Diego I did security for about 8 months. Work started at 5am, and I had no vehicle. So I would go to my ship the night before and sleep there. The thing about not having a car and being stationed on a ship on Coronado is you have to walk a lot. I have literally walked the entire length of Coronado many times. It's over a 20 minute walk to the ship just from the front gate of the base.
So each night before work, around 8-9pm, I would go to my freezer, pull out my bottle of Jameson, and drink straight from the bottle for awhile. Enough to guarantee I was drunk. Then I would begin the long bullshit process of getting to my rack. I had to walk to 5th avenue from my apartment, then I'd get in a cab, ride to the front gate of Coronado and walk to the ship. By the time I got to the ship, I'd be sober again. It took that fucking long. I'd usually be just buzzed enough to sleep soundly, which was important for having to get up at 4 am with 6 hours (max) sleep.
Jim Beam I already said this was my first drink. It was also the only time I ever had Jim Beam. My dad taught me how to drink whiskey correctly, and this alcohol didn't fail, if drunk right, very little burn, decent taste.
Knob Creek This is a premiem Bourbon by Jim Beam. It is 100 proof, so it is exceptionally more alcoholic than most other whiskeys. You can smell it in someone's glass, especially if they've mixed it with soda. I bought one bottle a few weeks ago thinking it would have a premium taste. with 50% alcohol, it is a little much for a sipping whiskey. It has a good flavor, but neat is less enjoyable than mixed with coke.
Mediocre Whiskey
Jack Daniels Oh I know I'm breaking the heart of every frat boy wannabe from the 90s until 2015 with this, but Jack is mediocre, and you know it. That's why you always put it in coke frat boy wannabe. Or you're just a tool. Either way, the stuff has a good flavor, but it actually tastes watered down. I can't explain that.
Johnny Walker Red This is the only Johnny Walker label I've had, so I can't say anything about the better ones. Red is their bottom of the barrel label, their "stuff got mixed in this and we're not sure what, but it's only been aging since you put your swim shorts away for the season so who cares" quality brand. It burns, it smells awful, and it tastes worse. It is possible to drink though. So it stays here in mediocre land.
Absolutely Vile (aka Canadian whiskey that comes in plastic jugs)
Canadian Mist It wasn't until I was long out of the Navy, long out of spending money. Long into retreat and no longer caring about anything but getting drunk, when I decided to purchase this liquor, based on price. Oh good lord. You can buy the shitiest vodka, and you're still somewhat safe for mixing, but this taught me a serious lesson. Whiskey can be offensively bad. This smells like vomit, it tastes like vomit. If you mix it with anything, it can lose alcoholic potency in dilution, but its stink, itsdisgusting flavor will never go away. Let it be a great testament that this shit sat unfinished in my poor kitchen for months before one particularly desparate day I chugged it and had to forcefully prevent myself from blowing it all back up.
Black Velvet After Canadian Mist, I swore to never buy cheap whiskey again. Give the story a few months and Danny comes over to eat drink and be merry. He brings as "gift" a mostly drunk bottle of Black Velvet. It is exactly as bad as Canadian Mist.
Great Whiskey
Chivas Regal This is my absolute favorite. Maybe it's just my subjective good memories of drinking this in foreign lands with my friend Sean (it was his favorite) but Chivas does have a lot going for it. It tastes great. I usually drink it room temperature, neat. I like to smell it first, just sticking my nose in the glass and swirl it around. It is so smooth and delicious, I pour some in my mouth and swish it around and smack it and taste and taste and oh jesus. It's seriously good. If you can't imagine a whiskey so smooth that you can drink it this way, you haven't had any good whiskey.
I've always loved whiskey. Long before I ever drank any alcohol. Maybe because it originated in Ireland, I'm not sure. No one in my alcoholic family ever drank whiskey. It was always my default idea of alcohol.
I'm not going to go all wikipedia, or drink expert here, I just want to lay out my opinion on the matter.
The first whole glass of liquor I ever drank was some Jim Beam. I was 21 years old, it was about the end of 2003 and I was in Stockton on leave from the Navy. I had never been drunk before so I told my dad I wanted to see what it was like. He let me drink his Jim Beam, but it was only about a glass and it didn't actually get me drunk. I wouldn't have another sip of alcohol for 2 years.
I love the process of making whiskey. The charred oak barrel aging is actually where most of the flavor comes from, though whiskey is never distilled to pure alcohol, so it retains the flavor of its grain origin as well. Like pretty much everything else on earth, there are hundreds of ways to make it, and many variants. I would like to note one in particular, Bourbon, which I recently learned, is found in almost all major foreign bottles. Scotland, Ireland, Canada, etc? get their barrels from Kentucky (namely Jim Beam) and reuse the barrels, so most Irish, Scotch, and Canadian whiskeys have a certain percentage of Bourbon in them (and it isn't as little as you might think). Now how can you get snooty knowing that?
Coming in usually around 80 proof (40%) whiskey is mid range in the liquors, above the girly drinks, and below the mixers.
I'm going to list here most of the whiskeys I'm rather familiar with, with a snippet of opinion and rating.
Good Whiskey
Glenlivet I drank this for the first time a little over a week ago. Tony got me to go to a boring party in Ukiah, which was a 4 hour drive, I should do a blog about that. In fact, I will. It was the first single malt I've ever had, and it was very fine. It had a burn to it, so It's not as miraculous as I oddly assumed single malts were, in fact, tasting it, let me know single malt doesn't necessarily mean anything at all. I enjoyed it neat and that's about as good as it gets for me and whiskey. 
Jameson This may be my second favorite whiskey, purely by its taste. Jameson sure doesn't have what Budweiser calls "drinkability" it has a harsh burn to it, but it does taste and smell very good. It also isn't anywhere near as syrupy as most whiskeys, which makes it easy going down. I like Jameson because it lets me get drunk very quickly. When I was in San Diego I did security for about 8 months. Work started at 5am, and I had no vehicle. So I would go to my ship the night before and sleep there. The thing about not having a car and being stationed on a ship on Coronado is you have to walk a lot. I have literally walked the entire length of Coronado many times. It's over a 20 minute walk to the ship just from the front gate of the base. So each night before work, around 8-9pm, I would go to my freezer, pull out my bottle of Jameson, and drink straight from the bottle for awhile. Enough to guarantee I was drunk. Then I would begin the long bullshit process of getting to my rack. I had to walk to 5th avenue from my apartment, then I'd get in a cab, ride to the front gate of Coronado and walk to the ship. By the time I got to the ship, I'd be sober again. It took that fucking long. I'd usually be just buzzed enough to sleep soundly, which was important for having to get up at 4 am with 6 hours (max) sleep.
Jim Beam I already said this was my first drink. It was also the only time I ever had Jim Beam. My dad taught me how to drink whiskey correctly, and this alcohol didn't fail, if drunk right, very little burn, decent taste. 
Knob Creek This is a premiem Bourbon by Jim Beam. It is 100 proof, so it is exceptionally more alcoholic than most other whiskeys. You can smell it in someone's glass, especially if they've mixed it with soda. I bought one bottle a few weeks ago thinking it would have a premium taste. with 50% alcohol, it is a little much for a sipping whiskey. It has a good flavor, but neat is less enjoyable than mixed with coke. Mediocre Whiskey
Jack Daniels Oh I know I'm breaking the heart of every frat boy wannabe from the 90s until 2015 with this, but Jack is mediocre, and you know it. That's why you always put it in coke frat boy wannabe. Or you're just a tool. Either way, the stuff has a good flavor, but it actually tastes watered down. I can't explain that. 
Johnny Walker Red This is the only Johnny Walker label I've had, so I can't say anything about the better ones. Red is their bottom of the barrel label, their "stuff got mixed in this and we're not sure what, but it's only been aging since you put your swim shorts away for the season so who cares" quality brand. It burns, it smells awful, and it tastes worse. It is possible to drink though. So it stays here in mediocre land. Absolutely Vile (aka Canadian whiskey that comes in plastic jugs)
Canadian Mist It wasn't until I was long out of the Navy, long out of spending money. Long into retreat and no longer caring about anything but getting drunk, when I decided to purchase this liquor, based on price. Oh good lord. You can buy the shitiest vodka, and you're still somewhat safe for mixing, but this taught me a serious lesson. Whiskey can be offensively bad. This smells like vomit, it tastes like vomit. If you mix it with anything, it can lose alcoholic potency in dilution, but its stink, itsdisgusting flavor will never go away. Let it be a great testament that this shit sat unfinished in my poor kitchen for months before one particularly desparate day I chugged it and had to forcefully prevent myself from blowing it all back up. 
Black Velvet After Canadian Mist, I swore to never buy cheap whiskey again. Give the story a few months and Danny comes over to eat drink and be merry. He brings as "gift" a mostly drunk bottle of Black Velvet. It is exactly as bad as Canadian Mist. Great Whiskey
Chivas Regal This is my absolute favorite. Maybe it's just my subjective good memories of drinking this in foreign lands with my friend Sean (it was his favorite) but Chivas does have a lot going for it. It tastes great. I usually drink it room temperature, neat. I like to smell it first, just sticking my nose in the glass and swirl it around. It is so smooth and delicious, I pour some in my mouth and swish it around and smack it and taste and taste and oh jesus. It's seriously good. If you can't imagine a whiskey so smooth that you can drink it this way, you haven't had any good whiskey.
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