Fascinated by a recent clip of folks being interviewed while waiting in line at a Palin book signing.... I noted one thing that made it finally very easy to describe what it is; that makes attempting a compromise with the Republicans in the Senate and Congress; a fools errand at best.

A fundamental tenant of Conservatism or Republicanism (whatever it should be called), has been exposed in the simplest terms. (begins at 4:47) "When you're right, you don't have to compromise. Compromise is for people that are wrong." Amazingly, short and to the point. Of course this goes along with the "do it because I say so" regurgitate and ruminate aspect of self-righteous empty headed-ness. Some might say we ought to set a good example... However, compromise attempts made in these circumstances are a bit like standing in the middle of a dark winding highway, hoping for a ride. When the cars go by with the Republicans on board, the trajectory tends to swerve towards a roadkill outcome. Take a stand already... Don't stand aside... Stand to the Left.

See clip here, if you want further reinforcement:

So... We have secret deals, and no bid contracts that make billions, no scratch that... Trillions have been stolen from us... what to do?

Banks trade crap loans back and forth artificially increasing the debt, what to do?

"Let's loan the banks $10 so they can write $100 in loans." Really? Didn't know they could do that, you say? What to do?

When one bank loans another $10; that bank can also write $100 in loans? Hmm... What to do?

I liked the idea I heard early on. Have the Mint create dozen $1 trillion dollar coins, and buy the Fed. This entire monetized economy has been poorly managed to the point of stupendously retarded virtual debt to midget-brain land... (as in micro-thought) for every dollar printed, and every dollar loaned, and every dollar saved and every dollar invested... Why? For virtual control, of course. What to do?

You say your pissed they stole the money... You say your pissed the banks are bending us over? I have one angry thought... Lose the monetized economy! That's right, screw money! Give me Star Trek already; I'm sick of this bs game. You say you've got a billion pieces of paper that have $100 written on them, adds up to $100,000,000,000.00 - guess what - means nothing. Ha!

What we need is a resource based economy. No more linear growth model, no more. Doesn't mean we lose all the fancy toys we have, what it means is that you and everyone can have them, given the time and effort.

I'm tired of chasing virtual value in the form of a dollar sign. It's a sadly elaborate game of inane; wanton waste.

Last time I bothered to think about the virtual value, I started to add my own contribution to an employer established retirement account. They have been generously contributing 7%, or at least that's what I thought; wasn't that what used to be considered comfortable... seems that after a bit of quick math... I'd have to add another 3% to make that 10%, or I'd not see enough money when I need it.

Now I have seen a net loss, hasn't everyone, but the thought is... I have more virtual parts of some virtual value related to some portion of a managed composite of various funds and stocks and shares and so forth... but the virtual value continues to drop, so the result is I am losing money? No...? in theory, I'm buying into virtual units for a collection of virtual values associated with investment. So, at some point, having a lot of virtual units means I will have more virtual value... but that doesn't work when you've got no growth. In fact the whole thing is based on the expectation of growth in value... linear growth over an average of peaks and valleys... which has worked, for some, for a few... now that most of us have been forced into the same model for our future value nugget; we are seeing that linear growth cannot happen for everyone all at once.

Yet, many continue to cling to an ideal that they can be the owner of a widget empire which depends on the generation of artificial interest and transitive induced desire. "You need this because you aren't happy or full-filled or complete." This works best when you can maintain a consumer impulse instilled in those you've drugged; distracted; made sore and tired and over-stimulated. This describes 80% of parents today, and why much psychology is used to manipulate and control them. "Your kids will die, news at 11." "Make your parents buy it."

The magic pill... if I can just get this one, I will be happy... Just one more drink/bite... More is better... Livin' large... Dammit! Enough already, give me Star Trek... I was born 1000 years out of time... beam me up!

So Sony has given me another reason to be annoyed with them.

As if the EditStation 7 wasn't already unforgivable. They continue to stifle the market for Blueray players (adding a high 'tax' for the technology), so they can sell a few more PS3's. (Still the cheapest BR player.) -Edit: Okay, so you can finally buy a blueray player for around $300. It took how long for that? :Edit-

Now that the 360 has gone through the promised update... The first thing I wanted to try out was streaming a movie. Turns out one of the shows already in my list was "unavailable" to my 360. WTF? Looking closer... turns out the show is a Sony Pictures production. Great.

Confirmed by my guilty pleasure, G4 TV... Sony has pulled the rights to stream their productions; to include their other holdings, like Columbia Pictures. What pricks! Another reason to hate media consolidation.

If you're listening Sony. (hey, I've got a shtick now. Stilllll not likely...)

It's clear there is no harm to you or your agreements to stream via Netflix to the Netflix application that is now installed on my xbox 360. This is no different than the Netflix application installed on any other of a number of different CPU's that have several different builds of operating system and components. It's purely asinine to suggest otherwise.

The only explanation is spite and avarice. Plain and simple. You're a-holes and want to hurt the xbox by limiting the content.

Look... I pay Netflix to have the service, and with it the convenience of streaming. I don't own a PC (Windows is required for DRM; or so the Netflix excuse goes), so... I cannot stream to my computer. You are unfairly punishing me for having an xbox. One more reason I wont be buying a PS3. You're jerks! (besides my housemates have one; so I can watch HD... not much else I want to do with it.) If not for the demise of HD-DVD you're precious PS3 would be the next Beta-max. (Might have better specs, but without the content who cares...)

Take a look at Valve (yeah Valve!) and you'll see what it means to care about the consumer. And value for you money. If you'd bothered to get your dev kits in order; you wouldn't have lost them as a 3rd party producer.

Sony! You're buffoons!

So the next big deal to save the failing monetized economy is a "loan" to the Big 3.

Let me tell you why I don't think this will help.

Look at the evidence of the 50 MPG car in the 70s. During the first big energy problem I can recall in my own life.

Look at a nearly identical example of self serving intercourse with big oil... the dumbing down of hybrids, the "problem" of the plug-in car. Why should I have to adjust the computer of my hybrid to get the full efficiency from the technology? Why should I have a hybrid at all?

My next car will not be dependent on gasoline to function.

Not happy with a near monopoly in plastics and medicine... big oil seems content to rape the mass populace with artificial shortages and price fixing. How is it that the price of gas has suddenly dropped to half what it was a short (read that a few weeks) time ago? Only because the price is BS.

Why exactly should we be investing in a "loan" to american car manufacturers who have spent the last 3 decades playing kiss-ass to big oil. Inching up the fuel efficiency a mile or 2 each year, when they can easily do more all at once.

Only recently have there been any noise at change... the all electric car we might see in a year or 2... delayed so that big oil can engineer a ridiculous price hike and make their already record profits look like a pittance.

The love affair with freedom of motion has seen it's share of manipulators. Designing obsolescence... thanks to human ingenuity, that we recycle cars so well... the only real reason it's "ok" to buy a new car every year. This is not tenable. I have heard from them that we will have such great technology, coming soon... only to see the same crap designed again year after year, with mostly cosmetic excuses to get you to ditch your current ride and get a new loan.

Look... it's not the cars themselves... we could argue over aesthetics for hours, and that not the point. The point is the engine... The energy... The point is the bastards have continually sold us out; leaving the technology for a rationed program of slow improvements. What we need to do is reward them by removing them from the position of responsibility they seem to have attained... that of employing enough people to leave the idiots in control with nothing but the idea that we should just throw more money after bad.

Why not build up a new industry; one that isn't married to big oil? I'd rather invest in automobiles with green technology... and not in the promises of a better future from A-holes who have done nothing but.

Why not employ these skilled people in another industry? What makes auto manufacturing so exceptional?

We need the 21st century version of "the new deal"... A real investment and encouragement in those who are willing to employ technology now; and not when some prick who makes $10,000 a second decides that he's made enough money selling us their black blood.

America needs to lead with technical advancement once again. It's been too long.

I hope someone who can make a difference has read this... not likely. Since it seems you will get some form of assistance... I'm going to be loaning you some money without my consent... I'd like you all to take a long look at the last 30 years. If not for continuous pressure; we'd have no safety... if not from outside competition, MPG would still be abysmal... still is for some vehicles. No one needs a freakin' tank to drive back and forth to work; unless they are truly living in a war zone. I'm talking to the jackass I see everyday in his H2.

Choices made by consumers are all too often shaped by commercials rather than good sense. Unless Jeb really needs that pickup; I don't think Jeb would buy one if Jeb hadn't seen the cool ad for it. (Sorry if your name is Jeb.)

This is bigger than a loan. Bigger than energy choice. Bigger than any commercial campaign.

Like WalMart... You can't blame the Big 3 for trying to make a buck. But, if you don't like what their selling, then don't buy it. Having seen less and less sales... looks like the dollar has spoken.

One last thing... some say this is the Banking Industries failure. Failure to write loans, big idiot loan industry collapse. The bigger picture here is the monetized system. A resource based economy is required to solve the problems faced by a ever increasing population. Artificial wealth and the greed that goes with it are the true dinosaur, and from it we should make our new oil.

So I bought an iPhone and it's pretty cool. Thought I'd try out photo bloggage. Hopefully, this will get less boring for you all. super office parking lot view to midget looking SE
So much for the test. This was posted using LJapp for iPhone. ---- Some additional thoughts... Looks like I set the picture size too big. Hmm. Maybe it's just my newb iPhone grist, but I'm thinking that the future of Mac OS is a bigger version of the iPhone. Just add AirBook, and you've got a Tablet PC killer. Done. Over. Can you tell I'm in geek-stacy? Yeah, now I'm catching myself with the head bent chiropactors dream neck death position, better suited for my 3AM passed out in the reclining chair. This is my next car radio... (might as well, since I hardly listen to terrestrial feeds anymore... maybe KPOJ for Rachel and Randi, but not much else... now I can stream Seattle's carriage of those show, thanks to A-hOle-HelL radio.) Damnit... It worked... Financial crisis hits, and I go and spend money. Damned commercial to midget brain regurge, anyway. (adtl thought by MacBook Pro... less annoying to type more detail.)

Okay, so I thought it was going to take about 6 or maybe even 60 years to get over my own BS and past BS... but I apparently didn't need that long. I'm about to embark on a new paradigm (Pair-A-Di-Jim). Strangely this feels so right, I have already begun to think of us as a pair with not much Di-Jim to speak of.

We have set the date as the first Saturday in March 2009. That will be March 7th 2009.

We will be having a casual ceremony in the early afternoon, near the Heart Shaped pond at the Funny Farm near Bend, OR. Official invites will be going out as soon as we get it together.

We plan to have a reception following, about 10 miles up the road in Redmond, OR. Where we plan to stay in preparation for the day.

So... that it. I'm finally doing it. Here I will be nearly 37 before I get it figured out. And were already talking about being parents. Grace, you're about to get a bigger family.

I haven't been this happy ever... seems like I should be looking over my shoulder for the speeding train or above my head for the piano about to fall... This is unreal... 8 months have gone by and it seems like 8 years and 8 days at the same time.

Now I need to figure out how to dance and sing and I'll be set. (We plan to dance at the reception, and I suck bad... We may have karaoke along with the music... so maybe you'll get to hear me awful pipes.)

I've gotta say; I hate administrating (administering?) Windows!

Had my relationship with a Vendor been less rocky... perhaps I wouldn't bother to write about it. We have 2 servers built by these folks (yeah folks... it gets worse later...)

One decided to crap its hard-drive out. I have 2 backup copies from immediately after the last update to drivers that are essential to the purpose of these units. The only way I can abide a PC in my area of authority; is as a single purpose machine. That's where they shine, and about the only place they do.

So of course I spent my first few hours working to get one of the backups to boot. And of course neither does. Both complain about core files that are missing from the OS. I recall this issue and it is why I had placed in my future plans to address the weakness. So I began the time consuming trial of attempting to do a 'Repair Install' using the installer. (This is Win2K Server for anyone who cares.)

When does this happen? In the last 30 minutes or so of my day, on the equivalent of my 'Friday'. I spent 2.5 hours working to get the backups to respond, and using normal conventional means. They failed to be found by the tool. (This is where I beat my head into the wall, not having an Emergency Repair Disk...) We'll get back to that bit in a minute.

So, being a bit pissed for having my plans screwed; 2 fold... had a dinner date that evening. And knowing I would have to return the next day; being my 'Saturday'. I began a clean install on a spare drive, and left...

Returning then next morning, I called the Vendor... knowing that this had occurred before about a year and a half ago, I thought we could repeat the past... he'd send me the files I need, and explain a few hacks required to get the newest drivers to work. The call was fruitless. I spent as little time as I could trying to work it out; no exception could be made... they got screwed by someone who essentially stole from them; to build their own. "It's not personal" Which of course didn't help... Okay, "You're essentially telling me that you cannot trust me like you have trusted me before and it's not anything about me?"

Well... after about 5 hours on my day off of struggling to work this out with them and sort it out myself... having way too low blood sugar level to think anymore... I left and managed to get distracted from fretting over the whole mess; thanks to my friend's crazy karaoke birthday.

So... Monday morning comes... Refreshed, fresh aired, fresh generally if not a bit sore... And, now determined to hack the MF'er. I dug into my little used mental archive of how to tackle this collection of mistakes. First, I needed to get one of the copies to let me repair install; that means I need a way to tell the bastard installer where to look... So I made an ERD from the nearly identical system that was still operational. Once that was done, I got past the first block.

Now when I boot, it won't get past a driver that is missing. Crap. Try a few reboots... Nope. Safe-Mode time. Okay, seems to be good, but Administrator account fails to work. I figure the SAM is corrupted. And start looking for ways to reset the password. Hmmm... Not possible with the install disc. (Damnit! If it were a Mac, my search would be over.) Time to Google it.

I spent about an hour looking and reading, but eventually settle on a tool that is a light version of linux. It's real small (about 3-4M), and there's a lighter still version that will boot from a floppy. I went with the larger version, and burnt the ISO onto a disc with Toast on my old PowerBook G4. I also found another tool, but since it is a 2 step download I didn't bother with it. (The initial link is a Windows app that you are supposed to use to download the actual app. Seems a bit seedy, but many folks swore by it.)

The tool I used i found here:
http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password.htm
the actual files are discussed about half way down the page, linked here:
CD ISO - (Which I have tried and know it works.)
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/cd070409.zip
Floppy Boot Disk
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/bd050303.zip

The other tool I didn't try, but looked promising:
http://ebcd.pcministry.com/

I nuked the Administrator Password. (Which showed up as 'Locked or Disabled'.) I also had to do a chkdsk with another install (the clean one I performed earlier) to get the tool to operate in a read-write mode.

Then it's on to massaging the system, Service Pack 4, Drivers/Found Hardware BS with the kb/mouse. Eventually it stops geeking at the next reboot for more drivers and hardware... I lost count. Then I went on to see about the funky driver hack the yutz that I bought this from has had to do to make their new software work properly. I get the hack accomplished after 3 tries. It's essentially copying files from archives into specific locations in the system32 and drivers sub-folders. (About 4 layers of them, in the right order.)

I have now mirrored the system. Not ideal, but better than a 'hot spare/partial copy'. I will eventually force the mirror to build me a few copies, for cold spares.

So... I had 3 choices starting out...

Get a time machine and go ask myself what the password for the installer is; since the bastards actually told me several years ago... never thought it would be a hassle to ask again; didn't write it down. (Damnit! Another lesson...)

Spend about 10 hours of my time over 3 days, to hack it... (which eventually worked.)

Mail the 4 U tall, rack mount tank to CA, and wait about 2 weeks for it to return. About $600 later... We'd have the same result as my hack (probably.)

One last note: Don't debug or IT on an empty/manic stomach. Bad! The F'ers at the Vendor suggested I get Norton Ghost to make a copy of the working system. Problem 1, I was pissed, I turned off my brain. Problem 2, I did not eat properly. Problem 3, the freakin' box doesn't have the idiot logos... that I am apparently in need of when I'm an idiot. (see problems 1 and 2.)

So.. I locate a copy of Norton Ghost, and spend $70. Bring it back. (Here's the important part!) Open it. Attempt to use it. And get a helpful (hateful) message informing me I'm a jack-ass and should have read the box more closely. Norton Ghost 12 (the current basic version) only does XP and Vista. F#(K!!!! Turns out the current offerings are that, or an enterprise solution starting at 5 seats.

Now I'm beginning to really hate Retrospect and Norton. Next chance I get, I'm going to donate to Bombich Software for their free utility Carbon Copy Cloner, for Macs, sorry Windoze.
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html

So I went out with this Woman I barely know, yet seems like I should have all my life.

Our friend DR introduced us by individually goading us into action. I admit, I wasn't the one to make the first move, and call her for a date. She finally called me.

After some Mexican food and drinks... the evening ended with a subtle hint that maybe more was possible here. I was determined not to be in a hurry... and left the invitation open for further dates...

We made the date 7/7/7 out of convenience and find ourselves reminded with yet another symbol to look back on that this is right. And there is no time like right now.

So I'm slowly recovering from my 3 nights in the misty Mt. Hood mountain ranges... A bit cold generally; we saw around 2 hours of sun the whole trip. Rained a bit; should have brought a tarp, but thankfully a friend had an extra. It was a joint effort; so to speak... with everyone pitching in, and passing to the left.

I made sure to get my cooking chore exchange nugget dealt with early on; making the most of prep cook and gopher duties Friday afternoon. We'd mostly burgers and brats. Eggs and bacon for breakfast. Kick-ass carne asada; a deliciously marinated beef skirt; thin sliced... MMmmm.

Did some fire tending... and managed to live through the frigid river water several times for a quick wash. Most folks thought I was crazy; to wear my birks and no socks... kinda freaked 'em out... oh well.

This was mostly about getting away for the guys; with the guys. Folks I know and friends of friends; some co-workers... an odd mix, yet it worked. The idea of a horseshoe throwing tournament became a part of the trip early in the planning. Not something I've done much of, but damned if it wasn't fun. (Probably more so; since me and my throwing partner won the single elimination matches!) We will be doing this again next year. Might need to dig me a couple of pits in the backyard... (got to defend the title.)

We managed to survive some fairly foolish stunts; yet, in retrospect... not much of incidence to report. A few crazies were trying to kill one another with a boat anchor and various branches. The idea was to harvest dead wood... and it worked strangely enough; though I wouldn't recommend it to anyone I like. (The first couple, I lent a hand and some weight... it didn't take long to see how insane this was... yanking limbs from trees.) Then there was the helper who thought he'd try some starter fluid on the fire pit; this was while someone had there face a couple of feet away, getting the coals stoked. The fire burst into a pyre, but no funerals... lucky him... I watched as the fire raced up the jet of cold-engine starter fluid (mostly ether?) and stood agape as a small ball of fire danced on top of his batting hands... making moves to put out the flames... which eventually worked. This seemed to take a minute or two, but I'm sure, had it lasted more than a few seconds, he wouldn't be here. Damn fool.

Most of the rest of the casualties are bodily, as I return to normal temperatures, and sleeping textures. Less wood fire smoke in my lungs; and less smoke in general... sense I prefer the vaporizer. My right side is pissed for the throwing, but damn it was fun! "Crazy Hair D... you're up..."

So for those who haven't thrown... a ringer is 3 points... and you get 2 for a leaner (leaning towards, and on the pin with a gap)... and 1 point for being within the width of a shoe from the pin. We only played to 11 (a half game...)

The first night (Thursday) there weren't many folks there yet. Cool, I get to have my choice of plots! Put up my dinky 2 person 2 pole tent. Nice, but 2 people? Maybe 1 and a half. Not water proof, more like water resistant. Crap, had I known... oh well, folks arrived the next day to save my soggy ass.

Not much to report Friday... folks are warming their arms up, but I didn't bother to do much throwing, until game day. We had a mega-amp and speakers tunage happening most of the day, while I spent an hour or 2 hanging in a friends RV making use of the volts and a Volcano. Thank You! (I felt bad for dissing his plans... RV's aren't camping I said, they're traveling. I admitted my transgression to the reward of another bag. I inhaled deeply again; for further pain relief.)

That night we shivered until around 2am playing Texas Hold'em, pot limit, $5 buy-in. The table was a bit too far from the fire, but I still kicked ass... Made 2nd place and left with $10... cool! The 1st place guy was a player, for sure.

Saturday morning came early, but I didn't bother to roll-out until after breakfast had happened. Oh well.. Grabbed some compact protein nugget, and headed to the game. Cody and I were given the random moniker "The Potheads" from a hat, and the rest of the teams had similar sensibility... some named for this strain or that, but I digress. Cody knows his stuff... I haven't seen many guys this aggressive. He managed to teach me to throw pretty good in that short day, and I managed to contribute 4 or 5 points to our win... throwing the winning throw for the 2nd to last game... Cody got the winner for the final match.

Saturday night was a bit rainy, and not much happened but trying to stay dry and warm... we managed the latter. Sunday was a bitter sweet day, knowing that we were leaving, but I was glad to be home by the middle afternoon. I'd do it again, for sure. (Need to buy a tarp... and some stakes, and a pole or two... a lantern... and so on... Next year!)

So I'm sitting at the table under my ceiling fan; positioned slightly to the left and in front of me by about the length of my arm at a around a 30° angle... Minding my own business... when I took one of the moments to think; looking up at the ceiling fan... I drew a line with my eyes away from the point directly over my head where I was looking; straight down to a normal position in front of me again.

As I did so; I couldn't help but notice that the contrasting image of the fan blades drew into and out of phase. The image in my eyes was clearly the usual blur of motion when I looked directly at the fan. I tested this several times. However, as I reached the periphery of my vision... there began a strobe affect; much like the way a strobe is used to determine the RPM of a record turntable platter.

The tilt of my head would seem to affect a different frequency; no... that is; more accurately; that the angle of incidence into my eye seemed to affect a range of frequencies in contrast to that of the ceiling fan I was experimenting with... Okay... So I was bored. But, not having taken any college level science... this seemed like a bit of a discovery. So I continued.

The angle vs. frequency (or as I go from the main part of my visual range into the peripheral vision and back.) I began to notice that the control was difficult; yet... with a bit of practice I could make the contrasting image of the blades almost stand still; reverse direction...

Fun, yet why would it be important? Maybe it's as simple as a primal need to distinguish fast moving prey or predator. Maybe I'm a freak of genetics... Or it's all those hedonistic activities... not sure at this point. Oh well.

(No intoxicants were in use during these experiments... all witnesses will deny any participation... this is your final warning.)

Locational Variations in Intoxication Perception:

After a (too quick) visit to some friends South of me about 2 hours... I have a realization to illuminate. Over the years much of my associates and friends and colleagues... have all reported the experience that; when getting bent with others or in a out of the ordinary location. The apparent level of intoxication is perceived as much greater. My friend and compatriot of my on-line gaming time said it thus: "When I sit in my favorite chair, I can take 10 bong hits and not feel a thing. All I did was move to a different chair for a while, and DAMN!"

So what does this mean? Is there an inertia of some sort? Does the experience of intoxication leave a kind of impression on space-time?

Another sort of phenomena is memory related. This is a known and somewhat understood mechanism. That is the aspect of memory that is dependent upon the neuro-chemistry state at the moment of recording. This imparts a kind of pattern upon the information... a sub-carrier or codec of sorts. The neuro-chemistry is required to recover the data. Many a cannabis user can tell you about the that time when they just could not remember some thing or other... and shortly after a toke; it all comes back. (See South Park's Towelie character exhibit this well known behavior in the Towelie episodes.)

Does this have anything to do with it? If our memory is dependent on a kind of neuro-chemical sub-carrier... could this same dependency make us sensitive to the space-time of the intoxication; providing a kind of situational tolerance?

What the hell am I talking about anyway? Hold-on a sec... "Wanna get high? Don't forget to take a towel!"

...less than a hose...
...merely an attachment...

"Bob just will not shut up about Jack's plan. What a Sprinkler!"

(okay... maybe not so catchy, but damn it was funny when I first thought it!)

My legs are killing me... too much walking; thanks to my birks, my feet are ok.

4 days in Vegas is too long. Was getting there before, but now... it definitely is too long. If not for the 2 brief rain showers over night the first 2 nights, I'm sure I would be digging and hacking even more crud out of my respiratory system from the 40mph gust on day 3... gack!

It never ceases to amaze me how self important assholes fail to watch where they are going. You know the ones who have their head planted in a PDA or cellphone as they cross the street. Better yet are the dipshits who are standing with their colleagues jabbering, and begin headlong full speed, while looking sideways. Dicks!

Lots to see at the NAB convention action this year, but much of it was more about the best way to record digitally and who has the better codec or media. Sadly... Sony continues to confuse me and the buying public. They have too many recording options... XDCAM is blueray but twice as dense? MPEG2 is the standard, but we'll use AVC/MPEG4 for proxy here... and for the main recording system over here. What? XDCAM isn't just about optical media, "it's a tapeless format of any media type we decide to throw at you... so there!" They have finally joined Hitachi and Panasonic with a flash memory based recording system. Sadder still is the need for our facility to buy cameras before the Sony based systems will be mature. So we will probably go Panasonic and P2. The only stopping point is that Panasonic has fewer choices for recording HD. Not an issue yet, but if we expect the cameras we buy to last 10 years... it will matter somewhere in their mid-life. Sony has a more compact HD codec, but the chroma isn't sampled as often compared to the less compact Panasonic offerings... (more chroma sampling makes for easier/better chroma-keying.)

Another standout was the number of mini booths that were offering virtual set technology. Using a green screen and 3d software along with various forms of camera motion tracking... much of it was servo based, attached to the camera, while a few use an IR system with familiar white balls attached to the cameras. One system uses a grid of light blue stripes that is image analyzed for camera positioning...

Lots of HDD storage solutions. Almost everything their was about High Def, and Standard Def was hard to find. NHK had a display showcasing their 20.2 channel 16Megapixel video recording system... Pretty amazing for the 400" screen that was being used. Other things there were the 8Mpix display... essentially 4k across by 2k high. Nice, but with the 50+" displays of that 4k x 2k and 1080p (1920 x 1080)... it was REAL hard to see the difference without being only a few inches from the screen. Needs to be at least 100" screen to notice; I think. Who has room for that... not many. Much of their installs are in Digital Theatres in Asia.

Stopped by Apple for the Final Cut Studio 2 demo... very nice. We will be upgrading. Also saw their new server software to manage Final Cut Projects... very cool. Too bad we have little need for it. I was wearing my "Your Computer Sucks" hackwear and the FCPserver demo guy seemed a bit offended until I explained 4 of 5 folks I know don't have a Mac.

Had the hardest time swapping my light breakfast and big lunch around... usually we hit the buffet where the omelet station is the safest thing. And we would skip lunch; having our dinner early around 5:30-6. For the first time in Vegas, I didn't over eat. And not for a lack of trying a few times... just wouldn't go...

Glad not to be getting up at 7:30 to eat by 8:30... way too early for me.

My room... ugh... Ok... The Stratosphere has been a great place, but this time my room stank of piss... (not the bathroom!) and the tap water smelled like Troutdale sewer plant on a bad day. Unfortunately I had the displeasure of needing water the first night and no interest in going shopping that late... I did drink some of it... gack... sulfur doesn't describe it. Vegas is building a aqueduct that costing billions, and wont be done until 2015 or later... I'm pretty sure the additional water will be too little too late.

I'm still a bit blurry from the grit. One night of a single beer and 2 gin 'n' tonics was enough drinking for me... dragged a bit the next day but the bentonite seemed to help. Glad to be home. I will be smiling the next time I pay my water bill.

Thanks to a colleague, I finally have my ego space action in tow... If you're bored, or 'Spaced... You might want to see it here: http://www.myspace.com/meltingupwards

The closest thing to a picture of me is now on the internet:


Now big mother can start to get a better profile on my internet activity and real life activity... oh no!

What has the world come to?

First, my colleague and I are responsible for helping to operate a small non-profit media education facility... she has been championing the addition of internet based media tools as another path to exposure and networking ideas. Much of the target producers of video content will likely be activists in general and ego oriented pieces in close second. Our distribution is limited to the local cable franchise, and regulation.

The education project extension nugget has been a part and parcel to the concepts born out in the term 'Web 2.0'. While not a term I care to promulgate, I repeat it here only as reference and the need to explain myself in brief terms. Blogging, podcasting, social networking, folksonomy, tagging, wiki.

Thankfully for us, much of the tools for this to happen already exist in various forms on various levels. YouTube, Google Video, MySpace, Wikipedia, Blogspot, and on and on. We may ultimately provide storage of podcasting media, but streaming is not likely due to the cost of bandwidth.

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Actually the idea of being on the web has been in my head since I first saw it many many years ago. The idea of social networking sites has been abhorrent to me; but only due to my own self imposed disgust of popularity in general. Could be my brief experiences interacting with said popularity has lead me to this reaction, but realizing it is a reaction is perhaps the reason I can explain it clearly and move on with myself.

I bought my first home. I don't want to sign my name again for a while.

Moved most of my storage and SMC's storage in 2 days. Spent the following 3 recovering from that, and promptly dove into receiving guests.

Just barely got the refrigerator bought (funny having just read heretic's note about the same.) Bought mine as a scratch and dent close out at a local business. Feels good to support the small guys, and I got better service. A good friend and associate had suggested I go across town to a big-box who is remodeling. Good idea, except I have a narrow space, and most places I checked stocked mostly larger models.

It's weird to have to buy shit I haven't needed to own before now. Now I feel like I'm home. I brought services on-line in roughly the following order:

water
power
home theater
shower-toilet
bed
laundry
garbage
cable-internet
'frige
next is the kitchen unpacking.

One tenant has already moved in, the next is later this week. MD will be taking the smaller of the 2 remaining rooms. SMC the larger (about 10 squares more.)

My neighbors have been good so far. I did an intro letter, but met the folks across the street the first moving day. A. helped carry stuff, and appears to have a goat? Also, 3 dwellings are relatives in one fashion or another. It's almost 1400 sq ft for almost $1400 a month. Ouch. I will be house poor for some time. But the location is nice. Located between Portland, Gresham and Clackamas. Close to the city, but right next to a park with beautiful trees. Nice quite dead-end street. Tiny 4k lot, but this is in town. I had a co-worker of mine laugh at me when I said 4k was small... "you're not a city-boy, are you?" (funny at the time)

I took a week and a half vacation time to move and set-up. Now that my vacation is over, I have been ill with the crud for a few days. This is the first time this week I have felt capable of multitasking or thinking clearly.

I was talked into staying home another day, and not contaminating everyone. SMC has been waiting for me to bring a vehicle to pick up him and the dogs from Beaver-tron. Still need cut hole in doors... not thoroughly please about it, but the 3 doors will live. Need a fence.

The living-room is like the bridge of the Enterprise. I've got 3 recliners that would be Captain, Number 1 and Science Officer (or counselor). Then you've got the 2 ergo rockers in front of that which would be Chekov and Sulu. Weird to have an actual dining table; I've been eating on the floor for years. My bedroom and bath is like my own apartment. (I've had smaller. "Live from The Lawn!")

Won't have much time this year to deal with the exterior. Started redoing the wiring. 2nd and 3rd bedrooms do not have cable, phone or internet. I will be running a surface access wiring conduit system across the center 'spine' of the house. (It's a dbl-wide on a foundation.) That will be 3 or 4 cat5e lines, a branched single cable coax line, and simple twisted pair for future telephone. The crap under the house will get yanked. and the gaping holes in my house's vapor barrier will be sealed. The previous owner had the quickie cable and cat5 install jobs in the living room and the master. A few other fit and finish things to do over time... The paint is plain bright white. Gack! Needs paint, but I have hangings for now.

Should rest some more. Still fighting this crud.

I just dragged my sore and aching bod to work, but the work was worth it. No real incident of note... only a few; expected issues... dealt with in a professional manner by all.

Great bands one and all! I enjoyed every tune I heard, and it was a pleasure to be in the good company of Pony Boy and crew from Los Marijuanos. True Cannabis Connoisseurs. (It's good to have connected friends.)

I rec'd many personal and a few public compliments regarding my graphics work, and was asked to be the official graphics resource for the event. (Major kudos from that one...)

I spent most of the day backing-up all positions I could find need to: (Oregon NORML booth, Security, Vendor Relations, best-boy, electrician, tripod engineer, Cannabis QC...)

As always; with any good event come many learning experiences. I was hopeful in a clear sign that this movement is going forward and I have to say that with everyone's hard work and dedication... This is the real thing! Double the vendors; all pro bands; better food; better attendance; better ganja. We Rock!

While there continues to be some disagreement about the details (as with any complicated subject.) There was a real sense of cooperative effort in the air. Perhaps the experience could have been my own personal journey, but I sensed the same from others... a feeling that we are growing together and working better for it.

post note-age:
I also made it to this year's Hempfest in Seattle, only a few weeks prior... Wow! A sea of people flowed by as my brain and my skin baked away into the day. I helped THCF operate the main booth (largest contributors), and we rec'd many nice perks... but mostly a place to chill by the bay shore and enjoy the fruits of our labor. (about 4000 posters and 20,000 fliers were distributed.) Highlights: Passing a J with Steve Cubby and Eddy Lepp as we setup booths, back stage with AH and his amazing vapor-bong, getting a chance to thank Randy Rhodes for all she does, seeing over 150,000 people supporting hemp!