Can you write a little louder, my hearing isn't that great

Ever audiobook? You know, listen to a recording of a book being read.

I was never a big fan, but my iPod - Boris the Black - has helped make a fan of me. Boris likes the idea of just playing for long periods of time without me messing about with him to pick different stuff.

Anyway, Boris and I have been on a bit of an audiobook spree of late. We've been through Robert Ludlum's, The Ambler Warning, and Neal Stephenson's, Snow Crash, of late. The Ludlum book would have been better to read - it would have taken me a third of the time - but it was entertaining.

Snow Crash, on the other hand, was great. Snow Crash is a great book to start with. My friend Josh gave it to me to read a long time ago and it took me forever to get past the first chapter. Once I did, it was amazing. Hearing it read reminded me how truly groundbreaking some of the ideas in it were for when it was written. He really nailed a lot of our current technology and computer trends. If you haven't read it, you can't really be considered a cybergeek and we all know how cool it is to be a cybergeek.

I've also been listening to Immersion German off and on. It's just German conversations done at normal speed and then slower and then normal again. The only English is a brief introduction at the start of each one to set the scene - basically, 'Gunter and Heidi are at home. Gunter is watching the end of a soccer match and they are trying to decide what kind of food they're in the mood for and what restaurant to go to...' Of course, I can't understand much of it, but that's sort of the point. You just listen to it over and over and it begins to make sense. A bit like learning language as a kid.

Anyway, the other day I downloaded another cool book, The Areas of My Expertise. It's free at Audible.com right now and is pretty darn funny - in an offbeat sort of way. It's by John Hodgman. You probably know him as PC in the 'get a Mac' commercials.

I got the link from my good buddy Neil Gaiman who said, "You need this free audiobook. If you think you don't, you are wrong. Trust me. It's funny. Also, it's free."

Okay, that's sort of a lie. I don't even know Neil Gaiman - I've only been to his website. He is responsible for the bold statement though and he's right about the audiobook. You can follow this Boing Boing link to the audiobook on iTunes.

Anyway, the audiobooks have been keeping me entertained during the long hours of work tedium and boy does that make me happy. And, it's keeping Boris happy too which is always a bonus. But, I do have the hankering to sit down and do some reading. I'll never get tired of flipping through real pages in the wee hours of the morning and not getting enough sleep because the book was just too good to put down.

Budget me this Batman...

One thing about the information super highway is - well - there's a lot of information out there. Some of it is amusing. Some of it is deep and though provoking. Some of it's both.

I found one that's sort of both here. Frankly, it would be more amusing if it didn't have such a real impact on most Americans (those who aren't blessed with multi-million dollar fortunes that is). It's a look at how the Democrats and Republicans stack up on the economy, size of government, expenses of said government.

Keep in mind while you're trolling through this that it is dealing with the modern era, but doesn't include the current Bush administration's fine stewardship. The numbers run from Kennedy through Clinton.

By the way, the numbers were originally compiled on this guy's blog, which looks like it's full of some interesting thoughts - or spotlighting of some interesting facts and tidbits, at least.

Fun with 3D

Been playing with a 3D program a bit. It's fun to mess about with, but it's a resource hog. To really have some 3D fun you need to have a blistering quick machine with tons of memory. Until that happens, I'm contenting myself with sticking to making some still pictures.

Question this answer

Do you want answers or do you want questions? The answer to this will say a lot about you. All of us, at one time or another, will want one or the other but most of the time will seek one more than the other.

Take the internets and some of the things found in its tubes - things like wikipedia.

A while back, wikipedia came under attack by some who said that it was full of errors and that a system that depended on a group of people to write collectively of about such a huge range of subjects could never be trusted. Most of the argument was centered on the biography of an individual who was erroneously dipicted in a harsh light. Later, several studies were conducted and it was found that wikipedia was actually more factually correct than a certain, highly-respected encyclopedia.

The argument continues, but I think that ultimately it comes down to a difference between those who wish to have only answers and those who wish to face questions.

Stepping back a bit, I should explain that this whole thing started with a few minutes on Dbackdad's blogsite. He's got a little 'what I'm reading now' section and I followed the link of one of the books, Godel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid to a wiki on the book. From there I clicked over to a wiki on Zeno's paradoxes. They're a series of paradoxes proposed by Zeno that mathmaticians and physicists believed were resolved, but it turns out that on a quantum level it is impossible to resolve them.

My favorite is Zeno's arrow paradox.

"In the arrow paradox, we imagine an arrow in flight. At every moment in time, the arrow is located at a specific position. If the moment is just a single instant, then the arrow does not have time to move and is at rest during that instant. Now, during the following instants, it then must also be at rest for the same reason. The arrow is always at rest and cannot move: motion is impossible.

Whereas the first two paradoxes presented divide space, this paradox starts by dividing time — and not into segments, but into points. It is also known as the fletcher's paradox."

My second favorite is the dichotomy paradox.

"Suppose Homer wants to catch a stationary bus. Before he can get there, he must get halfway there. Before he can get halfway there, he must get a quarter of the way there. Before traveling a quarter, he must travel one-eighth; before an eighth, one-sixteenth; and so on.

This description requires one to complete an infinite number of steps, which Zeno maintains is an impossibility. This sequence also presents a second problem in that it contains no first distance to run, for any possible first distance could be divided in half, and hence would not be first after all. Hence, the trip cannot even begin. The paradoxical conclusion then would be that travel over any finite distance can neither be completed nor begun, and so all motion must be an illusion."

Zeno - it turns out - is fun to ponder. Fun, if you like to find questions and ask them. Not so much fun if you like answers. How can you - if you like answers - like something that says that there might not be an answer?

It's probably not hard to see that I fall into the seeking questions camp.

Anyway, it occured to me that there is something at work that runs through our society itself. It is these two different world views. Those who crave answers and those who crave questions.

To simplify it, some people want - in fact need - to have the world boiled down to simple answers. Uncertainty creates tension and anxiety in these people. Uncertainty is to be avoided, explanations need to be found, and order imposed.

On the other hand, are those who need to question. Uncertainty is part of life for these people and often the idea of arbitrarily imposed order runs against their nature. For them, paradox is understandable because it is not understandable. Order isn't bad in itself, but applying it simply for it's own sake is.

I think this root difference is the basis for our current culture clash, particularly as it being played out in the religious arena. It's nothing new. Take the early Jews who were divided into several groups with different worldviews - the Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes for example. Without going into much detail, it could be argued that these three groups provide excellent examples of answer people and question people - the Pharisees and Sadducees being the answer folks and the Essenes being the question people.

And to generalize a bit more, the Pharisees and Sadducees (who were extremely order and rule concious) are the rough equivalant of today's Evangelical right. For these people, specific rules are more important than general concepts. The contemporary counterpart to the Essenes would be those Christians who believe that the general concepts of Christ's teachings are more important than specific rules.

When the statement is made that Christianity is under attack today is made, it is really more that the worldview of the modern Pharisees is what is being attacked. Presenting a paradox to a Pharisee is the same thing as attacking their worldview.

The same scenario can be seen on the political stage as well.

The Bush administration can easilly be seen as answer people - Pharisees. They have proposed rules or maxims and those rules are more important than generalities. For these answer people, to even question the rules is to question their worldview. Their rules must be defended because their worldview depends upon it. In fact, defending these rules is part of their worldview and has become an ingrained principle.

They have counterparts on the other side of the political spectrum too. There are those with politically liberal viewpoints that will defend their rules just as staunchly.

A fun aside, at this point, would be to ponder a little paradox I like to call Shawn's Hippy Uniform Paradox which asks:

"If wearing a uniform makes one part of the establishment, then does the fact that hippies dress alike make them part of the establishment?"

More on this paradox on a different day.

In the mean time, ponder - if you will - whether you fit into the question or answer camp. I believe that most people fall somewhere in between and sometimes lean one way or the other, perhaps depending on the circumstances or the facet of life being considered. I also believe that we all tend to lean one way or the other to varying degrees.

As I've said, I know I tend to lean pretty far towards the question camp. Paradoxes interest me and I believe that life itself is a paradox of sorts. I seek answers, of course, but to me it's the asking of the questions that's important.

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It's weird how the idea of Big Brother watching was not that long ago a scarey thought and is now a reality that no one seems to even be aware of.

Fun with Photoshop

Okay, what's the greatest computer program ever? It's a tough question, but on a personal level I think Photoshop is pretty much tops.

It's not just fun to play with, but it's extremely powerful too.

I'm always amazed at what can be done with just a few clicks. It would be hard for me to even imagine not having Photoshop on my computer. There's always The Gimp for those who can't spring for the big dollar Photoshop. The Gimp is open source software, so it's free to download and use. The Gimp is nearly as potent as Photoshop is, but it's a slightly different interface and I've been using Photoshop for a lot of years. So, for me it's Photoshop.

Anyway, it's fun to play around with cool programs.

Here and now

Warming but not warm sunshine, faded blue sky, pale patches of clouds like bleach stains on well-worn Levis, a brown, strong coffee and Ottmar Liebert's guitar coming from the speakers of my computer.

Leafless trees ouside my window stand as quiet obseververs of the world, only the barest hint of a breeze moving them.

Snow is piled up by the roadsides. A newly painted garbage truck rolls through the neighborhood gathering the piles and bins of recyclables.

This is my morning.

Forty minutes - forty miles - away my Dad is lying in a bed under the same old-Levis sky. The beeps of the monitors sounding nothing at all like flamenco guitars, evoking no thoughts of Spain and summertime.

While I sip my coffee and savor the flavor, he may be coming out of a slumber and hoping that today they will remove the plastic tube from his throat and he might be able to speak. Worrying around his bed, my Mother has no thoughts beyond the hope that her husband will soon be coming home.

I'm torn between talking about my Father and talking about the many times that Liebert's 'Nouveau Flamenco' has played the part of background soundtrack in my life.

Maybe both, or maybe they're the same thing - even though they're not at all the same.

I first remember hearing Ottmar Liebert at a little restaurant and bar a couple of friends ran in Bend, Oregon, called Monet's Garden. Gene and Jane spent countless hours remodelling and painting before they were ever ready to open the doors. It was their dream to serve nice, light fare, good wines and have live music on weekends. My Dad was helping them as a consultant - setting up their books and setting up business accounts.

Gene was the music fan - or fanatic. He loved most music, but saved a special place for reggae. Nice enough, but Gene was the prototype for the credit card hippy - a guy who wore the trappings of the Woodstock generation but put his bar tab on a gold card instead of paying with change dug from the seats of a ratty VW bus.

Jane was different. She was an artist. Beautiful, tall, blonde - a girl who you could either imagine twirly barefoot in a field or floating into the sitting room to welcome you to the family manor house.

While Dad coached Gene as best he could, Mom became friends with Jane helping her with the menus, decoration and hanging Jane's paintings. I was, of course, dragged in to help pound some nails and frame some of Jane's stuff. That's when I first heard Liebert - helping out at Monet's Garden.

Then, when the place finally opened, Jane would often play Liebert's music in the afternoons. I would stop in and have a wine with her and we would listen to the music and fold napkins for the dinner rush.

It was nice.

I enjoyed just being around Jane. She was one of those rare, ethereal souls that seem ill-made for the real world and belong in a novel, a poem, or a song. I think she welcomed the break from the looming clouds of a marriage doomed to fail.

Occasionally, over the years, Ottmar would come out and I would listen. It always soothed, but rarely transported me to a better place anymore. Gene and Jane were divorced and Monet's finally closed it's doors. Liebert was quiet memory tucked in the back of my mind.

Until I met Stephanie that is.

Steffi was another soul out of place when I met her. In the heat of a sunny California day at a yoga ashram in the Sierra foothills, Steffi appeared like a dream. She took shape slowly, from the edges of my sight - a warm glow that finally focused when we found our way into the same room to watch a video about the place.

We started talking, tentatively at first, like shy schoolkids. Soon though, the video was forgotten and the words tumbled out. She was stranded it turned out - or nearly stranded to be more exact. She was travelling by car with a couple who were feuding and making life miserable. All she wanted was to get back to Los Angeles, pick up her bags and go home to Germany.

Sometimes you meet people and know it will be okay. I guess this was one of those times. I knew I had to help her and she knew that she was safe with me.

She stayed at my bare place in Grass Valley. I had just moved there for a newspaper job and almost everything I owned was in storage. We bought food and wine for dinner and I snuck utensils up to the register, unwilling to let her know I didn't even have forks or spoons at home.

We spent one night and one day together - twenty four hours that changed my life for the better. She both healed and broke my heart.

Later, when I went to see her in Germany for the first time, she played Ottmar Liebert while she cleaned the vegetables we had bought at the local market. The same album I had listened to several years before. It became part of the tapestry of that trip. We listened to it a lot. Food, wine and Ottmar Liebert colored everything for two weeks in Bavaria.

Like a familiar smell that returns me to childhood or a sight that sparks a thought or memory, Nouveau Flamenco has gained the power to move me somewhere not here, not now. We all, I think, have things that do this for us. And, sometimes, we need to have them - need to be not here and not now.

Outside the pale blue sky has turned dull grey and large flakes of snow are falling and rising and floating sideways in the air.

And in these moments before the sky starts to really release its white bounty, I can't help but wonder if my Dad would like Ottmar Liebert. Back again in the here and the now, I wonder whether I'll have the chance to ask him and hope quietly that I do.

Snow day...

On days like this, it seems like a good idea to just drink some coffee. These are the kind of days that are best spent with a warm java and a good book. Reading and getting snowed in - sounds pretty good.

Sadly, I'm going to have to go out in it later this afternoon. I had a morning job, but it was thankfully moved to later in the day.

Funny thing is that a couple of days ago the temperature was up to nearly 60 degrees. It was warm and nice.

I should write down my predictions because I knew the temperature was going to plummet and it would start to snow in two days. Well, I was right about the cold and about six or eight hours off on the snow. Not bad, eh?

Anyway, it's still coming down outside. The world seems very quiet too. Not many cars out on the road, the plows aren't scraping by and the snow has been muffling most of the sound out there anyway. This is the best part of a good snowfall - the quiet that puts the world on pause for a little while.

Take one minute

What's more amazing than life itself? Nothing really. The world - the universe - is so big and so wonderful that it can hardly be imagined. And yet, for some reason, we go through our days - our lives - without even looking.

Just think of the breeze on your cheek.

On a good day we might stop and think that it feels nice to feel that breeze. But even on the best of days, we seldom think past that - we seldom stop in wonder at the combination of events that caused that moment.

The earth spun and the sun appeared to rise in the sky. That sun sent rays of light and energy through a vastness of space and they hit the earth causing the temperature to rise.

The temperature rose at different speeds and the warmer air rose quicker, displacing air that was in it's place and the movement of that air caused more air to move until someone, somewhere felt a breeze or saw a branch sway.

And that's just a fraction of the things happening around us constantly. Every instant is the result of countless other instants and will, in turn, become the cause of a following instant.

Our lives are made up of these millions upon millions of instants and we seldom look closely at any of them.

Today's assignment - should you choose to accept it - is to take one minute to stop and think about something. It can be anything.

Stop and wonder about how it got the way it is, or how it got where it is. What caused it? How does it work?

One minute - anything.

Think about something - yourself, your computer, the universe, a bird, a rock, a snowflake, a pen, coffee, whatever...

How hard can that be? It's easy. Try it and tell me or don't tell me. I'm okay with people just thinking quietly to themselves.

Today, for one minute, remember to feel some wonder.

***
Snowflakes

Hubble telescope images

Microbes and organisms deep in the sea

Astrobiology

This and that...

My friend Eileen was in town visiting her parents, so we went and tipped a few back in the almost-too-lovely Cedarburg. Found a great brew house on the river and a completely seedy dive on the main drag.

Drama occurred. It was fun.

We also met a cat who was freaking out a couple because it was following them. He turned out to be a very nice cat and not scarey at all. He had a crazy curly tail too, which is always a clue that you may be dealing with a rather extra-ordinary cat indeed.

Eileen's friend who used to work in Cincinnati but now works at the Journal-Sentinel here in Milwaukee came out and met us. Fun was had.

***
Last night, I watched 'Finding Neverland.' I've had it sitting on the shelf for a while and never got around to putting it in the DVD player. I love J.M. Barrie and 'Peter Pan' so I knew I would like it. Plus, it features Johnny Depp. How can that be bad? Johnny Depp is one of my favorite actors.

Anyway, I watched it and balled like crazy. I was really glad that I watched it at home so it was easier to get all emotional about it. Don't know why it was so touching, but for some reason it was.

***
On the book front, I can't seem to read past the first 50 pages of anything I pick up lately. That's excepting the wonderful, 'The Anansi Boys' by Neil Gaiman. I read that one through in one long night. I love books like that, but I'm always sad to finish them so quickly.

Anyway, the characters are quirky and the story is crazy fun. So - of course - I loved it. Give me a quirky character, toss him into a weird reality and sprinkle on some god-like powers...and I'm sold.

I mean, how can you go wrong with a main character named Fat Charlie who turns out to be the son of an ancient god? Let me answer that for you. You can't go wrong with such a book.

***
I heard this on the radio and had to Google it...

It turns out that - shockingly, some say - Welsh Dragon Sausage doesn't actually contain any dragon meat at all. Thankfully, there was someone on the ball at one of the British agencies tasked with overseeing such things. Can you imagine how annoying it would be to order up some dragon sausage, cook it up with great anticipation, and then bite into it to find it was really just pork? That would be utter crap I tell you.

I'm just glad I wasn't one of those duped on this scam. Thank you 1996 Food Labelling Act and the Powry council for nipping this in the bud - I'm sure Brits are glad to see their tax dollars doing such fine work.

And this is no small story. It's been covered by many news outlets, including the BBC.

The lovely dragon-free Dragon sausages can be ordered online too...isn't this a wonderful world?


***
And...ummm...there's this too. I don't even know what to say. It's tragic, to be sure, but it's also a bit... Well, I'll just let you decide.

Who says that weird shit doesn't happen in the real world?

Watch out for the turkey...

Sometimes you just have to go with a re-run. I like the gun-toting turkey and didn't have time to make a new, different one - so, here he is again...


Hope everyone has a great holiday. I'm going to go out to see my folks and family today, maybe buy expensive drinks for my friend Gregg tonight, and likely see my friend Eileen on Friday.

I leave you with my kind of turkey...watch your backs or he'll kick your ass.

Cheers.

Check out at the checkout

There used to be a show on television called "Thirtysomething." It was pretty good and a bunch of the older folk I was friends with really liked it. They were all thirtysomethings and such, so it made sense to them.

I was a young twentysomething, so it didn't really hit as close to home for me, but I liked it anyway.

Anyway, one of the things that has stuck with me was Timothy Busfield's character lamenting that he had become invisible to teenage girls. Not that he wanted to hit on them or anything - he was pondering a proven scientific fact. At a certain point in the life of a man, they become invisible to teenage girls.

It's not that hard to understand actually, since everyone knows that teenage girls live in a separate world that only occasionally allows for the presence of creatures that aren't other teenage girls. Even teenage boys have a hard time cracking the shell of the teenage girl world.

And all this leads to today's happy moment.

I dragged into Starbucks to get a triple grande two pump vanilla mocha and a half pound of Christmas Blend beans late this afternoon and noticed a trio of cute girls. Wow, were they cute. That made me happy - cute girls always do. Puppies, sunny days and cute girls always make me happy.

Anyway, I'm not sure if it was the sgraggly beardishness, the fact that I held the door for one of them on the way in, or the sweet Addidas beanie I had on, but I got checked out. Not just a quick girl glance either - I got a full-on check out from them all on the way out. To be honest, it was really a full-on check out from one, a pretty solid check out from another and a well I guess should look too from the third.

The point is - I'm pretty sure that shit like this is what makes life so darn much fun.

That's it.

That's all I've got today. And it was enough to make me happy.

I've got your meaning right here...

Why is it so hard for people today to understand basic logic when making arguments and assertions?

I've just had another email from an aquaintance 'logically' proving that God must exist and evolution cannot 'logically' be true. Are you fucking kidding me? Hey, if that's what you believe and you want to make a point for it, fine. But don't toss up a load of pseudo-logic as your argument.

This most current email had some fine logic like this. I have found the Bible and that has given my life meaning - therefore, evolution is not possible because that would mean life has no meaning.

Huh?

A logically correct statement might be - I have found the Bible and that has given my life meaning, therefore it might do the same for you. Why is that okay? Because it makes no claims of certainty that can't be substantiated while asserting that the possibility exists for something that worked in one case to work in another.

A + B led to C.

I (A) added the Bible (B) to my life and that led to my life having meaning (C). That may be true, but that statement - or argument - is only certain for that particular I. If A is someone other than this particular I, then the argument may or may not be true.

For example, Shawn (me) has read the Bible and it has not given my life any more meaning than it already had. So I could argue that A + B did not lead to C. Nobody but me can disprove that statement. But, if I try to apply it to other people, it may or may not be true. Therefore it is not a valid logical argument to apply universally.

Let me go back to the original argument for a minute. In the original argument, the person bugging the crap out of me with their annoyingly faulty email uses the same argument to claim that evolution could not possibly be true.

Essentially, they were saying: A + B led to C, so therefore D cannot be true.

Give me a break.

Why is it so hard for people who evangelize to just say they don't know, but they choose to believe what they believe? Good lord, even Buddhists will tell you that they don't know and maybe it's all horse shit.

Personally, Buddhism works for me. It might work for others, but I don't know.

In fact, it probably won't work for most folks in America since most of us come from a Christian background and that's easier for us to understand. You'll never hear me pushing my beliefs on anyone else, although I'm willing to argue the merits. And I'm also clever enough to realize that although religion and philosophy may play a part in science, neither are suitable standins for science.

Anyway, if others want to believe that a luminous being with a long, flowing beard and blue eyes created the universe in six days, that's fine with me. Just don't come at me with an argument that is nothing more than - I believe it so it's true.

And don't use some ridiculous logic that there's no way for the big bang to have occurred because all this matter had to come from somewhere so therefore God must have done it. Because guess what? The question left in that argument is the same one left in the previous one - where did God come from? And I'm sorry to lay this on you, but it's pretty likely that none of us will get to know the answer - at least not in this life.

The world can be pretty uncertain. Deal with it however you choose, but don't pretend to speak for everyone when you find something that makes you feel more secure.

And please, please, please don't try and prove your point by making statements that have no logic to them.

And we've got Bigfoot too...

As if thundersnow wasn't enough to shock and awe the rest of the country, we've got Bigfoot too.

Yeah, that's right. We've got Bigfoot and it's even on the news. Because what could possibly be more important than someone thinking they saw Bigfoot?

So, while the rest of you are getting buried with boring news, we're hearing about another Bigfoot sighting in Wisconsin.

You're probably jealous. I can understand that. But don't blame us for being blessed - just go out and find your own Bigfoot.

Unless you live in California. In that case, find something different to steal from us. You already took the dairy producing title away from us. Don't think we don't remember that. We know your tricks. We'll find a Bigfoot here in Wisconsin and the next thing you know there will be two Bigfoots in California.

And the best part about Bigfoot being in Wisconsin? I'll tell you. Bigfoot isn't just in some far off part of the state. No sir - Bigfoot is right here in my county. I might get to meet him if I start wandering around the woods. That would be pretty sweet, but I don't think I would tell if I did meet him. Obviously, he values his privacy and who am I to trample all over that?

Bigfoot, you and your secret are safe with me. Now, can you make some coffee and clean up the mess in the kitchen? It's the least you can do dude.

Thunder Snow rocks

Friday night we had some our patented Wisconsin freak-of-nature weather. It was 65 on Wednesday and still pretty warm on Thursday. Then Friday rolled out some wackiness.

We had a bunch of snow on Friday evening. It was weird too. One minute it's pouring and the guy on the radio is saying, 'good thing this isn't snow, huh?' and the next it is snow.

The best part - okay, the second best part because I didn't have to work - was that there was a lot of lightning and booming thunder.

I thought that was awesome and it deserved an awesome name. Lo and behold...it already had one. They call it Thundersnow.

There's no way to do it justice. You just have to believe that thundersnow is crazy cool.

***

Last night, I got a call from my friend Andy. It was just after 10 p.m. when the phone rang and I got hit with the age old 'what are you doing?' line.

They were a couple of blocks away and heading downtown. So, I threw on some jeans and grabbed my coat.

The Jeep was full. Becka, Andy's wife, was there and I couldn't see the people in the back. I hopped in a realized that it was Renee and her hubby.

I haven't seen Renee in ages. We used to hang out a lot, so it was nice to see her.

The pub was filled to capacity and an annoying new guy at the door was pondering impeding our progress. I gave him the look and he whithered. All of West Bend was out it seemed.

Fun was had, much drinking was done, and at some point karaoke occurred...but don't worry, I sang not a peep.

Got home in one piece, didn't get sick and got up before noon. I would call that a successful night.