Rev.Raikes

While You Were Away, Shit Got Real

2011-11-15T23:46:00.001-08:00

I went down to the courthouse today to honor my jury summons. For those of you who don't live in Santa Cruz or haven't driven down Water street in the last 42 days, Occupy Santa Cruz is camped in the adjacent park and has erected a rather large geodesic dome. You have to walk by (at least) the camp the get to the jury assembly room.

As I was waiting in said assembly with my fellow citizens, a young man walked by somewhat loudly trying to address police about what he felt were abuses of their power. I'd heard about similar actions at other Occupy camps. Suffice it to say that I was curious. At lunch I decided to talk to one of my other fellow citizens, a protester with Occupy Santa cruz, about the police. He was very upset about their treatment and their tactics of forcibly removing protesters' tents, ostensibly stealing the belongings of folks trying to make a difference.

Back in the courtroom, I heard testimony from prospective jurors about how they felt about the homeless. Hopefully without getting into trouble I will say that the case involved an alleged homeless person. As one can guess from average Joe citizen (presumably with an address - a home - at which to receive their summons) that the view of the homeless was not kind: the are smelly, mentally ill and have chosen to be homeless in defiance of all that is good & decent. At least one person mentioned the protesters camping outside in a similar vein.

I can only hope that these people were merely trying to get out of their civic duty. I fear that they do believe what they were saying; mostly because I've heard others speak the same way candidly.

When asked about my feelings on authority, like the others in the jury box, I went on record about what I thought about the treatment of the people outside the very walls of the court. The judge visibly stifled a chortle. I also went on record to say that I was disturbed about the almost wholesale condemnation of the homeless. After more questioning of myself & others and a short deliberation later I was thanked and excused.

It's hard to go on the record about how you really feel in an attempt to make a difference. I went to the Occupy Santa Cruz general assembly later tonight to see some of those people speak. They have an open invitation to members of the community to join on the courthouse steps @ 6pm Mon.-Sat. (2 on Sun.).

The Occupy organizers are pretty damned, well, organized. The process can be quite intimidating to join sight-unseen. But the group is very inclusive and everyone's voice is heard. Some of the people there were committed to making the 24-hour stand on public land to combat the abuse to our system.

They are concerned with the portrayal by the media of being dirty (causing taxpayers to pay for the cleanup) when they regularly police the area of their debris. They were concerned about continuing to keep drug use out of the camp. More immediately, though, they were very concerned about an impending raid by law enforcement.

As I write this, protesters are girding themselves for possible macing and teargas if the police show and try to dismantle their dome along with all the stations and signs they have put up. Anyone could think this is unfounded rumor unless he heard other reports of the city bagging meters to shoo away cars for a midnight "street cleaning". Or, if she didn't hear another eye-witness report of law enforcement refusing to discuss a direct question about an imminent raid.

It was only a matter of time before the powers-that-be got tired of waiting for this movement to blow-over. Protesters have already been kicked out of the park in New York by Mayor Bloomberg. This is the first time in my memory that any group has stood up to redress long-standing ills in our country and the world beyond. They have gained traction, made the voice of the little guy heard and refused to be dismissed.

If you consider yourself part of your community, you may find your time better spent connecting with those you may feel are different from you than complaining how twitters or the facebooking are isolating us. At the least, you could stand behind them instead of tearing them down.

These are some things I heard they need:

Antacids & vinegar (to alleviate the effects of mace)
Newspaper
Pain killers
Cardboard
Food
Poster-board
Sticks
Rags
Art supplies
You

Help Me Honor a Great Man

2010-03-27T21:27:00.001-07:00

Giorgini
Originally uploaded by revraikes.

I was recently contacted by Mass Giorgini, a kind of real-life Buckaroo Banzai, who lives, teaches and produces music in my hometown. He and his brother, Flav (a punk-rock heavyweight & generally great human), grew up in the same tiny neighborhood as me.

Their family was the only other "weird" one on the block, other than mine. Like my mother, their father Aldo was an artist. The familiar smells of paint and thinner permeating their basement reminded me of home. Not to mention that Aldo was very nice to me. He was that way with everyone.

When his sons got into punk music, he stood by their efforts to start an all-ages club where local and touring bands could play - the only one for miles. And, no matter how freaky you looked, Aldo still treated you like a human.

Aldo passed much too early for those that loved him. He is now being honored at Ivy Tech Community College with the unveiling of one of his restored murals. It is one of those unique moments when a man of science, peace and art will be held up as an example to humanity.

Now, here's where I need your help. Mass found a raster -based artwork that I made and posted on the web (pictured above). I made it while thinking about how Aldo had inspired me to do digital art. As an engineer/artist, he used equipment at Purdue University (where he taught) to become one of the first "computer artists".

Mass would like to show my art next to Aldo's, along with another artist's from the area. I would like to donate the work already printed and framed, but am currently out of work and the best price I could find is still pretty high.

I am going to go ahead and print it to get it there on time. But, if I can cover most of the costs of printing, it would make life easier. I am not looking to make a profit on this. As soon as $89.99 is reached, I will remove the donation link seen below.

It's secure, and like I said, I'm not looking to cash-in on his memory. I just need a little help doing this well and want to honor a trailblazer's memory while giving back to my hometown community. You never know who you will inspire to reach their potential.

For transparency, this is the format and place where I am going to print.

March 4th Rally: Action for Public Education

2010-03-07T23:00:00.001-08:00

March 4th Rally: Action for Public Education
Originally uploaded by shaire productions.

"We Have Decided Not To Die"

That was a what a banner read at one of the education rallies in this country last week. It was just b-roll, background footage not pointed out by the objective reporters on Democracy Now! where I saw the footage. But the sight of it brought amazing clarity to me to what's been going on.

I'm going to go ahead and out myself. I'm unemployed. I have been since early September of last year after WSU closed my & 9 other Learning Centers. I just thought it was because the whole country seemed to be going down the tubes and money was cut everywhere. I even started to believe that the distance education outreach and computer instruction my little outlying office provided might be superfluous. I'm beginning to believe otherwise.

Education has never really been a priority in this country, not for the masses. Well, I have heard of a time when it was inexpensive and easy to get into a State college, but not in my adult lifetime. That was in the 40's as I recall the nice lady telling me.

But the message is clear, as I sit here, cut from the only tech job that was available in the area. I must move away now. I could have built something here. I also sit, with others, unable to get an education to pull myself up by my own birkenstocks because of the bad credit and insurmountable debt from living in a system set against me - and from attaining my Associates, which is worth little more than a HS diploma in the job-search.

The facts are, teachers & staff are being cut. Students are being turned away. Distance education, something working-class folks (especially those with kids) need to be able to get a degree, is being shut down. These things speak loudly to me, all the louder that no one is saying anything.

Now for my conjecture: education stands in the way of young people feeling like they have no other choice in life but to join the military. Of course, that's not the only reason for keeping us dumb and slaves of wage. Yet - the banner I saw those students holding spoke volumes to me, since we are told that our armed forces are so thin that contractors must train any recruits that we still have.

I sit jobless, unable to bring my sharp mind to the community. I am unable to do what I love to do, to help people understand the thing that is quickly putting us behind the rest of the world. I am unable to give people the ability to access the only information they can come-by in lieu of higher education. And a war rages on, millions spent per hour, blood shed by the bucket... I.Q.'s dropping... hope fading.

Is this the world you want?

I Want My Wubi

2010-03-07T21:34:00.001-08:00

wubi_logo
Originally uploaded by aOliN.Tk Blog.

So I have a LAMP server I set up using Ubuntu Server at my home. I had to do this because I have a Windows laptop and the Virtual Machine & WAMP/XAMPP softwares were not working for some reason. But then someone did something amazing (to me anyway).

I needed something that I could use on the road, however. So I began backing up all of my data on my laptop (a must at all times) in case of data loss. You see to do a dual-boot system (a Win/Linux machine), most of the time you have to resize the Windows partition and create a new one to install Linux on.

While doing all of that, you hope that your drive doesn't get hosed or any number of other things. If that happens you will have to reinstall your other OS and any data, that is.. if you backed it up. Anecdotally in one instance, I lost the MBR after a Linux Mint install and couldn't load Windows recently.

Finally, I get to my point: I found Wubi. It by-passes all of the problems of fiddling with your computer's brains. What it does is "install" Ubuntu as a file that sits on your Windows system. It also puts some code into your MBR that lets you choose which system you want to use.

I haven't been able to access my Windows hard drive while in Ubuntu, but everything Linux (with ample room for itself) works with native 64-bit 4GB RAM speed, unlike VM or live-USB versions. Then I installed Apache, MySQL and PHP. Now I have a mobile development station without the need to connect to shared hosting or my home dedicated server through something like No-IP. Both of those methods, while do-able, have their issues, and sometimes getting on the web is not possible.

For the casual user, this is really the way to go. You don't have to worry about persistent USB installers, or even burning a disk. Just install Wubi, or be able to uninstall it if you don't like it, just like any other Windows program. No fuss, no muss.

Nothing Tastes Better

2010-03-07T16:24:00.001-08:00

#Drupal for breakfast
Originally uploaded by
t-dot-s-dot.

...than success.

My site is now fully operational, thanks to Drupal & Lynda.com. It's been up for about a month since it was officially unveiled to the public, but I've been adding functionality and working out some bugs. By bugs, I mostly mean my coding errors and attempts to use incompatible plugins.

For those not in the know, Drupal is a website Content Management System (CMS). Basically it makes a dynamic website that's easy to administer by people with little to no coding skills, once it's set up and after adding some modules.

From a developer standpoint, it's far easier to use than Joomla! or CMS Made Simple. Unfortunately, this is something you don't really find out until you've gone through the trouble of setting a site up. Luckily, though, uncle Rev. is here to give you the skinny.

I liked it so much, I'm developing another site in Drupal. And, I've been testing the capability and feel of the new Drupal 7 that, hopefully, will soon be released. I will tell you, it's pretty sweet.

Let's Keep It Real

2010-02-25T11:07:00.001-08:00

My pals over at FreePress.net keep me up-to-date on matters regarding "net neutrality". In short it's what helps keep the Internet open to small entrepreneurs as well as the larger companies. This may not seem like something that pertains to you, but as television & web content merge (as I think they will), and as we shop online more & more, you may start to feel the pinch. And, if you start your own business or try to take your current one online, you would definitely see how much we have had in the past if net neutrality is eroded.

But my friends over at FreePress.net explain it all far better than I could. Their arm concerned with all things web is SaveTheInternet.com. That link I just dropped will take you to a page where they will deliver your thoughts to the FCC. They're great, that's what they do. Anyway, here's what I wrote:

The FCC itself is comprised of regular Americans. As members of this great country, aren't you tired of letting large corporations muddy the waters of real intellectual discourse? Aren't you ready for this country to be as great as its potential? The future is in your hands. We could have a competitive workforce and a brighter future for all of our children. Please don't give in to lobbyist pressures and believe their disinformation. Please keep the Internet open and thriving.

I fell I've done my part, clumsy as it may be. Now's your chance to be heard. Good day and good surfing.

Leveraging... Part 3 - Engage#1

2010-01-16T04:34:00.001-08:00

dryerdimension
Originally uploaded by revraikes.

Cont'd from: Leveraging... Part 2 - Webmetrix

As you can see from the title, I'm a total dork. If you get the reference, you are a total dork. But here we are, together somehow. That is the miracle and the power of the nebulous thing called Social Networking. Mind you, the digital version is just a new version of something people have been doing since the cave. Albeit, never with this kind of reach.

However, despite the nature of the new beast, one must still engage one's fellow man in much the same way as before. You have to be nice. You have to talk to people. And if you want to build a persona, like staying in a neighborhood, you don't hit people over the head.

In addition to all of the real-world friends, I found a larger, world-wide network of friends playing a Heroes knock-off flash-game on Facebook (now defunct, thanks Zynga :S). I didn't go in there with the intention of gaining contacts. I really like Heroes, mutants in general, and did I mention that I'm a total dork? But a deep friendship was born through game-play over a series of months. I hope they remain my friends for a good long while, but the point is, this is how networks grow.

Back to the neighborhood analogy: if you are a corner-store you want to keep people coming in and you try not to piss people off. A lot of us out here on the web are mom&pop entities trying to get off of the ground (which may be why you are reading this). But a lot of the bigger co's out there are figuring out that this new phenomenon is a great way to connect with the world at large and forge strong bonds.

We are getting away from the "push" mentality which has dominated media for decades. The technology that made it easier for co's to become anonymous monoliths deafly blurting their message has given way to one that encourages discussion.

That's about all I have to say, but I will note (I can't say this enough) that you can't develop a real network magically. It takes a long time to create a community. Lots of people these days are more savvy (I'm looking your way, Twitter spammers). What happened with ThinkGeek is likely not the norm yet and no one will listen to you if they don't feel like they know you (at least a little bit).

That said, next time you get stonewalled on an 800 line, maybe try putting it out there in the metaverse. Even just random questions will sometimes result in good advice (and maybe start a dialog. Social Networks are the new forum of the information age.

Original post Leveraging the Power of Social Networks for Fame & Fortune

Leveraging... Part 2 - Webmetrix

2010-01-16T03:36:00.001-08:00

modularcity
Originally uploaded by revraikes.

Cont'd from Leveraging the Power of Social Networks for Fame & Fortune

So, the URL shortening service I mentioned allows a person/org. to create an account whereby they can monitor the number of clicks & location/platform/browser of users for their links. You don't have to sign up for a one-off short URL, but it can be fun if only for curiosity-sake.

If you don't like tr.im, which is kind of laggy, search around for others. There are plenty. I found out about that particular site from a tutorial by AnneMarie Concepcion. That tutorial, I must say, caused me to start being more active in the metaverse, something that I had been using as more of a distraction (which is great, too) than a communication tool or PR vehicle.

Another tool I was using to see where I stand was a service called Klout. I'm at 10 (out of 100) right now. I was 6 last week and 17 before that. The readings may be spurious, as my points went up just for joining Klout. My posting is too sporadic to accurately say, as wel. It is another system by which to measure your reach, so I take it with a grain of salt.

Of course you could always ask. One of the things that Klout keeps nagging me to do is engage my "audience" (a.k.a. friends, stranger-friends or plain-old weirdos) more. That's really the gold of that site: not only giving pointers but reminding you about the need to interact. More to the point, you have to remember that there are people on the other end of that screen catching the wave you are sending around the globe.

Continue to Part 3=>

Leveraging the Power of Social Networks for Fame & Fortune

2010-01-16T02:12:00.001-08:00

spaceballs
Originally uploaded by revraikes.

As you may have seen from my 2 previous posts:

I used my moribund blog (really I hadn't posted with any regularity for a year or so), Twitter & Facebook to goad ThinkGeek.com into taking a second look at a customer service issue that my girlfriend had raised with them.

Now, this was not the expected result. I pop-off about a lot of stuff and it doesn't seem to get any attention. That's one of the reasons that I stopped blogging. I fully expected to rant in the darkness and walk-away feeling disenfranchised as ever.

However, I have been working on increasing my visibility on the web for the last couple of years. That's the thing - nobody will look at your stuff if they don't know it's there.

One caveat before I go on, though. This post is not intended to be a guide in how to blackmail businesses 140 characters at a time. It's about new ways of doing business and the opening of communication channels between customer and company.

You see, ThinkGeek very wisely has someone monitoring mentions of their brand on Twitter. I hadn't used their profile name to mention them, but they saw my post. Heck, the company may be small enough that that someone is the boss there. The point is that they got back to me quickly, got in contact with my girlfriend (or vice-versa) through the comments section on my blog and resolved the issue within a week.

All the while, I was using this URL shortening service called Tr.im to monitor how many people were looking at the links I was laying down in Twitter & Facebook (by the way, I have to note again that it took a long time to develop my networks). It wasn't a lot. I'm not that popular even though I'm ubiquitous and have been trying relatively hard to get my name out there to make connections and maybe even get work. But it was widespread, from the US to the UK to Korea even.

This is going long, so: to be cont'd=>

RE:ThinkGeek

2010-01-14T18:00:00.001-08:00

Geek... / Thanks to all Viewed 7,655 ++
Originally uploaded by Pipe .

I feel a little like our hairy friend pictured in this post: pretty silly and exposed. I wrote a post about how much I thought ThinkGeek.com sucked. Having been in retail, I should have known that we all have our bad days and sometimes a service rep is just burnt-out. I've unloaded with both barrels on a customer before (but to be fair, it was a "convenience" store and Chicagoans can be intense).

But, to make things more public, I went and tweeted about it and posted on Facebook. Luckily, though, this caught the attention of the Twitter-maven at ThinkGeek. I and my girlfriend (now publicly known as KellyFireangel) were instantly assured that the matter was being looked into.

And, I thought that that's as far as it would go - but they actually got back to Kelly fairly quickly (several days ago; apologies to ThinkGeek). She was also given a substantial credit for her troubles. But the main thing is, I love drooling over their toys. Boycotting them would have been a real bummer.

It's also nice to believe that business doesn't have to be like it has been in the past (80's & on that is), that hipsters can make a difference in very basic ways. What I'm really trying to say is, I'm sorry for the invective and hyperbole, ThinkGeek. I was a little raw from Xmas and honestly never expected them to make good on the gaffe.

I'm happy to say that I was wrong. ThinkGeek is alright by me.

And now, dear readers, here is my shopping list:

Love your geek...

ThinkGeek.com Blows

2010-01-07T01:12:00.001-08:00

8bit_tie
Originally uploaded by JCardinal18.

Update: the 2 parties mentioned below are in the throws of reconciliation... More as events unfold.

Or, do they suck. My theory is that they do both simultaneously, thereby creating a vortex and that's how my xmas present got pulled into the void. At least, that would be the logical answer. It would be interesting and a good ice-breaker at parties.

Alas no. Something far less understandable happened. They didn't get all of the necessary info from my girlfriend at their online checkout. Then they didn't notify her about it, neglected to send the package, and vacated their offices on Christmas Eve-day so as to avoid any last-minute answers to those they may have left in the lurch.

The topper is that when my girlfriend called to find out what had happened, they claimed to have sent her emails (a flat-out lie) and refused to make the debacle right in any manner. The person on the line said that he couldn't bank on her future purchases as a reason to give up any swag (a $2 who's-it would have done), totally missing the point of customer service. I mean, giving away something that costs 20 cents wholesale to keep a customer is just good business sense.

I'm not that into xmas and don't really get fired up about the gift giving thing, but I do like techno-toys and her dad & little nephew also didn't get the cool nerd-booty as a result of their negligence. So, here I am, bending your ear. And, asking you to do yourself a solid and steer clear of thinkgeek.com - there are other places with cool widgets:

Robot Rights!

2009-12-04T15:24:00.000-08:00

So I've set up a tongue-in-cheek cause on Facebook called Robot Rights!

It promotes securing rights for robot-kind due to their possible intelligence (artificial or not), but it's also attached to a real charity that aims to increase access for schoolchildren to the technological tools necessary to stay current and competitive in the information age. Its focus is "low-performing schools".

Whether you just want to go off on a lark, or give some money to help schools connect their children to the world, I urge you to visit that far-flung corner of the social networking giant.

I'm So Freakin' Happy

2009-03-31T03:27:00.001-07:00

I'm So Freakin' Happy
Originally uploaded by schauba.

I have to write this. The reason, mostly, is that I wrote 2 technical posts in a row...mostly.

But, I am happy. The papers say I shouldn't be, yet my life seems more full than it ever has. I feel an over-whelming sense of opportunity in the air. Whether I am or not, I feel 10-times smarter than I did a decade ago.

I have a really nice girl that likes me a lot. I'm working on my health. I have a roof over my head (a fairly recent development...the house was there, but the roof was not).

I'm not dead yet and I've done almost all the things I could want in this life. I could break into the desiderata, but I'll just say: be happy and enjoy the ride around the big, yellow star.

Agent::Super Lazy

2009-03-31T02:45:00.001-07:00

Really, REALLY BIG RSS
feed button
Originally uploaded
by photopia / HiMY SYeD.

O.K., maybe I'm not super-lazy - I at least try to keep up appearances, learn some code and apply it.
(Also, 'super' would mean that I excel at something)

What I'm talking about is my lack of desire to learn AJAX (asynchronous javascript and XML) or mess around with installing any PHP junk on my webserver. And, by that highly jargon-laden bit, I mean to talk about the piece of javascript of code I use to display my blog on my website.

I was using a service that wasn't very malleable or reliable to pull in my blog's RSS feed and assemble it in an HTML format that would look sorta nice. I just happened to check my site and noticed they stopped doing it - boom, out of the blue.

After doing yet another search for a service that looked something other than awful, while entertaining the notion that I might have to buckle down and learn something, I found FeedSweep (it's free to register). And all was wonderful in the world again.

After playing with it a bit, I found that it allows for almost complete customization (with a couple of reasonable quirks) using CSS! Man, they saved my bacon. Anyway, I hope you like the new look if you are reading this from my main site and that this has helped at least one code-junkie/blog-meister somewhere.

In Soviet Russia, Computer Use You

2009-03-25T23:00:00.001-07:00

lab1
Originally uploaded by revraikes.

I've been teaching people how to use computers (and sometimes build them) for a while now. Maybe not so long in the grand scheme of things, but enough time to make an observation.

I've analogized to my victims- er, initiates -that computers are just tools. They are very complicated, yes, but still... This is to diminish the perceived power (and subsequent fear of such) and allow the learner to relax into the ease of use.

However, I think the computer is one of the first tools to be so responsive to its wielder. I think this is the problem. You see, we, our society, aren't even used to a real dialog with fellow humans. Talking often results in a one-way diatribe with no valid connection.

When you use a complex system or tool like this, it asks questions of you. I remember one of the early Windows screensavers asking, "Where do you want to go today?" That can be a toughy. We also don't really know what we want anymore in our particular brand of Western culture.

As we work with these systems, we are teaching them how we draw, write, move. Those of us generating content and tagging it, in a local and external sense, are creating entities cell by cell.
This is the scary thing to people. If there is nothing there, if the soul is undeveloped from a kind of orchestrated atrophy, the system acts as a mirror to that void.

Though I have a feeling that sense of emptiness may be a skewed perception as well. We all have a history, talents and assets. And now we have the tools to make real connections - to rebuild ourselves and our confidence - to forge a collective consciousness more apparent than our dreams convey.

For what it's worth, I think we are on the verge of an awakening. That is all I wanted to say.

It's All My Fault

2008-10-24T19:36:00.000-07:00

Me be Prez? I no know!

2008-09-07T22:15:00.001-07:00

Apparently I have been thrust into the limelight by some underground movement. I fully accept the auspices of the Internet community.

Click image to the right for the news segment.

Copy excerpted from original source:

Who is Rev. Raikes?
With so much at stake, there is one candidate that may be able to make the difference. Raikes has surprised both Democrats and Republicans with a grass roots effort. This candidate has made many wonder: Who is Rev. Raikes?

There's a Rat

2008-08-26T13:03:00.001-07:00

Weathered Sunset
Originally uploaded by Fort Photo.

Actually, that's a misrepresentation. There are probably many.
My mom works and blogs in a small town. She works a short way down the road from her house. She blogs at the house, not at work - the two seldom meet...

Except when she needs to blow off steam. Some conscientious citizen informed her boss that she had a blog that put local players (all unnamed) in a not so glamorous light. Her employers ambushed her and proceeded to bust her for it.

Other folks in the professional world have been fired for airing their views on a forum separate from official company websites (there's a good article here about that). One might think that a proper response to negative employee feedback would be to internalize the critique and try to make the workplace better. Or, if the problem isn't rants but questionable content then it's wise to remember that there is no such thing as bad publicity.

Negative feedback being the subject here, however, online-rants about work would be the modern equivalent of the suggestion box. Except, employers don't care what their employees think anymore. The new term learning organization is just a new fangled way to describe good, old-fashioned morale boosting through boss-employee relations. Maybe I'm looking through a parallax lens, but it seems like employers used to care about their workers, at least a little on the small business level anyway.

Check my mom's blog out before the posts are gone:
SavannahBlazeLee.com

I got some ink today

2008-08-12T10:48:00.001-07:00

Sin título 0
Originally uploaded by retroattack.

Chandler Poling contacted me on flickr to ask me to add a photo to a group he created called Life is Dynamite, which is also a blog he hosts. Both plumb the uncomfortable depths of our (and his) too-tight-jeans, braces-bedecked, rail-against-authority youth.

Various images from the flickr group are culled into posts. His writing is apropos while still being gentle with those things we might like to forget. Two such items of mine made it into one of his posts:

Memento Nerdi

His treatment of the subject matter is far more kind than I am in my own mind. I wouldn't have put old photos of myself up were it not for another group one of my contacts asked me to join: Vintage Photos...of YOU!

Why do we put these things out there? I suppose some do it for vainglory. I don't know why I do it; I still feel itchy about seeing the images. I don't take them down because they took so much effort to scan and upload, and I want to be true to my initial instincts.

For that matter, what's this blog about? It feels good to write it. I don't necessarily think that my words are that important, despite the show of upper-level grammar. In fact, I hope people don't read it most of the time, esp. looking back on some of the things I say.

Art for art's sake, I guess. But at the very least, Poling's blog reminds us that life is in fact -

Dyne-o-mite!

(despite or because of its quirks is in the eye of the beholder)

I am an Obamegate

2008-02-09T16:29:00.001-08:00

Obama in Albuquerque
Originally uploaded by Jennifer_Jane.

I went to the Dem.Caucus. My precinct chose 5 Obama delegates to 2 Clinton. So many people left that there weren't many people from which to select willing delegates from either camp to go to the county caucus.

To make a long story short, we almost didn't have enough people to fill our allotment, so I raised my hand like an idiot. Now I'm going to represent. This stuff is too important to leave to the old regime.

Do more now, especially if you don't want to lead. Those that don't seek power but care enough to take the mantel of responsibility are the only safeguard against apathy & power-brokers. That's a mouthful, but from all that I have studied about history (recent and far reaching) I know this to be true.

ATTENTION WA DEM's

2008-02-06T23:36:00.000-08:00

February 9, 2008 Caucuses

In order to make a difference in the Democratic decision
YOU MUST GO TO THE CAUCUS!!!

Republicans (and this is the only thing that seems to make sense about them) choose their delegates 49%/51% Primary/Caucus to see who gets sent to the national convention. That kind of works out for people who think the Primary is the only game in town.

Democrats on the other hand will ONLY use results from the caucus. 100% of the delegates will be chosen by the voters at the caucus.

Had I not been absently watching the news, I would not have found out about this.
To find your site in Jefferson County:
http://jeffcodemocrats.com/
For the rest of the state:
http://www.wa-democrats.org/caucusfinder

Seriously, get out there and vote, slackass...that mail-in vote is fairly pointless if you go Dem.

iTV

2008-01-26T08:19:00.000-08:00

I just got accepted to Hulu.com, a video site that has legal, original episodes from multiple big-time networks. Unfortunately for you, it's beta and private. But, you can apply and they'll get back to you in about a week...

For now, here's a gift from them to me to you:

Someone's Got My #

2008-01-19T19:15:00.000-08:00

I know I'm getting tricked into marketing for this show, but my gf worked on it so I guess that just makes this post cronyism.

The original post was titled Rev Raikes is a Slacker on Walt's Blog

How to be a DataNinja

2008-01-14T00:26:00.001-08:00

darkpixel
Originally uploaded by revraikes.

First, you could join my channel, #DataNinjas, on Jaiku. It's a start (you can use it with your cell phone), but if you don't have a lot of other resources going on the web, you will only be using a fraction of its resources.

My website's latest incarnation has about 90% of it's content hosted elsewhere. I use Flickr for my images, Youtube & Stickam for my video, iJigg for my music, Switchpod for my podcasts, Blogger for my words, del.icio.us for my links, and Tumblr brings it all together on my front page.

Jaiku also brings in many of your feeds from various sites and similar posts of the people you want to stay in contact with. This can show up on your phone if you just can't wait to get back to the office.

But these resources are about more than just being a social butterfly. Like I said, I'm using them to give me a leg up on my site. I am a little more advanced than the average user, but you don't have to be a digi.talking fool to take advantage of this stuff. Most of the sites spit out the html, javascript, etc. code for you to plant your original creations wherever you can find purchase.

This all means that you can have a totally lite set of pages that pull bits in from all over the web. So, if you thought you could never have your own site, be it a vanity page or a business showcase, you're pleasantly wrong. If you have a friend with space on a server or your company is friendly with a larger company with servers, you could ask to have a small folder on their server-space and not impact their bandwidth/storage in the least.

Grunge Dies a New Death

2007-12-19T08:27:00.001-08:00

Two Gallants play the Crocodile Cafe in Seattle, Sept 19, 2007
Originally uploaded by Scott Butner.

And, it takes down a current generation down with it in it's wash. I'm speaking of the demise of the Crocodile Cafe in Seattle. I'm not the 1st to write about this, but I may be to ask why a possible millionaire like Peter Buck (co-owner) is too broke to bail the club out. I mean if one of the guys from R.E.M. is broke, we're all in trouble.

The thing is, this place isn't some dinosaur, has-been flop-house. Bands like Deathcab for Cutie and the Decemberists (on the schedule for late Jan.) are connected to this institution of subculture. Not to mention it's about the only place that my friends play when they come from Chicago, New Mexico, etc.
(see Kelly Hogan, Grave of Nobody's Darling)

But, back to the ascendant rockstars that have passed through the doors. They can't show no love? Step up has-beens. Be cool to your school and help the new kids retain their rite of passage.

My Letter to the FCC

2007-06-06T23:35:00.000-07:00

Posted through savetheinternet.com and sent to the FCC:

Independent Media in Jeopardy

I am a former editor of an independent newspaper called Vigilance. It is now gone like many other papers of it's kind. Either small, locally-owned publishers are merged or driven out of business by the circulation & market leveraging of the giants.

70% of circulation is made up of a small group of corporations with multiple subsidiaries and 50% of total daily circulation is controlled by a mere 10 companies*. What's wrong with a centralized media? It creates a hegemony of information and alienation of a large part of the US population.

We need to keep the Internet available to the public and not allow the corporations that already own much of or information resources to co-opt this currently fluid communication channel. Please support net neutrality to sustain a fundamentally necessary aspect of our democratic society.

*Source: http://www.stateofthenewsmedia.org/

To send your own letter visit http://www.savetheinternet.com/yourstory and keep this valuable resource in our hands.

"But wait...just what the hell is Net Neutrality?" you may be saying. Just hit play below for ultra-hip infotainment.

If Yer Bored

2007-05-27T22:38:00.001-07:00

from Save the Green Planet!
Originally uploaded by cinemaknits.

I was recently asked to assemble a list of worthwhile movies for a friend with MythTV, a free, tivo-like PVR (personal video recorder) for Linux. Now you reap those "fruits".

If you don't have either of the previous 2, you can download some of the following titles with iTunes or another service. Definitely do not use Azureus P2P (peer-to-peer) downloading software or something like Mininova to find them. You will go to jail and make your mama cry. Here goes, hope you enjoy:

SCIFI/horror/comedy

Children of Men
Save the Green Planet (Korean/mind-blowing)
Slither (w/ guy from Firefly/Serenity)
Serenity (best recent sci-fi)
The Descent (hits all the phobias)
Science of Sleep
Flushed Away (animation)
Doom (pretty good for The Rock)

ACTION/Adventure/Mystery

Factotum (Bukowski bio)
Lucky Number Slevin
The Illusionist
Casino Royale (the new one, '07)
Crank (guy from the Transporter)
Smokin' Aces
The Wicker Man (Nick Cage)
The Black Cauldron (animation)

KUNGFU

New Legend of the Shaolin
Fearless
Curse of the Golden Flower

DOCU/tainment

Who Killed the Electric Car?
An Inconvenient Truth
The Corporation
This Film Is Not Yet Rated (freaking awesome)

Heroes
Ugly Betty
My Name Is Earl
Lost (duh...)
BBC Horizon: Parallel Universes
How I Met Your Mother

This is by no means a complete list (or even ordered), just some recent views.

Step into the 21st

2007-05-26T13:54:00.000-07:00

Pardon the re-post from Green Anarchy (mine is the only post on that Google group, hmm), but it illustrates my photos with good back-story:

My mower took a crap on me today, the nasty, noisy, death-belching thing....so I'm spending money that I don't have to put my wallet where my mouth is. I ordered a battery-powered mower online called the Neuton (I'm not linking them to keep this from getting too salesy). It sucks that I have to go into hock to go green, but the thing only uses about 10cents worth of electricity/use and emits no fumes and little noise (I saw the informational vid). I live in the boondocks by loggers and knuckle-draggers, but if any of you out there are by a collective of green minded people, it might be a good idea to go in on a similar model together and share it.
Support companies that are making the gradual change to eco-friendly products. If you have to keep up with the Joneses, do it with a clean conscience...at least until the bamboo takes over (my latest, slow-going effort). "...Operating a gas mower for one hour will produce the same pollution as driving a car 1300 miles." -http://www.greengrasscutters.com/

As you may be able to tell by the tone, I was a little put-out about the cash outlay. However, I find it hard to describe how good I feel using this device. While it's light, it doesn't feel like a toy. It uses no lubrication or petroleum products. There is not choking stench filling my mouth and nostrils. I feel better about doing something I see as pointless, yet feel obliged to do for the community (and certain health factors). By the time it got "tired", so was I. It can mow higher, so I don't kill the grass by taking it down too far.

And it is quiet enough for me to hear my music without blowing-out my eardrums. For fun, here's my playlist:

Little House I Used to Live In - Mothers of Invention
How Am I Different - Amy Mann
The Qa'im Deliberation - Secret Chiefs 3
Goin' Down Slow - Howlin' Wolf
Metal Machine Music, Part III - Lou Reed
Lover I Don't Have to Love - Bright Eyes
Walking Away - Sugar
Take me for a Little While - Vanilla Fudge
Eva's Warning - Snake Finger
One Thousand Tears of a Tarantula - Dengue Fever
Gratitude - Beastie Boys
Point Blank - Pig Face

The grass was pretty high, too; couple week's growth. This thing is no wimp...I could go on and on. But, I'll leave you with a shot of how damn cute this thing is. Those are geckos (or chameleons or something) stamped into the plastic of the wheel.

I Want My *%&$ Back

2007-05-20T15:03:00.000-07:00

I know I have been posting tips purely on Mac matters lately because I have access to some pretty high-end stuff at work, so here's one for the masses (like me when I'm @ home):

I wanted to get one of my videos back from Youtube that I misplaced in my piles of unlabeled discs to post on another site I just joined. It's not super-easy, but fairly painless.

First, if you haven't switched to Firefox...why the hell not? Stop using IE (highly vulnerable/unweildy) or Safari (clunky/site-support spotty), because it has a mass of need-specific tools you can add to it. The one I picked for downloading Youtube (and supposedly Google) video was Ook? Video Ook!...I know, but the usefulness outweighs the bad name. This add-on puts a little icon on your browser status-bar (but you can put it elsewhere with the options). Depending on your system, you either single- or left-click on the icon when on a video's page to download an .FLV file.

Now what can anyone do with a Flash file (that's what an .flv is)? This is where VLC comes in. Like Firefox, this massively useful, tiny video player is free and runs on the major operating systems with zero hassle. Again, why are you still using Win-Media Player or Quicktime for which you can't find specialized codecs for different formats? If you don't know what codecs are, then you need VLC. It has all of them (except a couple that are only being used by trouble-makers and I don't run inot those often).

So you open VLC and

click File
choose Wizard (Streamin/Exporting Wizard for Mac)
when the window pops-up, choose Transcode/Save to File
under Select a Stream, click Choose and find your fresh [videodname].flv download
Click Next (duh)
Check Transcode Video, choose Mpeg-2
Check Transcode Audio, choose MP3
Click Next, choose where you want your file to go and name it [whatever-you-want].mpg

It'll do stuff, how long depends on the length of the movie. Then, boom (or bam or wiffle, etc.), you have your video back.

If that's all too difficult for you, check these guys' article. They're hawking somebody's wares and suggest something called greasemonkey, which adds another layer of complexity. But whatever ou do, get Firefox & VLC. They make life easier. VLC isn't the best thing for transcoding, but it plays video awesomely. And if you want a one-stop, free install, that one's it.

Working with High Definition Video

2007-05-16T18:39:00.000-07:00

I recently took a class (with the kind patronage of my boss) in the use Final Cut Pro. If you haven't had the pleasure of working with it, it is one of the most useful, hands-on video-editing suites available. It is also very intricate.

Therefore, as I understand how to better use it, I will be posting primers on video processing and manipulation. We (that is, WSU LC-NOP) recently acquired a high-definition (HD) camera and are trying to discover it's possibilities. While it's images are stunning, the new technology ads an extra layer of complexity. Below is a guide to capturing footage shot on such a camera.

For Final Cut Pro & the Sony HDV 1080i mini DV camera:

Open a new project
Go to & click "Final Cut Pro" in the top toolbar

Choose "Audio/Video Settings" from the drop-down menu

When the dialog window pops-up, it shows the Summary tab first.
In this tab, under Sequence Preset choose HDV - 1080i60

under Capture Preset choose HDV

under Device Control Preset choose HDV Firewire

Now go to the Sequence Presets tab and make sure that HDV - 1080i60 has a check-mark

Go to the Capture Presets tab and make sure that HDV has a check-mark

Go to the Device Control Presets tab and make sure that HDV Firewire has a check-mark

If that is all correct, click OK and select your Sequence 1 by single-clicking on it (you have to do this to be able to access the sequence settings - a must for capturing in this format)
Now go to Sequence in the top toolbar and choose Settings

In the dialog box, the General tab is the 1st to show
Under Frame Size, choose your desired size (something HD for sure, like 960x720, but make sure that it is in 16:9 Aspect Ration if you shot your footage in Widescreen)
Then set Pixel Aspect Ratio (to the same as the above choice and definitely HD), check Anamorphic 16:9 if desired
Then set the Quicktime Video Settings to HDV 1080i60

Then Click OK and you should be ready to Log & Capture

If you try to capture video and the program is still not seeing your camera, then one of the settings did not "take". You might have to go back and check to make sure. You might also have a different model. Just play with the settings until you get results that work.

Sometimes it's something as simple (and upsetting) as merely not clicking on your Sequence before you set the preferences (see #6 in the list).

This Death is Not Yet Rated

2007-04-29T08:43:00.001-07:00

The Death Star Is at the Mechanic's /
A Estrela da Morte Está no Mecânico
Originally uploaded by Alex Castro.

About Jack Valenti's more-than-timely demise, the SF Chronicle posits "...when he devised the controversial movie-ratings system in 1968 -- he doomed himself to a life of being misunderstood..." I think we, those of us who take notice, understood all too well.

This evil, ugly, malignant dwarf has held our culture captive for nearly 40 years. He has kept us safe from ourselves. He is in large part the reason nothing good has come out of Hollywood for decades. He was the head of the motion picture ratings group - and now he is the subject of unfounded hero worship.

I like to sound informed, but the only reason I know about him and am going on this rant is because of the documentary This Film is Not Yet Rated. This is an amazing movie that you will probably never see due to its attack on the MPAA. Viewing it makes it hard to believe that people all over CA aren't popping champagne corks this day, including those currently extolling his virtues.

His boyscout maxims that litter the aforementioned film & are being broadcast posthumously are a thin veil for draconian ideology. He said things like, "There isn't anything in the world that can't be made better." It sounds good on the surface, but has a fascist aftertaste. I mean who says what better is or what is purely censorship? I say he's made the world better by leaving it.

Other Valentiisms:

I sleep each night a little better, a little more confidently, because Lyndon Johnson is my president.
No one today knows what is indecent.
The VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston Strangler is to the woman alone.

Valenti quotes from BrainyQuote

Google Video

2007-04-18T15:34:00.000-07:00

For lack of anthing interesting to say (for several weeks it seems), I am going to post my knowledge of how to get your stuff on Google Video.

This info starts from the DVD rip and goes to the finality of uploading to Google. I include the DVD info because one of the things I do at my job is to transfer individuals' VHS memories to DVD. One person that comes in likes to get his stuff on the web, hence this little tutorial...oh, btw did I mention that this info is for Mac? If you are using a PC, the process is so much easier and there's tons of info out there for that.

QUICK & DIRTY GUIDE TO VIDEO CONVERSION

(If using DVD-disc/VOB-file)
Rip to harddrive using Handbrake program
-using "MP4" file format
-& "AVC/H.264 Video" codec
-set avg. bitrate at 750 (Google suggested min.)
-adjust picture settings to desired size (320x240 min.)
-audio should be fine (lang1:unknown/44.1k/128kbps)
this will create an ".mp4" file

General Transcoding:
(either from ripped file or locally generated)

Using Quicktime Pro, open the desired video(s)
If multiple videos need to be spliced together, copy desired footage/ trim movie to desired points/ paste parts at play-marker points

(if file is already a ".mp4" file)
Save video (not "Export") as "Self Contained movie"
this will create a new file that is a ".mov" file

(if file is not already an ".mp4")
Go to >File>Export
At bottom of dialog box find "Export">Choose "Movie to MPEG4"
select "Options" directly to the right of "Export"
-Under Video tab (1st screen)} File Format: set to "H.264"
-Data Rate: 750 kbits/sec
-Image Size: choose (min. 320x240)
-Frame Rate: 30
-Under Audio tab} Audio Format: set to "Pass through"
-select OK
When that produces a ".mp4" file, open that back up in Quicktime and save as per above instructions.

The Google upload program seems only to accept MP4 encoded MOV files. Use the Google Video Uploader application as it appears to be more stable than browser upload.

IF SERVER WARNING APPEARS
Do not become discouraged. This happens frequently. The program is in "beta" stage.
Try re-logging in, shutting down the program & bringing it back up, whatever works at the time.
(Do no remove files from queue. They should be there when the program comes back up, unless it crashed or you forced it to quit)
Then check "I certify...blah blablah" and click the upload button again. Upload should resume from previous point of glitch (i.e. upload status percentage). Rinse & repeat as needed...
If you notice the upload speed stalling at a certain number, selecting "Cancel" will not destroy any upload progress either. Try that and then (wait for the program to respond again, takes time) select "Upload" again.
This will save you hours of trying over & over to get past that glitch point by removing and re-adding (as I initially did) with no successful result.

Free Association* Con Carne

2007-03-16T23:52:00.000-07:00

abandcalledblower

^enlarge

When I put myself out to the world as a conduit for artists (in reference to iTunes), it turns out I didn't have to go far from home. In saying home, I speak metaphorically as I sit in Washington and my friend lives in Chicago. Said friend, let's call him Dan Worland (because that's his name), happened to read my blog and informed me that his band already had music on iTunes via CD Baby.

I used to hang out with this guy when I lived in Chicago, but have known him far longer from a chance meeting in an Indiana junior-high. I had a copy of Dragon magazine, usually a signal for cromag's to begin the beatings this became a quick bonding opportunity for a fellow geek...er, enthusiast.

It's this brand of devotion to the fringe that makes his band's music so informed. Oh, in case you hadn't gleaned this, the name is A Band Called Blower. Now I'm not saying that Dan is the only reason the music shines. Like-minds gravitate. Matt Fontaine and former-members Greg & Nathan all flesh out a sound so layered with eclectic influences that it's almost baroque.

I could drop names like i was tryin' to get outta jail, for instance:
Dead Language (that's the album featured at iTunes) takes you back to the days when garage meant just that and not daddy's million-dollar recording studio. It builds on the sounds of The Fall, Clinic, The Stooges and, others have remarked, Television with the benefit of hindsight and more than a little psychedelia...
- but rock criticism is useless and the proof is in the pudding.

One can go to iTunes and get a sampling if each song, or visit their site and pull-down some whole mp3's for free, or go to their Myspace profile and listen/add songs to one's own profile, or all of the above. I really hope you give these guys a go. They represent a chapter of the highly self-conscious turn-of-the-century rock progression that much of America missed while it was happening.

Dead Language tracks:

Absolute Zero
Trickbag
Check, Double Check
Hangnail
Domelite
Carpetbomb
Infinity Clue
Little Wire
Strange Kind of Luck
Tokyo Olympiad

Oh yeah, I also made a cheesy little video for track 9:

*purplemonkeydishwasher

Officially Evil

2007-03-06T14:28:00.000-08:00

It's official. I have transgressed to the dark side. I am now (and have been for a couple of weeks) an Apple affiliate. That's for iTunes and their store. But hell, I won't try to plus-sell you or get you to buy "anti-virus" software that is, itself, a virus (like Norton; don't be a fool and buy things you can get for free that work better than consumer fodder).

But back to the item at hand. My original intentions for researching this avenue of revenue were entirely altruistic. I was asked by a colleague, a musician, about getting his work onto the iTunes catalog. But, as with many things Apple, it turned into an anal probe. I just wanted to get some uploader and some development software and they wanted my 1st-born.

Then I realized that most artists don't have the time, inclination or fortitude to go through this kind of beauracracy. I almost don't. I thought that if I could spare some poor bastard the process that they could get their work onto the world-stage where it gets the attention it deserves (rather than giving up after navigating 100 pages in Klingon business-ese). Of course, I'm incredibly broke, so getting 5% of sales on things found through my sites (out of the pocket of Apple, not the artist) was very tantalizing to me. I'm already doing 20 non-profit projects and my time has become rare.

So, I acquiesce to the title Sell-out but offer my new found channels to anyone, local or global, that would like to get their media on iTunes. I add that there are tons of free services and nice places out there (like GarageBand) and wish anyone that goes that way luck in their entrepreneurial journey. There's so much beauty in giving your art to the world for free. It's just some of us gotta eat, too.

Self E-grandizement

2007-03-03T12:39:00.000-08:00

I was googling myself the other night (I know, a disgusting and egoistic practice) just to see what came up. I noticed that my images were being used by people from all over the world. That's excellent. It's why I put them up on flickr. Below are some screenshots and links to those sites:

Steve Perry Worship

There are 2 sites that link to my photo. It's the worst one I've ever taken, but I leave it up because it's so popular

Linked on The Perry Plaza & Hotel and Melodicrock.com

Deutch Jugendkultur

A German site where they were apparently talking about German hip-hop (I can still read it a bit from my HS days)

Posted on CrapLog.de

French Spoof

Someone used a photo I took of a very colorful Fall bush and used it as one of several pictures of sea coral. I can't fault them, as I titled the image coral because it resembled the organism...

Posted on Dinosoria.com

What do Clowns have to do with it?

I still can't figure it out; nice they used my image though. I Like this image. It was taken at a neat deli between Chinatown and Little Tokyo

Posted on Emergent Chaos

Love For the Nihon Lady

This blog has used a couple of my photos; very pretty photos throughout.

Posted on Millionaire Japan Idols

These links and more can be found on my del.icio.us profile, something you may have noticed at the footer of my website under the tag Rev.Raikes.

Clemente Lecture Series

2007-02-19T23:39:00.001-08:00

Clemente Lecture Series legal-size flyer
Originally uploaded by the layoutist.

So, in addition to being gainfully employed at the WSU Learning Center, I am involved in the Bard College Clemente Course in the Humanities. I know - it's a mouthful, especially when you add "Advisory Council" to the end of that. I'm part of that, too.

In fact, I wouldn't have my new job if I wasn't involved with this program that helps the economically disadvantaged get college credit. I wouldn't have even gone to school, most likely, to get my Associate degree.

It all sounds pretty dry and boring to those not in the course. I don't know, maybe it's lame to the participants. But I don't know many places where people get together to hash out philosophy, art, literature, and what makes the western world tick, in lay terms. My mind is blown every time I inject myself into this Socratic-based forum.

So, now it's open to the public on select dates. This is an attempt to interface with the local community and get a dialog going. If you are in the Jefferson County area on the dates below, I strongly urge you to make an appearance. Skeptics (as to whether intellectual discourse can be entertaining/explosive) are doubly urged to take part.

Landscape & Democracy:
A Free Lecture and Performance Series

February 20th: Panel Discussion, "What is Democracy?" Clemente Faculty and guests, moderated by Scott Wilson.
March 6th: “The Selling of the American West,” Slides, lecture and discussion with Danny Adams, Clemente Course History of Art faculty.
March 20th: “Does Nature Have Rights?” Philosophy lecture and discussion with guest speaker Ron Moore, University of Washington Department of Philosophy and Aesthetics.
April 10th: Benefit Concert “Songs of Home: a Recital of American Music” Sydney Keegan, mezzo-soprano and friends.
April 24th: “Reinhabiting Language” special guests Holly Hughes and Tom Jay.

All events, except for the April 10th concert, take place in the Spruce Room, Washington State University, Port Hadlock (201 W. Patison), at 7 PM. The concert will be at the Quimper Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Pt. Townsend.

here's the article that ran in the local paper

Cyberpunk

2007-02-12T22:55:00.000-08:00

Watch this amazing commentary on social evolution by Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University, Michael Wesch, then read on:

Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us

As I was checking my gmail to find the link to this vid that a colleague sent me, I noticed that the ad-pane on the side had referenced the content of the email to assist me in my shopping/research needs. Neither is this the first time that I have noticed this phenomenon, nor is it scary to me that my personal info is being used in this manner; especially after viewing material as moving as the above.

When I was a teen reading William Gibson novels (creator of the term cyberspace) I used to dream about a time when humans could mesh with technology and any sensory/communicative treasure was a mere thought away. While we are a long way off from realizing VR or having cables sticking out of our skulls, we are being conditioned and conditioning the neural-net for symbiosis.

This thing that pretends to be a toy does so in order to trick humans into playing with it, to addict. When we play we shine. We can plug into the muse, or whatever one may call that collective id.

The human mass organism is subconsciously conspiring to get back that extra-sensory ability that we may have had eons ago, and this is the tool. The web is more than a series of wires and nodes. It is a different face for the timeless ether the Stygian witches tapped, a crystal ball, a meditation on the beauty of our ugliness.

We are as great & horrible, caring & efficiently cold and wildly astounding as the universe that spawned us. Look into the shimmering void and see yourself.

in honor of this post, anyone that asks me for a gmail account will be given one while they last. i am not a shill, i just have tons of them to give away.
just leave me a comment on this or any future posts.

Obama Said Knock You Out

2007-02-06T00:11:00.000-08:00

Anyone that's been paying attention on my blog or knows me can tell that I'm about as white (more of a sickly pink actually) as a person can get. I often joke that all the soul I've got resides in the little pinkie on my right hand. Plus, I was reared in Indiana, so I should probably be all ignant about people that don't look or act the same as I do.

Maybe I am and I'm just too dumb to know it, like the old guy at the college party that thinks he's hip because he's heard of the Smashing Pumpkins (yeah, that reference was meant to be dated). But when a little bird told me that a certain person in the public eye, who happens to be African-American, had his blackness questioned, I stopped cold. It's not really important who this person is. The question, is he black enough, is patently absurd (patent pending). I think the more poignant query would be, is this country too white?

Is our thought dominated by the images of the lavish white culture (btw, something of which I have only been able to snatch crumbs). How about the Super bowl: the first African-American coaches to make it to this prestigious sports pinnacle, ever, just made it this year. For as long as I can remember, the teams have been made-up of at least half African-American players.

These are just topical examples. I could care less about football or who does what in it (the problem with football is that it isn't basketball). It just shows-ta-go-ya the 411, as the kids say (do they still say that?). I'm not calling for a revolution or anything. But, I could stand to hear a little more Al Green, and a lot less Brooks & Dunn when I'm flipping the dial.

Beautiful Freakin' Day

2007-02-05T06:24:00.000-08:00

Just walked outside (5a.m.) and it's so warm for Feb.
In other news, I am now gainfully employed at WSU (note: video below). The access that they afford me, as well as anyone that wants to come down to the computer lab, is amazing. They have the new Intel-based Macs with video editing software, audio-blogging 'wares and cameras & mic's right on the monitor/body. If you are in the Jefferson County, WA area, I highly suggest you stop down, even if just to check your email.

A Quest Called Tribe

2007-01-26T11:05:00.001-08:00

buzzcutplaid
Originally uploaded by revraikes.

Just dropping names today:
I have been reading a book that a couple of my friends gave me as a gift because they believe in me. It's a really nice feeling. They care about what happens to me and wish me the best.

Even though I have been dragging my feet on reading this book (which everybody has been suggesting) because I try to steer clear of self-help books, I have made it through half of the book already (no mean feet for me). My thoughts on self-help books were echoed in School for Scoundrels, "You can't help yourself, because your self sucks!"

"End the suspense," say you. The book is called What Color is Your Parachute. I'm not here to sell you this book. You haven't walked into an Amway meeting. I don't care if you ever read it. Whatever it takes you to get to a place where your life is as close to your expectations as you can get it, that's what you need. I can't tell you how to get there. I can only tell you what paths I have taken (of which there are many to enlightenment).

Some of the things suggested in this book, I have already done by instinct. Some I have done by necessity, whether it be for my mental, physical or emotional survival. One of the latest things I have done is join Tribe.net.

If you are already a member, get ahold of me there. I need to meet people. That's why the book suggested the site, for networking. I'm already addicted to networking sites, but this one seems less clogged with jerkoids & malchicks (like myspace, which I won't even link-to here). Or, If you are in need of a personal web page, but have no clue, they do a pretty nice job of setting you up with one.

That's it, I just wanted to give a shout-out and lay my digits on ya. On that face, I'm trying to keep my PMA and focus on the positive possibilities of meeting creative types that want to make things happen.

Who Wins?

2007-01-24T00:04:00.001-08:00

waronpoverty
Originally uploaded by revraikes.

I hate to seem like an ingrate. I have received a lot of assistance through philanthropic endeavors. I used to have a job as Director of a local teen center. I worked for Jefferson County in WA at the dump/hazardous waste station. I even received free schooling and credits to apply toward further education at a college of my choosing.

That being said, the operative phrase used to have a job translates to the fact that the teen center no longer exists (the dump supplied 1-day/month). And, the Bard College Clemente Program that gave me free books, some food and a new outlook on life can now only afford to give the current students half of the time (and almost none of the literature) they used to be able to offer.

These places are or were funded by many different sources, several local. However, it seems probable that the trickle down effect of cuts in Federal funding used to help our economically and socially disadvantaged has had a hand in the retraction of aid. If you think this is a purely personal gripe, I argue that this is just a microcosm of the greater picture of which we all share a part.

This comes to the fore of my mind because I have returned to the Clemente Program to give back to the community (which gave me so much, and continues to give) and because of the State of the Union Address that aired earlier tonight. To illustrate, the snippet that caught my ear:

And let us continue to support the expanded trade and debt relief that are the best hope for lifting lives and eliminating poverty.

I posit that elimination, in the Bush-camp context, means the eradication of the poor.

It reminds me of another quote, from the Scrooge that Albert Finney played. He was entreated about the dying poor and replied, ...they had better do it and decrease the surplus population. This is the legacy of Carnegie, of the aptly named robber barons which the Democratic spokesman (Jim Webb) referenced in the rebuttal after the Union Address.

Take a close-up look at the picture in this post (by clicking on it). I snapped this in Seattle just this weekend.
This is the solution. We get the brush. And why are we in this state of mind, we the poor? Why do we have a ghetto mentality? We are dumb. We have no idea. Yes, that is partly our fault for not pursuing the ever elusive carrot called happiness, the American dream/myth. It's our failure, in a democracy where libraries roam free and are plentiful, that we do not seek the truth like a dog after a tantalizing leg.

Yet...we had a lot of help getting dumb and fractured. Freedom from education leaves each of us working 2-3 minimum-wage jobs, apiece (if we are lucky enough to get them). The rest of the world, too has been helped out of their prosperity, further casualties in the War on Poverty, to distribute the resources of the planet as our betters see fit.

Make no mistake, this very real war in which we are entrenched is one of the faster ways (than starvation of mind and promise) to kill off 3rd-world populations and take what is theirs.
Please, caretakers of the great unwashed masses, don't do us any more favors.

So Long, Old Man

2007-01-01T02:06:00.001-08:00

pagerize
Originally uploaded by revraikes.

Good-bye and good riddance. What a crap year. However, the year of the dog is going to be hanging around at the foot of the fireplace for another couple of months.

Don't get me wrong, I put as much stock in the Chinese zodiac as I do the existence of a higher power in the universe (it's all just our little way of describing the big thing). However, it's hard to deny a definitive turn in the mood of America, if not the world, with the closing of the year.

I can see people walking away from the idiotic, slowly and laboriously, like an indignant mutt told to stop begging at the table. It's about time. Hopefully this trend will mature. It's been quite a few years since I've seen any reason, or even joy, on the mass scale.

Here's to a better tomorrow.
May yours bring you the light of all that you are owed
- and some that you aren't:
we, none of us, are purfict.

Stick a Pitchfork in Me

2006-12-27T04:27:00.001-08:00

footypajamas
Originally uploaded by revraikes.

...I'm done. Done with X-mas. Done with running around. Done with giving lip service or trying to salvage anything about the religion this holiday represents.

I'm going Buddhist so that I can gleefully reply, "No, thank you for the invitation, but I can't make it to your Seasonal Affective Disorder hoe-down (that's right, it spells sad; they just had to name it that)."

I thought I could bring some relative coolness to this religion schlock-fest by becoming a reverend, and not being a total perv' or pretending I don't have a bung-hole. I was wrong. It's beyond duct tape. All this season and the culture it represents does is foment a guilt complex or, if you are an extrovert, rage. The latter is often channeled out as scary-manic-exuberance (a.k.a. Christmas cheer).

So, I give up. The only place that seems close to reasonable is Zen Buddhism. I mean, I tried getting into Neo-Paganism, but it's just too ritualistic. And atheism just seems as fanatical as any of the Judeo-Christian sects.

Here I am. Stone me with candy-canes and dried up, old, 12th generation fruit-cakes. I don't care. I'm handing in my resignation. Later, eternal salvation, hello illumination...

New Face

2006-12-18T15:33:00.001-08:00

livingcircuit2
Originally uploaded by revraikes.

My site has a new look and functionality. If you are already there (it's entirely possible, the world is a strange place) clicking the link at the head of the paragraph will appear to do nothing.

Let me back up a sec. I have inserted code that will auto-"magically" pull the RSS feeds from my Blogger and flickr accounts into the main page of my personal website, basically a portal to my web presence. In lay terms this means that the most recent posts of thoughts or photos will appear on my site.

This allows me to lighten my work-load while keeping my site fresh with the content people may not be seeing if they couldn't figure out my previous offering. Plus the new CSS (that's the stuff that makes the colors and things line-up the way they do) design is a far-cry slicker than the earlier one. If you think it stinks, please tell me. After all, you are the one I made this for.

Depending on where you are seeing this post you can:

On my site - click the "talk to me" link upper right
At the blog - leave a comment

And if you have any questions on how I can do this kind of stuff for you, those methods of contact would be a perfect conduit as well.
Thanks for your support!

Hi, I Just Got Here

2006-12-13T02:39:00.001-08:00

cracks&drips
Originally uploaded by revraikes.

There are these points in my life when I really get a joke that I thought was previously sussed. One such occurrence happened while watching a thoroughly disappointing PBS disc from the library that was a discussion by some Harvard intellectuals about the existence of the divine.

The joke was Sartre's statement that hell is other people. On it's face, I took his play (the line is attributed to No Exit) to mean simply that being forced into association with humans rather than being solitary or in nature was excruciating. I often hold this sardonic view the further I collude with my fellow humans.

Through the heady discourse of the program in question, the ponderous pontificators stumbled over, around & roundly away from the pith of the matter, i.m.h.o. They split hairs and avoided the obvious. To the point of this post, a major facet they couldn't peg was that of humanity's universal need for the big cosmic truth, e.g. why we keep trying to plug our 110v adapter into the giant 220v outlet in the sky.

To me, it seems that our (the Western reality-tunnel at least) drive to label every little thing in the multi-verse drives us further from our inherent knowledge that we are not really separated from any one particle in existence. The desire then lay in the wish to reconnect with the collective consciousness, humans being an appendage of that entity. The desire itself is illusionary since the aforementioned reasoning presupposes disconnect.

Whether Sartre intended this meaning or not, I am co-opting it. The conclusion and more poignant joke is that the hell exists in believing that there is anything other than oneself. Hell is other people because I am all (and vice versa...I don't want to start another Nietzsche horror show).

Now we can all let loose a restrained chortle while darting our eyes to & fro to make sure no one sees us check our ivy-league comb-overs.
Round Table adjourned.
[faw faw faw echoes down the hallowed halls]

X-mas Card from a Hacker in Sasquatchland

2006-12-08T22:45:00.001-08:00

piles
Originally uploaded by revraikes.

If this don't break yer heart, yer a cold [deleted expletive]:

Hey Dad,

Sorry, I've been back and forth between home and [girlfriend]'s place in Seattle all month trying to get a job. I had an interview at a video store (really low pay, but i didn't even get that one), then I had a phone interview and an onsite one (2 interviews=kinda serious about a hire) with this place that would have been f[***]ing awesome, doing web design. I even had an inside guy, [girlfriend]'s old pal, pushing for me. I thought that it was pretty much a lock.
They ended up sending me a form email saying they interviewed a lot of people with better experience, blah blah blah. I talked to [girlfriend]'s friend and he said everyone that interviewed me (6 people, tag-team style) was confused as to why they didn't hire me.

All this going back and forth cost way too much. The ferry rides and buses alone cost about $20 round trip, forget about living expenses.
I'm going to file for unemployment and food stamps.
It's gonna be another sh[***]y Christmas. I thought that this year I could afford to send stuff to friends and family. I would have been making about 2k/month after taxes and getting insurance, even for domestic partners, a.k.a. [girlfriend].

I'll be fine, food, a roof over my head, etc. I just want more than that. I'm tired of feeling like a bum, like I'm living off of those around me. I have so many skills but I look like a waste on paper.

Anyway, I love you and hope that you don't feel like I'm ignoring you. I'm just trying to keep from drowning but the more I struggle, the more the quicksand pulls me down.

I sure hope things turn-out well for that poor bastard...

One thing I would like to say: when you start complaining about how hard it is to go shopping for the holidays, remember that you have choices to make. You could steer clear of the whole mess and try to make things nice this season in other ways. Sometimes, just sparing your precious time listening to those with truly difficult situations can be enough to pull someone back from the edge.

God Told Me to Skin You Alive

2006-12-07T04:37:00.001-08:00

NaNo TGIO article - PDN
Originally uploaded by the layoutist.

Well, the note was kinda smudged and it was delivered by an emissary (that's how he rolls). In fact, upon looking at it, it reads more like a directive to go into novel writing versus the design track down which I've been headed. And there's no return address on this thing. I'm not even sure which god sent it.

The messenger was Pope Wassmattayou the 3rd, a.k.a. Jennifer Jackson, a superlative reporter for the Peninsula Daily News. She met with the small turnout that was our local thank-JHVH-it's-over party to commemorate the NDE of our novel writing adventure. She put up with our rambling diatribe and somehow managed to string together a coherent article.

I am grateful that she wrote about the NaNoWriMo phenomenon. It was hard getting any word of it out to the area. But I am also glad that she focused on a lady named Phoenix that was one of the winners of the contest.

I didn't want to make too big of a deal of it around her, but I was thoroughly impressed that she completes this contest year after year while dealing with having lupus. She said that the pace of the contest was the only way that she could overcome her cognitive disorder.
Puts things in perspective.

So you can click on the image at upper right to read the story. Or maybe the article will be online at some point at which I will append this post.

Oh yeah, and I'm in the article, too. That's my ugly mug, second from the left.

Cleric Finds 'Life' Questionable

2006-12-02T15:38:00.001-08:00

cover - layout
Originally uploaded by the layoutist.

Reprinted with permission from Vigilance group discussion forums:

the layoutist says:
Seriously, Independent Media is the only thing standing in the way of total hegemony and mental tyranny. It is the workers taking control of the means of production. It's you screaming in the wilderness to the bears and rabbits (i.e. your neighbors) about how unbalanced everything seems and would you just turn off the TV for a sec.!

Instead of throwing a bunch of numbers and factoids at you, here's what Molly Ivins from The Free Press has to say about the whole thing:

If newspapers were just another buggy-whip industry, none of this would be of much note -- another disappearing artifact, like the church key. But while Wall Street doesn't care, nor do many of the people who own and run newspapers, newspapers do, in fact, matter beyond producing profit -- they have a critical role in democracy. It's called a well-informed citizenry.

I think that sums it up best, and that's why I'm making a big stink (also the beans last night, but that's another story). It may all seem like much ado about nothing, but so is a flag unless it has a solid idea to prop it up.

So, hammer those keys into the night. Tell us what's going on in Saskatchewan or Kuala Lampur. The increasingly scared-for-their-lives pro-reporters probably won't get around to it as they are dodging 'merican-made missiles and kissing ass to save their jobs at NewsCorp.

feel free to join the discussion at flickr group Vigilance

It All Comes down to You

2006-12-02T14:59:00.001-08:00

everythingcomesdowntoyou
Originally uploaded by revraikes.

I did not make it through those silvery doors of achievement. I blew a lot of things off to try to win the battle against my procrastination. I did not reach the goal, but I did learn a few things and come farther than I had with my project in the past.

I'm talking about the NaNoWriMo contest to write 50,000 words in the month of November and come through that experience with a rough-cut of a novel. I did not attain that, but I did find something closer to my own voice. I truly believe that to be the real goal of this exercise.

I did not kill my own internal editor, though. And that made getting through the process a lot like hauling a wheel-barrow full of rocks up an interminable hill. One thing is for sure, writing 10k words in one evening is a lot harder than one would think. It's exhausting even if you are just flushing out ideas that you have already written and not creating them from the ethers.

So I will continue to write with no accolades on the horizon, save my own. And I'll have a lot more time to write here in case anyone is reading. I wish good luck to the writers that did (and did not) finish in hammering out a finished novel. We all need it.

Gimme a Job

2006-11-17T03:02:00.001-08:00

vigilance roll-call
Originally uploaded by the layoutist.

I was going through the materials of my career up 'til now to create a portfolio. It was at this point that I realized I have done some pretty neat stuff (with a little help from my friends of course). I ain't no goddamn son-of-a-bitch.

The main thing that was hitting me was my re-visitation to the old newsie stomping ground of Vigilance. It was a local, free, independent paper in the North Olympic Peninsula of Washington state. I learned a lot there, including how to use digital layout programs.

I had been making fake flyers (for bands or movies that didn't exist) and things like that since I was in junior-high with the use of photocopiers and magazines. So this was kind of my passion from early years.

I also took great interest in photo class when I got to high-school, specifically where it applied to the dark-room. Playing with over-lays and juxtaposition was really intriguing.

I guess what I'm saying is: if you are an employer, click on the picture above. Look at that site and then give me a job. Consider this a cover letter and that offering a resume.

New graphics portfolio available at RevRaikes.com
I know...I'm shamless

Music Sucks

2006-11-13T23:07:00.000-08:00

Not for me, but for some people it must.

I had to love this lady on the bus that turned around and stared at me like I had just peed on her favorite toaster-cozy. My MP3 player was going and I asked her if it was too loud. She nodded blankly and I complied by lowering the volume. This immediately mixed in the sounds of the bus that I was trying to drown.

Now I could understand if I was playing Anthrax or something heinously jarring that only I happen to enjoy, but the current selection was pretty tame. I didn't want to make any trouble because the bus driver let me board for only a dollar and a nickel (usually it's $1.25). I was on tenuous ground and didn't want to work up any more animosity against music enthusiasts that the general public seems to harbour.

Then some schmuck started talking on his cell-phone in the seat in front of the woman. I don't hate cells, but I try to spare people from the,
"Huh- what was that. You're cutting out, hold on,"
blahbitty-blah that goes on. I waited to see if she'd budge: nothing. I wanted to ask her what she was going to do about that noise. I wouldn't have been bothered if I had my volume up, my defense against the annoying outer-world.

New priorities are in order but short supply. Music and art deserve the leverage that business, vain distraction and topical dada have taken. Less war and more War, what is it good for...

Nerd

2006-11-10T21:40:00.001-08:00

invasioncloseup
Originally uploaded by revraikes.

I was having a largish bottle of beer with my girlfriend who is trying to console me about the fact that I have no job and $11 in my account. I called it a 40 (as in 40 ouncer as the kids say) and she said, "Actually, it's a 24 oz."

Well...i can't have somebody actually me without finding my own info (it's all good, it keeps me on my toes). I can never remember how many oz. are in a cup, pint, quart, etc., but I remembered I had an analog list of measurements and their conversions. I say analog because my brain lives on this thing that you call the internet and my source off choice this day was my composition notebook that a good friend gave me to use for writing.

When I looked in the back, I found that they skip from "gills" (gi.) to pints, then gallons. Well, my blood was up because I couldn't figure out if we were drinking a pint or not (it turned out to be a pt. and a half, but that's not important right now). So I got out the measuring cup and had to write my new found data in the "useful information" section in the back of the notebook in case this happened in the future.

And this is what came of my calculations:

Liq.: 8oz/cup, 4c/quart, 4c=32oz, 1pt=16oz
1gill=4oz, 400 gills = a crowded fish-tank

...
I know it was a long way to the well and the bucket came back empty, but that is my little nerdy joke that I made today. It helps to try to laugh when things seem really, really hopeless. Or go insane, but that kind of laughter is always really unfulfilling to me.

BTW, 400gi. is equivalent to 3.125 gallons if you are curious. It still is even if you aren't. That's the great thing about math.

Organic

2006-11-07T13:16:00.001-08:00

livingcircuit2
Originally uploaded by revraikes.

I don't know why I'm writing here, except to hide from working on what I'm supposed to be writing. I signed up for this NaNoWriMo thing that I mentioned in The Store post. It entails writing a 50k novel in one month...this month. I just can't find the flow.

It's been 7 days since the event started, people all over the world trying to get the book in them out on pages. Since starting, I realized that my experience with writing has been as more of a columnist than anything. Even my college papers had that kind of feel.

So right now, my stuff feels kind of wooden. I haven't been able to reach the organic taproot in my psyche that will let the dams burst. I will trudge on, however, and hope that my control mechanism lets loose.

Good luck to anyone else out there that might be doing this, too. It's a bitch.

Gramma's Cakes

2006-11-04T12:49:00.001-08:00

meamerica&awookie
Originally uploaded by revraikes.

Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Now theres a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
You were caught on the crossfire of childhood and stardom, blown on the
Steel breeze.
Come on you target for faraway laughter, come on you stranger, you legend,
You martyr, and shine!

You reached for the secret too soon, you cried for the moon.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Threatened by shadows at night, and exposed in the light.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Well you wore out your welcome with random precision, rode on the
Steel breeze.
Come on you raver, you seer of visions, come on you painter, you piper,
You prisoner, and shine! -Pink Floyd, Shine on You Crazy Diamond

This song has been in my head since 2 this morning. I'm 45% through my life today (if statistics can be believed), and the 1st line of the song was just resonating true.

But I'm not grousing. If I lived in Zambia, my life would almost be over.
Which reminds me of Gramma. She made those cakes above. I miss her and the lard icing, but it's bittersweet because it reminds me that I'm still alive.

Fear

2006-10-31T18:13:00.001-08:00

mountainjuju
Originally uploaded by revraikes.

First: Happy Halloween!

Secondly, are you old enough to remember going trick-or-treating in your own neighborhood, not at a mall? Do you remember that report about the razor-blade in the apple that caused your parents to freak out. Then your parents made you come home before the sun set on Halloween night.

I don't, regarding the last sentence. My parents weren't that gullible. They knew that that was the one night that kids got to go out and have fun. They also took the report as a possible Halloween hoax, which it turned out to be.

None-the-less, the rumor still lingers as urban legend. Tonight I have had only 2 kids come to my door, and they were dropped off by their parents. The cars waited on the side of the curb to insure that nothing happened to their little monsters.

Thank you Culture of Fear. You're just what we ordered on a night of the walking dead. But, could you let kids be kids and enjoy the wonder I did when I was a young miscreant...

Snow & Sarcastic Robot

2006-10-28T01:24:00.000-07:00

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Why it's the AT-5000 Auto-Dialer. My very first patent.
Aw, would you listen to the gibberish they've got you saying, it's sad and alarming. You were designed to alert schoolchildren about snow days and such. Well, let's get you home to Frinky. Hope your wheels still work, bw-hey. -Professor Frink

The Store

2006-10-27T04:32:00.000-07:00

I've got a new store. There are only 2 products on it because I started it at 2 a.m., but more will come as my fevered mind works up new idiocy.

When I finish my book, it will be for sale there among other places. Oh, did I not mention that I was participating in NaNoWriMo (see the icon on the left for details). Yeah, I'm gonna put my hand to paper this November. The goal is 50,000 words in a month.

But for now, buy my stuff. I think you'll find it delightfully naughty and titillating.

Nazi UFO's

2006-10-25T22:42:00.000-07:00

Finally, I'm gettin' to it (like I promised). I left you with something like: "Part of [Tesla's] theory as I understand it was that we could harness the electromagnetic energy of the earth to do all sorts of things..."

...things like Flying! Watch this--> And the interviewer has a British accent, so you can't doubt the veracity (fnord).

Whether the footage above was created using wires & special f/x or not (although I believe this was a segment on the Discovery Channel), it illustrates the concept and possibility. The idea is that aerial locomotion can be obtained without the use of combustion. In the end of the segment the voice-over mentions the German program (during the 2nd World War) to attain these ends.

The Great War ended in 1945. As I noted in an earlier post, many of the scientists in Germany were secreted to the US & USSR. In 1947, the famous Roswell incident took place in which materials that looked similar to the item in the video above were reported to have been found. This is why conspiracists (such a dirty, dismissive label) refer to the phenomena as Nazi in nature.

In my mind, believing in UFO's and aliens is not the same thing. Extraterrestrials very well may exist, but I think the existence of stolen, obscured and advanced technologies is higher on the probability scale.

As an aside, quite a bit of UFO activity in the country formerly known as prince- er, USSR -has taken place over the years. Their own paper speaks of such an event in the magically numbered year of 1947. If this was a manmade device, the Russians seem a little more adventurous in seeing how their military would handle such an instrument.

Now I know that other countries boast UFO sightings (a lot in Mexico Lately), but not everybody is a Super-power (not even a former one). And, not everybody got their very own toy Nazi scientist for x-mas after the war.

To the subject of using the Earth's own electromagnetivity to power these, and our terrestrial, devices, it is not so much turning the Van Alan Belt into a cosmic wall-socket, but manipulating present electromagnetic waves into complex paterns in a field around the object or vehicle that one wants to fly. The concept is based on Townsend T. Brown's 1923 experiments with electricity's direct effect on gravity.

From what I've read, the solid science is there, but the industrial-politcal will is not. That is to say, for the masses to use for their own benefit (in opposition to the benefit of a few).

Problem, Reaction, Solution

2006-10-21T14:22:00.001-07:00

2nateppp 011
Originally uploaded by tattooindiana.

I know I promised to talk about Nazi UFO's, but a Jahova's Witness just came to my door and handed me a pamphlet about False Religion and I have to go with that. I read it just to see how they were gonna trip themselves up - it was a short journey.

I was down with the 1st paragraph decrying preachers openly warmongering when they should love their fellow man. Then, in the next entry, the pamphlet starts bashing this Jesus character that it had just quoted for supporting material in the previous entry. Clearly, this is a confused piece of paper.

To the pith of my quandary: the next statement leaps from war (#2 was about death, so not much straying) to same-sex relations. This was something I thought only our current president could do. This brings me to the title of this post:

Problem-Reaction-Solution

A long time ago, in a place where people screwed everything that moved, there was a Roman Emperor named Diocletian. He didn't like his citizens very much, but did enjoy playing with them on the battle field.

But he was sad because Romans were so good at killing things that there were no more enemies. So he has his palace burnt down (twice) and blames it on the Christians so he can turn the war machine inward and keep it chugging. The public accepted this lie and the Empire provided a solution to the problem it had (covertly) created itself.

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch

Just when people were starting to get together on this whole terrorism kick in which the country had been engourged, the president throws the golden apple of Same-sex union into the ring. Even if you aren't a fan of history, it isn't hard to see this for what it is.

Then all of the zealots come marching out. Like the pamphlet I received, Christianity preaches love yet many that call themselves Christians love to hate the minorities. At the time of Diocletian, Christians were the minority and the followers of the state religion thoroughly enjoyed seeing them get hacked and chomped.

Did Rome ever really change management or just the sign on the edifice? When are humans going to recognize that freedom for all can't have an asterisk. When will people stop being so goddamn dumb?

I know this is running long, but please bare with me...

In answer to the last question, I decided to research this biblical passage the fanatics like to trot out (the pamphlet was no exception). It's Corinthians 6:9, 10. What many quoters do is ellipsis-out the non-sexual offenses of living to make the subject entirely about sex. This heats up the brain pan and makes all logical thought impossible (apparently).

Another problem with this passage is that it has as many mis-translations as there are versions of the bible. One can not literally follow a text if the meanings of words have been altered to fit political agendas. The original sentence fragments homophobes keep pointing to are minutia compared to the overall message and had nothing to do with homosexuality as a whole.

The Good that can Come out of This

On a personal note, I was talking with a friend who is very hurt by our free & enlightened society's relegation of him as a non-person. He was inconsolable. Even though he may have been preaching to the choir, so to speak, as those of us involved in the dialectic were on his side, at least a dialogue has developed.

The don't ask - don't tell doctrine of the military was an outward representation of how we deal with this issue as a people. Straights that consider themselves evolved enough to have a couple of gay friends can still be squeamish about talking on the subject. It's treated as understood, an elephant in the living room that people try not to notice but nod toward occasionally.

If we examine ourselves and speak out when bigotry rears its ugly head, then real change can occur. You don't have to be a jerk about it. That just turns people off to the resolution of the issue and creates polarity. Rather, if channels are opened and we can work through this, we may realize that consensual sex is not evil, no matter the proclivity.

Grow up America and throw away those concepts that made our ancestors' escape from religious persecution even more of a hell when they got to this side of the pond. Any reason or time people put down their guns long enough to kiss is good.

The Man, Not The Band

2006-10-20T01:48:00.000-07:00

As my friends may know, I am an amateur electronics tinkerer and fan of Tesla. I happened across a scan of an article that appeared in 1911 about his plans for wireless energy. Zoom in on it and see how many things have come to pass. With the exception of magnetizing enemy ships (though who knows), his ideas came to be commonplace. Many inventions are what we now call the Internet and cell phones, including the synchronization of time-pieces (our phones are always calibrated to the correct time zone).

But one wonders what happened to all of his working inventions that were siezed by the FBI on his death. They used the Office of Alien Property as their arm, though he was a US citizen, and declared the ill-gotten booty "most secret". It's possible that the gov't took his inventions and used them for some time, only allowing bits and pieces to trickle down to average schmoes when they saw fit.

One of his grandest concepts was to broadcast wireless energy, the fallout of which was radio (he died trying to get the patent to that). The whole world would be able to function under the benefits of electric power, most likely for free. He also did a number of interesting experiments to discern the "wavelength" at which the universe pulsed (I'm paraphrasing here from the documentary I saw). Part of this theory as I understand it was that we could harness the electromagnetic energy of the earth to do all sorts of things.

What I posit is this: the mechanations for the previous paragraph's theories have been perfected and used for some time now. It's entirely possible that energy is plentiful, run off of the ethers so to speak, and that there is no shortage of resources. This ties in with what the conspiracists call the Nazi UFO's, which I may talk about tomorrow. I'm too tired now.

I will say that it is Nikola Tesla's 150th anniversary and a few countries and organizations have declared this year, 2006, his year. Not us though; go to Canada or Croatia if you wanna celebrate him, ya commie-pinko scum.

A First

2006-10-19T09:58:00.000-07:00

One of my friends just got published. This is my first (known) acquaintance to become internationally published in a hardbound, numbered edition. It's printed in Oxford, England & is quite an interesting collection of philosophical works. His name is Keith Tilford, an already accomplished & working artist. Check it out at Urbanomic.

We are proud of him.

There is Still Beauty

2006-10-18T15:24:00.001-07:00

coral
Originally uploaded by revraikes.

I chose this picture for the entry to remind myself and others that there is still beauty in this world despite the fact that our governemt is trying to kill us. Some may question the latter part of that statement, yet having watched just 5 minutes of the news makes the feeling concrete in my mind.

The report to which I am refering noted that N. Korea is considering the U.N.'s (our) economic sanctions, et al., a declaration of war. They have reason to be on guard, since the last time we imposed heavy sanctions on a country, we went to war (Iraq, after starving them for a number of years). The report also mentioned that we were sending one of our Naval vessels to Japan to police the blockade, further entrenching us in this new cold war.

A friend with whom I was talking about the problem asked: Isn't our government always trying to kill us? I supposed that this was true, but that it doesn't mean that we necessarily have to take it sitting down.

The question, though, deserves some cogitation. Do we, as those with minimal impact, simply focus our energies on creating peace & beauty in our lives' in hopes that it will spread like ripples in a stream? Or, do we try to confront the elements in our society hell-bent on dragging our name through the mud and creating animosity?

Granted, life is still relatively peaceful and lovely here in the Pacific Northwest. But, I live considerably closer to N. Korea than the people throwing stones in D.C.

Just keep looking at the picture above until any angst I have dredged is assuaged...

Strangewaves Podcast Lives!

2006-10-13T23:18:00.000-07:00

I wanna put a big smooch-a-roonie out there to whoever suggested my languishing podcast to Pod-Planet.com (exhibit A to your right; also my right). If you found it here and return, please put a comment on this post. If you found it at the original site, may all of your cows have 2 calves each.

I have been trying to do mobile casts through audioblogger.com, but they are reneging on their service and were rather shoddy in the first place. I have, however, signed up with a couple more services and will see where that goes.

Nonetheless, I pledge to bring more to your LAN-waves in the future. You are my hero. Thanks for salvaging a previously wrecked day/ego.

Happy Triskaidekaphobia

2006-10-13T17:31:00.000-07:00

triskaidekaphobia
Originally uploaded by revraikes.

If you are a mutant, I apologize for busting out the sesquipedalian nomenclature on yo behineys. Triska-whatever means the fear of the number 13...but you probably already knew that and think me didactic and sophomoric for showing off.

Therefor in plain language, Happy Friday the 13th. So far it's living up to its reputation. I idiotically decided to reinstall Windows at about midnight last night and it's caused a synchronistic (that is, events that appear to have no connection, yet do) blowback of gargantuan proportions.

In fact, it's been a rough month in general. I'm apt to take my axe to something in honor of the film series dedicated to today. I bought it last year and haven't been able to whack anything but bamboo roots. Anyone care to come over for tea?

Seriously, though, the events of the past I-can't-remeber-how-long have been very odd indeed. There seems to be some web of interconnected events that eludes my mundane perceptions. Maybe I should fear the number 13, although I have always liked this day for its odd appeal. I appreciate things that exist on the periphery and suggest the supernatural. But then maybe that's why my life has taken the turns it has.

Who knows. Enjoy the ride around the sun and surf the "luck plane".

I'm fine

2006-10-07T01:17:00.000-07:00

Watch GBS-TV. It's free and funny. That's why I'm fine now. I was not earlier. Anyway, how could someone be a sour-puss when the moon is so full, beautiful and peeking through the clouds. Well, it is here anyway. I'm sorry if you don't have clouds. Move to the Northwest (U.S.). O.k., that's all the advice I will dispense.

Family Divided by 13 = Atheist

2006-10-06T02:06:00.000-07:00

chalkart3
Originally uploaded by revraikes.

File this under more of the "What About Me" series.

I had a dear friend recently go through the finalization of her parents' divorce. Last year was a bad year for marriage (in fact the first one I performed split up and my dad is on his 3rd divorce). Trying to comfort her reminded me that it's never easy at any age. The process of easing her through the grieving process dredged up a goodly amount of my own dark matter.

Talking to her about the sheer unfairness of it all reminded me of when I became an atheist. I think I was 13 at the time, but a traumatized memory is not always trustworthy. I was relating to her that I couldn't believe that a loving god would allow such a thing to happen to a nice little boy. Of course I also believed in dragons.

I still believe in dragons, but not in the same way. Much in this manner, I'm not really an atheist any more but I'm not necessarily what one would call a religious man. I have studied many religions and they are all crap...with tiny grains of truth scattered throughout.

They are very much akin to bad sci-fi movies: just enough science to be plausible with a whole lotta filler. There is always that one mind-blowing concept that gets past the studio execs, though; the one thing that makes sitting through to the end worthwhile.

I still don't know the answer, however, as to what lessons are to be learned from these failed unions or why this cosmic joke should be so funny. Every time I think about it, I'm right back in the shell of that hurt little boy. I know now that drama and conflict are part of the human experience, but it's not enough.

But...I paid my money and I'm gonna see all the movie. I paid.

I love you JJ. Be strong.
And for everyone else, please make sure to tell the people you love how you feel before reconciliation is improbable.

But what about Me?

2006-09-28T02:12:00.000-07:00

mybike
Originally uploaded by revraikes.

One of my avid readers suggested that I get more personal on my blog since there are a blue million weirdos doing conspiracy, so here goes:

I was born and raised in Indiana by a couple of hippies. My dad is a Vietnam vet and was more of a biker/CB enthusiast, my mom was a mural artist (Mutha Murals) that painted anything that moved (dad did the body work).

We were pretty poor and had the worst house on the block. It was kind of a subdivision, tract housing kind of far away from the downtown area, and most of the neighbors were either upwardly mobile or retirees.

Well, my parents had all of these unsavory people (the clientele) going in & out of the house, motorcycles and an old, dead mercedes sitting in the lawn, wildly bedecked custom vans, and more than one crazy party. This was in the 70's, so one can probably imagine what was going on at those kind of shin-digs (I may elaborate at a later time, but for now I'll be discreet).

With this kind of traffic coming through, I had access to ideas & walks-of-life to which few kids get exposed. They were all pretty fringe characters that colored outside the lines and so opted to talk to me in a frank manner befitting an equal.

This coupled with my parents' honesty about the workings of the world gave me the perspective that is echoed here, so much later in my life. My dad had a lot to say about the gov't, having been given the short end of the stick like most of the vets of that era, and my mom had alternative views on America that eventually lead her to fight the corrupt Florida elections office in the 90's (she didn't buckle like a lot of faux-hippies that went coporate).

But here I am getting political again...I'll end on a high note by saying that I'm named after an A.A. Milne character. I'm Kristofer Robin from Winnie-the-Pooh. I know, it's painfully cute.

Nazis Have Taken Over

2006-09-26T02:18:00.000-07:00

This is what the headlines should have read after WWII when Operation Paperclip was put into motion. This covert operation snuck Nazi war criminals into the country to take advantage of their skills, specifically those that were behind the V2 rockets that were to be used against England. The (later declassified) reasoning behind this was that we didn't want Russia (our time-and-again patsy) to gain a foothold on us. But, I think they had fans here in the States, considering places like Virginia & California had a flourishing eugenics program, in which over 64k imbeciles were sterilized between 1907-63. To note their entrenchment in the establishment: the rocket scientists became the backbone of what was later known as NASA.

"But Rev.," one might say, "these are just the ghosts of the past." Why would I worry about this now; what brought this up? Well, this week is Banned Book Week and I noticed that while the diary of Anne Frank is banned, Mein Kampf is not. Now I'm not in favor of any book being banned, but I would definitely trade the latter for the former if hard-pressed to choose.

If you take a look at a small sampling of the books they have selected as unfit, you may notice a trend. It seems that anything that exemplifies the human experience is out and hate-mongering & the "superhuman" stay. It's like crushing flowers because they're weak & easily plowed. It also reminds me very much of the policies of the Neo-Reaganites (like Zbigniew Brzezinski). Those same policies seen in the CIA that have created global upheavals for the last 50-some years (oddly coinciding with the end of WWII).

What I'm saying is this: while people may die, ideas do not snuff out as easily. The name on the building may change or the company may move across town, but Management has been the same for quite some time. I don't know what the final answer is, but I don't wanna shop at the company store no more.

And please, visit your local library and check out one of the books slated for removal before you no longer have the choice.

Chili con Carnage!

2006-09-25T07:02:00.000-07:00

burnouts 007
Originally uploaded by revraikes.

Yes dear readers, I have been remiss in my blogging lately. It's because I have gone back to Washington (you might have noticed previous entries with pictures & sounds from the airplane) and haven't felt there was much to say. After all, I'm not in L.A. so what can possibly be of note.

It's true, I've just been eating chili and gassing myself while batting flies. I've slowed down to the country tempo and my speech pattern has taken on more pauses. However, something quaint, charming and interesting has happened all the way out here in the boonies.

The annual fair in Quilcene (my home-base for the last couple of years) took place and it was the first time I have felt accepted here. Almost as a welcome home, the parade took up staging right in front of my house. People waved & were nice and seemed genuinely glad to see me (I used to have a job here that made people uneasy; a story for another time).

I was also able to enjoy the festivities for the 1st time, not being part of the crew. The picture above is from the Burn-out Exhibition where car owners flex their metal muscles. In a place with such pristine-smelling air, it's kind of refreshing to be doused in a cologne of scorched petroleum.

If you care to see more photos, simply click on the image in this entry. It will take you to my flicker.com page, as with most of the photos on here. Check out the car show pics, it was really sweet. I will add more photos, too, when I get more bandwidth.

I also plan to write a piece for NowPublic.com, a free newsource. I will give a link when I do. I know I'm slow, but whaddaya want for nuthin'...
(rubber biscuit - bow bow bow)

Drunken Revelry

2006-09-17T01:23:00.000-07:00

Port Townsend Film Festival

2006-09-16T22:22:00.000-07:00

The Melvins @ Neumo's

2006-09-11T22:55:00.000-07:00

MELVINS at NEUMO'S
Originally uploaded by Dave Shanks.

Firstly, it's always good to see the Melvins...but it's been better. They had 2 drummers playing this particular show (at Neumo's in Seattle), but it was only apparent as to why at a couple of points in the performance.

It was more interesting to watch than to hear. The other drummer (that is, not Dale Crover, the best drummer in the multiverse) was heroically keeping pace with the complicated time changes & signatures. He was also left-handed, making the two sets look like mirror images. The latter was added to the bassist looking like Buzz Osbourne's nephew (similar afro, vocals & movement).

But! They didn't play my favorite songs, the set wasn't very dynamic or long and most of all, the drummers only branched out and traded off rythm & traps playing a couple of times. Being a drummer, I enjoy seeing traps playing (small, incidental percussion instruments) and backbone-rythm being interwoven artfully. Granted, it was amazing that the other, younger drummer could pull off the exact same beats as Crover, but that didn't seem to be enough.

However, I am a longtime Melvins fan and will definitely see them again. Their woste show is better than most band's best effort.

9-11

2006-09-11T14:45:00.000-07:00

Happy September 11th everyone. Try to remember what the world was like before it was taken over by extremists...and I'm not speaking of those of Muslim persuasion.

Try to take it easy today, too, and be good to yourself & those you love.

Raikes on a Plane

2006-09-10T21:54:00.000-07:00

airplane1
Originally uploaded by revraikes.

After Airport Security

2006-09-10T20:30:00.000-07:00

Plastic Surgery Disaster

2006-09-08T03:36:00.000-07:00

helpmelittlegirl
Originally uploaded by revraikes.

I was thinking of the Dead Kennedys album of similar name to this title. The first images in my head were of all the blood and skin stretching. I am revulsed by this form of sado-masochistic ritual and the wholesale peddling that goes on in its name. The advertising makes it sound so easy and care-free, not like the major surgery that it is.

Then I started to wonder (my mind often wanders while my feet do) if tattooing, piercing and all of that neo-tribal stuff isn't the same thing. I, myself, have 2 tattoos. Am I as addicted to self-inflicted pain as these whack-jobs that go in for multiple overhauls?

I see tattoos as beautification, I'm talking about the sheer artistry of some of the work, but others see them as disfugurement of the already beautiful body. I even find scarification/branding an acceptable alternative to AMA approved butchery- uh-oh, I think I lost some folks with that last one.

I wouldn't necessarily care what some rich old bastard does in Beverly Hills but for the draw that the image industry has on young girls: those who see their only redemption as a set of implants. Then again, with counter-culture colliding with the mainstream, tattoos are now vogue.

I'm in a quandry (though I'd rather see ink from head to toe than the Joker)...Thoughts?

Wrong Number?

2006-09-07T17:51:00.000-07:00

Pirate Vs. Ninja

2006-09-05T03:35:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I'm back on the pirate spiel, but the pirate brought a friend: the Ninja.

I am definitely more partial to the ninja phenomenon than pirates. I wanted to be one when I was a kid (thanks to movies like Enter the Ninja & American Ninja and the wierdos at the army surplus store). I bought throwing stars (shuriken) & nunchaku, dressed up like a ninja and even snuck out late at night to act like one (I was 10, so withhold judgement please).

Anyway, this entry isn't designed to hash-out the old internet farce of who would win in a fight. I am writing it for the 6 people that view this blog (or 1 person that came here 6 times) to ask which you think is cooler. Which would you rather be (or have you been) and why? Feel free to fill the comments area to bursting. I have opened it up to those without Blogger memberships.

Or visit RevRaikes.com and drop me a line. There is no deadline, but there is patent pending.
Bonus: if you watch anime, say whether you like Naruto or One-Piece more...

P.S. One-Piece sucks ass & Naruto is great. That's final (or is it).
Yes, it is.

Universal

2006-09-05T02:36:00.000-07:00

jaws
Originally uploaded by revraikes.

I have been in the belly of the beast. Not this critter yer looking at, but the mega-collosal Universal Studios theme park. My good friends took me there as a going-away present.

As one can tell from previous posts, I've become fairly curmudgeonly & avuncular (in the way that an uncle tells Johnny what the monkeys are really doing in that cage (while chomping on a stinky cigar)). So, I usually write off attractions like these. I really can't stand Disney for ethical reasons (and some of the crap they've been churning out lately).

But, I have a soft-spot for monster movies (Universal's trademark) and I grew up on titles like Back to the Future, Blues Brothers, Animal House, Weird Science...the list goes on. The theme park was the right mixture of cheesy and well thought-out entertainment (minor plot-holes forgiven).

By the end of the day, I realized:

the Water World show was waaay better than the theatrical release &
I am as much of a juvenile reprobate as ever, as long as the subject matter relates to special f/x, monsters and things that go boom.

Note: if you ever make it there (where all the beautiful people are), make sure to check out the Backdraft "ride"; even if you think the movie blew chunks.

Disclaimer: this is not a promotion for Universal Studios. I just really dig film production and monster make-up (long live Rick Baker). It's also nice to realize that not all that glitters is tinged with evil.

Red Dawn

2006-09-01T00:53:00.000-07:00

Joseph and Vladimir of the USSR
Originally uploaded by wunderkid69.

I was just watching Red Dawn on TV for the forst time in years and remembering the cold war. It wasn't really a war, but the fear of it was ever present (hence the popularity of such films). So it was as if we were actually engaged; we might as well have been for all the angst.

I grew up in the Midwest, so we had all kinds of sayings and bumper stickers about killing communists and similar morbidity. Don't get me wrong if you lived in another region and think your bigotry was more prevalent. I don't wanna step on any toes.

So 1984 came and went, and I, like many other people, thought, "What was all the hubbub that Orwell guy was makin' up." Little did anybody think, but at that point we were in our deepest throes of plans that had been set into motion in Orwell's time.

Politically Correct terminology was probably the pinacle of achievement for social engineering and cultural domination. As I see it, the small physical battles that took place in the latter part of the century were merely practice for the armed forces and for psychological purposes.

The real war was that of the mind. How many times did you hear "hearts and minds" this war season (the last 5 years). We have been in a psychological program, here in the states and select areas world -wide, since as long as I can recall. This is it Madge, your soaking in it.

So when you think of those poor souls that had to give their lives for one of the biggest psychological attacks our country has seen (on the 11th), you should really ponder who the terrorists actually are. They are most likely among us, but exactly opposite of the type of people you've been programmed to believe.

Happy September everyone.

T.A.Z.

2006-08-29T02:26:00.000-07:00

So I'm back onto the pirate kick. I've noticed that Google AdSense has latched onto my use of that word in a previous post(s) for their categorization of my blog.
(*Note: Ads subject to change)

So what with that and the popularity of the Pirates..2 (part 3 being filmed this summer), I thought I'd lay some science on ya'll.

I first came upon the subject I'm about to divulge while watching one of Steven King's teleplays brought to me by my local bookmobile in DVD form, "Storm of the Century". He uses the Roanoke Island mystery and the "Croatoan" marking that is part of the legend as plot device (follow below link to get more on the aformentioned).

After some net-searching, I came across this cat named Hakim Bey due to a link of a link of a link. After reading his work The Autonomous Zone, my mind was split wide open about a subject that I had formerly thought was quite fruity. Pfft- Pirates?!

The complete text (reachable by above link) does not pertain solely to piracy, but lays out a treatise for man living in his natural, ungoverened state. In his eyes, the nobel aspect of piracy lies in ultimate freedom.

Now this idea scares us sheepish folk that have been successfully cowed by the state, much as it scared the aristocracy back then. It's akin to the words of Crowley, " Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law." These concepts are dangerous weapons, depending very much on their use and in whose hands they are.

Now if I seem to be back-peddling from one of the previous post's charges that certain Yale parties are bald-faced thieves and murderers, I need to point out something. Escaping tyranny and seeking personal freedom is different than trafficking in the misery of others. Also, history's villians & heroes can often be made from the same cloth or altogether transposed by those that hold the means of production.

Hope you enjoyed the bedtime story...

Coverage

2006-08-29T01:06:00.000-07:00

cloudshoes
Originally uploaded by revraikes.

A writer for NowPublic.com, a user contributed news site, asked to use some of my photos from the Sunset Junction Street Fair (L.A., CA 8/26/06) that I posted on flickr.com.

I am quite pleased that independent news still has a few gasps left in it and that the internet community is taking shape the way it has recently. Of course everybody is still concerned with money and property rights, but the channels and outlets for shared information have grown by leaps and bounds.

We can now see virtually any music video/tv clip we ever wanted, actively instead of passively. People are networking through places like flickr, blogs and NowPublic to create dynamic, entertaining coverage without a corporate agenda. Let's just hope congress doesn't mess it all up...but I'm wagering that that is just a smokescreen for something more devious in the wings.

I had to sign-up in order to allow my images to be shared, so I may get back into the newsie biz if I have anything worthy of print (I used to write under this moniker for a free indie paper, now defunct).

focused blur

2006-08-26T00:52:00.000-07:00

incameracollage
Originally uploaded by revraikes.

Let's get away from conspiracy crap for a second-

I was just remembering a time when I lived in Chicago when I was down. There were a lot of those times then. I was in my twenties and confised about a lot of things.

Well, I was just sitting at home, broke, and maybe a little drunk (as was often the case then). My roommate and longtime friend Dan comes busting in the door and claims to have gotten ahold of a Jeep.

Apparently a girl that I think was a little sweet on him had given him her keys because she was too far gone to drive home. Maybe he dropped her off, I don't remember. But, the main thing here was that he had a car.

We were all pretty poor then and my car had been pushed home months ago, left to sit on the street until I could fix it. And, kicks were sparse when you couldn't afford to go to any shows, so a joy-ride around town was a great idea on someone else's dime.

I grabbed my recently obtained Ween tape, Chocolate & Cheese, and we sped off down Damen Ave. to parts unknown. I think we may have buzzed a few housing developments and cruised the forbidden zone (South Side).

There weren't whole lot of memorable adventures, but the feeling I gleen from this memory is that of stolen moments of freedom. We could have been responsible and parked the car in front of our building and not taken that bottle of liguor along (I'm starting to recall some substance being present for the ride, if not alcohol), but that chance to spread our wings must have gotten us through at least another week.

And, I am still here to tell thee this tale. Thank you for obliging an old man with his youthful follies. I just think it's necessary to our souls (that live in a locked-down society) to take those borrowed moments that life gives us. Life is hard and we have to grab what we can while it's in front of our grubby little faces.

BTW

2006-08-24T04:42:00.000-07:00

..my freakin' blog looks great. Thanks go to blogger.com, flickr.com and all the amazing photogs at the latter that I'm ripping off to make this thing look super sweet.

Now I just hope my words do it justice. Remember if, you have anything to say about my thoughts, please feel free. Dialogue is what makes enlightenment possible. Didactics (didactic tactics/me tell you what think) only make for pompous blowhards & propanda susceptibility.

[werd]

Skull & Bones

2006-08-24T04:29:00.000-07:00

Skull & bones
Originally uploaded by dotsara.

O.k., as promised, a little history on the Skiull & Bones thingy from someone who is always up too late...

As many know by now (since Kerry and Bush were both memebers and it made a big media splash here in the states) that Skull & Bones is an elitist group at Yale University with a rollcall that maps out the power structure in the U.S. and abroad. To people with any intellect whatsoever, this should signal the complete sham that our electoral system is and has been for some time.

The heroine reference in a previous post on this blog was to one of the founders of The Order of Skull & Bones, Wm. Russell, whose daddy's "trading" company made it's fortune smuggling opium into China to addict the citizens, make domination easier and gain an uneven hand in trade. This eventually lead to The Opium Wars and subsequent Boxer Rebellion.

So every one of our great leaders that passes through those halls as initiates are beneficiaries of piracy and dope peddling. Each brick in "The Tomb", as they call it, might as well be a kilo of smack.

This may be a stretch, but senior Bush's nickname, Poppy, has been likened to the opium producing plant of the same name. This rings a bit true when noting the CIA's penchant for drug traffic to build revenue and the odd need for us to go after Afghanistan, whose major "export" was refined heroine (this info was in the CIA World Factbook).

Apparently, the Northern Alliance was a great help in getting production back on track after the "religious extremists" had turned the farmers from poppy growth to something more edible, like wheat. But again, it depends on what rag you read and who owns that paper.

Hope I didn't bore you (my one reader). And, if you find any of my info spurious, please look around for the facts. A reading public, preferably one not hooked to the gills, is a well-armed public. A library card is way more dangerous than a gun.

Illuminati-wood

2006-08-03T03:53:00.000-07:00

Originally uploaded by bluedissolve.

I was talking with my mom about this the other day.
I didn't notice that the Pirates...2 poster was basically a jolly-roger that had been manipulated to be the mickey-mouse head.

Which leads me to believe that it is yet another signal about who's fingers are in what pots, if you get my meaning. That is to say that in the classic hide-it-in-plain-site tactic, we are being told that disney is yet another Illuminati front. So the same people that brought you Goofy are the ones that hooked Johnny on heroine.

On the upside, it took a creative person with the balls to climb one of those billboards to bring it to my attention. It also gave me a good laugh for the day.

(btw, if you don't understand half or all of what i said, stay tuned and i will probably expand upon the skull and crossbones bit (a.k.a. jolly roger))

lolligirls

2006-08-03T03:44:00.000-07:00

lolligirls2
Originally uploaded by revraikes.

Another Late night avoiding work. I like my little camera bc i'm not afraid to destroy it. I do wish the resolution didn't suck so much tho...

I've never done this before so...

2006-08-03T03:39:00.000-07:00

...where do I stick it?

Seriously, tho, i'm just trying to avoid coding the websty i'm supposed to be developing. I just can't bring myself to work on it. I am burnt out.

"< div >fuk< div/ >"