July 2008 Archives

Today at 6:51 PM the power went out in my apartment. The computer screen went dim as it switched to battery power. The hum of the refrigerator abruptly ceased. Outside the whir of the pool pump was replaced by silence.

The whole house was without power.

Just to be sure I went into the utility closet to check the breakers. All of them were switched to "On", so it was indeed the entire building.

For a moment I was helpless. What was there to do with no power what-so-ever?

It took me a couple minutes to come up with a game plan. First I would shower. Then I would wash the dishes. If the power wasn't back on by then, I could read until the sun went down. I was set.

So I popped into the shower, only to find the water dying down to a trickle after about three minutes. I didn't even have time to get my hair wet.

How strange.

Apparently when the power goes out, I no longer have running water. I have no experience with the phenomena. I cannot imagine why - after centuries of building structures with running water that didn't require electricity - anyone would design a home that required electricity to maintain the water pressure.

What happens if we lose power for days? Do I have to head to the lake with empty milk jugs to keep my dog from dehydrating?

The power returned at 8:12. Nobody, animals included, dehydrated. I was forced to read the entire time.

Today after work I went to the laundromat. Unfortunately eight of the single load washing machines were out of order, while the seven of the remaining eight were in use. Of course I had exactly two loads of laundry to do - one white, one colors. Merging them together and using one of the double load washers (and washing in cold) wasn't an option; I needed to wash my work pants, which as usual were super disgusting and filthy.

One of the other cooks dumped relleno flour on my leg earlier in the day.

I was forced to do one load at a time in the sole remaining washer.

The thing is, four of the operational washers were being used by someone who wasn't there. They had started their laundry and left. Although I couldn't really blame them for leaving, I could blame them for not combining some of those loads into the double or triple load machines. That would have saved her some quarters and left a machine or two open for anyone else who needed a washer.

I let it go as best as I could. The fault really belonged to the laundromat for not having all the machines running.

I washed my first load. As soon as it was done I tossed it into the dryer and started my second load. No problem. It even worked out kind of nice since the stain remover that I'd sprayed on my work pants had time to sit while the first load was washing.

Way to make lemonade out of lemons, right?

And then she came in - the worst mother in the world, the idiot who was hogging all the single load washers instead of using the bigger machines. I have seen this woman at the laundromat a few times before. She has four out of control kids and the brains of a lint filter.

In all fairness, her kids really aren't that bad but she just ignores them. She expects her oldest - a daughter of about 12 - to control the three younger boys, yet at the same time help out with the laundry. The girl really does try, but it's fairly clear that she's just not old enough to control three young boys, especially while trying to do laundry at the same time.

Meanwhile the mother can only seem to berate the poor girl.

I honestly feel sorry for the daughter, since it's fairly clear that she's the one responsible for raising her younger brothers. Obviously the three boys are given no boundaries by their mother. The girl is simply overwhelmed and lacks the maturity to handle the situation. Half the time she's just acting like a kid herself, which is to be expected.

When the laundry is just spinning and the mother has some free time, she spends it either on her cell phone or flirting it up with the male patrons. (I escape this because a) I'm the obnoxious guy on the cell phone; and b) I'm usually the fat "older" when younger, fresher meat is available). She doesn't pay any attention to the kids, who continue to run wild. Occasionally she'll notice that her youngest has disappeared, causing her to harass the older daughter to go after the missing miscreant.

The only time she seems to interact with any of the other kids is when she tells them to "grow up." I'm pretty sure what she's really saying is "take care of yourselves, because it's too much of a pain in my ass to be a parent."

Again, my sympathies lie most with that older daughter. I'm sometimes tempted to pull the girl aside and say "Look, your mother is a useless tramp who doesn't give a shit about her kids. You already know this. If there's any hope for your family YOU are going to have to be the one to take care of everybody. Go read some books, find some resources on the internet, and join a support group or something. It's all on you, so you should do it right and get as much help as you can."

Of course that's just too obnoxious for even me to say to a 12-year-old girl, so I keep my mouth shut. The sad thing is that it's complete true. Poor kids.

About a week ago I decided to take advantage of my surroundings and enjoy more of what Vermont has to offer. That meant exploring a few of the local restaurants (two decent, and two I need to promise myself never to return to) and spending some time at the lake. Of course, one can't spend time at the lake without some books to read, so I also needed to go book shopping.

My goal was to buy some easy reads - some relaxing summertime stories. Yes, that's right. I actually purchased some fiction.

I picked up a book on a whim, written by some young author who might be described as up and coming. The story was set in some late 16th century fantasy Europe - the names, places, and history were all had that "alternative Europe" feel to is, giving the reader a sense of familiarity. The book started slow, but picked up with each passing chapter. Plot twists - more like plot surprises, really - dropped in every 50 pages or so to keep one wondering "oh no! What now?" As the story progressed, everything seemed to be slowly spinning out of control for the main character - including her sex life, which grows progressively more depraved. The tension kept building and building, gaining energy and looking more and more unstable.

About two-thirds of the way through the book, I was really into it. Kudos to the author.

Then I broke the golden rule of reading a book: I turned to the last page....

Now, I wasn't trying to peek at the ending. Really, I wasn't. All I wanted to do was see what the page number was on the last page, compare it to where I was, I estimate about how long it would take me to read it. The book was getting into the "can't put it down" state; I didn't want to plug away at it 15 minutes at a time. I knew that I needed to be able to just sit down a polish it off in as few sittings as possible.

But at the bottom of the last page there was Big Bold Print. I couldn't avert my eyes! The Big Bold Print drew my attention to fast for me to look away.

It said To be Continued in ... and indicated that another book was coming in the near future.

Gah!

I lost all desire to finish the book and haven't touched it since.

Why doesn't any author in the fantasy genre just write a fricking BOOK anymore? For decades it's been all about trilogies and series and stories that just go on and on forever. Doesn't anyway write a BOOK? You know - a self contained story with a beginning, middle, and end.

Now, I understand that readers want to spend more time with their favorite characters. When a story is good, the reader should want more. But that doesn't mean the author should default to trilogies, or series of 5, or 10, or just plain never ending piles of pages!

I want a book to be a story. If the characters are lovable, bring them back in another book! Sir Arthur Conan Doyle write plenty of Sherlock Holmes books, but they were all self contained. Even in Piers Anthony's Xanth series, which just kept going and going and going, each book was a complete tale; often times the characters would change between books.

Here's a heads up: not every story needs to be Lord of the Rings! Not every single piece of fiction needs to stack up next to Harry Potter!

Am I alone in just wanting to read a book? Or does the whole rest of the world want 3000 page epics that are doled out them a few hundred pages at a time?

Or is it that publishing companies just want the revenue streams? Don't sell them one book when you can sell them three! Or five! Or fifty!

I'm going back to non-fiction.

For years I've asked myself, "Why do people believe utter bullshit?" The list of things that could be defined as utter bullshit is, of course, enormous: UFOs, faith healing, ESP, psychic readings, fortune tellers, tarot cards, etc. Only Carl Sagan from The Demon Haunted World) has provided anything resembling a decent answer:

Pseudoscience speaks to powerful emotional needs that science often leaves unfulfilled. It caters to personal powers we lack and long for (like those attributed to comic superheroes today, and earlier, to the gods). In some of its manifestations, it offers satisfaction of spiritual hungers, cures for disease, promises that death is not the end. It reassures us of our cosmic centrality and importance.

Wow. Way to hit the nail right on the head.

Human beings are not in control of the universe. We are tossed around by fate, powerless in the face of hurricanes, illnesses, sudden downturns in the economy, and random events that can only be categorized as bad luck. If only we had some special powers to overcome these terrifying forces that are beyond our control. If only we could take solace in knowing that the whole universe was created just for us, and despite these terrors our place in the cosmos was paramount. If only we had a special relationship with a divine force that promised that we were chosen, elevated among the species or even among our own people. If only we could influence events through magic, psychic powers, or prayer!

That's all it really is. Belief in the absurd is nothing more than an easy coping mechanism to combat our feelings of powerlessness (sometimes manifested as power fantasies) in the face of a big, powerful, and ultimately indifferent universe.

Carl Sagan really was a genius. I hope more people get the message.

I've just fixed comments (I think). Now you can actually submit comments without getting a funky error message.

Ed Brayton over at Dispatches from the Culture Wars had a wonderful piece about the possible change in alignment the Supreme Court might undergo if McCain is elected President. I'm not exactly happy with Obama as a candidate, but I'm terribly unhappy with McCain (and the republicans in general). Today's John McCain is not the man who ran seemed so viable almost a decade ago. Today's McCain seems adlebrained, making crazy statements like how china is drilling for oil off the coast of the US (found via google - funny how some of the more conservative media outlets took down the story) among other things. Of course McCain's sudden embracing of the religious right just makes me want to cry, so my vote has pretty much solidified in the Obama camp. For now, however, I'm going to the lake (armed with a couple good books and maybe my camera). The weather has cleared up nicely today.

I was really looking forward to a few days off from work. There were things I wanted to do, plans I'd made. Mentally I had made myself a list: go swimming in the lake, buy some books to bring with me while I set on the shore, take my camera and take a couple hundred pictures, and if I felt like doing work, the dog needed a bath. And now .... It's raining and I'm trapped inside. Outside is cold, windy, and wet; all my plans revolve around the outdoors. I can't even wash the dog! Why did the yuckiest weather day since I've moved to Vermont have to occur on the one day when I actually had plans?

Here's some US laws you can scratch your head about. It's laws like these that make it clear that our government is just screwed up. Plain and simple, it's too easy to get laws passed. Here are my two suggestions to rectify the problem.

1. No law can be passed without a two-thirds majority. Specifically, a simple majority is inadequate.
2. Every law automatically expires after ten years. In order to keep a law on the books, the legislature will have to vote on it again. This will force our representatives to reconsider every law to see if it's really worth having. Of course most laws will just expire naturally because nobody wants to mess with them.

Our commander in chief has totally manged to make an ass of himself - or as we might say, shown his true colors.

The American leader, who has been condemned throughout his presidency for failing to tackle climate change, ended a private meeting with the words: "Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter." He then punched the air while grinning widely, as the rest of those present including Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy looked on in shock.

I'm ashamed that my country elected this buffoon not once, but twice. January 2009 cannot come soon enough.

Awhile back I wrote an entry about the nature of free will.  The conclusion: free will is limited, although no clear delineation exists between what a person does and does not have control over.

For example, we know that certain chemicals are simply addictive.  A person quite literally loses all ability to make ration decisions while under the influence of an addiction.  This inability goes beyond the need for consumption of the addictive element, as other behaviors can be affected.  A dramatic example is an addict turning to crime, but other personality changes can manifest, such as no longer engaging in social activities.

"Chemicals" do not need to be narcotics, or other illegal drugs.  We know that abnormal brain chemistry can alter personality, and may be a "natural" state - such as depression or anxiety.

Physical trauma can also modify behavior.  A person who undergoes a brain injury resulting in dramatic personality changes has not changed his personality out of "free will." 

Hence free will has inherent limitations.

The question is, and may forever be, what are those limitations?

For example, can an impoverished person simply "choose" to no longer be poor?  This notion is at the core of the myth of the American Dream: by working hard enough, one achieves success.  Those who do not achieve success, according to the myth, have only themselves to blame; they chose not to work hard enough.

After living here in Vermont for a few months, I am leaning toward believing that poverty is not a choice at all.  One simply can't decide to work hard, or study hard, and suddenly elevate oneself out of poor conditions.  For example, here in Vermont, there is simply nowhere to go.

There are poor small towns everywhere in this state, with financially strapped school systems as well.  Big businesses are not attracted here because there are no resources here that appeal to them (now that logging has lost its appeal).  If a typical Vermonter wanted to rise up out of their conditions, they really don't have a lot of options.

Yes, they could do well in school and go to college, but many of the schools around here just aren't that great.  That high school diploma isn't going to get you into an Ivy league school - well, unless you went to one of those private high schools, but for that you needed the money in the first place.  As a result, even the brightest, most motivated kids have limited choices that no amount of hard word is going to overcome.

The notion that people have control over their lives really fades fast under scrutiny.  It might even be classified as an absurd notion.

That doesn't mean that our lives are fated, or other such mystical nonsense.  It might, however, mean that our lives are boxed in.  We are born with boundaries.  There are certain things one cannot do, and no amount of will can change that.

Well, the blog is working, but I can't seem to get the style templates working right.  I have about 10 I can choose from that seem to work, although I don't like any of them.  There are another bunch that I mostly don't like, but don't seem to work.

Honestly, I'd like to edit the damn thing myself, but I just can't figure out how to do that right now.  I guess I'll get back to that later.

This is a test.