The Man Says Show Your Work

March 27, 2014, 11:47 am

I have been reading a book called Show Your Work by Austin Kleon. It is a encouragement to put your fanny on the line and show what you can do. Austin implores you to not to worry if the work it is good enough or top draw just do it, do it, and make it so.

Now, I just got back from a video storytelling workshop. I know the above video is handheld choppy and the lighting is not great. It is not the greatest story in the world. That is my hyper-critical side talking. I'll do better the next time I record a video about bringing take-out Indian food back to the hotel.

Which isn't going to happen anytime soon. So what I need to do and remember is that it is a balance of being in the moment and respecting the moment by rendering it as best you can at the time.

In hindsight, I looked at that food and the ice cream and remembered the night before when I saw my body in a full length mirror and was shocked. I'm not the person I thought I was in my head.

Some kind of deception is going on.

And yet here I am.

Did I eat all of that food at one time? No, some of it was for breakfast. Did I enjoy eating that mango ice cream?

Yes, absolutely.

Who am I? How did I get lost and why is the road getting back so long?

Always the dad gummed questions.

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Dealing With My Zags

April 6, 2014, 8:57 pm

≫ Next: I Found My Carp Caviar

≪ Previous: The Man Says Show Your Work

I'm a little ticked at myself. I was trying to get to the Taco Cook-off in Grand Park. There is a Grand Park in downtown Los Angeles. However, the festivities was on Grand Avenue. I was three streets below where I needed to be.

It happens when I speed plan on what I want to do and then wind up doing something else.

So I went to the Grand Central Market again and picked up a bag of just about but not quite over the hills strawberries, and avocados. You can get a lot of veggies for a dollar but it is up to you to transform them quickly before the end time.

Next decision is to Hop Wu or not to Hop Wu. I have no self control in that restaurant. Instead, I hop a bus to Union Station where I spend time trying to see things I miss as I'm running for a train.

Besides, still grieving for those tacos.

I know I'm going to get a comment on the Tube about what the hell is it? It is an attempt at a visual haiku. It is a meditation on travel, color, seeing and not seeing.It is also an attempt to put into practice one of the things I learned in the workshop. Be still. Take time to get the shot and a bit more.

Ideally, you should hold for 10 seconds but I'm a jitterbug. I need to build up to the 10 seconds so this is a roughly 5x5 video. There is a poem or narrative but it is up to the viewer to find it.

Or not.

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I Found My Carp Caviar

April 17, 2014, 7:21 pm

≫ Next: Making Room for One More Thing

≪ Previous: Dealing With My Zags

I feel like an automaton. Even when I get down time there is stuff to do. Which I don't always do. So I have a pound of writing back-up in my head yet I somehow manage to subscribe to British Pathe.

Which will not explain the above video. In the videoblogging group there was a guy, I think was named Phillip. What he use to do was deconstruct old 1970ish "tactile fortified" movies.

He would alter the sound, colors aspect ratios so that it wouldn't look like the original work but it would be transformed into something else. I like abstract art and video art. So when Wreck and Salvage proposed a collection of videos around the theme of Carp Caviar it seemed like a natural to me.

I don't know why.

Well, yeah I do. We have been experiencing a food as art and food as a nurturing drug of choice. It can be entertainment like Iron Chef. It can be a competition.

And goodness knows we fetish food in advertisments.

Why not Carp Caviar?

So I squeezed out this little bundle of ... something. I'm pleased that it is just as confusing and uncomfortable to wrap a feeling around it.

Life is not neat and tidy. We smooth it out as best we can. And we pile up on what we learn so that we take a step forward.

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Making Room for One More Thing

April 24, 2014, 8:21 pm

≫ Next: Hard to Accept the Beginning of the End

≪ Previous: I Found My Carp Caviar

It is a fair week. No drama. No deep pain. Way too much to do and I am mastering the art of trying to find ways not to do half of it.

I've keep a steady pace on posting poetry videos to Twitter and by extension Facebook. I normally don't post unless I have some thing to say. This is counter to my day to day activities when I can't shut up. In case you haven't heard it is National Poetry Month.

Understandable if you didn't know. Whole lot of blovating going on.

I got slam poets and traditional reading the book poets and a cowboy poet and I can't for the life of me find enough middle age dames that read poetry on video. Young ones, old ones, black ones, Asian ones and a few I don't dare classify.

Freaking ought to let the poets take over CNN for a weekend. The book readers and the explicit ones and the ones that we bring back from old audios and videos files.

Anything to get their minds off the black box.

I recorded this dude, eh excuse me, poet and author Christopher Merrill at the L.A. Times Festival of Books 2014.

It is dense and there is a love of language. It isn't the kind of poem you whip out during a poetry workshop. You have to be quiet to tune into it and enter that world.

Which is why most folks don't have time to take in a verse or two.

Hence, my need to post poetry videos and video poems on Twitter. Because I should be working on my EAD final. And planing my next steps for vacations and trips I want to take.

And work on de-cluttering.

And find a new audio book to listen to as I sleep. I really liked the BBC Issac Asimov Foundations Series.

And, and, and those suckers keep pileing up and I got other stuff to do as well.

It is better to have things to do than to feel like you have nothing at all. That leads to people offing themselves.

Never a good thing. Nope.

So I'm going to work on my project. It will be okay. I know basic HTML. I understand enough XML to rack the stuff up and have tutorials coming out of my skin. I'll get right to it.

So as I finish looking up a Bukowski poem.

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Hard to Accept the Beginning of the End

May 14, 2014, 5:40 pm

≫ Next: Not Making Art or Sense of It All

≪ Previous: Making Room for One More Thing

You will find people that use the term The Internet as a pejorative. Not me. It has been many things to me and only a handful of them being bad. I have met people I am honored to know and call friends. I have had access to culture, information and resources I would need to be hooked up to a university to access.

We, millions of people made it grow, flow and made businesses, connections, friends and dreams no longer deferred.

Money was redistributed to new paths and people and not all of them were major corporations. New technologies disrupted the old; organically. Unrestricted competition, I was told, was good.

We now have AT&T, Comcast, Verizon and Sprint. They are not waiting for any FCC decision.

It is all going to end. It won't be like it was.

I received a change of access terms letter from an ISPs.Not unexpected. Some of my friends have been getting them. The communication goes something like this:

Wireless resources are not infinite (They are in Lithuania, Japan and Singapore)
ISP wants to be fair to all of their users
Network management is required to protect users from the evil doings of spammers and maleware agents
Therefore, we will monitor, measure and throttle your use of the service that you pay cash money for if we think that you (I) are using too much of it.
They figure I should only need to do 5GB per month.

I can do 12GB easy. I watch online classes from Lynda.com and take online classes from my local college. I watch YouTube tutorial videos. I upload videos that I record and share with other people. I'm not a gamer (there is nothing wrong with it; I just don't like virtually shooting people.)

I'm just me and I will soon be penalized for just being me.

I blog. I Twitter. I even Facebook and Google+ I also create and that act of creation is going to get my paid for bandwidth azz slowed down.

I'll have to make decisions about paying more for ISP access or not accessing certain web and content heavy producers. I'll have to give up watching Lee Marvin beat the crap out of some bad guy on M Squad.

(What? It was therapeutic.)

Other people will decide to watch the Hollywood produced crap and not take a chance on independent produced content.

People who just started to get the hang of their public voices will now be shut out. I'm going to miss the hell out of Black Twitter. I might have to let go of the growing Asian discussions on Twitter as well.

So what was really an imperfect but lively public discourse will now be returned to the moneyed. The distorter"if I don't see or hear you you don't really exist" people. They will drain the color from the Internet and return it to a more bleached existence. For more money.

Google isn't going to be a savior in this because they haven't rolled out their Internet in more than two or three communities. There is no bum rush to get new infrastructures built with alternative delivery devices.

Fiber? Anybody got optical fiber?

There are U.S. cities that have signed contracts with the above providers not to allow another service in the area. Those contract were with the cable part of their corporations but they have bought up many of the former ISPs.

You see where I'm heading with this, right?

We look like prime time chumps to the rest of the world when U.S. Internet access is compared to South Korea. Those folks get 300Mpbs on mobile devices for chump change while ISPs here are charging $100 a month for desktop 10 to 30Mpbs and think they are doing you a favor.

For a limited time only.

I'm still in morning mode. I'm not going to get over it soon.

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Not Making Art or Sense of It All

May 18, 2014, 12:35 pm

≫ Next: Like the Song Says...

≪ Previous: Hard to Accept the Beginning of the End

I keep hearing the lyrics to letting the days go by. I'm getting better at it but then some tomfoolery just begs to be notated for future archives.

If you would jump over to the Washington Post article about the artist who hit a trifecta on identity, gender, and cultural appropration you'll have a better understanding of my collage down below.

There is a Tumblr page that is interesting in trying to demonstrate others doing the same thing. I wanted to post it there but it wouldn't let me upload my image. Not from censorship, I was doing something wrong in the uploading. So I took a chance and posted it on Facebook and here.

So, this is a work created by an African American woman pretending to be a European American who is pretending to be a black man.

A chance? What chance?

Long after the discussion about artist Joe Scalon has died down this collage will remain. As people come to check me out for jobs, gigs or social activities they will see my name and the word cock.

If they do not know me or take the time to ask questions I will be dismissed from consideration.
Because of a word. Not an image. Just the word. I'm okay with that at the moment.

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Like the Song Says...

May 23, 2014, 7:39 pm

≫ Next: Too Old For Music - Nah

≪ Previous: Not Making Art or Sense of It All

When I first saw the original music Divinyls video I thought at first it might be a step too far. Might have even thought it was vulgar. I had to think about why...which lead me to read books about re-claiming sexuality and being entitled to expression.

Which you might think that would be solidified if you cross 18 years of life. Oh no. No, no. No.
Probably I should show you what I am talking about:

It was one of the first commercial Roscoe Palmer songs that couldn't be shoved into a hidden corner. If you are of a certain age in MTV years you leaned that the song was an anthem for releasing pressure.

The more I heard it, the more I liked it -- except for the part about waiting for said person to come back. What if you don't have anybody? That was more me than the song.

It took a while to work that out. There is a lot of cultural mal-information that says you don't, you do, you don't, get married, you stand in the corner and be a sin vessel. The original videos has 7 million plus views on the official YouTube channel.

Tis the end of National Masturbation Month 2014. I can understand how it got past you. Horrors to the left, foolishness on the right (not talking politically but spatially) and cabin fever has taken root.

Time marches on.

Chrissy Amphlett, the singer of the song, passed away from breast cancer a while back.

Her friends and family wanted to honor her memory by using the song as a motivator to get women and men to do self-examinations. It seems to be an Australian campaign but learn what you can.

If you find cancer early you can stop it early. It is still difficult to get people to touch themselves; even for health. Even to save their lives.

Fear of actually finding something. Fear of lack of access to healthcare and treatment. Religious bug a boos about touching your own dang body.

Ay. What fools these mortals be.

This is no joke to me. I had an aunt die of breast cancer. It doesn't take that long to inspect your ta-tas, the arm pits and related surface matter. I also think you should inspect the lower quarters for things that shouldn't be there as well.

Again, a hard sell. Being a willing participant of maintaining your life by touching your organs and appendages.

So I have posted both videos. Pick one or both videos and act like you got some sense.

Touch yourself.

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Too Old For Music - Nah

June 7, 2014, 8:53 am

≫ Next: Mission and Pain Merchants

≪ Previous: Like the Song Says...

Today is Make Music in Pasadena day. A bunch of music performers will descend on the joint and play in real time. It is about non-top 40 music. Most of these folks will have their clothes on and will be able to sing without computer enhancement.

This is a good thing. Finding moments and performers you had no clue they were on the planet.

I'm going even though being a cubical bunny is not preparation enough to be walking 10 or more blocks and back. Not to mention trying to find the re-routed buses that will take me home.

Yet I need to walk. To see the trees. The bums and hobos interacting with a in-flux of hipsters. The real folks taking a day for themselves and chilling to some tunes. The pissed off drivers who will have to take side road and get lost and still try to bust through a baracade with cops looking them dead in the eye.

I've seen it happen. Twice.

I'm going. I don't know any of the performers. I do know there will be food trucks. Some day I will see the legendary Kogi truck and bow to the greatness of the Roy. This year I'm hitting the back streets for the alley bands and non-pop performers.

And though I have rested and prepared I know I'm gonna take one step too far.

Today I walk.

Tomorrow there will be pain. Feet will be angry. Certain joints will commiserate with the feet. That fire shrimp burrito will do a number on my stomach that I will pray to the gods to intercede for mercy.

Tomorrow I'll have to do laundry, finish my homework, work on a portfolio piece and other things that won't get done because I freaking will hurt until the ibuprofen and ice packs kicks in.

It will be worth it to hear that voice or band that rocked the hell out of a tune that can't be replicated no matter how many times they perform live. And to hold that in my heart for a moment is worth any pain the flesh can conjure.

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Mission and Pain Merchants

June 15, 2014, 7:56 pm

≫ Next: Being Productive But Is It Enough?

≪ Previous: Too Old For Music - Nah

It is the season for walking in the sunlight. Staring at the honey color moon. A day of wanting to pull back from the worst of social media but I can't help but notice more than a few of us ain't got our heads wrapped too tight in the skull.

Yes. I now have to be specific as to which head I am referring to. On account some folks are stuck in Peen-land.

But first, a little music. This is the second band that I recorded at Make Music Pasadena. The band is Dig The Kid and I do because I like enthusiast musicians.

Ah, the mission. Music has been a tool to help engage a connection with the other.

I'm going to find you. I'm going to love you come rain or come shine. Be mine, be my baby.

Yep. And the there is:

Shoot da load, shoot da load, drill, drill, drill come hard with the thrill.

(I made those lyrics up cuz I don't listen to rap except when a car stereo is turned way up. It always
sounds like this to me.)

You hope to find the one or two people that resonates with your vibe. The music war of the sexes is usually presented as a playful non-violent skirmish with no real losers. In reality, it is a battlefield and people are getting killed, maimed and scarred.

There are dangerous people and there are predictors. Also, there are carpetbaggers.

Brief Background

Thousands of women participated in the #YesAllWomen on Twitter to bring to light the minefield that a woman can experience dealing with certain types of men. Very few women don't have a story about an interaction with a man that got scary.

The originator of the hashtag has been harassed by trolls, received death threats and god knows what else. The hashtag has been co-opted by quite a few men using women avatars to spew hate. There are also some men that are very proud to tell you that women ain't shit and deserve all the trouble we get.

It has also been co-opted by a company using the hashtag to sell t-shirts.

There are questions but bottom line for me is that this company rolls in after other women, particularly black women, white women, Asian woman and every other type of woman on the planet put their stories in public view about how common it is to feel anger and threats from (some) men. The same anger that drove that man to kill in Santa Barbara.

Yet this business rolls out a storefront, t-shirt photos and your newly claimed Twitter handle. Ready for business. And yet, there is this mess right here...

This business has decided to make money off of the pain and hire a counselor? This company wraps t-shirts in a non-profit cloth of respectability. Got a Facebook page as well. Yes, indeed they are gonna work that SEO.

It is the business of being a pain merchant. There are customers who want to buy the clothing. There are people that are actively trying to get the company to change its name. There are trolls that just won't stop.

I turn away and look for laundry to wash. Still, I ask the universe how in the hell did we find our way out of the cave?

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Being Productive But Is It Enough?

June 29, 2014, 5:21 pm

≫ Next: A Thought, A Word and A Prototype

≪ Previous: Mission and Pain Merchants

On my list of things to do is to get back to implementing some of my ideas; writing more; blogging more; more laundry, more recreation, more study of the Dublin Core, more, more and more.

I just got a few more ideas I should work on. But first, a musical interlude from a video I recorded in 2012 and just now figured out how fixed the really bad errors and make it suck less. I uploaded the video only to find out that I have the wrong title to the song.

Being productive but my humanity is showing. It is all I can do to snatch it back. Which is what I had to do with this video. I heard the lyric as "be of service" when in fact the lyric is "mean old circus." It takes me 30 minutes to upload on this slow Mi-Fi connection. I rant and complain but I have yet to call the cable company to begin my bondage to hire priced Internet.

This is Gabby Moreno singing at Make Music Pasadena 2012 called Mean Old Circus

Where was I?

Oh, yeah oppressing myself with the woulda, coulda, shoulds. Every Saturday I make a list of things I want to do. Every Sunday I take a look at the 15 item list and realize I only had time for 4 of them.

I am doing something. But not everything. Mentally I think should do everything. In reality I do what I can.

It is never enough. Which is a lie.

Be of service...

I have ideas that I think would be of service. That could help people. I think and then I think some more. Who are I to say? What are my credentials? Do I pass the sniff test?

It takes a while to fight that off mental shackles and point out to the not so little internal hater that if I saw somebody else doing this I would not continue. However, I don't see anyone doing this (my idea in this way) therefore I am free to experiment and take the plunge.

In effect, I have to tell my not so little internal hater to STFU. This take more time than I would like it to but this is how you can lose a weekend.

The sucker is now playing the "yeah you thunk it but you haven't created it yet."

Pardon me while I make a demo video and proceed to bust a hater wide open.

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A Thought, A Word and A Prototype

July 22, 2014, 2:29 pm

≫ Next: The Up Sell and When Does It Stop?

≪ Previous: Being Productive But Is It Enough?

I have been bugged about access to health care, and of the poor access to legit healthcare information. When have any of us been taught to access the American healthcare system? Not saying that there hasn't been an informal lessons; depending on culture.

For example in certain communities you don't go near a doctor or healthcare provider unless you are halfway dead. You have to prove to the family unit that there is a reason to engage with medical care because it could mean food, the rent or long term debt.

Other folks revere doctors and accept everything that comes of the mouths of healthcare providers. Even when it is flat out wrong or hazardous to health; white coats; licensed or not are to be obeyed.

We also have a problem with health literacy. How much is a dram of medicine? Once every two hours or Four times a day? Side effects and non-cure medicine are rampant. How do you know what you are supposed to know?

Where do you go for non-branded healthcare information? WebMD? A commercial web site? Your legit pharmacy web with content written by a third party who might be creating advertorials?

I don't want to talk about problems. I want to talk about problems that have solutions big and small. I can do the small. Small cumulative can become big. So this is a prototype for an idea that I have about introducing healthcare literacy topics.

It takes time, research and design skills. Two of those things I have in short supply. But if they do gut the ACA/Obamacare in the next few months we need to set up our own lines of information and defense.

I could be negative about this or I can be proactive. I choose to test the waters to see if this can be done and done in the right way. Not saying that this even a good start but can't wait any more.

This is just an idea I created with simple tools.

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The Up Sell and When Does It Stop?

July 29, 2014, 8:24 pm

≫ Next: Waiting on The High Speed Train of the Future

≪ Previous: A Thought, A Word and A Prototype

There are times when I hesitate to go into a retail store. It isn't that it retail stores are bad. Most are run quite well. It isn't that there is bad service or that the floor staff is being extra observant of me being in the store. My frustration level rises when I approach the counter with my goods and I am asked do I have the store's loyalty card?

"No."

"Would I like one? "

"No thank you."

"It will only take a minute?"

I'm not mad at the clerk. I know the manager is listening for the pitch and the effort to get us dumb ass clucks to sign up. For what? A few cents off on items that are overpriced if I don't pledge fidelity?

I love bookstores. Yet I try as hard as hell to stay out of Barnes and Noble. I know they are hurting. I feel bad for them. However, every dang time I'm at the counter I get asked to plunk down $25 for the loyalty card. I don't want the card and I don't want the Nook.

When I come to think of it, we as consumers get the up sell all day long. Do you want fries with that? Can I interest you in our product protection plan? Would you like to sign up for our frequent buyer newsletter where we can sell you more stuff?

I'm not anti-capitalism. I'm not even anti-making a sale if done with a smidgin of class.

I am against sales harassment in all forms. Which is why The Verge's Comcast Confessions post has me shaking my damn head in what passes for corporate though now days. Comcast has a monopoly in many markets. Customers cannot go to the competition because there isn't any.

Shaking the Dead Money Tree

There is a finite amount of money that can be generated in a certain market. So in the current idiocy that passes for management you short sheet your users on customer and tech services. You make unhappy customers that much more unhappy by "sales retention."Then you fight like hell not to let anybody go.

I keep hoping that Google Internet will spread but it doesn't look like it will anytime soon. I'm hoping that an alternate form of connection will be invented that will bypass the former phone and cable companies. That will happen but not as soon as I need it which is right now.

In the meantime, we will have to be resolute in our power of the No.

It will not be easy. Comcast will double down on their staff to ride out this wave of bad publicity. To be fair it isn't just Comcast. Pick a major corporation that deals directly with the public and you can find pockets of sales harassment and up selling as a corporate birthright.

Stay the course and keep saying no, "I don't want it.""No, I don't need it." No to the super sizing, no to the extended warranty plan and "No I don't want your store card!"

Collectively we can induce change if we are willing to turn off the money spigot.

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Waiting on The High Speed Train of the Future

August 8, 2014, 6:54 pm

≫ Next: Long Damn Week - Protect Yourself

≪ Previous: The Up Sell and When Does It Stop?

An old school friend, Mike and I were talking about rail transportation. He likes to make videos about the trains he uses to commute to various cities. I like to watch them because I remember siting in those seats with the view of an industrial skyline.

It was a living metaphors of wanting to go somewhere. I was on trains all of the time.

Train videos connect me with my past and present time.

I hope that I will live to see hi-speed rail lines in California. I think it would be great for the environment and economy. It is a big state and no they will not carve it up into six islands of confusion.

They need to go buy an island and set up their Ayn Randian paradise.

Don't get me wrong, I like taking slow trains to San Diego. Those trips can mellow you out and drain the anger from you. But a two hour train to San Francisco could mean that I could go to a San Francisco event in the morning and make it home by night fall.

Very attractive. And probably not affordable but I like the idea of it. Maybe that is the point.

Having ideas. Having the vision to see what isn't and making it real.

Once upon a time a tricorder, a computer and scanners were the stuff of 1960's television shows.

I own computers, tablets and a smartphone,

I wish people would get busy and create the future while I still have time to enjoy it.

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Long Damn Week - Protect Yourself

August 14, 2014, 5:09 pm

≫ Next: So There Might Be One Thing More Missing

≪ Previous: Waiting on The High Speed Train of the Future

If you are a person in the U.S. and you don't have bouncing and behaving hair then this video might interest you. If you are a person that has no need of a tanning salon you might find the video redundant to what you moms and grannies told you but it doesn't hurt as a refresher to the basics.

To my friends and acquaintances who have the ability to partake (but not the desire) to patronize tanning salons you might want to watch this video as well. Cuz the Los Angeles Sheriff Department has been known to go nutzo-crazy and they don't care what color your skin is -- they will beat you silly. Not being hyperbolic. Not at all. Documented.

This is a video from comedian Elon James White for the ACLU that was uploaded around 2011. It is a basic primer on what to do when the police approach you and you know to your bones you haven't done anything wrong.

Now this video is telling you the truth about your legal rights. Elon also implies some common sense concepts like keeping your hands in sight of the officer. Answer only the question otherwise keep your mouth shut.

This will not necessarily stop you from being beaten or killed but it might slow up the cops from doing it. It might give you additional time to have the cops get distracted by somebody else running their mouth. But honestly, if they have a quota to fill or you get a nasty SOB then none of this will matter. It is the roll of the dice.

This use to be a fella thing but seeing how we have now have gender equality in getting the hell beat up by law enforcement I'm just passing it along.

What? You didn't see the video of the woman getting beat by the California Highway Patrol officer?

Or photos of the pregnant woman being placed in a choke hold by NY cops because they had the BBQ out in the front of the house and not the back?

Or the other woman who was dragged out of her apartment and left naked in the hall. The police went to the wrong address for a disturbance. Actually, the whole family went to jail on that one, including the child they were sent to protect.

I feel helpless. When I feel helpless I look for help and assistance, resources and a place to reassure myself that it is getting a little bit more crazy than I anticipated the 21st century to be. This is nothing like the science fiction books I read as a kid.

I don't have my flying car. No neighborhood hydroponic garden. No vacation on the planet of my choice. Not to mention my high speed train line across the world.

Nothing except the 1930s to 1960s on repeat.

It is a stone cold bummer.

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So There Might Be One Thing More Missing

August 16, 2014, 10:55 am

≫ Next: Flip the Script, Chip Away and Go Forth

≪ Previous: Long Damn Week - Protect Yourself

This is a weird day. I have chores to do. I want to create something but all I got is cement in the brain. I'm looking for escapism and I am finding it.

Maybe I shouldn't be looking. Maybe I should. So much to do and yet not really.

Damn it to hell.

I have un-articulated hurt and pain and I have to find a way for it to come out. Making something would help but I have to figure out what and how.

So I watch videos from creative people and go, "Hmm, maybe I should go by some toilet paper or soap powder."

"Maybe I should hunker down and write something brilliant that would cause people to go "Ah, see that is what I'm talking about, clarity of vision."

No, I shouldn't On account I never have. Not intentionally.

I'll be fine. I just have to choose between buying toilet paper and being brilliant.

This might take a while.

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Flip the Script, Chip Away and Go Forth

August 31, 2014, 7:21 pm

≫ Next: On This Day It is About the Choices

≪ Previous: So There Might Be One Thing More Missing

I've laid low because I had some pain issues to work out. You shouldn't type when you have a need to f-this and the sumbitch that regurgitated pile of dried ....

Yeah, still may not be time but I am working on ideas to make into reality. In my inner rage to damning a good chunk of humanity to hell I started to to think about those people that don't need to go wayyy down south. What can we do?

There is always something to do.

Now what can we do to invoke a change? Networking is good. Meeting in real life with like minded but different folks is also good. Most of the time politics ain't worth shinola to me but I think I have a change of mind.

We need to sneak up and kick asses out of our local and state legislatures. Federal too with a bit of networking.

Back in August, Cynthia Lui invited me to a political networking and information meet up in San Jose. I went because I wanted to hear about the doing in health care and stayed around for some of the other stuff. One of the business cards I got was for The Plus1 Project. Very simple idea. Take somebody with you to the mid-term November 4, 2014 elections.

I say let's snatch the sucker from them. From city to federal. The hate is so high they will not expect it from us. Fox Vomit has already declared African Americans as a less than model minority group.

I say we roll with it and make Fox weep again come election night. Rope a dope 2014.

So this is a prototype of an idea. Imperfect. Each time I see it I see another mistake. But it is in fixed form. The next one will be better. And so on. We can't wait. Ain't no leader is going to fix this.

We as a community will force an answer one way or the other.

There is an old song from the Impressions. called "We're A Winner. There is a lyric in the song that says "just keep on pushing...like your leaders tell you to."

There are real leaders that put their foot on the ground every day. There are leaders that teach, heal, politic on the public behalf and even some in the entertainment industry that understand what time it is. There are people that take journalism seriously.

And then you got other media carpetbag proclaimed leaders that feast on rays of radio or television lights. They switch into assimilation mode. I have to speak correctly, dress correctly, be employed and have never, ever done anything wrong. Then and only then will we believe you.

Ask Charles Belk how he feels about that ish.

Not going to spend too much time with the modern children of Dathan. They are showing themselves but the rest of us are going forward. Chip away at the crud and let's get going.

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On This Day It is About the Choices

September 18, 2014, 8:55 pm

≫ Next: Walking Down Union Into A Wider World

≪ Previous: Flip the Script, Chip Away and Go Forth

On this day it seems time to come back to the stoop. Never a good idea to type in anger and I was really angry for a long time. I still am, but I've coaxed it back into the chamber of invisibility. I've soothe it and fed it some ice cream.

I've told it humans will ok in the long view of things. I've held my anger as we read books of magic and fantasy. I've given it a carrot spinach potassium boost. Maybe too much Hop Woo's Soy Soaked Chicken.

I've let my anger watch that scene from Luther where Alice does what needs to be done.

(Spoiler Alert: Don't Watch if You Haven't Seen the Series. P.S., this is a rough scene, beautifully written and acted but harsh like real humans. The UK accents can't cover-up everything so, yeah you have been told.)

Alice is straight up crazy but the girl has got style.

And she deals hard. Alice does what some of us wish we could do to the bad people of the world.

We don't because there wouldn't be anybody left breathing. I think we intellectually know this and millions have watched Alice give a listen to her uninhibited side that says "F-ck it, remove the problem."

I hear you Alice, but no, no we can't go down that road. We have to find another way.

As I type this I think there has been another school shooting. Damn.

A.O. Scott from the NYT has an essay about the death of adulthood. I don't agree with all of it but I don't disagree with some of it.

I haven't given up comic books. I'll read anything that has print and if that happens to be a YA book yeah, what's it to you? I shouldn't read Neil Gaiman's Sandman? Cuz if I have to choose between reality TV and old school Doom Patrol then it is the Doom Patrol all the way.

On this day I have to learn not to be so defensive about my choices.

Some days it is hard to listen to what passes for conversation and debate. There are some mean, ignorant SOB/Bs in the world. But you can't allow them dominion either.

So on this day I keep working on the projects that I think could help myself and others. I'm trying to reduce the amount of unnecessary yakity yak and engage with people who have some sense. A lot of people have been de-friended or digitally kicked to the curb. Others I'm giving a wider bit of distance.

I want to be thoughtful. I want be respectful. But there is that teeny tiny part that is keeping a side eye on Alice. Keeping an side eye on the Alice in all of us; which can be exhausting.

On the archiving tip, I think I'm going to hang out a bit more at the BBC 1914 website where they are reviewing events in that year. The site is 1914 Day by Day. You might find me in the cartoon section. Hmm, the podcasting section looks tasty too.

Later.

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Walking Down Union Into A Wider World

October 24, 2014, 5:51 am

≫ Next: Books, Bread and Soul Work

≪ Previous: On This Day It is About the Choices

Things are going on, I'm spending so much time on computers that the last thing I want to do is write for myself. This is why I need to take walks. When you walk you see things that are only glints in eyes as you drive.

There was a painted Chevy van in the in the USC Pacific Asian Museum parking lot. From a distance it look like someone got happy with a spray can. I move closer to it and find out there is a story and meaning behind the art work.

No spray can was involved. This was an installation created by artist Haider Ali for the exhibition From the Grand Trunk Road to Route 66: Visiting Truck Artist Haider Ali.

I guess it is a fusion of traditional Pakistani truck art with some of the icons of California and the U.S. painted added. It is vibrant and colorful. Step a bit closer and there is meaning on top of meaning.

The few people that stopped for a moment looked at it; did not see it and walked on. There was an information sign that gave background about the work but most people glanced and walked on.

When I cam home I did some research about Pakistani truck art and that is how I moved just a bit into a wider world.

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Books, Bread and Soul Work

November 9, 2014, 9:26 am

≫ Next: My Health Literacy 101 Project - Rx Prototype Video

≪ Previous: Walking Down Union Into A Wider World

I may have misread a sentence. I thought it said that books do soul work. It didn't. But it isn't unreasonable to think so; there are books that do soul damage under the guise of being right, being authentic or being the other and the other is always in power mode over the lesser.

I know that there are books for me that got me to this point in life. I needed to know that there was something other than what I was currently experiencing. Science fiction and adventure books carried me down the road.

These days I consume paper books, audiobooks, podcasts and other ways to keep me steady and on the path of ...

Well, on the path. That path leads to temptation. No immediate access to a book or spoken word recording could lead a person to seek oral gratification.

This is a dangerous place for carbo-holics. Bread, bread products, pastries, cakes and more stuff. It is still new in town and they are still knocking out the kinks but dang it I've been twice and trying hard not to make it three times in a month.

It is not the best bakery but it has tasty treats and is affordable. Now me, I liked the Squid ink bread ball. I also liked the chocolate then bread then chocolate then coffee and then something else bread ball.

Then there was this:

Never mind the super sized Ding Dong, which was just dandy, those creme puffs had actual cream; more cream that puff. I'm talking if you eat a loaded creme puff in the company of men folk they will get distracted watching you trying to eat said cream puff.

I may have shared too much.

Now I know I have to eat more responsibly. I try. I voluntarily eat veggies. I cut back on the fat when I remember. But it has been a hard week. Stupid people to the left and idiots on the right.

I want solace. I want comfort. I want more cream puffs!

And I can't have any more. I've exceeded the oral gratification budget for the week and probably month. I now need to hunker down and do some of that soul work like write; trying to figure out how to do my health literacy final project and do laundry.

Why am I always doing laundry?

Laundry can be soul work but you have to be willing. It takes time and acknowledgment of responsibility. And, as I was reminded this week, Americans talk a lot of shit but are unwilling to step up and do the do.

I may be a little angry.

I need a book.

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My Health Literacy 101 Project - Rx Prototype Video

November 18, 2014, 10:24 pm

≫ Next: My First Time at L.A. Auto Show

≪ Previous: Books, Bread and Soul Work

This is the prototype that I created for my health literacy class. I have some ideas that health literacy could be improved by using social media apps. One of my goals is to introduce this option to information workers, librarians and other content creators that need to make content quickly.

My other goals were:

Be a friendly nudge on checking prescription label information.
Keep it simple while conveying the four main points .
Create it totally in the app; that wasn't possible because there is no captioning in Adobe Voice. I had to use Camtasia for open captioning the video.

The video was created using the Adobe Voice app on the iPad. As of this date, there is no direct to video export. After you upload the video to the Adobe site you can obtain the embed the video.

Now theoretically, you could use software like SnagIt or Camtasia to screen record the audio and video and then bring them into your video editing program of choice.

Theoretically speaking.

And I hear that there are a number of free and web based screen recording programs as well.

Anyway if you are here from the class and you have any questions please ask and I'll respond as soon as I can.

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