rone: (glyph)

At first, when friends shared stuff from Mike "Dirty Jobs" Rowe, it was an entertaining read.  His show seemed pretty good, too.  But after a while, his common-sense aw-shucks shtick wore thin, and i unsubscribed.  Then, a few weeks ago, he wrote something in which he compared voting to gun ownership, and how, just as some people shouldn't be encouraged to own a gun, some shouldn't be encouraged to vote.  Well, that sure as hell didn't sit right with me.

This clown tries to hide his elitism, expressed through his concern trolling that some people simply aren't equipped to understand the complicated issues behind our domestic and foreign policies and as voters pose too much of a risk, by painting his friends in Hollywood as the real out-of-touch elitists.  It's cute to say that there ought to be an intelligence test to vote in this country, but we already know that this would just be another way to keep marginalized populations out of the ballot box.  It is, not to put too fine a point on it, un-American.  And we already have a tremendous amount of uninformed voters who are already participating, and will continue to participate, on election day.  So fuck off, Mike Rowe, you sad Romney stumper, with your shitty attitude about people who can't be trusted with the vote.  And your enthusiastic recommendation of "Economics in One Lesson" can go sit in the corner with all of the Austrian economics crackpots, too.

rone: (anime - (c) 2002 jim vandewalker)


I can stand from a sitting position with moderate effort, as long as I'm not too low (for example, our toilet is very low, so i have to use a riser), and I can walk around using a walker although either Kim or David will follow me around in case I stumble because I am not quite there yet. But I think I'll be there soon.

I've been doing water therapy, which has been great, in addition to my physical and occupational therapy. I have also been undergoing acupuncture, which I'm not yet sold on, but a lot of people have commented on how much more expressive my face is, so that is encouraging.

My hands are still numb, stiff, and weak, so that is the slowest and the most frustrating part of my recovery at this point. Regardless, I am now helping out at home by folding laundry.

rone: (i think too much)
I can't say when the American notion of considering third-party votes wasted began, but I'm fairly certain that the first time I saw it expressed was in the 1996 Treehouse of Horror episode of The Simpsons. Since then, this sentiment has been augmented by the myth of Nader sucking away enough voters from Gore to tip the scales in Bush's favor. Today, this has culminated in the common plea from many to ensure the election of Hillary Clinton because of the desperate and unique existential threat that Donald Trump poses to this nation and, indeed, the world.

I will start off with a very simple declaration: no vote is wasted. Democracy, even in the misshapen state you'll find in our presidential election process, depends on every vote that is cast. Thus, every vote is crucial. To claim that one's vote is wasted because it was cast for an extremely likely loser, but isn't wasted if it's cast for the loser with the most votes, is sheerly disingenuous. To claim that voting for a third party is not only a waste, but not even a political act, as Clay Shirky tendentiously argues, condescendingly strikes at the very freedom of voting one's preference, while neatly delivering a Catch-22 of American politics: voting for one of the two big parties strengthens the two-party system in this country; voting third-party doesn't strengthen third parties, which strengthens the two-party system in this country; not voting doesn't accomplish anything, which strengthens the two-party system in this country. It is an inescapably defeatist narrative, which is usually supplemented by a smug suggestion that the only way to change the process is from within. We can see how well efforts to make the Democratic Party more progressive rather than neoliberal, or to make the Republican Party more conservative rather than regressive and nativist, have fared over the last few decades.

As for the myth of third-party candidates as spoilers, the basic premise is that third party voters somehow owe their vote to the big party that is in some way closer to their views. This is rank arrogation. You may feel that third party voters are misinformed, and perhaps misguided. You might even be right. But that doesn't make them any different than most voters for either big party; Shirky goes out of his way to impugn the motivations of third-party voters without ever questioning those of Democratic and Republican voters. Whoever we vote for will probably not accomplish what we want them to accomplish. Does that mean that our vote was wasted?

The fact is that this point can be made persuasively, as John Halle and Noam Chomsky have done already. In general, we would be better served by cogent points and dialogue, rather than sententious declarations, if not outright accusations that someone is voting wrong (or, worse, a direct appeal to fear, which is the backbone of the Trump campaign, and also informs many of my friends' appeals to vote for Clinton, as they are terrified —with good reason— of Trump).

Our vote is our voice in democracy, and it means what we want it to mean. It might not get us what we wanted it to get us, and it rarely does. But don't let anyone tell you that your vote is a waste.
rone: (anime - (c) 2002 jim vandewalker)
Exactly 6 months ago, I felt a little dizzy, like I was wearing someone else's glasses. It was annoying, but I just got on with my day. That night, however, I started experiencing double vision while watching TV. I decided to sleep on it, hoping that I would be back to normal in the morning. Unfortunately, the next morning I still had the double vision, and in addition to that, my left leg wasn't working quite right. Upon calling the advice nurse at Kaiser, they recommended that we go to the emergency room. After we arrived, I started experiencing a variety of confusing symptoms, and by the end of that day, I was unable to walk or even sit up in bed.

My diagnosis came in around that time: Guillain-Barré syndrome. It's an autoimmune disorder where the immune system, triggered by an infection, attacks the peripheral nervous system's myelin sheath. In addition to the paralysis it caused, it also affected my autonomic systems, which made a mess of my blood pressure, heart rate, and even my insulin levels. My paralysis was particularly severe, rendering me almost unable to move between my ankles and the top of my head. I required a tracheostomy in order to continue breathing, as well as a feeding tube to maintain my nourishment.

After spending five weeks in the hospital, I was moved to a skilled nursing facility and spent 100 days there, near the end of which my breathing and feeding tubes were removed. I was then accepted into Kaiser's acute rehabilitation facility, which we had been told was very highly regarded; after arriving there, it lived up to the hype and I made much more progress in the three weeks I spent there. I've now been home for three weeks and it feels really good, despite the fact that I'm still unable to stand or use my arms and hands (I am using Dragon for Mac to dictate this).

The road ahead still has a lot of physical and occupational therapy. I am in excellent spirits, however, and will keep working hard to return to normal, or at least as close to normal as I can. Through this all, I've had amazing support from family and friends, in particular my friend Morrisa, my stepson David, and most of all my wife Kim, whom I love more with every passing day.
rone: (drowning cat)

The highlights of the albums i picked up in 2015, as per the 'Date Added' field in my iTunes:

  • Sleater-Kinney, No Cities to Love: great to have them back making music, and better writers than i am agree.  However, it's not their best.  Their albums starting after Janet Weiss joined have had an alternating great-good pattern in my estimation, and this album does not and cannot measure up to the sublime The Woods (which Phillips inexplicably does not put in his top 3 but, whatever, he's wrong), in particular its disappointing second half.  Still, it's pretty damn good overall.
  • The New Pornographers, Brill Bruisers: their best album so far.  "Dancehall Domine" is a salt caramel truffle of a song.
  • Zola Jesus, Conatus: i caught one of her tracks on college radio.  She's somewhere between Siouxsie Sioux and Diamanda Galás.
  • Florence + the Machine, How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful: somewhat disappointing.  Doesn't measure up to the previous albums.  [livejournal.com profile] 2wanda and i went to see her in concert and it was good but it sure felt like she was phoning it in.
  • Kathryn Calder, Kathryn Calder: from The New Pornographers.  A very soothing album.
  • Battles, La Di Da Di: the boys are back.  A more even album than Gloss Drop but somehow it feels like John Stanier is holding back on his killer drumming.
  • Passengers, Original Soundtracks 1: Passengers is basically Brian Eno backed by U2.  This is really quite good and doesn't sound at all like the extruded U2 product that came after All That You Can't Leave Behind.
  • Adele, 25: 21 was quite a leap from 19, and 25 is yet another leap.  Her voice is better than ever, and the songs have grown lyrically, musically, and production-ally.
  • Snarky Puppy, We Like It Here: a live recording treated like a studio recording of a band doing jazz fusion like demigods.  The musicians are amazing, in particular the drummer, who only had a few days to learn the songs.  You can sample the album on YouTube, and watch the band in action.
  • Faith No More, Sol Invictus: it's like no time has passed.  Solid effort through and through.

rone: (drowning cat)

Well, i must be old, because the one thing i wanted more of was Han and Leia.  Shit, i could have watched a whole movie of them talking about their relationship.

What i dislike about this movie is that i am surrounded by people who are deeply invested in their childhood memories of the original trilogy and have intense feelings about it.  This makes appreciating the movie extremely complicated because i have to separate my own feelings about the original movies from my feelings about this mass of fannish children and their expectations.  I can't review it as a movie that stands on its own merits because it's tied in a bow topped by a cultural Gordian knot and, quite frankly, i blame you all for this.  As that great American William Shatner once said, "Get a life, will you people?"

On the other hand, the movie was crafted as a continuation of a previously set story, and it is impossible to assess it without taking that into consideration.

In sum, fuck you, i'm doing it my way.

Expandomg spoilers )

[livejournal.com profile] el_muchacho's theory is that, once they've gotten the fan service out of the way, they will now focus on making awesome new stuff.  Given Abrams's Star Trek movies, i am not holding my breath.  Was it better than the prequels?  Sure.  If that's your bar, maybe you need to take a long look in the mirror.

rone: (simian)

Yes, indeed, it's a new year's resolution ("dear journal, i never thought this would happen to me...").  Reasons follow:

  • It's a distraction.  This is gonna be the year i improve my focus and discipline.  Twitter actively harms that goal.
  • It's full of garbage.  It's easy to be a shitbag when you only have 140 characters.  It's easy to pass for a shitbag because 140 characters often isn't enough to convey nuance.  The brevity of the medium combined with the instant gratification leads to all manner of reflexive, lazy expression.  It's basically a shared network of comments sections.  I don't need that agita in my life.
  • It enables abuse. Twitter doesn't give a shit about controlling actual, verifiable abuse (as opposed to garden-variety invective).  In addition, there are scads of profiles that have pictures of pretty young women, share the same trite bios, post the same trite things, and have done so for years, and you'd think this sort of thing should be easily detectable, so either Twitter knows and does nothing, or doesn't know because they're don't care to know.  In sum, they're useless when it comes to keeping a house clean of filth.
So what am i going to do with the free-floating invective that needs to be blurted out onto the interwebs?  I'd tried to spare this site of it because i wanted to write longer-form stuff here, but i'm clearly not doing that now.  So i'll start using this more.  Facebook is probably also going to get severely curtailed at some point, but that's more complicated.  Google+ is fairly high-signal and low-traffic, like LJ, so i'll keep that for now, too.  The actual goal will be setting up my own site so that my words aren't going to be held hostage by some faceless corporation (or, in Facebook's case, a face that needs punching).

So there you go, wah wah wah, all the drama you've been craving.  This is being crossposted to Twitter, where i'll pin it for whoever actually reads pinned posts.  I'll probably check DMs there for a while, but really, send me email instead.  If you can't figure out my address, ask.

rone: (drowning cat)

Some test we were running at work today involved the ZIP code 12345.  So i threw it into Google Maps and it gave me Schenectady, NY:

map of Schenectady, NY, near I-890 and NY-337

"I wonder what's under the pin," i said to myself.  I clicked the zoom button once and saw:

"... Berlin?  I wonder what that is."  I clicked on that and...

So, yeah, it's a magical place.  I suspect that Google Maps is looking through a window into an alternate dimension where the Nazis won and own Rotterdam:

Further digging shows the actual Berlin address's Street View as an empty storefront for lease, and the gym's domain name is now for sale; the Schenectady location shows a tree.  It will have to remain a mystery.

space

Nov. 27th, 2015 09:40 am
rone: (cotopaxi)

Hayabusa 2 takes a picture of the Moon and the Earth

rone: (sherman)

I've suddenly realized that my aversion to holidays puts me in the same boat with Jehova's Witnesses.

rone: (cotopaxi)

no, google

Aug. 16th, 2015 01:22 pm
rone: (simian)

asked google maps for "tianjin explosion" and got "The White House"

rone: (ngc4449)

My consumption of social media was heading to a bad place and taking my attention span with it, so i've logged out of Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ in my browsers and devices.  Instead, i'll use LiveJournal to crosspost stuff to FB/Tw for when i actually have something useful to share, and people can comment on LJ with either account if they want me to see it right away, or on FB/Tw and i'll maybe look at it someday.  Meanwhile, i can work on focusing on stuff i want to get done at work and at home.

In the meantime, this story about chinlone, Burma's de facto national pastime, is a long but richly rewarding read.

rone: (nose)

Everyone is fired
Everyone is no longer part of the team
Everyone is fired
Now go and pack your things

rone: (cheese)

packaged beef steaks labeled 'FRESH FARM RAISED CATFISH'

rone: (asplode)

Things probably aren't going so well when i find myself muttering, "You are going to eat a huge big bag o' dicks, my friend," to the hedge trimmer.

But i have beer now, so i think i'm good.

rone: (hwaiiieee)

wonder woman holds a fish, a wheel of cheese, and some sausage links. a knife is stuck in the floor. hams are impaled on a broom, including one labeled ‘sugar cured ham’. caption: ‘to make a dummy to take her place in the sack, WONDER WOMAN spears hams on a broom handle.’ ww: ‘a perfect woman’s figure! the nazis won’t know the difference.’ odin quincannon (from ‘preacher’) hugs an enormous meat woman. oq: ‘yyeeeesssss...’

rone: (nose)

@[livejournal.com profile] ronebofh: DevOps in the Time of Cholera

@[livejournal.com profile] palecur: Memories of my Melancholy NOCMonkeys

@[livejournal.com profile] palecur: Chronicles of an Outage Foretold

@[livejournal.com profile] ronebofh: One Hundred Years of On-Call

@[livejournal.com profile] palecur: No One Writes to the Kernel

@[livejournal.com profile] ronebofh: The General in His LDAP-rinth

@[livejournal.com profile] palecur: Of Love and Other Daemons

rone: (lick)
Gods damn it all, i hate 'lol' with the burning of a thousand suns; it is the fucking turd in every online conversation, even when used in irony.



That feeling when you Google an app's error message and all you get is links to the app's source code.



"Oh, don't worry about optimal layout, it's just a POC cluster."
Four months later: "Why is our dev cluster so crappy?"
And this is why Daddy drinks.



Before enlightenment, chop confirmation bias, carry compassion.
After enlightenment, chop confirmation bias, carry compassion.



Whoever thought playing "Hollaback Girl" at an Easter egg hunt breakfast was appropriate needs to reëvaluate their life choices.

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rone: (Default)
entombed in the shrine of zeroes and ones

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