So I’ve been @ my new job now for just under 8 months. It was hectic and stressful when I first started, as I was trying to get the hang of what I was supposed to be doing, and I didn’t even know what that was.

Well, I knew in an overreaching sort of way what it was, but with every place there’s different methods and requirements, and the small details that add up to the big picture are quite different. Getting those details down? Not always easy.

Well recently, shortly after Christmas actually, I started to feel more confident in the whole process. I knew what was coming, I had an idea of how “they” might tackle the issue, and I felt like I could take it from there. Because, I didn’t necessarily want to handle to like they handle it, but if I know how others would do it, I have a good grasp of the process, and I love to work with processes to make them more efficient.

So work’s been going good. I recently put in for my vacation – which I don’t have yet, not until my 1 year mark – and got approved. Means nothing, right? Well, to me it means that they plan on keeping me around beyond that time, they plan on me making my one year mark, then continuing on. And that is quite a relief for me.

When I took the job here, it was only on a part-time basis, I was told she’d love to have me, but that she didn’t have room for me on the schedule in all actuality. Wanting to get the hell out of So Cal, I took the offer, figuring I could find part-time employment elsewhere as well. However, as it turned out, as soon as I started I was put to full-time, and have been ever since.

Last night as I closed shop, one girl I work with was talking to a lady in the checkout line. After she left, the lady I work with told me that the woman in line had applied for a job there before, moved on account of the job, then a few days before she got there, was told the position had been filled. Now that’s the story as I heard it of course, not necessarily the story as it was. However, it made me feel a little lucky in side, because after all, that was potentially me a year ago. But they decided to keep me.

I still don’t know why. I may be part of a bigger experiment or something. I’ll continue to look for clues.



Internet? What internet?
For about 4 hours or so this afternoon, I had no internet. It was there, I was on it, I walked away, The Girl went to use it, it was down. Maybe she scared it away or something.

No, that’s not it. I called at&t and they traced it to a server on their side they couldn’t communicate with. Said they needed to send a tech out, but that they wouldn’t be able to do so until Tuesday. No today, Tuesday. That’s like, 4 days from now. This is not acceptable, but it’s not like I can fix it myself; I can barely find free porn on the interwebs anymore, how the heck am I going to fix their server?

The lady on the phone asked me if I wanted them to schedule an appointment to take care of it. No, I like paying for service I don’t have; just leave it!. What the hell? Yes, send someone dammit! Today, preferably!

Well I got lucky, apparently someone else (or many others?) were afflicted as well. About 2 hours later I got an automated phone call saying that they had tested their lines and discovered a problem. I called in to check if it was more descriptive now than when I had called, and sure enough it was. They said a lot of my town was out, probably some businesses too (that’s my assumption).

2 hours later, I got mail. Success.

Don’t realize how central to our lives interconnectivity – and specifically the internet – have become, until you’re suddenly without it. Man, technology rocks, so long as it’s rockin’ along. Once it stops it sorta sucks.



So when does air-wide internet happen?
I mean, we all have these nifty wireless computers, when do those hard-lines become air lines? Seems we’re not that far from it to me. I’m just waiting. Free worldwide internet. And no outages, of course, unless you drop your computer.

Don’t drop your computer, folks. Bad things; bad things.



This just in: random bob sick
Man, f*ck. I thought I might actually make it through the Winter without catching something.

Guess I have to start the counter over at zero now. I was going for 3 years in a row.

It might be worse than I fear, too. I mean, I felt a dry throat sensation when I awoke from a nap around 2pm. I started feeling light-headed around 4pm. Now it’s 7pm and my throat is starting to swell and hurt.

I really like to talk. I actually talk while I type up my blogs. Just speak all the words as I’m typing them. I type slow, so the people around me when I’m in public think I’m a retard, which is sort of amusing I suppose. So this really sucks for me.

Man! I know what did it, too. I bragged about it to someone at work recently, that I hadn’t fallen ill while everyone else had. Too bad for me, I didn’t pay attention to my surroundings, and wouldn’t you know? Not one board of wood around to knock on.

Sh!t.

Sadly, it only helped me to prove a point. Check out this page it linked to. See the weekly tips? For Leopard as I write this, there’s about 6 tips for Leopard. Now I’m no math whiz, but since leopard’s been out for 4 whole months, shouldn’t there be 16 tips of the week? Not 6? What the hell.

But it gets worse. Apple also recently released new MacBooks & MacBook Pros. Little speed bumps, not a bad update overall, except for one glaring shortfall: Apple’s laptops have been equipped with a remote for about the last two years. That’s great and all, I don’t use mine because it’s sort of useless to me, BUT –

They went from making it an included peripheral, to charging you an extra $19 for it with this iteration of their MacBook lineup.

Know what? F*ck you, Apple. F*ck your remote. F*ck your muther-f*cking remote control, no one really cares about it anyway. It’s got like 6 buttons, and most of them are completely useless anyway. I hope your remote burns in freaking fruit-hell. Not even sure if that exists, but damn I hope it does, just for your stupid $19 remote control. So it can rot there, alone. Maybe with a Zune for added punishment. What the hell were you thinking? Know how many you’re going to sell? 2. One for Steve Jobs, one for Walt Mossberg. That’s it. A**holes.

There, I feel a smidgeon better now.

Tags: Apple, hate

Yesterday I spent the better part of $200 on floor mats for my 4Runner. Yeah, floor mats.

But these ain’t no sissy floor mats, y’all. No, I bought an entire set (front, back, cargo area) of rubber, form-fitted, lipped mats from Husky. Why? Because we take the dogs out frequently (as you may have read about a few times before) and they get wet. When this happens, they get the carpet wet. When that happens, it creates a nice, musty, mildewy smell that takes forever to go away. Oh yeah, and the mildew itself sort of sucks a bit.

The only way to avoid this is to either a) take the carpet up after each trip and let it air dry or manually dry it (2+ hours labor each time), or spend the money to essentially waterproof the damn 4Runner.
Waterproofing ftw!



Cleaning imminent
I haven’t cleaned the 4Runner in quite a while. It’s been at least 6 months now probably. So when the new mats arrive, I’ll take it as an opportunity to clean the hell out of the ‘runner. Thing is, though.

You see, it’s been so long since I cleaned it in the first place, that before I do that I have to weed it. No I’m being serious, I have to weed it. It’s got plants growing on it. Well, out of it, I guess. From the undercarriage. Yeah. No I’m totally not joking. You may recall that awhile back I ran aground and needed a tow? I took some of that fine roughage home with me as a souvenir, and it’s still “hanging out,” so to speak. I’d have figured it to fall off by now, but it’s still hanging on. And thriving I might add. Kind of a mobile garden I guess.

So maybe I did turn into white trash like I had feared.

Eh, probably not. Real white trash wouldn’t spend $200 on custom flooring solutions; they’d just take all the carpet out.



Media bias
If you are paying attention to the Obama-Clinton Race, then this may be a little bit of insight for you into the recent upswing in Obama’s campaign: SNL Debate.

Yeah I was talking about this online with another gent even before this skit came up. Don’t know why they’ve taken to him, but apparently as far as the media’s concerned, he can do no wrong.

Hilary Clinton ftw!

UPDATE:
I was informed by “Joey N.” (see below) that the SNL link is no longer active… Sadly, this is true. Sorry guys, SNL didn’t want to play.

Tags: Vehicles, Animals

When their Tiger OS came out, one of the features it held was built-in support for RSS feeds in Safari. And by default, one of the RSS feeds was Apple Hot News. When this first debuted, it featured a lot of helpful hints, weekly tips and tricks, and other information to keep you up to speed on what was new in the Apple realm. And way back then, if you had iTunes going for you, once a week you got an email notifying you of their weekly free track. Wow, that’s awesome, right?

Except that somewhere along the way, those emails stopped. And what’s more, somewhere along the same way, that RSS feed went from being full of useful, helpful information for mac owners, to basically just being a collection of Press Releases, touting how awesome Apple is, and why you should go and buy everything they’ve ever made.

Where before they’d show you how to make use of things like Spotlight, now we get to hear about how awesome to use the AppleTV is, and how we should totally buy one. Before you’d get a tale of how certain businesses put Apple products to work for them, now it’s all about how you should just buy the very next consumer device they unveil the product they just released so that you can buy the upgraded version as soon as that comes out, too.

I know they’re a business and they have things to sell, but at what cost? It seems to me they’re starting to more quickly erode the karma they have, that idea that Apple is more than a for-profit company, but a company with a mission and a vision, that being to provide efficient, intelligent computing devices that we don’t have to be sold on, we just desire as they are. I’ve been rooting for them. Now I wonder if I’ll just have to accept them. As in, they’re there, they make computers, and I use them. Ho-hum, now go away. They used to have helpful, informative RSS feeds, now you can’t tell the difference from their Apple Hot News feed from their Press Release feed which is just a crying shame.

Maybe I just can’t find the old one, you say? Nope. I tried to look up all of Apple’s RSS feeds. That’s all there is, folks.

Yeppers, Apple may have begun the process of selling themselves out. That sucks. Maybe I’ll get a Zune now instead of that iPod. HAHA, OK I’m not suicidal or anything, so yeah never mind that!

Peace.

Tags: Apple

Today, my calendar got switched around a lil’. I was supposed to go into work around 9am, but I’m switching shifts with someone to help them cover. That gave me enough time to workout now before I had to be in @ 3pm.

Except I never really got off the couch. I was just too tired/lazy today to get anything accomplished. Might have been the kinky sex last light. That coupled with 2 days of waking up early, getting to bed late. Oh well. There's always tomorrow, I hear. A birdie told me. A little, red-headed birdie.



Crash in the Night
So about 2 minutes after the kinky sex came to an end (yeah, I wasn’t kidding about that), we heard a loud crashing noise. I was drifting off to that land between awake and after-sex nap, so it took me a second or two to realize it was real. And by that time, a lot of the details were a blur. But I shot out of bed anyway, and after finding pants (a hard task when you’re half-awake standing in front of a closet…) I went outside swiftly and quietly to look about. The Girl said she thought it sounded like a car crash, but we saw nothing and honestly, I didn’t hear tire squeals, a car, anything. I thought it sounded more like a window being accosted, or a handful of dishes being dropped/tripped over nearby. But I just couldn’t find anything amiss in any direction of our abode, within easy walking distance.

Best Guess? Neighbors dropped a bunch of sh!t moving their dirty dishes from the eating place (table? Bed?) to the sink or something. Their place is a stone’s throw away from ours and their light was on when I initially went poking about (after the poking I had done earlier – bada-bing!).

Know what? It’s closer than stone’s throw. It’s pee-close. I could stand on my porch and pee into their backyard. So yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s what it was. Dishes crashing, I mean, not peeing.

Good thing too, because I wasn’t in Bruce Lee mode last night.



Damn Dogs!
So I run around, get dressed, get up and get out to check out the commotion, find the dogs… sleeping. Yeah, good dogs. Way to protect the home-front.

They’re lucky they’re cute.

Peace.

Tags: Animals

As you may know by now, we’re engrained in the Organic Culture. We try to get organic whenever possible, with a 90% success rate. Yes it’s slightly more sometimes (slightly less others), but we eat 3 times a day and care about our health and the quality of the food we eat, so it’s worth it.

We also love Round Table Pizza. If you know me, you know this. No secret. Well, of course they use quality ingredients, that’s why it tastes better than Dominos or any other brand I’ve had. But do they use organic? Probably not. So we figured we’d remedy that situation the same way we remedied brownies, cookies, steak, and everything else: make it ourselves!

Because of course all you do is fling some dough around, put tomato sauce and cheese and pepperoni on it and cook, right?

WRONG WRONG WRONG! Talk about eating crap. WOW. This pizza blew. We figured we were failures in more ways than one, first being horrible pizza cooks, and also using the wrong crust recipe…

Well it turns out we were right, but it was sorta not our fault. Pizza’s involved! Found this thread whilst looking up the recipe for RTP’s crust. We had no idea that pizza-making was such an involved process. 14 pages in, and these guys still can’t get it right. And they seem to know what they’re talking about. Hell if I do. And if you know me, you know something right away: I’m too damn lazy to go through all that for a pizza that’ll last <10 minutes on my plate.

Obviously, Round Table has a customer for life.



Cast Away
Watched this movie last night after we got home from Denny’s (more on that another time perhaps). Was tired, wanted an easy movie to watch that I could fall asleep through and not miss much, yet still be entertained whilst I was awake. I think it was a good choice.

It’s a good movie. I know it can be kinda boring in some senses, corny at times even (I have made FIRE! - shut up...), but it does a good job of focusing you on a certain select few issues/emotions, and staying with them. Such as, what is lonely? That is lonely. He was lonely. And what would it feel like to be him? I mean for me and possibly many others, the thought of being trapped on a tropical island? No problem, huh? But here we are, peaking in at the reality of it, and maybe it’s not all that great. I mean yeah, he was totally alone, but I can imagine being there with the one other person I’d want: Marisa Miller. OK OK, The Girl… Would we be OK? It’d surely be a nice vacation for a few weeks. But after that? Would we grow tired of it? Would we crave modern society? I just don’t know.

Especially considering that we’re two people who are actively considering not having kids. Would we keep that mentality when presented with life alone on a deserted island? Would we have kids to have company? To take care of us? To build a society? To form unions and Social Security?

Just don’t know. I guess I’ll have to crash a plane to find out for sure. But it’s an interesting internal debate, and I think processing the reality of it could probably make a lot of so-called loners realize they’re not that into being alone after all.

It’s a good movie. And I didn’t even touch on how it points out all we take for granted, and how far removed we are from all that survives us. Another day perhaps.



Capitalism at its… Best?
Recently decided that I could use a larger iPod, say a nano or something of that nature. Nothing outrageous, just something with a screen (my Shuffle has none) and thus the ability to easily navigate more than one playlist, and play the music I’m in the mood for when I'm in the mood for it.

The brand new nanos are a little bigger than I care for, and they place an emphasis on the screen I don’t care for either (thanks, I have a 52” HDTV for watching movies, thank you very much). So the older, 2nd-gen. nanos seemed like a good fit.

Until, that is, I tried to price them out. They’re not made any more, so limited supply, coupled with their apparent appeal, and you have older equipment that is 300% more expensive than the current-gen. Amazing. Yeah, sorry, but I’m not paying $450 for an iPod. It better… well, it better do unspeakable things for me for that much coin, if you are pickin’ up what I’m throwin’ down, as the kids say these days.

I could get one of them iPod Touches for that much money! Sh!t! Maybe I will!

Probably not.

Peace.

Tags: earth conditions

In which the voiceover tells me that I should “be kind to my behind,” and I see a cute little yellow lab puppy running up to a cute older woman.

Which I guess means I should buy a puppy and wipe my ass with it? I don’t know what the older lady is for though. Maybe she washes the dog, I just haven’t figured that out. I’m still thinking about wiping my ass with a puppy.

Do these people even think about what they’re selling when they make a commercial? Because I’m still thinking about wiping my ass with a puppy. Was that the goal? Are they selling puppies? Because I’m thinking about it.



Also seen: The Simpson’s Movie
Yesterday, a full day early, we received The Simpsons Movie from our Netflix queue. Which was great because today The Girl was supposed to work and we wouldn’t have had time to watch. Anyway.

We popped in the disc and figured we’d give it a go. We don’t really watch The Simpsons show anymore, and not like for the last 10 years it’s been so bad, but the movie had gotten decent feedback, so we figured it was worth a shot, plus there’s not much else out right now that’s close to comedy we’re interested in.

How was it? Not too bad. Better than the show has been in about those same 10 years we haven’t watched it. But at the same time, kinda cornier too. And I get sick of Homer being a f*ck-up and yet for some reason it’s OK at the end. At least with Family Guy, Peter actually realizes his wrongness; Homer just sort of goes along, like a rock in the stream, constantly following the path of least resistance. And why the hell can’t we just call him out and have him executed? Could we do that? I’m sure Flanders would adopt the Simspons Kids. Marge could move on.

If you’re not into The Simpsons at all, avoid it like the plague. If you ever watched the show and care a little, it may be worth a viewing. If you saw the show and now hate The Simpsons – understandable – then again, maybe avoid it. It’s not going to sway you back.

Peace.

Tags: Animals

Today on The Today Show (what a name, by the way) they showcased this new tech called “Bluetooth,” showing us some cool devices and letting us know how this new technology can work for us!

Except, that, uh, Bluetooth has been around since at least 1999. Yes, 9 years ago, The Today Show would have been on top of it. 9 years later though, I think they’re a little late to the party. I’ve used Bluetooth headsets on and off since like 5 years ago. My mouse is Bluetooth. I actually have a Blue Tooth. Seriously.

Makes me scared to think that people may actually be out there that are this behind the times. Scary. I mean, this is the future, and the future is now. If you’re not at least aware of what’s around you, you’re not only going to be left behind, you’ll be trampled over and then forgotten.

WOW.


Peace.

Wow. Just, Wow.

What an important movie. But yet,

What a boring movie.

It’s very important in that it deals with big corporations being in bed with government, and the “illusions” of justice & whatnot that they promote in order to do the dastardly things they do. But some characters are so superfluous, only there to put big names in (why the hell is George Clooney important again?). And generally, there’s no connection to any one of them, even the non-superfluous ones. It does tie all the government & Big Businessaction together with possibly the largest conspiracy/collusion of politics, business, and intelligence that exists, within the worldwide oil industry. Very important movie, yet, somehow, so very boring.

Where have I heard that before? Oh yeah! I wrote it, about 4 sentences ago! Bottom line? You should probably see it. Even though you won't enjoy it. C+



The Girl is Sick
This morning, The Girl wakes up shortly before she has to get up to get ready for school, and says “I don’t feel good.” Well that sucks! Now get out of my bed!

Seriously. I haven’t been sick since we moved up here, save for a morning or two I woke up with a scratchy throat. I have no intention of falling ill, sorry. Get out of my bed! I order you! I Command you! I Emplore you! Do it! Do it now!

But of course she did not. We fell asleep, maybe some 10 seconds later, but it was a harrowing, tense 10-second standoff until then. Before we fell asleep huddled up together for warmth. Believe me, you could feel the tension.

Peace.

Tags: women

For the last few days during my “free time,” I have been working like a madman in the back yard. What have I done? Well our backyard is lined with a tall, solid fence. This fence makes it darn near impossible to cut the grass along the edges. No problem, as we had planted flowers along the fence line for such a reason.

Except that trying to cut the grass means either a) mowing the flowers, or b) trampling them. How much space is needed from outer edge of mower to cutting swath? About a hoe’s width. And at that wide, it didn’t make sense to try and do the flower bed and a pathway for the mower. So a command decision was made.

The area around the fence is now barren, clean-cut, and about a hoe’s width from the edge of the fence.

Of course that can’t be all I do. No, I also decided to redo our birdbath garden area we created. We had originally propped it up with some cinder blocks buried under dirt. But that eroded, and we decided to pull the blocks and just put the fountain level with the garden floor. Which actually gives us more room to plant purdy flowers & sh!t.

Then of course, there was the issue of the other side of the house. You didn’t know this before, but it’s barren of all plant life. It’s barked in, meaning the owners (we’re renters!) didn’t want to have to worry about maintenance on that side, which is understandable as it’s merely 8 feet wide. And by barren, I mean filled with weeds. So today I also went and a) boiled the hell out of most of them, and b) got ahold of weed killer, just to make sure…

I also put up a new latch on a hidden, swinging door that was latchless before and saw fit to constantly bang in the wind whilst I try to sleep. And if that wasn’t enough, I found I needed to also fence off the barren barkland, too. As before the back patio just sort of “ended” at the bark, with no real clear-cut line, leading the bark to constantly leak over onto the patio.



And yet I’m bored
While I just gave you the short version and that seemed long, the reality is that it took up maybe 4 hours of my time.

What can I say, I’m good with the hoes ;-)



What about later?
Well it’s only early afternoon as I type, and I’ve still got a workout to look forward to in a lil’. The Girl has some studying to do – did I mention she’s back in college? – and I’ll probably take the dogs out to the beach or something.

Then? Well we do have a movie in our possession right now that Netflix saw fit to send to us. Syriana. It’s supposedly pretty damn good, and not only that but it deals with matters that, well… matter to me, namely dirty politics, dirty corporations, and all-around swindling by the all-powerful at the expense of the average joe, a little something I like to call the Military-Industrial Complex. It's serious sh!t.

Ought to be good. I’ll report back later on that.

Peace.

Tags: Animals

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that bad, but it’s far, far from good as well. There’s supposedly 3 stories going on, but they’re not linked all that well, especially the two that are further along in the future. I mean, the movie didn’t do anything to explain within the movie that the future setting was the same guy, as an astronaut, ageless now, in the 26th century. I had to have this read to me off the cover material of the disc after the movie was over. Major movie faux pas, guys, assuming that the audience has some other source of information on your film that is not supplied within. I mean, The Matrix defines everyone in the movie. Indiana Jones defines everyone in the movie. You don’t define the story of the movie on the box, you define the story of the movie in the movie.

So you know, if you just sat down and watched the movie, it made no sense. If you read the box first, it made slightly more sense, which is to say that instead of being in a fog, you were in a heavy mist, I guess.

And who wrote the damn script? How many times can ONE character, in ONE movie, say “Stop it!” curtly? Watch this movie to find out.

Or better yet, don’t. Some questions weren’t meant to be answered.



The Camera that takes the best pictures…
Is the one you have with you. That’s what I’ve decided. I know it’s not a new saying, I know I didn’t make it up, just sort of reveling in it. I mean, my DSLR definitely took better pictures, but it took longer to get them processed, and quite honestly, I wasn’t taking the damn thing with me. I was hoping that if I got the right equipment, a good backpack to carry it around in, that I’d make use of it. But as The Girl was going around with me with her camera, and we’d be out together, she was taking a lot more photos that I was when I DID have my camera on me, simply because I didn’t want to be bothered taking it out and subsequently putting it back.

So even though my new Canon SD1000 takes lesser-quality pics than my trusty old DSLR, I get a lot more usable pictures out of it. Because it can go with me everywhere.

Except out to where I’m eating right now. Because I forgot to bring it.

Tsk, tsk, I know.

Peace.

Tags: Photography

Sparked in large part by the recent release (and viewing) of movies such as The Brave One and Death Sentence, I thought I’d take a slightly closer look at the idea of vigilante justice in modern society.

First, what is vigilante justice? By definition, it’s a person or group of persons who take “law enforcement” into their own hands, as they feel official forms of regulation are inadequate. I use quotes for “law enforcement” because it’s kind of hard to enforce laws such as preventing murder when you’re murdering people as you see fit. Perhaps a better definition to work off of would be to define vigilantes as those who decide write and wrong, and act as judge, jury, and executioner in one fell swoop. This is the typical view of the vigilante, and that’s the assumption we’ll work on the rest of this article.

Vigilantism, whilst usually looked down upon, is in reality probably closer to how society used to work, when we were fewer and smaller in number. The members of society would act as the law & the enforcers, and those that were in violation would receive quick and decisive punishment for their actions. We’re not talking 100 years ago, not even 200 years ago, we’re talking basic civilizations, formed around huts & hunting parties. In these closer-knit communities, those who did not abide by the standards were a realistic threat to the survival of the whole troop. And time spent debating the issue or filing paperwork is time left to the perpetrator to continue actions unsuitable to the tribe.

So how did we go from vigilante as a way of social preservation to shunned? With the advent of larger and larger civilizations, enforcing order across sometimes large geographical boundaries, it becomes necessary to codify rules, write them down and spread the same enforcement across the entire region. However this introduces a certain waiting period. If laws are complicated enough that we have specialized services supporting them and identifying them, then we can say that the laymen are typically not equipped to navigate the myriad codes used to uphold their society in order. So we pass off judgment to these special entities, which require procedure for the protection of the individual from false prosecution (add transparency as well). This procedure produces a lag time between infraction, judgement, and punishment.

Now we have a system that is theoretically capable of handling a much larger social base, ensuring that “justice” is served despite all else. Since each person is unable to be the judge, and attempts at such behavior themselves stand to prove an infraction of the code, average citizens are more apt to leave the perpetrator to suffer their punishment.

Well in a perfect world, of course infractions would never happen. In a slightly less perfect world, the system devised to keep order and punish those who infringe on the rights of others would do so swiftly and “justly.” And indeed, it’s this less-than-perfect world we strive for with our system. As such, vigilante justice is frowned upon as breaking the covenant that the system is right, and breaking from that could lead to the widespread unravelling of society as a whole.

This is not a superficial fear, it is very real, in a sense, as society is by and large tied to adherence of the many to the rules of few.

And with that in mind, it is easy to see why vigilantism could be frowned upon. It’s the essence of destroying the system. It’s in a way, anarchy. I would doubt that vigilantes see themselves as anarchists, I would imagine that they are driven to seek the proper ends for their targets as they see fit, but the problem lies in the fact that that it is hard to balance their desire for “right” with the need to conform in order to survive. For at its heart, vigilantism is about the swift insurance of survival by the few. However, our social norms are dictated by the survival of the whole, and by extension, the very system.

This is not necessarily a bad thing, and as of yet we’ve yet to cover why vigilantism exists as an idea. If the system works, all should be fine. If the system works…

The problem arises when the system fails or is seen to fail. Now we have a case where the people don’t have faith in the system, and feel that “justice” will not be served. Vigilantism evolves from the fear of the few that the system has become powerless to help them. If you can’t turn to the cops (because they’re crooked or too busy to worry about your petty life), then what do you do? Who do you turn to? You turn to yourself and perhaps others like you: you take matters into your own hands. You find the bad guys and girls. You punish them. You give them the judgement that the system was too bogged down to offer. You tell yourself that this is “right,” and had the system not failed, this is the end it would have come to. You seek not reparation, but rather you seek the execution of judgement on those who are deemed nefarious. You seek punitive action.

It’s not a matter of whether systematic justice or vigilante justice is better than the other. Each has a place, and vigilante justice is merely named and connoted in such a way as to express that it’s the antithesis of the systematic approach. In reality, it’s only an issue if you value the systemic lifestyle. Then you have to question, if vigilantism ever really justified?


MAYBE YES
I would say that in large part, the issue stems from what I would call the number-one problem facing the world: overpopulation. Too many people. Yes the system works, but only for so many people. The same as a freeway is a fast transit system, up until it hits a certain threshold. When the justice system was devised, population was far less, and judgement by your peers was a good idea. You were alloted a fair trial, and judgement awaited those who had wronged. But as the society grows, the number of nefarious acts grows with it, however the system does not grow at the same rate. Now, you have the same pipeline, yet you’re trying to process. The reason that people go and see movies like The Brave One and clap is that they feel the pangs of the reality that may be: that the system itself, while designed to protect the constituents, has lost any sort of empathy for the people it’s designed to protect. Thus, so bogged down in their own paperwork, once people become a file number, there’s less internal incentive to help out anyone. The justice system becomes a large cesspool of people hating the work they do, processing files, each not unlike the one before or after it, and the desire to help people – the original pull of the design – has faded.

And the awareness of this is not limited to just average citizens. I would say it’s a fair bet that the people concerned with less-than-stellar activities are fully aware as well. You see it on TV, you see it in movies, the talk about how it’ll only be “2-3 years before you’re back on the streets.” It’s no secret the system is overrun, and as such the baddies have figured out how to work it.

So if the system can be gamed, then who’s really safe? That’s the mentality of many who feel vigilantism is justified. If no one’s safer by way of the system, then something needs to be done to safeguard themselves & others. Perhaps they can be the upholders of peace and justice…

If a vigilante takes matters into their own hands, and word gets out? If the bad guys don’t fear the system as a method of punishment, surely they fear swift, decisive justice that may be levied by any one person on the spot. This is the hope. And there’s truth to it, as well. It’s also the mentality behind the idea that “a gun-toting society is a polite society.” Because, if you are facing certain death at each moment for ill-behavior, chances are ill-behavior will be less likely. Don’t believe me? While riots do happen at prisons, by and large they are few and far between, because they are captives at gunpoint, and ill-behavior towards the gun-toters results in severe consequences. There’s a reason the guards have guns, after all.

Ask yourself a question: If you watched a loved one killed mercilessly, would you be satisfied that the murderer was sentenced to prison, would that be justice enough for you? This wasn’t an accidental death, it was deliberate. Would you be OK to see them live, 3 meals a day, clothed, bedded, and washed? Whilst your loved one is no more? Maybe you answer yes, maybe you answer no.

Would you be able to say that those who threaten others’ safety for the sake of material goods deserve to be “taken care of,” with soft comfy prison beds? If you were accosted yourself or watched someone else be accosted, threatened, possibly injured so that someone could take for themselves what was not rightfully theirs, would you be OK with letting it slide, saying “we’ll just report it to the cops,” and let them deal with it? What would you do, if knowing that the perpetrator was going to hold a grudge, and be back on the streets shortly to seek their revenge? Maybe you say yes, maybe you say no.

This is how the vigilante thinks. The bad guys are going to do it anyway, so why not seek actual justice? Rather than rely on a system that is not able to protect you, protect yourself. Stop the bad deeds. Stop the perpetrators as they attempt their deeds. Let word spread, let fear spread throughout the kingdom of criminals that their next underhanded act may be their last. Let them guess who’s going to give them their “comeuppance,” let that thought roll around in their heads, and feel the shift of power go from those that subdue the will of the average joe, to the average joe who is willing to take matters into their own hands.

And why not? I’d have answered “no” to both questions above, myself. I would be more than willing to give to someone else immediately what they would have given to others, or myself. People push others around because they can get away with it. Stop them from getting away with it, and suddenly the pushing-around goes away. I venture to say that for a large majority of criminals, they engage in that behavior because they can get away with it. They are willing to suffer the consequences of their actions if they have to, but what the average joe fails to realize is that these people don’t want to work for middle-class, when they can non work at all and still have low-class. And their punishment, should they ever get caught, is to get stalled through a system that will more than likely put them back onto the streets to act again in short order, or “put them away” for a slightly longer time, during which they will get to hang out with all their friends who got caught, too. It’s a world that we don’t know, and a world that we can’t know. We have higher expectations, and the fear of that world keeps us from subverting the rights of others in most ways, as to avoid seeing the realities of it. Our platform is shaky, and too much study may reveal its flaws.

So vigilantism could be seen as a way of the average citizen to shift the balance of power back to those who would otherwise obey the rules. After all, the system was designed to protect those who would otherwise not really contemplate infringing on others. We don’t make rules to punish good people, we make rules to keep those that might toe the line from stepping over it. We outline consequences so that we can show those that would otherwise try to subdue the basic and natural rights of others what will happen should they follow through with their conceived actions. And if the system fails to provide what it’s supposed to provide, namely a deterrent for the nefarious, then why not adopt a different system? Why not give the power back to those that define society, those for whom the social structure was created? Those that play by the rules? Why not vigilantism as savior? Why not?


MAYBE NO
The single issue with vigilantism as savior is that it’s as flawed as the system it bucks. Looked at critically, it’s philosophically and logically faulty, namely falling prey to the slippery slope. If I judge that you are bad and need to die, who’s to say that you cannot judge me the same way? Who’s to say which person really broke society’s standards? Only society, collectively, and one man or woman is not, by those standards of definition, capable of such a feat. And if you can judge me immediately, then who’s to say that you cannot be judged immediately? Surely enough, if everyone took vigilante justice to heart, walking around passing judgement at their whim, what would be left? Society would crumble as anarchy set in. Hell, if everyone took up vigilantism as savior, it would be the definition of anarchy, as everyone set their own rules, and simply offed everyone that did not conform to them, until they themselves were offed.

At which point, those few left behind would naturally decide to put down their arms, and develop some sort of system, a fair system, to make judgement calls as to whether society’s values had been trampled, and what to do about it. All this, to avoid the savageness of “vigilantism” in full swing. And suddenly, we’d have a system once again in place, to keep the average joe safe from his peers…


THE REAL DRAW
Our society’s fascination with vigilantes is strange yet logical. On the one hand, one would question why we are drawn to a way of achieving justice that is no more than an action. After all, vigilantism is really just the tool of execution being wielded by those who feel they are qualified to judge by society’s standards. They feel they are “right,” and subsequently their immediate judgement is as it should be. On the other hand, assuming that someone who does conform to society’s standards of right and wrong is wielding the tool, then yes it does serve to strike fear into the proper hearts, and shift balance to the more-good of society from the more-bad of society. This is good, and is the main goal of those actively pursuing its ends or those merely fascinated with its agents.

And that in essence is what the draw is. We want to seek out true justice, and we like to look at the positives of vigilantism, ignore the bad, and combine that with the good our our system, to cover up the inherent bad it contains as well. To imagine taking up the social reins, having agents of the system that are qualified and capable of immediate judgement, and then to dole out that justice accordingly. Indeed when we are presented with these stories – real or fictional – we don’t imagine that someone is hampering justice with their actions; that’s not justice, that’s criminal, after all, which really I think shows the ends we’re after, and vigilante justice is a way for us to imagine, at least, escaping the boundaries & faults of our typically-preferred system, and instead install the positives of another in their place.


THE REAL ISSUE
The real issue lying beneath the surface is one of philosophy. Who is right, and how is that defined? There are a rather lot of philosophical ideals that can be used as guide, such as libertarianism, utilitarianism, etc. How do you define what’s “right” and “wrong,” and and what to do about it?

I personally believe that numbers make right. It’s about numbers. Social norm, right and wrong, are merely defined by what the majority of the society in question believe it to be. Standards change over time, and surely the voice of view can influence the thoughts of many, but that does not preclude the overreaching notion that social norms are defined by the desire of the many. If more people than not believe cannibalism is wrong, then society will define that as a bad practice and define rules and punishments about it. If society decides that cannibalism is right, then they will again define rules and punishment around it, though not in a negative fashion “Billy, why aren’t you eating your father? No uncle unless you finish your dinner”).

Thus, “vigilante” could be seen as most definitely a great thing. After all, we term them vigilantes only if they are doling “justice” as we define it onto the criminals we feel deserve what they got. Were news of this person’s actions to not fit with our sense of moral right, then we would not term them vigilantes, but criminals or gang members. As the saying goes, “one man’s patriot is another man’s terrorist,” and I would say that the ideal there applies here. To those served by the agent, most definitely they’re not vigilantes giving out justice, but criminals infringing on their right to survive. To the citizens fearing those served, our hero is given the title “vigilante.”


A SIGN?
More than anything, our fascination with vigilante justice shows that our system is indeed broken. It’s a sign that we have lost faith in our system to provide adequate and timely protection. To what extent it is broken is hard to say, but to try and say it is not is to ignore the signs, such as those lightly outlined here. What needs to be done to fix it, to restore confidence and take away the moniker of vigilante from the killers? What is required to get the regular folk to let the specialized individuals do the work, or to at least stop imagining about doing it themselves?

I can’t say. Well, as perhaps shown here, I am long-winded enough to do it, but the issue is so complicated and multi-faceted that in the time it would take for me to elaborate on all that needs fixing, writing would have gone out of style (Web 2.0 seems to show it already has to an extent.) I have ideas, I have plans I think could work, but they are not little nut-and-bolt changes here and there, they require reworking things from the top down, to fully address the issues. Sort of cutting off the dragon’s head, so to speak, as any less leads to the same ends we have now.


THE HUMAN CONDITION AND CRIME & PUNISHMENT
One of the reasons we seem to spiral towards these sorts of entanglements is due to what I believe to be the “Wickedness of Man,” or more specifically, our ability to find a loophole and exploit it. Indeed, write a rule to stop a problem and create 2 more seems to be the way. For every rule that in codified to protect a “basic, fundamental right,” we create 2-3 or more misdemeanor violations. Each of these and their own violations ties up resources that could possibly be better used to tackle the real issue, the root reason the root rule was enacted in the first place. If only we could get beyond our seemingly relentless drive to find a way to outdo ourselves with language & definitions.


IN PARTING
There is no real answer to vigilante as savior, because the definition is too rooted in opinion. One’s vigilante is another’s criminal, and what side of the argument you find yourself on may change depending on circumstance. Perhaps today, you’re against the vigilantes, as they look to harm you or those close to you. Perhaps tomorrow that will change, and the agents acting will change as such to allow the definition to fit your desire. Perhaps your opinion, and subsequently your definition of the vigilante and even right or wrong, will change.

But if one were to ask me personally? Do I believe in vigilante as savior?

Yes. And no.

It’s a decent way to throw away 2 hours. If you’ve got nothing better to do, and you don’t mind watching two or three decent actors throw their talent around the screen, you might enjoy The Brave One.

Now, onto the Bad:
It begins to make a point about vigilante justice as a savior. It acts like it wants to ask the question. Is vigilante justice ever justified? It’s a good debate really, and there’s a good argument to be had for either side. Is it the slippery slope? Where do we say that we know for sure? And then? Make a law for it? So that that law can be broken by the next vigilante? (maybe I’ll do a piece on it at some point, flesh it out)

However, it never really does more than lightly broach the subject. That’s all it has for us, to mention that maybe there’s this bigger thing, this bigger issue that might be worth looking at. And that’s kinda frustrating for me. I mean, c’mon, I’m a big boy, I can take it. Give me a debate. You don’t even have to answer the questions.

Another thing that irked me was the juvenile pointing. Huh? I hate it when a movie just assumes I won’t get it. So they resort to pointing out the underlying meaning of something. Like the scene with the kid who got his iPod stolen, as he’s being questioned by the authorities, he mentions that maybe he didn’t come forward because he felt like they deserved what they got.

What ever happened to allusion? Why doesn’t that happen anymore? Look, I don’t need the idiot of a character to spell it out for me. Really, you can just casually drop the hint that people are debating the issue. I don’t need right- and left-wing nuts spewing garbage at me to inform me of the point that there’s something at issue that’s perhaps morally grey.

As if I’m stupid or something. Get with it; I’m random, not ran-dumb. Duh.

And then of course there’s the issue of how the hell did they not catch her after the crowbar incident? I mean, as she’s interviewing the cop, he so much as says he looks for evidence at the scene, blood, DNA, etc. She had her arm ripped open, blood gushing out. How the hell were they not able to get a sample of that? How come when it is needed to further the plot, the cops can’t actually use the science they always tend to use to put away the bad guys, to find the mediocre guys? I know, I answered my own question, but still, you get my point.

It’s not bad. But it’s certainly a far cry from great. I’ll be kind (because I saw booby, and a Guy from Lost), and give it a B-.



Need. To. Work. Back. In. SLOWLY…
I had recently strained something in my back – perhaps sleeping funny, or maybe the kinky sex, who knows – and had been avoiding heavy workouts since I was in no shape to huff & puff like that.

I have been feelin’ good the last week or so, and in fact started lifting again this past Friday. Sunday, it was legs for the first time in about 2-3 weeks.

Right now, it’s hard for me to pass gas without grimacing in pain. I can’t even look at my legs without screaming in agony. My legs are screaming. Like, if you were standing outside my house right now, you’d probably be like “what are those faint voices I hear? Are children crying in the distance?" You’d have thought that by now, I’d have learned to ease back into my workouts slowly. No such luck. Turns out I’m hardheaded.

Hey, maybe they do need to spell out things in movies for me. Maybe I am that idiot. God knows my legs would agree with that statement about now…

Peace.

Tags: Gym

Today I took my new lil’ Canon Camera out for it’s inaugural trip to the Delta. While there, I ran into an issue that I wasn’t sure was really an issue, or was something that I was doing wrong or thinking about incorrectly. But I felt it was an issue. I believed there to be an issue. I thought there was probably an issue at issue.

The issue? As I closed in on the limits of the zoom, the camera would – for some odd reason – underexpose the image mercilessly. If I backed off a smidgeon, then suddenly the image was bright and shiny. This didn’t strike me as intended behavior, and the more I thought about it the more frustrated I became, because it’s not like it couldn’t change the settings to acquire the necessary light sensitivity for the scene. We’re outdoors. In the middle of the day. It’s not like there’s a shortage of light, so what gives? It’s just not setting the aperture & shutter speeds correctly.

In my estimation, there’s something wrong with the “brains” of the machine. At full-zoom, it’s not calculating the exposure settings correctly, and it “thinks” that this too-dark scene it’s creating is proper. I called tech support over the issue, but they were very unhelpful and thought that maybe the camera itself was a lemon. Perhaps, but it’s not like it doesn’t take decent pictures otherwise, so that tells me that the parts are working correctly, but the fact that under this once circumstance (outside, close to full zoom), the “brains” aren’t computing correctly. This, then, is an SD870 issue, not a “random bob's SD870” issue. The brains in mine are the same brains in every other SD870. So I rule the lemon excuse is just that: an excuse.

So? Well the issue has already been solved as I write this. I contacted amazon.com – where I purchased it – and set up a return/refund for the defective camera. And I also went ahead and ordered a copy of The Girl’s camera but in silver (we’ll be switching as I like the black highlights of hers – I’m bigger, so I win). Overnighted it.

No, again I’m not that impatient. But with that free amazon prime membership still in effect, it cost me a whopping $4. Wow. Yeah I’ll take that overnighted, please. Thanks.



Why not go bigger?
Someone had posed the question of why I don’t go up the line a little bit here as I was sort of underwhelmed by the additional features of the SD870. Obviously I did the exact opposite and went down the line instead. Why?

Because price-wise, the SD870 was where I drew the line in the sand. Any more than that, to acquire any more features, and suddenly it becomes “so why did I sell my DSLR again?” I want good-enough photos with the least hassle. I wasn’t getting much more out of the SD870 than I could have gotten out of The Girl’s SD1000, so it just made sense to save the ~$140 and have a camera that I could take about the same pictures with anyway. Yeah, it’s not “Wide-Angle,” nor is it “Image-Stabilized,” but I can overcome those obstacles. And save ~$140 in the process.



Works out for the best, really
This was about the best way it could all go down, actually. Had the camera not failed miserably, I of course would have kept it. But the pictures I would have gotten with it would not have been that much better – if any – than the pictures The Girl gets out of hers. So yeah, it’s got some niceties, but worthy of an extra $150? Probably not.

This way, though, I have gotten to experience what that $150 was supposed to give me. And I am now able to say, with no hesitation, that it’s just not worth it. No second-guessing, I know for sure. The SD1000, while lacking in the IS department, is about the same camera as its overpriced brethren, but without the marketing talk surrounding it. Clearly a dark-horse.

I think I may like Dark Horses or something. Seems to be a trend for me.



Technical Jargon
For those that found this entry via a google search & understand camera-speak, here’s the deal for you -

It’s rated as a film 35mm equivalent of 28mm-105mm lens. If you frame a scene outdoors, zoomed to about 80mm, when you frame and set, the camera will set the aperture & shutter properly to create a decent, well-rounded exposure. However, once you zoom in on the scene to some value beyond this, say 90mm or more, even though hardly a thing has changed, when you press the button, the camera will do it’s thinking, and come up with a picture that is severely underexposed. This only seems to be an issue with under-exposure under these circumstances: Full-zoom or near those limits, on an outdoor scene. If you’re indoors, it will create a proper exposure. But the outdoor scenes, where you’d expect that if anything it’d be overexposed, rather the camera’s innards seem to be almost overcompensating for the excess light, and simply going too far with its algorithms, creating a severely underexposed frame. I cannot comment on whether it affects just the IS models, just the SD870, or anything else, only that compared to the SD1000 we already own, it’s just not up to snuff in these circumstances. I’m going with what I know, I guess, and getting an additional SD1000. Something’s up with the SD870, it’s bad, not good at all, and I don’t feel like being Canon’s guinea pig in figuring this out.

Anyway,

Peace.

Tags: Photography

So we did get around to watching Sunshine not long ago. It had gotten decent reviews, and the subject matter seemed interesting – namely man’s fight with himself when facing mortality – so I wanted to take a gander, in Full-HD of course.

It started out pretty good, very solid in its science and the exactness of its nature. They were able to make suspense out of 3-degree rotations, which on paper sounds very boring, but when you’re traveling to the Sun I imagine is as harrowing as they made it seem. And the characters I felt were each done very well, and the tensions and reasons were all very authentic. You feel like you’re on the ship, and you can both feel their triumph and their powerlessness in the vacuum of space.

Well, for the first ¾ of the movie. Because after that, it’s like you popped in a different disc, and decided to go with a slasher horror flick. I have no idea why they did this, I can’t fathom that test audiences were like “you know, it’s gritty and realistic, but there’s not enough monster mayhem for me. I need a mysterious slasher somewhere on board to keep my interest.” And if they did, those people needed to be shot, right there on the spot.

It’s as though the promise of the movie – exploration of the human condition, fundamentalism vs rationality – was scrapped ¾ through, because they thought we couldn’t handle a story that was that kind of engaging. So instead we get “Jason Goes to the Sun.” when we were just hoping and praying for an intelligent, make-you-think-about-yourself thriller. For its better parts, I’d have to have graded it a B+. For its worse finish, I’d have graded it a flat D.

Giving it an overall grade is hard, because the fact is that that last taste in your mouth is probably what you’re going to remember most. Do you grade it higher because of its strong start? Or do you take it down a notch because of its corny finish?

I’ll let you decide.



Next on the List?
Today we receive The Brave One, starring Jodie Foster.

Tonight, we watch The Brave One, starring Jodie Foster.

My netflix queue is reaching towards 40. I went through all the titles they currently have in Blu-Ray. So I’m hoping that some new movies start hitting the shelves soon. 40 ain’t a bad number, but it could be better. I went through each and every page. That’s all there is.

Also, wouldn’t it be nice if netflix had a “date added” ordering? I don’t want to have to shuffle through that whole damn list again down the road and try to remember what’s new and what’s not. I think I may write my congressman or something.

Peace.

Another thing is that Hilary strikes me as someone who is willing to look at a problem and try to figure out the best solution, maybe even put the best people on the job. When people instantly start out with “I have a plan” speak, I get kinda turned off. Why? Well if you have a plan, you could, oh I don’t know, maybe submit it to the floor for debate in the Senate or Congress? You could do that if you had a plan. Look, our problems are complex, and to say that they “have a plan” for each and every tick is a failure of character, and kind of insulting to me, that you think I’ll buy that you’re plan is somehow a magical band-aid. Though Clinton has begun to take on that rhetoric as of late, when the campaigns were getting under way, I remember a debate focusing on education in which everyone “had a plan,” but Hilary was aware that there was a problem, and admitted she didn’t know the exact answer, but said something to the effect that it’d really have to be studied by the experts, and a plan devised. That’s true leadership, whereas “I have a plan” is more posturing than anything.

Another thing that strikes me about Obama, is something I read recently on another distant internet friend’s website. He linked to an article here, where they spoke of his affiliation with a “Black” church. But he’s black, right? So what’s wrong, you ask? Well it’s not that it’s a black church, it’s that they put black above all else. How is a leader of many people going to be for me when you belong to an organization that’s in a way against me? And against my middle-class values? How can you be a uniter, when you are so immersed in an organization that rejects most of the values you say you’re for?

And