Top 10 "Bad Things"

Mobile phones are the second worst items ever invented, according to a recent BBC poll.

The communication devices were beaten only by 'weapons' as the worst inventions in a survey of 4,164 people for the BBC's Focus magazine.

The top 10 in full:

Weapons (35%)
Mobile phones (17%)
Nuclear power (9%)
Sinclair C5 (9%)
Television (9%)
The car (6%)
Cigarettes (6%)
Fast food (3%)
Speed cameras (3%)
Religion (2%)

...I guess I can be thankful I didn't make this list...

As evil as he claims to be I am equally surprised that Hugh didn't make the list either... or for that matter that CodeNut guy from Winextra.com ... (Smirk)

Ten Rules for Being Human

by Cherie Carter-Scott

1.	You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it's yours to keep for the entire period.
2.	You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called, "life."
3.	There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial, error, and experimentation. The "failed" experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiments that ultimately "work."
4.	Lessons are repeated until they are learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can go on to the next lesson.
5.	Learning lessons does not end. There's no part of life that doesn't contain its lessons. If you're alive, that means there are still lessons to be learned.
6.	"There" is no better a place than "here." When your "there" has become a "here", you will simply obtain another "there" that will again look better than "here."
7.	Other people are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself.
8.	What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.
9.	Your answers lie within you. The answers to life's questions lie within you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.
10.	You will forget all this.

Borrowed from Bottom Line Underwriters, Inc.

"Seven Blunders of the World"

1. Wealth without work

2. Pleasure without conscience

3. Knowledge without character

4. Commerce without morality

5. Science without humanity

6. Worship without sacrifice

7. Politics without principle

—Mahatma Gandhi

* Attributed to Gandhi in a December 15, 1998, article in 'Edupage', an online newsletter published by 'Educause', an international nonprofit association dedicated to transforming higher education through information technologies.

Borrowed from Doctor Hugo

Thank you.

Kitchen Church: Long Cooked Country Ribs

Got in late last night after Rent-a-Bum: Heartland ... folded three 18" pieces of aluminum foil together and laid out the country ribs, pork of course (Pork Fat Rulz!) ... rubbed 'em down with McCormick Grill Mates Pork Rub, folded up the foil tent all but one end, poured in half a can of Swanson's Chicken Broth (saved the rest for "Secret Dippin' Sauce" coming up later) Sealed it up and set the package in the middle of an industrial half-sized sheet pan, popped the whole thing in a 225F oven and ... went to bed.

Woke up sore and stiff as I always do after a Bums night to the smell of 'ribs'...

After my first couple of cups of coffee I carefully opened the package and poured off the 'liquor' - them cookin' juices that come from po'k ribs and chicken broth ... into a small sauce pan.

Ribs be falling off the bone so they are carefully transfered to a glass baking dish ... dusted with a touch more 'Rub' and drizzled with a few tablespoons of the 'liquor'... covered with foil and back into that slooooooow oven (225F)

The sauce pan with the secret dippin' sauce is set over a very low burner and gets the rest of the Chicken Broth... reduce by half to 2/3's

So all told it is 12 hours and 30 minutes later ... Ribs and a tossed green salad.

This is a pork-fest so there are no other 'sides' served... strictly spicey sweet ribs with the Secret Dippin' Sauce and contrasted by the crisp clean crunch of tossed salad with a sharp vinaigrette.

Rent-a-Bum: Heartland

Heartland - Comfortable southern rock shakers and crooners...


...last week it was Jason Aldean
of Hicktown fame... Good show, bad sound mix... muddy and muffled.

Current Read: Pattern Recognition

Pattern Recognition by William Gibson

Cayce Pollard is an expensive, spookily intuitive market-research consultant. In London on a job, she is offered a secret assignment: to investigate some intriguing snippets of video that have been appearing on the Internet. An entire subculture of people is obsessed with these bits of footage, and anybody who can create that kind of brand loyalty would be a gold mine for Cayce's client. But when her borrowed apartment is burgled and her computer hacked, she realizes there's more to this project than she had expected.

Still, Cayce is her father's daughter, and the danger makes her stubborn. Win Pollard, ex-security expert, probably ex-CIA, took a taxi in the direction of the World Trade Center on September 11 one year ago...

Engaging with tantalizing streetlife details unavailable to cube dwellers like myself.

Shame on HP...again!!!

As reported by

in the Steve Hamm article Rivals Say HP Is Using Hardball Tactics

Printer industry and retailing executives contend the company has
offered chain stores incentives to stop selling store-brand cartridges

"Now why would that be?" He asked rhetorically.



"Could it be...satan?" Or just a lame attempt by HP to continue to gouge the consumer?



HP could stand up straight and look the buying public in the eye and say, "We enjoyed a competition-free market for many years and realized a significant profit from the sale of our ink cartridges. Now that competition has arrived we will respond to free market forces and price our ink cartridges competitively."



No.



In a lame attempt to further gouge the consumer HP is trying to quash the free market. This will only lead to greater resentment on the part of the buying public and an eventual demise of the HP market share. To think anything less is both foolish and arrogant.

The great sucking sound

Ed Sutherland, in his Internetnews.com article Kodak Printers Breed Cheap Ink offered this little tid-bit...

HP was a "little perplexed" by Kodak's "unproven" technology, Tuan Tran, vice president of marketing for the printer maker's Imaging and Supplies division, told internetnews.com.

"...little preplexed..."???

Can you say, "Falling market share? I knew you could."

P.S. It is about time. Thank you Kodak!

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Good for a laugh

Microsoft Leading the world...?

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Papa, don't preach

From the "He speaks so eloquently file"...



AKMA’s Random Thoughts

Last time, I said, “Don’t write checks you can’t cash.” This morning’s admonition is less metaphorical: Don’t assert when you can evoke.

Having attempted to speak to congregations (I am neither qualified nor credentialed to "Preach") I have long held to the belief that people will draw their own conclusions if they are presented with compelling scenarios. Further, being the idealist that I am, I believe that people will draw healthy and beneficial conclusions - as long as their personal integrity is not beaten or battered with 'righteous preachy speaking'.



Thanks again AKMA for so clearly speaking from the heart. It is appreciated more than you might ever know.





Technorati Tags: AKMA

Second Life is a GAME

Second Life is the most insidious game of all.

We quickly push away from the 'game' label because there are no clear protagonists or antagonists. There is no universally defined objective. Without these essential elements Second Life just doesn't fit the 'I-win-you-lose' model of contemporary gaming.

The truth is that when you enter into Second Life for the first time you do so as a loser. You are born with the absolute minimum amount of resources. Just enough clothing to be 'decent'. Just enough Linden Dollars to get you hooked on the economic drug of this most insidious game.

In order to "prosper" you have to game Second Life. Materialism and economic wealth in Second Life mirror the values of the capitalist societies in Real Life. In a true ironic twist there are no 'natural resources' (to my knowledge) in Second Life. It is not possible to 'farm' or grow 'food'. I seriously doubt that there are Gold or Diamond mines. I do not see any 'pulling-oneself-up-by-one's-bootstraps' opportunities in Second Life that parallel Real Life.

Second Life is all about stuff. "He who has the most toys wins."

Hats, Buckles and Boots

Rent-a-Bums worked the Locash Cowboys show last night at the Big "E" Rivermont Lounge. Was pleasantly surprised by the energy and showmanship of Chris and Preston.

I don't do magic!

...and here is the simple reason why. Seth Godin shared the following line with us in his post Notable...

I believe she is good at the standard but limited in considering the notable.
(Attributed to one of Seth Godin's co-workers.)

I don't do magic because I am unable to manifest anything as wondrous or mystical as that which swirls and eddies around me all the time. This line, "I believe..." is a prime example. In the course of one sentence the speaker was able to convey a concept so involved that it broaches on the magical.

Something borrowed.

Seth Godin posted the following Painting fakes. I enjoyed it so much I just wanted a copy for myself.

Ed shares this story with us, via a friend of Pablo Picasso.

I was staying with Picasso in his studio. Every day, dealers would come by to authenticate paintings they were trying to sell... they would ask the painter if the painting was real or a fake.

A dealer came by one day, Picasso glanced at it and without hesitating said, "fake." Later that day, two more were identified as fakes.

The second day, a different dealer came by. Picasso hardly looked up. "Fake!" he bellowed.

After the dealer left, I couldn't help myself. "Picasso, why did you say that painting was a fake? I was here, in this studio, last year when I saw you paint it."

Picasso didn't hesitate. He turned to me and said, "I often paint fakes."

Up to my A..a..a..ankles in alligators!

Frustrated!!!

I have been fighting fires for the last two and a half weeks... Not literal fires, thankfully, but those pesky jobs that land high enough up the priority scale that they demand immediate attention. I have been coming home drained, mentally exhausted. If I get to come home at all. Seems some of my fires are 'extracurricular' (Now there is a wonderfully strange turn-of-phrase. One of my fires was the Parents Open House at the High School my daughters attend.)

So I unwind, have dinner, and then I put my feet up, open GoogleReader and read all the wonderful items that really diligent knowledgeable dedicated bloggers write. That is when I get really really frustrated.

Not that my writing is all that good. But I should be practicing. I should be putting fingers to keyboard. Instead I look down at the swirling dark waters that are rising now up to my waist and I remain ever vigilant for the beady eyes of the next lurking alligator.

Feelin' good?

In one of those moments of lucid awareness, apart from the daily 'work' process, I came to realize that people need to feel good.

Well d'uh, Papa?!?! You just beginning to figure that out?

Certainly that are the creature comfort feel-goods. Food, shelter, and clothing are essential. Then come the higher order feel-goods; spouse, family, friends and community. Personal self-worth and respect go a long way as comparison values to promoting feel-goods.

Maslow writes the following of self-actualizing people:

• They embrace the facts and realities of the world (including themselves) rather than denying or avoiding them.
• They are spontaneous in their ideas and actions.
• They are creative.
• They are interested in solving problems; this often includes the problems of others. Solving these problems is often a key focus in their lives.
• They feel a closeness to other people, and generally appreciate life.
• They have a system of morality that is fully internalized and independent of external authority.
• They judge others without prejudice, in a way that can be termed objective.

In short, self-actualization is reaching one's fullest potential.

Papa, that sounds pretty complete for an individual. So what is missing?

Maslow speaks of "...[embracing] the facts and realities of the world (including themselves) rather than denying or avoiding them." This offers a clear clinical, intellectual view of the world but it leaves out one important element that I believe people 'need' in order to feel good.

Where is Hope in the value schedule cited above?

In one of those moments of lucid awareness, apart from the daily 'work' process, I came to realize that people need hope to feel good. People need to have a sense of value that extends beyond the "...facts and realities of the world..." A sense that something greater than ourselves will continue beyond the limits of our lives.

Were hope not present then I believe the suicide rate would be dramatically higher. This might well be the reason that according to the World Health Organization, "in the last 45 years suicide rates have increased by 60% worldwide."

I suggest that as we, the world society, move into clinical and intellectual realms that have do not have facilities for accommodating hope we doom ourselves to greater and greater levels of dissatisfaction. When I am dissatisfied then most certainly I am not ... Feelin' good.

My idea of a company party

Wowsers! Whiteboard infinity - Only in China...



SUN's Sin-Yaw Wang makes me envious...

• 500+ People party
• two hours of talent show by employees
• 4 MCs that rival professional show hosts
• stage with professional grade video, sound, and lighting systems
• And the foods! All 14 courses that include shrimp, chicken, beef,
  mutton, pork, fish, soup, vegetable, fried rice, noodle, dessert, and a
  cup of tea at the end. I found myself trying to have extra bites even
  way after I was full.

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Rent-A-Bum Redux

The old saying goes... Rent-a-Bum, it is cheaper than marrying one.

---

When last we met little Timmy had fallen down the well at the abandoned farm and Lassie was trying to convince the Department of Social Services to not arrest Timmy's parents for neglect and child endangerment... No, wait that is an entirely different story.

---

Da Bums, a rag-tag crew of itinerant struggling, starving musicians, strong women, out of work riggers and one Manager of Information Systems were being disbanded, sorta. The Bums management was going to be assimilated by the local Corporate Big Business Consortium. Bums were told that in order to keep working they would need to apply for membership in the CBBC. Some of them did, others didn't. I didn't!

And then I got a call...

...and then another call...

The show must go on.

The contract stipulates that for load-in and load-out there will be a crew of a specified number of people. Some venues fulfill the terms of the contract by hiring day laborers. Others try to get by reassigning busboys and dishwashers. The real merit in hiring the Rent-a-Bums is that we are a highly trained, disciplined, cohesive team. As the saying goes, 'This ain't our first rodeo.'

So it seems that the Bums are officially/unofficially back in business.

Sort of a typical Bum day... (4+ hours the night before assembling the stage.)

08:00 Load in the Lighting Company
Set up trusses, rig chain-fall motors, hang lights, pull cabling
Set up Front-of-House (FOH) control console
Hang black back drop
Set up two follow spots

10:00 Load in the Sound Company
Set and wire bass bins (speakers) 4 per side
Stack and wire Mids 4 per side + 2 side-fills
Set and wire power distribution system
Set drum riser, backup vocal riser
Set monitor speakers
Set and wire microphones (~20+)
Set and wire Monitor World control console
Set and wire FOH control console + Effects racks
Pull FOH snake (64 line wire bundle from Monitor World to FOH)

13:00 Load in Video Company
Set up video display screens

Pipe & Drape (Black for backstage, Red+White+Blue for VIP sections)

14:00 Load in Band Gear
Assist Road Crew in setting up Drums, Keyboards, Peddle Steel, etc.
Assist Road Crew in wiring/mic-ing instruments.
Focus lights

15:00 Headliner Sound Check
Band members tune, check all instruments, play portions of songs
Set sound levels on all microphones, levels on all monitors
Band practices songs, portions of songs.

15:45 Set stage for opening act

16:00 Finish setting the House
Complete Pipe & Drape
Carpet runners taped down over FOH snakes

18:30 DOORS! - the House is open.
Monitor backstage area, insure only authorized personal access
Monitor Bus Parking, insure only authorized personal access

Escort Talent hotel room/bus to Green Room

Fan management during Meet-n-Greet

Escort Talent from Green Room to [back]stage

20:00 Showtime!
Provide stage security (in case fans want to get on stage without permission.)
Provide backstage security

20:45
Clear stage of opening act equipment
Set stage for Headline Act

22:30 Shows over...
Escort Talent to Green Room/Bus
Monitor Bus Parking, Fan Management

Pack band gear, load into bus bays (or truck)

23:00 Tear-down
Disassemble all sound equipment, pack into road cases
Disassemble all lighting equipment, pack into road cases

00:00 Load-out
Load Lighting road cases and trusses, spotlights, Geni lifts, etc. into truck
00:30
Load Sound road cases into truck

01:00 End of a very long day...
Go home! Well, you don't have to go home but you can't stay here.

(4+ hours later that day disassembling the stage.)

Plate o' Nachos

I woke up this morning... HUNGRY.

Probably had something to do with the fact that I worked hard yesterday for Rent-a-Bum (more on that later) loading in, setting up, crewing/security, tearing down and loading out...

wait for it... Miss Loretta Lynn


So this morning I scanned the pantry and the refrigerator. A little voice whispered, "Nachos".

I asked rhetorically, "For breakfast?"

As I often do in these matters I made a note of it and went back to scanning. I even spent a considerable amount of time straightening out the Pa^2 Linux (old) and the Pa^2 GNU (new) situation ( more on that later as well, or just go and explore.)

Hunger reared its head again.

Re-scanned the pantry. This time the whisper was more like a FREIGHT TRAIN....Wooowooo ... NACHOS!!!

So I began to start to commence to initiate a plate... o' nachos. This, if you don't mind my saying so are the fruits of my labors...

I am not a Pro Blogger, I am a Professional Blog Reader.

Three very good reasons I'm not a Pro Blogger...

1. If I had to write I would starve!
2. My current job, my livelihood, doesn't depend on blogging.
3. I am not engaged in a business that I need to promote or represent via a blog.

I am a Professional Blog reader ( a professional who reads blogs )

Yes, I know that was just a matter of a little linguistic slight of hand (mouth?) but after the smoke clears and the mirrors are removed the import remains: I, as a professional, read blogs. As a Systems Administrator it is essential that I maintain an up-to-the-minutes perspective on the world of technology.

I was the guy at my office that subscribed to every trade journal (slick) that I could find a blow-in card for. They were killing millions of trees just for me. It was normal for me to receive 1 or 2 slicks per business work day. That works out to ~28 trade slicks per month. There was paper-based information overload, not to mention waste basket/recycle box overload.

Then it was e-mailed technical briefing/product/service newsletters. Zettabytes and yattabytes of electrons gave up their little negative charges, figuratively speaking, to over-stuff my e-mail in-box. Now I was receiving weekly newsletters from roughly the same number of sources (e.g. 28 sources times 4 weeks equals 112 newsletters.) I spent more time deleting than I did reading.

Blogs are the answer to information overload. First is the timeliness of the available information. Professional and business blogs, as well as personal blogs, appear to be updated in near-real time. Second it the usual brevity of the information offered. The medium has shaped the message. Blog postings are short, sweet and to the point.

Google Reader Trends indicates...From your 101 subscriptions, over the last 30 days you read 3,397 items. More correctly I have scanned nearly 34 hundred items. Subscribing to blog feeds has allowed me to manage and process information in a much more efficient manner. I am able to spend less time and have evergreen information on the technology world around me.

...that is why I am a professional blog reader.