presidential campaign response 1

This election is mostly about oil. McCain and Obama both refer to high fuel costs with nearly every mention of U.S. economy. When McCain talks about U.S. off-shore drilling, he mentions that we currently depend on terrorist-supporting nations for energy. Last Thursday night, Palin mentioned Russia as a threat to global security, and inferred that Russia's primary interest is oil.

I would like to hear candidates speak to the global environment and the United States' impact on it. I hear a lot about the U.S. economy, but only as it pertains to individual clumps of humans, and not as it pertains to a global community of humans, much less a global community of fish, birds, or ocean currents. Obviously, the president's loyalty resides first with his/her people, not to fish, but the people he/she represents should serve the world at large, and the world is suffering dramatically. For all the talk about Sarah Palin's knowledge of northwestern ideals, I've heard nothing about preserving ecosystems, returning damaged environments to healthy states, even acknowledging or monitoring environments (!) except statements that emphasize the importance of finding new industries for a struggling economy. In his acceptance speech, McCain said that "we need to restore the health of our planet by using all resources available to restore our economy." Terribly phrased, I think his point is this: a healthy American economy propagates a healthy planet. I disagree completely, and history does too!

I think McCain purposefully associates environmental preservation with the state of our economy, and this confuses people. They think he's talking about a healthy planet, but he's just talking about preserving their quality of living. I disdain this. We should be concerned with the planet for obvious large reasons, including--to a much smaller extent--the environment's effect on our economy. Alternative fuel, solely for the sake of better jobs, is not enough for me.

I'm frustrated that people only want to hear surface level stuff about taxes, big or small government, and national security: party-line phrases and meaningless banter. Sometimes I think people DO want straight talk and change, and that if our candidates would stop catering to our wallets, our stomachs, our pride, we'd understand and we'd rally around them. But look what happened to Ron Paul in the primaries: he was ridiculed and laughed at, and the public didn't care enough to lift up his issues.

I don't think presidential candidates need to get banally specific, ignoring the symbolism of their position. I think a president can still act as a figurehead, philosophize, inspire, and leave the specifics to the smaller communities. As much as I wish to God I felt as confident in our leaders' knowledge as I feel in Ross Perot's knowledge of our economy, we can inspire a nation without graphs. We need real philosophy! Our two-party system makes this impossible.

For instance, I hear very little talk about credit philosophy, which is weird, since Americans clearly have a muddled understanding of credit. American Government probably doesn't have a muddled understanding of credit, but it's a pretty closed-mouthed understanding. In my 10 years of voting, I've never heard a candidate from a major party enumerate the expenditures of a government versus the income of the government. Yet, candidates still talk about reducing federal debt. When we're talking about sums of money this large, how can any normal wage-earner truly grasp the meaning of statements like "We waste 100 billion dollars a year on countries not our own." To what am I comparing 100 billion dollars? The unknown budgets of other government expense accounts? And how could I possibly put a number like 100 billion in perspective? How many hotels can I buy with that much money?

It doesn't matter, because candidates lump the issue of federal spending into the larger issue of large versus small government, a stupid argument that plays on our fear of big brother or our individualistic pride or our liberal love for humanity. You Republicans and Democrats, I despise you. You are no better than cliques of high school kids, street gangs, or monotonous religion. You move in swarms, gaining momentum only because you surround yourself with others like you, motivated by some general feeling of purpose and a general hate for those who choose to live in direct defiance of you. I hate you and I hate your puppet-candidates. Get a life of your own, help others do the same!

prepare to become obsolete!

Quantum computing. I never really understood this, and—believe me—I still don’t. But, via several rabbit trails, including a particularly interesting Science Friday article with Ira Flatow, I found myself excitedly reading wiki after wiki on particles, integer spin, and a 17 mile supercollider.

I remember hearing about the Texas supercollider in my junior high science class. It was funded by the U.S. government, but construction discontinued in 1993. I definitely want to visit the skeleton of a structure like this; it sits, rotting, in Texas, having been used only for the set of a John-Claude Van Damme movie in the 90s. At age 13, the concept of particles smacking together at inconceivable speeds was exciting mostly because I figured they’d blow up, or create radioactive-man or something. Then, in high school physics, Dr Helman addressed the “God Particle,” which is the basic component of the supposed field through which all things pass to get mass: a bunch of these particles create a field, just like a bunch of photons make an electromagnetic field.

This “field” is all referred to as Higg’s Field, and the materials needed for the field are called Higg’s Boson, although no one’s ever really seen this boson. We can't see the particles because they have dubious mass, like photons (which I think have no mass--nope, definitely don't understand that!), or maybe they have something to do with another dimension, or something even crazier. I guess it takes a lot of heat and energy to observe Higg's things. Like the Big Bang.

I don’t know if I ever really understood how a thing could be massless and then—suddenly—massful. And I still don’t understand the theory behind a particle collision and why it’s the best experiment in which to view Higg’s Boson, unless it’s a case of trying to observe way more energy than we’ve ever observed before—as in, inevitably, something awesome will happen. But all this is to preface what you’ve probably already heard: the Hadron Large Collider stands nearly ready for use, and is the talk of the world.

I’m so excited to be alive (for now)* and a bystander to a scientific experiment of this magnitude. It’s amazing! Sure, nothing substantial may come of this: scientists may not discover the God Particle or another dimension or dark matter. It’s doubtful, but maybe nothing will happen. Still, as my friend Matt said to me, half-joking, “I like how as a species we’re so fearless! We’re gonna get to the bottom of it even if we have to build a 17 mile loop under Switzerland and France.” It’s morbidly hilarious when you examine humankind from the perspective of God, or an intelligently-superior space-alien, or in the wake of all our disastrous social mistakes, or historically-silly scientific theories. But, while I love to laugh at people, I hate to set up camp with anyone who can’t see the beauty in evolution—the bigger philosophy behind progress, failure, investment, recession, and experiment.

There is so much awesome stuff to learn! and so much of science-technology is related to stuff we do every day. For instance, as a web user, you obviously make use of 1 or more processors, each of which can process millions of instructions per second. The instructions (and the data your chip processes) are all communicated through one of two states: 0 and 1. Your chip processes all that data through circuits, which are little gates and tunnels and storage receptacles, through which pass a bunch of electrons. Doy, you know this already. But quantum computing, man. It could happen! You know the story: if you can create and control qubits in superposition, you can build a quantum computer. Haha, OK maybe you don’t know that. Basically, qubits are particles that are able to represent both 1 and 0, simultaneously, by adding another dimension, or manipulating time, or whatever. We don’t really know how to do it yet, but there are all sorts of ideas.

For instance, this and this article talks about how researchers observe electron spin. An electron’s spin is measure in integers (which you will read more about if you start looking up bosons) and the orientation of the spin could potentially represent binary numbers, because there are basically two kinds of spinning electrons. By manipulating the spin of electrons, we can create more than two states, more options than 1 and 0. That's awesome.

Yeah, yeah, quantum computing won’t happen for a long time, but the supercollider has got me all excited about it anyway. Can you even imagine how rapidly technology would accelerate? It makes me wonder why we spend so much money on the military and stupid stuff like that, and why every kid is not learning the basics of building a computer in 3rd grade.

For some great (and quick) synopses of Higg’s Boson, go here.

*According to some, I may not be alive much longer. Check this out!

auto animals

You dog-on-lap-while-in-car people, what are you thinking? Do I let my nieces or nephews, my girlfriend, my roommates crawl all over me, peeping their heads over the steering wheel, then out the driver's window, yelling at pedestrians or other drivers stopped at red lights, turning circles on my lap without a seatbelt as if that were even remotely safe for me or for them? If I had an extra-small person that I toted around, would I let it have free reign of the cab, jumping wherever it wanted, licking my face? No. I save the licking for my at-home-private time.

You are (consciously or not) thinking one of two compound thoughts: (1) My dog is so cute that she can do whatever she wants. People will look at my dog, notice how cute she is, and then they will notice me. (2) My dog is so cute that he can do whatever he wants. I don't give a shit if people notice me or my dog.

Normal drivers of the world, how can you not speak up against lap-dog-drivers? Is this plea for attention any different than minivans with spoilers, ghetto whistles, or any variation of Calvin pissing on any variation of anything?

Can one of my many friends in law-enforcement please comment on the legality of unbelted animals participating in the driving of motor vehicles?

About a year ago I gave up "The Bird" for two much more effective hand signs: Thumb Up, or Thumb Down.* Don't like something? Give it the Thumb Down. Believe it or not, the Thumb Down stymies my road-rage. They know I disapprove, yet they don't get the satisfaction of knowing I'm pissed off. Someone tailgating you on the freeway or mouthing "Choose a lane, asshole!" as they pass? Give em the Thumb Up. Believe me, it makes you feel good.

I know what you're thinking: you disapprove of lap-dog-drivers, chicks that put on mascara during the morning commute, and those furniture store guys with the twirly signs on the corner of Scholls-Ferry and HWY 217… but you don't disapprove enough to get mad at them. The Thumb Down still works! In fact, if they saw it more often, you might see them LESS often. Last Saturday my girlfriend and I passed a guy dressed as a giant banana doing some sort of obscene breakdance on the side of road. He was terribly wiggly. It didn't matter what he was selling. I gave him a Thumb Down with full arm extension as we passed.

I pick my nose a lot while I drive. As far as I know, no one cares. However, faced with some resounding Thumbs Down, I'll quit.

Do you see how I fashioned this blog in a fluid and proactive manner? I began with a social issue of which I disapprove, noting merits (if any) and rationales. Then I moved on to discuss not only how YOU can be the change you want to see in the world, but how you can effectively communicate to other road dwellers how you feel in a concise manner. Thank you for reading.

-Management

*Obviously, I can't take credit for T.U.s or T.D.s. The Romans had the right idea with that whole gladiator thing, but this time around I'm not suggesting death, slavery, or anything related to Hulk Hogan.

Final note: Your lap-dog definitely increases doom probability for you AND for your giant car. Without getting into the reasons why 50-year-old ladies with Lincoln Navigators tend also to own toy-sized-animals, we must address that you (my faithful 50-year-old Lincoln-driving lady readers) are putting yourself, your pet, your auto, and others at risk. I'm only concerned with your (dog's) safety.

prairie sun

Prairie Sun is a farmyard. Four barns--three converted into tracking/control rooms--and an office. Then you have some ramshackle practice spaces inside old chicken coups, a couple giant reverb plates in an old shed-ish room that they also use for old 2-inch tape archives, and two quaint little houses for people on vacation... like me. I guess this isn't really vacation; this is my second week here mixing the new record with K-IV. We spend every day in a control room in Studio B, and he works his magic on the console, which sounds great. Everything here sounds great. The rooms have an out-of-town vibe, even though we're not really that far from San Francisco.

Getting back to a description of the place: our house is white and cute, with a few outlets that work and an ant problem. I wonder if I am a problem for the ants. I mean, to them I'm just some giant dude who showed up one night and started sleeping in their bed. I guess I wouldn't be down with that, were the situation reversed.

Last week, I drove to Medford, from Portland, and picked up K-IV in the Prius. From there, we tiptoed over the pass (closed just last week due to blizzard snow-- wtf?!) and then down through Napa valley till we got to our creative spot. K-IV is a badass creative spot, himself. Besides acting as nice-guy number 1, I love watching him mix, and he's got a great sensibility for the songs, and for life, in general. We're basically holed up here till the record is fully mixed. Other local characters include Mooka, the eccentric owner of P.S., and Adam and Rich, who run around all day fixing broken gear, setting up echo chambers and microphones worth more than my life, and--in general--being awesome.

This place has been here for over 20 years, and you can tell. Sure, the gear is great, the people know there stuff, blah blah blah. But what you don't get at home is this unique, secluded vibe; I understand why Tom Waits comes here and drinks till late down the road at Red's Recovery Room. It's sleeping in a farmhouse and walking up to three roosters outside your window at 6am. Making a record was never so much fun!

Dear Portland,

It's bright and sunny here. I've been eating outside every day. There is a toasty white bench sitting in a field. There are lots of bright stars at night. Last night K-IV and I saw a flying saucer, but it could have been the crescent moon. Can't wait to see you again, but could you warm up the place a bit? ...I've become accustomed to this climate.

-BF

the wind river range

My family backpacks, as an annual vacation; instead of hotel rooms, tents; and instead of Italian restaurants, dehydrated bean soup and potatoes. Escaping work, my dad would fish each stream and lake in the Wind River Range till he ran out of flies, or until my mom decided that the thunderstorms were becoming a problem. This summer, we explored the Whiskey-Creek basin. My parents are still up there, in the Wind River Range, for the rest of the week. My sister and I hiked out before we got to see Bomber Basin, a relatively unexplored area that (supposedly) still hides the remnants of a WWII plane, that crashed in the mountains decades ago.

I swam every day for 60 seconds in water that increased my heart rate to aerobic workout standards. The change I felt in my lungs (after 7 days living above 10,000 feet in elevation) was dramatic. Whiskey-Creek is one of the lower basins we've visited; still, as I circled a lake, climbing over large screes, I felt the tingling in the bottom of my feet and the ends of my fingers that says "We are not getting oxygen!"

At night, you can see meteors. Sleep is something that saves you from the wind. In the morning, my feet always hurt from the day before, and putting my boots on makes me wonder if I spent the previous night karate-kicking cinder blocks or something. By 8 o clock, or after breakfast, I'm acclimated and limber, even mentally alert; sometimes I go entire workdays in a state of mental detachment!

Camping isn't about camping, really. It's about the rest of your life.

I am indoors a lot. On a daily basis, I get served a lot of things, turn a lot of keys, press a lot of buttons. Consider how much forethought you would put into a day spent entirely alone, outside on your front lawn. If you couldn't go inside for 24 hours, and if your girlfriend didn't cook you dinner, what would you bring? I gawk at how much I depend on simple things like a porch light, dry furniture, and windows.














Windows? ...so you can choose when and which and how each outside element effects you.

I also decided to undertake Moby Dick, buying a paperback version at a small bookstore in Lander, Wyoming. As I was huddled up in my sleeping bag, listening to the wind (which had already blown the stakes out of my tent) and the stream (ten yards from my feet) I read this, and went to sleep:


"To truly enjoy bodily warmth, some small part of you must be cold, for there is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in itself... for this reason, a sleeping apartment should never be furnished with a fire, which is one of the luxurious discomforts of the rich. For the height of this sort of deliciousness is to have nothing but the blanket between you and your snugness and the cold of the outer air. Then you lie like the one warm spark in the heart of an arctic crystal."

...Such a cute example of a concept pastors try to teach their churches, parents try to teach children, and martyrs try to teach themselves! True appreciation comes only through some element of disregard, suffering, or loss. "Nothing exists in itself." Well put!

the NW passage of knowledge

Ursula LeGuin writes in her book "The Dispossessed," that hierarchical power only exists in order that certain people can tell other people what to do. Her example is the military (an easy one): a character foreign to anything but an anarchist society tries to understand why groups of soldiers follow orders--specifically orders that normally would trigger a moral dilemma for the individual soldier. For example, how are large-scale massacres not met with resistance by some of those holding the guns?

By retaining multiple layers in a hierarchy, LeGuin argues that any member of a command chain assumes responsibility only to follow the orders of his immediate superior. This method defers ultimate responsibility for any action, often indefinitely. But more dangerously, it convolutes. For a subordinate, the chain of command relinquishes his need to justify his actions, because his superior, and his superior's superior, make decisions for the subordinate, based on their "larger" scope of the issue.


I think Ursula LeGuin well illustrates her point through her military example. But I think that—because the military conjures such volatile reactions (pun intended)—LeGuin's example overshadows other important elements in the way humans communicate with each other. Here are what I consider the important questions raised by LeGuin's example:


1. Why do certain people obey others?
2. Why do certain people give orders the way they do or at all?
3. How does our method of communication (the way we transfer knowledge) systemically effect the community at large? and why?


The first two questions are most obvious, although not near as important as the latter. The latter question helps show that "obedience," "orders," and "communication" are all the resultant effects of knowledge. We obey our parents, order our co-workers, and communicate to our roommates based on the knowledge we possess and how we want to reveal that knowledge. As I mentioned earlier, the military provides a rigid approach to the passage of knowledge. But how is this subject prevalent in our day-to-day lives?


Well, of course I wouldn't post a blog if I didn't have some egocentric BEEF to expel, and today is no exception. I would love to begin with no presupposition that we serve our interest best by either withholding or disseminating information. However, as I get older, I see more and more examples of "bottled-up" knowledge in my day-to-day life, and it increasingly frustrates me. So, as much as I wish to remain neutral, I'm afraid I may not be.


I recently embarked on a very fun adventure of fixing a broken Leslie speaker and connecting it to a Hammond m100 organ. The parts were corroded and old, a couple of them broken, and the electrical stuff looked a little sketchy. Through the wonder of internet, I found most of the information I needed to fully understand the workings of a Leslie speaker, including a complete schematic of the amp, a separate schematic of my Hammond amp, and several discussions or tutorials illustrating how to connect them. So far my journey had involved no *real* human interaction! Great!


I needed two new bearings, a new tire for the bottom rotor, and (most importantly) a very interesting 6-pin connector/cable for the Leslie amp. Of course, I found all these things immediately on eBay. But they were expensive. Does anyone do this locally, I thought? Maybe I could even find someone to geek out with, fuel my excitement, and (fingers crossed) give me some pointers.


No way. I called three Portland shops that serviced Hammonds, asking first for parts, second for advice, and lastly for service. I was flatly refused on the first two requests at all 3 shops. It wasn't just the refusal that irked me, it was the attitude. Not only would local shops refuse to sell me the parts (without service), they made me feel stupid for asking. When I asked "What would cause a belt to slip?" I received vague answers like, "...could be a lot o things," or "I wouldn't be able to tell without lookin at it..." ...which is complete bullshit. Later, when I finally ordered all my parts and got advice from a campy website I found through a web-forum, I realized how simple my questions were, and how easy my repairs could have been with some good advice.



At this point it dawned on me how interesting it is: that I can research, order, troubleshoot, and successfully rebuild almost ANYTHING without even talking to a human being (provided I have enough time and willpower). Again, the wonders of this Age of Communication! Hmmm. Well, a different sort of communication. Remember those small-town yarns about the Gas-station Mechanic who tells the traveler how to fix a water-pump, then feeds him dinner, then gives him a self-written pamphlet on do-it-yourself car-repair tips for the road? I rarely experience that. Even with fellow musicians, I am reluctant to tell my secrets. Why?


It's because I'm afraid I'll become obsolete. I have a determined amount of ability, and I refuse to share it. If I do share, you might steal it, and then I'll have to find another unique ability. Remember my experience with the piano-tuning supplies several months ago? Same story. The piano-tuners guild is a PRIME example of an industry taking great pains to keep their knowledge (and gear) secret. The issue isn't as dramatic as the Army's rigid chain of command, where generals, colonels, and the president keep their plans and motives secret by virtue of convolution. This is much more obvious! Here, I have an organ-repairist looking me in the eye, saying "I refuse to give you the information you want."


What is the effect of this on me, the consumer, the artistic participant? I learn quickly that knowledge is value-rated, and highly valued knowledge should also be highly protected. But, in a starkly different illustration, if diamonds weren't highly protected, would they be so highly valued? Perhaps not. Protection, dissemination, determines value. It should not. Practicality should determine value.


If diamonds were not so highly protected and regulated, they would not be so expensive, and they would definitely not be practical. Their value would decrease. But unregulated knowledge on Leslie speakers would never diminish a Leslie's practicality to organists. In fact, it would probably foster interest in Leslie speakers, which would foster interest, which would mean increased business for those involved in the trade.


At least, that's the debate. How do we rate value? How do we value knowledge? How closely are our actions dependent on our knowledge, and—therefore—how do we ensure that our actions retain value? For example, is unregulated and un-copyrighted music just as valuable as copyrighted music? If anyone has made it to the end of this jaunt, I'd be happy to hear your thoughts.


Love, -BF

daddy mac

Personally and professionally, I have been working on Mac OS and Windows platforms simultaneously for the last 6 years. Recently, I've seen a lot of Apple marketing (outside the iTunes world) that advertises simplicity, elegance, and security (all features that basically result from making highly proprietary machines). Now, aside from overcharging, Apple has done a pretty good job at providing support for it's hardware. But any company trying to accommodate both hard and soft technological needs is going to run into problems, and Apple has recently tasted sexy iTune success and is taking Carl's Jr-size bites without a napkin. Apple is trying to make waves as a 3rd-party software vendor for other platforms, but they don't have the in-house technical support to BEGIN. In other words, now that Apple has decided to make its software available to other platforms (iTunes), they can't reap the benefits of the proprietary and compatibilty marketing campaign they're still trying to sell.

As an example: Yesterday I called Apple support and tried to find a knowledgeable resource for some issues I have with networked Apple products. I tried to start with iTunes. I've got a domain full of Windows users, all of whom use iTunes, some of whom want to share their libraries, etc. All I want is information on global settings and group policy options so that I can maintain consistency among users. (Without tools like these, iTunes is a network administrator's nightmare: users deal with ridiculously frequent and large program updates, shared libraries, auto-archiving and moving large files, and a virtual memory problem to warrant my granddad's. Sorry Hal.)

The first person I spoke to wanted me to download Quicktime. The third person I talked to transfered me to Sales. The first "iTunes Technician" I spoke to told me that I needed to authorize my machine before I could share .m4p files. Hahahaha! shut up. It gets better though. He transfered me to "accelerated support," where I could speak to a Genius. Unfortunately, the Genius said, iTunes does not support global settings. ...you are only able to buy songs from the United State, not internationally. Did I have any other questions? Hahahahaha! shut up.

In all, I spoke with 7 technicians: Jet, Jared, Kris Venditti, Glenn Esser, Joe Fleck, Bill Foster, and another guy who responded via e-mail. His response was good: he told me to download the newest version of iTunes and "have i checked out apple.com/support?" Oh my god, I totally forgot to use the web as a resource! As an IT professional, I usually spend my time on a typewriter, using my rotary phone, dreaming about a future of flying machines called airplanes and SHUT THE FUCK UP.

This is just one teensy issue I have with Apple.* I'm not trying to indict them for creating sub-par products; generally speaking, I like their machines and will probably continue to buy them as an end-user. It's Apple's deceptive "we're so slick and invincible" marketing that irks me. I suppose this blog is directed more to my friends who are Apple proponents or users, if only to reiterate that--no--Apple doesn't suck, but--yes--I will continue to complain about Apple as much as I complain about machines running Windows platforms.

Should I sign my name now? -BF

*Oh yeah, one more thing. Last night, one of my LaCie hard drives (supposedly Mac-friendly devices) failed. OSX's disk-utility app is really elementary. I can't find much information on my drive, and I definitely can't repair it. If anyone has any info on drive-restoration, let me know. Same goes for any other advice on networking Apple apps...