Damn the Matrix! Damn the matrix to hell!!!

God bless WinDVD! God BLESS its ability to play DVDs at fast speed! God smite those who turned the Matrix from a good beginning into cheese – smite em from from atop their chewed bubble-gum piedestals! Now I am not what you would call religious by any measure, but the pleasure I got from playing Matrix Revolutions at double-the-speed nears that of a starving rabbit coming across a carrot mine in the middle of the North pole. If it ever happenned, neither of us have the slightest idea of how we got there, but finding that carrot, that feature was just… oh so good. Revelation! It’s that simple orgasmic pleasure popping a pimple – you really shouldn’t be doing that to begin with and if anyone saw what you were up to, your picture would likely end up next to the word “disapproval” in the dictionay, but now that you are here looking for Santa, you are here watching, quite possibly, the top competitor for Mystery Theater 3000, now that you are here – you enjoy the moment to its fullest! Of course, sleep would have been a far wiser investment of my time, but… whatever 😉

Brilliance in different forms…

Listen to the squirrel…

Post-party euphoria…

I remember when I was small, there was a phenomenal feeling of anticipation while building and preparing for something. The execution didn’t necessarily matter – it was more about the process, about “eventually getting there”. The very existence of that process makes me wonder – that wondering in itself being pleasant.

Choices, reasons, strange feeling of being in a box… concentrating on disappointments rather than recognizing pleasant surprises. It is harder for rivers to change a chosen course than to flow down a known route through twigs and gravel.

The winds are changing. Ideas are changing… an emptiness remains, itself being belittled by the realization of its insignificance. Makes me smile.

Politics and people…

Just sent a response to a friend of my mother’s, who was driving me up the wall with her “Bush is Evil, there will be a draft!”. And riding on the intoxicating waves of righteous indignation, am going to post it here:

Please take a look at this:

http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_draft.htm

The draft, just as some other issues, is being abused for political purposes. The perception that those circulating this are attempting to form in the public eye in order to further their political agenda does not reflect reality. Much like those who are trying to vilify the US army by using singular crimes that are inevitable in any large structure, much like those who tried to vilify (and were successful!) the US army during the Vietnam fiasco resulting in US pullout from Vietnam that, in my understanding, resulted in the North overrunning the South with all the consequences of a totalitarian regime overrunning a democratic one (death of 60K of South Vietnamese when NVA launched an offensive in March of 1975 in the Central Highlands of South Vietnam – and that is in one battle. In all of Vietnam that total number of deaths from US was under 59K), and much like those who effectively pressured US into withdrawing from Mogadishu – I could go on and on and on recounting instances when public hysteria drove the political machine. And the reason I feel so adamant about your “Bush=evil” position is that I find blind belief and blind support/disapproval of political actions is directly related to the cumulative suffering. Thus, anyone who makes ANY sort of statement within the context of the US political framework should be aware that their opinion matters and has a very profound effect. Consequently, one might dislike Bush, one might find him ugly and unattractive, but it is irresponsible for one to have an ill-founded aggressive pro-Bush or anti-Bush position based on hearsay or emotions.

Sleep… a novel concept…

I am tired.  I want to sleep.  Why is it that I have been around for over two decades and falling asleep is still such a phenomenal life-segmenting mystery?

Braille…

BTW, that Braille book below is terrible.  DO NOT GET IT!!!

Ghost towers…

Can’t sleep again…  might as well update you all on the latest developments…  Went to take a look at the ghost towers on Sept. 11th – the view is phenomenal… 

This is one of the pics I took with my new FujiFilm…  (ther rest of the pics are available in the NYC->Ghost Towers section of my gallery.  There are two amazing things that shocked me about the towers.  First, the white in the picture above is actually stuff/bugs flying about thereby creating a feeling of something being strangely alive…  almost like in some anime cartoons I have seen a while back.  And if the sheer height and these particles are not enough to create a feeling of depth, the reflection in the building next to it (which I tried to get with the photo above) is not unlike water – dark, deep, shimmering.

This was probably my favorite video taken from there: vid1.  Also available: vid2, vid3

What a strange day… between the The Princess and the Warrior and the subsequent euphoria further amplified by the hour hand being half-way between 3 and 4 and having my chord taken away, I don’t know what to feel. Perhaps a certain sense of freedom.

The prototype is coming along nicely. Found several nasty bugs. My head hurts, my eyes burn, my body is telling me very subtly that it is time for me to sleep.

Hearts and thoughts…

Let’s see:

1. Total monitoring. NYC has cameras installed over some (few) traffic lights. The consequence of that is that people no longer speed quite like they used to for obvious reasons. Is this infringement on privacy or optimization of damage to the society by the rejects who don’t follow rules (more on that in 2). Now, we are shifting from a democratic society being the optimal solution in the context, to a society where those who know what’s going on should be making a decision (of course we are sort of there now, but I feel that very soon, with sufficiently decentralized government, people will openly acknowledge that the ideal to be strived for is not complete democracy, but a government that resides on mathematics – people will relinquish their right to vote for the optimal candidate, because it will no longer be public opinion that will define how optimal a candidate is. I am rambling. Anyway, in that sort of a society, open total observation (Patriot act taken to extremes) would mean a serious reduction in crime: no more rape, no more child abuse – in a society where people will be monitored, I think it would be a beautiful thing. Though how does one prevent this total control from falling into the wrong hands? The system has to be large enough and/or beautiful enough to maintain control over those who might wish to take advantage of the system. Might the society get there? I hope so… My life is of no interest to anyone but my friends, and if that would prevent suffering without somehow affecting my existence, I am willing to give up the right to masturbate in the privacy of my home… provided that that information would be used only to benefit the society.

So here is an example then of such a system: suppose that cameras installed everywhere, but all are broken into units with each unit automatically storing the information: i.e. unauthorized human involvement is a crime. Now, suppose a crime takes place – then a search can be performed upon all the information to find the perpetrator and identify him. Of course now there is a huge problem of storing the necessary information, but I think that the psychological effect + proper timing and activation make the construction of such a system quite plausible… living in a democratic world free of crime… wouldn’t that be something?

2. Rejects who do not follow rules: what if they are not? Well, rules should be changeable, but, at present, changing them is terribly hard. There should be a way to request a change of rules and have specialists evaluate the effects of such a change with analysis being publicly accessible. Again, a recurring theme of social belief systems comes to mind.

3. Well, if you’ve made it thus far, then you deserve to learn a bit about my romantic life – a madhouse. I don’t know what to write here cause I don’t know who is going to read it, and am paranoid of misinterpretation… though, in all reality, I think I am the one who screws things up for myself enough without these postings. Consider: I meet a cute girl B. I meet a cute girl A. I go on a date with a cute girl B. Now, A is about to leave, so, while I am hanging out with B, I am also thinking about A. Consequence? My mind gets tied into a knot and I become angry: : I want to hang out with both A & B, but can’t because no matter when way I go, one of them will be missed… and a threesome, sadly, is not an option. Plus, should I leave B to hang out with A, the situation would reverse + I would be a first-rate asshole. The end result? B rightfully decided that she doesn’t need this crap and went home, at which time I developed a heart-ache for B, talked to A, but, as was feeling like looking in the mirror would evoke a vesuvian reaction, decided not to join A, but went home and worried sick about B’s getting home ok. The night was spent alone, A left, B is undecided whether she would even like my explanation, and I am sleeping alone. Either there is something wrong with me, with the world, or I should just turn gay. Hmm… the third is highly unlikely. There should exist a theoretically sound manual for dating to avoid these situations where constituents risk completely losing their sense of humor.