farewell to personable; or, “hello v8”
Bye-bye to the last version of Skype that gave me any sense of autonomy.
Hello to the feature-rich data-vacuuming collective of the merge-market.
people doing good things
RMI and my pleasure knowing them
I started contributing to Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) in the late 80s because they were a U.S. charity brave enough to claim that economic growth is possible with the wide use and acceptance of green technologies. Over the years, RMI has worked consistently to build relationships with leaders and laypeople around the world, and through their independent research they produce informational material and provide opportunities for learning how to minimize humanity’s global carbon footprint. Today, RMI is a growing international organization that is proving that green technologies are not just a potential best option, they are an option that offers vast and powerful opportunities. This latest video introduces RMI’s new “Carbon-Free Cities Handbook,” which is a hopeful and promising deliverable for forward-thinking cities around the globe.
judge this book by her cover
and you’ll prove yourself a fool. This woman rocks–figuratively and literally–and she talks about something near and dear to my human heart: hurting, failure, loss, rejection and feeling bad about myself–and how all of that can be an opportunity for personal and public growth.
I wrote a song when I was in my teens; the lyrics expressed a simple thank you for my suffering–I was “grateful for losing my shirt” and I was “grateful for the times when I hurt.” There in my youth, I was daring others to acknowledge the value of pain and suffering as a motivational tool, but it would still take my entire life for me to learn that I can be my worst enemy if I refuse to follow my own good advice: we can die alone with the vanity of our despair, or we can embrace that pain as a natural part of life and learn and grow from it and become something reborn in the process.
And then we can help others. Through honest suffering we learn to empathize and learn how to reach others; how to speak with others; how to hear others; and how to inspire. In this process we move from victims to humane human beings. The freakish faults that were the targets of our own worst criticisms become the uniqueness from which we draw strength for other people.
Highly recommend you consider doing yourself a favor and taking an hour to watch this inspiring presentation from Icon For Hire‘s Ariel Bloomer. She is speaking to an audience of independent musicians, but her life story and message resonates with some timeless, universal truths.
Having a bad day or just a bad life? Grab some comfort food, turn off the phone, and check it out. Although Ariel does plug her book once, I’m not selling anything with this; I’m genuinely inspired and feel compelled to share it with someone I care about.
Stay for the entire video; the audience Q&A has some equally poignant, feel-great “yeah’ moments.
heroin memory
I’ve always thought this guy was just a clever con that proved anyone can be famous for the sake of being famous if they know how to exploit social media; I’ve never found any of his work to be worth anything but eyebrow-raising surprise that he is patreon’d, blogged, hosted, and posted all over the virtual world–at a cost!
Then I saw this video, and it took me back to the cool, fiery jazz sessions I used to enjoy as a teen in Detroit–when friend and I would grab a gun and head downtown to watch live performances in some Hamtramck bar or downtown.
Hot, young, high, drunk, armed, and driving in the city; music meant something. Thanks for the memory #CuckooMusic.
US militarizing space
Potential for big investment opps but also trillions more tax-payer dollars being funneled into private military contracts.
Should US prioritize defense budget?
I was in Chicago and my rush-hour el-train broke down; we were stopped at a station platform and told the seek other transport options. This didn’t merit a news report, which might reflect a cash-strapped Chicago accustomed to eing unable to afford to operate like a world-class city, in a state that’s already in dire financial straits.
Trillions aren’t enough; time to increase military spending.
But while the idea of going further into national debt is depressing, the idea that the US Space soldiers will have to identify as human beings, and not only as Americans, is intriguing. Maybe Ronald Reagan will finally get to see what he so often pondered–an alien intervention that forces all of us on planet earth to identify as a single collective species instead of any one of our splintered particular groupings.
broken
I am sitting in a pub listening to a cover of an old Cat Stevens song that is still beautiful to me. The song makes me cry because it stands in such contrast to the world as I know it. It’s a truth that hurts.
I am half a world and almost half a century away from first hearing that song, and I am thinking about an old military friend who just died at 52. We didn’t part amicably, and I never thanked him for the good times that made us or apologized for the bad that broke us. Too young to die, I’m old enough to know that he deserved better and he deserved better from me.
I’m sitting here eating pizza and drinking beer like a completely normal person, as old things echo and resonate inside and out and I’m wishing they didn’t. I wish they wouldn’t. Maybe if I drink more, I’ll forget them. Maybe if I walk outside, the blinding summer noises of one of the world’s largest cities will deafen those haunting reverbs.
But that won’t work. Half a century old, I still stand in contrast to myself, and that merits no tears. The song remains the same. The truth still hurts.
is that all there is to it
I remember a case against McDonald’s where a woman sued because she was burned by the coffee she purchased. The public opinion I knew was entirely against the woman, but when we studied the case at uni, I realized how much more about the case was necessary to consider, which leads me to think about Starbucks. Does Philadelphia have local or state laws that prevent homeless loitering, camping, sleeping, or squatting? If so, since the 2 men arrested refused to make a purchase, was that Starbucks manager simply obeying the controversial laws against homeless loitering? These laws are more cruel and common than I’ve always found people know.
Homelessness viewed as a public health risk and a potentially violent threat is bad for business and tourism and this justifies a wide range of law and ordinance all over the civilized world.
why laugh at the totally inappropriate
BoJack Horseman Season 4 Episode 5 “Thoughts and Prayers” should not be viewed or enjoyed unless you just want to laugh your arse off as the bent, tainted human you are.
With lines like, “anyway, the real reason I’m calling is, do you remember the name of that super nice elder care facility that we both agreed was the best place for my mom to run out the clock,” there is little left to be ashamed of when you watch this show and remind yourself that you could always be more bent and tainted than you are.