Analog.End

What to watch?

plcaldwell — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 20:04:00 +0000

I finally got on board with watching The Walking Dead. It’s a good show. The plot is certainly not new but some of the characters are interesting. All-in-all, it’s fun to watch. I think it is best tempered by watching some of the classics of the genre. I recently watched both Night Of The Living Dead and Dawn Of The Dead. I didn’t purposely watch them to “ready” myself for the new series. I watched them because it has been over twenty years since I saw them last. They hold up really well. Especially, Night Of The Living Dead. That film was far beyond it’s time when it was made. Anyway, part of the point here is that I also checked out Grimm. I assumed that this new show would be a piece of crap from head to toe. I was wrong. The pilot episode has a lot of potential. It does have a “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” feel to it, but I loved that show so I’m okay with it.

Does great mean good or just effin’ big?

plcaldwell — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 15:59:30 +0000

Who are the great minds? What makes a great mind? Thought? Action? It’s a question I think about a bit. There are many people that are looked up to in our society but they are not worthy of a place of reverence in any shape what-so-ever. Christopher Columbus jumps to mind. It is taught even today what a great man he was because of his exploration of the “new world”. What is ignored is that the motive for this exploration was greed and he was responsible for the deaths of hundreds if not thousands and the complete erasure of certain indigenous societies. When I started to read more about Columbus, in various history books, I quickly came to the conclusion that he was not a great man in any stretch unless of course you also identify Adolph Hitler as a great man. This also points to the fact that we Americans (I can’t really speak to the propensities of other cultures) tend to make sweeping judgement based on narrow circumstances. As an example we equate “discovering America” with greatness. Never mind the fact that people already lived here when Columbus arrived or the fact that the Chinese, among possible others, probably knew about the North American continent long before Columbus was even born. We don’t take any of the other facts of Columbus’ actions into account when identifying him as “great”.

I think we should stop applying a sense of good or evil into words that are meant to relate size or magnitude of impact. Words do matter and we should spend a little time learning about there meaning. One of our problems today is relating to times when people did understand the minute differences in words and how to use them properly. We have this problem with the documents that founded this very country. Debate goes on and on about what these documents (The US Constitution for one) mean. The “great” men that wrote these documents had a different command of our language than we do. Yes, it is true that over time words can and do take on different meanings but we aren’t talking about stuff that was written a thousand years ago. Not only did these “great” men have a more proficient knowledge of our own language but they were also flawed human beings. Thomas Jefferson was not only the architect of the Declaration of Independence but also a slave holder and some might say a hypocrite because of that fact. Greatness here in this case comes more from Jefferson’s impact on the formation of the United States than any sense of innate goodness in him. Any one of the founding fathers could easily get caught in this paradigm. We equate goodness were our real idea is one of impact and our own perspective of worth in some of their deeds. I’m sure King George III thought of our heroes as revolting bastards.

What does all of this mean? I have no idea. As with all things based on opinion, this has no greater or lesser worth than the rants of any other moron with a blog on the internet. I can only hope that if nothing else, this becomes the impetus of learning for myself or someone else. Not that I am some learned statesman with a wealth of knowledge to share but that I have some knowledge that may be correct or incorrect and if I don’t share what I think I know there is less of a chance that I will be able to learn more about it or anything else for that matter. I try and use the exercise of writing to not only practice writing but to also help myself figure out my own thoughts on certain subjects. It is the times that I speak aloud or write and idea down that it dawns on me just how stupid that idea might be. I generally like those times to be as private as possible since I don’t like to reveal to the general public just how big of a dumb-ass I can be at times but circumstances being what they are I have little control over where and when I discover my own propensity for dumb-ass-edness. Is that a word?

Random thought for today. If you think violence in music is a new thing, it isn’t. Ever listened to the words of “Mac the Knife”? Yes, yes, there are much older examples of this sort of thing but it’s just one of those songs that has such upbeat music that I think people don’t even realize what the song is about.

Testing… 1… 2… 3

plcaldwell — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 02:52:15 +0000

I’m just testing out ScribeFire on my Chrome Netbook. The setup is less than user friendly but I think I’m good to go so far.

The Un-named Post

plcaldwell — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 03:40:10 +0000

Has it really been 6 months since I’ve posted anything here? Crap! Where does the time go? I’m not really asking, that was one of those rhetorical questions. Anyway, 6 months seems like a really long time. On the internet it does anyway. Time seems to fly by in ever-growing chunks. I have been writing a bit, just not here. I’ve been goofing around on 750words.com and I’ve enjoyed that experience so far. If you are a writer, or want to be, check it out. There are some interesting data tools to analyze what was written. It would be a really interesting place to do brain dumps and then analyze the output over time.

Politics???

plcaldwell — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 14:30:43 +0000

Have any of you seen this? An ad running currently and it is, uh, odd. Very, very odd.

Thanks to @mike_elgan for sharing this on Twitter.

AAA membership can get you a T-Mobile discount

plcaldwell — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 18:37:08 +0000

t-mobile? aaa? switching to one of the new plans on t-mobile, let them know you are aaa member and they will wave the activation fee.

Post Pre End of Year Rant

plcaldwell — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 15:26:20 +0000

Two different people have told me that my recent posts have been pretty negative. Did I not include the word rant in my post title? Do we need to look up the word rant? Could I possibly be more of a smart ass? Don’t answer that last one. Okay, maybe I have been a little more negative lately and maybe I have written the word fuck more in the last month than I did in the previous 11, but that’s not really an indicator is it?

Now that the semi rational part is out of the way…

I know that the Nexus One hasn’t been released officially and there is no “official” word on pricing, but it looks like Google is going to punk out on this one. It’s not like I actually expected Google to give the thing away, which they could by the way. But Damn, $500!?! I’m about as much a Google fanboy as you can find but this adds a flushy, sucky feeling to the usual creamy Google goodness.

The new year is not here yet and there is still a chance that someone will rescue the ass backwards, over priced, mobile hardware industry out of the shit sucking mire in which it currently resides. Yes, I also believe in Santa Claus.

Pre End of Year Rant

plcaldwell — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 01:02:49 +0000

At what point do people stop being human beings and start being chicken shit, half-witted, mouth breathing, fuck-tards?!?

Bitter? Me, sound bitter?

I’ll tell you the answer to the first question. They start to become a-holes at about 2 in the morning when they slide their car into your car and smash the shit out of the back end and then drive away.

Thanks for the Holiday Spirit you ass-hat. Is it so hard to take responsibility for your actions these days? It’s not like my car is a high end vehicle either. It’s a 15 year old Saturn. The insurance company will probably say that it’s “totaled” and hand me a hundred bucks and call it a day.

All I can say is, if you think this country is fucked up and piss and moan about politicians screwing things up for everyone and then go and pull some shit like that, it ain’t the politicians that are fucking up this country dude, it’s you!

Temperance Is Not My Strength

plcaldwell — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 20:22:28 +0000

I reviewed my last post and I think it may have come off a bit to the negative. In hind sight that probably was the point. To much about the holiday season has become pointless commercialism and burdensome familial obligation.

This however is not the season for petty self-centered negativity. Reason and mindful awareness, for me, may be the key to navigating the holiday season without bitterness seeping into interaction.

Balance (temperance) has never been my strongest characteristic. Therein lies my focus for the coming weeks. Clear the mind, breath deeply and move forward without losing sight of the path that I chose.

Something Wicked This Way Comes (holidays i mean…)

plcaldwell — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 02:22:38 +0000

Onward come the holidays of year-end. I have little use for acknowledging the importance of these days and do not publicly announce my own warmth for them.

I would as soon turn a tale of hunting Santa Claus and his eight tiny reindeer as I would relate memories of gleeful anticipation and a rose-colored childhood. Neither of which are based in the truth of anything that I’ve experienced.

We all have ideals and dreams that vastly differ from the reality of commercialism and the shallow facade of any peace on this earth. In the end of all things we see what it is that we wish to see. We translate events from a filter installed by all those that have come before us and yet even through this jaded consciousness we maintain a tenuous connection to a truth that leads us blindly to hope.