This is a pretty good article that explores the possible reasons why societies make bad decisions, even ones that lead to destruction.

I like how the author tried to sound optimistic at the end, but really we all know that life is coming to an end. There are far too many people, and too many problems to be solved anymore.

So, this weekend saw pretty much the whole spectrum of me.

Friday I split work after a half day so that I could go with Panos and Tim to check the Wondercon convention in SF. I thought it pretty much sucked. There was practically nobody there, most of the booths were just retail stores that brought most of their store, the anime is fine, but why go to a convention to sit in a dark room and watch anime? The only truly worthwhile event was the Azzarello talk, which was funny because he seemed like a grumpy asshole to me, but that is probably why he writes a book called 100 Bullets, heh. He did make a few interesting comments about writing, so it was worth it. After the convention we poked around the Metreon for a little bit before heading out of the city and back to get some food.

I surfed Saturday, which was sweet. I was pretty bummed cuz I hadn't been in a few weeks cuz of the bad weather, but Saturday was perfect. I got a number of great rides, including a left! Oh I am so proud of myself :) I also had some pretty funny bails from getting caught up in the kelp, man can that stuff grab hold of your board. The rest of Saturday was chill day ... I spent some time searching for all the parts I'm going to need for my dads new pc, then went out to see The Core that night. I'm not sure why that film seemed to be hated on so bad, I thought it was at least decent.

Sunday was engineering day. I went to Fry's to get a new tv card and some games then spent quite a while messing with mythtv. Friday I got mythtv setup to playback recordings on a different box hooked up to my tv, so that was kewl. Sunday I went through a few loops patching the kernel and compiling this ivtv driver so that I can use a hardware encoding tv card with mythtv. Its not done yet, but I think the driver is working now ... so I just need to make a couple mods to mythtv, then I'll be set. We also decided to see Identity Sunday night, which was a very kewl suspense flick.

so ... pretty well rounded I'd say.

-- AG

Wahoo ... free comics. Go get 'em!

I like to think about how people communicate, its one of my favorite topics. Recently I have come to realize that almost all modern forms of communication require some form of interface. This means that you don't interact directly with whomever you are communicating, instead you speak to the interface and the interface speaks to the recipient. Phone, fax, email, IM, chat, video conference, letters, blogs, and on ... so who cares?

Well, this has a great bearing on interpretation. What is the single greatest problem with all forms of human interaction? ambiguity. Nobody can ever say for certain what someone else really means, and thus is the limit of communication. What I find strange is the fact that instead of trying to narrow the gap to make communication less ambiguous, instead we are making things worse. Each new interface presents its own new layer of ambiguity.

How are we ever supposed to really know what people are saying where communication is only becoming more and more uncertain. When someone IM's you saying "I like you", how can you possibly start to understand in what way the person is refering. It could mean a mild mannored, "I guess your okay", or an enthusiastic "lets hang out more often", or even "I really hate your ass, but I don't want to say that." I think this is troubling. I don't feel like I really know people unless I have spent countless hours with them personally, to me ... nothing else counts.

But 'tis the fate of this world ... so what can you do. Back to interfacing ...

-- AG

So this week has been both good and bad. I started playing in some soccer pickup games at work this week, so I am now playing soccer and basketball during the week and hopefully surfing weekends. It feels great to be back on the field again. Then on top of playing soccer I went out on Saturday to see the Cyberrays and Earthquakes play a soccer double header. I am going to really try and stay up on mls this season.

What sucks is that my pvr has inexplicably started having image quality issues. I saw this problem when I first started playing around with it, but not since. So I am pretty flaming pissed about than ... and maybe now I'll go ahead and get some hardware for a pvr only box.

I've been continually browsing random blogs from time to time and I must say ... some people must make blogging their full time job. For example this person seems to post something every 30 minutes. What is that? And they aren't all short posts either. weird.

Lesson: be wary of out-of-control bloggers ... they must have an agenda.

I remember about a month ago when I was totally fed up with having no job and no money, just laying around the house all day. Now I'm just thinking I wish I could have some of that time back. Of course I like my job, but you really don't realize how little time you have outside a full work week.

My question is do we really get compensated enough for the amount of time we devote to our work? Here in the Bay Area lots of people give 90% of their time to work, and still barely get by. That seems pretty rough to me.

Taking a break, passing a bit of time and went off reading a random blog. I like the concept of using a blog as a place to just vent your mind, theraputic if you ask me, and I dont' do it enough.

I think I have become krazed over anime once again. Seems to come in spells like an addiction and I can't think of anything else but anime. So now that I have a job and some money I am buying like mad. Last order got me Escaflowne box set, Slayers box set, and a handful of Miyazaki films on their way too. I am heading over to the Wherehouse today cuz their closing down and dumping everything at 50% off, so that'll be fun :)

Its also not healthy that my mythtv pvr is working fucking awesome, and I am now recording Samurai Jack, Justice League, X-Men: Evolution, Reign: The Conqueror, and .hack//SIGN whenever they come on. I saw my first episode .hack//SIGN yesterday and was totally amazed ... sweet series ... I'll be picking that up on dvd now. With a little more drive space I can add even more shows like Kenshin, G Gundam, and maybe Inu-Yasha as well. Lots to watch ... so little time.

I just read a pretty good article about video game violence and the topic seems pretty relevant with the recent war. Basically, video games don't kill people, people kill people ... I think the real debate here is responsiblity.

It seems so often nowadays that people are unwilling to shoulder the burdens of responsibility and instead look for anything at all to scapegoat. Video games, tv, film, music, books, internet, it seems as if the only option is to just lock kids in the closet to protect them these days right? God forbid we actually take the time to educate them about the world they participate in. Its almost tragic that we have so little faith in our children that we feel we need to turn to censorship to hide the world from them.

I am a very strong opposer of cencership in any form. I think it is demeaning and infantile to think that people need to have their eyes covered for them. If you ask me the world is quickly becoming too large and complex for humans to manage anymore and we are headed right for major social breakdown.

Anyways ... enough about apocaliptic earth, the problem is still the same. Cencorship is like dealing with a broken leg by saying, "I know ... I just won't walk anymore." That doesn't work, people need to walk, and instead of censorship people need to be educated.

I am not usually one to dive into political topics because I feel that for the most part political discussions are about as productive as mosh pits ... its really just a lot of jumping around and head jerking. Anyways ... every now and then I'll make a comment.

I was privy to a short yet interesting conversation the other day and the topic was the prospect of anti-war idealism. Idealizing a non-violent world free of war is great, but failing to acknowledge the reality of violence is just plain naive. I find it totally inconceivable that so many people have managed to convince themselves that all problems solve themselves and that violence and war is never an option. There is no need to debate this topic, because these people are delusional. War sucks, no doubt, but some fires will burn until you extinguish them. period.

That same discussion led to the more fundamental topic of mortality. Many of these same anti-war advocates claim that any loss of human life is unacceptable, and I would reply to them by saying, "if you believe that, then you have no concept of mortality." People seem stuck on the idea that dying is a bad thing and the purpose of life is to prolong it for as long as possible. How stupid is that. Death is tragic, but its a natural part of life.

Anyways ... think on it.

-- AG

So the Chicago trip has come and passed. I said I would post from Chicago, but that didn't work out and I just couldn't bring myself to go online for more than about 2 mins the whole trip. Anyways ... that means I'll have to cover what I can in one monster entry, so here goes.

Gunna have to use the old extended entry feature for this one ...

!!--

So, Tuesday was travel day. Tuesday was pretty awesome because it was so relaxing. There was basically nobody at the airport or on my flight over, so I was able to spread out, get comfortable, and just relax on the way the Chicago. Once I got there I was going to get some food while waiting for Gun to get in on his flight, but unfortunately I left the security area to pickup my baggage, then couldn't get back in to any of the restaurants ... lame! Anways ... I just hung around until Gun came and we had to get his car and head over to Midway to pickup Panos and Tim. Once the team was assembled it was major chow time, so we ended up stopping at Portillo's in the city for some Italian beef and sausage. Then it was back to the apmt to chill for the night.

Wednesday was touring day 1. Tim, Panos, and I set out reasonably early to wander the streets of the city and check things out. We walked all the way up and down Grant park and eventually made our way the Art Institute where we spent a good couple hours browsing around. I was actually impressed with their collection, a lot better than I would have guessed. After that it was time for a bit of a late lunch, so we stopped at Potbelly's for sandwiches, then left still feeling a bit hungry and decided to hit up Joe Ma-something's for some deep dish pizza. From there we walked back to Gun's place just in time to meet him as he got home. We relaxed for a bit before heading back out to Hugo's Frog Bar and Fish House, where we had an excellent meal including: oysters, frog's legs, bouillabaisse, fish and chips, and a stunning dessert. We headed back after that so that Gun could go pickup Danny and Justin from the airport and make the team complete.

Thursday was touring day 2. This time its Panos, Tim, Danny, Justin, and I making our way around the city together. We started out with the obvious, the Sears Tower, which was a kewl visit. After that we grabbed some lunch and kept wandering around, eventually ending up at Virgin where I got a couple new cds :) At night it was time for the madness to begin, March Madness of course, so we hit up the ESPN Zone and basically watched the first game on foot at the bar while we waited for a table. Before the start of the second game we got our table and were setup to relax, watch the game, have some food, and drink. This practically marks the beginning of a 3 day drinkfest that continued until Sunday when we left. The game actually ended pretty late and some time after that we headed home.

Friday was "I barely remember" day 1. I don't remember when we got up, but it wasn't particularly early. We must have done something during the day, but I can't seem to remember all that well. I do remember that we set ourselves up to watch Friday's games at Hooters. Then around halftime of the later games we left and went to the Harry Carey bar for some reason. Once we were there we just kept the drinks coming and decided to go to a club, but rather than dance we figured we would go to the Crazy Horse and let others dance for us. Unfortunately our experience there left much to be desired, and really it was a bit of a waste. We got back from that sometime really late.

Saturday was "I barely remember" day 2. This time I know we got up really late then headed over to the famous Gino's East for what is supposed to be the best pizza in town. It was good, but I am still more of a fan of thin crust. After that it was time to prepare for Medieval Times which was a whole lot of fun. After that it was time to hit up yet another bar. This time it was the Goodbar where we met Liz :) We spent quite a while at the bar drinking "black cherry's" before Liz and I decided to ditch the guys and head to the Green Mill, a bitchin' jazz club. We left the jazz club I dunno when and then it was time to retire for the night.

Sunday was try and stay on your feet day. Come Sunday I was just fully exhausted from the weeks activities and well hung over from 3 days of drinking. Sunday was a slow day and all we really did was grab some brunch with the boys + Liz. By the time we got back from brunch it was almost time to head out to the airport and back home. My flight was a major pain in the ass because I was so tired, and then the plane was reasonably crowded and unconfortable. Anyways ... I dunno if its neccessarily nice to be home, but its nice to have a little break.

This was one of the kickass trips of all time and I know I'll remember it my whole life. It was especially great to get all the boys together in a place where we were all just hudled together and having fun all the time. Sorry to say, but now its back to the grind ... crappo!

~~ To good friends and great times :) ~~

Cheers.

-- AG