Oh, Lindsay...

Thought it would be a good time to repost this...

Saw this on the gorilla:

consistency of quality and quality of consistency

They work hand in hand, you see?

If you're consistently bad, like Nickelback, you know to shy away from it. But when it's consistently good, like ranch dressing, it's cool. I can deal. You can.

In looking at the presidential candidates for the 2008 election, this idea of quality and consistency should be the most important factor in your decision-making process.

When you look at all the candidates, look at the quality. With Giuliani, you get enough ignorance to raise red flags. Romney can't decide until the market or the base does. Hillary bends like tall grass in the wind over anything and then tries to stand strong for the single moment she's asked to defend it. Edwards has a certain amount of cow-towing in his history but is more able to admit, "hey, I was wrong here."

We need that.

We need someone who can bring principled, consistent decision-making to the office. We need someone who can adapt and admit, "hey, I was wrong."

The world changes so fast anymore. Old law and rule will only last if we recognize tat the same universal virtues and truths hold true now, as they always have. But as more technology and ideas begin to saturate the culture, we as a free people need to be able to allow for those while maintaining a consistency of quality. Fads come and go. Gadgets come and go and are always replaced by new things.

What has always been true about the core of the American ideal is that we allow for that. But we can not sacrifice our virtues or quality.

On a tangent, I want to talk about the socialization of health care. There is an overwhelming amount of support for the idea of "free universal health care." This scares me. Why should it be free. I am writing this, between jobs, with a cold and lacking health care. Still, I don't want to be able to walk into a doctors office and say "fix me." I had insurance. I lost it. I never prepared. I wasn't responsible and I should not ask you or the doctor to make me nto the charity case. I shouldn't ask my goverment to make that possible.

That's what I hope SiCKO, the Micheal Moore movie does not do. know he wants that though. He wants us all to be able to walk into the doctor and ay "fix me" and it all get covered by your wallet, my wallet, the doctor's wallet.

As a designer, and new media producer, I wonder if we ever get to a point where we're so healthy or wealthy or whatever, will we all be entitled to free universal website design? I went to school for 4 years. Doctors double that at minimum. Why should we ask them to stop competing? Capitalism is not a bad thing. The free market is not a bad thing.

What is bad is the hand that's been in this jar. The giant jar of medical money-making. Once the government and the AMA and the insurance companies started meddling in all of this, that's when things went south. We don't need more government intervention in our lives.

That's not what free people should want!

The declaration of independence was signed leading to a revolutionary war that was fought to be rid of government intervention. Government intervention catalyzed our yearning for real freedom.

And now that our world changes all the time, every day, we need to consider the ideas that brought our forefathers to the point they were drive to, to make the hard decisions that led to this country being born. Those were not easy decisions for our forefathers to make. A lot of people were terrified to stand on the ground that brought this country into existence. Ben Franklin's only son sided with Britain and they never mended that relationship.

Don't confuse the American Dream for the American Fantasy. The American Fantasy, as seen on TV, where we all win the lotto, or become pop stars, or get away with murder, or become the hero in an unprecedented character arc, or get free health care at any hospital. Those are fantasies.

The real American Dream can be realized the same way it always has. It takes hard work- working for quality, consistently. Consistently reaching for higher quality in any and all the work we do. Sometimes the cards are stacked against us. Look at the civil rights movement or gay rights today. The fantasy America has become the new tyranny. So, recognize when you're being manipulated by the old media. Television and newspapers are old media, bought and sold, controlling the mindsets of our American brothering, like our brains are bowling balls in a bumper bowling tournement. Sure it looks like we're doing it. But sooner or later, we all end up at the pins, an end they have defined for us.

No, real freedom lies online. That's why the government keeps looking for ways to control it. Controlling the press became key in American policy-making. This is not a recent development. It was key in changing the hearts and minds in the swing toward bringing freedom toward the states. Publishing anti-british material was treasonous before the revolutionary war.

The government today is quietly more polite about it, but don't kid yourself. They want you lock-step with the policy. And with all the money and politicizing of real issues, it's hard to see how any of this became an issue to begin with.

Ron Paul is a hit on the internet because he speaks of freedom. His message is heard and droves of people are responding. You look at the consistency of his political decision-making and you can see, he's easily the most conservative, principled candidate there is.

Our country, as a constitutional government is the oldest in human history. Like all great giants, we might fall. I don't think we'll go down easy though which leads me to believe there will be jail time, oppression, and death, on a massive scale.

But I believe if we can sort of, reset all of this. If we can go back to what made us free in the first place, we have a chance to last a lot longer.

Our Iraqi invasion has lead us as Americans to look at ourselves and our country in some sort of mass introspection. We need that. We meddled with others before taking a good long look at ourselves.

Let's look at ourselves. Let's fix what's going on inside before presenting ourselves on the worlds' stage the next time. For the sake of consistency and quality, and the quality of consistency, let's elect Ron Paul to help repair our American freedom.

Voxtrot @ the Drunken Unicorn

I recorded the whole show. The sound is outta the camera, not the board, but it still sounds pretty good. They played a whole hour. Here's one of the songs they played- Raised by Wolves:

LOST: My dignity/humanity

answers by the name "schmuck" and looks like it's been through hell. Last seen being beaten mercilessly from me at my place of work. Cash reward. Please call or write with any info.

I've been thinking about a couple of adages I was taught to keep a positive attitude about my work.

The first one comes from my dad, and it goes, "It's a poor workman who blames his tools." In thinking about this, I think, so say I'm a lumberjack and the foreman gives me a hammer. Yeah I can still chop down trees but it will take for-fuckin-ever! Or say I'm on car-drying duty at the car wash and the boss is only giving me kleenex. Say I'm an 80 year old porn-star and the director is skimpin' on the Viagra. A fry-cook with a shallow pan and 10 orders of extra-tasty crispy...

My point with this is yeah, I get it. You do the best you can with what you got. I know that. But when the right tools are out there, and they are more conducive to the work, why shouldn't I as a knowledgeable professional practicing my craft get those? Further than that, and to go back to the lumberjack, say I need to scale a tree and the harnesses are inferior to others available. Then this is a safety concern, and it is the employer's responsibility to listen to their employees when those people, the people that do that work, are certain that there is a better way to do things. This is not just respectful, it's a smart business move.

It all started with the Mac vs. PC thing. I work in the creative industry and recently accepted a job where we use Windows machines. I wasn't told this before I accepted and had I been, I probably would not have accepted the offer. It's an awful experience working on a Windows machine and the whole clunky process is just a hindrance to getting things done. There's nothing a Windows machine does better when it come to design. I can't say enough about how awful it is.



I would go so far to say the main recent that IT is as big of an industry as it is, is because Windows is an awful, consistently failing, mystery of an OS with no rhyme or reason to much of it's offerings or performance.

uck

The next adage is this gem: "Ours is not to question why, ours is but to do or die.”

-which is a popular misquote of The Charge of the Light Brigade by
Alfred, Lord Tennyson. And in that, I find myself asking (though I know I shan't) who are these schlumps and why don't they have any respect for themselves. We should always ask why. Our superiors would certainly love to believe that they hold all the knowledge in the universe inside their highly educated, senior staff minds. But the more real ones, the people who I can certainly respect, have no problem being asked why we would do things a certain way as opposed to another. It's how we learn. It's how we come to make good decisions as a team. Kings and emperors get to make self-serving decisions. My boss is not my king, not my emperor, and even if he were, I'd still consider questioning him, if not overthrowing or killing him. I mean, I don't want to be a peasent. I don't want to be a drone. Fuck!

Why are these two attitude inspiring statements so dehumanizing? Fuck that. No way. If that's what the boss believes, I'll fucking walk. I will question and I will want the best tool for the job, and even more... my life, and my opinions matter. My opinions matter when it's my experience that got me the job. You want people to say yes all day and never question you or ask for better equipment? Then hire a bunch of fear-filled, yes-men, pussies. I'm not that person.


And then on a side note - Do this... send like 5 bucks. Just send a little ya know?! I mean if we all send five, that's a lot!

Dear Joseph Wagner,

Thank you very much for your donation of $20.00 to the Ron Paul 2008 Presidential Campaign.

Your donation will allow us to expand and grow our campaign.

We depend on donors like you to help us spread the message of freedom, peace and prosperity through Ron Paul’s candidacy.

Thanks for being a part of the campaign!

Make Your 2008 Presidential Decision in Just Under 9 Minutes

Every time I see this guy, it gives me hope.



We need to get loud about him and make our voices heard. Vote for him in the primaries. Tell your friends. Ron Paul in in it to win it and anyone who cares about restoring these United States to "the land of the free" should become an ambassador for the presidential campaign of Ron Paul for 2008.

Prepare yourselves though. This article describes a very real attempt at smearing and silencing Ron Paul in our politically charged and owned (it is, don't kid yourself) mainstream media.

Is it 2001 already? The Strokes - "You Only Live Once" sci-fi music video

I just want to be brief about this.



The video looks amazing. Visually, it could not be any more appealing in terms of subject matter, editing, and imagination. My problem is with the song/the band. I liked the first album a lot. I had a hard time getting into this album. Frankly, I don't feel the song and visuals are the right mix.

But hey, the Strokes are still around, ya'all. And it looks like there may even be thoughts about shooting them into space... which might not be all that bad for them as their sound might actually sound "fresh" to any life that may exist 100's of 1,000's of miles out in space.

You should see what gorrilla vs. bear found

go to the light...

I got this dead horse back at my apartment

You want to come by and beat it?

Yeah so, I sorta said some mean (but true) crap about Falwell. A lot of people did, including Chris Hitchens, author of "God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything".

Well, Sean Hannity don't so much appreciate it and demonstrates himself for the childish bully he is as he tries raking Hitchens over the coals.



But hey Fox News, let's not forget your send off for Kurt Vonnegut.



How short does the media think our memory is? Hitch is straight-forward and honest about his "disrespect for the dead" but Fox pisses on Vonnegut's grave through condescension, slander, and a misrepresentation of the truth. Cowardly. Passive aggressive. Hypocritical.

Fair. Balanced.