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Moonlapse

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Blog Entries posted by Moonlapse

  1. Moonlapse

    Guns, Germs, And Steel

    By Moonlapse,

    Has anyone read this? I just picked it up from the bookstore after wandering around for a good half hour. Supposedly aims to explain (and not just state obvious factors) why advanced civilization comes from the 'West', excluding Darwinian theories of genetic superiority, taking into account human pre-history.
  3. Moonlapse

    Heyyyyyy I'm Drunk

    By Moonlapse,

    So I'm totally wasted, and I feel like writing something. I'm not drunk because it's New Year's, I'm drunk because I had to spend my New Year's Eve with in-laws and I find that I'm far more indifferent with some beer and liquor in me than I would be otherwise. That's only half of the reason though, the other half is that I've decided to be a drunk while read a giant tome of four Ernest Hemingway novels that I picked up at Barnes and Noble for a fucking pittance. The idea might be ridiculous or it might just be the best way to read a drunk's literature.
     
    Usually, I'd put away a 6-pack of beer in a week at the most. With my affinity for microbrews and Belgian style beers, you'd think that I'd be drinking a lot of beer. Well, you'd be right, but again, that's only half the story. I've been drinking a lot of whiskey and rum, straight up and in cocktails. Early morning projectile vomiting during my younger years had instilled in me a great nauseating aversion to the mere whiff of any liquor. However, after a decade or so, I have been de-conditioned. I find that not only can I tolerate the flavour of a fine liquor, I can lucidly pay attention to it's flavor and appreciate the reasons why one merits a greater cost than another. I'm also a big fan of mead. The drier, the better.
     
    A strange side-effect has been that I am becoming much more motivated... something that has been seriously lacking in my life since I more than doubled my income by working for our joke of a government. If you thought Catch 22 was just humorous fiction, then you really don't understand the severity of the situation. Anyways, motivation for long neglected projects in addition to entrepreneurial ideas have been welling forth recently, which sort of frightens me. It's definitely something I want and need, but I don't plan on drinking like this for more than a few weeks...
     
    Aaaaannnd you may recognize this as the song from the Geico commercial

  7. Moonlapse

    I Concur

    By Moonlapse,

    I recently read an article by Nathaniel Branden that nicely articulated a mass of something that has been in my mind, of which I could only grab bits and pieces when I attempted to understand it as a whole.
     
    http://www.nathanielbranden.com/catalog/ar...untability.html
  8. Moonlapse

    I Hate Grass

    By Moonlapse,

    I have some advise for anyone who will take it - do not buy a house on a 1/4 acre lot that is mostly covered in grass lawn, unless you are a lawn freak or have the finances to hire someone to maintain it.
     
    There is street bordering three sides of the property, since I am at an intersection and on the edge of a cul-de-sac, and the lawn runs front, side and rear of the house. Anyways, one section is overrun with root suckers from a quaking aspen, another part is continuously eaten bare by the legion of rabbits in the neighborhood, there are huge spots dying from some disease or insect infestation, the section at the rear of the house is directly across the street from undeveloped land and has picked up more dandelions than grass, and the best part is that there is an utterly massive ant colony in the back yard. I'm talking about a bared mound of dirt bulging out of the earth roughly 6 feet in diameter, and I've found entranceways as far as 25 feet way from this mound.
     
    I plan on absolutely ridding the back yard of grass and covering it with shredded bark with the addition of some trees and shrubbery *gasp*. I'm sure that no one likes to hear me complain, but at least maybe I can help someone avoid this type of thing.
  9. Moonlapse

    I think...

    By Moonlapse,

    that I may be going through a divorce very soon. Coincidentally, we are taking a vacation next week. Should be fun?
     
    Haha, thunder just crashed outside, nice timing.
  10. Moonlapse

    Independence

    By Moonlapse,

    We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
  12. Moonlapse

    IpCop

    By Moonlapse,

    I've had an ancient eMachines computer sitting in the closet for who knows how long, along with a bunch of near obsolete computer parts. While doing some spring cleaning the other day, I pondered how I could put it to any use. It would be too slow to tolerably use as a personal computer with its 9 year old Celeron processor (even though I managed to scrounge up 256MB of PC133 RAM to replace its measly 32MB) and its 4GB hard drive would be nearly filled to capacity if Windows XP or 2000 were to be installed on it along with the requisite software.
     
    I then recalled that there is a Linux distribution designed to turn old obsolete PCs into first rate firewall/routers called IpCop. As it turns out, I had two unused network cards which were to provide the 'in' and the 'out' ports required to use the PC as a firewall/router. Yay!!! I burned the install CD, loaded it on the old clunker (as per directions), configured my old basic router to function as a switch, hooked it all up, and it's working GREAT. It is far more secure and has far more options than my old $30 router. If you have an old computer, I would definitely recommend not throwing it away. Put it to good use protecting your newer computers. It may sound daunting but its actually pretty simple if you can read directions. Everything you could possibly need to know is in the instructions or just a Google search away. The best part is that its free!!
  13. Moonlapse
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/5034100.stm
     
    This scares the hell out of me. How come this is the only solution concieved to address the issue of cases being filed by disgruntled workers posing as legitimate whistle-blowers? Now the truthful people whose personal honour and principles do not allow them to remain silent in the face of corruption will be stifled. I thought the Bill of Rights was designed to protect citizens from the government. How many more rulings will be made to protect corrupted government from its citizens?
     
    I can't even describe the indignation I'm feeling.
  16. Moonlapse

    Life's Surprises

    By Moonlapse,

    At work today, my boss called a meeting of all the employees and surpised us with the news that the business was being shut down immediately. Apparently, the business had not been turning a profit for a while and it was time for him to cut the losses. Coincidentally, I had been half-heartedly job-seeking prior to this, with no result. Time to step up to the challenge, so I may be M.I.A. for a time as I find a new source of funding.
  18. Moonlapse

    Maoist Roots

    By Moonlapse,

    Here's another little excerpt gleaned from the Underground History of American Education, recounting the influence, in China, of the same prominent ideologues that influenced much of our educational system.
     
    From 'Education and the Philosophy of Experimentalism', John Childs - 1931
  19. Moonlapse

    Militites!

    By Moonlapse,

    I'm enjoying my first ever glass of militites from the Meadery of the Rockies. I chose the semi-sweet Guinevere, and I have to say that this is very drinkable though I might go with a drier mead next time. I can taste things in the honey that are not normally noticable when it's consumed raw. Anyone else have a mead that they'd recommend?
  20. Moonlapse

    Mussolini

    By Moonlapse,

    Some interesting quotes from Mussolini that I've come across in my reading, judge for yourself how they apply to modern reality as you percieve it:
     
    "Fascism ought to more properly be called corporatism since it is the merger of state and corporate power."
     
    "Granted that the 19th century was the century of socialism, liberalism, democracy, this does not mean that the 20th century must also be the century of socialism, liberalism, democracy. Political doctrines pass; nations remain. We are free to believe that this is the century of authority, a century tending to the 'right', a Fascist century. If the 19th century was the century of the individual we are free to believe that this is the 'collective' century, and therefore the century of the State."
     
    "Fascism, the more it considers and observes the future and the development of humanity, quite apart from political considerations of the moment, believes neither in the possibility nor the utility of perpetual peace."
     
    "The truth is that men are tired of liberty."
     
    "It is the State which educates its citizens in civic virtue, gives them a consciousness of their mission and welds them into unity."
     
    "Corporations mean regulated economy and therefore also controlled economy
  21. Moonlapse

    Nature Of Media

    By Moonlapse,

    Television and radio are very important tools for influencing perception. I don't how many times someone has told me how people with opposing political views are basically brainwashed by the particular media channels they adhere to. It seems to me that most people are fully aware of this aspect, but once they pick their alignment, it seems that the caution involved in gathering information from their chosen corporate media is mostly disarmed.
     
    I understand how practical this is, because I've unwittingly done it. Between all the responsibilities involved in our modern lives, who has time to really dig for something that they are comfortable in accepting? Just one issue can be incredibly time consuming, let alone the endless issues that we are all confronted with. Why not just focus on our own personal issues and let the professionals deal with the confusing important things?
     
    Just recently I've come to grasp something that is probably not new to some people but has been an important realization for me. Even though television, radio and literature are all media and all used similarly, there's an important difference. Audio/visual media are essentially extensions of our senses, a directly input to our conscious reality. Literature on the other hand, while involving the senses, has to be filtered and interpreted in order for us to represent the content in the context of our conscious reality.
     
    As a result, I find literary media to be far more subject to objective criticism. By our nature, we usually don't question our own senses, and this is the advantage of audio/visual media in its effect on perception.
     
    While this may not help someone who has not based their principles on the real experiences of their daily life, this approach to media has helped me to make sense of current events while ingesting news from various different biases. I don't think I can say it enough - more books less TV.
  22. Moonlapse

    Negative Interest

    By Moonlapse,

    Rates: When Zero Is Way Too High
    I believe the article is mistaken on a lot of things but, they are correct about increasing credit expansion in order to prevent the onset of recession. In fact, the rate has to increase exponentially. However, that can't happen indefinitely. A deep recession cannot be avoided, only postponed and exacerbated.The Theoretical Explanation of the Process of Stagflation (according to Austrian school economics - Mises, Hayek, Rothbard, etc):I believe we have experienced A, are now experiencing B, and are heading into C. Meaning we are trying to indefinitely postpone the consequences of the previous boom with an even larger and ever accelerating monetary boom. In fact, the last boom was the postponement of the 'dot-com' bust. This doesn't hinge on nominal percentage rates of interest though, there are multitudes of ways to initiate credit expansion. BTW, these are the six microeconomic reversion effects (apply it to the housing market during the boom):1. The rise in the price of the original means of production.2. The subsequent rise in the price of consumer goods.3. The substantial relative increase in the accounting profits of the companies from the stages closest to final consumption.4. The "Ricardo Effect." (inflation pushing down the real value of wages, causing an incentive to use labor instead of capital goods and intermediate products)5. The increase in the loan rate of interest. Rates even exceed pre credit-expansion levels.6. The appearance of accounting losses in companies operating in the stages relatively more distant from consumption: the inevitable advent of the crisis.
  23. Moonlapse

    Neurosis

    By Moonlapse,

    I just picked up this album tonight and I'm really enjoying it, though I'm not sure that anyone reading this would...
     
    As someone who's spent countless hours listening to the 20+ years worth of their music, I consider this to be some of the finest.
  24. Moonlapse

    New Slew Of Books

    By Moonlapse,

    After finishing my last round of books, (one of which was 'Ilium' by Dan Simmons, the most enjoyable science fiction book I've read in a while) I picked up a few more to read. I like to read several books at once, not only because my obsessive attention to things swings wildly about, but also because even the most disparate books can sometimes profoundly enhance each other in strange ways.
     
    Brave New World & Brave New World Revisited by Aldous Huxley
     
    A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell
     
    Of Human Bondage by William Somerset Maugham
  25. Moonlapse
    I just remembered a concert I went to some years ago. It was Opeth at the Fox Theater in Boulder and I don't remember exactly what year it was. Opeth is what you might call progressive death metal from Sweden. In Opeth's case, its death metal blended with 70's prog and jazz. Anyways, right before the show starts, I turn around and right behind me is a 70-something year old man and his wife, both looking very excited to be there.
     
    You might think that they'd be old hippies or perhaps adhere to some sort of darker subculture, but they looked like they came straight from church. He had on his button up shirt and a vest with slacks and loafers, she had what could have been a hand-knitted sweater over a button up shirt and slacks. The white hair surrounding his bald pate was short and combed back, her hair was short and permed. Their eyeglasses looked outdated. They gushed about how much they enjoyed Opeth's music and had driven quite a ways to make it to the show and they enthusiastically but gingerly bobbed their heads during the performance.
     
    I wonder how many elderly couples in rural towns are sitting in their favorite chairs, knitting a sweater or perusing a Harriet Carter calatog, and rocking out to death metal.
     
    Opeth - The Drapery Falls
     
    Yes, that's Cousin It on the bass.
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