2003

Holiday Lights

A while back SE was in town. We took a little architectural rehab tour of the Lodo area. While walking around, we tried to see if the Denver Gas & Electric (which is now a datacenter) building was lit up. Everyone was disappointed that it wasn’t. Well now for the holidays it’s been lit up again (Denver has lots of great christmas lights). So this one is for you SE…

There’s Nothing To See Here, Move Right Along

It seems like all I’ve been doing lately is working and waiting. I’m not sure if I’m not leaving myself much time for anything else or if maybe I just don’t care for it. Maybe that’s just the way I’ve subconsciously decided to take care of my business. I haven’t been bored lately, in fact, I currently have too many demands. Well, I take that back, just enough demands. And the people making the demands are being awfully conscious of them and giving me plenty of room. Now if they could just give me more time. Heavy work deadlines are looming as the end of the year draws closer. Family is making the typical holiday demands. And friends are making callings to my social-self. I haven’t been proactive on many fronts. But then again, I have taking some bigger leaps on others.

Native Son

It has been said that Richard Wright’s writing is like a sledgehammer. If Native Son is a fair representation of the rest of his work, then I’d have to agree. It’s precise, simple, and sends a clear message that is solid, heavy, and hits hard, all with a lack of sentimentality. This is not only true of Richard Wright’s style but of his message. Granted his theory is a little abstract, but his general conception of the truth behind urban American class, race, and social relations is grounded in clear logic – white American society has responsibility for the oppression, racism, and segregation towards blacks, and if nothing is done about it, violent outrage is a definitive result. A result that has proven itself among exceedingly subjugated people the world throughout. It took Wright 391 pages to literally spell it out, but ultimately the story of Bigger Thomas is a story of oppression. The story and nearly all its main characters are aggressive, brutal and destructive each in their own way. The biblical quote at the beginning of Native Son, “Even today is my complaint rebellious, My stroke is heavier than my groaning.” from the book of Job, set the tone for the violence contained there in.

The plot involves itself with the actions of Bigger Thomas. Bigger is a young black man raised and living in Chicago’s black belt during the 1930’s. Bigger lives a life that is weighed down by poverty, racism, and fear. Bigger is a product of the injustices of society. After accepting a job as a driver for an affluent white family, Bigger finds himself in a situation where he feels no other choice but to murder the daughter of his employer. Bigger digs himself larger and larger holes by producing a falsely signed ransom note, and accusing the victims boyfriend, killing his girlfriend so she won’t rat him out (a scene that literally made my stomach drop). Bigger eventually gets found out, captured, brought to jail, and put on trial. Max, a leader in the communist party (and it is not surprising that Max is one of the only characters with any racial clarity considering Richard Wright was an active communist himself), acts as Bigger’s lawyer. It is only after trying to explain his feeling to Max that bigger realizes that his crimes are the only thing that have given meaning and energy to his previously aimless life, and he thus he goes to his trial unrepentant. Bigger believes that if a man were reduced to such a level that his only choice was to kill another, the taking of the life must have been for a valid reason, even if that reason isn’t well understood. Thus he deals with his fate stoically. While Bigger is on trial Max explains to the courtroom that Bigger’s actions were a byproduct of his oppression and ultimate fear. It is understood that despite the horrible oppression that consumed Bigger’s life, we know that he was ultimately the one responsible for his choices. As a result the reader feels little pity for Bigger. Wright’s genius was that, in preventing us from feeling pity for Bigger, he forced us to confront the hopelessness and misery of the society that gave birth to him. It is this part of the book that gets a little caught up with rhetoric. Somewhat like the “radio speech” in Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged”, Richard Wright felt the need to pound the podium in order to drive home his point. Despite having slowed the pace of the novel a bit, it was entirely bearable (unlike Atlas Shrugged) and an important part in the understanding of Wright’s ideas.

An important book and an enjoyable read.

Eleven Is The Easiest Number That There Ever Was

Eleven really easy things that will make my life exponentially better:

Start:
Setting stops on all my trades
Doing more work when at work
Fixing more meals
Using my work computer for more work stuff
Calling my friends more often
Studying and researching more

Stop:
Letting my dishes sit in the sink for more that a night
Staying at work past 6:00
Eating out so often
Staying out so late
Thinking more than doing

Will Probably Never Be Found Out

When I woke up this morning the air inside my bedroom, outside of the warm cocoon of my covers, was cold and brisk. It was snowing outside and I had left my window open a few inches throughout the night. Now it’s snowing like crazy so I have decided not to go into the mountains and to come in and work in the office for a while and spend the day reading books and watching movies.

I spent a couple of hours last night trying to implement some new ideas for my blog and ended up messing things up and practically having to rebuild the bitch. It sucked but I’m learning stuff all the time. What good learning any of this will do me, however, will probably never be found out.

My mind kept me up till 2:30 last night because it was unable to shut down. It was racing with ways to improve my life. Ways to get more satisfaction from the things I’m already doing. And new things that will help. Ideas. Developments. Systems and simplifications, and the complications caused by them. But in the end, really, I came up with noting too profound. Nothing I haven’t thought about a million times before. I’m generally very happy and high-spirited. It’s a matter of breaking habits and starting new ones.

So now I sit here in my office, trying to finish up a few things work and otherwise. A warm cup oatmeal, hot mug of coffee, and tall glass of ice water in front of me. And you.

Two Types Of Cheese

My brother lent me the movie 28 Days Later. I it watched last night and thought it was pretty good. It definitely belongs to the horror/zombie genre but I didn’t figure that out till about half way through. I was thinking it was going to be more of an apocalyptic/morality flick. I did enjoy it though. Despite the fact that I’m usually not too keen on horror movies. Fortunately this one lacked the one liners that seem to always ruin a good scary movie for me. I was warned the ending was terrible and had maybe thus given it the benefit of the doubt. I thought it was the only ending possible. The three alternate endings on the DVD basically sucked and the director and writer both admitted to it. Ain’t nothing wrong with a horror flick and a giant plate of homemade nachos for dinner.

Blood

The night before last I smashed my finger in the apartment door. It didn’t hurt too bad. I mostly just ripped my skin. The heavy door ripped it good and deep, right around the knuckle. I began bleeding immediately. Actually it didn’t bleed as much as it gushed. I held my finger in my mouth, tasting the metallic saltys-weet of blood mixed with saliva, until could put my keys away and get to the bathroom . I put my finger under the running sink faucet and the water was just barely able to keep up with the flow of blood. Eventually I figured to apply some pressure in order to slow the bleeding and get a bandage on. I probably needed stitches but couldn’t be bothered, a bandage would have to do. Well the cut finally stopped bleeding this morning. I’ll have a scar and this entry to remind me I’m still human.

Silver Lining

The NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association) here in Boulder, Colorado has issued an alert. The alert states that recently there have been large solar explosions (coronal mass ejections is what the scientists call them) on the sun. These flares are creating large x-ray bursts. The SEC (Space Environment Center) issues alerts at the M5 (5x10E-5 Watts/m2) and X1 (1x10E-4 Watts/m2) levels. As you can see here, this has happened three times in the past two days. Below is a photo of one of todays flares. Here is a great video (mpeg), constantly updated, of the sun’s activity.

There have been over 18 alerts given by the SEC during the last two days for large x-ray and radio-wave bursts. Strong solar radio bursts (those M5 and greater) may cause major disruptions in satellite and other spacecraft operations, power systems (thus knocking out electric power), high frequency communications, and navigation systems. High altitude aircraft crews and passengers on polar routs are also susceptible to radiation hazards during similar events. However, there is one cool bonus effect of coronal mass ejections… the northern lights become much more spectacular and even visible from the northern US.

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