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Lifestyle & Culture

America: Land Of The Fleeced & Home Of The Brazen

[ 1 Comment ]Posted on January 24, 2010 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture

Sunday, January 24th, 2010

I’m not sure I know how to live in this country any more, they’ve changed too many rules. Maybe we need to start making our own.

I’m not so sure I know how to live in America any more. When it comes to politics, I’ve always been the sort who’s in favor of a mixed economy, believing that a balance of free markets and social programs is the best choice for governing. Regardless of the finer points of my political opinions, I got good grades in Civics class, and was properly indoctrinated as a US citizen growing up. Although what I’m about to say is going to sound like it’s partisan and politically motivated, it’s really not. It’s about lifestyle, and responsibility to my fellow citizens and financial agreements. Like many, I’ve had some credit issues here and there, but as we’ve learned recently, lenders are kind of like drug dealers, offering a magical solution to all your problems, without advising you of the long term dangers of the solution they provide. But by and large, I’ve always believed in hard work and paying my bills and taxes on time. The entire fabric of my basic moral fiber as a citizen of the world’s leading capitalist democracy has been slowly unraveling for a while though, and I find it harder and harder to keep living like the American I thought I was. For me it all started when 19 Saudis engaged in terrorist acts against the US, and the administration at the time perplexed the world by responding to the attacks by starting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. And as if going against a long-standing tradition of not engaging in wars of aggression wasn’t bad enough, it was clear that a large part of that administration’s motive at the time was personal financial benefit, and a desire to privatize the military, so other “disaster capitalists” could do the same. Check out Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine if you don’t know what I’m talking about. This unraveling of my faith in our government continued when the same administration – under the guise of keeping us safe – started data mining citizens and otherwise eroding our basic rights, and in collusion with a monopolistic telecommunications company, no less. The fact that two presidential elections appeared to be stolen bothered me, but election fraud is more or less a tradition in American politics, just read Deliver the Vote: A History of Election Fraud, an American Political Tradition-1742-2004 if you don’t have a rational level of cynicism on the topic. All of this left me rather unsettled, but what really has finally made me consider chucking the social contract altogether was the massive bank and insurance industry bailouts and the recent supreme court decision to grant corporations the same rights as individuals. The former flies in the face of the most fundamental principles of capitalism. The latter suggests that if corporations have the same rights as individuals, I deserve a bailout and a bonus too. I’m not joking about this. I’ll gladly play the game of capitalism by the rules; I think it’s a great game when played with the right balance of self-interest and social responsibility. But the fundamental rules have changed, and I feel I have no choice but to reconsider my lifestyle accordingly. Does this sound melodramatic? I don’t think so. What about you? Is it business as usual? Do these paradigm shifts in government bother you? If so, do you plan to do anything about it? I fear we won’t. Read the rest of this entry »

The Body Electric: Chi Loves Me… Chi Loves Me Not…

[ 1 Comment ]Posted on January 19, 2010 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

Musings on the Pauli Effect, humans as batteries, tantrism and chi, and people who seem to get an unnatural charge out of life.

Maybe you’ve just seen
the movie “Powder” a
few too many times.

Are you or someone you know the sort of person who can’t wear watches, seems to regularly “blow out” light bulbs or other electronic devices, or routinely has street lights go off or on when you pass by? Maybe you’re a victim of the Pauli Effect. Or maybe you’ve just seen the movie Powder too many times. Or maybe you’re just a weensy bit funny in the head, like the people on these Internet forums. It’s interesting that in spite of what we think science understands about electricity, we seem to have a long way to go. Take for instance the recent developments like MIT researchers transmitting power through the air, or Danish scientists’ recent assertion that nerve impulses are transmitted with sound, not electricity, as we were taught in school. They’re also pondering human bodies as a source of power like in the Matrix, so watch out. It’s also interesting that with all the anecdotal indications that there are “Electric Humans”, that science has done such a poor job of exploring the concept, if only to debunk it. Why couldn’t some humans have unusual electrical properties? There are definitely people out there like Jose Ayala of Puerto Rico or Slavia Patjic of Serbia (YouTube links) who can allow lethal currents to pass through them to illuminate light bulbs or set things on fire, but amazing as their stunts are, they seem more like carny tricks than anything else. But what about people who seem to generate the energy themselves, like Debbie Wolf of the UK, or more intriguingly, alleged Chi Master John Chang (see video below), subject of the book The Magus of Java? I personally have experienced a few little oddities related to this sort of thing. There was a period when I was reluctant to buy watches because they seemed to die on me rather quickly, and I’ve had periods when there was so much static electricity in my body that I’ve experienced 3-4 inch long arcs or been able to feel the hair on my arms rise as I walk through doorways. I don’t think this is all that odd. Probably because I also learned some “tricks” years ago involving energy in the body. In one instance from a Tai Chi instructor who – in spite of being a wiry little guy – could support an adult dangling from his outstretched arm, and in the other instance from a yoga instructor who shared a bunch of “secrets” about using circuits in the body to enhance wellness or lovemaking. And of course there’s an entire legitimate industry of acupuncture, energy-based body work, and literature about Tantrism out there. There’s even the The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Tantric Sex, although I don’t know why anyone would want to have tantric sex with a complete idiot. What about you? Do you seem to be a lightening rod for odd electrical experiences? Do electronic devices seem to go on the fritz for you ten times more often than they do for other people? Read the rest of this entry »

Privacy & Social Network Contact Management

[ Comments Off ]Posted on January 13, 2010 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture

Wednesday, January 13th, 2010

Think you’re building a powerful contact list with sites like Facebook? Try exporting your contacts. AND: Why you might as well get used to a new definition of the word privacy.

Online privacy? Puh! The future
probably lies with initiatives
like the DataPortability Project

I was amused recently when people expressed surprise that Mark Zuckerberg publicly declared privacy a thing of the past, and wondered if the alleged tell-all by a former Facebook employee was for real. Please, people. How can you possibly expect to share vast amounts of personal data online using shopping sites, Facebook, and cloud services like Google Docs and then expect to maintain any semblence of true privacy? This apparently may be a generational issue, and personally, I find myself bridging the generations on this one. This whole issue was driven home hard for me recently, and here’s how: As part of my work over the past ten years, I’ve experimented casually with forms of social networking going all the way back to the now-defunct GeoCities.com. Although I’ve often consulted with clients to implement the various available tools, I’ve done little to use them myself in a purposeful way; although I’m a very social person, I’m also a very private person. As an example, although I’ve logged into Facebook daily for over a year, I don’t use it as a serious business tool, and don’t very often share serious personal thoughts on issues there. I’ve mostly used it to reconnect with old friends, meet a few new ones, and banter humorously with them. I also only have about 150 friends, because I’m not what what in pop lingo has been called a Facebook Friend Whore. In spite of this, and in spite of not being active on LinkedIn, Xing, or other more business-oriented sites, I have a primary network of about 300 valued contacts, and an extended contact list of maybe 1500 people. So while preparing to launch some new projects this year, I was aware that I’d have to update and verify my contact lists, which I try to do annually. The problem? Like me, you may have noticed (depending on your tech lifestyle) that – because of the pervasive adoption of texting, Skype, and Facebook – your e-mail volume and phone time have dropped off significantly over the past year. A lot of casual connecting – which is the very basis of successful networking – happens on sites like Facebook. Historically, I would maintain most of my contacts in Outlook or Thunderbird, and export this info to Excel to “massage” the data. This became profoundly problematic this year, when I was reminded that Facebook and other sites make it nearly impossible to export your contacts. In fact, they may shut down your account if you use certain tools to do so. So after doing a bunch of research, I ended up Read the rest of this entry »

Food Stamps Feel A Lot Classier On A Credit Card

[ 4 Comments ]Posted on January 8, 2010 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture

Friday, January 8th, 2010

One in eight Americans is benefitting from food stamps. Are you one of them? Would you be if you had to?

I joke sometimes about being a socialist, but in reality, I’m the type of person who’s more inclined to work within the system I’m born into. Since I was born in one of the most capitalism-obsessed nations on Earth, and raised in an intellectual, bleeding heart liberal college community, I’ve always had an odd mix of values. I’ve never applied for “welfare” of any kind, including unemployment (okay, 3 months when I was 18!), food stamps, or other kinds of assistance, but I think “the poor” are entitled to such help. In the past, I’ve always found it easy to balance these vaguely conflicted values, mainly because the overall economic situation in the states made it possible for me to go get some kind of work in thin times. I think a lot of “average” Americans feel the same way, but recently I was surprised to find that several “average” friends of mine were using something I’d never heard of to defray expenses: a Michigan Bridge Card. Suddenly being broke seemed a lot less shameful to me. Somehow “defraying expenses with a bridge card” sounds a lot better than “buying hot dogs with food stamps“. And apparently this is a national trend; the New York Times has a whole series called The Safety Net, where I ran across this interactive map that made me realize that in the county I live in (home to the relatively prestigious University of Michigan), one in ten people are collecting food stamps. This kind of blew me away, and when I add that to my ongoing ire over the secretive bailouts of billionaire bankers and the impending commercial real estate crash , I start thinking a little differently. As a self-employed person, I made some financial mis-steps over the last couple of years that I’ve struggled to bounce back from. I’m sure this is the basis for my anger about bank bailouts; no one came along to bail ME out and wipe the credit slate clean. But maybe it’s time to revise my strategy. I mean the NYT is literally advising us that walking away from our mortgages is okay. So why shouldn’t we “strategically default” and go on government support? How about you? Are you struggling? Would you accept government assistance if you were? Let’s not forget that the banking industry did, and they’re money experts!

Start The Resolutions Without Me

[ 1 Comment ]Posted on January 2, 2010 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture

Saturday, January 2nd, 2010

The new year is a great time to make a new start, but use some smarts. And of course, don’t make resolutions for other people. Unless they’re Karl Rove.

With a current national debt of over 12 trillion dollars and with 67% of Americans classified as overweight, I guess it’s fitting that two of the most popular New Year’s resolutions are to lose weight and get out of debt. Why people don’t think of these things the other 364 days of the year perplexes me somewhat, but I must admit I’ve occasionally wished I were Chinese American, so I could have two rapidly consecutive chances to start the year right. I generally get by okay these days with one New Year though, and without making New Year’s resolutions. At least in the conventional sense. I typically review the year that’s ending and plan for the one ahead in a goal-oriented fashion. I also try to make my own resolutions, and not other people’s. I’ll make an exception in Karl Rove’s case though, since this year he felt compelled to make a list of resolutions for all of Washington and none for himself. Here you go Karl, it’s a short list, but will be nearly impossible for you to conquer: 1) Shut up. You’re a smart and influential gay guy, but your intelligence and influence benefit nearly no-one, and 2) Come out of the closet. Instead of getting all weak-kneed and lap-doggish around men of power in Washington, trying doing it at the gay bar once in a while. You’ll be a much happier guy. But I digress. If you made some last minute resolutions, especially in a champagne-induced stupor, rethink things. The basic psychology behind what works and doesn’t work with resolutions is covered quickly in this PychCentral.com piece, and for some thought-provoking ideas for more sustainable approaches to personal change, check out 6 Ways to Start the New Year Doing Instead of Dreaming at DumbLittleMan.com. Personally, I have two broad goals for the year; one is to simplify my life in the interest of being more at peace, and the other is to find a better balance between income and personal reward in my work. These two concepts help me frame a lot of other strategies in my ongoing activities in a positive way. So what about you? Any plans, hopes, dreams, or resolutions for the new year? Read the rest of this entry »

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