Sak
"Mind, n. A mysterious form of matter secreted by the brain. Its chief activity consists in the endeavor to ascertain its own nature, the futility of the attempt being due to the fact that it has nothing but itself to know itself with."- Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
Now You See Me.
09.10.08 13:28Section: Sak
Filed Under: Copyright - CC, Rants
Trust is a funny thing. For example, consider the concept of leadership. Leadership is about trust; allowing an individual to make decisions on behalf of a group of people, and trusting that individual to make the right decisions. It’s complicated, for sure, as there are many different people each with their own idea of what the right decisions are supposed to be. Trust is a really tricky thing; there are unconditional aspects, and yet it somehow carries the weight of expectation. In the case of leadership, you give an individual the power to make decisions on your behalf, and on the behalf of a great many other people, decisions that could adversely affect lives. With a salesman, you give them your money and you get something like aluminum siding, or a great deal on a used car. With a lover, you share with them your body and emotions, and with a spouse, you give them your love and devotion. So how do you know if you can trust those you interact with. It must be in their face, right? You just need to get a look at them and you’ll know that you can trust them.
[2] CommentsSelf-imposed distraction.
06.30.08 19:01Section: Maps
Filed Under: Copyright - CC, Essays
I understand that I’ve put you up on this pedestal. I asked you to be here, so that I could see you, to admire you, every day. But if you would please, get your sweet ass off the top of my desk so that I could get some work done!
Honestly, it’s distracting me!
Interface with anything.
06.23.08 19:58Section: Maps
Filed Under: Copyright - Sak, Essays
Several years ago I was hired to work for a small company that was just starting out in the Internet software business. The title I was assigned for this position was that of Web Interface Designer. At the time I didn’t think too much of it, partly because I was busy being swept away by the river of money and play that the big dot-com boom was creating, yet the idea of this title left an impression on me, and, as I’m apt to do with much of what I experience in life, gave way to consideration of its meaning. I knew what the “Web” was, and I knew what I was supposed to be doing as a “Designer” for the company, but the whole title, altogether, made me curious. My daily routine involved creating graphic elements, placing those elements in a useful and meaningful manner in a coded language that could be interpreted and displayed by a web browser to a visitor to the company’s website and the software that it was offering to the public. All of that can seem fairly complex to someone who doesn’t know anything about it. Yet what I wanted to understand more fully, was what it meant to interface with something, anything at all.
Wrong Way?
06.15.08 10:40Section: Sak
Filed Under: Copyright - CC, Questions, Rants
How necessary is it that deception define our lives? Even if not the defining factor, why is duplicity so predominant in our dealings with one another, contrary to the morality and ethics that are held with such high regard, that if someone operates on such a manner of truth they’re looked upon as outside of the norm? If it’s about a “way” that things are handled in our interpersonal interactions, then which is right, and which is wrong? I know those are some very leading, rhetorical questions, but I have such a perverse tendency to entertain these types of notions. There’s a root problem here that I’ve been struggling to understand throughout my life; that is, the simple acceptance by many that “the way it’s done” is the only “way” regardless of how fundamentally fucked up that “way” is. I’ll start with a soft example, yet one which is pertinent to the lives of many. Job searching.
Don't change a thing!
04.20.08 12:44Section: Sak
Filed Under: Copyright - CC, Rants
On occasion I’ve heard of various points in a person’s life referred to as analogous to traveling along road, and that there are signposts as indicators of age. There’s apparently a point when a person becomes an adult, and a noticeable signpost indicates this transition. In some cases it’s the completion of a scholastic period of life, and the person moves on to adulthood and their career period of life. For some, marriage and children are the indicator. In other cases it’s indicative of a person being old enough to fight, and possibly die, for a nation in which they reside—oddly enough, according to some nations that biological age requirement is very young. So you can see that these alleged signposts are sometimes difficult to make out depending on a number of variables. I don’t remember when, or even if, I ever reached the adulthood signpost. I couldn’t say it happened during my term of service in the military, because I often acted very childish during those years; or of the male-pattern balding that I’ve recently noticed, since I’ve been shaving my head for near 14 years now. I couldn’t say it was the acquisition of some major piece of property—the total value of every single object in my possession can’t possibly exceed five thousand dollars. Yet, without any shred of doubt, I’m convinced that I’ve apparently traversed the signpost for “Curmudgeonly Old Bastard,” so it is without any hesitation that I can say that the U.S. Postal Service can suck my ass!
Am I getting any hotter?
04.13.08 19:25Section: Sak
Filed Under:
There was a game I used to occasionally play as a child. Something would need to be found, and someone who knew where it was would direct me around, like I was an anthropomorphic Geiger Counter of some sort. As I got closer to whatever I was looking for, whether it was an idea or an object, I would be told that I was getting hotter. If I was moving away from whatever I was looking for, I was told that I was getting colder. A perfect search went something like this, “Cold. Cold. Warmer. Warmer. Hotter. Hotter. Hot. You’re on Fire!” On occasion, a more difficult search took longer, and my temperature would fluctuate accordingly, “Cold. Cold. Warmer. Warmer. Oh, you’re getting colder again. Colder. Now you’re getting warmer again. Warmer. Hotter. Hotter. Hot. You’re on Fire!”
A Dark Object's Apology.
04.06.08 20:47Section: Maps
Filed Under: Copyright - CC, Essays
If it would be easier, I’d blame the maker; because whatever it is that you and I do, and are, is always easier to accept if it were willed upon us by the hand of some omnipresent being. I’d have someone else to blame then, too. Alternatively, I could point at science, what with all of its truths and facts about gravity, the orbiting of objects, and the mysteries of attraction. But even science hasn’t answered the enigma of the universe; like why I’m using this language to describe our interaction. After all, why would a comet be penitent?
Forebears of a New World?
03.30.08 19:24Section: Sak
Filed Under: Copyright - Sak, Questions
Consider that a vast, border-less continent has been discovered, and colonies are already being established. People emigrating from their hereditary homelands to this new continent in the hopes that they might be able to get a hold of a plot for themselves. Families form, and neighbors begin to create bonds by sharing in the resources that this new land has to offer. I imagine that’s how the North American continent looked to the original colonies several hundred years ago. The people considering that they must have endless opportunities in the new land that they were struggling to cultivate. It wasn’t just the colonists that recognized the potential of this new territory, however, the establishment also wanted to control the new land and its citizens.
[1] CommentsIntersection
11.16.07 15:51Section: Sak
Filed Under: Copyright - Sak, Questions
Consider an intersection. This could very well be the type of intersection where you give your immortal soul over to the devil. It could also be the type of intersection where you wind up with your jaw wired shut, and eating through a straw for six weeks. At this intersection, two types of traffic meet and negotiate. On one side of the intersection is an automobile. It has an internal combustion engine that operates primarily on fossil fuels, and which is controlled by a human operator. On the alternative side of the intersection is a bicycle. The bicycle has far fewer working components than the automobile, requires no fossil fuels whatsoever, and is also operated by a human. Each of these means of transportation have their benefits. The automobile can move farther distances faster than the bicycle and can carry much greater loads. The bicycle however, offers integrity of health for the operator, and while there is some monetary requirement to the maintenance of a bicycle it costs absolutely no money whatsoever in order to operate it. Each mode of transportation is a completely viable option, and each method has economic differences.
The Un-American Idiot
07.31.07 19:24Section: Sak
Filed Under: Copyright - CC, Rants
The Un-American Idiot. That’s me.
A few months ago I wandered into the other room, where my very close friend and roommate was watching his television. I stood and watched for a couple minutes, as a commercial for one of his favorite television shows came on. I don’t like this particular television show, and I’ve never really been able to accurately explain why, but it has become a wildly successful science fiction series based on a show of the same name from the late 1970’s. I seem to remember having a certain fondness for the original, but I was six years old, so I’m willing to associate my tastes back then for lack of experience. Then again, not all that much has changed really. I’m not sure what to call it, but there’s something about this reincarnation that feels like overdone commercial pop-culture polish.
[2] Comments