The revolution will not be televised

Have a seat!

mysterium_tremendum — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 15:25:13 GMT

SALES PITCH ALERT! You are warned... Being unemployed, I'm building chairs and hoping some of you will buy one or two. A guy needs to eat. All wood, these nifty lawn/porch chairs are modeled on the Adirondack style, but have a feel all their own (Green Mountain chairs?). Made completely of Pine, no metal fasteners at all, these chairs are built, by me, to last. They are joined using a mortis and tenon style joint, come assembled or shipped flat to anywhere in the world. They come in several sizes so to accommodate the biggest and the smallest of you! Natural or painted (the little ones are SO cute). so go ahead, pick a color, ANY color! Summer's coming! Help rebuild the local economy and enjoy some quality time in a comfy chair. Smaller chairs...$75 Bigger chairs...$145 Prices vary depending on the cost of materials. Other woods available by request. C'mon, buy a chair!

For you this Valentines day...

mysterium_tremendum — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 03:23:44 GMT

...it looks just like a Telefunken U47. XOXO

Cartesian laundry

mysterium_tremendum — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 22:38:48 GMT

Lately I’ve been wrestling with the emergent nature of complex collectives or systems. I’ve been feeling as though the emergence is somehow tied into the feedback loops that seem ubiquitous among collectives, biologic or otherwise. I’ve been rolling what I know about it around in my head like I do a smooth river stone in my fingers, just feeling the thoughts slide past my senses, over and over. Today I was doing laundry and decided to sit in my car and read while my clothes dried…and that’s when I found it. On page 78 of Wider than the sky: the phenomenal gift of consciousness, DR. Gerald Edelman describes the way our brains “…reentrant dynamic core converts the signals from the world and the brain into a phenomenal transform…” Well sonofagoddamnbitch. In essence he is describing how the collective of sensory processes organize information and then insert that organization itself into the process. The byproduct…is consciousness. It’s the recursive inclusion of the whole process into the process itself that gives us subjective awareness. Well, that’s the idea at least. The good Doctor does a better, if not bewilderingly technical, job of explaining it. This encourages me to say the least. If Dr. Edelman is coming to the same conclusion, admittedly a much more supported and credentialed conclusion, as I am, then I feel like I’m on the right track. Now the tricky part is figuring out where the plasticity is that allows the collective process to include the collective product into the collective structure in order to perceive itself (this language assumes consciousness, but my theory doesn’t require consciousness, I’m looking for the consilient mechanism intrinsic to the propagation of all collectives that exhibit emergent properties). Nice. So having read that I went inside to see if my clothes were dry. I was standing watching the clothes in the dryer tumble around when it occurred to me that the clothes in the dryer turn more revolutions than the dryer drum does (because they get ahead when they fall from the top of the arc to the bottom faster than the drum can keep up). I’d never noticed that before, and it’s sort of interesting because usually when I think of rotation I think of the outer-most circumference as moving faster than points within it, but this works differently because the points within it are dynamic and effected by the fetch and drop of the clothes on the drum and the speed of the drum. It seems important, but I’m not sure why yet. Anyhow, that was part of my day. Thanks for listening.

I resisted as long as I could!

mysterium_tremendum — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 23:43:19 GMT

The new job requires some technological updates for Jai (yes, I'm refering to myself in the third person). This means a cell phone. But it's not just a cell phone, I can surf the web on it. I sat on my front steps (which I will not have soon because the job also comes with a townhouse apartment) and looked at the Tribe home page. I can email, text, read the new york times, use computer programs, hell it'll even type what I want it to while I speak into it. Yikes. The new digs are smaller than I'd hoped. I might seriously have a bit of trouble fitting in a couch and a rowing machine, but if that is what passes for "problems", I'll take it! I'll be living 100' from railroad tracks too, which I think is cool (for now). There is a river several hundred yards away, and I'm right in the village of Essex Jct. A change from being in Vermonts largest city (yuck yuck), but I think I'll be just fine. New job, new digs, and I got to go see the circus last night with my new friend Samantha. Daaaaamn, things are...well...good.

Out of the blue

mysterium_tremendum — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 01:57:24 GMT

Most things that arrive in my life unexpectedly are decidedly less than welcomed. I’m used to unexpected car repairs, utility bills, insurance payments, relationship changes, health problems. I don’t like to admit it, but in general I’m fairly pessimistic in my general outlook. But it’s not always bad news, and this past week has been a reminder of that. My friend Brandon Dawson ( http://www.brandondawson.net/ ) had interviewed for a job up here in Vermont (he lives in Cincinnati), but he and his family decided it wasn’t the right move for them, so he mentioned my name. He called and left me a message about the job, so I called. To make a long story short…less then a week later I am looking at a written job offer that eclipses anything I’ve ever been offered ( as a whole, it is a nearly perfect fit for me!). I’m taking the job of course. No more forklifts, no more staking lumber or humping bundles of shingles. It’s a clean job that requires my mind, my creativity, my experience and to a limited extent, my degree. Less than a month after moving the tassel at my graduation I am using the sheepskin to nearly double my income. Woof. I am in awe. I am SO thankful. And I can’t wait to quit tomorrow! Lol I tell you all because so many times we all think everything is so hard, that seldom if ever do really great things happen to us. Well, this is a great and wonderful thing, and if it can happen to me, it can happen to you. You may not think it can, you certainly wouldn’t expect it…but neither did I. Thank you my friends, for seeing me through all the crappy times. I hope you will share in my good fortune with me. Namaste’

Oh K

mysterium_tremendum — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 17:01:41 GMT

Becoming me, you are a part. So in myself I always find you. And not being me without you, I return again & again to you, for me. But without you there I am coming apart, ripped into parts which dream of being whole. I am miserable at being a part of a bigger whole, yet long for only this. Help me be a part of the whole which is me, which is you, which was Us.

So it's my birthday...big deal

mysterium_tremendum — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:16:34 GMT

Celebrating it seems a little out of reach. I've hated my birthday for a very long time. It just represents an opportunity for disappointment as far as I can tell. I guess I have to take most of the blame at this point though, living alone, as a lifestyle, doesn't afford much opportunity for friends to shower me with appriciation. Having had a good birthday for once last year, I'm trying to savor it still, trying to channel the same vibe for this one. It's tough though. Lots to do today...pay bills... last minute thesis revisions...off to school residency...I'm a little overwhelmed. I'll get through it. Damn birthday. I feel like Eeyore today. (and no, I'm not 20 like it says on the balloon. I'm 41. Ayyyyyyye)

Afterword: Thoughts on organization and design

mysterium_tremendum — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:48:41 GMT

There are those who will not accept the self-organization of matter, or thought, without pointing to a theory of there being an entity who designed the process. To this I can only express my deepest sympathies. As complex and difficult to comprehend as Emergent Complexity and Functional Complexity Theories are, adding to them the additional level of having been designed by an even more complex entity, from an even more complex dimension, seems to be very poor logic. In the scientific realm there is a habit of applying Ockham’s razor; a tenet which encourages, when looking for the most likely explanation, we should choose the simplest path. There are many instances when, on the surface of things, science seems to have chosen very complicated routes to arrive at its conclusions. But, to be sure, those complications are generally there to deal with the variables which are encountered along the way. We can not reduce the intricacy of particle physics just because the explanation gets a bit sticky. On the surface of it, to assert things happen the way they do because god wants them this way, or because it was designed this way, seems the simplest of explanations. One might be satisfied Ockham’s razor has done its work, but look again. The simplicity of the “intelligent design” explanation isn’t really simple at all. In fact the suggestion of a god who created or designed the universe only serves to compound the complexity of the situation. There would need to be a universe within which a god could live. The god would have had to have been created by some method, as would the god’s universe. There would, by nature of the “intelligent design” explanation, need to be a god for the god and another for each god beyond. Essentially the god hypothesis is just a means of trying to distance the mind from the staggering complexity of our reality. It just prolongs the inevitable, or tries to anyway, but even as we discuss the matter here briefly, we begin to see even the suggestion of supremacy beyond ourselves as a creator, it results in a recursive situation identical to Emergent Complexity. Even if we err in our perspectives and ascribe more to the situation (or less as the case may be) we find even our error will conform to the underlying recursive nature of Complexity theory. The “Intelligent Design” explanation likes to point out life could not be possible if a single aspect of Earth were altered, if the laws of physics were any different, or if our solar system were not balanced just as it is. Proponents argue our Earth had to be designed just so, otherwise we couldn’t survive. Therefore, by their reasoning, our universe must have been designed by a thoughtful entity. This reasoning only works if we ignore the preponderance of evidence which supports evolution. Cellular life-forms adapt to their environments, they are the product of the environment; not vice-versa. This can be seen in any population of living organisms. From the physical adaptation of viruses, like influenza, to the more superficial adaptations of humans faced with resource fluctuations who make lifestyle changes, we see how life forms are pliable and able to conform to a great range of environmental diversity. Much as water conforms its movements to geography, so too does life conform to the environment within which it emerges. And again, like water which compromises the geology to its necessity, so life alters its environment as it is able. These are self-organizing properties of matter, not the willful intent of a conscious intelligence. My disagreement is not based on there being no spiritual aspect to the human perspective, clearly there is. But the dogma and the tenets of ideas as abundantly preposterous as those who assert our universe was created by a single agent or agents, offend my sensibilities. The idea of a designer, of a “god”, is nothing more than a cognitive function of our consciousness. We personify everything as if it has human characteristics, or as if humans made it. When something doesn’t make sense, when we experience the dissonance between what we observe and what we can intuit, we make up a reason which will explain the phenomena. The habit of imbuing everything around us with human characteristics is something which V.S. Ramachandran believes is what may be responsible for the human invention of culture. Mirror neurons enable an observer to understand what another person is doing by allowing the observers brain to feel what motor functions are being activated when other people are engaging in a physical activity. Ramachandran see’s this cognitive asset as something which, when applied to non-human entities, affords us an idea of what we think it must be like to be the entity. The trouble is, we don’t really know what it’s like to be the entity we are observing, we can only know what it might be like if a human were to perform as the observed is. Despite the fact we have no idea what it feels like sensually to have six or eight legs, we think we know what it might feel like to be a spider, or a bug, or a lobster. We project our human-ness into the things we encounter. When it comes to the universe, we can only project so far as to see it looks as though it were constructed. And anyone who could construct something so large and complicated must be very powerful indeed, so we project our human characteristics into an imagined entity in order to understand how it all came to be. “Intelligent design” is really nothing more than a cognitive vestige of how an uninformed human makes sense of the world around them, and the universe in which the world floats. It is the primitive and intuitive impulse which, when it functions well, informs us of valuable shortcuts to the imitation of action and the development of knowledge and ability. But when applied beyond a certain threshold, begins to misinform to the detriment of the observer. The application of subjective cognitive functions fails in the face of the objective reality of Emergent Complexity. If anything, “god” did not design the universe to function as god wished it, the universe designed “god” as a means of explaining the inexplicable. But as we press on, as we learn more and find ground on which we can explain those things which we thought inexplicable, we begin to recognize “god” as the illusion.

General malaise

mysterium_tremendum — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 04:48:34 GMT

Maybe something is going around. Seems a lot of folks are holed up, or listless in some way, me too. Weather...maybe. Stress...maybe. Bordom...maybe. I've even put off procrastinating until the last minute. Maybe I'll take a nap...again. Blah.

Overlooked problem

mysterium_tremendum — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 16:07:31 GMT

This photo appeared in a NY Times story about the flooding around the Mississippi ( www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/06/18/us/0618-FLOOD_index.html ). This is an aerial photo taken near St. Louis to illustrate the flooding. Does anyone else see a bigger problem in the photo? Have a look at the sky. It is heavy with smog and polution. Americas heartland looks pretty bad if the spring sky after heavy rains looks that bad.

Breakfast with the Mother

mysterium_tremendum — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 16:25:38 GMT

...So in addition to the other chaos in my life right now, I had breakfast with my mother this morning. A while back she made the observation that I reminded her of Dr. House. Thanks Mom. I guess that's her kind way of calling me an asshole. At least she's willing to share. This morning she made another observation. She said she wished she could write like John Irving so she could write a book about my life in the vein of "The World According to Garp". Great. My assumption is that she is refering to the preponderance of "lunacy and sorrow" that populates the lives of both Garp and me. And this is her way of being complimentary As some of you are aware, the lunacy and sorrow factor have potential to peg the Jai-O-meter right now. I looked at my mother talking at me whle I sipped my coffee, and I suddenly understood why things with my ex are SO ...looney. It's me! I think it's time to make some long overdue changes! California looks good.

Damnit!

mysterium_tremendum — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:58:53 GMT

I'm the Best man in my buddy's wedding on friday, so I need some new pants ans a shirt. I drive over to the shopping mall and pull in, and as I'm pulling in I realize I'm pulling in to where my ex-GF used to park for her carpool. I park, I get out, and right there is a car that looks like the car I see parked at her house these days (she lives on my route to work, I'm not stalking). So I look in the window. HUGE MISTAKE. It's her car. Her stuff is in it. There is nothing there that might make me think someone else might share her car or anything, I just realize this was a big mistake. It's HER car, it may as well be HER. I'm looking through the glass at her stuff, this is the closest I've been to "her" in nearly a year. All the feelings that I should have left behind long ago nudge me from way down deep in my heart. Hard. I went and bought my stuff, her car was still there when I left. I'd left her a voice mail last week to see if she wanted the AC unit she left in my shop. Hearing her voice was tough. See her stuff is harder. I want to call her again but she'll be pissed if I do, plus everyone tells me I shouldn't go back there ever again. But my heart...you know...it wants me to. Sometimes I think my heart was made to break. I thought I was past it all, I hope this is just a leftover pang. I wonder if she ever thinks about me? DAMNIT!

Panacea Obscura

mysterium_tremendum — Wed, 21 May 2008 18:43:04 GMT

Here is a little exerpt from a recent paper of mine. Not the most well organized thought proccess, but I think it makes a point. There is a preponderance of evidence which leads me to believe collective behavior of groups is governed not by the perceived autonomy of individual free will, but rather by forces which exert a greater influence then those which we are easily able to perceive. While we consider our individual decision making process a result of carefully considered options and observations, the adherence of the individual to the collective and the properties which organize inert matter as well, reveals the intrinsic physical nature and influence of non-conscious matter even in a cellular/biological dimension. The whole, as a collective, has sway over the behavior of the parts. The parts of a collective follow the cultural inclinations of the whole, but the whole cannot exist without the assemblage of the parts. It begs the question as to which is more powerful, the parts, or the whole? And this is where we meet a bit of cognitive dissonance, because we’re getting ourselves into what appears to be a bit of a paradoxical situation. The trick to making sense of things is to scale things down. Lets say you have a very heavy box you need to move. You try to do it yourself, but you can’t. The obvious thing to do would be to ask for help, so you appeal to others who lend a hand. On your own, each of those assembled might only be able to lift 100lbs. But six of you can easily lift the 400lb box. As a collective you can do more work than any single constituent of the collective. The whole becomes more powerful than the parts. But how can this be? How can we get more out of agents that are less? How can agents that can only do X amount of work suddenly do X6 amount of work? The answer is complexity. No one part of the whole is doing any more work than they are capable of doing, but by combining their effort, a greater, more powerful entity is organized. The whole is more powerful than the parts because the parts coalesce and function beyond the capacity of any given part. This is what collectives do, this is what cultures do, this is what people do. I suggest this is what all of what we consider our physical reality, the entirety of the Universe, is doing: self organizing (Wilson, 1999). I prefer to describe this interplay of emergent complexity as a reductive functionally complex emergent process (rather than the more commonplace reductive theory) because biological life and the cellular form are refinements of constituents which have a greater potential then the forms which become the ultimate emergent agent. An electron can become a part of many things, but as it becomes attached to an atom, the atom becomes a part of a molecule and sic deinceps; the potential of the electron, the atom, the molecule, etc, is reduced by the associations and influences which bear on them. As such, once organized as a cellular life form, the potential to emerge as anything other than a cellular life form is limited while a particular biology is functional, thus the reductive functionally complex emergence is, however briefly, dead ended into embodying only said eventuality until the form is returned to a higher state of potentiality (i.e.: death). But as physical matter is reductive in it’s emergence as cellular biology, so to is the emergent sensory consciousness which results within the life form. In turn those neurologic sensory functions coalesce into consciousness, awareness, and ultimately thought. Along the path methods are born to transmit these thoughts, these organized sensory organizations, from one agent to another (call it evolution) via the relativistic interplay of environment and sensual construct or natural selection. As the organism becomes more specialized to its environment, the emergent functional complexity both increases in contextual efficiency, and decreases its ability to adapt, lowering the overall potential. The agent must begin to manipulate the environment to survive and replicate, and from this evolution we see ideas transmitted from agent to agent (replicated), and the infancy of yet another emergent complexity; the memeplex. The memeplex, or culture (not limited to human communities), also appears to follow the propagation parameters of physical matter. But at each successive stage of reductive functional complexity, we see the form becoming less and less materially substantial, while it endeavors to evolve a method of replication as if in a conscious effort to contribute to the reduction of entropy, and thus adhering to the self organizing principles of complexity theory. Life itself is a delicate state, held in balance by very specific criteria. And as intangible as the life force is, the memeplex is once again, by measure, many times less substantial in form than is life. Of course, we have devised a method of communicating ideas via written language, which places thought back into the physical realm, but without a life form which might interpret the language, it is of no value. Life and the memeplex seem to overlap, both leaning heavily on each other. In much the same fashion, life leans heavily on cellular construction, which is dependant on molecular structure, which can be further deconstructed into the atomic level. Each stage of complexity overlaps the ones bordering it, reliant on the one preceding it, giving form to the next. A complication of this in our own dimension is in while we can deconstruct ourselves through a cellular dimension and directly to a molecular dimension, the idea that we are the product of molecular construct alone is misleading. We also rely on a stellar structure, fore without the formation of the macroscopic environment of planetary systems around stars, the molecular complexity of cellular life has nowhere to emerge. We seem to depend on two related but enormously dimensional different functional complexities. Ours is the realm of overlap, behavioral emergence bounded by the greater functionality of matter states. On the human scale we create thoughts, memes, which in turn help organize cultures, which again give rise to technologies and memplex's. If people create culture, and culture creates the memeplex of technology, what will technology give form to? Some point to the internet as the resultant form of electronic information transfer. Can the internet sustain itself? It already is. One of the rather alarming capacities of Windows Vista is its ability to recognize software problems and find solutions without being directed by the human user. It acts much like the human immune system; it will recognize a threat or problem and take action to resolve the situation before permanent damage can be done. Is this a glimpse at a new consciousness? The succession of states, of reduced potential (reductive complexity), also reveals at each waypoint the evolved complexity becomes less volatile, or weaker in energy. Energy, in a pure form, is highly volatile, and in the splitting of atoms we can see energy released. As atoms combine into molecules the energy of the atom is distributed in a more stable fashion. Likewise, a large collection of like molecules becomes even more stable and less volatile (in general, there are of course chemicals which react in a high energy fashion, but these are instances where the atomic structures influence each other in a way which unbinds the stable mass back into a high energy state; usually oxidation of some sort). As collectives include more and more agents, the average of those agents affords the collective more stability and a higher probability of sustainability. Peak Experiences, or Flow as I call it, is the elevated functionality of a non-conscious state. Once a person has learned a skill set very well, the necessity of having to consciously direct the action is reduced or eliminated. The higher the demand a function has on the sensory capacities of our neurology, the less conscious we are of the doing of the action. This might well be giving us a glimpse of the non-conscious capacity of people to engage in collective functionality. By side-stepping the need to be aware of our collective process we are able to operate within the genetic or material parameters and properties which govern emergent complexity in the biological and behavioral realm. In a sense, it may be specifically because we are unaware of our collective process which makes the process successful. All of our new technology is created in order to solve problems, in order to distance ourselves from the most fundamental conflicts humans have ever encountered. But no matter how advanced those technologies become, we are never able to confront anything other than the symptom of our existence and never the cause. The cause of our problems is our existence, and our technologies are merely methods devised as a way of minimizing the difficulties of existing. We are creating more and more complicated levels of engagement as a means of diluting the symptom of our own existence. Every technology we have devised boils down to making it easier and more pleasurable to put food in your mouth; something which can be done naked beneath a warm sun. We don’t need computers to mate and reproduce, or cars to travel. Left to our own genetic evolution even disease becomes minimized by those who survive. Clearly comfort is not a requirement of existence; we’d have worked it out before now if it were. The real question is what will we, as a collective, organize into that might contribute to a bigger collective?

The Crux is streaming

mysterium_tremendum — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 04:19:24 GMT

...so I found out on Sunday night, the radio show is now streaming LIVE from theradiator.org ...check it out Sunday night at eight O'clock P.M. Eastern time

Do I look gay?

mysterium_tremendum — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 03:36:57 GMT

All of a sudden I'm getting attention from gay men. What gives? I'm flattered I guess...but I'm not interested. What I'm wondering is what is going on that I'm suddenly a draw for the penis clad crowd? I've been propositioned by men before, but never this much; about six times in the last week (not counting Ethan adding me to the "You are Gay" application on Facebook. Fucker). How can I turn this around so that women are as interested as the men seem to be? As always, right time - wrong place. HELP!

Fuckin-A!

mysterium_tremendum — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 22:25:29 GMT

For the first time since the early nineties I HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE! WOO-HOO! Is eighteen years too long to wait between physicals? ...I'm going to go get poked and prodded soon.

Running with Buck Owens

mysterium_tremendum — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 19:51:50 GMT

...another warm day, so I ran some errands. Literally. I grabed the iPod and some things I needed to mail, some movies to return, and my sneaks. Off I went. I listened to whatever played without trying to choose...there was a Honky-Tonk mix I made for an upcoming radio show. I never thought running to Honky-Tonk would work...but it does. So does the Baliwood soundtracks from The Darjeeling Limited, I wouldn't have one there either. My windows are open, my plants are out on the steps, and I think there is a woman who might be interested in me (that I'm interested in myself for once). Got my bills paid, and John called from the shop...I'll be back on the Ducati next week. Sweet. I took my bicycle in for a tune up as well. I'd wanted to put big Gazzaloddi's on the Dumpster Bike, but they won't fit the frame. I went with the old white walls. Knobbies'll be better on the Canondale anyway, just not as styly (is that a word?). Spring is being good to me so far. Let's hope the woman thing pans out, I'd like someone in my life again. That's all

What's missing

mysterium_tremendum — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 03:46:13 GMT

I want something...but I don't know what. Out with a friend recently we talked about life, where we came from, where we were going...yeah. I just feel like something is missing. Despite the colosus of my experiences, things seem empty. What's up with that?

Murder at twilight

mysterium_tremendum — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 01:24:05 GMT

I was walking to the market as the Earth spun away from the sun and the sky dwindled to a deep blue. On a side street that cuts behind the huge stone church, I heard the crooning and gutteral clucks of crows. Rounding a corner the street opened up and high in the tree tops I could see the mass of thousands of black bodies, like dark fruits roosting, in the crowns of the leafless trees. The clucked and gurgled and adjusted an occasional wing. I stood in the street, surrounded by a dozen trees ladden with their living burden...and I clapped my hands once. Like one great being they rose from the perch and submerged me the cocophony of cawing, they circled the church, some landing on the steeple, and returned to their perch. I got butterflys.

Super genius or bat-shit crazy

mysterium_tremendum — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 04:21:08 GMT

So I'm finally getting some important aspects of a theory of mine down on paper and I decide to google the name of my theory to make sure that no one else is using it, and what do I find? Functional Complexity is already a developed theory. FUCK. What is even weirder is that the metaphors used in the abstract is nearly identicle to what I'd written. Sonofafuckingcocksuckingmotherfucker. On the one hand I'm flattered to find that my undergrad thesis is on a par with a multidisciplinary post-grad research symposium. But on the other hand it really takes the wind out of my sails. See: http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=BQWrppy8ooIC&dq=the+evolution+of+complexity+heylighen&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=p28YpzlCHh&sig=fEEBiVJxCabqPUWe7009N-reZUg#PPR6,M1

Crap

mysterium_tremendum — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 14:53:34 GMT

It's finally happening...white hairs in my beard. More than just a few. Dang.

Dammit.

mysterium_tremendum — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 01:54:07 GMT

I miss you Kristen. Sometimes it just hits me, she filled a huge part of my life and she is no longer a part of it. I miss her. Maybe it's not the healthiest thing, but it's my truth. Sure we had troubles, but we also had each other. I wonder if she ever really knew what she meant (means) to me? So just in case you see this Kristen, know that you are still on my mind, and I miss you. (I'm feeling a bit depressed tonight, can you tell?)

Things are piling up

mysterium_tremendum — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 14:30:12 GMT

I was feeling pretty good about things, a little late with the rent, but about to catch up. Then the Tuition bill came. I had to have a root canal. And today I found my car needs a Crank Position Sensor. Suddenly I need about $5500 to just maintain my life. I don't have $5500 just laying around. Fucker. At least the coffee's hot. :)

How to save $87,360,000 a year.

mysterium_tremendum — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 18:28:34 GMT

I wrote this letter to my employers... "To Whom It May Concern: Every night XXXX store# XXX receives two sheets of 7/16 OSB as part of the packing in our nightly shipments. These two sheets are not meant as retail product, but are used simply in the loading process of the distribution truck. We end up either disposing of these sheets of OSB (quite often they are slightly damaged), or selling it as cull. "We" absorb the cost as part of doing business. Two sheets per night, over at least five nights a week, means we end up with at least ten sheets of OSB per week. If this scenario plays out at each XXX store, this amounts to 15,000 sheets of 7/16 OSB per week. 780,000 sheets per year. Assuming there is a 3% mark-up on the product that currently retails for $5.77 per sheet; we arrive at a wholesale cost of $5.60 per sheet. Per week, per store this equates to a rather paltry $112 per week wasted on packaging. Store wide per week the figure may be in the neighborhood of $606,000. Annually this calculation reveals that XXXX may be spending $87,360,000 on materials that are simply thrown away on a nightly basis. Thrown away unnecessarily. In part the necessity of including sheet goods as packaging is not an unsound practice. Reusing the OSB for two nights would cut the cost in half, a savings of $43,680,000 a year. But the use of OSB, a lightweight engineered lumber product which is easily damaged by torsional forces commonly encountered in packing a truck, is a poor and ultimately costly choice of material. What seems like a savings in the per sheet cost actually compounds into a significant outlay over time due to the limited lifespan of the product in its parameter as a packing material. Ideally a more resilient sheet product would both serve the desired purpose and save an enormous amount of money, energy, and cost that ultimately translates to our customers. A simple switch to ½” CDX which will last through many cycles as a packaging material, and save valuable resources. ½ CDX retails for about $16. Assuming XXXX’s cost is $11.20, if a sheet of ½ CDX lasts for five nights, the savings may be in the range of $69,888,000 a year and 6,240,000 sheets of OSB. If we sell the 6,240,000 sheets of OSB, we bring in a gross profit of $36,004,800, minus our wholesale costs of $34,944,000, leaving us a net profit of $1,060,800. If we use this money to offset the packaging costs of the 1/2CDX, we reduce our expenditure for packaging by $70,948,800 per year. It saves money, energy and living trees that are essential to reducing greenhouse gases and combating global climate change. I strongly urge XXXX to revise their current use of OSB sheet goods as packaging in their nightly store deliveries as a representation of XXXX’s commitment to a greener environment, more efficient use of natural resources, and fiscal responsibility. I would also like to recommend that XXXX contribute a portion of the savings to support more affordable healthcare for the residents in the communities where XXXX does business. Thank you very much for your attention and consideration in this matter. I look forward to a response of any sort, or discussion of possible solutions other than what I have outlined above." ...and what do think will become of this little idea?

HA!

mysterium_tremendum — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 15:39:29 GMT

I found this entertaining. http://www.linein.org/media/screen_clean.swf