The young man, on entering life, finds the way to lucrative employments blocked with abuses. The ways of trade are grown selfish to the borders of theft, and supple to the borders (if not beyond the borders) of fraud. The employments of commerce are not intrinsically unfit for a man, or less genial to his faculties, but these are now in their general course so vitiated by derelictions and abuses at which all connive, that it requires more vigor and resources than can be expected of every young man, to right himself in them; he is lost in them; he cannot move hand or foot in them. Has he genius and virtue? the less does he find them fit for him to grow in, and if he would thrive in them, he must sacrifice all the brilliant dreams of boyhood and youth as dreams; he must forget the prayers of his childhood; and must take on him the harness of routine and obsequiousness.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson, Man the Reformer

I don't write many movie reviews. Movies tend to just be brain candy for me. The only movies I've ever watched that are worth talking much about are Star Wars, Batman Begins, American Beauty, and now, Once.

Once is a very unique film. It's genuine. It's like the anti-Hollywood. It's the story of a struggling Irish folk musician who meets a sweet, talented young girl from Czech Republic who plays piano. They find they have instant musical chemistry, and they start collaborating. Much of the movie is taken up with their musical performances, which are exquisite. The soundtrack for this movie is extremely passionate and heartfelt.

This movie blurs the lines between fiction and non-fiction, though it's not based on a true story. The two main actors Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova aren't really actors. They're musicians. They were collaborators before the movie, and the chemistry between them, musical and romantic, is real. Much of the movie was shot with a long lens, so many passersby didn't even know it was being filmed. This also kept the cameras out of the actors' faces, so they were less self-conscious and just acted naturally, improvising some of it.

It was filmed on an incredibly tight budget. $160,000. The director, John Carney, didn't take a salary, and paid for some of it out of his own pocket. They saved money by using natural light and shooting at friends' houses, including Glen Hansard's house. The crew and extras were mostly friends and family of the director. This movie was a labor of love, and this shines through in every frame.

But the movie pulled in $20 million worldwide, and won several awards. One of the songs on the soundtrack won the 2007 Academy Award for Best Original Song. Steven Spielberg said, "a little movie called Once gave me enough inspiration to last for the rest of the year." That also sums up my own feelings. Every time I remember that movie, I just want to grab my guitar and sing my heart out.

There will be no sequel. There will be no big blockbusters with these two up-and-coming actors, because they're not actors, and don't want to be. This movie is literally something that will only happen Once.

If there can only be one, then widows and widowers wouldn't re-marry. Very few would get married in the first place, in fact, since most people don't marry their first love, which often happens sometime in high school. Maybe what is meant here is "There Can Be Only One At a Time," which is the common form of monogamy.

To believe in something could mean either to believe in its existence, or believe in its viability. Obviously, it exists. Lots of people practice it, so it's obviously viable. Probably what is meant here is "Is monogamy right for you?"

Monogamy is about a number. The number 1. One sexual partner at a time. Some people believe monogamy is necessary because people get jealous. But it's hard to shut the rest of the world out, hard to ignore all those interesting, attractive people, and trying to do so can only make them more intriguing. In its attempt to enforce one partner at a time, all sorts of tacit rules are necessary, and people don't always agree about these rules. That's when jealousy can get really ugly.

Is it possible to be monogamous without those rules? Can a monogamous couple love each other and trust each other without policing one another? Is it possible for people to resist their temptations, avoid getting too close with interesting, attractive people? And just how close is too close? These are questions a lot of monogamous couples avoid thinking or talking much about, and it results in a lot of problems.

So, sure, monogamy is fine, if it's only about the incidental number of partners, and not about the secrecy, unmanaged jealousy, unspoken demands, scorekeeping, constant policing, and anxiety about getting too close to other people.

Cheese enchiladas
were definitely yummy
not rocket science

I've had many struggles with conflict, and mindfulness has helped me to start noticing patterns that tend to run through them. These patterns are almost always true for me, but I've noticed that most people I've met have the same patterns.

( Read more... )

The context of driving brings out some odd quirks of human nature. Like when I went to the library recently, to get Joe Satriani's latest album, Professor Satchafunkilus and the Musterion of Rock. When I got back to my car, I put the CD in and read the sleeve notes. A couple minutes later, I heard some honking, and when I looked behind me, I saw a car waiting for the parking spot, with 6 cars behind him. There were three other spots, literally only 5 to 10 steps further away. Just 20 steps beyond that was endless street parking. But he required my spot. No other spot would do.

Why? I could only speculate. It was the closest spot there was. There's this parking psychology, that one must always get the closest spot. It's fine to wait for it for several minutes, or drive around endlessly for it. Whatever we do, we must not walk any further than absolutely necessary!

The irony, of course, is that either these people will drive to the gym later so they can walk or run several miles, or else their doctors have been urging them to get more exercise.

I almost never vulture for parking. If I see someone getting in their car, I make no assumptions, and I'll look for parking further away. I'd rather park a mile away than vulture. Walking is good for me.

It's a question I get a lot. I realized I never actually wrote about it.

In the 80's, there was a little book called Sniglets, by Rich Hall from Saturday Night Live. A sniglet is "any word that doesn't appear in the dictionary, but should." They're mostly variants of existing words to describe funny concepts that we have no words for. Some examples:

Bozone : (n.) The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.

Chipfault : (chip' fawlt) (n.) The stress point on a potato chip where it breaks off and stays behind in the dip.

Coiterie : a very VERY close-knit group.

In the late 90's, I was trying to pick a username for various internet services. It's a common experience all of us web geeks are familiar with: all of our chosen names are already taken! I didn't want to resort to the common tactic of appending numbers to my name, although I did in some cases. I wanted to find a name that describes me, but that nobody has thought of yet.

I went to my bookshelf, skimmed the titles, and saw Sniglets. Perfect. I flipped through the pages, looking for something that would describe me. I found the following, which I interpret as, skeptical to the point of absurdity.

Euneeblic : (you NEE blik) (n.) A person who refuses to believe an "out of order" sign and risks his money anyway.

There are hundreds of Sniglets. They're hilarious. If you've got copious free time, check out this list of Sniglets.

John C. Bogle is the founder of Vanguard, the leading investment firm for low-cost investing and index funds. His book Common Sense on Mutual Funds has a section that explains just how brutal expenses can be on the return of mutual funds. This blew my mind.

When estimating expected levels of future returns, the long-term investor must be aware of the portion of investment return that will be consumed by these expenses. Cost lops the same number of percentage points off both nominal and real returns, but, given persistent inflation, it nearly always consumes a proportionally larger share of real returns. Here is one example, assuming a nominal return of 10 percent on stocks. An equity mutual fund incurring annual expenses at the industry average would lop off some two percentage points--fully one-fifth of the market's annual return. Now let's say that inflation is 3 percent; then the market's real return is 7 percent, and costs would consume nearly one-third of the market's reward. And taxes must be paid--sooner or later--by the investor. Fair or not, taxes are assessed, not on real returns, but on the (higher) nominal returns. If taxes on fund income and capital gains distributions are assumed to reduce pretax returns by, say, another 2 percent to 5 percent (a rather modest assumption), that 2 percent all-in cost of a mutual fund could consume fully four-tenths of the market's net real return after taxes.

This public service announcement is brought to you by the book Divorce Your Car by Katie Alvord.

It's a myth that cars need a lengthy warm-up before being driven, yet many drivers persist in idling cars to warm them up, or keep them idling while stopped for long periods. This idling habit worsens emissions. In Canada, cities like Toronto and Montreal have passed laws that limit idling to no more than three minutes. Any more than ten seconds of idling uses more fuel than shutting off and restarting the engine. Excessive idling is not only bad for the air, it can be bad for the car. Operating at idling temperatures can leave soot deposits and generate corrosive sulfuric acid in an engine. Cars are best warmed up by starting out slowly when driving, which will cut engine warm-up times in half and save fuel.

My friend and music partner, earthcub, recently finished his CD, called Between the Lines. It's really good. Check it out!



My favorite song on it is called Lavender Girl. And not just because it's a hot lesbian love song. I'm just a sucker for sappy folk ballads.

After all the rain a few weeks ago, Spring has been teasing us. Today, Spring is definitely here, in full bloom. It's such a beautiful day.

I was out and about today, running errands. I went to the library, the post office, and the car dealership for an oil change. Everyone I talked to was so nice to me. All day, I just felt this overwhelming gratitude for the freedom of my retirement.

I've been increasingly desiring to give back, to do some volunteer work, and thinking a lot about what I desire doing. Every time I asked myself this, I got the same answer: I want to work in a library. I love books, and I want to be surrounded by them and others who also love them. I've been keeping my eye on volunteer and job opportunities in the local libraries, but haven't found anything until today.

Mountain View Library is hiring for a part time person to do shelfing and organizing. It's a paid position, but I'd donate my salary to charities. As I ran my errands, I fantasized about all the causes I'd donate my salary to.

I went to the library to get my application, and I found that I know the guy who's doing the hiring. He's a fellow musician named Izzy. We've geeked out about music before when I was at the library. He gave me an application, and we scheduled a time on Saturday for me to take the test.

I felt a little guilty. I'm over-qualified for this job. I don't need the money. There are so many others who need this job more, especially in this economy. But I'll be doing a lot of good with the money I earn. Part of me hopes I don't get the job, so it will go to someone who needs it more, but I get the feeling I will.

Spring is here! Get out of the office and go out and play!

When I was a teenager, I was a BBS enthusiast. I ran a BBS of my own for most of my adolescence. It was text-based and required peer-to-peer modem connections. I envisioned a global, graphical BBS, and when it came out, I wanted to be working at a company that was at the cutting edge. When I discovered the internet in 1995, I knew this was my dream come true.

A lot has changed since then. I'm still devoted to the same principles, the free exchange of information, and community-based software, but technology is shifting again. The old model of the desktop computer is becoming obsolete, as technology becomes smaller and faster. Mobile computing and internet connectivity is becoming very widespread. Now I have a new dream of where I think this is headed, again based on my principles of free exchange of information and community-based software.

USB keys can store so much data that it's possible now to fit an entire operating system and a set of applications on one. As these are able to store more data, I think it will become commonplace for each person to have their own personal system on their USB keys, which they can put into any machine and be able to access.

As computers get faster, boot times are shrinking. We're starting to see computers that can boot into a usable system within seconds. Eventually, we can make these boot times relatively instantaneous. That will facilitate this system-on-a-key, allowing anyone to stick their USB key into a computer, and immediately use their own personal system.

Desktop computers will become terminals. Anywhere you go, homes, shops, gas stations, restaurants, you'll have access to such terminals which can boot your personal system. They will become more common than pay phones used to be.

The same will be true for mobile devices. You'll plug in your key and your personal system will appear, and you can do your thing. With such devices so commonplace, the only reason for the larger terminals would be the larger interfaces. No matter how fancy mobile technology becomes, they're necessarily limited by their unintuitive interface size.

Every technology starts as proprietary and closed, but eventually they become commoditized and based on open standards. Then the costs start to drop significantly. Hardware will become cheaper. I believe most software will eventually be open source. Using anything else will make about as much sense as buying a telephone that requires its own proprietary phone lines, and paying more for it.

The biggest issue that needs to be worked out is security. USB keys with a lot of personal data on them can be very vulnerable. Sticking them into any machine without some guarantee of trust and protection would be like having unprotected sex with many anonymous partners. Dangerous. But unlike sex, I think it's easier to make these guarantees in user-friendly ways.

For years, my approach to finding contractors was to just do an internet search and pick a local company that seems well-established. With this approach, I've dealt with quite a range of quality. Last year, I had endless plumbing problems, and decided to take a new approach: get references for good contractors, and create an on-going business relationship with them. They benefit from having a regular client, and I benefit from good service by someone who knows my situation.

So I created an account on Yelp.com and carefully perused the reviews. I was amazed at how much time and thought people put into their reviews. Imagine. Real customers, not paid actors, carefully instructing future potential customers about the relative merits of various services. That's better than money in the bank. It's not something a company can buy. They have to earn it, from years of good service.

I now have an electrician who impresses me with his competence and efficiency. I recently found a carpet cleaner that had 41 reviews with an average of 5 stars! They came out and did a job ten times better than my last carpet cleaning, for less cost. I reviewed them on Yelp, and gave them 4 stars:

Our carpets were awful before Genesis came out. They were friendly but got right to work, and worked very hard and efficiently. Their rates were very reasonable. They charge by square footage, not by severity, so I gave them a tip. They were an hour late, partly because they had trouble finding the place. There was one stain that came back after it dried, but the rest of the place looks great.

I only write these because I'm trying to give back to the Yelp community. I never expect the companies to actually read them. But the next day, I had a message on my machine, thanking me for my Yelp comment, and asking if they could come out again and take care of that stain.

I thought about this. I remember looking them up in the phone book when they were late, and couldn't find them. I've never seen ads for them. The same was true for my electrician. They seem to depend primarily on referrals to get new business. Why bother advertising when you can get 41 glowing reviews on Yelp.com? Seriously?

radven recently mentioned the Cluetrain Manifesto, and I was surprised that I'd never heard of it. Then I realized I had, a long time ago, but didn't give it much thought. "Yeah right," I thought at the time, "keep dreaming."

You know you're a bleeding heart when...

You can't help but feel guilty for all those poor, defenseless little weeds, that are just minding their own business, trying to survive, and people systematically slaughter them en masse just because they don't like the way they look.

I'm getting really hooked on this indie artist from Ohio, Josh Woodward. All his music is licensed under Creative Commons, which makes it really easy and fun to share. So far, my favorite songs are Private Hurricane, Memorized, and The Parade.

Private Hurricane is mellow for most of the song, with just one guitar, a subtle banjo, and vocals. The accordian comes in about 1/4th of the way through. I love how he brings his voice up into falsetto during the part where he sings, "I won't let you in." The accordian drops out again, and then almost halfway through, the drums and another guitar come in, and it starts to build, but then drops off again. I love that! Then one guitar only, playing an awesome riff for a few bars, then the drums and electric guitar solo come pounding in, and the song just rocks. earthcub says this song reminds him of my songwriting.

Memorized just gives me chills. I like the guitar arpeggios during the verses. I love the banjo, cello, and vocal melody on the chorus, especially the series of choruses at the end when he starts to change up the vocal melody.

The Parade is a very soft song. This is the sound I used to go for in my songwriting: a powerful intensity over a simple arpeggio. His voice and vocal melody in this song just astound me. Absolutely beautiful.

If you like these, there's lots more where that came from, all free! He has hundreds of songs on a half dozen albums. Check out his website and Myspace page.

Most tech-savvy people I know get excited by a new iPhone, or a new version of MacOS X. Me, I'm a little weird. I like to stay behind the curve, so my excitement is usually delayed. I also don't use technology that most people use. And, well, I'm a total geek.

Nothing excites me more than a new version of Debian, the Linux operating system that I run. They release infrequently, with slightly outdated versions of software, because they value stability over the latest features. I've written about Debian a few times, and why I love it so much. This weekend, Debian 5.0 was released, codename Lenny, named after the binoculars in the movie Toy Story.

I'm excited to play with the new toys, like Iceweasel 3, swfdec, and MoreBlue Orbit. I've also got a number of projects I've been planning on starting after 5.0 was released. Like apt-build, which re-compiles an existing system, and using SELinux for fine-graned security control. I'm going to compile a pre-emptive kernel, free of proprietary firmware blobs. And I'm going to try my hand at Debian From Scratch, so I can learn how the installer works by executing its steps by hand.

Idealistic, freedom-loving geeks around the world, rejoice!

Republican: Everything is fine.

Democrat: Everything is fine, but we should give more money to poor people.

Natural Law: Everything is fine, but we should meditate more.

Reform Party: Everything is fine, but we need to fix a few things, including our own party.

Constitution Party: Everything used to be fine.

Socialist Party: Workers of the world, unite!

Libertarian: Less government, more corporations.

Green Party: Less corporations, more government.

Peace and Freedom: Like the Greens, but less colorful.

Anarchism: The whole system is fucked.

I've always hated haggling. It seemed fundamentally dishonest. The way I figured, if you are offering to sell something for X dollars, and someone offers X minus $10 for it, and you accept, what you're basically saying is, "this is really only worth X minus $10, but I was trying to fleece you for extra in case you were too lazy to haggle." The honest approach is to pick a fair price, and sell it for exactly that. If someone haggles, they're asking, "were you being dishonest in your pricing?" By refusing to haggle, you're responding, "I'm not dishonest--this really is what it's worth to me."

But I read a small section in the book The Complete Tightwad Gazette that made some points I'd never thought of before, and as I read it, I thought of other reasons it didn't mention that haggling might make sense.

( Read more... )

Not that I'm ready to go out and haggle a lot, but I'm not against doing so if it comes up.

I discovered this really unique band on Radio Paradise called Gogol Bordello. I really like it.

Wikipedia has an amusing, though accurate, description:

Gogol Bordello is a multi-ethnic Gypsy punk band from the Lower East Side of New York City that formed in 1999 and is known for its theatrical stage shows. Much of the band's sound is inspired by Gypsy music, as its core members are immigrants from Eastern Europe. The band incorporates minor-key accordion and fiddle (and on some albums, saxophone) mixed with cabaret, punk, and dub as well as multiple languages. Phill Jupitus has once described the band as "a bit like The Clash and The Pogues having a fight... in Eastern Europe," while Kenneth Partridge of The Hartford Courant described lead singer Eugene Hütz's voice as "somewhere between that of Borat and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog".

It's like the musical equivalent of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Chocolate and peanut butter seem an unlikely combination, but they blend surprisingly well together. Gogol Bordello is a wacky combination of different styles that work really well together.

It's rare these days that I discover a new artist that wows me. I wish I could afford their CD. Has anyone ever heard of Gogol Bordello?

I have mixed feelings about this book, The Better World Handbook. I like that they're trying to combat the cycle of cynicism that leads to apathy. I like their list of thought traps that keep people feeling helpless in making a difference. I like that they're trying to give people concrete actions they can take to make the world better. The actions they recommend are really good things to do, and I hope they inspire people to take them, as some of them have inspired me. It also serves as an impressively thorough reference guide for resources, books, and organizations.

But there my appreciation for this book ends. There are so many of my pet peaves this book triggered.

The subtitle is Small changes that make a big difference. Their philosophy is that if we all make little changes, they add up in big ways. They're right. The problem is, they're not big enough. If everyone did every single action in this book, it would definitely be a better world, but we'd still be living unsustainably, still out-stripping resources, and still pouring too much carbon into the atmosphere.

It seems like what liberal Americans really want to hear is, "it's okay. You don't have to re-think your worldview. You don't have to make any major lifestyle changes. Just make these little changes. Buy stuff from nicer companies, vote, and write to your representatives. Then you can go on living just as you were before." No wonder this book is so popular. People have been nursing their guilt for so long, and they've been clamoring for some easy solutions to help alleviate that guilt.

I don't think guilt is a useful emotion after a certain point, but we need to be realistic. There are no easy solutions. The problems are just too complex and too big. The problem isn't in the little choices we make from day to day, but the values, stories, and beliefs that inform those choices. This book implies that those don't need to change. They do.

I understand that this book is trying to not overwhelm readers. They advocate an incremental approach to improving the world, which I support. It doesn't help to insist on enormous lifestyle changes overnight. It also doesn't help to play the "I'm greener than you are" game, and that's not what I'm trying to do. It just seems that they're purposely trying to downplay the severity of the problems and therefore the magnitude of solutions needed, in order to achieve that end, and that's what I disagree with. This can actually make things worse, as it can give people a false sense of security and completion. They can feel like they've "done their part" and now they can go back to consuming and wasting like good Americans.

They also make things worse by perpetuating common environmental myths. The big one is the claim that automobiles are the largest contributor to global warming. Beef production causes more global warming than all automobiles, boats, airplanes, and trains combined.

A lot of it is in their language. Things like "cleaning up the environment." Uncleanliness isn't the problem. We don't need to stop being dirty; we need to stop being wasteful--big difference. "Environmentally friendly." Unfriendliness isn't the problem. We can be as mean as we want to it, as long as we stop pouring carbon into it. "Environmental sustainability." The environment will sustain just fine. It's our species that we're having trouble sustaining. Just the word "environment" itself has problems, as it implies that such a thing exists, somewhere outside of humans. It's not "humans" and "the environment," but one big ecosystem.