New Art

I think I may have finally come to agreement with the notion of there being nothing new in art. This doesn't mean that new art cannot be provocative or inspiring, but that I highly doubt there will be any new ways to apply paint to canvas, words to paper, or chisels to stone. Most, if not all, art will likely be derivative of something, whether that something be comic books, religious icons, or Greek pottery, doesn't really matter. What will matter is creating something that still speaks to the current age and hopefully to future ages. I am also fairly certain that this notion stretches across all disciplines, from poetry to painting to sculpture to music.

Ephemeral Reading

The recent shuttering of Geocities brings something up which I don't think many people have truthfully considered in the grand realm of "free" Internet services. If Geocities managed to last ten years or so after its heyday, what sort of lifespan will blogs experience. The Geocities article points out that cost probably wasn't the reason for the shuttering, but rather that there was no profit in keeping it open. How far back will Blogger, Blogspot, and other sites decide to store data, and at some point, will they charge for maintaining it? I think the same article mentions the average audience size for blogs is one person, which would indicate little ad revenue from the majority of pages maintained. Considering many, if not most, are like this blogger in the their frequency of updates, and you have the reason for so few readers of any given blog. Why go back if nothing changes? The odd thing, from the writer's perspective, is why keep writing if there isn't anyone reading, so you have your vicious circle. There may be an answer here, if one considers some of the successful blogs, they tend to be quite focused (DailyKos) or project driven (like the one that became Julie & Julia), meaning their audience is fairly specific. Then again, if you turn your blogging into a business or a novel, you no longer are concerned with what the free service's corporate parent will do years down the line with your material. Perhaps some bloggers have already considered this issue and are keeping their own copies of what they write on personal hard drives, and then backing those up appropriately, but with the recent removal of geocites from the web, perhaps now isn't a bad time to consider if you want to keep your old entries, and if so, how you will go about doing it.

Marriage, Gay or Otherwise

In reading the linked article I was disappointed. As a gay resident of Washington the fact that our state government will recognize a committed relationship regardless of if the partners are of the opposite sex is a big deal. Now if we can get the state out of the marriage business altogether, life would be so much better. If marriage is a sacrament, then our government, with its theoretical division between church and state should have no role in declaring what is and isn't a marriage, but if it needs to define relationships and families for legal purposes, then by all means, there are a plethora of non emotionally charged legalistic phrases they could use, and let the church keep marriage. By letting individual churches decide what constitutes marriage, most couples are likely to find a sympathetic pastor who will perform the ceremony.

Personally, I don't see gay marriage leading to anything but gay divorce, and while I am sure to be pilloried, I doubt I am the only person who has ever proposed this.

I found it peculiar

I should still be thinking about roughly the same things I was thinking about four months ago. If the problem had resolved itself, I probably wouldn't still be thinking about it, but I doubt the problem will solve itself outside of the foreseeable future, and when it does resolve itself, there will be a moderate-right party. I am not saying there won't be a far right party, but there are too many socially liberal fiscally conservative folks out there with no real representation, as the party of Lincoln is no longer functioning in that respect.

Thoughts on media and rationality

I have been wondering lately, if Fox News didn't make loads of money by being right leaning, would they actually balance things out, or perhaps lean left if that brought them the cash? Honestly, I would bet they would go where the money is, as after all, they are good free market capitalists, or so they claim. That being said, I doubt there will ever be good money on the left, generally because the left is willing to debate rationally rather than emotionally. From what I have seen of Fox, they do not look at things from a rational right wing perspective, but from an emotional right wing perspective. My guess is that rational Republicans tend to be far too moderate, but this is only a hypothesis.

Air America was/is an attempt at a successful left-wing talk radio business model. It hasn't made money, but how do you make money trying to discuss issues when you aren't yelling and creating a commotion. Of course, many of Air America's target audience probably already get their news from NPR, and if you have the news, in a relatively straight forward format, one can come to one's own opinion of its effects. Not to say that on something complex like regulatory legislation, some expert commentary isn't appreciated to help decipher the complexities, but in most cases people figure things out on their own, and aren't put out by creating their own opinions.

Maybe I am wrong, but I also doubt the left looks for talk radio to be strictly entertainment, and would prefer if it is going to attempt to be info-tainment, then it should fall heavier on the info part of that portmanteau.

Getting bent out of shape happens on both sides of the fence, hence overkill with political correctness on the left and equating public health care with death camps on the right. When either side reaches the ridiculous, one might as well give up any hope of rational debate, though one doesn't necessarily need to concede. Oddly, when dealing with someone far to the emotional side, they don't even want to allow you to settle with an agreement to disagree, and without this nod, civility becomes strained.

Meaningless Fascism

Because I was reading a newspaper, and because I am lazy and don't feel like looking up the article online to link it, my word will just have to be taken on this. There was a book review in today's Seattle Times that roughly said that using fascism as an argument point in any discussion on the current state of things is a pointless end to the argument because the word fascism is not longer used in its historical context. Actually, it said something more akin to the word having been misused that it no longer carries with it anything, though I would add it still has emotional cachet. Everyone knows arguments based on emotions are rather pointless.

The book in question was something about the political right and the difference between traditional conservatives (perhaps not a bad thing) and those who would prefer to scream and shout and engage people at a visceral level for changes in the government that may not even be constitutional. Regardless, the article gave me a something to think about on the way home from Taco Time. What I wondered about, aside from how the word fascism is fanged but without fangs, was how it seems that in this country the Republicans seem to scream more when they are out of power than the Democrats. Let's just grab Rush, since he is an easy target. I don't recall hearing of him prior to the Clinton administration, but I am guessing he has been doing this since longer than '92, though at some point after the election his frothy style of talk radio just took off. Now he numbers seem to be up again, at least his press coverage is, now that the Republicans are out of office. On the Democrat's side, there really is no one that fills the same shoes, and that could be because Democrat's don't like being told what to do, but more likely because even when out of power, the Democratic party does not feel threatened. You lose, get up, brush off your knees, and start all over. Rush (or any other "name" Republican, until enmeshed in a scandal) is basically a rallying point for people who don't know how to work within the system because for too long they have been fed instructions, just like Rush is doing now. The party of small government isn't really that at all, just different government. President Bush told everyone to be scared and they were, and he said I need to violate the constitution in order to protect you, and the people let him, and now the current administration needs to clean it up, which isn't something that can be done easily, even less so when former administration muckity-mucks decide to bray.

While President Obama is doing little to discourage the stereotype that the Democrats are something other than the tax and spend politicians they have been painted as, the times are extra-ordinary, and perhaps they will manage to bring the spending back into the responsible realm shortly. Unfortunately, the situation was damned if you do, damned if you don't, but I do believe it is better to try something based on historical precedent than do nothing, which also has a precedent. Now, if we could only get everyone on board as to the necessity of action rather than knocking the action but not offering an alternative.

from Rilke, a book bought today at Epilogue

Why I started readying "The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge" today, as opposed to some book that has been languishing on the shelves for ages is hard to say, but I did find, on page 15, this passage: "What's the use of telling anyone that I am changing? If I am changing, then surely I am no longer the person I was, and if I am something else than heretofore, then it is clear that I have no acquaintances. And to strange people, to people who do not know me, I cannot possibly write."

The reason the passage struck me is that is resembled a phone conversation with my sister regarding our relationship with various other members of the family. For both of us, our mother has sort of morphed into a person we no longer really know (and who no longer knows us), though the odd kicker is that neither of us really want to apply the effort to know this person. Certain family functions will still bring us together, but there is little really to talk about. My life experience is so far removed from theirs, I might as well speak Greek around them, and personally I have very little interest in activities at Mom's church, which is not one of the many I attended growing up. With that said, there is very little common ground, and very little to make a smooth conversation, which makes getting reacquainted rather cumbersome. The pauses in a recent phone conversation had me wonder if there was much of anything we could talk about, though she was on her cell phone and there were other things causing distraction, so maybe I am wrong. For the sake of things, I did mention I wouldn't be able to see the fireworks from my balcony, and the response was of the "well, I haven't seen your balcony" sort of comments, to which I should add, that after living here for three years, it isn't my fault you haven't chosen to visit. Family always supplies one with interesting observations on life, and if one thinks about it, observations regarding that most basic and complex of relationships.

On a different note, there have been people who I have kept in contact with, who have changed as I have changed, and who make a constant effort to relate, and to those people, I will likely never be "strange" in the sense used by Rilke, though I may be odd.

Lament for Ballard

The brutality of the climate is becoming apparent on the commercial streets of my neighborhood. Every week another store seems to be closing up. From consignment shops, to camera shops (likely on its last legs for a couple of years), to book stores. Abraxus and Epilogue, both used books shops (with a limited selection of new), are closing. I am told the former is moving, which is what I was told about the latter as well, but that was a false rumor, as they wanted to stay in Ballard. While I didn't ask, I can only surmise that some increase in rent must've been their death knell, as a year or two ago they were forced to shrink the size of their space. Perhaps another pet shop will open up, making three within a year to open up, though I didn't realize we had enough pets in the area to support more than a single shop (which we have had on Ballard Ave for at least 3 years), the new-comers being big and bright and chains.

More than anything, I think the lament is for the variety, as now, we will have but a single bookstore in Ballard to complement the library, and that bookstore's focus is children. I see no reason for them to expand, as they have worked ever so hard to specialize and build that audience. If there is something good to say, it is that at least at one point they took special orders.

It was a grey day today, so grim news like another book shop closing wasn't perhaps unusual. I now have another book to read, and will have to stop in again as they reduce their inventory.

May the 4th be with you.

Starting with a bad pun from someone's Facebook status may not be the best way to begin, but it is there... done. Titles for these things have become increasingly difficult to create, though if perhaps I managed to find something witty to write in the body, then something witty might emerge for the title. Whatever. It has been a week of wonder. Wondering what I am doing here, and why I haven't decided what it is I want to do next, though this latter wonder may actually be more focused to the last several days, but as it is never far from my thoughts currently, I might as well toss it here.

It seems I need to write more letters. I think I just need to write more, and disregard any concerns about what format, but letters would probably be a good thing. I really haven't written any in ages, or at least since January, as I think that is when I wrote a quick letter to Mom. It seems that right now I am doing a superlative job at doing nothing, and it has occurred to me that I should probably change this situation, but I haven't quite figured out what to do when I stop doing nothing, and, of course, what to do when you aren't doing "nothing" is a very important decision.

Why not mention that is it Thursday

Why not? I mentioned several of the other days of the week this week. Amazing, that I have four days running on here, and nothing to say. Actually, I think Americans are pretty good at running at the mouth while not saying a great deal of anything, if we weren't there wouldn't be nearly as much talk radio as their is. We had another really nice day, and I managed to get myself in gear and hike the loop trail over at Discovery Park. I still need to get better about getting out of the house on nice days. I mean, yes, I got out of the house, but I didn't manage to get myself in gear to do so until 3 p.m., but considering I did some job search and unemployment stuff today, I can't beat myself up too much. Tomorrow I still need to send off those resumes, which even though I looked at stuff today, I tend not to do until Friday. Sometimes, that is a good thing, because in rereading the notices, I discover that something is part time rather than full time. I am sure I would have discovered that at some point, but best to not be taken by surprise on something that significant.

Wednesday, by golly

Wednesday and a pandemic in imminent according to WHO. I am pleased that I don't have any plans on a trip to Mexico, though I am planning on riding the bus to go to some GLBT networking event, which means at some point I should probably create some personal contact cards, but I am not quite at that stage yet, and I am not quite sure what information would need to be on them. Anyway, as much as anything else, I need to get out of the house, and this is a fine excuse.

I have actually come to a few conclusions this week, but only time will tell if I manage to keep up on the follow-through. Conclusion number one, is that job hunting has to go a lot better when you feel pretty good about yourself, and currently, I am feeling rather sluggish and out of shape, so if I can improve that, then I should be able to improve how I feel about the former, as I don't really want things to get to the panic point, where I am out for any job I can get, because I simply need money.

The second conclusion is that I need to find activities that get me out of the house, because too much time looking at these same walls will eventually get me down. Also, if I get out and do things, I will hopefully have a better chance at finding that serendipitous opportunity that leads to a job that I enjoy. (And that means I could just have a brainstorm while out walking, or I could meet someone who has a need for transportation/logistics skills.)

And of course during all of this, I am reading Camus' "The Rebel" and actually looking forward to reading some of the letters exchanged between him and Sartre after this book was published, as Sartre took great exception to it, and their friendship broke up because of it.

Tuesday's bit of something

And bit of something is about the best description I can possibly come to regarding today's stellar activities, or lack thereof. Aside from laundry, and some push-ups and sit-ups, today's big accomplishment was making brownies. Inexplicably, IE7 on my desktop decides that it really needs to crash on a regular basis, and does so, normally while I am trying to do the job search thing. It did it this morning, and I managed not to go back and work on the job search thing any more today, though I did make some progress in reading Camus' "The Rebel," which is so far rather interesting as he analyzed the works of several writers/philosophers (Sade, Dostoevsky, and Nietzsche) and the effects of their works on the twentieth century. Not really just the effects on the twentieth century, but his interpretation of their works, then how others interpreted them (particularly Nietzsche) after their publication. Next he is moving to regicides, which the touched on with Sade, and how in killing the French king, ruling by divine right, the French also could be construed as having killed God. It is something to get my mind working, and no matter how much I may enjoy Lord of the Rings Online, reading is a bit better for me, so I need to spend more time reading, less time playing the game.

such a beautiful day

April has been anything but showers this year. Gorgeous mild and sunny weather seem to have been the predominant theme, though maybe that is just the last two weeks, and I have conveniently forgotten the early part of the month. It doesn't really matter, as right now I am sitting on the balcony typing away, trying to think of something interesting. The whole job thing is more depressing because I am not sure what field to look in. While sending out resumes is required, there isn't much heart in what I am sending out. Oh well, that is just the way of things I guess, and since I don't make the rules, at minimum I need to follow them if I want the benefits.

Ugly sort of job thing

I honestly think the only reason the "Employment Security Department" (Washington state's unemployment office) really expects you to send out resumes and such is so that you can see, on a weekly basis, how few new jobs are posted in your field. Maybe I am being too cynical, as I know there is a good reason to make sure people stay actively searching, though the problem is that one can easily throw up their hands and call it poo. The harder part of the job thing, at least for me, is determining what it is I care to continue doing. I fell into a job in a familiar field and I did it. The funny thing was, I found it and accepted it after spending time looking for something that I thought would be more interesting. This should be the ideal time to look for what I want, at least after I figure that out. I think Dave is right and perhaps I should write more, as it does a marvelous job of sorting things out, though I don't know if he thinks I should blog, journal, or try something in the creative vein.

Weekly Chores

Winter seems to finally be over, and the wonderful dampness of Spring has arrived. It also seems that Thursday is my day to finish up stuff for the unemployment thing, as I have managed to get my jobs applied for and my electronic form submission done today. I guess I should be happy that it is now that I get to do it, and not the old fashioned find the unemployment office and go there sort of thing. Coffee and job search are a nice combination, or at least an adequate one. I doubt I could ever get organized enough to do things on specific days and have my life compartmented like that, but I can sometimes be envious of those who manage it. For me, I think I just need to be busier, as I seem to get more done when I have less of what is perceived as free time. Oh well, someday I will learn the trick.

Another Echo

I wonder, truly wonder, just how much that we expect from main stream media will still be there at the end of 2009. With cities and towns losing their newspapers, just what is Google going to compile on their news service? This is just one change, I can't help but hope that AIG and the banking sector get transformed as well. It is quite obvious Detroit is getting a makeover. One thing though, can anything be done to aid those out of work? For every journalist out of a job, there are pressmen and custodians and secretaries that also go when the newspaper closes. For every factory that closes, in addition to the blue collar, there will be white collar jobs lost--as well as design and engineering. Somehow and some way, we will get through this year, but I hardly think the country will be the same, though I also believe that it is too early to tell if the change will be positive, though retraining all those out of work isn't likely to be done in a year, and shipping them overseas to fight in a war the administration is trying to end is also not a good solution. Change is inevitable, but considering how quickly it is happening now, there is no reason to figure out what is next, because next might be different in twenty-four hours.

Not much really

I have spent the day doing little things, scanned craigslist, deposited my unemployment check, and caught up with some folks on Facebook, including a few of my favorite teachers. I guess I shouldn't expect instant knowledge as to my next move, and to be honest, I think most of these posts will be on the dull side as I ask questions out loud, only to answer them. After three months of inactivity, I can hardly expect any peanut gallery will be there to comment, but all sorts of surprises happen.

Oddly Detached

Having been laid off a bit over a week ago, I have made the odd realization that I don't much care. The income was nice, but I really didn't like the job. Make sure that is clear, I didn't like the job, though I did enjoy the camaraderie of my colleagues, as they were a great bunch. Now that the Seattle phase may be over, I am having trouble deciding what is next. When I moved out here, it was to be for five years and then a decision was going to be made as to whether I should stay or go. I am a few months shy of that five years, but nothing has presented itself yet as to my next destination, nor has a compelling reason been given to me to stay here. I think in truth, where I go is less important than what I decide to do, but I do believe there is some connectedness between the two. [Dave tells me I need to write more.]