Politics in general

There is a sad reality to the playing field that is being crafted in conjunction by accident (by the right) and by intent (by the left).

The right seeks to unite a bunch of free thinking individuals. (hard)
The left seeks creation of lots of fractured factions that it then clusters around a common leader(ship). (easy, Hitler did it, so did the KKK which was coincidentally mostly democrat...)

The right doesn't realize that some on the left are actually inquisitive enough to realize their errors and change sides.
The left doesn't realize that its base isn't quite as stupid as it thinks it is and that sometimes sub-elements of said base will realize that the leaders aren't actually looking to their common good (or any common good, actually), and flip.

The right has math. And, the math doesn't lie.
The left has emotions and numbers. The numbers are lies.

The right grows by osmosis. But the left reproduces like a virus... that also kills its own with abortion, pro-non-reproduction lifestyles, and such.





I'm not sure where things are going, but I'm reminded of a fundamental truth. "The children are our future. May GOD have mercy on us all."

Imaginary numbers... and idiots

The root of negative one is impossible. You cannot (unless maybe you're a liberal, or leftist (I no longer care)) multiply any two numbers and get -1 as an answer. The character "i", the square root of negative one (the imaginary constant), is used as the replacement for this thing that is completely anti-math and anti-logic.

I love imaginary numbers and complex numbers. Imaginary numbers are a number multiplied by the imaginary constant. Complex numbers are some really strange hybrid where the number has a real and imaginary component, and that amalgamation of real and imaginary is "the number".  Until you wrap your mind around it, which you may not be able (and for which I will not judge you harshly), it gets confusing very rapidly. Imaginary and complex numbers are one of few things that has actually created value because of their excessive oddness.
This has value on its face. Without imaginary/complex numbers, fractals could not exist. A lot of thinking people are thinking about this thing. That's good.

My brain, being the rogue character it is, asked me the silly question, "What if someone wanted the square root of a complex number?" I was immediately out of my element. Being fairly logical and mathematically literate, I started rationalizing with myself. If the imaginary constant "i" is a thing, maybe there is some way to work this out. But, if "i" is the imaginary constant, what is the square root of an imaginary thing? Squared imaginary? What then if a person tries to square root the square root of -1? Cubed imaginary? At any point, do the imaginaries start to cancel out to reality?

I find myself suffering the difficulty of wanting to point to people and things and uttering the syllable "i". The people should not exist in reality, they should be imaginary. Reality should have a warning dialog above these people that the content is irrational. Sadly, too many of these clueless twits land jobs at news outlets which have the misfortune to pay them some income and to further diminish the credibility of the place that has chosen to employ them.

Where was it I started? ... I no longer care where I started or why.  This thought thread is done.

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Freedom

At one point, a very wise man who happened to have the mistortune to be a character in a movie said, "Figuring things out for oneself is the only Freedom anyone really has."

I intentionally misquoted (only slightly) it because lots of people are too stupid to know the difference (leftists). Set aside that the concept is completely and utterly valid. People that don't like freedom will intentionally try to find ways of curtailing the abilities of those that do think.

Some parts of the thought police, which don't really exist but, do kind of really exist, will say to you you're not allowed to come to a certain conclusion about a certain thing. They also will say you're not allowed to express an opinion about some certain thing that isn't what everybody else would say about that thing. They are full of bullshit. There is no cutting of the deck, there is no shuffling the of the deck, there is not anything that makes these people less than they really are, and that is evil. I'm done trying to negotiate with these pricks.

1995, success and failure

1995 was a real bifurcation moment in music. Unfortunately, the bifurcation was very strong. 

Some really good stuff got accidentally noticed. Some really crappy stuff got noticed and was made prominent due to incompetence of the populace.

The Cranberries and Natalie Merchant got noticed. In specific Natalie Merchant's entire album Tiger Lily got noticed and really made an impact on some people.  I was one of those.  (It didn't suck or I would have evicted it.)

Unfortunately some really crappy crap, like R Kelly, gotten noticed. In this some people with really really low standards ended up setting the bar incredibly low for "music" for decades. If I had noticed it, I would have spoken out at the time and said that it deserved nothing but contempt.  I was only first noticing Metallica's Black Album and being enamored by it, so I was not noticing the new crap that was being created.

According to YouTube, there are a number of other things that originated that year. A number of these things really deserve no comment plus or minus. It seems rightfully so that they have not received much common plus or minus since their origination.

It looks like Smashing Pumpkins -- Bullet with Butterfly Wings was also being created. I didn't know or care about this until at least two years later. But I approve.

Eccentricities

I started being eccentric at an early age. There were lots of things that I held dear with no clear reason.
My brother and I, being brothers in technology, in spite of being 6 years separate, ended up cooperating a lot because we were brothers in technology. When it came to transportation, this made for strange bedfellows sometimes. His preference for music and my preference for music were sometimes a bit desperate. And being the older person and often being the driver, my preferences overrode his. This made for some interesting interactions.

For example, at one point we arrived at a computer show and Celine Dion - To Love You More was playing (radio, late90's?).  We arrived, parked, and were essentially stalled at that point because I wanted to hear the song end. I more or less said, "I'm not leaving till they hear the end of this". My brother, to his credit did not complain.  The song ended, I killed the engine, and we entered the computer show. There are few perfect days and I don't even know how that one ended, but that one was good.

Ad quality

There was a case that just came up where an ad appeared and the length of the ad was thirty minutes.  Let that sink in a second. The ad started to run and continued to run and it was so not-out-of-context that I I humored the ad for 10 minutes before I finally decided that the context was good and all, that but I wanted to get back to what I was watching.  In general, long form advertising is the stuff that is done as paid for programming that happens to end up on TV and whatnot. This type of advertising on YouTube is awesome to me. Not only is it something that I probably would watch if I had a choice, but it will also not be interrupted by advertising because it IS the advertising.

Bill Nye, the idiot guy

Let me start with a borrowed premise. If you are not part of the solution, there is lots of money to be made in prolonging the problem.

The man (is he? even by his own math... wait, that's missing) asserts that gender is just a thing.

I wonder what the twit would think if every person in the physical world were to refer to him when he came to them as her or she. By his own misguided language they would not be wrong. And if he felt wrong about it, he would be wrong in thinking that other people are wrong referring to him that way.

Yanni

I was introduced accidentally to Yanni via the Indianapolis zoo, for which I credit my parents as having the wisdom to think that a zoo was a good thing for a child to be exposed to.

One day, there was some thing going on the whale/dolphin pavilion and we had the good fortune to be there as it was starting.  While all the seating was occurring, some person figured that music was better than silence and had a Yanni CD playing.  I was a teen at this point, and could feel that there was something special about what this man had crafted.  From that point on, I hit the library, record stores, and whatnot else looking for things of his making. 

At no point along any way have I regretted seeking his stuff.

This odd accumulation of happenstance has led to much gratification in my life.  I am thankful to all those that contributed, be they my parents, the zoo as an entity, or the person that chose to run the music during the seating.

Permanent incompetence

Today, I saw a group of three people that may or may not have been incompetent, but one of their number chose to walk in the bike lane as opposed to walking on the sidewalk with the other two. This is some degree of either incompetent or entitlement that really needs to be disabused of the multiple generations that have created it. Unfortunately, when I hear about news stories about somebody killed because they were walking in a bike lane and hit by a vehicle, I will think back to this and have less care than I really should.

Stupid people do stupid things. I'm tired of being forced to humor them.

If you do something stupid, that's on you. Done.

I was tempted to take a picture, but even a picture from the back side would have only gained these idiots some notoriety. And they deserve no notoriety.

Forced Opinions

If I'm not forced to have an opinion, I may or may not have one about said thing. (apathy)
If I AM forced to have an opinion about something, probability is that I won't side with whatever agency (person, group, whatever) forced me to have an opinion.(antipathy)
If I am forced to have an opinion about something, and government says I'm supposed to be tolerant of it, I'm more likely to go the Jefferson way and choose to oppose it.  There is some slush to this in that I'm more likely to accept local recommendations than state recommendations and accept state recommendations over federal recommendations. (fairly aggressive antipathy)

Some gays (male or female) are very tolerable.  I tolerate them.  I actively like many.  Easy. (apathy and/or friendship)
Some people tell me that I'm using the wrong pronoun set for certain people.  I care not.  Until that person comes to me and asks me to use a different pronoun set for them when discussing them with other people, I have no reason to not call that person by what I perceive of their physical makeup.

You want me to not care about you.  This is apathy.  If you force me to care about you and whatever you think you are, then you've forced me to care about what you are.  This is antipathy.  This is a lesser form of hate.  If you want me to not hate you, don't make me care about you.  Making me care about you, by force, ends badly, If I care about you organically, I may care, or not.  That's better than the hate.

Some folks better learn... and fast.

Unintentional taunting

Some places so forcibly project positivity that there is little question given to the inherent negativity that may be present.  The key concept here is projection of positivity. While at the location, any negativity perceived by a customer (no, they are not a guest) is jarring and potentially a reason to summon a manager.

One place this is notable is environmental music of the location.  Often this is done by some clueless person tasked with music selection to match some generic venue-style, approved by some moron tasked with approving such things.

The obvious idiocy and failure of corporate bureaucracy deserves little note but no positive otherwise.

Someone chose these things to be something that would probably be comforting to consumers at the location.  This is all well and good.  But, to a person that is seasoned in the location that is no longer a fan of the location, some songs become more of a taunt.

"Put on a happy face" (not sure of title or artist)
No. My happy face is miles from here.  I might be able to fake a veneer.

Taxes profitmongering

I recently filed my taxes.  Meh.

Federal government owed me money. No surprise.
Indiana wanted more money, on the order of about 66% of what I was getting back in Federal refund.  Seemed excessive, but whatever.

Filed the taxes anyway.  To pay State, was sent to some mostly non-descript site for paying all manner of "government" payments, and as a not-logged-in person, it didn't ask who or what I was paying for.
For a $315 bill, it wanted to charge me a nearly $8 (7.8?) fee to use a card.

I'm sorry, but I'm not.  If this is the payment system you have, it can go unmentionable itself.  Bill me.  I'll send a money order at a cost of maybe a couple dollars, but I will not pay your "convenience" fee.

I hope I'm not the only person to have this annoyance and choose to skip the "convenience" provider, putting said provider out of business.

I'm tired of being treated like a money-source.  EVERY state should be "retired" at this point, with enough money in the bank and investments to support itself without needing ANY taxpayers. States and the federal government were stupid and didn't do this.  That's on them.

Music Video wisdom

Love conquers all

Love means nothing

Annoying Bahamut ends badly
   (Final Fantasy series in general)

Annoying Alexander, especially if you're Bahamut, ends exceedingly badly
    (Final Fantasy 9.  Castle spirit summoned to itself being annoyed, ends badly for the aggressor.)

Wearing big flags on your back makes you look really cool
  (Master Blaster... one of those videos... hard to nail down)

Time compression is not noticed at the time, and possibly never.

How are you doing?

So many people ask the question, "How are you doing?" that any thinking person has a number of canned retorts to respond to this.

One of my standard retorts is, "I think I'll live." which may be followed up, depending on receiver with, "I'm not sure how to feel about that." (or very similar)

The purpose of this interaction with people is twofold.  I am dark. This is probably immutable.  In spite of this, I can and do humor humor.


Big afterthought:
I was going to add parenthetical things to clarify points. I chose not to because people that could be confused by my minor points or wit would be confused in general.  Even trying to help them find the general direction of "up" would be a challenge.  So, I left my thoughts mostly as-is.

Nepotism

In general, nepotism seems to be loathed. The reasoning for this used to be logical. But after additional scrutiny, there does seem to be some very good reasons for nepotism to occur.

You'd be amazed at how many unloyal people there are within your family. You should also be amazed at how many unloyal people there are outside of your family.

What should really disturb people is how many people think that government owns your business because government owns everything and thus knows you owe them a job. Never mind that they are unloyal to friends, family, and father big government... Or mother, or whatever.

Permanent stupidity

Stephen Crowder said something like this in one of his clips.  I take no credit for the original thoughts from which I went even moreso.



The left and most of the media (I admit there may be significant redundancy there) seem to be constitutionally (by their constitution, for clarity) unable to get out of their own way.

Trump is not a great person.  This is obvious to anyone that is paying a shred of attention.

The left are, on the other hand, trying like hell to make him look foolish, evil, etc. In doing this, the left forcibly magnify themselves to no good end.  Instead of talking about what Trump may or may not have done or may or may not have said, the annoyance of people with the left just continues unbounded because the left just keep adding fuel to the fire instead of just SHUTTING THE FUCK UP.  But the left just doesn't comprehend it because its members can't (constitutionally unable, remember).  So instead of proper criticism of the president occurring as it should, all the hate is being directed where it should, which is to say media/"journalists"/leftists.

The empty can (the left and their ilk in media/"journalism") rattles the most.  Until said can starts to fill (wisdom/knowledge is a good start) or the can chooses to not rattle, [the rattling can] and not [the attempted message of the rattling can] will get the attention (contempt) and be ignored or hated, rightfully so.

Employment

Let me start with a trick question.

Are there currently enough jobs for everyone to be employed?  (hint: It's a trick question)

If you answer Yes or No, you've fallen for the bait and gotten it wrong.

When government, be that global, national, regional, or local, get out of the way of people to fairly trade goods and services with each other as they see fit, there don't need to be "enough jobs".

If every person expects to have some job provided for them, they are robbed of the freedom and creativity to look around and say, "Hey.  People would be better off if they could use widgets.  Maybe I should make and sell widgets." or, "Hey, that guy's lawn is thick.  Maybe he'd be interested in paying me to trim it for him." etcetera, so on, so forth.

Yes, within this analysis and creativity, there is plenty of room for someone to take the step further and say, "You know, I could hire others to do what I'm doing and we would mutually benefit. They would gain my reputation and I would get some part of the profits from their efforts."  THIS is the essence of what employment is (in the form of jobs).

When government starts "creating jobs" it is only because they are capable of extorting the money for said jobs from people that are actually producing something (a good or service). And you can bet your bottom dollar (and that's always the one the government wants, isn't it?) that the "job" they create will employ the least of the competent to do something that nobody wanted done in the first place.  

Did I recently hear about openings for dangerous furniture inspectors, or did I just nightmare that? 

Ghandi reconsidered

Once, I thought that Ghandi had screwed up the math about how to deal with the tyrannical regime with which he was dealing.

My thinking has shifted slightly and I'm thinking that he may not have been wrong.  

Some "leaders" (managers, "representatives", senators, so on) under whose authority we are currently placed are clearly oblivious to how hated they are.  This is unsurprising when it is considered from the outside and it is obvious that the mindless or misinformed followers of said "leaders" create an echo chamber where the "leaders" only hear what they want and never hear ... truth.  

This is systemic of tyrants...  I could call some out by name, but it would never get through their echo chamber or even cause them even a moment's pause if it did get to them.

In the end, I think that Ghandi's actions had little to no direct effect on the actual leaders he was trying to identify or the evils he was trying to point out.  I think his actions worked more indirectly by assisting others to realize the evils (both policy and persons) that were very wrongfully being permitted to continue.

Unrequested "corrections"

Google is great (and I say that without reservation) at pointing out possible typos or alternate spellings for things that I may have gotten wrong.

But, there are SO MANY times that I have spelled something perfectly where some stupid recommendation comes up for something else, like "to" to "too" or whatever.  But, the recommendation lingers there in spite of the correct results being listed, and there is no link or button or something for, "Yes, I typed it right.  Leave it alone."  type of button or link or whatever.

Yes. Sometimes I type things wrong.  Or things are transcribed wrong (that's also on Google if the transcribing agent is not considering context, in most cases) so the results are off.  And I will choose to click/tap/whatever the correction.  But, especially from non-mobile devices, I am not a twit and I will not type like a twit.  When I type, it is generally purposeful.  If I type and whatever algorithm thinks I made an error, recommend the fix, but also include an option for, "No, I didn't make a mistake. Adapt thyself."

Are you sure you didn't mean "too" instead of "to"?  No.  Google should know me better. (or from prolonged sneaky experience with me with and without my knowledge, Google should)  So, give me an option for "Your recommendation is a failure."

I would hope that enough "idiot links" (as I call them), unclicked would cause said links to expire eventually.  But with the quantity of idiots growing daily, I can't count on that.  I would just hope that Google can distinguish between idiots and not (if Google is not capable to the task, then the task is failed permanently) and at least offer "No. I intended what I typed." links/buttons for people that appear to have some wisdom.