Maebius Musing

Inspired, somewhat loosely and somberly by this post, this thought kept bouncing around in my head today for some reason. (note: any sarcasm below is not intended to be directed towards Nettle or anyone else reading this…..consider this post privately cathartic and thought-provoking, not ranting)

Perhaps one underlying cause of a mis-balanced economic, ecologic, and commerce-centric infrastructure is due to overspecialization. In life, very few people want to be sailors; they want to be captains. Why be a soldier when you could aspire to be a general? Why be a slave when you could be a slave owner? Everyone wants to be great, and there simply aren’t enough peasants to go around, so people get frustrated and let their lives fall asleep. I am guilty of having a “great character” complex, so yes, I’m part of the problem.

I won’t pretend to ignore the problems with rising fuel/food prices, shortages, and the spiraling problems that affect not only our country, but the worldwide system. As Nettle mentioned, I too feel a certain fear and sadness that I probably can not do much to help those kids in Haiti who are starving and eating mud. But then I wondered, should I?
Should I rally against the world, selflessly burning my own resources to create some Great Charity which will help re-stabilize the socio-industrial machine? Should I cast off my own greediness and eat only minimal rice and beans so that the 3rd worlders don’t have to export their own meager supplies of grain to my bountiful abode? (a rhetorical question, of course).

Nettle describes her own efforts and lifestyle which certainly aligns with the current trendy ‘green’ lifestyle pushed by the eco-media lately, but I know she does them out of respect and her personal sacred paradigm. These simple efforts may not stop the suffering overseas, even if the entire east coast starts living to the same standards. It might be a start, but I doubt such efforts will resolve those issues within the next few decades, and by that time, Hubbert’s Peak will be a historical news-item, and our own culture will have moved on or pushed away.

But that does not mean the little things like buying local are useless.

It is the overspecialization of industry that makes the little local lifestyles like Nettles stand out and appear somewhat “puny”. Why grow a few tomato plants, a few corn stalks, a row of beans, and the like, when for far less personal investment, and with far greater efficiency, we can dedicate one large farm to beans, many fields to corn, and the like.

Problems like disease and natural disasters aside, monoculture makes real Economic sense in the short term! Even on a local level, my in-laws have a big garden which raises foodstuffs that are not found in my own personal garden. We share the bounty and are both enriched by it. It’s easy to extrapolate this outward to today’s mega-farms.

Yet, there crosses a point where the ‘mega’, becomes a mega headache. Even so, we humans still build and build, and build up each thing until it becomes top-heavy. I’m just as guilty of it.

Business, almost by definition, finds a niche and needs to grow until the niche is the standard. You either grow and expand, or you fail. Yet why should it be failure? Does everyoneneed to be the biggest best and baddest in the neighborhood? Human nature seems to say yes.
In the medical industry, this effect is being felt.

The AODA’s archdruid reported on this very topic, and it finally clicked with me. And his words are stated far better than my own ranting ones. Go read it if you want. I’ll wait….

But I wonder, what’s wrong with being a peasant? What’s wrong with a bit of humbleness? If we work in some little things every so often, our lives become simpler, and do not really require the existence of overspecialized industry. Walmarts would vanish (Doubt that will ever happen though).

This may sound like a plea for humanity to regress to a pre-industrial world, and in a sense it is…but I would hope it to be an intelligent regress. Having your own garden is a bit of work, true, and it is much easier to go shopping than it is to go weeding. I won’t deny that fact.

Yet, at least on out own tiny scale, the little changes add up. Being humble helps that person, personally. It may not feed the starving kids in Africa ( or elsewhere, since the shortages are felt in the US now), but making similar changes in my life might feed Me.

When it comes down to it, affecting ME is really the only thing I can do with assured success. I can help myself, and hope my own efforts offset the global gestalt so that one other kid gets to eat tomorrow. Maybe being humble, helps.

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Firstly, this is more rhetorical, but comments are greatly appreciated, as there are big shreds of truth behind the example. It’s been too busy to have a proper New Moon Musing, so pretend this is one, if you’d like….
Edit: pesky uploading-at-work filling the second part of this with ASCII garbage. I’ll re-upload when I get time this weekend…if I get free time online.

There comes a time as a parent, when one’s thoughts turn to the proper upbringing, and relationship of friend-but-THE-authority that evolves as a child ages. At first, during the stages of pregnancy, we planned all sorts of rules and regulations, the types of games we’d play, and the values we want to teach to our offspring.

In terms of socialization, it was discussed in great length the types of talks we would have as our only child went to school and inevitably encountered those “other kids” who might not have the same type of personality. You probably know what I mean here. The bullies who help give us opportunity to discuss social-anger redirection. The selfish kids who help teach that sharing is preferrable to hoarding the school’s toys. The teachers who help re-enforce an authority-figure status among adults. The list goes on.

And yet, in addition to the more immediate life-lessons presented in preschool, there is the fowarded parental gaze, which thinks of things to come. Girls, homework, college, girls (or guys, no pressure there), and the teenage angst-filled years to prepare for. Without dwelling on such topics, it is still something all parental types probably think about from time to time. (I hope that ALL parents do, but sadly, I know this is not a perfect world).

My musing this week, however is related to those types of questions when they involve someone other than one’s immediate offspring. Specifically in relation to the angst-filled teenage years. For example, the elder-child of a friend who stays over at our house. This other parent may have mentioned that they appreciate having us available as a safe place to visit, and enjoy our lifestyle and ethical acceptance of many less ‘mainstream’ ideals and philosophies. I do not judge easily, those who are welcomed into our home. Yet this means I become ultimately responsible for the care and teaching example-setting that happens around such guests.

Those who know me well probably know that I am not one to push my own values on others. I live as I live, and figure if folks appreciate my way of doing things, they are more than welcome to try them out too. Not all my friends would be as accepting of raising beef only to eat our ‘pets’ later. But I don’t hide the fact that the burgers for dinner were once named Norman if folks ask.

But what happens when I am asked specifically to impart some specific parental authority and wisdom towards those who may be a guest in our house? What if, one of our visitors displays some behavior that may not sit as safely within my comfortable acceptance zone? As an adult, and responsible party at our household, it is my moral obligation to address this topic. Yet as a chosen friend of the guest, my own nature does not wish to make waves and force a confrontation that could result in less happy feelings towards visiting us. Nothing actually happened during our visits, but our guest has told stories about events which cast a doubt in my mind about this person’s choice of friends. It’s the proxy-parent syndrome at it’s finest.

Mentioning, without going into details, this topic to the parental authority of our guest tends to result in an over-protective reaction, where my hesitant and minor complaints are overblown into “well, he better straighten up if he knows what’s good for him” style replies. This is also against my better judgement and not the nature of how I would deal with the topic at hand.

This whole situation involves nothing overly serious or illegal at the surface. It’s more a choice similar to “inviting the less popular kid to play Capture the Flag in the woods, and leaving them there to go do something else” rather than “vandalize the less popular kid’s locker or stink-bomb their house”.

Thus far, I have not addressed the situation with the younger guest myself, but feel some vague concern that I really should. On one hand, I think back to my own past and teenage years. At 16, I did a few things I wouldn’t encourage others to do, and yet I still think I turned out alright. One of my ‘favorite’ memories from Boy Scouts was replacing the drink mix with orange-flavoured laxative and watching the poor low-ranking kids play leapfrog with the outhouses all morning. Us teens could be downright mean, and I’d NEVER encourage this prank with my own son…yet I know something like it will happen.

We all live and learn lessons in life as we get out in the wilder world. I also had the luck of a decent set of parents, and stable home environment, which is a good bit different from the guest at our house. I have no personal reference point to make exact comparisons with.

So, to avoid rambling on for about eight more pages of hyperbole and vague comments (due to refusing to name specifics here), I’ll wrap things up for now.

To summarize my musings lately, what role does a surrogate parental figure have in relation to another teen who enjoys visiting us? Do I err on the side of authority and have a serious sit-down-talk, which I KNOW from experience (with other topics and another friend of ours regarding this person) will result in casting me out of the “safe place to hang out” and into “overbearing Parental figure” territory? Or do I err on the side of “being the cool safe place to hang out” and merely remind the real parent of my thoughts regarding the issues?

I don’t need answers from you, kind readers, for that is not why I muse here. Comments are welcome, but I plan to look back on this posting and see how things turn out in a few month, and wanted to put down in words what my brain’s been pondering this week.

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This is generally a short musing for now, since I am recovering from a fun and guest-filled Easter weekend, and my co-worker is expecting his third child in about….now. (Actually, his wife has not given birth yet, but the due date is here and she’s starting feel initial contractions, so this week is expected to see me here alone at work)

However, my musing for the day is one I’d like to see comments and engage in a hearty discussion with someone on. Mostly for the somewhat belittling humor I initially felt when reading the linked article, and how it reflects my own archaeological paradigm.

Question: Given a set of data-points and artifacts which appear to deviate from the local norm, construct a reasoned hypothesis to explain their existence in relation to historically localized phenomena.

http://english.pravda.ru/science/mysteries/104631-tunguska_meteorite-0

Putting aside my own “rational” thoughts on the Tunguska incident, the article linked above is quite interesting.

Not just because it seems highly implausible to my worldview and my own understanding of the reported ‘facts’, but in terms of the potential propaganda-slant this takes, and it’s ability to be read in terms of being myth.

On one hand, the article may be taking some unusual objects and applying a non-mainstream scientific viewpoint to explain it. If that is the case, it is simply a misguided attempt to delude the local population in the area.

However, what’s the harm in the story, if it is at least superficially plausable? Will the locals there sleep any worse thinking that instead of some random rock almost destroying their landscape, a sentient being helped save their landscape? Isn’t that the root of what religions do? Unite a culture with common mythology, in order to better the community? (controlling-the-community trends of organized religion aside).

Interesting thought….and one I’m going to ponder over the next day or so.

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While I have more than a passing interest in the current cultural and societal future, in regards to Hubbert Peak, and it’s affects on oil and pretty much our entire economic/technological infrastructure, there is another Peak which has been crossed, and have not found any good references to help explain it.

I’m talking about my self-referenced “The SpongeBob Artistry Phenomenon”, and how it relates to the animation industry. In essence, I think that while computer generated imagery continues to make huge improvements over time, the classic animation styles are suffering for it.

There is a really, really good article regarding the decline of “Saturday Morning Cartoons” which highlights a different facet of this troublesome situation. Perhaps the cheapness to produce lower-quality shows is the result of the more general inclination of today’s internet-enabled kids to not be sitting at home watching TV much, and the resulting budget constraints. But my musing here is specifically related to the quality of animation, which is only the partial story in that article.

This situation is also not directly related to the phasing out of hand-drawn Cel-based animation where artists penciled and painted on transparent sheets which were photographed in sequence. Digital ink and paint has now replaced pencils and pigmented liquids, but still maintains the procedural style of this type of traditional animation.

(side note, Princess Mononoke (1997) was one of the last feature-films to incorporate largely hand-drawn cel-colored techniques! Disney has been using digital methods since 1989. [source=wikipedia])

A few years ago, Disney closed one of it’s larger hand-drawn animation studios. Back in around 2003 or so, they even made an announcement to the effect that they would stop all 2D animation projects and concentrate more fully with Pixar and the 3D CGI market. Luckily, they have recanted that and are doing a decent mix of 2D and 3D styles now. I found a decent blog write-up to this shift (though it’s not specifically about Disney).

I also can not argue that today’s CGI-enabled effects are becoming more and more realistic. This is nothing to complain about, as long as movies don’t get stuck in the Uncanny Valley. The movie “Jurassic Park” made headlines for their use of believable CGI ‘actors’, and a no less honorable effort was made with the memorabe Jar-Jar Binks in the Star Wars films.

The issue I take is with the current popular 2D cartoon styles. Why do fingers need to be blocky? Why does every single thing on Saturday mornings either have to be manga-themed, or else so squared-off, unproportional and hyper-accented? Spongebob is debatable, since he is not based of any sort of real person-shaped figure, but do so many other shows and movies have to follow that style?

Take for example, some getting-outdated movies and current shows, as examples of this bothersome trend. Atlantis: the Lost empire, the 1999 adaptation of Tarzan, The Emperors New Groove (and the current Saturday cartoon “Emperor’s New School“, Kim Possible (which is actually a quality show), The Replacements, and Chaotic. All of these I have seen on TV in the past month with the exception of Tarzan, which can go hide in a cave for all that I enjoyed it.

I may be a bit nostalgic, or even more than a bit perhaps, but I remember while the plots of my favorite shows are potentially just as vapid and predictable as these new shows, at least the animation style looked a bit more polished and clean. People looked more like people. Cartoon animals were allowed to look more impressionistic.

Hanna-Barbera was king in my youth, and is a great example of the quality I am talking about. Likewise, if you ignore the cheesy 80’s references, Jem and the Holograms, Dungeons & Dragons, and G.I. Joe had characters that looked (to me) more like real people than today’s current fare. (Though both G.I.Joe Sigma Six, and the newest “He-man: Masters of the Universe are strikingly more manga in their newest incarnations, which isn’t bad.)

So I wonder, are my eyes just stuck in the past in terms of popular style, or is this trend more symptomatic of more/faster/cheaper cartoons in today’s financially competitive market?

And if this trend is due to slacking style on the part of the animators (likely due to cost constraints) are there any ways to recover? Or have we passed the peak of cartoon coolness?

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Recently, I was told about a potential opening at a nearby military-type base, for an IT support tech. Essentially, what I am doing now at my current job of 10 years, though with a more UNIX bend, while I have more Windows experience, and relatively no experience with Emacs or butterflies.

The pay for this ‘entry level’ position seems to be on-par with my current wages, (and with a 5 year gap of not even a cost-of-living increase here, that’s hardly surprising), and has the additional benefit of being a “government job”. This means much better benefits, potential to promote upwards as time/experience qualifies me, and a decent chance of retirement in 20 years or so, if current social economics stay the same, and the world doesnt suddenly go into a post-hubbard’s-peak implosion.

I am applying, though it is with a huge amount of fear, uncertainty, and doubt.

At the surface, and to everyone I’ve talked to, this is a great opportunity. Go for it, they cry, even if you take a minor pay-cut now, in 2 years you’ll be further ahead than you are at this current place. …and it does sound like a decent job, if I buckle down and brush up on my Unix and re-familiarize myself with Java instead of PHP.

However, I keep coming around to the question of “do I want this?”. I have generally thought in my inner-most worry that I simply do not think I prefer to be in an IT support position “when I grow up”. I can’t put my finger on it, and have written and said over and over in my head how to explain the doubt, but have yet to nail down the feeling in concrete terms. Don’t even try asking “Well what DO you want to be when you grow up?” because I’ve asked that very question over and over again, with little headway towards and answer.

In the interest of brainstorming phrases, proceed with caution below, this could get wordy…

I want to ‘Do something” with my job, and somehow, even at this current place, I dont get that satisfaction. I like the job itself, but every time a mouse or keyboard breaks, I replace it. This can be argued to be “helping” that customer do their job, but doesn’t seem to “fill my soul” in the same way that helping rake the neighbor’s yard does.<

I love computers, and don’t think I would deal well if I had to distance myself from the online world. World of Warcraft is an escape for me, from the drudgery of life, and a way to keep social contact with distant friends. Heck, even this blog is an online way to network for me. But I under that all, I keep thinking the online world is still “virtual”, and it would be even better if I could get involved with groups of people consistently off-line, such as the Open Drum group I recently found. The problem, is all my current outside interests involve camping, drumming, gaming, and other distinctly non-technical situations.

I have said and pondered before that my ideal “job/lifestyle” would be to own a hunk of land, grow things on it, and have either a teashop, or otherwise hold workshops there to teach others about herbs, winderness survival, ecological stuff, painting river rocks, etc.

For those who know what I mean when I say “I want Susan Weed’s land and workshop-meetings”, it fits my mental image of Utopia somewhat, though with a different focus. However, in that regard, I am also honest enough with myself to know that I do not have the business-mind to pull something like that off. I tend to start 10 projects before I finish the first one. If I was to suddenly win the lottery and all bills were paid off, I could see myself getting a teashop and paying people to actually run the place, while I helped be a creative influence in planning events, and helping restock shelves. …but then again, would I keep the interest up in 5 years, or would the novelty of non-computer-support wear off then?

Additionally, there is the matter of my current job. For all I complain about it, it’s not really that bad. Sure the boss is irritating, but aren’t we all at times? Granted, I have no immediate promotion opportunities unless I look outside this department, but that makes me at the “top of the heap” here on the bottom rung of this ladder. I’ve been here longest, I am frequently called upon to help with the tricky things, since I stuck around through the last 10 years worth of changes, and if not the most technical-minded, I know the processes that changed, and how they fit into the current workings of the company better than my co-worker. And I am willing to backup our night-shift operator in emergencies, often with only a few hours notice, unlike some other folks. I know the mainframe print position better than the official mainframe print operator. And because of how this, if I need to take an emergency day off to deal with something unexpected, I can simply walk over to my boss and say “I’ll be back tomorrow” and not feel bad about leaving early. King of the molehill is still a king, right?

In talking to my wife, we both agree that the worst that could happen is I grab a temporary place at McDonalds if needed someday. Heck, when I first moved to New York with nothing but a bag of soot-stained books and some spare clothes, I got hired at my current office within the week. I don’t mind temp-jobs and we can adjust financially without too much strain. Life has a way of helping work out the kinks and moving us all forward.

So, I sit at a tough crossroads here.
On one hand, there is an opportunity before me, which would require a change on my part, and a bit of re-learning to happen if I am hired. On the other hand, there’s the sinking feeling that if I stepped across that bridge, it would burst into flames and send me into the river below.

I can swim, no problem…but is the stick I might be grabbing for this journey tipped with sulpher and flint, or a nice comfy rubber-foot?

I don’t have the answer yet, nor do you. Could this even be the dreaded “Midlife Crisis?!” I doubt that.

I wanted to muse about it here, so there you go.

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