Random Thoughts (Early February 2007)

I haven't been posting as much lately -- laptop death and general mood-cycling are two of the reasons. Also, I have been having thoughts more fleeting lately, and either they don't cohere, or I'm too lazy to put in the effort to expand upon any one of them.

This is the blogger's primary quandry -- posting after not having posted for a while: is an apology really the best thing to start out with?

That's enough of a disclaimer, don't you think?

So, without further ado, here are some of the random thoughts that made it at least as far as my notes.notes file in the past week or so. Some mild editing and re-sorting have been done to prevent embarrassment over typos or truly incomprehensible segues. Some embarrassment doubtless remains. But maybe one or two of the following jottings will provoke a discussion. And we definitely need more discussions. And fewer debates. (But feel free to shout back however.)

Evidently, that was not enough of a disclaimer. (Or maybe, we've moved onto the parentheticals.) Maybe now we are done with all of them. And the sentence fragments, too.

Other than that, I can only say: The back button remains your first and best defense.

That was your final warning.

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A quick fix of visual stimulation and forlorn imagination may be obtained by visiting The Astronomy Picture of the Day.

Here's what went though my mind the last time I went there:

When I was a little boy, I imagined that I'd have a reasonable chance at having a job on the moon. I was about nine when the Apollo missions first started landing there, and it seemed a reasonable extrapolation.

In retrospect, it still does. I often look at the full moon and get sad about how funding priorities shifted.

Contemplating humans visiting Mars seems like the next thing that we should really, really do. The problem is, at least a decade of hard-core robotic missions has to be done first -- no, probably two or three decades' worth, given the travel times, waits for conjunctions, etc.

And given our financial and political system, it's awfully hard to pay for that kind of extended, mid-range financing. Not much to show for a quarter's -- or even a year's -- work.

A decade's worth of work? I've got no doubt about that. Give me ten billion a year for ten years, and I guarantee that me and the rest of the off-planet geeks could tell you a story that would make your hair stand on end -- you'd have the same passion that we have right now.

To put my price in context: that's about one-tenth of the lower end of the estimates of the cost of your president's current deciderism decision makingism decision concerning Iraq.

As I've said to practically whoever has ever been in earshot, I strongly believe that the only way to ensure the long term, and ultimate, survival of our species is to develop the capability to get enough seeds off planet Earth. As Robert Wright has said, the technology for destruction is growing faster than our ability to contain it.

Plan B: (the momentary optimist rears his ugly head:)

Maybe we'll blow a significant chunk of ourselves away, but we won't exterminate ourselves. Hopefully, the last few will retain enough of the ClifNotes to get back up to speed quickly, and enough healthy respect for the unintended consequences to try a different path the second time around.

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Which led to:

Here's Where I'd Like The State of the Art to Move To:

Remember those watch ads from like the '70s, where you were told that as long as your wore your watch, the normal movement of your arm would somehow keep the thing going?

I have 4 rechargeable batteries. Two go in my camera. Two go in a pocket flashlight. During winter, I can conveniently carry the flashlight in a coat pocket (ditto camera -- we'll see what summer brings). The flashlight, while occasionally handy, is really just a way to carry two backup batteries, with the obvious occasional fringe benefit function tossed in. Anyway, I'd like the fact that I carried the flashlight to imply enough movement to keep the flashlight batteries slowly charging. (The camera's batteries' charging from just being carried around is Dream 2.0.)

For v0.5, could you come up with a gizmo that, say, straps to your thigh and you can charge batteries by walking/jogging? Should be small enough to strap to iPod or other waist gizmo, or have own belt/clip. Big enough to charge 2 AA batteries, say.

The Humanerator? The HumanGenerator? The HumGen????

Beltpack has some kind of storage battery. Maybe this instead of carrying batteries to be recharged, although latter would be better. Thin cable to thigh, some kind of piezo? thing to generate elec charge from being moved.

Would like other Professor items from Gilligan's Island, too. Exercise bike to charge batteries might be more immediately practicable. Also, treadmill, other home exercise gear.

Cynically, all of these devices are already plugged in. Could make v0.1 actually do nothing -- just add battery charging compartment to exer dev, charge off existing line current. Greens would buy this.

This is how the big boys would do it, I suspect.

This has been another in a series of great ideas that you could (maybe) make large dollars from. I would, but I'm more of a big picture guy too lazy.

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And of course, there is always the resident manx to provoke a musing:

Will you stop taking pictures of me to support your meanderings? Just got my eyes shut in time. Yeah, so I've scratched on this chair once or twice. That's to show that I OWN IT! And yeah, that's a Santorum campaign poster in the background. Sue me. I thought it would better serve as a dustcover. Litterbox liner would also be good, but the Resident Human is falling down on that. Since your eyes aren't anywhere near as good as mine, even when mine are shut, you might want to click on the pic to see supporting details. Or not. I don't care if you do. I'm a cat. Feed me.

Did you ever watch how a cat approaches a new thing in a room? Slowly. Slowly.

And then when she gets close, especially if the new thing isn't moving, she does one final test before she actually gets close enough to put her nose on it: she fakes a dodge away from it. It looks at first glance like a startle reflex, but it's so perfunctory that it really looks more like a feint.

The evolutionary advantage of this is easily guessed at: You (the cat) are priming yourself for a quick getaway right before the moment of ultimate risk. Also, if some annoying thing that should by rights be your next meal might be just playing dead, the close up sudden move should overcome any possum playing.

And we all like to play with our food.

If instead of "manx" you spell it ManX, it looks more gay. This will probably scare Republicans. This last is a good thing.

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From a bad moment with my explorations of web radio:

Music/Voices that set me on edge

creed

hootie and the blowfish

frank sinatra

elvis presley

elvis costello

the clash

michael bolton

kenny G

any version of anything heard in a grocery store

There are many more.

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From a few days ago:

It's a disturbing thing when you realize that you are in a new habit of keeping your cigarettes even more handy than they were in your last system. I have lately started keeping the pack and the lighter right on my desk, instead of in the handy slot of the dragon ashtray.



I am also smoking more. Perhaps these two phenomena are not unrelated.

A thought so recurring that it has no real dateline:

Story beginning:

I often think about suicide. Apart from the unresolvable worry about hurting those few close to me, I next don't do it because I'd want my suicide note to be book length.

Sometimes I work on part of this book. But the work goes slowly.

It's therefore hard to say whether procrastination is ultimately a good or bad thing.

And no, this isn't a cry for help. Or even attention.

Well … maybe attention.

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I have the plan that disturbing thought that these random thought things could suddenly become a regular feature. Maybe you'd better vote:

Accept | Decline