New Blog

I still plan to start a new blog soon. Whatever that blog is about will be a lot more consistent than this blog. I realize that this blog covers a wide range of topics.

I am currently online at a coffee shop. I am here a the coffee shop a lot more infrequently than in the past. This sort of thing is my bag so I can't really complain about that.

Its interesting how the meaning/ connotations of words change over time. Someone was having difficulty paying attention to someone recently so they said that they were feeling a little bit ADD/ADHD. That word is not loaded with as much meaning as it was in the past. At some point in the past the poster child for ADD was someone who couldn't resist the urge to drop kick someone for no reason. They attributed that to an attention deficit. Now an attention deficit is if you aren't paying attention. Its not loaded the way that it used to be.

Funny Story: As everyone knows, I was homeless for a while. I am not sure that I can claim to not be homeless right now but I am in a different situation than I was before. There was a cat (Literally A Cat) at the homeless shelter where I lived previously. The cat had (or At Least tied with someone else) the distinction of being my best friend there. One day there was an incident that that stuck with me. Its interesting what sticks with a person. I was talking to someone there. He was standing up on a chair and said, "I figured out what wrong with you! You're dumb!!" Then he jumped off the chair and stomped the ground near the cat and scared the cat away. I said, "I'm never gonna forget this!" It was a big deal at the time, but it is funny in hindsight.

My Life since 2005 in a nutshell

I analogize my situation to this: If someone burns a cross on my front lawn, people choose to call the city and report that my property is now in violation of a local ordinance as opposed to calling the police and reporting a hate crime. I find it interesting that thats what they see when they look at my situation and wonder how I came to be surrounded by anyone who would do that. That is a Great analogy for my situation and how i ended up in my current position. People often do the same (or more or less the same thing) for vastly different reasons. It might not result in a difference that matters most of the time, but it all comes to a head eventually. Over time it leads to outcomes that don't resemble...

2/17/2010

I felt like I was dying for a while on monday. I wonder what I ate that caused that...

The best "name-caller" ever can defeat many legitimate arguments. At some point most people see that sort of thing happen. I do what I can to make sure that the merits of my argument is never overshadowed by that sort of thing...

I saw something very hurtful happened recently. I am no stranger to seeing that sort of thing happen. The nature of what occurred caused me to think: What are the most damaging thing that you can do to someone without actually battering them or doing something that would obviously lead to liability?

People talk about "hearing" or not being able to "hear" people often (I don't mean this in the literal sense). This isn't a new idea: People were talking about this sort of thing before I was old enough for it to matter to me. I have been trying to think of a test for whether a person can "hear" someone or not. This test is still in the beginning phases but: If your "good sense" never/rarely leads you to the same conclusion as someone else then you can't "hear" them. If you can't agree with someone about things that you consider to be a no-brainer, then you can't "hear" them. Sometimes a person can't "hear" someone in regards to a specific issue. Sometimes a person can't "hear" anything that someone ever says. Obviously, if a person has no concept/very little concept of what someone is talking about, they can't "hear" them. It is rare that I have to explain something to someone who has no top-down processing (I don't know if they use this term anymore) about whatever the topic is but they "hear" what I am saying afterward. I can't say that I have never met anyone Cool from MI (Detroit is a part of Michigan), but I can't really "hear" them. After living in Hollywood for an extended period, what I can ever hear is probably limited. I intend to be done with this issue for the rest of eternity after this blog. If anyone ever bothers me about this again, I will send them a link to this blog entry. In the past, I did not care about not being able to "hear" people (thats what diversity is all about, right?), but I am at a point where it matters a bit more in regards to specific things so if I stay in this country at all I won't straying too far from California.

An example of "hearing" difficulties is that I was trying to explain something to someone recently that required a concept of a middle class. There was no middle class where the person was from so they couldn't "hear" me at all. If you have been reading my blog, if you can't "hear" that I am a Heterosexual Man, then you are two far away from me...

People say that I have changed. I think that my circumstances have changed a lot more than I have changed, but one thing that has changed about me is that I cater to the sensibilities of other a lot less. I definitely do not aim to offend anyone but I have sensibilities as everyone else has sensibilities and decided that its equally important that mine are respected.

I am still looking for gainful employment. Its one thing to not be financially well-off but its another thing to continue to be that way. That is clearly inconsistent with everything else about me so I need to figure out how to change that.

2/12/10 Random Thoughts

I tell people that I disdained just about every moment that I was in the state of Michigan every time someone mentions it, yet people still bother me about it. Anyone that I would ever choose to interact with in any depth would drop the issue immediately so I don't know where they are coming from. Those conversations usually end with me saying like "Don't worry about it" or something similar. Apparently, if you set foot on MI soil you will never hear the end of it. People don't seem to know/see the difference between the Sunset Strip/Hollywood and a 2 dive bars that are on the same block if they think that they are "relating" at that level. I am accustomed to the former and not the latter. I am as not open to that experience as possible. Most likely people are mistaking me for someone else to a certain extent (Like a nontrivial percentage of what they remember about me was someone else). One finds himself in situations where he thinks that he talks to the same guy often but its actually three different people who resemble.

An interesting thing about me is that I generally treat people the same across situations. I don't take advantage of the opportunity to treat people worse when situations change or when we are in different settings. Its interesting how many people treat you drastically different (Not in a good way) if you are ever on "their turf."

Recently, I blogged about Bars and clubs that closed. Interestingly, I heard that Miyagi's on the Sunset Strip closed recently. Is that true? At some point, on a given night, that block area had the biggest intersection of different types of people that I have ever seen. It was difficult to get into the restroom because a group of guys were always free-styling in the restroom. I think I began to hang out there a lot less frequently when I found places that were more tailored to what I was looking for. Whether I hang out there or not, it still seems that its supposed to be there. At this rate the Hollywood sign is the next thing to go...

2/9/10

For anyone who wondered, "Anonymous" is still posting outragous comments on my blog. I have yet to approve any of the comments. I am thinking of starting a myspace page to get some support going... Or maybe I could use that new google feature that is supposed to compete with Facebook. You really don't have to post manifestos on my blog...

Everyone loses contact with people who they did not want to lose contact with sometimes. Its natural for these people to try to find and locate whoever they lost contact with. If a person is convinced that the other person would want them to find them, isn't proper etiquette to locate them and contact them immediatelyonce they find them? As far as I know, tracking them indefinitely is a very bad thing under most circumstances...

I was having problems with offensive banner ads. I was trying to figure out how to deal with the problem for a while. I read an article about how software/ viruses that cover the banner ad that is supposed to be on the screen with a different banner ad could be causing the problem. I downloaded a program that blocks the program that replaces the banner ad that is supposed to be there with a different banner ad. AdsCleaner Professional seems to be working thus far...

I was reading an article about an interview with one of the guys from Mili Vanili recently. He was talking about the scandal 20 years agoo and sought to clarify some misinformation about what happened. He didn't say it directly but he seemed to suggest that what happened was less not about them not being able to sing on the albums: It was about the guys who sang not being able to present the proper appearance during performances/ on videos. He suggested that them singing on the album was not their decision. I will take his word for it...

I had an incident where I got sexually harassed by some gay guy while I was at my last position. I am Heterosexual so I was very hostile toward said "contact." Sometimes it really is best to just take "No" for an answer. I decided to report the incident as opposed to resorting to violence. My work was connected to my living arrangements. I ended up having to move out soon after that incident. From my vantage point it seemed that my lack of interest was the reason. The outcome of the reporting of that incident was that "none of the witnesses saw anything" so the guy gets away with it without any reprimand. I guess that thats what street-life is all about. Now I am very aware of who I am left alone with at all times (Not that it necessarily matters, I think that these sorts of things happen because a guy talks about his girlfriend all the time then comes out of the woodworks with an unwanted advance as opposed to being openly gay) and trying to decide what my next move is in regards to that incident. Anyone know a good lawyer? "Anonymous" wasnts to know how I ended up in this situation. This paragraph should give a hint: A long string of incidents of this magnitude in which no one was ever held accountable.

2/6/10

People are organized for a lot of different types of reasons. The reasons for being organized range from admirable reasons to reasons that are a lot less so. Any group that is organized for any reason can be used for just about any reason for which any other group is organized. Thats interesting to think about. It is a continuum and there is a fine line. At what point is a group organized and has crossed the line into being the sort of thing that no organized group would ever claim to be. How many "organizations" or organized groups are not honest with themsleves about what they truly are. I think that there is a kill swich in people's brains that wouldn't allow them to look at a lot of organized groups that way.

I was reading an article about a submarine. The article's was about Virgine Limited Edition introducing a new underwater submarine called the Necker Nymph: Virgin introduces the Necker Nymph. I thought that it must have been a satirical article at first but it was serious. That falls under the umbrella of things that people did "because they felt like it." I guess that, at the end of the day, if you own a submarine you can name it whatever you want to... (I would post a link to these articles but am having difficulties. Shouldn't be difficult to find these articles online)

I was reading an article that said that officials in Vegas found President Obama's verbal attacks on Las Vegas to be problematic/ harmful, that he was not welcome there, and that they would do anything in their power to get him kicked out of Las Vegas if he was ever there. I am often surprised about what can be done legally, but can Las Vegas officals really kick the President of the United States out if he deicded to visit? I would assume thta they couldn't but the article suggests that Vegas officials think that they could...

I was reading another article about Leonard Da Vinci. It said that researcher wanted to explore a theory that the Mona Lisa was somehow a self-portrait of Da Vinci. In order t do so thay wanted to exhume him in order to do a facial reconstruction. I don't usually profile people, but these strike me as the sort of people who truly only thought "We know where he is buried and we have the technology to do the reconstruction." I bet that that is literally the only thing that they took into consideration.

I have blogged about verbal batteries and captive audiences. These situations range from the subtle to the "not-so subtle". The last time that I saw a speaker clearly hit a large audience with a bunch of verbal batteries, half of the audience was standing there with their fists balled by the time that the speaker was done with his speech...

2/3/10

-This past sunday I went for a walk at around 9:00 p.m. Randomly, there was a fireworks show going on near where I was walking. It was impressive enough that I started walking toward the fireworks. After a few blocks of wlaking in that direction it dawned n me that I am no tthe type of person who usually starts walking towards those sorts of things. I remember an incident where a fire brke out on top of a skyscraper that I was near. Everyone in the area who wasn't driving started running toward the building. I was the only person that I saw walking away from the building. I always thought that that was interesting...

Has there ever been a freak accident where someone seriosuly hurt themselves because they were nodding their head too hard. It must happen occasionally...

Recently, I realized that I rely on videogames to keep me up to date about players/ teams capabilities. The ratings that sports-related video games give players is very detailed lately. Players get rated on every aspect of the games from lateral movements to every type of skill level. This results in gameplay that is detailed enough that you should have an advanced understanding of player's tendencies and how teams play if you play an entire season. I definitely like to watch sports on television but I can't possibly watch sports enough to get as much information as I get from a video game...

I haven't chatted with anyone who wasnt already on my friendlist since seven years ago. Bots were not around back then. How long does it take for most people to figure out that they are chatting with a bot as opposed to a real person?