Post Jazzfest Random thoughts

On the City of New Orleans headed to Chicago, listening to Justin Verlander dominate the Angels, (thanks to MLB atbat for android), reading about oil spill and its potential effect on the wetlands that protect this region while they go rolling by my window (thanks to free NYT from hotel). The freshwater wetlands have been decimated by the actions of man and nature over the last decades; man has diverted the critical silt from the Mississippi that used to replenish what nature would take away via ocean and storm erosion, and oil companies have cut channels through them that allow saltwater to infiltrate the marshes. This and the work still required to rebuild from Katrina got me thinking of a goal for next year.
I want to do some research and find an organization that could use unskilled labor, like myself, for a week to clean/rebuild wetlands or work on rebuilding neighborhoods in New Orleans. I am sure the organizations exist, I hope I am strong enough to help out. I would want something where I arrive on mid-day Sunday, start working early Monday, sleep at group house or something until friday or saturday. Then maybe head to biloxi for a few days of golf, beach and gambling, to NOLA on Wednesday for second weekend of Jazzfest, sounds like a good two weeks. I wonder if I could do something that all of that time is not charged as vacation.
One thing I feel really good about is taking the train this weekend. Been a good experience, except for the shower, not recommended, and about same cost as flight would have been, plus free meals. Would like to see wifi and more power plugs in sleeper cabins, hopefully that is coming.
I am all in for Jazzfest next year, that is for sure. And I need to be in better shape to handle the day and go out at night, couldn't do it this time. Missed a couple great shows at Tipitinas last night apparently, but so tired and sore, and either getting cold or sinus infection, and couldn't do it. Met fun people, heard great music, had great food, even tried alligator pie, crawfish bread, shrimp and sausage crawe mache (spelling way off). Also had two glorious orders of Cafe du Monde beignets.
Only disappointment, other than me, was what Bourbon Street has become. I hadn't been there for ten years, but, except for the seafood or other fine restaurants, it seems like more a charactature of itself, a drinking olympics, an overly exaggerated movie frat house. I had no desire to be there after dark. Plus there seemed to be very little live music that was not rock/pop/dance cover bands, seemed like there were more good, unique live music locales in previous trips. Maybe I am too old, but how many Big Ass Beer stands and strip clubs are needed; I think there were 5 times as many strip clubs as ten years ago. They must be working though, or they would be shutting down.
Another note about jazzfest, you can go to noJazzfestlive.com and download selected shows, this is a great idea and I hope they can expand the show selection in the future, but most of it is probably rights issues.
I plan to be back in 2011, NOLA.

Post Jazzfest Random thoughts

On the City of New Orleans headed to Chicago, listening to Justin Verlander dominate the Angels, (thanks to MLB atbat for android), reading about oil spill and its potential effect on the wetlands that protect this region while they go rolling by my window (thanks to free NYT from hotel). The freshwater wetlands have been decimated by the actions of man and nature over the last decades; man has diverted the critical silt from the Mississippi that used to replenish what nature would take away via ocean and storm erosion, and oil companies have cut channels through them that allow saltwater to infiltrate the marshes. This and the work still required to rebuild from Katrina got me thinking of a goal for next year.
I want to do some research and find an organization that could use unskilled labor, like myself, for a week to clean/rebuild wetlands or work on rebuilding neighborhoods in New Orleans. I am sure the organizations exist, I hope I am strong enough to help out. I would want something where I arrive on mid-day Sunday, start working early Monday, sleep at group house or something until friday or saturday. Then maybe head to biloxi for a few days of golf, beach and gambling, to NOLA on Wednesday for second weekend of Jazzfest, sounds like a good two weeks. I wonder if I could do something that all of that time is not charged as vacation.
One thing I feel really good about is taking the train this weekend. Been a good experience, except for the shower, not recommended, and about same cost as flight would have been, plus free meals. Would like to see wifi and more power plugs in sleeper cabins, hopefully that is coming.
I am all in for Jazzfest next year, that is for sure. And I need to be in better shape to handle the day and go out at night, couldn't do it this time. Missed a couple great shows at Tipitinas last night apparently, but so tired and sore, and either getting cold or sinus infection, and couldn't do it. Met fun people, heard great music, had great food, even tried alligator pie, crawfish bread, shrimp and sausage crawe mache (spelling way off). Also had two glorious orders of Cafe du Monde beignets.
Only disappointment, other than me, was what Bourbon Street has become. I hadn't been there for ten years, but, except for the seafood or other fine restaurants, it seems like more a charactature of itself, a drinking olympics, an overly exaggerated movie frat house. I had no desire to be there after dark. Plus there seemed to be very little live music that was not rock/pop/dance cover bands, seemed like there were more good, unique live music locales in previous trips. Maybe I am too old, but how many Big Ass Beer stands and strip clubs are needed; I think there were 5 times as many strip clubs as ten years ago. They must be working though, or they would be shutting down.
Another note about jazzfest, you can go to noJazzfestlive.com and download selected shows, this is a great idea and I hope they can expand the show selection in the future, but most of it is probably rights issues.
I plan to be back in 2011, NOLA.

Post about droid from droid 4 months later.

I am feeling some pretty heavy buyers remorse about the Droid (© Lucasfilm)
I wrote the above sentence about two weeks after I bought the Droid, in late December. While a few things are better, still not overly happy with the product, 4 months later.
I don't understand why it is so difficult to integrate more google products onto my droid, i figured it would be a walking version of google.com, including docs, reader, calendar, mail. some of these things are there, but for example, i spent a lot of time creating a calendar on google.com with my favorite sports team schedules, because i thought i would be able to see that on my phone, no such luck, very frustrating.

My overall impression of the operating system is that it should have been farther along by now, it seems like it should have been a leapfrog to iphone, where it just feels like some things are better and some worse, and a lot the same. Hasn't this OS been out for a while?

Also on the OS front, why is google allowing so many versions to exist at once? There are devices being sold with versions 1.5, 1.6, 2.0 and 2.1. I thought developers learned not to do this long ago.

Lastly, for the moment, I am shocked that the largest search company in the world would allow their phone application delivery program, Android Market to have such a momumentally bad search feature. I get the impression they are saying, "Stop saying we are becoming evil, see what we could do to the world?"

So google, do something with the Android OS to make it great or stop, please. This isn't something that can grow over time if it doesn't seem that innovative. I will say I like google maps navigation, except when I am told my destination is in the middle of I-75, but I can't move my stuff from itunes onto my phone? Car mode should allow a new link so I can record voice memos, or use text to speech while driving, why is my droid speaker so pathetic? Thats on Motorola, but this phone doesn't feel like it matches the Droid Does hype.

Great quote

"There are two kinds of people, those that allow reality and experience to define and constantly modify their ideas and those who insist that their ideas define reality. The first kind make things work. The second type (be they right wing creationists, or progressive purists) stand on the sidelines wringing their hands and criticizing the doers for their "heresy," because doing anything in the real world always equals compromise, learning and change. " Frank Schaeffer http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-schaeffer/obamas-critics-from-the-l_b_147173.html

Poem: Ain't never done right

When I look back over my life
Such a vicious tally is what I see
I ain’t never done right by nobody
That has done right by me
So much negative karma
My soul could never be free

I spent part of the night trying to fall asleep
Bad thoughts running through my head
All kicked off by one thought, one sight
Seeing my dog licking her leg until it was raw
Seeing the pink skin where she was trying to stop the itching, the pain
And after I turned off the light, listening to her licking her leg
I could only think I hadn’t done right by her

I could only think I hadn’t done right by her
I could only think I hadn’t done right by anyone or anything in my life
My thoughts expanded from around my bedroom,
The unclean house
The unfixed doors
The unmown lawn
The crumbling porch
The half – done garden path
I reviewed more of my life
I hadn’t done right by my dog
I hadn’t done right by my friends
By my parents
By my brother
By my grandparents
By the rest of my family

I haven’t done right by my job
I haven’t done right by my coworkers

I haven’t done right by my ideas
By my intelligence
By my luck in life
By those that have helped me be in a place where I could be doing great things

I have a friend that people flock to
She makes everyone feel like a better person when they are around her
And warms their hearts when they think of her
She does more for people than it would even occur for other people to do
She’s so far in the positive side
She would never think how something would be for her benefit
And that’s what makes her great

My parents
I am not sure what I can say about my parents
I know they would do anything simply to make sure we kids were happy
Regardless of how it would affect them
We have taken advantage of that at times
Although I am trying not to anymore

I am an intelligent person, I can grasp big numbers
I can’t measure what I owe them
I can’t think of how I would begin to pay them back
To reciprocate for them, for anyone, what they have done for me
To get me to where I should be great
And it is much worse to know I am not great
I think I have talent and desire
Talent and desire without drive is utterly meaningless
Much more painful than failing
A much bigger sin to count

My friends have been so good to me
Tried to lift when I tired so hard to dive
And I have let so many of them slip away
I haven’t done right by them, not by a long shot

I haven’t given back anywhere near what I have received
I am the opposite of my golden friend above
She radiates love and is strengthened by it
I simply suck
Suck love given to me and am weakened by it
By not returning stronger than I get

I ain’t never done right by those that done right by me

10/5/05 1:42:32 AM

Diatribe on my pathetic-ness

Hey there world. Wanted to tell you of a not real pleasant set of realizations. I have long wanted to be rich and/or famous. I really only wanted this for one reason - I want to have sex with beautiful women. That's it, and maybe go to some nice places, mainly to have sex with beautiful women, buy a few nice things, to get beautiful women. Maybe I want to buy some nice toys, electronics and such, and watch some great sporting events and play golf in great places to, which would likely not lead to sex with beautiful women. Those would be mainly to pass the time between episodes of sex with beautiful women. Sense a pattern yet.
I have been lonely for most of my life, and I have loved the female form for all my life. I have, and I said this long before 40 year old virgin, put women on a pedestal and never thought I deserved a beautiful woman, a woman, love, companionship, anything that others find makes life worth living.
I feel like the only way I can attract a woman is being rich or famous.
People try to tell me good things about me to cheer me up, but I can only think of the shortcomings that I know exist and the failings that have made up my life.
I have thought recently that the attractiveness formula is something like - beauty + confidence + money/fame. Since I am low on the first two, I would need excessive amounts of the third.
I did once have dreams of being a great writer, since that is the only thing where I have any skills, the amount can be said to be minimal, but I used to think I had just gobs of it. But to be a writer you need both talent, which I have minimal, and ambition. I have no ambition to change. I used to wait until I was inspired to write before I would. (This led to a lot of mediocre poems to waitresses and exotic dancers. I thought of publishing a book of these, and I actually had a good title that I can't remember anymore - something like Songs of Longing or something similarly pretentious.) But I rarely sat down to develop ideas for short stories or movies. Now I just don't get inspired anymore. I don't think it is a step forward.
If I could give up my want of beautiful women, and the amount of time I spend fantasizing and watching them, I think my life would be alot less depressing and I would get a lot more done. This week alone, I have been enraptured with Carrie Keagan, Salma Hayek, my best friend and Rosario Dawson. Each of them have taken up significant amounts of my time in my thoughts in appreciation of their beauty and my dreams of being with them. Mostly pathetic. A certain amount of desire is probably allowed, much of the entertainment industry is based on this, this much though is pathetic.
So my life is an unhappy one, and the problem is that is it my fault. i got myself into financial trouble (sure, which is close to being rectified, but still important), i am the one that has trouble getting to work on time, and i am the one that has never done anything to follow or force my way to my dreams. That seems like a good point. you don't follow your dreams, you force your way into them. i think this is why i am fascinated by the creative process, and enjoy learning about it, why i watch dvd commentaries, comedy documentaries, read books like Born Standing up by Steve martin (excellent by the way).
I think I keep waiting for a massive inspiration or the perfect girl to fall into my lap. or at least my line of sight. everybody does try to tell me this won't happen, which means i have to do something, but doing something is hard, and usually doesn't pay off. Right now (as of this writing) I am watching Otis Redding perform Satisfaction - i can't get no satisfaction - no matter how i try (C Jagger/Richards) - i am not trying. i think there are to many things i have to make an effort towards, so i want to do none of them. That has got to be wrong, as it hasn't really worked yet. i wish i could accept that i am not going to be great, or rich, or in love.

Two thoughts on the right

So, I was thinking about the opposition to the windfall profits tax on oil companies. For some reason I was listening to RightWingTool2 (Hannity). He was railing against it, because the caller (whose dad was a geologist for the oil companies) complained that a windfall profits tax could not be imposed on foreign companies and especially governments. I doubt that is the case, the government has the right to tax whatever hits our shores, and most of those companies probably have local subsidiaries that do the business here and repatriate. Anyway, companies that are supposed to get the $18B or whatever in tax breaks in the current law are probably taxable.
I have fundamental problems with a windfall profits tax, but I disagree that it discourages investment - if there is money to be made, it will be made, regardless of what the companies would say:

BP Alaska, which runs Prudhoe Bay, said earlier this year that it had delayed the development in the western region of the North Slope as a result of the tax. ConocoPhillips cited the same reason for scrapping a $300 million refinery project.

I don't believe either of these, if they gave away a chance to make money, they are doing a disservice to their shareholders. Also, if more refineries are brought online, the price of gas would go down - refineries are the major bottleneck here.

I would rather just cut the tax breaks, instead of the government interfering with the market (which would effectively get the government out of interfering with the market in the tax code.) For the same reason, I don't like a gas tax holiday. But I do like the tax credit to middle-income families for gas. Good plan.

That's not what I wanted to talk about. The Right is talking up Palin in standing up to the oil companies, and for returning money to the taxpayers of Alaska. As I was thinking about this, and the $3K check that each citizen of Alaska will be receiving on Friday, something I heard a while ago popped into my head. Why doesn't the GOP mention that her standing up to the oil companies and returning money to the citizens of Alaska were the same act - she instituted a windfall profits tax on the oil companies, around the same time the GOP shot it down in Congress, to increase this years' check by $1200 per person.

Over the opposition of oil companies, Republican Gov. Sarah Palin and Alaska's Legislature last year approved a major increase in taxes on the oil industry — a step that has generated stunning new wealth for the state as oil prices soared.

I don't hear that story thrown around a lot. Does that seem hypocritical?

I was really listening to the Ed Schultz show (where America comes to talk). He had Michael Isikoff on to report on the ethics investigation in Alaska...

-- inner monologue -- ooh, that's not sexist is it, to talk about the ethics investigation, I think she is a woman. Well, I am going to brave it anyway. -- end inner monologue--

Michael talked about the rapid response team sent to Alaska to help (i.e. interfere) with the investigation by the McCain campaign. I think he mentioned 15 lawyers and staffers or something like that. He also talked about this team working to muddy the waters (his words) and try to screw up the process (my words). But my question there is: who is paying for them. To send 15 people to Alaska for a few weeks has got to be pricey. Are campaign contributions allowed to be used for this? Or the public financing McCain accepted? Should someone be looking into this?