Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Enough About Me; Let's Talk About What You Think About Me
California 2009
I came back to my home state Christmas Eve, 2008... just about two years (to the day) after arriving in Nevada, I returned from my relocation-to-Reno experience. Since coming back, I've been splitting my time between San Diego and the Bay Area. Most recently I did a short gig (five weeks) for the U.S. Census Bureau in Alameda and Contra Costa County. My pleasure in returning to my home state of California cannot be over-stated. I agree that wherever I go, there I am... and I'm forking thrilled to be in California again.
I did learn some valuable things when I was living in Reno... for example:
1. 2-for-1 Prime Rib dinners at Baldini's taste a lot better than the market-rate prime rib dinner at some other restaurant. In addition, the cheap wine that is included with the 2-for-1 dinners is pretty good after the first glass.
2. Having California license plates and/or California ID increases the likelihood of being treated favorably by Nevada's or Reno's finest peace officers.
3. The deck is stacked heavily in favor of landlords and employers in Nevada.
4. My best friend from High School, Mike Haines, is still one of my favorite people even though he lives in Reno.
5. (Corollary to 4.) There is no substitute for old friends.
6. Winter in Reno is not as cold as Summer in San Francisco.
7. Nobody walks in Reno either (kinda like LA).
8. Casino gambling is not one of my vices.
9. Very few things that this world has to offer can be found in Reno.
10. Most of the all-you-can-eat sushi in Reno is pretty good, and sashimi is usually not included in the all-you-can-eat offerings.
11. To win at casino gambling requires 'leaving' while you're ahead. That is, if one continues to gamble when they are 'ahead' they will likely end up losing money... duh.
****
I think that Barack Obama is doing a great job as President. I also hear plenty of people voicing there dis-pleasure with our latest President, but in most of these cases, I hear people expressing opinions without much sense of reality. In short, I hear a lot of predjudice in the minority these days... I don't mean 'pre-judging' because of Mr. Obama's race/ethnicity; I mean a simple committment to disapproval without any coherent reasoning. To those who find themselves in the minority as a function of Obama being President:
Try and be a good sport here. If you must judge situations and people, try considering some facts before engaging in character assasination. Also, it's OK to say, "I don't know". We don't always have to have an opinion on a given person or situation. Anyone can pick a side to throw in with - it's one of our more primative abilities. I wish people would make more effort to resist these primative urges to define the world in terms of 'Us vs. Them' and exercise their judgement in a more thoughtful and open-minded way.
For fork's sake, we're all on the same team. We all want to survive and progress as a species... I believe that we are too quick to engage in battles for the sake of fighting and winning... we tend to be too concerned with being right.
For God's sake, please don't confuse me with the facts; I've already made up my mind!
Seriously, try and support your President... and if you want to be heard, take a minute and write a letter to your congressional representative(s). Stop whinning and do something constructive.
Truly,
Your (Back in Neighborhood) Ugly 5-Man.
"Spooning leads to forking."
-- Letters from the (Razor's) Edge.
I came back to my home state Christmas Eve, 2008... just about two years (to the day) after arriving in Nevada, I returned from my relocation-to-Reno experience. Since coming back, I've been splitting my time between San Diego and the Bay Area. Most recently I did a short gig (five weeks) for the U.S. Census Bureau in Alameda and Contra Costa County. My pleasure in returning to my home state of California cannot be over-stated. I agree that wherever I go, there I am... and I'm forking thrilled to be in California again.
I did learn some valuable things when I was living in Reno... for example:
1. 2-for-1 Prime Rib dinners at Baldini's taste a lot better than the market-rate prime rib dinner at some other restaurant. In addition, the cheap wine that is included with the 2-for-1 dinners is pretty good after the first glass.
2. Having California license plates and/or California ID increases the likelihood of being treated favorably by Nevada's or Reno's finest peace officers.
3. The deck is stacked heavily in favor of landlords and employers in Nevada.
4. My best friend from High School, Mike Haines, is still one of my favorite people even though he lives in Reno.
5. (Corollary to 4.) There is no substitute for old friends.
6. Winter in Reno is not as cold as Summer in San Francisco.
7. Nobody walks in Reno either (kinda like LA).
8. Casino gambling is not one of my vices.
9. Very few things that this world has to offer can be found in Reno.
10. Most of the all-you-can-eat sushi in Reno is pretty good, and sashimi is usually not included in the all-you-can-eat offerings.
11. To win at casino gambling requires 'leaving' while you're ahead. That is, if one continues to gamble when they are 'ahead' they will likely end up losing money... duh.
****
I think that Barack Obama is doing a great job as President. I also hear plenty of people voicing there dis-pleasure with our latest President, but in most of these cases, I hear people expressing opinions without much sense of reality. In short, I hear a lot of predjudice in the minority these days... I don't mean 'pre-judging' because of Mr. Obama's race/ethnicity; I mean a simple committment to disapproval without any coherent reasoning. To those who find themselves in the minority as a function of Obama being President:
Try and be a good sport here. If you must judge situations and people, try considering some facts before engaging in character assasination. Also, it's OK to say, "I don't know". We don't always have to have an opinion on a given person or situation. Anyone can pick a side to throw in with - it's one of our more primative abilities. I wish people would make more effort to resist these primative urges to define the world in terms of 'Us vs. Them' and exercise their judgement in a more thoughtful and open-minded way.
For fork's sake, we're all on the same team. We all want to survive and progress as a species... I believe that we are too quick to engage in battles for the sake of fighting and winning... we tend to be too concerned with being right.
For God's sake, please don't confuse me with the facts; I've already made up my mind!
Seriously, try and support your President... and if you want to be heard, take a minute and write a letter to your congressional representative(s). Stop whinning and do something constructive.
Truly,
Your (Back in Neighborhood) Ugly 5-Man.
"Spooning leads to forking."
-- Letters from the (Razor's) Edge.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Reductionism and The Decline of Western Civilization
Hello friends, enemies, and the rest of blogland! I come before the keyboard today with something semi-serious to say.Let me begin with a few miscellaneous observations and semi-truths.
I am a highly practiced in the arts of logic, obsfucation, and obliteration, but I will endeavor to leave these credentials untapped for the duration of this article. ;-)
The second point to be made in advance is that I believe there are two types of people in the world: the type that believes there are only two types of people in the world and the type that believes otherwise. For those of you who may prefer a bit of mathematical framework, let's say that the set P = Types of People in the World (you get to decide what we mean by world); furthermore this set is not actually infinite, but in can be treated as such for sake of argument (and if you chose the World = the Universe then it is obvious or at least axiomatic that the number of elements in our set P is infinite). Therefore the set has a cardinality of the Natural Numbers {1,2,3, ...} For the type of person who believes there are possibly NO types of people in the world, which is a special case we use {0,1,2, ...). Or if you believe there may be net negative types of People in the World we use the whole numbers {... -3,-2,-1,0,1,2,3, ...} from which to describe the 'size' of our set P. The most important point here is that the set P is countable which is a mathmeticans way of saying that regardless of being infinite or finite the elements of the set can be organized so as to count them. (Yes there is such a thing as an uncountable set: e.g. the set of Real Numbers).
To review:
1. The number of types of people can be counted
2. There are either two types of people or some other number of types
Yesterday I received an email from a friend (thanks JA!) with a link to an article circulating the net about a passage from the book The Reagan Diaries. The article claims that Ronald Reagan said,
**********
"A moment I've been dreading. George brought his n'er-do-well son around this morning and asked me to find the kid a job. Not the political one who lives in Florida; the one who hangs around here all the time looking shiftless. This so-called kid is already almost 40 and has never had a real job. Maybe I'll call Kinsley over at The New Republic and see if they'll hire him as a contributing editor or something. That looks like easy work."
From the REAGAN DIARIES------entry dated May 17, 1986.
***********
Upon reading this article, I was amused. Furthermore, being a member of the local ThumbsDownOnBushAndTheRestOfTheRightWing coalition (yes, even in Nevada), I let my emotion run a bit further to the area of smug satisfaction and correctness (aka I'm better than, my Daddy can kick your Daddy's ass, etc, etc). After all, I don't really think Reagan was all that; but if HE is saying GW is a "ne'er-do-well" then it must be true!
After being done with my BetterThan Orgy I reminded myself that what Reagan may or may not have said isn't relevant. The point is that there is a lot of information out there about what's going on in the world we live in. I believe we have some serious issues to address as a species and a nation. And if we depend on our reductionist dinosaur mid-brains to guide us through our daily lives, I believe we may well find ourselves going the way of the dinosaur (beat out of of the evolutionary gangbang by a little fire from outerspace and some wiley little furry guys scurrying among the giant ferns).
I said to myself, "Self, trust but verify!" I went to snopes.com and I checked their offical statement on this Reaganism.
Check for yourself at http://www.snopes.com/politics/satire/kinsley.asp
Check for yourself at http://www.snopes.com/politics/satire/kinsley.asp
Then ask yourself:
1. Are you predisposed to oversimplification and reductionist thinking?
2. To what degree do you indulge these coping mechanisms?
3. How many types of people do you think there are?
4. Which type (or types) are you?
5. Are you willing to step out of your comfort zone and do ask some questions you might not want to know the true answers to?
6. Do you believe that all generalizations are false?
I maintain that my mid-brain is healthy and alive, but perhaps somewhat on my forebrain's leash. My skin, on the otherhand, is thick like aligator
Finally, I believe someone else (besides me) said:
The ability to disagree without being disagreeable is the essence of the civilized (person).
As always,
U5M
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
That Outfit Will Make You Tough
This post is in honor or one of my favorite people. His name is John (though I like to call him Jack); he's a WASP Republican with a nice house in the burbs, a loving family, and (evidently) some fancy for Local Food - he's had a nice vegetable garden over the years and now has plans for a chicken coop (hey, did you check the local zoning on this?). He named his son Jackson, and I like to think that his first choice was Duncan, but, this not being politically viable, gave me the nod with "Jackson".
John and I met over 20 years ago at UCD one October morning. We were gathered outside Recreation Hall for our first rowing workout - I accused him of being drunk; he thought, "who is this goofball? he won't last the week." Truth is, he was right - I could do twelve push-ups. Suffice it to say we've shared a lot of life together as friends over the years. I'm grateful for knowing him.
John's birthday is April 18th - that's this Friday. He has always made a point of remembering my birthday, and I still have to call him in early April every year (actually when he calls me on the 8th, I ask him when his b-day is!).
Here's a picture of my friend John;
if you think you know this man, please call him and wish him well on another year of life.
UN5M
John and I met over 20 years ago at UCD one October morning. We were gathered outside Recreation Hall for our first rowing workout - I accused him of being drunk; he thought, "who is this goofball? he won't last the week." Truth is, he was right - I could do twelve push-ups. Suffice it to say we've shared a lot of life together as friends over the years. I'm grateful for knowing him.
John's birthday is April 18th - that's this Friday. He has always made a point of remembering my birthday, and I still have to call him in early April every year (actually when he calls me on the 8th, I ask him when his b-day is!).
Here's a picture of my friend John;
if you think you know this man, please call him and wish him well on another year of life.
UN5M
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Blinded By The Right
There I was... having walked through the Valley of Death (not really sure what I feared - but pretty sure it wasn't Evil - the Tree People perhaps? Leticia the cleaning lady? I then struggled over to the Valley of Crap where "they" could not travel; here the smell of my fellows' waste permeated what was left of my body and soul - guilt and shame were my masters.I reached the top of the mountain over the Valley of Crap and found the Guru Bard (druid by night) in peaceful repose - the aroma of healthy exersion rose from his glowing skin.
I asked if how I was living was the 'right' way. He replied, "life is not a multiple choice question, it just is: I suggest that when it is a meadow, you should eat of it; when it is a highway, drive it like you stole it."
I then asked him if the Not A Super Hero Blog was too serious OR did he like it. He laughed and said, "yes, Grasshopper." He then added (as if an afterthought), "Remember, Satan means Republican. Vote early; vote often."
Friday, November 30, 2007
Norton Hears A Who?
When I just tyke... (yeah! I was once just a wee human; "In this corner weighing a mere twelve pounds and eleven ounces..." OK! That's it for the self-promotion... ahem; on to more serious subjects!) ... a los gustan mi papa y sus amigos were many catchy bits of verbage that did stick in my mind over the years. One of note was whenever someone (no, not just the 'kid') would say "What?!?" then one of the muchas amigos would reply, "Watt? I ain't no light bulb!"
Now... ff to present day Reno, NV: the beautiful biggest little city in the world that I now call 'home' and introducing my neighbor, co-founder of the Pine Hill Wolf Pack of Wolf Rd of Western Nevada County, California, Michael Paul Haines (MPH)...
Of course, Mike is a dog; but these are pictures of two other fine canines: Barney and Shakespeare...
.... anyway (where's this going Mister?!?)
I say to Mike one recent day (a fine high desert evening) out in front of the our respective brick hovels, "You know what?". To which he replies, "no, but I know her stupid sister, Who."
If that isn't funny, then John Mundelius has too much to do!
As always,
Your Ugly (neighborhood) 5-Man
d.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
KRAC
My friend Steve Griffiths believes he and I should show up to compete in the Ergometer Sprints this season. Something I did a few times in the Nineties: it was silly fun then, and I think it might be silly fun now - perhaps a bit more painful than when I was younger; perhaps not, for loss of all that brain-power (used to feel said pain) since.Anyway, it's good to show up to any athletic event in 'colors'. Since I'm no longer active in any local athletic organization (Gold's Gym doesn't count - sleazy capitalist venture), I've decided a club name of my own choosing is in order.
Topping the list of potential names is:
(the) Keith Richards Athletic Club (KRAC)
Really not much more to say on this subject.
U5M
- off to training session #2; then to the pub!!
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Co-Miseration
Inspired by a fellow lost in mddle-age, our hero heads off for a bit of pre-dawn aerobic training.
