Worth a listen

from:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvFz8ghX4Gs

Aluminum can crusher, Non-apology # 2, "Now I am become death, destroyer of worlds."

When the first atomic bomb in the history of mankind was dropped from a the Enola Gay to utterly and completely destroy a city and all living things within it, the pilot uttered a quote, "Now I am become death, destroyer of worlds." I would like to think he uttered these words with tears in his eyes, comprehending the full extent of pain and suffering he had unleashed. Unfortunately, it was probably just preplanned quote arranged with some consultation, similar to "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind..."

Anyway, I have an aluminum can crusher featuring a variant of the atomic bomb dropping quote:




Of course, someone pointed out to me that this is totally tasteless and offensive.

No, it is not. I interpret that reaction to mean, "I am not courageous enough to think about troubling issues."

Words are just words. It is the act associated with these words is horribly brutal and offensive.

PLEASE DO ME A FAVOR AND TRY TO PAY ATTENTION. This t-shirt is meant to be provocative! Wait, haven't we been over this before once already?! (see post from Wednesday, April 23, 2008, entitled, "brunch, bbq, t-shirt non-apology."


Provocation is needed, especially as we enter an era of a nuclear armed world run by kids who did not live through the cold war, while simultaneously paranoid former Soviet, first-strike advocate generals still hold positions of influence.


"Now I am become death, destroyer of worlds."

brunch, bbq, t-shirt non-apology

Hi,

My name is Crockett Dunn.

Here are a few of the things that I am:

1. IT business owner
2. passionate music lover
3. aspiring serial entrepreneur
4. obsessive systems optimizer.

Lately, over the past 3-6 months, I've had a lot on my mind related to the state of stuff in our world, especially some non-optimal systems. The thing is, I've been busy servicing my clients whilst seeking an operations manager for CDLLC, so the lots on my mind had no previous opportunity to settle into proper organization.

Yesterday I went to a housewarming party/BBQ with my wife, Dr. Marki-Dunn, and hung around with her doctor friends and their IT spouses. I had the opportunity to talk about some of the stuff that I'm curious about with Jason. I can't remember Jason's last name, or if he generates revenue online and therefor desires a plug/link. [Jason, let me know if you want a link.]

{update 5/18/2007- Jay commented, and he does in fact have a blog here.}

Some of the items Jason and I discussed were capitalism, socialism, wealth, interdependency, culture, hedge funds and certain investment vehicles increasingly removed from the actual items of real value, survivalists, elitism, television and how it teaches us what to think, revolutions, civilizations, a trend of increasing socio-economic class division, warfare, fire arms and the second amendment, federations/nations, mankind/humanity/human condition, and our ability to destroy the human race.

I just finished brunch with one of the 5 most kind/compassionate/helpful individuals from my days at Duke University. Her name is Russell Colver, and she does ADHD Coaching in Durham, NC.

So here is the important point in all of this- similar to ideas in previous posts about "c'mon, let's not all destroy each other," and this other post I wrote in the muggy heat of Mobile, AL in August of last year.

I've got this t-shirt depicting a mushroom cloud (which is really not a cloud at all, it's a ball of fire, similar to a pyroclastic blast resulting from a volcanic eruption, but faster, with a larger destruction radius, ergo deadlier.

I can't remember who I upset this time but yes, a t-shirt depicting a mushroom cloud is meant to be provocative and needs to be provocative, especially as we enter an era of a nuclear armed world run by kids who did not live through the cold war, while simultaneously paranoid former Soviet, first-strike advocate generals still hold positions of influence.

So here is my problem. My kindergarten classes have got stuff figured out more than the various governments of the world. If all world governments were on the TV show, "are you smarter than a 5th grader," they would lose in the cooperation category.

Here's the deal: collaboration, cooperation, interdependency, everyone being indebted to one another, global community, teamwork- whatever you want to call it- results in better life. Better, in this extremely general sense, means more problems solved = survival. Some examples of this "better" include

1. reduced chance of starvation
2. reduced chance of death by diarrhea resulting from lack of clean water
3. reduced chance of being randomly killed by an intentional act of anger-motivated violence
4. reduced chance of dying of disease
5. reduced chance of dying as the result of natural disaster.

Global collaboration would produce a world of abundance where with basic needs met... well, we would be free to have fun, party, watch soccer and football- play.

OK, so for this reason, in kindergarten and most school systems, when someone attempts to solve a problem using physical violence (example: can I have that apple? no. ok I punch you in the face and take apple) is considered unacceptable to the point that both parties involved- both aggressor and victim- are usually suspended or otherwise punished.

So why do educational institutions consider violence so unacceptable? Because violence creates fear, hatred, a desire for revenge- it awakens our animal instincts- and this becomes a cycle which is very difficult to break. In some cultures this cycle has been running for 1000s of years.

Does this make me a Utopian? No- I think sometimes people enjoy indulging their animal instincts- it's human nature. Even when we try to satisfy our animal instincts by proxy, spectator sports, often the spectators engage in violence (riots, etc).

Utopian/idealist/romantic I am not.

Pragmatist I am.

I like being alive and would like to continue being alive as long as possible. And again, we are entering an era of a nuclear armed world run by those whose childhoods did not include looming fear of the destruction of the human race, duck-and-cover drills, the concept of mutually-assured-destruction/lose-lose warfare, visions of entire cities leveled and the fall of western civilization.... all because our global community isn't governed by the basic rules of kindergarten school children.


Suggested reading:

• Alas, Babylon
• War Scare: Russia and America on the Nuclear Brink

gotta run- dinner time. more links later

Gotta be careful, can't let tha evil of tha money trap me

Business at Crockett Dunn & Company is BOOMING, so the new challenge is customer service (rather than sales). I hired a new client advocate/customer service rep (Jeff Yablon).

Still, there are other concers about success and what it can trigger psychologically.

So I have a new mantra for the next few weeks. It is the wise words of a boy born by the name of Lesane Parish Crooks, barely a young man, but wise beyond his years, and tragically passed before his time:

Here is the mantra:

"Gotta be careful, can't let tha evil of tha money trap me. Next time you see me [brother*], ya better holler at me."

After all, greed is one of the seven deadly sins. And my favorite synonym for greed is "covetousness," because it implies not just material lust, but a "keeping up with the jones'," effect, too.

*edited for suits

worth watching

nice to see some talking before we jump to fighting:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14547.htm

Wow this guy is quite a politician. Talk about playing both sides!
"Death to America,' or, "Today is the era of thoughts, dialogue, and cultural exchanges."

tippity tappity tap tap dance!

I don't know if I should be encouraged by this amicability, or utterly terrified, because this reminds me of the peace talks of November 1941 with Japan before they hit us at Pearl Harbor.

FINALLY, all the power of a nuclear warhead, but without those pesky side effects!

How many times have you said to yourself, "I want to cause mass destruction and carnage, but I've had it with those yucky, radiation-related side-effects?"

Well, you're prayers have been answered:

The main destruction is inflicted by an ultrasonic shockwave and an
incredibly high temperature," the reports said. "All that is alive merely
evaporates."
Rukshin said: "At the same time, I want to stress that the
action of this weapon does not contaminate the environment, in contrast to a
nuclear one.

From Reuters, http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSL1155952320070912?pageNumber=2

Pick a punchline, or write your own:

1. FINALLY, an environmentally friendly way to blow shit up!
2. All the carnage... without the guilt!

celebrate war... good times!

Not!

Something has really been bugging me, but I haven't been able to compose a blog-worthy (although as I type this I realize my blogworthiness standards are low) analysis. A couple weeks after reading Slaughterhouse-Five, viewing The Fog of War, and immediately after watching the HBO documentary film, White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (2007), I am disturbed enough to share my unpolished thoughts.

It has often occurred to me that war is usually, if not always, NOT a smart move. Especially when one considers the human cost, the long-term cost (read: blowback) of the bad-will generated by the conflict, and the eventual resentment held by the defeated (how's that Afghanistan reconstruction going? And how are the losers of the United States Civil War faring in comparison to the winners?).

Seriously, starting an unnecessary war is just intellectually lazy. The action itself indicates that it has not been thoroughly considered. We understand this about nuclear war: No one wins, so no one starts global nuclear wars. Good for us.

I mean, the violence of warfare is about as glamorous as a multi-fatality motor vehicle accident. If high-tech civilization & society are a organisms, then war is our cancer. See what I'm saying?

OK- we all agree: war sucks. I think everyone who has seen first-hand death & violence knows that, right? Sure, military might is cool (awesome toys), but destroying lives is not. So why do we keep fighting throughout recorded history? Certainly powerful men are well versed in history. So am I naive? Or perhaps I lack a certain predatory gene or brain region?

Or am I the only sane one around here?

What if a nation took the unprecedented action of sending a ton of diplomats to live in a rogue state, rather than tons of destruction?

If we can all agree that generally humans want (1) to survive and (2) to not hurt, then why do we still fight wars? Well, someone has to start them, right? Who? Maybe the leaders who are also starters of war lean more towards the socio/psychopathic than true representation of the will of the population?

Existential Awesomeness

I don't have anything to post here yet, but the title, "Existential Awesomeness" needed to be written. Something about rich experience being the only measurable meaning and/or purpose in life. I'm heading to the dog park now. Maybe I'll take some pictures to share along with this post.

[3PM, post-dog park]

OK I'm back and we had a grand time, depicted below.

processing vtech

It's been a busy week in my technology world, and only today am I beginning to come to terms with the gravity of the Virginia Tech shooting and what it means for our society.

"The scene was something these experienced officers had never witnessed. As they entered each room, they asked the students to hold out their hands, show that they had no weapons, and then led those who could walk down the stairs and outside. But there were so many bodies. Blood everywhere, pieces of flesh. The shooter himself, with a gun lying nearby, was almost unrecognizable, a face destroyed. And the innocent victims did not just have bullet wounds, the police would recount later, but were riddled with bullets, gushing blood. The scene was so emotionally overwhelming that many officers could not hold back tears even as they went about their business."

There's not much I can add to the gravity of the scene described in the above text, so I won't even try.

Thoughts are beginning to formulate in my active-unconscious mind regarding how this event:

• affects our sense of security
• fuels both gun control advocates and opponents
• draws scrutiny, criticism, and hopefully improvement to our mental health system and overall mental health awareness
• encourages us to rethink our public and private safety
• encourages us to rethink our humanity in the age of isolation, technology, and connected anonymity (word has it that some of Cho's attempts at human connection were in the form of IM correspondence with women that degraded into harassment and/or stalking).

Other stuff comes to mind, though, including a sign I see in town for an exhibit in Los Angeles, "In Violence, We Forget Who We Are," a title inspired from a Mary McCarthy quote. I haven't even seen the exhibit, but these words haunt me. Not sure why. Maybe a thought will solidify later.

Liquid Paper Peace, or Technological Pathology

The truth is, after hours days weeks months years of screen-sucking and generally conducting technology and software business via email, it feels really good to apply Liquid Paper. Seriously... no lie.

Just taking my eyes off the multiple monitors and looking downwards towards a white piece of paper rather than white monitor screen triggers a bit of relief. Handwriting on the envelope feels good, too. Reminds me of elementary school, back when we had the, "headline/mid-line/baseline," giant paper/giant pencils, and were proud of the shapely letters we formed. And then you EARN the right to use PEN, and loose-leaf... around fourth grade I think.

Sure, the pen strokes feel good, but the broad, horizontal Liquid Paper strokes feel GREAT. Laying down the blobs, then spreading and thinning the goop, leaving little brush strokes that slowly melt away and smooth, careful to completely cover the ink.... I can almost hear the late Bob Ross narrating the "Happy Little Clouds" as I create my masterpiece.

Ahhhh..... Well that was nice. Now back to the screen-sucking and IRS correspondence.

Freeway blood

I see tire skid marks crossing several lanes, broken safety glass, cut-away clothing, and a large blood stain on the CA-10 East just about one mile west of the 110 North. It was there yesterday, and it persists today- barely faded.

I noticed this blood and remnants of violence yesterday on my way from Mid-Wilshire back to Pasadena.

Earlier that same day, en route from Pasadena to mid- Wilshire, I saw a large maroon motorcycle being loaded onto a tow truck in the same area, while other lanes were blocked with wrecked autos. I suspect that someone from the freeway West ended up on the East side, and the skid marks were from an evasion attempt.

There is something unsettling about this persistent blood stain. The city (city's infrastructure) claims a life, but the system cannot be stopped, even for a moment, to remove the gruesome evidence. Someone's life is either ended or abruptly altered, yet the flow of traffic moves on and on. In an instant, the lives of the loved ones of whoever's blood this is are altered: friends, co-workers, spouse, children, parents, siblings. Many life paths have been changed. But the freeway system is bigger than all that, so it must not be stopped.

Individually we are capable of tremendous compassion and empathy, but collectively... collectively, in the context of the freeway system, we've adapted not to feel.

This is a strange city, Los Angeles. Full of life and tragedy;

trash and beauty:

It's sunny and windy today. So windy that if you are driving through downtown on the 110, trash, leaves, and papers blow across the freeway surface and far up into the sky. In addition to the normal smog, the air today is literally dirty. But so sunny and colorful, too, with the blue sky and green hills. Brown mountains in the distance. It's important to keep your eyes open for the beauty, even if you are on the freeway.

Time... the big lie

Time is a man-made abstract- a comparison of measured actions. Action is primary. Without action, there's no time.

Elaboration: we Newtonians travelling at very low speeds measure and perceive time as a ratio of motion to motion, whether the motion is the distance traveled by the hands of a clock, or the vibrations of a quartz atom. Unfortunately right now I can't pretend to know much about Einsteining physics, except something about time being squishy, and light speed being absolute.

What I do know is that if you stop the motion, then you cannot measure the time.

If action is primary, then experience is key, and priorities definitive.

Perception of time as a primary/fundamental unit can be convenient for understanding our world, but it can also be used in conjunction with our fears/desires/mortality to create a cruel illusion of scarcity that can blind us from quality experience.

Monetize This! (Life is about give and take. Money is but a vehicle.)

Recently, I have been a little shocked to encounter more than a couple former childhood pals, now all grown-up, using the word "monetize" in 2007. Am I alone in my bristling at this conept and the popular use of the word, "monetize?" Monetize in the sense of, "monetizing," web properties?

OK, I acknowledge that I do indeed like to trade products, service, information- value of all sorts- for money. But the thing is, monetize makes it sound like the money is an end in itself.

And that is just CRAZY talk. The value of money is dependent on one's ability to exchange it, right? And this value is also a function of one's desire to get stuff (even if one can spend, one might not need or want). Put a couple other ways: we can't take it with us & richness comes from within.

Is there something wrong with me that money is not my favorite thing and ultimate objective? I think sometimes money can interfere with our opportunity to properly experience a rich life. So in that sense, money can be like the opposite of fulfillment.

Didn't someone, about 100 years ago, warn, "Mr. Rockefeller your fortune is rolling up, rolling up like an avalanche! You must keep up with it! You must distribute it faster than it grows! If you do not, it will crush you and your children and your children's children"? The way I understand it, Mr. Rockfeller's life was quite miserable for a period before he began aggressively putting his money to work.

The other thing is that we (mankind) INVENTED money as a way to store value over time, and that is why it's so crazy to lose sight of a more simple, maybe even primitive humanity in favor for money worship. Life is all about give and take. Money is but a vehicle.

American Idol, or, "I'm crushing your head."

American Idol is back on, some of my favorite treadmill/TV material. But I think I'm becoming too sensitive for this show. I mean, I really don't like watching Simon tear down naive, young dreamers. There is nothing funny about such a shocking reality check. It's not even interesting looking to me... Just cruel.

Funny, I had something profound to say about American Idol- oh yeah... All of the competitors should be required to read Victor Frankl's, "Man's Search For Meaning," especially the part 2, where in speaking of existential dilemmas and "success," it is concluded that the only way to ever achieve "success," is to stop pursuing it and just "be."

I suppose that would destroy the ratings, if the show consisted of a bunch of young stars who were at peace with themselves and the universe around them, full of gratitude, love, and acceptance.

But really, I don't like to see them being crushed.