Disabled a victim nest
using twigs to fuel the torch light
sorting veterans by lost limb
sending them back with homeless birds
Drew inks in water, led to thirst-battling drinks
querying skipper on squid locale
diving to retrieve black bladders from tentacle depths
replenishing arsenal of bold coloring dyes
Converged disparate information
removing spaceless places
shrinking original dimensions to a small dense mass
marking lines of intersection with bullet points
Found grass-infused socks (full of muster)
accented with a salt wick
chlorophyll dirt white cloth
a nutritive base for future growth
Void was a compressed generic beast
left post on account of disagreement with right orders
first evaluation was a missed touch positive
sighted aliens in a neutral territory, peacetime negotiations
Organized virus versus bacteria melee
balancing size on numbers, one thousand to one
limiting replication till after bout rounds
ensuring fight fairness, spectator enjoyability
Compared partitioned domains for complimentary pear tree sanctuary
overlaying grid system on root network
estimating receptivity of insect populations to planned planting
finding ants partial to pear juice
Customs standard interpol security
bribery via vanilla creme custard dish
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Shocking Marine Airlines
On balconies overlooking beach sands
iced drinks rest on banisters
or in the hands of drinkers
who kiss the rim and take a sip
just as soon as they’re aware
that they are hot again
Two drinkers, each in turn,
compare the colors of their drinks
to that of the surrounding ocean waters
and wonder,
does sea life grow tired of living in blueberry daiquiri?
“But don’t,” she says, “tire your faculties with questions of insignificance”
and, to add firm closure to her remark,
slams her drink down with a thud
an action humorously at odds with the softness of her voice
And as she reclines there tanning nude,
your eyes get fixed on the evolution of waves
the way the water gets bit
at some point on its journey
and subsequently develops rabies
and foams aggressively on the sands
iced drinks rest on banisters
or in the hands of drinkers
who kiss the rim and take a sip
just as soon as they’re aware
that they are hot again
Two drinkers, each in turn,
compare the colors of their drinks
to that of the surrounding ocean waters
and wonder,
does sea life grow tired of living in blueberry daiquiri?
“But don’t,” she says, “tire your faculties with questions of insignificance”
and, to add firm closure to her remark,
slams her drink down with a thud
an action humorously at odds with the softness of her voice
And as she reclines there tanning nude,
your eyes get fixed on the evolution of waves
the way the water gets bit
at some point on its journey
and subsequently develops rabies
and foams aggressively on the sands
Saturday, October 17, 2009
These Glasses Reflect Stares
Following is among the most offensive things I've written here. First, some background.
Remember in one of the Harry Potter flicks, where Harry is battling Voldemort from a distance? Their respective magic powers are conveniently manifested as sorcerous energy light beams of different color. The beams meet somewhere in the middle, the forces of good and evil clashing in electric plasma chaos. Each participant grimaces for the strength required, and the implication is that if the location where the beams meet is forced all the way to the wand of one of the participants, then that person will die or at least be defeated. It's essentially arm wresting for magicians, where the meeting of energy beams directly in the center is equivalent to the forearm plane being perpendicular to the table. The use of this method to communicate to audiences the metaphysical strength of characters relative to each other is nothing new. On the contrary, it's been a staple of Saturday morning superhero cartoons for decades.
There are people walking this earth who have nothing behind their eyes. The most dangerous of these are those whose entire visage is affected by the disability. Note: the people to whom I'm referring are not sufferers of down syndrome or other clinically recognized mental deficiency. They're dangerous because of what happens if your eyes meet. It's hard to look away, probably for the same reason that someone witnessing unspeakable horror finds themselves unable to do anything but keep witnessing. Now, what happens the instant their eyes lock with yours is this: a metaphysical battle of the kind described above is initiated, with the invisible energy beams emanating from the eyes. While the term 'battle' suggests either participant could win, I can't fathom what it would mean for me to be the victor. Moreover, in my experience I've taken a purely defensive role in these tenths-of-second silent interactions, hoping the beam meeting location is kept at a sufficiently safe distance from my eyes long enough for me to break the stare and turn away, thereby avoiding neurological harm. That's right, I'm convinced that losing these battles results in the shriveling of dendrites and axon disassembly.
Remember in one of the Harry Potter flicks, where Harry is battling Voldemort from a distance? Their respective magic powers are conveniently manifested as sorcerous energy light beams of different color. The beams meet somewhere in the middle, the forces of good and evil clashing in electric plasma chaos. Each participant grimaces for the strength required, and the implication is that if the location where the beams meet is forced all the way to the wand of one of the participants, then that person will die or at least be defeated. It's essentially arm wresting for magicians, where the meeting of energy beams directly in the center is equivalent to the forearm plane being perpendicular to the table. The use of this method to communicate to audiences the metaphysical strength of characters relative to each other is nothing new. On the contrary, it's been a staple of Saturday morning superhero cartoons for decades.
There are people walking this earth who have nothing behind their eyes. The most dangerous of these are those whose entire visage is affected by the disability. Note: the people to whom I'm referring are not sufferers of down syndrome or other clinically recognized mental deficiency. They're dangerous because of what happens if your eyes meet. It's hard to look away, probably for the same reason that someone witnessing unspeakable horror finds themselves unable to do anything but keep witnessing. Now, what happens the instant their eyes lock with yours is this: a metaphysical battle of the kind described above is initiated, with the invisible energy beams emanating from the eyes. While the term 'battle' suggests either participant could win, I can't fathom what it would mean for me to be the victor. Moreover, in my experience I've taken a purely defensive role in these tenths-of-second silent interactions, hoping the beam meeting location is kept at a sufficiently safe distance from my eyes long enough for me to break the stare and turn away, thereby avoiding neurological harm. That's right, I'm convinced that losing these battles results in the shriveling of dendrites and axon disassembly.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Monday's Document Aged Till Friday
Sometimes, upper management is not well enough aware of their employees' backgrounds that they'll delegate a task ill-suited to the worker's experience. In such cases, it's easier for the employee to accept the new job responsibility than to respectfully refuse it on the basis of being under-qualified. Reasons for the ease of acceptance/difficulty of refusal:
1. Refusal on said basis implicitly challenges the supervisor's knowledge of what the capabilities of the people they supervise are. This is an embarrassing situation for any supervisor to be put in and, in an effort to remove themselves from it, they may make a penalizing action against the employee, stubbornly steadfast in their belief that their original task delegation was without flaw.
2. In the culture, there is a strong perception that career progress correlates with added responsibilities. While generally true, the perception fails for refusing to acknowledge the importance of being able to discern justifiable responsibilities from those that aren't. Consequently, the false premise that, in order to advance, all responsibilities handed down from above must be accepted has a controlling presence in the work environment.
3. The likelihood that the employee will successfully complete the task if they refuse it is zero. In accepting a task they've never had any experience with, there is a chance, however small, that they'll succeed.
In a cold, money-driven outlook, management's motivation for assigning more responsibility may be to determine the maximum work output they can extract from each employee in the standard 40hr work week. It's the only definitive way to deduce each individual's work limit. Until an employee accepts added responsibility and subsequently fails to meet all their commitments, they may only have been working at 85% capacity, just short of the target upper nineties.
I saw a cute thing the other day: a mother with her two children, maybe ages five and three; the daughter looking after her younger brother protectively, pulling gently at his jacket for him to sit down next to her.
1. Refusal on said basis implicitly challenges the supervisor's knowledge of what the capabilities of the people they supervise are. This is an embarrassing situation for any supervisor to be put in and, in an effort to remove themselves from it, they may make a penalizing action against the employee, stubbornly steadfast in their belief that their original task delegation was without flaw.
2. In the culture, there is a strong perception that career progress correlates with added responsibilities. While generally true, the perception fails for refusing to acknowledge the importance of being able to discern justifiable responsibilities from those that aren't. Consequently, the false premise that, in order to advance, all responsibilities handed down from above must be accepted has a controlling presence in the work environment.
3. The likelihood that the employee will successfully complete the task if they refuse it is zero. In accepting a task they've never had any experience with, there is a chance, however small, that they'll succeed.
In a cold, money-driven outlook, management's motivation for assigning more responsibility may be to determine the maximum work output they can extract from each employee in the standard 40hr work week. It's the only definitive way to deduce each individual's work limit. Until an employee accepts added responsibility and subsequently fails to meet all their commitments, they may only have been working at 85% capacity, just short of the target upper nineties.
I saw a cute thing the other day: a mother with her two children, maybe ages five and three; the daughter looking after her younger brother protectively, pulling gently at his jacket for him to sit down next to her.
Friday, October 2, 2009
On The Edge Of Relevancy
One of my ongoing projects is to work through end-of-chapter problems in my EE textbooks. The reminiscence of this activity to late nights spent making mentally taxing progress on homework during past school years is obvious, but now the problem solving is accompanied by an ever-present sense of accomplished inconsequence. The feeling is strongest when I encounter a problem that I'm unable to solve. Where before, this result might have been a seed of anxiety, my impression now is that in some way I've already conquered the problem by virtue of having graduated.
I'm at work now, writing this in a notebook, and someone talking on the phone in a room near mine just exemplified a type of communication error that I've noticed is not uncommon here: the speaker articulates incorrect and specific information (e.g. calendar date, specification #), quickly identifies their mistake, and articulates the correct information. Misspeaking is liable to happen when avoiding loss of conversation control takes precedence over accuracy of information shared, which is especially the case in meetings between owner, contractor, and sub-contractor. Avoiding loss of conversation control is usually achieved by not allowing pauses in oration to surface, and where a pause to fact check/access memory would normally have been, the filler information might be false. The cynical, unfortunate thing about misspeaking is that, even though the speaker quickly corrects their error, the initial and false utterance often leaves a stronger impression. Correcting the error is like using Wite Out on a document: the reader can tell that there was something else there before, and the new thing that is there now does not seamlessly replace it.
I'm at work now, writing this in a notebook, and someone talking on the phone in a room near mine just exemplified a type of communication error that I've noticed is not uncommon here: the speaker articulates incorrect and specific information (e.g. calendar date, specification #), quickly identifies their mistake, and articulates the correct information. Misspeaking is liable to happen when avoiding loss of conversation control takes precedence over accuracy of information shared, which is especially the case in meetings between owner, contractor, and sub-contractor. Avoiding loss of conversation control is usually achieved by not allowing pauses in oration to surface, and where a pause to fact check/access memory would normally have been, the filler information might be false. The cynical, unfortunate thing about misspeaking is that, even though the speaker quickly corrects their error, the initial and false utterance often leaves a stronger impression. Correcting the error is like using Wite Out on a document: the reader can tell that there was something else there before, and the new thing that is there now does not seamlessly replace it.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Closing Eyes To Open Doors
Every day at work there are lulls where I'm left on my own to spend an hour or two as I wish. I've heard from former interns who recall with theatrical exhaustion the weeks they spent in certain departments without being tasked with anything, and how their time in these departments was characterized by boredom. I don't think I could get bored if I tried.
Whether they know it or not, many people are grateful for the negative connotations boredom has and that the term is linked to the outward appearance of doing nothing. These conditions make boredom indistinguishable from internal reflection from the point of view of people on the outside and, consequently, a prime candidate for enabling the avoidance of situations that would encourage internal reflection. Whereas a person's stated goal of avoiding situations conducive to reflection would be frowned upon, a stated goal of avoiding boredom would be met with approval and the allocation of resources to aid in the goal's achievement. Playing this sleight of hand, no matter how second-nature it has become, is an acknowledgment that they know they're not being honest. Their shameful secret is that they don't want to be put in a situation conducive to reflection because it's been so long since they've listened to themselves that the barrage of thoughts would be overwhelming and they're afraid of what they would hear.
If I want to be reminded of reality's humorous fragility, I lean back in my chair in my office and remember living in a homeless shelter and sleeping on a mattress that was inspected for bed bugs.
Often, during the lulls, I'll write or draw things to be later added here. I need to buy a scanner. Today I drew some brains with arrows pointing into and out of them. Also I drew a 2-D graph with Susceptibility To Being Dominated plotted against Time. Those posts should show up next week.
A girl who used to be my friend continues to regularly check this blog even though we're not on communicating terms. She says she reads it to make sure I'm not going to get on a plane to try and see her. Two things about this that render it pointless: 1. Her fear will never be realized because she wasn't comfortable for me to be around, I don't know her address, and I don't want to see her again. 2. While I write lightly about what's happening in my life, I'm guaranteed never to share every flight itinerary I have in the future, and some trips will likely only be mentioned and written about after I've returned from them. While odd, it doesn't really bother me that she keeps checking this page; I guess I'm mostly surprised that, even without contact, I can influence a former friend's behavior that much.
That last bit about flight itinerary was intended as a segue to the following. Travis setup a couple Thought Trade shows, so I'll be flying to Fairbanks sooner and more frequently than expected. Mark your calendars and come see us at The Marlin Nov 14th and Dec 12th.
Whether they know it or not, many people are grateful for the negative connotations boredom has and that the term is linked to the outward appearance of doing nothing. These conditions make boredom indistinguishable from internal reflection from the point of view of people on the outside and, consequently, a prime candidate for enabling the avoidance of situations that would encourage internal reflection. Whereas a person's stated goal of avoiding situations conducive to reflection would be frowned upon, a stated goal of avoiding boredom would be met with approval and the allocation of resources to aid in the goal's achievement. Playing this sleight of hand, no matter how second-nature it has become, is an acknowledgment that they know they're not being honest. Their shameful secret is that they don't want to be put in a situation conducive to reflection because it's been so long since they've listened to themselves that the barrage of thoughts would be overwhelming and they're afraid of what they would hear.
If I want to be reminded of reality's humorous fragility, I lean back in my chair in my office and remember living in a homeless shelter and sleeping on a mattress that was inspected for bed bugs.
Often, during the lulls, I'll write or draw things to be later added here. I need to buy a scanner. Today I drew some brains with arrows pointing into and out of them. Also I drew a 2-D graph with Susceptibility To Being Dominated plotted against Time. Those posts should show up next week.
A girl who used to be my friend continues to regularly check this blog even though we're not on communicating terms. She says she reads it to make sure I'm not going to get on a plane to try and see her. Two things about this that render it pointless: 1. Her fear will never be realized because she wasn't comfortable for me to be around, I don't know her address, and I don't want to see her again. 2. While I write lightly about what's happening in my life, I'm guaranteed never to share every flight itinerary I have in the future, and some trips will likely only be mentioned and written about after I've returned from them. While odd, it doesn't really bother me that she keeps checking this page; I guess I'm mostly surprised that, even without contact, I can influence a former friend's behavior that much.
That last bit about flight itinerary was intended as a segue to the following. Travis setup a couple Thought Trade shows, so I'll be flying to Fairbanks sooner and more frequently than expected. Mark your calendars and come see us at The Marlin Nov 14th and Dec 12th.
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