Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Walking Shadows
For anyone that does not fully understand what I do, I am an IT Desktop Engeneer/I.T. department of one. I work in a call center, I maintain all the systems in this building. And I work alone. There are nearly 650 PC's. And everything in this building has suffered from lackluster matinance before my arrival. Before my company bought this building it was operated by another company, and the IT department that had in house was not happy to be bought out. They sabatoged systems, they destroyed documentation, and they took equipment. At that point, an incompitant technician was placed in charge of all things IT here. He didn't care, he didn't know what he was doing, and he let everythign continue to degrade and slip, untill he was replaced. He was replaced with someone that was reliable, and could mantain all the systems, but had no mind for coming up with creative solutions to the mounting problems. He was eventually replaced with a good techincian that was too nice to people that would not work with us. This is where I came in.
Now, I hope you understand that when I tell you to SHUT UP it is because you annoy me more than anything in the history of mankind, now get the hell away from my office.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
I used to drive drunk, but a bunch of Mom's got MADD
For anyone who does not know, Utah has undergone some "radical" liberalization of our liquor laws (they had to call it "normalizing" to avoid the knee jerk hatred of all things "liberal" in our local governments). I won't get into the changes, but needless to say, MADD was at the forefront proclaiming doom and gloom. Any loostening the flow of alcahol will surely increase drunk driving and underage drinking. So I just want to make a few points clear for any members or supporters of MADD
- Most underage drinking takes place in private homes, not in bars or clubs.
- Most problem drunk drivers are coming from private homes, not bars or clubs.
- You can not stop all drunk driving and underage drinking from happening, focus on what you can/should do.
- You should ask that bars and clubs be allowed to stay open 3 hours past last call
- You should ask for more public transportation to run after last call
- You should promote local cab companies and work with them to promote awareness of alternate transportation.
- You should focus on more severe consiquences for first offense drunk drivers. (many countries you get one offence and you lose your driving privlages for life)
- Underage drinking would decrease if the social taboos against drinking were relaxed, when you remove the mystery, the interest usually drops too.
- Underage drinking woudl decrease if the drinking age was lowered back to 18, as recomended and supported by many univirsity studies and university presidents.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Something wicker this way comes
I also didn't quite expect the 3 and a half hour performance. granted that was due to the multiple intermissions while they changed an immaculate set, but never the less. long night.
The people at these kind of shows amuse me. There are the people who are there because they love the art, and appreciate it. The people who go to be seen. The guys trying to impress a date. And the old people who show up for some reason.
There are swarms of old folks that show up, don't enjoy the show, complain the whole time, smell bad, talk through the performance, and leave early. Where do these people come from? I think they go to "support" the arts, but you can do that by sending a check and not annoying everyone there...Yes I am talking to you old ladies in front of us sitting on extra padded boosters with big hair. And old guy next to me that smelled like you haven't seen a bath in a decade. But those are just the annoying theater crowd that you groan about and live with.
There were these two guys that sat behind us, that talked from the second they came in till the curtain went up. And started right back up the second the curtain went down to when it came back up. And they were not talking quietly. First, these two guys were clearly gay. But it would have been news to them to hear this. They were spoiled, and were learning to make violins and cellos because it "sounds like fun". (it kinda does but god knows I can't afford to go to violin making school) At first we tried to ignore these guys, but eventually just began to listen and laugh.
Phrases like "...like ONE of the boarding schools I like went to..." "...and like I was on this DATE like right with like this GIRL RoSAleeee and she like kept trying to like touch me and I like was like yeah don't like touch me. and then like I said something about like my family and she was like JUST beaming! and like all I could think is WOW you are like SO Mormon..."
They served as a second source of entertainment for us. All in all, it was a fantastic night. We look forward do doing this again and as frequently as possible.
Friday, March 13, 2009
The Dark Knight
First..OMIGODOMIGODOMIGOD....*deep breathing* Gaaaawwwwwwdddddd!!!
So let me first say this, I don't much care for Christian Bale. He is a fine actor, and by no means does a bad job. But I just have a hard time with him as Batman, he just doesn't pass it off. He is just Christian Bale playing Batman, with a silly voice. Kind like everyone else that has ever played Batman. I almost want to say you need two actors to really pass it off. Now I will say he is the first to actually make a serious effort to play two characters. But I just want to give him a glass of water most of the time he is Batman. Just one of those things, I sigh, and then sink back into the movie and try to not think about it. (I still chuckle when I can see he obviously cant move his upper lip because of the costume...hehehe)
What I really want to talk about, is Heath Ledger. I have watched him his entire career. I love that you can see his grow as an actor. I love seeing how he started to dig into each part and person. As he progressed he was becoming a cameleon, Heath Ledger would vanish before your eyes, and an entirely different person with a very familar face was in front of you. What amazes me, is how fast he progressed. He made, what 19 or 20 movies, over the last 10 - 15 years. Needless to say, he is an amazing talent, one of the highest quality, and genius. But Everyone can see this now, and it's almost like salt an an open wound to point it out.
I really should get to my point of what he did in this movie. He gave life to a fictional charecter. A charecter that many believed could never really be brought to life with any kind of demension. His Joker was a complete person, complete and unnerving, even frightening. There is a story from the set of this movie that says when Michael Cain was first confronted with this charecter, he was so startled that he forgot his lines. Now i'm not even sure why I feel the need to write about this, anyone can watch his movies and see all this for themselves.
I just want to say one more thing. Before the movie came out, there was a lot of comparison to The Crow and Brandon Lee. What happend here, is so far beyond The Crow that any comparison just doesn't work. It would be like comparing Star Fruit to a Carrot or some other fruit, or a leg of lamb or something. The Crow was great, but, it's a B level film noir comic book movie (this is why I love it). And in some respects so was The Dark Knight (except it was no where near a B-level movie) I'd put it more on the same level as Paul Newman's Road to Perdition, except just a little less boreing.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Ah a new land. Our pomised land!...excuse me...who are these people?
"...Archaeologists were able to find evidence of a 3,000-year-old Indian village on state-owned land along the Jordan River near 13500 South (Draper, UT.), and want state lawmakers to preserve the tract. And that's why UTA covets the site for a FrontRunner commuter rail station, a park-and-ride lot and a private transit-oriented residential and commercial development to be built sometime in the next 5-15 years.
State lawmakers can give UTA and developers the keys to the village by approving House Bill 179, which would authorize the Utah Department of Natural Resources to swap the land for a similar-size private tract near 12800 South, which is also under consideration for the Draper area station. Developers are reportedly content with either location. "
-S.L. Trib http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_11880552
Dear god! would this even be an issue if it was a Mormon Pioneer settlement? I don't think so, it'd probably already be another museum full of handcart wheels.
"look how our 'ancestors' suffered to deliver us to the promised land...well of course we were the first ones here!"
The pre-Mormon history of Utah is already in need of help (and the post-Mormon history could use some objective editing).
The real frustration here is how history is treated here in this state. If you were to pick up a "Utah History" text book (at least the one I had in my 7th grade "Utah History" class) you'd find mention of previous settlers and natives. But they are all marginalized, or very nearly dismissed. Things like: (It's likely that this just reflects my memory of something that happened 16 years ago, I have probably killed those brain cells a few times since then, but the "common knowledge" round here needs help, so my point stands.)
- 1776 - Two Spanish priests, Father Silvestre Velez de Escalante and his superior Francisco Atanasio DomÃnguez start from Santa Fe to explore Utah
- 1822-1829 - William H Ashley exploration and the discovery of a central route to thePacific sends trappers to northern Utah who answered an advertisement in the St. Louis Gazette and Public Advertiser in the winter of 1822: "Enterprising Young Men...to ascend the Missouri to its source, there to be employed for one, two, or three years." Amongst those to respond were Jim Beckwourth, Tom Fitzpatrick, David Jackson, Hugh Glass, Jim Bridger and Jedediah Smith
- 1824 - Jim Bridger ( Old Gabe 1804-1881) discovers the Great Salt Lake
- 1832 - Antoine Robidoux ( 1794 - 1860 )builds a trading post in the Utah Basin
- 1841 - Capt. John Bartleson leads first wagon train of settlers, including Nancy Kelsey -
- 1843 - John C. Fremont (1813-1890) and Kit Carson ( Christopher Houston "Kit" Carson ( 1809 - 1868) explore the Great Basin
- 1844-45 - Miles Goodyear ( 1817 - 1849) builds Fort Buenaventura
And before all that, there were natives living and farming here quite happily. It really pains me to see history treated like this.
*UPDATE*
| Updated:03/12/2009 07:08:30 AM MDT |
| Salt Lake Tribune |
State lawmakers gave final approval Wednesday to a bill that allows the Utah Transit Authority and a developer to build a rail-oriented neighborhood in Draper on the site of a 3,000-year-old Indian village that archaeologists would rather preserve. The Senate's passage of HB179 clears the way so the Department of Natural Resources can negotiate a land swap with Whitewater VII Holdings. If they work out a deal, Whitewater then would give UTA 10 acres for a station on its planned FrontRunner line between Provo and Salt Lake City. Wednesday's 21-8 vote came after UTA assurances of protection for the archaic village, which shows signs of farming from 500 years earlier than was previously documented in the region. "The 10 acres that UTA would develop as a station would be predominantly, if not entirely, off of the known archaeological resource," agency spokeswoman Carrie Bohnsack-Ware said. Any encroachment on artifacts would trigger mitigation, she said, which "likely would involve having a qualified archaeologist documenting and moving them." Much more of the property, about 100 acres in all, would undergo private development. Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. supports the bill, spokeswoman Lisa Roskelley said. She noted that it permits a swap but doesn't require it. UTA still may consider other sites in Draper and Bluffdale for the station. Moving the artifacts was what the Utah Professional Archaeological Council feared when it wrote to DNR Executive Director Mike Styler opposing the swap last month, and during testimony against the bill last week. The council prefers in-ground preservation so future generations with better technology may learn more about the ancient inhabitants. A spokesman for the Confederated Tribes of the Goshute also opposed construction on the site. "It contains evidence of some of my American-Indian ancestors and is considered a very scared place," tribal Chairman Rupert Steele wrote. Senate Democrats objected to the plan, asserting that it is a taxpayer-backed benefit to a politically connected developer who would build a commercial and residential village around UTA's commuter-rail stop. Developer Terry Diehl, who also is a UTA board member, represents the landowner, Whitewater VII Holdings. "They are the ones that will receive significant economic benefit," said Sen. Karen Morgan, D-Cottonwood Heights. "Because they'll gain that at a loss to the taxpayers, I vote no." Because other sites are available, said Sen. Scott McCoy, D-Salt Lake City, the reason for the swap appears to be to help the developer. "The swap is actually not necessary," he said, "and in some respects might be a sweetheart deal for a particular landowner or developer." Bristling at the suggestion that HB179 is special-interest legislation, Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, said the taxpayers are the special interest. Completing the swap puts the station closer to Bangerter Highway, which UTA says will increase FrontRunner ridership. |
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
But I didn't order the dysentery
My favorite part is that no one really knows when it's their turn to speak, this usually results in everyone speaking at once, thus confusing everyone.
You never really know who you are talking to, and someone always forgets to push mute before having a side conversation.
*in background* "Hey, you on a call?"I LOVE when that happens. Always check for the red light on your phone.
"Yeah, but it's stupid. You should hear these guys, no clue what they are talking about. I've seen a more organized troup of Monkeies smashing their own testicles with rocks."
"HA! are you on mute?"
"oh yeah, don't worry about it, not like anyone pays attention on these calls anyway."
"That's true! hey, the reason I came over, Frank asked me to come check on you, apparently no one can hear you on that call, he wanted you to check your mute..."
"....SHIT"
Monday, March 9, 2009
I should be in pictures.
We took the books, and guides, we had and trusted, used them to come up with a basic plan of attack. First we get an idea, write a first version script, come up with a cast and crew, and start planning. How are we going to do this? where are we going to do this? How are we going to get away with doing things without getting arrested or sued? How are we going to make Eric remember his lines? How are we going to make Jeff keep his pants on?
Little by little we solved (so we thought/think) our problems. We get locations, we find crew, we get costumes made, we reherse, we build camera and sound rigs, we run tests and things are looking good.
So we set a date, we go out, and start to film, and it is fun. By the end of the day, we have run around, caried heavy equipment up and down big hills. Worked for a goof 5 hours, and shot a good 15 minites of footage of which we think we will use 2 minutes. All in all we are feeling good. We feel damn good. let's do this again tomorow, and every chance we get. I'll get new shoes because my feet are sore, and some of those gell things that are all squishy.
And then, the big fish of reality slaps us in the face. We forgot a few things in our haste. We didn't account for lighting... i mean we shot outside, at noon! So what I mean to say is we forgot to control the light, and shadow. So half of our picture is washed out, half is black. We didn't practice with our camera rigs enough, so some of the footage didn't work out right. And we had some costume issues...All problems that are fairly easy to solve. What is killing me, is that we overlooked these basic things.
Instead of feeling like we just took a dozen giant steps back, we all feel like we took one step to the left. We now realize what we missed. We can see how far we've come, and what we can do. and we know how to make this work. Change the formula, shake, serve over ice.
I'm feeling good, making movies is hard work.
Friday, March 6, 2009
First things first, but not necessarily in that order
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Always start with a good Title.
I really want to talk about my little girl, Odelia. She is a precocious little Imp. she likes to wake up at 6 am, and say "goood moorrnniingg dAAAAAddd, it's a BEAutIFUL sunny day!" yesterday she walked out with sunglasses on, it kills me.
She said things that are so cute you want to squeal (and I often do) like a little girl. for example, I took her to the drug store last night. Carleigh (my wife) has a bad cold and needed some things. I took Odelia along for the ride, well the store, any store, is always an adventure. She had to open EVERY greeting card that made noise, or played a song. She would dance when there is music, laugh when she thought it was supposed to be funny, and toss the ones she didn't get behind her. Frequently declaring "THIS IS MY FAVORITE LETTER!!!" Once I manage to pry her away from the greeting cards, she sees toys. From this point, the only thing you can do is let her find something and then let her play with it while dragging her around to get what you came out to get. This time, it was a ball. a big, inflated, latex rubber ball, with millions of tentacles on the outside, and a flashing multicolored light inside. When she found this, she picked it up, clutched it to her chest, and declared "I LOVE THIS!! IT'S MY FAVORITE!! I LOVES IT!!" and she would repeat that anytime I'd say, no I'm sorry you can't have it, you have plenty of toys at home. We now own an orange rubber ball with tentacles that smells a bit like old cheese.
Now here is my favorite story. We decided that it would be a good thing, if our daughter knew her parents names. Helpful if she should ever get lost in a store, so they aren't paging "mom and dad". Well this had been going well, and she had learned our names, it was amusing. she calls me Tile. We took her to her grandmother's one night for dinner, and we were all too eager to show off her new trick.
"what's mommies name?"....."TARLY!"
"what's daddies name?"....."TILE!"
GOOD... now time for proof of concept... "What is YOUR name?"..........-puzzled look-.........."DAMN IT!"
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
In all Fairness, seriously.
First a little background fully available here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairness_Doctrine
The Fairness Doctrine was a policy of the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that required the holders of broadcast licenses both to present controversial issues of public importance and to do so in a manner that was (in the Commission's view) honest, equitable and balanced.
The United States Supreme Court upheld the Commission's general right to enforce the Fairness Doctrine where channels were limited, but the courts have not, in general, ruled that the FCC is obliged to do so. In 1987, the FCC abolished the Fairness Doctrine, prompting some to urge its reintroduction through either Commission policy or Congressional legislation
So here’s my argument, with all the problems, most I don’t have answers for.
A Fairness Standard should be applied by the FCC for any broadcast not classified as “entertainment” or “bona fide news” broadcasts, OR more specifically it should apply to only “political commentary” programming.
I believe this standard should have three parts. The first being that any “political commentary” be preceded by a disclaimer stating the information presented may or may not be factual and any and all opinions belong to the speaker who may or may not have any expertise or education in the subject under discussion. The second being that all commentary should have an appropriate opposing response as would be provided in a standard debate. The third being that any viewpoint, regardless of its extreme nature, may not be suppressed or censored in any way except in the case of profanity or hate-speech.
That being said let me lay out a few things. First, I am not a fan of censorship, in any form. I believe passionately in the 1st amendment, and the free press. Second, I believe this would be in the best interests of the public in general. Third, I believe the rights of the general public trumps the rights of the broadcaster/holder of the FCC license, due to the potential damage abuse of that license can produce.
I believe this should happen for the following reasons. Current “political commentary” programming is becoming more akin to propaganda. The commentary is frequently unsupported by factual information, but it is presented as such, without disclaimer. If I have to see a disclaimer that the views and opinions expressed are solely those of the speaker before watching a DVD why should I not see or hear these before this type of programming? This slant, presented as “news”, sometimes even under the mask of editorial opinion, is dangerous when it is unbalanced. There are people that ONLY watch fox news, or MSNBC, and those people get two very different viewpoints. If you have never seen these two broadcasters present the same story, it’s ridiculous how slanted the “facts” can be presented. Now if you want to “slant” a news broadcast, the free press allows for that, it may be unethical, but that’s the risk that comes with freedom of the press.
Anyone can become a political commentator. It takes no education, no background in politics, and no expertise in anything. It’s like becoming a gym teacher in the broadcast world. While I think one should be qualified for a position like this, it’s not something that can be regulated or required. Again this is an ethical decision by the broadcaster. Since this hiring a qualified political commentator requires making a good ethical decision, qualified individuals rarely become political commentators. Therefore, with commentators who have no political background, or education, they will almost always be default speak to one side of any given issue, and that will be the side they are most comfortable with. If they were to have an opposing commentator, viewers/listeners, would be more likely to form opinions of their own rather than adopt the opinions of the personality they are listening to.
I also believe that this type of measure would not be necessary if all broadcasters made responsible ethical choices in the content provided to the general public. It is very easy these days to find all viewpoints from multiple media sources, but it takes work. The effort required to find and watch or listen to three or four broadcasts to get two sides to any story is beyond the capability of the average American. This is why I believe it’s important for EVERY broadcast to provide fair and factual information. I think this would be in the best interests of the public, and could very well help us on our way to becoming a utopian society.
The problems with this are:
Would this constitute an infringement of 1st amendments rights and therefore be unconstitutional? Short answer is no.
Writing for the Court, Justice Byron White declared: A license permits broadcasting, but the licensee has no constitutional right to be the one who holds the license or to monopolize a radio frequency to the exclusion of his fellow citizens. There is nothing in the First Amendment which prevents the Government from requiring a licensee to share his frequency with others.... It is the right of the viewers and listeners, not the right of the broadcasters, which is paramount.
What would prevent a broadcaster from reclassifying political commentators as news broadcasters? As far as I know, nothing. It is however pretty easy to tell the difference, and hard to disguise.
Is it possible this would just cause some broadcasts to de-evolve into a two person shouting match? It’s possible, if idiots are running the broadcast.
Would this actually be enforceable? I don’t know.
Who would be the judge of what is an appropriate response to any given viewpoint? Don’t know, but I think it would probably work in a similar way to how the FCC polices profanity. It’s usually reported back to them by a private citizen.
Wouldn’t this be a bit too “big brother”? I don’t think so, I think it’s less about controlling content, and more setting standard’s of content. If they can say you can’t use profanity or display nudity, they should be able to say, you have to let people hear more than one opinion.
Why should anyone care, can’t you just change the channel? Yes, you can opt not to listen or watch, but finding something else to watch is becoming hard. CNN had to start a program called “no bias, no bull” to try to fill this gap in the market.
I think the bottom line in my argument is that broadcasters are not being responsible, and the public has suffered. They have abused the naive trust their audience places in them to provide factual information. When people that should be responsible are not, regulation of some form is usually needed. It’s the same reason we have ethics laws and rules for our elected officials. Or why private businesses have dress code, and policies for computer use. It’s why doors have locks, and we have security guards.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Don't Kiss the Bears
Why do people get upset when they get caught doing something they shouldn’t have been doing in the first place? Rather than saying
“It’s ok, I shouldn’t have been here doing what I was doing, so I won’t lash out at you” they tend to get surprised and say things like “What the fuck man? Why did you pick on me?” It seriously confuses me. What’s better is the people who assume that I am just trying to be a dick rather than to do my job.
Why do some people assume that if they don’t do what they are supposed to that someone (me) will pick up the pieces and do it all for them? Am I such a nice guy that I will try to save your job by doing it for you? NOOOO. Well maybe once or twice if I like you. Or if it’s easier for me to just do it for you than to fight you. But I also have this evil streak. I just might lead you along doing things for you until you expect it, then I will suddenly lead you up to a deadline, and push you off and let you take the fall for the project’s failure. Or maybe not because I’d have to try to fix it.
Why do I ask myself questions and then answer them?
Why am I listening to Down Under by Men At Work and trying to understand all the lyrics?
Why do people call tech support from the deep south and yell “thank god you speak English” when they get someone they think is in the US? I heard this so frequently it just became a joke, I would frequently answer with, “well one of us has to”… or “I’m sorry I don’t speak Welsh” and then we all get a good laugh when they ask “what’s Welch? Like the jelly?”
Why does the History channel repeat itself?
Here is a real story Utah is no 1 for internet porn. 5.47 subscriptions per 1000. Now I had a few thoughts on why that number is so high. First being, have you ever tried to buy porn in Utah? Seriously! You HAVE to go online or out of state. And second, why are so many people PAYING for porn online? Do they not realize how much you can get for FREE? Now in all seriousness this study found that the more “conservative” a state the higher the subscription rate. So we can easily point our fingers to the oppressive religious and political groups trying to white wash the world, and say SEE you are only making it worse! But we won’t, and why won’t we? Because they would only react and take away more of our porn, and we can’t let that happen.
Monday, March 2, 2009
It's all about Ego
Maybe I should have called this Kyle's Inane Drivel rather than my relentless fantastic consciousness...
Since this is my first (yaaay) I will keep it short, and provide a brief overview of this blog.
This is all about Ego. My Ego. Or often my lack of Ego. Or the false perception of Ego. Or maybe Eggo's... For clarification when I say Ego I mean the division of the psyche that is conscious, most immediately controls thought and behavior, and is most in touch with external reality. And my unequivocal awesomeness.
I will from time to time hand the reigns of my rants off to the Id and Super Ego, so that should provide some lively debate.
I will almost definitely spend time talking about my family (sorry in advance), and my job. I promise to try to keep politics out of this, but it does tend to come up so it will from time to time inevitably make it into this.
If anyone actually reads this cool, if not, at least I know I sent my words off into space where they will encounter new life and new civilizations and possibly provoke interplanetary wars.
~Kyle J.