I really appreciate reading this from John Cusack. Wow.
It’s always easy to read something that aligns with one’s thinking… but maybe its true – now that the money’s gone, we might finally get somewhere.
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I had seen a few articles and Boing Boing posts on The Black Hole store in Los Alamos, NM. It is where a lot of the high-tech junk has ended up as it goes surplus from our defense/industrial research complex in Los Alamos.  The Black Hole store in Los Alamos I dragged the family there last Saturday,(pics) on one of those bright blue, perpetually sunny days as the aspen leaves are turning bright colors, and the breeze was still warm. From pictures, and from this video (Coudal Partners are amazing) I had imagined this place all wrong. It is in a former Piggly Wiggly store, though almost all remnants of that are hard to spot, as they are buried in what looks like 3 acres of trailers, and assorted defense-junk outside. It is in a neighborhood, with houses across the street, not in some industrial park.  icosahedron? Outside, there are something-hedrons made of bowling balls and broomsticks, and flowers made of bomb casings. Inside, the world turns a bit more claustrophobic, as there are rows and rows of everything. Need an old analog Tek scope? Aisle 3. (Rolling stands are outside next to the vacuum cleaners) Johnson controls timer, ca. 1967? Yep, right next to the capacitors in Aisle 4. Every possible BNC connector? Gas valves? Check. There was a display of calculators from TIs to HPs to Sharps… every possible type. Those wall bricks we get with every device we buy? An entire room of them. We found books that had been burned through by acid (pages with sculpted holes that no mouse could have done), and strange looking caps that look like head bandages with 120V plugs on them… (?)  Used fountains in Los Alamos Out of the back of the store, and perhaps more poignant, was an entire room of household items. Fans, heaters, yes, but a mug with “mother” on it? Coffee makers, flower vases, birthday cards… All this became a reminder to me that people live and have lived in Los Alamos, doing the work that some say kept us safe this last century. If you were to take about 1000 sq feet of The Black Hole, it would represent the kind of place I grew up in. My dad is a retired engineer from this defense-fueled era, and I grew up in a house with a basement and garage crowded with the very same castoff equipment. We had piles and racks of defunct 8-bit tape readers, telephone switching equipment, rods, printer platens, you name it. It became raw material for my father’s creativity, and provided a backdrop for much of my learning about machinery and engineering. It’s Make Magazine before there ever was one. What do you call this situation? Most of us have one of these places in our lives… Its where all the “stuff” goes when we aren’t sure what to do with it anymore. We all know that hard drive has pictures on it… but its too much work to sort it out, and just maybe too valuable to throw away. We know there are treasures somewhere in there, but the pile is just too formidable. At the store, my son asked about some item, and the man behind the counter said, “If you can inventory everything here, you can have it all.” I think that says it best. By popular demand, here is the award winning chili recipe from the recent PDX Crock-Tober-Fest ’08… This chili won “Most Creative”, likely due to its choice of ingredients… Note: I made this up as I went, so proportions are likely inaccurate, do yours to taste… Also, the choice of meat was based on the “Mysterious package of meat that my mother sent that no one wanted to use” at the back of the freezer.. (She raises organic cattle.. and with what i get from her comes a few, ahem, interesting packages…) You could probably use any meat like chicken, pork, or beef… nothing with its own spice like sausage, or you’re on your own taste-wise… Tongues of Fury Chili Start with one whole beef tongue (I told you…) Skin the tongue (which takes a little fortitude) and cut into 3/4 inch cubes. (This is actually a nice meat to use… once you get past the skinning process) In a heavy pot, wilt 1 large chopped onion in oil (pinch of salt) until just clear, let it turn a little brown. At the same time, heat 4 tbls oil in a wok with a few cloves of garlic to flavor the oil. Remove garlic before it burns, and turn up the heat as high as it will go. Let oil almost smoke, and throw in meat to saute. (Brown on the outside, but it doesn’t have to cook through – that will happen eventually) Put browned meat into the heavy pot with the onions, stir, salt/pepper to taste for a few minutes. Add 1 16oz. can of crushed tomatoes, and 4-6 tbls of Balsamic Vinegar, and 1 to 2 hot green chilis sliced, and let the whole thing simmer on low for 2 hours. When the meat is falling apart, add a little bit of sugar, and check for taste, you can add a little parsley, basil and Salt/Pepper if you want it. I also added some roasted chili paste to provide some background flavor and lengthen the burn. About 30 minutes before you want to serve it, throw in 3 big Parmagiano cheese rinds (you can get them at Zupans or Whole Foods etc) and a healthy sprig of Rosemary. This broadens the flavor a lot, and lends a rich character to the whole thing. When serving, fish out the Rosemary and Cheese rinds (scrape the rinds and put the residue back in the pot, but hide the rinds… that can be our secret… And if you go with the Tongue, maybe tell your guests first, so they don’t freak. Enjoy! A couple of years ago I impulsively blurted out the fact that Blogging is an inherently selfish act. This occured about 2 feet in front of James Keller, who at the time was working at YRG. This elicited a shrug and perhaps a bit of a sneer, because this of course could have been construed as a criticism of a sort. I said it again today, over a beer with David Burn http://www.adpulp.com/, who roundly challenged me on the point. I realized that of course that I hadn’t really thought through what I was trying to say, and I was startlingly close to the yawning precipice. Though still driven by the same undefined belief, I needed to think fast. Thus ensued an interesting conversation on the nature of what we’re all doing blogging… Things have changed for everyone in the last couple of years. Blogging is ever more prevalent and an accepted outlet for many. But I still feel we are all in some way “selfish” in what we are doing. It now just becomes a matter of defining selfish, as it may mean vastly different things depending on who you ask. (I want to challenge the reader to keep an open mind here on the term “selfish”. I don’t mean it in the common “what’s good for me over all others” kind of definition, but more the “pointed at the self” kind of read… If you have a better term, I’d love to hear it.) Blogging has become micro-blogging, and we all jostle for position on Twitter’s many access points as we go through our day. What are the different motivations that drive us? Some of us seem to want to share the nice sunset we saw, or that a certain deli has the killer reuben. Others are more direct, dropping product names or @handle-ing to show we are in among the Twitterati… Some just provide such waves and waves of value that I feel I will never be able to keep up (Amber and Bram, I am talking about you) I blog here, so I get to bloviate, and to think once in a while. I bet you do too. It also gives me a buzz if someone actually reads it. (Thanks Mom…) What seems clear is that there is an entire spectrum of motivations and styles, likely as individual as we all are. What is left though is an interesting view into motivation. What drives you online? Why do you do this? What is your motivation? What is in it for your self, online or otherwise ? Let’s circle our desks and spend the rest of the hour in discussion. This is a thought provoking history on currency, credit and our economic system… from a coder’s perspective… http://www.boingboing.net/2008/09/23/what-went-wrong.html I had dinner with a couple of friends last night. Normal conversation, nice wine, etc. My 10 year old was along with us too. Bridget, host for the evening, is originally from Bulgaria. She grew up on the other side of the wall during the Cold War, and she has worked very hard to come to America. She had to give up on her excellent education and start over when she reached the US (her nursing credentials were not recognized). This woman delivered pizza and cleaned bedpans while she repeated her medical education here in the ‘States.  Berlin Wall All of this is backstory though, as what happened last night was both shocking and illuminating. It was a true moment of stark reality, and I was very glad my son was able to see this kind of thing for real. Discussion at the dinner table turned to our present political and economic situation… We all share the same concern for the “meltdown” and the “implosion” or whatever meme will be assigned to this time in history. We are also all afraid that it might just come to pass that the evangelicals and the uninformed will go ahead and elect to extend the nightmare another four years. Are the Dem’s that weak? Are we just that powerless? Bridget was very vocal, and was for some reason asking if we’d seen Good Morning America. I wouldn’t normally admit to watching television, but what she was after was striking. Apparently there was a segment on politics/economics that had some B-roll at Niagara Falls. What Bridget was after was the unintended message that came across in the video. Apparently the Canadian side of the falls is vibrant with nightlife, lights, clubs, activity. As the camera panned over to the US side, it was dark, with closed stores, no lights. With tears in her eyes she was suddenly re-living her experiences standing on the dark side of the Berlin Wall, looking West. She remembers in the 80′s visiting Berlin, on the Eastern side. She has vivid memories of seeing the West through a portal in the wall… all brightly lit, with every advantage out of reach. She has given up so much, and worked so hard to come here, and she is very afraid to see that our country is beginning to look like the dark side. With our economic woes, and every political decision reduced to sound bites and party politics it is beginning to blur the distinction between “us” and “them” back in the Cold War. Our constitutional freedoms have been restricted in the name of security, and it seems that oligarchy is having its way with us on Wall Street… Its not about apple pie and Chevrolet anymore… There almost isn’t any Chevrolet to speak of… The cool part was that my son was curious, but of course in the dark as to where all this emotion was coming from. We took a moment and explained the Cold War as best we could- that the end of WWII had created a huge split, and that there were people on one side and another. Families were estranged, and communities torn in two. People risked everything to come to the West, and some paid a dear price to try. I really appreciated that he was able to see a first-hand account, and hear the raw emotion… Our world is so filtered now that experiences like that seem rare. What worries me is that Bridget struck a chord. We are on the dark side in so many ways. Europe is thriving under the Euro, as we spin ever deeper into debt, and dependence on foreign resources. I feel more and more powerless as the news goes by. We can’t let this happen for 4 more years people… We can’t afford it.. literally. What is it going to take? I am reading a book by Barbara Kingsolver; Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, in which she makes a great case for us to re-evaluate how we think about food. Among many other important topics, she talks about how Americans have a commodity based relationship to food. We treat it differently than those in Europe. We eat consistently more (larger portions) and of course we are heavier and less healthy. Food is not part of our culture, but a commodity that must be gathered in great mouthfuls lest it be snatched up by someone else. It is not sharing, social activity or an art form; its fuel. Think about this sometime, then go to Costco. You will see her point pretty quickly. The other day, I was riding along in my car with the radio on. I don’t recall the purpose of the particular advertisement, but it mentioned “Golden Years” in reference to some financial product. It got me thinking about language, and how it forms what we think, and how concepts are “packaged” for us to buy, or to vote for, or to accept without question “Golden Years” – sounds like a reward, doesn’t it? All 56 virgins at the gates of heaven as just rewards for a life of service to the system. Picture that RV, with the sun setting, you and I secure in our retirement, with our wedding bands gleaming, and our teeth firmly in place with PolyGrip. If we work like good workers, we will earn this cosmic reward at the end of our lives… a time to kick back and take it all in Were you aware that until recently, people didn’t really live much past 65? (that’s why they set the age at 65, as the average age people reached during the Lyndon Johnson administration was 63). People worked all their lives. There was no such concept as retirement. Actually (different topic) even the concept of childhood is relatively new. Children were expected to work as soon as they were able. People had families, and lived in big farmhouses with children and grandchildren. Dad would work as long as he could, and so would Mom. As they got older, the family cycle would move on, and the farm would pass to a son, and Gran and Gramps became childcare workers, domestic help, snapping peas in the kitchen. (You remember the Waltons don’t you?) Until they could die with dignity at home “Golden Years” Think about how just this one term encapsulates all kinds of expectations and built in behavior If we questioned these things more often, I wonder what kind of society we’d build instead.
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