jj goes bloggish

CryptoEtymology: "Going Commando"

2009-07-06T19:27:19Z

I just consulted Wikipedia, and it says: 'Going commando' started with commando and similar special forces military units, when some soldiers stopped wearing underwear to prevent chafing.

Well, phooey on that!

My made-up-on-the-spot etymology for it is that it started in a Second Life sort of game, at the point you outfit your character. And it's part of a whole set. "Commando" is from Command-O or the key combo for the "options" menu, which permits you to skip the underwear.

So, to forward-track the other key combos, we'd have:

"Going commanda" would mean you grabbed your entire wardrobe and are wearing it ALL. "Going commandc" is for when you think other people should wear what you're wearing, and "going commandv" would be for when you're wearing a copy of somebody else's clothes. "Going commands" means you intend to wear this exact set of stuff again, probably without washing it. "Commandx" would mean you've quit dressing altogether. "Commande" would be for when you're handing out discs (like mix CDs.)

Michael Jackson's effect on my musical development

2009-06-26T19:05:10Z

When I was a kid -- and so was he -- Micheal Jackson's voice had a strong effect on me.

It was visceral. It was like an icepick to the ear. Not until the 1980s and Geddy Lee's stuff with Rush did I have such an immediate, "Please stop that immediately or I may have to kill somebody!" reaction to a voice coming over the radio.

Thanks to Michael Jackson, I developed a foolish dislike for "soul" music that stunted my musical tastes for decades. I should have realized that the Jacksons' true genre was the same one occupied by the Osmonds and the Archies.

Burn Notice

2009-06-22T01:03:47Z

Two things about this show:

1) They should do a recipe video. The narrator's voice and just-so delivery just cries out (in a calm manner) for it.

2) There's been at least one episode where the heroes set up a big ambush involving lots of explosives, only to have to ditch that plan and dash off elsewhere. Just once, a week later there should be a TV in the background, covering a train yard's blowing up, evidently set off by kids. You could have a running gag of a politician campaigning on keeping C4 out of the hands of children.

Dear Seattle,

2009-06-20T15:20:37Z

We surrender. Please come and take back your weather.

peace and love,
The Eastern Seaboard

Project/Object vs Zappa Plays Zappa: Which is better?

2009-06-10T02:24:06Z

Zappa Plays Zappa is playing locally next month, and tickets are $52. That seems a bit extreme to me. And the only players I'd hear of are Dweezil and Joe Travers.

Meanwhile, Don Preston and Ike Willis head Project/Object, who aren't playing very locally next month.

But I wonder, to those of you who have seen both: Which is a better show?

Surprise Happy Anniversary?

2009-06-07T01:22:06Z

I'm reading Accelerando by Charles Stross, and I just ran into this:

"... It happened on June 6, 1969, at eleven hundred hours, eastern seaboard time," Pierre counters. "That was when the first network control protocol packets were sent from the data port of one IMP to another -- the first ever Internet connection. ..."

(I haven't verified this.)

Fragments from a fictional Fifties

2009-05-16T18:54:38Z

Suddenly, I'm coming up with be-bop lyrics.

F'rinstance:

Grab an Uzi, Miss Suzy
We're going over the top
Grab an Uzi, Miss Suzy
We're going over the top
Grab an Uzi, Miss Suzy
We got bogies to drop.

... or ...

You know I'm surly when it's early
And I hate it when it's late
I get mean in between
But otherwise I'm great ...

I don't think those are the only choices ...

2009-05-13T01:59:31Z

I just heard this, bellowed in a TV ad:

WE CAN BE SLAVES OR WE CAN BE LICHENS!!

I've seen judgemental system messages before, but this one takes the cake!

2009-05-08T19:09:57Z

Change system appearance and behavior, or get help

Surrender, Condi!

2009-05-04T16:54:37Z

Condoleezza Rice has had a few tough moments recently, as people -- including a fourth grader -- have started to publicly ask her about torture. And they haven't even gotten around to the accusation that torture was to elicit FALSE confessions, to support the invasion of Iraq.

Condi has an option which might move us from the stalled, waiting-for-the-axe-to-fall state we're all in, concerning torture prosecutions. She could assemble all the documentation and surrender to the FBI, saying, "This isn't an admission of guilt, but all these people are saying I committed crimes. I have a right to my day in court!"

a proposed financial transaction tax

2009-04-28T18:05:52Z

At first or second blush, this sounds like a good notion. In effect, it taxes ridiculously complex financial transactions (including the sorts that helped make our current crisis) while having negligible impact on straightforward ones.

A tax of 0.25 percent on the sale or purchase of a share of stock will make little difference to a person who intends to hold the share for 5-10 years as a long-term investment. This tax would cost someone buying $10,000 of IBM stock $25 when they purchase their shares. If the price doubles in ten years, then they will have to pay $50 when they sell. These fees would be dwarfed by their capital gains taxes.

...

A small increase in trading costs would be a very manageable burden for those who are using financial markets to support productive economic activity. However, it would impose serious costs on those who see the financial markets as a casino in which they place their bets by the day, hour, or minute. Speculators who hope to jump into the market at 2:00 and pocket their gains by 3:00 would be subject to much greater risk if they had to pay even a modest financial transaction tax.

Similarly, the financial engineers who specialize in constructing complex financial instruments may find an FTT to be a nuisance. An FTT could cause their derivative instruments to be taxed at several points. For example, the trade of an option on a stock would be taxed, as would the purchase of the stock itself if the option was exercised. More complex derivatives could be subject to the tax many times over, substantially reducing the potential profits from complexity.

The Wall Streeters and their flacks will insist that an FTT is unenforceable and will simply result in trading moving overseas. There is a small problem with this argument call the “United Kingdom.” The U.K. has had a tax on stock trades (trades of derivatives and other financial instruments are untaxed) for decades. The revenue raised each year would be equivalent to $30 billion in the U.S. economy. Obviously, the tax is enforceable.

Dean Baker's whole article

Let me get this straight ...

2009-04-23T01:28:06Z

Microsoft's current TV ad campaign for Windows is intended to tell us that we can be happy with their product IF we first say we're unworthy of Macs AND if Microsoft gives us the computers free.

The only sane thing (from a Microsoft point of view) in the ads is that they ignore Linux.

Burning Maze

2009-04-22T19:04:29Z

A new mp3 of a short, short story.

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7540160

Comment to Moyers blog re David Simon & "The Wire"

2009-04-20T18:16:06Z

'cuz, you know, my thoughts on teevee shows should be preserved forever

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/blog/2009/04/making_institutions_work.html#comment-188193

This comes so close to the first question I've always wanted to ask Mr. Simon!

For me, the best part of "The Wire" is how it looks at how institutions work, be they drug operations, the docks, the schools, etc. I'm sorry they never got around to looking at the Catholic church and its school system, or at the company with that big "Domino" sign.

So MY question to David Simon would be, "You've chronicled how many institutions function badly, but on the other hand, you've run one that has worked superbly: the company that produced 'The Wire.' What worked for you?"

But back to the way you (BMJ's blog) phrased it. "Can citizens force institutions to live up to their mission statements?" Mission statements? What mission statements? Who would have the nerve to write down what each institution is really for? I mean, is there anything in BPD's general orders that explicitly says, "Keep the drug violence away from the downtown tourist areas."?

Seriously, if drug gangs started holding their shootouts in the fancier hotels, things would change in a jiffy, no?

So institutions are largely doing their jobs; it's just that nobody's being honest about what their jobs actually are.

As far as making individual institutions work, Simon gives a few tips in this series. For one, an institution depends on its people communicating among themselves freely, but when it comes to dealing with the outside world, those same people can't be undercutting each other. For the first half of that, we're shown that the backbone of a shop is a place for its people to gossip, as in the Sun's back dock and the Western's parking lot (next to the roof with the beer can mountains.) For the second part, we have Carver as an example in the first season and Prop Joe's nephew in the third.

Another lesson is that, believe it or not, institutions can oversee themselves when things get bad enough. Best example of that is the very satisfying demise of Cheese.

And finally, institutions require stories to act as their memories -- stats aren't enough. Weirdly enough, the series "The Wire" may serve a bit in that capacity. I figure that after seeing that, no self-respecting Ballmore drug crew will make those same mistakes again. And I bet the show's mentioned in every election campaign that city has, these days.

(Now for me to find Simon's contact info or personal blog so's I can bug him with my showbiz notions.)

If you feel you're ecountering a lot of blank stares when you speak ...

2009-04-15T19:46:57Z

1) Check to see if your audience consists of zombies. If that's the case, you probably don't have much chance of getting your point across.

2) Otherwise, consider this approach to convincing them: Show them a path from where they are now to where you want them to be. This takes some effort, because you have to find out where they are now (or where they think they are.) But it probably will work better than just throwing information at them with no context.

What to wear to a Fox teabagging

2009-04-10T21:44:51Z

We've heard about Fox' astroturf "demonstrations" scheduled for April 15th. The blinkered adoption of the term "teabagging" has provided (admittedly juvenile) chuckles for me, and I want to give something back.

Of course gay male fans of "Sex and the City" have got to show up in counter-demos, but Fox is ready for that and eager to run footage of it. It makes their (Fox') efforts look legitimate.

More fun might be to show up in Fox swag and infiltrate the crowd. I mean Fox t-shirts and tote bags and caps. And not just with pictures of their news channel celebrities. Heck, hold a sign plugging "24"!

"SAVE US, KEIFER!
24 Mon. 9PM."

This would mock the astroturf nature of the events, and Fox News might not even realize that. Other news organizations might, however, and whether they recognize the sarcasm as such or not, heck, they might run stories talking about Fox' activities.

(Okay, I confess, I still love Dollhouse, so I should carry:

"Did I fall asleep?
Fri. 9PM."

Updated post, to add:

KUTNER
LIVES!!

)

The Beat Wants To Move You!

2009-04-07T15:56:25Z

NEW DANCE TRACK!

Words:

The Beat wants to move you
And I should know
The Beat told me so

The Beat wants to put you in motion
After that, the Beat's plans are less specific
You can move rhythmically in one location
Or you can go out and do stuff -- the Beat is okay with that

The Beat came over to my house
We hung out for a bit
I showed the Beat my commemorative plate collection
The Beat was unimpressed

Asked, "How many of those things
Can you keep in the air at one time?"
I asked, "Can I glue them together first?
Then all of them."

The Beat snorted derisively
Tho rhythmically and with style
And those blue DeLorean sneakers
Squeaked on my floor

The Beat said

"Anyway, let's go somewhere and do something
Let's put the people in motion
Make 'em twitch and gallop
Shimmer and shake

Let's get in their skin,
Up their spines
And down into the arches of their feet
Before they have any idea what's happening to them."

That's what the Beat said
And from that follows
My previous assertion that

The Beat wants to move you
If you can move, you must exist
If you exist, then
The Beat wants to move you
If not, the Beat has no policy toward you
And no stated opinion

But I say go!
We've got people to move
Places to shake

So to the rest of you:
The Beat wants to move you

The Beat is trying to ricochet
off the floor and into your spine,
without your mind
having to have any say in it.

Hey, don't look at me for a way out,
The Beat's got me under its thumb
And many of its toenails
The Beat and I go back, a long, long time

The Beat wants to move you

The Beat is kinda simple, sometimes
But sometimes simple is enough

_{(older version)}

I get to vote tomorrow!

2009-03-30T18:50:55Z

Tomorrow I go to the local fire house to vote in the special election in New York's 20th Congressional district for the United States House of Representatives.

The main bit of my preparations is my talking points, just in case a TV newsie shows up to interview me. Not that this is likely -- I have a real face for radio, but it's in the same spirit of planning what I might buy if I win a lottery.

Here's what I have so far:

The Republican Party should step aside and let a real opposition party step up. Our political system has grown into something that only works well when at least two active sides putting forth effort in good faith.

The Republicans aren't up to that any more. All they are is a fund raising machine tied to a bunch of media shouters and their fan clubs. They have no desire to do the work of governing. Many of them publicly ridicule it, even while being paid with our tax money.

And did you get a load of their "budget"? Let's see any business get away with releasing a document as flimsy as that. Let's see any high schooler get away with that. The dogs didn't just happen to eat the Republicans' homework, they were fed it with gravy on top.

The Democratic Party, whose candidate I just voted for, is far from perfect. But at least many of them are trying in good faith to do their jobs. But, under the American system of doing things, they need people working along side them to point out where their assumptions may be wrong. The Republicans aren't up to it, so we should look elsewhere.

A third party that did some proper organizing could have a respectable roster of candidates ready by 2010, next year. By 2012, they could have a decent number elected to the House of Representatives, and be started on the Senate. By 2016, they could field viable candidates for all offices, including President.

Who should the new second party be?

Last November, I voted for Obama and Gillibrand under New York's Working Families party line. Perhaps that party can do the job. Or, seeing as how the Democratic party covers the spectrum from medium-left to medium-right, perhaps a party can fill the growing gap to their left. You newsies are constantly claiming that nobody wants socialized medicine; wouldn't it be fun to actually put that to a vote? All we have to lose is our high infant mortality rate.

You people in the news media have a role to play -- admittedly, a larger role than I like. Right now, your methodology is to take any statement a public figure makes and ask yourself, "Who would object to this the most?" Then you go to that group's spokesperson of the day and confront them, in hopes of getting a juicy quote on the record. For instance, you go to Peta every time there's a news story about meat. Never mind that Peta is so small and discredited that they've gone after the town of Fishkill (where I work) twice, just because of its name, and have apologized for it at least once.

So how about helping America fix its political system by going a bit further afield for reaction quotes? It's not as if you can sit around and pretend you don't have growing competition. Talk to some political organizations that still try to represent actual voters. Leave the Republican sound bytes where they belong, on partisan "news" releases and the comedy shows.

Music from the 1980s, by way of the 1990s, now as mp3s

2009-03-18T17:22:10Z

In the 1980s, I programmed several bits of music into my Casio KX-101. Then, in 1996, I played back those digital tracks and encoded several of them into RealAudio (*ptui!*) format. Happily, I found some of the System 7 format sound files that were used in that process. And I've converted them into mp3s! Most are in glorious monophonic sound, and are each less than a meg to download.

Last Waltz of Murray the Sailor 1:29
Today's Science Spot 3:32
Proletarian Syncopations 1:09
Slouch Hat 1:15
Monopod Stomp 1:15
Phoned In From a Horse 1:54 -- This one is in weird, KX-101-style stereo.

I dreamed I was at a karaoke battle.

2009-03-18T16:16:00Z

The first song sung was a droning 80's-style version of Dylan's Maggie's Farm. I asked one of the proprietors if it was permitted to throw money. She said yes, so I spent a few moments fishing out the proper change for the lyrics, "He hands you a nickel. He hands you a dime. He asks you with a grin if you're having a good time. ..."

I looked around, and the rest of the people had been doing the same thing.

Is it too hard to say "please"?

2009-02-26T16:48:23Z

For instance, this headline on Alternet:

Will Revelations About Bobby Jindal's Weird Secret Past Destroy His Political Career?

Would it pain you to be polite?

Much better would be:

Will Revelations About Bobby Jindal's Weird Secret Past Please Destroy His Political Career?

Moviegoing

2009-02-23T14:53:29Z

The last movie I saw in a theater was The Two Towers, toward the end of its original run.

Okay, maybe a part of my not going to theaters since is that I'm not dating. And I don't have to share a teevee with anybody at home.

Largely, I've just spent my entertainment bucks on DVDs. Especially of series that bear repeated viewing, like The Wire, Deadwood ...

Cold turkey done and got me

2009-02-06T18:46:20Z

Ever since I created my Outlaw Chocolate page, I've worried that African Americans -- and Africans in general -- might take offense. I'd considered putting up some sort of apologia, noting that it's the substance that I'm saying should be outlawed, not its color. But that would sound really lame, so I figured that my suggestion that the racial imbalances in our prisons could be addressed by arresting more white people would suffice.

Well, now I have a vice to match my own sun-deprived skin tone. It's pre-sliced, blister-packed "white turkey." It costs less than half as much as normal sliced turkey. Its ingredient list starts "turkey" and "turkey broth," so it's both the meat and the meat-derived comfort food, synthesized into one addictive combo.

I find myself snarfing two or three or four slices at a time, until the "done too much" feeling kicks in. Now, this is a uniquely sleazy feeling, having no real relation to post-Thanksgiving-dinner lassitude or beer bloat or even chocolate overindulgence coma. I sometimes say, "Never Again!" but I know that won't last.

Why do all the cool sounding jobs have to be in the military?

2009-01-30T15:22:45Z

I mean, if McDonald's were advertising for a Land Combat Electronic Missile System Repairer, I'd apply in a heartbeat!

"Yeah, I work on MacBooms!"

justjohn @ 2009-01-29T14:00:00

2009-01-29T14:02:04Z

Google Sites site: http://sites.google.com/site/justjohnsite/

Nothing new -- it's just meant as a backup for http://just-john.com