Blogbat's Philosophical Note #412: He who runs from the truth is like one who swims away from a life preserver
Month: September 2003
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I need help naming my duck
I have a little pond where I live, which is inhabited by eight or nine ducks. During my walk I always go down there and take a few pieces of old bread or a bagel or two. I usually will sit down for at least a short while for the event, so I am close to their level. The ducks, mostly mallards, always love the treat. But there is one who really is an attention-seeker. A solid white peeking duck (no, he does not like water chestnuts) who is always front and center. A fearless duck, he likes to save me the labor of throwing the morsel (and himself, I am quite sure, the labor of defending it), by simply walking up and politely taking it. Not one to eat and run, he doesn’t feel compelled to take it and eat it somewhere safe, but often sits just inches from my face as he gobbles the treat up. Then patiently waits for more, protesting only if he does not get in the least, every other bite. After all the pieces are gone, the other ducks return to the water and motor on their way, but the crazy one has to inspect my hands and the ground nearby to insure there are none cleverly hidden or overlooked, after which he is perfectly happy to stay and visit, sometimes taking little naps next to me if time permits me to terry. But I need to find a name for him. I feel I should call him something if I am to continue to spend regular time with him. I think he calls me mwak mwak, if I got the accent right. I thought of "Bob" as one name for him...mostly because he floats, but it doesn't fit in other ways. Any ideas anyone?
Okay, so sticking to my day job: here's some of what went down today
1. Got a Starbuck's Frap
2. Let the dog out. (yes, I did it, "woof, woof woof")
3. Had Lunch
5. "Geeked" & worked on some other stuff
6. Had dinner with some friends
7. Started this blog
This list is sponsored by the National Abridgate Foundation, sponsoring selected trunkated works since 1974.
"Give me ambiguity...or give me something else."
...There's more, but who in their right mind would want to use ardvarks in a tetherball shortage?
The daily Poo
“Look stimpy! Eeet's Poooooo!”
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A Note from the Garden Journal Volume 1.4
It’s been quite a weekend indeed. I have spent a great deal running port scans on one or two hardware firewalls I am in charge of, trying to pinpoint more precisely why one of them seems to be on the blink in certain ways. The internet seems to be becoming fast a battlefield. It is easy to be apathetic to it until you connect your laptop via dialup and your software firewall goes apoplectically spastic. That’s only the dialup situation. Connect that machine directly to a DSL, Cable modem or other broadband source and you will really see where the fun stuff is trolling. While it is reasonable to point out that the average user should not have to be an engineer to respond correctly to what his firewall prompts him to do from time to time (assuming he has a firewall at all) in response to various attacks, it should also be pointed out that the user should take the responsibility to learn some of the most fundamental steps he should take and events he should anticipate. Not that the firewall and other software vendors make it incredibly easy for this to occur, granted. But, if you can learn how to drive a car, you can learn some of the most important things about internet security. And the security situation out there in the wild world of the internet will, until some things are changed, only continue to get worse.
Why do you learn to drive a car? So you won’t wreck it. The same thing applies here. If you don’t learn to protect your computer and your personal data, some 13 year old hacker could wreck your life or use your system to do that to the lives of others. Part of the very reason the internet has become such a seething cesspool is because of the fact so many home-users are having their machines hijacked unbeknownst to be used for all manner of nefarious purposes.
Of course Microsoft has been little help in this saga. This is the company that recently launched its latest publicity stunt dubbed a “security initiative”. It is also the same company whose internet portal, MSN.com requires most users to disable their firewalls (or severely limit them) to partake in the services offered there. But even if you don’t visit Microsoft’s portal, their crack staff of security-conscious “experts” have enabled by default services on your Windows machine that make it VERY promiscuous for no redeeming reason. In fact, it is one of these services which is now front and center in the latest security hole revelation and subsequent set of patches. I won’t go into any detail, but you can read more about these at www.grc.com and www.pcmag.com . But I have to wonder about the code writers at Microsoft. It wouldn’t surprise me one day if we find out that some of them were mal-intents. I am not a programmer and even “stupid me” can see the danger (and lack of good use) of some of these system services. In fact, most computer geeks have been aware of matters of network security long before the general public needed to be. So, I don’t think ignorance can really be used as an excuse at
At any rate, all of this “geeking” about this weekend has made me feel as if I’m a bit of a homebody. At least, that is compared to some friends who are doing a whirlwind tour of the States for a non-political Israeli medical charity. They are presently trying to get a former top official to come for a large fundraiser through some close channels. The money is to help the families and victims of terrorism in that region, which again started me thinking about the blessings secured for us here as Americans. We have such a luxury to, for the most part, be able take the war into the backyards of our enemies and out of our own. Over there, they only have one yard. Well, at least as long as we ignore the pink elephants of
Regardless of upon which side of the Israeli-Palestinian war you may be, I am sure if you are an American, you are grateful we don’t have to live under that level of strife here. It is like
But truly we need to exercise more common sense. Both with internet security as well as physical security. If a layperson can see the holes, it is I think, time to ask why our “watchmen” can’t or maybe won't. It’s time to start calling spades, “spades”.
-Blogbat a.k.a. Martin
A Note from the Garden Journal
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Today has been nicely relaxing, though I have had scattered things to accomplish. It was good to wake up this morning and remember it was Friday. Here is a little snip of something I'm working on, click to listen.
Galveston, Texas Random Pic
I'm really in the mood to go play with some horses and sit outside by a tree right smack-dab in the middle of their herd, just listening to that subliminal music that dances between the breezes and falls in time with the rhythm of swishing tails, chirping birds, munching grass and half-dreams. Awakened by occasional sunbeams or the breath of one of them coming to pay a visit.
It is in these moments that hours pass by like seconds and eternity is seemingly in one's grasp. ...and it is here that one sees unwaveringly clear, if he wishes, that evidence of the very eternity his Creator puts in the hearts of men, though no one knows the work that He does when He does it*.
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Blogbat is still trying out some different things on his blogsite, which is partially why you're not completely sure what to expect from one day to the next. This is my first blogsite (aww how speeecial). So I don't think it should just be dry articles and news, though those are important to me too. The news basically is updated whenever I find a decent collection of things that really stand out. The articles I write when an issue really affects me and I think it needs to be addressed (though I'd write about any dumb thing if I ever did it for money).
Recently Blogbat has been in time non-existant land as he races from one thing to the next and barely has time to log on to his computer at home, let alone do what he loves: write...and pick on other bloggers, too. It has been non-stop the past two weeks without really a single day to breathe, which Blogbat likes to do. Blogbat grew into the nasty habbit of breathing at an early age and really has trouble quitting. Nevertheless, he has taken a few moments to update and remodel his Article Archives site Wednesday and post a few scattered things here and there but that was about it this week.
Blogbat would like some of that time out with the horses so he can be refreshed and write some more. He might need to make some time later this afternoon for that, if he can.
Props to all the cool bloggers and bloggettes out there who write such interesting stuff...I always make time to stop and read them. In the meantime, I'd love to hear what you think, blogger or random-web-visitor.
Okay, so sticking to my day job: here's some of what went down today
1. Got a Starbuck's Frap
2. Let the dog out. (yes, I did it, "woof, woof woof")
3. Worked
4. Had Lunch
5. Worked on some other stuff
6. Started this blog
This list is sponsored by the National Abridgate Foundation, sponsoring selected trunkated works since 1974.
"Give me ambiguity...or give me something else."
...There's more, but why eat elves if they are only half-baked?
*reference to Ecclesiastes 3:11
The daily Poo
“Look stimpy! Eeet's Poooooo!”
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What a crazy, high-speed past couple of days these have been in Martinville.
I just got off the phone with my best friend in
Predicting such things doesn't take a rocket scientist. People are always so predictable. Even the wild-eyed ones have a logical set of likely choices from which they select theirs. At this point the match (in which the
There are naturally numerous levels of success depending on our choices during the next couple of years, each one often creating an entirely new subset of options that present potential victories or setbacks. Examples of the many if-than sequences include key items like Taiwan, North Korean Offensives, Iranian Hostilities, Sino-American economic severance, war fatigue, anti-Beijing sentiment throughout rural China, nuclear armed Japan and South Korea, domestic elections, successful Iranian student uprisings and causing sufficient destabilization, domestic military and economic protests and apathy, South Korean anemia, strategic defense, "satellite killers", R&D of satellite-independent Autonomous Guidance Technologies, etc. Each of which plays at a different time depending on which one was played out before the other. Some are givens while some are wild-cards. The timing depends on the variables at play. It is a delicate dance or symphony made up of opposing sections working in perfectly predictable synchronization.
It is of course best if we can stay on top of the water, as it were, through all of this. We must try to win every battle no matter how insignificant it may seem. This is most likely best done in the simplest of terms by successfully leading diplomatic, Cultural, economic and military initiatives in proper concert. If done correctly, we can aid in the strategic-political implosion of our current adversaries. Time will tell if we take all of our moves, most, some or none at all. Most likely it will be somewhere in between, but our American Spirit will win the day, I imagine.
I am quite hoarse now from our lengthy conversation but it was truly fun. In my view, broad strategy is not created, it is discovered. Opportunities are created when Ideas discover strategies.
Blogbat will now come down off of his euphoric state he gets into from such conversations
Okay, so sticking to my day job: here's some of what went down today
1. Got a Starbuck's Frap
2. Let the dog out. (yes, I did it, "woof, woof woof")
3. Worked
4. Blogged
5. Had lunch
6. Practiced music
7. Drove around town for work-related stuff
9. Chatted with friend from
10. Let the dog out. Again. (yes, I did it, "woof, woof woof")
11. Started this blog
12. Now I'm going to bed. Ode to Joy.
...There's more, but why would anyone want to buy honey-mustard flavored ice cream?
The daily Poo
“Look stimpy! Eeet's Poooooo!”
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Blogbat Interrealities 101 – Blogbat on Interrelationships
by Sickman très Froid
How to Handle “Weirdness”
…at parties, lunch or anywhere else you happen to be by choice
Blogbat, as many others, has had encounters with "weirdness" occasionally in his life and from this he thought He would post some of the things he learned from them. This article was originally written awhile ago, but it never escaped.
Has this ever been your mantra: "Another day concluded, another night with "stupids". I find my solace in this breath, the moment now the shortbus left."
Today Blogbat is going to write a little bit on "weirdness" aka the kind of "funkiness" that we sometimes encounter in certain social situations. As luck would have it, many of us have gone to some sort of social event, be it an office party, your best friend's cousin's daughter's wedding shower or some collegiate student organization event...or just with a friend to hang out with some of his or her acquaintances and ran face to face into where the odd reality out manned your "safest" expectations. You suddenly feel some uneasy weirdness happening. You're pretty sure it's not you because you showered (today), don't have any boogers or food clinging to your face and basically, you are the same person you always are - and of course you know your friends like you and everybody's comfortable when you hang out with them. But the feeling grows and you begin to feel as if you had intruded upon some strange mars-watchers unitarian society secret meeting and that your being there is preventing them from finishing the business at hand.
Such occasional awkward experiences are unfortunately part of life, but Blogbat has learned some neat tricks in handling them. But first, some definitions are in order.
By "weird" I don't mean those people who like to play the bongos while sacrificing chickens on the doorsteps of their neighbors (I don't mean that usually, but it would be sort of a funny story to tell your friends later...tip: you had better bring a camera). I mean two kinds of "weird", really.
The first kind of weird is one in which everybody's speaking English, but you still aren't speaking what they're speaking.
Secondly, we find the kind of weird in which there is some not-quite tangible air of pervading dysfunction among some of the key people (or heck, all of the people) which may or may not start off as something you think is quaint and cute but invariably finally becomes a thing you just shake your head at as you find your way to the door saying things to yourself or your friend like, "how did I stumble in here", "does so-and-so really think these people are cool?", "Did I get the right address?", " (praying) please don't let me be like them", or worst of all, "did I hear/see/etc. what I think I just heard/saw/etc.?"
1. Acknowledge you have just entered a den of people who are "different" - their planet is not your planet. By not denying this you can move on to the next important step.
2. Honestly assess your chances of gaining anything from the experience. In most cases, be it business or personal remaining in this "Addams'" surrounding can only make you seem awkward to them who, in turn may broadcast to the world the next day at work or wherever that you are an odd, nervous one when in fact what they saw was a special performance just for them on behalf of their weirdness. Now you are ready for a set of two options in the next step. Choose carefully!
3a. If you decide to remain, do so only under the most extreme of conditions. E.g. If your life depends on it, your job (actually) depends on it or you have your wife or some "normal" friend with you who is by your side ready to help you make light of the experience so that it becomes good fodder for weeks of laughter. Generally, your reputation will not depend on remaining, though not taking a timely exit could do some harm.
3b. If you decide to go, you should already know an exit strategy which you have chosen from a list of good possible candidates before arriving at this event. It is vital that you do this in order to maintain intact the coolness factor, your ominatingly perceived social savoir faire as well as your overall sanity. The quicker you ditch those digs the better you'll feel. One need not ever feel guilty for extricating him-or herself from things such as these. Rather, you should feel better about yourself for your keen sense of what's going down and taking corrective action to allow yourself a pleasant out and a night of perhaps more fun if not just peace and normality instead of the hellish one you might have spent had you remained at the event out of some sense of guilt or by questioning your own ability to call a spade a spade. So this tactic is a win-win.
Granted, you may never see Bob at the office the same way again, but at least you were not weird enough to stay through to the bitter end. You have a life.
Such things are learning experiences about yourself and about people, but don't feel too bad if days, even weeks later you remember your odd ordeal and still for no explainable reason furrow your brow and shake your head because yes, you really did see that and yes, it was that whacked.
Blogbat Interrealities 101 – Blogbat on Interrelationships
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LOREM IPSUM
Since I didn't have time to write about anything noteworthy or reply with any clear conscience to any of the other fine blogs out there today, here is something just to help you through this difficult time. I guess you can describe Blogbat as Sean Hannity meets Dr. Laura meets Matt Drudge and today meets Ben Stein. Today, it's been Stein to the brim, baby. Cheers!
Translation and explanation of the following here
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At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus qui blanditiis praesentium voluptatum deleniti atque corrupti quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint occaecati cupiditate non provident, similique sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollitia animi, id est laborum et dolorum fuga. Et harum quidem rerum facilis est et expedita distinctio.
LOREM IPSUM
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The daily Poo
“Look stimpy! eet's Poooooo!”
"He who hit skunk, raise stink with other driver"
Blogbat is vely tired. More tire-d than the afore-mentioned skunk. At least I still smell good, supposedly. The Vandy game was a hit. I went with some friends who had faculty tickets with some dece-seats.
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Rehearsal today went pretty well. We worked on two songs we are doing at a wedding next weekend. Should be good. I have to start practicing with my cello more though. People are starting to ask about that more and I think I am going to have to use that puppy in public again (grins).
Okay, so sticking to my day job: here's some of what went down today
1. Got a Starbuck's Frap
2. Let the dog out. (yes, I did it, "woof, woof woof")
3. Went to rehearsal
4. Killed some spiders
5. Had lunch
6. Practiced music
7. Hooked up with my friends and went to a coffee house
8. Went to the Vandy Game
9. Left at halftime, got food
10. Checked out a new sports bar (emphasis on "sports" and great cheese fries, not "bar")
10. Came home
11. Let the dog out. Again. (yes, I did it, "woof, woof woof")
11. Started this blog
12. Now I'm going to bed
I will reply to everyone's cool blogs tomorrow morning...I know, I said this yesterday, but hey. I must now cheerfully sulk myself to sleep. Garden Journal is coming tomorrow afternoon
There is more... but why talk about failing government-run British dental plans?
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The daily Poo
“Look stimpy! eet's Poooooo!”
Another day concluded, another week eluded. I find my solice in this breath, the moment now of toil's rest.
Such a day was this, folks. I just got home from spending time with my good friends from the Ukraine and several others. The object of my ambivilance was also there (it is very complicated). This weekend's Note from the Garden Journal should explain more about the girl-situation.
Tomorrow morning Blogbat must rise early so he can practice some of the songs he is working on with a friend at their rehearsal at lunch time. (Blogbat was invited to go along with his friends, some artists who are doing an interview on a local station, but had this conflict, which stinks). After my rehearsal, I am going with some friends to see the Vandy game, which should be good. Blogbat might take his digicam with him.
Okay, so sticking to my day job: here's some of what went down today
1. Got a Starbuck's Frap
2. Let the dog out. (yes, I did it, "woof, woof woof")
3. Worked
4. Killed some spiders
5. Had lunch
6. Practiced music
7. Left to get together with my friends for music, fun and food.
8. Ate with friends at Sportsman's Grill where they only employ the rudest waitstaff. Save your money, the food is better somewhere else too, Blogbat thinks. Other noteworthy events included when the girl I cannot decide if I like hit her head on something. She was alright, but I hate it when stuff like that makes you feel as if you would like to do something chivalrous. Humans are dumb
9. Got out of a ticket in Brentwood driving home
10. Let the dog out. Again. (yes, I did it, "woof, woof woof")
11. Started this blog
12. Now I'm going to bed
I will reply to everyone's cool blogs tomorrow morning. I must now cheerfully sulk myself to sleep.
There is more... But all your base canards already are belong to us
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