Month: October 2021

  • ODDS and ENDS: Free Parking, Online Footprint, and DUNE

    “ODDS and ENDS” is my continuing series of random thoughts and follow ups…

    I had a thought this morning; that I have become that old guy who keeps talking about parking all the time… And then I thought, I do pay for parking in this City. If I average out monthly what I have paid in parking tickets, it works out to $35 a month. It’s not free parking, I pay for my spot. Now, get off my lawn! And turn down your music while you’re at it!

    I’m think about changing up my online footprint. That sounds cool and I’m not sure what I mean, but I think the blog does need a redesign. I have said this before, and I really need to make the time for it, but really, the bigger question, which I still haven’t answered, is what do I want to get out of it? Bigger following? Earn money? Use as a marketing tool for other projects? On some days, updating my online footprint just feels like something to do, like reorganizing the pantry.

    DUNE is just an albatross of a story to put on film. And I’m saying this while enjoying the new DUNE, and having enjoyed all the other DUNE films. It’s just clunky as hell on film, and such a slow burn. Watching the new one, I can see how they tried to address these issues compared with the older versions, but there isn’t much you can do with the narrative. Again, I’m enjoying it, and this one does look amazing, but still in the back of my mind, I keep thinking this is a story that is just too difficult to make a movie out of.

  • Everything’s a Scam

    When I was in college, I took an Intro to Sociology class, which when I think back on it, was one of the better classes I ever took. Anyway, one of the many things that was taught in there was that, on the whole, as people age, their world view becomes more conservative. That doesn’t mean that if you are the hardest left liberal in your twenties, you will then become the hardest right conservative in your sixties. It’s more akin to, a hard-left liberal is more likely to become a centrist by their sixties. There are many factors as to why this might happen to someone, but the research showed that odds are you will be more conservative as you get older.

    That’s one of those pieces of knowledge that hangs out in the back of my head, and flares up every now and then when I find myself doing something, well, old man-ish.

    Such as thinking everything is a scam. This seems to have become my new “go to” on, just about everything. Like;

    Pumpkin patches? Scam

    Disney on Ice? Scam

    Pediatric Dentistry? Scam

    None of my scam beliefs are based on any facts. Just a feeling that I get when things aren’t adding up, and someone is out there trying to get my money. Also, I think this way when a product being delivered is of low quality. (Looking at you, corporate children’s live entertainment…) I can’t put my finger on when this started with me, but this thought happens more often than not.

    I just hope I don’t start watching OAN.

  • Short Story Review: “The Ghost Birds” by Karen Russell

    (The short story “The Ghost Birds” by Karen Russell, was featured in the October 11th, 2021 issue of The New Yorker.)

    SPOILER ALERT! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! AND I RUN LONG ON THIS ONE!

    The New Yorker published science fiction! I was really excited about that fact when I started reading “The Ghost Birds” by Karen Russell. For all I know, TNY has been publishing sci-fi for a while, but this is the first time I saw that type of story published here. Science Fiction can be a tricky beast; it can be great for adventure and melodrama, and when done very well, can highlight the best of humanity.

    In “The Ghost Birds” we get a future world of global ecological collapse; Wildfires out of control, limited resources, toxic environment, and mass extinctions, especially of all the birds. The story is told by Jasper, who is in search of ghost birds in Oregon, where the story takes place. A violent group called the Surveillers controls these lands and the airspace, for which they kill trespassers. Jasper takes his teenage daughter, Starling, into the dangerous Oregon area to search for these birds

    Creating a complete universe in a short story is a difficult task. The author has to explain how this place works and the logic to this world, while also keeping the flow of the story natural, and not coming across as spoon-feeding, or plot clunky. Russell does this very well in the first two thirds of the story. This world is a desolate and unfriendly place, but also captivating in how people are finding ways to survive in it.

    When the climax of the story starts, the logic and cohesion of the story starts to falter. At this point I refer to what a professor in college taught, which is the Chekhov Maxim; If you introduce a gun in your story, you have to fire the gun. The Surveillers are that gun in this story. They are given enough examples of how dangerous they are, yet they never show up. The climax of the story is that Jasper and Starling get trapped in a furnace smoke stack, which Jasper tries to climb out of, but falls and breaks his leg. That leaves Starling to climb out, and get help from their friend’s airship, which lead me to ask why where the Surveillers introduced? The smoke stack scene is climatic enough, and the threat of the Surveillers plays no part in it. Also, Jasper couldn’t use communication devices because the Surveillers could hear, but somehow, they could get in and out using an airship, even though it is mentioned that the Surveillers patrol the sky. See, the logic started to fall apart. Then, I also had issue with Jasper not having a heroic act. He becomes injured, and witnesses the ghost birds, which makes him passive to the situation.

    I ended up feeling very conflicted about this story. I was really rooting for it, as I liked that this story was about ecological disaster, and that is an issue that I care greatly about. But this sore thumb stuck out at the end that I couldn’t shake or ignore.

    Good effort, just didn’t stick the landing.

  • Yup, Triggered Myself

    I got to thinking about money, and then working on the family budget, and
    that triggered me.

    I would like to think that I am good with money, but I see that the majority
    of my life I have been in debt, so I think I need to own up that I am not good
    with money. And it makes me really frustrated as I am not a dumb guy, but money
    is not my strong suit.

    With the Holidays coming, we needed to make sure that we can cover all of
    our expenses, and at the same time keep paying down our debt.

    And then it all started feeling so futile. No matter how hard we try, we
    never seem to get ahead of our debt. Even if I was in a position to go out and
    get a fulltime job, I have this dark cloud of a negative thought that keeps
    yelling at me that it wouldn’t matter. Something keeps popping up that pulls us
    back down. Sinking down, getting further and further away from our goals.

    I need to take a breath.

    Remind myself what our goals are.

    Nothing is easy, especially something worth doing.

    I guess what triggers me about this is that I feel like I should know
    better. That I should be learning from my mistakes.

    I might also need to be more aware of what my triggers are, and how to deal
    with them.

    I think I need to go take a walk.

  • Wildfires and Personal Freedom

    Every Sunday morning, we watch Sunday Morning on CBS. (This isn’t a plug, so just follow me on this.) But this past Sunday, the show wasn’t on, as there was a London NFL game, in Tottenham Stadium of all places. We switched over to Paramount+ (This still isn’t a plug,) to see if we could watch Sunday Morning. It wasn’t on, but what was playing was a long documentary on the California wildfires of the past couple of years. I would share a clip, but I can’t seem to find it on the CBS News website.

    I’m sharing this for a couple of reasons. First, I learned the role modern logging is playing in creating forests that are prone to explosive wildfires, due to their planting of new trees, which are too close to each other making dangerous combustible zones. Second, and I was sort of aware of this but never had it explained in this detail, are the techniques that Native Americans used, such as seasonal burns, cutting low branches, and preparing dwellings in defense of wildfires. Third, the doc showed how people who prepared their homes for wildfires were more likely to survive them.

    And that’s the kicker; there are proven techniques people can do to save their homes and communities. I’m talking about the Five-Feet Rule, which is pretty simple and non-intrusive. The logic is rather clear; if every home in a neighborhood did this, then the likelihood of the community going up in flames is greatly decreased.

    Sadly, the documentary showed, again and again, how communities would refuse to adopt these rules because they don’t want to government telling them what to do. Even when Cal-Fire offered to help people prep their homes, on a purely volunteer basis, people still refused. The people claimed they were defending their freedom from government intervention.

    But is it that? If a fire comes through, and they lose their home, won’t they expect the government to help them out? To get back on their feet. How can you defend freedom by refusing government help in one situation, but retain your freedom by taking government help in a different situation? It doesn’t seem to line up to me.