The Plight of Mongo

During a rare quiet morning this weekend, with both child and lady still asleep, I gave myself time to watch some science fiction.  This kind of event has become rare these last couple years, so I try to keep what I watch to some level of quality.  I recently made a decision to watch 2012, and now I have to relearn basic math.  Seriously, that movie actually forced part of my brain to leave.  I understand it it trying to go back in time to prevent the Mayan people from carving their calendar so there would be no reason to ever make 2012.

Anyway, in an attempt to cleanse my brain of the new lesions afflicted upon it, I watched Moon, created by Duncan Jones, son of David Jones (he goes by David Bowie I hear), and staring Sam Rockwell.  I had heard good things about this movie, and someone thought it was a good idea to ruin the big plot point for me.  I will attempt to not do the same.

250,000 Miles from home, the hardest thing to face is yourself.

The story opens with Sam Bell (Rockwell) as a sole miner on a Helium 3 mine on the Moon, who for company has the robot GURDY (voice of Kevin Spacy).  The H3 is used for clean fusion energy back on earth and in the opening sequence we learn that it has solved all of mankind’s problems.  Or something like that, the baby was crying by this point.  Oh well for quiet morning.

Anyway, he fell back to sleep, and the movie began again.  Its the last two weeks of this lonely miners 3yr contract, and all he wants is his wife and daughter.  It appears that his mind is slipping, and he seems to hallucinate in his sterile white bunker.

One of these hallucinations happens while out on a rover to collect H3 from the mining drones, and he crashes.   Sam awakes in the infirmary and is told of the accident, however he does not recall it.  Things become suspicious and Sam arranges to sneak back out to the site of the crash, only to find himself in the rover, badly injured.

As Roger Ebert put it “The movie is really all about ideas. It only seems to be about emotions. How real are our emotions, anyway? How real are we? Someday I will die. This laptop I’m using is patient and can wait.”.

Moon is a study in what we believe is self, and what self truly matters.  Rockwell is brilliant as Sam Bell, twice.  He spends the entire film speaking to himself, literally.

I recommend this as a lazy morning film, there is no action, very little real tension, but it will keep your attention and make you think.  I like thinking with coffee.

Well there went another Feb.14th, and I am afraid I forgot my dog’s Birthday.  I’m sorry Mountain.   I will bring you a bone when I come home, and you will love me, unconditionally.  It’s that easy with a good dog, be nice, feed them, shelter them, and you get love.   Its like some kind of amazing love fruit tree that is constantly in bloom.  Ahh, dogs are so easy.

Try not loving this, I dare you.

Then again, maybe there is something a bit easier to love.  They take a bit more work, and the way you worry about them is bordering on madness.  Its a different kind of love, more dependent, fragile.  A kind of love that makes your entire world vibrate.  This love is the strongest love one can have for another human.  Period.  For those that are blessed with this in their life, but cannot or will not except this love into their lives, i pity and fear you.  I pity your lacking, and fear the soul that is so twisted that this love cannot get into your life.

I mean seriously, look at this.

This is the cutest thing on earth, prove me wrong.

Then there is my other love, my dear sweetie momma-bear Dana (SMBD).  She may be the only woman I have ever truly loved.  In such I also have a serious desire to run screaming sometimes.  I know that she might read this, but she understands.  There is nothing unconditional about it, like the love of the Dog.  There is nothing dependent about it like the love of your child.  This love is a partnership.  You have found a connection, and a desire.  There is almost an agreement made, in fact some would say that marriage is the full on incorporation of love, creating a We Love Each Other, Inc.™, a company dedicated to the creation and maintenance of love.

Sometimes corporations fail, like marriage, most don’t make it past the first 3 years.  But when they do, they can go on for generations, until they are established into the fabric of their surrounding society.

It take a lot of work to make that kind of love work.  Compromise, compassion, effort and anxiety.

There is one more thing I believe that is needed to keep We Love Each Other, Inc. ™.

That thing is chocolate.

Last night SMBD and I went for dessert, and found Pix Patisserie.  O.M.G.

Please people, spend the time and money to enjoy this.  I cannot say how hard it was to choose just one thing.  On average, a single serving dessert was around $6.50.  A bit spendy, but so very worth it.

I mean, look.

That thing is chocolate meringue, chocolate mousse, and a chocolate ganache that is hidden by sticks of meringue and a single red ribbon.

Now I feel I must address the religious, for it seems in my life there are always going to be those that will attempt to take my love, and pull it toward Christianity.  For it seems they believe that love can only come from their savior.  I am wholly offended by this, and for a couple of very serious reasons.

1. How about the rest of the world.  You know, the billions that are not Christian?  Do they not love?  What arrogance is it that creates this mindset?  It is astounding.  Especially from a religion that values humility before God.
2. By wrapping Love into an authority figure, you cripple it.  Love is a wild beast, a force of the universe that pays no mind to authority or rules.  Reason is not capable of truly defining love, and there is no single figure in history, be it natural or supernatural that can claim dominion upon love.  Love has the power to make and unmake gods, or to simply remind you to look at the flowers.

In short, I love love.

Google has entered the network fray, as was speculated years ago when they gobbled up a huge chunk of the “black network”  The established fiber optic cable that was laid out by former mega-corp MCI.

The following article describes how Google is getting into the ISP business, and hopes to bring 1GB/s fiber, right to your door.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/02/10/google_fiber_to_the_home/

Beware DSL, Cable, and even Verizon’s Fiber network.  Google loves to compete.

I just hope Portland gets in the test zone.

I changed things a bit, I like the lighter look.   Less late nineties angst, more modern curvy nonsense.

I have  a couple of things up my sleeve, so keep an eye, for the two or three people who pay attention.

Working without a college degree to back you up in the modern corporate world is like trying to swim with rocks in your pockets.  Its hard, and you grow stronger for doing it, but eventually others will pass you, using less energy, and in frustration you let yourself get drug down, cursing the choices you made, or the options you were denied.

Wow, what a depressing first paragraph.

Anyway, heads up, fight the fight, do the work.  Maybe a piece of paper is in the future.

Well I had hoped to keep this blog free from politics.  I honestly tried.  But anyone who knows who Mongo really is understands that was a waste of good energy.

I have to address something, and I should warn new readers and old, that I am a screaming liberal.  I believe the purpose of society is to raise up all, not to ensure the profits of some.

This last Tuesday the Democratic Party failed to win a special election to replace the late, and greatly missed, Edward Kennedy.  How do you lose that race?  How is is possible for someone to put a big “D” next to their name and not win that seat?  Arrogance is the answer most generally given.  Assuming that because it was Massachusetts, assuming since it was Teddy’s seat, they didn’t have to try.

I find this answer to be partially correct.  The problem however was not that the Democrats didn’t try in Massachusetts, it is that they have not tried in Congress.

The people did not vote against the candidate, they voted against the spineless do nothing leadership in the Senate, and even in the House.

This party had a 60 seat, filibuster proof majority, and could not get things done.  How the fuck is that possible?  During the nightmare that was the early 2000’s, the GOP held at times just a slim majority, yet they were able to fast track and shove upon the masses the wishes of their corporate overlords and subject us all to the will of their sickening evangelical delusions.

They were able to do this by holding onto their beliefs and sticking to them.  Because the Democratic leadership is honestly nothing but a bunch of simpering wimps who believe that the path to victory is through constant compromise.

How many times does it take for them to get bit, before they stop reaching across the isle?  The GOP makes no such mistakes, and by ramming it to the Dems, they are able to force compromise.  Not ask for it.

Take the damned initiative that the people voted for you.  Use the control you have and force the issue.  Beat the GOP back to an actual minority party, do not offer them the hand up, as you know it will be bitten.

Attempts at centrism and bipartisanship are wasted efforts to the modern GOP.  There is an ideological barrier in place in their collective mind, and it states that all Democratic Party sponsored ideas are wrong, period, end of story.

You will lose control again, if you do not have the will to use the power you have been given.

In conclusion I have a request.  To the current Congressional Democratic Party Leadership.  Please grow a spine, or step aside and let someone who understands the meaning of decisiveness.

So here it is again, in the darkest of winter, a mere week after the national shopping extravaganza that was once loosely tied to the birth of the christian savior, we have the birthday of the calendar.  Or something,  I don’t know.  The New Year.  Many cultures celebrate the turning of the year, marking upon the terrestrial earth the passing of the celestial earth.  One more lap around the sun.

Here in the USA we celebrate the turning of the calendar with a socially accepted binge drinking session.  A day and night where ordinary people, those that do not drink for the sake of it, get hammered.  We’re talking fraternity house Saturday night hammered.  People who would spend a normal weekend catching up on the crossword and supping tea are thrust into writhing seas of bodies, showering themselves in champagne.

It is socially acceptable on this day for you to drink yourself into a babbling fool, with urine and vomit caking your clothes.

The day of debauchery has been so ingrained into our society that the first day of the year has earned the unofficial holiday title of “national hangover day”.

You might take from this post that I have a problem with this, quite the contrary.  I marvel at how a society that by the standards of the rest of the industrial western nations would be called puritanical, this day all those who can are encouraged to get so snookered that brain damage might, and most possibly will, occur.

So go get fucked up America. Wake up next to some stranger with the taste of gun metal and vomit in your mouth.  For you begin each year with the vision to create the next, I say let it be blurry.   Let the first impressions of the new decade be of a pounding headache and the feeling that something sticky is inside of your brain.

Has anyone ever told you to make time for something?  Or have you promised yourself or other that you would make time for something?  Sure, what is meant by this overused cliche’ is to simply fit something into your daily routine.  However, the simple concept of “making time” bugs the crap out of me.

Time is not a material, it has no corporeal existence.  Most of what we simple earth creatures consider time is really just a measurement of the moon’s orbit.  Thanks to our good friend Albert, we understand that there are forces in this universe that can alter our perception of time, and even alter time itself.

Now consider what would happen if time could actually be created.  If you could step into a chem lab and whip up a fresh batch of seconds, minutes, hours or even days.  Time that could be contained, consumed, and poof.  A new hour with no plans.  Would it change time for everyone?  Or could it just contain you inside a bubble of your own time, only to catch you up with the rest of the world.  Imagine, a bottle of liquid time.  I think it would look like mercury, because liquid mercury looks cool.

Dude, you just spilled like three hours.

So you drink this bottle of liquid time, at say 3pm.  You got about your business, only everyone else seems frozen.  And then the hour runs out, and the world starts back up for you at 3pm.  Only the things you worked with had changed.  Or, imagine that others who were drinking the liquid time at the same time were there with you until you dropped out of the bottled time space into real time.

Entire groups of people would age by years in what seemed like days.  However, research to ease the pain of aging could be done in the bottled time space.  Vehicles would pop in and out of traffic, causing massive accidents.  Some people would never return from bottled time.  One day they would buy years of the silver magic drought,  and then appear the next second ancient and dying.

There you go, making time will create massive car accidents, people disappearing and reappearing as withered old crones, and the only science that would be making progress would be to keep people around for longer.  Something we really don’t need.

So the next time you are asked to make time for something, or promise yourself to make time for someone, understand the consequences.  Ask them if they really want all those people to die, and all those old people taking Viagra and living on social security for 100yrs.

Those assholes.