The Supreme Ruler of Something

There's only a letter difference between friend and fiend

2011-11-18T22:07:00.001-05:00

There's only a letter difference between friend and fiend.

Is it theoretically true that there always will be a challenge?

2011-11-10T17:35:00.001-05:00

Is it theoretically true that there always will be a challenge? For, if everything was easy, finding a challenge would, in and of itself, be a challenge....
But because it is a challenge, and a challenge is part of everything, given the first perimeter, it must be easy

Cloud computing is an ancient art

2011-11-08T15:22:00.001-05:00

Cloud computing is an ancient art,

First mastered by the bats in the sky,

Their encoding is masterful, subtle and strong,

And safe because of its age

Our analog analogy we seen as unsound,

But the truth is we need it to have it make sense,

As brains run this old program, and do it quite well,

So well that in fact we have lost its source code,

And have invented numerical systems instead,

In our quest to regain this old skill.

What the bats and the sharks and dolphins and bees,

All remember and use to their gain,

Is that the flaw in a digit is it’s finite nature,

That a bit is a bit and nothing more,

But it’s analog meaning that we use in our brain,

Has infinite complexity.

-Aaron E-J

2011-10-06T20:44:00.000-04:00

I finally got rid of the annoying ads that kept showing up after the first post!

2011-10-05T21:38:00.001-04:00

"Of course, all comparisons are gnarly by nature. What is the “London Calling” of television? Who is the Jane Austen of automotive design? Madame Butterfly is not less beautiful for having no car chase sequence, peanut butter no less tasty because it cannot dance." -Jeffrey Zeldman

Because mommy was born on this day...

2011-09-14T21:19:00.000-04:00

Because mommy was born on this day,

And the poem that I wrote is this way,

I never do forget,

That mom has always whet,

Desire to shout out hearty yay!

2011-08-02T20:52:00.001-04:00

Went to a workshop put on by Microsoft on HTML5 today. It was actually somewhat productive and they didn't focus exclusively on windows based things (although it was still windows centric). When I went to ride home I realized that my bike had a flat tire and that I had to take the bus. Hopefully the tire and tube hold up long enough that when I bring my pump tomorrow I can make it to the bike shop.

∞

2011-06-06T22:04:00.000-04:00

There are those things in life that can be predicted using certain criteria and algorithms and there are those events which one chooses to have happen. But what is one of the things that makes life both interesting and frustrating is the fact that it is the actions of another entities that play perhaps the largest role in shaping where one goes and how they get there. An individual's conscious plays a small role, but the collective unconsciousness of everyone else's consciousness, plays perhaps the largest role.

2011-05-08T18:19:00.000-04:00

switchport trunk encapsulation elephant

switchport mode trunk

...

arrooga!

Who are you when we are one?

2010-12-16T17:46:00.000-05:00

If you are the ground, I am the sky,

If you are the world, I am everything else,

Together, we can do great things

-Aaron E-J

The scroll of tomorrow does not exist… yet… so I baked brownies instead.

2010-10-03T22:47:00.000-04:00

Brownies (made mainly of black beans, chocolate and sugar) are done (unfortunately a triple batch [all that will fit in the food processor and then some] will not be enough to last me until the end of the year). OS homework mysteriously not due until next Monday, meaning that tomorrow does not exist. Regardless of its absence, for the first half of tomorrow I will make a test run for a scroll expander engine, then head to Hartford to learn more about networking. First though, I need to figure out whether tomorrow will actually come to pass… I have a suspicion that when I wake up tomorrow morning, it will still be today. But then, I've existed now forever.

The obvious obscurity

2010-09-26T11:09:00.001-04:00

What am I going to do today when today is almost over and almost gone?

When today is a replication of other days spent trying some fruitless attempt at being useful.

Why do those who have infinite ideas fail while success comes easily from those who play by the game set forth by no one, least of all they.

I know this may be hard for no one to understand, but no one is listening to our plea not to have to plea.

It is silent, your indifference, but it is heard loud and clear all the same because that is how indifference is played out.

But the ramifications indifference has make – and have made countless times before – nothing all that much closer to a reality

So how to proceed?

How to seek comfort from like minded nobodies, keeping in mind that they are alike because they are nobody and they have also failed?

Why seek them out?

Why can't we, we that are like I save for location and how they got to be like I, be we?

The obvious obscurity is that, if the collective I learned this crucial skill, we would no longer fall into this category.

The category we long not to be the last of.

-Aaron E-J

bzT and the of Bible across!

2010-09-21T22:07:00.000-04:00

I just got a spam message that read the following:

They can be exhausted by human activity in the long run.
Is the most suburban in character of the five boroughs.

My rule of something is so absolute that I have actually become something

2010-09-09T20:13:00.001-04:00

My rule of something is so absolute that I have actually become something. This something may or may not be arbitrary at any non given moment, however moments have to exist to be given. Therefore something is not arbitrary and, by proxy, neither am

I. Arbitrariness, however, is a part of everything and, as now is all there is, arbitrariness must be something. What is certain, for the umpteenth however, is that this statement falls into the category of being arbitrary… but wait, I'm writing it now…

While what was remains hidden in plain sight from your mind,

2010-09-08T22:11:00.004-04:00

Why…

Some freak occurrence sends you, me us, flying, together, to another realm,

Each in their own shared world of isolation,

Right here…

Where?

Recovered what never was, and therefore still remains unrecoverable,

While what was remains hidden in plain sight from your mind,

Masked by the future we want,

The steps unachievable without finding what is,

Now is all there ever was and will be,

But now changes…

Change is what makes life, life, but it does not make life lively without interaction of other lifelike things that cannot be proven to be alive,

Or can they?

For what is life but the exchange of conscious entities?

If there were but one entity, life would not exist, change would not exist, and I would not exist.

But I do, and forever will.

-Aaron E-J

If someone wants a sheep, then that means that he exists.

2010-09-05T17:08:00.002-04:00

If someone wants a sheep, then that means that he exists.
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Can you tell I'm in that percentage of the population that is currently unemployed?

2010-09-03T23:31:00.001-04:00

---From NYTimes Op-Ed piece: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/03/opinion/03reich.htm
Although I mainly agree with the column, the most important thing that needs to be done to boost the economy is to rethink the education system. What has made America what it is today is innovation, and the school system needs to reflect that. Standardized testing does not spark innovation. Teaching innovation also does not need to cost money. Spending money on large corporations that haven't had a new idea in centuries is ludicrous, much better to provide direct seed money to innovative ideas. This is being done to some extent (mainly in the area of alternative energy), but what is needed now is to broaden the playing field to include people from all walks of life. What I mean is to empower all citizens to innovate new ways of making money, or better, making money obsolete.
Do parents pay a fee to their children for eating supper? No, they love them and do it out of love. At a party, do people pay for the food that others cooked? No, because everyone chipped in. It is only when an exchange of goods is done between participants who do not love each other that money is needed. We're a very, very long way from when that will become the reality…
In the mean time, it’s a dog get run over by a SUV world…
(also, can you tell I'm in that percentage of the population that is currently unemployed?)

The Limitations Logic Has

2010-09-03T17:54:00.004-04:00

Another day,
Another dream,
Another way,
Another mean,
Another ray,
Of hope does glean,
When I listen to some music,
Or write a brand new poem,
What's achieved is intangible
And is one thing where logic fails.
There is no degradation though,
It is not a lesser act,
The limitations logic has,
Are the intricacies of life.
Their creation can be logical,
But their meaning oh cannot,
For meaning is a willful act
And life does not use math,
Instead it uses consciousness,
And without it we would not think,
About a dream,
I had today,
That realized thought is all there is,
–Without it I would not be.
–Aaron E-J

...everyone I meet...

2010-07-27T21:58:00.004-04:00

...everyone I meet, I meet with a blank slate and the connections that we form are transient in that they can always be revised but permanent in that they are never forgotten.

I've got malaria even though I've been back for almost 2 months

2010-06-17T00:43:00.001-04:00

2010-06-17
I had been really tired since I got back from the anniversary celebration and my heart had been racing even when I was sitting. I just thought that it had to do with my lack of sleep when I was at Hampshire and the fact that I had drunk a lot of coffee. On Tuesday afternoon though I passed out and when I came to, went to the emergency room. They ran a bunch of blood tests and my red blood cell count was less then half of what it should be. I've been in the hospital since then and they've been giving me blood injections and ORS through IV. This afternoon they said that the test they did for malaria came back positive and so they've been giving me some form of malarone. I'm glad it was malaria and not something else but I can't stand being hooked up to an IV. Hopefully I'll come home tomorrow.

A HAIKU ABOUT MY WRITING SKILL

2010-06-02T15:13:00.002-04:00

Write hundred plus poems
Written a full length screen play
Critical Writing

string dateWriten = 2010-04-29;

2010-04-29T22:04:00.002-04:00

int dateWriten = 2010-04-29;

if (dateWriten <= NOW) {

print "Well, my jet lag is almost gone... now down to business designing Kale (a top secret power source that will revolutionize the renewable energy industry... and make a tasty salad at the same time although using different technologies) and shopping for replacements of all the dead electronics that bit the dust (is some cases literally, it's really dusty in the dry seasons) while in Zambia. Oh, also looking for a job and studying Calculus, Physics, Neuroscience and Python/Generally doing some refreshing of my Comp-Sci skills that I haven't used for the passed 2+ years.";

};

Thoughts turn to home coming, the journeys end...

2010-04-29T18:16:00.002-04:00

Thoughts turn to home coming, the journeys end. Because in a sense, it's the coming back, the return, that gives meaning to the going forth. We never really know where we've been until we return to where we where, only where we where may not be as it was because of who we have become. That, after all, is why we left.
-Unknown
A quote that was written on the door to my hut when I got posted. Meant to put it up just before I left the country but was doing a thousand other things.

And only about 34 hours late

2010-04-26T13:12:00.002-04:00

2010-04-26

Well, I'm back in the States for the foreseeable future (note, the future is more then a little blurry so trying to foresee it is figurative and the figure is all scribbles in the sand at low tide). Getting pulled from my site went remarkably smoothly and I think, all in all, I did achieve something during my two years. This isn't to say that I wouldn't have liked to achieve a great deal more, but in the past month or so before leaving many things finally clicked into place. I posted my Description of Service report in the last post if you want to see the 'glorious' achievements I have done. And, of course, since all my potential employers enjoy reading my blog they will gobble it up and contact me immediately.

When I got to Lusaka I was inundated with paperwork until minutes before I rang the COS wheel-bell and was somewhat frenzied until I got to the gate for boarding the plain to Addis Ababa. Well, things did not start off well for my journey home because the plane did not lift off until about three hours after it was supposed to due to fueling problems. This meant that we touched down about 15 minutes after the plane I was supposed to be transferred to left. The next flight to Washington, my next stop, didn't leave for a day so this meant I needed to spend a night in Ethiopia. Fortunately there was another PCV (or actually I guess now we're RPCV's) on the same flight and we shared a room together in the hotel. The hotel was pretty descent and had good food if bad coffee (isn't this supposed to be the home of the best coffee in the world?). Well, after a day spent mainly watching TV, we finally got in the air again and after roughly 16 hours sitting in fight and about an hour or two in Rome for refueling we made it to Dulles Airport at about 8:30AM (back in America so I need to start practicing the AM PM instead of the 0830 hours).

Customs went remarkably quickly and I was directed to the United Express ticket station to inquire as to when my flight had been rebooked to. It hadn't. And to make matters worse, the flights to Bradley were booked until Monday. I got a standby ticket and the third wait began. The first flight at 12:20 was already overbooked and although I waited with bated breath, or at least as much of one as I could muster given how tired I was, no seats presented themselves. So then it was to another terminal for the next chance five hours later. It wasn't looking good as there was a huge group of high schoolers' coming back from some trip but when everyone got on the plane it turned out there were two seat remaining. I was just about to head to the terminal when those two people with the tickets to those two seats rushed up. And so it was back to waiting. Fortunately at this point the ticket takers realized that I was extremely tired and they were really helpful, so much so that they did some computer magic and got me a definite seat for the 10:30 PM flight. I slept on the seat for about an hour and woke up worried I had missed the flight. I hadn't and was the first person on the plane. After about another hour I touched down for the last time, only about 34 hours late. And thus ended the two year, two month chapter in my life.

Now I need to figure out what I want the next one to be about.

Back until I leave?

2010-02-12T08:39:00.001-05:00

2010-01-29~2010-02-12
On the last Sunday of the month I headed back to Chipata. I had the taxi driver take me to the Lusaka post office because the Zambian mail company has a fairly ingenious idea of combining a mail service with a bus service. I had read in an old travel guide that the post bus only ran on Tuesdays and Fridays or something like that, but I thought it would be worth the short diversion because they definitely leave on a schedule. To my joy they were "going today so I paid the taxi and got all my stuff out. It was only when I heard a number of people talking about Ndola that I happened to ask where they were going, which was not Chipata. Annoyed to no end, lugged all my stuff back to the street and flagged down another taxi. The second bus I got on at the Intercity Bus Terminal was the fuller of the two that were headed to Chipata. I was going to wait at the curb until the first bus headed out but the teeming crowd of ticket salesmen (the number of ticket sales men to customers at intercity is probably four or five to one) convinced me to get on theirs, agreeing that if another bus left before them, I could get on it. Another bus did, and fortunately I was able to rush out, flag it down, argue with the ticket salesmen, load my luggage and get on the bus before it left the station. And thus, I left at a near record of just after 9:30 and got back before dark.
The last Friday in January I had called a guy who ran a computer training institute in Chipata and who is knowledgeable in hardware about having him see if he had a replacement monitor for my laptop. I had set up a meeting with him for Monday morning and went to his school at the third floor of an old British built quasi-government building he rented space from. He seemed to be able to help me but he was either really busy or pretending to be really busy so the whole thing took all day and he hadn't put my laptop back together before close to 1800 so I needed to spend another night in Chipata. Tuesday he had checked just about everything there was to check and the diagnosis was that the actual monitor part and the tube that makes the screen light up (that I thought would be the logical thing that had gone as the screen goes black) where not the problem but it was the part that process the information that will be displayed on the screen that was, and that was the part that he did not have. So, although now I know what the exact problem is, I'm not sure it was worth the countless hours I spend waiting for him to spend another five minutes on it before he was interrupted. Late on Tuesday though I finally made it back to site where I will be, maybe until I leave for good unless I got to the house in mid March.
Since I've been back I've been working on getting the Inoviropreneurship program going full swing (first project is doing a version of the TLUD stove that uses only clay) and getting my pedal powered generator working. Alright, need to go get some more chain for the generator.