Song of the week

Bartholomew by The Silent Comedy.....

Oh my god
Please help me, knee deep in the river tryin' to get clean
He says wash your hands, get out the stains
But you best believe, boy, there's hell to pay
Yeah you best believe, boy, there's hell to pay, sayin'
Come on

Oh my god
Please help me, waist deep in the river, can you hear my plea?
He says, son, you come like a beggar in the streets
You might make it, boy, but by the skin of your teeth
You might make it, boy, but by the skin of your teeth, sayin'

I rambled with the worst of them 
Fell in love with a harlequin
Saw the darkest hearts of men
And I saw myself starin' back again
And I saw myself starin' back again

Oh my god
Please help me, neck deep in the river screamin' for relief
He says, it's mine to give, but it's yours to choose
You're gonna sink or swim, you're gonna learn the truth
No matter what you do you're gonna learn the truth sayin'

Ate the bread that once was stone
Fell from a cliff, never broke a bone
Bowed down to get the kings overthrown
And I'm all alone and the fire grows
And I'm all alone and the fire grows

La la la la la la la la la la la
La la la la la la la la la la la
La la la la la la la la la la la

La la la la la la la la la la la
La la la la la la la la la la la
La la la la la la la la la la la

Swing sweet charity (La la la la la la la la la la la)
Take what's left of me (La la la la la la la la la la la)
A new beginning or is this the end? (La la la la la la la la la la la)
Swing sweet Seraphim (La la la la la la la la la la la)
Take me back again (La la la la la la la la la la la)
or watch me make the messes of men (La la la la la la la la la la la)

Higher order

Soooo.....lots of theories out there on the Donald.

At first I thought he might be a Democratic plant intended to destroy the Republican Party.  But now it seems he is trying just hard enough to make the election close, but lose.  Or even win?  Why would the Democrats want that?  Clearly a landslide loss would fracture the Republican party.

They can't let that happen....so what are they doing?  Keeping it close to continue deceiving people that the election isn't rigged?  I would have said maybe had all the talk not turned to election rigging on both sides, each claiming the machines are hacked by Russia / the Clinton Foundation / whoever.

Fear mongering is squelching third parties, which can't be allowed to enter the fray.  They like their completely owned two party system.  Why take out a second mortgage on a third party when they own the system free and clear?

That seems to speak to other intentions.  Maybe the elite aren't too settled on Clinton after all?

The darker part of my mind popped a new idea out today.  Maybe the masters of society want violence at the polls.  Maybe the electorate is getting a bit too independent-minded, and they've decided that it is time to step up the game.  

Violence at the polls would provide easy scapegoats to distract the populace from their real problems for a while, make it easier to pass even more laws targetting American citizens (think Patriot act squared), and solidify public support for an even more oppressive police state.  I bet they like the fact that absolutely no policy has been discussed in the campaign.  It's Locke and Demosthenes out there.

Another benefit for the elite, in pitting Americans against each other, is that it deepens and cements the divide between the poles, ensuring that the two sides can endlessly blamestorm each other for another generation.  Think 1984 minus East Asia, since in our case we only have two polar parties (Oceana has always been at war with Eurasia!).  

And the mindless on each side join together in their cursing of the screen when it shows their vile enemy, turning to unbridled joy as the program shifts to their beloved leader.  Only here, in our sad reality, you only need one program to control both sides.   Each side watches the same program and the red and blue sheep simply rave and rant 180 degrees out of phase.  Inexplicably, they never realize that the two people who elicit their devotion and hatred are the exact same psycopath, just in slightly different clothing.  Doublethink, anyone?

Orwell should have thought capitalism through to its logical conclusion.  Had he looked ahead, he may have been able to conceive a world not too distant from his view of communist societies in 1984.  A world very much like our own.  Instead of Big Brother, we have our personal monitors in the form of smartphones, voluntary self surveillance in the form of Facebook, and the destruction of privacy in the form of constant and pervasice government and corporate monitoring.  All manner of spacemonkeys running bureaucracies that although not quite the Ministry of Love, we can settle with the Department of Homeland Security.

Welcome to the dystopian novel that is our time.  Forget 1984, America.  Throw it in the memory hole.  

Welcome to 2016........

Song of the week

Voyager by Angels and Airwaves.....

"Watch me as I break the television
Talk me off the ledge, I can't envision
Take me to the hole to throw a wish in
I am on my way, unstoppable
Lock the doors and warn the federation
Bright and bold, here comes the revolution
My oh my, the king is on a mission
I am on my way, unstoppable
Pure in heart, a king infallible
Great big fucking time
So powerful, I"

"I'm a smooth operator........I'm a loose elevator"

Take it easy......

If anything, events at work this week have demonstrated that people take things way, way too seriously.  

People really need to lighten up.  It could be worse....

The image of the day has to go to the following, which is now my official project management philosophy, replacing the other ejection photo I previously used.  The other landing seemed a bit too stable for my taste (original PM philosophy photo shown below).

Original PM philosophy:

Thank you, North Korea....

For a chuckle wjile readimg one of the better tweets criticizing the debate tonight.

It was bad.  Sooooooo bad.  We are doooooooooooooooooooommmmed!  

ATV trail

blazed a trail in the back.  Need to take a chainsaw and cut a path through a few fallen logs.  It's 1/8 of a mile now, think I can double or triple it once I clear the way to the other side of the woods.

Want to get access to the creek bed and drive all the way up it.

Feed forward loop....

We are doooooooomed!

https://www.google.com/amp/gizmodo.com/climate-change-is-making-this-portable-air-conditioner-1785687572/amp?client=ms-android-att-us

Fuck Columbus

This Columbus day, let's all burn and piss on Spanish flags instead of whatever it is we are supposed to do on this bogus holiday.....

Today's workout

800m body weight circuit.  Sucked!

Today is Day 14

It's day 14 of the new program. For those unfamiliar, the program started on my 37^th birthday. The idea is to take a full circle ride around the sun whilst following several rules, with the goal of eliminating coping mechanisms and getting back in touch with my authentic voice.

Of course, the first two that came to mind were alcohol and caffeine, but I had already began a campaign to minimize the use of both of those. I hadn't had caffeinated coffee regularly in almost a year, but went on a coffee bender prior to the start of the program just for the heck of it. And I had been having chai tea lattes a lot a the cafe at work as an excuse to get up from my mind-numbing job. Sort of a mini-escape. But I need to ditch all that.

I went vegetarian in May 2015, so meat wasn't an option either. I stopped watching news and deleted all my news apps on the phone six monthgs ago. But I did scrap together some rules to follow.

My theory is that if I stop coping, I may start taking more steps to find a job that is not so odious to my nature.

The primary objectives for the program were:

1. No alcohol (eliminates coping mechanism for social situations and job dissatisfaction)

2. No coffee (caffeinated or decaffeinated – reduces spending and artificial productivity, reduces exercising and resting heart rate)

3. Exercise Every Day (intended to help weight loss, but I am now wondering if this is a coping mechanism in itself)

4. Log All Food (hopefully improve quality of fuel. Very hard to do in this society. It's easier not to eat than to eat healthy in America)

5. No Sweets (my ultimate addiction – sugar. Eliminating this is a purely mind over matter thing, but also for health and weight reasons)

I also added secondary objectives, focused on minimizing spending:

1. No Amazon orders (reduces unecessary spending)

2. Buy a maximum of one lunch per week (reduces uncessesary spending and coping mechanisms / lunch breaks)

3. No cafe purchases (eliminates small spending that adds up over time / coffee break coping mechanism)

4. Kill Cell Phone While Home (hopefully, building up to killing it altogether)

So far, I've met all the primary and secondary objectives. I lost 6 lbs the first week but have been holding steady since then. But weight isn't the primary goal of this program. No, the goal is self control, and a voluntary hiatus from all those things that serve to make me servile, little more than a lab rat stuffed in a gray cubicle.

And here, on day 14, perhaps the clarity is beginning to return....

Sure, Marx was right that religion is the opiate of the people, but our modern overseers need much more than that. Try as they might, they can't stop all progress. Too many people have seen through that particular charade. They are now turning to an expanding and ever more sophisticated number of treatments to ensure your slavelike devotion. They have alcohol to numb your senses and give you a brief respite from your trite, meaningless existence. For those that need an extra push, they have a cadre of doctors ready to prescribe you all manner of pills for any symptom you wish to address, but will offer no suggestions on how to address the root cause. They have all manner of fast foods, restaurants, and grocery stores to address your hunger at the market price, but will never satisfy your basic nutritional needs. They have an endless array of garments, gadgets, and gizmos to have you chase in and out of fashion, spending your life earning money to buy things you don't need. They have houses and home improvement stores, so that while you never notice that your house has more space than you will ever need, somehow it always needs more work. They have an all too perfectly rigged political media machine to feed you lie after lie after lie, and a dismal education system to ensure that you won't be able to tell the difference. They have credit cards and mortgages, to ensure that even if you aren't buying their things, at the first of the month they always get their pound of flesh.

Yes, it's starting to return. That bane of clarity. But, is clarity really that bad? Sure, the other way is more.....comfortable.

But maybe I want to be a more noble lab mouse.....

OK people, sign my petition!

Link to Jason's petition to rejoin the United Kingdom