JamesLindenschmidt.com

I just found a new paper that look interesting: From free software to street activism & vice versa: an introduction. From the abstract:

Contemporary societies have now endorsed computer technology, to the point of turning its use into an attractive social duty. But while some computers power market-economy, other machines remain busy with myriads of software alternatives, counter-initiatives & community offensives. What follows is a quick walk-through some of the cracks in the official computer picture; a surface exploration of the convergence between digital alternatives and political subversives.

This paper looks like it covers similar ground to some of my own writings on the subject, though most of my writings are more informed by marxist theory than anarchist theory. Gonna read it now, maybe there will be more comments.

I stopped at a gas station today after hiking to get something to drink. I noticed that the bottled water was nearly as expensive as soda. Think about it: Maine is full of springs and bottlers. The cost to extract fresh water from mother earth, purify it, bottle it, and distribute it to the public means I’m paying $1.29 per half-liter, which converts to $9.77 per gallon.

This means, as my friend Yo has pointed out, that gasoline is still by far the least expensive liquid one can buy at a gas station, unless they happen to have big gallon jugs of windshield washer fluid for a buck or two.

Think about it: they are getting water from a well, and gasoline, despite everyone bitching about the price, despite the huge costs to drill deeply for crude, process it into gasoline, and distribute it, is still about 1/4 the price of water.

Even with gasoline prices higher than ever, it is important to remember that in America we do not pay what it actually costs to produce. Gasoline prices will continue to go up, since we are past the critical mass of peak oil. It is becoming more and more scarce, and the economic well-being of those in power depends on it. Eventually, it will get too expensive and the economy will crash until we can find alternative ways to ship products than by truck, plane, etc.

Hold on tight, folks. We’re in for a rough ride, I just don’t know how long it’s gonna last.

OK, so my laptop hassles continue into their 4th week. In mid-July I ordered a replacement cable from an online retailer; I ordered a cable that their website said would work with the Toshiba M35 series (I have the M35X-S149). A few days later, the cable came, but it’s not the right one. So I got them to issue a pickup, I sent the cable back, and expected the correct one to be sent out immediately, which is what the phone operator said would happen.

10 days pass.

Still nothing.

So I look, and my checking account has been credited for the original order, minus a restocking fee. WTF?

I call them back, they say they will refund the restocking fee, which of course takes 5-7 business days to show up. Meanwhile, I’m still here, waiting for a laptop that will work. So I ask the guy if there is anything he can do to expedite the order, as all I’ve ever wanted is a cable that works. He puts me on hold for several minutes, during which my cellphone dropped the call. I call him back, and leave a voicemail saying to call me back to let me know what’s up.

Another week passes.

So today, I call back to find out what’s up, and they tell me they cannot refund the restocking fee. Excuse me? I’ve already been promised that refund. So after going round for 30 minutes, he finally agrees to refund the restocking fee, but the correct cable I need is out of stock now. Of course. So I just told him to refund it and I’ll go elsewhere for the order.

Now, call me crazy. But I have an extensive background in retail. Whenever we made a mistake, we would always do backflips to make it right. Is retail changing that much? I had a similar unhelpful retail experience the last time I ordered computer gear online. Perhaps it’s just that I’m ordering stuff online; without an angry customer screaming in the face of an employee, it’s easier for a phone operator to go by the book, and stick to “company policy.” And of course, the fundamental policy of any company is to extract as much cash as possible from its customers, while minimizing its expenses in relentless pursuit of profit. Mechanistic thinking at its finest.

So, I think now I’m off to the place where I got the laptop, to have them look at it and see what they can do with it. I should have done this weeks ago.

Yesterday, August 6, 2005, was spent among friends revelling outside, sitting around the bonfire, playing music, and generally celebrating. This is in stark contrast to those who happened to be living their lives in Hiroshima, Japan, exactly 60 years previously. Those people, no matter what their plans for the day were, may have noticed an airplane flying overhead around quarter after 8 in the morning; shortly thereafter there would have been a bright flash. People who saw the flash would have been instantly vaporized by the heat, torn apart by the shock wave, or left to slowly die in agony from radiation poisoning. Before it was over, 140,000 people were dead, not including the countless people whose lives were degenerated by the radioactive poison in the Hiroshima ecosystem for decades after the blast.

This, of course, was the first ever use (and along with the Nagasaki blast a few days later, the only time such weapons have been used) of a nuclear warhead. This event would, of course, change foreign relations for decades to come. The biggest
impact of this event, I believe, is that the world had to come to terms with the idea that when dealing with the United States government, the world was dealing with a government that was without question willing to use nuclear weapons to further its agenda.

Think about that for a moment.

We who were raised and educated in the US were programmed to believe that Truman made the decision to drop the weapons in order to hasten the end of the war, to save “1 million lives” that would be lost when the US tried to invade mainland Japan. As if instantly vaporizing over a hundred thousand people can be rationalized away.

And even more twisted is the fear of nuclear attack from the “Ruskies” that proliferated all through the cold war. The main fear is that They(tm) would do to us what We(tm) have been unafraid to do to others.

Paranoia will destroy ya.

Anyway, Truthout has a good writeup on this grim anniversary.

…mmm, insects:

We were at Ft. Williams yesterday, and this bird was just sitting there, posing for photographs. I took this while standing 3-4 feet away….

we decided not to buy a house just now. Granted, there were other reasons, but I’ve often suspected, as Mike Whitney writes, that the housing bubble is going to collapse, leaving people hurting badly.

If I ever do buy a house, it will likely be after this collapse when houses are much cheaper. Of course, the economy may tank with it, so buying houses will be impossible for someone of my income bracket.

Doesn’t really matter… the notion of private property bugs me. I’m not in a hurry to become a homeowner.

I’m such a naughty blogger lately. I mean, 6 posts in the entire month of July? Come on….

But, things continue to move. I’ve just been wholly uninspired to write lately. Well, that’s not quite true; I’ve been wholly uninspired to blog. I’ve actually been writing some the old-fashioned way, with a pen, and my handy new little blank-paged book. It’s good to write this way for a change.

Another problem is that I’m experiencing technical difficulties with my laptop. Something is up with the power supply; it will work just fine for a few minutes, and then either just instantly reboot (like I hit the power button) or just completely freeze up. So since I do all my email from the laptop, emailing me will be unreliable until I fix this. I can still do web stuff and chat on my desktop machine, but for the time being I want to keep everything emailish on the laptop.

As a result of these problems, blogging could be a bit lighter on this front for a while. I’m not making any specific commitments either way, but don’t be surprised if the light bloggage continues.

I’m noticing an interesting change in my body (WARNING: diet and exercise babblage ahead). I’ve had a nice thick layer of fat for many years, especially in my belly. I think I’m definitely losing some weight as a result of my recent endeavors, because a) my clothes are loose; my pants fall down and I’ve had to cut new notches in my belt, and b) my fat doesn’t seem as “dense” if that makes sense. My skin seems looser in my belly, like there’s not as much under it. A friend of mine lost a huge amount of weight many years ago in a short time, well over a hundred pounds in the space of less than a year. And I remember how it took his skin a while to catch up, it was loose and hanging off of his body. So this is nowhere near that extreme (yet… heh) but it strikes me as being similar.

I haven’t mentioned it in a while, but the radicalpolYtics.org site is slowly expanding and developing. The latest article there is an eBook compilation of George Caffentzis’ recent writings on war, oil, capitalism, and class struggle. You can download No Blood For Oil! Energy, Class Struggle, and War, 1998-2004 in PDF format; the entire book is available, or go to the radicalpolytics page to get each individual chapter.

Not much else going on. Actually, that’s not quite true, but blogging just hasn’t been a priority lately. So there.

I haven’t been in the mood to write much lately. But, there’s lots going on. Things are still moving, big time. In no particular order:

• Freakwitch has a new drummer. Things look quite promising on this front; it would appear that he is interested in the long curve of Freakwitch progress, as opposed to just sitting in. He’s a bit rusty as he hasn’t played much in six years. But, he’s played with us 3 times which means I have 3 points from which to extrapolate a curve. And this curve looks quite promising. He’s a bright guy, with room in his life for a project like this, he’s been a good friend to the family for several years, and he seems dedicated to the long haul. This is the best Freakwitchy news in a long time, despite the fact that it means we need to shift gears somewhat in terms of album recording. Doesn’t matter; it’ll dramatically improve everything: albums, gigs, everything.
• Fitness is going well. It’s amazing how much better I feel — mind, body, spirit — when I eat less. And I feel strong from the exercises I’m doing. But I promised that I wouldn’t bore people with fitnessSpeak(tm) in this space, so that’s enough for now.
• I’ve been interested more in the intersection of quantum physics and magic or metaphysics. I’ve been trying to think of a name for this: quantum psychology isn’t quite it, but perhaps quantum mysticism is. Who knows. I’m rereading my copy of Hawking’s A Brief History of Time. A good review. I’m still itching to study calculus; I’ve never taken a calc class before. I didn’t get that far in high school for a variety of reasons, and in college I only needed a basic college math course. I also took a logic class which was fun.
• It’s cloudy, cool, and dreary here in Maine. Odd for July. July was birthday month in my family, my (now deceased) aunt, my mother, myself, and my father have birthdays in July, as well as my parents’ wedding anniversary. So I have lots of memories of July, and very few of them involve highs in the 60s and waking up cold in the middle of the night. Ah well.
• Still moving through the energies and emotions of the past few months. It’s been difficult, but a good journey. It feels like an initiation of sorts. I can see some pretty amazing realities from where I stand now; it’s a matter of skillfully navigating the quantum field before me to manifest those realities. Move toward the good stuff, and let go of the bad stuff. Easier said than done… but eminently possible.
• My to-do list currently contains finishing George Caffentzis’ book, installing a new version of Linux onto my laptop, and fixing a fan on my desktop computer, as well as installing a new version of Linux there. I need a long, uninterrupted day to accomplish these computer tasks.
• Trying not to be too weirded out by the terrorist attacks in London, and my recent prediction that there would be another imminent terrorist attack based on the proliferation of shark attack stories in the corporate media. Less than a week later, boom. Funny old thing, life…

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are
created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life,
Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these
rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their
just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever
any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it
is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to
institute new Government, laying its foundation on such
principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to
them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and
Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments
long established should not be changed for light and
transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn,
that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are
sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms
to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of
abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object,
evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it
is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such
Government, and to provide new Guards for their
future security.

I’ve always preferred the Declaration of Independence to the Constitution as a document of political philosophy. Indeed, after studying both texts, I found it odd how the US Constitution utterly fails to create a form of government based on the ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence.

But so many people fail to see this. As a culture, as a nation, we regard the Constitution as some sort of quasi-divine document; in that regard it is almost subject to the same level of textual privilege as the Bible. But there are many problems with the Constitution.

I’m wearing black and purple today. In some way, I guess it’s symbolic of the bruising America has given, and continues to give, the rest of the world. Not to mention its own people.

But today I’m working. What better way to celebrate American Freedom(tm) than to sell my labor for a 12 hour shift?

Enjoy your fireworks, America. These fireworks are almost obscene, given the number of bombs America drops on a regular basis. Boom.