Double Feature!!!

well... not really, seeing as "technically" this post is on a different day (if you go by that whole 24 hour thing)

The purpose of this post is quite simple (not really). You can think of it as a way for me to ...cleanse the ol' mental palette if you will after that last post (though It'd probably take more than a random segue to cleanse my mental palette ....if you catch my drift) this been my long put off (relatively speaking) attempt at bringing to light the purpose of my blog.

I've been wondering about this for a while, why I made a blog, why I posted what I did, and what I intend to post in future installments (If you thought the answer was less crap, then I'm sorry to disappoint). I find it a bit odd that I started posting in a blog, as I'm a rather introverted type of person (little by little I've been changing but I wouldn't say I'm there yet) yet I've written things, personal things even in here that I'd never have said to anyone face to face, which now that I think about it, may be the reason I was able to post those things on here (granted there's tons of crap that I have yet to post... but I still have some hopes of attracting some sort of a reader base... not a horde of psychiatrists)

The Internet, provides a sort of anonymity that allows one to post without the hassle of actually facing a person and their reaction upfront; it's fairly simple to delete a comment, but not quite as easy to stop someone from saying something to your face (without coming off as a rude jerk, ....or with charges of assault).

What's kinda funny about this whole thing is that I hate to write, English was not only my worst subject, it was my most hated subject (with a few notable exceptions i.e. biology, and chemistry) yet despite my intense dislike (or what can only be accurately called borderline hatred) of writing, I've taken to posting on this blog in (what I hope will someday be) a regular basis. I guess it's more the idea of what I write and when, which makes this such an appealing alternative, unlike English class, there are no essays, no deadlines, and no prompts I'm free to write as much as I want when and how I want, I don't even need to follow the conventions of grammer (which I rarely do regardless).

Now I realize that what I'm saying is just a tedious, long winded statement of something that "everyone" already knows, but I think that's the core of what I want to do here, make my thoughts, opinions, and ideas known, and have others comment on it, so that there's someone to discuss with, over a common interest (not a bland restatment of obvious things ....smartass). While not all my posts will be as interesting as the one on Free Culture, I'd like to use this blog to explore topics of all kinds, whatever enters my mind (mostly only those things interesting enough and not too offensive to post)

You could say that essentially I'm putting my self online, piece by piece, and only time will tell what will result

Free Culture

Earlier today (or perhaps yesterday) I started reading Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity by Stanford law professor Lawrence Lessig. I first heard about it in the comic xkcd, and finally decided to take a look at it.

There are "no words in the vernacular can describe" how great of a book it is.
Now I'm bad at summarizing, only exacerbated by the fact that I have yet to finish this novel, yet I'll try my best to give a general idea of what this book is about;

Essentially the novel (so far as I've read it) is a critical examination of copyright law, in the context of modern society. Lessig basically begins with an overview of our society's culture (with regards to media) and takes us the reader through history through many fundamental times in history where the actions of government and copyright worked to come up with a way to preserve authors rights to their work, while at the same time not stifling future creativity and growth. Throughout history there have been many monumental discoveries and inventions that from their inception have changed and shaped the world we live in. From Radio, to Film, to television and now to the internet, each time there was, what I feel can only be properly called a paradigm shift in the way intelectual property has been handled, and rights afforded to individuals over this property.

Through many kinds of tecnological advances, copyright has changed whether it be from the advent of photography as mainstream which could very well have gone an entirely different way had the judges of the time decided that one needed permission before they would be allowed to photograph any particular thing, the same kind of thing went with the phonograph (used for recording music) radio, and cable tv, vcrs.

A bitter gem of irony found in Lessig's work is that many of the established industries today (record, movie, and tv industires) were in fact established by "piracy" (I'll leave you to find out the details in the book) In much the same way that the internet is now changing the way information is spread and content created, those inventions had shaped their times and with them brought massive (or miniscule) changes to copyright laws, and the rights of authors

Now Lessig doesn't advocate piracy (and neither do I), at least not in it's literal sense, as stealing the work of another without compensation or credit, nor does he advocate the idea of authors not being granted compensation for their work, or rights over their work. Lessig, points out many of the flaws in today's system, that allow large corporations to misue today's laws to essentially stifle the creative flow of authors over the internet, like many companies abuse of the DMCA to exert their will over content on the internet which they should not have control over [related articles here, here and.... here]

There is far to much in Lessig's book, for me to just state in one blog post, or even several, but I definitely feel that this book is one that definitely should be read, especially by those like myself who have come to rely on the internet as an integral part of our life.

There is so much more that I could write, some of which just makes me mad when I think about it, but I'll leave that for you the reader to find out (and I'll almost certainly post more on the subject, especially once I'm done this book, and/or start the other related literature piling in my hardrive.

some links to keep you occupied:
Free culture website
     Link to download book (found on the site above)
Students for Free Culture
Lawrence Lessig's Blog
Cory Doctorow's Blog
Free Software Foundation
Creative Commons

Life, the Universe and Everything

I think a lot, all the time, about many things.
Most of them are pretty unrelated, many come and go, passing through my mind like rain through the sky.
But there are a couple of things that constantly drift into my thoughts.
Life... Death... the Universe, and God, among other things.

Recently my thoughts have meandered to the subject of god.
Now I should mention that this reflects my own personal ideas of god or anything else for that matter (which are quite muddled to say the least) they're just the ideas that I've been mulling over recently.

I wonder sometimes, what if god instead of being some ethereal super being watching over all the cosmos, knowing all, seeing all; was actually the universe itself. Much in the same way that we humans are made up of trillions of cells and even more atoms (and subatomic particles) god could be some massive organism, a sum total of all matter in the universe.

god would be all seeing all knowing, in all places at all times, as it would consist of the sum total of all knowledge in the universe. Many believe that our lives are predetermined (although I have some thoughts regarding that which are at the moment irrelevant) which would make some sense if this were the case, much in the same way that blood cells are "destined" to follow along certain paths to get to certain parts of the body, we humans may have our own predetermined route, although I'd like to think that it would be on more of a macroscopic scale such as planets (like psychohistory, in Asimov's Foundation Series) in that way the individual movements which aren't predicted doesn't necessarily impact the route life takes, the way it evolves.

Now of course this idea has some problems, like if god is all knowing why would there be things god couldn't predict, which is possible (that god would predict them) they're just unlikely in the context of my metaphor (or simile (I can never remember which is used for what)) and of course there is the age old question that plagues every attempt at answering the question of god.... the beginning, was it created? if so then what created that? and so on ad infinitum, forever and ever searching for the start, the instigator, the prime mover. What started everything? if god created the universe, then where did god come from, at what point? if the universe encompasses everything and before it was nothing, then where was god before the universe? why were we all created? the questions are numerous, with answers (or evasions) a plenty, but hardly a satisfactory (by the standards of being provable, accepted or scientifically feasible).

If god were the universe, then what would the big bang be? it's birth, or an act by god, with god having been the singularity, or whatever may have been before that. Needless to say this idea is no closer to solving the issue of god or the beginnings of the universe, but at least it's something interesting to think about.

some assorted things

So.... I'm back,
it's been some time since I've last posted
I recall having posted that the postings would increase.... but I seem to have lied (evidently)

but it matters not now, I'm back, and posting ...not like anyone noticed the absence (even I forgot this was still here)

so.... I post today from the frothy depths of the underworld (i.e my job)
I am once again working for the government... the army in fact as an "engineering technician" now don't let the fancy title fool you, it is unbelievably boring; currently my duties consist of going through ammunition contracts and summarizing/updating them, although I guess that's better than last year, when my duties primarily consisted of scanned volumes upon volumes of papers to put on the server, shredding papers, or making copies.

Essentially I was (and still am) a clerk, ...or lackey, ...or as it is colloquially referred to in the common vernacular: the office bitch. This year shows little promise for an improvement upon the situation, but do have hope that I may be given an opportunity to become involved in a task that actually requires brain power.

Well enough about that, I suppose I should get on with something a little more interesting....
like the internet!!! or even more interesting web-comics!

I for one am a lover of comics, be it in written or internet form.
from calvin and hobbes to xkcd from dilbert to PvP or Real life comics and many more

I've recently been catching up on many of my favorite webcomics
and it got me thinking about making my own comic.... of course then I remembered that I can't draw to save my life or write worth a damn, so I figured I'd try and find a way to online community as a whole... 'til I realized I have no means of doing that short of :
a) joining forums - which I'd like to avoid, due to the habit of most every thread being reduced to stupid-ness
b) create my own website and fill it with something interesting that would garner readers, but seeing as I know about as much html as a rock, and have neither the time nor commitment (nor material enough) necessary to go through with making one

I figured the best I could do was continue with my blog, in the hopes that I might someday garner a reader base ...someday. I mean I'm already up to "almost" 1 whole reader so it'll only be a matter of time before that fraction of a reader turns into 1 (....right?), and then to 2, and who knows... maybe someday even 3* whole readers (though I wouldn't "bet the farm" on that , even if I did own a farm)

*note: these numbers do not take into account those few that wind up here by accident (i.e those that wind up here looking for porn or something)