Not Again. . .Google!

I seem to harp on Google a lot. . .They apparently need a bit more. . .The drove the alley behind our house with StreetView. . .and somehow managed to photograph everything behind the six foot fence. . .We have town rules, ordinances to cover things like fence height, set-backs and privacy. . .I just never thought I could case my own home online so easily. . .The tragic thing is many people do not believe there is a right to privacy or personal property. Their claim being that these are outdated concepts and should be relegated to the past. . .except when it effects them personally. Oh well. . .Land of the Free, because of the Brave. . .

Hope and Change?

Many of my friends believe they voted for Hope and Change in 2008, only to be faced with a change that seemed very much like the previous iteration they hoped was gone. Their change so far has resulted in increased healthcare premiums, continued loss of jobs and devaluation of their homes. And guess what, it is only going to get better, isn't it?

If the same-ol', same-ol' isn't working, then maybe it is time for a change. . .That means different things to people in different areas of our country. In failed nation state California what can we do? Our State is bankrupt, has no accountability and our legislature passes bills into law actually written by lobbyists.

Don't get upset, don't align with the machine. . .any of them. . .All politics is local. If you believe, pray. Even if you don't, God is there whether you admit it or not. Talk to each other, encourage and edify each other and things can be changed. Grassroots is not a party, it is about neighbors talking to neighbors, families talking amongst themselves, deciding what they will not stand for and who to vote for or against!

Help each other weather the economic storm. Our Grandparents and Great-Grandparents did. Look at yourself in mirror and ask: Do I need the latest and greatest, or are gadgets, social media simply a time-suck that allows me to allay my own fear by feeding the delusion that I am connected and relational with people and inanimate gadgets? If you can look back at yourself, say yes and start into some self-reliance, self-accountability, self-responsibility then bravo, you have taken a step toward being the Westerner you were meant to be.

Hard question, good answers, better course of action!

Next: On to Victory Gardening and Urban Homesteading.

Preparing for Spring

I haven't written in quite a while. It happens. Life catches you, spins your a round and leaves you headed in a different direction. Now I am settled, working together with mi Amor on our Urban Homestead. Urban Homestead, what a concept! Although ours, like those who covet and trademark the term, is in the SUBURBS. Pasadena like Los Altos is a suburb. Enough of that.

Today we are finalizing our seed starting plan, getting the orders out and purchasing complete. Our goal is everything from seed this year! That was a challenge. We had settled on the wonderful seeds from Baker Creek after visiting their Petaluma Seed Bank last year. Great seeds, great selection all GMO free. You should order their catalog just for the sense of seed overwhelm you will get from the first, second and twentieth pass through it. Unfortunately we cannot use them as our sole provider, as a number of the seeds we selected from the print catalog are "Out of Stock". Thats alright, we'll still use them and supplement with seeds from Botanical Interests and a local company Renee's Garden. That is our goal for tonight!

We are putting together a seed starting area in the office of all places. We saw a small letter to the editor with accompanying smaller photo of some shelving used by a reader in Wisconsin. Black metal wire shelving, with non-LED rope lights zip-tied underneath the tray for soil warmth, and fluorescent light fixtures hanging on chains above. The chains allow the lights to be raised as needed to maintain a two inch distance above the seedlings. Cool!

They used standard white light tubes, no special grow lighting. That was a stressful topic for me these past months. Here in the lovely San Francisco Bay Area there are numerous suppliers of grow lights and indoor propagation equipment. . .all quite expensive, especially when the crop you with to start is tomatoes or squash. . .So thank God for leading me to the knowledge of regular old tubes at less than a third the price! That is our task for Thursday and Friday of this week. I will post up some photos of the process.

Green and green in the Valley

I am sitting in a Starbucks in Palo Alto, enjoying some extra burnt coffee and working remotely. At the next table is a woman and man who obviously were colleagues over the years catching up on their latest. It turns out that she is the VP of Operations for a start-up that makes a $10K + rack that reduces vibration and extends the life of disc drives etc. Some of the interesting things she said was that companies need data centers, people need data centers. . .companies have them. It was as if it was the first time she had ever heard of a data center? They have been talking about the engineer who invented it, her opinion that he is zealous but ignorant. Then their concept that there just are no good VP of Sales anywhere. They are on channels now, and how they can paint it green and gain some green funding. Interesting to hear. It has been a chore to keep from laughing at somethings they have said. They are focused on Rackables, it sounds like they are focused on the Rack part of Rackables.

Entrepreneurship is not dead, but is alive and well here in the Silicon Valley.

Defense Spending vs. Defense Squandering

The government needs to scrutinize defense. Starting with development and procurement. The rise of the Military Industrial Complex was warned by our 34th president Dwight D. Eisenhower. We are living that warning now. Defense funding is a hole we pour money into with no positive result. This needs to be re-vamped and during the scrutiny any actions which by their nature were criminal either by commission or omission should be prosecuted to the fullest expense of the law no matter where the blame lies. We put our trust in our elected leaders, appointed officials and members of the armed forces.

The mission of our military should be to defend our country, it's constitution and the citizens. Let it be organized, trained and equipped for that mission in the best possible manner.

Made in America

Lets talk about the economy, seriously. In my opinion we need to rebuild America by bringing back the concept of "Made in America". There is a need to create jobs, we all know that. When has the government ever created an actual job? In three decades they have helped large corporations send jobs to other countries and bring in cheap goods to feed our population's increased pathology of "Entitled Materialism". What is needed is tax benefits to business, starting with small business. So small businesses can survive, expand and hire. Small business is the engine of the American economy and the largest portion of citizens are employed by a small business. For all business there should be tax benefits and incentives to manufacture, assemble and sale products that are Made in America.

The government should work to rebuild American business by equalizing tariffs so that imported goods are on a par with America goods in those same foreign markets. This will help ease the transition and help American business create jobs to manufacture/assemble and sell those American made goods.

The government can reduce Visas and eliminate all tax benefits for companies that outsource labor offshore. Let us look at the need for skilled technology workers. . .it is a fallacy promoted to allow the importation of lower paid foreign workers. I've been in technology for twenty years, a good portion dealing with outsourcing/offshore. I've worked as an internal resource managing work outsourced by the company I worked for: as a manager dealing with budget vs. productivity and the push RiF employees and replace them with H1B contractors; as a member of an outsourced service provider, providing managed services onshore/offshore to American companies wanting to slash cost, primarily through labor. What I have seen is the steady decline in capability and the acceptance of this less able workforce. When your on-call Linux Systems Administrator needs to ask how to reboot a web server, something is not right. . .

The best thing for Americans is a strong American economy. We need to look inward and reverse some of our globalist policies, and focus on America and Americans. Lets change directions, rebuild and grow American.

What are you thoughts?

These are mine. . .Thoughts from a Local

Hope vs. Hype

I have been uneasy about our country and the direction it is going for the last 20 years. Starting with the first President Bush, President Clinton and finally the failing of our last President Bush. Our new President Obama has the opportunity to do well, and I am willing to give him the chance. There is however TOO MUCH hype, and not enough reality. The economy, the Long War, social division amongst the citizens are all things that need to be taken care of.

So let us each look in the proverbial mirror and start with that person in the mirror. Here are suggestions for three things each of us can work towards as individuals:

1. Courtesy - the new President is Mr President, President Obama or the President of the United States (POTUS). He is not your homey, the messiah, your Barack, the One. He is the President of the United States. The same goes for the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King. All throughout our country people refer to "Martin" as if they were his intimate. If I had known the man within that second ring of intimacy, I would have called him Doctor King unless he requested I do otherwise. Has Doctor King asked you to refer to him as "Martin"?
2. Realize - President Obama has his own ideas, plans and goals for his presidency and our country. This is a given. It is also a fact that he is the leader of the executive branch of our government, which is constitutionally designed to ensure a balance of power between the three branches. What this means to President Obama is that he will have to contend with Congress and it's own agenda, just as every president has before him. What is accomplished will be done through the consensus of multiple branches of our government.
3. Unity - We hear this word everywhere, yet on the very day when an man with more melanin that many Americans takes the oath of office as POTUS, many people are repeating a little limeric about "Rosa", "Martin" and "Barack". . .Some of the people are proclaiming victory for them. . . If we were truly unified the proclamation would be about "Us" and the new step we have taken. What about a woman as POTUS? That very issue divided us in the last election. Many used gender against Governor Palin.

To close this entry I will do as our new President did and quote the timeless words of the Apostle Paul. This is from his letter to the Galatians chapter 3, verse 28, where it is written:

"There is neither Jew nor Greek,
there is neither slave nor free,
there is neither male nor female."

It seems to me that we still have a long way to go to reach the point that Paul the apostle spoke of. So breathe deeply, smile and greet your neighbors, the sun will rise again tomorrow, but the only thing in life matters is how you live it this very moment! What do you think?

These have been. . .Thoughts from a Local

What Should We Do?

What Should We Do?

First - We need to just stop. Each one of us needs to stop whatever we are doing, take two deep breaths and look in the mirror. There you will see the person who needs to change. The person who needs to be that kinder, gentler human who is tolerant of other people's beliefs and views and accepts that life is driven by the choices we each make and the thoughts we entertain, the words we choose to speak and the deeds we choose to put into action. Everything starts with you and emanates outward.

Next - Look around at your home, your family. They are immediately impacted by you. Your attitudes, speech and actions have a direct effect on your household and the people immediately surrounding you. Think of this: If you are angry and bitter, and speak only negative things in your house; How will your spouse, children, even your pets respond to that? Think conversely of what would happen if you intentionally thought, spoke and acted the opposite?

The most difficult challenge is fighting human nature with this counter-intuitive approach. Now I am not proselytizing, trying to convince you the reader of the validity of my personal faith. I am telling you the truth that every major belief system held dear to people on our planet, the striving toward personal peace, the love of your neighbor, and basic respect for others

So, lets break it into those simple steps that we humans delight in so. What would Do? Is it Jesus, Gandhi, Martin Luther King? The probability is high that each would not be shocked by the way our society has gone. Each taught that humans need to fight and overcome their own nature or fall into darkness. Each taught that love triumphs over divisiveness.

A last note for today. Don't think that we are alone, political divisiveness has stirred up racial, ethnic and regional strife all around the world. Politics is a fight, but let that fight occur in the ring, not across every breath we take. When the fight is over, let it go until the next bought.

The Better Angels of our nature?

If you have been following my blog the past year you will have seen me occasionally slide down into the darker side of human nature: anger, blame and a little rage. All of these are natural, human predilections. We blame others for any misstep or trauma, we become angry when something occurs that is outside of our personal control, and we become enraged when we feel insulted or put upon by others we consider to be opposed to our personal beliefs or view of life. We as a species are intelligently evolved to a point where we accept no personal responsibility or accountability for our thoughts, words or deeds. Therein lies the problem and the thing we must overcome. Our own nature.

Part of the problem in my opinion is that we have become lazy and would rather have someone else do for us or decide for us allowing us to more easily justify the world around us. We allow ourselves to be divided and continuously fed a diet of venomous dissension by politicians, the media and the various advertising and public relations organizations. Their goal is to segment We the People into easily categorized bites allowing for better control.

That is a pretty dark view coming from a Reagan republican and former Marine. But sit back, breath deeply and think on it. We he People listen to talk radio, watch TV or read pundit's view here on the Internet. Do these pundits, news anchors or politicians speak any truth? Or do they just rail against someone or something or other, stirring up anger and bile against it? Control of the populace was never an American ideal.

American society has changed drastically over the last two decades. This has been driven primarily by the advances in technology that allow instantaneous, worldwide communication. It has also given a voice to each person with web access. This great new frontier is neither new, nor a frontier. It is simply an acceleration of communication and a shortening of the news cycle.

My contention is that this acceleration did in no way abolish common courtesy and basic civility. We decided to abolish it by choice. We have allowed ourselves to be nudged and guided along with a little social engineering here and there. True. But at it's base, it was each of our decisions.

Look at the current presidential administration. In a time of great crisis, the opportunity to unify the citizens of our country and heal the wound left from September 11th was given to them. A great moment in our history was cast down to allow for adolescent partisanism, and the other side of the aisle joined in heartily. As if any accountability could be shifted or spread thinly amongst them as a whole fooling We The People into ignoring it completely.

Since that one great moment has come and left what has occurred? Only more of same. The presidential election has brought out bitter venom you never knew lived so deep within you. Be truthful. It has, hasn't it? It is human nature. At a time when we need most to be united as rulers of this country, yes I said rulers, We The People. At this time we are more divided, divisive and on the road to ruin and subjugation.

We have to stop all of it, each one of us and turn from it. If not, what is to stop our society from devolving, and becoming something the likes of what we see in post-Saddam Iraq? Where human life is of little value, corporations and foreign entities dictate the rule of law and economic life and the media is controlled by force.

Until next time. . .Thoughts from a Local.