I'm Going Slightly Mad 2010-02-28

I am back from a flying trip to Thailand; and preparing for another one.

On the last trip flying HSAWS, an AC11, I logged:

• 6 hrs
  • 4 instrument hours
    • 2 IMC; a mixture of Cu, SC, and haze.
    • 2 Hood
  • 5 instrument approaches
    • 2 ILS; VTUQ, VTBU
    • 1 LOC; VTBU
    • 2 VOR DME; VTUQ, VTBU
    • 2 hold entries; VTUQ, VTBU
    • 4 holds; VTUQ, VTBU
  • 6 landings; Bang Phra twice, Best Ocean Airpark, VTUQ, VTBU.
  • 3 go arounds; VTUQ twice, VTBU

The political situation in Thailand is a little unstable now so I may have to change my plans at short notice.

I am reading The Tender Carnivore & the Sacred Game by Paul Shepard. The book lacks references but sometimes Paul weaves external material into the work stating the Author and the Source. He has a passion for the subject of us regaining our humanity and makes good arguments. I can see that his writing is dated in some respects (first published 1973): hints of Freud, and incomplete nutrition knowledge. Often prophetic, he provides explanations for some of our social ills: e.g. adolescent gang culture. I recommend the book to those looking for how our cultures went wrong and how we might live.

I have my course notes for a Cessna Citation Part 141 Type Rating Course so I am again in study mode.

This week I have discovered:

• TaskPaper
• Notational Velocity
• WriteRoom
• Dropbox
• TextMate
• Markdown
• Simplenote
• QuickCursor
• Liquid Tension Experiment on CD

I will use some of these to aid my study. Notational Velocity is particularly useful. I sync it to Simplenote and keep individual text files in a Dropbox folder. I keep my main TaskPaper file in the SimpleText folder. I access my data with TaskPaper, Notational Velocity, SimpleText and SimpleNote on my iPod Touch, or any other computer, anywhere in the world, forever! FX [manic laughter]

This week I have discovered that sadly:

• The Canon Scanner Drivers for my MP996 Do Not Work! Strange. The printer works just fine and I can scan from Print & Fax provided the Canon IJ Network Scanner Selector is running. It worked in 10.5.
• PCCW never calls back.
• The ATMD has an unlimited supply of badly written, unnecessary, and ineffective Operational Instructions.
• Tacky CNY decorations are still up and people are still happy to have their pictures taken with the crappy glitter in the background.
• Alcohol has similar effects on the body as the poison Fructose; my halo slipped! View the presentation about the toxicity of Fructose by Rober H. Lustig, MD. Now when I look at a glass of Red wine I think can of Coke. Woe, woe!
• My apartment is surrounded by Schnauzer manifestations that yap, howl, and cry all day.

I was using Textile but I will give Markdown a go to see how I get on.

Live Long and Prosper.

signs of life 2009-02-16

I noticed this article on the BBC News site.

I paused to reflect how wrong the basic ideas of most of our cultures are. Creation myths start with the imperfect or a void. A supreme being then conjures or organizes our world, nature, and humans. We are put over nature, at the pinnacle of the creator's achievements, in the image of the creator. A hierarchical position relative to the rest of nature.

The reality is that life is a inherent and emergent quality of this universe: inescapable, unavoidable. The precursors to life have existed since before this planet was formed. Life on Earth was inevitable. Life on other planets certain.

As a species humans might get on better with themselves and the rest of nature by recognizing that we are part of nature, not above it. When we take more from nature than we give then we hurt ourselves and our offspring. We impoverish our descendants.

Welcome to the Machine 2010-02-03

I was very aware two nights ago, riding between the ATC complex and our drop-off point, of being in a vast machine. Nothing I could see was natural. The artificial surface of an artificial island. The foundation for buildings and facilities to smooth the passage of some of the most complex machines ever built. My part: to lubricate and regulate the flow of people through this economic engine. This is so much at odds with how I think things should be.

We are beset by bureaucrats and governors, those who are it seems unafraid to tell us how our lives should be. I'm tending to the thought that the planet will itself (though in fact it has no self) regulate the pace of life: and I may see it happen. The closest date for environmental collapse I have read is 2040 - I will be alive then. No way to stop this runaway train. I think that it is very difficult to discern how we should live. We have been so dysfunctional for so long that we have forgotten what we are: animals.

Humans put ourselves over all the rest of nature careless of the consequences. Unaware that when one part of nature dies through our actions that it is just one stage of our own suicide. We cannot survive without our natural environment and we have only a very basic knowledge of how our organism depends on the others. So much is gone already. Will I scramble to hold on to life when the end comes and the middle latitudes become uninhabitable and unproductive? Will I have had the foresight to sense the end and move to a habitable zone in time to dig in and defend my patch from the tsunami of the dispossessed? Lock and load. Time will tell.

Community leaders should not be male: choose Grandmothers only. Then our leaders may have a sense for living for today with an eye on how their decisions will effect their children's children. We should live in a family, group, structure that fits our basic nature. Not one imposed by a grey haired male despot who hallucinated a religion and imposed it on others. How did we develop the arrogance to seize hold of something and claim that it belongs to us? Religion has a lot to answer for. I will keep looking for the right questions to ask: centered around how to gain an understanding of what it really means to be human.

Rant over; for now.