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Current | Archives
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Saturday, September 06, 2003
God
I believe in the existence of God, but I have not proof. To me this is the wonderful thing about God. There is nothing that can be proved. If it could be proved the world would be a much different place. Even if there was proof out there, there would still people that would not believe. I feel that I see God in things, like DNA, but that is still not proof.
- Rich,
10:04 AM
Friday, September 05, 2003
Consumption of one day
2 Glasses of Water
sesame Seed bagel, toasted with butter
20 oz Coffee, sugar and Milk
2 Beef Hotlinks, with cheese on hotdog buns
Corn chips
20 oz Orange Soda
2 Iced Double Cafe mocha
2 BBQ Pork Sandwiches
French Fries
10 oz Orange Soda
Sweet Potato Pie
- Rich,
11:56 PM
You call that Amnesty?
According to Yahoo the The RIAA is offering file sharers amnesty if they distory call copies of the songs they have and tell the RIAA who you are. This is proof that the RIAA is either stupid or does not want anyone to claim amnesty. They just want to say they offered people a way out.
What they should do is offer amnesty to everyone who stops using these systems by specific date. People can just stop and they do not have to figure out if they have the song legally or not. I think they would get more bang for their buck this way. They do not want to stop file sharing, they want to punish people. I have the feeling there is something we are not learning about this.
- Rich,
5:24 PM
Family Ideas
To the best of my knowledge I am the only member of my family with a web site. None of my sisters or brothers have one. They might have one, but they have never told me about it.
I am not even sure if any of my cousins have websites. When I search for them all I can find is a couple of wedding announcements. I am not sure if my family is not on the web or if no one has ever told me where they are.
- Rich,
12:42 PM
Question of self
I have been sitting on this e-mail since January. I kept on looking at it, but never writing about it. I received the e-mail while I was visiting my family. From time to time I look at this. I wonder how this person is doing now. Is she still reading my blog.
Sorry about the sad times. I hate people who tell me to count my blessings, so I won't tell you to count yours. I just want you to know there are others out there who suffer as much -- or differently. It's all relative.
For example, I have no parents. They're both dead. My dad in 1980, my mom three years ago yesterday. I've been crying since the middle of December. It's an anniversary reaction, I know, but that doesn't make it easier.
My only sister lives in the Third World. All of my mom's family was older than she, and they're all dead, too. The cousins are all over the place and have no interest in staying close. My father had only one sister who's dead now anyway, and her sons are -- unavailable.
This year I bought two movie tickets a week in advance (you know, using a credit card which I SHOULD NOT BE DOING) for two tickets for "About Schmidt." I love Jack Nicholson, which is the only reason I'm going, except for promising myself I'd be out of the house when that damn ball drops. See, I live in good old NYC -- not far from that area. Seeing the ball drop and everyone yelling and hugging each other makes me feel all alone in the world. I can't stand it.
This is one of the central questions of my life. Should I be happy because I have done okay for myself in the life? Should I be upset because I think I could have made more of myself in the past? I have more then some people and less then others. What should that mean to me?
- Rich,
10:32 AM
Thursday, September 04, 2003
Dating Ideas: Circles
Don's idea is that I need to brake out of my usual circle to find a relationship. Since I am about 30 and my life is reasonably stable, I need to find other people to meet. If I was going to meet my soul mate in my usual social circles, I would have found her by now. The people who meet their soul mates in their usual circles meet them by the time they are 25 or so. Since I did not do that, I have to find other kinds of people to meet.
This is Don's theory because this is how he met is bride. She was in the tech world during the dot.com boom because there was a shortage of labor. Don would never of met her she kept on working her usual non-profit sector jobs. Don is the kind of person who sets all of his hypothesis on his direct experiences.
My experience is that when every I am looking to meet someone for a relationship, I am always disappointed. Not that I ever meet someone when I am not looking for a relationship. It is just a let down when I try to do activities to meet that right person. I am never sure how people do that mate hunt. Many of them seem to be successful, but I have no idea how that works.
I have been widening my circles, but it is hard to make friends at my age. I know more people then I did two years ago, but few of the people are close enough where I can call them to hang out. They seems to all have little slots where I interact with them. I have a hard time becoming close with me. They need to invite me before in before I will try to get closer to them. If not I will feel like I am forcing myself on them.
Maybe I need to make a radical brake for the type of people who are my friends. The people who are my new friends are not too different then my usual friends. They are not that different then the people I already know. Maybe i have to make a big break to meet that special woman.
- Rich,
6:46 PM
Ready For Football
I am going to hotfoot it out of here so we can count how many times John Madden uses oxymorons.
- Rich,
5:23 PM
Recent Googles
Joseph Arthur
Unification Church Weblogs
Not Martha
San Jose 4th Street Parking Garage
JFK Airport
There is an idea that you can learn something about someone by knowing what they search for. I am not sure what you can learn about me by looking at this information.
- Rich,
5:03 PM
iTune, but I better not sell
This guy tried to Sell an iTune on Ebay. The thought is that you have the right to sell a DVD if you buy it. Do you also have the same right with a file? I want to see this go to a lawsuit. I wonder what side would win in court.
- Rich,
4:21 PM
Cultural Cold War
I have the feeling there is a new cold war going on right now. Unlike the last cold war, it is not really between two governments. This cold wars are really between cultures. It is a war between how people view the world. It is a war about how we measure progress in the world. The worst thing is that there is more then two sides to this war. I can see at least five or six different sides to this war.
The problem with a cultural war, it is not like a political war. There is much more at stake and people will go further. More people are willing to lay down their life for their culture. To lose is to get folded into the other culture. There is something about this that really scares me. I am worried that it will end badly for everyone.
- Rich,
3:56 PM
Offshoring
I have been thinking about what it means that engineering jobs are moving off shore. On want hand I feel that people all over the world deserve jobs. On the other hand you cannot send all the jobs out of the U.S. If you do, there will be no one here that will be able to afford to buy your product.
What this really means is that U.S. workers have to be special. There has to be a reason companies will pay U.S. wages. We have to compete with workers all over the world. It seems like many U.S. workers are scared to do this.
- Rich,
3:43 PM
Camera Advice
Here is some good info is you are wondering what should I look for in a digital camera?
- Rich,
3:27 PM
Monday Night Football/John Madden Drinking Game
It is September and that means one thing, the start of the NFL season. The Eagles and the Buccaneers are opening up Monday Night Football this year, but the Monday Night team is getting an early start on Thursday. I thought I should republish the drinking game.
1 Drink
- Uses Telestrater
- Non-Football comment
- Going to Lisa
- Mentions the Madden Cruiser
- Video Game Graphics
- Showing Al and John in the booth
- EA Sports, Ace Hardware, or any John Madden commercial
- When Al tries to be funny
"Thanks John" Someone after one of these says "Thanks John" and everyone else drinks
- Madden cliche
- Madden says something that would fit into his videogame
- Madden makes an obvious point about your team.
2 Drinks
- Shows the Madden cruiser
- Uses pre-game footage to make joke
- Mentions Food
- Mentions Player not in this week's game
- Jokes about player’s weight
- Shows Old footage
- Showing Al and John in the booth for a joke
- When Someone watching the games refers to the player making a video game like move
- Showing the horse trailer before they pick the player of the game
3 Drinks
- More then One player is the player of the game
- Showing an actual horse with the horse trailer
Finish Drink
- Mentions Turducken
- Any Four of the above at the same time
New Rules
2 Drinks
referring to Lisa Guerrero as New Sideline reporter
referring to anything as new for this season
Salute (Everyone stands up and drinks)
- Reference to Melissa Stark
Tell me if I am missing anything with this game.
- Rich,
8:02 AM
Wednesday, September 03, 2003
Death to Physical Media
I am not sure that I agree that DVDs and CDs are going to die. I think streaming is not enough. People like to own things. I am not sure having the content on the disk is enough for people. I think that libraries are important to people. Music might get rid of the CD, but DVDs are a different matter. Streaming makes it sound like people do not like to collect things.
- Rich,
3:44 PM
Toys
If you work for Larry Flynt, you should expect sex toys in dishwasher. I do not think this law suit will go anywhere. You are working for Hustler, what do you expect.
- Rich,
3:18 PM
Prop 13 or Die
It looks like that the recall election willl not do anything to change Proposition 13. That means nothing will change the next time there is a bust in Silicon Valley or LA.
- Rich,
11:30 AM
Dark Computer Arts
I wonder if there are different schools of computer magic for PCs and Macs.
- Rich,
11:21 AM
Idea of Love: Dating
I recently used a web site that said that in the whole San Jose/South Bay area there are about 200,000 single women. I put in my criteria for a women. Using the latest U.S. Census data the site figured out that 1 out of those 200,000 could like be my soulmate. It did not give me her address, but it said that she was out there.
How many out of 200,000 single women would a person have to meet before the found that one person that is right for them. This is 200,000 single women using the census data. Who knows how many of them are already in relationships. To the best I can figure out I know some 25 single women living in this area. All most all of them are in relationships already. I know none of them are my soulmate.
I am just not sure how I can meet single women. I am really not sure where the ones that might be interested in me hang out. Maybe I should have a contest. Something like "Win a date with Rich Thomas." Will not be as thrilling as The Bachelor, but you will not have to be on national television either. There have to be some single women in San Jose that are willing to go on a date. For some reason I want to have three women I already know just the canidates and pick which one I should take on the date.
Does this sound like a good idea to anyone?
- Rich,
7:34 AM
Tuesday, September 02, 2003
Free MP3s
I am really happy to see Barsuk Records lets you download free MP3s from their web site. Yest the MP3s are only 96 kbps, but it better then nothing. Personally I think that lables should allow more people to download songs for free. I think it is a great promotional tool
- Rich,
12:23 PM
I am not my portrait
I have been thinking a lot lately about writing and painting. When a painter does a self portrait, people to do not expect it to be 100% realistic. They expect the painter to represent an idea that can be linked back to the subject. There are parts of the portrait that are exaggerated and parts that are ignored. The viewer excepts that the painter is presenting one possible way the view the subject. We do not expect it to be the truth, but an idea that is artistic and meaningful.
I have been feeling lately that Sad Salvation is not me and I am not Sad Salvation. I write here almost everyday and I share important ideas here, but it does not mean this is who I really am. I do not think that you can know me from reading my weblog. They are just words and ideas, not my personality.
When you read my words, do you expect them to be the truth? Do you expect me to be a journalist and capture the objective reality of my life? Do you expect I really view myself and the world the way my words would explain? I am not sure you are able provide these things.
It is hard to describe what happens when I write. It is like asking a bird what is happening when they fly. They understand how they do it, but the might not understand everything that makes it happen. I write about what is bumping around in my head. By writing I find ways to flesh those ideas out. I find a way to see if the ideas are true or not. Sometimes the ideas are true and sometimes they are not true.
When I was dating Tara there were ideas I wanted to write about but I felt that I could not. These were mostly ideas about myself and the things I see in myself. I felt if I wrote about them Tara would get the wrong idea. She would think the ideas were more true then they really were. I thought about starting an anonymous blog. I wanted to write things and make them public. I want the feed back of other people being able to read the thoughts.
I am not sure how to address these ideas. The first is to tell people they might see something about me through my web site, but they will not know me. The second is to just write what I need to write first and figure out where I am going to put it second. The third is to communicate better with the people who are close to me. I can then let them know the difference between me and Sad Salvation.
- Rich,
8:20 AM
Goals
I had a lot of goals for this weekend, and I did not accoplish any of them. Not too long ago a friend said to me that accomplishments are overrated. He told me I should not beat myself up over the things I do or do not get done. In the end I am only doing them for myself. What does it say that I will let myself down all the time.
- Rich,
7:05 AM
Monday, September 01, 2003
San Jose at night
Holiday weekend nights are loud and noisy outside my apartment. One of the main drags is right outside my apartment. I can hear people cruising late into the night. A lot of loud cars and loud people go by my window.
Since I could not sleep I decided to take some photos. Around midnight I went to the 4th street parking garage. I have a camera with a 'night photo' feature and a remote control. It makes it very easy to take good night photos. I just have to find a good place to sit the camera.
As I used the camera on top of the parking garage I thought about the sign "No Photography" sign on the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. I just imagined someone seeing me up there and calling the cops. I just thought about the story I would tell the police. "No, I am not a terrorist, I am just taking pictures for my weblog." There was something about this idea that gave me a little thrill.
I was up there for about a half hour and the cops did not come. The city was beautiful at night. All the noise and people made it feel really alive. I wish I could capture everything I saw. It is hard to catch the lights in the east hills with my camera. I will have to do this again later.
- Rich,
12:08 PM
Sunday, August 31, 2003
Children and Kids
Most of my close friends do not have kids. Maybe it is that idea when people have kids, they have different goals. Many of my friends have openly expressed that they never what to have kids. It seems to be one of those ideas that bind us.
Today I read in the magazine section of the San Francisco Chronicle there is an expert from a book about selfish children. The book, The Epidemic: The Rot of American Culture, Absentee and Permissive Parenting, and the Resultant Plague of Joyless, Selfish Children, talk about the problems of how many children are being raised. It seems to be the biggest problem is that children are not ready to face the world. They cannot handle the challenges that face them in the real world.
The things that parents and children have a hard time with, discipline, authority, control, and focus are things that my friends have rejected. These are all things that we think we can do without in our lives. I wonder if this has any part with the problem raising kids. I wonder if this is why we do not want to raise kids.
I am 31 years old right now. I figure that I have to be married by the time I am 35 to have kids. On the way I am going, I do not expect this to happen. I read about raising children as more of a social idea then an idea I will have to deal with specifically.
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