JOHNNY RIVERS - Secret Agent Man 1966

How I feel every time I goto work lately....



Yes, that's right. I work for a vastly huge corporation where numbers are more important than individuality and uniqueness. I can't say anymore, else I get fired.

I could tell you how old I was when I first heard this song, but then those that are out to get me might age me out of the system.

Yes, as a systems analyst, I have done all the math, and even created some of the hardware....

Does any of this make sense?

If so, leave a comment. Thanks, and Merry Christmas!!!

It's All Social Media?

Someone told me this the other day. If this is in fact true, then we can drop the word social, and it's just media.  Maybe it's transmedia.  You have to broadcast on ALL channels. Wait a minute!

The fine folks in The Silicon Valley (the real one, not the TV show) are dictating our future, and even though we live in Merica, the land of the free and the home of the brave, we don't get a vote.  That's the illusion. With new networks popping up practically every damn day, yes, that's right, I swore, how is someone that's been online for next to forever in 'net years suppose to keep up?

Anyone these days with half a mind can setup a server, and attract 5000 of their closest friends, and start a social network. Not to be confused with the movie, which as we know was about the startup of the book of the face. I'd use its real name, but I don't feel they want the added publicity. Despite popular belief, there is such a thing as bad publicity.

Which is probably why we have so many social media outlets. There's one out there that was attempting to take down #1 by effectively creating a Bitcoin Ponzi scheme. I only say this as I read that Bitcoin futures are about to expire for the first time. 

Now the evil among you would be thinking that one bad EMP can and will ruin your whole day, however this is simply a matter of the first shall be last. Blockchain technology is everywhere. You can't read really anything without hearing mention of it. I'm not decrying its mere existence, it's just that winners can't continue to pay for losers, which is probably why Bitcoin is collapsing at a rapid rate. 

Yes, I may have to do some fact checking, and links to appropriate articles and videos, however, I'm going to continue to bloviate until I make my point which may simply be this: I once heard that there's old pilots, and bold pilots, however there's no old/bold pilots.

Bullshit.

Speaking as one of the first if not thee first old and bold pilot, I'm here to tell you that communication relative to Moore's Law will continue to come at you faster, but not necessarily cheaper. You can have it now, or five minutes from now, and it still reads like yesterday's news.

Ironically, giving up the social aspect of the media will allow me more time to create, and then get my message out via social media.

Stay tuned.

72 and sunny in Redondo Beach, as always.

Adjust your expectations accordingly™

Today's Interruption Brought To You By...

Actual work.

There, I said it. After awhile, you figure out that time spent online mindlessly clicking away at the latest social media gadget doesn't make you any money.  Maybe the PPC's aren't adding up to anything, and you think you're earning BitCoin.  You may ask yourself, "Self, how volatile is it?"

Sure, Blockchain is a great tech, but there are those out there that are actively hacking it.  At some point, the reserves at the federal reserve are going to run out, and then it will be like we're back in the 60's with Auric Goldfinger attempting to irradiate the gold in Fort Knox.

The reality of this situation is that while it would be radioactive, it would probably still be there, and could be used at a backing for our tax dollars at work, whether or not anyone could actually touch it. Get near it even. (Did I just sound like SnagglePuss?)

Speaking of SnagglePuss, I looked up Exit Stage Left and came up with a four second video wherein he actually exits stage right....

So, in a land where Bond doesn't stop the bomb from going off, mostly because he's a fictional character and he doesn't exist, what happens if Fort Knox gets irradiated?  I don't know!!! I'm not an economist!!!

I know this rant started logically complete with a theme, and the necessary notification of, "I have work to do!!!" However, that work has been put in an almost perpetual wait state by the fact that there's more work to do than hours in the day, and currently, I'm waiting for phone calls on a Friday after close of business.

I'm not talking to anyone until Monday apparently.

72 and sunny in Redondo Beach. Adjust your expectations accordingly™

One Thousand Words

If a picture is worth a thousand words, how much is a mental snapshot worth? I've seen

too much, and according to the average person on the street, I may know too much too.
So, what's the big deal?

There's a hashtag out there trending currently: #ShutdownDC and my first thought on
that was, "What did the comic book company ever do to you?" I've been a DC guy all of
my life, and apparently even before it was DC. History states that we're having 80 years
of Batman, AND 80 Years of Marvel comics. Well, one statement is factual, and the other
isn't. At the end of this, I'll let you decide.

Batman debuted in Detective Comics #27 back in May of 1939. It seems weird that I
still have to give four digits, but there you are.... "Back in May of '39, I was just a young
whippersnapper....." In my best old man voice....

Marvel wasn't really a company until the early '60's. Stan Lee started an imprint, and
brought 3 characters with him from his previous company. Sure he created new ones,
and most of those are Marvel icons today. If you pulp an entire run of a comic, does it
still exist? Paper deteriorates at a rapid rate. Thats' why artists use Bristol boards, which
I'm guessing were invented in the UK....

Art must be preserved, and good art must last forever. We must continue to publish or
perish. Who said that first? A simple lookup that will get a link at some point.

Timely comics preceded Marvel, and National Periodical Publications preceded DC. One
company owns all of its characters, and one doesn't. I'll leave the reader to decide who
owns the current iteration of Spider-Man. What if Stan Lee didn't hyphenate? Spiderman
is in the dictionary too.

Batman has fought with the Black Widow as well. There's a serial out there (or was it the tv series?), and I believe all of the videos are currently on the tube that is you if you'd like to watch. Saturday
mornings you could give your kid a nickel and send him to the theatre to watch the big
screen all day. That's not true today. Well, it's still true, but child protective services
might get on your case. We don't want that.

How many laws have changed, or been broken and readjusted in the name of
"Protection?" I don't truly know. Some would believe we live in a police state because

there's drones flying overhead. Big Brother IS watching you about what, 25 years after
the fact? Hint: 1984 wasn't written in 1984. Orwell was a genius. He got most of it right.
If things are done for you, you may be okay. If they're being done to you without your
permission, it's definitely not. Who decides? The media? NO!!! We may have influence,
and I add myself in this category, simply because I've grown up in the business we call
show, and most of you are younger than me. Well, most of the planet, not necessarily
most of my readers. As you may remember, I have only about 2 or 3 these days....

So, media sets the message, and then we can choose to ignore or accept it. If you don't
like the message, don't hate the player, hate the game. The opposite of Love is NOT
hate. It's indifference. Most don't get that.

As a technologist, Bruce Wayne and by extension Batman has figured this out. That's
why we have Waynetech today. I'm pretty sure Bruce has put a backdoor into all of it so
that Batman can watch his city from the Batcave, and get alerted whenever the need
arises. One of the versions of the animated series had exactly that. I believe he called it,
"The Bat Wave."

Really cool opening theme and scenes.

So, on the Marvel side, we're dealing with a Spider-Man story today, and I believe that
Doc Ock is currently inside Spider-Man's body. Well, he transferred his mind there. What
he doesn't know is that he didn't eradicate Peter Parker's. He just pushed it down, or more likely swapped with. Maybe both!!!

There's a lot of Science Fiction out there dealing with mind control, and mind
transference. My thinking is the brain is truly the final frontier, Star Trek's opening
monologue notwithstanding.

Interesting to note that Star Trek as a comic book has been published by both of "The Big
Two" and a third company as well. I believe that 3rd company got there first, and then
Marvel, and finally DC. It's not clear to me whose currently publishing Star Trek, as I
haven't been to a comic book shop since Batman Day, 2019.

I didn't scan the shelves, as I was on a schedule that day.

So, what did you decide?

100 Years Ago Today

My father was born.

Was Going To Write Something

Something.

Okay, there. It's done. Now I can get on with the rest of my day. This raises the question, "Why do they call it Labor Day when nobody works?"  I'm here because I'm avoiding the paid assignment.

Messed up, right?

I've signed several NDA's as well, therefore I can't even truly talk about it. However, there's no clause in any of them that says I can't talk about the NDA's themselves. You may have even signed one yourself without knowing it. Aside: A verbal contract is worth the paper it is written on.

How would you not know if you've signed an NDA? Well, it may be buried in a contract that you've signed with a company for which  you may or may not be currently working. Also, for the two or three of you out there that don't know the acronym: Non Disclosure Agreement.

The boilerplate is basically, "You can't talk about it, while we can!!!" It should truly be a mutual NDA, however, one side always gets the best of the other in these things, no matter who's who.  Like I said above, I've signed my share of them on both sides.

So, when someone asks you a question about where you work, before you check your contract say, "I can't talk about it." This gives you an air of mystery, and keeps 'em guessing.

Maybe that only works for me. I'm not sure. This isn't work, as defined above, therefore, I must be playing. The game of life. Not to be confused with the Milton Bradley version. Why, you may ask?

Maybe you didn't. I don't know truly. All I know is there's no square that states, "Achieve your career goal after x years on this planet, and have fun now...."

There's a pool just outside my apartment, and we've talked about that before, however, there's no party going on now. This makes no sense. It's probably why I can't concentrate to do the paid assignment. No outside distraction to tune out. Today's conundrum brought to you by, "Complacency!!!"

Well, it truly is 72 and sunny in Redondo Beach™

e You next time.

I'm Real. I'm A Man.

How fast can I write? I've never truly done more than 40 words a minute, and thinking
may slow me down more.... We're not transcribing anything, but we do have a writing
prompt. "Where are all the real men these days?" she asks..... 

I'm right here. Writing about well, myself. We get smacked down whenever we try to be
real with the objects of our desire. I know there's something out there called "The Rules
Girl" and that's from a book that was written what, last century? What are your rules for
a date? A better question is, what the fuck is a date? I don't even know anymore. 

Guys like myself believe we only get one or two chances to make a move on a woman,
and we want to meet real women as well. Back in the 80's there was the four F's mantra;
Find 'em, Feel 'em, Fuck 'em and Forget 'em. I'm not a 4th F kinda guy either. Maybe
that's why I take things slow. 

In front of God and everybody who cares to ask, I'll admit to having a healthy sex life,
however, I had two parents who loved each other and waited for each other before they
even had sex for the first time the night of their wedding. N years later, I was born, and
that's for you millennial types out there that aren't into nebulous and archaic math, a
foreign concept. I've written about my life elsewhere, and there may even be some links
on the right that will lead you to those stories, but this isn't about me really. 

I'm real. I waited a long time to have sex for the first time with something other than an
image I may have seen on either the big or small screen, or even in a magazine. Why?
Because that's what my parents did, and ultimately taught me. While all of my friends
were having fun with the various girl du jour, I was either at home learning, or playing
sports. I wasn't great at anything as I'm a lifetime asthmatic. Well, I was. I've been cured
despite what other doctors may tell you. 

I'm older and hopefully wiser, but I may be making the same mistakes I made in my
youth. Just because a girl likes me, doesn't mean she wants to have sex with me.
However, it will be fun to find out. 

A woman once told me I'd have to date her four or five times before we had sex, and
she'd pay for half of everything. Well, that's not how I was raised. The guy pays for

everything, and maybe gets lucky. Now between you and me and the gatepost, I've

never liked that term. However, Luck be a Lady tonight is a great song from a great

movie. 

So, the real men that are out here, there, or everywhere exist. The women out there may
have to look harder to find them. A better question might be, where are all the real
women that want a real guy? 

I don't have the answer to that one either, however, I do know that they exist as well.
I've even "dated" a few. But again, I don't know what happens on a date. I just know that
today's date is July 23, year of our Lord 2019.... 

So, this missive is taking longer than I have to create it, therefore I miss my public
transportation, and I get somewhere later than I should. Okay, no worries. I have that
ability. If I didn't live in a 30 unit apartment complex, I'd strip down naked and jump in
the pool. Maybe on the day I want to get evicted I'll do that. 

Actually, with the sentiments around here lately, that probably wouldn't happen.
However, the heater is broken. That's been another backwards thing in my life. We
should heat the pool in the months that it's not Summer, and turn it off during that time.
The sun heats the pool adequately for me most of the time anyways. 

The wool sweats are not a viable alternative to the swimsuit that I can't find buried deep
beneath the pile of clean clothes I have in the middle of my living room either. I'll
probably just end up taking a shower to make this happen. I'm already running late, and
it's not even a very important date. Yes, that's right, going to work has taken a backseat
to my career, which is eeking out a meager existence and allows me to type these words
that you may be reading today or tomorrow. 

So, in conclusion, a small town just outside Redondo Beach, what have we learned? A lot
about me, and the fact that I may have not even answered the question posed at the
beginning of this tome. Or is it a missive? Out of all the languages available, English is
my favorite, however, it's not what we speak anymore. I'll have to create a new word for
it; probably Merican. Some would use a u instead of the e.

So, to review; women are the object of my desire, and they're just out of reach, simply
because of the things that I have put forth or fifth out there. 

So, what happens on a date? You spend time together, and you get to know each other,
and hopefully nothing stupid happens and you get to see the woman again. She may
have already made a snap decision about what's going to happen on the date, and
there's outside factors that you can't possibly know about until such time as it may
already be too late. 

This has been my morning therapy brought to you by the fine folks that allow for morning
pages, or journaling.

The Fear of MacBeth

Stay with me, as this one may go all over the place, however, the point to this post and everyone after it is simply thus: Why is it bad luck to say MacBeth?

A superstition that arose from before I was born, whenever that was, as lately, I'm telling people that I'm infinitely older than I actually am to prove a point, but to stay on topic, if you're on stage, you're not supposed to say, "MacBeth."

Now, as The Bard once wrote, "All the world's a stage, etc." in Act II Scene VII of As You Like it, maybe we're always performing, and therefore because of the above rule, we're never supposed to utter the forbidden name. Like Hitler. No one has that last name today because well, you know; Hitler.

There may not be anyone named MacBeth today either, but it shouldn't be considered bad luck simply to utter it. I don't know that I'm on stage, as right now as I write this, I'm an audience of one, as well as the original author. I may perform this at some point in my life, and that day may come soon, but for today, I say, "MacBeth!!!"

There's more research to be done, and links to link, and the need for other words said that will not be MacBeth. Forgot to put that one in quotes. #SorryNotSorry

Yes, we live in hashtag world now, however, I prefer the term octothorpe.  Tags are tags, and symbols are something else. I may have to tweet this link out later, and be assured that I will use the octothorpe #MacBeth!!!

Some may write it, "McBeth," but that would be wrong, as it definitely contains an "A."  Aside; A is the project that I should be working on, however, I'm writing this instead. I'll apologize for this one later but for now, I find I'm writing about well, you know by now....

Leave an appropriate comment below, and let me know why you think I should never say "MacBeth" again!!!!

72 and sunny in Redondo Beach. Adjust your expectations accordingly.

Annual Remembrance

37 years ago today, well, you know what happened, and I've taken it upon myself to
write about it every time on this day. Loss such as this is permanent, however how I let it
affect me can change over time. Or can it? I'll never get to play another game of chess
with my father. I've already talked about how that has helped growing up, and here we
are 37 years later, and these are still good memories. 

The bad ones I don't want to write down, and I feel that's a disservice to my memories of
him, however they happened, and affected me deeply as well. I don't want to talk about
them, and I don't want to write them down either. It's probably possible to use those bad
memories and turn them into good ones, as the first time I went through the traumatic
brain injury cycle, their mantra was, "Laugh him out of it." 

Some would say this is a bad thing, and some might say otherwise. I don't know who
these people are either. My mother lived almost eight years after my father died, and
never remarried to honor her memory of him. I only have her stories that she told me
afterwards, and I truly only have memories of being at parties where I again was the only
child there, and hearing stories about how my parent's friends reacted to their stories as
well. 

Maybe Shakespeare had it right from the Scot's play; Let us sit upon the ground and tell
sad stories of the deaths of kings. Are we part of the Marlowe society? The theory being
that a sergeant in the king's army couldn't possibly be intelligent enough to write all of
those tomes during his lifetime. 

However, we've all seen Shakespeare in Love, or if we haven't, we should. It's a great

movie. It goes to the writing process without making it intrusive. He was writing to
entertain the unwashed masses, and maybe we as writers continue to do that to this day.
Ultimately any story is told from the point of view of the narrator, and his reactions to
the various events that he or she witnesses. The hero's journey is written as if the hero is in fact a heroine, as all the literature that I've taken in calls her, well, she. 

This isn't about me. 

However, it is about how I react all these years later, and about my upbringing. My parents basically told me no most of the time I wanted something, as they knew we couldn't afford it, and yet I have so many things now.

Someone once asked me if my father was a good man. I still answer yes to this question,

even though I haven't heard from this person in over a year. Maybe two at this point, as
I'm not truly counting, however as an earth sign, these things that happen to me are taken in slowly. 

My "ruling" planet is also Saturn, from where we get Saturday, which is today.  

Life, Death, Marriage, and Funerals. 

Celebrations of other's lives. How these events affect those that either witness them directly or hear about them indirectly may not ever be recorded and passed on by whomever shall read this.
The joke here is that 37 years later, there's a guy on The Rams with last name Shields,
with #37. I bought that jersey to use as costuming for special someones. I won't mention
their names here, however they should know who they are. If they don't, then they
might comment if I ever publish this. 

It has been published by the fact that you're reading this now, and even though this is
supposed to be private and unfiltered every day while at the same time being
spontaneous only states my need to get most of this out there.... 

Today I have a wedding to attend, and I will celebrate my need to honor my father by
performing magic if asked. We're asked to wear a costume, and I'm effectively going as
myself, however there's a character in the DC Universe that I look like. I just need to
swap out the white jacket for the midnight blue one, and I'll be good to go. 

I do have to remember that the right hand inside jacket pocket has a hole in it however. If
I put anything in there, I'll never get it back. So much for things being instantly reset!!!
I did, and do love my father. 

Frederick M. Shields died on this day in 1982. 

Here's to you, Dad!!!