spheres of influence

Friday the 26th, is at the end of this weekly post. Saturday the 27th is in the middle.

Thursday, January 25th, 2018.

Daydream number 4. to-save-world -- end junk mail via the internet.

I've written quite a few posts about this one over the years. The last time I walked into our local post office, the mail person said. "If the recycling barrel is full please leave your junk mail on the counter." By the way, the counter high blue container was in fact, completely, jammed tight to the top, stuffed full.

Is a photo, (in this case a doodle) really worth 1,000 words? Okay, this is me daydreaming about a real person. My Dad was a home-health nurse when I was a teenager. He told me this story about an old person's house stacked full of years and years worth of junk mail and old newspapers.

There was a narrow path to the bed, another narrow path that went into the kitchen and the bathroom. The old person was so blind they couldn't tell the difference between the junk mail and the bills. They could no longer read the newspaper, tho sometimes another elderly person read to them, but obviously, these old people were not well enough to carry the paper junk out to the trash.

So in my daydream world, they are "reading" the newspaper, paying their bills and even clicking on "coupons" via computer and listen to a digital reader.

I have written a much longer version of this. I believe if Benjimen Franklin were alive today, he'd be aghast at the tons of junk mail we are plagued by. He was an innovative guy. He'd fight for a digital branch of the USPS and all shopping mailers and catalogs would pay for adds and listings in the USPS digital 'Yellow Pages' everyone could search via a Federal minimum required internet connection, with USPS local address pages for all current residents. And all utilities, government services, and businesses would be found easily on the official local digital map.

I even got a very nice email reply from the postmaster general. But, that was in 2010, when I still had hope that we could and would do something, change for the better. The ironic conclusion is, a lawsuit about junk mail has already gone to the supreme court.

Yep, in 1970  the United States Supreme Court ruled that an addressee of postal mail has unreviewable discretion to decide whether he wishes to receive further material from a particular sender, that vendor does not have a constitutional right to send unwanted material into someone’s home.

But, Rowan v. Post Office Dept., 397 U.S. 728 (1970) only helped with "porn" or sexual junk mail. The rest continued for millions and millions of tons of paper because. "The freedom to communicate orally and by the written word and, indeed, in every manner whatsoever, is imperative to a free and sane society."Brief for Appellants 15.

Page 397 U. S. 736 Without doubt, the public postal system is an indispensable adjunct of every civilized society, and communication is imperative to a healthy social order. But the right of every person "to be let alone" must be placed in the scales with the right of others to communicate.

And that, ladies and gentlemen of plant Earth is why we continue to bury people with junk mail.

So, where is that fix to the digital divide already?! Yep, ... statistic v. reality continue to amuse me.

Wednesday, January 24, 2018.

Blurb III. (copy & pasted from 2017 NaNoWriMo)

I have a lot of ideas about how to make the world a better place. By, a lot, I mean at least one spell of megalomaniacal daydreaming most every day, with several ideas juggled mentally per mood episode. I write some of them down, most are negated as too costly. The ones I edit and draw out are all about reducing suffering. I am not really so crazy as to imagine that I alone can save-the-world, just, help out as one mind and body working together with a ton of other folks, to reduce suffering and make the world a little bit more sustainable for future generations.

The 3rd idea to-save-the-world

3. Eliminate the digital divide and simultaneously save millions on the cost of education. (billions counting the savings resulting from adults being online). Library networked digital school textbooks, efficient on-demand publishing of workbooks, electronic grading of tests and papers, open source computers operating system (like the one laptop per child program NOT corporate brand-name computers). Open source computers children can learn to code on, in all US public schools, for every child regardless of economic status.

January 27, 2018

Saturday. I don't know what today's doodle/draw-fool is. I am not being creative, I am simply going down my list of 50 ideas to save the world.

This is idea number 5. Stop using use-once throw-away plastic bags.

We should always go reusable: shopping bags for most stuff and wide shallow baskets for delicate fresh produce and eggs (i.e items you don’t want on the bottom of the pile on your trip home), and returnable crates for heavy stuff.

This way to change the world, like organic food is happening and has been happening, one person at a time for decades.

I am bragging here. My Mom has been bringing her own bags to the grocery store since the 80s. (possibly since the late 70s but I don't remember). As a teenager, I remember standing there watching check-out baggers stuffing paper bags inside of her cloth bags. My Mom who is a very polite and succinct person, she would say things like. "I don't think that is really necessary. Save yourself some work and don't do that to the rest of the groceries." Sometimes the clerk would nod yes, and sometimes they actually talked back about being required to use the plastic bags the store used. Interestingly, this isn't happening much anymore. Tho I am surprised how may check out clerks in mall clothing stores in the 2000s are surprised when you reject their brand name plastic bags for your own well-used nylon/polyester ones. No, I don't use the heavy canvas ones. I used the colorful bags that fold up to pocket size. I've been using one bag that looks like it's made out of blue paisley windbreaker type plastic fabric since the 90s and this over 20-year-old shopping bag, comes out of the washer with the other newer cloth bags just fine.

Since plastic lasts forever, we should use it for well designed durable good that gets used "forever".

No more use once and throw away plastic bags. Not just grocery bags, all shopping bags from giant malls to tiny vendors who sell goods out of carts.

P.s. This is happening.
http://www.ncsl.org/research/environment-and-natural-resources/plastic-bag-legislation.aspx

It's only Tuesday, but it feels more like Wednesday or possibly some sort of perpetual Thursday.

doodle for 1-23-2018

Wrinkled paper, no frame, bad lighting, crappy ink pens, one pen I tossed after it quit scribbling on this "thing" a second marker, I filled the cap with water and painted with it after it soaked. To be clear, this, what I'm doing here, isn't about art. I am sincerely attempting to expel waves of idiotic notions, swine to the swine. The worst part is I sort of like pigs, tho am honestly fearful of having one for a pet instead of a dog because many folks would love to eat the cute walking bacon. Life/diet. Off topic, I'm a flexitarian.

What am I attempting to achieve here with 'expulsion of the fool'?

Human's live in cycles of habits. Our thoughts, when not captured by what's happening or a TV screen, constantly flash with weighted layers of conscious and subconscious ruminations. Control is only possible with practice. Meditation. Prayer. Art. Writing. Whatever you call it. #drawfool forces me to not ignore the noise.

It's Monday, yet again, I find myself wondering 'who is this evangelical base as relates to US politics and how do they test to see if their approval has changed, or not? -- they often announce very quickly, as in within hours after the latest wave of "stuff" goes public. 'No change in Trump supporters... regardless of whatever the latest moral debacle is.

Who do they call? Is there a phone ring of pastors and small-town counsel folks who post 'supporter' option polls hourly or check-in with FOX news?

Seriously, if you know, how they know, please let me know. Thanks :)

Jan. 22, 2018.

Friday, January 26, 2018.

No one answered my question about the quick math about the steadfastness of the Trump base. So, I forgot about it until I was listening to a podcast and they kept saying 35% still support Trump. This number bothers me. Why? Only 58% of people registered to vote, voted, 26% for Donald and 27% for Hillary. 5% for other candidates. Then they*(Reuters and HuffPost) say support for Trump has dropped from 2/3rds after the inauguration to less than 1/3rd now, since August and November 2017. Now in January 2018. I read this number of supporters as 26% minus two thirds of those voters or 8.7% of voters. Not the entire US population but of voters. So by this math, why do people still state that 35% still support this man? You are welcome to explain statistics out of election results versus polls to me. I'd like that actually. ☮

They* (links to sources)

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-poll/trumps-low-approval-rating-masks-his-support-among-likely-voters-reuters-ipsos-poll-idUSKBN1D8380

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-poll-support-levels_us_5993411fe4b0091416407ace

Sunday, January 28, 2018

Complaint to myself, posted here, who knows why.

Sunday, today is intended as a day of rest, but while resting I'm pondering survival. The sweet ideal where your work is something that matters. To love your life's work, the ultimate achievement. The stigma and stereotype of artist (starving to multi-million art star) legitimacy is always the debate. Tho, I guess it's the same for all humans regardless of career. The plethora of marginalized unprocessed writers. What are the mainstream publishing odds now in 2018? I'm too bitter to do the work to calculate the math. In 2010 after quite a shit-ton of research the ratio I came up with was 30,000:1. As in 30-k book manuscripts slush piled on the sagging roofs of the industry, for every one published and marketed novel. I'm truly not something else. This narrative artist/whatever I am, but I wish my mind worked another way. I try and fail to be logical. I attempt over and over again to think of ideas that make sense in this world. But, I need both the cents and the sense to make a survival. Lately, I am painfully aware of not making either.

Not giving up and just playing video games, watching TV and compulsively posting to social media. I do those things, but I am also slogging along on mass scribbled storyboards for another project. Depression, especially when it manifests itself as grumpy complaining is hellishly boring in my opinion. Just in case anyone wondered or got this far, reading? Some days I think the clicks on this blog are all me, checking for typoes then reloading because I never get them all.  

recurring daydream 1 and 2 of 50 ways to 'save the world'

Doodle for January 16, 2018.

Recurring daydream -- Yep, this is a biofuel system, like LooWatt only with additional passive and renewable energy modules working together. Seems like a fair joke to admit that this could be the 'cold fusion' humanity has been searching for, for decades now, but, it's been coming out of our asses the entire time.

Recurring daydream as in a lot, here's a paragraph copy and pasted from a list of 50 ways to 'save the world' that got written into my November 2017 NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month).

1. Green housing & building , experimental engineering and design neighborhoods in every state & climate region in the US - working with colleges, community colleges & trade schools, to build & test prototypes, promote fair competition of best designs, keep zoning laws and building codes up to speed on the safest most efficient local designs, train and certify trades people in how to best install and construct everything ( smart micro-grids, energy storage, gray water systems, passive solar window boxes etc..) and get the best ideas into the market and to the people most efficiently.

So there's the idea, and here's why it isn't happening... Well besides the obvious reason. Money. I.e. passive energy doesn't make big energy money. 

If I had a shit ton of money, I'd have a company that designed systems for small houses. I looked for our house, multiple times for more than one place we lived over the years. So far, I've only found estate sized systems on the market and even those were in parts. The solar tubes sold separately from the tank system etc... 

A passive energy revolution would create a lot of jobs. It's also so expensive to design and maintain custom systems, very few are able to do it. 

The garbage industry plus septic engineering job isn't something many people want to spend their lives "processing". Picking up tanks of effluent and bins of byproducts, checking filters and catalytic converters, not glorious work unless you have an 'unsung hero' complex. 

Also, gas lines, tanks, and energy generating systems require space that is separate from living space, both to maintain air quality in the living spaces and for a contained blast wall for normal combustion chambers and accidents.

Onwards ☮ + 💚

P.s. I ended this on a low note because this is 'expulsion of the fool' - not a How-To blog. If you have a company making any part of this passive/renewable energy system for small homes, in the US, I'd love to hear from you. Even just a tweet at @Uva_Be would be super.

Doodle for January 17, 2018.

I can not even convince some of my most beloved friends to stop buying plastic bottles. This is either my third or fourth blog post on the topic of throwaway beverage containers and I confess to complete environmental duh-fatigue, so I'm just tacking BYOM onto the blog post from yesterday.

2. BYOM (Bring your own mug) water bottle or thermos.

Instead of a soda machine, a small commuter cafe would be nice. Or even a corner store with a hand washing sink or a small beverage container cleaning station and a rack of new beverage containers beside soda fountains, juice bars, coffee stations etc… Not only to stop the obvious pile of use once and throw away beverage containers but stop the fuel used to transport water.

Water is heavy at a pint per pound, for miles and miles, to then be stored in plastic bottles in large glass door refrigerators running 24/7.

How is our use-once throw-away plastic-culture not the very definition of social insanity?

Just google BYOM or plastic trash or plastic gyers in every ocean on planet earth!

Okay as for a solution to bad water. The most affordable house or small business sized water filters are those sold for commercial ice machines.

Also, there are some nice counter top models. I know, nothing worthwhile is cheap, and it takes a little effort on your part. To make your own damn cup of filtered water or tea/coffee. But, please people, for you and me and all the fishes in the sea. BYOM is a good place to start making a difference.

P.s. I feel really bad, guilty even for the increasing number of communities who have water poisoned by fracking or lead and other chemicals. I write this, in the hopes that good water filter systems and cup washing stations will be installed in all schools and neighborhood markets, especially those with contaminated water.

BYOM this is about plastic trash and if you have good water at home or work please appreciate it. Thanks

Jan. 20, 2018

We are the wall, today's #doodle (really more of a scribble :) #drawfool inspired by Jan. 20, 2018 Woman's march and Brick x Brick performance art/protest a human wall CA to VT to end misogyny. I wonder how many million were out there worldwide today? Sea to sea, Canada and UK as well.

The news feed got me down, but an image search, Twitter and YouTube show you can't hide the truth. Check out the reTweets from marches all over the world if you need some cheering up. https://twitter.com/Uva_Be  (P.s. there are a ton of photos there today, I don't know what will be in the tweet stream tomorrow, it's twitter. :D

2018 ready or not, we're here

Doodle for January 7, 2018.

Things that divide us. #doodle #drawfool

a thing. Jan 8,2018

Chores and errands. Jan 9, 2018. Last night I couldn't sleep because I figured out how to "save the world", today, I cleaned the kitchen and went grocery shopping. 

Jan 10, 2018. I had some ideas for titles while doodling this, but the truth is I don't like it enough to even sign it. It's just a doodle that I hope doesn't look like the Window's logo :( as I got my colors reversed. Yep, what do ya know, dyslexia is actually good for something.

Doodle for Thursday, Jan 11, 2018.

scribble "plan" for the tower of babble

Quote of no accountability "blah, blah... f***-it, we'll figure it out as we go". 

I know I’m a complete and total idiot when it comes to social networking + my rights of publicity and privacy and my personal digital biodata (face recognition, location patterns, purchase habits, etc…). 

Google must totally hate me. I imagine I’m on a list of people who, like me regularly complain about our rights versus their bottom dollar.

I try and fail over and over to rationalize why being tracked everywhere I go, and for everything I buy bothers me so much. Do I buy too much beer? Yes, I imagine I do buy way more beer than the average person. Do I really care? …. I pause and think about it for a bit.

No, my hang-up over personal biodata isn’t about drinking an embarrassing quantity of beer. 

I’ve been pondering this for a while now and I haven’t resolved a single angle of this equation. It remains this amorphous tangle. Physical characteristic discrimination as the new racism. The digital divide multiplied by the solar system scale of the income inequality gap. I should feel comfortable with the rest of the negative thousandaires. They map the world for free and we pay them by telling them where to buy the best beer. I see you are at a pub again, would you answer some questions and help our map app compete. I should just, click ‘yes’ thirteen times and drink my damn beer and shut up.

But, I can’t drink beer all the time. I wrote a fictional character who is somewhat immortal and he drinks beer all the time. But, I can’t physically do that. I don’t have the spare “change” or the extra liver.

So? I’m not going to drink beer tonight after work. I’m just going to do normal stuff, like eat a somewhat healthy dinner and maybe play some video game. Build a tower of babble for digital sheep. Whatever. Money wins, again. And the AIs will still be crawling long after I’m gone, so who gives a…. 

"Hi." Doodle for Jan 12, 2018.

Jan 13, 2018. Lately, been debating if I like the doodles I do via the very simple Google app on my Chromebook or drawing on paper with this set of ink pens I got as a gift.