Mojo’s Glasses

Have you ever really thought about it? The premise of the story of The Tower of Babel is that after the Great Flood, people found this great place to live in a place called Shinar and said, “Wow, we can all work together and not be so isolated [scattered throughout the Earth].” And they busted out this tower that could reach the heavens.

Think about now, we communicate in real-time with each other, and although we don’t want to erect this tower of our greatness that reaches the heavens, we sure do think a lot about ourselves all interconnected and thinking we deserve the world.

Comfort and massive social networking bring about narcissism.

Just a random morning thought.

I keep telling myself I’ll go to sleep earlier in the night. I normally say this around 9pm (and I actually am tired and could sleep at that time). But here I am again, midnight, on the interwebs studying stuff and generally screwing around feeding the monkey mind when I should be asleep.

There’s [a lot of] pressure to know lots and lots of stuff in my line of work. The software consuming public is demanding, they want things perfect, they want it free, and they want it fixed and working 24/7. Oh, and you better damn well be the SME, Subject Matter Expert.

But I digress. Good night folks. I hope to randomly update you more often here in the coming … [more]

… iam pridem, ex quo suffragia nulli uendimus, effudit curas; nam qui dabat olim imperium, fasces, legiones, omnia, nunc se continet atque duas tantum res anxius optat, panem et circenses.

… Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses

(Juvenal, Satire 10.77–81)

Are you living a life of bread and circuses? Or are you doing something about yourself and your place in the world? (Something more than self-betterment and self-interest?)

I hear this a lot from students I interact with. But I get it today. Normally I hear it from people who have been up all night studying/drinking/gaming, and they then have to do something horrible like go to class.

Yesterday, I was reminded that the tickets to see H.H. the Dalai Lama would be available to faculty and staff at 9am. This is the third time he’s visited Cal, and the only time I’ve been aware of it. I knew that I had to get in line quite early. When the organizers opened it to students the previous week, people started lining up at midnight.

So tired.

Even while I write this I am tired. But I must continue. So I woke … [more]

What’s up with turning 36? This birthday recently blindsided me, I was looking at my work sched last week and had an “oh sh*t!” moment, realizing the following Monday was my birthday.

So, thank you to those who sent me kind emails. And for those who forgot or were too self-centered to send me even a couple electrons worth of well-wishes, you suck! (KIDDING!)

So… three dozen years of life and it’s my Chinese year to boot. (Now that I think of it, Chinese zodiacs do go by twelve’s, don’t they?) I’m looking forward to the best year ever, … [more]

A recent article on Slashdot got me to thinking about how we do indeed lose our memories very easily in this day and age. Using media that is designed to be easily copied, disseminated, and deleted, it’s a small wonder anything gets truly saved for posterity and memory. This, coupled with the fact that technology fails much more severely than history’s previous recording methods, means a single hard drive loss and large swaths of life’s memories can be irrevocably lost in a single second.

I’ve taken to handwriting more often these days, due in part to a cleaning fit I had a few months ago where I found a bunch of … [more]

Garden Burger with Cheese and Bacon

A quick look at today’s menu at Crossroads (the closest dining commons to my office) and I saw that they had burgers (and clam chowder, two of my favorites). Of course, I try not to eat a lot of beef, so I opted for the vegetarian burger. But who can say no when a huge pan of crispy bacon is sitting there ready to be offloaded?

Along with it, vegan ravioli, and cross-cut fries. So kinda healthy, kinda not. And 100% mmmm. :)