耀
a
r
o
4
e
d
g
2
l
p
a
n

a
r
o
n
h
s
i
a
o
w
a
s
h
e
r
e

 

 

From a very young age:

Competitive, not collaborative.

Antagonistic, not synergistic.

Corporations, not communities.

Consumption, not contentment.

Independence, not interdependence.

Retribution, not redistribution.

Me, not you.

The Von Neumann architecture is the founding conceptual document of today's world. All consequences proceed from it and its proof (and embodiment) of the fact that representation and operation, action and information, thought and matter are all one and the same quantity.

It is the single most important model for social scientists of the present to deploy, but unfortunately, it is also largely incomprehensible to those outside of computer science largely due to its newness and complexity—as incomprehensible as the concept textuality would have been for preliterate humans. No matter how much time one spends trying to explain it, eyes necessarily glaze over. To give a complete account at this point requires the diagrammatic articulation of an entire universe of schema that are (in ways that would shock computer scientists) fundamentally metaphysical in nature and voluminous in quantity.

  1. The Who as the Super Bowl halftime show was the best entertainment decision of the decade. So suck on that, Who haters.
  2. Pier One has cheesy $10 somemetalorother lanterns with glass sides, and $8 lemongrass candles. I highly recommend the combination and I'm not newage stupid at all.
  3. Yes, new age nonsense is, generally speaking, stupid.
  4. The MTA is always doing construction but I don't think I've ever seen an improvement, or even anything that resembles keeping up with the decay. Bigger and better are needed.
  5. Two years ago I bought an Oregon Scientific (Portland Scientific?) digital clock that looks great and was also supposed to tell the weather. Problem: the weather function requires a remote that isn't anything near weather safe, but it needs to be outside in order to tell the weather.
  6. The most important button on my Acer flatscreen display started out broken, but I kept it anyway because it was the only one in town and I needed a flatscreen right then.
  7. Sometimes you are better off doing what everyone thinks you oughtn't be doing.
  8. Two days ago a squirrel almost killed me by dropping a large, dry, heavy object about an inch in front of my face as I was walking (I had to look up to realize it was a squirrel).
  9. The romance with New York may be over. The romance with life has been over for at least two decades.
  10. Steel Reserve remains one of the all time great worst brews of all time.
  11. BONUS: I'd kill right now to be watching South Pacific on DVD anywhere but here. No, I'm not flaming. I'm not even gay.

Serious writing requires a singular kind of reckless courage.

Those born with the talent to write but without the necessary courage unavoidably go to a kind of purgatory. Those born with both, of course, go straight to hell.

Hard to know which is better.

Hard to know which is worse!

I'm not proud, in particular, to be a liar of multiple decades, but of course I value my life, my self, and my associates—the greatest of the talent-killing sins, and an express ticket to Dante's penthouse.

Oh, to have been an Antonin Artaud, to have twisted in the black matter, to have urchined in the urn, to have beaten back, flagellating, in time with rhetoritards, mongoliacs, bipolaroids!

Oh, the tragedick, the humanitack of et al!

Pity, pity, pity party!

Aieeeee!

On a summer afternoon in the land of seven- and eight-year-olds, a wise parent returned from work with a dragon kite. Red and green and blue and yellow, crackling and made of cellophane, it's wild tail threatened to savage any rival, while it's body, girth, and wizened head, each segment larger than the last, held itself for the moment to the floor, strained and taut.

A young boy—the recipient, in fact, caught for a moment transfixed—realized quickly that there was one thing to do, one thing only, any other to be a desecration.

The kite would be allowed to fly.

Mere minutes later, bathed in wind and sun, boy and kite stood one in the long light of afternoon, the arms and legs of mighty dragons dancing high above, ecstatic and free.

Time, so much as it was, stopped. When it started once again, the sun descended and so, regrettably and of necessity, did the dragon.

"Until tomorrow!" said the little boy inside the little boy, eyes shining as he made his way inside, kite in tow. "Tomorrow, first thing, we fly again!"

The kite never flew again. Buffeted by time, forgetfulness, and the inarticulate hands of childhood, it gradually receded into the world of immateriality once again, as the best monuments of childhood do.

Today, in the basement of a department store many lifetimes later, a little rack of well-packaged kites changed the space of time just enough for the dragon kite to return for the first time in a generation. Caught in fluorescent lights and in the incredible bittersweet of adulthood, for a brief moment my entire world once again was a kite, red and green and blue and yellow, fluttering in the summer afternoon air. If I hadn't turned my head and walked on through the aisles, its long forgotten passing would quickly have become too much to bear.

For love of the world, the truly sentimental leave home behind. Later in life and for the same reason, they seek out and grab hold of it once again.

Archives »

March 2024
February 2024
January 2024
December 2023
November 2023
October 2023
September 2023
May 2023
April 2023
March 2023
January 2023
December 2022
November 2022
August 2022
June 2022
May 2022
April 2022
March 2022
January 2022
December 2021
November 2021
September 2021
April 2021
March 2021
February 2021
January 2021
December 2020
November 2020
October 2020
September 2020
August 2020
July 2020
June 2020
May 2020
April 2020
March 2020
February 2020
January 2020
December 2019
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019
May 2019
April 2019
March 2019
February 2019
January 2019
December 2018
November 2018
October 2018
September 2018
August 2018
July 2018
June 2018
May 2018
April 2018
March 2018
February 2018
January 2018
December 2017
November 2017
October 2017
September 2017
August 2017
July 2017
June 2017
May 2017
April 2017
March 2017
February 2017
January 2017
December 2016
November 2016
October 2016
September 2016
August 2016
July 2016
June 2016
May 2016
April 2016
March 2016
February 2016
January 2016
December 2015
June 2015
February 2015
January 2015
December 2014
October 2014
September 2014
August 2014
July 2014
June 2014
May 2014
April 2014
March 2014
February 2014
January 2014
December 2013
November 2013
September 2013
August 2013
July 2013
June 2013
May 2013
April 2013
March 2013
December 2012
November 2012
October 2012
August 2012
July 2012
June 2012
May 2012
March 2012
December 2011
October 2011
September 2011
August 2011
July 2011
June 2011
May 2011
April 2011
March 2011
February 2011
December 2010
November 2010
October 2010
September 2010
August 2010
July 2010
June 2010
May 2010
April 2010
March 2010
February 2010
January 2010
December 2009
November 2009
October 2009
September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
July 2006
June 2006
May 2006
April 2006
March 2006
February 2006
January 2006
December 2005
November 2005
October 2005
September 2005
August 2005
July 2005
June 2005
May 2005
April 2005
March 2005
February 2005
January 2005
December 2004
August 2004
July 2004
June 2004
May 2004
April 2004
March 2004
February 2004
January 2004
December 2003
November 2003
October 2003
September 2003
August 2003
July 2003
June 2003
April 2003
March 2003
February 2003
January 2003
December 2002
November 2002
October 2002
September 2002
August 2002
May 2002
April 2002
March 2002
February 2002
January 2002
December 2001
November 2001
October 2001
September 2001
July 2001
June 2001
May 2001
April 2001
March 2001
February 2001
January 2001
December 2000
November 2000
October 2000
September 2000
August 2000
July 2000
June 2000
May 2000
April 2000
March 2000
February 2000
January 2000
December 1999
November 1999