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Blog
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Written by Jason Brink
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Wednesday, 11 February 2009 05:41 |
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Today was a good day. I think the little false spring is pretty much over, but I don't think we are going to have too terrible much more winter. At least, I hope we don't. With the trees beginning to blossom already, another hard freeze could kill off those crops for this year.
 We got a little bit of isolated snow yesterday. This is the first time we had snow in a few years, and certainly the first time in a long while where it actually stuck around on the ground for more than a few minutes. People were taking their kids up into the hills around the city to play in the snow, and it was visible for most of the day.
So, I have been doing a good bit of thinking, and a good bit of debating with a very good friend of mine about the concept of labels. All of the labels we have developed in society are designed to save us time, because it gives us a set or responses to work from, based on that individuals collection of labels. For instance, at first glance I am “Conservative”, “Arrogant”, “Republican”, “Business Owner”, and “White” for starters. Each of these things has a collection of behaviors and emotions associated with them, based on the observers own self-assumed labels. A person who has assumed the “Liberal” label will find themselves at odds with me, while someone who has the self-applied label of “Conservative Christian” might not. A person who has applied a label of “Anti-White” to themselves, will find themselves at odds with me, even if I am not with them. When all is said and done, we have an entire society set up operating on the basic premises of social interaction based on arbitrary labels. Obviously, we do not have time to sit down and get to know every single person, but perhaps that is because we do not take the time. We are uncomfortable with the concept of not knowing how to react to someone, so we seek a label at our first convenience. You meet someone, you talk to them for a few minutes, and you find a set of labels you can apply to them, and you base all further interactions on these labels. This is why “first impressions” are so important, because that is when we choose the set of labels that we will identify them with. For instance, the way a person dresses has absolutely zero bearing on who they really are. This is something I am VERY guilty of myself, because I have a bad tendency typecast people based on their hats. I have a habit of applying the label of “Douchebag” to anyone wearing a hat I think is stupid. I have met several people, and due to circumstances beyond my immediate control, I have actually got to know them. I have discovered, that contrary to my previous belief, they are not actually bad evil people because they wear non-functional hats.
I think if society were able to slow down for a moment, and take just a little more time to address things on a case-by-case basis, we would discover the world is much different than we had previously assumed. Suddenly the guy standing on the corner looking for gas money is not just “Bum Looking For a Handout” but a guy who has fallen on hard times, who is trying to get across the country to visit his dying mother. The person who cuts you off on the freeway is not just an “Asshole Who Can't Drive” but another person with a momentary lapse of judgment. I am not saying that some labels don't apply, in many cases they certainly do, but we don't KNOW they do until we verify it based on our own observation of the facts, rather than the assumptions based on other people we may or may not have known. This is especially true when it comes to applying labels to races and nations as a whole. We sometimes will label people who do not need to be labeled based solely on their location. For instance, someone from the middle east is a “Crazy Muslim,” simply because they had the misfortune to be born in whatever country it happens to be. Take for instance, Kahlil Gibran, born in Ottoman controlled Syria, was certainly from the middle east, yet he was the farthest from a “Crazy Muslim” as possible. I am not saying that there are not followers of Islam who the label of “Evil” does not apply, but simply saying thats ones provenance has no bearing on who that person is, all by itself. A religion is a label one takes voluntarily, so that is slightly different, but always be careful before you apply a label to a religion, as the label that religion represents, certainly falls short of describing the multiplicity of personalities and possibilities of the people who fall within it.
Take Christianity...the track record of Christianity is impossibly bloody and tainted, yet the VAST majority of Christians would quail at the thought of Christian soldiers dashing infants against the hard stone walls of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade. This is obviously an extreme, but we would be hasty to judge an entire group of people based on the actions of a very few. I doubt your basic Christian serf in 12th century France even understood where Constantinople was, let alone wish ill will on its Greek Orthodox inhabitants.
 So, in conclusion of this Tolstoy-esque blog, I would like to put forward the idea that most of the conflict we have in our society is based on the misappropriation of labels. Someone who holds a different political viewpoint is not doing so out of malice, they are simply operating from a different set of data than you are. If you change their data, or give them new data, (assuming they are willing to LISTEN and look past their own labels) your own viewpoint should stand out on its own merits based on the new data. As countries, we go to war over concepts that are foreign to each of us, based on a set of labels we are told to, and willingly apply. We label someone the “Enemy” and attempt to kill them simply because we are told by our labels and our society to do so. When the cards are down though, we are each people, no two alive, different from all around us. A good example of this can be seen in the Christmas Truce of 1914 between German and French/British troops during WWI. It was near Ypres in Belgium. The German soldiers were decorating their trenches to keep up a little bit of Christmas cheer, and they began singing carols. The French and British troops from across the lines began responding with their own carols, and pretty soon everyone was singing songs. It was not long before people began to slip across no-man's land and talk to the “Enemy.” They exchanged gifts, addresses, stories, and began to drink together. The next morning, they played soccer in no-mans land, and buried the fallen together there. In some places this lasted until new years. When the cards were down, most of those soldiers had to be transferred to other spots on the line, because they didn't want to kill their new friends. The label of “Enemy” had been as surely removed as if it has never been there. These were no longer “Evil Huns” on the other side of the trenches, but brothers in arms in an equally crummy situation.
I guess the point of all this musing, is that I think it would be pretty nifty if everyone would slow down for a moment, and before reacting to a situation or a person that arises, check your own reactions, and determine whether you are reacting to them based on something you have witnessed, or an arbitrary label you have applied.
God, reading back on this, it must seem to so many of you that know me well that I have suddenly started smoking massive amounts of pot, but I swear to you that there is no chemicals or other things at work, simply a lot of thinking.
And to all of you I have labeled throughout my life, without truly having listened to first, I apologize.
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Written by Jason Brink
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Monday, 09 February 2009 05:07 |
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God, I love nights like this. Its been raining on and off all day, and its a full moon tonight. The clouds are racing across the face of the moon, the entire sky is lit up with patches where the moon is able to penetrate the clouds. Its one of those nights that almost feels magic in its own right.
 I have decided I am going to kick Monday in the teeth. I am going to have an absolutely smashing amazing week, no matter what happens. This weekend was fantastic, and I don't see any reason for it to stop. I am working through tonight, then I am going to go home tomorrow morning and take care of my plants and stuff, maybe set up a cold-frame for a bunch of them. I will be back at work by noon and will be ready to curb stomp any problems that might arise.
I got quite a bit done today, and met a good friend for lunch. It was fun. It was a nice little break in the middle of the day, and I was able to get my little nap in before lunch in the parking lot. I have noticed lately, that I am getting the point where I can make myself fall asleep, but still be conscious. I get this very odd feeling like the back of my head has fallen off, and I am almost swimming, and I begin to dream. Then, a few minutes later, I swim back to the surface before I have even run out of time on the alarm clock. I wake up feeling completely refreshed and ready to rock and roll.
The hardest part of this sleep schedule is still 0400-0600. It is SOOO hard to get up from that 0400 nap sometimes. I think the problem is that I don't have anything to instantly engage my mind. All of the other ones I have things queued up before I crash out. That one is just difficult sometimes, but I feel like crap if I oversleep it. I just feel like a log.
 I did a little more research into the CD I found at the car wash the other day. It is “Get Wiser” by Soldiers of Jah Army. Totally chill reggae, and I love it. I am listening to “Open My Eyes” right now, and its just a fun mellow song. Its nice to listen to while driving, and there is a marked decrease in the propensity for road rage.
I am looking forward to poker night tomorrow night, it will be fun to do something other than work for an evening. I know that in the past I have gotten a bit too involved with it...I think just because I was so wrapped up and angry at everything. I can honestly say that I am not angry at anything right now, and I am really having a hard time conjuring up even a mild dislike for most people...and those of you who know me well know how different that is for me. I think I am beginning to learn...there is more to life then I ever thought possible, and less all at the same time.
 Plants make me happy. The spinach mostly recovered from my non-watering shenanigans the other day, and losses were minimal. Each dead plant is a salad I can't eat later though, which sucks. There should be plenty though. I started 64 plants, and had about 95% germination. I have only lost 4-5 of those, so we are doing OK. That still gives me somewhere in the neighborhood of 55 spinach plants. They are all Bloomingdale Spinach, which was demanded by my former roommate. I am fine with that though, spinach is spinach, and I was able to get LOTS of seed. When I moved the flats back into the garage tonight, I noticed that there were a couple of snails trekking across the spinach flat towards the seedlings. I took a couple pictures of them, and set them outside. I love taking macro photography of stuff like that. Hopefully, I didn't miss any and am not going to return to find all of my spinach plants eaten off to the ground. If I do though, oh well. I don't blame him...they are damn good looking spinach plants, and I have lots more seed.
 I think I might be onto something with this quasi-vegetarianism. I hope my father never reads this, I would get a good chorus of “I told you so!” from him. For the past few weeks I have been eating less and less red meat. I think I have had one or two burgers, and last night I had a few slices of tri-tip. It was delicious, but I felt like shit afterward. Everything just felt so slow and...bogged down. It just took my body so much energy to turn it into something useful, that I got tired and groggy feeling. Chicken does not seem to do the same thing, and fish is just fine. Red meats though, just make me want to sleep. So, unless it is socially/environmentally impossible, I think I am going to cut the red meats out of my diet from here out. D, that does not mean I will not be eating the EpicBurger once we have stuff to harvest. There is no way I will be missing out on shit like that.
Its time for me to get back to work, got lots to get done tonight. Hope everyone is having fun!
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Written by Jason Brink
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Sunday, 08 February 2009 09:00 |
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 Today was a good day. Last night was my reset, and that went quite well. I picked right up on the schedule after lunch, and its 12:30, and I am up and rocking right now, so all is well. It was odd to sleep for the night...I woke up feeling stiff and tired, mind muddy and whatnot. I am sure its a good thing to do once a week, but I feel so much better when I am not sleeping like that.
I am a member of TotalFark, an online discussion site. Its a large community of a couple hundred thousand people, most of which are inactive. There are a few vocal contributing members. It is basically a site where all of the happenings of the internet come together and are discussed and voted on. It is a very varied place in every way. There are people from every age group and walk of life, every viewpoint imaginable on every issue. We are like one VERY big and VERY dysfunctional family. Anyways, that being said, twice a year, Christmas and Valentine's day, there is a gift exchange you can sign up for. It pairs you up with a mystery person, and you send them some random goody...usually a gag gift of some sort.
This year, for Valentine's day, I was assigned a girl named Lorelle. Now, Lorelle, while being a very nice person, is probably my political opposite. Shes RABIDLY anti-gun, and opposes everything involving them. She always shows up in the gun threads and dukes it out with a few others. Now, those of you that know me, know I am rather pro gun. I have debated in threads with her before, and I found this amusing. I called up Lila from Central Coast Lavender and asked her for some goodies to send to Lorelle. I boxed these up and mailed them to her today, and then returned and sent an anonymous e-mail to her, telling her that her V-Day gift was not going to be there in time, because the NRA takes time to process applications. I told her I got her a 5 year membership to the NRA, and bought her a brick in the “Wall of Freedom”. Of course I didn't, but I am curious as to what her reaction to that would be. I wish I had money to do both. :P
I transplanted a bunch of plants today. I now have way too many plants than is healthy. I really wish I would not have started them so damn early...it makes it inconvenient for all sorts of reasons...but they are just going to be HUGE by the time its actually time to put them in the ground. I think tomorrow we are planting a bed of spinach and broccoli. It will be good to get those into the ground, and out of their planting trays. The spinach especially. I was an idiot the other night and forgot to water...the next day a bunch of the spinach were dried out and curled over. I think I probably killed those ones. The rest should be OK though. I also rescued a few drowning worms from puddles today, and added them to the worm bin. It is odd...I have been much happier lately, and little things like that seem to help. It is so easy to just step over a drowning creature, but as the buddhist monk to removes a spider from the path before him, what is to be gained by passing over it? It costs us nothing to take a moment to help something in need, and in the end we stand to gain much from it. Now, the squirmers live in a new home and make dirt for my plants.
The Alpine Strawberries (the yellow ones) are growing well. I think we might actually get some out of them this year. I am not quite sure how to propagate strawberries, but I think I can just split the root ball, and end up with two plants. If that is the case, I plan on splitting up the plants into double that number at the end of the year. Should be good times. They are pretty trippy looking.
Oh, and the other totally cool thing that happened today... A friend of mine asked if I could help move some furniture (this is something that happens to anyone who is big enough to lift things, or in my case, has a large covered vehicle.) I said I could, but I needed to stop at the car wash to vacuum out the back, it had some soil in it, and I didn't want it to harm anything, plus its just not good to carry around tons of dirt in your car. Anyways, as I was vacuuming, I noticed a pile of CDs sitting on top of the trash can. Most of them were just burnt CDs that someone had just tossed out. One of them looked in decent shape, so I decided to go ahead and see what kind of interesting music this could be. It had some stupid looking balloon letter shit on it, so I figured it would be crap, but what the hell. I dried the CD off and put it in the CD player. It was some of the coolest, most mellow reggae I have ever heard. I still don't know who it is, but when I find out some iTunes purchases will be made. It was perfect to drive around in the sprinkling rain, watching the sunlight dance off the clouds, listening to that. It was good times.
Ok, I have work to do, so I am going to stop with the writing for now. Hope everyone is having a great night.
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Last Updated on Sunday, 08 February 2009 09:18 |
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So Tonight That I Might See... |
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Written by Jason Brink
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Saturday, 07 February 2009 06:15 |
Another week at its end…and I am quite excited about it. This week was one of those weeks that seemed to drag on forever. The whole not sleeping business, while making me extremely productive and all, is not so good for resetting the internal clock. After a while, its very easy to lose track of what happens on what day, what day it is, and all of the other things that can be important. I still feel fantastic, and I love it, but it does have its drawbacks. For the last two weeks I have taken a slightly modified approach to the polyphasic sleep cycle. Instead of keeping things going around the week, I will keep a polyphasic schedule at all times, except Friday night, where I turn off all alarms, pass out, and sleep until my body tells me its done. Its usually not that long, not over 4-5 hours, but it’s a nice break. I wake up feeling like I have been dead, but that clears up pretty quickly. Another thing I have noticed, is I have an incredible intolerance for some chemicals that I could ingest without issue before. My tolerance for caffeine has dropped incredibly, and I have not tried alcohol yet. I think that would just make me want to sleep more, and that’s not really what I want to be doing most of the time. I plan on getting a lot done this weekend. I have a bunch of plants that need to be repotted, I think I might be helping a friend move a couch…not sure on that one yet, and as always, plenty of work to do. There is tentative plans for some sort of BBQ at a friends if it does not continue to rain…however, I really am not putting too much hope in that one. It looks like once this current microsystem moves though, we have one day of “partly cloudy” followed by more rain on Monday. That’s ok though…we really need the rain. This area has been parched for a while, and in order to keep everything running smoothly, we need water.  This information came from the Weather Underground, which gave me pause for a second. Wasn’t the Weather Underground a radical leftist organization that bombed some buildings during the Vietnam War? I wonder what brought them to choose a name with such heavy negative connotations? *shrugs* I don’t know, and it does not really concern my, I just found it interesting. All plants seem to be doing pretty good. I went out to the growing table tonight, and found a big green moth trapped in the bottom of one of the pyramid planters. I fished him out and took a couple pictures. After a little research, I have determined he is a Pacific Green Sphinx Moth, or more properly “Arctonotus Lucidus” That’s about it…its still raining, and I am loving every second of it. Its time to reset…and you know what, I’m excited. |
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Last Updated on Saturday, 07 February 2009 06:24 |
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Written by Jason Brink
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Friday, 06 February 2009 06:07 |
 The story starts a few years ago when one of my friends traipses into my room with a backpack that he had found laying on the ground. Inside this bag was a bunch of random crap, standard bum fare, dirty clothes, old (probably stolen) mail, pens, pencils, a 1895 Indian penny with a hole drilled in it (currently serving as a zipper pull on my left jump boot), and a rather interesting knife. There was also a bunch of other random shit not worth remembering, there was a garbage can involved in most of the operation. Anyways, this knife was one of those odd objects you get a feeling from the moment you touch it. This is commonly known as psychometry. In the real world we call it “bad vibes”, or “dude...that freaks me the fuck out.” This knife had a rather old and worn blade, and a handle made out of hand carved bone and bronze. The feeling it gave was very strong, but I am not one to get rid of a knife for something silly like that, so it got dumped into a drawer of one of my shelves with a bunch of other pointy and not quite nice objects. I have always wanted to refinish the handle. So, today, I did. I took the entire thing apart, examined its construction more carefully. It looks like the main knife body is pretty old. Its been reworked a couple times, and modified to fit within the bone. Why you would want to use bone I don't know though. It had an old crummy piece of all-thread welded to the end of the tang, so I extended that a little bit to give it a longer handle, ditched the bone and most of the brass, and worked a handle out of a piece of African Blackwood I had laying around. It was a toss up between that an manzanita, but I thought the Blackwood would fit this piece better, and I think I was right. Once I had it shaped the way I wanted it, I gave it a good deep burn, sanded it down some more, and rubbed a good coat of mineral oil into it. Once the things was put back together, it looked fantastic. It no longer has the odd feeling about it, and I think once I get a good sheath made for it, it will make a great boot knife. So, now I am back at work, ready to hammer things out. Its raining right now, and it supposed to rain on and off for the next couple days. This makes me happy. The rain has always been inspiring to me, it seems to refresh and renew, bringing life to everything it touches. We tend to have a very... almost disrespectful towards water. Without water, none of the life on this planet it possible. I think that Heinlein had it right in “Stranger in a Strange Land.” Water is Life. Speaking of water and life quickly. For those of you following the gardening experiments, my strawberry seeds actually sprouted today. It had been...weeks since I planted them, and I didn't think I was going to get anything out of them, but today four of them started little tiny sprouts. Quite nifty if I do say so. I am growing some alpine strawberries, and some yellow strawberries that are supposed to have a slightly brighter flavor. Oh well, we shall see. Oh, and one last thing. Thinking about Heinlein brought this to mind...so here it is. "Most moral philosophers consciously or unconsciously assume the essential correctness of our cultural code - family, monogamy, continence, the postulate of privacy, ... restriction of intercourse to the marriage bed, etcetera. Having stipulated our cultural code as a whole, they fiddle with details - even such piffle as solemnly discussing whether or not the female breast is an "obscene" sight! But mostly they debate how the human animal can be induced or forced to obey this code, blandly ignoring the high probability that the heartaches and tragedies they see all around them originate in the code itself rather than the failure to abide by the code." - Jubal Hershaw - Stranger in a Strange Land |
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Last Updated on Friday, 06 February 2009 07:11 |
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Crimson Cannonball: The Non-Blog of Jason Brink
