Logical, for shot-lovers

Logic is a bitch....

3/11 world ending

NOT logical to ignore this:

....from the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli....
Circa 1798

Taxes, Tea Party

For the record, that's a move from the top tax bracket to the lowest tax bracket.


Starve the beast - DON'T TREAD ON ME!

I am John Galt...and totally LOGICAL!

CDL

Wow. It's been a hell of a journey from 7/10 Long Island Computer Programmer to 3/11 CDL OTR driver.

Who is John Galt? Try living it, you pussy.


I AM JOHN GALT! Starve the beast...

7 days

All the nightmarish training, testing, evaluation, testing, trials, and formal tribulations are complete. They gave me a truck! Didn't even sign for it or anything, just "here's the keys".

7 days on my own...in a Truck....there are moments, but mostly IT'S GREAT!

In school

I won't bore you right now with all the insanity, ineptitude, incompetence, and inanity at this particular "school". Maybe someday I'll reminisce. Personal demons previously unheralded almost ended this new career before it started. I was scared shitless the first time I drove in traffic, and was lucky not to have killed anyone (myself included)!

But I have regrouped, and I actually have a realistic shot at achieving my goal in 5 days....if I do, it will be the greatest accomplishment of my already-well-accomplished life.

As an Air Force vet and son of an Air Force pilot I hope to Salute!

Time to post. I start CDL school 11/1/2010

I've always wanted to do this, and at age 50 it's time to get out of the "young man's game" of IT and start a second career.

Over the Road truck driving. Heaven. After 12 months driving for USA Truck (I can't resist the Air force logo), I can then go out west and remember the real beauty of this great country.

Like 2009, when I drive 20k miles in my personal vehicle. Soon, I'll be driving 2500 miles a week.

Updates soon...

Timely words from 1789, via 1979

"When they turn the pages of history
When these days have passed long ago
Will they read of us with sadness
For the seeds that we let grow?
We turned our gaze
From the castles in the distance
Eyes cast down
On the path of least resistance

Cities full of hatred, fear and lies
Withered hearts and cruel, tormented eyes
Scheming demons dressed in kingly guise
Beating down the multitude and
Scoffing at the wise

The hypocrites are slandering
The sacred Halls of Truth
Ancient nobles showering
Their bitterness on youth
Can't we find the minds that made us strong?
Can't we learn to feel what's right
And what's wrong?
What's wrong?

Cities full of hatred, fear and lies
Withered hearts and cruel, tormented eyes
Scheming demons dressed in kingly guise
Beating down the multitude and
Scoffing at the wise
Can't we raise our eyes and make a start?
Can't we find the minds to lead us
Closer to the heart?"

Rush, "A Farewell to Kings", title song, copyright Mercury Records.

Suadade

In Brazilian Portuguese, this is reportedly a difficult word to translate.

Not for me. It's the only portuguese I have ever known, even before I heard the word. My Mother claims our maid in the Azores spoke portuguese to me as an infant, but I don't remember - we moved when I was barely walking.

"Suadade", nostalgia, loneliness, "I miss you", or "a vague and constant desire for something other than the present, a turning toward the past or the future, an indolent dreaming wistfulness" (A.F.G. Bell).

Just call me J. Suadade Galt...I've felt like "suadade" forever.

Not LOGICAL!, more amygdala than cortex, but as real as the concrete that breaks your nose when you stumble on the curb and faceplant.

Amygdala vs. Cortex

In other words, what this Blog is all about!
Example:

Eric R Markgraf from FaceBook
he's quoting RUSH!

Of course I am...and I frequently quote Heinlein and Jefferson and Locke and Einstein and Heisenberg and Lincoln and other geniuses...we should NOT be making this up as we go along...unless we want to enter another Dark Age like after the fall of Rome.


It's the only answer, or we revert to 10,000 years of killing people we don't like. I'm ready, there are some fuckers out there that I REALLY don't like, but my soul will eternally reside in hell if I indulge myself.

So let's just let you run alone and free, while I pursue a different aim, like Rush said 30 years ago? Or some such? Ok?


Damn, if that could be the headline of the next 365 editions of the New York Times, USA Today, Washington Post, LA Times and a 24/7 ticker on the screens of CNN and FNC...we might avoid the (2nd? 3rd?) fall of Civilization.

Think "Nightfall", or "Foundation".

amygdala tells me to just shoot the bastards, "it'd be fun!" but my cortex doesn't want to start a new Dark Age. Dilemma...years old...ongoing...

I'm moving this to xxyzzy.blogspot.com...

Now I can be logical...let's stave off the fall of civilization, ok? Read my previous post. Please!!!!

Logic that we need, now...

I've been crying, and praying, and fretting over how we save ourselves without "shooting the bastards" as seems increasing likely. Then a random iTunes playlist hit this old favorite from my high school days...There is Hope...yes, we can "all get along". Skip to [V. The Sphere: A Kind Of Dream] if you have a short attention span. I present lyrics from the band Rush, album 'Hemispheres':

When our weary world was young
The struggle of the ancients first began
The gods of love and reason
Sought alone to rule the fate of man

They battled through the ages
But still neither force would yield
The people were divided
Every soul a battlefield

[II. Apollo / Dionysus]

[Apollo: Bringer Of Wisdom]
'I bring truth and understanding
I bring wit and wisdom fair
Precious gifts beyond compare
We can build a world of wonder
I can make you all aware
I will find you food and shelter
Show you fire to keep you warm
Through the endless winter storm
You can live in grace and comfort
In the world that you transform'

The people were delighted
Coming forth to claim their prize
They ran to build their cities
And converse among the wise
But one day the streets fell silent
Yet they knew not what was wrong
The urge to build these fine things
Seemed not to be so strong
The wise men were consulted
And the Bridge of Death was crossed
In quest of Dionysus
To find out what they had lost

[Dionysus: Bringer Of Love]
'I bring love to give you solace
In the darkness of the night
In the Heart's eternal light
You need only trust your feelings
Only love can steer you right
I bring laughter, I bring music
I bring joy and I bring tears
I will soothe your primal fears
Throw off those chains of reason
And your prison disappears'

The cities were abandoned
And the forests echoed song
They danced and lived as brothers
They knew love could not be wrong
Food and wine they had aplenty
And they slept beneath the stars
The people were contented
And the gods watched from afar
But the winter fell upon them
And it caught them unprepared
Bringing wolves and cold starvation
And the hearts of men despaired

[III. Armageddon: The Battle Of Heart and Mind]

The universe divided
As the heart and mind collided
With the people left unguided
For so many troubled years
In a cloud of doubts and fears
Their world was torn asunder into hollow Hemispheres

Some fought themselves, some fought each other
Most just followed one another
Lost and aimless like their brothers
For their hearts were so unclear
And the truth could not appear
Their spirits were divided into blinded
Hemispheres

Some who did not fight
Brought tales of old to light
'My Rocinante sailed by night
On her final flight'
To the heart of Cygnus' fearsome force
We set our course
Spiraled through that timeless space
To this immortal place

[IV. Cygnus: Bringer Of Balance]

I have memory and awareness
But I have no shape or form
As a disembodied spirit
I am dead and yet unborn
I have passed into Olympus
As was told in tales of old
To the city of Immortals
Marble white and purest gold...

I see the gods in battle rage on high...
Thunderbolts across the sky...
I cannot move, I cannot hide...
I feel a silent scream begin inside...

Then all at once the chaos ceased
A stillness fell, a sudden peace
The warriors felt my silent cry
And stayed their struggle, mystified

Apollo was astonished
Dionysus thought me mad
But they heard my story further
And they wondered, and were sad

Looking down from Olympus
On a world of doubt and fear
Its surface splintered
Into sorry Hemispheres

They sat a while in silence
Then they turned at last to me
'We will call you Cygnus
The god of Balance you shall be'

[V. The Sphere: A Kind Of Dream]

We can walk our road together
If our goals are all the same
We can run alone and free
If we pursue a different aim
Let the truth of love be lighted
Let the love of truth shine clear
Sensibility
Armed with Sense and Liberty
With the heart and mind united in a single
Perfect
Sphere

Facebook FAIL, not Logical! but I'm moving here.

Facebook...arrrgh! Capricious changes, "captcha" on every post, status updates limited to 420 characters, privacy issues (change seemingly every three hours), etc. ad nauseum, GOODBYE FACEBOOK!

Logical? Not when I just got my boss's boss's boss drunk in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and he now knows my name and agrees with my desires.



That can't be bad...uh, what could go wrong?

Hotel bar at Tryp Iguatemi, Sao Paulo, Brazil - initial impression

Apparently too large for an FB status update, copied here verbatim:

Recon expedition to hotel bar complete. No one spoke english, but a phrase or two of portuguese, gesturing, and some bad spanish prevailed. Hey, a bar is the universal/international thing, so it wasn't that hard. But I was the only guy in the place, I think there were two tables in the adjoining restaurant occupied.

One beer, one caiparinha (delicious!) , two shots of cruchasa (tastes like tequila), outtathere. Enough "adventure in portuguese" for the initial foray. Until I get thirsty in about 15 minutes....bribe to bartender was enough (50% of the tab) to ensure that when I show up again in an hour to the empty bar they'll be happy to see me.

Disclosure: Any FB friends that don't want to hear about a business trip to Sao Paulo, Brazil, should start ignoring me now. It's my life for the next three weeks. More detailed comments/observations will be found on my blog here: xxyzzy.blogspot.com. Another shot or two of that shit I might be posting all night....

NOT Logical! but, what can I say I'm here and this is what you get for the next three weeks. I might be posting in Portuguese by then.

Pillows..at Tryp Hotel in Sao Paulo

Fb won't let me post this, so here it is (and it's Logical!) :

Pillows.

It's complicated...I have a "pillow menu". 6 pillows on the bed, printed "menu" on the nightstand. "Pensa de Ganso", "soft pillow", prevents heat loss and safeguards against humidity." "Pluma de Ganso", "soft and thermal isolator that safeguards against humidity, 500 grams". "Mouse de Poliuretano Hipersoft" that's a "highly soft pillow allows the user to achieve the correct spinal column position". Next, the "Latex Biaxo". "It's malleability allows it to dynamically adjust itself to the design of the head and neck, providing support in any position during sleep". That sounds like the one for ME, and yes they are labelled! Next, "Othopedico", "corrects body position during rest periods. Prevents headaches and numbness of the arms." Another potential winner! Hmm, then there is the "100% Polyester", which "Contains fibers made up of hollow strands, which act as air pockets adjusting the body temperature to any weather conditions".

OMG, which to choose? Most of us sleep with the "100% Polyester", I'd guess. Hmmm...roughing it with pillows in Sao Paulo.

As you might guess, I'm going to bed. Hmm, which pillow(s)...