Thursday, January 19, 2012

Marketing Research

I had the chance to take part in a opinion/marketing survey. The topic was about a California law teaching about LGBT people and what contributions they made in history. It was a hot button issue for many people for many reasons. The mix of 9 people, all men, from about 28 to 65 years old, was kind of fascinating.

We were put in a waiting room before the session. I noticed there was a camera on the wall and in the ceiling was a mic. I don't think most noticed there was surveillance. The 28 year old was talking about a lot of things. Politics. He was a hard core Libertarian. Loves Ron Paul. Touted all of the talking points of that candidate. His talk made me think he didn't read any opinions that didn't agree with what he thought. When this guy said he thought 9/11 was an inside job I almost engaged him and told him he was an idiot. Thought all drugs should be legal. In the session he would go off on tangents that had nothing to do with the topic, but he loved the sound of his own voice.

There was a guy who was a driver. Blue collar type, big hands. He was originally somewhat for the topic, but all the things he said were antithetical to that position. He sounded like he had deep seated beliefs. He didn't express himself well when talking. Hated Obama. Hated. Him and the 28 year old he was talking to think there's going to be an armed revolution. The 28 year old said he won't miss.

There was a guy next to me was more concerned about the sex part of the topic than the topic of teaching about what LGBT people had contributed. Schools are not going to be teaching sex. They would be teaching that people other than straight white guys contributed to the nation. It took a law to get blacks included in text books in the 60's because in the past most text books have been written by old white guys. He was also of the opinion that people who were gay made a choice to be gay. When a friend of mine came out (I had no idea) I asked him when he knew he was gay. He said he knew at around 4 years old. Not really a choice.

Now my take on the subject was more along the lines of, "I don't care who they sleep with." Because if you are worthy to be in a textbook your sex life shouldn't matter. If you are talking history that involves the Stonewall Riots or some such, then it makes sense to talk about orientation. But to single out someone and tag them with "straight, gay, lesbian..." keeps them separate.

Also the parents should have some chance to opt out if they are super religious evangelicals. They want to protect their kids from what they think is wrong in the world. They won't be able to protect them forever, and may just install prejudices in them.

An interesting evening.

Red-head Heart Attack

Last month I was trying to connect with someone I'd recently met. Schedules being what they are, it was tough to find time.

She was dangerously cute and sexy. And when we did get a chance to go for drinks the talk was flirty, sexy, and full of innuendo.

Now occasionally you meet someone and there's something about them that makes the animal in you understand that this person would probably be a heart attack in bed, out of bed, in the kitchen... This girl was kind of like that. She had a dangerous way about her. She knew what she was doing.

I came back after the holidays and tried getting hold of her. After a number of tries I had no reply from her. I'm of the opinion that sometimes no answer is an answer. So I gave up. Better to stop bugging someone than to be what Shakespeare called a "pernicious suitor."

It's a shame. I could use a good heart attack.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

7 Minutes

I sometimes think that a cool super power would be the ability to travel back in time. Now I don't need much. Just about 7 minutes.

Because if you really think about it if something is bad, gone horribly awry, you know within about 7 minutes. This covers small personal catastrophes. Not earthquakes or plane crashes.

But if you fall off a ladder or roof or step on a rusty metal spike or have a car accident, you know instantly this is a bad thing. You don't need a lot of time to mull it over. "Was this bad? Hmm..." the answer is undoubtably yes.

7 minutes would give you the chance to rethink the strategy that got you into the precarious situation and literally or figuratively, change direction.

As far as plane crashes or earthquakes go, fuck it. When your number is up, it's up. Because if you could tell someone that a plane is going to crash, would they believe you? Probably not. Call American Airlines and tell the person, if you actually reach a person, a specific plane is going to crash. They wouldn't believe it. Same with an earthquake. You might be able to convince a few people to get out of town, but most people would not believe it.

So all I need is about 7 minutes to right the small personal injuries.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Timing

I had a crazy timing thing show up in my life recently.

I was in Culver City helping some friends film something on a Friday afternoon. I left after 3:30 pm to go home. This is not the time to be on the 405 going North. It was foolish, but I though it might not be too bad. I was wrong. It sucked.

As I drove I thought about the things I needed to do. Costco was on the list. So I decided to go to the Costco in Van Nuys. It was on the way home.

So I'm in an unfamiliar Costco looking for things but can't find them. When I finally find the 4 things I'm looking for I get in one of the lines at the checkout. 2 people behind me in line is a guy I went to high school with in Scottsdale. We used to hang out in the drama department, did shows together and whatnot. Honestly, he's a bit of an egotistical douche. I saw him before he saw me and I turned away. Did I want to talk to him? I'd tried emailing him a couple times in the last 3 years for various reasons and never heard back. The emails I would get from him were more like solicitations for money for charity or some such.

He came over and said "hi." I don't know for sure, but I don't think he called me by name. We chatted for a minute or 2. The usual recap for the time since I last saw him. He asked if I was on Facebook. I said reluctantly. I should friend him.

That gets into the whole friend/acquantance thing... See, years back he said he would help me with my acting career. I never heard back from him when I tried to get his help for certain things. Yeah, people have lives and they are busy, but if you say "I'll help you," fucking do it. It's not a grudge per se, but when I say I'm going to do something, I do it. And I'm fucking early.

So since I saw him at Costco, he has not sent a friend request. Did he remember my name? I don't know.

As I was leaving the Costco I ran into someone else I knew. He, I thought, was back in England where he lives. He was visiting for the holiday, but I thought he was back in Birmingham. Nope.

The timing part. What are the odds I would run into 2 people I knew in a Costco I don't frequent. One I haven't ween n maybe 3 years, and one who should be in another country. My route getting there that day was a long strange trip, all the forces that delayed or sped me up got me into that checkout line and exiting at that specific time.

Is this the universe saying I should talk to the guy from high school again?

Or is it a strange coincidence? Hmm...

Republican Debates

I have been watching the debates a bit.

The Republicans have a hard time with 2 things. Telling the truth, and answering the questions posed by the moderator.

Standard answer to most every question: Obama sucks. Second answer: Mitt Romney sucks.

It's enough to say that in their eyes the President has failed. They don't answer how they would change the situation or what they would do different instead. They just throw red meat to the crowd and get applause.

Third answer to a question: Lie. Lie. Lie. When they get fact checked the lies are exposed. Newt Gingrich talked about the EPA trying to regulate dust in Iowa. That's a falsehood, but still told by candidates as a reason to get rid of the EPA. Ron Paul talked about the TARP bailout but didn't say that almost all of the money has been paid back by the institutions that got money, paid back with interest. That fact doesn't serve his purpose. "Big government bad. Small government good. "

Rick Santorum seems to be the luckiest "not Mitt" of the Republican party. He peaked at the right time and almost won Iowa. But honestly Iowa is the far right fringe of the conservatives and not a barometer for the moderates and independents. But he has stated he wants to do away with contraceptives. 90% of sexually active women use them. If they didn't there would be more abortions. Which Santorum would also outlaw, even in the case of incest, rape or the life of the mother being endangered.

As a candidate, Santorum wants to take the country back to the 50's; the 1550's. When women had no right to say what happened to their bodies. But it wasn't governments only that prohibited sex, it was religion. Santorum has a hard time with Islamic extremists. In his world they lurk around every corner. But what about Roman Catholic extremists like himself? He wants to impose his religion and beliefs on the USA as President.

I wonder if there ever would be a gay President. It might happen eventually. But what about an atheist President? This country started by people so religiously extreme that England and others said, "Get out," would probably never let someone who didn't believe in god run the place no matter how bright, charismatic, or qualified.

Republicans fail to realize how extreme their conservatism has gotten. Hope they don't win the White House.

Oh, all politicians from both sides don't answer questions and bend the truth to suit them. Can't let the Democrats get away scott free. People should want to hear the truth. Not just what they want to hear. Then politicians might tell the truth.

What the fuck am I thinking? Politicians and truth?

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Time Travel


With the new year I started to think about time travel. The wistful thinking of "wouldn't it be nice to go back or forward." Change some things for the better...

When Terry and I were going up Camelback Mountain, he said he thought someone had already invented time travel at some point and it went horribly wrong. Meaning, it worked for traveling in time. Then he explained a little bit. I'm expanding on his idea and fleshing it out.

Dr. Who has a TARDIS. It stands for "time and relative dimension in space. " To succeed in time travel you would need three calculations for space, x,y, and z. But the fourth number, let's call it "t," is the one that dictates where x,y, and z, are in space.

Think about it. The Earth rotates on it's axis at around 1000 mph at the equator. (As you get closer to the poles the rotation slows because the distance traveled is smaller and to keep up with the fast equator, you don't have to travel as fast.) The Earth revolves around the sun. Our sun, Sol, is spinning as part of the arm of the Milky Way galaxy, which is expanding from the center of the universe.

So the measurement that is "t" is a combination of the spin of the Earth, the revolution of the planet around the sun, the spin of the sun in the galactic arm, and the movement of the galaxy away from the center of the universe at an ever expanding rate.

So, say you make a machine that can travel in time, but not in space. You step inside to test it and go back in space one minute. If it doesn't travel in space, you are going to be at a point in outer space floating with the Earth rushing up to smack you into the place you left from.

If you take the same machine and travel one minute forward in time, but not in space, depending on where you start from in the revolution of the planet, the rotation of the Earth, the spin of the galaxy, there are a few outcomes. You could materialize in the planet. You could end up in outer space again with the planet quickly leaving you behind to float in outer space. Better than being stuck in a planet, I guess.

So think about it. As I sit here writing this blog. I'm moving, and I won't ever be in this same place again. London, where most of Dr Who's adventures took place, has never been in the same place twice. It, and everything, is on a spinning course thru the galaxy and universe. Your time machine would need to figure out where along the path to find the London you are searching for.

Maybe this is why Dr. Who ends up in places he doesn't belong. Missed calculations.

So how does Dr. Who do it? Well, it's a television show. It's not real and they can write any justification they want. So they have part of the Time Vortex in the TARDIS. This can see all points of time and space. Other wise you would need probably several super computers linked together to plot the positions of all planets and stars in an ever expanding universe.

So the safe way to time travel would to make the time machine a space ship, have all the large numbers crunched, and materialize in space close enough to a destination that you don't appear in it, or get smacked by it. In front might be best since it would save on whatever fuel source your ship uses to get you to the planet.

Whew! I'm going back to bed now.