John McDonald

Blogging about politics, life, and the web

Posts by author John McDonald

Heading to the Show

October 26th, 2009

Before NINJA, it had been a while since I had attended any serious concert events.  Back in high school and college, I tried to see every band I liked and I tried to show up at random shows just in case someone was playing who I might end up liking.

At some point though, I fell out of the habit.  A lot of the Gen-X bands I grew up on were breaking up, retiring, or dealing with the loss of core members.

Shortly after Dimebag was shot on stage, the bad luck kept flowing.  Two of the best guitarist I ever had the pleasure of jamming with also passed on well before their time, and those deaths had a serious impact on me at a time when I was already under the stress of extreme illness.  The magic of the concert had gotten all mixed up with death itself.

While my health and financial situations would eventually improve, the music industry continued sinking into oblivion.  When I put my ears back out in an attempt to find new and interesting acts, the new stuff just didn’t sound right.  There’s something about the music of a crisis that just isn’t as passionate as the music of other social phases.  If there’s any proof of the 80 year wave in civilizations, just consider how the music scene in 2009 is the nadir exactly 40 years removed from its peak in 1969.

But I let my friends talk me in to some stuff.  I went to go see Nine Inch Nails and Jane’s Addiction:  I remembered what’s so great about overpriced and over-iced liquor at a crowded and smokey arena.  I went to go see Summer Slaughter at Plush and got a heavy dose of more than a dozen of the most brutal bands I’d seen in a decade.

It was almost like the scene wanted to make a comeback.  It wasn’t the arena rock commodified for mass production: it was the raw emotion in a hot and dark hole in the wall that had made me love music in the first place.

Anyway, now that I’ve got a budget and a schedule that lets me drive around chasing concerts, its time to head out to the show again.  This holiday season will be all about heavy metal and Broadway.  Waddya mean you like one and not the other?  Sounds like you’re missing out.  On a Black Friday, its off to Orlando to see Megadeth play the House of Blues.  I’ve seen Ministry play there before, and its an awesome venue so I’ve got high expectations of this one.  The last time I saw Megadeth, we had to leave early so I could wake up and take the SATs the next day – this time I can stay up all night.

Closer to Christmas, we’ve got some great tickets to go see Stomp at the Jacksonville Theater.  Their creative use of random objects as percussion instruments reminds me a whole lot of our first jam sessions as kids in the garage.

Reviews are coming, but if you want to really feel the music you’ll have to go experience it for youself, when and where its being made.  There’s just nothing quite like it and that’s why I’m heading to the show.  Hope to see you there!

Markets Still Shaky After Bailout Frenzy

October 4th, 2009

From March to September, U.S. equities markets enjoyed a nice recovery.  But was this six month rebound based on fundamental valuations, or a reflex reaction to all the cheap money being thrown around by various government institutions?

Now, I’m not saying that a government can’t provide valuable public investment, I’m just saying they didn’t accomplish it this time around.

Remember a year ago when there was a lot of talk about high speed rail, a complete healthcare overhaul, and a new investment in education?  Well, it turns out that most of the bailout and stimulus is going to maintenance – its going to cover bills and existing obligations that were relying on unending annual tax growth.

Even as major banks hand out another round of record bonuses, our social safety nets are unraveling.  Social Security is on the brink of deficit, and the FDIC is finally admitting that its out of cash.

So despite the quantitative easing, despite the interest rates and federal guarantees, investors are starting to wonder if buying in to this economy is actually a good deal.  For the millions of Americans who lost jobs during the latest run in stock prices, I’m sure they’d vote against having too much confidence…

Unpaid debt hangs over your potential spending choices.  If America wants to really invest in the things we’ve decided are valuable:  technology, education, good health, then we’re just going to have to pay off the Humvees and oversized houses first.  Otherwise, we leave interest payments to chunk away our income despite never affecting the principle.  There’s a lot of bad debt and unproductive consumption that still has to be accounted for before we can think too much about other possibilities.

Magic wand economics won’t save us either, dollar inflation requires willing participants victims who will continue to buy debt despite an implicit guarantee that it carries a negative return.  China has been an on-and-off ally of America for quite a while now, but they’re not going to ignore the most shameful chapters of their national history by letting foreign interests dominate their own domestic economy.  From Latin America to Russia, there are repeated calls for a new global monetary order – and no one is calling for America to lead the way.

Religion as Rebellion

October 3rd, 2009

I’m not a big fan of organized religion, and that’s probably in large part because it is so organized.  I can understand the need for a sense of community or even the need to share spiritual insight & experience, but it just doesn’t work for me.

But here’s a political take on religion, a mural depicting religion as rebellion:

religion-rebellion

In the foreground, people have gathered for some sort of religious event.  I can guess by the guy’s robes and the neighborhood this mural was found in that we’re witnessing a recreation of a covert Catholic mass.  As the priest consecrates the eucharist, scouts warn of approaching English soldiers in reddish/orange coats.

Just as it was illegal for the Irish to study and learn, so was it illegal for anyone to practice Catholic religious rituals.  Loyalty and obedience to the English state meant spiritual loyalty and obedience to the Anglican, or English, Church.

What’s interesting for me, is the way the sense of community fostered by a shared religious identity can become an act of outright rebellion.  Usually I think of religion as the social order, not a tool of subversion against political authority.  I guess that’s from living in the south, and particularly in a city whose political power base is much the same as the First Baptist Church’s membership.

Left free to choose, people will continue family traditions, or shift around to denominations that fit their personalities.  But when forced to adhere, a group with contrary religious convictions can become even more attached to their forbidden beliefs.  In many ways, all of Christianity began as a forbidden cult, a heresy against the official beliefs of the Roman state.  Preaching peace and love, these dissidents were considered a fundamental threat to the social order of war and slavery that had brought Rome to wealth and power.

Even small populations can rally around their cultural and religious heritage in order to resist the power of an imperial army.  The Roman Empire is now notes in a history book and ruins in the modern state of Italy, but Christianity has become the world’s most powerful religion.  Instead of hiding in fear of prosecution, Christian nations often find themselves at war with Muslim states.

Perhaps there’s a lesson in there for our foreign policy experts…

OK, Maybe the Keyboard isn’t so Bad

October 2nd, 2009

I recently got a new keyboard with a slightly modified design, and my initial reaction to it may have come off a little bit harsher than necessary.

But it was indeed an honest first reaction.  It just might not have been fair to make the review of the keyboard the very first thing typed on the keyboard.  It takes just a bit of getting used to – and that’s still an incredibly frustrating experience.

The fundamental problem, as I see it, is that we come to take certain abilities for granted.  They become a second nature, and when something comes along to fundamantally change the process, the adjustment phase means relearning something you hadn’t really thought of for a while.

After a couple days of writing, though, I think I’ve broken and re-arranged all my neurons associated with typing.  Was it necessary?  Am I going to have to re-learn normal keyboards again someday?  What was gained by switching to a different layout?

I’m not sure there are good answers to these questions, but the box claims its supposed to be more comfortable.  I’m not sure if I would go that far… but it is a pretty nice keyboard once you’ve learned to give extra space for certain keys.  I’m just glad I can finally find the C button.

Its also supposed to be spill resistant, so there’s the ultimate challenge.  This keyboard has until it dies of too much coffee and cigarette ash to convince me its how a keyboard is supposed to be.  I’ve got an angry initial reaction, a slightly moderated second opinion, and I’ll let you know the final verdict when I put this thing to its ultimate resting place – the recycling bin.

Will it be an honorable burial or a smash fest?  Only time will tell, and there may even be pictures.

DDO is a Free and Decent Dungeon Crawler

October 2nd, 2009

I haven’t played too many online RPGs since I spent way too much time with Warcraft, so I was understandably hesitant to try something new. WOW had a whole bunch of problems at the end game, but it can summarized with two major complaints:

  • Raids are designed to be epic, but the reality of putting one together isn’t what I would call “fun.” Its much more like work.
  • You never finish paying for the game. Not only do you pay a monthly fee for connectivity and “new content,” you also have to buy $50 expansion packs every year or two. Of course, the expansion packs also mean that your character and gear is suddenly obsolete, and anything you worked for in those painful raids is out of date.

But eventually, my friend talked me into downloading and trying out Dungeons & Dragons Online.  The core game is free, but there are some optional features and alternate quest lines that are available for a fee.  So I have some limits on how many characters I can have per server, or what races & classes I can sign up for, but you’re able to play most of the game without paying a penny.  You can even earn points in the game that are able to be spent in the online store.

If you want the premium content, you can pay for the regular cost of the game and have it all unlocked.  If you want specific premium content, you can buy just enough points to make those purchases.  If you’re cheap and/or patient, you can just earn them slowly in the game and eventually unlock new bonuses.

About DDO itself:

The game is based on Dungeon’s & Dragons 3rd edition rules.  This is always nice because its kind of familiar and doesn’t require starting all over with a brand new spell & combat system.

Characters are free to multi-class, as well as assign enhancements, feats, and other talents at the time of advancing a level.

All experience is earned through quests, but there are a variety of quests available from the start of the game.  If you don’t know where to look, it can be hard to find ones of the appropriate difficulty level, but if you’re willing to repeat quests a few times there’s no problem leveling up past the bottlenecks.

The dungeons themselves are fun.  At least on the normal level, you can go in and mess around and have some fun without worrying too much about death.  At harder difficulties, you can have as much of a challenge as you can handle.

Don’t have anyone to group with? Don’t worry – you can contract hirelings for an hour at the cost of one or two hundred pieces of gold.

My first character was basically a hack and slasher, but as a ranger he has a variety of ways to go about doing it.  Not only does he shoot down enemies with a +1 composite longbow, he’s also a whirling beast who dual-wields axes in melee combat.  If outnumbered, he can also sneak past his enemies or surprise them from behind…

DDO online is a fun dungeon crawler that doesn’t require the time commitments and mass organization of WoW.  Maybe things will get that way toward the higher levels, but for now its nice to run through the newbie zones and check out the various dungeon mazes.

If you’re in to online RPGs but Warcraft is getting old, be sure to check out DDO here.  You can start playing today, no credit card – or any payment – is ever required!

Microsoft Comfort Curve Keyboard 2000 – an Incredibly Horrible Idea

September 30th, 2009

One of the major hazards of smoking at the computer is the early death of many keyboards. The ashtray sits above the slide-out mouse and keyboard level, so cigarettes that are left sitting to burn out often tip over and fall down to where the inputs are at.

That’s fine though, I’ve become resigned to the fact that I have to go out and get a new $20 keyboard every few months.

What isn’t OK is this Microsoft Comfort Curve Keyboard 2000. As soon as I plug in and sit down, I realize that I can’t even type out my own name or other addresses of websites I own.

Wait a minute, how am I supposed to actually write content for a half dozen blogs if I’m learning how to type all over again? I’m used to typing 50-60 words a minute, just as fast as I can think them up for the most part. You never really appreciate how natural and unconscious typing is until you try to do it on an instrument shaped in a slightly different way.

I’ll call this situation extremely frustrating, but I’m being generous. I’m actually half tempted to drive right back to Wal-mart and demand a refund. But the lines there were ten people long and no one was working the service counter.

Why did I even buy this one? Well, they had two kinds of keyboards and the other one was the same exact kind as the one that had broken quicker than usual.

Now that I’ve been typing on it for a while, I know that I’ll probably be used to it within a few more blog posts. After 250 words in to this one, I am only consistently messing up on Cs, Vs, Bs, Fs, and Gs. It seems that the B and N keys are way too oversized, and they push everything else on the bottom left further than you’d intuitively expect it to be.

Eben staying vonsvious og this gavt, I van’t seem to vompensate. [sic]

Tulsa Welding School Provides Practical Education

September 30th, 2009

College obviously isn’t for everyone. Sometimes, I’m not sure if its really for anyone other than the student loan lenders, professors, and other direct financial beneficiaries. Obviously education is important, but a lot of students get distracted by classes and course requirements that are explicitly related to the goals and skills the student actually wants to learn.

Of course history is important, but does everyone need 9 credits in order to write computer programs? Does a Journalism or Communications student need calculus or pre-calc in order to write up a public relations campaign?

There’s obviously a need for people to have well-balanced degrees and wide ranges of knowledge – but college isn’t always the best way to accomplish it. Especially these days, because employers are looking for very specific skills more than ever. Where a liberal arts degree may have been good enough to get in to a new career, employers these days want to know if you’re specialized in IT or management or whatever it may be…

Unfortunately, our high schools don’t prepare students well for any technical jobs. Even professors constantly complain that freshman aren’t ready for college level work – and employers realize that their new just-out-of-high-school workers have few specific skills or technical talents.

Anyway, my friend is about six months in to a seven month program at Tulsa Welding School. Talk about a lot of focused and specialized learning in a short period of time!

He’s always been interested in welding, but its tough to get a start these days. Apprentice-like jobs are hard to come by as the employment market breaks down, and managers on job sites just don’t have time to play teacher to new workers.

Yet after just a few months of studying at a focused and fast-paced school, he’s now in a position where local businesses are starting to take his applications seriously. Even without the certificate of completion, the same hiring managers are suddenly much more willing to consider.

Hopefully, more technical and vocational programs will be included in future high school curriculums. Not everyone is headed to college, and its silly to think they will if you deny them other marketable skills. We’ve got an employment mess and an education mess in this country at the same time – so its a perfect chance to fix them both at once.

Fall comes to Jacksonville

September 30th, 2009

It was a good summer, but its officially done. The cool wind outside cannot be mistaken for the climate of a Florida summer. We’ve survived most of the hurricane season, and we haven’t lost any trees for it this year. We do still have some logs in the yard from the last one, does anyone need some firewood?

Despite a trip to Ireland, a nice vacation with the folks, and a lot of time in the sun and working in the yard, I can’t help but feel like I missed out on something. That I should have accomplished something else.

Perhaps its an instinctual warning, a reminder of the coming winter. The cold breeze makes me want to work harder, it inspires as much as it threatens.

There are no leaves changing color – everything is green and will likely stay that way. Cold won’t stop business and snow won’t make it this far south, but something about the prospect of winter’s approach still makes me want to prepare for hibernation.

If Truth Undermines Confidence, We Have a Big Problem

September 25th, 2009

Congress is currently in the process of discussing and debating a piece of legislation that would fully and completely audit the Federal Reserve bank – for the first time in the institution’s history.

Despite wielding overwhelming influence on the financial and monetary standing of the United States, no elected politician has even been allowed to take a look at what they’re actually doing with our money.  Several of the Fed’s board members are appointed by the private banks who own shares in the Fed, but a slim majority of the board is nominated by the president.  Once they’re in there though, all we can do is hope they’re doing the right thing.

Now, can you imagine a job that gives you immense power and influence without ever having to answer to anyone’s complaints and criticisms?  This is at the root of all the conspiracy theories – power and secrecy is a dangerous mixture for those stuck on the outside.

The Argument Against Truth

Defenders of the Fed are out there, even if they’re few and far between.  Of course, the best way to get defenders and supporters is to buy them – and one of the most telling defenses is being propagated by the Fed’s top lawyer.  He claims:

We’re concerned that [revealing the truth of our activities] would cause the markets and the public to lose confidence in the independence and judgment of the Federal Reserve

There are also plenty of professional economists who will repeat this or a similar argument.  And it should be no surprise, as this article explains exactly what it means to be a professional economist in a financial world dominated by secretive central banks.

Editors of academic journals, mainstream media pundits, professors – many of these experts work for the bank that doesn’t want us to see its books.

Want a more detailed idea of what’s going on?  Check out this excellent book:  Deception and Abuse at the Fed

When Stuff Actually Happens, There’s No Time to Blog About It…

September 24th, 2009

Its been a busy few days, and I find it ironic that as soon as I have a lot of things going on that I don’t have any time left to blog about it.  What an extreme difference from the usual problem:  too much time and nothing to talk about!

First, I’ve got someone who wants to learn about building websites and making some money online.  Hopefully, I can help.  The process of teaching does a lot to cement your own knowledge and force your own advances in thinking.

Second, I’ve got a new contract job to prepare for.  Its nothing special, but I’ll get to do online work for a set wage.  A little bit of extra income and wage stability will be nice considering the rapid fluctuations in the hosting industry and online advertising rates in general.  Although my websites have continuously grown in traffic since they started, the average prices of advertising space has fallen in almost a perfectly proportionate amount.  Go figure, its like people don’t have as much money to spend!

Now that I think about it, the fact that I have more work to do doesn’t sound like that interesting of a thing to blog about after all.

I’M STILL EXCITED, DAMNIT 🙂

Now where is all of this time supposed to come from…?