| Rayne Today Searching for dharma, in spite of the weather...
Build-A-Meme Project: Congratulations to you all who’ve joined the Project Team! We now have (18) members registered at the Freedom 2004 forums; that’s a nice place to be one-and-a-half weeks into the project. Thanks much for registering; I hope to see you posting an introduction and/or a plug for your blog in the forums soon; what the heck, maybe you’ll get some additional traffic at your site out of this? We’re two-tracking at the moment, trying to build a pile of working material (thank you all who’ve posted a meme suggestion, keep ‘em coming!). We’re also trying to build a community that can work collaboratively together. Please let me know if there’s anything particular you feel we need to develop a cohesive operating community. What do you think we need to make this a successful community, one that attracts and keeps members, one that encourages and captures ideas and skills to put them to good use? Please also think about a group meeting – do we need one? Would this help with our community building now, in the near future as we begin to sort through our memetic material? And do any of you have suggestions on how best to accomplish this? Chat? IM? Some collaborative-tool hosting site? other? Look forward to hearing from you on these issues; feel free to drop a comment here or post to the Forums.  comment []
Build-A-Meme Project: It’s the Environment, Stupid!! Looks like the Environment is the topic of the week, getting lots of mileage and gathering a lot of humor as well: BUSH TO PHASE OUT ENVIRONMENT BY 2004 All Species Under Review, President Says HAH! I’d laugh more, but the situation is so dire that I’m just as likely to break into tears. So? What do you think? Do we grab this and run while the momentum is with us on the topic? Or do we make note of it and tackle this later? Comments here or at the Freedom 2004 forums are encouraged and welcomed. (p.s. thanks, M., that was quite timely!) comment []
Movies: The Matrix Reloaded You’ve seen all the analysis all over the place, hashing over the spiritual, metaphysical, software-hardware conundrum that is The Matrix Reloaded. I'd read much of it eagerly before seeing the movie a week ago. If you’ve not seen the movie and don’t want to have the experience spoiled, stop here. I don't spell out the details, but I could still mess with your enjoyment of this flick. If you’ve seen the movie, you know it’s action-packed nearly to excess – there are several scenes which make their point unto nausea. You’ve also noticed how much smaller the role of music as a mood-setting tool in this iteration; the first movie had it in spades and used it effectively. (If you're like me, you've also rooted every time Trinity kicks ass and takes names. You go, girl!!!) The original Matrix is a stand-alone, the second is not. The first movie built a mythology which might or might not continue, the second is most definitely an installment relying on the first and the third of the trilogy. With all the chatter out there on the internet, you’re sure to find nearly everything you want to know about this movie. Nearly… Except for the answers to two questions: n How does it get resolved, this mysterious choice that Neo must make as The One? n And will he choose “NONE OF THE ABOVE” by killing the Architect? Naturally, the answer to the first question will arrive soon enough. The second question is that which causes me endless internal debate. If it all comes down to choice, humanity is handed through Neo a choice of A or B, and neither is good, why not MAKE a new option C? If the entire quandary results from faulty architecture, why not just knock off the architect and hack a new choice? Isn’t that really the quandary of the human condition today? Do we accept the limitations of our memetically and genetically coded scripts (our flawed architecture), only able to select from A or B? Or do we take responsibility into our own hands and build what is otherwise not possible? Is the choice of our humanity really that between what appears to be a painfully arrived-at authentic or a pleasant fakery of virtual reality? Does not making – that is, the taking possession of and implementing -- a fully conscious choice of “NONE OF THE ABOVE” or “ALL OF THE ABOVE” change the entirety of experience of pain or pleasantry, change the entirety of consciousness itself? Does it not transcend the authentic and the veridical if one KNOWS they are dreaming and can choose the path of both reality and the dream? Have we arrived at a point where the Architect (or God, the other bearded father-figure-like white man in white “robes”) must be eliminated? Is it time “Dad” hands over the car keys to the “kids”? Perhaps we humans have evolved and arrived at the role of client – and humanity must now co-author with the Architect that which will be henceforth? (Heck, if I was a client I’d certainly want more control of the product!) Or is any choice an illusion? Is any action we may appear to select already calculated and calculating as a subset of this universe-wide, computationally irreducible cellular automata/equation of a cosmos? Is it possible that humanity, our little Neo, has already made every choice (by design of the Architect or not) within the realms of the Many Worlds of this unfolding creation? Have we emerged from/retreated to our cave in every possible permutation simultaneously, and asking is possibly moot? Further, how many more Wachowski brothers’ movies would it take to solve this riddle? comment []
Movies: The Hot Chick In a word: DON’T. Don’t do it, don’t waste your time. And don’t let your spouse bring this in the house. Make him take it right back out the door. This one should have been a self-destruct DVD. This situation presents the fundamental problem with our Netflix account. I can get all the artsy, better-quality, high-end movies from Netflix I can’t be sure to get at the corner BlockBuster / Family Video, but the spouse will drag home the equivalent of movie junk food. Yeah, food shopping is that way here, too. I buy the romaine lettuce and lots of fruit; he brings home the damned Cheetos. This was movie Cheetos, Beer Nuts, French Onion Dip, all rolled into one. Don’t do it, you won’t respect yourself in the morning if you do. comment []
Build-A-Meme Project: The Soft Underbelly Exposed Prometheus posts a great article at the Freedom 2004 forums, regarding attempts to greenwash by the opposition*. It can't get spelled out any more clearly than this: the environment has been an enormous failing for this Administration. We need to co-opt "common sense" and hammer away about environmental issues. I think this means we need to use “UNCOMMON SENSE”. We need to show that while there is some confusion about global warming, that the confusion is really about when, not what. There IS global warming; it’s being accelerated by pollution, and the The only question is how long before we see serious repercussions from which we can't recover -- like a Little Ice Age. Thanks, Prometheus!!! * I’m not going to call them by name any more than I have in my blog. Why should I give them space? You’re bright, you know about whom and what I speak. comment []May Michigan Morning It’s a clear, sunny morning, cooler than the average late May day. Not too chilly to work outdoors, though. I don’t need an excuse to work outside today, but it’s nice to have one any way. These are one of my many excuses.
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