The Racist

To be a racist, one denies two truths from two different paradigms.

From the world of Science, the racist denies that we, all of us, come from one lineage.

From the world of God, the racist denies that we, all of us, are His children.

We are one.

This is not goodbye.

Corrupted as it is

Blighted by evil and suffering

Broken, stricken with sadness

Heartbreak and loss

I shall dearly miss it

This life of blue skies and puffy clouds

The birds calling one another

Flowers in full bloom

That scent of the forest in rainfall

Music from an orchestra

A dog barking for attention,

Goodbye my loves.

No Truer Words Spoken in Architecture

"Your personal spirit has to evolve into your language that you create [...] -- it requires a certain amount of trust to go forward, that's the hardest thing I think. I have it in my own family, where I see that my kids struggling with that." -- Frank Gehry

When you go to a design-focused architecture school, you are tasked with finding your voice and developing your language. When you leave school for the working world, most of the firms require you to subdue your voice and adopt their language. Even those who are lucky to work for a design-oriented firm are usually asked to repress their own language in order to support the language of the firm -- an understandable thing.

This is pervasive even outside of employment. Go online to YouTube and search for how-to videos (design and ideation) and you tend to find people pushing a conformity to process. They'll all say you need to find your own process but their processes all resemble each other's.

It is not easy. It is not for those who seek the security of a steady income or who otherwise cannot tolerate poverty. It is not for those who cannot endure suffering and those without self-doubt (for without self-doubt one cannot possibly expect to strive to become better). It is not the path everyone else travels, for if it were, then everyone would be great designers.

Variations of a Logo Idea

There are three themes used in varying amounts: (1) the plus sign alternatively the cross, (2) the letter "M" alternatively iconography of a house, (3) folded planes alternatively layered planes.

Further Folded Metal Studies

One pattern, multiple variations, depending on folded angles and direction. From right to left:

• One-half of the mirror portion of a pattern, on a sheet, with tiny joints of rotation added.
• The two mirrored sections together.
• Three variations of folded sections.
• The three variations, with paint/color applied.

Sketches of Folded Metal Sculpture Concept

Method: Based on a single sheet of aluminum metal, 24 inches by 72 inches, first, laser-cut, then, bent along perforated edges, then, powder-coated.

The basic idea behind this is to utilize simple processes to a plain sheet of metal, applying simple folds in order to create and define volume of space, in a form that presents unique objects, depending on the angle of the fold. That is, based on one pattern, multiple unique objects could be produced depending on the choices of the angle of folds. The greater the complexity of the pattern, the higher number of unique objects could be produced. Think analogous to music and the variations of a theme -- for instance, Variations on a Theme of Paganini -- where the underlying construct remains the same but the outcome is varied.

Abstractly, it could also apply architecturally, such that it would be scaled up to create unique spatial volumes rather than sculptures.

Attempted Bribery *IS* Bribery

18 U.S.C. § 201 Bribery of public officials and witnesses

(b) Whoever -- 

  (2) being a public official or person selected to be a public official, directly or indirectly, corruptly demands, seeks, receives, accepts, or agrees to receive or accept anything of value personally or for any other person or entity, in return for: 

     (A)  being influenced in the performance of any official act;
     (B)  being influenced to commit or aid in committing, or to collude in, or allow, any fraud, or make opportunity for the commission of any fraud, on the United States;  or
     (C)  being induced to do or omit to do any act in violation of the official duty of such official or person; 

shall be fined under this title or not more than three times the monetary equivalent of the thing of value, whichever is greater, or imprisoned for not more than fifteen years, or both, and may be disqualified from holding any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States.

The action of seeking a bribe *is* bribery; it does not require a completion of the act. Enough with this nonsense. Anyone who says otherwise is full of shit and/or clueless. For reference on what it means to be full of shit, see: Lindsey Graham. For reference on clueless and full of shit, see: Devin Nunes.

And, it's outlined fully within the phone call memo.

Zelensky: [...]We are ready to continue to cooperate for the next steps, specifically, we are almost ready to buy more Javelins from the United States for defense purposes.

Trump: I would like you to do us a favor though [...]

Was this normal horse-trading in global politics? Hardly. We have only to look at one person, Rudy Giuliani.

The investigation I conducted concerning 2016 Ukrainian collusion and corruption, was done solely as a defense attorney to defend my client against false charges, that kept changing as one after another were disproven.

By his own tweet admission, Rudy told the world that he was working *solely* to *defend* his client. This was not an exclusion by omission, it was an explicit exclusion of anything outside of his defense of Trump.

Therefore, Donald Trump committed bribery and should be impeached, removed, and indicted.

That is all.

The Cycle and The Self(ish)

The Cycle

All life ends in death. At the end of the universe's expansion will come the universe's contraction; from zero to one and back to zero; we know not how many times the universe existed. The law of the conservation of matter dictates that matter cannot be added nor subtracted in a closed system -- in effect, a life for a life, a cell for a cell, an atom for an atom.

The Self(ish)

Even as we seek to prolong life, it comes with a toll of reducing the lifespan of others, both in direct and indirect consequences.

Our natural instinct to horde flies in the face of the needs of a community to share. Prior to an impending natural disaster, we seek to "get ours" before supplies sell out while other seek to profit from scarcity.

Our desire to make more money than others comes at the expense of others who make less.

09.20.2019 Dreams

Of the handful of episodic dreams I can remember from this morning, the one that sticks out the most was that of demonstrating using a knife to clean a wet shirt by dragging the blade along the surface of a light blue sleeve shirt, using my left hand from the lower right side to the upper right, as though it were a squeegee. 

The amusing part of the dream was that as I squeezed off the grime, it splattered around in clumps and in particular landed on a clean shirt that was next to it. I picked up the clean shirt to inspect it and felt defeated, knowing that I'd have to rewash this other shirt as the clumps of grime had now stained the clean shirt.

Having never done, seen, or thought about this before in real life, the oddness of the dream allowed me to remember it in clear details. 

In retrospect, it was an amalgam of using a knife to clear a cutting board of food and using a wet vacuum to clean carpets. You see, when you turn off your wet vacuum, the suction shuts off, allowing any dirty water that was not fully encapsulated within the waste container to leak back onto your carpet. I always had a rag towel ready to place underneath, every time I turned off my wet vacuum.

RIP Ric Ocasek

In memory of the front man of The Cars, my top-10 favorite The Cars songs:

1. Heartbeat City
2. Drive
3. I'm Not the One
4. Let's Go
5. Magic
6. Shake it Up
7. Touch and Go
8. Tonight She Comes
9. Since You're Gone
10. Hello Again

Note that Heartbeat City is an unlikely choice for favorite song with most people, but I'm not most people. It was a mix of melancholy and electronic that drew me to it. 

At the bottom of my top-10, Hello Again, is another unlikely choice for most. It's a bookend to Heartbeat City, ironically, as it was the first track of The Cars' Heartbeat City album while Heartbeat City was the last track.

Castro Was Right, Biden Was Confused

The media, in its haste, has come out and claimed that Julian Castro was factually wrong in his attack on Biden, even calling it ageist. But, they're wrong on both accounts. The only way they're able to make their first point is by squeezing the context to eliminate Biden's initial statement. The only way they're able to manufacture their second point is by implication.

Biden first set the context of this health insurance debate:

Look, everybody says we want an option. The option I'm proposing is Medicare for all -- Medicare for choice. If you want Medicare, if you lose the job from your insurance -- from your employer, you automatically can buy into this. You don't have -- no pre-existing condition can stop you from buying in. You get covered, period.

Obviously, "you automatically can buy into this" is an oxymoron. Buying into something is to act on a choice, therefore, it cannot be automatic. The most forgiving interpretation is that he conflated two separate parts of his health insurance plan -- the buy-in option and the automatic enrollment portion that addresses the gap in Medicaid coverage for those living in states that did not expand Medicaid under the ACA -- into a single sentence, thus creating word salad. The least forgiving interpretation is that he doesn't know his own plan.

Having set the context of being able to "automatically buy into" his "Medicare for choice", Castro sought to highlight the contrast between his and Biden's plan:

You know, I grew up with a grandmother who had type 2 diabetes, and I watched her condition get worse and worse. But that whole time, she had Medicare. I want every single American family to have a strong Medicare plan available. 

If they choose to hold on to strong, solid private health insurance, I believe they should be able to do. But the difference between what I support and what you support, Vice President Biden, is that you require them to opt in and I would not require them to opt in. They would automatically be enrolled. They wouldn't have a buy in.

Keep that Medicare reference in the back of your mind because I'll revisit this. 

So, Castro was responding directly to the context that was created by Biden. Immediately, Biden disputed this:

They do not have to buy in. They do not have to buy in.

To which, Castro responds exasperated:

You just said that. You just said that two minutes ago. You just two minutes ago that they would have to buy in.

Clearly, Castro was correct. Realizing his mistake, Biden changed the context:

Do not have to buy in if you can't afford it.

This is the point where the media has chosen to pick up, rather than the initial context which Biden himself had set.
Castro:

You said they would have to buy in.

Biden:

Your grandmother would not have to buy in. If she qualifies for Medicaid, she would automatically be enrolled.

Castro:

Are you forgetting what you said two minutes ago? Are you forgetting already what you said just two minutes ago? I mean, I can't believe that you said two minutes ago that they had to buy in and now you're saying they don't have to buy in. You're forgetting that.

Biden:

I said anyone like your grandmother who has no money.

Castro:

I mean, look, look, we need a health care system...

Biden:

She -- you're automatically enrolled.

Castro was still beating Biden for what he said initially, but Biden shifted his context -- and that's what the media has been attacking Castro on. Not once did Castro reference Biden's age, but the media accepted the attack as ageist, not because of anything Castro said, but because the GOP talking point surrounding Biden is that he's too old and not the same Joe as a few years ago.

But, did you see what Biden just stepped into? Suddenly, and without any prompting or reference, Biden associated Castro's grandmother with being poor; he accidentally walked into a racist trope of poor Latino immigrants. Castro stated that his grandmother was on Medicare, not Medicaid, and not once did he say that she lived in poverty.

Biden was confused and flashed some implicit bias. Castro was right to point out Biden's confusion, but don't expect the media to catch any of this.

10 Raunchiest Dance Songs, Ever, Ranked.

Because, why not.

10 Closer, NIN
9 I Want Your Sex, George Michael
8 Hot 'n' Fun, N.E.R.D
7 M.I.L.F. $, Fergie
6 Love House, Samantha Fox
5 Push It, Salt n Pepa
4 Hot in Herre, Nelly
3 Justify My Love, Madonna
2 Milkshake, Kelis
1 Erotic City, Prince

Why Erotic City? Because, this was an explicit B-side tune dropped right in the middle of Ed Meese's war on porn and decency. That takes balls of steel.

If we cannot make babies, maybe we can make some time
Thoughts of pretty you and me, Erotic City come alive
We can fuck until the dawn, making love 'til cherry's gone
Erotic City can't you see, thoughts of pretty you and me

Oh, and I created a Spotify Raunchy Dance List, right now at 61 songs. This being a raunchy dance list, half of them have explicit lyrics. After all, it's not raunchy if it doesn't drop some jaws.

Ode to American Football: The Four Seasons

Fall

The eternal renewal of optimism has arrived, that one's football team shall endure a rigorous warrior's schedule (3 months!) of games, emerging victorious and undefeated.

Winter

The ephemeral despondency following one's team's failure in its endeavor to conquer the league and go undefeated.

Spring

The reversal of fortunes begin and hope is renewed, as signing day reveals fresh talent that (surely) will deliver one's team to the promised land we call The National Championship and Super Bowl.

Summer

The annual scramble to confirm one's belief of growing optimism that one's team's prospects are bright, by reading every available publication, blog, article, and video available.

The Melancholy Classical Music Playlist

Simple Handle Bar Phone Mount.

A 3D model of a prototype design of a bike handle bar mount for my phone. Sadly, to print it would cost $20, which is $10 too much. 3D printing is not so useful in building a business model for gadgets.

Design for Handle Bar Mount

Currency Manipulation?

If China's currency is lower after the US threatens more tariffs, is that really currency manipulation? No, it isn't. 

But anyway, currency manipulation is most obvious when it is clearly moving irrespective of other currencies relative to the US Dollar.

What currency manipulation looks like

Melancholy

Melancholy

Black and White.

The first image is the original photograph. The second is the result of using Photoshop to translate the color to a black and white image. The third is the result of deleting the red and blue color channels, leaving just the green channel. The point of this exercise is to effectively apply an infrared filter to replicate what you'd get from infrared film.

The Apocalyptic Dream

Recently, I've had multiple dreams on the same subject: a nuclear apocalypse. It's very short and a variation of a semi-recurrent dream I had as a teenager.

In the 80s, I used to have this semi-recurring dream of a nuclear bomb going off in front of me with a brilliantly bright flash and the air seemingly moving all at once around me. Peering from a porch and holding onto a post, the air was suddenly hot and blowing into my face as I watched as things began to melt (burn) away, though painlessly. There was no fear in the dream; it was more of a surreal experience in someone else's body which I could escape at any time. As you might expect, I would always wake up before the end.

These past several days, a slightly different scenario has played out, twice.

In my new dreams, I'm in a vehicle trying to escape from an impending nuclear bomb blast. Caught in the blast, the air flips the vehicle forward and onto its side. While not stuck, I'm lying sideways as the light grows. Closing my eyes, I can see the tremendous light through my shut eyelids as it turns from a brilliant white to yellow and orange as the air grows hot. Unlike my older dream, this time, I can feel a headache and an immense pressure being exerted, rapidly and steadily on my head and body. Again, no fear involved; just a surreal feeling of being in someone else's body.

And then I wake up.

Curious, don't you think?

Are dreams a pathway to a different universe of existence? Doubtful, but that would be cool, eh? 

Is there a deeper meaning to these dreams, particularly since they're seemingly a recurring theme? Possibly, but there is no understanding to be gained by facing an inescapable reality and it's clear that I've long accepted the universal truth that death is inevitable. At least in this case, there doesn't seem to be a deeper meaning to my apocalyptic dreams.

Or, are dreams simply ways of exploring things that cannot be reasonably explored in real life? That's what I think is going on, here. I always recall a sense of being an observer and letting things play out however they may, apocalyptic dream or otherwise.

Why the Infrequent Posting

I could blame many things, but the primary reason why posts became infrequent here is because I shifted back to posting in online comment sections and on Twitter. I'm thinking of swinging back to posting here because of the ability to add inline graphics of charts along with the greater freedom to post lengthy thoughts on a variety of subjects.

What *is* Julian Assange?

Is Julian Assange a journalist? 

I grow weary from reading columns and tweets dedicated to defending Assange on the basis that delegitimizing his journalistic credentials is a dangerous attack on the press and its freedoms. It is not an attack on journalism/journalists; it's calling a rotten egg a rotten egg.

Assange is not a journalist and Wikileaks is not a journalistic entity; he is an anarchist and Wikileaks is his outlet to serve his propaganda -- his "extreme transparency", which, by the way, apparently excludes himself.

I believe that the public journal is a public trust; that all connected with it are, to the full measure of their responsibility, trustees for the public; that acceptance of a lesser service than the public service is betrayal of this trust. 

I believe that clear thinking and clear statement, accuracy and fairness are fundamental to good journalism.

I believe that suppression of the news, for any consideration other than the welfare of society, is indefensible. -- excerpts from The Journalist's Creed, Walter Williams

There is no fairness in his taking sides in the 2016 election. He deliberately suppressed leaks in 2016 that painted Russia negatively(1), while directly and indirectly communicating with people tied to the Trump campaign to maximize the effect of his release of stolen emails.(2) That's not the work of a journalist; that's the work of a self-serving propagandist working under the guise of journalism in search of its afforded protections.

Up until 2010 when news outlets forced his hand, Wikileaks never applied journalistic standards to the materials it received.(3) It's not clear that they even have journalistic protocols in place to ensure integrity to maintain the public's trust. To wit, Assange's false assurance that the source of the DNC emails wasn't Russia.(4)

And how do we treat his actions of spreading the flames of conspiracy behind Seth Rich's suicide?(5)

No, I tell you, Assange is not a journalist. He is a liar and a self-serving propagandist.

While it is convenient to dislike him because of his personality and his style, one should not presume that this is why his journalistic cred should be questioned -- that people point to his personality and style as evidence of false attacks on his journalism is, rather, a false consciousness.

It would be argued by many that he could be considered a bad journalist who nonetheless deserves protections of being a journalist. But he's accused of conspiring to hack the US government and in furtherance of this conspiracy, agreed to attempt to break a password. Journalists are free to receive stolen documents but not to participate in the crime of hacking or theft -- is where we are right now. In the affidavit (6) released, it clearly highlights that Assange's team was working directly to break the password. Is hacking now legal for journalists? At the very least, it pushes the gray areas of what is acceptable and legal, protected by the 1st Amendment.

Others would argue that his arrest is tantamount to silencing dissent/dissenting opinion, particularly against a repressive regime. This could be a persuasive argument were it not for two conditions: (1) his thesis in support of anarchy cannot be reconciled with representative democracy (one must choose one over the other); (2) his actions to effect his vision of society necessarily destroys ours. We seek not to silence his dissent; we seek to save our representative democracy from anarchy. He seeks to replace our society with his own.

There is a certain naivete in his vision of a perfect society that is alluring to many, but his dichotomy of pure transparency and pure opacity, is impossible; we are, after all, humans. There is a certain noble truth to Adam and Eve discovering shame, pointing to humankind's inevitable need to hide truths, especially from ourselves.

So let's be intellectually honest and admit that Julian Assange is not a journalist.

1. https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/08/17/wikileaks-turned-down-leaks-on-russian-government-during-u-s-presidential-campaign/
2. https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/426927-mueller-trump-campaign-officials-communicated-with-stone-on and https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/11/the-secret-correspondence-between-donald-trump-jr-and-wikileaks/545738/
3. https://www.wired.com/2011/02/wikileaks-book/
4. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/01/05/julian-assanges-claim-that-there-was-no-russian-involvement-in-wikileaks-emails/
5. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11692056
6. https://www.lawfareblog.com/document-affidavit-support-assange-arrest

Happy New Year 2019