shit parade

shit went down at work
a fingerpointing parade
work politics suck

[i want to drink beer]

i want to drink beer
but i have to work instead
beer would be better

century

i squint up at the weatherpocked red sandstone of my city bricks
and want to touch it crumble under my fingertips

the signs say STOP (in the parks not to touch
the red rocks) preserving their sandy structure but

not the bricks, no one stops them from weathering away beneath my fingertips

good night and good luck

the rocky mountain news is closing its doors today after 150 years. it was denver’s oldest business. it’s sad to lose a piece of denver’s identity and it’s sad that all of those talented folks are losing their jobs. this is big for denver, and it’s not good.

addressing spring

is that the robin i hear sing?
he speaks of trust and honesty
and this is the first sign of spring

oh yes–it’s time to do this thing!
to shake off the shackles of history
is that the robin i hear sing?

he speaks of hope, and hope he brings
to help lift us from our misery
and this is the first sign of spring

is this the change that we’ve been missing?
is this the path towards our recovery?
is that the robin i hear sing?

this is what we should be addressing:
he sings about accountability,
and this is the first sign of spring

that tear of joy makes my eye sting
such a long wait for this discovery–
is that the robin i hear sing?
and this is the first sign of spring

30 minute sestina

i just challenged myself to write a silly sestina using 6 words picked by someone else. i gave myself 30 minutes and this is what happened. the words: squirrel, tree, black, run, ground, today

the tragedy of the acorn

i first grew in a bundle on that tree.
they told us to beware that city squirrel,
“you’ll know him when he sets off in a run
to snatch you from your bough and hit the ground
to hide you in the soil, rich and black.
beware that cunning squirrel, he lurks today.”

i heard the cunning squirrel so close today.
he scampered up and down that backyard tree.
with flipping tail and claws a shiny black,
he menaced off the birds, a scary squirrel.
he sat there on the bough and stood his ground,
so when the sparrows swooped, he did not run.

and when the blue jays bombed, he did not run.
i doubt a thing around could scare today
that squirrel (who sits so firmly in his ground
that lies so far high up in this oak tree).
i doubt a thing around could take this squirrel
(without succumbing to his eyes, so black

they match the color of his heart, yes black,
like coal). if only i could drop and run
i’d leave this tree and dangers of this squirrel.
alas, my acorn hide is green today
and must be brown before i leave this tree.
i must be wise and sage to hit the ground,

to grow into a tree, deep in the ground.
to pierce into the soil rich and black,
i must drop swiftly down straight from this tree
and hide myself before I see him run
to dine upon my hide, oh not today!
i’m clamped onto this branch, you naughty squirrel.

time knocked me from my branch? oh lucky squirrel!
as i lie here, flesh brown upon the ground,
i know my destiny has changed today.
a snack i’ll be inside his mouth of black
for here he comes a galloping, his run.
i’ll ne’er grow now into a wise oak tree.

oh squirrel your eyes are beady dark and black
i’m helpless on the ground–i watch you run.
today, you’ll eat me under the oak tree.

Technology Crybabies

After reading the article Authors irked by text-to-speech on Kindle 2 about Kindle’s new beta ability to transform ebooks into audio books, I couldn’t help but think: crybabies!

Look, audio book people, technology advances. That’s the whole point. If you don’t embrace it, you will be left behind. For example, do you remember when newspapers started hitting that wacky World Wide Web in the later 1990s? There were a scant few articles and you had to pay to read them. Newspapers were playing not to lose, as opposed to playing to win. What has happened to those papers? RIP, baby. The savvy ones embraced the technology, figured out that they could make revenue by advertising online and offered their news for free. Now I can even subscribe to feeds from newspapers from my home town, over 1000 miles away, without a ridiculous delivery fee. Hoorah!

What would have happened to Kodak if in 2002 when the 1 megapixel, $60 camera hit the US market, and their CEO had insisted that digital photography was a threat that needed to be fought? They’d be out of business. Hands down. Honestly, what family of 4 wants to buy film, take pictures they can’t see, be limited to 36 on a roll, risk melting the film in a hot car, pay to process it, and pay for prints? Oh, and then buy doubles or more to mail to grandmas and aunts? Instead, Kodak joined the digital world and in addition, offered a whole new level of photo printing services.  How awesome is it that you can put together a hardback book full of photos for $30? Or print your kids’ faces on a tie for Father’s Day? (okay it’s more tacky than awesome, but so are Taz t-shirts and people still wear them)  Not to mention the easy sharing methods of email, Facebook, Flikr, etc. Thank you, digital photography folks.  Now I have a mug emblazened with pitcures of my cat. Yes, tacky, but not Taz tacky.

What about the music industry? Oh Napster. You were so cool before you were illegal. But why? Because you gave us what we wanted: individual songs, for free. Why deal with the expense of clunky packaging and 14 songs you don’t like just to get that one hit? You might recall all of the moaning that bands (eh hem, Metallica) did over this music trading. This trading was then called theft after a few short years (as if we hadn’t been making and trading mix tapes  for years). Then finally, it occurred to music folks that 1 mp3 is an entirely different product than a cd with a case and 15 songs. Now we can buy that product as we choose. Download 1 song, 3 songs, a whole album. Hello iPod. See? We’re buying music again, just like we wanted to all along. Was trying to hang on to precious cds and all of their eco-ugly packaging worth suing little Timmy?

Which brings me to the point of this rant: hey audio book people! get with the program! I like audio books. I love when people read to me. And if I were visually impaired, I’d really love, and depend on, audio books. If Amazon.com’s Kindle offers a smart text reader function as a bonus to a regular ebook, all the better! The ball is in your court, audio book industry. You’ve got to play to win, not play to not lose.

Let’s be honest here, Kindle’s beta text reader is crap! It’s robotic and weird, but the idea is solid gold. Fusing the rich voice tones of James Earl Jones into a volume of Grimm’s fairytales would be amazing! And could you imagine hearing David Sedaris’ Santaland Diaries by something as robotic as Dr. Sbaitso? puh-leeease. If I’ve got a long flight, sometimes I just can’t muster the energy to read a book. If i had an ebook that I could read, then switch to audio, oh man! I’d be totally stoked! Send me back to South Dakota because this flight’s going to be awesome.  Don’t make me suffer any longer! Make this happen. Audio book folks, you  need to work with and not against Kindle developers to get the technology to work well.  The change is coming. You’ve got to play to win. Oh, and I’ll totally buy it when you do. Totally.

OMG Christ was Gay!

okay, i really just made that up. scandalous, isn’t it? but i ask you this: why is is scandalous?

since i’m feeling feisty and just read a friend’s blog about her conversation about gay marriage with a person making church law-based arguments, i’m going to indulge in a little psychology hypothesis:  the church is a mental crutch people use to protect themselves (specifically but not exclusively) in the case of homosexuality. oooh. i told you i’m feeling feisty.

i think a lot of people (myself included) have found themselves at times with very little direction. SO when we face challenges such as losing loved ones, struggling with crap jobs (or unemployment), struggling to provide for ourselves or families, or dealing with people we don’t like, we look for answers. we try to solve problems. we work to protect our egos and our assets (studies show that people will lie to protect their egos even if it means our top priorities food/shelter/companionship will be compromised). the church (and i mean all churches with “Book”s and inflexible “Word”s on how to live) straight out GIVES specific answers. it is much easier to follow than to lead. so if you are feeling challenged, use an existing set of rules to defend yourself. eh?

what i’m getting at here is anti-gay folks feel threatened in one way or another by gay folks. what are some of these ways?

1. for some men, it’s a primal urge to ward off other men, as you can’t pass your genetic code to another man. notice how lots of men have male friends, but as soon as the concept of sex comes to play, other men are gross? protection of procreation. male lions eat baby lions–an act which instantly puts the mother back in heat. go on, try to convince me that male lion’s reason for eating its own species was because he was hungry. because most species cannibalize regularly. right.
2. note that the topic of gay sex is heated over male gay sex and rather dismissing over female gay sex. perhaps because the male is the penetrator, the doer. if you are not doing the doing, you are being done. in the case of sex, we’re born with chemical and physical equipment that tells us that we either do or get done (considering humans have over-populated the earth, more folks should be cropping up with non-breeding chemical signals as time goes on). in some people that message is so strong that the idea of getting done by someone (if you’re a doer) is horrifying. and if it’s horrifying for you, it must be wrong for everyone. after all, it’s horrifying. obviously the logic of “what’s right for me is right for you” doesn’t work. if it did, we’d have one political party, no war, and a utopia where everyone shares.
3. talking about sex is awkward for a lot of folks. did all of that penetration talk above make you uncomfortable? OR, did the langauge above threaten your feeling of comfort? what could possibly be more uncomfortable than talking about sex (uncomfortable!) if it is weird gay sex (ahh! extra uncomfortable!)? [must initialize sequence of ways to protect comfort level. now. maybe a little "whoa i'm not like THEM" talk will do the trick.]
4. it is hard work to think through the things that challenge you. who am i? why do i feel the way i do? how should i behave? what is the best way to live? if i don’t like things about a person, how can i be sure that we are different enough so that i don’t have to deal with not liking things about myself? the bible is the yellowpages of tough life questions. need to order a pizza? you know how to look that up. need to justify your discomfort around gay people? you know how to look that up too. what happens when your phone book’s out of date? you call for pizza and the number’s been disconnected. what happens when your bible’s out of date?
5. additionally, humans are hard-wired to differentiate. we can look out to the horizon and differentiate the one lion from the herd of gazelles. we differentiate to determine danger. we are born to classify and stereotype for our own safety. sometimes safety means not getting mugged. sometimes safety means not challenging our beliefs. again, if we differentiate ourselves from folks we don’t like, we don’t have to deal with not liking ourselves, bringing us back to rule #1 – protect the ego.

so those are some ways in which homosexuals threaten heterosexuals. but let’s get back to the church.

for some folks, the church said it is wrong (whatever it may be), so it must be. it is easy to use the church’s teachings as a way to avoid thinking about what challenges you. if there’s already an answer in place, use it. gay = wrong. said and done. keep in mind, some churches have been around for a couple thousand years. they have developed infrastructures that needs to be maintained and protected. ask yourself  to define the point at which the actions of the church stop serving the people and start serving the infrastructure of the church.

the largest suspension bridge was built not long ago in japan. this bridge is the largest possible of it’s kind. it is so large that 90% of the structure is in place simply to support the structure. this leaves only 10% of the structure to support the flow of traffic from island to island. in essence, a mere 10% is dedicated to the whole point of having a bridge. just like humans, the church is very interested in self-preservation.  many churches were the governing bodies in early civilizations. many were replaced by civic versions, but not without a fight (very bloody, high-death toll, wars in which many believers died, to be more precise). in what ways do our current governing bodies make sacrifices to protect themselves? think about the british government’s response to the sinking of the Lusitania in WWI.

1. in an effort to keep secret the fact that they were intercepting german intelligence, they did not warn the cruise liner (with 2,000 civilians on board) of nearby U-boat presence, and having the Lusitania change course would seem suspicious to germans. a U-boat sunk the massive liner with, shockingly, only one torpedo,
2. because there were government-authorized munitions secretly stowed on board which caused secondary explosions. when the investigation was concluded, the records stated that
3. the british government tried many times and successfully communicated a change of course to the boat’s captain. the captain, due to weather issues, was unable to comply, and the boat was hit.

if word got out that the british government was sacrificing a ship full of civilians to protect military assets, the british government would have a lot more to worry about than german u-boats. ah, self-preservation. remember the organizations we humans create, are indeed human creations, and therefore behave like humans.

so, what does all of this mean? if you are willing to put all of your faith in a higher power, or organization, be aware that it might not always behave in your best interests, but rather in its. american culture shuns the idea of letting one person make all of the decisions for another person with “personal freedom!” as the battle cry. likewise, perhaps this creed should be extended to include organizations. it is not wise to let an organization or set of organizations do all of your thinking for you.

stop to think, regularly.

think about the people you work with, your neighbors, your family. if half of them tell you right now that they’re gay, does knowing this detail change your relationship? afterall, you knew and liked this person before. what has changed? take away the scaffolding of your church’s rules. are these people suddenly ne’er–do–wells? are they really that lion in a field of gazelles?

innovation

I’ve spent the past couple of days compiling lists of innovations and major events that have shaped our human experience, and more specifically, our human experience in the US. So many times, we learn about innovations without context.

For example,

• Eli Whitney invented the Cotton Gin in 1794.
• A cotton harvester prototype was built in 1920.

It took nearly 130 years to complete the automation of cotton production. So why did this take so long?

Slave labor was still readily and legally available for 40 years after Whitney’s invention, so labor cost wasn’t an issue.  Once slave labor evaporated (1833), indentured servants (still very cheap labor) took up the work. However, the demand for cotton was growing rapidly, and plantations couldn’t keep up regardless of the blisters, beatings, and strains on labor.  Eighty years later, World War I broke out and cotton production had to be innovated. The first cotton harvesters (1920) replaced the work of 40 people picking cotton by hand. By the end of World War II, machines could now (1950) produce 6 times the cotton as the 1920s’ models in the same amount of time.

Why is this relevant today? Because people innovate only when they have to. When we are comfortable, we tend not to change our surroundings. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Right? It wasn’t until gas prices reached nearly $5/gallon this summer that people started driving less and turning to other modes of transportation.

Unfortunately, due to the current sinking state of our economy, lots of people are uncomfortable. The folks who scraped to get by are now drowning and the people who thought they were doing okay are now scraping to get by. Unemployment is spiking and the availability of jobs is plummeting. Interestingly enough, the people who hold the most money, make financial decision that affect the people who hold the least amount of money. And these people, who were quite comfortable are still comfortable, and don’t see the need for change. Are these the same people that would eat every last grain of food themselves, saving none for the people who produce the grain, then wonder where to get more grain after the producers are gone? It’s worth considering.

Enter innovation. Looking at the numbers of people in financial crisis versus those who are comfortable, the Presidential candidate Barack Obama saw that lots of people needed a change in their lives. Plenty of people need a positive change in their financial situation, but also, plenty of people need a positive change in their lives, period. For those not feeling the financial crunch as vividly as others, perhaps that change is escaping a bad relationship or a dead-end career. He chose the message of Change coupled with the inspiration of Hope, and he shouted it from every form of media his audience would see. Then he shouted it from every form of media his opponent’s audience would see.

A Presidential race is not comfortable. It requires agility, planning, a consistent message, and a constant message. In this campaign, Change and Hope went viral. By facilitating supporters to reach millions, through social media connections, Barack Obama innovated the way campaigns communicate. Support flair on Facebook, update tweets on Twitter, and community-made wearable art on CafePress enabled supporters to become a part of the campaign without knocking on doors and placing signage all over town.

It worked. Today, an hour ago, Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of our great country. His message has not changed, but his political status has (I wonder what his Facebook status says…). Today he shouted Change and Hope for the first time as the President (read the transcript of his speech). I followed a link from Twitter and watched the ceremony online.

Being the President is not comfortable. It requires agility, planning, a consistent message, and a constant message. Given the way in which Barack Obama ran his campaign, I feel confident he will run his office and the items within his power with as much integrity and innovation.

Here’s to innovation: let us keep moving forward; let us keep creating; let us keep working towards better lives for all of mankind.

[the snow...]

the snow lights up the city-dark streets
trackless past midnight,
it doubts all could be asleep

solemn street lights imply pink
flakes are falling, and they stand guard,
british rigid, to light the path, but for whom?

fireworks tear through the night sky
bangcrackle fizz, and again,
perhaps not all are asleep