"New World Man" Album: "Signals", RushHe's a rebel and a runner
He's a signal turning green
He's a restless young romantic
Wants to run the big machine He's got a problem with his poisons
But you know he'll find a cure
He's cleaning up his systems
To keep his nature pure Learning to match the beat of the Old World Man
Learning to catch the heat of the Third World Man He's got to make his own mistakes
And learn to mend the mess he makes
He's old enough to know what's right
But young enough not to choose it
He's noble enough to win the world
But weak enough to lose it
He's a New World Man... He's a radio receiver
Tuned to factories and farms
He's a writer and arranger
And a young boy bearing arms He's got a problem with his power
With weapons on patrol
He's got to walk a fine line
And keep his self-control Trying to save the day for the Old World Man
Trying to pave the way for the Third World Man He's not concerned with yesterday
He knows constant change is here today
He's noble enough to know what's right
But weak enough not to choose it
He's wise enough to win the world
But fool enough to lose it
He's a New World Man... |
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| What? |
- If I have a theme song, it's got to be "New World Man" by Rush. (Rush goes with my libertarian/transhumanist leanings, anyway. Pretty cool how the word "restless" gets worked in there, too, huh?)
- I don't suffer fools gladly.
- I hate stupid questions (yes, there is such a thing as a stupid question. Generally, they're not stupid the first time, but when you ask them multiple times it becomes a stupid question. I make sure you don't ask me a stupid question again, too).
- I like dealing with people who are knowledgable and motivated, and don't come to me with the whiny, defeated, "it's broke, fix iiiiiiiiiit" attitude (read: I don't have a customer service personality. I like working with professionals, not the general public, and not people who don't understand what they're talking about).
- I tend to be one of those people who have enough old fart in them to think that users are lucky they get any software at all and should be grateful for what they get. And by the way, read the documentation, too? That stuff isn't written to just look impressive on your bookshelf.
- I'm...
- ...a pagan.
- I think I've found a spiritual home in paganism. I've come to it like a lot of people did, through Wicca, but I still have my transhumanist and atheist sensibilities, so I am unsure if I believe in a Goddess and a God, although I believe we're all part of one great "mesh" of intellect. Expression of my thoughts and beliefs are still forming. In fact, it will probably be a major part of a new online journal whose software I'm working on on the test server at home.
- I used to be an atheist. I wasn't a "hostile atheist." You know, the in-your-face, just-have-to-argue, spit-on-your-religion atheists.
- ...a libertarian.
- ...a transhumanist.
- ...not an extropian.
- ...not a joiner, else I'd probably join up.
- ...a geek.
- ...a computer geek.
- I first used a computer when I was six. I first learned to program when I was seven. Massive beast. Rolls of yellow teletype paper and that lovely stereotypical "clack-clack-clack" sound. Paper tapes. Some Multics critter, if I recall correctly. I was immediately and irrevocably corrupted.
- ...a math geek.
- I abhor doing proofs; give me a problem to solve, but don't make me do a proof (unless it's part of solving a real problem). This means I could never be a mathematician, but I can live with that.
- ...a science geek.
- My primary major in college, other than computer science (which actually came later), was physics. I love physics. I was going to be a cosmologist. I was going to figure out what makes everything tick. Instead I turned out to be... whatever it is that I am.
- ...a part-time science fiction geek. I gave it up for lack of interest, although I still occasionally like to read a good cyberpunk novel.
- ...damned proud of it.
- ...a college dropout.
- I've studied a little bit of everything but then I get bored with it and move on to something else.
- I get bored easily. I don't even try to hide when I'm bored, usually, which miffs a lot of people.
- The only reason I'm finally working on this is because I'm bored.
- ...depressive.
- This probably has something to do with why I dropped out of college.
- I used to think that I'd go back to school if I ever got the money to just go back and study. Now I think I'd rather just live my life and do my own thing.
- Just what is my own thing? I don't know. I like to develop code and create. I hate bureaucracy and being tied to what other people are doing. I think I have the artist temperament, even if I have the scientist, engineer or technologist background. Where this will lead me, I have no idea.
- ...a quitter. I've tried to stop being one, but I think perhaps it's ingrained into my personality now. It's easier to quit and wallow than keep trying sometimes. I'm told that's because I'm rootless and don't have a family, but... who knows. (Update 08/12/2003 - I have a monkey family! I live with my fianc&eqcute; and her cat. She loves monkeys, to the point of claiming that she herself is a monkey. That makes us a monkey family. This is not as entirely insane as it sounds, actually.)
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| Where? |
- I live in the Republic of Texas, in a small cesspool called Pearland, which is just south of a larger cesspool called Houston. (Update 08/26/2003 - we live in that larger cesspool now. Someday we hope to go back to California, where my fiancé is from.)
- No, I don't really belong to the Republic of Texas movement. I can understand it, though. I think the human race is safer with many small states rather than the movement towards one global, unilateral governing body.
- I went to the University of Houston, where I studied A Little Bit of Everything™. I didn't like it, because I didn't want to go there.
- I didn't get to go where I wanted because there was no money for it. It's touchy for me, so I don't like to talk about it. I'm bitter and hold grudges.
- I have wanted out of Texas for a long time. I'm not happy here at all.
- This last summer I went to California under... less than sane circumstances. Nonetheless, I want to go back to California, or perhaps Nevada. Not southern California, but around the San Francisco Bay Area, or maybe back to the Lake Tahoe area. (I'm a glutton for punishment.)
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| When? |
- I was born near the start of the seventies, so that makes me a child of the eighties.
- The defining memories of my life don't include atomic bombs or moon landings, but there is an assassination attempt on the president in there. I don't remember so much when they attempted to assassinate the Pope. I remember vividly the moment I heard that the Space Shuttle Challenger blew up, and had friends who had family members who worked there, and were friends with some of the astronauts. I remember stock market crashes and record highs and a so-called war that my friends went away to and came back from sick.
- I've become very jaded, but I don't know if it's a function of my upbringing, my depression or media exposure.
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| Why? |
- I write for my sanity. It's therapy. If I write, I don't lose it for another day.
- I stopped writing, so I'm picking it back up. I have a new domain to just do my own journal under my own domain, but since I just had the aforementioned job for a week, I'm going to have to write here for the time being.
- I have this secret desire. I just want to be understood. Nobody seems to comprehend what I'm about, and this bothers me in a fundamental way. Thus, I'm uploading my mind to the web, one anecdote or thought at a time.
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