Hello everyone
Well, as of yesterday around noon or so I am a graduate of NETTTS. I'll be testiig for my license onTuesday. I'd say I have pretty fair shot at passing my first time. I ams SO done with Aerotek and Yankee Candle.
This morning I was awake at a rather unseemly hour for a Saturday morning, my alarm went off at 645 am, not having been turned off. Max then proceeded to insist on kneading my face which is annoying even with his claws clipped. I then found a largish tick on his neck and flushed it.
I could write another blog entry about how my thought processes are different from those of other people, but even I am getting bored with such entries. The was an article on the SG home page about how Bush went to Vietnam, which is a very un-democratic communist state with a growing economy. There was some discussion as to whether prosperity brings about democracy. I have a feeling that it is an important ingredient, but a lot of other things have to happen as well.
If you look at the birth of the United States, there were a lot of things that lent themselves to the development of democracy. We had the English ideas of Property along with a lot of folks who came here seeking religious freedom. We had a young, well educated new aristocracy with a profound sense of alienation from their old homeland, and the ability to identify themselves as the leaders and architects of a revolutionary new type of republic. We also had 3000 miles of ocean between us an Britain, that took weeks to cross in sailing ships. The american people also were well educated, armed, and had the highest standard of living in the world. They had their british idea of Property and a vast new land to boot the natives off of and put their idea into practice. Most other societies do not get a whole new piece of territory to start a new state in, and a whole new design of state to place in that territory.
The united states started out as a smallish state of about 3 million people. In other situations, like Russia of China in the early to mid 20th century, You have hundreds of millions of uneducated, poor, powerless people, and there is no way that scenario is going to produce a thriving democratic republic. Way too many people to communicate with one another, no centuries-in-development ideas of property, rights to petition the government to redress grievances, rights to be armed, nothing. All that can happen is that when the culture and economy finally rot out from under the feet of the corrupt ancient aristocracy, is exactly what did happen, a profoundly ruthless leader with godlike powers and status comes in with the idea of an organized mondern state that takes control of fucking
EVERYTHING
for the peoples' own good.
After the first World War the Germans were humiliated, and economically completely crushed, and the Weimar Republic, unable to fix the situation voted Hitler into power and voted itself out of existence. Again, people who are destitute and powerless will turn to a godlike leader to help them rise up.
Central and south america have generally lagged behind the US owing to their social structures for a very long time having been far closer to that of the old world, with a ruling aristocracy sitting atop vast numbers of tenant farmers; poor, uneducated, powerless. They did not have the background of ideas that british-descended american colonists had upon which to design a new model of state. Not a terribly interesting part of the world overall.
Nobody joins this site to read these sort of things from me. I'm feeling like I'm at a bit of an impasse, with nothing new to say in my journal, and not much of interest to write as a comment in other peoples' journals. It concerns me that if I write too much of nothing interesting, my words will lose all worth. CJ Cherryh in her Chanur novels created the exceedingly useful Kif-ish word Sfik, loosely translatable as prestige. SGs have much more Sfik than your average member. New SGs are very happy when they start posting in pink, the color of Sfik. Collecting autographs is a way of collecting the Sfik of famous people. Important objects have sfik as well, although there is so much material stuff in the world it's hard to pick something out, or maybe not. Harleys cost about twice what an equivalent Honda will cost, You can buy an $8,000 Honda or a $16,000 Harley, which is an $8,000 bike with $8,000 worth of sfik. Don't leave it out in the rain or you might get a water stain on the chrome. Zak Smith's last blog entry about fake fame was in large part about how an artist has to persuade a dealer that he is famous, so that his paintings will have sfik, which people will pay large sums for.
I guess if I averaged 40 comments per journal entry, instead of maybe 7, my own comments to others would have more sfik, as I would be a person with whom many people seek to converse. But I think I probably average about half a dozen comments left in others' journals for every one left in mine, making me one who seeks sfik, no someone that people go to to get it from. Sometimes I get an answer to a comment I left in another's journal, and I feel I have a little more sfik, but then I generally blow it by replying to the reply. Which now makes me feel like I have a very adolescent mass of feelings about what I'm doing here. I just wish I had something interesting to say a bit, no, a lot more often than I do, so that people would have reason to take an interest in what I'm saying, so I'd have some sfik.
Well, as of yesterday around noon or so I am a graduate of NETTTS. I'll be testiig for my license onTuesday. I'd say I have pretty fair shot at passing my first time. I ams SO done with Aerotek and Yankee Candle.
This morning I was awake at a rather unseemly hour for a Saturday morning, my alarm went off at 645 am, not having been turned off. Max then proceeded to insist on kneading my face which is annoying even with his claws clipped. I then found a largish tick on his neck and flushed it.
I could write another blog entry about how my thought processes are different from those of other people, but even I am getting bored with such entries. The was an article on the SG home page about how Bush went to Vietnam, which is a very un-democratic communist state with a growing economy. There was some discussion as to whether prosperity brings about democracy. I have a feeling that it is an important ingredient, but a lot of other things have to happen as well.
If you look at the birth of the United States, there were a lot of things that lent themselves to the development of democracy. We had the English ideas of Property along with a lot of folks who came here seeking religious freedom. We had a young, well educated new aristocracy with a profound sense of alienation from their old homeland, and the ability to identify themselves as the leaders and architects of a revolutionary new type of republic. We also had 3000 miles of ocean between us an Britain, that took weeks to cross in sailing ships. The american people also were well educated, armed, and had the highest standard of living in the world. They had their british idea of Property and a vast new land to boot the natives off of and put their idea into practice. Most other societies do not get a whole new piece of territory to start a new state in, and a whole new design of state to place in that territory.
The united states started out as a smallish state of about 3 million people. In other situations, like Russia of China in the early to mid 20th century, You have hundreds of millions of uneducated, poor, powerless people, and there is no way that scenario is going to produce a thriving democratic republic. Way too many people to communicate with one another, no centuries-in-development ideas of property, rights to petition the government to redress grievances, rights to be armed, nothing. All that can happen is that when the culture and economy finally rot out from under the feet of the corrupt ancient aristocracy, is exactly what did happen, a profoundly ruthless leader with godlike powers and status comes in with the idea of an organized mondern state that takes control of fucking
EVERYTHING
for the peoples' own good.
After the first World War the Germans were humiliated, and economically completely crushed, and the Weimar Republic, unable to fix the situation voted Hitler into power and voted itself out of existence. Again, people who are destitute and powerless will turn to a godlike leader to help them rise up.
Central and south america have generally lagged behind the US owing to their social structures for a very long time having been far closer to that of the old world, with a ruling aristocracy sitting atop vast numbers of tenant farmers; poor, uneducated, powerless. They did not have the background of ideas that british-descended american colonists had upon which to design a new model of state. Not a terribly interesting part of the world overall.
Nobody joins this site to read these sort of things from me. I'm feeling like I'm at a bit of an impasse, with nothing new to say in my journal, and not much of interest to write as a comment in other peoples' journals. It concerns me that if I write too much of nothing interesting, my words will lose all worth. CJ Cherryh in her Chanur novels created the exceedingly useful Kif-ish word Sfik, loosely translatable as prestige. SGs have much more Sfik than your average member. New SGs are very happy when they start posting in pink, the color of Sfik. Collecting autographs is a way of collecting the Sfik of famous people. Important objects have sfik as well, although there is so much material stuff in the world it's hard to pick something out, or maybe not. Harleys cost about twice what an equivalent Honda will cost, You can buy an $8,000 Honda or a $16,000 Harley, which is an $8,000 bike with $8,000 worth of sfik. Don't leave it out in the rain or you might get a water stain on the chrome. Zak Smith's last blog entry about fake fame was in large part about how an artist has to persuade a dealer that he is famous, so that his paintings will have sfik, which people will pay large sums for.
I guess if I averaged 40 comments per journal entry, instead of maybe 7, my own comments to others would have more sfik, as I would be a person with whom many people seek to converse. But I think I probably average about half a dozen comments left in others' journals for every one left in mine, making me one who seeks sfik, no someone that people go to to get it from. Sometimes I get an answer to a comment I left in another's journal, and I feel I have a little more sfik, but then I generally blow it by replying to the reply. Which now makes me feel like I have a very adolescent mass of feelings about what I'm doing here. I just wish I had something interesting to say a bit, no, a lot more often than I do, so that people would have reason to take an interest in what I'm saying, so I'd have some sfik.
VIEW 5 of 5 COMMENTS
Honestly, everyone that I've talked to who was adamantly opposed to an auto-shift in a big truck had never actually used one. I think it's just about being stubborn, or old school, or penis envy or some other bogus reason.