Edit: Below is not what I originally posted.  I wanted to try and talk about assumptions, public persona, and knowing your audience.  To do that, I wanted to feature Juliette Wade, someone I admire and respect, and use her as an example of how her public persona influenced some of my assumptions.

Unfortunately, it was brought to my attention that it didn’t come across that way.  Someone suggested that I remove the post entirely, and stated that it looked like I was reacting badly to a critique from Juliette.

The truth is, she gave me a good critique, and my original post wasn’t about what she said as much as it was about me making assumptions on her tastes, based on her public persona.

So let me edit this down, and try to salvage this.

If you’re reading this, you should check out Juliette Wade‘s blog.  Actually, that site doesn’t look like it is updated as often as this one.

Juliette is a cool individual.  Here are some facts:

She has been published several times, with short stories in Analog and Clarkesworld. She studies cultures and language. She hosts Worldbuilding Hangouts on Google+ every Thursday. She posts frequently to Facebook, often quoting or linking to stories concerning feminism, racial inequality, or the need for diversity in fiction.

 

Again, she didn’t hate my story, and she didn’t say anything that hurt my feelings.  I really value the things she had to say, and I have a great deal of respect for the time and effort she put into it, knowing that the story she was reading was not the sort I thought she would enjoy.

Both workshops were overwhelmingly positive experiences for me, in fact.  But I can see how someone might take what I originally posted and think that it was something other than I intended, so I’m editing this.

Let’s all be cool to each other.  Tomorrow, my topic will be “Every Writer Needs and Editor.” Looking at this post, apparently some bloggers could use one, too. 🙂

It is October!  Perhaps one of the greatest months of the year that start with the letter O!

Last year, Michael told me about this challenge, where bloggers were to write a post every day in the month of October.  He told me about it on October 2nd, so I was already behind.  But I like challenges, so I launched into it, and posted twice on the 31st.  I achieved the goal in spirit.

It’s not actually called Blog-tober, of course.  It’s called…

 

That seems a bit wordy, though.  I like Blog-tober, better.

The Ultimate Blog Challenge is basically a marketing thing, and the purpose for the participants is to get more readers.  I assume that the people that put on the challenge get email addresses to use for evil purposes.  I’m not sure.  I haven’t looked at it that closely.

I’m not doing this to get more readers.  Sure, it would be pretty neat to get more than 4 or 5 people reading what I post here.  I would find that flattering.  It’s not what I expect out of this, and it won’t break my heart if my hit counters don’t go up.

The real reason I’m doing this is because it gears me up for NaNoWriMo.  The exercise of writing something every day for a month is perfect just before a month of furious writing activity.  I think the reason I was successful November last year was because I spent so much time writing blog posts in October.

Last year, my posts were somewhat random.  I didn’t go into it with any sort of plan, and there were a few days where I had to scramble for something to write about.

This year, I have plans.  I opened up notepad and jotted down 15 topics.  All of them pertain to writing.

I may write some fiction for some of the posts this month.  I haven’t made up my mind on that, yet.  On the one hand, it’s good exercise, leading into November.  On the other, it feels pretentious posting first-draft fiction on my blog, as though all of my dabbling is worthy of public display.  I don’t know.  Maybe I shouldn’t worry so much, and just post whatever the hell I want.  That’s kind of the idea in the first place, isn’t it?

It does touch on something I’ve questioned for some time, though.  What is my blog for?  What purpose does it serve?  Am I trying to educate or entertain?  Is this a crutch, or is it therapy?

Regardless of this blog’s purpose, there will be a whole lot more of it this month.  Put on your safety helmets and buckle your seat belts.  Blog-tober begins.

 

 

If this were a series, I’d start this with “Last time, at Convolution 2014…”

I remember finishing my previous post and thinking that the evening was nearly done, and that I wouldn’t have that much to write about.  That was before Melissa and I decided to go to the Delphic Oracle panel.

I laughed so hard, I had tears.  Michael was duel wielding hip flasks, and though he claimed to be sober, he certainly seemed like he was at least a little bit toasty.  Chris Garcia was drinking pitchers of water as though he were preparing to cross a desert.  Todd McCaffery hosted the event, and everyone was present and hilarious.  It was so much fun!  I’m so glad we went to it.

Afterwards, Melissa and I went back to our floor and poked our heads into a few parties.  We imbibed with FLARE, and with Klingons, and we supported a couple of convention parties.  To my surprise, Melissa drank a bit more than I did.  I think we appreciated not having to contend with stairs or elevators when we finally retired for the evening.  Also, the noise wasn’t an issue.  Of course, part of that could have been because we were slightly inebriated.

Concerning the party floor, there was some strangeness with the hotel staff.  While Melissa and I were in a hallway, two large, suited men with earpieces came to the door near us, and pulled down some posters.  At first glance, I thought they were attendees in convincing secret service costumes.  Then I saw that one of them had a thick stack of posters acquired from the rest of the floor, and he was not happy.  Apparently, the hotel had changed its policy in regards to posting things to the walls and doors.  I watched the security guards move on, and where they went, it was like the a couple of high school bullies moving through a lower grade school yard.  The attendees shrank away from them, looking small and defenseless.

All of that was Friday.  The first day.

Saturday morning, Melissa and I got up early enough to go to breakfast.  Then I gathered up my things, went up to the 8th floor, and prepared for the back-to-back writers workshops.

“I was nervous” would be an understatement.  When it comes to my writing, I still care too much.  Intellectually, I know that the stories I produce are distinct from me.  I know that my stories are not perfect, and that they are getting better.  Comparing my recent work to stories from just a few months ago shows noticeable improvement.  My brain knows one thing, but my heart feels another.  My heart tells me… well.  My heart tells me a lot of bullshit, and I’m not going to repeat it here.  Not tonight.

I steeled myself for the worst.  The pros and the other writer for the first session arrived.  Then it began.

I’m going to write about the experience of those two workshops in a different post.  I learned a lot.  I felt a lot.  There’s quite a bit to talk about, and I’m not going to short-change the experience by condensing it too much.  For me, both workshops were extremely positive, and I’m still processing it all.

After the workshops, Melissa joined me, and we attended a couple more panels.  I’ll post the notes regarding those later this week, when I’ve had a chance to type them all out.  In the evening, we attended the Masquerade (which was a contest, not a ball… I had misunderstood before, and Michael corrected me well in advance).

It had been a long day, and Melissa and I were both hungry.  We went to the sports bar inside the hotel to get a late dinner.  I had fish and chips, which were greasy and good.  As we were leaving, Jon Del Aroz, his wife Sam, Todd McCaffery, and someone else (I’m sorry I don’t remember your name!) were on their way in.  Jon invited us to join them, and I couldn’t refuse.

Everyone there was amazing and friendly.  Jon mentioned karaoke, and we talked about different songs.  The beer I’d had earlier was catching up to me, and after Jon and I had shots of vodka, I was feeling bold enough to go sing Ebony and Ivory with him.

We wound up singing Dancing in the Street instead, and it was not quite as amazing as what we had imagined.  We were undeterred, however.  We just needed a better song.  We pawed through the books, and Jon was leaning towards some music that was a little bit more urban and unfamiliar to me.  I suggested Regulate by Warren G and Nate Dogg, and we knew we had our song.

Unfortunately, we were never called up to perform that piece.  I’m pretty sure it would have been spectacular.  Jon and I will have to perform that lyrical masterpiece at our next opportunity.

After karaoke, Melissa and I went to the parties, and I imbibed a little bit more.  We made it back to our room a little after 1AM, feeling pretty good.  Again, being on the party floor was not a problem, because we found sleep easily.

Sunday morning, Melissa and I rose feeling a little bit rough around the edges.  We were well enough to go down for breakfast, then attend a couple of panels.  Jennifer Carson, one of the pros that had really liked my Mel Walker story, invited Melissa and I to join her and her friends for lunch, and we accepted.  We went across the street to the American Grill, and I felt spoiled.  Everyone at the table was very generous with me.

After lunch, Melissa and I attended one more panel, then closing ceremonies.  With the event drawn to a satisfactory conclusion, we jumped in my mustang and cruised back to Sacramento.

Convolution 2014 was really quite magnificent.  To paraphrase Tanya Huff at the closing ceremonies, the community at Convolution is extremely generous and appreciative.  The programming was really well done, and there are tons of enthusiastic, talented people in attendance.  There were over 700 individuals attending this year, and both Melissa and I were glad to be among them.

Melissa and I got off to a nice, easy start.  We gassed up the car, picked up some cash, and had breakfast before hitting the road.  There was a little bit of traffic, but it wasn’t terrible or unexpected, and we arrived at the hotel about 10 or 15 minutes ahead of what I had predicted.

Registration was a breeze this year.  Last year, there had been some hiccups along the way, but there was none of that this year.  Just like last year, the staff was exceptionally friendly and helpful.  We got our Patron Goody Bags, took our stuff up to the room, and made plans.

Speaking of the Goody Bags, we received toy ray guns!  It was a fun treat.  There were some other fun items in the bag, too, but like a little kid, I was giddy over the plastic noise maker.  What can I say?  It’s the little things.

We set off to explore a little and make our way to Opening Ceremonies.  That was the first item on my list.  Along the way, we ran into friends.  When they invited us to go with them for lunch, we realized that would be a much smarter move than going on to the panels, hungry.

After lunch, Melissa and I headed to the first panel on my list.  I’m not going to go into detail on the panels in these updates, saving that for my Convention Notes, which I will post when all is said and done.  The panel was fine, and I did get some interesting insights from it.  For example, if you want to portray something as magical in your story, you do it through the reactions of the characters.  This isn’t a new concept to me, and it wasn’t stated explicitly in the panels.  But it’s an important part of storytelling, worth remembering from time to time.

Melissa and I went continued to the next panel, which was only okay.  The problem with the panel was that the topic was too broad, which made it that much more challenging to find focus or clarity.  It was okay, but I didn’t take a lot of notes.

Then it was dinner time.  Melissa and I went off to a grill a block away, and I ate food that was fried, full of fat, and tasty.  It did not meet the Brian Approved Diet Plan, but one meal isn’t going to kill me.

Melissa and I discovered that our room is on the party floor.  It’s still a little bit early in the evening, so I don’t know yet how that’s going to play into our enjoyment of the convention.  I think it will probably be okay, but who knows?  Maybe it’ll be loud.  Maybe we’ll enjoy the parties that much more, knowing that we don’t have to deal with stairs or elevators in order to stumble  back to our bed.  We will see!

Friday, Melissa and I will be jumping in my mustang and cruising over to the San Francisco area (Burlingame specifically) to attend Convolution 2014.  I have all sorts of conflicting emotions surrounding the convention this year.  Mostly anticipation and excitement, punctuated by inarticulate and irrational fear.

This morning, I went through the programming, and I have a rough idea how my time will be spent.

Friday

1:00 PM — Opening Ceremonies

2:00 PM — You Got Your Science in my Fantasy

4:00 PM — One of the following:

• 20 Books to Launch into Space
• Alternative Energy Sources
• Questions and Answers and Things that Go Bump in the Night

Nothing in the evening really pulls me.  If the Texas Hold’em event is actually Texas Hold’em, I might be interested in that.  There is a panel at 8:00 PM that Melissa might want to attend.  There is a reading that I could go and listen to.  Or, maybe I’ll find somewhere quiet and work on my own fiction.

 

Saturday

9:00 AM — Writer’s Workshop #1

1:00 PM — Writer’s Workshop #2

4:00 PM — One of the following:

• Handling Rejection in Writing (the irony of attending this after the two workshops is not lost on me)
• Todd M. Talks to M. Todd

6:00 PM — Don’t Crush Me (Hand Me the Duct Tape) (again, this is after the two workshops.  Too funny!)

8:00 PM — Masquerade and Halftime Show

 

Sunday

10:00 AM — Worldbuilding for Gamers and Writers

12:00 PM — Military Fantasy, Different Themes then Military SF?

4:00 PM — Closing Ceremonies

 

I’m nervous about the masquerade.  I had borrowed a jacket and a hat from Michael last year, and I didn’t look like I was in costume as much as I was wearing a funny hat and jacket.  Melissa will be with me this year, and neither of us have any sort of costumes.  Maybe we can pick up something in the dealer’s room.  Or maybe I shouldn’t be so self-conscious, and just try to have fun, regardless of how I’m dressed.  When I figure out how to do that last one, I’ll let you all know.

The last two weeks have been fairly difficult for me, in terms of work and time management.  I’ve been stressed out long enough that I’m having a difficult time harnessing the right kind of excitement for this weekend activity.  Instead, I feel like I’m gearing up tend to some unpleasant but necessary obligation.  That’s not how it should feel, and it’s purely my own, internal bullshit that’s responsible.

I’m sure that when I wake up Friday morning, I’ll take a shower and wash away all of the dread and negativity.  Melissa and I will get dressed, load up the car, and somewhere near Davis, I’ll remember how to feel enthusiastic again.  And then we’ll have an awesome weekend!  Right now, with my workload and job stresses sitting so heavily on my shoulders, it’s hard to lift my head to see the joy.  But I’ll get there.

Walkadoo is this online service which tracks your steps and gives you daily goals.  It has some social aspects to it, where you can follow people on the website, see how they’re doing, “smile” at the things they post, and enter into “derbies” with them.  It’s all centered around trying to get people to walk more.

This started through Blue Shield of California health insurance, which I get through my wife.  There is a wellness program that allows a person to get a discount on their insurance if they gain some number of points through various programs.  Walkadoo is one of the programs that qualifies.

The first thing you do once you sign up is order a Pebble.  The Pebblie is a little black device that acts as a pedometer.  It counts your steps, and when you’re near a sync station, transmits your step count to Walkadoo.  Walkadoo tallies up the total count, and eventually, if you meet your daily goal, sends you an email or text congratulating you on your good deeds.

This is all well and good, except that I spent a large portion of my 3rd day with the Pebble walking.  I went on a really long walk, and Walkadoo raised their level of expectation of me accordingly.  I went from needing to walk 2000 steps a day to 4000 steps a day.

The next weekend, I did the same walk, and Walkadoo rewarded me with steeper goals.  All this week, I’ve needed to walk at least 7000 steps a day to meet the goal.  Today’s goal was 8383.

To put that into perspective, I walk a mile in about 2100 steps.  Today, I’ve walked over 15,000 steps.

If you recall my previous post, this is the sort of external pressure that I respond to.  Every day, I’m getting increasingly difficult goals to achieve, and each day, I’m rising to the challenge and meeting them.  Eventually, the target will be beyond what I can do, and then I’ll feel as though Walkadoo has beaten me.  After that, I might stop all of this crazy walking.

In the mean time, the walking has been pretty amazing for me.  I’ve been thinking while letting my feet carry me through my neighborhood.  Much of the time, I’ve been thinking about a work project which I’m trying to finish before Monday.  I’ve also been thinking about my stories.  Today, I came up with some plot points and characters for the second Mel Walker story.  I also thought about the book I’ll be starting in November with NaNoWriMo.  And I thought about a short story which I might submit to Writers of the Future before the end of the month.  I don’t think the story is very good, but maybe I’ll put it out there anyway.  It’s not like it will hurt anything.

Walking is good exercise.  It isn’t as stressful on the ankles and knees as jogging or running.  It’s easy and pleasant, and it allows me a lot of time to think.  Sometimes, that’s all a person needs in order to get past some creative hurdles: time to think.

Whether you have some faceless online organism trying to wear you out as I do, I encourage anyone to go out and walk whenever they have the chance.  It’s amazing what a sunny stroll can jog loose from one’s mind.

I was talking to a couple of coworkers earlier this week about working under pressure.  One of my coworkers is working on a certification in her career field, and she mentioned that 50% of the people that take the test do not pass.  I said that is exactly the kind of thing that would motivate me to pass, and she looked at me like I was crazy.

It’s true, though.  With the right amount of external pressure, I excel.  It doesn’t always feel good at the time, but you can’t argue with the results.

For example, a project I’ve been working on stalled for a while.  When the CTO made it clear that we were going to demo the project in less than a week, I panicked.  We didn’t have enough time.  There were too many features that weren’t tested.  It looked like an impossible task.

The reality was that it was possible.  It was just difficult.  I wound up working extra hours, and I pushed and I shoved and I swore, and in the end, we had something that was not only presentable, it was impressive.

It is something I’ve known about myself for several years.  It came out during therapy, when I was having trouble working.  My therapist illuminated several areas in my life where, if I wasn’t competing, I was inert.

I’ve mentioned competitiveness and external pressure as though they are interchangeable.  They are different things, but I’m able to turn pressure into a competition.  When I’m in a position where I have to do something that would be extremely difficult, like the software project I mentioned, it turns into a battle.  It is me versus the clock.  In that context, if I don’t get the project finished, I lose.  And I hate to lose.  I have to win.  Always.

Well, not always.  I’ve learned to back off a little when trying to play a game for fun, with people I care about, or people I’m ostensibly supposed to be teaching.  There is no joy in destroying your young child in a game of chess when they’re just learning the game.

But even then, I’m an asshole enough to want to win.  I’m just mature enough now to recognize the folly, and to focus on other things I want, such as making other people happy, or fostering good will.

I’m a competitive asshole.  So what?  Lots of people are, right?

I bring it up because it is a very large part of who I am.  Without a sense of competition, I find it difficult to move forward with projects.  This includes writing.

Isn’t that amazingly silly?  The act of writing is one of the least competitive activities in my life.  It is a solitary activity.  It is about using imagination and words to create something new and interesting.  It is communicating ideas and fantasies to some future audience that you may or may not ever meet.

There are ways to turn it into a competition, certainly.  There are writing contests, and there are awards to covet.  During NaNoWriMo, some people participate in “word wars” where they see who can write the most words in a short amount of time.

For me, it isn’t enough.  I look for and long for places where I can try to excel as a writer.  When I’m in a writer’s group, I want to be the best writer in the group.  I try to be nice to everyone involved, but underneath my smiles, I want to win.

What do I do when I’m not in a writer’s group?  What about the stories I’m working on that I haven’t shared?

Well, that is a problem.  It is difficult to find motivation to finish.  My fantasy story, A Clean Slate has been growing very slowly.  My original time table was to have the first draft done in May, and here we are in September and I’m not even through the first act.

Then there are the short stories.  When Writer’s of the Future turned down a story I’d worked really hard on, some part of me became convinced that it was not a place I was capable of competing.  I haven’t been able to bring myself to write a short story since.

It’s a troubling dilemma.  I’m looking at the problem and I see myself.  I’m unhappy when I’m not writing, and at the same time, I’m struggling with a fundamental aspect of my personality that seems to be at odds with this hobby.

I have been a little bit self-deprecating with this post, and I don’t want to end this with the wrong idea.  I do not believe that being competitive is a bad thing.  When I use it properly, I’m driven, and I accomplish great things.

What I need to do is learn how to use my competitiveness to stay focused on my writing.  Money is not the answer.  If I was only interested in money, I would focus more on my programming.

Writer’s groups aren’t really the answer.  I want to be a part of them, but I need to suppress my competitive side in that area, so that I’m not a jerk.

Setting arbitrary dates has not been sufficient.  I’ve set tons of dates, but none of them have had any real meaning.  It’s like trying to play chess with yourself.  It just isn’t very interesting.

What do you think?  Maybe there’s an obvious answer, and I’m too close to the problem to see it.

I’ve become a picky reader.  I want to say that it started when I began to write more, but it doesn’t really line up, especially since I’ve written less this summer than I did in the spring.  I thought my pickiness sprang from the writers’ groups I’d attended, but I haven’t really attended one in months.

I noticed it when I starting reading/listening to Brandon Sanderson’s stories.  I thought they were very good, but I felt like I could see the man behind the curtain.  I felt like Neo, standing in a world made of streaming lines of code.  I enjoyed the books, but I lost some of the immersion.

Initially, I thought it was just Brandon Sanderson.  I thought Brandon’s favorite patterns and crutches were apparent to me, more than the trappings of other authors.  Again, I really enjoyed the Mystborn books, and I’m currently enjoying The Way of Kings.  It’s just that some of the structure of the story is apparent to me as I’m enjoying the story.

After Brandon Sanderson, I moved on to Patrick Rothfuss’, The Name of the Wind.  That’s when I realized that I wasn’t the same kind of reader I once was.  The adjective I kept using to describe The Name of the Wind was “indulgent.” I found the multiple beginnings, and the describing of things by declaring how impossible those things were to describe, indulgent.  At one point, I turned to my coworker (that had already read the book) and said, “This is a story about a man telling two other men a story about himself as a child, listening to a man tell him a story.”

I did enjoy the book, but when it was done, I couldn’t go straight to the next in the series.  I had to take a break.  I moved on to something completely different, and I found myself enjoying it, but noting the pieces of the story that didn’t seem necessary.  Then I went on to something else completely different, and I couldn’t get through it.  It seemed to me that I was listening to exposition mixed with cliche in a blender, pureed, then poured into my ear by someone that may or may not have been on Valium.  I tried my hardest to get through it, but it was too painful.

I want to say that I’m reading more critically, but I don’t know if that’s accurate.  I’m hearing the places where we’re told something, rather than shown.  I’m more aware of adverbs than I’ve ever been before.  The passive voice is something that I’m seeing more clearly than before. (See what I did there?) I don’t think that necessarily means “reading critically.”

I thought that it might be the difference between reading a book and listening to a book.  However, when I went back to finish reading Paulo Coehlo’s The Alchemist, I found the author there with me.  As much as I enjoyed the story, I still found myself aware of how the story was constructed.

Someday, this greater attention to story construction might serve me as a writer.  Right now, it is a distraction, and a substantial impediment.  Flaws in my writing jump out at me with sharp clarity, and it is hard for me to shut down my inner editor.  The main problem is that my appetite for a greater story has become deeper, but my ability to prepare such a meal has not grown proportionally.  At least, that’s my perception.

The answer as always is to keep writing.  I just wish that what I’m trying to create met my standards.

I don’t mean to be difficult.  I don’t set out to be contrary.  I just can’t stand following the herd, mindlessly.  It feels lazy and unintelligent.

There are a number of subjects where people seem to give up critical thinking in favor of knee-jerk, reactionary parroting.  Let’s talk about a few of these things.

 

Windows 8

There is an amazing amount of mindless hate directed at Windows 8.  It’s true that it started off with some problems, but the level of animosity the operating system received was not in proportion to what it deserved.

“Where’s my Start button?!?  I can’t live without my Start Menu!”

Yes you can.  Seriously, how much time do you spend in your Start menu on Windows 7?  If you’re being completely honest, the answer is: very little, especially after you’ve had the system for a while.  What happens is that you install some applications and some games, and the classic Start menu becomes a zoo of folders, most of which you don’t care about.  And if you’re like me, you forego the Start menu in favor of pinning apps to the Quick Launch.

Even if you can’t live without the classic Start menu, guess what?  You can download an application which gives you a freaking Start menu.  With Update 1, you could boot directly to the Desktop, so Windows 8 can look exactly like Windows 7, if you really want it to.

Most of the hatred directed towards Windows 8 was because a lot of people react to change with fear and hatred.  Unfortunately, a bunch of people started spewing this fear and hatred all at the same time, and like a yawn, it was contagious.  Now, people troll posts with pithy, uneducated statements about the operating system reflexively, even though there have been substantial improvements made to it through simple updates.

 

Global Warming

This one is going to be a little bit weird, but here goes: I’m skeptical.

I’m not a stupid man.  I’m not saying that it isn’t happening, or that it isn’t caused by humans.

I’m just saying that public opinion suggests that everyone should be freaking out about it, all the time, and I think that is bullshit.

Here’s what we, the average people, should do about Global Warming:

1. Walk more and drive less
2. Turn stuff off if it doesn’t need to be on
3. Clean up after yourself
4. Vote your conscience
5. Don’t freak out

Realistically, what else can you do?  Buy an electric car?  That’s probably a good idea, as long as the manufacture of the batteries isn’t as bad for the environment as the emissions from your fossil burner.  Invest in solar and wind?  Sure, if that’s your thing.  Most people I know don’t have the means to invest in anything, but if you’ve got the funds and your conscience dictates it, then do it.

It doesn’t hurt to intelligently move away from fossil fuels.  Just don’t do it blindly.  Do some research.

And be skeptical.  I am not completely convinced that climate change is going on, or that humans have caused it.  Again, I’m not saying it isn’t going on, or that we’re not responsible.  I’m just saying that we’ve discovered that there is methane leaking from the bottom of the ocean.  I’m just saying that California is suffering from a drought, while Burning Man is getting rained out.  I’m just saying that we’re experiencing some of the strangest weather we’ve ever recorded, while at the same time being told that climate change has paused, and that the pause may last for another decade.

I’m saying that there is a LOT of noise, and while I will do what I can to do my part to make the world a better place, I’m not going to freak out.  It won’t do anyone any good, no matter how much the news wants to take a process that takes decades to fit into the 24 hour click cycle.

 

Obama

A lot of people seem to really want to hate on the president these days, and I don’t get it.

Maybe it’s because my memories of George W. Bush are still too vibrant in my mind.  I have legitimate reasons for disliking George W. Bush.  It’s one of those times in my life where it may have looked like I was going with the herd, but really, the herd’s opinion, educated or uneducated as it may have been, coincided with mine.

But here’s something you might not know… I didn’t like Bill Clinton, either!  I detested him, for the mockery that he made of the office he held.  I could not stand that he let his selfishness tarnish the presidency.  At the time, I couldn’t stand how he’d reduced the size of the military as well, being as I was in the Air Force at the time.  I had some reasons to hate Slick Willy.  Admittedly, I was much younger than, and my opinions were not founded entirely on rational thought or research.

I digress.  This section is supposed to be about President Obama.

I think he’s an intelligent and capable man that has been dealt a bad hand.  In addition to all of the pressures of being the first black president, he also had a horrendous economy to deal with, an adversarial congress to continuously fight, a Middle East in constant turmoil, and expectations squared on his shoulders set so high that they were impossible to achieve.  If he’d been born on Krypton, and was capable of walking on water as well as being able to turn water into wine, he might have been able to live up to the expectations.

The expectations were so high, he was given a Nobel Prize before he had a chance to do anything.

Maybe it’s true that Obamacare is a mess.  I don’t actually know.  I haven’t tried to study it, so I don’t have an informed opinion on the merits or flaws of Obamacare.  I do know that millions of Americans are insured now that could not be insured before.  That seems like a good thing.

I also know that Obamacare is based on a plan that Romney put into place.  That makes me think that the people that raised the biggest stink about Obamacare did so because it was from Obama, rather than the merits or faults of the plan.

 

Final thoughts

Following popular opinion is the antithesis to scientific thought.  Following popular opinion is about giving up critical thinking for doing what everyone else is doing.  It’s laziness.  It’s immaturity.  It’s bowing to peer pressure.

The next time you find yourself falling in step with the public opinion, stop and give a thought to what you’re doing.  It’s only through thoughtfulness that we can stop being sheep and start doing amazing things.  Invention comes from thinking about a problem in a different way, and trying something that no one else has tried before.  Conversely, propagating inequality comes from following the majority, and doing what the everyone else is doing, no matter who it might hurt.

So please.  Be thoughtful and deliberate in your actions, and don’t just go with the herd.

I’ve been following the story surrounding Ferguson.  To sum it up, a white police officer shot and killed an unarmed black teenager.  The young man was shot 6 times, many of the wounds defensive, and two of those shots were to the head.  The one that killed him was through the top of the head.

Since the shooting, there have been outcries.  The police released a video of the young man robbing a convenience store just before the shooting took place.  There have been protests, both peaceful and violent.  The Missouri governor executed an emergency curfew.  Then the national guard was summoned and the curfew was lifted.  But there is still turmoil in the area, and President Obama seems reluctant to talk about the situation.

That’s a brief summary.  I know that I’ve left out a lot of the nuance, but my purpose with this post isn’t to rehash the news.  I want to talk about the actual cause, how this could have been avoided, and what can be done to unravel this situation.

First of all, I don’t think race is the primary cause.  I’m not saying that race isn’t an issue, or that Ferguson enjoys racial equality.  I’m saying that the primary cause was not racism.

The primary cause was power.

John Oliver sums it up very well.  He lays out all of the details of local police getting armed as the military are, but without the training.  What was it Einstein said?  “You cannot simultaneously prepare for and prevent war.”

But maybe the military arms weren’t the problem in the shooting.  The camo fatigues and assault rifles didn’t really seem to show up in Ferguson until after the shooting.  The escalation of force was a response to the people’s reaction to the shooting.

And that’s the problem.  Instead of offering sympathy to the family that lost a child, or looking for a way to keep this kind of thing from happening again, an effort was made to suppress the reaction.  Instead of taking responsibility for killing an unarmed kid, a video was released in attempt to villainize him.

The reaction of the police, and then the governor, was not one of reaching out to support and comfort the people that they are sworn to protect and serve.  It was more like the reaction of a parent scolding an unruly child.  That’s power, and the root of the problem.

Maybe race was a secondary issue in the shooting.  I don’t know.  It has certainly blown up to be a bigger issue after the fact.  I just finished reading a story that paints this whole situation as a race issue that President Obama, endowed with his darker skin, should be able to defuse.

I think this is just another reflection of the Stanford Prison Experiment.  When a group of people think they are in power over another group of people, the first group begins to dehumanize the second, both in speech and in action.  It doesn’t matter what their background is or what they look like.  It becomes about objectification and exercising power.

If the unrest in Ferguson is going to be unraveled, the power disparity is going to have to be dissolved.  To do this, the following will need to happen:

1. Call off the National Guard
2. Put away the military gear
3. Lift all curfews
4. Quit punishing the innocent
5. Publicly offer sympathy for the deceased

Maybe I’m naive, but I believe that if you treat a person as an adult, they will reciprocate by acting like one.

The ones “in power” have to make the first step.  It cannot and should not be to bring more weapons to bear.