Wanderers 2011.10.20

The biggest surprise of the day: Gordon Hoffman at Wanderers this morning. He was in good shape, talking up all his pet topics, chief among them the bankrupting of the state by state unions.

You'd think Buzz, former Rush Limbaugh conservative (right Buzz?) would be hot against that position, and you'd be right. Sparks flew. I missed a lot of it, as I was rushing Jim Buxton's chantrelles back to mom at the Blue House, then got into a back office quagmire with some math teachers. Some Wanderers went out for breakfast later, at Mt. Tabor Cafe: Di Nucci, Bunce, Mastin, Wardwell and myself. Stockton has a cold, as do I (lots of coughing), as does Lindsey (has it worse, given sleep deprivation at OPDX).

Speaking of OPDX, I went there next on TriMet, partly to get the scoop on the "missing child" episode that had so exercised some grownups. The 10-year-old had wanted to protest against Bank of America "because they took my mom's money", and to get a makeover at Nordstrom's. No, I wasn't there. Lindsey was helping to look after her, after she (the 10 year old) dumped most the paint in the art booth into her own hair. Where was mom? People put the story together later. No one behaved wrongly, unless you count youthful exuberance as somewhat over the top. Because Officer Walker had been providing some adult supervision, I figured she might know something, and she did. But then that was just one scenario among many in the fast moving action.

Ever hear of Crazy Mary? They want to share our FNB tent site. I got back to the guy right away after he queried the PDXFNB list. I've been suggesting Friends use that tent as a landmark to congregate, if looking for one another. Our OPDX Support Committee is just forming. I'm not on it (that committee), as my role is already cut out with FNB, which has been using the Multnomah Friends kitchen since last September (until OTY moved to NE). St. David of Wales is also in support of FNB logistics, so VBC may want a footprint as well. The irony: real estate in PDV is going through the roof as people angle for a booth ala Saturday Market, and yet they're really not about making money (at least not yet). Fancy that.

Science Pub

Given last week was such a hoot, I almost tripped over myself getting here this time, with Tara. Lew Scholl called from The Bagdad, already seated. We all partook of McMenamins fare, and waited for our three Oregon-based innovators to be interviewed. Glenn joined us at the beginning, but stayed on his schedule.

Eric Dishman, the sociologist with Intel was going over familiar ground, describing what Ron Braithwaite had packaged for a Canadian audience: CareWheels (which, somewhat counterintuitively, is about less car use, not more).

The goal is to disrupt over-reliance on hospitals as the default primary care site. You could have more neighborhoods with more facilities.

Imagine a small cath lab right near the Jiffy Lube. Not that far fetched...

OK, maybe not a cath lab, unless you have an OR for backup -- but now we're talking micro-hospital. Other clinical facilities, certainly. Lets rezone the suburbs to make some of those houses serve more community functions, not just talking about funeral homes or houses of worship. Yes to hydroponics and plantagon type solutions. No to clogging the arterials with commuter clot "rush hours" (such an ironic term).

Given the average age is drifting older, if not wiser (maybe wiser), the goal is to make those dwelling units finally get smarter and take better care of us. The funny thing is, for our houses to get smarter, we have to as well. Our level of public discourse has to budge up from where it's at, under the iron fist of an Idiocracy.

Yes, we've been hearing about this "peace dividend" for years, I realize. But politicians, as a class, seem to ever self-organize to block any advance towards the public increasing its smarts (such as by learning Civics, having voting machines to play with in the high schools).

Yet local inhabitants (occupants) still seem to think there's some reason for hope, despite the "lets get a war on" morons and their profit-taking. The 1% are among the least imaginative sometimes.

The Wieden + Kennedy guy, Iain Tait (one of the mad men) is something of a videogame-aholic. He'd turned his time in the Cyber Detox camp (like they have in Korea -- no screens of any kind) into a learning experience, discovering his thinking could keep up with his fingers when he had to hand write, versus use a keyboard. Usually his fingers would type on ahead, faster than his thinking. Slowing down was a fun experience -- worth getting back to now and then.

He wouldn't be without his computers though, not for long.

And he still thinks games are more engaging than say, commercials. Where else do you get 40 hours of sustained attention, in a frenetic / ADD-ridden / multi-tasking world?

He sounds like one of my Coffee Shops Networks avatars. Why hire him away when you've got such talent already on the job? Open source business plans kick into high gear without forcing anyone to drop everything.

Ward Cunningham was somewhat elusive about what he's working on, but it sounds like a DVCS for wikis. Mercurial meets MePedia or something like that, where the integrity of an individual's point of view is not so disrupted or trammeled upon as everyone scrambles to "control" the content.

This alternative picture sounds closer to my earlier ideas about hypertext (pre 1990s), where you'd be able to load "links according to Linus Pauling" and traverse exhibits in just his particular network.

Authors, like angels, could take you by the hand and lead you through the web, almost as though no other authors existed -- at least while you let them hold you.

Scholars would slide between authors rather smoothly sometimes, comparing and contrasting, meanwhile leaving their own webs (scenario maps, audit trails).

I used to auto-generate papers about this stuff and share them with the then leadership behind the Library of Congress (seemed like a logical step... if one were president (badaboom... laugh track)).

Now I'm not sure how much all this dovetails with Ward's thinking, but at least we're agreed that there's more than one way to imagine hypertext. Project Xanadu is yet another model.

The Bagdad audience was enthusiastic and worked hard to concentrate. We were one collective furrowed brow, thinking furiously, a Rodin sculpture. Sam Hill helped us become a thinking town. We're avid readers.

The conversations amongst the panelists, eventually extending to include whoever wanted to grab a microphone, were somewhat metaphysical in the sense of ephemeral. We were in the clouds much of the time.

Yet the problems were real enough: a family member has Alzheimer's and current "solutions" suck when it comes to care giving.

The civilian sector is way under-served, given technologies in the wings, and we all know it. With intelligent gaming / simulation, we can think / imagine our way into a future where we simply take a lot better care of ourselves.

Why not?

And hypertext will keep helping us get there, help us with dreamweaving.

Another October Maneuver

While waiting for the 14 with mom, I dipped into Oasis for a cold one. The woman behind the counter, also a mom, was happy to chat about my day, so I told her about mom being this anti weapons-in-space activist, newly self-educated on the drones issue. Our signs are about drones. We're heading to the march.

I yak with mom about Jerome's observation that Newsweek got a facelift and has left Time in the dust when it comes to good journalism. Resolving to check it out for myself, I dipped into Powell's on Hawthorne (no bus was immanent) heading straight to the magazine rack through Fresh Pot. I couldn't find either mag. "They must be too mundane" I joked with the cashier, buying 2600 28:3 instead. Freddies probably has Newsweek. Maybe tomorrow.

I used to do this (engage in protest marches) from my stroller, same town, same mom, protesting A-bombs and strontium-90 in the milk, other Cold War Craziness [tm]. Those were the early 1960s, pre-Beatles almost. I reminisced with Matt at Hopworks tonight about president Kennedy getting shot. We were 5ish.

The march snaked around the downtown, including through PDV a few times, about 3500 people. We started near Arlington Club (where Applewhites stayed), where I chit chatted with Quakers. Peter Ford, Audrey and Jim Metcalf... Josh was in his medic role (at the Occupation too maybe). Lindsey and I both have colds (we're not here together, just criss-crossing paths).

Darren Kenworthy and I did most of the march (a walk) in tandem, discussing history and philosophy, while weaving paths with mom and her WILPF friends.

Trevor's new book, Portland Memorials, has mom's name (Carol Urner) on page 88, from the Walk of the Heroines memorial at PSU.

Our posters were on the esoteric side, is what I was telling the Oasis lady. Something about War being Hell in the Heavens on the one side, pictures of weird models of drone, including tiny ones, on the other.

A former school district head from Seattle stopped to check my level of God consciousness. He had lots of stories. He was worried the use of religious terms on my sign might signify some disrespect for religious teachings (I disrespect many religious teachings, as well as secular). We had a good long friendly discussion, ending up talking about a role model in Costa Rica.

I'd been mentioning in passing on a physics list today (University of Buffalo) about Oregon drones (drones Made in Oregon). We'd like to sell them to civilians even more, for civilian uses. They're pretty cool (some of them). Why buy into the hellish distopian nightmares the monkey-brain politicians are purveying? "Are we not men?" Who needs them to dictate our future?

My educated guess is the 99% would prefer not to retreat to some Rocky Mountain apartments before pushing the buttons to end it all, how about you? I know some soldiers who wouldn't mind trying their hand at civil services either, the kind of job many already have in their current occupations (not all military jobs are especially violent, or some are but only through side effects).

Engineering the destruction of obsolete and no longer safe buildings is something many young people have gotten good at.

The by-now-old idea of a Peace Dividend seems semi-rational. Remember Beyond War? How about ending hunger by 2000? Do we despise these former hopeful selves? Why should we? I'm still for Project Renaissance, after all these years.

Speaking of Project Renaissance, note how I talk up the similarities between Greenpeace and NATO, in the sense that we were talking using paramilitary tactics. The environmentalists, with their high powered boats on Animal Planet, sparring with the whalers, are a sight to behold. Kids love getting these role models from adults.

I don't see NATO doing anything that inspiring and wouldn't mourn its dissolution now that it has had its day. "Said the professor".

Tara had a driving lesson with Elizabeth Braithwaite today. She's agitating for a gym membership. I quit all such memberships in the dire straits chapter.

Check out the new head shop down from Hopworks, same mall. That makes four within a few blocks. Leaving Amsterdam to bear the brunt has been a hallmark of PNW cowardice, the way some people tell it at Angelo's.

I'm back to browsing again. My realization, talking to Daren, is the university life style is pretty good for some people, and a goal of many out of college is to recreate something of the living standard. That means a lot of access to information.

Having hypertext, which I prayed for in the 1980s, after Princeton, means browser-wanderers like me can kick back on a Saturday night and watch old anti-Nazi cartoons, by Disney, Looney Tunes and others. There's lots to enjoy in cyberspace, in culture more generally.

Matt talked a lot about old plays and movies, a walking library of allusions. deFunkt was actually staging one of the plays he talked about. I'll get a picture of the poster, upload it to Photostream.

Esozone Talk

My meetings with Trevor tend to be illuminating. I'm reminded of those meetings twixt Greenspan and the US Treasurer (Alcoa guy, O’Neill) in the Loyalty book.

People are always having these meetings in these books (like Obama's Wars), working things out, like Tenet with that other guy bucking for the same job in Storm's Center. Obscure titles (esoteric). Not that I think of Trevor as Greenspan, though he is up on his Ayn Rand (and many other writers).

Smedley Butler, was he really a Quaker? He had Quaker roots.

The Bonus Army, WWI vets who were owed yet uncompensated, started their protest at the very same spot as Occupy Portland. The occupation spread to a Hooverville near DC, where Smedley talked to the crowd, spent the night.

Then the military became vicious (against later president Eisenhower's wishes), turning on its own from another generation. Americans attacking Americans, yet again.

Some from the Bonus Army ended up in Florida with the New Deal's Civilian Conservation Corps, where strategically withheld information left them wide open to a hurricane, and many more met their doom.

"War is a Racket" as this highly decorated soldier, Smedley Butler, knew and wrote. Wall Street had tried to recruit him as a coup leader ("Business Plot") for their nascent fascist state but he blew the whistle and told Congress, which felt some embarrassment that its paymasters had been so indiscreet, and "the Fighting Quaker" so noble.

:: newest purchase ::

Processing Symbols

Lindsey summoned myself and her other friends to the park this evening. Not all of us could be there, but I made the time, having something of a bodyguard reflex. Of course some friends were already there. Hi Fallon... James.

She was distraught that Occupy Portland might be co-opted by flag wavers, turning this into a tamer political movement with a mostly domestic focus, one that forgets all about the violence and oppression propagated in the name of the USA overseas, by its various backers and sponsors (puppet masters, whatever).

I understood her complaint, in light of the fact that a Stars & Stripes had made it to the forefront of today's march (all reporters agreed on this point of fact), and that a speech had been made in the park suggesting "reclaiming the flag" as a theme, the thought being that previous protest movements had fumbled, in treating Old Glory in some disrespectful manner (like by burning it or whatever).

Rather than enter this fray, by making the flag be a symbol, either as an idol of worship or as a symbol of evil and oppression, Lindsey wanted to keep "red white and blue" out of the picture entirely. She didn't want this global movement tainted with nationalism, which she sees as part of the problem (Albert Einstein would likely be in her camp on this one -- another smart cookie).

The General Assembly listened to her proposal to disavow the red, white and blue helium balloons, left over from the Portland Marathon, where they formed an archway for runners. These had become incorporated into the camp decor. She wanted everyone present to understand her concerns. She had physically attacked the balloons earlier (by popping them), but had been persuaded to delay further action until the group could be made aware of the principles involved. She then took possession of the balloons so she could more effectively be a spokesperson for her point of view. This is around when I got called in, by Lindsey and other organizers.

The Assembly decided it had never embraced any flag in the first place. People had their individual freedoms to express patriotism or whatever values (certainly there's lots of civic and national pride in some of the occupants), but there was no overt adoption of any nationalistic decals at this point.

The web sites seemed to bear this out, although again, individual protestors sometimes used nationalistic motifs, as is their right. Like I'd been waving a Swedish flag, at least indirectly, in my post from Ikea. I joked with Lindsey whether yellow and blue balloons would have been such a problem (Swedish flag), but she's not keeping up with my blogs, so this went over her head, naturally, and besides, I'm often somewhat indecipherable / obscure, so was just staying in character, playing me, somewhat of a comfort (we might hope) in these highly strung circumstances.

Lindsey said she understood the General Assembly's reaction (a lot of confusion), which had been expressed privately to her earlier -- but she and other organizers had insisted on a public discussion of this issue during Assembly, and not just in private conversations. Lets talk about symbols and how we wish to relate to them, so the process is transparent. Having national flags appear in various guises, branding the event, without public comment, or with only the one (controversial) "reclaiming" speech, would be too opaque (too secret) and therefore insidiously contrary to the democratic values of these self-governing event participants.

As we waited for the meeting, I expressed my sense of irony: the red, white and blue balloons were garnering a lot more attention thanks to her clutching them for hours, and some observers, judging from a distance, were likely interpreting her behavior as more flag waving. She easily disabused any within earshot of this notion, and spoke in no uncertain terms when given the microphone later.

I also invited her to spar with me as if I were a "reclaimer" (as in "reclaiming the flag"). I opened with the argument that some native American art incorporates the Stars & Stripes and re-spins it, makes it mean in a different namespace. She wasn't wanting to spar though, being both sleep deprived and in need of true supporters, not devil's advocates or philosophers.

After several people had expressed their thoughts about the balloons, Lindsey expressed her appreciation for the process, and then withdrew her proposal to explicitly disavow this symbol, saying she understood the objection that it had never been adopted. The GA then gladly allowed her to run her own meeting off to the side, about the fate of the balloon tower. Given this was not a symbol of the occupation, what happened to the balloons was no longer of core concern.

As we left the meeting, balloons in tow, a few people came out of the woodwork to express sincere patriotism. They thought maybe we were going to disrespect a symbol. Others were still on board with an earlier proposal, not Lindsey's, to buy more balloons of more colors, and add these to the pillar, making it more of a rainbow affair.

Lindsey had at first championed this proposal, but then heard reminders from Tre, Jen and myself that buying balloons was hardly an eco-friendly maneuver either, so while we're on the subject of symbolism, lets just make balloons have no further role. She changed her proposal at the last minute to leave immediate popping and disposal of the balloons on the table as a possible outcome.

I wish I'd had my camera, but I went down there in a hurry. The pillar of balloons, when not in an archway shape, ascended for over 100 feet I'm pretty sure. We had to make it more dragon shaped, more snake like, to wend it through the crowds beneath the canopy of trees, from the pre-meeting (park based) to the main meeting (street based). I mentioned my Chinese Gate pictures to Lindsey, suggesting the snaking balloons were more Chinese, which was fitting, as Portland is an Asian city in some ways (Pacific Rim and all that) -- me being obscure again.

The upshot of it all, as determined in the post-meeting, was the balloons would have to be disposed of responsibly sooner or later and not in any messy way, such as by just letting them go, so best to pop them now and get it over with, then pack out the detritus. However, about half the pillar was set aside for another group of tents, which wanted to do something artistic with them. We'll see what they do (or maybe not -- I may lose the thread at this point, so check with other bloggers if interested).

The biggest adrenaline rush for me was when the guy with the security arm band got all exercised about my having a pocket knife (a gift from Glenn). I was helping with the disposal process, popping a few with the blade as Lindsey held them. He decided I was a reprehensible individual and threatened me with bodily harm should I approach him more closely, even after I'd closed the pocket knife. In his defense, he had no idea Lindsey and I were co-occupants of the Blue House or that I'd been summoned to assist as a trusted individual. I was just some guy with a knife, perhaps stepping in recklessly.

The occupants have a lot of untrained rather unprofessional people doing the best they can in these arm band roles. I immediately retreated and made no further use of my pocket knife. The balloons were not really my problem to deal with. I'd performed in my cameo role.

Lindsey walked away too, soon thereafter, having clutched these balloons for hours, satisfied with the process and eager to step out of the limelight, as her powerful persona (which several had remarked on) was not the point. She'd been acting on principle, as were many on this world stage.

Food Not Bombs in general has been sticking to its guns, cracking down on paper plate use, other thoughtless / wasteful behaviors. Tempers flare in these circumstances.

Lindsey herself was in no physical danger. Many had rallied to her side and accepted her leadership role. She then told me I was free to leave in her polite manner and I rolled home soon thereafter, reassured she was OK, if strung out. Jen and Tre had also come down in support of their friend (Melody would have, but she's got a lot on her plate -- I kept her updated by borrowing cells, as my battery had died).

Tre was upset by all the tobacco smoking going on, with people not confining it to a GA-designated area. At least one of the park characters was actively pushing tobacco smoking, giving out free cigs. Perhaps cig smoking served to counter body odor, other smells? That's how it worked on the Blueback (a submarine) according to OMSI guides.

I'd taken the car thinking I might need to evacuate my friend Lindsey (this was her car originally, with both our names on the title today), given her distressed tone and the organizers saying to please hurry, but really, she was taking fairly logical action around an emotional issue, and following a group process.

Better to let things run their course and let the high notes stay high. My role was not to extricate but to participate in a low key manner, to chat with the various players, sharing perspectives.

People need to pace themselves if expecting to stay at the site for the long haul, get away for R&R sometimes. The same applies to any police working this beat. I hope we see lots of rotation. That will give more fresh volunteers a crack at a front row seat, and bragging rights for later.

On that note, I plan to visit Holladay Park on the east side tomorrow, where a different action is planned for Columbus Day. FNB has been named as an accomplice and I want to make sure we're not dropping the ball on this one.

By the way, I've noticed some bloggers poking vicious fun at the way GA meetings tend to rely on repetition by the crowd, of whatever someone is saying. I agree this tends to look silly and unnecessary when the speaker is using a bullhorn, but that wasn't what was happening in this meeting.

Running a real microphone to any would-be speaker in the crowd is not always practical, so having the crowd loudly repeat what anyone is saying, once recognized, is a way to keep the meeting from either degenerating and/or being dominated by those few with access to electricity. With all that repetition, everyone is better able to follow what's being said and decided, plus one needs to listen well enough to repeat, a skill in itself if you're not used to really listening.

WhereCampPDX 2011

Ironically, I forgot where Metro was and got lost looking for it. Although I have a Google Android in the company taxi, it has no thoughts on these matters, as I have no designated sponsorships earmarked for any on board GPS at the moment. The Android itself is from the Mighty Python Empire.

I phoned mom and she looked up Metro's location on the web for me. I'd driven right by the place. She asked if dad used to be director of Metro, but I don't think Metro yet existed when he headed up the Portland Planning Bureau in the 1960s, before taking the job with the Libya planning office (land use planning).

I might offer an unconference talk on Food Not Bombs. We need those GIS / GPS dashboards, mainly for dispatchers in their bunkers, sending bikes to food recovery sites, flash mob servings.

Having such gizmos is down the road as far as the SE chapter is concerned. The same principles apply to BizMo dispatching in general (FNB operates "bike bizmos"). LCDs keep track of them. Dave Ulmer's for example.

Many of our chapter are doing food logistics for the 2011 October Occupation. Other chapters are helping out in cities around the globe. Some of the main monitor pages are claiming over 800 metro areas have at least token representation from the 99%, mostly their own inhabitants (at least in Portland -- we live here, are not outsider agitprop agents).

Speaking of the 99%, last night I was lucky enough to be invited, on short notice, to a rather exclusive showing of Life in the Material World, the new documentary about George Harrison, directed by Martin Scorsese. The art museum theater was completely packed.

Our host mentioned how it was something of a coup to be getting this movie (from London, to Roger Ebert, to us), and the guy next to me said "yeah, we're like the 1%", which I thought was funny. I'd be rejoining the 99% later, in their privileged position at the downtown camp site (good lighting, convenient bus access, lots of music and public meetings).

Metro is like the planning arm for TriMet, which is the operational arm (more like the AFSC vis-a-vis behind the scenes Friends). ESRI, Portland Development Commission, GeoLogi, Metro and TriMet are among our sponsors, buying us breakfast and lunch, providing facilities. The hackathon tomorrow will be at Pie (Portland Incubator Experiment).

I'm heading into a talk on the history of map making at Metro, going back to the early 1970s (ruling pens, Rapidograph pens, tape on mylar...).

Amber Case is here, a lot of other geeks I know (Ward Cunningham... Audrey, Igal), from OS Bridge, BarCamp, CubeSpace other venues.

Occupy Portland Event

:: occupy pdx ::

Through the Needle's Eye

:: carol urner ::

Carol (my mother) is regaling Friends with stories about her activism during her time in the Philippines.

The Quakers are doing a series featuring people who have published Pendle Hill Pamphlets. Mom has written two (#275, #317).

We have about thirteen people here.

Mom has a lot of inside stories to tell.

She's experienced the grief of whole peoples, which has driven her to take action.

In the story she's telling now, she was working to prevent the deportation of a tribal priest in the Philippines, an ethnic Tiboli, and going to embassies, using her clout. She was successful in this case, or the community was.

She spent quite a bit of her talk extolling the virtuous life of Abdul Ghaffar Khan, at one time a great leader in the Stans.

About Town

:: alberta rose theater ::

Having worn a prototype cuffka around town for a couple weeks, haunted households known for making bold fashion statements, I was ready to trade up for the real deal. Lots of cuffkas out there (branded elsewise) but not with a Nirel Foundation logo. With my suit coat and black leather cuff with Hebrew lettering, I look up to my old tricks again, back in Black Hat territory.

Affixing insignia to the cuff, ala girl scout merit badges, ala Bavarian walking stick badges, shows people how far into the woods you've wandered following our esoteric leadings. Glenn stopped by at The Bagdad and started a talk that lasted for some hours. Nirel was enthralled.

Last night, I operated a hand held sound recording gizmo plugged into the main sound board at Alberta Rose Theater, built before talkies, 1927 I think it was. Now she's a main venue for Portland's legendary music scene, a mix of undiscovered and known gems. Jimmy Lott is in the latter category, in being a big name around town. He was followed by some awesome acts, including Leaves Russell. I dashed here from Quaker Quarterly Meeting, missing family night, but then Carol and Tara both had engagements elsewhere as well.

Quarterly Meeting was about economics, privilege and class. Our branch of the tree is quite self conscious about its mostly middle class status, and those who wash up on that beach, often refugees from other lifestyles (quite often military service), or perhaps a protracted illness, or student loans. I don't really consider myself middle class, as I have that "institutional wealth" mentality similar to those aboard an aircraft carrier. Uncle Sam owns the assets, I just have access in accordance with rank and responsibility (though it may not always be "Uncle Sam" in my case -- that was more a figure of speech, given how mangled the tax laws have become (you can't always judge by simplistic criteria, when it comes to measuring allegiances and brand loyalty (psychometrics is a dark art))).

Our interest group focused on an apparent criminal act, involving robbing defenseless women of their life savings who thought they were getting working equipment, when all this junk showed up on their doorstep. With half the money down, and half the equipment delivered (in non-working condition), the company position is they'd need to pay the other half to get the rest, with no admission of wrongdoing. Quakers are interested in bolstering the legal team with some professional attack dogs, eager to score kudos with their peers, for really helping the wheels turn in some international case. Faith in the justice system is at a low ebb these days, so here's a real opportunity for someone with skills. We shall see.

Lew and I spent a lot of time talking about the waste stream. I'm used to talking about the food stream at Food Not Bombs, in our many meetings for cooking (I'm talking several servings a week), but pure waste, as in sewage, is more a Wanderers topic, and indeed Lew has been coming to Wanderers, was there for Duane's talk last week in fact. He was also a member of this Nicaragua Delegation and spoke eloquently during the interest group, as did the others, including my daughter. I hadn't realized Josh had been a Gitmo pilot for the military. That gives more perspective.

Speaking of Food Not Bombs, yes of course the Portland activist community is familiar with the theme of Occupation, which has been making its way through the Internet of late. Given this isn't Burma, we're not really expecting the military to roll out its heavy weapons or to provoke street fighting ala Tahrir. Rolling back the Occupation might make more sense as a theme, as North America has been occupied by a somewhat alien ideology, good at masking itself behind nationalist iconography. I've used some of Dr. Fuller's esoteric shoptalk in these journals, yakking about LAWCAP and so on. In the popular mindset, that conjures images of Seattle and the WTO. However, as Nirel pointed out over lunch, Portland has a higher proportion of high IQ people than Seattle, even if we're not as well educated. Is this true? We shall see.

Hey, interesting article in The Mercury about the new computer program that helps with cop watching, even as the cops are keeping watch. It uses the GPS units to keep track of the forces, which is something the military has been using for a long time, as a way for MPs to keep track if not commanding officers. That convention in Scandinavia, where an arrest is by default hands off, might gain some ground here, though "going peacefully" is not the point of a civil protest, though nor is "resisting arrest" if the stand is on principle. The sidewalk laws come into play. Businesses don't want consumers and clients having any problems getting through, as these are their sustenance. A festival atmosphere that increases some forms of consumption, by providing another reason to go downtown (for the spectacle) is not necessarily bad for business.

Dogtoberfest

This has got to be the busiest day of the year at Lucky Lab. They're lined up at the beer and food counters, the place thick with dogs. Booths all around, a band. Somewhat heretically (in the manner of a heretic, ala Satanic Verses), I didn't bring my dog, Sarah Angel. We did have some quality time this morning though, complete with a belly rub and prolonged looking out the window together, watching the world.

Yesterday was officially the equinox. Neolithic Math teacher Glenn Stockton delivered one of the best talks yet, about the 26,000 year precessional cycle, about all manner of astral phenomenon, as mapped into cosmic stories. A cryptographer by training and predilection, Glenn is a master of putting 1 and 1 together and getting 4 (an allusion to Bucky there).

My day was action packed, as I chronicled on the FNB list (archive access requires subscription). We're enjoying a last blast of summer weather in Portland, and you can't beat the combination of exercise and community service. Even though hectic, this had all the marks of a good day. Praise Allah for Ali, who showed up out of the blue to make the food happen.

The line at Lucky Lab has gotten longer. I'm in route to a Python meetup where we'll be showing some of our Pycon talk proposals. Mine is about Pythonic Andragogy (an old meme with me), recast to include new developments. I'm at the top of my game on the Virtual Nations bit (see "micronations" in Wikipedia). Pythonia. Steve Holden's Mighty Python Empire. These come to mind as motifs, right next to the Programming Republic of Perl.

The talk has some Wittgenstein in it. The border zone between Philosophy and Ethnography provides plenty of grist for the mill.

Tara got through one of those rites of passage this week. We timed it to happen over lunch and free period: a visit to the DMV, to get in the database with a learner's permit. She succeeded, with literally not a minute to spare.

I've been wearing this Cuffka around, market testing. With my cutoffs and veg trailer, I must have looked quite the site. Mid-life crisis on steroids? Nah, Portland is just weird. I fit right in. I showed it to Melody who makes body wear out of bike tubing. Lindsey has sewed together her new Fall outfit, deliberately tattered yet fashionable. Many models would die for her scarecrow-ish figure. I'm surrounded by talented women (and a few good men).

Speaking of talented women, I'm feeling for Gin, down on her luck lately; another FNBer, waylaid by a bike accident in route to the church yesterday, after having her pack stolen.

Sarah Angel has been a real sweetheart of a dog, as mom and I were both remarking this morning. She bares her teeth and barks at strangers, but then she's billed as a "security dog" so those qualities are redeemed.

Oversight Meeting happened in there too. Something told me I couldn't just hang out with the guys and Lindsey at the local watering hole. Sure enough, we had scheduled a meeting on a Thursday night (most unusual), in hopes of attracting more of our committee. With no assistant clerk, I'd say we're in disarray.

We talked about "membership" quite a lot. For an attender, I'm mighty active these days, but then that's been a pattern, as many Friends have been led by the Spirit to opt out of older language games, and to co-invent some newer ones.

DjangoCon 2011

:: a tribe gathers ... ::

I'm still sorting through impressions.

The conversation at dinner was reminiscent of a Pycon, almost a case of deja vu. So where are the universities in all this? These little companies are learning institutions, little space capsules, genius astronauts / cosmonauts.

Getting GeoDjango up and running: might you come to DjangoCon with the expectation of getting help with that? What if a school had a booth, performed install mitzvahs.

We talked about the advisability of outsourcing the core code pile versus eating one's own dogfood. Rather than change existing schools, I advocate designing new ones from scratch that are "written from within". Model by showing, not by being cantankerous.

The keynote this morning was all about negotiation skills. Geeks, or proto-geeks (nerds) tend to take an "I'm right" position thinking that's the extent of the skill set needed. The "dirty truth" is people get promoted based on people skills. Yes, excluding from a clique is essential to survival as an ethnic identity sometimes, it's the price one pays. Including is likewise the name of the game. Recruiting happens.

I lumbered to the microphone for a question, revealing I teach TDD (test driven development) among other things, which the speaker had dismissed as unreal (true, it's more a philosophy). Shouldn't library modules come with self diagnostics at least? She agreed, in the case of libraries. Her models were more one-off websites. Keep the testing code separable from the production code, for many reasons (and that's mostly what we teach).

I wore my black Princeton T-shirt some of the time (Going Back -- it's my 2005 25th reunion T-shirt), giving the alma mater some presence. Why don't schools differentiate around the internal social networking software they evolve (and open source some of) in-house?

Should universities be centers of innovation, with school spirit manifest in the core admin?

This would mean crossing faculty with IT a lot more.

Yes, students come and go: all the more reason to put lifers in a supervisory role (with paid time for patching code).

Perhaps new kinds of school will do this. I'm not saying the old guard will be able to change fast enough to keep pace.

Quaker Doings

:: clerk of the meeting ::

I'm exercising my privilege as a key holder today, arriving at the meetinghouse during clerk office hours and dragging Skyblue into the social hall, parking her unobtrusively in the corner.

After Rick wrapped up his duties he ambled over and opted in on a photo op. We're commemorating about one year of active collaboration with Food Not Bombs.

About a year ago, I took an outdoor picture with then clerk Betsey Kenworthy, just yesterday returned from Managua as a part of our meeting away team.

When I say "our meeting" I'm speaking loosely as technically I joined the Bridge City Worship Group and helped shepherd it to monthly meeting status. Then, having only attender status in both meetings (by choice of new Quaker nomenclature), I continued most of my activities with Multnomah, given it's within easy walking distance and I was practicing strict ascetics where peak oil was concerned.

I continue to drive way less than had been my habit, even though I work as a chauffeur in various capacities (per my Director of Open Source application to Reed College).

Since Rick's background is journalism, Columbia University and so on (reminds me of my friend the Keunsel editor in Thimphu), I thought he'd enjoy a brief human interest story from FnB and recounted about my losing David's expensive knife set overboard, off the back of my bicycle.

Rick expressed surprise the replacement price tag was under $200 (I have the boxes here today). There's something to be said for shopping eBay, and knowing exactly what you want (going mainly by price as an indication of quality: not necessarily a good idea). He took my picture as well.

Speaking of pricing, one of the sad stories from Managua involves this co-op for ladies who had bet the farm, their life savings, and gone into debt, to purchase cotton milling equipment. They'd already built the factory building to take delivery, but the equipment that showed up was definitely not the equipment they had selected, inspected and trained on. What they got was junk. Some swindler from Venezuela they say.

But that story pales next to what's happening in Honduras.

Business meeting approved my experiment post facto, after we had some data points to go by (we tested cooking a couple times). Our equipment is not as robust as what they've got in many churches. However, for the vegan style FnB uses, it's quite adequate. We're not deep fat fryers.

Those early Vegans Not Pigs episodes, with optional meat entres from Emily, including cat fish, were more of a Duke's Landing co-production.

I was to report back to business meeting within a year. I might be using a URI to this write-up in committee emails shortly, as well as on Facebook, where I manage some of my Quaker stuff.

Reconnecting

My thanks to Nick Consoletti for inviting me to join him at Peet's with Johnny Stallings. I hadn't seen Johnny in awhile. The story about getting costumes and props inventoried at the prison, so the dress rehearsal could occur, was a fine one. Nancy had put her heart into the jester's bauble and this was the one prop that was nixed. She offered to replace the wooden handle with a cardboard tube, and was given a green light.

Johnny both directs and performs plays in prisons. He's a deeply talented guy. We started talking about Richard Nixon and he remembered all about the movie I mentioned.

Nick came by for the afternoon, to hang out and use the wifi. He's based in Hillsboro these days, having navigated a change of scene. He comes in on the Max.

I'm using Facebook rather intensively these days, which is not my habit. I'm reconnecting with my old school in the Philippines more, plus logging a lot of details about my Quaker doings, wanting to get some of the details into my profile.

Hawthorne Street Fair today. I showed up around the Linus Pauling Center for Peace, Science and Health table, next to the Craigmore Creations booth. Patrick was in charge. I took some pictures. Terry had stopped by somewhat earlier, probably when I was in my Oversight Committee meeting.

Again, lots of bread crumbs on Facebook. Some FnB stuff there too, and comments on Tara's blog.

I drove Carol to the meetinghouse this morning, then walked back during meeting to grab my laptop. A bike route complete with street cones police directing traffic persuaded me to just leave the car by the Quakers until later. No one drives it but me, so that's OK. Carol got home by other means.

:: Patrick @ LPH table ::

click here for Photostream

How to Think Like A Computer Scientist

link here

Blue House News

Getting to meet the Caldera guy was interesting. Here's one of those youth centric facilities in the Oregon wilderness of the kind I write science fiction about, though sometimes with so much science and so little fiction it's hard to distinguish such writing from investment banking (banking on the future in various ways).

My brother in law Sam (Dawn's bro) was a lead carpenter on this Caldera site, which is close to Black Butte, on the shores of Suttle Lake.

PJB has discovered LimeSurvey and is finding it useful in working with Hollywood, with thoughts about "smart meters" and "smart houses" never far beneath the surface (polling and feedback is crucial where energy consumption is concerned).

I'm quite intrigued by this book Alex turned me onto at FnB: Waking to Wonder, Wittgenstein's Existential Investigations by Gordon Bearn. I'll have more to say on the Wittgenstein list (Sean's).

Carol is slogging ahead with WILPF work, researching drones more. She does lots of conference calls.

Tara is out of the country. We've been reading her blog. More about her adventures soon.

Lindsey, still with us until May, is fine tuning her street busker persona, with music to go with.

I'm at the Pauling House this morning.

A funny thing happened earlier today: while mom was thinking about Jack, what he might think about the failure of command and control (diplomacy, the political process) in Libya, she heard a loud noise. Turned out later that was a framed picture of Jack and his planning team from Rome days, at that moment falling off the "time capsule" and shattering. I've returned it to the top shelf, sans glass and frame.

Sita Sings the Blues (movie review)

Glenn Stockton raved about this one. Later, Satya brought it up at Lindsey's birthday party.

With such discriminating individuals giving it a thumbs up, I queued it with rather high expectations.

Tara watched it too. We were not disappointed.

The foreground puppets remind us of what I have long considered: that shadow puppets and cartoons, theater more generally, are pretty much the same thing.

Here the genres blend, to give a special case reality, yet the generalized principles are what we're thinking about.

Many plots hinge on the presupposition that love triangles are unstable and lets say many of them are.

I liked the way the puppets blasphemed. Shades of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Shadow puppets could help teach Python, other subjects. I imagine those __ribs__.

We under-use so many of our best technologies, and over-use so many of our worst. No one is "making us".

Conditioned reflexes have staying power and as Bucky Fuller often taught: minus intuition and an openness to upgrades, we stay stuck in our robot-hood.

Even this Rama guy could be a real jerk sometimes.

A Quaker Crossroads

A lot of us gathered in Room 12 today, to discuss Marge Abbott's new Pendle Hill pamphlet #402 entitled Christianity and the Inner Life.

We had about a two hour discussion, with every chair occupied, John Wish standing.

When it was my turn to speak, I expressed enthusiasm for Marge's terminology, as her pamphlet mentions Buddhist Quakers, Jewish Quakers and Christian Quakers.

That's enough of a design pattern to free at least a few boat loads of Quakers from the Christian brand if they so wish ("we do" I hear them say).

We may have lots of forward branching outside the domain of Christendom (which is like a DNS domain name, lots of web sites).

For me, it's like those Elven ships leaving Middle Earth towards the end of Lord of the Rings.

And it's not like we don't embrace Jesus as one of us. At least a few of Jesus's best Friends aren't Christian.

FNB 2011.8.11

My FnB Rig

I can hear them singing in the kitchen. I'm cast as janitor, more "clean up monster", my role kicking in around 5:45 PM. In the meantime, I'm blogging, also ducked out to Horse Brass to radio cell mates about various doings and happenings, imbibed an Ice Ax.

My philosophical remarks have been routed and filed. The Internet works well.

My role also included navigating from Multhnomah Friends to SE 28th, where there's a bike friendly bridge over I-84. North over East Broadway and along Tillamook or one of those, to N Williams, and the new OTY warehouse. Then back. Pulling SkyBlue. Filed flight plan on Riseup, a local network of listservs, used by Portland's active.

Was I the only 50+ year old in Greater Portland actively intervening to rescue food waste for park feasting? A funny thought to contemplate. Why not IEEE picnics based on this concept? The "not bombs" meme just makes good engineering sense. Why cling to some pseudo-Apollonian apologetics, as to why you'd choose bombs over food? You wanna be some oblivious Nazi or what?

Click for web context

Remembering War Crimes

:: Remembering... ::

We tried a new layout this year, in terms of which way things faced, which put a lot of people in the hot sun. Next year, lets shoot for evening. Mom was almost overcome. Good job anyway. Glad to be of service. Counting down...

FNB 2011.8.4

Star date, captain's log, blah blah. Tara is on her way from OHSU. The week is frenetic. Food politics in the kitchen, with Satya, Lindsey and Aaron.

I brought up some debating points, but Satya's attitude was more "what's to argue about?".

I mentioned my "gringo go home" campaign w/r to Quinoa, though as Joe Snyder pointed out on Facebook, gentrification of basic food stuffs is a rampant scourge. Cash crops ya know.

Those with money feel entitled to externalize whatever costs eh?

Style matters. People want to have the right appearance. A coat of furs may be used to add status, but that approach may backfire. As in Spirited Away, one has lots of ways to turn into a pig.