Nelson Lowhim's Blog, page 89
January 9, 2019
Have you ever tried to Search Images by Google?
It's kinda cool. I read about it in Teju Cole's Essay collection (which is definitely worth a read, btw). Anyhow, it's a different way of searching (not, btw, searching a word then looking at the images) that's still not that good.
For example, I searched myself and only managed to see other well-dressed men (not that I'm well-dressed, just that it's what that photo had). A proper search would bring up other images of me, or other people who look like me (or maybe that's too overtly creepy, coming from our intrusive tech overlords? I suppose this, then, in light of all the snooping they've done would be a gambit).
I searched a unique cover of mine and only managed to get something like where my cover was used, rather than similar looking art.
Anyhow, perhaps it seems to me that it has regressed quite a bit in the past few years. Is it something else that Google is going to give up on? Here is something I wrote about some time ago about using this image search as a kind of visual flarf (mmm, collages). But it seems like it hasn't improved at all. All that talk about AI and this is what we get, eh?
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For example, I searched myself and only managed to see other well-dressed men (not that I'm well-dressed, just that it's what that photo had). A proper search would bring up other images of me, or other people who look like me (or maybe that's too overtly creepy, coming from our intrusive tech overlords? I suppose this, then, in light of all the snooping they've done would be a gambit).
I searched a unique cover of mine and only managed to get something like where my cover was used, rather than similar looking art.
Anyhow, perhaps it seems to me that it has regressed quite a bit in the past few years. Is it something else that Google is going to give up on? Here is something I wrote about some time ago about using this image search as a kind of visual flarf (mmm, collages). But it seems like it hasn't improved at all. All that talk about AI and this is what we get, eh?
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Pics from ActiveStills
Just found this series of photographs. Check it out.
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January 6, 2019
Oh
And there's another short story out on kindle, if you prefer reading that way (and given how the internet is these days, I kinda know why this is).
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Windy AF
This wind has just kicked up here in Seattle. Supposed to get up to 40mph with gusts up to 60mph. Yeah the windows are shivering and whistling away and there's a sense that soon they'll give way.
I remember hurricane Sandy in NYC and how that too made the windows shake (that was, btw, a tropical storm that misse dus by lots of miles and still it was rough. Our building was shaking and I was sure the windows would break. They didn't, luckily.
But it made me think that if a real hurricane would hit NYC head on, the city would suffer a lot more damage than any one thinks. Of course, sooner or later that entire city will have to deal with rising sea waters. Good times, this global warming issue.
Any how. If you're in Seattle, take care and tie down anything that's lose.
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I remember hurricane Sandy in NYC and how that too made the windows shake (that was, btw, a tropical storm that misse dus by lots of miles and still it was rough. Our building was shaking and I was sure the windows would break. They didn't, luckily.
But it made me think that if a real hurricane would hit NYC head on, the city would suffer a lot more damage than any one thinks. Of course, sooner or later that entire city will have to deal with rising sea waters. Good times, this global warming issue.
Any how. If you're in Seattle, take care and tie down anything that's lose.
Enjoyed it? Share it via email, facebook, twitter, or one of the buttons below (or through some other method you prefer). Thank you! As always, here's the tip jar. paypal.me/nlowhim Throw some change in there & help cover the costs of running this thing. You can use paypal or a credit card.
January 5, 2019
Short Story
Well, for those who want, here's a short story on kindle. It was written years ago, so the events of today have kinda overtaken it. It's about a man who finds himself being chased for acts of sedition. He finds that he has limited places to go. All his friends, even the ones that raged against the machine, are hesitant to help. So he goes to a place where he knows he'll be fine. In a church. An old friend awaits him. Will it be the right choice?
Who knows, really. But it was my attempt at fleshing out the difference between religious people and atheists aren't always so marked. And when it comes to getting things done in the world, well, you know, it can be quite the tossup.
Enjoy.
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Who knows, really. But it was my attempt at fleshing out the difference between religious people and atheists aren't always so marked. And when it comes to getting things done in the world, well, you know, it can be quite the tossup.
Enjoy.
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January 4, 2019
We are probably doomed.
At the start of this current regime's election, despite having lost the majority of votes (and that besides the fact of voter suppression), there were a bunch of centrist neo-liberals who claimed that they needed to be listened to more than ever.
Then we have the cult of personality around billionaires. Just look at any thread where someone like Musk comments on digging tunnels for, wait for it, cars. Not even close to highly original or even workable. And yet there we have a million minions defending him with the usual cliches of "first they laugh at you" or some other spurious claim to Musk's genius. [1]
But even the pundit class or intellectual class (or the loudest of those who would wear that label) come up with this pseudo-scientific bullshit that tells us our gods deserve to be gods because now we can show they think differently! I really hope they were paid well for such propaganda.
Meritocracy to save the day!
Of course of fucking course.
I know I wrote about how we are all apes and should remain vigilant. But man are we in for a ride. If these demi-gods should deem it, they will pay one half of the poor to fight the other.
Because of these unthinking minions we can be certain that the system will remain the same and we won't be able to break up monopolies as needed.
This while these idiots seem hell-bent on running from this planet and living forever while watching the world go to shit. And, mind you, claiming that it's not their fault (or the fault of some nebulous ignorant mass, not other powers or the system that allows them so much power).
And I especially like the fact that people seem to think that all deserve their spots on top (despite the current POTUS and his wrecking of the nation[2]). Sure money matters, but as we move to try and find real solutions to our world's problems, it would seem that the assumption that those with money deserve it seems to ignore how we got into this mess.
Look at health care. We can spend billions on treatments, but if we don't work on prevention or inequality we are wasting our time.
But such thinking doesn't get you a top spot at TED.
*end rant*
[1] It would seem, to me, that at least much of this simply shows how good billionaires are at selling grift-like things to just about anyone. Long live the grift, I suppose.
[2] funny to follow this specific thread of thought: people seem to either say he's a billionaire and deserves our love and adulation and faithfulness and others who claim he isn't a billionaire (and only claims it), most against the claim are simply trying to disarm the claim that he's that rich, not that being that rich shouldn't mean you can run the country).
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Then we have the cult of personality around billionaires. Just look at any thread where someone like Musk comments on digging tunnels for, wait for it, cars. Not even close to highly original or even workable. And yet there we have a million minions defending him with the usual cliches of "first they laugh at you" or some other spurious claim to Musk's genius. [1]
But even the pundit class or intellectual class (or the loudest of those who would wear that label) come up with this pseudo-scientific bullshit that tells us our gods deserve to be gods because now we can show they think differently! I really hope they were paid well for such propaganda.
Meritocracy to save the day!
Of course of fucking course.
I know I wrote about how we are all apes and should remain vigilant. But man are we in for a ride. If these demi-gods should deem it, they will pay one half of the poor to fight the other.
Because of these unthinking minions we can be certain that the system will remain the same and we won't be able to break up monopolies as needed.
This while these idiots seem hell-bent on running from this planet and living forever while watching the world go to shit. And, mind you, claiming that it's not their fault (or the fault of some nebulous ignorant mass, not other powers or the system that allows them so much power).
And I especially like the fact that people seem to think that all deserve their spots on top (despite the current POTUS and his wrecking of the nation[2]). Sure money matters, but as we move to try and find real solutions to our world's problems, it would seem that the assumption that those with money deserve it seems to ignore how we got into this mess.
Look at health care. We can spend billions on treatments, but if we don't work on prevention or inequality we are wasting our time.
But such thinking doesn't get you a top spot at TED.
*end rant*
[1] It would seem, to me, that at least much of this simply shows how good billionaires are at selling grift-like things to just about anyone. Long live the grift, I suppose.
[2] funny to follow this specific thread of thought: people seem to either say he's a billionaire and deserves our love and adulation and faithfulness and others who claim he isn't a billionaire (and only claims it), most against the claim are simply trying to disarm the claim that he's that rich, not that being that rich shouldn't mean you can run the country).
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January 1, 2019
General.
In the annals of generals commenting on American society, I would say that this take by McChrystal is pretty good. It's short, of course, but it takes a look at the odd need to look at leaders who define us. I do wish he went into specifics. And though I do agree with having people serve the community (he notes there are many ways to serve one's country. I agree) and I think that the New Green Deal will help with that, I sense that some more specifics would be better.
Also this piece in the Times seems somewhat level headed in that it looks at our stay in Afghanistan. Something we all need to look at. 2 trillion so far, by some estimates. I would say that we could have achieved more doing anything else than what we're doing or did. Lack of imagination, I suppose. The article claims that if we hadn't focused on Iraq we would have been better off.
That's a big if. I think we need to get our house in order before we look to get other people's houses in order. Many I've talked to mention how it was wrong from the get go. Were we ever going to build something there? What lessons to be learned from Afghanistan? Perhaps the post USSR-pullout should have been managed better.
What's clear now is other countries have interests and we should let them pull the weight.
Also, it appears that you can now access a bunch of new books .
Project Gutenberg seems like a good place to do so.
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Also this piece in the Times seems somewhat level headed in that it looks at our stay in Afghanistan. Something we all need to look at. 2 trillion so far, by some estimates. I would say that we could have achieved more doing anything else than what we're doing or did. Lack of imagination, I suppose. The article claims that if we hadn't focused on Iraq we would have been better off.
That's a big if. I think we need to get our house in order before we look to get other people's houses in order. Many I've talked to mention how it was wrong from the get go. Were we ever going to build something there? What lessons to be learned from Afghanistan? Perhaps the post USSR-pullout should have been managed better.
What's clear now is other countries have interests and we should let them pull the weight.
Also, it appears that you can now access a bunch of new books .
Project Gutenberg seems like a good place to do so.
Enjoyed it? Share it via email, facebook, twitter, or one of the buttons below (or through some other method you prefer). Thank you! As always, here's the tip jar. paypal.me/nlowhim Throw some change in there & help cover the costs of running this thing. You can use paypal or a credit card.
December 31, 2018
Vice
Just watched
Vice
, which is a pretty entertaining movie, well done, and with yet another brilliant acting job by Bale. Yet it seemed to fall short. The part of being a Vice would seem to be the most important and yet that gets the least. Sure we want to know how the man Cheney was created, but get to the juicy stuff.
So a hundred things are set up to show how corrupt (not enough and not enough of that was in the man himself) the man was, and yet nothing is done about it (as in okay oil companies talked about divvying up Iraqi oil fields. Good. But what happened in the end?
Yeah, over all it was pretty much a let down of what could have been. Also some facts seemed off. AQI is not ISIS, though you could show the ties, I suppose.
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So a hundred things are set up to show how corrupt (not enough and not enough of that was in the man himself) the man was, and yet nothing is done about it (as in okay oil companies talked about divvying up Iraqi oil fields. Good. But what happened in the end?
Yeah, over all it was pretty much a let down of what could have been. Also some facts seemed off. AQI is not ISIS, though you could show the ties, I suppose.
Enjoyed it? Share it via email, facebook, twitter, or one of the buttons below (or through some other method you prefer). Thank you! As always, here's the tip jar. paypal.me/nlowhim Throw some change in there & help cover the costs of running this thing. You can use paypal or a credit card.
The War You Know About.
Sometimes I'm not sure why I'm so surprised that things work in the odd way that they do. Of course we're now looking at Syria (and, thankfully, Yemen) but not really any other areas with great concern. The numbers from places like Syria are horrendous. But compared to the Congo, they seem like nothing.
But it isn't a war you're supposed to care about so you're not going to hear about it.
On that note. I'll be writing more and creating some better movies. Stay tuned.
Have a Happy New Year, you beautiful bastards!
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But it isn't a war you're supposed to care about so you're not going to hear about it.
On that note. I'll be writing more and creating some better movies. Stay tuned.
Have a Happy New Year, you beautiful bastards!
Enjoyed it? Share it via email, facebook, twitter, or one of the buttons below (or through some other method you prefer). Thank you! As always, here's the tip jar. paypal.me/nlowhim Throw some change in there & help cover the costs of running this thing. You can use paypal or a credit card.
December 28, 2018
On other veterans.
I don't talk about other veteran writers much. Not from my generation, at least. To some extent I sense that's because I don't interact with them much. I used to go to a lot of veteran workshops in NYC, but no longer. I'm actually not hundred percent on why that is. Competition?
Maybe
Or maybe that there are a couple "types" of veteran writer that the publishing world seems to adore, ones I didn't care for when inside or out. *
But when they write some good things, they do it well. With Gallgher's latest piece in the Times, we have something like an analysis of the latest row about the withdrawal from Syria and Trump's visit to the troops in Iraq.**
It's a good piece because it attempts to look at the Forever War and how we react to it. First, I have to commend Gallgher for getting into the fact that for all the TYFYS crap we see in the country, it's not really about the soldier since we've rarely voted these kind of people in:
I think this is indeed the case. Yet after talking about the forever war, Matt seems to claim not to know what to do (he isn't privy to Top-Secret meetings) about the wars, other than more transparency.
Certainly we need more of that, but I sense that he's missing the opportunity to truly diagnose the country and Trump as symptom.
Thing is, the whole love the troops cuts down racial and class divisions that don't really mean we love the troops. There is only an ideal (and I dare say it the ideal of a kind of white dominance—not always presented in this form—hence the ease with which someone can have POW sticker and love Trump who doesn't like "people who are captured) and that this ideal suspects certain people, seems to be lost on Matt.
Take, for example, this brilliant essay by Williams, a black veteran. Go on, read it. It's damn near the best thing written by a veteran this century (you sure as hell won't see it on the pages of the MSM, though).
Here's my take away point:
And therein lies the truth. Without tackling the white supremacy (in all its variety) behind the need for a war on brown people (for changing how we view certain resources***, to say nothing of helping people around the world). Yes this is something both at home and abroad, but one cannot separate the fear that many have of terrorism and illegals as well.
That Matt ignores this, and though I don't want to say why. Coming from the Army I know that the ideal is not to really dive into the details.
I welcome a discussion on our forever wars. Let's hope we can change our ways before it is too late.
*this could be a kind of haterism, I suppose.
**No, I don't want to focus on the argument over whether to stay or go. Of course the MSM would highlight the left and right coming together to "agree" when they aren't doing that. The left (the likes of Chomsky) believe that the reason to stay is merely to make sure the Kurds aren't run over by Turkey. Meanwhile the right (neoconservatives at least) want us to fight no matter what... I'm guessing for oil or something like it.
*** Matt calls this "The American public has been conditioned to believe that foreign war is necessary, even vital, to maintaining our way of life." without getting into the odd fetish, or defensiveness of protecting a way of life that looks set to kill the world off (I'm talking about Climate Change here). To be fair, Matt does claim that we need to not allow our leaders to make stupid excuses for these wars, but without unpacking the white supremacy behind much of the fear, it's useless to do so.
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Maybe
Or maybe that there are a couple "types" of veteran writer that the publishing world seems to adore, ones I didn't care for when inside or out. *
But when they write some good things, they do it well. With Gallgher's latest piece in the Times, we have something like an analysis of the latest row about the withdrawal from Syria and Trump's visit to the troops in Iraq.**
It's a good piece because it attempts to look at the Forever War and how we react to it. First, I have to commend Gallgher for getting into the fact that for all the TYFYS crap we see in the country, it's not really about the soldier since we've rarely voted these kind of people in:
In so many ways, Mr. Trump is not a cause of diminishing respect for the military, but a symptom of it. So it is with 21st-century America and war. “Thank you for your service,” but spare the details, please.
I think this is indeed the case. Yet after talking about the forever war, Matt seems to claim not to know what to do (he isn't privy to Top-Secret meetings) about the wars, other than more transparency.
Certainly we need more of that, but I sense that he's missing the opportunity to truly diagnose the country and Trump as symptom.
Thing is, the whole love the troops cuts down racial and class divisions that don't really mean we love the troops. There is only an ideal (and I dare say it the ideal of a kind of white dominance—not always presented in this form—hence the ease with which someone can have POW sticker and love Trump who doesn't like "people who are captured) and that this ideal suspects certain people, seems to be lost on Matt.
Take, for example, this brilliant essay by Williams, a black veteran. Go on, read it. It's damn near the best thing written by a veteran this century (you sure as hell won't see it on the pages of the MSM, though).
Here's my take away point:
I have been looked at with suspicion and followed in stores more times than I have been looked at with respect while wearing my military uniform.
I have been stopped and frisked more times than I have been thanked for my service.
I have been called a nigger more times than I have been called a patriot.
I am a Black man, a father, a husband, and a combat-veteran. As proud as I am to wear those labels, above all else I would like nothing more than to think of myself as an American first.
But my country won’t let me.
And therein lies the truth. Without tackling the white supremacy (in all its variety) behind the need for a war on brown people (for changing how we view certain resources***, to say nothing of helping people around the world). Yes this is something both at home and abroad, but one cannot separate the fear that many have of terrorism and illegals as well.
That Matt ignores this, and though I don't want to say why. Coming from the Army I know that the ideal is not to really dive into the details.
I welcome a discussion on our forever wars. Let's hope we can change our ways before it is too late.
*this could be a kind of haterism, I suppose.
**No, I don't want to focus on the argument over whether to stay or go. Of course the MSM would highlight the left and right coming together to "agree" when they aren't doing that. The left (the likes of Chomsky) believe that the reason to stay is merely to make sure the Kurds aren't run over by Turkey. Meanwhile the right (neoconservatives at least) want us to fight no matter what... I'm guessing for oil or something like it.
*** Matt calls this "The American public has been conditioned to believe that foreign war is necessary, even vital, to maintaining our way of life." without getting into the odd fetish, or defensiveness of protecting a way of life that looks set to kill the world off (I'm talking about Climate Change here). To be fair, Matt does claim that we need to not allow our leaders to make stupid excuses for these wars, but without unpacking the white supremacy behind much of the fear, it's useless to do so.
Enjoyed it? Share it via email, facebook, twitter, or one of the buttons below (or through some other method you prefer). Thank you! As always, here's the tip jar. paypal.me/nlowhim Throw some change in there & help cover the costs of running this thing. You can use paypal or a credit card.
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