SailorJ.com

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  • Just messing around with GarageBand

    So here is a small track that I created that can be used as a ringtone.

  • Earth Day, Socialism and TGIM

    Well Happy Earth Day. I have written something just about every “Earth Day” up until a few years ago, so I’m bring it back… with a vengeance. I think there was a time when we thought that the right forces would look at science and have rational conversations about saving the planet. It would seem that we no longer are in the mind set that we should try to save the planet, conserve natural resources or that clean water or air even matter.

    Raping Mother Earth for all that she’s worth, after all, we’ll be dead and things won’t matter. This seems to be the mantra that many governments are choosing to follow. I do believe science, and the use of trends to predict the outcomes of things. Computers are getting better at modeling and while it isn’t perfect, the science is sound. We need to try reverse our footprint on the planet, and we can be more and more successful stewards of the planet.

    The population of this planet will continue to grow and out grow our power consumption, and it will be interesting to see where we find the resources to feel 40 Billion people a day, in the not so distant future. We are lucky that technology will help, but it can’t solve all our problems, not if we want to continue to live in harmony on this big blue marble.

    So with that, let me segue into my next topic which is Socialism. I am really tired of hearing people confuse communism and socialism. I’ve seen Meme’s out there that claim if the government controls this or that, then they will control the people. I find that this whole line of thinking is ridiculous. The USA is already filled with lots of socialistic ideology.

    We have lots of government agencies that provide lots of handouts to small segments of the population, like farm subsidies, tax breaks for companies like Amazon (which is basically corporate welfare), and we could go on and on.

    But what do we Americans get to take advantage of from the socialism that our tax dollars provide?

    • Roads, like the Interstate Highway.
    • The Post Office
    • Libraries
    • Schools
    • The military
    • Police
    • Fire
    • Publicly funded hospitals.
    • OSHA (Safety)

    I could go on and on, but you get my point. The foundations of societies are built on sharing resources because not one or even a few can pay for some huge undertakings. Healthcare is an excellent example of something that no person can afford to be without. We already have healthcare for seniors called Medicare. Guess what, we pay for it. It isn’t free, it is paid in advance by the recipients over their lifetime, just like social security. I don’t believe that when you take the deep dive look into these things that people will be asked to pay their fair share of, that it will be deemed a government handout. Socialism isn’t about stealing from the government coffers, it’s about ensuring a minimum standard of services available to a society.

    We don’t have to go far to see plenty of western democracies that have much more radical social programs, England, France, Sweden, the UK and Canada all do a lot for their people. Minimum standards are great, then employers could supplement what the “Medicare for all” doesn’t cover.

    It’s time we recognize the difference between communism and socialism, because our failure to do so will be the economic fall that is looming on the horizon.

    Thank Goodness It’s Monday

    I only know one person that says that. I’m generally dreading going back to work, but this is going to be a fast week. I have so much to do, and no time to get it all done, but in some way I know it will magically come together. I’m good at the crunch time. I can make the magic happen. So TGIM!

  • Lies and Hypocrisy

    I have noticed more and more, people are losing their ability to engage in critical thinking skills. We talk about how social media has created places where we can stay in our own personal echo chambers to reaffirm the narratives that we believe. Sometimes we need this to help us solidify our thoughts. Our problem is that we can get to a point where we no longer see their are ultimate truths out there.

    There are truths, such as racism, sexism exists, ageism and other forms of discrimination continue to plague us and it isn’t right.

    No one can possibly believe that Nazis and other right-wing extremists are “good people”. They have policies that advocate the killing of other people based solely on a persons skin color or ethnicity/religion.

  • Change is the only thing that is constant.

    I am pretty sure that Calvin and Hobbes has nailed it with this one. No one really likes change. Change is super hard. I have always heard, if it’s not broke, don’t fix it. But you know, things don’t get better if we aren’t striving to make them better.

    One of the most difficult things about change is leaving our comfort zone. Maybe it is changing your relationship status or getting a new job or even changing your routine.

    But change is the constant in this world. Look at yourself today and then look back a year, or 5 years, and see how far you’ve come.

    Then there is good ol’ January 1st and the New Year’s resolution. We resolve to change. We consciously make an effort to do the one thing we resist. Usually it is a resolution to lose weight, or something to be a better person.

    The hardest thing is is letting go to something you are used to. Maybe it’s your favorite restaurant or toxic situations, or the safety of income, because the risk for an opportunity seems too great.

    But in the end whether we consciously make a decision to change or have it thrust upon us, change is the one thing that’s guaranteed. Our biggest hurdle is how we choose to deal with it.

  • 30 Day Song Challenge

    So there was a photo posted in my twitter stream and I thought it was a great challenge. I like the post a day challenges, because they are engaging and fun.

    Here is the text of it, but I’ll also post the image file that I saw so you can repost either if you like or even this post. I would recommend letting people know to hashtag it with #30SongsD1 or whatever, then we can find songs that are being posted for whatever day you are doing. You can start the challenge anytime, you don’t have to wait for the 1st day of a month. Have fun.

    Day 1: A song you like with a color in the title.

    Day 2: A song you like with a number isn’t he title.

    Day 3. A song that reminds you of summertime.

    Day 4: A song that reminds you of someone you would rather forget about.

    Day 5: A song that needs to be played LOUD.

    Day 6: A song that makes you want to dance.

    Day 7: A song to drive to.

    Day 8: A song about drugs or alcohol.

    Day 9: A song that makes you happy.

    Day 10: A song that makes you sad.

    Day 11: A song that you never get tired of.

    Day 12: A song from your preteen years.

    Day 13: One of your favorite 70’s Songs.

    Day 14: A song that you loved played at your wedding.

    Day 15: A song that is covered by another artist.

    Day 16: One of your favorite classical songs.

    Day 17: A song that would sing a duet with on karaoke.

    Day 18: A song from the year that you were born.

    Day 19: A song that makes you think about life.

    Day 20: A song that has many meanings to you.

    Day 21: A favorite song with a person’s name in the title.

    Day 22: A song that moves you forward.

    Day 23: A song that you think everybody should listen to.

    Day 24: A song by a band you wish were still together.

    Day 25: A song by an artist no longer living.

    Day 26: A song that makes you want to fall in love.

    Day 27: A song that breaks your heart.

    Day 28: A song by an artist with a voice that you love.

    Day 29: A song that you remember from your childhood.

    Day 30: A song that reminds you of yourself.

  • Nike, the NFL and defending your right…

    Many people learned over the weekend that Colin Kaepernick would be the face of a Nike campaign. Much to the outrage of the far right conservatives who believe that the flag is being disrespected, Nike took a stand to not be on the sidelines.

    We used to have a saying here in America:

    I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend your right to say it.

    The discourse on speech that people don’t agree with has become more than toxic. Even my fellow veterans, many are blinded by their reverence to the flag that stops them from seeing the real problems in the world.

    They and many others seethe with anger when others do not conform to the way that they pay tribute to the flag. They forget that the flag represents all Americans regardless of their reverence to the sacred cloth of red white and blue.

    They forget that they pledge allegiance not only to the flag, but to the Republic… with liberty and justice for all.

    And so Kaepernick kneels, as he would at a grave to honor a fallen soldier. He doesn’t burn it, wipe his ass with it, drag it on the ground, but rather mourns for her, and looks at the angry people around who’s pledge are just empty words and false promises.

    He tries to remind people that there are many in the US that do not get justice, and are in fact denied it regularly. That is what this is all about. Maybe we need a moment of silence to remember those who have fallen because their were denied justice.

    Without ranting about flags and meanings, let’s just get back to agreeing to allow people the honor of speaking, and supporting their right to speak without having to agree with it.

    The angry people who will burn their Nike shoes are on the wrong side of history. I don’t have an answer when things will change, but they can’t while Americans are in denial and are too concerned with whether you stand or kneel than if children are dying in the streets.

  • How to fix @MoviePass

    If you are a movie person, maybe you finally broke down and said, I’ll try out this Movie Pass thing. I was skeptical at first, but I bought in and registered, and they certainly began delivering what they promised. I got to watch lots of great movies for $9.99 a month, unlimited. Then all of a sudden, it was as if the system moved upside-down and we began to see a sea of changes and even cases of not being able to see a movie using the pass.

    As a consumer, I want to consume this product, but we are all sitting here wondering, why were they able to do this? What was this business model? I still have yet to figure out how they are trying to make this work and what they are doing behind the scenes. But because I personally would like to see them succeed, I have some ideas that may make the difference that can return the service to solvency.

    • Collect non-private data from us. Your user base can help you develop a lot of information that is sellable that we will voluntarily provide. Imagine getting public opinion data that would be separated from being personally identifiable?
    • Market to us! Why aren’t you trying to get us to watch a particular movie each week. Imagine getting movie studios helping you to promote their movies?
    • What about coupons to get us to buy things to help promote a product through the app?
    • How about working through theater chains to enhance their loyalty programs? Do you have data on how many people buy concessions that use the movie pass? This would be helpful for marketing purposes. If people provide the data, maybe you could get theaters to help give you a discount on the cost of a Moviepass ticket.
  • These are just a few ideas. So please fix the service so we can enjoy it for years to come.

  • The blog… the long form tweet…

    Maybe part of society’s problem is that we suffer from TL;dr. Otherwise known as too long, didn’t read. Twitter has gone from microblogging, so now having double the characters available.

    Blogs, real blogs like this one are so important, but how do we bring them back from the edge of obscurity? How do we get people to read? How do we get blogging to be relevant once again?

    Something to ponder.

  • Apple destroys the Social Web for the good of us all.

    By SailorJ

    If you haven’t noticed, Apple released information about their new operating systems, iOS, MacOS, TVOS, and Apple WatchOS. One of the features that seems to be telling, is how they are going to increase your privacy and help you ween yourself away from spending too much time on your device. Some people think this is just a gimmicky thing, but in fact it is not gimmicky at all. If I was Facebook or Twitter, I would be carefully watching my stock price, as Apple users begin to limit their time using these services, and for great reasons, to re-engage with life. What is Apple’s end game anyways, since the addictive nature of the device is what helps to sell it to the masses? Why lead the next change in culture? There is a lot to be said for people to use their device as a tool for good, and Apple may think that people can discover more exciting things to do than Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Apple is right, as people do have a lot more apps and things that can be done on their Apple iDevices. Maybe you write that novel, edit that video, take amazing photos and edit them, there certainly are a lot of things that you can do. I’m just scratching the surface. Yes it is an amazing productivity tool, but it’s a time waster as well. That’s great when wasting time is what you want or need to do, but even more is our Pavlovian response to everything, every notification, and how quickly we feel we have to respond. We will learn to breathe again and reduce our stress in the long run. We won’t worry about what people are posting or saying or doing, because we will be living in the moments of our lives, instead of just watching the moments of others, like some reality TV show.

    There is nothing wrong with posting to Social Media and doing everything that we do now, as long as we find a level of moderation and do live in the world of Fear of Missing Out.

    I’ll admit it, i’m an addict to my iDevices, and I’m looking forward to weening myself away from the time killing and refocus on the things that will make me re-engaged back into the best of life.

  • Who lives with a broken heart?

    There is love and there is unrequited love and there is Romeo and Juliet type love. I wouldn’t call it forbidden, just bad timing.

    The hardest thing about love isn’t finding the right person, it’s finding the right person at the right time.

    We all grow and change and