Extracirricular

School was always a bit of a psychological-struggle for me, but I kept this fact cleverly hidden by a couple of off-the-clock activities, unseen by most people...yet well-known to others..downhill (snow)skiing most notably.

Alpine-skiing is a fairly common activity for many Californians, I know, but incidental-proximity to the slopes can make skiing an expensive addiction. :P

However, just learning the beverage-list at the ski-lodge IS NOT what skiing is about...

Professional skiers (search-and-rescue especially) are a fairly rare and knowledgeable breed (of human-beings AND dogs ;) who've taken the time to master the art of the controlled-fall down the side of a mountain.

Respect for the people who risk their lives daily in constantly changing weather-conditions so that the rest of us can have fun is something worth teaching the kids...when they realize that the effort expended in keeping snow well-groomed and obstruction-free is largely human, they tend to become better sports-people and respecters of public-service...hopefully.

Programmed Idiocy

Maybe I'm more enraged by the lack of understanding than most folks...but I would think that if a company were shipping to you, they would read the address YOU HAD GIVEN THEM rather than "GUESSING" your address based on outdated information...

But NOT SO, they'd rather rely on bad addresses because they were found on Yahoo! or some such search-service, rather than read the email you sent them EXPLAINING everything they needed to know (rather than using my current address they use some address I haven't lived at for 6 years).

And as prudence dictates the name of the company giving me the runaround now will remain discretely anonymous.

But my wrath is as yet undeterred.

--mattergy

Suburbaset

I made a 1366x768 desktop of Sheryl's beautiful sunset photo.>>>

:) mattergy

Save the Bass???

Nobody ever told this guy that instrumentation was more important than charisma!!!

;) mattergy

Why Archeology?

I think even my friends were mystified by my choice of coursework...

Why would you want to spend hours digging up some long-decased-clan's barbeque-pit?

Um, because um...people really have trouble grasping something as simple as the daily trappings of life here in beautiful suburbia.

Built some distance from the local Coastanoan habitations, as mitigated by California Resources Management... for those who never recovered from the idea of homes built on native-American burial-sites breached in the film: Poltergeist.

As horrifying as concoctions of the imagination might be...without founding in any fact other than the incidental presence of bones...a somewhat likely byproduct of field-work in this para-bay region of California--evil spirits just aren't allowed..

I myself required a blessing from the local tribe:

A simple ritual of profound humility...and great reverence.

Artifacts ARE humanity in their former-livelihood.

--mattergy

The Things They Don't Tell Ya 'Bout Being an Astronaut...

People who know me know that I wanted to be an astronaut--When I was young and impressionable.

However, I overlooked one crucial fact about 20th-Century---Well ANY-Century space-travel, to be correct--

That being the actual-size of the "Space-capsule".

Call me stupid, but somewhere in my mind I had really thought that "They'd make the right person fit".

I was well over 6-feet tall before graduating 8th-grade.

The problem of course is that designing and building a Launch-Vehicle capable of carrying "cargo" of such physical-stature as myself
results in giant rockets...much larger rockets than any nation can afford to build or launch.

When I realized this fact (11th-Grade, I think), I had already charted course to attend the U.S. Air Force Academy (where aspiring young-Patriots train to be pilots.)

You've got to realize that no amount of wishful-thinking was going to change the rules of ballistics to suit ME.

My relatives (as helpful as they were trying to be) were no help.

The complexity of the combination of U.S. realpolitik and the physics of space-travel was not well-understood by many people whom I knew.

So I worked at a local movie-theater--while I was gathering my laurels.

And then I learned to type...in school.

Concurrently I was authoring quite a few bits of fiction for my new high-school's Writer-of-the-Month contest(s).

I won "Writer-of-the-Month" six times between 10th- and 12th- grades AND I was getting a lot of keyboarding practice.

Hungry for REAL Work(tm)...I applied for a job as a file-clerk in the California Superior-Court...self-motivated and detail-conscious, I thought I was doing fairly well at my job.

I was only getting about 4-hours sleep a night and commuting daily for two hours.

When I turned 21, I weathered a bout of Mononucleosis and was forced to stay home for two weeks...

My boss needed a healthy file-clerk, and sent me packing.

I was playing (bass guitar) in a working-band at the time, so I, in-turn, focused ALL OF MY ATTENTION on the band.

As if that weren't enough...my girlfriend at the time was trying to map-out her own life...and I was forced to let her go.

...and then the band fired me.

As my former guitarist, CG observed, my ever-vocal desire for near-perfection from the both the drums and guitar was pretty annoying.

I was TOLERATED.

Fortunately, CG recognized that there WERE circumstances where my attention-to-detail WOULD be appreciated.

So CG recommended I audition with a blues-rock outfit regularly playing a South San Fransisco/Daly City Blues-bar called The Country Club.

Drummer Dave Steinberg was--at the time--a student of authentic Blues-drumming evolved from the early rock-bands across the pond (in the U.K. primarily), so it actually turned out to be a step-up for me ;)

So I guess tall guys can't be astronauts. Only starving-musicians.

;) mattergy

Living Memories

When I was in high-school, a former-teammate of mine, Joe Peralta was the tragic victim of circumstances which left him deceased.

Although I only knew Joe casually (I was an Offensive-Tackle--he a Defensive-Back and -utility-lineman, so we never really connected, except in scrimmages), he was a really cool guy, and for me, a relative-noob at football, he was an outstanding inspiration.

My former partner in Offensive-Damage (and English Classmate), Marcus Munoz (still living, I hope!), also inspired me to press-forward with prejudice!

Just a reminder that people off all walks have helped me overcome the rigors of Multiple Sclerosis.

;) mattergy

CORRECTION 12:15 P.M. PST
I am reminded that Joe was actually an offensive receiver at the time we were playing...the still-living Sam Key was the Defensive-Back I was thinking of, not Joe.

Although...Joe WAS a backfield-player.

My mistake.

CORRECTION 2:
My memory is fading much faster than I'd care to acknowledge:

Joey played so many positions. Sam Key played defensive tackle...opposite Marcus and myself...

CORRECTION 3:
Aside from my fading memory...there's the specter of possibly having paid too much attention to blossoming cheerleaders than I recall...I may have forgotten more about the game than I realize ;)


CORRECTION 4:
Although Joey was a classmate of mine, I think we played on different football teams...

The Importance of Journalling

Heaven forbid that one should lose their memory!

But one thing I learned from the late Julian Jaynes is that history is fleeting for the entire human-species...this because of fragmented kinship...er, I mean--Too Much Distraction(tm).

While one might mourn the loss of public-consciousness, I feel a more devastating crack in the human-psyche emerging...the overall loss of sensibility itself.

Coming to terms with the realization of a near-7-billion human-residents now living on Planet Earth is something the mathematicly-adept of us have trouble accepting...6.9 billion is a LOT of people.

Which leads to the question of whether or not love is in fact in surplus-supply.

I believe there is enough love to go around, but whether the signal is strong enough to reach every point on the globe is debatable...

I'm certain that the possible point-to-point strength...the accepting of genuine love...is in-fact LIMITED by the inherent fragility each and every indivdual on this gravitationally-linked sphere.

"Journaling" (keeping a daily diary) represents a kind of self-reassurance that public-memory itself won't forget...should it be affected by a global Alzheimer's disease.

--mattergy

Last Flight of the Endeavor

for your desktop ;)
from the APOD Archive
reframed by mattergy ;)

Influential Warning

I thought it only fair to remind the reader that I HAVE READ AND UNDERSTAND the works of Douglas Hofstadter., which places me in the mathematically-spun category...but I'll also remind you that Physical-objects also trigger those "Mathemagical" themes written of by Hofstater.

Realizing this in early-adulthood caused me to pursue local-archeology.

Just the process of Carbon-dating artifacts is delicate work...but not the APPARENT-SHAPE of human-cognition...upon actually visiting the Anistazi-ruins [cliff-dwellings] at Bandalier National Monument, I was immediately struck by the realization of what nice dinner-restaurants they would have made.

This...in combination with the outstanding defensive-aptitude [defense against natural-forces, primarily], I realized just how advanced the psychology of the builders had been.

The experience left me dumbstruck...not an advisable state-of-mind in this-near-Rocky-Mountain region.

So concurrently I realized that, even today, people's inordinate-distraction is literally defacing history.

--mattergy

Technology Out-Of-Control

I know it seems like old news that I have trouble accepting social-networking services wherein someone OTHER THAN MYSELF manages all the interaction...I've only been setting up and managing institutional-networks since the mid-1980s.

So I'll say again...as irrational as it may seem to various networking-noobs, I REALLY DETEST social-networking .

People are NOT meant to obsess over the BOXES through which all those smiley-faces :) ;) must pass WITHOUT any real systemic supervision.

These being the ubiquitous daemons that "possess" the internet.

Perhaps I'm misunderstood...but to have a THIRD-PARTY invoke its own assessment of the NOOB-NESS of the user is reminiscent of a form of ideological repression unseen since Charles V of Spain.

The rule is: ignorance is never an option...however, I'd much rather interact with someone who KNOWS SOMETHING about the dangers of broadcasting information to the whole world about their dearest loved-ones.

I call this quality healthy-paranoia.

I recommend that people psychologically-able enough to realize the dangers of pseudo-Idolatry take time to knowledgeably-consider the effect social-networking is having on the WHOLE SOCIETY, NOT SIMPLY CHILDREN.

--mattergy

Good Recovery

I had an order (errantly) shipped to an address I have not lived at for 7 years (fortunately one of my former roommates still lives there)...anyway what COULD have been a troublesome shipment was reported to the vendor and immediately CORRECTED.

My special thanks to Daniella who had the experience to RE-ship the order...given exact-information about my address.

:) Mattergy

3DN2D?

I've been staring at this desktop-image off-and-on for a few days and have come to the conclusion that it's the truest effort one can hope for at making a 2D-image appear to be THREE-DIMENSIONAL.=>>

Original APOD citation