Orlov the Bear

Orlov
Originally uploaded by aaron@digitalcole

I've been running a Rifts game with Nancy for a couple of weeks. This is Orlov the Bear and yes, he's Russian. Depending on how far we get I may post the adventure here, more as a story or synopsis then anything else.

I've had some good conversations this week about the new developments regarding VR imaging in cell phones and how it's going to change the way we view the world. We'll see a complete merging of the virtual and biologic world and it'll force us to change how we perceive life and what is real.

Thinking about how we view ourselves and each other will be the centerpiece of this new experience. Literally with the flick of a switch (or press of a button) we'll be able to not only change our own appearance but, change the appearances of everyone around us. Instant customization. Of course at this point we'll need a visor of some sort. Something that combines cell, geo-tagging, video, the web into a device that we'll use to view this new hybrid world. Predicting when this will happen can have negative ramifications but, I think four or five years before we have a visor unit is a good bet.

I've already started thinking about what I want my avatar to look like...

-adc- (digitalcole)

musings...

Some musings...

(warning, some of this is kind of deep)

Singularity Hub Speaking about the singularity movies that are about to hit and what will it be like to bring "the dead" back to life.

Fast Company 1 Can the news survive in the digital world? Yes but, not the way you think.

Fast Company 2 The US education system is broken, what more can I say...

Read at your own peril.

-adc- (digitalcole)

I really am working...see?

I really am working...see?
Originally uploaded by aaron@digitalcole

What have I been doing lately? Well, for starters I've been taking numerous strolls around the web finding all sort of interesting things mostly involving digital technology and our society. I'm going to stop short of calling myself a singularitarian but, granted, the idea is intriguing. Without doubt we as in the human race will eventually create the technology that'll give us eternal life weather it be nano, techno or some other undiscovered means, it will happen. The question is what will we, the human race, do with ourselves once we reach this plateau? If I can allow myself a moment of wistful fantasy I can imagine a collective knowledge universe where we not only share memories but, our thoughts and feelings. A collective consciousness if you will. Of course this is already starting. We already have collective memories (blogs, flickr, facebook) and if google wave does what I think it's capable of that may be the beginning of collective consciousness. Some of these ideas here, were already discussed on FastCompany.

It's an exciting time to be alive. We're entering into a world where anything and I mean anything will be possible. It'll require a new mind set, a new way of thinking about life and our place in the universe. Are we capable of such responsibility? After all we make destruction an art form. We'll need to get past our obsession with living in a scarcity society and embrace the abundance society that we're now finding ourselves in. This wont be easy, many corporations and through them governments are standing in our way. Terrified at the prospects of finding a world in which they're no longer relevant, they strive to usurp us in our endeavor to live in a free society, where knowledge is infinitely sharable. They remind me of little children afraid to live in a bigger world. They'd rather go in circles then wonder off the path to see what's out there. I personally would have no problem with their futile endeavor to "bury their heads in the sand". The problem that I have is that they expect us to follow suit. It's an absurd notion yet though copyright law and powerful lobbyist that's exactly what they're trying to do. This in the end will fail, no totalitarian regime can last. It tends to eat itself from the inside through it's own paranoia. In the end they're really nothing more than a waste of time but, how sad it is that we waste this precious time. Time that could be spent moving us forward.

-adc- (digitalcole)

Where have all the heros gone?

Just got back from Batman, ya it took me this long. It was a good movie BM's voice was a little over the top and that bike is just dorky but all in all worth seeing.

The one thing that struck me was the subtext, what is evil and what is good? It's interesting when someone or something that has the preconception of being evil in the end shows us the strength that we may lack in ourselves. Honestly if you had an accurate graph of who was evil and who was good you'd find that one or two percent would fall in the good category, one or two percent would fall in the evil category and everyone else would fall somewhere in the middle. The question then becomes how can you move the middle to be more good or potentially more evil? Here's another question why are superhero movies so popular now? I believe both questions arrive at the same answer.

Let us look at our current (USA) election circus. On one hand you have McCain, 72 years old! You may has well be advertising Palin for president. If you look at photos of past presidents when they've entered office and after they've left you can see the toll that the job's taken on them (FDR and Regan are clear examples). Although both had illnesses that probably helped contributed but still, the weight of the world on their shoulders. I think I'll side with Two-Face on this one. I give him a fifty-fifty chance that he makes is out of office.

...and then we have Obama, I wonder how disenfranchised those supporters will be when all those promises don't come to fruition? You know what they say? The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

If ever there was a time that we needed Superman...it's now.

I've said that to myself a lot lately, we do need Superman now. Someone to be our moral compass, someone that is that one or two percent good, to push us more towards the side of good then down the path of evil. Unfortunately for us Superman is a fictional character and only resides in our heads and possibly in our hearts and unfortunately for us, those who are passing themselves off as leaders are just somewhere in the middle.

good luck world
-adc-

So, was I wrong?

Those of you following me on twitter are well aware of my tribulations with Netflix's watch now service. Now it's come to my attention that Comcast may have been involved as well. Ever since the FCC told Comcast that they can not throttle bit torrent traffic I've notice Netflix's service become remarkably better. I don't know if these two indecencies are related but, I think its interesting non the less. It could also be that Netflix is adding more servers to take the load off, I don't know. It would be nice to think that this was all caused by limitations in technology but, I suspect politics was involved as well and that's very sad.

-adc-

Staycations, Netflix "watch now" and other observations

Staycations-The feel good bullshit terminology for 2008.

I've heard this term for over a month now and all I can think is bullshit. Why don't people call it what it really is? People are just too damn poor to go on real vacations so they're staying home.


Netflix (watch now feature) - Should be retitled "Netflix- wait, wait, wait, wait, not yet, little longer, are the two hours up? OK, now half of it's loaded? Enjoy!"

What an absolute crappy service. It's as if they purposely tried to create a polar opposite to their mailed DVD service and guess what, they've succeeded admirably. And, to create that "it's not them, it's me" psychosis I conceded that it was just my crappy cable modem or Comcast's crappy service. That was until I found CBS's archive section and was able to watch the original Star Trek series online, for free and was able to watch it not only instantly but, also with my favorite web browser Firefox!

Here's another title for Netflix, "Netflix-watch now? (Why are you trying? We're not...)"

...Alos as a side note, I'm writing this post as I wait for Netflix to finish loading half of a TV show. I should do an experiment and see if I can write an entire post as Netflix loads a show but, I don't think I could write about one subject for two hours straight.


Photography is not a crime

I get angry just thinking about this one, go and check out the photos and captions. For disclosure reasons, yes, I have photos posted in this group.

OK, rant over...

-adc-

comic street photo

comic street photo
Originally uploaded by aaron@digitalcole

This is an example of our manipulations of photographs to create a "comic" look.

This photo was take at a parade in San Francisco with a point and shoot Olympus.

Because we'll eventually need large quantities of photos for an up and coming project, I wonder how much of a hassle I'm going to be going through.
It's sad but, I've even thought of leaving my DSLR at home and just using the point and shoot and play it off like I'm just another tourist.

-adc-

Photography is not a crime!

Union Square
Originally uploaded by aaron@digtialcole

This is a photo I took of Union Square is San Francisco. It was taken in 2005 before it became trendy for cops and security forces to accost amateur and professional photographers alike.

-adc-

gas prices galore...

gas price
Originally uploaded by aaron@digtialcole

Taken with my cell with "added" crappy reflection. $44.91 to fill up the tank on a 99 Neon. I'm not really complaining, It may sound crazy, but I don't even care if it goes to $8.00 a gallon. Nancy and I only have one car and we live close enough to her job that she can walk and hey, it's a Neon not some honkin SUV (must suck for them).

May be $8.00 a gallon is what it'll take to help get us off the sauce.

-adc-

Sothink here I come....right back where I started from...

So...if you've been following my twitter postings you'll know that I downloaded the trial version of Flash CS3 a couple of days ago and have been playing (i.e. wanting to smash its physicalessness into nothingness...if that's even possible) with it. The whole reason for this excursion was because Sothink Quicker was crashing whenever I tried importing video that I had worked with in Photoshop CS3. I just couldn't get it to work. So, I resined myself to getting Flash CS3 and the $699 price tag that goes with it. However after playing with it a little I found myself becoming more and more frustrated over (what is in my opinion an) overly complex action script set up. I mean come on! I'm a creator I don't want to lean another language just to make a button or go from one scene to another I just want to tell the software to "make this do that." and be done with it. That's what's so good about Sothink...simple. I can make a functional button with one line of action script...and to make a scene go from one to another...get this I don't haft to do anything. It just goes. Anyway so now I'm back working with Sothink Quicker and have found a video encoder (cost $45) that will convert the .mov files so that Quicker can read them. I know some day I'll need to become proficient with Adobe Flash but, I'm going to put that off for as long as possible.

I don't want to go back...

...to work that is. I'm about half way through my family leave for "the kid" and I've already decided that I don't want to go back to work. It's not that I don't love my job...actually sometimes I hate my job but, I do love the people I work with. It's just...if you had a choice between working and staying home and raising your child, wouldn't you be a fool not to choose to stay at home. This is all a moot point really...Nancy and I can't financially handle living on one income. Even if one of us were able to stay at home it'd probably be Nancy only because I make a higher income then her and I'm ok with that...I just think it should be mandatory for one parent to be available for the child at any given moment but, It should also be mandatory that it be financially possible for that to happen.

As for the art auction...I'm setting a record at being 0 for 4. May be I should start selling drugs...at least I know they're demand (for the ATF/FBI I'm just kidding). Actually I told Nancy that "the kid" either needed to be a drug dealer or a CEO because these are the only two job professions left in the USA that have the potential for growth...everything else is either being shipped overseas or pays about as well as the jobs we both have which has put us on the verge of destitution.

Who knows, maybe I'll win the lottery...

thanks for ready my rant.
-adc-

Time off for dad.

Now that Nancy's back at work it's my turn with the kid. To be honest I was a little apprehensive to be leaving work for such a long time (six weeks), I am grateful though that good old California has a paid time off program that fathers can take advantage of.

I think if more fathers spent "quality time" with their kids...hell if even one parent spent "quality time" with their kids...or should I say if we lived (USA) in a society that considered raising children to be parents utmost priority and gave them the necessary tools (figure out a way so that parents can afford to keep one person home with the child) then you'd see much better performance in schools and a less violent society. We'd also probably (I'm only guessing at this point) be a more likable people.

But, lets not let that get in the way of getting one over on each other...

-adc-

George Bailey is my middle name.

I imagine that just about every single person on this planet has seen It's a Wonderful Life. How could you not. Nancy and I don't even watch TV anymore (we gave it up a long time ago) but, I can tell you right here and now it'll be on at least once before Christmas...and why shouldn't it be, it's a great film. You could call it a film of hope. The character George Bailey starts out with a head full of ideas and dreams and just when he's about to fulfill them he's forced to sacrifice them for the sake of his family and for the sake of the town. He's actually shown sacrificing throughout most of the film till life finally dumps the big one on him and he decides to sacrifice the one last thing he has to give, his life. Well along come the angels to help show him what would have happened if he wasn't around to sacrifice for everyone. In the end George wants his miserable life back and gets it only to find all the people he sacrificed for help him out. Like I said its a great story, I always get teary eyed at the end...why because I need to be able to hope that something like that will happen to me someday. That the good deeds you do for others will come back to you .

Like George Bailey I had dreams of my own. I wanted to be a musician, I was even going to college as a music major and all the time my family told me don't be a musician do something more grounded, something that's stable. I have a good stable job now and I can tell you I am fucking miserable. But, lets not get ahead of ourselves. I didn't just get from being a music major to this. It was a gradual slide. It really started with my family imploding. My parents were evicted out of their house just as I had started college and I was lucky enough to be able to live with my grandmother and Aunt. They told me I could stay as long as I kept going to college and when I graduated I'd need to move out. Fine I said but, as soon as they found out I wanted to be a musician then the lectures started. You know, considering I was the only one of three brothers actually trying to get a degree (I had a job as well) I didn't think they'd balk too much about what I wanted to do so as long as I did something. That was not to be the case. I'll tell you now for any parent out there reading this. Your child needs your support! Even if it's not what you would do. If you cut them down for following their passion, it's not only inhuman...its demonic!

I continued my pursuits even though it wasn't popular at home and then my grandmother got really sick. At first my aunt was taking care of her but, then my grandmother had a stroke and she stopped sleeping at night (she was afraid she would die if she went to sleep) so...my aunt stayed up with her. This went on for a little while until my aunt started going crazy (2hrs of sleep a night will do that to you, just ask any parents of a new born) I had quit my job by then and started staying up with her. I'll tell you its so painful to watch a person who was the glue that held the family together, this strong and wise woman go from that to basically an infant. I still remember her asking me every five minutes "I'm I ok?" That went on for a year and by that time I just stopped going to school. I just couldn't handle it emotionally. Well she passed away right about the time I started my new job and all I wanted to do was work and try and pay off the bills that I had racked up (I'm still paying them off). After a couple of years working I met Nancy (one of the few things that's gone right in my life). We wanted to build a life together and I was really interested in getting away from my family, so we moved away. That lasted a year...then I found out my aunt had cancer. Because of the deteriorated relationship of the family I was really worried what was going to happen to her so...Nancy and I moved back home (Nancy had a miscarriage shortly after) and we helped out as much as we could. Or should I say we tried, some people think totally and completely backwards and its really hard to make them see the light. But, we tried. Eventually my aunt lost her fight with cancer and I vowed that I was done watching people die, it's just too much. So we moved out again.

Now I'm saddled with dept no hope to pay it off, can't declare bankruptcy because our congress felt only corporations should have that privilege. We do have a new son (that and my step daughter are truly joys in my life) but, I'll never be able to pay for their schooling...hell we can't even afford day care and Nancy goes back to work in a couple of weeks. So how do we make that work? I'm selling my art on ebay but judging by the bids (0$ as of this date) someone's going to get a hell of a deal on that framed piece. When the car breaks down again (its done it once already) I wont have the money to fix it, unless we go with out eating. We've already sold a lot of our personal stuff just to pay rent...so there is no extra cash flow unless we can generate it ourselves...hence the art for sale. Hell Nancy's even going back to school (absolute insanity to do that while working a full time job and with a baby) just so we can defer her student loan payments.

So...the question I ask is where is my angel...my Clarence? Because if ever I needed one, I need one now. Or I would even settle for the town stopping by and dropping all their money on my kitchen table, that could happen too. In the end though I don't really want a hand out, although I think I'm desperate enough to take one at this point but, what I really want is chance at a better life and a better life for my family.

Just a chance thats all I want...
-adc-

PS You may be asking why I'm writing all of this, the honest answer is...I don't know. Maybe its the sleep deprivation (a new born that screamed at the top of his lungs for three hours straight before going to sleep), maybe it's because of the fact that its 3:30 in the morning or maybe it's the headache that I've had on and off for the past three days...I really don't know.

Citi Bank , Corp , Master Card; what ever they want to call themselves! THEY ARE DEAD TO ME!

I have vanquished the enemy!...Well not really, but I just mailed in my last payment to "CitiMaster Card"...Oh the joy I feel now that I'm no longer under the thumb of that repressive organization...No longer do I need to live in fear of "them" changing the payment schedules or needing to get signature conformation on my payment to insure that "CitiMaster Card" doesn't "accidentally" hold one of my payments so that I can accrue a late charge. I am done with them and it feels GREAT! I'm also posting the letter that I included with my last payment...Enjoy!

_________________________________


Dear CitiMaster Card (Citibank)

This letter is to inform you that I'’m no longer interested in doing business with your company. I've been mistreated and abused as a customer and will now be closing my account with CitiMaster Card.

I didn'’t approve or appreciate your purchasing Helzberg's charge card and eliminating my ability to not only make payments in the store but to also make payments online. I didn'’t appreciate your lack of support for online pay when you reissued me a CitiMaster Card to replace my Helzberg charge card and then gave me the run around when I enquired during the years of phone pay that you where working on it and at the very least you could have allowed payment of my account at the local Citibank yet I was not even given that as an option!

A word of advice so that you don'’t encourage more customers to close their accounts. First STOP BUYING OTHER COMPANY'S CHARGE ACCOUNTS! Second, if you can'’t follow rule number one than you had better be willing to support those charge account holders by offering the very same standards/if not better as the original charge company.

Enclosed is the total pay off balance of my account, I want my account closed and I will be shredding my "“CitiMaster Card".

A totally dissatisfied customer:

Aaron Cole

___________________________________

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for supporting me in this endeavor. You "Rawk"!

Aaron David Cole

PS maybe I'll post the video of me shredding the credit card...and then maybe I'll make a mosaic out of what's left...and sell it on Ebay!...oh the joy...THE JOY!

The “Liberation of Aaron” campaign has begun.

I’m declaring war on Citibank. I’m tired/sick and fed up with how I’ve been treated and from what I’ve gather on the web I AM NOT ALONE. It’s truly disgusting that they are allowed to conduct themselves in such a dishonest and disreputable way. Well no more!

I intend to devote much of this blog to providing information on Citibank’s dirty practices and to help provide resources to those who are fighting their own wars with Citibank.

I also ask for your support in this campaign. By purchasing a shirt saying "I got screwed by you know who" or soon to be other products from my store you’ll help to make sure that Citibank can no longer terrorize me.

Thank you in advance for your support.
Aaron David Cole

Citi Bank , Corp , Master Card…what ever they want to call themselves…THEY SCREWED ME!

This is a story about a person who wanted to make a payment on his Citibank MasterCard, this is a true story.

First, some history. A few years ago my fiancé and I were in the Sunvalley mall Concord California when we decided to get our rings. We went to Helzberg Diamonds and found a very nice set; we paid for them by signing up with a charge account. Everything was fine. I had the ability to pay in the store or online (I, like many of you, prefer to pay my bills online) all was great especially, the fact that we had rings now.

After about a year, I discovered that Citibank bought the credit portion of Helzberg. I already had a credit card with Citibank and didn’t really desire another one. To my dissatisfaction I was notified that I would not be able to make my payments at the local Helzberg store; it was a real convenience to have that option. I also found out later that I wasn’t able to make my payments at the Helzberg website either. My Helzberg account was converted over to a Citi-MasterCard. For almost two years I’ve been making payments through Citibank’s phone pay system , a service they charge for, because I feel that mailing the bill is unreliable. Every time I made a phone pay to them I asked when they would support this new City MasterCard online. I was told only that they were working on it. I quickly became discourage with this new account and near the end of 2005 I transferred the balance over to a BofA card with the full intention of canceling my Citi-MasterCard. Well, Christmas came and through lack of better judgment I used my Citi-MasterCard. So, now I’ve made two payments on it, Jan 06 and Feb 06 but for March I was worried that if I mailed in the payment I’d be late, and I didn’t want any late fees; I also didn’t want to be charged for a phone pay again. So I thought I’d make a payment in the bank. I know what you’re probably thinking “Why didn’t he just do this from the beginning?” Well, this is where the story gets really interesting.

I went to the bank on the 4th of March (a Saturday), the day my payment was due. My statement said to make the payment before 1pm of the due date. It was around 12pm. After trying to run my Citi-Master Card the teller said that she couldn’t accept my payment and that I’d need to come back on Monday when the credit office was open. I said if I don’t make a payment today I’ll get charged a late fee and I don’t want that. The teller told me they would wave the fee, so I said ok and left. I worked Monday, It’s now Tuesday. I went back into the bank hoping to get this fixed. I talked to the same teller who instructed me to wait for one of the bank managers to help fix my dilemma, so I waited. After a few moments the teller asked for my Citi-MasterCard to try and run it again, it didn’t go through. She then called someone on the phone to get help and they informed her that Citibank could not accept my Citi-MasterCard payment! I’d have to make a payment over the phone. I told them that this was absurd that a bank to whom I have a credit card with can’t take a payment for that credit card. They told me that they couldn’t do anything for me. Let me say that the people who know me know that I don’t really get upset nor do I usually raise my voice when angered but, these people made me hot! I find it outrages that the company that has their Logo on the card refused to accept a payment for that card. I walked away totally and absolutely dissatisfied with Citibank’s customer service.

When I got home I called the toll free number and got a rep, I apologized up front because I was very upset by what was transpiring and explained my situation to her. Her response was also less than satisfying. She informed me that the Citi-MasterCard that I held could only be paid one of two ways either through the mail or through phone pay, and also that my account was now late and that I would be charged a late fee which they could not remove. I tried to explain to her that it’s not my responsibility to try and make a distinction between Citibank and Citi-MasterCard, which has the Citi logo on the card by the way. She gave me the run around and told me that because the original account was a charge card that Citibank didn’t support it. At this point I really felt parts of my sanity leaving me, I kept thinking to myself, why is this happening to me, their trying to make me the one who’s at fault for this. I asked to speak to her supervisor. When she came on the line I again apologized for being upset and said that I know that this wasn’t her fault, I then explained the story again. She actually repeated what the first attendant said, that Citibank wouldn’t accept my account, that they couldn’t transfer my account into one that they could take unless I applied for a new credit card, that I was in default of payment and would be charged a late fee and if I wanted to make a phone pay it would be roughly $14 on top of the payment and late fee.

I don’t know what else to say except that I am absolutely mortified now. I can’t believe this happened to me. I asked at least remove the late payment fee, thinking that’s the very least they could do but she refused.

So as it stand now as of March 7, 2006 I’m late on this payment and will be charged a late fee, I can’t make a payment in an actual Citibank I can only mail in my bill or use phone pay which adds a phone pay service charge and I have no online support for this account.

It's been some time....but at least the spammers like me :)

At least the spammers have something to spam to...but alas I fixed that so I guess you guys are out of luck...oh well. have fun spamming someone else.

TURN OFF THE F#@*ING TV!!!

You can watch your stupid reality shows and news shows that lie and hide the truth some other time, this is more important!

Republicans and Democrats are the same thing and nether one has your “the average American citizen’s” or what I like to call the “Lowly 99’s” interest at heart. Doubt this; we couldn’t have become a police state without their help.

If you want your freedom back the only way you’re going to get it is to vote independent.

Vote Green
Vote Libertarian
Vote American Independent

2006 is just around the corner and we “the people” need to take congress back!

I know what some of you are saying…Republicans and Democrats have too much power (it helps that big business contributes to both parties). My answer to that is easy…

TURN OFF THE F#@*ING TV!!!

If you want real news go to the web. Plus the web levels the playing field and negates the huge money advantage those two fake parties have over the independents.

The choice is ours, we can choose to take our freedom back or we can choose to be treated and tagged (National ID Card and RF ID) like cattle.

When did big business start getting its ideas from the Mob?

Maybe it’s just me but have you noticed an egregious movement towards subscription down loads for music. Yahoo is opening an online music store which will allow you to pay for and down load music that you’ll never be able to fully own. Not only do you have to pay a subscription cost you’ll also need to purchase the actual music itself which can range in price. Let me say again, you will never fully own the rights to this music that you’ve paid for!

This reminds me of those movies where the thugs come to the old guy’s store and say “You need to pay us to keep your store from getting damaged.” What they don’t say is if the poor old guy doesn’t pay the thugs will be the ones doing the damage.

What the consumer needs right now is a music store that sells you the music without charging a subscription fee and then allows you own the right to it FOREVER!

Right now I only know of a few sites that are actually taking the honest path.

Apples itunes
MusicMatch’s store through Dell
Wal Mart (as much as I loathe their other business practices)

Here’s a question. What happens if that business goes OUT OF BUSINESS, are the consumers who have to pay this monthly extortion bill just “SOL”?

How about another question? Does the Artist receive any portion of the subscription fees? If they don’t than I really think ASCAP should get involved.

Finger in chili and death to the corporation!!! ahgahghhah!

I think it’s remarkable that a lone individual intentionally or unintentionally brought a corporation to it knees and it’s an amazing feat. Now I have nothing personal against Wendy’s, I eat there all the time. I’ve been to one restaurant so many times the Manager knows what I’m ordering before I even open my mouth but, I think its hilarious that one individual was able to do so much damage. It also gives me hope that some day we humans (the lowly 99%) will be able to take back our society from those greedy bastards that run/ruin everything.