Sunday, January 30, 2011

W-2s at the Post Office

After brunch today, we stopped into the post office to grab the mail from our P.O. box.  There was a W-2 in there that belonged to someone else, so, being a "good samaritan", I grabbed it and walked it over and put it in the "Wrong P.O. Box" box.  I left my few pieces of mail, including my W-2, at the sorting table where Jason and Will were, but they had left the table by the time I made it across the hall to the other box.  Completely forgetting my mail back at the table, I walked out of the post office with them.

Congratulations goes out to whoever you are for getting your wayward W-2 back.  I only hope someone saw my W-2 lying out and turned it in, too.  We'll see Monday.   In the meantime, I'll have the opportunity to contemplate the pros and cons of paying it forward and paying attention. 

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Forlorn from Lust

She was twenty-nine years old, from out of town.  East Coast.  Aggressive, distracted by her own mind.  Giving "life tips" to my friend, after last call, her euphemistically telling him to make his move;  he was paralyzed by something.  The East Coast is fast, unlike the mountains;  with more people and less risk, it's easier to take chances with someone.  How different it was back home, she had said.  Brazenly consumed desire, so commonplace.  Alcohol and cloudy lights;  bar din, people, commotion.  He didn't make his move, he had excuses.  He dashed his chances because of what he thought was possible, when she was telling him what was possible.  I watched them say goodbye and have seen it before; forlorn from lust, still pining for one another in the darkness, not knowing how.

Beach House - Norway, Silver Soul

Monday, January 24, 2011

Monday Mornings

The clock reads 4:16 AM - Monday morning.  Three cups of coffee keeping me up, all night.  Not ideal, not the best for my health, but we do what we need to do in this world - I work a few overnights each week.  It was an opportunity given to me at one point, and I took it to get behind the front desk.  It's all right, it's pretty chill.  It gives me days to ski, which is a big perk.  One of the mornings I work is Monday, a morning I've come to love.  The world, all over, is shaking off the pace of the weekend - revelry, respite, retreat, what ever.  When the sun comes up, people bustle and let responsibilities and mundane things like commuting take them over.  News pops up from all over; Asia, Europe, NYC.  People's morning routines emerge.  Distractions.  It's pulse, noticeably different from sleepy, quiet Sunday. 

I've never been much of a morning person, but I love them.  I used to have the hardest time waking up all throughout elementary and high school, a major source of frustration for my parents - sorry, Mom and Dad.  Then there was college, when I religiously avoided early AM classes and spent most Saturdays and Sundays sleeping in, hungover.  I remember never wanting to spend another late morning in bed, hungover - what a waste.  Now I like being up in the morning, the earlier the better.  The angle of the morning sun, the serenity, the clean slate.  People have a certain clarity and integrity in the morning that can seem to wane as the day progresses.  I like to see this in the morning, and soak it up.

In NY, people are two hours ahead of me;  in Europe, seven hours;  Asia, fourteen.  Things happening outside my physical presence intrigue me.  I like to think of that unseen potential, what is available to happen.  Things happening that I don't know are happening.  Throughout history, we've been limited by physical, spatial proximity dictating our experience of the world.  We still are, of course, but now we have the internet - connecting us to events far removed from our physical settings.  I enjoy catching the pace of other places via the internet; living vicariously through the internet, I guess. 


Nightmare

 

Sending Nightmare - scroll half way through vid for the shot.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Trajectories & Random Walks (and other anecdotes and ideas)

I moved to Jackson to ski.  There are other factors, but Jackson had been on my mind for years, since traveling here as a teenager.  What keeps me here is the skiing.  Where does all this skiing lead me, I ask?  To something, surely.  The development of a philosophy, a wife, a career, there are many paths.  It may lead me some day to some far off place, in a distant, uninhabited land, and it might lead me to the cellars and offices of cities.  As someone once advised me, in the words of George Carlin, "Always do whatever's next!"

I once read in Philip Ball's book Critical Mass something about how gas particles do "random walks," random squiggly trajectories as opposed to linear trajectories.  The book focuses on the physics of society.  It got me thinking, we, as people, make decisions and embark on unique trajectories, which can have both physical and intangible qualities.  We live with the moment and use our awareness of elements of our moment to make choices.  Prior decisions, made by oneself or others, and in-motion trajectories dominate our landscape, but multi-dimensionality allows for the ability to create and change trajectories.  Subjects such as free will, fate, and metaphysics might provide a good framework for looking at these ideas.  Either way, in attempting to define my living in Jackson, skiing, I once cited this - I don't know how apt it is, but the principle I was getting after was that this was one step I was taking in a random walk.  I will walk in other shoes in other times.  But that is then, this is now. 

Time windows define our modern existence.  For everything, a time and a place.  But, on a larger scale, we experience time windows that span months, years, decades.  In geopolitics, there are theories delineating societal change in chunks of twenty five years.  In searching for one of these theories on Google, I ran across another interesting time subject - 2012.  I don't know much about the 2012 theories, but would like to explore it further in the future.  How time windows function interests me, and how we either make the window or miss it.  Is it really possible to experience the same set of circumstances, or opportunities twice?  Life can seem monotonous, but is everything ever the same?

Perhaps living here, skiing will teach me something, lead me somewhere, or introduce me to someone where I see how I can create the best trajectory, for me.  I don't like to think that I am procrastinating, but rather living a dream, doing something I love.  I am taking a random walk, but also going somewhere.  Things are changing all the time, and so can I, so it's all right. 

PNAU - The Truth (Sam La More Remix)

I'll pimp PNAU a bit more here.  Just realized after some reading, Empire of the Sun is a side project of PNAU.  Here's a remixed track from their new album, to be released summer 2011.

 

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Stansberry's Investment Advisory

Please watch the video from the following link.

We, as a country, are in a critical position, and information must be shared like this about our economic and political situation.  Not false information, disinformation.  We, as a society, need information that empowers people and offers them the most comprehensive understanding of all the factors at play in our social, political, and economic environments.  Stansberry's Investment Research, a reputed financial research firm, has issued this advisory about the United States' situation not only to its clients, but to the internet community as a whole.  While some of the video content will directly relate to financial investment advice, it contains a wealth of information that relates to everyone.  Please watch (link below, will highlight with cursor):

http://www.stansberryresearch.com/pro/1011PSIENDVD/PPSIM126/PR







Saturday, January 15, 2011

The Jungle Book - I Wanna Be Like You

Saturday morning-worthy.

How to Get Free Parking

We were driving to the village, Will and I, with three different parking options.  The first, pay $5 and park at the village.  The second option, picking a third person up at Stilson and then parking for free at the village, we tried (three peeps park free).  Third, park the car at Stilson, wait twenty minutes for the bus, and then ride it to the village, fifteen minutes away.  Nobody was at the Stilson station when I went in, so we decided to eat the five bucks and drive to the village to park there.

Will's Jeep's radio probably wasn't working,  one of its notable features, and I don't really remember the ride to the village other than that, until Will comes up with the brilliant idea to make a third person out of our gear in the back.

"You should totally put your ski helmet on those poles and make it look like a third person," Will says glancing into the back seat and then at me.
"Fuck yeah," I reply, turning around to see what our prospects look like.
Parking fees fleece your average ski bum, so I took up the task of fashioning our third carpooler with relish.

A body consisting of two backpacks and four ski boots, haphazardly strewn about, a head and neck of helmet, goggles and ski poles.  To give him some semblance of humanity, he was wrapped in the half-frozen hoodie found in the back seat.

A few rough turns later, we arrive at the Ranch Lot.  I see the big red shuttle driving past the pay station some twenty yards ahead, I tell Will to speed up so we cruise up hot to the window, close behind the bus.  Will barely looks at the guy, arm out the window, fingers slapping for the ticket.  The guy goes straight for the FREE ticket, does a double take at our friend in the back, hands Will the ticket, and we pull away.  Bam, free parking

I'm sure this trick will be pulled more in the future.  Last time we was in LA, I put the first parking ticket they gave me under my wiper every time I parked the car anywhere for the next week or so.  Only got one other ticket and didn't pay for a parking the rest of the trip.  It worked almost every time. The county of Los Angeles has already sent me like three letters here in Jackson about the tickets.  Sorry, Los Angeles, save your monies and save the mail.

It seems like parking is one of those things every one (who drives) must do, one of those humbling human things drivers go through.  You have to park your car somewhere, and they're going to try to separate you from your 401k for it; might as well give them a run for the money!

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Delano Smith - A Special Kind, This Heart

A few tracks from Delano Smith for this Thursday:

Ethos=Ourthos

Late start to the day...slept in, but that's all right, I'm not working, only skiing today.  Have been skiing with the JH Air Forcers unofficially here and there recently.  Yesterday, two of them, one who I see frequently, followed me and Cory down a ridge on the lower faces.   I was flirting back and forth across the crest of the ridge, rounding out nice turns down the fall line.  I got to the bottom first, and slow down to look behind me for Cory.  The one Air Forcer passes me on the right and the other is coming down right behind Cory. 

I have been hesitant to talk with the Air Forcers; I have no idea what their ethos is, so I just let it be.  There are points of recognition between us, but we haven't spoken.


Official trailer for "Swift. Silent. Deep", a documentary about the JH Air Force.

Monday, January 10, 2011

PNAU - With You Forever





The FM Attack Remix:

"Not a Pretty Day in Europe"

I met a British a financial specialist once.  We never caught each others' names, but we shared some words at this weird juncture in time.  The European markets open Monday morning,  and the United States is still asleep.   The European bond market is screeching to a halt.

"Repeat of April to June last year, which is very concerning," he said.  "Spain will have difficulties."
"It will be potentially worse than what we were expecting before."

Smelling the coffee in Europe, anyone?  Or is it still Kool-Aid time? I wonder what numbers came out this morning. 

"They lost access to the private repo markets and are at negative spreads on their mortgages," he continues, while I hold my tongue in deference.  He thinks I know more than I really do, which is okay.  I don't let on to this financial jargon too much.

He excuses himself from the table to make a phone call.  I take a drink of water.  Too much coffee.

After asking whoever was on the other end to ask someone else if they wanted to participate in the China Pacific deal for $32, he got off the phone and sat back down in the chair behind him.  Noticeably slouched and breathing shallowly, phone not far in front of face, I speak up.

"Not a pretty day over in Europe, eh?"
"No...not at all," he replies.
After some rudimentary explanation of how banks get their money, other than deposits, he leads on to the fact that liquidity is drying up.
"See, I'm a financial specialist...and the banking system is disintegrating.  The European bond market is freezing up and it's pretty grim.  Last time this happened when the wholesale markets closed down, we had bailouts.  The ECB and the Federal Reserve can pretty much expand their balance sheets however much they want."
"Not the best option," I say.
"No, but they don't really have any others."

Hmmmm.  What kind of situation is this, again, where all there is to do, is print money?

Oh, Mondays these days...

Ethereality


Sometimes, our existence carries a certain peacefulness.  Unmistakable in its intensity and pervasiveness, it dominates perception and experience.  Can you think of the times when everything feels in its right place?  When there is no time?

Let this music be an aid to finding peace within, and without.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Intention

The moments form minutes, which form hours and days and weeks and years and decades and centuries and millennia.  Many things have transpired without records.  This is a record, for those things that have transpired with me.