Other Side of the World

The birth of a nation is often much like the birth of a child. It’s usually severe, violent, and bloody.

America was born under pretty normal circumstances. Just as was, Rome, the USSR, and, well, pretty much all of them. They come into being on the backs of passionate men & at the cost of the lives of other passionate men. Early life in an infant Country can be violent as well. Those passionate men don’t fight and die for nothing. They fight for change, and once independence is accomplished the battle will then rage for what that independence will look like. Our history is full of that as was Rome, and even Iraq today.

However, the similarities to modern newborn nations ends there. Modern warfare of late has resulted in other people waging the battle for the birthing nation. More like a c-section than actual childbirth, the Country is left with leaders who lack the passion necessary to defend. Many of them are just products of the prior leadership and even the ones who aren’t may have sacrificed too little to be able to contribute more than status quo to those they lead (serve). Many will just see this change as their chance to line their pockets the way the previous thieves had done.

The early residents of the United States sacrificed much in its conception & birth. The Civil War was a terrible but necessary injection of yet more passion at a crucial moment. That terrible time in history produced some incredibly honest men. Men who rejected any form of corruption & in many cases rejected compensation altogether. Those days are waning.

In her old age the USA is full of residents and leaders whose one passion is their pocketbook. A mature nation becomes somewhat immune to civil war & infighting as the national army simply becomes too strong to contend with. Meanwhile the people quite fat-dumb-and-happy enjoying the fruits of the others’ sacrifice. So long as their leisure is not interrupted the majority who rule in a democratic society are happy to ignore the world around them & about half of them will show up to the poll and vote for whichever name sounds nicest to them or has the ‘R’ or ‘D’ next to it. The other half won’t even be bothered to do that.

Today some of our politicians get a million dollar kick back just to show their face somewhere. Hilary Clinton could afford to invest $30,000,000 of “her own” money into her “own” presidential campaign. Nothing is off limits, even pardoning friends convicted of crimes is common practice. Congress voted a freeze on Social Security reimbursements but voted themselves a 5% raise in a RECESSION YEAR! Heck, even the Obamacare bill does not apply to Congress. Just everyone else. The Federal Army is MUCH too big to be threatened “by the people” and violence is downright out of style.

The United States founding fathers made one very big mistake in building the basis for our Country. A mistake that even in hindsight I see no solution to. What they did is failed to recognize the dwindling of passion that would occur. They assumed that everyone would recognize the power of a vote was the modern equivalent to a musket. That an election was better than the carnage of war… They assumed we the people would be logical.

Unfortunately, I’m talking to the air. Those passionate enough to read about politics already know these things, and those who aren’t won’t be reading. The mainstream media owns everyone else, swaying their ideas like waves in the sea. One of their claims is that the tea party is violent. The tea party represents a civil war of sorts, and if it is violent to use our ballot muskets and take our one shot on election day then yes it IS VIOLENT.

There is no natural limit to the life of a Country. Unlike a human being a Country can go on for millennia. However, not when it is managed the way ours has been. The USA is on its death bed and if you don’t take your musket and your one shot out to the battle ground (polling stations) on election day, then you are no patriot. Whatever you believe, vote you ungrateful parasite! Fire your shot in the civil war of 2010. Study the issues and practice your marksmanship carefully. If you think a wasteful money spending, pocket lining, gigantic government is what you want then aim your musket right at my forehead. But vote dangit! Let’s get this bloody war over with.

At the end of its life a nation makes some desperate last gasps. Often by the now tyrannical leadership, but sometimes the people try to revive themselves. Huge riots, and even bloodshed accompany the death of a nation very similar to its birth. By then it’s too little too late. So vote money into your own pocket. Aim your musket at the tea-party so that you can get a big pension. That’s your choice, and if you do that you are no better than the tyrants that are running the show. Just be sure, on the Country’s death bed you or your offspring will suffer for real for your self-indulgence. One way or another, truth comes to be known.

So dear children, my hope is that you will never have to see violence, but my hope is that you will be passionate about everything. In the words of Wes King:

“Love life with all your might.
Love peace but be willing to fight.
Love beauty and train your sight.
And nurture your appetite for beauty, goodness and truth.
Be strong and be brave.
Believe and be saved, for there is a God.”

- Wes King from: “There is a God”

Ever since the Garden of Eden there have been no shortage of accounts of human deceit. Cain told God that he didn’t know where his brother is. Abraham keeps lying about his wife. Even some of our most famous heroes of history have some white lies up their sleeves. Today, it seems, to be a president or a congressman, or even a lowly mayor, one must carefully manipulate the flow of information in ones own favor. In other words, deceive.

I was thinking about this as I was reading about one of my casual indulgences. You see, I enjoy reading physics articles. The official stuff sometimes, but I especially enjoy the crank physics. I’ll refer to it as crank-science, pseudo-science, non-science, or even faux-science… but however realistic my expectations are from it I also enjoy reading about it. It’s like a comic book, and there are lots of very entertaining stories. I would share a few, but I realize that my taste is an acquired one, and I’m sure the humor may be a bit lost on pretty much anyone else.

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former. – Albert Einstein

That quote is the basis of much of the humor. The absurdly gigantic puzzles that cranks create to confuse themselves are hilarious, and it seems the more ingenious a crank is the more complex his puzzle. Then unraveling the puzzle brings even more entertainment. I must admit I’m not great at unraveling so many of them. They are fun to look at nonetheless.

In the world of crank-science there are a handful of folks that are what I would call “dead honest”. They say what they think, think what they say, and harbor little to no guile whatsoever. They are quite fun to discuss ideas with and in most cases they seem somewhat immune to the delusion that makes the more deceitful cranks so humorous.

I would call them Truth Seekers. Where the deceivers avoid debate & shade nearly every statement in secrecy. As they maintain a pompous I-know-something-you-don’t-know attitude. While they proclaim much too often a lie that they have discovered something new…. The Truth Seekers are quite the opposite in every way. They welcome & crave debate, being wrong only leads to being right. Convincing people of a lie will only lead to folly multiplied. They pour more information out on the table than anyone even asked for. Underneath their anxious excitement they really are humble & quite willing to confess that anyone @ any moment could say something profound. Finally, they very often will downplay their own ideas rather than hype them… You see the Truth Seeker sees the world differently than the deceiver. They know that the entire population can believe a lie, and that even for eternity, but a lie is still a lie no matter how many believe it. The truth doesn’t require secrets, defense, or clever debate. It stands on its own and remains true no matter what the majority believes. Truth is just plain truth & lies are just plain lies and the former is superior in ALL ways. So the Truth Seeker chooses the superior quest.

Truth Seekers will necessarily appear foolish sometimes, as their inability to keep secrets is also an inability to sculptor their reputation. They will have more stamina than most folks because they know their prey is illusive and requires more commitment than the alternative. The Truth Seeker doesn’t mind appearing foolish so long as they are not deceived. The ability to avoid deception is a trait of a Truth Seeker as well as the ability to tell the truth. However, to their fault, they often may naively expect others to share their values. When they do, they can be rather naive. It’s their trust that will be their downfall, when any theory is stated as theory they are most likely to succeed at finding the truth of it. When a theory is presented as fact they may, for some finite period of time, take your word for it. Assuming you would have done your due diligence before proclaiming something to be true. Fool them once, and you should be ashamed… They won’t likely make that mistake twice.

And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one. -Matthew 5:36-37

Eight is the number of copper conductors in a category 5 Ethernet wire. Before you roll your eyes at the “technical terms” it’s just that simple. Eight copper wires stretch the length the cable. They are covered in plastic (insulated) to keep them from touching each other. Of the eight wires each set of two are twisted around each other. Hence the name “twisted pair”. This is NOT rocket science, in fact even rocket science really isn’t rocket science. If you send a electricity (current) in one end of a copper conductor it comes out the other side. Think of it like an 8 lane bowling alley. You roll the ball it goes to the other end, then a conveyor belt brings you the ball back. So long as the lane is clear and the conveyor belt is working the ball goes back and forth and everyone is happy.

That leads into the inspiration for this article. Eight. I took it upon myself to attach our (the office I’m working in) new floor’s wiring to our old floor’s wiring. Things went just perfectly on the first set of wires. When I tested the second set I got nothing, assumed that the jack may be disconnected, and called it a day.

Every-so-often we all have interesting dreams. Last night I dreamt about all kinds of different animals. Some were familiar, and some were just weird. A little lizard that when afraid stands upright like a person and extends it’s neck about 4x its own body length and screams like a banshee. Then hops in a special way that catches the wind and allows it to float away. My old dogs. I’ve had quite a few, but my little beagle buddies were in my dream too. One of them found the crazy lizard. Then there was the snake.

Now I’ve never had a dream in which the snake wasn’t bad. It always causes trouble. It always hides away and while I’ve never been especially afraid of snakes in real life, in dream world they really bother me. Last night’s snake was scary. It was colored like a skunk shiny black and shiny white. I first spotted its tail, also pretty common in my dreams. I started to pull on it (because I always do this sort of thing when I find them in my dream) and discovered it was much bigger than it seemed. It had crawled way up in a hole and as I pulled it out I realized I didn’t want to see its head.

Anyway, I’ll leave that crazy dream for now. Maybe my neighbors were burning the marijuana weeds in their back yard last night or something. Yes, it’s literally a weed here. Who knows. I woke up pretty well rested and headed to work planning to get the jack fixed so that the wiring part of our move would just be done.

I went straight to the “plug” in question. Opened it up, and found that not only was it disconnected, but for some reason it had been connected and someone decided to just, apparently randomly, cut the wires? I’m picturing some disgruntled guy stewing about pay or something. Who knows, it was very strange. Anyway, I proceeded to reconnect the 8 wires to their correct places and with a smile on my face a bit overconfidently put it all back together. This should be done I thought.

I grabbed the tester (just picture 8 little bowlers to roll balls down the alley) and fired it up. 1-2—4-5-6-7–, 1-2—4-5-6-7– … Alleys 3 and 8 weren’t working. Bummer. I know I connected the jack well, most likely problem is the junction I made last night. Time to unwrap the electric tape. (Now, if you are actually technical you may be laughing about the use of electrical tape, I would be too if I hadn’t asked specifically for couplers and got something completely different & the answer “why would you need that, just splice… you know splice?”) … Splice & tape is a way of life for even the most accomplished South Asian technician.

Now may be a good time to point out that the general word here for electricians, phone repair men, even plumbers is “mistri” … It’s really not as big a mystery as everyone wants to believe. You get everything in place, just right, and things work. Even in computer science or rocket science for that matter. If the problem is very complicated just break it up into small problems and solve them one at a time. With a bit of intuition and experience, and most of all stubbornness, it becomes like riding a bike. Well, at least you would think…. the saga continues…

I hadn’t even begun to remove the tape before I saw the problem with one of the wires. The white/orange one (bowling alley number 3) was clearly broken. A sigh of relief knowing just where the problem is. Unfortunately the brown wire (alley number eight) looked pretty good. So I unwrap the mess and fix alley 3. 1-2-3-4-5-6-7– … Good news, this is clearing up nicely.

So now for that bowling alley #8. Currently the problem could be anywhere, the plug (jack) in the wall, the wire from that jack to the junction box, even the wire we pulled down to our main offices. Since the jack was the easiest to check I went back to that, switched the alleys around making brown alley 7 and white/brown alley 8. 1-2-3-4-5-6—8 … yup, that brown wire was the problem. Time to get a bit more drastic. I go back to the junction box, clip the end off altogether, and put a jack there so that I can put my tester there. Result: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 … Ah, that’s good, so I go down to our office and carefully analyze all of the cable on the other end. It looks perfect. Even the little gash I did find wasn’t in the cable I’m using! Welp, time to put another jack in the junction box. This one on the other side of my cable run from yesterday.

1-2-3-4-5-6-7– … well, it’s broken somewhere… Maybe I messed up the cable end, clip, cut, trim, push, crimp. Okay, new cable end…. 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 … Eureka! Job done. Let’s close up our patient… and for the grand finale let’s test it all the way through. 1-2-3-4-5-6-7– …. WHAT? This is crazy, it was my cable end, I clipped it, replaced it, and that fixed it what in the world. Pop off a few connections test to the office again… 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 … ok, test to the jack, –2-3—5-6—- … huh? Test to the office again 1-2-3-4-5-6-7– … The tester has gone batty! What is going on here & how did it just happend to fail at 8 again? Maybe this crazy Chinese crimper is faulty and messing up the eighth pin (I mean bowling alley) and causing the problem on just that pin, but that doesn’t explain how only 2,3,5, and 6 are working. Giving the tester a jiggle results in 1-2-3(dim)—5-6— … okay this is just plain stupid. Chinese cheap stuff (just as I look down and notice the word “Germany” written across the handle of the crimper) … what in the world. Or maybe, just maybe Ephesians 6:12?

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

I’m suddently in a world of screaming lizards and snakes crawling around in the walls. Where gargoyles and orcish demons stick their fingers in the wires and bang on people’s heads with hammers. It only lasts for a few minutes. Even in a world of just chance what were the chances that there would be such a thoroughly time wasting scenario as this?…

Well I suppose pretty good if the tester is simply faulty or the wiring shorted (ball swallowing cracks in the bowling alley surface) either way I’ve done all I can and really not very happy with the result. Close her up anyhow, get back to my desk, and back to the less superstitious world where if only I had gotten to this intersection 10 seconds sooner I would not be stuck behind this toxic fume spewing truck. Where if we sit down and think through every contingency we will predict the future with certainty. Where results are only the sum of all of the decisions made before.

It’s not hard to imagine where superstition comes from. If life’s acrobatics are random chance, perhaps it’s just our self-centeredness that causes us to think otherwise. The ultimate woe-is-me form of self pity. Maybe life really did “create itself” and no sooner than it could think it became arrogant enough to believe that it certainly must be the brunt of some galactic joke. Whatever the cause, I still think there are snakes in the walls. Maybe if I got to that intersection 10 seconds earlier that oil burning death trap TATA polution generator would be there to… and if a tree falls in the forest there is never no one there to hear it!