July 8, 2009 | Of Strengths and Weaknesses

In the effort to organize my life, I’ve begun going through and purging all the crap I’ve come to collect over my 25+ years of life on this planet. During this endeavor, which I am still undertaking, I discovered the results of a test I took back in November 2005.

After my promotion to media supervisor at the Vero Beach Best Buy (Store #816, the “Vero Beach Vipers”—Vipers? Yep. Vipers.) one of the things that I had to take was a test to determine my “signature themes.” This would determine what my top 5 out of a possible 34 strengths were, as Best Buy is a “Strength Based Organization (SBO).”

I found this document to be completely enlightening at the time, and its rediscovery nearly four years later makes me realize that, yes, those strengths that were identified back then are still true. They’re a part of who I am, and I did forget about them here and there. This document’s rediscovery has energized me in a way I’ve never believed possible; it is a testament of my strengths in word form.

So in the interest of keeping it around for a reminder, and to let you kind (and faithful? faithless?) readers of this blog know exactly what I am all about, I’ve scanned this in PDF format and uploaded it.

Read all six pages of it here. (9 MB, PDF)

Oh, and the coffee stain on page one is authentic. I don’t remember where that came from. The scanning lamp made it more vibrant than I had thought! Also, for some reason, it printed in landscape instead of portrait. Go figure.

June 26, 2009 | Mourn the Dead Later

“Mourn the dead later. Right now, the best thing we can do is get this ship into the fight.”—William Adama

Yesterday seemed to be a very down day. People dying and all that. You may have heard it blasted ad absurdum on the news. Or what makes for news networks in this FUBARed country.

Well, I hate to break it to a lot of ya, but there are people who die every day and do not have the luxury of having their lives looked back upon on some Gods-forskaen 24 hour news network.

What disgusts me more than anything else is how the sensationalist media harps on Michael Jackson, yet ignores the larger issues this world faces: nuclear weapons proliferation, life-changing bills being passed by Congress, various crises over seas, and a government that seems more out of control than it was under the George W. Bush Dick Cheney administration. And while the rest of us go out and stimulate the economy by buying Michael Jackson’s CDs or mp3s from iTunes, we should mourn the dead later and pay attention to what’s happening in the world.

And I know why this is… because we let it happen. We need to hold the media accountable for their actions. Support independent media that actually cares to report the news that affects us. The death of a pop star is worth reporting on an entertainment channel, and worth a brief mention on the news, but not the incessant attention that it is given.

So change the channel. Boycott advertisers. Do what you feel is right.

But most of all, pay attention, take care, and control.

June 18, 2009 | Anyone Can Be a Big Brother (or Big Sister)

This is NOT the appearance of the Big Brother you should worry about.

Big Brother (or Big Sister, or even Big Sibling if we want to get P.C. about it) is a damning concept that has permeated our culture since the introduction of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. Before the Internet numerous SF fans, conspiracy theorists, the counter-culture and cyberpunkoids have toyed with Big Brother as being the control mechanism of a totalitarian government or a large corporation.

That was the 20th century.

Here in the 21st century, we are faced with a more damning fact: anyone can assume the mantle of Big Brother in our lives. Living in the age of connectedness that we share today, thanks to cellular telephones and the Internet, we find ourselves gobsmacked by the possibility that we were too narrow-minded in the concept of an all-seeing, all-knowing force in our lives. I am not referring to a deity or deities here, however technology has made damned sure that they are capable of achieving feats of that stature.

If you mix the de-centralized nature of the Internet with entrepreneurial spirit, capitalism and someone with a few basic facts on you, someone—your neighbor, a mentally deranged person you’ve pissed off online, your ex, your boss(es), family, friends, nerdlingers—can find out most anything they want on you. Googling people you know is only the first step. There are now sites out there that can dig deeper than you had likely thought impossible. Lifehacker has a list of sites whose sole aim is to allow people to find out anything on anyone, regardless on how careful you believe you have been in guarding your personal information, even if you use those privacy controls in your social networking sites, such as Facebook.

Short of reading your mind and extracting genetic samplings from your body, these systems will pull up anything that been electronically entered: posts on old bulletin boards, newspaper clippings that have been digitized, public records (divorce filings, speeding tickets, etc.)Â and information from social networking sites. I am astonished that these public systems have yet to link into medical records, internal files kept on you by your employer, and the Social Security Administration, but that’s only a matter of time. Such systems already exist and are used by the government, and the private sector has access to these things as well, which makes you pause.

It’s scary, but inevitable and damning. The technology we employ in our daily lives has outpaced our hearts, our ethics, and any anachronistic concepts we have of privacy. You can’t stop information on you from getting out there, but there are ways to control the types and what information can be pulled up by these systems.

My friend Amy has a few suggestions on this front, and there are numerous resources available online to help control what information can be indexed on you. The aforementioned Lifehacker is a good stepping stone, as is the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

You can be scared, but don’t let it paralyze you. Take this as a lesson in paying attention and being proactive in your privacy and connected life.

May 8, 2009 | Something I stumbled across…

In my search for a quote, I found this from Maya Angelou, one of America’s better contemporary poets. Thought I’d share it with ya!

“I don’t know if I continue, even today, always liking myself. But what I learned to do many years ago was to forgive myself. It is very important for every human being to forgive herself or himself because if you live, you will make mistakes—it is inevitable. But once you do and you see the mistake, then you forgive yourself and say, ‘well, if I’d known better I’d have done better,’ that’s all. So you say to people who you think you may have injured, ‘I’m sorry,’ and then you say to yourself, ‘I’m sorry.’ If we all hold on to the mistake, we can’t see our own glory in the mirror because we have the mistake between our faces and the mirror; we can’t see what we’re capable of being. You can ask forgiveness of others, but in the end the real forgiveness is in one’s own self. I think that young men and women are so caught by the way they see themselves. Now mind you. When a larger society sees them as unattractive, as threats, as too black or too white or too poor or too fat or too thin or too sexual or too asexual, that’s rough. But you can overcome that. The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself. If we don’t have that we never grow, we never learn, and sure as hell we should never teach.”

And here’s another:

“I’ve learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow. I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things:
a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights. I’ve learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you’ll miss them when they’re gone from your life. I’ve learned that making a living is not the same thing as making a life. I’ve learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance. I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw some things back. I’ve learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision. I’ve learned that even when I have pains, I don’t have to be one. I’ve learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back. I’ve learned that I still have a lot to learn. I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

May 5, 2009 | Reading stars is like reading tea leaves… you can do it, but don’t whine if nothing constructive comes from it.

This is my reply to Mojo’s blog post regarding the regrettably, overly deep analysis that some honest, loving fans have done over the run of B-Star Galactica when it comes to star patterns seen fleetingly in the background. If it passes moderation, you’ll see it as a response to his blog… but without some of the corrections I’ve made after the fact in terms of misplaced commas and the like. Enjoy!

Mojo,

I want to take this opportunity to thank you and the amazing CGI/FX team at Battlestar for the wonderfully consistent work on BSG, despite the hectic schedules and the fast turn-around time that you guys need to meet when working on a television budget. (I do have issues with the CGI for “Daybreak,” but I won’t go into that. I understand that the special effects were finished a day before the episode aired, so I understand it.)

While I understand the astronomy or science buffs for being a bit miffed over the so-called “starfield clues,” they need to understand that the sole purpose of a television show is to entertain and, from a financial standpoint, make cubits for the network. (I believe the field you are in is referred to as the “entertainment business,” and as a business there are investments and the expectation is that there is a return on said investments in the form of recouping the initial investment and, ultimately, profit.) If these fans wanted real hard science fiction, then they could go to the library and look into the works of Carl Sagan, Issac Asimov or other golden age SF writers to read. Further, they could simply watch the Discovery, History Channel and other educational shows. The fact that you guys and gals cared enough to be consistent under hectic television schedules and other stresses shows your true dedication and passion for the art of making a television show.

The sad part about these fans (which are less than 0.01% of us, but yet are the most vocal) is that they have demonstrated a complete lack of understanding about what the people in the entertainment trenches of television production go through. I do not for one minute believe that this disrespect is intentional, but rather out of sheer ignorance and, borne from that, misunderstanding. I really wish the fans could go through what I experienced up in Vancouver when prepping for the first BSG auction before the production wrapped after “The Plan” and “Face of the Enemy,” as then they would have had their eyes opened to what actually goes on behind the scenes. Even my personal minimal exposure to this process has nurtured a greater respect for what EVERYONE in the production staff goes through just to make the show happen! Color me “biased,” but at least my opinion is informed.

I’ve always maintained that there are very few fans who (dangerously) read far too much into things in the show, whether it be the way something is said, or into the minute details in the background. And while it’s easy to say that “people will always nitpick at everything and so you must account for that,” it needs to be understood and accepted that you guys cannot account for these things. The conditions that, again, you’ve laid out in your blog post demonstrate that this is impossible. You will never please all the nitpickers, and it isn’t worth your time to do so.

So, yes, the constellations in the Tomb of Athena were a scientific mistake as Grazier admitted and, yes, Gaeta’s comment about them matching in Earth 1′s orbit were also a mistake… however, BSG is an “elseworld” and should be treated as such. After all, the Cylons don’t exist, there’s no William Adama, there’s no “other Earth” and it is all a work of fiction that miraculously lasted longer than its original source material. So what’s to say that the constellations seen in the Tomb of Athena WEREN’T the constellations over the Kobollian Cylons’ homeworld? Hmm…

Regardless, you all have done well for yourselves. Sure there were mistakes, but as BSG is a mirror of the human condition, this is to be expected… and, in a perverse sort of way, cherished and respected.

To those of us who complain and belabor things ad nauseum (and, honestly, to no point)… Be thankful that we received four seasons, two movies, webisodes and a spin-off. It could be worse. You could be watching Galactica 1980 for four seasons, as we could have a spin-off with just the descendants of the “Super Scouts” jumping for joy as they throw seeds into trenches made by lasers as they sing a space scout chantey.

So say we all and thanks for all the fish.

November 9, 2008 | My Vero Pilgrimage

As some of you may already be aware, I have returned from a three month stay in Vancouver, Canada, which is home to not only the Cactus Club Cafe and its spiked frapps (a coffee drink with alcohol, served like a slushie in a martini glass, costing $7 CDN) but also to the Vancouver Film Studios. It was at these studios that the venerable “Battlestar Galactica” was shot since going to series in 2004. The sets are gone, everything’s packed up, and what physically remains of the show’s set decoration, costumes, and props are located in an undisclosed location on the west coast until the auctions in 2009.

So, after flying out on a red-eye Friday, October 31st (Halloween night) and landing around 7:30 A.M. in Orlando, I’ve been busy catching up on things I’ve left unattended for 3 months while simultaneously working on the final items for the auction catalog. It is only just in the past two days that I’ve gone and trekked around Sebastian/Vero Beach for a spell, which I’ll continue to do tomorrow when I hit Best Buy and see how much things have changed. That place is probably the same hell-hole that I left willingly—and in an interesting fashion—back in 2007, but it’ll be interesting to go back in there and see how everyone is doing in the box. Everyone who is still employed there, anyway.

So, on my little pilgrimages over the course of two days, I’ve driven around the city to my old haunts. I haven’t really touched based with any friends locally, because I simply haven’t had the time since I’ve come back, but I’ve been to the mall and to the movie theater (saw “Zack and Miri Make A Porno”, “Madagascar 2″, and “Rocknrolla”). It’s an interesting experience going to the AMC Theatres in Vero, seeing as you only pay 4.50 to 9.50 for a movie ticket and the theater is only filled with 10 or so people… even less.

In Vancouver, the theater I went to—the ScotiaBank Theater—you paid an easy 12.50 CDN for a movie ticket, and $20 for any snacks. Also, the cost for things is just a bit higher, even with the exchange rate. (Although, at the end, there was a 20 cent difference between their dollar and ours, i.e. $.80 USD = $1 CDN.) Normally, I think those prices are just verging on more than ridiculous, however when you work 60+ hours a week, you really don’t care much and just need to take a break from all your worrries.

On the other hand, Vancouver is a bit more my thing, since I can walk to virtually any store from where I stayed. In Florida, lots of freakin’ driving… dirt roads… and little to really do.

So, anyway, back to my pilgrimage: I took my old driving routes from the mall to home, and ate at the same places I ate at when I worked at Best Buy. (Today, Chick-fil-A, tomorrow… crappy Subway.)

All this makes me very glad that I’m in the position to do what I want to do now, instead of going through the same old routines on a daily basis. It’s extremely eerie, particularly as it seems to me that I’ve lived another life for four years as I try to trace my steps.

Perhaps it’s just that I’ve grown into my own as a person that’s changed my perspective so much? I honestly don’t know… even as I type this, my mind wanting to wander off and my body wanting to get some sleep.

It’s also pretty pathetic—and I realize that as I’m writing this—but there’s a sense of needing to remind myself where I came from. Particularly when I’ve worked through a lot of my personal issues over the past year, as I’ve dedicated to trying to build up things from scratch, only to face one more obstacle after the other.

However, I’m pleased that things are starting to pay off now. A website that I started only as a hobby with the collaboration of uncounted others has given me a tremendous job opportunity with the auction thing, and I’m still working with Lawrence on getting White Eye Productions off the ground… not to mention the fact that I’m starting my own LLC, which I’m finalizing this week…

So… that’s where I’m at right now.

And yes, like I always say, I hope to update this blog a little more repeatedly… cuz there’s a lot of stuff I’d like to share with everyone, even those I’ve lost contact with over the years.

So say we all!