3-Bird Turducken, 17-Bird Royal Roast and Global Responsibility

November 21, 2014

3-Bird Turducken, 17-Bird Royal Roast and Global Responsibility

This is a grand example of why I am so cynical, sarcastic…and feel like I have to claw my way out of this omnipresent, defeatist attitude each and every day.  I wake up and am usually perusing the news from one of two devices before I ever leave the sheets for some bladder relief. 

Today I made it all the way to the computer at my desk before seeing this.  I was happy, entertaining a new, empowered feeling that I had enough dough in the bank to take a shooting road trip to explore more of my new home in North-Central California during the Fall-to-Winter months.  Rain!  Snow!  Wonderful!!  Needed to shop for a couple of small necessities to further this quest safely.  But first – more news.  It isn’t unlike iterative scientific research for me – scanning headlines for something new, or for something worded a slightly more intelligent way. 

I hit CNN, The Guardian, BBCUK, Al-Jazeera, more.  Then I land on my old favorite, NPR.  The usual headlines…GOP sues Obama, colleges and sexual assault, “they wouldn’t have nobody”… then the word ‘Turducken’ rings a bell.  Fall, holidays, yup.  The rest of the headline slid its way into my psyche and I pondered it as it did, word then word…a comparison, a competition.  ‘This 3-Bird Turducken Has Nothing On This 17-Bird Roast’.  Really? 

Without awaiting my next heartbeat, instant judgment and criticism.  Something I am trying constantly to combat within myself, in favor of a more productive attitude (I’ll take this up in another article). 

Turkey, Duck, Chicken.  OK, fine.  

…Fuck.  This is always what happens to me – I get an idea, then I walk that idea mentally, I think or write or hopefully both, having a thousand other thoughts as I navigate that first path.  Not only do I want to tackle my own personality again as I write this, pursuing a higher degree of self-awareness and understanding, I want to take on the root of Thanksgiving and its (lack of) evolution now as well.  Sigh.  New documents with new headlines.  You should see my unfinished writing folders. 

Attempting to stay this course, instead of seeing an article on food (keep in mind I haven’t read it yet), I see this evolution on human consumption and bitching.  My fingers  typed ‘botching’ at first, which also may have its own relevancy here.  Because we’re always looking to outdo ourselves, we had three favorite celebratory eating birds combined into one big roast as a more complete demonstration of our culinary creativity.  I recall years previous when it gained popularity, thinking ‘why three’?  I got the foodie question – what’s more to love than being able to appreciate expansively one of our most basic needs?  But then it begs the question…don’t we have people starving?  Myself, likely quite a few within hundreds of meters of where I am sitting?  Isn’t three birds overdoing it a bit?  OK, fine, overdo it once or twice a year.  But we in this country don’t.  And, of course, I am speaking generally – I know full well there are millions of people acting and eating as responsibly as they know how, for themselves and everyone (everything) else. 

Thankstaking?  Meh…and here I thought I was being so cool…it’s out there a fair bit.  Anyway…No.  Thanksgiving.  Instead of another indulgence into our own gluttony, why not create some monumental movement to do some good for many?  I keep thinking…what if we could keep our personal consumption small, but combine the other dollars that would have been spent to further something productive for everything on the planet? 

Now, before I immediately sleep my computer and run off to assist those who are trying to make a difference on this note, I’ll try to complete my thought.  I’ll also try to shed the idea of running off to help, at least for today.  I’m a horrible person. 

Then there’s this NPR article.  17 birds??  Seventeen.  I don’t think I’ve heard the chirp, whistle, warble or ‘poor-will’ of more than a dozen species in the last six months, leaving the alarming loss of our avian species for another article.  Wait…19^th-century reference in the turkey drawing’s caption…?  Will explore that later.  Might even read the article.  Must…resist…will get impression out then adapt to new information accordingly.  Things probably haven’t changed. 

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/11/21/365509503/the-3-bird-turducken-has-nothing-on-this-17-bird-royal-roast

Seventeen.  I flare up at the thought.  This entitlement of ours to do and eat whatever we want, as often as we want.  On a whim, with no thought to anything beyond our (entitled…) taste buds.  And now, not having to wait for later.  I know how the thinking has evolved, as it has in so many arenas; that of early, innocent ignorance to that of apathy to that of just-plain-don’t-give-a-shit-I-am-not-going-to-live-that-long-anyway-so-I-might-as-well-do-exactly-what-I-want.  It doesn’t help that I saw our destroyed planet in Interstellar last night for my 45^th birthday, even though that image lobbies my brain daily in various forms.  Why do I care when seemingly so many others do not?  It is admittedly nice to see others thinking the same way.  There are so many of us who want to make a difference, and we do – with the little things we do or don’t do every single minute of our lives, overcoming the shadow of apathy.  I don’t think those of us like that are better, I just think we have learned how to pay and maintain a bit closer attention, especially in this world of distractions.  We all have our strengths and weaknesses.  …SQUIRREL! 

“Stuffed, inserted, squeezed, thrown, inserted, introduced, piled, wormed, shoehorned, kicked, rammed, shoved, jammed, wedged, logged (meant to be lodged?), crammed”?  Yeah, I started reading the article.  It certainly doesn’t sound like fun from the perspective of those unfortunates who happen to be lower on the food chain than ourselves.  And, of course, in most cases they are talking about the packing of one previously-living-thing up the anal cavity of another.  Weee.  Yeah, they’re dead.  We’re adept at making things dead.  Nature is brutal…do we need to rub salt in it?  Uh…scratch that…I already know the answer. 

What is this?  This yawning divide in attention among us.  I won’t fault people for their fun, just don’t turn a blind eye to the impact you’re having.  Seriously, I have a 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee I would love to ditch for a far more responsible vehicle.  We do what we can when we are able, right?  But, this doesn’t appear to be…I digress.  Where was I.  Crap. 

Seventeen.  I read the article.  Two-hundred years ago.  Early 19^th-century indulgences, at a time when there were only just over one billion people on the planet.  In all likelihood, those partaking in these feasts of non-famine were only  the royals and the incredibly well-to-do so the impact on nature was minimal.  Today, what would happen if we were looking at 100million households doing the same thing, just in the US?  We already know what production of turkeys, ducks and chickens is like for our ‘normal’ day-to-day consumption. 

As always, I try for a solution.  How can we solve a problem like this?  Sure, I’d love to see animals enjoy as much of a normal, healthy life (quantifiable? 80, 90…95%?) for their species before they’re ‘harvested’, humanely, as food?  I’d love to see everyone who wants to enjoy some culinary craziness like this.  Once in a blue moon.  In moderation.  That is really the word that underscores so much of what we do these days, and far too few are willing to incorporate it into their thinking.  But even once a year for this many people seems like too much. 

Heh, great.  Two headlines below this one on npr.org (at this moment):
The Whole World Is Fat! And That Ends Up Costing $2 Trillion A Year

Maybe later. 

© 2014 Michael Pichahchy

Genetics, Personality and Cloud Computing

Genetics, Personality and Cloud Computing

Cloud computing.  By now most of us have run across this term at least once and have an idea as to its general meaning.  Big groups of computers doing a lot of processing.  Got it.  But…Cloud.  Perhaps not the best name/metaphor as it conjures thoughts of things not working as well as they possibly could.  Problem solving in a cloud; in a fog, in a haze.  With where I intend to go in this article that might not be far from the truth, given the state of our genetic evolution as humans. 

As I write this I find I am digressing a bit from my original intent.  The point is more about how connected we all might possibly be.  I haven’t found nor read any literature or research stating anything quite like this but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.  If you know of something please tell me!  Keep in mind most of what you’ll find in these articles are my brain dumps, meant to start a conversation, gather ideas and spread them.  Hopefully something good or at least interesting will come of them.  Best case scenario I get good enough at writing and inventing things to pay the bills! 

As I have witnessed and worked with thousands of different personalities over the course of my lifetime I marvel at not just the diversity among them but those effects that alter them.  We’ve all seen the most humble, pacific and introverted person turned into anything from a horrific, raging demon to a witty, comedic genius by the likes of alcohol, drugs, (emotional) stress, food allergies, change in temperature and more.  This happens at a chemical level I don’t fully understand and am not sure to what extent modern physiology might explain it. 

Stepping down a notch, I wonder about many baseline personality traits themselves.  There are those obvious trends in the global populace we all share to some extent.  I love this list from MIT:

http://ideonomy.mit.edu/essays/traits.html

Disclaimer:  Still studying what the best practice is in linking to other sites and quoting material.  I intend to get it right!  Credit where it is due whenever possible. 

I keep wondering if there isn’t a specific genetic combination within our DNA’s base pairs for each individual personality trait, the way you could say there’s a combination for green eyes.  It seems incredibly likely, and why not? 

*Forgive me while I try to reel myself in.  If you read my disclaimer, you’ll know I bounce around a lot.  This is a blog, not a formal article for Scientific American, even though I would like it to be someday. 

OK, I’m back - this is where the cloud computing analogy came into being .  Think of it in terms of each genetic iteration, however you want to explain it chemically, being a receptor for not only our physical makeup  but our emotional makeup as well.  If you have this specific combination, you are a natively happy person.  Given the number of combinations you also have iterations of happy, and to what degree it might be expressed, given billions of possibilities.  EEK

Yeah, we knew that, or at least knew of that theory.  Please get to your hopefully new and interesting point. 

Imagine each combination being its own radio-like receptor; a sensor.  A ‘radio dish’ if you will, which pulls that specific kind of information from this ‘cloud’ in the multiverse, wherever or whatever that might be.  Maybe this ‘cloud’ is made up of dark matter?  Maybe not physical in the way we imagine it.  Maybe it is made up of tachyons?  In any case, talk about the ultimate wireless network.  Wave or particle?  Not now, Pichahchy… 

Now, with respect to drugs, alcohol, cell phone and other radiation sources.  I like to think of these chemical interruptions as things that interfere the makeup of our personalities.  Some more powerful effects jamming our signals more than others.  Some even have the potential to permanently alter and corrupt our genetic makeup, permanently changing our personalities. 

*Wild thought – what if we living things actually are the sensors, built by some higher form of being, just to collect information, experience, and the like?  Feeding our readings back into those beings’ cloud?  My grandpa used to believe we were put here by aliens, though I don’t know how serious he was.  I need to call my grandma again soon, too.  Based on that I’ve always dreamed of the Earth being a giant petri dish… 

Here’s where we get philosophical.  As we evolve, our brains attain a higher state of consciousness.  This is where I take great stock in the discipline of Buddhist monks and the like – they are so completely committed to these meditative states I believe they do very much achieve some higher state.  Initially I believe they become more self-aware, and when they have reached some measurable state they advance, progress.  Obviously there has to be a ton more studied and written on this elsewhere but I haven’t gone looking for it yet.  There are only so many hours in the day and I have to pet the kitty and stare out the window sometimes. 

How about human genetic similarity.  I’m thinking specifically about immediate families, at least to start with.  Obviously there are those families where there appears to be nothing in common, but I am thinking a little deeper.  Parent-child relationships, twins.  Why is it that we feel so devastated when we lose a parent or sibling?  My feeling is that we’re genetically similar enough that our little clusters of ‘radios’ are so in tune with each other that they…hmm…let me think for a sec.  SQUIRREL!  Actually it is GEORGE!!  Dammit, that man…I cannot help but geek out over his line “it was as if millions of voices cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced”.  It strikes me as dumbfoundingly relevant right now. 

But I digress. 

Where was I…  Oh, yeah.  Think of you and your identical twin.  You feel something together, don’t you.  I’ve heard of and read many studies of this kind of thing.  On this related note, I like to think of it as being tuned in to the cloud, with your lil radios, over a ‘frequency’ that is sooo close to each other that it could be said that you are using almost the same line.  Maybe some cross-talk?  Some input/output is shared between you?  Maybe a lot of it.  This makes me want to go back to grad school and study just this subject!  Now, their respective personalities might be vastly different, which seems often to be the case, but sometimes not.  That isn’t to say they each don’t know what the other is thinking.  Twins might be so genetically close that they are using almost the same line to the cloud.  Wild, huh?  No wonder! 

Random thought about how we’re mapping so much of the brain’s activity during certain activities.  I still think we could, eventually, dial in whatever signal we’re using to upload and download from this crazy cloud.  Maybe the tachyon thing wasn’t so crazy…?  Faster than the speed of light?  How much bandwidth could we possibly be talking about?!!  But, even if all this were true, I’d still swear some people are limited to 17Kbps… 

Parents and their children.  Why is it we feel such an immense sense of loss at the death of a parent?  Maybe it is that genetic closeness, that loss of such a similar companion signal?  Maybe, as we age, with a thought toward genetic corruption and decay, we lose signal strength?  Maybe not.  But why does it seem to be more devastating for some parents to lose a child? 

Cloning?  Can you imagine?  If this were actually true, you could attempt taking the purest sample of your DNA from a point in your life when you had been fully established and clone at least most of who you are.  Obviously there are environmental examples, explored to appreciatively great extent in our popular culture.  Think Star Trek: Nemesis.  And if you wanted to back up your current personality you need look no further than The 6^th Day. 

Relatedly, swarms.  Birds, fish, pods, ants…?  Hive-mind capacities.  Given a less complex genetic makeup with fewer possibilities for iterations, I wonder sometimes if what gives birds, fish and other living things the ability to react the way they do.  Birds changing course.  Of course there has been research that shows examples of why this is, I am simply offering another possibility for people to gnaw on. 

I feel like, science notwithstanding, there is potential for a great novel or screenplay here…?  Bathroom daydream!  Christopher Nolan found my blog and wanted me to co-write something fun on this note.  ;o) 

Edit:  Diluting the signal?

I just had a thought as a response to an article Robert Reich wrote on Salon.com.  I haven’t read the article yet; this was borne of just reading the title and reflecting on it for a few seconds. 
Robert Reich: Conservatives have an empathy deficit disorder
http://www.salon.com/2014/10/29/robert_reich_conservatives_have_an_empathy_deficit_disorder_partner/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

What if, based on my theory detailed (poorly?) above, we are diminishing the ‘signal’ between our minds and the ‘cloud’?  Not to geek out too much, but what if we’re saturating the available bandwidth to the point of increasingly poor communication?  I mean, of course we have the ability to interact directly, interpersonally, but I am thinking of the potential for behind the scenes communication.  Think of it in terms of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems; control over heartbeat, respiration, peristalsis.  I’m just spouting ideas again, thinking aloud, so don’t mind me.  Or do, just post your thought and spread the ideas around. 

I can’t help but think about all we might accomplish if we didn’t have to worry about our financial lives.  I’d love to at least be financially stable, wouldn’t everyone who isn’t?  I’m trying to work out how I might be able to explore writing (and photography, and helping people…) as gainful pursuits, at least enough to pay the bills. 

Argh! 

More to come…much more as I gain steam. 
 


12-24-2014!!  Merry Holiday type thing!  Enjoy family, friends, food, games, creativity!  

I've been pondering the best way to add additional thoughts to original blogs, so I'll be experimenting with a bunch of them.  

©Michael Pichahchy 2014

READ THIS FIRST! About me/Disclaimer

READ THIS FIRST! About me/Disclaimer

As with so many others, I am your typical, geeky, mostly-socially-functional homo sapiens sapiens.  As of this writing, 44.  Depending, of course, on your perspective with regard to age and how long we’ve existed; older if you count time since conception.  Hard to say when I was first self-aware.  But, at any rate, that’s me - rooting around in the muck that is our multiverse for new questions and the solutions to them.  Continuing to learn more about myself.  Leading others to an understanding of me, and, hopefully, a better understanding of something else.  Anything else.  Occasionally, even better, themselves.  Smacking a friend’s windshield with a paintball.  Or several.  You know how it is. 

Also as of this writing I am:

1/7,251,583,786

OK, now: 

1/7,267,165,236

1/7,269,176,665

So are you.  

For now, I write how I want.  I believe I have a fairly respectable command of this language but belief is relative.  I might’ve had a better vocabulary in grade school.  If the day comes where I see an opportunity (hopefully) to make a living at this in some form I will be forced to adapt, which is fine.  Good to be stretched on that medieval rack of others’ criticisms, as long as it pops a festering vertebra back into place. 

That said, my writing style is like my train of thought…all over the place, oft changing tracks, sometimes derailing completely into gravel, trees or maybe a river.  Sometimes off of a very high trestle or cliff but imagine the language you might come up with on the way down.  The higher the better?  I do try to clean up and organize, attempting to make myself as clear a read as possible but I will at times completely suck or not give a fuck.  Deal with it.  If you don’t wanna, suck it up and read it again anyway.  Try to put yourself in my shoes and reflect a bit on how difficult it has been for me to start writing in the first place.  Then I wholeheartedly urge you to write for yourself as well.  It can be massively therapeutic and you might even surprise yourself.  Let’s solve the world’s problems, or at a minimum throw some ideas around and keep the conversation going.  Tell a truth.  Tell a story.  Have some fun. 

I am opinionated.  I will piss you off.  Hell, I piss myself off.  I whine, cry, cuss, bitch, argue, froth and spit.  That said, I am usually very successful in being playful and maintaining my sense of humor.  Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who could give a gravity-defying bout of copulation.  Asshole.  Wipe that condescending grin off your face or I’ll bleach you clean.  But, you’re porous, and that could leave a residue…scratch that.  Or I could just do that and clean you again with something intended for that purpose.  That’ll learn ye.  Asshole.  No, I won’t punch you…that kind of unproductive violence has no merit whatsoever.  Besides, I’d cut my hand and have bad luck for seven years. 

The occasional delusion is what I allow myself when I am feeling scientisty or philosophery and believe I’ve struck a neat chord.  Not necessarily correct or in but I decent thought nonetheless, nonethemore.  Stewed in with other veggies of study, opinions, hopefully discussion, those delusions might become those of grandeur.  Heh… 

There’s a thought.  Imagine going a year without ever seeing your own face.  Even a week, for that matter.  Hmm. 

I could venture to say I intend to piss everyone off at times.  I know from vast personal experience that one of the best ways to learn, quickly, is to experience trauma, most of the time self-imposed; physical, emotional, psychological…trauma.  Physical insomuch as only to improve…I’m not saying making nice parallel lines in your forearm with a box knife is a good idea.  It isn’t.  So I might as well try to leave this place a weee bit better just by breaking things and seeing what is learned; what grows.  I’ve seen some fantastic things done with broken clay pots. 

I’d love it if someone considered my thoughts as something along the lines of an intellectual screwdriver in a power outlet.  For the jolt of electricity…not as a negative reinforcer that tells you not to come back, to be clear.  Hmm…I might need a better metaphor for that. 

Along those lines, I also allow myself to have feelings and show them to myself.  As I age I tend to care less about who witnesses any of my doings should they be proximal during an episode, not unlike many women breastfeeding.  Feel free to suckle the teat of my public emotional outbursts, small or large.  That is perhaps misleading…I am never prone to ‘in-the-street’ public outbursts, usually just in private writing; this here is the manifestation of the idea of getting oneself out there.  Ability to like never before, so we might as well. 

On that note, I’ve always said I don't care what you say or do - be yourself.  It is how I choose to react to you being you that matters.  Maybe I will be known for that quote someday.  Probably not, someone has likely already said exactly that.  But then, with billions having lived and living, there are few original ideas, it is just luck of the draw as to who gets the credit.  I do believe strongly in giving credit where it is due. 

pitch ·AH·chee  Just in case you were wondering.  ;o) 

Keep in mind I am fully aware all people exhibit a multitude of possible personality traits.  If I say something is representative of part of me, I am not trying to say I’m the only one, I am just telling you about the ingredients which make up my own personal recipe of craziness.  ;o)

Generalist.  Here’s a note I left myself to write something about being a generalist.  While I don’t immediately recollect wataf I was thinking at the time I might come back to it later.  Too many options. 

As with so many people, one of the things I am blessed with, cursed with, is seeing the global relationships between entities and ideas.  Immense lengths of dominos…beneficial, consequential, destructive.  I will tend to repeat myself and link to other articles with some frequency.  I’ve also been told attorneys like reading my writing as I usually have no trouble saying exactly what I mean, and very often repeating the exact same word many times if it is the best expletive .  If I am trying to be purposefully creative and not get some technical idea across, I’ll dig up a different synapse.  Or even open a thesaurus.  Thesaurus…Pleistocene parchment? 

Presence of libelous language?  I doubt it.  I am usually very frank in that everything I put out there is my own opinion, and I tend to write out everything in a doc on my puter first and sleep on things for a night or ninety before proofreading again and posting, so that should filter anything I might get sued for as a result of an impaired rant. 

Random Rant:  I left college because I found myself paying more for the access to the libraries than anything.  I didn’t need to attend some class to learn something, and it was upsettingly rare we’d have any kind of stimulating conversation in classes.  Maybe that was because my curriculum was almost all hardcore sciences, and at that time my professors frowned on debate.  They sure frowned on mine.  But…I still acquired quite a few years under my belt…I’d like to think that queued me up for the eventual billionaire’s success as several friends predicted but money more than sufficient to be secure was never a motivator.  Six figures was fine but wholly unrewarding, especially considering that the work I was doing wasn’t exactly conducive to a monumental volume of creativity.  Not as I tend to see it at any rate.  I had my outlets, but…yeah.  We’ve all been there.  At least there was ample opportunity for problem solving and helping people. 

In terms of survival and competition for resources, I tend to value my own life over yours.  I would expect that you would do the same with yourself but that is your prerogative.  I’ll get into the brain stem in another article.  Of course, I do attempt to adhere to this antiquated, socially-conscious idea of ‘sharing’, but who am I kidding.  All for me and one for me, right?  Anyway…there are obviously those whom I would give effortlessly my last heartbeat for, but that could easily be the subject of a completely different article.  And likely will be. 

Who I am, of course, is open to interpretation and opinion.  I will, again, tend to listen to and value my own opinion above yours but I’ll reserve that right.  Keep in mind I said specifically that I ‘tend’ to.  For now, anyway.  That is not to say foreign opinions of me won’t be looked at, as when you venture an honest opinion of me as a whole or in some fragment, I will not pay attention…quite the contrary.  I welcome all ideas as I do actually try to better myself in terms of individual organs, bones and connective tissue in addition to that funky nonsense that occurs seemingly, mostly, within this thick skull of mine. 

IF you read.  IF you aren’t someone who looks for TL;DR.  Lazy ass.  Although…in this day and age, I do the same thing myself.  I love being a lazy ass, I’m just working to bring it to a comfortable minimum.  Kettle, meet Pot.    

©Michael Pichahchy 2014