onepostperday

Check out the latest geek streak episode. This one is about Lego ™.

http://www.noisepollution.nl/blog/?p=92

It seems so simple. Life. You are born. You start with little steps and then one thing follows another. The steps get bigger and bolder. You make plans. Some work, some do not. You swing with the punches and rejoice in the successes. It’s like a board game. Sometimes the square you land on wins you the beauty contest, other squares demand payment for the houses you built.

Sadly not everyone learns to play the game with any success. The randomness and unpredictability of life can be an adventure for some, it can be pointless hell for others. What if the game becomes a struggle to find the mental strength to even throw the dice? In other words: a game is only worth playing if you win once in a while or enjoy the playing of it. At the moment: neither is true for me.

Well, if it’s a game a strategy is called for. But to design a strategy you first need to know the rules, the board and the other player. And there in lies a very difficult journey of searching and ending up on blocked paths. Every so often you think you know the lay of the land and you devise an elaborate strategy that may win you the game. Many times life, the other player, puts up a cunning defence and victory slips through your fingers again and it is back to square one.

I am now at such a stage. I may have even slipped passed square one, off he board. I can see it but the decision to step on it and join the game again takes more courage then I can currently muster. It means burning a bunch of bridges and it also means I have to spend a lot of energy in baby steps that may or may not lead to learning to walk. I’m not even thinking about learning to run.

The difficult part is getting past the frustration of having been off the board so many times now that I wonder if the game is playable at all. Although I do see other players enjoying it so I know there is potential of enjoyment in the game somewhere. Maybe it is time for another perusal of the rule book and see if I missed a crucial line somewhere.

A Christian declaration says: All men are created equal*.

Not restricted by religion that statement can become: We are equal.

 *Thomas Jefferson in the declaration of independence, 1776

A very long title but it does sum up the reason why Windows and me don’t get along. Lately Windows users are up in arms about how “not so bad as portrayed” Windows Vista is. Defensive describes it best.

Fine. So it is safer, crashes less and looks better than a previous version. Wow! But one thing Microsoft still doesn’t get: user interfaces. If you’re used to it and if you know what’s where you can get around Windows Vista and almost get it to be productive. But if you are a lazy user that doesn’t want to think about the operating system because you just want to finish a song or get that website done than I want the user interface to be as invisible as possible. I don’t want intrusion from the interface asking me a question every two seconds. That is the equivalent of the nagging colleague who’s bored while you are hard at work.

“Windows doesn’t do that!” I hear you say. Doesn’t it? Or are you just to used to it to notice? Then there is the start button system. As soon as I open the Start menu in Windows I’m lost. I can’t find my way around. There are too many options that I need to know the background of just to do simple things like connect to a server.

Much of the defence of Windows is in the context of “but you can do that in Windows, you moron!” Yes, I know you can do almost everything in Windows. But you need a degree in computer science to do it. OK, that’s overstating it maybe, but the interface is less than intuitive. I said this before and I say it again: the “turn off” button in the start menu is the perfect example: when I click the internationally accepted sign of “turn this thing off” I expect the computer to shut down. It doesn’t, it goes to sleep. You need to CTRL click it and choose shut off from a menu. And this is exactly the same all through the interface. I have seen many, many manuals that explain how to install hardware on computers. For Windows it’s always a page longer than for OSX. Even for simple things like USB sticks never mind installing a complicated device like a printer.

I will never get through to most people using Windows. I don’t even want to. If you like Windows and get things done in it that’s great. But I do feel sorry for you. By defending Windows and its underlying UI philosophy Microsoft will never give you a real OS. One that gets things done with a minimum of fuss. Frankly I don’t care but you are missing out on great productivity by sticking to a broken user interface.

Life is full of paths to take. The ever winding road from cradle to grave is potholed and branched like an old oak tree. So it is not only trying for the suspension it tests the steering to its full capacity as well.

I wonder how much of the steering is choice and how much is decision. There is a subtle difference I feel. If the road is smooth one can choose to go left, right or straight on. However if one encounters a pothole one may have to decide quickly and swerve, often running a few wheels into the verge or narrowly avoiding a signpost, sometimes even force you on a turn off you hadn’t anticipated. The fact that the sat nav keeps giving directions to the chosen destination can become rather pointless. Even irritating.

These days I am thinking a lot about routes to take. Choices to make. I had programmed the sat nav a while ago but more and more I wonder about the wisdom of the destination. Choices have consequences but so do potholes and wheels in verges and although my eye sight is not as good as it was in my twenties I believe I can see the road getting rougher in the distance. Some people of course just shift to a lower gear and head straight on, negotiating the bumps as best they can. Others have a four-by-four and just don’t worry about it. They are equipped for the ride. I am not. I am equipped for a smooth ride, my suspension is worn. That may sound dull. It may sound cowardly but I have had enough of the potholes and the wild swerves. What I want is as smooth a ride as I can get. And that will involve choices that anticipate not decisions that react.

Maybe there will be a side road that is a bit smoother and leads to the same destination. Maybe changing direction and ignoring the sat nav will lead me to much more beautiful vistas than I anticipated. I will take the next couple of miles to look for a lay-by and park to seriously consider the routes available. I bet the sat nav has some options I haven’t seen yet.

This is the 365th post on this blog. As announced a couple of posts ago this means I am going to cut back on the onepostperday posting. I feel my writing is drying up under the duress of daily posting. It doesn’t mean however that I will post only once a month. I have many things to say still and will be able to post very frequently. Maybe even daily once the pressure is off. There’s the irony of my life: once something becomes compulsory all my brakes are pulled and I throw my head against it. Once something becomes voluntary and non-pressurised I start doing it with vigour.

In the mean time I am contemplating lots of things. I want to write more stories and maybe incorporate them into onepostperday instead of putting them on a separate blog. I will keep the multi media stuff like the incidental podcast and geek streak separated though. I also want to try and finally make some money from my writing although I haven’t a clue yet how to accomplish that. Some major brainstorming needs to be done.

Then there is my sound engineering. There has been hardly any work in that this year. I don’t know what happened but that side of business has dried up completely it seems. It also means that I am re-evaluating the amount of energy I want to invest in that. On one side I love the work. I love the listening into and analysing of a recording. I love the involvement on the technical side of the studio. The maintenance side of things, the soldering, the thinking about routing audio, the setting up of the studio before a session. Even the clearing up after the session. That’s all good for me. I’m not so sure I love the actual recording and mixing. And I think I know why. I don’t like people around when I’m working. I love just quietly going about my business. I work hard and know how to pace myself. I don’t need pressure from outside to get me going. And that pressure is exactly what I always feel when working with clients. Hence the love for writing andpodcasting. I have full control over that. No one is looking on while I do that and no one is telling me what word to put where.

When I look at it that way I could be useful in an audio consulting capacity. A couple of days ago a band I played on my podcast asked my opinion about their song from a recording perspective and we sent a couple of e-mails back and forth about the subject. I loved diving into the song and picking it apart and I think I gave them some good tips and they thanked me kindly for it. Again, same as with the writing: how to put my strength to the fore in a money earning way? Again some major brainstorming needs to be done.

In short: this summer is going to involve some re-thinking the company named “the delicate art of noise pollution”. And that also means a new website for the company. But that’s a whole new subject. Any thoughts on your own experiences in the company re-thinking respect and monetising content are most welcome of course. Althoug I sometimes feel I am looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Just a little thought experiment today:

Pick one task in your to-do list today. Then think about that task for a moment. Why are you doing it? What does it accomplish in the grand scheme of things? What are the benefits for you, your surroundings, the environment? Try to think about the task in an objective way and don’t think of it in the context of guilt.

Then leave it for a while and think about it again a little later. Then evaluate if the task is still as important as it seemed at first

My point is that we humans often rush into things believing our own hype and feeling something must be done. After some thought things seem far less important than we first thought. Especially when the task is put into a far wider context than our every day existance. So why do spend a lot of energy doing many things that turn out to be less then crucial?

My marbles lost
I had them, years ago
When, in youth, confidence cost
less than a picture show.

The past few days I have been searching the Internet for a solar powered charger for our gadgets. How cool would it be to use iPods, mobile phones, handheld gaming devices and other rechargeable stuff on power obtained from the sun? Free and clean. There are a few options, most using solar power to charge an internal battery that in turn charges your device. The thinking behind this being, as far as I can gather, that the battery in the charger delivers the constant power a charging device wants which a sun at the risk of being shrouded by clouds can’t deliver.

Apart from relieving the power grid from a few gadgets it also makes the gadgets real go-anywhere devices. Even on a camping holiday the devices can then be charged and used. Handy for a GPS in the wilds for instance.

Of course there are losses in this system. Energy is lost in the form of heat in at least two steps of the process: first in charging the chargers battery and secondly in charging the device. But the source of the energy, the sun, is nigh on boundless so the loss isn’t counting towards the overall cost of operation. Either monetary or environmentally, or does it add to global warming? (I say while it is about 14 degrees outside in high summer when it should be 24). There is the cost of producing the charger and getting it to your door and with a little device like this it will be a long time before it off-sets itself in that regard but I still think it is a step in the right direction.

Many of our devices are getting smaller and battery powered. Many devices run on low power and need a transformer to step down from the higher voltage that inhabits your wall plugs to the low voltage the components actually need. What if you can mount one central battery with solar panels attached that powers all low power devices? That would help a lot towards lowering our carbon footprint wouldn’t it?

The difficulties I can see right of the bat are: we would need entirely overhauled connection standards. High power devices like TVs, microwaves and power amplifiers would still need wall plugs for their higher power consumption while low power devices like laptops (that already run on batteries) and almost all gadgets would connect to the in-house solar system. That’s a lot of negotiating between all the producers of devices worldwide… The second difficulty would be the calculation of the real benefits. It’s easy to say the power is clean but is it really. How much does a solar panel and battery system cost in environmental terms? How far into the process of manufacture do you calculate? How do you compare the apples of traditional energy supply with the pears of alternative power?

One thing is certain: the use of alternative power is gaining ground at a faster pace than expected. Electrically powered cars are suddenly taken seriously and developments in battery land are going at a very quick pace indeed. The huge rise in oil prices has had an effect and woken up a lot of people. Shame really that the only ones reallybenefiting are the Chinese who make all the gadgets because pretty soon planes and ships still powered by oil will not be a viable option anymore to transport all these goodies to our shores.

Some solar solutions:

• Solio solar charger
• e.GO solar charger

I write a lot. If I’m not blogging I’m writing stories or constructing material in my head. That makes me a writer. It doesn’t make me a good writer but it means I can’t not write. It also means I struggle. Not financially, although the prospects there are far from rosy but that’s not what I have in mind when I think of “struggling as a writer”.

The struggle I have as a writer is that I am never not writing or thinking about stuff to write about. It makes it a full time job that’s full time in the literal sense of the word. In that sense you can never earn a fair wage as writer, even if you reach J.K Rowling like sphere’s of monetary compensation for your time. The thinking and pressure of thought just never leaves you alone. No wage can compensate that involuntary pressure.

And this is not such a bad thing. If an author writes with financial compensation in mind the author is screwed as a writer because he or she will have to think as a business person while writing and that inhibits freedom of thought. The moment that the public wants and needs direct writing the author’s soul is sold to the devil. It doesn’t mean a writer can’t get rich, it means that a rich writer is a coincidence, not a rule. If your soul as a writer corresponds with a large readership you are a blessed writer indeed because then you can make a living from that which occupies your brain day and night. If the writing doesn’t hit the jackpot of the public lottery then the author is just unlucky. It doesn’t necessarily mean the author is a bad one.

It is the same with many art forms. Many people practice it, many people are not bad at it. Only a few can make a living from it. And those few, those lucky few, are only slightly better off than us poor unrecognised practitioners of the art in question as they, the rich and famous, get to spend their time on the lecture circuit, the book signings and other book promotion activities. All things that take their minds away from what it can’t stop doing: writing. As with everything in life: there are pros and cons to becoming a success at what you do naturally. A rich writer may find the blessings well disguised.


And now for a little bit of shameless selfpromotion: my new book of short stories is now available on lulu.com/noisepollution. The book is called “Nu-man & other short stories” and contains two hundred plus pages of short stories of the sureal, science fiction and fantasy kind that always have their feet planted in both our familiar real world and a just as real other world. These stories have been published before on the internet but have been re-read, re-written and edited for the book.