POEM: Domestic Bliss
================

heaven is passing me by
each of them with a lead to a fuzzy happy dog
slowly ambling along as the sun
sinks below the city skyline
easing us into the electric rouge of twilight

they chat, they laugh
he holds the pizza: the promise of dinner
she brings the dry-cleaning
i don't hear their problems
or some undercurrent of tension
i see the package of domestic bliss

they are happy
the dogs are content
the sun finally gets to rest after a day's work
my window will be dark soon but
the back of my neck is warm

Kana Software's Latest Low
=====================

Recently the executive staff at Kana Software got to try their hand at playing the famous reality TV show, "Survivor". In his ultimate wisdom, the compassionate and talented CEO, Chuck Bay, decided that there were exactly two too many people on his executive staff. He then gathered the E-Staff at an executive retreat in Phoenix, AZ and told them so. Then he said that he would leave them in the room together so they could vote two people out of their jobs and into the unemployment line.

Apparently the same scheming, backstabbing, petty attacking and vicious infighting that passes for prime time entertainment on CBC ensued in the conference room. It ended when the only two people in the room who had any shred self-respect stood up and left out of sheer disgust. If Mr. Bay wanted a way to balkanize, pressurize or politicize his executives against each other, he found a brilliant strategy. Good one, Chuckles!

You can find this information posted here

I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO glad I do not work there anymore!

THE AFTERLIFE
===============

Part 4 - "Afterlife Ability: What do you remember?"
=================================

When Hamlet uttered the words "To be or not to be, that is the question", he uttered quite a mouthful. What a question! what we are interested in here is "How would we even know if "we are" or "are not"?"

Since we used Part 1 to establish that there is a soul (that's a yes on the "to be" part), Part 2 to do away with the utility of religion in finding out the quality of the after life and Part 3 to assess what input we will have, we finally arrive at Part 4. Here we question how will we store information without the aid of the human body. If we are "to be", what spectrum of experience will we have access to for judging how good it is? Where will we get this information from?

Our major resource for storing and accessing information of this world is our brain. What happens when we are separated from this resource upon death? Logically, once we have this data storage device removed from our list of resources, then we will lose all data stored there. Perhaps there is more than one place we store information, such as the soul.

What kind of information is stored in the soul? Since the soul is metaphysical, then the information retained in the soul would be of the same ilk. Therefore the soul would not store specific information from this world. Such information is stored in the brain since it is of tis world and the soujl can use it as a removable storage devise tha tis no longer needed up death.

For example, when someone is born into this world, they come with a personality. Every parent attests to the fact that their child has shown some characteristics that are unique and have no relation to the environment. They will insist that the child is displaying their own personality. People genuinely do show thier persomnality, htier own way of doing things. Note: this is not a "Nature vs. Nurture" argument, so please shelve such thoughts for now.

Another example of innate personality are mentally handicapped people. These individuals do not have what we consider fully functional information systems. For whatever reason, their brain may not retain or process information efficiently. Yet these individuals still have a distinct personality. They can feel the full range of emotions and are capable of creation. If their personality is just as strong as that of people with fully functional information systems, then they must get the information they use to define their personality from somewhere

If individuals are therefore born with their own pre-existing personality, where does the information that creates this come from? The obvious answer would be from the individual's soul. Keep in mind that the soul does not bring with it any sort of information that is specific to this world. The new born must learn to use their body including everything such as regulating their digestive system to focusing their eyes to eventually learning to stop the clock on the VCR from flashing.

Leading us back around to the question of "What will I remember when I die?", the logic above would say that you will retain emotional or personal definition. Yet the information specific to this world will be lost. So Hamlet will "be". But I'd imagine that after his death, he would most likely forget about the specific ins and outs of everyday life in Elsinore Castle. you bet he'd still be angry at his usurping uncle's treachery.

In Part 5, "All Together Afterlife: What is the question again?" We'll tie all this together. Coming Soon!

UNEMPLOYMENT TIP OF THE DAY: Watch no Screens
===========================

No TV, DVD, TiVo or PS2 during the regular working hours of the weekday. It drops you chances of getting out of your bathrobe (let alone your apartment), going to the gym or looking for a job by at least 80%.

On a personal note, I think my starting blogging again coincides with the enforcement of this new rule.

Out of Town
=========

Just to let you dedicated readers know, I will be out of town on a Motorcycle Trip with my brother for the next few days. We're planning on hitting Tahoe, Yosemite and many sweet little roads with awesome views. I'll begin posting again on Friday or Saturday.

Thanks for reading!

Last 4 Month's Report Card
===========================

Now that we are at September 16th, I am entering my fifth month of freedom, self employment or whatever you want top call it. I refuse to call it unemployment anymore, as that is a way of saying what I am not doing, rather than what I am doing. And that's a bit of a downer.

"All right smart guy", you might say, "Then what have you been doing? You obviously have not been looking for a job." Well, let me tell you what I have been doing. And allow me to point out that I have come to the conclusion that I really do not feel like working "for" someone else but working "with" someone else. Any way, so here is what i have been up to:

. 38 movies (DVD or in Theater)
. 34 (or so) Crazy Drunk and Unemployed Blog Posts
. 23 lunches or breakfasts with friends and family
. 9 days of sailing in beautiful British Columbia in Desolation Sound with my good buddy and four 22 year old women from New Zealand
. 9 days of computer contracting
. 8 days of local motorcycle riding
. 8 days of playing video games
. 5 days unaccounted for (sometimes hung over)
. 4 afternoons of playing with niece and nephew (one at the Marin County Fair and the San Francisco Zoo, Mom was there too)
. 4 days of motorcycle riding and camping to get up to Vancouver, BC
. 4 days chilling out on the beach
. 4 afternoons of playing ice hockey
. 3 days of vacation in Aptos (just south of Santa Cruz)
. 3 baseball games
. 3 days of a weekend trip to Lake Tahoe
. 2 bonfires on the beach
. 2 days of motorcycle riding back to San Francisco from Vancouver, BC
. 2 days of sailing on a local Bay Area Top Sail Schooner (read: a Tall Ship)
. 1 horrifying day of volunteer work on the above ship
. 1 morning of running the Bay To Breakers foot race
. 1 day of sailboat racing on a Santana 35
. 1 business lunch
. 1 day of resume making
. 1 time took part in an intentional mob scene

THE AFTERLIFE
===========

Part 3 - "Afterlife Style: What will you sense?"
================================

From parts 1 and 2, we established that there is an afterlife and that dealing with it is up to the individual who dies. From a purely objective point of view of the individual, no religion can categorically claim to be the correct one and so religion is effectively sidelined as a guide to what to expect. But we can be certain of some things...

Well, Change is for certain:
For a while, I was really starting to fear death just because it is a massive amount of change to deal with. Death is probably about the same amount of change as birth. At birth you are totally disoriented as you don't know how to use your body, you're cold and in pain from the birth canal. Eventually you learn the difference between hot and cold, light and dark, paying and not paying your taxes.

The Senses:
Looking at the other end, death, once the soul is divorced from the body how will we sense the world, if we feel good or even how safe we are? In this world, we use our eyes to sense light, ears to sense sound, nose to sense minute particles in the air and so on. The 5 sensory organs are tools that we use to sense the world we live in.

The brain then takes these electrical signals sent by the sensory organs and turns them into information. Part of growing up is learning how to interpret these signals and make sense of them. When our soul no longer inhabits the body, what tools are we going to use to sense the world around us? What will we see light with? What will we smell flowers with? You get the idea.

The New Deal:
After living in this world, I certainly do not buy the idea that once we die and go to another world, our soul becomes some instantly capable being. It does make sense that the soul processes some amount of limited faculties, just like in this life, and we have to learn to use them again. Or perhaps we get new tools to learn how to use.

In Part 4, "Afterlife Style: What will you remember?" We'll think about what it may be like when your soul is divorced from your physical brain: the ultimate removable storage device. Coming Soon!

The Post-Boom Baby Boom
========================

All of a sudden I have tons of friends who are having babies. Both my sister and my cousin are expecting. Buddies from college and even high school are now recent parents. What the heck is going on? I never used to have to send out so many "Congratulations, it's a ___" cards in my life, and I'm 33. Perhaps I should just buy a set of those cards in bulk from CostCo and get it over with.

The last time we had a baby boom it was after the allies won World War II. There was a lot to celebrate as the world became a safer place and we saw double digit economic growth from the mid-forties far into the sixties. It was a good time to have a lot of babies: the bad guys were vanquished and there cupboard was stocked to the gills.

Well whatever allies there now, are not winning much. Saddam is out of power but Iraq is a mess, Al Queda and Osama Bin Laden is still running wild. The War on Terror is far from finished. The economy has gone thorough a nasty recession. Recovery is in sight, but it will be jobless. It might not seem like a good time to have babies: the bad guys are still out there and the cupboard is looking bare.

So why in tarnation are people having babies now? Perhaps in the throws of the recession staying at home became a better idea for young couples. No more expensive dinners, night clubbing, traveling abroad. Now the sound of "kicking back, watching a movie with a bottle of "Two Buck Chuck" (that $2.00 bottle of wine you get from Trader Joe's) and thou" is not such a bad idea. We all know where evengings like that lead...

Perhaps, much like capital spending for a business (i.e.: you need to buy that new delivery truck eventually), young couples can only put off making babies for so long (i.e.: many people get married to have kids). During the Boom, young couples spent so much time on their careers and putting off having kids, that they cannot wait any longer.

Some people reason that there is something a little deeper going on that . The logic says that perhaps since people aren't working quite so much, not throwing so much energy into their careers, that they are more family focused. Perhaps, but the people I know who still have a job are working twice as hard just to keep that job. And those without jobs, who haven't given up yet, are working even harder to find one.

One cannot ignore the impact of disaster of 9/11. After watching that horrifying footage, how can anyone not stop and think about their life? Church attendance briefly skyrocketed, people brought loved ones closer, suddenly being parted from your loved ones to work didn't sound like a good idea. There was a mass ethical about face in the industrialized nations, especially in the USA. People went from a material driven lifestyle to more emotional (for lack of a better word) driven orientation.

Or perhaps it is really on a level of something I, being a 33 year old single guy living in San Francisco, am just not tapped into. Perhaps I have to be involved in a committed relationship / married to understand this. All I know is that as of now, I am now the only person in my family who is not a parent except those of us that are under 11 years old.

Whatever the reason, or list of reasons, a small Baby Boom has snuck up on us. Nobody really knows why. Perhaps it's just time for it. Buy stock in baby product oriented comapnies. They will do well.

THE AFTERLIFE
===========

Part 2 - "Afterlife Style: Religion?"
================================

In Part 1, we established that three is an afterlife based on the three items: the metaphysical quality of life, the principal of the universality of the laws of nature and the principal of the conservation of energy (or E=mc2).

The next question is what will the afterlife be like? This is usually the sticky part of the conversation where the issue of "which religion is correct" rears its ugly head. Then the whole exercise denigrates into a morass of pointless argument between believers. So let us do away with it as best we can and move on.

A useful model for logically and objectively choosing a religion or belief system is to take the hypothetical case of an individual who has appeared in this world from say, a hole in the ground. This person is intelligent and well read, yet has no personal background and so has no cultural bias, no family ties, no nationalistic ties; essentially he has no "people". But he must live a human life from the word "go". This person becomes worried about what happens after his death and so decides to choose the best religion.

How does he do this and pick the right religion? It's an arduous task. There are many different religions and most have belief systems that are mutually exclusive of the others. Most all religions condemn non-believers to eternal torment. It's a bit of a quandary.

As well, all have deep historical roots and some are quite elegant and advanced. Many have sacred texts that form the basis of the religion. Most religions had a church with a hierarchy. Each church claims to be the one true church chosen by God for representation (legal and otherwise) on this earth. As well, most have information to back that claim up in one-way or another. They all look pretty good in their own ways. Who wouldn't want to have the promised 72 virgins waiting for them upon thier Islamic matryrdom?

So which one is right? I'm not going to even try to answer that here. My point is that they all think they are right to the exclusion of everyone else. This is like everyone thinking they have good taste and a decent sense of humor, but not everyone does.

Some people try to be diplomatic and say that whatever you believe in will be your afterlife. On the principal of consistency, it is more likely that the afterlife will be what it is, regardless of what we want. Good people suffer and the evil sometimes succeeds. Wanting or believing something to be some way is not enough to change it in this world. Why would anything change after death?

Based on these observations, we cannot change the afterlife based on what we believe. At the same time, we have no real guide as to which religion is the right one. Logically and objectively, it's not possible to answer this question. This may be not a sound argument, but since no religion can prove they are the right one objectively, who can any of them be right?

The answer to the question lies with in the person themselves, and their relationship to this world and whatever god they sense is here. So the decision must be made in a subjective context, reliant upon the individual. It follows that if you have to chose what to belive in, why would you want a church between you and what you belive? Why would you put religion between you and your God?

Religion is helpful, but ultimately it's the individual that dies and has to deal with it however best they can. Once you are dead, you're gonna have to deal with whatever is waiting there for you. No matter what you want it to be like, it will be.

In Part 3, "Afterlife Style: What will I sense?" We'll think about what it may be like now that we have done away with the notion of religion's effects on your post death experience. Coming Soon!

--- TP's Business Section ---

THE ULTIMATE FRANCHISE:
If McDonald's is the ultimate franchise of America, then Chinatown is the ultimate franchise of China
=====================

When traveling abroad from the United States (or Canada) these days, many weary travelers seek some cultural shelter, from time to time, in the local McDonald's. There they are in clean, familiar surroundings with a familiar menu and even a familiar language. To top it all off, the bathrooms are clean and usually free.

This familiarity works for every nationality now that McDonald's is everywhere. Even Brits, French, Czechs, Chileans and Japanese can go to a McDonald's and everything is still pretty much the same as the McDonald's in their home town, no matter where they are.

But what most people do not think about when seeking such comfort, is that there is an excellent, even healthier alternative to finding such familiarity: Chinatown. In every country in the world, in every city in the world, there is a Chinatown. They have them in the US, in France, even in Lima Peru. Yes, the weary American traveler has McDonald's while the weary Chinese traveler has Chinatown.

But don't let this advantage be restricted to just the Chinese traveler. Much like the Chilean tourist finding respite in a McDonald's from the intensity of Paris sight seeing, everyone can find some respite in Chinatown. Just like McDonald's, Chinatown is pretty much the same wherever you go. No matter where you are in the world, Chinatown offers the same dishes, the same decor, the same language (Chinese of course!) and the same attitudes. They will even have the same sugar filled fortune cookies!

You'll feel just like you're in your own Chinatown from home! You'll point to the picture of pork fried rice, the picture of sweet and sour prawns and then make that motion for noodles. And the waiter will understand you and still bring out the prawn fried rice, sweet and sour pork and noodles. The bill will be just as incomprehensible in a Chinatown abroad as it is at your Chinatown at home. Plus, not only are there restaurants, but Chinese shops with Chinese goods and services.

As an historical note, this is an intriguing concept. Many people in the world complain about the woes of Free Trade exporting American culture throughout the world. Well, have they stopped to think that the Chinese have beaten Wall Street to it long ago? The Chinese began exporting their culture as early as the 100 BC. McDonald's Hamburgers went abroad in the 1960's. That's about a 2000 year head start.

Keep in mind that the Chinese did this without the influence of free trade organizations like the WTO (World Trade Organization). Chinatowns were established long before industrialization without cushy benefits such as air travel, modern shipping techniques and navigation, mass sanitation, the automobile, the aid of marketing analysts, television commercials, movies and the Internet. Also note that the Chinese get a whole "town" (neighborhood) to themselves instead of a few 100 square feet of shop space like the Americans do with their McDonald's stores.

Try asking yourself this question, "There is a Chinatown is very city, is there also an "Americatown" there too?" NO! I think it's safe to say that the Chinese win hands down over the Americans for the Ultimate Franchise.

So if you like to travel and feel at home in your local Chinatown, your dining experience in a Chinatown abroad will be just like your dining experience at your Chinatown from home. And it will be significantly healthier than a trip to McDonald's!

A RANDOM MOB
============

Every now and again, life brings something your way which restores your faith in humanity. Something like that happened to me today. The story that follows is probably not what you expect. No puppies are saved, and no small children have their dreams come true.

I actually worked today, for the first time in months, and afterwards my good pal Alf alerted me to something that really made my day.

Apparently, there is a group of people in downtown San Francisco that help organize what is supposed to look like a "Random Mob". It's all strictly hush-hush and on the QT, starting with an organizational, conspirital email. Apparently they had some problems from the police in the past.

The long and short of it is that you go to a pre-assigned place and get your instructions from someone there. You get your slip of paper and then leave quietly and quickly. You memorize the instructions and follow them.

Our instructions tonight told us to meet outside a BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) exit and treat anyone coming out of the subway as a CELEBRITY. We all became a crazy mob of paparazzi. Alf and I got there and acted casual, like nothing was going to happen, following the instructions. It looked like 250 people were standing around, minding their own business. Then at the appointed time, people ran (I mean they really booked!!!) to the subway exit and started to mob anyone who came out.

Wildness ensued. Digital cameras flashed in quick staccato, women screamed in delirium, men asked for autographs, asked about the latest movie they shot with Russle Crow (instructions were to make up anything we wanted), the mob surged and cheered every time an unsuspecting BART passenger came up the walkway. People standing around waiting for the bus and cable car wondered what the hell was going on. As they stared on in wonder some even got it and joined in on the fun.

The best part was, everyone that came up from the BART evnetually had a huge smile on their face. They didn't know what was going on, but they sure got a kick out of it. I know if I came out of a subway station and a mob of 250 people were cheering wildly for me, I'd love it.

And then, as soon as it started, it ended. The instructions told us that 7 minutes later we had to disband. So someone said, "Times up!". Everyone stopped on queue. The mob was silecned and disperesed. Some went to the pre-arranged post-mob-scene bar. Brilliance! Not only did it keep a good joke from going stale, it kept us from having to deal with the pepper spray and German Sheppards the police surely would have brought to disperse the mob.

If you're interested and in downtown SF on Wednesdays around 6:00, let me know.

I love messing with people.

THE AFTERLIFE
===========

I've been thinking a lot about the after life lately (seems normal as one of my pals just passed on). More specifically, I've been thinking about what will happen to me after I leave this world. We are ultimately narcissistic creatures, aren't we? Anyone who tells you otherwise is probably selling something. Regardless, perhaps my thoughts may be of interest to you.

Part 1 - Afterlife: The Logical/ Intellectual/ Scientific Approach
================================

I started off thinking about my "after-life". My first question is "Is there is an after-life?" Regardless of any religion, I could say there is one due to three concepts: the metaphysical nature of life, the concept of universality of natural laws and the principal of the conservation of energy.

There is a provable metaphysical component or energy to something that is alive. For example, the action of a creature based on data other than the physical indicate that something metaphysical (or non-physical) is taking place. An excellent example is the process of teaching, which is an exchange of ideas (a non-physical object) between two entities.. At a lower level, we can teach a college freshman to go on a beer run or face the consequences. At a higher level, you can teach someone integral calculus. Examples of other metaphysical concepts are emotions, memories and judgments.

Next we come to the scientific principal of the Universality of the Laws of Nature. This a is the concept that underpins the scientific method by stating that "laws of nature do not change in universe, but rather stay consistent no matter where in the universe you are". This has been proved time and again since Newton "discovered" gravity.

Finally consider the law of nature discovered by Einstein’s equation E=mc2: The Law of the Conservation of Energy. This is a law that states, "In a closed system, i.e., a system that isolated from its surroundings, the total energy of the system is conserved.” That means that energy cannot be destroyed, but converted into matter.

So if we accept the above three premises, (1) that three is a metaphysical component or energy to life, (2) the Law of Universality and (3) the Law of Conservation of Energy we can say that there is some form of afterlife. In more down to earth language, we can say that there is some kind of soul that it exists in a universe that is built on consistent laws and that if a soul is a form of energy it cannot be destroyed.

If all this is so, then what happens to the metaphysical component of a living creature? Since it exists, then it must have come from somewhere and go somewhere. Stay tuned for Part 2 - "Afterlife Style: Quality of the Afterlife"