A DIY Floor Mop!

I know I could have gotten a cheap sweatshop mop at Walmart, but I'd be jealous if my mop had done more traveling in life than I had.  My floors need a mop, so here is a plan for a quick, easy DIY floor mop.

I snip my old cutoff shorts and tshirts into strips.  I take three of the strips, tie it off at the top and braid it all the way down.  I  then tie then end off.  The ties are just strips of the clothing.  Note to self: brighten your wardrobe.

After I'm done all of the braids, I find an old broom handle in parent's garage.  I staple gun the loose ends of the braids evenly to the end of the broom stick.  This will keep them anchored against twisting forces (ringing out the mop).  I tie a big heavy elastic band around all the braids.  Then I take some thick guage steel wire and tie it around, twisting with plyers to for a tight band around the braids.  

The mop is ugly, but ready for action!

To wring it out, I stabbed a bunch of wholes in the bottom of a coffee can.  A crude but effect approach!

3 Movies on Netflix That Explore Anti-Authoritarian Themes

The Experiment

This movie tells a story that is based on the Stanford prison experiment, where random people are paid to participate in a behavioral research experiment concerning prison guards and inmates.  This movie does a very good job of portraying the process of the inmates becoming increasingly dehumanized.  The guards start out as easy going but quickly grow into their roles as violent oppressors.  This movie is so great because it is very believable.  The experiment prison cultivates the same atrocities found in modern prisons like institutionalized rape, gruesome and sardonic meals, solitary isolation and medical negligence. The rules of the experiment substitute for the laws that justify our prisons.  The movie has a great ending as well.  There is one scene that makes an Aryan Brotherhood guy look like a hero, that wasn't too cool.  Perhaps they were trying to show him renouncing his racism and fighting along side the other prisoners.

Transfer

Trailer: http://www.imdb.com/video/wab/vi2342296857/

 

This is a German sci-fi flick with subtitles.  Its a story in the future of a conservative, rich, old white couple who take part in a new medical procedure that transfers their consciousnesses into younger bodies.  The donor bodies are migrant workers from impoverished Africa and Asia.  The donors families are supposed to receive large sums of money for the young donor.  The donors do not die however, they become awake for 4 hours a day, where they find themselves imprisoned in someone else's mansion and are not allowed contact with the outside world.  The movie deals themes such as the rich exploiting the poor, closet racism, and accepting your own limitations and being at peace with age. 

Shadow (2009)

 

WARNING: IF YOU DON'T KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GORE AND HORROR MOVIES, DO NOT WATCH THIS!!  This movie is f'd up, and I mean SERIOUSLY f'd up!  It makes movies like Friday 13th and Texas Chainsaw Massacre look like Teletubbies.  I can't go into too much detail without spoiling the movie but I included it in here for two reasons, because surprisingly it has a very strong anti-war message and the torturer mimics techniques pioneered by states like Nazi Germany and North Korea.  If your stomach can handle the imagery long enough to interpret the meaning behind it the movie becomes a powerful symbol of military atrocities specifically the Iraq War.

Megaman portraits of Lynden

We spent part of the afternoon drawing a Megaman inspired portrait of Lynden.  At least, this is how he pictures himself.

Also threw in a pixel frog animation I made.  I think the take off needs some more work.

Software and Life After Death

As a computer programmer, the software I create is the closest realization I will ever have of life after death.  The digital instructions executed by the computer processor become a reified representation of a thought, a wish, or a concept that once existed in my mind.  A small part of human consciousness transcends its biological origins  and instead becomes animated by microscopic circuitry.  This stream of consciousness reacquaints with the human mind as the future end-user interacts with the program and comprehends the meaning behind the symbols presented by the software.

 One may think the same phenomenon occurs with film, books or pictures, but these offerings of one-way media are lifeless artifacts that can only preserve an immutable arrangement of symbols.  Software achieves greater conveyance of sentience because software is capable of a bilateral interaction with the physical world.  Input mechanisms such as keyboards or even cameras inform the software of events in the outside world.  The software interprets the meaning of these events and decides on an appropriate response.  Of course, the computer itself is a stupid machine, it cannot decide on anything.  It is the conscious thought of the programmer embedded in the software code that provides the knowledge to achieve a desired result.  Long after the programmer's death, the software will continue to interpret reality and leave impressions on human minds.  As an organism who faces certain death and does not subscribe to metaphysical fictions like Souls and Heavens, my only chance of persisting my consciousness in an animated form is software.

Software that is useless will not likely be remembered long after the programmer's death.  To become immortal one must become desirable.  Certainly the code running PacMan, Fortran or Bash will be executed for a long time to come.

Emulation and virtualization software are allowing people of all ages to resurrect old video game classics such as Legend of Zelda, Zork, and Wolfenstein3d.  Instructions written in high-level interpreted programming languages further extend the usability of the software long after the original hardware architecture is obsolete.

Two hundred years from now, after the deaths of Shigeru Miyamoto, John Carmack, Sid Meier and Linus Torvalds, their souls may not be with Saint Peter, but their software creations will continue on.
--Jae F. Muzzin

Free To Distribute Skateboard Instruction Video

A great series of beginner skateboarding tutorial videos.  They are free to redistribute for non-profit purposes and available in full length on youtube.   There are seven chapters in the video series.

Watch Free Movies on the Internet (Legally)

The best things in life are free, and so should be movies.  Why not kick back and watch a free public domain or creative commons licensed movie on youtube tonight?  Here are two ways to find public domain movies on youtube:

• Click on the Filter button underneath the Search box and select "Creative Commons" under Features list.  Select "Long" under Duration.  Type in some specific key words like "Sci Fi" or just "Movie" will bring up lots of results.
• Include the term (be sure to include the quotes) "public domain" in your youtube searches.

My most reliable phone friends: the harassing collectors of the predatory lenders

I almost feel like I have no friends and no one ever calls me, but I can always count on Adam from ARO Credit recovery, Bill from CBL Collections, the sweet anonymous woman who leaves me recorded messages every day asking to quickly return the call to her 877 number, and the 10 or so other creditors who call to talk with me everyday. I try to have a meaningful relationship with these people but they can't seem to let go of a grudge. Theyre the kind of friends who are always going on about me owing them this or that.
I didn't end up in this situation because of irresponsibility. I didn't shy away from social obligations, I consciously turned my back on the entire consumer credit system after my house value crashed and I was unable to sell it for more than I owed. I had already given the mortgager (RBC) $22,000 in interest alone, and I was tired of giving all my money away to a bunch of fat cats. Instead of selling at a loss, I told the bank to take the damn house and since my credit would be ruined anyway, I also walked away from all my credit cards, furnace loan, utility accounts, and a $3000 municipal tax bill. My goal was to negate any profit my creditors made off me in interest and generally thwart them in anyway.
That was two years ago, and since they've been paying poor suckers to call me everyday, further increasing the cost of their loans to me, and they will never see a dime. Living off cash is liberating but precarious. But I've never regretted this because having to live within your means brings interesting challenges to an otherwise humdrum life of work and consumption. And some months I'm really low on cash, having less than $10 in your bank account never feels good. But now zero is actually zero, and when I do get paid the money is ALL mine. I was forced to develop the skills of forethought and preparation, because mastercard aint gonna bail me out no more.