Silver Tongue

If the Devil himself confronted me and told me I could have one superpower in exchange for my soul, what would that Satanic superpower be? It would be language. Language. Like being able to speak and understand any language known to humanity, to be able to convince and sway. To communicate with any and all. The silver tongue.

When I saw “The Devil’s Advocate“, what impressed upon me most was the Devil’s ability to speak to anybody. The confrontation with the aggressive Chicanos on the subway; he got out of that by speaking fluent Spanish, omnisciently describing the color of the sheets the assailant’s girlfriend was cheating on. In the lounge, his whispering convinced the girl sitting with him to go down under the table and give him service. He was able to speak to anyone and have his way. He understood humanity, and his ability to talk to them in terms they understood gave him power.

Tonight, as I sit watching the horrible English dub of the excellent Swedish production of “The Girl Who Played With Fire” (part 2 of the “Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” series), I’m wishing that I could communicate in fluent Swedish, that I could enjoy it in its original tongue without having to read subtitles or listen to any out-of-synch translations with phony-sounding voice actors. I wish I could enjoy any movie, any song, or join any conversation in the speaker’s lingua franca and not miss a beat.

Language is a powerful force. The variation in languages serves to divide us from the Others and serves to unite us against the Outsiders. It is both a community-builder and a world-destroyer. Anybody who can leap from tongue to tongue like a Satanic goat who leaps between rocks on the mountainside, anybody who can transcend any language and cultural barriers that separate us, anybody who can sway and convince and enjoin, that man is a force to be reckoned with.

That is why I want the power of language.

Personal Again

Now that Google has announced they’re bringing Google Fiber to Austin, I wonder how many of those subscribers who have websites will move their web services into their house where they have complete control over the box. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for years, but Time Warner’s upstream cap of 98Kbps has prevented me from fully-hosting my sites and domains at my own home (plus, if they detected I did, they’d slap a fee on me and upgrade me to Business Class).

Once enough of the broadband market increases to the higher symmetrical speeds provided by fiber, I visualize a larger demand for home-based cloud solutions. Enough with putting your files somewhere out there in the ether for someone else to maintain and snoop. Tell me true: if you could buy a device off the shelf, put it on your home network, install an app on your laptop / tablet / phone so you can access your own files and your own computers at your own house from anywhere, would you do it? I’d certainly do it if I didn’t have the ability already (which I do). It’s remarkably handy.

Now that “PC”, meaning “Personal Computer”, is a dying term, could “PC” soon mean “Personal Cloud”?

Completions

It’s been a crazy week and things are progressing under foot. Can’t say much, but movement is happening.

Went to Old Pecan Street Festival today. First time ever. And it is definitely a typical festival. If I had money and a ladyfriend to pull me into the booths, I probably would’ve bought some art or whatever. Miscellaneous bric-a-brac.

I made some progress on my JX-3P tape decoder. There were a few bad assumptions I made regarding the decoding algorithm, and I corrected them by completely demolishing my thinking and coming up with something much, much simpler that makes a helluva lot more sense. I over-thunk the solution to the problem, and ended up shooting myself in the foot. Things are fixed now. Sorry for the inconvenience.

For those of you paying attention, I’ve been a little silent, and regret that.

For those of you maybe not sorta somewhat paying no attention, I regret nothing.

For the rest of you, I’ve written and posted a new song, and I want to play it for you. Find it at my music site. I preemptively love you all for listening.

Exhausted

Good news, everyone! The catalytic converter on my car has gone bad, and now my emissions control unit is throwing gang signs at me. Apparently it overheated due to a rich fuel/air mix, and the ceramic honeycomb inside has melted and knocked loose, which would explain the rattling for the past 2 weeks. I have no choice but to get the entire integrated exhaust manifold / catalytic converter replaced at high cost.

I seriously need a job. Money’s running tight.

On that front, I have a few job leads, a couple that are in the background check phase. That’s all I’m going to say about that at the moment.

Currently, I am showered and winding down from walking all over the neighborhood racking up footsteps (and pinching my bad disc). I need more exercise.

Was going to work on this song I’ve been writing since Wednesday, but I don’t have enough time tonight before bed. I need to get up at 7am which, if you’ve seen me at all during the past 6 months, is fucking early (gotta get my car to the shop for service since the part is in). Music-wise, I’m racing the clock because the audio software I’ve been using for everything, it turns out, has a time-limited press demo serial key, and that key expires in 6 days. That’s barely enough time to mix, test, mix, test, mix, test before I’m ready to share. A fully-licensed copy isn’t available because the version I have is obsolete, and the newest version is over $200, which is something I can’t spare without shame.

Pressures. No wonder my chest feels like an elephant is sitting on it.

Soliday

Really has been a Solitary Saturday. Spent all but 3 hours of it inside my apartment, mostly working on music. The song I wrote Wednesday has commanded a large chunk of my free time (which is fine, since I have a large chunk of it). The problem with spending so much solitary time is that I’m inside my own head and end up talking to myself. Even when I was at the cafe this evening, I just didn’t want to be with those folks, so I couldn’t catch a wave on any conversation that happened. I mean, I have stuff to say, but it’s not anything I think anyone would want to hear. I could express myself on FB, but nobody wants to see those posts. I could try IRC, but nobody’s on anymore. I really don’t want to express myself here, because it’s a blog, and blogs are stereotypically full of emo ranting, and I’m trying to not be stereotypical with my blog, but but but.

Yeah, save it for a paid therapist. Nobody else cares. Got it.

Things are great, and everything is fine. Thanks.