The Major

Blog

  • An Event List for the Left

    At the Chomsky Book Club last night (by the way, William, you’ve still got to come to this), I asked the group if they knew of a comprehensive website that listed events such as protests. I didn’t get a very good answer. It amounted to “join MoveOn.org” and “I hear about things through people that I know.” I don’t think that is good enough.

    I think a huge problem with the left (and maybe with the right, too, but then again they’ve got their mega churches) is that people just don’t know that events are happening. I can say that that is the case with me. I hear about the major protests, but that is about it. Even though I subscribe to several “progressive” RSS feeds and watch the Democracy Now podcast a few times per week, I just don’t hear about things. I think this is something that needs to change.

    So I’ve got an idea brewing in my head for a website that would simply list events by type and location. It would also allow people to submit events and to request RSVPs. I think it is a missing and necessary resource for the left.

    I hope I can find the time to do this.

  • A Long-Term Solution

    A question that has been on my mind for a few years now is: How is change most easily brought about?

    At first, I thought the answer was individuals making changes in their own lives. Certainly, this has some value, but I soon realized that it is extremely difficult to make change in society in this way.

    More recently, I have thought about and participated in the idea of mass protest. This certainly is more effective than individual change. But let us think in very simple terms here. Say the thing you are protesting against is the use of public funds to finance a new highway. While you and your fellow protesters are marching down Maple Street with your signs, yelling your catch phrases, the construction crews are busy pouring concrete five miles away. There is no direct connection between the protest and the thing you are protesting against.The construction goes on and those in power happily ignore you.

    So what is at the heart of the matter, then? In many cases, it is money. Without money, those in power cannot fund the projects that you don’t like. The money obviously comes from taxes. You get taxed on your income. No income equals no money for the project.

    But are you going to just stop working? Hell no. First of all, you won’t do almost any good by yourself. The government won’t miss your $10,000 in yearly taxes. More importantly, how are you going to pay your rent and feed yourself?

    So what I have been thinking about lately is unions. Multi-industry unions, so that you’re not just fighting for your own working conditions, but the policies that affect many people in the country. These unions would have to have a large bank account. You pay your union dues, which essentially become a savings account for when the union goes on strike. If a large portion of the union agrees strongly enough for or against a policy, they can instantly go on strike. Imagine 25% of the income taxes suddenly disappearing. Do you think the government would notice you then? Do you think the government might notice you more than if you were marching in the street holding a sign up? Hell, the government would be so scared that even the mention of a strike would greatly influence policy.

    If you look at our current system, the best way we have of creating change is elections. Unfortunately, in our current system we really only get two choices many times. Candidate A who you agree with 10% of the time and Candidate B who you agree with 20% of the time. And you only get to choose at most every two years. That simply isn’t good enough. We’re being forced to vote on one issue, if that.

    I think that my method that I described above would significantly speed up the transition from public opinion to public policy. I’ll be thinking about this much more in the coming weeks and hopefully discussing it with my book club and other friends and family.

  • Yay For Vermont, Part II

    Yay again for Vermont politics: Vermont towns seek to impeach Bush

    “Props” to Alyssa for the link.

  • Halfway There

    When I started my diet on January 3 I was my heaviest ever, 198.5 pounds. I am just glad I didn’t get to 200.

    Initially, I lost weight rapidly. I got down to 182.5, 16 pounds from where I started and 17.5 pounds from where I needed to be. Then Gary Danko happened, which threw me off for a good week. I didn’t follow my diet very well and I got back up to 186. Diets have their ups and downs, especially when you’re dealing with 33.5 pounds, so I just shrugged it off and “charged forward.”

    The next phase definitely wasn’t as good as the initial phase, but I have still lost weight. I am proud to report that this morning’s weigh-in was at 181.5. That is 17 pounds from where I started and 16.5 pounds from my final goal. Woo! The halfway point after just two months! That makes me feel great.

    And now I will reveal my “secret” to weight loss. Of course, it isn’t a secret at all, since dieting is essentially just starving yourself; burning more calories than you consume. There is no way around that.

    First of all, I am very lucky to have a job that fits in very well with my diet. I live two miles from work, and if I go the right way, the walk to and from is quite beautiful. So I have been walking to and from work most days, for four miles per day of walking. That is my only real exercise. But I think it is plenty; 70 minutes of walking per day is nothing to sneeze at.

    The other component is the food. This whole time I have been skipping one meal per day and replacing it with a very small snack. I eventually settled on breakfast as the meal to skip, and in its place I just drink a bottle of juice in the morning. For lunch, I have the snack bar in the building make me a turkey on wheat with lettuce, tomato, and mustard. Or I go over to the Latte Express and get myself a Vietnamese sandwich. I really don’t know I haven’t gotten bored of the turkey sandwich yet, I am just glad that I haven’t. If I really can’t stand it, I will have a bag of chips in the afternoon. And then for dinner, I have something that is pre-portioned. Something pre-made. I have not cooked for myself almost at all during this time. If I cooked for myself, the portions would be too big for a diet. So I started off for a while having different kinds of “wraps” from my local grocery store. Greek wrap, bean and cheese wrap, burrito. Not the most nutritious things, but only about 500 calories and quite tasty.

    I did eventually tire of these and recently I have switched to a can of cheese ravioli with some chips and salsa to add to it, as the ravioli is only about 380 calories. So let’s add this up:

    Juice: 250 calories
    Sandwich: 500 calories
    Snack: 250 calories
    Dinner: 500 calories
    Total: 1500 calories

    From some earlier “analysis,” I need about 3000 calories/day to break even in weight. Walking makes this higher. So on my best days (with no free lunches at work, walking both ways, and no drinking at night), I estimate that I have a 2000 calorie deficit. If I put my mind to it, I can easily lose about one pound per day. This can be hard to do for a whole week straight.

    So this is how I have done it so far, and this is how I will continue to do it until 165. My advice for anyone that wants it:
    – Make exercising part of “doing” something. My “doing” something is getting to work. It may be a little more difficult for you to find your thing to do, but just keep looking.
    – Skip a meal and replace it with a small snack.
    – Eat yummy things in small portions. I look forward to my dinners because they are tasty, but I just pick out things that have relatively low calories per portion.
    – After eating your “allotted” portion, you may still feel really hungry. Give yourself 30 minutes, and you will probably feel more full after your mind has caught up with your belly.

    Anyway, that is my advice, and I hope someone can use it. As for me, wish me luck in my last 16.5 pounds!

  • Earthquake

    Holy crap, there really was an earthquake yesterday. I heard some coworkers talking about it, but when they were saying “What’s its eventID?,” I just figured it was some nerd joke. It was evidently felt in downtown San Francisco, but I sure didn’t feel anything.

    I am both scared of and somewhat mystified by the prospect of experiencing the “big one” that is supposedly coming in the next 30 years.

  • I Like Vermont Politics

    Vermont Becomes First State to Call for US Troop Withdrawal from Iraq

  • Another Failed Attempt at Linux on the Desktop

    I recently set out to replace Windows XP with Kubuntu GNU/Linux. I figured it might take a couple of months before I would be comfortable with completely removing Windows from my system. It turns out that I won’t be able to remove it at all. In fact, I am giving up on Linux on my main desktop completely.

    The reason? My Sound Blaster X-Fi sound card is not supported. Creative doesn’t have a driver and they won’t give any information to ALSA so that they can make a driver. It is really, really annoying.

    And right now I need a Linux desktop to do development of the client side of Project Stockton. So it looks like what I am going to do is purchase a cheap, small, and quiet desktop devoted to Linux. I’ll need to get a KVM switch, too.

  • I Get the Last Laugh

    So it turns out that I owe money to the IRS. I really thought I would be getting money back. Oh well. I get the last laugh…the check I am sending them is #666. And I didn’t plan it like that, either.

  • Configure Error

    I was trying to install snort on a Debian machine, and during the configure I got the following error:

    “C compiler cannot create executables”

    After searching The Google, I found someone saying to just install g++ (I had already installed gcc). That fixed it.

    Just want to bump this solution up on the Google rankings.

  • The Saddest Thing

    I saw one of the saddest things I have ever seen a few days ago on my way to work. There was a man downtown with no legs. He was standing up, as much as a legless man can stand up, on a skateboard, which he was using to scoot himself around by pushing off against the sidewalk with his hands.

    And the thing is, in this city homeless and disabled people have plenty of services available to them. So I am guessing that he could have a wheelchair. But for one reason or another, he has decided to forgo the wheelchair. Maybe he had one but he sold it? Who knows. All I know is that that was a really horrible thing to see.