How crazy was that fire last night? The brown side on the left, that's Meme Tech. The blacked chunk on the right, that was my neighbor's place.


Here's another view:


When the fire engines pulled up, I was just about to leave and go hang with this lovely girl named Nancy. I figured it was serious when I saw how much smoke was coming out of the building next door. I grabbed three things: my computer, and two paintings by Sean Griffin. I opened the doors so the firemen wouldn't have to chop them down, and got the hell out. When I got back, they had chopped through the wall where one of the paintings was. You can see what would have happened when the axe went through the wall.

Wow. All I have to say is wow.

Last night, the Louisville Fire Department saved the building I work in. 60 men and women, in freezing temperatures, against a fire that was ONE FOOT away from the shop. For about an hour and a half, I thought it was all over.

My neighbor, a small family business, lost everything. I can't even imagine how they feel this morning.

So far, 2008 is pretty intense. More than ever, I feel a debt to the world that must be repaid somehow. For now, thank you to the Louisville Fire Department.

summer is ending and the nights at least are getting cold. it's the first time, ever, that I have finally this particular sound gear arrangement going. now i just need something capable of recording without producing distorted noise.

Really just setting up for tomorrow. should be an interesting weekend.

subject appears to be convinced that it is very hot outside. subject works a long number of hours but not in the hot part of building, and appears to feel guilty about it. subject continues to sell tshirts at an alarming rate.

nothing else to report

A brief description from my current favorite author on the nitty gritty of extrasolar colonization.

As I've said since I was a teenager, when I grow up, I want to be copied onto a robotic explorer and shot into space in the direction of something interesting. But it doesn't look like I will meet my goal become an asteroid mining tycoon.

Just finally it sinks in, i'm on my way to the D again. It's 7ish on friday night, l've got the ways and means, and nothing tying me down until Wednesday. Old school simply jeff breaks competing with the air turbulence since my ac is toast, and I begin to consider working my ass off all summer with the goal of a nicer car. This roadtrip usually marks the beginning of the summer for me. Demf. Friends and family. Some bass to shake my bones. Ahhh... Better... Figured out an open window arrangement that lets me hear better- this ipod transmitter sucks.
I'm typing this on my phone while I drive.

I'm going to put a set of icons on my car with the puzzle pieces like on the old boot screen for macs. Some will be: aphex twin plastikman the screw a file folder a turntable a 303 skl a knob hmmm maybe a full color background palla style...

At this point it's just notes at random. thai coffee, harmfully sweet as it is, is awesome. Note to people throwing festivals: learn to control weather. Note to self: never try to park a honda at the uaw headquarters.

The concept of cellphone neck.

So it has always been, and will always be- all about the sound system. Not all sound rigs are created equal. In the D, this is the starting point. Rule 1: always co opt the media. Make them sponsor things so they will have to see the good stuff and be proud to be a part. Note to self: get a car system that shakes your neighbor's trunk.

If ravers rioted it would be very low impact.

Ok this is weird... We used to be from the future. But if we stopped evolving our futurism would start to become stale and anachronistic. We'd become more of a parody of what kind of future we could predict only with our historical context... Dated and ironic.

Ok, imagine combat armor and combined sorts of martial arts and breakdancing. Oh my god. Hardfloor. 3 303s on the main stage... tasty.

So Sunday was awesome. The M-nus party. Wow. ...ok at one point we pile into the bus and someone was appointed the designated thinker. That was two parties ago. The girl who looked like she was from some northern clime who danced so low it was past yoga and limbo. She literally was down to two feet or lower with her entire body, and danced with these crazy hand gestures like she was pulling something out of the speakers. She was mime-ing pulling stuff out of people. She had a black tattoo of a star on the center of her back. I was certain at the time she was a witch.

Richie says he wants to make the music industry pure data for ecological reasons. M-nus is actually about subtracting the physical plastic object from the product. It is made of oil, you know.

Now it's 11 in the morning. It's too early to be so late. So I forgot about crackheads. My mechanic warned me, it's not just an insult for people who acting dumb, it's a real phenomenon. Crackheads. Here's a funny one. Crackheads in detroit now have 500 memetech stickers and a bunch of business cards. And my stereo, ipod, and window fragments. Detroit imported vehicle surcharge. And you know what? For the music I've been hearing this weekend, totally a fair price. I'll take it.

The next day's line, a few hours later: "Gotta ask: late night or early morning?"

I remember this whole thing where we're all aggressively futuristic and next level no bullshit. An awareness that life is short and every moment is important and should not be wasted screwing around. The whole Detroit posse always tried to rock that thing, and I always remind myself when I come up here. Find out in a week if any of it sticks.

The guy who moved to LA said he traded watching weather patterns for traffic patterns.

When you drink good coffee a lot, you should go back down to earth and have some totally appalling coffee.

Detroit needs it's own grand theft auto.

So while I escaped up here, Memetech totally threw a party. I love the fact that the shop rocked of its own accord. I have given it my blessing. Because I'm going to Demf every year.

Quote from a lady cop downtown: that's just my job, that's not me.

The clear alchohol rule for not staining your clothing when drinking: for serious drinkers, a good plan.

The entirety of techno is shaped by the differences between the 808 and the 909.

At the final afterparty there was no cell reception, blocker or underground. There was a decoy party. There was a second decoy party. This party was double-decoyed. Crazy deep.

Raved til dawn. Twice.

This the coolest thing ever: that on the Tuesday I decided to chill with my friends in detroit everyone left me alone. The phone didn't ring once. Thank you, all.

Ok, it's time to sort through random story notes that I left for myself. I never have the time or discipline to write science fiction, but I come up with concepts and ideas all the time. Many suck. But here are some:

Surveillance search patterns should be based on something that works. Copy nature. If you have an aerial drone, model the search algorithm on the hunting patterns of predators. Model the behavior on sharks, or maybe hawks. Little brains driven by the urge to "GET IT" ... and many millions of years of successful hunting shaping the wiring.

The problem with raising children in a technological society is that they miss out on the very characteristics of experience which made it possible- tenacity, agrarian work ethics, social interdependancy made explicit from an early age. As technology increases, people come of age from an easier childhood into a greater position of sheer material power than ever before. At what point is the amount of constructive and destructive power available to a citizen so great that citizenship is not guaranteed? How do you raise a new citizen? An option for a good story, assuming the technology is advanced enough, you raise them in parallel virtual environments, or successive ones, which present issues of survival and ethical development in earlier technological eras. Adversity, difficulty, moral challenges. It's like a schooling system, but much harsher. The crops fail. Those who revert to cannibalism don't graduate. Bronze era stuff. Early technological development, the moral decisions of the British empire, commerce. Early ecological questions. When a person has lived through these eras and developed into one who is capable of responsible use of technology, then they may study Modern Engineering.

Aristoi, come to think of it. (An excellent book by Walter Jon Williams)

hustlin. makin shirts. drinkin coffee.

hung out on the top of the Belvedere today imagining what banners Forecastle will need.

griffin headed out today, in the most wildly loaded truck, ever. he had matt mccormick weld on a safari style rack on the top of his toyota. it was dense, and we wish him well but will miss the heck out of him.

had the coolest weekend, just mostly chillin with family.