To date I have not commented on Internet social networks because I have had very mixed opinions about them. Certainly I have dabbled with MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and several other social/dating sites, (in fact I found my wife on a social networking site) but in the long run I have always come back here, to my own personal blog and been done with it. I did not see the appeal of the social networks beyond making hookups or something like that. In fact, I did not see the appeal of blogs (which I now realize is the absolute most basic form of social network) until I felt the need to work out inter struggles for myself and occasionally vent to a neutral audience. In that regard a blog has helped me and in turn I have begun using my blog in a very different way. I now blog opinion as opposed to angst because I do not feel the need to write self examining posts any more, I have dealt with issues and resolved them. But blogs are too simple a beast to be true social networks; the big networks are completely different beasts.

There is no point in trying to define what a social network is, if you ask a hundred different people you will likely get a hundred different answers because a social network is something different to every person. I can tell you what I think it is; for me it is a an electronic exchange via the Internet, a way of maintaining tacit contact with friends I have had over the years (or at least the friends I want to maintain contact with.) I do not report every move I make through Twitter, I do not express every feeling I have on Facebook. Occasionally I share some photos with the public and a few private ones with family. There are times when I will post an opinion or give a brief review of something. I do not play the games. I do not search out groups of people with similar interest. I do not post too much information. In short I use very little of what is offered for free and I would certainly not pay for any of this even if the most basic functions required a fee. In short I can do without social networks, so for me they mean very little.

So why is it so many people now will live an die by their Twitter account? Why are so many people completely hooked on Facebook. I even read a bio on a particular blogger who described Facebook as her secret and shameful addiction. Why are we drawn to it? Could the answer be vanity?

“I am Vanity and my name is Facebook!”

There is a movie coming out at the beginning of October and is called simply enough “The Social Network”. It is about how Facebook and MySpace came to be. The movie looks interesting but what is really interesting is the trailer for the movie. The music for the trailer is “Creep” by Radiohead, except is it covered by a girls choir (I am pretty sure it is not Scala and Kolacny). Anyway, the lyrics in the trailer pick up at the third verse and go like this:

I don’t care if it hurts,
I wanna have control
I want a perfect body
I want a perfect soul

I want you to notice
when I’m not around
You’re so very (fucking) special
I wish I was special

It is this last line that sums up a large part of the social network experience, “I wish I was special”. In a world that moves so fast I feel that it is hard to create lasting bonds of friendship. (Certainly for myself I know I have a very limited number of friends and sometimes that makes me sad.) Strong friendships make you feel special; we all wish we were special. For some people it is really hard to make friends IRL (in real life) and here come the social networks and people can grasp the human need to interact and maybe be special. It is truly heart rending to think of all the people crying out for interaction and the only way they can achieve it is through a social network. Oddly, the song continues as to who the people may be:

But I’m a creep
I’m a weirdo
What the hell am I doin’ here?
I don’t belong here, ohhhh, ohhhh

Is this not everyone (metaphorically) at some point in their lives? Doesn’t everyone deal with feelings of awkwardness and antisocial behavior? The wallflowers, the geeks, the nerds, the hipsters, the inept, the verbally challenged, the overly sensitive, the totally insensitive, the homebound, the terminally ill, the agoraphobic, the fashionable, the seekers, the lost, the shy, and so on all can find an outlet though a social network and may be special to someone or special within a group they identify with. For some the mere fact that they can identify with a group makes them special in their mind. The fact that they can interact at their own pace and in their own way is the beauty of the network. The interaction fulfills our need of some sort of vanity, something that we need for our self esteem.

Voyeurism is Interaction

Then there are “the Lurkers”. Lurkers are people that watch everyone and say very little. You would think that “lurking” is just more anti-social behavior, and in a way it is, to you, but not to the person watching. This silent form of interaction may be creepy but it is interaction if only in one direction. Is this better any better than no interaction at all? Well to me it would seem to be for at least the person doing the lurking is looking for interaction even if it is safe and one way only. Lastly, lurking is not stalking. Stalking requires more interaction than is covered by this topic.

Lurkers feel safe in what they d because the “Shield of Anonymity” the Internet supposedly provides. This perceived shield allow certain people the act with a freedom they may never exercise in real life for fear of what other may think. On the Internet no one knows who you are if you do not want them to and you are protected from physical interaction. Your secret avatar has it’s own life and you need never acknowledge it and no one is the wiser. Even if someone hates your avatar and this concerns you, you can always create a new one and go on your merry way, safe.

Fallacy of Anonymity

When the web was still young and the name “the Internet” was newly coined, one of the true benefits of the Internet was that you were truly just a number, and a mysterious number at that. Back then an IP address was just a number and someone using one could be anyone and there was no way of tracing anything. Like law schools with their “Unsigned Papers” where radical and dissenting opinions are voiced, the Internet was one vast Unsigned Paper. The Internet was a repository for information and free to all, until the marketers got in on it.

Marketing, this was the end of privacy on the Internet. Now information got classified, content that was not worth paying for and content that was worth paying for. Now if you wanted to access any content deemed to have worth you must to divulge who you are. During the late 1990’s this idea of anonymity was incredibly important. Today people now freely post their personal information without a second thought. Why the change? Social Networks.

Today you could, if you tried very hard, still remain anonymous on the Internet. You could use Gift Credit Cards paid with cash to purchase Internet access. You could create non-personal email account on Yahoo. You could then create accounts on MySpace and Facebook and interact completely anonymously. You could even use your anonymous debit credit card to buy digital downloads and such. You could not buy anything real that would have to be sent to you, even if it goes to an anonymous P.O.Box. You could not do any banking, you could not pay any bills, you could not even play most games. Heck, you could not even look up anyone you know (on MySpace or Facebook and such) because the web of associations you make would indicate who you are. It’s all a bit more complicated than that (like be sure to buy a computer with cash because the MAC address and CPU IDs are recorded and associated with the purchaser (remember the dust up a couple of months ago when Apple insisted you pay for your iPad with a real credit card so they could record who you are?)) but you get the idea.

So, 1998 and privacy is a huge concern and now it is 2010 and the only privacy we seem to have is our medical records which are still open books to most insurance companies and if your medical records are purchasable, you have no privacy. To wit the opinion of most people is that since we have no privacy why not post all your information and not really worry about it. After all, how cool can you be on Facebook without a complete profile.

So we are clear, once you get onto a Social Network, unless you have taken great pains to hide your identity, ANYONE can find you, and usually do it in minutes. Without knowing anything special about someone consider this: If you have someone’s name, zip code and age, how many people do you honestly think are going to share these stats? Sure, you may get a few hits on someone named John Smith in Los Angeles, but how many Tyler Conways in 90012, Male, and 24 years old are there? You can see my point; it is easy to track someone down with minimal information all available at the touch of a few buttons and the search of a few public records.

Simply put, the social networks pretty much abolish your hope for anonymity. But I digress…

Your Social Network

There was a time before computers and the Internet where your social network was your real life friends, the people that you would hang out with, the people you met for dinner, played poker with, helped out in time of need, talked to on the phone, interacted in a real physical “in real life” way. In many ways we seem to have lost that. Certainly the current generation of young people interacts less face to face than previous generations. This is not a misconception/misperception because I am getting older, this is truly the case. The internet is teaching our children to be less social on a personal level and has replaced it with social interaction on the net. To quote the movie “The Net”: “No one leaves the house anymore. No one has sex. The Net is (the) ultimate condom.”

Personally I would like to extend my IRL social network. It’s not that I don’t like the social network I have online, it is just you really can’t enjoy a beer with someone while typing with one hand and guzzling a beer with the other. That and whole lot of other activities are not possible or immensely less satisfying over the net. We really need to reach out to others, even those in our online social network and make an effort to take the social network into real life. Living in cyberspace is not healthy.

So, have I ever mentioned that I’m haunted? I don’t mean in the teen angst emotional depressed sort of way, but in supernatural sense. Yep, I have my own personal ghost or spirit or poltergeist or something quite insubstantial. I know this because he let’s himself be known and because I conjured him. That’s right, I guess I ask for it and his name is George.

So, how did I evoke such a spirit? Well it all happened about 12 years ago when my daughter was being particularly unruly. She said something to the effect she would be better off if she has a brother. I jokingly told her she had a brother George, but he acted up too and now we only have her, implying a Cosby witticism, “We brought you into this world, and we can take you out … and make another one just like you.” The quieted her quickly as she though about it then called the bluff. But that was the start of George.

In the next few days we had all sorts of weird things happen around the house, lights turning on and off, televisions would turn off at interesting moments, things would be moved around the kitchen, and personal items (wallets, watches) would not be where you usually set them. All in all it was a weird couple of days and that is when we decided we had a ghost. It was nothing malicious, more like playful happenings.

Now some would say it is a poltergeist, but there has never been any sound related to this “entity”, so no, it’s not that. Besides, while I do have a daughter, she was neither angry nor a teen when this developed. Furthermore, this entity has attached to me. It has moved from an apartment in Canyon Country to a house in Castaic, to a house in Northridge and finally to my current apartment.

Over the years I have become accustom to the strange little things that just occur, but this was new to Nancy. She moved in and brought a computer that was perfectly fine. But wouldn’t you know, a few months later George figured out how to turn off her monitor and I suggested she tell George to leave it alone. That worked and eventually it just because a habit to get the monitor to work.

I know, I know, you all say that it was just part of the process of warming up the monitor and that happens once in a while. Well, that may be true, but how do you explain it also happen after the monitor has been on all night? The fact of the matter is the switching off of the monitor happen only when she is on the computer and then only when it seems to bug her most. Then if she sternly addresses George it stops. Also, we replaced the flat screen monitor with a large regular monitor and now the same thing is happening with this monitor. When we hooked up the new monitor there was a gap of a few months when nothing happened to the monitor, so saying it’s the monitor or even the computer does not scan.

Here is another example. When we got a cat all the activity ceased. The cat would approach something, meow at it and then move along. Now, after the having the cat around for half a year, the “happenings” are starting again. The monitor is acting up once in a while, the amplifier pops and crackles and the TV even turns off at moment of the most interest.

Further proof of the “George” haunting me: Yesterday we went to the doctor and the radio in the car would cut in and out. In fact it would in some cases cut in and out on command. It finally stopped but it was weird. You are going to ask, how hot it was… well it was 115 outside and who knows how hot inside so I guess the over heating sensor in the stereo could have kicked in. But in and out and in and out again? Unlikely. Also, later when we went about out business it was hotter inside and out and there was no issue. It was George again. (BTW, this had never happened to Nancy before.)

So as we prepare to move we keep in mind out extra roomie and pack the electronics carefully. It will be interesting to see how long it takes for George to let himself be known at the new place. (The new place is just 2 years old and we are the second tenants in the unit so there should not be any electrical issues.)

We shall see, oh yes, we shall see.

“Dan just won this Ford Mustang for $735.42, and you too can get deals like these, on Beezid” or something like that, so says Beezid’s ad. With a claim like that I had to check it out.

So, how could Beezid offer such high ticket items for so little money? I thought at first they got their inventory as seconds, refurbs, ding or dent, clearance, product discontinued stock and so on so. After looking at their inventory there was not a word about any of this (although the one computer they were auctioning was using older technology but it was still a good computer) so I am assuming it is all new in the box, as it were. I guess I need to dig deeper…

It seemed to me that selling products at 90% below retail would cut margin to 0 and in fact the cost would be more than what is paid for the item. No one is in business to loose money; there must be a trick to it, that’s when I noticed the “Bid Packs” they were auctioning. “Bid Packs”? Yeah “Bid Packs”.

This isn’t eBay, this is Beezid and every time you hit the bid button you have to pay for a bid. What you do is spend a few hundred dollars on “Bid Packs” or you can bid for “Bid Packs”. Then you take your bids and bid on items you want. But don’t think you are going to wait until the last second then bid and think you are going to win… when you hit the bid button you add an additional 10, 20 or 30 seconds to the clock. “Huh” I hear you say? Yeah, you can’t snipe the low price at the last second, the additional seconds give some other would be sniper the chance to snipe at your bid… and on and on… This of course encourages more bids and really, what is Beezid selling? Yeah, bids.

So, let’s look at that Ford Mustang deal Dan won:

Price of the Mustang: About $34,000
Price Dan paid to Beezid: About $750
Number of Bids: about 75,000 (in penny increments remember)

How did Dan do:
New Mustang for $34,000 (about)
His cost: $750.00 (about)
Number of Bids by Dan: Unknown but at least one, probably many more.
Net for Dan: $34,000 - $750 – (bids) = +$33,249 (about)

How did Beezid do:
New Mustang (at cost): maybe $23,000
Income on bids: about $56,000 = (75,000 * $.75)
Net Profit: $33,000 (Cha Ching)

This is all ballpark numbers, but I would be willing to say it is pretty close for government work. This is basically a high tech raffle, everyone pays money for their tickets (bids) and one lucky winner takes they prize. But then again, everyone else is SOL, you know, “Sorry, Outta Luck”. Of course for the charity holding the raffle they get a nice donation when it is all over and someone walks away happy but we don’t care it is all for a good cause. Here it is all for Beezid’s profit margin.

In an auction like the one for the Mustang it is very likely that some people spent thousands in bids and walked away empty handed. Of course the people bidding at the start were looking at a pie-in-the-sky price for it the win, hoping against hope that everyone sort of fell asleep and their bid would be the last. There were 75,000 bids on that car, it was a lottery when all was said and done.

Now I am scratching my head because I thought that when eBay first came online they also had a pay for bids system and that was their hook on making money. Further I thought there was like a law suit against them and the pay per bid system went away because it was illegal. In any case it seems to me that Beezid is a more expensive site than you will ever get back unless you get lucky. They can spice it up all they want, but it is going to get expensive real fast.

Another thing… they limit the number of auctions thereby enticing more people to bid on the few items available. While this still means you may pick up a $1200 TV for $400 they are making more bids and paying for less items. Also, the more people who start buying in the higher the prices will get and Beezid is going to make out like a bandit. In fact, bandit may be the exact word for it since I am pretty sure this is all illegal.

Good idea, I for one will not be lining Beezid’s pockets.

Someone asked me about the “Free Money for Surveys” thing that you see all over the web and on late night infomercials. Having done programming for a company that did this sort of thing I have an insight other people may not.

Something you should realize about these “research” projects… they are not doing research for whatever it is they claim to be looking for information on, they are doing research ON YOU.

More than likely they will ask you for your address to send you a check. They do this not only to send you your money but to verify that you are who you say you are. BTW, they then get the information on who you bank with or if you use a check cashing place. The information about you starts to accrue. 

Will they pay you for your information? Yes; they may pay you $20 or more for your information (and they now have in a profile on you) and then sell that information. Take a survey, sure they pay you another $20 and then sell your responses and profile to other companies (yes plural) for $50 (maybe more, maybe less) per record. Say they have 4 companies interested in this information they will have netted $180 PER PERSON TAKING THE SURVEY.

Combine this with your “profile” and they start to get a pretty good picture of who you are (physical, psychological, tastes, political leanings, sexual preferences, and a whole lot more) and your general profile becomes worth a lot of money. The more surveys you take, the more your profile is worth. Sure they may fork over a few hundred to you by the time you stop answering surveys (and you will eventually stop answering surveys) but they will make thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars off your information resold to anyone that wants to do targeted marketing, psychological research, social research, market trending, and a whole lot more.

It is sure as can be one of the “surveys” will be about your preference of supermarkets. They will ask if you use the “supermarket saving cards” and if you do they will buy your shopping preferences. Another survey will be on your use of credit cards. They will ask which company you use but never ask for your number (because that would be invasive, LOL) and then buy the info from them on your card usage.

Have you done anything that has a public record(buy a house, get married, change your name, get a traffic ticket, been arrested, involved in a fire, social services, child services, etc)? If so they will find it and add it to your record (see what a little info can get them) and by now your profile is incredibly detailed. It is a good bet they have pictures of you, your spouse, your kids, your parents, etc. They will certainly know your whole family structure (from social networks, census information, medical records, etc.)(You don’t think Ancestry.com does what it does for nothing do you? YOU PAY THEM TO RESEARCH YOUR FAMILY STRUCTURE AND THEY THEN RESELL THAT DATA!) They will know your complete tax history and employment history (better than you), and finally, they will know your complete medical history (and insurance history).

Even if you stop taking surveys they will continue selling your information, sometimes for years. Through the years they will send you a junk email and if the email is not returned they know it is valid and keep selling your information. Same holds for the postal mail, phone numbers, etc.

So, you will see an increase in junk email and junk postal mail. You will get more calls from solicitors and it is quite possible you will get solicitors at your door.

There is a whole lot more to this but you get the picture, your information and opinions are worth FAR MORE MONEY THAN YOU EVER GET.

Want a twist? Let’s say you do start doing these surveys and let’s say you “opt in” to multiple “research” projects, it is very likely that you will have opted in with a particular company multiple times. Now of course each company is going to ask similar questions, but if you are not honest and answer the questions differently the company you have multiple opt ins with will know your honesty level. Answer too many surveys dishonestly and they will cut you off and have gained a very powerful insight about you.

Can you guess three of the biggest of these companies? They are Equifax, Trans-Union, and Experian, the credit rating companies. It is a sure bet your research company will sell all the information they have to these big three, and now your personal information is really getting around.

I used to say this, “Give me a few minutes and I will tell you what you had for breakfast.” A few people took me up on that and you know what? I told them what they had for breakfast and I was right. As I said the information on each person is incredibly detailed. School records, college records and exam information, the list of information never seems to end.

Yes, I wrote programs for companies that did this sort of thing. I made a whole lot of money doing it. Personally, I would never get involved in one of these schemes, but hey, the money they offer is real, it is a legitimate offer and there is nothing illegal about it. But you really should know what you’re getting involved with and that is why I took the time to write this.

The “Adagio in G minor for Organ and Strings” was supposedly written by Tomaso Albinoni sometime between 1695 and 1705 in a period in his life where his creativity was more split between his opera compositions and instrumental work. We do not know the exact year since the original composition was lost in the Allied Fire Bombing of Dresden in 1945 during World War II. In fact the Major Corpus of his works are lost at this time, very few complete pieces of his remained. Alas, musicologist are literally reconstructing pieces of Albinoni’s work from burnt scraps found in Dresden repositories. It should therefore be noted with some caution that when you hear an “Albinoni” piece, it is likely that while you may be listening to mostly what Albinoni wrote the arrangement is likely contemporary and whole passages may be extrapolated from, say, just a bass line or a few bars of the violin part. Enter Remo Giazotto…

Giazotto was an Italian musicologist, music critic, and composer, mostly known through his systematic catalogue of the works of Tomaso Albinoni. By all account he was well versed in music, especially music of the 17th and 18th century. In 1947 he had the Dresden Library send what was left of the Trio Sonata by Albinoni to him in Italy. From this Giazotto “arranged” the now famous “Adagio in G minor” based on a bass line from a slow passage in the Trio Sonata. 1958 he published the Adagio crediting Albinoni, but by 1965 he claimed full credit for the work. There is controversy still as to who this piece should be properly attributed.

We will of course never know the answer to who really wrote “Adagio” unless the original or some verifiable copy of it or the Trio Sonata is found and can be verified older than 1945. But maybe we can extrapolate and answer by listening to some of Albinoni’s other work, particularly the slower moving pieces.

When listening to Albinoni there are some qualities you can immediately discern; foremost is Albinoni’s use of very clockwork like cadence. This is not a negative of Albinoni’s but rather an expression of style. It is in fact that meticulous timing that brings out the beauty, a fine Swiss watch as opposed to a Timex. Another quality is his backing syncopations, they are there in the background to add an emotional tension that enhances our emotional feel for the music; we hear it but do not relate it consciously to the way we are feeling. Third, Albinoni was a composer to get right to the point, rarely did he use “pickup” or “intro” themes in his music, use of intros in music is considered rather modern in fact. Let’s take these three ideas and see how they work with or against the “Adagio”.

The first 25 seconds of the piece is an introduction to the main theme. For a 17th/18th century composer to have written this may be too much to ask. An intro of only a few bars to get the listeners attention I could see, but maybe Albinoni was ahead of his time in this regard. If so he never showed it anywhere else in his composition.  At about 3 minutes there is a very long stretch between organ and violin. This duet is rather drawn out it seems to me for Albinoni’s usual style, especially since there is no additional “clockwork” counterpoint for a whole 1 minute and 30 seconds, at which point you can hear Albinoni in all his glory, counterpoint and all. At 7 minutes the piece enters into a series of connected chords, almost a tone poem of sorts. And finally a long drawn out ending (30 seconds),

Are we listening to Albinoni? Yes, there are certainly parts that make me want to say that this is Albinoni, but then again there are sections of the piece that may be a bit too modern. The intro and duet are for me points of contention that I could see NOT being Albinoni but rather Giazotto. It is not that Giazotto did poorly, he did quite well, but his modern training is showing. One other part stands out as Ablinoni, all be it a variation is the “tone poem” section. Here may be a patchwork of a sorts; I believe Giazotto used the chording of Concerto in B flat Opus 9/1 as the basis for this section of the Adagio. Listen to it and make up your own mind. It should be noted it is not uncommon for composers to “reuse” parts of their own works they liked, so this could indeed be Albinoni doing the deed, but I do not feel that is correct for the abrupt way the section is added. Somehow I feel Albinoni would have found a more flowing way to enter a tonal section like that if he had written it.

So, Albinoni or Giazotto? Personally I think this is a toss up but leaning more to Albinoni; not that Giazotto didn’t have a strong influence. In which case Giazotto was correct in his original attribution and should not have claimed it later.

Of course none of this has anything to do with the fact that Adagio in G minor is now one of the most recognizable and romantic themes to date. In the end it truly does not matter who wrote it, this piece, be it Albinoni or Giazotto will be with us always and stirring people’s emotions and thoughts forever more.

Here is a brief story on how I acquired a cat…

About 7 months ago someone in our apartment complex must have moved out and like many people could not take their pet with them (or so I am assuming). About this time is when we started seeing this bi-colored blue and white British Standard shorthaired lurking around. He was understandably standoffish to everyone, but being a handsome cat some of the people in the area would leave out tuna or whatnot that he would enjoy when absolutely no one was looking.

After about 3 months of this lurking I was finally able to approach him and pick him up. No one in the complex could get close to him, but I have a way with animals. This is when we decided to get some proper cat food for the poor guy and leave it for him on the porch. It was not long after that he was poking his nose into our apartment. This is when I had to make a decision, let him in or keep him out. Not an easy choice because I am (or at least was) allergic to cats. For whatever reason however, I do not seem to have a problem with this cat. I let him in and that was all she wrote as my new owner made himself comfortable.

For the record his name is: Socks, Lord Marbury, Emissary of Jeff and Nan, the Dignified. The Socks was what Nan originally named him because of his wonderful white socks. I though he acted more like Lord Marbury for the character on The West Wing so we added that too. The Emissary part was because he seemed to announce himself and us wherever he goes. The Dignified is for this way to prominent ego that he exerts whenever he is caught being kittenish. We call him any of the four but usually Socks.

This is a well trained cat. He does not seem to be destructive and any way, he rarely scratches and when he does, it does not seem to be damaging anything (although the tree in front of our apartment is just about bare of bark.) He now lets us pick him up whenever we like but he complains about it very vocally (purring the whole time) pretending to be indignant. In the mornings and evenings it is thunder-paws through the apartment (very cattish) and he love his “Pounce”, Catnip Mouse, and dangly toy. He is not a “high energy” cat which is good, because I am not sure I could handle I high energy pet. In other words; he’s a great cat.

Nan says he is my cat mostly because he will stay with me more often than not. I have not had that kind of companionship since I was in high school and our family dog Bandit would stay with me all the time. I had a cockatoo who was attached to me, but it is not the same as a dog or cat, there is that cage thing at night where as cats and dogs can jump on your bed and be foot warmers. Recently he has taken to jumping up on an ottoman that I put my laptop on and looking at me over the screen. It is really very funny, especially when he thinks he needs more attention and walks all over the keyboard. Yeah, he’s my cat.

Now being mostly a blue cat I think he thinks he can be invisible. He will find a place to sit and stay real still and dissolve into the background watching us all the while. When we do approach him he gets miffed and finds a new spot. Earlier this week he took “Stealth Kitty” to a new level. I had to take out the trash rather late in the evening and as I left I left the front door open. This is not a problem for the cat, we leave the patio door open all the time so he can go out whenever he wants. As I left he stuck his head out the door. I turned the corner and there he was following me. As soon as he saw that I saw him he bolted for the bushes. As I walked to the dumpster he followed me moving from bush to bush, “out of sight”. I decide to see if he was following me or just going out for a romp, so I went around the building. He followed. Eventually he was walking right on my heel, it was a funny sight. I got back to the apartment and he followed me and that was when I first “walked the cat”.

Now I take a few cat treats along with me and when he get close I drop one and wait for him to eat it. He looks up to me and on we go. He stays behind me, runs 15 feet or so ahead of me, but stays within a short distance waiting for another treat. This is how I am training our cat and it seems to be working. Someone saw me walking the cat this evening and I told him I was walking the cat, he busted up laughing at the sight of a cat doing what you might expect a dog to do. It is rather comical.

So far we have only tried this late at night when there are no other animals around so there is more work to be done. So far however the “walking the cat” has been fun.

It’s all about subtext. Don’t you get it, it’s all about subtext? Yes. Hate group leaders understand this; when they want their membership to do something immoral or illegal they don’t tell them directly, “Go lynch that fruit, he’s gay and shouldn’t exist.” No they couch the idea of doing that in the minds of their membership and then say, “wouldn’t that be a good thing” encouraging them to do it. Then some poor deluded shmuck will grow some cajones and actually do it. The leaders can deny they ordered the action and the burden falls on the misguided perpetrator. Welcome to the world of politically motivated violence we are experiencing today.

It all started last summer when some nutcases started bringing guns to Presidential appearances. It slowly ramped up with signs portraying President Obama as Hitler. This in and of itself recalled the negative imagery of the Nazi regime and applied it to the current administration. You might as well shouted “Obama is a Fascist” and the called for the action that happened during WWII (in other words a call to arms and violence.) This all lead to a general contempt of the party in the majority and disrespect for the office of the president. The contempt was refocused by a “you lie” shout out on the Senate floor and the wink and a nudge blessing given by the Republican party members. Finally, irresponsible third party members and bloggers just about deliver orders to “reload and target” democratic lawmakers and posted addresses on the web. Is it then surprising that some wackos out there physically threaten people and harassed them?

The Republican statements to curtain the violence are going to fall on deaf ears of the extremist because they know that now they are just saying that to appease the media and pacifists and still read into it a wink and a nod as the spokesperson then goes on to really blame someone else for the increase in violent actions. This is not going to stop until someone it killed and the FBI starts arresting a lot of people.

There is even an absurd idea that the democrats are inciting and inviting violence against them to drum up a sympathetic feeling. Really? They want you to kill them? They are suicidal? Sorry, that dog don’t hunt.

As crowds gather and opposing perspectives clash there is a more and more likely a chance that some person will end up with a bullet in their brain or a sign post so far up their ass they will simply be dead. It seems to me it will be blood spilled not at the foot of the Tree of Liberty but the feet of the bewildered to wake people up to the fact that this hysteria is out of control. When that happens the law enforcement will no longer stand idly by as extremist epithets are spouted, they will go into arrest mode and what was your right to free speech will be vastly curtailed because now peacekeepers know that this form of free speech ends up with people dead. So keep up the violent escalation you stupid hate mongering, deluded, misinformed sons of bitches, you are on a path of taking away even more of your rights and you will end up in jail.

But then again, if you are in jail you will have healthcare.

Is reality following fiction or is fiction creating this reality? If you have ever watched The West Wing, the political drama that aired on NBC and is re-run now on Bravo (check your listings) and available on DVD, then you may have noticed some interesting parallels between the show and today’s Obama White House.

One of the things we do know is that Aaron Sorkin based the character Josh Lyman as the Deputy Chief of Staff on the real life Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. It is prophetic then that at the end of the series that Josh Lyman then becomes Chief of Staff to a Hispanic President. It is good to remember that “The West Wing” ran from 1999 through 2006.

The above parallel is just one that is blindingly obvious as you watch MSNBC or CNN (FOX is a propaganda network so I do not watch it) and then watch the series The West Wing. I am going to watch the series again and as I watch it I am going to write down everything I see as parallels or prophetic.

The real question I am going to have to ask myself is this: Are the things I am seeing as parallel really parallels or am I reading into it for the sake of finding parallels. Psychologists call this Matrixing, seeing something because you want to see it. I have a feeling I am really seeing the parallels and will report back with the results. In the mean time if you are a West Wing fan think about it. 

Sure it was the old joke to us kids when I was growing up, the adults just did not understand the Rock and Roll that was being piped into our young ears through the FM band and vinyl platters. The music just did not register with them at all and so the younger generation just wrote off those adults as square. But here’s the rub, some of them did get it and as the 70’s pushed into the 80’s more and more of those critical adults were swayed into the music of Elvis, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Janis Joplin, The Doors, Bob Dylan, Billy Joel and on and on.

My dad was one of those that when I was young couldn’t stand my music, but as time moved on I would catch him listening Elton John and liking it. Oh sure he would never admit to liking it, his “Preferred” listening was Count Basie and Glenn Miller, except when I found a “Madman Across the Water” and “The Stranger” tape in his regular listening collection. No I never confronted him on it, I just let him carry on with his secret listening and when I gave him a Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits album it was not returned. Apparently he learned to like “that noise” and maybe even appreciate it.

On the other hand of course I have learned to enjoy a large spectrum of music. My playlists contain Jazz, Rock, Classic Rock, Golden Oldies, Big Band, Swing, Broadway Musical, Barbershop, some country, Classical, Chant, Electronic, Disco (yeah, sue me), Punk, Glitter Rock, Some Metal, Rap (old school), Comedy, and a variety of others. Some of this was certainly influenced by my parents; I grew up with them playing Gilbert O’Sullivan and Herb Alpert spinning on the Kenwood. They encouraged me to listen and enjoy all types of music, even those they thought were noise. At least they had an open mind.

So here I am listening to the music the kids are playing today and I just don’t get it. I do not get why their music is filled with violent messages, misogynistic imagery and more misanthropy than I can withstand. This is what passes as music? Aside from the lyrics, where are the instruments? Even the Rock and Roll noise of the past required guitars and three chords. The good stuff even had horns, strings and woodwinds (or at least a good keyboardist) to fill out the sound. Am I missing something or has all that been replaced with re-sampled and overdubbed electronics? Where is the musicality?

Of course I grew up from being influenced by the Rock from the late ‘60’s through the late ‘70’s and hold a special place for the artists from this era, but from everything I see it is justified. The music was music, the lyrics had meaning (for the most part) and it was not all overproduced to appeal to every 12 year old in the market.

Please know I am not knocking all artists out there, I have heard so great stuff on the indie scene and the internet as brought some real catchy stuff, but where are the real musician that can write a song, pen some meaningful lyrics, play some real instruments and appeal to more that a coffeehouse niche? For a minute there I thought Ben Folds was going to be the new Billy Joel, so where is he? You get the idea, it’s not that the new music is inherently bad, but the older, “classic” rock, was just that good. I want more of that and it’s gone.

Want some interesting proof? When there are big concerts who are the ones playing? That’s right, the guys from the late ‘60’s and ‘70’s. The Who goes on tour and it is HUGE. Elton John plays to sold out venues in Vegas as a regular thing. When Vegas wants a new act who do they look to? Well right now it’s Bette Midler, Donny and Marie, Cher and a select few others. They tried Brittany Spears, Prince, and various other DJ’s, they just don’t sell or last. Barry Manilow sells out nightly. When Neil Diamond does a concert there is no doubt it sells out. Ever seen the frenzy that happen when Babs (Barbara Streisand) announces a concert date? Why? The music of course.

Now you are going to say that the frenzy is all amongst my generation, and this assumption would be wrong; even the younger concert goes are looking for tickets to shows like I listed above. Come to Vegas and look at the lines, just as many young people as the Flower Generation. Something is missing in todays music.

I want more good music, I really do.

So here we are, about to get a new healthcare legislation and from what I understand within the legislation is a Universal Healthcare Mandate. From what I understand this means that every person MUST have health insurance or they can be criminally sited for something; people who may not have the money for healthcare are about to become a criminal class simply because they are poor. Wow. Welcome to America where if you do not have cash you are simply a criminal.

Let’s think this through.

So what happens if you cannot get health insurance? You have a pre-existing condition (call it a genetic issue not related to lifestyle) and no one will insure you for less than you earn. For whatever reason you fall through all the cracks for Medicare or Medicaid, so what happens to you? From what I understand you get fined. Really? You can’t afford health care so you can afford the fine? Really?

So what happens if this persists? More fines? Jail? Sure I can see jail time, something like a debtor’s prison but for people who can’t afford healthcare. But from what I understand it costs 40k a year to house each inmate. So we are going to jail people and spend 40k a year doing it? And while they are at it (sending people to prison) don’t they have to provide healthcare? $40k a year, wouldn’t it be cheaper to just give free health care and not convert impoverished people into criminals? Seriously, this is what you are asking for when you create a Universal Mandate for healthcare.

Now I know that there are areas of the US where people will commit a crime in say October and get prison time for 6 months to simply ride out the winter. Spring comes around, they get released and come the following October they do something else and get arrested again. Aren’t we setting up a similar situation where people may opt to commit a crime (they are criminal already) and go to jail or prison just for the healthcare? Is this such a far fetched thought? Is this happening already?

Take this one step further; someone who already knows they are now a criminal for no other reason than they cannot pay for health insurance figures if they are already damned, why not really do a job and find a healthcare company executive and do something that will really make a statement. After all when they are done they will be arrested and then put in jail where healthcare is provided. Crime does pay, well, at least for your health care.

But it may all be a moot case. I personally do not think it is constitutional to force people to pay for healthcare. Sure I know the arguments, states already force you to buy auto insurance if you drive a car, but the two situations are not equal, not even close to being similar. To drive in a state is a privilege, not a right. You can live without driving by walking, riding a bike or taking public transportation to where you need to be. You need not own a car and therefore you need not have insurance. However, if you follow the current thinking that forced healthcare coverage is like car insurance, than if you do not have it you do not have a right to live. Hmm, there is a flaw here.

From what I understand: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Do we remember this from history class boys and girls, it is the preamble of the Declaration of Independence as ratified by the second congressional congress on July 4th, 1776. You know, they one with all the fancy signatures. Look at that, LIFE is the very first unalienable right; but only if you have health insurance maybe.

From the above clear text reading I would say that being able to live should not be fettered in any way. By taxing or forcing a fee on one of your inalienable rights, you are thereby restricting the other two. So in my opinion unless you are going to amend the Declaration of Independence you will not be able to force a healthcare mandate. Auto Insurance and Healthcare Insurance are not the same.

On the other hand you are not divinely entitled to healthcare either. Healthcare is not a right but it may be a moral imperative. This moral imperative is why you are not turned away from a hospital if you are in distress. This does not mean that the hospital cannot charge you for saving your life and attempt to extract funds for said services.

We are in a classic conundrum here. We have the means to save many lives, we are morally obligated to do so when the opportunity is presented, and we cannot force payment for said services. The health insurance industry would say this is exactly why healthcare is so expensive. It is also a fact that the higher the healthcare cost are the more people will default on payment. We are in a spiral of rising healthcare costs. But of course this does not have to be the case.

One bag or normal saline given intravenously will cost you about $300. Why? Well the healthcare industry would sight that there is research into the formula of the saline solution, the bag must not fail, and other features and that they only get paid 5% of the time for that saline solution thus must charge a huge amount for it. So what is the actual cost for a formula that has been used for a century, and a delivery device that has been perfected for about 100 years? All tolled, maybe 30 cents. I think I could pay for that and not default on payment if I were to be charged $.30. I think I would even pay up to $5.00 or even more and not default. In fact if I were charged a normal cost for items in a hospital I may agree to pay for it all. But this saline bag is marked up over 900 times, which is outrageous. They charge $15.00 for a pair of Tylenol (individually wrapped) but I can get Tylenol for $9.00 for 100 making a pair cost $.18. Because I get it from a hospital I pay 83 times the retail cost. And I will not even go into the costs for surgery, but I can give you a ballpark: I had a ruptured Appendix and the surgery cost ran about $90,000 dollars, I am still paying for this. But what should it have cost. If you consider tools and other devices that could be reused, the cost of other items that were single use and what you should pay for them, the time for the doctors, the time for the operating room, then you come to a total of about $8,000. Personally I would be glad to pay that for saving my life. But the markup is now so great I do not know how I will successfully pay for this on my current living wages. What a shame, if the insurance companies and hospitals were not so greedy, they could get paid, and paid much more often. But this is too logical when compared to the possibility of making BILLIONS of dollars in profits by jacking up healthcare and insurance costs.

I guess I am a lucky person, I in fact do have healthcare but I do not know how I am going to pay for my current stent in the hospital. I have not received the bills yet, but they are on the way and I am dreading the time when they do arrive. Maybe soon I will be one of those who cannot afford healthcare. I just don’t know what I will do.

Intro

OK, I seem to be one of those guys on World of Warcraft that always has money and everyone is always asking me for some of it. If they are not asking me for money other players are asking me how I get all that gold. This is a rambling response to all those people with all my secrets (if you can call them that) revealed. Take from it what you can, and do with it what you will.

The first secret to making a lot of WoW gold is simple: patience. There is no real easy way to make money without putting in time. Sure you will see some people talk about playing the Auction House relentlessly, but there are so many people doing that it is hard to find the quick turn over’s that would make it worth while, even using an addon like Auctioneer. That really leaves doing dungeons (and questing), manufacturing and farming.

Dungeon Running for Cash

Have you ever tried running chain heroics for badges? You know what I mean, you got a group together and did every dungeon in Northrend for the badges to get the armor you needed. Remember how boring that was, remember how much gold you spent on repairs? Did you make any gold at it at all? If you did make some gold you made very little and it took an awfully long time. Even with the new random dungeon tool with the badge rewards and the gold rewards, if you get killed even once then you can kiss all profit goodbye. If you are looking to earn badges, great and probably well worth it; but if your aim is to make some cash, this is not the way. And I have not even talked about the cost of buff food or battle and guardian elixirs.

However there is one option that does make sense to some extent… Level 80 daily quests. You can do 25 daily quests and each gets you about 13g or more. In addition there is the cash you make looting and some include badges or seals. If you are good you can do it all in about 2 hours. Total it up… about 325g and up 10 Crusader Champions Seals. (After you buy everything you need with the seals, you can keep buying pets and resell them for good cash on the AH. Also you can buy heirlooms that benefit your other character and this is important.) This is not bad gold per hour when all is said and done and most players if they are not greedy can easily live on this gold to play comfortably.

Manufacturing for Money

Personally I find manufacturing dull and in some cases really risky. If you are buying the materials you need to create product you have to balance the price of all materials and time against what you can actually sell the products for. That sounds easy, but when it comes right down to it unless there is a very brisk market for what you are selling you could find yourself sitting on a whole lot of product without any buyers. Oops. Here is an example: Let’s say you are an Alchemist with a specialty of Elixirs, your skill is at 450, and you have decided to make Flasks of the Frost Wyrm for resell. If you are buying the mats you are paying about 60g for a Frost Lotus, 4g for 5 Lichbloom, 8g for 5 Ice Thorn and 1g for the vial. This produces on average 2.5 elixirs (remember the Elixir Mastery proc).  So lets add it all up: Total Cost for 2.5 doses is 72g with a net cost of 28g / 80s (your mileage may vary).

As a net cost before marketing that is not bad under optimum conditions. The average sell price is about 35g. The auction house takes a cut of that of course (5%) so the price new net is 33g / 25s. Total gold made on one dose … … 4g / 45s. So if we make 100 of them we can make 445g, IF we can sell them all, IF we don’t have to repost them (loosing the initial deposit to the AH). It is not hard to see where a bad couple of days could wipe out the 445g profit just to AH costs and here is the kicker… you WILL have competition and you WILL be undercut sometimes. Can you afford to be undercut too often? Kicker number two; consider the Herbalist/Alchemist profession character that can undercut you all day (more on this later). Obviously making money directly off the AH is tricky and full of risk.

The other option in manufacturing is the JIT (Just In Time) method where you make items to suit demand and in very small quantities. This approach has the advantage of minimizing loss while retaining raw mats for other products. What does not work in this case is the “LFW Tailor” where you will get people asking and trying to undercut prices on the AH. This is an awful way to make cash unless you really are desperate, although if the tips are good you could do ok, but it is a real grind and you really have to have a complete repertoire of patterns and the most up to date one as well. In any case DO NOT TAKE ORDERS UNLESS THEY ARE PREPAID.

There are many ways of making money with manufacturing but they can become more time consuming than you think. Work your strategy out for you; this is not my idea of making money in the amounts I like.

Mining / Farming for Gold

If there is an activity in World of Warcraft that is money from nothing more than your time, mining / herbing / skinning / fishing / grinding is it. The idea here is to either provide the raw materials other people need or to provide yourself the materials you need to manufacture the stuff you find profitable. The only hard part is to know what to farm that will provide you with the kind of profit you want in the timely manner you want.

In my case I am an herbalist. I farm herbs in Sholazar Basin and resell them for a good profit. Occasionally I make all my potions and it costs me practically nothing, saving me tons of cash. The trick here is now to figure out a way to make enough money in the time you have that is to your taste.

The following will be ideas and tips on how to farm, what to think about, Auction House considerations and what gear may help.

What to farm?

This may seem like a no brainer, but really, it is not nearly as stupid as you may think. The obvious thing is to farm what you are specialized in. I am an herbalist, I farm herbs; but what herbs. The top two most difficult herbs to “pick” are technically Ice Thorn and Lichbloom. These herbs are also used in most high end potions and many inscriptions and enchantments. You would think they would be the right stuff to pick because they may be more intrinsically valuable, but you would be wrong. There are so many people picking these herbs the market is flooded and the price swings all over the place. People are desperate to sell the stuff so the undercutting is ferocious. True you may be able to use these herbs in a second profession, but we are not talking about that. Also, the area that spawn these herbs are big, really big to the distance between the herbs is bigger and therefore it takes more time. Honestly, if there were more node of these or the area where they grow was smaller (and the mobs you have to fight less difficult) I would probably farm these myself. (BTW, if you are dying while farming you are in the wrong place. Either find another place or get better gear; death is too expensive to be a consideration when farming.)

So what do I farm on a consistent basis? Adders Tongue, Tiger Lily, and Goldclover. The most consistent seller here is the Goldclover because there are fewer of these nodes to draw from and it is still used in many high end products. I also do all my herbing in Northrend which have three adds, Crystallized Life, Deadnettle, and Frost Lotus. These adds also sell really well and Frost Lotus is the undisputed king of all herbs.

When if comes down to it the only way to know what to farm is what works for you. Experiment, farm one thing for a day then try something different the next. Watch how it sells or how well it works in your manufacturing. I know there are some herbalist that pick a lot of lower level herbs and some of these sell really well (better in fact than some of the high end herbs) and they make a lot of money. Remember people have to create things at a lower level before moving up to more expensive stuff so there is always a demand for low and medium level herbs; same thing for minerals, skins, fish and mob drops.

Just remember, you can farm ANYTHING!

A Node?

A node is a spot that produces a collectable such as herbs, minerals, fish, or even mobs. I will be using the word node often to refer to a “gathering spot” for farming.

What Races / Classes make the best farmers?

It really does not matter what race or what class you are if you want to farm. All races and classes have access to gear and abilities that make it possible for them to farm pretty effectively. That being said there may be some advantages in class (and thus race restrictions) that can help them farm well.

Rogues: For whatever reason I am seeing (or not seeing as the case may be) more Rogues as farmers than ever before. I am assuming this has to do with the increased speed they can run and the fact that they can avoid conflicts (either beasts or other players) by being invisible. It is very interesting to watch the mini map with the nodes you are tracking and watch a node blink off and there is no one by the node. Whether this adds to the overall productivity of farming is beyond me, I cannot see the advantage.

Warrior Classes: Where the rogues approach by stealth the warriors (Paladins, Death Knights, etc) use force and high armor to grab their nodes. Even if there is a mob on the node they generally just walk up and take it ignoring the mob beating on them. Once the node is taken they can then hack the mob to pieces and continue. This does increase farming productivity by allowing them to take the node first then handle the environment frustrating other players who would try to ninja the node out from under them. This can be important when the area you are in is crowded and there are a lot of people to contend with.

Warlocks and Hunters: If there is one huge advantage these classes have it’s that they can have combat pets. The pets can tank mobs allowing the farmer to get to the node faster and then move on after the environment is dealt with. This can be important when the area you are in is crowded and there are a lot of people to contend with.

Druids: If there is one class that you want to be as a farmer (specifically mining and herbing) it is a Druid and for one reason only; Flight Form (at epic speed). The fact that the Druid does not have to dismount and remount is an incredible bonus in shear time. They spend least than half the time on the nodes than other classes do and that means they can visit more nodes faster. More nodes mean more money in less time… always a bonus. Also in flight form mobs are less likely to bother them. If you are considering making a character just for farming, consider making a druid.