We’re becoming androids and I still swing a hammer
what are we supposed to be doing with our lives? rushing towards sophistication faster than it is killing us in hopes of getting off this planet right before it burns down? i’m driving a big dirty truck around town with what used to be a forest all sawed and stacked in the back, planks soaked in toxic chemicals to prevent rot that will be a deck so someone can stand on it and look over at the neighbors house.
i kid myself that this construction game has purity. but it does feel anachronistic. i work with guys who don’t email. don’t have email accounts. don’t have a computer, don’t have one at work, don’t go to a library to use one, these guys don’t touch computers.
meanwhile we are surrounded by wireless energy transmitting data like ESP. the machines are powerful, and someone knows how to make my child’s eyes green like doctors used to make my knee bend. just poke right here.
is it a meaningful resistance to ignore the onslaught? if one of these carpenters dies refusing to create a log in name and password, will he go to heaven? it’s too late for me, but i’m trying to find the value in standing in sawdust while google watches me from a low orbit.
you have a child? what color are his eyes currently, if not green?
Comment by al — November 13, 2007 @ 4:39 pm
that’s what i’m sayin’. what the f#uck? that the words even rolled from your fingertips the way stories of cum used to. you have changed my man.
Comment by carl@hotmail.com — November 13, 2007 @ 7:06 pm
carl, i like how you censored “fuck”, sort of.
and i think you’re a damn good father, jon.
Comment by sea n — November 13, 2007 @ 7:16 pm
I watched a show on the History Channel tonight called “Mega Disasters” that spelled out how civilization as we know it is going to end.
In five years, the oil will run out.
Gasoline will be $8 a gallon. Food prices will rise because farmers can’t afford to run combines and truckers won’t be able to deliver food from farm to factory to grocery store because gas costs too much to make it worth the trip. There will be riots and looting. Inflation will make our currency worthless and only those 30 or older will understand when we’re joking grimly about “Thunderdome” in the bread line. Gangs will control the black market and souped-up motorcycles modified to run on ethanol (that is stealthily produced on rooftops) will rule the roadways. This was all on the television, a hour of it, from 10-11pm PST.
It’s 3am now and I’m wide-eyed and freaked out. When the sun comes up in a few hours, what the hell am I supposed to do with the rest of my life?
Go buy some shotguns and ammo and a few acres in Montana? Stockpile canned goods and learn how to skin a deer? Does Apple make a solar panel adaptor to power a laptop?
Goddamn.
Comment by Ryan — November 14, 2007 @ 2:46 am
That sounds like a likely scenario. I’ll need to rent Beyond Thunderdome so I’ll be in the loop when this all goes down, if I’m not dead already.
I want to hear more about rooftop ethanol!
Comment by Lyle_s — November 14, 2007 @ 6:26 pm
yup. i like to blind myself to all of this, take a cynical stance. i tell myself this is why i won’t have children – how could i??!!- instead of believing i’m actually being naturally selected out.
you’re going to heaven, jon rolston.
v-v-v-v-video.
Comment by mimsy lou — November 15, 2007 @ 10:42 am
Oggy’s Disaster Preparedness Plan
Step 1: Stop paying rent. We need to conserve our resources for the coming apocalypse.
Step 2: Firebomb Circuit City. a) Take bottle filled with gas and stuff a rag in it. Light on fire. b) Toss repeatedly through windows of Circuit City. Best Buy will work too. People need to start fearing the irresponsible use of resources.
Step 3: Stop paying taxes. (These are absurd anyway and just go directly into the pockets of rich land barons. Think Tina Turner in Thunderdome. That’s our current secretary of defense.)
Step 4: Recruit scientists. If they resist they must be persuaded. They are either with us or against us. That goes for you too Steve Jobs.
Step 5: Organize a People’s Army. The first three steps will probably draw some attention and guns will be our only protection. Unfortunately our enemies will be the U.S. Marine corp which is full of violent criminals. These are the worst of the worst and they are now trained killers. But we’ll have god on our side.
Step 6: Have many children and train each and every one of them to resist the “democratic” process. We must breed the new army. If we don’t then only the brainwashed adopted children of the rich will be left to run the concentration camps in Arizona.
Comment by oggy — November 15, 2007 @ 2:22 pm
just tonight the biodiesel station came back online in san francisco. If a ship loaded with 100 percent biodiesel crashed into the golden gate there would be no threat to the waterfowl and marine life.
It really is big business that resists change. If they resist, we don’t have options. They are the ones that provide us with the choices.
We have to clamor for them.
Comment by Rolston — November 15, 2007 @ 11:37 pm
unfortunately, it was the ship’s fuel that flooded the bay, not the cargo. so the ship would have to be burning bio. and that shit’s expensive.
Comment by sea n — November 16, 2007 @ 8:45 am
Your ships run on fuel? How irresponsible! Don’t you have any wind out there?
Comment by Lyle_s — November 16, 2007 @ 5:41 pm
What were they importing? Ikea furniture? Pinatas? Other necessary staples like plastic tops for to go coffee?
How expensive is it to clean up 58,000 gallons of oil from a few hundred miles of coastline?
We never factor in environmental costs to anything. It’s a fake economy. Oh well. My truck runs like shit on biodiesel.
Comment by Rolston — November 16, 2007 @ 5:42 pm
or how about hydro electric power? paddlewheels or something? a tow rope system like at ski lifts?
Comment by Rolston — November 16, 2007 @ 6:44 pm
“Step 2: Firebomb Circuit City. a) Take bottle filled with gas and stuff a rag in it. Light on fire. b) Toss repeatedly through windows of Circuit City. Best Buy will work too. People need to start fearing the irresponsible use of resources.”
Note: recent internet threats and savage response by law enforcement officials have prompted me to write an addendum to my above suggestion.
First of all, one should only firebomb electronic retail stores IN STATES WHERE IT IS LEGAL TO FIREBOMB ELECTRONIC RETAIL STORES. DO NOT COMMIT A CRIME! The oceans may be poisoned irreparably by mercury but God alone should punish those responsible. Consult your local laws if you are unsure if you live in a state where Circuit City may be a target of domestic terrorism. If it is illegal to destroy such an outlet of global poison then, well, you’ll just have to keep looking.
Second of all, the author of this remark has no resources or desire to carry out such an act if in fact he moves to a state where it is legal to destroy private property. If a Circuit City is in fact bombed in state where that kind of action is illegal then he takes no responsibility for it. Nor does the author of this website. Sort of like Circuit City not taking any responsibility for electronic waste contaminating the groundwater and oceans.
“Hey, we just sell the ovens. How did we know they’d shove Jews in them? They came with a sticker that said “For Pizza Only”. How were we supposed to know what the Germans were going to do with them? We thought they liked pizza!”
History is full of people dodging the blame. Count me in!
Always obey the law. This country was founded by law abiding citizens who did what they were told. Let’s keep up our record of peace.
Comment by oggy — December 9, 2007 @ 12:04 am