Category: Uncategorized

Sometimes I wish people wore signs… or … registered all their thoughts in a central database that I could easily access, preferably tied into some sort of Heads-Up Display which used facial recognition and high-speed data access to feed me vital information about everyone I met, and that emails and IMs were hooked into the same system, so I could know important things about people right from the get-go.

Like, I just got an email from a 13 year old in Tucson who likes my paintings and may be interested in buying. Which is great. If he has the money. My prices are very low right now, actually, so it isn’t inconceivable. I responded professionally and completely, and if he’s interested, I’ll know soon enough, but wouldn’t it be nice if I could tell right off the bat whether he was genuinely serious about buying, and financially capable of same? Whether he buys or not, it’s nice to know that he likes the work, but should I be responding as to a groupie or fan, or professionally, as to an art collector? I chose the latter.

Or with Laura. We’ve been corresponding for about a couple of months and … I want to go into the details at some point, but I am not sure it is relevant here, but … what is relevant here is that until I pressed the issue (because I sensed something was amiss, and drove conversations in that direction… after which it took her over two weeks to respond) I had no idea that … not only is she not looking for or interested in a serious romantic relationship of any kind, but she has never been in a relationship that required fidelity of any kind, and even if she were interested in having a relationship with someone, she wouldn’t want it to be a monogamous one. Which seems odd to me, considering that in the second or third conversation we had we spoke at length about monogamy and fidelity and how I am not interested in relationships that are not monogamous… months ago… But wouldn’t it have been nice if upon first hearing from her I could know that she has no interest in relationships and has never bothered with fidelity? I very likely would have avoided investing any of myself in her, had I known that. It’s not like it was easy or casual… she lives 3500 miles away… I wasn’t running into her at the local coffee shop or library… I was going out of my way to get ahold of her, spending hours and days writing letters to her… if she just wanted a casual friendship, well, I don’t know about you, but I don’t typically work that hard to create a casual friendship with someone I may never meet. (Or have erotic fantasies about them, which is something we BOTH did re: each other, but which … no… no, I don’t tend to have erotic fantasies about my casual friends, and if I find myself having them anyway, I look into advancing the relationship past ‘friend’, eh?)

Or … imagine going out to a club and knowing at a glance who wanted what, not just out of the evening, but in relationships and in life in general. You see a beautiful young woman and think about asking her to dance, but see that she is married with kids and just out for a night of fun. If you’re looking for the same thing, great, she can see that and you two can have fun dancing. If you’re looking for something more, you don’t even waste the time talking to her. And no, a person can’t be broken down into likes and dis-likes and give you a fair picture, but if you have “conflicting worldviews” (say, a gaia-loving wiccan and a captain of industry protestant), you would know right away not to bother trying to get together for something that became ‘serious’ enough to bring these things up. Sure, some people are just looking for a string of steamy nights of passion with no intellectual or emotional connection, but … well, that would all be obvious, too.

Hobbies, obsessions, passions, occupations and recreations. Religious beliefs, dreams, aspirations, biases and prejudices, expectations, and what other relationships they are currently or very recently involved in. All out in the open from the moment you meet someone.

Wouldn’t that be nice? If people were just open about who they are and what they want?

I am trying to be. It’s hard sometimes, but I do my best. It’s hard to let people know who I am and what I want over the loud music in the club. It’s hard to get through to people that the words I’m speaking are the truth, the whole truth, not something I like to say to make you like me exactly, but what I actually mean. It’s hard to get people to reciprocate. When I started with Laura I thought I was making my intentions clear by beginning the conversation “How would you like to be courted?” and then proceeding to explain that I wanted to get to know her and to try to form a relationship with her, that I wanted to know how she preferred to go from strangers to intimates. But I guess that didn’t get it across. Or when, on that 2nd or 3rd conversation when we discussed at length monogamy and fidelity and why we both agreed that we didn’t like infidelity, and I know I said outright I was not interested in being in a polyamorous or “open” relationship. I guess I wasn’t clear enough.

Or when I told her I was falling in love with her. Or when I revealed that I was, in fact, in love with her.

And when, earlier than those, I saw her use the words “yours” and “mine” as in “I’m yours and you’re mine,” and my multi-page response must not have been clear enough that my understanding of those words implies posession of a sort, which implies (to me only, I suppose) the idea that if I am hers I am no one else’s… if she is mine, she is no one else’s… and if not, then why use those words? And use them again and again and again and again? It only encouraged me, and I told her as much, in writing, quoting her, telling her she was only reinforcing and building up our relationship, encouraging me to love her and love her more, seeming to be …

nevermind. I have got off track, here.

What was the track? AH, yesh. I wish I’d known sooner. I wish she’d taken any of a hundred opportunities to tell me she was taking the introversion road of self-examination-before-attempting-external-relationships. I wish… I wish Sara had known all this, and not recommended to me explicitly that I pursue Laura. Sara, your matchmaking skills are wanting. In the future, try not to set up people who have no interest in a relationship with people you know are very serious about having a meaningful relationship. Yeah.

And that’s what I have to say about that. I’m going to bed.

So, a couple of months ago I filled out the online form requesting information about how I could license the technology and start my own factory manufacturing cars for MDI, here in Arizona. Based on the information available online, I estimated that the startup costs of such an undertaking would likely be in the $8 million to $12 million range… which, although it is not money I currently have in my coffers, is not a particularly large sum of money. (See: George W. Bush wants to spend over $150 billion in the next two years on another country, in addition to whatever it costs to run this one.) For that up-front capital, a factory, showroom, and offices (for management) would be built, and the factory operated for at least two years. The factory would be able to produce “2000 cars per annum on an 8 hour shift, with the possibility of doubling or tripling shifts,” or up to about six thousand vehicles a year. Each vehicle is expected to cost around $8k-$10k, and there will be no competition within the licensed ‘zone’ (which, in America, appears to be a single State, thus: I would be the only supplier of MDI vehicles in Arizona), so it is very likely to be a ‘sell out’ situation, where every vehicle we could manufacture would be pre-ordered. Because of the way they have set everything up, the initial investment would be earned back in only a couple of years, and you can figure out returns from there.

Oh, and did I mention that MDI’s cars run on air? That is, their ‘fuel’ is compressed air? Yeah. The car runs on super-compressed air, which when combined with ambient air creates power and drives the vehicle. After spending the last seven years on research, MDI is rolling out their technology to the world in a very real way. You’ll want to check out the MDI website for all the details, but on a single tank of compressed air, the car can go about 200km – 300km with a top speed of 110km/h, and while it can be re-filled with super-compressed air in under 3 minutes, it can fill its own tank via its built-in compressor (when plugged into a standard electrical outlet) in about four hours. It is primarily intended for urban driving, at which it excells. Did I mention that the air coming into the car, and into any compressor are filtered, meaning that the ‘exhaust’ from the car is cleaner than the surrounding air? (Yes, I know that that just moves the pollution from the air into filters, which must be cleaned or replaced, but at least you’re not breathing it… and imagine going to get emmissions testing done!)

So, yeah. Whether I build them or not, I want to see these cars on the road. Heck, I’ll buy one, if I can get on the list. But as I said, I applied for information on licensing, and after a couple of months, they got back to me (they’ve been focused on European licensing first – I understand) asking me to fill out and sign some paperwork … basically a NDA. No problem. I faxed it to them in Barcelona, and then mailed the originals… two or three weeks ago. Now, I know my mail typically takes up to three weeks to arrive in Madrid, so it’s no wonder if they haven’t received it yet in Barcelona, but that’s another piece of mail I’m waiting for … either physical mail or email … with more information about licensing the MDI vehicles for production in the US.

Of course, once I get this information, I won’t be able to share any of it with you. Everything I’ve said here has been public on their website. Anything I get from them from now on, I’m not allowed to talk about or share at all. So… I won’t keep you updated on this, except maybe to say “The MDI information showed up!” … someday.

And regardless, I look forward to seeing MDI vehicles on the roads. I hope you do, too.

So today my library book came in. It would have cost $65 via Amazon, more elsewhere, if even available. It was written for Engineers working on their Masters degrees. Luckily, this book is fairly well written and I am following it fairly easily so far. I expect that after mastering this book I shall have to move on to more advanced books on the subject… but also that after mastering this book I will be able to move on to more advanced books on the subject. It is A Primer on the Taguchi Method. Once I have the Taguchi method in my brain I will be able to … well, I will know how to … Well, to select a small set of experiments that will give statistical data enabling the analasys of a large number of variables, and to know the statistical methods for interpreting that data and understanding the outcomes… in such a way as to optimize performance and reliability in a process (manufacturing or otherwise) while at the same time minimizing the cost of production and of error, as well as of the actual experimentation itself. Yes. That is it.

I actually have a fair grasp of the basics of the Taguchi Method already, having got through nearly 5 full chapters in a couple of short hours, and could, if pressed, work out the rest on my own… but .. Oh, I’m lazy; I’ll just keep reading.

But … oh, there was a point to saying that last bit, and it is that upon learning the basics of the Taguchi Method and its applications and limitations and begining to try to dream of how I might utilize it, it occurred to me that I may never have a use for it. Still, I may subject you to it via a survey or two regarding web site design or … I don’t know … comics art style… I keep thinking that it would be really interesting to be able to follow an experimental process to optimize an essentially creative act in some way… to scientifically engineer good art or compelling characters. Just talking about it, I’m thinking about how it may be done… hmmm… Except … it will require actual user feedback from people … something I’ve never quite been able to garner.

I wonder if I could get good data from people about their preferences about comics I do. Thinking about it, I would probably have to (using the Taguchi Method to select the parameters) create at least 16 distinct comics, several ‘strips’ or ‘episodes’ long for people to give feedback on… then, using statistical analysis, I could generate the optimal comic for my audience! As the audience grows and changes, the experiments could be repeated to generate the ideal comic for the new audience!

The trick to using the Taguchi Method, for me, is that in order to use it to generate a certain result, you must know the result you want to generate. In the case of an online comic, the desired result is that readers like the comic, and ‘the more the better’. The Taguchi Method will work with this. But how can I apply it towards my paintings? What is the desired result? My own satisfaction with the work? Volume of sales? Average price of sales? Public adoration? Groupies who trade sex for paintings?

Theoretically, the Taguchi Method could be used towards obtaining any result… as long as you were aware of the desired result and the controllable factors affecting it… I may try to optimize the Buccala recipe a little this year, taking into account size and saltiness of fish pieces, and perhaps re-checking that egg matter… as well as doing an actual comparison of the two yeasts available and single vs. multiple rises of the dough. Any other factors you can think of that might be testable? I could have two more variables without increasing the number of experiments necessary to create an optimal result. At least with Buccala, my family is around to give me feedback on optimal Buccala. I know how much they can and can’t eat… I actually managed to make a little too much last year… as long as by a little, you mean several pounds too much.

Anyway… what else needs to be optimized around here? I’m itching to put this to use… Too often my brain decides to learn a thing and I have no idea why, or how I’ll use it. I figure someday I’ll get stuck in the equivalent of an adventure game and all these strange and curious things I’ve been learning will add up to survival, while my vast ignorance of many of the subjects that seem to be ‘common’ or at least ‘classic’ general knowledge won’t make a smidge of difference. So what if I’ve never read any Dostoyevsky? I know how to optimize things with complex variables using a small number of controlled experiments! Hah!

So, I’ve been using Abreva the last couple of days… it really does seem to help; all symptoms recede within a day or two (or never appear, if you start using Abreva soon enough) instead of lasting a week or two. But I was thinking about it and realized that due to the high price of the product, the small amount in the container and the dilution of the actual drug in the cream, the actual product, docosanol, costs around $100/gram. That’s right, there’s a drug I use that I pay nearly one hundred dollars a gram for. Luckily, it’s legal. Oh, and I had a coupon when I bought this container of it, so saved 15%! Woohoo! $100/gram!

Luckily I only very rarely find myself in need of this costly drug… this is the first time I’ve used it all year… at least!

Have I ever mentioned to you that the United States Postal Service is odd? Sometimes they do things much, much faster than expected, and other times they do them much, much slower. Right now I’m in a drought of mail… today I did get my WIRED and my Entertainment Weekly, right on schedule, but … well, there’s a book I ordered used via Amazon for a steal, the complete works of Oscar Wilde, and they ship that out, typically, at ‘book rate’, which takes “from 4 to 14 business days” to deliver. I’ve done this before and got it in two days, but this time we’re nearing the other end of the spectrum. I know when it was shipped. I don’t know what’s taking so long. Actually, here’s a thing: me writing this down will very likely mean that on Wednesday afternoon (Post Office is closed on Monday due to some sort of “holiday”, and I will be in PHX from Monday night through Wednesday morning… I believe) when I go in, the book will be waiting for me. I am also waiting for a “Return Receipt” or… returned letter… from a letter that I sent out, Certified and Return Receipt a couple of weeks ago. First class mail is supposed to get to any destination within 7 days, if it is forwarded from there, up to seven more, and the recipient has 15 days to sign for a certified letter before it is returned… whether they sign for it or not, the return receipt or returned letter may also take up to 7 days to return… so, hopefully the original has at least got to its destination by now… though I could have up to three more weeks before I hear anything back, one way or another… it still is something I hope to see some sort of response to in my box… someday.