I don’t jaywalk, because I’m an Indian

Every once in a while, I’m lucky enough to be reminded about the beautiful variety in life. The differences of opinion that set you off-center, shake you out of routine, and cause you to pause to look around and see. I had one of those moments yesterday, while reading a blog post of a friend. So, since this is somewhat based on that, you should take a moment, head over to MorganPDX.com and read “I...

Giving as… Listening

Because it’s Christmas, and because this time of gift-giving is so difficult in so many ways, I wanted to take a moment to detail more about what gift-giving is to me. The focus of it being that gifts have meaning. And, more importantly, the act of giving itself has meaning. Deep meaning. When I give a gift, the responsibility of that gift lies with me, the giver. It is my responsibility to know this person,...

The Responsibility Of Giving

You all know them. The people who give gifts of toilet brushes, or gifts of a steak dinner to a vegetarian. As I sit in the house of my wife’s parents during this Christmas holiday, it comes that I have a few spare moments to contemplate bad gifts, culture, and the phenomenon of gift-giving.1 There is kind of cultural nuance that intrigues me about gift-giving. It is a nuance that I feel every Christmas when...

This one’s really going to get me into trouble

Okay, people. I know you have the power to change the world now, but sometimes you want to change the world into something that’s just really dumb. The current explosion of social media outlets sure has its problems. Well, more correctly, it has issues that we have not yet had time to process in such a way that those issues are truly incorporated into our culture.1 Witness, for instance, the Facebook...

Art as Embellishment

Due to a scheduling error that I made, I accidentally published this before “The Old Gods.” That post is supposed to be read before this one. Having visited Germany, having read of such beauty in Pre-Christian Germanic culture, I felt that I wanted to honor those ancestors as well. So much of what Native people here cherish is tied up in stories of Salmon, Raven and Wolf. It’s interesting to know...

The Old Gods

Ack. This was supposed to be published before the “art as embellishment” post, but I accidentally scheduled that other post and it published while I was on vacation. Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of historical research on Pre-Christian Germanic culture. Much of this is what people think of as “Viking” culture, but that topic is such a jumble of confused ridiculousness that I try to...

Celebrate Lughnasadh

Celebrate! Today is Lughnasað. The word Lugnasað is Gælic in origin and hearkens the Gælic god Lugh:1 In Celtic mythology, the Lughnasadh festival is said to have been begun by the god Lugh, as a funeral feast and games commemorating his foster-mother, Tailtiu, who died of exhaustion after clearing the plains of Ireland for agriculture. The word is Gælic, but the time is universal. Every culture that noted the...

Our soldiers should die in war

This is one of those essays that someone writes only because they have no plans on ever running for any public office, but I think it’s something important and something that needs to be said. Our soldiers should die in war. Now, before you fly off the handle and send one of Insitu’s unmanned aircraft to bomb my house, I’m going to lay a bit of foundation. I’m a disabled veteran who’s...

Is The Internet More Important Than Water?

I just saw a very disturbing article describing how the French government has declared that access to the internet is a “human right:” Access to the internet is a human right, claim France’s most senior lawmakers. The web was ‘an essential tool for the liberty of communication and expression’, according to the Constitutional Council. (via Internet access is a fundamental human right,...

Righting Stories

For many people, writing is a therapy. I know that I’m one of those people and I always feel somewhat better when I find other people for whom that’s true as well. Reading the words of people like Morgan makes me feel more normal. One thing I’ve learned about myself as time goes by…I write WAY more when I’m down and feeling crappy and bleh and stuff. When things are going right, I...

Drafting as Coding | JPV PDX

In possibly the most unexpected analogy ever, Jean-Paul Voillequé, in an attempt to become universally hailed as Portland’s geekiest lawyer, gives un an interesting link between coding and law: “When you read a programming manual, For Dummies or not, it typically states a set of design principles. Among these is the notion that code should flow cleanly, be organized, and to the extent that it is...

CyborgCamp PDX… It’ll probably suck anyway, right?

CyborgCamp PDX? No thanks. I mean, considering that I’m an anthropologist, a programmer and a geek, you’d think that I would want to go to something that bills itself as “An unconference on the future of humans and technology.” You’d think that this is the kind of thing that would be right up my alley. You’d think that I would ignore whatever social obligations I’d have in...

Abstracting Humanity: The Death of @MarsPhoenix

The Mars Phoenix lander died today, sending this final post on Twitter (which translates to “Triumph” for all you humanoids who can’t read binary). It’s strange that I’m so sad because, well, it’s not a small puppy, it’s a robotic lander- and it’s not actually sending me catchy Twitter updates- and it’s not actually writing blog posts like Phoenix Mars Lander:...

Dragging My Feet, and other phrases

I’m sick. Well, actually, I’m almost sick, which is worse. I’ve been fighting something now for about 2-3 weeks. It’s not your usual cold where you’re down for a bit and bounce back, and it’s not that quick punch in the head of a flu that drops you in bed for two days of solid moaning. It feels like depression in that I’m not sick enough to stay home from work, but I’m...

Communication Breakdown

The wonderful post by Cami Kaos on communication has had me thinking over the past day, and I’ve come to some realizations. This is a post about communication. It’s about the greatness and the biggest failure of social media. It’s about the love of two people, and the silence that grows between them. The Issue I’m a quiet person. In many cultures, silence is important. In some, silence is...

Paulson: ‘Aggressive’ Global Effort Planned; U.S. to Take Bank Stakes

Wow, I go out into the field for one day, and the US government goes crazy! Driving back from an environmental assessment in The Dalles, I heard Henry Paulson’s voice on the radio, Details can be found on the Wall Street Journal. Real Time Economics : Paulson: ‘Aggressive’ Global Effort Planned; U.S. to Take Bank Stakes. the Fed is not going to buy the bad debt of lending institutions, but rather...

The Financial Crisis in Everyday Language

Are you mystified by the current financial crisis and the housing explosion? Are you pissed as hell about the bailout of rich executives while your 401k dives? If you’re like me, you want to understand. I’ve put together a couple simple links- mostly thanks to This American Life’s Ira Glass and a large number of people who are hundreds of percent smarter than me. Thanks, hundreds of percent...