I welcome our omnipotent government

American Community Survey (ACS)

First thing's first. This is now part of the census. And unlike voting and going to church, this one is mandatory.

The American Community Survey is conducted under the authority of Title 13, United States Code, Sections 141 and 193, and response is mandatory. According to Section 221, persons who do not respond shall be fined not more than $100. Title 18 U.S.C. Section 3571 and Section 3559, in effect amends Title 13 U.S.C. Section 221 by changing the fine for anyone over 18 years old who refuses or willfully neglects to complete the questionnaire or answer questions posed by census takers from a fine of not more than $100 to not more than $5,000. The U.S. Census Bureau may use this information only for statistical purposes. We can assure you that your confidentiality is protected. Title 13 requires the Census Bureau to keep all information about you and all other respondents strictly confidential. Any Census Bureau employee who violates these provisions is subject to a fine of up to $250,000 or a prison sentence of up to five years, or both.

You may view Title 13 at the U. S. House of Representatives website at the following address: http://uscode.house.gov/download/title_13.shtml

--http://www.census.gov/acs/www/SBasics/What/What1.htm

So let's recap: Census. New. Mandatory. There is at least one of those 3 that you will not believe. I assure you, they are all three mostly true. The new thing isn't exact, it's been going on for a few years, but it only hits a certain percentage of the population, and this year I'm the unlucky target.

Unlucky he says, how come?

Let's look at their faq for the answer (faq location is here.)

I've never seen anything this intrusive. Why do you ask such detailed questions?

The ACS questionnaire asks very detailed questions because we are required to collect specific information for federal and state government programs. For example, long-term care providers and community planners use information about disability to help them decide where to locate services and facilities. Federal and state government transportation planning agencies use journey-to-work information for roads and public transit development. You can find Fact Sheets on the ACS Web site that explain why we ask these questions.

No shit. This bastard is an evil form. They start with my address. Then they get my name. Now every name of everyone else that lives at the address. Dates of birth, physical problems, mental capacities, mortgage amount, phone number...

OH and then there's this gem of racial profiling (page 2, 3, and 4):

NOTE: Please answer BOTH Question 5 about Hispanic origin and Question 6 about race. For this survey, Hispanic origins are not races.

Then they go on to make the person say where their heritage stems. Funny, I'm just "caucasian." Maybe I should fill that question out with "From caucasia."

Anyway, you can look at the forms online or just wait until your turn. Don't be surprised when you read the questions and find that you do not wish to provide any answers.

I checked the fines and was considering just letting them get me for felony refusal or something. I simply do NOT want to provide anyone with this level of detailed information. As it turns out if I don't get on to filling the form out they will start calling me. Odd how they'd know my phone number from an "anonymous" survey. And I guess if that doesn't work they send out a "field rep." I shit you not -- read the faq above.

So like the all the king's horses and all the king's men will be coming to the forest of peasants to find out how they are living. I wish I was on the brute squad.

Relating horspower and torque to real life

Much of what I've accomplished in my life has been in the way of analogies. See, I have developed something of an ability to explain computers in ways that people understand.

If I'm talking to a car guy I tell it like it's a car. See, this is your motherboard. It is like the frame of the vehicle. The case is like the body. Everything plugs into the frame, right, so that's the motherboard and we'll put our engine on that. Cpu is the motor, blah blah blah.

I just try to figure out some system the user understands and relate computering to that. Anyway, it makes sense to the person and they often thank me for the insight and its nice.

So today I came up with the solution to a problem.

Here's the problem:
How do you explain the difference in horsepower and torque to someone who isn't a gearhead? Well I came up with a workable solution. Sure, it isn't entirely accurate, but it seems to be a good way to get the overall point across in a manner most will understand.

Here's the solution:
The difference between horsepower and torque for Everyman:

First of all forget about horsepower and torque, we're not going to start with those. Let's think of your favorite bicycle. I've had a bunch and I would have to say all of us have ridden down a hill. Well let's do that. Imagine yourself on this bike and you are riding down a hill. It's a hot day and there isn't much breeze so you pick up the pace to get some of the wind whipping through your helmet (you ARE wearing your helmet, aren't you?!) The wind feels good so you pick up the pace a bit more to get more of a good thing and then get drunk with pleasure and are pumping full speed down this hill with the wind whipping your hair and bugs in your teeth and freedom in your soul. This is horsepower.

Now, you've made it to the bottom of the hill, had a nice little dip in the stream in the valley and you're all hydrated and ready to head back up. I'm afraid the imagery isn't as poetic this time around. Your muscles ache, you grind the pedals in a circular rotation and the hill is as such that you are easily able to count the rotations to keep your mind off the fact that your upper thigh is burning like a rash you had back in college, you're sweating like something from another world, and you generally just hate having to trudge back up the hill. This is torque.

You use a little bit of each (horsepower / torque ) depending on your terrain and load. The numbers you see shown on websites and literature are their peak numbers. Actual performance in either a real engine or a person would be a gradual graph of values up to their peak and then falling off again. These numbers are not, of course, meaningless. But you can take it on face value that if you want more get up and go right off the bat without revving all the way up you'll want something with torque in the low end. This means you want your torque numbers to be high at low revolutions of the engine. This is what tugs you up the hill on your bike, your pedaling the crank is the torque.


Anyway, it makes sense to me. :P

Turn off your tv

Recently read an article detailing the manner in which companies attempt to market to the general public, ie you and me. Some of the main points were tivo type devices, spyware and search engine history, and a couple other topics. Mostly it dealt with visual media which begs the question:

Why not turn it off?

I think in much the same way that our society has eating problems we have an addiction to the television. I don't see people outside anymore. The number of people I know that sew for a hobby is diminishing. The number of "Rock Band/Guitar Hero" musicians now seems to outnumber the real deal.

People often ask me, "hey, did you see the ad about such and such?"
No, I don't watch tv.
They continue to tell me how great and clever an ad is and quite honestly I don't care. I guess for the most part I've shut off the switch for tv loving in my brain and I think its to my own advantage. Do still have a soft spot for Love Boat and Fantasy Island though.

music, a lover.

What is it about music and me? Well unless you know me personally that's just a random question. Those that know me understand that question well but as of yet nobody has been able to offer any answers.

Here's how it broke down:

At age 8 I jumped off a barn. Told mom I broke my ankle running. Subsequently I was given a new guitar and showed some chords. I practiced my chords and enjoyed the guitar. I had to walk with crutches so I had plenty of time to sit on the couch and make little noises. It was all great fun.

One tragic evening.

The family requested I sing "Home on the Range" while I played it. I declined. They insisted. I declined. They made it an order. I complied. They laughed. I cried.

My 8 year old psyche changed that evening. I had always been the "class clown" type and was ok with some ridicule but I found out I was only ok with ridicule when I was asking for it.

I vowed never to sing again. I got over it.

I guess I came to a point in my psychological development where I realized I really wasn't too great of a singer, player, or songwriter and I really didn't care. I enjoyed making the music and I decided that was good enough for me.

I've recorded my own songs since I was about 15. They are all very distinct. I've yet to find a person that can tell me what style of music it is that comes out of me. There's a lot of country in there. Some 50's type stuff. Dissonance, sustained chords. Always a catchy hook. I'm addicted to them. But when its all brought together it's just, well, distinct. I don't want to sound all high and mighty but it's rather like when Metallica came out. You didn't have to know the song to know immediately it was Metallica. I'm kind of the same way in a whole other genre.

See, that's another thing. When you heard Metallica, not only did you know it was some form of Rock, you also knew it was Metallica. With my songs you won't be able to put a term on the genre but you'd be able to say, "Yup, that's JohnCub."

I guess I've had a musical bug lately that coincided with the opening of a local (to me) venue that has bands. I live in this odd place that doesn't have bars. With no bars comes no music so I've been being bled dry musically. Life on scan, no live music... gah.

But what gave me the bug? I think it was two main factors that told me to get off my ass and get to practicing.
1. Guitar hero. Here's my opinion of guitar hero: wtf. It costs nearly as much as a starter instrument when you have all the pieces. screw that, give me a real guitar. I'll never be a hero but I'll be great fun around a campfire.
2. Current popular music. I have no idea what the song was exactly. I was in the back seat on a work trip and the driver put the radio to some station with some song that I thought was a joke until it lasted for 5 minutes. It was so absolutely horrendous that I decided even I was better than that.

So maybe I'm not better than whoever it was. But it sounds better to me. I don't rap. I know I can't sing well but I try. I know I miss notes and entire chords but meh, it seems to flow well enough for my brain to smooth it over. I'm not a perfectionist when it comes to music, quite the opposite. I've often wondered if my genre should be "Lo-Fi" or something. AM Gold? heh.

Lately I've been riding a maelstrom of musicality. I've written two songs in the past week or so and I really believe they are of pretty good quality. They aren't recorded well but I'm not so worried about that sticky bit. I mainly record so I don't forget my own songs. I know that sounds impossible but I know from personal experience it is not only possible, it happens more often than not.

Anyway since I record my songs so I don't forget them and am ok with sounding as mediocre as I do I decided to put them online as I make them. The myspace band profile lets you put 6 songs up and they pay for the bandwidth. Seemed like a pretty decent deal to me so I hooked it up and did the whole friend list thing. Meh, I don't know. Over 500 plays now and I think only one actual comment on the music itself.

Maybe I'm wondering if it is better to be aware of people laughing and pointing or just to stay in the dark as I am?

Time will tell.


In the meantime, grab a lounge chair and a margarita and listen to my song Love Boat at my music page.

Life, on scan

So my cd player quit working in my 2 year old jeep. :-\

I don't have a favorite radio station primarily because the amount of talking far exceeds the amount of music any one of them play. I do occasionally listen to NPR but lately I've been in more of a music-ey way so I've lived the past couple months on "Scan."

"Scan" is a spot on your radio as much as it is a black hole in the entertainment matrix.

Living on scan gives you a wide variety of what is available. I've always been diverse in my listening pleasures so this isn't too bad for me, I like to shake things up. I've learned some new funny songs this way and for a while the ones I seemed to gravitate towards were country songs. I especially like songs with a story and very few non-country artists are able to do this. It seems there are two camps: Set up a scenario and Tell a story. I enjoy both camps but my bunk is in the tell a story one.

Recently I was in a large american city and I decided to try my scan tactic. I figured it would be mere moments before I found something so wonderful and enriching I'd never need to leave the station. As such was not the case. I found it to be a droll and quiet on the good music front as it is here in podunk. There was less static though, I'll admit that.