Random Takes

With enough coffee, anything is possible ~ a quote I read from...

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 12:35:53 +0800

With enough coffee, anything is possible ~ a quote I read from @kaffelab post … Kape de Mutit brewed using french press. #Hario #v60 is having it’s day off.

Caffeine,serotonin and fiber for a stressful day ahead. Kalinga...

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 10:55:05 +0800

Caffeine,serotonin and fiber for a stressful day ahead. Kalinga coffee brewed via #Hariov60 for a strong bold cup of joe that is smooth and clean.

Because when you stop and look around, this life is pretty...

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 00:30:05 +0800

Because when you stop and look around, this life is pretty amazing.

Live long and prosper. ———The Big Brother...

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 21:23:00 +0800

Live long and prosper. ———The Big Brother turned 8 today. #startrek #spock #birthday

From d galaxy far far away… #starwars

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 21:33:59 +0800

From d galaxy far far away… #starwars

My little bean catcher. #fmsphotoaday

Sun, 17 Feb 2013 17:57:16 +0800

My little bean catcher. #fmsphotoaday

Women over 30 are better because…they’ve given up on...

Sun, 17 Feb 2013 06:36:05 +0800

Women over 30 are better because…they’ve given up on self-improvement books,deciding they like themselves just d way they are.

Coffee drama #coffee

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 11:55:58 +0800

Coffee drama #coffee

Rosquillos Corazon #valentines

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 15:36:08 +0800

Rosquillos Corazon #valentines

Seeing a poet through d lens of a v60 : ) #coffee #v60...

Sun, 10 Feb 2013 01:51:20 +0800

Seeing a poet through d lens of a v60 : ) #coffee #v60 #instagood

Photo

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 10:05:29 +0800

….down #fmsphotoaday

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:19:36 +0800

….down #fmsphotoaday

Here comes the sun. #fmsphotoaday

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 19:36:09 +0800

Here comes the sun. #fmsphotoaday

An ordinary moment. Just point and shoot… #fmsphotoaday

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 11:25:24 +0800

An ordinary moment. Just point and shoot… #fmsphotoaday

we are forlorn as...

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 01:29:00 +0800

we are forlorn

as children

lost in the woods

~ Franz Kafka

anger is like flowing water; there’s nothing...

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 06:54:00 +0800

anger is like flowing water; there’s nothing wrong with it

as long as you let it flow.

- C. Joy Bell C.

…a mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to...

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 10:49:41 +0800

…a mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge. - Tyrion Lannister

The ABC of Architects

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 23:19:10 +0800

The ABC of Architects

Keep calm and be married. #instagood

Sun, 23 Dec 2012 12:19:51 +0800

Keep calm and be married. #instagood

bauldoff: My wish is that we can all avoid the hyperbole,...

Sun, 16 Dec 2012 14:57:56 +0800

bauldoff:

My wish is that we can all avoid the hyperbole, cynicism, hasty generalizations, and false dichotomies, and genuinely study what happened in Connecticut with reason, patience, and humility. The media organizations who are inundating you with unverified suppositions will not do this for you. The internet commenters who are either trolling or validating your white-hot emotions & opinions will not do this for you. Your loved ones and your worst enemies will not do this for you. This is your responsibility, and yours alone.

We are averaging one or two mass shootings per year in the United States. Our nation is very large, of course, by both geography and population. In light of these facts, it is reasonable to conclude that there are those in our population, however few, who are currently preparing and planning for (or at the very least, seriously humoring the notion of) acting out the next massacre in our country. The statistics tell us that we will most likely see the results of this dark contemplation within the next eight months.

Regardless of the motives behind the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, or the motives behind those before or yet to come, we can conclude this:

Yes, this is a social issue.

Yes, this is a mental health issue.

Yes, this is a national security issue.

This overlapping knot of causality and pertinent variables requires that those of us left alive must communicate about uncomfortable things. We may need to rethink many pacifying details in our society which we are clutching dearly to our chests. We may need to question some of our familiar comforts and privileges for the good of this continent-wide cooperative that we call the United States of America.

We can clearly see just how much a single unassuming person can impact our communities for the worse; it is disturbing, without question. We will never be able to cure everyone who is as psychologically vacuous as to commit such atrocities as these. Likewise, no single one of us can purge our own physiology of the raging, reactionary primate programmed within us, and it may seem hopeless to many to even consider the possibility of making society better when each and every one of our minds is locked up by our genes, constructed to be both enlightened and irrational; both lovehungered and bloodthirsty. By and large, we as a species are learning better ways to quiet our beasts within, but what of the others? What about that small percentage of people who, when offered the necessary catalysts, plunge into disastrous, hideous expression? This clear connection between the protection of the “normative population” (in which we all prefer to see ourselves) and the improved metal health and well being of “high-risk” individuals must be clearly admitted and understood. Rarely is the maxim “help others to help yourself” made so tangible.

Something is obviously amiss within the scope of human well being; something that has plagued us for at least as long as we have been recording the social successes and failures of our species. As humanity, we find ourselves in a position where we can step outside this animal skin and contemplate our own limits as a mortal creature, seeking intricate solutions to these limitations beyond our own biological functions. We found our legs to be inefficient for traveling long distances in short periods, so we rode horses, and then we built cars. We needed to calculate time-consuming and complicated problems, so we created the abacus, and then computers. We could not read each others’ minds, so we developed language. We could not pass our memories and experiences to the generations to come, so we have written to them. We are toolmakers. We have a long history of acknowledging our shortcomings, and devising the means to overcome these limited abilities. The advance of society should be no different.

This is not a polarizing conspiracy manifesto, nor a call for a police state, nor a desire for anything even remotely Orwellian. This is not an appeal to the sensationalistic low-hanging fruit that infests so much of our discourse. However, the status quo should be rationally audited, critically challenged, and most certainly revised; because what we, the toolmakers, cannot replace in our own minds, our own bodies, and our own physiology, we can augment and improve with a tempered evolution in our methods of pedagogy & andragogy; in healthcare and the availability of it; and in the communal rules and social services which can help those of us who are psychologically volatile, and further protect those of us who are not willing to murder children (or anyone else for that matter) in order to seek a fleeting neurochemical solace within our skulls.