Applause, Aggro, and Astonishment

It’s been awhile since I sang the praises of Radio Paradise, and there are a couple of reasons for that. Number one: their playlist was beginning to get on my nerves. I was hearing waaay too much Arctic Monkeys and sensitive, whiny, singer-songwriters (of both genders, but the males irritate me the most). Number two: I had about a two week run of extremely unreliable and erratic ‘net connectivity, which, in turn, made listening to internet radio impossible due to drop-outs and buffering issues. Well, my ‘net connection has been pretty reliable these last few days and RP’s playlist has evolved, or changed, or moved on…whatever. They’re sounding very good once again, and as such have reemerged as the soundtrack of my life. Where else will you hear a song-cycle like this?

5:24 am - Glenn Miller - A String of Pearls
5:19 am - David Byrne - Hanging Upside Down
5:16 am - Los Lobos - This Time
5:11 am - Bob Dylan - Most of the Time
5:08 am - Split Enz - One Step Ahead
5:05 am - The Jam - That's Entertainment
5:01 am - Tom Petty - Saving Grace
4:55 am - Ray Charles - What'd I Say (Parts I & II)
4:52 am - Thelonious Monk - Straight, No Chaser
4:45 am - Joni Mitchell - Don Juan's Reckless Daughter

This is more than eclectic…it’s fantastic!

About my ISP… The service is frustrating, what with the occasional outages and the frequent slow-downs. I pay for a 384Kb connection, but there are times when my connection speed drops down to 9.6Kb, or less, and stays that way for an hour or two or four. Then it comes back. Then it goes away. I’ve had a few conversations with the techies at my ISP and they’re at a loss to explain but are always quick to suggest the issue may be on my end, e.g., some nasty virus, a Trojan, a bad network card, etc. Sorry, Guys, but I’ve heard all that sort of stuff before, and have used most of those excuses myself, back in the day when I ran a Site Operations Center for a living. Intermittent computer problems, whether on the desktop or on the network, are the most difficult issues to resolve. I should cross my fingers or knock on wood as I write this, because I’ve had no connectivity issues for the past week or so.

Hopefully all those issues will go away by the end of the year. My ISP has a large on-going project to provide “fiber-to-the-prem” for the entire city of Portales, and the project is due to be completed by the end of the year. The last I heard the project was actually ahead of schedule, which is highly unusual for any IT project. I can’t wait. A direct fiber connection should give me multi-megabit connectivity to the outside world, which means streaming video, which in turn means instant access to those C-SPAN programs I wanted to see but missed in real-time, web pages that load in a snap, and so on. I’m wondering how much I’m gonna have to pay for this luxury, but in the end I’ll pay, whatever the cost. Well, within reason, of course.

Yesterday I mentioned being astonished by the fact the Japanese publicly announced they were considering whether or not their constitution permitted a pre-emptive strike on North Korea. There are a few reasons for my astonishment, first and foremost was the absolute frankness of the announcement. The language of international diplomacy, at least among the civilized world, is about as murky, vague, and non-specific as language can be. The classic example is the post-meeting description of high level diplomatic exchanges as “frank,” as in “we had frank discussions.” This, of course, is code for “he insulted my mother and several junior members of the negotiating team had to be restrained from leaping across the table and bludgeoning the opposition to death with water carafes.” This rule doesn’t apply to certified nut cases like Ahmadinejad or Jong-il. I did say “civilized.”

The second reason is the basic nature of the Japanese, their culture, and their language. The Japanese are anything but blunt, and are quite possibly the most nuanced culture on earth, rarely uttering a direct statement on or about anything, unless it’s ordering dinner. But in affairs of the heart or affairs of international diplomacy they are most circumspect. Thus: astonishment.

And lastly, to use the street vernacular, you "don’t let your mouth write checks your ass can’t cash.” The simple fact is the Japanese can’t cash the pre-emptive strike check right now. They have next to nothing in the way of offensive capability at the moment. But that doesn’t mean they couldn’t ramp up very quickly; they most certainly could. Names like Mitsubishi and Kawasaki Heavy Industries used to be famous for a helluva lot more than spiffy little cars, stereos, TVs, and motorcycles. The Japanese have the technology, they have the industrial capacity, and they have the financial wherewithal to become a regional military power almost overnight. The issue is “do they have the will?” I think the answer is “yes, provided there is a clear and present danger.” The danger is real, indeed.

We certainly are living in interesting times.