My Life is Lost in Translation

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 23:50:41 GMT

SP LARGE! at the New London Architecture Centre

Karl Marx live here!

Cuba UK Consulate!

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 22:06:24 GMT

Nelson Mandela is crushing my head!

Regents Park

Prime Meridian!

Prime Meridian!

HAhAH Penis

Penis 2

BSG Music Live at the Roxy, 4/13/2008

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 19:44:07 GMT

Shitty camera phone photos, but it was pretty awesome. My favorite part of the night came after Jame Callis took the stage to play keyboards and sing. Someone from the audience screamed out "CALLIS ROCKS!" to which someone else screamed out "I CONCUR!"

It was a very nerdy crowd.

Click for bigger, crappier images. The gf has better photos on her camera which I may post later.

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 03:37:26 GMT

Fuck you, Oregon.

Right....

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 14:39:15 GMT

If you're gonna post dirty comments to strange sluts online, maybe your user photo shouldn't be of you and your three fucking daughters.

Oh, and it's "-ies" not "-ys".

Asshole.

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 05:09:26 GMT

PDX Quickie

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 05:37:35 GMT

2007-12-01

Click here to see in Google Maps.

Map created by EveryTrail:Share GPS tracks

2007-12-02

Click here to see in Google Maps.

Map created by EveryTrail:Share GPS tracks

Where the USA, Mexico and the Pacific Ocean meet...

Sun, 25 Nov 2007 22:49:11 GMT

... And you can just walk around the border fence:

The most Southwesterly one can make in the contiguous Estados Unidos. Interesting place, actually. Been meaning to visit for a while.

The Tijuana bullfighting arena with Dept of Homeland Security vehicle for decorative flavor:

It's hard to make out in this image (sorry: have to take pictures with my crappy PDA camera), but it appears to be a regular occurrence that people will meet here and share a picnic through the fence. All, of course, under the omnipresent watchful eye of Border Patrol and DHS officers.

Beautiful beach with an interesting vista across the border, but you can't swim: the TJ river dumps off through the estuary and the TJ sewers dump off into the TJ river. Sea salt and shit make an interesting smell.

Standing at the border is also pretty much the most alien feeling I've found in this area. Standing above the border crossing I was looking into the slums on the hills and watching some large industrial building burn while the fire trucks raced to it. I unfortunately left the camera in the truck for that one.

It's pretty much what I imagine being in Lebanon is like.

Here's a link to an interactive map of our day-trip, downloaded from my GPS and imported into Google Maps via EveryTrail.com: SPJM Border Run at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail:Share GPS tracks

Please report your neighbor to the FBI

Sun, 22 Jul 2007 19:22:57 GMT

In light of my previous post, I thought I'd follow up with a story about how a young journalism grad student was questioned by the FBI after someone reported him for reading a "suspicious" article in public. The article apparently criticizes the government's use of traditional public media.

To be clear: the FBI investigated a man for reading an article criticizing the government.

I think the scariest part of this story is not that the government is actively seeking to control people via scare tactics, but that ordinary citizens are not just rolling over and taking it but actively facilitating it.

And for those of you wishing to report me for my questionable take on things - go right the fuck ahead. I have a few things I've love to say.

Besides, they'd probably love the hammer-and-sickle wrist watch I'm wearing.

Though, I have to admit that the likely-hood of anyone in a NW-PDX coffee shop reporting me for questioning the government is very, very small. About as small a chance as me buying a Hummer H2 with a giant American flag painted on the front of it.

*EDIT* I just finished reading the "suspicious" story - in full public view to anyone interested - and noticed that both stories I've linked to are actually from 2003. I'm conflicted about this because on one side it's old news, but on the other side things have at best remained the same in the intervening four years and at worst become even darker. I'll let you, the reader, evaluate it's worthiness.

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 18:26:13 GMT

Have any of you seen the movie "Minority Report"? Forget for a second that it has that fucking Scientologist piece of shit (a redundant statement) in it, but watch how your retina is constantly scanned as you move about neighborhoods. This service is ostensibly used for tracking your purchasing habits so as to tailor and thus "improve" your "shopping experience" but it is also constantly monitored by the government in order to track your movements.

The only reason we haven't gotten to that point is because we don't have the technology. Instead, we have RFID chips in our passports ("US Electronic Passport"). These are the same type of chips used to combat theft in retail stores. We've all walked too close to the door with a jacket we like and seen how sensitive they are. Now imagine you're in a foreign country and you walk through an innocuous doorway and and alarm goes off. Except instead of the chip carrying a general "Do not pass this line" type of information, it now carries your name, address, social security number and, most importantly, your nationality - something you might not necessarily want to be broadcasting to others these days.

And we may soon be required to carry national IDs for interstate travel such as flights and train rides ("Real ID Act"). Again, another measure of tracking of your personal movements.

Use of paper currency is already actively discouraged by our society, the most recent example I can see is a Visa checkcard commercial where I man paying with cash is eyeballed and derided for "holding up the line" of Visa card-carrying customers. (Side note: this doesn't make sense to me as cash is a much faster transaction than card, if your cashier has the common sense to add, subtract, multiply and divide... nevermind, I just answered my own statement.) These electronic transactions are tracking both where you are and what you are buying and being recorded.

You may not even know this (or maybe you do if you've ever seen "CSI") but printers now place small, almost invisible identification marks on all pages they print. So even if you think you're anonymously printing something up, the page can be tracked to a printer of a particular serial number, which can be tracked back to you either by way of the point of sale - which you probably did with a credit card - or if you've registered the piece of equipment with the manufacturer.

What's my point?

It now seems that a man called the printer manufacturer to complain about the tracking - and was subsequently visited by the SECRET SERVICE ("Seeing Yellow Project").

Last week I stood in a 250-person deep line that was a visual representation of my erroding personal freedoms. I'm talking, of course, of the indignity now visited upon anyone undertaking plane travel. We pay on average $300+ a pop for the privilege of being treated at best like cattle and at worst like criminals. All in the name of the Holy "National Security." And we take it. Because we've been conditioned to.

A secure society is not a free society.

A SECURE SOCIETY IS NOT A FREE SOCIETY.

I don't give a shit what side of the aisle you come down on. This is not a Left v. Right conversation. Both sides have been working this for years. It's a societal problem. Total governmental monitoring has already occurred in the UK. They have closed-circuit TV cameras on damn near every block (there was one across the street from my front door when I lived there). In fact, they are now equipping them with microphones and loudspeakers so that they can actively - but more importantly, facelessly - communicate with you ("CCTV cams in UK, now with loudspeakers"). THEY ARE EVEN USING HOVERING DRONES ("BBC").

I'm not a crazy person. I'm not a political dissident. I just want to live my life in peace, in private, and in dignity.

Thu, 01 Feb 2007 22:55:15 GMT

Buy it on eBay now!

FUCK YOU, AMERICA!

Thu, 01 Feb 2007 10:09:16 GMT

If you haven't read this yet, please go read this.

As per usual, I'd have a lot more to say about this, except that it makes me SO FUCKING ANGRY when I realize how FUCKING STUPID people are.

Highlights for me include: "It had a very sinister appearance," Coakley told reporters. "It had a battery behind it, and wires;" (OMG NO: not WIRES AND A BATTERY! HOLY SHIT CALL THE CIA OMG OMG OMG THERE ARE WIRES AND A BATTERY) and "[this] is marketing run amok." Really? Because to me it looks like fear-mongering and a society conditioned to knee-jerk overkill run amok.

But you know, what I do I know? I'm a well-reasoned person who when I saw the above item said, "Huh, it looks like a Lite-Brite." I guess I'm in the minority anymore. Please continue to do whatever it is that you do. I'll be in my closet huffing glue and trying to convince myself that stupid people don't vote in larger numbers than I do.

Mon, 29 Jan 2007 22:15:07 GMT

This is awesome! Finally, someone does a study about things that really matter!

http://popvssoda.com:2998/

Fucking Awesome

Wed, 27 Dec 2006 07:29:08 GMT

Dude hacked his Wii-mote to control his Roomba. http://spazout.com/roomba/

I wish I knew kung foo.

That reminds me that, even though I am convinced they are really just Cylon v. Alpha 0.05, I really want one of those Roombas.

Tue, 17 Oct 2006 18:49:37 GMT

Apparently the whole "with us or against us" decision has infected every aspect of our world and you can no longer be reasonable and pick and choose bits and bobs: no, it's one or the other, all the way.

I submit the headline article from CNN.com: "A mother or a motherland?"

What a choice to make: a heritage or a home. African orphans need and want parents. Well-known White Americans -- Angelina Jolie and Madonna -- are looking to adopt. But the way those celebrities are adding to their families raises an interesting question: Is it OK for white families to raise African children? And if it is, at what cost to those orphans' identities?

Wow, now we've actually regressed back to the 1950s and are asking ourselves if whites and blacks can even live together.

I think the more appropriate question is whether Madonna should be allowed to adopt children: I'm fairly certain you can catch herpes just by standing in the same postal code as her.

Every time I turn on the news or look at the internet or simply glance out my window, I grow more and more fearful of the world we live in.

A important message from the Scrotal Safety Commission

Sun, 08 Oct 2006 17:39:40 GMT

Sat, 07 Oct 2006 06:40:38 GMT

Maybe you will always be
Just a little out of reach

New Myspace

Sun, 01 Oct 2006 18:34:08 GMT

New Myspace page:

http://www.myspace.com/spaclaypool

Add me if you wish.

PS: Fuck you, Edward James Olmos.

Happy Oktoberfest!

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 03:32:30 GMT

My last post not withstanding, today I celebrated my Germanic roots with beer. Lots and lots of beer. Oh, and oom-paa-paa music.

So to re-cap: beer and brass music. Oh, and small hats. And sausage!!! Mmm: German sausage.

EJO - End Game

Wed, 13 Sep 2006 12:15:54 GMT

They deleted my Myspace account - AFTER I HAD ALREADY DONE WHAT THEY ASKED!

You officially have my blessings to spam the shit out of MaryAnn Beverly's Myspace page or contact her directly at mbeve1025@aol.com. You can also visit her really shitty website at www.edwardjamesolmos.net.

Cry "havoc!" and let loose the dogs of war,
That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
With carrion men, groaning for burial.

- Billy D. Shakespeare

Mon, 11 Sep 2006 12:45:42 GMT

I am not going to read the newspapers.
I am not going to watch the TV.
I am not going to surf the news sites.
I am not going to listen to the radio.

Remembering is very different from re-living. I embrace the former and wholly reject the latter.

Now I have to go to work at a company that only exists because of what happened exactly five years ago this minute.

Wed, 06 Sep 2006 03:46:56 GMT

Though he'll never read this, I'd like to thank my father, Dave, for instilling within me the conviction to die fighting for my beliefs, even if he never meant to.

EJO - It never ends!

Mon, 04 Sep 2006 17:46:04 GMT

Her reply:

I am making those exact arguments to him in an email right now. As to your name, when someone first told me about your page, I looked at it. Friends on the page address you as Sean Paul. Since you used S.P. as your initials, I put two and two together.

EJO really is one of the good guys. He doesn't want you to be angry or disappointed. He only wanted you to stop using his name and face, and I agree that is what you've done. However, I don't feel the decision is mine to make; it's his. If sending you the signed photo so that you can use Adama will make peace for us all, that is what he'd prefer to do. As I said, I am again making the case to him that you are not trying to impersonate him. However, you are a good enough artist to make your image resemble him, and the name is close to his actual name. I asked him if he could view it as a parody and let it go at that. I don't know how he'll reply.
MaryAnn

EJO Again - I've lost count

Mon, 04 Sep 2006 16:52:15 GMT

Her (unsolicited) reply:

Sean Paul -

You did what I suggested, not what he asked. He would prefer to send the picture. I don't know why you are angry. It took him a few days to reply. He's a busy man. I don't know why you are disappointed. You were asked not to use Mr. Olmos' name and image. You insisted 1.) that you had a right to use it, and 2.) that I didn't have a right to speak on his behalf. If you have since discovered these two things are incorrect, so be it because they are true. That is not a "pound of flesh," if that's what you mean.

You and I negotiated a deal. Since you're so fast to argue about your "rights," how about your responsibilities to live up to what you said you would do? Mr. Olmos has agreed to your demands. Now it is your turn to live up to your half of the deal.

I want this matter to be resolved as soon as possible, as I'm sure you do. Let's get the last part of this deal completed, and then we don't have to communicate again.
MaryAnn T. Beverly

My reply:

No, your suggestion was that I use the name Adama and a picture of said character. What I have done instead has completely changed my name and image which, combined with the use of my own personal biographical data, can in no way link me to Mr. Olmos. This is, I can only assume, what you intended when you first wrote, "Please be advised that Mr. Olmos would like you to stop using his full, legal name as your pseudonym along with his image." In the interest of ceasing this debate, I have done exactly what you have ask of me. My username is not that of any known living or fake person, and the image I've used is entirely of my own design and creation. There is no longer an issue to debate and there is no need to for futher correspondence between any parties involved. I consider this issue to be entirely resolved. If the issue is resolved and Mr. Olmos is as busy as you claim he is, why should he want to take more time to autograph a photograph in order to resolve an issue that is already at rest? Moreover, I have never used my first name, yet you address me as "Sean Paul." Where have you received such information?

S. P. A. Claypool

EJO Epilogue (God Damn It! It wasn't the END!)

Mon, 04 Sep 2006 15:54:27 GMT

Her reply:

I showed EJO the latest incarnation of his name/image that you are using, and he's decided he would rather send you the signed photo and have you change the name/face on your page as you agreed to do. He asked for your mailing information so that he can send you the photo. If you will provide it to me, I'm sure he'll get the signed photo out as soon as possible. After you receive it, I hope that you will be a man of your word and change your page on MySpace.
Thank you,
MaryAnn T. Beverly

My response:

I no longer care. Neither you nor Mr. Olmos are worth my time anymore and his signature no longer means to me what it once would have. I've changed the name and image; I've done exactly what you've asked. Take your pound of flesh and move on realizing that the only thing you've accomplished here is the greatest disappointment of a sincere fan. Please don't contact me again.