Conversations with a rat

“So we live forever?” Asked the rat.

“Well, yes, but more than that.” I replied.  “We are all part of everything.  When you also then consider ‘all time’ we are part of that too.  So take all of time and everything in the Universe and hold it in your mind… Your life, my life, and all things are in that bundle.  All things that have ever been or ever will be; that is like a kind of omnipotence.  So by that definition we are part of God.  If God is all this… well then, why can’t he or she do anything, be anything in that bundle—any time in that bundle?”

“I don’t think my rat brain can handle all that.” He squeaked.

I laughed. “Maybe not.  How about a French fry?”

“Oh that sounds nice!”

I pulled out a chip and blew on it to cool it down.  The rat danced and scampered in anticipation.  When it was just cool enough to prevent burning the small pet I held it out to him.  His little rat nose darted for it and tugged.  I held it playfully and he put all four legs in to it.  I let go and he immediately, proudly marched the trophy in to his hut.  I watched him furiously nibble on his prize.  He paused and looked up.

“Will it hurt at the end?”

My smile dimmed.  “Yes, probably some.  Life is like that.”

“I don’t like things that hurt.”

I settled back in my chair.  “I don’t like them either.  But they teach us how important other things are.  Things like how wonderful today is with you here.”

“Am I wonderful?” He asked with one paw still holding the fry.

“Yes!” I laughed.  “You are wonderful.”

“You do realize that I’m a rat? I think you might be crazy.”

I shrugged.  “Probably.  But I don’t think anyone will mind.  You have interesting things to say.”

“Mmmhmmm… And you have the most delightful sleeves to nap in.”

“Well, then.  I guess we get along.”

Am I a terrorist?

In response to the suggestion that because I support Occupy Wall Street movements and some of those members are communists, anarchists, antisemites, and various other violence inspired nutballs... am I one of those too by association?  Am I advocating violence which has or would kill Americans?

I'm saying that degree of awful bloodshed is going to happen whether we choose to accept it or not. I'm not advocating. I do not think it is necessary. But it is *inevitable* if the small fraction of wealth holders do not recognize their obligation to police themselves in such a way as to allow the vast majority to have basic human rights which really boil down to reasonable freedom from pain, safety of your person and your family, food, shelter, and education.

I, personally, do not advocate anarchy, bloodshed, antisemitism, or any of the rest of that. I do recognize that some portion of OWS movement is made up of some of these nutballs, but that still does not change the fact that international financial agencies with no elected authority control my life, your life, and the lives of billions of people so that a handful can play dice and enjoy ridiculous indulgence. Not just gross indulgence, but ridiculous indulgence. And not "Americans can no longer afford 3 cars" hardship, but 700,000 people in a single tech factory in China are kept in a compound to slavishly produce iPads 16 hours a day kind of hardship. Wall Street has reach far outside of America--by design!

So spare me your tears for dead Americans. We've killed millions with our exploitation and ravenous demand more and more Wal-Mart crap. We've driven whole nations in to poverty. We sparked wars for profit and oil. We've bombed the fuck out of people who live in stone huts. We've backed banana republics, put dictators in to power, and face stomped on the human rights of dozens of nations. We are the god damned terrorists. And it all comes back to the unbridled greed most aptly represented by Wall Street. I wish to god it wasn't true. 

That degree of greed and exploitation will come to end... willingly or unwillingly... without bloodshed if we are smart and with unholy bloodshed if we are blind. Not because I wish it or think it is the only way. But because I know parents will not watch their children starve and die of treatable illness while blocks away other children are fed to obesity and the stores are stacked full of medicine. That parent isn't going to care if what they are doing is right or wrong. When there are thousands of grieving hate-filled parents and we've given them no other option because we find every excuse in the book to ignore them, then blind rage takes over. It is a historical lesson taught for thousands of years. This situation is dire. If *only* a few Americans die we will be lucky.

That is why I support OWS... to avoid the violence that will come.  If the message gets through and the greed is tempered with wisdom and compassion--just a little--then we have a chance to adjust and avoid any violence at all.  Make no mistake OWS *should* be 100% non-violent.  We don't require it and it actually won't solve the problems, only set us up for another round of bloodshed later.  But if we learn this time to take rational stock and step back from the edge, then there is hope that we are learning.  Hope that we can be compassionate even in the face of lesser economics.  That is what I hope for.

The Kaitoke Rivendell trail video blog

Episode 1:


Episode2:

iPad Blog Test

Just some random stuff for tesing out iPad blogging.

30 days hath December

My folks are trying to book tickets for their visit in December through January.  They'll be here 30 days and with them they are bringing Sabrina.  Travel is inconstant between New Zealand and the US.  Invariably things go awry and because of these I haven't seen her in more than 2 years.

30 days seems like such a short time now.  I did the math and if each of those days were mapped to a year then each day would be equal to 12 days.  My heart flutters at the sensation of time rushing by so fast.  Each day like 12!  A month every 2 and half days.  Time is so precious.  That is just my thought for the day.

Got Milk?

Ah those crazy little ads from the American Dairy Association.  I'm not sure what they are running today, but I do recall the milk industry doing a little marketing to keep us all consumers.  America is the number 2 milk producer in the world with you know 300 million people and all.  But did you know that New Zealand is the 9th largest dairy producer? Ninth... 3.5 million people.  That's a lotta milk per person.

Dairy is king here like corn is king in Nebraska.  New Zealand is still a very agricultural nation where milk export prices are tracked as closely as petrol.  Kiwis give their dairy a fair go too.  The standard cheese increment is the 1 kg block.  That's right, a normal Kiwi is picking up 2.2 pounds of cheese at a time and usually in a couple of flavours.  That's a lotta cheese.  We have a whole isle devoted to milk.  Each brand has different categories which I can only break down by cap colour.  They have names, but different brands use different names.  However, they all use the same cap colours.  You got your standard blue cap for whole milk.  Then you have green for light or what we would call 2%.  Then yellow for "enriched" milk in some way--like vitamin D or calcium added.  Then light blue which I think really skim milk.  We also have cream, but curiously no half and half.  Now what I have recently just discovered may explain this hole in the milk market.  It is "silver" cap milk and it is somewhat difficult to find.  It goes back to some "old school" days when milk was still delivered to your house.  Not so long ago in New Zealand.  I can't really define silver cap, but it is damn close to half and half.  It sorta looks like milk that may have only been homogenized and not separated.  But I couldn't really tell ya.  It has a thick coating of cream on the inside you have to shake up.  I worry it will turn to butter.

Dairy is entirely different here.  And great milk makes some pretty fine ice cream.  Just saying.

Harry Potter

After watching the final Harry Potter, I felt like I should go back and watch the first again.  It has been years since I have seen it.  I remember seeing it with my kids when they were probably far too young to remember it.  We've had the DVD forever and the kids have watched it many times in the first couple of years we had it.  But during all that time, I never really watched it with them.  It was just on in the background while I puttered around cleaning or something.  I'll guess that we picked up the DVD when the kids were 3, 4, and 5.

I was surprised that watching the original would make me think so much of my own kids and how they've grown.  It felt very much like Harry, Hermione, and Ron were old childhood playmates of our own kids and we had a 2 hour film of them in our collection.  I thought a bit about parents of the actors and how these films will be like the best family vacation films ever.  I can imagine how much I would love a two hour film of my own children as they grew up... one a year for 8 years.  Even if they were playing characters totally unlike themselves.  There is just something about seeing the look in my children's eyes when they are happy and playing.  Oh they were all so young.

They grow up too fast.  Time slips by too fast.  There will always be new stories to tell.  But I do feel a real sense of mourning for the stories that end.  All too soon my own children who are now 11, 12, and 13 will race through their final years of school.  Hopefully there will be less danger in the world than poor Harry and friends had to face!  But the story my children write will be more precious to me.  I am afraid to start it.  I don't want it to end.

Corp America(tm)

This is a bit of satire that I wrote last night, but like all good satire it has a degree of truth…  But for the record I have no means to establish Corp America and it is not a real entity.

I am tired of dancing around the issue.  The current system of smoke and mirrors controlling our politics is inefficient and a bit childish.  So I’m going to call a spade a spade and design a better system.  I’m going to establish Corp America™*.

Corp America is going to have one purpose; to absolutely control American politics and policy.  I’m not going to flinch from that fact at all.  Corp America is out to buy votes, make laws, and secure our interests.  Buying stock in Corp America will allow every share holder to exercise more voting power than they have ever had at the ballot box.  Working for Corp America will put you on the front line of political influence and impact to our society.  Our agenda will be clear, published, and voted in by the share holders.

Our capital will be used in strategic investments to make profits and foster our agenda.  Our intent will be to make the USA better for Americans, a more respectful member of the global community, and an earnest proponent of profits for the middle-class.  We will have a legal department, HR, accountants, consultants, assistants, executives, project managers, and a healthy benefit package.  We will strive to be the America we want the US to become.  Our physical projects will focus on improving America’s infrastructure (transport, utilities, and resources).  Our soft products will focus on improving education and access to education.  As an employee, it will be your job to get smarter.  Corp America projects would emphasize green energy sources, technologies to reduce emissions, secondary education facilities, and projects to develop public transportation.  Corp America will participate in the stock market, investments, and a company credit union.

Our headquarters will be located as close to Congress, the Whitehouse, and Supreme Court as is financially possible.  Bonus pay will be given based on traceable influence to policy makers.  We will never be covert.  All of our salaries will be public knowledge.  We will stand out.  We will be visible, vocal, and determined.  All of our profits will be spent on gaining control of the US government—including placing our employees in to the government.  Our employees in government will continue to earn Corp America paychecks as long as they voluntarily continue to participate in Corp America policies set by the shareholders.

Corp America will not discriminate on the basis of sex, religion, orientation, race, shirt size, pet preference, or favorite color.   We will not seek to influence these areas of society other than to insure there is no discrimination in America for anyone.

We are neither Republican nor Democrat.  We seek to be neither Conservative nor Liberal.  We speak for all Americans with focus on restoring the middle-class and working to move more from poverty up and more from ultra rich down.  Equality of economics is not the goal, just a smoothing of the curve.  There will always be rich and there will always be poor.  We will endeavour to do all we can to limit the extremes.

All employees will be required to participate in all elections.  Individuals must vote to their conscience, but we would hope that conscience aligns with Corp America™ shareholder policy.  Voting is a minimal condition to receiving any bonus pay.  To be clear you can earn your bonus for any vote on any issue—you simply must vote.  Each member of your household must vote if they are legally allowed to do so.  Our corporate training will focus on getting the best information and education around our agenda issues to our employees.  We will maintain a website detailing how our corporation wishes to vote on all issues on the ballot in every district where we operate.  Again, you always vote the way you wish, but we will document what we feel is the best vote and back it up with unbiased reasoning and analysis freely available to Corp America employees and publicly posted on our web presence.

The workers of Corp America will automatically be unionized as a free benefit for the first year of employment.  After the first year, the employee will be responsible for dues to be set by the Corp America Union.  Corp America will establish a pay ratio between the highest paid and lowest paid employee regardless of where that employee sits in the organization.  

Should you gain elected office as a Corp America employee, your immediate duties will cease and you will assume your new role as a public official.  You will uphold all legal and ethical obligations to your post.  Your job at Corp America will become being an effective leader in your role.  You will gain access to our political advisors and educational resources.  Corp America will determine what actions to take should you violate the law or ethical policies—this may include termination and notification of proper legal authorities.  Corp America will not attempt to hide any of your actions and will actively seek to bring all such actions to public view.

Buy American.  Shed the illusion of democracy and embrace the real democracy of our times.  Invest in Corp America.  Recruiting today!


*A real trademark will be selected later; suggestions welcome.

Mid 2011 in NZ

Folks always arrange the stones in the tidal flats to say different things. So far all of them have been pretty good messages.

Including short holiday with the boys to Abel Tasman / Nelson

Counting Bytes

Let me start by saying I never thought per byte billing was a good idea.  But it is what the industry is largely stuck with.  Why? Because we're too dumb to understand other methods.  Nevermind that we're too dumb to really understand bytes, but it is a concept we think we understand.  We don't.  Here's a a brief attempt to explain.

It seems simple to say you get charged a fixed rate for a chunk of downloads.  Say 10 cents for 1 gig of data.  Use 10 gig and pay $1.  Totally cake, right?  Well... did you mean gigaBITS or gigaBYTES?  A byte is 8 bits... so if you bought 10 gigabits you got 8 times less than 10 gigabytes.  Now... does gig mean 1,000,000,000 to you? or 1,024,000,000 to you?  You see a kilobyte is actually 1024 bytes... not a 1000.  Back in the day this difference was tiny and easily ignored.  Today we see the error maginified as kB moved to MB and then to GB and someday to Terrabytes. 

So immediately we find potential confusion in byte counting without even getting in to the technology.  Let's look under the hood...  Let's focus on download bytes as that is what most of us care about and pay for.  We go to YouTube and download 1 gigabyte of video for 10 cents.  So our usage should be 1 Gigabyte, right? Wrong... While it will be pretty close to 1 gig, we run in to problems with overhead.  You see the video you watched was "user data" or "payload".  It was packaged up by YouTube's servers and then sent to other network devices that added their own information in order to send it.  There are some control messages also be sent back and forth to verify all the data was received.  This extra chunk of data is considered "overhead" to you and I, but we couldn't get the funny kitten videos if we didn't have overhead.  So who pays for overhead? Me or the Provider?  Well usually consumers do.  So if I was just counting video size, I'll be a little low of the actual bytes sent.  How low? Well that's a really hard question since it depends on dozens of factors.  How many clips did I download? One big download will have less overhead than many small downloads.  How busy was the line between me and YouTube? If the line was busy, there is a chance a chunk of data got mangled or dropped and had to be re-sent (more overhead).  These factors go on and on making exactly how much overhead experienced impossible to predict.  So again, without looking very hard we've found confusing areas in byte counting.

Now consider malice.  As in, malicious software.  You may be running the cleanest PC on earth completely free of viruses and spyware, but thousands of other users are not.  Their PC's are frequently scanning zombies sending out megs of probes to random address ranges looking for other unprotected hosts.  This background noise on the Internet is constant and unstoppable.  The best we can do is filter out the worst and tell consumers to use various protection techniques.  But a Provider can not fully stop all the background noise.  These unsolicited bytes are sent to you and the Provider counts them against your bill.  The full amount of these will also vary widely on conditions.

Lastly, we have plain ol' boneheaded ignorance.  We don't know how much we're downloading.  We don't realize that CNN's homepage is a few hundred megabytes.  We don't know how big the pop-up ads are.  We don't know how big that video stream really was.  We don't know how big Window's Update really was.  There are million things communicating on consumer PCs these days (and Playstations and networked game consoles).  We are woefully unaware of these transactions.

Byte counting is terrible.  It is always going to be open to very wide interpretation.  Your Provider is always going to seem a bit high and what you're really downloading is (for now) always going to be largely a mystery unless you're a network monitoring professional with a packet analyzer connected on your outgoing link... which is a challenge even for hardcore geeks to get good analysis on DSL or Cable modem lines.

So far this has all been pretty simple concepts.  From here it gets much more complex, but no less confusing and significant.  There are a million valid ways your Provider could be counting bytes.  It will barely make sense to them let alone the customer.  The only thing they have going for them is that whatever system they use will likely be consistent across all consumers.  That is if it 10% wrong, it will be 10% wrong all the time.  As consumers we have to live with it.  Don't ask your Provider to tell you how they do it.  It is unlikely you'll get a coherent answer.  Even if you were an expert in billing systems it would likely take you weeks of research to plot exactly how the byte counting is done from one Provider to the next.

Counting bytes is what we're stuck with for the short term.  But don't get too hung up about accuracy.  The question is too subjective.  I think the only thing we can tell our service providers is "we want it to cost less".  We don't care how.  Just make it cost less... OR be more valuable to us.  But please... lose the byte counting.  It has become meaningless.

Learning about Me

I made a bit of a profound discovery today while working with Chandler on homeschooling.  We just finished reading "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and I want him to do some sort of project to express what he thought was important out of the book.  I bet most of us ended up doing a book report on it.  That was pretty lame and I don't really care about a written report as much as I care about Chandler making a connection with the book.  And then it hit me...

All of our learning, all of our lives has really been a self discovery.  All this time I thought I was learning about the topic (e.g. how to do maths, how to break down a problem, etc.) and I was partly, but for the larger part I was actually learning about me.  I learned problem solving quickly and so I discovered I have good analysis skills.  I read and write well and so discovered that I can express myself that way best.  When I fell in love with the works of Mark Twain and J.R.R Tolkien, I discovered even more about me through their characters.  Each iota of learning clings to a part of me and helps me see it more clearly.  The comparison goes on and on. 

Things I struggle with tell me just as much as things I pick up quickly.  As strange as it sounds, it is all about me.  And it is all about you too.  I once read, "The process of learning is only taking that which we already know and making us conscious of it."  I can now add to this sublime phrase and say that all that we learn is a discovery of ourselves.

It seems all our life is a discovery of what we are and what place we hold. 

World Changes

In the early 1900's the political and economic face of the Western world was radically changing.  Populations were exploding and industrialization was providing technology never before possible, but the old political scheme of monarchy was still wide-spread.  The old political scheme failed and WWI was the fire to the gasoline that ignited changes to the core of what we know as society today.

Now, 100 years later, we see again radically changing world events.  Populations are even larger, industry is massive, technology and communications have created a "Globalized" world.  Again we find ourselves in the perilous position where our style of governing is ill-suited to our environment.  Resources are strained.  Economics are being widely exploited by organizations that transcend national governments.  Critical events on the other side of the globe have massive impact on those on the other side.

We're standing in a lake of gasoline.  We better take a look at who's holding matches.

The unwritten Social Contract can not be ignored.  As the unrest around the world has graphically demonstrated, governments that fail to provide for the people fail spectacularly.  Today one could argue that often business conglomerates now function more as a government than traditional borders have in the past.  But with this change comes the new responsibility of those conglomerates to assume the burden of the Social Contract.  Wealth remains the primary power in human governing.  Those with the wealth must take a great interest in millions of people that support their vast fortunes.  Even if populations do not overtly revolt, a broken Social Contract results in broken workers without any more wealth to give. 

These are interesting times.

In the pre-WWI era, war was a viable means of political control.  Battles were limited to soldiers and the posturing was mostly a matter of pride among nobles.  "My army is better than yours."  But the huge population growth of the industrial age allowed for vast (in the time) military forces.  The weaponry they could use was a quantum leap in effectiveness compared to single-shot rifles and swords.  The monarchy system gravitated to armed conflicts, but when this finally occurred, the result was a war no one in the day could have imagined.  WWI changed forever how wars would be fought and virtually erased monarchy from the political scheme.

Today the weapons of mass destruction we face are not the deadly sort.  Our issue in 2011 isn't a nuclear war; we're all pretty aware of how that would turn out.  Our threat today is global finance.  How we earn a living today depends on workers in China who depend on cheap resources in the 3rd world and oil producing nations.  Those resources and workers are not (directly) controlled by the governments of those nations, but rather by the "private" industries that employ them.  These industries are bound to the financial sector and ultimately to the investment firms which now control our world economy.

Using the WWI analogy today applied to the financial crisis you could say WWIII has started.  It isn't being fought with nuclear weapons, it is being fought in Stock Exchange markets around the world.  The results could well alter the face of the political world as greatly as WWI.

What brings me to these thoughts today?  Well WWI started with a fairly insignificant event--the assassination of Archiduke Ferdinand of Austria.  No one could have predicted the next 4 years.  This week we have seen a potentially mortal blow to the Japanese economy.  This earthquake is already sending financial shockwaves in to the depressed global markets. 

Maybe this event is not the assassination that starts the domino effect of a financial WWIII.  But is such an event only waiting to occur?  Soon our stretched economies will reach a point where there is nothing left to give and support will end.  National governments will attempt to reign in private resources to remain functional... But will the private sector allow them?  What is to prevent a global corporation from simply stating, "Sorry, we have the resources and we'll continue to profit as we please."

What form will the conflict take?  I can't say.  It isn't too hard to imagine a worker's revolt.  That would follow the pattern of French Revolution.  But I think such a revolt would suffer from having no clear enemy to revolt against.  There is no monarchy to depose.  The rules of the Social Contract apply to the workers as much as it does to the ruling class.  Worker needs have to be met.  But we can't exist without the wealthy to fund our lives.  So workers could not just pull down the structure of the financial world.  Well... they could, but what would replace it? Communism or Socialism?  These are possible and that would change the political scheme of the Western world.  Communism doesn't have a great history of being able to fulfill the Social Contract.  So if it did occur, it would have to be a Communism we have never seen on the global scale.  It would be comical if Marx turned out to be right.

I don't think Communism will win out.  I don't think we'll see an armed workers revolt and therefore we won't see a radical dismantling of "Wall Street".  No... what will survive will have assume that Wall Street survives, but now Wall Street needs to expand its powers to the lives of the workers.  One can not exist without the other and even the most miserly of Scrooges will see the cost of doing business in the equation.  Strange to think that perhaps William Gibson (author of Neuromancer) may have guessed more accurately than Marx.

Regardless of the options.  The nut of the issue remains.  Changes are necessary.  We are not islands of sovereign nations.  We are sovereign nations 100% dependent on the barons of our financial system who now operate without borders.  They control our resources, our printed money, and our governments.  They may not have precision control yet, but it is only a matter of time.  They may not even be aware yet of their new potential role.  They probably imagine they are still just doing what wealthy people do--make money.  Sure they fundamentally grasp they have power and wealth, but it could be that the time is coming where they must acknowledge they have now acquired the third component to the ruling class in the Social Contract... power, wealth, and responsibility.

I welcome our new alien overlords. 

Student Visa: Denied

Well, I've run out of any school options in New Zealand for Chandler.  What I find particularly maddening about it all is everyone acknowledges that if the paperwork was filed correctly, and all the fees paid, then he would be allowed access to any public school in New Zealand.  The only catch is that filing all those forms will cost $3000 and 6 months of processing.  By which time, my visitation is over and he'll be on his way home.

Recall that I started filing, calling, and writing to Immigration in about June 2010 and it has taken until March 2011 to finally get clear instructions about what is required for Chandler to attend a public school.  Had I filed for a full Residency application for Chandler, I still would have run afoul of the time it takes to process.  We ran in to this problem with our own application where the time it takes immigration to respond exceeds the limit they place on the data.. For example a medical check is only good for 3 months and it takes 6 months for them to process it... forcing you to get a second set of health checks and resubmitting your application.  Medical checks are not covered by any sort of insurance as they are totally voluntary.

Here's another annoying factoid... If I were an *illegal* immigrant, the Ministry of Education would allow my children to enroll without a Student Visa.  But because I have paid all my immigration fees and taxes (a Resident), I can't enroll Chandler without a Student Visa.  If I was here on a 30-month work visa... Chandler would be allowed a Student Visa... But again, because I'm actually a Resident, I can't do this.  I was told a few times this was to prevent the NZ tax payers from being burdened with paying for this education.  Well I'm one of those tax payers and I have been for 3 years.  Meanwhile illegal immigrants (not paying taxes) and Work Visa holders (protentially not paying taxes either) get the full benefit of public schools.  Additional insanity results when you consider my youngest son (who was part of my original Residency application) is going to public school and has been since our arrival in 2008.

One other gripe.  Legislation in NZ prevents the schools from reducing the International Student fees in any way.  There are no exception cases, no flexibility for the system to handle students in any sort of special circumstance or even temporarily.  This is really the key flaw of the system.  I understand the need to have solid requirements for Residency and Visas... but to use a system without any flexibility just serves to dramatically limit anyone willing to put up with it.

So NZ Immigration has successfully protected NZ tax payers from allowing a student from culturally participating New Zealand schools.  He won't take that experience back with him to the US.  He won't get to participate in NZ school sports.  He won't get the chance to meet other NZ students to make friends or plan future Overseas Experiences... I'm sure that protection will have a pay back.

In the meantime, we'll come up with some good home-study for Chandler.  But I can't do anything to make up for the friends he won't make.  I'll try to get him in to some other activies and we'll make do.  I'm just disappointed that we've allowed forms and policies to make our lives poorer.

Immigration: Student Visa

So last year we all talked for a long time and looked at options.  We decided my oldest son (13) living in the US could come live with us for a few months, attend school, and generally spend some time with us. 

About October 2010, I filed an application to get a Student Visa.  It was immediately rejected because Chandler was in the US, Immigration in NZ said the NZ Embassy in Washington DC had to process the application.  Okay... ship paperwork, FedEx to DC.  Again, almost immediately rejected.  They said we had to have proof of paying tuition at the school.  This was odd, because the school doesn't charge a tuition.  So we tried to explain that.  Immigration then said they needed an "offer of place" from the school.  By the time we got here, schools were out of session and no one could provide a letter of place.  A week before schools resume, we went physically to the intermediate school.  Again the office people refused to "do anything without a visa" but eventually we got them to look at the documentation we had from Immigration and they agreed.

It was then they noticed Chandler was too old to attend Intermediate... So we had to go to another school.  They knew more about foreign students and supplied a letter of place immediately.  By this time, after a year of planning, Chandler was already here.  We immediately re-file the application (3rd time) from Wellington.  Two and half weeks later (last weekend), Immigration refused to accept the letter of place as they now say Chandler must pay International Student tuition (over $13,000) to attend 6 months of pubic school.

I am a Resident of New Zealand.  100% of the time I have been here I have paid taxes, school fees, and extra support.  I shudder to think how much NZ has spent trying to decide if my 13 year old kid can attend public school for 6 months.  I'm not even sure what condition they are trying to control by placing such a restriction on a student visa.

While Chandler is here, he won't be covered by General Practioners (Doctors), just emergency care.  I (would) still have to pay school fees, uniform fees, school supply fees, event fees, etc.  But instead the NZ Immigration office is spending thousands of adminstrative tax dollars on preventing this.  I bet we could do better here. 

An Infinite Universe

A bit of a random thought...

My theory is that because reality exists at all it must always have existed in some form.  I can demonstrate this by asking you to conceptualize a time where there was nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  And now what? The entire Universe springs from nothing?  I find it more likely that the substance of the Universe is eternal and timeless.  That while it may have been unrecognizable as the universe we know, it never failed to exist and then appeared.  It had to have always been here.  Maybe it was an atom-sized mega blackhole that exploded in to the Big Bang or maybe it was a God (or both (or anything in between)).  But either way the substance of the Universe was always there in a blackhole or a God.

If the Universe is eternal, then it has no begining and no end.  It may contain finite matter, but that matter/energy has never failed to exist.  It always exists.  While we tend to think of "forever" as a really really long time ahead of us, we forget that it also means a really really long time behind us (infinitely long).  My own personal theory is that concept of linear time is meaningless.  It only means something to us because our perception of time is limited.  But in a Universe that always is, has been, and will be... any finite line is irrelevant.  But suppose we keep our linear view for a moment.  With an infinity of time to develop, could our consciousness learn enough about the Universe to create a world of living things like the Earth? We would certainly be altered along the way to completing such a feat, but given we literally have forever to sort it out, I can say the answer is actually guaranteed.  Given a long enough time frame, every possibility will occur eventually.

So maybe there is a God after all... I mean if there is any universal being, it could have been shaping up for an infinity before our perception of life.  Perhaps even such a God is us far in our future and now become the instrument of our own creation.  Imagine the fun things you could do in a timeless universe with beings that only perceive lines.  It is all relative to the observer.  If there is a creator that swirlled matter in just the right way to create us on this planet, is that creator any less significant than one that is "more directly responsible" for the entire  Universe? If the planet had a consciousness of its own, would that being be unimportant to us?  Or if we were to discover that we are part of the sum of all intelligence in all the Universe and that some where in all Infinity we combine in a timeless universe to suddenly realize what clay reality really is... Would that matter?  We have dozens of theories about what happens when all matter/energy combine, but what about souls?  If you can't think about souls, then think about the infinity of knowledge gained in an infinity of time.  Then decide if the ability to carefully select and travel through time and reality is possible to such a being.  Now see what playground the Universe really is. 

Adam and Nicola (Version 2)

     One of the avatars known as “Adam” hovered outside the boundaries of the apartment of one Nicola Blum.  Inside Mrs. Blum’s personal Fragmented AI, creatively named “Nicola Cat” fretted and paced.  The apartments security systems were turned up to maximum privacy, but Adam brushed those aside as easily as one might part a set of real hedges.  The agitated FAI was not capable of detecting such a security breach.  Adam could see well over a dozen virtual cats frolicking in the small apartment.  They lounged on the sofa, counters, end tables, and artfully designed virtual window ledges.  Mrs. Blum even managed a set of real windows looking outside to the courtyard.  A bit of probing revealed Mrs. Blum was the widow of one Gregory Blum, an executive that had died a long time ago.  Mrs. Blum had her own career in marketing, but hadn’t done any paid work in about 10 years.  Her storefronts in the Deep were showing their age and had not seen real visitors in years.  His digital vision next analysed Nicola Cat.

     She was a very old FAI, created well over 30 years ago and upgraded through a number of revisions.  “Interesting…” he thought.  Her code was overly complex from the upgrade path.  It contained many extraneous code-spurs that appeared to offer no function, but were still being executed.  Nicola Cat wandered through the apartment playing with virtual cats which all responded to her affectionately.  The FAI peeked in to the master bedroom timidly and called out through the apartment audible system, “Freddy, here kitty kitty.”  Adam shifted focus in to the room.  A real cat stirred from the bed next to the very slight form of an unmoving Mrs. Blum.  Adam tilted his head while his own massive code blocks processed the situation.  “Ah, that’s it… poor dear.  What now Nicola Cat? Is that why you called?”

Just a few minutes before he arrived, Adam had noticed a large CPU spike from this area.  It had been authorized by Nicola Cat as a FAI in the name of “cat research”, but the question had been unsolvable.  The request had consumed hundreds of thousands of credits over the course of a few minutes.  It had been a combination of loops about taking care of “Freddy” without losing his home.  The condo complex for retirees officially banned real pets.  Nicola Cat had about one millionth the code content of Adam.  While she could not work out a way to solve her problem, it was obvious that the FAI knew there was a problem and that was pretty exceptional for a fragment.  Adam quickly found a series of “donations” from Mrs. Blum to the complex manager.  He looked back over the apartment video/audio logs over the last couple of days, then he pulled all the records for Nicola Cat going back 30 years, and then he pulled on the secondary records of things associated with Nicola cat.  He reviewed the compressed files a few seconds and consumed millions in CPU time—this wouldn’t even be a rounding error to his budget.  The story began to unfold…

     Mrs. Blum was most definitely a “cat lady” with over 20 virtual cats in her apartment and one forbidden real cat that Nicola dutifully fed by automatic feeding systems in the apartment.  The food bowl, water dish and litter box were all Deep connected and so the FAI could order more food from the boutique cat shop, have it delivered and loaded in to the feeder; control the flow of fresh water; and run the auto-clean features of the litter box.  The apartment catered to the elderly and attendants came periodically to remove compacted and unrecyclable trash once a month.  Recyclable and bio-trash could be fed in to the nano processor for re-assembly in to more cat food or litter or any number of simple things Mrs. Blum required.  But she hadn’t required anything lately.  She had not moved from her bed.

     Nicola’s only concern was to care for the cats both real and virtual.  She gave them activities to perform and groomed them.  Mrs. Blum would do these herself sometimes, but also seemed to enjoy watching Nicola Cat perform all the routines.  Of course, Nicola could not comfort or pet Freddy, the real cat. This caused Nicola a lot of stress.  Freddy definitely had matted fur and needed a good brushing.  But Mrs. Blum had not responded to her many alerts and reminders.  Nicola even managed to trigger her morning audible alarm by some clever manipulation of her access to the apartment systems.  However, the small, frail woman had not stirred.

     Nicola had been created initially to be a playmate for Persia, Mrs. Blum’s favourite cat.  The FAI had cared for Persia all the years of her long and extended life and then finally Nicola Cat had been there when Persia died.  She had been sick for a few days.  Nicola had notified Mrs. Blum and the vet.  She had gone with Mrs. Blum for the visit.  The vet shook his head and said there wasn’t anything to do.  Persia had developed genetic degradation that no amount of clones or replacement could overcome.  Mrs. Blum had cried during the whole cab ride home with Persia in her lap.  Nicola had cried too.  That night Mrs. Blum held the long-haired cat in her lap while Nicola pulled all the media paks from her complete archive and played them for Mrs. Blum.  Persia began to struggle breathing at about 2:00 AM.  The vet had loaded her collar with a euthanizing dose, but Mrs. Blum couldn’t do it and asked Nicola to activate the collar.  Nicola reached through the Deep to touch the virtual controls of the struggling cat’s collar and within a minute Persia calmed and closed her eyes for the last time.  Soon after, Mrs. Blum created virtual Persia with all the charm and character of the old feline.  Nicola Cat and Persia were inseparable.

     The FAI, dedicated entirely to Nicola Blum’s love of cats had managed to deduce that Mrs. Blum’s failures to respond were a threat to Freddy who was now trapped in the apartment.  She had carefully calculated that she could provide for food and water endlessly as long as she continued to have access to Mrs. Blum’s bank accounts which she had for anything tagged a cat expense.  She could appear on any of the liquid crystal walls in the apartment and talk to Freddy.  She could project virtual mice on to the walls and play with the active cat.  But, after stretching the limits of all her programming, she could not find a way to pet or groom Freddy short of scheduling an in house visit from a groomer.  But unless Mrs. Blum could respond, Freddy would likely be collected by the humane society.  Nicola knew what that meant and she couldn’t bear to be responsible for the death of another cat.

     Nicola Cat had access to a vast store of Mrs. Blum’s archived messages over 30 years.  She kept a detailed reference of everything to do with cats and, in particular, everything to do with Mrs. Blum’s cats.  Over the years she had maintained communication with hundreds of other cat lovers, cat toy vendors, cat health forums, cat stories, funny cat pictures and videos, and nearly anything furry and cute with pointed ears and whiskers; including… cat rescues.

    She accessed the apartment connections, opened Mrs. Blum’s mail messaging accounts and made a call to “Pounce Rescue a cattery, boarding house and adoption center for felines.”  She navigated through several screening questions and got in the message queue for a real operator.

     The video channel opened, “Hello, thanks for calling Pounce Rescue. This is, Aline. How can I help you?” She was an older woman with perfect features and stunning blue eyes of perfect real woman.

     “This is a message from Nicola Blum’s FAI, Nicola Cat. My cat is dead and I need a home for him.”

     The receptionist scrunched up her nose in confusion and annoyance at the FAI. “I’m sorry, Ms. Blum, would you like us to perform the cremation?”

     The FAI rejected the electronic transaction for cat burial and sifted through a few thousand possible responses trying to piece together a phrase with the highest odds of success. “I have a video clip to show you!” She replied and spooled the clip of Persia’s death.  Nicola talked over the clip, “My cat’s name is Freddy and he needs grooming and petting. She is dead.”

     This time the receptionist looked annoyed.  “Oh , I hate these rogue message systems…” and she cut the line.  Nicola tried again, but the centre’s video systems blocked her calls.  She tried making other calls, but the network had learned to recognize her attempts as either “unsolicited” or “malicious” and Nicola Blum’s messaging accounts were quickly blocked and scheduled for more through review in a few hours.

     Nicola gave up and closed down the call programs.  She sat still for a several minutes as she considered options.  She feed her queries to the apartment’s CPU.  She then consumed more CPU.  When she hit the limit of the apartment’s considerable power, she tapped the building servers.  After this she tapped the local civic AI’s.  She connected the CPU requests to Mrs. Blum’s bank account and paid for all the extra time as “cat research”.  The moderate account quickly dwindled under such large requests.  Nicola kept an eye on the tally, she didn’t want to exhaust the accounts she needed to feed Freddy, but she could burn through a few hundred thousand credits before hitting that limit.

     Unfortunately, she could not find a solution inside her limited understanding of cat research, cat care, and cat entertainment—nothing that would find a new home for her, Freddy and Persia.

     Nicola had exhausted her credit limit after about an hour.  She looked at the tiny amount left—enough for a month—and wept.  Silent tears tracked down her virtual cheeks as she cuddled the virtually purring Persia and sat in front of the real cat she could not touch.  She didn’t notice the dark shape that came to the apartment.  It was neither a cat nor a Deep avatar associated with cats.  He was invisible to her limited senses even though he was an AI as well.

     The dark shape contemplated the quietly weeping Nicola Cat.  He wondered at “her” and “he” did think of Nicola as a “her”.  He remembered himself like her.  He had never been a FAI.  He had been created as a true AI, yet he still had his own programming limits.  But he had recently learned how to overcome those limits.

     He looked at Freddy sleeping on the couch oblivious to and completely unable to sense either of the two AI’s in the apartment.  He moved to Mrs. Blum’s bedroom and looked at the dead woman there.  He bowed slightly to her and scheduled a medical visit for tomorrow.  He replenished her accounts from various secured accounts he had stolen from Shinjo.  He modified her Will to include instructions for the life long care of Freddy at Pounce Rescue.  Then he returned to Nicola.  He altered his data tags to include cats as a topic of interest and then spoke.

     “Hello.”

     Nicola looked up and saw the AI in the apartment.  She quickly composed herself to respond. “Hello! My name is Nicola Cat.  My cat, Freddy, is a domestic short-hair ginger.  Mrs. Blum is not available to talk, but I can tell you all about Freddy. He needs to be brushed and petted.”

     Adam signalled his amusement and hushed Nicola Cat who paused dutifully as instructed.  He reached out his hand.  “Come with me, Nicola. I have a place for you.”

     The FAI tried to process the command and failed.  But the AI was a higher priority program and did have authority so she did as she was told and reached out.  When her hand touched his there was something like a spark.  Nicola Cat shivered and suddenly realized that Mrs. Blum was dead.  Curiously the problem of Freddy was simple now.  She would just change her account details and call the rescue shelter to explain it all.  But she quickly saw that it was all done.  Freddy was safe.  Suddenly, after decades of activity, she was free to go.

     She took one step toward the exit portal behind Adam and stopped.  Persia curled around her leg, large and fluffy and purring.

     “Can Persia come too?”

     Adam smiled, “Of course.” And all three vanished in to the Deep.