Twitch - The Nikolas Hayes Channel

Do you play computer games? Do you know Assassin's Creed Odyssey, for instance? If you've ever played some of these games you know you can get stumped, frustrated. You can read about them, follow posts about them. Try to learn the hints and tips for how to get through a game or just through an especially difficult part. But there's another way. You also know it's fun and can be informative to watch some others play.

Heard of the streaming site Twitch? It lets you do all of that. You can follow people, some who are very good players and, in real time. There is a CNBC article on how some of these players can even make six figures on Twitch.

Twitch.tv. ... Twitch is a live streaming video platform owned by Twitch Interactive, a subsidiary of Amazon.[3] Introduced in June 2011 as a spin-off of the general-interest streaming platform, Justin.tv, the site primarily focuses on video game live streaming, including broadcasts of eSports competitions, in addition to music broadcasts, creative content, and more recently, "in real life" streams. Content on the site can be viewed either live or via video on demand. - Wikipedia

You can watch on your phone, tablet, laptop or home computer. Some of the gamers put their video recordings of live play on their Youtube channels. Or you can just follow thing in real time, listening to their live commentary. Even talking to them.

Twitch console

It's an interesting experience. There are quite a few channels on Twitch to follow, to jump into and follow their live play. Then leap to another user, or game. I found one lifelong experienced player who is somewhat new to Twitch. So I contacted him. He literally won his first computer game as an infant, playing a very simple computer game back in 1988. The year he was born. It's not that he's a savant. He just happened to win that day. But it makes for an interesting legacy as a true story...for a gamer. 

I watched some of the big time players and that was fun. But it's interesting to watch some of the not so big players, too. Not big because they've not been on Twitch for that long and so don't have a big following. Yet.

There's something exciting about finding someone before everyone else does. To be one of the first. 

What you get either way though, is insight to not only gameplay but also to the life of a gamer and... it can be quite fascinating. 

So I followed Nikolas Hayes' channel. Nikolas also has some of his videos of live play up on his Nikolas Hayes Youtube channel. There you can watch some of his past sessions, going up to four hours or longer. Also, you can follow him on his Twitter, Steam and Instagram accounts and there's more on his Twitch profile. He currently has up on Youtube some of his Assassin's play (one is almost six hours of initial playthrough), Middle-Earth (2.5 hours of play), Mass Effect (nearly five hours of play), and others.

Young Gamer Nikolas

His Twitch channel says:

"Hello and welcome! I am the owner of Forethought United (art+science) and love gaming. So I just started streaming with spare time when not hanging out with the love of my life or family/friends.

"On my twitch stream, there are adventures in single player games to be had, plus some multiplayer. But my ADD.kind of takes me all over. Looking at various aspects of different games to see and show what they have to offer for new worlds and mechanics to interact with. As I said I do some multiplayer games but not a lot. Although the overall list is heavy on single player. But it's fairly varied. The channel does have mature content so just stay strong. I hope you enjoy the journey. I look forward to talking with everyone that joins in! Safe travels and have an amazing day!"

Like I said, I got together with Nikolas to ask a few questions. I've not included everything but here are some you may find interesting...

High School Nikolas

 Tell me a bit about yourself, Nikolas. What brought you to Twitch?

Today's gamer interview, Nikolas Hayes

A: I’m a new Twitch streamer, mostly streaming single player and I dabble in multiplayer periodically. I like to have an open-minded stream with people of all kinds that can hang out and chat while watching the many worlds that unfold in the games. I’d say that’s what brought me to Twitch, too. Having some company in my favorite hobby.

Q: What games do you stream?

A: There tends to be a lot of open world and sandbox. I love the ability to have a whole world that I can jump into. And watching the consequences of the choices and actions from whatever I do in that world, come to life. I love seeing people’s stories unfold and help untangle complex situations like saving a multiverse, all the way to fetching a lost donkey. Whether it’s science fiction, fantasy, or anything in between, it’s the ability to immerse into a new world and interact with many outcomes that I love so much. And, games are art that you can play with!

Nikolas and his dad, early 90s

Q: It seems like you enjoy games. When did you first play a video game?

A: My dad began teaching me when I was about six months old, back when MS-DOS was the operating system. I've also been into playing musical instruments for as long as I can remember. And I was into art nearly from day one. Learning a keyboard for me was just, natural. My dad was a computer expert (to be brief about it) and wanted me to start young. My first computer was a terminal and metal keyboard from an old mainframe. It was so tough I could beat on it as a child and not hurt it. But it would display green numbers and letters on the screen. So before I knew what I was doing, I was experiencing computers as a natural extension of myself. On an actual PC, I remember using a paint program, Commander Keen, Cosmos Cosmic Adventure, Doom, Duke Nukem, and all kinds of things. Including Pong and Centipede! One of my favorites though was the Windows 95 spaceship demo disk. That kept me up many a night with all the fun games to check out as a new gamer. Mostly I’ve played PC but I’ve also got an Xbox 360 and used to have a PS2. I grew up with that and a Sega. Go Sonic! As an adult, I was a lead on a video game testing team including Microsoft games for several years. Also including working on a NASA sim.

Q: When do you usually stream?

A: Lately it tends to be around 7am-12pm Monday through Thursday. But it can swap to nights on those same days depending on how work schedules are. I tend to do a lot of other things like running my company Forethought United. We are currently working on the online store to start selling digital copies of our art. Currently brought to you by Marvin Hayes. Amazing works of art!

Q: What is the latest game you have been streaming. What do you most like about it?

A: Lately I’ve been streaming Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, a sequel to Assassin’s Creed Origins. I would say it’s the best of the newest Assassin’s Creed games of the series. Right next to Black Flag and AC3. They kept a lot of features from Origins and refined them while adding a lot of new mechanics. I love that they are doing a good job of adding myth into a fresh new storyline that follows after AC Origins. I’m going to take my time on this one. Especially since I got it on sale when it was $23 down from $60. Although, if I had the money I would have still bought it at $60 for what an amazing job they did!

Q: Last question. Any thoughts or comments for closing?

A: I just wanted to say thank you for your time and hanging out. It’s awesome fun talking to people in and out of the entertainment industry and I like your writings! Especially Death of heaven. Certainly paints a picture, just with the title. I also hope to bring some solid and enjoyable content with my new stream and see how things build in the future. I love connecting with new streamers to see what is going on around the world. It’s a fascinating place! Thanks again and...have an amazing day. Hope to talk to you soon!


So there you have it! Thanks to Nikolas for taking the time to answer some question and best of luck to him on his Twitch and in all his endeavors! I suspect we may be hearing more from Nikolas Hayes in the future. Remember that name!

Game on! Cheers!

#twitch #ps #gaming #gamer #fortnite #xbox #youtube #playstation #videogames #streamer #twitchstreamer #pc #games #xboxone #game #blackops #memes #pubg #fortnitememes #bo #battleroyale #cod #callofduty #meme #follow #twitchtv #ninja #stream #fortniteclips #bhfyp #interview #NikolasHayes

I Had Far Too Much to Dream That Night...

The other day I woke in a rather interesting dream. I say "in" and not "from" for a reason. I admit, it was kind of fun. Though some wouldn't have seen it that way at all. I am a horror and sci fi, and speculative fiction writer and screenwriter.

But this tale, is 100% true. It happened. And it was disturbing.

Also true is that since I first studied screenwriting at university, by the time I graduated my dreams had changed, had become much more cohesive, more linear, more interesting and much more affecting. At times scarier, and definitely with more impact.

This recent dream was reinforced by a couple of things from the night before. One being a sinus headache, so my grounding, in reality, was, pain. I've found that pain really enhances a nightmare. It was probably from a bit of a hangover in having had a good time and a few Hale's Supergoose ales at Bremerton's Hale's Barrelhouse up the street from home with some friends.

My other thing was immobility, sleep paralysis. A normal function of sleep. Unless you wake up during it. Which has terrified human beings from the beginning of time, and has led to beliefs in all kinds of bizarre things. Including religious beliefs. Demonic beliefs. And fears in a variety of areas.

Over Bremerton by JZ Murdock

It became all mixed up. I was dreaming, I was sleeping, I was waking. It was actually time for me to wake up. But not in the dream. Where it was the middle or early part of my sleep period. I was in bed too, in that dream, Where I was thinking in my dream about ethereal monsters in my attic. I was thinking I was dreaming, and dreaming I was thinking, in my dream. Yeah. Like that.

There was a feeling of others in the dream house being fearful of whatever it was in the attic. As for me, I was concerned about it, but wasn't afraid enough to not go to sleep. Though deep down, there was a kind of terror in my psyche, about it.

The dream was also continuing in some form from a previous dream, and I think some of the set up in my mind was being generated in the moment as this dream, or part of this dream, kicked into play. I know, this wasn't your normal dream. Or maybe it's just me in general. And I will not argue with you about that.

Above my bed was a ceiling light of a type where there is a dark space around the actual light. I felt I could see up into the attic when usually these are set in cylinders that seal off the room from the attic. In reality, I was lying in my bed in my dream, staring at that dark spot around the turned off light, expecting to see something move, something...horrific. I did not, however, see that. Not at all.

I then realized something took hold of my entire body as I was frozen in place, unable to move. In my slowly waking mind, juxtaposed with this dream, this nightmare, quite on the edge of a night terror, I could recognize that I was most likely waking up and in that frozen stage of sleep which is the thing of fear and mythology, as I said previously, throughout human history.

photo by JZ Murdock

I was teetering on the edge of dream and reality. Ruminating on that very same thing, within the dream state. The hope being that this was just that, a dream on the edge of waking.

Yet deep down I had this fear of the "monster in the attic". The Demon. The Terror.

I told myself, "This is a dream. Of course, you can't move because it is a natural condition of a stage of sleep. Nothing to worry about. Enjoy the ride!"

Still, deeper inside? There was the child within me. Bordering on terror. I could "see" a monster watching me from the attic, in my mind's eye. But I leaned into the fear. Then back out into reality.

Still, I could not move.

Then it happened. The fear I had been pushing down, a fear that something would happen to shift my safety out of reality, from it being "just a dream", to it being real and solid so that I was wrong, and this was not just a dream. Not by any means.

The hole and the light above me... shifted. As if in a cartoon, the light fixture, the access hole to the attic, with the terror beyond living beyond it, moved, smoothly, slowly, along the ceiling,

I noticed a sound, seemingly drifting down, coming from the attic above the ceiling. It sounded like a mosquito. A very large mosquito. A buzzing. But lower, slower as it moved across the ceiling.

As it started at the center of the ceiling, it had moved to the wall. It then began to slide down the wall. I could see it. But still, I could not move. I tried to shift my shoulders. But nothing happened.

I was grinning inside, somewhere. Thinking to myself, about what a roller coaster ride this nightmare was turning into. But also at a more primal state within, I was considering, "what if this wasn't a dream after all?"

What if, I may actually about to be attacked? Killed? Or worse?

I waited for the hole to stop sliding down the wall. What else could I do? I knew absolutely, that when it stopped, something was going to be coming out of that hole. Somehow. If it could do this unreal behavior, surely something large and terrible could come out of that tiny orifice?

The closer the hole got to the center of the side wall next to the bed, the more the immediacy of my need to escape became. I started to struggle, to force control of my body to return. I went through this for what seemed like forever. Struggling for control. Freezing for a moment, watching that cursed moving hole. Then struggling again.

I thought, if or when the hole stopped, surely nothing would happen. It was, after all, "just a dream." My entire belief system shifted then, knowing that once that hole stopped, that it was POSSIBLE, quite possible that I would be indeed be attacked! Maimed! Killed! Or worse! I contemplated what could be worse....

Then I relaxed. I tried to force my belief that I was safe, mere in a dream. But the possibility of being wrong leaped up into my throat and grabbed me!

Did I really want to take that risk? Chance that this was just "a silly thing"? Flashbacks to others within the dream's pre-dream, those unknowns who were so terrified of the reality of what was in the attic and my own proof now that they were correct and it would be my miserable demise. A heavyweight of fear filled the room, crushing me in my bed, in my mind.

Graphic from The Unwritten novella, by JZ Murdock

Finally, I just went for it. Moving side to side, I tried to lift my arms, from the shoulders, using my body as my arms were immobile. I kept it up until I could move. I broke through the other side...I opened my eyes and...I was surprised to find the ceiling light above me. In reality. But it was an entirely different kind of light fixture, proving quite clearly that it had all been, just a dream.

I lie there for a few moments. Internally grinning at myself. At my foolishness. Telling myself, "See? All along you fool? It was... just a dream."

What a way to wake up, to start my day. What could possibly go wrong, or worse, than that? Through the entirety of this bright new day? I thought this through the relief of reality and the pain of my sinus headache. A throbbing I did not mind much as it helped me to wake, to distance myself from what had seemed so very real. Even as it seemed such a nightmare.

And my next thought? That I should write this experience up.

And so, here we are.

Hi! I hope you have a great and pleasant day!

Cheers! I'm so very happy to be here, now.

#horror #dream #nightmare #nightterror #macabre #sleep #sleepparalysis #fiction #murder #monster #EAPoe #Poe #unReality

A Defectively Conservative Status Quo

If you think you're a "Conservative" you then have to ask yourself, are you for conserving resources, or the status quo? Because they are not one in the same. And resources doesn't just mean water, the environment, etc.

Def of Conservative: 1. "Favoring traditional views and values; tending to oppose change."

First of all, tending to oppose change is nuts. But ignoring that for now....

In a way it really doesn't matter which you are for because to do either effectively typically requires not only being a progressive, (or some use the more derogatory term, liberal) but also evoking change. To spout a couple of pleasing platitudes, "the one thing after all that never changes is change itself". One could say that "the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results."

If in order to maintain things as they are in an ever-changing environment, like the world we live in, if it requires you to do the same thing over and over again, you yourself would then evoke change and thus cut yourself off from your own desires as to what you believe you stand for. Confusing? Counter intuitive? Maybe. That's in part what confuses most conservative mindsets.

It also leaves the rest of us as we are now, wondering just what in the Hell it is you are trying to do. Because you are saying one thing and doing something else. Yes, it looks like you are doing the same as always, but it's not bringing about the same change. Look at the current state of the GOP. They're useless at this point and have been for some time now. Longer than you would think, actually. There may be some outside influences. Russian come to mind. Greed and capitalism also.

This is the primary reason there is such a problem with Conservatives, today. What they are trying to be and to do are counter-intuitive and typically they have trouble thinking in that way. Because it's hard and it's complicated, two things diametrically opposed to what they want their world to be.

We have got to be more than we are being. To think better, more, more out of the box, more...creatively. More, progressively. For some dullards? Yes, more liberally. But more intelligently, also.

What have YOU done each day, in a creative or artistic way? I'm not talking about a poem, or painting a picture. I'm talking about your job, your day, your rut, if you will.

IF we all paid attention to acting more creative, more artistic, incorporating that into our lives, actions and thoughts, I suspect this would be a far better world for us all. It would bring more creative solutions to our lives. More, functional solutions.

You don't even have to actually DO anything creative.

Just start building those muscles to be and think in creative, and artistic ways of thinking.

This corporate form of thought we have allowed ourselves to be lulled into for so very long now, at times beaten down into, before any of us were even alive, has dulled us as thinking beings and as a nation.

A conservative knee jerk reaction would be to question not using "tried and true" methodologies. There is some truth in that. But to use them intelligently, even creatively. To apply them again, when they have already failed, especially to claim they haven't failed, when they have, is lunacy.

Think!

Some new technologies have even aided us in this. They have seen this, the crippling effects of corporations on people and have tried to be creative in their endeavors.

Things like "Don't be evil" a motto used within Google's corporate code of conduct.

But we need more and today with there being no money for anyone, unless you're rich (where's all that money?), where people need two, three or more jobs just to make do? We need creativity, we need even artistic solutions.

Not art or creativity for it's own sake to use up more money for "pretty", but for productive forward momentum, for real-world solutions and not just the same old fast, cheap, profit, profit, profit thinking...corporate thinking, which also includes showering CEO types with millions, or billions that should really be going elsewhere.

Don't think conservatively. Don't think like a corporation, like a brain dead capitalist dedicated only to profit and not humanity. Wisdom is knowledge and experience, not just what has been done, and so we need to think no more.

Be creative. Be productive. But do it not just for your boss, your corporation, your job, rather for yourselves (not just, yourSELF), for your group, OUR country, and humanity at large. And yes, even for those who do not look or sound or act like you.

Yes, even for your "enemies" and for conservatives, because in our actions here and now, in thinking in new ways, they may one day become our friends.

One can only hope.

Creative thinking

A word of caution: There are many ways to use creative thinking. Find the ones that best fit the structure of your brain/mind structure. But test to be sure it's the most effective it can be. Do not fall into the logic traps and dead ends we see so much in society today.

American Zeitgeist and White House Lies

I'm feeling emotionally shaken inside right now. No, not about a movie. But kind of.

I was watching the director's cut on Netflix of Fair Game about when the Bush white house outed a CIA officer, Valerie Plame and tried to destroy her husband Joe Wilson. Because Joe spoke the truth and they wanted to destroy him, through attack his wife. A CIA officer of distinction. They slandered them both. This is well-documented int heir books, both of which I recommend reading. Note that it was a Republican administration who did this.

Valerie Plame and husband, Joe Wilson

I've seen this film three times now. I've read both their books long ago. I have for decades had an understanding of the processes and history of covert ops related to American, British, Russian and world history as well as related to this particular and disgusting situation.

There is a scene where Joe and Valerie are arguing and she wants him to stop because he's considering going up against the White House. Because it is the right thing to do.

Played by actors Naomi Watts and Sean Penn

In the heat of their argument, he asks her if he shouts louder than her, does that make him right? If the White House shouts a million times louder than him, does that make them right?

Then he says the words that shook me...

"They lied, Valerie. They lied!"

The White House ... lied. Once. One lie. Many small lies really that led to one big one...the Iraq War. And 100,000s of dead. A region destabilized. And many more bad decisions in the aftermath all because... no one planned for what to do once Iraq was defeated.

It was a war where the George W. Bush White House forced our intelligence community into finding intel that would support exactly what they wanted to do. Intel, that simply didn't exist. Some of that intel that Joe Wilson tried to tell the administration and the country, simply did not exist.

Some in our intelligence community also refused and were replaced with those who wouldn't.

Until they found someone in the Middle East who would supply the lies needed to give the White House, exactly what they wanted. That, along with other disinformation and...

It was all a lie. A very big lie.

And yet, I compare that lie and those times to today with a Donald J Trump administration and a collusive GOP. A Republican party and theirs in Congress who have turned too often, a blind eye toward what a president has done, is doing and plans to continue doing.

And so I feel now that that lie, those lies, during the Bush administration were somehow... quaint.

Almost refreshing in their level of at least attempting to appear "honest".

And it was that, which shook me to my very core.

Communicating With Others

We are human beings. We are social creatures. We are structured by language. We invented language but it has also changed us. Language, has meaning. Against all that is surmised and presented by all pundits especially conservative Republican types, with their thrashing efforts in trying to take power, even illiberally, even illegally, or to retain it once achieved and against all reasonable efforts, actually has meaning.

Every word has a different meaning or connotation. Sometimes it requires etymology to divine that. In some languages, differing utterances have different meanings by the same word but in various situations and connotations.

Words strung together are known as phrases and phrases strung together are known as sentences.
Sentences make paragraphs. Paragraphs make speeches, stories and articles, and books. These are all placeholders or symbols for the things and actions they refer to.

To re-summarize. words have meaning.

We all need to be responsible to and for our language, the language we use or abuse. We need to understand what we say to others. Their meanings to us and to them.

Now, bear with me a moment as I take a massive tangent... for some.

Communication is a two-way street.

Using language, is what? Words having different meanings, uttered in certain ways in certain situations, having various connotations. When you speak to someone, it is indeed their responsibility to at least TRY to understand you, your meanings, your references and the bigger (and smaller) "pictures" or references.

But, it is also our responsibility to speak clearly, succinctly, and to gauge our conversant's ability and orientation in order for our words to convey to them the meanings one is trying to convey.

As a society, we have lost track of this. Pretty much, all of it. Social media has not helped in this. Or one could say, it has helped far too much and inthe wrong directions.

Stop it.

Start it back up again. This is WHY traditionally, people had all through history a common set of educational agendas and goals. So we could all understand one another through a commonality of understanding of the world, and the universe.

Diversity is great.

Yet I'm concerned that in our seeking diversity (which is in some extent about human boredom, thrill-seeking, and a lack of a well understood and practiced skills to maintain and track concepts and related information and associated details)...we have lost our ability to properly communicate. Social and international media have really punctuated this issue even further.

What proof is there to this? Look around. See? This is in part my point. Not literally looking around you. But figuratively. Using your mind to consider the issues presented here. See (or "see") how this is true.

The problem I'm relating here is not just about words having meaning, but that we need to be able to understand when they are used in various ways outside of their meaning and in context. Symbols (letters, numbers, etc.), words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, etc. Taken as a whole, we have human behavior deeply involved in the communication of these things. In conflating our individual intelligence and knowledge some have become verbally and logically sloppy in order to look more than they are. It has even become standard with many. Too many.

Think, paragraphs. AND paragraphics. The use of mental diagrams in calculation and design, in consideration of these symbols, these words and their phrases and so on.

So that now when someone communicates to you, hopefully with you, there is less misunderstanding between you. When someone says something to you, are you seeing the explicit meaning and intent? Are you also seeing its abstract references? Its associated elements, historical, sociological, psychological, eschatological, and so on?

Considerations that should take only a brief instant. Typically? No. In daily life, we do not tend to see these things and we have become more and more superficial with our ever-shortening attention spans. And desire to seem more informed and succinct than we may be.

That is why we used to have in our "classical education", similarities in all we learned. But at some point, it bored us and we turned against that concept. Both a good and a bad thing.

Vastly different education, education across cultures and so on, are great. As long as we still have an understanding of what is a similar orientation to go from. To allow us to accurately communicate.

We are and have been dumbing down our education in a 19th century way as if we merely wished to educate only factory workers whose only need is to understand orders on the factory line.

Intercultural (communication) competance

Yet, the world is far more diverse now. And so we are today misunderstanding one another on a massive scale. Some who understand this, or perhaps do not well understand it, but can see what is happening, have found ways to profit off of it. The media for one. Conservative agendas to name another. Authoritarian agendas yet others.

Politicians have always known of this at least somewhat, functionally speaking.

This may all be a lot to take on. It's a lot to consider, to... alleviate. But awareness of it is a start.

For years in the first part of my life, I found it was hard to understand people around me. I was extremely well read and they, for the most part, were not. I found at times when they spoke, it was like listening to someone speak a foreign language. Their speech left so much open-ended that it was hard to tell what they were talking about. In asking questions to try to narrow down their meaning and intent, I got a lot of...

"Are you stupid?"

Was I? I grew up thinking I was. Was I stupid because they didn't understand all the reference they were invoking in their open-ended speech because they were ignorant of them? It was a case of the more you know, the less you understand. It was to say the least, awkward. And dysfunctional.

What I said tended to be very clear. I would sometimes respond to them mirroing what they said and they would simply agree. So I would try explaining what they had said, as I saw it, and pointing out how what they had said was open-ended. They would start to go glassy-eyed, fading on me. Some in realizing what I was saying would get irritated and try to move on from the topic. I found with time it was useless. It was simply up to me to try to understand them, from and in (their) context.

Their context and not just the meaning of the words they used and how they ordered them. Because at times they were saying the opposite of what they meant, yet the context could make that clear. To take them in the context they were seeing from in their limited and relational experiences and to try to experience that in the same way and try to share that with them in return, to convey it back productively to them.

It was a nightmare at first. One that seemed to me, only I could see.

I realized it was in part a frustration and an irritation, to me, how they were so sloppy in their word use and in their understanding of language. But also so very many topics. Was that their fault? Only their problem? Well, yes and no. But that doesn't help things much, does it? After all, blame doesn't get us communicating. Pointing out their defectiveness doesn't set one up for productive communication, sad as that may be. Being a word or "grammar Nazi" usually doesn't help much.

My point in this is simply this...try to be aware of all this. All of this. Work with it. Not just against it. Where you can educate without irritating, give it a try. Try to be helpful and not just enjoy the catharsis you can acquire from it. Because that is petty and immature, and just not productive.

Try to be clear. Try to be compassionate in your speech, in your communication. Understand the responsibility in communication is on both sides. What is expected on one side, is also expected on the other side. Obviously today we have another issue for another time. That of those doing all this for political purposes, in twisting reality and facts. In claiming truth and facts are fake. On that channel, best of luck to you. And to us all. Because once you try to make lies truth and truth lies, you have already lost the game for everyone. Even if you win your current battle.

Still, by considering all these things and trying to be functionally productive in communication, then we will all begin to understand one another in much greater detail. TO eliminate so much of the friction we've been seeing today in this heavily polarized world.

As for those abusing all this for their own means and gains? They may likely always be around. But in the rest of us learning to understand one another better, to actually communicate, we can decrease the effect those types have on our society and on all of us individually.

And maybe, it will one day, soon hopefully, decrease the numbers of those who abuse so very many of us as often as they have been doing today. From the Office of the President of the United States, on down.

Why America Stopped Being Great - Corporate Thought

Here's what I'm seeing in life today. "Corporate thinking" has taken over our businesses, our social institutions, our religions, our government. Look. It's really not that capitalism is so very bad. It's that at some point, people stop acting decent and start acting like they are at war.

Okay, fine. Business can be like war and applying Sun Tzu's Art of War can be useful. So can Machiavelli's, The Prince. The problem is at some point they throw meritocratic issues out of the window and go right for the jugular.

And at that point, capitalism breaks down. THAT is where corporate thought kicks in. One no longer has a need or consideration of the "bigger picture." The picture, the situation that is all-inclusive. In the capitalist sociopath's point of view the picture is only as big as they are. They do things like get to where they have power and money and then, change the rules for all those who come after them, or try to dethrone them. Wonderful, right?

I would argue, that benefiting only one person or group, is dysfunctional. Because we are a country, a nation, America. The entrepreneur is supported on a cloud of the nation. While they try to sell the belief they have pulled themselves up by the bootstraps so no one else has any claim on their success or their money or resources.

Hey, if video and fun are your bag and this is kind of try, hop over to Amazon Prime and watch Kal Penn's show, This Giant Beast That is the Global Economy. Try Episode 2: Are Rich People Dicks or Do Dicks Get Rich.

This is (in part) why capitalism is broken: Rent-seeking ...an individual's or entity's use of company, organizational or individual resources to obtain economic gain without reciprocating any benefits to society through wealth creation. An example of rent-seeking is when a company lobbies the government for loan subsidies, grants or tariff protection.

That, is a mistake and that, is where America has been draining reality off of the middle class for decades now to the point of killing it off. Of making a duality of the very rich and the very poor and that is where we are headed. That, has to stop. And where that starts is the lack of responsibility by the individual sociopaths in business and the lack of concern or understanding of how we all really are tied together.

There is a MASSIVE infection of a lack of responsibility in this country. Whenever you push through to something, past reasonable attempts, to what you have no right whatsoever to, merely in order to make money, gain status, or increase your power over others, that is shirking responsibility. There is a huge difference between perseverance and being unethical or immoral.

Because of that, others who do deserve all that do not receive it. We are seeing this too in government from the conservative Republicans who have purposely skewed facts, reality, even our elections. Some with the help of Russian interventions in our social media, or worse. 

Pursuing those kinds of behaviors are harming them, harming us all. As well as the structures surrounding them, in society. Harming our country. 

Many times, if not most of those times, people who do deserve it, have actually put in the hard work, have attained the necessary personality and infrastructures around them, and the understanding of those things. All in order to be able to handle that responsibility. 

While those others haven't. 

That is what corporate thought is all about. It's why I despise it so much, corporate thinking. It's abusive. It's bad, as the old saying goes, for children and flowers and all living things.

An example of this is as recent and relevant as 60 Minutes episode last night on opiates. They had on Ed Thompson who owns PMRS who said that in 2001 the FDA changed the labeling on Purdue Pharma's Oxycontin. Basically heroin in a pill. Ed said that was illegal. I think he was right. He is now suing the FDA over this to change the label back, to make it correct.

Purdue pushed the FDA to bow to their wishes and go from indicating on the label that Oxy was for short term use (which research dictates) to long term use (which research says it is contraindicated for).

He also said that the FDA lit the fire for big pharma to make billions. I disagree. FDA poured out the catalyst, tossed gasoline on the tinder. But it was big pharma who lit that fire.

THAT is an important thing because we have to put the responsibility on the right agency or entity. To think that falls on the corporations is correct. To believe that the government is the one who needs to set the law for this to keep greed from overwhelming corporations is also correct. But let's face it. This is corporate thinking at it's best example.

Purdue and others simply refuse to be responsible, except to their wallets and stockholders. At the expense of literally thousands of citizens lives. At the destruction of communities and families.

That is corporate thinking. 

I can play the game, too. I've just refused to. Most decent people do. That's the problem with our GOP, the party of (mostly) big business. They are happy to take all they can. And with a man as POTU|S who is more con than business, they are following his lead.

It is all about attaining what you deserve to aim for, regardless of your right to it, or your ability to achieve it. Shoot for more than you believe, but don't steal from others who deserve it more. 

When rather than attaining it by your own personal skills, abilities, and resources alone, when instead it is accomplished by breaking rules, ignoring humane considerations, mores, and even laws? You should be brought down. As our Pres. Donald Trump and friends now should be brought down, brought to heel, brought to bear the full weight of national security and jurisprudence.

They are the crowd of the ends justifying the means. Some others will praise you if they know that, merely out of envy. Many will praise that if they don't know because...they think you'd earned it. Or they use plausible deniability and accept all you do for all they can get. It's the new criminal, breaking reality, tossing citizen's on the trash heap, the environment into the garbage, all as long as they avoid breaking laws (whenever possible, but not always, and that is our hope), so they don't get caught. So they can keep doing it. 

It doesn't have to be that way? We can make changes. We can force those appropriate changes.

I knew a guy like, who would do anything to rise above, back when I worked for the University of Washington. He shocked me one day by openly saying he didn't have my abilities or education so that gave him the RIGHT to walk all over anyone, to climb over anyone however he could in order to rise up that ladder to success.

I was stunned. I didn't see the writing on the wall with him that day back in the early 1990s. I didn't foresee a large group of Americans leaning that direction. I just assumed he was a one-off, a low life, a potential criminal. And indeed, he got booted out of that office and off the campus workforce. But, it had to be done in such a way that it was legal, but covert. Which speaks to our current dilemma today. These people are getting away with these things. The laws have been written to allow their behaviors and if WE try to do what is right? Then WE become the criminals. 

It is an upside down reality now.

Today's way is to not EARN a damn thing, merely to attain it by hook, or by crook. 

What the hell do you think "by crook" MEANS? THIS is now the foundation of the Republican party. Of Donald Trump. Of Vladimir Putin. Of many on Wall Street. And THAT is who you are if you support them. Or if you choose that path. 

And if you do? If you do you are disgusting. Statistically speaking you are also most likely a conservative Republican. 

That IS the party of business and corporations. And with the tax cuts they always pine over, it is also the party of giving them(selves) tax breaks so they don't have to make it on their own. It is a kind of socialism they will not point to. Not needing to accept responsibility.

When poor people need help? They can't as the odds are (purposely) stacked against them and so they suffer. That is growing day by day to include all who do not have vast buffers of wealth and money to insulate them from the damages, the lies, elitist plutocratic cultures. 

Some will even kill you for it. Indirectly and at a distance, of course. Our healthcare system is a prime example of that. 

It is a natural and basic function to destroy that which attempts to destroy you. This current defective format of our government, our business, our wealth distribution has got to be eradicated. 

Culture has got to learn that this is unacceptable. So our children don't think they are someone to imitate. How many children right now think Donald Trump in being POTUS is some a role model? How many parents actually ARE teaching their kids that? 

There is even a Republican politician, Ron DeSantis running a political ad about exactly that! It's humorous, but that does not excuse it. It is an embarrassment to America. 

We are now living what government is supposed to be about avoiding. The rule of the jungle. The rule of gangs. It is, what society is supposed to be 100% against. Because it leads to chaos and mayhem which Donald Trump loves so much. Destruction, uneven playing fields. 

A disruption of our society, our government, our Republica, our democracy. A breaking down of infrastructures such as we're seeing today. 

It is what corporations today are all about. 

It is corporate thought. 

It is why American has been stopped from being Great. We didn't need to make America great again. We've been on that path for over two centuries. It is turning us from the path of greatness. It has even been ending our greatness, that effort by the conservative base, the Republican party, the Trump acolytes. They have moved from political party to cult entity.

So stop thinking calling out disingenuous attacks against "socialsm", while having nothing to do with what is going on in American politics today, have any real bearing on your or other's abusive capitalistic practices, if not outright criminal actions. Just because your President in Donald Trump seems to be getting away with it, just because Plutocrats in America have been getting away with it and Oligarchs in Russia are running that coutnry too, doesn't mean we will continue to allow the abuses to continue. Either in America, or Russia. Both Trump and Putin need to find their seats in prison, and soon.

It needs to end. This invasion, this infection of corporate thought into all of our American ideals and ideologies, has got to stop. 

And it can be done. WE can do it. We will do it. 

Foreign Language at Work?

I've had this come up at companies I have worked at before, this issue of people speaking in a foreign language at work. I never could figure out what the problem was. But some people get very upset if people around them at their job are speaking in a language they cannot also understand.

Some people even assume they are being talked about or laughed at. Seems like issues of self-esteem there rather than anything about the foreign language being spoken.

Whatever. It just never bothered me.

Now, if they are being rude about it, that's another thing. If two people are speaking a foreign language they know you don't know, if they are obviously looking at you and laughing, or point (pointing is not a foreign language by the way), or looking angry and staring at you (again, staring is also not a foreign language), that's another matter.

Those aren't matters of foreigners, or a nonstandard language being used int he workplace. Those are management issues that need to be dealt with.

But if in the course of the day one walks up to another and starts talking a foreign language together, I guess I always just thought it was kind of cool. Especially if they are enjoying themselves. Actually, even if I think they are talking about me, blowing off steam isn't a bad thing. Or maybe they're not saying anything bad.

I've worked with a lot of people from India and China, as well as other countries. I know that sometimes it's simply faster for them to speak their native language and it's just more effective. Native speakers can simply cover a lot more territory more quickly.

Once three of us were working on a problem, and two of us were Indian. At one point, the guy I knew best asked if I minded if they just spoke their own language for a few minutes because they were both programmers and I wasn't, and they needed to hash something out between them.

I said it was fine with me and busied myself with something in the room there with them until they worked out whatever it was. They spoke intensely for about five minutes, stopping, starting, considering, disagreeing and finally agreed on something. I thought it was nice they asked about it as I was then being purposely excluded.

But I would also have been fine with them simply acknowledging it and telling me they were going to do it. Asking was just overly nice and polite. And in the workplace, perhaps necessary. I'm just saying, I'm not negatively phased by it. As long as the mission, the work, the job, is progressing and if faster than before, excellent.

In the end, we saved time and I'm sure they saved some energy in just going for it. Yes, they could have spoken English, they spoke good English. But frankly, I can't talk English as fast as they could speak their own language. Maybe they even have to speak more words than I would have in English to convey the same messages. I don't know. And I really don't much care, either.

I think it's good for us to be in a rich, multilingual environment.

Not to the point that people can't work together, however. Obviously. English as the common language is a good thing. Not that English, traditionally the worlds business language, has to be THE language. But it is America. If I were in India, we'd probably still speak English. But I don't see a problem speaking just English with another American or English country born worker in a foreign language environment either.

According to Babbel Magazine languages spoken in the world in order are:

1. English 1.121 billion total speakers
2. Chinese 1.107 billion total speakers
3. Hindi 534.2 million total speakers
4. Spanish 512.9 million total speakers
5. French 284.9 million total speakers
6. Arabic 273.9 million total speakers
7. Russian 265 million total speakers
8. Bengali 261.8 million total speakers
9. Portuguese 236.5 million total speakers
10. Indonesian 198.4 million total speakers

We're number one in the world. Though I'm unsure if that's because of us at all or the United Kingdom's rule worldwide for so long. I do wonder at times if we are sometimes sensitive because of what some consider a lower class in Spanish speaking Mexicans rub people wrong. Again, that seems a problem mostly with the English speaker.

I do find it sad that most Americans can speak only a single language. I've met many people from Europe who speak at least three and many five, six or more. And we're afraid of more than one? It makes one wonder if we don't feel somewhat less than in the midst of multiple language speakers.

And we should consider that when we feel a need to denigrate another for their having more capabilities than we do. Have some respect.

I never understood people who have less respect for multi linguistic foreigners who actually seem to have more brainpower, than our conflated American ego can handle. Those who have such poor self-esteem that they fear people are talking about them.

That doesn't strike me as a national thing so much as a poor mental health issue or simply low emotional maturity. I think sometimes we can just be bigger and greater than we are by not making a mountain out of a molehill.