It’s important for me to handle my responsibilities before I traipse off into the dark continent. And, so it seems mixtape number seven is a go!

The only new artist is a local: Lisa Crawley. I’ve been stuck on a couple tracks off her debut EP “Shoot the Night.” (Which, you might notice, is totally downloadable!)

Even better is she just came out with her sophomore release, “Hello, Goodbye And Everything Inbetween.” Backing her is a super-band with performers from a host of Kiwi greats: The Hot Grits and The Mint Chicks to name a couple.

Really, none of us have any excuse. Listen and smile!

A man, unexcited by his own possessions and increasingly confused as to why he collected all these things in the first place, decides to hire someone else to live amidst his books and clothes, DVDs and framed photographs, so that he can learn how another person might more intelligently put it to use.

Every time I move, I find myself carrying less than before. And, I’m getting anxious to do it again.

I’m in New Zealand. And, I had to send money to a friend in the States. My bank refused to make that possible. I went back and forth with them for several weeks. No, I didn’t and can’t leave a pre-authorization form for wire transfers at my local banking center. No, I’m can’t drop off (or mail) a transfer slip. No, there is no one cosigned on my account.

Admittedly, that last one I thought about doing before leaving the country.

Regardless, this compliant would seem quaint to a resident of almost any other country on the planet. eChecks and electronic banking have been the norm for decades in some places. I genuinely wonder why the US banks are behind the times. Customer retraining costs? Fraud? Something regulatory?

Regardless, I noticed that PayPal stopped charging for transfers between individuals, and withdrawing funds into your bank account. Looking at their policy history implies this is recent— June 3, 2009. So, PayPal has won the eCheck game.

Why isn’t this being advertised more?

I haven’t been keeping my mixtapes up to date. It’s one of those things that, once you excuse yourself the first time, you just continue to let slide. February’s excuse was a lack of variety. And, since March, it’s been sub-par Internet access due to travel. Lame. Lame. Lame.

This is a real shame, as I have made new friends through posting them.

I started making mixtapes because I liked the concept behind the service formerly known as muxtape. When it was taken down, the community response of Opentape was abhorrent to me. The licensing on their code (and the code they bundled) was shady. And, I felt the hosted PHP + MySQL solution was overkill for the problem. Therefore, in the great tradition of reinventing the wheel, I wrote moxie.

Before writing it, I barely thought about sharing my musical preferences outside of the OCD realm of Last.fm. I had worked out a system for finding new artists; and, presumed anyone else who cared had too. After writing moxie, I suddenly had a new interesting problem to think about: what to share with my “audience?” Oddly, it was to one listener’s disappointment when I revealed how I had automated the process.

I don’t think anyone else uses moxie. But, people do listen to my mixtapes. And it’s nice to have a response when people ask for music recommendations. I say, “check my mixtapes out— they’re on the Internet!” And, incredibly, people do! It has been an unexpected delight exchanging messages about music.

It’s surprising how different my experience has been from jwz‘s.

(I’m sure, one of these days, I’ll upload a new mixtape.)

Remember the renewed literacy initiative? It’s reaching the end of its course. I left the well-known titles (Black Like Me, Mein Kampf, The Kingdom of God is Within You, etc.) for the end, so that I could dovetail into more popular literature.

But, I’m uncertain as where to turn next. What have I learned from these banned books? Well, contrary opinions on church, state, and sex seem to be a recipe for exclusion. And, fame. Additionally, if you’re a contemporary author, being from the East Coast seems to help.

Obfuscation of cause and effect is funny, right?

There is a category of text that I’ve dubbed “New England Fiction.” It’s proudly set in said locale, with a markedly multicultural cast. You barely need two hands to count the lines between the introduction of a character and the proud announcement of their racial background. But, odder still is the segregation. A narrative will carefully describe the superficial traits or behaviors hallmarking a culture; but, never will a protagonist express more than a passing curiosity. There is even a hint of pride in the lack of inter-cultural interaction.

It is often worse than that. Anyone who, as an adult, dabbles in trying to understand another group is treated with badly masked disgust. And, inevitably, they are embarrassed viciously and publicly as a result of a (usually minor) faux pas. Sadly, it’s the rare character who is born from mixed parentage. They suffer only slightly less. Their lot is to be an outsider to all. And if we, the reader, are introduced to their parents; then, “quirky” and “socially awkward” are the charitable adjectives that can be ascribed.

Admittedly, I throughly swallowed the blue pill that was my middle class American public education. So, this sort of reading is revolting to me. I’m aware of the fact that I become what I consume. Accordingly, it’s worrisome the level of popularity this category of text enjoys.

Well, fuck, my Mom would be proud. Despite my best efforts, I’m sensitive to the issue of race.

It’s fun to think about behavior in terms of control systems. Considering enthusiasm this way gives an orderly model for what feels like irrational behaviors. Of course, whether those models are actually correct is another thing entirely...

But, consider being hungry and getting food. It isn’t a simple cause and effect chain. For starters, “being hungry” isn’t like a light switch—it isn’t binary. Our hunger can range from “peckish” to “starving” with a bounty of adjectives in between.

And “getting food” isn’t simple. If we “could” eat and the options for sustenance are inconvenient (or simply not palatable), then we’ll opt for ignoring our hunger. On the flip side, if we’re ravenous then anything digestible will be just fine—and we’ll remember it as being delicious for years to come. After all, hunger is the best spice!

My Grandma once implied that’s why I love Gingerbread Puffins.

Once started, it’s hard to stop thinking about the complexities and breaking down the decisions we weight on a day-to-day basis. Control theory offers a rich selection of models that surprisingly many behaviors fit. And, even if not all our irrational acts can be coldly and logically broken down (“Why did I break up with her?”), it at least provides a framework for analysis.

Consider the question, “why is my house never clean?” Let’s take it at face value and presume our homes are never clean. We already have a good start into why this isn’t the case; and, hopefully, remedying the situation!

If our home is never clean, then that means the aggregate rooms are never clean at the same time. Which leaves open for some of the rooms to be clean some of the time. Sound familiar? And by scaling down the problem, we can consider the question, “why is my room never clean?” Well, our rooms are clean!

Sometimes.

Why do we clean our rooms? I hesitate to speak for anyone who, frankly speaking, has their act together. But, I clean my room when it gets too dirty. And my kind of delinquent behavior has a name. It’s called a bang-bang control.

Suddenly, we can tie my behavior up into a nice sequence of linear equations and probabilities... that aren’t intuitive at all! Instead, let’s consider thermostats in a house: “why aren’t all the heaters in rooms of my house on at the same time?” Well, that’s easy:

“I’m not in all my rooms!” “The whole house isn’t cold.” “It would be wasteful to heat the whole place.” etc. Each of which has clear analogues to the cleanliness question: “Every room isn’t dirty.” “The whole house isn’t dirty.” “It would be a waste of time to clean the whole house.” etc. And, the same analogues give us a way to re-frame our behavior: central heating!

Our solution: we clean the house as a whole rather than cleaning individual rooms. Which means changing the bang-bang control that is our enthusiasm. “Is my home, as a whole, dirty enough to merit cleaning the whole thing?”

And that, ladies, is why my place is a mess.

I lost my wallet on the night of March 14th. Since then, I’ve been living off the goodwill of Faulkner and Sam. Which, in itself, is getting a little old.

Contact

Of course, I called my bank— Bank of America— the first day I could. They didn’t make it easy. If you go to their website and click “Contact Us”, it will take you to this convenient list of phone numbers. However, if I do the same, the site will detect I have a Washington account and redirect me to this less convenient list of phone numbers.

To report lost or stolen ATM/Debit card or credit card, please call the telephone number below. Customer service for lost and stolen cards is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Internationally: Use the International 800 Access code from your country of origin

Good luck finding an “international 800 Access code.” But, in case some hapless traveler stumbles across this page, I’ll summarize the possible ways to contact our bank:

• 602-597-2395 (Card Services): This is the (previously) unpublished International Collect direct access number. Use it!
• 315-724-4022 (???): This is the published International Collect access number. But, you need an “access ID.” If you use 0, an automated system will ask for your account details and social security number. Then, it will say no one is available and hang up on you.
• 800-848-6090 (Card Services - Lost and Stolen): This number, as well as the next two, are free only when calling from the States.
• 877-833-5617 (Card Services - General)
• 800-442-6680 (Customer Support - General): This is the wrong number. Don’t call it unless you want to be on hold for upward of 20 minutes. Not because of call volumes; but, because you’ll be routed through two levels of support since you’re overseas.

Guess which order I learned these numbers? And, bonus points if you noticed that there are no published International Collect access numbers.

First Try: A New Hope

Around noon on March 16th (US/Pacific Time), Bank of America’s Lost and Stolen card department received a phone call from one David Robinson. He probably sounded a little frantic since he was calling internationally from a pre-paid cellphone. That’s really expensive as it stands. But, in New Zealand, making voice calls at all is very expensive.

He was worried about how long he’d be on hold.

But, he politely reported his card stolen. The representatives were polite and helpful. He was transferred between Lost and Stolen to Emergency Card Services. His address in New Zealand was taken down, and it was promised that his new card would be delivered in less than a week.

His stolen card is the one linked to his pre-paid cellphone. So, just before the card is canceled, he tops off his phone with $100 in credit... just in case.

Second Try: A Week Passes...

A week and a day passes, and Bank of America receives another call from one David Robinson. He’s a little worried that the promised courier never contacted him. He’s politely informed that the card was sent to his home address.

In Seattle.

He asks what happened. One hour, three departments, and four representatives later... his call is dropped. He learned the following:

1. His card was mailed to his Washington state P.O. Box.
2. Or, his card wasn’t mailed at all?
3. As he changed his address recently, no card can be mailed to him.

He calls again. Thirty minutes, two departments, and three representatives later... he’s accidentally transferred to VISA Emergency Card Services.

He also receives a text message from Vodaphone: “Congrats. U’ve got a free weekend of VF2VF Calls and TXTs. All the VF2VF Calls and TXTs you send this Sat and Sun are FREE. Enjoy!” This means the previous phone call was over $10.

The VISA representative thought he was a bank associate. She wasn’t used to dealing directly with customers! But, she did understand the game. In a few minutes, she had a chagrined representative from Bank of America on the phone. Every time the Bank of America representative dropped the ball, the VISA representative would pick it up. “Uhh, what phone number can I reach you at?” “In New Zealand? 021-202-3139.” “Umm, actually, I don’t know how to call internationally...” “011 64 and then drop the zero on 021.”

Wham, bam! The VISA representative then asked to call back in 30 minutes, promising she’d have all the details taken care of by then.

Mr. Robinson received that phone call in fifteen. “Your account was opened in Washington, which makes it different than most Bank of America accounts. I’ll be able to finish this in the morning.”

Moral of the story: call VISA. They have all the information, and are exceedingly professional. VISA publishes their card services numbers. And, while their New Zealand access number (0800-44-3019) cannot be called from mobiles or payphones— making it nigh useless— their direct number will accept International Collect charges.

Third Try: Despondence

While David was sleeping, he missed a call from VISA. He quickly figured out that VISA’s New Zealand access number didn’t work from mobiles. So, he wandered over to the nearby Britomart Transport Centre in search of a payphone.

Two payphone calls and one conversation with a Telecom operator later, he wandered back to his flat. Not too far of a walk since he lives in the former Auckland Railway Station! And, in the intervening weeks, he’s gotten Internet access so... Skype it is!

VISA Representative

“Bank of America denied your request for a replacement card.”

David

“I thought they authorized it yesterday?”

VISA Representative

“Yes, but they denied it today.”

VISA got Bank of America on the phone again. The bank representative noted the following:

1. She didn’t know why the request had been denied.
2. She had no information on the previous week’s requests, as they were marked “completed” and then purged.
3. She would put in a request for an express delivery of a replacement bank card.

Oddly, there were no supervisors available. She took down David’s number in New Zealand and promised someone would call him back.

Fourth Try: Remember the Basics

He waited five hours. It’s not as if he expected a phone call back. Mostly, he was waiting a good amount of time hoping his request had made some progress in monolith’s systems.

David grew up with his Father regaling him with stories of his travel overseas. Often his Father would over-extend himself, and find himself stuck somewhere... sick and tired. In those times, he needed the help of strangers.

David internalized the lesson of the shit-eating grin at a young age.

Bank of America received another call from David. Falsely chipper and positive, he explained his situation and inquired about the status of his recent request. The representative responded warmly to his upbeat tone, and honest sounding P’s and Q’s. She let him know the following:

1. The previous week’s requests had been canceled in a variety of ways.
2. The extended duration of his trip precluded the authorization of an “emergency” VISA card.
3. A request for an “express courier” of a new bank card had been authorized and put through.
4. Her department would have a tracking number available by Friday.
5. She had updated his service log to note that he’d be calling back for the tracking number.

When your bank gets you down, cool off and kill ‘em with kindness.

Intermezzo: Delivery

In my years of online shopping, Federal Express has never successfully delivered a package. I always have to drive to their local shipping center, and pick up my package. As it turns out, this unluckiness has continued in New Zealand.

Now I need to pay their local affiliate, Post Haste Couriers, a visit. And I need to get there within the hour. So— bye!

And now, the conclusion

BANK CARD GET

I’m tumblelogging my trip: Travel is Fatal, or for LiveJournalers qc_travel.

Friday, the 12th

I called HP support.

Saturday, the 14th

I received a pre-paid FedEx box.

Monday, the 16th: 5pm

I mailed the laptop in said box. (5pm)

Tuesday, the 17th: 1pm

I receive a phone-call confirming the repairs.

Wednesday, the 18th, 8:45am

I receive the pre-paid FedEx box with my fixed laptop.

Wow.

From: Scott Robinson (DRSR)
Sent: Monday, February 09, 2009 2:13 PM
To: William Lees; Management Modeling Studio Team
Subject: RE: Opportunity for Scott

내 시간이 여기에 팀 제품이 있어야 matured 및 큰 연계 맞게 증가하는. 이를 사용하면 표시 알고 있는-코스 고객의 새 값을 제공할 소프트웨어를 처리하고 만들기 ‘re 우리는 축하 있습니다.

그러나, 여행 통해 I 있어야 제공되는 관리 모델링 Studio Team 위한 적절한 위치에 아닌지 이해하기. 따라서 신중하게 deliberation 후 I 결정한 시간을 이동-에 대한 수 있었습니다.

내 resignation 효과적인 됩니다 2008년 2월 27th. (해당 비즈니스 달의 마지막 날 경우)

내 즉시 계획을 뉴질랜드의; vacation 있고 아마도 남극 해안 연결할 것입니다. I 있어야 않은 Microsoft; 외부에서 기회가 제공되며, I ’ll 수 사용하여 내 휴가 시간으로 부여할 기한 고려.

내 개인 전자 메일 주소는 scott@quadhome.com입니다. Facebook 또는 LinkedIn 표시 찾을 수 won’t 복구된 사회 네트워킹 addict ‘m. 그러나 quadhome.com 내 블로그 것입니다. 우리는 모든 중 전체 해당 작업을 are… 콘텐츠 chock 방법을 알고

좋은 시간 주셔서 감사합니다. 모든 받지 못한 것입니다.

http://www.windowslivetranslator.com/

From: Sachin Goel
Sent: Monday, February 09, 2009 2:19 PM
To: Scott Robinson (DRSR); William Lees; Management Modeling Studio Team
Subject: RE: Opportunity for Scott

Was funny ☺…coz these tools don’t give you same translation when translated back. (Also you forget to mention Korean -> English).

my time here team products have matured and large ecosystem to fit the increase. It allows the display you know - course customers a new value to provide software and create ’ re we celebration.

However, travel through i have provided management modeling Studio Team for the appropriate location that understand. Therefore, carefully deliberation after i decided to move time - for.

my resignation effective will 2008 February 27th. (the business of the month the last day)

my immediate plan New Zealand; vacation and probably the Antarctic coast to connect to. I have not Microsoft; outside of the opportunity is provided, i ‘ ll be using the my vacation time to give due consideration.

my personal e-mail address is the Scott @ quadhome www.Europe.contoso.com. Facebook or LinkedIn show you can find the dollar ’ t recovered social networking addict ‘ m. However, quadhome. com my blog. We all of the full the operation  are … content chock know how to

a good time thank. all received.

-Sachin Goel

From: Sachin Goel
Sent: Monday, February 09, 2009 2:26 PM
To: Sachin Goel; Scott Robinson (DRSR); William Lees; Management Modeling Studio Team
Subject: RE: Opportunity for Scott

Here is the translation from google ☺..funny they translated few things quite differently.

My time on this team to fit the product to be matured and large linked to increase. Show you know it - of course customers create new value and provide the software to ’re we are celebrating.

However, I need to provide travel management is not in the appropriate location for Modeling Studio Team to understand. Therefore, I decided the time to move carefully, Deliberation - was about.

My Resignation is effective February 2008 27th. (If the last day of the business of the moon)

My immediate plan of New Zealand; vacation and will probably connect to the Antarctic coast. I do not need Microsoft; external opportunities will be offered in, I ‘ll use my vacation time to consider the grant period.

My personal e-mail address is scott@quadhome.com. Display will not be found or recovered Facebook LinkedIn social networking addict ’m. However, my blog is quadhome.com. are ... you know how to content ChockJAll of the tasks we all

Thanks for a good time. Not all will receive.

-Sachin Goel

Winter stay-cation certainly did a number on my musical tastes for January.

In composing this month’s playlist, I had to leave a certain special track off. It was really either it, or the rest of the mixtape. And, there’s no arguing against one minute and thirty-two seconds of ecstasy:

Doesn’t your brain feel better?

I’d been hearing about Processing for quite a while. Apparently, it’s the grown-ups Logo. Which is to say, where Logo was fun and educational, Processing is fun and for artists.

I miss Logo.

But, yesterday I “officially” started reading The New Turing Omnibus. The very first chapter is about the description of algorithms. High-level vs. low-level. Recipies vs. instructions. Yadda vs. blah blah.

More importantly, the algorithm used for demonstration purposes is graphical:

WALLPAPER

1. input corna, cornb
2. input side
3. for i ← 1 to 100
   1. for j ← 1 to 100
      • x ← corna + i × side/100
      • y ← cornb + j × side/100
      • c ← int(x² + y²)
      • if c even
        • then plot(i, j)

This wouldn’t normally excite me. But, the following page had a figure (1.2) of an “algorithmic wallpaper.”

IT WAS COOL SHIT.

I started reminiscing about the days when my programs made cool shit appear on screen. And programming environments were judged on how they could make it happen. Logo? Awesome. BASIC? Yeah, ok. C? Potentially the best thing ever!

Putting cool shit on screen was almost a requirement. And it hasn’t died:

• Demoscene
• Screensavers
• Linux text scrolls

With all of that, though, I realized something— it had died with me.

I haven’t been responsible for putting cool shit on screen in... well, I couldn’t remember.

Which brings us back to Processing. Thanks to it, everything is alright.

(and if your web browser doesn’t immediately panic, view the source)

I have more projects, big and small, than which I can devote my attention. The same is true of friends, business ideas, experiments, hobbies, and adventures. You know, off my head.

I have too much life.

In that vein, a few weeks ago I put together a list. I want to share it with you.

Things I’d Really Like To Pull Off In 2009

1. Successfully complete year three of my old Life Plan:
   • Self-employed or effectively independently operating in a previously existing organization.
   • Traveled to at least two continents, with one trip having lasted longer than six months.
   • Evaluating relationships in terms of marriage criteria.
2. Formulate a new Life Plan for the next five years.
3. Keep learning the guitar.
   • Movable barre chords by February.
   • Finish And I, Hotel California, Desert Grave, Talk Her Down.
4. Pick back up dancing:
   • Salsa lessons
   • Swing lessons
5. Bouldering a V5.
   • V4 by March.
6. Release a side-project once a quarter:
   • Winter: flickrsync / pif
   • Spring: FriendQueue
   • Summer: OurTorrents
   • Fall: TagMail
7. Blog more. Blog harder. Blog longer.

Is that a year’s worth? It doesn’t feel complete. Do you have any suggestions?

Since we’re honest here, I suppose I also put together another list...

Things That Don’t Seem So Appealing

1. Settling down.
2. Becoming rich.
3. Indulging my vices.

Shimon Rura is clearly a smart guy. He seems to have the talent of creating software designed exactly how I designed it in my notebook - half a year before I think of it.

Example 1: voo2do. Best. Todo. Software. Ever. It got me through college.

Example 2: peepdex. This will get me through Real Life™.

And he runs BarCamp Boston?! My hero.

I fixed unicode support and made a new mixtape!

This one is of my top songs of 2008 that I haven’t shared previously.

The command-line you’re looking for, to turn your laptop into ghetto noise-canceling headphones:

$ sox -t alsa hw:0 -t alsa hw:0 vol -1

Sadly, latency is a killer. And, unless you manually spin it down, the required gain will pick up your internal hard drive’s spinning platters... and make a freaky feedback effect.

These earplugs aren’t enough.

This is, apparently, frustratingly hard for some people (not you, of course) to understand.

Exhibit 1a (White People)	Exhibit 1b (White People)
Exhibit 2a (Black People)	Exhibit 2b (Black People)

None are simple cases of affluence or success. Those are the results of radically different socio-economic backgrounds.

So, can we please stop talking about black and white people?

“But what about racism toward black people?” I already commented.

I wish it wasn’t necessary; but, this issue arose in the draft’s review. The sort and order of the above were and have remained randomized. I got the same dose of progressive brainwashing as you.

“Merry Christmas!”

Some people have already been told via my favourite social network.

I quit Facebook a while ago. This made a lot of people very angry, and has been widely regarded as a bad idea.

A little bit ago, Max logged in on my laptop to show me his pictures from our recent dumpster sledding foray. He then left me with the request, “don’t mess with my profile too much.” So, I decided to surf around...

In less than five minutes, I pressed the logout button. The appeal was completely gone.

Up to this point, I had hedged my bets. But, now, I’m certain I won’t be going back. Don’t take this as me begrudging your use of nouveau-AOL, though.

Ok, look. You know how I’ve been making monthly mixtapes?

Yeah.

Well, if you’re the hacker sort; then, you might be interested in checking out moxie. It’s the software noisybastard and I wrote to make said mixtapes.

And, by way of a PR campaign, this moxie mixtape has some fun tracks and points you at how to make your own!