Oh Beta!

How can any regular posting habits penetrate the defenses of your grim visage? How are we to bask in the glow of regular posting, and to wit for others, regular reading! if your pale, grim countenance doth cast your pall over all the landscape of the moments of my life?

So here is what's up lately in no particular order:

FACT: PSP-3000 is pretty sweet. I got a black DS back in 2007 and even with some truly delightful software: Elite Beat Agents, Zelda's, Mario's, the INSANITY of the Drawn To Life Guys Games (who manage to make my jaw hit the ground about every 18 months or so) it just isn't the system for me. I feel like a pederast every time I try buy a game for it which is to say I can't walk into the DS section of any store without feeling like I am somehow violating an 8 year girls space. Now before I turn up on a watch list let me get back to the point. I am a 30 year old DUDE. Playstation is for US, for better or worse. So as far as I am concerned the candy bar PSP is pretty much the shit. The form factor is great, the analog feels better than PSP-1000's, the screen is delicious, the battery life is favorable and it doesn't lack for sex appeal. I think the PSP Go is going to be a great unit, smaller form factor etc, but there just isn't enough differentiation and I am in India too to fully abandon UMD. The 3000 does feel like the penultimate for this generation, but we'll see so far it's been damn nice. In time I'll probably pick up all the sub games e.g. God of War, Killzone, Resistance, Clank, Daxter.

FACT: I've been at work too much. However the bullet points on my resume are starting look a bit nicer every few month's. GOOD things coming down the pipe; shit I know I can't talk about, a nice little Indian market number for PS2 and PSP called Desi Adda and good looking port of Tumble Bugs heading to the Wii Store (the portal that no actually by games from) to go with Rangy Lil on the PC.

FACT: I have now lived in India almost half as long as I did Fort Vancouver and Elko. After a while even a wacky situation just seems to take on a life of it's own, I am now used to living (high on the hog) in a third world country. If you ever get down about the plight the worlds (many) poor just tell yourself some people love camping so much they want to do it there whole life. Seriously though, I wish the world had as much humanity as it had humans, we're all a little guilty, but that deficit is probably the most dangerous of all.

FACT: Oh shit. You really look at it the world IS in the equivalent of the next great depression. Now, I have been doing my homework, and it's not like even these cycles don't come to an end, but it would be GREAT if the political powers that be would just let the few guys that understand this stuff do there jobs. Stateside it's time to take taxation and regulation back to the 60's and become an industrialized nation when it comes to health care. But enough on that.

FACT: To my Friends and Loved Ones in the States, apologies about the sorry shape of my internet connection and the lack of Skypeing, keep the faith and I love you all, except for Chance Barton, 19 year old kids shouldn't make that kind of money. :)

TTFN

2008 to 2009

Well, I have held out for four days. The dust has settled the day has dawned and 2009 is upon us and I guess I just want to talk to briefly about what I have learned.

Inside people there is a fantastic potential, to love, to care, to nurture, to inspire, to create worthwhile mystery, to teach. In the balance there is just as much capability to create, angst, misery, jealousy, falsehood, apprehension, lies and general misconduct. These are all facets of our being and no one with any virtue worth mentioning is not possessed of some equally disturbing vice.

The whole of history is a just a tale of human relationships, sometimes wearing the masks of states and institutions, sometimes dressed in the garb of prophecy. Small activity to broad waves just patterns of noise and emotion. The whole of human activity can be seen as kind of struggle against natures both internal and external.

So here we are, simple creatures that can only understand the world as concepts and symbols, masks on the more ornate and difficult to understand deeper realities. Each of us bound by a world of proxy scratching the surface on a broader mystery.

A year like 2008 can put even the most disjointed dislocated person back in touch with the harder edges of our real world. Even the people most comforted by status, position and fame felt some of there own inertia and weight, stocks hitting the ground like watermelons thrown to the pavement of a third story window. Those on the ground already are just trying to cover there heads.

It is all too easy to caught in the rigging. To think that you are your job, your income, your relationships, your friendships. It is an easier route to put your faith into institutions, religious, financial, governmental and just hope the autopilot works. It is nice to just shut off, disconnect or unwind. Who doesn't want it easy?

Here's the rub. Easy isn't real, easy isn't even easy! This year I got a big look behind the curtain, and it's just like the Wizard of Oz. What you see on the screen isn't the real deal, and never mind the man behind the curtain.

At the front of everyone of our vaunted institutions is the layer of glamor that we all fall for often too hard. The glitzy appeal of the life we think we want to lead. The slick, comfortable nonsense and the artifice behind it. The great big world that we can see in magazines, movies and TV. The wonderful world we imagine it could be. But you

The reality is the day to day struggle, the hard work of good but fallible people just doing the best we can. The truth is that we all fight the same fights, to get ahead, to help each other out, to do the right thing, to make the most of the time we have.

Even once that the institutions we have built crumble, the things we may have believed in have let us down and we are lost and confused let me offer the small bit of wisdom I have learned.

In the beginning there were people doing the best they could, in the middle there were people taking all they could, and in the end there will be those that have the courage to make things great again. I am optimistic that I am in the latter portion. Somehow no matter what happens I still believe in people and think things are going to be alright. We are still those people that got us to this point. We have lessons to learn but I think things can still get better. I guess that is the change that is coming, I guess that's why I have hope.

As Hunter S. Thompson wrote, " Walk tall, kick ass, learn to speak Arabic, love music and remember that you come from a long line of truth seekers, lovers and warriors." Happy 2009, Go Forth and Kick Ass.

A Letter To My Family

The Vaughan/Blanchard/Barton/Christensen clan is represents a large spectrum of Political and Religious thought. But sometimes you just have to drop a bomb on them and let them try and argue their way back out. So with no small amount of love or sincerity I sent this email their way. I hope that I can do what to can for my own lot. Right now in America it's looking like the Third Act of Titanic.

Here is an email I sent there way. If you feel like I do retool to your needs and pass it on to your loved ones. Here it goes:

Hey All,

Mom and I were talking about this a few days ago and I though I should send this out to you all. I know I will be preaching to the choir to some of you, but many of the people I care about lean a lot more to right. Nobodies perfect! Rather than just post this up on my blog which only a few people read I thought I would be much better off posting this up here. I really sincerely hope I can change your minds about some things. I know you have a lot of fears and doubts about people especially that closet Muslim Manchurian Candidate, Barrack Obama. I also know it takes a lot of courage to go against the prevailing wisdom of friends, and your religious and business institutions. But we are staring down an economic crisis of unprecedented proportion. The kind that can so fundamentally alter our economic and political landscape we might not have a recognizable America left, if it indeed it can survive. So you tell me if me you think it's a good idea to leave our fate in the hands of the ideologues who have pushed us to the brink. Do you think the Opposition could be any worse than the Cannibals at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue now?

I've been watching our present economic meltdown happen in slow motion since about 2005. I started paying attention those "No Down Payment" infomercials talking about how to buy a home with no money and only finance them on interest only loans. They would advertise how you could own 10 homes paying a fraction of what you do for your current home, rent out the others and as soon as the house appreciate enough you just flip em! Easy Money, make thousands each month. Then I started reading up on interest only loans, a very popular financial tool that had previously reached it's zenith in the bustling years of the Mid 20's. I seem to remember something of a reality check hitting by the 30's.

The sad news is nothing is free or easy. All that ease of purchasing power and lack of fundamentals in the housing sector did was overheat the market , raise the cost of home ownership to prices radically disproportionate to the actual wages of the people living in them and make those that did jump into the market a prime target for bad loans. Wage growth has been negative for almost every year of the Bush administration, horrific when compared with inflation, which means the cost of housing should have decreased. So when markets come back to reality who can pay, no one has savings, no one has a safety net, not even the financial institutions.

So all of that money in housing during the Bush that was made was just a bunch of funny money, paper without real equity. Unreal estate. On top of that we a lot of investors, most of them managing money from Sovereign Wealth funds in other countries and public trusts in America with bills to pay, equity to protect and no real interest in propping up ailing markets. If the government leveraged buyouts don't hold we are looking unparalleled pan-global economic devastation. Even now our abilities to cope with this economically are stressed to the limits. If our bond rating slips the rest of the world may just cut us loose and let us slip into an economic free fall that will be worse than the Great Depression. We can wake up living in a world where China looks like America in the 60's and America looks like China in 1900's.

So who thinks we should be paying a half a trillion dollars a year to fight a war in God forsaken Middle Eastern hell hole now? Who thinks we should let the small fraction of people who laughed all the way to their Swiss bank accounts as they rode the Deregulation Train off the cliff, taking most of the American middle class with it, ride off into the sunset with a 200 billion dollar a year tax cut? Who thinks we should provide further tax incentives to companies to move or cut jobs out the America? Who thinks this is just history taking its course and not the ramifications of years of systematically undoing the progress made by during the Clinton Era, hell the Roosevelt Era? Who thinks we can stand idle and just say that all Politicians are the same, and we can't change any of this?

I think our deep cynicism has taken us to brink. I think we have seen time and time again that if you let a bunch of glad handing war profiteering crooks high jack the American Government over a bunch of non-issues you can't expect a responsible, rational, present governance. What we have had in the White House for eight years is, in all fairness, our Founding Fathers worst nightmare made flesh and handed the highest office in the land. He is an indolent, dull-minded, pandering, simpleton wearing the masks of Power with an absolutely certainty that his Providence is mightier than the rule of Law and the well-being of those he Governs. He keeps about him only the sycophantic worshipers of his own cult of personality and those savvy enough to pull his puppet strings. The political machinery that made this monster only wants unleash more of the same.If you want to vote for another deeply disturbing, cynical Political operative and his gang of Lobbyist Adviser's, running a campaign that would have even made him cringe only four years ago you can vote for that guy. It rhymes with McSame.

Our only hope is to elect people that understand the economy, still have an ounce of integrity, and still understand that all of the progress and prosperity begins with helping the Middle Class in America, if it means a few less Yachts in the Harbor for the boys from Skull and Bones. Politics IS institutionalized class warfare and I strongly suggest you look at what team you are on your tax return and start playing your part.* If you need a hint John McCain says you aren't rich unless you are making $5,000,000 a year. Hopefully this is getting a bit clearer everyday.

Disregard this email at your own peril,

-Joshua Scott Vaughan

*If you make enough money not to care about the Middle Class, help us out anyways, you will never want for friends.