Category Archives: writings

Making things better is harder than making them worse

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I just thought of it this way. I never stop working. Mostly it’s related to learning, but my mind never stops trying to make things better; whether for me or attempting to find a solution to some of life’s problems that all humans have to deal with. I’ve been cleaning a lot at work lately and I feel like it’s related to my want to make things better.

I think my new rule is going to be that I will leave a room better than when I entered it. This will instill in me, over time, a long-term ability to make things better. And as I just realized, making things better is a lot harder than making things worse. It takes character, integrity, and a very strong drive to make things better, and I want to do what it takes.

Declaration of Cannabis Independence

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When during the course of human events it becomes necessary for people to act on behalf of a plant to dissolve the political bands which have connected it with a government body and to assume among our rights as American citizens, the separate and equal voices of the people and the origins they come from, we must formally inform the government of its inadequacies handling this situation and why we must act on behalf of this genus of plant.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that Cannabis is a genus of plant needlessly persecuted by the United States Government to the detriment of the nation and the planet. The federal laws that govern the growing, use, ingestion, and personal opinion of this genus are an infringement on our rights as citizens of the United States of America.

As citizens, we have a responsibility to fix the problem by abolishing the old system and laying a foundation on the original principles that guide our nation. We are empowered by the very fact that we walk the Earth; indeed, all men and women are created equal. We have a right to represent Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness in whatever form that takes and be heard, especially when speaking the truth.

We do not take this action lightly; this declaration is in response to dire need. We understand the nature of Man’s suffering and know it to be a necessary evil but the laws enacted to govern Cannabis are counter to the solution. For this reason, we cannot accept the federal laws in place.

When the government repeatedly attacks its own citizens, when it falsifies information, when it acts in the interest of a few rather than the common good, and when it completely disregards the Constitution that this nation is founded on, we have the right and the duty to overthrow that government and establish a new system.

The current Federal Government of the United States of America has, and continues to operate in a manner that is counter to the principles the nation was founded on.

To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world:

It has maintained that Cannabis is a dangerous drug in direct ignorance of the medical properties it is known to have.

It has perpetuated a racist attitude since the beginning of Cannabis governance in the United States: with the first Cannabis laws enacted as a way to control Mexican populations and currently as indicated by the irrational number of arrests of minorities, specifically blacks, over whites, charged with simple possession of Cannabis.

It has, as a scare tactic, and for the profit of those vested in the privatized penal system, imprisoned its own citizens and the citizens of other nations in an attempt to quell the propagation of the Cannabis plant.

It has attempted to intimidate proponents of Cannabis by using the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) to enforce the Controlled Substances Act with use of firearms and violence.

It, as the DEA, has forbidden propagation of industrial hemp, a valuable natural resource that is is a different end form of the Cannabis plant than Marijuana.

It, as the DEA, has mercilessly attacked the otherwise innocent proponents of all kinds of Cannabis on the basis of the association with Marijuana.

It, as the DEA, has spent taxpayer money to eradicate the plant in the wild and in urban environments.

It, as the Department of Homeland Security, the US Military, and the DEA, has failed to stop cartels from smuggling drugs over the borders into our country and causing violence to the detriment of all countries involved.

It, as the DEA, has attacked and disabled Oaksterdam University, an institution whose main goal is to educate the public about Cannabis.

It, as the DEA, has allowed the detention without charge of a Cannabis user, Daniel Chong, left in a jail cell for five days without food or water.

It, as president Barack H. Obama, has refused to engage the proponents in a respectful way, opting instead to laugh at overwhelming YouTube town hall questions about Cannabis and “what that says about [the] online audience”; berating and belittling a movement of people who supported him.

It has refused to acknowledge states’ intelligent and responsible enactment of laws regarding the control of Cannabis.

It has allowed its Congressional Committee Chairman Lamar Smith of Texas to ignore progressive Cannabis legislation like the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2011 H.R. 2306, introduced to the House of Representatives by Republican Ron Paul and Democrat Barney Frank.

It has perpetuated the fall of the United States economy by not allowing Cannabis to be grown, instead relying on unsustainable products destined for third world countries and our planet’s oceans in the form of a large island made of plastic garbage.

It has prohibited hemp as a crop despite evidence of its versatility and proven positive effects on the environment as in the forms of negative carbon emissions and soil improvement.

It has forbidden the domestic production of Cannabis for hemp whilst allowing the importation of the plant, causing higher prices and lack in Gross Domestic Product.

Its Library of Congress contains materials regarding the negative effects of the Prohibition of Alcohol in the 1920s and continues to support Prohibition of a plant which has no confirmed related deaths.

It enacted a law, the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, meant to tax the Cannabis plant, but effectively prohibited it by not issuing tax stamps.

It employed propaganda like Reefer Madness at the hands of Hearst, Anslinger, DuPont, and Mellon, ignored due process by holding extremely short US Congressional hearings on the subject, and accepted false testimony from non-experts during those hearings for the purposes of quickly passing the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 and eliminating Cannabis production as a natural competitor to synthetic materials like Nylon.

It changed its position on the Cannabis plant during World War II and produced a propaganda film called Hemp for Victory to encourage American farmers to grow hemp because Japanese forces had eliminated the imported supply necessary for sustaining the US Armed Forces with cordage and other hemp products.

It, as president Richard M. Nixon, ignored the report “Marihuana, A Signal of Misunderstanding,” that he commissioned Raymond P. Shafer to write in 1972 and its recommendation to overhaul the Cannabis laws, especially with regard to medicinal value, the usefulness of the plant, and the symbol that Cannabis is in American society.

It has sent mixed messages regarding the plant’s legality with the implementation of an FDA program signed into law by president Jimmy Carter allowing a limited number of citizens access to free medical Cannabis and the constant federal raids on state-sponsored medical Cannabis facilities.

It has allowed the murder of propagators of the Cannabis plant and other innocent people.

It allows its law enforcement officers to perform unwanted and unconstitutional searches of personal property for the purposes of intimidating proponents of Cannabis.

It has destroyed the lives of potential higher-education students who have been denied access to funds because of federal Cannabis-related drug offenses.

It has employed trickery in the form of double-agents, spies, and other unconstitutional methods of obtaining evidence to be used against Cannabis proponents.

It has acted in a way that is counter to a general concern for the commonwealth of the the nation because violence has been employed as a means to control public opinion.

It ignores the technology available to effectively control, tax, and regulate Cannabis the same as any other product in lieu of prohibiting the plant, leading to a Black Market for the drug Marijuana and importation of and loss of benefits from industrial hemp.

We have attempted to affect change in a civil manner. Repeatedly, the topic is dismissed and not given its due attention. This plant causes no deaths and it should not be illegal, if only for the sole reasons of responsible taxation and regulation.

The federal laws governing the plant genus Cannabis are immoral, wrong, and directly conflict with the Constitution and Declaration of Independence of the United States.

We, therefore, as citizens of the United States of America, unified in only this voice, appealing only to the Supreme Judge for rectification of our intentions, do, in the name of the United States of America, by the power vested in all of us by our own life, declare that the plant genus Cannabis is a native inhabitant of the planet Earth and should therefore not be subject to the laws set forth by the United States Federal Government, which shall have no jurisdiction over the Cannabis plant in any of its forms, nor inflict any harm whatsoever on any person because of Cannabis. All political connections the United States Federal Government have with the Cannabis genus are now and ought to be forever abolished and that as Free citizens of the States of America, we are free to assume full power as Independent States to govern Cannabis as we see fit.  –And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on truth and liberty as a guide, we mutually pledge each other our Lives, our Dedication to the Truth about Cannabis, and our Sacred Honor.

Blatantly Obvious Injustices in the USA

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Here is a list of things that I think are wrong in the USA. And not just the kinds of things that are not well documented or obscure by nature. Wikipedia any of these topics and you’ll be amazed at the amount of real, factual information we have available on the Internet about them while the government is allowed to continue.

  1. Washington, D.C., other USA territories – Taxation without Representation
  2. Guantanamo Bay – war crimes and holding without charge
  3. Cannabis/Drugs Laws – Industrial Hemp; MMJ; harsh Marijuana laws; Latin American cartels
  4. Prison System – Privatization and unreasonable laws
  5. Holding prisoners without charge – Bradley Manning
  6. Dealing with racial profiling – Trayvon Martin
  7. Education is being compromised – #DontDoubleMyRates
  8. TSA and Department of Homeland Security – invasion of privacy in the name of liberty
  9. Garbage Island and our policy toward waste

Think I missed something? Leave a comment below.

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Well I’m not everyone else.

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Today was a good day. I had Indian food for lunch, talked some good talks, walked a little bit more than usual, and discovered some cool new things about myself and other people.

I had a nice chat with MJ at iFixit at my desk about social media and what I want my online presence to be. She really had some awesome insights into how we all use the Internet for communication and what it can mean for people. She helped me to realize that there are some strategies I want to implement in my online existence; ways of going about working toward a goal (professional or otherwise).

Today was also about clearing up some misunderstandings and clearing things up regarding my job at iFixit. I want to know what is expected of me, and sometimes I don’t. Pretty simple, really. I want to do an awesome job; sometimes the flesh is weak, though, and I fall short. It happens to everyone one time or another. I just want to know I am making a difference. Because if I’m not, I need to try a new strategy. Doing the same thing and expecting different results is the definition of insanity (or so some urban dictionary says) and I’d like to at least attempt to avoid that.

As for my online existence, I’m leaning toward the idea of attempting video blogging. I need to overcome a few barriers:

  • Getting comfortable enough in an environment to act naturally and speak intelligibly
  • Have good enough content (relevant, helpful)
  • Not look like a bum
  • Have the capacity for guests (eventually, hopefully)
  • Have a workbench and DIY area for projects
  • Content – what scope?
  • Did I mention content?
  • Now this is just ridiculous… content.
  • Seriously, though. It seems like all the good topics are taken.
  • The ones I really want to write about are too controversial.
  • Eh… I’ll start off easy and see where it goes from there.

Okay, so I made a list. These are all concerns I have about vlogging. Did I miss anything else I should be aware of? I want to make this happen the right way. I’m not in it to fail. Just to do it right, which sometimes looks like the wrong way because everyone else does it another way.

Well I’m not everyone else. I’m me.

Get used to me, because I’m not going anywhere.

*Ahem…*

Yes, I’m excited for what’s ahead. Technology is booming exponentially and soon the world will be a much better place. At least I hope it will be. Humans do kinda have the tendency to take something really awesome and turn it into something it’s not meant to be for greed, power, money, etc.

I’m attempting to stop letting those get to me. By taking control of my life, I realize that I have a better understanding of my life and how it’s affected by other people, and how I affect others. I want to have a positive influence on the world so I act accordingly. It’s really, pretty simple. If you want love, you have to give it. Don’t just continue assuming you can keep taking from the penny jar indefinitely. One of these days, the pennies will be no more because you took them all. And now there’s none for anyone else. Way to freaking go.

I don’t expect anyone’s still with me at this point, so I’ll just take a moment to stretch…

…..

AND we’re back.

Welcome back to this, the first in a series of typed documents involving what’s going on in Ryan’s head as he types.

Takes breath.

So it just hit me as I took that stretch that I can create an audience based entirely on the typed word. It is somewhat of a grassroots idea, but starting with this blog post, I will hence forth be typing as I think for periods of time. Probably an hour or less, but we’ll see what I feel like after I start this. Chances are pretty good that I might do this once, and forget or decide not to do it again. But that’s then and this is now.

So how all you folks doing? Is this thing on?

I have put together a fine speech for you, but unfortunately I don’t have time or resources to make something with a lot of production values (I’m just starting out, for crying out loud). If I get a good response I’ll put more resources into my endeavors. That’s just kinda how I work, I guess. It seems kinda selfish. If I’m thinking about that correctly. I can’t figure that one out.

Anyway, it’s great to be back. I haven’t talked to the entire world in quite a few… moons, suns, stars? OOOooohhh corny joke about me having talked to the world a previous time. Ha ha.

Am I shooting myself in the foot here? Kinda feel like this could come back at me.

Well anyway, I don’t have anything profound to say. I’m just another person. I’m an American, which means what it does these days. I think we’ve lost our way, though. It’s not about Obama, or Bush, or any one person. It’s just the evil that’s been allowed to spread. Not love, or kindness, or help. Just a lot of wrongdoing – major wrongdoing for the “evolved” creatures we are suppsed to be.

The phrase “what sets us apart from the animals” came to my mind a few times recently. It implies the learning of something that requires a higher intelligence to process. We can choose to take the enlightened path and better ourselves, or we can ignore truth and do it our way. Whatever “way” that is, if it’s some way that some person has worked out how to live their life, let ‘em.

There are certain things that come to mind when thinking about the basic infrastructure of what people need to survive (in decent, sanitary, middle-class-USA standard) in this day and age, and I wonder why villages in India have no clean water to drink. Perhaps I’m missing something, but… *having revelation*
OK so that doesn’t exactly makes logical sense. I tried going off on this the other day to my wife, and she asked me (after I had deducted that we have the technology to do so much, why do people still not have drinking water?) how does technology get you clean drinking water [for everyone in the world]?

I didn’t have a good explanation for it. It just seems to me that it should be possible with the amount of resources, (money, land, etc.) we have in the world, to make it possible for everyone to have access to clean drinking water, the same as I do (from an indoor tap in my kitchen, through a Brita filtered pitcher) or with similar sanitation standards. Refrigerated would be nice,  but you can’t have everything (most of the time, anyway).

So yeah. Clean water. And food. That’s a good start to getting human beings on some kind of humanitarian plateau. Think of it: every single person on Earth having access to clean water and food at any reasonable time. Doesn’t matter who you are, you deserve some dignity. Everyone does. What makes me angry is when people believe their basic needs are more important than those of the rest of the world’s population; like they don’t deserve to have clean water. … *another revelation*

Why the hell am I getting so worked up about clean water? I was never predisposed to preaching about this subject matter; it just seems like a good topic to criticize the world about. That’s all I’m doing. Fuck.

…

….

….

….

…

I could stop now. I could be building, instead I’m just criticizing. It’s not something that affects me to the core, but still I want the same standards for everyone else in the world. Is this a worthy goal? I don’t mean to criticize how we haven’t done it yet… I really mean to call out the problem as it is (whatever the hell that really is) and TOGETHER we can all agree about what the problem is and then find a sensible course of action to correct it. No need to get violent or tribal; these ideas are for everyone, and everyone should be involved. Obviously, we’ll have to work out how that with functionally work, but what isn’t possible with the Interwebs these days?

If you’re still with me, congratulations. I would not have had the integrity, or the willingness to read a blog post this long from someone like me. Honestly, this is just me brainstorming. I do it all the time. I just usually don’t type for this long, and I’m typing as I think. Just a natural progression of thoughts as I sit here and type (but do virtually nothing else). It’s the best way to really get some good practice in on typing, too. I’m getting a workout but I have a fairly decent error rate, or so I’d like to think.

…

What to talk about, what to say…

….

Took a break, and now I’m back. Thought about this as a benchmark. Seeing what my mind is really capable of at this point in time. At least in the form of typing it and essentially vomiting all of my thoughts on several topics right here in this one blog post. The number of which I am unsure of, because I haven’t finished yet.

I would like to, and frankly, the sooner I call it quits for the night and publish this document as it is, I will think back and reflect on it longer still. So I’m really not getting out of this easy. I make multiple attempts to shut off my mind for the night. I watch Southpark, Futurama, and other satire cartoons Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad, etc. which make me think even more, and then I try and go to sleep after my bed time and expect to wake up fresh as a daisy. It doesn’t work that way.

On the other hand, perhaps I have some insomnia. But I could just be telling myself that, I have no science to back any of this up. I’m just a lowly serf, trying to attempt to understand this world and my place in it. Medicine is still a foreign concept for me, and I’d like to one day be able to monitor my body with technology. This could be as simple as monitoring my pulse and as complex as identifying the precise location of my three kidney stones as they travel through my body (I’ve never had them, but heard they hurt like hell.

~*Shout out to kidneystone sufferers: I never want to have to feel your pain, but most likely will at some point in my life. I’ve been stung by a stingray, so I know – Not the same thing but it was a really intense pain. Just sayin’. *~

But yeah, monitoring my health, myself, with the Internet to serve as the “diagnostic computer.” Services like WebMD could prove useful if they developed some kind of software for self-health-monitoring with your iPad or some new, more advanced product.

So going with that theme, health, let’s explore the topic a bit, shall we?

Basically, health, water, and food, all fall into a category of essentials that people need to live. Since it is so important, for the purposes of being all-inclusive to a healthy life, we’ll add in shelter and clothing. Water, food, shelter, and clothing on one side of the coin, and health and the other side of the coin that ties all those together (i.e. if you don’t have enough of any one of these things, you’re going to have major issues somewhere).

With that knowledge, one can begin to look at the world as a whole and identify those places where all of those needs are not being met and fix the problem. Identify what needs to be fixed, and fix it. Don’t do other things. Just fix the problem. Not fixing the problem results in people’s time, energy, and resources spent and/or wasted.

Which brings me to another big topic: that of garbage and refuse. What we do with things after we’ve deemed them unnecessary in our space (throwing stuff out is fine to do, don’t get me wrong) is becoming a problem. My place is fairly clean, and there’s always something that could go in the trash, I could take the trash out, etc., but generally speaking, I have an acceptable level of sanitation in my life. I want that same level for everyone. I don’t care what the excuses are. If humans can’t effectively support all the life on this planet, we need to find another way. Because it is possible, I swear to you.

Dignity for all, and all for dignity. It’s not impossible and we need to realize that. We need to wake up in the 21st century and put the pieces together: we made it! All the millenia of living like the animals can finally be behind us. We have reached a common intelligence that allows us to differentiate from the lower forms of life that are not as smart as us.

Greed, …

greed.

Greed seems to be a big factor in a lot of this. Ownership comes to mind. The idea that I worked for what I have, and so what if some dude half way around the world isn’t able to pull a Fiji Water out of his mini-fridge on a hot summer day, I don’t have to care about providing clean water to him. Boo-hoo. Or something like that. And there are those kind of people out there. I know. It’s hard to say, but that’s okay. I guess we can’t all be the best.

Perhaps it’s my upbringing – Protestant as it was – that leads to my compassion without real care. I do care, but I’m not one to roll up my sleeves and get to work. I’m more about taking a year to develop a really good plan and then executing it perfectly. I like to think of it as looking at the big picture. I know other people’s pictures are much bigger and important, but it’s all relative. My big picture gives me a chance to identify larger goals so I know that the stuff I do along the way works toward the goal (whatever that may be).

Well I’m up to 2410 words and I feel like I’ve only scratched the tip of the iceberg. Or is that broke off the surface? In any case, my Linux laptop (old VAIO) is almost out of battery, so I’m going to pubish this as it is.

Well, everybody, It’s been real. Really. I mean that. I somehow feel like someone was listening. Which is odd, because in blogging, people read it AFTER you publish, so I’m not quite sure how that works. I just felt a connection with whatever audience I will have after publishing this document.

I hope what I’ve typed has made some sense. I don’t waste my time, and if it’s for no other purpose than to serve as a diary entry for me, I will have at least that. I’ve thought some things through, I’ve made some discoveries, and I will do it again. Until next time, this is Ryan Lutz reporting from Planet Earth.

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Faux pas, the way my mind works, and the past week

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So this past week I haven’t blogged or written anything. I feel very unaccomplished. I feel the shame of telling myself I would do something and then not following through. I suppose it is my instinct to become distracted/interested in something else that makes it so easy for me to forget about what I wanted to do. I have lived with it all my life. I might have Adult ADD (or so my wife says). In any case, on one hand, it has led to my love of diversity and never being bored; on the other hand, it means I have so many unfinished projects that weigh on me to finish.

But I think I’m near a turning point.

During this week of lack of blogging, I have been living life. Nothing too crazy or out of the ordinary, but just doing things that I was describing when I alluded to unfinished projects. I have been either revisiting those projects and made plans to accomplish them or actually working on projects. I’m not going to go into detail because I want to post pictures of my work when I am done and use the projects as their own posts.

So now I have nothing to talk about because the work is going to be in the next (or soon thereafter) blog post. Hmmm… what to say.

In designing and writing this blog, I have definitely contemplated being careful of what I say. This message (or at least a link to it) will be posted on every social media outlet I have that people that know me follow. It almost makes me not want to say anything because much of the important part of what I have to say is faux pas. It seems like the people I know aren’t even the right audience I want to reach. I almost don’t even want to waste my time.

But then again, there are a few of the people I know that will probably care about it and engage me in conversation about it. Others would decide I’m not worth knowing and probably unfriend or unfollow me. Others might be ambivalent, and some even might take a very antagonist stance against me. These are the people I am afraid of.

I’m afraid because they’re ignorant. I wish I could see it some other way, but to me that’s what it is. It’s not whatever it is they’re trying to convince me it is. I can really see it from so many points of view that I get it. I really do. I understand the situation. I’ve been studying it and evaluating for most days of my adult life, and I feel like I deserve a little credit for my studies. However, “studying” the situation is viewed as part of the problem. For my topic of choice at its very worst can be bad, but still pales in comparison to the problems it’s in the running with.

I’ve written about it so much that I can’t help but sometimes sit with my hands on my cheeks and sigh. It’s a perfectly legitimate topic, but is out of the ordinary for so many people who want to ignore it and hope that by doing so it will disappear.

But the problem isn’t going to disappear. It’s going to continue on so long as the ignorant people are allowed to be in control of the situation. Democracy is a funny game. In this particular instance, it seems like a large percentage of the population have an opinion, but believing one way or another seems to influence the likelihood of whether or not someone will vote for change.

If you’re still with me, the topic is Cannabis. Really, literally, yes. It seems juvenile of me to spend so much time thinking and talking about it, not to mention the countless hours I’ve spent under its influence, but it seems adult of me to actually want to discuss it as a legitimate topic. Everyone that I know just seems to want to keep it faux pas and hidden from everyone’s daily lives. I want to put it in the spotlight and really get down to the nitty gritty of what it is, why it holds such a strong position in the world, and what the best strategy is for handling it.

Because as of now, I really look down upon those in power because of their handling of this topic. Obama laughed it off when it was the most popular topic on YouTube’s viewer response to the State of the Union in 2010. I couldn’t believe that. To be president of the United States and laugh at a topic that is so important to so many people. I lost a lot of respect for him that day. Just as a man. Forget the presidency, I don’t respect Barack Obama because of the poor choices he has made as a man in the president’s shoes.

The point is, this topic is important, and the USA is being very juvenile about the way we are handling it. Knowledge does not control the country, money does. It is not enough that hemp is an important, game-changing crop; in the eyes of the US federal government, it’s all about the drug and that it is consumed. I got news for you – alcohol is worse, and it’s legal.

It really is a shame. We could really be benefiting from intellect, but instead we choose to drown ourselves in ignorance.

I digress, as usual. I wish I had a better method for going off on tangents, but it seems like too much work to organize my thoughts. If I did that consistently, I wouldn’t have the free flow of thoughts that make my thinking so much fun and productive. So I’m not really going to change. I’m going to write in the order that my mind works. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to read it.

At this point, I doubt anyone is reading this anyway. It’s probably just here for my own use. Which is fine. I can’t say I want the excessive attention and scrutiny that comes with being famous. If anything, I just want to have a way to reach out and affect the world. Whether that comes through this blog post or the site, or anywhere really, I don’t care. I just want that opportunity. I think I’m getting closer to it with this past week being so mentally productive for me.

Ryan on 2-23-12 at 7.53 PM