Copyright 2010, 2013-2025 by Richard J. Ballard -- All Rights Reserved.
I have a Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering; my Electrical Engineering interests grew from my ham radio activities (currently licensed as KD0AZ) during high school.
Today's technically-inclined youth learn computer programming and play video games. Before personal computers, technically-inclined youth often chose amateur radio (also called ham radio) for a hobby. I earned my WN9UAP amateur radio Novice class license in 1966. I earned my WA9UAP amateur radio General class license (significantly enhanced operating privileges) in early 1967, and earned my WA9UAP amateur radio Advanced class license (slightly enhanced operating privileges plus advanced status) in late 1967. Due to relocations my amateur radio call sign changed to WD0GDR in 1978 and to KD0AZ in 1983. My KD0AZ radio amateur Advanced class license is valid today.
The 1960's attraction of amateur radio was learning radio electronics plus camaraderie with fellow amateur radio operators. We built our own equipment from kits (that included step-by-step assembly instructions); or from scratch, bending metal (i.e., chassis physical assembly) using soldering guns and soldering irons to wire our own vacuum tube homebrew electronics from circuits described in texts and in magazine articles. As (heat-sensitive) transistor electronics became available we switched exclusively to small soldering irons, often purchasing the project-specific pre-engineered circuit cards offered by magazine article authors. And amateurs jeered at CBers (Citizen's Band radio operators) with their limited capability commercially-built transceivers and their rubber ducky antennas.
Homebrew circuit design and assembly became increasingly complicated as integrated circuit technology grew in complexity. Today it is difficult for a radio amateur to match the technical sophistication of the commercial electronics industry. And cellular telephone technology eroded amateur radio's unique luster: the ability to communicate over long distances using one's own personal gear. Licensed amateur radio operation still offers unique opportunities for electronics experimentation, but smartphone modern technology somewhat drowns out the amateur radio hobby's siren song.
This library spans the fundamental issues of computer security. 21st Century computer security has become a design / operations specialty. IMO an always valid question: Does this design / product decision unduly complicate fault isolation?
This library spans a comprehensive curriculum in digital image / signal processing. These texts are not recent, but their theory is sound and long-lived. Many products that formerly required custom-designed high speed hardware now can be software-implemented on commercial off-the-shelf microprocessors: multicore CPU chips offer affordable SIMD / MIMD parallelism opportunities; and some commercially-available graphics cards qualify as massively parallel processors. After long skepticism about AI (artificial intelligence) I am impressed by recent progress with AI-powered textual and graphical user interfaces.
IT senior gurus become project managers because they are technically proficient and because they want to keep busy and happy. Poor business skills and / or weak social skills can misdirect a consulting business, however, and underworked helpers are additional mouths to feed. IMO the listed references are rest stops on the road to project management success.
I am a baptized Methodist -- I claim no other religious affiliation. I am happily retired; my schedule pondering unfathomable culture is busy but flexible. I can visualize a person reading my unfathomable culture topic list, wrinkling their nose and thinking Discussing some of these topics is not politically correct! My goal is not to offend; instead my goal is to understand. IMO understanding is good.
Facebook has supplanted my Media Blog.
An incomplete list of books and films about Saint Louis Missouri, enhanced by Richard's photographs and videos.
(Eastern) Tantra combines Hindu yoga practices with oriental Taoism practices. (Western) neo-Tantra emphasizes Tantra's sensual lovemaking techniques, omitting Tantra's disciplined quest for nirvana.
This webpage's neo-Tantra and Sexuality Overview section briefly defines Tantra and neo-Tantra, then discusses neo-Tantra's benefits and discusses the economics and the politics of 21st Century United States social sexuality.
This webpage's Sexuality Books and Films section lists several books describing neo-Tantra's sexual mechanics (i.e., how to books). This section also lists a number of books and films depicting the economics and the politics of 21st Century United States social sexuality; my comments relate these books and these films to issues discussed in the webpage's neo-Tantra and Sexuality Overview section.
Increasingly I encounter people who believe that neo-Tantra permit$ physical intimacy without emotional commitment. I equate this belief to eating the whipped cream and toppings from a sundae but leaving the ice cream. IMO these people are missing neo-Tantra's best aspect: complementary mutual growth.
I consider myself candid, opinionated and well-meaning.
Please do NOT read this topic if you offend easily.
Not empowered people historically have enlisted magick to further their goals ... This webpage defines terms used throughout the magick, Pagan, Wiccan and satanism communities.
I consider myself candid, opinionated and well-meaning.
Please do NOT read this topic if you offend easily.
The eight Pagan/Wiccan sabbats are festivals of feasting and merriment. The sabbats also are occasions for novices who have completed their apprenticeships to be initiated into Family/Coven secret Traditions. Excited novices' gossiping precedes each sabbat -- an opportunity for friends and acquaintances to hear about Paganism and Wicca.
I consider myself candid, opinionated and well-meaning.
Please do NOT read this topic if you offend easily.
This three section webpage includes a Quick Start Listing that briefly reviews five texts and four films, a Book Listing that summarizes forty Pagan-related texts, and a Film Listing that summarizes twenty-seven Pagan-related films.
I consider myself candid, opinionated and well-meaning.
Please do NOT read this topic if you offend easily.
Many cultures have equated vampirism to the antichrist. Vampires are weirdly attractive and communion with a vampire offers near-immortality, but victims forfeit their souls to the vampire (e.g., Eden's serpent) in an unearthly ritual of personal ruination.
Popular culture often depicts vampires as cultured. (Contrast actor Bela Lugosi's noble Count Dracula with actor Lon Chaney Jr.'s remorseful working class Wolfman.) Recent vampire depictions feature disaffected youthful vampires both fighting among themselves and also stalking authority figures and the affluent.
I include immortals with vampires because vampires are near-immortal, revitalized by human blood. Immortals are not deities; immortals usually are revitalized by some elixir, and who sacrifices to provide that elixir often is the immortality novel's plot.
I consider myself candid, opinionated and well-meaning. My goal is not to offend; instead this survey webpage's goal is to promote informed understanding: informed understanding IMO is good. Yet recent events circuitously have taught me that some people find this survey webpage's very existence to be personally threatening. I understand if a person reading this webpage periodically wrinkles their nose in distaste, but (alluding to the film A Clockwork Orange) nobody is forced to read this material. Please do NOT read this topic if you offend easily.
IMO great science fiction emphasizes what if human consequences instead of technology. In 1970 I joined a Science Fiction In The Atomic Age reading class. John Brunner's Stand On Zanzibar was the most compelling selection; previously I had not encountered any novel like it. I started reading Brunner's other science fiction novels. Some don't digest properly on first reading, but all are memorable and comprise a (later) nourishing second read. And Brunner's historical novel The Great Steamboat Race IMO is comparable to author Samuel Clemens' (Mark Twain's) autobiographical Life On The Mississippi.
I read science fiction novels (e.g., author Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy) and fantasy novels (e.g., author J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord Of The Rings trilogy) while in college. Larry Niven's Known Space novels greatly expanded my science fiction repertoire: Known Space provided sentient being and culture detailed descriptions for a number of planets spread along our galactic arm. Larry's novels also played with technology outside Known Space, examining how technological innovation would alter sentient behavior and culture.
Larry Niven is an extremely prolific author who brings diverse and imaginative viewpoints to his works. Larry's collaborative efforts with other authors benefit both from synergism and also from diverse perspectives: collaborations with favorite co-author Jerry Pournelle feature military perspectives; collaborations with favorite co-author Steven Barnes feature physical conditioning, martial arts and non-Western cultures; and Larry's five-volume collaboration with Edward M. Lerner coalesces human and Puppeteer history from the time of Beowulf Shaeffer's discovery of the galactic core explosion past the restoration of the Ringworld. Reading Larry's collected works is like undertaking an interesting enjoyable quest.
In the late 1970s St. Louis had a Peaches record store, an entire supermarket building that had been converted to a vinyl LP store. During graduate school often I visited Peaches on Sunday afternoons, digging through the stacks and particularly through the cutout bins (the discount vinyl LPs priced three dollars each). On Peaches' great sound system I first heard Steely Dan's music, and I got most of my Steely Dan early vinyl LPs from the cutout bins for three dollars each. I played Steely Dan often enough that to save wear on the vinyl LPs I dubbed the albums onto reel-to-reel tape. Also I dubbed a 90-minute mix of my favorite Steely Dan selections onto reel-to-reel tape. The dubbing saved the vinyl LPs and the mix was good background music at conversational parties.
How do you describe Steely Dan and their music? Walter Becker (no longer with us) and Donald Fagen have been Steely Dan's continuing backbone from the very first. Early fans accepted that Becker and Fagen got together periodically with their studio musician friends to record a new album; the players changed from album to album. [Saint Louisian Michael McDonald (formerly of the Doobie Brothers, now a solo artist) is one musician whose bio mentions Steely Dan sessions.] IMO Steely Dan's music straddles both rock and jazz. Steely Dan's musical scoring lacks rock music's anxiety; complexity and sonorous precision is the name of Steely Dan's musical performance game. But Becker and Fagen are storytellers, and (like rock music) Steely Dan's lyrics hint about counterculture excitement: other people are living large in ways you don't understand. Steely Dan's complex precise musical scoring and their outlaw sophisticated lyrics were a heady brew for this engineering graduate student.
Musicians and graduate students age and mature. Still I enjoy Steely Dan's music, but still Steely Dan's lyrics make me wonder what I missed completely while traveling life's path.
Newly divorced in 1992, I visited a divorced unemployed friend's apartment. A vinyl LP Bad Luck Streak In Dancing School was propped up against the wall, lying on the floor. When I asked about it my friend gave me a funny look and said You'll probably like it. We played the vinyl LP, I liked it and I noted the artist's name: Warren Zevon.
Much later I revisited my friend's apartment and I thanked him for introducing me to Warren Zevon's music. My friend got flustered, and stammering he denied any knowledge of Warren Zevon.
Warren Zevon no longer is with us. I equate Warren Zevon's music with author Hunter Thompson's writings (e.g., Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas and Kingdom Of Fear). I don't recommend the lifestyle that either artist depicts, but IMO both artists illuminate alternative questionable lifestyles in an entertaining and knowledgeable manner.
IMO Frank Zappa's musical history teaches us the games that people play. (And if playing is not intelligent, then what is intelligent?)
What can I say about the most intelligent musician that I have encountered? (IMO all musicians are above average.) In 1967 my rock and roll band buddies introduced me to Frank Zappa's music. My rock and roll band buddies sought local gigs (and local girls), and Frank Zappa and The Mothers Of Invention sought a Top 40 AM radio hit (and local girls). All were fru$trated.
Some people criticize Frank Zappa, saying Frank Zappa is not that smart. Frank Zappa is talented, but Frank Zappa incorporates other musicians' good ideas into his own work. IMO recognizing quality is proevolutionary intelligence. After more than forty years still I am impressed whenever I listen to Frank Zappa's music.
I consider myself candid, opinionated and well-meaning.
Please do NOT read this topic if you offend easily.
Comments? Send Richard a message at RBall84213@att.net.