Palindromes and Poems

I did not create the following palindrome, but I love it:

Dammit I’m mad.
Evil is a deed as I live.
God, am I reviled? I rise, my bed on a sun, I melt.
To be not one man emanating is sad. I piss.
Alas, it is so late. Who stops to help?
Man, it is hot. I’m in it. I tell.
I am not a devil. I level “Mad Dog”.
Ah, say burning is, as a deified gulp,
In my halo of a mired rum tin.
I erase many men. Oh, to be man, a sin.
Is evil in a clam? In a trap?
No. It is open. On it I was stuck.
Rats peed on hope. Elsewhere dips a web.
Be still if I fill its ebb.
Ew, a spider… eh?
We sleep. Oh no!
Deep, stark cuts saw it in one position.
Part animal, can I live? Sin is a name.
Both, one… my names are in it.
Murder? I’m a fool.
A hymn I plug, deified as a sign in ruby ash,
A Goddam level I lived at.
On mail let it in. I’m it.
Oh, sit in ample hot spots. Oh wet!
A loss it is alas (sip). I’d assign it a name.
Name not one bottle minus an ode by me:
“Sir, I deliver. I’m a dog”
Evil is a deed as I live.
Dammit I’m mad.

And to conclude, in the immortal words of William Carlos Williams:

        so much depends

        upon

        a red wheel

        barrow

        glazed with rain

        water

        beside the white

        chickens.

This too shall pass...

I suppose its time to start referring to "Driving To Zero" / JoeSteinberger.com as a collection of essays, rather than a blog. I mean... I didn't update in 2010 or 2011. That's definitely not a blog.

Lately I find my creative writing outlet in business correspondence rather than blogs and novels. The business communications genre has made me a much more disciplined writer. Really, if you ever have the pleasure of being my customer and receiving a detailed report including footnotes and parables you're in for a real treat.

At any rate, I'm posting now, after 2.5 years, because of a recent Facebook exchange of all things. It was a description of me, so actually quite appropriate for joesteinberger.com, and it was so spot-on yet... so strange... I'm still not 100% sure what to make of it a month later. It happened in a private group on Facebook, dannysic, which stands for Danny's Inner Circle. Dan and Todd, who provide the commentary, are two of my best friends whom I've known since college.

Pardon the small font or click the image to expand:

"Requisite physical toughness". Even if it's only the "perception of"... wow. I'm going to enjoy that phrase for a long time. That and "deranged, lunatical, or delusional".

The End Is In The Beginning Is In End

There is much to be excited about. There is much reason to feel optimistic.

ORR MADE IT TO SWEDEN!

IAN CAN WALK!!!


You can find anything online - even Rambo Total

Yes, life is a cycle. It is advisable to go with the current; no reason to fight it.

I discovered and interesting passage that I can attribute to one John Chatterton:

-If an undertaking was easy, someone else already would have done it.
-If you follow in another's footsteps, you miss the problems really worth solving.
-Excellence is born of preparation, dedication, focus, and tenacity; compromise on any of these and you become average.
-Every so often, life presents a great moment of decision, an intersection at which a man must decide to stop or go; a person lives with these decisions forever.
-Examine everything; not all is as it seems or as people tell you.
-It is easiest to live with a decision if it is based on an earnest sense of right and wrong.
- The guy who gets killed is often the guy who got nervous. The guy who doesn't care anymore, who has said, "I'm already dead-the fact that I live or die is irrelevant and the only thing that matters is the accounting I give of myself," is the most formidable force in the world.
-The worst possible decision is to give up.

A good 2009.5 to all.

So Much to Say, So Few People to Pay Attention

Pity the poor Drive Current South employee; they have to listen to me 40 - 45 hours a week. They have very little choice. Quit a decent job in this shitty economy or listen to Joe Steinberger's rants on a regular basis...

One of the fastest cars in the world, or at least the fastest electric car in the world, with the fastest 1/4 mile time is a 1972 electric Datsun. It beats Corvettes, BMW's and Ferrari's on a regular basis.

I am going to become a farmer. I'm looking forward to it.

Gray water system is still a work in progress. Installing it led to a cracked bathtub. Patched bathtub is still leaking. Perhaps that's serendipity because it's old and almost past its useful life anyway. And now the old bathtub and the laundry will water the new side garden.

Just in time too, because we are doing an extra 3 loads of laundry a week with the new diapers we just bought - Happy Heinys - I can't understate how much I love these diapers - they save me $40 a month... for all you fathers out there, that is $500 a year, $1500 for each child. No joke. And they are nice on the baby's heiny. And they are good to the environment. The only person they are sucky for is my wife, but she is stronger than I am.

George Soros managed to make $1.1 billion in 2008. That's a man with a lot of foresight. Good for him.

I am about to embark on the great Mid-Atlantic tour of 2009:

• Baltimore, MD (Heroin)
  
• Lancaster, PA (Amish Country)
• New River Gorge, WV (Jon St. John and maybe the Radkes)
  
• Washington, DC (WRI)
• Annapolis, MD (MDE and MDA)
• New York, NY (Capital of the world)

Wish me luck! Or better yet, come visit us at the office:

Drive Current South
91x * 94w
San Diego, CA 92111

Joe

Bullets and Bullion

• I read that investors are snatching up gold coins and bullion at a brisk pace and that gold is headed above $1000 an ounce. This despite flagging demand for jewelery and all those people calling to sell their gold. This unhinging financial system has the world's currencies losing their luster. I'm not sure where the 'safe money' really needs to go. Personally I would invest in practical tools and skills... dollars and euros may not be worth much, but you can't eat gold either.

• Yesterday at Drive Current we tested water and tested Jason. The findings were fascinating - Jason likes his particular brand of bottled water, and in a blind taste test including his water, tap water, other brands of bottled water, water from a different part of the city and solar distilled water, Jason can find his water. His water also happens to be significantly less pure than several of the waters tested.
• I've said it before, I don't use words lightly: the most appropriate word I can think of to describe my mother's 60th birthday* party is fabulous. And it was, perched on a hill overlooking the Pacific, family and friends, a rap from one son, and a blog post word dedication from the other:
  It was an evening worthy of a fabulous woman. Happy birthday mom.
  *(technically it was my father's birthday as well)
• I went to the National Auto Dealers Association (NADA) Convention in New Orleans last month. Fewer attendees and a more serious undercurrent as compared to previous years; the people there were there to work. I left feeling upbeat that the market - entrepreneurs, intelligent people, hard workers, disruptive geniuses, gutsy investors - will bring the change that Washington can't bring. If we do fall into a depression all bets are off, but I left feeling upbeat that we shall overcome.
• I went to Madrid over Christmas and New Years. San Diego to Spain. Via San Francisco, London and Lisbon. Thank you United miles. I have since begun using my American Airlines credit card and simultaneously stopped caring about miles...
  
• Flying over Spain in a small craft (via Portugal) at a lower altitude, one can appreciate just how 'discreet' are the cities and towns of the country; they all stop at one point and just become fields and pastures, even Madrid. It's surprising to see when you're accustomed to flying over LA for half an hour looking at houses and buildings before the pilot comes on to say, "Hello, this is Pilot Richardson again, folks. We'll be making our initial decent into LAX in approximately 10 minutes. The flight attendants will be coming by shortly for a final check."
• There is a good team taking shape in Spain. An electrical engineer, an architect, a mechanic, a safety regulator, a gardener, a software engineer, and a mayor. By 2014 there will be an apartment building in Spain with a fleet of electric vehicles in the basement and the following sign above the door:
  A SU CACA
  "lo llevamos crudo"
  And there will be date trees. And free shampoo. Pizza coupons for a year and a free backpack. It will be wonderful.
• There is a good man on the ground in London. We broke bread and washed our nasal passages together.
  
• We have a new conference room with a place at the table dedicated to a remote person. There is a screen so you can see their face and they control a movable camera remotely which means they can literally turn from one person to another and ask a direct question. The world is shrunk - bring on the universe.
  
• The house is DONE! Inspected, permitted, signed, sealed and delivered. I expect to have a dedication of the 264 square foot Wayne Harris Wing some time in the spring. It wasn't easy. In fact, it was somewhat hard. For a while I was mad at Ernie and felt abandoned, then I was mad at Jose and felt abandoned, then I met Hector, the handiest man I ever have known and now i have insulation underneath my house and a fence around the pond.

The Follower

I just realized I have a follower... Hello Gili Chupak, my #1 follower. :)

I think I just became a man. Having a follower is a great responsibility... wow. I have a follower. Thank you Gili. I think I am going to become a follower of you as well.... I have a follower. Crazy.

OK, anyway, I met some very interesting people yesterday, Alex and Freddy of NC Forged and Raul of 405. Raul started 310. I'm thinking of a new entity - 011. Has there ever been a real international man of mystery?

And to top it off, Suhas is coming to San Diego.

And my trees just got trimmed! My goodness, it is the holiday season. Happy holidays to all, and to all a good year.

You Lietenant Weinberg?

Feeling Shame, Sheep, and Joy

My, its been a long time since my last blog post. And much has happened. Why, just yesterday I was hit on the head with a cardboard egg carton whilst rejoicing in a new coffee pot. I still maintain most of my mental faculties.

At any rate, little Ian Steinberger has joined the world! He's pretty wonderful. And as I mentioned yesterday to my very first friend Andrew Karch, fatherhood in month 5 is way better than fatherhood in month 3.

I won an award for my portrayal of a professional Pie Racker for Halloween. I have a new favorite television show.

I read a book recently. It's the first book I've had time to read in a long time. Granted, it was about 180 pages with big font... short enough to induce outrage in people that expect at least 300 pages for their $23. (That's not me, by the way, but Pilar's uncle Jesus).

And now I am posting a blog. Hooray for month 5! Go Ian!