I am ramping up on my next personal project, No Fluff News. The site is going to be designed to sort out real news from non-news. The objective so far: Aggregate news, weed out non-news, link to true news, create an insightful, non-PC, sarcastic description and picture per item. For updates on the site follow on twitter, @nofluffnews.

Just watched the Obama Deception, made by Alex Jones, it is very illuminating on the facade put up by international banking cartels that have been around for centuries, i.e. the Rothschild Family. It is incredible that people continue to believe politicians even though they continually lie.

Some of the best quotes from the film are of former presidents Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson:

“The money powers prey upon the nation in times of peace and conspire against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than a monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, (and) more selfish than bureaucracy. It denounces, as public enemies, all who question its methods or throw light upon its crimes. I have two great enemies, the Southern Army in front of me and the bankers in the rear. Of the two, the one at my rear is my greatest foe…corporations have been enthroned, and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in the hands of a few, and the Republic is destroyed.” – Abraham Lincoln

“If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation then by deflation, the banks and the corporations that will grow up around them, will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.” – Thomas Jefferson

Bush and Obama are one in the same, two figure heads of a serpent constricting the freedom and life out of our country. Our freedoms are slowly being taken from us, they are beginning to assault free people filming and taking pictures in public places, both in the U.K. and the U.S.

The Bilderberg Group is currently meeting outside of Athens, Greece. A writer for the The Guardian, Charlie Skelton has been arrested multiple times for taking pictures near where the group is meeting. Skelton is a very engaging and enlightening writer. Here are a few highlights from his posts:

“It wasn’t meant to end this way. I’d gone for a gentle sunset walk, up by the Bilderberg hotel, to relax before the big opening day of the elite globalist shindig, watch Phoebus plunge headlong into the western sea, and (yes) maybe sneak a couple of short-lens pictures of the mounting security…Over came the man with the machine gun. Over came the man with the special mirror-on-a-stick for car bombs. It was the first time in my life, and hopefully the last, that I’ve been intimidated by a mirror on a stick. They circled round me. One of them, the one in the photo with one hand up and the other on his pistol, kept prodding me in the shoulder, and shouting: ‘Give the camera! Just give the camera!’” – Charlie Skelton

“Bilderberg is all about control. It’s about “what shall we do next?” We run lots of stuff already, how about we run some more? How about we make it easier to run stuff? More efficient. Efficiency is good. It would be so much easier with a single bank, a single currency, a single market, a single government. How about a single army? That would be pretty cool. We wouldn’t have any wars then. This prawn cocktail is GOOD. How about a single way of thinking? How about a controlled internet…My confession is that being tailed today by Greek special branch, and doubling back through a cafe and catching them out, and buying them chilled water on a hot day like in Beverley Hills Cop, when Eddie Murphy has room service sent to their car – all this was pretty exciting…Bilderberg is about positions of control. I get within half a mile of it, and suddenly I’m one of the controlled. I’m followed, watched, logged, detained, detained again. I’d been put in that position by the “power” that was up the road. Likewise, the Bilderberg delegates occupy a position of power over the bobbing ignorance of the people patting beach balls in the sea, and me with my crappy little camera and my curiosity and my ill-formed sense of citizenship. I may not be very good at bearing witness here, but I’m doing my best. I haven’t shinned over the fence and shoved a camera in David Rockefeller’s face but I don’t want to be shot in the forehead.”- Charlie Skelton

“I walk into the far entrance of the cafe. I’m in an episode of The Wire. The cafe is long and thin. I double back on myself and stand, hidden, by the earlier entrance. I’m standing behind a shrub, clutching a laptop to my chest, my heart beating like a Phil Collins solo (on drums, not piano)…They’re watching me now. REALLY. They’re sitting on the wall outside the cafe Oceania or whatever this is called, watching me type this sentence. I asked them in for a coffee but they declined. They laughed sheepishly when I called them Starsky and Hutch.”- Charlie Skelton

Not only that, the youth of our country are being trained in tactical assault reminiscent of the Hitler Youth. They are gearing up to take our country hostage and handle any uprising that may occur against the self-appointed gods that these ruling elite view themselves as.

The best way to fight these narcissistic rulers is to spread information exposing who they are and what they are doing. Everyone must become a disseminator of information about secret/semi-secret organizations like the Bilderberg Group, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Trilateral Commission. Freedom of information is the absolute enemy of the elite bankers, politicians, and corporations. Only through an information revolution exposing truth will we the people be able to usurp these fascistic, narcissistic, masochistic would-be rulers. The corruption is endemic in all levels of government and the citizen media is key to embarrassing and exposing the degradation of these so-called rulers. Resist the doublespeak and newspeak, don’t be sheeple, seek the truth and you shall be free.

The Obama Deception Film

*UPDATE: Per sean chambers, this is an example of the adapter pattern

I recently ran into an issue where I needed to implement a simple email service to send users a randomly generated PIN when they are first entered into the system. To accomplish this I decided to just use the System.Net.Mail implementation.  To create and send an email you have to use the SmtpClient class which does not implement an interface. All I really wanted to test was that the Send() method was called, I did not want to write an integration test that actually sends an email.

One way to work around this problem is to create an interface containing the elements you need to mock from the compiled class.  After this, create your own class that inherits the compiled class and implements your interface. Now when testing, you can seemingly mock up the non-interfaced compiled class, which is exactly what I wanted to achieve. I am not sure whether this is the appropriate way to handle the issue, if anyone has any thoughts on a better way to do this, I would be grateful for the advice.

My specification ended up looking like this:

public class EmailServiceSpecs : ContextSpecification
{
	protected IEmailService _emailService;
	protected ISmtpClient _smtpClient;
	protected string _emailTo = "phillip.fry@planetexpress.com";
	protected string _emailFrom = "hermes.conrad@planetexpress.com";
	protected string _emailSubject = "New Process to Improve Morale";
	protected string _emailBody = "From now on all employees will be required to have Brain slugs, remember, a mindless worker is a happy worker.";

	protected override void SharedContext()
	{
		DependencyInjection.RegisterType<IEmailService, EmailService>();

		_emailService = DependencyInjection
			.GetDependency<IEmailService>(_emailTo, _emailFrom, _emailSubject, _emailBody);

		_smtpClient = MockRepository.GenerateMock<ISmtpClient>();

		DependencyInjection.RegisterInstance(_smtpClient);
	}
}

[TestFixture]
[Concern("Email Service")]
public class when_sending_an_email : EmailServiceSpecs
{
	protected override void Context()
	{
		_smtpClient.Stub(smptClient => smptClient.Send(new MailMessage()))
			.IgnoreArguments()
			.Repeat.Any();

		_emailService.Send();
	}

	[Test]
	[Observation]
	public void should_send_email()
	{
		_smtpClient.AssertWasCalled<
			(smtpClient => smtpClient.Send(new MailMessage()),
			assertionOptions => assertionOptions.IgnoreArguments());
	}
}

Below are my email classes:

public interface ISmtpClient
{
	void Send(MailMessage message);
}

[MapDependency(typeof(ISmtpClient))]
public class SubsideSmtpClient : SmtpClient, ISmtpClient { }

public interface IEmailService
{
	void Send();
}

[MapDependency(typeof(IEmailService))]
public class EmailService : IEmailService
{
	public EmailService(string to, string from, string subject, string body)
	{
		Email = new MailMessage(from, to, subject, body);
	}

	protected MailMessage Email
	{
		get; set;
	}

	private ISmtpClient _smptClient;

	protected ISmtpClient Smtp
	{
		get
		{
			_smptClient = DependencyUtilities
				.RetrieveDependency(_smptClient);
			return _smptClient;
		}
	}

	public void Send()
	{
		Smtp.Send(Email);
	}
}

Hey just wanted to let everyone know that I updated my Firefox theme, MonoChrome, for version 3.5b4pre.
You can grab it from the link below:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/8791

Screen shot:

If you would like to contribute or grab the source, it is hosted on google code:

http://code.google.com/p/monochrometheme

A wonderful poem by Michael Savage:

“I am Moses,
I am Abraham.
I am Isaac,
I am Charlagmane.
I am John Wayne,
I am Coltrane.
They try to suppress me,
try to redress me.
Call me incorrect,
deserving no respect.
I am Patton,
I am Hatton,
even Mt. Batten.
I am Eisenhower,
not a wallflower.
I am Washington,
I am Pershing.
I am McArthur,
I am Kipling.
I am Audie Murphy
and I am Sky King.
They’ll steal your crown,
trample you down.
Take your good name,
and put it to shame.
I am Gene Autry,
I am Roy Rogers.
I am Tom Mix.
They try to push me,
over the river Styx.
But it won’t mix,
with my true blood,
which runs thick for America.
I am the bane,
of those vain.
I am the Weather Vein!
I am Michael Savage!“

Poem relating to Savage’s ban in the U.K.

-Michael Savage

Audio Source: mp3

Copyright 2009 Michael Savage, Talk Radio Network All Rights Reserved.

I just finalized my text color theme for visual studio. Just thought I would share it with everyone. It is geared towards those of you who have resharper installed, but it should still work fine without it.

The theme is based off of the textmate twilight theme. I was going for a low contrast theme that is easy on the eyes.  I have tried the Vibrant Ink theme and it is too abrasive for me. My goal was to make warnings and errors blatantly obvious and distinguish classes from interfaces. I also love how the comments are dark and do not draw attention, I am not a big fan of comments.  I think the code along with BDD tests should be self-explanatory of what is going on.

All resharper warnings show up as red text. Build errors have red squiggly lines under them.  Breakpoints have red background.

Here is a c# example:

Here is an example of an aspx page:

Style sheet example:

JavaScript example:

Let me know if you have any suggestions.

Grab the Visual Studio settings file here!

As .net developers do you ever feel like Microsoft is hindering your development by the development tools they impose on us. I have been thinking about this lately and decide to discuss it, or this might actually be a rant, forgive the rant. I aim to take a brief look at web development the Microsoft way, how it has evolved, and the hindrances imposed on the community.

The Microsoft Web Development World

Now I have never developed Microsoft web applications pre-webforms, i.e. pre-Asp.net, so I am not going to comment on that. What I am going to focus on is Microsoft’s asp.net development frameworks. As a side note, I have not done much development on the windows side of things, but it seems that it has been stagnating. I would love to see Microsoft write some bindings for GTK+ and/or Qt, and support those cross platform toolkits. Pie in the sky dreams, I know.

ASP.NET – Web Forms

Somehow in their brilliance, big brother decided that abstracting HTML and Javascript into a infinitely more complex framework would be a good idea. This is ludicrous, don’t introduce unnecessary bloat into a framework. The page life cycle is ridiculous, all the built in webform controls use some retarded infinite inheritance scheme. Also what’s Microsoft’s infatuation with span tags, they wrapped all their webform controls in them.

Lol, I know this is common knowledge and has been discussed at length before but I still have to deal with it on a daily basis and it feels like I’m trying to cut off my leg with a steak knife. My interest lies in finding the true reasoning behind this. I have to working theories. One is that Microsoft is so loving and kind towards their developers that they wanted to coddle them, and that coddling most likely stemmed from their lack of respect for us and our intelligence. The other theory is that Microsoft convoluted the framework without realizing it due to their arrogance, believing they own the world and the way they are doing things must be right.

ASP.NET AJAX

Next the web 2.0 boom arrived and everyone was clamoring for more interactive web UIs. The .net developers yelled loud enough and long enough that they wanted to have the same thing that they were witnessing in other web frameworks. The keyword here is ajax. So what does Microsoft do, they don’t take this moment and think about totally redesigning their asp.net framework, they say lets create some more complex web controls and use them in conjunction with an uber-complex ajax framework.

Awesome, we now how fresh steamy poo piled on top of old rotting, festering poo. Thanks big brother. Instead of realizing their mistakes they made with web forms they exacerbate the problem. Now we get a seemingly dumbed down ajax scheme, oh just wrap everything in an update panel and Microsoft will do the rest. Besides the fact that this removes all control you have over the interactions between the server and client, you also can not use any other javascript inside of these panels. So once again it boils down to arrogance, contempt, and a lack of foresight.

ASP.NET MVC

Now, Microsoft sees a significant proportion of developers moving to ruby utilizing the ruby on rails framework. Also the community is yelling and screaming again, must be appeasement time. Did Microsoft actually take an introspective look and realize how ass backwards webforms is? Doubtful, they just figured out that they better do something to try and hold onto market share and give the community some fools gold. So they copy ruby on rails, ooooh, way to go big brother, you’re so innovative!

It is way too late in the game, asp.net mvc is something Microsoft should have done long ago. Back when they were formulating asp.net webforms. There is no excuse for Microsoft not to have created a framework like this when they introduced the asp.net ajax stuff. It’s ridiculous, and still they are losing market share, I wonder why.

They ignore their base long enough and they won’t have a base. What are we supposed to drink the kool-aid and be satisfied, the MVC pattern is how old? Oh, wow they are supporting a way to unit test the UI interactions, wow how progressive you are Microsoft. Where is the support for plugins, where is the support for RESTful web services? The point is there is nothing to be impressed about, it’s ridiculous that people are excited, this should have happened long ago.

Conclusion

Now don’t get your panties in a wad I’m not all cynical, I like c# as a language, even thought it is a static language and I like the CLR. Hopefully MVC is a sign that Microsoft is going to be moving at a less stagnant pace. I don’t think they will be.

Things like Mono, NHibernate, the alt.net community supplement the failings of the giant, but we should be fed up. Microsoft doesn’t listen, because of their corporate culture, which i doubt will change. Adding things to the web framework that should have been there long ago is nothing to celebrate, there i said it, “Big whoop, want to fight about it”.

On a larger scale, why is Microsoft not listening to the community more, why are they not seeking to improve the community along the lines of the ruby community? Where is Microsoft’s version of package management like ruby gems? Where’s their continuous integration/build tool? Where’s their testing framework? Where’s there promotion of best software practices, i.e. SOLID, TDD, BDD, Agile methodologies, Lean methodologies? The answer is no where, all of that exists inside the community without Microsoft’s support.

The community is bettering ourselves in spite of Microsoft’s stagnation. Now think what could be accomplished if they actually fully embraced the community and threw their money and clout behind what the community stands for, it would be great. I am very doubtful that will happen, though, I think it will take mass exodus from .net development for Microsoft to ever get the message. If nothing happens the .net community will continue to stagger along at the pace of Microsoft, it will not reach its potential, and the community will wither and die.

There is an entire software industry that needs to mature, the .net community is but a sub-section of it.  It would be great if we could lead the industry in best practices and passion for our craft.

Obviously the answer to the titular question is yes.

I have recently found myself questioning whether the logic I am coding belongs in a domain service or in the presenter. I actually found the same logic in the presenter residing the base repository. Something definitely smells wrong, almost like the putrid smell of death, lol, nah just a DRY smell and a hint of mixed responsibility odor. The presenter was calling the Repository directly which was kinda of an indicator, but it is valid to do so, depending on the scenario.

The application that I am currently working in is a web application. That being said, I feel it is valid to consider the web limitations part of the current domain, not just a concern of the presentation. If we need to move to a windows app or something else, it will take a lot of refactoring, so why not just view the web’s issues as part of what affects the domain. Besides, is the purpose of the domain to be abstract enough to support multiple platforms or to dimish complexity? Anyway, that’s another discussion altogether, and I’m digressing.

Here’s the skinny, that’s a valid colloquialism isn’t it. I found string to integer conversion happening in two different places. Once in the presenter, grabbing a string Id from the view, converting it, calling an overloaded GetById method from the repository or throwing an exception if the Id was invalid. The overloaded GetById method was in the base repository, it either accepted a string Id or integer Id, if the string Id was invalid it was throwing an exception. Yikes, this is scary, and to think I was the one that coded all this, frightening, I know. I am recovering so don’t you worry yourself. Now to the current code:

Code to be Refactored:

Presenter

public virtual void InitializeView()
{
	if(TreatmentIdIsValid())
		LoadTreatment();
	else
		throw new ApplicationException(string.Format("A Record of Waste cannot be completed because of the invalid treatment id: {0}", View.TreatmentId));
}

private bool TreatmentIdIsValid()
{
	int validTreatmentId; 

	bool treatmentIdIsValid = int.TryParse(View.TreatmentId, out validTreatmentId); 

	if(treatmentIdIsValid)
		CurrentTreatmentId = id; 

	return treatmentIdIsValid;
} 

protected virtual void LoadTreatment()
{
	try
	{
		CurrentTreatment = Repository<ITreatmentRepository>.GetById(CurrentTreatmentId);
	}
	catch
	{
		throw new ApplicationException("Could not retrieve the specified treatment");
	}
}

Base Repository

public virtual Entity GetById(string id)
{
	int parsedId;

	if (!int.TryParse(id, out parsedId))
		throw new ApplicationException("Could not convert the given id: " + id + " into an integer");

	return GetById(parsedId);
}

public virtual Entity GetById(int id)
{
	return Session.Get<Entity>(id);
}

I think that there is no place for logic in the repository it should be left to the domain service. You could even argue that this functionality is common and can be moved to a domain utility. For ease I am going to move it to a domain service. Now, lettuce see the refactoring to the code above:

Refactored Code:

Presenter

public virtual void InitializeView()
{
	LoadTreatment();
}

protected virtual void LoadTreatment()
{
	CurrentTreatment = RecordOfWasteService.GetParentTreatmentById(CurrentTreatmentId);
}

Domain Service

public virtual Treatment GetParentTreatmentById(string id)
{
	int validTreatmentId;

	if (!int.TryParse(id, out validTreatmentId))
		throw new ApplicationException("Could not convert the given treatment id: " + id + " into an integer");

	return GetParentTreatmentById(validTreatmentId);
}

protected virtual Treatment GetParentTreatmentById(int treatmentId)
{
	try
	{
		CurrentTreatment = Repository<ITreatmentRepository>.GetById(treatmentId);
	}
	catch
	{
		throw new ApplicationException("Could not retrieve the specified treatment");
	}
}

Base Repository

public virtual Entity GetById(int id)
{
	return Session.Get<Entity>(id);
}

Alrighty then, we got any logic out of the repository, I’m feeling better already, my face has gone from grimace to grin, and no not the McDonlad’s character Grimace. Super serial, a la Al Gore about ManBearPig, what was Grimace, was he what you turn in to if you only eat McDonalds and nothing else?

The responsibility of the repository should be to read and write to persistence/web services/messages etc. The string validation logic is in the domain service, I may pull it out to a base service or utility service. Our presenter is so much simpler now, and not worried about logic that it shouldn’t have to worry about. Hmm, the cleanliness is delightful. There is no more duplication of logic in the presenter and repository, w00t! Now let me know your thoughts, comments, opinions etc. of dissent or agreement, it will help me and hopefully others learn and grow. I’m off to watch the some Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle original series, wow, I’m a nerd.

Issue at Hand:

I have been recently sumo wrestling with the idea of entity validation in my mind. So far, the validation problem, which is like, E. Honda, has the advantage over my mind which is currently like, Chun Li. The worst thing is all the other thoughts in my head are constantly struggling against my entity validation thoughts. As Homer Simpson says, “Every time I learn something new, it pushes some old stuff out of my brain”. Except for me E. Honda is doing his grab move, where he squeezes his opponent between his fat, and squeezing all of my current thoughts out of my brain. I don’t understand how sumo wrestling evolved as a sport, do they really have nothing to do in Japan. I bet it was the master creation of some drunken emperor. Umm, let’s see I want to watch two super fat dudes wearing nothing but a diaper try to knock each other out of circle with their bellies, muahahaha, they’ll be playing this sport for centuries!

Ideation:

I have been pondering about the idea of validation. Dictionary.com says valid is: “sound; just; well-founded, producing the desired result; effective”. Wiktionary’s valid definition in terms of logic is:“A formula or system that evaluates to true regardless of the input values.” When we think of validation in a programmers state of mind, the definition of valid in the logical sense, seems to jive the best. If x == y then it is valid if x != y it is invalid.

Entity validation is determined by business rules and processes. It appears that there are two fundamental approaches to validation, proactive and reactive validation.

Reactive Validation:

The most common way I have seen validation handled is the addition of an IsValid state to the entity. A good way of implementing this approach can be found in a posting by Jimmy Bogard. Whenever a business rule or process is broken the entity is no longer in a valid state. Then the user is informed of the problem in a different layer of the application. This form of validation is a very reactive way of handling validation. Meaning that it waits until something bad happens and then performs a function to cope with the contaminated actions. I don’t like this reactionary response, I would rather use something more preventative.

Proactive Validation:

What is valid validation? I wonder how many times I can use the word valid, or one of its etymological children in this post? What is a valid number of uses? I think the answer is 42.

So, is valid validation a proactive or reactive approach? I believe that proactive is always the best approach. My definition of proactive entity validation is never allowing an invalid entity to exist. This means removing the concept of an IsValid state on the entity. Once that is removed you don’t have to do an IsValid check everywhere in the application, which is my main gripe with the reactive solution. Is it valid for your domain to ever contain an entity in an invalid state, something about this scenario makes my skin crawl and stomach churn, or maybe it has to do with something I ate last night. Hmm, it was spicy so maybe. An invalid entity just seems like a bad idea, it is a treacherous force that will actively work against you like Saruman’s voice being cast across middle earth. I think being proactive is a much cleaner approach, and will cleanse your domain of IsValid checks. Wow, that is just a proof less rant.

Now the question is, what’s the best way to implement such a proactive solution? That’s the E. Honda I have been wrestling with. Let’s go over the broad definition of proactive entity validation. An entity cannot be created if it does not meet the business rules. Once we have a valid entity it cannot be modified unless the modifications satisfy the business rules. The stumbling block arises when your entity’s validity is based on a certain context. For example, it is valid to have a physicians drug order without a signature. When the process requires that the order to be sent to the pharmacy, the order is only valid when it has a signature. Ah, now the proactive solution becomes tricky because valid is defined by context. Following the proactive approach I could not create the entity without a signature, because it would be an entity in an invalid state. The only solution that I have thought of to this is having a drug order without the signature and a drug order request that inherits drug order and has the signature. The pharmacy then receives that drug order request with the signature on it.

Outro:

I have not yet fully fleshed out the details of how exactly this would be implemented. I hope to hammer out a spike with a spiked drink. I do believe that using a proactive approach to entity validation falls more in line with domain driven design by having a tighter coupling to the business language. A drug order does not need a signature to exist. A drug order request with a signature fulfills the need of the drug order being sent to the pharmacy.

Be a proactionary and not a reactionary.

Intro (stream of consciousness and twitter):

I had and intriguing tweet session (song; in my twitter terminology) with James Marcus Bach. I learned of him through Scott Bellware’s tweets and decided to start following him. I went to Bach’s website, and and learned what I could from it. From what I could glean James Bach is a self-educated man achieving goals through his own passion for life and learning. He has a contempt for the educational system in this country, which is a contempt I share. Concerning the technology sector he has done software testing and has become an expert in the field. He seems to be pursuing the status of polymath, which is a very honorable goal, one that I would like to achieve in my life time. I have read his scholarly blog posts and they are inspiring to say the least. He also has a software testing oriented blog which is a good read as well.

Our interchange began when I read his tweet about copy-editors not sharing his line of thought about the formality of his writing. For some reason I decided to tweet at him about how the future of writing is going to be stream of consciousness narrative. Which is a form a narrative that I find quite entertaining and informative. Basically, stream of consciousness is distinguished by following every thought process that occurs in the narrator’s mind at the time the are pursuing a specific conclusion or idea.

To some extent I think that the goal of twitter is to communicate people’s thought processes to others. I believe when properly utilized this can lead to informative discussions, which benefit all parties following the narrator(tweeter).

I think that the other strength of stream of consciousness is the way it humanizes the narrator and his narration. This humanization is achieved by spiritual and emotional qualities of that are intertwined throughout the narrative. This human factor is a key aspect to connecting with the user on a more intimate level. Almost every technical blog that I read uses a very detached, dry, highly technical language. They seem to take themselves too seriously, it can be amusing at times but then it becomes drab and uninteresting. I understand that the technicality of these posts is inherent in what is being discussed, but I believe stream of consciousness could enhance them greatly.

Practicing Stream of Consciousness:

I believe that there are various types of this narrative process which are expressed through subtleties in the narration. Below are the two main types that I believe exist. Each type has its usefulness and when applied properly will greatly enhance the readers/listeners experience. I go into some examples of each type to help clarify the differences.

Dissociative Stream of Consciousness -

One form occurs when there may or may not have a specific goal in mind and the author shares spontaneous thoughts. For example, while I am writing this blog post and analyzing the subject matter in my head, I am bouncing a small, foam, orange Miller Light basketball on my desk, which I acquired at a bar last year from a beer company’s beer girls. I was at a small wing restaurant drinking beer with co-workers when I received it. I am also listening to a seventies progressive rock band named Gentle Giant, and dreading having to go back through this post and link it up, it’s going to be very tedious. This style is more of a dissociative style, since you are not following a particular mental map of how you arrived at a conclusion.

Associative Stream of Consciousness -

The best way to exercise this form is to pose a question and narrate the thoughts that lead to your answer. Let’s see, what is a good question to illustrate this type. This may not even be valid, because I have to think of something and then make sure that there are enough extraneous processes for us to follow. Okay, I fear it may have to be a bit contrived for learning purposes.

What is your favorite color? Well the societal imposed norm for this question is gender based, females will say pink and males will say blue. So if I don’t say blue am I not a male? What if I am a male and say pink, does that classify me as less of a male? Why the heck is there a perceived answer to this question based on gender? It was probably promulgated by male dominance in society throughout the ages. Maybe it was actually women who promoted the distinction. I know that I have little color matching skills, an thus since I am male I can extrapolate that to all other males, . Is there some kind of predefined spectrum of colors that I can choose, like colors in the human-visible spectrum of light. Well I know my father likes green and green is green with me, but I have been partial to bright blue throughout my life. I have also always liked black, but I’m not sure that black can be an appropriate answer, because by definition it is the absence of all visible colors and white is the presence of visible colors. Can I answer with a color based on an observable object, say the color of a banana? Does the color have to be given in print or computer constructs, CMYK or RGB? Whatever, I’ll go with my gut instinct, the only hex color I know by heart #3366FF.

With the associative type we are following all of our mental paths that lead us to our conclusion. On to the twitter song that brought about this post.

The Twitter Song (in chronological order):

@jamesmarcusbach said:
You know how in old movies everyone wears a tuxedo or smoking jacket, even at home? Copy-editors want all writing to be formal. Screw them!

@seanbiefeld said:
stream of consciousness is the future

@jamesmarcusbach said:
stream of consciousness is the future? As opposed to reflection, analysis, understanding? How easily manipulated we will be!

@seanbiefeld said:
i just find that there are many writers/bloggers out there that take themeselves too seriously

@seanbiefeld said:
…they and write intellectulally stimulating articles that are missing emotional and spiritual stimulation

@seanbiefeld said:
therefore what they write tends to come off as highly technical but not satisfying the needs of the human condition

@jamesmarcusbach said:
Is stream of consciousness the route to emotional and spiritual discourse?

@seanbiefeld said:
wish twitter apps provided spell checking, themeselves = themselves, lol

@seanbiefeld said:
not necessarily the route to such things, more of a display of humanity to the reader

@jamesmarcusbach said:
serious question: do you feel that humanity comes out more in tweets? Or is it the interplay of tweets that does it?

@jamesmarcusbach said:
I find myself really confused. Conversations are sequences, but the sequences are hard to follow in Twitter. Is there a tool?

@seanbiefeld said:
tweets increase the probability of humanity coming out, but the individual must have not hesitations in what they tweet

@seanbiefeld said:
no tool that I’m aware of, disjointed is the norm, the logging aspect of tweets allows for one to piece together sequence

@jamesmarcusbach said:
So, for you, spontaneity is paramount in tweets?

@seanbiefeld said:
spontaneity can bring out humanity, the other part i see in tweets is discussion which can bring enlightenment

@seanbiefeld said:
while stream of consciousness tends to exude spontaneity it can lead to enlightenment

@jamesmarcusbach said:
Disjointed is the norm! Maybe so. I’m a bit worried that’s something a drug dealer would say to a new client.

@seanbiefeld said:
personally i have used twitter so far to increase my understanding of my craft by consuming the thoughts of my peers

@seanbiefeld said:
… and engaging myself in discussion of those thought streams

@jamesmarcusbach said:
I’m very interested in seeing an example of enlightenment by tweet. Then I could truly say that “life is tweet”.

@jamesmarcusbach said:
Twitter is conversation as a box of chocolates. Retweeting is “oooh, try this one!”

@seanbiefeld said:
my proof of personal enlightenment is a tweet session I had with @derickbailey and @bellware http://sbiefeld.com/?p=68

@seanbiefeld said:
it is somewhat recounted by that post but the post cannot encompass the entire discussion

@seanbiefeld said:
there is much promulgation of, lets call it spam, but I am a twitter novice and unsure of exact what retweeting is

@jamesmarcusbach said:
Wow! You are selling me, Sean.

@seanbiefeld RT said:
: @seanbiefeld Wow! You are selling me, Sean. – sarcasm? Electronic human interaction denies us context and inflection

@seanbiefeld said:
thus the downfall of electronic communication, subtleties in voice, facial expression, and body language

@seanbiefeld said:
but without twitter we would never had conversed, like with anything, there are good, bad and ugly

@seanbiefeld said:
i wish there was an app that allowed you to capture meaningful tweets, wait that could be a profitable idea, i claim dibs

@jamesmarcusbach said:
No sarcasm. Absolutely serious. You’re giving me a picture of how philosophy can be practiced on Twitter.

@seanbiefeld said:
I have only been using it for around a week but it seems if you want substantive tweets, limit those you follow

Conclusion:

After re-reading through the song above, I realized that i made a great number of spelling and grammatical errors, yikes, I blame sleep depravity. Twitter is a tool that encourages stream of consciousness narration, whether the users know they are actively participating in this form of narration is another matter. Twitter shines when users start up associative thought streams, which in turn generate discussions among multiple people. When this is not occurring there are a lot of inane dissociative streams, which can be good and bad. This discussion that @jamesmarcusbach and I had, furthers the proof that twitter can provide an informative outlet for those who seek it.

Signing off, seanky, to the g-funk era