I seem to be commenting on mass-media more and more, maybe I am just noticing it more. Being between projects, I guess that is the downside of down-time.
~FADE IN~
Slow pan of an unrealistic mountain vista. It appears to be a ski lodge atop an impossibly steep mountain.
An impressively animated downhill skier is barreling down a wooded slope. A deep voiced narrator explains just how cool this guy, this mountain, this bright blue sky is.
A woman skis up beside him... He gives her the nod... At this point it could be any shiny beer ad. The kind where pretty, 20-somethings (1 male and 1 female) compete as equals. Showing off the passion and respect that each of them posses for eachother and for themselves. The screen is fairly gushing with self-esteem.
Then they meet up for a lo-carb beer. Where they resort to the culturally expected male/female relationship of humorous scorn and aloofness.
I digress, anyway...
This woman (the impressive skiier) transforms into a razor-wielding robo-cyber-babe, and slashes at our hero with her 3 foot, forearm-mounted blades. He manages to avoid the unprovoked attack, as they both careen thru crystalline columns of ice. Then a hairpin turn (through a rocky tunnel) and the floor drops away... a 30m gap, a mid-air slash with those 3 foot blades that just misses. Our hero lands and rides away. The razor-wielding, cyber-robo-babe isn't so lucky. She comes up just short (as presumably all would-be attackers do against our fearless hero), smashing into the edge of the gap. The shattered fragments of girl-metal barely fade from view before we are presented with the official Winter Olympics Logo...
This was an ad for the Olympics!
I understand the US Army playing up the 'cool-factor' to raise recruitments.
But the Olympics, specifically downhill skiing doesn't need this. This ad is doing more damage than good. The "Super-G" doesn't need the XBox treatment to be cool.
Downhill skiing was EXTREME when EXTREME wasn't cool... Especially in the 70s, or whenever the helmets and aerodynamic body wear came in.
Is this a sign that I am "getting old". If I were 10 years old would I see this commercial and then be disappointed by the actual event? or are kids filtering this kind of uber-shiny crap at their retinas.
Perhaps they are, perhaps my media tastes are maturing (staying the same while new stuff changes).
Oh well,
You know what, if they actually implemented that sort of stuff in the Olympics I'd be all for it. I am not a purist when it comes to sports. I think we are ready for the next gen of reality-tv, action sport madness. The sort of stuff the Japanese have been doing for 20 years.
I gotta stop now.
1.20.2006
when it turns against us... it is bad!
Just watching a movie... Drum Line typical script... some nice drum solos.
Anyway, the protagonist is at a low point, not having learned to read music... he was kicked off the band after provoking a fight with another band at homecoming. Blah blah blah... So he receives a package in the mail. His dear father (with whom he has a somewhat typically strained relationship) breaks the most heinous of laws in all the land (keep in mind this is a major studio driven motion picture). He send his son a package containing STOLEN MUSIC.
The audacity of this criminal mastermind. He premeditatedly (is this a word!?) went to a STORE and bought BLANK audio tapes. These tapes were CLEARLY sold for the purpose of recording ones child's first words, a teenage garage band's first jam or other similarly precious moments. However, this MADMAN figured out a way to use these innocent devices in combination with his (purportedly) legally purchased, commercial audio recordings. No doubt he rigged some illegal contraption to transfer the artist's property from the legally acceptable media onto these tapes.
He then ACCURATELY labeled them, not even trying to cover up his crime.
isn't this enough!!! no, he then proceeded to abuse the Postal service by mailing this contraband to his son.
How can the government sit idly by while this travesty is allowed to occur.
How can people of good conscious sleep at night knowing that this sort of thing is going on at our colleges???
BTW: the old jazz tapes reinvigorated the kids waning interest in his studies, and he became the hero he was destined to be. And he started to see his father as a human being ;o) awhhhhhhhh
F the RIAA, serioulsy!!!
I ain't saying music should be stolen... but something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
When the LAW and TECHNOLOGY are used to protect those with money and power from those without it.
Don't believe the hype, a few token ROCK STARS does not a starving artist make. There are STILL revenue streams for people who want to make music for a living.
Every bubble must burst
p.s. it is a good thing Disney hasn't made a movie about Hamlet or I'd be sued for quoting that line.
Anyway, the protagonist is at a low point, not having learned to read music... he was kicked off the band after provoking a fight with another band at homecoming. Blah blah blah... So he receives a package in the mail. His dear father (with whom he has a somewhat typically strained relationship) breaks the most heinous of laws in all the land (keep in mind this is a major studio driven motion picture). He send his son a package containing STOLEN MUSIC.
The audacity of this criminal mastermind. He premeditatedly (is this a word!?) went to a STORE and bought BLANK audio tapes. These tapes were CLEARLY sold for the purpose of recording ones child's first words, a teenage garage band's first jam or other similarly precious moments. However, this MADMAN figured out a way to use these innocent devices in combination with his (purportedly) legally purchased, commercial audio recordings. No doubt he rigged some illegal contraption to transfer the artist's property from the legally acceptable media onto these tapes.
He then ACCURATELY labeled them, not even trying to cover up his crime.
isn't this enough!!! no, he then proceeded to abuse the Postal service by mailing this contraband to his son.
How can the government sit idly by while this travesty is allowed to occur.
How can people of good conscious sleep at night knowing that this sort of thing is going on at our colleges???
BTW: the old jazz tapes reinvigorated the kids waning interest in his studies, and he became the hero he was destined to be. And he started to see his father as a human being ;o) awhhhhhhhh
F the RIAA, serioulsy!!!
I ain't saying music should be stolen... but something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
When the LAW and TECHNOLOGY are used to protect those with money and power from those without it.
Don't believe the hype, a few token ROCK STARS does not a starving artist make. There are STILL revenue streams for people who want to make music for a living.
Every bubble must burst
p.s. it is a good thing Disney hasn't made a movie about Hamlet or I'd be sued for quoting that line.
Google's still cool...
http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/060120-105609
not that they won't some time in the future, but for now Google has shown a capacity not seen before in a company that size. Restraint and respect for the consumer. Perhaps it is part of a marketing strategy to reassure those with privacy concerns. I mean how better to gain 'street cred' than by going up agains a government intrusion of our privacy.
And the demand from the government, give us the log files for EVERY SEARCH and every RESULT... "every"
wtf... if the government wants to know where the HTM (harmful to minors) material is, why don't they crawl the web... It would be difficult, but not MUCH more difficult that parsing every log file from the top search engines. MSN and Yahoo already caved btw...
I believe usage statistics is a commodity item owned by the consumer/user... I think we need a government that understands this. A government that will stand up to the silly corporate mentality, where fear of liability cause injustice and harsh treatment of individuals. They put their faith in a process, in hopes that it will protect them from making a wrong move.
Well, giving up the records was the wrong move... MSN doesn't own my usage stats, they are not their's to seel (or give away).
Looks like my recent perusal of other search technologies just ended. Google has shown themselves (again) to be the only guys on the block that know what is going on.
power to the users...
down with the MCP...
not that they won't some time in the future, but for now Google has shown a capacity not seen before in a company that size. Restraint and respect for the consumer. Perhaps it is part of a marketing strategy to reassure those with privacy concerns. I mean how better to gain 'street cred' than by going up agains a government intrusion of our privacy.
And the demand from the government, give us the log files for EVERY SEARCH and every RESULT... "every"
wtf... if the government wants to know where the HTM (harmful to minors) material is, why don't they crawl the web... It would be difficult, but not MUCH more difficult that parsing every log file from the top search engines. MSN and Yahoo already caved btw...
I believe usage statistics is a commodity item owned by the consumer/user... I think we need a government that understands this. A government that will stand up to the silly corporate mentality, where fear of liability cause injustice and harsh treatment of individuals. They put their faith in a process, in hopes that it will protect them from making a wrong move.
Well, giving up the records was the wrong move... MSN doesn't own my usage stats, they are not their's to seel (or give away).
Looks like my recent perusal of other search technologies just ended. Google has shown themselves (again) to be the only guys on the block that know what is going on.
power to the users...
down with the MCP...
new york, new york... everyone is famous
FAME
I saw Russel Simmons today... after work... I think he was coming out of JivaMukti Yoga center (near Crunch on Lafayette)...
I recognized him immediatley but took a while to put the name with the face.
HOUSING
I just watched an amazing commerical wherein a serious New York real estate broker is chatting up a refrigerator box... I wish I had my tv capture card working... I'd post it... anyway she says ".. light-industry, oh look now its residential..." as she pulls it away from the garbage heap. "southern exposure and a.. " moving the box, slightly rotating it ".. and a river view..."
It looks like it was shot somewhere on the west side, between 20th and 40th st. Kinda Meat Packing disrtict...
I guess the point was to call our attention to the 35k homeless living in NYC.
COMMUNICATION
I left my cell phone at home today ;o(
Tried to call Julie, had to buy a water to break a dollar. The payphone's 1,4 and 6 keys didn't work.
TRANSPORTATION
it took me 20 minutes to get home. I don't have a car ;o)
I saw Russel Simmons today... after work... I think he was coming out of JivaMukti Yoga center (near Crunch on Lafayette)...
I recognized him immediatley but took a while to put the name with the face.
HOUSING
I just watched an amazing commerical wherein a serious New York real estate broker is chatting up a refrigerator box... I wish I had my tv capture card working... I'd post it... anyway she says ".. light-industry, oh look now its residential..." as she pulls it away from the garbage heap. "southern exposure and a.. " moving the box, slightly rotating it ".. and a river view..."
It looks like it was shot somewhere on the west side, between 20th and 40th st. Kinda Meat Packing disrtict...
I guess the point was to call our attention to the 35k homeless living in NYC.
COMMUNICATION
I left my cell phone at home today ;o(
Tried to call Julie, had to buy a water to break a dollar. The payphone's 1,4 and 6 keys didn't work.
TRANSPORTATION
it took me 20 minutes to get home. I don't have a car ;o)
1.19.2006
and I thought work was tiring
I just finished 2 seperate bids for 2 different jobs that I pretty much had BEFORE I wrote the bids. But I couldn't skip this part of the process, because it is WHEN and HOW I organize my thoughts. And hopefully set up the expectations, both the clients and my own.
However, it really is exhausting. Mentally shredding a potential project to its core to determine (without doing the work) what work will be required, takes nearly as much energy as doing the work.
And then there is the actual bid, the DOLLAR FIGURE. Experience can tell us how long something takes... it can even tell us where the client may come back and change their mind. If one has enough experience, the hidden complications can be guessed at with a reasonable accuracy... but that doesn't change the nerve wracking nature of commiting to a large amount of work over and extended period of time.
And there is the intangibles,
is it fun?
is it new?
is it exciting?
is it easy?
when all is said and done, will it have been a worthwhile venture...
for me, for the client?
does it have a bit of a soul?
if you don't think that these projects can contain some bit of soul, then you will never get anything out of what I write. You might as well stop now... and certainly you won't be interested in hiring me ;o)
so the bids have been written, pdf`d and emailed, and now I rest... the "i" of the storm
However, it really is exhausting. Mentally shredding a potential project to its core to determine (without doing the work) what work will be required, takes nearly as much energy as doing the work.
And then there is the actual bid, the DOLLAR FIGURE. Experience can tell us how long something takes... it can even tell us where the client may come back and change their mind. If one has enough experience, the hidden complications can be guessed at with a reasonable accuracy... but that doesn't change the nerve wracking nature of commiting to a large amount of work over and extended period of time.
And there is the intangibles,
is it fun?
is it new?
is it exciting?
is it easy?
when all is said and done, will it have been a worthwhile venture...
for me, for the client?
does it have a bit of a soul?
if you don't think that these projects can contain some bit of soul, then you will never get anything out of what I write. You might as well stop now... and certainly you won't be interested in hiring me ;o)
so the bids have been written, pdf`d and emailed, and now I rest... the "i" of the storm
1.18.2006
12" powerbook (apple) REFRESHED !!!
I am typing this on my sleek new 12 inch apple powerbook. I haven't abandoned my roots, but I might. I had a heckuva year last year. Lot of work, lot of late nights... this tiny little computer is my way of changing things up a little... it is all the same things, but completely different. I will attempt to blog about it to the degree that I am frustrated or elated with the change...
so far... I am impressed with the build quality, though not as much as I thought I would be. Does that make any sense?
it could be that I bought it at the SOHO apple store, "refreshed" meaning someone already bought and returned this particular computer (within 14 days) and was docked a 10% restocking fee. Which (coincidentally) is exactly the discount I recieved for buying it "REFRESHED" ;o)
I thought it fitting since I purchased this with the intent to REFRESH my interest in my OS... I spend a LOT of time staring into these machines... I might as well like doing it.
so far... I am impressed with the build quality, though not as much as I thought I would be. Does that make any sense?
it could be that I bought it at the SOHO apple store, "refreshed" meaning someone already bought and returned this particular computer (within 14 days) and was docked a 10% restocking fee. Which (coincidentally) is exactly the discount I recieved for buying it "REFRESHED" ;o)
I thought it fitting since I purchased this with the intent to REFRESH my interest in my OS... I spend a LOT of time staring into these machines... I might as well like doing it.
they've won
http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/48338
The US army is not allowing soldiers to use personally purchased body armor. I would agree with this if things were different. If we NEEDED to die for ideas. If honor could actually be obtained by killing a dangerous enemy. Don't get me wrong, I am not arguing about this war. War happens. We aren't yet beyond war, but when our military (perhaps the most reasonably dominant in Earth's history) is being pushed around by liability attorneys... we have lost something.
The US army is not allowing soldiers to use personally purchased body armor. I would agree with this if things were different. If we NEEDED to die for ideas. If honor could actually be obtained by killing a dangerous enemy. Don't get me wrong, I am not arguing about this war. War happens. We aren't yet beyond war, but when our military (perhaps the most reasonably dominant in Earth's history) is being pushed around by liability attorneys... we have lost something.
1.16.2006
multi-media
I just happened upon a essay on NPR's website, "I Believe", a series that has apparently been around forever but I just discovered. Anyway, Penn (of Penn and Teller fame), in his usual style attempts to indicate that believing God does NOT exist is the only intelligent way to go. He even goes so far as to slam the notion that God may be something OTHER THAN a white haired Christian guy. In another post I'll wax philosophic about God (the perceptible God, anyway) being the immutable laws of physics. The "rules" or logic of creation, are potent enough... relative to my infinitesimal capacity to create change in my environment... oops I am doing it, aren't I.
I actually like Penn, and appreciate his sort of cynical intellect, what I found MOST interesting was that for no reason at all I clicked on the audio link and then followed along with the text version of the essay (as it was read by Penn himself). I followed along word-for-word... and it worked... I actually slowed my reading to stay sync`d with the reading. Why did this impressed me!? I can only guess that it is due to the fact that I have been unable to get audio books to 'work' for me. I wander off and miss stuff. The tools aren't up for quickly stopping... more importantly a quick 'jump back to where you stopped paying attention' button.
I actually like Penn, and appreciate his sort of cynical intellect, what I found MOST interesting was that for no reason at all I clicked on the audio link and then followed along with the text version of the essay (as it was read by Penn himself). I followed along word-for-word... and it worked... I actually slowed my reading to stay sync`d with the reading. Why did this impressed me!? I can only guess that it is due to the fact that I have been unable to get audio books to 'work' for me. I wander off and miss stuff. The tools aren't up for quickly stopping... more importantly a quick 'jump back to where you stopped paying attention' button.
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