Saturday, December 13, 2008

Walkdown with me.

For a long time now I have been a anime fan. I have seen great stuff and crap.

Over the next while I will be trying to share a smig of "greats" I have found, and adored.

For your viewing pleasure I have Katsuhiro Otomo: Memories. Actualy 3 seperate movies Magnetic rose, Stink bomb, and Cannon Fodder. Below is Magnetic rose, a truely haunting and beautifully done ghost ship movie.

Katsuhiro Otomo: Memories Magnetic Rose part 1
Katsuhiro Otomo: Memories Magnetic Rose part 2
Katsuhiro Otomo: Memories Magnetic Rose part 3
Katsuhiro Otomo: Memories Magnetic Rose part 4
Katsuhiro Otomo: Memories Magnetic Rose part 5

I've watched the other 2, and of the three I think "rose" is the best of the three. But the others are great works in their own rights.

Sunday, November 30, 2008

sweet



And for the love of god and all that is holy, never ever be on the receiving end of this nightmare



Oh ... this is real, and its whats mounted on the Iroquois destroyers. this is just the most nasty video of it firing I could find. :)

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

How do you clean coffee out of a keyboard?

I'm not kidding I actually spat coffee up all over my keyboard at a specific point in the second video (can you guess when?). A must see for ALL sports fans


(please bear withthe slow titles at the beginning)


(No slow titles before this one)


And lastly for all you top gear fans out there
Link

WANKERS

SOOO... whats Blizzard doing now?

See my post earlier about online download?

WELL THEIR DOING IT NOW!

Just had to wait a week

Guess they wanted a old fashioned roll out for the first week or sumthin...

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Why don't more companies do this?

While installing XP to get fallout working I sat watching the loading bar creep across the screen a odd train of thought crossed my mind (OMG matt! a odd train of thought? never!)

I had just punched in the CD-Key a few seconds earlier which brought me to this thought.

Unfortunately the blue screen of death showed up and carpet bombed that train of thought.

Thankfully installing Fallout on my laptop brought it back to life.

Why don't more companies do it like NC-Soft?

You have 2 options with NC-Soft
  1. Buy game at store and get CD-key in box, register CD-key with account
  2. Download game free from site, and buy CD-Key, register CD-Key with account
I'm really surprised Blizzard hasn't done this yet?

They already have a massive system for downloading their patches and content upgrades.

Just make the game and its expansions available for online download already!

NC-Soft had it so right!

Heck no box, or key in hand I could install city of heros/villians and be up and playing in a hour. Because my account is still on file with them with the 2 CD-Keys I bought still registered with them.

Only downside is the retailers loose a bit of business I guess. But blizz could just ship fancy packed CD-Keys to the store that they could sell for the same price as the full box I guess
*shrug*

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Sword of Troll slaying +100

WARNING!
WARNING!
RANT INCOMING

5 way to stop Trolls killing the internet

I think this article on cracked (normally a humor site) has some very good points.

I personally would love a sort of personalized internet avatar that you can setup. Say a nominal charge of $20 a year that you can link your information too. That would work on every site, allow you to access everything without having to input every time all that stupid questions and information. Sort of like "pay pall" but for... everything.

You want to comment on You tube. You click the comment button, it checks your ID to see if you haven't been flagged as a total Asshat on forum posts, then you can post. You get flagged you can contest it, ask for a review, or pay the $10 reactivate fee.

You want to buy a car on E-bay, it checks your ID, and if you haven't got flagged as a fraud, you then can bid. If your flagged you can still bid but your bids goes to the front of the "possible fraud" section, You get flagged, then contest it, ask for a review, or pay the fine.

You want to access your bank accounts, click and using the $10 dongle on your key chain submit your finger print ID. wallah access to all your financial info.

All this you can do now. But each site, each thing you want to do is a separate account, a separate ID and password prompt, and has NO repercussions on your personage. You get booted form "screaming goth chicks" cause you flamed the board. You can just re apply add a "2" to the end of your name and continue flaming. Now your banned... and banned from EVERY SITE. Hurts donut?

Probably not a "click" your screwed button. More like rating on you tube, drop below -100 on your account and your rights are revoked, or return at the rate of 10 points a week (or you pay to get it back up). say something that pisses one person off -1. put something up that pisses off 100 people and -100. Tick off a Admin, or get noticed by a Admin. Bamm -100 right there.

Be a total ASS in a game (example WoW) get a -4 from the rest of your party. Be a Ass in general chat -1 temporary points that fade off in 1/2 a hour. -100 leads to a suspension of access till your points drop off. keep it up your banned. Now your banned not just from WoW. But from EVERY online game that requires a account. BE NICE!

1 unified account, 1 unified person. real consequences.

You want to access a Malaysian underage whore house online... enter your ID. What? Your state/province/country doesn't allow that? Well my friend I hope you can explain that to the investigators.

You been ushering death threats to some person, lets check your ID. Oh your information is secure and can't be divulged? While sorry but your ID from your comments been flagged by the victim, and since you failed your review request cause the provider agreed that saying "i'll fucking kill you, and fuck the eye hole" was a bit illegal. The police now have legal authorization to access your ID info.

Of course hacking and the trafficking of Illegal or pirated ID's becomes a problem. Identity theft is a major issue. But then.. it is now already. But really the government is falling father and farther behind fighting this stuff. they respond rather than innovate. We can't wait for this stuff to come from them. The internet companies, the providers, and the programmers have to get off their asses and do this. cause they are the front line. They make the communities that are the "interwebs" They need to become the police that are not there now.

(Heck policing the accounts could become a whole new job force of police officers. New jobs always good.)

Piracy would be limited to sites that do not conform and use the old ID access system or no ID access system at all. Basically a "look were not legit" flag waving in the air.

The web would polarize into registered and unregistered. What side would you be on? Would you dance back and fourth across the DMZ?

The web is becoming the place the world meets. Moderation and consequence is coming. What form? who knows?

"But with the formal ID then freedom of speech that made the internet so popular would vanish"... Really? I'm pretty sure it was E-mail, Napster, IRC, Myspace, Youtube, facebook that made the internet popular with the masses, with only 1 of those being semi illegal (till they finished the court battle). And the last4 are absolutely full of retards vomiting their illness on the screen in front of you. IRC, Myspace, youtube, face book all have ignore functions. Functions that they shouldn't have had to put in if people were civil and polite. Manners that vanish in the flicer of a eye, when concequence is taken away.

LOL, fag, first, and any other "troll" sentencence, make me want to beat to death anyone that says "freedom of speech" when referencing the internet. The "freedom" they speak of is for the most part just a license to spout whatever enters your mind that would get all the teeth in your mouth punched out, in real life.

I swear the internet is like Tourettes syndrome for the masses.

Sorry bit a rant there

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

SO FUCKING ANGRY

  1. Go to BEST BUY
  2. find out they don't have regular Fall out 3
  3. Buy collectors
  4. install
  5. find out it doesn't work with windows 2000
  6. borrow mikes copy of XP
  7. "upgrade" 2000 to XP at midnight
  8. incur error with XP install (blue screen of death)
  9. Re install XP
  10. Find out with reinstall of XP it has lost Sound drivers, video drivers, all flash players, all codec. (OH they are there... but does windows see them.. nope)
  11. fight for 2 hours (now 3 AM) to ge sound and video working
  12. Succeed
  13. Play 3 hours of Fallout with happy smile.
  14. Eat shit sandwich when you stop, go to write this note, and find Mozilla due to the reinstall has lost ALL of your bookmarks some how. ALL like 200 of them.... ARGHH!
  15. Thump head on desk
  16. drink shot of Vodka
  17. Go to bed
  18. Seriously consider restarting Fallout as EVIL just to VENT on anything that Fucking moves.

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Aliens 3... with less suck

Script

Apparently Gibson put in a script for aliens 3...

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Death by overexposure

I present this before continuing.

A moment in history

I really think that major sports are being killed little by little by the media. Kinda like a slow poison that eats away at the one thing that keeps sports alive...

Your interest.

I'm not a hardcore fan of any major sport. If i lived in the U.S. I'd probably be a American football fan. England or Europe I'd be a Football fan. India or the Far east cricket, Japan Baseball. Here in Canada it's supposed to be hockey. But as much as I like the sports I can't spout numbers, or stats, or anything like that.

Going into a sports conversation for me is like tying one arm and a leg behind my back and hopping into a boxing ring. I liked Tie Domi, I like Sundin, I liked Felix. Why? Cause I thought they were cool. No I don't care about how many goals, or how often they win. I like them cause... I like them.

"I know half of nothing, about jack shit", is the term I believe.

I was reading that article and it rang a few bells in my head. I wonder how different really the sports stars of yesteryear are from the sports stars today. Did they have agents? Endorsement deals? multimillion dollar paychecks (or.. thousand dollar paychecks to account for inflation).

I feel for me and probably a percentage of people out there. Its kinda like the 911 entry I put in before. Sports are... over hyped. You can turn on ESPN or look it up on the net and see 40 articles on a 20 minute fight analyzing every detail. Nothing is left to the imagination anymore.

I just can't get excited anymore. I feel the buzz when I have gone to the occasional game in person. It seems different there. You form your own opinion, you are "experiencing" it through your own senses. Rather than down the lens of a camera, backed by a announcer spouting stats and percentages. It starts to get a bit.. filtered.. not real anymore.

Then... I don't own a TV.

Maybe this is just the perspective of a poor boy peering in through the shop windows at all the candies, and not knowing if they are tasty. Everyone else seems to find them tasty would I too, if I could afford them?

Friday, September 26, 2008

A reprieve

Due to a failure with some coolant and some magnets the LHC is down for about 2-4 months (repair time + holidays)

So ... 10 days of nail bitting, then a big cold fart.

We'll pick back up when the WORLD DESTROYER is turned back on again sometime in the spring.

Till then

World still here.

Friday, September 19, 2008

Golf: Not for pussies though.



Heck I could even see this as a Olympic sport.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Looking up

Day 6

World still here

Friday, September 12, 2008

The end of the world 2

Day 2

1 x teen suicide over LHC related worries

1 x hacker attack on CERN / LHC computer grid

World still here

more as day progresses

November ninth, and the end of the world.

So about 6ish in the afternoon I'm bouncing through You tube just killing time and trying to check through all of my subscriptions. Seems You tube is having a issue where the function that drops off your subscriptions from the page as you go through them isn't working. I keep trying to get the videos to go away and these damn 9-11 videos I tend to skip just wont go away.

You see over the last while as I've gotten more into the internet as a source of information and a way to pass time. I've had a aversion to reading/watching anything on 9-11. As most of its bullshit or just dumb. So I'm doing this for a bout a hour when a little light bulb pops off in my head... whats the date?

Oh fuck. No wonder there's so many of the damn things today!

Now I'm not a American. I was only directly affected by 911 in a very petty and personal way (couldn't see a movie i paid 25 dollars for on Sept 11th) so I don't have a personal reason to commemorate the date. But why now do I feel desensitized by the media and the coverage. (The constant bombardment so to speak.) that on a personal level I ignore it now.

Just like people have said were desensitized to violence, foul language, etc. Have I/we in a way also become desensitized to this?

I remember my mother crying that day. I remember the feeling of disbelief at Tyler poking his head out of Lisa's Basement that day and telling me to get the fuck inside. I remember watching the second plane hit the tower. Watching it coming down.

Now 7 years later to me its become like a foot note. Like looking at a book and reading pearl harbor was attacked. Is this what people felt 7 years after that day of infamy? I wonder.

Now I don't know anyone "over there" personally.

I like to say I will always support the troops. They have the balls I wish I could prove I have. What politics /reasons/ promises sent them there I don't care. They are there doing what we are not, and hope to god we never have to do.

But it leaves me a bit hollow to know one of the reasons we are "Over there" was because of what happened on September 11, and now I barely remembered the date. On a small level it feels like a bit of let down that I couldn't even remember the date that caused them to be there.

***

And now for something completely different.

***

for those not following the "end of the world"

The LHC is now up and operational. They slammed the first particals together yesterday. The real tests start up in about a week or 2.

So starting today.

Day 1

Flipped switch

World still here.


I'll keep you posted on developments.

Friday, August 29, 2008

And if you never saw it

Many years ago Daft Punk made some wierd Anime videos that were released on MTV and everyone went ... eh?

Well here they are... Interstella 5555. The full Movie/Album/Funk

Well they died.



I have a nice new set. But I must salute these old work horses. They have lasted my more than 8 years. I shall give you a full military burial... aka the garbage bin.

Where has it gone

Great humor and great moments in highest seats of the government.

Selct Regan jokes
Regan bombs Russia
Clinton (bill) destroys Bush (Sr.)
Regan tell heckler to shut up
Just watch me
Mulroney

before you go... Matt... politics.. huh...

I was watching and got side tracked

Boom
Bigger Boom
French Boom
Intercontinental Boom
Put your head between your legs...
and kiss your ash goodbye!

And for those that don't want polytic and destucto I present!

Kitty

Oh no not again!

Thursday, August 21, 2008

great work

Sigh

Must resist urge!

Must fight it!

Boss gives me template for new form.

Next thing I know I'm making a new one for him thats x10 better.

Bad Matt! this is how you became a Site supervisor last time.

I do not want to be one again for some time.

and

NOT HERE!

This place has x100 the old sites population and x1,000,000 the politics.

I already know from just casual conversation the bosses are total smack-tards.

My new site supervisor seems like a good guy, with lots of actual experience and knows what he's doing. But it won't last...

It is only a matter of time before the grind of request/deny grinds him down to apathy.

It drove me nuts when I was there. You point out a problem they tell you they'll fix it. 6 months later... nothing. If its not them, its the finance department, or their boss wanting to control the job to take the credit and then forgetting about it. I truly hate and detest the politics of the corporate world.

Mike has left the peons and moved up into the world above. I know little of his day to day. Never really ask. But I know mike, If he says "I will get that fixed" He really does get it fixed, or at least does his job properly and moves the project along to the right people.

Everyone wants the kudos for doing a great job, but no one wants to actually do the job. When your in a corporation is just so damn easy to pass the buck to someone else and then take the credit, and if something is wrong or falls through. It wasn't your fault either.

Its amazing what can happen when you do just own up to making a mistake.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Crack

Well is 2am on tuesdaymorning. What am I doing up? more importantly what did i do on monday?

Well to start i slept about 12 hours

I also watched/did/read in the last 24 hours

every episode of Painkiller Jane (pretty good series, don't know if its still running on tv)
Finished watching every episode of Top gear
the entire 26 episodes of Azumanga Daioh
10 episodes of Ranma 1 1/2
the rest of the new Macros tv series (very good! they didn't fuck up the V-tecs)

I'm 1/2 way through "Flashman on the march" thanks mike, very good. Very much inthe same vein as the Bandy Papers

I got bored and downloaded some .Pdfs of the game books for several systems I have been procrastinating about picking up.

Cleaned my computers desktop... it looked like someone shot a icon shotgun at it.

tried out 2 new recipes for pasta... One was fabulous... the other... well the army says we can move back in later this month.

FYI! if you accidentally spill about 2 table spoons a cayenne pepper into your 1 man serving of pasta sauce... DON'T EAT IT... let alone finish the bowl.

Got my poor battered USB key to work again.

GOD I'M BORED!

Saturday, July 12, 2008

testing something out. check side of page

Added a shout box, for shits and giggles

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Monday, July 7, 2008

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

37... shit man

Michael Turner: 1971-2008


Thought most of us would not know this man. The moment they reads this Mike and Will will do a double take then swear profusely!

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Cricket

Conversations on the weekend turned to cricket.
Many people are like... ok... how the fuck is it played?
So heres the Baseball players translation. (using 60 over limit)

Base ball if it was cricket
Instead of innings you just let the home team go to bat for as many outs as it would take for them to finish 9 innings. Then do the same for the Away team. Most runs when all the 2 teams allotted outs are up determines winner

Cricket
Overs
Each team has 60 overs. Each over is 6 pitches (so 6x60 = 360 pitches). When your overs are... over you switch. Each hit can beworth up to 1+ runs. You hit ball, you run to far end = run. If you can make it back before the ball returns you get as many runs as you can run. If you hit it to the rope at the outside of the park your awarded 4 automatically, if you hit it over the rope you get 6.
Wickets/outs (if your looking for a baseball analogy)
Each team has 11 players (or 11 wickets). They go to bat in sequence against the Bowler (usually best to worst). You are out 2 ways. The ball hits the wicket (or would hit the wicket), or you are caught out. If the ball knocks over the wicket (odd thing behind the batter) your out. If you miss the ball with your bat and the ref thinks the ball would have hit the wicket if it hadn't bounced of your leg.... your out. If you hit the ball and before it hits the ground again someone catches it... your out. Each out is called a Wicket. Once out you leave and go get a drink, next up on the roster takes your place. If a team is knocked down to only 1 wicket left and it still has overs left. They forfeit all remaining overs and are out. (so you can push them out before their alloted overs are up)

Thats it. Thats cricket in a nut shell.

Theres lots of small fiddle bits, and techniques, but if you walk in on a match you can with the above get the gist of whats going on.

Now this is limited 60 overs. When you hear of cricket matches going for days. Its unlimited overs. You play until all your players are out. That (if your bats men are really good, can take days)

So knowing this, you can be aware of just how fucking stupendous it is to watch a bowler Knock out 4 batters in 4 bowls in a worldcup final. We are talking a game where each batter is expected to get the team 30-50+ points. and for 4 batters they got FUCK ALL (he also nearly took out 5 by 1.5"). The cafeteria at work was going insane. Imagine a packed Italian bar, and italy score not once, not twice , not three times but 4 times in 30 seconds. the place would be a fucking insane asylum.

Misssster. Cosmos

So i started watching Carl Sagans Cosmos.. and i' not sure I can go any farther... it took me 2 episodes to realize it, but the guy sounds like Agent smith from the Matrix.

Though he does answer a good question to throw a wrench at creationists that use that stupid (and over used) tornado in a junkyard making a car bit. Berkley in just about 2 hours through controlled experimentation with the Gases present at the beginning of our world have created massive amounts of basic Nucleic acid... 2 hours! and the planet had 2 billion years to go at it.

I personally subscribe to Darwin's and Robert J. Gould's beliefs on the matter. "Life began and progressed through the evolution and Natural Selection through a means that we may call chance". Gould and Darwin (though poor Darwin's words are largely forgotten in hyperbole) stress heavily the "That we may call chance" part.
The universe looks like a massive ball of happenings that occur in such marvelous randomness that we may attribute to pure and simple % or in musings of the divine hand of a god or maker. Which side of the argument you are on rest solely upon "what you may call faith".

A nit pick that irked me in Cosmos was during his second episode (nothing wrong with the show, just what he's saying). A while back I read a article about evolution that went far and beyond the lengths of its purpose to hammer home a point about a common mistake in many evolutionary speeches. The speech may be correct, but wrong at the same time. May people say (or subscribe to) the saying that a fish learn to crawl onto land. (fish example is just one of the examples).
This is technically right, and wrong! Yes the fish did learn to crawl onto land, but! Only because of a genetic defect, that the one time it was washed up onto shore, its new flaw allowed it to survive. Then once surviving it used this to breed more in a safer means, thus preserving the trait.
To say a fish learned to crawl onto land and thus began to live on land starts down a very slippery slope to Lamarikism (a theory of evolutionary thinking that has been totally thumped, but keeps coming back like a retarded B-movie zombie).
Lamarkism can more easily be summed up with this simple story.
  • Leafs are high
  • giraffe grows long neck to reach leafs
  • Longer neck, means giraffe survives to breed more giraffe
Wrong! Darwin would be rolling over in his grave. its supposed to go.
  • Random horse has long neck
  • Reaches higher leaves
  • More abundant food means him and his genetic offspring survive more.
  • Through progressive breedings his trait is passed on thus creating the breed of giraffes.
Lamark the dork mister screwed up evolutionary thinking even today. I ran smack dab into it at work a year ago with a co-worker who thought just like example 1.

If Lamarikism is true then All men would have 20 foot penis's and all women would be D cups blonds with sultry voices.
Wish as hard as you want to be able to touch the top of the basketball rim, and spoon feeding your children that dream, does not mean in 7 generations you will have the ultimate basketball player!

If I claw my eyes out and the eyes of my son, and the eyes of my sons, son... do you think in 9 generations they will have no eyes? No they will have normal eyes, and think we are a bunch of fucking loonies!

Evolution does not work like that.

Simple sense to us.... but there are people out there with half a brain, and they go Bahhhhhhh allot.

Not saying Cosmos got it wrong, he just walks on the line that that article I mentioned warned about. You have to say clearly to one side, or Lamarikism will creep back like a bad fungus.

Still... Sagans speech patterns of sounding like Agent Smith is kinda creepy. I'd have to claw my eyes out if he in the last episode puts on a set of shades and looks at me. "We are just a virus on the earth, Mr. Watcher!"

Think about my decendents... we'd have no eyes!

Saturday, June 28, 2008

The new is the old

For your consideration, a few takes at a moldy Oldie.

Purist recipe:
(2 cups classical, 1 cup cathedral, 1 cup Panache)
Link

Neo-classical Recipe:
(1 dash classic, add modern back beat, 1 hot chick, boil)
Link

Fucking gonnzo recipe:
(1 Cup classic, 2 cups kick ass, shake, serve with beat)
Link

Martha Tell Overture

Need a better union

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Dogma

WARNING READ BELOW PARAGRAPH BEFORE YOU OPEN THE LINK.
IT IS VERY IMPORTANT!


I had a whole article planned out, but realized that before I could do it I had to do more research on the subject. Then decided not to and will do this instead.

I want your reactions.
This is a age of information at your finger tips. So go hog wild.
Look it up, research, React.
How do you feel about it? How did you react?

Just as a note, this picture is not a shock joke. it is not gory, It is work safe.

The Falling Man

Trust me this picture isn't worth a thousand words, its worth a million

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Sherman set the way back machine!

As mentioned in the last major post Connections.

I remember watching these when I was younger and loving them. A friend recently had a university class that the teacher literally had the class sit and watch 1 a week. Then had them write about a section of that show for the next week. It got me interested again.

Now work and a infinite amount of time to sit and do nothing has presented itself. I stumbled in my random clicking across a interview with Burke about Carl Sagan. Bamm I found a fellow who had posted EVERY connections in excelent quality on Youtube and away I went.

But by now I am sure my fellow co-workers are gonna kill me soon. For the last 2-3 weeks i have been watching non stop connections, connections 2, and connections 3. I have now started on The day the universe changed.

Connections 1 was 1 hour episodes that Burke exhaustively follows a single concept through time and links them up in a nice tidy chain. It is In my opinion the best of the three.

Connections 2 they moved to a shorter 1/2 hour format and in consequence they were fast, informative, but lacking that detail of the first one that made it special.

Connections 3 was back to the hour format. Like the first two I found it informative, but I didn't like the way it was setup. In the first and second it was "this happened and it affected this person, then that person did this, and it affected so and so..." In #3 many of the jumps are not effects, or direct connections. Many are more of a "well the maker of the first steam engine lived in Scotland... and so did this chap." Aside from a location, or attending the same school or such trivial coincidence a chunk of the links are kinda wishy washy. Still a very good series but I think it was stretching at this point.

Also if you watch them back to back (1&2&3) you get a lot of repetition. They made each show to be watch totally independent of each other. Which of course means you can't take for granted the viewer has watched the previous one. But i found by #3 I could actually guess where the next step would go. More importantly guess the name or event it led to.

If your interested in watch these, here is the link to Jamesburkefan so you can find them easier.

After this i'll probably start watch the Cosmos series by Carl Sagan.

HE IS BACK!

Thats right, he's done another!

Luddite

Luddite [n. LUH-dite] The noun Luddite specifically refers to one of a group of early 19th century English workmen who were campaigning against the automation of the power loom. Under cover of night and generally masked, the workers often destroyed the equipment that had displaced them. Today the word broadly refers to anyone who is opposed to technological change or new working methods.
The name Luddite is presumed to come from the leader of these angry workmen: Ned Ludd. The Leicestershire worker is said to have rushed into a stocking weaver's house and destroyed his equipment.

Warning rambling ahead. Buckle your seat belts.


For the longest time (oh, say about 5-8 years.) I have watched the world change and evolve with cellphones, ICQ, then Blogs, then My space, Face book (or what ever knock off you use) and now Twitter (which I am sorry to say the name fits the idea perfectly in my opinion). Only now am I finally trying my hand at it (mostly cause I have a internet connection at work, and am looking for something to do.)

I don't know why I have such a aversion to this stuff?
or at least a defined knee jerk reaction to it.
Maybe its the loss of ones personal space?
Or Maybe I am just not drawn in by the whole demand to be socially accessible?
Today, Inch by inch we are merging into one gigantic mass of links.

Most of my friends, just by a count today have over 50+ people on their friends lists in face book. Friends that are but a click and a finger tap away from at every moment of the day. More so with the increased popularity of the PDA.

Now twitter has come. Now everyone can be updated in seconds about what minute detail of your life you wish to pass out. "stood up", "opened door", "closed door", "Checked for zits in mirror", "Taking a dump", "Still taking a dump", "Chapter 12 of Leviticus is riveting", "Cleaner keeps knocking at the door"...

Before you could only just phone 1 person and give them play by plays of your life. Now with this you can broadcast it via the net to everyone of your avid fans... Bleh.

Most people like us don't care or will never use it like this. For us its just a fun little thing. A passing fad, or a cute way of passing on info to friends. But I can assure you if you look there is probably a blow to blow instant line on what Brittney or Paris is doing RIGHT THIS SECOND!


So? Are we defined today by who we are, or in are we defined by the people we know now?

Our technology and world wide web is bringing us closer and closer together, that distances are just something we don't think about anymore. All this Interlinked closeness sometimes makes my skin crawl. At what point do we go to far. Where is the line? Will we see it before we go past it? Have we gone past it?

Have you ever got the urge to sell it all and go live somewhere were there is nothing. No TV, no computers, no cellphones, no 24 hour news coverage? I know I do. (Of course this is impossible, but its the idea right?) Then I sit down read a book or two, maybe play a few hours of World of Warcraft and that feeling subsides. (Addicted you say , bah humbug)

About a week or two ago Mom said that my Cellphone contract would be expiring and not renewed at the end of the year. My first reaction was not "damn I will have to find another provider!" it was "Ok, So what?". It wasn't a annoyance, it actual felt... relieving. With no costs going to it, and no guiding reason to have it, what reason would i have to keep it? I think the thing that I have used it the most for in the last year, is to call the guys on the way over and ask if they have had lunch already or not? That... is about it.

I guess this whole feeling that we are just to engrossed in the whole "technology" thing beyond what is healthy for us as a society, was really hammered home when I watched Connections again recently. (I'll throw up the link at the end of this). James Burke in Connections episode 1 does a vicious job of showing you just how dependent we are on technology, and what would happen if it stopped working. That first episode actually made me stop and think about it.

Just how dependent are we now on E-mail, cellphones, etc, now? When was the last time you sat down and wrote a letter? Not a bill payment, a real honest to god letter? Right now if the net goes boom, the world is fucked. Sure we would recover, but if you thought black Monday was bad back in the 30's. No more web and the world economy wouldn't just hiccup and go into a depression. It would implode, and shatter over night.

So stop for 1 minute or 2 (I am not shitting you here, do it). Now in just a minute of thinking about it, and making your own mental list. What would be seriously impacted in your life if you suddenly lost the ability to use your computer, or cellphone. For many of us older types it wouldn't be so bad (say if your over the age of 25). Because we lived before all this appeared, we lived through its birth. But those under 25... Its been simple a facet of your life. You've never known a world without it.

No I am not a Luddite. But I can see the arguments (and yes thats all they are... Arguments)

Now I am not saying I haven't jumped on a few band wagons when they came around.
Of all of us i was the first to buy:
  • A Cell phone. (died, never replaced till I became a Site supervisor at work)
  • A Mp3 Player. (Died, never replaced, till mom bought me a LyPod)
  • A USB memory stick. (Still have, but its nearly useless at 64mg)
  • A PDA (Great until mom confiscated it... cause she thought i stole it)
  • Laptop (talking about the old one... its about the only thing i've ever bought two of)
Of course I paid through the nose for them (wish i still had the kind of disposable income I did then) Only found that they became obsolete within such a short period that I kicked myself later.

I think it was the Cell phone that started me down this path to anti socialism. So when it came to being connected to this big inter-web thing Mr. Gore supposedly made. I kinda looked at it and cringed a bit. Perhaps now with this foray into it. I will find I like it and embrace it whole heartedly. Perhaps it is a outlet I have been looking for to express myself creatively.

Or perhaps somewhere in the last month I have sniffed some web crack, didn't know it and now I am just lining up with everyone else at the end of the queue to the rehab clinic down the road... Maybe I am just paranoid... or not paranoid enough.

So I'll do this as long as I can, until that feeling climbs up on my back again, and taps me on the ear whispering: "Psst. Hypocrite! What you doing? Who reads this? Who Cares?"

Connections 1 Ep 1 (1 of 5)

Friday, June 20, 2008

So... many fiddly bits

Trying to play around with the blog is like a mouse driven mine field.
Click "where'd that go!",
Click "Arghh!",
Click "um... i just lost a shoe... wtf!"

Any suggestions from the more web based literate?

Links, more link, and some more links

Ok, so the basic formats in, now just have to access this from home and start importing more of my personal links...

The ones that are up are just the ones i can remember off the top of my head.

So it begins

So... I'm sticking my toe into the waters of Blog...

Here we will find out just how bad my spelling and grammer are.

Here we will plumb the depths of just how boring my life is..

Here we will marvel at the messed up mind that my friends know and love/hate...

For here I stand