In honor of accepting a new corporate position over the long Holiday weekend I present:
The “Ministry of Information” scene from Terry Gilliam’s genius masterpiece Brazil. This was by far one of the premier movies to ever make a juicy and not unindented impression on my formative mind.
Joyous….
How this has managed to survive Youtube’s 10 minute rule I have no idea. But here is the full 30 min adaptation of Sergei Prokofiev’s classic “Peter and the Wolf” created by Suzie Templeton, whose award winning piece is surely one of the most beautiful and thought out variations I’ve come across. Devoid of distracting narration, it relies on the inherent structure of the score and the emotive qualities of the animated medium to depict Peter’s tale. Truly wonderful!
Today being my first day off in a while, I am finding it totally necessary to straighten up my living quarters before I can properly relax. Of course, doing more work is the last thing I want to to on my day off. So therefore, in my usual fashion I found it necessary to consult the internet before doing anything. I found this video to help motivate me to clean my room before I can go out and play.
I recently experienced voluminous amounts of pain that followed with several hours of suffering. (warning, slight amounts of exaggerating told in this post) It was the second time I had encountered this degree of pain however, it lasted much longer then expected. While at work a couple of Fridays ago, I unintentionally ripped out a piercing while applying make-up. I was in a bit of a rush to just freshen up my face before going into a meeting when I wasn’t paying attention and ripped out my nose ring. At first the pain did not hit me. I was more or less dissatisfied with what just took place to realize that my nose was bleeding and pain was sheering.
When I finally realized what I had accomplished I began to feel the sharp pain in my nose and throbbing sensation in my stomach from the shock. I know this might sound a bit exaggerated but if you have never experienced ripping out a piercing then it would be best to just take my word for it.
I attempted to insert the nose screw back through the tiny hole for over two hours. Mind you, resting in between and disinfecting the area after messing with it. (Nose screws are virtually impossible to screw back in unless you have taken a course on it!) With today’s technology, I decided to consult youtube for the expert demonstrations. Thus, what got me wondering if this was a generation gap? Why am I not able to get the screw back in my nose being that I am almost 30 years of age and these emo/hipster kids are able to accomplish this with voracious behavior? See for yourself how purely easy they make it seem…
Needless to say, I ended up back in my piercer’s chair that afternoon to have her insert the nose screw. To much of my surprise it took her about 20 minutes of struggling to get it back in and even had to manupulate the jelwery a bit to fit. At last, its safe and sound back where it belongs and I’m more careful these days. But still can’t help feeling a bit old or just nose screw retarded…heh.
Music video from the Aquabats, very funny!
Speaking as a minor webmonkey, who hasn’t heard a great deal of this bandied about?
(3) When possible, refer all matters to committees, for “further study and consideration.” Attempt to make the committees as large as possible — never less than five.
(4) Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible.
(5) Haggle over precise wordings of communications, minutes, resolutions.
(6) Refer back to matters decided upon at the last meeting and attempt to re-open the question of the advisability of that decision.
(7) Advocate “caution.” Be “reasonable” and urge your fellow-conferees to be “reasonable” and avoid haste which might result in embarrassments or difficulties later on.
(8) Be worried about the propriety of any decision — raise the question of whether such action as is contemplated lies within the jurisdiction of the group or whether it might conflict with the policy of some higher echelon.
What we’re looking at here is a passage from a 1944 sabotage manual. How many of us haven’t had the experience of having our brightest ideas referred to a committee? BoingBoing points us to an excellent excerpt regarding what it is to truly misdirect one’s opponent. The frightening thing, for me at least, is that these techniques crop up pretty much daily in my realm.
Link (warning! pdf!)
I recently had an interesting conversation with someone who was born in 1987, claiming that the eighties was the best time ever for fashion and music. As someone who was actually fully sentient during that era, and participated in the pop culture of the then current zeitgeist, I then asked him to defend his argument. Realizing that his inspiration comes solely from a recent sojourn to an ever popular eighties dance night and the renaissance of popped collars on pink preppy Polo shirts, it became obvious that selective memory/marketing has allowed these young kids to feast on regurgitated culture of the what is know the 30-40 year olds that are making boardroom decisions. This marketing is what allows young people to get confused and refer to eighties music as a genre and not a time span. What’s most interesting is that the fashion and music that was most prevalent was deemed to be filtered out. Here is a quick reminder of how awesome the eighties really were.
In the world of video games and unhealthy lives styles one particular company has figured it out. A recent article that I read on WIRED analyzed and compared the Weight Watchers online dieting tool to an RPG.
After my own personal stint with WW online and an avid RPG gamer, I would have to whole-heartily agree with him. Maybe that is why it was personally successful because I am attracted to that type of gaming which made WW fun and easy for me. It was interactive and I could see my progress laid out right in front of me. It was designed to reward when I did something positive and get me back on track when I did something harmful to my success. We all know that losing weight is not easy and it can be mundane. I think in the ever-emerging generation of gamers and pc oriented life-styles Weight Watchers has developed something that innovates that mentality.
“Think about it. As with an RPG, you roll a virtual character, manage your inventory and resources, and try to achieve a goal. Weight Watchers’ points function precisely like hit points; each bite of food does damage until you’ve used up your daily amount, so you sleep and start all over again. Play well and you level up — by losing weight! And the more you play it, the more you discover interesting combinations of the rules that aren’t apparent at first. Hey, if I eat a fruit-granola breakfast and an egg-and-romaine lunch, I’ll have enough points to survive a greasy hamburger dinner for a treat!
Even the Weight Watchers web tool is amazingly game like. It has the poke-around-and-see-what-happens elegance you see in really good RPG game screens. Accidentally snack on a candy bar and ruin your meal plan for the day? No worries: Just go into the database and see what spells — whoops, I mean foods — you can still use with your remaining points.
And those 35 extra points you get every week? They’re like a special buff or potion — a last-ditch save when you’re on the ropes.”
-Clive Thompson, WIRED
I am not sure I could have explained it better myself having previously used WW online tool site and currently living in a RPG world; I think he nailed the tail right on the donkey! I am curious to see just where this might take us with other daily tasks and challenges. I have yet to check out Wii Fit, which I hear is changing peoples’ lives globally. I happen to know someone that swears by it and looks fantastic since they got it. Technology is an incredible and utterly fascinating track to be a part of. Besides, those bandwagons always have the best rides!
Perhaps I am crazy but this is what happens when brilliance stops being serious and decides to let loose on the interwebs. I remember it all too well, I was enjoying a Sunday afternoon mimosa when I was turned on to the likes of these pairs of fibers “Sifl and Olly - Fake Blood” and my life changed forever (well, okay, perhaps only for 1 minute and 57 seconds but oh the roar of laughter that radiated and unbalanced a lazy Sunday afternoon, thank god for brilliant people.) Enjoy!
