I was at a resort with my colleagues for some team event, and I was reminded of just how little fun it was to be out there in the open without cloud cover. Ordinarily I'd think hey spot of sunblock, shades hell it's going to be mostly ok. And then I just forget exactly how much it hurts and then there's the matter of the heat. Overall, I'd say while doing a luge down a hill is incredibly fun, it was an experience spoiled by the sun and heat.
What a shame, but frankly I can never understand how people can term it fun in the sun at all. Not unless they're outright masochists straight from Hell. Or perhaps that's exactly what they are. Regardless, I know for a fact that it's just not the kind of thing for me. I'd much prefer to do the same thing at the resort at night, just looking at the ships' lights out at sea and just enjoying the cool breeze. Now that is a much better way to chill out.
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
New Rulers Of The World
I was reading Pilger's work when I thought about the abuse of power in general. It is especially bad when it's a matter of the abuse of good faith, taking advantage of others under the pretext of helping them. Worst of all, it's outright hypocrisy where the bully then proceeds to convince others that he's just trying to help.
I tend to regard betrayal as one of the few truly cardinal sins against myself. It is something that I literally do not forgive. For a greater power to become an oath breaker is unpardonable. Unfortunately, the way power works, it is also often impossible to deal with them even if their deception were to be revealed. The worst thing is that the most advantageous way to live life is to play along with the bully and thereby become traitorous bullies themselves.
Disgusting. Then again, whenever advantage is to be had and selfish humans are inclined to pursue profit, it seems inevitable that they'd play along regardless of morality.
I tend to regard betrayal as one of the few truly cardinal sins against myself. It is something that I literally do not forgive. For a greater power to become an oath breaker is unpardonable. Unfortunately, the way power works, it is also often impossible to deal with them even if their deception were to be revealed. The worst thing is that the most advantageous way to live life is to play along with the bully and thereby become traitorous bullies themselves.
Disgusting. Then again, whenever advantage is to be had and selfish humans are inclined to pursue profit, it seems inevitable that they'd play along regardless of morality.
Monday, March 19, 2012
The Salary System
The salary system is quite remarkably broken, for something so prevalent. Everything from the scaling to the way it is distributed. Take for example how a CEO can earn stupid numbers of millions while the grunts may not always be able to count their thousands. Clearly the inequality is massive, and when cuts happen it invariably hits the lower ranks while the higher ups still get their bonuses (albeit reduced) and no pay cuts at all. You'd think the reasonable thing to do would be to cut salaries across the board instead of losing expertise from laying off staff.
Then comes the matter of how increments work. Oddly enough, the percentage points apply across the tiers, causing a geometric salary increase as base salary grades are raised. This means that a 7% increase for a grunt is much much smaller than the 7% that a CEO may get for similar high performance. Barring a promotion, it is actually impossible for the lower rankers to actually catch up.
A possible alternative would be to have absolute increases in salaries at increment time, such that both lower and higher rankers receive the same increment range due to their performance. That should help flatten the curve.
Then comes the matter of how increments work. Oddly enough, the percentage points apply across the tiers, causing a geometric salary increase as base salary grades are raised. This means that a 7% increase for a grunt is much much smaller than the 7% that a CEO may get for similar high performance. Barring a promotion, it is actually impossible for the lower rankers to actually catch up.
A possible alternative would be to have absolute increases in salaries at increment time, such that both lower and higher rankers receive the same increment range due to their performance. That should help flatten the curve.
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Those Lonely Humans
I like going out at night. There's a certain freedom to it. Sometimes I stop by a 24 hour place like a MacD's at 3am to snack and read a book. However, every time I do this, I cannot help but notice the lonely humans everywhere. Now, it may seem like I am lonely myself, doing things like sit around with a book in the middle of the night. But then again I am there for the purpose of unwinding. What I see is a whole bunch of humans sleeping at the tables or just sitting there apparently deep in thought. Knowing what I know about humans, they're probably not very happy about their lives since most would probably be lying in bed at home instead of sleeping at some fast food joint.
I am reminded of my late friend (whose death anniversary will come around in a couple weeks) and that was the exact same place I last met her before she finally successfully offed herself. She was sitting there in the middle of the night as well, frightened of her hallucinations, and her mom was coming later in the night to pick her up. Tragedy, really, but I still believe she's better off dead since she wasn't going to get any real help. Truly, that's a better place to be for some humans.
Back to the living lonelies, I look at them sleeping at the eatery and think...wow are they homeless? Do they have nowhere else to go to? Or are they just so tired that they fall asleep after a late night supper? As I walk home I see more humans sleeping on the benches around my area, and think the same thing. It is impossible to tell if they are truly vagabonds (they don't look the part) or they're just out there having a cooler rest out in the open. I'll probably never know.
I am reminded of my late friend (whose death anniversary will come around in a couple weeks) and that was the exact same place I last met her before she finally successfully offed herself. She was sitting there in the middle of the night as well, frightened of her hallucinations, and her mom was coming later in the night to pick her up. Tragedy, really, but I still believe she's better off dead since she wasn't going to get any real help. Truly, that's a better place to be for some humans.
Back to the living lonelies, I look at them sleeping at the eatery and think...wow are they homeless? Do they have nowhere else to go to? Or are they just so tired that they fall asleep after a late night supper? As I walk home I see more humans sleeping on the benches around my area, and think the same thing. It is impossible to tell if they are truly vagabonds (they don't look the part) or they're just out there having a cooler rest out in the open. I'll probably never know.
The Bane Of Design
The rapid advancement of technology should help design in theory. More options become available, limitations fade away, design can be free to operate without constraints. In theory, the technology we have today should have made a whole slew of truly creative intellectual property. Yet, it seems this is not so.
The whole hypersaturated market of virtually identical first person shooter games and movies like John Carter attest to this. Something has gone wrong, that the new affordances of technology aren't fostering increased creativity, but seem to have reduced it instead. My take is that technology has become a form of creativity in and of itself, where the eye candy and special effects have led to complacency. Where one was bound by massive constraints just 2 decades ago, forcing creative thinking around technological limitations, now one simply slaps a pretty new skin on a stinking old carcass and calls it a whole new creation. Goodness gracious me.
Designers and other creative people need to find their way out of this rut, to stimulate themselves to think outside the box that superior presentation technology has ironically locked them into. To fail to see this is to allow technology to become the bane of design.
The whole hypersaturated market of virtually identical first person shooter games and movies like John Carter attest to this. Something has gone wrong, that the new affordances of technology aren't fostering increased creativity, but seem to have reduced it instead. My take is that technology has become a form of creativity in and of itself, where the eye candy and special effects have led to complacency. Where one was bound by massive constraints just 2 decades ago, forcing creative thinking around technological limitations, now one simply slaps a pretty new skin on a stinking old carcass and calls it a whole new creation. Goodness gracious me.
Designers and other creative people need to find their way out of this rut, to stimulate themselves to think outside the box that superior presentation technology has ironically locked them into. To fail to see this is to allow technology to become the bane of design.
Thursday, March 08, 2012
John Carter
John Carter. Interplanetary traveler, Martian loyalist, tycoon. An epic love story that spans two planets, with the lives of everyone concerned in peril were it not for the actions of our intrepid hero. One would be led to expect that the movie would be spectacular. Unfortunately, it was not.
John Carter is a typical story of a traveler who is thrown into a foreign culture, struggles to assimilate, but eventually manages to help protect it against its foes. Of course, the hero always tries to return to that culture in the end. Last Samurai, Dances With Wolves, etc etc. It's a common enough narrative, and is not inherently original in any form. What makes such a narrative memorable and truly enjoyable is the immersion where the viewers think they understand what's going on, what the cultures stand for, and wind up rooting for the hero. This was not to be.
The movie falls short when it substitutes CGI for narrative, where the foreign culture happens to be alien looking beings, and the enemy is just another form of human. On Mars. Yet, throughout the narrative, it is unclear just why they are fighting, why it's even possible for an earthling to romance a martian, what the stakes of the fighting truly are, and basically anything that matters that isn't part of the romance or combat. None of these are made clear in the story.
The overall incoherence of the narrative prevents the viewer from truly appreciating the high budget production, and it is actually disgusting to see all that money splurged to basically reskin an old tale without adding anything particularly special. I'd say this movie deserves a 4/10.
John Carter is a typical story of a traveler who is thrown into a foreign culture, struggles to assimilate, but eventually manages to help protect it against its foes. Of course, the hero always tries to return to that culture in the end. Last Samurai, Dances With Wolves, etc etc. It's a common enough narrative, and is not inherently original in any form. What makes such a narrative memorable and truly enjoyable is the immersion where the viewers think they understand what's going on, what the cultures stand for, and wind up rooting for the hero. This was not to be.
The movie falls short when it substitutes CGI for narrative, where the foreign culture happens to be alien looking beings, and the enemy is just another form of human. On Mars. Yet, throughout the narrative, it is unclear just why they are fighting, why it's even possible for an earthling to romance a martian, what the stakes of the fighting truly are, and basically anything that matters that isn't part of the romance or combat. None of these are made clear in the story.
The overall incoherence of the narrative prevents the viewer from truly appreciating the high budget production, and it is actually disgusting to see all that money splurged to basically reskin an old tale without adding anything particularly special. I'd say this movie deserves a 4/10.
Wednesday, March 07, 2012
The Giggle Factor
Society has a powerful conformity mechanism, and it's called the giggle factor. Anything that lies outside the common boundaries of the masses will be laughed out of the house. As a result, the socially oriented humans will be inclined to avoid incurring the wrath of the giggle factor anytime soon.
This avoidance of the giggle factor is apparent in the sheer reluctance to seriously explore possibilities outside the realm of accepted science for example. This is regardless the actual quality of the commonly accepted science in question (most speak of it as if they know, but they retain a shallow understanding at best).
While I can understand the general guideline of sticking to mainstream thought patterns as a shortcut to staying away from shams and scams that plague alternative thought processes, I find it rather restrictive and rather like closing one's mind off prematurely. It also leads to the reluctance to question taboos, which may have well lost their practical value over the ages, yet still remaining from lack of informed querying. This seems to be rather unfortunate and a hindrance to progress.
This avoidance of the giggle factor is apparent in the sheer reluctance to seriously explore possibilities outside the realm of accepted science for example. This is regardless the actual quality of the commonly accepted science in question (most speak of it as if they know, but they retain a shallow understanding at best).
While I can understand the general guideline of sticking to mainstream thought patterns as a shortcut to staying away from shams and scams that plague alternative thought processes, I find it rather restrictive and rather like closing one's mind off prematurely. It also leads to the reluctance to question taboos, which may have well lost their practical value over the ages, yet still remaining from lack of informed querying. This seems to be rather unfortunate and a hindrance to progress.
Monday, March 05, 2012
Humans And People
While examining human society over the years of my existence, I've come to feel that human society is split between humans and people. By humans, I mean the animal-like homo sapien creatures that act primarily on instinct and maintain but a veneer of conscious critical thought. They mostly go with the flow, run with canned responses to common situations and I am quite convinced that they are little more than mere livestock. NPCs, if you will. Their presence seems to serve little more than to flesh out an otherwise empty living world.
On the other paw, there are the people, who are quite different from the mere humans. A person is one who's awakened and starts to realize that the confines of society are merely illusory, and that some of the parts have ceased to serve their purpose and can be safely ignored. They are willing to examine and constantly improve themselves and the systems around themselves. Being active participants, I'd say they're player character at the very least, and not merely run by some fancy AI.
The sad thing is the apparent lack of people presence in the face of rather excessive human presence in the current system. Perhaps it's due to processing power limitations, that there can only be that many people on earth at any given time, and that any other character spawned into this system would be doomed to be a mere human. Unfortunate, but that's how the crowd crumbles.
On the other paw, there are the people, who are quite different from the mere humans. A person is one who's awakened and starts to realize that the confines of society are merely illusory, and that some of the parts have ceased to serve their purpose and can be safely ignored. They are willing to examine and constantly improve themselves and the systems around themselves. Being active participants, I'd say they're player character at the very least, and not merely run by some fancy AI.
The sad thing is the apparent lack of people presence in the face of rather excessive human presence in the current system. Perhaps it's due to processing power limitations, that there can only be that many people on earth at any given time, and that any other character spawned into this system would be doomed to be a mere human. Unfortunate, but that's how the crowd crumbles.
Saturday, March 03, 2012
Laws Are Good
I was thinking about the goodness of laws earlier today, and I am certainly glad for their presence. That is why I respect the laws. Criminal law is an agreement set up by the representatives of the people (elected or otherwise) in order to protect the people from Bad Things. I, for one, have no desire to face Bad Things, so I am glad that I am protected by enforceable laws.
Think of the origin of the laws regarding murder. Killing is something that's perfectly natural to people. I for one would have killed dozens of people by now if the law didn't make it less than worth my while. Someone offends me? I find a way to kill them. Easy. Unfortunately, not only does this reduce cogs from our economic machinery, it also opens one to unfortunate backlash from those related to the inoperative cog. This cycle of revenge can potentially destabilize the system, which is an understandably unpleasant side effect. I'm sure back then people figured this out and simply agreed not to kill one another under any circumstances, except perhaps when a whole bunch of people agree that a particular person should be snuffed. It's alright if multiple people decide on something, after all.
How would such laws affect those who are regardless inclined to kill? Well I think that'd inspire me to hide the bodies at the very least, so I can continue with my activities. Not a bad thing overall, considering how it spares others the distress of seeing bodies lying all over the place. Out of sight is out of mind. The law works!
Think of the origin of the laws regarding murder. Killing is something that's perfectly natural to people. I for one would have killed dozens of people by now if the law didn't make it less than worth my while. Someone offends me? I find a way to kill them. Easy. Unfortunately, not only does this reduce cogs from our economic machinery, it also opens one to unfortunate backlash from those related to the inoperative cog. This cycle of revenge can potentially destabilize the system, which is an understandably unpleasant side effect. I'm sure back then people figured this out and simply agreed not to kill one another under any circumstances, except perhaps when a whole bunch of people agree that a particular person should be snuffed. It's alright if multiple people decide on something, after all.
How would such laws affect those who are regardless inclined to kill? Well I think that'd inspire me to hide the bodies at the very least, so I can continue with my activities. Not a bad thing overall, considering how it spares others the distress of seeing bodies lying all over the place. Out of sight is out of mind. The law works!
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