oh hell

I have been long absent. However, I feel that I haven't been missed terribly, so I can't say I'm deeply apologetic. Just thought I'd take another whack at this blog thing. I shan't be at school this semester, so it might be a good idea to do something to keep my ability to write coherently up to par.

I last started to post on the ninth of January. The text of that post (heretofore unposted) follows the body of this one, and I will not be finishing the thoughts left hanging there, not at this moment.
I've been working a lot lately, having a job and all, and although it's not my first experience having a regular bit of employment, it wears on me quite a bit. Moreso than basic physical labor would (I'm in retail now, and fancy retail at that) and that troubles me. Should I not be using the strength of my back now, when I am young, and only turn to the art of my hand, knowledge of my mind or wisdom of my experience once the former has failed me, or at least i have begun to stumble from my peak of physical prowess (and some poor prowess that)? I should like to have my physicality demanded upon, not my personality, not my vaguely-inate use of my tongue that can implore or lead.
I also feel somewhat dirty, as a salesman. There are certainly customers that I needn't sell to at all -- indeed, the only function I serve for them is to prevent them wasting their time searching the whole store to find that which they seek. However, even for customers that do not buy, I feel like I have influenced people to my own profit -- not that I don't believe in the quality of the product I sell, I do! And I suppose that is the nature of sales. But that is not something with which I shall ever be fully comfortable.

I must rise early, so this is all for tonight. Perhaps next time I will talk about some tattoo ideas. Perhaps not.

I leave you with this, from 1/9/10:
I didn't mean to not post at all over break. But I didn't.
And the really annoying thing is, one night I thought of something that made me really mad, and I was SO EXCITED about the prospect of writing about it here. No dice, though-I forgot about it.
So for the past week or two or more I've been hoping it'd come back to me.
John McClane is the best police character to grace the silver screen on multiple occasions, hands down. I mean, the plots of the Die Hard films are so ridiculous, but they are beautiful, straightforward action films where the bad guy gets destroyed with many accompanying awesome explosions.
Last time I blathered I mentioned I wanted to talk about rebranding. This is something that has long bothered me, primarily on account of my long-time obsessive knowledge-gathering about the automobile industry, particularly the products. I was recently sparked to think about this again when I noticed that Orbit gum is made by the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company. Yeah. The primary manufacturer of chewing gum of the previous decade-I mean, I think it has held that position for longer, but within my experience, that's all to which I can speak with any authority. When I was growing up, they were the only (major) game in town. But now, other brands seem to have shook up the market somewhat, and it would appear that the standard five-stick pack division of the Wrigley Co. is being phased out to some degree, while the Orbit division is being made the primary horse, as it were. Now, Orbit might have been a rival that was absorbed-this is entirely possible and is a different issue entirely, but let's assume that isn't the situation (I know I could find out, but I frankly don't care a bit). Anyway, this is an example of the type of rebranding that makes industrial progression possible, that keeps companies alive, that keeps consumers interested in your segment. Instead of changing the image of your product or resurrecting a dead line, you shift your primary focus onto another, which is supported by the same technology, and use it to continue moving forward. That's business done right, or at least it would seem so from my layman's position.
This is the exact opposite of what is done, has been done, by particularly the American auto industry, although the Korean brands marketed in the US are excellent examples, as are some lines in the Japanese marques.
This model is based on the idea that the American marketplace is full of idiots (I'm not arguing that). GM is the most egregious offender, so I'll focus on them.

Get your motor running

It's a brand new day. Last night sounded terrible, rain and wind and such. Now there's the sun. I'd be willing to put a big stake on the thought that a great deal of the artistic beauty produced throughout man's history was in part inspired by a sunrise after a storm. There's just something so striking about it.
So. Zeitgeist. It's one of those words that, to me, totally encapsulates its meaning, really sounds like it. The literal German is "spirit of the age", coming from the words for time (zeit) and spirit (geist) which come from the same roots as the English words tide and ghost.
Interesting etymology aside, zeitgeist is an interesting and often unspoken concept. A senior says "It was different back then", he's talking about it. Parents don't understand the choices their kids make; they're fighting it. Barack Obama became president because he read and rode the zeitgeist. All this, it's not noticed, normally, in the now. Usually, for the unthinking, it's only ever really noticed in retrospect. But I think if we try to understand why the grand collective mind of humanity is thinking the way it is, maybe we can make the worlds a better place or some other positive thing like that. I'm just saying it's interesting and potentially worthwhile to check out once in a while, so long as thinking that hard doesn't hurt you. Don't want to encourage the average American past their pitiful capacity for thought.
Y'know, in the past, I thought Chad Ochocinco was ridiculous and just needed to shut up and play the game. He's still ridiculous-the man's name means eight-five, for goodness sake, but he shut up and has really gotten down to business. I can at least respect him for that now.
For the first and last time I'm going to talk about Twilight here. I think it's just another Harry Potter thing. It'll go as soon as it came, in the big picture. I don't really care. But I can't lie. I'm really freaking annoyed by it. Not by it. By people's obsession with it. With vampires. I don't mean to insult your fantasy, if that's what you like, but I think it's dumb. Also from sources I trust I've heard that Meyer's writing sucks. So yeah. All I can say is, if I had a daughter right now, it's not that she wouldn't be reading Twilight, but she'd definitely be also reading other, worthwhile material. A Bronte or Alcott or one of those ladies who really knew what was up.
On a more humorous note, I recently heard something in connection with this picture:

Now just think-if it were a group of middle-aged men reacting similarly to a 17 year old girl, do you think you'd have the same reaction? Lol@double standards.

Something I might talk about tomorrow/whenever I post next-Rebranding

Ooops

I hate when I don't do something for a while. After a certain uncomfortable period, it becomes such that even though I need to do it, I get scared of it, and I do nothing about it for even longer. Sometimes it bites me in the ass. Sometimes it has no negative repercussions. Kinda like not posting in my blog for months. But w/e. Here I am. Just try and dislodge me now!

(It probably wouldn't be that hard)

The last three minutes or so of Korn's "Dirty" off Issues is just static. Now you know that. I just learned myself, so don't feel bad if you didn't know. I hadn't yet listened to that album full through. Now I'm listening to Korn. Good stuff.

Words are funny things. They gain and lose meaning so much based on personal experience, and yet we expect to be able to properly communicate. Granted, we've got somewhere over half a mil words to explain stuff. But still, it's a strange assumption that everyone will understand you.

The way language-oh man, I love the song Clown-behaves in the personalization of it be all of its users reminds me of the different ways in which animals evolve, based on environment, given that they come from the same root. Like say there is one large island, flanked by two smaller ones. One day there's a huge storm. A flock of sparrows from the main island gets blown into two smaller flocks. Each half ultimately finds port on a different smaller island and remains there, theoretically interminably. Return in centuries or whatever and they'll have developed in divergent directions, to some degree. I mean, that's a pretty weak-sauce example, but it's the principle. This is something that actually happens. And yes, I was thinking of Charlie when I thought this example.

But anyway, that's how language acts in all our heads. I think it's pretty neat. That's where dialects come from, on a larger (and communal) scale, and even separate languages, if you want to go that far. Personalization based on experience and/or personal perspective shapes so much about our world.

Things to think about-Zeitgeist.

Old York Style?

Cheesecake is some pretty good stuff. But people are always calling it "New York Style." What is non "New York Style" cheesecake? Does that mean it has fruit or something? I feel like I've seen "New York Style" with strawberries. Maybe I'm wrong. That answer seems too easy though. I will never doubt the capacity of the English language to completely obfuscate things/make things confusing, particularly in subjects where things can change, like the culinary world. So my hypothesis is that at some point in our recent history, we had cheesecake that was not "New York Style" and thus we needed that phrase in order to delineate between the two. Or perhaps it truly is a regional thing, and I've just never ventured to an area where another style is predominant.

Why do informercials claim to introduce their products several times in the middle of the spot? I've been listening to your idiots-I mean experts-yammer on about this thing for a while.

(Okay, maybe I need a life, but sometimes I start using the computer and forget to turn off the TV and then infomercials come on and I occasionally hear them in the background.)

Another possibility-"New York Style" is a fancy way of avoiding calling something "plain" cheesecake (related to my above theory regarding fruit, etc.).

So, Steven Segal. His movies are hilarious. I mean, they're so bad, it's amusing to watch. In my senior year of high school, I was part of a film for class. If we had, say, oh, any small fraction of the budget that one of those films had, we could have made vastly better movie than any of his.

Not that I blame him. He's a pretty nifty guy-the living realization of the Great White Ninja. Chris Farley, RIP.

Something interesting I noted while watching, I believe, "Out of Reach", the type of hero he portrays is similar to the kind of idealistic bulletproof good guys I myself imagined as a child. A heroism untainted by the reality of the world. This is intrinsically part, I believe, of why his movies suck. Plus the plots take weird jumps. Plus dialogue is uninspired. Plus the acting sucks.

The fight scenes are pretty cool though.

But really, Liam Neeson in "Taken" is much more believable, much more enjoyable to watch. He doesn't care a whit about the whole trafficking system-he just gets his daughter. He doesn't avoid killing people. He just gets his daughter. No one who could possibly give him some kind of traction towards that goal is innocent.

The more I learn about the ugliness of human nature, about the ways of the world, the cooler I find somebody like the Comedian or Ozymandias and the more ridiculous and disappointing I find Superman. It's a dark part of the soul that still longs for a figure like that, not dark because of the feelings that lurk there, but dark because experience snuffed out the light of hope that used to shine bright, the candle of man's benevolence and caring for his fellow man.

That's pretty uplifting, is it not? Yeah, people suck. That's basically what I'm trying to say.

All you can do about it is survive, and do your best to make sure those around you are affected positively, I guess. Life's a game we all lose, because no one can agree on how to win. Also, once you're dead, what does it matter? Opinions on the subject ring hollow when they come from a casket.

All a-flutter

First off, waking up/sleeping is dumb. I think we shouldn't have to do it because sometimes I find it annoying. That's right. I reserve and exercise my right to protest a basic (not to mention necessary) restorative function of our bodies because I'm annoyed. Hey, I never said I wasn't American. But yeah, sleeping is one of the greatest plagues visited upon humanity.

Bismallah, I hope you know I'm kidding.

Let's talk about Twitter. I use it myself, based on the same reasoning I express in my header. (^look^up^) However, complaining does not follow logic here, so although I use it, I will still express that it's silly. Why? Because of the people who have morphed it into their only source on information. There was an article that I read, oh, when was that, maybe the beginning of last week, when all those hackers were attacking Twitter and Facebook, do you recall this? Anyway, there were some people who, when Twitter was down, were all "OMG WHAT IS HAPPENING TO EVERYONE" and I think that's kinda sad. Now, I know I'm being hypocritical, because I also use the interwebs to stay connected to life, the universe and everything, but seriously, receiving all the information you need through something as shallow as Twitter? Whose very nature, indeed, limits and filters the amount of useful information one can actually receive? Gah, I mean, c'mon people.

Then there's stuff like this which just makes me chuckle, although it's not terribly scientifically based, as the article points out.

Basically I guess what it all comes down to is that the interwebs is nifty and you can do some really shiny things with it, but there is such a thing as taking it toooooo far. I suppose we need those people who do take it that far, because without them, development would stagnate. But I don't think we all need to be pioneers of rearranging cultural mores in our head to the point where 140-character updates become more important than everything else.

Another thing about Twitter-what is it with the sexbots? Am I alone in having those? I mean, I can't say I'm surprised, but it's just weird.

Ah well. Time to get up.

LOL F1RST P0ST!

So here I go down the path of Internet fame. Haha. I'll be honest, I don't read any blogs. I just complain/think enough that I feel that I can produce vaguely regular updates. I'll try to keep the cussing to a minimum and all that. Also I will avail myself to not treat this a private journal-type-thing. That will end...badly. Recognizing the small possibility that people I don't know will read this, I'm not always going to be entirely frank about what I feel.

So, if you're interested in reading the ramblings of a oft-frustrated, occasionally humorous, fairly intelligent, extremely modest and foolish young man as he observes the flailing failings of the world around him, read on. I can't promise you'll always enjoy, but I will promise...uh...nevermind. I'm not going to promise anything.