| Commercial |
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| 08:32am 31/01/2009 |
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I am stunned by how awesome this is. Bask in the commercial's glory.
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Read 1 - Post |
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| Cheap laugh |
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| 09:03pm 28/01/2009 |
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The story's about a week old, but I thought I'd share:
I was at work and talking with some of the other supervisors. My boss comes running over with a scowl on his face. Apparently, we need to get contact information for all 75 employees as part of some contingency plan. It was imperitave, according to his lecture, that we get everyone's contact information by the end of the day. To emphasize the importance of this task, he said: "What if the building burned down tonight? How would we tell the employees not to come to work?"
Without missing a beat, I replied, "Smoke signals."
The boss struggled to hide a laugh behind a scowl and promptly left. |
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| Brain Steroids |
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| 09:20pm 13/01/2009 |
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I know this isn't exactly new, but a friend recently reminded me of it. Here's the dilemma:
Suppose there's a magical pill out there that has the power to make people concentrate better. Not as in correcting-for-ADHD concentrating, but super-absorbed, superhuman concentrating. The drug could optimize performance by eliminating distractions and enabling more focus to the user. The person taking the drug would consistently be able to perform better on tests and retain information better. Do you give the drug to the public in the hopes that its widespread use would further society, or keep it under lock and key?
There are multiple articles reporting multiple accounts people using Provigil, a pill that traditionally treats narcolepsy, to enhance performance for school, writing, work, etc. Narratives credit the drug for vast increases in productivity, both at work and at home. As an added bonus, the drug makes you lose weight. It seems like a miracle drug that could do the world a lot of good.
Of course, I have a major problem with it.
We are in a performance-based society. One's performance on testing and schooling, as well as one's performance at work, determine who gets better paying jobs and who gets poorly paid jobs. Who gets promoted at work is based on how effectively tasks get finished in the work environment. However, there are niches in our society for people of all performance levels. Someone needs to teach the class, and someone needs to scrape the gum off the bottom of the desks. However, not all jobs pay the same amount.
I don't think anyone would argue that anything in the preceding paragraph will be changing anytime soon. Simply put, these different jobs exist because someone needs to do them; however, the difference in necessary skill and training seems to justify a difference in pay in our society.
Let's assume for a minute we were able to distribute Provigil equally among everyone. I would bet that test scores would be through the roof. In a few years, we'd have a bunch of rocket scientists.
But here's the problem: society doesn't have any use for an entire generation of rocket scientists. Someone still needs to take out our trash and pick our fruit. We can't give everyone a high-paying job or award scholarships to everyone. The problem in our scenario is we have no way to determine who to give the lower-paying job to. We could no longer justify pay differentials with difference in performance; with everyone performing at optimum, there is no justification for why one person is a garbageman and one person is the head of NASA.(And while this scenario may work if we were dealing with an idealized Communistic society, it may still be a problem even there... Marx's "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need" didn't really count on everyone having the same ability (read: performance) level)
Meanwhile, back in the real world, pills cost money; prescription ones cost even more. Simply put, these performance enhancers would not be equally distributed among society. Instead, the uninsured and the unemployed (and any dependents they may have) would be unable to acquire these pills, while the higher income families would have the ability to medicate their children enough to get into Harvard. Children from higher income families would consistently perform significantly better on tests and at work. How well one performed on tests and at work would depend on one's income, which is determined by performance on tests and work. The poor stay poor, and the rich stay rich. Only the most bright poor children would be able to cross the enlarged gap between their sober performance and the artificially-enhanced performance of the richer classes.
Either way, people using the pill to enhance cognitive ability doesn't seem bode well for society. The funny thing is, I'm usually all about helping everyone and trying to make society a better place. In this case though, I tend to feel a slight sense of guilt and selfishness for arguing against this advance.
Even as I write this, more and more counter-arguments form in my head. After all, what's the difference between using this pill and Ritalin? For that matter, does this discrimination differ significantly from any other class-based discrimination?
What are your thoughts on this?
*A note on side-effects: Currently, there are no known adverse neural consequences to taking the drug long-term. However, I'm guessing they just haven't discovered it yet; the body's bio-equilibrium seems like it would react negatively to compensate for the pill. |
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| Bah, humbug |
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| 10:21pm 16/11/2008 |
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So, apparently all stores have switched over to Christmas mode already... and the holiday is already starting to grate on my nerves.
For those that don't know, I did a short stint working at Michael's (the arts and crafts store) one year. I started working there in the summer of that year, and I saw Christmas paraphernalia start to appear as early as August. This year, I saw full-blown Christmas crap at multiple department stores as early as October. The holiday seems to start earlier and earlier, with more and more stores buying into the trend.
Now, don't get me wrong... I don't hate Christmas itself. The holiday is a great time of cheer, giving, and good-will. However, I don't think there's any really good excuse to put Christmas merchandise out this early. Nonetheless, people tend to provide plenty of excuses as to why this habit exists and the Christmas holiday seems to have been inflated from one day to several months. Here's a random assortment of excuses, with my abbreviated answers to them.
1. Christmas represents the spirit of giving and good will towards others. Why are you upset that this spirit of giving?
~While I agree that the spirit behind Christmas is important, it's a bit hypocritical to limit good will and giving to merely the Christmas season... you can extend this to an all-year event through various charities, as well as just being a decent human being.
~I am not bashing the idea of getting one's Christmas shopping done early... you can do shopping throughout the year for people if you can find something that they really, truly want. However, Christmas decorations shouldn't be necessary until you want to start decorating for Christmas... which, again, should wait until the end of the damn Macy's day parade.
2. Christmas is an important holiday in the Christian religion. As a Christian, you should be proud that people are recognizing its importance and embracing the holiday. (Note: While I understand how sarcastic I sound and how extreme, I have heard various incarnations of this argument/complaint)
~This is actually a horrible standard, and quite hypocritical. While Christmas is an important holiday in the Christian religion, it is not nearly as important as Easter. And while I've seen people buy Christmas decorations in August and put their trees and lights up almost two months before the date, I have yet to see Easter sales in January or Easter egg hunts in February. If you were to extend a holiday for religious reasons, you should extend Easter (of course, this might conflict with the marketability of Valentine's Day).
3. Our economy's in a rut. People need more time to buy their Christmas stuff... so stretching out Christmas this year is for budgeting and economic reasons.
~While this seems like an intact reason, I don't think it's really as reasonable a solution as people think. Honestly, people should be budgeting for Christmas year-round, and should be doing their shopping accordingly. And while layaway may have its appeal, I seriously doubt Christmas decorations are being put on layaway. For that matter, is spending $400 over the course of three months really that much different than squirreling away that money so you can spend it all in one month? Or do we not trust the American consumer enough to be able to save like that? Personally, I think people market more so we will spend more, despite the fact that our economy's in a rut. And while spending more MIGHT be good for the economy, it's probably not so good for people who are afraid of losing their mortgage any day.
Can you think of any reasons to justify listening to Christmas carols for months on end? |
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Read 2 - Post |
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| A spooky Halloween update |
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| 09:08pm 30/10/2008 |
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So, I feel like I have to brag about my costume, because it's JUST that awesome.
Somewhere around six months ago, I had originally decided to go as Rorschach from The Watchmen in honor of the movie coming out in March. As a side note, if you haven't read The Watchmen as of yet, do yourself a favor and pick it up. I absolutely loved it. The problem with the costume idea is, next to no one knows who the hell Rorschach is, and most won't know until after the movie comes out. I realized it was a long-term investment; if the movie's a hit, people will be dressing the part this time next year, and I'd get the bragging rights of already done that costume.
I seriously debated doing the Joker, but I promised myself back in February I wouldn't for two reasons: one, a ton of people are doing it this year (and pretty poorly, I might add); two, I've already done that costume a few years ago. So, onward to another idea.
Then, I remembered a conversation that patchworkhero and I had when we were still rooming together, and that decided my costume.
Artie
The strongest man... in the world.
For those poor, uninitiated souls, look here and here for samples of his work. |
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| On Normalcy |
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| 10:42pm 15/10/2008 |
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To be "normal" is a splendid ideal for the unsuccessful, for all those who have not yet found an adaptation. But for people who have far more ability than the average, for whom it was never hard to gain successes and to accomplish their share of the world's work - for them restriction to the normal signifies the bed of Procrustes, unbearable boredom, infernal sterility and hopelessness.
-Carl Jung, Modern Man in Search of a Soul
EDIT: How's that for a motivational quote? |
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| Flying to and fro |
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| 07:40pm 04/10/2008 |
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Just wanted to check in. Work is having me fly out to the DC area for three weeks total. Luckily, they're flying me home every weekend so we don't have to stay out there forever.
I just finished my first week out there. Surprisingly, I have yet to eat crab while in Maryland. Go figure. I'll see if that changes before my travels are done.
Overall, life is good. Becki and I made fish tacos tonight, which we haven't made in what appears to have been too long. Fish tacos are amazing. Also, it's just nice to be home for a bit.
I'm flying out again Monday morning. I feel bad that I have to spend so much time doing laundry and otherwise preparing to leave again; I feel like I should be making up for lost time by running around with the dog and Becki all day, not unpacking/packing/washing stuff.
Ah well. At least I'm home. |
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| I don't get it |
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| 08:04pm 21/09/2008 |
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Humor, like many things in our culture, tends to evolve over time and change. Its most recent form, however, is something I really don't grasp (or at least, don't appreciate).
I understand wordplay and puns, slapstick and situational humor. However, I guess this most recent surge of humor is best described as "awkward". The earliest well-known example I can think of takes place on an episode of Family Guy. Peter is running home for some reason, trips, and hurts his leg. Peter sits for a while, obviously hurt.
The first few seconds can be attributed to slapstick humor. However, the scene lasts for a good 30 seconds. Family Guy drags the scene out to change pacing of it, and makes the audience uncomfortable. Laughter ensues.
Now don't get me wrong; I think this scene is still funny. However, this "awkward" humor is still mixed with slapstick to get the desired laugh. Further, the show varies the different types of jokes and gags it presents.
Enter Napoleon Dynamite. Almost the entire movie consists of these "awkward" moments and only of these; not many other puns or gags are really given. The movie becomes a huge hit, which seems surprising to me considering the type of humor used. Other movies follow suit like Superbad, and are met with equal success. (I am fully aware comics such as Will Ferrill and Steve Carell have been successful with this humor as well).
I guess, to try to analyze the crap out of this, we can turn to Freud's analysis of humor. He said that humor was when two incompatible frames or elements combine and create tension. The humor is a result of this tension being released as a smile or laugh. Turning back to our original problem with this "awkward" humor, we still experience the tension, but there's no release.
Perhaps we should take a different look at this. If we ignore the content of the movie/joke, and instead analyze the audience's predicament, this "awkward" humor can be viewed as more of a post-modern humor. The audience is put in an awkward situation, which in and of itself is supposed to be funny (However, I have serious doubts that producers like Seth Rogan really have the capacity to grasp post-modernism). If this is the case, the person who tells/writes the joke can risk alienation and hostility (more on this here); however, this may just perpetuate the post-modern "joke" of it all.
Despite all the analysis, I feel like I still don't understand the nature of the joke; I still don't get why it's funny.
For those of you that enjoyed movies like Napoleon Dynamite and Superbad, try to enlighten me on why you find this type of humor funny. Those of you who don't find it funny, expand on why you don't. |
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Read 4 - Post |
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| Thought of the day |
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| 06:04pm 08/09/2008 |
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As some of you may know, they're going to fire up the CERN Large Hadron Collider for the first time on Sept 10. The idea behind it is to recreate what it would be like a fraction of a second after the Big Bang, and hopefully locate the Higgs boson in the process. Though the epistemological implications of this would be staggering, most people are much more concerned with the risks associated with firing up the machine.
For the uninitiated, there is a slight risk that this machine could tear a hole in the space-time continuum and unravel existence. Comparatively, here is a much larger (albeit still small*) risk that the machine could create a black hole which would consume/destroy the Earth and all life on it.
Though I'd like to refrain from weighing in on the likelihood that the end of the world is mere hours away, it is a remote possibility. It conjures an interesting question: You've been given warning that the world may/could/will end in 2 days. How will you spend them? Will you do anything differently?
Will you regret anything if the world ends?
*Note: the chances of the whole "black hole" thing happening is what's being heavily debated. Some independent researchers are arguing the chances are pretty big. If you want to know more, use the internet to find information. |
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| Life update |
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| 05:47pm 08/09/2008 |
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Well, since I haven't updated with anything from my life in x months, I guess I'm overdue for a "what the hell is Justin doing now?" post.
Becki and I got married. It's amazing; it's wonderful. You should've been at the wedding. Hell, you might've been. If you weren't, I'm guessing you were at least invited, shown pictures, and gushed to about married life. Still, it's awesome.
Becki and I moved now. We have a nice apartment for the two of us (three if you count the dog). The neighborhood here is a lot nicer than where I was before. I like to be able to have the option to walk places and go to street fairs.
I got a big pay raise at work that hasn't kicked in yet. I have mixed feelings. On one hand, it's nice to be paid more and be "financially secure". On the other hand, it's not my dream job (but it's a step in the right direction). We'll see... ask me six months from now how happy I still am with the job.
Oh, and I bought the game Spore yesterday. Absolutely amazing, though my brother brought up a good point: is anyone (interest groups, mothers, etc.) boycotting the game because it uses evolution?
Oh, and my brother's back in CA and going to college.
So, that's life in a nutshell. |
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| Buh? |
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| 09:59pm 05/09/2008 |
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You know, I've been debating over deleting this account for quite some time. Obviously, I'm not quick to post. And to be honest, I'm not fond of writing about my everyday goings-on. It feels narcissistic to me to think that someone would like to know how cushy my socks are and how I played with the dog today.
Instead, I'm debating scrapping the traditional "journal" idea. Instead, I'd be posting about philosophic debates and interesting chains of thought that I've encountered. I literally have dozens that I ponder, and it may be interesting to get input on them. Plus, they'd serve as a catalyst for debate, which I always find fun.
What're your thoughts? More fluffy sock stories, or intellectual chewing gum? |
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| 09:41pm 28/02/2008 |
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So, apparently I've neglected posting for quite a while.
What's new? Not much. Wedding planning is still nuts. With less than two months to go, I don't have a lot of free time nowadays. It's kind of scary to think that I'm actually going to be married so soon; it's a bit surreal, to be honest.
I'm having fun with the idea of seeing Adam again. I haven't seen him in forever. It'll be nice to hang out with him, even if only for a weekend.
Recently, I've developed an obsession of sorts over the music of Tom Waits, as well as learning more about psychology. I've been devouring my old undergrad texts and find myself regretting I ever sold most of my books. I ordered a few books online to supplement my learning, and I'm really looking forward to getting those as well.
I know I need to start posting drawings, comics, and the like on this LJ thing one of these days. When I feel like I have enough time to search for the power cord to my scanner, I'll start posting pictures. |
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| Music Video |
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| 11:50pm 20/10/2007 |
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This is quite possibly the best music video ever, and I had to share it.
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| Update |
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| 11:14pm 20/10/2007 |
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So, I've been getting this growing urge to DO something lately. I'm working harder and harder to accomplish more with my life than I already have. I'm hoping I can find a new job soon... that would be a good start. It's a bit discouraging when you have your undergrad and you're working with high schoolers for next to nothing, while my brother (with no college degree) is making over $10k more than me per year. I mean, I'm happy for him, but I should at least be making what he is. Go figure.
Well, I don't really have anything new to add, except I'm looking for a graphing calculator currently. I'm hoping someone out there has a spare one they'd be willing to sell. Besides that, really not too much going on.
Random links:
Dumbledore is gay
Turn your flashlight into a laser
Awesome, cereal-themed artwork |
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| 05:28pm 06/10/2007 |
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Anyone have any fun ideas for Halloween costumes this year? I'm completely stumped for some reason.
Edit: I found my costume. Thanks for the ideas though. |
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| Random update |
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| 08:45pm 03/10/2007 |
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So, here's the update stuff:
First, stuff is good. Wedding plans are going well; we've put down a bunch of money, we know what we want at this point, and the budget is under control. Of course, money's tight, and it's a pain in the butt to think about how much can go wrong, as well as how much money we have to spend still, but the wedding as a whole is manageable at this point.
Lately, I've been having an existential crisis of sorts.
( me bitching about jobs )
So, summary: I feel lost. I need direction. And I have no idea where to start. |
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| Song's stuck in my head |
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| 06:50pm 01/08/2007 |
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Apparently, a busy interstate in Minneapolis just fell in the Mississippi.
Cars and people are in the river. There's ton of coverage on the tragedy. Many are hurt. My mom's already called, which means it's already made national news. People are flocking to the scene, just gawking in awe at the amount of destruction from what still is an unknown cause. It's horrible that so many people were hurt and possibly even killed.
Still, some part of me inside could do nothing but smile, walk away from the TV, and turn on this song.
People are hurt, possibly dead. Hundreds flock to watch in person, and it's being broadcast over all sorts of media already.
Some watch the broadcast to try to see their relatives. and make mental calculations who they know that travel that route. They make calls to make sure everyone's ok.
But this is being broadcast on a national level. Why would people across the country watch this level of tragedy? ...Entertainment?
Listen for yourself. |
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| Thanks Adam |
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| 06:47pm 01/08/2007 |
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"It is now theoretically possible to link the human nervous system into a radio network so that, micro-miniaturized receivers being implanted in people's brains, the message coming out of these radios would be indistinguishable to the subjects from the voice of their own thoughts. One central transmitter, located in the nation's capital, could broadcast all day long what the authorities wanted the people to believe. The average man on the receiving end of these broadcasts would not even know he was a robot; he would think it was his own voice he was listening to. The average woman could be treated similarly.
"It is ironic that people will find such a concept both shocking and frightening. Like Orwell's 1984, this is not a fantasy of the future but a parable of the present. Every citizen in every authoritarian society already has such a "radio" built into his or her brain. This radio is the little voice that asks, each time a desire is formed, 'Is it safe? Will my wife (my husband/my boss/my church/my community) approve? Will people ridicule me and mock me? Will the police come and arrest me?' This little voice the Freudians call "The Super ego," with Freud himself vividly characterized as "the ego's harsh master." With a more functional approach, Perls, Hefferline and Goodman, in Gestalt Therapy, describe this process as "a set of conditioned verbal habits."
"This set, which is fairly uniform throughout any authoritarian society, determines the actions which will, and will not, occur there. Let us consider humanity a biogram (the basic DNA blueprint of the human organism and its potentials) united with a logogram (the set of "conditioned verbal habits"). the biogram has not changed in several hundred thousand years; the logogram is different in each society. When the logogram reinforces the biogram, we have a libertarian society, such as still can be found among some American Indian tribes. Like Confucianism before it became authoritarian and rigified, American Indian Ethics is based on speaking from the heart and acting from the heart -- that is, from the biogram.
"No authoritarian society can tolerate this. All authority is based on conditioning men and women to act from the logogram, since the logogram is a set created by those in authority.
"Every authoritarian logogram divides society as it divides the individual, into alienated halves. Those at the bottom suffer what I shall call the "burden of nescience". The natural sensory activity of the biogram -- what the person sees, hears, smells, tastes, feels, and, above all, what the organism as a whole, or as a potential whole, WANTS -- is always IRRELEVANT AND IMMATERIAL. The authoritarian logogram, not the field of sensed experience, determines what is relevant and material. This is as true of a highly paid advertising copywriter as it is of an engine lathe operator. The person acts, not on personal experience and the evaluations of the nervous system, but on the orders from above. Thus, personal experience and personal judgment being nonoperational, these functions become also less "real." They exist, if at all, only in that fantasy land which Freud called the Unconscious. Since nobody has found a way to prove that the Freuidian Unconscious really exists, it can be doubted that personal experience and personal judgment exist; it is an act of faith to assume they do. The organism has become, as Marx said, "a tool, a machine, a robot."
"Those at the top of the authoritarian pyramid, however, suffer an equal and opposite "burden of omniscience." All that is forbidden to the servile class -- the web of perception, evaluation and participation in the sensed universe -- is demanded of the members of the master class. They must attempt to do the seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, feeling and decision-making for the whole society.
"But a man with a gun is told only that which people assume will not provoke him to pull the trigger. Since all authority and government are based on force, the master class, with its burden of omniscience, faces the servile class, with its burden of nescience, precisely as a highwayman faces his victim. COMMUNICATION IS ONLY POSSIBLE BETWEEN EQUALS. The master class never extracts enough information from the servile class to know what is actually going on in the world where the actual productivity of society occurs. Furthermore, the logogram of any authoritarian society remains fairly inflexible as time passes, but everything else in the universe constantly changes. The result can only be progressive disorientation among the rulers. The end is debacle.
"The schizophrenia of authoritarianism exists both in the individual and in the whole society. I call this the Snafu Principle."
- Robert Anton Williams : The Golden Apple |
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earthpiggy's journal
