Hot Peppers, Stupid Humans, Culture Clash, and Textual Russian Roulette

This entry is part [part not set] of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

Two fascinating culture articles in today’s feed. One about the perception of lowbrow, midbrow, and highbrow cultural norms and another about a “game” called Damage Control that the kids these days seem to be playing.

The ideas, ideals, and realities of socioeconomic and cultural class systems fascinate me. How one level looks at the others, what anyone in a given class aspires to be, how divergent reality often is (sometimes despite the “best” efforts of society to have rigid separations). It always seems to me that those stratifications are made by people who want to, in some way or another, be able to easily identify themselves as elite.

Using things like art and clothing to lord over others who may simply have different tastes is a time-honored recipe for separation instead of synthesis. And in today’s world of ascendant “geek culture” all the classic “low brow” entertainment (i.e. comic books) is suddenly gaining traction and it’s now acceptable, if not a sign of a certain “elite” class, to actually be a geek.

Of course, all of that would likely still be considered, at best, midbrow by anyone who considers themselves highbrow.

The other cultural article is about a “game” called Damage Control, wherein people (often when drunk) hand over their phones to friends (or “friends,” depending on how things go) who then proceed to send some sort of off-the-wall/offensive/sexual text to someone (anyone–there are no rules limiting who) in the phone’s address book. People have lost friends, jobs, and tons of sleep as a result of this game.

I see it as not much less than classic Russian Roulette. Instead of risking physical death for the rush of “winning,” these people are putting their social standing and professional opportunities on the line to get the same sort of rush.

That seems to say something about what’s considered valuable and important to those who play. It also likely says something about how much they don’t feel a sense of fulfillment from what they’re doing. If you’re willing to risk everything on a random text, that strikes me as kind of call for some sort of fate to change circumstances you feel unable (or are otherwise unwilling) to change on your own.

Makes much more sense to me to just identify what you’re unhappy about and actually work to change it… instead of relying on utter randomness to maybe make life better.

So, definitely check those article out… they provide a lot to think on.

Here’s the full feed…

Life Imitating Art, Remixing Art, Art Imitating Life, and Remixing Life

This entry is part [part not set] of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

Aside from the sad (but expected) death of Dick Smith, one of the greatest special effects makeup artists of all time, there’s a lot of creative stuff going on in the feed today. Not all of it is what I’d call “good” creative–that new Sprint plan that kind of steps all over the idea of Net Neutrality is definitely creative–but all of it does show some very different ways of thinking and how much really buying into those patterns can change things.

For better or worse.

On the “better” side are “The Four Agreements.” If you’re not familiar, they’re four relatively simple precepts to live one’s life by. They focus on understanding the power we can let others have over us and just how much autonomy we can assert over ourselves. I first heard about them decades ago, when the book first came out (even though I never bought it or read it).

Good stuff, highly recommended for anyone seeking to feel a bit more fulfilled.

On the “questionable but probably awesome” side, we have a group of fans who’ve taken it upon themselves to remix Akira by redrawing all six volumes of the original manga using Simpsons characters. It’s… odd. Especially since each artist (there are hundreds) is only doing five pages and there’s not a lot of coordination going on–so motorcycles and bicycles keep switching back and forth in the beginning and art style varies wildly. It is, however, utterly creative and wild.

And then, on the “bad” side (other than that Sprint thing) there’s the continued consolidation and homogenization of media outlets. In particular the demise of FearNET as its assets are folded into NBC/Universal (which already has a horror-themed outlet in Chiller). FearNET was a bit of a wild and spunky upstart–a bunch of horror fans who really wanted to give their fandom somewhere to thrive. Through tenacity and a lot of hard work, they built a nice little niche that grew into a cable channel, a website, and some pretty solid original content. I haven’t been anywhere near as impressed with what I’ve seen from Chiller. And it doesn’t look like that’s going to change, as most of the creative staff from FearNET appears to be free to pursue other career options.

Even though it has Chiller and SyFy, NBC/Universal seems determined to make this once vibrant and different channels into the most generic things possible. All the creativity is being applied to figuring out how to appeal to the lowest common denominator so the most money can be pulled in as quickly as possible. This leads to low-quality (but annoyingly popular) fare like Sharknado.

Such is life, I guess.

Thankfully, for now, we still have the wild and brilliant denizens of the Internet to keep things interesting and disruptive.

Here’s hoping that keeps up for a long time.

On with the feed…

Science, Madness, Ice Cream Truck Music History, Slowly Impending Doom, and More

This entry is part [part not set] of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

I’m really not much of a programmer.

Yes, my job title technically does have “developer” in it, but I’m really not happy when I have to build things from scratch. I much prefer to mix already working things together in ways that get the job done in a quick and effective manner. Hopefully something that’s at least “close enough” at worst.

That’s not always possible.

And that’s what I’ve been dealing with at work on this one project.

Because I’m not much of a programmer, there’s no single language that I’m awesome with. At best, I’m mediocre with a few. And when it comes to some things, I’m really not that good at all. So I run into a lot of problems as I’m trying to get things to do things they don’t normally do.

But! I do have my own way of working through things. A lot of it relies on letting my subconscious bang it’s head against the issue while I occupy my conscious mind with something else (like, say Facebook, or another project).

Nine times out of ten, the solution pops into my head in less than an hour (sometimes much sooner). Sometimes it’s not the whole solution, but it’s enough of a perspective changer to shake loose the right fix from the aether (you know, where all computer programs already exist, right?).

On the surface it doesn’t look particularly “worky” or efficient. But it is terribly effective most of the time. Mainly because I’ve been using a similar method to work through all sorts of other problems–both life and work related–for a couple of decades now.

Compared to the times when I try to “buckle down” and solve problems like we’re told we always should–in some iterative, methodical way that other people can understand–things get done in about the same amount of time (if not more quickly) and I don’t get particularly stressed out about it. (When I’m actively banging my conscious head against a problem, the stress level just skyrockets and, eventually, totally gets in the way of coherent thought… which isn’t all that productive.)

The process basically goes like this:

  • Identify the problem
  • Do a bit of research (so I’m sure I know that there’s no simple solution out there)
  • Set the subconscious on the task
  • Fiddle around with other things for a while
  • Immediately switch gears when the solution pops in
  • Implement to solution
  • If it works, awesome… if not, see how it’s changed the problem
  • Repeat if necessary

So, yeah, that’s what I’ve spent most of my work life doing… especially when it comes to programming.

Time Travel Edition: Fashion of the Future! Classic Rock Recreated! Colbert Changes Time Slots! Super Hero Workout Secrets!

This entry is part [part not set] of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

Okay, so none of it is real time travel… but a lot of it is kind of a blast from the past. Also of note is that Jem and the Holograms article which really nails why that show (and a lot of 80s cartoons) kind of rock and that brilliant cupcake recipe that came up near the end of the day.

The big thing, though, is the news about that Heartbleed situation that’s likely to have some every growing impacts across the online world. Basically, there was a flaw in the security layer that is supposed to protect a lot of stuff online. It’s been open for a while and a lot of big deal places are just patching it now. This is one of those times when everyone needs to change all of their passwords (because we all know most of us don’t do that regularly like we’re supposed to).