Monthly Archives: May 2014

Community News, Wolverine, a lot of Culture Talk, Some Science, a Little Food, and The Wonder Years Reunion

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This entry is part 37 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

I was asked in a comment stream today why I post (or, technically, share… since other people have found most of them first) the articles I do, especially about the whole misogynist culture stuff that’s really being talked about a lot right now.

The answer is simple: Awareness needs to grow.

I know far too many people–myself included–who either are or were blind to how their actions impact the lives of others.

You can’t consciously change things you don’t know you’re doing.

I can’t make anyone improve themselves. But I can at least, maybe, give them some insight into their own actions. (I know, long ago, I was utterly shocked at many of the things I was doing without realizing it.)

We can’t make anyone do anything… not without a whole lot of negatives that outstrip the positives. Plus, unless there’s a critical mass of awareness and will to begin with, forced change never sticks.

This is part of the build up to that critical mass of awareness and will to change.

If just one or two people are shaken awake, realize what they’re doing isn’t what they think they’re doing, and make personal change, then there is progress.

There’s always more than one or two people who are shaken awake.

In the particular case of this issue of entrenched male privileged and misogynist culture, we’re talking about something that is even more entrenched than racism or homophobia. It goes back thousands of years and is built into political discourse and religion like nothing else.

But just because we’ve never known a time that was different, doesn’t mean we can’t try to be better than we (as a species) have ever been before when it comes to equality.

That right there is the beauty of free will and not being trapped and controlled by our biology alone.

So, yeah, I think it’s kind of important.

History, Science, and Animals

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This entry is part 36 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

Short list today. I’ve been too busy to really take in as much as I usually do.

I’ve never been interested in being a programmer. At least not since the “good old days” of BASIC where I toyed with the idea briefly, just like everyone else, until I realized just how much ridiculously complex work would be involved in anything I wanted to do and how much the language just wouldn’t stick in my head. (It was also a lot harder to find reference material back then, being there was no Internet everywhere…)

In college, programming was one of the things that really did me in during my first major. I’m fully congnizent of what it can do, but I’ve just never been all that good at making it do it. Aside from the most basic “Hello World!” print tests, churning out anything else that was even vaguely useful was an uphill battled ending in the discovery of another hill.

Guess what I’ve been neck deep into doing for the past month at my day job?

Yeah, more programming than I’ve ever wanted to.

The good news is, thanks to the easy reference material brought directly to my eyeballs via copious Google searches, I’ve managed to just about complete the project. I’m sure it’s not done in the most elegant way, but it’s getting done.

It’s just stressing me all the hell out.

So, not much brain bandwidth for much else…

Sleep, Misogyny, Sun, Movies with and by People I Know, and Kids Today

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This entry is part 35 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

There’s… a lot going on. Not directly with me, mind you–work is busy and stuff–but in general, with people I know and things that I follow, there’s a lot going on.

Just saw a movie tonight made by and full of people I know. And I even had the chance to help make it happen via their crowdfunding campaign. I’ll have to do an expanded review over on Toob Talk (eventually), but, suffice to say, if you get the chance to see Of Dice and Men at a convention or film festival, do.

Then there’s all the hubbub going on about the culture of male entitlement, misogyny, rape culture, and the like. I do have a lot to say on the issue–most of it not even related to the recent mass shooting (which specifically targeted women and was perpetrated by a dude who, while obviously a bit crazy, was at least somewhat representative of an undercurrent in male culture in specific and American culture in general).

And then there’s ongoing talk about the attributes of different generations…

Basically, I have to make a whole lot of time to just write about all of this stuff.

But I also have to sleep… but I can’t do that on my own schedule because of various cultural norms that dictate when a “typical work day” starts and ends.

Tell His Mom, Conspiracy Closure, Environmental Pope, Helium, Slow-mo Nature, and Raccoons

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This entry is part 34 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

Not too long after I got home form work on Friday, I turned right back around and went out. Then didn’t come back until nearly sunrise.

The only Memorial Day type thing I did this past long weekend was that barbecue on Friday night. Saturday and Monday were spent mostly just zoning out, letting my subconscious decompress and work through everything it’s been tasked with dealing with while I keep on keeping on with some semblance of a normal life.

The big break between bouts of couch sitting was to hit Spellbound for the first time since August. I used to be there every weekend. I should probably start going there more often, but without a car, I’m at the mercy of public transportation and feel trapped. No quick and definitive way to make an exit if I need to, no opportunity to stay out late and grab crepes with people down the street if I want to. I used to metro there all the time… then I got spoiled (and got used to numerous other aspects of going out there).

But, on Saturday night, I closed the place down, lasing a bit after most of the other people I knew had left.

And then it was back to the couch and A/C in the apartment. A setup that is much more indicative of how the rest of my life will likely be at this point.

Can’t really complain about the weekend. Kind of dreading how crazy tomorrow at work may be. But looking forward to the local premiere of a film a bunch of people I know made (and I chipped in to help pay for) after work tomorrow.

Anyway… here’s a long list off the feed going back to Friday morning.

My Generation, Celebrity Humor, Cute Overload, World Goth Day, Jobs, and Job Numbers

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This entry is part 33 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

As Gen X hits its collective mid-life crisis, we wade through a country that’s undergoing a political crisis. More extreme views appear to the left and right of a seemingly silent (and often bewildered) center.

That polarization causes wild swings–accentuated by whatever will bring the media the most eyeballs or ears–causes more of a feeling of instability (regardless of actual stability) than most are comfortable with. That feeling of instability further causes more polarization as each side becomes more and more reactionary in order to counter the escalating maneuverings of the other.

And my generation (Gen X, for those who haven’t been paying attention) is kind of at the middle of it all. In general, we’ve long been disillusioned when it comes to politics. We know they’re not pretty, that they’re often petty, and seem to almost always ignore sensibility. Even though we went out and “rocked the vote” way back when, we didn’t really get the long term results we hoped for.

Just like everything else in our lives.

But that hasn’t stopped us from just moving forward.

We’re used to being disappointed.  Or being disappointments. Either way, the effect is the same. We often keep to ourselves, bide our time while the water is rough (which is sometimes more hard work than is readily visible), and hope for that day when the skies clear up and we can actually accomplish the big things we’ve always wanted to do.

Thing is, the weather never seems to clear up.

And now… now we find that half of our own lives are gone.

We’ve worked harder than most seem to realize. Quietly, for the most part. But we’ve had a lot of that work destroyed before we could make use of it. So we have little to show for it.

And now… now just finding work is a long-term, full-time, unpaid job. Is it any wonder people are just giving up?

We were raised by the first TV generation and have been soaking in media hype and marketing messages for our entire lives. Celebrity leaves as bad a taste in our mouths as politics does… and half the time the two are closely intertwined, anyway.

Half of our lives are gone and, yeah, we’re likely kind of bitter about it.

But that doesn’t stop us from continuing to move onward.

That’s the only thing we’ve ever known: that the horizon is where we should be.

And it’s always just a wee bit farther out.

Sometimes it’s obscured by a haze (of politics, of entertainment, of hype)… but we’ve been trained to know the general direction, regardless.

We move, always. Slowly at times. And we’re getting old and want to rest.

If only we really knew how.