Monthly Archives: August 2014

More on Robin Williams, Some Solid Harto, and Possible Political Insight

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This entry is part 78 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

Lots of people are still reeling in one way or another from Robin Williams’ suicide.

It’s especially tragic since, for a long time now, he’s been aware and willing to get help when he needed it. Just last month he checked himself into rehab for a “tune up” so he wouldn’t fall off the wagon.

I figure what hit him on Monday kind of snuck up on him. Totally blindside by a wave of depression that sucked him under so quickly and completely that, if he could look now, he’d be just as shocked and surprised as the rest of us are.

But, what’s done is done and from it a number of conversations have started. Some are telling stories of his impact on our lives–through the various movies and television shows we knew him from. Others have more personal stories to tell–actors and comedians who worked with him at one point or another are sharing snippets of memory, filling in bits of his life that, until now, few have ever heard. And then there are the really important discussions–about depression and suicide and how to reach out (and respond when reached out to).

That’s important stuff, indeed.

It doesn’t always help. Sometimes nothing does. But being aware, being willing, and putting yourself out there, regardless of which side of the reaching you’re on, is difficult but rewarding more often than not.

It can make a difference. And if it does so just once, well, that’s a pretty huge difference for that one person… or for you.

Here’s the feed…

So Much in the Feed, Just Take It All In

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This entry is part 77 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

Terribly busy day. Website upgrade issues on the blog here. And the death of one of my all time favorite celebrities, Robin Williams.

Sorry, you’re only getting the extended feed tonight…

The Doctor, The Terminator, The Panic, and The MacGuffin

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This entry is part 76 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

The first thing I noted this morning as I scrolled through the first screen or so of my Facebook feed was the plethora of Doctor Who posts.

I mean, I have a lot of friends who are fans of the good Doctor, so I regularly see a few posts mentioning him every day. But this was more like a full-on Doctor totem pole with multiple posts from multiple people all stacked up. And it wasn’t a FB aggregation thing either–the posts were all reasonably recent and not always immediately adjacent to one another on the feed.

It was a little odd.

Following in the time travel vein, it seems Arnold just wrapped his part in the new Terminator film. The new Terminator film that’s kind of sort of rebooting the franchise to set up a new trilogy. Which they can, technically do. Because time travel. I have my doubts it’ll really be worth it. The movies have been really down hill since Terminator 2 with the all too brief bright spot of the Sarah Connor Chronicles TV show being the only thing that really illustrated any actual skill or talent in using the concepts properly.

But, hey, here’s hoping I’m wrong. I do kind of dig the whole Terminator timeline, definitely one of my favorite post-apocalyptic futures.

And speaking of the apocalypse, yeah, there are two people with Ebola in the U.S. Unlike some loud people out there, I’m not particularly worried. Since, y’know, we brought them here on purpose so we can better understand this new strain of the disease. That means they’re being taken care of in facility that’s made to deal with containment and safety. Unlike where these two infected medical professionals picked up their infection. If the treatment they’re experimenting with and the data that they collect works/helps, then maybe we’ll be able to do something about that big breakout in Africa that’s a real thing to worry about.

I have no witty transition for the MacGuffin angle other than to say that a proper cure for something like Ebola wouldn’t make a good one. MacGuffins are, by their very nature amorphous and, ultimately, impotent or inert in and of themselves. Any power they have is distinctly bestowed up them by the people who, for whatever reason, will do anything to get their hands on them (or, in some cases, destroy them). That’s why I was particularly cheesed off by the article in the feed that bitched and moaned about all the MacGuffins being used by Marvel in their Cinematic Universe.

That critic obviously wasn’t paying any attention. Every object that’s come up in a Marvel movie–be it the tesseract/cube from Captain America and the Avengers or the orb/stone from Guardians of the Galaxy or the… goo… from the second Thor movie–has distinct intrinsic power that, in the wrong hands, is shown to be exceptionally dangerous.

That’s not a MacGuffin. That’s not a mere plot device. That’s a full-on plot point. A key thing that, aside from just driving the movie it’s in is also driving the overall meta-plot that spans the multiple movies. Those are genuinely (in the context of the films’ universe) important things.

Not just things with assumed importance.

Like film critics.

Anyway, read it for yourself in the feed…

Reboots, Rumors, Religion, and a Kick Ass Waterslide

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This entry is part 75 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

Aside from the ongoing discussions about Guardians of the Galaxy, the story today that most caught my attention was a kind of scathing take-down of the currently popular “Prosperity Gospel” movement.

From what I can see, there’s nothing “Gospel” related in the prosperity gospel. In fact, it seems like it pretty clearly goes against just about everything that appears in the Gospels. I’m even hard pressed to see how they could possibly spin any interpretation of their basic call to action from anything I’ve ever read in the Gospel (and, being raised Catholic, I have some background knowledge on that).

As a friend of mine pointed out, the big thing that really gets me about this is this movement is setting people up to fail and, when they fail, they’ve not only lost their money and likely their hope (if not a bunch of social standing), they’ve also lost Faith.

Faith can be a really important thing.

It can give us something to hold on to during rough seas.

It can provide us with context to express the joy we find.

It can lift us up so we can reach levels we wouldn’t otherwise think possible.

Poison that by attaching it so heavily to the material world and the implicit message that if you don’t succeed, it’s because God hates you… and you negate all the good faith can do and leave only the worst parts.

It can teach you to hold a grudge.

It can spur you to vile acts (since you’re unredeemable, anyway).

It can hold you back as you endless seek the approval and forgiveness that’s just not going to come.

Faith is always a double-edged sword. All the prosperity gospel seems to do is hand the sharpened end to those who follow it. Most will get cut, some will be gravely wounded. Those that manage to get past the blade and grab the handle will then be fully conditioned to swing that sword to cut down others they see as easy marks–and ways of increasing their own material wealth.

Some things don’t particularly belong to the temporal world. Faith is one of those things. In fact, I’d go as far to say that it works best as disconnected from the physical world as possible–existing in a very personal space or mind and emotion that only tangentially nudges things in the “real” world.

It’s definitely not something that should be confuse the metaphorical gold of the purified soul with the all-too-real gold changing hands at the money lenders’ tables. Setting up in a sacred space didn’t go to well for those money lenders…

Anyway… here’s the feed…

 

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

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This entry is part 74 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…