Author Archives: Kier

About Kier

I've been on the web since about 1994. I have a background in a lot of things, including a five year stint as a journalist and over a decade of helping people get their message out to the world. I write on a number of subjects--everything from relationships to personal development to politics and every day life. I hope you get something worthwhile out of it.

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

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This entry is part 72 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…

Self-Image, Coffee is for Closers, An Economic Last Stand, Whiskey Lies, and Other Things

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This entry is part 71 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

The big non-shock in the feed today is that every level of Comcast is all about sales.

This hot on the heels of an 8+ minute recording of someone trying to cancel their cable service.

All that sales, of course, came at the cost of actual customer service–something cable companies are notoriously bad at to begin with.

Now current and former employees and customers are more or less coming out of the woodwork with their own horror stories from both sides of the phone. It’s utterly terrifying and completely expected.

If we think that Comcast is the only big business doing something like this, we’re wearing blinders. Profit above all else seems to be the modus operandi of the economic powerhouses. I guess it’s served them well enough. It was certainly glorified in the Gordon Gecko era of the 80s, when it certainly seemed good for everyone.

But now the disparity between the top and bottom has grown to historic proportions and the middle class has been squeezed right on out of the equation. All those years of being told it’s good for the rich to keep getting richer–and the general population swallowing that lie (often sweetend with the pie-in-the-sky dream of hitting it big themselves, somehow… the lottery is not a business plan)–is starting to fall apart as the super rich are now on their way to making their own rules.

And that quest for eternal profit continues at the cost of everyone who’s helped supply it.

While Comcast is trying to sell to people who just want to be left alone (or, alternately, annoy and confuse them enough that they give up trying to leave), the workers and customers of Market Basket are fighting for the company to keep on with the business practices that have made it a favorite in the regions that it severs.

Market Basket has actually provided solid service, it seems. Both to its employees (who have been known to willingly and happily stick around for decades) and to its customers. But now in-fighting among the family members that own and operate the corporation is threatening to tear it all apart.

It would seem that the issue at hand is the amount of profit to be made. While the business appears to be profitable to continue comfortably–despite the fact that it pays out profit sharing and other bonuses to it’s employees who are already compensated at an above-average rate and it maintains cheaper prices than it’s competition–one faction of the family seems more interested in a quick jump in profits for themselves.

According to what I’ve seen, they’re interested in getting out of the business altogether by selling it off to one of the huge conglomerates. (None of whom are particularly well known for how they treat their employees and who Market Basket is currently beating in most price categories, too.) Through some semi-questionable maneuvering, they’ve managed to oust the CEO who’s been behind the last few decades of sustained business and good-will.

This, of course, has employees and customers livid. Neither group wants to lose the benefits they have–benefits that don’t seem to be hurting the sustainability of Market Basket’s business model.

They’re doing what few can sensibly do against questionable corporate action–they’re standing up to it.

They can do it because the corporation in question is comparatively small and there are many other options for the goods they provide.

There is serious ability to vote with your dollars.

This is not the case with Comcast, which already controls nearly a third of the country’s cable and Internet service and is poised to merge with Time-Warner Cable, the second biggest cable and Internet provider.

It would take millions of people to stand up to just one of those companies. Tens of millions to really make a difference. And the only other real options in most areas for solid Internet service (let alone television service) are generally rated just as bad and engage in the same practices (former phone companies like Verizon and AT&T).

That’s not a market that a small population can have an impact on. Not without destroying their own lives in the process.

And so, unless there’s government intervention of some sort (this would be the importance of the FCC supporting Net Neutrality, among other reforms and safeguards), the people are just stuck with whatever the not-quite-monopolies feel like handing out.

So that’s kind of the state of things and it annoys the hell out of me.

Mostly because I have no real solution that can be implemented.

Anyway, all that and more in the feed below…

Sounds of Space, Questionable Business, Questionable Politics, and Some Movie Stuff

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This entry is part 70 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

With Comic Con passed, there are a lot of movie announcements floating around out there now.

Sequels, reboots, spin offs, and even some original properties that all sound really interesting.

The problem, of course, is that most of them are a year or more away.

I remember the “good old days” when you wouldn’t hear about a movie being made until maybe a few months before it came out. Rarely was something even rumored (let alone hyped) for two years (and, these days, sometimes two years before filming even begins).

The publicity machine is kind of insane.

And I can’t tell you how many times I’ve checked the upcoming releases list and thought, “Wait… didn’t that already come out, like, a year ago?” Nope. I’ve just been hearing about it for so long that it seemed like it had already been here and gone.

That strikes me as a little counter-productive.

But it’s not just movies that do it.

We’ve seen that kind of creep in politics, too.

Now, almost as soon as a Presidential election is over, the “news” outlets start speculating on who’ll be running in the next one–even before the President-elect takes his oath of office. And then the actual race for any given position more or less starts two years before the actual vote will take place.

That’s two years where politicians are doing more campaigning and image building than actual thoughtful governing. (Though these days, I wonder if they ever spend any time doing that.)

Then there’s also the inevitable “Christmas Creep”… where those trees show up earlier and earlier in the stores every year. Last year I saw stuff in regular stores (not craft stores, I understand them getting stuff out there early–people need time to actually make stuff) in early September.

And, back at the beginning of July, everyone was already talking about Back to School shopping. School just got out in mid-June. Has summer break been reduced down to roughly two weeks?

Why are we always pushing so hard to speed up the recognition of these things? Why can’t we enjoy not knowing what’s on the movie schedule two years from now? Why do we have to start pushing Christmas before October even begins? Why can’t we let politicians do something other than just plan their next campaign? And, perhaps most importantly, why can’t our kids get more time to just be kids during a lazy summer?

I don’t know. But I do know I haven’t much cared for that compression and acceleration for a long time now. I think it’s part of a larger problem and the root of a good number of troublesome things…

Anyway, here’s the feed…

Bunches of Comic Con Things, Big Discussions on Israel and the Gaza Strip, Some Levity to Balance that Out, and Musing on the Culture of Fear

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This entry is part 69 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

There are no shortage of fear-inducing, attention-grabbing headlines out there. Most of them turn out to be utter hype, but you don’t discover that until after you’ve clicked through. And if you don’t click through, well, the damage to your peace of mind is already done.

For a long time now I’ve been interested in fear and how it gets used–both by us and on us. Part of that is due to growing up on a steady diet of classic horror films. Another part is from growing up through the tail end of the Cold War and a few not-so-cold-wars.

I’ve seen a growing problem over the years. One that’s not going away and only seems to be getting worse.

The problem is the overall culture of fear and paranoia we’re all soaking in… and have been for our entire lives. That’s the reason we (in general) are even suspicious when anonymous gifts show up.

We assume malicious intent.

That’s… not healthy.

And it’s most certainly not conducive to sensibility.

And, perhaps worst, it leaves us open to all sorts of manipulation. The kind that’s been used again and again and again over the past two decades to make us give up more and more of our freedoms in the name of security. Security from threats that, even when they do exist, are far from immediate, imminent, or actually damaging to the vast majority of the population.

This is the kind of fear that, at worst, expresses itself in events like those riots in France the other day. Or in people getting shot just because they look different from the person holding the gun. Or in war.

So, yeah, there are, indeed, things out there to be afraid of, but there are far more things that strike us as creepy or fear-inducing. We have to be fully aware of *why* it strikes us as such and how problematic that actually is.

That all said, here’s the feed starting from Friday (including the article about dolls that spurred most of the above musing)…

So Many Teeth, Bunches of History, Scifi and Comic News, and Good to Help Balance Out the Bad

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This entry is part 68 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

Right now, a bunch of people I know are out on the West Coast at San Diego Comic Con.

Another few are bouncing around various European countries.

Still more are heading off for two weeks of Pennsic War.

And, in another month, some mix of those same bunches of people will be heading to Dragon*Con.

I won’t be doing any of those things. It’s just not possible. Won’t be for a while.

That makes me a little sad.

But, things are what they are, and only time will open some doors again.

(I should also be asleep right now…. speaking of time…)

Here’s the feed…