Just when you thought you really knew what was going on in the news…instead, we discover that Russia wants to groom an American as its next Angry Birds champion, now that chess winners live in the the realm of computer algorithms.
Tag Archives: mass media
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A new online friend has shown me the “bucket list” of accomplishments she achieved, so far, in her short life — very exciting for her, and fun for us to read and learn.
However, I don’t even know what a bucket list is except as a title of a film released in the past few years.
I am neither a high nor a low achiever — my philosophy has been to treat every moment the same as the next moment, regardless of change of state of the set of states of energy that is me, because illusion is a tricky business.
Imagine you are accused of being a vampire, then executed and buried in that manner.
The power of the tribe, the clan, the subculture is the power of illusion at its most pivotal, both uplifting/supportive and scary/deadly.
I am trapped on this planet with bunches of subcultures in transition.
All I want is to explore another celestial body, to discover that which no other person has seen or touched, far from this solar system that our extended electromechanical cultural limbs have photographed and sampled.
Yet, I set my sights on a slightly more realistic goal for my lifetime — to die and disintegrate on Mars — just this close to reality, if the subcultures I track and follow give any indication of beating more-than-impossible odds.
My calendar shows 13,435 days to go until a major milestone is reached, with or without me.
I am beginning to learn that the more fragmented our social media allows our general culture to become, the less I have to satisfy the implied hidden gods and ruthless leaders of that general culture for us who boundlessly and abundantly value ourselves and our subcultures more than the imaginary general culture that exists in mass media.
In other words, I can indulge my wants and desires, not caring about anything or anyone but the moment in which this set of states of energy is, for want of a better word, alive.
I can sit here, dance in front of a bunch of strangers, sleep, eat, read, walk, change the bedsheets, play with electronics, drill holes in wood, whatever.
The future is nonexistent. For me, being childless, our species is thus unimportant — I can stop worrying about recycling, living a “green” lifestyle, or using more resources than seems reasonable for one person.
In the end, it doesn’t really matter — there is no punishment living solely for my own enjoyment and edification — history is an illusion so history cannot judge my [in]actions, I have no reputation in mass media to protect; I am, as I believe, a set of states of energy in constant flux.
There is only one tie that binds me to my childhood subculture of the Christian denomination called Presbyterianism — the holy act of matrimony, which means I am to pledge my body to one person for the rest of our lives. Of that, in practical terms, there is much to be said for providing a safe haven against the transmission of diseases via bodily fluids. How much does dancing with others interfere with that freedom from an invasive change to one’s medical condition — is air pollution or the potential for a car smashup more likely to kill or maim me and my wife than having dancing partners other than ourselves?
The luxury of asking these questions!
Relative wealth puts me here in front of this notebook PC, a level of freedom bought by giving years of my life toward others’ goals that we call socioeconomic accomplishments.
Do I have what it takes to build more wealth convincing others to give years of their lives toward my goals? My financial portfolio certainly answers that question.
Total anarchy does not pay my bills — the talent of strangers built through skills training does.
Therefore, regardless of my supporting the philosophy, “eat, drink and be merry,” there are those of our and other species who devote themselves solely to implementing well-honed habits that allow me to be here doing nothing but tapping my fingertips on tiny blocks of plastic.
Am I, then, also displaying a talent/skill combination that is enriching the lives of others who are enriching my life, too?
How is this set of states of energy going to exist in the next moment or moments to come, rectifying the direction of midlife habits established in early life?
Where am I going? What’s it all about? If the universe is here solely for my entertainment, then I’ve answered the second question. Question is, what shall I do about the first?
If it tastes good…
As an industry consultant, I’ve seen just about every combination of cross-product marketing there is.
Until now!
A popular soft drink manufacturer, in order to increase its market share because of recent losses to niche products, asked me to look for inspiration that its vast advertising/marketing executives had not found.
So, in order to figure out just what makes a soft drink a soft drink, I bought 7 days of time to have a small, local, corner convenience store to myself for a week.
The first day we removed the labels from every product in the store. Customers were left to decide what they wanted simply by looking at the foodstuff inside the container.
Most customers were perplexed. They wanted to know if the shape of the bottle or bag indicated the product they were used to.
Using a hidden earbud system, I told the employees behind the counter to say yes.
The second day, we applied the labels of popular colognes and perfumes to the drink and food containers.
For instance:
- The two most popular soft drink competitors we labeled Chanel and Dior.
- The three most popular beer competitors we labeled Old Spice, Grey Flannel and English Leather.
- The five most popular chip/cookie competitors we labeled Drakkar Noir, Stetson, Wild Musk, White Diamonds and Viva La Juicy.
The customers from the day before were a little confused but went ahead and bought the bottle shapes or bag sizes with which they were familiar.
New customers again were perplexed. Some of them wanted to know if the shape of the bottle or bag indicated the product they were used to.
Again, using a hidden earbud system, I told the employees behind the counter to say yes.
That left a large group of customers who couldn’t remember the shapes or sizes of the products they thought they liked.
Their formerly favourite labeled can of energy drink looked like the can of beer labeled Brut and their formerly favourite labeled bag of cookies looked like the bag of cheese crisps labeled Nautica.
I told the employees behind the counter to assure the customers that their satisfaction was 100% guaranteed — if they didn’t like their mysteriously-labeled product, they could return it for a full refund.
Without prompting the employees to encourage the idea or coaxing the customers to think otherwise, within a couple of days, customers both old and new came into the store to get their more exciting product, which seemed more flavourful and nutritious despite the only change being a new label.
Our lip gloss section we left alone since it already contained liquids and waxes with names like Dunkin Donuts and Dr. Pepper.
Of course, in our small three-shelf section of fragrances, we applied labels like Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Budweiser, Coors, Doritos, Golden Flake, Twix and other foodstuff products.
Those few customers who bought their fragrances at our convenience store were surprised at how their usual cologne or perfume had a new aroma, a certain je ne sais quos that enhanced their dating prospects for the night.
By the end of the week, we had increased sales for the convenience store owner due mostly to the curiosity factor.
The following week, the proper labeled bottles and bags were returned to their respectful locations, disappointing a whole new customer base that complained the old labeled products just didn’t taste as delicious as the products with the switched labels from the week before.
I completed the research project report and gave a short presentation to the popular soft drink manufacturer.
Thus, I imagine, you will soon see new adverts promoting the carbonated beverages and processed foods you like, combining them with fragrance manufacturers to show how your whole lifestyle will change when you drink Dior’s favourite wine cooler or Fanta’s favourite cologne.
Love is academic
Many a former lover once told me that, although my love and devotion was incomparable, I was susceptible to falling in love with everyone I meet.
Thus it is so.
And probably always will be, considering how internally perfect every one of us tends to be, being ourselves in our particular peculiarities, and perpetually attractive to me.
My three semesters as a post-secondary school instructor taught me that I need not teach because it’s difficult to assign low/poor grades to my wonderfully unique students.
However, unlike the characters in these reviewed books, I never consummated my love for students in those three short school cycles.
The unintended influence of pop culture
Especially the cinema.
I never imagined that our nieces would choose names for their children that easily reflect popular movie actors.
The first niece in our family to have a child named her daughter “Shannon Elizabeth.”
The second niece in our family to have a child plans to name her son “Owen Luke.”
Curiously strong resemblances, n’est pas?
Arbitrary news
Hey, guess what! According to an automated message I was told, “You published your 2100th post on this blog”.
But not at 2100 hours.
BTW, there are 13447 days to go…not much longer until we get that Mars colony set up, eh?
Liken likin’ lichen like in lye kin
Our mailbox at the street resembles a small wooden house, a look similar to our main house.
On the “chimney” of the mailbox house grows a small patch of lichen.
Do you like lichen the way I do?
Lichen falls onto our driveway almost everyday, attached to bits of tree — twig, branch, bark — that break away and follows gravity’s path onto the concrete surface.
One species of beard lichen in particular, but not this one.
As our climate gradually warms, lichen is migrating north, bringing symbiotic organisms along.
As with the variety of tree species in our yard, we have a multitude of lichen species.
Same with mushrooms, algae, bacteria, ants and other organisms I won’t encounter together on Mars.
What will migrate with us when we live off-Earth?
What will survive without us and adapt to new environmental conditions?
How many organisms on Earth didn’t originate on our planet?
I owe our next-door neighbours a copy of books on trees and edible wild plants so they can identify which plants not to kill in their yard to protect their curious one-year old child from eating less-than-nutritious green stuff.
I see the Trees book in front of me, under a pile of “French Idioms,” “Russian for Everyday,” “The New College French & English Dictionary,” “Peterson Field Guides to Stars and Planets,” “The Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual,” “2004 Far Side Desk Calendar,” and “The Yale Book of Quotations;” on top of “Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid,” “RE/SEARCH #8/9: J.G. Ballard,” “The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker,” and a spiral-bound copy of my book, “The Mind’s Aye,” not to forget issue #500 of MAD magazine.
Speaking of books, I have a few to finish reading, including “The Big Questions” by Steven Landsburg and a hyperreality book, “Travels in Hyperreality,” by Umberto Eco.
I wonder, which set of beliefs, particularly in the realm of religion, makes one more likely to approve of government/private industry spying? In Christianity, God is always watching, just like Santa Claus, ready to mete out rewards and punishment for our behaviours/thoughts.
Does our general culture encourage us to believe in seeking our fifteen minutes of fame, even if it’s only on a hidden security camera or set of IM chat logs?
Does lichen care about our meme-ridden upper brain functions or our labyrinthine specialty tasks and hobbies that spin out of a growing economy?
Likely not.
That’s why I like lichen — symbiosis that doesn’t require ritual or dogma.
Cultural scientists today argued their proof that silicon-based organisms such as computers are living beings.
I thank my living being for letting me write this blog entry on its plastic key skinned surface.
Enough meditative humour for the day — time to eat lunch and read a couple of books loaned by the public library.
Getting the facts straight!
Garick Zikan and Julie Newman…two local newscasters with no on-air chemistry. Entertaining to watch.
Link o’ th’ day
If you think tracking your phone calls is scary, just wait!
How German blood purity research led to the U.S. government granting DNA collected from blood samples of arrested citizens…hmm…why wait to arrest U.S. citizens to get their DNA samples when they’re already assumed to be guilty by association? Ooh, look, the government has saved us again from another mysterious terrorist attack threat — I’m shaking in my boots with fear, excitement and patriotism. I suddenly feel the urge to stand up, salute and sing, “My country ’tis of thee, devoid of liberty, I feel thy sting…”
There is a new planet to settle called Mars where, one hopes, a libertarian Utopia (and don’t get me started on oxymorons, you peroxide morons) will reboot civilisation as we know it.
In other words, let’s have some fun, shall we?
I’m busy cleaning out a crawlspace for a supercomputer network free from mettling by the Mystery Inc. gang and their Mystery Machine (a/k/a the Nobody’s Spying Again, a/k/a the NSA).
See you soon, you pioneering pilgrims orienteering your merit badges for brownie points!
[i.e., my posts will be limited the next few days]
treetrunkdings 