Thursday, December 27, 2012
Depression Part 2: What Am I So Afraid Of?
Depression Part 1: Some Nights
Sunday, March 11, 2012
That's SO FOREVER Ago!
This is another post about a TV commercial (I know, I know, I watch it too much, but it's how I grew up!). This time the perpetrator is AT&T. I'm sure you've seen them: two people on their phones, while friends and family come up to them asking questions that they already know the answers to, and tagging it with the phrase "that's so (a few) seconds ago." Now these commercials get me for a few reasons. And since it's the internet, I get to enumerate all of them.
1. They defy physics.
As a physics hobbyist, I consider myself as least somewhat versed in the basic laws governing behavior of moving bodies in this universe. Speed=Distance/Time. Some of the things that claim to happen in these commercials are things that happen at FASTER than the speed of light, and I don't care where you are, your internet is definitely not moving that fast. Now, I would simply be just another pagan if ended this bullet point here, and thus we have to ask a deeper question, "Do you really think we're that stupid AT&T?" We all know that your first generation towers weren't ready to handle a titan like the Iphone, but do you think we've forgotten? Do you really think that people don't know that it takes time to send messages, even with today’s high-tech capabilities? But a deeper and more disturbing question is "Does AT&T think that people are stupid enough to believe that if they switch to their phone company, we'll be able to defy the laws of physics?" I mean, we aren't the smartest country in the world I'll admit. (Check out Waiting for Superman, great info on that!). But do you think we're foolish enough to believe in what you're basically pitching as magic? I think it sends the wrong message to kids of the next generation. You're saying that just by having your phone plan, they'll be able to get what amounts to literally instant gratification. Knowing you have to wait for things is what our parents and grandparents grew up with. It's becoming more and more fluid with my generation, with advent of wide-spread internet connections, but there's still a disconnect between the real world and the virtual one. It still takes time to build a mouse trap. They don't just appear out of thin air. Today's children learn so much from the media, and shame on you for trying to pull the wool over their eyes when it comes to learning patience.
2. Pop Culture follows Moore's Law?
Now, this is more of an observation than a complaint, but remember the times when we as kids used to say: "That is SO two years ago!" Before that, it was that was SO 80's! And I’m sure that was precipitated by 70's, etc. And I remember when the time period in the phase slowly started to get shorter and shorter. That was so last year, last season, last month, last week. Smaller and smaller until now we're measuring our phone capabilities in the spans between movements of the minute hand. It would seem that Moore's Law influences not only technology, but what technology precipitates, at least in today's culture, pop culture.
3. Share the Love.
The intention of the commercial is the intention of all commercials: Make the salesperson superior to everyone else. I get it. I've seen the Music Man enough times to know how that's suppose to work. But do they have to be suck dicks about it? And, granted, I mean that in the nicest way possible. But they always finish the inquisitor's sentence, and jokingly say, in what seems to be the new vernacular of geek put downs, "took ya long enough!" Why can't they be nice about it? Why can't they help people with what seem to be super machines, instead of using them for mindless shit like getting sports scores or sending e-cards? Why not video chat with multiple nations to broker a peace agreement in the Middle East? Or create a supply chain that could feed people in the 3rd world for pennies on the dollar? I thought we were on the verge of global warming/meltdown/crash/insert-apocalyptic-idea-here. If you've got a tool that seems to violate the laws of physics, and has internet, why are you criticizing your fellow peers for their inferior phone plans? What happened to the people who had powerful technologies in the movies? They’re killed by John Conner. I thought spreading the wealth and making things better is what we were supposed to be doing.
Seems AT&T has a long way to go before it gets itself into the next generation of marketing, high school physics, and schoolyard politics. They are so two seconds ago.
Sincerely,
The Future Genius.
Monday, October 17, 2011
Fools in Love Answering Agency!
Who Are You?
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
What Ever Happened to the Heroes?
why don't we have heroes any more? does it take money to be a hero, and since we're in such a bad economy, we can't have them? well, any die hard fans of JP Morgan and or Batman would say yes, but i disagree. and it's not that there aren't people out there with alot of money, i mean look at sports stars, they're "heroes" and they've got money. but i think it's something else.
this country was founded on having no money in your pocket and making something, or making something of yourself, so that can't be it. is it the politics? well, looking at the current state of people in the "ruling class" you might say that, yeah probably, and there i might have to agree with you. i mean, Roosevelt, Lincoln, Washington, all politicians, but in a time when politics was alot more boiled down, more real. today its all about constituencies, and party lines, and all this crap that just ends up impeding good ideas, and pushing through bad ones. flip floping to serve the moment rather than serving the country. it's terrible, and there are no plans to rectify it in the near future. so, we don't have political leaders as heroes any more, but not all great heroes are politicians, so politics can't be the only answer.
Hellen Keller was, to many a hero. now before you get all up in arms, i'm not gonna argue against something i just wrote. (though i'll admit i do that alot.). but she did something that almost all heroes have in common. she overcame. she was blind. she was deaf. she was a woman. (again, before you get up in arms, she comes from a different time and place than today's world, though i'd argue its still like that in some places). she over came what looked to most like insurmountable odds, and became a great speaker, leader, and of course, hero.
Jackie Robinson is looked on by most, and labeled, as a hero. he existed in a world of heroes, so why should his story be any different? because he was left out because of who he was as a person. he was a black man in what, at the time, was a white man's game/society/world. he over came that, and became a hero to many in the black community, and many black athletes today.
Theodore Roosevelt, arguably one of the greatest presidents of the modern age, and undoubtedly the greatest naturalist ever to work from 1600 Pennsylvania. Roosevelt was not an overly intelligent man, and had a very weak immune system his whole life. he went to harvard, but in the late 1800's only the richest went to college at all. his mother and his wife died on the same day. the same day. but he over came. he kept moving forward.
so what's my common element in these references? today. now, youre thinking, that answer does not properly address the question. let me back up. what happened to the heroes? why don't we have them any more? the real answer: Today. today's world is very different from 100, or 50, or even 25 years ago. technology, medicine, communication, everything moves at an incredible pace. humanity hasn't changed in over 50,000 years. we have no hellen keller's because obstetric, optometric, and audial medicine has come so far since her time. we have no jackie robinsons because we live in a "race-less" society, (although that'll always be arguable at some level). we have no theodore roosevelts, (well, again back to the politics, but) because we have advances in medicine, sociology, and psychiatry, that would mean he wouldn't have to overcome. take a pill. tell a shrink. vote for a black guy. we've solved the worlds "ills" so we don't have problems to overcome.
at least that's what the media will tell you.
do we have problems? yes. are they anywhere near the same problems we had 20 years ago? absolutely not! with every advance in technology and medicine, we solve one problem. but like every coin we earn, it has two sides, and simply presents us with another problem. we can cure cancer, but we can't sell it, so it doesn't happen. we can move mountains, but we can't see the destruction caused by that movement. we can talk to people around the world, but we can't have a conversation across the dinner table.
we need new heroes. we need new leaders. it's like Micheal Douglas says: "we've got serious problems to solve, and we need serious people to solve them." the American President addresses, i think, one of the most important issues in today's political arena, (and that's the quickest and surest way to make true heroes, either be the first, or put your name down on paper, because every sports record will be broken, and every mountain will be climbed), that people don't own up to their shit. i'm serious. i mean, you did something bad, come out and say it, don't try to deny it, (Richard), or try and confuse everyone, (Bill). Honesty is the best policy, is actually the best policy. we need new heroes. we need people with integrity, we need people who want to get things done. we don't need the same old same old. Albert Einstein once said: "the same thinking that caused a problem cannot be used to fix it." we need something new. we need fresh blood. we need another wind. we need the next generation to step up and step out and start getting things done!
You wanna be a hero? Say so.