June 2004

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Wednesday June 30, 2004 3:48am

At the Movies

Saw two movies tonight Fahrenheit 9/11 and Spider-man 2. I reccomend both.

Fahrenheit 9/11 was somewhat different than I expected. It is a biased... but it's a refreshing bias in how it turns a different view on some well worn topics. While not a pure documentary, it is entertaining and makes you think, and often laugh, with some dark comedy. Even if you are not interested in the individual people focused on in the movie, then it is still most certainly interesting for the different look at the institutions it touches on. If you are a fan of the Daily Show, Go See.

Spider-man 2 I saw the advance midnight showing of this tonight as well. (I missed the last 10 minutes of Fahrenheit 9/11 to make the Spider-man 2 showing... even though I hated to pull myself away from that flick.) Spider-man 2 is a very good movie. Notice that I didn't say very good "Superhero" movie, even though it is. Spider-man 2 was a good movie even despite the high fling super-tights action. Very likeable cast, and you really feel for Peter Parker in this installment, he just "can't get a break" at any turn in this one. It's a little lighter on the trademark quips, but there are some good ones, and the ending is different than most summer blockbuster fare (and after seeing the ending of this one, the 3rd movie promises to be even better I think.) Do Go See.

Let's Go Surfing

» Five Pounds of Silly Putty for $60
via Boing Boing

» Irish News Corespondent Interview with GWB
via Boing Boing

Tuesday June 29, 2004 8:10pm

Random Non-Sequiters

» I may be a little late to noticing this but I just discovered the movie trailer for Harold and Kumar go to White Catle. Checkout the Theatrical Trailer or some more clips at Yahoo. You might want to checkout the official site and if your hungry like I am now: White Castle's site and if you don't have a White Castle near you... Use the Retail Frozen White Castle Finder to find a supermarket near you that carries them (Frozen finder is at the bottom of the page below the store locator)

There are some definite good bits in the movie trailer... especially the "The Asian Guy from American Pie", "The Indian Guy from Van Wilder", and that "White Director from Dude Where's My Car" voice over, as well as what looks to be a sizeable bit staring Neil Patrick Harris (Doogie Howser) playing himself.

Yes... the movie will be stupid fun at best and more likely than not, completely lame... but GO SEE and Support White Castle!

Let's Go Surfing

» Yeah, Yeah this is bad, but this Debra Lafave 23 yearold teacher who had sex with a 14 yearold student. Somehow I think once the media attention dies down, the kid will probably get over it. It's still bad, totally not good, but well that teacher is hot.
via CNN

» Toothpaste for dinner:
• iPod for meat
• Are you Shirken Hard? or Hardly Shirken?
• Smells Like a Segway
I love the above site... Read Toothpaste for Dinner everyday, I'm not sure but I think it'll prevent brain cavities and mental gingivitis.
via toothpastefordinner.com

» I posted this from a Toy fare article back a couple months ago, but this Fantastic Four Box Set coming out soon looks pretty good. The Franklin and Herbie figures are especially cool.
via Toy News International

Monday June 28, 2004 2:16am

Ultimate Fantastic Four #6 and #7 - Bendis, Millar
Just read both of the above. Very good art. Nice reimagining of a younger hiper nower(?) Fantastic Four. Like all the Ultimate titles Ultimate FF suffers from "Really intended for a Tradepaperback reprint" syndrome of story pacing, but still, all and all, if you can wait ontil you have 2 or 3 issues in a row to sit down with. It's a fun comic.

» Also of note, I've noticed the newer magazine sized Marvel Age comics in Target (at the moment they have their own endcap in the book section as well as fast track aisle displays in the action figure aisle) which contain reprints of several recent Marvel comics such as Ultimate Spiderman, in a very economical and honestly better format than how they were originally presented. Great books to pick up for kids.

» Spiderman 2 comes out on Wednesday!

Monday June 28, 2004 12:58am

» Interview with DC Direct by Julius Marx. Excerpts below:

JULIUS: Green Lantern. I had a lot of people asking me how Green Lantern sells.

GEORG: Sells great.

SYNDEE: Unbelievable. Really strong.

GEORG: For not one of the “big three,” but very close to it, it one of the strongest sellers we have.

SYNDEE: Consistently.

GEORG: …across every product category. That stuff just sells and sells and sells. And I can understand it; he’s one of my favorite characters too. They have a very dedicated following, and there’s going to be a lot of stuff happening with Green Lantern in the future and I’m confident that we will be there to supply all kinds of stuff for the people too.

Below: Sad Sigh:

GEORG: Yeah. And even looking ahead at 2005… we were talking about exchanging “wish lists” for the ’05 schedule today. So, it’s really hard to say at any one moment; “will you or won’t you” because we don’t know. I honestly don’t know. I’ve got plans to do all of that. But, “oh! There’s this opportunity to do this thing,” or “this book is heating up we should do something for that.” We decided very late in the year to do Titans, only because that book was generating a lot of heat and people were getting really excited about it and, we’ve found that… we’re NOT turning our back on the Silver Age. We’re NOT turning our back on the Golden Age. But we want to give something to the people that are reading the comics right now too, and that the real balance and the juggling act we do. And next year is going to be the year of Batman for everybody all over the world!

SYNDEE: Yep. All Batman, all the time!

Cool Pick of the Silver and Red Shellhead armour in the same posting too.
via The Amazing Justice League of Julius Marx

» INDUCE law Bad. This one's not good. Orrin Hatch is trying to pass an extremely broad anti P2P law (that goes way beyond P2P) by equating it with "saving the children"

“It is illegal and immoral to induce or encourage children to commit crimes,” said Hatch.

“Tragically, some corporations now seem to think that they can legally profit by inducing children to steal,” said Hatch. “Some think they can legally lure children into breaking the law with false promises of ‘free music.’”

» Cool Scooter/Electic Bike at Target.
via Target

» This Page Contains a Script that pulls the last 30 images posted on Live Journal At any given moment it could be quite NSFW or mostly likely just a collection of really random and dumb personal blog pics.
via Boing Boing

» Like Star Wars? Like Office Space? Then Office Space Wars is probably the video clip for you. Good Stuff.
via Boing Boing

» Watch this really cool short tour of Alex Ross' house, studio and Comic Memorabillia collection. Requires Real Player. (BTW: Alex Ross-- Great Creative talent but not very telegenic.)
via Cartoon Network

Saturday June 26, 2004 12:42pm

Random Non-Sequiters

» NSLU2 Linksys Network Storage Drive It's been a couple days and I haven't heard back from Linksys. I did end up trying out the device though. It is really great in concept but the execution was lacking and I have decided that I will not be using it, here are the two reasons why:

• I had a very difficult time sustaining data transfer to it. ie: it kept dropping the connection when I was trying to move large amounts of data to it in a single copy. Oddly enough it performed much better serving files than accepting them... but if you can't get the files onto the drive in the first place, well y'know, that doesn't help much.
• Performance really suffered when I did simultaneous read and writes from multiple computers to the unit at the same time.

Despite my complaints, I do hope they keep working on this concept at this price point. The idea of the unit is very sound... but it doesn't quite seem "there yet"

» I just found out today that I have a doppleganger in Southfield and that he, and I quote: "[has] your swagger...". (I wasn't even aware that I swaggered.) So be on the lookout, there are apparently, two of me.

Let's Go surfing

» Another great Toothpaste For Dinner cartoon.

» Paper Foldable eMac PDF Cool.
via Boing Boing

» Not so Super-Dudes celebrating the Superman-fest in Metropolis, IL.
via Boing Boing

» Gary Oldman to play villian in next star Wars movie: General Grevious. Great Name. (Really... I like the simplicity of the Star Wars Prequels and I'm very much looking forward to the next one. Matrix which is much more rooted in our times will be a footnote in 20 years, but I think Star Wars will continue to be timeless.)
via FARK

» Oligopoly Watch is an excellent site it has a daily story highlighting an oligopoly. They are always facinating reads and almost always overlooked by traditional mainstream media. Below was a very interesting essay on the site on Blockbuster movies that I found particuarly well written. Do visit this site. It's good. Blockbuster conspiracy We've written about the incentive for any company to shoot for blockbusters rather than solid hits, starting in the move industry but now common to all media and much retailing. The quest for blockbusters and the attendant ad saturation have changed ways of doing business, and nowhere more than in the movie business, where it seems a so-called blockbuster is churned out every week, if only to be forgotten a few weeks later. In a smart article on Salon.com ("Blahbusters," 5/28/2004), Charles Taylor explores the problem of why these blockbusters are getting increasingly boring and predictable. On the way, he demonstrates the tacit conspiracy between the movie industry and the news industry that keeps these leaden balloons in the air. His analysis fits well with our observations about the film industry. The precipitous drop in audience, as we've pointed out, is a fact of life for all movies, particularly intended blockbusters. Most movies, even very successful ones, begin to lose screens and show times by even the third weekend of their release, because of the sense that they no longer have the urgency they did when, say, the star was on the cover of Newsweek. It's a sense that's promulgated not just by the media's obsession with news cycles, but by the idea that all stories last a finite -- and increasingly short -- life span, that the public "tires" quickly. <br><br> That short moment of mind space and shelf space in the theaters is further abbreviated by the quick succession of secondary markets, all of which seem to be coming faster and faster as the danger of a film being forgotten by the time it make sit to DVD grows larger. People also no longer care much if they miss a movie they wanted to see in the theaters since, in no time at all, there will be plenty of other ways for them to see it. In most major cities, you can buy a wretched bootleg of a new movie the day after it opens. Slightly higher up the aesthetic scale, you can see it on pay-per-view in your home or in a hotel (though probably shown in the wrong aspect ratio) a few months later, sometimes while it's still holding on at a few screens. And not long after that, the same movie that generated such hype just a while back will come out on DVD and be reduced to background noise projected on the screens of media megastores. And the news media are willing conspirators in hyping for the opening of each new blockbuster. They act as "willing publicists." Since the definition of what is important for the week is determined by the massive promotion efforts of the studios for their about-to-open movies. The news media, in this case, instead of determining what is worthy of mind space, becoming echo chambers for those with the loudest adverting campaigns. Fearful of losing readers by appearing out of the loop, newspapers and magazines (and, yes, online publications) give each weekend's new blockbuster the prime spot in its movie coverage -- no matter what the publication's critic has to say about it. <br><br> Of course, only a few companies that can afford the massive publicity budgets, where the budget for marketing outruns even the inflated costs of making movies with names like Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt. Those are the big studios, which ties up the theaters and saturate the market, making sure there is little space, shelf or mind, left for any smaller movies. author: http://www.oligopolywatch.com/2004/05/29.html
via Oligopoly Watch

» New Justice League Toys (2nd pic) are coming out, including a Green Lantern with a giant green hand construct. Doesn't look like there is anything different about the figure itself though.

Less interesting are these other pics of future toys with Green Lantern in a stupid looking space suit and Flash on a go-cart?
via action figure times

» Just Downloaded a Windows freeware app called Treesize very nice program for finding out what folders on your harddrive are taking up all that file space. Also gives you a right click contectual menu in explorer to do the same. Check it out.
via PCWOrld

» T-Shirt Humor for the ladies... but it made me laugh.
via an adbanner on FARK

Thursday June 24, 2004 1:15am

Random Non-Sequiters

» Got First Appearance Flash and First Appearance Captain Marvel (Shazam) action figures today, shown here with an earlier Golden Age Flash Action figure for comparison. Both are very nicely made figures. Also in the store today, First appearance Batman and First Appearance Wonder Woman, both of which I passed on.

» Here's a fun picture of a co-worker who is leaving the company I work at after only 6 or so weeks. (Good thing, she didn't stay longer huh?)

Comics on Comics

The Flash #211 - Geoff Johns and Howard Porter
Good story, Good art. Flash and Nightwing vs. Gorilla Grodd storyline wraps up. Good Stuff. Still a little too much internal monoloque naratation... but all and all a well done issue and the cover, by Michael Turner, which this little thumbnail doesn't really do justice is excellent also.

Superman #206 - Brian Azzarello and Jim Lee
Good art of course but the story tends to continue to be more Superman as a more reflective character than I would typically prefer reading. There is also a bit where a villian scratches Supes that seemed a little uncharacteristic of his power levels. An ok get but not a good as the Hush series was.

Tuesday June 22, 2004 7:52am

» Cute little bunny on the Kent Trails near my apt.

Let's Go Surfing

» Batman Begins the next Batman movie will have a teaser trailer possibly before Spiderman 2, definently before I, Robot and Catwoman.Link.
via Comicbookresources.com

» Marvel Comics Solicitations for September were up a couple days ago. Nothing really struck me as exciting (other than Doctor Spectrum #2, 'natch. and possibly JMS' Doctor Strange) Marvel Trades are also listed.
via Comics Continuum

» A Rejection Letter rejection letter.

Dear ......,

Thank you for your letter rejecting my application for employment with your firm.

I have received rejections from an unusually large number of exceptionally well qualified organizations. With such a varied and promising spectrum of rejections from which to select, it is impossible for me to consider them all. After careful deliberation, then, and because a number of firms have found me more unsuitable, I regret to inform you that I am unable to accept your rejection.

Despite your company’s outstanding qualifications and previous experience in rejecting applicants, I find that your rejection does not meet with my requirements at this time. As a result, I will be starting employment with your firm on the first of the month.

Circumstances change and one can never know when new demands for rejection arise. Accordingly, I will keep your letter on file in case my requirements for rejection change.

Please do not regard this letter as a criticism of your qualifications in attempting to refuse me employment. I wish you the best of luck in rejecting future candidates.

Sincerely,

John Kador

» A Useful Pantone to RGB HTML conversion Page
via Chris Scheil's Delicious Links

» Ben Affleck wins 2004 California State Poker Championship. Odd. Very Odd.
via FARK

» Very Cool Gaming Chair more info and pictures here
via Boing Boing

» Modular Dwelings Site requires Flash. Interesting pictures.
via Apartment Therapy

Tuesday June 15, 2004 7:20am

» DC Comics solicitations for September 2004 What's up with Black Canary? Adam Strange #1 Cool! Hal Jordan gets the ring in New Frontiers #6. Dissing Barry in Flash #214? The Last Kyle Rayner GL Issue! Indentity Crisis! Jade Solo Cover on Outsiders #16. Teen Titans/Legion Special. New Animated Comic version series for Batman and Justice League Unlimited (What's with GL's beard?)

via Comics Continuum

» DC Direct Solicitations are also up. Of note: Bart Allen Kid Flash action figure, Current Conner Kent Superboy action figure and an Alex Ross JLA poster

via Comics Continuum

Sunday June 13, 2004 11:32pm

» If you work in an office you really should read this article. There are some very interesting insights in it.

Two ways of measuring the demands of a job have defined industrial relations since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution - time and effort - but a third has emerged in the past few decades: emotional labour. It's not just your physical stamina and analytical capabilities that are required to do a good job, but your personality and emotional skills as well. From a customer services representative in a call centre to a teacher or manager, the emotional demands of the job have immeasurably increased.

The demand for emotional labour is driven firstly by the growth of the service economy. Companies are increasingly competing to provide a certain type of emotional experience along with their product, be it a mobile phone or an insurance policy. Where once muscle power was crucial to employment for millions of manual workers, its modern-day equivalent is emotional empathy and the ability to strike up a rapport with another human being quickly.

Another kind of emotional labour is increasingly in demand in response to the changing structure of organisations. Clearly defined hierarchical bureaucracies have given way to much flatter, more fluid organisations. And as the lines of authority become less clear, much more falls to the individual employee to negotiate, influence and persuade. This is often called the "relationship economy", and what makes it particularly hard work is that it requires skills of empathy, intuition, persuasion, even manipulation, for which there is little preparation in an educational system focused on analytical skills.

Sunday June 13, 2004 1:05pm

The New Season of Six Feet Under premieres on HBO tonight at nine (There's probably a second airing on Monday or Tuesday, Check your local listings). It's a very good and often plausable yet f-ed up view of the human condition. Don't miss it.

Let's Go Surfing

» Quick links to the weekly newspaper advertising inserts for: Best Buy, Circuit City, and Target

Sunday June 13, 2004 1:02pm

Let's Go Surfing

» Not a girl but not yet a woman? then Britney perfume may be for you.
via FARK

» Keneau Reeves caught in a real life drive by shooting. Afterward heard to say "Whoa"
via FARK

» Checkout this cool time lapse animation showing air traffic paterns over the US for an entire day in a span of minutes.
via Cool Hunting

» I know for people in the music industry it is sad that people can create, promote, listen, collect, and distribute music for free but give it up there's no turning back the clock on the technology that is out there. Trying to is just a waste of societies resources. The genie is out of the bottle. Latest RIAA woe-is-us article. This time over digital radio.
via WIRED

Thursday June 10, 2004 11:52

Comments on Comics

Indentity Crisis #1 - Brad Meltzer, Rags Morales, Mike Bair
Good story. Great cast so far, focussing mostly on the second tier of the satelite era JLA (the one I grew up with) and lots of satellite era references with other heroes. In this first issue a member of the "League" is killed and a mystery who-dun-it ensues. I won't spoil "who dies" in this issue, but it was a slight disapointment, especially in its offhandedness. This character is one of the few in comics that works well in a difficult archetype and will be missed.

The Art is well done although a little rubbery at times. The coloring is quite good. I'm looking forward to the next 6 books. Pick-up.

Let's Go Surfing

» Why realistic graphics make humans look creepy
via slashdot.org

» Maytag Home Vending Machine at the Home Depot
via Apartmenttherapy.com

» This just sounds wrong and bad:

"Krypto The Superdog chronicles the comedic canine adventures of Metropolis' day-saving superdog from Planet Krypton. Krypto jettisons to Earth after traveling across the galaxies as a test-pilot puppy aboard a malfunctioning rocket ship built by Superman's father. Landing astray on unfamiliar terrain, the fully-grown Krypto swiftly seeks out companionship on Earth and flips over Kevin Whitney, a young boy who too longs for friendship. With an amazing array of super hero powers, ranging from heat vision to super strength to flying, Krypto partners with best pal Kevin to fight evil forces that threaten the safety and well-being of the people and animals of Metropolis."

Twenty-six episodes of Krypto are currently in production.

Tuesday June 8, 2004 11:10pm

This -snip- is from another website:

The "False Belief Task"

A more focused perspective on TOM (Theory of Mind) comes from developmental psychology. Children show a precocious ability to understand intentions and other important aspects of the mind (as gaze direction, attention, pretense). Nevertheless, in the early 80, the psychologists H. Wimmer and J. Perner showed that a full-fledged TOM doesn’t develop before the age of 3/4. They set up a series of experimental tests in order to check whether children between 3 and 5 years of age were able to attribute a false belief to someone else.

In one of these experiments, children see a scene in which a character, Maxi, puts chocolate in a drawer and goes away. While he is away, his mother takes a bit of chocolate for cooking and then puts it somewhere else and goes out. Then Maxi comes back, and the experimenter asks: "Where will Maxi look for the chocolate?". The 1983 original results showed that children over 5 did not have problems in attributing to Maxi a false belief, whereas younger children predicted differently that Maxi could look for the chocolate where his mother has put it.

Further experiments lowered the threshold of attributing false beliefs to 3/4 years of age. The false belief task , as it is called, defines a sharp watershed between a stage of child’s development in which children have a sort of "transparent" reading of mind and reality (people believe what it is the case), and a stage in which they show a capacity of having an "opaque" reading of mind and reality, that is, they can easily distinguish between what is the case and what people believe is the case. This has been taken as an important piece of evidence of the development of a domain specific ability in dealing with mentalistic concepts, such as believe, which doesn’t seem to be available in earlier stages.

Here's another webpage that takes a different tack on Theory of Mind, with an interesting couple of paragraphs on the usefulness of emotion:

Emotion, then, is proposed to perform the function of deliberately leaking information about the intentional states of the organism. There must be a large amount of honesty in this leakage, otherwise it would not pay to develop mechanisms for interpreting the emotions. The honesty does of course not need to be perfect; a situation of generally honest emotional communication creates an opportunity for very lucrative cheating. On average, however, in evolutionary history, emotional expressions must have been honest signals of inner states, and we might even look for mechanisms that respond negatively to cheaters--an emotional cheater-detection system.

Now, what are some situations where animals might benefit from a cooperative solution? The primary is perhaps that of dominance hierarchies, a form of conspecific competition for resources. Struggles for dominance are generally handled without inflicting serious damage on the participants; contests are methods of measuring rather than actual combats. Once dominance has been settled, it may be to everyone's advantage to settle minor challenges through a system of signaling rather than through continual fighting. This is a promising arena for the evolution of emotional states. In addition to dominance, territoriality is a promising candidate for potential cooperation. Again, issues of territoriality are frequently settled without the loss of life.

The key suggestion here is that there is a range of problems that animals face that lend themselves to non-fatal solutions. In these situations, an animal that is more powerful may communicate that power though its anger, and the less powerful may similarly communicate its inferiority through the faithful communication of fear. The assumption in both acts of communciation is that the other animal will respond in an appropriate manner: to anger by backing down, to fear by not killing the opponent, who is now no longer perceived to be a serious threat. Emotion permits conviviality.

So how does emotional communication work? What kinds of representational processes are required? It is not clear that emotions require the representation of mental states; rather, it appears more plausible that the emotional system really is a relatively independent system, one that advertizes the organism's evaluation of its own strengths. It is able to respond to others' similar communication not by representing it, but by directly picking up on the emotion. Thus, emotion may be thought of as a way of communicating through analogy. When you are angry at me, I feel your anger directly; I don't need to form the representation of you being angry. That anger enters into my assessment of my own relative strength, and helps me make a decision about how to act in my relation to you. All of this, I suggest, can take place without conscious representational activity.

Same page above, with another neat and shorter snipet:

For instance, an intention can be mapped onto a representational emotional topology, going from "the fox is chasing the chicken" (goal-directed) through "the fox is trying to catch the chicken" (intentionality) through "the fox wants to eat the chicken" (motivational) to "the fox is chasing the chicken and trying to catch it because it is hungry and wants to eat it" (emotional).

» Interesting page on "natural" group size. 150 people and 4 people.

» The Time of Unrememberable Being... More mind/brain/etc. stuff.

» These Printable Foldable Paper Arcade Games look pretty cool.
via boingboing.com

» David Hasselhoff arrested for DWI. Should have taken his Knight 2000 that evening, have KITT evade cops with turbo boost.
via FARK

» Yeah they are all over the TV right now but here are some Reagan Quotes
via FARK from MSNBC

» Also if you are looking for an opposing point of view to the 24 hour multi-day Regan Rememberance and Love-fest that has been on the Network and Cable News Channels you might want to click to the left here. Oddly enough this piece introduced me to a nice companion concept to my Concept of the day with this little emberded gem:

Oliver Sacks tells a remarkable story about watching a presidential speech in a roomful of people with severe aphasia, a condition that impairs or destroys understanding of verbal content but leaves its victims preternaturally alert to the authenticity of facial expressions, mannerisms, and tone. Every solemn, ringingly earnest sentence out of Reagan's mouth had the patients rolling on the floor laughing.

» More Republican Fun here. View a site and poll where you can put in your vote for how the election will be "thrown" to GWB in October.

» Tinyapps.org started a blog recently, its a great site for little-non-registry-well-written-ususally-single-purpose windows apps. Every now and then the blog has odd commentary like so. First time I've heard this Buddist saying: "Cease to do evil; try to do good." I like that it's an interesting turn of phrase.

» Night and Day Earth Web App.
via Tinyapps.org

» Great looking art for the upcoming Adam Strange Mini
via thoughtballoons.blogspot.com

» Games job interviewers play.
via FARK

Saturday June 5, 2004 2:01pm

Movie

Garfield - The Movie - PG

Date Opened: 6/11/04 Date I Saw: 6/5/04 at Celebration Cineama Knapps Corner

Disclaimer: Sneak preview/free tickets

The audience and I were completely shocked to see both Garfield and Odie killed at the end end of the movie so graphically being mowed down in the street by that truck. Little kids started to cry and weep as their computer animated bodies lie there in the road splayed open and gushing gore. At least the intense sex scene with Jennifer Love Hewit came before that, otherwise I don't think I would hae been able to enjoy the movie at all.

Well ok... that didn't quite happen... in fact as family films goes, it doesn't get much more family friendly than this. Garfield and Odie never get killed and no guts are seen. And although Jennifer Love Hewit is quite captivating in several oh-so-cute outfits.... there is nothing more risque than a short kiss.

Fans of Bill Murray should go see this film (He is the voice of Garfield and has 90% of the dialog) as should the parents of sub 7 year-old children. Nothing is going to scare the kids and the humor is no more rique than a typical Garfield comic strip. It's much better than the previews in a squeaky clean Saturday Matinee way. It's ok.

Also of note... there is an animated short featuring the sabertoothed squierel from Ice Age before the movie... It's worth the matinee price of admission all by itself. I absolutely love that little guy and his acorn obsession.

Overall: ok Story: ok Special Effects: good

» Art of James Bond - all kinds of James bond Art including all the Movie Posters.
via delicious

» Atari Industrial design Marker renderings of gaming cabinents and the like.
via delicious

Monday June 2, 2004 10:49pm

Thought

» Just a note to those that live in my apartment building (not that any of them are likely to read this) IT'S FULL! Try the empty container at the other end of the lot... it's not that far of a walk and it's a nice day outside.

Monday June 2, 2004 9:52pm

Random Non-Sequiters

Just reread a bit on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

I may have missed a step on the pyramid.

One of the sites raised an interesting Maslow concept that you can tell where another person is by asking them their "Philosophy of the Future".

-- what would their ideal life or world be like -- and get significant information as to what needs they do or do not have covered.

There's also an interesting thought on neurosis.

If you have significant problems along your development -- a period of extreme insecurity or hunger as a child, or the loss of a family member through death or divorce, or significant neglect or abuse -- you may “fixate” on that set of needs for the rest of your life.

This is Maslow’s understanding of neurosis. Perhaps you went through a war as a kid. Now you have everything your heart needs -- yet you still find yourself obsessing over having enough money and keeping the pantry well-stocked. Or perhaps your parents divorced when you were young. Now you have a wonderful spouse -- yet you get insanely jealous or worry constantly that they are going to leave you because you are not “good enough” for them. You get the picture.

Looking at the pyramid, there actually seem to be more things to go wrong the higher you go. Yet most of the articles seem to be written with the concept of reaching the top of the pyramid. And once you get to the top of the pyramid an entire new list of things to obsess over is created:

Another way in which Maslow approach the problem of what is self-actualization is to talk about the special, driving needs (B-needs, of course) of the self-actualizers. They need the following in their lives in order to be happy:

Truth, rather than dishonesty.
Goodness, rather than evil.
Beauty, not ugliness or vulgarity.
Unity, wholeness, and transcendence of opposites, not arbitrariness or forced choices.
Aliveness, not deadness or the mechanization of life.
Uniqueness, not bland uniformity.
Perfection and necessity, not sloppiness, inconsistency, or accident.
Completion, rather than incompleteness.
Justice and order, not injustice and lawlessness.
Simplicity, not unnecessary complexity.
Richness, not environmental impoverishment.
Effortlessness, not strain.
Playfulness, not grim, humorless, drudgery.
Self-sufficiency, not dependency.
Meaningfulness, rather than senselessness.

That self-actualization looks to be alot of work... might be easier just to stick with the food, security and belongingness.

The site above had another interesting page, off the Maslow topic however, with a section on Neurosis dealing with coping strategies.

Coping strategies

People troubled by neuroses will be also find themselves attracted to certain patterns of living that to one degree or another keep the psychological pain at bay: They may become alcoholics, or work-aholics, or sex addicts, or they may become obsessed with cleanliness or physical health, etc. These patterns can involve unusual behaviors, emotional attachments, obsessive thoughts, etc. Binswanger calls these patterns themes, May calls them daimons, and they are similar to Horney's needs, Ellis's beliefs, and the behaviorists' maladaptive habits.

Many theorists see a certain order among these themes, and classify them into four or five categories, which Horney calls coping strategies. Fromm calls them orientations, Freud uses character types.... They are, perhaps, the result of an interaction between a person's temperament and the specific stressors they must deal with.

There are two coping strategies we can readily agree upon: a dependent style and an aggressive style.

The dependent style is characterized by a sense of inferiority and weakness, but also involves a strong -- perhaps desperate -- use of manipulation of others. It is also referred to as oral passive, getting or leaning, compliant, and receptive.
The aggressive style is characterized by aggressive posturing that serves to temporarily diminish a sense of inferiority -- i.e. the superiority complex! When you feel bad about yourself, beat or humiliate someone else. This is also known as oral aggressive, ruling or dominant, and exploitative.

From there, things get more uncertain.
A third candidate is the perfectionist style. This type of person attempts to actually reach the excessively difficult standards they have accepted for themselves -- or at least pretend to reach them.
They tend to be emotionally detached from others, and to dislike depending on them. It is also known as the anal retentive or hoarding type.
A fourth candidate is the schizoid style, AKA, the avoiding, or withdrawing type. This kind of person attempts to remove him- or herself from most if not all social interaction. They tend to be somber, psychologically detached, angry at the whole world, and potentially violent.

And a last, fifth candidate is the infantile style, AKA, the phallic, or marketing style. These people avoid responsibility by essentially extending their childhoods into adulthood. They are obsessed with youth, fun, adventure, and even high risk activities. They tend to be shallow and hedonistic.

One could argue that the most common coping strategy of all -- most common because it works so well -- is conventionality, "busy-ness," getting lost in the day-to-day. It will be up to future personality researchers to determine which of these are true styles, if the idea of a few styles holds up, or if we should stick to a more individualistic way of describing people's coping.

I'm not sure which is more annoying the third or fith candidates above. I know people who fit into both. It's a tough call. The other 4 types aren't as bothersome. The sixth type is certainly the most boring.

Comments on Comics

DC The New Frontier #4 - Darwyn Cooke with Dave Stewart
Probably the best book currently being made. A sure to be classic that will be reprinted for years to come. Fantastic Art, Fantastic Storytelling. Really Good Stuff.

Green Lantern #177 - Ron Marz, Luke Ross
Kyle-Jade break-up part two. And here I thought they broke-up last issue. Maybe it didn't count because Jade wasn't in costume last issue? This issue we get to see the same story again. Includes the crappy 90s Sonar and also Fatality is released from prison in a WTF plotline of convienece. The end of this series (issue 181) can't come fast enough. Art's not bad this month though.

Superman #205 - Brian Azzarello, Jim Lee
Nice art, ok dialog, slow pacing. Worth picking-up though.

JLA #99 - Byrne, Claremont, Ordway
Awesome set of creators but the story turned too quickly into a barely veiled half-baked Doom Patrol backdoor relaunch. The original Doom Patrol sucks outside of its time period. This X-men-light ripoff team is not necessary in the modern incarnation of the DCU and this story and likely the entire relaunch of the team will probably be forgotten faster than you can say Hawkworld. Team books other than the JLA (or other than it's junior derivitives Young Justice or Teen Titans) never seem to work well in the DC Universe anyway. This new/old 60s feel Doom Patrol will no doubt not fair much better. The JLA is just too big... it overshadows all other DCU team concepts. Putting the Patrol side by side with the League right out of the gate just Dooms them to failure. It starts them out looking like second-rate third-stringers and underscores that they don't "fit right" in this Universe. Bad Concept.

Supreme Power #10 - Straczynski, Frank
A faster read than most in this series. Not much story. Lot's of naked people. Eh.

The Flash #210 - Geoff Johns, Howard Porter
What a one-eighty from last issue. Good characterizations, Great Story, Fantastic Art, Villians Galore. Nightwing co-stars. Hard to believe this is the same writer as last issue. good Superhero Comic, Good Stuff.

Let's Go Surfing

» Two Video Interviews from the 60s with actors William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy explaining a small as yet unaired TV show that you might not of heard of called Star Trek.

I don't spell check! Most of the time the Quotes of the Day are by someone else, and sometimes I misremember them abit... and they are taken out of context. I often state my opinions as facts. I'm aware that can be annoying? Occasionally I edit content on these pages after initially posting them. Oh Yeah... this paper background was lifted from some web site or other... I've wanted to add this very same type of background and well I suppose I could crumple some paper and scan it AND I wouldn't mention it at all but y'know I'm a graphic designer and I thought I'd mention it just in case someone thought I made it, which I didn't but I was going to... make something similiar y'know? Sometimes I type the word "Fnck". Flip the "n" over... I don't have a problem with the word myself, I just type it that way to slip it past overzealous work censorship programs.