Well, the new site is almost done. I am moving my blog efforts over to a new location this week. Announcement happens Monday or Tuesday unless something else breaks...
Before I Die: Golf Cross
Couple of people have told me about this new sport that sounds like the coolest thing since three-man wiffle-ball. Golf Cross originated from New Zealand, due in a large part to the fact that the natives didn't have the room, or the course management capacity to make original golf work. So, develop a game that doesn't take smooth fairways and pristine putting greens - hello Golf Cross. The key is the new golf ball, and net. The ball is oblong, like a rugby ball, and instead of putting into a hole - you chip into a net. Apparently the ball flies straight and true. Lean it to the left in the special tee and it goes left, right and it goes right, etc...People are juiced about a game that involves the mechanics of golf without all the difficulty of spin, shanks, and otherwise tedious ball control. I like golf, but more than golf I like whacking things with a stick and trying to make the thing I whacked hit other things, I think I will LOVE Golf Cross.
Two Week Progression
Been on the road for two weeks and decided to chronicle the event with a series of photos from my laptop. Well, I got busy doing - you know - work and only took three pictures. But, the three I took tell a story of the road over the course of two weeks. From left to right they detail the beginning to the end of the trip.
Picture one starts in New York, pic two was taken in San Francisco, and pic three was captured in Chicago. All in all, the road will take it's toll on you. Hopefully you come back with insight a little deeper, and a little more personal. From dining, to the people, to the events that take place...the entire experience has made me more aware of a few things, and even more fascinated with our culture. After I get my laptop back, and return the loaner one I have been working on for the last few weeks...I will chronicle my stops via the iPhone camera. I have missed talking with my buddies through the blog for the last two weeks, except "Token".
Mediocracy Held Sway
Average, Fair, Moderate, Middling, Ordinary.
All words that signify the state of the internet today. In other words...dull crap. Now, not all of the content on the web is sad, bad, boring (even if it is ALL THE RAGE IN JAPAN), or obtuse. There is some quality content out there, but weeding through the junk is getting more and more difficult and time consuming. Finding the quality in the vast sea of quantity is like looking for a picture of a cat without stuff on it.
The bigger question here is, not why is a.brain complaining?, but who is to blame for this pandemic? The answer is YOU! Time Magazine told us that You were the Person of the Year. Told us that we had the ability to remake the web in our image. That sites like YouTube, Flickr, and the millions of blogs out there (www.brainblenders.com) were giving the power to the people. The new collective intelligence was going to be smarter, broader, faster, and generally just all around better than all previous attempts of the consumer taking control of their information.
Well, WE were wrong! Turns out that most of us don't know jack-squat about producing good TV, professional writing, or quality content on the net. Sure, one can go to YouTube and watch the History of Dance, one could read the infrequent posts by Maddox, one can even occasionally find a quality blog that will keep you raptured for the last four years (www.brainblenders.com), but most of all we see is garbage.
Also-rans, and repeats of content we saw years ago. Do we need another college co-ed telling us how her day went on a webcam? Do we really need another remake of an OK GO video? Why the hell would I ever want to see another Myspace page? Is your personality survey so riveting that I will be inspired?
Give me something new! Give me greatness! I want to see the human condition striving for more than mediocre. The middle sucks. I suggest that we all GO TOO FAR! Make a statement with art and science that makes me want to jump out of my chair and scream...YES, or NO!!!! The same-old-thing we did several years ago at the beginning of Web 2.0 is no longer acceptable. Push for more, demand the best, make a difference in the content that makes us all stand up and take notice.
One of my favorite sayings is "Bored people, are boring people". In other words, if you are bored (which SO many people are) then you aren't trying to not be bored. My point is...I don't intend to go down easy here. It is my intention to call for more fascinating information, displayed in a way that drives you back...again and again. This is why I am considering moving my blog into a whole new area, and in that I mean a new dynamic site. Stand by for imminent news about BrainBlenders coming out with a move announcement. One in which mediocracy will not be an issue!
The Plight of the Flight
I travel a bit.
Most of you know what that means. It means, that I am intimately familiar with the Chili's Too menu, have memorized the Starbuck's locations in most U.S. airports, and am completely used to being screwed with.
As a matter of fact, I have such thick skin now, that today, after I gave the counter worker my boarding pass in ORD (Chicago, O'Hare Airport) and noticed that my pen had fallen out of my pocket near my seat 4 feet away from the gate, and walked over to grab it then walked right by the airline employee without butting in front of anyone, and have her run angrily up behind me to tell me that I was "not cool" for sneaking past her, I didn't respond at all. Why should I respond? What good would my witty retort do? Teach her a lesson? Make a statement of defiance like in some movie about social reform, and oppression? Or just let it go?
I often choose to let it go. When some TSA agent starts yelling at us like cattle in a line waiting to be neutered, I try not to get upset remembering that I am actually a paying customer and not a convict waiting to lift and spread. When an Air Waitress wakes me up to make sure my noise canceling headphones aren't on, only protecting my peace from some louder passenger. When I get bumped, delayed, or redirected to another city, it doesn't do any good to get mad. It's air travel. The last bastion of freedom in the friendly skies. Right?
Horror stories of air travel abound. Being left on a tarmac for hours at a time seems to be unreasonable. Airline employees berating customers appears to be the norm now, not the exception. TSA agents doing what they do is a common inconvenience, but hardly worth getting me fired up. I have other things to concentrate on, more important things.
What kinds of things you might ask, Little Miss Mary Sunshine? Well, I'll tell you. I'm thinking we need to help the TSA do their jobs more thoroughly. That's why, I am considering calling for a "All Nude Wand Demand Day". One day in the next few months when everyone who goes through any Checkpoint gets completely undressed and demands to be wanded. This will ensure that the employees of the TSA will have full access to any and all the information they might need that day. This would boost their morale, as they would finally be able to go home that night and say their families..."the air was safe today, of that I am sure." Let's all make sure and get connected on this one, I recommend hugging your TSA agent after the wanding, to make sure they know how much you care...then get dressed.
Once through the checkpoint the reach out and touch someone continues. We've all heard some belligerent passenger yelling at an agent out of frustration, well not on this day brother. This special day will require you to NOT YELL. This will be "Low-Talker Response Day". We want to make sure that no one is hampered in their requests so it will be necessary to make sure your message is understood. We will all have to eat plenty of garlic, onions, and maybe some poutine - so when you lean in close to make your request you will notice the agents eyes water, and then you will know that you were understood.
Once on board immediately fall asleep, with your seat belt fastened in plain visible sight. The air waiter's and waitress's have a hard enough job not committing suicide without our efforts. However, if you feel the need to help - pat one on the bottom like they would in professional sports. And follow the code...boy/boy and girl/girl. No need to get all sexist on this day of days.
And, maybe if none of this works for you...buck up Nancy, life sucks all over.
The Lord of War - the life of a bullet
One of the greatest openings to a major motion picture I have ever seen. Absolutely beautiful, especially in contrast to the ending of the sequence. Cinematically it's beautiful, and the story the life of a bullet tells ends shockingly. The whole movie is just OK, but the opening has always stuck with me. Check it out on YouTube. Tell me another great opening if you know one...I love beginnings.
New BrainBlenders Photos
Have started another Flickr site, this one for BrainBlenders...and will be adding new photos from the last few adventures. Just doing my part making the world a smaller place. Link.
More this week from NYC are coming. All photos are shot with my iPhone.
All the Good TV Happens to be in Miami
Two of my favorite shows are set in Miami, FL. One of the shows is good for just about anyone (you won't have to mute some parts) to watch and the other is primarily set for people who are willing to watch absurdly insane characters run a storyline (you better watch this one with headphones). Burn Notice is my favorite new show this season, and the only show I will drop stuff to watch. Dexter is my second favorite show to watch and due to the fact that no one watches it with me, I watch it on my iPod or iPhone, and don't have to drop anything.
Both shows have the main characters running inner thought dialog, and it works well on both accounts. Burn Notice is like watching a much, much cooler MacGyver. Telling you how to make what looks like C-4 out of cake icing and why one type of thug is different than another type. Dexter's inner dialog is mostly a creepy account of how much he wants to kill people (all bad) and why. Dexter also has flashbacks to his past, which is critical to make me feel better about pulling for someone who cuts up bad guys.
I'm not going into any more details about the shows, cause they are cool enough for you to check out if you're interested, but here's the bottom line on both shows, they are weird. Burn Notice is not a modern day Miami Vice with gratuitous shots of Miami beach scenes and techno music. Well, yeah...actually there is a lot of beach babe scenes and techno but the writing is clever, funny, and offbeat. Dexter, on the other hand is a running sketchbook of the insane ramblings of a methodical serial killer pretending to be a normal person. Both bring something new to TV for me...which is to say not the same step and click pattern of 99% of television on the tube today. This isn't American Idol, You Think You Can Dance, or Who Wants to Marry a Schitzu. This is different, and odd, and therefor good TV. TV that you might actually want to watch, not just wade through before you crash.
Pac-Man's Skull
This is awesome! I know you'll love it, be creeped out by it, and ultimately hope that one day your own head would look this way - if you own head could be placed on display as a skull.
An artist collaborated with a paleontologist to recreate what the video game Pac-Man's skull would look like if it had in fact, existed and then died from apparent ghost-induced homicide. Kidding on the last part, clearly Donkey Kong did him in. This only further speaks to the fact that video games have been a critical part of our culture for some time...and it seems they will only increase in awareness.
An Open Letter to Sid Meier's Pirates!
Well HELLO NANCY!
What kind of pirate game has the pirate doing dance contests and fighting scenes as graphic as a Barney special? Sid Meier's Pirates! for the PSP that's what kind of game. I rented this game from a local video store and am I ever glad that I just rented it. This game fooled me for like the first few moments, and by the time I had finished playing it I somehow had received a subscription to Martha Stewart's Living and was listening to Barry Manilow's Greatest Hits. This game forced me to walk outside and punch a tree, then I sent a donation to the Arbor Day people - that is so unlike me...I never send donations to tree people.
Just for kicks and giggles I looked up cheat codes for the game and only one statement came up, "You've already been cheated jackass."