Archive for November, 2008
« Older Entries | Newer Entries »Are You A Psychopath?
[ 4 Comments ]Posted on November 12, 2008 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture
Wednesday, November 12th, 2008Maybe you should go into finance.
  Investment bankers have all the fun… |
No, all my rage has a perfectly rational foundation, thank you very much. For some reason, the recent economic crisis reminded me of the idea floating around back in 2004 that maybe corporate culture was breeding and encouraging actual psychopaths. Thanks to the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, I keep running into articles that suggest that this is indeed the case. What else could explain the audacity of the inclusion of a $140 Billion windfall tax in the Treasury Department’s economic bailout package? Or the aberrant behavior of individuals in the finance industry described in this lengthy but well-written Portfolio.com piece? The election was a nice distraction, but is anyone out there still even slightly angry? If we turned the tables and went all American Psycho
*29 questions, and don’t fall for the checkbox trick at the end.
The Utility Of Futility
[ 1 Comment ]Posted on November 11, 2008 by admin in Editorial & Opinion
Tuesday, November 11th, 2008I hate computer games, but they’re great fluff content…
I don’t really enjoy computer games; they somehow only aggravate my ongoing sense of futility. Which might explain why the few that I am drawn to seem to have a high futility quotient. Like The Game, for instance. Perhaps more social commentary than game, you have to get used to the idea that sometimes diving into the abyss is the only answer. If you get past the “Global Warming” level, let me know. QWOP takes futility to a new level. You only control the calves and thighs of an Olympic runner, and have to run the hundred-meter. I found the most reward from creating Check Berry-like splits moves by just hitting the “W” key. And in a feeble metaphor for the workweek, try Run. An endless run to nowhere, the only real objective being to avoid the holes that lie in your path.
Red vs. Blue
[ 1 Comment ]Posted on November 10, 2008 by admin in Popular Media
Monday, November 10th, 2008No, not THAT red vs. blue. The one that knows it’s funny.
Our quadrennial fascination with red vs blue (here’s an interesting NYTimes map, by the way) reminded me of the brilliant machinima web series Red vs. Blue that debuted back in 2003. After taking a look back at a few episodes (many clock in at around 2-3 minutes) I realized they hold up pretty well, in spite of the media used to create the series. I’m no machinima fan (please, if you know of other machinima this clever, let me know) but the almost existential humor the creators utilized was actually perfectly suited to the stiff, personality-less medium of the Halo game engine. There are episodes that still make me laugh out loud. I recommend starting at Episode 1, as the feel and characters evolve over time. Jumping into later episodes would probably feel like tuning into a fan-driven TV series at the end of its run. This really isn’t just nerd stuff; the Lincoln Center’s film society for instance, described Red vs. Blue as “truly as sophisticated as Samuel Beckett.” As a Beckett fan I might not go that far, but it is pretty damn clever. Although most episodes can be found on YouTube, they look and sound much better in the Windows Media or Quicktime formats found at the Red vs. Blue web site.
Believe In The Impossible
[ Comments Off ]Posted on November 9, 2008 by admin in Editorial & Opinion
Sunday, November 9th, 2008In an infinite universe, blah blah blah
Fear of Facebook
[ 3 Comments ]Posted on November 8, 2008 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture
Saturday, November 8th, 2008It’s not that I don’t love the virtual you, I just prefer the real one…
Someone please absolve me of my FaceGuilt. As an addictive person who works on a computer a lot (am I addicted?) and is very social and very networked (Malcolm Gladwell