Lethargic Sunday

It's Sunday! (Ok, technically it's Monday morning but close enough, right?) I just spent the last 12 hours watching TV. Specifically, I just spent the last 12 hours watching ABC. So, since I did nothing much today, I'll blog about my 12 hours of watching TV.

2 basketball games. I like the Bulls this year. With Big Ben, the team's starting to look really good after the All-Star break. I was surprised that the Heat didn't crash and burn without D-Wade. That's really all I have to say about the 2 games.

Then, it was Oscar watching time. Geez Louise! I watched the Barbara Walters Pre-Oscar show. Then the Pre-show on the red carpet. Then I watched the whole freaking Oscars. This is, I think, the first year that I watched the whole Oscars show. From what I can remember of the first 2 hours, I'll say these things:

Ellen DeGeneres was funny. I like her. Well, I liked her sitcom, loved her HBO special, but I'm not totally in love with her talk show. Still, she was funny tonight.

Also, the team of Bruce Vilanch, Carrie Fisher, and Carol Leifer were back together again tonight after a several year hiatus. Their presence seemed to make the atmosphere funny. I'm pretty sure the Al Gore/Leo skit was a product of those three and that was really funny.

The dancers were wacky. Which I liked. I didn't exactly understand that they were going to be a part of the whole show until their second or third silhouette.

The Will Ferrell, Jack Black, John C. Reilly song was, by far, the funniest thing on the show.

So, about two hours in, I im'd Amanda and we had a running commentary of thoughts on the show so I have an actual documented account of my stream of thought, starting with the Jennifer Hudson win where Amanda was really excited because... I guess because of American Idol and because she'd seen Dreamgirls and really liked the movie. She was also excited that Jennifer Hudson won on a movie that was her debut and wanted to know if that was unprecedented. I looked it up and it's not. Surprising film debut wins? Julie Andrews in Sound of Music and Ben Kingsley in Ghandi (a movie that just recently came out with an anniversary DVD).

An Inconvenient Truth won. Which I predicted (ok, fine, not that hard because they were pushing this one all night). 1 right, so far.

Ennio Morricone's done music for some good films. My favorite are Malena and The Untouchables.

Clint Eastwood speaks Italian. Totally surprising until I remembered that his first few films were with Sergio Leone. Makes sense, just never thought about it until that moment.

Ennio's speech is Italian, Clint's translating, and they cut to a shot of Ken Watanabe looking really really confused. Heh.

I thought Pan's Labyrinth would win for best score. Babel did. 1 right, 1 wrong.

I thought Little Miss Sunshine would win for best adapted screenplay because they don't want to give it a best picture Oscar and the Academy constantly gets criticized for not picking comedies. They did win. 2 right, 1 wrong.

Dreamgirls perfomance. Nice. Beyonce's good.

I thought Love you I do would win for best song. Melissa Ethridge won. Upset victory in my opinion. I noticed that the three Dreamgirls songs that were nominated all had different lyricsts. Amanda didn't care. 2 right, 2 wrong.

Best editing. I thought Children of Men. The Departed won. 2 right, 3 wrong.

Jodie Foster still looks good. She'll forever look good. Montage of those who passed. This is always sad. Don Knotts. Joe Barbera. Jimmy Doohan. Peter Boyle. Mako. Robert Altman. I'm now very sad and on the verge of tears. Wait. No James Brown? He was in one of the other compilations. Strange.

Actress. I'm guessing Helen Mirren but Kate Winslet could still win. Helen Mirren wins. 3 right, 3 wrong. Amanda also guess this one right (but a split second before it's announced. Suspect... =P)

Backstage guys says that NOW it's going to get interesting. THANKS. Means I've wasted the past 3 hours. Stupid.

Actor. I want Forrest Whitaker to win. I loved Good Morning Vietnam (not the only one. Everybody did as well), Jason's Lyric (... might be the only one), and Ghost Dog (dude! watch that movie!). He wins. 4 right, 3 wrong. His speech causes everybody to cry. Damn, he's good.

Director. Spielberg, Lucas, and Coppola are presenting. Damn, that's a lot of star power. Announced as the "three amigos." Weren't the three amigos Lucas, Coppola, and Scorsese? This makes me think Scorsese's going to win. He does. 5 right, 3 wrong. Amanda and me comment that he looks like Eugene Levy with Peter Gallagher's eyes and Woody Allen's silhouette. His win's a long time coming. My favorite Scorsese pic is Last Temptation of Christ.

Picture. Jack Nicholson looks younger without hair. He looks like a bigger Michael Chiklis though. Why's Diane Keaton yelling? Jack looks scared. He's standing really far away now. What happened? Prediciton: The Queen. Winner: The Departed. Wow. Scorsese's having a good night. 5 right, 4 wrong.

Ends with a very short line by Ellen thanking people. That's it? Wow, under 4 hours. I'm impressed.

Final tally (for the second half): 5 right, 4 wrong. Eh. Better than 50%. That's not bad. Especially considering the Melissa Ethridge win was completely out of left field.

Other than that, I spent the day doing pretty much nothing. Ok, I wrote another 10 pages in another script. Ironic considering it's Oscar night. Ok, it's almost bedtime. Nite!!

TV 101: Sitcoms pt. 1

Sitcoms, or situational comedies, are, basically, a television format designed for comedy. They're, generally, not as deep or layered as their counterparts: the hour-long drama. The reason why they're referred to as situational comedies is because the characters remain in a static place with plotlines, generally, resolved by the end of the episodes. In other words, the comedy is derived from the situation of the characters.

(The term "sitcom," I realize can be used to technically describe many shows so I'm going to clarify right here that the term "sitcom" in this post will refer to half-hour comedy shows.)

I've mentioned before that I believe that what makes successful television show concepts is either putting the absurd in the normal or putting the normal into the absurd. Sitcoms are a matter of putting the absurd into the normal.

As an analogy for the absurd/normal relationship, imagine a picture. Just a normal picture. Ok, let's say a digital picture. On your computer. Of... a fisherman standing on a pier next to his boat. Now, zoom in really really close. The picture looks fuzzy, doesn't it? You can't quite make out the fisherman because you're just looking at his blurry arm and the blurry fishing pole. And you wouldn't even know there was a boat there. Now, zoom out really really far. Well, now you know there's a boat and a fisherman but you can't see what the boat's name is. Or if that thing in the fisherman's hand is a pole. Or the color of his hair sticking out underneath his hat.

Ok, so what've we learned? If you look at a picture at just the right distance, you see the intended picture. But, if you zoom way in, you see too much information and if you zoom out, you see the whole picture but it's small and distant. No details. Now, let's make that analogy. If you zoom into characters WAY close, you see details but with no context, which makes people seem absurd. If you zoom out from characters WAY far, you see context but no details, which makes people seem... normal. Boring, but normal.

Now, let's further that analogy so that it pertains to what I'm trying to say about television. If you zoom in really really close on characters in an absurd manner, you get aspects of characters but no context of how they came to be. Ironically, this produces stereotypes (you'd think details defeat stereotypes, but I'm going to try to say the opposite). You get to see that a guy's into sports and working out and is a jock but you only see this one detail and you see no context into how he came to be that way or what else he enjoys. Therefore, jock.

Now, how does this pertain to sitcoms? First off, a necessity in making half-hour television (22 minutes when you minus commercial time) is expediency. When you're dealing in stereotypes, it shortcuts unnecessary exposition immediately. Let's use Friends as a quick example. In the first episode, we see the Nerd in Ross, the Jokester in Chandler, and the Stud in Joey, the Prom Queen in Rachel, and the Ditz in Phoebe. By quickly establishing those characteristics, it became easier to just jump into the stories (and the jokes).

Another part of "zooming in" is that you're able to get away with absurd characterizations (this is where we get to the "absurd" part). Let's use Joey from Friends again as an example. When we first meet Joey, all we really know about him is that he's the "Stud." He flirts constantly and is trying to make it as an actor, not because he can act but because it's the best way to capitalize on his looks. Let's fast forward a couple of years and look at an absolutely absurd moment in Friends. In a flashback in a Thanksgiving episode, we see that Joey once got his head lodged in the turkey Monica was going to cook for Thanksgiving dinner. This is, for lack of a better word, absurd. By all rights, this is something that shouldn't happen to a 20-year old. Ever. No matter what. That makes it absurd. However, in the world of Friends, it does happen and we believe it. Furthermore, it happens to Joey and we believe that it can only happen to Joey.

Why does it make sense for Joey to do something so absurd? Because we can't see the whole "Joey" picture. We only see aspects of him and we make judgments about who he is based on things we've deduced from him. Because Joey was a stereotype to begin with, his absurd behavior makes sense because we don't know that it doesn't. I'll try to clarify a little. We can't see the whole Joey so whatever he does, to a certain length, makes sense.

We can't have free reign, however. We need to ground our absurdities. If a character, or a show, becomes too absurd for too long, there's a disconnect with the show and the audience. If Joey, instead of putting a turkey on his head during Thanksgiving, rides a donkey buck-naked through the Thanksgiving Day Parade, slapping children and juggling sports cars, there is a very obvious level of disconnect. We can't make sense of why Joey's doing that or even what it is that he's doing. In order to make the show good, we need to ground the absurd behavior.

Because you get your absurdity and humor (especially visual humor) from the characters, the settings where the characters live in become your source of normalcy. Friends, in concept, is a normal situation. It's a group of six friends who meet in a coffee shop, live across from each other, and basically hang out all the time. Everybody's lives are encompassed by a certain group of people that they associate with consistently. It may not be as frequent or as isolating as the friends in Friends make it but it's an otherwise normal situation. The trick to making a good sitcom, however, is putting absurd behavior, like Joey's Turkey Incident into an otherwise normal show. The normalcy must be there so that there's something that grounds and connects with viewers.

Wow. This is kind of long. I'll pause here and post more tomorrow. I'll try to focus on a brief history of sitcoms, culminating with the way modern sitcoms are thought of as.

TV 101: Introduction

(Ok, so I started delving into random thoughts about television in my last post about Grey's Anatomy. Since they were random and jumbled and mixed up and, basically, one long train of thought with no direction, I thought I'd make an effort and condense my thoughts into something coherent.)

The purpose of these next posts are to attempt to deconstruct the basic tenets of television genres. I want to be clear: I'm not an expert on anything. These are just opinions of mine based on what I remember and what I've seen. If I plagiarized something inadvertently, I apologize. I legitimately don't remember reading anything specific that would've led me to these opinions. If I write something you disagree with, please let me know. I'll be happy to consider your opinion (or fact).

So, I'm going to divide my thoughts into two separate sections: sitcoms (or comedies) and hour-long dramas (tragedies). There are several reasons for this. First, and more significantly, is that the field of television shows in general follow this dichotomy already. Secondly, this is the classic division of fiction: comedy and tragedy. It's the way Shakespeare's plays are divided and have been used countless times throughout the history of fiction. (Of course, in Shakespearean literature, comedies ended in marriages and tragedies ended in death so the rules have been changed somewhat in the last 400 years.) Since television tends to lean toward half-hour sitcoms for comedy and hour-long dramas for tragedies, that seems to be the most natural way to discuss these topics. I'll point out why, in my opinion, these are the natural ways to display these two attitudes.

I'll probably have appendices as well at the end to discuss random topics that come up along the way. I had a plan for the first one but it came to me a couple of days ago and I've since forgotten, largely, what I wanted to discuss.

I'm going to attempt to write these in a timely manner. If I completely forget to write the last part, I apologize now. I get distracted easily.

Oh oh! I thought of something to blog about!

Of course, it's contingent on 2 things:

1. You watch Grey's Anatomy
2. You've seen last week's episode (pt. 2 of the 3 part ferryboat arc)



Ok, who's still with me? Just checking.

So, as we all know (all because those who don't have probably left), the end of the last episode had the "Holy ___ " moment when Meredith woke up in what appears to be the O.R. of the afterlife with Denny and Kyle Chandler sitting next to her

I'm going to go out on a limb here and saw this: Meredith will not be dead at the end of the third episode. It's entirely possible that I'm going to be wrong. After all, the line at the beginning of the episode, "There's more I have to say; so much more. But... I'm disappeared." (Yes, I download episodes so I can play them again when I need to quote them. Ok, that's a lie. I download episodes because I work at night and can't watch anything live) is the pitch-perfect line for the "killing the main character" tease. Certainly a title character's death would not be unprecedented but I'm pretty sure it hasn't happened to a show of this size and audience level ever. So, Shondra and her crew would probably go down in the history books if Mer died.

That being said, I don't think that's happening. Certainly the only reason why Mer would be killed would be if Ellen Pompeo wants out of the show because there are so many more stories to be told with the character of Meredith Grey and her presence is invaluable on the show. I don't think she's be frivolously killed for shock value (not that this is frivolous. I mean, 3-episode arc?! That's much more time than other shows spend on stuff like this).

Ok, so I've made the argument that Mer isn't dying. I think it's logical to think that Meredith isn't dying. It's like when you watch a movie and you see the actor who's listed first in the opening credits in the middle of a crowd shot at the beginning. You think "There he is, the hero of the movie." He's going to be the focus of the movie, with all the events of the plot happening around him, as if the eye of a maelstrom. Meredith Grey is the same character. She's not dying and I don't think anybody truly truly believes she will. (Once again, I could be dead wrong. Grey's has done a fantastic job so far in defying expectation.)

So, we think that the boat sinks at the end, that the hero gets the girl, that the villain's killed, that Meredith will be revived. Why is it such a big deal then? I think Grey's has done it right. We can pretty much postulate the ending. But they still manage to have their audience guessing. We're on the edge of our seats in a way that hasn't happened in awhile (except reality TV. Which is, in most other ways, stupid). I think the irony and cynicism of 90's popular television has killed the art of suspense. We think we know it all and shows that appeal to us are the ones that play against those expectations in a post-modern methodology. The counterpoint isn't "You think you know what's going to happen? Bet you never saw THAT coming." The counterpoint becomes "You think you know what's going to happen? Let's ridicule the very notion." Seinfeld, Friends, Will and Grace didn't have the CLIFFHANGER episodes. They had episodes that dealt either in absurdly expected notions or patently bizarre notions. Hyper-realistic or hyper-absurd episodes deconstructing the very format of the sitcom and sitcom tropes.

Grey's Anatomy, however, ushers a new sensibility of television. The 2000's of television. We're watching shows the relish in drama and suspense. They don't undercut with irony. Rather, they relish in what's expected and only turn on a dime at the end, keeping those who think they know better forever guessing. 24, Alias, Sopranos, Grey's Anatomy, etc. are shows that don't try to be smarmy intellects but rather try to break new ground. Not that there's anything wrong with po-mo deconstruction sensibility. Arrested Development took that whole idea to a whole new level creating the show-within-a-sitcom-within-a-show, look-at-how-smart-we-can-be attitude, making a new sort of hyper-hyper-awareness. Which is a very roundabout way of describing the show. The new wave of drama, however, has been defined by simply indulging.

This might be time to just say that my own personal view on television and television plots is that the most successful ones were the ones that were able to either 1.) inject absurdity into normal situations or 2.) inject normalcy into absurd situations. This may seem obvious but it's difficult to juggle the levels. It's the difference between the hyper-realistic and the hyper-abstract. Friends, for instance, was hyper-realistic. It took a realistic situation, a group of friends, and zoomed in so far that absurd things could happen without affecting the borders of realism. Most sitcoms fall into this category. They usually happen in normal, everyday settings but the settings are zoomed so far in that you don't see the work setting. You simply see the single-dimensioned absurdness of characters. Dramas usually take the opposite approach. They take the absurdly frantic settings in life, settings with mystery and assumptive secrecy (such as hospitals or law offices, where viewers who are not doctors or lawyers have imagined being in those lives and decisions seemingly exist on a world-changing level) and try to zoom far enough out where the framework of the workplace provides analogous interplays with the characters.

I just realized that this somehow turned into my treatise on what television is. I did not expect that. Oh well. Where was I?

Anyway, the reductive nature of sitcoms (coupled with the increasing popularity of sitcoms) in the 90's caused television to become... snarky. (On the dramatic end, shows had to be attitude-driven or "gritty," causing tons of strange NYPD Blue spinoffs.) Shows had to be self-deprecating in order for critics and viewers alike to say that a show was intelligent. While it did serve to allow people to think about television on a new level (some would say, an artistic level), what happened was that television started to treat itself as a lark. And what happens when you think negatively about yourself? Other people start thinking negatively about yourself too. That's how we wound up with reality TV. Self-deprecation to the point where it became cool to parody the intellectual-deprived nature of self-deprecation. (Did that sentence make sense? I'm not actually editing this post because I normally don't. Perhaps I should've.) Modern era shows, 2000 and beyond, have attempted to stem the blood loss caused by all these self-inflicted wounds in the skin of television as an art or literary forum.

The moral of this long, unusually complex worded post is that television is starting to become more and more intelligent. Which I'm grateful for. Watch television. It's good again.

(You know I thought of an exception for all that. Sci-fi. Sci-fi TV has been able to avoid stereotypical ebbs and flows. Perhaps it's because it's a niche market.)

OK, this whole train of thought will need to be worked on more. After all, if all this is true, where does Ally McBeal fit in? X-Files? ER? I'm not willing to rework and revise, however. Not at 12:54 in the morning. So this will probably lead to an amendment post later on. I'll link them.

Happy New Year

恭喜發財!!
or, I suppose, GongXi FaCai!! It's the year of the pig now. Which is cool. Because it means that I'm turning 25 this year. Which is... old. Wow. Ok, nevermind. Fuck the new year.

Ok, that's kinda harsh. After all, time's a constant and it's not time's fault that I'm... older. Anyway, nothing's really new. Bought a couple books. Reading them now. Ok, the only new thing is that I made a Zigo Logo for the Chinese New Year (which is actually really really pointless because a. - it's passed already and b. - we didn't have a Chinese New Year promotion so there's really... no point) but, regardless, here it is:


The pig's a little blurry but there's nothing I can do about that because I made it on the same layer and shrunk it too far before I realized that I wanted it to be larger. After making it larger, it blurred. I must remake it if I want to get rid of the blurriness, which I'm not going to do because.... there's no point.

Anudder Logo

So, Alex K. visited this weekend. It was good to see him. Haven't seen him in like forever. So that was fun. He had to leave Sunday tho so I spent Sunday night working on, among other things, a St. Patrick's Day logo for Zigo.

Here it is:










Also, I saw the last ep. of Grey's. Whether or not my speculation comes true has yet to be determined. They did a good job of spending the middle ep. of a three-episode arc not actually resolving much. Or, at least, they resolved everybody's storylines except Meredith so that the last episode of this arc will be solely spent on Meredith and her life and death struggle. (Struggle? Really? Perhaps... The writers have surprised me constantly with this show in terms of what they'll do. Always in a good way too.)

Also, I saw Psych and Class. I have yet to see this week's How I Met Your Mother so that's next. And my iTunes just started playing depressing music. Stupid shuffle feature. ("Depressing music" btw currently is Expose's I'll Never Get Over You Getting Over Me. Remember that?)

Ok, that's it for now. Except to say I think I fucked up my wrist a little bit by using my computer on the coffee table when I was watching the all-stars game today. Or I'm finally getting carpal tunnel. Or both. Hopefully it'll be better in the morning.

Conversation snippet

Online Conversation from today:

[00:37] Amanda: when everyone's parents die off, no one will ever come back to sj
[00:37] Amanda: they won't have a reason to
[00:37] Me: .... that was like the most depressing thing i've had to think about all day
[00:37] Me: and i have a cut on my finger that won't stop bleeding
[00:38] Me: you... have talent
[00:38] Amanda: thank you, thank you

President's Day.... soon

It's President's Day next Monday. I'm really looking forward to it because... [drumroll]... DAY OFF!! W00t!! Yuppers. I get to stay home and... sleep? Oh yeah. SLEEP!

Ok, honestly, I'll probably watch DVDs or something. Actually, Alex K. supposedly coming up this weekend so me and Mike'll probably be kicking it with Alex K. Which is way cool. Because I haven't seen Alex in forever.

Anyway, the point of this post is that I just finished the Zigo Doodle for President's Day for the sign I'm going to make that says "WE'RE FREAKIN' CLOSED! GO BUY FOOD SOMEWHERE ELSE!!" (ok, I might change the wording a bit on that one) and I wanted to post it. Here it is:



Sorry if you don't like it. It was done quick and I'm kinda tired. And... what the fuck? I'm not apologizing for it. FUCK YOU if you don't like it. I like it. THAT'S what's important.

Spoiler/Speculation for Grey's Anatomy

Uh-oh... I've been hearing rumors all over the place. People are getting themselves into a tizzy about this one... I think--

[Spoiler- is it a spoiler if you're just guessing?]











--I think George is gonna die. TR Knight's apparently really upset about the way that the Isaiah Washington thing went down and gave ultimatums. I'm guessing that Isaiah's job is safe because of Shondra's comments about the whole thing and I've been hearing rumors that the big thing about the ferry-boat accident 3-parter is that a cast member's gonna die. It was (speculation-y) confirmed(-ish) by the writing of the first episode of the 3-parter when Meredith ends up in the drink because the tease is that she's going to be the one that dies [you hear a cast member's gone and then the main character ends the episode in a precarious position... you're supposed to think in that direction] but obviously GREY's anatomy isn't going to kill the "GREY" part of the equation. (second speculation is that Meredith dies but is revived by somebody... which is still possible and in fact might be what happens to deflect speculation about the [what-must-be] shocking death of George. I wonder if this is why they hot-shotted the Callie thing. I've heard rumors about Callie and--



EVEN MORE SPOILERS [speculation]





--I think she's going to find out she's pregnant. Which means that George will be dead and Callie will be a widow/mother and her daughter/son will be a half-orphan. I bet Izze steps up to help her out to make up for the mistreatment she's been giving her so far. With a little push from the Ghost of Denny??!!?!?! (Ok, I dunno about the ghost of Denny. I know the rumor mills have been going nuts when it was confirmed that Denny's coming back for something or another.... ghost, spirit, flashback, mysterious long-lost twin, who knows?!)























It's really bleeding difficult to hide text with color in this background. Hopefully I've made the text really really annoying to read it without highlighting it... that way... it'll remain spoiler-rific. REMEMBER tho, this is all speculation. I have no (or ... vague) support for these thoughts (unless they're.... vague).

Single's Awareness Day

It's Single's Awareness Day (or Valentine's Day for you... punks out there). It's a strangely ambivalent (meaning of 2 differing thoughts or opinions and unable to decide on one. Not meaning without any opinion or feeling, which is what a lot of people assume) day for people, me included. I'm sad, which is actually the norm for V-Day, but the appreciation for Single's Awareness Day (or Anti-Valentine's for those who are not as clever) is filling me to the brim. I'm always happy to see such a large Anti-Valentine's following. Perhaps one day those who celebrate Single's Awareness Day will overtake those who celebrate Valentine's. I'm both happy and sad.

Ironically, it's snowing on SAD in Boston. Most people would consider that oddly appropriate but, and I think I posted this before, I find the snow very romantic. More ambivalence! Yep. It's really pretty and powder-sugary-white. Very peaceful. Well, very peaceful at 8:55 am.

I had weird pains in my mouth and face last night when I was trying to sleep. Every time I laid down, I had pains but every time I sat up, nothing. I think it must've been psychosomatic (meaning all in my head) so I think I've inadvertently developed strange alarm signals in my brain for when I'm going to sleep. Like I'm subconsciously saying "NO SLEEP! WORK TO BE DONE!" .... I need to stop working for awhile. Starting.... Friday. Because today... there's work to be done.

Happy SAD day everybody! (ok, it's redundant to say "SAD day" but I like the phrase "Happy Sad Day." It reflects my ambivalence about the day.)

SCHWAG!!

This is the equivalent of Nerd Bling!! I WANT I WANT I WANT!! (Still... WAY EXPENSIVE... esp. for Legos)

Still Alive... Barely

Still alive... still on the wagon... barely. I'm too exhausted from work to make this a proper post. I pulled off a 12 hour shift yesterday and I'm leaving again once I finish typing this for... probably another 11 hours. I blame me. I'm an idiot for saying I could do all this.

We're selling Valentine's cookies. yay (sarcasm). Stupid valentine's. On the hand, we're selling SAD cookies too (Singles Awareness Day). YAY!(real) They say stuff like "Love stinks" and "Be mine or don't." Ok, the last one's kinda stupid but the spirit's there. I made two Zigo v-day logos for the cookies. (Zigo's the name of the store... I don't think I ever mentioned that before.

V-day:







SAD:






Took surprisingly little time.

Ok... back to work. Back to Blog later... I hope.

Evolution? Revolution? Inspiration?

Life's changing. Sometimes in the imperceptible. But doesn't the verb "change" imply an inevitability? Is Life changing forcibly through conscious decisions or is Life changing regardless?

Some things'll never change
That's just the way it is
Ahh.. but don't you believe them.
- Bruce Hornsby | The Way It Is
(This is the song that's constantly sampled in hip-hop music nowadays, famously in 2Pac's Changes)

Mixed message at best, I'd say.

So, I've been working like a dog these past few days. Yesterday was the harshest. However, I discovered that yesterday was a hard day on everybody at work so I tried my best not to bitch and moan about it because... well, frankly it seemed unfair to compound everybody's problems by bitching more. Anyway, yesterday was harsh and today was kinda harsh in a continuing epic sort of way. I was thinking about it yesterday while I was working at night, after hearing about everybody else's harshness, that each one of those people have someone to go home to at the end of the night. They each live with their significant others. They're going to go home and complain and their significant other's going to listen to them patiently (ok... two of them are each other's significant other so that'll be a little different), nod, smile, reassure them, offer to do something sweet or kind or interesting or calming and life'll begin to look better. (Alright, fine. that's best case scenario. When you're sitting there working like a dog, you tend to think in extremes. Fuckin' sue me.) I just couldn't help but think "Gee, I wish I had someone to go home to." It was one of those errant stray thoughts that people have all the time. "Gee, I wish I had more money." "Gee, I wish I saw that movie." "Gee, I wish I had Japanese food for dinner." But it hung on in the inner-bowels of my head like a fucking barnacle. Just wouldn't let go. Bugged me for a good hour. I dunno why exactly either. Just did.

I may be numberless. / I may be innocent. / I may know many things. / I may be ignorant. / Or I could ride with kings / and conquer many lands. / Or win this world at cards / and let it slip my hands. / I could be cannon food, / destroyed a thousand times. / Reborn as fortune's child, / to judge another's crimes. / Or wear this pilgrim's cloak. / Or be a common thief. / I keep this single faith, / I have but one belief: /
I still love you.
- Sting | A Thousand Years
[sorry. my iTunes is on shuffle and the song changed while I was typing. Seemed oddly appropriate.]

So, I was pondering this today after work (working on Saturday's not normal for me) when my parents called me. My mom told me that at her company, her boss left last week (like.. huge news! As long as I can remember, my mom's had stories about her interactions with her boss. They've been colleagues/boss-subordinate for a crazy long time) and that there's a huge exodus of people leaving Synnex. She mentioned people down the line and I jokingly asked her if she was one of the people (my extended family and me have believed that my parents should retire for a long time now. My mom's been trying to retire and tells us every year she will but hasn't yet. My dad's adamant about not retiring but last year confided in me that the reason why is because he's afraid that without a steady income, the family [immediate and extended] will go broke and that he really does wanna retire) and she jokingly said she would consider it. I think, in all honesty, that this could stick this time. I hope so, anyway. They work themselves to death. My dad's news was that my cousin's engaged. They got engaged last night and called to tell family today. I called my cousin to congratulate him afterward and he told me he's looking at a June or July wedding. Which is ridiculously quick. After I hung up I realized that instantly, the lives of my family probably has changed. My cousin's getting married and my parents (well, probably my mom) are going to retire. I also realized that life's moving. Fast. And I may or may not be a part of life moving.

If miracles are only
A matter of believing
I can't help wondering
Who those miracles are for?
- Bob Carlisle | Somewhere

So, ultimately, what does this mean for me? Where is life headed for me? What am I doing with my life? Do I have an, as yet, undecided purpose? Am I still searching for some kind of meaning, ultimate or otherwise?

So, for probably the fiftieth time in the last week, I find myself wishing I understood life.

Are... are we idiots?

http://news.com.com/2100-1047_3-6157109.html?tag=nl.e777

Are... are we... is this guy... are human beings... idiotic? Is this... even enforceable? Are... are we PAYING for this... with TAX DOLLARS?!?! We need a dictatorship... NOW! And the dictator needs to be anti-stupidity.

RIAA = IDIOTS

Update: Ok, so in response to Steve Jobs' letter, the RIAA said this:

Apple’s offer to license Fairplay to other technology companies is a welcome breakthrough and would be a real victory for fans, artists and labels. There have been many services seeking a license to the Apple DRM. This would enable the interoperability that we have been urging for a very long time.

OK, the RIAA once again proves that they're IDIOTS! Jobs did NOT offer to license Fairplay. He, in fact, said the EXACT OPPOSITE:

"Apple has concluded that if it licenses FairPlay to others, it can no longer guarantee to protect the music it licenses from the big four music companies."

This is why the RIAA is so bad and so evil. They don't UNDERSTAND what their purpose is that what the purpose of DRM is purporting to be. They don't understand who they are selling products to nor do they understand who they are supposedly "protecting." They are simply, clinically INSANE! stupid stupid stupid.

(RIAA's response quote taken from LATimes.com)

VINDICATION, bitches!!

Ok. Two topics leap immediately to mind that I wanna blog about. The first one's a brief tongue-wagging-vindication (nah-nah-na-nah-na) and the second is the greatest that is Steve Jobs.

1.) MIT, for Spring semester 2007, is a offering a Comparative Media Studies course about... American Pro Wrestling. Yes, MIT. That's the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. One of the most famous and prestigious schools in the world. And they are doing what? That's right... there're going to offer a course on Pro Wrestling. Is this.. what is this feeling? Could it be... vindication? You mean when other people made fun of my love of pro wrestling and I always claimed there was value in pro wrestling and people laughed at me (literally LAUGHED!), MIT turns around and proves that there is indeed some value in pro wrestling? MIT is now my favorite school.

2.) So, some more thoughts on Steve Jobs. I already posted some thoughts 2 entries ago (scroll down). The letter that Steve Jobs mentions DRM (actually he full-on tackles the subject of DRM) in is posted on the front page of Apple.com (sorry. Should've mentioned that before). In the letter, Mr. Jobs outright expresses how he personally feels, how he thinks the average consumer feels, the initial reasoning behind DRM, and the reasons why its still be employed. Perhaps it's the reality distortion field but he makes a very good point on all fronts. I do think it's slightly absurd to say that Fairplay is kept proprietary in part to prevent people from breaking it but it's also true that Apple was one of the founding pioneers in the field of digital distribution and that deals they made with record companies have to be seen through those eyes.

Steve Jobs has been described on numerous occasions before as wanting to be a rock star. He certainly has the attitude for it. His "Steve-notes" at Macworld are a combination of KISS and PT Barnum. He has flair and charisma and a certain je ne sais quoi that comes off as... rock-star-ish. Frankly, it took a mind/personality such as Steve Jobs to broach the subject of digital distribution. Let's compare him to... say, Bill Gates. Bill Gates, while ambitious, smart, inventive, cunning, ruthless, and, did I say smart? let's use that one twice, is not a rock star. He has never seemed to have had the rock-star-flair. He comes off as reserved, quiet, shy, and... stereotypical nerd. It's only when you realize what he's done and what he's worth that you think "This guy's more than just a nerd." Bill Gates would never have tried digital distribution... at least not with the amount of red tape surrounding it. Steve Jobs, on the other hand, wants to be a rock star. And birds of a feather... So to say he'd try to surround himself with rock stars, to live in the world of rock stars, to bring rock stars to his world, would not be a stretch. So it would have to take someone like Steve Jobs to bring the iTunes music store to the masses.

And what can I say about it? I love iTunes. I've been a fervent user of the iTunes music store for years now. YEARS of buying music almost 100% off iTunes. Since I bought my first iPod (2004?), I've probably bought... 2 dozen music CDs. Total. If even. Frankly I love using iTunes because 1.) I'm not an audiophile and don't care about the quality after a certain bitrate and 2.) I'm too lazy to get off my tuckus to make trips to music stores. And I feel that iTunes has improved my life (musically). I've listened to more genres of music, more artists, more old-school and unheard of new-school because of the ease and accessibility of iTunes. I mean, some of the CDs I've bought off iTunes are CDs that can't be found in regular Targets or Best Buys and need to be found in Rasputins... something I would never have done myself. I'm a converted!

So I say, go Steve Jobs. Good on ya! If anybody can start a real, honest-to-God, fighting-chance campaign to end DRM, it's Steve Jobs. And this letter might just be the opening salvo. FREE THE MUSIC! FREE THE MASSES!

Geeking out

Fifteen Geek Movies to see before you die

Fun article. In case you don't wanna actually click and read, the list he made is:
Brazil, Matrix, Fifth Element, Star Trek II, Star Trek IV, Serenity, Dark City, 12 Monkeys, Shaun of the Dead, Darkman, Army of Darkness, War Games, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Office Space, Repo Man.

I wanted to post some ideas about the list. I generally agree with it, although I've never seen Brazil (I've been wanting to see it a long time now... but I don't actually rent movies any more because... I guess cuz I'm lazy so I haven't had an opportunity to watch it), 12 Monkeys (Same deal as Brazil), War Games (I KNOW! I've seen part of it. I'll see it, damn it. Shut up.), and Repo Man (I totally missed the bandwagon on this Emilio Estevez film. Maybe it was a 90s thing... like New Kids on the Block) so I probably have some work to do before I die.

Some movies that probably should be in that list too:

Tron - What a great movie. A dude goes INSIDE A COMPUTER!! and has an action-adventure with racing bikes, playing EXTREME DEATH FRISBEE, and breaking the mainframe. What a great movie.

Sneakers - The best hackers movie ever. Which is funny because the whole Sneakers team is over thirty (except River Phoenix) in the film, with Robert Redford pushing mid 50's. Definitely not realistic in that sense. But still a great movie with good acting (SEE? That's what happens when you get skilled older ppl in a hackers movie. GOOD ACTING!) and a good plot with great moments.

Back to the Future - Seriously now. C'mon.

I'd put Lord of the Rings... but I think everybody's seen it. Just for good measure tho: Lord of the Rings.

Same with Star Wars

Goonies - GOONIES NEVER SAY DIE!

Ghostbusters - Seriously. C'mon now.

Ok, my mind's empty and I'm tired of this post now... as you can probably see from the lack of enthusiasm from the later movie comments. I click publish and I'm finished with this! Begone! =P

Forced posting... to stay on the wagon

I don't feel like posting... but I feel like I'd better in order to stay... on the wagon of blogging. Or off the wagon. I'm not sure which one's the expression to stay sober.

Anyway, what's been going on lately? Work. Lotsa work. Most of it's actually forced upon me by... me. If something's fun, I tend to put more effort behind it than I probably should. I've put a lot of efforts into coming up with pictures and menus and signs for the Google/Zigo project because it's, frankly, been more fun than I've had in a long time with something I'm being paid for. So far, the work I've done has been some of the best stuff I think I've ever been able to do before and I'm really proud of what it looks like. However, I'll refrain from posting... in case someone wants to use it for proprietary reasons in this Google/Zigo thing. Just know that it's been the biggest blast coming up with cutesy images and a fake Google doodle.

SO! what else? Royal Rumble was awesome. Oh, and the Superbowl was a good game. I didn't party it up Superbowl style but I did hang out with a friend before the game, which was a lot of fun. It was a good day overall. Oh, I bought gloves (finally). The only problem is that the gloves I enjoy are thin (I don't like the ski glove look...) so they provide a minimum amount of warmth. Still, thin gloves are better than no gloves.

Which segues into the weather. It's cold. I'm actually having a lot of fun in the cold. The only problem is that when it was summer, me and my roommate both installed air conditioning units in our rooms (3 ACs in the apartment!). However, the one in my room isn't installed dead on (the window's not actually meant for an A/C unit) so there's a small almost imperceptible gap on the side. Except now it's winter... with winter wind. So there's this constant bitterly cold breeze that comes into my room. But it's alright because it's not like it's snowing in the room or anything. I just have to wear long sleeves in my room. Which isn't a bad thing. Especially since I got a jacket/wind breaker/track suit jacket thingie that I really like that says "San Jose" on it. which is cool. Because I'm repping San Jose... which is kinda weird but we have more people in SJ than in SF so why not rep it?? Plus, I've gotten comments from visiting Google employees. (We usually have the following exchange: "Your jackets says 'San Jose.'" "Yeah, that's where I'm from." "Really? I work in Mountain View. I'm here visiting." "At the Googleplex?" "Yeah!" [Awkward pause...] "Ok then... have a good day." *Psh. Nerds.*)

Hm... entertainment wise, I missed some DVDs in the past month or 2 that I wanna now buy. They include the Silence of the Lambs special edition, the Silence of Sleep, and Hollywoodland. Oh, I've been listening to musicals a lot lately too. (I don't know why exactly. I just like them...) I finally listened to Wicked. As expected, I loved it. I can't get enough of it. I wasn't aware of how many of the musicals I love had the same really great people. Idina Menzel is fantastic. Sherie Rene Scott is fantastic. Norbert Leo Butz is fantastic. Kristin Chenoweth is fantastic (ok... that one I already knew because of West Wing). Which is only from Wicked and and The Last 5 Years and Rent. It's oddly... connected. I'm also in love with the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Fantastic show. (I know I'm not italicizing everything I should be. I don't know what rules I'm following tonight... just go with me here.) And fantastic songs. (That's also many uses of the word "Fantastic" so I'll start using a different word.) Currently I have Wicked on repeat and [title of show] on repeat. Listen to [title of show]. It's really ... stupendous (<- new word). Stupendous stupendous stupendous. and Now I need to watch some wrestling to get my masculinity back in balance. Wow. For a bullshit post, this is pretty long so far.

Oh. Steve Jobs said, in a letter, that the best option for DRM for consumers is if it disappeared. And he said that if it did disappear, Apple would be down with getting rid of it. Yay! Down with DRM. There's gotta be a better way to keep copyright regulations under control. I wanna pay artists for music (I currently buy all my music on iTunes if possible. If not, I try to buy the CD or... [Heaven forbid] I download occasionally. Usually someone like Metallica who's pissed me off some how) but DRM is so... crippling... I'm not a good person to talk though because I'm fully behind Apple in it's iPod ventures. (I can't help it... they're so pretty.)

(shit... that's another hour of wrestling I have to watch now... I've gotta stop using the word 'pretty.' I think I got it from watching Joss Whedon interviews. Stupid stupid.)

Truth be told, with the negatives of Vista I've heard about, I'm totally in favor of just converting everything in my life to Apple. Apple music, Apple computer, Apple everything. Then DRM wouldn't actually be an issue at all. But I'm against DRM in sort of a solidarity thing because it's not good for other people. So, rock on my DRM-hating brothers and sisters.

Ok... that's enough for a bullshit post. Plus.. I've got some wrestling I need to watch. Go HBK! (Shawn Michaels is doing better these past few months than he has in a long time. He seems to be the old HBK again [I know it's cuz he's trying to fill the void that was left when HHH went down with an injury again but it's still fun to watch.])

Concerning Aqua Teen

Ok... I wasn't going to post anything about this but I just have one thing to say to this guy:

Fuck you, "Store Owner Jamie Alexander."

Ok. That was harsh. Sorry. Let's tone it down a bit.

Screw you, "Store Owner Jamie Alexander."

Ok. I feel better. To be fair, if I were in any other city, I'd probably have a similar reaction. "What's up with those Boston people?" And, granted, I didn't witness the "blinking devices" with my own eyes. Let me tell you how I first heard about the news yesterday.

"There was a bomb scare on Longfellow Bridge."

A combination of the words "bomb" and "bridge" is a heart-stopping moment. It took me a second to register the word "scare" from that sentence. Don't fucking call us paranoid when our first reaction upon seeing a blinking device with a dude flipping us off was to run while your reaction was "Gee, I have no idea what that electronic blinking device attached to my store with magnets is so I'd better leave it in place for a week." Don't be insulting us when your survival instinct's malfunctioning. And don't worry. If terrorists come, we'll be sure to point them to your store. I'm sure they'll leave many "cool" blinking devices all around the place for your to collect. Jackass.

Ok, feel much better now.