Protests in Ukraine

Not that we here much of it back in the U.S., but there are some misconceptions about what's going on in the Ukraine. The Guardian has an interesting article up by Seumas Milne. Here are a few excerpts:

You'd never know from most of the reporting that far-right nationalists and fascists have been at the heart of the protests and attacks on government buildings. One of the three main opposition parties heading the campaign is the hard-right antisemitic Svoboda, whose leader Oleh Tyahnybok claims that a "Moscow-Jewish mafia" controls Ukraine. But US senator John McCain was happy to share a platform with him in Kiev last month. The party, now running the city of Lviv, led a 15,000-strong torchlit march earlier this month in memory of the Ukrainian fascist leader Stepan Bandera, whose forces fought with the Nazis in the second world war and took part in massacres of Jews. [...]

It's anger at this grotesque corruption and inequality, Ukraine's economic stagnation and poverty that has brought many ordinary Ukrainians to join the protests – as well as outrage at police brutality. Like Russia, Ukraine was beggared by the neoliberal shock therapy and mass privatisation of the post-Soviet years. More than half the country's national income was lost in five years and it has yet fully to recover.

But nor do the main opposition and protest leaders offer any kind of genuine alternative, let alone a challenge to the oligarchy that has Ukraine in its grip. Yanukovych has now made sweeping concessions to the protesters: sacking the prime minister, inviting opposition leaders to join the government and ditching anti-protest laws passed earlier this month.

Teaser for the Captain America: Winter Soldier trailer is pretty cool

This on top of the news that the Russo's have been asked back to the director chair for the second sequel gives a promising sign that this film is shaping up just fine. The Cap is set for release on April 4th.

The stoic child and then there was a giraffe...

Badass girl in what I assume Vietnam.



What a strange, cruel world we live in.
But then there is this picture and all is good again.

Persimmon by Elisa Magnini

Persimmon by Elisa Magnini

“I still catch myself feeling sad about things that don’t matter anymore.” — Kurt Vonnegut

“Whatever happens to a boy during the summer he’s fourteen… can mark him for life.” — Lolita 1997

“She wasn’t doing a thing that I could see, except standing there, leaning on the balcony railing, holding the universe together.” — J.D. Salinger, “A Girl I Knew”

“She was the kind of girlfriend God gives you young, so you’ll know loss for the rest of your life” —Junot Diaz

“The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.” — Henry Miller (via light-essence)

New Pictures from Game of Thrones Season 4

Not much new to see beyond a few new characters, but still nice. You can check the rest out here.

Scientists locate the Conscious

There you have it, scientists claim to have located the conscious in the brain, but there is a twist coming, and it's a big one. In the article, John Walsh sardonically explains:

The lateral frontal pole, in short, is like a spouse who is quick to inform you that you've blundered and bungled it when it would have been so easy to get it right. It's the kindly-but-firm voice of authority that tells you to go to your room and mull over what you've done, so you'll be sure not to do it again in future...

Intellectual ability consists of short-term memory, reasoning and verbal agility. Although these interact with one another they are handled by three distinct nerve 'circuits' in the brain Hang on. This isn't some minor breakthrough of cognitive neuroscience. This is about good and bad, right and wrong. This is about the brain's connection to morality. This means that the Oxford scientists, without apparently realising what they've done, have located the conscience.

So what was that twist I was talking about?

But wait, what's this final detail I read about the lateral frontal pole? Humans have two of them! One above and behind each eyebrow! But why would we need two consciences? Unless (my hands are shaking just writing this) they're the Good Conscience and the Bad Conscience, the angel and devil traditionally thought to reside on human shoulders, to tell us either a) it's absolutely fine to steal that money/pinch that bottom/kick that beggar; or b) it's absolutely wrong even to think about any of them.

Do we have two consciousness? It would explain a lot about the 'war inside'. The writer relates to the devil and god-- and the band Brand New would probably agree. I actually love this-- a conscious for both the left and right brain. Another article purports that conscious is another form of matter altogether:

Tegmark’s approach is to think of consciousness as a state of matter, like a solid, a liquid or a gas. “I conjecture that consciousness can be understood as yet another state of matter. Just as there are many types of liquids, there are many types of consciousness,” he says.

He goes on to show how the particular properties of consciousness might arise from the physical laws that govern our universe. And he explains how these properties allow physicists to reason about the conditions under which consciousness arises and how we might exploit it to better understand why the world around us appears as it does.

Science is getting occultist. I want to write more about this this evening, but one more thing. Check out this cool video on Avatar the Last Airbender PBSideachannel posted. It only goes til about midway into the running time. It's a good watch.

Whimsy in a time of Narcissism

Okay, after the last post I'll end on some whimsy. GOOOD night.







Check out the smash-diamonds page on tumblr if you like these images.

NEVER STOP IMPROVING

(so I guess this pic is property of Lowe's. Ummmmm, you knew that right? Okay, moving on.)

It has been a day. I went to work where it never stops improving. People greeted me, and I greeted them back. Cash was exchanged. No one ever stopped improving, and no one discussed how the improvement kept going exponentially until, well, everyone that enters is a god. Literally, that's what Lowe's sells, deity-hood. Yes, come and you too can experience the omniscient and omnipotent powers of a fierce Norse GOD. You too can smite the unbelievers, bring on an era of never stop improving, ever never stop improving, Fenrir eating the sun in his snarling maw as the earth goes pitch black. That's the end of the story. I came home. I sat down on the couch. I creaked my back, and I have been in a great deal of pain since.

I have writer's block. I have been working on a story-- it's a long story-- it's unsellable-- it's brutally sad and depressing, but it's also happy. A lot of people die but it brings out the best in others too-- and that's the whole point of life right? You need to conquer the shit that you couldn't control that happened to you. We have all lost someone or something. We have all had pasts that were too hard or too easy, have these problems that we could blame on ourselves or others. Well, I wrote this part in my book. Here it is:

She cackled again. "Damn your God, boy. Do you think it was God that gave me indigestion earlier this morning, or God that made that dog fart as I bought an apple? Magick. It's all about perspective, boy. Rafael, Michael, Gabriel, and Oreal-- the guardians of the four corners of the universe. You think they are God's heroes? Or do you think they are your warped gods on Granite Peak? God? We live in a universe without a Father's guidance. He left us long ago, child. We are a home abandoned. He left us for a better woman, a younger, fitter model. He chose someone else."

"Don't make me sick." He grabbed the back of her chair tightly. "That is heresy."

"It is also truth," she said and laughed. "And an idea you preached yourself years ago to your old friend. Those gods you both hate so much-"

Rosse growled, "Do not mention that back-stabber's name."

"The gods are just reflections of what's already inside all of us. They are only as real as we imagine them to be. They were laughed at, chained up, spit on, and look what happened? They came back angry at us. Are you really that surprised, Rosse, the born-again Christ? The more you try to control, the more it comes back ten times worse and in unexpected ways. Sigmund Freud, that old German, said 'unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive and will come forth later in uglier ways.' That's what happened when we turned the gods into demons, when we turned some emotions into negative and some into positive. They get resentful. They strike back."

So yeah, we are all screwed and feel abandoned. We are all getting over something. It's the human condition-- and in the end we love others because they are broken, because they are weak, because they are human.

Kurt Vonnegut has a hilarious vid on story structure-- it can all go on a graph, this line that goes over and under our average state line. And that's what make stories awesome: the ability that we all have to overcome pain or to fall victim to it. I am no religious person-- that's why Jesus resonates, but a God that is all powerful is too alien to identify with. We connect to Jesus' pain on the cross because, like all of us, he can feel the pain of this world.

So here is the vid right below. Watch it. It will make you love Vonnegut a little more than you already did which was a lot if you were me.



If you are interested in reading more of my book, I will reveal it little by little eventually. I still have a lot to say about the process of story creation-- the process of universe creation really. You can never stop improving. Believe me, I work at Lowe's.

Male philosophy and Turkey dancing.

Logan here. Quick post examining male gender capitol and how different cultures or perceived cultures allow for very odd behavior.

My friend Halil celebrated the 3rd anniversary of his 21st birthday over the recent weekend. Halil, as his name might suggest, is not originally from America. He is a Turkish exchange student. With his different national orientation come his different customs and practices. Much like American customs, he celebrates birthdays much the same – a party with friends and shenanigans. However, I observed a few things that were different about the way he and his fellow Turkish friends interacted and how his and my own American friends interacted.

One common thing for Americans to do at parties (within the college realm) is to play drinking games such as beer pong or flip cup. Both of these games invoke and environment for people of different groups to interact and compete. It is a way to do something that isn’t simply sitting or standing and talking to friends and strangers though the games may be inherently inclusive of standing and talking. Americans also often use the excuse of alcohol to do certain other activities. One of these activities is dancing. There are many gendered aspects to dancing that could be brought up at this point; however, alcohol can be used to explain why someone might be dancing at a house party whether they are of any gender or sex. This creates an atmosphere of alcohol being inclusive for dancing environments but limits those who don’t consume the intoxicant. This, as observations had shown, held true for the Americans of the party.

The Turkish community did not require alcohol to set their dancing atmosphere. They did indeed partake in sitting or standing and talking to other people much like the Americans. They tended to veer away from beer pong or flip cup though there may have been other reasons for that (perhaps the American crowd seemed intimidating. I would feel odd letting myself into a group of solely Finnish people playing beer pong). What was a change in culture to me was the dancing. The Turkish people of the party were down to dance as soon as the national pop music started. Dancing as odd? Of course dancing didn’t inherently seem odd to me. What was odd was that the Turkish men were very willing to dance with each other. It wasn’t krunk or grinding but a Turkish style of dancing but nonetheless it was dancing. They did now give justification for their actions such as “Gonna go dance to try to hook up” or anything along those lines. Everyone seemed to not only accept the behavior but expected it much like it was expected that a two man team would “bro five” after winning games of beer pong.

The culturally identities of the men who were dancing showed a very strong argument for gender being a social construct. It also highlighted gender as giving action and action expectation to the people that had inherited their gender. The Turkish group of the party all seemed to be very common with what Halil and the other’s dancing in much the same way that the Americans would understand post-fight hugging between men. It was simply something that men did and will do.

Admittedly I tried to join in but I really need to practice on my Turkish belly dancing skills; something that Turkish men are also very common with. And yes, there is a male and female form of belly dancing, well, at least there is in Turkey.

A Lantern Show in Thailand

A lantern show in Thailand. Took the picture from Reddit earlier today.

Bruce Willis is going to work w/ M. Night Shyamalan again

So looks like grumpy Bruce, one of my all time fave actors, is going to do a romantic, sentimental film with M. Night Shyamalan. This is rather interesting in itself, but the Ain't It Cool article I linked to led me to the goods. Bruce Willis is old and crotchety. I don't know how I feel about this. He's one of the 80's action icons that has continued to be relevant. But who am I to say anything? I live in a college town in nowhere Montana-- and I'm not in college... but check out this video with Kevin Smith. He was terrified of Bruce during the filming of Cop Out.



I don't care for Smith, but I still like Bruce. When he gives a crap, he puts it all in. And no, that wasn't a poorly conceived poop joke.

Off to work, my parting words

Pray for my soul and that the right side wins.


HAIL MARY (JEAN-LUC GODARD, 1985)

New X-Men Days of Future Past Pics

Empire magazine came out with four new pics of X-Men Days of Future Past today, and my gal J-Law is in the first one.

Check out the rest here.

Music Vid - Jan 29 and thoughts

An oldy but goody in my book.
I went to a party last Friday. I don't like talking to people I don't know so I sat by the computer while others played beer bong and rage cage. A girl was sitting next to me. She said, "I just think it's like high school." It was exactly like that. I was in charge of djaying--- this was before the foreign kids showed and it got fun. I put on music like this-- angst with a beat. I like to listen to music because it makes me feel happy and sad at the same time. It's my favorite feeling. People got drunk around me and I had a beer in my hand. It was dark, crowded, smelly, and I was a part of it, but I still feel shy most of the time. Being shy is being vain. I read that once. It was a fun night though. I would do it again in a heart beat.

Tomorrow will be a good day, y'alllll

Believe these came from over at smashed-diamonds on tumblr.

Cool quote:
“Some day soon, perhaps in forty years, there will be no one alive who has ever known me. That’s when I will be truly dead - when I exist in no one’s memory. I thought a lot about how someone very old is the last living individual to have known some person or cluster of people. When that person dies, the whole cluster dies,too, vanishes from the living memory. I wonder who that person will be for me. Whose death will make me truly dead?” — Irvin D. Yalom, Love’s Executioner and Other Tales of Psychotherapy

Need to go to bed soon. By the way, first two pics come from French films Mepris, Le (1963) and Pierrot le Fou (1965), respectively. The last is Cinderella. That's a movie made by Walter White, I mean Walt Whitman, I mean Walt Disney. Tomorrow will be a good day, y'allll. Just wait and see.

Ecclesiastes in a Cat Box and Seegers turning turning turning

I was over on reddit checking out the links before I go to bed and ran into George Clooney's iama (not literally). A user named kaizenkaos asked him "why do you have such lonely eyes?"

George responded "I actually have only one lonely eye. The other eye’s got nothin’ but friends."
Another dude, I imagine with his mouth agape, wrote, "Goddamn you are smooth motherfucker." It's true, George is a suave guy. If you are interested here's the link. Definitely check it out.

Another post led me to this classic video:


I laughed. Never seen it before... see the poop in your inner eye? I do. Some say the inner world reflects the outer one... our worlds are crap now.

And in sadder news Pete Seeger died today. I didn't know him too well, but this song was up on reddit. Turn, turn, turn. There's a season for everything.

It's a melody. Listen to the end, you won't regret it when you are 90.

Jennifer Lawrence is engaged

Well, this kills my celebrity crush. Good luck with that Nicholas Hoult.

Or not I guess. I guess the crush continues... Which brings up a question, why does it matter if she is married, dating, or single? It ain't real. It's all in the head. ALL OF IT. So yeah, come on. It don't make no difference.

Music Vid - Jan 27

Wicked. I picked this up from reddit's sub listentothis a few days ago. It's by a Scandinavian gent, Harald Kindseth. You can download it free from his Soundcloud page here.

Star Wars REBELS creators introduce new character

Ain't it Cool News article about the new character chopper linked right here.

I am looking forward to this. When it came down to it, the last few seasons of the Clone Wars were well-made and entertaining. The stuff with Darth Maul, Sidious, and the Mandalorians transcended fan service. I know people heard that they brought Maul back and thought it a cop-out. They obviously didn't watch the show. The sith's return was well earned and played into the mythology that had been set up. I personally love where they are going with this. Filoni's Star Wars is different than Lucas', different than anyone else has done. I love that he has staked out his own little territory in the mythos now. I think it will be looked at with rose-colored glasses in years to come. Kids are going to see it as their Star Wars.

The 12th Doctor's Costume shown for first time!

Doctor's new costume

Peter Capaldi's costume! I like it-- it's grown-up, it's sexy, it's new. The curmudgeon-y, dare I say suave, Doctor may be on the horizon. He doesn't screw around with happy songs and audience-pleasing slapstick. He'd rather punch you in your oddly-colored kidneys. I hope that's what they are going to do anyway. Matt Smith was the boy before the man-- the dangerous new time lord named the Doctor.

SHIELD gets new character

So far I have been unimpressed by this series, but if they can start introducing elements into the MCU mythology without being tweeny-bopper drab, I'd be down to watch again. Cheers to a good 1X13 Agents of SHIELD, you are going to need it.

Tarantino axes the Hateful Eight

I can’t say I am too depressed about this. I enjoyed Django Unchained as much as the next guy, but I am more interested in the film he describes as his new project, and I am the only one who wants to see Kill Bill Volume 3 & 4? I was fascinated by those movies when I was younger. The tone, the soundtrack, the imagery– it was different and got me interested in Asian cinema. The article is linked below:
http://www.deadline.com/2014/01/quentin-tarantino-hateful-eight-leak-novel/

Nintendo, thoughts on the future

Nintendo’s end-of-the-year numbers came out and they were bad. Chris Kohler in Wired is so right about his solutions. I would buy the crap out of their online games if Nintendo updated its eshop, making it more accessible for indie creators and third-party publishers alike. Cityville was a guilty pleasure of mine a few years back. If Nintendo had a bunch of free content and a better catalog– I can only imagine the profit they could potentially drag in. Wii U and the 3DS are retro and social gaming extravaganzas waiting to happen. The link to the article is below:

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2014/01/nintendo-mobile/

Music Vid - Jan 22

Really digging this song at the moment. Not sure when their whole album hits but I'll be there.

First post, and so it Begins

Hey y'all, this is my first blog. On an opening note, I hate the contraction 'y'all'. I feel like it implies a certain sense of familiarity that isn't there. Hey yyyyyyyyyyyyy'all. I end up seeing Sandy Cheeks in my head. She is dancing around with a ghastly coconut bra. Her teeth are hanging out in all directions. She generally looks disgusting. I don't think all people who say y'all are hicks, I am just saying they come off like hicks. So, well, deal with it. If you can't put two and two together, well, there's just no helping you (says the inner Bill Burr). I have to admit I list off a menagerie of profanities under my breath when I hear it. Some primordial ape-man wants to punch the person in the throat. So there you go, that's my first paragraph.

So what's this blog about, you may ask yourself, beyond the ramblings of a 25 year-old college graduate with a BS in Business Finance and English Literature with a minor in Economics who works retail at Lowe's Home Improvement, never stop improving you will never stop improving please stop improving this hurts please stop? Honestly, it's going to cover a wide topics I am interested in at the moment -- film, comics, Nintendo, Magic the Gathering, I mean if it's nerdy I probably love it -- but the through line is this: I am writing a book that's almost finished and I want to document the experience. Yes, I am almost done and have been editing since I was in high school. There is one chapter left that is mostly complete, like I said before (or wrote before, you get the point). I also know a bunch of funny grammatically things, and yes, I will try to keep that to a minimum.

Anyway, that's my first post. I plan on writing something once a day. It will be an eclectic blog. I will pull stuff in from everywhere. Hope y'allllllllllll enjoy it.