Failed Minimalist’s

In the future, I wonder what I'll tell the grandkids (not mine, just some random grandkids) about the internet.  This might be nerdy, but I think it's cool.  I grew up when everyone started getting home computers.  I remember when everyone had dial-up connections.  I met people from around the world in the first chat rooms (leave out the stuff about those weirdos trying to "cyber").  I hope I will not have to tell them I remember when bandwidth was unbridled, access was ubiquitous and the playing field was level and any webpage could be accessed as easily as the next.  

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In the future, I wonder what I'll tell the grandkids (not mine, just some random grandkids) about the internet.  This might be nerdy, but I think it's cool.  I grew up when everyone started getting home computers.  I remember when everyone had dial-up connections.  I met people from around the world in the first chat rooms (leave out the stuff about those weirdos trying to "cyber").  I hope I will not have to tell them I remember when bandwidth was unbridled, access was ubiquitous and the playing field was level and any webpage could be accessed as easily as the next.  

Posted via email from matthewryanvincent’s posterous

http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=45&aid=165932

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Test yourself.  Question yourself.  Normal = self aware.

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If we all invest into a public health care system we all will invest more care about public health.

Product placement makes me sick. It completely takes me out of the movie or TV show. I can’t ignore the fact that it reminds me I’m watching something manufactured and backed with sponsors. What sensibilities did the creators invest in their work to secure those forceful backers?

But then, there’s the end of a product. Most recently, I was watching a movie and part of it took place within the recently bankrupt, liquidated and defunct Circuit City. What once would have made me sick, was now made harmless artifact, a record of the past. The power of the corporation vanquished, the potential deception erased… what was left?

I read Manohla Dargis’s review of Transformers. I’ll let her explain more of what I’m talking about in the above, but below are some of my unrefined thoughts. *Disclamer* I haven’t seen the new Transformers sequel, so this isn’t a review.

Of course she hated the ostensibly teenage dream, average looking guy with average smarts gets above average babe. Transformers is supposed to support the military-industrial complex. There’s good weapons and bad weapons, right? Because the weapons are the transformers themselves. What if we humans were born with a gun for an index finger? And its Michael Bay, you know. For us so-called (aka Average) film buffs, we despise Michael Bay. We despise it when we can’t tell where the lighting comes from. We despise it when he can’t get his actors to act and crams some orchestral score into the scene to make up for the lack of emotion. We despise it when he breaks the 180 rule. We despise it when we speak out against his stupid movies, and people think we are over-thinking it. (After seeing the first flick a co-worker at the time said to me, “I liked it cause it didn’t make me think.”) If there’s anything we average intellectuals can’t stand, it’s the act of not-thinking. Movies are more than escapism, actually, not escapism at all. They are reflection and expression of humans at their best and potential extremes. Most of all, we are truth seekers. I think, more than anything, the mass of Americans supporting the protesters in Iran (i.e. all the Twitterers who greened their avatars) weren’t necessarily supporting a regime change. They were showing support of the truth. They wanted a democratic election to be fair, for every vote to count.

Basically, what I’m saying is that as Average Americans our primary fantasies don’t consist of saving the world from absolute evil. Somehow, those bandaged figures running away from the explosions in the background stopped being us.

I read this article about reading on paper vs. the screen. The best part is about being disconnected from the actual thing written. They say books are windows into other worlds. So screens (as currently manufactured) are windows opening to windows.

The nifty article about reading on paper vs. the computer screen here.

Her: You just don’t want to be alone.

Me: Duh.

I was on break from the restaurant in between lunch and dinner shifts. For an hour I saw pictures of the gathering crowds, saw video of thousands chanting in unison. Soon, the twitter hashtag #iranelection was widespread. There are deep divisions in America, but we all (cheese alert) love freedom. We all might have different definitions or emphasis on freedom(s), but as Americans, I think we are all quick to want what we have for others. If anything, those of us applying shades of green to our Avatars are proponents of truth. We know what screwy elections are like. And we also know that change can happen. Essentially, Americans elected a reformist, and so their (yes, our) sympathy for Iranians is really empathy.

By the way, what about those journalists in Korea, Laura Ling and Euna Lee?

A nursing home romance in five acts.

ACT ONE

The arrival. Family drops off grandpa. He didn’t want them to follow him inside. Suitcase in hand, he enters the building. No one at front desk. He walks behind desk, puts on glasses and checks out the computer. Granpa checks himself into the registry. He starts walking around the facility…

TO BE CONTINUED