The Endangered Dialect

Questions not to ask someone with DSPS

2011-12-28T23:05:00.000-08:00

I have a condition called Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder, which causes me to fall asleep and wake at much later times then normal people.

I want to preface this by saying that I'm always happy to discuss my sleep disorder, and happy to answer (almost) any question. In fact, I sometimes feel it is my duty to raise awareness about it, not only so that people with normal sleep can be more aware, but also so that those with sleep disorders might get help. However, in discussions, a few questions come up very often. Almost always, these questions (aggravating as they may be) are aksed in earnest from well meaning and kind people,.

7. "You get to sleep in every morning? That sounds great!"

Actually, I don't. I wake up as early as I can make myself. For me, waking up at 11 am doesn't feel like when you wake up at 11 am. I don't feel the carefree warmth that you get from sleeping in. I usually feel quite hectic, because I usually don't have much time to get ready for class. For me, sleeping in means sleeping until 1-2 pm.

6. "Maybe you drink too much caffeine/you should drink coffee in the morning"

On a normal day, I rarely have any caffeine at all, and certainly not late enough at night to keep me up. On the other hand, coffee in the morning wouldn't help. My condition is not being groggy in the morning, it's being asleep in the morning.

5. "You know, I used to stay up really late too..."

I don't stay up late. I fall asleep when I become tired. And I don't become tired until usually 4-5 in the morning. For me, staying up late would mean seeing the sunrise.

4. "Couldn't you just take sleeping pills?"

Oh, thanks, I'm cured now :P But joking aside, pills are at best a temporary aid, and one that I prefer to avoid altogether. I used to take Ambien daily. I eventually became addicted. After two years of acting like an imbecile, not remembering huge chunks of my day, and really not falling asleep that much earlier, I decided to call it quits. The withdrawal was mild, and lasted about two months. My other option is diphenhydramine, an anti-allergy pill which happens to cause drowsiness (usually sold as tylenol PM) which makes me grouchy and gives me headaches, and to which you can quickly develop a tolerance.

3. "Have you tried [insert home remedy/exercise regimen]"

When people ask me this question, it makes me realize that I've not been explaining myself properly. If they're telling me about folk remedies which are meant to cure normal sleeplessness, (warm milk, tea with honey, exercising to the point of exhaustion) then it means that I've not conveyed to them that I have a neurological difference. I may have forgotten to mention how people like me often have more blue light receptors in our retinas, and how we have greater melatonin re-uptake at lower light levels. I may not have mentioned that I've had this since I was about 14, and that if folk remedies had worked, we wouldn't be having this conversation.

2. "So, if you move to a different time zone, will you just be normal?"

I actually like this one. It usually makes for a good laugh. But that answer is, of course, no. Much like anyone else, once I get over jet lag, I will adjust to my normal sleep schedule relative to local time.

1. "Have you ever just forced yourself to get up early? Then you be tired later, right?/Have you tried to sleep normally?"

This is the mac daddy of all exasperating questions. I know that the asker doesn't intend it, but I feel like I'm being asked, "Have you ever tried not having your disability?" Every single day from the 8th grade all the way to the day I graduated high school, my parents graciously and patiently got me to school the morning. Waking up at 6:30 am when you've only slept for 2-3 hours day after day is a unique kind of pain which is difficult to describe. Imagine having the worst headache of your life, as well as a few bruises and a really bad attitude. Imagine that you are confused, you're not sure where you are, and the words that people are saying to you don't make much sense. Now imagine that putting your head back on the pillow makes all this go away, while wrapping you in a blanket made of pure contentment.

At school, I'd sleep through a couple classes. I'd probably sleep through the car ride home as well, only to find then when I got home and 10 pm rolled around, I was as awake as I would ever be. I would stare at the ceiling until I was finally tired enough to sleep sometime after 3:30. Every semester, making my schedule is nerve wracking, because if one of my required courses is before noon, I'm hosed. Thankfully, I've gotten lucky so far.

The entire world operates from 9 am to 5 pm. You're just about useless if you can't conform to that schedule, not to mention it can be a huge blow to your self esteem. Not only can you feel like an outcast, separated from society in a fundamental way, look at how people who sleep differently are portrayed in media; people who sleep in are often dull lazy loser oafs. People who stay up late are either reckless partiers, or nefarious low-lifes who spend the wee hours hatching the downfall of civilization.

One in three people with DSPS also have depression. Thankfully, I no longer do because I've been allowed to sleep on my schedule for nearly 3 years now.

So of course I've tried! I've had every incentive in the world to try.

So, that's the list. I'm not trying to be a whiner. I'm really a very lucky person. I don't have insomnia, so when I do sleep I get very good sleep. Right now, I'm pretty much allowed to live on the schedule that works for me, which not all people can say. My college, family, and friends are all very caring and understanding. Most of all, I'm just lucky to know what I have. Many people out there are suffering because they have DSPS and don't know it.

Becoming a Gamer

2011-03-06T09:46:00.001-08:00

Maybe I'm already a gamer. But I don't think so. My friends can name 20 of the most popular games in existence today, and I'll only recognize 5 of them. I have gotten many hours of enjoyment from video games, but most of those games are between 10 and 40 years old.

I was born in Germany in the year 1991. Video games had been in households for at least 12 years, but I was in a family of government nomads. I didn't play my first game until I was nearly five years old, while living in Nigeria. I picked up a controller for the first time and played Tetris. My dad had played somewhere, and somehow got hold of an Nintendo entertainment system console, despite the fact that we were in Africa. Our copy of Mario bros and Mario 3 were picked up as an afterthought. We also had Duck Hunt. It was a modest collection. Not bad for the third world. But not great for the year 1996. But I had no idea what was out there. As far as I knew, there was Nintendo, and there was the VCR. That was media.

Little did I know that the Super Nintendo had come out the year I was born. And that Playstation and the N64 were locked in battle for supremacy of the game market.

Eventually I moved to Minnesota. Our PlayStation was a gift from relatives. They also bought us a copy of Crash Bandicoot 2. The first 3D game I ever played, and possibly the first game I ever played that was made after I was born. I could write pages about how I've been influenced by the Crash series, not to mention Spyro. So I won't do it here. But I will say that between Crash, Spyro, and Gran Turismo, I knew what gaming was. First person shooter games confused and frustrated me. I found the melodrama of role playing games disturbing. I had everything I needed.

And this is how it's stayed.

My experience with gaming is comparable to that of a man who's only seen about ten movies all the way through.

But I'm trying. I want to write music for video games very badly. Games are a new and exciting art form that I want to understand. My friends are especially supportive in my efforts. It's almost like they're imparting their knowledge upon me. Thankfully they've chosen positive reinforcement as their teaching method. At the end of a round of Star Wars Battlefront II, they'll say, kindly, "Hey, three kills! That's not bad!" and "This time you actually killed more of the enemy then your own teammates." They express pride when I begin to curse aloud at the game.

It's nice to have friends who are willing to walk you through this world. No matter how many times I ask my gamer friends, "What does Ubisoft make again?", they always answer patiently. "Right. What does RTS stand for again?" is met with equal understanding. It's hardly the geeky judgment one's conditioned to expect.They know that I'm learning, and they really want to help.

So to everyone who's helping me to become a gamer, thank you.

New Tom Waits Album

2010-12-03T17:06:00.001-08:00

1. Place Name Noun

2. Bittersweet Drinking Song

3. Visions of the Apocalypse According to Insane Man from 1930's

4. Financial Hardship

5. Various Disturbing Anecdotes

6. Suicide Note that Rhymes

7. Impenetrable Metaphors

8. Song of Death and Abandonment

9. A Complication of Phrases from the Depression Era

10. Blues Standard Played on Human Skeletons

Why I still use a PC in a Mac trending world.

2010-10-21T20:27:00.001-07:00

I've used mac's at least every single day for the last three years, because I'm an art student, and Macs simply manifest out of thin air wherever art students happen to be. I spend hours at a time using them for the purposes of graphic design, photo editing, and sound design on a regular basis.

However, my own computer is a PC running 7. Why? I just hate using Mac OS. That simple. I can't stand it, it drives me insane, every minute using it is another ten hairs I pull out of my head. I don't want an interface which is constantly trying to guess what I want. I like things to close when I close them. Using the finder rewards me with nothing but pain.

I keep using Windows because I like the start menu, right and center clicks, explorer (not Internet Explorer, Windows Explorer), control panel, etc. Part of it may be that I simply know these things very well. I practically grew up with them. Some of these functions, on a Mac, seem tucked away.

Some believe that easy access to certain functions is not necessary for all users. To that I say this: Computer functions are like words; the vast majority of words in English are highly specified and seldom used. In daily conversation, we use about 10% of our total vocabulary. However, we need these words. Communication would be almost impossible without them, (words like aquatic, grain, obstruct) so everyone needs to know what they mean. The same is true for, say, showing hidden files, changing your clock to 24 hour time, changing the region of your DVD player, monitoring tasks, etc.

They may not be needed daily, but they will be needed. So I think an OS should make these functions reasonably accessible.

The lack of viruses is a compelling argument. On the other hand, give it a minute. If Mac computers continue to grow in popularity, the viruses will come.

Windows on a Mac runs at a glacial pace. On my own machine, (which cost $800 USD) Firefox installed and opened in 5 seconds. I'm not exaggerating. If anything, 5 seconds is a conservative estimate. Frankly, telling me that Macs run Windows doesn't sell me. I already have a computer that runs Windows, but I didn't have to pay for OSX and bootcamp, as well as the Apple logo.

As far as the community, there is no comparison. It comes down to sheer numbers. The PC community is vast, intrepid, and skilled. Because older computers do tend to be cheaper, and slightly obsolete parts abound, PC power-users can afford to be experimental and adventurous. I'm sure it's possible to cobble together a Mac computer from spare parts, but it's definitely much easier to do the same with a PC. C++ is widely understood. My college teaches a class specifically on programming in C++. I have a free C++ compiler on my machine right now.

Finally, I simply don't care for Apple's apparent policy against user serviceability. When I found an old PC in a dumpster, I was able to yank the wireless card out of it and install it in my own PC without any trouble. Why? Because my computer opens. An iMac on the other hand is very pleasing to look at, and is very compact, and in some cases, a very capable machine, but unfortunately is a solid glowing obelisk.

Making a computer non-user serviceable does absolutely nothing for the user. It just means they can't fix it themselves. Once I've paid upwards of 1,000 dollars for something, it should be my right to repair/modify it myself.

Mac does this most of their products. iPods don't even let you replace your own battery. My Walkman does. It coincides with the strategy of planned-obsolescence. The sad part is that Mac used to have a reputation for just the opposite policy; they were once known for making computers which were highly serviceable by the user. I once dismantled an old Mac (with some pleasure, I should mention) as it needed to be disposed of. Opening and removing the parts of this computer was an absolute breeze. Could not have been easier. A far cry from the impenetrable fortresses Mac makes today (with the exception of the G series)

So that's why I'm writing this on a 7 year old keyboard which is not wafer thin.

My Encounter with Sharkula.

2010-10-20T20:40:00.001-07:00

I was sitting outside The Stupid Building meditating when a man walked past me laughing. “Look at this dude meditating.” His laughter is benevolent, so I laugh too. He looks at me and asks the question, “Hey, do you like underground hip-hop?” I tell him that I do. He pulls some CD’s out of his Jacket. I tell him I have no money on me. He is obviously disappointed but he says, “Here, go to my website.” He reaches in his pocket, and begins to pull pieces of paper out of it, inspect them and put them back in.
We begin to engage in small talk. At some point he says “My family gets pissed off whenever I get any success.” “Yeah?” I ask. “Yeah, man,” he continues, “They just get pissed off whenever I get a new show.” I respond, “I’m lucky, my family’s cool.”
I don’t remember what I said next. He responds, “That’s the problem with Chicago, man. Don’t nobody love themselves around here.” “Yeah?”, I ask. “Yeah, man,” he continues, “people round here think they gotta vote for somebody to change the world. The problem isn’t politics, the problem is families.” He is still fishing for one particular slip of paper but can’t seem to find it. “They think all this stuff is wrong in politics, but I tell ‘em, it starts in the home.” “Yeah?”, I ask. “Yeah, man,” he responds. I tell him I plan on visiting his website. He thanks me, and leaves, immediately engaging another person three yards away from me.
Later I actually do visit the website. A bizarre almost atonal beat begins to play. The rhymes are bizarre, and sound more like rhyming free association than rap. It’s interjected with crazed yelps and growls. Certain rhymes that stick in my mind are “I’m gonna crush you with my Knuckle, boo, hoo, Papa Smurf on the turf.” It automatically switches to another track where he repeates, “you got too many tv’s in your car, too many tv’s in your car” for about two minutes. Best of all is, “Oh my god, it’s Empire Strikes Back and I’m Boba? I’m never Sober?”
Some of the beats in later tracks are some of the best examples of experimental turntablist music I’ve ever heard. It’s on par with Amon Tobin, except that it is topped with rap telling the story of an alternate dimension.
I conclude that this is the most amazing music I’ve ever heard and I plan to attend this MC’s next show.

Professional Student of the World

2010-09-16T20:57:00.000-07:00

There’s a new commercial for a car which shows two women in their early 30’s rescuing another from a restaurant. She says, “He said he was a professional student.” There’s a beat as they laugh, then she continues; “Of the world!” Now we have the whole picture. She was on a date with a deadbeat, and her girlfriends drove up in their shiny, champagne-colored sedan to extract her from the situation.
I tried to imagine the inverse to this situation. A man in his 30’s with short hair is in the bathroom of a Thai restaurant. He presses a single button on his phone (on television, people don’t dial.) He perks up as the party on the other end answers. We hear a crackly “Hello?”
“Bro, I’m on this date, you gotta get me outta here.”
His friend responds, “No problem, man. You and me, we’re like family. I’m on my way, you just sit tight.”
“Thanks man, I owe you big time.”
The friend asks, “So how bad is it?”
“Man, this girl doesn’t even got a job.”
“Oh, man you serious, dog?”
“Yeah, she keeps going on about how she’s gonna be a model someday, but she’s waiting to get ‘discovered’.“
“You know what? Screw the speed limit, bro; I gotta get you outta there.
Why does this scenario seem less plausible? Perhaps it is because men are seldom portrayed as anything other than dogs, blinded by their own sex drive. Perhaps it is because it is socially acceptable for a man to be the sole provider for a family. But a woman in the same position is supporting a parasitic slacker. But most likely, it is because nobody wants to imagine a girl sitting in a restaurant waiting for her date to return from the bathroom, only to realize that once again, she’d been sitting across from a judgmental prick, who wasn’t even willing to sit through a whole dinner with her.

First Week in Lincoln Park

2010-09-11T18:21:00.000-07:00

In the city of Chicago, it is extremely difficult to tell the difference between an insane homeless man, limping to a subway station in order to get his 8 hours, (with hourly interruptions to switch trains, and avoid being noticed at the end of the line) and a man, with a liberal concept of personal grooming, who sprained his ankle during his morning jog. They both have generally the same attire, mannerisms, and smell. They also have the same look in their eyes. They both look desperate, and exhausted. They both have a goal to achieve, but something insurmountable is standing in their way.
The look on both of their faces is nearly identical, but the very slight difference accounts for very different meanings. The limping jogger's face says, "Why does home have to be so far away, I'm beginning to feel like I'll never get there. I wish I could just lay down and rest my ankle for a minute. In fact, I wish I could just forgo the whole the indignity of hobbling around in the rain altogether, and just fall asleep right here, and forget it all. The Homeless man's face says that he will probably be sleeping in that very spot, and is not contemplating the matter with the same enthusiasm as the jogger.
The same is true for those who are highly enthusiastic about music, but are woefully incapable of expressing it without seeming like they are shouting at invisible snakes crawling up their legs. I saw one such man beneath the rails at the Fullerton red line stop. He was sitting at a circular cement disk which served both as a bench, and as a pedestal for a sculpture. The sculpture resembles a spaceship from science fiction TV series. Not the protagonist's ship, but perhaps that of a species with whom the protagonist has a "Stay the Fuck Away from Me" treaty. It resembles an flattish egg with creases, and sits atop three pillars. I hate it. The sight of it makes me feel like the world is turning upside down. It's something about the pillars. It doesn't look like they should hold the egg up. But then again, there's no gravity in space.
The man sitting near the sculpture was bopping his head up and down in an alarming manner. The rest of his body was at its mercy. He was also reciting some kind of lyrical work, but it was too aggressive to be rap. The words were very staccato, and resembled the barks of a German Shepard. And the tone suggested the preface to a Hollywood gang rumble. It was as though he were rehearsing a scene in which he carried on a heated argument in a hip-hop themed musical. I may never know if the jogger or the bopper were anything other than perfectly normal, but I have a pretty good idea about the teenagers in the McDonalds two doors down from my apartment. They were drunk as fuck.
For the entire 15 minutes I spent in that McDonalds, an athletic, well dressed Asian teen with spiky hair was clearly applying all his powers of mind, and all his ability to command the attention of another individual, but still only managed to repeat the first half of a sentence about 15 times. "But you know that Kaylie—hey—hey guys—hey guys—you know that Kaylie—hey guys…" After a while, I began to consider whether or not there was any possibility at all I knew the Kaylie in question, simply because I was desperate to give the poor kid a chance to have his moment, and was going to find it difficult to order over that noise, combined with the stunted ear piercing laughter of the individual behind me.
His laughter was so loud, and so obviously fake, it was clear he was performing for someone. Under my breath I mutter, "I'll have what he's having." The two middle eastern men in front of me turn around and agree. "I know right?" One of them, much more talkative than the other, goes on to say "Tourists, these guys." He points in the direction of the laughter, though we can't see the individual from whom the audible bilge is emitting from where we are, making its sheer volume all the more remarkable. "Tourists." He smiles, I agree, and feel much better about hating someone I don't know.
I live on my own now, and this has had unexpected effects on my behavior. For instance, I now only get dressed if I know for certain I'm going to see another human being. It started as simply not wanting my hair to make my shirts wet after showers, and decayed fairly quickly into "Fuck it. I'll just put a towel on the floor and play video games until I dry off. Another thing is that I've devoted a lot more time to the study of foreign languages. I didn't realize until writing this just how ironic that is; I have absolutely no one to talk to. I'm lucky to catch someone on the phone long enough to be told "I'm sorry, I have a lot to get done, maybe later", so it goes without saying that I've yet to find someone with whom to practice the Ghanaian dialect of Twi.
Nearly eight hours after leaving the McDonalds, I still haven't slept. I decide that it might be a good idea to go grocery shopping, and part of me knows that I will probably come home with cookies and carbonated water. I had the willpower to quit many things. I got over my Ambien addiction, cut down my caffeine to one drink a week, and canceled my membership on Wikipedia. But Oreos and Carbonated water will probably be with me to my dying day.
When I walk up to the door, feelings of irrational paranoia start to take over. It's been a long time since I've seen the world at 8 a.m., and because I'm severely sleep deprived, my inner monologue gets replaced with the voice of David Sedaris, and I begin to feel antagonized by everything I can see. It takes me about a minute to realize how to open the front door of the building. I would push it weakly, and it would push back. I did this about three times, and then my mind drifted to the Animated Film Watership Down. I think, "Why does anyone watch that fucking movie? It's depressing as shit. I know why I haven't seen it; because the plot synopsis on Wikipedia (I'd caved that night and spellchecked the article) made me want to fucking kill myself." I realize that I'm still pushing the door back and forth like the billows of a pipe organ, and remember that if I push slightly harder, it will, in fact, open.
The next door goes faster, but is just as terrifying. "I wonder if this one is going to explode. It's probably a bomb. Everything's a fucking bomb." My hair is frizzy as a stagger to the Dominick's beyond the 'L' station. I wear my normal clothes, but the zombie-like expression on my face and the fact that I'm muttering this essay to myself out loud seem to recontextualize it. People I pass look at my socks and my sandals, and then look back up at me as if beneath my feet are two giant hairy tarantulas who carry me around like living roller-skates. There's an expectation that looking straight into my eyes will yield some kind of explanation. Perhaps they're expecting that right as they look at me, I'll laugh sheepishly and explain "Oh, yeah, I was at a costume party dressed as a German beachgoer." But this is simply how I've dressed for the last four years. I've never apologized for it, and I'm not going to start now. Just like the individual with the limp made no efforts to conceal his pain, and the person near the sculpture had no reservations about enjoying his song, or whatever it was, to the absolute fullest. I come to realize that at this moment, mumbling, gazing to and fro crazily, my stigmatizing fashion accessories occasionally causing me to trip, nearly dropping my peanut butter cream Oreos and 12 pack of carbonated water, that I'm the jogger. I'm the bopper. And I'm definitely, looking for home.

Hei Mao Jing Zhang!

2010-09-10T20:06:00.000-07:00

Hei Mao Jing Zhang, or "Black Cat Detective" (黑猫警长 in Chinese), is bewildering to watch, has animation that doesn't quite measure up to what we're used to in America, has numerous inconsistencies, would never be accepted by American parents, and is the absolute most badass goddamn thing I have ever seen. To be more specific and less judgmental, Hei Mao Jing Zhang is an animated children's television show made by Shanghai Animation Studios in the mid-1980's. It has themes of justice, action, eminent peril, and a real "us against them" feel.

It is basically the perfect inverse to Tom and Jerry.

Step 1. Mice commit a crime.

Step 2. The police cats intervene (usually on motorcycles which turn into flying motorcycles.)

Step 3. The mice run

Step 4. Hei Mao Jing Zhang chases them down, beats them with an electrified club, and then SHOOTS them. He SHOOTS them. He FUCKING SHOOTS THEM WITH A FUCKING GUN. And there is lots and LOTS of blood.

Step 5. They make some arrests.

Step 6. Theme song (Oh oh oh, something Hei Mao Jing Zhang, thanks for protecting our forest blah blah blah).

Hei Mao is aided by his crew of gray cats, pigeons, and his Lieutenant, an orange cat (Named White Cat). This character is also awesome, but ***!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!*** don't get too attached to him.

The mice in the show, (greedy, evil, thieving, dirty rotten scoundrel criminal cowards) are apparently an allegorical representation of the Japanese. Their portrayal in this show is a revenge fantasy against Japanese occupation.

Some Chinese people who grew up with the show were not explicitly aware of this, but now that it is obvious to them, they are shocked by it, as well as the show's sometimes excessive violence (did I mention he fucking shoots the mice? Well then, did I mention the eagle that eats live children? Well there you go.)

I've watched every episode of the original run, and am completely in love with this show. I find that, if I'm being completely honest with myself, I want to be Hei Mao. Much in the way one might want to be Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction. He's just so damn cool. And a very smart dresser. I'm currently leading a one-man campaign to get Adult Swim to air this.

Please watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNTVA0hgi3o

Chinese titles for American films

2010-09-10T19:56:00.000-07:00

Robot Story (Wall-E)

Flying Pixar. (Up)

One of the Mouse (Stuart Little)

Brave Man of the Game. (Jumanji)

Brave man of the game 2 (Zathura)

Loch Ness Monster, Sham Legend (Water Horse, Legend of the Deep)

Flames Baron (Hellboy)

Depressed Couples Traveling the World (Fun with Dick and Jane)

Painting Genius Child (My Kid Could Paint That)

Stimulation (Shawshank Redemption)

Heaven Food (Cloudy, with a Chance of Meatballs)

Seabed Mobilization (Finding Nemo)

Confused Symphony English Enlightenment chapter. (Fantasia)

Communication Christians. (Missionary Man)

Pony Wizard (Spirit, Stallion of the Cimarron)

Extremely Fierce Crocodile. (Lake Placid)

Redeem oneself by good service (Inglourious Basterds)

NEW:

Journey to the Center of the Earth: Geocentric Adventure

Rings (Lord of the Rings)

Lightning Dog (Bolt)

Intellectual and Emotional (Sense and Sensibility)

North Africa Spy Film (Casablanca)

Ryan Rescue soldiers.

Classic Cars (Gran Torino)

Who Stole a Bike (The Bicycle Thief)

LET'S PLAY:

With these, you are invited to take a guess if you please:

Return to Old

Insect Crisis

Champions of the Earth War

Fox Great Father

Green Countryside Find Wizard

Mr. Foolish Beans

TRANSLATION DIFFICULTIES:

Trying to Translate the Chinese title of Gone With the Wind was very difficult. Freetranslation returned everything from the completely unhelpful “Luan Shi Jia Ren” to the perplexing “The World Trade Organization Next Georgia”. I’m now pretty sure that it’s best translated as “Revolution in the American South”.

Avatar: This is unclear. The translation is obviosly a phonetic approximation of the word "avatar". Pronouncd, it is "A fan da". But it yields odd translations. It is either "Azerbaijan Where over" or "Where the service".

And there’s one, which no matter how I examine it, will not reveal its secrets to me I've tried everything. Phonetically, it has no meaning in english. When strung together, this opaque adjective string seems to have been cobbled together like a Lagosian shanty. Now ladies and gentlemen, as we dim the lights, I invite you to join me in watching:

Love, Love, Deep Information. (What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?)

All titles are translated from the Chinese versions with sincerest efforts made to maintain accuracy, and to portray the intent of the title's meaning. I am by no means an expert in the Chinese language, and hold great respect for Chinese culture.

A Buddhist Interpretation of the Christian Creation Story.

2009-07-26T21:22:00.000-07:00

In this note, I will attempt to interpret the first few verses of the Book of Genesis in a way that coincides with what I understand from Buddhism. Of course, I have a lot to learn, but I really felt like doing this, because I'm getting weary of feeling like Buddhism and other religions are in conflict when they're not.

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.

As I have come to understand through Buddhism, God, to me, means the Buddha mind, or the divinity within human beings. Buddhism says that all humans are born with the Buddha mind which is corrupted by society through the imposition of preferences, and notions of things that aren't good enough, or need to be fixed, or things that are preferred, and should be sought. In this interpretation, we take heavens to mean sky. "God saw that it was good" is interpreted as a statement of preference of one thing over another.

So, the Buddhist "translation" for these verses would be:

"When you are born, your mind learns for the first time what the ground is, and what the sky is. You learn up, and down, and what is firm, and soft, and bright and dark. We learn that these things are different, that they are separate, and that one is preferable to the other."

Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them”; and it was so. 12 The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good.

This can be interpreted two ways: Either as the beginning of eating, or more metaphorically, the beginning of seeing the results of our own actions (seeds bear fruit, etc.) This also speaks to the cyclical nature of life on earth, though this interpretation breaks from the continuity of the story.

"One then learns of plant life, as food. It is at this time that we develop our emotional relationship with food from plants." OR "We learn that we have the power to change things in our environment, we can physically influence the world around us."

Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years. God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also.

"One learns of the passage of time, and that this also is connected to change, effort, food, the sky, and other things one has already learned of."

Then God said, “Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.” 21 God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind”; and it was so. 25 God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good.

"One learns of other living beings, and how change, time, our physical influence, and food affect them also. One learns that some beings can do things, such as fly, that other beings cannot do. One learns that some beings are unique, and that all are different. This knowledge interacts with the preferences and desires one has already assimilated."

26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

"One begins to have an understanding of who and what they are. One learns that only other humans can communicate with them, that other animals cannot speak, and that many animals are useful to human beings and can be controlled by them."

29 Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; 30 and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food”; and it was so.

This also has two possible interpretations.

"One understands the beauty of the earth, and his/her own fortune for living there. One learns of the way the mind interacts with this world."

Or: "One understands the universe in it's entirety. He/she completely understands his/her relationship with everything, he/she sees that the world is prefect, exactly as it is, and is free from the nagging preferences and desires which caused him/her suffering all his/her life. He/she is enlightened, and experiences nirvana."

The Tech In All Things: http://techinallthings.com

2009-07-09T15:39:00.000-07:00

The Tech in All Things is a tech blog that reviews various services and consumer technologies. The title has a philosophically sarcastic air that comes through in many of the posts.

This is the kind of blog that most internet users are pretty familiar with. However, one quickly learns that the blog itself is only a small part of the universe maintained by the blogs owner, BigBadFletch, known affectionately by friends and fellow bloggers as "BigMan". The stated goal of the website is to be a place "where people can come and talk about tech and loads more and just chill out in the chatroom and watch the stream" and it is successful in achieving that goal. It's a website one can imagine exploring for a while, when one hardly spends a minute at most blogs.

In the Live Support portion of the website, the visitor is surprised to see live video of the BigMan himself seated in front of an array of monitors. BigMan can easily be petitioned through instant message on the same page, and it's when that petition takes place that the true strength of The Tech in All Things becomes visible.

There's a feeling you get hanging out with some of your friends at a coffee house, or a friend's basement, or a bar or campground, or anywhere that friends commune. It's the feeling of community that comes with unique shared experiences, that feeling of belonging, of being part of a group. Dealings with BigMan have that elusive mixture of exclusivity and openness that that makes you feel welcome, and that you're a part of something unique at the same time.

It's this experience that will keep you reading the blog at The Tech in All Things instead of wandering off to another one. Pretty soon, you're not just reading any blog, you're reading the words of BigMan, a person you trust.

Reasoning behind Guerrilla Recording and Production

2009-07-07T20:57:00.000-07:00

In my post, Rules of Guerrilla Recording and Production, I outlined a series of rules for for the production of a song. These rules differ from the norm, and I have yet to explain them on this blog.

This all started with a pair of new headphones; Bose headphones, to be specific. I was using these headphones to re-listen to all of the songs which I believe to be excellently produced. I closed my eyes and asked myself, "If I weren't listening to headphones, where would the bass player have to be for the bass to sound like that?"
The answer of course is, right next to my head. The process of production has almost never meant putting the microphone where our ears would be. One does not listen to a bass player by putting their head next to the strings. We hear them from the distance, and we hear the room they're in.

I began to feel that the environment in which something is recorded should be as important as the thing itself. I suddenly felt that by putting the microphone right next to the sound source for perfect reproduction removed a certain "poetry" that would otherwise be there.

The room that something is recorded in can add meaning to the recording, it can add a story, or a cultural sense. A banjo recorded in a studio is just a banjo. But a banjo recorded under a bridge is the banjo of a wanderer. A trumpet recorded in a subway station is the trumpet of a soul expressing himself in an oppressive concrete jungle.

Though I don't feel that all recordings need to be made with an emphasis on environment, I feel that at least some should be. That is why I created the rules.

Analysis of Crimson Gold, Directed by Jafar Panahi.

2009-07-06T18:44:00.000-07:00

Telaye sorkh
Crimson Gold
Jafar Panahi
Iran
2003 95 minutes

I chose to analyze Talaye sorkh for my project because of the way in which the film related its point. The film shows its point in a way that is subtle enough to allow me the pleasure of “figuring it out” without being too abstract for me to understand. I also found the film technically appealing. I enjoy the film’s even pacing, saturated color, and the feeling of clarity from sharply focused cameras.
The film begins in the middle of a jewelry store robbery. Hussein is making various demands of the jeweler. After the Jeweler sets off the silent alarm, trapping Hussein inside the store, Hussein shoots and kills him. Hussein's future coworker and accomplice, Ali, is outside the store. A crowd begins to gather, and chases Ali away. Hussein shoots himself in the head. The events thereafter take place at an earlier time than the robbery. Ali enters a restaurant where he meets Hussein, and they discuss a newly stolen purse. Another man overhears their conversation, and explains that he is a criminal also. They discuss the nature of crime, and the criminal community. Ali and Hussein think he is pretending to be a big shot. Ali and Hussein ride to a jewelry store where they are denied entrance due to their appearance. Hussein and Ali are upset by the Jeweler’s rudeness. Because of his hurt feelings, Hussein is not talkative even as Ali tries to cheer him up.
That night, Hussein and Ali are working at a pizza delivery service. At the second location on Hussein’s delivery rout, the Iranian army is staging a sting, and arresting partygoers. The soldiers tell Hussein he must wait until the sting is over before he may leave. He befriends a soldier posing as his older brother in order to appear old enough to serve. When the young soldier refuses Hussein's offer of his undelivered pizza, Hussein gives the pizza to all of the other people who are waiting out the sting. After seeing his superior accept Hussein's pizza, the young soldier decides to accept the offer as well.
Ali and Hussein take Hussein's fiancée to the jeweler's store to get the gold for her wedding. Hussein's fiancée selects a piece of jewelry, and Hussein prepares to buy it. Just before the transaction, the owner of the store approaches the couple, and recommends that rather than buying jewelry, they buy gold that would be easier to sell in case of financial crisis. He gestures the couple and Ali out of the store. He tries to be polite, but Hussein, Ali, and Hussein’s fiancée are aware that they are being disrespected. That night, Hussein witnesses, from his apartment, a group of people being arrested.
The next night, a coworker of Hussein’s, “Skinny”, is involved in an automobile accident. “Skinny” had only recently purchased a new pair of shoes. Hussein takes a delivery of pizzas to the house of a wealthy man named Pourang. Pourang is Iranian, but has been living in the United States for a long time, and has lost touch with Iranian culture. The house he is living in belongs to his parents. Pourang explains that his companions with whom he was expecting to eat have unexpectedly left, and he invites Hussein to eat the pizzas with him. After Pourang invites Hussein to enjoy some of his unwanted liquor, Hussein tours the wealthy man’s home, becomes intoxicated, and eventually jumps into the man’s pool. The next morning, Hussein robs the Jewelry store. He follows the jeweler in after he opens the store. The film ends as Hussein threatens to kill the jeweler.
The point of this film is social control. Authority figures, such as the police or army, appear in the sting operation, the investigation of “Skinny’s” accident, and the arrest outside Hussein’s home. Fear of being arrested by the police is a social control meant to keep people from committing crimes. When the “Charlatan”, Ali, and Hussein discuss the nature of thievery, as well as when the Charlatan says, “If you want to arrest a thief, you will have to arrest the world”, it shows that pickpockets represent a culture within the mainstream with its own set of norms, controls, and ethics. This means that Hussein’s occasional thievery, while discouraged by the mainstream’s social controls, is acceptable under the social controls of the pick pocketing subculture. During the sting operation, Hussein complies with the soldiers staging it showing that he feels bound to the social control of complying with legal authority figures. When he asks if he can call the pizza delivery service, he shows that he is bound to the social control of responsibility to one’s employer. When the Jeweler refuses to Admit or serve Hussein, he is acting on the social norm that only people of a certain social stature are “belong” in establishments such as his. So far, Hussein has followed the social norms and controls of both the mainstream society, and the subculture of pickpockets. When Hussein meets the Pourang, he sees that Pourang lives in opulence that he enjoys because of the wealth of his parents, but that he did not earn himself. Hussein also learns that Pourang does not embrace or understand the same social norms he does. The fact that Pourang, who does not observe the mainstream social norms, is so wealthy is a challenge to the validity of the norms themselves. This is because Hussein, who does observe these norms, will never know the privilege Pourang takes for granted. When Hussein jumps into the Pourang’s pool, fully clothed, it shows that he is letting go of his bondage to social controls. He feels free to jump into the pool because his social controls have been challenged, allowing him to ignore thoughts regarding the consequences for his actions. When Hussein robs the jewelry store, he is acting on his desires having completely abandoned his social controls.
Ali, Hussein and “Skinny” discuss “Skinny’s” new pair of shoes extensively, focusing on price, and value. The length of their discussion shows the importance of “Skinny’s” display of wealth. This helps to add context to Hussein’s reaction to the Pourang’s wealth. “Skinny” places his new shoes on Ali’s delivery motorcycle. Ali immediately objects to this, removing the shoes, and swiping the dirt off his bike. In most middle-eastern cultures, the shoes and feet are considered dirty. The fact that “Skinny’s” shoes revolt Ali adds context to his admiration of them. Despite the fact that shoes are dirty objects that one avoids touching, they can still be revered as an expression of wealth. When talking to Hussein, Pourang says, “I was [In the United States] too…Now I’m back, and I feel like a foreigner… [Iranians] are different, they’re bizarre. This passage of dialogue is about cultural relativism. Despite the fact that Pourang is Iranian and is of Iranian culture, he finds Iranian culture strange after becoming accustomed to the culture of the United States. This is a challenge to normality, which relates to the film’s point, because social controls are dependent on a strong sense of what is socially normal.
After exiting the Jewelry store, Hussein places a ski mask on his head, as a beanie. He briefly pulls it down too far so that the eyeholes and his eyes vaguely coincide in location. The ski mask is a piece of apparel commonly associated with crime making this scene both foreshadowing for the robbery yet to take place and a reminder of the robbery the audience has already seen.
When Hussein witnesses the arrest, the shot starts with the camera in his apartment. The camera travels out the window, pans to follow the arrestees, and finally pans to face the window adjacent to the one the camera exited. The fact that this shot begins and ends with the camera within Hussein’s bedroom shows that the scene is more about Hussein’s observation of the arrests than it is about the arrests themselves. This relates to the film’s point, because being aware and afraid of the punishments for crimes is a social control. This film begins with the same scene as its ending. This allows the audience to consider the events in the film as causes for the ending. If the film were in chronological order, the audience would have to discern retrospectively the causes of Hussein’s decision to rob the Jewelry store. Because the film is not in chronological order, the audience members naturally assume they are seeing the explanation for the ending they have already seen. The film uses direct sound recording. This is evident in Pourang’s apartment as the reverberations that would naturally occur in a room such as that are present in the soundtrack. This gives the viewer a sense of the space in which the action takes place. The pacing of the film is even, not changing significantly throughout the film. This coincides with Iranian temperament in storytelling; big moments are not more important than small moments.
This is a technically gentle film in which a man’s concept of what is acceptable is repeatedly tested and challenged until the outer controls of society and the inner controls from his own sense of ethics no longer coincide. The film shows the results of the loss of inner controls in a tragic light, and suggests that crime is created by a society that is obsessed with wealth and causes a man to base his own ego on his spending power.

The Rules of Guerrilla Recording and Production.

2009-06-20T02:22:00.001-07:00

The Rules of Guerrilla Recording and Production.

1. Recordings must be made on location, and not on a sound stage or studio.

2. All sounds must be recorded using microphones, either condenser or dynamic. Players of electronic, transduced, or amplified instruments are not permitted to plug directly into a mixer or recording device.

3. Ensembles five people and over are allowed 5 microphones per instrument or vocalist. Ensembles of 3 and 4 are allowed 2 microphones, and ensembles of 2 are allowed one. This rule applies to ensembles recording onto a single track.

4. The Cardioid Microphones, if facing the source of sound, may not be positioned within 4 feet of the subject, though it should be placed at least 8 feet away depending on available space.

4. The Cardioid Microphones, if facing away from the sound source, may not be positioned within 1 foot.

5. Omnidirectional Microphones may not be positioned within 6 feet of subject.

6. Unidirectional or "Shotgun" microphones may not be used.

6. The recorded sound may not be altered (effects, reverb, etc.) except for volume changes for purposes of mixing, and cuts for purposes of editing.

7. If a portion of the ensemble being recorded will be recording on a separate track, this track must be recorded in a separate acoustic environment from the other track. If all instruments will be on separate tracks, all tracks will be recorded in different acoustic environments.

2009-04-26T01:53:00.001-07:00

Broadcasting

2009-04-26T01:52:00.001-07:00

Predictions for near future Generations Game Consoles.

2009-03-28T01:45:00.000-07:00

These predictions are based purely on an analysis of the history of video game consoles.

First, we must remember the 3rd generation of Video game Consoles, which consisted of The Nintendo Entertainment System, the Sega Master System, and the Atari 7800.

At this time, Atari was a powerful innovator, and a mainstay of the video game industry. The 7800 was their third console, excepting Pong, which only played a single game, and it was ahead of its competitors in terms of computer power. The graphic component of the machine made programming difficult for game developers, however, and this led to a lack of appealing games available for the 7800. Atari would skip the next generation, producing their final console, the Jaguar, in the Fifth generation.

Sega's contribution to the Third generation is unremarkable, but it sells well. This is the second console produced by Sega. Their first system emerged amid the flurry of competitors whose lack of direction and endless option sparked the video game market crash between the 2nd and 3rd generations of game consoles. Sega launched their Sonic franchise during the Master System's run.

Nintendo is in a category all its own, by now. The Japanese equivalent to the NES, the Famicom, had already been highly successful in Japan. Before the Famicom, Nintendo briefly experimented with the "Color TV game" as a means of breaking into this market. The NES would grow to control 80 percent of the market share before moving on to the SNES. The fact that the NES comes bundled with Super Mario Bros. makes it the best selling game of all time.

Now we skip several generations to the present.

The Playstation 3 is Sony's technological Fifth Symphony and their third system. It is extremely powerful, and its Blu-ray capability is responsible in part for the demise of HD DVD. Sony is an innovator in the Game console field, by now, having been influential in the use of CD's and subsequently DVD's as a medium for games, as well as 3d graphics. Their extremely powerful graphics components are difficult to design for, and the smaller PS3 library of games makes this system less popular than its two competitors.

The Xbox 360 is the second of Microsoft's game consoles. It is technologically unremarkable, but it is the best selling of the three competitors. The first Microsoft console emerged during the loss of the Dreamcast, and a heated debate between cartridge and disc.

And through it all, we still have Nintendo. Nintendo, again, demonstrates a unique skill in remaining viable, but now there is a touch of eccentricity. Instead of going after better graphics, they innovate in the gameplay. The fact that every Wii comes with Wii sports makes it the best selling game of this generation.

The third and seventh generations of consoles are the only generations to have only three competing systems. Both of these generations were preceded by the cancellation of one or more systems.

Based on analysis of history, I predict:

Sony, having invested heavily in the PS3, will not produce another system when the next generation takes hold. The next system they produce, in the ninth generation, will be their last.

The next Console in the Xbox line will be the best Microsoft produces within the near future. The next two systems will dwindle in popularity, and the Xbox line well be replaced by another competitor.

Nintendo will have its ups and downs. The next system will be an expansion on the Wii, analogous to the SNES.

At least two new competitors will emerge in the next generation. They probably won't become part of a series of consoles.

I have something to say about ellipses.

2008-01-04T02:42:00.000-08:00

Have you ever noticed how many sentences end like this...

I have...

Those three dots are called ellipses. They are used to denote omission, a lack of closure, or a thought that is unfinished. However... you will note... that when they are used... excessively... they no longer... contribute to the meaning... of the sentence.

For about five years now, it seems that people using the internet end just about every other sentence with ellipses. The ellipses as a result have become a meaningless eyesore. I'll give you an example. I pulled posts from a forum site. Here are three of them shown in their original order and sequence.

"GTA LCS...I just beat it...lol"

"congratz.....i cant lol"

"Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops......What a good game!!!!"

A little later we find this one.

"you need the wep key... im guessing it wirless....
this is easy to do if it is....
most wirless router work on a 128 incription the wep key is not the password you have set but a pass that the router has set automatically...

you need to know what make and model router have you got and who is your internet provider... supply me with these and i should be able give you step by step instructions"

I could show you many, many more, but it's just too irritating. It's to the point where its just as bad as the exclamation point situation.

I guess it helps to look at the punctuation marks as spices. The periods, commas, and apostrophes are like salt and pepper; they're necessary, and you can use a lot without ruining a dish. The parentheses, semi-colons, and so on are like jalapeños; they can add a lot, but you need to know what you're doing to use them. Finally, exclamations and ellipses are like Fugu; it's a highly valued delicacy, but when use irresponsibly, it turns a perfectly good meal into a lethal poison.

Always be careful when using Fugu in the internet.

-Fox

A victory for common decency!

2007-11-01T00:42:00.000-07:00

Those most despicable crack heads at the Westboro Baptist Church (the maintainers of godhatesfags.com) were forced by a court of law to pay a family whose funeral they picketed damages just above 10 million Dollars. 10 million dollars.

I cannot express how happy this makes me. Those people have made me more angry just by their words than any other person has by any action. And now, they have to pay 10 million dollars!

This will certainly send a message to those people, that the law, and our common sense of what is good, do coincide now and then. And in this case, both the law, and human decency agree that you cannot go to random funerals and wave signs that say"thank god for dead soldiers."

This case is like roll of Tums in the grand case of indigestion the Phelps family has brought on our country and the Christian Religion.

The portuguese language

2007-10-28T17:05:00.000-07:00

I imagine that many of you blogger people are contemplating the learning of a new language. Most of you are probably leaning towards Spanish, some maybe thinking about French, and a few
are contemplating German.

While these are all fantastic languages, I must recommend that you learn Brazilian Portuguese, and that you learn it now. I know what you're thinking, "Who even speaks Portuguese except for that little sliver of people near Spain."

You may be surprised to find out that more people speak Portuguese than:
Japanese
German
Russian
French
Italian

So why do all of these Portuguese speakers go unnoticed?
Because no one knows who speaks. For instance, before reading this, would you have been able to accurately guess what language is spoken in Brazil? You see, most people merely assume it is a Spanish speaking country, when in fact 51 percent of South Americans, being Brazilians, are Portuguese speakers. What about the African Countries of Angola and Mozambique? They are also Portuguese speaking countries.

Besides the sheer practicality of the language, we must also take note of the extremely beautiful sound of the language itself. It has the beautiful cadence of French without that hideous aspirated 'R' sound. It has all the charm and flow of Spanish without the shrill piercing tone, and obnoxious rolled double 'R's. Best of all is the Grammar. Any English speaker will find that the Grammatical structure jives with the English logic, but that it is much simpler than what he is used to. What I'm getting at is that the language is very easy to learn.

So go out there, get a book, and start preparing for that vacation to Rio de Janeiro.

Portuguese is spoken on five of the seven continents, the exceptions being Australia and Antarctica.

Myth of Sameness

2007-10-27T22:03:00.000-07:00

Now I must talk about a very sensitive subject; race. I am a strong believer in equality, and I take every opportunity to assert that all races are deserving of the same treatment, but there is a belief common to those who are trying to be progressive that seems very nice, but actually causes a lot of problems. It goes something like this:

"all people regardless of race are exactly the same and will have the same life experiences, and the same opportunities, now that slavery and racism are over we can move on and all just be the same"

The fact is, while I would love for this to be true, it sadly is not. It is an idea that seems like the ideal mental state for race, like the mentality that will bring racism to and end. The reality is that this idea causes harm in the fight against racism.

Black people in this country know very well that they are treated differently because of their color very often, and that they will have significantly different life experiences because of their color as well. While the Myth of Sameness makes it easy for white people to pretend racism has played itself out, Black people are stuck with the ugly reality that racism is still a thriving institution. The Myth also tries to strip Black people of the right to claim that they have been discriminated against. Ignorant whites will often say things like : "The store keeper probably only followed you because you were wearing baggy clothes. This isn't the 60's, we don't have racism anymore." This type of statement makes my blood boil. I can't begin to imagine how it would sound to black person.

The Blacks in this country represent a De facto nation with their own culture, their own social structure, standards, and so on. The myth of sameness attacks the beauty of this culture. While it sounds very nice from a color standpoint, it also tries to suggests that it is in fact the black culture that is keeping African Americans from advancing in this country. It is among the most despicable crimes to deny a people their own culture.

Another part of the sameness mentality is the popular falsehood "If you work hard, you can do whatever you want to do". If this were true, we would not have single mothers working three jobs and still not being able to pay their rent. This idea carried further suggests that if one culture lags behind another one, that is is because the culture is not working hard enough, not because the dominant culture is designed to put the lesser one down. We must of course realize that our entire system, from our education to our courtrooms to our elections is designed specifically to cater to white people.

The sameness mentality ultimately results in an attempt to assimilate the dissonant culture (in this case, the Afro-Americans) into your own (in this case, white America). What Americans need to do is:

1. We must begin to really talk about race in this country. Both sides must speak their truths.
2. White Americans need to recognize the reality: Black people and white people have differences, and they are beautiful.
3. People will need to study how they're own behaviors and thoughts change when they interact with a person of a different race versus their own.
4. We must all understand that it is possible to end racism without attempting to ignore race altogether.

Inaugural Post/Action Commercial Music

2007-10-27T20:55:00.000-07:00

Hello Blog. I am the Nefarious Dr. Fox, and I have decided arrogantly that my thoughts deserve cyberspace. Here I will squawk about music, television, and my general beliefs about the world.

To begin, I wish to note on a trend that is now so overwhelmingly pervasive that it is almost a joke. You will notice that in commercials for horror and action films, as the climax of the commercial is approaching and we are attacked by several incoherently fast flashes of what-have-you, there are always ascending discordant strings (that is, violins, violas etc). The strings always reach the squeakiest note they can produce right before all the sound is cut off, save a drone or something, and we are told that the film requires accompanying by a parent or guardian.