Attention-Whoring

So, they'd kicked Kathy Griffin off. What else is new?

I've always been a person who's tried to keep low-key, partly because attention seems to be very energy-draining and often it's gotten me some kind of grief. There's nothing intrinsically wrong with attention, but it's how one garners it and what one does with it that makes the difference.

Being a jackass for the sake of attention is not a good thing.
Arguing with someone just because it seems like fun even though you're not really making any good points, or that you're not listening to the other side, taking in their viewpoints, and actually debating with that person constructively is not good.

Some people's attention-whoring is almost like seeing someone who can't stand silence, and so pushes over a glass just to break the silence.

Which is childish.

Attention whores are just another facet of humanity, but God bless them...

Flyover News

Sometimes I've wondered why I have a fascination with news from relatively strange places (i.e. places to where people generally pay little attention). The answer dawned on me pretty quickly: I like novel things and the fact the news media in general repeats things ad infinitum instead of trying to get to the nitty gritty of more things, I seek out these other places' stories.

Some of these places have some odd stories they seem to esteem and put in repeat play themselves. Just this week, Monday through early Thursday Utah couldn't really talk about more than the $125,000 Joseph Smith/Brigham Young statue theft. Montana, like the rest of the nation, focused quite a bit on Greg Gionforte's (admitted, though in not so many words, but about which he'd apologized) manhandling a reporter.

I don't like repeating myself, but I have told my co-workers fairly repeatedly I love stories. So, I'd created a smart magazine just for the "flyover states". I don't mean it pejoratively, but it's at least a blanket term.

So, bring me stories, Flipboard. Bring me stories.

Developments

I was on Facebook looking at the "On This Day" feature, and one of the posts included a comment my sister had made asking about the name of a song I'd put in the background of a collage video I'd posted today seven years ago.

My response at the time was I'd no idea because I'd gotten it from an iPod that, maddeningly and aggravatingly, didn't have the name or artist of the song in its IME. Somewhere along the line years later I'd discovered it, but it wasn't until today I'd realized anyone else was actually looking for this information.

So, I'd written my sister via Facebook Messenger and informed her. Since she's probably at Bible Study, I probably won't get a response until later.

Still, though, going from a child who'd not grown up with a computer nor watching television, to someone who has a pretty powerful and versatile computer in a holster at his hip; who comes home and sits in front of a computer that has access to (more or less) more than a lifetime's worth of information, video, images, and music; who can turn on a *networked* television and watch entire movies at a whim... This is something.

It's exciting being in the intermediate generation who saw these things come into daily life and who put them into daily use, as well as a little frustrating sometimes being the in the generation who has to coach the previous generation who's still trying, in some cases, to figure out how to turn these contraptions on.

It's another mention of the hilarity at how in high school I'd written journal entries of how I didn't think I'd ever be able to make electronic journal entries, or how I'd never get a phone with a camera because I already have a perfectly good camera.

How things develop...

Why I Chose… FIU

It came that time to search for the next step, a university. A few different packets came in, including Vassar, Occidental College, and even The College London.

They were very expensive, and I didn't see how I was going to go. I didn't think about loans, and I didn't think I wanted any. So, I looked inward, and did the multi-university application for Florida, checking only FSU and FIU.

I knew a bunch of my high school friends were going to UF, and that was enough of a deterrent. I wanted to try making new friends after being with the same people for, a good number of them, almost four years. I wanted new experiences, especially since I'd felt so… disenchanted that high school life wasn't like Clueless. I wanted to try remaking myself again.

I wanted to be away from my family, yet close enough that I could visit comfort when I felt like it.

I'd become a burgeoning homosexual who'd only just begun to explore things and that would be another plus, going to university. Ultimately, I chose FIU because I felt I'd be closer to the "gay life." And I did grow in that regard. I had a number of experiences about which I could probably write a book, and I helped form, and eventually became a brother of,  my Delta Lambda Phi chapter.

I became an Anthropology degree graduate. I'd increased my Japanese ability. I'd even started my Masters in Linguistics, though I didn't follow through with my first semester (something which probably has left a dark mark for me with many of the faculty). I had promise.

I just feared debt, especially. Looking back, they probably would have helped me had I given them the opportunity. I was so insular.

But I chose FIU because I believed it would grant me a trove of memories and experiences about which I can reflect, and would allow me to grow as a person.

That it did.

Mashable: Instagram just announced two new types of Stories so you can watch forever

Instagram just announced two new types of Stories so you can watch forever
Get ready to see a lot more Instagram Stories. Read the full story | Shared from Apple News

Rape/Sexual Violence/Stuff I Don't Get

I'm a fan of The Handmaid's Tale series on Hulu, and had been anticipating it since practically they'd put it up that they'd be broadcasting it. They go into a lot of heavy things, including rape.

So, this on top of, especially via the BBC World Service Africa Today podcast, hearing about "corrective rape" and just a casual rape culture in especially Africa, I've tried to fathom why these especially men (or "men", since what true man actually does that?!) feel they need to do this.

It would require a lot of reading into probably a bunch of stories that would probably make me cry and hate humans more, but I'd been mulling over some possible underlying "provokers" to "induce" a "rape culture".

That's a lot of scare quotes.

I think those cultures that really, really make masturbation taboo make a powder keg. This itself may not be a reason, because I think they might combine that with sex having to mean something (so, if they rape someone, they can get their sexual urges out of the way doing it the "proper way", but not having to care about the person; it's not legitimate sex of you don't view the "thing" with what you're copulating as anything, right? 😤).

Then they're doing it in groups, which makes them no better than their primate cousins (and even cetaceans too, I think I've read) that have their own rape gangs. And they, conceivably, don't realize consciously and thoughtfully what they're doing, either.

Then, bringing it back to the phrase "corrective rape" I'd used earlier, some people use sex like a weapon, that they use something God has given us and made it into something to shut someone up violently, or using it to meld someone to one's will (like God didn't give us free will and choice).

I'm kind of scared to research this.

In the Middle of the Deep, Deep Forest

My first anime was probably Rōnin Warriors. To this day, I remember very little of it, and looking at the Wikipedia page  I can't believe how relatively short a series it was. It felt like it went on for a long time when I was a kid.

I'd always appreciated anime and cartoons even growing into a young adult, something I still do to this day even though many anime fans would say I'm not really one because I don't watch everything they do, and a lot of the most popular anime series or movies I've not seen (Attack on Titan or Ghost in a Shell, for instance). Things just fit my tastes, and some just don't.

It's like how I've not gone out of the way to see the Underworld series, though I have watched one (that I barely remember, and am not even sure which one) because one of my fraternity brothers had a movie night in his room once.

So, exploring for anime I haven't seen and would actually like, let alone things in live action, has been difficult.

Simultaneously, I have a few things in queue on Hulu and I just haven't allocated time to watch them (notably Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works). So, I have what to watch, I just need to do it.

The Rules of Attraction

 

I'd rewatched The Rules of Attraction for the first time in a very long while. 

It came out in 2002, so I was about a junior at FIU when they were advertising it. I remember, since it's a college-based movie, they gave it some giveaway time on campus, but it was a while after they'd put it to disc that I'd gotten to see it.

Naturally, it's partly mostly because of the character Paul why this movie intrigued me, but artistically it's pretty cool. One would think, though, because of the character Paul that I'd try to learn from him. As I'd rewatched it, though, I saw parallels between what he's done and what I've done.

I tell you, if I were bolder it would probably be more like it… and if my apartment were a college dorm… Heh.

Bumper Stickers

I've thought often about what kinds of personalized bumper stickers I'd have someone make if I could:

1. I follow the speed limit and I don't block intersections.
2. If you want to drive so quickly, go around me.
3. See you at the next traffic light.
4. Your honking only strengthens my resolve.
5. Flashing lights remind me of lighthouses; thank you.
6. I'm sorry, I'm bad at Morse code. Could you flash again?
7. Speeding? Give the cops my regards.
8. I know the speed limit, do you?
9. Getting angry at me only hastens your demise.
10. Jesus loves you, but do you want to see Him so soon?

Humanity

We're such interesting, pesky creatures.

We have cultures that we call our own, fight over, and die for, mostly because it's just something to make ourselves feel better. We wish to define ourselves and sometimes put ourselves into corners just so we can say we have some sense of individuality (even though these corners might completely usurp that individuality).

We create foods and cook them, and then create entirely new things out of foods that have gone bad just to extend their consumability while not killing ourselves or making ourselves or others gravely or intensely ill. We have cheese, savory pies, alcohol... We've even made an art of the controlled spoiling of things to use for our own purposes: wine, certain cheeses, anti-microbials...

We have music of all sorts, and instruments of every possible type that make use of pretty much any part of the human body that can make music. Then the types of music might relate to our construction of culture, some cultures embracing certain types of music or being fiercely protective of the fact the specific culture "created" that type of music.

We carve up this planet and use it however we wish, with some of us giving a care how we use it while others say we'll make new things to take care of the problems we create (because business). We fight wars and blow up bits of the planet just to show one side the other has dominance. We create weapons to one-up each other, and sometimes hold onto these weapons fiercely in "what-if" mindsets.

We're... interesting.

#RASP - Rant Around Several Paragraphs #4: Facebook Feeds

I have a like/hate relationship with Facebook.

I like it because it helps me keep tabs on my friends, brothers, and geographically distant family. It helps me to get to know people I don't see fairly regularly a little better.

On this point, my hate comes out as well: Facebook likes to cater my feed to those with whom I've had relatively frequent or recent contact on Facebook or Messenger. This angers me.

I want to get to know all my friends, and to know what's going on in their heads or hearts. Biasing my feed to only those with whom I actually click a like or something occludes the posts of those who don't post very often. Facebook does this intentionally, of course, because they want your eyeballs, thumbs, and ears on Facebook (and hopefully some of your money, too) 24/7, if they can help it.
Enticing, one, therefore, to stay on there with things they know you'll continue to like and see out makes it worth their while to a have the feeds display that way.

I want, though, to see everyone's stuff. I want the "Most Recent" feed to be something I can default to. I want, when the Facebook app updates, to have the "Sound Off" on the feed option remain off!

I remember the good old days of "The Facebook" with virtual flinging of sheep and various little apps that included national flags of one's heritage, and when one could really connect with one's schoolmates. Then they'd rolled out neighborhoods, and I'd reluctantly had to have Miami as my secondary to FIU. That's still an option in Facebook, actually, a grandfathered thing.

As they've grown more commercial, more ubiquitous, and people are using Facebook for things that had fallen to other places to fill (Messenger for WhatsApp, even though WhatsApp is now a Facebook property anyway; Marketplace for Craig's List; Jobs for pretty much any job board; Memories for TimeHop or just going over one's feed nostalgically; Reviews for Yelp). It's gotten insane. I was on reddit the other day and someone was complaining about the Facebook app size, and all I had to say was, in more creative wording, think about how Facebook has become more than just a social network.

It's become a life draw for some people,

I just want to be able to have "Most Recent" be default so I can know what's going on in all my friends' lives and not just whomever Facebook determines is "worth" my time.

Why I Chose... an iPhone

My first iPhone was an iPhone 3GS, which I'd bought at the Dadeland Mall Apple Store in the late summer of 2009 after work.

It was a somewhat impulsive purchase, my having gone through a few phones (the one I'd liked most being the Trēo 800w, RIP) and not liking how the application ecosystem just wasn't being friendly to anything but an iPhone. I was a heavy Yahoo! user, and they were really hyping and promoting their iPhone(-exclusive) app; I wanted it.

So, I went and got it, porting my phone number over to it and a very helpful, nerdish, attractive guy helped me to activate it. This was back when one had to go to a store to do so or it would take forever. Another reason I'd wanted to go that route was Sprint, at the time, as considering Wimax as their 4G upgrade and everyone else was going LTE. AT&T, as well, was the only game in town for the iPhone, so more incentive.

My boss, especially, was envious for weeks at my phone. He'd kept saying he wanted an iPhone, but ended up getting a Samsung Instinct and porting it to Metro PCS like one of my other co-workers.

I still have AT&T and their grandfathered-in unlimited data package.

I'd adored my 3GS, which I'd called Mars. When I moved to Georgia, I remember watching the end-of-days movie 2012 on it, streaming it via an Israeli video aggregation site (and, I think, having a multi-ten gigabyte data usage metric that month, too).

In 2011, I got my 4S, ordering it the same day they were having online sales. I'd gotten it by Fed-Ex several weeks later, and that became my favorite. Even though I love my 6 Plus now, I think I loved most that the 4S had the solidity and heft of my Trēo 800w. I think I'd enjoyed it most with iOS 6, with its inbuilt Twitter and Facebook widgets on the notifications slider.

And now I have an iPhone 6 Plus, which I've enjoyed for almost three years now.

We'll see what comes next.

#RASP - Rant Around Several Paragraphs #5: Driving Habits

On May 2, 2017, I'd felt awe at people's driving habits like I haven't felt in a while.

I've spoken about my distaste for people and their driving habits before, but that day really had me in awe and frustration.

There's the person who wanted to turn into my lane, and I into hers. I was ahead of her, but she wasn't slowing down (so defensive driver me didn't pull over). She revs forward and then comes in front of me. Is it so hard to apply the brakes?
Thinking about it on the way home, though, I think it might be partly strategy: let me hold everyone else behind me back and then that person can get into the lane.

Then there was this stupid driver at my exit who, just because she's driving a big vehicle, muscles her way into my lane so she can get in front of me. Then another vehicle tries to get into the same lane from the opposite side, and so she muscles her way to get back in front of the other vehicle. This same pushy/bully driver then muscles her way back into a third lane in front of everyone else.

Today, traffic was really worse than I'd seen it in a while, and it's partly because people were using other lane to try to cut in line in front of everyone else. There was a multi-vehicle trailer that literally held up a lane for about two miles back trying to cut into an exit lane.

People who drive like this, I'm trying to understand. We all have places to where we'd like to arrive, but I don't understand the lack of patience, the lack of concern, and the utter offensiveness of their driving.

One of my co-workers got in an accident that totaled his car yesterday. I don't mean to victim-bash, especially when hearing a description of how the other person drove it sounds sad, but I've seen the way my co-worker drives. He's not a saint on the road himself, and has even expressed he dislikes road rules and speed limits.

Repetition

“To a reporter from Reuters this week, though, Trump had a slightly different assessment of the presidency.

‘I love my previous life. I had so many things going. This is more work than in my previous life,’ Trump said. ‘I thought it would be easier. I thought it was more of a ... I'm a details-oriented person. I think you'd say that, but I do miss my old life. I like to work so that's not a problem but this is actually more work.’”

I have a few pet peeves. One is repetition.

I've accepted that this guy, Donald Trump, is this country's president, and that as much as his bearing, mannerisms, and facets of his personality irk me sometimes, I've done my best to not speak ill of him.

I wish, though, he'd take notice of the things he does and says. He's seventy years old, so changing is not easy. His penchant for repeating things over and over in one sentence really bothers me, though. It's almost as if he can't think of things to say off the cuff, so he repeats himself until he can think of something else.

I hope he can do better extemporaneously as he goes through his presidency.