Tuesday, March 24, 2009
T-t-talkin' 'bout my g-g-generation...
Perhaps a sobering perspective, from a late-30-something guy:
When I was a child in elementary school in the 70's, "globalization" was a positive term. Farmed fish was the wave of the future, to feed masses without destroying ecosystems. Solar was keen, but still science-fictiony due to expense. DVD's didn't exist. "Working with computers" meant "majoring in math" or something along those lines. The Baby Boomers were my parents and their generation, and the "heroes of WWII" were my grandparents. Now my folks/the Boomers are the grandparents, and you've got a generation that grew up in the Reagan 80's as the supposed "movers and shakers" who got out of college and immediately weathered the first dot.com bubble and its bursting. When I was in my last year of college, around 6 or so of my friends had email, and they had to go to the basement of the Physics building to use PINE on the mainframe VAX to get access. The summer before I graduated, one friend had AOL. That's it. The idea of using a computer to do research never entered my mind, because I wasn't in a science field. My 1-bit monitor, 2K RAM, 40MB HD Mac Classic and the FIRST TrueType compatible inkjet printer from Apple ran me $1398, no modem, in 1991. I remember the utter shock and wonder and awe at seeing a scanner work in greyscale for the first time, and watching a laser printer spit out the black and white image. I remember 5 years later feeling my jaw drop when I realized how much faster my brand-new 33.6 modem was than my previous 14.4 modem.
I remember when a 1GB flash/jump/thumb drive was $1000. Clearly. Distinctly. I wanted our Department to buy one, and knew it would never happen.
Things are changing quickly. Pay attention. Take nothing for granted. And for fuck's sake, log off sometimes and go sit by the river or something.
so sez Matt at 10:05 PM
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Monday, March 23, 2009
Roses
So, I have a Grandma Rose, but I don't remember her ever being this adventurous. She did take me to see Firefox and Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, though.
so sez Matt at 12:51 PM
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Wednesday, March 11, 2009
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Friday, March 06, 2009
Helvetica, the film
http://www.helveticafilm.com/
I just watched this documentary, arguably about the titular typeface, but more about the evolution in design from the Modern (60's) to Postmodern (70's) to Grunge (90's) to now. Lots of opinions. Lots of cool old dudes - Zapf! is in the movie! The guy who made all those dingbat fonts! The guy who started Grunge design with Raygun magazine is in there, too. And the guy who created Verdana. Some really interesting perspectives, some awesome quotes from some frisky, funky German and Swiss guys.
In light of how much my friends have been playing with the "random album art" game/toy idea that's been floating around Facebook, it was a good watch, and a nice gateway into learning more about type. Type is one of the ways to make that album art thing work - it carries so much weight on a semiotic level now, that it's like the glue that holds the random stuff together.
I've started more seriously considering a career / Ph.D. study in type layout/design, with an eye toward film and new media (I'm thinking stuff along the lines of the subtitles in Nightwatch), so this was very topical for me on lots of fronts.
so sez Matt at 9:10 PM
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Friday, February 20, 2009
Gaspar
Saladino
Letterer for over 3000 comics, esp. splash/first pages. He did the AWESOME lettering on Arkham Asylum.
so sez Matt at 12:54 PM
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Monday, February 16, 2009
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Monday, February 02, 2009
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Friday, January 30, 2009
consent
So we are confronted with the downfall of Sam Adams, mayor of Portland.
And some of the accusations leveled against him include the cry of "pedophile!"
The "victim" in this case is a former intern, then 17 years old, who had an affair with Adams before Adams took office as mayor. He has said, "I may have been 17. But I was an adult and I knew what I was doing.” To which Timothy Egan, author of the linked article, responds, "Nobody at age 17 knows what they are doing, which is why they should never be having sex with middle-aged men, especially those in powerful positions." Mr. Egan also says, "When Goldschmidt finally came clean under the newspaper’s pressure, he characterized it all as a distant mistake. But it was not anything like that. It was serial sex abuse, and if it happened now Goldschmidt would likely be in prison and a registered sex offender."
OK, sure. While it's probably not a good idea for a 17-year-old to be having sex with someone more than twice their age, males and females alike, let's pause a moment. This guy isn't claiming abuse. He's not accusing Adams of anything wrong. The only "wrongdoing" is that Adams lied about the situation when he was running for mayor and he asked (warned? doesn't sound like it was threatening) the younger man to lie, too. And the younger man was under 18.
But let's hit pause a minute again. This isn't just any old 17-year-old. This one has decided to intern in a political office. Wow, but that's impressive, if you ask me. And let's also think about it this way - you think this "child" was NOT interested in sex all through high school? Was not having sexual fantasies and daydreams and emotion-charged (or hormone-charged) conflicts and elations from, oh, around 13 or 14 onward? If this was a hetero couple, and the female partner had gotten pregnant, it's legal in MANY places for the two to MARRY. The age of consent varies from state to state, but in most places, except in situations where a power differential can lead to passive coercion (or the like), 16 is old enough to decide to have sex.
So. Do I think Adams was a dumbass? Yes. Do I think it was a bad idea, for about 12 different reasons? Yes. Was it wrong to lie about it? Yes. Would it have killed his political career? Yes.
But this isn't like the comparison Egan makes to a man sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl against her will. It's pretty freaking far from it. Like... miles.
I also want to ask Egan if he's appalled and aghast at, f'r instance, the career path of Britney Spears in her youth. Ditto Christina Aguilera. Or just about any teen-aged singer/dancer/star who is dressed provocatively and uses sex to sell CD's, posters, concert tickets, etc. Is he crying out for the contrition of the producers who "did that" to these young women? Because if he's not - then it's OK to sexualize teenagers as long as you keep it within media? Or as long as we use it for commercial purposes and we all, collectively, as a society objectify them? And what about Tracey Lords, who became emancipated early and then went on to star in numerous pornographic movies and the like? Does that sheet of paper and the court's ruling automagically make it DIFFERENT?
Apparently so.
As does the cosmic switch which also, automagically, changes everything and makes it A-OK one minute past midnight on the 18th anniversary of some kid's birth. Sure, we definitely need rules and protections, and arbitrary dates are pretty much a necessity for this sort of thing. But come on. It's not the EMOTIONAL havoc of the situation that people are up in arms about. We don't give a shit about this kid being EMOTIONALLY unable to handle this situation. We're upset because there was touching, and probably lots of it, and it was probably a lot more inimate than a handshake or a hug. THAT'S what we can't abide. So I think we really need to take a look at the situation carefully before we start crucifying this guy for is horrible fuck-up. It was, indeed, a horrible fuck-up, and THAT seems to me like the kind of thing that is more important as far as getting him out of office - he didn't have the good sense to know better. His judgment is obviously lacking. But he's not a monster who will go out and abuse more teenage boys to satisfy his leering craving.
Perspective. Please.
so sez Matt at 5:07 PM
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Tuesday, January 13, 2009
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Monday, December 22, 2008
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Saturday, December 20, 2008
About Time!
FINALLY! The academic community is finally seeing that if they take an active part in Wikipedia, they can make it better, rather than just complaining about the inaccuracies and clinging to a (nearly) dead mode of publishing and vetting.
RNA Biologyis now "requiring that authors of a specific type of paper submit a Wikipedia entry for peer review, as well."
Hallelujah!
Some genetic researchers have even gone so far as to create Java bots to PUBLISH information from databases into Wikipedia stub entries.
In a similar vein: WikiProteins is a WikiProfessional project that works in a sort of microcosm, by taking only information about biology and asking professionals in the field to get involved with correcting and editing data from several "seed" sources that were cross-indexed. The importance of this particular project is summed up here: But the success of the project will largely depend on its ability to attract biologists that feel a sense of ownership regarding a topic and make sure any changes to it are accurate. To that end, and to allow other users to evaluate the credibility of contributions, contributors are expected to register under their professional names, preferably identifying themselves as one of the authors that have been indexed."
Another interesting project is a sort of Wikipedia clone with an editorial review system, called Citizendium. (Sad, that's a sort of craptastic name.) You can find it here: http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Welcome_to_Citizendium
I think Citizendium suffers from some of the problems that WikiProteins worked around, namely the lack of content leads to a lack of interest among those qualified to be considered "experts." Seems like the best approach would be to find some group (like an academic publisher or existing encyclopedia company) to partner with in order to gain traffic and webranking, building interest in both reading/using and writing/editing.
so sez Matt at 1:58 PM
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Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Old Facebook Posts
So I realized that I'd been posting stuff on Facebook but not here. I decided to port some of those things over to here, but I had to tweak the dates manually.
Anyway, sorry to anyone with an RSS feed AND a Facebook account.
I used to import my blog into my Facebook account, but I read the fine print, and I think that technically gives Facebook copyright to anything that shows up there. Since I sometimes post poems and fiction on this blog (as well as original research and the like), I'm wary of that practice. I'll look into it again and see...
so sez Matt at 1:58 PM
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Community-funded News Reporting
Wow. spot.us is a site that lets people contribute funds to indie/freelance reporters in the SF Bay area for the purpose of investigative reporting. Fascinating.
via JG
so sez Matt at 11:01 AM
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Monday, December 08, 2008
To do, updated
Things to do before the end of the year:
1) learn to write my address in kanji
2) get immersed more heavily in subtitling (esp. fansub) culture and methodology
3) start learning more typography vocab
4) start to get my brain around Japanese verb inflections better
5) build several more (re)mix blocks for use when DJing (use Dean's old stuff and Prodigy's Dirtchamber disc as models) - UPDATE: new software shifts this to a different sort of priority
6) finish my poetry website update
7) national novel-writing month? - Too late. Maybe next year.
8) finish and present a workshop at the mid-term JET seminar
9) find a new apartment?
10) work out some details of my student loans
so sez Matt at 5:03 PM
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Tuesday, November 25, 2008
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Wednesday, October 08, 2008
Elite (FB)
"Navy Seals are elite, and they get lots of training so they can swim underwater and invade a foreign country, but if you’re governing the country that dispatches the Seals, it’s not O.K. to be elite?"
-Maureen Dowd
(originally published on Facebook where it spawned a huge, very partisan 31-comment debate about the election)
so sez Matt at 11:13 PM
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Friday, October 03, 2008
To Do List
Things to do before the end of the year:
1) learn to write my address in kanji
2) get immersed more heavily in subtitling (esp. fansub) culture and methodology
3) start learning more typography vocab
4) start to get my brain around Japanese verb inflections better
5) build several more (re)mix blocks for use when DJing (use Dean's old stuff and Prodigy's Dirtchamber disc as models)
6) finish my poetry website update
7) national novel-writing month?
8) finish and present a workshop at the mid-term JET seminar
9) find a new apartment?
10) work out some details of my student loans
so sez Matt at 3:58 PM
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Wednesday, September 17, 2008
3rd Pane of a Triptych
a draft, early September 2008
Café: A Triptych
I. Coffee and Cream
Reticence can feel
Like a bitter bite
With a scent of mystery
While the milky splash
Can sting at first taste
Before richness satisfies
As the two entwine
Marbling the mug
White and brown alternating
I'm reminded of
Tangled hotel sheets
And your skin against my own
II. Spilt
barely stirring
coffee with (no)
cream spilling
in the saucer
on the table splashes
all around
a mess (spilt) everywhere
but (not) one
drop mixing
staining penetrating
the slow percolation
(seeming) always
unfinished
I (never) taste a sip
III. Iced
restauranteurs know
presentation is everthing
even with a cup
and saucer, ornate
spoon, classy sachets
of sweeteners, natural
and synthetic
if I spill this sweet
syrup, will it harden
clear, crystalize
into a pane
to peer into,
through, and see you?
such a long wait,
such a sticky possibility
and nothing says
it will even dry
transparent
or thick enough to lift,
thin enough to view,
strong enough
to last beneath
my fingers,
my sweaty grasp
at the end of decadent
evenings out with friends
I’d like to kiss the night
goodnight
with sweet lips—
I always get dessert,
if only for the crosscross
lace of caramel,
the sugary gilded cage
and it all melts
in cream
and coffee
but I like to try
to savor
the shattered sections,
even for a second more,
and this is why
I drink my coffee cold.
so sez Matt at 8:55 AM
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Stop Being Cute
Hey, New York Times! The plural of "talisman" is "talismans," NOT "talisMEN," even if you're using the term as a metaphor referring to people.
Knock it off.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/17/nyregion/17rosenbergs.html?pagewanted=2&hp
"The brothers became talismen for a lost cause. They would literally be embraced by Rosenberg defenders, dwindling in number but unflagging in their faith, as touchstones of an era when the world was reflexively defined as black or white (or red). If you believed the Rosenbergs were not guilty, you were considered a fellow traveler. If you believed the government, you were viewed as a McCarthyite."
so sez Matt at 8:55 AM
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