Our senior project final presentation is due this Tuesday, meaning that deep, introspective, navel-gazing blogs may be a bit scarce in this space. In brief:
Mozilla: Why You Should Switch to the Firebird™ Browser. As if you haven’t read enough reasons already. Speaking of, the new version of Phoenix should be out in two weeks, which is exciting. I’ve been using the most recent builds and they have been totally solid.
Two points to anyone who can figure out where the description quote came from.
Christian Answers: Requiem for a Dream. A surprisingly positive and non-fundie review of the independent film. Sarah and I just watched Requiem last night. Extremely well done example of filmmaking, if you can stomach the gripping tragedy of watching four peoples’ lives destroyed in ghastly—at times pornographic—ways: I was physically ill after the movie. The review suggested that the film could be useful in teaching people the horrors of drug addiction, which raises the question: do we need to go to such extreme examples of graphic violence (etc.) to drive the point home? Do we live in a culture of such insensitivity that it takes such measures?
Netflix rules, Bankbuster sucks.
Taking on Ken Walker: since my last discussion of our Google ratings, Our Story has climbed to #6 on a search for “Ken Walker” (we’re still #1 for “Ken Sarah Walker“). I’ve recently taken to posting my full name when I post comments on other sites in order to dethrone the other Ken Walker from the #1 spot. This caused a bit of an ethical dilemna for me: I’m effectively trolling for links. I constantly have it in the back of my mind when I’m perusing the ‘net that the more diverse sites I comment to, the more my pagerank goes up for “Ken Walker.”
Verdana me no likey. (Sarah says she likes Verdana better than Trebuchet—doh!).
Did you know that you could create two blogs to work together as a uniform site? That’s how I manage the “static” and “dynamic” content on my senior project homepage. One blog uses the blog title for the filename (such as clients.shtml—clients is the name of the blog title) and allows me to edit the markup for the pages that don’t change very often. The other blog works like a regular news blog for weekly-or-so news postings. I’m looking forward to redesigning this site a bit once I’m released from the mind prison.
Because everyone else is doing it: Zombo.com
Speaking of navel-gazing, I recently added our site to the GeoURL project, whose goal it is to map websites to Lat/Long coordinates so you can see websites in your neighborhood. Cool idea, but I’m a bit disappointed with the results. Aside from one outright offensive blog (you’ll know it when you see it), the majority of the sites within 50 miles of here are self-obsessed New Yorkers who prattle on about boorish nonsense. Now, I realize the irony of a blogger calling other bloggers self-obsessed—we’re all in the same narcissistic boat. But do some people have to be so tacky about it?
Jason Ingram Band, The Rhythm of You: My Father lays a fat groove, and I’ll dance until he’s done.
“Aside from one outright offensive blog (you’ll know it when you see it),”
After seeing your geoURL, I’ve noticed my info is out of date. Thanks for the reminder. I never look at that thing.
Takes offense and wonders if his is the outright offensive blog.
Man, I am totally stepping in it these days.
Eric, you’re quite welcome.
Etan, actually no—I thought your URL was pretty funny. If you look at Ken & Sarah neighbors, 22 miles East is a “swingers” blog. Yeah. I thought that concept went out with the 70′s.
Yeah, Requiem for a Dream was a bitter tasting pill to swallow. I watched the edited version as well (simply because at the time I worked for blockbuster, and it was free.) I truly love the movie (I think it is a GREAT movie) – But I will most likely never watch it again. I got it the first time, thanks.
There is only one other movie that I feel that way about… American History X. I will never watch that movie again. Its powerful, and important, and also banned from my dvd player. All because of the “curbing” scene.
To answer your question about whether such graphic measures are required to drive the point home… yes, they are. Our culture is one of unreality. People are constantly looking for a quick fix, or an easy way out. People think drugs are cool, because we always see the “anti-hero” of movies doing drugs, getting “chicks”, and generally acting tough. But it’s rare to see a film that takes those characters and follows them to where that path truly leads, because most people don’t want to see that part of things.
Films like Requiem for a Dream turn the media against itself – they use all the flashy techniques to show what’s beyond it all. They take something that is constantly peddling cool, and use it to peddle “real” – by the time the audience figures it out, they are already swept up in it, and it’s too late to block it out. The extremes they go to are both a part of that style of filmmaking (the cool peddler) and also are intended to break any barriers you have and brand themselves into your brain.
I will never watch either of those movies again. Not because they aren’t good…. but because I don’t need to. They play on an endless loop in my head whenever I think about them… and /that/ is the best anti-drug/anti-hate ad I can think of.
Wow Agent K… Guess your blog is popular in many ways… not all of which are good. Here’s a lesson to take with you into project management, huh? Think about the people behind the code before you say, or worse yet, type-hyperlink-submit/or email something that will be insulting. Glad you made that mistake and not me… well, I’m not glad you made that err, but I certainly will keep my rantings careful.
(P.S.: I don’t think you’re a twit
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