Fromage Sandwich: Holiday Update

Too busy to blog, that's for sure. But I still like to "type" for some reason! I enjoy smacking the keys and seeing letters, and then words appear on the screen. Hoping, of course, they may make some sense. Well, because I'm behind on everything (What else is new?), this will be a brief update.

Because so many of the people I love won't or can't be together on Christmas day, we pretty much exchange gifts whenever we can, as close the holiday as seems reasonable. I had the good fortune this year of making some very good friends among my neighbors here. Three of us, in particular, did a lot of things over the course of the year, and I had taken pictures at many of those events. So I put together a book using iPhoto and ordered four copies, one for each of us. Turned out pretty well, though I wish I hadn't waited until the last minute because I probably could have done a little better job with the layout and one of the pictures was repeated. And if something looks "a little" dark in iPhoto, chances are it'll look "really dark" in the book, so lighten those pictures up a bit. Anyway, it was a fun gift to create and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

My siblings and I got together and got Mom and Dad an HDTV. Dad admired my brother-in-law's at his place, and so we figured a little HD sports would be good for him, and Mom's DVDs would look great on a widescreen TV. I ordered it through Amazon and had it delivered to my brother's place, and he took care of delivery and set-up. One of the nice things about being one of seven siblings is that there's always someone to help out!

Caitie and Chris were very specific in what they wanted for Christmas. Chris hasn't received his yet, but I'm sure he knows what he's getting. He'd wanted a Wii last year, and I promised to get him one, but I was never able to find one in any store, and Amazon never seemed to have any when I looked. Well, he gave up on the Wii this year, and asked for an XBox 360 instead. I wonder how many sales Nintendo has lost because of that? I really don't understand this product shortage, it seems ludicrous to me. But whatever, he's getting an XBox 360. Caitie wanted an iPod Classic, and so that's what she received, along with the usual accessories.

I watched Stardust with Caitie last night, and what a great flick! It was a lot of fun, though I thought some parts of the soundtrack were trying a little too hard. They got incredibly loud, for relatively little action, mostly horses racing across fields, trying to catch the fallen star.

On the other hand, it may simply be because of my little Christmas gift to myself. I bought the ZVox Z325 to replace my Z315, which is a couple of years old. The 325 is a bit bigger box, has a larger "subwoofer" speaker; more powerful amplifier; sends more power to the center 3.25" driver to help dialog; and, most importantly, has a remote volume control. Audio out on my Panasonic TV wasn't variable, so I kind of defaulted to setting the ZVox to a certain "comfortable" level to afford some additional bass to the audio from the TV's speakers, and then mainly used the TV's internal speakers. When I was listening to iTunes from the mini, I could use the volume control in iTunes to control the output from the ZVox, so I would crank the ZVox way up. But then I would have to crank it back down to watch TV! With DVD's I could control the audio level from the Oppo DVD player, which added another layer of complexity! So now I just use the remote for the 325, and everything is grand. It does sound better than the 315 too. Much better.

I'm afraid I'm still enjoying Technopoly, because so many other things compete for my attention, especially this time of year, it's taking me a long time to read a short book. But it has been interesting to think about, even when I'm not reading it. Postman seems to subscribe to the "change the world" mindset of many the technology advocates with whom he seems to disagree. Of course, I don't believe we "change the world" so much as change how we do things. But what Postman points out, and which I had only obliquely considered, was how much technology changes our relationship to the world, that is, how we think about the world, and, by extension, how we think about ourselves.

And then you've got to think about change, and how change is, in many ways, inevitable and desirable; but maybe some changes aren't inevitable or desirable, and maybe we should be thinking about those instead of just plunging headlong into an ever more technologically-defined future we can only dimly perceive. Most of the advocates are individuals competing for rank within our social hierarchy, not to get into another pointless argument about what a "hierarchy" genuinely is - but positions of increased authority based on their supposed superior knowledge of technology and what it means. They seem to fall into two camps, the advocates and the critics. The advocates have an advantage because most technologies do afford some immediate advantages, and early adopters can exploit those competitively, which leads to success that helps to sell the adoption of the technology. The critic can only say, "Well, yes, but..." and then try and point out the disadvantages, which often don't appear immediately, and nevertheless do nothing to nullify the advantages the early adopters achieve, so competitive pressure forces the adoption of technologies whether or not potential unintended consequences suggest we might be better off with a more deliberate consideration of the advisability of wide-scale adoption.

And if language is itself a technology, as some have argued, then why not regard economic systems as technologies as well. "The application of knowledge for practical purposes" is the definition of technology, and presumably we have some knowledge of economics which makes our form of capitalism or consumerism, a "technology." And we might wish to think about how that has changed our relationship to "the world," and to ourselves.

Anyway, lots of stuff to think about, and little hope that many people are doing so because "there's no money in it," and we value money more than we value knowledge or wisdom. Besides, if you have enough money, you can always buy all the knowledge or wisdom you need! So where's the problem, right? Right. That's what I thought.

Think about that when you read all the lists about who "mattered" in 2007, and what the "best" technologies were. If you can be troubled to do so, that is.

Carry on, and if I'm not back here before Tuesday, Merry Christmas to you all. My advice would be to appreciate this one.

Cheese Omelet: Cold Hands, Warm Heart

It's supposedly 36 degrees out there, but I'm betting it's a few degrees colder than that, and some pretty blustery wind makes it feel even colder. All of which is something of a relief. Last week it was up to 80 degrees a few times. That's just too warm for December, even in this part of Florida. I'll tell you what, though: Bodhi loves cold weather. If anything, warm weather helps keep his engine idling. When it's cold, he really lets it go. Holy crap!

This is just a brief SITREP to kind of keep the lights on here. I've been pretty busy the last few weeks. I'm not sure when that's going to slow down, but it's all good.

I've been running with a neighbor and if I didn't know there was a difference between running on the road and running on a treadmill in terms of the effort required, I do now. I can do about six miles on the treadmill, but four on the road feels like six on the treadmill. I'm planning on a 15K in March, or nine miles for those who prefer miles to kilometers. Kilometers to go before I sleep just doesn't make it for me either, so I understand.

Yesterday I did housekeeping while I watched the Jaguars-Steelers game. Best football game I've seen all season. Snow. Hitting. Dramatic comebacks. Tenacity. It was Fred Taylor's day. What a class act. I love both teams, and neither one disappointed. I hate Dallas and New England, so it was nice to seen the smirk wiped off Tony Romo's face by Philadelphia. Now, if only someone could do the same thing to the Pats. As far as I'm concerned, they're the Yankees of the NFL.

I'm reading Neil Postman's Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology. It's a much better book than Andrew Keen's, and presaged many of Keen's criticisms by about a decade. Postman died in 2003, regrettably. It would have been interesting to read his take on Keen's book. I think Postman had a clearer understanding of the effects of technology on culture than Keen seems to, but I think both Postman and Keen overlook the economic dimension that drives the advance of technology at the expense of everything we value. It would be nice to have a "conversation" about that, but any problems unchecked technological "progress" presents are simply dismissed by its advocates, citing their unfailing "optimism." More about that some other time, hopefully.

I've got my Christmas tree up, and some lights and decorations around Action Dave's Cool-Guy Bachelor Skypad Condo. It's the first time I've decorated for Christmas in about eight years, and I had to go out and get everything since none of that stuff made it from my former household. I've got to take some pictures. Most of my Christmas shopping is done. A neighbor and I are planning to host a small get-together on Christmas Eve at the clubhouse. Nothing fancy, but hopefully we'll have some neighbors join us for a couple of hours.

Well, that's probably enough about all of that for now. We're still here, and perhaps we'll have a few moments over the holidays to collect our thoughts and share something a little less "cheesy" here.

Social Hygiene: Amusing Ourselves to Death (v. 2.0)

In 1985, Neil Postman wrote a book called Amusing Ourselves to Death. It was about how mass media, and television in particular, had turned the nature of social discourse into little more than another form of entertainment. It's generally considered a worthwhile book and a legitimate, if depressing, point of view.

Fast-forward twenty two years to the present day, and the near-ubiquitous presence of the participatory medium of the internet, where "markets are conversations," and politics is little more than a marketplace where our future is bought and sold. Hallelujah and saints be praised, our salvation is at hand, through the liberating power of the intertubes!

I know this because the New York Times, and legions of furiously typing bloggers tell me so. I love this little piece in the Sunday Times, The Web Users' Campaign. It's an uplifting little report from the frontiers of the new virtual world we're creating. (For those having trouble keeping up, I'm being sarcastic.)

Here's an interesting insight: In the new and evolving online world, the greatest momentum goes not to the candidate with the most detailed plan for conquering the Web but to the candidate who surrenders his own image to the clicking masses, the same way a rock guitarist might fall backward off the stage into the hands of an adoring crowd.

What's that? "...the same way a rock guitarist might fall backward?" Seems like that entertainment metaphor has really taken root, even in the new media!

But wait, that's not all! (...)roomfuls of well-paid online experts have frequently found themselves buffeted or embarrassed (or sometimes both at once) by mysterious forces outside their grasp. Take, for instance, the much-forwarded “Obama Girl” music video... Oh, a music video. What was that thing about "amusing ourselves to death?"

Then there's something that's sure to warm the cockles of every true Cluetrainer's heart: It is by nature a participatory medium, in which customers demand a more personal stake in the products they consume. This is why Ford asked online drivers to help decide which options should appear on last year’s Fusion, and how much it should cost, and why Mountain Dew has a Web site that invites consumers to invent the next great soft drink. Companies have realized that since they can no longer expect to unilaterally define the market the way they once did, they might as well let the market have some control over designing and branding the product.

"They might as well let the market have some control..." Boy, is that funny! Yes, boys and girls, you've been empowered to help design the next soft drink! It's not just another mechanism for seizing and manipulating your finite attention resources! No! It's a conversation! Corporations aren't learning organisms operating in a competitive environment that learn how to adapt to changes in that environment in order to assure continued access to the resources they require (your attention and authority). No, corporations are actually just lonely hearts looking for a little "conversation." Really. They are.

So why should we fear a new day when ordinary voters, through their own creativity and passion, can suddenly influence the direction of a campaign with a Web site or a video? These are, after all, our campaigns, for too long dominated by the professionals who made of them a gray and tepid industry. And if “Obama Girl” didn’t deepen anyone’s understanding of employer mandates or carbon caps, then at least she enticed a lot of ordinary people — more than four million, at last count — to laugh and sing about a would-be president the way a less-jaded generation of voters sang “I’m Just Wild About Harry.”

Why should we fear a new day? Um, because it's no better than the old day that wasn't working either? Hello? Is this thing on? Laughing and singing, yes that's the answer! Politics as entertainment! What was it we were talking about? I've forgotten.

Neither party’s candidate will escape the impulses, best or worst, of a newly empowered citizenry. The best they can do is to fall backward and hope to be carried aloft.

Gotta love that "empowered citizenry" thing. We're newly empowered to amuse ourselves to death! Because we can't let go of that entertainment metaphor. Another fine product from Uranus Corporation.

Social Hygiene: Power and Point of View

Compare and contrast: Secret Mailing List Rocks Wikipedia.

With Power Comes a Selfish Point of View.