The Darkness before the Dawn

Shared culture and stories

I was playing a computer game when E got home from the Buddha film fest going on in DC, and she went over how one of the monks was fascinated by how TV and Movies are our (meaning modern American) shared culture and bond that binds us together. He had a shared culture with his fellow monks from living in Tibet and surviving the culture cleansing of China on their way of life, but they had their own stories they passed down and their culture they passed down. We seemed to have a multi-media shared culture more than anything else.

I was only half paying attention at the time, but the more I talked with vvalkyri (and other TV free people), the more it occurred to me there was a lot more wisdom in this statement than I first thought. There is a large part of my life that she just does not really share because she is missing the shared stories. This is not to say she is wasting her time on other things that she finds more important, just that she is missing a lot of shared culture that crosses millions of people around the world. It also means she can not join in on show amazing conversations going on at some parties without a true understanding of the background information.

I spend a good amount of time cuddling on the couch with E watching TV, to have a shared experience with her. The more time we spend together with a shared history that closer we get. My best friend K, watches almost all of the same TV and movies I do, and so when we get together we talk and talk and talk about TV, what we thought, and how they rocked or sucked. I can get a little crazy talking about my favorite shows that where cancelled in their prime.

I feel very connected to both of them via shared experiences. Where this breaks down a little, is I am a little older than E, and her parents did not let her watch much TV or Movies, so she lost some of the pop culture history of my youth in addition to me being alive longer and remembering more of it (I guess that is one advantage of being old :p).

It is almost like the joke about why do men watch sports? So they have something to talk about with other men. I do not watch sports, but I do watch pop culture TV and movies, and it is a major topic of conversation (board games and computer games being two other topics I know well).

I am sure there are some very closed culture groups that use religion and a long history of “their people” for this same purpose. But I am an American Mutt and proud of it. I have German, English and Spanish Blood in me, and so trying to find “roots” in my culture past is just too much work and I find it is most fun and easy to be a pop-culture American :p.

Maybe Fandom is the new “sports team fan” analogy thanks to the internet where you can share you thoughts and meet hundreds of people that want to talk on your favorite shows/movies (or just rant heh).

I think it is human nature to want to fit in, and have a shared past and culture with people to “be part of something greater”. Since we no longer have a lot of the social outlets people of the past had, new (and sometimes better ways) where formed, via social networks and TV/movie fandom.

I can still sit down with old friends from EQ (Everquest, the original online crack long before there was a WOW), and talk about our experiences, and it takes away the years and puts you into a fun time. Sure we where all over the world on our computers for months at a time, but the raiding we did, and the shared moments are no less real.

Then again, what is “real”? I think that reality it always blurring a bit for all of us, and as technology advances, it will continue to blur and change the human experience.

What is the point of my post you might ask?

Well,
I like to put my thoughts to digital ink at times, as it helps me remember.
I also wish more of my friends watched the same TV as me :p

What do you find as the glue that holds your social/culture identity together?

http://www.maxim.com/girls/girls-of-maxim/84060/girls-dragon-con-part-1.html


Now the question to the viewer.... Is this type of publicity a good thing or a bad thing?

My gut, is that since it is a mens magazine, and only showing the women, it is bad publicity, but only a little.

Thoughts?

Warning... slightly political and not really that interesting to anyone but me at the moment...

I am just putting it here, because my boss (or all people) asked me to look up the link and hear some interesting history from the past.

Ronald Reagan on Capitalism and Socialism

http://www.slideshare.net/danroam/healthcare-napkins-all

Just for my own records, as it was a comment from cchan8 to me on another thread.

A random post in no particular order:

I had heard good things about the show Leverage, but missed the first season, so ordered the 1st DVD, and started to TiVo the 2nd season. Little did I know what I was opening myself up to. This show has become one of my guilty pleasures, as just a joy to watch. The part that shocked me, is ebmeyer has become almost totally addicted to them, and could not stop watching them almost back to back to back all the way thought all of the TiVo shows. It is like Visual/Story crack cocaine to her. She likes all the characters (parker being her favorite with her crazy smiles), and she loves the fact that is always has a happy ending at the end. So few shows we watch these days always end with a happy ending, and are also equally entertaining and fun to watch.

I get my Drama from other sources (BSG, House, Grays Anatomy, Terminator, Doll House, ext), and sometimes it is nice to just sit back at a show and just enjoy it. The fact that is has some of the cast from Coupling was just a bonus.

Tonight is part of the season finally of SYTYCD. I am looking forward to it, even if I feel this season has been a lot weaker that last season. Only 2 to 3 of the dangers every really connected with me, and that is just sad. I liked all of the top 10 from last season a lot more, and my two favorite dancers made it to number 1 last year. I am also soooo tired of the judges trying to put down some dancers to control the top 10, but I have enjoyed them failing to some extent. The question is how that will affect the final. I know the girl I want to win it all, is too low in the polls to have a chance. I have supported Evan all the way, even if I am not a fan of Broadway, because I like him has a dancer and as a person. He has never put down the other dancers, he seems to truly love to dance, and he is not a cookie cutter contemporary dancer. I think the judges failed badly putting no hip-hop dancers into the final 20, as the hip hop this year has sucked badly. I wanted Melissa to go home a few weeks ago, but that cancer dance saved her and Adi, even if the dance was just “ok”. I think any of the dancers would have been safe being in that dance.

In other news I am burned out on all of the games I currently have and I am not sure what to do. Thus I have been watching a lot more TV than normal, even to the point of watching BSG from the mini series toward to try to catch up to the current season. But since I am watching it with ebmeyer and she can only take so much drama at once before needing a mental break, it might be a long time getting though them all heh.

I am kind of bumped I have not been able to get the government jobs I have been trying for. OPM sucks on their review of resumes and making lists of qualified people. Never before have I had a government agency try to hire me so many times, and fail each time because OPM keeps screwing up. I guess I will keep being a contractor for my current company until they run out of money (in a year and a half), or the stars align and more jobs open up in the part of government I want to be in.

We are approaching the dead zone in TV (no not the TV show, but the time between the end of summer and the start of fall shows). This is always a bit of a strange time to watch TV. Then on the other hand I am a bit weirded out with season 6 of SYTYCD starting up in 5 to 6 weeks. .. too little time.

A few of you know I have been a hermit of late, and not getting out as much as I would like. It is a whole combo of many different issues, but it is still hitting me from time to time.

One of my friends (D) has been diagnosed with diabetes (it runs all though his family), and that has gotten me a bit worried, as it also runs though parts of mine. This has kicked me into trying to get a check up, to make sure my blood sugar is not doing to bad (or if it is, how I can fix before it hurts me). I know the prelude to diabetes is hypoglycemia which I think I might have in me, as my mother and a lot of her family all have it, before diabetes.

Amazing how fast middle age sneaks up on you, as these are all things I kept thinking “when I get older”.. well I guess I am constantly getting older :p.

Hmm… this has gotten long, and I am guessing only a few will even get to this point (IE the wall of text problem that anything longer than a paragraph gets ignored on the internet in blobs of casual friends).

I am still here :p

This is a neat project, where he took video of a port and turned it into art, where everything looks like miniature models. I have seen this style of art in pictures (and always amazed me), this is the first time I stumbled on a video.

Bathtub V from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

p.s. It looks cooler in HD version :p

Google voice on select phones

I like seeing cool and new ways to do things that stick it to the telco's trying to nick and dime everyone to death. The fact that is it a cool new server for free is just icing on the cake :)

I just saw this on dealnews :
Five lbs of Pens (around 265) for around $15

I have no clue what people would use with that many pens, but it should last most people years of losing pens and having people take them by mistake. Plus all the miss prints of companies logo's might be amusing :p

Concept: 2 young girls get their just dues for having too good a time while under the legal drinking age at a busy bar.

*small note* I wrote this almost 2 years ago, but just never got around to posting it. Someone said I should post it, so I figured why not ;)

( Story cut for length )