Friday, January 27, 2012
I'm a gamer because...
I spend a fair part of my Friday mornings finding new and interesting ways to kill my friends.
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Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Explaining our economic inequality
This is part of a much longer essay that I'm working on, but I thought it relevant given the tone of last night's State of the Union.
To put it in perspective, if someone who makes the bare minimum to reach the higher tax range pays 31%, after taxes they are left with $172,500 at the end of the year. Someone who makes the national average, $51,000, pays 27% and takes home $37,230. Finally, someone working sixteen hours a day making minimum wage will make, before taxes, $31,200. After paying 15%, they take home $26,520. That’s literally working twice as much or more than the average 40-hour a week job. The yearly budget those in the highest bracket have to work with is literally more than six times that of the people likely working for them. It’s difficult to feel pity for someone who complains that they can’t make ends meet when taking home, even paying all of their taxes, at least four times the amount of the average American.
The aforementioned across the board tax reform on both personal and corporate taxation is the key. By bringing in more money, the deficit will go down. Run the country as a smart person runs a household. You pay the necessaries first, then take the rest and put half into savings and the other towards paying off debt. Does it mean that you can’t always have all the things you want right now? Of course. Does it mean that, down the line, you’ll have in essence bought the freedom to do so once you’re finished with the hard stuff? Yes. We suffer now to prosper later. We teach our children that lesson from an early age while, somehow, forgetting it ourselves. It’s time to remember.
Read more!
In order to right this country, economically, we need to face the hard facts, that what we have now is broken beyond repair and must be scrapped and remade into something more reasonably workable. The tax code should be simple, clear-cut and without exception, from the heads of the wealthiest corporations to the most impoverished worker. There should be a static set of exemptions, for things like family-size and the repayment of debt, which benefits the economy directly. Finally, all assets should be considered and taxed as a lump sum, regardless of source. If a waitress must claim tips, then a CEO must claim investment revenue. The same rules will apply to corporate taxes, as well, because, as is so commonly heard said about immigrant workers, if they wish to be treated as citizens, they must pay the same dues.
The aforementioned across the board tax reform on both personal and corporate taxation is the key. By bringing in more money, the deficit will go down. Run the country as a smart person runs a household. You pay the necessaries first, then take the rest and put half into savings and the other towards paying off debt. Does it mean that you can’t always have all the things you want right now? Of course. Does it mean that, down the line, you’ll have in essence bought the freedom to do so once you’re finished with the hard stuff? Yes. We suffer now to prosper later. We teach our children that lesson from an early age while, somehow, forgetting it ourselves. It’s time to remember.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Book Review: Del Toro and Hogan's The Strain
Legends of vampires have been around, as best we can tell, for about as long as humanity has been telling stories. Prior to when Stoker brought them into the mainstream, however, the legends were wild and varied. Dracula carved out for them a static form in the imaginations of people which has more or less become the standard template for vampires as we know them.
Over the intervening years, vampires have been approached from more angles than you can shake a stake at, but generally, these days, fall into one of two schools. The first, the more classical approach that mirrors Stoker’s, is of the tormented monster. Every vampire in the mainstream, from Anne Rice’s seminal Lestat to Meyer’s Edward Cullen, had been more or less an homage to his Count, representing a dark eroticism while, at the same time, attempting with greater or lesser degrees of success to maintain the monstrous nature of their existence.
The second approach, and one which isn’t seen nearly as often because, quite honestly, it isn’t nearly as appealing to the masses as the first, is the alien vampire, the one so dissociated from its humanity as to have become something wholly different. There are only a handful of these examples out there and I’m having some real trouble coming up with any that have had achieved mass recognition beyond fans of the genre, like myself. The Strain, by horror masters Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan, is one of those that very well may.
Written as the first book in a trilogy, the final having recently been released, the authors tackle vampirism from an angle that at once both makes it very different and somehow much more plausible than the idea of a damned soul or demonic possession. In the universe they’ve created, post-9/11 New York is set upon by something much more sinister and horrifying than a Victorian count. It’s attacked by a virus.
While I won’t go into detail, as it would ruin some of the more interesting twists in the novel, the vampirism isn’t a curse so much as a sort of sentient disease and the authors play upon some of the more terrifying recent discoveries we’ve made about viruses, such as their ability to replicate by basically re-writing our DNA. While I’m sure they’re taking some liberties that would make some in the bio-medical field cringe, it’s close enough to reality to make it all the more unpleasant.
The book begins with a nightmare scenario. A plane lands at JFK then goes completely dark, just sitting on the tarmac, no response from passengers or crew. The tension-building in this first section is incredible, playing on Freud’s notion of the uncanny, when things about reality are just enough off from what we expect that it unnerves us. What they finally do find on the plane is even more so.
Perhaps because the suspense of the first section was so well-crafted, the second seems to drag a bit, getting somewhat bogged down in the procedural as the action follows the CDC team and other government officials as they slowly uncover the unbelievable truth behind what’s going on. I urge you to push through, though, as it ramps right back up soon enough as the nightmare of the infection truly sets in.
Overall, I’m looking forward to the rest of the series. I enjoy a new take on an old story and this satisfies that. I feel like it may be able to re-introduce the idea of the vampire as monster to a generation of readers that seem to see them more as the bad boys of fiction than the villains. That isn’t to say there isn’t some merit in some of that, as I’m as much of a Whedon fan as the next guy, but it almost felt, to the child in me, as though we lost one of the great nightmares to teenage (and grown-up) fantasy. Del Toro and Hogan have, in the eyes of that kid who thinks we all need reasons to fear the dark, rather than embrace it, gone a long way toward setting things right.
Read more!
Over the intervening years, vampires have been approached from more angles than you can shake a stake at, but generally, these days, fall into one of two schools. The first, the more classical approach that mirrors Stoker’s, is of the tormented monster. Every vampire in the mainstream, from Anne Rice’s seminal Lestat to Meyer’s Edward Cullen, had been more or less an homage to his Count, representing a dark eroticism while, at the same time, attempting with greater or lesser degrees of success to maintain the monstrous nature of their existence.
The second approach, and one which isn’t seen nearly as often because, quite honestly, it isn’t nearly as appealing to the masses as the first, is the alien vampire, the one so dissociated from its humanity as to have become something wholly different. There are only a handful of these examples out there and I’m having some real trouble coming up with any that have had achieved mass recognition beyond fans of the genre, like myself. The Strain, by horror masters Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan, is one of those that very well may.
Written as the first book in a trilogy, the final having recently been released, the authors tackle vampirism from an angle that at once both makes it very different and somehow much more plausible than the idea of a damned soul or demonic possession. In the universe they’ve created, post-9/11 New York is set upon by something much more sinister and horrifying than a Victorian count. It’s attacked by a virus.
While I won’t go into detail, as it would ruin some of the more interesting twists in the novel, the vampirism isn’t a curse so much as a sort of sentient disease and the authors play upon some of the more terrifying recent discoveries we’ve made about viruses, such as their ability to replicate by basically re-writing our DNA. While I’m sure they’re taking some liberties that would make some in the bio-medical field cringe, it’s close enough to reality to make it all the more unpleasant.
The book begins with a nightmare scenario. A plane lands at JFK then goes completely dark, just sitting on the tarmac, no response from passengers or crew. The tension-building in this first section is incredible, playing on Freud’s notion of the uncanny, when things about reality are just enough off from what we expect that it unnerves us. What they finally do find on the plane is even more so.
Perhaps because the suspense of the first section was so well-crafted, the second seems to drag a bit, getting somewhat bogged down in the procedural as the action follows the CDC team and other government officials as they slowly uncover the unbelievable truth behind what’s going on. I urge you to push through, though, as it ramps right back up soon enough as the nightmare of the infection truly sets in.
Overall, I’m looking forward to the rest of the series. I enjoy a new take on an old story and this satisfies that. I feel like it may be able to re-introduce the idea of the vampire as monster to a generation of readers that seem to see them more as the bad boys of fiction than the villains. That isn’t to say there isn’t some merit in some of that, as I’m as much of a Whedon fan as the next guy, but it almost felt, to the child in me, as though we lost one of the great nightmares to teenage (and grown-up) fantasy. Del Toro and Hogan have, in the eyes of that kid who thinks we all need reasons to fear the dark, rather than embrace it, gone a long way toward setting things right.
Read more!
Monday, January 23, 2012
Why our students are failing at life
While stumbling around the internet, trying to find some inspiration, I came across a post saying that diversified education is useless, that we should just be teaching students what they need for their careers. This is a common viewpoint from those unfamiliar with education or the long-term effects of such an approach. This was my response.
Educating only to the subjects which apply directly to a chosen profession has been shown to have a number of drawbacks in the long term. It was piloted in a number of schools around the world in the last few decades.
First, it assumes that what one wishes to do upon entering 9th year is what will actually make one happy throughout life. Exposure to varied subjects allows us to discover our interests. The work-around they tried to fix this was aptitude testing, which forced students into a path based upon what the test said they were good at. Imagine having your career choice made for you based upon what you were best at in 8th grade.
Second, research has shown conclusively, time and again, that a well-rounded education, including both the arts and sciences, has shown to have a positive impact in both overall learning ability and higher order thinking skills like critical problem-solving and application.
Finally, there's the less analytical and more human approach. If we educate only in, or heavily in favor of, the sciences over the arts, we create students capable of doing amazing things but without the understanding of empathy for one another to determine when and if they should be done. If we favor only the arts, we run the risk of creating those who come up with innovative ideas but lack the ability to enact them.
A large part of the reason that students these days don't understand that the world can change is because they've been taught by our culture that history is useless. This has robbed them of the most imperative thing history teaches us: change is possible. By neglecting English, they're losing the ability to accurately share information and, with the loss of literature, a sharp decline in empathy, as literature is one of the most effective ways we have to "see" the world through the eyes of those in other circumstances than our own. The effects of these losses are readily apparent in the listlessness, hopelessness, apathy and isolationism that are running rampant in the upcoming generation. Read more!
Educating only to the subjects which apply directly to a chosen profession has been shown to have a number of drawbacks in the long term. It was piloted in a number of schools around the world in the last few decades.
First, it assumes that what one wishes to do upon entering 9th year is what will actually make one happy throughout life. Exposure to varied subjects allows us to discover our interests. The work-around they tried to fix this was aptitude testing, which forced students into a path based upon what the test said they were good at. Imagine having your career choice made for you based upon what you were best at in 8th grade.
Second, research has shown conclusively, time and again, that a well-rounded education, including both the arts and sciences, has shown to have a positive impact in both overall learning ability and higher order thinking skills like critical problem-solving and application.
Finally, there's the less analytical and more human approach. If we educate only in, or heavily in favor of, the sciences over the arts, we create students capable of doing amazing things but without the understanding of empathy for one another to determine when and if they should be done. If we favor only the arts, we run the risk of creating those who come up with innovative ideas but lack the ability to enact them.
A large part of the reason that students these days don't understand that the world can change is because they've been taught by our culture that history is useless. This has robbed them of the most imperative thing history teaches us: change is possible. By neglecting English, they're losing the ability to accurately share information and, with the loss of literature, a sharp decline in empathy, as literature is one of the most effective ways we have to "see" the world through the eyes of those in other circumstances than our own. The effects of these losses are readily apparent in the listlessness, hopelessness, apathy and isolationism that are running rampant in the upcoming generation. Read more!
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Education, according to Robert Frost
"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or self-confidence."
-Robert Frost Read more!
-Robert Frost Read more!
Saturday, January 21, 2012
A Thought: On Happiness
Find your own happiness. Don't waste time chasing the happiness of others.
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Friday, January 20, 2012
In Memory of Etta James
R.I.P Etta James. You were one of the first voices I can remember hearing on my grandparents' radio and it's followed me throughout my life. You will be missed.
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Thursday, January 19, 2012
SOPA Blackout Causes Mass Hipsteria
In an unprecedented show of unity Wednesday, Americans across the political spectrum came together to protest Congressional legislation that would allow the government to edit the DNS in order to blacklist any website they felt could be used to promote piracy. Of course, the wording is sufficiently broad that it would allow shut downs of just about any site with a forum or personally-created items.
Thankfully, the American people, for a change, saw through this clever ruse, realizing that the only “people” helped would be corporations (the law says they’re people now, right?). The bills did nothing to help citizens and, in many cases, would do many actual harm, in the form of restricting sites that allow for the sale of goods and services and even going so far as to cut off information-sharing sites where like-minded individuals get together to do what the internet was created to do: share ideas and porn.
So, in response, large portions of the internet went black, restricting access to their sites and putting up banners explaining the bills, as well as how to contact representatives to express concern over their passing. While the effort is admirable, the restriction of instant access to information left one group of Americans in a state of panicked distress.
The subculture commonly referred to as “hipsters” woke up around noon on Wednesday to a nightmare. As they attempted to get their morning news, they found that site after site was talking about some government thing that everyone seemed to agree with and that they, by nature, could therefore not get behind. Even worse, without the internet’s forums and articles, they had no idea what opinions to have that day and, therefore, found themselves bereft of what to wear, to listen to, to complain about or, perhaps worst, to sneer at.
Many chose to spend the day locked indoors, huddling, shivering and naked for fear of wearing something that had fall out of style overnight, in the corner without the constant social validation of deriding the latest artistic sell-out or sheep-like trends with their coterie, all similarly dressed in the latest, most up-to-date distressed fashion. Others, driven out of the house by necessity, like a lack of PBR and cigarettes to get them through this trying, seemingly endless trial, found themselves in a world unfamiliar.
As they were forced to interact with people, they found every conversation to be a minefield, littered with questions that filled them with the existential dread. When asked if they wanted paper or plastic, they didn’t know whether environmentalism had become passé again. If queried about the weather, they weren’t sure if they were supposed to be snarky or cold. And, worst of all, if they were asked terrible, soul-shattering questions like what they thought about a particular book, song or television show, many chose instead to retreat into a catatonic state until the querent moved on rather than face the impossible choice of formulating an opinion that may or may not be supported by their elite peers.
So, when faced with the decision over whether or not to contact your congressional representatives regarding the upcoming vote on SOPA and PIPA, please remember the suffering of all these poor, directionless souls and why the internet must remain free and uncensored. Read more!
Thankfully, the American people, for a change, saw through this clever ruse, realizing that the only “people” helped would be corporations (the law says they’re people now, right?). The bills did nothing to help citizens and, in many cases, would do many actual harm, in the form of restricting sites that allow for the sale of goods and services and even going so far as to cut off information-sharing sites where like-minded individuals get together to do what the internet was created to do: share ideas and porn.
So, in response, large portions of the internet went black, restricting access to their sites and putting up banners explaining the bills, as well as how to contact representatives to express concern over their passing. While the effort is admirable, the restriction of instant access to information left one group of Americans in a state of panicked distress.
The subculture commonly referred to as “hipsters” woke up around noon on Wednesday to a nightmare. As they attempted to get their morning news, they found that site after site was talking about some government thing that everyone seemed to agree with and that they, by nature, could therefore not get behind. Even worse, without the internet’s forums and articles, they had no idea what opinions to have that day and, therefore, found themselves bereft of what to wear, to listen to, to complain about or, perhaps worst, to sneer at.
Many chose to spend the day locked indoors, huddling, shivering and naked for fear of wearing something that had fall out of style overnight, in the corner without the constant social validation of deriding the latest artistic sell-out or sheep-like trends with their coterie, all similarly dressed in the latest, most up-to-date distressed fashion. Others, driven out of the house by necessity, like a lack of PBR and cigarettes to get them through this trying, seemingly endless trial, found themselves in a world unfamiliar.
As they were forced to interact with people, they found every conversation to be a minefield, littered with questions that filled them with the existential dread. When asked if they wanted paper or plastic, they didn’t know whether environmentalism had become passé again. If queried about the weather, they weren’t sure if they were supposed to be snarky or cold. And, worst of all, if they were asked terrible, soul-shattering questions like what they thought about a particular book, song or television show, many chose instead to retreat into a catatonic state until the querent moved on rather than face the impossible choice of formulating an opinion that may or may not be supported by their elite peers.
So, when faced with the decision over whether or not to contact your congressional representatives regarding the upcoming vote on SOPA and PIPA, please remember the suffering of all these poor, directionless souls and why the internet must remain free and uncensored. Read more!
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Book Review: Terry Pratchett's Snuff
As I sit to write this, it occurs to me on some objective level that there may, in fact, be some of you out there who are unfamiliar with Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. I’ve met a few of you and must assume that you simply, though some sort of error in judgment, simply haven’t gotten around to reading them yet and plan to rectify the situation as soon as possible. I must think this so that we may remain friends, as I like most of you and wish you to remain in my life. These books are, in fact, so good that I encourage you to leave this article, right now, and go to read them instead. I can almost guarantee it will be a better use of your time.
For those unfamiliar, Terry Pratchett is often hailed as the most brilliant contemporary satirist currently publishing. Though I normally bristle at such statements, I can’t argue with this one. Over the course of the series, and a number of decades, he has dealt with issues as varied as death, tradition, love, warfare, justice and consumerism, all with a deft pen that never resorts to the kind of heavy-handed prose so common these days. He has created a world that is both familiar and fantastic and populated it with some of the richest, most well-developed characters in contemporary literature.
In his latest work, Snuff, we rejoin some familiar characters, the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, as they find themselves in some unfamiliar, and disturbingly pastoral, settings. When Commander Sam Vimes is forced to take a vacation in the countryside, he finds that things there are not nearly as peaceful and pleasant as they at first seem and ends up investigating, with a little local help, a complex mystery involving murder, drug smuggling and a possible slave ring.
While Pratchett’s hallmark dry humor is in fine form, so too is his talent for weaving a compelling narrative which leaves the reader somehow both satisfied and vaguely unsettled. Beneath the façade of a roaringly entertaining mystery lie explorations of deeper issues, such as institutional racism, courage and the old adage, so important these days, that all it takes for evil to triumph is for good to do nothing. He even, if you’re paying close enough attention, slips in a deeply thought-provoking debate about stem cell research, addressing both sides of the decidedly difficult issue.
I would be the first to admit that his last outing, Unseen Academicals, was not a favorite of mine, though I realize that may have more to do with my lack of interest in the sports culture which it satirizes than any fault on the part of the author. My only real complaint was that it seemed to lack the depth and brilliant characterization of his previous work. Snuff was, to me, a fine return to form on both of those counts and I heartily recommend it to any fan of the series, which I imagine includes anyone who has read it.
Read more!
Sunday, January 8, 2012
My Absence
In the last few weeks, since a week or so before Christmas, I've posted very little. Part of it was the holidays, which were amazing, some of the best I've had in years and years. But the other part was a sort of unmotivated general malaise that I'm even now trying to shake off. The holidays did a great deal to mitigate it, but as I come into the new year, I spend a little time in the past and a lot of time looking to the near future.
I suppose it comes from not feeling as though I've accomplished much of what I sought to do, a quarter into my year. I have everything I need, for the moment, including some incredibly supportive people in my life, but the ongoing unemployment (job interview Tuesday!) and general feeling of instability in my life has made focusing difficult. I will prevail, though, and the first place I'm going to be picking up the slack is here, where I'll start posting regularly again. Writing has always served as an anchor for me, a way of holding myself in place when the rest of my life is shifting or shaky.
For the new year, I've begun a restricted calorie diet, attempting to reshape the way I eat for the long term. I've spent a week without exercising or weight training in order to find a healthy new balance and to allow my body some time to acclimate to the reduced energy intake. I'll monitor it more closely as I step back up into my routines. Weight loss is a means to an end, but the end goal is being healthy and starvation doesn't help much with that.
In the spirit of hope, I'm going to list some thing to look forward to this year. I should finish my new novel, with which I've recently had an exciting breakthrough in the narrative. I ought to be receiving my first penpal letter from an awesome friend of mine who we'll just call C. Another friend, A, has agreed to work with me on voice lessons. I've always sung, but never been trained and it's something I've always wanted to do. I'm going to take my social studies cert exam in March and, though I don't think I'll ever feel completely ready for it, I'm going to do my absolute best. I need to find some folks who'll let me take their picture and some new music to listen to. And that's just a handful of the things I've got to look forward to.
On a final note, I didn't post the usual New Year's Day sentiment, but it was felt. I miss you, little brother, as always, and hope that, somewhere, you're proud of what I'm doing. I love you. Read more!
I suppose it comes from not feeling as though I've accomplished much of what I sought to do, a quarter into my year. I have everything I need, for the moment, including some incredibly supportive people in my life, but the ongoing unemployment (job interview Tuesday!) and general feeling of instability in my life has made focusing difficult. I will prevail, though, and the first place I'm going to be picking up the slack is here, where I'll start posting regularly again. Writing has always served as an anchor for me, a way of holding myself in place when the rest of my life is shifting or shaky.
For the new year, I've begun a restricted calorie diet, attempting to reshape the way I eat for the long term. I've spent a week without exercising or weight training in order to find a healthy new balance and to allow my body some time to acclimate to the reduced energy intake. I'll monitor it more closely as I step back up into my routines. Weight loss is a means to an end, but the end goal is being healthy and starvation doesn't help much with that.
In the spirit of hope, I'm going to list some thing to look forward to this year. I should finish my new novel, with which I've recently had an exciting breakthrough in the narrative. I ought to be receiving my first penpal letter from an awesome friend of mine who we'll just call C. Another friend, A, has agreed to work with me on voice lessons. I've always sung, but never been trained and it's something I've always wanted to do. I'm going to take my social studies cert exam in March and, though I don't think I'll ever feel completely ready for it, I'm going to do my absolute best. I need to find some folks who'll let me take their picture and some new music to listen to. And that's just a handful of the things I've got to look forward to.
On a final note, I didn't post the usual New Year's Day sentiment, but it was felt. I miss you, little brother, as always, and hope that, somewhere, you're proud of what I'm doing. I love you. Read more!
Monday, January 2, 2012
Quote - Maugham
"I have an idea that some men are born out of their due place. Accident has cast them amid strangers in their birthplace, and the leafy lanes they have known from childhood or the populous streets in which they have played, remain but a place of passage. They may spend their whole lives aliens among their kindred and remain aloof among the only scenes they have ever known. Perhaps it is this sense of strangeness that sends men far and wide in the search for something permanent, to which they may attach themselves. Perhaps some deep-rooted atavism urges the wanderer back to lands which his ancestors left in the dim beginnings of history. Sometimes a man hits upon a place to which he mysteriously feels that he belongs. Here is the home he sought, and he will settle amid scenes that he has never seen before, among men he has never known, as though they were familiar to him from his birth. Here at last he finds rest."
—from The Moon and Sixpence
by W. Somerset Maugham, 1919 Read more!
—from The Moon and Sixpence
by W. Somerset Maugham, 1919 Read more!
Sunday, January 1, 2012
New Year's Day 2012
If 2011 was a bad year or good, 2012 will be better. Either way, start the new year with hope and possibility.
Read more!
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