Excuse us, we’re not ourselves

via Christine Huang at PSFK:

The channels, gadgets, websites and apps to help us be and/or feel ’social’ (with a real person or just the idea of one) are only getting smarter and more diverse. Our everyday lives find many of us immersed in entirely virtual communication and socialization, based on a simulacrum of real life or an entirely fantastical one. We are avatars talking to avatars, on our own terms, at our convenience.

Except that’s not entirely true.  Because when the scope of communication transcends the normal human bounds of space and time—when your avatar is online constantly and you, being merely human, need to sleep/bathe/etc—communication is no longer a matter of convenience.  It’s a matter of necessity.  So if you’re not there, which you is that person really talking to?  And can you entirely trust your other self to behave while you’re away?

Christine addresses a couple of interesting stories in her post – the 2d otaku love affairs in japan (and here in the states too, to be honest) and a recent study equating feelings of belongingness gained from watching TV to the same feelings that come from real human interaction.  She concludes:

Our relationships with objects, characters and avatars is always at a distance – we are interacting with the representation of something, rather than the thing itself. This arrangement results in a unique type of relationship – one that should be considered differently than a real-life interpersonal one.

What if the reason we’re growing to identify more with fictional characters is that we ourselves are becoming fictional characters? Everyone’s got their own narrative and meta-narrative. Everyone’s persona is to some extent externalized, our connections and roots as human beings stored and managed online.  It’s accepted now that people are their own brands and need to manage their appearances accordingly.  Your digital self – arguably your most important persona – is way more malleable of an identity construct than any we’ve ever dealt with in the past.  It’s so easy to rewrite who you are.  It follows that it should also be easier than ever to imagine yourself in any situation with your favorite characters… because you’re just as imaginary as they are.

We’re soon going to look back on the days of mid-life and quarter-life crises with a sigh and a patronizing smirk.  The future is one long stretch of identity crises.  And even when you finally die, your other yous will remain.

Goal Update 002

Progress has been slow.  Like Matthew Perry, I have succumbed to a ravaging Fallout 3 addiction long after I thought I was done with the game.  Thanks, Cormac McCarthy, you jerk, with your words and stuff makin’ me start playing video games.  Something has to change.  Like hiding the power cord of my PS3 in a very inconvenient place so that while I’ll obviously know where it is, I won’t be able to use it.  Luckily my apartment is filled with spaces like this so this may be the best plan.  If I can work up the mental fortitude to do so, that is.  More detail on goals and my shorts phobia inside:

Read the rest of this entry »

Goal Update 001

It’s time to evaluate.  Movement has been made on a few of the 27 goals, but unfortunately one of them threatens the likelihood of all the others ever being reached…

Read the rest of this entry »

The 27 laws of Matthew

These are the 27 things I will do this year.  They’re all out of order, or in no particular order at all. They’re all priorities.  Some of them have been redacted for public consumption, but it’s still slightly embarrassing so I think I’m on the right track. And I think making them public makes it harder for me to renege on them.  It should make for a good year, I hope.  Goals after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

Asobi Seksu @ Eyedrum 3/25/09

This was the first time I’ve visited Eyedrum.  It’s in a really safe and beautiful part of town⁽¹⁾. It has this cool distressed gallery feel to it and was slightly creepy to explore.  More on that later.  Tonight was Tealights, Tyvek, and Asobi Seksu.

First I have to say that the person selling merchandise was kind of a dick and nowhere near as wonderful a person as the girl whose name I can’t remember/pronounce from the Efterklang show.  This remarkable absence of personality kind of permeated the whole thing, which was sadly not as much fun as I hoped it would be.  Doors were at 9, but we were let in at 9:15, and the first band performed at 9:50.  The first band: Tealights.⁽²⁾

Read the rest of this entry »

Non-Livejournal Diary Entry 001

1. It’s on now, Sterling.  Let’s see if you fare better than that sackless chump Rudy Rucker. Updates to come.

2. In other news, I’ve discovered video editing is a lot of fun and something I’ll be doing more of in the near future.  Hopefully with some results to post here.  After musical experiments have registered as failures on an exponential level it is nice to find something I can slide into easily, and hopefully I’ll be able to produce something cool.  That is what I have spent my time doing this past week.

3. That, and blowing people up in Team Fortress 2.  It’s fun – you should join in.

4. This week, however, promises to be more generally interesting with (2) concerts – Efterklang tuesday, Asobi Seksu wednesday, – (1) dentist appointment, (1) party to attend, and (1) special reunion meeting event.  I’m glad I have all this time to relax at work since the evenings are going to be pretty draining.

5. I thought of an excellent if perhaps disturbing and very depressing gift idea that depends on unhealthy obsession if not psychosis.  Best of all, it’s only $26.  But it would be a lot of work.  I think it might actually register as a piece of performative art, if I can get it to work right.  Which is a big If.

6. In other news, the sort-of-consensus on the economy seems to be that We Are Fucked, Dr. Jones.  I eagerly await updates on the status of said Fucked-ness while I augment my already healthy ration of survival supplies.

7. Additionally, apparently a gang of five men in dark clothes are breaking into people’s houses on the street behind mine.

8. To deter these thieves, I have considered erecting elaborate traps around my apartment – but further consideration of my cat’s daily activity schedule has led me to believe this may not be the wisest course of action.

Until next time.

Why Systems Fail

Why Systems Fail: A Book Review

As anyone who has ever worked in an office can tell you, no shit.  But it’s still fascinating to see it all laid out.  Prepare to nod in agreement a lot.

Some highlights:

2. New systems generate new problems

7. People in systems do not do what the system says they are doing

10. Systems attract systems people

14. If a system is working, leave it alone

22. Complex systems usually operate in failure mode

32. Loose systems last longer and work better

So there are, as you can see, a lot of reasons why systems are almost always destined to fail.  It’s interesting enough to make me want to read the book but these little aphorisms are pretty densely packed with wisdom IMO.  If I ever start up a business I’ll try to recognize some of these principles when setting things up.  Yet even still, you’re reading this, on the internet – think about all the ways this process could go wrong, and yet it’s still working.  WordPress, DNS, your browser, your computer, whatever system of income allows you to be wasting time right now on my site – clearly these systems, while imperfect, still function well enough most of the time for everything to be working.

But now I’m considering the weight of all systems in the country and indeed the world, and it’s scaring the shit out of me.  The small fanatic part of me that just wants collapse is feeling very upbraided right now.

Unlimited Juice, etc.

Seattle is going to be off the hook.

Beer. Underground cities.  Twin Peaks.  Sci-Fi Museum.  Comic Con. Farmer’s Market. Hookers. Cocaine. Bears. Other stuff.

Paulette Potts and the Mysterious M&M Bone

Why did this have to happen?

An Atlanta woman has a bone to pick with the candy company Mars after she took a bite into her peanut M&M and says she discovered what a local biologist says is a vertebra from a small mammal.

…

“It’s definitely bone, and it came from some type of mammal,” Blumer told FOXNews.com. “This isn’t [a] tail vertebra — it’s something higher up, and the reason I’m certain for that is because it’s hollow. The nerve cord would run through there.”

…

After making her discovery, she said she contacted the company’s customer service department and received a case number from a representative. She was later informed via telephone by another representative that a “‘supervisor told me to tell you that was probably a peanut twig.’”

Now Mars wants the bone. Hmm.. I wonder why.   Instead, we’re going to get its DNA analyzed.  Then we’ll know _for sure_ what creature it came from.  Any guesses?
Edit: The Consumerist has a post about it now! Excellent.  The comments are making everyone in the office – Paulette included – crack up.

Artists, Revisited

I think I made a critical error in my previous post.  I said that there are two types of artists: those who go all the way and those that mitigate their creative drive with the human imperative of, you know, relating to other people.  I think that’s wrong – they are the same people, just at different times.