Repost: Computer culture’s effect on the first wave, computer-immersed generation – 1995 (one positive, one negative thought).

pos

This generation begins assimilation and application of computer literacy, technological aptitude, and sophistication concerning medium almost from time of birth. Implications and positive theoretical advancements within discipline during the next 20 years unknowable due to generational familiarity with operation and influenced thought systems. No matter what anyone says, we really don’t know what Billy and Suzy are thinking or doing with their PCs or how they’ll use that knowledge down the road, or how their enhanced aptitude will effect society. We can’t know that yet.
And it could be…amazing.

neg

Production of desensitized waves of adults with skewed life, value, or violence priorities. Application of computer related sensibilities to worldview and corresponding behavior. Hyper-violent applications in games or on the Internet detract from life worth. History can be revised virtually unchecked. Other humans viewed as objects. Aggression viewed as viable problem-solving solution. Possible root cause for generational fracture within American culture.
Implications could be very serious.

REPOST: Bike (From Sense and Antisense)

Biking up Southard towards Duval,
Cyclists slowly climbing the incline,
All assuming similar rhythms
With the others,
The sky,
The silence of 4 p.m.

I passed two boys on bikes.
"You know how to get to yer house from here?"
"Shuh."
"Yer goin’ the wrong way."

When I stayed in Bahama Village, I’d bike home at night,
through the burnt smell of freebase clouds
that lingered,
Past the crackcrackcrack dealers
Who chanted at me without end,
Until they figured out I lived there.
Then I became invisible to them as their eyes scanned the street.

When he and I had.. problems, I would ride the island.
I remember passing Smathers Beach so many times,
Wondering what was happening..
Why were we dying, drifting, cooler..silent..
How would anything ever be right again?
The sun’s heat never distracted, rather, the pressure compounded.

I’d get on my bike and she’d get on her moped
At 3 a.m. after dancing and drinking for hours,
Her French glamour overwhelming,
The way she sways,
The loose familiarity, her knowledge of rhythm,
As the bass bomb drops,
And she dances beautifully,
With her silver backpack purse over her shoulder,
Her friendship, my singular comfort.

Smiling, we bid the other goodnight, and in a moment,
She speeds off towards home.

I go in the opposite direction,
Very slowly,
Accepting the calm that Night and my bike offer,
My eyes sweeping the streets in time with my pedaling.

Gulliver's Travels: A Documentary

Indonesian 'hobbits' are a separate species. Gnomes, Pixies, Lilliputians or Leprechauns? Maybe myths and legends from older periods had more truth to them than we've previously thought?

Repost: Two Homeless People On Duval (From "Sense and Antisense")

"Say a prayer for me; in a world of human wreckage.."
Sponge - "loaded"

They congregate at different street corners, on sidewalks, in alleys, at the beach, in boxes. They have no where else to go.

1. The man stood at the corner of Duval and Angela, with his long gray beard and his military-issue clothes and his back-pack and some kind of conic yarn hat on his head, eating from a can, never speaking. Every once in a while, he would do a goose-step type march in place to stretch out his legs, but usually one could find him there, standing and watching. At night, he would sleep on the bench where the trolleys loaded, just off the street from the corner and in the light for protection from the drunks who might get their kicks by fucking with him. He would sleep on his back with his arms folded, looking quite dead. And, for the most part, the drunks, along with everyone else, left him alone.

Some of the shopkeepers would give him food and canned goods. He was never bothersome, and even the police kept an eye out for him. He would disappear for a couple of days, sometimes appearing on the other side of the island, maybe eating from a can, then later re-appearing on his corner picking up where he’d left off.

Rumor had it he’d jumped from a Russian freighter and somehow ended up in Key West, not knowing the language, not knowing anyone. He must have left people behind, a wife, family, or friends. It was hard to look him in the eyes. He would meet curious, sympathetic, or taunting gazes with the same defiant glare.

2. For awhile, the Bearded Lady was a fixture on Duval Street, also. About 5’5" in red spike heels, maybe 90 pounds, sandy blond hair, and always in the same red dress. She reminded me of one of my junior high school teachers, which amused me, but bothered me more. Her behavior seemed to point to schizophrenia. She walked a fine line at all times. She had some serious, threatening, irrational impulses. She moved continually, walking alone through crowds of people, muttering and grimacing.

She would sometimes stop oncoming people and shouting incoherently and aggressively at them, and then move on. She always skipped me, though, as someone to attack. One time, she accosted everyone that passed, but left me alone, even looking away as we crossed. I never understood why she spared me, but I was thankful, nonetheless.

I saw her for the first time on the 800 block of Duval, in front of a restaurant claiming to be "The Best in Key West" (Along with every other damn business on the island…), but never had any patrons, nor did I meet anyone who’d actually eaten there. I had just smoked a joint and was heading into Bahama Village to pick up some friends for a game of pool. Looking down stoned at the sidewalk, I almost ran into her. She was facing the restaurant, furiously turning the pages of a Gideon Bible from right to left, looking for something.

She became aware of my presence. She whipped her head around, staring at me with a look of pure madness. I had interrupted something very, very heavy. So, after that length of a pause, I kept going, trying to remain calm, not wanting to spook her any more. It must have worked, as she resumed turning. The sounds of rustling pages were heard until I rounded the corner. Her search was incomplete; the key passage still not found.

She would show up on the Gulf side of town, wandering around, babbling and screaming, accosting and fighting, and getting thrown out of shops. She went after one cashier with a knife. Some acquaintances dubbed her the "Bearded Lady" ("Freaky as a Bearded Lady!" A friend of mine said.), and the name stuck. She was all over the place, for a while anyway. Her freaky, menacing behavior standing out as strange, even by Key West’s standards. Then she was gone.

I’d imagine she’s dead. Too many negatives on South Florida’s streets for a disoriented schizophrenic to overcome. Too much mean and evil. Maybe not, though. Maybe she’s out there, in a horrifying universe, using the wrong parts of her brain to survive, tortured by the multitudes of demons she encounters daily. Or maybe she got help and is better. I don’t know.

Maybe before.. She was someone’s friend. She was a success. She was married. She was happily single. Red has always been her favorite color.

Before she lost.. Maybe she could feel it coming. "Something is wrong with the way that I’m thinking" is something she might have thought, before. Now "before" is maybe not even a memory anymore. Her family has accepted the loss and moved on. Or maybe, they long for her return. Her mother still looks at her picture every single day.

She walked quickly, out of step with the others, looking back periodically to make sure "they" weren’t following. Her red heels clicked rhythmically on the hot pavement. The vibration of agitation and confusion trailed in her wake. I watched her pass, her head bouncing along, the sound of her clicking heels, her physical body eventually dissolving among the other bodies passing on Duval, and thought of the inevitability of her demise.

Repost: Excerpts from the Myers-Briggs Personality Type indicator on Introverted Intuitive Types INTJ and INFJ

Driven by their vision of the possibilities.
Determined to the point of stubbornness.
Intensely individualistic.
Stimulated by difficulties, and most ingenious in solving them.
Willing to concede that the impossible takes a little longer – but not much.
More interested in pioneering a new road than anything to be found along the beaten path.
Motivated by inspiration, which they value above everything else and use confidently for their best achievements in any field they choose – science, engineering, invention, political or industrial empire-building, social reform, teaching, writing, psychology, philosophy, or religion.
Deeply discontented in a routine job that offers no scope for inspiration.
Gifted, at their best, with a fine insight into the deeper meanings of things, and with a great deal of drive…

“Their greatest gifts come directly from their intuition – the flashes of inspiration, the insight into relationships of ideas and meaning of symbols, the imagination, the originality, the access to resources of the unconscious, the ingenuity, and the visions of what could be. These are all inner gifts on the perceptive side. Without a developed auxiliary judging process, they will have little or no development of an outer personality and equally limited use of the gifts. However, a good judging process in support will shape the intuitive perceptions into conclusions or actions that will have a sound impact on the outer world."

Van der Hoop recognized this problem: ‘There is peculiar difficulty where this inner knowledge is concerned, in finding even approximate expression for what is perceived. It is extremely important, therefore, for people of this type to attain through their education a technique of expression…

The development of this type is slower and more arduous than that of most other people…Such children are not very amenable to influence from their environment. They may have periods of uncertainty and reserve, after which they suddenly become very determined, and if then they are opposed, they may manifest an astonishing self-will and obstinacy. As a result of the intensely spontaneous activity within, they are frequently moody, occasionally brilliant and original, then again reserved, stubborn, and arrogant.

In later life, also, it is a persistent characteristic of people of this type, that while on the one hand they possess great determination, on the other hand they find it very difficult to express what they want. Although they may have only a vague feeling about the way they want to go, and of the meaning of their life, they will nevertheless reject with great stubbornness anything that does not fit in with this. They fear lest external influences or circumstances should drive them in a wrong direction, and they resist on principle (1939, p. 48).’

It follows that these people cannot be successfully coerced. They will not even be told anything without their permission, but they will accept an offer of facts, opinions, or theories, for free consideration; the excellence of their understanding must be trusted to recognize what is true.”

Introverted Intuition supported by Thinking

INTJ’s are the most independent of all the 16 types and take more or less conscious pride in that independence. Whatever their field, they are likely to be innovators. In business, they are born reorganizers. Intuition gives them an iconoclastic imagination and an unhampered view of the possibilities; extraverted thinking supplies a keenly critical organizing faculty. “Whatever is, could doubtless be improved!” They are likely, however, to organize themselves out of a job. They cannot continually reorganize the same thing, and a finished product has no interest. Thus, they need successive new assignments, with bigger and better problems, to stretch their powers.

Even when well balanced, they have a tendency to ignore the views and feelings of other people. Use of the critical attitude in personal relations is a destructive luxury, which can have a disintegrating effect upon their personal lives. They would do well to make an effort to use their critical faculty on their impersonal problems and on themselves and to work for some development of appreciation (they need not call it feeling) to use on others.”

CERN Update

Tomorrow holds all sorts of possibilities--It could be the beginning of great strides in the worlds of physics, science, and technology; or we could all be vaporized within a split second. I'm guessing the real answer will fall somewhere within those parameters..

Related potential doom post(my favorite from last week), and an oldie but a goodie..

Is Future CERN really trying to destroy itself? The second link is from YouTube, if you feel like watching, not reading..

Huh..

Branson Police Catch Robber Inside Store. Dumb Criminal -- This could be (IS) Branson's crappiest gift shop. Why would anyone want to rob that? Really.. why?

A little bit of weird, Branson style

Monkey Strolls Through Branson.

Ukrainian Flu/Plague Update/Roundup

"Deadly flu spreads across Ukraine"

"total destruction of the lungs." Ukrainian Doctor Viktor Bachinsky has stated, "The virus causing the deaths is extremely aggressive -- it doesn't first infect the throat (as is common in flu), but strikes the lungs directly."

"..there are signs the virus is genetic engineered."

WHO Continues To Deceive: Assumes That Ukraine Plague Is H1N1 Swine Flu

or is this just a political ploy?

The People Who Wrecked The World

Pretty comprehensive Anti Baby Boomer rant from a poster at AlienEarth.

Being a member of Generation X has always felt like the kid left standing at the end of "Musical Chairs." First we were left out because we were too young to be taken seriously by those before us. Then we were left out because the Boomers were taken too seriously. Then we were left out because the Silent Generation before the Boomers wanted to hang on a little while longer. And now, we're still shut out because the Boomers want to hang on a little while longer. And all the while, Gen Y approaches from behind..

While great technological advances happened during our formative years (into adulthood), our generation had to familiarize ourselves with these advances, not think within them. As tech-savvy as some of my generation might be, GenY grew up fluent in Internet and computer knowledge. If I were an employer and had to choose a programmer or designer for any future high end tech projects, I'd definitely go with a GenY candidate. In other words, while we learned it, they live it. And again, the music ends and we're left standing..

We are more independent, cynical, and grounded(but nomadic) than our older brothers and sisters (or parents). We got hip to the fact we lost the "chronological lottery" early, along with any optimistic assessments of the future (I don't know anyone who wasn't just a little freaked out after watching "The Day After.."). We are the most educated generation, but we are also the first to reverse the trend of making more money than our parents. Economically, the American Dream died with us; we just weren't aware of it.

So a lot of us have said "fuck you" to the conventions of society, and do whatever we want, kind of.. We are the Service Industry, Middle Management, and the Creatives who can't fully impliment their visions. We still don't save for the future, live paycheck to paycheck, never once thought Social Security would be around when we retired (Old people Freak Out when you say that to them. Evidently, it's a scary thought..), and yet, there seems to be this hope that, when the shit Really hits the fan, we'll get ours together and get to work. Will my generation ever find cohesion? Will I?

This Week's Favorite Conspiracy-Themed Article!

The Sisters of Sorcha Faal, far and away..