Before I even get started, if you haven't seen the movie Idiocracy go now. Do it. This will still be here when the movie's over.
Back from Netflix? Fantastic! Let's get to it.
On a daily basis, through various mediums I'm exposed daily to just how badly our society (as a general blanket statement) has regressed. We've gone from grunting cave dwellers that paint on our walls with blood and flowers to the architects of legendary monolithic skyscrapers on a regular basis. We've gone from the abacus to building computers that are actually smarter than we are (Watson. Google it.). And yet every day, there's some blast of utter stupidity. Are we truly the last generation of people capable of using their brains?! In my current employment, I deal with many 20-something individuals. On a one to one basis, they're pretty solid. They're still kids comparatively, and party as hard as they work. Nothing wrong with that at all. But once in a while, there's something that gnaws at me like a thorn in this old bear's paw.
Ok, maybe my title was a little extreme. But I do feel that people have forgotten the meaning of discretion. The fact that despite the social networking sites, there's some things people just try to keep private. Discretion is a lost art to most. Just yesterday on a friend's status post about going to a bar in Keizer, Oregon for quarter beers, one of their friends was like "THOTT U WER PREGGO?!" Obviously, if she went for quarter beers, she's not knocked up. She's not that stupid. I'm also fairly sure she thanks you for having so much faith in her intelligence.
Seriously, if as a species we're losing such crucial parts of human interaction as respect and discretion, I'm truly frightened what's next. I'm also terribly scared of the days when we're revered as geniuses in history books nobody will know how to read while people water their crops with energy drinks, staring at someone like they're high when they suggest using water. "But it has electrolytes."
Maybe the title wasn't so extreme after all..
Showing posts with label Fail. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fail. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Technology VS History: How we continually &%$ up as a species.
In the past (AKA "when I was a kid") it was very rare to have our friends' phone numbers unless those friends had moved away. Why? Quite simply, WE didn't need them. We just strapped on our shoes, jumped on our favored method of conveyance (Bike, Skateboard, Pogo Stick) and went to knock on their front doors.
Sadly, times change. Though for some, not as much as usual!
All through grade school, things remained the same. In first grade, I lived in Dallas, OR. My friend Jeremy lived in the house next door. We'd go off to do whatever random silliness drew our attention until the street lights came on. My former friend Randy lived a few doors further down. I say former, because until I stopped caring (read: got older and moved away) I never really forgave him for knocking out my tooth with a steel pipe while we were playing cops and robbers. He was really good at the cop role.. if he lives in LA, he should apply. (/snicker) Eventually, Jeremy moved far enough away that I HAD to ride my bike there or it took like an hour to get to his place. In all actuality it was only a few blocks, but dude.. I was like 6. I stopped spending so much time with Jeremy because he lived FOREVER away, but hey, Archie moved in next door! FANTASTIC!
Second grade I lived in Keizer, OR. Same situation, only the next door neighbor's name was Adam. Almost exactly the same situation! Adam moved a few blocks down the road, far enough that I had to take my bike to get there. Adam and I remained in contact with very few breaks until about 2000 when we had a falling out over some money. Recently, I came in contact with him again and gave him my number. Not sure if he'll ever use it, but I'm kinda indifferent either way.
From third grade until freshman year, I lived in North Salem, right by Highland School. There were kids EVERYWHERE in this neighborhood! Ryan lived a couple doors down, Derek lived behind me across the alley, Vince lived about a block away, and in fourth grade, I met Robert, Eric, Joe, and Daniel. I got picked on quite a bit because of the physical differences (They were "average" while I was the big kid all through school) but we were basically inseparable. We never called anyone. We all just got together at Robert's house and went across the street to play basketball or football until we could barely walk, then did it again the next day.
Freshman year, it happened. Six weeks deep into the school year, and I moved to South Salem. This is both a blessing and a curse. I managed to escape getting really embroiled in the closest thing Salem had to a gang culture, but instead traded that for a long-running pot habit. Over the years, Derek had moved out south as well, and his brother David had moved up from California. I ended up getting my own phone line, too. Why? My parents couldn't get online with as much time as I was spending on the phone! Between girls and making plans with David, it was pretty much a brick wall. Still, the results were almost invariably me leaving to go meet up with friends. I'd discovered (and subsequently became really good at) video games early, but the basic day to day thing was "let's get baked and play video games" around this time in my life. Plenty of fun, not very productive.
I went through that whole life story mess to illustrate a simple point: Human interaction. We had some back then. We had LOTS back then! Sometimes to the point that we'd get in fights because we were spending so much time with friends that we'd just annoy the crap out of each other for a few days!
Then 1998 came about, and brought with it the mobile phone. Some of you got one sooner, some later, but it was the same general thing. At first, these things didn't even have a screen other than to show you the number you dialed. It basically behaved like a cordless phone, but you could leave your house with it. It was fantastic! I answered many a phone call with "Hey, I'm at Cue Ball. Wanna come shoot?" Also, there was this tremendous feature that forwarded my calls from my house phone to my mobile one if I didn't answer. FANTASTIC! But with all technological triumphs, there's bound to be a down side waiting just around the bend.
As time marched on, mobile phones became more and more advanced. Soon, phones hit the market with screens and GAMES! Cheesy monochromatic games that looked like they belonged on an Atari 2600 but with the same spinach-crap green screen as a Nintendo Gameboy. Also, despite the fact nobody ever used it, these phones had a feature called "Text messaging." You only had one sentence to say, and didn't have time to make a phone call? That's fine! For twenty-five cents, you can send a friend a quick little message, letting them know you're on the way. This is around the time people started spending hours a day on the internet for all sorts of purposes. Research, work, gaming, media, you name it, it's out there. This is also when humanity sort of lost touch with itself. You need to get in touch with a friend? Here's one of a million chat clients to help! They're not online? Better send them an email! They only live two blocks away? Maaan, that's too far. In fact, these days people prefer texting for HOURS to get a point across rather than calling someone and talking for about ten minutes. I'm guilty of it myself, as I'm sure most of us reading this are.
Currently, it seems the purveyors of technology are trying to reverse this issue of human interaction. Skype allows for video chat, which is nothing new since webcams have been around since Al Gore credited himself with hitting the power button on the internet. iPhones and iPads have a feature called FaceTime. Essentially the same thing, and requires a wifi connection. There's also some Android powered phones and tablets with front-mounted cameras to allow whatever the hell Android calls FaceTime. Since people mostly stopped buying books, genuine, paper and ink books, you can download them straight to your phone, computer, or tablet.
The sum of this story is simple: We need to put down the techno-gadgetry and get back to being human as much as possible. Stop and compare the feelings you had when you interacted with people (Even if this included punching them) to the feelings you have now. Comparatively we, as a species, have grown numb to one another with exceedingly rare exception.
Conversely, if this Digital Age is all you have experience with, I challenge you to set that aside. Use your gadgets entirely differently than you currently do. When someone texts you, CALL them back. Read a book, one made of paper and ink. Instead of using Skype or FaceTime, knock on your friend's door! Compare this feeling to what you had while texting all day from as close as a block away and tell me your day doesn't go much more awesome.
Sadly, times change. Though for some, not as much as usual!
All through grade school, things remained the same. In first grade, I lived in Dallas, OR. My friend Jeremy lived in the house next door. We'd go off to do whatever random silliness drew our attention until the street lights came on. My former friend Randy lived a few doors further down. I say former, because until I stopped caring (read: got older and moved away) I never really forgave him for knocking out my tooth with a steel pipe while we were playing cops and robbers. He was really good at the cop role.. if he lives in LA, he should apply. (/snicker) Eventually, Jeremy moved far enough away that I HAD to ride my bike there or it took like an hour to get to his place. In all actuality it was only a few blocks, but dude.. I was like 6. I stopped spending so much time with Jeremy because he lived FOREVER away, but hey, Archie moved in next door! FANTASTIC!
Second grade I lived in Keizer, OR. Same situation, only the next door neighbor's name was Adam. Almost exactly the same situation! Adam moved a few blocks down the road, far enough that I had to take my bike to get there. Adam and I remained in contact with very few breaks until about 2000 when we had a falling out over some money. Recently, I came in contact with him again and gave him my number. Not sure if he'll ever use it, but I'm kinda indifferent either way.
From third grade until freshman year, I lived in North Salem, right by Highland School. There were kids EVERYWHERE in this neighborhood! Ryan lived a couple doors down, Derek lived behind me across the alley, Vince lived about a block away, and in fourth grade, I met Robert, Eric, Joe, and Daniel. I got picked on quite a bit because of the physical differences (They were "average" while I was the big kid all through school) but we were basically inseparable. We never called anyone. We all just got together at Robert's house and went across the street to play basketball or football until we could barely walk, then did it again the next day.
Freshman year, it happened. Six weeks deep into the school year, and I moved to South Salem. This is both a blessing and a curse. I managed to escape getting really embroiled in the closest thing Salem had to a gang culture, but instead traded that for a long-running pot habit. Over the years, Derek had moved out south as well, and his brother David had moved up from California. I ended up getting my own phone line, too. Why? My parents couldn't get online with as much time as I was spending on the phone! Between girls and making plans with David, it was pretty much a brick wall. Still, the results were almost invariably me leaving to go meet up with friends. I'd discovered (and subsequently became really good at) video games early, but the basic day to day thing was "let's get baked and play video games" around this time in my life. Plenty of fun, not very productive.
I went through that whole life story mess to illustrate a simple point: Human interaction. We had some back then. We had LOTS back then! Sometimes to the point that we'd get in fights because we were spending so much time with friends that we'd just annoy the crap out of each other for a few days!
Then 1998 came about, and brought with it the mobile phone. Some of you got one sooner, some later, but it was the same general thing. At first, these things didn't even have a screen other than to show you the number you dialed. It basically behaved like a cordless phone, but you could leave your house with it. It was fantastic! I answered many a phone call with "Hey, I'm at Cue Ball. Wanna come shoot?" Also, there was this tremendous feature that forwarded my calls from my house phone to my mobile one if I didn't answer. FANTASTIC! But with all technological triumphs, there's bound to be a down side waiting just around the bend.
As time marched on, mobile phones became more and more advanced. Soon, phones hit the market with screens and GAMES! Cheesy monochromatic games that looked like they belonged on an Atari 2600 but with the same spinach-crap green screen as a Nintendo Gameboy. Also, despite the fact nobody ever used it, these phones had a feature called "Text messaging." You only had one sentence to say, and didn't have time to make a phone call? That's fine! For twenty-five cents, you can send a friend a quick little message, letting them know you're on the way. This is around the time people started spending hours a day on the internet for all sorts of purposes. Research, work, gaming, media, you name it, it's out there. This is also when humanity sort of lost touch with itself. You need to get in touch with a friend? Here's one of a million chat clients to help! They're not online? Better send them an email! They only live two blocks away? Maaan, that's too far. In fact, these days people prefer texting for HOURS to get a point across rather than calling someone and talking for about ten minutes. I'm guilty of it myself, as I'm sure most of us reading this are.
Currently, it seems the purveyors of technology are trying to reverse this issue of human interaction. Skype allows for video chat, which is nothing new since webcams have been around since Al Gore credited himself with hitting the power button on the internet. iPhones and iPads have a feature called FaceTime. Essentially the same thing, and requires a wifi connection. There's also some Android powered phones and tablets with front-mounted cameras to allow whatever the hell Android calls FaceTime. Since people mostly stopped buying books, genuine, paper and ink books, you can download them straight to your phone, computer, or tablet.
The sum of this story is simple: We need to put down the techno-gadgetry and get back to being human as much as possible. Stop and compare the feelings you had when you interacted with people (Even if this included punching them) to the feelings you have now. Comparatively we, as a species, have grown numb to one another with exceedingly rare exception.
Conversely, if this Digital Age is all you have experience with, I challenge you to set that aside. Use your gadgets entirely differently than you currently do. When someone texts you, CALL them back. Read a book, one made of paper and ink. Instead of using Skype or FaceTime, knock on your friend's door! Compare this feeling to what you had while texting all day from as close as a block away and tell me your day doesn't go much more awesome.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
What were they thinking?! The NBA makes me sad.
I was watching SportsCenter the other night, and saw two major signings in the Western Conference. Phoenix resigned Grant Hill. Portland resigned Greg Oden. Let's look a little deeper, shall we?
Grant Hill has been a tough, resilient competitor since he came into the league in 1992. Yes, that means he's old as dirt by NBA standards. Ever since his first game in the NBA, he's been capable of playing at a very high level and has made every team he was on much better. He's starting to show his age and has "lost a step or two" in the speed department, but he's still just as good as he was before multiple surgeries to repair the damage basketball has done to his legs. Possibly even better than before because he plays smart, and despite not being as fast as he used to be, he's still capable of playing for the Suns who love to hit the fast break.
The contract signed? One year for $6.5 Million. Not bad for a guy's 19th season in the NBA, especially when both sides of this deal know retirement looms in the relatively near future.
Greg Oden has played a whopping 82 games in the four seasons since the Blazers took him in the draft ahead of one Kevin Durant. This was a MAJOR derp moment. Maybe some of us basketball fans remember the 1984 draft. The Blazers passed on a skinny guard from North Carolina for a center by the name of Sam Bowie. That guard? He was nobody special. Just Michael Jordan. Yeah, THE Michael Jordan. Kinda the same situation.
When Oden hit the floor last year (not literally), I freely admit the kid was a force. He was a beast in the low post, and drew enough attention off of LaMarcus Aldridge to free LA to play his former PF (Pussy forward) game. Then it happened (again). Oden hit the floor with knee problems. This time, he'd managed to rip his patella in half just by having strong legs. Drink milk homeboy. It does a body good, makes your bones stronger!
Oden's contract? One year for the qualifying offer of $8.9 Million. AND HOW DID HE REPAY THIS?! HE BLEW HIS KNEE AGAIN! Out for the season. He did restructure his contract since then for less money, to is credit, but holy shit man!
In the same year Oden signs for 8.9 million dollars and blows his knee for the fourth year straight, the squad's Golden Boy, Brandon "WTF would we do without him?!" Roy retires. Seems his knees are bugging him pretty badly. Brandon missed some time last year due to back spasms, but most of his time out was for a double knee surgery. Something that he came back from just in time to try to save the sinking Blazers ship in the first round of the playoffs. It was mostly Brandon Roy's contribution that made Portland the toughest team that the NBA Champion Dallas Mavericks had to face in the playoffs, including a Miami Heat team stacked with celebrity and firepower that Dirk and the boys literally tore apart.
Why do I mention Brandon Roy? Other than the fact that he's been the face of the Blazers since coming out of Washington to take rookie of the year and a spot on the all-star team, he also had the good grace to bow out when he knee he couldn't get the job done. Greg Oden could learn from this. SHOULD learn from this. Four years in a row, he has just been a miscolored Shrek sitting on the bench in a suit, sucking up money the team HE'S SUPPOSED TO BE HELPING could have spent to get a suitable center. Or even a terrible center that could actually play. I'd rather have a blithering idiot that pets the referees and calls them kittens, hands the ball over to opposing point guards with a smile and thanks them, and craps his pants mid-game (tl;dr: A seven year old with mental issues) than a worthless waste of flesh that costs more than $1.50 per game.
I wish him well in his life, but in the NBA Greg Oden isn't worth the gatorade he's sipping on the sidelines.
Grant Hill has been a tough, resilient competitor since he came into the league in 1992. Yes, that means he's old as dirt by NBA standards. Ever since his first game in the NBA, he's been capable of playing at a very high level and has made every team he was on much better. He's starting to show his age and has "lost a step or two" in the speed department, but he's still just as good as he was before multiple surgeries to repair the damage basketball has done to his legs. Possibly even better than before because he plays smart, and despite not being as fast as he used to be, he's still capable of playing for the Suns who love to hit the fast break.
The contract signed? One year for $6.5 Million. Not bad for a guy's 19th season in the NBA, especially when both sides of this deal know retirement looms in the relatively near future.
Greg Oden has played a whopping 82 games in the four seasons since the Blazers took him in the draft ahead of one Kevin Durant. This was a MAJOR derp moment. Maybe some of us basketball fans remember the 1984 draft. The Blazers passed on a skinny guard from North Carolina for a center by the name of Sam Bowie. That guard? He was nobody special. Just Michael Jordan. Yeah, THE Michael Jordan. Kinda the same situation.
When Oden hit the floor last year (not literally), I freely admit the kid was a force. He was a beast in the low post, and drew enough attention off of LaMarcus Aldridge to free LA to play his former PF (Pussy forward) game. Then it happened (again). Oden hit the floor with knee problems. This time, he'd managed to rip his patella in half just by having strong legs. Drink milk homeboy. It does a body good, makes your bones stronger!
Oden's contract? One year for the qualifying offer of $8.9 Million. AND HOW DID HE REPAY THIS?! HE BLEW HIS KNEE AGAIN! Out for the season. He did restructure his contract since then for less money, to is credit, but holy shit man!
In the same year Oden signs for 8.9 million dollars and blows his knee for the fourth year straight, the squad's Golden Boy, Brandon "WTF would we do without him?!" Roy retires. Seems his knees are bugging him pretty badly. Brandon missed some time last year due to back spasms, but most of his time out was for a double knee surgery. Something that he came back from just in time to try to save the sinking Blazers ship in the first round of the playoffs. It was mostly Brandon Roy's contribution that made Portland the toughest team that the NBA Champion Dallas Mavericks had to face in the playoffs, including a Miami Heat team stacked with celebrity and firepower that Dirk and the boys literally tore apart.
Why do I mention Brandon Roy? Other than the fact that he's been the face of the Blazers since coming out of Washington to take rookie of the year and a spot on the all-star team, he also had the good grace to bow out when he knee he couldn't get the job done. Greg Oden could learn from this. SHOULD learn from this. Four years in a row, he has just been a miscolored Shrek sitting on the bench in a suit, sucking up money the team HE'S SUPPOSED TO BE HELPING could have spent to get a suitable center. Or even a terrible center that could actually play. I'd rather have a blithering idiot that pets the referees and calls them kittens, hands the ball over to opposing point guards with a smile and thanks them, and craps his pants mid-game (tl;dr: A seven year old with mental issues) than a worthless waste of flesh that costs more than $1.50 per game.
I wish him well in his life, but in the NBA Greg Oden isn't worth the gatorade he's sipping on the sidelines.
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