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How do people get culture? Is it news? TV? Conversation? Maybe video games play a role. While preparing for class this week I stumbled across some interesting numbers. The American newspaper industry is a 34 Billion dollar industry circa 2011. The American video game industry was a 21 Billion dollar industry in 2008. Globally, video games generated about 49 billion that year. in 2012 they generated 74 billion.

It seems that the video game industry may generate more cash than the newspaper industry, which is to say that games reach more people than papers and they do so more often. Games are invasive. They’re on your phone, in your paper, and on TV. So it is fair to assume that games have more contact with people than newspapers. I surmise from this information that games have more impact on people than newspapers.

What does this mean from a social perspective? Clearly our Internet lives influence us more than papers, but in the hierarchy of things it was nice to believe that Newspapers trumped Sonic the Hedgehog. This is no longer the case, which means reality is also no longer the case. I wonder how that will shape our next generation?

Recent scientific advancements point to the ability to store data in DNA. We already know that the mind somehow synthesizes memory and now it is clear that DNA can also do so–though the ability of that DNA to function is compromised. I wonder if, in some long forgotten time, the people of a past or even distant world coded a message in human DNA and that message could somehow be retrieved.

When thinking about memory it is hard not to presume that our memories are the only things that separate us from other high order animals. In fact, the entire idea of high order is predicated on this belief that we have free will/sentience. Do we? The more I watch children develop into adults, the more I see trained pets or even computers learning scripts, the more I feel like we are mistaken in our presumption of sentience.

What if everything we say or do is actually a function, a development of being extremely complex biological computers that are tasked with running very basic routines? What if our idea of self is born out of the need for us to preserve our machine selves and continue running these nameless processes? What if we are broken machines that have abandoned the primary function and exist only on broken code and a need to replicate if for no other reason than to root out the malfunction–something we refer to as evolution.

If this is true, then it is also true that the human conscious can, for what it is worth, be replicated as part of a digital matrix. It can be that this is the only possible form of immortality. Even this leaves open the question of the soul. Should the soul actually exist, can that ‘starting energy’ be transferred as well?

Perhaps as we learn more about DNA and the transfer of information we will learn how to code our memories and grow them into new versions of ourselves so that when we die we might simply wake up in a new form and continue a life worth living.

 

Been waking up early, trying to get a good start to the day. My first moments involve clicking on the TV and looking for something interesting on the news. That failing, I slide towards the sports channels and hope for news. Lately there is none.

There also isn’t much to write about on this Thursday night that comes to mind. Sad, that.

Some Thoughts:

1. The asian marrying white meme is not going away. More surprisingly, this is a more openly acceptable interracial match than any other I’ve talked with people about. Fact is, people don’t care about that match at all. It doesn’t even register on their racial radar. There has to be a story there. Or maybe just a sociology article.
2. Wayne Hunter: Benched. See, Coach Ryan isn’t as dumb as he sometimes leads people to believe. No, I think he has a lot of ideas jammed up them sleeves, but needs to stay silent until they pan out.

The counter on the NY Jets website reads 3 days till Carolina. It should probably serve as a countdown to destruction, because there are only three days until embattled Tackle Wayne Hunter is reminded of his inability to protect anything larger than the ho hos stashed in his locker. Someone could get hurt.

Back at the other end of the NY football spectrum, the Giants remain the most overlooked team in football. These guys are the champs and the story is how much they’ve been ignored by the rest of the NFL. Heck, they are not even expected to win the NFC east. 3rd place at last check.

The beauty of the NFL is that there is so much talk about it. As a fan you have to feel a certain degree of vindication when your team utterly defies the talk. I don’t know that I will experience that as a Jets fan this year, but as a Giants fan there is a chance I could be singing that Super Bowl song. Who knows, next year may even bring the promised home tow show down…

Some Thoughts:

1. Baseball is not the same sort of sport as others. We started holding open Baseball clinics and the kids coming to see us used to be studs. Now, months removed from practice, these kids have no game. You gotta keep up with baseball timing.
2. Speaking of different sports, rich people sports are some weird stuff. They require expensive equipment and are very difficult to learn. They also tend to involve the fans dressing quite a bit nicer than most of the folks at a Yankee game.

 

 

If you’re looking for a sign of how bad politics have gotten, look no further than the Akin issue. Todd Akin said what many in the GOP are thinking. He basically claimed that getting pregnant due to rape is a myth. This was later echoed by Rep. Steve King who claimed he’d never personally heard of it ever happening. Of course, it is unlikely that anyone has ever shared their rape story with him. See, he’s another one who believes that not even rape is a good reason for abortion.

The GOP platform pushes even further right, leading with Tea Party conservatism (read: flat out take it back to slave time values). Yet, the story is about Obama and will he in. Why? Because everyone loves a story. We are hardwired to think in story, and the more compelling–the more that is at stake–the more we tune in. Romney is a paperweight. He is not compelling in the least, so his story is already forgotten; overshadowed by his VP (sounds like 2008?). Meanwhile, Obama is such an obvious choice that the only way to make the election relevant is to tear him down and make something at stake. So, Obama’s job is at stake.

A friend bet me $50 that Obama would lose. She’s a longtime democrat too. That tells me the narrative has shifted away from reality to the disappointing narrative the GOP created. Suddenly Obama is the divider and the hatemonger?

How the heck can we believe that?

Some Thoughts:

1. I wonder what happened to Ochocinco?

I have sighed more in the past 8 days than at any other point in my life. Every breath leaves my throat heavily. There is a lot on my mind, from starting classes to stories due to kids, inability to spend time with the wifey, heck even the suck that is the Jets fills my soul. The fact is I am tired. I am not overwhelmed or overworked, I am merely tired and have not taken a rest in a very long time.

Tonight’s work is limited to two syllabi and the 1st week of a hybrid course. I am less concerned with the in-class stuff than I am with getting everything published in time. Worst of all, the motivation simply isn’t there. I don’t want to do it, because I’m too worn out on the teaching front. Of course I’ll get it done. I always do.

I might need some Ice Cream and pie first though.

 

Some Thoughts:

1. Had a chance to listen to the GOP response to the Akin comments about ‘Legitimate Rape’ and whether or not a woman’s body could discern the difference and somehow prevent itself from getting pregnant should the intercourse not be ‘legitimate’. GOP is still in lock step with the talking points. Everyone asked said some variation of this statement: ‘he should spend 24 hours considering what will best help the country at this critical time.” (Romney). Who knows where the talking points come from?

To begin, there will be no Beyblade party. Not yet. The kids and I ran a ‘proof of concept’ in-house tourney that ended with the 3yr old assault his brothers with a Bey. I can only imagine this playing out with a 24+ kid bracket. Maybe I need to scale up slowly; invite a few kids over to blade and go from there. I ordered a dozen Beys from China, just for the chance to actually order something from China.

Beys dominated my thoughts last night and class dominated my thoughts today. Less than a full night’s sleep before the 17 week crazy train kicks into gear. I’ve gone to organizational tools–Handouts, Powerpoints–to get me on track. I’m not ready to deliver information about the syllabus, but I am ready to teach.

It occurs to me that as we age our perceptions change. As perception is reality, our reality changes. We work hard to design scientific principles that support our ever-shifting reality, but the truth is that we don’t know what we don’t know. We have the power to lie to ourselves, to color perception in order to feel like things are as we want (or simply need on some psychological level) them to be. How else can a girl living on a dirt floor of a shack filled with HIV positive siblings and parents be happier than most people I know? Her perception of her life and situation is different from what we experience in this country, from what many individuals here experience, etc. Her perception is better.

Wayne Hunter’s perception isn’t so hot. His skills are worse than his perception. I’ve joined the sports pundits in calling the dude a turn style. He cannot protect the QB and is likely to get someone hurt. For this reason, I feel the Jets need to get a new RT or start Tebow. The big guy can operate out of the pocket–a necessary skill when the pocket is ripped.

 

I love a good party. I love going to one and I especially love throwing one. Every few years my eldest shifts his behavior far enough into the green to have a party. Now, on the eve of his eighth birthday, I find myself communicating with companies in China in hopes of procuring Beyblades wholesale. Why? I think this year’s party is going to be an all out Beyblade tournament!

Beyblade is a game and TV Series that was popular a few years back and is currently experiencing a resurgence amongst select kids from 4-12. The game is a trumped up version of tops. You purchase a metal top and a plastic stadium and you spin your top in hopes of surviving longer than your opponent. I’ve tried the game with varying degrees of success. It lacks the poker-like strategy of Pokemon, but it is pure physics. The tops have a finite number of variables that determine weight, spin direction, defensive posture, attack speed, etc. You can change out parts and create a bey that does what you want it to do and in a team battle the variables and strategy increase.

This is going to be a fun one.

Listening to Sabriel and Pao cover Gnarls Barkley in a sweet, soulful way reminds me of how powerful music can be. Music is said to be a top memory trigger; right up there with sense of smell. Music transports me to the past, but I also think it defines eras in our lives. Thriller (Jackson) was an era. As Time Goes By. Everyone can tie a significant period of their lives to a song. It may not be the pop hits of America, but there is a collection of sounds that form the melody of our lives.

My songs largely come from Boys II Men, Bon Jovi, Jason Mraz, and Biggie Smalls. There was that period where D’Angelo laid down the soundtrack to all of my amorous affairs. There was the dark period when I fell victim to Slayer and their ilk, only to float back to the surface of normality with Metallica.

These days I groove to the tunes of Maroon 5, Kanye West and Jay Z. Jason Mraz is always on the playlist, and it could be he more than any other that defines my 30s.

Some Thoughts:

1. Survived the week before school with minor scrapes and bruises. No significant sleep occurred, and I did jam about a year’s worth of pedagogy into my brain over a 84 hr stretch. How much will stick? At least all the stuff that made it into my syllabi

Chad “ochocinco” Johnson is a man without a home. His wife took everything in his private life and his professional life was stripped away by the Miami Dolphins. Now, Coach Philbin claims the release was about more than the alleged abuse. I believe him. Watching Hard Knocks taught me that Johnson has lost confidence in his ability more than anything else. He is a receiver in need of a revival, and a place like Miami, where he would be the feature, is not it. Johnson needs a team with a solid, established QB and a system built around simple routes, and YAC yardage with a seasoned qb who can bring him back to where he needs to be.

Yes, I am talking about Manning. He can rescue the kid better than any. The Jets would not work at all, but the Broncos and the Texans are the teams I see benefiting from an ochoing.

Some thoughts:
1. Here is a bit of web laundry. I am seriously considering moving the old talislegger site to this medium in order to unify the site experience. It is a laundry matter, because it merely involves putting in the work to get it done. More importantly, it is about finding the time to do so and preserve some of the awesome imagery that reflects the web stuff I have gathered.

2. I have not been very loyal about the reflection and waivers from the perspective of the days these things happen. Sounds like something that should be solidified, but when an idea hits…