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Showing posts with label why is jon so quiet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label why is jon so quiet. Show all posts
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Ladies And Gentlemen, Step Right Up...
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Maybe Not An Epic Fail, But A Fail Nonetheless
The notion that the advent of the Internet, and, more specifically, the World Wide Web, has dramatically altered the way we do, well, almost everything, has become something of a truism.
While the validity and accuracy of much of it is an open question, there is a vast wealth of information literally at our fingertips, and if you want to be successful in the 21st Century in a wide range of professions, having a basic understanding of how to sift through all of that information is essential.
I’ll get to my point in a minute, but before I do, I want to take this opportunity to share an anecdote that relates to my point.
While watching Heath Ledger’s mind-blowing performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight, I noted some mannerisms and vocal tics in one scene that reminded me more than a little of Jimmy Stewart.
(That may seem like an odd thing to say, but trust me, it worked, and was entirely appropriate for the scene in question.)
However, at the time, while I recognized the similarity, I could not, for the life of me, think of Jimmy Stewart’s name.
I could picture him, imagine his voice and his delivery of lines, think of the titles of movies he was in, and even recall Jim Carrey’s impersonation of him in a Saturday Night Live sketch. But I just could not remember his name. One of those all-too common (and increasingly common) “brain fart” moments.
Because the theater effectively blocks cell phone signals, I couldn’t break out my phone and fire up IMDb to find his name. Unlike many people, I haven’t totally abandoned my pre-Internet methods for recalling information (taking my conscious mind off the task and letting my brain work at it in the background, asking someone), and was able to pull his name out of somewhere before we left the theater.
However, if I hadn’t remembered it on my own, I would have immediately looked it up on the Internet.
Which brings us that much closer to my point, but first, a couple of pieces of information.
Last week, I watched the 2007 movie No Country For Old Men, which was based on the 2005 novel by author Cormac McCarthy.
The character of Harvey Dent/Two-Face, portrayed by actor Aaron Eckhart in The Dark Knight (As Scott pointed out, he did a great job, but couldn’t help but be overshadowed by Ledger. Also, the Two-Face effects were mind-blowing, just like the rest of the movie.) was introduced in Detective Comics #66 in 1942. Two-Face had previously appeared on the big screen in the 1995 movie Batman Forever, portrayed (execrably) by actor Tommy Lee Jones (who also starred in No Country For Old Men, coincidentally enough).
(Bonus geeky trivia: When introduced, Harvey Dent’s name was actually Harvey Kent. It was later changed to avoid confusion with a more famous character appearing in comics published by DC.)
Now, I managed to find all of the above information (except the Harvey Kent thing, and Tommy Lee Jones being in Batman Forever; I already knew that) about publication dates in a matter of minutes through quick searches on the Internet.
Finally, we start to approach my point.
On Friday I read a review of The Dark Knight in which the reviewer, in desperate need of something negative to say, stated that one of his major complaints about the movie was Two-Face’s habit of leaving life or death decisions up to chance, in the form of a coin toss. This was, the reviewer stated, clearly derivative of a similar habit of a character in No Country For Old Men.
And here’s my point: Two-Face, along with his coin-tossing gimmick, was introduced in 1942. No Country For Old Men was published in 2005.
So, my question to the reviewer is, “Umm…WTF are you talking about?”
Okay, so not everyone is a comic book geek, but surely the reviewer – it’s his job to watch movies, after all, and one would assume that even before getting into that line of work he watched a lot of movies – saw Batman Forever, which, despite all its many flaws, did include the coin toss gimmick, back in 1995, or at least sometime before 2007.
But more to the point, one would assume that before making such an assertion, he would have made sure he was correct, which, as pointed out above, would have been astonishingly simple via a quick search of the Internet.
Obviously such a mistake seems trivial to the non-geek segments of the population, and honestly, it is, at least in the context of the review itself, but it does lead you to wonder just how widespread this lack of fact-checking extends, and to speculate as to the kind of lazy, sloppy work being done by people who should be adept at fact-checking and finding information even without the advantages offered by the Internet.
So, in closing, I have just one thing to say to the unnamed reviewer, using the parlance of the medium that he proved himself so inept at using: FAIL!
Back To Your Regularly-Scheduled Threshold Department:
Despite being exhausted by The Dark Knight, I found myself pretty wired when I got home Thursday night, and so I had a difficult time getting to sleep, so when I got home on Friday afternoon I decided to take a nap.
In addition to allowing me to get some rest, the nap also allowed me to improve my vision slightly; Thursday had been my night off for my gentle molding lenses, so on Friday my vision lacked some of the clarity. So I wore the lenses while I napped, and woke up to find myself seeing much more clearly, which was a must for 1. Night driving and 2. Movie watching.
I wore the lenses again that night when I went to bed, and woke up on Saturday to discover that my left eye was extremely irritated. This prevented me from going out and doing some of the things I’d intended to do, and interfered with my plans for doing any work on new images for the Heroic Portraits Gallery, though eventually the irritation eased up and I was able to do some of that.
Naturally I didn’t wear the lenses last night, but this morning I found that my left eye didn’t care; it was just as irritated as it had been yesterday morning.
Not sure what’s up with that. It seems to be fine now.
(As a total unrelated aside, as I write thins I’m listening to the song Sunspots by Nine Inch Nails, and it seems abundantly clear that Trent decided to use an electric hand mixer– as in the kitchen appliance – to provide some of the music.)
Apart from doing some work on Gallery pictures last night and today (they should be up in the Gallery soon, for the curious among you), I haven’t done much.
I watched the movie Renaissance last night, which is an animated French film – dubbed into English with current Bond Daniel Craig providing the voice of the main character – that was done almost entirely in high-contrast black and white, with a few bits of gray and even fewer bits of color.
The story was okay, but it was the stunning visuals that really made it worthwhile.
Even though I was evidently won over by the Watchmen trailer, I should note that I do have a few complaints. I’m not sure that I like the fact that Snyder is applying his slow-motion/fast motion technique from 300 to the action, as it’s not really a good fit, and seems sort of, inappropriate.
Also, I’m not thrilled about the costumes. They’re altogether too modern-looking, and in some cases stray way too far from the original designs. For example, while she does look very sexy, the Silk Spectre, as she appears in the movie, would more properly be referred to as the Latex Spectre.
Anyway, I think I’ll round out this entry with the latest installment in the series I call Why is Jon So Quiet?
Why is Jon So Quiet?
Because nobody cares.
Given my ramblings earlier in this entry, this one seems especially appropriate.
The other day when I was waiting for my lunch order over at the café, I sort of zoned out and stood there staring into space.
Someone I knew came up to me and said, “Good morning!” in an effort to steer my consciousness back onto this plane of existence. She then added, “Wake up!”
In response, I said that I was simply lost in thought.
She didn’t ask what I was thinking about.
(For the record, I was thinking about the acclaimed/controversial comic book series Preacher. Note: Wikipedia appears to be down; look it up your damn self.)
Years ago, a friend once said something to me that went something like, “Nobody is as interested in the things you’re interested in as you are.” I think he also added that if I’m not interested in something, it’s almost as though, for me, that something doesn’t exist. I’m not sure if he said that part or not, as I wasn’t particularly interested in what he was talking about...
In any case, if the person who had stirred me from my thoughts on Preacher had asked me what I had been thinking about – and the fact that she didn’t is something that will be discussed in a future installment – she would have been bored shitless if I started talking about my thoughts on Garth Ennis’ over-the-top caricature of the idea of the inbred, Southern redneck, or how the series was in large part an exploration and examination of the mythology of America, both in terms of the myths within our culture and the myths about our culture, and she would have quickly made a mental note: Never ask Jon what he’s thinking about.
So why am I so quiet? Because you aren’t interested in anything that I want to talk about.
Really, it’s a lack of common ground with the greater mass of humanity. When engaged, I’m perfectly willing to listen to things that other people have to say, even if I’m not particularly interested, but most people aren’t that willing to return the favor, or at the very least, they aren’t willing to do it well; it’s usually immediately apparent when I’m talking to people that they aren’t really listening.
So honestly, why bother? If I’m just going to bore you with what I’m talking about, it seems easier to just not bother talking at all.
Now if only I would take this same approach to Threshold entries…
While the validity and accuracy of much of it is an open question, there is a vast wealth of information literally at our fingertips, and if you want to be successful in the 21st Century in a wide range of professions, having a basic understanding of how to sift through all of that information is essential.
I’ll get to my point in a minute, but before I do, I want to take this opportunity to share an anecdote that relates to my point.
While watching Heath Ledger’s mind-blowing performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight, I noted some mannerisms and vocal tics in one scene that reminded me more than a little of Jimmy Stewart.
(That may seem like an odd thing to say, but trust me, it worked, and was entirely appropriate for the scene in question.)
However, at the time, while I recognized the similarity, I could not, for the life of me, think of Jimmy Stewart’s name.
I could picture him, imagine his voice and his delivery of lines, think of the titles of movies he was in, and even recall Jim Carrey’s impersonation of him in a Saturday Night Live sketch. But I just could not remember his name. One of those all-too common (and increasingly common) “brain fart” moments.
Because the theater effectively blocks cell phone signals, I couldn’t break out my phone and fire up IMDb to find his name. Unlike many people, I haven’t totally abandoned my pre-Internet methods for recalling information (taking my conscious mind off the task and letting my brain work at it in the background, asking someone), and was able to pull his name out of somewhere before we left the theater.
However, if I hadn’t remembered it on my own, I would have immediately looked it up on the Internet.
Which brings us that much closer to my point, but first, a couple of pieces of information.
Last week, I watched the 2007 movie No Country For Old Men, which was based on the 2005 novel by author Cormac McCarthy.
The character of Harvey Dent/Two-Face, portrayed by actor Aaron Eckhart in The Dark Knight (As Scott pointed out, he did a great job, but couldn’t help but be overshadowed by Ledger. Also, the Two-Face effects were mind-blowing, just like the rest of the movie.) was introduced in Detective Comics #66 in 1942. Two-Face had previously appeared on the big screen in the 1995 movie Batman Forever, portrayed (execrably) by actor Tommy Lee Jones (who also starred in No Country For Old Men, coincidentally enough).
(Bonus geeky trivia: When introduced, Harvey Dent’s name was actually Harvey Kent. It was later changed to avoid confusion with a more famous character appearing in comics published by DC.)
Now, I managed to find all of the above information (except the Harvey Kent thing, and Tommy Lee Jones being in Batman Forever; I already knew that) about publication dates in a matter of minutes through quick searches on the Internet.
Finally, we start to approach my point.
On Friday I read a review of The Dark Knight in which the reviewer, in desperate need of something negative to say, stated that one of his major complaints about the movie was Two-Face’s habit of leaving life or death decisions up to chance, in the form of a coin toss. This was, the reviewer stated, clearly derivative of a similar habit of a character in No Country For Old Men.
And here’s my point: Two-Face, along with his coin-tossing gimmick, was introduced in 1942. No Country For Old Men was published in 2005.
So, my question to the reviewer is, “Umm…WTF are you talking about?”
Okay, so not everyone is a comic book geek, but surely the reviewer – it’s his job to watch movies, after all, and one would assume that even before getting into that line of work he watched a lot of movies – saw Batman Forever, which, despite all its many flaws, did include the coin toss gimmick, back in 1995, or at least sometime before 2007.
But more to the point, one would assume that before making such an assertion, he would have made sure he was correct, which, as pointed out above, would have been astonishingly simple via a quick search of the Internet.
Obviously such a mistake seems trivial to the non-geek segments of the population, and honestly, it is, at least in the context of the review itself, but it does lead you to wonder just how widespread this lack of fact-checking extends, and to speculate as to the kind of lazy, sloppy work being done by people who should be adept at fact-checking and finding information even without the advantages offered by the Internet.
So, in closing, I have just one thing to say to the unnamed reviewer, using the parlance of the medium that he proved himself so inept at using: FAIL!
Back To Your Regularly-Scheduled Threshold Department:
Despite being exhausted by The Dark Knight, I found myself pretty wired when I got home Thursday night, and so I had a difficult time getting to sleep, so when I got home on Friday afternoon I decided to take a nap.
In addition to allowing me to get some rest, the nap also allowed me to improve my vision slightly; Thursday had been my night off for my gentle molding lenses, so on Friday my vision lacked some of the clarity. So I wore the lenses while I napped, and woke up to find myself seeing much more clearly, which was a must for 1. Night driving and 2. Movie watching.
I wore the lenses again that night when I went to bed, and woke up on Saturday to discover that my left eye was extremely irritated. This prevented me from going out and doing some of the things I’d intended to do, and interfered with my plans for doing any work on new images for the Heroic Portraits Gallery, though eventually the irritation eased up and I was able to do some of that.
Naturally I didn’t wear the lenses last night, but this morning I found that my left eye didn’t care; it was just as irritated as it had been yesterday morning.
Not sure what’s up with that. It seems to be fine now.
(As a total unrelated aside, as I write thins I’m listening to the song Sunspots by Nine Inch Nails, and it seems abundantly clear that Trent decided to use an electric hand mixer– as in the kitchen appliance – to provide some of the music.)
Apart from doing some work on Gallery pictures last night and today (they should be up in the Gallery soon, for the curious among you), I haven’t done much.
I watched the movie Renaissance last night, which is an animated French film – dubbed into English with current Bond Daniel Craig providing the voice of the main character – that was done almost entirely in high-contrast black and white, with a few bits of gray and even fewer bits of color.
The story was okay, but it was the stunning visuals that really made it worthwhile.
Even though I was evidently won over by the Watchmen trailer, I should note that I do have a few complaints. I’m not sure that I like the fact that Snyder is applying his slow-motion/fast motion technique from 300 to the action, as it’s not really a good fit, and seems sort of, inappropriate.
Also, I’m not thrilled about the costumes. They’re altogether too modern-looking, and in some cases stray way too far from the original designs. For example, while she does look very sexy, the Silk Spectre, as she appears in the movie, would more properly be referred to as the Latex Spectre.
Anyway, I think I’ll round out this entry with the latest installment in the series I call Why is Jon So Quiet?
Why is Jon So Quiet?
Because nobody cares.
Given my ramblings earlier in this entry, this one seems especially appropriate.
The other day when I was waiting for my lunch order over at the café, I sort of zoned out and stood there staring into space.
Someone I knew came up to me and said, “Good morning!” in an effort to steer my consciousness back onto this plane of existence. She then added, “Wake up!”
In response, I said that I was simply lost in thought.
She didn’t ask what I was thinking about.
(For the record, I was thinking about the acclaimed/controversial comic book series Preacher. Note: Wikipedia appears to be down; look it up your damn self.)
Years ago, a friend once said something to me that went something like, “Nobody is as interested in the things you’re interested in as you are.” I think he also added that if I’m not interested in something, it’s almost as though, for me, that something doesn’t exist. I’m not sure if he said that part or not, as I wasn’t particularly interested in what he was talking about...
In any case, if the person who had stirred me from my thoughts on Preacher had asked me what I had been thinking about – and the fact that she didn’t is something that will be discussed in a future installment – she would have been bored shitless if I started talking about my thoughts on Garth Ennis’ over-the-top caricature of the idea of the inbred, Southern redneck, or how the series was in large part an exploration and examination of the mythology of America, both in terms of the myths within our culture and the myths about our culture, and she would have quickly made a mental note: Never ask Jon what he’s thinking about.
So why am I so quiet? Because you aren’t interested in anything that I want to talk about.
Really, it’s a lack of common ground with the greater mass of humanity. When engaged, I’m perfectly willing to listen to things that other people have to say, even if I’m not particularly interested, but most people aren’t that willing to return the favor, or at the very least, they aren’t willing to do it well; it’s usually immediately apparent when I’m talking to people that they aren’t really listening.
So honestly, why bother? If I’m just going to bore you with what I’m talking about, it seems easier to just not bother talking at all.
Now if only I would take this same approach to Threshold entries…
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
"Exciting" New Regular Feature...Prepare To Yawn
So my meeting today wasn’t as long – or painful – as I’d anticipated, though the painlessness was mostly due to the fact that it didn’t last as long as anticipated.
It was originally scheduled to go from 10:30 to 5:00, but some of the participants had a delayed flight, so we didn’t start until 11:30, and it only lasted until about 3:30.
Now, if only we’d actually accomplished something…
When I got home from work I decided to mow the lawn. I didn’t bother saying anything about the bugs that were dive bombing my eyes to the Universe this time around.
I probably could have gotten away with putting off mowing for a few more days, as the grass in the front and side wasn’t really that long, but the grass in the back was all wild and unkempt, so I figured I might as well.
(I just realized; until I mowed it, my yard had a mullet.)
When Scott and Stacy stopped to get tickets for The Dark Knight in IMAX yesterday, they found that it was sold out, so they ended up buying tickets for a Friday night show at the regular theater.
In the meantime, Scott had signed up some free tickets to a Thursday screening at work, and had asked me if I wanted to go with him if he got the tickets, then rescinded the offer, as Stacy, who had no interest in going to the Friday show, decided that she wanted to go to that.
He said that he was sorry to dangle that offer in front of me and then snatch it away, then noted that he’d said “dangle.”
I pointed out that he also said “snatch,” then said, “Is it revelatory that I focused on snatch, while you focused on dangle? Yes. I think it is.”
In any case, Jamie also scored some tickets to the Thursday show, but was not able to find a babysitter so that Casey could go, so she told Scott that I was welcome to go as her guest.
Earlier today Scott e-mailed me to let me know that Neil Gaiman will be at this year’s National Book Festival and that we should go. I agreed, and forwarded his e-mail on to my friend Eric, suggesting that he might also like to go.
It turns out that the Festival is on his wife’s birthday and that she’s thrilled at the prospect of meeting Neil on her birthday, so his response was “97% Yup.”
So that’ll be cool.
I’d posted a MySpace bulletin about the Heroic Portraits update, and in his e-mail to me Eric mentioned that he liked the Gallery and wanted to know if, in regards to Heroic Portraits, I was “getting any love.”
In response, I said, “And no, just like everywhere else, I'm not getting any love on Heroic Portraits.”
Over the past couple of days I’ve gotten hit with the whole “You’re so quiet” thing a few times.
There’s really not much I can say to that (appropriately enough), but I have been thinking about some of the reasons why I am so quiet, and I thought I’d make the exploration of those reasons something of a regular feature here.
So here we have our first installment:
Why is Jon So Quiet?
Because I don’t get much practice talking.
There have been periods in my life in which I’ve gone days without saying a word. Generally, the length of such periods depended on whether or not I needed to stock up on beer and cigarettes, and even then all I’d end up saying is “A pack of Marlboro Lights,” and “Thanks.”
Even now, I don’t have much cause to talk once I get home from work, and the odds are that even before I left work I’d probably been sitting in my cube working on something and not talking to anyone.
So, yeah. Most of my time is spent without having anyone to talk to, so when the opportunity to talk presents itself, I’m not really inclined to take advantage of it, because the odds are that, unaccustomed as I am to speaking, my voice will be hoarse, I’ll stammer or misspeak, or I’ll go off on some rambling, incoherent tangent that has nothing to do with anything.
And I prefer to safe my rambling, incoherent tangents that have nothing to with anything for my Threshold entries.
It was originally scheduled to go from 10:30 to 5:00, but some of the participants had a delayed flight, so we didn’t start until 11:30, and it only lasted until about 3:30.
Now, if only we’d actually accomplished something…
When I got home from work I decided to mow the lawn. I didn’t bother saying anything about the bugs that were dive bombing my eyes to the Universe this time around.
I probably could have gotten away with putting off mowing for a few more days, as the grass in the front and side wasn’t really that long, but the grass in the back was all wild and unkempt, so I figured I might as well.
(I just realized; until I mowed it, my yard had a mullet.)
When Scott and Stacy stopped to get tickets for The Dark Knight in IMAX yesterday, they found that it was sold out, so they ended up buying tickets for a Friday night show at the regular theater.
In the meantime, Scott had signed up some free tickets to a Thursday screening at work, and had asked me if I wanted to go with him if he got the tickets, then rescinded the offer, as Stacy, who had no interest in going to the Friday show, decided that she wanted to go to that.
He said that he was sorry to dangle that offer in front of me and then snatch it away, then noted that he’d said “dangle.”
I pointed out that he also said “snatch,” then said, “Is it revelatory that I focused on snatch, while you focused on dangle? Yes. I think it is.”
In any case, Jamie also scored some tickets to the Thursday show, but was not able to find a babysitter so that Casey could go, so she told Scott that I was welcome to go as her guest.
Earlier today Scott e-mailed me to let me know that Neil Gaiman will be at this year’s National Book Festival and that we should go. I agreed, and forwarded his e-mail on to my friend Eric, suggesting that he might also like to go.
It turns out that the Festival is on his wife’s birthday and that she’s thrilled at the prospect of meeting Neil on her birthday, so his response was “97% Yup.”
So that’ll be cool.
I’d posted a MySpace bulletin about the Heroic Portraits update, and in his e-mail to me Eric mentioned that he liked the Gallery and wanted to know if, in regards to Heroic Portraits, I was “getting any love.”
In response, I said, “And no, just like everywhere else, I'm not getting any love on Heroic Portraits.”
Over the past couple of days I’ve gotten hit with the whole “You’re so quiet” thing a few times.
There’s really not much I can say to that (appropriately enough), but I have been thinking about some of the reasons why I am so quiet, and I thought I’d make the exploration of those reasons something of a regular feature here.
So here we have our first installment:
Why is Jon So Quiet?
Because I don’t get much practice talking.
There have been periods in my life in which I’ve gone days without saying a word. Generally, the length of such periods depended on whether or not I needed to stock up on beer and cigarettes, and even then all I’d end up saying is “A pack of Marlboro Lights,” and “Thanks.”
Even now, I don’t have much cause to talk once I get home from work, and the odds are that even before I left work I’d probably been sitting in my cube working on something and not talking to anyone.
So, yeah. Most of my time is spent without having anyone to talk to, so when the opportunity to talk presents itself, I’m not really inclined to take advantage of it, because the odds are that, unaccustomed as I am to speaking, my voice will be hoarse, I’ll stammer or misspeak, or I’ll go off on some rambling, incoherent tangent that has nothing to do with anything.
And I prefer to safe my rambling, incoherent tangents that have nothing to with anything for my Threshold entries.
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