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THIS BLOG IS RATED WWW-MA.

Update 2020-12-16: (True sticky posts banned; click to read.) So, owing to the evolution of the internet, or at least my own approach to it,...

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Actual Sign

Of course, much to my disappointment, they've changed it since I took this picture of it. The location is/was right on the outskirts of the town in which I make my home.

Maybe so many people are into "reality" shows as much as they are because their real lives are so bloody plastic and fake.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Honey I Shrunk the Attention Span

Here's a thought about the belief of the shortened attention span of the average person today....

I remember reading somewhere that the average person today receives more "new information" in one day than, for instance, people of 1830 received in their entire lifetimes. I say that maybe, just maybe, there's a link here. All kinds of crud are being rapid-fired right into our brains with no way of stopping it. Our brains are now devoted to all this crud, leaving little, if any, space for extended indulgences in speeches, novels, plays, etc. If there's any hope for getting a point across to the masses, the point will basically need to be made in a short, digestible manner. Hour and half-hour commercial-broken increments on TV, three-to-five-minute pop songs, brief blog posts.....these are the things that will successfully get a point across to masses who are, by and large, involuntarily unable to handle any more. This may also explain my, and others', aversion to writing long professional or academic papers and similar works; clear and well-supported arguments though these things may contain, who's going to read it and be able to care?

Hour and half-hour segmented increments on TV, fairly short pop songs, brief blog posts, and maybe a meandering verbal conversation. The way of the future — the way of now.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

With Halloween out of the way, we get to move on to something scarier: Election Day.

In my neighborhood, garbage pick-up is on Wednesdays, which means we prepare for it the day before. Isn't it nice how Election Day and Garbage Night coincide?

Some people seem to perceive not voting as a form of protest. I just posted this as a reply to someone on Facebook, and I think it's worth repeating here:


The problem with that is, as far as I can tell, "no votes" aren't counted. Unless that somehow changes, the status quo votes will simply proceed without the non-voters, and the system will carry on with or without them. It seems to me that our best hope is for gradual change within the established system. So, yes, I vote, even if it is a lesser-of-two-(or-more)-evils choice.

More Election Day thoughts as they occur to me.