Perceptions

I find the perceptions with which news and events are reported to be quite fascinating.
So much of what we are told or read is totally subjective. Take this latest case, which has some relevence to my own job.
The FTC (Federal Trade Commision) in the States recently issued a report on marketing media violence to children. In it, it gives mixed reviews to the video games industry's efforts at limiting sales of violent video games to children under 17.
The wide range of spin in how this story was reported is quite amazing. Here's a couple samples.

FTC says content curbs fall short - L.A. Times
FTC: game industry self-policing improving - GameSpot
Report says the young buy violent games and movies - NY Times
FTC: self-regulation of violent content working - Beta News
Report: Violence still aimed at kids - Variety
FTC: Game are better regulated than music, movies - Ars Technica

It makes me wonder who or what influences are behind the reporting we see on most subjects.
If you haven't had a look already - check out my link to Spin Cycles, CBC Radio's fascinating story on the history of PR.


A link to some reporting on the FTC report.
http://gamepolitics.com/2007/04/12/breaking-ftc-report-praises-spanks-video-game-industry/
http://www.gamepolitics.com/

Happy Yuri's Night!

On this day, in 1961, 46 years ago, Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin, became
the first man into space. Considering the state of Soviet rocketry at
the time, he was probably the bravest man that ever was... if he had
been allowed to know the state of Soviet rocketry at the time. :-)

He died in 1968, while on a training flight. At supersonic speeds, a
SU-15 passed within 10 to 20 meters of his MiG-15UTI, causing his
craft to spin out of control, crashing into a forest near Kirzhach.

So comrade, hoist a shot of vodka to his memory and his achievement
in solidarity with all space enthusiasts around the world!

http://www.yurisnight.net/2007/

Work weeks

Who's to blame for the five day work week? Who decided that we should spend 71% of our lives working? Why not work two days then get five days off? Sure, sure...lost productivity, the economy would grind to a halt.

What has the economy ever done for you lately?

I'm going to make it my mission today to scour the internet until I find out who is to blame for the modern work week.

Come on internet! Prove you're good for something other than porn.

Easter Plague

On the bright side, that was the first four day weekend I've had in a while - so that was pretty good. But on the downside, I seem to have caught some strain of the plague or something.
What gives with that? You can work like a dog for ages and be healthy as a horse, despite maybe not taking care of yourself the best you could, but the minute you have a little time to relax...BAM! The old immune system goes on holiday too.
Oh well, it was a good excuse to turn the four day weekend into five.

Happy Easter!

The Virtues of Profanity

There really is nothing like a good swear.

Most often, I find inanimate objects are the target. My crashtastic computer, that street light that changed up ahead, that table who's leg I just kicked. All of these are perfect moments to expand the old profanity repertoire.

These days, swear words like 'fuck' or 'shit' are too commonplace though. They fail to shock anyone anymore. Hell, you can hear them on regular TV after 9:00.

I've become a big proponent of Al Swearengen. If you haven't seen it - Deadwood is easily one of the best shows that HBO has put out the last couple of years. It also has possibly the most swearing ever heard on TV. Al's favorite is 'c#$!sucker'. I'm a firm believer that 'c#$!sucker' should be brought back into more public usage. Try using that next time you were going to say 'fuck' and I guarantee more people will pay attention to you.

Until the children of today are using 'c#$!sucker' around the dinner table, my crusade will not be done!

Turkish Tuesday

Tried a new Turkish restaurant for dinner tonight and was quite impressed.
I wandered around Turkey a bit after University and I don't remember being particularly fond of the cuisine. In fact, I seem to remember the whole group of us being laid up in Austria a couple days after we left Turkey while our bodies reaclimitized themselves to western food.

Turkey itself was fantastic, though. Friendly people, amazing sites and possibly the craziest drivers in the world. To them, karma decides if they will live through another day on the roads or not and they seem to have great trust in karma giving each of them two thumbs up.

If you keep one bit of information from this, just remember - do not drive in Istanbul if you value your life. Yes, there are trafic lights, the occaisional street sign - even lines on the road. But none of these mean anything. It wasn't unusual to see a public bus driving on the wrong side of the road while at the same time the streets were crammed with pedestrians - either skillfully weaving in and out of traffic or trying to sell you something. The highways were even more insane.

The only way we survived the experience was to become one with the turks. "Let the turk out" became our motto when driving. It almost seemed like our brains usual danger signals had turned themselves off as we swerved in and around cars on the highway, usually with only a few meters to spare between us and oncoming traffic, or inventing that mysterious third lane in the middle of a two land highway. Ahh karma.

These days I think I'll stick to an Adana kebab and some turkish delight.

200 DHU Monday

We have an informal unit of measurement here at Bioware, the DHU, otherwise known as the David Hasselhoff Unit. It's a measurement of stress level around the office, so that 5 DHUs could be getting interrupted on your way out for your morning coffee. 40 DHUs could be your officemates nattering on incessently while you are in the midst of concentrating on some problem or another. 1000 DHUs is the level of stress when we're in full on crunch time, 6 day work week kind of hours.

Usually at our company meetings, one of the producers incorporates the Hoff into his presentation. It's like watching an accident about to happen - you know what's coming, but you can't turn away.

I think Mondays in general rate about 200 DHUs. They are just plain annoying. The weekend is still fresh in your mind and here comes Monday to ruin all your fun. It takes at least until Tuesday to get back in the swing of things.

And just so everyone knows - this is what 1000 DHUs looks like.