the new place called home.

Sundays tell me

For the last three weeks I have received a certain kind of sign. Each Sunday without purchasing a paper and only half heartedly looking, I have come into possession of one of these...

I need a new direction. I need to find something else to do with my 40 hours a week. I need to figure out what to do with my life. No one knows but me, and I don't know.

Bush is genuinely concerned about America.

"Never before in our country's history have both the president and Congress been so out of touch with most Americans. Never before have so few of our elected officials and corporate leaders been less willing to commit to the national interest. And never before has our nation's largest constituent group -- some 200 million middle-class Americans -- been without representation in our nation's capital.

George W. Bush's approval ratings have slumped to the lowest of his presidency. The approval rating for Congress is even lower, and nearly three-quarters of Americans believe the country is headed in the wrong direction."
As found on the CNN wire.

Should we be concerned about this? How many more times can we possibly hear that "Bush's ratings have slumped to the lowest of his presidency?" How is all this going to play out in the next 5-7 years? I probably don't think about it nearly enough until I come across an article like the one referenced above, using simple language to promote a more thorough understanding. So many things stay more or less hidden from view behind language "too steep" to climb and dismantle into comprehensible bits, for a common understanding and perspective of just what is going on in the White house and on Capital Hill everyday. The overall effects of which appear to be nothing short of catastrophic in so many areas, known and unknown, to the American population.

Yo Momma!

Yesterday afternoon I actually watched this show on the MTV. I was shocked, awed and appalled. I couldn't believe it was real-that there was a budget for this kind of schlock; but I guess coming from the backers of Jackass, a television show that plenty of people probably thought was totally senseless, I shouldn't be that outraged. But really, "Yo Momma" is an entire show based on trash talking, using "Yo Momma so..." jokes!? What have we come to as a society? How representative is this of the American culture? What good does a show like this serve?
Ok, I understand that it is only entertainment and maybe my prudence is shining through (I did laugh at a few of the jokes b/c they were so bad they were funny, which I guess is the point of the whole show) but my questions and attacks still stand. A show like this can't be good for the pliable minds of youth; who are undoubtedly the target market of an ever better onslaught of media advertising and image production. At home eating Oreos on the couch, they watch wide eyed and attentive to every detail of the facade of televised life on MTV. Then they go off to school to reinforce their MTV world, in their own, little, imperceptible ways with all the fantastical and grandiose MTV images roaming around in their heads as fuel for conduct. Taken to the next level the show could probably even lead to violence, because some people get really mad when you start talking about their "momma."
Oh, MTV where would our youth be without you?

Of drunk drivers and vanity plates

From today's Virginian Pilot: "Virginia Beach attracts an unusually large number of drunken drivers. About 10 percent of all drunken drivers in the state are caught in Virginia Beach. By comparison, the city has about 6 percent of the state's population. Virginia Beach has a disproportionate number because it is a tourism center and because it is the locality with the state's second-largest number of businesses that serve alcohol. Only Fairfax County in Northern Virginia has more."

On NPR this morning I heard that, "In Virginia, 1.4 million cars -- nearly one in five -- sport a personalized plate."
The Washington Post cited the following reason for the popularity, "It costs an extra $10 a year to get a vanity plate in Virginia, compared with the charges in some states, which can reach hundreds of dollars. Virginia also makes it easy to do online, where drivers can test combinations to see whether their favorite is available." You can read the full article here.

A quick Google image search yielded this awesome VA plate...

friday night photoshoot

long exposure times w. other camera's flashes.

flash! flash! instants altered.

Myspace and "Google Trends"

So there's something new at Google again. The "Google Trends" aims at finding out how popular certain search items are on Google, by giving a detailed graphical analysis of where the item is most popularly searched (by region, city, and state) and how it compares with the rest of the world. I tried a few items out and just for the sake of it, I searched for Myspace. I was surprised at what I found...

Could Norfolk really be the 4th city in the world that is searching for Myspace on Google!? I mean, is that what this means? The ratings do appear to change- the graph above was from this morning; yesterday when I originally tried it (and didn't take a screen grab) Norfolk was at number 2! It's a bit hard to believe, really. I don't know what to make of it.
The Information Age is here, and it is here to stay.

Satisfaction

Cinco De Mayo.


The day after.

Work or Play?

Recently an article I read awhile back in the New Yorker was re-introduced to my attention by a friend of whom I gave the magazine to (thanks Templeton). The article expounds on an interesting topic that most of us certainly have an opinion on; the relationship of work to leisure. Upon going back and reading it again, I found it more interesting the second time around. (More and more I regard the articles in the New Yorker as little books or treatises, perhaps that is why they are so neatly catalogued and remain forever available on their website).
“No work and No play” is a short article by James Surowiecki that essentially compared the work habits of Europeans to Americans with a brief history of work habits in the US. Most of us know, and take as a given, that America is the richest nation in the world. However, this comes at a serious price, perhaps, most relevant, that the same nation also boasts the highest rate of mental illness in the world. “People in America generally work 40 hours a week, and average 4 weeks of vacation a year (including holidays)”. Things weren’t always this way and we just might have missed out chance to change them. The article illustrates wonderfully just how difficult of a problem this is to solve, and (interestingly) the role of the service industry in America as opposed to European nations.
As written in the article, “The number of hours the average American worked had fallen by almost twenty-five per cent between 1900 and 1950, and pundits saw no reason for the trend to stop.” Americans must have enjoyed a certain amount of leisure that is not seen today, not to mention time with their family. Today we have to struggle to fit “life” into our work, it would seem. The article further implies that Americans “trade their productivity for more money, while Europeans trade it for more leisure,” which fits well with my own observations of American life. We are utterly sold on everything; DVD players in SUVs, portable music players, and all sorts of other “things.” I can’t imagine a more materialistic world than modern day America.
This may sound a bit negative or extreme, for perhaps, many of you are happy at work and/or enjoy spending the money you earn on the flat screen televisions and “Razr phones” but regardless, it remains true, that too much time is focused on working in this country, to the obvious detriment of society, family and values. The high divorce rate in America is sure testament to the overworked American, as is the ever increasing incidences of depression and anxiety, growing more common everyday, in America.
There really is no “quick fix” (that I know of) to cure us of this problem. However, I believe that merely an awareness of such movements and trends can be effective in living out our own lives in a healthy and happy manner.

I understand that this is not much more than a poor excuse (not to mention, highly paraphrased) New Yorker article, but I just had to share. Today I called in sick to work to take back a little bit of my life. At 11:33am I screamed at the top of my lungs for freedom, while driving in my car. You can to.

Underlying Motive

Just in case anyone was wondering, the marketers make up the rules in the game that you and I indisputably play in. There is no escaping the conditioning and the cross sectional analyses that define the habits and thinking patterns of us humans and humanoids. The merging of psychology into advertising is nothing new; it has transformed how advertisers “reach” us, known or unknown to us since the 1900’s (In 1908, Walter Dill Scott published: "The Psychology of Advertising") . The magnetism of certain advertisements is proof that such tactics work and have advanced to an unbelievable degree of precision. Retail is huge these days and advertising is even bigger. Today I came across this article in the Times that caught my attention and got me thinking on all of this.
A particular concern of mine lately is privacy on the Internet. Not that I have anything to hide, but just for the sake of control and maintaining some level of understanding of who sees what I do on the internet. I recently revamped my Myspace page (and changed my age to 14 to maintain a privacy status) mainly so that when you Google my email address the first “hit” is not quite as revealing. I also wondered before bed last night if my recent interest in Google’s latest tool, an online, "share-able" Calendar, might be detrimental or at least bothersome in the future, should I come to rely on it. My thoughts are thus...
Google started as a search engine whose aim in life was to organize the tremendous amount of information on the Internet to best suit the needs of you, the average citizen. That, we all know. But the Google behemoth, became a behemoth, when it realized that searching could be lucrative with advertisements tailored to meet the needs and wants of the “searcher" and then sold ad space as follows. Then, Google said, “Let’s make a mapping service!” Then, Google said, “Lets make an email service, an image search service and a video service" and so on. Google also offers a “Groups” link on their classic homepage, in which you can find topics and join in on ongoing conversations o nthe topics you care about. And of course, there is Froogle, the “Google's product search engine and shopping directory.” Which “Assists consumers with locating products for sale online by presenting photos of relevant products.”
My point, in this rather trite and inaccurate Google review, is that if you use all of Google’s software and applications, they will and could essentially know everything about you and your life! There is no market research necessary. Advertising becomes an individually based thing. They claim to store the history of every page you ever search for and visit. (It is somewhat comforting to know that at this time, they are not very eager to give up this information, for those of you that remember this bit).
Assume for a minute, if you will, for the sake of example that you use Gmail to talk to your buddies about a trip you are planning with your wife. They can find out, through searching through your email that you are going to Mexico. In fact, they already have figured this out, because of your searches online for beaches in Mexico! They saw your image searches, they saw you map directions to DC to catch the outbound flight; they know you’ve been discussing it in “Groups” and also on your blog; and finally you have it marked on your “shared Google Calendar.” They know when you depart and when you come home; they know you are going to miss your sister’s birthday and that you are going on the trip for your 5th wedding anniversary. The point is, that this is all a little creepy when you think about the future and the direction of advertising, the role of the computer and the Internet in out lives, and the assistance it provides. Nothing on the Internet is yours, it’s all someone else’s too; it’s never gonna be only yours. So for these far out and not so far out reasons, I woke up wondering if I really wanted to get started using Google’s new Calendar application.

weekend trip

Saturday, after a good breakfast, we set out and skated from 10am to 8pm, and didn't eat. We woke up on Sunday only to skate again, then headed home on a most beautiful windy day. It was a fun trip and only left us wanting more. Skateboarding for the rest of my life sounds harsh but looks likely. I can't seem to get enough these days. The weather was perfect and the spots didn't stop, with only the time to set limits on our eagerness.

The real documentarian of the trip.