World Builder by Bruce Branit

Via Grinding.

Just A Webcomic

From Subnormality!
My favorite webcomic.

Being Productive

I'm starting to get things done again. I've started writing another story that I'm doubtful that I'll finish anytime soon.
Have also discussed playing a part in a friends short movie. I've gotten dialog and a general sense of the character, and I've already changed almost all of my dialog, and some of his. Hopefully he doesn't mind too much.
Then I'm writing my research report for my 50 or so page essay about memetics, and reading about a chapter of psychology a day. These are the things I need to do, but that I don't manage to motivate myself into doing a lot of the time. Ah well, at least I'm keeping up with my reading I suppose. I'm gonna have to get something done on the research report soon though. Need to get that sent in sometime this month.
Oh, and the role in the movie is as a government spook of sorts. It's a minor detail, so I'm betting it's alright if I let that one slip.
What else am I doing then?
A few things I've got bouncing around in my head:
how to create a self sufficient and environmentally friendly community somewhere around these parts
starting a more organized local parkour organization. Possibly workshops.
Making a storyboard and a proper script for a short movie I've written.
Writing another short movie pitch/script/fluid description.
And I have an idea for another, thought that one's not really thought trough yet.
I'm also thinking about trying do the storyboards to each of the shorts as a comic, and possibly a short story too. So you'd have have the same story in 3 different formats basically.

Oh, and I decided to play trough Half Life 2 for the first time as well. And then I did Episode 1 & 2 for good measure. Valve is really something when it comes to doing interesting FPS-styled games I have to say. Go try Portal if you don't believe me.

Well, that's what going on production vise you might say. I've still got other things I'm thinking about, like how personality is constructed. If leaning towards Carl Rogers on this one. Phenomenology ties neatly into the philosophy of parkour on some points as well, which is part of the appeal. But I'm thinking the other guys can't be dismissed just because I happen to prefer one way of looking at personality. They're all pretty interesting, and they all contain something I agree with, so we'll see what I conclude eventually I suppose.
And now I make porridge.

Good News Everyone! & The Cult of Done Manifesto

Not as much news as assorted links and interesting things.
Ah well, here goes:

James Cascio kills Long-Term and elects Multi-generational instead.

Bruce Sterling predicts the future whiteout money.

Charlie Stross' FAQ for the 21st Century
Both via Grinding.

The Cult of Done Manifesto

1. There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion.
2. Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done.
3. There is no editing stage.
4. Pretending you know what you're doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you're doing even if you don't and do it.
5. Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it.
6. The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done.
7. Once you're done you can throw it away.
8. Laugh at perfection. It's boring and keeps you from being done.
9. People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right.
10. Failure counts as done. So do mistakes.
11. Destruction is a variant of done.
12. If you have an idea and publish it on the Internet, that counts as a ghost of done.
13. Done is the engine of more.

And FYI this is a manifesto, which means it's not universal. Some people will agree to all of it, some will agree with some of it, and others will hate it. If you hate it you're not that kind of person.
I like to do thing, but have a tendency to wait too long before starting, have ideas that I'd like to do that I've started and never finished, and so on. This helps me get motivated, although I don't agree with all of it. Doesn't really matter I suppose, since the goal is to get things done. Even if it's barely, failed, or turn into something else completely. "We live and learn" seems fitting in this case...

Found via Zadeta od Lajfa.
Which is the blog of a photographer I must have liked, why else would I have added it to my feeds?

And here's a really interesting interview with a Korean director/actor/writer/producer by the name of Yang Ik-June on Twitch.
Really interesting, entertaining, and inspirational all in one. Though if you don't like to read it's not for you. Hell, if you don't like to read occasionally what are you doing on a blog in the first place?

I was also gonna post about Zoë Bell and the show Angel of Death she's in, but seems like it doesn't want to to work for me, and I don't wanna send anyone to a dead link. (I can't actually get the right address to link to.) It's online television as well, which makes it extra tricky when you can't watch it.
Ah well, here's the site anyway. Crackle is the name, online television is the game. Unless you're me, in which case nothing video related seems to work.
Ah well, link here. Good luck!

Weirdness

It's amazing how things never seem to turn out they way you want them to, and thank the trinity of Hendrix, Morrison and Thomson that it never does.
Would you appreciate things if they always happened the way you want them to? Probably, but for how long? How long until you get bored and need to get out, drink yourself into such a state that you'll try to fuck whatever seems slightly interested in you, wake up in a park underneath a newspaper with cigarette burns on your genitals and the feeling that you ate last years newspaper that's spent it's last days soaking up cat piss in a litter box?
I think that's what's happening now. I've been too good and focused lately. I'm getting to bed a hour past midnight the latest. I brush my teeth, study more or less in at right times.
The worst thing I've done lately? Watching Californication. I kid you not. I have a man-crush on David Duchonvy though, so I have to.
Or maybe it's not as much a man-crush as a form of twisted substitute of a father figure. Or at least a part of one I created from various males I encountered while growing up.
Yes, I grew up with a single mom. No, I am not gay. Thanks for asking, Dr Freud.
And I'm not even joking. Freud thought growing up with only one parent could make you gay. I think growing up can make you gay, period.
Sure, I might not be as controversial as Freud, but I'm bound to be right in more cases.
But it's not fair against Freud to go on about this either. I live in Sweden. I occasionally see serious relational drama's with old womans breasts while eating a bowl of porridge for breakfast.
I'm not really in the mood at the moment, but around here somewhere is where I should write "And I don't even have a tv!"
Oh yes, I just made a granny fucker joke. Guilty, your honor. Send me to the chair. Lethal injection. Gas me and make soup out of me for rich Coca Cola executives to wash the blood of their hands with.
Fanta was made to be sold in Nazi Germany after all. Ok, so maybe the part I heard about it being created because Coke was to American wasn't true, but it was made to be sold to the Nazis.
Ok, so is that enough mental images for you? Have you imagined the being I've created as a father subtitue while growing up? Teachers, ufo huntig FBI Agents, Belgarath the Sorcerer, and so on. It's a wonder I'm not actually more fucked up than I am.
Who knows. Mom claims I had a change of personality after my last concussion, so maybe.
At least I didn't get a iron rod propelled trough my skull by dynamite while digging a railroad. Happened to a guy a few hundred years ago. Apparently he switched from a really nice guy into a drunken bastard.
Not that you need a iron rod trough your brain to have that happen to you.
I suppose that's just how life is. Sometimes things are interesing, you have to adapt and overcome obstalces, other times an iron rod smashes your granny fucking brains in and you become a Nazi alchoholic.
As long as things keep being weird and you can make it even weirder when you feel the need for the surreal, I must proclaim that it is good. What else'd be the point?

Good News Everyone!

Loose your legs and become a mermaid! Remote controlled mini helicopter with a shotgun. Seriously. Or just read H+ Magazine to find out what the future might bring.

The Tallest Man on Earth

Newly discovered singer songwriter. Very good. Reminds me a bit of Dylan, which is decidedly not a bad thing in this case.

2 Hours of Sleep

That's apparently how little I can sleep during the night and function normally. Well, alright, so normally might be stretching it. One of the drawbacks with being a freak of nature I suppose. But still, I spent most of the time I spend comatose studying for my first Psychology exam. Then slept badly on the couch for 2 hours before going to school and doing the exam. That took 4 hours, and then I went home, feeling quite superior in a übermench sorta way for the rest of the day. Oh, and I did parkour for 2,5 hours as well. In snow. Ok, so I just wanted to post something before going to bed basically. I had quite a few ideas, but it seems parts of my brain has shut down to avoid long term damage already. Oh yeah: Smile more. It tricks your brain into making you happier. A book told me, so it's hopefully fairly accurate. Or maybe it's a trick to get people to smile more towards each other, thereby creating a more friendly society... Or maybe I've watched too many cheap Buddhist knock offs of the X-files.

Raiding Vimeo 2

Yeah, it didn't take many hours for me to decide to make another one. I didn't even close the tab I had opened for the first one before I started this one. Anyway, it's as usual a mixed bag of awesome videos. Like this one, for instance:

Suddenly from Magnus Engsfors on Vimeo. Apparently he's just hanging in wires as someone goes around taking loads of pictures of him that's later been made into a surreal video. Or how about a video where a guy travels the world to dance in all kinds of places?

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo. It has a tendency to make me very happy. It's people having fun, which usually makes the people watching happy. A piece of advice: Smile more. It makes you happier. Seriously, it tricks the brain into making you happier. Go look it up somewhere if you doubt me. But happiness can be replaced by sorrow as well:

Tea / Las Alturas Fire, Santa Barbara California from Patrick Lawler on Vimeo. Luckily I don't think anyone died, although a lot of homes where lost. Unlike in Australia, which as far as I know is still burning. Emotions always seem to be shifting, so maybe we should just relax, enjoy life and throw a party instead?

DGENERATE NATION - Skate With Me from DGENETICS on Vimeo. Besides, if I get to post at least something with a bit of music in it I'm happy. And this is a music video even! Though sometimes we just need to take the time to appreciate the small moments that we usually seem to ignore. Like having lunch in a hole in the wall type Asian restaurant.

lost in a moment from dennis wheatley on Vimeo. It's a cutout of a moment in time. Some say life is just a string of moments happening after one another. Some that life never truly change. Others that things always change and never stay the same. I'd personally say that life is what you think it is. If you want to believe that things never change I suspect I'd have a hard time to convince you otherwise. As long as it works out for you, I probably shouldn't try either.

Raiding Vimeo

We all know that Vimeo are superior to YouTube for a number of reasons: it looks better, has real HD quality, and consist mainly of good videos. Consider how much crap there are all over YouTube. Most of it is just copied from other places and reposted there too. Or at least a lot is. Vimeo, however, does not allow anything else than original work. This means you have to have made what you post yourself, or at least was involved in the production somehow. But enough jabbering. I took an hour or so to look up some videos to post. I didn't even have to leave the first page to find them either. Who knows what I've might find if I venture in deeper?

Rendezvous with Rama from Aaron Ross on Vimeo.

1000 Bills (In Imago Speramus) from Alex Itin on Vimeo.

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo. Yeah, so these 3 falls under art. Which seems to be what most of Vimeo consists of from where I'm standing. Of course, that not all there is either. There some social commentary in the mix as well. For instance this little piece about Blackwater and other mercenaries in Iraq:

Hired Guns from JD on Vimeo. Not that I mind the art or anything, but I like variation too. The next video is also art, but since it's in HD I decided to end this post with it. More videos are to be expected. You may now rejoice. I might also post about psychology in the future. We'll see what happens I suppose.

SCINTILLATION from Xavier Chassaing on Vimeo.

Assorted things again!

That's right, I have nothing important to preach today either, so it will be another post where I try to entertain the non-existent readers I have.

How about some Wingsuit Base Jumping to kick things off?

Quite suicidally dangerous if I may say so. For some reason I want to put one of those on and swoop down from rooftops and kick bad people in the head...
If you care about my wellbeing you will not buy me one. This is not in any way reverse psychology I might add.

A short film about vampires, love and comedy.
Bats in the Belly by Thomas Gerber:

Yeah, that's a nice easy start I think. Now for the important stuff.
Like how to prevent the inevitable collapse of the American society by turning balconies, rooftops, parks and so on, into gardens. It's a "Eat your veggies or die" type of deal.
And it gets all the more relevant because of parallels to the development in Russia a decade or two ago.
More here.
And if you've got the money stashed away you might as well invest in a Farm Fountain right away. It'll probably help a bit when society falls apart around us.

A tune for Valentines

Or was that yesterday? Ah, who cares. It's highly entertaining in either case.

Lots of Things

This post will mainly contain links and stuff like that. I'm busy with studies atm, so posting will be infrequent I'm afraid. Here's a little something for valentines for instance:

And here's a link to an io9 post about lasers being used to close wounds. Penny talks about mental illness and how hard it is to find a job with it. A really good post. China apparently has execution buses that double as organ harvesters. Crime forfeits your rights to have organs, apparently. People interested in genetics might want to read about Punctuated Equilibrium and Hopeful Monster.

Movies and Yellyfish

I might have found a new favorite director. (Not that I really have one at the moment, but Katsuhito Ishii is a strong contender either way.)

The Immortal Jellyfish are preparing for their first strike on humanity apparently.
That'd be a good name for a band if you happen to need one by the way.

And here's a clip from a movie you've all probably seen:

Regina Spektor - Back of a Truck

Yeah, I love her too. No surprise there. This is from her first album. One of my favorites from it. It's a lot more all over the place then her latest one, but that's just fun I think.
And it's an awesome song to sing along with. Or try to, at least.
Music only version though, but still, enjoy!

Things from Grinding

Today I have found 3 things that interest me on Grinding.be One post about the history of the Internet, one about a new fuel cell that's so small that you can fit quite a few on the tip of your finger, and a possible future for pirate radio. Needless to say I like this place once in a while. I could care less for cool designer things and stuff like that. I feel it's occasionally too high-tech you might say. We all know the future will most likely be low-tech by now anyway, right?

You lose! Good day sir!

Disolving Evolving?

It took me a while to figure out how I view life, what I think our purpose is, and all those things we're supposed to drive ourself mad over before we turn 30. So, what do I think then? Well, alright. I suppose I have to tell you now, don't I? Alright, so first there was evolution. Things progressed, and we managed to form a theory of how we are what we are, and how other creatures are what they are. No problem there. But this was just the beginning you see. Once we've established all of these things, what separated us from the other beings around us? Not that I'd say all of us wants some proof that they're above the other animals, but I think we've all at least had that thought once or twice, right? And even here it's pretty easy. We've got culture. And I'm not talking about culture as in painting, music, and sitcoms here. Human culture, as I see it, is the heritage of our minds. Our memetic DNA, if you so will. Because even in our culture things are inherited from generation to generation. This, I think, is what we need to evolve further. We evolved until we had the mental capacity to form a massive culture. It's gotten so far that parts of the cultural sphere cannibalize itself and eats it's neighbors. Maybe we've gotten as far as we can with our culture? So what then, might the next step be? It's probably a bit early to talk about the next step in the evolutionary chain already though. The idea of cultural DNA hasn't even been firmly established yet, and here I am already asking you: "What's next?" But that's how we evolve. We discover things, we investigate, experiment, construct and keeps the structure intact. Well, at least until we can upgrade it to something better. So, what then is our purpose? I think our purpose is simple. Evolving. Moving on to the next stage. Trying to be the best we can, and then triple it. We might do so by creating things that improve for others, improve the environment, improving the cultural sphere by generating new material to mix into the vast ocean of ideas that already exist. But this is more the goal, not the start. We start, as most people do, at the bottom. We start thinking, decide to try something new, and from that point on we start building momentum. Once you move fast enough almost nothing can stop you. And if you actually meet an unmovable object, you either work out a way to get around it, or crash and pick yourself up, and try another direction. Yeah, so maybe it's not a life philosophy quite yet, but I'm working on it. That's actually enough. For now, at least.

We're Doomed

At least according to this guy.

But despite his somewhat serious tone, there's loads of interesting things in the links.
Like the NYPD wanting to be able to shut down cell phones in case of terrorist attacks.
Which, is of course, fucking dumb. If the terrorists works in cells, or have an actual plan to begin with, it won't matter.
And if they've set up a diversion, for instance blowing something up, people won't be able to call for assistance.
Sure, it might cripple the terrorists if they're lucky. But it will also cripple the society, and the police departments source of information.

And then there's the French police raid on a new started village for people who wanted to live in a better society, and decided that a small village would be the way to go.
Apparently they where dangerous Anarchists plotting to overthrow the French government, according to the French government.
There is apparently evidence to this fact even, although none has been presented so far.
According to their neighbors all of the arrested where nice people.
And besides, I thought violent Anarchists usually lived in the city? It's a lot easier to light things on fire if you don't have to drive for a few hours to get there first, for one.
And if you live in a village like that, there's always something to do. It's people who live in the cities that gets bored and unstable.

Then there's this:

Which is horrible and scary as hell all in one. This is the shooting that caused the riots I posted about on the bottom of one of my music posts.
I've heard he mixed up his gun and tazer, which don't really make me feel any better in any way.
Then there's things like this, this, and this. But it seems things are calming down a little.
If, on the other hand, the situation escalates things could get really bad really fast. It hopefully won't come to that, but if the officer just gets a slap on the wrist there's no telling what might happen. He had the sense to hand in his resignation a few days afterwards at least, so that hopefully diffuses the mess somewhat.

Via Grinding.

Competetative Use or Abuse of Drugs?

Drugs are, depending on who you ask, good or bad for you. Ask a Doctor and he'd say some are. Ask a addict and he'd probably tell you to fuck off or something. He might also try to kill and eat you to dispose of the evidence. I would. But it seems there is a new form of drug use on the horizon, the sort that do not surprise anyone who actually know a thing or two about this in the least, but we can't all keep up with what new and exciting new flowers are being found in the rain forest that turns the world into Jello when you smoke them, now can we? I sure as hell can't. I need some reality to stab me in the sockets once in a while. And I can't get that if I have elves singing happy tunes about la-la land in my head, while drooling on myself on the floor. So therefore I welcome this new approach with gusto. The new type of drug is not for fun, it is not to relax and enjoy life, it's not even about seeing pretty music and hearing beautiful colors. It's about working until you knuckles bleed and your ears rot and fall off. Drugs that will turn your brain into a nuclear powered machine bursting with ideas and processing at such a speed that you'll most likely have to wear an iceberg on your head to avoid spontaneous combustion. Now try shouting that 3 times from a bell tower while dancing with a monkey. You can't, can you? Getting a monkey can be a bit tricky though, so I won't torment you about it too much. Where are they doing this you may ask? Silicone Valley, of course! Where Pamela Andersson rule supreme, and the size of your bosom dictate your standard of living. Even men have huge knockers in Silicone Valley! ... Or maybe that's the script for a porno I'm working on? Yeah, probably is. Anyway, the people who sail the virtual seas, and pirate and plunder the world of bytes are drinking their super-rum and building castles out of their ideas. The next version of Microsoft will most likely have been made with the aid of powerful brain boosters. I wonder, if you look closely, can you maybe see the outlines of a smiley face starring back back at you? Via Open the Future.

Oh God Why Am I Not Well Yet?

Did I scare you now? Admit it, you thought I was gonna write and complain about still being sick once more. But no, I am gonna complain about other things instead! Like the fast food industry, and why it evil and should be isolated and sent into orbit with nuclear warheads! (Except for the fact that sending up a few thousand McDonalds, Burger Kings, and so on on a huge wire attached to nukes would look awesome that is.) Let's start with the things we know: it will fucking kill you in the long run. It does not provide you with what you need, it only fills your stomach to some extent. The only good thing is that it's fast and comfortable. We don't need more comfortable things in our lives though. What we need is something like the plague 5.3, so that once we make it to work whiteout our face rotting and falling off, we're happy. Thank God for the failing economy and environmental crisis though. These are things we can all agree upon. We gather in little groups, and say "This is bad. Fuck you problems, we're gonna do something about you!" and some actually does! Some think about it, or complain about it on their blog like they're better than everyone else. Of course I would never do that, but you know what sort of people I talk about. The ones driving diesel SUVs, that get fake tans, that would actually wear expensive jewelry. (For some reason I start thinking the word jewelry comes from the fact that Jews are supposedly good at diamonds. I know it's jewel-ry, but I keep thinking jew-lery.... Maybe Sarah Silverman could create a fake super villain with that name or something?) Ok, so maybe you wouldn't confuse me with tasteless rich people. All they have to do is buy whatever the designers make. Poor people have to buy cheap things and make them look good. I buy stuff from thrift stores and make it into other stuff, some of which you can actually wear whiteout violating indecency laws! But that's an easy point to make really. If you're used to adapting to things, and have to be creative to survive in todays society, of course you're gonna be more interesting than someone who just does what they please and don't have to face any obstacles. And yes, I have something of a negative of rich people. Or at least rich people who are either lazy or stupid. Or act like idiots in bars. Unless they buy me things. I can't hate people that buy me things, even if I don't really like them. This is not hypocrisy, it is honesty. Ok, so I might have side tracked a little there... Anyway: environmentally fast food is disaster. Cheap Indian beef... Hey, aren't cows supposed to be holy? Or is that China... Ah well, some poor bastard of a country will have to cut down their rainforest's to grow cows for lazy people to eat at McDonald's, or some other hell-hole of a fast food joint. It's bad for you and the environment. What else do you need to know? Maybe how to cook food? Yeah, buy yourself a cookbook instead, and make something easy and nutritious. If you really can't cook there are probably students cookbooks that you can buy. If you can't even boil an egg though you should probably sure your parent's or something... Or, you know, yell your faces of at each other. That's always fun too.

Good News Everyone!

The worlds largest botnet is being constructed thanks to a a worm that's infected a few million computers in around a week. Is it Skyney? Is it aliens? Is it a government conspiracy to take power over the Internet?
I don't know, and I don't care because I haven't got it yet.
Go here to see if you do.

Possible epidemic of H5N1 in China?

Yeah, that's it. I also read something about a Mexican police chief getting killed after only five days, and one of the cartells leaving his head in a icebox outside the police station. Torture, hitmen, and gunshot wounds were also mentioned.

Video Projection

Very cool. A possible future where the line between adds and billboards are blurred comes to mind.

Haze

Sick again.
I probably didn't get completely well since last time, and two hours at the local bathhouse didn't exactly help either. Or maybe it was the bicycling around for half an hour with wet hair?
Either way, things have gone all foggy and unclear. I should have made my way over to a friends to borrow a few books for my classes, but I'm gonna have to skip the chapter that I'm supposed to have read until tomorrow. I'm feeling bad enough as it is, going all the way there and then back again would probably end up with me unconscious in some ditch somewhere.
Oh, and I'm supposed to get up at 7 tomorrow. Which means I'm gonna have to go to bed soon. I have serious doubt as to my ability to fall asleep this early, but I'm gonna have to try I suppose.
And here come the headache... fucking hell.

Something more interesting will be posted soon. I might post that dream I turned into a short sci-fi story even.

Life on Mars?

Nothing mayor, just microbes... On the other hand, it would be life on another fucking planet! HOLY SHIT IT'S GONNA EAT OUR SOULFUL BRAINS! RUN JAMES BROWN, RUN!

Via Open the Future.