technology

I just checked out my aunt and uncle's blogs and now I feel vastly inferior. They both write about technology and education, so not exactly what I'm trying to get up here, but along the same lines.

I'll try to use them as inspiration and quality standard.

the darker side to shoe-throwing

from bbc
from al jazeera english

intellectual crush

b-cuz brains is sexxxy

-Shirin Ebadi
-Douglas Rushkoff
-George Lakoff
-Kenji Yoshino
-Reza Aslan
-Thomas Frank
-Ze Frank (no relation)
-Slavoj Zizek is climbing the ladder...
-Edward Said
-Judith Butler
-Michel Foucault
-Germaine Greer

mini profiles, highlights, and gushing may come in the future (so many promises you make courtney...)

branding

The Beeb has a very interesting article about terrorism and celebrity. It reminded me of an episode of Ze Frank's The Show about branding and celebrity in today's world.
There's a weird attitude that any publicity is good publicity. The desire to be in the spotlight, regardless of why, seems to permeate our culture. Reality TV is a prime example of this. The advent of the internet and social networking has made it easier for individuals to produce and distribute amazing works of art and information, but it has also made celebrity into a strange creature that can be anywhere for anything, positive or negative.
This will be expanded when I am less hung over.

internets

the psychology of the internet

One of these days, you're going to see a fatty essay about the internet here. Right now it's still in the planning stages.

what the hell

why would you do this?

I am... beyond amazed, or disgusted. I really don't know...

Colin Powell said something awesome!

also he endorsed Obama, hell to the yeah

"I'm also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the [Republican] Party say... such things as 'Well, you know that Mr Obama is a Muslim'.

"Well the correct answer is, 'He's not a Muslim, he's a Christian, he's always been a Christian'. But the really right answer is, "What if he is?' Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer is 'No', that's not America."

full article on BBC here

internetssssssss

Today is not the day to ramble about the impact of the internet on society or the individual.
That will come later, and it will come long and hard (much like me.)
But for now, Ze Frank did a lovely little experiment with Facebook and identity.

subjectivity

The problem with being into both poststructuralist theory and social activism is the border between acting as an ally and when yr privilege and bias are shaping yr actions.
Talking about bias in (Re)Imagining the Middle East is way harder than it was in Designing Languages. Maybe because this class is forcing me to reevaluate cultural biases that are pretty fundamental to my way of thinking, like I value the objective quite a bit, but haven't come to terms with the... nonexistence? of true objectivism.
Also, generalizations are difficult to avoid... about everything. It's frustrating sometimes, as human brains work based on categories. Changing these categories is hard shit to deal with.

i did it

I feel like I'm on lj for grownups/college students.

That's the way it's gone, right? Myspace to Facebook, LJ to Blogger. Are there any I'm missing?...

Anyway. I think this is going to be a place for some intellectual bullshit to go down. I'd love love love feedback, from anyone (including you stranger), as sometimes I don't know what the hell I'm talking about...

I have the feeling there will be lots of ellipses in this blog.