Meet Steady Eddie...

MEET STEADY EDDIE

The corporate non-risk taker rises fast on the freshness of youth; an open mind, a pleasant demeanour and good looks will accelerate this rise.
His superiors are pleased to promote him since it reflects well on them.
The candidate reaches a platform of responsibility, not something to be treated lightly.

After all, he is now a manager, albeit a junior one.

His salary rises in accordance with status, not ability, and he reaches board level.
It is now time to appoint a joint or deputy managing director. Our man is considered to be a good company man, but he is a bit dull. He doesn't produce inonovation; he doesn't do anything for the image of the company.
There's a very good young man in his department earning a third of his salary, who younger members of staff respond to.

Our man at forty is moved sideways, and at forty-seven he is out.
He didn't reach the top of the ladder, he has fallen back and there is no climbing back.
He's finished, yet he has done nothing wrong.

That is the problem. He's done nothing wrong.

NOW LET'S LOOK AT RECKLESS ERICA

As a youngster she doesn't have the charm of the previous character. Not the corporate type. She's irritating but enthusiastic and popping with daft ideas. So they keep her on. Most of her ideas are regarded as impractical, too adventurous or plain silly. But somewhere in the company, someone picks up one of her wilder thoughts and promotes it. It gets noticed because it is different and fresh.

For the next three years, she produces a series of unusable ideas. She becomes increasingly irritating and is fired.

Now the odd thing is that it is not as difficult for her to get a new job as she thought, because a number of people remember that rather good idea she produced three years ago. They prefer to gloss over the failures.

Her name on the payroll adds a bit of glamour to her new company. But the same process happens again. Once more she is fired, but now there are two pieces of work that make her memorable. She's not just a one-off.

Her whole life is lived like this, a series of ups and downs, more downs than ups.

But when she reaches the age of forty she has a track record. She has become a respected person.

Still reckless Erica, but more in demand than ever because she failed to conform.


THIS BOOK IS AMAZING!

The Rave Experience

An excerpt taken from Tony Hsieh's, Delivering Happiness on the power of the rave. Would like to see where my interest in electronic music, tech, and art can take me, and I think Hsieh's experience perfectly captures the reason I want to move forward with this endeavor...

Streams of giant green laser beams were shooting throughout the entire warehouse, which was the size of ten football fields. Fog machines helped create a sense of dreamlike surrealism as everyone faced the DJ and moved in unison to the beat of the music. Cans of Red Bull were strewn everywhere, and ultraviolet black lights caused the fluorescent decorations on the walls and ceilings to glow as if they were alien plants transported from another universe.

But it wasn't just about the decorations, or the black lights, or the fog machines, or the lasers, or the massiveness of the warehouse. Something else about the scene and moment elicited an emotional response from my entire being that was completely unexpected, and I couldn't really place my finger on exactly what it was or why I felt that way.

I tried to analyze what was different about this scene compared with the nightclub scene that I was more accustomed to. Yes, the decorations and lasers were pretty cool, and yes this was the largest single room full of people dancing that I had ever seen. But neither of those things explained the feeling of awe that I was experiencing that was leaving me speechless. As someone who is usually known as being the most logical and rational person in a group, I was surprised to feel myself swept with an overwhelming sense of spirituality--not in the religious sense, but a sense of deep connection with everyone who was there as well as the rest of the universe.

There was a feeling of no judgment, and as I glanced around the warehouse, I saw each person as an individual to be appreciated for just being himself or herself, dancing to the music.

As I tried to analyze what was going on in more detail, I realized that the dancing here was different from the dancing I usually witnessed in nightclubs. Here, there was no sense of self consciousness or feeling that anyone was dancing to be seen dancing, whereas in nightclubs, there was usually the feeling of being on display somehow. In nightclubs, people usually dance with each other. Here, it seemed that almost everone was facing the same direction. Everyone was facing the DJ who was elevated up on stage, as if he was channeling his every to the crowd. It almost felt as it everyone was worshiping the DJ.

The entire room felt like one massive, united tribe of thousands of people, and the DJ was the trial leader of the group. People weren't dancing to the music so much as the music seemed like it was simpl moving through everyone. The steady wordless electronic beats were the unifying heartbeats that synchronized the crowd. It wa as if the existence of individual consciousness has disappeared and been replaced b a single unifying group consciousness, the same was a flock of birds might seem like a signle entityy instead of a collectionof individual birds. Everyone in the warehouse had a shared purpose. We were all contributors to the collective rave experience.

Mon Oncle

Almost Famous

"But we are uncool. Women will always be a problem for guys like us. Most of the great art in the world is about this very problem. Good lookin' people--they got no spine. Their art never lasts. They get the girls, but we're smarter. The only true currency you share with someone else in this bankrupt world is when you're uncool."

Dead Poet's Society

We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. To quote from Whitman, "O me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless... of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life?" Answer. That you are here - that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?

Super String Theory + Flash Foward.

After watching both a special on the History Channel on parallel universes and this video by physicist, Brian Greene on Super String Theory, I have reason to believe that this could be the overarching story woven into ABC's Flash Forward.

In detail, some characters try to dodge what they saw in their flash forward while others pursue it. Some fail to achieve their futures while others cling to hope, but the point is that while there is no consistency between the two, everyone is fixated on what they saw. This is precisely what makes the show so addicting is that characters in the show are realizing that they can't control their futures as hard as they try--that have to expect the unexpected, or expect the expected.

For example, we first thought protagonist, Mark Benford could dodge his flash forward of his wife leaving him for another man simply by taking off his daughter's bracelet. But he and we were quick to realize that taking off bracelets, wearing a different pair of shoes, or moving to another country could not prevent or activate a future event from occurring. In Mark's case, we only know if his wife leaves him and is in bed with another man once it happens in real time. Even if all the cards leading up to that event work against it--the affair could still happen or visa versa. The point is, there are many different routes and many different outcomes in life. Some are favorable, some aren't but we won't know until it happens. And when it does or doesn't we take what we have and move forward.

Here's where String Theory ties in. What if in our universe, that fateful day comes and Benford's wife and him are happily married and move to another country? They may not be in the clear even after that window of time has passed. According to string theory, which if proven could be the scientific explanation of everything in existence, there are 10 total dimensions (not 3) that serve as the basis of our cosmos. We only see three. But there are 6 dimensions of space too small to see or too big, and 1 dimension of time that the other 9 dimensions of space depend on.

Based on this theory, we could be living in a multi dimensional universe of infinite universes. And if we are but one universe that coexists with inifinite other universes on the same clock, then theoretically there are other universes out there that have exact replicas of us. Some universes don't even have us. So, even if in Flash Forward's universe, Benford and family are happy together, she might've left him in another universe. Or he might have died in another universe, or she might have died in another universe, or he might not exist at all in another universe. All happening at the same time. There's an infinite number of outcomes that will have happened, and in this earth you experienced only one.

I'm tired, but in the end my theory is that someone like D. Gibbons was able to access these parallel universes where the characters in flash foward passed out for 2 minutes, accessed these parallel universes--all different ones (by some sort of miracle accessed their other replicas on top of that) , woke up, took them and perceived them as their destinies and are trying to fight it or avoid it. When maybe the point in the end is to realize that all outcomes will happen to you in one universe or another--and that instead of going crazy over your destiny, and preventing what may or may not happen, to go with the flow and appreciate for what is currently at hand.


Shit. I'm not sure the ending was a little weak, but that's a start.

Maangchi Feeds Hungry Souls

I've been a loyal follower of Maangchi for quite some time now. And in the future, when my mother-in-law (assuming she'll probably be Korean), is impressed with my cooking skills, I will have attributed a lot of that to Maangchi. Not only does she teach me the right ingredients, but more importantly teaches me the soulful approach and confidence you need to take when you want to cook korean food right.

With that, here's a video of my Maangchi, trekking the world, and has landed in Fortuna, Costa Rica, where she proceeds to feed a bunch of her new globe trotting friends with 닭죽 (Chicken Porridge). Ah, good choice again Maangchi, good choice for starving travelers who probably misse the comforts of a Mom-cooked meal.

Surf Dudes With Attitude

This made me soooo happyyyy!!!!

We Are Just A 3-D Projection of a 2-D universe.

Friend sent me this article from the NewScientist, about a mind-altering discovery a German scientist made of humans living and existing in a hologram world:

The holograms you find on credit cards and banknotes are etched on two-dimensional plastic films. When light bounces off them, it recreates the appearance of a 3D image. In the 1990s physicists Leonard Susskind and Nobel prizewinner Gerard 't Hooft suggested that the same principle might apply to the universe as a whole. Our everyday experience might itself be a holographic projection of physical processes that take place on a distant, 2D surface.

The "holographic principle" challenges our sensibilities. It seems hard to believe that you woke up, brushed your teeth and are reading this article because of something happening on the boundary of the universe. No one knows what it would mean for us if we really do live in a hologram, yet theorists have good reasons to believe that many aspects of the holographic principle are true.

Mind-blowing. But if that's the case, why can't my hands pass through me? Why do objects hit each other and not go through each other?

It got NYLON'd.

Of course, it would only be a matter of time before NYLON would infiltrate the "Museum" scene. I suppose I'm contributing to this infection by attending many museum events with the same people. But in some way or another, we are there for different reasons. Not even on an art-historical level where I can confidently say I go exclusively for the arts--but more just..."Is that all you have to say?"- level.

I hate to use these people as the guinea pigs--who knows, maybe they really did go to the MoMA to see the galleries, and met new people, and had interesting conversations. But maybe they really just used that as a venue to size up each other's vintage store finds, smoke their packs of American Spirits, and take advantage of the lenient rules of museum cash bars. (hm..come to think of it most people treat museum events this way)



Sure it looks cool, and they have great style. But imagine how much cooler it would be if you were intellectually invested in the world around you other than your vintage outfit. Imagine if NYLON had re-done the video and interviewed kids, who not only looked cool, but asked them to speak a little bit more in depth about what the arts mean to them. Even a simple, "Why did you come here tonight?" would have been sufficient. I know in reality, NYLON would never do that because they've made their fortune on kids with cool clothes. But I felt this video def. dumbed our generation down two-fold.

God, I want to have a conversation with this guy. He's actually doing something meaningful with hit record.org



So hot.