To hell with Marx, I follow the Qun.

So I just finished playing Dragon's Age II, and let me tell you, it was awesome. One of the reasons I got the game was to play some DLC starring Felicia Day. Who is awesome, and a redhead, so I'm totally crushing on her geeky self. But it was the game itself that enthralled me. Great voices, great story, amazing world building.

And the Qun.

Imagine Marx as a desert prophet in the Middle Ages and you end up with the Qun. By comparison to serfdom, and a world controlled by a nobility (no equality before the law, that's for certain), well, wouldn't it start looking pretty good? Regular Meals, a respected Place in the Order. An existence defined essentially, by the principle,"From each according to their  ability to each according to their need."

Beats the socks off bowing and scraping to some inbreed with an inherited title, don't it.

All this from a video game (with Felicia as the sexy Russian Qun agent).

Gotta  love it - time to write some fan fic.

Steve Jobs

Admittedly, I've always been an Apple guy. The interface was always more intuitive for me, and I just wanted my computer to be a tool, not a hobby. I wanted it to be seamless with the function I wanted it to do, and I wanted what interaction I did have to be esthetically pleasing. Like cooking in a pretty kitchen.
Now you don't need a pretty kitchen to cook a great meal, but I prefer it. Some of the best cooks I know have chaotic kitchens with pots and pans everywhere. And their food is great. But I end up frazzled in that kind of kitchen.

But Mr. Jobs, well, he saw further. He saw past just making a pretty kitchen, and wanted you to have an entirely new perspective on cooking. It's still cooking, but you can do it in a new way.

iMac, to iPod, to iPad. All of these devices are changing how we view and handle information and so many of the outcomes of these. The portability, the effortlessness of the interface. These let us focus on the task, not on how we do it.

And that, in my mind, is what good design is all about.

Conversations

Had some friends over last night. Couple of Marxists (though we have argued about exactly what they are, so I may be a little off there - but you get the idea). We talked about the my new house reno, about the food they cooked for us - yes, they visit us and then cook. Awesome or what? I did supply the wine though, and there was a fair bit of it.

And we talked about politics. Not about the tactical back and forth that you see on the TV. Not even the policy that you see on some of the more in depth coverage shows that have a small (if dedicated) viewership. But about what we think the system should do. What the system means. All very meta stuff and I was thinking a lot about the culture that would yield a society where these kinds of conversations would be more prevalent.

Conversations  about what it means to live in the world we are in. Not always that meta shit, but also about policy, about what matters to us. Not just politics either, but arts and sports (doing and watching) and crafts and hobbies - stuff that has more substance - because fun is serious stuff.

And you know, serious topics can be presented in an interesting way. Look at any good documentary. So what is it in our culture that keeps us from doing this more. Are we all just too tired, or is it simply that we are getting shouted down by the latest ephemera from the world of reality TV.

And who makes that choice. Because its not just us. We can choose not to partake, but if the culture as a whole is screaming about the seasonal stars of Big Brother and the like, well it's difficult to talk over the nonsensical din.

Is it your fault Harper got in?

If you're under 45, the answer is probably yes.

In that age range you are probably engaged in social media, and disengaged from standard electoral politics. The Globe and Mail had an article on how badly Ekos screwed up their polling. They did this by failing to assume that if you're under 45 you're an apathetic fuck who can't get your increasingly obese ass of the couch and vote.

see here: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/a-pollsters-painful-reckoning-how-could-i-have-screwed-up-so-badly/article2065573/page2/

For a more complete analysis of how (if you didn't vote) you fucked up, look here:
http://www.ekos.com/admin/articles/FG-2011-06-17.pdf


Instead you're likely on facebook or some such shit where you get to feel connected to the world around you, to feel engaged. Even when you aren't.

Even when your apathy and your artsy left wing sensibilities and your carefully cultivated cynicism result in the reelection of someone who's policies the majority of Canadians disagree with.

And who will work hard to increase the gap between rich and poor (Union busting and Corporate tax breaks)

Well done. Bravo.

A Vacation of Sorts

So I've just sent out my novel to members of my two writing groups, in hopes that they'll have a chance to read it and give me feedback. At 130K, I've finished it to a point where I want a sense of the thing as a whole before I rip it apart and put it back together.
I'm hoping we're talking minor surgery, not a full multiorgan transplant.

As a reward/sanity check, I've decided to take two weeks off of writing. Completely. Nothing on my shorts, no plotting on the other novel sitting on my shelf looking at me with big puppy dog eyes.

So now I don't really know what to do with myself. Even when I procrastinated, I was procrastinating on something. Now I don't have to procrastinate, or argue against it. Suddenly my weekends and evenings have no demands.
It's weird.

So I mowed the lawn. I was very thorough. Barb thought I looked a bit mad.

Now what?