Archive for March, 2009

The Meme is Killing You

by Drey on March 19, 2009 in Writing with 7 Comments

Have you seen this video? Of course you have. Doesn’t matter which one I’m talking about. You saw it in a tweet or on Facebook or in someone’s blog. Within days everyone we know has seen it. Then we’re all discussing it as though it were an event we saw on our way to work, only somehow we all live on the same street.

But what actually happened was we were all infected by a virus which we happily helped spread. The virus did not infect our computers. That’s just the delivery mechanism. It infected our brains. It ate up thought cycles we used to use for other things. The virus is smart. It softens the blow of the payload with some anesthetic amusement, tickling the proper receptors so that we feel like we’ve been thinking about something even though we’ve gained zero nutritional content. Plus its got celebrity endorsement. You saw it on a cool person’s Twitter, right?

We’ve gained nothing while giving up quite a bit. Continue reading →

Retrogasmic 1.6 – All Good Things

by Drey on March 16, 2009 in Writing with No comments

My sixth and final column for Secure Immaturity is now up. This is more of a hands-on demonstration than an actual column, an evasive technique which has served me since grade school.

Read it here.

Citation Needed

by Drey on March 9, 2009 in Dreams, Geek, Life with No comments

Recently I was forwarded this video about the exponential growth of information technology.  One of the facts presented in the video is that “It is estimated that 4 exabytes (4.0×10^19) of unique information will be generated this year. That is more than the previous 5,000 years.” My first reaction was, “Wow, that is a lot of data.” Today I thought, “What does that even mean?” What qualifies as “unique information”? A blog post? A novel? Who is quantifying it? And how? Do they mean more than the previous 5000 years combined? Or more information per year on average? Continue reading →

Half a Page of Scribbled Lines

by Drey on March 9, 2009 in Life with No comments

Sigh. I haven’t been posting much as I haven’t had anything post worthy. I have lots of random thoughts and strange dreams I could chronicle, but I haven’t thought “Ah, I must blog about this.”

Lately I’ve been dealing with a malaise that descends when I have no creative project to set my mind to. I have no idea what I’m supposed to be doing right now. So I begin to ponder my accomplishments and evaluate what I have to show for myself. This leads to existential angst about what truly matters and why is it important to do anything at all. Makes it hard to motivate oneself to start creative projects.

And I’m lonely. The kind of loneliness that becomes more pronounced around other people. I’ve realized that my desire to be understood is actually a desire to be accepted. The core issues, the deep personal dilemmas, the things I felt needed to be understood in order to “get” me, are actually things you’d have to be me to understand. After exhausting my emotional energy over and over explaining my world view and creating only a deeper rift, I think I’d rather just be accepted for who I am.

And I’m losing hope. It’s like there’s this root network that permeates the foundation of my interactions, creating an amalgam of information that all speaks of hoplessness. So I will read a Twitter post about someone getting Starbuck’s and it resonates with a meme of despair I see unfolding. I’m doubting what I’ve thought true about people. More and more I am expecting failure and disappointment as the status quo. Giving people the benefit of the doubt seems more and more irrational.