Tag Archive
for Seen-Around
Tagged as: Rant, Seen-Around
Dec
03
When there is a disaster happening, the affected agencies always seem to appoint a spokesman. And that spokesman always seems to have no idea what is going on. Is it really that hard to have a spokesman with a little bit of knowledge?
I am rather tired of hearing the endless stream of:
- “I do not have that information”
- “We are not aware of that at this time”
- “I cannot say whether that is true or not”
- “I do not know the answer to that”
- “We have not heard of that rumor”
I do not understand any of the people that are involved in putting these spokesmen out there!
If you are the agency or group that is being spoken for, I would think that you want to seem competent. You want to put out someone who is excellent because they are going to be the face of your group. You do not get that if you present someone who cannot even answer the questions that they field.
If you are the person who is to be the spokesman, I would also think that you would want to be knowledgeable of everything that you are supposed to know. Otherwise, as so often happens, you will get roasted by the questions that the audience has. They are going to ask you about what they have heard and apparently their sources are better than yours. So you will sound clueless and lost. Who wants that to be them?
And me? Yeah I just want someone who will give some answers. I can get tired real quickly of hearing people avoid the questions that they just don’t know the answers to. No, lame answers are not better than no answers.
On another note, salesmen are just specialized spokesmen that are trying to get your money. Time to get those salesmen up to speed on what they’re selling, huh?
Tagged as: Christianity, Life, Read-It, Seen-Around
Oct
30
While I am happy about the fact that I have become someone who questions a lot of what I hear, I readily admit that we all need to live using assumptions. We do not check every fact each and every time otherwise we would go insane! We sit on chairs without checking that the legs will support our weight (although sometimes the chair unfortunately does not support our weight). We figure that our car engine is going to work even though we don’t check it before turning it on everyday. Staplers have staples, light switches will turn on lights, and our e-mail is accessible. These assumptions are slight and imperceptible things that we do. When the assumption does not hold, it is quickly discarded to handle the exceptional case.
But then there assumptions that have a more costly result. When you and your teammate assume that the other is going to catch the fly ball, you could lose the game. Perhaps you and another drive make an assumption that the other is going to get out of the way and an accident occurs. At work, if no definitive statement is made about who is to carry out a task then all involved will think that the other is doing it. Or in the tragedy of Kitty Genovese everyone assumes that someone else will do the right thing. Or infinitely increasing in the depth of tragedy, what happens to someone who assumes that scientists and public opinion are correct enough that Jesus is not the answer?
Let us not assume! Especially when it comes to the important things. Else we are complicit in the outcome, whatever that might be.
Tagged as: Mac, Rant, Ridiculous, Seen-Around
Oct
16
While there are many advances in mobile technology, there is none more prominent (nowadays anyways) than the Apple iPhone. Subsequent to its release in June 2007, it has made a definite mark on society. It has created huge lines, buzz in media, envy in people’s eyes, and a huge increase in revenue for the companies involved. Despite much hype and doubt, it has been a game-changing device for the smartphone world.
It has a user interface that is the standard to which all others are (now) compared, it is sleek, it is expensive enough to stay out of the hands of the less privileged (like Coach purses for girls), and it has an entire fanatical subculture to support it. There are some people who use it for its useful features, others who just want it so that they can be hip with the times, and others who will probably say that it’s an essential part of their life.
The thing is, I think that we need to help these people. Their iPhones are taking over their lives. Here we thought that Attention-Deficit Disorder (although this has been replaced by Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in psychology as of DSM-IV, but I could not apply the hyperactivity to iPhone users) was something that we could treat. Unfortunately it seems like we are inducing it in people. And while I am talking specifically about the iPhone, the general principle still stands that people are getting worse at maintaining their concentration on tasks at hand. They have instant messaging that they’re always connected to, text messages that encourage deplorable grammar, and the ever annoying Twitter (dumb as far back as 2007), which combines all of these things at one time.
Most people with iPhones seem to have an incessant need to check them. People need to stop this. They need to start living lives that do not involve the Internet. Let us move onward from our digital slavery!
I am slightly amused that I am writing such a thing for a couple of reasons:
- Hello this is a blog, which is an entirely digital medium.
- I am in front of a computer at least 8 hours a day as a software engineer. Usually more like 10, including off hours personal time.
Tagged as: Humor, Seen-Around
Oct
02
I was watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail recently with some other people. I thought that the movie was amusing. It was not uproarious, but I was definitely amused. It was just in line with Monty Python and the Flying Circus (the TV show), of which I occasionally partake of. A TV show very well remembered for its SPAM.
However everyone else did not find it amusing at all. As in, they thought the 90 odd minutes spent watching it were painful.
Non sequiturs, absurdism, plays on words, and more. These are all things that make some people SPAMMILY laugh. And apparently some people cannot endure it at all.
Humor is a strange thing. It is not the same for everyone. Often there is overlap. However other times there is something funny to someone and not funny at all to someone else. Sometimes the only way that we realize that we are alone in our humor is when we are laughing before we receive social cues that it’s not funny. Some people don’t even have any sense of humor at all.
I don’t have any answers. I’m just asking the SPAM SPAM SPAM questions.
Tagged as: Christianity, Life, Seen-Around
Sep
24
I enjoy a board (or sometimes card or tile) game just as much as anyone else. They are good clean fun that often test particular skills and attributes. There are games like scrabble and speed scrabble, which test your vocabulary and literacy; chess, which tests your planning capabilities; and Nertz, which tests speed and awareness.
While I enjoy the games, I do not always enjoy the people that play the games. I mean what is up with people that take games too seriously? Games are fun, and I will play as hard as I can. But it is never appealing when things get out of hand.
In particular there are some games that I cannot stand playing with other people because they tend to get much too involved in them. Settlers of Catan is one of those games. Since so much of the game is the relationships between the players in the game, it is extremely susceptible to antagonism, back-stabbing, and bitterness. All lovely attributes. It is an excellent game if you want to see the ugly in people, that’s for sure. People cannot help but reveal themselves a little bit when it gets competitive.
I will always remember a friend that I knew who was willing to give up a game (in that case basketball) because he was enticed to behave badly while playing. He thought that there were more important things in the world, namely his Christianity, so he gave it up. Admirable and encountered far too little nowadays.