I totally got this off of Best Week Ever, but have to post it, since I love Michael Caine, Steve Coogan, and Rob Brydon...and these impersonations are great.
Wednesday, November 10
Tuesday, November 9
Foulard's Technology Yeses and Noses
I'm a habitual reader of the blog Unplggd, which is a tech-related offshoot of the Apartment Therapy blog. Like many "professional" blogs, it's basically about shopping, and like many Americans, I get a thrill out of clever little techy gadgets. It's interesting to get a picture of the world its editors and contributors live in: Everyone is a professional urbanite, with dough to toss around on nifty little must-haves. Of course it's 99.99% Mac-centric, because of the cool factor involved there--owning a PC has as much caché as being a regular churchgoer or a member of the military in a large city.
Also, oddly to me, owning a laptop computer is de rigeur--apparently everyone in Uplggd-land is a free-lancer who travels a lot and spends hours doing their biz in coffee shops. In my world, I spend 40 hours a week sitting at a desk in an office, and then I walk home and wake the home PC up and turn it off when I go to bed, then wake it up again at 6:15 am for an hour or so. But I never feel the need to have a computer between work and home, because I'm either walking, shopping, eating, or meeting friends for beer/cocktails. It would be weird/awkward to whip it out to check my email or browse to keep myself amused.
Anyway (Part 2 of this post begins here), I have discovered that I'm out of step with what I'm supposed to be doing, cutting-edge-wise, even though I'm not a luddite at all (and only superficially 'off the grid'). So here's a list:
Foulard Eschews:
Laptop computers (except for the mini one we have for occasional vacations, which I enjoyed having in Waikiki last week).
Facebook--feels like the internet equivalent of going back to high school combined with living in a basement apartment with no curtains and walking around naked all the time. Completely horrifying to me.
Twitter--I can't even figure out how to read these. Definitely too old for this!
Streaming movies and TV shows instead of watching them on DVD--am I the only one who doesn't think the picture looks good enough most of the time? That's really the #1 thing for me when I watch. I can only do the streaming thing when I don't care, or it's allegedly hi-def.
Cell Phones--this is the biggy, and the one that inspired this post. I have occasionally felt pleasure at having mine in certain rare circumstances, but basically, it's just a bill I hate paying. My usage level is the equivalent of buying a large pizza and eating half a slice. I'm planning to downgrade as soon as my contract expires.
Paying money to download individual media (video and music)--I just feel ripped off doing this. It bothers me more than paying three bucks at the video store to rent a crappy VHS did in the dark ages.
Kindle (for now)--I really like physical books, but I don't mind the idea of an e-reader. However, I don't want to pay as much or more to read a book on it--which is the way it seems to be going. Along with the previous topic, it just feels like a scheme cooked up to charge physical content prices for an intangible. Why pay Amazon for something they don't have to keep in a warehouse and mail to me?
Foulard Embraces:
Super-High Speed Internet--Boy, do I love it. I like running the speed test to see just how fast it is, and get grumpy if it doesn't read out as 'Excellent'.
High-Def cable TV with hundreds of channels--I keep reading on line about 'I canceled my cable--now we just stream everything through my [laptop or streaming device]', but I think it's fun just to have all the channels and stuff there all the time, in the old-school manner.
Free downloads--I LOVE downloading old, out-of-print music online for free. I can be as obscure in my tastes as I want, without having to act like a dumb consumer (how commercial downloading makes me feel). I have thousands of hours of music on my PC--music that's only interesting to a tiny handful of people.
Big flat-screen TV, DVDs, Blu-Ray, etc.--As a visual person, I get really fixated on detail and clarity (and proper aspect ratios, of course), and these things allow me to enjoy movies and old TV shows in the most perfect possible manner. I have no nostalgia for old CRT TVs with their 480i resolutions, and clunky, fuzzy videotapes. See also this post.
Writing a blog -- at least when I'm in the mood. [insert wry emoticon here]
I'm leaving out all the middle-american technology I don't engage with: cars, microwave ovens, clothes made of 'fleece'. This list is just my answer to trendy-style rhetorical questions like 'Does anyone use a PC/Desktop any more?' and 'Do you still have cable TV?'. I see consumer tech as a varied bag of tricks--just grab the ones that work for you and leave the rest behind. Come to think of, most of my friends do too, which is the difference between reality and what you read in blogs that make lame statements about what constitutes 'normal' use of technology.
Also, oddly to me, owning a laptop computer is de rigeur--apparently everyone in Uplggd-land is a free-lancer who travels a lot and spends hours doing their biz in coffee shops. In my world, I spend 40 hours a week sitting at a desk in an office, and then I walk home and wake the home PC up and turn it off when I go to bed, then wake it up again at 6:15 am for an hour or so. But I never feel the need to have a computer between work and home, because I'm either walking, shopping, eating, or meeting friends for beer/cocktails. It would be weird/awkward to whip it out to check my email or browse to keep myself amused.
Foulard Eschews:
Laptop computers (except for the mini one we have for occasional vacations, which I enjoyed having in Waikiki last week).
Facebook--feels like the internet equivalent of going back to high school combined with living in a basement apartment with no curtains and walking around naked all the time. Completely horrifying to me.
Twitter--I can't even figure out how to read these. Definitely too old for this!
Streaming movies and TV shows instead of watching them on DVD--am I the only one who doesn't think the picture looks good enough most of the time? That's really the #1 thing for me when I watch. I can only do the streaming thing when I don't care, or it's allegedly hi-def.
Cell Phones--this is the biggy, and the one that inspired this post. I have occasionally felt pleasure at having mine in certain rare circumstances, but basically, it's just a bill I hate paying. My usage level is the equivalent of buying a large pizza and eating half a slice. I'm planning to downgrade as soon as my contract expires.
Paying money to download individual media (video and music)--I just feel ripped off doing this. It bothers me more than paying three bucks at the video store to rent a crappy VHS did in the dark ages.
Kindle (for now)--I really like physical books, but I don't mind the idea of an e-reader. However, I don't want to pay as much or more to read a book on it--which is the way it seems to be going. Along with the previous topic, it just feels like a scheme cooked up to charge physical content prices for an intangible. Why pay Amazon for something they don't have to keep in a warehouse and mail to me?
Foulard Embraces:
Super-High Speed Internet--Boy, do I love it. I like running the speed test to see just how fast it is, and get grumpy if it doesn't read out as 'Excellent'.
High-Def cable TV with hundreds of channels--I keep reading on line about 'I canceled my cable--now we just stream everything through my [laptop or streaming device]', but I think it's fun just to have all the channels and stuff there all the time, in the old-school manner.
Free downloads--I LOVE downloading old, out-of-print music online for free. I can be as obscure in my tastes as I want, without having to act like a dumb consumer (how commercial downloading makes me feel). I have thousands of hours of music on my PC--music that's only interesting to a tiny handful of people.
Big flat-screen TV, DVDs, Blu-Ray, etc.--As a visual person, I get really fixated on detail and clarity (and proper aspect ratios, of course), and these things allow me to enjoy movies and old TV shows in the most perfect possible manner. I have no nostalgia for old CRT TVs with their 480i resolutions, and clunky, fuzzy videotapes. See also this post.
Writing a blog -- at least when I'm in the mood. [insert wry emoticon here]
I'm leaving out all the middle-american technology I don't engage with: cars, microwave ovens, clothes made of 'fleece'. This list is just my answer to trendy-style rhetorical questions like 'Does anyone use a PC/Desktop any more?' and 'Do you still have cable TV?'. I see consumer tech as a varied bag of tricks--just grab the ones that work for you and leave the rest behind. Come to think of, most of my friends do too, which is the difference between reality and what you read in blogs that make lame statements about what constitutes 'normal' use of technology.
Keep It Flat!
You know what really irks me? Adding airbrush-y shading to old cartoon characters to tart them up and make them look more "real".
F'r'instance, here's a nice classically flat Bugs Bunny:
Ecch! I'm sure you're as offended as I am.
All the super-flat, limited animation Hanna Barbera characters of my youth have been subjected to the same treatment, which takes away their most appealing quality--their crisp black lines, and flat, bright colors. Check out this poor guy:
F'r'instance, here's a nice classically flat Bugs Bunny:
...and here's the modern, "improved" B.B.:
All the super-flat, limited animation Hanna Barbera characters of my youth have been subjected to the same treatment, which takes away their most appealing quality--their crisp black lines, and flat, bright colors. Check out this poor guy:
 |
| Working it! |
 |
| You can shade him all you want, but he still won't look real. |
Monday, November 8
Office Humor
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)