thinglets: a 20 pound burger and a new hero

You think Michael Phelps is some kinda hero for swimming fast? Forget it. Brad Sciullo is my hero. Like people who say "I climbed the mountain because it was there." Sciullo ate a 20 pound "Beer Barrel Belly Buster" burger, not because he had to, but because it was on the menu: "To me, it's the accomplishment. This is a passion of mine; this is my sport. Just like they would try and compete to win a marathon of some sort, I am trying to compete and defeat this burger as an accomplishment - it's another thing under my belt." Maybe a new elastic belt, but a belt all the same.

The next time you think about having dessert and the thought process goes something like "I just couldn't eat another bite", think of Brad Sciullo. Did he say "I just coudn't eat another bite"? No! He gave near an entire cow a reason for dying. Kudos Brad! Kudos!

Big Burger

thinglets: the pocket projector

No, I didn't say pocket protector. Now I know the prototypes for this have been around for a while, but if you want all the geek cred a pocket device can muster, this might be the holiday toy for the bulging-wallet impaired. I wonder if comes with a velcro strip to secure it in case of clumsy table bumpers. For somewhere between $500-600 you can be the coolest cat on your block or you can use your neighbor's wall as a screen.

pocket projector

thinglets: DyscultureD Podcast Episode Four is up!

Episode Four: I Always Feel Like Somebody's Browsing Me

You can listen here or subscribe in iTunes.

The Show Notes

  • Full Dysclosure:  Elections, new MacBooks, Passchendaele and more…
  • Browser Wars
  • The Revival of Piano Rock
  • Wheel Of Pop:  Movies in 1993
  • Websites Of The Week:  Anthony - Newseum; Mike - Very Tasteful (Anth sez:  I also revisit last week’s pick, Mufin.)
  • Musical Artist: Billy Reid

To tie up this fourth episode, Very Tasteful’s own Billy Reid is the featured musical act.  His song, entitled Spring Yields A Goldblum, sums up several of the topics we “dyscussed” on the show.

Billy is a filmmaker, performer, musician and (more recently) an animator, and his stuff is hugely popular on YouTube.  Mike has performed with him on the Victoria improv scene, and you can check out all of his stuff at the link provided in our Websites Of The Week show note.

DyscultureD

lovehate: Finding Your Inner Geek (Part One - Fishing)

Seemingly the most generic stereotype of the "geek" from the perspective of the outside world is still something more akin to the leads from Revenge of the Nerds than your average work-a-day Joe Six Pack or Joe the Plumber, but, trust me, either Joe may very well be harboring an inner-geek.

While the vast populace of web-savvy wingnuts may or may not have achieved "geek" status, I'm quite prepared to take the technology aspect out of the definition. I'm offering up, for consideration, that the path to geekdom is in direct relation with the continued refining of the generic to the specific. Instead of offering up a sample set that involves technology, let's follow a parallel structure to refine the map to the inner geek of fishing. Just as a quick disclaimer, I know absolutely NOTHING about fishing, but that I can place these steps in the following should show the commonalities within the geek archetype regardless of the field.

Step One (Hobbyist): The casual fishing or "outdoorsperson" picks up the occasional issue of Field & Stream or Outdoor Life to decide where a good corporate fishing retreat of week-long booze-up with friends might happen. Sure, they have a interest/hobby in a wide variety of wildlife-oriented issues, but they have as much geek level cred in fishing as one who reads Rolling Stone would have with music. And while someone who eventually becomes a fishing geek may one day reach back to Field & Stream as a fond memory, it will never hold the credibility it once did. The hobbyist views nature as art and uses their reading to enhance their perspective.

Step Two (Threshold Geek): Moves into fishing-specific magazines... kinda like moving from Wired's tech esoterica to a PC or Mac specific title. The threshold fishing geek doesn't care much for hunting or hiking or spelunking, but wants to focus on fishing and only fishing. They don't want one article every three months on rod and reel advancements, but several articles every month. They crave full page ads for mail order lure houses in Minnesota that they make lists from, and copiously circle and highlight, but never buy anything. They have growing frustrations in trying to get friends to go on weekend trips to stand on rocky shores or in hip-waders with the promise of many beers to be consumed while fishing or each night. The threshold geek views fishing as an art that they admit a certainly lack of facility with, but are gaining an appreciation of. Think of the weekend golfer that knows they will never have the time to get as good as they'd like to be, but will watch endless hours of golf tournaments and relish being able to guess club choice before the announcer calls it.

Step Three (Geek): To move into official geek status, the fishing enthusiast has to make a choice (dive in so to speak) as the sub-genre of fishing they wish to specialize in: freshwater, saltwater, boat, spear, ice or fly. The distinguishing feature between the geek and the ubergeek lies in the geeks ability to remain open to the possibility of subgenres beyond the geek level. For instance, the flyfishing fan, having committed to all things fly, has a cornucopia of rod and fly choices, location scouting, outfitting, and the art of fly creation. The geek has views flyfishing as an art that they are willing to commit to, but are starting to learn that the more they get into, the more they have to learn. They have invented drinking games to the impracticalities of A River Runs Through It, but are willing to adopt a zen-like quality when talking about their rods becoming extension of their bodies. (You all have very sick minds!)

Step Four (Ubergeek): Can talk about bass fishing for days on end - and do! They know every sub-classification of the bass family, what they eat, where they live and can identify sex by scale patterns. They have refined rod and reel research down to second nature (to even talk about such things is a step down for them unless they've defined a holy grail rod handmade by a craftsman in Sapporo that costs as much as the family van and can only be discussed via online forums with the six other people in North America who know enough to speak of such things). They are plenty qualified to write for Bassmaster magazine but to do so they would have to lower themselves to keep up with the rest of fishing world. They would rather devote their time to the refined aspects of bass fishing than actually fishing. The ubergeek views bass fishing as a lifestyle and a venue for self-improvement. They see the disciplines involved in fishing in every aspect of their daily lives. Their boat comes outrigged with everything necessary, but is nowhere near as decked out as the boat of a bass boat uber geek who belongs to a slightly different subset. They belong to several fishing clubs (online and in the community). They will occasionally deign to come down from the mountain to consort with regular geeks. They consider deep sea fishers "elitist assholes" and flyfishers "namby-pamby girly-men". They think ice fishers are just "outworldly whackjobs" and secretly dream of the day they can move to an isolated Northern Canadian cabin with a 1653 first edition of Izaak Walton's The Compleat Angler: or the Comtemplative Man's Recreation: Being a Discourse of Rivers, Fishponds, Fish and Fishing Not Unworthy the Perusal of Most Anglers.

Of course there can be several subcategories within the Four Steps of Geekdom, but the most important thing to recognize is that geeks are not bound to technology. Anyone who can re-associate this fishing paradigm to any other topic knows that everyone's a little bit geeky, and some of us more than most.

Carp Web Magazine

thinglets: AC/DC jailbreaks iTunes

from dyscultured.com

In a post from a couple of months ago at lovehatethings.com, I lamented how the 99 cent download could be damaging to the integrity of many artists as it essentially did away with idea of the full album/cd as a unified piece. Citing that same defense (kind of), AC/DC this week said it would not sell any of its new album Black Ice on iTunes because people would be to tempted to buy single tracks and ignore others thus deconstructing the full work. Brian Johnson opined, "Maybe I'm just being old-fashioned, but this iTunes, God bless 'em, it's going to kill music if they're not careful...."

Two things... I do agree with the point that there should be a place for the full CD as a single work. I grew up listening mostly to music of a past generation in progressive rock. One of the reasons I was drawn to that style was the frequent ability to create larger scale concepts even through single songs set in a certain order.

But AC/DC... seriously... I appreciate the band and music for what they are: bawlz to the wall cawkrawk (don't ya love phonics?) but what album have they EVER released that could justify this stand? Now I appreciate that some people may have an affectation for listening to Back in Black as an entire piece, but that's mostly because people bought the CD to look retro-cool to their friends, or they stole it from an older relative's collection, and not becuase there's an intrinsic tie that holds the songs together any more that any AC/DC song. I mean, let's face it, other than the different growlings of Bon Scott and Brian Johnson, the couple of hundred riff-laden guitar rock songs of AC/DC could probably be interchanged from one album to the next without much problem.

So, if artistic integrity is not the issue, could it be that the band is simply afraid that the single hit or two they may have from this album will cause their demographic of fans to readily buy a full CD anyway? We know that integrity from a social justice perspective is not the issue, because their retailer of choice is Walmart.

I think they could have had a great marriage with "You Shook Me All Night Long" and the new iPod Nano's shake and shuffle technology... it would have been interesting to see Steve Jobs dressed in a school boy uniform at a press conference anyway.

lovehate: Questions W5H

questions

Who is the person that I occasionally catch the fleeting glimpse of in the mirror that causes me to double-take in confusion?
Who can explain the musical success of singer who cannot sing and musicians who cannot play?
Who greenlit Beverly Hills Chihuahua?
Who is that ING Direct guy and what ad wizards decided to put him on the air?
Who abducted the hearts of cities and replaced them with bowels?

What rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
What cannot be defended against by a big enough cereal box fort?
What makes people think Comic Sans is acceptable for a business document?
What incredibly effective lobbying effort has kept the fax machine around this long?
What makes us afraid to see our strengths in others?

When did children learn to give up before high school?
When did keeping up with the Joneses dictate every suburban house in America besmirched by siding?
When did Prince see the white cliffs of sanity and decide "parachute optional"?
When will we tear the roof off the sucka?
When will we finally take everything back?

Where can I buy Silly Putty?
Where is east of somewhere and west of nowhere?
Where do animated gifs go to die?
Where does cloud computing go after the rain?
Where did I go wrong?

Why has style replaced substance?
Why is it that best ideas come to mind in inverse relation to my proximity to a pen?
Why is it that as much as pop culture lets me down I am inexorably drawn to it?
Why would loving deities permit suffering?
Why do so many people care about the acceptance of strangers?

How can our gift of seeing the big picture so obscure our ability to see the details?
How did we not rise up as one when networks placed bugs on our screens 24/7?
How does a litre of water from a machine cost more than a litre of gas from another?
How did everything become so diposable?
How do I start loving more than I hate?