Something strange: At work the other day (I'm copying job ads from pdf-files and magically putting them on the internet) I overheard one of the salespeople at my department mention a familiar name. It was the name of the folk high school (look people, I have no idea how to translate that properly. It's a kind of one-year, optional playschool we have in Scandinavia, after high school, where we are supposed to evolve as human beings and express ourselves creatively, but most people just end up drinking lots of beer) I went to six years ago, and found this amusing. I didn't think much about it, though, until I was handed this ad, and told to, magically, make it appear on the internet. It turned out to be the very same school, and they were looking for a new principal.
I was dumbstruck. Call me soft if that makes you feel better, but I have fond memories of my time at Skjeberg, and seeing the natural order of things disturbed in such a way makes me a bit uneasy. That Mr. Skjeberg himself is retiring is just plain wrong. I have been patient with this so-called "time" for a while now, but I've had it. It needs to stop. It's bad enough that it's making me slightly older, but now it's starting to mess with things that should not be changed. I fear for the very fabric of reality.
Also, his successor has got some pretty big shoes to fill, so let's hope he has large, smelly feet (actually, the smell just comes naturally with having big feet). And another also: Is it really a coincident that the principals of both my high school and my folk high school (a direct translation that still doesn't sit quite right) has the same first name? I strongly doubt it. Also (again), I am about to read about principalities in Machiavellis The Prince. Make of this what you will. I choose to hide, for the time being.
Were these strange happenings strange enough to justify an entry in this blog? I like to think so. And, well, with me being God and everything, that's pretty much all that matters.
March 23, 2007
March 13, 2007
A distict lack of quality
It turns out that Site Meter wasn't down with the upgrading of this blog, and so it stopped tracking visitors. Of course, I didn't realize this, and was making radical plans for getting my visitors back. These plans included, but were not limited to, home-made porn movies sneakily shot through my neighbors window. I finally discovered and fixed the Site Meter problem tho, and the movie's going on YouTube instead. Anyway, since the tracker is working again, I, once more, know everything about you and your sleazy surfing habits. Just so you know.
(Don't you just hate it when some people starts telling you something you already know in a way that makes it sound like he thought of it first? Well, brace yourself, for I am one of those people, and this is one of those times.)
I also wanted to address the lack of updates recently, and put it in a wider perspective. Because it's symptomatic for a lot of people, I think (have you visited The Question Quest or Cogitatums blog lately?); not getting shit done. The way I see it, it comes down to several factors, some more important than others, but all contributing in some way or another. Laziness may seem like a big problem, but in actuality it's powerless when on it's own. Far more important is the way we perceive time as being short in itself, which of course is a bunch of half-digested Big Mac crap. But anyway, this perception, dangerously common in western society nowadays, makes us think that "we do not have time for this shit", that "we have more important things to do", which we, unavoidably, end up not doing. Because we did not take the time for that shit.
But before I get too carried away on the problems with believing one is time's personal bitch, let's get back to the matter at hand. For 'tis was my claim, that laziness is easily overcome unless supported by other, more powerful, factors (or, if you will, Factors of Power). The uncontrollable (but entirely culturally constructed) urge to "make the most of life" (whatever the fuck that means) is but one of these factors. Another, and one I believe to be among the most troublesome, is quality control. Now, this is a complex issue, enough to fill an entire blog post by itself (or possibly even, y'know, maybe a book?), for example; it has way too much to do with self-confidence, but basically it's similar to perfectionism: Thinking you could do better. When applied to blogging, it's as easy as this: The post you're thinking of writing isn't quite funny enough, smart enough or topical enough. Bloggers are probably especially aware of the topicality (probably not a word), since a blog is essentially a public diary, and so has to be updated with the latest whatever, whether it is one's personal doings, world news, or something else entirely.
But of course, quality control isn't a problem for everybody. In fact, a lot of people have too little of it (Norwegian web newspapers, I'm looking at you), but the critical difference between these people and you is that they actually get shit printed. So give yourself a fucking break already. In case you're thinking this applies only to blogging, or even writing in general; it doesn't. Maybe it's easier to spot this problem when expressing oneself creatively, but it does affect everyday issues as well, even if it manifests itself in different ways. Some may have trouble deciding what clothes to put on for a party (or for just leaving the house), some have trouble talking in a group of people because they weigh their words too carefully. But, most importantly, it affects what we do with our time, because we think time is so fucking precious we automatically apply quality control to it.
You may have guessed I have a big bone to pick with time.
But all this has gone on quite long enough. Let's see if there's some sort of conclusion to be found, shall we? The whole thing was supposed to be about not getting shit done. Which, in my humble (and one hundred percent correct) opinion is largely due to our perception of time and our perception of quality. There's another big one, though, that I haven't touched on yet: Distractions. Guilty pleasures. Like TV shows or sex with contraceptives. But these are mainly your instincts kicking in when you become too frustrated to think of all the things you haven't done yet. You could call it escaping from reality, but then you'd be wrong (because the concept of reality is a very, very large and unruly beast, and I simply do not have the psychological stamina to tackle it right now).
Oh, the concluding and stuff. That's what I was supposed to get to now. Well, In a post about not getting stuff done, the perfect conclusion would actually be not getting the conclusion part done. So I'll leave it at that. Discuss.
Sometime soon, however, I'm hoping to write something meaningful about games as art, or art in games. This may or may not happen, but for those who are interested I'll leave a link to an article about Peter Molyneux' hopes for including love in Fable 2. Also, here's a link for Gamasutras coverage of Game Developers Conference 07, which may or may not have some interesting articles for y'all. Sit yourself down to the chairs, enjoy, and make sure to have a chat afterwards.
(Don't you just hate it when some people starts telling you something you already know in a way that makes it sound like he thought of it first? Well, brace yourself, for I am one of those people, and this is one of those times.)
I also wanted to address the lack of updates recently, and put it in a wider perspective. Because it's symptomatic for a lot of people, I think (have you visited The Question Quest or Cogitatums blog lately?); not getting shit done. The way I see it, it comes down to several factors, some more important than others, but all contributing in some way or another. Laziness may seem like a big problem, but in actuality it's powerless when on it's own. Far more important is the way we perceive time as being short in itself, which of course is a bunch of half-digested Big Mac crap. But anyway, this perception, dangerously common in western society nowadays, makes us think that "we do not have time for this shit", that "we have more important things to do", which we, unavoidably, end up not doing. Because we did not take the time for that shit.
But before I get too carried away on the problems with believing one is time's personal bitch, let's get back to the matter at hand. For 'tis was my claim, that laziness is easily overcome unless supported by other, more powerful, factors (or, if you will, Factors of Power). The uncontrollable (but entirely culturally constructed) urge to "make the most of life" (whatever the fuck that means) is but one of these factors. Another, and one I believe to be among the most troublesome, is quality control. Now, this is a complex issue, enough to fill an entire blog post by itself (or possibly even, y'know, maybe a book?), for example; it has way too much to do with self-confidence, but basically it's similar to perfectionism: Thinking you could do better. When applied to blogging, it's as easy as this: The post you're thinking of writing isn't quite funny enough, smart enough or topical enough. Bloggers are probably especially aware of the topicality (probably not a word), since a blog is essentially a public diary, and so has to be updated with the latest whatever, whether it is one's personal doings, world news, or something else entirely.
But of course, quality control isn't a problem for everybody. In fact, a lot of people have too little of it (Norwegian web newspapers, I'm looking at you), but the critical difference between these people and you is that they actually get shit printed. So give yourself a fucking break already. In case you're thinking this applies only to blogging, or even writing in general; it doesn't. Maybe it's easier to spot this problem when expressing oneself creatively, but it does affect everyday issues as well, even if it manifests itself in different ways. Some may have trouble deciding what clothes to put on for a party (or for just leaving the house), some have trouble talking in a group of people because they weigh their words too carefully. But, most importantly, it affects what we do with our time, because we think time is so fucking precious we automatically apply quality control to it.
You may have guessed I have a big bone to pick with time.
But all this has gone on quite long enough. Let's see if there's some sort of conclusion to be found, shall we? The whole thing was supposed to be about not getting shit done. Which, in my humble (and one hundred percent correct) opinion is largely due to our perception of time and our perception of quality. There's another big one, though, that I haven't touched on yet: Distractions. Guilty pleasures. Like TV shows or sex with contraceptives. But these are mainly your instincts kicking in when you become too frustrated to think of all the things you haven't done yet. You could call it escaping from reality, but then you'd be wrong (because the concept of reality is a very, very large and unruly beast, and I simply do not have the psychological stamina to tackle it right now).
Oh, the concluding and stuff. That's what I was supposed to get to now. Well, In a post about not getting stuff done, the perfect conclusion would actually be not getting the conclusion part done. So I'll leave it at that. Discuss.
Sometime soon, however, I'm hoping to write something meaningful about games as art, or art in games. This may or may not happen, but for those who are interested I'll leave a link to an article about Peter Molyneux' hopes for including love in Fable 2. Also, here's a link for Gamasutras coverage of Game Developers Conference 07, which may or may not have some interesting articles for y'all. Sit yourself down to the chairs, enjoy, and make sure to have a chat afterwards.
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