In the northern latitudes there are four months that are dreaded, that can chill a man's soul even as he sits in the warmth of the summer sun, and they are known as November, December, January, February. These four horsemen of the freezocalypse are merciless, grim, dark, bitter months – which is why Northern cultures since prehistory have organized big excessive festivals and holidays in them, because otherwise too many people would hibernate, go insane, and/or commit suicide.
Hence December with its put-on Christmas cheer, its casual holiday alcoholism, and its cozy nights with the family you have avoided most of the year even though you all love each other, supposedly. Hence... uh... Christmas, and the reason it's so big is because the corporate society we belong to has to keep us 'goal oriented' so that we don't drop out of their nonsense and discover actual meanings to life and think critically about the system we were born into and if any of it is actually right. But also, it keeps the shadows away, and turns darkness at 4:30 P.M. into 'coziness' as opposed to 'I viciously hate Daylight Savings Time'. And there's the religious significance, and the butt-hurt War on Christmas style rants from bigoted ignoramuses who think the LIBERAL LIBERATION FORCE are going to force them into sensitivity camps.
In December, the remembrance of the people we have to grudgingly buy gifts for (because they give us gifts and WILL judge us if we don't do the adult thing) will at some point cause us to enter that holy tabernacle of consumerism - the Christmastime store. It doesn't matter if it's a mall, a boutique shop, or even a corner store: get ready to hear some jingly, jangly Christmas cacophony that will probably make you feel worse even if you are mentally damaged enough to find joy in a season peoples from all over the southern world associate solely with the word 'forbearance'.
But that's all beside the point. Today I would like to compare the dreary cousins of December, two months that are important solely because they are months that people have to live through in order to get to classically 'good' months. November is proudly mediocre and even in a good year it's the month where the dying plants have mostly all died, the skies are grey and get a darker a bit more quickly each day, and any good weather is The Last Good Weather of the Year. February is colder, bleaker, and generally worse in every way, but it's also closer to the redemption of Late March, where the weather starts to feel amazingly fresh and the promise of life is in the air.
Showing posts with label hard times. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hard times. Show all posts
9/5/12
The New Microsoft Logo: Explicit Huey and the News Reference?
Well it's kind of funny on a few different levels. I could make a joke about the Samsung lawsuit also, if it was necessary. I don't think it's entirely necessary. I guess, though, what they are saying is that it's hip to be square. Or maybe they're just futureproofing the brand. It's tough to say, at this distance, what any of this really means. It could be a meaningless change, and it could be the herald of some insane twist ending so devious that it drove its author insane and hid itself in a dusty pile of manuscripts, waiting for a foolish hack's sweaty fingers.
The real issue isn't whether or not rounded edges are completely illegal, but rather what exactly a non-curved surface means for the consumer. Will it entail a less-flexible Microsoft Windows? Will tiling finally wear out its welcome?
Is this a sign that yupsters are on the make? Is the 99% going to have to deal with the fallout? Is the 100% going to have to? Where do I send strongly-worded letters about this? Why is my local mailbox welded shut?
No, this can't be so drastic. But my eyes can't be lying to me. This isn't anything like Morrowind to Oblivion in terms of regression, but it makes me wonder if I shouldn't switch to... but wait. Apple's undergone its brand shift already, and it's planning something as well. Macintosh and Microsoft. It's the ongoing browser crisis all over again, which makes Microsoft Chrome; Apple Firefox. Except Apple is a more yupster brand than Microsoft, anyway, so really nothing makes sense at all. I only hope they do a commercial with the proper mainstream pop rock song accompanying shots of stressed office workers, pale and/or fat kids, and septuagenarians holding conference calls on Win8 phones.
Well I for one don't care so much. Things will be alright even if the vistas are grimmer than the early-adopters and hype-men would like. I think Win7 is where it's at, and I'm happy to square about that. As long as it can run Age of Empires 2, an operating system is pretty good. Anyways, anyone who knows anything knows which was the best logo and is still puzzled, like me, about the incomprehensible loss of that incredible relic. Rest in peace,
Is this a sign that yupsters are on the make? Is the 99% going to have to deal with the fallout? Is the 100% going to have to? Where do I send strongly-worded letters about this? Why is my local mailbox welded shut?
No, this can't be so drastic. But my eyes can't be lying to me. This isn't anything like Morrowind to Oblivion in terms of regression, but it makes me wonder if I shouldn't switch to... but wait. Apple's undergone its brand shift already, and it's planning something as well. Macintosh and Microsoft. It's the ongoing browser crisis all over again, which makes Microsoft Chrome; Apple Firefox. Except Apple is a more yupster brand than Microsoft, anyway, so really nothing makes sense at all. I only hope they do a commercial with the proper mainstream pop rock song accompanying shots of stressed office workers, pale and/or fat kids, and septuagenarians holding conference calls on Win8 phones.
Well I for one don't care so much. Things will be alright even if the vistas are grimmer than the early-adopters and hype-men would like. I think Win7 is where it's at, and I'm happy to square about that. As long as it can run Age of Empires 2, an operating system is pretty good. Anyways, anyone who knows anything knows which was the best logo and is still puzzled, like me, about the incomprehensible loss of that incredible relic. Rest in peace,
11/6/11
Daylight Savings Time
Probably the worst invention ever, Daylight Savings time robs hard-sleeping, late-rocking people of one full hour of darkness and also ensures an early nightfall for the rest of everyone who goes to bed on time. There's no deal like less daylight. I once researched DST and saw that it was done mostly to screw with farmers and boost consumerism. Seeing as where screwing farmers and chasing consumerism has gotten us, perhaps it's a good idea to drop DST like the filthy bastard it is. We don't need our only link to natural time (moving sunlight) altered on an arbitrary day.
We could also experiment with waking up later, not having an ironclad, unrealistic time-table for small business and retail, or just being happy with the usual dawn and usual dusk. These things do not have to be altered, and the hour everyone gains is actually a lost cause, more or less. DST is one of those small things that's actually a gigantic sign of human arrogance and the arbitrary nature of 'time' as mechanistically conceived nonsense.
We are, apparently, an intellectually gifted species, so why do we balk at the idea of darkness? Why do we ignore the fact that there is simply less sunlight at certain latitudes? Why do we delude ourselves with arbitrary judgements? Why can we not live in harmony with nature's cool tricks? Turn your lights off and keep sleeping. Buy blankets for your bed and keep your furnace off and grow a thicker skin, humanity. In 50 years our starving ancestors will hate us for hoarding comfort in our time, and if they find our elder selves they will skin us for our treasured soft-skin, even though it is fragile and lets cold air through.
Maybe I say this because I like darkness at 6:30 in the morning, and I wouldn't mind an 8:00 AM sunrise in mid-December. I think if you live in the northern or southern hemispheres of this planet you should goddamn well deal with the colder temperatures and the fleeting sun. Make the most of your day, don't change it by an hour so you can feel like you're doing something.
P.S. It occurs to me that I may not know anything about DST, in which case my objections stand. If DST was never brought around these frustrations would never have existed. I don't know whether DST actually steals or gives hours (which is unlikely, as matter and energy yadda yadda) but when it changes anything, it does so in a troublesome way. If DST is responsible for darker mornings and longer evenings, then I suppose I am against my own self-interests, which is fine, just look at America. Yadda yadda yadda.
We could also experiment with waking up later, not having an ironclad, unrealistic time-table for small business and retail, or just being happy with the usual dawn and usual dusk. These things do not have to be altered, and the hour everyone gains is actually a lost cause, more or less. DST is one of those small things that's actually a gigantic sign of human arrogance and the arbitrary nature of 'time' as mechanistically conceived nonsense.
We are, apparently, an intellectually gifted species, so why do we balk at the idea of darkness? Why do we ignore the fact that there is simply less sunlight at certain latitudes? Why do we delude ourselves with arbitrary judgements? Why can we not live in harmony with nature's cool tricks? Turn your lights off and keep sleeping. Buy blankets for your bed and keep your furnace off and grow a thicker skin, humanity. In 50 years our starving ancestors will hate us for hoarding comfort in our time, and if they find our elder selves they will skin us for our treasured soft-skin, even though it is fragile and lets cold air through.
Maybe I say this because I like darkness at 6:30 in the morning, and I wouldn't mind an 8:00 AM sunrise in mid-December. I think if you live in the northern or southern hemispheres of this planet you should goddamn well deal with the colder temperatures and the fleeting sun. Make the most of your day, don't change it by an hour so you can feel like you're doing something.
P.S. It occurs to me that I may not know anything about DST, in which case my objections stand. If DST was never brought around these frustrations would never have existed. I don't know whether DST actually steals or gives hours (which is unlikely, as matter and energy yadda yadda) but when it changes anything, it does so in a troublesome way. If DST is responsible for darker mornings and longer evenings, then I suppose I am against my own self-interests, which is fine, just look at America. Yadda yadda yadda.
4/12/11
Continuing Canadian Context
Go ahead and ask them now, some weeks later, what the political landscape of Canada is. It features nothing the Group of Seven might have done except for the map with its abstract political colours. Harper is blue, Ignatieff is red, Layton is orange and May is green. Let's ponder these colours. Green is the colour of life, Orange is the colour of Hollander royalty, red is the colour of life (but also Soviets and the dying Maple Leaf). Blue is the colour of disenchantment, also of life, and thirdly of lack of options.
Since the election has been announced there has been a deafening silence about the government deficit and the global depression (or recession if you're an optimist, or end of capitalism if you're an alarmist) and everyone opened volleys of 'family politics' and other types of sensationalism. In this country you do not play politics on weighty issues. Let me explain: families, in Canada, are doing well. Most families are in the easy-to-control low-to-mid middle class, relatively wealthy, perhaps overspending on credit, but doing well and employed, with an exception rate of less than 10%. This comes out to maybe 15,000 out-of-work families facing destitution or hard times, probably half that and maybe even less than that. There is no particular zone of concentration as in the '90s. The east coast probably can be weighted a little.
What makes this weak politics is that this group of people is easy to hoodwink. They think their fair taxes are monolithic tithes to the state. All an aspiring prime minister has to do is promise that these taxes will be reinvested into the middle class family background that pays the majority of them. It goes without saying that the poverty line does not discriminate between families and individuals, but families are more important. Help them, and help yourself to a political majority. This is all theory, but the parties have acted on it as if it were a rule.
So each of the big three politicians started election season by flogging family politics. Some friends of mine distilled it thusly: Conservatives meant a straight family with not even a gay child, while the Liberals and NDP would help any family. Never mind the family unit is the sort of ancient structure that is known to be able to survive all kinds of nonsense. Maybe in the 'post-industrial' era families are endangered or suddenly overwhelmed by the corporate world structure. Anyways, because in most countries all people come from families, they are the safest bet for politics, and that is why for weeks there were shameless attempts by each party to win this faction over.
This is how majority politics works. I have no idea how these aspiring governments are planning to fund their extravagant family subsidies, but it will probably include wasteful consulting, forms in triplicate, and a communications blackout. Nearsightedness is a curse on the populace, but a blessing to the politicians.
Since the election has been announced there has been a deafening silence about the government deficit and the global depression (or recession if you're an optimist, or end of capitalism if you're an alarmist) and everyone opened volleys of 'family politics' and other types of sensationalism. In this country you do not play politics on weighty issues. Let me explain: families, in Canada, are doing well. Most families are in the easy-to-control low-to-mid middle class, relatively wealthy, perhaps overspending on credit, but doing well and employed, with an exception rate of less than 10%. This comes out to maybe 15,000 out-of-work families facing destitution or hard times, probably half that and maybe even less than that. There is no particular zone of concentration as in the '90s. The east coast probably can be weighted a little.
What makes this weak politics is that this group of people is easy to hoodwink. They think their fair taxes are monolithic tithes to the state. All an aspiring prime minister has to do is promise that these taxes will be reinvested into the middle class family background that pays the majority of them. It goes without saying that the poverty line does not discriminate between families and individuals, but families are more important. Help them, and help yourself to a political majority. This is all theory, but the parties have acted on it as if it were a rule.
So each of the big three politicians started election season by flogging family politics. Some friends of mine distilled it thusly: Conservatives meant a straight family with not even a gay child, while the Liberals and NDP would help any family. Never mind the family unit is the sort of ancient structure that is known to be able to survive all kinds of nonsense. Maybe in the 'post-industrial' era families are endangered or suddenly overwhelmed by the corporate world structure. Anyways, because in most countries all people come from families, they are the safest bet for politics, and that is why for weeks there were shameless attempts by each party to win this faction over.
This is how majority politics works. I have no idea how these aspiring governments are planning to fund their extravagant family subsidies, but it will probably include wasteful consulting, forms in triplicate, and a communications blackout. Nearsightedness is a curse on the populace, but a blessing to the politicians.
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