Hello, Internet! To all who come to this happy place, welcome. The world wide web is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past, and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future. We are dedicated to the ideals, the dreams, and the hard facts that have shaped america, with the hope that it will lead to a better tomorrow.
Something I believe in. What do I believe in?
I believe in inquiry. Yes, there we go. I believe in mutual exchange of knowledge. I believe in learning from the past, the present, and that which may have yet to come.
To be more specific, I believe that we should always keep our minds open to the possibility that enlightenment may come from anywhere. When we disagree with others, we must bear in mind the often difficult possibility that they may (1) be correct, and/or (2) have some parcel of knowledge that could alter you.
Furthermore, just because someone is different, they are not inherently wrong. This, my friends, is called xenophobia. I dream of a world where there is xenophillia. People are attracted to that which is different. True, different is not always better, but there is always something that we can learn from those who have different worldly experiences.
Ladies and gentlemen, this I believe.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Monday, May 11, 2009
Ppt, Part 1
Hello, internet!
I just finished building a powerpoint, and I have a couple things to say about powerpoint making. First of all, no one puts enough effort into one.
No one. Steve Jobs, maybe. I just spent the last three hours on this one and I’m not satisfied. Three hours on the slideshow alone.
Why did I spend so much time on it? Because I custom photoshopped a whole bunch of stuff to fit in with the “motif” of the presentation. Because I double-checked every single fact. Because I took the time to look up the Kubelka-Munk formula. You’ll find out what that is in my powerpoint.
I’ve also spent the last hour and a half practicing, and I still have a run-through or two left to do. No one prepares enough for their presentation. My god, I hate it when people read verbatim off of the slides. The dude and dudette from Lilly both did that, and it drove me crazy. I can read, you know.
Why did I custom photochop everything? Because I want my presentations to have what hollywood calls “production value”. When your images are pixely, grainy, blown-out, matted, pre-multiplied, or watermarked, your audience instantly has a preconceived notion of the quality of the presentation. So I make sure all of my images look great.
And not just my images. I’ve found that talking heads and chalky slides tend to bore people, no matter how great they look. So I’ve always
I just finished building a powerpoint, and I have a couple things to say about powerpoint making. First of all, no one puts enough effort into one.
No one. Steve Jobs, maybe. I just spent the last three hours on this one and I’m not satisfied. Three hours on the slideshow alone.
Why did I spend so much time on it? Because I custom photoshopped a whole bunch of stuff to fit in with the “motif” of the presentation. Because I double-checked every single fact. Because I took the time to look up the Kubelka-Munk formula. You’ll find out what that is in my powerpoint.
I’ve also spent the last hour and a half practicing, and I still have a run-through or two left to do. No one prepares enough for their presentation. My god, I hate it when people read verbatim off of the slides. The dude and dudette from Lilly both did that, and it drove me crazy. I can read, you know.
Why did I custom photochop everything? Because I want my presentations to have what hollywood calls “production value”. When your images are pixely, grainy, blown-out, matted, pre-multiplied, or watermarked, your audience instantly has a preconceived notion of the quality of the presentation. So I make sure all of my images look great.
And not just my images. I’ve found that talking heads and chalky slides tend to bore people, no matter how great they look. So I’ve always
Ppt, Part 2
Been very careful to have some element of my presentation be physical. Tangible. Non-electronic. That’s why I threw a laptop across the stage last time I ran a morning meeting, and why tomorrow I’ll be wearing a cool hat and be playing with food coloring. Its called interactivity, and its the way of the future.
You see, the audiences we face today have a problem. Its called puny attention span disorder. PASD. As in “passed”, but different. Today’s audiences really don’t care about pie charts, bar graphs, histograms, bibliographies, previews, recaps, or bullet points. Really? We’ve already sunk past bullet points? I don’t really think bullet points ever belonged on slide shows. They should live on my grocery list and US History fact test, and no where else.
So this is the general rule of the slide shows of the past. 20 minutes of talking, 10 slides, no more than 5 points per slide.
I don’t think that applies any more. My new rule is this: 15 minutes of talking, ½ a point per slide, and as many slides as you can get through. By sparsely populating your slides and having an overall low information density, you can create the illusion of “flying through the presentation”, and finish before your audience has lost all attention. I can’t stand presentations that have some really interesting stuff to say, but the info is packed into 5 slides and we stay stuck on one slide for twenty minutes.
Good night, my friends.
You see, the audiences we face today have a problem. Its called puny attention span disorder. PASD. As in “passed”, but different. Today’s audiences really don’t care about pie charts, bar graphs, histograms, bibliographies, previews, recaps, or bullet points. Really? We’ve already sunk past bullet points? I don’t really think bullet points ever belonged on slide shows. They should live on my grocery list and US History fact test, and no where else.
So this is the general rule of the slide shows of the past. 20 minutes of talking, 10 slides, no more than 5 points per slide.
I don’t think that applies any more. My new rule is this: 15 minutes of talking, ½ a point per slide, and as many slides as you can get through. By sparsely populating your slides and having an overall low information density, you can create the illusion of “flying through the presentation”, and finish before your audience has lost all attention. I can’t stand presentations that have some really interesting stuff to say, but the info is packed into 5 slides and we stay stuck on one slide for twenty minutes.
Good night, my friends.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Stark Raving Mad
Hello, Internet! I hope all is well in the SSA. Independence day is a little rainy, but I know that this will be a day to remember. A day that will be celebrated in history. A day which your children will revere you for having experienced.
Joe. Ah, Joe. Joe has figured out how to communicate. He morse-codes by tapping his head. I was wondering if he would ever figure that out since, like, halfway through Book 1: The Dead. They ask him what he wants (they being the doctors) and he responds that he wants to go on tour, to get out of the hospital, to share his story with every church, town, school, country, smick, smack, and smoo.
This, to me, sounds like a great idea. As I see it, Joe has four options:
Ahem. I would, if I were Joe, personally ask to die. But Joe might not be groovy with that, so my second choice would be to tour and make a difference.
You see, as Joe pointed out earlier in the book, he has a unique condition. He is effectually dead, yet he still has the ability to think and reason and, now, to communicate. This has never happened before, and Joe, who by now is incredibly anti-war, has some really interesting things to say.
Whoops, went over again! Oh, well. See y’all later, and happy Independence Day. I wonder if there will be cake?
Joe. Ah, Joe. Joe has figured out how to communicate. He morse-codes by tapping his head. I was wondering if he would ever figure that out since, like, halfway through Book 1: The Dead. They ask him what he wants (they being the doctors) and he responds that he wants to go on tour, to get out of the hospital, to share his story with every church, town, school, country, smick, smack, and smoo.
This, to me, sounds like a great idea. As I see it, Joe has four options:
- Joe could die and finally be at peace
- Joe could live and tour and make a difference with what little life he has left
- Joe could live but stay in his hospital bed and do nothing, being bored and lonely out of his mind
- Joe could go completely crazy bonkers mad tipsy-turvey insane disturbed raving looney cuckoo bananas wacko loco TIMBUKTU AND KALAMAZOO
Ahem. I would, if I were Joe, personally ask to die. But Joe might not be groovy with that, so my second choice would be to tour and make a difference.
You see, as Joe pointed out earlier in the book, he has a unique condition. He is effectually dead, yet he still has the ability to think and reason and, now, to communicate. This has never happened before, and Joe, who by now is incredibly anti-war, has some really interesting things to say.
Whoops, went over again! Oh, well. See y’all later, and happy Independence Day. I wonder if there will be cake?
COMMENT GOSH DARNIT
Hello, internet! Today you shall witness the inevitable downfall of the corrupt and ineffectual representative democracy of the United States of Amerika. On this day, 6 May 2009, a new government shall emerge. One just, fair, equal, and ready to serve and protect. This government will officially mark the first notes of a new movement: the Socialist States of America, The SSA!
Preamble:
We the people of the socialist nation of America, in order to provide a more effective government, to provide and protect the natural and social rights of its citizens, establish a new and improved form of government. After witnessing and often participating in the results of a government run by a select few empowered unnaturally through the course of American history, we the people now enact a people's government, to be run by the people, for the people. With this new tentative and experimental form of government comes great responsibility, thus it is the right of the people to make changes where changes are warranted, to foster progress when will benefit the people, and to restrict outdated practices when times call for such.
Article I:
The people's government shall be divided into three branches, all with equal power to govern and equal power to moderate the other branches. There shall be a people's branch, known as the Plebicy, made up of the citizens of the nation. They shall be divided into concentric jurisdictions, so as to better handle the growing population and the proclivity of citizens to be unsuited to make decisions on matters geographically foreign or unaffecting of them. The second branch shall be composed of the executive, a series of offices and ministries or cabinets to take care of the more specific duties of government such as money and transportation. The last branch of the government shall be composed of the learned scholars of the country, so that they may be the voice of reason and consultance when matters go beyond the knowledge of the layman. So shall be the basic framework of the government.
Preamble:
We the people of the socialist nation of America, in order to provide a more effective government, to provide and protect the natural and social rights of its citizens, establish a new and improved form of government. After witnessing and often participating in the results of a government run by a select few empowered unnaturally through the course of American history, we the people now enact a people's government, to be run by the people, for the people. With this new tentative and experimental form of government comes great responsibility, thus it is the right of the people to make changes where changes are warranted, to foster progress when will benefit the people, and to restrict outdated practices when times call for such.
Article I:
The people's government shall be divided into three branches, all with equal power to govern and equal power to moderate the other branches. There shall be a people's branch, known as the Plebicy, made up of the citizens of the nation. They shall be divided into concentric jurisdictions, so as to better handle the growing population and the proclivity of citizens to be unsuited to make decisions on matters geographically foreign or unaffecting of them. The second branch shall be composed of the executive, a series of offices and ministries or cabinets to take care of the more specific duties of government such as money and transportation. The last branch of the government shall be composed of the learned scholars of the country, so that they may be the voice of reason and consultance when matters go beyond the knowledge of the layman. So shall be the basic framework of the government.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Hello, internet! Sorry I haven’t blogged in a while, but my life has been incredibly busy.
The March of the Flag is all about how America needs to expand. It needs to conquer the foreign lands, spread out, and create a great empire with which to trade. This, interestingly enough, is the exact reason why England established the American colonies in the first place.
This whole notion is very much in contradiction to Joe’s idea of life in Johnny Got His Gun. Joe believes that the only time in which people should ever go to war is if they are defending something tangible, something that personally affects them, like a person, property, etc. He states that when people begin fighting for a word, like freedom or democracy, then the war is over a bulk generalization. Its stupid, because no one is fighting for a specific reason.
Joe would probably disagree with the author of The March of the Flag because of this. Joe would ask why he couldn’t just live in his house and not worry about the Philippines or Mexico or Puerto Rico. The author of The March of the Flag would respond that Joe is an American, and he needs to act for the good of America.
Who is right? Who is wrong? I dunno.
The March of the Flag is all about how America needs to expand. It needs to conquer the foreign lands, spread out, and create a great empire with which to trade. This, interestingly enough, is the exact reason why England established the American colonies in the first place.
This whole notion is very much in contradiction to Joe’s idea of life in Johnny Got His Gun. Joe believes that the only time in which people should ever go to war is if they are defending something tangible, something that personally affects them, like a person, property, etc. He states that when people begin fighting for a word, like freedom or democracy, then the war is over a bulk generalization. Its stupid, because no one is fighting for a specific reason.
Joe would probably disagree with the author of The March of the Flag because of this. Joe would ask why he couldn’t just live in his house and not worry about the Philippines or Mexico or Puerto Rico. The author of The March of the Flag would respond that Joe is an American, and he needs to act for the good of America.
Who is right? Who is wrong? I dunno.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)