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29 December 1998
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"Back before electricity, people used to send messages from hilltop to hilltop, over long distances, by building signal-fires...
"This new network of web-surfers who maintain newspages (mostly using Frontier scripting language, as far as I can tell) are the web reincarnation of this -- scanning each others' pages to pick up hot tips (http's!) that we can then pass quickly along..."
-- Jorn Barger, 27 Feb 1998, alt.culture.www |
Hey, you know those 'Successories'? Those so-called "motivational" tools (posters, etc.) that say things like 'in this life you're either a lion (predator) or gazelle (dinner) and you need to wake up running or else'? Well, I'm not a lion or a gazelle, and it's pretty unlikely that I'll have to outrun my intended dinner in the foreseeable future. That sort of 'motivation' bugs me because it instills a false sense of urgency and encourages the distortion of your priorities. Don't try to get me to consciously invoke a "fight or flight"-level response for the sake of 'success' or 'getting ahead'. Let me be a human being who works hard but can still take a few days off now and then, and who has time to enjoy the finer things like art, music, writing, and time with my friends. Anyway, here's a nice tongue-in-cheek antidote to such rat-race, work-yourself-to-death, die-with-the-most-toys propaganda: namely, similarly-styled posters with the opposite message.
- Demotivators [Despair, Inc.]
Examples:
APATHY - "If we don't take care of the customer, maybe they'll stop bugging us."
MEDIOCRITY - "It takes a lot less time and most people won't notice the difference until it's too late."
MISTAKES - "It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others."
A month from now I plan to get me one of these puppies, whatever they look like (no one knows yet):
- New Power Macintosh (Yosemite) specs [MacOS Rumors]
- Upcoming Apple hardware info (see the Yosemite and El Capitan entries) [AppleInsider]
- New Macs in final stretch [MacWeek]
Thought I'd mention that Laurel Krahn mentioned on WindowSeat that I mentioned her site here last time. (okay, sorry, I'll stop now ... recursive loops are just naturally fun though :)
Last night I got a fortune cookie from Panda Express (random endorsement - their orange-flavored chicken is so good it's addictive), and it said:
"Do not mistake temptation for opportunity"Funny thing is, it's applicable to so many things in my life right now... Spooky... Of course, a week or two ago I got a fortune saying I'd have a very romantic evening ahead of me... bzzt, wrong...
Recommended listening for Genesis enthusiasts: The Box Set. Need I say more? Okay: a full-length Lamb show with Peter Gabriel on vocals. A live Gabriel Supper's Ready. Dancing With the Moonlit Knight. Twilight Alehouse. Happy the Man. A book full of recollections of the early days by the band and their associates and hangers-on. And bunches more. Get it at 10% off ($63 + S&H) at Amazon through this link:
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