Bicycle Mob

I witnessed my first bike mob last night. It occurred a little after ten o'clock in Culver City, in the middle of Venice Boulevard. To my spectation: it sure seemed like fun. Almost all of the bikers, however, looked either very tired or very bored. And there were practically as many police officers as there were bicyclists! Hey, all you officers - Aren't there some bad guys out there in Los Angeles that need arresting?

Draw your own conclusions.

Chaotic moving pictures

 Another exercise in the mundane. 

This is a three-minute walk down Washington Boulevard in Venice, on my way to meet up with Tim. The woman in the hoodie at the very end ignores me everyday when I walk past her.

 

This person was speaking to herself while we were waiting for the bus in Marina del Rey. 

Shortly after I stopped recording, she farted (sans reaction).

Finally, a woman preaching in the street in Koreatown.

Draw your own conclusions.

Double Rainbow

This picture was made by my girlfriend using an app called Farrout. I love it way too much.

Draw your own conclusions.

Protested and Filibusted

Perhaps you haven't heard yet, but women's rights were challenged in the state of Texas last night. State Senator Wendy Davis spoke past midnight in an attempt to block the vote, with plenty of support from fellow Democrats and several protestors outside. The bill known as SB5 would have made abortion illegal after a twenty-week pregnancy in the state, potentially forcing women to desperate measures should they wish to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. Together, with an uproarious group shouting on her behalf, this brave woman fought to maintain the rights of women everywhere through the power of continuous speech.

The filibuster protected Texas women today: without it, the bill was likely to pass in a largely Republican-ruled state. Senator Davis managed to stay on point, and the opposition never had the opportunity to evoke Texas' "three strikes" rule to quash the filibuster. She spoke for hours, hardly faltering at all. Furthermore, the protestors outside the senate floor provided much needed support for Davis, braving the brutal tactics of the Texan police force.

Some would argue that the filibuster is an archaic technique. In this particular case, though, there would be a biased vote had Senator Davis failed to filibuster - namely a cadre of men voting upon a bill regarding the rights of women. 

Read these articles if you like.

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/25/19140887-texas-abortion-bill-fails-to-pass-after-epic-filibuster?lite&gt1=43001

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/06/26/texas-lawmaker-filibusters-against-abortion-bill/

Check out some youtube links: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02kPpNCHj0Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXemg76twXg

And of course, look at these twitter hashtags: #sb5 #standwithwendy

Then, draw your own conclusions.

Kloutburst

I don't know if you've heard of it, but there is a system in place to score how internet savvy you really are. This system looks over your various accounts online, like Twitter and Facebook, offering you a score between 1-100. That score represents how effective your presence is, according to the inventors.

This system is called Klout.

Certainly, one may find a use for such a tool in the fast-paced, hyperreal universe known by the various monikers of the social medium. In fact, I would recommend that anyone cruising down the information superhighway at least check it out. If you are sensitive, though, you may want to avoid it.

Klout is not for everyone. Its purpose resonates with those who need to maintain a bright personality in the social media game, especially the Zooey Deschanels and Kurt Sutters of the online world. If you are a dabbler or an amateur however, I recommend checking it once, and then remove your account for many, many moons at the very least. I say this because, if you are just an average joe, Klout was designed to make you cry.

In essence, this idea appears to resurrect one of the most uncomfortable feelings one can have, namely, not fitting in. It's like going back to high school again, and the score Klout provides simply determines who is most likely to be prom king and queen. But if you remember, some of the coolest people in school weren't nominated for homecoming. There was the guy who owned all those exotic pets, he was pretty exceptional. And that chick who was in drumline - she was a badass! The soloist in glee club, the ice sculptor, that chick who always made cookies for the bake sale, that extremely-enthusiastic JV soccer player, the whole mock trial team, the nerd who was working on his first novel already. That dork who wouldn't shut up in history class had something going for him. Even the Frisbee geeks and those guys who played Magic cards and Dungeons & Dragons grew up to be more than you ever thought they would. Cool dudes, all of 'em.

I'm not suggesting that you avoid Klout - on the contrary, check it out. But then delete it. I mean it: excise it from your daily practices, because it is just like high school all over again. It will have you checking yourself out in the mirror, buying makeup you don't need, spending way to much time at the gym, and going to parties where you don't even know anyone anyway. And who really wants to go through all of that again?

Draw your own conclusions.

Would you rather...?

Yesterday I asked twenty of my co-workers a series of hypothetical questions. Everyone was eager to answer these questions, and no one really deliberated very long over which answer to choose. I presented these questions in a “column A or column B” format, bringing whatever choice they made from the previous question into the next one (as indicated below with the dotted lines). Without further ado, I asked:

Which ability would you rather have?

The ability to become invisible, or the ability to fly?

__________ or the ability to turn back the clock?

__________ or the ability to teleport yourself anywhere?

__________ or the ability to read other people’s thoughts?

And finally:

__________ or the ability to control other people’s minds?

Let me share some of their answers with you.

My favorite answers were the rarest ones. Both Robert and Malakai wanted to be able to teleport anywhere. Malakai said:  “According to metaphysics, if you can teleport, you can probably do all of those
other things already.” Robert thought it would be convenient l to be able to pop around wherever he wanted.

Wes and Jason both said that turning back the clock would be their choice. Wes said he would keep track of what stocks to invest in, go into the past, and then put all of his money into the security he wanted – smart guy! Jason said that it would be noble to go back in time and try to prevent wars and diseases from taking place.

Perhaps my favorite answer was from Jose. He just wanted to be invisible. Not much of an explanation, but then, I don’t know Jose that well and he appears to be a pretty humble guy.

No one chose to read minds, but then again, I think that everyone who wanted to read minds jumped to controlling minds as the better of the two options.

Here’s what astounded me, however: the majority of interviewees wanted either to fly or to manipulate others.

Six people out of twenty wanted to be able to fly. They gave myriad answers as to why, the most common of which was, “because it would be cool.” Flavio had a great answer. He said he wouldn’t quit his job as manager, he would just float above everyone and shout, “Don’t forget to prebus that table!” When I asked him why he didn’t want to control minds, he said, “I already know how to do that, papa!” Funny, but perhaps a little too close to home.

The other nine people desired to be able to manipulate people. When I asked why, most people were a little guarded with the specifics, which leads me to believe that perhaps their motives would be sexual or sadistic. Daniel wanted to force people to fight in a real-life version of Street Fighter II, where he could manipulate them as though he were holding a video game controller. Others just wanted people to do their bidding: have random people chauffeur them places, tell them secrets, get free plane tickets, take off their clothes, hit themselves, etc. It was a little shocking to me that roughly half of the people I asked wanted the sort of power that would almost invariably corrupt them.

The most interesting comparison came from these last two groups. Everyone who chose to fly showed a bit of innocence in their demeanor, as though they were children again. On the other hand, regarding those who chose to control minds, each answerer had an impish, almost diabolical look in their eye. The bifurcation between these two groups was amazing to look upon, and it said a great deal about the choices people make (in my opinion, at least).

What did I choose, you may be asking? Why, to teleport, of course! I should like to teleport into the vaults Fort Knox and take some gold bars, zip over to Dubai to spend/exchange them, pop in to London for a late afternoon tea, enjoy the night-life of Moscow, and then wake up in Paris. How could I choose anything else?

Which ability would you choose?

Draw your own conclusions.

Ride to work with me

An exercise in the mundane.

 

 Draw your own conclusions.

You are not an ant

There is an understanding between all of us: you are different from me. We recognize this, and most of the time, everyone has a healthy respect for it. And it is okay to be different - it is good, in fact. But let us look at something else today.

We are all very, very much alike.

I want to believe I am different - and I am! And so are you.

But nature does not recognize this as easily as we do. One pigeon does not differ enough from another for us to care, nor does one crow from another. Birdwatchers must be careful in their classifications for this very reason. Furthermore, birds between the species do not differ all that much: We only notice the differences in the particulars.

I will give another example. All ants look exactly the same to us. Yes, they are all different, every last one of them. Do we ever really think of that fact, save for when we philosophize? No, because they are all the same.

You have a great purpose on this earth and if you embrace your destiny, you will change many lives. But as the ant cannot differ that much from the worldwide populace of ants, you cannot differ that much from the whole of humanity. And this is a very good thing precisely because you are not at all an ant.

Draw your own conclusions.

I ❤ Female Protagonists

And I loathe misogyny. After I read a tweet from an old UCLA colleague (@terrasum), I discovered a Tumblr outlining a brave woman's Twitter comment regarding the presentation of the Xbox One at E3 (@femfreq). She chides the creators for failing to develop EVEN ONE GAME with a female protagonist.

A series of dreadfully awful responses follow her tweet.

Before you draw any conclusions, click the link below and read.

I, for one, am tired of the hack-and-slash shoot-em-up, where the roided-out silent-type smashes his souped-up racecar (or spaceship) into the enemy phallus-castle, claiming his revenge whilst freeing the helpless female from the clutches of the evil alien/robot/dragon (who also happens to be male). Bo-ring!

I love female protagonists - and we are a starved audience. Stories from a female perspective shatter the boundaries of our male-dominated world. And that's all I gotta say about that.

Read it for yourself - and get mad as hell!

http://femfreq.tumblr.com/post/52673540142/twitter-vs-female-protagonists-in-video-games

Then, draw your own conclusions.

Looking for a place to rent?

While I was walking to the Palms-Rancho library yesterday, I saw this gem emblazoned outside a complex on Overland Avenue (between Palms and National). Perhaps the owner didn't think this one all the way through. On the other hand, we finally have truth in advertising.

Draw your own conclusions.