Pew Pew: Laser Walls Unnecessarily Update the Stoplight

Ladies and gentlemen we interrupt our daily show for this…..

Pew Pew: Laser Walls Unnecessarily Update the Stoplight

which i think is WAYYYY cool! Traffic stopping indeed.

In the end; we are all the same.

Homogenization.

As the world grows increasingly capitalist in nature, I fear for our cultural diversity, or any diversity for that matter. I never ever looked from this perspective until recently. But it is true, isn’t it – Nothing succeeds like success. Replicas of TV shows, replicas of story lines, replicas of popular songs. Why do we not have any more variations in our media products – because The Suits are ultimately dictating that anything too risky and too unpalatable is going to be bad for ratings/popularity, and inadvertently, they act as gatekeepers and filter all the creative content out.

The most horrifying of course is the dawning realization of the role that advertising plays into this. The more people try to inject cultural elements into the advertisements (inter-cultural communication?) into ads, the more all of us are eventually socialized into the same culture of consumerism. It doesn’t matter your race, age, gender, personal preferences. All are schooled into the same way of thinking. Every point of contact with the media tells you that you are imperfect, that you need what they can offer you to conceal those imperfections.

We are taught that buying (-insert product plug here-) will solve all our problems. Purchasing a product equates to happiness eventually because you are that one step closer to a perfect lifestyle- just like on TV!

The production process is eventually relegated to the background. Products are created in toy factories full of glitter and puffballs ( the Coke factory anyone?). Like the elves in Santa’s workshop. Like the oompa loompas in Willy Wonka’s factory. No one really wants to see images of Third World children slaving away in sweatshops in dilapidated conditions, come on!

In Brands We Trust
As the corner store grocer and mom and pop stores all around the world lose the battle against the large chains, all of us eventually turn to brands. There is nothing else that is familiar to us, nothing else we can bank on. So why is it that you only only swear by (insert favourite brand here), when just another product from another brand is just as functional? Is it really delivering that much of a different experience to you? 

Is it you that is really controlling what you consume? Or is it something else that has shaped your tastes and preferences? And how would you ever know, or would you even know?

I, personally, have yet to figure that out. Just like how I don’t understand why people go loco over the very ugly Coach bags. But that is another story altogether.

Tags: branding, advertising, homogenization

Over the Rainbow…

3D characters on a 2D plateau. It happened while I was tinkering with the digi cam whose features I cannot claim to have mastered, because I dislike reading manuals ( I am That Type of Person) and I don’t read more than necessary unless
1. it comes with a big ass warning sign that the machinery will explode if I don’t follow steps 1 through 3. or
2. I was “forced” to read it.
3. I was bored.

Back to topic.. I really hadn’t intended for this photo to come out like this, it was supposed to document two lovely presents that I’d gotten from you and you. and then by accident I thought it would be cool to Walk E Dog(exactly as the box says) over the rainbow.

One of the songs from the Broadway Play I’d watched,” The Drowsy Chaperone”, I’m sure is titled something like “I’m an Accident waiting to happen”. And I suppose that is rather much like what I feel personally right now. Actually I kind of feel like a stem cell, you know, is that the kind of cell that you can grow into anything? Lips, eyeballs, skin, thigh muscle. yeesh.

Science (like technology) is wonderful, when it works. And I just found out I can edit photos IN the camera, and do all sorts of cool-but-somewhat-useless effects that add to the price tag, but contribute little to anything else. haha. Somewhat like mobile phones. How many functions are there in your phone that you will never use anyway? I’m willing to bet the number is far bigger than the functions that you actually utilize.

and then I could get all philosophical about choice… alert! alert! runaway train of thought.

Happiness because I am flying to America soon. These are the pretties from the mates that will follow me there. Walking the dog, over the rainbow… get it? ha ha.

Fast track (to 2008)

Inaugural 2008 post!

If I were you, I’d be immensely wary of anything that promises you a fast track method to anything.  I find it interesting that people seem to think of this as a plus point. Someone who can fast track their education, fast track their career, fast track anything, really.

These are the touch and goes. The reason why we may end up with an entire generation of people who know everything, yet know nothing, having fast tracked through every single major milestone in their life.

Regardless of how instant your coffee or tea is, it still needs time for the flavour to come out of the tea bag. Anything faster than that and you’ll be sipping a lovely cup of plain water (when all along, in your mind, you were drinking a cuppa tea). Instant trees topple over the roadside the moment a windstorm comes along – their roots didn’t go deep enough. Instant noodles gives you cancer! haha!

My 2008 resolution, which differs from previous years – Take time to grow.

Easier said than done!

Over and out!

Cheatnuts roasting by the fire..

Merry xmas to one and all.. and also to the uncle selling water cheatnuts. hur hur hur… okays highly annoyed that WordPress keeps cutting off my pictures. click to view it in its full entirety!

Anime Goodness.

I just thought this was oddly funny yet was compelled to watch it ( at least for about a minute ), which is a pretty good rating already, really.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SoZzlgQzHM

Haven’t really seen anything fresh recently in terms of motion graphics, the same old swanky swirling bursts of 3d wonderland gets old after a while. Have always been a great fan of hybrid technologies and I keep wondering if the main character was drawn, or modelled. A lot of work went into this deceptively simple piece and I am loving the visual feast. Regardless of how warped it gets after a while. Nobody does quirky like the Japanese! <3s to them.

New york, New york.

Back from New York and thought-less ( i depend way too much on my computer to pen down the thoughts). Since the said equipment was a million zillion miles away while the thoughts were happening, I now have the task of trying to remember everything I was thinking about, which will take some time.

It is, however, rather interesting to see things in the newspapers lately, and go hey! I was there.

Like this. 

and the Charmin’ tissue paper place, I saw in the news that some couple get hitched there? and that the bride was in a tissue paper gown creation? far out!

Indeed, the center of the univers, is New York. At least to the media folks.
I promise to post select pictures here when I am over the jet lag, and the Christmas rush.

All in all, it was a pretty great experience. If I had to pen down keywords, I would put subway, crowd, broadway, dirty, people, fast, buildings, concrete, cold, snow, winter, shopping, makeup, fashion, boots, smokin’ manholes, TV, Times Square, Park, sunlight, pigeons, Soho, lost past midnight, subway performances, the snowed under Wall Street bull and Madison Square Garden. For starters. Like the pictures, these points probably will get expanded in the future. or not.

New York is possibly a nice place to spend 2 years of your (young/ young at heart) life. but not to live in for a long long long time.

Because the city, it changes you.

honesty is the best policy

A pat on the back to them for being so blatantly honest about their inability (unfortunately) to be efficient, at least that is what the poster seems to signal to me. translated and summarized it basically means, “we can’t cope with the number of customers we have, despite having tried. many methods, many times.” or you could take it to mean ” we are so damn good, people just can’t ever get enough of us!“. Take it anyway you wish.

Don’t think they taste very good, actually. but easy on the eye, definitely.  mmmm.

love that hair

was just sitting on the bus when i saw this very interesting sight.  possibly similar enough to what one might see the movies. The hair has a life of its own, and a certain character indeed.

wha?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21207955@N03/2060762074/