Over the Rainbow, Past The Debate, listen to more Salvoj Zizek + Borderlands 2

With all the media (read: books, music,  internet, movies, tv) that I find my consuming on a daily basis I have decided to start keeping record of how my mind is interacting with all of these inputs. So now you the reader will be subjected to my run-on sentences and mindless mumblings in completely rough form.

Essentially I am now going to attempt to create a sorts of Input/Output documentation through this blog and let the public eye examine, destruct, construct, and consume my thoughts.

Today I played a lot of Borderlands 2 and proudly leading the revolution against the Hyperion Corp. on planet Pandora. I am currently a level 15 Commando and am predominately killing robots, and bandits with a Jacobs sniper rifle and an explosive Hyperion assault rifle. I'm specializing my turret to last longer and eventually fire missiles. I have some things I want to get to that doesn't relate to space pirating and killing.

Tonight I spent some time watching Canada's hit new reality show Over the Rainbow in which we watch young Dorothy and Toto hopefuls go through the paces of what will be expected of them during their performance of Andrew Lloyd Webber's production of The Wizard of Oz... As expected the competition is fierce and all the girls sang wonderfully and had a hard time singing the last number as their friend and competitor Cassandra from London was evicted from the contest. 

She's been told she still has a bright future.

I think CBC has finally found something appealing to a Canadian audience! Unlike Canadian Idol or the [country]...Got Talent franchises this contest offers something tangible to the contestants. Not the hopes of possible fame and fortune but rather the chance to be part of something they've always wanted to do. The show has taken a fairly normal process of auditioning for a part in a musical but has upped the ante by putting it in the hands of the audience. I was learning about making media interactive with the audience in class and this could possibly be a great way to bringing theatre into this line as well.

The debate was also on tonight. Romney did his usual "I think this is a good idea." and Obama usually retorted with "You are a liar and confusing because you said three weeks ago that this was a bad idea." then Romney would come back with "Nuh-uh, you're just attacking me and not talking about the issue" then Obama would say "Yeah-huh you're a liar!" then the moderator would come and say "all righty next question then" They are some master debaters right there.

Best line of the night? Well there was a few: "The 1980s called, it wants it foreign policy back" (in response to Romney's belief that Russia is the United States' biggest threat.) Also, both debaters were obsessed with whose arms should be placed in the hands of unarmed rebel forces in foreign lands (yeah, it got nonsensical at times). Key point here? It's okay to say "We want to give weapons to the citizens so that they can have a revolution" Not really "binders full of women" but close enough.

You can arm the hand of a rebel soldier and also hand arms to rebels...
or just give 'em weapons.

The debate mostly centered around foreign policy and as the commentators at the end mused it was pretty dry and they agreed on most things but really lit up when they got talking about the economy.
That was great. I have an idea for Obama so that more people could understand why he was so intent on raising funding for education and research based on a conversation he had with the late Steve Jobs...in response to bringing manufacturing jobs back "Those jobs simply aren't coming back".

I believe if Obama could say he wants a highly educated population so that the U.S. can arm each citizen with thinking and doing at the same time he could be capable of bringing the U.S. into line as filling a void between manufacturing sector and idea sector. Simply put Obama wants America to find a new niche in the world economy as the forefront of research and development.

Slavoj Zizek came back into my world of thought right before I started righting this blog with some new ideaologies about "greenwashing" and ecology with a video animated by RSA Animate. It's ten minutes.


Here's the rundown. Zizek believes that charity essentially sucks. But we're stuck at the crux of charity being necessary. He falls in line with Peter Rollins ideal that instead of focusing on bandaging the issue we need to treat the disease. Instead of finding a way to prolong life we need to improve the life that we have.

 He also talks about Toms and Starbucks. I know people love Toms and Starbucks...

This all stemmed from a post on reddit about this commercial...


All of these media things today are talking about 'revolutionizing' as their primary goal... Points to consider as it seems that's our buzzword for the day!