Monday, January 31, 2011

Promotional Business Ventures! Buy somethin' for allmodern, woo! (a bit of freewriting on a computer)

Modern Office Furniture. It looks something like this:

Alessi - Juicy Salif Citrus-Squeezer by Philippe Starck, 1990

And Costs something like this:
$96.00.

I can help. I'm supposed to get a promotional code that can get you $25 off. So this wonderful juicer'll be only $71. (But I can only give it to one winner... I'm not sure how to chose a winner, but I suppose I could just say that I'll email it the first email that's posted as a comment to this blog. That sounds fair enough.)

I'm sure this coupon can be more useful for something else, but for me, these prices are still a little daunting. Especially since I don't really know what that thing is. It looks like a drone in a sci-fi movie that's about to get shot by the hero. I swear I've seen it before, I just can't recall what movie. And I am not sure how the thing classifies as furniture. I would call it an 'appliance'. One that doesn't seem to use electricity, so I'm down with that. In either case, it is artistic. That cannot be denied.

I'm impressed by their marketing people: reaching out to the blogosphere. A conglomerated population of people who don't really have anything in common. Seems like you're almost a likely to find someone against you than for you. Me, for example: I don't like consumerism at all. I'm a fucking Ludite, if I'm honest with myself. I feel like I've sold my soul a little just by being part of this miniature movement. But, hell, I might as well throw something up on this blog, eh? I haven't done it in a while and while this is about the least philosophic post I have made in my life, it is not utterly devoid of any meaning. I am working on a few more interesting essays and hopefully I start actually puttin' em up soon, but it's not like I actually get any readers right now. The entire reason I am doing this is, as they accurately predicted was the minuscule chance that I would actually get a new reader. Perhaps I will get some curious person to visit by doing this, but it'll then be up to me to keep them and this isn't really a good start.

I do content myself with the knowledge that I am not exactly what was desired and because I'm as unwise as the next bloke, I find comfort in this idiotic notion. A good reason to do anything is not to be like anyone else nor is it a good reason to just be different. Motivation is an important thing, perhaps not the most so, but it isn't vacant. My motivations here aren't even clear, but I'm having fun just sorta brain-dumping gibberish no the internet at the moment.

Which gets into a real point: the ease of the internet. If cars have made people physically lazy because it is so easy to get anywhere we've lost respect for getting there then the internet has had the same effect on the intellect. My mother calls Sarah Palin intellectually lazy, which is certainly true, but it seems like nearly everyone is currently 'intellectually lazy'. Does anyone even know how to truly look something up anymore. As in, in the encyclopedia not just type a few words into the omniscient (and pathologically lying) Google? I do, but I often don't have the energy (or the resources - my house has only a set of children's encyclopedias) to do it. My intellectual laze is the reason that I am not posting shit anywhere. That takes bloody work! It's hard to compose a decent essay, no matter what it is about. This (current body of words), for sure, is not decent at anything. It is just a collection of words like a text book: they are published but no one in hell actually reads them. They are pointless and, worse, take a modicum of energy to attach them to a piece of silicone. Unlike the spoken word which is gone the moment it is said.

That was an essay I was thinking about. I have a ton of textbooks. There are several thousand copies of each of them written and floating around the world now. And they are constantly being rewritten and resold for extremely little purpose. They are filled with words and ideas that are not being considered or even (most of the time) read. Most of the time, there is absolutely no reason to update it. Like a calculus text book: calc hasn't changed since Newton and Leibniz competed on who's notation was better (and Newton's inferior method won: not an uncommon thing in today's world). Leibniz is getting more popular, but his system is just as old as Newtons and neither one change how calculus actually works. A calc book written in 1905 has just as relevant information as a calc book written in 2011, just less pictures.

Yet new ones are being written and newer ones are being published and no one who buys them actually gives a damn. This is why every college student in America has a grudge against their text books. They don't so many that the price can be anything but $100 and they go obsolete before the term is over. And unlike Computers, this obsolesce is arbitrary.

Actually, even computer obsolescence is largely arbitrary. I have a computer that is about 10 years old and it works better than my girlfriends which is 3 years old just because I have Lubuntu on it instead of Windows Vista: a bloated obscene and obese Operating System. Her computer handles much bette on the internet (mine doesn't have the processing power for the modern internet), but it is capable of doing every local on-computer task as well as hers.

Interesting, eh? Humans and their society is bizarre.

Anyway, I think I'll stop here for now. I'll just leave with a few more comments on the actual promotion which prompted this ramble:

That juicer was the most bizarre thing I could find on their website (allmodern.com). It's a CSN store. I'm not sure if that means anything to anybody. I couldn't really find anything about their morality anywhere. Telling people to give personal recommendations even if they've never been a customer before isn't very honest, but that isn't what they are really doing (though it is an evil advertising technique I've heard of). I'm not giving a recommendation: I'm giving a gift card to someone. Obviously it was a calculated promotion.

Here's some more wonderful furniture of theirs:


$360$415Lamps are always fun. $42.51
Or perhaps a desk on it's side for $800: 

Here's everything you could actually get right now just with your promo (should you win...):






Strange little lamps. Neither one has the web-sites own "go green" certification, so I cannot say I am in whole-hearted support of either of them.

TTFN

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Alice in Wonderland (2010 movie)

I realize something with the viewing of Alice in Wonderland: Tim Burton is unimpressive. I think he has succeeded as a hollywood "artist" only because he has a characteristic visual flare. There are some movies of his I have liked, but he has a tendency to take a good story and commercialize it into a dime-a-dozen paperback. He did it with Planet of the Apes (which, only now, I realize I never published as a review...) and now he has done it with Alice in Wonderland. This movie is a really "Poor Attempt".

It's now just some (Spoiler alert as much as anyone could spoil it) random action story about killing a dragon with a magic sword under the gaze of an evil, big-headed Queen who usurped her throne from her younger sister. With Johnny Depp, of course.

Meh.

Due Date (2010 movie)

Due Date just flies through and is a rather "Disappointing" movie in the end. It has one I-Love-Lucy moment (an unrealistically crazy moment where one can only think: no... no you didn't... Oh... I can't watch... Oh no... You got some es'plaining to do! ...You can't possibly get away with this, you realize?) which, coupled with a sudden reversal of character just moments before, crumpled what was left of a marginal plot in the beginning.

The Other Guys (2010 movie)

The Other Guys may be just a little better than The Green Hornet, but it may be just a little worse. There are parts that are funny, it has a lot less action in it than The Green Hornet (a more reasonable level, really), but it is also less bright and simply fun.

The best part of The Other Guys is the ending credits. They are educational. They spell out in the plainest possible language who the real criminals are and how difficult it is to prosecute them.

Which make me wonder how wise The Other Guys just may be. Throughout the movie, there is this hyper-masculine manor which is promoted. Real Men don't drive Priuses, Real Men like guns and fighting, Real Men don't like the opera, Real Men get Drunk, and Real Men are tough! And the only man on the police force who is not a Real Man is a most abusive husband. The most Real Men men in the film jump to their death in the very beginning being macho. The movie seems, on review, to be like South Park in its utter lampooning of our culture. Like all satire, this movie can be taken the wrong way (and I think it will be by most people) but I have come to think that the wrightors of this film don't believe in anything that happens in it. Besides the credits.

Perhaps that's just what I want to see. In any case, the movie is quite "Interesting Entertainment" in the end...

The Green Hornet (2011 movie)

The Green Hornet is better than most action movies for the simple fact that it is a comedy. Half of it is only making fun of action movies. The 3D effects were absolutely unnecessary. Like most movies with real actors filmed in 3D, every object seems apart from the rest of the environment.

Though a lot of this movie I was amazed at the level of destruction. It had to have cost a lot to make. If you like seeing class break (in 3D), then you'll probably love this movie. I find it a pit over the top. The main character gets just a little annoying, the 'side kick' really is a much better character.

In the end, the movie is "Entertaining", but it's really only OK.

Good Chapters: