World AIDS Day 2012 - a local take

I know more people than I care to count who were lost to apathy, silence and refusal to change. Some of them were friends and acquaintances. Others were people who fleetingly passed by. The rate of infection has reduced but this is misleading. It means that less people are being infected, but it also means that people are still being infected.

Mindset Cafe: 2012-11-30

The last ninjas, the nuclear moon, acid seas, writing compulsion, a Ray Bradbury interview and bookish playpen props for sapiosexuals.

Glassy eyes

Here's some bits of found web art, reconfigured for the evening, and two lines of doggerel.

Forget about privacy. You're in the open anyway.

Forget about your privacy. The web collects information about you, even if it is as innocuous as establishing your country. Some websites are stringent and ethical. Others just don't care. If you don't want it out there, don't put it up there. Check the cookie policy and terms of use if need be. 

I haven't seen Breaking Dawn Part 2, twice

The first time I didn't see Breaking Dawn 2 was on Friday, when the queue was endlessly full of young teenage girls. I inadvertently put on my black trousers, black shirt and black shoes before heading out, so I am glad we didn't bother to queue. There is nothing sadder than the idea of an old goth type queuing with a bunch of young adolescents to see something like that.

Movie night: Ark

Here's a story of humanity setting out in ships, searching for new places to live, after a virus decimates humanity. But wait! There's a twist in the tale that speaks to the wannabe hero in all of us. Just over 7 minutes, from Grzegorz Jonkajtys.

Mindset Cafe: 2012-11-23

Mindset Cafe: 2012-11-23

On the menu this week, humans are getting dumber, the medieval arms race, HP Lovecraft, HP Lovecraft and some more HP Lovecraft, typewriters, bad news about Ebola, carbon emissions and the first of the Christmas idiocy.

Television: the fly in my ointment

Television has been my high horse this week. I worked with it in ad agencies where it had the glitz of money, but it has lost its shine. In agencies, there was the whole thing of the captive audience, the highest retention rates, and the alpha waves that are indicative of a mildly hypnotic state. It's also a very cheap medium if the client is able to do some basic division with a calculator. And blah, blah, blah, so just sign the quote already, or do you want that on an installment plan?

It's only natural... well, no, not really.

Modernity has a very bad reputation. It’s probably due to the complexity of life and pollution. On the other hand, there is no reason to chuck the baby out with the bath water, just because you are dissatisfied with the pace and byproducts of life as the rest of us.

A note on creativity

What happens is that a pattern is recognised and evolved. The basic pattern is learned, either in a school, a studio, from media or from winning entries in recent ad awards. There is very little new under the sun, just sometimes, someone manages to see things in a different light.

Evil aunties and the real human vampires among us

Watch people inflicting misery on others. Keep a close eye on their faces particularly as they turn from the scene or when they believe that nobody is watching them. It might not be a full smile, just a gleam in the eye or a raising of the right side of the lip. 

Movie night: The Separation

Conjoined twins are separated with very unhappy results. This is extraordinarily unsettling, and the animation adds to the horror. Nine-and-a-half minutes written, animated and directed by Robert Morgan.

Mindset Cafe: 2012-11-16

On this week's menu, more attempts to jackboot emotions from the DSM mob, a couple of scattered thoughts on young adult fiction and climate change unveils a new apocalypse.

Insects, the food crisis and fear of dung

You won't see me trying to kill a spider with a phone directory. I'll more likely be rooting for it to catch more mosquitoes. The scorpions that wander in during winter, get put back outside.

Dystopian future: conformity and global social networking

No doubt you have read Ira Levin's 'This Perfect Day'. If you haven't read it yet, you should. It is one of the most unsettling depictions of a dystopia imaginable. At the time or reading, it seemed far-fetched. The radical society which it portrays is still difficult to imagine, but it grows closer.

Movie night: The Forest

A young girl comes up against her father and society as she finds a life within her own mind. Just over six thought provoking minutes from David Scharf. Sometimes I need things like this.

Mindset Cafe: 2012-11-09

On this week's menu, the woman who broke into a house and cleaned it, women's literary awards, literary horror and a strange story of a man-eating leopard.

War games and war comics

I'm catching up on some odds and ends and writing tonight, so here's an old column that I still quite fancy.

Hypochondria: entertainment and economics

My guess is that there is an economy to hypochondria and sick leave. It's probably an unspoken thing. If you see someone getting sick, you watch for the sick leave. If it is a matter of getting sick leave, then other people in the office will roll out similar symptoms on a staggered basis, so that everyone gets a turn to be sick, but nobody actually gets left holding the baby on his or her own.

Dystopian future: the age gap

Once upon a time, lifespans were far shorter than they are today. Sixty was old age. Today the age of retirement is set well past sixty. In most developed countries, a lifespan stretching into the seventies is the norm, and this can easily stretch into the eighties. Unfortunately, this can become a nightmare.

Movie night: The Legend of the Scarecrow

Here's the melancholy story of a scarecrow who didn't enjoy his job, and why crows are black. It's 9 minutes, written and directed by Marco Besas, with subtitles.

Mindset Cafe: 2012-11-02

On this week's menu, the Disney Star Wars thing, Saul Zaentz takes ownership of Hobbits, a useful book on plotting, how witches are being portrayed, industrial fishing, horror knitting and a surprise.

Voluntary lobotomy and behaviour that angers me

In terms of shallow, this behaviour has the depth of the thin film of spit that a dog leaves in its bowl after it has finished licking its bowl clean. The whole thing of 'first impressions count' should not be put in the heads of people who believe that dumbing down is the way to manage your life.