Category Archives: Rant

Dear Zach

A comment I wrote at Garden State Blog to Zach Braff:

Zach,

Just saw Garden State — It only recently came out in New Zealand.
Dude, Garden State is my number one favorite movie of all time. My
previous #1 was The Matrix.

I found Garden State so timely for my life. The journey that Large
takes in the movie was so beautifully random, yet with a sense of
structure and purpose.

I’m a recovering addict and I feel like my journey is similar to
Large’s journey. I won’t say what addiction I’m recovering from here;
if you really want to know, visit my site — /

Let me elaborate a little:

Large seems like he hasn’t really had any feelings since he was put
on the prescription-cocktail by his father. As an addict, I feed my
addiction to dull the pain that lies underneath. Large decides to go
off the prescription and discovers that feeling the pain that we keep
hidden is the only way to really solve the situations and problems that
hurt us.

Unfortunately for many addicts, kicking the habit is much harder than leaving the pills in another state.

Zach, I love your show and I love your movie. Thanks for making it.
Also thanks for being a crazy nut-case of a guy: I find it encouraging.
I don’t quite know how I find it encouraging. Maybe it’s your
down-to-earth attitude and being personal and honest on your blog.

Maybe it’s because you make us laugh and cry on the inside. But I
wanna thank you for being you. I know we’ve never met, and maybe we’ll
never meet, but somehow, at some strange and difficult to describe way,
I’ve connected with who you are, and learnt something about myself in
the process. For that, I commend you on.

Your thankful fan,
Brett

I hope he reads it. Deep down I hope he writes back — I heard he sometimes does. But I won’t be crushed if he doesn’t.

If you dropped by Zach, email me. If you’re ever in New Zealand, let me buy you a beer or something 🙂

Rant 1 comment

Things we focus on

I’m a geek. I care about geeky things. So you wouldn’t blame me if I walk down the street and notice people with iPods. Or notice people with bags from Telecom or Vodafone stores or carrying boxes containing new cellphones. Or Dick Smiths. Or even from photocopy stores.

Or notice crashed ATMs, crazy licence plates, logic in madness, patterns, the things between the lines.

Cos I do. What weird things do you notice that you think others wouldn’t?

Rant 4 comments

Factchecking is Important

After an e-mail was forwarded to me containing a copy paste of an earlier revision of USA average IQ’s by state, the results were too good to be true. So I fact-checked the email’s ass. Here’s my reply. Names were removed to protect the guilty.

States and their average IQ and who they voted for.

The IQ numbers were originally attributed to the book “IQ and the Wealth of Nations”, though they do not appear in the current edition. The tests and data were administered via the Raven’s APT, and the The Test Agency, one of the UK’s leading publishers and distributors of psychometric tests. This data has been published in the Economist and the St. Petersburg Times

(name removed) wrote:

This is so funny and indeed REAL

While indeed funny and a somewhat uplifting prospect, I wanted to be sure…

I couldn’t find any validating proof on www.economist.com or www.sptimes.com for this years election.

However, I did find a similar study done in May 2004 for the 2000 election, here:
http://tinyurl.com/3kreq

After that, I googled for ‘IQ election‘ (sans quotes) and found the original source of the email you posted.

http://chrisevans3d.com/files/iq.htm

It turns out the reason I couldn’t find anything on economist.com is because they retracted the article on the basis of it was ‘unable to be verified and possibly a hoax’.

==

In the future, I ask that if anyone want to send stuff they percieve as true, that they *provide links to trustworthy sources that back it up*.

Linking to the page that provided the article is also a smart idea, because it could be updated with newer, more enlightening information…

This is so funny and indeed REAL

…Especially before claiming it’s REAL. Proof makes it real 😉 Do your part to keep it real 🙂 Be responsible. Thank you 🙂

Cheers 🙂

Rant Reading Comments are closed

Content vs Publishing Mediums

This is a sneak warning for all you Webfrooters who read my personal blog. Webfroot’s gonna have it’s own podcast. A podcast is basically a radioshow recorded and made available online as an MP3. Technology is so cheap and easy to use that now anyone can publish stuff like this.

People can listen to the MP3 by downloading it themselves, or automatically. An RSS feed is then made available, and using enclosures, special RSS feedreaders can download the MP3 over http or BitTorrent. The feed reader then inserts the MP3 into your iTunes and when you update your iPod in the morning, you have radio to listen to!

But after listening to some podcasts, it seems people are concerned about podcasters talking about podcasting on their podcasts, claiming “it’s all they ever talk about”. David Slusher says “fuck off, too bad, it’s only been around for about 6 weeks!” on his Evil Genius Chronicles audioblog/podcast.

Which brings me to my point (and I’m borrowing some of this from Slusher): People judge new mediums like blogging and podcasting by the content. “Blogs suck because they’re either geeks talking tech or goths whining about their life”. “Podcasts suck because they’re unprofessional and it’s just geeks in their basements”. I could say back at the birth of TV “Television sucks — it mostly has test-patterns on it”.

While yes, the majority of blogs are by geeks and people whining about their life, and the current majority of podcasts have podcasters raving about the new medium, this doesn’t mean that the medium sucks! It’s just you think the people podcasting suck! Which is fine, it’s your opinion — Judge the content, not the medium. These people who have picked up the podcasting stick and are running with it are pushing the medium.

Yes, current podcast content appeals to geeks, but that’s because it’s a new medium invented by geeks! Who invented the TV? Who invented the Internet? Damn right… it was geeks. But just like there are now more non-geek sites on the internet, and there are more non-geek blogs springing up, there will be more non-geek podcasts in the near future.

Blogging Rant 1 comment

Open book exams and the internet

Remember open book exams? You were allowed to take books into the exam and refer to them…. I wonder if taking a Pocket PC wirelessly connected to the internet so you can Google or consult Wikipedia is allowed… probably not… but hey, that wouldn’t surprise me…

Internet Rant 2 comments