brainfood part 2

How To Start A Revolution : a summary of the Tipping Point in the context of forging revolutions.

The Dunmbar Number as Limit to Group Sizes : An analysis of the magical '150' number assumed to the upper limit of human group interaction.

A Natural History of Peace : This whole article is a study of primates in various conditions and tries to apply lessons therein to human social organisation. Good stuff if you "believe" in evolutionary psychology, the human animal, and that fun stuff.

Lion's Led By Donkeys : A great rhetoric piece on the relationship between citizens and their soldiers c.f. the current Iraq situation. Only related to social engineering tangentially.

brainfood part 1

Brainfood I've been reading recently:

Turning Procrastination Into Your Shitty First Draft at 43folders.com : Applicable to screenwriting especially those on the 14 Day MAdness.

Simple Things You Can Do Right Now To Jumpstart Your Writing Efforts at 52projects.com : There you go.

The X-Men Surrealists at Digital Poetics : Another beautiful article by Nicholas Rombes on the new X3. (Which I still haven't sene)

Digital Shadows at Paper Bits : Great stuff which taps into some even better stuff on

Theory Objects and Design Patterns at techkwodo : Self-relective self-theorising self-building works....

my life according to willow

via wildinbed

So there's this blog test which has you hit "shuffle" on your ipod, and the series in which the songs play answer key questions about your life.

Willow is my 30 gig 3rd Gen iPod. This is what she has to say about me:

QUESTION: How does the world see me?
ANSWER: "Hy Pro Glo", Anthrax (Sound of White Noise, 1993)

I...............
Who, what, where, when, why,
How many ways can you lie
How many ways can you try
How many ways can you die
What am I gonna do
I can’t look at you
What are you gonna do
You’re no hypocrite

I bash my head against the wall everyday
You’d bash your head against the wall anyway
And then you’d turn around to see if I care
But I can’t, and I never did
What’d you expect me to give
You never deserved my respect

How many ways can you try
It burns a hole inside my mind

COMMENTARY: I make people bash their heads against the wall. Fun. Either that, or I'm not hypocrite. and I don't deserve their respect. Shit.

Q: Will I have a Happy Life?
A: "Inertia Creeps", Massive Attack (Meazzanine, 1998)

Recollect me darling raise me to your lips
2 undernourished egos 4 rotating hips
Hold on to me tightly Im a sliding scale
Cant endure then you can inhale
Clearly out of body experience
Interferes and dreams of flying I fit nearly
Surrounds me though I get lonely
Slowly

Moving up slowly
Inertia keeps
Shes moving up slowly
Slowly
Moving up slowly
Interia creeps
Moving up slowly
She comes moving up slowly
She comes moving up slowly
Inertia creeps
Moving up slowly
She comes
Moving up slowly (x2)

C: Guess that I mean I will, eventually.

Q: What do my friends think of me?
A: "Bringer", Soilwork (Natural Born Chaos, 2002)

Hey soilmates, we're facing the end
We're down low no use to pretend
A bitter message from heaven sent
it says we're asleep at the wheel again
Let's say we're stuck in an illusion
Let's say we're out of control
Possessed by a lethal redeemer
Forcing us to play a neurotic role
Oh, won't you take this thing out of me
It never leaves me alone
Fight the demons and devastate
This mental battlezone

Chorus:
Bring it back, bring it home
Enough is enough, I'm alone
Everything's set all ready to go away
Bring it back, bring it home
To the place I used to know
There comes a time
when this nighmare will turn to hate

C: They think I'm a serial killer. Great.

Q: Do people secretly lust after me?
A: Glory, KMFDM (Angst, 1993)

War and slavery, exploitation
The common faces of the western nations
Official version, a falsified story
The truth lies buried in a shroud of glory
Influential people aren't serving time
For being involved in organized crime
But stashed away in beautiful mansions
Guess who provides for their generous pensions?
Oppression, ignorance, censorship rule
Education is more than what's taught in school
Forced in the mold, held down by threats
Decisions are made over our heads
But there is a way to refuse and resist
We don't need to be ruled with the iron fist
We are the people, we are strong
Let's make up our minds and call them wrong
Black man, white man, yellow man
Rip the system
Religion and TV, we're under the thumb
Grown to believe because we're already numb

C: I would've preferred Lust off the same album, as I have NFI how this applies? Do I make people numb? Am I like a lust dictator? Charismatic?

Q: How can I make myself happy?
A: "What am I Here For?", Count Basie and His Orchestra (April In Paris)

Q: What should I do with my life?
A: Karma Police, Radiohead (OK Computer, 1997)

Karma police, arrest this man, he talks in maths
He buzzes like a fridge, hes like a detuned radio
Karma police, arrest this girl, her hitler hairdo, is making me feel ill
And we have crashed her party
This is what you get, this is what you get
This is what you get, when you mess with us

C: I'll police other people's karma. I can deal with that.

Q: Will I ever have children?
A: "Centro De Predomino", Soilwork (Steelbath Suicide)

Great thrashy instrumental. WTF Does that say?

Q: What is some good advice for me?
A: Crash Course in Brain Surgery, Metallica (Garage Days, 1986?)

Look inside and you will see
The words are cutting deep inside my brain
Thunder burning, quickly turning
Knife of words is driving me insane
Insane, yeah

Raven black is on my track
He shows me how to neutralize the knife
Show to me in surgery
The art of fighting words to conquer life
Conquer life, yeah

C: Conquer life, yeah.

Q: How will I be remembered?
A: "One O'Clock Jump", Count Basie Orchestra (One O'Clock Jump, 1937?)

"One O'Clock Jump” is a fairly simple tune, based on a 12-bar blues that builds in rhythmic intensity. It is constructed from a series of three riffs, carried first by the saxophones, then by the trumpets, then finally the trombones, followed by a series of solos. It was such a popular tune and so easy to adopt that several bandleaders, including Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington, quickly added it to their repertoire. By 1940 it had been recorded a dozen times. As was customary at the time, Basie was given credit for composing the tune, although several people had a hand in its creation. The famous riff which concludes the piece was nicked from a recording by Fats Waller entitled “Six or Seven Times”, and arranger Eddie Durham certainly had a hand in the tight, swinging orchestration. “One O'Clock Jump” proved to be so popular that it became the last song of the night at the Reno Club before it was even recorded, and Basie used it as his closing song for over fifty years. Originally the tune was called “Blue Ball”, but a nervous radio broadcaster felt that he couldn't say the title on the air. The tune was thus dubbed “One O'Clock Jump” after the late hour that it was traditionally played.

-- via AllaboutJazz

C: Remembered by the song that people remember Basie by. I'm cool with that.

Q: What is my signature dance song?
A: "philosophy of time travel" by Michael Andrews (Donnie Darko Sountrack)

C: Weird, floating, synthy music. No beats. OK. What does that say? That i can dance to anything?

Q: What's my current theme song?
A: "Timeless", In Flames (Lunar Strain - Subterranean Reissue, ????)

C: Acoustic instrumental. Actually a beautiful track.

Q: What do others think my current theme song is?
A: "Breed Apart", Sepultura (Roots, 1996)

Creepy crawl
on concrete and dust
Asphalt jungle
Piles of crust

Non sense thoughts
Inside the mind
What really means
What I want ?

Open up your mind
And go your own way
Open up your mind
And go your own way
Open up your mind
And go your own way
Open up your mind
And go your own way

C: Point taken.

Q: What shall they play at my funeral?
A:"ferne welten", Meltoron (Fortschritt, 2000)

C: Piano driven instrumental with some triumphant synth orchestral work... Makes sense. Even if Melotron write cheesy Futurepop normally.

Q: What type of women do I like?
A: "A Fair Judgement", Opeth (Deliverance, 2002)

Losing sleep, in too deep
Fading sun, what have I done
Came so close to what I need most
Nothing left here
Cut the ties, uncover disguise
Left behind all intertwined
Lost control, moved out of the role now
Nothing's left here
Leave it be
It was meant for me
Soul sacrifice
Forgot the advice
Lost track of time
In a flurry of smoke
Waiting anxiety
For a fair judgement deserved

C: From Opeth's beautiful prog-rock epic... Somehow it fits. Tough, intelligent, romantic...

Q: How's my love life?
A: "Was happy", CKid (Other Animals, 2002)

C: Let's not got here.

OVERALL CONCLUSION:
Weird.

for a wannabe storyteller i have so few stories

For a wannabe storyteller I have so few stories. Like real ones.

Well, the thing is, I do have them - I just can't remember them. For some strange reason my otherwise pretty encyclopaedic memory fails to record my amusing stories in the 'quick recall' part of my brain. I have to struggle to remember them.

Fun stories like the time I told Sandra Sully that she talked like she had an auto compressor on her voice and she was like "..." and the crew was like ".... !?@#".

Like the time we kinda )cough illegally cough( climbed flights and flights of stairs in the unfinished World Tower Building and sat up on the ROOF (this is like a 40 story building folks) and kinda peered over the edge and saw ALL of Sydney. Yet, when we climbed the two flights of stairs at the @ Newtown to have a handrolled cigarette we got caught by a Security Guard who strangely accepted our excuse of "oh, we're just exploring" and let us go.

Like the time I got so cronk - like litres of green spaghetti bol in a shower - I had to get an Ambulance... only to discover I parked my friends in so I had to catch a cab.

Like the time I called a High Court Judge - during a trial - that quote unquote he was a clueless fuckwit. Wait. I made that one up. But its one of the fake stories (nb plural) I tell people at parties when I'm drunk and they ask me why I'm not a lawyer. ("Oh, was" "Oh?" "Yeah, I got disbarred" "What? happened?" "Oh, I called Justice Kirby a clueless fuckwit" "..." "Well, he didn't know what the term wasted meant. Gee.") I like have citations for the case and everything. People at work have tried to look up the Case after I posted a transcript.

Hell, I forgot until this weekend that I had been to a decent number of block parties (in Sydney) during my time. Just plain forgot. Then I was like 'oh wow, I really did have some fun when I was young'.

Anyway. I'm thinking I need a journal, some way to remember some of the funny stories. All in devious preparation to charm the European Ladies. Or maybe just as research. Research. Yes. Research.

Acutally, this really is research and just a beautiful teaser for my forthcoming post on objective correlation.

17.

memo to self
Most people don't consider arguments as sport. Fools.