Revision clouds. There are very few people who can create a nice, shapely revision cloud in AutoCAD on the first attempt. I am not one of them.
Revision Cloud Observations
October 15, 2008
October 10, 2008
Random Thoughts – Amusement and Amusement rides
Amuse:
a feeling of delight at being entertained
Muse:
To think or think about carefully and at length: chew on or over , cogitate, consider, contemplate, deliberate, entertain, excogitate, meditate, mull, ponder, reflect, revolve, ruminate, study, think, think out, think over, think through, turn over, weigh
I don’t know much about language in general, but isn’t the “a” prefix a negation?
The roles humour and amusement play in our culture have struck me, recently, as oddly pervasive. Observe:
- When pointing out blatantly immoral or crude aspects of certain activities (i.e. watching South Park), one will frequently hear something along the lines of “but it’s so funny!”
- What is nearly always at the top of the list when a girl is asked “what do you look for in a guy?” “He has to be funny!”
- Nearly all viral marketing efforts use humour as the “viral engine.”
Obviously laughter is a far more potent and immediate social/brain-chemical agent than say – a discussion on convolution integrals (I don’t actually know what those are, they just sound cool). But it seems like “funny” is slowly approaching the ranks of “money, sex and fame .” I wonder why that is.
TV and affluence?
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I recently spent a day at Silverwood – a mid-sized theme park in Idaho. They recently acquired a new “Boomerang” roller coaster, which of course is supposed to be the most intense attraction.
And one has to wonder – how will they outdo themselves NEXT time? What will be considered cutting edge in 50 years? Mach 2 at shuttle-reentry G’s?
But amusement rides are just a start. Athletes are still breaking records. What is the limit to THAT? There are many similiar scenarios in other fields, where yesterday’s extremes are no longer extreme. Yesterday, seeing a man play guitar beautifully with his toes was impressive. Tomorrow, the guy had also better be hanging upside down from a 40 story building during a lightning storm, with only ONE foot. And David Blaine? Don’t even want to go there!
I think this progression probably has a sublte, but profound effect on human psychology. All you have to do is spend a couple hours on Youtube.com, and nothing will ever surprise you again. What happens when a mind adjusts it’s “interest” threshold to those extreme levels?
Boredom.
I wouldn’t be surprised if someone found a link between culteral “extremeness” and suicide.