Lectures are shit

God I hate lectures.

Someone... talking.... really slowly... and with weird... pauses and EMPHASIS... and... while talking... really slowly... they repeat... that is, they REPEAT themselves... over and over... and say exactly what's written on the slide... even though you can read it on the slide... and they almost never... never seem to have planned (or rehearsed)... so they repeat... themselves... or explain something... out of context... or that isn't part of the... isn't supposed to be in the lecture... or they get out of sync with the slideshow... and repeat themselves when the right slide comes up... or they explain things... in the wrong ORDER.

Youth, Respect and Power

Today's modern industrialised societies are often said to have a “cult of youth”, a worship of the idea of being young. This could be linked to our consumerist culture and the constant search for new products and experiences. The “seductive power [of objects of consumption] lies mostly in their not having been experienced before [and] the young, by definition, fit the bill … as objects of consumption” (Bauman 2007: 59). This positions youth as desirable but not respected, a thing to be possessed but not admired.

Masculinity and Femininity

“Masculinity” and “femininity” are terms which encompass broad categories of behaviour deemed appropriate for and typical of those categorised as male and female respectively. These definitions are somewhat recursive as masculinity is defined as behaviour typical of males (or more specifically, men) and men are then expected to behave in masculine ways. The terms are also defined in opposition to each other, in that masculinity is whatever femininity is not, and therefore men are expected to behave in “not-feminine” ways. But neither exists as an objective standard outside of society and “vary across cultures and change over time” (Cameron 2007: 23); “Manhood does not bubble up to consciousness from our biological makeup; it is created in culture” (Kimmel 2001: 267).

Copyright in the 21st century

In 1557 the guild of stationers was granted a royal charter and became the Stationers' Company, leading to the creation of the stationers' copyright, which was a private agreement “granted by a group of businessmen who agreed to allow one of them the exclusive right to publish a specific work in perpetuity” (Patterson & Lindberg, 1991, p22) rather than an actual law. This copyright was created for two purposes; to protect the publishers of works and to aid the government in its attempts at censorship. (Patterson & Lindberg, 1991, p25) Modern copyright differs in its goals and execution, but is in some ways based on that first version.

Maggie's farm?

I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more
No, I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more
Well, I wake in the morning
Fold my hands and pray for rain
I got a head full of ideas
That are drivin’ me insane
It’s a shame the way she makes me scrub the floor
I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more

God, what an arsehole. "I'm too special to clean things." Wanker.

I ate some spam

I've often wondered what spam is like, and I've seen it in supermarkets plenty of times. I've always been put off by its reputation, but it's in every supermarket so obviously some people like it. It can't be selling solely by the power of morbid curiosity. So today, I decided, was the day. I would eat some spam.

Australian Kindle owners

Amazon is trying to get Australians to switch to amazon.com.au but apparently if you do this you lose access to the ebooks you purchased from amazon.com. Here's log of (part of) the conversation I had with one of their support people:

Me: Lately amazon.com keeps telling me I can switch to amazon.com.au for ebook purchases. Is there any benefit to doing that other than seeing prices in AUD? It seems like a hassle to be using the .com.au site for some things and the .com site for others, especially when AUD and USD are so close in value anyway.

Regie(CSA): The reason why the system keeps telling you to transfer your account to Amazon.au it is because you're country settings is from Australia, correct?

Me: I am in Australia, that is correct.

Regie(CSA): That's is the reason, Mathew.

However, you can ignore the email about the migrating, Mathew.

Me: It's not an email, it;s a message that keeps appearing at the top of the page when I view items at amazon.com

And my question is, is there any benefit to switching, other than seeing prices in AUD, or is that the only thing that would change?

Regie(CSA): No, Mathew.

Regie(CSA): If you switch to Amazon.au, all your books that was purchased from Amazon.com will not be available to view or read unless you switch back to Amazon.com.

...

Me: Why would anyone want to switch their account if it will remove access to the books they already purchased? This is insane.

Regie(CSA): I do apologize, Mathew.

We don't have the information/

...

Me: OK, so is there some way I can make sure my account doesn't ever get switched to the au site? Because I don't want to lose access to my books.

Regie(CSA): No need to worry, as long as you will not accept the migration.

Me: So there is no way for me to just say "no, I don't want to switch" and have that be the end of it? It's just going to keep asking me forever?

Regie(CSA): Yes, Mathew.

I can't imagine what the hell they're thinking with this decision.

Logan Farm vegetables are shit

I bought this pack of frozen vegetables from the IGA near my house. Sorry, "Premium Vegetable Mix".

It looks pretty nice. Obviously I don't expect it to look exactly like the picture on the pack. For one thing, the actual product will be frozen. But you'd think that the picture would give a pretty good idea of the contents of the pack - that's kind of the point.

Here's what's actually in the pack.

It's not quite the same. There's just something about that distribution that seems off. Maybe it's the fact that there are about three beans in the entire pack. I was also expecting more carrot in comparison to the amount of peas and corn.

Don't buy Logan Farm vegetables.

French toasted cheese sandwich

Take two eggs. Break them into a bowl. Use a fork or something to whisk them up a bit so the yolk is mixed with the albumen.

Take two slices of bread and dunk them in the egg. Make sure to get both sides of both slices completely covered and do your best to soak up all the egg. Depending on the size of the eggs and slices of bread there may be a little bit left over.

Melt some butter in a frying pan. Put the slices of bread in the frying pan and tip the remaining egg on top of them.

While the bread is frying, slice some cheese and salami.

Once the bread is cooked to your satisfaction on one side, turn it over and put the sliced cheese and salami on top of one slice.

Once the other side of the bread is done, flip the second slice onto the first. The cheese should now be nicely melted. If not, leave it a little longer.

Once the eggy-bread is cooked and the cheese is melted, eat the sandwich.

I Am Mine

Have you heard the song I Am Mine? If not, don't worry, you're not missing much and it's just this one line I'd like to draw your attention to.

North is to South what the clock is to time

What? No it isn't. North is the opposite to south. A clock is an instrument for measuring time. Those are not equivalent relationships at all. North is to a compass as time is to a clock, maybe. North is to south as the future is to the past.

This line stands out to me every time I hear this song and it's the only line I actually know, because it's a pretty forgettable song, but that line is so dumb that you can't help but notice it. Maybe that's the idea. That line is deliberately wrong just so you'll notice the song exists. If so, well played Pearl Jam.

But actually I think Pearl Jam are just idiots.