State of Horror

As Halloween is coming up...

• What are your favorite horror movies?
• Favorite horror movie clichés?
• Is horror any better or worse than it was during the "Golden Age" (late 70s?)
• Are our throwaways better than the throwaways of the day?
• Does the horror industry's tendency to continuously produce sequels detract from an original's quality?
• Where is horror right now and where is it going?
• Any must see horror movies this Halloween season?

Monday Monday

Mondays have never really bothered me, truth be told. I think, more than anything, it's a consistent thing to complain about - something to talk about at the water cooler. Personally, Tuesday have always been the worst, can't explain why. Just bums me out whenever it's Tuesday.

There's obviously the issue of sleep deprivation, on weekends we get to (relatively) sleep in, whereas we always get up earlier than we wish on weekdays...at least, you know, not-morning people.

I think we're stuck, as a society, in this work cycle that is terribly outdated. A decent portion of company's now work four days, ten hour days which I would prefer since I commute an hour a day, but also - the first hour of every day is usually spent getting set up and organized for the day, so I'd gain about an hour a week in that respect. But in the bigger picture, why work 9-5? Is there really any benefit to everyone working the same hours? We've gone global to the point where work is almost always being done, so why localize it? I think the whole world should be 24 hours, I never really understood why we limited ourselves to this arbitrary time cycle constructed by farmers. Nothing against farmers, they clearly have to respect the Earth's clocks, but we don't. If I work best 7:30pm-3:30am, why can't I? Or work a good twenty hour day, take twenty hours off, do it again and then come back next week. When I was young, I said to myself that my company would allow people to work whenever. As long as you put in 40 hours and your productivity is there, I don't care. With the advances in meeting and collaboration software, meeting face-to-face in a room is almost out-dated, I think. Not to mention, things discussed in digital form versus face-to-face discussion has a paper trail, which is always a good thing in business.

Just my thoughts.

On a side note, I got an invite to Google Wave from my brother Doug and rumor has it, I'll be getting 8 invites of my own as it's only as worthwhile as the number of people you know using it as well and while I've gotten into some engaging conversations on the public threads, re-imagining Weekend Philosophers in that aspect would be a good thing. Right now, they have cut off the invites, as the servers adjust to the constant influx of users and prepare for more, but as soon as I get them, Evan and Jana are on my list. There is the possibility to put our conversation out on the public forum, but as of right now, I'm hesitant at best, for this approach as it's easy for others to come in and kind of hijack a wave and the creator can't regain control. I think exploring it on our own and seeing the potential of the system before going that route is the way to go. I think it's really going to open up a lot of conversation possibilities for us though, it's not integrated into gmail or anything yet, so it's basically another inbox to check right now, but the conversations are a lot more fluid, like a chatroom or forum, but allows more of the conversation process to take place (in-line replies, etc...). I'll keep you guys posted on that.

Anyone seen Zombieland? Good topics there. Come up with some rules, given Halloween's fast approach, for surviving 1) a vampire, 2) a werewolf, 3) zombie outbreak!

Later.

Mondays

Why indeed do we hate Mondays? It's not like the weekend won't arrive in a matter of days. Also, after that weekend there will be another Monday and so on and so forth. How about a different approach? Yay Monday! Like Chili's Margarita Mondays.

I do agree that it is tough. Especially if you hate your job, which unfortunately a lot of people do. We do have to fulfill the basic necessities, food and shelter and lub. Maybe I'm an idealist, but why not enjoy every day to the fullest? To be honest, if you live in America, you have a lot to be thankful for. Sure, you may not be the wealthiest, but you are rich compared to 80% of the world. You have the freedom to go to the grocery store to buy food and you can clothe yourself. My intent wasn't really to make people feel bad. Just realize that the gift of life and freedom is so often taken for granted.

Google Wave

The Internet is about to change, and the worst thing is, only about 2% of Internet users will either utilize it.

http://geekmag.info/2009/10/what-is-google-wave-all-about/

http://lifehacker.com/5370738/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_UyVmITiYQ

http://g4tv.com/videos/41821/Google-Wave-Makes-Waves/

Do you ever see something or hear of something and you think to yourself, that could change the world? Google Wave is one of those things. And as of right now, only 100,000 people have invites, and those 100,000 people received 8 invites to spread to their friends. This is a social app, first and foremost, if you're using it alone, then you aren't using it at all. This concerns me slightly because there is a lot going on here and that may turn off a lot of people before they even try it. By the way, Google's Chrome browser is by far the fastest and best browser available. I convince my friends to install it, they open it - there's no main menu, no menus at all actually, and they feel lost so they close it and never use it again. Spend one solid web surfing session with Chrome and you'll know it's the best. Google Wave is so much bigger than just a browser, as it is essentially every previous Google App out there...it is gmail, it is Google Docs, it is Blogger, it is iGoogle, and it so much more. Google Wave could, potentially, be the end of email...or at least, the beginning of the end. This is beyond huge and it could be here by the end of the year.

By the way, come Google Wave - this blog becomes solely run on Google Wave (watch the 80 minute video and you'll see how that works). Google essentially promotes conversation, which is what we want and sharing is instantaneous. Greatest accomplishment of the past ten years, easily, and we haven't seen the full potential this can reach yet as they made it infinitely expandable. However, and I stress this again, it is pointless if people don't use it. Get excited about this, get it out there, because this could be big.