One of the characters in fiction that has always fascinated me is Spock. Apart from the obvious intelligence, the main fascination is seeing someone living in the intersection of two worlds that are similar yet very different, and the challenges that presents. There is also the matter of the "conflict" between logic and emotion, which in a sense makes the character representative of all of us. We face daily choices between logic and emotion, what we want to do set against what we "should" do.
As Spock has said, "logic is the beginning of wisdom, not the end". Logic is a tool for thought, but it can be misused, and using impersonal logic to make decisions without regard to how we feel about the choices is rarely the best course of action. We all have emotions, and the key is to be aware of them and master them rather than ignoring them completely. Spock's middle path between the human emotional response and the Vulcan way of logic has always seemed a careful dance.
For many people, life is also a dance of appearances. Like Spock, they are careful to keep an outward appearance of conformity to the roles they are expected to play, despite having other feelings to deal with inside. Most people have public worlds and private worlds that may be very different. Some are simply minor conflicts of personality, like someone managing others who is expected to be harsh with mistakes when they would consider it better to take the opportunity to teach and coach instead. Some are more distinct, like those whose desires do not meet society's expectations and they may not wish to make that clear to everyone else.
Others are simply different inside than their outward appearance would indicate, in a world where that sort of conflict is not accepted by others ignorant of the reality. They don't wish to have to think about how to relate to others, they just want to drop them into generic slots that they can have knee-jerk reactions to. Like Spock's mixed genetic heritage, people are not simply A or B in one aspect, or X or Y in another. There are broad spectrums of ability and talent, similarity of appearance, and even the hidden structures of the brain.
Add in variations of development, and the spectrum gets even larger. There are definitely clusters of results, but it is rather telling to observe the reactions of people to those who are outside of the main "normal" sections. Perhaps even more telling is each individual's expectations of what "normal" is. Spock appears to be Vulcan, but that does not mean that there is not a human part of his being hidden away under the skin. Appearances can be deceiving, and someone who looks perfectly normal may be trapped in an appearance that feels alien to them because their bodies did not develop with complete congruency.
Similarly, when people see someone that does not look normal, they often react badly to it and make incorrect assumptions about the person. Some times the differences are obvious, such as an incorrectly formed face or someone suffering from a disease. Sometimes the differences are "obvious" to some and not to others, such as those who care about skin colors and those who simply know it is just skin.
The important thing is to remember to treat others how you would like to be treated, and accept their differences from you or from what you expect as just that, differences. To paraphrase McCoy, "he's not a human or a Vulcan, he's a Spock".
Friday, July 3, 2009
Saturday, December 27, 2008
The Irony of Being Physically Stuck Allowing the Mind to Unstick
The last three weeks have been a vacation away from my paying job, although the first two held quite a bit of laborious work packing up things for relatives and driving down to L.A. and back after the packing of the trailer. This last week I've been stuck at home due to the vast fields of snow and ice around me that prevented me from driving around or making it to work.
While I was in L.A., I was able to take time out to go see the exhibit of Vanity Fair portraits at LACMA. There were quite a variety of portraits and subjects on display, and a mix of photos I had seen before and ones I had not. The net result was to stir the imagination up a bit.
While being stuck here, I've gone through various stages of shortening the stack of unread books, watching movies, browsing the net, looking through the collections of photos I've gathered over the years, both ones I've taken myself and ones that I have seen on the web, and finally simple bored pacing around my prison, contemplating the walls of both it and life.
It's quite amazing what can come out of the recesses of the mind when one gets bored enough and the tangled cobwebs of ordinary concerns fade into the darkness. While thinking through a lot of things, I actually had an idea penetrate the wall of creativity block that has been frustrating me for quite a while now.
When contemplating a larger project such as a novel or a collection of photos, it helps to have a core idea to work around. That bit has been what has been missing and making me feel very constrained in these areas of writing and photography that I love. I had been expecting such inspiration to fly out in terms of a story, but I surprised myself by coming up with something else.
I finally came up with a pair of related and interacting themes that have been interesting to me for a while photographically, both in my own photos and others, although I had not put them together previously. What I'm aiming to do is put together a set of photos exploring those interactions and juxtapositions.
As an added bonus, I'll have to come out of my shell a bit and get others involved, because many of the photos I have in my head will require people to be in them and pose, as well as plenty of setup. Some of the images in the set may end up being spur of the moment shots, since I'm normally looking out for such things anyway, but it has become obvious that I want to move past that and make more complicated images.
To get the print quality I want I'll need to get a better camera system, not as nice as I'd like probably, but better than what I have now is a definite must. It will take some time to think through what I want to include and do the prep work for it anyway. I'm aiming for a gallery or a coffee book sort of thing, although in a sense it does not matter. This is for me.
While I was in L.A., I was able to take time out to go see the exhibit of Vanity Fair portraits at LACMA. There were quite a variety of portraits and subjects on display, and a mix of photos I had seen before and ones I had not. The net result was to stir the imagination up a bit.
While being stuck here, I've gone through various stages of shortening the stack of unread books, watching movies, browsing the net, looking through the collections of photos I've gathered over the years, both ones I've taken myself and ones that I have seen on the web, and finally simple bored pacing around my prison, contemplating the walls of both it and life.
It's quite amazing what can come out of the recesses of the mind when one gets bored enough and the tangled cobwebs of ordinary concerns fade into the darkness. While thinking through a lot of things, I actually had an idea penetrate the wall of creativity block that has been frustrating me for quite a while now.
When contemplating a larger project such as a novel or a collection of photos, it helps to have a core idea to work around. That bit has been what has been missing and making me feel very constrained in these areas of writing and photography that I love. I had been expecting such inspiration to fly out in terms of a story, but I surprised myself by coming up with something else.
I finally came up with a pair of related and interacting themes that have been interesting to me for a while photographically, both in my own photos and others, although I had not put them together previously. What I'm aiming to do is put together a set of photos exploring those interactions and juxtapositions.
As an added bonus, I'll have to come out of my shell a bit and get others involved, because many of the photos I have in my head will require people to be in them and pose, as well as plenty of setup. Some of the images in the set may end up being spur of the moment shots, since I'm normally looking out for such things anyway, but it has become obvious that I want to move past that and make more complicated images.
To get the print quality I want I'll need to get a better camera system, not as nice as I'd like probably, but better than what I have now is a definite must. It will take some time to think through what I want to include and do the prep work for it anyway. I'm aiming for a gallery or a coffee book sort of thing, although in a sense it does not matter. This is for me.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Life in a surreal world
Life is full of twists and turns, and I've been rather delinquent in updating this. Yes, I have put a lot of effort into things at work, but still.
In the meantime, we find ourselves in a twisted world where Obama is elected but not actually in office yet, and despite that slight handicap, still probably has more of an effect on the world than his predecessor. A pale shadow of what is to come most likely, but still. I could go on about the insanity of the incompetent corporate gamblers getting bailed out instead of the rest of the vast population, but I'm too tired of it all.
Fall is probably my favorite season, with the all too brief brilliance of the changing leaves, the crisp noise they make when stepped on while dry, the way they swirl in the wind. The cooler temperatures are a welcome relief from the summer heat, and allow one to drag out fall clothes again. I might even try to add a comfortable tweed coat to the mix, as I'm finally getting the urge to start dressing a bit more up, although I'm nowhere near the collecting of designer suits stage. One of the nice things about getting older is that I recognize more of what I want, as opposed to looking at what everyone else is wearing. I'm also finding myself more willing to experiment and try new things.
At the same time, I find myself missing my favorite fashions that I thought I would try some day, which have been swept away in the tidal waves following the youthful whims. I never cared much for the endless silly tweaks of fashion seasons, ever changing - don't get me wrong, some change is good - and the trends these days towards more and more unkempt attire, deliberately ill-fitting, and even worn out before it is sold in the first place. I don't advocate spending a couple of hours a day arranging every hair and button just so, but at the same time, when the standard is to look like you didn't even try, we're loosing something in the process.
There are times and places for such looks, but they have spread through so much of life it is hard to tell anymore. Instead of growing out of such phases, they seem to be trying to extend their reach. Anyway, enough of a minor rant, I'm going to be me, let them be them, and hope that their apparent lack of clothing care and sense doesn't indicate a lack of care and sense in other things. I suppose helping to elect Obama was a good sign, let's hope it keeps going in that direction.
In the meantime, we find ourselves in a twisted world where Obama is elected but not actually in office yet, and despite that slight handicap, still probably has more of an effect on the world than his predecessor. A pale shadow of what is to come most likely, but still. I could go on about the insanity of the incompetent corporate gamblers getting bailed out instead of the rest of the vast population, but I'm too tired of it all.
Fall is probably my favorite season, with the all too brief brilliance of the changing leaves, the crisp noise they make when stepped on while dry, the way they swirl in the wind. The cooler temperatures are a welcome relief from the summer heat, and allow one to drag out fall clothes again. I might even try to add a comfortable tweed coat to the mix, as I'm finally getting the urge to start dressing a bit more up, although I'm nowhere near the collecting of designer suits stage. One of the nice things about getting older is that I recognize more of what I want, as opposed to looking at what everyone else is wearing. I'm also finding myself more willing to experiment and try new things.
At the same time, I find myself missing my favorite fashions that I thought I would try some day, which have been swept away in the tidal waves following the youthful whims. I never cared much for the endless silly tweaks of fashion seasons, ever changing - don't get me wrong, some change is good - and the trends these days towards more and more unkempt attire, deliberately ill-fitting, and even worn out before it is sold in the first place. I don't advocate spending a couple of hours a day arranging every hair and button just so, but at the same time, when the standard is to look like you didn't even try, we're loosing something in the process.
There are times and places for such looks, but they have spread through so much of life it is hard to tell anymore. Instead of growing out of such phases, they seem to be trying to extend their reach. Anyway, enough of a minor rant, I'm going to be me, let them be them, and hope that their apparent lack of clothing care and sense doesn't indicate a lack of care and sense in other things. I suppose helping to elect Obama was a good sign, let's hope it keeps going in that direction.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Checking the spam folder gets amusing
I like the gmail spam filters a lot. They very rarely let anything junk mail wise through to my inbox, and rarely mark anything useful as spam. Since the latter does happen, I tend to take a quick glance through the junk mail folder before deleting them to make sure nothing showed up there that I actually want to read.
Generally speaking, most of the junk in there references gambling, male performance enhancers, porn videos, fake designer goods and the like, none of which actually interests me.
Recently however, some of the spammers have gotten more creative in their social engineering attempts, and have started using fake headlines that do not involve obviously delinquent celebrities as lures for their no doubt poisonous links. Here are a few examples:
McCain drops out of running
Tiger Woods retires from golf, cites lack of competition
British PM to quit
Beijing air pollution index rises, olympics cancelled
WalMart declares bankruptcy
Pfizer admits to unapproved drugs found in Viagra and withdraws millions of products
Now for someone who tries to keep up with the news to some extent, these might be interesting stories if they came up on a real news site on some other day than April First. As bits attached to obvious spam, they're not tempting at all.
They do however, provide a good chuckle, and make the dreary task of filtering the good apples out of the mass of bad ones a touch more enjoyable.
Generally speaking, most of the junk in there references gambling, male performance enhancers, porn videos, fake designer goods and the like, none of which actually interests me.
Recently however, some of the spammers have gotten more creative in their social engineering attempts, and have started using fake headlines that do not involve obviously delinquent celebrities as lures for their no doubt poisonous links. Here are a few examples:
McCain drops out of running
Tiger Woods retires from golf, cites lack of competition
British PM to quit
Beijing air pollution index rises, olympics cancelled
WalMart declares bankruptcy
Pfizer admits to unapproved drugs found in Viagra and withdraws millions of products
Now for someone who tries to keep up with the news to some extent, these might be interesting stories if they came up on a real news site on some other day than April First. As bits attached to obvious spam, they're not tempting at all.
They do however, provide a good chuckle, and make the dreary task of filtering the good apples out of the mass of bad ones a touch more enjoyable.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Before the Rains
This was a beautifully photographed and well-done movie that was a bit hard to find. I saw it recently when I was in L.A. on vacation, and at the time it had not been announced for Portland, although it is now mentioned in the Coming Soon list on the website.
The movie is set in 1937 India, and the drama of the plot unwinds carefully. It is an interesting period story that is told with care without getting overly judgemental, as it lets the viewer handle that portion of the experience. Without giving the plot away, the story is not a happy one, so if you are looking for the bouncy happy ending or a Bollywood musical, this has neither.
All of the main actors did an excellent job. I was hoping for more to Jennifer Ehle's role, since her involvement was how I found the movie, but she did well with what she had to work with. I hope one of these days someone persuades her to do a main character on film again, so often her roles are small, and things like her excellent scene getting cut from Michael Clayton don't help either. Thankfully that one showed up in the DVD extras.
Overall, if you like occasionally watching odd little movies that don't fit the Hollywood mold, this is a good one. It's not one I'll rush out to see again because the story is not the sort I enjoy seeing repeatedly, but I don't regret in the slightest the time spent on watching it.
The movie is set in 1937 India, and the drama of the plot unwinds carefully. It is an interesting period story that is told with care without getting overly judgemental, as it lets the viewer handle that portion of the experience. Without giving the plot away, the story is not a happy one, so if you are looking for the bouncy happy ending or a Bollywood musical, this has neither.
All of the main actors did an excellent job. I was hoping for more to Jennifer Ehle's role, since her involvement was how I found the movie, but she did well with what she had to work with. I hope one of these days someone persuades her to do a main character on film again, so often her roles are small, and things like her excellent scene getting cut from Michael Clayton don't help either. Thankfully that one showed up in the DVD extras.
Overall, if you like occasionally watching odd little movies that don't fit the Hollywood mold, this is a good one. It's not one I'll rush out to see again because the story is not the sort I enjoy seeing repeatedly, but I don't regret in the slightest the time spent on watching it.
Further thoughts on L.A.
After spending a number of days in the City of Angels, I could see spending more time in the area. Not sure where I'd want to reside, as I was in mostly in the Garden Grove and downtown areas, and attended the USC graduation since that was the main point in going there in the first place. San Bernardino was a hot afternoon, but closer to the coast seemed ok. The evening cooling effect was quite nice there compared to the full desert heat further east.
There do seem to be quite a few things in the area I'd enjoy, and I barely scratched the surface. Art museums, restaurants, cafes, movies that didn't seem to be heading for Portland any time soon and so forth. I'd want to be living close to whatever job I picked up, but other than traffic I could handle living in the area. I didn't see much in the form of bookstores, although I didn't really get the chance to look, but at least Powells is available via the web if need be.
Huntington Gardens was a wonderful place, between the actual gardens and the art collections. I definitely didn't get to spend enough time there or at LACMA, and there were a number of others that looked interesting but I didn't get a chance to go to.
Overall I liked L.A. more than Chicago, less than Portland. Not sure where NYC fits into that list, I need to spend more time there one of these days to figure that out, but so far I've liked it also.
There do seem to be quite a few things in the area I'd enjoy, and I barely scratched the surface. Art museums, restaurants, cafes, movies that didn't seem to be heading for Portland any time soon and so forth. I'd want to be living close to whatever job I picked up, but other than traffic I could handle living in the area. I didn't see much in the form of bookstores, although I didn't really get the chance to look, but at least Powells is available via the web if need be.
Huntington Gardens was a wonderful place, between the actual gardens and the art collections. I definitely didn't get to spend enough time there or at LACMA, and there were a number of others that looked interesting but I didn't get a chance to go to.
Overall I liked L.A. more than Chicago, less than Portland. Not sure where NYC fits into that list, I need to spend more time there one of these days to figure that out, but so far I've liked it also.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Vacation!
I'm on vacation for two whole weeks and a couple of days. Spent the first couple driving from Portland to L.A. I'd rather forgotten just how big L.A. is, and sprawled, and busy. Friends and relatives to see here, going to be a busy few days. Next week should be more relaxing, get to go up to Napa Valleyish portion of CA.
Made the comment that it would take quite a bit of inducement to live down here with all of the traffic and pretty much having to drive to EVERYTHING, and the reply from my mom and stepdad was that all it would really take is the right woman. Probably quite true, the right company makes most things in life bearable and quite a bit of it even becomes enjoyable.
Anyway, back to enjoying the bits in between the driving episodes.
Update after about 24 hours of dealing with L. A. traffic:
Still annoying, although it's not quite so overwhelming. Part of my annoyance is that even where I live in the Portland area, I have to drive to everything, and L.A. is that experience multiplied significantly. I'd consider it, but New York is more appealing because there is a lot more walking ability and the subway and from what I understand a lot easier to get things delivered. I'm plain old sick and tired of driving everywhere all the time, even without current gas prices.
Anyway, back to that vacation thing.
Oh, and I so miss my Mac, this Windows machine is annoying as hell. Definitely need to get a Mac laptop for my next computer I think, even though I want the higher-resolution screens on the iMac, the portability will trump it I think.
Made the comment that it would take quite a bit of inducement to live down here with all of the traffic and pretty much having to drive to EVERYTHING, and the reply from my mom and stepdad was that all it would really take is the right woman. Probably quite true, the right company makes most things in life bearable and quite a bit of it even becomes enjoyable.
Anyway, back to enjoying the bits in between the driving episodes.
Update after about 24 hours of dealing with L. A. traffic:
Still annoying, although it's not quite so overwhelming. Part of my annoyance is that even where I live in the Portland area, I have to drive to everything, and L.A. is that experience multiplied significantly. I'd consider it, but New York is more appealing because there is a lot more walking ability and the subway and from what I understand a lot easier to get things delivered. I'm plain old sick and tired of driving everywhere all the time, even without current gas prices.
Anyway, back to that vacation thing.
Oh, and I so miss my Mac, this Windows machine is annoying as hell. Definitely need to get a Mac laptop for my next computer I think, even though I want the higher-resolution screens on the iMac, the portability will trump it I think.
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