Marculations

Pointing out mistakes in the grammar of others is an alarming trend among elitists.

I try to stay impartial, because nothing irritates me more than seeing someone on the Internet ranting at great lengths about how much better they are than another group. Unfortunately, this is something that is irritating me beyond what I thought was possible.

Again, I’m not going to pass judgement here. I’d love to explore the intricacies of why people point out grammar mistakes and bring them to light, but I’d rather not. I will pose this: is it a superiority complex?

Of course, I am aggravated by these little things, too. I just don’t feel like it’s my place to point out that I know more about grammar than someone, especially in a public forum. That’s a more overarching rant, though — people who elucidate the shortcomings of others in a public way. I won’t even go into that.

I don’t want to take sides, or go on the attack. So I’ll just say this: if you point out a grammar mistake that I’ve made, and you’re not editing my goddamn thesis paper, I’m not going to take you seriously anymore.

There’s a window in my pantry.

This fact burns a hole in my brain on a daily basis.

We have it covered, but that’s not the point. I can’t imagine why the architect who designed this apartment would see fit to include a window in a pantry. It’s quite obviously a pantry, with long wide shelves going all the way to the back and barely enough room to walk.

So, why the window?

Did they think, this pantry is so big, when you get to the end, you’re gonna want to stop and enjoy the scenery? Like, I’ve worked hard to get to the other end of this pseudo-room, and I’m going to enjoy the fruits of my labor. Hell, maybe I’ll go into the pantry even when I’m not looking for food or anything else I might be storing in it. I just want to look out my creepy little window.

I could probably leer at the neighbors through it or something. Maybe I could set the end of the pantry up as a surveillance department, with listening devices and secret cameras peeking out of our “fort” into the scary beyond of the building next to us.

Just talking about that window makes me all confused.

I’m torn between writing and making films.

On the one hand, when you write something, you are allowing the reader to create their own interpretation of your writing in their mind. You give them the tools necessary to imagine your story however they see it. It’s much more real, and much more personal, because they will incorporate their own personality and preconceptions into their vision.

When you make a film, you are taking your own vision and showing it to others.

Insofar as that, filmmaking is much more of a selfish art.

I think it better suits my original intent, though. I got into filmmaking to be able to share what I envision with others, which is precisely what the medium allows. It’s just that, it would be interesting to see someone else’s interpretation of my writing, too.

At the beginning of each new year, tradition calls on us to make a resolution.

This resolution is supposed to start our year off “right,” by allowing us to single out a part of our life or our personality that we find unacceptable, and committing ourselves to changing it.

I find the notion a bit, well, “stupid,” and I typically don’t do it.

This year, though, I’m going to give it a shot.

It seems foolish to resolve to do something very broad like “quit swearing”, or “no more candy”, or even “lose fifty pounds by the next new year.” Those are just cherry-picked from your internal laundry list of issues with yourself, and you have no additional motivation to actually follow through with any of them. I feel, if you’re going to make a New Years’ resolution, you should pick something that doesn’t die with the New Year. Something that you can continually motivate yourself to do; something that will have additional driving forces throughout the coming months, as your will wears thin.

That’s why, this year, I’m resolving to continue finishing films.

I often forget that my “filmmaking career” didn’t really begin in earnest until April of 2005, less than a year ago. So far, it’s been vastly different than anything else I’ve ever tried before: I’ve actually stuck with it. That’s monumentally difficult for me to do. Typically, I’ve given up on projects. Any projects, big or small, I haven’t ever had the drive to follow through to completion. With film, though, I always seem to follow through if I am at all capable. I can’t and won’t just give up and let it die.

This trend is something I’d like to see continue.

To do this, you need people by your side, behind and in front of you, all around you, constantly providing help and motivation. Unfortunately, if you have a history of failure or non-completion, it’s virtually impossible to rally this kind of support. I’ve already managed to pull one fairly large project from conception to completion: Selling The Faith. Now, I aim to do the same with The Last Regret.

I feel like, if I can put those two projects behind me, and have a finished product to show, that will convince people that I am serious, and that I will actually do what I say I’m going to do. Right now, it’s still a little bit like vapour. “Yeah, he says a lot, but has he ever produced results, or is he just blowing hot air?” I aim to have people reply, “He’s serious. He’ll finish. He always does.”

For me, that’s a much better resolution than “reduce stomach flab.”

I’ve been hung up on certain things for a few months, and finally, all at once, I’m not hung up on any of them anymore.

I think working on The Last Regret has put things into perspective for me, in a way. The central theme of the movie is, I suppose, we don’t always have time to put off saying how we really feel, or doing what we want to do. That’s the motivation for me, anyway.

Being hung up on the past is a sure fire way to not move forward with anything. You just keep looking back, over-analyzing, trying to figure out what went wrong, or how you can get it back. Were you happier then? Are you just looking at it through rose colored glass? What really will make you happy? These are all cliched issues that everybody has to deal with constantly. Instead of regretting past mistakes, or spending your time analyzing the past and trying to make it right, I think it’s best to just learn from it and move on.

It’s funny to me that for ages and ages, we as a society have dealt with these issues, expounded on them at great length, created many thousands of creative works devoted to the emotions associated with them, and each generation, each member of each generation, has to go through all of them individually and experience them all first hand to truly understand them. Experience really is crucial in these situations. It’s the only way you can mature.

Sheltering people from the consequences of their actions is the worst thing you can do, if you want the person to understand and learn from their mistakes or just from their actions. It’s something that many people strive to do for themselves. They create very complex mental barriers designed to isolate themselves from the results of actions they take. They can usually shrug things off and ignore the problems they create for themselves or others, and explain it away casually. In my experience, though, it’s detrimental to not fully understand the situations you create and the emotions you stir up in yourself through those situations.

I’m not a psychologist by any right, and this is all coming straight from me. I think writing this out is a way for me to sort out how I feel about a topic, and come to terms with my own feelings on it. Either way, I’m merely saying what I think. If it contradicts something I’ve said in the past, well, maybe I’ve changed my mind. Good thing I’m not a politician.

Har har, bartenders are the dumb.

Tips for serving alcohol:

1. Pour liquor into shot glass until full.
2. Give to customer.

Tips for consuming alcohol:

1. Recognize that bigger glasses may have more alcohol in them.

Stop blaming the size and shape of the glass for your inability to stop drinking.

2. Recognize that the bartender couldn’t give two shits how much you drink as long as you leave him a big tip.
3. The configuration of the shot glass wasn’t responsible for you ordering another shot, and neither was the bartender.

This article made me chuckle, for a few reasons. When it got to the part about experienced bartenders not being immune, I lost it. I really, really don’t want to sound degrading or condescending right now, but how much experience does it take to realize that those glasses play little optical tricks on you? I noticed it as soon as I looked at one. Are we entirely sure that the bartenders just don’t care either way?

On that note, as far as pouring shots is concerned, why do you need any experience? I can see mixing a drink requiring a little knowledge (or a little booklet of instructions,) but pouring shots? Come on! I pour shots all the time, and it’s not exactly a science. Tip bottle until liquid comes out. Aim for the glass.

Maybe I’m just biased against bartenders.

Every now and then, I notice something that is a microcosm of how society continues to function, despite any doom-saying to the contrary.

These are small, seemingly insignificant events or happenings that are taken for granted by the general populous. You see them all the time, but you most likely overlook them. They probably don’t cross your mind. Taken in the right frame of mind, however, they are, to me anyway, proof that society works, and that humans are generally good natured.

Here’s a small example.

The other day, I was walking down the street. It’s a high traffic area along Ft. Lauderdale Beach, very rich in both tourists and residents. Dotting this street are metal trash cans bolted to the ground. As I walked by one of the trash cans, I peeked over the side and looked in. It was about half full of trash.

To me, that is proof that society is functioning. The fact that enough people throughout the morning and mid-day decided to, instead of merely leaving their trash where ever they pleased, deposit said garbage into this can. Maybe it’s upbringing, maybe it’s habit, or maybe it’s just the fear of littering laws. It doesn’t matter, because the deed has been done, and continues to be done on a daily basis.

Here’s another example. This one gets noticed, but usually in the inverse. Let’s say you are in a parking lot, trying to turn left onto a very busy road. As the traffic piles up at the nearest red light, someone slows down and stops before the edge of the driveway, leaving a nice gap for you to pull out. The lane next to them does the same thing, and then the lane next to that one does the same thing, leaving a gap for you to pull across all three lanes and into the median. No law that I’m aware of has required all these people, acting without communication, to leave this space for you to pull out into. They, however, have done it.

After the last example, you may be saying, there’s plenty of times when that doesn’t happen. You’re right. But, it does happen. When it does, though, we typically just take it for granted.

So, the next time you’re watching the news, hearing about the varied injustices and atrocities perpetrated on an hourly basis that are all signaling the end of civilization as we know it, take a moment and focus on the little things that keep our society from sliding into chaos. If that can bring you a calm, for however brief a moment, keep that in mind the next time you see someone trying to turn left across a divided highway at rush hour.

And be sure to pitch your garbage in the nearest can.

It’s come to my attention that my code example for C in my October 17th post is wildly unfair.

I’m not going to deny that.

I wrote it in C instead of C++, because C looks more complicated than C++.

In the interest of fairness, here’s the same code in C++.

char* Noun;
char* Adjective;
char* Compliment;
unsigned int ComplimentBufferSize;

Noun=new char[4];
Adjective=new char[5];

strcpy(Noun, "dog");
strcpy(Adjective, "good");

ComplimentBufferSize=sizeof(char)*(strlen(Noun)+strlen(Adjective))+2;
Compliment=new char[ComplimentBufferSize];

_snprintf(Compliment, ComplimentBufferSize, "%s %s", Adjective, Noun);

delete []Noun;
delete []Adjective;
delete []Compliment;

That code is a lot easier to read than its’ C counterpart. My point holds true — it’s still more complicated than the high level version. But, these also hold true:

• I didn’t use any string classes.
• I’m using no libraries or helpers of any kind (aside from the obvious.)
• I picked string manipulation for my example because it’s harder in C/C++ than it is in C# or Java.

So, I still declare myself teh winnar. (ha! right.)

But, I’m being more fair about it.

I use a camera phone now. And I love it.

Anybody who knows me well already knows that I loathe, or rather, I used to loathe camera phones. The entire concept just baffled me, and I saw no reason to ever carry a phone around that also took low resolution still photographs.

Let me tell you right now — there’s still no reason.

But it’s fun.

I’m going to put you in a hypothetical situation. Once you’re there, I’m going to ask you how you would handle the situation. Then, I’ll lead you through how I would handle the same situation. We’ll see if the two of us can see eye to eye on this.

You’re in a car. You’re the passenger, actually, and your friend is driving. You’re on the interstate, and there’s not much around. A song comes on the radio that you like, but the audio is low, and you can’t really hear it. You know that your friend is a stickler for details, and in the past, they have gotten a little touchy about passengers playing with knobs and switches in the car. What do you do?

Do you know what you’d do?

Okay, great.

Here’s what I would do.

I’d take a picture of my friend with my camera phone.

Let’s try another situation.

You’re on a commuter train, late at night. The few functioning lights above your head flicker on and off as the car bounces wearily along the electrified track. Something moves in the edge of your peripheral vision. Startled, you turn to look at it. You see a small, well-dressed, elderly man slumped over in his seat. He is motionless. You glance up and see a shifty looking, trenchcoated man working his way to the back of the car. You squint and stare back at the elderly man. You notice a large circle of blood, blotting uncontrollably through his poplin dress shirt.

What would you do in this situation?

Got it?

Okay. Let’s compare.

I’d take a picture of myself with the little mirror feature on the phone, that shows you what the camera sees on the outside display. Isn’t that a great idea?! Who comes up with these ideas?!

God, technology is so cool.

I envy a digital image right now.

Before I continue, I want you to take a look at it with me.

Look at him. Look at his giant, ridiculous smile. Gaze into that gaping, graduated maw. That’s got to be the happiest goddamn avatar ever created. You look at him, and you think, “what could he possibly be so fucking happy about?” You envy him. You wish you could be him. You wish you could be as happy as he is right now, or, at the least, you wish you could experience what it is that’s making him that way, even if just for a moment.

Night after night, I sit at my computer, my eyes fixed on his soulless, cheerful expression. He stares back at me from the corner of the dock. Motionless. Lifeless, yet joyful. He is more content than I will ever be, yet he offers me no solace.

He pities me.