Monday, November 17, 2008

Walking in a garden, waking from a... oh wait

"It is unlikely that the financial meltdown of 2008 will function as a blessing in disguise, the awakening from a dream, the sobering reminder that we live in the reality of global capitalism. It all depends on how it will be symbolised, on what ideological interpretation or story will impose itself and determine the general perception of the crisis. When the normal run of things is traumatically interrupted, the field is open for a ‘discursive’ ideological competition. In Germany in the late 1920s, Hitler won the competition to determine which narrative would explain the reasons for the crisis of the Weimar Republic and the way out of it; in France in 1940 Maréchal Pétain’s narrative won in the contest to find the reasons for the French defeat. Consequently, to put it in old-fashioned Marxist terms, the main task of the ruling ideology in the present crisis is to impose a narrative that will not put the blame for the meltdown on the global capitalist system as such, but on its deviations – lax regulation, the corruption of big financial institutions etc."

Slavoj Žižek - Use Your Illusions

Thursday, November 13, 2008

A little more than 3 years ago I sat down to reread George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire (which is now being piloted as a HBO series in Nove. 2008) and came across this familiar passage: He dreamt an old dream, of three knights in white cloaks, and a tower long fallen, and Lyanna in her bed of blood.

In the dream his friends rode with him, as they had in life...
.

With the reread came the rehabilitation of this blog, separated from the first iteration by more of a motivation to catalog the better things I read. I was, and am content to a degree, to let the blog become a giant bookmark of sorts. As long as I am reading, this blog will not run out of content.

Saturday, November 08, 2008

Friday, November 07, 2008

I don't want to set the world on fire



Disappointing game, this is the only good song out of the minuscule, and ultimately mediocre soundtrack.

Things wrong with the game
1) bland palette
2) slow level progression makes the player feel a lack of progress
3) 3rd person view not playable (therefore you never see your armor)
4) you can't drive fusion cars

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Was there any doubt?

So where was I last night and and what was I doing when it happened?

I was talking with a Brit, a Canadian, and a Dutch on ventrillo just before the victory speech. Managed to catch it live online. The speech has everything covered, I wonder what would he say for the inaugural address? Although he was right to cover everything since the symbolic value of this victory cannot be understated.

Monday, November 03, 2008

Children



Old trance songs, memorable after all these years.