Saturday, April 23, 2011

xkcd: Raptor Fences

xkcd: Raptor Fences

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Complex Equivalence

The concept of the day is “Complex Equivalence”.  An individual’s cognitive map or sensory representation of a particular word, label or expression; or possibly better said, the meaning the individual assigns to an abstract form of words.  A different experience that has the same meaning (equivalent) as the experience they are considering.

Misunderstanding and miscommunication occur when two individuals each assign different meanings to a word or phrase and then act as if they were describing the same experience.

Think of political descriptive labels as a good example of this.  The definitions of a “Liberal” or a “Conservative” are entirely different for those who identify themselves as either, than it is for those who do not.  Each sees their point of view as admirable and obviously as a better way of thinking.  And each sees the other as an opponent, often using the description as if it was a well defined epithet, one that we all agree to the meaning of.

It’s an attempt to reframe the meaning of a word by using it repeatedly, as shorthand, to redefine the word.
 
It begins to feel like the only way to correctly understand the perceived meaning of a word or phrase is by taking a poll.  But even then, you end up with differences of prevalent definition according to whether the poll respondent lives in a “Red State” or a “Blue State”.

But, words mean things.  With the presence of 24 hour media, ubiquitous beyond what most would ever have believed possible a generation ago, we have to guard against revisionists.

I used to be very politically minded.  But seeing the same tactics used by both sides to whatever advantage they sought at the time, I grew weary of it all.  Talking heads on TV sound like broken parrots, repeating the same things, like mantra. 

Say it loud and often enough and it’s true, right?

Friday, April 8, 2011

Friday, when work iz done

Long week
got paid
spent on bills
broke again.

Going to dive into a pile of Enneagram related literature and audio this weekend.  Mostly for character generation brainstorming.

Sometimes I like to generate a random set of personality traits and then see if the subject generates any interest.  I also like to do this for several characters, (again) randomly pair them then work through the paths of interaction  their predispositions could lead to.

More about this as progress happens.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

wtf, another blogger?

For years, I've wanted to write a novel or screenplay.  I recently found a web site where a previously unpublished author decided to use a blog to document his writing efforts.

I assume the problem of "writer's block" is common and I hope this provides the needed motivation to put me on track to doing something productive instead of just thinking about it and wondering where all the time went later.

On occasion, I can see myself using the platform to offer my opinion; comment of the day's events, bitch about economic issues like faith-based currencies (those with nothing tangible to pin their value to...a.k.a. fiat currency, i.e. U.S. Dollar, Euro, etc), other things that generally piss me off, or on the contrary things that inspire me.

Greetings...