Rather Odd &/Or Beautiful Things

[Idle Miscreant]

A thread for things which are neither Relentless Idiocy, nor Other Obsessions. Merely a place for idle peculiarities, hopefully with a mildly aesthetic value, but even that's not particularly important...Suffice to say things which make one ponder on any level. From rampant, frothing philosophy to mild, fret-ridden sunset thoughts.

Ricardo Shillyshally - this thread has a distinct hat-tip in your direction.

I'll start with the astronaut Chris Hadfield on board the International Space Station giving his rendition of Space Oddity by Bowie. A bizarrely modern choice, but that's my attempt at being pleasant this year.

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And Werner Herzog on the derangement of penguins;

[Louise]

I like this idea.

[ricardo shillyshally]

I was thinking the other day; why don't we just build those penguins a house, or at least a marquee.

[Toad]

There's something fascinating (to me) about abandoned places. The mouldering grandeur, the reclamation by Nature.

[Louise]

I was thinking the other day; why don't we just build those penguins a house, or at least a marquee.

I thought that quote was Tom Lehrer. *shrug*

Also, a lot of people seem to think "What fresh hell is this?" (in response to the phone or the doorbell) is an original Sheldonism, but that's Dorothy Parker.

[ricardo shillyshally]

Is there any thing/one they don't plagiarize, I mean reference. Those abandonded places are perfect film sets. Obviously obsessed by images, I find this relaxing>

[ricardo shillyshally]

I love it when amateurs play with tech, it's the end that's funny!

[ricardo shillyshally]

I'm also thinking about the way the virtual and real interact. When I'm standing on the beach with the waves crashing down in one game, my mind is convinced. When I'm being attacked, my heart beats faster(have you seen gaming mouse which measures this). And sometimes when I'm out in the real world, I see it as though it is a game. I'll just replay that section, differently! This quote> ' We are entering a strange new era. Shared persistent online worlds are creating environments that we can more or less exist in; artificial intelligence will build characters that have simulated emotional lives. And then virtual reality systems like Oculus Rift and Project Morpheus, and augmented reality devices like Microsoft’s Hololens and the Google-financed Magic Leap, will enhance and deepen our strange symbiotic relationship with games. They will become possessive in ways they haven’t before.' In which the author compares gaming to a relationship. http://www.theguardian.com/technology/20...lationship. It is interesting which charcters we choose to be virtually. '. From the 1950s, social psychology varies endlessly the motif of how, in public life, we are all "wearing masks," adopting idenities which obfuscate our true selves. However, wearing a mask can be a strange thing: sometimes, more often than we tend to believe, there is more truth in the mask that in what we assume to be our "real self." Recall the proverbial impotent shy person who, while playing the cyberspace interactive game, adopts the screen identity of a sadistic murderer and irresistible seducer - it is all too simple to say that this identity is just an imaginary supplement, a temporary escape from his real life impotence. The point is rather that, since he knows that the cyberspace interactive game is "just a game," he can "show his true self," do things he would never have done in real life interactions - in the guise of a fiction, the truth about himself is articulated'. http://www.lacan.com/zizekdecaf.htm Maybe life, dating, become just a game, where we have an appropriate mask.

[ricardo shillyshally]

[ricardo shillyshally]

I didn't read the book, but have now seen the film three times. It's amazing how they balance the chilling subject matter with colourful surreal fantasy.