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Another image description: Dancing for Change

So the next header image I’d like to describe is the one that says, “Dancing for Change”. This was the name of a radio show I briefly hosted on OWU Radio, back when Ohio Wesleyan University had a radio station. Some of the archived shows from 2015 and 2016 are still available to listen to online. The show promoted peace, justice, and sustainability through danceable and toe-tapping music.

It also promoted Earthdance Ohio, an annual event of the same time period, which is where the image comes from. It was designed by Maya Ealey for the third annual event in 2011, and then used either partially or in its entirety for two more years. You can view those posters here. It depicts the silhouette of a woman in a skirt with her head back and her arms uplifted, her long hair hanging down. She’s dancing, and has one foot raised. There are brown tree branches with green leaves behind her, along with a lighter green vine, orange loops, colorful snails, and dots of different sizes.

It’s a very joyful image, and brings back fond memories for me.

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Against the grain

Seeing similarities:

Reading Hospicing Modernity: Facing Humanity’s Wrongs and the Implications for Social Activism By Vanessa Machado de Oliveira

and…

Playing Sky: Children of the Light.

I’ll have more to say on the book content going forward. Tonight, it’s the game. A game in which you collect light, just to give it away at the end, and then to do it all over again. Oh yeah, and you can also spend your light to send hearts to other players. Definitely not your popular FPS.

It’s a social game that promotes compassion and cooperation. It’s not like other video games. It’s gorgeous and it’s great! It goes against the grain.

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Back on a desktop

I’ve now got a desktop PC, actually a Supermicro server box, as my own personal computer. This time around, it’s running Linux Mint. I’m setting this blog to my browser home page, in an effort to start writing more. And gaming, plenty of gaming…

Hang in there!

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Better hold music

After spending about a half-hour on hold for an Anthem agent yesterday, I came to the conclusion that I could record better hold music than what I was listening to. They had a somewhat dramatic piano sonata, interrupted periodically by the typical recording of a woman’s voice, “Your call will be answered by the next available agent; please continue holding.” This was irritating to say the least.

The accompaniment should instead be something like Brian Eno’s Ambient 1: Music for Airports, and the vocal message should be part of the ambience, sung or spoken to go with it, rather than interrupt it. This would be more calming for callers who may be likely to be frustrated to begin with. Continuous mellow, integrated hold music would also be far better than silence, in which you have to check your phone to make sure you’re still connected, or silence interrupted every so often by someone’s voice. Express Scripts had a woman’s voice saying, “Please hold…”, every 5 seconds.

We can do better.

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Horror

XKCD comic #2076, "Horror Movies 2"
XKCD “Horror Movies 2”

I tend to agree with the person without a hat. I’d much rather watch something uplifting.

I think many of us are hypocrites, calling ISIS barbarians for their videos of beheadings, and then watching slasher flicks. It’s all spectacle. Beheadings of royalty in the French Revolution were public entertainment, as were lynchings in the United States. I think it desensitizes us.

I recall Col. Kurtz in Apocolypse Now: “The horror … the horror,” and learning how PTSD can truly mess you up. I wonder what kind of effects our indulgences into horror have on our society, a culture that worships violence?