post-lunch notes
1. I found this article highly inventive and amusing.
2. My enjoyment of a sunny day will not hinge on the issue of whether or not I have a convertible, or even a car with a sunroof, to drive around in. I can roll down the windows on the ‘rentmobile and still sing along and enjoy the breeze, gosh darn it.
3. This is the biggest animated gif I have ever come across. Slightly pointless, but cool (warning: ~700K).
4. I put together a spreadsheet this morning to help me keep track of hours worked on jobs, lessening my mind’s workload in that area considerably. Go me.
5. I have $2.26 in change on my desk here at work. I just empty my pockets when I come back from lunch and forget to take it home to my change jar. I guess it’s a good thing we don’t have a soda machine in the office.
6. This occurred to me on the way back from lunch: Post-modern relativistic criticism of works of art, music, literature, or film is self-defeating to a degree. That is, purposefully analyzing a work from the viewpoint and with the assumptions of different groups who might be experiencing it. I was introduced to this flavor of analysis in a film class in college, where we looked at a particular film from our own, then from a feminist, and finally a Marxist viewpoint. It has certain value, I suppose, in understanding the reactions and motivations of the groups from which those viewpoints stem, but to best understand the work under review, I would think the creator’s, the artist’s own intentions for the work should hold far and away the most weight, since without a concrete, complete understanding of the differing vantage points our adoption of them is perilous at best: Under the trappings of the surrogate assumptions we can never really escape our own, which taint the integrity of the analysis. So the artist’s frame of reference provides the only concrete guidelines to which to subscribe.
What made me think of this was listening to a song in the car on the way back from lunch, and trying to understand the lyrics, but realizing what they mean for me and the mental images I draw from them may be diametrically opposed to the songwriter’s intentions, and even that the song as an artistic expression could be flawed. In other words, the songwriter might not have meant anything by the lyrics in question but simply picked whatever happened to rhyme, and I seize onto those words and create a meaning around them that influences me. But that train of thought raises a whole other set of questions, since the songwriter’s subconscious may have chosen a more apt word to convey his intent than his conscious mind could have come across, so the song may be an artistically complete expression after all. Or he could have intended it as a reflection of the growing prevalence of relativistic values in society and purposefully been haphazard in his word choice to draw attention to that…
Gaaah. I gotta get back to work.
I don’t think I’ve actually ever asked you what you do for a living. So, where do you work? ;)
the phantom is disguised…
I don’t think I could have a job where I’d be at or around a computer most of the day… I’d be far too tempted to mess around on-line. Instead I’ll take a job where I just… play with kids! (not that that’s all teaching’s about, or that graphic design work is strictly computer work, but you know)
Gotta love The Onion. :)
Hope you have a good day!
I’m a graphic designer for the design department of a local university (UNC). Great people; lots of variety in the work :o)
You work at a Christian bookstore, correct?
It’s not all computer work; you’re right, but an uncomfortably large amount of it is…
The day’s been good, albeit jam-packed. I’ve been in overdrive all day… I hope your day got better after the incident this morning :o)
Yup! LifeWay Christian.
Very cool :o) There’s one of those near me. Well, 20 minutes or so away.
Sounds like it would be a heck of a lot better than GNC (the vitamin store), which is where I worked retail when I was in college (I gotta quit saying that–makes me feel old).
What are some of the perks, if any? Discounts? T-shirts? Advance concert tickets?
Oooh, the reasons I love my job:
> Get paid to have devotionals in the morning
> 20% off all regularly priced merchandise
> Advance release CDs (sometimes)
> Knowledge about what’s going on, music-wise and event-wise in the Christian world
> An amazing group of Christian co-workers and managers who I completely love :)
Art analysis
There’s an interesting conversation regarding subtext in art here, though it relates mostly to prose fiction. You’ll need to scroll about halfway down or so to get to the meat of the conversation.