Despite horses and buggies, Amish aren't necessarily 'low-tech'

Click the title...

I actually found this really interesting... especially now as everyone constantly lauds the awesome that new technology has been able to bring into our lives while also maintaining the unavoidable wariness of its potential downfalls.

A point on the whole idea of 'friends' VS 'contacts' - from the article:

CNN: What about cars?

Brende: To the extent that you are mobile in an automated or motorized way with something like a car or motorcycle or fast moving tractor, you've increased your radius of contact with other human beings, but at the same time you dilute the quality of contact within that radius.

Like any notion, it's true when it's true and not when it's not (simply put, you're either real friends or you're not) but in a world where networking, 'add as friend' and 'follow' are such highly promoted focal points of communication it's hard not to imagine that human relationships have definitely taken some hits as the years have gone by.

That said, this is all coming from someone writing on an online blog and who has certainly enjoyed the expanded horizons in acquaintance provided by good ol' technological advance. Heh, you'd think my ass would hurt after sitting on this damn fence this whole time...

Oh well, bonus? A little less stereotyping in the mass media about any particular group is always welcome so cheers, Mr Sutter. Thanks for teaching me a little more about the Amish and backing up my belief that being 'behind' doesn't necessarily mean staring people in the ass and missing out on the good stuff.

Whoa... how did I eat that many cookies?

I literally asked myself that question not 5 seconds ago... oh, Country Kooka...

There are few things greater than long weekends and I say this despite the fact that I am currently not working (though hurrah for the fact that that's not for long now!). No this last weekend wasn't a non-stop party per se, rather the perfect balance between good times with good friends, last minute random trips to random destinations and blissfully sheer r&r.

I breathe a long, happy sigh.

The mind continues to whirr but I think I might give it a rest for now.

Congratulations I.aM.mE! - ABDC 6 Finale review

I couldn't be happier that they won despite the travesty that was this entire season. Honestly, the looks on the faces of the Iconic Boyz only emphasises how wrong it was for them to be on the show. The whole time they were led to believe that they were more than they were and talented though they are, they were nowhere within the vicinity of talent as any of the other crews. Hopefully the loss doesn't hit them too hard and they only continue to learn and grow from here.

Thoughts while watching the old champions perform:

Though they never really wowed me that much on the show, Poreotics are pretty damn talented and they've only improved since they won, good stuff...



We Are Heroes were underwhelming...



Quest Crew! Haha, though they're my personal favourites I couldn't hold in the WTF when I saw their outfits and upon first watch I was hmmmm-ing much to my chagrin... not my favourite routine of theirs (who came up with the PJ party idea?? I giggle) but it grew on me upon rewatch... furthermore, they went for humour and it definitely gave that...



Super Crew rocked the ninja theme...



JABBAWOCKEEZ... fucking beautiful - loved that they shared the stage with the competing West Coast crews, loved the always innovative fluidity that never fails to seamlessly meld with their sharp clean moves and ADORED Lil BabyWockee. Sorry Iconic Boyz but Lil Bit (as apparently the crew refer to her) straight up outdanced y'all. AWESOME PERFORMANCE.



And thus the most bizarre season of ABDC comes to a nice close. Thankfully the best crew won!

Recommendations

There aren't many. Due to the rather odd year 2011 has become, I've read a lot less lately so in the last 5 months, I've only really been able to finish one book and am currently in the process of reading book numero dos, which has been pretty good thus far. Films-wise, Saturday night's was the first this year that compelled me to actually recommend it so here goes:

Rec #1 It's Not News, It's FARK by Drew Curtis

                                    

Sure, we all know just how much crap is fed to us by the media as 'news' but give this book a read and you'll see just how farked up the industry really is. Case in point: a random comment on a news piece in a forum went on to become the source for literally hundreds of 'legitimate' news articles. Seriously. Oh, and while informing me just how masterfully the mass media screws itself and us over in the process, this book also cracked me up something fierce. Drew Curtis' wit speaks to my TWOP-bred love of snarky commentary and I can now thank him for some of the odder looks I received on the train while reading his words and proceeding to stifle guffaws. Thanks, man.

Rec #2 X-Men First Class

                                  

I had no real expectations for this movie as I'd grown tired of the X-Men movie franchise, especially considering what they had done to some of my favourite characters from the cartoons (I just cannot accept Anna Paquin as Rogue. And waiting three films before finally showing Gambit?) but I tagged along with my friends last Saturday and LOVED it. Bravo, Matthew Vaughn. James McAvoy was an excellent Charles Xavier and Michael Fassbender did an amazing job as Magneto. I also loved the story - inevitable cheesy moments aside - most notably the relationship between Charles and Erik, the alignment of events with those of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the incorporation of Kevin Bacon's Shaw into Magneto's raison d'etre. I'm no comic book purist so I don't know exactly how much that messed with comic book canon but from my vantage point, it was all really well executed and I enjoyed every minute.

Ok, recs done, what I'm currently reading:

                                  

Loved the movie when I saw it not that long ago and so far, the book hasn't disappointed me. I'm loving how Walter Kirn writes about Ryan and his life in Airworld.

And because I can't be bothered including yet another picture, I'm simply going to say I can't wait for the final Harry Potter to come out next month! I'm especially curious what the movie will do with the epilogue. I thought it was nice and it certainly took nothing away from my enjoyment of the book or the series but as someone who has read more than her share of fic over the years, that ending was very fic-ish and I would wonder how the movie would approach it. I guess I'll see next month!

Ten years late, I still have to watch Manic...