The Z Axis

the science of listener attention

Earlier today, I made a very cryptic blog post. In it, I announced it was cryptic.

It was for me. It was to mark a mental breaking point. Many would do this in some sort of private journal, but I am lousy at keeping those, and it is important to me to note these things. If you go back even just a few posts on this stupid blog, you will see a number of them. They are typically cryptic.

As noted on the most exalted Christie's blog, (link withheld pending authorization) the other day, while she was in town, Mia, her and I had a discussion on blogging, and whether cryptic entries that intentionally limit the comprehending audience are out of bounds:

"Mia is sick, and is nonetheless having a vigorous debate with Patrick about the purpose of blogs and the obligations inherent in keeping one (or rather, if indeed there are any,) and whether or not it's okay to be cryptic in a blog post, to narrow one's intended readership from post to post. I'll weigh in on this at another time, after I've given it some thought."

I'll explain my earlier post now, not because I concede the argument about blogs, information transfer, and audience manipulation, but because it was an incredibly stupid thing for me to do.

The title was Cake or Death?, an Eddie Izzard bit(scroll down) I was recently made aware of by the same most exalted Christie, in which an incredibly easy choice is raised by his straw man of the Church of England: Tea and Cake, or Death. This is a very easy choice. Anyone can make this choice.

You see what I did with "lowers" and "raises" there?

I used it in juxtaposition with an incredibly difficult choice. The options were not cake and death. They were complex, circuitous, and shattering. They have been tearing me up, and the options I raised were deliberately chosen to be truly understood by me and me alone. This is where the really stupid part comes in. The fact is none can be chosen. That's why it's such a hard set of options. That's why it contrasts so well with cake or death. The easy and plainspoken versus the impossible and hidden.

It's called the science of listener attention. We did repetition, we did floating opposites and now you end with the one that's not like the others.

Sometimes the intended audience of something is yourself in the future.

Sometimes in knowing how to make a point to that audience you give someone else the wrong idea.

Sometimes in reaching across vast stretches of time, you need to utilize the science of listener attention.

I will not stop making these posts, as I am not forcing anyone to read them, and this very same day one of them from two years ago proved immensely useful to me.

However, I apologize for the one earlier today. I did not do my due diligence in properly shrouding it - limiting it to its intended audience: me in the future. The key to a good cipher is that it resolves to one thing, and one thing only. It cannot lend itself to non-garbage results, or the integrity of the message breaks down, or as was likely the case today, misinformation is spread.

It was very stupid. It was almost certainly misinterpreted, and for that I have nothing but apologies. Another standing policy of this blog, however, is that I do not take things down that prove embarrassing or shameful. I own them, and leave them there to serve as a reminder in the future.

[and we figure out a way to fix the rest]

cake or death

Coward

Asshole

Miserable

mmmm, cryptic.

[choose wisely]

the best explanation i can muster for the moment

[thank you danielle]

tell me why

I remained silent yesterday on the events on the Virginia Tech campus.

I wanted to have facts at my command before saying anything, and in my quest to find them I found that I am in the minority in this desire. The major media outlets I went to were rife with speculation, conjecture and the worst sort of information-starved rehashing imaginable.

For several days preceding yesterday, I'd been going through a bit of a mental crisis about how I feel I've allowed my disillusionment with the fourth estate to keep me from doing anything to make it better, which makes me part of the problem, in addition to wasting skills and convictions I feel very strongly about.

Yesterday's coverage made my blood boil enough to take the first step out of that hole.

It took less than 8 hours from the initial, and still potentially unconnected dorm shooting for television pundits to try and connect the larger Norris Hall massacre to everything from movies to video games.

I'd like to present a little tableau here, if I may, that illustrates my utter rage and resentment for what I witnessed.

What Actually Happened (Paraphrased):

ANCHOR: ..continuing our breaking coverage of the tragic events of this morning at Virginia Tech...yes, I understand we have a new set of motion graphics that will help package the scant bits of information we have been repeating ad nauseum for the last several hours.

While we get those set up, I'd like to introduce our panelists, who we have assembled in an effort to connect this story to as many different interest groups and intellectually dishonest angles as possible. We've worked hard to bring together a sense of balance between viewpoints, or at least fill the desk with people who will disagree in a manner so unruly and shocking that it will generate ratings for us.

After the introductions, I will ask a lot of speculative and leading questions that will allow our panelists to grind their various political axes and cast aspersions on whatever they choose, all under the guise of exploring the topic further and filling our airtime with something other than the facts that we either willingly acknowledge do not exist, or are too lazy to discover for ourselves. We have already budgeted the rest of the afternoon for this story alone, and our producer assures us it is reasonable to assume that there is nothing else of note happening in the world that might have actual new information surfacing.

Oh! I've just got word we will have to delay the panelists for a moment, as we're also going to show you a montage of various political leaders offering their thoughts and prayers to the victims' families in a hideous game of oneupsmanship and theater.

What Should Have Happened:

ANCHOR:
Reports coming out of Virginia Tech this morning indicate two mass shootings - one at the West Ambler Johnston student dormitory, and another at Norris Hall, the university's engineering science and mechanics building.

At least twenty are confirmed dead, with over 17 in medical care at the moment. Authorities have not released the name of a suspect, nor confirmed a link between the two shootings, as of yet. Motivation has not been established, and police believe the Norris Hall shooter to have committed suicide, so it may never be conclusively known why this unprecedented loss of life took place.

Police are expected to release a suspect's name soon, and indicate whether this was a lone act or whether the shooter may have had accomplices. Ballistics may prove valuable in linking the two shootings together, but for the moment this cannot be confirmed.

A terrible loss of life, and many, many questions without answers.

We will continue to provide updates as new information becomes available.

These tragic and senseless local deaths come alongside news of the death of three US soldiers, today: two in Baghdad and one in the province of Anbar, bringing this month's losses over 50. This comes as Congress debates new legislation proposing continued funding of the war, while providing for the return home of many soldiers, a withdrawal scenario the President has said he will veto...

I began writing a post on journalistic ethics yesterday that just seems pathetic and inadequate now. Over and over yesterday the phrase "Culture of Violence" was bandied about as pundits attempted to glom onto the origin of this tragedy by sheer brute force speculation. We have a culture of violence in America, they say. Who's responsible for creating it? How can we stem the tide? Who will think of the children?

The talking heads seem to think it could come from video games in which characters in World War II, you know, shoot each other, to those damn primal urges brought forth by the sexy gyrations of shampoo commercial models. It must be those things that influence how we solve our problems - it must be those things that create a culture where the go-to option is violence.

I'd like to suggest an alternative, and it will appear brazenly politically biased. These are simply the first things to come to my mind when I think of what may be spurring the uniquely American notion that violence solves all problems, and I welcome any similar comments from left-leaning people - cultural icons, politicians, etc - that fit with the theme.

"And the Statue of Liberty
Started shakin' her fist
...
And the battle will rage
This big dog will fight
When you rattle his cage
And you'll be sorry that you messed with
The U.S. of A.
'Cause we'll put a boot in your ass
It's the American way"

Ignoring the fact that a woman with "Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command" bolted onto her is unlikely to shake her fist in anger, this song hit #25 on Billboard's hot 100 list for the US. Non-crossover genres like country and rap very seldom do this well. See, solving problems with violence is the American way. Toby Keith said so. He was a character in Grand Theft Auto, right?

"Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.
...
But the only way to defeat terrorism as a threat to our way of life is to stop it, eliminate it, and destroy it where it grows."

While I may not think a pacifist solution will work well against terrorism, this is a national address in which the leader of the entire nation says the only solution to our problem is violence, and anyone who suggests otherwise is part of the problem.

There are DOZENS more possible quotations from all points on the political spectrum that could be placed here. I single out 2 republicans because they are fresh in my mind. Democrats, independents, apoliticial anarchists - they are all guilty of the same. These are our cultural icons. These are our leaders.

And I think they carry a lot more weight in contributing to a "Culture of Violence" than a historical simulation where you shoot Germans.

It must be Hollywood brainwashing us. It must be video games neutralizing our children's brains. It must be unashamed sexual attitudes that allow this sort of behavior. It must be something beyond our control, because there's no way we'd elect officials that continue to ingrain the notion that violence solves all our problems, right? There's no way we'd re-elect representatives who stick to that notion while hiding the coffins it produces, right? There's no way we'd sing along at concerts with that notion, buy the CD and the t-shirt, right?

Right?

We wouldn't do that, if we could prevent it. So it must be something beyond our control. Let's get a panel of people who disagree via caustic screeds and shouting together and speculate what that something could be for a couple hours. I'm sure there's nothing else going on.

I'll tell you how we can stem the tide of the "Culture of Violence," we can stand up against the abhorrent stewardship the bulk of the nation's journalists have provided for the last 10 years of media consolidation and profit-minded laziness. We can stop giving the people who are in elected office and positions of massive influence a free pass to continue their twisting of the "American Way" of doing things. In short, we can have a group of people whose job it is to call out those who twist the public interest to their own aims, to ask tough questions and not cave or be intimidated into not pursuing the answers, and most of all right now, to demand an answer when our leaders and icons suggest to our children that the solution to every problem is violence. We once had a group of people like that. We can again.

I know, I'm probably late to this party. I turned my back on the estate because I was disgusted by this bottom-line and ratings/circulation focused laziness, and the buyouts of anyone who took a principled stand against it. I wanted no part of it. I didn't want to dedicate my life to a principle only to have it bought up with money Rupert Murdoch found in the victorian couch in his jet or George Soros shook out of his socks. I was a fool. And I'd like to think this will be my first step off the bench, but I have made far too many promises of that nature.

To the pundits who were probably well paid for their recycling of the misery of many of Virginia's residents yesterday, I'd like to say this: there are no reasons. What reason do you need to be shown?

There's nothing that will make sense of this. There's no reason that will excuse it. So, you continue to speculate on why this happened, while you celebrate theater over facts, shouting prepared statements over debate, and violence as the immediate solution to any problem.

I hate that I've been sitting out the game because I don't like the way it's played any more. The fact that it took the deaths of over 30 people to bring me back is absolutely shameful. However shameful it may be, though, it was an important solidification of something nebulous that was troubling me.

I don't know where I will go from here, but I have absolutely had it with these hacks. Jon Stewart (a liberal icon I tried in vain to find a comment attributed to supporting violence as a go-to option - kudos to him) once said to all journalists, via Ken Auletta, "Come work for us again."

I want to, man. I want to. It's just so saddening to see something you revered in such tatters.

Over 30 people were killed by gunfire yesterday on the Virginia Tech campus. Police suspect 23-year-old Cho Seung-hui, an English major at the university, as the lone gunman. No motive is known or likely will be.

Virginia Tech will be holding a Convocation at 2pm Eastern Tuesday.

[i don't like mondays]

patrick versus the white piece of paper

I will undoubtedly cover this over on the comic, but holy crap:

Someone made a LEGO Staircar.

From Arrested Development, the second best TV show of all time. Hat's off to ya, buddy.

This post is a thinly veiled attempt to feel like I am posting something.

Like much of my writing, I am unable to maintain the illusion that it is a box with four walls.

[medic]

ahhhhhh (now with more crypticism)

A beautiful thing to behold:

ACH CREDIT US TREASURY TAX REFUND ON 04/13

Travel is paid for. Twice over. Woot.

[7:4:40:58]

goodbye old friend

I can think of no more fitting way to mark the death of one of my favorite writers than the following, which I have blatantly stolen from Pharyngula:

Kurt is up in heaven now.

Man, that's classic. See the link for an explanation, as I have limits on my thievery.

From 1922 to 2007 Kurt Vonnegut lived, and after a period of learning it, spent that time making damn fine use of the english language. I'll miss him dearly.

I share this link with you now as a means of showing what a lot of people never read of him. Slaughterhouse-Five, Welcome to the Monkey House - these things are great, but it's articles like this that are what complete the picture of a man, rather than a faceless source of words.

[anti-gerasone never proved so ironically tempting]