Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Sometimes I make music
Song structure and mixing pretty much set, gonna have to write some lyrics and record some vocals... bounced everything to a single track, then applied Multi-presser and Adaptive Limiter to maximize loudness for showing friends and shit.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Thought Crime Pt. 2 - Electric Bugaloo
I am accused of the crime of negative thinking. But my thinking isn't really traditional negative thinking as an actual psychologist would define it - it's rational thinking.
***
I often wonder about the opportunity costs of giant corporations. How many more small, independently owned businesses would there be if they were not crowded out by impossibly titanic competitors. It was once assumed that global-mega corps provided more jobs. But when we consider our job market today, doesn't it seem like all they do is consolidate everything so that overall they have less jobs, but they are all concentrated in one area? When I worked at the Pork Plant in Hoosierville-A, we had our own accountants, our own collections guy, our own telesales manager, and a few other things. When the wiener factory moved in, they eliminated those jobs entirely, because they had accountants, collections guys and telesales managers in Indianapolis. Not moved - eliminated. The people they already had in Indy were simply saddled with more work. 84,000 customers worth of more work, I guess.
So now we have less businesses. Never mind the less competition aspect of it, we have a relatively few number of companies, and they're dominant all over the country, if not the world, and they have consolidated their workforce and put a giant-mega office in this community or that community, and they outsource a large percentage of their work to India and China and sometimes Mexico - but could it be that overall they are generating less money for the economy?
We have these gigantic corporations, headed by executives who magically profit personally, even when the businesses they run fail. They are beyond overpaid, and the justification for their pay scale and their golden parachutes is that they need to feel free to take risks and "think outside the box" in order to innovate and stay ahead of the competition. Somehow the need to take risks is so great that the last thing we want to do is financially ruin some executive who ran the business into the ground via a shortsighted and failed attempt at innovation. Instead we must all line up and say "yes!" and engage in "positive" thinking (as narrowly defined by corporate needs), so that no one can declare a non-viable solution or business plan as a "bad idea." So they execute it and it fails. Miserably. All of a sudden an entire workforce is held hostage to layoffs because rational thinking and long-term thinking have been narrowly redefined as "negative thinking."
Would it not be better to have more small companies hiring more people overall, with more offices and factories across the country and a higher standard of living for more Americans? Would it not be better to have owners, instead of executives, whose personal finances failed just as much as their comapany's finances failed, who would also be in the same boat as their laid off employees? Would it also not be better to allow one business to fail amongst a myriad of companies so that there is no giant that's "too big to fail?"
If the argument for capitalism is that it is "natural," there is nothing "natural" about the current state of affairs. We do not have capitalism, we do not have socialism, we instead have "corporatism." Corporatism is not capitalism, but it is totalitarian. And like all totalitarianism, it too must die.
***
I often wonder about the opportunity costs of giant corporations. How many more small, independently owned businesses would there be if they were not crowded out by impossibly titanic competitors. It was once assumed that global-mega corps provided more jobs. But when we consider our job market today, doesn't it seem like all they do is consolidate everything so that overall they have less jobs, but they are all concentrated in one area? When I worked at the Pork Plant in Hoosierville-A, we had our own accountants, our own collections guy, our own telesales manager, and a few other things. When the wiener factory moved in, they eliminated those jobs entirely, because they had accountants, collections guys and telesales managers in Indianapolis. Not moved - eliminated. The people they already had in Indy were simply saddled with more work. 84,000 customers worth of more work, I guess.
So now we have less businesses. Never mind the less competition aspect of it, we have a relatively few number of companies, and they're dominant all over the country, if not the world, and they have consolidated their workforce and put a giant-mega office in this community or that community, and they outsource a large percentage of their work to India and China and sometimes Mexico - but could it be that overall they are generating less money for the economy?
We have these gigantic corporations, headed by executives who magically profit personally, even when the businesses they run fail. They are beyond overpaid, and the justification for their pay scale and their golden parachutes is that they need to feel free to take risks and "think outside the box" in order to innovate and stay ahead of the competition. Somehow the need to take risks is so great that the last thing we want to do is financially ruin some executive who ran the business into the ground via a shortsighted and failed attempt at innovation. Instead we must all line up and say "yes!" and engage in "positive" thinking (as narrowly defined by corporate needs), so that no one can declare a non-viable solution or business plan as a "bad idea." So they execute it and it fails. Miserably. All of a sudden an entire workforce is held hostage to layoffs because rational thinking and long-term thinking have been narrowly redefined as "negative thinking."
Would it not be better to have more small companies hiring more people overall, with more offices and factories across the country and a higher standard of living for more Americans? Would it not be better to have owners, instead of executives, whose personal finances failed just as much as their comapany's finances failed, who would also be in the same boat as their laid off employees? Would it also not be better to allow one business to fail amongst a myriad of companies so that there is no giant that's "too big to fail?"
If the argument for capitalism is that it is "natural," there is nothing "natural" about the current state of affairs. We do not have capitalism, we do not have socialism, we instead have "corporatism." Corporatism is not capitalism, but it is totalitarian. And like all totalitarianism, it too must die.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Following up on previous two posts
1) Finished Silent Hill: Homecoming. The sewer crawl, and the rest of the game, became a bit more bearable once I discovered that when you're in your "combat stance," no matter how many enemies are surrounding you, only one will attack you. However, if you are not in your combat stance, like if you're trying to run away, they will all attack you at once. How sporting!
2) Finished a "positive thinking" training module at work. Here's a direct quote - on the subject of responding to criticism it advises saying:
""There may be some areas that could improve." This is a good way of acknowledging that improvement is possible while avoiding committing to changes."
Well, fuck! That sure explains a lot!!!
2) Finished a "positive thinking" training module at work. Here's a direct quote - on the subject of responding to criticism it advises saying:
""There may be some areas that could improve." This is a good way of acknowledging that improvement is possible while avoiding committing to changes."
Well, fuck! That sure explains a lot!!!
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Silent Hill: Homecoming
I'm in the middle of this game and it's seriously pissing me off. I loved playing every other game in the Silent Hill series, even less popular efforts like The Room and Origins, but the way this game is going I can see myself abandoning it before I'm even done and that's really saying something.
It's the combat, stupid. Or the stupid combat.
Previous Silent Hill games are known for their unintuitive combat, but there's a relative straight forwardness about it, in my opinion. You whack a monster, you run away, you run back up to it, you whack the monster again, rinse and repeat. Sure, I'm oversimplifying, but what I'm getting at is that it just made sense. The Silent Hill series isn't about the combat, it's about the atmosphere. That's probably why I've beaten every Silent Hill game before this one and I've never finished a Resident Evil game. But in Homecoming, it feels as though every fucking encounter is a round in a fighting game.
The biggest problem is the dodging mechanic. In previous Silent Hill games, there was no "dodge," - not getting hit simply meant moving away out of the monster's reach before you got your ass slapped, thwacked or eviscerated. In Homecoming, you press a button at the right moment to dodge. The problem is, as the game goes on, you can't get a hit in on some of the later monsters without first successfully dodging one of their hits, reducing combat in this game to "Dodge-attack-attack." It gets fucking mind numbing after a while. Plus, you've REALLY got to pay attention to the enemy animations to dodge correctly. Timing your dodges is everything in this game, if you hit the dodge button too early, you won't have enough time to get off a second dodge. This of course means that your first encounter with any new monster is simply getting your ass handed to you while you learn the timing of the animations so you can react correctly.
This is not Silent Hill style game play. This is fucking Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Tekken, Soul Calibur, Virtua Fight, etc... I mean, fighting games are great for people who like that shit. There's a whole genre dedicated to dodge-block-parry based on the slightest enemy animation. But who the fuck was asking for that in a Silent Hill game?
Another important aspect to any "survival horror" style game is the option to run away. There's really no running away in Homecoming, every fucking monster you come across needs to be taken out if you want to get past, and it seems like they're all faster than you. If you try to run, you just end up running into more and more monsters and it becomes the closing credits of Benny Hill, with every monster in the level chasing after you in a line. Then you're REALLY fucked, because the only effective way to deal with multiple enemies at once is using firearms, but the one thing they held over from the other Silent Hill games is the scarcity of ammo!
Maybe I'm just frustrated because I'm in the "sewer crawl" level of the game. Sewers are always the worst levels. Silent Hill 1 had a sewer, it sucked. Vampire: Bloodlines would've been a near flawless game if not for the sewer maze. Fallout 3's weakest moments were all the sewers you had to go through. Seriously, sewers suck. Why do game developers love sewers so much? Are they really that much easier to put together than empty streets, dilapidated buildings and metal cage and barbed wire hellscapes?
Dear developers; if you're putting in a sewer level just for the sake of having "variety" over the other levels in your game - just fucking don't! The sewer is a cliche across so many genres and so many games, there's really no variety to be had there. Video games need to take a decade or two off from sewer levels before they become fresh again. The best thing you can do with a sewer level in a video game at this point would be to make it a single, straight corridor with no enemies and have it be over after only 30 seconds walking straight forwards!
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Thought Crime
I used to think Americans' obsession with movie actors was a superficial thing. Now I'm not so sure. It seems more and more of us are demanded to be amateur thespians in our day-to-day low-paying dead-end jobs. In my job at the wiener factory here in Illinois (I was hoping to ditch the wiener factory once and for all when I left Hoosierville A, but the job market being what it is, I ended up transferring...), it seems as though I am somehow going above and beyond simply by being civil, competent and helpful. Now I'm being told that the first point is not enough and the last two don't matter. I must learn to act like every one's best friend. I must learn to act like I'm the pitch man in an infomercial. I must not use the same words or phrases twice with two different customers despite the fact that I have over one hundred interactions a day about the same three things. I must learn to be more casual in my speech, and the examples of how to do so that are given to me, I find impolite and unprofessional.
Simple politeness, competence and a willingness to help go a long way with my customers. I've been complimented so many times simply because the service at the wiener factory is so hideously sub par that it's like I'm doing a huge favor just by doing my job. I understand the need to get the rest of the employees to stop being dicks, but the way to do that is to stop tolerating bullshit, not by instituting lists of phrases to use and words to avoid. For example, I can't say the word "no," or any other "negative" word. That's great for a commercial or a piece of advertising, but all day long, I am supposed to ad-lib scripts in my head that would ordinarily take a troop of marketers, a gaggle of ad execs and a team of lawyers to write a 30-second spot for.
I haven't paid for my wiener deliveries in two months, can you guys just keep the wieners coming for a while longer?
"Nnnn....... uh, we can keep your wieners coming if you pay the outstanding wiener bill!"
That's not what I asked! Listen, you've stopped delivering my wieners today. How about I pay you next Friday and you keep those wiener deliveries coming?
"We canno... uh, we can resume delivery of your wieners if you make a payment right now!"
You are rude and unhelpful.
***
I'm currently experiencing the joy of training modules that are little more than an Orwellian attempt at thought control. Positive people are successful and they never use "negative" statements that involve words like "no" and "not." Negative people who do say things like, "no," "not," "can't," "shouldn't," "unethical" and "illegal," are psychopaths and should be treated like they have a contagious disease.
Since I'm just a cog in the wiener machine, I actually can't do a lot of things - like, for example, extend billing deadlines for customers, or force delivery trucks to go back the same day if the first delivery man threw the wiener delivery down a customer's septic tank. Instead of a simple, straightforward and, in my opinion - respectful and polite - statement saying I cannot do these things, instead I have to dance around the point with a statement of "I can..." do something else. To me, that seems not only rude, but also an insult to the receiving party's intelligence.
I have an appointment today and your wiener delivery driver says I wasn't here when he came by! I've been sitting in front of my house all damn day on a lawn chair drinking beer and pissing in a cup! He's the one who hasn't been here! Can you get someone out here soon, I've got a barbecue and no wieners!!!
"I can get a delivery driver out there next Thursday!"
That's bullshit! I was here! I've got the sheriff, a judge and the fucking mayor sitting here with me and they'll sign a sworn statement!
"These are not the droids you are looking for!"
***
It seems to me like the English language wasn't really meant to bend this way. The word "no" was specifically invented for one purpose, and it fulfills that purpose admirably. Replacing "no" with "I can" comes off as clumsy and long-winded at best, and downright belligerent at worst.
My guess is that this is coming down to us from on high, where middle managers and corporate executives get by every day by saying "yes," and by "playing ball" and "being a team player." It's an entire class of self-selected fakers who don't need to deal with the real world consequences of bad policies and how those policies effect the hundred or so customers I get stuck talking to on a day-to-day basis trying to justify the unjustifiable. Rationality goes out the window in favor of blind "positivity," and pretty soon you've got the same carbon copy personality types infecting the organization and spreading like a virus. They train their HR drones to only hire people who use "affirmative only" statements in the interview. Then they only promote people within the organization who never criticize the way things are currently being done and therefore, nothing is ever improved until the company literally loses millions of dollars over something stupid, and then they scramble to come up with a quick and easy band-aid that doesn't really solve anything.
I am really shocked at the way things go where I work. Our billing system is total garbage - the user interface is worthless. In Hoosierville A, when the pork plant turned into the wiener factory, they switched from one billing system to a second billing system. Now, here in Illinois it's yet another, third, billing system, and this one is the worst of all of them. I make suggestions, and my coworkers and supervisors go, "Is that even possible?"
YES!!!
Other billing systems can update a customer's current balance immediately after a change is made and not take 24 to 48 hours to show the change. They just don't here. And in other billing systems, you can take a payment and it will automatically be applied to that customer's account, you don't need to copy/paste their account number.* Just not here. And you can reverse payments and not tell customers they need to go contact their bank to dispute the payment. Just not here. And other billing systems have a customer's monthly rate, with promos and discounts already figured in, displayed prominently so you don't have to add it all up yourself on a calculator. Just not here. And in other billing systems, I can set up an automatic recurring monthly payment for a customer instead of telling them to do it themselves on the website. Just not here.
I can just imagine if someone like me were at a GM board meeting in the early 2000s.
Our business plan is to continue manufacturing more SUVs and Hummers like it's 19-fucking-99. We're going to eschew smaller cars and do nothing to increase research into fuel efficiency and hybrid technologies, but we'll have our PR people put together some shit that makes it look and sound like we're committing to those technologies even though nothing will ever come of it - at least not out of us!
"That seems like a bad idea in the long term. Research shows that fuel costs are going to increase and consumers are going to want smaller, more fuel efficient cars."
You're never going to get anywhere in this company with language like that, mister!!! Take your NEGATIVITY and go work for some FOREIGN car company, you piece of shit!!! USA!!! USA!!! USA!!!
Or how about AIG?
We are launching a new financial product called derivative assets. What we do is we take a shitload of crappy loans, divide them up, and package the pieces together. That way, even if one borrower defaults on their loan, the other loans are still getting paid.
"But if all the loans are risky, aren't they all at risk of defaulting? Packaging them together doesn't make them any less likely to fail. And you want to sell these to charities and non-profit groups? Is this even ethical?"
You are just not a TEAM PLAYER!!! I can tell by your word choice - and by the faggy foreign hybrid car that you drive - that you actually WANT this company to fail! Why don't you take your concern for long term profits and ethics and go work in academia or something!!!
***
For me, the issue is that there are *real* problems with this company in terms of how it does things. Part of my job requires me to say, "no," sometimes. People can make unreasonable requests about their meat. We honestly can't do certain things, regardless of whether we should be able to do them or not. And if the wiener factory wants me to be an actor 10 hours a day, the least they can do is provide me with a god damn script!
*Side note: This may seem nitpicky at first, but imagine if you called a company that you do business with every month, and you made a payment on your account, only on your next statement your payment was not reflected. You call in and it takes an additional 48 hours or more to straighten out. It all happened because the person you made the payment to pasted the account number of the person s/he was talking to before you in some field. Now repeat this a dozen or more times a day. Literally. Totally avoidable, yet it happens over and over again and probably costs the company millions of dollars a year in man hours spent tracking down these phantom payments and applying them to the correct accounts. Never mind the fact that it makes the company and its employees look totally incompetent, thus encouraging customers to purchase their pork products elsewhere.
Simple politeness, competence and a willingness to help go a long way with my customers. I've been complimented so many times simply because the service at the wiener factory is so hideously sub par that it's like I'm doing a huge favor just by doing my job. I understand the need to get the rest of the employees to stop being dicks, but the way to do that is to stop tolerating bullshit, not by instituting lists of phrases to use and words to avoid. For example, I can't say the word "no," or any other "negative" word. That's great for a commercial or a piece of advertising, but all day long, I am supposed to ad-lib scripts in my head that would ordinarily take a troop of marketers, a gaggle of ad execs and a team of lawyers to write a 30-second spot for.
I haven't paid for my wiener deliveries in two months, can you guys just keep the wieners coming for a while longer?
"Nnnn....... uh, we can keep your wieners coming if you pay the outstanding wiener bill!"
That's not what I asked! Listen, you've stopped delivering my wieners today. How about I pay you next Friday and you keep those wiener deliveries coming?
"We canno... uh, we can resume delivery of your wieners if you make a payment right now!"
You are rude and unhelpful.
***
I'm currently experiencing the joy of training modules that are little more than an Orwellian attempt at thought control. Positive people are successful and they never use "negative" statements that involve words like "no" and "not." Negative people who do say things like, "no," "not," "can't," "shouldn't," "unethical" and "illegal," are psychopaths and should be treated like they have a contagious disease.
Since I'm just a cog in the wiener machine, I actually can't do a lot of things - like, for example, extend billing deadlines for customers, or force delivery trucks to go back the same day if the first delivery man threw the wiener delivery down a customer's septic tank. Instead of a simple, straightforward and, in my opinion - respectful and polite - statement saying I cannot do these things, instead I have to dance around the point with a statement of "I can..." do something else. To me, that seems not only rude, but also an insult to the receiving party's intelligence.
I have an appointment today and your wiener delivery driver says I wasn't here when he came by! I've been sitting in front of my house all damn day on a lawn chair drinking beer and pissing in a cup! He's the one who hasn't been here! Can you get someone out here soon, I've got a barbecue and no wieners!!!
"I can get a delivery driver out there next Thursday!"
That's bullshit! I was here! I've got the sheriff, a judge and the fucking mayor sitting here with me and they'll sign a sworn statement!
"These are not the droids you are looking for!"
***
It seems to me like the English language wasn't really meant to bend this way. The word "no" was specifically invented for one purpose, and it fulfills that purpose admirably. Replacing "no" with "I can" comes off as clumsy and long-winded at best, and downright belligerent at worst.
My guess is that this is coming down to us from on high, where middle managers and corporate executives get by every day by saying "yes," and by "playing ball" and "being a team player." It's an entire class of self-selected fakers who don't need to deal with the real world consequences of bad policies and how those policies effect the hundred or so customers I get stuck talking to on a day-to-day basis trying to justify the unjustifiable. Rationality goes out the window in favor of blind "positivity," and pretty soon you've got the same carbon copy personality types infecting the organization and spreading like a virus. They train their HR drones to only hire people who use "affirmative only" statements in the interview. Then they only promote people within the organization who never criticize the way things are currently being done and therefore, nothing is ever improved until the company literally loses millions of dollars over something stupid, and then they scramble to come up with a quick and easy band-aid that doesn't really solve anything.
I am really shocked at the way things go where I work. Our billing system is total garbage - the user interface is worthless. In Hoosierville A, when the pork plant turned into the wiener factory, they switched from one billing system to a second billing system. Now, here in Illinois it's yet another, third, billing system, and this one is the worst of all of them. I make suggestions, and my coworkers and supervisors go, "Is that even possible?"
YES!!!
Other billing systems can update a customer's current balance immediately after a change is made and not take 24 to 48 hours to show the change. They just don't here. And in other billing systems, you can take a payment and it will automatically be applied to that customer's account, you don't need to copy/paste their account number.* Just not here. And you can reverse payments and not tell customers they need to go contact their bank to dispute the payment. Just not here. And other billing systems have a customer's monthly rate, with promos and discounts already figured in, displayed prominently so you don't have to add it all up yourself on a calculator. Just not here. And in other billing systems, I can set up an automatic recurring monthly payment for a customer instead of telling them to do it themselves on the website. Just not here.
I can just imagine if someone like me were at a GM board meeting in the early 2000s.
Our business plan is to continue manufacturing more SUVs and Hummers like it's 19-fucking-99. We're going to eschew smaller cars and do nothing to increase research into fuel efficiency and hybrid technologies, but we'll have our PR people put together some shit that makes it look and sound like we're committing to those technologies even though nothing will ever come of it - at least not out of us!
"That seems like a bad idea in the long term. Research shows that fuel costs are going to increase and consumers are going to want smaller, more fuel efficient cars."
You're never going to get anywhere in this company with language like that, mister!!! Take your NEGATIVITY and go work for some FOREIGN car company, you piece of shit!!! USA!!! USA!!! USA!!!
Or how about AIG?
We are launching a new financial product called derivative assets. What we do is we take a shitload of crappy loans, divide them up, and package the pieces together. That way, even if one borrower defaults on their loan, the other loans are still getting paid.
"But if all the loans are risky, aren't they all at risk of defaulting? Packaging them together doesn't make them any less likely to fail. And you want to sell these to charities and non-profit groups? Is this even ethical?"
You are just not a TEAM PLAYER!!! I can tell by your word choice - and by the faggy foreign hybrid car that you drive - that you actually WANT this company to fail! Why don't you take your concern for long term profits and ethics and go work in academia or something!!!
***
For me, the issue is that there are *real* problems with this company in terms of how it does things. Part of my job requires me to say, "no," sometimes. People can make unreasonable requests about their meat. We honestly can't do certain things, regardless of whether we should be able to do them or not. And if the wiener factory wants me to be an actor 10 hours a day, the least they can do is provide me with a god damn script!
*Side note: This may seem nitpicky at first, but imagine if you called a company that you do business with every month, and you made a payment on your account, only on your next statement your payment was not reflected. You call in and it takes an additional 48 hours or more to straighten out. It all happened because the person you made the payment to pasted the account number of the person s/he was talking to before you in some field. Now repeat this a dozen or more times a day. Literally. Totally avoidable, yet it happens over and over again and probably costs the company millions of dollars a year in man hours spent tracking down these phantom payments and applying them to the correct accounts. Never mind the fact that it makes the company and its employees look totally incompetent, thus encouraging customers to purchase their pork products elsewhere.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Random Post
1) I'm now old and married and watching waaay too much Mythbusters. I had never seen an episode until I stopped at my in-laws on the way back from our honeymoon in November. Now I'm hooked and have probably seen almost all the episodes from reruns and marathons on the Discovery Channel.
2) Gemma got me an Xbox 360 for Valentine's Day. I'm such a spoiled little shit. I'll be writing up some posts about some of the games I've played like Braid, Fallout 3 and Dead Space. I've also been thinking about writing up some posts about all the Silent Hill games for a while now.
3) My job was horrible, and it's getting worse. It's normally a high turnover type of job, but since the job market's so tight, the wiener factory seems to be taking advantage by making things suck even more. If this company went out of business, I'd eat pancakes on its fucking grave. I can't believe I've been doing this shit for 2 and a half years now. Got a post about that in the works.
2) Gemma got me an Xbox 360 for Valentine's Day. I'm such a spoiled little shit. I'll be writing up some posts about some of the games I've played like Braid, Fallout 3 and Dead Space. I've also been thinking about writing up some posts about all the Silent Hill games for a while now.
3) My job was horrible, and it's getting worse. It's normally a high turnover type of job, but since the job market's so tight, the wiener factory seems to be taking advantage by making things suck even more. If this company went out of business, I'd eat pancakes on its fucking grave. I can't believe I've been doing this shit for 2 and a half years now. Got a post about that in the works.
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