Sak

SF Hypocrite

01.11.10 20:37
Section: Sak
Filed Under: Copyright - Sak, Observations, Rants

I am a hypocrite.

Yep, it’s true. I had to get it out, and admit it to the world. It’s a starting point, something to consider and work with, so that in the future perhaps I’ll be less a hypocrite about certain things. Today, my hypocrisy revolves around the Science Fiction genre. That’s not to say that I’m not a hypocrite about other things, just that the focus of this little babble is the topic of Science Fiction works.

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On Reading: Choosing Battles

10.27.09 23:59
Section: Sak
Filed Under: Copyright - Sak, Questions, Rants

A couple of books I’ve picked up recently haven’t settled well with me so I’ve been deliberating over the reasons why, and even whether, to give up on a book that I’ve started. There are so many books out there to read that sometimes it’s difficult to tell, even from a recommendation, whether any particular piece is worth the time. Not everybody reads the same way. I know some who read very quickly, scanning over certain aspects of a writer’s work that they are willing to forgive, while other readers may take their time, are very careful to examine every passage, every sentence, so certain details are important. In some cases, though, maybe there’s some mysterious element to the book that can’t exactly be pinpointed, something non-specific, but that leaves you a little dissatisfied. Do you slog through to the end, give the work its merits, and move on from a less than satisfactory experience to another hopefully better one?

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Now You See Me.

09.10.08 13:28
Section: Sak
Filed Under: Copyright - CC, Rants

Trust is a funny thing. For example, consider the concept of leadership. Leadership is about trust; allowing an individual to make decisions on behalf of a group of people, and trusting that individual to make the right decisions. It’s complicated, for sure, as there are many different people each with their own idea of what the right decisions are supposed to be. Trust is a really tricky thing; there are unconditional aspects, and yet it somehow carries the weight of expectation. In the case of leadership, you give an individual the power to make decisions on your behalf, and on the behalf of a great many other people, decisions that could adversely affect lives. With a salesman, you give them your money and you get something like aluminum siding, or a great deal on a used car. With a lover, you share with them your body and emotions, and with a spouse, you give them your love and devotion. So how do you know if you can trust those you interact with. It must be in their face, right? You just need to get a look at them and you’ll know that you can trust them.

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Wrong Way?

06.15.08 10:40
Section: Sak
Filed Under: Copyright - CC, Questions, Rants

How necessary is it that deception define our lives? Even if not the defining factor, why is duplicity so predominant in our dealings with one another, contrary to the morality and ethics that are held with such high regard, that if someone operates on such a manner of truth they’re looked upon as outside of the norm? If it’s about a “way” that things are handled in our interpersonal interactions, then which is right, and which is wrong? I know those are some very leading, rhetorical questions, but I have such a perverse tendency to entertain these types of notions. There’s a root problem here that I’ve been struggling to understand throughout my life; that is, the simple acceptance by many that “the way it’s done” is the only “way” regardless of how fundamentally fucked up that “way” is. I’ll start with a soft example, yet one which is pertinent to the lives of many. Job searching.

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Don't change a thing!

04.20.08 12:44
Section: Sak
Filed Under: Copyright - CC, Rants

On occasion I’ve heard of various points in a person’s life referred to as analogous to traveling along road, and that there are signposts as indicators of age. There’s apparently a point when a person becomes an adult, and a noticeable signpost indicates this transition. In some cases it’s the completion of a scholastic period of life, and the person moves on to adulthood and their career period of life. For some, marriage and children are the indicator. In other cases it’s indicative of a person being old enough to fight, and possibly die, for a nation in which they reside—oddly enough, according to some nations that biological age requirement is very young. So you can see that these alleged signposts are sometimes difficult to make out depending on a number of variables. I don’t remember when, or even if, I ever reached the adulthood signpost. I couldn’t say it happened during my term of service in the military, because I often acted very childish during those years; or of the male-pattern balding that I’ve recently noticed, since I’ve been shaving my head for near 14 years now. I couldn’t say it was the acquisition of some major piece of property—the total value of every single object in my possession can’t possibly exceed five thousand dollars. Yet, without any shred of doubt, I’m convinced that I’ve apparently traversed the signpost for “Curmudgeonly Old Bastard,” so it is without any hesitation that I can say that the U.S. Postal Service can suck my ass!

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The Un-American Idiot

07.31.07 19:24
Section: Sak
Filed Under: Copyright - CC, Rants

The Un-American Idiot. That’s me.

A few months ago I wandered into the other room, where my very close friend and roommate was watching his television. I stood and watched for a couple minutes, as a commercial for one of his favorite television shows came on. I don’t like this particular television show, and I’ve never really been able to accurately explain why, but it has become a wildly successful science fiction series based on a show of the same name from the late 1970’s. I seem to remember having a certain fondness for the original, but I was six years old, so I’m willing to associate my tastes back then for lack of experience. Then again, not all that much has changed really. I’m not sure what to call it, but there’s something about this reincarnation that feels like overdone commercial pop-culture polish.

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Yell, Dammit!

06.09.07 12:55
Section: Sak
Filed Under: Copyright - CC, Questions, Rants

Why don’t we yell anymore?

As children, we used to yell all the time. We would scream for just about any reason – hunger, misery, joy, whatever. But for reasons that I can’t quite get behind, as we grow beyond adolescence we’re taught that yelling is bad. Why? What’s wrong with a good solid howl every now and then? If you’re about to give the argument that it’s not calm, then take a look around at the world that we live in and wake up to how calm human beings really are. Another popular rebuttal is that it’s inappropriate. Farting is also considered inappropriate, and yet it’s a natural necessity of our physiology. Yelling is just as startling, doesn’t smell bad after you’re done, and with practice can be just as entertaining. Now, I’m not necessarily condoning running around shrieking all day long like an idiot, but if that’s your dig, man, go for it. At least we’ll all know when you’re heading our way. I’m thinking more about the occasional burst to purge the frustrations that are compressing inside each of us. After all, that’s what children do, and yet we don’t heed their example. We were given a natural means for release, and yet we’re taught not to use it.

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He is not political.

12.01.06 13:16
Section: Sak
Filed Under: Copyright - CC, Questions, Rants

I’ve been confused, and often times frustrated by the way that writers have been throwing around gender specific pronouns with wanton disregard for making any sense with their language. The most blatant example of this that I have encountered recently has furthered this frustration.

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