Torchwood: Children of Earth

There's lots of excitement out there over the Torchwood: Children of Earth series, currently playing on BBC America. I heard about it from the splendid "What's Alan Watching" blog, hosted by Star-Ledger critic Alan Sepinwall. It's the Internet's most intelligent discussion of high-quality television (not an oxymoron these days).

This is the third season of Torchwood; the first was reportedly fair, the second better, but this one's supposed to be awesome. If you get cable, you can watch Torchwood on the aforementioned BBC America. Or you can purchase and download episodes on iTunes (which also offers a free 10 minute making-of download). Or pre-order the DVD on Amazon for its July 28th release.

Torchwood is loosely descended from Dr. Who, which started out as a long-running camp/cheesey/wonderful series, but was recently recreated in a slicker and hugely lauded BBC series. Dr. Who's first season boxed set costs $58 on Amazon, but you can get it for about $40, including shipping, from Amazon.co.uk.

Overextended Syndrome

I heard from a friend who's feeling seriously overextended - a condition with which I'm well acquainted. I suggested she take a few days off, and she replied:

"I worry that if I relax at all, I'll epiphanize and decide to ditch the frenzy and go off the grid entirely... Cut to me wearing no shoes and foraging for berries off the Interstate."

I can sympathize to an almost nauseating degree. And now that I've had a good bit of decompression time (no shoeless foraging, but close to it), I have some perspective, which I shared with her...and now share with you:

"Life is extremely short. Even shorter than one imagines when one hears that cliche. If you don't believe it, ask any old person.

"If what you're working on brings satisfaction, then great. Redouble your efforts and work even harder! Life is too short to work half-assed on things you deeply believe in. This ain't a dress rehearsal!

"If what you're working on is just stemming from inertia and grind, know that you are your own jailer, and you hold the keys. Just because you started a process doesn't mean you must forever be a slave to it.

"If what you're working on is about pursuit of accomplishment, a brief look at humanity will quickly illustrate that accomplishment is an ever-thirsty treadmill. We will die and be utterly forgotten very very quickly. So we may as well make every day count by doing what's meaningful to us, in blithe disregard to illusory notions of stature and other external appearances."

(Re: "thirsty treadmills": it's my Slog, and I'll mix metaphors if I want to!)

Updated Entry

I've updated my "How to Make Friends and Influence People" entry, just below.

How to Make Friends and Influence People

The people closest to me over the years weren't drawn in by my personal qualities, or by things like generosity, sense of humor, intelligence, shared interests or lively conversation. They've invariably been people who I have in some way flattered.

I can only conclude that the key to making friends is to flatter the bejesus out of everyone you meet. Because, really, human relationships are never about you!


Update:
My sloppy language has been pointed out to me. I was referring, at least in my first paragraph, to genuine praise, whereas the dictionary insists that "flattery" is always insincere.

The problem is that there's no equivalent noun for sincere expressions of admiration. "Praise", for example, includes terse off-handed dabs of encouragement ("Attaboy!"). It also, says the dictionary "usually suggests the judgment of a superior." And "compliments" doesn't cut it. So it's become common to use/misuse "flattery" to describe any fervent expression of admiration - sincere or not. In a few decades, lexicographers may have to acknowledge this new usage. So...I'm not wrong, I'm ahead of my time!

But, to clarify, I'm referring here to sincere praise. Again and again, I've observed the mirroring effect - the offerer of compliments appearing nobler, smarter, just simply better to the recipient (a process that's always unconscious for the latter). I stand by my proposition that for most people, no display of kindness, generosity, intelligence, or humor can trigger the same degree of reflective admiration as a single dab of flattery - sincere or not.

The dark, scary question I refuse to examine is the extent to which this same unconscious bonding-via-praise process has affected me when I've been a recipient. I won't go there because I have a fair bit of ego invested in my comparative egolessness.

Just Relaxin' on Newtown Creek

Recession Starting to Get Scary

A few months ago, I scoffed when people guessed that economic recovery might be within sight. I'm pessimistic about our escaping this anytime soon. But some recent experiences leave me feeling like we're downright drowning.

First, in the last few weeks, I've been noticing retailer desperation ratcheting up to an unprecedented degree. My local supermarket's shelves are suddenly filled with cheap meager items. For example, I found a box of eight small kitchen garbage bags for a mere $1.75. Eight small garbage bags! In better times, such micro-portioning would be found only in convenience stores, and sold at obscene markup to those needing a quick few this or that. But eight bags for $1.75 isn't convenience store pricing. It's more "Jesus-Christ-does-anybody-out-there-have-a-lousy-buck-seventy-five-in-their-wallet??" pricing. And that's scary.

Then there was Warren Buffet's announcement yesterday that his data shows consumer sales to be "very, very soft". When speaking Nebraskan, the use of two "very"s in conveying bad news is the local equivalent of pitiful shrieking and sobbing.

And, as I mentioned yesterday (sorry, I can't stop thinking about it), UK's Daily Telegraph reports that American authorities are thinking about bulldozing the downtowns of a bunch of cities - the better to concentrate remaining survivors. Naturally, we're talking about cities like Flint and Detroit. Oh, and Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Memphis. Perhaps you've heard of them.

Raze Parking Lots, Put up a Paradise

Holy crow!

If you were to spot the following headline:

"US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive: Dozens of US cities may have entire neighbourhoods bulldozed as part of drastic 'shrink to survive' proposals being considered by the Obama administration to tackle economic decline"

....you'd probably figure the article had appeared in some whacky ultra-right-wing publication, right?

Uh-uh.

Makes good sense, actually. Take Detroit, which might really do well to be "split into a collection of small urban centres separated from each other by countryside," per this report.

Important iPhone Tip

If you use an iPhone outdoors and one single raindrop gets in the headphone jack, it may trigger a water sensor which will permanently void your warranty - even if the phone is otherwise unaffected by the moisture. And there's a second water sensor on the bottom, at the charging plug.

Both of these open jacks permit all sorts of stuff to get into the inner workings of the phone, including dust and pocket lint. And, for convenience, most cases leave these jacks wide open.

One solution is a water-resistant case, but those tend to be insanely bulky.

But even better is the simple $15 "Colors" case from SwitchEasy, which comes with protectors for both jacks.

Also, just to blow your mind, someone's actually selling an iPhone stylus! Which reminds me: where can I get a head cleaner for my MP3 player?

Giving Misanthropy Its Due

When I was a kid, Polish jokes were all the rage. And it surprised me to discover that each culture has its Polish analog - a group deemed stupid. And its Jewish analog - a group deemed stingy. And its black analog - a group deemed lazy. How bizarre it was to learn that Norwegians tell jokes about "those dumb Swedes"!

The same negative labels persist all over the world, regardless of the group being pinned with a given label. And that's because plenty of people, of any given group, are, indeed, dumb, stingy, and lazy. Those are human qualities, but since our perceptions are set up to focus on the unfamiliar, we notice those qualities more readily in those unlike us.

We study the Other...and we don't like what we see. Men rue the cruelty of women; women rue the cruelty of men. Both are quite correct, really.

Racism, sexism, classism, etc. are nothing more than the incomplete registration of a perfectly appropriate misanthropy.

See also Our Albatrosses Are Red Herrings.

A Contrarian View of Racism

There are two varieties of racism: an explicit type that consciously scorns other tribes, and a more insidious type where prejudices are less conscious and less flagrant. We naturally consider the first sort the most virulent. But I think otherwise.

Explicit racists are all about hating abstract categories, so they can be "won over" by individuals. An unfairly prejudicial bar must be scaled, but once you demonstrate you're "not like the others", a relationship of affection and respect can be formed. By contrast, quieter racists can never be won over.

I once had an elderly black musician friend who was a holocaust denier and virulent anti-white racist. And we absolutely loved each other. It took some time to clear his defenses, but after I had, I knew I could count 100% on this fellow; that I was as good as gold with him. And I was far from his only white or Jewish friend.

But I had another elderly black musician friend with whom I closely worked and traveled for twenty years. We had incredible musical rapport, and got along great. He was a kind man; very religious (in the best possible way), good-humored, and generous...and he recognized my good qualities as well. But I clearly understood, right to the bitter end, as I stood dejected at his hospital bedside shortly before his death five years ago, that the foremost adjective in his mind for me had always been "white". Not in a hateful, or even negative, way; certainly not in any way you'd deem "racist". But, to me, it felt like the worst sort of prejudice: a quietly immutable chasm that could never, ever, be bridged.