I'm going to upload a picture and make no titles or stories about it, make of it what you will.
I will answer if you ask me in a comment. But otherwise, enjoy.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
The 90s
For once, I'm going to do something highly unusual.
I'm going to upload a picture and make no titles or stories about it, make of it what you will.
I will answer if you ask me in a comment. But otherwise, enjoy.
I'm going to upload a picture and make no titles or stories about it, make of it what you will.
I will answer if you ask me in a comment. But otherwise, enjoy.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Emigration
One thing I know I talk a lot about is the fact that I intend to emigrate at some point in my life, with my target country being Canada. I figured I'd explain and summarise my reasons here in order to save myself the trouble of mentioning all the reasons again.
Everyone that knows me knows I have a passion for technology. I firmly believe in the use of technology to improve life for humans (and indeed, animals and nature) on earth. Some believe that technology has been destructive to the planet. I would argue that this is a result of the methods used for creation (which need serious reconsidering) and not the technology itself. Technology is impartial. What it does is create incredible human potential. We can realise and actualise ourselves in ways we never could thanks to technology.
Sadly, I live in a country that doesn't exactly embrace new changes in technology. (The fact that I am writing this on a 384kbps line should be proof enough of this point). In this incredibly beautiful city with a kilometre-high mountain, oceans, beaches and forests, there exist three million or so people. These 3 million people have to make do with roads that are barely wide enough for scooters, trains that are late every second day, government departments that have no internet portal and require twelve weeks to process drivers' licences, oppressive laws against smoking pot (seriously, it is an absolutely harmless thing to do), plenty of poor people that are on tik and will mug you, people on every street corner asking you for money you don't have just so you can park your car within a kilometre of your destination, hospitals where you wait hours for basic service.. etc.
See, this isn't a moan or complaint about the way things are here. As I said, Cape Town is stunningly beautiful and I appreciate it for that, more than anyone will ever know. My illustration above points to the fact that it is DYSFUNCTIONALLY RUN. And how can't it be, when only 26% of the country's adult population even has a matric?
The reason I want to emigrate, then, has nothing to do with racism and does not mean I don't love my country. (I do). It has to do with a wish - or perhaps more than that - a feeling of entitlement to live in a fully functional society. In such a society, my talents will be far better appreciated than they would here. In such a society, I would have many more opportunities to learn and improve on my exisiting skills and develop new ones. From this position, I might be able to return to South Africa and see what I can do here once I have some international impact.
Countries are essentially silly concepts. I recognise this, of course. We live in the WORLD, not a country. We don't need more reasons to think we are different from each other. That is why I would feel no remorse about improving the 'Canadian' economy as opposed to the 'South African' economy. Countries are arbitrarily defined borders to create a proxy about where you are. Sadly, your country seems to determine quite a lot of your life. It's a pity. And then, I suppose, the best way to overcome this is to be a successful world citizen instead of a successful (insert country here) citizen.
Everyone that knows me knows I have a passion for technology. I firmly believe in the use of technology to improve life for humans (and indeed, animals and nature) on earth. Some believe that technology has been destructive to the planet. I would argue that this is a result of the methods used for creation (which need serious reconsidering) and not the technology itself. Technology is impartial. What it does is create incredible human potential. We can realise and actualise ourselves in ways we never could thanks to technology.
Sadly, I live in a country that doesn't exactly embrace new changes in technology. (The fact that I am writing this on a 384kbps line should be proof enough of this point). In this incredibly beautiful city with a kilometre-high mountain, oceans, beaches and forests, there exist three million or so people. These 3 million people have to make do with roads that are barely wide enough for scooters, trains that are late every second day, government departments that have no internet portal and require twelve weeks to process drivers' licences, oppressive laws against smoking pot (seriously, it is an absolutely harmless thing to do), plenty of poor people that are on tik and will mug you, people on every street corner asking you for money you don't have just so you can park your car within a kilometre of your destination, hospitals where you wait hours for basic service.. etc.
See, this isn't a moan or complaint about the way things are here. As I said, Cape Town is stunningly beautiful and I appreciate it for that, more than anyone will ever know. My illustration above points to the fact that it is DYSFUNCTIONALLY RUN. And how can't it be, when only 26% of the country's adult population even has a matric?
The reason I want to emigrate, then, has nothing to do with racism and does not mean I don't love my country. (I do). It has to do with a wish - or perhaps more than that - a feeling of entitlement to live in a fully functional society. In such a society, my talents will be far better appreciated than they would here. In such a society, I would have many more opportunities to learn and improve on my exisiting skills and develop new ones. From this position, I might be able to return to South Africa and see what I can do here once I have some international impact.
Countries are essentially silly concepts. I recognise this, of course. We live in the WORLD, not a country. We don't need more reasons to think we are different from each other. That is why I would feel no remorse about improving the 'Canadian' economy as opposed to the 'South African' economy. Countries are arbitrarily defined borders to create a proxy about where you are. Sadly, your country seems to determine quite a lot of your life. It's a pity. And then, I suppose, the best way to overcome this is to be a successful world citizen instead of a successful (insert country here) citizen.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Random rant
We are the postmodern youth. We realise how identities are constructed far better than the previous generation ever could. We realise that our countenance is built from fragments of experience and judgements thereupon. And therefore, we have a plea to you.
PLEASE sue us for using your music unlawfully in our 10-minute student documentaries that we are making SO MUCH MONEY off. That's your DAMAGES, all right. Sue us for the dishonour of your amazing music ending up on our rotten excuses for cinema and being disseminated to more critically-minded people than your audience.
We feel your pain. We know how much it hurts when we give your source of income an alternative suggestion for dissemination. We know how much you just want to ruin our careers in revenge for money that WE WOULDN'T HAVE PAID ANYWAY. In all seriousness, we're not making ANYTHING for this except exposure. Our intention is to work WITH other creative artists, not to be forced to wait for permission response emails to take DAYS when we're on a DEADLINE. That's called bureaucracy and it's fucking with creativity, stifling it. I don't know about the others, but THIS postmodern youth certainly isn't accepting the status quo.
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Nocturnal
I get the odd feeling that as the days get shorter I'm staying awake later and sleeping less, which makes me believe I might acutally be nocturnal. Since my teen years, I've always suspected that I am more of an evening person. As an adult though I think it's just called ADHD.
That aside though, it's been a busy week. Today I handed in the last of my major essay assignments. I just have two minor essays and a film project remaining, and then I'm all but ready for exams. Fucking third-year workloads, it's driving everyone a little insane. We sit in the Mendi lab (perhaps I'll include a photo or two) and edit films late into the night. Doing this repeatedly and not sleeping very much may often lead people to burst into song spontaneously, not remember how to do the simplest tasks and create a.. er.. craving. For something organic. Unlike the room with trillions of electrons flying around and creating data that appears on the screen, which somehow becomes a film with enough work. The final film project I'm working on is a medical docu-drama about ER24, and it should be ready for screening this Wednesday. I'm merely helping director Ben with his editing. This will undoubtedly cause more nocturnal habits for the next few days. Perhaps then I'll go insane too. But at least I'll have an audience.
The Thing of the Day that You should Check Out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_legends_about_illegal_drugs. It is exactly what it says, and will explain a lot if you're one of those people that just believes drugs are bad. M'kay?
That aside though, it's been a busy week. Today I handed in the last of my major essay assignments. I just have two minor essays and a film project remaining, and then I'm all but ready for exams. Fucking third-year workloads, it's driving everyone a little insane. We sit in the Mendi lab (perhaps I'll include a photo or two) and edit films late into the night. Doing this repeatedly and not sleeping very much may often lead people to burst into song spontaneously, not remember how to do the simplest tasks and create a.. er.. craving. For something organic. Unlike the room with trillions of electrons flying around and creating data that appears on the screen, which somehow becomes a film with enough work. The final film project I'm working on is a medical docu-drama about ER24, and it should be ready for screening this Wednesday. I'm merely helping director Ben with his editing. This will undoubtedly cause more nocturnal habits for the next few days. Perhaps then I'll go insane too. But at least I'll have an audience.
The Thing of the Day that You should Check Out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_legends_about_illegal_drugs. It is exactly what it says, and will explain a lot if you're one of those people that just believes drugs are bad. M'kay?
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
And so it begins
I'm Dave, and I'm mad. Just something you should know before you read anything else I ever write.
My blog title comes from the fact that I have Asperger's syndrome. The community refers to its members as 'aspies'. The rest, I'm sure you can figure out.
I'm in an odd but exciting phase of my life. As such, I feel it necessary, to an extent, to document what I find and think of. If you find a really odd post by me, its likely I took, er, something beforehand. But I obviously feel it necessary to share in a certain way.
Right now, I'm busy in a computer laboratory on campus, compressing a movie I recently directed on education in South Africa. I intend to send it to Youtube and will upload the link below.
This is, for most intents and purposes, my true directorial debut. I've done informal stuff before, but this is the first time I've directed a film and had it screened at the cinema. I won't say too much about it as hopefully it can speak for itself, but I hope this is my start to an exciting film career and life ahead.
Link to Youtube video
My blog title comes from the fact that I have Asperger's syndrome. The community refers to its members as 'aspies'. The rest, I'm sure you can figure out.
I'm in an odd but exciting phase of my life. As such, I feel it necessary, to an extent, to document what I find and think of. If you find a really odd post by me, its likely I took, er, something beforehand. But I obviously feel it necessary to share in a certain way.
Right now, I'm busy in a computer laboratory on campus, compressing a movie I recently directed on education in South Africa. I intend to send it to Youtube and will upload the link below.
This is, for most intents and purposes, my true directorial debut. I've done informal stuff before, but this is the first time I've directed a film and had it screened at the cinema. I won't say too much about it as hopefully it can speak for itself, but I hope this is my start to an exciting film career and life ahead.
Link to Youtube video
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