Roadside jog
Perfect day for it too.

As per, request? View Large On Black

I should be focusing on a couple assignments right now but my mind is floating elsewhere so I'll allow it to float away for a while before fetching it back again.

I'll be saving long passages for my actual work so I'll keep this short-esque.

It's May and May Day/International Worker's Day as well as the Norwegian national day (17th May) has recently passed by. Sometimes it is interesting seeing how easily the larger population is stirred into collective movement, even if it is just a general celebration that quite possibly only a portion knows the true meanings behind. I'm reminded of a short story by Shirley Jackson that goes by the title The Lottery. It's a story, if loosely looked upon, that can easily be society today. Ritualistic traditions passed on as nothing more than a tradition. I'm not pointing to the previously mentioned two celebrations, Labour Day and a national day serve their historical purposes and society and the present is simply the accumulation of history so far. There are many things that can be blamed for some of the more unreasonable ones; capitalism, consumerism, socialism, etc. Surely you've noticed the widespread celebration of Christmas in recent years? Even in nations who are not particularly religious. I'm sure some traditions can be justified with logic and proper explanations, but let's face it, that's not the main reason many are still around. When an occasion arrives, what is the more likely immediate thought: "I'm celebrating today because [insert historical meaning]." or "I'm celebrating today because that's what I did last year and all the previous years, but let's not forget, because everyone else is." Take for example the tradition of quiet Sundays. Now I don't know about your country but where I'm from it is as if the country shuts down that very day, every week. The same goes for some international holidays on an international scale. Stock markets slow down certain days for example. Collective movement is a powerful thing. I'm not criticising anything in particular, I am merely expressing a general observation that we all know but may not give enough thought. Culture, traditions, history, are all important, logic is sometimes too.
We're all headed somewhere and won't know how it looks till we're there.

Labels: flickr, globalisation, goal, life, Orwellian, photo, reflections, social awareness, street photography

Beauty is everywhere
even behind bars.

Go have a look and figure for yourself:
http://tinyurl.com/d4qmrf (This links to a BBC article. I apologise for using tinyurl but I'm just being on the safe side of.. things)
This is almost proof that BBC is generally and largely a government news organisation. If you read it and don't see what the big deal is then you need to read it again, this time between the lines.

They're 'subtly' trying to break to us that they will now monitor all electronic activity and backing it up by trying to create a contrast from the previous attempts at internet law enforcement where they aimed to monitor and to create one big government centralised information database. Ever considered what would happen with all that information in the wrong hands? That is, if the government is the right hands in the first place. Freedom of speech and expression now comes in the form of monitored and controlled activity.

"Ms Smith said that while the new system could record a visit to a social network, it would not record personal and private information such as photos or messages posted to a page.
"What we are talking about is who is at one end [of a communication] and who is at the other - and how they are communicating," she said."

Read that again. "[...]and how they are communicating." I'm sitting here puzzled now. So do they or don't they monitor the content of the activity? All they will monitor is then just what application, where, who, and what we, so called, 'communicate'? Sounds like "private information" to me.
I also read the word "voluntary" somewhere in the article but I don't see much 'voluntary' action when it's the software providers and ISPs who have the choice and not the customers.

This is step one. Will we allow it? Think about what step two might look like if step one is successful.

Did someone say...

Labels: boundaries, globalisation, life, Orwellian, photo, reflections, self-preservation, social awareness