The illusion of Social Media

An artist whose work I respect quite a lot posted earlier today that he was amazed by the number of friends he had vs the number of comments he got on work, events etc.  I have to say that I feel the same thing on here, I have 392 "friends" on here but far less than half that as "Likes" on my studio site...I won't go there because it's just whining.

Ron Gilbert coined the phrase "The illusion of Interactivity" back in my Lucasfilm days, convincing the player that they have freewill when, in fact, they are only hamsters in a semi complex maze. Facebook and other social media sites want us to believe that all of our "friends" on the site see all of our posts.  That is what most people actually INFER, despite the fact that FACEBOOK (in particular) send out memos about changes in their service, usually to the benefit of the investors and the detriment of subscribers, but these are read less then they are and get lost in the wash of cast photos and raging political trolls.

At best estimate you can expect 35% of your "friends" (how many of these folks have you actually met?).  Once you actually send out to the people FACEBOOK selects to send your post to it appears in those peopl'e newsfeed.  There it competes with political rants, adorable cats, FACEBOOK ads and TONS of articles on LINKBAIT sites.

Now we get into a Social media version of the Drake Equation, you have sent out the post (to the people who FACEBOOK or whoever think should receive it), it has been dumped into the social bouillabaisse of their news feed, you have fended off the linkbait, avoided the internet street corner screamer, pummeled the cat (doggedly telling you to HANG IN THERE) and have arrived at your viewer.  At this point you have to make enough an impact on their retina to wake them up and get their attention.  Then you have to get past the mental "shrug" of them just thinking "huh" then going back to the cat picture for their daily motivation.

So you have gotten past the FABCEBOOK Gate Keepers, ended off the adorable animals, gotten their attention...NOW you have to get them to ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING! Social media for the most part is there for people to AVOID doing something, and you want them to PARTICIPATE?? They have to move the mouse to click the LIKE button, to comment they have to THINK!

Look at the shape of the world these days do you see much evidence of people actually THINKING???

So if you actually reach a few individuals who respond, count yourself blessed!

...and God Winked YET AGAIN

Friday I had a series of medical visits.  The first was to meet with a nutritionist, the latter to meet with my GP about progress with my Heart Failure recovery.

The first one was interesting in that I discovered that I have, when I want, the ability to listen when I should and retain important information.  In this case it was in regards to my diet and eating habits.  Since my diagnosis I have become obsessive about the amount of liquid I drink and the amount of salts I consume and when I shared that with this practitioner of the nutritional arts she was most pleased.  She sent me away with some handy fliers and a good feeling about what I knew I should be doing, I just need to keep putting it into practice.  Not as easy as it may sound as I have come to the conclusion that my generation, late baby boomers or "tweeners" as we are often called, have served as sort of "crash test dummies" for the food industry and my eating habits reflect that.

My second meeting, the one with my GP was also quite upbeat, which is nice considering the last time I had visited that Kaiser I was in the emergency room. My Doctor told me that despite the gloomy demeanor of my cardiologist (who assured me was the best in his field but could be rather abrupt when dealing with patients) I was doing well.  I received assurances that if I apply myself (as I know that I should) that I can regain more of vitality and energy.  I just need to stick to the program.

Work has been slow this week in the studio, paying work I mean from clients, so I have been working on regaining my facility with some that formed the backbone of my identity for a very long time.  You might say it actually was the work that I was meant to do.  That is 3D modeling and animation.  It has been like dancing with an old partner and realizing that even though you have been apart for years that when you are together you rhythms match perfectly and everything just flows. It has felt like that.  At the same time though I kept hearing the voice of "reason" telling me that going back to something I love so much, when there is no promise of work attached, was foolish and I would be better served to be cold calling potential clients for web design etc.

My friend Pier says that at moment like this God often chooses to "wink" at you.  Today God winked at me in the form of afternoon exhaustion (my Doctor says all of my current problems stem from lack of sleep and that is something I will be working on in the coming weeks) and a movie I had not seen (but wanted to).  The film was HUGO, based on the book THE NOTEBOOK OF HUGO CABRET (which I loved.  Martin Scorcese is one of my favorite directors and many of my friends had been shocked when I told them I had not seen this film in particular, that they (my friends) thought it was film MADE for me in particular.

I often draw lessons from films, like Sufi teaching stories or Zen Koans.  I didn't really expect anything like that from this film but I warmed up some pasta and settle down to hopefully fall asleep.  There were messages in the film though, not tin foil hat kind of messages but aspects of the story that spoke directly to me like a targeting LASER. So now I sit in front of the computer, writing this and trying to decide if I should try and sleep or continue to work on this project I have set myself, safe in the knowledge that thing remain better than I thought they are at the beginning of the week, and in the background I hear the universe chuckling at me...

Quote found on the Loo...

I was about to sit down on the potty to get my business done when I looked to an article in Forbes.  I came to the article through FACEPLACE and what it's content was is actually irrelevant, the ad that came on before it became the important bit:

"In the midst of winter, I that there was, within me, and invincible summer.

And that makes me happy.  For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there's something stronger - something better, pushing right back."

-Albert Camus

In the face of 2015 starting out in a less than stellar manner, and dreams coming vividly to me last night of Robin Williams in a War Zone and a vast open barracks, built inside a cathedral filled with Marines who were in turn filled with despair.  In face of all this a simple quote mad me feel better.

Here's hoping you find your quote of the day..today and everyday.

Dealing with Nutbags...

SO yesterday a bunch of nutbags went into the offices of a French satirical magazine and killed 12 people with assault rifles.  They did it to avenge the honor of a man who has been dead for several hundred years, honor that had been besmirched because the people in the office drew funny pictures of the dead guy.

Notice I am leaving the whole idea of philosophy and religion out of this discussion because the truth is, no matter what your cause of belief system you never have the right to kill another person because of it. Full Stop. Period. End of story.  You can look at it from another way, if you have the right to do that to one someone who doesn't believe the way you do the, by extension, someone else has the right to come into your home or office and kill YOU.

Don't use justification based on the fervor of you belief or how important they are to you, that just makes you sound like an eight year old who is explaining why it was his right to eat the cake that was for dinner or a room mate who uses Sartre to establish her imperative for eating your leftovers from Beni-hanna the night before, it don't fly.

Now before you write me off as pacifist understand that I come from both a military family and have a profound understanding of the history here on this Blue Marble.  There are times when one group of people (or individual) get so out of hand from the accepted norm that they have to be dealt with. The Nazi are the prime example of this, although I hate to invoke that word ("Nazi") because there is the chance of triggering the social triggers they carry with them, namely that when yo compare another person or another individual to a Nazi you immediately lose veracity in your argument. Still it is an example when the rest of society looked at the actions of a group of people and said:

"You know you really shouldn't do that"

to which the Nazis replied

"Piss off"

So then the majority of people got together and decided to reason with the nazis...with extreme prejudice.

Can you see the difference?  If you can't then please stop reading my BLOG because at one point or another I am sure I will say something offensive and I don't want you charging into my studio with a gun and a balaclava.

Going Buggy

Don't really feel like writing so I will throw in about a 1000 words, all summed up in pixels.  This shot is indicative of what I am working on as I wait to hear from clients in Houston...more 3D and compositing for a project that will expand the work I have been doing in video/VFX integration. Done in a silly manner of course.

Stream on consciousness #01 for 2015

Breakfast can be such a hassle when you have a dickie ticker (bad heart).  Most people pay little or no attention to nutrition and how hard it is to really get it in America these days, they just buy what they like or what shouts the loudest at them on TV. When you find yourself having to address the issue, look at the facts (minus as much hyperbole as possible) you quickly discover that since the 1950s the population of the US has been used as an endless stream of CRASH TEST DUMMIES for the food industry (I refuse to call them BIG FOOD because that sounds like a pitch for McDonald's or Denny's). Knowledge of what has what effect on what part of your body can leave you paralyzed with fear, staring at an open refrigerator or cupboard. Even though the scale revealed the horrible effects of this past holiday season I went for a cuppa joe and a bagel smeared with Orange Marmalade from Scotland.

Insertion

Had a pretty good day yesterday, finished up another quick snippet from a Video CoPilot Tutorial (trying to do at least one a day) as well as got more work done on setting things right in the shop/studio/green screen room.  The latter is slow going because I have so much to clean and get rid of but I am making progress.

The most recent shot I did was very satisfying in that I have reached a level of facility that everything just flows, which is where I need to be.  I am not going to get work doing tutorials though, which is why the green screen room is so important going forward.  At the same time they provide a way to exercise my VFX muscles, learn more and most of all THINK.

The latter can be a curse though because I am very adept at doublespeak and that can lead to downward turns.  So as I am working away at my videos I try and keep an open mind and not get too impressed with myself and what I am doing.  I have to "readjust" my timeline and remind myself that I am no longer staring in rapt awe at somebody from ILM, hearing about how this new fangled doo-hickey called motion capture is gonna revolutionize film and remind myself that the iPhone 6 has build in slo-mo, image stabilization and more memory than the CRAY XMP had at Digital productions. I need to remember that kids in high school learn motion tracking before they master algebra.

Still, here's yesterday's shot for your perusal.