#i read a piece of a review that said all dialogues feel like HR is in the room and oh man.

[nerime]

i wish i could be excited for veilguard, but everything i see about this game seems so corporate 😭

[argentdandelion]

Why You Should Read: The Anomaly

Introduction & Disclaimers

The Anomaly, by Coffeelemental, is simultaneously the "Saturday Morning Cartoon of Undertale sequels" and the Sistine Chapel of Undertale fan comics in its tone, dedication, polish and detail.

(In this work, Frisk is referred to as “she”. As such, the review will refer to Frisk with corresponding pronouns. The comic also has a major character death, in case one really, really dislikes that. The following review may contain minor spoilers.)

Art

Few other comics compare to its consistent precision, polish, and detail. That said, The Anomaly's sheer amount of content (128 pages, five playable segments, several lore posts and a few animations) and dedication over the years (it started on June 19, 2016) makes the work incredible even among those few.

Its great attention to detail and polish is especially obvious because of all its human characters. Many find humans hard to draw properly: there are so many ways they can look “off”. Yet, even in the comic's relatively crude early pages, humans have perfect proportions and poses. More impressive still is how Coffeelemental draws perfect humanlike anatomy (e.g., humanlike hands) even for characters where she could easily dodge the challenge.

What the Sistine Chapel does not have: a before-and-after (left and right) comparison of turtles in business suits.

In short, The Anomaly is basically the Sistine Chapel of long-form Undertale comics. As Coffelemental points out herself, in the first fourteen pages quality and style varies. But she improves very quickly: there's a jump in quality at Page 9, and it just keeps getting better.

As per its realism/detail, characters look somewhat more biologically plausible and, for lack of a better word, more monstrous or bestial. Undyne has scales in some places, as well as (this may come as a shock) a nose, though in most shots her face is largely flat with slit-like nostrils like Lord Voldemort. (well, some fish do have tiny nostrils.)

Indeed, as impressive as it is, its stylistic approach is so unique it takes some time to get used to. Furthermore, it seems the sheer dedication to precision and detail has its downsides. In Coffeelemental’s first animation attempt, she had to slightly simplify and adjust the antagonists' designs just to make animation possible, and then she could only do it in choppy 15 FPS (frames per second).

While its overall quality is rather consistent, the style/format shifts in tone. Akin to the original Teen Titans' anime-like exaggerations, characters are drawn in a simple style for comic effect a few times.

One particularly stylish element is how Coffeelemental blends in-game mechanics (such as literal buttons) with a somewhat more realistic style and tone. Referencing how battles in Undertale are in black-and-white, the pages are monochrome when Frisk resolves conflicts. Indeed, as it’s revealed later, Frisk can only see in black-and-white ever since falling into the Underground.

Plot & Themes

“Frisk is using her personal control of the timeline to ensure monsters have a peaceful return to the surface world – but the seven who sealed them underground in the first place have some problems with this.” - The Anomaly’s About page

It's clear The Anomaly's plot is carefully planned out, as is suitable for a work of its length. That most of the work takes place after an eight-year time skip, its mentions of other timelines, and its timeline-jumping might seem like risks to a simple, comprehensible plot: it's certainly complicated other works' plots. Nonetheless, in The Anomaly these are kept balanced, leading to a plot that's the perfect blend of simplicity and complexity.

(Pre-game foreshadowing, from this page. If one looks closely, the brown goat has barely visible pink blush stickers...just like Chara. Art by Coffeelemental)

In the comic itself as well as the game, there's foreshadowing aplenty---even for the events of the game itself. One of the playable segments is even an entertaining flashback sequence in itself.

Sometimes consequences are delayed across pages; characters make plans to deal with other characters later. Given the antagonists are immune to reload-related memory loss just like Frisk, they must resort to stealth, trickery and subterfuge when interacting with her.

As befitting a work with several immortal characters, it has extensive historical lore, contextualizing the human-monster conflict and immortal characters' motives. One piece of lore even neatly resolves one big problem in the game’s background: if humans can’t use magic, how did “humanity’s seven greatest magicians” create the Barrier?

The story brings up intriguing questions and mysteries. Why are monsters losing access to their magic? What is the mysterious thing connected to Frisk? Some have been resolved at time of writing, and others have been resolved in a fascinating way that just leads to more intrigue.

While some of The Anomaly's themes (e.g., "With great power [over time] comes great responsibility") are pretty common in Undertale works with a Frisk-based, Post-Pacifist timeline premise, The Anomaly nonetheless deals with those themes in an interesting way. Its biggest theme is "Are you [Frisk] strong enough to protect humanity?"

The theme is manifold. Frisk feels obligated to protect monsters (and humans) from human-monster conflicts, but a secret confidant worries the pressure of her role is mentally running her ragged. Then there's moral strength: as the antagonists fear, despite her goody-two-shoes persona Frisk has used her power for evil, selfish, frivolous or just silly ends a few times. (e.g., flirts and jokes backfiring and leaving others aghast)

Characterization

The characterization is so widespread, so outstanding, that the reviewer figuratively can’t say enough good things about it. (But, literally, will have to do so, or this post will get awfully long)

From the first playable part. Note Undyne's higher LV. Also note she eventually joined the U.S. Coast Guard (which is technically military) here sometime eight years after the Pacifist ending, so whether she gained the LV then or earlier is ambiguous.

Characters from the game itself hew closely to their original, nuanced personalities. (This is especially remarkable for Sans, given how often his character is distorted or misinterpreted in the fandom.) It pays attention to even tiny, easily-missed quirks and variations, such as the fact Sans always takes Frisk out to eat before a serious talk (Genocide Route aside) and Undyne’s military(-esque) background and combative nature. Like in-game, characters have “portraits” when talking in the playable segments, but these ones are small full-color digital paintings with a wide array of expressions.

Many works give Frisk an undefined or pretty bland personality and background. That's easy to do, given Frisk's ever-neutral expression, rare and indirect dialogue, and only faint hints of personal preferences. Yet, in The Anomaly, Coffeelemental made the rare choice of giving Frisk a particular ethnicity and background, vague it is. (Her entire pre-Underground backstory is told within two pages) It contextualizes why Frisk was such a goody two-shoes pacifist from an early age, that one (spoilers) timeline deviation aside.

Speaking of Frisk's friendly and pacifistic ways, while Frisk is indeed as described, it's not her whole personality. Though playful, flirty and, well, “frisky”, she feels responsible for the safety and happiness of a people she brought above-ground, and has kept her role as a “time-space hero” secret. Her duty has made her something of a control freak; after a major character death she rewinds time to prevent the most minor of conflicts. But that absolute control over the timeline may yet corrupt her: she selfishly reloaded just to fix a bad grade on a test.

The Anomaly is impressive not only for its seven antagonists at once working together, but for them all having distinct personalities, approaches, and relationships with each other. Though they broadly agree on particular courses of actions, their motives and level of monster sympathy differ. Regardless of their species, it's remarkable just how humanized they are as villains.

Playable Sections

At a few points in The Anomaly, Coffeelemental chooses to convey the story in a way that is “hopefully more fun and more practical than using a comic format”. Namely, in playable downloadable games.

At time of writing, it has five playable sections. While the reviewer, unfortunately, cannot play the playable sections (the reviewer's computer is rather old), I’ve seen playthroughs on YouTube. The level of characterization, worldbuilding and general atmosphere in this playable segments are excellent. It adds lovely details that simply wouldn’t fit into a comic within a playable narrative.

The author says she’s chosen speed over polish for the sake of regular updates; nonetheless, they are impressive. Four of these sections even have a turn-based battle system, and two are so in-depth they take an hour to fully explore.

Coffeelemental says she tried really hard to emulate Toby Fox’s style and sense of humor...and she succeeded. The quirks and jokes in things like item descriptions would fit right in. Indeed, when looking out the window in the first playable section, one gets the famous phrase “It’s beautiful day outside”, in a non-threatening context, long before Toby Fox did the same thing in Deltarune.

While Coffeelemental didn’t make the music for these segments, she nonetheless curated the music for the playable segments well. Often music from Undertale is used, but for situations where Toby Fox’s music doesn’t suit the situation, she’s contacted composers.

Conclusion

This gem of a multimedia work seems rather under-appreciated on Tumblr itself, or even its dedicated YouTube channel. Truly, it boggles the mind to wonder how a long-running work of such quality could stay obscure.

[magzoso-tech]

New Post has been published on https://magzoso.com/tech/the-top-ted-talks-of-2019-and-what-you-can-learn-from-them/

The Top TED Talks of 2019 and What You Can Learn From Them

December 25, 2019 11 min read

“Ideas worth spreading.”

That’s TED’s tagline, and the organization — originally launched as a convergence of the technology, entertainment and design industries — has done its best to stick to that mission since 1984. Talks cover everything from how to recover from activism burnout to quantum computing explained in 10 minutes. Every second, 17 people watch a TED Talk, on average, and the organization’s videos have garnered well over one-billion views.

If you’re looking for a spark of inspiration, here are six of the most compelling talks of 2019 so far, with key takeaways.

3 Psychological Tricks to Help You Save Money (Wendy De La Rosa)

There’s a reason saving more money ranks in the top five New Year’s resolutions each January: We all want to do it, but it’s easier said — or written down on a resolution list — than done. Behavioral scientist Wendy De La Rosa aims to change that in her TED Talk, teaching three psychological strategies for overcoming our propensity to spend-not-save.

One preliminary thing to keep in mind: “It’s not about how smart you are or how much willpower you have,” said De La Rosa. Instead, she said, it’s about the environment in which you think about saving. Exhibit A: In one of De La Rosa’s studies, subjects who were shown their income on a weekly basis were able to budget better than people who were shown their monthly income total, she said.

As for the three tricks? Number one is to “harness the power of precommitment,” said De La Rosa. We tend to see two versions of ourselves, our past selves and our future selves, and our future selves are perfect; they’ll have the motivation to wake up earlier, exercise more, save money and more. But we often forget, said De La Rosa, that the future self is the exact same person as the present self. We can use this potential shortcoming to our advantage by forcing ourselves to make saving decisions in advance through an app or automatic account deposits. In another of De La Rosa’s studies, one group of subjects received the following text in February: “If you get a tax refund, what percentage would you like to save?” The average answer: 27 percent. But when another group of subjects was asked — just after receiving their refund — how much they’d like to save, they chose an average 17 percent.

De La Rosa’s other strategies: Use transition moments to your advantage — New Year’s, birthdays, a job change, a move — and get a handle on small but frequent purchases (for most people, eating out is at the top of that list).

Why Working From Home Is Good for Business (Matt Mullenweg)

Matt Mullenweg’s employees live all over the world, from California to New Zealand. He’s the cofounder of WordPress and CEO of Automattic, which has a 100 percent distributed workforce of close to 800 employees. Why? In his TED Talk, Mullenweg said he believes that “talent and intelligence are equally distributed throughout the world, but opportunity is not,” and that the most diverse perspectives inherently come from people living and working in countries different from your own.

“In Silicon Valley, you have the big tech companies fishing from essentially the same small pond or bay,” said Mullenweg. “By making the company distributed, we can fish from the entire ocean.”  A distributed workforce also offers unprecedented flexibility for employees: They can choose the food they eat at their office, noise level, temperature and more.

If you’re looking to skew your own office towards a distributed workforce, the first step is to document everything and leave a trail of your thought process in making different decisions, said Mullenweg. It’s not just efficient for people in different time zones; it’s also helpful for any company over time as people leave and join up.

Mullenweg sees the future of work as being completely decentralized. “I think that companies will evolve to be ‘distributed first,’ or that they’ll be replaced by those that are,” he said.

How to Make Applying for Jobs Less Painful (Priyanka Jain)

If the idea of sending in a resume and cover letter makes you inwardly (or outwardly) groan, you’re not alone. According to a January TED Talk, about 75 percent of people who applied to jobs using various methods in the past year said they never heard anything back from the employer, and 46 percent of people get fired or quit within the first year of starting their jobs.

“For the first time in history, we have more open jobs than unemployed people — and to me, that screams that we have a problem,” said Priyanka Jain, who’s featured in the TED Talk and is the head of product at Pymetrics, a company pairing neuroscience with recruiting.

Jain believes that a single piece of paper is the heart of the problem. Resumes can showcase someone’s past achievements, she argues, but they fall short when it comes to someone’s potential — especially in a quickly changing economy, where jobs of the future may require skills no one has yet.

As for the solution? Jain said multi-measure tests, powered by AI algorithms, can help potential employers gauge your memory strengths, levels of attentiveness and other traits. The key, she said, is to make them scalable (which, of course, is what her company Pymetrics aims to do). During her presentation, Jain showcases a brief example of a multi-measure test, in which viewers are asked to clap when a circle turns red and refrain when it turns green. Your results could inform potential employers of your strengths and weaknesses — e.g., if you clap late after the red circle appears but correctly never clap on green, you likely score high in attentiveness and restraint, similar to successful project managers and accountants. If you clap immediately upon seeing a red circle but sometimes incorrectly clap on green, you may skew towards impulsivity and creativity like some top-performing salespeople.

The caveat: If companies like Pymetrics use current industry top performers and their traits to train algorithms, that could lead to bias against women and minorities. It’s vital for diverse teams of people to monitor and review these tools before they’re rolled out on any large scale.

8 Lessons on Building a Company People Enjoy Working for (Patty McCord)

Patty McCord always wanted to be an HR professional, to speak the language of management — but after her decades-long career in HR, including a 14-year stint as Netflix’s chief talent officer, she’s learned none of the HR jargon really matters and that many companies treat their employees like children. “In fact, I’ve learned ‘best practices’ usually means copying what everyone else does,” said McCord in her TED Talk.

The job of management isn’t to control people; it’s to build great teams. The metric we should be using is customer happiness, said McCord, not arbitrary metrics like whether someone came to work on time or how many vacation days they used. Everyone in the company should understand the business, how it makes money and what success looks like there. And encourage your employees to get excited about change, said McCord: “Beware of the smoke of nostalgia.”

Everyone in your company should be able to handle the truth, said McCord, and if you find it difficult to give employees feedback, it’s likely because you don’t practice enough. “What else do you do in your whole life that you’re really good at that you only do once a year?” she said. “Here’s what I’ve found: Humans can hear anything if it’s true.” Make it a priority to tell people the honest truth about what they’re doing right and what they’re doing wrong — while they’re doing it.  

One more thing to keep in mind: Careers are journeys, and it’s rare for someone to want to work towards the same goal for their entire lives. “What if we created companies that were great places to be from,” said McCord, “and everyone who leaves you becomes a great ambassador for not only your product, but who you are and how you operate?”

How to Lead a Conversation Between People Who Disagree (Eve Pearlman)

We’re living in the Information Age, but some feel it’s never been harder to find the truth. Political divides grow deeper, technology seems to create more rifts than it mends and, from sea to shining sea, it’s growing increasingly more difficult for people to talk to each other in a calm, respectful, open way.

Journalist Eve Pearlman wanted to change that, so she spearheaded Spaceship Media, a company prioritizing “dialogue journalism” — journalism-supported open discussions between people who disagree — and explained it in her TED Talk. After the 2016 election, she brought together 25 Clinton supporters from California and 25 Trump supporters from Alabama to talk about hot-button issues. The first question: What do you think the other side thinks of you? After getting those stereotypes out of the way, participants discussed guns, immigration, race and education. “What we found, remarkably, is that real dialogue is, in fact, possible — and that when given a chance and structure around doing so… many of our fellow citizens are eager to engage,” said Pearlman.

Our current state of discord doesn’t benefit anyone, said Pearlman, and people often appreciate the chance to engage curiously, openly and respectfully. They want “a chance to put down their arms.” Many of Spaceship Media’s Facebook groups have spun off into member-run groups, individual friendship and, most of all, real human connection across difference.

“We do our work in direct challenge to the political climate in our country right now, and we do it knowing that it is difficult, challenging work to hold and support people in opposing backgrounds in conversation,” said Pearlman. “We do it knowing democracy depends on our ability to address our shared problems together.”

How to Spot a Pyramid Scheme (Stacie Bosley)

In 2004, a new company called Vemma Nutrition started offering anyone, regardless of education or experience, the opportunity to earn part-time income for full-time work. The only requirements to get started: Spend $500 to $600 on a product kit and recruit two more members to do the same, explains economist Stacie Bosley in her TED Talk. By 2013, Vemma Nutrition had expanded globally and brought in $200 million per year. But it turned out that most members earned less than their initial deposit, and Vemma was charged with operating a pyramid scheme.

So how do you identify — and avoid — a pyramid scheme? The primary red flag: A founder solicits an initial group of people to buy into the company and recruit other members, with the promise they’ll earn a commission for each new person who joins or invests. The founder also takes a share. The catch: “As a pyramid scheme grows, it becomes increasingly difficult for new recruits to make money,” said Bosley. For example, the founder recruits an initial group of six, who then recruit six people each (adding up to 36), who then, in turn, each recruit six others: a total of 216. By the twelfth recruiting round, the 2.1 billion new members would be tasked with recruiting over 13 billion others — more than the world population — in order to turn a profit, said Bosley. In this example, over 80 percent of the scheme’s newest participants lose everything they paid in.

As for the difference between pyramid schemes and “legitimate” multi-level marketing (MLM) opportunities? Bosley said it’s a question of whether members primarily earn compensation from selling a product or service or from recruiting new members. If you’re considering taking on a new opportunity, keep an eye out for red flags, as many pyramid schemes disguise themselves as legal MLMs.

[annettemoriposts]

Warning: This is a serious blog.  Normally, I only take a serious turn in my blogs when there is something critical to talk about. I can’t think of anything more critical than the outcome to the mid-term elections. I want to make one last ditch effort to get everyone to vote. The stakes could not be higher.

Scholars far more intelligent than I am have made a comparison between Adolf Hitler and Donald Trump. Here is what I believe and remember about history:

The beginnings of Fascism in Nazi Germany began in 1933, several years before the war officially started and before the US got involved.

When we talk about treating the other side with compassion and understanding, would we have done the same to Adolf Hitler? Yes, Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler are/were both human beings and I don’t believe in violence. I also don’t think it is especially effective to go to the gutter and throw insults at the man. I do, however, believe the mass of voices who want to shut down the dangerous direction must act in the form of voting, peaceful resistance and impacting the pocketbooks of those behind the harmful policies. Boycotting does work!

In 1933 when the Nazi Party seized power, they decommissioned their constitution and all that remained was a piece of paper. Civil rights were abandoned and power was turned over to the Nazi party and Adolf Hitler. Sound familiar? How about the latest controversy where Trump believes he can simply write an executive order to deal with that pesky Fourteenth Amendment. You know, the constitution is so irritating sometimes. At least that is what Trump believes. Why do you think he loves those leaders in countries that give all their power to their dictator? Unbelievable that he wants to take away the rights of those born in the United States if they are the offspring of the undocumented. His base loves this rhetoric. Again, eerily similar to Nazi Germany.

How has Trump risen to power? Fear. He, like Hitler, is a master at riling up the masses. I read an interesting fiction book (Diary of a Nazi Lady by Gillian Freeman) a long time ago told from the perspective of a wife of a Nazi leader. His rise to power and her delight at meeting Hitler was gruesomely fascinating. The narrator talked of her hero worship of Hitler and the utter joy when she met him. The book described a kind of blind devotion to Hitler that is eerily reminiscent of what is happening today in relation to Trump’s base. Fear is a powerful thing. I am not blind to how the left (which I proudly belong to) is also using this tactic as well. I’d like to think this blog does not fall into that category.

Don’t believe for one second Trump is a friend to the LGBTQ community. I’m not going to list all the times he has actively taken a stance to stomp all over our rights. Give him free rein and he will continue. That’s not fear mongering. That is fact.

  I’ve talked before about what has happened to me since Trump took office. Do I have hard and fast facts to support my belief that his rise to power played a role in me losing my job? No. But, sometimes the stories we tell turn out to be true. In this case, the disgust on my boss’s husband’s face when I introduced my wife and how she treated me was all the evidence I needed to come to that conclusion. Trump has given the masses reasons to bring their bigotry out in the open and act. Cue up the events of late: pipe bombs, attacks on a synagogue, etc. The list is endless since he took office.

If the events of the past two years have not rattled you enough, I don’t know what else to say to convince you of how important this vote is. The right is counting on us to sit at home and not vote. I implore you not to let that happen. Get out and vote and do everything in your power to help others get there as well.

In a book that will come out next year called A Window to Love, I wrote a scene right after I was fired that is as close to what happened as I remembered in my distraught state at the time. I’ll let you be the judge of whether this would fall into the category of one of those side effects of the Trump Presidency…be afraid, be very afraid… because little by little our rights may go away and license will be given to those who hate us to do anything they want in the name of religious freedom. This sneak peek is unedited…..

“Last evening, I had a meeting and ran into Jillian Cochran,” Arlene began.

Mandie rolled the name around in her mouth, but it didn’t taste familiar. “Jillian Cochran?”

Arlene ignored the question. “Jillian expressed concern about my ability to work with her. She informed me the HR Director told her the reason she was not chosen for the position was that the CEO believed she might undermine her if she was hired. Jillian was worried that if I believed she would undermine me, then we wouldn’t work well on the committee. Jillian joined the state committee I currently chair sponsored by the hospital association.” She looked at me and placed her clasped hands on the table. Mandie suspected she was waiting for her to respond.

Mandie was still trying to place Jillian Cochran and her taste buds hadn’t kicked in yet. Her blank stare must have generated a response from the CNO. She assumed when Jillian had noted, the HR Director, she meant Mandie. HR Director wasn’t her title, she was actually the Chief Human Resources Officer. Titles were never that important to her.

“Jillian was our Business Development Director candidate,” Liana added.

Mandie blinked, but things weren’t quite in focus yet.

“I can’t have people in the community thinking that.” Arlene pushed a piece of paper in front of Mandie with an envelope clipped to the top. “We’ve prepared a generous severance package. After all, Washington is an at-will state.”

All the pieces of the puzzle clicked into place and the bitter taste filled Mandie’s mouth. For the past few months, her relationship with the CEO had deteriorated. She was stunned and at the same time, she was not. Arlene didn’t want to believe Mandie. If she supported Mandie, she couldn’t use this as a ruse to move her out of her position on the senior leadership team.

She wondered if the fact she was an out and proud lesbian also added to the strain in their working relationship. In a moment of pure insanity, she had unwisely asked if that was the issue. Arlene had turned red and flatly denied that Mandie being a lesbian had anything to do with their difficult conversations. Mandie remembered when she’d brought her girlfriend, Caroline, to the hospital annual fundraiser. Arlene’s husband failed to hide his disgust. His reaction to Caroline and Mandie was written all over his face as Arlene smiled tightly at Caroline during the introduction. Mandie dreaded her meetings with Arlene.

“I won’t fight this. In some ways, I suppose it’s a relief, but I want you to know, I would never say what she claims I said. I would never throw you under the bus. As I recall this is the same person who was described as having a vitriol communication style. That is why we did not offer her the position. Liana, you were there when we met with her and had a candid conversation about our concerns. You know I would never provide feedback that would compromise Arlene’s reputation in the community.”

 “I confirmed with her that it was the HR Director and not the CNO. I’ve already asked Liana about this and she assures me, she did not tell Jillian that was the reason she didn’t get the job.”

“So, you believe Liana. Oh, and a person who in their personnel file the former CEO described as having a vitriol communication style. Yet, you don’t trust that I would never act so unprofessionally. I suppose that says it all and the reason why I won’t fight this,” Mandie answered in defeat.

Mandie was tired. Tired of her job. Tired of her relationship with Arlene. Tired of the undercurrent of discrimination that hovered below the surface. Why would she wish to work for an organization that would treat their leaders in this manner? She’d lost her fight. The better option was to take the severance package and figure out a plan for her future after she didn’t feel so bruised and battered.

“The package is generous,” Arlene defended. “We don’t need to offer this as Washington is an at-will state,” she repeated.

“I’m well aware of that. I’ll sign the paper right now.” Mandie took the pen Liana offered her and scribbled her name.

“I’ll help you remove at least some of your personal belongings and then we can arrange a time….” Liana said softly. Arlene pivoted and scurried from the office. The unpleasant task was done and she could leave Liana to finish.

“Thanks,” Mandie mumbled as she stood and walked into her office. “The databases, projects…” She looked at her desk filled with folders and shook her head. “Never mind, I’ll just grab the pictures of my girlfriend and my bag. I’ll get the rest later.”

Liana grabbed a bag and started to help pull off the pictures from the metal filing cabinet.

“Liana, you know I would never say that.”

“I know. I said it didn’t sound like you. I believe you.”

Mandie wouldn’t let them have the satisfaction of seeing her cry. She grabbed the picture frame of her and her girlfriend that prominently sat on the credenza and tossed it in the bag. “Can we do the rest on Monday? After my staff leave, please.”

“Sure. I’ll meet you here,” Liana answered.

There is a lot going on right now with books and I hope besides voting you leave yourselves some time to read. The Book Addict is still going strong. Captivated made the top 100 Vacation Reads on The Lesbian Review…woo hoo. And, my debut novel, Love Forever, Live Forever is FREE now on Kindle Unlimited. My style comes shining through with a big twist in the middle and snarky dialogue with the main character.

    Captivated

Love Forever, Live Forever

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  For the Love of All That is Good & Right…Vote! Warning: This is a serious blog.  Normally, I only take a serious turn in my blogs when there is something critical to talk about.

[duo-log]

Netflix or Community Service? Was The Question

One evening last week, we got back home, and while the little one was dining, we struck a conversation over the difference in attitude between our generation and our parents. He asked me why I think that is and I rambled on for the next fifteen minutes about we lack intrinsic values and are materialistic, until the point where he said, ‘What is your point?’ I stopped then realizing I had no real argument or point to make but just a jumble of thoughts in my mind. He then wrote the post, structuring his argument, quite elegantly I would say, and covered almost all the points that we as a generation will tend to agree upon. Now that it's the turn of my dialogue, I recognize that my rambling about our difference in values that evening has hardly anything to do with the macroscopic ideas of survival and adaptation which he arrived at. They were, as always, rooted in the reflections of my contemplating and impressionable mind and each thought was contradicting the previous. A month ago, I received a message telling me that my maternal grandmother, ‘Didu’ is no more. I was quiet. Not shocked with the news because she was old and it was bound to happen. But for all the emotions running rampant in my heart all the time for suffering children of abuse, wronged women, and oppressed men, I felt nothing on my Ancestor’s death. Nothing at all except the memory of her in a white ‘Sari’ sitting on her bed by the window with thick spectacles perched on her nose and a string of 108 ‘rudraksh’ beads in her hand, chanting imperceptible words while she looked out. My detachment bothered me because I’ve known people in my life who were deeply affected by such incidents, and I was hoping to feel something strong too, but it never came.

If I were asked the question, which is more valuable to me -- watching Netflix on a lazy Sunday afternoon or voluntary community service? I know what I will choose considering I don’t think I have a single hour of community service to my credit in 33 years of my life. Not proud of it and there lies the reason of my rambling. However, I don’t think our Parents’ generation will choose community service either. On the contrary, I believe there are many in our generation who would give up Netflix and rush to volunteer, albeit most of them probably do it for a line in the resume or to spruce up the corporate profile. But no one said helping others has to be selfless. There are saints to do that, and for the most part, they do not exist. Last night I was in the poultry aisle of Costco, and I witnessed this young lady opting for the 20$ more expensive organic chicken over the regular variety, while her husband asked her, ‘Honey why not this one? It's only 14$ and 2 pounds more’, to which she busily replied under her breath and I heard her repeating three times after, ’Those are meat from tortured souls.’ Our generation or a majority of our generation has the luxury of this choice, of choosing to support a cause if it made us feel. If my Mom had witnessed this incident, she would have ogled and murmured, ‘why would anyone buy 20$ more expensive meat? After all, both are meat from animals killed for your sake!’ and I agree. I understand paying 20$ more for convenience but this logic, even I don’t understand. Ideally, the lady should have gone vegan. But that’s beside the point. The point is our generation quite readily opts to reduce suffering and a majority of us mean well, feel outraged in the face of violence on a fellow human, seek justice and fair dealing, fight for equal rights, etc., etc.

I am aware of the fact that we, our generation is quite liberal with every aspect of our lives when compared to our previous generations. We don’t think twice before eating out, spending a fortune on cinema tickets, expending on replacing perfectly fine gadgets and changing jobs as quickly as we change a garment. We have the luxury of choosing convenience which they didn’t. I remember a time where elders used to pat on the back when someone secured a Government job or found a suitor who worked for the Government because it meant a permanent paid job and clout in the community. Even the position of a clerk or Peon was acceptable over the uncertainty of the private industry. But today, we change jobs for simple reasons like the unfavourable year-end review or the monotony of living in the same city for too long. Globalization opened up opportunities that very few from our previous generation had access to, and that led to a diverse perspective and gave birth to a new and ever growing middle class that is young and has dispensable income. So, we buy, spend, splurge and are not as worried about the rainy day as our previous generation. It is not to say that our generation is a band of fools. On the contrary, our generation has witnessed the chaos around the financial meltdown, lost jobs on the so-called 'Black Fridays' and has seen many a family rendered homeless. If there is anyone who understands the importance of saving and the uncertainty of risky investments it is we but we also acknowledge the effervescence of health and human life, and so we choose to save a little and enjoy life more while we still can.

We are better in many ways, and that consoles me, but I still believe that the principles of our generation are a puzzle assembled with pieces that do not quite fit together. It is as if the pieces were part of two different puzzles that got jumbled. We are nuclear and global at once. The concept of large joint families is probably an alien concept in the west but relevant to a large population in the world. Families lived together with parents, siblings, nieces and nephews, worked and lived together as one entity. Everyone had a say in each other’s matter and even amidst discord they somehow managed to live, fight and care. That is history now. The concept no longer exists. We went nuclear with our families. Man chooses to live with his wife and children for the most part, and occasional visits keep the discord at bay and allow everyone to maintain a distant but cordial relationship. But we also went global. We care about the tsunami-affected victims and the homes taken away by the hurricanes and the thousands of refugees, but we hardly keep track of the cousin and his family, the health of the grandmother we last saw 6 years ago, or the niece we only ever see on Facebook et. al. I know this is I and I know this is many of you, and I am not judging us; I am merely musing on the fact that our generation follows a moral code that is benevolent and selfish at once. This is just another passing thought of my contemplating mind and one of the reasons for my ramblings this morning.

As usual, you can read the other part of this Duolog(ue) here.