Vampires...

The world was recently swept with Vampire Fever. It probably started with the TV series True Blood, but it really took off through the sudden fame of the movie Twilight and subsequently the mass consumption of the books it's based on. The entertainment media has suddenly flooded with variations on the theme. New series such as Vampire Diaries (also based on books) and a Twilight board game is the first that come to mind.
But the concept of vampirism has always been present in fiction. The first would probably be Dracula, but with the sudden surge of interest all the old dogs were reawakened. Moonlight, Interview with the Vampire and Queen of the Damned, by extension Anne Rice books, the World of Darkness roleplaying system that I myself am so fond of, Vampire Knight... Suddenly vampires are no longer something to be feared, but something to be admired, adored, or even... worshipped... Why is this?

First I must state that this is written from a mostly male-vampire-to-female-human point of view. In many cases these points apply both ways, but my thinking is linear and heterosexual as I write this.

Now that it has entered the mass media, why does every other person find vampires so attractive? In many cases there's nothing special about them save for the fact that they drink blood. I think it is the element of mystery. People are afraid of what they don't understand, but they are excited and intrigued by the knowledge that there is something they don't understand. The same way you love rollercoasters even though they make you fear for your life. The risk is a rush.

Beside this stands the fact that these popularised vampires are elegant, sophisticated beings. They are the embodiment of suave. Usually they are financially secure to the point that it becomes difficult to judge their net worth. They have a strong lineage and family traditions. Their family and their loyalty towards it is of utmost importance. Essentially they appeal to everything our culture defines as a perfect partner. We find them attractive because they are, in all aspects of society, your key to a comfortable lifestyle.

But what about the fact that they can't go into the sunlight? First let me mention that for the sake of storytelling this detail is often skewed. Some can walk in sunlight for short periods but it makes them violently ill (Moonlight), others have certain artifacts that make them immune to the effects of sunlight (Vampire Diaries), others are quite comfortable under indirect sunlight, but suffer negative effects when exposed to direct sunlight (sparkling characteristic from Twilight). But the aversion to sunlight has a purpose: It shows a weakness. It is difficult to believe that a creature of such magnitude and strength can be brought down by something we find so commonplace that most of the time we barely notice it.

Not only do they attract us in their physical appearance, their strong personalities and financial or social fortunes, they also display a weakness, which our maternal and paternal instincts pick up on. We want to help the weak.

Last point I'm going to ponder on is the concept of immortality. Vampires live forever save for certain extreme conditions (fire, decapitation, sunlight etc). We find them attractive because we fear death and they provide something that can save us from this inevitable unknown.

So as a closing argument, when my friends swoon over a vampire character of some sort, I let them. There's nothing we committed companions can do to stop it. On a purely evolutionary level we are outclassed. Luckily these characters are simply that, fictional beings. All we can do is wait for the infatuation to end...





Words:
"There comes a time for every vampire when the idea of eternity becomes momentarily unbearable. Living in the shadows, feeding in the darkness with only your own company to keep, rots into a solitary, hollow existence. Immortality seems like a good idea, until you realize you're going to spend it alone."
- The Vampire Chronicles: The Vampire Lestat, Anne Rice

You're Overqualified

Many of us have heard this phrase. It's the excuse they use to get rid of you when there's someone with lower qualifications but greater potential. And by potential I mean influence, or a family member in the company (good read).

But what it really means, and how it became an excuse in the first place, is what I'm discussing here.

When you finally get out of high school and start studying, it's the greatest thing since your driver's licence. You're finally studying for your passion, not just subjects that "will help you later in life". If you're going away from home to study it also brings independence. You can do what you want, when you want. To some degree you can even own what you want because many bursaries and student loans include living expenses. The problem arises a few years later, when you receive your bachelor's. Now you have a decision: Go work, or study further. There are a few arguments to table:

1. "What if I'm unqualified? Is a bachelor's degree enough?" Many companies and/or lines of work require further study. The more technical it becomes, usually the more specialised your studies need to become. Maybe an honour's degree? Or how about a doctorate?
2. "I don't have to pay my loan until I start working." Especially if you're from a less privileged household your parents are unwilling to or incapable of paying your loan for you. In many cases the massive debt hanging over your head is a good enough reason to avoid the real world of the middle-class low-income young adult.
3. "But there's so much more to learn!" Many students get stuck in the academic, working their way up from undergrad to grad to doctor to professor. They then make their living from writing papers on ridiculously focussed and specific subject matters that have no real-world implications other than to advance science in an obscure direction. Many students become apprentices to a professor at their university and later replace the professor.

These are all valid arguments, but are they feasible in a modern world?

I'm a programmer so my knowledge of the work environment is limited to the IT sector, but I think my logic extends to other fields. The most important thing in work isn't theory, it's experience. You can study for years and think you've seen everything, but I guarantee the first day on the job something will happen that you never saw coming. The only way to learn the tricks of the trade is to actually be part of the trade. If your dream job requires more study, I suggest finishing your first qualification and then getting a part-time job in the specific sector to start gaining experience. You can then continue your studies in whatever direction you need.

Often you study something thinking it's your dream career, but as soon as you start working you find out that it's not as glamorous as you thought. If you start working early enough, you won't waste so much time and money studying something you're not really into.

Then there's the counter argument: If experience is so much better than theory, why study at all? Because without any theory you're the temp secretary in the high-tech laboratory. You have no idea what's going on around you. Besides, no-one will take you seriously unless you have something behind your name. If no-one will take you, you will never get your golden "two years experience" that so many of the big players require.

So, to summarise: You need to study something relevant before you start working, but once you have a qualification that can get you a proper job, start working even if it's only part-time. Continue studies if you're interested, but keep tabs on what's needed in your sector and what the big companies are looking for. It doesn't help studying something that you love if it's only going to get you unemployed.




Words:
"I don't trust Apple, I just like them. Very much like dating a supermodel."
-ZA Tech Show: Episode 20

Computers Are Suddenly Cool

Having grown up a geek, I've always been seen as a bit of an outsider. My frame of reference was slightly out of focus with the rest of my friends. The same goes for my sense of humour. You find things funny that other, seemingly normal, people don't. It's what I like to call The Geek Effect. There's even been a comedy series made on exactly how debilitating the Geek Effect can be.

People with this disorder also tend to have the same type of general knowledge: "3000 miles wide but 3 inches deep". You know enough about everything to understand it on a very high level, but you're not really intimately knowledgeable on any subject. This causes dangerous leaps in relevance during conversation. I've many times replied in what I considered to be a perfectly rational manner and was answered "How the hell did you get to that topic?".

Your work environment also tends to influence this notion, as all work environments do. If you're a geek by day (superhero by night maybe?), you spend most of your day contextually shifting between a few tasks. By extension you can do the same during conversation. For instance, you would be discussing cars, then move on to movies, and you would suddenly say: "Hey wasn't that car in this movie?"

I also have the habit of interrupting someone as soon as I know what they're going to say. Not finishing their sentence for them, but actually starting my reply. I always thought it was a character flaw all my own, until I realised my colleagues and I do it all the time. Once the notion of your talking has been passed, there's no reason to keep talking, so why do you?

But back to the topic.

Whenever I mentioned a computeristic notion in general conversation it was received with a slight sourness. "Oh you're talking about computers right? I don't know about computers." I've since developed a method of explaining geeky terms to a laman with relative ease, but that's for another post.

A few years ago I noticed things start to change. MySpace tried to make people cool, but only ended up creating a slightly less geeky geek. But when Facebook arrived it all changed. You would hear seemingly pop-culture-driven people say "I'll add you on Facebook!" It shocked me the first time a non-geek asked me if I was on Facebook.

After this initial shock, I started noticing other things. I would watch a TV show and the people in the show would be playing a game. Several movies would, soon after the movie, release a game based on the movie. These games inevitably sucked, but in my opinion it went a long way towards acclimatising people to the idea that sitting behind a computer for a few hours constitutes a respectable form of entertainment. And when they played a proper game, oh my word were they surprised! The detail! The atmosphere! The plots! It was all so much better than they thought!

Another big help in this notion was the next generation consoles. You always had your Playstation 2 players, but not until the active advertising for the xBox360and Playstation 3 was it really seen on TV or the mass media. Now it's pretty common to see that shape of the controller lying on the coffee table.

In the relative beginning of the previous century, much the same series of events transpired. The subject was also technology. It was also initially used in business and later for everyday use, and now for entertainment. It was cars. Motoracing is such a large part of our culture these days that it's hard to think at some point your average person never even considered owning a car, much less afford one within their lifetime.

In South Korea, StarCraft 2 is a national sport. They have celebreties. It's broadcast on TV with advert breaks almost longer than the match itself, warmups, discussions, magazines...

In South Africa specifically, MXit also helped. This little java-based chat application that runs on your cellphone propogated many geeky acronyms into popular culture. Things like WTF, lol and rofl are now considered commonplace. Many geeks are actually offended by this, because it was something that they could call their own. The 'secret handshake' of the masses.

This train of thought was inspired by this article from a few days ago. Read and enjoy.

Words:
"So they're demoing the game... and he's like lighting the brush on fire because there are like japanese soldiers hunkered down in camoflage, you're like burning them, they come running out and everything... Then he goes over to the hut, he like flames the hut and burns the guys out of the hut... And the flames don't catch the hut on fire even though it's a wood hut with thatch roof. I'm like 'WTF is this'."
-1UP Yours Podcast 27 June 2008

I'm back!

After (2 days short of) a year absence, I'm back! And hopefully I can think of things to blog about for the next while...

Update:
When I pondered my return there was a choice to make: Blog about feeds I read (that many bloggers do just to keep their ratings up) or put a shared items thing on the side... I went with shared items thing because I don't want to waste your time. If you see something interesting on there, go ahead and read it. I won't force you to. Granted there's only 1 item shared at the moment, but it's not like I've had anyone to share it with...

I've also updated my links on the side to feature some sites I find worthy of a visit. Allow me to elaborate:

• STG Studios: Blog by my good friend and ace freelance photographer.
• Way of the Rede: A forum for South African Pagans, but anyone if welcome. We're a nutty bunch, really...
• Me on Facebook: I think that pretty much sums it up.

There are also a few websites and blogs that hold merit with me, but I don't fancy overloading the page so they've been omitted. Don't worry, they'll quickly show up on the shared items...

I'm also going to start stuffing my posts full of links to interesting information. If I type something that might be unknown to my reader, I'll link to it.

There's also a widget if you want to chat with me. I'm not online very often, but when I am, feel free to interrupt. I also welcome any emails or comments. If I say something you don't fully agree with, feel free to let me know.

My Life:
Latest news on the personal front is that starting monday (June 2) I'm working at Web Africa, one of South Africa's premium internet service and hosting providers. It'll be my first job where I'm considered relatively senior (medical plan, provident fund, lunch included), which is a big step for a small-time developer like me.

Why and how did I come to this point in my life? Well for the last 6 months I've been part of a 2-man startup company with a big idea and big plans... Unfortunately the bigger the plans and smaller the funding, the bigger the risk, so for the last 2 or 3 months I've had zero income. My landlady and car financing company have been happier... With the petrol price going the way it's been going the last few months, it's not exactly the perfect time to start commuting to work again (about 40km round trip). But I don't really have a choice. Maybe once I start I can find someone who lives nearby and start a round-robin lift club or something to that effect... Trains are out of the question (my black belt kickboxing sensei got mugged in the train into town) and there isn't really other public transport that would get me there in time and/or at a reasonable price. Maybe a scooter isn't such a bad idea...




Actions:
Watching Matchstick Men.

Words:
"They misunderestimated me."
-George W. Bush