The Machinist in the Works

THE MACHINIST
DESIGN DOCUMENT
The optimist sees a light at the end of the tunnel,

The realist sees a train entering the tunnel,

The pessimist sees a train speeding at him, hell for leather,

And the machinist sees three idiots sitting on the tracks.

— German joke

Working on a concept called the Machinist. This is the Header. Maybe I'll put some updates here.

Bertrand Russell's Useless Knowledge

"The world at present is full of angry self-centred groups, each incapable of viewing human life as a whole, each willing to destroy civilization rather than yield an inch. To this narrowness no amount of technical instruction will provide an antidote. The antidote, in so far as it is a matter of individual psychology, is to be found in history, biology, astronomy, and all those studies which, without destroying self-respect, enable the individual to see himself in his proper perspective. "

http://www.scribd.com/doc/145593733/Bertrand-Russell-Useless-Knowledge

KFESTHETIQUE

YouTube Doubler

Dumbo dumbo dumbo, dumbo

The video starts interesting enough and slowly leads you to the realms of Wtf-land. It is hard to define the genre of the music though. I would say a bit psychedelic, a bit pop maybe? A very noisy texture which does not bother the listener, which is a rather rare achievement in the these days. Please enjoy responsibly.

MUZAK

La musique
Musiki
Music



Flow is important, where it carries you, where you land, how you tumble along with the tune, rolling with white sheets on a summer morning, marking the spring that will; maybe, never, come. Bit score and plenty more. Laziness, sleuth, lack-a-droll. Culminating beat which never leads but rewinds comfortably. Very blossomy. Le like.

Rockabilly: Japanese Style

There is not much for me to tell.

An Interesting Conversation: Sans Alpha, Sans Omega

[eidola: pathosformel]

...I am predisposed to like things...I suppose, there is value in them...

Why do you even like things? Why do you even bother, enjoying, appreciating? It is, in essence, conservationism, against progress; you are a progressive minded person... Would it not be so much better if you helped the natural process? You are just postponing the inevitable.

What do you mean?

You know, ...destruction, rust, entropy. Might as well go with it, instead of running against the stream like a horny fish; unlike it, you have a choice.

Do I?

I think so. In a sense. Is it not the whole point with your kind being special, beloved, sentient, and all that? You have a choice to live in the bliss offered by the knowledge that your actions are inconsequential, that your affections are void of any true value; when the sack is void, so is the burden. The fish, on the other hand, will be always burdened, with a heavy determination, which will never pay off. It will disappear, blind, having never been offered to understand.

You are quite the devil, I thought you would lure my mind with promises, and entrap with unforeseeable effects of my desires, the whole Faust deal...

Officium non facit reum nisi actuum sint rea. My title is inconsequential, my acts..., they are at best neutral. It is just that, well, it works faster for some souls if you throw in riches, erotica, and fame.

What do you get out of it then?

Nothing really, there is no divine bet or rebellion, I am just a force, consequence without much cause, I get what gravity gets out of gravitating things at things....

-D.M.

Singularitarian

Singularity is a funny subject. It is the dark monolith through which our minds cannot project to imagine what lies beyond, and some say it is not so far away. Nevertheless the youtube bit is fairly fun to watch and entertaining. It is a redo of the classic "I am the very model of a modern major general" by Gilbert & Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance. Enjoy. (you might need to squint a bit to read the subtitles)

The original is equally fun to watch...here:

Benni Hemm Hemm

Apart from the fact that most nordic languages are cursed with liberally scattered letters and they sound as if the speakers are stuck in a limbo of constant coitus I find them on occasion to be very entertaining. Please enjoy this particular song which is quite enjoyable. Or else.

Anime Source

"Have a nice new year, and enjoy this stupidly long chart."

For us anime enthousiasts getting your hands on the newest, slickest, coolest anime is an act of securing your status in this vicious sub-cultural clique. Either that or we are just eager to get our next fix of animated drama, violence, and intricate storylines that you'd except from a Victorian era romance novel. (...Dare I say, when Mr. Jenkins was left with nothing on him, but his top hat, the heart warming light emanating from the sooting gas lamp glistened, nay, slid off of his well waxed moustache and muttonchops...) Hence I present to you a decent source of all there is to come this winter. What to expect, and all that... Apart from the questionable name of the blog itself, it has very decent information and is worth a visit. I implore thee to click on this very link.

TvTropes

"This wiki is a catalog of the tricks of the trade for writing fiction. We dip into the cauldron of story, whistle up a hearty spoonful and splosh it in front of you to devour to your heart's content."

Internet is full of wonderful little things, trivial musements, on which you can waste precious heartbeats. TvTropes is not one of them. It is of the ruling class, an indisputable blue blood, one of the greatest blackhole of attention that I came across and managed to survive. Be it you are semi curious about everything there is about story telling, or that you just wanted to find what's the deal with a certain plot in an obscure movie/series/anime, it will grapple your yearning interest and consume hours without you noticing it.

Fine Art of the Week

Pathosformel's flickr account is ripe with eye pleasing goodness. It is worth a check given that you are willing to follow the link.

Music as Relationship

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Mummies, Japanese Ones.

"Lurking in the halls of Buddhist temples and museums across Japan are a host of monster mummies — the preserved remains of demons, mermaids, kappa, tengu, raijū, and even human monks. Here are a few remarkable specimens for the adventurous and brave at heart."

Pinktentacle, a fair and well fitting blog about Japan, and things of that nature has a nice article about Japanese mummies. Apparently similar to circus oddities genre instead of contenting multiheaded fetii laid in formeldehyde, Japanese decided to fabricate mummies of demonic nature as well as aquatic. Please follow the link to the pinktentacle article.

Decline of Music

We have come a long way. Internet, social equality, and all, you see. It probably went all wrong somewhere along the way with the thing of giving power to the masses though. This post is here to remind us. Just kidding, things were shit back then too. Or maybe not... That, and the first semi intelligent youtube comment I have seen in a decade. Either that or I am losing sanity. Nevertheless fantastic music.

YellowBlaze Tattoo

"Shige of Yellow Blaze Tattoo in Yokohama, Japan, has emerged as one of the foremost tattooers in the world, not just of the Japanese style, but of all styles."

I do not really care much about tattoos except when they are actually impressive as in not in the likeness of any popular mark (e.g. bacon, reddit, hadoken, britney spears, butttop tribal, etc..), and not in the form of any foreign scripture, and not in, well, any form but something like what you see in this picture. These tattoos make me wanna be a Yakuza harlot.

It is true that years will make the best tattoo look like a wrinkled old comic book, however with tattoos like these we are talking dedication and a fond reminder of how much of a badass you were, and you still might be. Follow the link to appreciate body art.

Felix the Cat.

It's the slickest cat ever, reanimated for the sake of rather sulky music, raspy voice, and who knows what else. The video is an eerie eye opener and makes you want to say: "holy fuck, it's trippy in those times yo..." In case you didn't get the cartoon, it's a way of telling little children that all the girls that you will ever love are needy, attention hogging leeches that will suck you dry and the only remedy is to rip them apart from your life.
Enjoy.

Samurai Champloo?

Nope, not really, but from the same guy who did the music: Jun Seba. Japanese, dj, producer, jazz-man, a concoction that often ends in pure awesome. The kind of stuff that makes you go blind if you sniff at it too much. Anyhow, Nujabes, fantastic video and mellow hip-hop. Apparently owner of the Hydeout production company too. Savor.

Edit: another song, from the Hydeout productions, rather promising.

Vark, it's an aardvark

Apart from the fact that it is an awkward name to pronounce the website's promise is amazingly reasonable. Similar to Yahoo answers it is a 'post question online get answer from the masses' service, but unlike Yahoo it filters it by only asking your social network. Instead of getting spam and batshit insane answers with few making any sense or being moderately reasonable from random people you get it from your friends, or friends' friends, and so on. Give aardvark a try I say, if nothing else just to feel the excitement of tapping into the power of collective subconscious for persistent questions. It says you usually get an answer in at least five minutes.

FMyLife

FML is a great site where you can read about the misadventures of other people and feel glad you're not them, and decide whether they deserved it or not by voting. It picks you right up if you are feeling like you are withering away with existential pain that scorches your very soul into a fiery pyre of hopelessness.