Sarahel's Semiotics 4U

i am no longer a woman in mathematics, that could be why. or maybe it was a mistake.

I sucked at science ... probably the only thing I was suckier at in school was welding.

i sucked at chemistry but i was like genius in physics

lol i loved welding in hs shop class! i would like to do more of it tbh

harbl - if you were my dad's child, he would have been very happy. He was sad I didn't major in math, like him, his sister, his father ...

For a while I got into doing sudoku puzzles (which my dad is a real big fan of) because I felt guilty that we had so little in common ...I didn't major in math, I'm not interested in sports, etc.

sarahel i would not have guessed you don't like sports

i was good at science but the curriculum was terrible and unstimulating so i gave it up before the last 2 years

this application has everything to do with the fact that it's one of the best journalism schools in britain, and little to do with the specific area, although it is a very interesting one. i initially applied for newspaper journalism but didn't have the requisite experience. my application was passed onto the science journo folks who were all 'plz join our shiny brand new course' and i did not have the heart to say no ^_^

anyway enuff thread derail, plz proceed w/ whatever we were proceeding w/

omg my dad is a massive sudoku buff, it irritates me intensely tbh

also if i was given a welding torch, bad bad bad badness would occur maybe

my dad really likes sports. I played tennis in HS to get out of phys. ed., and my dad went to almost all my matches. I was pretty lousy because I practiced as little as possible because I didn't care. Years later, my mom was telling me how she felt guilty that she worked too much and didn't go to any of my tennis matches. I told her that she shouldn't feel guilty, because I didn't care very much about them, either. All I cared about was that tennis season lasted only three months, and the other six months I didn't have to do jack shit as far as P.E. went. I just had to let the coach know if I wasn't going to be at school that day, so she could mark me absent.

(my dad majored in math also......if sarahel liked sports then she wd be too much like an older wiser female american version of me and ilx might implode)

(what are the semiotics of this btw)

my dad's a math teacher ... though the thing he likes the most is serving as the statistician for the football team.

my dad WAS a math teacher 30 years ago :-/....the thing he likes most is devoutly collecting every recording of Bach's works ever

that sounds more interesting than sudoku puzzles and football statistics ... but you know what they say about familiarity.

it is weird, how neither of our fathers' main passions, obsessive as they are, have really rubbed off on us

I think that's common. I'm guessing you're the oldest or an only child?

The former. My dad had a moderate love of sports, contemporary music, and literature. His moderate loves were (partially) what became my predominant loves.

You're an oldest too?

I'm about as much a believer in birth order as astrology in terms of determination of personality characteristics ... experientially sometimes it fits, sometimes it doesn't, but I'm skeptical of the rationale. My better half probably shares the least common interests with his dad compared with his younger brothers.

me = only; no way my parents would have been able to afford to send me to the college I went to if I had siblings.

women's pants=sexiest

maybe it's time to analyze advertisements ...

I haven't seen much to persuade me that astrology isn't a false discourse. My parents are about to discover that sending one to college for the first time, another BACK to college, and a third to college in a year's time isn't exactly a basketful of laughs, especially when [gratuitous sob story]

Advertisements are a direct mediation between Mammon and customer. They have an increasingly difficult job as the 'choices' available become more and more widespread, accessible and mutually-aware. We have been greeted increasingly with a mulch of interdependent signifiers, all striving to achieve significance within a blasé narrative which nonetheless ingrains itself through sheer force of ubiquity. What this all means, I don't know, except to say that I really don't need your product unless I say so, thanks.

I haven't seen much to persuade me that astrology isn't a false discourse. My parents are about to discover that sending one to college for the first time, another BACK to college, and a third to college in a year's time isn't exactly a basketful of laughs, especially when [gratuitous sob story]

Advertisements are a direct mediation between Mammon and customer. They have an increasingly difficult job as the 'choices' available become more and more widespread, accessible and mutually-aware. We have been greeted increasingly with a mulch of interdependent signifiers, all striving to achieve significance within a blasé narrative which nonetheless ingrains itself through sheer force of ubiquity. What this all means, I don't know, except to say that I really don't need your product unless I say so, thanks.
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http://www.geocities.com/localcomedyconnections/youngones2.jpg

the logical conclusion from the paragraph, is that while the advertisement may not effectively sell the product it's advertising, it serves as yet another reminder that you should be buying something.

lol bug

yes exactly sarah and if that thing happens to be the exact product advertised then all the better. they're playing the percentages these days. hence why, taken in isolation, the adverts seem so disjointed, crude and flashy. each one is like a compressed highlights reel for ten other adverts that came before it.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/19/LetterToJane01.jpg
there can be no reverse shot

lol - I was inspired to play drums by Weekend

i kept passing out when I saw weekend but that's not really an internet story iykwim

as I read it, the guy playing drums was the only one not engaged in/victim of cannibalism.

the traffic jam scenes are probably my favorite part of that movie.

that movie is pretty funny but it still like all the pierrot le fou/mepris stuff better

I think it was one of the forerunners to the people-walking-around subgenre of 70s movies.

ok here's one miss el

what are the semiotics of 'freedom of speech' and 'freedom of information', with especial regard to the following: http://www.pirateparty.org.uk/

be brutal if necessary

it looks pretty straightforward as far its aims and politics go, though it is unclear (without looking at the site more thoroughly) what their position is in terms of artist's rights vis a vis file sharing. Certainly, some file sharing is the equivalent of lending a book or a movie to a friend, but not all of it is, and definitely the scale is far different.

As far as the name goes, it definitely is meant to make involvement in their cause seem like a fun thing to do. Who does not like to party? And pirates=fun, right? It certainly seems more attractive (especially when considering the appearance of poster pirate, Johnny Depp) than calling one's organization the Freeloader's Rights Association.

I do find the "pirate" name problematic, in that piracy isn't particularly concerned with fairness and rights, except that of possession. It almost belies their idea that looser copyright and patent laws and allowing file sharing are about freedom of expression, as piracy is historically concerned with the acquisitions of valuable commodities for their exchange value, as opposed to educational/artistic merit.

Fine points all, albeit lost on the selfish posturing gits who are making a stand in the name of libertarian illogicality.

well, I'm sure it's all logical to them ... I just hear too many complaints from friends how file sharing has made it much harder to support themselves as musicians, for me not to be ambivalent about it.

It's fine to believe in freedom of information, and to share music when one must, but in all honesty this sort of posturing irks me like you wouldn't believe. The hypocrisy and pointlessness of it all is breathtaking.

but in all honesty this sort of posturing irks me like you wouldn't believe

I can believe it.

all that D&G and art circles upthread is making me LOL because my good friend is going into grad school for some kind of art degree right now, and he's reading heavily about D&G. also, I really have to resist the urge to think 'Dolce & Gabbana' whenever I see D&G.

more semiotics 4U:

I was disappointed with the most recent remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (the one with Nicole Kidman), because it all boiled to down to "saving her baby" (a more conventional Hollywood trope), as opposed to the traditional Body Snatchers' hero's motivation of preserving the humanity of the individual. The "save my baby" motif was particularly disappointing to me, as the protagonist was an adult woman. In the context of the other films, it appears to imply that an adult woman cannot be focused on mere self-preservation, or the life of a romantic partner ... in order to be heroic, she has to save a child.

Certainly, there are plenty of horror movies employing the "final girl" device, but it seems to me, that the operative word is "girl." When a woman reaches a certain age, she can no longer be the self-preserving final girl, but has to be acting out of maternal instinct.

aww, I will never be able to watch Aliens again without feeling guilty

Aliens is awesome ... you shouldn't feel guilty. In general, you shouldn't feel guilty about watching "problematic" films, or cultural consumption in general. I'm definitely not some kind of puritan.

You know what I want to see? A Body Snatchers update that argues that becoming a pod person might be a good thing.

That's neither here not there, but definitely agree with this:

The "save my baby" motif was particularly disappointing to me

This is seriously one of the most tiresome genre tropes ever.

You know what I want to see? A Body Snatchers update that argues that becoming a pod person might be a good thing.

that definitely has promise. I'd be interested in that too.

Almost every time I see a particularly awful "save my baby" movie, I want the baby to be eaten by dingoes. I knew that the genre conventions that "Snakes on a Plane" adhered to would not permit the baby to be snake food, but I held out hope, all the same.

at least the dog got it!

yeah, though semiotically you could argue that the bitchy blonde got her dog eaten as punishment for being a traitor to her species -- being devoted to a dog as opposed to bearing a human child.

A Body Snatchers update that argues that becoming a pod person might be a good thing.

I think part of the frisson in vampire tales stems from the possibility that one might not just be a victim but transformed.

same with zombie movies

Yeah, but zombies don't talk so good and their wardrobes are less fancy. They're kind of the trailer trash of the horror community.

Running around looking for brains kind of implies you don't really have any.