The Persuaders
Fascinating Frontline episode called "The Persuaders." It describes current advertising strategies for persuading people to consume or to vote. It ended with the quote: "The secret of all persuaders is to convince [the audience] to persuade themselves."

Some standout ideas:
-Getting through the clutter while adding to the clutter.
-Being so inundated with ads that culture itself is gone.
-Desensitization to superlatives (cleaner, brighter, stronger, faster)
-Creating iconic devotion by mimicking cult strategies of belonging and purpose.
-Madison & Vine = marriage between product & entertainers/entertainment (i.e. product placement) but it goes both ways.
-Narrowcasting = advertising tailored to the specific individual.
-Fragmenting of society -- as each person's focus is turned evermore to self fulfillment.
-Finding the elusive "buy button"
-Research groups still work but it has taken on more sophistication through psychology, information farming, etc.

So where are we? Strategic (time & place) use of words, images, sounds in a way that bypassing the intellect, so that people respond to it emotionally, positively, personally, and primally -- yet make the proper association. That's the catch.

Some brands that have succeeded in this: Nike, Apple, Coca-Cola, AT&T

One strategy not addressed in Frontline was viral marketing. As opposed to persuading self we now persuading each other to consume through reviews, blogs, casts, tubes, avatars, online communities -- self-deception by self-exalting through self-expression. I'm no exception. It's not quite perpetual motion. So advertisers now employ the patient zeros for such viral weapons. Our reaction to such zeros is quite violent given our mistrust of corporations, just look at the reaction to Lonelygirl.

Hot concepts this year are Green & Africa. Perhaps we're finally realizing the products are not making us happier, more attractive, etc. so purpose now turns towards saving the world.

Wow, Pursuit of Happyness was #1 at this weekend's box office. Unexpected. I was planning on possibly borrowing/rent ing DVD viewing when it is out of theaters and that's it. However, a good friend says it has become one of his favorite movies so I'm giving it a 2nd look.

Rocks are deaf and dumb as idols, but if we remain silent they can shout God's glory.

Recently read In the Presence of My Enemies. What a story. It honestly chronicles the time Martin and Gracia Burnham, missionaries who were kidnapped and held hostage by the Islamic terrorists Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines for over a year in 2001 (9-11 happened during their captivity). It is amazing how God sustained them as their faith was tested.
It was a lesson in prayer and thankfulness as that's where it often led me as I read.
It also provided insight into the Muslim extremist worldview (so fatalistic) and Filipino culture.

I've resisting but I've decided to add Google Desktop to my growing list of Google tools after seeing it's usefulness on other people's computers. Aaaahh can't resist further integrating with the Googopoly collective of information.

I attended the wonderful annual Christmas concert at the Moody Church. It was so uplifting and a chance to rest in the peace of God. God is the God of all comfort.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)

Ate dinner at O'Brien's Restaurant, a place for steak with the usual expected high steak prices. The meat was decent. The priciest menu item, rib eye steak ($41), was well seasoned. The prime rib ($26) had some flavor, but some cracked black pepper would have definitely helped. I'm not sure if I would return, but I'm not a big steak person. After dissecting all the fat off I was left with ~2/3 meat. My friends say Japanese like fatty meat. Wish they had sauteed mushrooms as a topping option, but it seems the selection of side consists mainly of potatoes. I can't complain about the service, though metromix.com reviewers repeatedly panned O'Brien's for horrendous service.

U.S. Quitting?
There has been a flurry of media regarding the Iraq Study group report, among which is the Washington Post. Near the bottom of the Post article is this paragraph:

Quang X. Pham, author of a memoir about his service in the U.S. Marine Corps and his father's time as a pilot for the South Vietnamese military, said he considers the troop plan a thinly disguised form of quitting. "In one year, during the 2008 election year, the United States will abandon and betray Iraq as it did South Vietnam," predicted Pham, who was a pilot during the Persian Gulf War.

This was in response to the report's recommendation for near complete withdraw of troops from Iraq by the start of 2008. Pham's comment reminds me of how in the 1st Gulf War the U.S. called the Iraqi's to rise up against Saddam Hussein's government; Iraqis did but the U.S. did not come to back them up, so those people were massacred by Hussein. Will the people again be left to the wolves - that influx of chaos into Iraq? With all this call for withdrawal, is the U.S. giving up on them? There was so much (bipartisan) celebration and hope at the start of the war to bring positive change to the region. Will the region be stabilized in a year? Let's hope so.

I'm restless!!

Found a weekly podcast of expats in Taiwan.

I'm looking forward to the movie Children of Men, starring Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Michael Caine, coming to theaters Dec. 25. Owen seems to always play cool.

Do people still use men or mankind as reference to the humanity's collective whole? It just does not have the same impact to say "Children of People," "Children of Human Beings," or even "Children of Humanity."

Curious. There is a God's blog.

Tight sounding band: You, Me & Iowa. Music majors definitely helps the sound and instrumentation.

• Lawyer : "Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?"
• Witness : "No."
• Lawyer : "Did you check for blood pressure?"
• Witness : "No."
• Lawyer : "Did you check for breathing?"
• Witness : "No."
• Lawyer : "So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?"
• Witness : "No."
• Lawyer : "How can you be so sure, Doctor?"
• Witness : "Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar."
• Lawyer : "But could the patient have still been alive nevertheless?"
• Witness : "Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law somewhere."

It's snowing! 

In my writings I have demonstrated impatience towards bad ideas. But I don't want that to shadow a heart for humanity. I need to remember how to love as Christ loved.

In a similar vein, working in the hospital one faces an emotional rawness that the world doesn't know how to take -- when or before that limit hits, people shut it out and handle caring as work (or as they say, "Treating the disease and not the patient") . It is so much easier that way since we are still so bad at dealing with fear, grief and anger. This may be why a hospital can be inhospitable.

But there's a better way. Bringing our cares before God through prayer provides a solace for many patients without ignoring the pains of life. In turn this provide care. I need to be intentional about it because it is becoming easier to just shut it out.

"Christians are often 'chief naval gazers' -- as in 'What can God do for me?'" - Pastor Steve Mason said concerning the tendency to forget the world nor recognize there is a spiritual war at hand. Spiritual war refers to the struggle between good and evil for the hearts of people.

I'm sick of subjective New Age pseudo-"super-spirituality" fed to the American public. These include proponents like Neale Donald Walsch and Wayne Dyer -- both whom take advantage of the American sentiments and longing for spirituality, and in the process milk them for millions of dollars. It is the same philosophical bent that Oprah has bought into and spreads as gospel. Sick, sick. New Age usually involves syncretism of Western ideas of God with Eastern philosophy to create a "find God within yourself," "you are one with God," "be the master of your life," and "think positive thoughts" mush. Gross!! Of course they spout proverbs of "respect others, be free, nature is good, expand your mind, feel those spiritual vibes" la di da.

PBS periodically features Wayne Dyer and once he asked, "Is it better to be kind or to be right?" and answered himself, "It is better to be kind," while the audience nods with rapt attention. Wayne calls to disregard truth. This is the very nonsense that Harry G. Frankfurt --Princeton philosophy professor emeritus-- reprimands when he writes "sincerity is bulls**t" as postmodernism ignores truth.

Neale Walsch is part of "New Spirituality" and Wayne Dyer part of "New Thought" movements but it's all old thought in disguise. Just want to slap these guys around to wake them up out of drunken self absorption.

But it's people's ignorance and gullibility that most appalls.
Doesn't an enemy multiply kisses?

Cranberry + apple = crapple.

Sorry, I'm on colorectal service right now. "All about pus and poo!"

Testing God
Our choices today.
How?
Put off living
Godward.
Say, "It is 'good,' "
but lack desire.
So
we plan that perhaps,
maybe,
later in life
-- when I hear the call of mortality --
I may "get right with God."
But many who "get right"
too late,
too late!
...lay in the wake of wasted lives
and have put off living,
as all along
we've tested God with tomorrow.

If I'm ever in Mississippi, I would like to visit the Pig Out Inn for some good BBQ.

A dream job - what Marty Stouffer does mainly as photographer/produce of Wild America. Whether it is my dream is another story.

It is official, Microsoft sets out to make Zune an iPod killer with Toshiba.

Checked out Garls Barkley "St. Elsewhere." Coming from a first impression: Cee-Lo has a great voice and the production is great. It's old school sound, good background vocals, richly hybridized with synth sound.

But what else is on this CD with a cover bearing the phrase 'Live Sex'? I'm wary.

Man, I'm in a serious mood.

Paramount (World Trade Center, Nacho Libre, Hustle & Flow, Mission Impossible III, Titanic) has purchased Dreamworks SKG (Transformers, War of the Worlds, Gladiator, Shrek, The Ring, Catch Me if You Can).

Hmmm... Dreakworks Animation SKG is working on a CG film called "Kung Fu Panda" slated for 2008. I assume comedy.

Fall 2006 will have a lineup of weighty movies:

• THINKflim --> Half Nelsion (Aug 11) - drama - teacher in urban school (S: Ryan Gosling, Shareeka Epps, Anthony Mackie)

• THINKflim --> 10th and Wolf (Aug 18) - drama, organized crime (S: James Marsden, Giovanni Ribisi, Brad Renfro)

• Yari Film Group --> The Illusionist (Aug 18) - period, drama- magic (S: Edward Norton, Paul Giamatti, Jessica Biel)

• Sony Pictures Classic --> Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles (Sept 1) - foreign film, family drama, China, Japan (D: Zhang Yimou)

• Focus Feature --> Hollywoodland (Sept 8)--> period crime/mystery drama (S: Adrien Brody, Diane Lane, Ben Affleck, Bob Hoskins)

• Universal Pictures --> The Black Dahlia (Sept 15) - period crime, mystery (S: Scarlet Johannson , Hilary Swank, Josh Hartnett)

• Dreamworks Pictures --> The Last Kiss (Sept 15) - drama - coming of age (S: Zach Braff, Jacinda Barrett, Casey Affleck, Rachel Bilson)
  

• Miramax --> Renaissance (Sept 22) - animation, sci-fi - crime, future Paris

• Rogue Pictures --> Jet Li's Fearless (Sept 22) - period, martial arts fighting

• Fox --> The Last King of Scotland (Sept 27) - drama - Ugandan President Idi Amin and his physician (S: Forest Whitaker, James McAvoy)

• Universal Pictures --> Children of Men (Sept 29) - sci-fi, drama - hope in an infertile near-future (S: Clive Owen, Julianne Moore)

• Warner Brothers --> The Departed (Oct 6) - drama - cops & crooks (D: Martin Scorsese | S: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg)

• Warner Brothers --> The Fountain (Oct 13) - sci-fi - The Fountain of Youth, across time (S: Hugh Jackman, Rachel Weisz)

• Touchstone/Hollywood Pictures --> The Prestige (Oct 20) - thriller, magic (S: Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale)

• Paramount --> Babel (Oct 27) - drama - security in cross culture (D: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu | S: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Gael Garcia Bernal, Koji Yakusho)
• 
  
• Sony Pictures --> Casino Royale (Nov 16) - action - 007 film (S: Daniel Craig - the new James Bond, Eva Green, Madds Mikkelsen, Catarena Mureno)
  

Crutch
Alistair Begg asked, "Is Christianity a psychological crutch?" No. Why? Because Christianity is hard. It hard to swim against the current; whereas it's easy for dead fish to be carried by the flow.

Consider how more Christians were killed for their belief during the 20th century than the sum of all Christians murdered for their faith in all time before the 1900's. In fact such persecution has not waned and in many places they've intensified despite the reduced numbers of Communist nations.

In having such conviction to live for Jesus Christ, many lose their livelihood, family, and life. And some say crutch, hah! Not quite. If everyone is moving in the same direction, no one notices they head towards destruction. He who holds fast to the anchor of God sees the shifting currents and is buffeted.

Angry? Chicago
I'm told by some people from other U.S. cities that Chicagoan's are generally angry with an anger on par with New Yorkers, but New York throws it straight at you -- that proud bluntness.

Is Chicago really so? Is there this so-called undercurrent of anger in Chicago? One can argue for angry traffic but I don't think that's comparable to New York.

Rose
Played a short dice puzzle game called "Petals Around the Rose." It supposedly stumped Bill Gates for a while (but he eventually figured it out) as it's not a gauge of intelligence. To people it's either gimmicky or frustrating.

AMD & ATI are merging. Two chip powerhouses join forces to take on other chipmakers. Just in time as Intel releases Core 2 Duo. Woohoo more fireworks!

We happened upon the largest cross in the western hemisphere.











BBQ Texas.

In Texas we called it a night at Vega. "I love tech-no-lo-gy." Cell phones are useful since my friend's father tracked us periodically by Google Earth (awesome software if you have high speed connection). We never felt lost with the GPS. No only that, all the hotels we stayed at had wireless Internet.

Anyways, the clerk at the Comfort Inn welcomed us to the "edge of civilization" because we were on the border to New Mexico.

We stopped at a town named Amarillo which was along our route. This town has an airport and a rodeo. We ate at the Big Texan Steak Ranch which was interesting for the atmosphere but disappointing in terms of food. The outside had a huge sign, bright lightbulbs outlining the building (tacky but maybe it draws unsuspecting tourists). When we walked in we heard loud yee-hawing and a trio playing "You Are My Sunshine" on the guitar, fiddle, and bass. We saw cowboy hats and a plethora of mounted animal heads on all the walls. The restaurant's claim to fame is a 72 oz. steak that is free if you eat it within 1 hour. That's 4 pounds of meat. (Kobayashi where are you.) A newsarticle on the wall reported the record time as several seconds above 9 minutes.

We ate some steak, but taste was lacking. "Steak tomatoes" were just tomatoes cut in half with black pepper sprinkled on it. "Steak onions" were raw rings of red onion. "Steak fries" were fried from processed frozen stuff. My ribeye steak was decently grilled but my friends were quite disappointed with their sirloins. "You Are My Sunshine" played a few more times in the background. Overall: limited effort in preparation. (For the same price, Chicago steakhouses far surpass this place in taste.)

Near the end of our meal a couple got up and started dancing while the trio played away. The waiter was a nice fellow who sat down and chatted with us. We commented to ourselves that this is part of the southern hospitality where strangers readily strike up conversations with you.

We drove across Oklahoma today and stopped in Texas. Oklahoma is hilly and the soil is interesting because it is like red clay. When we hit Texas, I noticed 2 things: the price of gasoline going up and the landscape turning to shrubbery. The cheapest gas prices were in Missouri and Oklahoma. You would think Texas with all its oil refineries would have cheaper gas. Shrubbery stretches from Texas to California. You wouldn't have much use for a lawnmower and mowing shrubs would be difficult and if you removed the shrubs all you would have is dirt. Here are some interesting plants.

The first picture shows one of the weeds, they're like dark hairy fists.





"They came from pods!!!" Actually, I believe these are the fruit of the yucca.















Here is a plant with pink wisps and white flowers.

The Gateway Arch in St. Louis. I rode up the south side and down the north side in a 5-seater pod.

 

Bales of hay in Missouri. 

Blazing Cool Chip
IBM & Georgia Institute of Technology have created a silicon-germanium semiconductor chip that can run at 500 GHz when cooled to -268 degrees Celcius and 350 GHz at room temperature. Compare that to current computer chips that run at most at 3-4 GHz, it's a giant leap. They say that such technology would reach consumers in about 1-2 years and could potentially support near the frequency of a Terahertz at room temperature.

I attended a graduation ceremony today. Some observations from the graduation:
The guest speaker said his psychiatrist friend was asked why he went into psychiatry. His friend responded: "Surgery was not invasive enough." Delving into the mind is more invasive. Why? Because our thought betray our hearts. Such exposure is something people fear. The Bible says, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" Jeremiah 17:9

Still, what a strange response from the psychiatrist... there must be more purpose to direction than the sake of being invasive. Is it then ultimately a grasp for power and control? So banal.

When nonmedical* people meet a psychiatrist, they often wonder if the psychiatrist is analyzing them -- as if psychiatrists can read minds (they can't). I'm told the punchline is the psychiatrist responds, "No, I could analyze you for a fee."

There was something uneasy about todays speaker, he seemed bored and nervous from the getgo: leaning on the podium, slouching to one side, unsure of where to place his hands - often placing his fingers together like Mr. Burns of the Simpsons. Perhaps he was jetlagged or came at short notice.


*Concerning the use of the word "nonmedical": In roles of service there is a distinction made between the service provider and others as in [Military/law enforcement vs. civilian], [clergy vs. laity]. However it is not quite encompassing to say medical vs. patient since not all people are patients. Is there a better word for nonmedical?

"Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others." Philippians 2:4

I am selfish. Living alone it is easy to forget the interests of others.

Thanks to A/C, I slept fine.

I went to my first outdoor wedding yesterday. Daytime temperature was ~95°F. People were sweating. The local was scenic and everything was quite classy. Mike & Alice are honestly adorable. Pictures to come later if they come out alright (That's right, I use my trusty analog). As an aside, it seems my camera is getting bigger every year.

Pixar to Head Disney Animation
In a strange turn of events after Disney & Pixar separated "bitterly." Disney acquires Pixar with Pixar to helm Disney's animation studios. John Lasseter was once fired from Disney and now he will head Disney's animation department. Fortune Magazine likens this change in leadership to Nemo swallowing the whale.

It seems like everyone and their uncles have read Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, even my friends from Japan. Amazingly, because people are ignorant of history, they believe what they see in print even if it comes off the FICTION shelf. Many Christians are making a fuss about this because they are astounded by the gullibility of the masses. Those who are not Christian ask, "What's the big deal? The book is only fiction." Then why do you treat it as fact? Dan Brown created a mish-mash of facts, fiction, speculation, and outright lies.

Why are people so ready to receive Brown's message? If our hearts are already set against God, convincing doesn't come hard. Don't most people wish to live in a world without God --who holds them accountable for their actions, choices and thoughts?

My dog passed away, Sad. She was sick and I thought she was getting better.

My dog is old and sick :(

Curse of Comfort
Comfort makes you complacent and forget who you are and why you're here.

Newsweek 'warns' of how India and China (and South Korean and Singapore) are extremely driven and only getting started in their economic escalation, especially technologically. Contrast the United States where people are so use to being first and having the best, compounded with a general unawareness of shifts in the world; there is a lack of drive to grow or innovate. Though we have the best universities and best resources, our students lag behind in international rankings for math and science. Newsweek writes, while our students are playing video games, their counterparts in China are studying their forth books. The frontiers of future innovation will not be the U.S. unless we change.

More eternally affecting the U.S. is the oppressive spiritual complacency. Contrast this with India and China. In India, Hindus in conjunction with local police daily threaten Christians, imprison them, threaten their lives, destroy their churches; and children are disowned by their parents. In China the government-sanctioned "Three-Self Churches" was started by a Communist party member who claimed to be a Christian but did not believe Jesus did any miracles. When the Three-Self system was set up, all house churches were deemed illegal gatherings. Because so many Christians refuse to register with the Three-Self churches, refuse to stop gathering, and refuse to stop sharing the message of the Cross; they are continually persecuted, publically humiliated, imprisoned repeatedly, and tortured. Such trials have managed to keep those Christians sharp and remind them that their citizenship is not here but heaven. And in these nations, the kingdom of God is rapidly advancing as thousands turn from lives of sin, trust in Christ, train and go out themselves to reach the lost.

The United States has the most freedom of religion, Bibles coming out of our pores, the best seminaries, and a glut of great books and sermons; but what is that to us. We do not care about the souls of our neighbors or our own personal growth. I say this as admonishment to myself too.

What has happened to us in the U.S.? Do we still believe God acts? Or are our blinders on to God; as to our education/economy. Do we no longer hunger and thirst for righteousness, but instead just superficially live to enjoy this life?

Do we still believe God will one day call us to account for how we used the time He gave us? It scares me, and you?

Politics of Gems
My college fellowship staffworker got engaged a few days ago, not by a diamond ring but by an emerald. (I'm not sure if it's emerald, but most likely, since she noted that it was a green stone). Why emerald? She has cultivated a ministry of social justice and cultural diversity. In light of this, not getting a diamond is a protest and safeguard against the abuse in diamond mining practices.

A note to ponder: using diamonds as a gem for engagement ring has been much of an American phenomenon and not a global phenomenon historically. The use of other gems is not that unusual. Then again, in our age of proliferated American culture (80's culture especially, surprisingly) and heavy marketing by deBeers and such, diamonds could now be the default global engagement bobble. In fact, many gemologists estimate the value emeralds as more than diamonds. Although you should also investigate emeralds for potential abuse because much of the world's emeralds comes from the dangerous mines of the volatile nation of Columbia (and Venezuela? Are Venezuela's mines dangerous?).

A means of bypassing the diamond trade is to purchase man-made diamonds which are more pure, cheaper, and less blemished than mined diamonds. To build up the reputation of synthetic diamond, such gems are touted as "cultured diamonds" just as there are "cultured pearls." This fairly new diamond industry has been a growing threat to the conglomerate of diamond mining/monopolizing families. Such families have worked to develop machinery to distinguish mined diamonds from made diamonds; and the distinction is the cultured form is "too perfect" and splits a beam of light at a particular spectrum and diffraction. But does the populace care? Those families only want to protect their businesses. Would you want a diamond that was synthetic but pure or natural but possibly obtained through abusive practices or avoid diamonds altogether?

Why diamonds at all? I think they represent purity and strength, right?

Orphan Man
From a talk by William Lane Craig:
Loren Eisley said, "Man is the cosmic orphan. He's the only creature in the universe to ask, 'Why?' Other creatures rely upon instinct but man has learned to ask questions. 'Who am I?' he asks. 'Why am I here? Where am I going?'"
Ever since the Enlightenment, when modern man threw off the shackles of religion, he's tried to answer those questions without God. The answers that came back were not exhilarating but dark and terrible: "You are the accidental byproduct of matter + chance + time." "There is no reason for your existence." "All you face is death." "Your life is but a spark in the infinite darkness, a spark that appears, flickers, and dies forever."
Modern man thought that by divesting himself of God, he had freed himself from everything that stifled and oppressed him. Instead, he found that in "killing" God, he had only succeeded in orphaning himself.

Recently Fox Health & Science News reported:

U.S. President George W. Bush's administration stresses abstinence as the best way to avoid AIDS, but Myron Cohen of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and other experts said if the epidemic is to be stopped, people should make decisions based on science, rather than moral or emotional judgments.

There is obvious bias in at least how this article presents information. HIV is a sexually transmitted disease (STD). Abstinence is the most logical and intuitive means of preventing a STD, but it is derailed as moral and emotional.

Ugg. What big words I often use. Now to live it.

Cell Clones
Look at how similar the Motorola RAZR v3 Black and the more recent Samsung a900 duo are.


Hmmm... why the blatant mimicry. I guess like the iPod it's easier for competitors to imitate a hit rather than create a hit.

College Bumming
It is so trendy to bum in college. Has this always been the case? I don't know. Living as if life will continue forever in a soup of 18-22 year-olds. Where is the passion, the motivation, the drive?
Is out of style to do something ambitious with your life or in the least have the appearance? Instead, "Just chillax and have fun!" Fun has its place but must one put on the image of laziness, carelessness? It's useless and even selfish.

Be passionate. Now then, where is your passion directed?

Allotted Time
We cannot waste today, knowing not tomorrow. Arrg. I squander time. High on my list of books to read: Don't Waste Your Life by the famous pastor John Piper. How then to live?

[ What is the chief end of man? To glorify God and enjoy Him forever. ]

For those who do not know the God of the Bible seek him now. For those who know Him, live for Him now. God allots each person a short time to live, sets us in a certain purposed place, so that we may have the chance to find and live for Him.

Please pray for John Piper; he has recently been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Flavors
I apologize for the BS post on December 21, 2005. The point is valid, but salt water and fresh water shouldn't mix, else it all becomes salty. I'm talking of language of course--salty words reveal a degree of bitterness in the heart. Why dwell and meditate on bitterness?

Quote: “Do not ask God to bless what you do; instead do what God blesses.”