Greekin' it up!

I've been in Greece (Έλλαδα) for a few weeks now and I'm beginning to realize all of the little perks of their culture that I've forgotten about since I left last spring. The first, and one that I still have trouble with, is how selfish Greek people are. It's not the same type of selfishness that Americans are used to, I think that the Greeks actually have a hard time considering the thoughts and feelings of people that aren't themselves. It's really confusing to someone who comes from a culture that emphasizes commitments and following through when a Greek will flake out on you and not even understand why it's annoying. I've been trying to see my friend George (Γιώργος) and for the past two weeks he's gone to the beach instead of meeting with me. Him not going through with things wouldn't be too annoying, but he's really adamant about how he wants to see me and how he'll stay in Athens on the weekend when I come into town, and he does this as late as the night before I arrive! Then when the day rolls around he's gone and I can't get a hold of him until that night when he informs me that he simply could not stay in the city that day, it was too hot to see a friend from a year ago apparently. This behavior also ties into another thing that Greeks like to do, lying.

I'd completely forgotten how much they lie to people, and not just foreigners, until I got back to the country. I was okay with it last year when it was just little things, like having internet in my apartment; what a joke that was. However, this time around it's been about big things, like getting job placement from my program for example, and I'm really getting tired of it. My friend Mel, who studied in Athens with me last year, can explain it rather well in my opinion. The Greeks have cultural thing about one upping everyone, especially your friends, which ties in with their need to be μάγας (a tough guy). Clearly a big Greek man, or woman for that matter, cannot tell the truth, because that would be too easy, and to be truly Greek they have to mislead people and leave out crucial information so that they can be on top. Again, I have problems with it because it is so different than the American way of doing things.

Despite these two complaints, and I really do think they are character flaws of the culture and probably reasons why this country will never leave the "developing" stage of things, I find that the Greeks are some of most amazing people I've ever met. Their love of life, I know I overuse it but I have no other way of expressing it, is inspirational and when you get caught up in it you forgive them of their faults. This is because they are not important in the scheme of things, "In my country, why we worry about the little things. So I not always tell the truth, it is not problem." They are too busy living to be on time, or there at all, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

holla

I've made it to Greece, and I'm going to attempt the bloggin' thing. I'm not entirely certain how the space will be used except that I do want some sort of written evidence of my escapades. It's great to be back in Europe, and the place is still much the same way I left it, the shower is hand held and you still can't flush toilet paper. Coming back has been really exciting and it was amazing to see the Greeks again, they still entertain me. The village is not exactly Athens, but it's nicely relaxing and I've inherited the Greek mother I never had.

In other news, I've been reading a book about the evolution of the English language, The Mother Tongue, and it's quite interesting. One of the things that it discusses, although only in passing, are shibboleths, which are words that can betray a persons origins. The way that people pronounce words is often indicative of their place of birth/where they grew up, and this can be used to determine the nationality etc. They have a rich history, particularly in military use, when people want to identify enemies easily, but seems prone to backfiring. It's said that the Irish used a shibboleth to determine between the Catholic and Protestants in order to determine the treatment of anyone taken into custody. The Catholics say "H" as aitch while the protestants say haitch, which would seem to make identification simple for either side. Of course one would presume that each side learned this and one would pronounce "H" in the way that suited them, but the idea is pretty.

Where it gets interesting is in the identification of regional dialects and accents, where the shibboleths of only a few words, as low as ten, can place people quite accurately as to where they grew up. It's funny to think how much baggage we carry from our upbringings, with pronunciation being the least of them. With the increased mobility of our societies people are dropping these accents and the mindsets that come along with them. We're moving closer and closer to true homogeneity, where whatever diversity that exists in America will be swallowed up into the media that allows us to spread ideas so quickly. The net can do that, despite its seemingly opposing ability to bring people with esoteric ideas together in order to cultivate and preserve them. It'll be nice to see which wins out, and whether the information age will finally unite us or splinter us.

pirates vs ninjas

internet memes are strange things, since these little social genes are usually confined to a small locality, in the old days memes were so useful in identifying a person, like how people from massachusetts use wicked and northern californians use hella. television helped to break down those boundaries, and at first people were afraid that the bland midwestern accent used on major news networks would destroy the american dialects but in fact only made them stronger, but just doesn't have the reach that the internet has.

this leads me to the new form of meme, the ones that spread and proliferate on the internet. we all know that pirates and ninjas are the worst of enemies but what's the new battle brewing out there? will it still be the violent and criminal type that we idolize now, or maybe some underrepresented ethnicity, like the basque? regardless at the rate that the internet is evolving there's no telling what will pop up next, much like that new YouTube video will sweep the internet like wildfire only to be forgotten a the next turnover of the internet scene. in any event, pirates and ninjas are dead to me, bring on the matchup between the yale men and little lord fauntleroy.

fnord!

i want to talk about fnords now. they're a really cool idea that i found on wikipedia. i'm not certain of the veracity of then concept but it's a great thought experiment anyway. a fnord is a word, but it's not just any word it's a special one that everyone can recognize. in theory the government designates which words are fnords and the populace is conditioned to ignore them when read but at the same time people get really uncomfortable when they see fnords. this ties in to their use, making people feel edgy all the time about news, by filling the papers with fnords, and encouraging people to buy more things, by forbidding their presence in ads.

of course this is all just a simple model for the way that manipulation of a populace really works. conspiracy theorists can postulate on the actual keywords that elicit these kinds of responses but in truth the situation is much more subtle. has anyone ever seen a personality cult, one of the most powerful forms of thought control, in it's beginnings? or do they only become recognizable after the fact? it's a pity that things aren't more clear cut.

whispered apologies

i recently found a really cool concept comic called whispered apologies. the premise is that any old person can draw a comic and send it to the site, then one of the guys from the site, the crew of which is composed of several webcomic authors, will add text to it. it's delightfully quirky and while the comics are not uniformly good there are gems where the both the illustrator and writer are definitely channeling the same good vibe.

this leads me to another genre of comic that i really enjoy called constrained comics. there are only a few examples of this type, dinosaur comics is the best one, and they are all artificially bound in some way. for example, dinosaur comics uses the same panels every day and the only thing that the creator has to work with is text. despite this the comic is varied and fresh, in actuality it's simply a constant and interesting way for the creator to espouse whatever it is that he's been thinking about that day. another benefit to the constrained comic, although it also applies to any comic with a simple format, is that it can update everyday allowing much more content to be released into the muck of the internet. in short, i like them and think that they are good representations of the kind of art that evolves on the net.

second life

ever since seeing second life in the flesh I've been kind of intrigued by it. it's really interesting to see an entirely fictional online forum for interaction that strives to be realistic. The addition of avatars and three dimensions really fleshes out the experience, while making it more fake at the same time. A webcomic author (toothpastefordinner.com) whose blog i read recently explored second life and wrote about it, making some interesting observations.

the first thing that he noticed was that everyone in second life is attractive, the first concession to vanity that people make when they are online. having the freedom to create and entirely new persona allows for infinite freedom but really we all want the same thing, to be pretty. this leads to the next thing people like to do in second life, have sex. the funny thing about this is that they tend to pay money for this, ie to get the proper equipment one has to buy a penis. then they go to the online strip club and pay more for some virtual lap dancing. This is in contrast to the earlier forms of the internet where people were still having sex all the time but they did it for free once they found a willing partner. The new level of complexity is fabulous.

Of course there's also legitimate business going on in Second Life, but the porn was the first thing, just as any new media is capitalized first for sex and then for regular business. So, in the future the seedy conglomeration of strip clubs and sex shops will give way to a tidy street filled with upstanding business but one must never forget the sleaze that made it all happen.

the meta blog

comic on the left shamelessly stolen from xkcd.com

So, I'm starting my blog and I've decided that the proper thing to do in this day and age is be really self aware and blog about blogging. I was talking with friends over the weekend about journals, and the people that write them. We ended up deciding that they're not really written for the author, who can relive the experiences in memory, but with hopes that someday someone will read their work. Blogs take this feeling to the next level, people are almost guaranteed to read them so long as they are posted. Gone are the days of the private journal, now anyone can post their thoughts online and be read and criticized by the countless denizens of the web. But this comes at a cost, most people don't really have anything to say that's novel or compelling.

This is where the comic I posted comes in. The blogofractal is really just a garbled conglomerate of senseless statements that are constantly being recycled and made "new" again. It's the same way that 24 hour news channels broadcast news, and then broadcast about how they presented the news the first time until something better to report on comes along. This creates a realm of information where thoughts spread virally and infect everyone for a few days/weeks, ie any internet fad ever, and then is forgotten and thrown aside. the community as a whole is very dynamic and ultimately, fascinating. I can't wait to see what comes of it.