ultraorange.net » Modern Life

What about your final resting Place?

orangeguru — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 03:52:00 +0000

Click image for a larger finale.

Funerals are for the living. We celebrate the dead and glorify their lives. We say goodbye. We bemoan our loss.

The dead are simply dead.

But many living worry about their funerals and their graves. Many buy their graves in advance and are very picky about it. Some leave detailed instructions how their funeral should be celebrated.

Have you ever thought about your funeral and your grave? Any instructions your family has to follow? Or do you simply not care?

Zygmunt Bauman on Modern Life

orangeguru — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 16:08:00 +0000

"For intellectual authority, the appropriate version of Descartes’s cogito would be today: I am talked about, therefore I am."

Zygmunt Bauman, The Individualised Society, 2001

Brilliant statement actually aimed at the television society, but it also perfectly fits the Age of Social Noise.

The most excellent Metaphor for all things related to Public Relation and also Marketing

orangeguru — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 20:57:53 +0000

Click image for more importance …

The evil genius Edward Bernays had the insight to use his Uncle’s Sigmund Freud’s great work to sell us even more crap by appealing to our emotional needs and desires.

Public Relation is nothing less than propaganda and that was also the name of Bernays great book on this very topic.

Today most Marketing (which actually should be different to Public Relations) has degraded to the same low level approach as PR.

Photo: Tirage-lambdat by the amazing Philippe Jarrigeon.

Bored with your Office Job? Try something more exciting!

orangeguru — Wed, 26 May 2010 06:04:23 +0000

The Life of the average Office Drone is pretty boring, uneventful and most of all safe. Nobody shoots at you, tries to blow you up or hates you so much that they are willing to make a suicide attack to get rid of you.

So next time you complain that "this job is killing you" quit and go for a real killer job. If bomb disposal expert sounds a bit too demanding many try fireman, police officer or simply soldier first?

As seen in TV – Life according to Infomericals

orangeguru — Mon, 03 May 2010 14:27:15 +0000

Tv = Life = Art = Reality … or something life that.

Love that mashup, because it encapsulates almost every silly moment you need a product for.

The Dignity-of-Poverty-Myth

orangeguru — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 08:22:00 +0000

Sometimes you hear people say that poor people are happier or there is dignity in poverty.

What a cynical idiocy! Poverty is terrible, it strips you of any dignity and hardly leads to a happier life.

Time is not relative when your Flight is cancelled

orangeguru — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 21:51:00 +0000

Although flying makes long journeys much shorter (ever tried to walk from London to Moscow?), they are incredibly stressful.

And when we have to wait during our modern journey (at the gate, check-in, takeoff or landing) every minute feels like eternity.

Therefore I presume Air travel happens in a different Time-Space-Continuum.

Happy 10th Birthday Fight Club

orangeguru — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 22:19:37 +0000

What an outstanding movie – one of the rare ones that actually captures the "fight & violence" aspect of being a male without being too pathetic or macho about it.

And it perfectly portrays madness as well.

I think Fight Club is the Office Slaves perfect dream of breaking out and finally releasing his anger of his own conformity and the stupidity of modern life.

But consuming Fight Club is one again mental masturbation: you only watch it, you are not doing it.

Facing violence and actually fighting someone else can’t be consumed. There is no substitute for pain, angst, triumph, excitement and fury.

A movie can go only so far – and Fight Club does a great job of pushing the male identity question down the throats of it’s audience …

Well done, Sir!

More? Fight Club @ Wikipedia

Why do you want to go to a lonely Island?

orangeguru — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 23:02:20 +0000

Click image to watch this little paradise.

The stressed modern homo digitalis always seems to dream about escaping his environment and enter a state of eternal bliss by living on a lonely island.

Apart from lacking the skills of growing his own food and total dependency on technology what do people expect to find?

Enjoyable nothingness? No friends, no consumerism, no Facebook and no mating?

Most people wouldn’t last a month without their "normal" life in such an Island.

Instead of having such wet dreams about being disconnected people should try to evolve, learn to deal with stress and create the lifestyle they want.

And who said that life would be without stress? Especially people who have "nothing" (poverty) are the most stressed.

Learn to tame your mind and desires, reach out for emotional maturity and you will reach an inner island that is well connected, refreshing and most satisfying.

Everything is amazing – nobody is happy

orangeguru — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 08:21:43 +0000

I think this perfectly sums up how ignorant most people are regarding our current amazing achievements. We live in high-tech global society that is simply breathtaking.

Dirty Jobs’ Mike Rowe gives a great lecture and insights about Work & Life

orangeguru — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 00:08:07 +0000

I already love him for his "Dirty Jobs", but this lecture is insightful, amusing and deeply honest.

Highly recommended.

Christmas – the modern families only festival for mutual embarrassment

orangeguru — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 14:47:14 +0000

How cares about the religious aspects of Christmas anymore? It’s mostly about the family and gathering together. For most families it’s the only time of the year when they come together and try to be a happy genetic pool.

But Christmas is usually about embarrassment. Each family has a huge selection of tales to tell what went wrong on such occasions. Drunken uncles, trees on fire, kids swallowing toys, etc.

Happy Embarrassment everybody!

The Free-Roads-Myth

orangeguru — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 09:38:13 +0000

They never show such roads in car adverts – do they?

All that horsepower and metal just to stand still and breathe all that miserable air.

The Sex-in-the-Cinema-Myth

orangeguru — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 21:00:32 +0000

It was neither practical nor romantic to get some hot action in a movie theatre. It was pure necessity, since most people couldn’t afford their own places.

Today you can hook up with your girlfriend in front of your expensive multimedia-beamer-dolby-surround-entertainment-system – and be completely bored by all the bad movies you own without any erotic action.

Maybe romance in public is more exciting, because it’s limited and public?

The Structure of European Cities vs American Cities

orangeguru — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 09:02:54 +0000

I am always amused when some of my American friends come to Europe and get lost by our chaotic cities and streets. If you look at schematics above of American and European cities you immediately see how straight and orderly most cities in the new world are. Very different to the of thousand of years old and “organically” grown Euro cities …

The Rhythm of Life

orangeguru — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 15:31:35 +0000

Yes, we are creatures ruled by time, rhythms and habits.

It start with our basic heart rate – the true rhythm of our lives.

The day & night pattern of our planet dictates our lifestyles, the need for sleep our awake times.

Our social life and whole society is built around rhythms, patterns, repeats and habits: work time, play time, quality time. We all have times and places for everything.

But there is the long time pattern of life itself: birth, life and death. We all sing and dance to that rhythm, either on a small human scale or cosmic one. Even suns and planets get born, have a life and burn out in the end. Even black holes end in another big bang.

Welcome to this Universe ruled by time, rhythms and patterns.

The true question is: do you design your own patterns of life or do you follow those patterns carved out for your by society, nature and other people’s expectations?

Time to rule your patterns, design your own patterns and enjoy time as long as it still ticks for you!

ATM and the slow death of the bank clerk

orangeguru — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 09:21:38 +0000

Banks don’t want your business, they only want your money. Credit Cards, the Internet and ATMs are a blessing for Bankers. They can reduce staff to a minimum, let you do all the work and charge terrific fees for every transaction or failure that happens.

In many countries consumers are in debts to Banks and Credit Card companies, because of their drastics rules and fee structures. It’s a mixture of robbery and the licence to print money for them.

Plus they can track your consumerism perfectly. They know what you like, when you like it and what stuff you own. Your character and behavior is extrapolated from tracking your shopping habits and places you go.

Banks get bailed out by the state, when they go bust – you don’t.

Life with a Freezer

orangeguru — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 13:07:01 +0000

One of the foundations of our modern lifestyle are fridges (even the ones without Internet access). Preserving food has always been a hard task – before fridges they used dark, cold cellars and for a brief period of time ice blocks delivered to your home.

A fridge is such a practical thing: just open the door and stuff your goodies inside. Done!

The fridge and cold warehouse allowed easier transport and mass storange of persihable goods and layed also a foundation for mass delivery and consumption of fresh veggies, fish and meat from far away places. Frozen food can last an eternity compared to normal storange.

But fridges are also responsible for fast food and so called convinience food: quick and dirty dishes without the pleasure to shop for daily needs, selecting stuff from your personal dealer and preparing it yourself (a typical mom job) …

Check also: the webfridge project

The endless Baby Generation – the Millennials or Generation Y

orangeguru — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 18:28:44 +0000

Anything born in the last 25 to 30 years is called Millennials – because they are the bulk of the workforce of the new Millennium.

Raised by overcaring soccer moms and freeform hippie parents, still living at home with 30 and a very pampered bunch.

This generation is the special needs generation, that needs constant attention, constant gratification and loads of ‘creative space’ for their mostly empty brains. Most of all they need constant stimulation to stay on the job. Even when they work their own jobs their parents call employers and challenge reviews and their salary – like they called their teachers and professors in school or university before. This is overprotective individualism gone wrong.

My Mom said it’s oke to show off my skills …

I am actually very happy that now the first studies and articles about the awkwardness of this generation are coming out – because it confirms my experience in many companies working with these ‘youngsters’.

I guess every generation says that the next one is softer, stupider and more pampered. This is mostly true, since most kids in western countries had the LUCK to grow up in ever better living conditions, education, spoiled consumerism and a highly expanding ‘fun culture’. It’s better to work your Nintendo instead of working the coal mines.

Classical Hero figure transformed into a multimedia cash cow.

Kids and young adults have become highly targeted consumer groups since the 1950’s. Youth culture didn’t exist before that. A total media sphere for kids and young adults didn’t exist before the 1970’s. And total consumerism didn’t arrive before the 1980’s. The sheer amount of media archetypes, lifestyle choices, trends, weird and cool stuff only aimed at youngster is incredible and aggressively enforced by companies.

Plus we are now experiencing the total ‘digitization of social behavior’ since the arrival of cheap cell phones, broadband and social networks on the intranets.

Yes, kids have spent less and less time doing sports or experiencing nature in the last 25 years. They have spent more time shopping and in front of a screen.

On the Internet everyone can see your IQ. Thanks for sharing!

The attitudes and goals have changed. Hardly anyone wants to be an Astronaut, Pilot or other Hero figure these days. Too much effort, too little coolness.

Most teen idols are either ‘human products’ invented by companies or the media like lifestyle choices like ‘Gangster Rapper’ or ‘Super Model’. Shows like Big Brother and the whole mechanism of media whoring by being a slut (I am looking at you Paris and Perez Hilton) shows kids only that you don’t need ANY ’skillz’ to be a gazillionaire.

There has never been a Generation that grew up in in such a safe environment and with so much constant distraction. Life is no longer just about the ‘basics’ to them – they want more, more and more – and they are used getting it without much effort apart from bitching.

The Queen of the Millennials.

It is GOOD that less and less kids grow up experiencing hunger, war and poverty – like still way too many kids do in Africa, Asia, Russia, South America and the Middle East. The global society overall is getting richer. Teenager in Tehran have as often facial surgery as in LA. Millennials all over the world grew up with MTV, Madonna, McDonalds and Mobiles. Theirs styles and attitudes are very similar.

The are now enjoying the fruits of the war and post war generations, the new creative and sexual worlds of the hippie revolution – and the blatant consumerism of the Reagan years.

Apart from being nice, being loved, being entertained, able to shop and fuck something this generation hardly has an agenda. It is hardly a political generation – apart from passively ’saving the earth’ – probably by shopping Al Gore T-Shirts and blogging about it.

I am oke, you are oke. Together we watch DVDs about saving the Earth or pirate it from the Intranets!

Unlike the Hippies or Yuppies they don’t know the hunger for change or power. As long as it’s cool and entertaining anything goes. If angry give them a promotion, a hug or a Amazon.com coupon and they are happy again.

Without the absence of real dangers and challenges any human being softens up and relaxes – and after over 60 years of peace and prosperity in western nations there are hardly any direct challenges left. How can you feel like REALLY doing something, when you can stuff your face with organic burgers, surf the web on your iPhone and travel to India for Yoga?

It’s all so nice and pink. Life is almost like being with mom.

More: Wikipedia on Generation Y and read this Managers Guide to Millenials

Do we need a Cell Phone Shop at every fucking Street Corner?

orangeguru — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:40:06 +0000

Ok, it began with fast food and pizza restaurants. Grabbing a bite in our hectic days makes sense, having the same boring food all over the world doesn’t.

Then came the Coffee Shops to give us the extra needed caffeine kick and sugar rush – plus some free wireless access. Well, still makes sense – although I hate the standard Ikea-Starbucks nesting instinct that’s developing globally.

But who needs a cell phone store – one for each provider – on every highstreet? It’s not that we need a daily supply of ‘phonettes’, batteries or ‘call minutes’?! We maybe upgrade our phone once a year or change our contracts maybe every two?

These shops are there mostly for presence, marketing and showing off their brand. I rather have some good old sandwich shops or some other specialized merchant that sells anything BUT a cell phone, a burger or a Latte.

Our inner cities have lost their unique mix of local shops and retailers. Almost all over the planet the big shopping centers offer the same crap from the same crappy companies. So much about free markets, choice for the consumer and competition.