It's hard to tell, because you can so easily jump from being non-douchie to going for the jugular. So I apologize. My bad. Thought you were trying to make a point.

Not the same. It's not about standing up for yourself. It's about doing better than others, and having others trying to cut you down. @gwiz665 said they had something like that in Denmark, but of a different name. It seems most of these partial socialist countries have this "we should all be the same so anyone trying to do better should be ostracized" mentality.

Anyhow, again, if you weren't trying to be a dick, then I genuinely apologize. This is why I hate the written correspondence. Email and online forums be damned. Interpersonal interactions are the best.

In reply to this comment by dystopianfuturetoday:
No Mr. paranoid. I was referring to the video - which features an Australian woman getting cut down for taking a stand - not you. Sometimes you seem to think I'm out to get you when I'm just fucking around.

In reply to this comment by blankfist:
You mean you weren't being a smartass?
In reply to this comment by dystopianfuturetoday:
eh?

In reply to this comment by blankfist:
Want me to throw a couple more straws into the mix for you to grasp?

>> ^dystopianfuturetoday:
Tall Poppy Syndrome? @blankfist

No Mr. paranoid. I was referring to the video - which features an Australian woman getting cut down for taking a stand - not you. Sometimes you seem to think I'm out to get you when I'm just fucking around.

In reply to this comment by blankfist:
You mean you weren't being a smartass?
In reply to this comment by dystopianfuturetoday:
eh?

In reply to this comment by blankfist:
Want me to throw a couple more straws into the mix for you to grasp?

>> ^dystopianfuturetoday:
Tall Poppy Syndrome? @blankfist

You mean you weren't being a smartass?
In reply to this comment by dystopianfuturetoday:
eh?

In reply to this comment by blankfist:
Want me to throw a couple more straws into the mix for you to grasp?

>> ^dystopianfuturetoday:
Tall Poppy Syndrome? @blankfist

eh?

In reply to this comment by blankfist:
Want me to throw a couple more straws into the mix for you to grasp?

>> ^dystopianfuturetoday:
Tall Poppy Syndrome? @blankfist

?

>> ^blankfist:

Want me to throw a couple more straws into the mix for you to grasp?
>> ^dystopianfuturetoday:
Tall Poppy Syndrome? @blankfist

Want me to throw a couple more straws into the mix for you to grasp?

>> ^dystopianfuturetoday:
Tall Poppy Syndrome? @blankfist

Tall Poppy Syndrome? @blankfist

not just autotune. lots of harmonizer too. compressors, reverb, edits...etc.
autotune has been played out as an "effect". as a studio correction tool, however, it's still used all the time.
that being said, engineers and mixers would rather not use it. pain in the ass. same as editing a drumstroke that is off time.

kesha, and her management, sure knows how to make money. sex sells, and poppy, hyper-compressed 3 note music.
"accessibility" in music is a very interesting thing to study. usually hit music has very little to do with talent and everything to do with energy and accessibility.

Hey man, what are you really into?

In reply to this comment by probie:
(waves hand over orb)
Poppies. Poppies. Poppies will put them to sleep. Sleeeeep.

(waves hand over orb)
Poppies. Poppies. Poppies will put them to sleep. Sleeeeep.

>> ^budzos:

I have to admit that passage was not well thought-out. "Dregs" was not a good choice of words at all as it has a very negative connotation attached, which was not intended. I should have used "disadvantaged" or something else that implies a low socioeconomic status and a lack of options (or the perception thereof). My bad, I should not have used that word. It certainly clouded my point.
Try reading what I said with your thumb over the word "dregs". My point was I get annoyed at the thought of a young person joining the military for a leg up in life, who ends up getting killed in some pointless conflict that is absolutely not about freedom (I didn't mis-speak about that, those "wars" are horse-shit), and then their corpse is part of some bullshit glee-club feel-good bonding. "Highway of Heroes"... wow real dignified... print it on a T-shirt why don't you (as if they haven't).
>> ^calvados:
Such hubris. Dregs of society, eh? Many of the best people I've ever met are from my 12+ years in the army reserves. I've met a great number of men and women who are selfless, intelligent, and thoughtful, and it's this abundance of quality people that has kept me onboard. These good ones have absolutely outnumbered the ones you'd call dregs.
Of course there are less desirable types in the military and I have met my share of them. And I agree that there is hyperbole in broadly referring to all our war dead as heroes (--I am sure that all or almost all of them would insist that they were not). But your rant is way off.



OK, I take a lot less issue with your revision, here. You do however seem to be suggesting that those who join up are going into it blindly, and I daresay that the average recruit's eyes are more opened to the horrible possibilities of war, and their own injury or death, than you evidently believe they are (especially those who join up after hostilities have already begun, as is the case now and as has been the case since early 2002 for Canada).

I do take issue with "glee-club feel-good bonding" and perhaps you will agree, again, that you are misspeaking here. What I see in the nation's response to a soldier's death in these times, exemplified on the overpasses of the 401, is a manifestation of sorrow and respect for sacrifice. Glee and good feeling are conspicuously absent.

That said, I agree that the specific name "Highway of Heroes" is reductive and borderline jingoistic. There is a stretch of Quebec's Autoroute 20 (from the ON/QC border to just west of downtown Montreal) which has been designated "l'Autoroute du Souvenir" (Remembrance Highway), marked with the familiar green/white highway signage and emblazoned with a poppy. I would actually have favoured that name for the stretch of the 401 in question. But as I indicated on another such submission about the HOH (http://videosift.com/video/The-Trews-Highway-of-Heroes), I am moved by and appreciative of the gesture, itself, of the renaming.

One more thing: remember that citizens were gathering on the overpasses to greet the fallen long before it was decided -- in 2007 -- to change the name of that stretch of road. It was, and is, a grassroots movement, not something cooked up by politicos.

You (and anybody, regardless of political stripe or opinion on the war) may well appreciate this CBC documentary, "We Will Remember Them" (Nov 2010), full streaming: http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/doczone/wewillrememberthem/video.html

Well, not really, as he doesn't work with stingrays. But I'm sure you know that, and are merely trying to imply that he'll end up getting mauled eventually. That's certainly possible. But it's important to note that Richardson hand-raises practically every lion (and hyena) in the enclosure he works for (which is a wildlife reserve) and while still large, dangerous animals, he has a unique, very special bond with them, and they are to a slight degree tame. If you've seen this video before, it serves as another example of the rare bond I speak of.

Yet the point stands, they could kill him at any moment. However Richardson maintains, despite that fact, that he would do it all again in an instant, no regrets. He feels the work he does to protect these animals is worth the price he could ultimately pay. And I'm sure Irwin felt the same way about his career, bless him.

Your comment was harmless, but elsewhere on the internet where ever these videos of Richardson are posted there are always people likening him to Timothy Treadwell and jumping to the same conclusions over and over again without knowing very much about the broader context of the work he does. Personally, I admire him and all those who risk life and limb for something they believe in and care for. (Which reminds me, I've to buy some poppies)

Anyway, that's my 10 cents.
>> ^thyazide:

Stingrays have a new target IMO.

I have heard of her but I'm not sure she's ever been so mega-successful that I could name one of her songs. I think I heard a poppy one a few years ago and felt it was so-so. Still, an enjoyable bit of marketing I guess.

I did karoake once in Cyprus. After 18 southern comfort and cokes. It was not pretty.


>> ^Sagemind:

Jewel Kilcher (born May 23, 1974), professionally known simply as Jewel, is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, actress, and poet. She has received three Grammy Award nominations and has sold twenty-seven million albums worldwide, and almost twenty million in the United States alone.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewel_%28singer%29
Jewel's Official website: http://www.jeweljk.com/
Cheers!
>> ^shogunkai:
yarly
>> ^Sagemind:
Really? - REALLY?
>> ^shogunkai:
Who is Jewel?

Yeah I don't think this is real either, but it's good satire.

In any case, my tall-poppy-syndrome is telling me, "Cut this Ballmer down a notch".

So I feel old. Someone fill me in on why this is more horrible and worth mocking than any of the poppy music out there?