Miscellanea

On Competence
When did mere competence become the new excellence? I was recently thanked by my manager for doing a relatively simple task on time and without being reminded. I told him that I was simply doing my job, which actually flustered him a little. His response was, "well, thank you for doing your job, then." Has our society sunk so low that a demonstration of basic proficiency and the initiative to fulfill one's tasks without managerial oversight have become praiseworthy?

Do I really need a reason to include a picture of the Hulk?

On Real Value
Hobbies, pastimes, and entertainment should be the spice of life, not the purpose of it. Too often we fill our time with, and spend our money on, things that are of little lasting value. TVs, cars, toys, politics, etc., while fine in and of themselves, are unlikely to bring a person genuine happiness. On a completely unrelated note, this past Saturday I spent fourteen hours playing Lego Star Wars III.

And Speaking of Toys...
The state of the economy is being lamented nationwide, yet the release of each new video game system, iPhone, iPad, or whatnot is met with long lines and record sales. Big screen 3D TVs are selling pretty well and big budget movies are still making huge amounts of money even though theater tickets cost as much nowadays as DVDs did just a few years ago. Is the economy not really as lousy as some make it out to be or are Americans just that bad with controlling their spending habits and prioritizing their finances? I assume it's the latter.

On Video Game Music
When did video game music become as good as the music you find in movies? Not long ago I found out that big name movie score composers like Hans Zimmer and Steve Jablonsky were writing video game music on the side. It turns out that many video game companies don't skimp on their scores; many are every bit as good as you would expect from a big budget film. It also turns out that some of the newer film score composers like Jablonsky (Transformers (2007)) and Michael Giacchino (Star Trek (2009)) actually got their start writing video game music. Having discovered how good game scores have gotten, I've since bought the scores for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Gears of War 2, and a few others.

On Public Memorials
Can anyone tell me what this is supposed to be?

This is a memorial?

Yes, I know it's the Pentagon's September 11th memorial, but what is it supposed to be? Why must today's memorials be exercises in the pointless field of modern art? The proposed Ground Zero and Flight 93 memorials are further examples of meaninglessness. I know that the "artists" claim that they mean something, but if the hacks have to explain what it is then it's a failure as a memorial. I'm sure there are still some real artists available; maybe our public officials could hire them.

This is a memorial