Archive for January, 2007

MySpace Pictures: The Truth

I’ve often looked at people’s MySpace profiles and thought to myself… hmmm… I wonder what sort of impression of themselves this person is really trying to portray with this picture. What do they think this picture says about them? Or more to the point, what do they want people to think about them after seeing this picture?

After thinking long and hard about this topic which troubled my little mind to great extents, I realised that what they want people to see, and what people actually see, are often two entirely different things…

I’ve drawn up the following rough guide to help interpret your friend’s MySpace pictures. It took a portion of my cunning. No! All my cunning!

The Thoughtful One

The Thoughtful One
What they want you to think : Deep, emotional, good to talk to, clever.
What it actually comes across as : Boring git, stop being so miserable.

The Poser

The Poser
What they want you to think : Attractive, thoughtful, cool.
What it actually comes across as : Jackass.

The Rebel

The Rebel
What they want you to think : Plays by no-one else’s rules, hard.
What it actually comes across as : Proof that they have a middle finger. Also a jackass.

The Emo

The Emo
What they want you to think : Cool, rocker, self harmer, hates life.
What it actually comes across as : HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!111eleventyone4

The Artist

The Artist
What they want you to think : Thinks outside the box, alternative, artistic.
What it actually comes across as : 10ft tall…

The Legend

The Legend
What they want you to think : Plain awesome.
What it actually comes across as : Plain awesome.

Thus, the message to take away from this short tutorial, is that either look normal (or at least as normal as you can, i know its hard for some of you…) when you take a photo, or failing that, chew on scientific calculators.

In the Grand Scale of Things…

How much do we actually know – in terms of who we are, and where we are? Sure, we know our local area like the back of our hand, we know all the short cuts and things that happen in certain areas. We know most things about the cities we live in, like bus times and what the best club or bar is. Some people, particularly those who travel and get out and about a bit more, know other cities like their own.

But for the most part, I think it’s safe to say, that as we get further away from home or look at things on a larger scale, we generally know less about them. It makes you wonder.

As humans, we are considered to be intelligent beings and at the top of the food chain etc. We have mastered many arts, we invented and discovered many things that, without which, the world would be entirely different today. We know, generally speaking, the way our planet is structured and where it is located within our solar system. We know our solar system is part of a galaxy, and that galaxy is part of a universe.

On a side note, notice I used ‘a universe’ instead of ‘the universe’ – how do we know there is just one? If you really want to confuse yourself sit through this flash presentation about the tenth dimension and await the impending brain implosion…(My brain turned to mush at about the 5th…) With so many unknowns, we are still silently complacent and confident that we know who and where we are.

In the grand scale of things, though, we know nothing. The above referenced flash presentation is just an example of how limited our knowledge is – even though these are all just theories. This short video puts things in perspective from a physical size point of view. It just demonstrates that, in my opinion, we know absoutely nothing about how we fit into it all. There are just too many unanswered questions.