My Brain – Page 27 – We Don't Walk Slow

You Don’t Care

The older I get the more I recognize that you don’t care. Understand that you isn’t actually you. When I use “you”, i’m referring to the audience. When you read “you”, you think of yourself you selfish bastard. Herein lies the discovery.

Obligatory cat picture.

I was at a few meetings over the weekend that involved a group of about 50. I was in a private conversation with a member of a panel who was presenting in front of the entire group. He said to me, “there are times when I’m speaking when I ask myself am I interesting enough or am I talking too much? When I try to answer that question, I realize that the only one asking those questions are myself, no one else really cares what I think.” Now this person is well respected and although what he says is not entirely true, it did register within me how this world is all YOU driven.

Now this point is taken from my world. If I were Mark Cuban, I wouldn’t be making this post because people DO care about what he has to say. He has influence. For 99.9% of us though, most people we talk to have little to no interest in our life. This should not come as a shock. Most people care mostly about themselves. You see life through your eyes, the person next to you sees it their way. My actions should be molded to fit this idea. I start acting to work with your best interests in mind. Relationships become a two way street. I know this isn’t a new idea but people don’t understand this. They go through life with a me attitude. Me attitudes fail. Cooperation will prevail.

By Tom Stortz|2015-04-19T11:39:41-04:00April 19th, 2015|My Brain|0 Comments

Primer Thoughts from the Present

Brookes lent me the movie Primer. If you’ve never seen it, which I’m sure you haven’t, it’s an 87 minute flick created on a $7,000 budget that uses time travel as its main theme. As always, other people have wrote much more profound thoughts on this subject than I can, most notably Chuck Klosterman in section 3 of the PDF. Even still, without going into details of the movie, the ability to travel in time is by far the most complex thought process to wrap your mind about and this hold true after watching Primer.

As Primer demonstrates, once you have a machine that can go back in time, you can keep going further back in time. This starts to spiral out of control because you keep going back in time and your copies are still…???? I hold no belief that time travel is possible but as I’ve learned from thousands of years of history, nothing is impossible. People think nuclear war would end humanity, I’d put my money on time traveling.

In the Klosterman PDF (an excerpt from Eating the Dinosaur) he poses the question what would you tell your past self if you only had 15 seconds on the phone with him or her. Read the passage if you want to know more about the context of this question but I’ll answer it after giving it some thought. My unrealistic, idealistic present self would tell my past self never to touch a drop of alcohol. However, if I know me, my past self would start laughing and say “some nerd just told me never to drink alcohol.” With more thought on the actuality of the situation, knowing past self would only hear a voice claiming to be me (which I’d have to waste precious time saying), I’d tell myself to not play so many video games. Learn a language, play outdoors, go on dates, do SOMETHING. I didn’t learn this until 24. If I could combine the two tidbits, I think I would be where I’m at now at 27 instead of 31.

By Tom Stortz|2015-04-09T22:44:16-04:00April 9th, 2015|My Brain|1 Comment

Color Test

I scored 24. How’d you do?

By Tom Stortz|2016-10-29T12:37:00-04:00April 9th, 2015|My Brain|4 Comments

Sam’s Shampoo

This is a picture of the shampoo and conditioner package that you can buy from Sam’s club.

It looks like they are talking to each other:

S: I can’t wait to get this package off to finally get away from you.

C: Fuck you. He’s going to use more of you and we’ll see who gets the last laugh.

These bottles are huge and last over a year. You would think that they’d run out at the same time but you’d be wrong. I still have about a half bottle of conditioner since the shampoo ran out. Jordan says he bought this package as well and it would last him forever if only he used it but his girlfriend must pour mountains of it on her hand.

The shampoo is one of the good products you can buy from Sam’s because it doesn’t go bad. Other quality items are TP, paper towels, and cups. Anything that lasts forever is good.

Smores Suck

Food from Sam’s is usually bad. It seems great to buy an enormous amount at a low price but it’s difficult to eat a huge helping of one item by yourself. It’s easy to get tired of it and then it just goes bad. The bread is $4 bucks for 2 loaves and I make 2 sandwiches in 2 weeks. I’ve bought the granola pack before and can’t stand the smore’s or the low fat chocolate chunk which is sometimes a substitute. Sell me 48 chocolate chip.

By Tom Stortz|2015-04-09T09:38:20-04:00April 9th, 2015|My Brain|0 Comments

Newest Blog Ideas

Rnningfool.com is trying to evolve. Not like a Pichu to Raichu evolution but a bit more subtle like Squirtle to Wartortle. It’s apparent that my current site isn’t destined for greatness and that’s ok. I’m sure you’re saying, “I’ve heard this before” and you’re right, I’ve gone in different directions over the years (who remembers itsucks.com and the comments from this memorable post). If you weren’t aware though, THIS ISN’T EVEN MY FINAL FORM.

Fortunately though, as long as you keep coming to rnningfool.com, you’ll be aware of my future projects.

2nd Tier Human Profile

Charles Barkley said he was the toughest player he’s ever played against.

This site is what I expect to create in the near term future. To put it as simply as possible, the site will have entries that highlight a 2nd tier human being. Kevin McHale from the Boston Celtics comes to mind as a great choice. Everyone knows Bill Russell and Larry Bird but forgets about Kevin McHale (the glee actor comes up first in image searches…). He’s an unbelievable basketball player that is a 1st tier person but maybe doesn’t get the respect from a universal appeal. Dr Dre also comes to mind. I could have a lot of fun with this.

Product Review

This idea struck me one night when I thought I had valid opinions on products and using them on a higher level than your average human being. I find myself in a spot that is always far less than the best but far better than the average. This puts me in a spot where I’m not spending PRO money on equipment but I need better than average gear. Take running shoes for instance, I’ll spend $100 bucks on a pair of shoes as long as I know what I’m buying. However, how many “runners” out there are running 6 minute pace and giving a true review of the shoe? Each entry would be a post about a particular item and my specific thoughts on it and then at the end of the post I’d have a link selling it that I’d profit off of. I’d like to review music as well.

The Challenge / Betting Blog

I still love the idea of a forum atmosphere where people challenge others to do ridiculous acts and other people bet on them. I would need a crew of people who would take this seriously which I haven’t been able to make happen but I’m still pretty sure it has merit. The potential to snowball is the heart of this idea.

By Tom Stortz|2015-04-07T18:04:07-04:00April 7th, 2015|My Brain|2 Comments

Public Transportation!

This gif makes me feel like I should use public transportation but I don’t. Let’s say I was heading into Center City and didn’t want to drive – my choices would be to spend 30 minutes walking, $10 dollars for a taxi, or whatever a bus costs. I’d choose the bus last. I also wouldn’t spend my time jumping on the subway. I don’t pay attention to the schedule and waiting for it isn’t worth the difference of the marginal cost. Lord only knows how those trolleys on Girard work. I will ride the subway to the stadiums but I always question would I pay $20 bucks to sit in a taxi by myself or $2.60 (whatever absurd coin choice they are) to be crammed in public transit where I once watched one bro pee in between two trolley cars. The video below seems comfortable.

Unrelated to public transit but still transit related, one of the best choices I’ve ever made (for the last 2+ years) in my life is avoiding a commute to work. I live 5 minutes away from work and this lets me come and go as I please. Today I threw my laundry in before I left for work, moved it to the dryer while I was going to the bank, and folded when it at day’s end. Efficient. Plus I add hours of my life to a proactive lifestyle instead of time spent driving in a car. I don’t even mind driving but traffic is mind numbing.

A few obligatory Septa pictures:

Someone out there understands.

What a response.

Standard.

By Tom Stortz|2015-04-06T20:58:39-04:00April 6th, 2015|My Brain|0 Comments

Trivia Crackuracy

I’ve been playing Trivia Crack for about 3 weeks now and I enjoy the simplicity of the game. For those who have never heard of it here is a quick breakdown (and you probably should since it’s been out since 2013):

You play 1 opponent
You spin a wheel to determine the category of your question
If you miss a question it’s the other person’s turn
The game ends when someone gets 6 key questions right (key questions arrive from answering 3 questions or the wheel correctly)

The obvious flaws in the game arrive when someone who wants to be a dick and uses the internet to answer every question correctly. I’d make the timer 10 seconds to avoid this. The game against the other person means less than what I take out of it because you can lose a game as the best player if your opponent has more coins to get a wider range or specific questions.

I wouldn’t have made this post without finding an aspect of Trivia Crack insightful. It grades how smart you are. It also does this with some pinpoint accuracy over the course of thousands of questions. I essentially look at it as a report card with 80% as a B. Answering 4 out of 5 questions correctly in a category is proficient in my mind. Here is my breakdown:

Sports – 84%
Geography – 80%
Entertainment – 78%
Art – 77%
History – 75%
Science – 70%

When I view these findings, I can’t but think how accurate they are. I obviously more of a sports guy than a scientist. I think art must be an easy category and I thought I’d do better in Entertainment. If you see scores into the 90’s, there’s a good chance the person cheats.

Now this gets even better because there is an achievements section that lets you see how well your friends score. That kid who used to be a brain in high school, no shocker he’s good at trivia crack. I find the results incredibly telling which is shallow of me but after seeing how well my results describe myself, they also show my peers. Let’s also make clear that being able to answer questions about trivia tells nothing about a person’s traits like kindness, empathy, and overall value as a person which is far more important when going through life.

By Tom Stortz|2015-03-31T13:37:05-04:00March 31st, 2015|My Brain|1 Comment

How Much is a Logo Worth?

I was watching the below movie (bonus points if you can get it) and noticed the Spike logo in the corner was sleeker with a creative line cut through the lettering.

Old spike logo

We had a situation at work where we didn’t have any high res images of our logo. We had to pay a designer to create a new logo for us. Starting from scratch, aside from the initial design, he came up with this.

Old logo

The outside text was all removed but for the most part it’s the same logo in a different shade of red. The S may be a little sleeker but it’s essentially the same without the lettering. How much do you think this logo re-work cost us?

I finished the Steve Jobs biography last week and my situation was similar (aside from everything being different) to his in that he needed to create a new logo for his company. He ended up paying $100,000 to a renowned designer, Paul Rand, to come up with this.

Steve Jobs company “Next” logo

If Steve Jobs was willing to pay 100,000 dollars back in the 80’s, there is obviously a strong desire in one of the greatest minds of this generation to create brand awareness and a company “image”. How much is worth to a person is very subjective. An image that represents your company for decades is more than an $100 image anyway you look at it. Anyone out there have any experience with logos?

By Tom Stortz|2015-03-27T08:19:57-04:00March 27th, 2015|My Brain|1 Comment

Image > Quality – Beats by Dre

An article about Dr Dre’s Beats explains that the headphones cost $14 to make and sell for $450. TIME Magazine ranked Beats by Dre as the second to worst headphone brand out of 18 in terms of sound performance last month.

While Beats by Dre may be made for cheap and have questionable sound quality, the brand is a marketing juggernaut. Beats by Dre owns an 27% of a headphone industry that reported $1.8 billion in sales last year. (Allhiphop.com)

What does this tell us? That these two guys are geniuses.

Dr Dre and Jimmy Iovine

The music business? LOLOLOL

In all fairness, just because it costs $14 in raw materials doesn’t mean it takes into consideration all marketing and packaging expenses. Either way, people are paying a huge premium to be recognized as “hip”. I hate the word hip but it works better than cool here because by buying these headphones you aren’t being cool; You’re being stupid paying a huge premium for an inferior product. Hip means you are trying to be a part of a crowd. A crowd that shows that product research is an after thought.

Beats were bought by Apple for $3.2 billion last summer. I always believed that higher quality products would rise to the top but this is foolish thought. People would much rather make a statement than use a quality product because it feeds the ego. Who can forget Dr Dre drinking a bit too much and almost ruining a huge deal.

Top Reddit Comment:

dr dre is a genius. he realized that since nobody is buying music, they will be spending their money on rediculously priced headphones

My Favorite Comment:

Its all about the look and the fact that you can “afford” beats by Dre. You don’t need to be rich if you can look like you are rich

By Tom Stortz|2015-03-18T10:46:17-04:00March 18th, 2015|My Brain|1 Comment

Mission to Mars

I’m honestly floored by the idea of traveling to Mars. Not floored by traveling the idea but floored that so many people are excited and willing to drop Earth lives to live Mars lives. This article on Yahoo outlines the journey of volunteers who want to start life on Mars on a one way trip.

There were 200,000 potential candidates of which 100 are being selected. The allure of this trip is to start life on another planet. Some scientists believe settling other planets is the best hope for human survival. Here’s a quote from a candidate:

Not actual candidate.

“I think either you get it or you don’t,” she said. “I would equate it almost to seeing Mt. Everest for the first time. Here is this hostile challenging environment, and either you feel a yearning to climb it or you don’t. And if you don’t, I don’t know if–that I could ever explain that to you.”

10 years is about the time they hope the shuttle will take off. Skeptics believe it is a suicide mission that is going to cost 50 to several 100 billion dollars.

My Mars Take

I get it. Why limit yourself to one planet when you have the first opportunity to settle life on another one? It’s exciting. To think that humans have been on the earth for 200,000 years should put some perspective on time. It’s taken this long to get to this amazing point where we have the technology to travel to a planet 200 million miles away. It’s history in the making and you’d be forever known for doing one of the most meaningful missions ever for mankind. I get it.

I was going to write a paragraph on why I think it’s ridiculous but I really don’t. Human beings are destroying Earth and for humans to exist, maybe they do need to colonize new planets. I believe there are other life forms out in space. It’s too big to think otherwise. Space travel is obviously one of the most difficult technologies to understand and harness because it involves a huge amount of uncertainty and an enormous cost financially and putting lives at stake.

Holy shit! This looks awesome. I can’t wait to go.

I personally would not be the first person to volunteer. Let them figure out how to keep a space shuttle in space for 7 months and land on a tiny planet before I sign my name. Are there luxurious beach resorts on Mars or just piles of rock and no water. No thanks. I’ll live my meaningless life here on Earth.

By Tom Stortz|2015-03-06T09:00:24-05:00March 6th, 2015|My Brain|9 Comments

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