Tag: Friends

  • The Adorkable Misogyny of The Big Bang Theory – Pop Culture Detective

    I’ve taken a video from this channel as a jumping-off point before, I’m back to do it again. Pop Culture Detective just keep bringing up such great points of oddly misogynistic characters and story-lines in popular culture, that I can’t help but pick up exactly what they’re putting down, and examining new TV and movies I watch with a more thoughtful view.

    The video embedded here mainly discusses the Big Bang Theory as its example of male characters who are part of the problem in a male-dominated culture that tries to gain power by belittling the women around them (women aren’t the only groups subjected to this kind of treatment in popular culture, or on this show in particular, but let’s save that for a future discussion).

    Having gone to grad school with as many or more extremely talented female scientists as I did male ones, I can definitively say that gender should absolutely not be a factor in deciding who can be successful in any particular career path. I was fortunate to not have seen any of this directly in my lab, but working in grant administration now, I see that gender bias is a huge focus of federal science funding, especially as one rises in the ranks of academia.

    It’s jokes or insults at the expense of someone that focus on traits that are innate to a person that really get to me the most. Denigrating or belittling someone based on gender, sex, race, sexual orientation, or other traits that either come pre-determined at birth, or are fully determined internally later on in life is an attempt to exert power over someone, and generally nothing more.

    There is a big difference between making a joke about somebody based on a stereotype – taunting someone saying “you’re gay” or “be a man” – and making a joke subverting those stereotypes or tropes, even if the joke itself hinges on an inferred call to those stereotypes.

    This past weekend, I was watching an episode of Friends subverts expectations about homophobia. The show on the whole, especially in the early years, is actually pretty bad about this, and many jokes in this vein don’t hold up all that well (sorry, Chandler). But, in this episode, Ross and Joey fall asleep on the couch together while watching Die Hard.

    When the two wake up, they realize they took a nap together, and both are horrified at the prospect of it ever coming up to the group. However, as the episode goes on, both Ross and Joey realize more and more that the nap they took together was one of the best naps they’d ever had. Even though their friends finding out about this might lead them to be ridiculed, the two good friends are considering planning another (completely non-sexual) nap together.

    At the very end of the episode, Joey tells Ross he’ll be taking a nap in his apartment upstairs, implying that he would be taking a nap and that Ross would be welcome to join. Joey leaves, and a few seconds later, Ross surreptitiously follows him. I really love this depiction of intimate male friendship in popular culture, especially in the late nineties/early 2000s, because you just didn’t see it that much.

    Both Joey and Ross were willing to potentially be ridiculed for napping together, but they valued the experience so much that they did it anyways (and based on the final scene, both friends seemed to be satisfied by the nap). The fact that the very end of the episode involves Ross and Joey being confronted by the rest of the friends upon waking up tells me the writers weren’t all the way there yet, but Ross’ reaction at the end tells viewers and the rest of the gang that both he and Joey knew what they were doing.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqvjnMk9EO4

    I love that moments in pop culture like this still happen, and it’s refreshing to see more and more shows and movies tackling personal moments and stories from a wide variety of viewpoints. I think there’s hope that one day characters like those on the Big Bang Theory will not be misogynist stereotypes, and that the writers won’t feel like they need to make characters assert dominance over one another to get laughs anymore.

  • A list of the apps on my phone that can make calls

    Doesn’t require phone number:

    • FaceTime
    • Phone
    • Contacts
    • Facebook Messenger
    • Snapchat
    • Google Hangouts
    • Messages
    • Whatsapp
    Can/does use your phone number:
    • Phone
    • FaceTime
    • Messages
    • Chrome
    • Safari
    • Mail
    • Notes
    Announced, but hasn’t shown up yet:
    • Slack
    As it turns out, pretty much every remotely social company has a way that people can talk to one another in a phone call-type manner. Many of these apps also let you use video chat, but people have no idea. For instance, you’ve been able to make phone calls (and recently, video chats) with any of your Facebook contacts on your phone, for such a long time. But I can routinely blow people’s minds by telling them that, because approximately nobody* knows about this feature.
    Snapchat updated their app yesterday to revamp chat, and added the ability to send video clips or make voice calls to any of your Snapchat contacts who’ve added you back. But none of the features in the update are actually new capabilities your phone didn’t have before, and I’m betting people aren’t going to be making use of this feature any more than they did, no matter how good it is. 
    If I were a gambling man, I’d put money on Snapchat continuing to grow at a rapid pace for quite some time. But people who already have a predefined way of communicating, like my generation and those older than me, won’t use Snapchat for voice calls because to us, the way you make a phone call is by calling a phone number.
    But the kids, they don’t obey these rules. They do whatever their friends are doing, and their friends don’t make phone calls to a phone number. That’s not cool anymore, at least not until their parents stop doing it.
  • The “Honeymoon” Phase of #JuliaRoberts2015

    The “Honeymoon” Phase of #JuliaRoberts2015

    Getting married has honestly been one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done. The idea of committing ones-self to only one other person for the rest of your life seems like the kind of thing that would be terrifying, but so far I have been completely fine with it.

    “The One Where They Got Married” #juliaroberts2015
    Posted by Jacquie Watkins on Saturday, July 25, 2015

    Even though the day-to-day events of Julia’s and my life since we got married are basically unchanged (finalizing wedding stuff obviously notwithstanding), everything feels very different. Getting home and seeing Julia’s beautiful, smiling face is that much nicer, going and running errands as she recovers from her excellent party on Saturday feels like no effort at all. I know we’re still fully in the “honeymoon” phase of the marriage, but I think we are both acutely aware of the fact that this is going to take work. More importantly, Julia and I should easily be able to put aside our minor squabbles and disagreements, and focus on what really matters, our life together and our mutual happiness.

    We are still fully entrenched in post-wedding business, like writing thank yous to everybody who was SO generous this past week, with their time and with their love, and our friends and family have proven to us just how much they care about our future together. I can’t wait to get started!

    At what point do we change #JuliaRoberts2015 to #JuliaRobertsForever?

  • Bliss (The Aftermath of #JuliaRoberts2015)

    Bliss (The Aftermath of #JuliaRoberts2015)

    Wow. There is nothing like a wedding to make a guy feel loved. I have about a billion thoughts and feelings going through my head right now, and I need about 4 more hours of sleep than I got last night, but it has all been so incredibly worth it.

    I’m going to need several weeks or even months to process this past weekend, and to sort out all the thank yous, acknowledgements, and hugs that my friends, family and everybody else deserve for helping to make Saturday the best day I’ve had, ever. This won’t be the last thing I write on the matter, and today it won’t even be very long. Due to the incredible depth of my distraction in the last week, my work has been somewhat neglected, so I’ll be focusing hard on making sure everything I need to do is complete before going on the honeymoon next week.

    I just want to say I am so very grateful to everybody in my life for the incredible amount of support, friendship, love and kindness I’ve received in the last week. I will never forget the way I felt and still feel; I have a blessed life.

    Pictures are just starting to trickle in, you can check out Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to see what people have been putting up. I’m just so excited to see what adventures will come next for Julia and myself!

    A photo posted by Brian (BL) (@mystical_wizard) on Jul 25, 2015 at 11:23am PDT
  • Feedback wraps Season 1, and #Taylorette1989 hits Phase 2 (Unwind Media | May 14-20)

    Feedback wraps Season 1, and #Taylorette1989 hits Phase 2 (Unwind Media | May 14-20)

    ‘Twas a busy week on +Unwind Media! We wrapped Season 1 of Feedback, which means Volume 1 of Feedback: The Music can’t be far off! As well as regular episodes of Ottawhat? and Future Chat, the next phase of #Taylorette1989 launched. I’m looking for a video or story about what’s special about my fiancĂ©e Julia, and stories about +Taylor Swift! I’d love to hear your favourite memories of Taylor!

    In this final episode of season 1 of Feedback, we discuss YouTube’s role in the fight against music loudness, the new Mumford and Sons album Wilder Mind…
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    This week’s episode features Keegan’s brother Branden On! He’s into all kinds of creative endeavours like acting, playing music, and drawing. We also hear…
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    This week, are Google cars less safe than human-driven ones, Nick uses his pirate voice several times, and we all lust after $1000 blenders (or do we?)…
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  • On Memory

    On Memory

    It’s been a while since I did a good old fashioned blog post.

    I’ve been doing a lot of hard-core thinking about big ideas the last couple of years, trying to figure out the best way to explore my thoughts on things that are really important to me but are hard to talk about in everyday conversation without people not wanting to hang out with you any more.

    The brain is a beautiful thing. Don’t waste it!

    However, today’s topic should only be tangentially related to this, and has more to do with the way my memory seems to have changed over the last few years, basically since I had what I consider full adulthood.

    I have always been told I have a pretty good memory, and I do have the somewhat uncanny ability to recall random facts from way deep down in my consciousness. It’s a fun party trick, until I overdo it and come off as pedantic or weird. Fact can only be so certain, and everything is subject to logical and never-ending scrutiny.

    It’s also worth considering that memory is a muscle, and things we don’t think about or which don’t fit into the world-view or thoughts we have tend to be forgotten or dismissed pretty quickly.

    For instance, I have heard that the healthiest way to drink bottled water is to purchase a bottle, empty the water inside (because that water has been slowly getting contaminated by the plastic in the bottle), refill the bottle with purified tap water from the nearest sink, and drink the new water. I heard that from a reputable source, but there are so many factors that go into determining the validity of a fact like that, there’s no quick and easy way to prove to somebody that it’s true. We also don’t know much about contaminants in plastic and what quantities would prove dangerous, with effects that might take 10-20 years to build up enough to notice adverse health effects or cancers.

    What was I talking about again? Oh yeah, memory.

    So, memory has been fickle with me of late. I’ve been told I have a really hard time remembering things, and maybe that’s true. But more often these days, I find that what really happens to me is that my memory of something actually stores multiple similar but distinct copies of something. I’m not sure precisely why that is, but I find it very interesting. To give you an example, say I am trying to make dinner plans with a group of friends, or even just one other person to keep it simpler. I might ask “What time would you like to do dinner? 5:30, or 6 PM?”. The person responds telling me that 6 works better for them, but then 20 minutes later, they tell me that upon consideration, 5:30 would actually be more suitable.

    What happens to me and my memory in this scenario? I create a memory to store the dinner plans I’m making, and I open a mental slot in my schedule for the evening in question. When they answer 6 PM, I store that in the dinner plans memory, kind of like a sticky note, and promptly stop thinking about it. Later, when I get the news of different plans for 5:30, I have to go back, find that original memory, and what ends up happening is that I put a new mental sticky note on the original plan.

    When I revisit the original memory to remind myself what time we’re having dinner, I find the memory with two sticky notes attached. I vividly remember making dinner plans, I can recall asking about times, but for the life of me, I cannot think about the 5:30 memory and the 6:00 memory and recall which is the more recent, and therefore accurate, memory.

    I don’t think this means that I have a bad memory, and maybe it’s more to do with the WAY I store memories and think about things than anything else, but this does cause real confusion in my life, and it leads people to believe that I’m forgetful, or not paying attention, when in fact having TOO much memory tends to be the cause of my problems.

    For a long time in the history of life on Earth, there hasn’t been much reason to remember things in order temporally, unless there is a strong emotion associated with a stimulus. When humans were in real danger from animals on a regular basis, knowing that sounds of shifting grass in a field meant that a lion was about to pounce might save your life. However, in our society today, we don’t get a lot of stimulus like that, and so there isn’t a lot of opportunity to tie survival to memory.

    Most of what humans “learn” when it comes to memory these days comes from repetition, It doesn’t help much with things like remembering if dinner was at 5:30 or 6 PM, or whether you wanted to eat our at a restaurant or stay in, but it can certainly come in handy when you’re talking about exercise, eating healthy, or taking out the garbage. We’re creatures of habit, and slow and steady wins the race.

  • This Week in Unwind Media (March 10-16)

    This Week in Unwind Media (March 10-16)

    This week on Unwind Media, I finally sit down with Damien and BL for another episode of Feedback! You can see them perform their cover of Uptown Funk, and we talk about all manner of musical history in episode 4. +Future Chat is still on hiatus for another 2 weeks, but now is the perfect time to get caught up on iTunes! Stay tuned for a lot more in the coming months!

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    In this episode, Damien, BL and Rob talked about their musical influences. From bands everybody loves, like the Beatles, to lesser known musical acts, like solo Paul McCartney.
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    On the show this week, we sat down with Michael Townsend, a software developer and founder of doublespeakgames.com, creator of two very popular online games, A Dark Room and Gridland.
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  • Feedback #2 – Songwriting

    Feedback #2 – Songwriting


    Feedback #2 – Songwriting
    Feedback is a monthly music podcast on Unwind Media with local musicians Damien and BL from Sons of Pluto. In this month’s episode, we discussed the song-writing process, and talk about some of the best and worst things about coming up with new music.
  • Ottawhat #34 – Jeff Salvail

    Ottawhat #34 – Jeff Salvail

    Check out this week’s episode of the Ottawhat? podcast. New every Thursday!

    In this episode, we sat down with Jeff Salvail, a physicist who has worked with quantum based technology and who also has a love for lasers.

    Ottawhat #34 – Jeff Salvail

  • Ottawhat #33 – Kate Morin

    Ottawhat #33 – Kate Morin

    Check out this week’s episode of the Ottawhat? podcast. New every Thursday!

    This week, we sat down with Kate Morin, a music therapist who grew up in Ottawa and now lives in Halifax.

    Ottawhat #33 – Kate Morin