@MattMerk@mastodon.social
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

MattMerk

@MattMerk@mastodon.social

I work in the #movies. I've done #VFX in the #StarTrek universe, made it possible for Tom Cruise to find precrime clues in #MinorityReport, and now I have a little boutique company that does #3Dtracking and #matchmoving for even more movies and streaming (née "#TV") shows.

I mostly lurk on social media, but enough about me. How are YOU doing? Drop by and say hello!

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MattMerk, to random
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

Shout out to everyone else who doesn’t celebrate Mother’s Day, for whatever reason you don’t .

MattMerk, to writing
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

An excerpt from an email I just sent: “By the way, Aristotle’s POETICS is absolutely NOT an easy read, so when you hear Crag Mazin [a pretty successful Hollywood writer] say that, just know he’s lying to you! … unless you are already an expert on Ancient Greek society, dithyrambic poetry, and music of the lyre. Then it’s a breeze.”

MattMerk,
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

@WTL It really is, and Craig's "How to Write a Movie" episode is absolutely pure gold. But he's just plain wrong about Poetics being an "easy read." Or I am dum. (Could be the latter.) 😂

MattMerk,
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

@WTL I was actually talking about just that podcast, and exactly that episode. Craig recommends reading Poetics, and that’s when he says, “It’s an easy read. You’ll finish it in about half an hour,” then calls it, “a good bathroom book.” 😂 Not one bit of that is true!!!

… except for maybe the good bathroom book part. 🤣

MattMerk, to filmmaking
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

A friend who works for one of the big studios just sent me a screen capture of his bank balance after getting his paycheck direct deposit. The accidentally paid him 19 million dollars. This just happened. I am still laughing.

[Edit to add very important hashtag.]

MattMerk,
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

Update:

slothrop, to random
@slothrop@chaos.social avatar

Apparent Jack Dorsey did or said something. I‘d just like to remark:

Fuck that guy.

MattMerk,
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

@slothrop Corollary: https://bitbang.social/@NanoRaptor/112413658242913985

MattMerk, to random
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

I just had a conversation with a guy who said, “Yeah, well I’m a capitalist.”

So I asked, “Okay, how much capital do you have?”

Boy, oh boy, does that question put things in perspective. He became a caricature of an old Warner Brothers cartoon character, trying to compose himself as he fumbled for words, all while he avoided actually answering the question.

So I simply repeated the question. I highly recommend.

MattMerk,
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

@martin_piper Why, am I claiming to be a capitalist?

MattMerk,
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

@bodhipaksa Spot on. And Stockholm syndrome is a great guess.

MattMerk,
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

@Deus Replied to me? No, not risky.

MattMerk,
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

@Dutchinvestor Is your home a property you rent out to others? How many cars (or “other” items) do you own, and are any of those cars (or “other” items) things you rent out to others? Do you think personal and private property are the same thing? Do you think “capital,” “wealth,” and “money,” are synonyms in the context of a discussion of economics?

See? This is why we can’t have nice things. 😆

Adam_Cadmon1, to random
@Adam_Cadmon1@mastodon.online avatar

If you had never seen a camera before and had no idea of the concept what would you call a camera lens?

MattMerk,
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

@Adam_Cadmon1 Still a lens, I suppose. In “camera lens” the word “camera” functions as an adjective, and lenses predate cameras, so, yeah, a lens?

StillIRise1963, to random
@StillIRise1963@mastodon.world avatar

It’s so shocking to me how we’re letting extremely wealthy people kill the future.

MattMerk,
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

@StillIRise1963 Ironically, a measure of just how much pain people can tolerate. The wealthy have always tested our societal pain threshold. How long before they finally hit it … this time?

MattMerk,
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

@StillIRise1963 For sure. Wishing we all had a lower pain threshold seems counterintuitive, but I really think it would help.

MattMerk,
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

@StillIRise1963 I think you really hit on something there. We have all been force-fed this myth of the toughest position is to bear any pain without crying (at least for boys), good people just grin and bear it, we must always be positive, or we're a "bummer." The saner thing would be simply saying the truth when things hurt. The even more sane thing would be to listen to people in pain. This rugged individualism thing needs to fade away.

MattMerk, to random
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

[And, POOF! Deleted. Because I can't allow that kind of shame to haunt me here on Mastodon! 😂 ]

virtualbri, to ukteachers
@virtualbri@mastodon.online avatar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEJ4hkpQW8E

Normally I'm not a fan of TED Talks, but this is a barn burner.

MattMerk,
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

@virtualbri Yeah there's a lot to scream in agreement with in this barn burner, and then there're the big eyebrow raisers.

Anytime anyone says "... my colleague Jonathan Haidt," yeah, that's a no from me dawg. In fact I just posted about that guy. I could say more, but I'll just move on. (Yang is the same.)

A negative income tax? "Genius!" Um, know who else was a fan of that framing? Milton Friedman. Yikes! 😬

And there are a few more, but as I said, A lot to cheer "YES!!!" to.

MattMerk,
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

@virtualbri For me, it's refreshing to see some of these topics/solutions move into the Overton Window. These are definitely things that should be talked about (especially because of how easy it is to debunk Social Security is "bankrupting" the U.S. economy), but because some of his bullet points need to be addressed.

As you said, "I don't agree with all the solutions," but many are pressing issues we need to address.

MattMerk,
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

@virtualbri And thank you for posting it. This was a good watch!

MattMerk,
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

@virtualbri I saw a lot of TED content for a while because my cinematographer friend oversaw the shooting in the earlier days (and even wrangled me into a little of it). But yeah, it's now basically pseudo-intellectual DAVOS for the wealthy who love the smell of their own think-farts. 😂 "Thank you for coming to my TED talk," indeed!

But YES, YES, YES, to the discussion of policy and not personalities!!! More of that, please!

MattMerk, to random
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

Science fiction has clearly established a direct pathway to the human brain is through the ear canal. This pathway is also always accessible by any kind of worm or bug-like creature. These are just uncomfortable facts.

aral, to random
@aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar

May the 4th be with you.

Via @RadicalGraffiti

MattMerk,
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

@aral @RadicalGraffiti Ahem! In keeping with Yoda’s natural speech cadence and patterns, I submit this superior version.

plaguepoems, to random
@plaguepoems@mastodon.social avatar

When they tell you
(and they will tell you)
that only cowards
wear masks in public
reply by telling them
that in these dark times
the bravest thing
any of us can do
is take care of each other.

MattMerk,
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

@plaguepoems Or say what I say: "Fuck you. I just got through chemo and radiation therapy, which destroyed my immune system, which is none of your business. So again, fuck you."

Or you could just tell them you know me and care about infecting me with an illness, adding one more, "Fuck you."

Chrishallbeck, to random
@Chrishallbeck@mastodon.social avatar

An audiobook that is 8 hours of breathing and page turning with a surprised “Oh, out loud?” right at the end.

MattMerk,
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

@Chrishallbeck Or a 37 hour version of that. Because it exists. It’s the audiobook of Lonesome Dove.

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