June 27, 2003

Article: Art From Hell

Following a link in Scoble's Weblog yesterday, I came upon a site that really moved me - as strange, amazing, upsetting and at times downright morbid as it is.

This seemingly innocent-looking young woman, Asya Schween, has produced and posted on her site a series of self-portraits that are equally as vainly narcissistic as they are horridly disturbing. With a sense for imaginary make-up (or a talented make-up-artist friend), creative prop selection, a digital camera, and amazing Photoshop wizardry, she has created a seemingly endless succession of haunting images that could easily rival movie stills from Wes Craven or David Lynch's most ambitious projects. Continued ...

And ah, I see - I'm seemingly not the only one pestering Scoble with requests of turning wheels within Microsoft.

It boils down to this: We all (ok, most of us) rely on MS's software in one way or another. That's just a simple fact. Yet the company seems so gigantic to us, so unapproachable, that if we can't find solutions to our problems, we turn to a) the web community (websites, newsgroups, chat rooms etc), b) Microsoft's website (although I've rarely found anything of true help or interest there - again due to its intimidating vastness), c) our geek friends nearby, or d) we take the desperate measure of paying an expert to help us solve our particular problem.

Truth be told that before Scoble started working at MS, I would have never even dreamed of directly talking to the company. It's kinda like the government - your chances of getting help are so slim, that you'd rather not even bother.

So having someone there in the vast maze of Microsoft-ness who is willing to help, knowing that there is a faint glimmer of hope on the horizon - that's simply invaluable.

I wish Microsoft would put forth an effort to put more people like Scoble into place - people who are community-oriented, who you can trust to make wheels turn when it counts. I bet their respect in the tech community would rise dramatically on the barometer ...