May 2008
how i feel about the music business.
i don’t really buy music. oh, i’ll buy it if i feel the product offered (this doesn’t mean just the audio) is innovative, and i’ll happily pay for concert tickets, or merch, for any artist that has won me over. but paying for standard CDs, or mp3s? not likely. there are a lot of reasons, ethical and unethical, why someone could decide not to buy music. one of the big ones...
buying a suit, a rant on human nature, no one will...
i bought a suit last night, at an astonishingly reasonable price. now to get the pants hemmed, and consider having it tailored (still not certain if it needs it, but i’m leaning towards no, excepting pants length). the thing i find most interesting is that it’s supposed to be a bad thing that i bought a new suit when i did not have a wearable one, that all consumption that is not...
“The degree to which a woman has animal print in her wardrobe is the degree to...”
– Me (via claytoncubitt) this would indicate that cavalli actually serves a purpose, helping us all identify the crazies. and yet, it still doesn’t justify the mountain of tacky crap.
i guess i just haven’t had a lot to say this week. it’s been busy.
life is random.
i was discussing game testing with a friend, and how boring it must be. he mentioned that someone had once randomly found a way to access a part of the game that would have, otherwise, be completely inaccessible. i said ‘and it was like the matrix?’ i used to wear shirts from a brand called matrix. my grandfather saw me in one of them, once, and said ‘mah trix? what’s...
“..Your girlfriend wishes you could be this smooth/ I should teach classes on my...”
– Preview of lyrics for a new song called MAN IN DEMAND (via ry-knott) this is more or less distilled cockiness, and i like it.
“I guess a company that can convince millions of people to order their products...”
– simon billing, commenting on the dear jane sample blog about starbucks
Teen Decomposes Plastic Bag in Three Months |... →
shadowfirebird: ‘Plastic takes thousands of years to decompose — but 16-year-old science fair contestant Daniel Burd made it happen in just three months.’ Is there a Noble prize for the environment? I think the kid just earned one. sheeit, assuming it’s for real.
ludicrous question in the starbucks online survey:
was your experience uplifting?
yeah, why not. i had coffee and found inner peace. sure.
tiny irritations that are probably design flaws.
yo, TrekStor, maker of discount external hard drives (i think it’s a seagate in there, actually). in general, people don’t want the power cable to fall out of their hard drive. ever. why the fuck can’t i lock it in somehow, or, better yet, why does it come out at all? who wakes up and says ‘today is the day, i am going to unplug the power from my external hard...
lazy day, lots of blog edits / updates. →
this is what happens when you decide you should finally do all that stuff you kept saying you should do. the things i do last are inevitably the time consuming yet simple ones.
the broken gentleman.: 'the medium is the message'... →
the broken gentleman.: penny arcade, authenticity,... →
thesis of last post.
if someone is doing something damaging to you, draw attention to it, talk to them, disagree with them. don’t assume that everyone like that person, in a superficial or more concrete way, is your enemy. otherwise you’ve become a caricature, and your cause is failing because of it.
alternately, we could discuss the problem, instead...
dear world, indignantly referring to someone else as a ‘stick figure’, or lamenting a lack of ‘real-woman curves’ in someone else is generally interpreted by those not directly involved as saying ‘i feel fat and i hate myself.’ i am aware that as a man, i’m not really supposed to point this out. if you want to have an adult conversation, RL or online,...
oh god i love this jacket.
Guide to being a Gentleman in 2008 - Art of... →
buy by brian blog →
brian lost nearly everything he owned when the moving van in his driveway was taken. he’s keeping track of everything he’s bought since. nice look at sustainability and consumerism. via murketing.
whiteviolet: “The same goes for education. Average class size in schools in Newfoundland is 13.4 and 14.9 in Manitoba. In Ontario and Alberta, we go up to 16.6 and 17.9.” - Angelo Persichilli in “How Ontario Gets the Shaft: Equalization just tilts the scale to the point where we’re killing the golden goose” from The Toronto Sun, 2008-05-18, page O6 Um. What? Who the hell had classes with 18...
prediction.
the current US presidential campaign has been talked about ad nauseam as an example of how far american culture has come, with either a black man or woman running as the democratic presidential candidate. i’m calling it now - after this is all over, this campaign will be looked at as a clear indicator that when we strip off the finish, american culture hasn’t come that far at all....
Watch lucas the connoisseur on Vimeo (via Vimeo) my sister’s little boy refuses to say cheese. hilarity ensues.
Watchholding baby dayna on Vimeo (via Vimeo)
well shit.
i just realized i basically stole that last joke from the animated sequence in bowling for columbine. on the plus side, i like to think my phrasing is punchier than Moore’s.
Curious George publisher mulls legal action over... →
so. the guy who makes this shirt is ‘ultra-conservative’, and i have a theory as to why… maybe you can only behave like this in a place that has readily available guns. ‘america - racist with impunity since the invention of the revolver!’
A steep descent brings Clinton's plane to... →
hillary = fail. well, she’s either delusional, or straining to be a simulacra of successful. either way, it’s funny.
black students who study hard are accused of... →
via Stereohyped. this is depressing, but very common. something else i’ve noticed is that white people will openly consider black people ‘less black’ if they study hard, do well, speak well, etc. this used to piss me off to no end, which would mystify people. let me make it simple - if you think i am less black because i speak eloquently, or behave like the majority of people...
When I try to play a game aimed at the hardcore... →
ry-knott: This Song is called “the last offer” It...
"Word-of-mouth is not created, it is co-created.... →
Copyright Criminals Photos | Open Source Cinema -... →
as someone who considers a lot of his copyright crimes substantially more ethical than following the letter of copyright law, i’m going to get around to taking one of these pictures. supporting a failing, unethical, and offensive system just because it is currently the law is understandable, but doesn’t make the world any better.
“There is something really evil about taking thousands of the world’s smartest...”
– Fake Steve on Google and their use of the worlds’ smartest and brightest. (via henno) this is absurdly brilliant. alternately put, someone has to figure out the underpinnings of our absolutely ludicrous internet economy, as lame as text ads make it all seem, it’s a noble (ish) pursuit.
went out and bought a copy of ‘here comes everybody’, by clay shirky.
i feel like i’ve been learning just as much outside of school, just more entertaining stuff.
note to self’ make better use of cognitive surplus.
Torontoist: But For Today I Am A Boy →
in my opinion, blogs have the potential to deliver the same depth and quality as print or broadcast news. but it’s rare enough that i get excited when i see an good example, like this one.
Lazy Blacks For Obama
alexbalk: “‘I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on,’ she said in an interview with USA TODAY. As evidence, Clinton cited an Associated Press article ‘that found how Sen. Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me.’” if obama for one day denigrated...
Copyfight: Microsoft says Zune won't filter your... →
whoop. false information, sorry.
Copyfight: Microsoft's antipiracy protection may... →
this just in - microsoft hates customers even more than it loves money.
my interpretation of hillary clin-tron.
It isn’t about the math, or about what’s best for the party, or the voters in Michigan and Florida, or for the US in general. She won’t quit because, in her mind, it is HER turn, and she is OWED the nomination, and subsequently the presidency. Hell, she’s probably still stunned that Obama challenged her, because it was more than clear that she had forecast this election as...
on the plus side, new roots album.
i’ve always operated in emotional cycles. nothing too exciting or dramatic, just a six to eight month break between points of extreme self doubt. i complain, feel down on myself, and move on. the cycle has been getting shorter and shorter. at current count, it’s been three weeks between the last time i felt like shit about my direction and my aspirations, and now. i am having a...
