keeping sane, one word at a time
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Male; Age 25; Likes Ultimate Frisbee;
Here's a favorite quote of mine from Tropic of Cancer p.99, "I have found God, but he is insufficient. I am only spiritually dead. Physically I am alive. Morally I am free. The world which i have departed is a menagerie. The dawn is breaking on a new world, a jungle world in which the lean spirits roam with sharp claws. If I am a hyena I am a lean and hungry one: I go forth to fatten myself."
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Saturday, April 26, 2003
Update on the RIAA vs. Grokster/Kazaa/Morpheus trial: Peer2peer Wins! (from WEEDS)
On a different note, i've recently been introduced to a typesetting program named LaTeX. Most are familiar with the popular MS Word typesetting program; LaTeX is far more capable. Word is what's called WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get), while a LaTeX file looks more like a programming language with bits and pieces of sentences (or whatever you're writing) sandwiched between typesetting commands. Of course, the finished product is as professional looking as something in a book. An amazing piece of completely free software. I'll try and use LaTeX whenever I can from now on.
Media of the Good Type: Here's a link to my ftp server, password is: my hometown. I recommend "apology_256", "honda_120" and "Star". Real Player, Quicktime and Windows Media are needed.
9:01 PM
Tuesday, April 22, 2003
HAMMERTIME I'm going to a part-time job tomorrow to "have a little chat" with the boss and i think i'm going to be fired. It'll be the first time for that. I don't much like certain aspects of the job, or the boss and my true feelings have surfaced in a number of ways - some subtle, some not. To top it off, i have to pay almost 500 bones in income tax this year. And I blame easter. Holidays interfere with routine. I love the routine. However, life seems to prefer to shape us with the demolition sludge over the pocket-sized rock hammer. Actually, i might have stumbled across a way better part-time job for the summer, more money, less hassle. But it's not guaranteed yet, so i'm wondering if i have to grovel tomorrow or not. I'm not the grovelling type, but daddy needs a new rear derailleur.
8:25 PM
Friday, April 18, 2003
HYENA I can't go one run, bike or stroll in this town without getting yelled at by motorists. It never fails. The guys typically yell clever phrases like: "FAG!", "LOSER!" and just today i think it was "GEEK!" (that ones pretty rare). As they drove by screaming I ran out into the street and challenged them, but they didn't stop or turn around - they never do. It's because they're cowards. It's funny because I can remember the guys who used to do it when I was growing up. I bet they're still cowards today, that doesn't change. You can't change it. I think about it now and pity them, but in the heat of the moment I won't remember that. I'll only see red. I'm going to carry a stone in my right hand now, a nice, sharp throwing rock. Now i won't have to wait for them to stop. The stone WILL fly true... and hopefully marr their car (or parent's car) in some way. If i'm really lucky they'll stop:) and you can bet they won't have to chase me.
Here's a favorite quote of mine from Tropic of Cancer p.99, "I have found God, but he is insufficient. I am only spiritually dead. Physically I am alive. Morally I am free. The world which i have departed is a menagerie. The dawn is breaking on a new world, a jungle world in which the lean spirits roam with sharp claws. If I am a hyena I am a lean and hungry one: I go forth to fatten myself."
6:40 PM
WEEDS I remember the good ol days of the original file-sharing programs. It was my first year of university and the mp3 craze was slowly blanketing the campus. Of course the most notorious program was Napster and as soon the RIAA caught wind of Napster and profit margins were threatened the big guns were pulled out for termination. Napster had to die! Napster's popularity grew out of its combination of a simple GUI and reasonable file transfer protocol, but it had one fatal flaw - all files flowed through a few major servers. Which meant, after a trial Napster's plugs could be and were pulled and the RIAA sat happy, no doubt satisfied with the outcome. For the general mp3 population this was definitely a 'blip' in the timeline, a moderate set back that pushed users to all sorts of alternatives. One of the alternatives would turn out to be the nastiest of weeds for the RIAA; a weed, based on a program called Gnutella, that would eventually flourish with all sorts of names like: Morpheus and Kazaa. Kazaa and Morpheus are peer-to-peer file transfer programs, which basically means no main servers exist and there aren't any plugs to pull. And even if the RIAA could manage to find the companies or the people that own and manage these programs and try and sue them, there'd be no way to shut down the home user without shutting down the internet. I guess you can look at it as a 'natural selection' of the fittest program and the RIAA as a catalyst for the evolution. They kicked themselves... hard:) and spent lots of time and money doing it. There was a critical paradigm shift that never happened in their boardrooms and offices; they needed to realize that we were in love with the technology and not the free music.
2:02 PM
Saturday, April 12, 2003
Melodies of the good type: Fading Collection - the Prince, Echoboy - Comfort of the Hum
9:57 PM
The long days of summer are back. I'm thinking about scheduling more rock climbing into my weekly activities. It works a nice balance of muscles and works them hard. Ive been climbing once every two months or so for some time now and appreciate it more everytime. We've got a pretty good local spot for indoor climbing and i've got a good bunch of cats to go with. It's been 3 days now and my forearms are stilling stinging from my lack of technique:) Currently my technique can only be described as one lengthy chinup that lasts much of the climb. Climbing shoes are bloody expensive. The ones i'm looking at are $119 - $135 depending on where you buy them. Man, for what you're paying, we're not talking about a lot of material. We'll have to wait and see what Mr. Income Tax Refund has to say.
6:09 PM
Wednesday, April 09, 2003
Spring Forward and lose an hour. It's like jetlag without actually going anywhere. Really digging Invisible Man now. Can't put it down. Can't write blog. Ahhh!
9:05 PM
Saturday, April 05, 2003
Don't have much time to liberate any thoughts tonight as it's already 1 AM. I'm listening to the song Halcyon and On by Orbital. This same song has been in my mp3 playlist for years and i've never once grown tired of it. I've been known to get stuck in musical ruts, but this isn't the case. That damn song is just that good. Nine minutes and twenty-one seconds of pure goodness. It's honey. It's a cherry covered in honey:) It carries you far far away. It's a song for the escapist. Of course, i'm aware Halcyon is the name of a drug, but i've never taken it. And i can't see that drug doing this song any justice. I imagine it akin to those pills popped in Brave New World. I can barely remember it now. Something about travelling to the moon and back. Yeah, moon pills.
10:05 PM
Friday, April 04, 2003
I was reading a story about a CNN medical journalist who performed brain surgery in the field. I feel like I know more about the status of every single journalist and THEIR story, rather then the real people of this war. It's funny, these news networks seem to be shining more light on themselves. And they cheapen the sacrifices of everyone else. I'd be surprised to hear if any of the soldiers cared for their presence. Can you imagine? You're there risking your life, running full-tilt towards Baghdad with machine gun in hand and you glance to your left to see a body-armored Dan Rather crusing alongside in a golfcart, catching a little air off the tops of dunes. Or you're an Iraqi civilian, you've been witnessing the destruction of your city, maybe the death of family and there's Dan Rather and his golf cart, trying desperately to hide his eagerness at all the potential stories. I have no sympathy for war correspondants of the "buckaroo" type. I've devoted it all to the real victims of the war, the Iraqi people and Coalition soldiers (this is hypothetically speaking, if i was going to devote anything cause this war really doesn't affect me at all). The first Gulf War brought us the "smart" bomb. The second war has brought us the "embedded" journalist. One of them was a good idea.
9:06 PM
Thursday, April 03, 2003
The Status Quo: for posterity
A war, or better term: invasion, began fifteen days ago in Iraq that has divided the world. On the one side, the invaders, the American and British. On the other side, France and Russia. And somewhere in the middle lies the rest of the globe. And while people are dying in Iraq, both Coalition and Iraqi, back home the world is following the very pulse of the frontlines; America is boycotting anything French and France is boycotting anything American; Canadian MP's have recently been engaged in all sorts of sillyness, regularly being quoted as slandering Americans, or America's motives. And as all this is going on, all eyes trained on the gulf; a quiet, lethal virus named SARS is nipping at the heels of a distracted race. And of all the motives, of all the reasons for all the actions currently in circulation I think SARS' has the purest.
6:58 AM
Wednesday, April 02, 2003
We will discuss the freak. I've had this idea in my mind for quite some time, so bare with me. It's going to take some time to sort it out properly. The freak can be obvious or shrouded. But I'm mostly concerned with the shrouded type. This freak is a product of fear - the fear of being discovered. When properly harnessed, the freak can be a great source of power, the power to focus. This makes the freak a valuable resource at times because in this age focus is a rare commodity. I believe a great many 'improvements' to the race have been made on the back of this freak. Which is kind of ironic, because the freak would be considered an outcast, an 'undesirable' state of being, something to be shunned. Which brings me to the conclusion. Our race is, on many occasion, thrusted, propelled forward in art and science by a creature that nobody wants or likes. I wonder if this will make any sense in the morning?
9:03 PM
Tuesday, April 01, 2003
As one who's never believed in the stereotype that separates the sexes as two completely different entities - finding one an insensitive map reader, while the other an emotional chef. I think I've finally straightened out the model in my mind enough to leave it alone for the rest of my life, the whole scenario summed up in one phrase, "the same conciousness trapped in two different bodies under varied circumstance". There! Done! Don't have to ponder it ever again......... yeah right!:)
9:27 PM
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