Forward

Jose's formal invitation to write a foreword arrived in my inbox on July 2, 2008. It had attached a word document of the book you now hold in your hands, more or less. The invitation itself was a glowing beam of friendship. In fact, to quote directly from this email, it was "quite the lovefest."

Actually, it may do to quote some parts of that invitation verbatim.

"Credit is given when it is due, and, as you have often done since we've been friends, you managed to give me a great idea."

"This whole foreword idea is something that I think could go very well, due greatly to the fact that you will be one of the individuals contributing. I may not appreciate your throwing things at me, but I sure as heck appreciate your opinions and friendship. Even as I've proven to be an incredibly ridiculous individual over the years, you've stuck with me (and I with you). You, as well as anybody else, have great knowledge of just who I am as an individual and what many qualities, tendencies, and obnoxious habits make up the person I've turned in to. You actually go beyond that, in being basically my best friend during the oh so important developmentally high school years - very influential position to be in. And so, the invitation."

"Your contribution to it would certainly cement this project as an important and worthy one, and I would love if you could grant me your words of wisdom. I hope that you will treat this seriously and not falter in the direction of ego-stroking, as I know you are far more than capable of writing an honest and incredible assessment of both what makes me who I am and what has gone into all of this nonsense that I've written in the past couple of years. It would be an honor to have you contribute to this project of mine."

Appreciative words, aren't they?

And so, as with any personal project which I like the idea of, I am excited to do and will require significant effort on my part... I sat on it. I told Jose I would have it done by the end of Summer. Summer ended. I told Jose I would have it done within the first few weeks of school. Midterms rolled around. I told Jose I would have it done shortly after the winter break began. Christmas is over. I return to school in a few days and Jose's book goes to the press at the end of January. The glowing has turned to glowering and the lovefest is over.

Now I've gotta write a foreword. But before I make any mention of Jose's work, I will begin by discussing the man himself and my relation to him. I don't know how many people can claim they have friends they've known effectively their whole lives. I've got a handful of them and Jose can lay a good claim to being primus inter pares. When you've known someone for your entire life your relationship is different from those people who have not watched you grow up and known you in all the awkward unfitting stages of adolescence. After a certain point the relationship will reach a stability level not often known in other relationships. Months can pass with no contact and no damage is done to the relationship. Our behaviors and interactions can sometimes seem ritualized, and indeed it is. It is a script that has been written, revised and rewritten thousands of times over the course of our lives. All the perceivable complications that can arise between two individuals have come, gone and come again. These relationships are second only to close family in their complexity. Our friendships are ones where the stillness of the waters bespeaks a depth rivaled only by the most long lived marriages. And other crap.

This is not to say that these life-long friendships are in danger of withering under boredom or sameness. The dance of friendship is one that tells the whole lives of the participants. To participate in it is not to see two individuals whose mutual interest in each other has been completely sapped, but instead two individuals relishing the story of their lives in microcosm, every nuance and act echoing across the years, building a rich biographical tapestry. I cannot claim that our friendships will last forever, but they have come a long way. From the bright-eyed childish play of near-toddlers, to the struggling awkwardness of teenagerdom and now the new-found swagger and cocky independence of young adulthood, my friendships have travelled across a span of time that often pre-dates my memories. I can say with a fair degree of certainty and more than a modicum of hope that these friendships will continue into the winding-down complacency and gentle conformity of middle age. After that, who knows? Never trust anybody over 30.

In any case, I am glad to share a relationship of this caliber with Jose, and I was looking forward to spilling the beans on his more fumblingly awkward and stumblingly stubborn moments in this introduction, where I was promised complete editorial freedom. However, in reading over much of the manuscript you hold now in your hands I discovered Mr. Mondragon has willingly offered up some of his weakest moments voluntarily. This not only speaks to the sincerity of his writing, it also saves me the breath.

Instead, I am free to wax poetic about some of Jose's more admirable traits which he has soooooooo humbly hidden in the subtext or put into the mouth of a skeptical narrator. Jose Mondragon is the most loyal person I know. He will stick to you like Thanksgiving stuffing sticks to your ribs. I can say this with certainty because I've thrown a lot of heavy or sharp objects at this man, and I've still been asked to write an introduction to his book. I can't say the same for Thanksgiving stuffing's new book, Profiles in Bread.

Jose Mondragon is a good lover. Or at least he tells me so. I don't know if his photograph will be on the dust jacket for this work, but try to remember that this is no honky you're dealing with. He is a latin lover; a real Casanova. More importantly, Jose Mondragon knows how to love. He knows how to give his heart up, reading the novella contained in this volume should convince you of that. A writer needs a few things if he is ever going to get anywhere in his work. First among those things is a readiness and enthusiasm for bearing the weaker parts of your soul. A writer must be honest with himself, and he must be honest with his readers about who he is. Jose is the most honest of men.

I have some criticisms of the work you hold in your hands. Primarily, Jose stubbornly refuses to revise or edit his work. Yeah, that might be one technique for writing, but I hold to the Bob Dylan principle; you've got to know the rules before you break them. The protagonist of the story is hopelessly self-conscious and the narrator is a flimsy (albeit amusing) foil of the main character- equally self-conscious but instead of big hearted he is a jerk. This sounds like the formula for an interesting and engaging contrast, and indeed when the narrator isn't chastising the reader for even reading the work it provides for a neat juxtaposition. I must be honest, however, when I say that I think the concept could have been handled much more deftly- the kind of improvement that comes with repeat revisions and extensive, self-critical reworking. Writing does not make one a writer. Rewriting does.

The flip side to that is the spontaneous and heartfelt descriptions of love (nay, Love!) that a peppered across Mr. Mondragon's works. Here is a man who genuinely believes in Love, and believes in in because he has experienced it. He is not afraid to say exactly what that is like to him. In these passages the first-draft quality of writing works completely in Jose's favor. He sounds like a love-mad fool who is talking faster than he can think, trying to express an emotion greater than him which is merely being channeled through his all to often abused heart. This is the meat of Jose's writing, and if he continues his philosophy of writing without looking back, I would hope he plumbs the depths of these feelings more, because it is where his true muse lives.

So, dear reader, go forth into this work not expecting a Keroac or a Shakespeare. Chances are if you are reading this you are already familiar with Jose, the Man. Although some of what you encounter in this may be myth, what you are reading is 100% Mondragon. It is Jose, warts, schnozz and all. Good and bad, light and dark. It isn't polished and it's by no means perfect. But it is real and authentic and genuine, and that may be the most important thing of all.

Voicemail Inbox

I made some experimental music.

Lyall W. - Voicemain Inbox: End of Summer '08 - End of Year '08

NEU!: NEU! '75

Neu! is a german band from the 70s. In 1975 they released their third studio album, appropriately titled Neu! '75. It would be the last album they released for 20 years. Let's see if it's any good.

1. ISI (5:07)
The forward-moving "motorik beat" (wiki) provides a compelling backdrop to a lovely little piano and shimmering synths. This is a very pretty song that feels relentlessly optimistic. Am uplifting track that doesn't push it's luck and never becomes schmaltzy.

2. SEELAND (6:54)
Neu! slows things down. This song just washed over me, which isn't a bad thing. If 'Isi' is the bright optimism of a new day, 'Seeland' is the reflective calm at dusk. There's something very victorious about this song too, in a refrained, stately way.

3. LEB WOHL (8:51)
Not really feeling this one too much. Very spare track; maybe if I could understand German I would appreciate it more, since the focus is on the lyrics. They must have asked the drummer to step out for this one, since they replaced him with a metronome. Maybe he went down to the beach and recorded the sound of the waves which are a constant in this one.

4. HERO (7:12)
Now here's a song that ROCKS. A total freak-out psych jam that goes hard and doesn't quit. Sweeeeeeeeeet.

5. E-MUSIK (9:58)
This song takes the 'ROCK' theme of 'Hero' and elaborates on it making for a long-form jam that, well, rocks. The last three minutes of the song are given over to some ambient noodling and tape-fuckery, but it's all good.

6. AFTER EIGHT (4:44)
This is punk rock, and that's a good thing. A solid closer

Neu! '75 may not be for everyone. The first half tends toward the ambient, and even though the second half is solid rock, many listeners have no patience for a song over 3 and a half minutes, which I every song on this album is. Listener prejudice aside, this album is cohesive, engaging and highly enjoyable.

Give it a spin.

---

I've been putting my thoughts into writing sporadically since high school. A lot of it ended up on the web, most of it isn't anymore. But I've still got it all. Someday, I'll read through it all and realize that somewhere in there... I became an adult.


That's cool.

GTA IV: The Vibe

* R. Kelly - "Bump n' Grind"
* Mtume - "C.O.D. (I'll Deliver)"
* Alexander O'Neal - "Criticize"
* RAMP - "Daylight"
* The Isley Brothers - "Footsteps in the Dark (Part 1 & 2)"
* Jodeci - "Freek'n You"
* Lloyd - "Get It Shawty"
* Jill Scott - "Golden"
* Loose Ends - "Hangin' On A String (Contemplating)"
* Freddie Jackson - "Have You Ever Loved Somebody"
* Dru Hill - "In My Bed (So So Def remix)"
* Marvin Gaye - "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)"
* Minnie Riperton - "Inside My Love"
* Barry White - "It's Only Love Doing Its Thing"
* C.J. - "I Want You"
* The S,O.S. Band - "Just Be Good To Me"
* Ginuwine - "Pony"
* Raheem DeVaughn - "You"
* Ne-Yo - "Because of You"

DOWNLOAD:
>> http://www.megaupload.com/?d=0UNTWKHO <<

Disclaimer: All mp3s are for evaluation purposes only. Files must be deleted within 24 hours or someone will be really upset!

GTA IV: Electrochoc

* Padded Cell - "Signal Failure"
* Black Devil Disco Club - "The Devil in Us (Dub)"
* One + One - "No Pressure (Deadmau5 Remix)"
* Alex Gopher - "Brain Leech (Bugged mind remix)"
* K.I.M. - "By The Time They Reach You (The Bag Raiders Would Have Stolen Your Wallen And Changed All Your Money To Euros And Gone Shopping In Paris Remix)"
* Simian Mobile Disco - "Tits & Acid"
* Kavinsky - "Testarossa Autodrive (SebastiAn Remix)"
* Chris Lake vs. Deadmau5 - "I Thought Inside Out (Original Mix)"
* Boys Noize - "& Down"
* Justice - "Waters of Nazareth"
* Killing Joke - "Turn to Red"
* Playgroup - "Make it Happen"
* Liquid Liquid – "Optimo"

DOWNLOAD:
>> http://www.megaupload.com/?d=A30ZLE25 <<

Disclaimer: All music is for evaluation purposes only. You must delete all files within 24 hours or your computer will melt!!! It's the law!!!

GTA IV: Fusion FM

* David McCallum - "The Edge"
* Roy Ayers - "Funk in the Hole"
* Gong - "Heavy Tune"
* David Axelrod - "Holy Thursday"
* Grover Washington, Jr. - "Knucklehead"
* Aleksander Maliszewski - "Pokusa"
* Ryo Kawasaki - "Raisins"
* Marc Moulin - "Stomp"
* Billy Cobham - "Stratus"
* Tom Scott & The L.A. Express - "Sneakin' in The Back"

'Pokusa' is a direct rip from the in-game radio because that was the only copy I could find. As usual, the rest of the tracks are the uncut album versions.

DOWNLOAD:
>> http://www.megaupload.com/?d=NFG13JIN <<

Disclaimer:
All mp3 files are for evaluation purposes only. Music should be deleted within 24 hours or the RIAA will fuck you.

GTA IV: The Journey

* Global Communication - "5:23 (Maiden Voyage)"
* Terry Riley - "A Rainbow in Curved Air"
* Steve Roach - "Arrival"
* Michael Shrieve - "Communique 'Approach Spiral'"
* Jean Michel Jarre - "Oxygène, Pt 4"
* Philip Glass - "Pruit Igoe"
* Tangerine Dream - "Remote Viewing"
* Aphex Twin - "[z twig] aka [b+w stripes]"
* Ray Lynch - "The Oh of Pleasure"

DOWNLOAD:
>>> http://www.megaupload.com/?d=FYP7Q63R <<<

Disclaimer:
All mp3 files are for evaluation purposes only. Music should be deleted within 24 hours...

GTA IV: Radio Broker

* The Boggs - "Arm in Arm (Shy Child Mix)"
* Cheeseburger - "Cocaine"
* Get Shakes - "Disneyland, Pt 1"
* LCD Soundsystem - "Get Innocuous!"
* The Prairie Cartel - "Homicide" (999 cover)
* Juliette and the Licks - "Inside the Cage (David Gilmour Girls remix)"
* U.N.K.L.E. featuring: The Duke Spirit - "Mayday"
* The Rapture - "No Sex For Ben"
* Tom Vek - "One Horse Race"
* Teenager - "Pony"
* Les Savy Fav - "Rage in the Plague Age"
* White Light Parade - "Riot in the City"
* Deluka - "Sleep Is Impossible"
* The Black Keys - "Strange Times"
* The Pistolas - "Take It with a Kiss"
* Ralph Myerz - "The Teacher"
* Greenskeepers - "Vagabond"
* Whitey - "Wrap It Up"
* !!! - "Yadnus (Still Going to the Roadhouse mix)"

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ESRTPC11

WHAT UP

So it's been like a month since I wrote here. A lot has happened. My computer was in the shop, I got a cold, didn't get a job (including being rejected at Blockbuster- fuck that.), saw some old friends, saw some new ones, had my wisdom teeth removed, ran out of money, ran out of clippings and beat GTA IV.

Yeah, lots of accomplishments.

I've read some bio and done some work around the house for this project thing and uh... made my fish tank look really cool. No, really, it looks really cool. I have Leopard again and I'm slowly knocking things off my 'Computer To-Do list" which isn't very exciting. I read the preface to the Critique of Pure Reason and maybe I'll post my notes later. I haven't played much guitar. Elsewise, I haven't accomplished much and since I have nothing interesting to say (I wrote down some ideas for interesting things to say) I'll keep this short and end it.

OUT.

The week in review.

Before I begin. Posts like this are why I do not share this blog with many, nor do I currently mind that it has a low to non-existent readership. These posts are more for my own organizational good than anything else. However, they are helpful in that they get me to write something, which, I hope, will lead to me writing other things of substance.

This blog is turning into a bizarre to-do list with a self-therapy session overtone.

Anyways, here's the run down for that list of goals I posted last Sunday.

• I didn't write a post that night, but who cares.
  
• Also didn't write that letter until later in the week. It was good timing.
  
• I don't think I got any guitar in this week. No no, I played once for like 20 minutes. I think what I need to do is go through the mess of papers from lessons and organize them (regardless of teacher) by difficulty, then go though them spending a day or two on each section. This will help bring me up to the level I should be at, without having me jump into it right away. I'd also like to retry Mitch's improv approach with better backing songs.
  
• My room was cleaned in stages. It's clean right now, decorations are probably going to find their right place eventually. I spent a lot of time in there today, and realized that I've always tried to make my room an extension of my personality, and my room at home is finally achieving that with a mature design sense. Or I've just accumulated a lot of cool shit over the years and now have an idea of how to put it together.
  
• I haven't read a Bio chapter yet, ostensibly because I 'don't have the syllabus yet.' Whatever, I should just read the chapter on viruses. Viruses are awesome, and I have so many questions about them. To make this work I need to get a notebook (Or binder?), cook something really good then sit down with Bio at the kitchen plastic table and chow down while I study. I also still might have an adderall pill from Matt.
  
• I did one better than not apply at enough places, I didn't apply at any. Big fail. I need to go out and hunt every day after Tuesday when my Mom gets home. And I need to just go into Blockbuster and see what's up. I could do that, but I'd want some daytime shifts.
  
• Sometime that week I rode home from Jack's on my bike at 5 AM and did some reading that wasn't Lem, which was fine.
  
• I couldn't find a way to have blogger publish my del.ici.ous feed. But I didn't search with the keyword 'publish.' Hmmm...
  
• I actually wouldn't be surprised if there isn't some kind of a way to make a computer publish information to a blog. It's not something I'm going to look deeply into doing for some time.
  
• I didn't read any Kant. Maybe before I dive into Bio.
  

My plan this week is to focus on the paper. I've got some appointments to make too. I did that math, and if I bust my chops, I can make the money to buy the things I want this summer. Doing that AND having spending money- to do that I need a job. The summer's social life is steady, which is good. I'm always more introspective in summer, but I can't let that be to the detriment of my social life. Also, buy a bike lock. My mom said she'd pay for it. My bike goal this week? Well, I need to start riding around with a bag, carrying stuff. But that's not hard enough. Maybe bike part of the way to the lake? (take the bus the rest?) Hopefully an opportunity will present itself. I need to get to the apple store at some point and look into getting that keyboard fixed. I should try calling first. I should also call Kilpsch and see about that bent-ass pre-amp input.

That's my plan, yup.

Kantent

Unpacking today I came across Immanuel Kant's seminal work Critique of Pure Reason, and thought:

"Damn, this would make a good book box."

The only problem? I would feel bad destroying a book I hadn't even read, especially such an important (read: expensive) work as the Critique.

"But what am I going to store contraband in then?"

I concluded the only way that I could properly deconstruct the Kantian turn (to my heat's Kantentment) would be if I read it first. But I'm not going to try to read this book in long sittings, as I'd rather not develop narcolepsy. Reading it in short sittings every once in a while means I'll forget the line of reasoning that brought me to the point I'm at. So I've decided the best way to digest this high-cholesterol thought-clot is a page a day.

Hopefully this will work better than my goal of reading a page of the dictionary a day. Although both works have about the same amount of narrative thrust, I feel like Kant's will be a little easier to hang on to. I'll try to post a short synopsis of each page I read, to keep from reading without thinking. There is also the reward of being able to destroy something at the end.

Maybe I'll read the first page tonite. First, I'm going to stare into space like I have a head disease. I Kan't wait!

And another thing...

In addition to there being no elegant method of tagging music,* why can I not have my computer aggregate the total of those tags every week and post it to this place?

THESE PROBLEMS NEED SOLVING

*There is a somewhat elegant solution using Quicksilver (Mac).

Delicious.

I need to find a way to have it so whenever I add a link to del.ici.ous, it posts it to my blog. Can I do that?

I'll investigate later today.

And The Results Are In...

These are the goals I had.

-Apply for a job at AT LEAST ten places
-Put air in my bike tires
-Clean my room (aka, unpack finally so I can stop dressing myself out of garbage bags)
-Totally fucking beat Ape Escape. (N.B: this goal is not important)
-Read a chapter of Biology
-Play some guitar

-3. Real win, champ.
-Yep. 'Bout to go ride.
-Yessir. Well, the first wave. The second is just some books, clothes and posters.
-Nope. Pretty glad I didn't. On the last level. It turns out that game is actually boring and games like GTA IV are not.
-No. I don't know what chapters to use, which is a bad excuse.
-No. Grr.

How can I improve my results? Stagger the goals.

TONITE:

Write a blog entry not just about the 'dealing with my stuff' side of my life.

BY MONDAY:

Write a letter to Rose.

BY TUESDAY:

Play some guitar.
Finish cleaning my room.

By THURSDAY:

Have read a Bio chapter
Have called everywhere by me and asked if they were hiring, and have applied at the ones that are. Also check back in with the places I did apply.

SOMETIME THIS WEEK:

Ride to Jack's house on my bike.
Read some Lem.

And that's the run down.

How To Download Music From The Internet

A Guide for the Confused.

Reposted from Facebook.

I've had some people asking me how to find music lately so here are the answers to those questions.

I find most of my music these days using Google Blog search.
Step One. Pick an album you want to download. Two, go to Google Blog Search and type in the album name/artist. Look for the links that don't look totally sketchy. Unlike a web search, you might have to dig a little deeper than just the first few results. Alternatively, just check out the aggregates in the links below. They look good.

The downloads are usually uploaded to rapidshare/megaupload/zshare, etc. If you're looking to download a bunch at once, go for the links that aren't to rapidshare since they make you wait a while between each download. (And enter a bunch of fucking cats) You can do a couple downloads in a row with Megaupload, and other sites have even high limits. Most of these sites have prohibitions against downloading more than one thing at once, but there's generally a variety of options of where to download from.

Here's the fun part. Once you find the album, which is usually on a blogspot blog, look around the rest of the blog, because they'll have things related to what you were looking for and it's a good way to discover music. These blogs also have long lists of links on the side to other music blogs. I usually open all the cool sounding ones in new tabs and go apeshit downloading everything I can that sounds good or looks interesting. Here's a list of blogs that I've found cool stuff from.

General Experimental Music

Mutant Sounds They write reviews too, which is cool. Lots of Krautrock/related.
Rusted Noise Industrial stuff
Silent Noise Control All sorts of weirdness.
Because God Told Me To Do It Weird shit.
Tonton Mahood More of the 'rock' side of experimental, but still a buncha weird shit.
Deleted Scenes, Forgotten Dreams All these experimental blogs have cool weird stuff, actually.
DualTrack Recently posted a horror movie starring Tiny Tim as a clown, if you're into that.
Experimental, Etc Lots of good stuff here.
Museum of Imaginary Histories They write reviews too.
The Thing on the Doorstep I ended up with some cool post-punk (I think?) stuff from this blog.
A Closet of Curiosities Lotta field recordings on this one.
Astraal Tempel RhytHymns Drone, krautrock, anything with a more meditative vibe.
Electronix Obscure

Grab Bag

Staring at the Apocalypse
It's Coming Out of Your Speaker
Infinite-Machine Everything from Jazz to Anarchopunk. There's a bunch of Crass up right now.
Psychotic Leisure Music More than just the name.
Square Dancing in a Round House They categorize by genre on the side-bar, which makes it easy to explore.
Anticonsciousness Hipster stuff, I think. I dunno?
In the Crowd! "Soul, Blues, Jazz, R&B, Ska, Punk, All Stuff and More" to quote.
Querbeet From William Basinski, Miles Davis, Flipper, Einsturzen Neuabaten, Devendra Banhart, Brianiac. Just to name some shit.
Seven Spaces of Empty Place "Pop/Psych/Folk/Noise/Jazz/World and other things..."
Chronic Music
Musical SchizophreniaIndie/Rock/Hip-Hop
Caucasian Tabloid
Steal Bars Check out the Ratatat remixes. Also, they have some rare Girl Talk.

World

Awesome Tapes from Africa Legit.
Sun of Latin Music
Abracadabra- LPs do Brasil LPs from Brazil.
Brazilian Nuggets More on the Brazilian music tip.
Reggae Roots Downloads One love, man

Funk/Soul

Funky16Corners This guy knows what's up when it comes to all things soulful.
Iron Leg The 'Other Blog' of the Funky16Corners guy. Focuses more on Garage/Psychedelia. Check the Digital Trip archives.
Sounds of the 70s More than just funk, but that too.

Hip-Hop

The Smoking Section For more mainstream rap. They're good at posting stuff that's going to be popular before it is, for those of you concerned with that.
Beats and Blood Mostly hip-hop. Currently some Glam-Rock goin' on.
Real Hip Hop Beholders
The Essence of Hip Hop
[ [ dope blog fresh ] ]Both dope and fresh, I suppose.
The Hip-Hop Collection
Diggin in da (indie)cratez Unheard of vinyl rips
Hip Hop - 12"
Underground Hip Hop Collection Blog
Original Underground Hip Hop I had no idea that Nas was 'underground,' but so it goes.
Underground Rap US & French
Strickly 4 th G's Please, no non-G's.
The Best BLOG of Hardcore RAP
Strictly Beats Instrumental stuff
Underground Dirty Rap Shaolin Soul
Underground Hip-Hop for Dummies Only for dummies.
Another Sound Mission Lots of influential artists/albums

Electronica/Dance

The Sexy Result The only decent strictly electronica/dance blog I've found so far. It's alright.

Aggregates

Link Talk This is a forum. Referred by Elliot. Looks like they have a ton.
Chewbone
XChannel

Wishlist

This is stuff I want that I either haven't found or haven't looked for yet. Lemme know if you find anything.
-Movies. Apparently you can download whole movies in good quality online. Where? How?
-80s/New Wave, beyond the usual litany of 80's one hit wonders- or the albums the good ones are from.
-Disco, not the mainstream stuff, but stuff from when Disco was still an underground thing
-Good Dance Music, whatever you think that means.
-Some Masters at Work, Frankie Knuckles or other early Chicago House music
-Jungle, not the watered down stuff. ShyFX and related artists would be good.
-Oldies, pop and rock & roll from the 50's, 60's. It'd probably be in a torrent, but I'd like some sort of compilation that's basically all the stuff they play on oldies radio
-The GTA IV soundtrack
-More Trip-Hop

Alright, there it is. That's how I find music online. Hope that helps those of you that were asking. If you have a method for finding music, what is it? What are some good sites? Let me know.

Don't be an elitist fuck, share music. Being greedy doesn't make you cool, it kills music.

Any questions, ask.

See Me In A Year, You!

I went to see the Audiologist today, since when people talk to me I can't hear them very well.

My hearing is normal, but it's borderline. Literally, there's a line on the chart that demarcates the split between 'normal' hearing and shitty hearing. My hearing is pretty much on that line.

The diagnosis? Come back in a year. It's possible my hearing has always been that way, or it could be diminishing. We'll find out in a year.

Stuff like that makes me think about where I'll be in a year, and more mysteriously, who I'll be in a year. If nothing changes drastically, next year I'll be enjoying the last 'summer break' of my youth. Will I have an internship, or even a job? Will I know what I want to pursue by then? Will I still have the same friends, be in the same relationship? What will I look like, how will I feel about myself? How much money will I have?

More directly, how will my hearing be?

These are questions I can't answer. (But I can guess: no, yes, probably not, yes, hopefully, handsome, good, still not enough, the same.) A year is a good benchmark to see change and growth in oneself, but it's hard to prognosticate that far in the future. Who knows, by June 2009 we might have a Black President. Or perhaps by June 2009 the terrorists will have won.* Who can say? Not me. I can set some goals for the end of the week, though:

-Apply for a job at AT LEAST ten places
-Put air in my bike tires
-Clean my room (aka, unpack finally so I can stop dressing myself out of garbage bags)
-Totally fucking beat Ape Escape. (N.B: this goal is not important)
-Read a chapter of Biology
-Play some guitar

That's all. That's it. There's nothing else.
*Terrorism always wins.

Reflection

I had a lot of idle time at work tonight.

There's a difference between realizing you can fall in love with someone, and actually falling in love with someone. The transition from one to the other is all a matter of timing.

M.I.A.

Academics and responsibilities at school are preventing me from updating this as often as I'd like. But I'll return when the workload lessens.

I promise?

Thesis Statement

People who use samples shouldn't have to pay for shit- but they should be encouraged to record what they used so the transmission of society from a mass culture to a multimassive culture can be better documented.

Blahblahborama

The longer it takes for the Democratic party to pick a nominee, the more entrenched each both Hillary and Obama become entrenched in the status-quo. (Never mind the fact that Hillary is already pretty status-quo). Running a campaign this long cost $$$money$$$, and money don't come cheap. Lobbyists and corporations hold the purse strings, and to get at them the candidates are gonna have to make concessions. AKA, no hope or change. Only despair and stagnation.

Let's also not forget that even if you elect a black dude who kinda reminds people of JFK, only time can heal the wounds of the Bush Presidency. Whoever inhabits the office next will be distrusted and ineffectual. It's like a 'bad president' ripple effect. What people who want to move beyond the last 8 years of poor job performance should look for is a strong Congress. But that'll doubtfully work either.

Hope. Change. Ha ha ha, yeah right.

...and on the Third Day

Happy Easter to you, if you're into that kind of thing.



I saw a Justice concert on Thursday. It was awesome. One of the loudest concerts I've even been to. I've never experience sound on such a tactile level before. Diplo opened for them, he was great too. The bass was ridiculous. Good time over all.

Is there a program that let's you tag mp3s? Not id3 tags for identification purposes, but keywords, the way blog posts have tags. The kind of tags you can make a tag cloud from. This would be a great feature for either the filetype, or a media player to incorporate. A feature of this nature would have multiple benefits.

It would allow easier playlist creation. I like creating playlists, but the way iTunes is set up, it's hard to create a flexible playlist. It's also annoying because a good playlist is complied organically, as one finds songs that fit together thematically. Usually I get an idea for a playlist when I think of two songs that would work well together. With a tagging system I could label them both, say "smooth," then move on. When I hear more songs that fit that description I can tag them as well. When I want to see how far along that playlist is, I can just pull up all songs labeled "smooth."

Now sure, I could just make a playlist on iTunes called "smooth" and throw songs into it, but it doesn't allow the same flexibility. First, a tagging system would reduce clutter as the playlists would just be a function of searching, not a slew of seperate lists. It would also allow much greater flexibility. The two examples linked to above are both hip-hop songs. However, my collection of songs labeled smooth will cross many different genres. Assuredly, the interface will support boolean operators. (Something iTunes has lacked for too long.) I could limit my playlist to songs with the genera hip-hop, but with the tag 'smooth' This would allow playlist creation to be extremely flexible. Suppose I want songs tagged "one-hit wonder" but only from the 80s. Easy. What about songs tagged both "smooth" and "love song"? Simple.

Boolean logic could extend beyond the realm of tags as well, allowing a user to generate playlists with AND, OR, XOR operators, etc. I could make a playlist of songs with the genre "Electronica" but exclude everything made before 2000, or only songs that are 'remixes' would be included. The functionality of a feature like this is open-ended, both as an organizational and informational tool.

So why hasn't anyone done it yet?

Reminder

I would like to lucid dream. If you do enough 'reality checks' during your waking life, you'll be more likely to check if you're dreaming when you actually are. To help remind myself to make reality checks a habit, I made a wallpaper. It's horribly garish.

http://www.zshare.net/image/9165610c3acce6/

Imajinary Alphabyt

hay guise eye haev a blog now lol

I've decided to try blogging again. All my attempts at blogging in the past have failed, and I think I know why. I was going about it the wrong way.

Why Blog?
I like the idea of blogging. I want to write something that will be published and preserved for people to see. Writing for an audience. On the other hand, it's also a forum for me to write for myself, to indulge myself- to journal, if you will. Informal blogging straddles the midpoint between public presentation and private confessional. In my previous blogs I've tried too hard to publicize it, and then either lost interest when nobody (so far as I could tell) read it, or stopped writing under the pressure to create consistent content (Catch 22). On the other hand, journal's I've kept have been pointless rambling bits of naval gazing that quickly loose all structure or readability. There is no impetus to be clear, so clarity is quickly lost.

A good blog should strike the midpoint between these two extremes. It should be a forum for the author to jot off a quick idea, or share a thought on the fly. It should also be a place for more in-depth meditations. At least that's what I hope to achieve with this blog. I like the fact that I'm not addressing myself; I'm addressing an invisible (possibly non-existent) audience. When you write with an audience, it changes the tone of your writing. Notably for the better. All the same, I'm not limited to posting only things I think strangers on the internets will think is cool, I can write about whatever I want and not give a fuck what anybody thinks. It's a good balance, and hopefully a productive one.