Archive for 2005
Pandora
A few people have mentioned Pandora around, and after checking it out, I’ve got to give them props (and most likely $36 when my free trial ends.) It’s good stuff, and I think my favorite part is breaking down an artist or song into little keywords like “subtle vocals, tonal melodies, etc.”
Wackiness definitely ensues when you cross two unrelated artists. I popped in Thelonious Monk and Franz Ferdinand. The Hank Mobley/John Coltrane track that’s playing now is frickin’ sweet. For serious. I must own this.
A side note: 85-year-old guys who stop in the middle of the intersection because they’re lost should not be allowed to drive. Ever. (I plan on being dead long before 85, or in the home. A message to my future grandkids, who will undoubtedly read this in 2060: Do us all a favor. Put the pillow over Grandpa’s face. If anyone asks you why, blame the Communists on TV. I’m sure that will still work.)
My mom just called me from the ER back home since such an elderly gentleman did such a thing, even though the light was green. Naturally, he’s driving a Lincoln Land-Tank(TM). Guess who’s car gets totalled AND who goes to the ER AND who gets the ticket? That’s right. Mom. Guy could have been going backwards and foaming from the mouth and my mom would have still gotten the ticket.
I need a weekend off from my weekend off
Long Columbus Day weekend coming up. Here’s what I need to do:
Edit: It’s Monday 12:18. Here’s what I still need to do before tomorrow/this week.
* Finish My Resume
* E-mail Resume to IBM
* Discrete Math Test (oh crap… just remembered this one)
* Comp Arch Lab
* Comp Arch HW
And the stuff I did or didn’t feel like doing:
* Mail Tax Return (Friday 10:50 AM - DONE!)
* Wash my Car Forget this. It’s going to rain until 2009.
* Get a Haircut
* Dry Cleaning (isn’t this always on a to-do list? It’s like having a baguette in a grocery bag. It’s always there. I’ve never in my life eaten a baguette. Apparently, I am alone in this.)
* Playing Basketball
* Going out for dinner and a concert (it’s a cappella over at BC, Liz, if you’re still wondering.)
* Playing Football Nix nixed this. (Ok. That’s the only time I’ll ever use that joke.)
* Cheering on my NFL team
* Cheering on my NCAA team
* Cheering on my NHL team
* Cheering on my National Lacrosse League Team (well, maybe not….)
* Shopping? (Maybe next weekend)
* Something Else I *did* do something else. It was a fantastic something else.
In other words, this weekend is going to be long.
Edit: In other other words, I procrastinated all of the stuff that *really* needed to be done until Monday. Kudos!
Really Good Mood
Lately, I’ve just been in a good mood. I don’t really want to think about it: I’m enjoying it hugely, and I don’t want it to end. I have positive thoughts, I catch myself smiling, I dance when people aren’t looking (and sometimes when they are). I think it’s the people I’ve connected (and re-connected) with in the past week. It’s something I didn’t realize until now: It’s good to have friends that don’t go to Olin.
I’m sure sometimes it seems like I don’t post happy stuff on here: I’ve commented before on how much easier it is to vent on a blog than it is to post when you’re in a good mood.
I hope this feeling lasts.
Fallout
Last night, a large number of e-mails were sent to the randomness mailing list. (Of course, if you’re just hearing about this, welcome back from your coma.) These e-mails, a long thread on politics, the seperation of church and state, the ten commandments, and so on, were all pretty tasteless, right from the beginning. At the expense of not getting everyone who should read this to read it, I’ve opted to talk about it here rather than innundate the mailing list with another barrage of e-mails.
A lot of things made last night worse than it should have been: people looking for distractions from work found it in, of all places, their e-mail inboxes. Randomness has long been touted as “the place where all other e-mails go”, but flamewars have no place anywhere, including Randomness. People will disagree. People will taunt you if you disagree with them. With lots of smart, fast-typing people, this effect multiplies. One of the great lines I’ve heard another Oliner say about Oliners is “We’re all a little too smart. Whenever we get into an argument, we’re already thinking about the next thing we’ll say in response to what they’re saying now.” Last night proved this.
What made me so mad? The fact that, for a large part, people didn’t care how much they were abusing the list. Thing the first: If you’re going to respond to an e-mail 30 seconds after somebody else sent it, take the time to delete everything they said. I have it already from their post. Even if you’re directly quoting someone, take that small snip and put it in the body of your message. Most of us have basic time-telling skills. If I don’t understand your post, I’ll assume it’s either 1) total bullshit or 2) referring to a previous e-mail.
Point 2: Think about what you’re saying. Flamewars happen because of the anonymity of the medium you’re using. Would you really tell someone to fuck off if you were looking them face-to-face because you disagreed with what they were saying? Probably not. And, directly related to this, think about the audience you’re trying to reach. There’s no way to win a flamewar. Regardless of how thoughtful, well-put, and well-researched your point is, the other side is pretty stuck on their convictions. They’re not asking for your opinion. 99 times out of 100, their mind is already made up. Don’t waste keystrokes trying to change it.
Third: Personally, I think it’s total crap to tell people to go elsewhere. Don’t tell people to sign up for the politics mailing list. Instead, tell people to send e-mails back and forth with no lists in the subject group. In other words, the “Reply to All” button is sacred. If you can’t tell the difference between “Reply” and “Reply to all”, ask me and I will gladly remove the button from your toolbar.
Fourth: Most important to this particular discussion, remember that Olin is a community built on openness to change, understanding, and respect for others. Not everyone at Olin is Christian; not everyone here believes in God. I, for one, respect your right to believe what you want provided that you never force that belief on me. Don’t insult me by trying.
Maybe you feel this is excessive. Maybe it is. But these are my views on the subject. If you read and agree, pass the message on. If we don’t talk about it, it’s likely to occur in the future. I doubt any of us want that to happen.
Music
When someone asks me for my musical tastes, I get caught like a deer in headlights. I’m sure this will come off as haughty, but it’s really tough to explain how varied and rich my musical tastes are in the normal course of a conversation - I think I could give a three hour lecture on the subject and still only scratch the surface. Usually, I give the most terrible of cop-out answers: “Everything”. Which is, more or less, true. I really will listen to anything once, and given how cheap storage is, I have a hard drive full of music both mainstream and unique. If I could save only one thing in a fire, this music drive would be it.
But, in reality, “Everything” is just a way to avoid what would happen if I rattled off my favorite artists: blank-stare central. See: I pretty much like everything, provided that the “everything” in question hasn’t been played on the radio in the past 5 years. Sometimes, this means it’s old (as is the case with the Blues, Jazz, and Folk I like), most times, it’s just too obscure or too niche to make it to a big-market radio station. Classical music and Classic Rock are the only things that don’t fit this profile.
I’m (like a segment of the population that’s fortunately growing) driven away from the Top-40 mega-pop stations with the fake artists that lip synch on SNL and have fan clubs and full-page pullouts in Tiger Beat. That would be a good way to describe my musical tastes: I like bands that don’t have fan clubs. I need to remember that for next time.
I could say I’m repulsed by pop music because it’s about the money and being famous, but some of the music I like (U2, Queen, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles) has transcended the “art” category into money-making land. Most of the music I like though, especially Jazz, wasn’t really about making money. I almost through Classical in there, but, in a sense, Classical music is all about making money: the most prolific composers were the ones who were able to make their craft artistic as fast as possible and sell it to the highest bidder. Hmm, now that I think about that, I’d like to investigate the rise and fall of classical composers.
There are some nights when I love to throw on a Bernard Herrmann score, or a Miles Davis LP, or Frank Sinatra, or a hundred other artists that lived (and in many cases died) before my time. Where does this strong connection to the past come from? I don’t know, but I love it.
Again, I really do like everything. I’ve got tons of current albums. But the music I *really* like, the CD’s that find their way into my playlists time and time again, are ones most people haven’t heard of.
And that’s just the way I like it.
Writing
I’m more or less disgusted with myself in the past week. I kept (or keep, as the case may be) putting off writing something for an essay contest I’d like to enter. The deadline is tomorrow, Friday. I’ve got an idea, but I don’t think I have time to write it. And I’m really annoyed about it. What I really need is a shift in the way I do things. I don’t get a chance to write much anymore (if at all) because it requires so much energy to start and an equal amount of energy to maintain. I know, it’s a cop-out to say that. Frustrated is the word that comes to mind first.
As much as I’d love to get away from my daily life and read and write, I just can’t do that. Writing is the escape for me, not what I’m trying to get to. Unless there’s a major change in my lifestyle (read: no more bills), I don’t see myself becoming a professional writer. Then again, I don’t really know what I see myself doing, so who knows?
Tangentially… I wonder if seeking balance is such a good thing, creatively speaking. It may be good for your chi, but there’s nothing in the center. I try to balance between happy and sad, solitude and company, work and play. When I move to far in one direction, I snap back towards the center. If I am too lonely, I seek company. If I’m too melancholy, I seek mirth. But having balance leads invariably to boredom. (Warning: Engineer speak follows.) If all we do is follow a sine wave, going from bliss to sorrow, from productivity to laziness, we develop habits. Eventually we lose steam; eventually, our sine waves dampen to a flat line.
There is comfort in the center of life, to be sure, in that warm feeling of routine, of normalcy. But life is more than that center, that sweet spot, that creamy nougat filling. It’s breaking things, taking risks, adding a kick every now and then to that sine wave that defines life. Flaubert’s maxim was “Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.” I used to agree with that, but now I’m not sure. I believe more that your experiences should define your work, that some semblance of the human spirit, as you see it in your daily life, should make its way into your passages. Harness the creativity around you and channel it when you write. Put down all you see, both good and bad. Don’t aspire to be merely regular and orderly in your life. Be extraordinary, and original, and your work will follow.
But what do I know? I’m just a frustrated writer who can’t make a deadline.
Opera & Konfabulator
I had a few hours to kill (i.e. I wanted to put off my Comp Arch homework as long as possible) so I downloaded Opera (now free) and Konfabulator (also free). Of the two, I know that I’ll end up using Konfabulator way more than I’ll use Opera. Personally, I think it’s extremely tough to move from one browser to another, especially when you’ve spent who-knows-how-many hours tweaking it like I’ve done with Firefox. I love my setup, and the few little gripes I have are so minor, it’s not worth spending more time tweaking a new browser. I’ll download the new IE when it comes out, because there are still sites out there that insist on IE-only surfing, but I don’t think I’ll get to know Opera at all.
Konfabulator, on the other hand, is worthy of the hit in performance it takes up. One, it’s suuuper pretty. I love how everything just fades in and out, has custom colors, etc. And some of the stuff is useful. The basic calendar alone is worth the free price. Getting information without opening a web browser is really nice. And, like my favorite part of Firefox, if you need something extra, download it and run it. That’s it. No messy add-on packages. Good stuff.
Careers
I got asked to take a survey (did everyone?) on the new careers site here at Olin. I’m extremely impressed, it’s a nice-looking site with lots of content - a rarity in these parts (*cough* projects.olin.edu *cough*) Props to Sean and the PGP staff for the hotness. I know I’ll be using it in the coming months.
Relationships
“There are a lot of women I’m interested in learning more about here [at Olin], but I don’t think there’s many I’d like to date, at least right now.”
I was talking to someone the other night, and I just threw that thought out there. As soon as I said that, I realized how much sense it made. That, and a couple of other things that happened this week, really made things fall into place. I’ve gotten upset a lot of times about not being in a relationship, but it’s not that bad. I think about it a lot in part because a lot of my friends are in relationships.
Would I like a relationship? Definitely. Am I going to force it? No. Am I going to worry about it? Not anymore.
Day 1: “This is pretty cool. I don’t think I’ll spend a lot of time on here, but, it’s nice to finally have it.”
Day 2: “Hey! I can make a profile with all sorts of interests. Hmm… I’ll just add a few. Ok. Make that a lot of things. After all, I’m multi-interested, right? So, I’ll just add everything I’ve ever been interested in ever.”
Day 3: “Neat! I found all the people I went to high school with. I haven’t really talked to them in a while, but that’s OK. I’ll just add the three or so that would really remember me. It’s not the number of friends, it’s how friendly you are with them, right?”
Day 6: “I look at other people’s profiles, and they have so many friends! I’ll just add a couple more so I don’t look desperate. But that’s it.”
Day 6, 10 minutes later: “Click! Add to friends! Click! Add to friends! Whee! So much fun! Click! Add to friends!”
Day 6, 20 minutes later: “Click! Add to friends! Click! Hmm.. I don’t really remember her. But she goes to an under-represented school. I need more people from Texas! Add to friends!”
I’ll be honest: I’m still doubtful I can reconnect with people from high school. But we’ll see.
