Kablammo!
Summon all ghosts of the sword! Attack! Muramasa!
Whenever you’re ready
August 31, 2005New York Times pieces that are even marginally science/tech-related are notoriously spotty–my college physics professor read the weekly “Science Times” section for its comedy value, and a recent article stated, without a trace of irony, “Having experimented with Half.com five years ago, when the site was new, I knew it offered the easiest, most streamlined interface available to sell used merchandise at fixed prices.” Five years ago, as I recall, Napster still existed, outpost.com offered free overnight shipping on all orders, and pets.com was buying expensive TV spots (and still existed).
Anyway, a recent article appears to have gotten its facts somewhat straighter:
“There is a very dark, black cloud in this game. It’s not in the hands of kids who live next door to you; it’s organized groups and organized crime.”
…
“As of yet, it’s not at a point where you can point to titles being distributed online and say it accounts for the slump at the box office,” said Joe Fleischer, co-founder of BigChampagne. “But physical-goods piracy is a real problem.”
Song of the Moment: «I Want You Back Again» — The Zombies
Love is when someone you trust cuts a smile in your face
August 31, 2005- I was in CVS earlier today when their unreasonably chipper Kodak photo-printer kiosk-machine thing told me to, and I quote, “share and enjoy” my pictures with others. I was reminded a little of this bizarre and hilarious poster.
I suspect that in each case the guy who came up with the message did so with tongue firmly lodged in cheek, and the suit who approved the message did so without a trace of irony, thinking the message was entirely sincere.
- Entropy and information are closely related. The more possibilities that exist for the state of a system, the higher the entropy. Conversely, the more information you have about a system’s state, the lower the entropy–uncertainty is reduced.
Assuming, for argument’s sake, that the mind is a system to which this is applicable, does that mean that the less you know about my state of mind, the more entropy I’m creating? Is the act of engaging in thought accelerating the heat death of the universe?
- We’ve all seen those goddamn “anti-drug” commercials; we all know how ridiculously preposterous and ineffective they are (answer: just as much as every other goddamn PSA out there). Yesterday, though, I saw one that really took the cake. “Just tell your parents you lost track of her because you were high,” the voiceover intoned while the camera slowly zoomed out while centered on a young child holding a balloon at an amusement park. “Responsibility: the anti-drug.”
The message this ad appears to be sending is as follows: Are you a fuck-up, a burn-out, or a stoner? Get a girl pregnant and all of your problems will magically disappear because, after all, having children turns you into a wonderful person and magnificent parent. Hell, even Snoop Dogg chilled out after he had a kid. “Responsibility: the anti-drug”? What the fuck, I mean really. Having kids in an attempt to hold together a crumbling marriage is bad enough, but having kids in an attempt to kick a drug habit sounds absolutely unforgivable. How many stories like this is the “National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign” trying to cause?
I was going to say some other stuff too but I forgot what it was.
Song of the Moment: «Lampshade» — Kashmir
My love is a lot like yours
August 26, 2005After having the song half-written for over a year, I was suddenly seized with an urge to record it at least semi-decently. The song, of course, prominently features “chemically derived?” in the chorus, in a nod to both The Flaming Lips and The Unicorns (the latter of which may very well themselves have been making a nod to the former).
While I was doing this, of course, my vasopressin and oxytocin levels had been at abnormally high levels for a few weeks. Coincidence?
Are these feelings chemically derived?
Jos mikään ei muutu…
August 22, 2005…kaikki vain jatkuu loputtomasti samaa.
Music will save us, and love.
August 5, 2005From Salman Rushdie’s The Ground Beneath Her Feet, a rather good book:
These things are bad for you: sex, high-rise buildings, chocolate, lack of exercise, dictatorship, racism! No, au contraire! Celibacy damages the brain, high-rise buildings bring us closer to God, tests show that a bar of chocolate a day significantly improves children’s academic performance, exercise kills, tyranny is just a part of our culture so I’ll thank you to keep your cultural-imperialist ideas off my fucking fiefdom, and as for racism, let’s not get all preachy about this, it’s better out in the open than under some grubby carpet. That extremist is a moderate! That universal right is culturally specific! This circumcised woman is culturally happy! That Aboriginal whistlecockery is culturally barbaric! Pictures don’t lie! This image has been faked! Free the press! Ban nosy journalists! The novel is dead! Honor is dead! God is dead! Aargh, they’re all alive, and they’re coming after us! That star is rising! No, she’s falling! We dined at nine! We dined at eight! You were on time! No, you were late! East is West! Up is down! Yes is No! In is Out! Lies are Truth! Hate is Love! Two and two makes five! And everything is for the best, in this best of all possible worlds. (p. 352)
And, also:
…He finds that the waiting—another ten years, as she has specified—is preferable to her daily vagaries, her whims. The waiting is at least solid, it has a beginning, a middle and an end, he can lean his weight against it knowing it will not step away at the last instant and let him fall. (p. 370)
Yeah. I need to write a song by last Saturday, but maybe this Saturday will suffice.
Song of the Moment: «State of the Nation» — Shamra
Picture time
August 4, 2005As promised or whatever, I’m posting a bunch of pictures I’ve taken recently, or at least semirecently. Some of them are good, some of them are pretentious, some of them I took when I was drunk. Some are all three.
Return of the Idiotlist
August 3, 2005In honor of finally picking up the piece of paper yesterday that I occasionally struggled so hard to earn, and in honor of the fact that my parents evidently started subscribing to Harper’s while I was away, comes an idiotlist that’s designed to rip off the style of Harper’s justifiably famous Index. I suppose this is just thinly-(or non-)veiled bragging. But here it goes.
- Number of final exam essay questions answered in haiku: 1
- Number of final exams slept through: 2
- Average grade received for courses where the final exam was slept through: B
- Ratio of F grades received to semesters on the scholastic honors list: 3:4
- Final cumulative GPA: 3.4
- Minimum number of classes or exams attended still drunk from the night before: 15
- Number of ADoM victories: 3
- Number of explicit references made to Pink Floyd lyrics in papers on topics not pertaining to Pink Floyd: 2
- Months elapsed between fulfillment of all graduation requirements and degree being formally granted: 10
- Number of those months spent in Estonia: 9
- Number of courses taken with Professor Alan Wolf: 1.5
- Number taken with Professor Jesse Wolf: 3
Wahoo
August 2, 2005This is my first post as the proud(maybe) owner of a degree from Cooper. In the past year, my unspeakable rage towards the school and everything remotely related to engineering has subsided quite a bit, so now I might not be entirely averse to actually using said degree to look for a job.
In other news, I look just like a rockstar.
Maybe.
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