I bought The White Album.The White 8-track, The White Cassette...

1. I download (torrent) the shit outta the Beatles, stones, zeppelin, etc.. because in my convoluted logic those dudes made their dough already, and the couple of extra pennies that will trickle down into their now-no-longer-just-artist but “brand” corporate empires is redundant. They’re rich.
   Anything from about 1990 on, I’ll buy. What can I say, I have issues, and rationalizing/denial is one of my best.
   

1. 
   OK, (and I swear I gave up smoking weed years ago) I forgot my main point about those classic rock bands. And it is this:
   I’m 42. I’ve been buying music since you had NO CHOICE but to buy it. And I bought The White Album. And then the White 8-track. And then The White Cassette. And then I lost that, and bought that , shiny , see through plastic White Cassette. The the White CD. Fuck if I’m downloading The White Mp3 from iTunes for even $9.99 after all that, know what I’m saying? (But ITunes and sites like that are the new business model, as far as I can tell. Shit, that model might last as long as 8-tracks, or forever, who knows what these crazy kids will come up with next. So I’m not knocking it.)
   So, I know, I know, the car I bought in 1991 doesn’t come with a guarantee that I will always have a running functioning car. But there are degrees and levels to things.
   Art, any way you wanna define it, is a different form of product. I buy a book, it should last a lifetime if I don’t spill coffee all over it. Same goes for a CD, or even an .mp3 ( I guess). Should I have to pay for something fifteen times?
   Tim said “tunes that will last a lifetime”. Too bad movies didn’t do that. You buy the ticket, see the movie, take the DVD home from the theater for free, right?
   No. Which is my point. I’m down with supporting artists that I like, even if they’re rich. Get rich? Good for you. You did something (I'm assuming: legal) and you made money, so you deserve it. But the corporations and mega-multi-national conglomo-chains will find fifty ways to make you pay to watch “The Big Lebowski” if they can.

1. 
   It’s the redundant purchasing I disagree with. And hell yeah, 40% of my paycheck for the “privilege” to drive at 8% if I get my dad to co-sign for me cuz my credit is all shot from defaulted student loans should bear the fruit of a car that lasts more than six years. But I digress.

Yep, that's me. Killin it on guitar.
On Bass, too.
Drums are Roy "Rigorormortis" Mortenson
Riggle (another roy alias) also mixed the sound (and takes all the blame for the quality, but the mix was tight)

That is all. Just sharing.
Ain't Talkin' Bout Love download here

Zen and the Art of Forwarding SPAM

 SPAM no matter how meaningful the pictures of dead soldiers or little puppies may be to you, the emails containing them are spam. 

To me the fact that they are meaningful and touching is the point.

If you received an email that simply said  "please pass this blank page along to everyone on your mailing list so that we can gather the emails addys of everyone in your address book, and the address book before yours, and the address book before that on and on..in order for us to add your name to the list of a guy who sells fake rolexes in Taiwan or penis enlargement cream soda in Germany and who in turn pay us money for the email addresses"  then maybe you wouldn't forward it. What say you? You don't care because you're using the computer at your job? Oh , I see. That's why you're stupid..

Forwarding what you think to be a legitimate money making proposition from Ukraine, the pictures of rainbows and unicorns and butterflies and angels, the easily disproved "proof" that President Obama was born in China, and various and sundry other important things you think your friends and relatives just have to know about is stupid. 


This also means you family member/friend/friend of a friend/coworker/mostly everybody: Being willfully ignorant of truthiness or woefully unaware of sites like Snopes.com is no excuse to forward me propaganda.

See something cute or funny in an email? Cut and paste the picture or the text only and send it to your friends, in a new email. Although, sometimes jpegs and gifs can have viruses embedded in them. Oh well.

Want to not be so annoyingly stupid? Go ahead, think about it. Yeah? 

Then specifically ask your recipients NOT to forward the email.   Your email address and everyone in your address book will then not get sold to spammers. 

And I know you don't care about this, because your work internet connection is "free" (it's not), but less spam means at least half the immensely ginormous amounts of useless personal network traffic clogging up the system will not be caused by your "accidentally clicking the wrong page" and having to tell me "I have no idea how my computer decided on its own to open my browser and load that porno/shopping/Beiber fan site or, on its own; download and install that Texas Hold 'Em app." 

Or would you rather the Draconian filters that most companies use nowadays that block basically any page you really want to see. Have fun staring at your company's phone listing and org chart all day. Why do you think they spent money on that expensive web blocking software in the first place? Security, help desk calls, and paying guys like me are costs they'd rather not incur. The IT department makes NO money for the company.  (Don't email with your little time-is-money arguments. You'll just sound more stupid)


The higher ups, muckity-mucks, and grand-poohbahs on the tenth floor HATE "wasting" money on computers and networks. And when they find out a majority of problems that make them pay guys like me to fix are caused by viruses, spam, executables and the like, they take away that day after Thanksgiving. Thanks, jerkoff.

I tried to send this out in memo form to everyone at my last job. As a network administrator, these suggestions would cut down volumes of work for me, make the CSRs on the help desk lose that panicked, deer in the headlights look, lighten the bandwidth load of the LAN itself, and just be an all-around educational experience.

I was denied. I guess they thought it was spam.

E-books

Six publishers carry the majority of popular authors. They won't sell a majority of their e-books to libraries because they're worried people will borrow e-books rather than buy their e-books.

Uh hello publishers? I don't BUY your books at the library. Hence the word "library" on the big sign out front, not "bookSTORE".

Corporations still don't know how to use teh internetz.

Think I'm just railing against the man? Check it...

Now, I'm nothing if not fair, so we'll step into the publisher's shoes; because the reality is that there is not a huge profit margin in publishing in relation to other comparable goods, services and widgets for sale.

There are tons of books, magazines and comics being scanned daily. Even books over 700 pages as well.  I -cough-err- some people will torrent (download) a magazine, comic book , or even a technical manual easily.

 A book is a different story because of the time spent and the physical limitations. What the publishers don't fear is that you are going to sit at your computer and read a 700 page book.. And you don't really enjoy reading a book on your iPhone. You don't. No, you don't. The jury is still out on voracious reading using an e-reader, all your mindless consumer lust for iPads aside.

However, a true piece of electronic paper that I could bend, fold or otherwise hold like a real book would make the difference (See: Minority Report). Then the copyright issue would be brought to the fore. .

On a side note: Hey Kindle. Why in the hell would I pay 10 cents, or even 1 cent, to read a blog?

Icarus

I've been reading a lot about bad spaceship names because of the movie Prometheus.

Got me thinking "Icarus"

Which led to this:

I passed a store on my way home, I saw a butterfly flailing against the fluorescent lights above the doorway. No one else noticed it, except for a brief glance upward. They stared directly at me, however, in confusion as I stood and watched this butterfly battering itself raw on the glass. It thrashed against the lights for a few seconds, then skittered back and forth, then bashed itself silly against the light again.
Unbeaten, it flew to rest on a light post for a few seconds, wings pulsing as it seemed to breathe in great heaving gulps before launching itself at the light fixtures once again.

Over and over it flung itself towards its own demise.

It was too far away for me to attempt a rescue, so all I could do was stand and watch this small miracle wear itself ragged...

As I watched, I couldn't help but wonder at many of my own actions and whether I'm doing the right thing in situations where I repeatedly expose myself to that which will inevitably destroy me in some small or large way; in the belief (however misguided, possibly known but ignored) that it's going to feel good or help me improve something. Sometimes it seems like everything I like will make me sick, or poor, or fat. Only god knows, but he ain't talking.

Maybe I'm just a paper-thin wax doll flying at the sun?

I'm Fucked (cuz I got rocks in my head)

I get upset about being stuck here
you can look all you want but but you better not talk to me
cause all i'll ever talk about are things you'd rather ignore
 I've just expressed my deepest feelings and
 the prick who looks catatonic is screaming at me
 something that i've heard about a zillion times before

 I suck
cause i got rocks in my head
 i must have rocks in my head
 sometimes i wish i was dead
 cause i got rocks in my head

 sometimes i feel like i guess im supposed to
but i still kinda wish i could of been an abortion
who ended up as fly food
 in a rotting garbage dump
 im working on a plan im adjusting
i’m in a place where I feel mostly disgusting
and I feel so stupid when I look at you and say:
I’m fucked
cause i got rocks in my head
I suck
cause i got rocks in my head