I still find it painfully annoying this weird obsession with vinyl records some people have. I also find it equally as annyoing that some clowns think the sound quality of vinyl is better because it is an analog source. Its comical and it proves how little these clowns know about the science of recording technology. Side note, it is about time they came up with a touchpad turn table for these mixing DJs. Actuallly maybe they do have something like that. If I can spin the dial on my ipod with a strain gage then they can do it with a turntable. In fact it might be pretty cool for them to come up with algorithms to translate different hand sliding into sounds that could never be produced on a vinyl turntable. Anyway, where was I. Oh yes, science of recording technology. I guess people don't realize that just because it is analog doesn't mean it is better than digital. I wonder if they have any idea of what the first analog recordings sounded like. Like garbage. The fact that it was analog didn't make it a superior quality. I wonder if those that believe so much in the quality of analog have any idea of the variations that can be introduced into an analog signal from outside influences. Funny thing is that when they make vinyl recordings today I can gaurantee you they use digital technology to compensate for the inheirent defecienes in analog signal recording.
Watching that documentary on Edison a while ago really made me think about recording and today's hub-bub over them. It is sort of comforting to think that there wasn't a thing called recording before Edison and his contemporaries came up with it. Makes me more confidant that the current conflicts will be overcome amicably, eventually. I also think about Guttenburgs printing press and how it is often cited as a civilization changing invention. I never really paid much attention to that statement until recently. Speaking of the printing press I heard once somewhere that a similar invention was created before Guttenburg came up with it. Even so his was the one that changed the world.
Computer memory is another one of those world changing technologies. The computer in itself but I'd like to seperate out computer memory, computational ability aside for a second. What an invention. It is really what all this conflict is about. Persistent ultra-portable knowledge.
Germ theory. Another awesome advancement. That people didn't know there were tiny micro-organisms that made us ill seems ludicrous now.
I'll quit an office job in a second without any qualms. But I've had clients in me freelance work for years and wouldn't just quit them like an office job. Something about this office job that make me give them no loyalty. Maybe it is that horrific double standard that they can get rid of me anytime but I can't neccessarily just walk out when I want. I do so I don't recognize that standard. But with freelance work it is more of a two way street from the get go. You actually feel like you are both working toward a common goal instead of being a slave to THE MAN.
It has come to me contemplating quiting today for the simple fact that I don't feel like doing the work they gave me. How pathetic is that. Not very in my opinion. I've been a good worker for entirely too long. I actually enjoy shafting the workplace. I refuse to be THE MAN's slave. There is that whole "burning bridges" thing and whatnot. But I don't have time for dumb shit like that. I'll typically serve in my role with honor and do what I am asked. Which is a lot more than what some clowns pull. Even so I am not comparing myself to those clowns. As a consultant with no benefits and crappy hourly wage I reserve the be as truculent as I want in regards to dropping a job. I am a fucking mercenary. There is no loyalty from me. Besides I am entirely to nice to people, I have to be an ass just to balance out my universe.
Also there is the fact that frankly I could probably be spending my time better on my freelance work and projects. They are looking promising and I need more time to devote to them. Then there is that be grateful arguement. I went over that hoo-haa yesterday. I have a peachy situation right now and I need to take advantage of it by not working in some fucking office doing some other companies work while they pay me peanuts. I need to use all the energy of my youth to maximize my opportunities. This place is not an opportunity. I did learn some things, like XSLT, but I see now that I have come to the end of learning new things without a serious commitment to this place. I can learn more on my own outside the company.
I'm hungry
So the GOP wants an ethics overhaul. Dems say it is too weak and will propose their own overhaul. I got my own overhaul. Eliminate lobbying. Making it completely illegal. These congressman are suppose to work for the people. So why is there this buffer called a lobbyist in between. Senseless. These clowns need to use the internet to actually work for and listen to the people. Beyong holding town meetings or something. Create online forums for each rep and make sure you have them all uniformly created for all reps and easily accessible from a central government website. Let those reps go through reams of concerns and ideas from their web forums. Also have them do more with in-person interaction. Use the forums as a base to build a list of concerns and topics to discuss. I guess certain government positions have always been a cloistered bunch.
Questioning US arrest statistics
Maine Touts Recycling Computer Monitors
Those two articles were really good. I love the recyling thing in Maine, every state should have something. And promote it even more so that people know and offer electronic pickup days along with regular trash. No piece of electronic equipment should ever go in a landfill ever. All should be recycled.
The other article was good too. It was an opinion piece but presented a very even point of view. There were some statistics but the writer didn't use them to evangelize his point of view. It really began a intelligent analysis of a newly discovered issue.
When I hear people say that you should be grateful for a good life I want to slap them. I don't know why and how graciousness became such a important and high concept. Let's start over. I understand the place of graciousness when dealing with people. As a person to person interaction being grateful has its benifits and makes sense. However when it goes outside those bounds ot esoteric things that is when it just pisses me off. Even in a person to person context I think it is overused but when people start being grateful to basically nothing about their life or anything it makes no sense. Don't even get me started on thanking god. These uber-losers who feel the need to thank for every little thing or submissive morons. Not only are they probably discounting their own abilities, but also most likely they are twisting reality by believing too much that something other than chance affected their current state.
The philosophical reasons against being grateful be damned for a second though. Instead of being thankful for your life as if it you were given some wonderful hand your ass should be using all your effort to ensure that everyones life is as good as yours. Its much easier to give thanks for your life and watch other poor scum get screwed. That kind of thinking dominating human society today is what will screw us in the future. Take advantage of every advantage you have then use it to make sure your advantage becomes the norm and all those disadvantages dissappear. That way your piddly ass won't have worry about get screwed in the future.
Since I'm rather mercurial about pretty much anything I have no problems with the erratic behavior of others. I'll pretty much accept most erractic behavior and won't be offended by it. I'll rip it for being ineffecient and supporting THE MAN but other than that I'll never hold you being a lunatic against you. I tear apart religion and whatnot but I hang out with a bunch of very religious people on a weekly basis, I play frisbee with some. I think they are kooky for believing in that trash but other than that they are no better or worse than me.
I was thinking today in the car how people are afraid of or disgusted by the idea that this world is as simple as a chemical formula. What I mean is that some people of afraid of everything being disassembled into parts in a system. They want mysterious things to prevail. They don't want to hear that being alive has nothing to do with this concept of a soul but is simply the sum of the parts of a bunch of different chemcials reacting to each other in a complex system. It is as if that kind of description is going to change reality. This so called fear of science and the idea that there is something greater baffles me. It is all in your head. Everything is. Beauty, color, warmth, pain, cold, french fries. Human emotion. It is not well understood now, but maybe it will be broken down into certain sets of chemcial reactions in the brain. Why is it that people are afraid of knowing how things work? Why do they accept mysterious things? What changes if they believe there is no soul? I don't get it.
Back to beating THE MAN and the system it imposes on us. This organically grown monstrousity of a system needs to be remodeled.
I am trying to figure out a way to quit my job quickly. I could care less about being courteous I just want to leave. I just hate the fake posturing that goes along with giving your notice. I just want to leave and that is that, no hard feelings this place is just a bore.
Everyone is such a product of their experience and genetics. We still don't have a firm hold on everything in that system but rest assured.
I read some reviews of Hostel and all the bad ones seem to have one thing in common. The movie was so disturbing that they hated it. They were looking for normal horror cheese and instead found a fucked up representation of someones fucked up idea. I don't know how you give a horror movie a bad review for being stomach churningly disturbing. That is what horror movies are supposed to do. These pansies are just used to cookie cutter garbage and when they got socked in the stomach with this depraved picture they vomitted all over themselves. If you want to give a movie a bad review you should really deconstruct it. Most of the bad reviews seemed to squemish to take the movie.
This movie is the most disturbing movie I have seen in a long time. Saw II was the last horror movie I saw and that wasn't even mildly disturbing. Hostel is everything Saw II should've been. It had gore, violence, depravity, tits and much more. The most demented part about the movie is the concept of paying someone to capture people so you can torture and kill them. That was the most fucked up part about it beyond the gore and violence. This was a great horror movie. I haven't seen many great horror movies but this was one of them. Horror movies usually follow a formula that makes them predictable and cheesy. This movie said to hell with the formula and it was worth it. One of the ironic pieces of the movie was that the main character who was trying to escape was the one who killed the most people. This was actually kind of a thinking movie. It wasn't a completely mindless killfest. It even had really good tension at the end. Not the fake tension of most horror movies where you pretty much know what is going to happen. Or tension that you wind up not caring about because of some ridiculous plot trickery. This is one of the best movies I've seen this year. You can't often say that about horror. In fact this was the best horror movie I have ever seen. The only other movie that comes close for a fucked up horror concept is Psycho. I wish this movie could be considered for an Oscar. This was really a piece of really good filmmaking.
So I hear that 1.9 billion dollars has been pledged by a group of nations to combat bird flu and that it exceeded World Bank expectations. I'll quote Chris Rock on this one, "low expectation having muthafuckas". 100 billion should be thought of as the minimum. I already covered how ludicrous this whole bird flu thing is. Think about this. Countries are in pretty much in agreement that bird flu could kill millions and be a pandemic. The US has agreed the same. What happened to protecting the people through preemptive strike. Our government has spent 100 billion for war. Why not slide another 100 billion for something admitedly more dangerous. Weird, I must be missing something. Nope they are missing something, intelligent analysis. They probably get it mixed up with intelligent design.
The episode of Scrubs tonight where the big doc hated religion. It was good.
I freaking hate my job. No I don't hate it. It just bores me to tears. It is getting to that point where I quit the job. But since I don't hate the job I can't go out in a blaze of glorious insulting commentary. I just want to leave. I can't motivate myself to do anything at that place. There are no windows and it is so drab and boring inside there. It is playing with my emotions. Staying there for more than 2 hours makes me tired the whole day. I don't get it. Like today I went in early and stayed 6 hours. I then felt completely drained the rest of the day. The last fe weeks though wen I was just going in for a few hours I had so much energy all day. FUCK.
I just sent out a couple of apologies for the postings I ripped. No hard feelings.
I just sent out two ripping replying and I am bored already. I think I will send apoligy letters. They don't deserve the ripping.