Photosynth

Tags: amazing image software

It's snowing right now. I didn't even wear a jacket to work today, and it's snowing.

Snowing!

Update: It's snowing Hard now. Really hard.

Tags: nyc snow

I LOVE MY JOB!

Current Music: Queen - Another One Bites the Dust

All right. For any and all interested (and if you're not... you poor, poor deprived soul) Opeth is playing at Trees in Deep Ellum TOMORROW NIGHT. That's THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21!

OPETH! FUCKING OPETH IS IN DALLAS TOMORROW!

Tickets are $20 from Front Gate Tickets. If you're even remotely into metal, and especially if you're into insanely talented performers, you need to be at this show.

And if you're lucky, you might get to help me back on my feet after being thrown around a mosh pit. Ooooh, this is going to be a good night.

I know this is a longshot, as I don't really know how many metalhead friends I have these days, but if you decide to go, let me know. As it currently stands, I'm not meeting up with anyone, and it would be nice to know someone will be there to take me to the hospital if things get out of hand. :]

Current Mood: excited

When you hear "Debbie Does Dallas," what imagery pops into your head? (Aside from the obvious cheesy 70s sex, of course.)

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK

I'm moving to New York City in august.

You coming to visit? Better yet, when are you moving to the big apple?

This is annoying. Two things are annoying, really. First, any attempt to explain myself recently is a chinese finger trap. The harder i try to explain these things that make perfect sense to myself, the more i lock up or say the wrong things. Saying the wrong things is annoying as hell because it only makes things worse, but locking up is just infuriating. I want to voice these things, and i want to voice them well. Instead, i can't voice anything. It feels like i'm in tenth grade all over again, with a world of thoughts locked away with no way of getting out; watching the world happen and feeling like i'm not contributing what i know i'm capable of offering.

The other annoyance, which is likely a direct outgrowth of all i said above, is that i'm just bitter today. Don't want to talk to people at work. Don't want to deal with whiney women yapping about pointless problems, and don't even want to deal with women just doing their job, maybe asking a simple question or two. I hate this, and any attempt i make to shut it down isn't working like they usually do.

And to make it better, i have sixteen whole hours of this.

Current Mood: annoyed

Anybody want to join me tuesday for a day game in arlington? The game starts at 1:05pm, Rangers v. Oakland A's, and i've got three tickets going unused.

Still not positive i'm going, and my decision may well rest on any responses i do or do not get here.

Well i was supposed to be in new york about fourteen hours ago, but planes ended up booked solid, leaving me to my misery here in dallas. Such is the life of a cheap-o non-revver. Tomorrow should fare better.

And, one less day in the [most amazing] city [ever] means i will have to make every minute that i'm up there count that much more. Thus, i shall be postponing sleep for about ten days, which i believe is right up there with the world record, so i might just go for the fame while i'm at it.

Gah. Today has been shite, so hopefully a refreshing visit to new york will improve my outlook, reinvigorate me a bit. Any suggestions will be much appreciated.

All right, there's an update. You people happy now? Eh!? Good.

Current Music: The Proclaimers - 500 Miles

Something recycled from kottke.org 1999:

I never thought to imagine what earth looks like during a solar eclipse. How neat!

Gamer buys $26,500 virtual land

This guy spent 26 grand on a virtual piece of land. That fact in itself just makes this guy sound like a nut. But he's going to make money on this land by taxing anyone that enters his little island to hunt and whatnot, and he's going to sell plots for people that want to build homes and such. The implications of this are amazing.

How long until entire economies exist online? How long will it be until we see the first entirely virtual stock market? A number of years ago, probably coinciding roughly with the first MMORPG Everquest, i thought up an online game that would basically create a laissez-faire economy in which people were free to trade and develop a business based on the ideals of truly free commerce. It would have effectively incorporated a virtual stock market. I hadn't envisioned real money coming into play, but now i'm starting to change my tune. The sale of beefed up avatars and virtual weaponry and magic skills is becoming big business on eBay, and this recent $26K acquisition, are all solid stepping stones to a true physical-virtual economy.

Gibson could only have dreamed of this. I don't believe he had written about such a digital economy, and the closest i've seen to this is the virtual world in Stephenson's Snow Crash. People invested a great amount of time crafting their virtual homes and avatars. But even there, it was based on a more open-source principal and didn't incorporate an economic edge.

It's going to happen, though. Online economies will crop up that could very well end up competing with physical markets. The next decade, for this reason as well as so many others, is going to be quite exciting.

Current Mood: optimistic

I had my chance and i blew it.

I've got an interview in about one hour and twenty minutes. That's about as much sleep as i've had. I'm insane. And excited. And really really really hoping i don't fall asleep mid-sentence.

Oh, and i can't begin to tell you how much i hate kinko's. Wow.

Yes, it's been a long month. Yes, there have been some manic ups and depressive downs. I still miss hilary more than i know the words to express.

But.

I do have a web design job interview on monday. The guy approached me out of the blue, and his site isn't half bad. Of course, this means i have to start early and get my portfolio up to par, update my resume, and fake it such that i know what the hell i'm talking about while being asked those classic interview questions. I'm getting anxious about this.

Current Music: Deadsy - Tom Sawyer

. . .











seems i'm a few steps behind on the sad->pain->anger curve, but i'm making steady progress.

Current Music: fuck music.

What are the ethics of denying business to someone?

refusing to serve someone is money out of a business owner's pocket, so he'd presumably have to have a reason that outweighs profit/success/etc.

Why exactly would it be unethical to refuse to serve an eskimo? Say my father was killed by a rabid eskimo and i harbored an understandable distaste for those arctic nutbags and i broke out in hives any time i saw one near me. Would i as a business owner be justified in refusing service? It only hurts myself, and isn't that my right?

And what about political ideas? What would be wrong with me denying service to a man whose ideals i am vehemently opposed to?

I've got ideas on all this, but i'm hoping to generate a bit of healthy discussion and maybe get some fresh perspective on the matter. And if the response sucks, i'll possibly just post ideas anyhow. We'll just have to wait and see.

Current Music: Bush - Machinehead... gavin sounding as grating as ever.

The days are still tough.

Current Mood: sad
Current Music: rufus wainright - hallelujah

This is from a Wired Magazine interview with Jeff Tweedy, Wilco's front man.

Wired: How do you feel about efforts to control how music flows through the online world with digital rights management technologies?

Tweedy: A piece of art is not a loaf of bread. When someone steals a loaf of bread from the store, that's it. The loaf of bread is gone. When someone downloads a piece of music, it's just data until the listener puts that music back together with their own ears, their mind, their subjective experience. How they perceive your work changes your work.

Treating your audience like thieves is absurd. Anyone who chooses to listen to our music becomes a collaborator.

People who look at music as commerce don't understand that. They are talking about pieces of plastic they want to sell, packages of intellectual property.

I'm not interested in selling pieces of plastic.

I'm particularly interested in tweedy's comment that "Anyone who chooses to listen to our music becomes a collaborator." And to put that in a more broad perspective, anyone who chooses to intake any form of expression becomes a collaborator. I'm excited, and a bit scared, to witness--possibly even participate in, someday--the changes that will occur in the art/entertainment world in the coming decade.

From one side, you've got metallica, the recording industry and the movie industry fighting for dear life to hold on to maximum profits, or at least their perception of what will perpetuate said profits. And then you've got the other side, the artists and true believers that music is more than a quantifiable commodity. These are the guys that understand that we live in a dynamic world in which everything can change with the next invention around the corner. These are the guys that are ready to jump on it, or at least experiment with it. These guys do things like Creative Commons, which is making bold strides towards changing the way licensing and copyright restrict and liberate artists.

One side has the power of money, the lobbying sway to push restrictive legislation. The other has the power of good ideas, real innovation, and a passionate following. I know where i want this to head in the future, but i really have no idea what's going to happen. Again, it'll hopefully be a fun trip.

Current Music: Tony's Entire 80s Collection. All of it. Not a missed beat.

A few thoughts.

1. Suicide is the most irresponsible, mindless, worthless endeavor any individual can achieve.


2. If you know someone that's commited suicide, they deserved that death. They do not deserve the slightest bit of sorrow or mourning you might have expressed on their behalf.


3. If i were ever dumb enough to off myself, i'd do it listening to rufus wainright's hallelujah. God i hate that song.


4. My best friend in junior high once found a young man, slightly older than us, dead in the creek right behind his home. It was suicide based on some spiritual principles he held. The way i see it, the world is better off. That many less spiritual individuals can only be healthy for humanity.

Current Mood: exanimate
Current Music: rufus wainright - hallelujah