blogz

i took a trip (almost two weeks ago now) that i’ve been meaning to write about, but had to digest it a bit, masticate on it if you will, let the enzymes and parasites (symbiotic) do their thing to it, to extend the food metaphor, before i could write about it.

well either that or i’m lazy… oh and did i mention K has been gone since i got back from vaca?  her to california for work and me back here with mr. puppy.  he takes a lot of time/energy/patience.  makes me glad i have a partner in this doggy experiment. but i digress…

the trip was to the pacific northwest, what i would consider the last “region” of the continental US that i have not been to.  i’ve seen the southwest, both desert (arizona) and mountains (san diego).  i’ve been to the upper midwest (duluth, mn — cleanest american city i’ve ever been too.  eerily similar to munich germany in cleanliness).  of course the “eastern” midwest like illinois, indiana, ohio, pennsylvania, michigan.  been to the northeast (nyc) and midatlantic (dc, balitmore).  seen the south too (florida, louisiana, and texas even).  i guess really the only place i haven’t seen in person is the plains states, but i’ve seen pictures so i think that counts. although from what i’ve heard lawrence, ks is a cool town.

we flew into portland, which is a great town.  oregon in general reminded me a lot of ohio, actually… in a weird way.  portland itself is a lot like ohio towns of similar size (minus the street cars and healthy people - you could probably pick portland up and set it down in ohio and i doubt many people would think it didn’t belong).  just the way the buildings are built and the city was laid out, just somehow seemed very midwestern to me.

the people in portland, well orgeon in general, are a different thing entirely though.  i think you find a lot more “hippy types” out there (maybe “west coast types” is less insulting).  the lifestyle definately appeals to me.  there are more “local” type produce places or grocery stores.  what seemed to me to be a lot fewer fast food joints and a lot more non-chain-eateries.  they’re very bike friendly there as well (i learned ten speed bikes are now called “road bikes” and mountain bikes are “all terrain bikes” or “ATBs” for the concise) which is cool.  i keep thinking i’ll buy a bike here at the bike co-op but then always think it’ll be a waste of money.  again i digress…

we met K’s friend… K2… in portland the evening we got in.  i also met a long time internet friend, D.  (i’ve written on meeting people from the internet before)  again, i was not disappointed meeting this dude in person.  he was very nice, very cool, and had interesting things to say.  i think that overall you are more likely to enjoy someone in person having spent time to get to know them online beforehand.  this is probably because online friendships are so easy to break, so if you don’t share something in common with the other person, the friendship will dissolve quickly.  however, if you do share something in common, then it’s easy to pick that up in person.

ps. portland has amazing donuts.  many people already know this.

the drive from portland to eugene was amazing, even though i spent a lot of it with my nose in a book.  (an aside about the book, i wish i would’ve read it before actually going to portland… c’est la vie)   we spent the day going down the “back roads” and hitting up some pretty good wineries.  i learned a lot about wine that i did not know before, and seeing the countryside and areas surrounding the wineries was very cool.  only one of them was in a semi-urban area, in mcminnville.  they all had good wine and i ended up lugging back 4 bottles in my checked baggage.  i’m amazed it didn’t disappear (more on that in a bit).

eugene was a nice town.  again, very reminiscent of the midwest (to my eyes).  eugene is similar to columbus in many aspects.  college town.  younger population.  lots of culture and all that jazz.  oh yeah, great beer too.  actually, better beer in eugene than in columbus, sadly.  i tried a few new brews there, including one by ninkasi brewing and of course fat tire.  i had a couple others that i can’t quite remember, oh yeah, except that excellent burton barton that i found.  fucking delish.  one thing i did miss though, and this goes back to that whole “west coast type” of people i think, is that they do not have fried anythign on the bar menus.  i wanted some good ol’ fried cheese, motz sticks, but alas they were not available.  maybe you can find something like that somewhere in eugene, but not the places we went to.

our gracious hostess took us to the coast for an afternoon of walking, wishing it weren’t so windy, remarking on how windy it was, hiding from the wind, and eventually going up a “hobbit trail” into the hills that butt against the beach (where there was no wind).  i cannot stress how windy it was.  i mean, this is like a constant wind.  not some puny breeze.  i’ve felt the ocean breezes on the east coast, and while it can be mildly windy for a couple hours, most people would still describe it as a breeze.   i think the correct word for the wind in oregon would be a “gale.”  a fucking endless gale screaming over from the far east, to wrend asunder the great west coast.

wind aside, it was one of the most amazingly beautiful places i’ve ever seen.  the forest runs right up to the water.  there are a lot of rocks and sizable waves that make for some very cool sights and sounds.  the beach itself is eroding from the banks, and there are these ledges, probably 10 or 12ft high, the walls of which are made up of something similar to sandstone that people carve their names into, or pictures, or whatever.  i wish i’d taken a picture of that.

my trip back was mostly uneventful.  i had the typical regret of flying american airlines.  they stuck me in midway for an extra hour or 4, but i did make it home without having to stay overnight.  of course, i did walk through the door to our apartment at 130am, but i’ll let that slide.  in chicago i saw my first drug dog while sitting by our gate (the 3rd of the evening).  i was reading and listening to my ipod when i heard some weird noise. i look up to see 3 cops and a dog directly in front of me.  one of the cops is talking to an african woman nearby.  the woman is holding a small child.  another cop directs the dog to sniff the woman’s bags, while she keeps her children at a safe distance.  the dog sniffs.  nothing happens.  the cops leave and the woman looks very scared.  i wonder how something like that happens. to me she looks like a completely normal person (wearing a headscarf, but normal.  not threatening in any way).  is it possible that some racist or otherwise insensitive person has called these cops on her?  mentioned a head scarf and foreign accent?  it was unsettling to say the least.

let me recount my experience once back in columbus.  i get off the plane, go pee.  the airport is dead (it being like 1230am on a tuesday).  i walk to the baggage claim to get my bag.  the bags start coming.  the bags keep coming.  i’m watching this one goddamn black suitcase that looks a lot like mine go around and around (each time, “OH there’s mine… SHIT”).  i watch the staff come and collect all the unclaimed luggage without seeing my bag.  i’ve played this role before, so i go to the american baggage office to start the tedious process of lost luggage (what color is it, what brand, what was inside, is your name on it, do you have your claim ticket?).  there is a girl there lining up the bags that just now were orphaned.  i decide, on a whim, to look through the bags already there to see if mine… there it is!  nice!  the girl says something like “found your bag?” and i reply with “yeah, it’s weird that it beat me here but i’m glad it’s here.”  her: “yeah, don’t complain!”

i get home.  i figure i’d better check the 4 bottles of wine that i had so carefully packed the night before in eugene.  i mean, i had this fucking system where i think my bag could’ve fallen out of the plane at 60,000ft and those bottles would’ve been secure.  i open the bag and my shit is a complete mess.  the bottles are all crunched down in the bottom of the bag, not nicely secured amongst dirtly clothes with books perfectly positioned to keep them all in place.  “FUCK”, i think to myself.  i check each one, nothing broken, no clothes sopping wet and stained as if by blood.  it looks like my suitcase has been ransacked, then i see this…

goddamn government.  thanks for nothing.  at least you didn’t steal and/or cause my shit to get broken.

by the way, “Smart Security Saves Time”?  are you kididng me?  did this particular crop of beaurocrats just not read 1984?  could they be any more overtly orwellian?  *sigh*

check out some pics here

we picked up our little guy last week, wednesday morning. driving out to get him there is an accident at 670E/270N/Easton exit. of course… it added about 20 minutes to the trip, but it didn’t interfere with our getting the dog.

the first day was pretty fun. he didn’t do too much. we let him wander around the house, took him outside, let him get used to the place. he took to us pretty quickly and didn’t seem too upset by the change of scenery.

thursday morning he had his first vet visit. he weighed 9lbs. the vet tech that weighed him had to tell the vet the weight twice, then the vet went and confirmed it herself after that. i guess 9lbs is large for a 6 week old pup. marek isn’t even the biggest in the litter. he did seem to be about the second biggest though. they gave him some deworming meds at the visit. vet said all puppies have worms. pretty gross i thought… then later he pooped and i saw the worms. even grosser. then i noticed he had one sticking out of his butt… had to pull that one out with a paper towel. i almost blew chunks but made it through.

the thing we learned that first night is that he has to go out every couple of hours. we let him whine to wake us up, then we take him out. last night (his 5th night in our house) he only had to go out once at 4am. i hope he gets better at holding his shit in over the next week or so so i don’t have to get up and carry him downstairs and outside.

all in all he’s a pretty cool guy. sometimes in the evenings he gets super spazzoid and runs around, biting at your feet and trying to eat leaves and stuff in the yard. he really likes to pull on the grass outside. so far he’s been pretty good about shitting and pissing in the house. he’s had a couple of accidents and hopefully he’ll get that under control in the next couple of weeks as well. he usually lets us know when he wants to go out, and we keep a close eye on him after dinner. his routine seems to be to eat, play for a few minutes then pass out. when he wakes up is when he seems to have to go the worst, so it’s pretty easy to get him out then.

here he is in all his glory!

tomorrow is my last day in the chesterfield. i’ve lived there for something like 4 years (almost). it’s been a pretty good time overall. it’s the longest i’ve been in one place since i left home for college in 1998.

moving is always such a pain in the ass. there’s really only a couple of things that i truly enjoy about moving. one being throwing shit away. the other is actually getting to the new place to unpack. everything else in between, from packing to loading the truck to unloading it, really sucks.

i don’t think there are any people that really like to move. i’d imagine even nomadic peoples start to feel comfortable in a place.

the fact that people for the most part settle down is kind of interesting though. a lot of human history comes from following food and/or weather. only in past few hundred years have we been able to settle down. i don’t think it took very long for us to get used to that though.

moving is always a stressful experience. there’s the fear that you won’t have enough room for all your shit. the fear that there will be something you missed about the new place that completely sucks. the fear that you’ll end up next to some jackasses that are too loud, or that are too quiet (making you the loud one!). actually, there’s a lot of fear involved in moving.

i’m moving in with my girlfriend. that’s a fear too in a way. i’m really excited to do this, and i know she is too. but at the same time i think we both have some reservations. i think that’s healthy. all in all though, i know this is the right thing at the right time because it feels right.

more than afraid, i’m excited. that’s the best feeling when moving time comes, for sure.

so we’re getting a puppy! the litter was born early wednesday morning (starting around midnight). the last couple came out around 4 or 5am!

we haven’t decided which one to get yet (obviously) but i took a pic of one of them on my camera phone. it’s not the best but i’ll get more pics soon w/my regular digital. they are pretty cute little nubs!

update 4.4.2008: new pic!

i’m a member of a particular file sharing community. i won’t mention which one, but suffice to say it’s rather tasty.

anyway, i’ve been thinking a lot about that community and the distribution method there. the site is all torrents (of course) as they offer the fastest distribution possible. they also allow the site administrators to basically avoid a lot of legal trouble by hosting nothing on the site but the torrent files. this is a very common setup in the “piracy” world. i hate to use that word to describe the community, because i think, especially related to music, these sites are the future and someday these “pirates” may be looked back on as innovators and forward thinkers.

so if you’ve never been a member of one of these file sharing communities before, the way they tend to work is thus: how much you download is tracked. as you download the amount of data you’ve downloaded is stored in your profile on the site. your download total is then matched up with the amount of data you’ve uploaded to give a “ratio.” this ratio is then used to track your status on the site, with penalties for people that do not keep their ratio high enough (essentially not sharing what you’ve downloaded).

this tracking accomplishes a couple of things. first, it helps to keep things available for other users longer. it’s in the user’s best interest to keep something “seeded” to allow other users to download it as well (as this helps their ratio by uploading data). second, it helps to keep file transfer speeds up, as again it is best for the users to keep things open on their end. the more people you can potentially download from, the faster your download will be. that’s really the essence behind torrent technology in the first place. lastly, tracking a user’s ratio is good for the community as a whole. it promotes sharing and helps to keep the community growing, in regards to the amount of music available and shared.

so how can this model be applied to a “legitimate” music distribution source? i think that most people that are a part of these communities (and these communities do contain artists and bands as well as your average music fan) realize that what they are doing is taking something from an artist and not providing the compensation they deserve. the majority of these people i think are fed up with the price of music, they way they are treated by record labels, and a general overabundance of music that just kind of sucks. there are plenty of great bands out there, but finding them is almost impossible by going to the record store or listening to the radio anymore (don’t even get me started on mtv or vh1). most of that music is so tightly controlled by record labels that it’s hard to find things new and interesting.

the system in place already on these sites is pretty well designed. these sites have been through a few iterations now, and the community and policies used are well developed. i don’t think the system needs to change in the way it works, but i think that it can be adapted to a pay model for music distribution, which in the long run would benefit both music listeners and artists (and even to an extent record labels). here’s what i would suggest.

• the base fee for a site could be $5 - $10 per month. i think it’s already been proven that people are willing to pay for monthly services as long as those services provide what they need and are updated frequently. take a look at the popularity of MMOs or netflix and you’ll see that people are willing to pay monthly for entertainment.

• keep the ratios, and make them hold an incentive. what i think would work well in this regard would be a fee adjustment for uploading and keeping a “good ratio.” for example, as long as your ratio for a particular month is say, 1.00+, then you save a certain amount of money off the next month’s fee. if your ratio is in the range from 0.75-1.00, then you save still, but not as much as if you had a higher ratio. the same would go for uploading a quality rip or fulfilling a user request. you could save a certain amount of money for any requests filled, or new uploads that you provide.

• the record labels have to give up some control. that’s the biggest hurdle to any of the new age p2p type sharing communities or systems. the record labels would need to provide the servers to host the site, but they should not provide the content (yet…). they need to let users upload from their own collections. this is especially true in the formative stages of this kind of service. as cds and other physical media become less and less available, and all music is initially released digitally, the need for users to share their own collections will become less necessary. but until that time, record labels have to give up their physical control of the product and rather let their control come from the distribution.

• artists need to have a stake in it too. the sites themselves could be owned by record labels, but they should allow artists to receive compensation when their music is added. because the site tracks users, torrents, and all kinds of other data, it would be easy to track the amount of downloads an artist receives. this should allow for a good profit sharing amongst the parties involved. in fact, i would argue that the labels themselves should only make profit from ads. all download dividends should be given directly to the artist.

• file formats and quality should still be enforced. i think the best aspect of these communities now is their “snobbish” approach to digital music quality. i think this absolutely needs to stay the same. i think it is in the best interest of everyone involved to have the highest quality product available, as well as to only reward those users that conform to those quality standards. the policing should continue to be done by community members with assistance from some paid employees.

by moving these sites from the underground to the mainstream you gain acceptance from the public at large. you also open the community up for a much broader range of music and opinions. while many people might feel special because they are a member of these communities, i think that attitude might be the most damaging to something like this in the long run. as it is now, music is controlled by large corporations that really have no desire to promote or manage an artist properly. they only care about the bottom line. i think a system such as i’ve outlined above still allows them to maintain their bottom line (granted not to the tune of millions of dollars, but really who expects that to keep up?) as well as provide a method for distribution of any and all artists.

could you imagine if you could hook up to an online music repository that contained literally hundreds of thousands of releases via your xbox 360 or other home media center? that’s the potential for something like this, if only the recording industry would get off their asses and do something about it. because, i guarantee if they don’t, someone else will (and already have, but to the loss of the music industry).

while driving around yesterday i got to wondering if any auto makers have done any research on “driver awareness systems”? what i mean by that is some sort of setup in the car that tracks where the driver is looking and adjusts the car appropriately. for example, if you are looking to the side view mirror and you wish that it was maybe pointed a bit farther away from the car so you could see the exit lane to your right.  the system would track that you are looking toward the edge of the mirror and move it out accordingly.  i know there are eye/facial tracking systems out there already that work pretty well, so could this be incorporated into a car?

so instead of spending time searching for info on this i thought i’d implement a little experiment here. if you know of any good articles related to this idea, post them in the comments.

i was thinking the other day about how certain things have influence in my life.  particularly the influence of culture from movies and tv shows into my own speech and personality.  for example, while watching rounders last night there is a line about someone being a “judas.”  whenever i hear someone called a judas, i instantly picture harvey keitel from the last temptation of christ.

later in the movie when malkovitch is portraying teddy kgb (a part of the movie so completely full of classic one liners that it itself is probably worth an entire blog post) i started to think about the infusion of “catch phrases” or movie line quotes into everyday speech.  seinfeld is a particularly good example.  there are many lines from that show that i say daily without really realizing that i’m quoting the show.  some phrases, like  “not that there’s anything wrong with that” are probably forgotten to even be from that show by a lot of people.  someday that phrase may still be popular, and people will not remember the show it came from.

i think the phenomena of quoting lines from movies back and forth is a way that people  show a shared culture.  in this country we don’t have a uniform set of religious experiences, cultural traits, or art.  what we have is a shared culture of media.  i think most people in this country have seen at least one movie in their lives.  letting other people know you’ve seen a movie is a good way to set some common ground between you.   i think it helps to create a bond between individuals and generate a sense of shared experiences and culture.

it can still be pretty annoying to witness sometimes though…

wonderful!

trent reznor (aka nine inch nails) released a new album this past sunday night. what’s so special about that you might ask? the fact that he is giving it out in multiple formats, with multiple ways you can receive it.

from somewhere:

Nine Inch Nails has self-released a new instrumental album, Ghosts I-IV. Consisting of 36 instrumental tracks described as “music for daydreams” and released under Creative Commons, it is available in a wide range of formats: MP3, double CD, a package with: the 2xCD, multitracks on DVD, and a deluxe book, and finally the super-deluxe limited edition which includes all that as well as a copy of the album on vinyl.

The free MP3 download includes the first volume - nine tracks (each with unique artwork), wallpapers, and a PDF of the 40 page book. Available directly off nin.com, you also have the option to torrent it via official NIN profiles on Waffles, what.cd and The Pirate Bay. Absent from this release was any kind of leak of audio or information. Record labels and artists should take notes: This is how you do music distribution.

notice the bolded, underlined, italicized line above. this is what sets this release apart from any other of the recent digital distributions done (saul williams and radiohead for example). giving out the free version via “illegal” downloading sites is a new idea for a major artist. trent reznor has been quoted as having been a member of oink and some other music download sites.

the fact that he’s willing to put his money where his mouth is is pretty amazing. i’m happy to see an artist use this method of distribution. for those of you that don’t know, there are of course purchasable versions as well (which do have more tracks, 36 in total as opposed to the 9 avail for free).

a rundown of what’s available:

FREE DOWNLOAD
Ghosts I - The first 9 tracks from the Ghosts I-IV collection available as
high-quality DRM-free MP3s (320kbps LAME encoded, fully tagged) including complete 40 page PDF. Also includes the digital extras pack - various
wallpapers, icons, and graphics tools for your computer, website, profile, etc.

$5 DOWNLOAD
Ghosts I-IV - All 36 tracks in a variety of DRM-free digital formats (320
kbps LAME encoded, fully tagged; FLAC Lossless; Apple Lossless) including a 40
page PDF. Also includes the digital extras pack - various wallpapers, icons,
and graphics tools for your computer, website, profile, etc.

This version is also available from the Amazon MP3 store.

$10 2XCD SET
Ghosts I-IV - 2 audio CDs in a gatefold digipak package with a 16-page
booklet. To be shipped TBD. Includes immediate DRM-free download of the
entire collection in same choice of formats as $5 Download option. Download
will include the 40 page PDF and the digital extras pack - various wallpapers,
cons, and graphics tools for your computer, website, profile, etc.
This configuration will be released to retail in North America (April 8), Australia (April 5), the UK (April 8), Japan (April 5) and most European territories (April 8).

$75 LIMITED EDITION DELUXE PACKAGE
Ghosts I-IV - Hardcover book holding 2 audio CDs, 1 data DVD of all 36
tracks in multi-track format (in .wav files readable by Mac and Windows), and
Blu-ray disc featuring stereo recordings in high-definition 24 bit 96Khz with
exclusive slide show. Includes immediate DRM-free download of the entire
collection in all formats and with all extras mentioned above. Also includes
48-page hardcover of photographs by Phillip Graybill and Rob Sheridan.
Discs and art book both housed in fabric slipcover.

$300 ULTRA-DELUXE LIMITED EDITION PACKAGE
Ghosts I-IV - Contains all elements from deluxe package, along with
exclusive 4XLP 180-gram vinyl set, and two limited edition Giclee prints
available exclusively in this package. Disc book, art book, and prints are
all housed in a fabric slipcover. 4XLP vinyl set comes in its own fabric
slipcover. INCLUDES immediate DRM-free download of the entire collection in
all formats and with all extras mentioned above. LIMITED TO 2500 PIECES,
NUMBERED AND PERSONALLY SIGNED BY TRENT REZNOR.

what is so great about this is the fact that he’s providing a number of different options to consumers, which should help to maximize his own profits while allowing the fans to choose something that fits their budget. $5 for a full album download (including album art in each file) is more than reasonable in my opinion. $10 for a 2x cd isn’t bad either (and is the option i chose). beyond that, he’s released all the media under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license. this license gives the user complete control over the songs. they can “copy, distribute, display, and perform the work” as well as “make derivative works” (ie remixes) as long as they list the source (NIN, trent reznor) and they aren’t charging anything for it.

to me this is how music should be distributed and used. i hope that this idea catches on for more than just those artists, like NIN, that already have a solid fanbase to work from. i don’t see any reason it can’t

had a birthday over the weekend. i’m officially 28 now (28 and 2 days really). i don’t feel any different. i haven’t felt different from a birthday in a long time. 25 seemed like a milestone of some kind. i mean, quarter of a century, right? a blink in the global timeline, maybe an hour in one life. not that long but long enough. as a child, they all seem like milestones (well once you are old enough to grasp the concept of aging) and as a teenager, 16, 18, 21 all seem so important. but what happens then?

28 isn’t very special. there’s not much to turning 28 really. 30 might mean something. it’s always like you pick years that should mean something to you. 30 is when you get married. 35 is when you have kids. 55 or 65 and you retire. you don’t really hear about someone making plans for 28. it’s kind of this weird, between age; not really a kid but not really an adult either.

i do feel different though. i feel older and wiser, but not because of my birthday. my birthday somehow lost that all powerful significance. i find myself thinking about things i never thought i would… marriage, kids, buying a house. i even find myself looking forward to those things. but it’s not like these thoughts magically appeared the day after my birthday. they’ve been creeping in over the last few months, or maybe years even.

i think the real significance of your birthday is the way it makes you think back on your life. to take notice of what you’ve done, where you’ve gone, what you’ve seen. to think back on what your life is, what it isn’t, and what you wish/want it to be. your birthday isn’t so much about getting presents and getting wasted and having fun (although i think it’s an excellent excuse to do all those things) but more about taking stock of who you are and evaluating yourself.

it’s about growing up.