Thursday, May 05, 2005
"The problem with not knowing what you're talking about is that it's hard to know when to stop" - Tommy Smothers
Time for me to make use of that time-honored and generally-accepted blogger's technique of discoursing aimlessly about an assortment of things-on-my mind and arranging them as a list. To muse meaninglessly about various whatnot and suchforth, as it were.
And thus concludeth my thoughts (I'm impressed with myself for having even this many). Thanks, as ever, for stopping by.
- Yesterday evening, I found (through a link on Greg's blog) a flash version of the old Infocom Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy game. Ah, the many hours I spent on the old Commodore 128 trying to figure out the puzzles contained therein - not the least of which was just trying to figure out what it was you were expected to figure out. The new game seems to be exactly the old one, only with some nifty illustrations and without the frequent 45-second pauses while the disk drive chugs away. So far I'm on the Heart of Gold and zapping myself around to various out-of-body experiences that have, I've no doubt, some sort of significance but which I can't solve the connected puzzles for. Basically, in other words, exactly where I was 15 years ago. There's a link to the game in the links section off to the right - if you used to play the game, I think you'll greatly enjoy taking another crack at it (the site lets you save your game (just type "save" at the command prompt (you know, like you used to))). If you've never played, you should definitely check it out. The site also has the new radio re-recording of HHGG, which I haven't yet spent any time at all persuing, so excited was I to find the interactive, but which is, I'm sure, very nifty as well.
- There are a few new links (and a few renamed ones - I went ahead and changed all the blog titles to the actual names of the blogs instead of the bloggers' names) over in linkyland to the right. Aside from the HHGG interactive game there's Greg Nichols's blog "heckuva far" which I was pointed to a couple of weeks ago by "Air" Jesse Klosterboer and which I've quickly become quite attached to. If you haven't checked it out yet, click the link and spend some time reading through Greg's archives - he's extremely good at this blogging thing. Also, my name is in bold capital letters in the first post right now and I think that's cool. There's also been a cycling in the "send an e-mail to..." link. Pat McAlpine's given way to Jason Martin-Hiner (née Hiner)'s stepped in. And so goes the inexorable force of progress, coupled with my restless-little-kid need to keep tweaking the template.
- Stepping into ranting mode for a moment, I've been astounded (naívely, probably, but astounded nonetheless) over the last few months at the amount of TV time the Michael Jackson trial's been getting. I work night shift at a hospital so I generally get a pretty good sampling of nighttime TV going from room to room and if I didn't know better I'd think that the trial had somehow become actual news because the defendent is extremely famous and extremely weird (I'm not sure which is more important). Please don't misunderstand me - if he's guilty he did a horrible thing and I hope he's force-fed his own toes; there is no excuse for that sort of crime. My bewilderment comes from the fact that it's more interesting when a person who's famous does something (and he hasn't been convicted of anything) wrong. I remember being in American History back in 10th grade and listening to Mr. Harms proudly talk about how America has never had a monarchy. I think he was wrong - Hollywood's our royal family. We afford them a silly and extravagant life but by heck we get to watch them live it.
- Continuing in ranting mode, but on a completely different tangent - I'm so very tired of seeing the word "alright." There is no such word. None. It's a lazy misspelling of "all right" (or perhaps the last name "Albright") that's become commonplace because we're a society that's lost sight of the fact that "wrong" can simply mean incorrect so we hesitate to call anything wrong. I know it's in the dictionary, but I find myself unimpressed with that argument -conversationalisms have very much established themselves as dictionary-worthy (Exhibit A and B).
I've no problem with new words or new usages of old words (obviously), but is just an accepted misspelling. "All ready" and "already" mean different things, "all most" and "almost" mean different things, "all bum" and "album" mean vastly different things. As soon at "alright" thinks of its own thing to mean I'll cheerfully accept it. Until then it gets filed away with kat and occashun. - I found an upside to the Cubs' penchant for disappointing tonight. I had the lovely and alas-none-too-rare joy of working with a patient who was determined that I would be as miserable as he felt. I try very hard to keep in mind that people in the hospital are generally at their worst overall and therefore not to be judged harshly - but this guy was a jerk. He was actively rude all night to me and the nurses; comments like, "Boy, they don't work very hard at teaching you how to do your job, do they?" and, "So you lost your way getting here?" A real winner all around. I was in his room at about 3:45 in the morning checking his blood pressure (which, I was told, I did incorrectly in a variety of ways) and noticed he was watching a replay of yesterday's Cubs/Brewers game.
"Watching the game?" I asked.
"Trying to!" he sneered at me (I kid you not, the man was like a parody "Man Who Is Mean" from a sitcom). "Can you finish what you're doing and get out - it's tied in the bottom of the ninth!" Then he turned back to the TV, "Come on, guys! It's the [colorful adjective] Brewers! You can win this, you [colorful... plural pronoun, I guess]!"
"Didn't you see this game when it was on earlier? Novoa's going to walk in the losing run in about ten minutes."
Ah, those good old reliable Cubbies. - A couple of days ago I did some mixing/editing on the working draft of Matt's new song "Simple Life," and since then it's been running through my head quite a bit. I'm pretty sure both of you readers have heard it (I can post an mp3 if there's interest); it's a song about leaving the pace of life behind and creating a simpler one, told with the unforced rhymes and invitingly simple tune that Matt excels at (someday that man's going to be famous, and I intend to be clinging to his coattails for dear life). Particularly, I'm intrigued by the bridge: "This life that I'm living's all taking, no giving/And I feel like I'm driven by money and greed/I'll pack up these horses and make my divorces/From unhealthy courses and go plant some seed." All taking, no giving. The standard complaint about the hectic pace of life is that it's give, give, give with no time left for oneself, but I think Matt's right - it's generally the opposite. We don't have time to give of ourselves because there are so many other things to get done, so we end up taking. We count on friendships to stay on course without direct maintenance, we treat people as if they were just their jobs because we don't have time to do more. There's not room, not time for giving in this me-centric culture.
It may well be that Matt just needed the end of the first line to rhyme with "driven" and so flipped the words from their standard usage. I prefer to think it was intentional because the line is absolute genius as written and I enjoy thinking of myself as a bandmate of a fellow who writes lyrics like that. Whatever the origin of the line, though, I think it's something that bears some thinking about. Is my life all taking, no giving?
This was probably a bad thought to follow up my work story with. Hmm...
And thus concludeth my thoughts (I'm impressed with myself for having even this many). Thanks, as ever, for stopping by.
Comments:
<< Home
Yay! Two posts in two days! As if 30 pages of IM wasn't enough for me. :-) I think it's probably quite a good insight about your patients being at their worst. As common sens-ical as that may seem from this side of the hypodermic, not all hospital staff get it. The Michael Jackson thing is not so overplayed on this side of the pond, thank goodness. And those really are stunning lyrics and I can't wait to hear the song. Yes, of course you should post a link! Hope you get enough sleep. :-)
Well done, Charlie. Way to stick it to the sick guy!
# posted by 
: Thursday, May 05, 2005 1:07:00 PM
: Thursday, May 05, 2005 1:07:00 PM
Ditto what John said....
Also, I like the HHGG game. I hadn't played it before and am looking forward to entertaining myself with it for a while. Thanks for the link.
Interesting group of thoughts!
Carrie D.
Also, I like the HHGG game. I hadn't played it before and am looking forward to entertaining myself with it for a while. Thanks for the link.
Interesting group of thoughts!
Carrie D.
# posted by : Thursday, May 05, 2005 8:33:00 PM
: Thursday, May 05, 2005 8:33:00 PM
Links R us. Remember, this is a working draft - there's another guitar part & harmony vocals (and probably some distorted electric lead guitar (or maybe a mandolin)) to add yet and it's completely unprocessed. Still, in a way I think this very stripped-down version works well with the song.
If you listen, please post a comment or send me an e-mail and let me know what you think (criticism completely welcome); I'd very much like to know.
Simple Life
If you listen, please post a comment or send me an e-mail and let me know what you think (criticism completely welcome); I'd very much like to know.
Simple Life
Mark and I enjoyed this version of the song and we are looking forward to hearing how it ends up. It does make sense for the song to be on the simple side, in fitting with the lyrics.
Good song, good song. :)
Carrie D.
Good song, good song. :)
Carrie D.
# posted by : Friday, May 06, 2005 8:57:00 PM
: Friday, May 06, 2005 8:57:00 PM
Don't know - depending on how your browser is set up it might be trying to download the whole 5 meg file before it starts playing. Are you on a dial-up connection?
Try right-clicking (or command-clicking if you're on a Mac) and "Save Target As..."-ing the file to your hard drive.
Try right-clicking (or command-clicking if you're on a Mac) and "Save Target As..."-ing the file to your hard drive.
Yay! It worked now! No, I am not on dial-up... I have a gray cable that comes directly out of my wall and plugs into the USB port. What's that called? :-) Ethernet, I guess. Wait, no, there is a sticker on the monitor that says LAN. But anyway, it does seem that that the computer was trying to download the whole thing before playing it, because I just had to wait a looooong time and then it started playing. But I saved it to the hard drive anyway, because how fun is that?
The song is great so far. How interesting to be able to hear an "unfinished" version. I agree with Carrie-- the simplicity of the music so far matches the lyrics well.
Post a Comment
The song is great so far. How interesting to be able to hear an "unfinished" version. I agree with Carrie-- the simplicity of the music so far matches the lyrics well.
<< Home
