;)

So I guess this one makes it official?



Looks like I've got a new home.

Hold the Phone

Yeah just hold the phone. You're telling me there is an honest to goodness dance remix of Long Train Running on the Doobie Brothers Greatest Hits, and no one ever bothered to use this in DDR?

For shame.

In other news, if your future grandchildren ask you if you've ever known someone who was stuck in traffic on I-95 at midnight, you can tell them about The Cheat here.

Bigger post today/tomorrow coming soon, about one of the stupidest shows on the Discovery Channel.

If it keeps on raining, levee's going to break.

Is it still called a pie?

I tried a Subway pizza today. Once again I have to tell the company to fuck off.

I wasn't sure how the hell they made the pizzas, so I was afraid of ordering one for the longest time. Chalk that up to being a former Loyola student who ate at dining halls, where new menu items meant nothing more than window dressing, since no one knew how to make them. The process is all but complicated; the Subway folks pull a premade frozen pizza out of some corner of the backroom, throw it in the sub toaster, and put it in a box.

Oh, but you do get to pick your favorite "fresh" toppings. Joyous.

It isn't that I blame Subway for not making the pizza with fresh ingredients; mass produced is the only way to go for such a large company. It still bugs me when they consistently use their angle of fresher eating versus other fast food joints. Nothing about it is fresh, and the fact that I can pick my toppings makes it far from "personal". The fact that its .50 per topping means that a Subway pizza on the road to personal also comes with a personal reaming up the ass.

The only good news of this is that I found out there's a Quiznos not that far down the road. The extra dollar or two that their sandwiches cost compared to Subway is worth it. Hell, Subway's prices are so high now I can get a lunch special at the chinese take out place for less, and if I want to I could stretch it into two meals!

I think Subway changed their motto to "Eat Shit" and never told consumers.

Teaching

I'm going to try and teach myself rudimentary piano on a circa 1994 keyboard.

I don't expect to get far, but I need to play with some sort of instrument again. Been far too long if you ask me.

I think about piano, and I think of doing two distinct things at once.

Its like my mind is a single core CPU.

Will I be able to be the BeOS of virtuosos? Probably not.

I think I've got the perfect song to bang on repeatedly for hours.
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednsday,

Death of Email?

There are many instances in which the older generations, the business leaders, etc. should have payed attention to what the "kids" are doing and embrace new technologies earlier. The RIAA and other music industry examples not embracing online distribution and DRM free content is the most obvious example.

Still, there are times when the "kids" are, well, kids, and that taking their trends too seriously is asking for trouble of its own. And then there are times when I'm not quite sure.

My topic of interest here comes from this article on CNET about how current trends among teenagers suggest that email usage is becoming less and less prevalent outside of business. Instead, it is social networking sites, instant messager, and texts that they are using to communicate with each other.

I'm at a crossroads here not because I'm debating whether this is true; it absolutely is. Rather, I'm not sure if we should embrace or worry about this kind of change.

First, for anyone in the working world, I ask you this - does your job use IM clients, Skype, or programs like Webex? I'm going to guess you will say yes to one of these?

Now I ask you - does your company use email daily? And I know the answer is going to be yes.

Second, for those in or recently out of college - how often do you check your email? I'm going to guess most of you will say "several times a day", but that is because you're all technophiles like me. But you would likely be like me, in that you knew lots of college folks who would answer "Once a day" or even "Once a week"

Next question for the same crowd - how often do you check Facebook. If you're still like me, the answer is once a week, maybe twice. Most people though would answer "several times a day".

This is the reality of things. The younger crowd just doesn't use email anymore, but something like Facebook is crucial. So says the article even - kids can't live without it even (back in my day...).

Why is this? I can't really say for sure. I suppose its that Facebook offers more information, and the ability to contact many people in many ways instantly, without dealing with contacts and mailing lists. It also allows for a bit more fun than a traditional email. There's the whole "Social" aspect to it: email is generally person to person. On Facebook, everyone can see what you're doing, and if "what you're doing" is communicating with tons of friends and taking pictures of cool places, it helps in the popularity game.

Here's the problem with assuming this, or IM or whatever, is going to replace email: while it is all communication in the end, it is very different kinds of communication. IM is informal and spontaneous. It is great for quick contact about unimportant issues or chitchat. That, or drama. The only thing equivalent in business is quick chats about small issues. Because of this, many jobs do use some sort if IM client. But it simply can't handle bigger issues of communication. As for pictures and wall postings, there's simply no need. If documents or simply documentation needs to be shared, there are also wikis. Social networking is more or less an extension of high school hallways and campus walkways, but it isn't the board room or even the water cooler.

Email has other advantages. It is universal. Everyone knows how to use it, and everyone can get to it. And while there are many email services to choose from, they all work together. The kids in the article bemoan having to deal with many social sites to contact people. There is simply no excuse for such bullshit when dealing with the bottom line of a real-deal company. As alluded to earlier, email is also better suited for bigger issues. You can write out a nice long email with many points, instructions, paragraphs, whatever is needed. It also forces the writer to put a little more thought into what they are saying than in an IM. Granted, it isn't on quite the scale as a handwritten letter, but I haven't ever read a professional email that didn't use proper grammar at the very least.

Email does have its issues. Spam can be a problem still these days, and even people who have an email client open all the time are prone to missing critical messages until much later. There are ways to combat these problems however (gmail alone solves both of them), and it doesn't even take much in the way of know-how.

If I had to make a choice on this one, then I wouldn't side with the kids. I would say that rather than listening to their "advice", we tell them to stop being so lazy and grow up a bit. Learn things like how to construct a real sentence, how to be patient, especially for non critical information, and to understand the right time and place to say certain things (ex: an email can beat a chat, but sometimes a phone call beats an email at work). Otherwise, who knows what these teens will do when it comes to getting real jobs.


Wake up your time is nearly over
No more the supernova
No action guaranteed

Just END!!

A fair CNN review of the last HP book, I guess. Here's my favorite part:

Rowling has attracted much criticism for her often clunky prose. However, for her millions of fans who have devoured the book just hours after its worldwide release, literary criticism is as irrelevant as a broken wand.

The quote is correct about two things. First, such criticism is irrelevant to the fans. That I know firsthand. And that's fine by me. My problem, the quintessential issue I have with these books, is the scond point; Rowling's prose is clunky and rather poor. And because of that, I can't get myself to read them. To the fans I know, that just doesn't cut it. And so they don't know to leave me alone.

I tried folks. I really did. I read the first book. I read halfway through the second. I found it attrocious and stopped. Admitting this to Potter fans is akin to getting the death sentence. How dare I not move on to the awesome third book, or other such rubbish. And again, my reason is always the same: I tried, and I didn't like it. But still they press on, as if the only way to make them happy is for me to punish myself with novels I don't want to read. Quite frankly, that is bullshit.

I don't even think I'm that bad in antagonizing HP fans either. If anyone has ever seen me diss the franchise, it is only immediately after they give me shit, or, as in a recent evening, after a whole flurry of shit comes at me from multiple directions. If you leave me alone, I'll leave you alone too. No harm, no foul. At least, that's the dream.

Here's an article I like from The Guardian about the Potter series. Agian, a good quote:

Here, from page 324 of The Order of the Phoenix, to give you a typical example, are six consecutive descriptions of the way people speak. "...said Snape maliciously," "... said Harry furiously", " ... he said glumly", "... said Hermione severely", "... said Ron indignantly", " ... said Hermione loftily". Do I need to explain why that is such second-rate writing?

I agree with this chap, and I'll tell you here and now that I can't finish a book with that kind of writing. I just can't. If you want to do so to enjoy the story and characters, that's cool. I won't think less of you for it (though I probably would if you considered the above good writing. Please don't :( ) . But I can't, and I won't. No harm, no foul. Right?

If there's one last thing that drives me nuts about the Potter mania, its the hypocrisy I sometimes see. I've often heard the explanation of "everyone likes it, so it must be good" when discussing them. These same people will then mock American Idol, Sex and the City, and other pieces of media that everyone loves, stating that "just because its popular doesn't mean it is quality".

I guess when they're actually in the group, it is a whole different matter. Pardon me for not understanding.

So go! Go back to Hogwarts for one last trip! I'm going to stay here in the Muggle world, reading my own guilty pleasures. You can even tell me how awesome it is when you're done! It will surely put a smile on my face to see you so happy.

Just don't lock me up in Azkhaban. Really, I have committed no crime.

36?

I just read a forum post that said

We should convert everything into base 12. Its divisible by 2, 3 and 4!

I'm kind of amazed. And I really want to do this now.