Archive for November, 2010
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[ Comments Off ]Posted on November 5, 2010 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture
Friday, November 5th, 2010Daylight savings time is clearly a tool of those in power to keep the working man enslaved. And even if it isn’t, it’s freakin’ annoying.
I’ve always been a little disappointed by the fact that with all the breakthroughs in quantum physics of the last century, the closest we’ve gotten to exploring time travel remains Daylight Savings Time. To me, the government-mandated arbitrary tinkering with my clocks is nothing more than a petty annoyance; in most cases it just means that all the meetings next week that don’t happen at their scheduled time will just not happen at a different time they weren’t scheduled at. Or that on Monday some really ballsy numb-nut will say the reason they were late was that they managed to make it all the way through Sunday without knowing what time everyone else thought it was. Although there’s a liberal conspiracy theory that the latest change in DST dates was engineered by Texan politicians to give big oil billions in tax breaks, we all know that it was in fact Dick Cheney showing off his god-like authority by bending time itself to his desires. And if you dig deeply enough into the history of Daylight Saving Time, you quickly learn that it was mostly engineered to enslave the working man while giving the wealthy more leisure time. This is especially evident in the fact that TV ratings drop 16% the Monday after the time change (presumably because the working stiffs are too tired and disoriented to know when their shows are on), and that according to the book Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time
4 Quick Tips To Help Solve Your Procrastination Problems
[ Comments Off ]Posted on November 4, 2010 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture
Thursday, November 4th, 2010If you’re doing things to stop procrastinating, aren’t you really just putting off procrastination itself?
It seems like people are always talking about being more productive, and how they have to stop procrastinating. When did we all turn into little mini-corporations with deadlines and productivity quotas? Personally, I think the whole thing is part of a vast conspiracy to keep us on edge. And shopping. One built in problem with this whole procrastination vs productivity issue is the assumption that the things you think you should be doing actually matter. I mean, maybe it’s okay if you never launch that quarterly newsletter devoted to the latest developments in competitive duck herding, and maybe you don’t need to finally start blogging. At least 144 million other people seem to have that covered for you. But so far we’re just looking at this on a personal level. On a societal level, I would comfortably argue that the fact that we live in the most productive period in history has been relatively unproductive. First of all, as we recently pointed out, it just makes us run out of everything. But more significantly, in spite of our ever-expanding knowledge, technological developments, and ability to produce, people still kill each other with the same regularity, starve every day, and are depressed and sick enough to keep a $643 billion pharmaceutical industry in business. So relax. Stop beating yourself up. If you only do one thing today, make sure it’s nothing. Below are some tips. Feel free to share any of your own. When you get around to it. Read the rest of this entry »
Funky Forest: The First Contact
[ 1 Comment ]Posted on November 3, 2010 by admin in Popular Media
Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010Within just minutes of my first contact with Funky Forest: The First Contact, I had ordered a copy on Amazon.
Is Classical Music Dead?
[ Comments Off ]Posted on November 2, 2010 by admin in Music
Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010Obviously not. But it doesn’t seem to be feeling very well.
 Maybe classical will have the last laugh. |
I was much more of an audio snob when I was a teen than I am now. At the peak of my snobbishness I had a Thorens direct drive turntable, a McIntosh (no, not MacIntosh) amp, and custom speakers that I built myself using components from a Seattle company called SpeakerLab. Aside from being able to blast my Aerosmith, Bowie, and Clash records at 120 decibels, I could then turn around, switch out the stylus, and throw on some immaculate Deutsche Grammaphon pressing of Beethoven, Bartok, Tchaikovsky or Arvo Pärt. Not too long after that the CD came along, and we were all so distracted by its signal-to-noise ratio and “accuracy” that it took us forever to notice how really bad they sound because of their sample rate. And in the 90′s, my snobbishness finally died a quiet death in the hands of a computer and a crappy file format known as mp3. The ability to compile and shovel around songs by the thousands and not need physical storage space seduced me. And the ability to choose from such a vast array became more important somehow than slowing down and really listening. This fact was painfully highlighted for me the other day when a friend and I were lamenting the dearth of classical music outlets these days. I don’t even know if there is one where I live, and my friend who lives in Chicago says they are a rarity even in a city of its size. So is classical music dying? Well, in a way, yes. The broad category referred to as classical has recently had extremely low unit-per-artist sales and accounted for around 3% of American music sales, and around 5% of global sales. And the trend has been to head steadily downward for some time. Adding to the genre’s woes, American orchestras are recently enduring severe budget crunches. So is this the end of the centuries-long line? Well, Universal and Sony don’t think so; they’ve launched Passionato and Ariama, respectively. Both sites offer CD’s and downloads in both mp3 and FLAC formats. Does this mean there’s hope? What do you think? Have you rocked any Amadeus lately? Is classical doomed? I personally predict an indie classical rock revival with renewed interest in the classics. But then, I’m an ELO fan.
5 Weird Alternative Thanksgiving Turkey Recipes
[ 2 Comments ]Posted on November 1, 2010 by admin in Holidays
Monday, November 1st, 2010Stuffing a quail inside a chicken inside a turkey inside a goose lined with bacon is soooo 2009. Here are a few alternative turkey recipes for Thanksgiving 2010.
 This hardly qualifies as a recipe, but it’s an obligatory image for lists like this. |
I don’t know if anyone really knows how turkey became the traditional Thanksgiving dinner meat in America. My guess is that it’s either because the bird presents such a large target when hunting, or it was revenge for all the humans that had been maimed in wild turkey attacks. Whatever the reason, we’re stuck with it. But if you’re looking for an alternative, you’re in luck. Thankfully, we’ve seen some turkey innovation in the last few years; we’ve all heard of the deep-fried turkey, and perhaps you’ve heard of Turducken. However, an impasse was reached a couple of years ago with that meat-stuffed-meat-stuffed-meat idea with the Bacon Turgooduccochiqua. The only way to go from there would be to put live Ortolan in the quail and stuff the whole thing in a goat, and that’s where I draw the line. So I thought we’d look into some new alternative Thanksgiving turkey recipes this year. We’ve rounded up a few below. Feel free to share any other weird turkey ideas we missed. Read the rest of this entry »