So I’m the friend mentioned in the blog post found here. I suggest you read that before you continue with this. Trust me, Tyler is a better writer than I am and he has similar opinions to mine regarding the whole analogue v. digital debate.

Ok, so let me set the record straight on a couple of points. (pun mostly intended) First off, these records will not be melted down. Not only is it my intention to keep the records intact during the production of the furniture I’d like to create, but also consider that melting a record down is tantamount to burning a book — in my opinion. In fact, if you considered the amount of time I’ve spent listening to music and more so, TALKING about listening to music vs. reading, it would be fair to say melting down a record may be even more evil in my eyes. Yes, even UK hardhouse (progressive house? this old house?) 12″ singles, or whatever subgenre it was that Tyler spun when he was a vinyl DJ. The fact is, that no matter how you cut it, 300LB of vinyl is a valuable resource, whatever’s on it.

Secondly, I’m a vinyl lover. I’d be willing to say that ¾ of the music I listen to lately is from vinyl. If whatever musical itch I’m feeling can be satisfied by a record, I’ll go to it before anything. The reasons for this I could write hundreds of words on. I’ll spare you at the moment and just say I’m a huge fan of listening to records.

You may ask, “Well then, what do you have planned if you aren’t melting it down?” That’s for another blog entry, probably after I’ve tried, failed, tried again and hopefully, finally succeeded at creating something out of these records that both preserves their dignity and transfers their usefulness from medium to raw material. I just wanted it on record what was going on here. NOT a wholesale discard of music, just a re-appropriation of the material it was on — temporarily, at that.

So, if you are curious, stay tuned. Both to Lo-Fi Hi-Fi Me, and here. I’m hoping the results will be at least worth a glance. I gotta say, I’m feeling the pressure because my original plan wasn’t very impressive. I’m hoping that I can take it up a notch to make the whole thing worth keeping tabs on. Like I said, stay tuned.

Buy this book:

And then for shits and giggles attempt to download each piece of music recommended and listen to them in order.

I’ve spent the past two days attempting to find and download music from The Medieval, Renaissance, and Elizabethan Ages (chapter 1) on Bittorrent. It is as easy to find as you might expect. Short term goal: I’m hoping that when I’m done this chapter, Enigma won’t be my only point of reference when I hear a Latin mass being sung.

It’s a 700 page book, it seems to average about five recommendations per page. At the rate of — at most — three pieces per week… well, this isn’t a project I expect to finish anytime soon.

Now, though, they’ve switched to a pay model, just at the time most places are upgrading to CS4. They’ve cancelled their support for the old version (although you can still get it from the website, which is a good thing) I know I’m not locked in, and I know they don’t owe me anything, but the whole business seems shady and it makes me angry. I don’t often feel a sense of entitlement for things that are free, but when the original “selling” point of the software was that it’s free, it makes it seem like we were using a “trial” version without knowing it.

I wrote a letter to the FontExplorer X people, and submitted it to their Support page.

My problem is that you create a piece of software which you shout about how great it is (rightfully), give it away for free, and then as soon as people are dependent on it, halt support for it. Now that we have to upgrade to CS4, and you are not making plugins for the free version to interact with it, you expect us to pay for it.

Shove it, you “bait and switch” jerks.

Incendiary? Yeah. A little aggressive? Totally. Somewhat warranted? You might not think so, I believe it is.

I asked people on Twitter,

“If you had to make me listen to one song, what would it be? I’m making a #grooveshark playlist.”

I was pretty dogmatic about only letting one song per person in, I didn’t want any one person to influence it more than another. The resulting playlist which is, unfortunately, a little shorter than I’d hoped, actually turned out quite listenable.

I’m now posting iPhone pictures on my Tumblr account. I’ve started using Photo FX and Cool FX by the amazing Tiffen to edit my on-the-go photos; and I’ve been liking the results. If you want to stay updated, follow my Tumblr, Twitter, or check the Tumblr sidebar on the main page.

holy crap!

Here’s a little map outlining the interactions I have going on with various online tools. The Tumblr integration is still imperfect and changed from this, but the idea is there. The idea being, I need to get a life.

I bought myself a copy of Delicious Library because (a) I found myself not remembering what I had and what I had got rid of and (b) it was ten dollars off today. Delicious Library is the best way to get all this crap into a database because it lets you just scan the barcode with the iSight camera and it automagically gets the info and cover art. Version 2.0 is way better than the first one because it gets imported stuff better (it even got most of my Japanese CDs!) and the barcode recognition is much improved. And I guess I figured I needed to help Shipley buy ANOTHER Tesla. Good god. If I think that my money is going to @curvyboom and @majah‘s paycheques, I’ll feel better about it.

So, why do you care, dear friend? Not sure. But if you do, you can check out all my stuff at:

myownbiggestfan.org/library/

24″ iMac
2.4GHZ Intel Core 2 DUO
1GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM – 1x1GB
500GB Serial ATA Drive
SuperDrive 8X(DVD+R DL/DVD+RW)
Wireless Mighty Mouse
Wireless Keyboard

I am so digging the Facebook app, Scrabulous. I love a good game of Scrabble, and being able to play a casual game over a few hours, or days really appeals to me. What also appeals to me is sitting and playing a game non-stop, not having to refresh the board or my “notifications” over and over just to see if it’s my turn yet.

The same people that made the Facebook app also have a website at Scrabulous.com. There people can play Scrabble in real time. Unfortunately I don’t think any of my friends are on that site, so I end up playing with grumpy old men and ten year old girls. The games are pleasant enough, but I am more interested in playing with my friends. So if any of you are interested, drop me a line.

Of course, the offer is always open for you to come down to my place if you are able. I do have a board.

Photo by Paul Goyette.

Here is a link to see my “Flickr DNA” on the Big Huge Labs website, which tells me if my photos are in Explore.

Also, I have a set that keeps track of my most “interesting” photos according to some sort of algorithm.

UPDATE: Speaking of “close to home”:

But Paper Magazine is not writing about me.

Click on it to make it readable.

The 1920′s trend of sultry ladies, posing with typewriters might seem a little weird to some, but they have an obvious modern parallel (NSFW) that, in context, at least makes a little sense. Doesn’t it?

This is a test post to try out some of the features in Flock, a crazy new web browser that integrates blogging, my Flickr account and all sorts of other crazy business.

This is just a random picture I sent to flickr via Flock. Drag and drop baby!

This is pretty fun. I am not sure if it is going to be a regular part of my life, but that’s just because I am a little stubborn in the way I do things.

I also don’t like that OSX doesn’t spell check within this editor.
It also seems that it doesn’t handle em dashes very well. Which is what the “— in the link is supposed to be.

Blogged with Flock