7.17.2008

I leave town in one week...

So here's a song! Please listen to the whole thing (the bass part is pretty important, so use a subwoofer if you have one). The first part is pretty close to the original, then I added a breakdown with some atmospheric textures. It's very embarrasing to post a song with vocals up here.


All the instruments (minus the drum loops) are me. Words and music written by: definitely not me.

7.06.2008

Do you ever stop to reflect on the magnitude of your responsibility to yourself?

As you may have heard, I will indeed be leaving for Japan to teach English for the JET Program. I will be there for at least a year, but my contract is renewable for up to five years. Just to keep in contact with the world I know here in the States, I will start a new blog chronicling whatever misadventures I get into in the land of the rising sun.

In lieu of that url (yet), here's something funny:

How to Dissuade Yourself from Becoming a Blogger
1. Find five completely random blogs, and read them daily for a month. After thirty days, you will absolutely dread your self-imposed requirement to read all that dreck. Any blog you create will most likely be on par with what you've been reading.

2. Consider that your voice, even if it is truly a good one, is a tiny peep against the massive wave of tripe out there. The odds of anyone you don't already know finding your blog are low.

3. Write on a regular basis in a text editor instead. If that doesn't satisfy your urge then you might just be craving attention and validation--which you'll never truly find in a blog. If you give up on your Wordpad journal after about three days, you'll do the same with a blog that just takes up server space.

4. Ask yourself if you really have the time to commit to a blog. Instead of whining about all the things you wish you were doing instead, start doing something that'd actually be worth writing about. And if it's really worth writing about, you'll be having too much fun doing it to tear yourself away from it.

Remind me again, why am I going to this strange country?

4.21.2008

Today's Most Publishable Thought

Ever since I found full episodes of Carl Sagan's Cosmos on the interweb I've been thinking a lot more about the universe as a whole from the perspective of our modern knowledge of outer space (as imparted to me by the Discovery Channel).

Anywhere outside of our mother earth is bound to be hostile to our human bodies because we evolved specifically for life on a planet in a window of time so small on the grand scheme (before us there were 4 billion years of prokaryotic simple celled life, 6 billion more years until the simplest of animals even appeared, and then the dinosaurs ruled the planet for 160 million years... and that was 230 million years ago in the very place where you're sitting, reading this (well... really, here in Kansas there'd be an ocean filled with creatures we may never know a thing about).

In contrast: our species has only even looked the way it does for 200,000 years. Christopher Columbus-- nevermind Leif Eriksson, Henry I Sinclair, or Earl of Orkney-- only informed the "civilized world" of the existence of the American continents a mere 500 years ago. Our perspective of the cosmic waltz is so limited with our lifespans (only 50 percent of children born in 1900 would even make it to age 50).

With our whole dear planet clearly visible to any idiot with Google Earth these days, outer space is truly the final frontier. The fact that humans have the space travel capabilities (meager as they may seem compared to science fiction, though we've certainly come a long way since the Apollo missions) that are as advanced as they are in our lifetimes is really exciting.

Now everyone knows me: I think Bush is a disgraceful president and feel it would be a tremendous victory for many things I believe in if Barrack Obama was elected President next year (sorry, this isn't a political ad; bear with me). But one of the last things Bush has mentioned in his last years as president is that we should push forward with the space program. I know we're in horrific debt that my children will still be paying for... but I TOTALLY AGREE with Bush on this one.

Recently NASA has been hard at work (i.e. spending millions of dollars) planning an as-of-yet-unscheduled mission back to the moon, possibly to set up a base camp, possibly to facilitate later manned (or womanned) missions to Mars. With the evidence of fossilized life on Mars we've found in the past, I think Mars is a place where we may even broaden our perspective on how life forms.

Here's a video NASA put out last year to sort of rally support for the project:
Badass, huh?

Maybe other people won't agree with me because of the spending required to fund these projects in search of what Carl Sagan says "just might end up being the most profoundly impactful moment for humanity, for the history... of history." I heartily disagree with plunging into some strange insurmountable debt over a war that only breeds more hatred and death, but maybe some things are more important than a "national deficit."

3.30.2008

theory vs. practice

Well, It's been super hectic so I haven't photoshopped anything in a while. But I'm posting this unfinished fragment of a song to prove to myself that my creative life isn't lying dormant under all my school work.

Click here to hear my song.

Please listen to the whole song if you're actually planning on listening at all, I'm secretly rather proud of it. The only thing not recorded by me is the drum loop (and samples from a '70s news show sprinkled in there for good measure). Enjoy.

3.14.2008

the way you move is a mystery


Just a small diversion for today. This was actually a screen grab from the Let It Be movie (somebody brought their little girl-- I'm not sure who she is). It's kinda pretty.

3.13.2008

your friend's basement is always cooler than yours

here's a new desktop background for you, Liney
This one actually came from the sunset picture (like the last one). You can definitely see the clouds in the middle of this one, as well as the sun on the right, and the lens flair on the left.

3.05.2008

kaerb adeen I


Well, I can't sleep. So here's a new picture. I think I made the message in the title a little too obvious...

2.23.2008

"nineteen sixty-nine, in the sunshine"


as promised: the triumphant return of color :)
this image was entirely generated in photoshop

2.20.2008

"one baby to another says 'i'm lucky to've met you'"


a. color will come back when i've successfully completed my job interview
b. tilt'cher lcd

2.17.2008

four jewels

(please click to enlarge)