Category: Digital Culture

Gonna try something new for the blog….every few days, I’ll post my favorite _legal_ MP3 file…live stuff from my favorite bands, stuff that’s in the public domain, or stuff that has been licensed for sharing.

Today’s MP3 is kind of interesting. It’s by one of my favorite bands (Counting Crows) and it’s a cover of a song by another of my favorite songwriters, Ryan Adams (former lead for Whiskeytown and a local boy from Raleigh, NC).

Take a listen. The name of the song is “Winding Wheel”

http://www.unc.edu/~griffey/CC_Winding_wheel.mp3

Enjoy.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/03/19/sprj.irq.main/index.html

Bush gives order to attack Iraq
Cruise missiles target Saddam in morning attack
Wednesday, March 19, 2003 Posted: 10:53 PM EST (0353 GMT)

Well…it’s started. An unjust war, created by the White House and the corporate opportunists in it, fed by the media and its “reporting” of the fear, uncertainty, and doubt campaign FROM the white house, and foisted upon the American people who don’t want it.

Then again, we didn’t ELECT the guy either.

Fuck.

And it arrives….the birthday.

I’m oddly just kinda “blah” about the whole thing. Looking forward to good food and presents, but overall I never was big on the whole celebration thing. We’ll see how it goes.

Other random Counting Crows lyric, from an unreleased song that’s one of my favorites:

Dust me off and shut me down / And dream of where I haven’t been
Close the door inside my heart / Stuck in the south Atlantic wind
I have hollow eyes / Haunting only to myself
Even so, I can’t stop carving / These great big hollows in my self
I took the train from California / To the far side of the continent
Woke up in Kentucky / Where a wedding was about to end
I looked up at Anna / She turned back to look at me
It’s best to kill the ones that matter / Render blind the ones who see

and again with the break in blogging.

Lately I’ve been giving lots of thought to my upcoming birthday. I’ll be 30, and for reasons unknown to me, it seems important somehow. I don’t know if it’s some wierd societal thing that I’m just subconciously projecting, but it actually is making me think about it. I don’t feel old, and don’t expect that this birthday will start me feeling old, I just think that this trip out of my twenties is going to be something different than it was, different than it has been.

very unsure about it.

Ok…some time since blogging due to spring break and being without internet access.

The most interesting thought that I’ve had recently has to do with the title of my blog and the way I seem to handle information processing. In several classes we have discussed info processing of sorts, and I’m starting to try to pay attention to how it is I operate. I probably take in more info in a day than I should…I’m constantly connected, visit 6-10 news sites repeatedly thoughtout the day to stay on top of stuff, get tons of email, and IM with friends. In reflecting on that, several people have asked how I tell good information from bad on the internet (a common question from non-netheads). The best explanation that I have been able to come up with is that I do some kind of pattern recognition for what my brain tells me is “good” or “safe” on the net…things like level of language use, proper grammer, is it recently updated, keywords used, and other things I’m certainly not aware of. Somehow, though, I ferret through stuff. The same goes with searching…I google for something and can pick the most likely result on the first page to give me what I want in milliseconds, without consciously reading and processing the information in the text.

This phenomena interests me. I will be writing more as I think of situations and anecdotes.

Missed another day of blogging. I’m preparing the hairshirt for later to atone for this.

But today, I’m preparing to take off for Spring Break….and I have LIKE A MILLION THINGS TO DO that are due immediately after break.

ARGH!

But, overall, it’s a good thing.

Random Counting Crows quote for the day:

“Thought I might get a rocket ride, when I was a child,
but it was a lie that told myself when I needed something good.”

I’ll almost certainly miss days while I’m on break…so I’ll see whoever is reading in a few days.

Went to interesting blog talk today…seems like blogs are getting quite the run through in academia currently.

Getting ready for Spring Break…going to visit family…nothing too exciting, but it’s getting out of town.

Have I mentioned that I listen to WAY to much Counting Crows?

“There are bones beneath my skin, mister…
a skeleton in every man’s house.
Beneath the dust and love and sweat that hangs on everybody
there’s a dead man trying to get out…”

Happy Mardi Gras, and Laisse Le Bon Temps Rouler!

Jason

Trying to finalize plans for the summer….so many conventions! So many options….gotta figure out some stuff. Definitely going to the ALA in Toronto and GenCon in Indianapolis.

Ok…back. Finally. Feels like I’ve been gone a month. It’s the combination of lack of connectivity and being in the hills of KY….talk about a different kind of place. Going from Chapel Hill (bastion of the liberal) to the bible belt/religious right/gun toting/backwoods that is my home is a real eye-opener. I got a reminder of where I was when my grandmother asked me “Are there many colored’s in NC?” After deciphering that she was asking me if there was a high concentration of African Americans (or other non-caucasion people, I suppose)…and after I understood it, I still didn’t quite know how to answer. I’d like to believe that she was out of it…doped on various meds, but I can’t be sure.

Welcome to small town KY.