My Wooden Lung

So much for the blog-a-day habit. Really, I'm trying.

Here's my big technological revelation since last time: I suck at Halo 3. Badly. Then again, I never touched an Xbox controller until a few days ago; s'pose I've some catchin' up to do. A., kindly, has taken me under his wing, and already indoctrinated me into the online multiplayer realm (where I can get my ass kicked for all to see).

But I'm soooo glad I did it. The graphics are gorgeous, the Dashboard interface is damned slick, I get to commisserate with my buddies in ways not possible before the purchase—and I get my mind off of work. Score!

I also picked up a few more games, including Bioshock. In addition to being a gorgeous piece of artwork, I'm getting off on the general creepiness of the Objectivism's-logical-outcome atmosphere. Reminds me that any vision, carried to the extreme, no matter how well-intentioned, can make monsters of people.

Now for the motivation for the post's title: I've finally taken the initiative to go out and stock up on Radiohead's catalog. Jesus, I can't believe it's taken me this long... The Bends in particular is completely rocking my world, and I taught myself to play most of "Just" this past weekend.

Yes, you read right: I'm playing again. A lot. Even starting to come up with a few novel musical ideas. Of course, some of them bear an uncanny resemblance to Radiohead vibes...

From C.P.

From: C.P.
Date: Oct 17, 2007 5:01 PM
Subject: So, I was surfing the other day....
To: MSB

But not in lake MI, or any other body of water. That's right, I was surfing on our old friend the internet(s). Saw this, and had to send it to you. Just remember, 'it will turn vicious'.

Take a circle...

B.A.D., and a Curse on A.

In honor of Blog Action Day, we're supposed to post something related to environmental awareness. Hmm. OK, maybe I have something: How about reducing the portion sizes in American restaurants? They're quite extraordinarily large. Think about it: Foodstuffs last longer, people consume less calories, requiring fewer fossil fuels to heat, cool, and move our fat asses around.

Flippant as that sounds, I'm half serious. It's not the most technically impressive or imaginative solution, but it just might work. One might argue that people should be responsible enough to exercise self-control and not consume entire portions if they don't want to. Free will arguments aside, evolutionary conditioning makes the thought of passing on extra calories seem about as natural as willingly walking off of a cliff.

We save fuel, the population trims down, no more guilt complex over body image, decreased depression, increased productivity... So there are medical and economic benefits in addition to environmental ones. Shiny.

Enough changing the world. Before getting on to the main attraction—cursing A.—I was pleased to discover Led Zeppelin is about to make its catalog available digitally, online. I'm a little baffled, though, by the revelation that its songs will be available "first as ringtones and similar mobile features". After holding out for so long, and being so stingy about licensing its songs for films and TV shows (that—what was it?—Cadillac commercial, or whatever, notwithstanding), their big digital debut will come in the form of a freaking ringtone?!? What does that say about technology, and both its effect on and place in modern society? Maybe it won't seem so bizarre to anyone else, or to future scholars who will be in better position to make sense our our era than I could ever hope to be.

It's just, everything about Zeppelin was so big, so heavy... Maybe cell phones are heavy, and I'm just too dense to appreciate that. (Perhaps if they were available on the iPhone, I could buy it, but they're debuting on Verizon, initially.)

OK, the moment you've all been anticipating: A., you bastard. Finally, you wore me down. It arrives this week. A curse on both your houses. (I know you only have one at the moment; I'm counting your next one, too.) Bastard.

Experiment

I'm addicted to PCW. (You should be, too.) Consequently, in an effort to be more like M, D, and A—and to maintain sanity via reestablishing contact with my inner nerd—here I am with what I hope will become a near-daily record of what I learned about the world today.

To catch up a little, here's something I learned last night: When it comes to choosing between HD DVD and Blu-Ray, don't. That seems to be the popular wisdom, anyway. I found this out because I bought an HD DVD player (a replacement impulse buy for...well, you'll have to wait and see what for) and then did my research. Fortunately, I haven't opened it yet.

Here's something I learned this morning: Those weird vertical lines of dots that have been blemishing my pretty, pretty Wii display are apparently due to a flawed GPU. That's somewhat good news, at least in that now I know I can send it in for a repair and it's not just my problem.

Comcast will apparently soon install TiVo software onto Motorola cable boxen, if you ask for it. Someone please remind me to do this (A.)!