[
good
music
]
2002-02-25
Coolest. Metafilter. Thread. Ever.
It's all about the recently announced royalties to be paid per song (0.14 cents for *each* listener) for web streaming music.
Shall I go on about how the metafilterian IPLawyer posts her glimmering elucidations several times? Nah. The coolest part is that at the current end-point, she asks a fellow poster (who had mentioned that the college radio station they volunteered at would have to go through a whole lot of work to figure out all the royalties) to contact her since they're looking for people to testify about how ludicrous the record-keeeping requirements would be.
Dude, this is how the web is *supposed* to work!
Rock on...
[
weblogs
]
2002-02-24
I found another one:
that is, another cool weblog. This one's called
onfocus and was pointed out to me by Aaron of
Glob of Nubblets. Pretty moon picture if you go look there soon.
[
humor
]
2002-02-24
Pravda is wackadelic:
I happened upon the English language version of the Russian newspaper Pravda, and just had to read
this article about how men are suffering when their women are successful in business.
I could not make this up if I tried:
Such strange and even dangerous effect is very easy to account for: as a rule, on coming home business ladies vent all the strain accumulated during the working day on their husbands. And the men find it very difficult to endure such a "dose", as most of them have got used, once they are back within their dear four walls, to conveniently settle down on the sofa, have a good meal and get a well-earned portion of sex.
Um, yeah. And this is the *modern* Russia? It's pretty scary, go read for yourself.
[
random thoughts
]
2002-02-21
I am the type of person:
who, when I realize there's
a new Risks Digest out, I get all excited about reading it. Sort of like the thrill of watching a train wreck or something... This doesn't make me a bad person, does it? (I hope not)
[
the net
]
2002-02-21
Cavalcade o Links:
Since my codemonkey
Daniel doesn't bother having his own weblog, I sometimes publish interesting links and stuff that he sends me. So here's a selection of recent stuff:
And just for variety, here's a link that my brother Bill sent me:
[
humor
]
2002-02-21
Heh, accidental: Someone wrote, in the box o doom, an observation based on the amusing juxtaposition of the categories I placed
this entry in:
good humor people? do they deliver gender-nonspecific ice cream?
Heh heh heh. :)
[
random thoughts
]
2002-02-21
Further thoughts: The whole
sandals issue prompted some feedback from the box o doom, which I feel like addressing.
One respondent writes:
Dickens deplored the working conditions in British factories, while conditions in the countryside were worse. He just didn't see them.
Good point, good point. I didn't mean to suggest that factories were the worst or the only bad place to work. I was just being sloppily expedient in writing my entry. I meant to just generally mention that we (typical middle-class-type consumerist people) live rather nicely compared to those who make stuff that we consume, broadly speaking.
And the suggestion thereby being that perhaps this isn't... nice. That it makes them servants to us, in a way. I don't know. I just feel like it dents my karma, if you know what I mean.
Another response:
Those "sweatshop" workers are happy to have those jobs. They pay better than other jobs they could get. That's why they're there. Economies have to develop gradually. China's "great leap forward" was premature, and sacrificed what they were quite capable of producing on the altar of "progress", which cannot really be dictated from the top. The "modern" products their ignorant imitation of western industrialism produced were shoddy and worthless. People risking their own money make much better decisions (on average) than sheltered govt officials risking other people's.
Hmm, I wonder how happy sweatshop workers really are. From what I've read about the living and working conditions of those who are employed by, say, Nike factories,
it sure ain't pretty. Saying that it's better than what else they could get just rings hollow to me.
Doesn't every human being deserve something better? Something better than being exploited and oppressed for someone else's gain? Okay, so I sound like an idealist (and I'm sure someone reading this is going to think "Okay, smarty-pants, *you* fix their economy and give them all a better standard of living"), but I can't shake the feeling that insults to human dignity hurt *all* of us.
I don't know the answer. I don't know the best way to offer something better. I agree that government-dictated top-down style economic decrees are folly. I agree that individual actors within an economy make better decisions. But what do we do about those who are stuck in endemic poverty, and who can't afford to buy a share in the market game with the big payoffs? Do we just write them off and say "well, it could be worse - they should be glad for what they've got!" ?? That just strikes me as empty rhetoric we spew to ease our own consciences. Frankly, it could *always* be worse - that doesn't mean that what they have now is reasonable.
Someone else writes:
Why do shoes need breaking in? What is it that one does to shoes to break them in? Make the leather more flexible? Then why isn't that done by the manufacturer?
Umm... I think it's because the leather needs to become more pliable in the specific areas of your feet which need more room and which move most when you walk. The manufacturer can't do this because they don't know the exact size of your feet, which differ from the next consumer's in ways which are important to the comfortable fit of leather shoes.
Plus, it would be expensive, and we all know what *that* means (no way of course). I suppose they could use softer leather in the first place, but that would also, likely, be far too expensive.
Somewhere I remember reading or seeing a story about someone who was the child of immigrants to this country and whose father made money by breaking in shoes for other people...
[
my site
weblogs
]
2002-02-18
I redid the weblog list:
In the left column there, I went through and moved some things around, deleted a few that were 404 (or that I never read), and added some new ones.
Ahh, I look forward to some new juicy reading! :)
[
consume
]
2002-02-16
New sandals:
I bought some new sandals today for an outrageously high price. But of course they're expensive - they're *European*!
Okay, okay. I'm certainly not hoity-toity. But I shop for shoes at the same place as such people do.
Two years ago I went to Karavel Shoes on Burnet Road and said to them "Show me what you've got in my size". The shoe salesman came out with a pair of Clarks and it was a match made in heaven. Alas, I have loved my sandals so much that I basically ran them into the ground. They served me well, and comfortably, to boot.
Today I returned there to see what I could get in a backstrap sandal that would fit me, and settled on some black Wolkys. There's a bit of breaking in to be done, unfortunately (I got a blister on my left pinky toe walking around at Walmart with David afterwards).
I do expect these new sandals to last me a few years, though. I just wish they weren't so darned expensive. Oh, well. Guess I had better get a job, eh?
I pontificated a bit to David in the car that we overfed American consumers aren't used to things like shoes being expensive because the ones we buy are usually made in Indonesia or other places where people are living in conditions we would find abhorrent.
It was just one of those moments of clarity, when I realized that my fancy European sandals were so damned expensive at least partially because they were made in a country where people have subsidized healthcare and a decent standard of living.
It's so easy for us to forget, it's so invisible... sometimes you have to just make a point of noticing how much of the ease of our existence comes at the expense of someone else working in a factory.
[
random thoughts
]
2002-02-12
Poop patrol:
Yesterday and today I went out and did a very difficult, stinky job. Well okay, it's not difficult in the traditional sense - it's actually quite a simple maneuver. But it's not fun, really, and it's slow going.
Yesterday Elena helped me find about a five-gallon bucket worth of poop in the front yard, which I dutifully scooped using a rake-onna-stick and a shovel-onna-stick (named the "Oopsie Poopsie", as its sticker so cutely informs me). Then I dumped the bucket into the wheelbarrow on the other side of the fence.
Today I did another 3/4 of a bucket in the front yard, finishing it.
Ahh, but we have *four* yards! Thankfully, the West yard had only one deposit in it, which I quickly removed. The East yard I skipped, moving on to the North yard. I started in the corner.
Awhile later, when the bucket was finally full, my hands were *killing* me. Oy! I'll do more tomorrow, maybe.
Keep in mind that although there are only three big dogs here now, there used to be *eight* at one time. And the poop hasn't been scooped this thoroughly in oh, a year or so. So I've still got quite a bit of work ahead of me.
I'm no stranger to poopology, mind you. In 1995 or so, I worked and lived at a dog kennel with two (former) friends of mine. I did the poop scoopin' on a daily basis for 40-50 dogs. It's no big deal - it's honest work, somebody's got to do it, etc.
Anyway, I feel as though I earned my breakfast. :)
[
good
]
2002-02-09
Junior's back!
We lost track of one of our kitties for about a day. I was worried that some harm had come to him or something, but it turned out he had snuck into David's travel trailer when he was checking something out in there.
David went down and looked around, and sure enough, Junior was there. I'm *so* glad to have him back - I was so worried he was hurt or something...
[
weblogs
]
2002-02-09
Yet another good one:
I happened across the weblog
Synthetic Zero recently, and I like it quite a bit so far. Perhaps I should add it to my regular rotation. (Speaking of which, my list o blogs is well overdue for an edit...)
[
consume
good
]
2002-02-09
Have chair, will travel:
Ahhh! My sweetheart, David, has gotten me a Valentine's Day present a little bit early: a computer chair!
Okay, so it's not an Aeron or anything, but it's *quite* nice, and I'm very pleased with it. We just finished putting it together.
It's got armrests and a high back, and it can tilt back and roll. Utter coolness! I'm very happy with this wonderful gift. :)
[
good
humor
people
]
2002-02-07
Jim Loy's pages are cool! I first linked to
Jim Loy in July of 2000, which now seems like ages ago. Anyway, I wrote
this entry about his rather funny bit about
four-way stops.
Due to some recent revamping here (each log entry now has an integer as a unique ID instead of a timestamp - thanks to my codemonkey, Daniel!), I happened across that entry and realized that the old link was broken, so I found Mr. Loy's new site and updated the link.
Now I'm exploring at his site some more, enjoying the new stuff he's written since I last visited. Here are a couple of some of the particularly spiffy things I'm enjoying right now:
- Ptolemy's Epicycles (with spiffy animations!)
- Life - a nice introduction to the game thereof (also with spiffy animations!)
There's lots of great stuff there - dig in!
[
mental
]
2002-02-06
Feeling a little depressed lately.
But not too terribly much, so don't get all worried about me. Just a bit more listless, a bit more blah. It's one of those things that's easier to realize in retrospect.
I'm doing okay, but I notice I haven't had as much impetus to get things done as I would like. I'm going to work on improving that.
This morning I took a nice long hot bath and shaved my legs. This uh, doesn't happen very often, and I've been putting it off for weeks. Anyway, it is something that helps make me feel a bit better about myself, so that's good.
I'm doing well at focusing on the positive, I think. Moving forward instead of feeling guilty about what I haven't done. This may sound like a trivial thing to any of you who haven't experienced much depression, but frankly it can be a *very* difficult skill to learn. We humans are strange, emotional beasts, and it's all too easy to spiral down into blaming yourself for feeling the way you do.
Been there, done that. Too many damn times, frankly. Learned my lesson the hard, slow, stupid way, but I *did* eventually learn it. I think. (I hope.)
So now I am able to be gentle with myself when I notice some tendencies I'm not pleased with - generally laziness and a tendency to eat (and drink) too much. The trick is turning things around, of course. David helps with this tremendously - even just having someone who cares here to talk with makes a huge difference. We're both working on losing weight, so it makes it easier to nudge each other in the proper direction.
Bit by bit, day by day, trudging along, as long as it's in the right direction. That's my plan.
One thing that has saddened me is that I've had *so* many ideas lately for stuff to write about here, and I just haven't been able to bring it to reality. I hope to change that. Sometimes I just shake my head - I am not sure what my problem is, why I can't just take the extra step or two to concentrate and get things done.
My current working theory is that it's the bullshit chemical stuff going on in my head. Not enough serotonin, or whatever. Knowing what it is doesn't make it magically go away, of course, but it helps me to realize that ... to a certain extent, it's not my fault.
God, I feel like such a loser saying that. Like some kind of weasel trying to slither out of responsibility for my own life and my own actions. I'm not really like that. I'm not just throwing up my hands and giving up, not just whining "poor poor me" without taking steps to improve my condition.
But it's hard. It's like being stuck in a maze inside your own head. It's very hard to outsmart yourself.
But the bottom line is: I'm okay. I'm just kind of on a more "down" part of my cycle lately.
And for those of you who worry about me (like my family), be it known that: if I continue to feel down, I'll call my psych nurse and see if I can increase my dose of antidepressants, at least for a little while. I may do this anyway, I dunno.
