Bread and circuses .'.

Am I the only one that sees the irony in this?

A TV show that's on right now is all about computer game addiction.

There are parents who won't let their kids play MMORPG (Massively-Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games). they outright ban it!

now, I've not really experienced any of the newer MMOGs, but my feeling on this is that interactive media is for the most part less mind-numbing than say, watching 4 hours of TV a day. Active participation forces the use and adjustment of the brain, spacing out in front of television doesn't. Apparently (I'll try to track down the source) your brain is less active when watching television than it is when you're asleep - could you honestly say that is the case in a computer game where you're solving puzzles, considering tactics, developing strategies, communicating with other gamers, forming _real_ friendships/alliances, exploring, etc.. ?

Admittedly, MMOGs haven't developed to the point where it's going to be as educational as watching "The Discovery Channel", but how many kids watch that? regularly?

But I'd say that will grow in the next year.

forgive my disjointed thoughts - I'm still watching the documentary..

but anyway - my point was: I can't believe parents can freak out about "too much internet" or "too many games" and still allow their kid to drone away the non-school hours in front of a different box. It seems that their fear of their kids having freedom to find bad information outweighs their desire for them to allow the chance to find "good" information.

that's one of my dislikes with organized religions: It attempts to protect you from the world by locking you in the basement.

Am I an old man now? .'.

Hehe - let me get to the point before you judge the title :)

I worked a shift down at the cafe the other day with a replacement from another store - at some point or another age came up and she turned out to be 17 - completely bursting the bubble I've created where everyone is basically my age :)

That was indeed strange - I haven't seen my sister for about four years, and she's about the same age as this girl who responded to the music smalltalk with a list of bands that I'd never heard of (it's okay though, music these days is so devoid of soul - but back in my day....)

Anyway - so at some point I asked her when her birthday was (tentative explorer of astrology that I am) and her response was "April, so yes, I'm 17 for quite a while still.." (followed by a mildly accusative glare)

umm.. what?

oohhhhh!

*smacks forehead*

Somehow, my asking about the birthday was interpreted as "so, when are you turning 18(legal)?"

So either:
a) She gets a lot of older people hitting on her and has [understandably] grown defensive
or
b) I'm old enough now that younger generations assume any friendliness is an attempt at starting a midlife crisis :)

either are amusing to me, but in different ways.

Help me doctah.. .'.

...I have an inappropriate and strong urge to get severely off my face..

Well yah - so - trying to maintain a level head, momentum and motivation in spite of what I just found out:

Aside from one working month back in the USA, Rachel is now going to be on tour for around a year.

yay. :-|

So here we go, the final test of the Scorpio - Maintain monogamy and [involuntary] celebasy for 12 months.

heh - not a problem, scorpio's have excellent will power.
.. though I should remind you(and myself) that will power is used to resist existing urges.
Not that I'm having them, mind you - but it's amusing, since I was chatting to one of the customers at the cafe today who's into astrology - asked him to guess the odds of a[n anonymous] scorpio male surviving 7 months of involuntary celebacy.
He laughed his ass off and replied with "not a chance!"

.. that is, unless you say something like that to challenge my willpower ;-P

well, back to the music then..

You're kidding, right? .'.

Okay okay,

So there was one minor flaw in my plan...
.. I didn't have a CD burner.

yes yes, it seems obvious - but I've been relying on being networked to Rachel's laptop for creating CDs, and she only left yesterday..
..anyhoo - to the point:

I've had a lot of luck at computer stores so far, and so I didn't quite "get" the references made in Penny Arcade.
Well - I take it all back. I just popped down to CompUSA to buy an external CD burner (wearing big, obvious headphones so as not to have my refined shopping trip disturbed by some helpful customer service assistant.).
Got to the checkout, pulled off my headphones (to be polite) and met my first American Computer-Store Robot/Retard. Un-fuckin-believable :)

First, she helpfully offers to sign me up for the "protection plan", where a big guy with an uzi follows me home and then watches over me for a year, making sure everything is all right, for only $11.

her: If you're not going to be burning many CDs then I'd recommend it, but if you're going to be burning a lot of CDs then I'd definately recommend it.
me: ... (giving her a passive, but mildly amused look)
her:
me: .... (giving her a passive, yet bored look)
her: ... Yes, see, like, it's faster because it's.. faster.. and it has more RAM
me: really? Is it full duplex?
her: .. yah...
me: does it have a 12-bit cache and support semi-cortical displacement?
her: I'm pretty sure it does, I think I read that.
me: hmm.. well in that case... no.

The End of The Line .'.

Well - big coupla days over here at the ranch...

The album is 85% complete, which is great - except that I have three days left to finish it :)

The website job I have has had to take the backburner for a while, but I try to work on it as a "break" from the album work.(you have to let your ears reset, apparently) It's severely overdue, though I can blame that on the first replacement computer dying, and the three week (or so) wait for a replacement-replacement - I'm not sure I could allow myself to give the client such an "excuse" (that's how it would seem)

My spine is severely (and no error, nor exaggeration) unhappy with me, since I've moved upstairs, I'm sitting in a (perhaps) record-breaking non-ergonomic position for about 14-16 hours, 8 hours at the cafe all day (standing up) and then 0-2 hours sleep.. this has been going on for longer than I'd like to admit.

but yes, things are coming to a head - I will be submitting all of the works in the next 72 hours, then I will (hopefully) be free for a while.

sounds funny really, one minute I'm begging for work, the next I'm whining.. well, it's my own mistake - I wished (quite strongly) for "website work, and an album, and a normal day job" but forgot to specify that they should come with a little bit of space, or maybe - a little time to actually get them done :)


forgive the rambling - it's 4:20am and after being up all night (again) am about to head off to the cafe.

actually, I just got on here to let the appropriate people know that my free cellphone/mobile has gone back from whence it came, so until I can purchase a (non free, non unlimited calls) phone, I'm pretty much out of contact.

yah.

bumms.