Some of you may have read about 'w00t' being named word of the year. It was all over yesterday's news. Today's news, however, reflected the backlash of this appointment. Here's a sampling article. There's more like this. The arguments include everything from 'it won't last' to its 'lack of a meaning.' Its a pretty hot topic.
For those who don't know, 'w00t' comes from LAN-based computer games, namely first person shooters. It basically means 'yes!' or 'i just did something very cool.' Its always spelled lowercase and with zeros, never O's.
Here's how I feel. First, the fact that people say it doesn't have staying power. w00t really came about ~2002 and has been around ever since. Its not a new word, that'd be a better argument. But its already proven it has staying power. Second, its 'lack of a meaning.' Just because most people don't use it and have never heard of it and therefore don't know how to use it doesn't mean it doesn't have a meaning. Hell, last year's word was "Truthiness." One coulmnist went so far as to say truthiness, "captured the profound epistemological uncertainty of our time." Just because you're starting to realize that you're on the downhill side of the generation gap doesn't mean you can berate my generation's words. All you know is that Colbert is cool and you heard that you were supposed to like that word. It'll be gone and irrelevant in a few years. w00t is here to stay so you old-timers might as well install a good FPS, join a clan, make up a good handle (such as Caboose or Sir Deimos), brush up on your melee skills and start Pwnng n00bs. Then, and only then, will you be 1337. Here's a reference in case you're old.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
The Iron Butterfly re-emerges
Last night, for one night, LED ZEPPELIN was alive again. And of course, loud as hell. No great clips yet, and no solid plans for a second show, so here's the best I can offer.
Wrock Wrankings
Some friends of mine who used to work at a certain bbq restaurant in Ames have since started a wizard rock band. (For laymen, this is a band dealing with/inspired by the Harry Potter series) If you're laughing, you're not my friend. My friends are saying, "...wicked." Anyways, MTV recently had a top 10 Wizard Rock bands list, and they're #5!
Here's the link
Here's the myspace for Ministry of Magic
Check out Snape vs. Snape, The Hero, Accio Love, and Goodbye Privet Drive.
Here's the link
Here's the myspace for Ministry of Magic
Check out Snape vs. Snape, The Hero, Accio Love, and Goodbye Privet Drive.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
SMB
Recently got into Steve Miller Band for the second time. After being into it RIGHT when I was getting into guitar, I sorta burnt myself out on it, then set it aside and forgot about it. I put the album on a few days ago and have realized a few things about his music.
For starters, my playing has developed into a very similar style, without me even realizing it. Steve Miller was obviously into Jimi, he played a reverse headstock stratocaster without needing to, just for the look/tone of it, plus he's blues/rock influenced. The music is very guitar-driven, so its easy for me to get into it, but then there's good lyrics with a slightly pop-ish trend to it, making it digestible for a much wider audience. There's just a balance in their music that I'm looking for, the prominent lead guitar doesn't over do it, the funky drums, the occasional guitar solo never lasting over a minute, plus stripped down lyrics for songs rarely over 4 mins. Classic stuff.
"Is that freedom rock? Well, turn it up, brother!"
For starters, my playing has developed into a very similar style, without me even realizing it. Steve Miller was obviously into Jimi, he played a reverse headstock stratocaster without needing to, just for the look/tone of it, plus he's blues/rock influenced. The music is very guitar-driven, so its easy for me to get into it, but then there's good lyrics with a slightly pop-ish trend to it, making it digestible for a much wider audience. There's just a balance in their music that I'm looking for, the prominent lead guitar doesn't over do it, the funky drums, the occasional guitar solo never lasting over a minute, plus stripped down lyrics for songs rarely over 4 mins. Classic stuff.
"Is that freedom rock? Well, turn it up, brother!"
Monday, November 19, 2007
Book-it?
Apparently, kids and young adults aren't reading anymore. We all saw it coming, but the effects of the internet and television seem to have come sooner than expected. There are plenty of articles out there about the decline in statistics of people who read for pleasure, but I think the indirect effects of this are going to be worse than we think. I'd love to hear what the Freak-onomics author would have to say about this. You gotta think, 'Are people REALLY better people if they've read Dickens?' I think so.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Interesting
All facts of the story itself aside, I always find it interesting how different news sources 'objectively' report the news.
Check out how the first and third news sites phrase their headlines, and then look at how the second does. I'm not swaying anyone to either side, I'm merely pointing out how much I like the fact that Google News shows the same story on multiple sources. For stories that are supposedly objective, there's alot of desrepancy in their perspectives.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Select-a-Candidate
If you're having trouble trying to decide which candidate to get behind this election, here's a tool that will help you out. Its only a few questions, and you just answer truthfully and then it gives you a breakdown on what candidate is closest to your political views and why. Great stuff.
I actually ended up with Dodd, only due to my light opposition to the death penalty. Had I gone for Capital (or is it capitol) Punishment, and not wanted to partition Iraq, I'd be directly in Obama's camp. Even though he's second on my list, I'll still be caucusing for him.
**Turn this country from an Abomination to an Obama-nation!**
(I just made that up! Its GOLDEN!)
Speaking of the man, Barak was in town this past weekend for an assembly at East High, and then canvassed in DSM afterwards. Here's a link to the flickr page slideshow with the great photos.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Monterey Pop
Sorry for the lapse in blogs.
---------------------------
So I've got a couple projects going, but sine I've yet to get a different job, the expenditures are keeping reigned in. Therefore, my current project is a refinish of an existing squire strat I had lying around. Its all repainted and clear coated, but now I've got to wait a month before I wet sand it and buff it to gloss and add the hardware and neck. Here's what I started out with.
Its a cheap strat-type body and neck, and I'm using it as a practice run on the Monterey Pop strat replica. This is the original guitar that Jimi Hendrix hand painted, presumably with fingernail polish, then lit on fire and continured playing in the middle of Wild Thing at the Monterey Pop festival when he opened for The Who when nobody knew who this Jimi guy was. Suffice to say, people knew who he was after that show.
I know I've got to work on the smoothness of the lines, but I'm not and have never claimed to be a painter. Still I think it turned out considerably better than I had expected it to. I'll have a wrap up post once its finished.
---------------------------
So I've got a couple projects going, but sine I've yet to get a different job, the expenditures are keeping reigned in. Therefore, my current project is a refinish of an existing squire strat I had lying around. Its all repainted and clear coated, but now I've got to wait a month before I wet sand it and buff it to gloss and add the hardware and neck. Here's what I started out with.
Here's where its at thus far. I sanded down the neck and refinished with Fender Neck Amber, giving it a more vintage strat from 1960-70s look, and relic'd the back of it for smoother play. The body I stripped using several chemical stippers and then a belt sander and sanding by hand. Suffice to say that I won't be attempting to stip any more Poly-finished guitars any time soon. Once I had it to the bare wood, I primed it a few times and let that dry, then sprayed the red and let that dry, then sprayed the white and let that dry. Then I drew on the artwork with light pencil and made sure I liked it before getting out the acrylic paints and doing Hendrix's doodles and 'love drops.' Once the artwork was done, I shellac'd the paint to keep it protected from the Nitrocellulose clear coat which would have melted it. Once sufficiently shellac'd, I hit it with about a million coats of nitro clear coat to bury the paint. Once the nitro cures (30+days) I'll wetsand it and buff out the body to a shiny gloss. Then add the neck and hardware. Right now its curing, and here's how it turned out.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Roald Dahl
I saw today on Google that today is Roald Dahl's birthday. Growing up with a mother who's a reading teacher, all 3 of us kids were raised with his children's stories. I remember his books better than all the other children's books in our expansive library of literature in the house. Some of my personal favorites include:
Danny Champion of the World
The BFG
The Twits
James and the Giant Peach
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Matilda
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
I found it pretty interesting to read his Wikipedia write up. He had a pretty crazy life. I laughed out loud when I saw that the man who'd written James and the Giant Peach also had written several short stories published in Playboy. Who would've thought?
Danny Champion of the World
The BFG
The Twits
James and the Giant Peach
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Matilda
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
I found it pretty interesting to read his Wikipedia write up. He had a pretty crazy life. I laughed out loud when I saw that the man who'd written James and the Giant Peach also had written several short stories published in Playboy. Who would've thought?
Friday, August 31, 2007
Prisoner
Whoa oh prisoner
My pretty oh oh prisoner
A black ocean is the sky above
Tiny lights bob what star you from
Trapped in material plane
She wants to fly and they think she's insane
But she knows what she know
Give that girl wings and that's all she wrote
Twilight zone twilight zone I'm
Floating in the dark alone and
Is there any love out here let me know
A laser lights the top of my dome
Then through my body As if Scotty's
Beaming up a wayward soul
Mutant races in an ancient universe
Dark shadows humans rhymin' in a reggae verse
It's gone if you blink
I can see it as soon as you think it
Dancehalls crystal balls
On sidewalk malls
Psychic people outdoors reading palms
I believe that you know more
To survive the dimension is four
oh oh prisoner
my pretty oh oh prisoner
Look at the way she's searching
Trapped in a world that's hurting
So bad it makes her cry
But i won't let her say goodbye
--------------------------------------------------
Didn't get that job I wanted/needed.
My department got our official move date for when we're all being moved over to the craphole of a death sentence. Oct 5th. Can you tell I'm not very excited about it? Because I'm not. My department has essentially been 'blacklisted' from any decent positions within the region, to make sure none of us escape the move or get any job that isn't processing. Feel a little lost, like, what the hell am I doing at this insurance company? I can't get into any of the cool/important/not-pissant positions from where I'm at, so... what now? Do I quit and do something else for a while, then apply to those positions while NOT listing processing as a reference? I need to look into luthier school or something. I don't know. I'm just having one of those weeks. I don't get depressed very often, and I hate it. Nothing like realizing you made more money waiting tables 25 hours a week than you do at your corporate job working 38.75 hours.
Maybe I should take a hint from Ben Folds and think about the Army.
My pretty oh oh prisoner
A black ocean is the sky above
Tiny lights bob what star you from
Trapped in material plane
She wants to fly and they think she's insane
But she knows what she know
Give that girl wings and that's all she wrote
Twilight zone twilight zone I'm
Floating in the dark alone and
Is there any love out here let me know
A laser lights the top of my dome
Then through my body As if Scotty's
Beaming up a wayward soul
Mutant races in an ancient universe
Dark shadows humans rhymin' in a reggae verse
It's gone if you blink
I can see it as soon as you think it
Dancehalls crystal balls
On sidewalk malls
Psychic people outdoors reading palms
I believe that you know more
To survive the dimension is four
oh oh prisoner
my pretty oh oh prisoner
Look at the way she's searching
Trapped in a world that's hurting
So bad it makes her cry
But i won't let her say goodbye
--------------------------------------------------
Didn't get that job I wanted/needed.
My department got our official move date for when we're all being moved over to the craphole of a death sentence. Oct 5th. Can you tell I'm not very excited about it? Because I'm not. My department has essentially been 'blacklisted' from any decent positions within the region, to make sure none of us escape the move or get any job that isn't processing. Feel a little lost, like, what the hell am I doing at this insurance company? I can't get into any of the cool/important/not-pissant positions from where I'm at, so... what now? Do I quit and do something else for a while, then apply to those positions while NOT listing processing as a reference? I need to look into luthier school or something. I don't know. I'm just having one of those weeks. I don't get depressed very often, and I hate it. Nothing like realizing you made more money waiting tables 25 hours a week than you do at your corporate job working 38.75 hours.
Maybe I should take a hint from Ben Folds and think about the Army.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)