A tired rant on the right to live or die as we choose, and how we choose how we choose.

People have been making the choice to die since jump, just ask Kurt Cobain. Often it is a shock, seen as a selfish, cowardly or desperate act. The difficulties arise when those people who would ask to end their own lives first ask for the blessing of those around them, attempting to create a dialogue informing a concept that seems, at first glance, indefensible; would it be okay if I ended my life?
With regards to the adolescent jumper, pilltosser or vein-dumper, suffering in silence then vanishing in a blaze, it is almost seen as an unavoidable loss, like every so often there's an egg in the carton on the shelf in the supermarket that's broken before you even pick up the package. But when considering those with the wisdom of ages, old enough to know better, who've lived life and can look back, who want to make a similar choice, we are aghast, shocked and dismayed that such a thing could even happen.
Surely, callous a out sounds, we've got it backwards. It should be the other way around. Euthanasia should be one of those things that is sad, upsetting and makes us shake our heads at what the world has come to, hard on those left behind, maybe a little selfish, but there you have it, while the deliberate death decisions of the young should fuel debate, polarise and consternate, stop the world each time it happens.
Those who know enough to know they know enough should be allowed to make their peace the way they want to, while those who know that all they know is all there is to know should be watched and cared for until they see what knowing is actually about, and can make a decision based on experience.

This is a black day for me.

After an awful few days at work, undertaken as a favor, in the Glitterpuke Mine and taupe-white marble-tiled mire that in common parlance is known as Chadstone, I find myself predictably keyed up. Which reminds me, I noticed an 8-bit-esque app in the Android market. I will sample said app. Perhaps I will find it a refreshing change of pace to the case of artificially induced ADHD that place always causes.

four-and-change minutes later

I've just collected 464 stars in nyancat game!
So much for that change of pace.
That having been said it was still more pleasant than Chadstone.
I think I'll go download that other Nyancat app, the one where you just stare at it, gaining more points the longer you tolerate the constant noise gnawing at mind and eardrums, the colourful assault on your eyeballs and the brain-numbing self-imposed inactivity.
That's more the change of pace I was looking for. So much more peaceful than that horrible place.

Ah. That's better.

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Filesharing? Soul-baring?

People are strange.

Just finished reading a big ol' stack of eMails that I found on isoHunt regarding a band (/design company/author/I don't know what) and their struggle against piracy.

I didn't know you could sort out legal issues with the same sort of argument-style and strategy as you use on an online in-game-chat fight.

My conclusions are as follows.

1. Neither side were very nice to each-other.
2. The presentation of material was inevitably geared towards the torrent index website man's side, because he was the one doing all the stockpiling.

3. Restating the same thing only louder doesn't help win an argument.

4. Neither does blocking a person's email.

5. Rational argument is often met by point 3.

6. I'm sure not all alternative lifestyle people are vampire people, and I'm sure not all vampire people are as weird as the guy who wrote "Allure of the Vampire: Our Sexual Attraction to the Undead."

7. I am no better than anyone else who laughs at someone for being different, or a little more different than most different people. (See point 6.)

People are strange.

Flock this!

Wow. The Flock browser comes with a Blog Editor tab. This is going to be interesting.

Anyway, the Fringe festival is going swimmingly. I say swimmingly because I have a terrible cold and feel as though I am permanently immersed in potato and leek soup.

The part of the show that I have invested in emotionally, the lame bastard child of Daft Punk and Spinal Tap, those crazy sega-band rocksters Press Play, has still not performed a full show, hampered as we are by poor organisation, technical problems and conflicting schedules, as well as a supremely vague mission statement and an absence of goal-orientation and regular status reports. Perhaps an ad-hoc committee to address the difficulties of implementing a comprehensive documentation standard is in order. Or maybe we'll just fumble along as we go again.

Anyway, it's looking like being the chip-show on Wednesday and Thursday, and hopefully now that the MDJam is in its' most complete incarnation so far, we'll be able to rehearse more during the holidays and get some actual band-style shows instead of art-style shows. With a soundcheck.

Anyhow, time for a stiff scotch and a vicodin cup of tea and a multivitamin.

Bedtime now.

Yours in sickness and in health, but mostly sickness,

The Poe.

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All the cool kids want flowers and clouds.

Wow, two posts in one day.

That's got to be some kind of a record.

Actually two posts in the same month is a record for me.

Okay, there is actually a reason I simply MUST post, I'm not just doing it for the sake of doing it. One of my units, Network Arts has rekindled my enthusiasm for the pretty side of the internet. While browsing Tale of Tales, an offshoot game design company, consisting of prominent net.artists Michaël Samyn and Aureia Harvey, I found one of those things that makes me decide I like computer games again.

That thing was Flower.


You play as the wind. Cool, huh? Kinda reminds me of another game that made me feel like being a nerd wasn't such a bad thing, Cloud. If people can continue to make, like, play and propagate games like this, I will go from [=\] to [^^'].



If anyone wants me I'll be playing The Endless Forest.

Google, Apple, Stalin and my mobile phone.

There is a link, go with me on this.

All will become clear, I promise.*

Ok. I'm way behind the times (that's nothing new), and I've just discovered Knol. I have a tendency to periodically abandon the Internets for a couple of weeks at a time, usually when life gets in the way. When I come back, I'm always amazed at how much it's grown up in my absence, like a distant nephew or something. It's always coming up with new things, new ways to surprise me.

So yes, I was surprised by Knol. Mainly because I don't really understand why it exists.

I mean, I understand WHY, but not WHY why. I can see it being a useful resource to those already well versed in the concept of user-generated databases and peer-review, it'd be just like Wikipedia with credibility. But why do we need it? It's just Wikipedia with credibility. And of course, a capacity for growth and integration.

So it's Wikipedia for commercial bloggers.

See this is why Google confuse me. They see an idea and they think, "Wow, that's neat. We could do that, and make it easily accessible for EVERYONE, and free!" Then they go and design someth- Woah. it's hailing outside like baby Thor throwing an ice-cold hissy-fit.

Damn. That's the downside with windows. More to see, more to distract me. As I was saying: They see something, then in a sweep of unilateral grandiosity they make it bigger, better, all-encompassing and easy to use. Then they stuff it full of AdWords. It's this whole 'left hand makes warm woolen mittens and gives them away on the street corner while the right hand completely ignoring the entire existence of the left hand, trys to tell the world no one needs that second glove, really, you should just buy this one, it's like both gloves in one.'

For example, if you have a gMail account, get someone to send you an email that contains the words "google advertising." Low and behold, the column of ads on the sidebar is gone. It's like Anil Dash says in his article "Google and Theory of Mind." They seem to think if they put their big ol' e-hands over their eyes, no one will be able to see what they're doing because they're invisible now.

Compare Google, whose mantra is "Don't be evil," to say... Apple. The last of the true Evil companies. They work in secret, lock themselves in enclosed rooms to come up with products that exist in their own little space and don't need integration, forget how annoying that is for the rest of us, unveil it in a blinding flash of glory and tell us it's the Mechanical Messiah. And it works. Opposite sides of the spectrum. Both have completely different approaches to, well everything. Google loves peer-review, word of mouth and the Blogosphere. Apple loves Steve Jobs, white things without sharp edges, expensive ad campaigns and the Cone of Silence. Yet they both are somehow at the forefront of the social stratum. Google is a verb, and iPod is the default name for ANY mp3 player. They have both managed to create the exact mindset that Communist leaders throughout history were aiming for: "Who cares if it doesn't work so good? Isn't it awesome to be a part of it? Give ol' Uncle Joe a hug."

Which is why my new mobile phone**, when it eventually comes around, will be a clunky LG monster with Bluetooth and a spare battery. Because if I got an iPhone, I'd have to re-engineer my life a little too much for my liking.
*I have a tendency to break promises that I make a while sitting at a keyboard. Just ask ^nP0. Sure, I'll help out with your ladder match. I promise not to screw it up...**See? I told you I'd put 'em all together.

DISCLAIMER: Yes, I know. I'm on a google-run blog. What can I say? I'm a communist. I love free stuff that works most of the time. Who cares about my privacy?

Now I dont' normally do this but...

This has got to stop!

Corey Worthington has gone too far.

This 'man' is a menace to everything. Aside from photoshopping away his acne, he has released a terrible song and should feel terrible. It is so terrible in fact that I am not even going to link to it, as it will only perpetrate the madness. More ranting after the jump.


Now I must admit to being guilty on occasion of using the word 'fresh' in a context different from its' intended usage, particularly with reference to certain aspects of certain musical compositions. I am however, very discerning of said usage, bestowing the title upon only the most worthy tracks. I would consider myself a connoisseur of the word 'fresh' whereupon it applies to music and I must hereby lodge my protest at this irresponsible, near criminal misuse of this particular plaudit.

Novel? Yes. Fresh? Most definitely not.