inquam.ca

1. Limit your friends...

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:15:42 -0800

The world wants that attention. Only you can decide where it goes.

And it does determine the shape of your life: what you pay attention to becomes your reality. If you watch and read the news all the time, you will become obsessed with the latest crises. If you watch and read about celebrities, your life will revolve around them. If you socialize on social networks all day long, this will become your world.

I found an interesting article today about fighting for you attention. I agree strongly with many of the things the author mentions in her list of reclaiming your attention:

1. Limit your friends. Not real-life friends, but social network and blogging and forum friends. Not that these can’t be good relationships, but having too many makes them meaningless. And each friend will take up a little bit of your attention — when you read their updates, click on their links, reply to their messages, look at their photos, and so on. The more you have, the more attention they’ll require. Limit them to just the essential.

…

4. Give up on news. It’s a never-ending cycle. And if you’ve paid attention to the news as long as I have (I’m a former journalist), you know it’s all the same, year after year. Unless your job depends on it, the news is usually a waste of your attention. Let go of the need to stay updated. Even if your job does depend on it, keep it limited.

5. Be brief. Write brief emails, tweets, updates, blog posts. With some exceptions, of course. But make brief your de facto.

6. Give your attention to the important. This is the crucial part: choose what you give your attention to, and do this choosing carefully. What is important to you? Writing? Photography? Design? Coding? Creating a new business that helps others? Your kids? Figure this out, and give this the majority of your attention.

On top of my issues with FB, there is the simple reason that I just can’t deal with a large group of friends on a quality level. The only people I really deal with are the people in my day to day life: classmates, bandmates and friends that live in this city. If it weren’t for having a band of 7 members I’d be able to count the people I interact with that I consider friends on my two hands. I just don’t want to deal with more people in my life. It’s not that I don’t care or love my other friends, but a digital-only existance/interaction gives me no emotional contact. The only thing that really makes twitter, for example, fun is that most of my interactions are with people I see daily already.

As for the news point, I couldn’t agree more. History repeats itself and news is sounding more and more familiar everyday. I’m not saying I cut it out of my life completely, but the news that I can catch up on during the time it takes me to make or eat dinner is probably enough to keep me from looking like a complete doofus. I’m not living in a shitty world. My government doesn’t treat me like crap. I don’t make so much money that I feel like the gov’t is robbing me. I’m no protesting hippy. The news tends to be so sad and depressing anyways…

Number 5 is really my favorite. I think Einstein said it best: “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler”. I hate feeling like I contribute to the noise of useless blabber that occurs in so many parts of the internet. Taking a quick look here, I’ve been on twitter for longer than most of my friends, and although I keep an active presence on the social network I have less than many of my “younger” friends. I’m still under 1000 tweets where a number of my friends are way above that. Some even try for a large number. I don’t see the point. Say what you need to say, but don’t add to the noise in the world. ‘nuff said

The last one is probably the most import in the list. Spend time in your life doing what you love, what you find important, because in the end that is what will shape you. Without sounding punny, the only thing you can count on at the end of the day is that there are only 24h in a day. Only 365 days in a year. And only a slowly shrinking number of years left in your life. At the end of the day, your memories of what you’ve spent your time doing over the last 5, 10 or 50 years is what will make you who you are on that day. Why not be proud to have been in control of most of it instead of being a slave to someone or something else’s bidding? Not to say that you can’t love your job or anything, just make sure you’re doing what you love somewhere in your life!

Ah hell, what do I know? I’m only 23; so young I don’t even know it.

I wear sandals. I like feeling air on my feet. They don’t...

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 22:38:02 -0800

I wear sandals. I like feeling air on my feet. They don’t get too cold. I was born in a cold place; I know what I’m doing.

Here’s your chance to make fun of me as the first person to be wearing sandals regularly this year. Make fun of me now before everyone else starts wearing them. Make fun of me now but I will dare you to try out this most liberating footwear now.

Dare to wear sandals.

Under the microscope

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 07:00:00 -0800

Since my house has gone into vinyl mode over the past few months, I thought it might be interesting to share some images I found of what the grooves look like close up.

Chris Supranowitz is a researcher at The Insitute of Optics at the University of Rochester. Along with a number of other spectacular studies (such as quantum optics, trapping of atoms, dark states and entanglement), Chris has decided to look at the relatively boring grooves of a vinyl record using the institute’s electron microscope. Well, not boring for me.

I found it to be pretty neat, but that may be because I am kind of an audio nut. To contrast the magnified analog audio, the research team at The Insitute of Optics also checked out the pits of a CD.

You can check out the entire article here.

Well it’s 9th and Hennepin And all the donuts have Names...

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 13:21:39 -0800

Well it’s 9th and Hennepin
And all the donuts have
Names that sound like prostitutes
And the moon’s teeth marks are
On the sky like a tarp thrown over all this
And the broken umbrellas like
Dead birds and the steam
Comes out of the grill like
The whole goddamned town is ready to blow.
And the bricks are all scarred with jailhouse tattoos
And everyone is behaving like dogs.
And the horses are coming down Violin Road
And Dutch is dead on his feet
And the rooms all smell like diesel
And you take on the
Dreams of the ones who have slept here.
And I’m lost in the window
I hide on the stairway
I hang in the curtain
I sleep in your hat
And no one brings anything
Small into a bar around here.
They all started out with bad directions
And the girls behind the counter has a tattooed tear,
One for every year he’s away she said, such
A crumbling beauty, but there’s
Nothing wrong with her that
$100 won’t fix, she has that razor sadness
That only gets worse
With the clang and the thunder of the
Southern Pacific going by
As the clock ticks out like a dripping faucet
Till you’re full of rag water and bitters and blue ruin
And you spill out
Over the side to anyone who’ll listen
And I’ve seen it
All through the yellow windows
Of the evening train.

"Fiends and Ghosts"

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 23:10:52 -0800

Trying to finish this “demo” or whatever it should be considered. This recording project is taking its toll on me. It’s been a work in progress for too long now and we still have nothing to show for it.

Raph and I went in this morning to work on tracks and we still aren’t complete. I’m thinking it would have helped if I had touched a guitar since the last time we did any recording.

I’ll be sure to post any songs we produce here for anyone to listen to.

P.S. We’re looking for a new name for the band, and ideas?

Google \/\/ave notifications

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 21:17:34 -0800

Google has finally pushed an update to their Wave product that allows users to be notified via email for updates to waves that they follow. This was previously only possible with a separate extension which had certain reliability issues.

Looks like Wave isn’t a lost cause after all!

Dental hygienist

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 12:11:16 -0800

I was in to see my dentist today to get a filling done. My first real filling ever. My first time being “frozen in the mouth”. For the record, it wasn’t really my fault that a cavity formed, it was due to my rear molars being misaligned after my braces were removed a million years ago.

My mouth is still numb on my left side as I write this. I’m almost tempted to bite my tongue just because I can!

The actual amazing part of my day was that I had the most attractive dental hygienist or dental assistant or whatever her title was ever! Better than any nurse I’ve ever seen, better than any lifeguard. I felt like I was in a movie!

Once she put my crazy rubber mask thing in my mouth she asked me a question:

“This might make it tough to swallow so just let me know if you need any sex.”

What?

Then it dawns on me that she said “…if you need any suction.” Haha.

Highlight of my day at 9am. Might as well just go to bed until tomorrow now.

Update

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 13:27:00 -0800

I’ve updated my tumblr with a new theme and added the new Reply feature to my posts and the Ask and Submit features to my sidebar.

So please, ask and submit away!

A quick trip through downtown Vancouver during the Olympic games...

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 21:12:00 -0800

A quick trip through downtown Vancouver during the Olympic games this year. It was quite a trek indeed and my sister came to visit at the end!

You can comment on them on my flickr page.

(Turn up your speakers or plug in some headphones; this...

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:42:10 -0800

(Turn up your speakers or plug in some headphones; this band/video is best head loud!)

Closure in Moscow First Temple

There are some band’s whose sound or style is hard to reproduce or imitate in an original way. Some that come to mind are The Mars Volta or The Fall of Troy. This Australian band takes both mentioned bands’ sounds and create something awesome! The lead vocals even remind me of Copeland, although I don’t know what put them in my head while listening to CIM.

The guitarists are solid, the drummer throws in some neat tricks, and the whole group ends up sounding nicely balanced. Impressive to hear in a new upcoming young band. They have some potential.

Here’s their album if you want to try it out, which i strongly suggest!

Enjoy

Original Post This is an interesting little article I found that...

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 13:05:18 -0800

Original Post

This is an interesting little article I found that has more weight with the recent introduction of the iPad. Not so much for what the iPad is, but for what it was expected to be, and what I hope can or will come of it in the future.

Twistori

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 22:05:48 -0800

This is my new screensaver. It’s also a unique way to view twitter based on these the six words love, hate, think, believe, feel and wish. It’s entertaining if not really useful.

One nice thing is that it doesn’t eat up system resources to run it as a screensaver. I’ve tried some Twitter feed ‘savers that really put my computer into overdrive while it’s relaxing.

Give the original website a shot first to see what this is all about, then grab the screensaver once you’re done.

P.S. this is a Mac thing :)

We were in the studio last friday to continue recording some...

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 20:14:57 -0800

We were in the studio last friday to continue recording some music, and this time I brought my video camera to capture some moments. I’m on bass and Raph is on guitar.

This is one of our newer songs and of course there are vocals and horns on this song, but I had just written a new bassline and wanted to show Raph what I’d come up with.

Enjoy and stay tuned for more!

Live blogging Apple events

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 11:42:00 -0800

Look, I’m not saying it’s because the frigtards who run Twitter probably won’t be able to handle the load tomorrow and the whole system is going to crash. But let’s just say I wouldn’t bet against that scenario, either. I mean look at these guys. Birdman and Baldy, we call them. As Larry says, these guys couldn’t find their own assholes using two hands and a flashlight. You really want to rely on them for something important? I wouldn’t rely on them to wash my car.

-Fake Steve Jobs on his live blogging of Apple’s impending tablet release.

Google's new approach to China

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 00:33:44 -0800

Google is finally sick of bending over to China’s demands to censor the Internet and search results. In this bold announcement on their blog today, Google announced that they will be ceasing their much-beloved censorship program at Google.cn.

We launched Google.cn in January 2006 in the belief that the benefits of increased access to information for people in China and a more open Internet outweighed our discomfort in agreeing to censor some results.

…

These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered—combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web—have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.

— David Drummond, SVP, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer at Google.

This is great to hear (although not the part about the attacks on the human rights activists). Please read the above post and, if you believe this is a good move on Google’s part, support them in their move to help free China’s people from their “great wall of censorship”.

My collection of the RS 50 Best Albums of the '00

Sat, 02 Jan 2010 22:21:11 -0800

Lists are lists, and everyone loves reading or making or agreeing and disagreeing on lists. Especially big and all encompassing lists like the Rolling Stone 50 Best Albums of the Decade. That’s a big title!

Everyone is going to have their opinion on who should be included or cut from this list, but that’s not the point of this post. I just wanted to see which from this list did I get to listen to, to experience, to live with during the ’00s.

The following list bolds those albums that I do NOT have or ever had, and will subsequently get as they’re probably worth at least a try. Enjoy.

Radiohead - Kid A - ‘00
The Strokes - Is This It - ‘01
Wilco - Yankee Hotel - ‘01
Jay-Z - The Blueprint - ‘01
The White Stripes - Elephant - ‘03
Arcade Fire - Funeral - ‘04
Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP - ‘00
Bob Dylan - Modern Times - ‘06
M.I.A. - Kala - ‘07
Kanye West - The College Dropout - ‘04
Bob Dylan - Love and Theft - ‘01
LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver - ‘07
U2 - All That You Can’t Leave Behind - ‘00
Jay-Z - The Black Album - ‘03
Bruce Springsteen - The Rising - ‘02
OutKast - Stankonia - ‘00
Beck - Sea Change - ‘02
MGMT - Oracular Spectacular - ‘08
The White Stripes - White Blood Cells - ‘01
Amy Winehouse - Back to Black - ‘07
Coldplay - A Rush of Blood to the Head - ‘02
Green Day - American Idiot - ‘04
D’Angelo - Voodoo - ‘00
Bruce Springsteen - Magic - ‘07
Radiohead - Amnesiac - ‘01
Cat Power - The Greatest - ‘06
The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots - ‘02
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever to Tell - ‘03
Sigur Rós - Ágætis Byrjun - ‘00
Radiohead - In Rainbows - ‘07
My Morning Jacket - Z - ‘05
Lil Wayne - Tha Carter III - ‘08
Daft Punk - Discovery - ‘01
OutKast - Speakerboxxx/The Love Below - ‘03
PJ Harvey - Stories From the City, Stories - ‘00
U2 - No Line on the Horizon - ‘09
50 Cent - Get Rich or Die Tryin’ - ‘03
Ryan Adams - Bloodshot - ‘00
Kings of Leon - Aha Shake Heartbreak - ‘05
Kanye West - Late Registration - ‘05
Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not - ‘06
Elliott Smith - Figure 8 - ‘00
The Killers - Hot Fuss - ‘04
System of a Down - Toxicity - ‘01
Kanye West - Graduation - ‘07
Justin Timberlake - FutureSex/LoveSounds - ‘06
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes - ‘08
TV on the Radio - Dear Science - ‘08
Fiona Apple - Extraordinary Machine - ‘05
Bright Eyes - I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning - ‘05

34/50 isn’t bad! I feel like I got a pretty good taste of what will be remembered about this past decade. It’ll be that music that gets played when my kids grow up and I’ll have to tell them “I know that band/song. I grew up with that stuff!!”. I hope it won’t turn out to be as embarrassing as the ‘80…

Happy new year!

"Add Jesus to you friend list"

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 12:45:13 -0800

“Add Jesus to you friend list”

- A sign at the Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

My Flavors.me profile,

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 21:57:33 -0800

My Flavors.me profile, :

linking my most significant web presences in a beautifully useful layout.

What sounds like part of the dance mix is her starting to cry really hard. So I hang up.

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 01:53:26 -0800

McDonald’s almost hired me one time, and I only applied for the job to meet younger girls. Black girls, Hispanic, white, and Chinese girls, it says right on the job application how McDonald’s hires different races and ethnic backgrounds. It’s girls, girls, girls, buffet-style. Also on the application McDonald’s says if you have any of the following diseases:

Hepatitis A
Salmonella
Shigella
Staphylococcus
Giardia
or Campylobacter, then you may not work there. This is more of a guarantee than you get meeting girls on the street. You can’t be too careful. At least at McDonald’s she’s gone on the record saying she’s clean. Plus, there’s a very good chance she’s going to be young. Pimple young. Giggling young. Silly young and as stupid as me.

Eighteen-, nineteen-, twenty-year-old girls, I only want to talk to them. Community college girls. High school seniors. Emancipated minors.

-From Survivor - Chuck Palahniuk.

My new novel for the holidays. Chuck Palahniuck - Rant I read...

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 22:32:16 -0800

Chuck Palahniuk's Rant

My signed copy

My new novel for the holidays.

Chuck Palahniuck - Rant

I read Survivor earlier this year and was well impressed by how it hooked me, so I’ve no doubt this one will do the same. I’m actually excited for something other than studying for finals in 9 courses fighting for all my attention.

On top of just getting the book, I ended up surprisingly getting a signed copy (photo above). So yay me! :D

I’ll be sure to let you know if I like the book when I’m done.