Category: miscellaneous

thought of the day: beethoven suffered deafness, yet penned some of the most incredible melodies those of us lucky enough to hear will ever have the pleasure of experiencing. now in my head (a scary zone you’ll all likely agree) i almost constantly have little songs of my own design floating about, and assuming most people also tend to have music on the brain from time to time; with millions of deaf people since ludwig van, how many brilliant melodies have been lost in those minds that the rest of us will never hear?

happy new year to those who bother putting up with my inconsistent posting. the truth is over the past couple months since my last posting i’ve been doing two things related to this site: migrating to a dedicated, externally-hosted server and concepting some new designs. so my site is no longer kept on one of my computers here at the house, but a faster, more reliable machine somewhere else. and while i still find merit in my yellow/orange design, i’m surprised i’ve let it go this long without a refresh, considering how quickly i tend to bore with most everything else; the existing layout is a good 4-5 years old, a near-eternity in web years.

combine the above with a hectic work and holiday schedule, and it begins to make sense that venting my oft-abnormal thoughts and observations on some web log starts to take exceedingly lower priority; or maybe it’s just me.

thought of the day: some people i cannot imagine naked (and don’t want to succeed in doing so). then there are those who i cannot imagine getting naked for the sake of pleasure.

some may know that i recently purchased one of the brand new ipods. yes, the video-enabled ones, and yes, the 80GB black one. the battery in my previous white, 40GB, gray-screened one seemed to not be enough anymore for the lengths of time that i needed it to live, and despite my best efforts of having originally waited for colour screens, only to give in a month short of the surprise release of said feature, some of the functionality of the newest generation of ipods is simply something i wanted to experience and share.

so now that i have it… what is to be said of this gadget? after a mostly painless checkout experience on apple.com’s store (i opted for an engraved message on the chromed backside, as well as a tip-in note to myself–intended for gift-giving, but used in mockery to bloat my self-assurance), it set sail from china to the midwest of america… all in 3 day’s time. i have to say the expediency of the standard (free) shipping is astounding. in fact, everything i’ve ever ordered from apple has arrived quicker than expected; and it’s quite possible mine is an isolated–or at least rare–track record for deliveries.

the first thing i noticed is that the new packaging seems roughly half the size of my 40GB’s cubic box (redundancy duly noted); that’s wonderful for someone environmentally mindful like myself. as always, the cleanliness of the packaging and it’s printed design are one of a kind; no other company in the world designs products and packaging like apple. where my last ipod’s box had a slip sleeve featuring bright colours and the iconic dancing silhouettes housing a plain black cube with just the white apple logo, this new packaging has a sleeve reminiscent of collectors edition dvd’s, except roughly the flat dimensions of a cd case, an all black attire, with accents of silver foil instead of plain white. being someone who has in the past year become more aware of packaging and printing technologies, i can definitely appreciate the detail–and glaring lack thereof–in its beauty.

the second thing i noticed was that it seemed almost TOO small.

so the other day i was ranting about the state of fradulent information posted by minors. well here’s another nitpick on the photos people post.

first is the ‘bedhead’ photo. you know the ones… where it looks like the person was caught unexpectedly while enroute to the bathroom in the morning; all pale-faced and sick-looking. it’s fine that photos like this occur, but please folks, there is nothing flattering about them, so why post them to the world as the (sometimes only) image to be THE image most representing of yourself?

second is the ‘foreign/strange child’ photo. in these, we often see the person share the spotlight with a child, usually one that isn’t their progeny, but rather a godchild, niece/nephew, friend’s kid, etc. i find two issues with this. first, kids are supposed to be cute…that’s how nature makes them, so we don’t pitch their whiny asses out the door when they get annoying. by posing with a child, unless the kid is really ugly or you’re far above average in the looks department, you’re going to look worse by comparison. second, because the focus is split, people often feel the need to disclaim the child isn’t theirs, perhaps to eliminate the thought we all probably have anyway upon seeing someone with a young child: that you might be a whore or some other equally negative connotation. this disclaimer usually manifests itself in one of two ways: a byline which appears in text near the photo (“not my kid!”), or a disturbingly messy scribble over the photo from MS Paint’s airbrush tool, usually in pink or black, and always with such sloppy craftsmanship that with even rudimentary skills of handwriting anaylsis, your opinion is overshadowed by the discontent that the person may be mentally incapacitated to some extent. i mean, if you’re going to ‘retouch’ a photo, let’s put a little more effort into it so it doesn’t look like the work of Big Bird on an LSD binge while being autoerotically asphyxiated by snuffleuppagus’ fuzzy proboscis.