There’s something terribly ironic about me getting a cavity before Halloween. I mean, da fug?! I care for my teeth scrupulously — religiously — and this is what I get for my efforts?
Colour me grumpy.
EDIT: Emergency abated. Those of you on the edge of your seats may view the comments for details.
Since viewing Bambi for the first time at a young age and bawling my eyes out, I’ve tried my damnedest to live my life consistently by — and rarely compromising — the maxim, “if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” Doing so often leaves me chewing my tongue to prevent it from spilling an inappropriate comment at an inopportune moment. However, in my twenty-odd years of doing this, I’m sometimes consumed by the need to speak, maxim and manners be damned, else run the risk of chewing off my tongue and choking to death on it. Thus, to avoid complicating further the life of the person closest to me via my own untimely and needlessly self-afflicted death, I must unload my emotions, Thumper be damned.
All relationships, be they intimate, personal, or familial, are subject to conflict. Conflict stems from disagreement based upon personal perception of the workings of the partnership, home, world, or any combination thereof. Personal perception amounts to opinion and opinions are far from ambiguous, especially if considered worth fighting for. People are often resolute in their beliefs, having amassed a great deal of first-hand experience to support their assertions; hence, the potential for the arousal of conflict in an otherwise intimate working relationship.
But what happens when the source of conflict is an unknown x? Is not verbal sparring a way of expressing opinion, of voicing the rhyme and reason for disagreeing, of attempting to convince the party to which you speak that, though they may not necessarily be wrong, you are more correct than they? What happens when, rather than being based upon rational and well-considered conjecture, conflict is based in contradictory and malicious intent?
Though this may seem to be a series of rhetorical questions, that is not the case. Behold the power of the parent and the abuse of said power. Reading the first linked post carefully, one cannot help but notice the obvious: missing is any discernible motive for such malice and anger. I…
I’m too upset at this point to possibly maintain the façade of coherency that, somehow, I’ve kept up to this moment. Thus, I shall drive swiftly to the points I wish to make and close my argument before I say anything that I may regret with time. Compromising a personal maxim or no, I shall not stoop to the level of the person I have issue with through the statement of unsupported and hurtful rhetoric.
Anger must be justified and explainable. Lashing out suddenly and without provocation eliminates the possibility of any meaningful discourse taking place and destroys any hope of satisfactory resolution. In the absence of any plausible or significant motive, people attacked in this fashion will typically approach the transgressor, cautiously asking for clarification as to why they’ve been attacked. The attacker, at this point in time, will often choose the coward’s exit, which doubles also as an opportunity to spew further vitriol, citing “if you don’t know, then I’m not going to tell you.” Translation? She has no clue herself and, even if she did, has no desire to reach a resolution for she is in a position of power.
Expectations must be voiced and consistent. Human beings are not capable of reading minds as a literate person may read a book. Consistency in expectation leads to consistency in action and, in the event of inaction or inappropriate action, consistency in the execution of punitive measures with the intent of nurturing responsibility in the individual. Not voicing or inconsistently enforcing expectations is similar to having an ill-equipped person run across a minefield; the most likely result is an injured person.
Finally, independence is not a negative trait. How being independent translates to being “selfish, disrespectful, ungrateful and self-centred” is beyond me. Leaving home… what better ode to good parenting, what better tribute from a grown child to a nurturing parent can there possibly be, than the happiness and success sufficient to exist beyond the boundaries of the home? Independence should not be reviled, particularly by the parent of an outstanding child; it is to be lauded.
I’m tired and grumpy and miss the hell out of daylight. I’ve been bushed all bloody week due to sunlight deprivation. Alarm clock chimes denoting 7AM, yet the abscence of light in the room does wonders in convincing my body that it’s 5AM. It doesn’t take a genius to determine which I’m more inclined to trust…
The perpetual darkness I’ve been living in has really affected me. My body — and worse still, my mind — has shutdown, leaving me a drooling zombie that’s too damn dense to realize it shouldn’t be up and about. Pantomiming the motions of a man doth not a man make. Taking dull metal to my face does wonders for combating physical fuzziness, but in the face of mental fatigue, what’s there to do when two and two begins to make five and, worst of all, make sense?
Argh.
Why are humans the only animals to go to bed when they are not tired and to get up when they are?
Silence is not indicative of a lack of things to say, but rather, a lack of inclination to speak.
A handful of days and ~850 pages later, and I’ve conquered the Tower.
I am keen on discussing the final volume, and the entire series, with all those I’m associated with that have read the previous six. Until then, I’m not breathing a word…!
I am not easy to anger, yet this has done so.
Caught wind of it through my mate Jon, and had the flames fervently fanned by a few mailing lists to which I belong (Ad Noiseam, Ant-Zen, Frozen Empire Media, et cetera).
This site popped up, seemingly overnight, offering — for a fee — mp3s of various electronic- and industrial- related items, both easy-finds and rarities. In theory it seems like a great idea, except that JetGroove never asked permission of any of the labels or musicians whose material they’re set to profit from. Not only is this apprehensible, it’s also in direct contradiction of their self-penned and on-site policy, which states that the “music is licensed and the artists are compensated.”
I’ve got no problem with mp3s — none whatsoever, particularly if what’s being shared is no longer available — but for the proprietors of JetGroove to be selling mp3s without the consent of the labels and artists involved, nor to offer them compensation for said action, is morally repugnant.
Speaking as a label-head who sees one of his releases available on this site, I can tell you flat-out that, prior to today, I’d never heard of JetGroove, never been contacted by JetGroove, and most certainly never gave permission to JetGroove. I can only imagine how the various musicians learning of this site must feel.
UPDATE as of 5:08PM:
This just in… particular items of note in bold.
“Dear Sirs and Madams,
“My name is Ulukman Mamytov and I am the attorney for jetgroove.com.
“I bring you apologies from JetGroove for making you worry about your copyrights infringements and your music repertoire being presented on our website. I want to assure you that jetgroove.com having started a new Online Music Download Service pursues the objective of making your music more wellknown [sic] and accessible and ONLY BY LEGAL MEANS.
“That means we DO NOT SELL any of your music without obtaining a proper permission (License) from you or other respective rightholders. You can easily check this by trying to purchase any of you [sic] music. Everything that you choose to put in your cart will have status: ‘Not Available For Purchase Yet’. It could only be put ‘ON HOLD’. And we do not change that status untill [sic] the contract is signed and your permission is granted. In this case all of your music will be given ‘Allowed for Selling’ status and people who have it in their shopping carts will be able to buy it.
“The experince [sic] of showing your music on our website without distributing aimed to draw your attention to us, with further goal to make contacts with you on friendly terms with a perspective of mutually beneficial partnership. [EDITOR'S NOTE: Behold, syntax as broken as my ass is cracked... and is this person even a lawyer? That aside, this is truly a winning strategy. Their attempt at endearing themselves to potential business partners will go over very well, I'm sure.] We’re glad to inform you that your music is getting popular indeed through our website and we can let you know at any time how many of your tracks were put on hold and which ones.
“However, we deeply understand your concerns and would like to assure you, if you find our relationships impossible, we will IMMEDIATELY delete all of your music from our music collection.
“Hope you’ll find our offer to make your music more popular through us rather reasonable and we can start that mutually beneficial partnership.”
Two other quick (quick!) notes.
My kid-sister is totally ace, buying for me what may be the coolest birthday gift I’ve received in years. It is, without doubt, the most industrial lunchkit that a rivethead could ever ask for, and came complete with a series of heart-warming photographs of m’love and I inside it.
And, speaking of m’love, it must be said: dear, you looked exceeding sexy when I saw you today. Zounds! Beautiful, delicious, and knows where I live, indeed!
Following this link, you’ll see that Valve Software is offering, for pre-order, Half-Life 2. Careful examination of the various digital distribution packages available — Bronze, Silver, and Gold — reveals that you get access to Counter-Strike: Source immediately and, with purchase of the Gold bundle, the chance to win a trip to visit Valve.
I’m tempted to purchase the Gold set, as the chance for a free flight down to the States to hang out with the Valve crew is, well, it’s really cool. To be specific, though, it’s the possibility of picking the brains of one Dario Casali — an employee of Valve and one-half of the team that crafted Final DOOM’s fucking brilliant The Plutonia Experiment thirty-two level episode — in person that really has my interest. Dario’s an old-schooler DOOMer who, on a handful occasions, I’ve had the privilege of swapping e-mail with. He’s one helluva guy, and bloody, bloody talented.
That, and I get Half-Life 2 out of the deal… plus a whole slew of other goodies. Hmmm.
Damn you, Stephen King. I’m going to be a zombie tomorrow!
Wait, wait… you mean to say that one of my all-time favourite albums — which already sounds like a million bucks, and is all that and the proverbial bag of potato chips — has been digitally remixed and remastered in high resolution stereo and 5.1 surround sound?
Now all I need to do is wait it out until November 23. Suppose I’ll just have to pass the time by reading my newly acquired copy of The Dark Tower (which, being my reason for mentioning it, quotes a track from The Downward Spiral).
Were you to ask anyone who knows me, they would tell you that I’ve been lusting after an iPod for quite some time now. I have, however, persisted in procrastinating on the topic, opting again and again to not follow through on my desire and simply purchase one. In addition to the high price, the other factor that’s been dissuading me is the fragility of the unit. This is related through personal experience here, outlined nicely in a technical review here, and quoted below:
“iPods have never been durable, and this unit is no different. The old saying ‘if you treat it like a digital camera, it won’t break’ applies to the iPod. However, an iPod is supposed to be an active portable music device – not a delicate fragile little novelty. You can easily break the micro drive by dropping it just six inches. If you can’t live with that, then don’t buy a micro-drive based MP3 player.”
Dunno about you, but I’m sure as hell hesitant to drop — pun fully, though painfully, intended — what would amount to nearly $700 CAD, including accessories, on something so delicate.
Argh.
Internal debate, rationalisation, and budgeting continue. More to come, I’m sure.
Neat… MirrorMask trailer! The concept, as outlined via the voice-over, is very Gaiman, and the imagery is very McKean; combined, it seems distinctly… Eastern? I couldn’t help but think “anime…!” when I watched it.
But then, Gaiman’s a huge fan of Miyazaki’s Spirited Away and wrote the English adaptation of Princess Mononoke, so that shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise.
Now, if only someone would toss a larger budget his way… Gaiman rules. And, when complimented by McKean, the two are nigh unstoppable.
Having spent the bulk of the weekend fooling around — take that as you will, those of you with gutter-minds — it’s time to sit down and accomplish some work. However, let’s sacrifice some potentially productive time to the beast that is procrastination prior to so doing, shall we?
Called my insurance agent the other day regarding changes to my fees, what with Klein’s revamping of the auto insurance policy in Alberta, and found out that the “big savings” promised by the Tories amounts to… $40 CAD. I’m a twenty-six year old who, in the several years I’ve been driving, has maintained a perfect driving record (sans a single speeding ticket a few years ago, which has long since been removed from any record), and I get to save $40 CAD? That’s not even five percent — promised by Klein — of what I was paying prior to October 1. This wouldn’t bother me so much — saving money is saving money — but, given that the government hasn’t lived up to its word, and the changes made to compensation (specfically, the loose and far-reaching definition of “minor injuries”), well… my displeasure is obvious.
Amy and I saw Shaun of the Dead the other night and had a great time doing so. Witnessing the disintegration of society as accomplished by hordes of zombies through the eyes of the Average Joe (or, in this case, Shaun) was alternately comedic, frightening, and frustrating. The fact that the whole movie was very British and thus had a keen sense of irony made it that much better. It’s bound to be a memorable view, and one that I recommend.
All that said, methinks it’s time to actually accomplish something this weekend. You know, before Monday? Cheerio for now.