Boppity boo!

My sister's getting married this weekend in Virginia, also ALA conference is happening in Washington. Guess who's going to both? That's right.

I can't believe the program is almost over. This year (not even a year...11 months!) has seemed longer than any other period of my life ever, when in all actuality it was a blip on the scale. This semester is shorter than all the others and it is obvious that everyone is trying to stuff a 15 week semester into a 12 week frame. On top of that, you have a job and apartment search, while tying up loose ends in Pittsburgh. Whoopee!

Billy Nayer Show

Jing Assignment

Boo!

It's A Gosh Darn Crypts Party!

Right before I left Virginia for Grad School, I recorded an album of Garage Rock with some of my best friends. Our group is called the Crypts. We don't do any of it for profit, it's just really wonderful to go into a room together and end up with a song 30 minutes later. So we did that for about half a year, playing originals (revolve around the subjects of monsters, food, and comic books). We also played some of our favorite cover songs(The Ninja Turtles theme for example). Played a few bars here and there. Just had a ball really. The album was recorded in 4 hours, all the takes are live. I'm the one screaming.



So in the past year, I've been reading so much about Creative Commons licenses and Copyright. This can be attributed to classes like Understanding Information and Copyright/Fair Use. By posting this album to archive.org's Community Audio, it really feels like I'm contributing to a larger discourse. Punk Music Producer Steve Albini, when asked about the state of musical production in the wake of this post-file sharing decade, compared the music industry to Tennis. I'm paraphrasing here, but basically you have a lot of people who play tennis for fun, and then you have an extreme minority who make a living off of the activity. I play tennis for fun and I play music for fun. Welcome to the future. The rest of that interview (from the excellent show The Sound of Young America) is below.


The Sound of Young America: Steve Albini


So here's an example of tennis for fun. The name of this album is "It's A Gosh Darn Crypts Party!" You can hear it all by clicking on the player underneath those snakes and you can download it here!

Hope you like it.




Music by the Crypts, Illustrations by Mike and Kristin Tschirn.

Hey Bulldog.

I found the lab to be frustrating, not because the tasks were challenging, but rather because there was no explanation of the importance of each step. I felt like anyone who knows their way around an Excel spreadsheet could do that lab, but more time and care has to be put into why we are doing it.

Dom Deluise.

The Refworks assignment was challenging. I felt slightly in the dark with the paragraph of instructions, but as time progressed, I found out how to export, search for the right steps to take, and format my citations. I think this ultimately led to a more rewarding experience than if I had to simply push whatever button I was being instructed to push.

That said, I think the followup assignments aren't going to be any walk in the park.

The Ocean Full of Bowling Balls

I liked the practicality of last week's readings and lecture. It really seemed to focus more on the tangible nature of technology rather than simply philosophizing. The latter can be fine in its own right, but I'm always more excited about seeing the practical nature of things.

I am becoming fed up with my Windows Vista OS and Microsoft Windows as a whole. I picked up the Windows 7 expansion pack from Bellefield Hall, but the disc would not install because I had not downloaded specific expansion packs. I went to download those, and when I ran them, they would say that an error has occurred, leaving me back a square one. I guess part of my issue is that I should be extra vigilant when these updates happen. It's not simply about following orders when the computer needs to update something, but instead it's about taking the initiative to do so without anyone or anything instructing you to. Hopefully this class will help me see the importance of that.