Intermission

More news soon. For now I just want to pause and consider the strange combinations that arise in life, the seemingly unlikely justapositions.

One fun exercise with this clip is to watch David Crosby and ask yourself whether he's hallucinating or just thinks he is.

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As I've gotten older, I've become satisfied with holding fewer opinions. Less certainty. I still believe things, sure, everyone does. But I'm not invested in having opinions for the sake of having them. I've seen through example where that can lead.

Sure, this can make me appear wimpy. But that's not the truth. The truth is that my best survival strategy is to keep on looking and learning without unnecessary burdens.

Radio it's a sound sensation

WBRU was never as bold as it wanted to consider itself. Switching from a standard rock format to an alternative one around the start of the 90s, it kept to a pretty predictable course.

Still, it wasn't a bad station. It was depressing earlier in the year when the station sold its place on the dial. The wavelength was bought by a network of Christian stations that are largely indistinguishable from city to city. I dropped that station immediately. A lot of religious programming seems to operate on the assumption that Christians have no taste or discernment, which could be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

'BRU has returned as an online only station. Actually that's not the whole story. It plays on the air too, but it's signal is fatally low for today's market. I can't play it on the radio, and probably only people who live within a few blocks of the transmitter can. It's now a collaboration between Brown and, I think, AS220.

I'm not sure I heard a DJ's voice when I surfed to its website today. If anything the selection has gotten a little broader. This was one of the songs I heard, which I approve.



Not sure I'll become a heavy listener. I would probably set my clock radio to it if I could

[citation needed]

So I like—need, really—to stay mentally sharp. Just to make sure everything is clicking.

Crosswords are a pretty routine way to do this. I tend to do one in the morning before class.

Deep-dive wiki editing is a pretty good exercise. I thought I'd be over Wikipedia by this point. I actually have wandered away from it many times. But the siren song of showing off calls me back.

Not stuff like adding a new category. That I do, but it's too easy in a way. Finding sources, now that's a trip. And creating a new article? There you have to provide a handful of sources to prove the subject's significance and make sure no one marks it for deletion as being "non-encyclopedic." It gets you thinking strategically.

Break for black comedy

I'm sure I've stated my love for Gahan Wilson before, but just for the record, I love Gahan Wilson. This elderly couple, you may or may not like them, but you've got to believe them. They're just right.

And way to get maximum value out of a literalized metaphor.

Your goose isn't cooked

So tonight I'm making dinner. I put a couple of things in the oven and wait awhile, figuring when the time comes I'll open it up and they'll be done. But before I do open the oven I look at the dial. I never turned it on. Then on a whim I google "forgot to start oven." Some subreddit has used it as an archetypical example of stupidity. Thanks, guys.

Dinner was fine, by the way. Just late.

Tales of the Market

Sometimes I post here about books I've finished reading. Other times I share my thoughts early in the reading. This is one of those second times, so keep in mind we're talking about first impressions.

I've started reading William Gibson's Pattern Recognition, set in an undefined but seemingly very near future. It concerns a series of video clips, known as "the footage", which attracts an obsessive following.

Gibson adapted one of his stories into a movie back in the 1990's, although it wasn't successful. He also, I believe, wrote an unused script for Alien Resurrection. Point is, this feels like a book that wants to be a movie. The narration is present tense throughout, some characters are described as variations on celebrities, and products are all brand new and chic in ways that don't add much to the story but would look cool onscreen. Maybe it's the subject matter. He and Bruce Sterling were more literary in The Difference Engine, albeit not Victorian.

There are interesting ideas, though. Cayce, the protagonist, is a "coolhunter." In real life this tends to mean "market researcher who's rebranded themselves after extensive market research." For her it's a negative, allergy-like reaction. In a smaller detail, there's a Vietnamese restaurant called Charlie Don't Surf, which specializes less in Vietnamese food than in a theme park version of the Vietnam War experience. Little things like that keep me going.