From Dictionary.com:

ex·ot·ic
adj.

1. From another part of the world; foreign: exotic tropical plants in a greenhouse. See Synonyms at foreign.
2. Intriguingly unusual or different; excitingly strange: “If something can be explained simply, in a familiar way, then it is best to avoid more exotic explanations” (Chet Raymo). See Synonyms at fantastic.
3. Of or involving striptease: an exotic dancer.

"exotic birds start flocking around you" um, don't you mean scavenger birds? I can't see the motivation for parrots and tucans to be hanging around someone who's dead... crows, ravens and vultures though, definitely have reason... (um... nerd!)

and on another somewhat nerdy (if you know what I'm talking about here) note: Jess! I have a yellowy-orange scarf with your name on it! let me know when you have time to come get it or when I should drop it off for you.

From the help file for 'Grip,' a CD ripping utility:

Q: I was listening to a CD in Grip and it sounded horrible! What's up?
A: Perhaps you are listening to country music...

Funny combination of news headlines and information:

Some Say U.S. No Longer Feels Like Home
For some "blue" voters, President Bush's pledge to heal the nation's divide is not enough. ABC News reports these disillusioned Americans are mulling a move - overseas.
 Would You Leave U.S.?
 Book a Flight Overseas

um... who are you Jason? (not that I'm Al... that's Albert)

and... Eric, I did not watch Control Room... so it's up to you as to whether or not you want to steal it from me. I'll be in my office this afternoon... really close to the "pervert row" that is the Mac Lab, so come looking for me if you want.

I don't know what to say, but I think Jason is right. I have been a asshole this past year when using this message board, I didn't take any of your feelings into consideration when I should have. This time I sincerly apologize to everyone for all the trouble I have caused and the feelings I have hurt. I don't think a guy like me is suppose to have friends as good as you guys. I will understand if none of you want to see me again.

to the person named al you are a real asshole! who do you think you are just using eric for your amusement? isn’t he a person? isn’t he your friend? you are mean and cruel, you don’t care about anyone just yourself! you didn’t even really apologize to eric you basically said he was your puppet. he may be a pushover for excepting such a obviously lame apology but that doesn’t give you the right to step all over him. i don’t see why any of the people on this site are still your friend, you obviously aren’t compassionate or caring to any of them. i think you’d be better off getting the hell off this board! in fact don’t even bother seeing any of these people in real life you haven’t earned there friendship at all!

Hope everyone's been enjoying the iPod/MD debate. It's intermission time.

Let's all do a line to take off the edge.







...aw fuck yeah... thash btter..e.. wOOOOOOoooooOOOOoooooOOOOOOoooaaahahooooo! yeee.


"I can't feel my face!!!" haha.

on a totally different topic:

Yay! Another paper done! Only one more to go! Soon I will be able to come out of my cave.... soon.

Hope you're all having a great life. : )

I just don't agree with your arguments, Eric.

Firstly, yeah- I realize 100% that half the reason I like MDs so much and you like iPods so much is because we own those respective units. I'm not debating that. If I didn't own an MD I probably wouldn't even care about this nearly as much as I do. That's a given.

But having said that I still don't agree with your numbered points. I'll address them in order:

1. "THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A WANNA BE JOE BLOW DJ." That's a pretty bold statement that I think is entirely innacurate as well as completely unfounded. Apple markets the iPod through its effervescent coolness. And what combined demographic knows coolness better than junior high/high school/college students? I remember in jr. high when the first "idiot-proof" music creation programs came out. ImpulseTracker, ScreamTracker, and all those MOD-file creation programs. They were huge. I can remember a number of people at V.B. with cassettes in their walkmans showing off the shitty stuff they made instead of doing homework that night. And inevitably the kids asked "how'd you make that?" and then they too would go home and download the trackers and make more garbage. Hell, that's what I did when I was showed that stuff (and unlike the majority of students I didn't even find the music all that astounding). And again, like I said before- Fruity Loops is being pirated in ridiculous numbers. What accounts for that? Why did kids ever get into playing that game Beatmania? Why was that game so appealing? The enjoyment is purely escapist. If you played the game without the music, it would lose all appeal. The point is that once you drop that quarter in the slot YOU'RE A DJ FOR THE NEXT 5 MINUTES! And the kids LOVE it! And what about Karaoke? It's a global phenomenon for one reason: you get to be a ROCKSTAR!!! And you gotta remember the millions of internet advertising campaigns that featured crude flash embedded drum machines that aped "DJing". Offhand I can remember both SPRITE and Bootlegger had their own versions... but there were countless others. Whenever the kids get a chance to make shitty music with next-to-no effort or skill required, they're all for it. And everyone knows kids love to collect. Marbles, pokemon cards, pogs, it doesn't even really matter what it is. Make SOUNDS be the next thing to collect.

2. "For people that use recording technology, like yourself, ask yourself really, How Often do you use that feature?" I concede I don't use it often (though when I do I wonder how I ever survived without it). But with HI MDs currently being comparable in price to iPods (if not cheaper), it's just one more feature that the iPod doesn't have. Presently it comes down to being a better bang for your buck.

3. "you need a good mic." I call bullshit on this one. If you're going to be listening to audio, you need to have headphones. There's no excuse for people to not know that headphones ARE microphones. Plug your headphones into the line-in, and you're done. Now you've got a bi-directional stereo input that is of relatively good quality (most shitty headphones would be about equivalent in quality to a mic that will cost you upwards of $50 or $60 bucks... and the headphones are superior in that they are STEREO recievers!). One of the oldest studio-tricks in the book is to use monitor-headphones as a secondary room source because of their quality in sound recording. It's about time people figure out that they already own a pair of surprisingly good microphones.


And as for the scrolly wheel, that's just what I mean. The iPod's selling factor is it's "coolness". That's what I've been arguing from the start. Of course I thought the scrolly wheel was cool and the backlit display was sexy. But my whole argument this whole time has been that I don't understand how such shallow qualities beat out actual function for the vast majority? I know that it's true... but I just can't wrap my mind around it. That's essentially what I'm trying to understand.