Ponderings inside the emptying hourglass

Check out this link:

pa.lindro.me/

Then.. create your own PALINdrome. :)

Also - check out the “most popular” ones. Those ones are a hoot.

-E 

[Reposted for any NIN fans on my LJ friend's list. I took this survey and it was pretty in depth - in a good way!]

 Hello everyone.

I'd like to thank everyone for a very successful year so far in the world of Nine Inch Nails. I'm enjoying my couple of weeks off between legs of our Lights In The Sky tour and got to thinking... "wouldn't it be fun to send out a survey to everyone that's shown interest in NIN?" Well, that's not exactly how it went, but regardless - here it is. As we've moved from the familiar world of record labels and BS into the unknown world of doing everything yourself, we've realized it would benefit us and our ability to interact with you if we knew more about what you want, what you like, what you look like naked, etc. I know it's a pain in the ass but we'd truly appreciate it if you'd take a minute and help us out. As an incentive, everyone who completes the survey will be able to download a video of live performance from this most recent tour (and I know what's going through your little minds right now: "I'll just grab this off a torrent site and not have to fill out the survey!!!" and guess what? You will be able to do just that and BEAT THE SYSTEM!!!! NIN=pwn3d!!!)

BUT

What if we were to select some of those that DO complete the survey and provide them with something really cool? I'm not saying we'll ever get around to it, but if we did maybe something like signed stuff, flying someone to a show somewhere in the world, a magic amulet that makes you invisible, a date with Jeordie White (condoms supplied of course), you know - something cool. See, you'd miss that opportunity AND be a cheater.

Do the right thing - help us out. You'll feel better. 

Thank you and I've had too much caffeine this morning,

Trent 

Visit here to take the survey:
https://www.questionpro.com/akira/TakeSurvey?id=1049187

Poll #1262163
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 4

How racist is the narrator of the poem?

Read this poem first....

Color- Blind

I always fancied I would date a black girl.

I would be magnanimous then, 

never flaunting my egalitarian pedigree.

I would gracefully decline to notice

the flicker of surprise when others met her. 

I would be pleasantly amused when they later confided, 

          "You never told me she was black"

"Of course not."

-Tom Hamilton **

How racist do you think the poem's narrator is on a scale from 0-10?

0 is "not racist at all"

10 is super racist.

After you have voted in the poll...read on

( for the punchline )

What are your favorite songs about art or the artistic process?

The reason why I ask is that I heard this song today about art that hit me pretty profoundly.

The song in question is called "Machines I Paint" and can be found here:

www.myspace.com/silenceinterrupted

I think it captures the melancholic and beautiful aspects of art as well as the courage it takes to make art. I also think it has a nice discussion about a certain type of artist - the secluded and lonely one. The song definitely reminds me of some people I know that do art and are good at it, yet have doubts and fears (like everyone else).

If anyone reads this and checks out "Machines I Paint",  I would be interested in your thoughts on it.

Also, I wanna know...what songs about art really strike a chord with *you* guys?

-E

Most of my geek friends probably already know this, but ...

Firefox 3 is available today at 10:00 AM (Pacific)

From:

http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2008/06/17/firefox-3-available-today-at-1700-utc-10am-pdt/

"This morning at 10:00am  we began the process of sending the final version of Firefox 3 to our mirror network to prepare for Download Day. We’re just as excited as you are for our upcoming release, but we’re still putting the finishing touches on Firefox 3: preparing the new mozilla.com website, getting our severs ready for downloads, and doing our final pre-launch checks. We expect to be done at 10:00 AM (PDT).  Y

The files in the FTP directories of our mirrors are - for now - only meant to be used by our testers. We would appreciate it if our fans didn’t follow direct links there that they might see on sites like Digg, Reddit, or Neowin. Downloading them directly can harm our ability to distribute Firefox efficiently, and will also not be counted as part of our attempt to set a Guiness World Record for the most software downloads in a day. If you’d like to be notifed the minute that we launch, please go here to sign up for Download Day: Or just head over to getfirefox.com on Tuesday, June 17th at  10:00 AM. "

http://tryptonique.deviantart.com/

As Darwyn43 says in the comments section:
"A 'nasty, bad, naughty boy?' Just what Craig was looking for... "

The Cure's Disintegration is pure old school emo/neo-Romantic bliss...every aching note of it and the live Trilogy DVD is god's gift to music DVDs.

just thought I would sing my praises in the name of the god that is Robert Smith.

Yay. I got a job. $10.50 an hour @ St. Mary's Surgery Center over by Galena off of Wedge Parkway.
I'm going to be doing organizational/clerical stuff related to physician's files. Basically, the place is going to be audited and they want to make sure all of the physician's files are updated.  I get to go on this databank and check to see if these surgeons who are practicing medicine at the surgery center actually have medical licenses and all of their paperwork is current.  They also told me that they might put me in scrubs because it would allow me easier access to certain parts of the surgery center and their other admin/clerical people that sit at the front desk wear scrubs as well. So who knows? I might get to wear the equivalent of pajamas to work. Yay for me!

Hours will be 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM Monday through Friday and I start this upcoming Monday.

Woo hoo.

-E

Semiotics

Crosses on the freeway
Mark the waypoints
For those who were pulled aside
Jerked into the rushing arms of eternity

This is my waypoint and my sign
For those who want to read it
Pointing towards roads I have taken
A burden individually borne
Born into life , born into storm

An ominous wind calls to me
A tornado blackens the sky
It is the end times they say
Rather, it is just the beginning

Why fire and brimstone?
We shouldn't play with matches
Yet, Prometheus did not give us napalm
Humans made that.

A match can light the holy flame
To wake the Prime Mover
Who shakes off the spider ash
And the dregs of sleep to light our way
With a rising tide of flame

Why are we taught to fear enlightenment
And the fire that has been so kind to us?

There are worse things to dread
Worse things than Death's dancing
His necro-waltz among the stars
Harvesting souls amidst a cosmic party
 
One might live consumed in frozen mud
A sticky hell removed from light
Frozen in pain

That is what awaits those that don't open their eyes
This is what awaits those who don't realize
That nobody said that hell had to be tomorrow

Look around�

Laughter echoes forever
In this silence chamber
The hollow lilt
Sucked into black glasses
Cosmetic apertures for those who wish blindness

Where are you?
Quo Vadis?

The laughter  cleaves infinity
It mixes with light
A star screams through broken event  horizons
Leaking into your ears

A drugged and tormented effect
Further ripping at your consciousness
You are scared this awaits you
Who said the day of reckoning was tomorrow?

I broke through that place only through love
Love for myself, love for my brother
A man once cried out , "I see no exit!"
Yet, the doors unlock upon asking!

The answer is in the waypoint
The sign isn't always a red menacing glow
Taunting you above a doorway
Perhaps the portal is in your chest?
A roadside cross perhaps?
The ruins of Golgotha?
Your reflection in the mirror?

This poem is my waypoint
What is yours?
Once you understand...
Once you read the sign...
What road will you take?
I hope our paths cross.

"The only person who is responsible to defend you is you. The police are incapable of defending each and every one of us all the time. Citizens have an inherent right to be able to defend themselves. You can't always have a policeman on every street corner to take care of you. Whenever you have a bunch of gun-control laws that prohibit people from carrying, the ones with the guns are the criminals "

 - Mike Stollenwerk, 44, co-founder of OpenCarry.org, a Virginia-based gun-rights networking group.

"This is a huge nail in the coffin of gun control. They had gun control on campus and it got all those people killed, because nobody could defend themselves."

- Philip Van Cleave, president of the gun rights group Virginia Citizens Defense League.

Both Quotes from:
 http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070423/ts_afp/uscrimeshootingguns_070423051327


First off, my name is Evan Sanchez. I attend the University of Idaho and we had a student who was murdered in my apartment complex a couple of weeks ago (less than a minute walk from my front door). I also have friends up in Seattle, including some people I know @ UW that had a school shooting on campus within the last few weeks (a professor was killed). I grew up in the post-Columbine world of looking for exits or gunmen whenever some stupid meathead popped a balloon in an assembly.

Wth all of that said, I completely  respect the right to keep and bear arms. I'm honestly not a gun control fan. However, I really don't understand the pro-gun lobby coming out in force and suggesting that the solution is to arm everyone or make it A-ok to carry firearms on campus.

I keep seeing these messages from the Pro-Gun lobby insisting we need guns to protect ourselves as if school shootings are just a reality we should be accustomed to and as such, we should live in a climate of militant paranoia by making it A-ok to pack heat on campuses.

I think these messages obscure several important facts. Most of this recent push centers on the fact that had *one* other person had a gun, they *might* have stopped the Virginia Tech shooter and that Virginia Tech didn't permit firearms on their campus. The argument is that when you ban guns from campus, the only people that are carrying guns are the criminals (no really?)

I think these messages obscure two important facts.

1) School shootings don't really happen all that often.

The media would have you believe otherwise, but think about how many hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of students that NEVER have to deal with an incidence of gun violence or a gun massacre on campus. Stretch out in your social networks. I bet you would come closer to knowing a friend who is connected to a celebrity than a friend that knows a victim of school based gun violence.

I think this is important because the gun lobby peddles this fear that isn't really based in reality. They also seem to be saying, "We live in a modern world and in a modern world, you have to take things in your own hands and the only way to do that is to live like you are living in Beirut." I really dislike the message that to be "realistic" to today's threats requires accepting school violence as a day to day "reality" when it just isn't the case. Does it happen? Yes. Hiding your head in the sand and pretending it doesn't or can't is silly. However, acting like it is Armageddon and that this is such an epidemic that we need guns in the hands of every man, woman, and child seems to be a bit much.

2) There are BETTER ways to disarm a psychopath without resorting to tons o' guns.

First, 18,000 warning signs are almost ALWAYS ignored by people. Instead of arming an entire campus or sending the social message that the only way you can feel safe on campus is to  take things into your own hands (by  having weapons readily available) why don't we focus on the EXTREME EXTREME minority of kids that need help and how to recognize them and get them that help?

I understand that this doesn't have to be an "either/or" situation. This question isn't framed in terms of "help spot perpetrators" OR "have tons of guns in schools." You CAN have both. However, I think that the presence of guns on campus has way more net harms than benefits and I think it is pretty unnecessary considering how few school shooting there are combined with the fact that I think in most cases the school has already failed the students on campus if a gun is pulled (and I think the gun lobby fails to really acknowledge that).

With those two main things considered, it is really hard for me to NOT see this as a cheap attempt at capitalizing on a tragedy to make some money based on paranoia. The sad thing is, I know that *some* people reading this have an instant gut reaction (most likely) to tell me how bad the world we live in is and that I'm naive and not just up on the realities of living life as a 21st century American. I think that is really too bad because I think the media does such a terrible job of promoting a balanced perspective on life. The way we are raised to think, we constantly face terrorism, murder, robbery, serial killers, school shooters, etc when really these deaths are numerically  *miniscule* when compared to the overall picture of how people die in America (heart disease, stroke, cancer, drunk driving).  Look at the statistics, America...they aren't what you think they are...certainly not enough to justify this paranoid, depressed, accepting mindset that acquiesces to the "inevitability" of mass murders.

I think it is outrageous that politicians (whose pockets are lined bycorporate interest - either pro OR anti-gun) are either exploiting this situation to sell rifles, ammunition, and gun licenses by peddling fear to everyone or exploiting the situation to try to get guns taken away completely. I think it is disgusting that both sides are vying for power on this one.

Some closing thoughts:

 How about  those gun free campus? Are they really so bad? I see tons of other campuses doing just fine without everyone walking around like 50 Cent.  Are guns really the answer here or the solution? I think not. Also, can the left chill out a bit and not try to be  fascist for once on this issue? It isn't surprising to see the gun lobby try to preemptively strike when the left has a pretty big history of pushing for gun bans or pretty heavy gun-control after tragedy. Does the left  really need to try and  take everyone's guns away whenever these things happen? Every time things  like V-Tech or Columbine  happen, everyone's pet causes come rushing out.  When these causes come out into the public sphere, the  Conservatives (and asshole democrats like Joe Lieberman, Tipper Gore, etc)  try to blame and ban certain forms of entertainment. You then see the left try to blame guns.  Are either of these intelligble reactions? I think not.

Let's face it, the amount of crimes committed by gun owners is really small compared to the overall number of gun owners (much in the same way that the ratio of people who enjoy violent media and commit violence is really really small). This tragedy is not an excuse to try to take a fundamental American right that has very real reasons for existing (hunting, political violence in case the government becomes tyrannical, defense from foreign invasion, or personal home defense if people decide upon that).  It is also worth noting that there are nations with harsh gun control with less gun related violence (England, Japan, etc) and there are countries that have harsh gun control and havepretty bad gun violence (Brazil, Russia).  Look at how much Canada and France love their guns and how little gun crime they have. I personally don't think the key variables in play are  just what laws are on the books (or not), though I certainly think that given our unique cultural situation here, there are certainly things that could worsen the situation (like guns on campus for example).  I think the right should also not exploit tragedy to try to sell shit to people and ignore the real underlying problems that make people reach for guns in the first place.

I guess I see both sides acting in less than admirable ways on this one.

My 2 cents.

-Evan H. Sanchez

I run a small online radio broadcast every now and then. I play hella fresh music, give shout outs to my palls and just kind of chill. It is low key and quite a bit of fun, though...so if you are interested...


Time:

9:00 PM - whenever (probably at least 1 or 2...so don't worry about staying up for all of it)

How to access it:

1) Open iTunes

2) Press Control + U OR click the "Advanced" tab up at the top of iTunes and then click on "Open Stream."

3) Put in this web address:
http://64.169.4.69:8000/listen.pls

4) you're good!

5) email me, call me, or send me a Myspace message lettin' me know you are listening so I can give you shoutout.

:)

-Evan

P.S = If you have Real Player the command is Control + O (the letter) or "file" and then "open." Then put in the url I gave above.

if you are using Winamp, the command is "Control + L" or "File" and then "Play URL".

Over the summer when I was broadcasting, I dumped my iPod on my mom's computer. I also got Limewire for her computer and downloaded a LOT of great music. This is what I was broadcasting from. However, I didn't get my new laptop until I got to Idaho. I also bought a lot of CDs between the summer and now. I also dumped a lot of music from my buddy Dre's iRiver onto my mom's computer. So basically a crap ton of tasty music was just sitting on my mom's computer like 5 feet from my bed in Reno. Since my laptop is connected to the internet here in Reno via my wireless, I just file transfered all of that music to my laptop via an hour long AIM transfer (on DSL over the same network mind you). It was worth it, though. This is like a GIANT X-mas present to myself. I can finally listen to all of that music I grabbed off Dre's iRiver. I can finally get aquainted with some music I have been woefully ignorant about. Here I come tasty musics! :)
Plus, my broadcasts are going to *FINALLY* be made with my most up-to-date music library so far. :)

Yay!

-E

Tonight I'm broadcasting. Hit me up on AIM, Gtalk, here, Myspace, or phone for directions on how to listen.

Lemme see...

I will also re-broadcast tomorrow as well.

This shindig goes on from 9:00 tonight (and tomorrow night) until whenever I feel like shuttin' it down. So give it a listen and stop by for however long you feel like.

tryptonique's Halloween party:

baby_gafni dressed as the spirit of their dead grandmother Jean.
boomerangslash gets drunk, strips naked, and somehow emerges dressed as a bottle of Antatrul.
fieryminge dressed as Adam Sandler, and it suited them disturbingly well.
forthepurpose dressed as Scooter Libby.
kwpdb8 dressed as the Duke of Prevgon.
lucentai dressed as a drunk goblin, though it looked more like the Cardinal of Osbusdale.
mallificarum dressed as a sub-adjunct network administrator.
oceantheorem dressed as a character from "Raiders of the Lost Ark", though it looked more like a new superhero: Snow -wave.
round_midnight dressed as Johnny Depp.
sealillie87 dressed as one of the Olsen Twins's brother.
shweetiepye dressed as Dr. Crusher from "Star Trek".
utopian_dreamer dressed as Benjamin Harrison.

Throw your own party at the Hallomeme!
Created with phpNonsense

Any one have any ideas for what I should call my online radio station? I was thinking Radio Los Sanchez after the videogame radiostation in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (which is "Radio Los Santos").
I wanna hear your ideas!

-E

I'm going to DJ online this summer. All of you motherfumruffers out there had better be ready to listen to some online internet radio Sanchez style.