Z.Monkey’s Blog

Do you wonder if we all should have read this before starting to blog? One of the things this article tells you to do (so that you don’t start a blog) is read 5 random blogs for a month. I think this misses the point of the blog. You are supposed to read about stuff or people you are interested in! If I pick 5 random books to read I’d probably end up with some Romance, an Anne Rice book (boo…), and some crap targeted at toward young adults. Of course I’d be disappointed but that doesn’t mean the book medium is crap.

I need to comment on the DPL’s new book download program. The program is run by Overdrive and uses DRM handicapped WMA files. Now, I personally think that DRM is bad for business… and the Overdrive is a good example of why. Apple and Microsoft have competing DRM specification (both are proprietary) and neither is universially excepted. I doubt that Microsoft’s new portable media player will be able to play Apple DRMed media and I know that Apple iPod’s do not play DRM WMA files. Which basically means that we cannot use this new and potentially cool serve (unless we burn the audio files onto a CD then use those CD, or ripe the audio from those CDs and put them onto the iPod). It’s just annoying, especially when those things aren’t that cheap. (btw, the new iPod shuffle is very cool) On a funny aside, the DPL gave away a free iPod Nano this summer to some kid… I hope he doesn’t try to download any books! Maybe I get steal D14’s old non-apple MP3 player.

I’m tired.

Alright so I have not gone to work in a couple of days and I have noticed a slight change in my sleeping habits. I am not waking up tired and I do not have trouble falling asleep. It is a nice change but what could be the cause? I think that part of it has to do with Heidi waking up early each day this week to drive far away (commute to work). As no matter how mouse-like a person may be it is pretty much impossible to wake up and get dressed without waking up the other person in bed. But when Heidi accidentally woke me up this week I was not grumpy. I did not roll over and try to go back to sleep. Instead I would lie in bed for a couple of minutes then put up the shades and start reading. This is pretty contrary to my normal morning of being woken up by the alarm, then hitting the snooze once or twice before crawling out of bed and into the shower. If I figure the numbers right I normally sleep from 11ish to 8ish (or 9 hours), but this week it seems to be closer to 8 hours. What gives?! How can I feel so much better with less sleep? One answer comes to mind, I don’t want to get out of bed in the morning because it means that I have to go to work. Ah, I like being on vacation, but, alas, it is only a temporary solution. The search for non-painful employment continues.

‘God help you dumb boy’ - Rev. Glasseye

So Heidi pointed out this album to me because I was much amused by the music in Life Aquatic. I am sure that those who know me realize that I like this album because it is basically a collection of damn good Bowie covers. I like Bowie. I like damn good covers. What can you do?

For those who have seen the Life Aquatic you know the music I am talking about, for those who have not seen it many of the songs are popular David Bowie songs sung in Portugese with an acoustic guitar acomp, accomn, acompnt… a guy on the guitar. That’s it. Tis Good.

I have not felt the desire or need to post recently. This is partly because I, like that guy, feel that nothing I have to say is interesting or important, and partly because I am trying to avoid posting at work, where it is most convenient as I sit in front of a PC all day. The reason I am trying to avoid posting at work is because I am not getting paid for it and, more importantly, I end up only posting about work and news both of which are bummers. No need to rain on your parade… you have your own work and, hopefully, read the news.

So what does one write about when not bitching? I guess I could jump in on this more but I cannot see or plan ahead. I guess my college education has made me capable of looking back but not forward. I have difficulty finding solutions if they haven’t already been found before. Hmm… it seems that I will be self deprecating if I have nothing else to write about. I got nothing else. Bis Spater.

[Update]

I found this shortly after posting. Free downloads if you want to learn some basic German. Perhaps, I’ll download a bunch of these and put them on my iPod. Study, study, study…

And sayeth he, ‘organize thy music according to iTunes’. And so it was done. Er… or at least started. I did not realize that we had collected so much music. I guess that it was in a format that discouraged use (CD), so disuse caused me to forget about it. It looks like I will be spending many a night ripping our CDs.

Then he doth say, ‘Woot’. I think I have a plan in my head for the next couple of nights (though wanting to watch the Bruins game may interfere with them). Tonight: go home rip some more CDs, eat, then play hockey. Tomorrow: go to the Coffee shop and write a response to an essay I recently read (or watch hockey). I can understand why the romans spent so much money on the Colosseum. Sports (violent or no) are very distracting. I could spend much of my free time watching or playing sports leaving little time for me to think, read, discussing or doing other things. People could do some pretty shady stuff and I might just be too distracted to notice.

And, ‘Though shalt not steal, lie or covet stuff that is not porn’. I randomly followed a link the other day and found this. It seems to share many of the concerns I have for what is going on around us, and it seems to be one of the few places that actually quotes Dean. You would think the news media would be interested in the person who is trying to reform the Democratic Party (you know the one that loosely represents 1/2 of our population). And by reform I mean ‘grow a backbone’ not ’stop taking bribes/kickbacks’, which apparently is a problem among Republicans.

He then concludith, ‘for the LORD thy God is a jealous God, and thou shalt not belevith in Evolution’. I saw this in one of Heidi’s Science News’s. It is always good to see stupidity mocked by in humorously ingenious ways.

Yeah! Only 35 new emails! Okay, now that the is out of my system, I was flipping through the radio today as I have no CDs in my car except Xtort and Frankenstein Girls Will Seem Strangely Sexy or, as I like to think of it, the Zombie Penis Machine, and because my iPod nano does not exist, and I heard something. Good luck with that sentence. It was some celebrity update! Apparently, Al Franken is getting a SitCom on CBS and the DJ chick didn’t like it (it was a Clear Channel station, if you were wondering). One of the show ideas (where ‘liberal’ parents find out their kid is conservative) didn’t seem to sit well with her. Hasn’t there been a plethora of shows/movies/books highlighting the opposite? Don’t kids tend to rebel against the ideals of their parents? I would say that this was just a DJ being stupid but as she took several shots and Franken and at CBS it seemed like more.

An interesting story about the second CD. I was at Newbury Comics with either Frank or Dan when I purchased the CD, and the only reason I purchased it was because of the nice pink sticker on it. The sticker that said, “Be the first person on your block to throw out this CD”. I wanted to be the first but it was so winey and weird I kept it. I am glad to see that they have several more albums.

Damn you Labview! How my brain is smothered by your pretty pink lines of DOOM!

I am trying to keep my mind focused but it seems to be a failing effort. Did you know that I have a copy of Gwar’s “The Dawn of the Day of the Night of the Penguin” on my shelf at work? I bet you did not even know I had a shelf… bastards. If you do not believe me then you can ask me (politely) to take a picture and to post it online so that you can all have visual confirmation that I am not lying.

I am at this very moment listening to the new Green Day album, of which I am sure you are aware. I wonder what I will make of it? Dont you!? Fuck.

Zzzz. Monkey

P.S. I’m sure you are happy you wasted your time reading this, huh?

I do not know what I was thinking but I recently volunteered to do work for the UNH Library. I did this when I was still a Grad student (meaning I had no free time or any recollection of free time or any recollection of how much I enjoy free time) and how I have to suffer. I guess that it will help me boost up my resume and get a good recommendation the next time I’m looking for a job (if I decide that I actually want to work in a library). It all seems like a waste of time… especially if you look at what I supposed to do:

http://www.izaak.unh.edu/dlp/NorthernJunket/pages/index.htm

So far the work barely progress and I am not in the slightest happy with it. Perhaps, it is my strong dislike of Folk dancing and Folk culture. Perhaps, it is the fact I did not have any idea what I was doing when I started the project and decided to be over ambitious.

Also, if I am actually going to use this thing I should really work on the template as the current one is a craptastic predefined one. I need a picture of a monkey stealing a camera.