5.09.2005
techno-cool
I remember when I started this blog and my parents asked me why I wanted to have a blog. Especially given that I'm not even sure if people read this thing (there are signs of life, here or there, but not much). I wondered if it was solely ego pushing me to publish little stories about my life, or whether it was to give me a diary to record what I was feeling or doing. Probably a little of both, to be honest. Whenever I went on orchestra tours or summer vacations, I'd try to keep a journal about that trip, if only because then I could figure out how much I spent and whether there was anything worth doing later. The problem with keeping a journal on a family vacation or an orchestra tour is that the keeping of a journal is a personal thing, and the writing of one requires you to drop out of the public for a bit. I mean, I kept a journal on a trip to Kumamoto, Japan in 1994. Every time I wanted to write an entry, I had to withdraw from my friends for 30 minutes and reflect. It was the perfect exercise in self-critique, but was difficult for me to stick with: I think I got half-way through the trip before I flaked out and stopped. This is the longest that I've ever kept a journal, and for that alone, I think I'm proud to have it be my own.
The catalyst for that first little bit was a New York Times article about the so-called "blog revolution". He profiled Gawker Media, of which I occasionally read Wonkette: I hadn't bothered to count, but according to the Nick Denton, the founder of Gawker Media, his stable of bloggers (twelve, at the moment) are required by contract to churn out at least twelve posts per day. Most readers for the Times would probably think: they just have to come up with twelve things to complain about and they have a day's paycheck? Well, yes. But the problem is in coming up with those twelve things. I mean, sure - I complain a lot. Twelve times in one day? No problem. But they're not very interesting, and throwing them all up on a blog would be horrifyingly self-indulgent. That's where it turns into hard work. They scour the daily news feeds for things to comment on, things to draw other people's attention to, and things to mock. And sometimes you don't feel like mocking people for a living: sometimes you're just happy to let the day sail by without a lot of fuss or bitterness. But nooo... You've got to get up and mock people for a living.
That said, if anyone ever wanted to pay me extra for blogging, I'd take that money. But money wouldn't change me, no sirree...
On a sort of side note, a few of my friends have accused me of being addicted to technology. Possibly because I've always got my laptop and my iPod. We'll come back to the iPod in a moment. The laptop is great: it's a beautiful machine, and while it has its share of dings and dents, I think I take pretty good care of it. And yes, I do tend to carry it around with me a little more than usual. Every lecture in college, and I think to a lesser extent here in Oxford than at Princeton, has at least one jerk who's disturbing the flow of the lecture by tapping along on a laptop taking notes. At least, in Oxford, they're taking notes: at the University of Maryland, they're sending IM's. Well, I'm that guy - that jerk who's pounding away on a keyboard. It's actually so much easier for me to take notes on my computer, but I understand that it annoys some people. I had two people move away from me in lecture on Friday because they saw me pull out my laptop.
It's amazing what schools can get away with now: two articles in the Boston Globe about New Hampshire schools. The first one regarding a censored yearbook photo in which a student posed with a broken-open shotgun in the same way that musical instruments or sports equipment are sometimes used as props to illustrate a student's extracurricular interests. If the kid has a license for it and uses it responsibly, then I don't see why he can't be photographed with it. The second article deals with a young woman who couldn't make it to gym class because she was taking AP Biology. The school was really stupid in two respects: a) not catching the mistake, and b) not accepting that a 3-season Varsity athlete who transferred into the school might not need to take "Building Essential Skills for Tomorrow". I ran into a similar situation in the last months of my high school career: I was taking AP Physics and needed to go to that, and I got in trouble for asking to be excused from a choral competition. In my defense, the choral competition has no impact on the school, it was a competition for the best choral conductor in the state, which, in my humble opinion, our conductor had no right being present at, let alone compelling our participation. But that's all water under the bridge. Very bitter water...
Finally, and this sort of comes full circle, there's a story in the New York Times about whether the iPod is losing its cool. I can say that I haven't noticed anything of that sort, though to be fair, the iPod only hit England around November and by that time, I was well into my iPod obsession. I was particularly amused by one comment made by the Times: "With simple styling and an easy-to-use format, it is little surprise that even the president has stumbled upon the iPod." Of course, I'm not saying that the president should have an iPod, I'm kind of bummed out that he does, because a) yes it makes my iPod less cool, and b) this counts for news?!?, but was amused by the insinuation that it was the iPod's idiot-proof simplicity that drew the president's attention.
It's still Mother's Day in the US. And I hope that moms everywhere are feeling a little more loved. I certainly hope that my mother is.
The catalyst for that first little bit was a New York Times article about the so-called "blog revolution". He profiled Gawker Media, of which I occasionally read Wonkette: I hadn't bothered to count, but according to the Nick Denton, the founder of Gawker Media, his stable of bloggers (twelve, at the moment) are required by contract to churn out at least twelve posts per day. Most readers for the Times would probably think: they just have to come up with twelve things to complain about and they have a day's paycheck? Well, yes. But the problem is in coming up with those twelve things. I mean, sure - I complain a lot. Twelve times in one day? No problem. But they're not very interesting, and throwing them all up on a blog would be horrifyingly self-indulgent. That's where it turns into hard work. They scour the daily news feeds for things to comment on, things to draw other people's attention to, and things to mock. And sometimes you don't feel like mocking people for a living: sometimes you're just happy to let the day sail by without a lot of fuss or bitterness. But nooo... You've got to get up and mock people for a living.
That said, if anyone ever wanted to pay me extra for blogging, I'd take that money. But money wouldn't change me, no sirree...
On a sort of side note, a few of my friends have accused me of being addicted to technology. Possibly because I've always got my laptop and my iPod. We'll come back to the iPod in a moment. The laptop is great: it's a beautiful machine, and while it has its share of dings and dents, I think I take pretty good care of it. And yes, I do tend to carry it around with me a little more than usual. Every lecture in college, and I think to a lesser extent here in Oxford than at Princeton, has at least one jerk who's disturbing the flow of the lecture by tapping along on a laptop taking notes. At least, in Oxford, they're taking notes: at the University of Maryland, they're sending IM's. Well, I'm that guy - that jerk who's pounding away on a keyboard. It's actually so much easier for me to take notes on my computer, but I understand that it annoys some people. I had two people move away from me in lecture on Friday because they saw me pull out my laptop.
It's amazing what schools can get away with now: two articles in the Boston Globe about New Hampshire schools. The first one regarding a censored yearbook photo in which a student posed with a broken-open shotgun in the same way that musical instruments or sports equipment are sometimes used as props to illustrate a student's extracurricular interests. If the kid has a license for it and uses it responsibly, then I don't see why he can't be photographed with it. The second article deals with a young woman who couldn't make it to gym class because she was taking AP Biology. The school was really stupid in two respects: a) not catching the mistake, and b) not accepting that a 3-season Varsity athlete who transferred into the school might not need to take "Building Essential Skills for Tomorrow". I ran into a similar situation in the last months of my high school career: I was taking AP Physics and needed to go to that, and I got in trouble for asking to be excused from a choral competition. In my defense, the choral competition has no impact on the school, it was a competition for the best choral conductor in the state, which, in my humble opinion, our conductor had no right being present at, let alone compelling our participation. But that's all water under the bridge. Very bitter water...
Finally, and this sort of comes full circle, there's a story in the New York Times about whether the iPod is losing its cool. I can say that I haven't noticed anything of that sort, though to be fair, the iPod only hit England around November and by that time, I was well into my iPod obsession. I was particularly amused by one comment made by the Times: "With simple styling and an easy-to-use format, it is little surprise that even the president has stumbled upon the iPod." Of course, I'm not saying that the president should have an iPod, I'm kind of bummed out that he does, because a) yes it makes my iPod less cool, and b) this counts for news?!?, but was amused by the insinuation that it was the iPod's idiot-proof simplicity that drew the president's attention.
It's still Mother's Day in the US. And I hope that moms everywhere are feeling a little more loved. I certainly hope that my mother is.
