uh

who am i kidding?

...myself, for one...

go figure

"nate, there are two things i won't do."
"what's that, dan?" (this to my fellow classmate)
"singing, and dancing."
"but dan, you'll never get into a musical!"
"I HATE MUSICALS!"

escalation

when i think of security, i think of escalation.

take, for instance, viruses.

hacker jim makes a simple, self-replicating virus that sends itself in the form of an email attachment (not unlike a great many of those that went around in the late 90s.)

alex, the antivirus man, develops a program to detect a certain signature in the virus program and remove it.

jim makes a different signature.

alex edits his detection scheme.

jim makes a more subtle version of the virus, cleverly disguised as "system64.dlll.exe" as opposed to "angryclown.exe"

alex uncovers it.

jim creates a more aggressive version, which disables the antivirus program. alex makes rescue disks.

in the meantime, alex has been tracing the spread of the viruses and realizes it's his neighbor, jim.

alex calls the cops.

jim runs.

in a sense, it's very much like a war. i do suppose that is what most wars can be like.

arms race anyone?

welcome to the digital world

Is it truly green to digitize all my audio tapes/VCRs? Sure, it would be an excellent backup option, but magnetic memory only lasts so long; digital is only temporary at best. Re-recording to analog is quite out of the question - it would take too long, and there would be twice as many audio tapes as before. Besides, who uses a cassette tape player anymore?

Unfortunately, the obsolescence of the cassette tape requires that we either convert (to digital) or stay stuck with a cassette tape player. Who among the consumerists of America would ever wish to keep a tape player? Aside from audiophiles? It's not streamlined (thanks Apple) - it's large and clunky. And to think, only seven years ago it was top of the line!

The way someone once explained to me the difference between analog and digital was this. Digital audio uses sampling, which encodes sound into binary (101010010101010010000010101010100001). As a result, the quality of that audio is directly proportional to its bitrate. (120kbps, 192kbps, 240kbps, et cetera). It means that there's a finite limit to the audio. It's similar to a computer drawing a circle. It can get pretty close, but in the end it's still using pixels (which are square in nature) and therefore a "digital circle" is nothing more than an extremely complex polygon that looks a LOT like a circle, but isn't. Because circles are round. And pixels are not. Analog audio (that is, LPs and cassette tapes), however, doesn't have that problem. In a sense, it is infinite in the amount of information it can capture - it's not limited to a certain bitrate (and yes, though the bitrate gets higher, it can never get to infinity).

So, is digital the best way to go?

I feel like the answer is the same as that of Social Security.

Apple Juice

One of the earliest memories of my life is getting a mug out of the cupboard when I was four years old, and bringing it carefully to the kitchen table, where I poured it full of apple juice. Then, steadying my mug (now this is a BIG DEAL) with both hands, I made my way down the stairs to the calm, cool basement, where only a little sunlight could make its way into the room, but just enough so I could see. I don't even remember why I was there. But I do remember sitting at the table all alone in the house (my mom was napping), listening to the quiet hum of the refrigerator and holding my mug with ONE HAND and feeling like a grown-up, slowly sipping the apple juice and thinking to myself "This is what grown-ups do..." and thinking to myself that I would make sure to remember this forever and ever.

I'm thirsty now.

Thoughts On A Canvas

I held a brush but once. I saw
It dangled dense off fingers raw
Dancing, mourning, cradle, grave;
It will not a master have--
It will not be slave.

I only risked one glance. I see
Blood, bile, blue bespeaking me
Dripping whispers, dares, and sighs
Shrill and piercing cries up high--
Sweet are their replies.

True streams and reams of endless white
Will only speak if spattered right
Leering, smearing, slathered bread,
"What if I should fail?" I said,
"Should the needle miss the thread?"
Terrified, alone, I read--
"Acrylics!" Stunned, I turned and fled.

Top 10 Artists

Finally worked it out! I sat down and wrote all the artists I am currently listening to, and then eliminated them one by one by one by one...

Here's the final count.

AFI
Anberlin
Blindside
Coldplay
Jack's Mannequin
Gorillaz
Keane
Mew
Muse
OverClocked Remix

The beauty of working this out, I think, is that this helps one to get a glimpse into who he is and what he responds to most musically.