My friend skwidly posted this rant about G.D. Falksen's rant about an episode of NCIS:LA. I feel compelled to disagree with his post and some of the comments. If you look past the way Falksen calls out the writers of NCIS for details that are merely inauthentic, it's pretty clear he's not just bitching about an inaccurate representation of a fringe group; he's complaining that they're maliciously misrepresenting a group he belongs to.

In my book, making up lies about about a group of people is not OK, not matter who it is. The fact that other groups are similarly slandered in no way justifies it. The fact that subcultures like goths rarely face any kind of serious persecution doesn't make it OK, either.

While I agree with Skwid that NCIS and its ilk are almost always pretty off-base when it comes to how they portray any subculture, I don't see how that's any kind of excuse. They could choose to depict subcultures in a way that's respectful even if it's not accurate, or they could just refrain from showing groups they don't understand. Instead, they show goths as hostile and rude, gamers as socially inept losers, furries as delusional perverts, hip-hop fans as drug-dealing gangsters, house/trance fans as slutty teenage junkies, pot smokers as unemployable slackers, and metal fans as violent delinquents.

[The underlines and strikethroughs in the next paragraph show what I added and deleted from the original.]

Are goths in danger of becoming the new Jews, Gypsies, and homosexuals? I'd say the odds are slim to none, Of course not; it's laughable to suggest that even the most maligned subculture would ever face anything like the persecution inflicted on people for their race or religion, but it's absolutely the same kind of scaremongering that starts and perpetuates moral panics, which lead to things like laws that criminalize dance music, and prosecutors who try to treat glowsticks as drug paraphenalia.

I'm never more motivated to get shit done than when my computer is out of commission.

My Blackberry died Saturday night, and I've been in phone hell ever since. My Sprint contract is up, so I have lots of options, but they all involve shitty comprises.

First I tried getting a Palm Pre, despite warnings from some that they're just not ready yet. The reviews online were mostly positive, so I decided to give it a try. The verdict: I hate it. It's packed full of slick high-tech goodness, but it really falls down on some of the basics. To pick an example at random, there's no flashing light to tell you when you have new messages when the screen is off. That's been a feature on every phone I've had for the last decade. What's really galling is that there are LEDs on the front of the phone, but all they do is light up when you use the bottom edge of the touch screen.

I've really been waiting for an excuse to get a G1, but I was hesitant to jump carriers. I've been with Sprint ever since I got my first cell phone, and...well, the devil you know...

This morning I decided to give T-Mobile a shot. Their sales reps were very nice and seemed to know what they were talking about, but appearances can be deceiving. I already knew that I get little or no T-Mobile reception in my apartment, so I asked if there was any way I could use wifi to get calls and texts at home. I was told it would be no problem. It turns out it's no problem with a Blackberry, but the G1 isn't compatible with the system T-Mobile uses to route voice services over TCP/IP. Now what am I gonna do with this G1 that I can't use at home?

Now I'm trying to figure out where to go from here.

Option 1: Wait. The T-Mobile people are going to plead my case with their network gnomes to see if they can fix the coverage problem in my apartment. I'm supposed to call back in a few days and see if the gnomes are willing to try to help me. It seems like a long shot, but if they can get me a signal, that would be awesome. In the mean time I can suck it up and use the Pre; I still have plenty of time to return it.

Option 2: AT&T. I can cancel my contract with T-Mobile, get the G1 unlocked, and get service from the Death Star. There's some speed hit because the G1 doesn't support AT&T's 3G frequencies, but it works, and the data speed is supposed to be all right. This option seems awfully sketchy, though.

Option 3a: Just get another Blackberry from Sprint. I could get the exact same phone I had, which seems pretty damn boring now that I'd played with the Pre and G1, or I get get the Blackberry Tour, which has a much nicer screen and an improved web browser, but otherwise it's pretty much the same old Blackberry. Definitely a step up from the 8330, but not anywhere near as sexy as a G1. I'm also kind of skeptical about the keyboard on the Tour; it's different from the 8330's, and some people really hate it. That may be a deal-breaker.

Option 3b: Get a Blackberry from T-Mobile. Their top-of-the-line Blackberry, the Curve 8900, is very similar to the Tour, but it has a keyboard I know I would be comfortable with, and it has wifi instead of 3G. Of course, it's only an option of T-Mobile's VOIP works they way they say it does.

Option 4: Get an iPhone. No, not really. I'm fairly certain I would find an iPhone just as irritating as the Pre, if not more so.

Now that I've taken the time to write that all out, I think I'll wait for T-Mobile to say they can't help me, and then I'll probably take my G1 to AT&T (after confirming that I can get a signal from them in my apartment). As much as I've loved having a Blackberry for the last year, I'm really taken with the G1. Going back to a Blackberry, even a newer, fancier one, would feel an awful lot like a downgrade at this point.

There once was a man from Nantucket
Who fancied himself quite a poet,
While it must be acknowledged
That his rhymes were not solid,
His lack of attention to meter was what really ruined it.

Reposted from zauzau:

Attention, admirers of shiny objects! I'm in a bad financial state, and while doing what I can do search for a better or second source of income, I need to sell jewelry and other art work to help pay for bills, so I can keep my car and afford my prescriptions, and maybe even get my durn broken back fixed! I sell jewelry, fine art, and photography. I take custom orders, commissions, and am available for photoshoots and headshots.

Click on the images to be taken directly to my Etsy shop!


Earcuffs in many styles and colors! Some are already available in my shop, and more are coming as soon as I'm able to get the photographs!


Earrings, necklaces, and more!

Also visit my DeviantArt gallery and my Flickr site for more examples of art and jewelry.

Share these links with anyone you think may be interested. Thanks so much!

I found out this morning that I can get tickets to the Wildflower Arts & Music Festival for half off ($7.50). I won't be there because I'll be out of town this weekend, but if you want tickets, let me know and I'll pick them up for you.

The festival is in Richardson near 75 and the turnpike. It starts Friday night and runs through Sunday. This year's performers include Kansas, The Toadies, Rick Springfield, Kool & The Gang, Hoobastank, Night Ranger, Robert Randolph & the Family Band, Tonic, The Edgar Winter Band, The Wailers, Jackopierce, The Killdares, Badfish - a tribute to SUBLIME, Vance Gilbert, John Gorka, David Wilcox, Le Freak, The Spazmatics, and a whole bunch of less well-known artists.

I've been keeping an eye (ear?) out for songs that are recognizable from their bassline alone, mostly because they're fun to play, but also because it's fun to be able to play something people recognize. Most basslines don't stand on their own very well.

Here are the best ones I've found so far:

• "Money" by Pink Floyd. This one is complicated enough to be really fun without being too hard. Sounds like it's really supposed to be bass and guitar playing in unison, but the bass by itself works just fine. Sounds much better with a pick than fingers, but that makes it a lot trickier because it requires a lot of upstrokes.
• "Seven Nation Army" by the White Stripes, covered by everyone. It's actually technically a guitar part but it's in the right register to play on a bass. Very slick riff but too simple to hold my attention long.
• "Underneath it All" by No Doubt. A good balance of fun and easy. I think I have this one down for the most part, but the tabs I've found online are most definitely wrong and I don't entirely trust my corrections.
• "It's My Life" by No Doubt. It'll be a while before I can play this one. Even the simple parts give me fits because they involve sequences of notes that are hard for me to play.
• "Dani California" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I think this would work well without the guitar part of it's way beyond me to actually play it, so maybe I'm wrong.
• "The Hand that Feeds" by Nine Inch Nails. Easy but good god is it ever dull. Three notes! I'm guessing that's how pretty much all NIN basslines are.

I've also found a few things that work well and are fun to play despite not being bass parts per se. My favorite is Für Elise, and I'm sure every bassist in the world loves the Imperial March from Star Wars.

I tend to conserve things that really don't need to be conserved. Like food. I always feel vaguely guilty about eating something I just brought home from the grocery store, as if I was really buying all that stuff to use it as a shelf decoration. It's why I always end up with a bunch of mostly-empty food containers in my fridge and pantry.

Apparently my lizard-brain does not understand that when I run out of something I can almost always just get more.

I'm not a regular reader of Dinosaur Comics, but you know I can't pass up a guest comic from Randall Munroe:



[Edit: I was thinking I had picked up this link from Jeff Jacques, but I see now that it came from skwidly, so half of you had probably already seen it by the time I posted it. Oh well, snakes on a plane I guess.]

It looks like the coordinated bailouts of European banks are having a positive impact on the global capital crisis.

You know who else was able to successfully end a widespread economic meltdown brought about by the poor regulation of his predecessors through a massive expansion of his European portfolio?

( Read more... )