Alt « white male consumer

CCS was at tax cap with +4.27% (last year voters sunk a 1.8% inc.) #518vote budget cuts 17.1 staff, extracurrics, and 1/2 of sports prog

— May 15th via Twitter
#Cambridge school budget (failed 1st time last year) passes by healthy margin, 780-427; two educators win empty board seats

— May 15th via Twitter
Budgets at Hoosick Falls and Cambridge Central schools both pass, as do bus props, etc. #518vote

— May 15th via Twitter
Plenty of activity at HFCS; concert, art show, voting, and BOE meeting. Local school election results 2nite from #Cambridge & #HoosickFalls

— May 15th via Twitter
Morbid obesity kills famously fat cat - Times Union http://t.co/VuZm463y

— May 7th via Twitter
The Barackness Monster ain't buying it!

— April 25th via Twitter
Spit out that chew and get yo mouth checked foo: free oral cancer screenings thru month of April http://t.co/M5Djk6ru

— April 7th via Twitter
Building stuff was easier in the'40s: furniture store owner wants 2 rebuild 19' ladderback landmark, expects resistance http://t.co/UzJQF077

— April 7th via Twitter
Local NY municipalities largely don't heed open meeting law amendment to post info online http://t.co/2ZeCwKVs Does your's?

— April 7th via Twitter
Bennington Vt Big Bros Big Sis celebrates 25th "silver" anniversary of Bowl fer Kids event by raising $50k http://t.co/dI9PG36n

— April 2nd via Twitter

Last.fm: Not Just A Tchotchke; CD Baby

Posted February 8th, 2008 at 2:18PM

I’ve been a member of last.fm for two years now, and am still discovering more things to like about it every day. Originally I signed up because a few friends had, and I wanted to record the music I listened to, as I love pretty charts and graphs. I’ve never been a huge listener of any type of online radio, aside from a podcast here or there. (The quality is usually poor, I have music that I know I like already on my laptop, and the lack of DJs on most sites makes for a real lacking of personality or human touch.) I would occasionally listen to the online feed of an actual station (WICB Ithaca College, WSPN Skidmore, or WEQX), but the quality was still poor.

Recently, however, I transfered all of my music to an exterior hard drive. This means I’m without anything to listen to when I go roaming in search of free wifi. Enter last.fm.

I load up the last.fm program and select from any of their channels â€“ particularly “my neighborhood,” which pulls music that I don’t currently listen to, but which is similar to the music I do, which is always “scrobbled” and collected by the website. It works very well, giving me unknown artists and some I’ve heard of but haven’t investigated. The quality is also great, considering its streaming full-length mp3 tracks.

So problem solved, I have good music to listen to while away from my iTunes playlist. Check out last.fm if you haven’t already, and add me to your friends list.

And because I’m feeling charitable, here’s another website you should definitely check out: CD Baby. It’s a very intuitive and well put together site highlighting tons of independent musicians. I recently watched The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai in the 8th Dimension (one of my top favorite movies), and heard some really great, textured electronica in one of the special features. With a little searching, I found the album: En-Trance by Brothers Price Music, a digital-only release. While I was at it, I added one of the more than 400 albums associated with Massive Attack and trip-hop, via CD Baby’s “Sounds Like” page. I’ve been looking for more trip-hop other than Massive Attack and Tricky, but it’s hard to stay up-to-date in upstate NY. Problem solved. Very cool.

Link: Zen Habits

Posted September 24th, 2007 at 3:28PM

zen habits

Zen Habits covers: achieving goals, productivity, being organized, GTD, motivation, eliminating debt, saving, getting a flat stomach, eating healthy, simplifying, living frugal, parenting, happiness, and successfully implementing good habits.

A lot of good, entertaining, and interesting reads on a broad variety of subjects. Well worth a flip through every so often.

Bonus: Take the 100 things challenge.

Burroughs’ Junky

Posted September 2nd, 2007 at 11:37PM

Safe in Mexico, I watched the anti-junk campaign. I read about child addicts and Senators demanding the death penalty for dope peddlers. It didn’t sound right to me. Who wants kids for customers? They never have enough money and they always spill under questioning. Parents find out the kid is on junk and go to the law. I figured that either Stateside peddlers have gone simpleminded or the whole child-addict setup is a routine to stir up anti-junk sentiment and pass some new laws.

– William S. Burroughs’ Junky

Recommendation Of The Hour: Yoko Ono

Posted May 29th, 2007 at 3:14PM

Yoko Ono — Yes, I’m a Witch

‘Witch’ features an assortment of indie artists who have reimagined classic Yoko Ono tracks by mixing elements of the originals (mainly the vocals) with newly recorded music. The roster includes the Flaming Lips, Le Tigre, Spiritualized, Cat Power and the Polyphonic Spree.

Going Back A Few Weeks — Feb. 20th

Posted March 7th, 2007 at 11:06AM

More than two weeks late, but whatever.

February 20th was the two year anniversary of Hunter S. Thompson’s death. The guy lived an amazing 67 years and was a better writer and journalist than the great majority of them out there. All of the greats are dying, replaced by nobodies. Sheet.

Myths and legends die hard in America. We love them for the extra dimension they provide, the illusion of near-infinite possibility to erase the narrow confines of most men’s reality. Weird heroes and mould-breaking champions exist as living proof to those who need it that the tyranny of the rat race is not yet final.

NIN Internet Shenanigans

Posted February 26th, 2007 at 11:22AM

The DIGG.com article explains it all. Nearly.

Nine Inch Nails is releasing a new album soon (titled Year Zero), and they’ve enlisted 42 Entertainment to do some new-age internet (~~“guerrilla”?~~ “viral”) marketing. Same sort of thing MINI and other tech-savvy companies and outfits are up to these days. Be sure to check out the links provided by the first commenter on the DIGG page, as well as the video at http://yearzero.nin.com.

I like.

Link: Penny Arcade (Again?)

Posted February 9th, 2007 at 10:33AM

I’m unsure of whether I’ve ever linked to Penny Arcade, and it’s pretty damn popular and I’m hardly on the bleeding edge when I say this, but: It’s teh funneh.

Penny Arcade
(Main Page, updated a lot)

(Yes, I pretty much just spend my time at my internship reading webcomics. Have a problem with that?)