Well, There It Is.

Congratulations to Bryan who performed with Brian Kirk and the Jirks for the last time this weekend. I can’t believe it’s been seven years since he started. Personally, I’m not really a fan of the kinds of clubs where the band plays. The Jersey Shore isn’t exactly my scene. Also, when it comes to Bryan’s playing, I always preferred the Shaggy Rogers Project.

This is an end of an era; now Bryan can focus primarily on his art and private teaching. Maybe he’ll even blog more now.

Somewhat relatedly, Jason Kottke is taking a similar leap. He’s leaving his job to devote himself to his blog full time. He won’t be making money through advertising, he’ll be relying on the goodwill of visitors to pitch in. His basic donation is $30 and I’m sure he won’t have a problem finding 1,000 people to donate that much money. Is it sustainable year after year?

When I bought my first domain name back in December 1999, I didn’t know that using my email address on websites would make me more vulnerable to spam. A little more than five years later, I still get junk email sent to email addresses at that domain that have been removed from the web.

I filter most of it out, but sometimes things aren’t caught. Also, every once in a while I go through what has been marked as spam just to make sure the spam blocker didn’t miscategorize something and I missed an important email from someone who doesn’t know my spam-free email address.

I get all the usual spam. They want to sell me Viagra or Cialis or both. They want to show me their webcam. They want me to sign up for a cruise. They want to confirm my application. They want to verify my PayPal password. Chances are, they want to do all those things for you as well.

Now I’m getting emails from someone who wants to increase the volume of my ejaculation. My thought is that it is already loud enough. Do I really want my neighbors to hear? Besides, mine goes to eleven.

The Grammy Awards were on television last night, but I missed the show. Judging from the list of winners, I didn’t miss anything earth shattering. That time was spent doing some work for my class and fixing my desktop computer which has been having more hard drive problems.

Hopefully a hard drive reformat and software reinstall will take care of that for now. Darren will be happy to know that I solved the problem I was having with noise from my computer speakers. The low pitches were caused by trying to use my component stereo system to function as my computer’s rear surround speakers (since my stereo and computer face each other). I unplugged the cables going from the computer speaker amp into the receiver and that solved the problem. That makes sense now that I think about it. I probably shouldn’t have been putting output from a powered amp into the receiver, which adds its own power when sending the signal to its speakers, but I don’t know.

The medium-pitched noise was due to power issues inside the computer. The ATX power cable that was powering my second hard drive was traveling through one device — an ultraviolet tube light that I almost always have turned off anyway. I took the black light out of the power chain and now there’s no noise. Problems solved for now. I’m glad the problem wasn’t with the sound card since I paid a nice amount of money for a good external audio processing device with which I can do fancy things and supposedly has a 108dB SNR.

I took the LSAT this weekend. I did about as well, maybe a little better, than I did on the practice test, but we’ll have to see. I’m not getting my hopes up, but it’s better to have options than not. For now the most immediate choice I have to make is whether I’ll be moving out of my apartment at the end of April. They have decided not to raise my rent this year, which is always a good thing. On the other hand, the apartment, put delicately, blows the big one and is a waste of money.

Today’s Links, updated in this spot until I post again, since I’m sure no one’s really visiting my del.icio.us:
* AntiMagnet: Buying those silly magnetic ribbons that say, “We support the troops!” doesn’t really support the troops, does it? The car in the middle photo on that website may match the make, model, year, color and censored license plate of my car, but you can bet I wouldn’t have a pink magnet on my car — ever… unless I share the car with my future wife and she really wants one. Still, the probability is low enough to be considered an impossibility.
* Déjà vu: CNN used the same satellite photo to show a suspected North Korean nuclear weapons site and a suspected Iranian nuclear weapons site three days later.

A lecturer, when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked, “How heavy is this glass of water?”

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I was browsing craigslist the other day, idly — and not seriously — searching for the things one typically looks for on that wonderful website: apartments, women, and jobs. I came across a number of ads looking for people to audition for the filming of pilots for new television programs. I miss acting, of which I did a fair amount in high school (now more than ten years ago), so I figured I’d sign up and see what happens.

Apparently they want headshots from those interested in auditioning. I figure that’s a standard practice. I can read lines well enough, but I’m sure I don’t have “the look” you need for television acting. Maybe I’ll be prepared by the next time pilot filming season comes around, whenever that is. The way I see it, this is something that could be fun to try, as long as I have no expectations. I always get a kick out of reading lines with other people, especially when they’re good and we play off each other well.

In that vein: the death of a playwright. Arthur Miller passed away. You may remember him from such plays as The Crucible and Death of a Salesman.

Back to the topic of “fun to try with no expectations,” I’m taking the LSAT tomorrow. I don’t think I’ll be going to law school, but if I take the test I’ll be able to at least have the door open in case I decide I do want to torture myself for three years or so. I’ve been trying to take pratice tests at night after I arrive home from work and finish any assignments for mt class, but this week has been a very busy one. I’ve been able to take only one full practice test so far. With some sleep tonight I should be able to tackle the test tomorrow morning.

Someone wants to interview me about another blog for a magazine.

I’m still looking for more people to participate at the Mix CD Exchange. If you haven’t been there lately, you may notice some updates. We’ve got fun new features like discussion forums and comments as well as some new mixes that have been added lately.

Either I watched the Super Bowl last night and inadvertently caught some commercials or I watched a long commercial program and inadvertently caught a football game.

Paul McCartney’s performance was excellent. Is it possible a performer actually performed live and did not lip synch to a prerecorded track? I’m still not sure.

The recurring theme of the night seemed to be “monkeys.” There were at least three commercials about working with monkeys for CareerBuilder.com. I also noticed an older Verizon Wireless commercial with chimpanzees mocking the “Can you hear me now?” guy. Advertising executives and their creative staff have finally realized the key to getting people’s attention: show monkeys acting like people.

I can’t ignore the Ameriquest commercial that depicted a guy cooking for his girlfriend or wife. He was in the kitchen when he spilled a pot of tomato sauce on the floor. His girlfriend’s cat got involved in the mess and the boyfriend picked up the cat to save it from getting completely covered in sauce. Finally, the woman walked in while he was holding a knife in one hand and the cat by its tail, dripping the thick red liquidy substance, in the other hand.

I’m not quite sure what that has to do with Ameriquest, but I was entertained.

Next year, be sure to catch monkeys and bloody cats replacing the football players on the championship teams—whatever it takes to get the ratings.

Scientists have been saying lately that artifical light can cause cancer, specifically breast cancer. The reasoning for this is exposure to artificial light, especially in the nighttime, diminishes melatonin in the body. Melatonin is a chemical, produced naturally by the pineal gland, that regulates the sleep cycle (or circadian rhythm).

Artificial light, especially at night, reduces melatonin. The lower level of melatonin makes the body inefficient in battling breast cancer.

But that’s not how this news relates to me. After all, since I am male it’s highly unlikely I’ll have breast cancer in my lifetime. However, reading about this relationship does make me think about my sleeping habits—or problems, however they should be described. Ever since I was about twelve (for the last seventeen years) I’ve spent a lot of time in front a computer monitor. It probably started a few years before that, if you count playing games and learning BASIC on a Commodore VIC-20.

During high school, I ran a bulletin board system, where people would dial in with their modems and participate with each other in the same way discussion forum and file sharing websites do now. I was constantly online or programming the BBS software. At night, if I was working on something, my mind couldn’t rest until the problem was solved.

I believe college wasn’t as bad. I didn’t spend as much time in front of the computer screen, although I did work on many websites at that time. I probably slept a little better. These days my sleep cycle is pretty bad again. I have to get away from the computer, especially since most of my time during the day at work is spent in front of one.

The sun, natural light, is what regulates circadian rhythm. Our bodies are designed to be active (or work, since we are living in the era of the Puritan Work Ethic) while the sun is up and sleep while the sun is down. In order to make myself feel healthier, I think I’m going to have to stop exposing myself to so much artificial light at night.