This Guy TAUGHT Me Stuff at University
SO WOW. I just added my old composition professor on Facebook. And on his wall is this music video.
He’s the guy in the glasses in the white suit. A white suit!? Awesome. And he is definitely STILL this cool. I always knew he was in some kind of rock band in the 80′s but never knew what it was called. So cool.
Also – watch him rock out in this video around 3:30
The End (of Summer) is Here!
So I guess it’s about time I stopped whining about writing this and actually got down to writing this.
It’s here. In the last waking hours of the last day of my summer, here I am, on my computer writing this blog in between games of Modern Warfare 2 on PS3, which is something I bought this summer. After playing it lots in my second year, and then finally getting a PS3 for Christmas last year, I’ve actually been able to play again! Still working on my first nuke on my own. I’ve only done it once before and come close multiple times, but no dice as of yet. For those of you who don’t know what MW2 or nukes are, don’t worry this whole blog won’t be about that.
Aside from that, I’ve stayed in Victoria most of the summer, with one short jaunt to Calgary for my Dad’s birthday. I surprised my Mom at her doorstep, and then my Dad downtown for lunch later. My mom cried twice that one day. Thanks to all my friends who made that one happen.
I also applied and didn’t get on a TV show this summer. It was called “Operation Unplugged” and it was basically taking techno-addicted people away from their addiction and seeing how they fared in the wilderness. I had the most viewed video on YouTube (for the audition videos) for a rap I wrote but didn’t get on the show. In the process of trying to show that I was techno-addicted, I started using Twitter a lot more. I went from about 30 followers of mostly friends and random spams to 90+ as of right now. I’m slowly learning how useful it is for networking, especially in my industry. Most producers and a lot of studios are on Twitter. I’ve met one guy who would be willing to give me an internship when I finish my degree and everything. So that’s really cool.
Operation Unplugged Video
I spent all the summer working. With my side job at the Gap and then doing all the recordings that came in through the school. I was basically the go-to guy for recordings this summer. Which led to my promotion as the Interim Audio Manager at the school right now, replacing my current boss for the semester as he takes his parental leave. This summer I worked on; ESL audio tapes, the soundtrack for a play, a guitar quartet, my own covers, and this audition tape. I also did live sound for 2 separate Indian concerts and recorded piano and sax, a piano feature and dual pianos. All in all it was a great summer for me and furthering my experience as a recording engineer.
With that being said, I designed and established http://jstasiuk.wordpress.com which is my website featuring all my work and my portfolio. It links directly with http://jstasiuk.bandcamp.com which is strictly my music portfolio. Both sites are currently under construction as I work to improve them and make it one seamless site – hopefully.
So I’m working hard to get my “brand” out there and promote myself. I’ve contacted a few other recording people and through volunteering at festivals like Rifflandia this fall, I hope to network myself more into this industry.
As most of all of you know, Harry Potter came out this summer! As most of you who actually read my blog probably know, I don’t actually like Harry Potter. I never got into the books and thus I was not interested in the movies. Well Girlfriend enjoyed the series and thus we commenced the HP movie marathon of the ages. We eventually watched all of them in preparation for the final installment. I think I enjoyed maybe 2 or 3 of them out of the entire 8. To me, it’ll never match up to Star Wars in terms of an epic saga. I guess it’s up there, but it’s definitely behind LOTR and Star Wars for me. HP7.2 was a satisfactory end to the series and I didn’t care enough to complain or dislike it.
Also in this summer, I bought myself a new computer! It had kind of been a long time coming as my laptop was slowly but surely living out it’s last legs. I bought myself a new 21.5″ iMac and now have quite the Apple collection. I still use my laptop for mobile recordings and Photoshop, but other than that, I’m officially a desktop guy. I think the set-up is pretty sweet. It definitely makes editing a lot easier with my two screens. 
Girlfriend went away for the entire month of May, so I didn’t do a whole lot except bum around and work. I actually just went through my facebook page to see if there was anything else worth mentioning.
Some highlights:
- Shotgunning a beer on the 16th hole of a private golf course
- The Oak Bay Tea Party with Girlfriend and Kath
- The Hunger Hush show in Calgary
- Naniamo with Jordo and Girlfriend
- Freaks and Geeks Cover –
I think that’s all for now. Not much else that really comes to mind. School starts tomorrow. First day of fourth year. I have the potential to finish this year, it’ll take me 11 classes. 5 first semester, and then 6 the second. And I’ll be taking a Ukrainian elective which will be pretty cool. Got rep’ for my heritage.
Hope you enjoyed this quick wrap up of the summer! Looking forward to much of the same in the fall!
If this gets 3 likes on any social media platforms I will write a post by the end of this week of my top 5 albums/songs/artists of the summer and what I’m looking forward to in the fall in terms of music!
- J
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- Calgary mayor makes history as Pride Parade marshal (canada.com)
My Internet Life
Well hello there, how are you doing today? Good? Then good.
Hopefully you have seen my video for Operation Unplugged and enjoyed my song. If you’re super duper interested – it can be bought off my bandcamp for $1 CDN. I’m not looking to make a lot of money but I think that’d be cool if SOMEONE out there bought it. Anyways, it’s that video that brings me to writing this blog. Maybe it was that video that brought you here – doubtful, but it’s a possibility. If you want to download the track and help me out – you can go here!
Image via Wikipedia
Image via CrunchBase
Looking back on that video – I wish I had made two versions, one with the intro and end bits, and one without. The one without would have just been my rap and that was that. I could show this video to my family and coworkers and stuff that I don’t really want involved in my online presence. Now that I’ve sent out that video to my parents, they’ve sent it to all my family, who are undoubtedly going to stumble upon this. I try quite hard to keep myself anonymous on the internet. I try not to connect my name to any of my accounts – twitter, this blog, etc. I have quite high privacy settings on my Facebook, I am unsearchable to anyone who isn’t a friend. All in all, I just don’t like having my name out there.
But now with this video, I can’t do that anymore. My parents know now I have this blog and a Twitter amongst other things, and not that that’s a bad thing, but these are places I go to write about without having to censor myself or what have you. I try to censor myself on Facebook and Twitter as is – just for professional reasons – you never know who might stumble across that. But this blog in particular is something I like to leave for ranting and raving about my life and what’s going on and what not. Where am I going to go to complain about stuff if I know the people I’m complaining about can read it? Isn’t that defeating the purpose? Do I have to set up another blog or something where I can go to post stuff and neglect this one (more so than I already do)?
In short, no. I am not going to set up anything else to have to censor myself here. Parents, if you’re reading this and don’t like what you read? Tough – don’t come to me about it, if I didn’t bring it up with you to deal with it, then I don’t want to deal with it. That’s that. So I’m going to try and keep this as a safe-haven for me. Seeing as not that many people come here anyways – it shouldn’t be a big deal.
I’m actually really starting to come around to using Twitter a lot more. Since I’ve upped my usage lately, I’ve been in contact with people all over that you wouldn’t normally come in contact with. I asked Matt Good a question one morning, I got a shout out from the host of Operation Unplugged about my video, I’ve contacted two studios in Vancouver, one would give me an internship once I’m done my degree, and the other would give me a tour of their space if I was ever in town. So that’s been really cool.
Anywho, in other news, Girlfriend got home from Europe on Saturday. It’s been quite nice having her around again. Living alone is definitely not something I enjoy too much. Her schedule is still really wonky – this is the first day she hasn’t slept for about 14 hours – so we’re still kind of adjusting. She went to bed at 8 tonight and I’ve been up playing video games and watching YouTube videos and writing this blog. We did have a long day out and about today just hanging out – so that was really nice. I’m gonna be cracking the whip on her a little harder too now that she’s home. Things need to be cleaned and put away in a more timely fashion and I’m just not going to let as much stuff slide as I usually do when she’s got school and stress and what have you. No more Mr.NiceGuy.
I suppose I need to take a photo of myself with my new glasses for here – since I still haven’t done that. I’m actually getting a new new pair sometime this week since the guy who cut my lenses did a terrible job, and the technician at the glasses store said they’d just re-do them entirely for me. So that’s really great, it just takes a while because I have such shitty eyes. I’d like to try my old ones on for a day and actually see if the new ones make a huge difference. Sometimes I wonder if they actually did anything or not. Except my new ones are cut in such a way that switching really gives me a bad headache.
Album art for Little Hell
I was streaming the new City and Colour album Little Hell today from some stream they sent out on a tweet, and I was actually really impressed with what D
allas has put out. I’ve kind of drifted away from C&C since I met him at the AOF meet and greet, but this new album is quite good. I’ve actually pre-ordered it twice – once in a hard-copy and once digitally (with 4 extra tracks) - I would have preferred just to do the digital, but I ordered the hard copy first. Oh well. I also just started listening to the new Matthew Good album – the few tracks I’ve heard so far are really good! The new Moby has yet to grow on me though…
So with June 1st starting as of right now – the day literally just turned over as I write this – I am going to be starting a 30 day challenge. I got this idea from Phillip Defranco – one of the most famous YouTubers, who I’m subscribed to. The idea is that you set a goal and focus on it for one month. At the end of that month you assess and move on from there. My Project30 is going to be packing a lunch for work. And I know it’s not a big goal or whatever, but I’m really starting to notice a dip in my spending money from buying stuff from the food court every time I go in to work. It’s at least $10 maybe $15 a day. I usually justify it by saying “it’s only one more hour of work” – but really, that’s $50 a week (at least) that I could be saving. I’m going to be trying some new recipe ideas and keep it more interesting than just ham and cheese sandwiches all day. I somehow managed to survive on that everyday in junior/high school, so I think I can do it again. At the beginning of each week – or whenever I have a day off, I’m going to make a whole bunch of sandwiches and have them in the freezer so I can just pull one or two out and bring them to work. I think I might do pasta’s and salads that I can microwave or keep cold too. I’m going to try and keep my progress updated here and do my best to stick to it!
I think that’s enough for one night, if you stuck through til the end of this, here’s that photo I promised! Hurray.
Related articles
- Iran Plans to Unplug Internet, Create Its Own (newser.com)
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Operation Unplugged
So I’m going to be applying for a show called Operation Unplugged. Link here. The idea is that they’re going to take 8 students who are techno-addicted and throw them in the wilderness for five weeks. I’m hoping to get on. For the application we have to create a video showing our personality, so I’ve decided to write a “rap” / song thing and then I’ll perform it or do my video over it or whatever.
This is what I’ve got for words so far, thoughts? I know Girlfriend is going to hate it, buttttt she’s gone to Europe for three weeks so – there’s nothing she can do about it! But – she’s gone to Europe for three weeks, so I am sad 
This is Operation Unplugged, We’re a nation of subs
We’re followers, friends, connected to the ends
Of the earth, haven’t you heard?
Did you check your feed? I sent a tweet?
updated my status, did you get my friend request yet?We’re the self-proclaimed, techno-dependent,
what’s gonna happen when you away take our internet?
It’s sick and twisted how we’re all addicted to the technology.
Open your eyes, open your ears, hopefully you can follow me.The kids these days got heads connected to their speakers,
cell phones, headphones, we’ve all become drones
Can’t eat, can’t sleep unless you kickin’ the right sneakers
Gotta fit in gotta keep up to the Jones’They’re gonna throw us in the parks for 5 weeks,
And I’m here to prove, I got the marks, I ain’t weak.
With Alan Bishop, Cap’n of our little ship,
gonna be the one to make the most outta this trip
So gimme all you got Canada, I’ll take command of ya.
Natural born leader, ain’t gonna deceive ya.
This is me, who I am, I’ll make you a believer.
Artist, musician, rapper, what you make of it,
I can also tell you how many bytes are in a bit,Now you might be wondering how am I gonna survive
without the iPhone, iPod, Macbook Pro. I’m gonna show
I got the strength to kick the machine,
to wean the brain from the life that i’ve been leadin’,.I’m like Neo, pull me out of the Matrix, I need to feel,
I’m better off with the stones and the sticks.
Don’t like what you hear? So shoot me,
Maybe you’re the one with fear but this is my Call of Duty,
turning off the PS3, so I can see the world behind the TV.
The Facebook Dilemma
So – I haven’t written on here for a while, but fret not! All is not lost. I have just been busy. But kind of not really. I’m back working at the Gap and doing all the recordings during the summer so that’s keeping me partially busy. You’ll see below two versions of a recording I did with Chris Ho recently. It was a good time, and I think that the recording turned out well. Thoughts? Do you like version one or the remixed version two?
I did well in school. Passed all my classes. One D – in my super tough electrical engineering course (Thank GOD – no more elec), 2 B+’s and 2 A’s. This has definitely been one of my
more successful years even though I did get two D’s. So – I’m glad to be done that, and enjoying summer.
Image via Wikipedia
So the main thing I wanted to rant about today was my Facebook Dilemma. It’s about choosing who to add and who not to add. There are lots of people who I see on a semi-regular basis and have classes with and talk with in those classes occasionally. I would not consider these people my friends but they are people I could talk to at a party or in a social setting. Being kind of an outsider in the School of Music – that means there’s a lot of people who don’t really know me and vice versa, even though we’ve had classes together for 3 years now.
Should I be adding these people to my Facebook who aren’t really friends but decent enough acquaintances to justify a friend request? I know lots of people treat Facebook differently and think that “You should only add your true friends and people you actually know.” And then there’s the flip side of people who add just about everyone and anyone to their friends list. It’s all about how open and how social you are. I feel that I’m somewhere in the middle and will add people even though I’m not necessarily friends with them. I figure I might as well – there’s really no harm since I keep my Facebook pretty secure in what I share.
My general rule of thumb is if I would say hi to them on the street or nodded in passing (in terms of guys) then I can add them as a friend. To me this means that we know who each other are and share some kind of acknowledgement or whatever you want to call it. This also works pretty easy for deleting people – if I see them in public and make direct eye contact and they don’t say hi – I’ll delete them from my account.
Oh the tough life of a suburban university student. Who to add on Facebook such a huge dilemma.
What are your thoughts? Who do you add? Do you have filters for different groups of people?
- J
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Calvin and Hobbes Backgrounds
So I’ve found some Calvin and Hobbes backgrounds on the internet, but they’re not that great and don’t fit a 1240 x 1080 screen, so I did a little bit of editing and fixing up so now that they look awesome on your big laptop screen! Enjoy!
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Cótes des Neiges (Snow Hill)
So school is in full swing again, and unfortunately this blog has taken a toll because of it. I have a few extra minutes tonight, so I feel like writing something. I’ve got a whole bunch of other random stuff and thoughts I’m gonna write down sometime, it’s just a matter of laziness.
The start of my third year has kind of come in as a whimper versus a bang. My schedule is very forgiving this semester, I only really have class on Monday and Thursday. Tuesdays has one class @ 7pm, and Fridays are off. So it’s pretty good. Again due to the program, I’m taking a mismash of courses, including the Art and Architecture of Ancient Greece. So hopefully things will be good as the year progresses.
Luckily, Girlfriend and I have still managed to maintain seeing each other fairly often. You’d think more often than we do, given we live in the same house. I am surprised how well the living situation is going. Being roommates is great, we usually have breakfast together and then do something in the night together, so it’s nice. The owners of the house are great and the cat loves me. Which is nice. Unfortunately my parents are under the assumption that Girlfriend and I share everything (food wise) and thus they have stopped pitching in for my food bill. I suppose this is fair, but hopefully when they come at the end of September, they will see how little we actually share, and have a change of heart. (Doubtful – but here’s to wishful thinking)
$500 Music Box
In other news, I’m spending too much money lately! I’m in the process of purchasing an Mbox Pro2 (pictured below) for $500. Which is a steal of a deal considering you generally pay $1200+ for it. It’s great because I can use it to record, I can plug in my other box into it, and I get access to the most used software in the business.
You see! Digidesign, the company who makes the Mbox, has also produced a program called ProTools which has become the industry standard. Well, Digi has also made it so that you can’t use ProTools unless you’re hooked up to an Mbox. So this is not cool. Thus I am buying one.
Secondly, I just bought VIP tickets to the Alexisonfire show that will be happening here in November. This means I get: a ticket &
- meet & greet
- tour poster
- exclusive laminate
- 7″ (DEMOS from OC/YC….super limited)
- early entry into venue
The guys I'll be meeting
Most importantly on this list is the meet & greet. Alexisonfire has grown to be one of my favourite bands, and having the opportunity to talk to them is going to be awesome. I’m already thinking up questions to ask and all this other loser stuff. Victoria is the first stop on the tour, so I’m gonna be one of the first people they meet! Aweeeesum.
In other nerdy music news involving me, there’s a guy coming to our school to talk to us about working in a well known studio. This guy has worked with K-Os, R.E.M., The Tragically Hip and Rise Against to name a few. These are a lot of big names, and a lot of bands that I listen to. I’m super pumped to talk to him and see what he says about the industry. So I’ve got another list of questions going for him too.
That kinda runs injunction with some other news of mine. I’ve taken over the Facebook group for my program, so I’m being a big n00b and posting all the time in the group to keep it relevant. 
Umm…other than that, I’m not really sure what else is going on with me. Trying my best to stay active. Girlfriend and I have started playing tennis, and I’ve joined a ball hockey team as well. So I’ve got lots on the go.
Oh! I suppose I can talk about what happened in the last bit of the summer. I’ve been working at the Gap most of the time, and still am continuing into the fall (5 classes, and 2 jobs – great). The Gap is great, and I love working there, right now it’s mostly weekends and Friday’s so the hours aren’t fantastic.
Also – this summer was probably the first summer where I actually read more than 2 books that weren’t comics. I read:
- The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time
- The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
- The Producer as the Composer by Virgil Moorefield
- Think of a Number by John Verdon
All of them were really good, but I have to pick two out of the mix. Think of a Number was fantastic, probably the best book I’ve read in a long time. It’s a great serial killer/mystery/crime/psychological/fuck-with-your-brain type of book. Which I really enjoy. So I’d definitely recommend that one. 
The second, The Producer as the Composer, I would recommend for anyone with any interest in music. It talks about the producers role in making music all the way from Motown to DJ’s of today. It was the first book that got me to listen to an entire Beatles album (Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band) and it made the music actually interesting to me. I went out and bought Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys, just so I could hear for myself what Brian Wilson did in terms of mixing and arrangements. So for me this book had a significant impact on my musical life and how I want to pursue my career.
I think that’s enough for tonight. Ima go to bed now. More specifically…girlfriend’s bed! 
If there’s any books you think I should be reading, please let me know!
An Interesting Read on Facebook
I am definitely gonna look at my privacy settings on Facebook right now.
Facebook’s Eroding Privacy Policy: A Timeline | Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Since its incorporation just over five years ago, Facebook has undergone a remarkable transformation. When it started, it was a private space for communication with a group of your choice. Soon, it transformed into a platform where much of your information is public by default. Today, it has become a platform where you have no choice but to make certain information public, and this public information may be shared by Facebook with its partner websites and used to target ads.
To help illustrate Facebook’s shift away from privacy, we have highlighted some excerpts from Facebook’s privacy policies over the years. Watch closely as your privacy disappears, one small change at a time!
Facebook Privacy Policy circa 2005:
No personal information that you submit to Thefacebook will be available to any user of the Web Site who does not belong to at least one of the groups specified by you in your privacy settings.
Facebook Privacy Policy circa 2006:
We understand you may not want everyone in the world to have the information you share on Facebook; that is why we give you control of your information. Our default privacy settings limit the information displayed in your profile to your school, your specified local area, and other reasonable community limitations that we tell you about.
Facebook Privacy Policy circa 2007:
Profile information you submit to Facebook will be available to users of Facebook who belong to at least one of the networks you allow to access the information through your privacy settings (e.g., school, geography, friends of friends). Your name, school name, and profile picture thumbnail will be available in search results across the Facebook network unless you alter your privacy settings.
Facebook Privacy Policy circa November 2009:
Facebook is designed to make it easy for you to share your information with anyone you want. You decide how much information you feel comfortable sharing on Facebook and you control how it is distributed through your privacy settings. You should review the default privacy settings and change them if necessary to reflect your preferences. You should also consider your settings whenever you share information. …
Information set to “everyone” is publicly available information, may be accessed by everyone on the Internet (including people not logged into Facebook), is subject to indexing by third party search engines, may be associated with you outside of Facebook (such as when you visit other sites on the internet), and may be imported and exported by us and others without privacy limitations. The default privacy setting for certain types of information you post on Facebook is set to “everyone.” You can review and change the default settings in your privacy settings.
Facebook Privacy Policy circa December 2009:
Certain categories of information such as your name, profile photo, list of friends and pages you are a fan of, gender, geographic region, and networks you belong to are considered publicly available to everyone, including Facebook-enhanced applications, and therefore do not have privacy settings. You can, however, limit the ability of others to find this information through search using your search privacy settings.
Current Facebook Privacy Policy, as of April 2010:
When you connect with an application or website it will have access to General Information about you. The term General Information includes your and your friends’ names, profile pictures, gender, user IDs, connections, and any content shared using the Everyone privacy setting. … The default privacy setting for certain types of information you post on Facebook is set to “everyone.” … Because it takes two to connect, your privacy settings only control who can see the connection on your profile page. If you are uncomfortable with the connection being publicly available, you should consider removing (or not making) the connection.
Viewed together, the successive policies tell a clear story. Facebook originally earned its core base of users by offering them simple and powerful controls over their personal information. As Facebook grew larger and became more important, it could have chosen to maintain or improve those controls. Instead, it’s slowly but surely helped itself — and its advertising and business partners — to more and more of its users’ information, while limiting the users’ options to control their own information.
Me – One. Google – Nothing.
I just spent the past 10 minutes googling myself. There were no links to any of my blog/facebook/photos/anything other than my CD reviews for the Martlet.
This is a good thing. I hate the feeling that someone out there (a potential boss) may be learning everything there is to know about me from my blog before we even meet.
Luckily there’s a XXXXX XXXXXXX who rides horses somewhere in Texas. So all his stuff comes up first.
Me – One. Google – Nothing.
The Sleep I Should Be Having…
Just isn’t happening…
So I lay in bed with Girlfriend as she’s asleep and I’m not. This was reversed about 3 hours ago, but being the idiot I am, having a nap @ 9 pm, makes sleeping hard. I suppose I’ll write a nice blog entry.
Puke
Today, well officially today, is Valentine’s Day. So to all you lovers out there, enjoy your guarenteed sex. Girlfriend and I will be spending the day at the museum, then massages, then dinner @ the Keg. I had to book our reservation on Monday, and we get our table @ 8 pm. Which is crazy if you think about when you would have to call to get a good time. I’m not very good at Valentine’s Day. Never really have been. Especially being away from home makes me lazy. I don’t have the supplies to make a handmade card and I kind of just don’t like it. I don’t know, that’s just me. I know I should be one of those perfect boyfriends who gets a present and makes a card and blah blah blah, but for some reason I don’t like Valentine’s Day. Maybe it’s because I was born the day after and it’s just really annoying. I always feared the idea of getting a Valentine’s day card for my birthday and people being like “Happy Valentine’s Day! Oh, and yeah, we’ll just get you one card for your birthday too.” It’s stupid, but eh. For this reason, Girlfriend and I didn’t celebrate V-day last year, a mistake she’ll never let me forget; but nonetheless I’m trying to do better this year. She’ll be getting the heart shaped box of chocolates, some other chocolate, and I want to get her flowers, but it’s going to be so goddamn expensive. Why does society say that I have to buy my girlfriend flowers on this specific day?! I’d much rather buy them for her at a random time then for her to expect them. Blah, stupid holiday. I also really hope that Girlfriend doesn’t read this blog so she finds out what I got her….
Speaking of holiday’s, I am on one for the next week. School is out for reading break and thus I will get to relax and enjoy some time off. Unfortunately I will probably spend a few days strictly doing homework. Sigh this is the life of a student.
Another holiday coming tomorrow is my birthday. Those of you who read my blog via Facebook will notice a discrepency between my real birthday and my Facebook birthday. This is a stupid social experiment of mine to see how many of my friends really know my birthday and how many rely on Facebook to tell them. I’ve already had a few people send me messages expressing statements of confusion. I received a package in the mail from my parents for my birthday, and to be honest, it sucked. I got a comic book which I already have, and I think they got my brother years previous, and some chocolate. Also I told them I had got it and opened, but not opened the wrapped presents inside, and my mom told me to open a specific one. My Mom knit me a sweater vest. A purple sweater vest, that I will never wear. It’s dumbfounding how tacky it is. My Mom told me she knit it for me because she thought I liked sweater vests, I own one, which was a gift, which I got 3 years ago, which I also rarely wear. You would think she’d pick up on this. Now I feel obligated to have to wear it at least once. Or more than once since I will be asked everytime I go home, “Oh where’s your vest? Do you wear your vest?” No.
So hopefully the rest of my birthday will be better. In other news, I found my shoe! Silly roommates brought in a bar(like an actual drink bar) and placed it over my shoe a couple of weeks ago. We moved the bar last night and found my shoe under it. Yay.
Yet again, I fall back to the topic of Facebook. The social networking site has now turned into an online forum to express beliefs, rants, feelings, and blah blah blah. I feel like FB is the new place to protest and attempt to make social change. People make all these stupid groups saying they’ll donate a cent to Haiti for every person that joins, there are memorial groups for every second person who dies, there are groups for schools and for trying to change your school. But do these really do anything? In my opinion no. Nothing will change because someone made a Facebook group, no one is really going to get out there and protest. Groups are the easy lazy ass way for someone to show that they care about the world and it’s causes but they’re too lazy to get the fuck out there and do anything about it.
Anywho, I think I’m gonna try and get some sleep.
- J
Repost: Sorry, those Facebook friends aren’t really friends – The Globe and Mail
This is why I only have 88 friends on MY facebook.
from: The Globe and Mail; http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/family-and-relationships/sorry-those-facebook-friends-arent-really-friends/article1443661/
Technology may change, but the number of friends we can have appears to stay the same.
While social networking sites allow users to have thousands of “friends”, the mind is only capable of handling a maximum of 150 relationships at one time, according to a new study conducted by Robin Dunbar, an anthropologist at Oxford University.
In the 1990s, Dr. Dunbar carried out research showing that the part of the brain responsible for thinking and language cannot accommodate more than 150 friends – defined as people a person cares about and makes contact with at least once a year. That figure has since been known as “Dunbar’s number.”
But does the ability to connect with people online push the limits of Dunbar’s number?
Sorry, Tila Tequila, but in looking at the online traffic of roughly 500 people’s social networks on sites including Facebook and MySpace, Dr. Dunbar’s new research suggests our ability to maintain friendships is just as limited on the Web as in the real world.
“You can list 10,000 people as friends on your social networking site. But the big issue is the quality of those relationships,” Dr. Dunbar says.
“If you look at people’s actual social networking sites and whom they actually contact on a regular basis, then that really comes down to the same group of people that they meet face to face with in the real world.”
The upper limit of faces we can put names to is somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000, he says. Which means those thousands of Facebook friends one might have are much less than real friends.
“You can’t even know who they are, actually,” Dr. Dunbar says.
The full results of the study are expected to be published later this year.
via Sorry, those Facebook friends aren’t really friends – The Globe and Mail.
Lost for Words
Oh man, this blog has been a long time in the making.
My last few days here in Victoria have consisted mostly of this.
- Wake up, check email and blog and facebook
- Review a CD
- Watch Sportscentre
- Watch my roommate play Modern Warfare II
- Check email
- Watch roommate play Modern Warfare II
- Have Dinner
- Watch roommate play Modern Warfare II
- Stare at books and hope that I learn something from them
- Say to myself that I’ll study tomorrow
- Watch The Office/Secret Life of The American Teenager with Girlfriend
- Watch roommate play Modern Warfare II
- Sleep
I really haven’t done anything. Yesterday Girlfriend and I went to the mall and we she shopped for 5 1/2 hours. Which I think is the longest time I’ve ever spent in a mall. It was also the most exercise I’ve gotten in probably the last two months. So tired afterwards. It’s no help that I’ve been fighting off a cold, so today I was even more tired. It made studying almost impossible.
When I was in the mall yesterday, I heard a lot of music from a few years ago. Nelly Furtado, Backstreet Boys, etc. It made me think about the music I listened to growing up. This coupled by watching the most influential moments in music history on MuchMusic a few days ago added to my nostalgia. I was just thinking about how I’ve gotten to that point in my life where all the things I’ve grown up on are now gone from the mainstream lifestyle. The cartoons, the music, TV shows, the people, the hockey players. It’s weird to think that all the hockey players I grew up watching, and idolizing are almost all retired now.
This is the same with music. Bands like Blink 182 and Greenday don’t put out CD’s anymore. Sum 41 has a greatest hits CD out for crying out loud. They’ll be doing reunion tours sooner or later. The punk lifestyle has taken it’s toll on them and they have ceased to exist. Basically. Same with Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake. The list goes on. The generation of music that we grew up is over. Now we’re into the age of autotune, Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift and the Jonas Brothers. Sigh I miss my old music.
Yesterday while watching mine and Girlfriend’s new favourite obsession; The Secret Life of the American Teenager (more on this later), I heard a song I hadn’t heard in ages. After struggling and finally watching the scene again and copying out the lyrics, I discovered it was a band that I listened to a long long time ago. Something like 6 years ago. When I was 13. (It was “Unforgettable Night” by And Then I Turned Seven, for those of you who are curious). It makes you think how much your musical tastes have expanded since then. I know mine definitely have. I’m slowly working my way through 8000+ songs on a mission to listen to them all.
While shopping, I saw the book “1000 Recordings to Listen to Before You Die”. And I want it. For Christmas. I want to start a new project. I want to listen to all of those recordings. Or something like that. There’s another book “1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die”. Maybe when I have more time, or when I get the book I’ll figure out what I want to do with it. Maybe I need to write my own “100 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die”. The sad part is I don’t think I’m old enough to be able to come up with 100. It’s most likely going to be a quest to locate a copy of each of those albums, and listen to it, if not own it. Maybe I’m just a dreamer.
Anywho. Secret Life Of The American Teenager. When Girlfriend and I were in Seattle earlier this year, we were in our hotel room watching TV and flipping through channels. We stumbled upon this gem. SLOTAT is about a 15 year old girl who is pregnant (this happens pre-episode 1) and how she grows up in high school with this baby. Well her baby’s father is banging just about every girl in school, and has one particular lover. Well the male half of a hardcore Christian couple wants to have sex, so he finds the baby’s fathers love, who does god knows what. So the female half starts hanging out with the baby’s father, while the baby’s mother gets her own boyfriend, who says he loves her and wants to marry her (after about 4 episodes) and she’s still trying to figure out how to tell her parents, who are splitting up because the baby’s mother’s father is cheating on his wife. We aren’t even half way through the 1st season! It’s so great! It’s like Jerry Springer, Degrassi and 7th Heaven all mixed into one. If you followed any of that and like any of the aforementioned shows, you should definitely give this one a try. So good.
Moving on. If you read this blog often, you’ll know I do CD reviews. I write them for my school newspaper and there was some day a few months ago where I saw someone reading one of my reviews as I walked by, and it made me think about how crazy a university is. (Also, sidenote, why is university the only word I can think of that starts with a vowel and isn’t preceded by “an”?) I was thinking that you walk around campus, and you sit in class and you don’t realize the people around you. Some could be doctors, professors, people who write in your school newspaper, athletes, who knows what! And we all have this level of anonymity because of just the sheer amount of people. I thought it was pretty cool. No one’s ever come up to me and said “Hey you’re the guy that writes those reviews in the Martlet right?” Maybe one day.
I think that’s enough for you guys to read tonight. Hopefully you enjoyed it. Feel free to leave me a comment about anything you read or for suggestions on my quest.
CD Review – Sunday Buckets – In Case You Hear This
Victoria has already heard a lot of Sunday Buckets. They were the October Band of The Month for the Zone 91.3 radio station, and they played on Boxing Day down at Sugar. These six guys have jumped on the scene trying to get their name out. You can find them on Myspace, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. “In Case You Hear This” is their first album that was dropped in early July of this year.
The first track, “Aftermathematics” is a catchy pop-like tune that immediately draws your mind to Death Cab for Cutie. Sunday Buckets has a unique make-up as five out of the six members contribute vocally. In the bridge section of Aftermathematics there seems to be a small spoken word/rap vocal line, which provides a good contrast to the rest of the song.
Most of the songs on “In Case You Hear This” are very mellow and easy to listen to. The third track, “Garfunkel” incorporates the classic Mr.Rogers phrase “It’s a wonderful day in the neighbourhood/Won’t you be my neighbour?” With unique elements like that, each song gives you something new to listen to and enjoy in its own right.
Sunday Buckets does the mellow relaxing song very well, almost too well. “In Case You Hear This” needs something heavier. “Kenny the Kid” is close with a great buildup into the first chorus, but as soon as it hits, the song falls flat and all that energy is gone. I’m left here groaning wanting that huge heavy chorus!
Overall the CD sounds great and is produced very well. Sunday Buckets has definitely found their niche in the soundscape of today and are definitely a band to keep an eye on. Pick up this CD or see them live to experience one of Victoria’s newest indie hits featuring a lot of local talent.
*P.S. My roommate just showed me this, but when you plug this CD into iTunes, it incorrectly labels the title of the album, “In Case You Here This”.
Privacy and Facebook
I’ve never been a huge fan of Facebook. I use it, and I try to not spend too much time on it. My brother is currently on a Facebook hiatus during his exams so he doesn’t get distracted too much. Personally I have my facebook pretty tightly closed. I don’t really want people other then my friends seeing it. So I’m keeping it that way.
Facebook topples the privacy façade – The Globe and Mail.
Brace yourself, Facebook friends: Here comes everyone.
Facebook is changing. Last week, users logging in to the site were met with a little box that asked them to take a look at their privacy settings. After much discussion and a go-round with the Canadian government, the service has completely reworked its all-important system for determining who sees what.
On a site that 350 million people – 350 million! – use to send love notes and share photos and offhandedly stalk one another, that’s not nothing. The new privacy system should make it simpler and easier for users to guard their information.
…
In Facebook’s simplified new scheme, you can opt to share various bits of information with friends, or friends-of-friends. Alternatively – and this is where Facebook buried its surprise – you can select a new option: making parts of your profile available to “Everyone.”
They’re not mincing words here: “Everyone” means what it says. “When you share or publish content to ‘Everyone,’ anyone on the Internet will be able to view it,” reads Facebook’s new online manual. Crucially, this also means that “Everyone” information will be open to the all-seeing eye of Google.
This change isn’t being rammed down anyone’s throat. But Facebook is applying some pressure. I opened a brand-new account as a test, and sure enough, the default settings would have exposed my posts to “Everyone.”
Wednesday in the News.
Here’s what I found interesting today on the internet!
I have to thank my buddy Lee for finding this one, I stole it from his facebook. But for all those who live at UVic, or in the Victoria area; if you ever wanted to keep one of those bunnies, now you can! There is talks of an adoption program for the bunnies to decrease the population! Hurray! – http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/09/02/bc-uvic-feral-rabbits-adoption.html
In the UK, they’ve come out with a new Public Service Annoucement that’s caused quite a bit of contreversy everywhere. It focuses on texting while driving, and three girls in a car get into a graphic crash. I think advertisements like this are good, and that they should start showing them in Canada. We’re used to seeing the graphic nature in movies such as Inglorious Basterds, but when it’s fake it’s okay. Real life occurances aren’t allowed to be graphic apparently. Hopefully this will stop people from being stupid while driving. – http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/graphic-texting-video-a-hit/article1273132/
Creating even more contrevorsy is this alleged WWF (World Wildlife Federation) ad which features hundreds of planes flying into a pre 9/11 New York City, and a caption that reads “The tsunami killed 100 times more people than 9/11. The planet is brutally powerful. Respect it. Preserve it.” – http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2009/09/02/world-wildlife-fund-ad-september-attack-trade-center.html - Which is as hard hitting as it is true. Of course Americans aren’t going to like this ad, they were so hard done by their attack on 9/11. I am by no means saying this was not a horrible event, but I think it’s become old news, and Americans have to get over it. Some people can’t even remember what day it was that it happened. I like this ad and hope that WWF doesn’t pull it.
That’s all for today! Hope you enjoyed!
- J
Home.
Ahoy!
I was thinking about home again today, and again how much Victoria has become mine. I have a place where I can go to get my hair cut and the stylist knows who am I and how I like my haircut (yes, for those perceptive folk, I did get my haircut today, maybe I’ll post a picture later), I can give directions, I can tell people which bus to take. I feel like I am now a citizen of Victoria and can call this place home. It’s a pretty weird feeling. After being here only one year and I feel like this. Calgary never seems the to change everytime I’m back. It’s always the same streets, the same route home from the airport, the same buildings, the same crappy architechural statues on the street corners. I still find things to explore and discover here in Victoria, and it’s awesome.
Today was mostly a chore day, getting a haircut, getting shoes for work, paying bills, etc etc. Tomorrow is laundry. I need something interesting to happen to me! I’m running out of things to say and things to talk about. I fired off an email to the Martlet to see if they still want my reviews, hopefully you read them, enjoyed them and went and listened to some of the music! I need to know if these reviews are valid or not. On that note, when I was reviewing Sora’s CD “Heartwood”, I noticed the picture on the back cover was quite familiar. I ended up finding her on Facebook, learning she was from Calgary, and that the picture was taken about a minute away from my house (in Stonehenge for those of you who know). So that was pretty nifty.
My roommate came home from New York/Toronto last night! It’s great having him around again, I was getting quite lonely and bored all by myself. Now I have someone to play video games with and converse with and go shopping with and not be all by myself in the computer labs all day.
And holy lame! I was just checking this computer to see if it had Photobooth, which is the program on Mac to take pictures using the webcam, and either this version doesn’t have it, or they got rid of it on these computers! How silly.
It’s only a few more days until my brother comes to visit. 4 to be exact. He’ll be here on Friday, when we have our final summer ending costume bananza! It shall be grand. I was planning on going as Bleeker from Juno, but I have yet to find a pair of shorts short enough and gold enough to be sufficent for that costume. I am excercising back up ideas. Do you have any? Leave a comment with a sweet costume idea
Later days,
- J
Homeward Bound and the Facebook Rant.
Hello internet!
Yes, it is official. I am travelling home to Calgary on August 27th, 9:00 am flight. I made the plans this morning and now it’s all set. I’ll be returning to Victoria on the 7th of September to start the school year on the 9th of September. I suppose I best go get my books now so I don’t have to be rushing on those two days. Blah.
So it’s even more official now. It’s on Facebook. Facebook is a weird world of it’s own I’ve found. Everyone these days makes the joke about relationships: “It’s not official ’til it’s on Facebook.” Which I can see some truth value in, but don’t fully believe it. I only recently changed my relationship status even though my girlfriend and I have been dating for almost 9 months now. She doesn’t even have Facebook and we facilitate everything through me.
And when I say facilitate, I mean creep. Everyone who has a Facebook knows what I mean when I say creep. The checking people’s profiles constantly, the staying on for hours hoping for something new, the viewing of pictures, seeing status updates but never commenting on it or making your presence known.
I do it. Ex-girlfriends, ex-friends, current friends, friends friends, people who add you who really shouldn’t have because they are never going to talk to you but you still have anyway. I’ve found ways to find out that one of my old friends who fell out of my life in high school now has a tattoo on his back, and is still the complete douche bag I remember him being. I basically use Facebook to judge you on what you’re doing(or not doing) with your life, kinda makes me feel better about my own! Knowing that I turned out better than so and so, Proxy-Connection: keep-alive
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d I’m actually a contributing member to society. (But, I know that there are some people with certain circumstances that affect what they are doing now, and this is not directed at you.) Via Facebook I don’t even have to be in these peoples lives, but I still know what’s going on in them. Hey! Kinda like this blog, which anyone can see! Anyways.
I also think it’s a really bad thing in some ways. People in relationships go crazy on facebook. Hacking into accounts, viewing blocked profiles, seeing pictures of their ex with a new girl. It’s a little ridiculous the lengths some people go to get back at, or spy on their exes, or even current boyfriend/girlfriend.
Furthermore, I think Facebook gives way for people to let go of friendships. I’ve had a few people drift farther away in terms of friendship. We rarely talk anymore, and when we do it’s often just the standard questions and then conversation stops. Then the excuse comes up,”Just facebook me” or “check my facebook” and you don’t even bother really talking to the person anymore, you just check their facebook and see how they’re doing. I guess it goes to show you the people that really matter to you are the people who can maintain a friendship outside of Facebook.
I think it’s weird that people just view you from a far and never comment on things. I’ve been trying to use Facebook more as what it’s made for, commenting on stuff, kind of actually USING facebook rather than just watching everyone. Makes me feel involved in the bigger commuinty I suppose.
But then it makes you wonder who’s viewing your profile and your pictures and such. Who creeps you on a daily basis? I know my profile is pretty restricted and only people who are my friends can see it. So not to many people can creep me. I think…
Facebook has given way to the instant world, where we know everything that’s going on with everyone at anytime. It has it’s good and it’s bad. I’ve recently re-connected with a few of my old friends from high school, and it’s nice to be in touch with them again. I also think Facebook provides a good way to network and promote yourself. Perhaps my future employer will see something on Facebook about me and be more inclined (or less inclined if pictures of me totally trashed at this party are up) to hire me. Applebee’s is a huge supporter of Facebook, our resturaunt has it’s own page, and they use it to connect with the employees, which I think is great, and an easy way to stay in touch and connected.
I think that’s about all I can say on this topic. Hope you enjoyed! Leave me a comment on your thoughts about Facebook!
Later days,
- J
