PolarLava::Blog

The article Who really gives a shit about MP3s killing the album? really struck a chord with me.  I care.  I started buying records roughly 35 years ago.  And I've pretty much always listened to them from start to finish as a complete work.  About the only time I really recall playing single tracks was when a good friend of mine would come over and I'd "play DJ" for him as he barked out requests.  And in the car where I only have an AM/FM radio, I listen to random tunes.  But when it comes to serious listening I always have, and hopefully always will listen to full albums from start to finish.

I've made at least a partial transition to MP3's with a portable for while I'm walking, working, etc.  But even then it's loaded with full album which I will listen too from beginning to end.  I just don't know or like it any other way.  So in my mind, vinyl might be dead —although I still have about 300 records myself, the album certainly is not!

This a brief story about Roger Lextrait: The King of Palmyra Island.  I'm sure I could never spend 8 years on an island mostly by myself, but I certainly know I could enjoy several months there.  This is the rare case of a man who actually just followed his dream.  So cool.

(This is another case of toting around a link for ages before reading and commenting it.  Lamer.)

A couple of weeks back I came across a link to We’re downsizing our home on Unclutterer. It the neighborhood arms race of every bigger McMansions, it's nice to read about somebody bucking the trend and downsizing.

Excluding the numerous and relatively small apartments I've lived in, I've had three houses.  And although each has been larger than the previous —950 sq. ft., 1350 sq. ft. and now 1850 sq. ft., the three of them combined don't equal the size of some of the houses being built these days.  Ironically, my first and smallest house (back in Illinois) was and still is my favorite.  It was a 2 bedroom raised ranch on a moderate lot, but it had a 400 sq. ft. deck that ran full length along the backside.  And although I had neighbors on one side, the other side and behind was a 200 acre conservation area that was never to be developed.

My second house was a rather pedestrian 3 bedroom ranch on a decent sized lot.  And my current home is an old (1935) house with a lot of warm oak charm and cold drafts.  Ideally some day I would love to have a house like my first, on the size lot of the second, with the wood charm of the third.  Maybe someday, but for now something that small wouldn't work for us and the kids.  And as time goes by and I do more work on my current house it's harder to see leaving it behind.  But someday I likely will if for no other reason, to escape the suffocating New York state taxes.  But I find it hard to imagine moving into anything much larger that what I already have.  It just encourages you to accumulate more crap and it cost more to heat and maintain.  Thus sign me up for downsizing in the future.

I'm so sick of advertising and the ever increasing need to protect your "brand".  This mini-rant was set off by a Band-Aid ad while I was at the doctor's office this morning.  Surely we all know the old reliable and "cute" Band-Aid song.  But it caught my attention when I learned that "I am stuck on Band-Aid BRAND, because Band-Aid's stuck on me."  Stop.  When the hell did they decide to "update" a piece of my childhood memories by sticking "brand" in there.  Yes, we know Band-Aid is a brand.  But frankly, and sorry for them it a generic term for all "adhesive bandages".  Just as "Kleenex" is a brand, but also just a generic term for "tissue".  See what happens when your advertising is so successful that it become ubiquitous?

From the Twitter Blog comes this very cool and simple explanation of Twitter In Plain English.  Not an original work, but from the apparently pretty cool folks at Common Craft.

If you don't know what Twitter is (because you've been hiding under a rock or something) or you "don't get it", it's worth the the 2-1/2 minutes to watch it.