Monday, December 19, 2005

Does Your Mother Know - ABBA

I was at an improve marathon (Dienasty) a couple years ago and in one scene a couple characters started dancing to this song. I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard. I recently downloaded the whole ABBA gold CD. Surprisingly the university is a great place to download music. Because their wireless network covers most of campus, all you have to do is open iTunes and a dozen or so other people connected to the network with iTunes open shows up under the shared section. You're supposed to only be able to listen to other peoples music, but with a little app known as Ourtunes you can download their music.

I have recently taken to downloading massive amounts of music in the background while taking notes in class. I don't usually give much consideration to the fact that pretty much all the music I own is an illegal copy, but I noticed today that I have about 2500 songs on my computer right now (9.5 days, or about 13gigs). If you measure the value of such a collection by the inflated prices of an actual CD, then I must have several thousand dollars worth of music (which I could fit onto 3 DVDs for a total actual value of 75cents).

I used to just put it out of my mind that I was stealing. I still do to some extent, but I justify it with the fact that I do try and take in at least a few shows a year where my budget and schedule permit. Last year I took in a 3 day music festival in Tennessee (Bonnaroo) and couple months ago I saw Metric at the Starlite room. I know thats not much, but I'm really going to try and take in more. Music is about a million times better experienced live, and I would way rather give my support an artist than a recording company.

The the moral of the story. Downloading music is ok. Just make sure you try and support your favorite artists when you get the chance.

Sunday, December 04, 2005

Consumed

At the beginning of the summer I remember thinking about how I would feel when I went back to school in September. At that time only word could characterize my prediction-- "proud". I would be so proud that, I had travelled by myself, held down a job I didn't particularly like, met the girl of my dreams, bought an iBook, travelled with the girl of my dreams, and the kicker--saved enough to be able to afford to go back to school and move out. After all that I figured it would have set myself free from any restricting thoughts, and that I would have freed myself from any doubts about how ambitious or capable I was.

Lately I feel like I want just too much. I think a lot of it has to do with school, but I just feel like I'm rushing through everything/ Yesterday Lauren and I went and took pictures. When we got home she wanted to go look at the pictures right away (her enthusiasm is cute and infectious), but instead I suggested we get supper and dessert started right away so that we would have enough time to watch a movie afterwards and have me home early enough to get a good nights sleep. I had to this morning.

I know that putting off looking at pictures may not seem like a big deal, but it's really only an example. I just feel like I put off doing the things I'm passionate about because I'm paranoid that the necessary things that I'm not passionate about will never get done. Does that make sense? It doesn't make sense to me, because I never used to be this anal. I need to find ways to be more spontaneous, and accepting of change. I think that we could all use a stronger dose of spontaneity and change in our lives to stop us from falling into routines where no new discorveries about life are made.

Sigh, back to the books and to my pleasure delaying tactics.