From the comments in an on Stuff White People Like (a hilarious site whose authors need to stop stalking me!) I happened upon a gaggle of DC bloggers who made me feel fat and provincial.
Finnish - I used to call my Finnish girl “finn-skinned”. She almost cried. The upside is that a Finn chick is a naif in the art of head games, so you’ll never have to deal with her flirting with other guys in a bar just to make you jealous. Finns are introverted. … A Finn girl’s introversion hides a surprising strength of character. She won’t tolerate her man walking all over her. Fiercely loyal and commitment-oriented, Finns make fantastic girlfriends. More than other women, Finns appreciate small gestures like spontaneously buying her a rocket pop from an ice cream truck. Finn girls smell fantastic and look ten years younger than their age.
…I’m not really down with this whole anonymous bad-mouthing of the opposite sex. (I’m not anonymous for one thing.) But that site led me to a whole bunch of other blogs that got me thinking about why assholes are interesting. (Ew.) A thought I quickly banished with pop cultural tripe and life-stuff.
I never obessessed over MySpace. I’ll admit to having had a lurker account; how else could I check out the seemingly endless stream of grainy cell phone pics snapped in bathroom mirrors across America? And, later we did set up a QuadMag MySpace account where I sometimes check in. But I’ve never personalized a MySpace or checked it compulsively. Unlike so many of my peers, the craze missed me.
Which is probably why, when Facebook kept knocking on my e-door, I ended up embracing it with enthusiasm.
Many of my friends are not so eager, even the one who have been (or are) avid MySpace and Friendster users. The early volleys of Facebook marketing didn’t snag me too quickly either, but a few weeks ago I logged on and didn’t immediately log off. I stuck around and somehow ended up channeling a good portion of the energy I have for online activity (outside of work) into that site.
A chance contact with a woman I needed to interview convinced me of the site’s magical possibilities, and by the time a cousin from Finland found me with news of her engagement, I was seriously hooked. Besides, who knew that online Scrabble was so addictive? I was so caught up–adding friends and coworkers and testing new apps–I questioned the need to have a personal blog at all since sites like Facebook seemed so clearly to be setting the pace for personal representation online.
Unlike iTunes, the Amazon mp3 downloads are DRM-free, so you can burn, copy and save to your heart’s content. You do need to install a small bit of software, but it’s a painless, 1-minute process. Then the program manages and organizes your downloads and imports them into iTunes or Windows Media Player, automatically. Very slick.
I don’t think the library is that huge yet, but I will shop there again. Besides the ease, I am really pleased to support Manu Chao.
This was the first video off the album, “Rainin’ in Paradize.”
Recently took in The Century of the Self, about psycho-analysis, advertising, consumerism, mass behavior and how we’re all getting got. The BBC-produced series illustrates how both Freud’s theories and his family members were well in the mix of American public relations, advertising, entertainment and politics before, during and after World War II. It goes on to show how their influences still guide the hand of business in producing consumer-citizens who are “constantly moving happiness machines” (as Herbert Hoover put it) seeking only the fulfillment of personal desire and identity.
Shows like this get me agitated. Thankfully, this level-headed Village Voice review helped me be less hysterical in my thinking. Consumerism is not just a trap, it’s a total head trip. Middle classics like me are conditioned by the powers-that-be to salivate at the site of new consumer goods like the Nokia e90 Communicator. What can I do? Say no to technology? That’s no fun! Meh.
The BBC-produced Century of the Self is available free online, in four hour-long parts.
I’m more of a low-power user than the “power user” she claims it is for, but I appreciate the ease of one-click blog entry! The less time spent cutting, pasting and marking up, the more spent um, working on the tagging system? Life as a blogger shouldn’t be so rough…
Nah but I like WordPress a lot, which is why it runs this site. It’s easier than myspace and waaaay less likely to crash my browser.
Sometimes I tell people I dont have a television and then let them believe that means that I dont watch a lot of television. Cuz people who dont watch television are cool. But this isnt true at all, I do watch television. In fact I watch quite a bit of television, more than I care to admit, but I watch it on my computer, that’s all.
One day I may be ambitious and install a tv tuner on my comp, but even just viewing what is available online is more than enough to keep me happily procrastinating for the rest of my life. And besides, what am I really missing?
Probably the most frustrating thing about online television is that you cant always get anything you want, even tho the prospect of just such a thing hovers tantalizingly close. I look forward to the day when tv shows and movies will be available on (easy) demand, I’ll gladly pay for that, too. But the 2 pay services I’ve tried so far have been disappointing.
It doesnt happen often, but it does happen. I am stricken with a case of tech lust so intense that it makes me a little ashamed. How DO you justify a thousand dollar phone? “I want it” isnt really enough for me to convince myself. But wait, there’s more!
My current phone (the Nokia 6101, one of their first widely-promoted flip phones) has served me honorably the last two years. Wear has worsened it tho; I had to glue a piece back on over the antenna and the paint on the front part is chipped and ugly.
So very different from this new beauty, which should be available in the US any day now (if it isnt already?!). The e90 would be my PDA and camera (both gadgets I need to upgrade) as well as mobile internet and music player. And phone–it’s a phone, too.
M already informed me that I am NOT getting this for my birthday. He said an iPhone is more likely. Not to be ungrateful but, I dont want an iPhone. Nokia no ka oi!
