Sunday, February 25, 2007

the impetus

My first (in progress) foray into audio eBooks happened to be with The World is Flat by Friedman. Kismet?
I was scanning the eBook non-fic titles on the library's catalog--the general non-fic titles, to be exact (or general)--and this one happened to be the first one from my haphazard list of possibly interesting titles that became available for check out/download. I hadn't heard anything about it prior. I just thought, "Hmm. Globalization. I took that class from Siva about globalization. That was good. This might be good."
[my other slapdash selections? Freakonomics, Running with Scissors, and The Planets (Sobel). I had heard of the first two before.]
I'd just recently broken a loooong hiatus from reading and then this baby fell in my lap. Had it been the physical book, its wallop might have given me some indication of the impact it would have on my outlook. Ok. To be honest, had it been the physical book, I don't know that I'd have walked out of the library with it. It's friggin' 'uge!
Now, without that visual impediment, I'm 3/5 of the way through the book and my two main reactions so far are panic (holy crap!) and validation (is my destiny to be a SAK?).

Stay tuned.

Saturday, February 24, 2007

acoustic jitters

Dig this.
Some fellas (and perhaps fellettes) have developed a digital way to fix speed flaws in old analog recordings. I particularly liked the metaphor: "miniature golf course of...strange effects...."
A lot of wow, I concur. I must admit that I became oddly verklempt when hearing the fixed symphony.
Would that someone had an equivalent to smooth out my wows and flutters. For now, a glass of wine will have to suffice.

Friday, February 23, 2007

the first time that we said hello

...began our last goodbye.

What better way to launch a blog than with a bit o' Whittaker? (for the record: I still say his "Kilgary Mountain/Whiskey in the Jar" puts Metallica's to shame.)

I created this monster about a week ago and it's been haunting me ever since. Ha. And I kept checking back to see what's changed and to marvel at the potential of it. Potential just means you aren't doing anything. So I guess I should start somewhere.
God knows you've all been waiting for this.