Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Save me from myself
Monday, April 14, 2008
Chris Christmas Rodriguez
I am definitely voting for Chris Christmas Rodriguez this Christmas.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Best Firefox Extensions I'm Using
Adblock Plus - There is a funny personal story about this gem. This add-on makes it on nearly all Firefox list out there. I tried it once and didn't feel it did anything worth while so I got rid of it. It wasn't until I deleted it, that I found out how awesome it really is. Adblock Plus gets rid of all those dry, annoying ads on sites, making your browsing that much juicier. It's so subtle that I didn't notice the difference until I deleted it (and immediately reinstalled it).
Chatzilla - I really don't chat on IRC channels much, but when I do I don't want to open up a new program. That is why Chatzilla is awesome. It adds an IRC program straight into Firefox. Pops up into a seperate window so it doesn't effect your browsing too much.
Cooliris Previews - Cooliris Previews allows you to preview links in a "pop-up" within the browser window. It also has this stack feature which lets you save links for future reference/viewing. I use it to cut down on tabs and filter out the crap links.
Video DownloadHelper - Youtube addicts rejoice! Video DownloadHelper rips streaming video and audio even if it is trapped in a flash player. Simple and works.
Fasterfox - I really don't know much about computers. I can only tweak things if a GUI is involved. Which is why Fasterfox is awesome. It speeds up Firefox from the about:config screen automatically for you. It loads Firefox and website faster while also adding a little timer for you on the statusbar letting you know how long it's taking.
Firefly - The newest addition to my browsing experience, Firefly adds a file browsing feature right into Firefox. If you need to pull up any file on your hard drive, do it straight from Firefox. It also lets you play songs and videos automatically, just by hovering your mouse over the icon. I haven't quite gotten the hang of all of the features with this extension. It is quite extensive. :P
Fire Gestures - Honestly, All-in-One Gestures is my preferred choice for mouse gestures in Firefox, but for some reason Fire Gestures works better in Linux. I really don't know why, but it does. For those of you who don't know. mouse gestures let you do simple things like going back, forward, stop loading the page, opening a new tab or going home by holding down the right click button and moving the mouse in a direction. It speeds up your browsing and allows you to remove buttons from the toolbars which in turn opens up screen real estate.
Fox Torrent - I have never been one to go crazy with bit torrents. I have always had other methods for finding files without using a bit torrent app. But there have been times where I needed to download a bit torrent and those times are where Fox Torrent comes in handy. Again, instead of my opening up another program to download a bit torrent, I just open up Fox Torrent, within Firefox. I don't use it often but it never hurts to have.
Gmail Manager - Really simple add-on here. Shows you when you receive an email or how many unread emails you have with a Gmail account. Actually with multiple Gmail accounts. Again, really simple.
Gmarks - I use Google's bookmark feature to save my websites instead saving them on Firefox. This allows me to access all of my bookmarks on other computers. Gmarks puts a drop down menu on the toolbar for easy access to my Google bookmarks.
Googcal - I don't know if I am going to keep this extension much longer. All it does is add a button to the toolbar that links to Google Calendar. I am still up in the air if that feature is worthwhile and time saving or just a waste of resources when booting Firefox.
Google Notebook - I use a lot of utilities provided by Google, obviously with this blog being on blogger. The Google Notebook extension integrates Google notebook into Firefox, letting me add notes by either typing them in or by directly ripping stuff off of sites. You can also add in images or hotlinks.
Google Reader Notifier - Same as Gmail Manager only for Google Reader. I've only just recently started saving RSS feeds and I'm kicking myself for having waited so long. Seriously, to think I used to visit each and every site to stay updated when Google Reader can update me itself. I guess I'm a little slow with the latest intarweb trends.
Hyperwords - Another time saving extension, Hyperwords allows me to interact with plain text. If there is a url that is typed out instead of hotlinked, Hyperwords allows you to treat it like a link by highlighting it and selecting the option from the menu. This video will show all the features of Hyperwords in more detail than my little blog can do. Definitely a must have extension. Better yet a must have feature for all browsers.
ScribeFire - ScribeFire puts a blog publishing tool into Firefox. In fact, I am typing this post from ScribeFire while browsing Wikipedia. It is a pretty in depth text editor with all the features you would get with a word processor (maybe not all, but most) and after you're done typing, it adds your post directly to your blog.
Splash - Splash is another simple add-on. Firefox tends to take a while to load for me because of all my extension. Splash throws a customizable splash screen up for me to look at while waiting. Any image works and you can add your own text. Once again, simple and sweet.
StumbleUpon - I hate this extension. Despise it. Loathe it. And I won't get rid of it. StumbleUpon is responsible for sleepless nights and unproductive days. All it does is add a simple toolbar to Firefox with a simple button that simply brings up random website based on your interest. Simple as the devil trying to steal your soul. I have actually have to count my clicks in order get anything done. "Just 5 more clicks." It never is just 5 more clicks. I am sure that I would have been done with this post sooner if I wasn't stumbling.
Tab Mix Plus - Tab Mix Plus could actually count as two extensions. First it adds a whole bunch of features to Firefox's tabs, such as, a load bar into the tab, changes the color of the text of unread tabs, adds arrows to navigate tabs when there are a lot instead of shrinking the size and more. It also has a session saver/manager that kicks the pants off of the built in session saver feature. Another must have add-on.
Tiny Menu - The name sort of says it. Tiny Menu shrinks the menu toolbar into one drop down menu. This then allows you to move all of the buttons into one toolbar and opens up more screen real estate. I am huge on screen real estate.
Twitterbar - Firefox allows you to post directly to Twitter from the search bar but after you click to post it takes you to the page. Twitterbar lets you post to Twitter from the address bar without taking you to the page. I just like it better than the search bar feature.
And that's it. All the extensions that I love and use. Of course, this list always changes with time so I may do another post in the future but I doubt the list will change much. If anyone knows of any really good add-ons, shoot me a comment.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Really Great Philosophy Lesson
Is Your Jar Full?
Is Your Jar Full?
When things in your life seem almost to much to handle, when 24 hours in a
day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar......and the beer.
A Professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front
of him. When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and
empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then
asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.
So the Professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the
jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas
between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was
full. They agreed it was.
The Professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of
course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar
was full. The students responded with an unanimous "Yes."
The Professor then produced two cans of beer from under the table and
poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty
space between the sand. The students laughed.
"Now," said the Professor, as the laughter subsided, "I want you to
recognize that this jar represents your life.
The golf balls are the important things - your family, your children, your
health, your friends, your favorite passions - things that if everything
else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.
The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house,
your car. The sand is everything else - the small stuff."
"If you put the sand into the jar first", he continued, "there is no room
for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all
your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the
things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are
critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get
medical checkups. Take your partner out to dinner. Play another 18. There
will always be time to clean the house, and fix the disposal. Take care of
the golf balls first, the things that really matter. Set your priorities.
The rest is just sand."
When he had finished, there was a profound silence. Then one of the
students raised her hand and with a puzzled expression, inquired what the
beer represented.
The Professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no
matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of
beers."
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
3 Months In - 2008 So Far
In addition to losing my girlfriend of 2 years (which I don't/won't dwell on) and losing my job (which was a blessing in disguise), I've finally switched to Linux. That is the one and only good change yet. I am using openSUSE 10.3 Gnome DE on a HP Pavilion dv6000. It only has a few bugs but overall is incredibly better than Vista. Fast, simple, safe and endlessly customisable. I will put a post in later about it and hopefully convince some people to make the switch. I gotta go to work so until then, peace
Thursday, December 13, 2007
MP3 Sugar
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Essay About Tool's Album Lateralus for English 101
Lateralus: An Experience
Every generation has had their rock gods. The Beatles, Beach Boys, the Who, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, Black Sabbath all have led the pack with their experimental music, pushing their instruments to the limit. Since coming on to the scene in ’91, Tool has proven themselves as this generation’s rock gods. Like many, I have been an avid listener to Tool since I was ten years old. I first heard their song “Sober” while listening to my home town’s local radio station. Immediately I begged my dad to buy me their album Undertow and I have been worshiping them ever since. Every album since Opiate is an evolution of Tool’s sound and their fourth album, Lateralus, is no different. Lateralus, to be brash, is one of the greatest albums created this side of the psychedelic age, with its poetic lyrics, strong musicianship, and valuing the album as a whole.
Tool is a progressive alternative heavy rock band consisting of four members. Leading the pack on vocals is Maynard James Keenan, with Adam Jones plucking away at the lead guitar, Justin Chancellor providing the bass line with his bass guitar, and Danny Carey finishing the band line up, destroying his drum set with meticulous and powerful beats. Tool is often referred to as an art rock band mostly because of their unique sound that clashes with the “norm.” In 1991, Tom Morello — guitarist for Rage Against the Machine — had two friends, Adam Jones and Danny Carey. The two of them discovered that they shared similar interests and both being relatively new to L.A. decided to “jam” together. Adam Jones, at the time, was working in the movie industry. Here, he met Paul d'Amour who played bass guitar and asked d'Amour to join him and Danny Carey. The three of them would play together often and loudly enough that Adam Jones neighbor, Maynard James Keenan asked if he could join and thus Tool emerged from the L.A. grunge rock scene. In 1995, Paul d'Amour went on to pursue an alternative musical career and formed Lusk. This empty spot in Tool was filled with Justin Chancellor.
In Lateralus, Maynard Keenan has proven himself a poet, writing verses that are strong enough to stand on their own. This can especially be heard in “Parabola”:
Alive, I
This holy reality, in this holy experience. Choosing to be here in
This body. This body holding me. Be my reminder here that I am not alone in
This body, this body holding me, feeling eternal
All this pain is an illusion.
Twirling round with this familiar parable.
Spinning, weaving round each new experience.
Recognize this as a holy gift and celebrate this chance to be alive and breathing.
I can assume that Keenan is reflecting on life and is thankful for life itself. I can also assume that Keenan rejoicing about a love, someone to experience the harshness and beauties of life with. I can hear this in “Parabol” —“Parabola”'s softer spoken sister, who immediately precedes him on the track listing— where Keenan directly speaks to another, We barely remember what came before this precious moment/ Choosing to be here right now. Hold on, stay inside. That is where I believe that though on the surface “Parabol/Parabola” is a song about the beauty of life, deep down it's about love. Two different interpretations that are within one (two) set of lyrics, written beautifully, I don't need the accompanying music to appreciate it. That is just an added luxury.
This trend continues with “The Patient” with its fearful, anguished, imploring attitude. Keenan begins directly with a sense of confusion and annoyance.
A groan of tedium escapes me,
Startling the fearful.
Is this a test? It has to be,
Otherwise I can't go on.
Draining patience, drain vitality.
This paranoid, paralyzed vampire act's a little old.
What kind of test is draining him? Is it physical or psychological? This first stanza hooks me, calling out to me to continue and continue I do. Keenan still claims he's being drained, Giving blood, keeping faith, though he has hope. Hope for what? Keenan seems like he is speaking directly to me when he says, Wait it out/ Gonna wait it out. Wait I do, but really my questions remain unanswered. Keenan concludes quite confusingly,
And if there were no rewards to reap,
No loving embrace to see me through
This tedious path I've chosen here,
I certainly would've walked away by now.
And I still may.
So here I sit with no solid conclusion and questioning what I have just read. I know the answer is here, but where? Then it hits me. On previous albums, Tool have put their heart and soul into their recordings and every time they were met with brief interest from the general public. Keenan's test is both physical and psychological, he is wondering what is in store for him in general with his current career. “The Patient” is quite possibly about Keenan feeling unappreciated for his art, which is peculiar, because despite his self-pity or because of it, he makes more art. Keenan caught my interest with well worded intro to his song, kept my interest and concluded in such a way, it forced me to find what he was saying to begin with. This is where I recognize Keenan's poetic soul, even through the distorted riffs, the throaty growls, the sharp clash and crash of the percussion, crystal clear beauty arises out of the spoken word.
Of course, we cannot state that Lateralus is a work of art based on vocals alone. Accompanying Keenan's phenomenal vocals is even more phenomenal music. Jones and Chancellor definitely give it their all on the first beat. Lateralus begins with “The Grudge” and is a perfect representation of things to come. Jones and Keenan play game of cat and mouse, cop and robber, chasing each other and matching each other evenly. Keenan howls into the mic, Jones tears the strings on his guitar. Keenan soothingly sings sweet verses and Jones meets him with an even smoother melody. Back and forth, to and fro, until everything collapses in a heap. Compare this with Undertow, where each song comes off as structured, intro, apex, conclusion and it makes you think what happened to that band in '93. Throughout Lateralus, every song shows Carey, Jones and Chancellor's talents but no more than the aptly named “Triad”. Keenan is absent in this song. Carey begins with a tribal beat that is consistent throughout the entire song with occasional cymbals thrown in the lot. “Triad” is really where Jones shines as he turns his guitar into a story telling tool, somewhat. He somehow makes his guitar speak for him in sounds that range from an intriguing, inquisitive voice to a grouchy, harsh bark. Unfortunately, my words will never be able to describe the music that Tool can generate correctly. But hopefully, I have come close.
Now Lateralus is not a haphazard collection of good songs but a musical experience, the end product taken into consideration during the whole creation process. Their use of hard, distorted “noise” followed by soft melodic music through out the album, within songs and without, track to track, resembles the album's heartbeat giving it life. Their use of experimental sounds that blend in with the music to create an atmosphere of a dream like scape. Their superb use of audio mixing —the control of pitch and volume of sounds, notes and songs— to blend all of the tracks together to create a cohesive listening experience with no down time and to make sure that at no point does one element of the song, vocals or music, drown the other out. But the coup de grace is Tool's use of mathematics, more specifically the Fibonacci sequence. In 1202, mathematician Leonardo of Pisa (the same Pisa of the leaning tower of Pisa), also known as Fibonacci, wrote out a numerical sequence that states, starting with two values, each number is the sum of the two preceding numbers. The mathematical equation for this is F(n) = F(n – 1) + F(n – 2) but for a more visual example, 1,1,2,3,5,8,13 etc. Danny Carey has an obsession with the occult, specifically sacred shapes and geometry. Combine this with a college education in geometry, science, and metaphysics and an extremely talented drummer and you have a recipe for art.
The first example of the Fibonacci sequence is heard in Lateralus' like titled ninth track “Lateralus”. The song begins with a guitar softly strumming away a melody with a bass slowly building a thundering rhythm. Then the drum set comes crashing in as the soft strumming distorts. Here if you count the drummer's notes you can hear a specific sequence. A snare snap and another followed by snare with cymbal. Then snare, cymbal and tom. Danny Carey plays the Fibonacci sequence on his drum set, going from 1 to 13 and back. Of course this is very obscure and easily missed by the average listener, so Tool went one step further. Maynard Keenan's singing in “Lateralus” is very halting and rough. Looking at the lyrics it goes like this,
Black (pause)
then (pause)
white are (pause)
all I see (pause)
in my infancy. (pause)
red and yellow then came to be, (pause)
reaching out to me. (pause)
lets me see. (pause)
Counting the syllables shows the Fibonacci sequence. This too, continues through out the whole song. There are a few times where the syllable counts jump from one number to another. The current reasoning behind this is that those jumps were a segment to the song that Tool decided not to keep.
As I have said before, Lateralus should be listened to as a whole. Each song blends into the next very well -- so well, in fact, that you would think that the song order cannot be rearranged. An unknown fan discovered that this is not true. He/she started with the thirteenth (a Fibonacci number) and last track and a created a new track listing. The new order takes all the other tracks, pair them up so their sum equals 13, and rearrange them in an erratic spiral, specifically 6,7,5,8,4,9,13,1,12,2,11,3,10. Amazingly, the songs blend together with this new track listing, with a few hiccups here and there.
In the modern music industry, a lot of one hit wonders release pop songs hoping to make a quick buck. More and more, is music seen as a business rather than an art but it is reassuring when a band like Tool releases an album like Lateralus. They keep their fans loyal by caring and creating gorgeous music with disregard for the dollar. And because of this Lateralus will be in my CD player for years.
Works Cited
Erlewine, Stephen T., and Greg Prato. "Billboard Tool Bio." Billboard. 25 Oct. 2007
"Restructuring Lateralus: Tool's Holy Gift." Pete of the Street Sayz. 18 Sept. 2007. 25 Oct. 2007
"Platonic Realms." Math Academy. 25 Oct. 2007
