2006.03.17
Posted in Music, The Web, This Site at 6:59 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
Well, I’ve finally caved and signed up with last.fm.
There were several motivations for doing this. First, I was tired of iTunes’ utter failure to track the music I play at work. Probably 80% of the music I listen to is in remote iTunes libraries, and the iTunes instance hosting the library does not count these “plays” in its stats. This is really uncool, since part of my eventual goal is to discover what I actually listen to (as oppoosed to what I only believe I listen to). With last.fm, I can track my music usage from all of my iTunes instances, even for tracks that actually reside in remote iTunes instances. Yay!
Second, the (ahem) geeky part of me thought it would be fun (even if it’s cliché) to display the songs I’m listening to on my weblog as I’m playing them. Thanks to a handy little WordPress plugin, doing this with last.fm is easy. And you can see the result at the left of this page.
If it says something boring like “not listening”, it means my life has been music-deprived for the past few hours. Perhaps I’m dead, or merely asleep. Or maybe I’m out having fun instead of sitting at home writing lame weblog posts on a Friday night.
In any case, we’ll have to see how this whole last.fm thing goes after it’s monitored my true listening habits for a week or two.
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2006.03.11
Posted in Short Stories, Writing at 11:17 am by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
Suddenly, I’m awake. The warm confusion of alcohol brushed aside by the cool air. Cool, but not cold; I’m dressed for it.
5 blocks and 22 stories. That’s how far I am from home. There’s a line of cabs waiting outside a bar. Ceili’s. No wait, the cabs are lined up for the bar next door. Last I checked it was 1:30. The bars will be closing soon.
I walk past the theatres. I would have been there earlier, but Dean had car trouble. The show will have to wait.
Now I’m walking past My Apartment. The dance club. It used to be Area 51, and it was Escape before that. At least I think it was. It’s hard to keep track. I wonder if it has changed at all inside.
4 blocks and 22 stories. A man runs past me. He’s talking on his cell phone. Loudly.
“I’m really tired. I’ll be there soon. Stay right where you are, Kate. I love you.”
3 blocks and 22 stories. The man runs up to a young woman, grabs her in a hug. She must be Kate. I hope she’s Kate. She jumps up, wraps her legs around the man. I doubt they realize anyone is around. I’m the only other person on the street.
When he called her, they were only half a block apart. He was speaking so loudly, I’m surprised she couldn’t hear him without the cell phone.
Happily reunited, they stumble into Ceili’s. No, this is the other Ceili’s. The one on 7th. It must almost be last call.
2 blocks and 22 stories. Kate and the man are gone now. I’m alone. The street is empty, but somehow warm and comforting.
I need to urinate. To save time, I cut diagonally across the parking lot. I wave my card at the sensor, but the door won’t unlock. Oh yeah. The sign. This door won’t be unlocked until 5:00. I haven’t come home this late in a while.
22 stories. The front door yields, thankfully. The lights in the elevator are all working. I can’t remember the last time that was true.
There’s a note under my door. “Yearly tenant file update.” Funny, I don’t remember getting a note like this last year. Not that it matters. I’m moving soon.
The warm air in my apartment catches me. I’m suddenly tired again. Goodnight.
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2006.03.10
Posted in Board Games, Music, Politics at 9:47 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
Contrary to what the giant record labels might have you believe, MP3 is not a crime. There’s a surprising amount of music out there that has been released under a Creative Commons license. One need look no further than http://ccmixter.org/ to get started. Yes, these are legal MP3 downloads. Grab them. Remix them. Have fun.
And it’s not just unknown indie artists, either. Have you ever heard of the Beastie Boys? Thievery Corporation? David Byrne? Thought so.
And, there’s also the myriad remixes of The Hand That Feeds by Nine Inch Nails, although they aren’t under a Creative Commons license. It’s an interesting time for intellectual property in general.
This whole Creative Commons thing is actually quite interesting, if you think about it. Not everyone cares about making money off of every single one of their artistic endeavours. For instance, all of my board game designs are under a Creative Commons license. I may eventually publish some of my games elsewhere, but probably not these. I’m just having fun for now.
That said, I’m just a no-name board game designer with no fans and no revenue from my creations. I have immense respect for anyone who chooses to license their stuff under a Creative Commons license, and I hope somebody finds my board game designs fun and / or useful for something. Share and share alike.
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2006.03.07
Posted in Board Games at 6:44 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
Jason and I tried Power Grid for the first time on Sunday.
The primary focus of this first game was on learning the rules and running through a game to make sure we understood them. Though the rules didn’t seem to be organized as well as they could be, we didn’t have too many problems figuring things out once we got moving.
It seems like it will be quite a fun game with a few more players. With only the two of us, there didn’t seem to be quite enough tension for my taste. Maybe it was just because we were being “nice” to each other. Still, for whatever reason, I felt that there was very little I could do to interfere with Jason’s progress, and I had simply to focus on maximizing my own performance. Not quite as satisfying as a game where you can at least feel as though you can somewhat hinder your opponents.
I suspect that playing again with 2 players, things might get a bit more tense since we have a handle on the rules. I can also clearly see that with more than two players, it would get much more tense, and I’m sure I would enjoy it more.
I really liked the auction mechanic. When I first heard about the game, I was a little concerned that you had to bid for turn order (not my favorite mechanic), but the bidding is focused around power plants only.
I also really liked the implementation of the turn order mechanic. There’s actually enough incentive to be in last place (first choice for resources and cities) that you don’t always want to be in the lead, but it also means you have a little less control over getting the power plant you want at the price you want. Several times, I found myself deliberately ensuring that Jason was in first place so I would be able to buy resources more cheaply.
The other side effect is that the turn order ends up favoring the weaker players slightly, which helps keep the game balanced.
It’s definitely a game I would be interested in playing again.
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2006.03.03
Posted in Music at 8:32 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
I’ve been listening to a lot of bastard pop lately, and I’m surprised at the finesse of the people who do this stuff. DJ Earworm‘s I Like the Way Jenny Scrubs and Thriftshop XL‘s Do You Wanna Cuz It’s Tricky are two of my current favorites.
While some of this stuff seems a little more like regular old remixes or beatmixing of several trakcs, some of them are truly amazing examples of how to seamlessly mash together the lyrics of several songs into something resembling a cohesive whole.
For instance, one of the lines in I Like the Way Jenny Scrubs is “I’m still hanging out the passenger side of Jenny from the block’s best friend’s ride.” Genius. Pure genius.
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