I tried out new flash game that I found on the net, a blatantly poor use of my time, but “Bush Shootout” proved to be kind of fun and I needed a break from the essay I haven’t been working on. Jeff Milner = biggest procrastinator ever. My final score: 266847.
Month: February 2004
I read the headlines about Grey Tuesday last week as it approached but I didn’t bother to read what it was all about. I thought it sounded boring.
So today I read all about it and I downloaded a couple of songs from DJ Danger Mouse’s Grey Album this afternoon. While I strongly believe in the principle of Grey Tuesday, that is to say that copyright law needs reform, I have to say the songs themselves didn’t bake my cake. I guess I’m just not into that indie rap stuff. Anyway I do hope the attention that the Grey Album is getting will bring about some common-sense changes to copyright law.
For those of you unfamiliar with the situation, let me catch you up to speed.
DJ Danger Mouse has taken audio tracks from Rapper Jay-Z’s Black Album and remixed them with music from the Beatles White Album. The new album is cleverly titled The Grey Album.
Enter EMI and copyright lawyers. They claimed that he had not asked permission or paid for the rights to use The Beatles music and demanded that he stop selling his record. The DJ agreed to comply with the order and is no longer distributing the record, which was allegedly only intended for the ears of friends.
But the story doesn’t end there. In issuing the order, EMI has unwittingly thrust The Grey Album into the public spotlight, prompting guerilla music lovers to post MP3s on their websites and blogs specifically on, but not limited to, Tuesday February 24th. Considering that only 3,000 copies of The Gray Album were pressed and the fact that it has been banned pretty much guarantees a Holy Grail status among hip-hop fans and serious music collectors alike.
“Grey Tuesday” Civil Disobedience Planned February 24th Against Copyright Cartel
In protest of EMI’s action approximately 170 sites hosted a full copy of the Grey Album on Tuesday, in spite of the fact that many of those sites had received cease and desist letters from EMI’s lawyers.
So how successful did Grey Tuesday turn out to be?
“After a survey of the sites that hosted files during Grey Tuesday, and an analysis of filesharing activity on that day, we can confidently report that the Grey Album was the number one album in the US on February 24 by a large margin. Danger Mouse moved more “units” than Norah Jones and Kanye West, with well over 100,000 copies downloaded. That’s more than 1 million digital tracks.”
I think that’s pretty cool.
Think About This
The next time you do anything in life – have the Death Clock ticking away on your screen and it will help you realize that maybe what you are doing is not the most efficient use of your time. It’s actually pretty freaky to have this thing staring back at you.
My Personal Day of Death is… Sunday, December 22, 2052. I told Anna-Maria, my girlfriend, about this and her immediate response was, “You better NOT die right before Christmas.” I’ll try and hold on for the extra three days, but I’m pretty sure the death clock does not lie.
Pixar Short
I’m guessing this short film Tin Toy will be featured at the beginning of one of the next two new Pixar movies (either The Incredibles or The Cars). But why wait, check it out now – it appears to be a test piece for Toy Story and it’s actually quite brilliant.
Production Management
Quote / Unquote:
“Is it art or FedEx? Because only FedEx delivers the mail.”
My Production Management professor speaks in metaphors and riddles. Anyway the game menu I created for that class now links to the beta version of the game. Your results may vary. At the present there is no reset control so if you tip your car over or find yourself falling endlessly outside of the map, you’ll have to hit refresh (F5 on most popular browsers) to start the game over.
Update: The class is over and the link has been taken down.
3D Car Race Game Menu
Here is a link to the flash menu of a new 3D game that I am helping to make in my production management class. The big green rotating guy that used to be there has been updated with a rotating jeep from the game. I’m also going to try and put in a three-dimensional map of Lethbridge in the map section. What do you think?
Update: The class is over and the link has been removed.
Spelling Update
The word “definitely” is spelled d-e-f-i-n-i-t-e-l-y. NOT defanatly or defenetly. Definite and ly = Definitely
Thank-you.
Lose Vs. Loose
This problem is widespread and so I’d like you to just take a moment while I explain something.
It’s SPELLED L-O-S-E not L-O-O-S-E.
lose
v., lost (lôst, lŏst) los•ing, los•es.
To be unsuccessful in retaining possession of; mislay: He’s always losing his car keys.
To be deprived of (something one has had): lost her art collection in the fire; lost her job.
To be left alone or desolate because of the death of: lost his wife.
To be unable to keep alive: a doctor who has lost very few patients.
To be unable to keep control or allegiance of: lost his temper at the meeting; is losing supporters by changing his mind.
To fail to win; fail in: lost the game; lost the court case.
To fail to use or take advantage of: Don’t lose a chance to improve your position.
To fail to hear, see, or understand: We lost the plane in the fog. I lost her when she started speaking about thermodynamics.
Loose is something completely different.
Thank-you.
Maid Queen Vs. May Queen
A couple have people have written the same basic message:
Just to let you know the correct lyric [in Stairway to Heaven] is ‘just a spring clean for the maid queen’ not may queen.
Actually folks, it is may queen, but if you looked up the lyrics before emailing me, you’d already know that. What is a maid queen anyway? I bet if I had one my house would be spotless.
Stairway to Heaven with a Vengence
I received an email from somebody named Christian who pointed out this interesting Stairway to Heaven interpretation: http://reversespeech.com/framestairway.shtml.