A note on the ads

For some time, I've used Adsense ("Google Ads" in some vernacular) primarily as a simple way of keeping track of the number of visitors to my page. My earnings for the last couple of years sparked sharply over a period of a few months, and then stayed shockingly even. This blog has had 44,932 visitors and made me $28.62, which I will never receive because Google doesn't pay you until you reach $100 in earnings.

Anyway, I've never cared to monetize this blog, and the labor/payoff ratio is low enough that I've decided to just remove the two ads on the side, leaving only the one at the bottom which should stay nicely out of the way while still fulfilling my tracking needs. My previous philosophy was that a couple of unobtrusive ads might make me a few bucks and wouldn't bother anybody else. Now that the first part of that seems like it's never going to happen I might as well bother nobody.

Mstoc site announcement - music reviews, bacon, free happiness for life and more!

This is just a brief announcement that I've become a contributor to music reviews/interviews site Mstoc, a joint project with a good friend of mine that's still more-or-less in its infancy. We're still working out the list of contributors and building a body of content, though I'm actually pretty stoked and I like the initial look of the site (though we'll certainly be making improvements as soon as we have enough work to really showcase). I've completed three reviews so far under my name [Dustin Steinacker] - check it out if you wish, keeping in mind the whole "the site is still in its infancy" thing.

Regular readers may know that I'm something of a music fan. For some time I was a regular contributor to Sputnikmusic.com, an uneven writer who contributed dozens of reviews and was delighted to see them gain hundreds of thousands of hits, often dwarfing the reviews of the staff writers who, I presume, actually got paid for what they did. I even had a lower-key weekly album retrospective on this site which took too much time from my studies and was hence discarded.

I'm pretty excited for this opportunity to work as part of a larger community, doing basically the same thing I was doing but for something quite a bit snazzier, polished and more consistent than throwing music-related blog posts into my usual stream of non sequiturs and populist political ramblings.

Link

Highlights from the Big Book o' Pretentiousness

Some silly art from my 2005 Big Book o' Pretentiousness (click images to enlarge).

This one's "Epoxy Lateralus".


And this little fellow's "Hemogoblin Mounts the Borealis".


I was going to do more, but the Big Book o' Pretentiousness didn't write itself, unfortunately.

Thoughts on movies from an erstwhile movie snob

Why do we have so few movie sequels that really continue a narrative? We're far more likely to see a new group of characters, maybe with a couple of return parts for novelty, go through the motions of the first movie in a series rather than continue the evolution of a character.

The best we can usually hope for is something like Harry Potter, where characters and their interrelationships are developed by being consistently thrust into similar situations over a long period, with enough variation and cinematography flashiness to keep from getting stale. Building up the mythos of a world is what passes for storytelling in a world of focus groups and demographics, and I'll usually stand for it.

But imagine if sequels really took their characters seriously as characters and not props for a plot, for example if Stallone's Rocky Balboa had been permitted to develop the way an individual might rather than getting roped into a series of increasingly unlikely fights for every sequel that rolled around. After all, the story was really about "Hey Adrian!" and the disconnect between being a nice guy and not really knowing what to do (or often being forced to do the wrong thing, for example muscling debtors for a loan shark). Why not pursue what fame adds to the mix rather than ending every flick with a setpiece fight? I mean, other than the fact that even the creators of the film feel that Rocky was a boxing movie.

What happens if James Bond gets fired, loses his access to awesome technology and has to work out a budget? Characters don't really grow unless you change the dynamic under which they're tested, and this doesn't happen if they keep meeting and besting the same challenges over and over.

I don't mean to say that movies don't do this. The Dark Knight took the invulnerable superhero mystique of the first film and destroyed it by making Batman essentially powerless, and, from what I've heard, Babe 2 subverted audiences and market expectations to deliver a truly thought-provoking story (bad move - the movie tanked). And, despite the gaudy horror of the cloying, unwatchable Toy Story 3 trailer, the crew seems genuinely dedicated to closing the "dramatic arc" of sorts of a toy who had been in denial of, and finally comes to grips with, his own mortality (though to be fair they'll probably just introduce a couple of new characters and have another adventure with a few calculatedly somber moments, which is pretty much what we're looking for anyway).

I'm not a snob, and I like most quality sequels even if they don't blaze much new territory (read: the stylish, fun, but mostly unmoving Hellboy II), though I'd like to see some major league sequels really shake up the dynamic of the story and not leave recontextualization to parody comedy shows and webcomics. The whole "reboot" thing (read: a sequel in practice but without the work of having to come up with a completely new plot) is getting old, and sequels that exist only to rehash the plot of the first movie (National Treasure 2: Blah of Blahcrets) are still safely ignorable, so we have plenty of time to turn Hollywood around before the novelty of CGI explosions even comes close to wearing out.

A final caveat: My apology if my points of reference seem to be mainly sci-fi, fantasy and superhero movies. Granted, they comprise the majority of what I watch, but not a controlling one.

Peripheral Experiences and Personal Impression

I think much of our interest in something is determined by what we hear about it. First hearing about a negative experience with, for example, a movie or product is often enough to color our view of the same for good. And many people feel threatened by a negative review or impression of something they enjoy.

I think there's a reason that our consciousness works this way - conformity can be a way of institutionalizing proven, tried methods into our daily lives. But feeling insecure about things you've invested in can also be a way to introduce imbalance and dissatisfaction into life. So I've been training myself to look at things another way.

After realizing that it's more important to enjoy something and be personally satisfied than to stretch out a decision or create unnecessary advance distress, I've tried to twist the way I view what I'll call "peripheral experiences," the way that others discuss and review products and people. After realizing that I was often inclined to give extra credence to a single negative peripheral experience even amidst a sea of general acclaim, I've since tried to rely on "information shortcuts" to determine what I'll like. For example, when trying to decide a movie I'd like to see with a friend, I've found that a single positive review from a critic I respect steers me more reliably in an enjoyable direction than going through excessive research. My mind is thus clearer and I'm less inclined to overanalyze the experience and not enjoy it.

Information shortcuts can consist of anything - the experience of a friend with similar tastes, aggregate reviews, or manufacturer. It's quite similar to the ways that many people vote - if you know that a particular party tends to match many of your opinions, then you have a point of reference for building an image of a particular candidate. Likewise, if you've long been impressed by a particular guitar amp manufacturer and you see a new, affordable model with features that you like, just a little cursory research will be necessary to make a safe purchasing decision.

By choosing simple, reliable methods that tend to steer you in the right directions, you're more able to analyze your own impressions and experiences and enjoy something for its utility, entertainment value or benefit rather than counterproductive, contradicting peripheral experiences.

Forest For the Trees Banners

I've created the following banners for Forest For the Trees, . They're not really intended for use (seeing as they don't even have any HTML), but I think they look pretty nice.

Androgynous Vocals Through Pitch-Shifting

I put together a little video detailing how one of my favorite songs changes entirely when you vary the pitch. Check it out:

The Jibberwooky - Old Poetry Wot I Did Write as a Middle-Schooler

The Jibberwooky:

'Twas blurgid, and sturvy-gig,
And other freakish things,
Goo-goo-ga-choob,
Did gyre and gimble,
In the purple haze,
Excuse me while I kiss the sky.

"Beware the political extremists!"
My father did say
"With their migwist and murping froth!"
Said he: "Watch out for lurking hippies!
Calooh calay, oh snicker-snack!
Hit the road Jack, and don't you come back!"

'Twas zlippish, and fargle-foom,
And zippa-dee-doo-dah-dee,
The jibberwooky didst promise
To leave me alone,
Lest I continue with poetry,
Goo-goo-ga-choob.

No More Warp Zones For Me (Super Mario-themed Tee)

After playing Super Mario: The Lost Levels earlier (gad, what wonderful torment), I decided to put together the t-shirt design you see below and put it up for sale at Zazzle.com. This is business so I'll keep it short.

The image (note that Blogger adds the border - you can click the image to see it full-size):

Aww. . .

It's available in men's tee (choose the size yourself) and lady's tee (again, various sizes available). I put quite a bit of work into this so I hope you enjoy it!

(Feel free to take the image for yourself, though please don't sell it on anything - I made my own warp pipe image in order to avoid using copyrighted material.)

Forest For the Trees Update

Just a reminder that my webcomic Forest For the Trees has been relaunched and is going strong (it's now more popular than this blog, I'm afraid). I had originally decided to move away from simple ideas and puns, but decided that there's more than enough room in the world for both. I've got some fairly epic strips coming up.

Those of you unfamiliar with Forest For the Trees should check out the following strips, which I believe sum up my sense of humor and the sort of thing you can expect: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)

Old Poem: Talon Fallacy

I just found a poem I wrote four years ago in an old journal. I have no idea what I was thinking at the time; I think I was trying to make fun of The Mars Volta but I can't be sure. It's about a suicide if you can't tell (I'm actually kind of proud of myself for being so dark at 18):

Talon Fallacy

Through desperate roar of eagle's beak
She passed on the baton
And in the corner unannounced
There crawled a smoking gun

While panicked whispers ran amok
Split hairs all stood on end
Alluded the accusers to
A list of medicine

As millers stopped their milling
The forensic strike zone closed
In staccato slumber she sleeped on
On every side opposed

Still in the corner of the room
The ember smoldered on
Evidence, estranged, wept as
She armed the second bomb

Pedestrian grief Sheol alights
Her soul down there
For one more night

"Khaaaaaaaaaan!"

Well, I think this image speaks for itself. This immediately stuck out to me because I did the exact same experiment about six months ago and neglected to post about it. Too bad - I could have jumped the gun on these guys.

How Many AAAAs in Khaaaaaaaan? (flickr user Negatendo via BoingBoing)

Related links:

See Spock Run (Children's Primer Idea)
The First Two Pages of the Book

A line I wish I'd included in my Death Magnetic review last month. . .

Ahh, that critic's balancing act of praise and good-natured condemnation, ever the aloof fanboy:

"Death Magnetic isn't so much a comeback for Metallica as it is an apology, an acknowledgement that they've made some mistakes and feel genuinely repentant. It might not be particularly compelling when held up to their best material, but it's a comfort that it exists and that they recorded it. It just might be the best album you never listen to."

Nice Going, Clumpy!

I can't remember who sent me this, but it proves nicely the resourcefulness and hardiness of those bearing my namesake:

They dragged Clumpy from the house and took him on horseback to somewhere a little less public. There they gagged him with the bung from a beer barrel and savagely whipped him. They threw the apparently lifeless body over a hedge, but Clumpy was clearly a man of some stamina. A farm labourer found him, and took him to the Green Man at Tunstall, where a servant recognized the bung with which Clumpy's assailants had gagged him; she had lent it to a man called Tom Tippenham. Clumpy's testimony, and this corroborative evidence earned Tippenham and his accomplice to a 2-year stretch in Ipswich prison.

Mary Worth Awesomeness

I'm not a regular reader of Mary Worth, by any means, but I couldn't help but enjoy the awesomeness in the second panel of the following strip:


I tried several sendups of this line myself, first with a Samuel L. Jackson sort of delivery ("EDUCATECHOSELF!") that didn't really come across in print. I've since revised to the following wonderful image, suitable for framing:

You tell her, Mary.

Metallica Update - IGN Has No Idea What They're Doing

Admittedly, IGN (especially IGN Music) can be laughably bad at times, but maybe no rating at all is better than having no idea just what on Earth you're doing. The following leads me to believe that they've either gotten MiniTrue to step in and change their ratings to the new Metallica album after the fact, or somebody screwed up in a spreadsheet somewhere.

From the sidebar of IGN's review of Decease Electrostatic:


And in the review's conclusion:


Apparently the real rating is 8.1, if IGN's review page is anything to go by. Why do I continue reading IGN? Their URL is easy to type, and reading popular websites run by dumber individuals is good for the ego. DOH, ho ho ho!

NOTE (9/14): This gets even weirder. Apparently this wasn't even a review for the complete album, but just the final track, "My Apocalypse". They've since changed the numerical score on the sidebar and the reviews page to match the one at the bottom, and they've changed every instance on the page (including the page name) from "Death Magnetic" to "My Apocalypse". Remember, these guys are professionals.

Ziggy Liberated Updates Begin Anew!

Well, classes have begun again, and the delays and breaks between classes have given me opportunity to continue Ziggy Liberated once more. It turns out that working on something that separates into easy chunks is the perfect medicine for studying ennui, and helps me get more done.

I've posted a few updates for now, and set a few more to gradually time-release over the next few days, like root beer losing its carbonation, except it's with jokes.

(And, yes, I always have and always will work on things that others like only for wholly selfish reasons.)

Clumpy Wonders: Blank Checks

Why is a signed check with other empty fields called a "blank" check/cheque? Wouldn't a blank check contain no fields at all and thereby be uncashable? Just another mystery.

My Google Ads Don't Know Their Audience

After more than a week of inactivity, I couldn't help but notice the irony of the following ad that had recently appeared on my sidebar:


It seems a tad ironic. I wouldn't say that I have a negative attitude, per se, but this seems intended for me rather than my audience. I would take this as a message directly intended for myself were it not for the fact that I'm forbidden to click on my own ads (or to tell others to do so, which is why I urge you to continue to ignore them).

As long as my own site is tailoring its ads for me, I'd like to see the following someday:

Mr. Bungle's "California" in MS Paint

Well, I haven't posted for awhile (I've had some medical nastiness to work throw - hopefully I'm on the home stretch), but as a quick pre-bedtime morsel I present, in response to an online challenge, my favorite album rendered in MS Paint:


Looks pretty good considering that I only spent about ten minutes on it. (The original album art for comparison.)