ShinyPlasticBag

I'm currently in love with the strangest album I've heard in a long time: “Dean Gray presents American Edit”, a mash-up of Greenday's American Idiot album. It's diverse and fantastic, blending in everything from Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen to Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash, Golddigger by Kanye West to the old Dr. Who theme song — it's amazing.

The story behind it is pretty typical: it was (anonymously) released last November to critical acclaim (by those who noticed), and promptly shut down by the record company. It's pretty sad, because this is exactly the sort of cool thing that's only made possible by the so-called digital music revolution. Instead of harnessing the creative power of all the music fans in the world, the major labels just keep shutting down not-for-profit projects like this one and ignoring the possibilities. The mash-up landscape is pretty bleak nowadays, and I have a lot of respect for anyone who bothers to try a project like this.

In others news, major congratulations are in order for my friend Taylor, whose Podbop project won first prize at Mash Up Camp and made headlines Also, it's Keddy's birthday: wish him a happy 23^rd. Wish him a happy birthday and be happy that Birthday Season '06 is over.

• Written on 23 February 2006 & posted at 05:46 PM.
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It's that time of year again: mid-to-late February (you heard it here first). You know what that means, don't you? That's right, it's birthday season. February 16th is mine and Steve's birthday, and the 23rd is Keddy's. It's very exciting. I'm not sure what exactly I'm doing to ring in the birthdayness, but hopefully it'll be interesting. I'm going skiing on Friday, so I guess that counts.

Aaanyway, I'm busy preparing for the final event in my pre-study-break schoolwork extravaganza — my English midterm. I had my digital media test today (easy, for the most part) and passed in my two programming assignments on Monday and Tuesday. After this, it's smooth sailing for a good two weeks.

So, on that note, I should go. But if anyone has ideas for something fun to do tomorrow, let me know.

• Written on 15 February 2006 & posted at 07:00 PM.
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Bah, I hate midterm season! How many times have I written that sentence? This must be sixth, at least. Fortunately, this is my last midterm crunch ever, but it's still not fun. I've got an assignment due tonight (which I've already passed in) and one due tomorrow (which is almost done), as well as having a midterm each on Wednesday and Thursday. Not very much fun. I figured it was about time to take a break, and thus, the blog entry.

I've recently gotten into The IT Crowd, which has to be the funniest sitcom I've seen in years. It's about two bumbling IT guys and their “Relationship Manager”, who knows nothing whatsoever about IT. It's absolutely hilarious, and even if it wasn't, I'd still love it for all of the subtle in-jokes. I'm watching episode 4, “The Red Door” (which is the most recent episode) and one of the characters is wearing a t-shirt with level 256 of Pac-Man on it. Hilariously nerdy.

The really cool thing about the show is that they're releasing each of the episodes for free on the Internet, a full week before they air. I think this is absolutely brilliant: not only does it get the international audience (ie, me) involved, but it lets each episode build up a buzz before it actually airs. So far, the show has proven to be fantastically popular among alpha geeks — the most recent episode to air is on isohunt with 702 seeds at the moment, which is the highest I've ever seen.

It's really pretty cool. If you haven't seen it, go take a look — even non-geeks will find it funny.

• Written on 13 February 2006 & posted at 04:43 PM.
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I'm trying to find the Sonic Rush soundtrack online (because it's fantastic), but so far, the only thing I've found is a weird YTMND video featuring one of the songs and Jay Sherman, the Critic. The Internet = weird.

This past week has been fun and exciting: we finally got a decent snowstorm that left something fluffy on the ground for more than a few hours. The universities were closed on Wednesday as a result of it, which just left more time for shovelling. However, it started raining on Friday and it hasn't stopped yet, so needless to say, there's not much snow left.

Simon arrived back in town on Thursday for a quick two week vacation. We went out to dinner at Jungle Jim's (horrible service, wicked food) on Friday with Janet and Mom and Joey and caught up on old times, basically deciding that everyone is exactly the same as they were in 2003. Life goes on, and yet we don't seem to change at all. Weird.

In other news, Mom has gone to Sugarloaf for a week of skiing with Mary Ann and various people from work. I'm quite envious, and currently housebound, since she's got the car. Fortunately, my grandmother is letting me borrow her car to get to and from work, but the rest of the time, I'm stuck here. I hate the bus, but I guess I'll have to learn to love it for the next six days

Anyway, I've got some more studying to do, so I should get going. Things to do, code to write, etc. Ciao.

• Written on 05 February 2006 & posted at 09:32 PM.
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