There she goes
Category: Music

Does anybody else think it's ironic that a christian rock band like Sixpence None the Richer should have a hit that's so obviously a rip off of a Velvet Underground song? 

Granted they didn't write it.  Their version was written and performed first by the La's.  And some say "she" is heroin which just adds to the irony.  What is more shocking to Christians? Is it  "down on her knees again" or "pulsing through my vein"?  

Just listen to the opening chords and the chorus; they are practically identical.  They didn't even change the words very much. Here is Lou Reed singing his song "There she goes again".  In his intro he even credits Marvin Gaye's Hitchhike with the opening chord sequence.   But I don't believe the La's ever gave credit to Lou. As for whose was first, "There She Goes Again" was recorded in 1966, verses "There She Goes" 1988. 

But don't get me wrong, I like both of these versions.  But that's how I think of them, two versions of the same song.  I imagine the La's probably heard Lou Reeds song at one time and the refrain stuck in their head.  In fact, that is what I think they are referring to when they say "racing through my brain".  It was that catchy little tune that was racing through their brain.  And so they wrote their version of the song, couldn't remember any of the original words, just the chorus, so they made up their own words.  Ta da!

8:43 AM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Shunning - an old idea that should be reexamined
Category: News and Politics

The recent incident in Virginia has once again got me thinking about shunning.  The perpetrator apparently made a self promotional video before he went on the rampage.  I think there ought to be a law forbidding the media to pay attention to criminals whose motivation is to be famous for their crimes.  They can report the crimes without naming the criminal.  Blur his/her face.  Publish no personal details.  Lets stop rewarding these people for these unspeakable acts. 

Unspeakable is exactly what such acts against society should be.  It is a well known psychological observation that negative and positive reinforcement are equally adept at encouraging behavior.  To extinguish a behaviour what you need is the absence of any reinforcement.  No book deals.  No biographical documentaries.  No headlines.  If we must examine or report the incident at all all personal references to the perpetrator should be rendered generic. 

We could make it a law.  The shunning law.  As a civilized society we could all make it our civic duty to shun those sick and twisted members who seek fame for violent criminal acts.  Lets turn our heads away.  Lets stop rewarding aberrant behavior.

If not a law, one could make a personal choice to never name the perpetrators.  Refuse to purchase newspapers and magazines that cater to the cult of personality.  Protest and boycott television that sensationalizes the news.

9:55 AM - 8 Comments - 5 Kudos - Add Comment

MySpace manners or
Current mood: bitchy
Category: MySpace

I think that it is high time somebody set out some basic guidelines for manners at MySpace.  It's a darn shame when you have to block somebody because of their poor manners. 
First rule of MySpace.  Don't post anything larger than the space allotted. It's sort of like parking your car in their living room.  If you have to knock down the walls then you shouldn't post it.
Second rule of MySpace.  Look around you before you post anything.  Some people put a lot of effort into giving their space a particular style.  Don't post anything  that's going to clash.  When in doubt just post text. Use your words. That's what language is for. 
Third Rule of MySpace. Questions to consider when posting comments on somebodies page:
1) How well do you know this person?
    a) Are you just in the "How do you do" phase?
    b) Is it somebody you've been conversing with for a while on line?
    c) Is it somebody you know in the real world?
Naturally the rules of conversation change depending upon the degree of intimacy between the parties. But if you've just met somebody at the mall you wouldn't strip down to your undies to say hello, would you?  So why would you post a nearly naked picture on the page of somebody you've just met?  MySpace is like being out in public!  Just because your computer may be in your bedroom doesn't make it private.
If you still want to post nearly naked pictures do it on your own page. MySpace is my space.  If I wanted those kind of pictures on my page I'd put them there.  Now that's just me,  if you go to somebodies page and there they are in their undies, then go for it.  Remember rule 2.

2) Why are you posting a comment?
    a) thanking for accepting your friendship.
    b) something on their page that you want to talk about.
    c) sharing a picture or a joke.
    d) advertising or promoting your own agenda.
    e) well wishes
Well, whatever the reason, if you just stick to the first two rules it will be probably not offend.  But in particular, if your reason is c) or d) it is particularly important not to violate them.  For c) it all depends on how well you know the person. If your joke is crude then you'd better know the person well enough to know whether or not they like crude jokes. For d) if you don't want to see your comment be deleted then you should try really hard not to offend.

3:52 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Critical Thinking

I've seen some crazy bulletins lately.  Maybe that's because I'll let anybody be my friend unless and until they send me porn.  Sometimes it's hard to tell whether it's the truth being posted or just some B.S.. 

For instance just recently I was taken in by the World Can't Wait/ October 5th propaganda.  Turns out there was a hidden agenda that I don't agree with.  If it weren't for the information in yet another bulletin, I would have been out the door with my protest sign. I needed a refresher course in critical thinking.

So I started hunting around on the Internet and I found this little gem of a  website Critical thinking on the web It includes a link to the article I was looking for by James Lett, A Field Guide to Critical Thinking, and many others that you may also find helpful.

So anyway, I thought it would be a friendly gesture to post some guidelines in how to read between the lines. Now granted, it is still possible to be fooled.  I had gone through my usual routines of verifying info on the Internet with the World can't wait and failed to detect the B.S. until it was pointed out to me.

 But it can't hurt.So first of all, be sceptical!  If something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Ask yourself who is this giving me the information and why are they doing it?

Secondly, follow the links.  If I don't know the poster very well then the first thing I do is go to their myspace page and see who they are.  What do they have to say about themselves? Then look at their top friends and see who they are. 

Next up is can I verify this from another source?  A couple of Internet searches on key phrases from the bulletin can be very revealing.  Of course then you may have to start all over again and see if you trust the other sources.

Sometimes the first couple of sources may be innocently repeating a rumour that they have no idea may be false. Snopes.com is an excellent place to go to see if you are dealing with fact or urban legend.

8:24 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

blogging
Category: Blogging

Haven't had much to say here lately.  I've been having a lot of fun at myspace though.  I am now the proud designer of three my spaces.  This one here is my original one.  This ones for me.  In my other two spaces I've adopted the personalities of two dead artists that didn't already have tribute spaces.  For purely selfish reasons, I wanted to add them as friends but they weren't there to add.  So I took it upon myself to create them.  It's been lots of fun.  So I am now Claude Monet and Sulamith Wulfing as well as Katatonia. And of course they are now friends of mine.

9:08 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

why katatonia

What's in a name? Mine is an identity I used in a newsgroup, alt.support.depression, at one time. I wanted to anonymous, because I wanted to be honest about exactly how I felt. The name seemed appropriate to my mood at the time.

It's an unfortunate truth that I suffer from depression, at times extremely debilitating depression. I think it's a chemical thing. At least I am sure that chemicals alleviate the symptoms sometimes. For quite a long time I experimented with various forms of self medication which eventually caused more problems than they solved. Then for an even longer time I suffered without any kind of meds, and I called it sobriety.

These days I take prescribed antidepressants. They worked pretty well for a while and then they slowly stopped working so well. Just recently we've upped the dosage and they seem to be working better again. Anyway I'm less catatonic.

And here I am in a new internet community and once again I find the need to be anonymous. So Katatonia I shall be.

Because it makes me laugh.

5:15 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

cyber folks
Current mood: awake
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

Well, It's amazing the number of famous people who have a space here at my space.  I've been busily inviting all kind of cyber people to be my friends.  I can only assume that many of them are ghosts who have managed to transverse the planes of existence and  hook into the internet.  Or could they be possessing the physical bodies of nameless nerds?  I don't care.  I've invited Socrates and Oscar Wilde and Jane Austen to be my friends (among others). I figure if I'm going to have imaginary friends they might as well be cool ones.

2:15 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

search engines, news and truth.
Current mood: depressed

I've been frustrated with Google lately.  I've been searching for info on the internet for quite a few years now.  In fact I even remember the days before Google. And as time goes by it seems like the search engines have gotten so invested in how to make money that they no longer serve the public interests anymore. 

It used to be the case that when you searched the internet, the search engine would actually search the entire internet and you could turn up all kinds of interesting information.  Now it seems you only find the sites that have done a lot work on (or paid a lot of money for) their "search engine optimization".

For example say I search for a phrase that I know exists on a certain website that I am trying to find.  That's a pretty straightforward search and in the good old days the site I was looking for would turn up within the first couple of pages of possibilities.  These days it's a fifty-fifty chance whether the engine will find the sight at all, never mind near the top.

And why is that, you might wonder?  It's because Google wants sites to pay for those premium spots on the first page so they keep changing their algorithm to make it harder and harder for folks to design their pages to be optimized for search engines placement.  They've now gotten to the point that it is so convoluted that the search engine doesn't do as good a job of searching anymore.

So what's a poor searcher to do?  Well I've taken down my Google toolbar and replaced it with Dogpile.  Dogpile is a meta search engine.  It  gives you combined results from all the major search engines.  But since all of  the major search engines are trying to make money off their service, that doesnt really solve the basic problem.  But it is an improvement.  And now I'm spending some time searching the search engines for a better search engine.  If anybody knows of one, please tell me.

But that's not what I really wanted to blog about today.  Alas, its 2:15 a.m. and I'll have to write about the news and the truth another day.

1:41 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

I owe it all to Cady
Category: MySpace

I've had this space in my space for a while now and only recently did I decide to do anything with it.  I originally got the space so that I could admire my very talented niece's space.  We live 3,000 miles apart and so it's nice to keep in touch.

But as I said before I didn't decorate my space or put any effort into it at all until I heard Cady McClain talking about her space on her blog.  I have a confession to make.  I am a secret soap opera addict.  I'm not proud of it but I can't give it up either.  It's something I do to unwind.  And I like to discuss the show with other soapies.  I don't know too many of these folks in real life but here in cyber land I get into longwinded discussions with them. 

Anyway that's how I found my way to Cady's blog "Confessions of a Mad Soap Star".  Come to find out, she's a really great person, somebody I could be friends with in real life and I enjoy reading her.  So she was talking about her space and I said to myself, I've got one of those too, I should do something with it. And so I did.

3:21 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

To my friends

So far my sister and my niece are my only my space friends. That's ok.  They are pretty special people.  I prefer quality over quantity....

4:09 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment