First, some epic nerd awesomeness:

This one isn’t my style musically, but the content is kind of cute/funny:

Cartoon Fun

Semi-resembling Gorillaz nifty style:

War Again – Balkan Beat Box from Paul Griswold on Vimeo.

Fire Ze Missles! New Releases!

HOLY CHEESESTEAKS, BRUCE WILLIS IS IN THE LATEST GORILLAZ VIDEO! Embedding is not allowed, so go watch it here. Actually, the entire new Gorillaz album, Plastic Beach, comes out tomorrow, and is a great listen. Cameos by Snoop Dogg were a bit weird, but they actually fit.

And speaking of releases tomorrow, checkout Broken Bells. As if you haven’t already. Broken Bells is Danger Mouse plus James Mercer, best known for The Shins, and for being my favourite male singer. Well, at least tied with Ben Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie / The Postal Service).

Listen to Broken Bell’s single, “The High Road” below, over and over and over again.

In Closing…

I love sharing music. Let me know if you enjoyed this post. :-)

P.S. There’s a great interview here about the making of this video.

Posted via web from firewallender’s posterous

(Spoiler Warning!)
People say the plot is basically “Trees good! Capitalism wrong!” and there are plenty of right-wingers freaking out about the message, if not for the supposedly anti-corporate one, for the “new agey” religious message. But really, James Cameron is a friggin’ genius. He has cleverly disguised a movie that is at it’s roots totally in love with conservative thought as leftist propaganda. Why do I say this movie is a bastion of conservative thought?

Please consider the following:
1.) The whole movie is about property rights
2.) Everyone has weapons on Pandora
3.) Everyone on Pandora hunts (and does it well)
4.) It’s obvious in this movie that if there is a U.N.-like structure around, it does nothing
5.) The Na’vi culture is uber-religious, mate-for-life types

Okay, I’m mostly joking about many of these points, but seriously when I walked away from this movie I did say to myself, this is all about property rights. Capitalism as an ideal is a trade system where both parties come to mutually agreed upon terms to exchange goods for currency. It must be a win-win situation, by at least some margin, or else one of the parties would refuse the trade. In this system, property rights must be respected. Taking by force is anti-capitalist in it’s nature. How can you have a trade market if people may simply take by force?

This is not to say that there are never those in a capitalist system that use violence and coercion, but it is morally opposed to the capitalist ideal. The whole idea of being civilized grown ups is living in a world where you must work and pay for what you desire, you cannot just take it from others like a schoolyard bully. In this movie, the bad guys were corporate mercenaries who had driven off a moral cliff like a bunch of lemmings – in fact, they were exposed as merely thieves with serious resources. Of course it’s natural that we should come to loathe them in the movie, despite being the human characters, for they are morally corrupt. They stand squarely against the foundations of a capitalist society – that you must trade not take, and that each party must decide what is beneficial for themselves.

Because the evil-doers in this movie happen to be from a corporation, people think it’s leftist propaganda. But what if the mercenaries were still Marines and they were claiming the resources under eminent domain? I would find it intriguing to read those reviews. The problem is not the organization they happen to be working for, it’s the use of force to steal resources from another. It all comes down to property rights.

As of twenty hours ago, Avatar has made $659.6 million for News Corp (yes, that News Corp). Don’t let James Cameron fool you into thinking he’s some sort of anti-capitalist proletarian. His movie just made two very big statements: 1.) no one has the right to disarm you of your property, even if you’re blue, and 2.) I am so rich I swim in money like Scrooge McDuck.

As a side note, if Jake has just jumped on the giant pterodactyl thing towards the beginning of the movie to show the people he was the sixth chosen one who would bring balance to the Force, he could have easily convinced the Smurf tribe to move to Timbuktu, married Pocahontas, and probably negotiated some sort of clean mining process for Fern Gully. Also, the movie would have only been about an hour long and I’d have two hours of my life back. I’m still never seeing Titanic. That is, unless it’s re-released in 3D. ;-)

There’s all sort of little tricks to optimize my strengths and diminish my weaknesses that I’ve put into practice once I’ve figured them out. A lot of these circle around the drain that is my poor memory, for instance I always leave my work badge in the car overnight, so as never to forget it in the morning.

A cute one: the cat always reminds me quite vocally to feed her, every morning and every night. The fish on the other hand does not, and would probably die do to his stubborn quietness, were it not for the fact that I employed a “Self-Hack” regarding feeding him: when the cat gets fed, the fish gets fed. Now the cat essentially reminds me to feed the fish (ironic as she’s probably prefer to have me feed her the fish).

Probably my favourite is that I trick myself into exercising by going swing dancing. It’s basically an aerobics class in disguise.

Lastly for now, I’ve found that it’s easier to get up in the morning if I’m looking forward to seeing a friend, so I’ll often schedule coffee dates before my workday – I end up having a nice time and because I didn’t oversleep I still end up getting into work earlier than I would have otherwise. :-) It’s a win-win situation.

What little “Self-Hacks” do you employ?

Example:
Going to the gym is hard. Being at the gym is fun.

I am such an advanced procrastinator that I can even procrastinate on both the start and the finish of something.

Example:
Start of day: put off going to work
Middle of day: love love love working
End of day: put off leaving work

It occurs to me that really when people say they are a procrastinator, maybe they just don’t like shifting gears when they are in a comfortable spot. Really, I could rewrite my example above and make it read like a script to most days of my life:

I don’t want to get out of bed, I love it here.
I don’t want to leave home, I love it here.
I don’t want to start this project, I love doing this.
I don’t want to start that project, I now love this one.
I don’t want to go to lunch, I’m on a roll.
I don’t want to go back to work, it’s great outside!
I don’t want to leave my desk, I’m on a roll!
I don’t want to go home, I love my friends.
I don’t want to go to bed, I love being at home.
OMG I LOVE MY BED.

While it’s great that I love where I’m at, it’s an ultimately negative focus when I’m seeing only the dread of losing what I have, rather than the joy of moving on to something even better. I’m focused on the opportunity cost rather than the opportunity. I (usually) end up loving the next thing even more, and I need to remember that. If I wasn’t dragging my feet kicking and screaming to the next thing on my agenda, I’d have an easier time being on time as well, or letting go of the day by going to bed at a normal hour. I’d enjoy life more if I didn’t cling to it so.

I’m reminded of a quote from Princess Leia, “The more you tighten your grip… the more star systems will slip through your fingers.”

And on that note, time for me to move on to the next thing… :-)