…so watch this at least. Fascinating anthropological study of youtube. The internet is making anthropology a contemporary study.
After you watch that, go watch a video about kittens.
All bloggers should be forced to take a one month break from blogging each year. Seriously, I cannot count the number of, “I’m so fed up with blogging it takes so much time and no one ever comments!” posts I’ve read. A non-negotiable rest would do us all good now and then.
If one blogs, one should be content with themselves being the only reader. One can ask nothing more from the internet.
I’m at the Internet Ministry Conference, which has exceeded all my expectations. Except for the slew of Negative Nancies when it comes to social networking. Seriously, at this point there’s no sense in poo-pooing blogging, facebook or twitter; for lack of a ‘better’ system, they’re here to stay.
You can debate whether or not twitter is worthwhile all you want, but I’ve already made a few friends and had a few discussions using twitter.
Everyone should listen to Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago at least once a month. It’s too good to forget in the sea of other releases.
Great quotation from a book I’m reading by Andy Crouch called Culture-Making:
Human language is so marvelously fruitful, linguists have asserted, that every human being who has acquired a rudimentary facility with language has uttered a completely original sentence: a combination of words that no one else has created. Creativity is not something just for “creatives”—we all have given being to some sentence the world had never heard before, and may never hear again. In all likelihood, unless we are stuck in a dull job and have dull friends, we have done so this very day.
So, I read the Make blog rather obsessively. Recently they posted this video:
MAKE Build: Mechamo Crab & Halloween Hack from make magazine on Vimeo.
which is in itself a cool video, but the music behind it immediately caught my ear. I jumped from there to the artists page and bought the EP, paid using paypal and was downloading it within five minutes, listening within 10.
I’m now a fan of Bell because the internet just works.
Her voice reminds me of Bjork and some of the sounds remind me of The Books. It’s a surprisingly great EP.
Here’s the thing that gets me most about all of this, and it’s rather insignificant given the scope of the economic downturn we’re facing: If I had taken everyone’s advice a year ago and started sinking my money into the stock market I’d be facing massive losses along with everyone else.
I do wonder how many self-help money books are going to have to be rewritten in light of the fact that the stock market is seeming less and less like a good idea about now.
Some marketing that is actually compelling. Watch the whole video at that link.
