Category: Blog

Fuck Holidays

Joe: i didn’t do anything for earth day
Joe: except the usual small miracles that make every day a celebration unto itself
John: good
John: fuck holidays
John: I was thinking about that today, and how much I dislike the idea of that
Joe: right, we don’t have to care about the earth any day but today
John: concentrating all this [whatever] for one day of a the year, and then going back to normal afterwards
Joe: i think it’s supposed to be more like new year’s
Joe: where you think about how you can more wisely spend your next year
John: and we all know how well that works out

I had been thinking about the worthlessness of holidays, then Joe chimed in on that, and a little later Dan did too. Good.

Spring Weekend

Kaleidoscope by Bela Fleck and the Flecktones
[audio:http://www.archive.org/download/bfft2006-03-31.flacLev8/bfft2006-03-31d1t02_64kb.mp3]

So this weekend, starting today (or really, yesterday), is spring weekend. Let’s see if I’ll lose faith in humanity. I don’t remember if I did last year, but I probably did.

Other than that, I’ve got a huge paper due a week from today, and with any luck, that’ll get done. It might. Lots of distractions and my laziness stand in the way.

Allergies kicked in today. I mean that as literally as possible. Prior to today, I felt nothing: no runny nose, no itchy eyes. But today – BAM! Allergies. I’m glad that things are finally green again, and stuff is blooming, but my head is not happy.

300

Boys Don’t Cry by Ben Sollee
[audio:http://www.archive.org/download/sollee2007-11-09.ZoomH4.flac16/sollee2007-11-09d1t06_64kb.mp3]

So I want to try something new. This is my three hundredth post on this blog, and its been running for three years ish. I don’t post too regularly, just when I feel like I’ve got something worth saying or remembering. That averages out to about a post every four days. For the next month I’m going to try and do a post every day. I’m almost certain that I won’t have anything worth saying most of those times, but I’m interested in what it’ll be. Who knows, it might be good.

Sponsors

Yes We Can, Can by Animal Liberation Orchestra
[audio:http://www.archive.org/download/alo2006-05-04.flac16/alo2006-05-04d1t07_64kb.mp3]

So apparently today is Earth Day. On Fairfield Way today there were all these folks who set up booths about their environmentally friendly businesses or products, so I went around and talked to a bunch of them to see if they would be interested in helping out the tour.

I went over to some folks proclaiming the wonders of their Green Roofs, and asked them how that would play out on a bus. (For the record: I think I only mentioned a green roof for the bus once, but that idea really caught on, and I kept hearing about it for months. It is probably not going to happen) These folks had some really pretty and impractical green roof solutions. Their stuff is modular, so it comes in these little blocks that you put on your roof. Long story short, there are way too many reasons that this (and really any green roof solution) isn’t worth it (for the bus). I’m putting a deck or something on top.

Next I went over to a UConn professor who is doing work on mass producing biodiesel. Just to clarify for those who don’t know, biodiesel is derived from veggie oil, but through a chemical reaction, is made pure enough to run through an engine without modification. My approach is to just heat the veggie oil to have it reach the necessary viscosity to run through the engine. He isn’t very interested in that, and I’m not very interested in bringing a chemistry lab along on the bus, so odds are we won’t be able to help each other.

Last I went to the solar guy’s tent. I talked to a guy from Sunlight Solar about a potential sponsorship of the tour. He said it would have to go through the dude who owns the company, so I shot off an email. I’m not really expecting much to come from it, but it would be nice. If nothing really happens, there are hundreds of companies who do solar that would be interested in helping us out. We just need to find them.

Festivals

Journeyman by New Monsoon
[audio:http://www.archive.org/download/nm2004-03-13.shnf/newmonsoon20040313d1t3_64kb.mp3]

So it looks like waka gave me the cold shoulder. They’ve emailed the folks who they want to volunteer, and I didn’t get an email. Pretty sure it didn’t get spammed either, so that’s a bummer. I applied again, just in case, but I’m not really expecting anything. It’s weird because I remember last year, a week before the festival they were still looking for people. Guess things picked up. Or they really don’t like me.

So I’ve been looking at other potential festivals. I’ve ruled out Bonnaroo because its huge, and I was there last year, but honestly its still better than a lot of alternatives. The only thing really keeping me away from there is the volunteer deposit they require (so you don’t take your wristband and ditch). I don’t have money, which is why I’m volunteering. Summer Camp requires a deposit as well, and 10,000 Lakes doesn’t even seem to have volunteers. Gathering of the Vibes is close, and is accepting volunteers without a deposit, but the lineup sucks (so far), so I don’t really have a reason to go. All Good is looking like the best option right now, so I’m waiting for them to send out volunteer apps. All Good is the week before Grey Fox, so that would be a solid two weeks of festivals, without stop. Cool.

I’m incredibly bored.

Kick It Open by Moonalice
[audio:http://www.archive.org/download/moonalice2007-06-02.Moonalice2007-06-02.flac/Moonalice2007-06-02d1t04_64kb.mp3]

I’m bored to a point I haven’t been in a long time. It isn’t good. I dunno, maybe that’s not true, but it feels like I’m incredibly bored. I have school work that I could be doing, but it is very little, and only one of those things is actually necessary. I’m doing better in school that I ever have before this semester, and I’m at a point in the semester where I can’t actually screw that up. So school work is out.

I went over my bandwidth yesterday (or the day before, I forget), but that isn’t the reason for my boredom. I’m not so addicted to the internet that one to two days without it renders me useless. I’m almost there, but not quite. No, the real reason for my boredom is the lack of people to hang out with. And even when there are the people, there’s a lack of time. It seems that I’m the only person who has this amount of free time on his hands, so I get to spend most of it alone.

So I think I’m going to start telling stories. I’ve been meaning to do this for a long time, but I’ve never quite gotten around to it, probably because I had better things to do. But I’ve run out of those better things, so its time I got crackin. It’s gonna be weird though, no real rhyme or reason behind the order they’ll be coming out – my memory comes and goes as it wants to, so those stories will as well.

Rhino

Joe: someone told me the other day about their former pet iguana
Joe: who exploded
Joe: the iguana was constipated, so they took it to the vet
Joe: the vet took it in the next room, and came back to report that it had exploded
Joe: if not for the mess, i would have loved to be that vet
John: …I’m trying to wrap my head around that
Joe: don’t try to understand the exploding iguana
Joe: just enjoy the image
John: that’s easier
John: what if it wasn’t the iguana’s fault?
John: what if the vet put it down on something, like a grenade, and then it exploded
Joe: hahaha
Joe: those grenades are necessary for vets to have around
John: sure
Joe: they didn’t make sure that “vet” was short for veterinarian
John: haha
John: I’m told they usually use them for playing fetch with the annoying dogs
Joe: lol
Joe: or to show rhinos who’s boss
Joe: first thing you gotta do when they bring in their pet rhino
Joe: establish dominance
John: that’s where I always go wrong

Video on Flickr?

Consonance by …me, embarrassingly enough
[audio:http://john.paganetti.com/wp-content/uploads/Consonance.mp3]

http://blog.flickr.net/en/2008/04/08/video-on-flickr/

I would be really pumped for this. YouTube / Google Video / whatever other flash video site mostly annoy me. The only one I could ever really see myself using is Blip.tv, but even they are missing some basic things I would want from such a service. I’m almost certain that if Flickr can handle the backend for hosting videos, then they will be the best such service on the web. Their frontend for photos and even general site usage is unparalleled. Looking forward to it.
Update: Video on Flickr! But only 90 seconds? :-/ Guess I’ll stick with Blip

[Carriage] House

Kiss Of Death by Hindu Kush
[audio:http://john.paganetti.com/wp-content/uploads/02%20Kiss%20Of%20Death.mp3]

So it looks like I spoke too soon. Although I didn’t really, we won the bid for the house, and all we had left to do was sign the lease. But two folks dropped out, and with them goes a lot of the fun, and half the rent. We’ve tried to find some last minute replacements, but because its a two year lease, its really only appealing to folks a year or more below me. And even then, its late enough in the semester that most people have made plans. So no house. Instead, I’ll be living in Carriage House, which is closer, but also less awesome. If nothing else, I’ll have the bus with me, for when I need to get away.

21 is a Bust

Please, believe me: the movie is even worse than the title of this post. I was a fool. I did not heed good advice. I even talked to Ned about the movie, and I still went to see it. He warned me about the “Hollywood math”, but the previews and the concept looked so good.

Five minutes in, it was all over. Well, it was really over from the opening line (“Winner, winner, chicken dinner!”) but at about five minutes in we had already (correctly) predicted the ending. Yes, it is that formulaic, and even though the movie is about math that is still a bad thing. It stays entertainingish, with threats like “If I see you in here again, I will break your cheekbone with a small hammer. And then I will kill you.”
Final Warning: Do Not See This Movie.

Side note: about the FeedBurner feed…I guess you do need to change your feed to the new one if you want the del.icio.us links included in it. But you’ll still get posts if you don’t change it, so do what you will.