Now I have a feel for what it's like to be the Earth and have to deal with people building cities on your hide.

I


'm trying to reach some sort of understanding with the anomaly named Maggy that lives on my tailbone. My view is "Okay, I'm unlucky, I got tagged by some little beastie, do your thing, have a fun life, don't destroy your environment (me) too much, and then pass on to your fucking reward." But the anomaly isn't so much like an individual having a romp as it is a city, a thriving metropolis. Now I have a feel for what it's like to be the Earth and have to deal with people building cities on your hide. No doubt my view isn't so different from the Earth's, which is probably something like, "I've been here for almost five billion years. I've had a mild skin infection for the last couple thousand. It's bad, but nothing like gettin' clocked with that rock at the start of the Cenozoic. I'll just go to sleep now and hope it's gone when I awake."

I find my joints and muscles complaining unusually prematurely when I ride my bicycle or carry heavy objects.

Maggy the Anomaly really doesn't bother me all that much. I'm troubled more by my body's reaction to her. That one Chicken Little lymph node in my groin is so distended it's become painful. Sometimes it feels like the waning after effects of someone kicking me in the balls. When I walk, I feel the lymph node bobbing up and down like a poorly positioned Baboose. I've also noticed that, as I fight my little internal immunological battles, my strength is sapped. I find my joints and muscles complaining unusually prematurely when I ride my bicycle or carry heavy objects. This gives me that same spooked uncomfortable feeling that I get when my car is running shitty. But the problem's in my body, so it's worse.
An interesting sidenote on this sort of feeling: Once when I was driving my old Punch Buggy home from Oberlin, the generator had failed, and I was running low on battery power. I wasn't fully aware of this at the time, and as my headlights gradually grew dimmer and dimmer, I convinced myself that this was no big deal, since I was probably only losing my eyesight and that the car was fine. In this case, my body's health was a secondary consideration.
.

W


hen I awoke in the afternoon, I found that the video and sound cards I'd ordered had arrived. So, without even getting fully dressed, I pulled out the screw driver and got busy. Before too long I had an awesome multimedia machine.

The sound card, manufactured by SIIG, has a hardware wave table, and not just so I can give MIDI another chance; I've justified it mainly for its synthesizer potential in future music projects.

I want to reserve this place as a place to escape from the world, or at least a place to deal with the world entirely on my own terms.

The most spectacular improvement, though, was to video. I'd bought the $239 ATI "All in Wonder." Just for the nauseating name, I probably should have bought something else. But for the price, it's an amazing card. It has an integral cable-ready television tuner, it can capture video, it displays smooth full screen video from any of several sources, and it's got RAGE II 3D acceleration. Anyone who has followed my web developments know that video capture is the principle way I get photographs onto my pages. Now I can do all that stuff from the comfort of my own home. I'm a little concerned about the card's "cable ready" features and its ability to blast television onto my MultiSync screen. With that kind of multimedia potential, especially since it comes on top of "free" cable service and a free internet connection, what's the point in ever leaving my room? Another potential problem is that my room could become a social hangout. I want to reserve this place as a place to escape from the world, or at least a place to deal with the world entirely on my own terms.

My newly outfitted computer is by far and away the most powerful machine I have ever used. What's so weird is that it's mine. It didn't even really cost all that much. Of course, it's not the most trendy looking thing you ever saw: the keyboard and case are robust boxy metal things that were probably made more than ten years ago.

One good thing about getting much of my equipment from dumpsters is the fact that that's the only place good keyboards can be found. Typing on modern keyboards, especially Gateway 2000 models, makes me think of chewing on styrofoam.

It's at the point now where it's difficult to see how the graphics could be improved any further.

A


long with my new video board, I got this CD-ROM game called "MECH WARRIOR II." It takes you into this dark and dangerous world where robots hunt each other like wolves. I'm not much into games, since they're an antisocial means of wasting time, but I played it for a little while anyway. I was most impressed with the virtual reality. It's at the point now where it's difficult to see how the graphics could be improved any further. We've come a long way from Pong and Space Invaders. This got me to thinking about the incredible amount of money that has gone into making these games, movies, and other creative projects that require massive group efforts. To make these projects financially viable, they have to have a wide appeal. The solution is usually to appeal to the desires of the average. Economies of scale kick in, and glossy expensive productions can be marketed cheaply. But they're banal, they're exploitative, or they're tacky.

There's a menu called "Fun" and it automates the task of pasting images on various templates to make things like baseball cards, whimsically vainglorious magazine covers, and, most repulsive of all, various greeting cards.

A case in point is MGI PhotoSuite SE, an image editing application designed for Joe Average consumer. The CD came free with my video card. It's no Photoshop, but it's got some good features, and it's free. It takes Joe Average by the hand through the arduous task of cropping, aligning, sizing and altering images. But that's not enough. It also feels the need to come to the aid of Joe's creativity. There's a menu called "Fun" and it automates the task of pasting images on various templates to make things like baseball cards, whimsically vainglorious magazine covers, and, most repulsive of all, various greeting cards.

The thing I like about the Web, at least at this stage, is that it's easy for anyone with something to say to throw together a page and get it up for free. Sure, it takes a little skill to make a page look okay, but even crappy looking pages will get the word out if the word has any value. The ease of HTML makes it possible for a greater diversity of viewpoints. You don't have to appeal to Joe Average anymore, because this is a labour of love. There's no bottom line to meet.

At some point the musician finds himself appealing to some sort of mainstream just to fuel his career.

This is very different from other media forms. For example, to be a musician, the need to compose, practice and record requires so much time that regular employment becomes impossible. At some point the musician finds himself appealing to some sort of mainstream just to fuel his career. It sucks, but it happens. There are only a couple exceptions to this. One is punk rock, where the goal of musical perfection is secondary to the message. The other is low fi, where the equipment and quality of recording is secondary to expression.

---

I


n the evening, Cory the Former Coffee Cart Girl and her youthful housemate, Lanky Ben, came over to invite me to crash Small Wonder's birthday party at Blond House. Small Wonder is that thin little unassuming blond girl named Danielle who befriended various Dynashackians at the beginning of last year; now she lives with the other blonds at Blond House. Evidently she's a Scorpio.

...but that damn lymph node in my groin was acting up.

I told Cory I might come over later, but that was before I ate the pizza. You see, after Cory and Ben left, Deya and I walked down to the JPA Fastmart and Chanello's Pizza to get a six of deep discount "Slugger" beer and a large mushroom pizza. I didn't eat as much as usual, but that damn lymph node in my groin was acting up, and I wasn't feeling particularly social. I disappeared into my room to play with my new toys and eventually fall sleep.

one year ago

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