Other People's Music

So remember when I used to do a little pod casting? Man, it seems like a lifetime ago. And to be honest since I moved things have not been the same in my life. I spend a whole lot more time outside my apartment working, partying, rehearsing with my band... it's wonderful. There are people in my neighbourhood that I actually want to see. Lots of them.

But my inner geek feels a bit repressed. He is dying to while away an afternoon with nothing to do except tinker an RSS feed or find ideal artwork for podcast chapters.

Therefore the web host has been paid for another year and the various domain names have re-seeded themselves into DNS existence. When I have a few moments to rub together I will get some mixes all gussied up for posting.

Now I just need to get back on my indie nerd game. I sorta lapsed a moving then travelling then doing the whole holiday rush thing. Suddenly it's nearly March. And when you're playing in a band it's hard to really focus on other people's music. It's nice but you wonder how toxic the influence will be. I mean I'd love to just cover Cut Copy or The Decemberists or Animotion or something. But outside of an Open Mic night that would be lame.

I wonder if life will ever suddenly turn golden? I often feel the under utilized potential, like a constant haze that makes every week feel like a transitory period. All the phases of time and place become a gradient rather than a contrast. I guess I want more excitement... more drama. And retrospectively all of which is going on right now IS wonderfully stirring. There are just no dancing elephants or drag queens on stilts.

Verbarius Polyglot [It's a clock]

Verbarius Polyglot, originally uploaded by nfotxn.

"As you can see above, the clock does away with the usual time-telling tools in favor of spelling things out, in five different languages no less. What's more, it changes up its verbiage each time you ask it the time, displaying variations like "forty-five minutes past four," "fifteen minutes to five," "four forty-five", and "a quarter to five." This being Lebedev, of course, they're also taking their time to build up anticipation in the device, with the clock supposedly set to only begin shipping in November. You can get your pre-orders in now, however, with a discount price of $158.25 available to those who order before September 1st, after which it'll set you back about $180."

via boingboing.net

I gotta admit I think the simplicity here is pretty stunning. What I find funny about the art of design and technology these days is that the real progress is in the streamlining and minimization of the impact of devices in our lives. A clock that communicates, when asked, in natural language(s) is pretty interesting. A bit geeky and high-brow but interesting none the less.

It's also stupid expensive and not shipping until November. Oh well!

Havidol

Havidol, originally uploaded by nfotxn.

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