One down

one to go. I just finished one of the classes that has occupied most of my time over the past three weeks. It was pretty grueling but worth it.

It covered comics and graphic novels in libraries. When I get some more time, I'll post some of the great books we read for class and one's that I read on the side.

Until then, go read Bone. It's simply amazing. It has everything: great art, engaging story and great humor. I read the first volume and the second one should be here tomorrow. There are 9 volumes total, so it's a pretty beefy story. This is probably going to me my “Harry Potter” of graphic novels.

That and Rocketo volume 1. Cecil let me the first issue a while back. During the class I read it to decompress. Wow! Not since Kingdom Come was I blown away by the craftsmanship of a graphic novel. It is going to take every ounce of self-control to not by the monthly Rocketo. Cecil talked me out of buying monthies, so I will just have to “wait for the trade.” Besides the trades generally are a lot nicer looking.

I did read some crap too. Case in point: Sgt. Frog. I've seen this one at BN so I checked it out from the library. It's a bit creepy. I believe that the book is targeted at kids, but there are some pretty racy parts. I'll chalk it up to culture differences. I'm not sure yet if I like manga or not. I'll read a few more before I pass judgment. Heck, I might even read the nest Sgt. Frog book. I have to find out why the hell the mother in the series insists on wearing a latex bikini (honest).

Keep in mind that none of these three books for the course proper. I just picked them up when was between assignments or journal articles.

By the way, thanks for your help Cecil. You were a great resource during this class. It would have been a pain in the ass without you.

And I would be a complete soulless jerk not to mention The Cat's assistance in all my classes. She reads everything I turn in or post. It is a lot of stuff, but I really do appreciate her helping me not sound like a idiot. In contrast, she doesn't edit this blog. Which would probably explain iffy writing. Thanks again The Cat.

The easy way out.

There are two techy-based ways of doing things that people (including myself) think are easier than the original ways: taking a web course (as opposed to face to face classes) and books-on-CD (as opposed to paper).

Everyone thinks web courses are easier since you don’t have to physically sit through class. . . Wrong. It just means that you have to put forth all the effort in organizing yourself, something that is normally done with weekly meetings. Sure you get to do your classes in your time, according to your schedule, but it does take some dedication. If I could, I’d take my library courses face to face. The online ones are great, but no matter how much support, how much chat or how much discussion the class entails you inevitably feel like you are a student body of one.

Or maybe that’s just my natural isolationist policies kicking in.

Yesterday I drove 5 hours to a place, did something for work and drove back. It was a nice trip and worth while. I brought Freakonomics on CD along for the ride. For some reason I thought it would be the easy way to “read” the book. . . Wrong again. It took considerable cognitive load to keep up. They weren’t dishing up very heavy information, but just to follow the story I needed to concentrate. On the open highway that’s fine, but when I needed to think about navigating or when traffic got heavy I found myself pausing it. It wasn’t safe to do both at the same time.

This was my first experience with an audio book and I found it very enjoyable. It was an engaging book and well read by one of the authors so I was glad that I brought it along. If you haven’t read it, it’s worth checking out. The parts about the triple-K (you know who I mean) and sumo wrestling were particularly good.

I will probably give others a try while traveling. I think they will be less of a hassle during air travel. I always spend forever putting books away, taking them out and finding my place again during the dance that is modern air travel.

Enjoy the silence

Today was the first day of the summer semester. I have one class that lasts three weeks and one that lasts five. It might have been a mistake to enroll in two at once in such a short time. So everything is very condensed.

At this point I have no idea how I am going to do all the readings, finish all of the assignments, work and still find time to eat and bathe. We shall see.

If I am good at anything in life it’s being a student. Everything usually falls in to place; sure it can be rushed and hectic, but in the end I can end up with two nice shiny As.

All this to say: my experiment in blogging is the last thing on my mind. See you in early July.

This will roxxors

Mark your calendars for 6/6/06. Why you ask? No, it’s not the day that every goth kid in America will put on extra eyeliner, giggle and say “Dude, it’s the Devil’s day.” (This reminds me, I’ve forgotten to bring perfectly normal brownies to work on April 20th for yet another year.) While that may happen, it’s also is the day that the Nerdcore Hip-Hop compilation CD’s will be released via Bittorrent.

It’s really grown from 10 or so songs to quite a list. While I haven’t heard half of them, there are a few in there that are less than spectacular. Some are needlessly foul or just plain unlistenable. I can only personally vouch for MC Frontalot, MC Hawking and YT Cracker.

I’ve been trying to train a Nerdcore Pandora station but it’s not going well. In case you haven’t used it yet I highly recommend Pandora (my stations are on the sidebar). It’s a free (for now) radio station where you can influence the playlist. You first pick an artist or song that you like. Pandora uses info from Music Genome Project to find songs that are similar to what you selected. Most of the time it does a good job but the more obscure your tastes, the sketchier the results. You can let Pandora know what you think of the song. The more info you give it, the better a picture it has of what you want. You can even create different stations for different types of music.

For example, I was able to establish a pretty good Bossa Nova station by starting with Jobim. Occasionally some easy listening or dippy light jazz creeps, but I just chase it off. Same thing with my White Guy station (it needs better name). I started with Nerf Herder, but I added Weezer to expand the range beyond Everclear or Blink 182. Aside from one Def Leppard song it has been pretty good.

But Nerdcore is a bit harder; I can’t even bring myself to name it “Nerdcore Radio,” for now it will remain “Yo Raps.” I keep getting West Coast rap and other junk. Some of it is old school-ish but other have to much nasty lyrics featuring hoes and such. I hope the compilation CD will help add other artist to the station to define it better.
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OMG! The Dome Walker Robot from Stikfas. My head justa sploded.