“What is that, and why do you wear it?” is the question I plan on getting a lot of. Here is the answer. Now we’ll see who really reads this thing.

This article in Time talks at length about the technological and legal problems reaching the fore with regard to illegally duplicating and distributing television broadcasts. What it does not talk about is why.

Why would I want to spend all day finding a few episodes of Angel: The Series on Morpheus, download them, play them at low quality on a computer monitor, burn them to disk, and share them with friends? Well, that is just what I’ve done. While at home this week I have downloaded most of season 1 and a substantial chunk of season 2. Why? Because I want to watch the show. Because I want to see it from the beginning, and it is not being shown from the beginning. I download Angel for the same reason that I use my TiVo: for the convenience. I don’t want to watch The Daily Show at 11 pm, and I usually miss the repeat in the afternoon. The simple solution is for TiVo to grab it for me, and I can watch it at my leisure.

There is a whole massive industry devoted to giving us entertainment, but what if we don’t want it? I have written previously about my dream cable TV system, wherein I can choose the 10 channels I want and pay for only them. Well, now I say dump that, I want to just see the shows I want, I’ll pay for them, and drop the ads.

If UPN is giving the folks at Buffy $1.6 million per episode, why not just charge $1 each to the 1.6 million viewers? Right now they have, by some estimates, over 4 million, so it seems like a good idea. Of course it is very unlikely that anywhere near that number of people will pay to watch the episode, even if it is commercial free, at least not until micropayments, video-on-demand, and pay-per-play media becomes mainstream. I really don’t see the problem if it does.

I hate the recording industry. I hate the system as it stands, whereby bands have to get signed, get promoted, get radio play, sell a certain number of copies, at a certain price, and get a certain cut. The system itself is flawed. Bands should not need the power of a label behind them. They should be able to independently hire promoters. There should be no cost or risk to putting an album out – it should all be digital, we should be able to pay two cents per play or a buck-fifty a song and keep it forever.

I hate the recording industry, and so I don’t buy albums. And yet, I don’t like pirating and breaking the law. So I try to buy albums direct from the artists. Or I try to support them by paying them directly using MP3.com’s Back the Band feature. Or whatever.

I like to say I have bought a CD, but I don’t like paying full price. I have bought several used CDs in the last year, and now I am wondering why. After all, I am not helping the bands at all. I am really doing them no better than if I were to download their songs from the net.

The fact is, music is intellectual property, and should be treated as such. My opinion on this has really changed as I’ve taken some serious time to think about it, and what I’ve come up with is this: the medium is not the point, the point is the music. Well, duh. So the right of first sale, the ability to resell something you’ve bought, should not apply here, because what you are buying isn’t physical. You are buying a “license.” Now here is where it gets evil, not inherantly, but because licenses can get evil. Microsoft wants to charge us a yearly subscription fee for Windows – that is okay, it is their license. They do not have to grant us perpetual use of their software. I thuroughly believe that. However, once the copyrights and patents expire, their software MUST be open and accessible to all. Furthermore, those copyrights should be set for reasonable limits, which, in the computer field, should be no more than 10 years.

But I get off track. The system needs radical change, and the reason why is because when you produce a work, a non-tangible, information work, you should get paid for eveyr person who uses it. Buying a book used is not the right way to do it, because the author gets nothing. Every time someone wants to read the book, they should have to read it according to the license. They should pay for either a non-revocable lifetime license to read/keep the book, or a pay-per-read. Same with music. Same with movies. The property here is not the physical video tape, it is what is on it. And by giving people the right to first sale, you are hurting the incentive to create that is supposed to be inherant in the copyright system.

The point of the system is to encourage people to create while benefitting the public as a whole. Therefore, patents, copyright, etc. should be as short as possible while fulfilling these two obligations. I think it follows logically, then, that music should get 10 years of copyright, and in exchange, artists get to use whatever contract they want. Let the market decide – if people think the pay-per-play cost is too high, they won’t pay the song, and the cost will go down. If MS makes their Windows only available on a yearly subscription plan, and people don’t like it, they’ll stop buying, and MS will get the message. Does this make sense to no one but me? What am I missing here?

People need to be compensated fairly for their work, and at the same time, their work must be open in such a way that, when it becomes public domain, as it should relatively quickly, it is easily accessible to all. The tool is right here in front of us: the internet, micropayments, open standards. We just need to do it. And don’t count on Congress or the RIAA or the MPAA working towards anything workable any time soon….

I have commented in the past about my quuest to find a spiritual path. I have made it clear, I believe, that I am not looking for the “right” path, but rather the path that is right for me. In fact, I disdain anyone who believes that their spiritual path is the only way.

I found Wicca to be a good starting point because it is a highly decentralized (in terms of authority structure) Earth-centered religion that is based on seeing the energy in all things. Similar to Buddhism and other religions that keep meditation as a central tenant, Wicca calls on the individual to get in touch with his or her own inner spirit and emotions.

Every descriptioin I read of Wicca, however, gives a different account of what it means to believe in the Goddess, to cast spells, to practice “magick.” Today I found a very good overview of the Craft that I find very satisfying.

My chief concerns with Wicca are that:
a) The role of technology and progress within the belief system is unclear to me. Some people who are concerned about nature and life cycles see technology as alienating and destructive, while I do not. I see technology, in fact, as a great unifying force, and as a reflection of the human values put into it by its human creators.
b) The role of extraterrestrial living is not adequately expressed. I have not found any Wicca literature that deals with worship and practice when living on, say, the moon. As the religion is very Earth-centered, it focuses on the “Sabbats,” days of seasonal significance. The same Sabbats do not hold true on, say, Mars. Does Wicca require that believers, who believe in the power of Nature and the Earth, stay here? Because I would like to leave if given the opportunity. How does Wicca deal with other worlds?

Of course this problem exists for all religions. Many of the ancient and modern laws of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, to name the big three, require certain Earth-bound objects, symbols, and events to be recognized. It might be hard to find Mecca, or to bow to it, in the zero-gravity conditions of space. How can you take a day off from work on the Sabbath when there is no Sabbath, there is, in fact, no system of time, of days, of weeks?

The only religious system I have found that relates to what I am interested in and also takes into account some of these views in technopaganism, a belief set that is quite ill-defined and very rare. So I am at a bit of a loss. I can declare myself a Wicca with technopagan tendancies, and practice the Craft as I believe it should be, which would certainly not be untraditional (err…would be perfectly all right and normal), or I can keep searching for what I really am. Or, of course, I could just invent my own belief system. Or follow Bokononism.

Apple has had my iBook for 5 days and, despite the almost-promised 24 to 48 hour turn around, it looks like they haven’t even gotten around to opening the box yet. Grr. I’ve told them to escalate it and ship it to me at home, I hope they get around to it in the next week so that I am not computerless….

Now how do I watch DVDs on my flight home? Oh, the humanity!

This probably doesn’t warrant an entry, but I just found it amusing. Pricing on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 1 DVD set (some of which say they have all 12 eps, some say they have all 24, all of which contain 3 DVDs and all of which, I would think, have the twelve)

Blockbuster: $39.99
Amazon.com: $29.99
Buy.com: $28.88 (Lowest prices on earth, they say, but also on backorder)
Costco: $24.99, and at least the Waltham store has about 10 of them. So why did I listen to Kelson and not buy it? Grr.

I have just posted my final Conspiracy paper in the Essays section. It is a bit lengthy, but I am quite proud of it. The paper, titled From The X-Files To Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Changing Notions of Conspiracy in American Culture, incorporates elements from my journalism, media, and AMST classes. Special thanks go to Prof. Socolow for providing a lot of the inspiration behind some of my information arguments.

Perhaps Buffy’s philosophy is better then Mulder’s.  Perhaps her decision not to let paranoia take over her life results in a more positive living experience.  Mulder is obsessed with the elusive truth, with a truth that, by all indications, cannot be obtained. Buffy’s job is simple.  She finds the bad guy, she kills the bad guy… Sure strange things happen, sure the unexplained may be common place, sure coincidences may seem much too coincidental, but all in all, it’s a pretty good place, and you deal with it as much as you can.  This seems like a pretty balanced worldview.

Read it, you might find it interesting.

This isn’t incredibly fitting after the last few meaningful entries, but I have a few tidbits that need throwing in for posterity.

Music: I am completely enthralled by the wonderful musical stylings of Dashboard Confessional. Thanks, Jess, for lending me that CD. They ROCK! 😉

Readings: I have a LOT of things I need to catch up on, but I’m going to try to get through Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle and possibly Daniel Schorr’s memoir Staying Tuned either on the plane ride home and back or sometime over break.

Summer: I have found a heck of a lot of promising internships. I am meeting with the career counselor lady today, and I really really have made a commitment to get all of my resumes and such out by the end of the week long February break. Possibilities that look appealing so far are Wired Magazine in San Francisco, the Pew Internet and American Life think tank in DC, National Public Radio, also in DC, or one of the film/production/radio/broadcast places in LA, of which there are quite a few, some with better opportunities than others. Of course, there is always the Jay Leno Show, which has 10 or so positions open, but they really are looking for Juniors and Seniors, so… 😉

I hate that I’m even writing this, because non-poetic words can do little to express what I am feeling, and such writings always sound cheesy, but alas, even my reason cannot stop me.

Everyone has yearnings, and dreams, and wishes. Some people are in better positions then others to fulfill them. What really matters is that you find happiness. But sometimes, happiness is a struggle, and happiness is short-lived, and happiness is fleeting.

I am so, so happy, after watching The Prom, that Buffy finally received one night of real happiness. I’m doing the tearing thing and living vicariously through my favorite fictional vampire-battling hero, and I can only hope that we all can experience this time of happiness, and that it lasts long beyond what our heroine was allowed.

We’re not good friends. Most of us never found the time to get to know you. But that doesn’t mean we haven’t noticed you.

We don’t talk about it much, but it’s not secret that Sunnydale High isn’t really like other high schools. A lot of weird stuff happens here. But whenever there was a problem or something creepy happened, you seemed to show up and stop it. Most of the people here have been saved by you. Or helped by you at one time or another.

We’re proud to say that the class of ’99 has the lowest mortality rate of any graduating class in Sunnydale history. (Laughter) And we know that at least part of that is because of you. So the senior class offers it’s thanks and gives you, uh… this. (He hands her a sparkling umbrella trophy) It’s from all of us. And it has written here, Buffy Summers- Class Protector.

– Jonathan, reading from a prepared speech at the Senior Prom (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

Sometimes, recognition is embarrassing. Sometimes, it is just what you need.

13a. It is an easy power to ridicule everything with sarcasm and irony, anyone can do it. It's much harder to give things a chance and try to understand. As smart as you are, there is always something to learn, and, conversely, always something to unlearn. Stop being afraid of everything.

http://www.blindwino.com/splain.html

I’m not ashamed, nor am I proud, of my financial situation. It is what it is. I am proud of my parents and my grandparents and my Aunt Linda for establishing a business from nothing, for working and expanding the business, for treating employees fairly, and for growing that business into a profitable and substantial enterprise.

I am not ashamed, nor am I proud, of my own financial situation. I did little to earn it, but, like any other child of parents, I inherit my parents successes and failures. I inherit the ability to attend a semi-prestigious east-coast school instead of a prestigious west-coast school at half the price. That is my inheritance.

I am not ashamed, nor am I proud, of my current college situation. I was accepted to University of California Berkeley, a prestigious and highly recognized, and also very large and very anonymous, California school. Being a California resident, I receive discounted tuition to any UC or CalState school. The system on which Berkeley works includes credit for classes I have taken over the summer and AP courses I have completed. It is likely that I would get out of Berkeley with my BA degree in three years. The cost would be, all expenses included, approximately US$20,000 a year, for a total of $60,000. Brandeis University is a small suburban school in Waltham, Mass. It is less well-known, it is more unique, it has a similar activist history to Berkeley. Brandeis is private and offers few non-federal, non-need-based scholarships. My time at Brandeis costs approximately US$35,000 a year. I will spend four whole years here, exploring, learning, growing, with a final price tag of about $140,000.

I am ashamed of the price disparity, and here is why. I pay taxes, as does everyone else in California. Those taxes go to support one of the finest systems of higher education in the world. In exchange for this, I am given discounted tuition. I could go to Berkeley instead of Brandeis, and I would end my first phase of college with an extra $80,000 that I wouldn’t otherwise have. Eighty thousand dollars. I have no real concept of what this figure means, except that it is a lot. It is enough to pay for a few years of law school, or a fine motor vehicle, or a good down-payment on a house, or a wonderful contribution to the United Way.

I am ashamed, because to be ashamed means to feel guilt and remorse, and although I have not done anything wrong, these are things I feel. I think these feelings are justified. So now my question is how to deal with them. Not how to forget them, or overcome them, but how to deal with them. Because I have been given great opportunities, better than I probably deserve, and I am still trying to figure out why.

Sorkin latest attempt to bring his show up to the times seems to be his idea that, since lots of people criticize The West Wing for its sexism, they should just throw that into the next episode and make fun of it. Not sure how well that worked for them.

It saddens me to say that I’m getting tired of this show. Ah, well.

Barry Manilow wrote the State Farm theme, “Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there!” Heh.

On my way back from fencing just now I was thinking about meditation and religion in general, which caused my thoughts to wander to ecology, and furthermore to styrafoam(tm). My question to myself was one of degrees. If I am to say that I follow a spiritual path that reveres the earth (not that I am yet saying such, but if I were), would it be bad that I still consume like every other American, using styrafoam cups and plastic boxes and plasticware and plastic bottles? Most all religions do this to some extent — they sacrifice “raw” religious laws in order to adapt to society. God says don’t wear threads of different animals, but people understand that with today’s manufactured products that is a bit tough. For women to lock themselves away for a week every month during menstruation and not touch or see anyone or anything would be to follow the word of God in the JudeoChristianIslamic doctrine, but it would not be convenient. So I use styrafoam.

All of this made me recall a very interesting thought that I read in something of Neal Stephenson, probably The Diamond Age. The meme was basically that as values shift it becomes increasingly difficult for individuals and societies to agree on what is “right,” and without a common moral ground for everyone to be sufficiently outraged, the only real way to criticize is to expose hypocrisy. I might not believe what you’re saying, but you are the one saying it and for you to act differently then you preach is for you to be bad. That makes it a lot easier.

Every individual, no matter how pure, has some hypocrisy in them, and this is unavoidable. My quest is simply to stay pure enough so that I am satisfied. Do as thou wilt shall be the whole of the law. Figure that one out.

…Not Papers

Or so proclaims the banners in our hallways. So I enter the common room because I’d like to ask Kelson about our LGLS assignment. Basically we are trying to take case law circa 1918 and apply it to a modern day terrorism case. Did a security company owe a duty of care to the passengers of a plane onto which a bomb was smuggled? I am finding the cases we are using completely useless in this, because I see a major differentiation between a “service” and a “product” in a contract. Hence the Kelson question asking.

So I enter the common room and am told by Sara as I round the table, “you can’t come this way.” Why not? She is working on her LGLS assignment and doesn’t want me to see the typing on her computer. Why not? Well, probably because she assumes that I will take her ideas at a glance, appropriate them, and use them as my own work. This assumption requires a few others:

1. I am at Brandeis, not to learn, but to get a diploma.
2. I am taking this class, not because I want to do so, but because it is a requirement, and my goal is simply to pass.
3. I will cheat on this easy assignment rather then write my own two page response.
4. I lack basic integrity.

While I admit that I never took COSI 2a seriously, because it was a stupid requirement that I really did not want to take, even in that class I never really cheated, and besides, that is certainly not the norm, and anyone who knows me knows I am interested in the law (hence starting Mock Trial…) and writing. (wow…long run-on there…)

So what makes Sara think that I am going to steal her work? Or is she simply concerned that I might inadvertently catch a glance and be influenced by her superior logic and writing skills to abandon my own ideas and accidentally assimilate hers? I don’t really know, and I’m not sure what made her this paranoid about me, but I do know that it is somewhat startling and upsetting. Ah, well.

A recent article in CounterPunch raises the following intriguing question: who likes Bush? TV tells us that 80% of people like him. Regardless of your political bent, do four of your five friends like Bush, and think he is doing a good job? Hmm…

ARAFAT, SHARON WALK OFF SET OF “ISRAEL”
Temperamental Stars Say They’re Tired of Playing Dogmatic Jerks

“I’m supposed to be the Prime Minister of a country that’s embroiled in this terrible conflict, where diplomacy and tact and wisdom should be important, but you people always have playing this great pompous prat!” Sharon reportedly shouted before throwing his script on the ground and storming off to his trailer.

Please, oh please, read this from SatireWire.

Lots-o-stuff to report. Classes good, Hour of Presence meeting good. I got to talk to Rick Sawyer, Dean of Facilities (I think) about the new dorms, which actually look incredibly cool. The design people there told me that these days its easy to go to reshalls.com or whatever and order a new dorm on the internet for construction in six months, but it will be boring, kinda like the one I’m in right now. This new one is terraced and separated into “communities” and and chock full of “gathering places” &c. In short, it is very well thought out, and I hope to be in the first crop of people living in it! 🙂

Rick also told me that reports to the contrary, the Mods will not be closing down at the completion of this dorm, because they simply don’t have enough beds. Furthermore, it is likely that at least one of the parking lots (T Lot?) will be going in the next decade to make way for more housing, buildings, etc. This means they will be tiering (sp?) another parking lot, making some kind of parking garage thing. So Brandeis is getting big!

DaveW his informed me that, not only do I get a job, I also get back pay for the stuff I’ve already done. Schweet! First, however, I have to fill out some forms and prove to Brandeis once again that I in fact am an upstanding US citizen. Sigh.

About a week ago I put a counter onto AgBlog since I never check the logs and I really have no idea who is visiting. Imagine my surprise when I found that in 8 days or so I had received over 500 hits. Anyway, the counter now displays on the bottom of the page.

Other thoughts: wind is eh. Cold wind is ick.

As of now I can officially say that every entry that can be online is online, meaning everything that I lost and was able to recover thanks to Google, Alexa, and my dad’s browser cache. I lost the comments, but hey, the important part is hearing me speak, right? So anyway, that is that. Now I just have to finish up the navigation,put the darn image map in place on top, and make everything easy to navigate. I’ve also biggened the CSS, so I hope the text is working better for people now. Feel free to use this entry to leave comments on site design and direction. Another important note: I’m backing things up a lot more frequently from now on. I want to discover the wonderful power of the UNIX cron program.

I don’t want to scare anyone off with my crazy new-age practices, but I meditated today and it was quite fulfilling. Plus I have a whole bunch of great new music, which I will list off when I have more time and am not rushing to dinner. Suffice to say, my iPod is full for the first time…cool. 🙂

All of the pagan-bashing Christian fundamentalist propaganda on the net is being served using a computer network named with a technopagan mindset. Sites as varied as Yahoo, the US Military, and my very own AgBlog run using a fun system called httpd, the program name given to Apache, the major web serving system, known as a “HTTP Daemon.” There are demons in the computer!

When people talk of spells and magicks and familiars, I identify with scripts and programs and daemons. In fact, JargonFile calls magic:

1. adj. As yet unexplained, or too complicated to explain; compare automagically and (Arthur C.) Clarke’s Third Law: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
[…]
4. n. The ultimate goal of all engineering & development, elegance in the extreme; from the first corollary to Clarke’s Third Law: “Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced”.

First rule of magickal belief and practice: never take yourself too seriously.