My very first play is up on my main website. Please give it a read and let me know what you think. As usual, it can definitely be improved, like anything anybody writes. But for my first play I must admit I’m proud of the results.
Thanks,
T.R.
Huge Porcupine Tree fan here. Definitely in my top-ten favorite bands ever. I’ve been listening to their stuff now for about eight years.
I’m not sure if I’m just not a true enough fan or not, but I always seem to be about a month or two behind on new release news from my favorite bands–not sure why that is. But anyway, I found out this morning that Porcupine Tree has a new album coming out September 14 by Roadrunner Records. You can read about and listen to samples of the new album here.
If you too are a PT fan, make sure to follow them on Twitter for all the latest updates.
My quick opinion of the small teaser sample they’ve got up on the web page sounds both like the PT of old–driving prog-rock with beautiful harmonies and melodies–to something brand new which I can’t really describe but like a lot. Give it a listen and let me know what you think…especially if you’re an old-time PT fan.
Below is a few select songs from their discography. Enjoy.
T.R.
Found this on Gizmodo: “The Seven Types of Employees You Meet at Best Buy”
I worked in the in the home theater department at Best Buy for about 6 months in 2001. It was easily one of the worst experiences of my life. I found myself laughing my ass off on this one because it is absolutely spot on. I’ve personally witnessed all seven stereotypes, both as an employee and as a customer.
Especially this one:
Slick Careerist Manager
This guy wants to go right to the top. He runs team meetings, irons his blue polos, and gets a hard-on when talking about accessory sales and service-plan attach rates. He’s climbing the ladder with everything he’s got, and he spews corporate nonsense with the passion of a true believer. You’ve never seen him have an actual human interaction with someone, and you wonder if he even has any furniture in his apartment. He may be a robot.
One of the guys I worked with was a regular sales associate like me and now, still working in the same store, he’s assistant manager.
On a side note, I love going into Best Buy and shopping for, say, HDTVs, and seeing how much crap the sales associate will pull out of his/her ass. I think I’m pretty knowledgeable in the area of technology and get real enjoyment out of seeing sales people lie directly to my face about how great their products are but how I really need to buy a “service plan” because the product will most likely fail after the limited six-month guarantee.
And I love seeing their complete dissapointment when I don’t opt-in for one of those plans. I sort of get a sense of retribution for my months of bullshit I was forced to endure.
Happy reading.
I found an interesting article written by Ryan Grim today while browsing my morning internets. A letter written by Albert Hoffman—at the ripe old age of 101, no less— to CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs, asking Jobs if he’d be willing to “fund research being proposed by Swiss psychiatrist Peter Gasser.”
Peter Gasser’s work with MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) can be found here.
The article is incredibly fascinating as it talks about the role psychedelics played in the development of personal computing and the Internet and has some interesting facts and quotes. You also get to see the penmanship of Hoffman, which is pretty good for 101.
Here’s some interesting passages:
That Jobs used LSD and values the contribution it made to his thinking is far from unusual in the world of computer technology. Psychedelic drugs have influenced some of America’s foremost computer scientists.
Psychedelic drugs, Markoff argues, pushed the computer and Internet revolutions forward by showing folks that reality can be profoundly altered through unconventional, highly intuitive thinking. Douglas Engelbart is one example of a psychonaut who did just that: he helped invent the mouse. Apple’s Jobs has said that Microsoft’s Bill Gates, would “be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once.” In a 1994 interview with Playboy, however, Gates coyly didn’t deny having dosed as a young man.
“When I’m on LSD and hearing something that’s pure rhythm, it takes me to another world and into anther brain state where I’ve stopped thinking and started knowing,” Kevin Herbert told Wired magazine at a symposium commemorating Hofmann’s one hundredth birthday. Herbert, an early employee of Cisco Systems who successfully banned drug testing of technologists at the company, reportedly “solved his toughest technical problems while tripping to drum solos by the Grateful Dead.”
“It must be changing something about the internal communication in my brain,” said Herbert. “Whatever my inner process is that lets me solve problems, it works differently, or maybe different parts of my brain are used.”
I find it inspiring to know that the ideas of the Internet, computers, and computer software have been highly influenced by the use of psychedelics. It isn’t really surprising, however, but rather just a concrete confirmation that these things really do have an effect on people and a positive effect at that.
