Muiscal Elitism

No really, it bugs me when there are so many gems on an album that aren't appreciated because they don't get played on the radio.

Goals

Fasting never felt this slow

Mosques

About a week ago, I was walking home from work when I passed a community center. It was early evening, so the lights inside the center were bright enough that I could see into the center. As I walked by, I noticed that there were people inside. They were standing, facing the back wall, and after a little watching, I saw them bowing down. I then realized that the back wall was the east wall, and that I was walking past some people participating in evening prayers.

I slowed my pace. Not because I was afraid or angry or anything like that, but because I wanted to learn more. It was the first time that I had ever really seen any Muslim pray, save for footage on TV or pictures on the Internet. For a moment, I got a really warm, happy feeling in my chest. How great is it that I live in a place where we are free to practice religion so freely? How great is it that just by walking down the street, I could see a part of someone's life that was different from my own, though not wholly new? I realized how lucky I was to live in a country where, if I needed to have a place to worship, I could use a place like a community center to worship as I see fit.

I didn't stop walking. I didn't want to stand there and stare in at people while they were praying, only because I know that I would feel a little strange if someone strolled into the mission during mass and sat next to me with a clipboard and recorder. But what I saw was peaceful. All the people in the community center were praying together. It was just like being in mass, with everyone holding hands and saying the "Our Father" before Communion.

Back in 2001, I was in eighth grade. One Autumn day, in mid October, a girl in my English class started talking about how one of the Muslim families in our home town was celebrating on September 11th. The girl was propagating a rumor that the family had openly celebrated the attacks at the local quick mart they owned.

"That's BS!" I shouted. I knew the family relatively well, and knew that they were good people that were just as American as anyone in town. They had immigrated to the states about 10 years earlier from the Middle East, and were doing very well for themselves and the community. I stood up. "What you're saying is a lie. They would never celebrate the death of others. And they have worked so hard to be here, to be Americans, and this lie could destroy all of that for them. It's not true, don't say it."

I'm not sure what had come over me. Maybe I was just frustrated from all the news I had heard over the last month about September 11th. Maybe I was just irritated from the split that I was seeing between groups of people in my country and in my home, the split between those that wanted some kind of revenge and those that just wanted to mourn. Maybe I was just desperate to change the subject of conversation.

Or maybe I was just acting like a decent human being. Maybe I was acting with love.

When I walked by that community center and saw Muslims praying, it did have an impact on my life. It made me feel like my religion was safe, too. It made me smile.

Apathy

I don't know if you were aware, but there's kind of a huge earthquake that happened yesterday in Haiti. An estimated 100,000 are dead, with hundreds of thousands injured and devastation everywhere. The Parliament has literally collapsed, as well as hospitals, schools, and homes. Basically, every entity that most Americans totally take for granted has been left as rubble.

Today in the University Union and the Rec Center, i watched the news coverage that was coming in. There are horrifying pictures of people that are dead, wounded, mourning, and searching for loved ones. And while I was watching the flickering screens, I was also watching some of my peers. People in the rec center kept doing their workouts, many of them swimming in magazines or gossip instead of watching the news. In the UU, there were some gathered around the televisions but many were meeting with tudy groups or talking about their plans for the weekend.

I guess I can't blame them. Being a student is a lot of hard work. You're constantly learning new things, running around from place to place, and trying to make deadlines, all while trying to maintain your health, social life, and sanity.

I guess I just feel like a lot more attention could be given to the crisis that's at hand. 100,000 people are dead. 100,000. That's 5 times the number of people that go to my school. And the area of devastation is huge, too. I know we've seen huge disasters in the United States in the last decade, but just seems like it's so much bigger. Any help that these people might have to survive is either being flown in from another country or it's already dust.

I know that we're busy and we've got our own problems. We've got a lot of politics going on, and a lot of problems with our economy. We have people without health care and without jobs. We have very needy people right here in the United States. And that may not even include all of the anxieties and challenges we encounter in our own, personal lives. But when 100,000 people die, I feel like the response should be, "What can I do to help?" instead of "*shrug* Wow, that's terrible." I know that there are a lot of people doing what they can to help out, and I'm very thankful for them. But I just wish more people would pause from their daily lives in the US, where everything is actually pretty good, and take a second to help others that really need it, even if they're not in your country. Even if they died in a natural disaster instead of a terror attack. Even if they're poor.

All I ask is that we all take a moment to realize how good we really have it and take our talents and blessings and use them to aid those in dire need.

Things that the Holiday Season Teaches Me

- Despite being told that I have diabetes on both sides of my family, I am able to process TONS of sugar every single day.
- Despite being a pretty nice guy and being relatively cool with most of humanity, I really hate everyone when I'm out shopping. To be fair, they probably hate being there as much as I do.
- Despite stating that I am socially aware and not a typical capitalist, I will jump on bargains for things that were probably made cheaply.
- Despite saying that I don't really need anything for Christmas, OMG I REALLY WANT A NEW COMPUTER OR AN ESPRESSO MACHINE OR SOMETHING ELSE COOL BUT NOT REALLY NECESSARY/ENTIRELY UNNECESSARY.
- Despite liking to travel and drive pretty much anywhere I want to, I don't really like driving in holiday traffic.
- Despite being a pretty nice guy, I get that weird holiday, "if I've hurt anyone I'm super sorry let's be friends" mood going.
- While most Christmas songs are kind of cheesy to begin with, what is the deal with that "Last Christmas" song? It has no reason to be a Christmas song. If you take out "Christmas" and put in any other holiday, you get the same effect. "Last Flag Day, I gave you my heart, but the very next day, you gave it away."
- Despite liking traditions and parallelism in writing, both are sometimes fun to break.

How To Be Awesome: Music

Actually, this should probably be titled "How To Be Cheap." In these times, you've got to prioritize where you get your entertainment and art. I don't know about you, but I can't drop a sack of cash on vinyl all the time, especially when I'm funemployed. (also, Beware: whenever someone uses the phrase "in these times" you can pretty much guarantee that the ensuing argument might be full of crap. I hope that I do not disappoint.) So without any further delay, I bring you...

Ways to get music that are cheap and also not going to get you in a buttload of trouble.

Online Streaming with ads
There are a few different sites out there that stream music to your computer or "mobile device." These sites tend to be favorites if you happen to work anywhere with an internet connection in your immediate vicinity. Basically, if you work at a desk, you'll probably end up using Pandora or Last.fm at some point in your career.

Pandora is pretty spiffy. If you don't know, Pandora queries for a song name or artist, and then finds other songs that are similar to that song or artist. Once you have an account, you can create and save your own "stations" of these artist-driven playlists. You can also "add variety" to the station by linking other artists to it. I've got a "jakethejake radio" station that consists of various artists from various genres (alt rock, singer-songwriter, folk, and techno/electronica) The one downside to Pandora is that if you want to listen for more than 40 hours a month, you'll need to pay for more listening. Bummer.

Last.fm is another great music streaming site (and in my opinion, a little bit stronger than Pandora, for a couple reasons). Like Pandora, you stream music that is paid by ads, and you search for an artists and get a playlist back with similar artists. What's more awesome about Last.fm is that you can install a scrobbler on your computer that will upload info about the music you're listening to in iTunes or on your iPod. Those scrobbles are then added to your profile on Last.fm and can be used to build an online station that essentially mirrors your station on your home computer. If you want to have your whole iTunes library with you, you can essentially get it at any computer if you've scrobbled enough tracks.

Traditional Radio
Yeah, right.

I'm kidding, sort of. The biggest trouble here is finding a station that really seems to get you. Because it's pretty common for a station to play about three songs that you really enjoy and then play about ten minutes straight of advertisements. Sure, that's what makes it free, but you'd think they could get a better ratio of ads and music in there, you know?

Your own iTunes
If you do things right, you can discover new music (and old music) that's right under your nose. In the iTunes Store, you can get up to three free tracks every week (Single of the Week, Discovery Download, and the Single of the Week for iTunes Latino) I've got my GTD task manager set up to remind me to raid the store for free stuff on Tuesdays. It's free, so grab it!

I've also made spiffy Smart Playlists that use playcount and last played info to pull songs together. A lot of people will fill their iTunes libraries with music, but actually don't listen to all of it, which seems awful silly to me.

Using playcounts, you can create some smart playlists that consist entirely of songs that you've never listened to before, so that way you are guaranteed to hear something new every time you click play. You can also set up a playlist of songs that have only been played a few times, so you can find some of your more obscure tracks.

Last Played data is probably the most fun to mess with, since you can create really great "Marathon" playlists. In November 2008, I decided that I shouldn't buy any more music until I had listened to everything in my iTunes library. So I made a smart playlist with the rules to include tracks that had a Last Played date before November 1st, 2008. Enable live updating, and your playlist will grow smaller the longer you listen to different tracks from your library. It took about a month to power through 3200 songs. I'm currently working on a similar feat, but over the summer, so there's less of a rush.

I've also used the Last Played data to make a "Fresh" playlist, where each song in the list has not been played in the last 30 days. This list is limited to 100 tracks, just so it isn't a huge list to manage. While iTunes playlists aren't technically free (you should be paying for your music) you can really make your investment appreciate if you listen to your tracks. A great track for $0.99 that's played 100 times is pretty cheap.

With all of these different options in music, it's likely you'll find a free (or free enough) option that works for you.