Detachment From The Physical

I won't bury the lede: I'm starting the transition away from physical books.

Starting.  And I'm not sure what the path will look like for a while.  I've been a life-long bookworm, with some of my fondest childhood memories being of trekking back and forth from the various local libraries that my family frequented.  One of the main failings that the city of Brea, where I spent my 6th grade through high school years, is it's sad branch of the OC Library system.  We have more square feet of bookstore in Brea than library.  We've built parks, community centers, and housing tracts without putting money into having a better library with better staffing, hours, and accessibility.  Ok, my library rant isn't the point here.  The point is, books are one of the main lenses through which I view the world.  "I read a book about..." is, I assume, one of the more annoying things I say in conversations.

Since I transitioned to buying books, they've become ... sacred objects.  They're not just something I consume, they've become something that I have emotional ties to.  A book invokes memories of the times I've read it, good times and bad.  A book reminds me of the times I've shared it with others.  My sister reading A Spell For Chameleon.  My brother telling me that he finally read it only after I left it on his pillow.



My sibs tearing through Ender's Game after I pushed it on them.



One of the first books my brother shared with me, The Botany of Desire.

I haven't lived with my mother for years, but I still have tons of books in her garage (sorry Moms, I'm working on it...).

But as I look back, books didn't start out as sacred objects.  I loved L. Frank Baum's Oz series as a kid, but I never owned a copy of any but the first book.  All the others were borrowed (quickly) from the the University Heights library when we lived in the suburbs of Cleveland.  My parents might have been the original music pirates when they (allegedly) borrowed LPs and ripped them to ... Reel to Reel.  In retrospect, I guess we were an audiobook family from way back as well.

These objects add clutter to my life.  That's the bottom line.  I love the content, but I don't need the objects to enjoy the content.  So what's the alternative?  I suppose I could buy eBooks versions of what I own.  But it kind of sucks to buy copies of things I already own in another format.

I guess I let go of my compact disks a few years ago.  My entire collection is mp3 now.  Can I go electronic for everything?  Well, maybe not for everything.  And I do like the experience of reading paper versions.  But FedEx Office will cut the binding off a book for $1.50.  And I own a duplex-scanner with document feeder for easy PDF creation.  And tablets are bound to come down in price.

I've already done this with a few books I own.  The ones I would buy copies of to give away.  Now I send a PDF and ask the person to buy a copy if they feel moved to keep the author employed.  I don't know if this will become a huge thing in my life, but we'll see.

But really, it's not about the technology.  It's about separating the emotions that the object evokes from the object.  Maybe I'll have a separate blog to document memories and emotions tied with books.  Or other object.  Or maybe I'll do that here. :-)

What are the things in your life that you have emotional attachements to?  Is there a way for you to preserve core of the bonds without having the object clutter your life?

Vincent Cassel

Saw Black Swan on New Year's Eve, 2010.  My immediate reaction?

Best insane, self-injury, lesbian, ballet movie ever!

Black Swan Trailer



Yeah, a pretty intense movie.  One that I'll have to think about a bit.  But more important than all the Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis sexuality was the reminder of how big my man-crush on Vincent Cassel is.

Vincent Cassel Capoeira training scene



That dude is awesome.

Resolution

I just had a rip-roaring good time reading through my past blog posts.  But they end abruptly back in March 2010.  I'll have to fix that this year.  Wish me luck!

Wait, What DID You Say?

Was listening to the 22 January 2010 episode of NPR's Planet Money podcast (yes, I'm that far behind in listening to it), and realized I was listening to Imogen Heap's "Hide and Seek"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYIAfiVGluk



Or wait... is it a remix.  A visit to the blog referenced an artist I'd never heard of, Jason Derulo, singing "Whatcha Say."  Say what?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBI3lc18k8Q



New R&B song featuring tons of T-Pain-influenced Auto-Tune and an Imogen Heap sample.  Interesting that I don't like Derulo's use of Auto-Tune but do like the Imogen Heap use?  That's a good question.  After listening to the tracks, I think Derulo used a fairly simple processing that was totally unnecessary.  He seems to have a nice voice, and the stylization that this kind of Auto-Tune effect adds really just hides his voice.  The Imogen Heap use is really just part of an entire package of processing.  After listening carefully, I realized that the lead vocal track is only very subtly processed (except at very specific phrases).  There's actually a harmony track that seems to have been generated by heavily and severely processing the lead track.  That's where all the severe-pitch cutoffs are coming, not on the lead track (the vast majority of the time).  And at times it sounds like there are actually three vocal tracks: mostly unprocessed lead, echo-y effects lead, and heavily processed harmony.

The best part of the Derulo track is the Imogen Heap chorus.  It really stands out.  The re-mixing of that is actually pretty interesting.  It's sped up (and not pitch-corrected) over an interesting rhythm track with some interesting repeats.  I'd much rather have heard the producer remix the original track with some studio singer adding strategic vocals.

By the way, it's obnoxious for the opening non-Imogen Heap lyrics by Jason Derulo to be "Jason Derulo."  Of course, before that, the producer inserted his own name as a vocal.  I just read that it's his signature to do that.  How horrible would Quincy Jones's career have been if he insisted that his name open every track he produced?

Wow, I'm probably over-analyzing this.

Thanks a lot, Friends!

I just wanted to thank all my friends and family who helped me reach
my fundraising goal for the 24 Cancer Dance-A-Thon (starts tomorrow!).
I've just personally met my goal (minutes ago) and see that the total
2010 tally $131K! I know that the fundraising will continue
throughout the event so if you'd still like to donate, please feel
free to do so!

http://www.danceathon.org/participate/?loadbody=mip&mid=686

I'll try to post pictures and stories from the event for you all to
give you a feel for what's going on.

Thanks again!

--John White

Danceathon!

Friends, a quick note to ask you for some help.  I'm participating in the 24 Hour Cancer Dance-A-Thon again this year!  From 11am March 13th to noon March 14th, someone on my team will be continuously on the floor, dancing (relay-style). In the past few years, you all have been so generous in helping me reach my goal of raising money for the City of Hope.  Can I ask for your support again?

I don't need much from any single person (one Friend donated the $4.75 he got from his month's recycling).  Every bit helps, and to emphasize the point, the money goes to fund cancer research at the City of Hope.

The event has raised over $400,000 since it was started in 2005, not including the $80,000 we've already raised this year.  And that money comes in, one $4.75 donation at a time.  Well, it can be more, but you get the picture. *grin*

You can donate at my link here.  If you prefer to send a check, you can make it out to "24 Hour Cancer Dance-a-thon" (put "John White" in the memo field so they know I raised the money) and send it to:

24 Hour Cancer Dance-a-thon
17961 Skypark Circle Suite C
Irvine CA 92614

If you can help me out, thanks!  If not, we'll still be friends with a whole year 'til we raise money together for the 2011 Dance-A-Thon!

10 Days With The Nexus One

I'm frugal.  My old phone, the T-Mobile branded G1 worked ... OK, though it was starting to need frequent charges.  The G1 was the first generation Android operating system phone available domestically (Android is the free phone OS that Google is developing).  The G1 got me to love the Android platform.  Everything is in active development.  At first, I had Google Maps, but after a year I had Google Maps with turn-by-turn Navigation.

And then Google partnered with HTC to create their own branded phone, the Nexus One.  The screen is bigger, brighter, and had multi-touch gestures.  The camera is better and includes and includes an LED flash.  There's better integration with social networking sites.  The battery management is better.  The cradle turns it into a kick-ass alarm clock.

I caved.  10 days later, there's no thought of returning it.  Well, the lack of physical keyboard is a slight downside, but the virtual keyboard is much better than the G1's virtual keyboard.  It's useable.  And I'm experimenting with Swype, which is ... magical.

I have the ability to swap batteries and upgrade the internal flash memory, theoretically giving me the ability to carry 70% of my audio collection.  I haven't done this... yet.

Any way.  It's awesome.  If you want to know whether I think you should buy it, I do.  You should.