Just a quick post to let you know what's going on with these odd-numbered posts. I'm pretty sure they're easy enough to decipher. The first set of numbers refers to the current year in this blogging "project". The next set of numbers corresponds to the specific post within that year. And the last set of numbers corresponds to the maximum amount of posts within a year. So today's post is within the first year (001.), and it's the ninth post (.009) of that year (.365).
I decided to title every third post on this blog using this unique system. Every third post because the number three is a very significant number in my personal universe. And like everything I mention off-hand in these posts, I'll make sure to speak of that at a later time. ;) I'm thinking these numerical posts will be pretty much fluff posts. Nothing too exciting or meaningful. Just quick updates. Especially since I've no proper title to use for the main body of the blog. I'd like to talk about something else tonight... but I'd like to make any posts with more substance using an actual title.
Anyway, just explaining the method behind the madness. Everything is all about setting up the board, getting the pieces in place. Thought you should be in the know. ;)
DS333, planning.
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Friday, June 29, 2007
Food Whore
I love food. I really love food. I think lives can be tracked back and marked in many different ways. For instance, one could hear a certain song and remember the exact moment they first heard it. You can recall the time, the emotion, etc. about that moment. I've done it many times, and you can do it with food. It's so much more than what it is on the surface. It's more than just food. It's an experience. And I love experience. And as far as experiences go food is one of the most amorphous and multifaceted. There's so much to enjoy and delve into. The sight, scent, taste and sometimes sound. It's all great.
Right now I'm about to delve into a delicious hulking piece of strawberry pie from Marie Callenders. It's waiting right now... for me... inches away. And for that reason I'm making this a short one. Just a tiny post in praise of one of life's little pleasures. :D Enjoy.
DS333, salivating.
Right now I'm about to delve into a delicious hulking piece of strawberry pie from Marie Callenders. It's waiting right now... for me... inches away. And for that reason I'm making this a short one. Just a tiny post in praise of one of life's little pleasures. :D Enjoy.
DS333, salivating.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Media Consumption
I'm feeling pretty good about more or less feeling caught up with a lot of the things I love to busy myself with. At the moment, I'm specifically speaking of podcasts and radioshows. I performed a re-install of my entire system sometime back near Memorial Day Weekend and was at a virtual standstill when it came to downloading these shows and listening to them. When I was getting back on track I intially subscribed to my must-watch/listen podcasts to ease into things. Now I've just about caught up and I added some more feeds into iTunes. I didn't think I'd get back to normal, since I go through a shitload of content. I'll give you a rundown of my favorite podcasts some other time. Unlike most people though, I listen to each and every show no matter what. I dont' know what's more sad, that I have to time to do so... or that I use that time to do so. :P
One front I'm horribly behind on is my Analog Paper Media, i.e. books and magazines. I subscribe to only one magazine, "GQ" (Gentlemen's Quarterly), but like my podcasts I make it a point to consume every aspect of that media. I have to read each issue cover to cover, every article and every ad. I forgot how I got behind in the first place. I think it was a trip to Arizona and I just kinda stopped. Oh wait, I actually remember now, but I don't wanna get into it. :P I just stopped. And getting started again is a bit daunting. I've A LOT to read now. Much to catch up on. I'm exactly one year behind on my reading, I've still got to finish up the June 2006 issue with Christina Aguilera on the cover. And I just got another issue a few days ago, I think the July 2007 issue. It's going to take a while.
As far as books go, well that's not doing so hot either. My usual plan of attack... or what used to be my usual plan of attack was to finish up the current issue of GQ for the month as quickly as possible (usually mid month) and then use the rest of my time catching up any reading I had for the current book in my queue. Last year I was making my way through a collection of books by my favorite author and world renowned mythologist, Joseph Campbell. I finished up with the last book I had on hand at the time, "Sake & Satori: Asian Journals"... and hadn't yet picked up the next book in the series ("Myths Of Light") so I got underway with my Edgar Allan Poe Collected Works book. But since that trip or whatever it was a year ago, I just stalled. So now I'm attempting to catch up with my Analog Paper Media, which should be quite a feat. In keeping with my peculiar procedure I'll need to catch up on every GQ magazine before I can tackle my Poe Collection. I don't know exactly when that'll be... but I plan to make a concerted effort sometime this month.
I only mention this because I'm planning on piling up my APM pile some more. I figure I have something in the Magazine category, and something in the Book category... but as much of a geek as I think I am, I've yet to have a Comic Book category. I'm looking to remedy that situation by buying something I should've had long ago, the "Ghost In The Shell" manga. Granted it's not technically a "comic book", but it's close enough. And I'm not about to squabble over the definitions of things like comic books, manga and graphic novels. I just have a need to read something physical, and my OCD doesn't permit me to read anything new as far as magazines or books are concerned so I thought I'd throw comics into the mix to circumvent my own wicked rules. And "Ghost In The Shell", the anime, has been one of the greatest sources of inspiration and provocation in my life. Reading this "book" has been a long time coming, almost destined. I'm very excited. It's going to be a treasure trove of philosphical pondering.
Now kitties, it's time for sleep. Time for consumption of another kind. G'day! ;)
DS333, digesting.
One front I'm horribly behind on is my Analog Paper Media, i.e. books and magazines. I subscribe to only one magazine, "GQ" (Gentlemen's Quarterly), but like my podcasts I make it a point to consume every aspect of that media. I have to read each issue cover to cover, every article and every ad. I forgot how I got behind in the first place. I think it was a trip to Arizona and I just kinda stopped. Oh wait, I actually remember now, but I don't wanna get into it. :P I just stopped. And getting started again is a bit daunting. I've A LOT to read now. Much to catch up on. I'm exactly one year behind on my reading, I've still got to finish up the June 2006 issue with Christina Aguilera on the cover. And I just got another issue a few days ago, I think the July 2007 issue. It's going to take a while.
As far as books go, well that's not doing so hot either. My usual plan of attack... or what used to be my usual plan of attack was to finish up the current issue of GQ for the month as quickly as possible (usually mid month) and then use the rest of my time catching up any reading I had for the current book in my queue. Last year I was making my way through a collection of books by my favorite author and world renowned mythologist, Joseph Campbell. I finished up with the last book I had on hand at the time, "Sake & Satori: Asian Journals"... and hadn't yet picked up the next book in the series ("Myths Of Light") so I got underway with my Edgar Allan Poe Collected Works book. But since that trip or whatever it was a year ago, I just stalled. So now I'm attempting to catch up with my Analog Paper Media, which should be quite a feat. In keeping with my peculiar procedure I'll need to catch up on every GQ magazine before I can tackle my Poe Collection. I don't know exactly when that'll be... but I plan to make a concerted effort sometime this month.
I only mention this because I'm planning on piling up my APM pile some more. I figure I have something in the Magazine category, and something in the Book category... but as much of a geek as I think I am, I've yet to have a Comic Book category. I'm looking to remedy that situation by buying something I should've had long ago, the "Ghost In The Shell" manga. Granted it's not technically a "comic book", but it's close enough. And I'm not about to squabble over the definitions of things like comic books, manga and graphic novels. I just have a need to read something physical, and my OCD doesn't permit me to read anything new as far as magazines or books are concerned so I thought I'd throw comics into the mix to circumvent my own wicked rules. And "Ghost In The Shell", the anime, has been one of the greatest sources of inspiration and provocation in my life. Reading this "book" has been a long time coming, almost destined. I'm very excited. It's going to be a treasure trove of philosphical pondering.
Now kitties, it's time for sleep. Time for consumption of another kind. G'day! ;)
DS333, digesting.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
001.006.365
I'm going to make this one short and sweet. I was looking back on my previous posts and they're a little wordy. Not unnecessarily wordy or anything. I definitely needed to use all the space I did to try and get my points across. But I also realize how annoying long posts can be some time. Given that I'm a huge consumer of media, I can truly relate to this problem. That's not to say I don't enjoy expansive, detailed articles or lengthy podcasts and such... but I understand the benefit of these types of media in the short-form. I'm going to make an effort to toggle between the two extremes. I alluded to this idea in one of my earlier posts... with trying to keep my posts contained in either three or nine-paragraph chunks. But three paragraphs is looking to be rather lengthy. And I'm thinking nine might be overkill as well. It's all an experiment. I think I can tell what's too much and what's too little. Tonight I'm going for something short. And I think that's what this is. Just a little note to let you in on how things are going to fly here on out. You can make the choice to keep up with just the shorter stuff... or the longer... and if you're a true masochist, both. ;)
DS333, sweating. :P
DS333, sweating. :P
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Humble Pie, Not So Tasty :(
Awesome news. Today Amazon Claus dropped off "Resident Evil 4" for the Wii on my door step. "Resident Evil 4" has to be one of my all-time favorite games. I know that last remark was a contradiction in terms, but I only made it so so that I could make room to include the "Advance Wars" series for the Game Boy. Those games are stellar, and they're a series... not a single game. And at least for me, not "traditional" games. Untraditional in that they don't have a proper narrative, I mean they do tell a story... but it's not much of a story. Those games are much more about gameplay and strategy rather than gameplay married with a traditional narrative to deliver an immersive, interactive experience. And in that respect "Resident Evil 4" delivers like no other game I've ever played. It's as close to total immersion that a game can deliver. It's piled high with atmosphere and tension. It's a true experience.
"Resident Evil 4" was originally released as an exclusive for the Nintendo Gamecube, but years later was ported to the Sony Playstation 2 and the PC I believe. I bought the game as soon as it was available for the Gamecube and have been a slut for the game ever since. I've played and beaten the game countless times. So much about this game is great, the greatest being its replay value. It's a definite bang for the buck. This new version more so than ever since it includes extras released with the PS2 version that I never had the opportunity to play. And I can't even get into how amazing the controls for this game are. There have been a smattering of criticisms about the new control scheme with the "Wiimote" and the "Nunchuck" controller... basically concerning independent movement between the character and the gunsight. For those of you unaware, RE4 is basically a shooter and on paper that control scheme might seem a bit sketchy, but it's really not. If anything, the controls are an improvement. A huge improvement. Leaps and bounds ahead of what the old scheme was like. And it's all thanks to the inherit ingenuity of the Wii. The game before was Perfect. Absolutely Perfect. And somehow now, Capcom (the developer) has been able to surpass that.
So I played through about four hours of the game so far, and as you already know it's holding up very well. Although, I did notice some slight changes. If I'm not mistaken, I could swear I've noticed some slight graphical improvement over the main character (Leon). I'm also sure there's been a slight tweak to the whole treasure-reward system used when you kill enemies. I've noticed a slight gain in the amount of cash I've received. But as I've said it's very minimal, maybe a 2-3% difference. Quite a nice bonus... although it could just be my imagination.
The greatest change though, has to be the difficulty level. I'm a master of this game. It has bowed to my greatness time and again. Several times, the majority of the time, 99.9% of the time I've beaten the game without dying. Today however... I died. And not just once. Not twice. But three times!!! I actually tasted the bitter tang of defeat. The trauma of failure. :( However, as crushing as that shock might've been... it's gotten me sooo excited! The enemy AI has definitely been retooled since the Gamecube version. They're a bit more clever than before. A little ingenious and sneaky. I left off near midway in the game... at the battle with "The Big Cheese". That whore killed me twice tonight. He's never bested me! Which is very humbling, if not infuriating. :P I actually love this new challenge. And despite what some may think, this new level of difficulty has nothing to do with the new control scheme. It's all a matter of getting used to them. The game itself isn't glitchy or flawed. I could actually sense the moments when I knew I fucked up. It's all me. I'm the reason I lost. And the prospect of improving and righting that wrong is very awesome. I'm actually stiffling the urge to stay awake pulling an all-nighter to finish the game. :P Sadly, we all must sleep. And that means me too. And with that, I take my leave. ;)
DS333, gestating.
"Resident Evil 4" was originally released as an exclusive for the Nintendo Gamecube, but years later was ported to the Sony Playstation 2 and the PC I believe. I bought the game as soon as it was available for the Gamecube and have been a slut for the game ever since. I've played and beaten the game countless times. So much about this game is great, the greatest being its replay value. It's a definite bang for the buck. This new version more so than ever since it includes extras released with the PS2 version that I never had the opportunity to play. And I can't even get into how amazing the controls for this game are. There have been a smattering of criticisms about the new control scheme with the "Wiimote" and the "Nunchuck" controller... basically concerning independent movement between the character and the gunsight. For those of you unaware, RE4 is basically a shooter and on paper that control scheme might seem a bit sketchy, but it's really not. If anything, the controls are an improvement. A huge improvement. Leaps and bounds ahead of what the old scheme was like. And it's all thanks to the inherit ingenuity of the Wii. The game before was Perfect. Absolutely Perfect. And somehow now, Capcom (the developer) has been able to surpass that.
So I played through about four hours of the game so far, and as you already know it's holding up very well. Although, I did notice some slight changes. If I'm not mistaken, I could swear I've noticed some slight graphical improvement over the main character (Leon). I'm also sure there's been a slight tweak to the whole treasure-reward system used when you kill enemies. I've noticed a slight gain in the amount of cash I've received. But as I've said it's very minimal, maybe a 2-3% difference. Quite a nice bonus... although it could just be my imagination.
The greatest change though, has to be the difficulty level. I'm a master of this game. It has bowed to my greatness time and again. Several times, the majority of the time, 99.9% of the time I've beaten the game without dying. Today however... I died. And not just once. Not twice. But three times!!! I actually tasted the bitter tang of defeat. The trauma of failure. :( However, as crushing as that shock might've been... it's gotten me sooo excited! The enemy AI has definitely been retooled since the Gamecube version. They're a bit more clever than before. A little ingenious and sneaky. I left off near midway in the game... at the battle with "The Big Cheese". That whore killed me twice tonight. He's never bested me! Which is very humbling, if not infuriating. :P I actually love this new challenge. And despite what some may think, this new level of difficulty has nothing to do with the new control scheme. It's all a matter of getting used to them. The game itself isn't glitchy or flawed. I could actually sense the moments when I knew I fucked up. It's all me. I'm the reason I lost. And the prospect of improving and righting that wrong is very awesome. I'm actually stiffling the urge to stay awake pulling an all-nighter to finish the game. :P Sadly, we all must sleep. And that means me too. And with that, I take my leave. ;)
DS333, gestating.
Monday, June 25, 2007
Really, Really Simple Syndication
In relation to the rest of the people in the world, those using the internet, I'm pretty sure I'd be considered a power user. I'm absolutely in love with science. And over the last few years the one branch that's gradually become my main point of interest is computer science. I'm a total slut for web technologies. Science in general is constantly evolving and explosive in terms of that evolution, but the growth in the computer/web industry is mind-bogglingly exponential. It's truly wonderful tracking the growth of this beast. You never know what's going to happen next.
Knowing that The Digital is becoming more and more a part of our lives, it's interesting theorizing and philosophizing about the impact it's having on the human condition. It's sociological impact is evident. Immersing myself in the experience of The Digital has always felt so exciting because I feel this immense appreciation for being able to experience a way of life that has never been known to this world before. The world we currently live in has never been so "new".
It's the nature of existence and life to change. It's in constant flux. But since the web has become so much a part of our lives, or at least mine, it's become all the more easier to grasp that fundamental truth... to actually feel it, to experience it. It's a perfect mirror for the way of the world. As though, it would never be feasible to experience the world as a physical whole. Or at least it wouldn't be for the common man. There are just too many places to go, too many people to meet, etc. But the Net affords something of this experience because it's a microcosm for the world at large, and possibly the universe. I don't know quite how to explain it, but being a part of that Digital Domain affords me a sight or perspective that I wouldn't have otherwise. Or at the very least, would be more difficulte to acquire. I'm sure many power users can relate to what I'm hinting at. It has something to do with memes, but that doesn't quite capture the grandeur of the idea or phenomena at hand. I want to hold off on talking about The Stand-Alone Complex, but once I do I'm sure it'll be easier to grasp something of what I'm ranting about.
I don't care to go down this road right now, because it's looking to be a bit too heady for the topic of conversation I wanted to head out on. :P But I didn't want to pass up the opportunity of alluding to that other conversation I have in mind. If anything, maybe I'll sum up that last paragraph by saying I have an extreme fascination for the Net's ability to make the intangible tangible. It makes connections between worlds. The output of data can be felt through it. Its a perfect medium for experience. Although, I don't mean to say that its a substitute for the world. I just mean to say that if you're able to keep in tune with its movements... *sigh* I don't wanna get into this right now, as I've said. I shouldn't have attempted to "sum up". :P
Anyway, I discovered Google Reader today... which is an RSS reading web app developed by Google. I'd love to go into the wonder that is Google Reader, but I've literally only had a couple of hours to fiddle around with it so I wouldn't say I'm much of an authority on the service. However, from what I've been able to taste I can definitely assure you it'll be a topic of interest on this blog. It's phenomenal so far. I'll also have to go into RSS some other time. But in an attempt to tie things up in a nice little bow, I'm very excited about the prospect of Google Reader becoming a part of my Digital Life and shaping a change in the way I experience the Net. Things felt fluid enough, in terms of any sort of "workflow" I had pinned down when I dived the net, but this Google Reader seems light years ahead of what I've been doing. You have no idea how much I'm grinning right now. :D I'm very happy, ecstatic actually. Although isn't that always the case with a new piece of software or hardware? ;)
DS333, surfacing.
Knowing that The Digital is becoming more and more a part of our lives, it's interesting theorizing and philosophizing about the impact it's having on the human condition. It's sociological impact is evident. Immersing myself in the experience of The Digital has always felt so exciting because I feel this immense appreciation for being able to experience a way of life that has never been known to this world before. The world we currently live in has never been so "new".
It's the nature of existence and life to change. It's in constant flux. But since the web has become so much a part of our lives, or at least mine, it's become all the more easier to grasp that fundamental truth... to actually feel it, to experience it. It's a perfect mirror for the way of the world. As though, it would never be feasible to experience the world as a physical whole. Or at least it wouldn't be for the common man. There are just too many places to go, too many people to meet, etc. But the Net affords something of this experience because it's a microcosm for the world at large, and possibly the universe. I don't know quite how to explain it, but being a part of that Digital Domain affords me a sight or perspective that I wouldn't have otherwise. Or at the very least, would be more difficulte to acquire. I'm sure many power users can relate to what I'm hinting at. It has something to do with memes, but that doesn't quite capture the grandeur of the idea or phenomena at hand. I want to hold off on talking about The Stand-Alone Complex, but once I do I'm sure it'll be easier to grasp something of what I'm ranting about.
I don't care to go down this road right now, because it's looking to be a bit too heady for the topic of conversation I wanted to head out on. :P But I didn't want to pass up the opportunity of alluding to that other conversation I have in mind. If anything, maybe I'll sum up that last paragraph by saying I have an extreme fascination for the Net's ability to make the intangible tangible. It makes connections between worlds. The output of data can be felt through it. Its a perfect medium for experience. Although, I don't mean to say that its a substitute for the world. I just mean to say that if you're able to keep in tune with its movements... *sigh* I don't wanna get into this right now, as I've said. I shouldn't have attempted to "sum up". :P
Anyway, I discovered Google Reader today... which is an RSS reading web app developed by Google. I'd love to go into the wonder that is Google Reader, but I've literally only had a couple of hours to fiddle around with it so I wouldn't say I'm much of an authority on the service. However, from what I've been able to taste I can definitely assure you it'll be a topic of interest on this blog. It's phenomenal so far. I'll also have to go into RSS some other time. But in an attempt to tie things up in a nice little bow, I'm very excited about the prospect of Google Reader becoming a part of my Digital Life and shaping a change in the way I experience the Net. Things felt fluid enough, in terms of any sort of "workflow" I had pinned down when I dived the net, but this Google Reader seems light years ahead of what I've been doing. You have no idea how much I'm grinning right now. :D I'm very happy, ecstatic actually. Although isn't that always the case with a new piece of software or hardware? ;)
DS333, surfacing.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
001.003.365
I'm thinking I'll juggle these posts around as far as deciding which sort of posts to make. One day I might have a specific topic or idea I wanna attack and address. On another, like today, I might give you a lite breezy update on what went down today. Not everything that went down of course. As I've said, I'm still figuring this blog thing out. I have this fantasy that in the next few months this thing will be a well-oiled machine; consisting of posts with regular subject headers, posts occurring on certain nights, etc. I haven't fleshed all of that out right now. But it's all brewing. I know I'd like to see posts up here that are nothing more than movie reviews, old and new. Maybe some song lyric interpretation? I'd love to share my artwork and strip that down somewhat. I've a lot of ideas floating around in this skull of mine.
So today was pretty cool, for many reasons. The one I wanted to point out tonight involves my god-like prowess on the Nintendo Wii. :P I'm only joking, I'm not really that good... but I like to think I am. I only just got the Wii at the beginning of June, but I've been in deep love with it ever since. Right now I've two games for the system, "Wii Sports" (Of course! It comes with the system after all. ;) ) and "The Legend Of Zelda: The Twilight Princess" (courtesy of my amazingly generous brother and sister (his fiance)). There's a third on the way, "Resident Evil 4", which is another one of those things that's a post all on its own. :D
Anyway, I was able to get in some "Wii Sports" with some of my cousins tonight. By the way, in some way that last sentence will always look disturbing to me... because whenever I hear "Wii Sports" some tiny part of my mind conjures up "water sports". If you don't know what exactly "water sports" is, I won't spoil you the shear wonder of finding it out on your own. :P Suffice to say that you don't wanna think of that term when you're talking about family. :P But anyway! It was really great to play with them because... well it's just nice to kick some major ass every now and then *L*. For the most part I'm a solitary player. Even when my brother was around we never gamed much together. And while the Wii is pretty accessible, my parents are in no way much of a match (I say that in the kindest way *S*). So it's just nice to know where you stand in the Digital Domain every now and then. I killed in Tennis, Bowling and Golf (although I've yet to reach Pro status in that one). My older cousin though had me going there with our last bowling match, I only won by four pins! :|
I'll leave you with that as I immerse myself in another long round with "...Twilight Princess". It's my second time through, and I'm trying to collect every thing possible. :D Pretty daunting task, but that's part of the fun, no?
Goodnight divers.
So today was pretty cool, for many reasons. The one I wanted to point out tonight involves my god-like prowess on the Nintendo Wii. :P I'm only joking, I'm not really that good... but I like to think I am. I only just got the Wii at the beginning of June, but I've been in deep love with it ever since. Right now I've two games for the system, "Wii Sports" (Of course! It comes with the system after all. ;) ) and "The Legend Of Zelda: The Twilight Princess" (courtesy of my amazingly generous brother and sister (his fiance)). There's a third on the way, "Resident Evil 4", which is another one of those things that's a post all on its own. :D
Anyway, I was able to get in some "Wii Sports" with some of my cousins tonight. By the way, in some way that last sentence will always look disturbing to me... because whenever I hear "Wii Sports" some tiny part of my mind conjures up "water sports". If you don't know what exactly "water sports" is, I won't spoil you the shear wonder of finding it out on your own. :P Suffice to say that you don't wanna think of that term when you're talking about family. :P But anyway! It was really great to play with them because... well it's just nice to kick some major ass every now and then *L*. For the most part I'm a solitary player. Even when my brother was around we never gamed much together. And while the Wii is pretty accessible, my parents are in no way much of a match (I say that in the kindest way *S*). So it's just nice to know where you stand in the Digital Domain every now and then. I killed in Tennis, Bowling and Golf (although I've yet to reach Pro status in that one). My older cousin though had me going there with our last bowling match, I only won by four pins! :|
I'll leave you with that as I immerse myself in another long round with "...Twilight Princess". It's my second time through, and I'm trying to collect every thing possible. :D Pretty daunting task, but that's part of the fun, no?
Goodnight divers.
Saturday, June 23, 2007
The Dead Letter Room Explained
So here I am with my second post of the year. And I think I'm already finding it difficult to keep on schedule. :P Although, that discovery has nothing to do with my posting so late in the "day". I'm naturally a night owl, so more often than not I think I'll be making my posts late in the night/early in the morning. So while it's technically Saturday morning, I'm counting this post toward my Friday update. Also, in keeping with my Net Handle I'll try my best to get these posts out at 3:33am on the dot. But we'll see how that goes.
Tonight I thought I'd delve into the meaning or origin of my Blog Heading, Dead Letter Room. In fact, you'll find most of these early posts to be a kind of tour into the world of DS333. Expositions and such about all the things on this blog and in my life in general. Naturally, it seemed I'd tackle two obvious points of interest on this blog so far: it's heading and it's author (or at least the author's handle). So the Dead Letter Room is actually a reference to a prominent locale in the Books of The Art series written by Clive Barker. The Books of The Art (The Great And Secret Show and Everville) are by far, my two favorite fiction titles at the moment. I'd love to go into more detail about the series but that, I think, is worth its own post. The Dead Letter Room is essentially a room located within the Omaha Central Post Office in Omaha, Nebraska. On the surface, nothing too spectacular. Within the context of the story however, it represents a crossroads of sorts in America. An informational crossroads that in our modern day reckoning can be viewed as an allusion to the internet, the information superhighway.
It's that allusion that I find very intriguing, so much so that I thought it would make a great Blog Heading. That room, its reference and its symbolic meaning creates in my mind a great point of convergence of several ideas I find very interesting. For those who are unaware, "dead letters" are those letters that get lost in the shuffle of the US Postal Service. These letters, within the story, find themselves in the Dead Letter Room if they're mislabeled, or maybe improperly addressed, etc. They're circulated from one end of the coast, to the other until they find themselves in the Dead Letter Room. They're like whispers in the dark, shouts into the void or messages in bottles. The Dead Letter Room is essentially a nexus of lost information. The majority of that information isn't very important. Amid the flood of that information though, there are clues to a grand story not easily seen or heard. And it's that idea too, that I find interesting. I'm a huge consumer of media. It's what I love to do, immerse myself in any number of websites, articles, movies, music, etc. For the most part, casual consumption doesn't really bear any lasting rewards or insights. But I find the more media you do consume, you bring yourself closer to making connections in your life and in the world that you wouldn't have otherwise. There's this idea that the most trivial points of information aren't trivial at all, if they're allowed to gel with bits more substantive. Information at its most divine is a tapestry of support and structure. Each part of that complex is as important as any other because it helps to complete the whole. And yet I think we rarely appreciate the whole. It takes effort, time and patience to shift your focus, to gain a greater perspective.
Gee, I'm finding this blogging thing a bit hard. I don't have any real idea of where I want to go beforehand, or even while I'm in the thick of it. I don't think I'll be able to interpret the meaning of the Dead Letter Room right off the bat. But the great thing about this project is the amount of time I have to complete it. In time I think my point will come across. For now I'll just say that I would like for this blog to be like the "actual" Dead Letter Room. A gateway of sorts, to my world and yours. A gathering place for information; trivial and significant. For the most part it'll be nothing more than an outlet for all my little rants. I want it to be amorphous. They'll never be anything as formal as a mission statement because I wouldn't want to define or categorize anything that I create. I just want to throw out ideas and let them take shape as they will in the eyes of the readers.
I think I'll call it a day now. Hopefully tomorrow's post will prove to be a little more coherent. If not, you're not exactly forced to read any of this... so feel free to drop out any time. ;)
Tonight I thought I'd delve into the meaning or origin of my Blog Heading, Dead Letter Room. In fact, you'll find most of these early posts to be a kind of tour into the world of DS333. Expositions and such about all the things on this blog and in my life in general. Naturally, it seemed I'd tackle two obvious points of interest on this blog so far: it's heading and it's author (or at least the author's handle). So the Dead Letter Room is actually a reference to a prominent locale in the Books of The Art series written by Clive Barker. The Books of The Art (The Great And Secret Show and Everville) are by far, my two favorite fiction titles at the moment. I'd love to go into more detail about the series but that, I think, is worth its own post. The Dead Letter Room is essentially a room located within the Omaha Central Post Office in Omaha, Nebraska. On the surface, nothing too spectacular. Within the context of the story however, it represents a crossroads of sorts in America. An informational crossroads that in our modern day reckoning can be viewed as an allusion to the internet, the information superhighway.
It's that allusion that I find very intriguing, so much so that I thought it would make a great Blog Heading. That room, its reference and its symbolic meaning creates in my mind a great point of convergence of several ideas I find very interesting. For those who are unaware, "dead letters" are those letters that get lost in the shuffle of the US Postal Service. These letters, within the story, find themselves in the Dead Letter Room if they're mislabeled, or maybe improperly addressed, etc. They're circulated from one end of the coast, to the other until they find themselves in the Dead Letter Room. They're like whispers in the dark, shouts into the void or messages in bottles. The Dead Letter Room is essentially a nexus of lost information. The majority of that information isn't very important. Amid the flood of that information though, there are clues to a grand story not easily seen or heard. And it's that idea too, that I find interesting. I'm a huge consumer of media. It's what I love to do, immerse myself in any number of websites, articles, movies, music, etc. For the most part, casual consumption doesn't really bear any lasting rewards or insights. But I find the more media you do consume, you bring yourself closer to making connections in your life and in the world that you wouldn't have otherwise. There's this idea that the most trivial points of information aren't trivial at all, if they're allowed to gel with bits more substantive. Information at its most divine is a tapestry of support and structure. Each part of that complex is as important as any other because it helps to complete the whole. And yet I think we rarely appreciate the whole. It takes effort, time and patience to shift your focus, to gain a greater perspective.
Gee, I'm finding this blogging thing a bit hard. I don't have any real idea of where I want to go beforehand, or even while I'm in the thick of it. I don't think I'll be able to interpret the meaning of the Dead Letter Room right off the bat. But the great thing about this project is the amount of time I have to complete it. In time I think my point will come across. For now I'll just say that I would like for this blog to be like the "actual" Dead Letter Room. A gateway of sorts, to my world and yours. A gathering place for information; trivial and significant. For the most part it'll be nothing more than an outlet for all my little rants. I want it to be amorphous. They'll never be anything as formal as a mission statement because I wouldn't want to define or categorize anything that I create. I just want to throw out ideas and let them take shape as they will in the eyes of the readers.
I think I'll call it a day now. Hopefully tomorrow's post will prove to be a little more coherent. If not, you're not exactly forced to read any of this... so feel free to drop out any time. ;)
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Introducing The 333rd Devoted Satellite
Hello, all you divers of the net!
This is my very first blog post... on any blog... ever! Today I'm beginning a year-long project that basically involves me, DS333, posting one blog entry per day... for 365 days.
This "project" came about as one of many New Year's resolutions. I'd basically committed myself from changing my posture from that of an observer, to a participant. From consumer, to creator. Lurker, commenter.
Generally, I'm not very sociable. But that's not to say that I have a problem with socializing. All it really means is that I'm more of an introvert than I am an extrovert. Part of this project, or "experiment" is intriguing because it goes against the grain of my character. But I do love getting to know people (the more eccentric and depraved the better :P). So I just felt that it would be interesting putting myself out there in the same way that many others have. In some ways it seems like a fair trade. I couldn't imagine how the world would be if people decided to approach situations like these the way I have. There'd be little to no interaction. Very boring.
Anyway, I'm not all to sure how this "experiment" is going to turn out. Meaning, I don't know if I'll manage to keep up with it in the way that I would hope to. I know that "blog fading" is a huge problem. Then again, I hear that's something you encounter at around the year-mark. Since this is a Year-Long Project, I guess that won't be much of a problem. But I'm also dubious as to how willing I should be toward sharing very personal... stuff. :P
Gee, it's almost Midnight.
I wanted to get this first blog published on the 21st of June, 2007. That, I'll get into some other time.
I also wanted to make sure that each post would either be somewhat short, or long. Consisting of either three or nine paragraphs. Which is why, as you can see, I'm stretching this out.
Okay world. Time to head out. See you tomorrow! ;)
This is my very first blog post... on any blog... ever! Today I'm beginning a year-long project that basically involves me, DS333, posting one blog entry per day... for 365 days.
This "project" came about as one of many New Year's resolutions. I'd basically committed myself from changing my posture from that of an observer, to a participant. From consumer, to creator. Lurker, commenter.
Generally, I'm not very sociable. But that's not to say that I have a problem with socializing. All it really means is that I'm more of an introvert than I am an extrovert. Part of this project, or "experiment" is intriguing because it goes against the grain of my character. But I do love getting to know people (the more eccentric and depraved the better :P). So I just felt that it would be interesting putting myself out there in the same way that many others have. In some ways it seems like a fair trade. I couldn't imagine how the world would be if people decided to approach situations like these the way I have. There'd be little to no interaction. Very boring.
Anyway, I'm not all to sure how this "experiment" is going to turn out. Meaning, I don't know if I'll manage to keep up with it in the way that I would hope to. I know that "blog fading" is a huge problem. Then again, I hear that's something you encounter at around the year-mark. Since this is a Year-Long Project, I guess that won't be much of a problem. But I'm also dubious as to how willing I should be toward sharing very personal... stuff. :P
Gee, it's almost Midnight.
I wanted to get this first blog published on the 21st of June, 2007. That, I'll get into some other time.
I also wanted to make sure that each post would either be somewhat short, or long. Consisting of either three or nine paragraphs. Which is why, as you can see, I'm stretching this out.
Okay world. Time to head out. See you tomorrow! ;)
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