Zero Point

By the way, I thought I should mention at the outset of this post how tricky I'm finding it to be to maintain a dialogue on all my online presences. Well maybe not all of them, but certainly this blog. I suppose the problem lies in my expectation of whatever audience I have to be aware of the rest of my online identities. 'Cause I found it tricky enough trying to find a particular stance or posture to write in when I first started posting on this blog. I thought the easiest thing to do was to imagine having a dialogue with this phantom figure who wasn't only ignorant of everything going on in my little corner of the universe, but the universe at large. I wanted to speak to the Cosmic Baby. But the problem I'm finding with that is deciding whether this cosmic phantom has a great short-term or long-term memory. Should I expect that you've read every blog post thus far? Or even more insane, every post on every micro-blog, forum or comment thread??? No way...

I think the responsibility falls soley on me to keep things straight. Basically by keeping track of everything I post, and with that knowledge in mind... referring back to posts via hyperlinks. Which sounds like sooo much work! *L* I'm dreading it, but I know I'll have to get around to it eventually. I mentioned before that I'm sooo new to this whole online publishing world... in any capacity. I've always only ever been a user and consumer. I know nothing about being on this side of the table, which I am... oh well...

Anyway, I only brought that to mind since I wanted to mention something about Last.fm. I know I haven't talked about it extensively on this blog, but mentioned it here and there in an offhand fashion. Anyway, Last.fm is another of these amazingly crazy online social networks... this one centered on the idea of keeping people aware of what you're listening or watching to throughout the day. You can upload this data in a variety of ways, and one of 'em... a problem called iScrobbler is a plug-in app for iTunes that enables users to "scrobble" (upload metadata about songs you listen to to the Last.fm servers) video as well. Anyway, I've been trying to get iScrobbler working for what seems like months now. It's been a real bitch mainly because there was confusion as to what version I should've been using. That got squared away earlier this week, which I was ecstatic about!

Ya'see it was only a few weeks ago that I had decided to scrobble podcasts to Last.fm. As soon as I had started using the service I was deadset about making sure I only uploaded data about actual songs to my profile. I didn't want to mix in things like Howard Stern shows or podcasts because I just... well I have a massive OCD problem, and trying to explain to you why I didn't think it was "right" would only make me sound crazy... and in this instance it'd take a hell of a lot of time to convince you of that. Just take my word for it, I'm a bit nuts. ;)

Anyway, once I subscribed to Virb, and installed their VirbTunes plug-in (another scrobbling app) I thought it was a bit redundant to have to services which keep track of the music I listen to. To make sense of things in my own head, I thought I'd differentiate the two by making one keep track of strictly my musical interests and the other everything I listen to or wath. Given that VirbTunes can't scrobble video, I decided I'd open the floodgates for Last.fm.

But I only decided upon this like... gee, y'know... I'd spent months creating this very specific picture of my listening habits. To shift tracks midway through the process... well not even midway, it was worse than that. But anyway, I hated that the data was now forever skewed. I could try to scrobble as many podcasts and radioshows as I wanted to, but they could never equal the amount of music on my profile. I want as clear a picture about the type of "consumer" that I am. If only because it would be interesting to see who my neighbors (people with similiar listening habits) would be.
So the other day I decided to set things right and I cleared out all my data on the Last.fm servers. Although, I think I did. It's a bit suspect since my profile still lists something like 11,000 playcounts. At least my charts are cleared away, which is a start.

Anyway, I'm very excited about this new beginning for some reason. It should prove interesting. And more than anything I just like having things in order. The way I want them to be anyway. I'm fuckin' over the moon about finally getting iScrobbler to work. That was vexing me to no end. I was mentally distressed by that little episode *L*. Anyway, if I were more proactive I'd send you a link to my Last.fm but you can just track DevSatellite333 there... you should find me. ;)

DS333, scrobbling.