rotten bananas

An important life lesson that I’ve been learning the hard way:

A scorpion is sitting near the edge of a creek. A frog approaches, and the scorpion asks him for a ride across the creek.

“No I won’t give you a ride. You’ll sting me.” Says the frog.

The scorpion assures the frog that he won’t be stung, as they would both die. The frog eventually agrees and let’s the scorpion climb aboard. About halfway across the creek the scorpion stings the frog.

“Why did you do that? Now we’ll both die.” Asks the frog.

The scorpion replies, “I can’t help it. I’m a scorpion.”

David Hughes (Senior VP of Technology, RIAA) spoke at Arizona State University on the state of the music business.

David’s argument was basically that we should feel sorry for the fact that his business is quickly becoming irrelevant and they don’t know how to change. It’s expensive to find new artists and they’re releasing bad music because they know it’ll sell and it’s expensive to change a business model.

Are you serious? The music industry has been changing since its conception. It’s managed to evolve through several different media types. It’s survived all the different phases that America’s musical tastes have advanced through. Hell, it even survived disco. Now, suddenly, they’re unable to adapt. Well I have two things to say about this.

Firstly, screw off. We don’t need the RIAA. Music is a huge part of every culture, and it’s not going to disappear with the dissolution of the RIAA.

Second, let’s look at what’s changed. Now, the first time that change has become a problem, the RIAA is focusing a whole lot of effort on suing its customers. Hmmm… good strategy? All moral and legal issues aside, what are they accomplishing? Maybe if they spent more time on altering that elusive business model instead of pissing everybody off, they’d get somewhere.

And releasing bad product just because you know people will buy it? People have been paying for crappy music since wheels were made of stone. That’s a different issue though. There is good music out there. Record companies just take so much control and impose so many rules, that independent labels are getting first dibs on many of them. The majority of the bands that go to big labels are just spewing out crap to get famous.

The point is that the inability to change is not an option. It’s not an excuse for practicing poor business, it’s a cause of your demise. If they think that they can just throw in the towel and continue to provide the market with crappy product (be it in music quality or on overpriced plastic discs), the world will replace them with an organization more capable.

If you read the full article, it sounds as if David was really stickin it to the general public, blaming us for their blemishes. Well I say good. Great. Go away. Stop hassling your customers. Stop releasing phase after phase of washed up Britney Spears clone #44 and cookie cutter Three Days Grace-esque ensemble #23. Fade away, sooner rather than later, and let someone else willing and capable to give us what we want. I work hard for my money. Give me a good reason to spend it.

I’m joining the IFollow revolution. I’d actually turned off ‘no follow’ a few weeks ago, but never mentioned it. Now that there’s an official movement, I wanna be seen sitting at the cool table in the cafeteria.

I guess I’ll jump on the bandwagon. This whole code of conduct thing is ridiculous. Honestly, I find it a bit pretentious. We’re really not that important. Bloggers make up a community, or a series of communities, but there’s very little legal pretense in what we do. Sure, you wouldn’t want to make a habit of slandering everyone you can get your hands on or make death threats, but those that matter already know that.

I’m in agreement with Ben Yoskovitz. Any ‘guidelines’ or ‘rules’ that you try to press on the blogosphere will only be followed by those that don’t need said guidelines. Like my grandfather used to say, “Locks keep honest people honest.” In both cases, the security measures only work on those that accept them. The people breaking the rules and causing trouble won’t care about a code of conduct that the rest of us follow.

Lastly, please, please don’t try to impose a set of rules on the blogosphere, or the internet. There are more than enough rules in this world. The internet is a free and wonderful place, where even the rules that they try to impose don’t work; anyone can publish any content they want, regardless of who thinks it’s good or bad; where there’s a hole in some corner where three water stained walls come together that holds a congregation of any name-your-random-fetish. Sure, a lot of it is pretty nasty. A lot of it is obnoxious. A lot of it is prepubescent teens screaming curses and racial slurs at each other during arguments over anime and Honda Civics.

I would shed no tears if 90% of it burned to the ground, but once we start imposing rules on some parts, others will follow. Whether it’s censoring bloggers, ending net neutrality, or limiting your WoW time, we all know how the snowball effect works. The internet is still a canvas for each of us to paint our own landscape. If we voluntarily put chains on our easels now, we’ll end up staring at the default Windows XP wallpaper for the rest of our lives.

The amazing writer, Kurt Vonnegut, has passed away. I’ve read the majority of his books, and they’re all great. If you haven’t had the pleasure, this is as good a time as any to start.

This is an absolutely hilarious article. I don’t have anything to add, I just wanted to share it. Found it via Seth Godin’s blog.

I got a haircut tonight, though it was more of a full head treatment than a simple haircut. The man was a genius with clippers, scissors and all manner of primitive hair removal tools. He asked how I wanted it, and I told him short all around, clippers on the side. That’s it. He didn’t ask what attachment I wanted, nor what length to cut the top to. The magician didn’t even use an attachment on the clippers. He eyeballed it perfectly to an inch.

He used a wicked combination of apron, towel and brushing to keep all hair out of my shirt. Little angers me more than severed hair fibers attempting to dig their way back under my skin. He rubbed something into my hair. I don’t know what it was, but I felt like a king when he did it. And afterwards, he shaved my neck with a straight blade and warm shaving cream. If you’ve never felt this sensation, you’re missing out on an experience that will ultimately change your life, guaranteed.

I suppose the point is that you’d be hard pressed to find this kind of service at a chain stylist. Did I mention that it only cost me $11, which is the cheapest haircut that I’ve ever received (apart from the butcherings that my mother forced upon me as a child), and I was in and out in 20 minutes?

I would imagine that you’re getting bored with this topic by now (if you’ve even made it this far), but I felt I had to make my point. I also know that this barber shop has quite a fan base, most of which followed them to a new location. What I’m getting at is that it’s rather simple to treat your customers right, and if you do treat them well, even better than expected, they’ll remain as loyal as a dog provided some table scraps and an occasional ear scratching.

It appears that I’ve been tagged for obsessive thoughts by Leroy over at Green Llama. I’m to list 5 obsessions that I have and then tag some other bloggers to do the same when I’m finished.

1. Spelling/Grammar - I may not always get it right myself, but I obsess over attempting to. I proofread everything I do multiple times, and if I accidentally publish a post with mistakes in it, it really irks me. I also constantly notice other peoples’ mistakes and usually become annoying by pointing them out.
2. Other Peoples’ Eating Habits - I’m not claiming to be a nutritionist, but I take a lot of notice to other what/when other people eat. It especially gets under my skin when they say they’re watching what they eat or on a diet and eat crap all day.
3. Keeping Up With Digg/Blogosphere - I find myself running through all my bookmarked blogs and refreshing Digg whenever I have a spare second. Whether I’m waiting for a build or running a long query, I’ll spend that 30 seconds trying to keep up.
4. New Hairbrained Schemes - I’m always coming up with new ideas, especially for websites. I’ve got all kinds of blog ideas in the back of my head, but my brain is constantly brewing new ones, so I never execute on any before something else comes up. That’s why this is the only blog I have, as I can write about whatever I want without having to stick to a topic.
5. Music - I love all kinds of music, and I’m always looking for more. I have it playing whenever there’s silence; all day at work, whenever I’m in the car, or when I’m on my desktop in my room (away from the television).

I guess I have to tag some people now. I dunno if any of them actually read my blog, but here’s a few that I’m a fan of: Ben, Philip, Collis, Robert and (this one’s a total reach, but) J.D.

Speak your mind kids… And thanks once again to Leroy for tagging me. Be sure to check out his blog!

So, NBC canceled the Black Donnellys. If you haven’t seen it, it’s an excellent show about the Irish mob in (I believe) New York City. There are very few shows on television that I find worth watching. The majority of Reality shows are completely lame (and often stripped of any actual ‘reality’ elements). The new wave of no-skill-involved game shows are a complete bore. Lost had me for one season, then it became repetitive and uninteresting. I still like Heroes and 24, but I feel the enthusiasm fading with both of them.

The point is that I don’t see where the industry is going. Every once in a while, a new idea comes about, and if it’s mildly successful, everyone jumps on it until it’s beaten into the ground. I assume these shows are getting ratings, or they certainly wouldn’t be kept around, but I often wonder if it’s because they’re really superb shows, or if there’s just not much of an alternative option - either way, I’m hardly impressed.

Good shows just don’t last. The Black Donnellys had great characters and an interesting storyline. I looked forward to it. Arrested Development was one of the funniest shows on television, along with Family Guy, which I know is back, but only after the public stir post-cancellation.

I guess as long as people are still tuning in, stations will continue spewing out crap. Are people really enjoying what’s on television, or are we just generally too lazy to read a book? I’m not going for a superiority thing here, I watch some television, but I find myself preferring syndicated Seinfeld reruns to most shows with new episodes. Something needs to revolutionize the industry. Each show is just a cookie cutter copy of the previous. A change should come along. or eventually television will be replaced just like the radio before it.

Over at Green Llama there’s a discussion brewing over why people complain about all Microsofts patches and updates, yet nobody seems to have issue with the frequent WordPress update releases.

Leroy is claiming it to be the natural pointless anti-Microsoft attitude that exists. My point was that since Windows comes with such a high price tag, we have a higher level of expectation from them, while WordPress, being free (and open source) carries more leniency in the community.

I imagine it’s a bit of both. Head on over and speak your mind. Though, the conversation has slowly degraded into a discussion about cartoons (Spiderman is so much cooler than SpongeBob), I’m sure no good ideas will go unnoticed.