Archive for August, 2006

"My Very Excellent Mother…"

Thursday, August 24th, 2006

In which an astronomical trifle sends Cennydd into an orgy of arcane library science and obscure bands.

The hunt is on for a new mnemonic as Pluto is confirmed to, in fact, not actually be a planet, because it’s too crap.

It’s your age-old classification problem: the item on the fringe, the one that makes you question your entire classification system.

Case in point: I bought a CD by !!! a while back. It’s poor, I can’t recommend it. More importantly, it caused me untold hours of frustration and grief. Should its punctuation mean that it precedes A? If so, does this mean I have to reclassify …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead? And if so, which band comes first? Would this mean I would end up classifying by the ASCII character set?

Or should it go under C? (It is apparently pronounced “Chk chk chk”). Does that mean I’m now classifying by phonetics? Shaky ground, particularly when you’re dealing with bands called Xiu Xiu, OOIOO and 90 Day Men.

For a while, I actually started classifying my CDs by colour. While it satisfied the aesthete in me and worked fine for “driftnetting” browsing behaviour, it’s useless for known-item retrieval. It’s also incompatible with our mental models: we don’t tend to think in terms of “I’d like to listen to some purple music today”.

Hipsters obviously rebel against the ideas of genres, but I can live with them. I don’t find myself offended by the labelling a large section of my collection “post-rock” or “shoegazing” or whatever. People who get offended by labels are generally more interested in listening to ‘the right music’ than listening to the music. But even that’s troublesome for the bedroom librarian. Where does one genre end and another begin? What about bands whose sound has evolved over the years?

Don’t even get me started on split EPs, or the Calexico/Iron & Wine collaboration. And do El Guapo go under E or G? Is the Spanish definite article to be ignored? What about Les Savy Fav? Is their name French or English? Should I be using ISO 639-1 to define it?

And this, my friends, is why iTunes is great. Don’t like the way it sorts alphabetically? Browse by genre! Look for all songs under 2 minutes long! It’s probably the most useful Ranganathan-inspired analytico-synthetic faceted classification tool I know of.

…

Oh man. That was just what I needed. How was it for you?

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The free alternative

Thursday, August 17th, 2006

Normally I’m pretty good with money, but this month has left me pretty tight. Cheques I thought were long gone have only just gone, and weddings and bills have taken care of the rest. Yes, of course I could borrow a couple of notes, and people have been very kind with their offers. But the odd thing is I’m quite enjoying having to dream up the free alternative. It’s only a week until payday, and it’s strangely refreshing to get out of the capitalist spending cycle for a bit.

I eat well. Breakfast, so often overlooked, is cheap and mandatory. Fruit is so much better value than ready meals. Alcohol is clearly not an option. Unable to go out, I’m forced to get on with various tasks: finishing off my songs, levelling Warrior, learning more Ajax. The glamorous trappings of wealth give way to frugality and progress.

Of course, it’s also driving me insane. If someone were to come to my flat with caviar, Dom Pérignon and a Harrod’s hamper I could happily slip into the role of conspicuous consumer. Until then, I guess I’ll take a raincheck.

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If I was Vader…

Friday, August 4th, 2006

Man, I need to quit with the Vader love. You’ve probably seen it already anyway, since it’s Friday and I know you’re all just trawling the web at work.

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A meandering summer post

Tuesday, August 1st, 2006

Bristol was prettier this time, but still interminably hilly. One of the reasons I chose Nottingham as my second choice university was the local geography. Bristol’s Physics department is located on a huge hill, which may have prevented me attending lectures on hungover February mornings.

It was a choice based purely on maximising my learning potential, you understand.

Anyway, Ashton Court was well organised and very hot. Overpriced fairground rides, cheap gin decanted into plastic bottles, broken sunglasses, mediocre bands. Good summer fare.

Last weekend brought possibly the lowest point of my life so far: the Phantom Menace drinking game.

1) Fill a large glass with alcohol
2) Watch Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace
3) Whenever the film makes you cringe, drink the alcohol.

You will need more than one glass. Obi-Wan’s hair caused us some early problems, but of course it’s Jar-Jar who poses the biggest risk. Particularly the bit where he electrocutes his tongue. Even sitting here three days later, I can feel the rage.

To continue the summer fresh air vibe (and avoid more nights like that), I’m slightly tempted by Geek In The Park. It’s a Leamington Spa picnic of web designers, developers and programmers, followed by guest speakers in the Jug and Jester. An interesting mix of the offline and online worlds, and I always liked Leam, but I can’t see myself using a Bank Holiday weekend to talk shop. I will, however, warn Cassie in advance to stay clear.

Tags: bristol, starwars, alcohol, outdoors