Welcome to Sad Salvation. Day by day by day by day ... this is my attempt to make sense of the world.

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Saturday, December 10, 2005

Christmas Light Safari #4

Christmas Light Safari #4
Originally uploaded by earthdog.

I am starting to get that Christmas feeling.

- Rich, 1:33 AM

Friday, December 09, 2005

Sleeper Cell

If you like Television and subscribe to Showtime, you should be watching Sleeper Cell. If you do not get Showtime, watch it when it comes out on DVD. This is one of the best TV shows I have seen in years. There is nothing on Network TV that is this good. The last show I liked this much was The Wire. The last network TV show is good was Homicide: Life on the Street.

The show is great because of the writing and the acting. This is not just some hack attempt to write about terrorism. It is not Dick Wolf pulling something out of the headlines for shock value. This is not just someone telling us how we are attacked because the attackers hate freedom. They characters have understandible reasons for their actions. They have real feeling and emotions.

This is the kind of stories that I want to see on television. I like that there is a place on TV for a show like Sleeper Cell. It is only ten episodes, but that if fine by me. It does not have to be able to go on season after season. Sleeper show is doing the limited series in the right way. I do not think there is any other way to tell this story.

My friend Jimmy said that they should not make a movie out of Watchmen. HBO or Showtime should make a Television show out of it. He thinks that is the only way the story could really be told. Seeing shows like Sleeper Cell I think that Jimmy might be correct.

- Rich, 1:07 AM

Thursday, December 08, 2005

Music Markets

Slate has an interesting article about selling music using real time markets. The idea is that a song has a real time worth just like a stock or commodities. The idea is to reward more popular songs. It would also help less popular songs sell because you could get them for cheaper.

In the long run I think would be a bad idea. I do not see this as a good thing for artists or consumers. I can see lots of ways they would both end up getting screwed. In the end I think it would drive consumers way from buying music. If I do not know what the album is going to cost when I buy it, I might as well spend my money on a movie because I know what that is going to cost.

I know that we have the ability right now to sell lots of things using real time markets. Many people like this idea because it reflects the real time demand for the product and that should determine the cost of the product. I just worry that markets could be exploited and hard for the average customer to understand. I don't think it will help business because I do not think customers will confident in what they are buying. In the end that is a bad thing.

- Rich, 1:18 PM

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

The First Rule of Blogging

Last night was the company Christmas party. I had a good time. I had the chance to wear the sportscoat I bought for my parents' anniversary party. That is all I am going to write about the Christmas party.

I know there are lots of cool stuff I could write about work. Some of it would make good blog matrieal. There are things that happen that just scream to be written about. I know that I my readers would love to read about my job. I also know that these things could get me fired.

As Sad Salvation Readers might notice, I do not write about work very much. I do not want to give anyone a reason to fire me. I have been there a long time, but you never know what might get someone to fire you. Why should I give anyone an extra reason.

There are a lot of things in my life I do not write about. I have been thinking about writing about these things in a personal journal again. I seem to only be motivated to write things that will show up in this blog. It has become much harder for me to write things that no one else will ever read.

I know that I will not be at TiVo forever. I could write down what I see in hopes that it might be worth reading in the future, but I do not think that is my style. I think I am the type of blog writer who sees things that are interesting now, but might not be interesting in the future.

- Rich, 8:19 PM

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

Mixtape: A Novel

My National Novel Writing Month novel was about a mix tape this year. The idea was that the main character Ralph got an old mixtape that he had made 11 years earlier in the mail. He spent the novel trying to figure out who sent the tape to him.

Below is the mix that I made to be the tape. I have mixed feelings about this mix. I liked the tape when I listed to it, but it seemed a little too obvious. I am not sure if I am over thinking it or not. Tell me what you think.

Side 1 – …And if he isn’t, I certainly am.
Smiths – Big Mouth Strikes Again
American Music Club – Sick of Food
Soul Asylum – Without a Trace
Husker Du – She Floated Away
10,000 Maniacs – Please Forgive Me
Pixies – Letter to Memphis
The Breeders – Do You Love Me Now?
Pet Shop Boys – Can You Forgive Her?
Paleface – Constant Misunderstanding
Sundays – Here’s Where The Story Ends
Judybats – Ugly On The Outside
Suzanne Vega – In Liverpool
Sonic Youth – Providence

Side 2 – I used to ring you and put down the phone
Sugar – Hoover Dam
R.E.M. – Don’t Go Back To Rockville
Brenda Kahn – Eulogy For My Next Lover
Clash – Lost In The Supermarket
Belly – Full Moon, Empty Heart
Lemonheads – Bit Part
The Ocean Blue – Drifting, Falling
Toad The Wet Sprocket – Butterflies
Crowded House – Four Seasons In One Day
k.d. lang – The Mind of Love
Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians – She Doesn’t Exist
Morrissey - Tomorrow

- Rich, 7:10 PM

Monday, December 05, 2005

Other airplane mix ideas

After I got to Philadelphia I posted my airplane mix. I asked other people for airplane mix suggestions. Here are the songs that were suggested. I wanted to post them here so I do not forget.

Shit Luck by Modest Mouse

andrewjthomas

Foo Fighters- Make My Way Back Home When I Learn To Fly
Tom Petty - Learning To Fly
Curtis Mayfield - Superfly

Elke Sisco

(lotta different versions of this, I'm partial to Chantal Kreviazuk's) - Leaving on a Jet Plane
Steve Miller Band - Jet Airliner
Shawn Colvin - Another Plane Went Down
Liz Phair - Stratford-on-Guy ("It took an hour, maybe a day/But once I really istened, the noise/Just went away")
Radiohead - Lucky ("Pull me out of the aircrash"
Don McLean - American Pie

And, for something silly:

Five for Fighting - Superman

Fling93

- Rich, 11:27 AM

Sunday, December 04, 2005

Converts to extremists

I was listening to NPR's Talk of the Nation last week and they were talking about a Belgian Woman who was a suspected suicide bomber. The woman was born in Belgium and converted to Islam. There are lots of stories about the shock and surprise of the people from her town. People are shocked that someone they know could do this.

I like this quote from the Yahoo story.

Experts said converts to Islam like Degauque are often easy prey for extremists because their search for a new identity can make them impressionable.

I was thinking about this woman and Jose Padilla, a.k.a. the Dirty Bomber. It is easy for me to see how someone from the West could be sucked into something like this. You look at life in the West and it is easy to see why someone might reject it. No matter where you stand, you have to compromise often just to live day to day life. Depending on what you are looking for in a new religion. I could see people I know rejecting the West. If someone rejects the West it is easy to see how someone could decide to fight the West.

Tonight is the premiere of Sleeper Cell on Showtime. I wonder if they are going to do justice to this topic or not. I want to see this show. I think this is something we will see more of and not less of.

Labels: convert, Islam, Jose Padilla, Muslim, revert, Sleeper Cell, suicide boomer

- Rich, 3:59 PM

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