out of the blue

A lot of you have probably read this on Slashdot (in fact, they even quoted the same piece that I'm going to), but here's an interesting article on the Supreme Court ruling on file sharing software. It's probably a very real concern to a great many of us, eh?

The article discusses how the Supreme Court ruling was a well thought out, middle-ground decision, and a very difficult one, due to the nature of copyright law itself. The poor Justices ended up juggling innovation and protection, and trying to find a way to avoid dropping any of the balls. The writer's stance is that they did a good job, but that there is still a problem to solve: copyright law has become anachronistic in the current age, and needs severe redrafting to ensure that it does more good than harm.

"The length of copyright protection has increased enormously over the past century… This makes no sense. Copyright was originally intended to encourage publication by granting publishers a temporary monopoly on works so they could earn a return on their investment. But the internet and new digital technologies have made the publication and distribution of works much easier and cheaper. Publishers should therefore need fewer, not more, property rights to protect their investment. Technology has tipped the balance in favour of the public domain.

A first, useful step would be a drastic reduction of copyright back to its original terms—14 years, renewable once. This should provide media firms plenty of chance to earn profits, and consumers plenty of opportunity to rip, mix, burn their back catalogues without breaking the law. The Supreme Court has somewhat reluctantly clipped the wings of copyright pirates; it is time for Congress to do the same to the copyright incumbents. "

A related article that appeared recently on Wonko.com is sarcastically titled, "Box office slump? Yeah, and Bill Gates is on welfare." Ryan Grove looks at the trends of movies' gross profits, and points out that the claims that we're in a "box-office slump" is nothing more than "utter bullshit".

Why do we hear so many complaints about things when, looking at it carefully, there really isn't a problem? What it comes down to is that people are going to be people, and they aren't ever going to be satisfied with what they have. If by complaining about something a worker could get more money, how many wouldn't stoop to griping?

Wow, the so-called "Freedom Tower" got a scathing review in the New York Times. What worries me is that it might be right.

Text cannot express my frustration right now. So I'm not going to try to "blast" and "argh" my way into showing you how annoyed I am. Photoshop decided to die on me. This wouldn't be quite as much of a problem, had I remembered to save my work at least ONCE in the past few hours. But no! I was so stupid that I completely forgot to do that, and now a few hours of work is down the drain. And just as I was beginning to be happy with it, too. Curses! Sometimes I hate machines…

I'm taking a break now. Ice cream break. Let's hope it helps.

In that order.

I came by a good amount of money through the garage sale, babysitting, washing windows, and trading books in to Powell's. So, naturally, the first thing I did upon recieving the money (and, in the case of Powell's, store credit, which is all well and good since I spend much more than that on books anyway and I was glad to have it) was to buy stuff. I began at Powell's, and bought a bunch of books that I haven't read yet (a nice situation, because I often find myself buying books that I have read, just so I can actually own them). These four books that blew out 34 dollars in total were Neuromancer by William Gibson, Robert Heinlein's The Moon Is a Strange Mistress, Brokedown Palace (perhaps the only Steven Brust book I haven't read besides Freedom and Necessity and one of the few I don't own), and The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold (I liked her Vorkosigan Saga space operas, so I'm trying out her fantasy). Yes, four books stand on my reading list. Mmmmmm…. Of course, I didn't stop there, for what better thing is there to follow book buying than buying more books? So, I went to Borders and got Stranger In a Strange Land (its what got me hooked on Heinlein), and then to Everyday Music to pick up Picaresque by The Decemberists. Brilliant band, that. (Of course, when I got home, there was the realization that I could buy their CDs for cheaper off the Record Label's site [11.00 for the cd, 2.00 for the shipping], but I'll do that when I get another of their albums.)

As you can see, I have a lot of information in parentheticals (and a lovely, nested parenthetical using funny-looking brackets). I don't know why, but I just felt like using them. If you don't like it, you have a few choices. Hack my account and get rid of all of them (which I don't recommend, because I might find out who did it and exact a terrible price, such as their first born child, or perhaps a number of digits to be determined by the rolling of a die), use Zen-like techniques (or modern psychological treatments) to block them out of your mind completely, don't read it at all (it's too late for that, isn't it?), or open the lj-cut at the bottom to see the post without them (probably the best choice, because I did all the work for you and you don't have to fear my retribution or years of training in far-away places or risk of time-travel-caused-paradoxes). (Note: since moving from LiveJournal, this last option doesn't even make sense. Sorry.)

More about the money later.

See? I tricked you. EVERYTHING is in parentheticals here! Hahaha!

There's something about the time between afternoon and night that enraptures the imagination. The sun hangs low on the horizon and the stars are fast approaching, making this a time of neither's dominion, but rather a strange mixture of the two. The clouds cast off their daytime cloaks, and don radiant gowns for the evening festivities. Out come all sorts of mystical creatures from the edges of the night to glory in the dying sun. The pheonix spreads her wings, and the fire streaks across the sky to be captured in the edges of the clouds and the arching rainbows as the rain imprisons her flame. Today, five rainbows arched across the sky. The mother, followed by her three small ones, flew across one next to another in brilliance, as her lover hung back, in his dimmer more subtle plumage. I've never seen the whole family arrayed so, and it did my heart good. Beauty still lives in the world.

Oh no, someone let Smurf around tiny impressionable children again… I'm babysitting (yes, that means I'm responsible for someone else's life. Don't worry, I'm responsible for your lives too, though not ending them abruptly) for my little cousin. My aunt and uncle managed to foist their older daughter on some relatives, and they felt like going to a movie. So, I'm here at their house, using my uncle's copy of Photoshop and LiveJournaling, while my little cousin sleeps. Yes, I'm doing exactly what I'd do at home anyway, and I'm getting paid for it. Life is good.

Earlier tonight I went to my mom's choir concert, which is their last event of the year. They start again in August, which is a shame because that's when I'll be leaving for college. I like singing. Anyway, they sang a lot of songs from the past five years of church choir, and I knew a few of them, which was nice. Then some patriotic songs (I'm patriotic, but I don't support our country's decisions right now) that are fun to sing. I wish I knew the harmonies.

Pretty much all my church friends have left for the summer camp, so I won't be seeing them for a week. It's a shame, because that's ends over half of my social interaction while they're gone. Hopefully when Aaron gets back he'll want to do something. Anyone want to go have fun with me?

I'll know more about the job tomorrow.

What a busy day! I was up at 7:30 (impressively early) and I was immediately put to work on the garage sale, carrying large things such as desks and dressers outside, amid thousands of other small tasks. I had a bit of a break during which I finished my book, and that was somewhat relaxing, but when I finished I had nothing to do. It turned out that it was time that Laila's car wash was going on, so I rode my bike over to the Rite-Aid parking lot and joined in the madness. We would not get any customers in for a long period of time, then all at once the hordes of Khan himself would descend upon us and put us completely out of time, if not house, home and livestock. That lasted from 11ish (for me) until 4:30ish, I think. I got home, and was immediately dragged into taking down the garage sale, and carrying those heavy tables and dressers around some more. This time there was some variation, for instead of putting the furniture into the house, we moved it into the bed of the truck, hell-bent on reaching Goodwill in time to dispose of the illicit garage-sale materials before they got too hot for us to handle. But first I made them take me to frisbee.

Frisbee! The joy of my life! The wonder of the evening, with that glorious round orb settling gently towards the horizon in it's brilliance and power–only to have someone lay out in an insane dive to catch it before it finishes its descent in the endzone for a POINT! That was great fun, even though I was completely unable to catch ANYTHING when we were throwing discs around before the game. Fortunately, my skills improved once the adrenaline hit.

Next comes McMinnamins, a tasty bar-restaurant where they served me an unusual (if tasty) mixture of bread, ground, flattened and fried meat, bits of leaves and slices of fruit, with some exotic "special sauce". I got fries with mine, and a strawberry lemonade that they were kind enough to refill after my endless thirst had it's way with it. By this time, I was exhausted, but I still had before me the task of helping reconfigure the family room a little before having freedom.

The best part of the day was talking to Laila's very cool mom during the car wash, and learning that I probably will be able to get a job which was dangled to me on a silver platter, and will probably soon be handed. Without even having to submit an application before getting an interview. Glorious! I'll tell you more about it later, but I want to tell people in person (specifically Aaron) rather than having them read it on a LiveJournal. I'll inform the rest of you later. :)

Cat Stevens is upon my ear, strumming away and singing, and he is in my head, rearranging things and doing all the things that good music does to a tired mind. You all enjoy the rest of your evenings. Sleep well. I will have no trouble doing just that, and perhaps sooner than is typical.

Recently I pulled out a painting of mine that I'd worked on a bit, and decided to improve it some. Now, I'm rather stuck as to where to go next. If you would be willing to help me, go to DeviantArt and take a look, and tell me what you think could be improved.

(Two Worlds )

Garage Sale Update: I've been making loads of money from this thing. Last I looked, the total was nearing 2 dollars. :-D I just don't have all that much stuff I need to get rid of.

I'm going to be helping with my family's garage sale today and tomorrow. So, why not advertise here! If you want lots of good stuff, come to my house, and I'll be glad to sell you some of it.

That said, it's going to be a busy two days. So I won't be online too much. Have a nice weekend, folks. (If you want my address, send me an e-mail or IM me and I'll give it to you. If you're close enough to visit the garage sale, you might already have my address.)

Summer Frisbee is upon us. Throwing a disc around with all the NRSST students and alumni was great. I love it when I can ignore my allergies and run my body into the ground. Afterwards, I cough for a couple hours due to allergies/asthma, but it's worth it.

Personal Highlights of the Game
Leaping all the way over Nate, who was also jumping, in a spectacular block, only to have Nick catch it as it came down ten feet from where Nate was going to catch it. That was just wrong, Nick.

Pulling most of the way to the other side of the field, then chasing it down to guard the guy who picked it up, blocking them from ten feet away, then sprinting into the endzone to recieve (diving) a low throw from Korbe. Most beautiful play of the game. It involved a spectacular block, and a spectacular diving catch by yours truly.

A quick judgement on a throw, between someone's arms and right to Korbe in the endzone, after a quick series of throws down the field. The second fastest point of the game.

Catching a disc (thrown by the other team) at the very limit of my range, and forehanding it down to the endzone for a point.

</narcissism>

Thank you Cami for calling me, because I had completely forgotten about the game tonight. I owe you one!

Anyone is welcome to come along and play, whether you went to SST or not, whether you even live in Oregon or not. Heck, we'd probably welcome evil middle-easterners to play with us if they want. Just don't mention us to the FBI when you get arrested. If you want to join us, we're in Portland, OR, at Highland Park Middle School.

7000 SW Wilson Ave
Beaverton, OR 97008

We play Tuesdays and Saturdays from 6:00 PM until it gets dark or we lose too many people. Plenty of time to gloriously die from the exertion in a manner fit for a Viking warrior's death. They will sing songs of us for generations to come.