Basic MP3s

If you are going to steal music (as opposed to buying it for $1 from itunes or for $.05 from mp3search.com) there is audiofind.ru. Quality is only so-so. And you have to make it through the russian (but the webpage is set up like any other -- click where you think you should and you will be right). The selection is decent, especially if you like mainstream stuff. I don't know how reliable it is or if it is some sort of scam. But seems to be a well-organized way to download a song or two (say you want the latest Britney single but not a whole album). Free mp3s from our favorite country for vodka, women, and songs: Russia. Cheers to each!

In Honor of Thirty

I Don't Wanna Grow Up by Tom Waits:

When I’m lyin’ in my bed at night
I don’t wanna grow up
Nothin’ ever seems to turn out right
I don’t wanna grow up
How do you move in a world of fog
That’s always changing things
Makes me wish that I could be a dog

When I see the price that you pay
I don’t wanna grow up
I don’t ever wanna be that way
I don’t wanna grow up
Seems like folks turn into things
That they’d never want
The only thing to live for is today

I’m gonna put a hole in my TV set
I don’t wanna grow up
Open up the medicine chest
And I don’t wanna grow up
I don’t wanna have to shout it out
I don’t want my hair to fall out
I don’t wanna be filled with doubt
I don’t wanna be a good boy scout
I don’t wanna have to learn to count
I don’t wanna have the biggest amount
I don’t wanna grow up

Well when I see my parents fight
I don’t wanna grow up
They all go out and drinking all night
And I don’t wanna grow up
I’d rather stay here in my room
Nothin’ out there but sad and gloom
I don’t wanna live in a big old tomb
On grand street

When I see the 5 o’clock news
I don’t wanna grow up
Comb their hair and shine their shoes
I don’t wanna grow up
Stay around in my old hometown
I don’t wanna put no money down
I don’t wanna get me a big old loan
Work them fingers to the bone
I don’t wanna float a broom
Fall in love and get married then boom
How the hell did I get here so soon
I don’t wanna grow up

Kenko's Essays in Idleness #29

"When I sit down in quiet meditation, the one emotion hardest to fight against is a longing in all things for the past. After the others have gone to bed, I pass the time on a long autumn's night by putting in order whatever belongings are at hand. As I tear up scraps of old correspondence I should prefr not to leave behind, I sometimes find among them samples of the calligraphy of a friend who has died, or pictures he drew for his own amusement, and I feel exactly as I did at the time. Even with letters written by friends who are still alive I try, when it has been long since we met, to remember the circumstances, the year. What a moving experience that is! It is sad to think that a man's familiar possessions, indifferent to his death, should remain unaltered long after he is gone. "

News Holiday

I decided to take a news holiday after the election. First, I wanted to absorb it all myself and form my own opinions about what happened and why with as little influence from all the talking heads as possible. Second, I needed to be a more well rounded person again. So I've managed to do a bit more non-news reading, I'm picking up my guitar more. And I'm not proud of this, but I got the new Grand Theft Auto video game and am releasing all my agression by violently killing and cursing at innocent bystanders. It is a thoroughly offensive and wonderful game.