Anti Piracy Day

With the passing of Anti Piracy Day yesterday I feel that I must comment on peer to peer file sharing, Thepiratebay.org and the state of illegally downloading copyrighted material.

I'm typing this by the way on a computer that I bought and paid for. On an Internet connection that I pay for monthly, and on a Microsoft Operating System which I got from a friend two years ago who burned me a copy onto a DVD + R. Which he got from a friend who got it from an Internet site called RETESTRAK.com.

So I stole my operating system? Hardly. I paid for the same version I'm using, I'm just using a version that is tweaked, in a way that Microsoft doesn't want it to be. I like this version so much more that I don't use the one I paid for. And I feel that it is my choice as a consumer to be able to have multiple copies of things I've paid for. What if my original CD broke? Do you think Microsoft would replace it? I don't.

I do however have a 200 gigabyte hard drive, full of things I've never purchased. And I'm adding to it more and more weekly. I feel it is my patriotic duty to illegally download copyrighted materials and I'll tell you why.

The entertainment industry is a scam. It's possibly the largest most fraudulent industry ever. They get you to pay for the concert, they get you to buy a shirt at the concert, 3 beers, a lunch pale, and a parking voucher. And then later they release a CD of a "live" performance of that exact same show for another $15 bucks. Or they get you to come and see the movie, then the sequel, then all the prequels, but wait there's more. There's always more. At Christmas time they're re-releasing something you've already paid for 3 times, but this time Gredo is in a new mask.

Another reason that I illegally download copyrighted materials: monopolies are illegal. There is only one motion picture industry, one music industry. They all hide behind a number of aliases, which propagate the appearance of multiple companies, but they are all ran by a few larger companies. Think about it. There is no other competitive way to buy an album. You have to get it on a CD. You have to buy a movie on a DVD. That's where it is a monopoly. You are forced to believe that there is only one way to do something. And you're forced to believe this why? Because they're ripping us off.

Thepiratebay.org is the most popular peer to peer file sharing site on the planet. It is ran out of Sweden, and if you want the entire history you should go to that site, and type in "Steal this Movie" which is a documentary made by Thepiratebay.org themselves. Sweden is like the Delaware of Europe. The Swedish government does not deem it as illegal to share information.

That's really what happens when you peer to peer. I have a file that you want. And I share the information with you. You can use that information to make a CD, a DVD, or share with others.

Sites like Thepiratebay.org are actually a blessing to the entertainment industry as a whole. They are just not smart enough to realize this. They're so abundantly greedy that they fail to see how successful Internet piracy ultimately makes them.

It is the best form of free advertising that money can't buy. The record industry alone claims that 50 billion dollars are lost through piracy annually. That number seems a bit exaggerated. But what they cannot calculate is the money that it generates. And I bet it's bundles.

I have to look no further than myself to know that they benefit immensely from torrent sites and the Internet in general.

My knowledge of music has expanded a hundred times full since I've been a peer to peer user. I've bought several albums that I never would have bought from artists I would have never ever known, solely because I was able to check them out on a torrent site. The same is true for movies DVDs and even some computer software.

On top of that, I'm a very influential person in other people's entertainment decisions. I see a movie on the Internet that I like, and someone at work asks me "Hey have you seen _____________?" If not for the Internet I would not be able to recommend that they go and check that flick out, because I wouldn't have seen it either.

How about instead of Anti Piracy day, we have real holidays that mean something. Like Anti-Dictator day? Anti fat girls in spandex day....? Something tangible.

I'd really like the feedback on this one folks. What do you think? Am I just another criminal?

The best music video ever?

What other video has George Harrison, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne? None. Exactly None.

October 27th

With two weeks before the big day, I feel it's important that I leave a couple of clues as to what I want for my birthday.

But I feel that my clues are often too vague, so I'm just gonna spell it out this year.

I want a remote control tank, that has a little army man that rides in it, and shoots little air pellets. Kind of...NO exactly like this one.....

A grape soda baby.

Wait not that kind of Grape Soda Baby. The other kind.



Yeah that's more like it.

Freaked out by the traffic of a very un-busy street, I had to make hasty decisions. The clock was on, and I had to get the best of it. Thirst quenching, my emotions in a dark struggle against my mentality. Parched, with nowhere left to go, my hand found the Holy Grail. The Holy Grail of soft drinks that is.

A grape soda baby! Grape Drink…

I never had one before. The only reason I can even think that I purchased it was because of Dave Chappelle. He said that black people prefer it. And today it hit me. What is the one thing that all the black people I've ever known have in common? They all get high. Every one of them. Every single one of them. Everyone of them I’ve ever met smokes reefer. My tongue is definitely in my cheek by the way.



The reason I had this thought was not because I was on my way to bigotry class; no it was because I too, was high. I was time traveling actually. Back to the third grade. I was third grade, eat the glue, mirrors on my shoes high.


So I was high at the grocery store. The store was kind of freaking me out. And I was trying to think about what could cure my ailment. Since they didn't sell amunition there, my brain went another route.

I started thinking about what someone famous would drink, who is always high. Snoop Dog, Chappelle, Tyson, Mr. T. They all smoke weed. I pity the fool. And that's when in my mind I made the connection. Based on four independent sources. HA!

I had just reached that point where the little pussy voice in my head saw his opportunity to speak. Like he does every time when I get high. He's at the party in my brain, and he see's all of the other voices in my head are high and passed out on cheerleaders. So he decides it's his turn to grab the mic to my inner monolouge.

Telling me things like:

“You should call your mother Jason, it’s been two months.”
“Why did you kick that little kid in the second grade for no reason at all? What was that about?”
“Why didn’t our football coach ever love us?”
“There are other things to do on the internet besides porn.”
“When are you going to lose those twenty pounds you’ve been promising yourself fatty?”
“Why are you high right now? What are you some kind of hippy?”
“What was that noise?”
“Is somebody following me?”
“Oh my god a shadow!”
“Maybe we should run?”
“I think we’d better run?”
“Am I breathing?”
"I don't think I am!"
“Oh my god I’m not breathing!”
“Holy shit take a fucking breath dood!”
“Oh fuck dood we almost suffocated!”

And usually I can just smile his little nappy ass away. He realizes I’m not paying much attention to him, and he goes away. But tonight I couldn’t shake him. His words were criss crossing me like a serrated blade.


The only way to calm him down was to grab a nice cold drink. And while I was searching for the cure to all of my paranoia I saw a grape soda. “Grape Drink!”

Grape Drink works! It saved my life.

The new Mitch Hedberg album and some new strings

During the month of September a new Mitch Hedberg album was released posthumously.

It is possible you don't know who Mitch Hedberg is. I didn't until 2 years ago. He was already dead, and I didn't even know of him. I think that kind of made me like him more. That he was already dead, that I could never go and see one of his comedy specials. All there was, was already out there.

It was always his dream to get an HBO special. Which because of heroin and cocaine he never got to do. But the new album is him on the road work shopping for the special.

It's a different kind of Mitch this time around. These recordings must have been made late in the year 2005. Just before his death. While there still are parts that made you erupt with laughter, there are other parts that are failing miserably. And he doesn't seem like the same Mitch between the routines. He seems troubled, anxious, like he's bored.

It is unfair to judge this as an official album, or really a piece of work that he approved. There were a couple of times during the routine, as a fan of his prior work, I thought he kind of "sold out" to be cliche.



Surprisingly there isn't a lot of Mitch on Youtube.com

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I took the time today to restring my gold Ibanez guitar. I still need to cut the cable excess though. Has anyone seen my wire cutters? *looks around*


It has been a long time. I remember the last time I bought Elixir poly web 80/20 bronze's they were over $30. For one set of strings that is a ridiculous amount of cash. I know. But they sound so warm, fresh and toney.



Anyway because of the economy I was able to get two sets for that price yesterday. So I bought a real thin set of them, to try out for a while. I'm almost certain I'll break the little .10 string in no time. These strings really do make a difference on the overall quality of your music. They enunciate better and break down less frequently.

I almost forgot how beautiful this guitar can sound.

What kind of strings do you use? Why?